Walker pauses, then turns away and pulls something out from a pocket, lifting it up to his face and staring into it for a good while. Then, he speaks.
walker:
“HEY COULD YOU HELP ME WITH SOMETHING”
purple:
What is it.
purple:
I am quite busy right now.
walker:
“SO THERE’S AN ENTITY ON THE BATTLEFIELD THAT I WANT TO MAKE NOT DIE-“
purple:
Good luck with that.
purple:
Nobody has managed to do that insofar that I know of.
purple:
However.
purple:
That is something I can help with.
purple:
Send them up.
There’s a click from the device. Walker stares blankly for a good while, then turns to Murakumo Mu, waiting until he’s got her attention to start speaking to her.
walker:
“OKAY. I THINK I HAVE SOMETHING FIGURED OUT. YOU’LL HAVE TO TRUST ME ON THIS ONE. LOOK UP AT THE SKY AND WAIT FOR A BIT.”
Mu nods, then proceeds to stare upwards. And stare. And stare. After a good while, she’s not sure if something is going to happen, but just before she can turn her head away, something massive appears in the sky. Not massive on the scale of something like a universal ship or anything like that, but it is still very large, easily dwarfing everything else present. Even the monstrosity of a dragon known as Ender is put to shame by the size of this object in the sky. A second passes. A purple light flashes around Mu and Walker, then the two of them vanish from the battlefield entirely, leaving not even a trace of their existence. Well then.
On-board the massive ship, Walker and Mu take a moment to stare at each other in confusion over how quickly that took and where they are, then actually get to looking around the room. It seems awfully dark around here… Just in case, Walker unsheathes his more traditional longsword, albeit prepared to swap to the Muramasa Blaze if things turn nasty, while Mu pulls her swords in close and prepares to lash out with them. All is silent. Then, the room glows purple as a large spherical entity appears in the room before the both of them. Mu instinctively begins to aim a sword, but with a quick shake of the head from Walker, she soon stops and lowers the blade.
purple:
Is this the one you want to save.
walker:
“YES.”
purple:
Then the two of you had better come with me.
The AI proceeds to start drifting away, lighting up a corridor as it moves, and Walker and Mu follow it, walking silently in unison. Soon enough, thankfully for the both of people who actually need to walk at all, they manage to arrive at the apparent destination. It seems to be some sort of armory, stocked with many different types of weaponry and armor. Staring around at everything in sight, Walker can’t help but look down at the Muramasa Blaze and feel a sense of inadequacy. Mu, on the other hand, seems more awed than anything else, mostly due to the sheer number of weapons on hand. It easily puts the arsenal of her previous life to shame, even the Hyper Jackhammer being something that would probably be one of the lower-tier items available. A moment passes, with all three people being silent, then the AI flickers and turns to Walker and Mu.
purple:
As you can see.
purple:
We are hardly short on resources.
purple:
These may be of help for whatever you plan to do.
purple:
Walker.
purple:
A quick question.
purple:
Who is she.
walker:
“UH… LONG STORY. BUT HEY, WAIT, YOU ALREADY KNOW ALL THIS 
, YOU’VE BEEN WATCHING THE BATTLE. WHY’D YOU NEED TO ASK ME?”
purple:
Just to see how you would react.
purple:
…I am not sure if I like where this may lead.
purple:
But I digress.
purple:
Murakumo Mu.
mu:
“…”
purple:
Follow me.
The AI drifts off again. Walker watches it go, then turns to Mu for a second, his expression impossible to read through his mask. Mu stares back, then briefly manages to make a sighing noise before drifting off, following the AI. Walker just stands there and watches her leave, then stares at the armory contents for a while, still apparently feeling the Muramasa Blaze to be a little inadequate. But what could he take from here…?
Once the AI and Mu have arrived at what seems to be the next stop, Murakumo Mu would be able to see a room which would normally probably be completely empty. However, this particular room happens to have a curious-looking set of apparatus right in the centre of the room, somewhat resembling a particular device in Walker’s house. Or, home place, whatever it was. That doesn’t matter now. What matters is that it seems a simulation is about to occur. The AI hovers in place, expectantly watching Mu without ever opening an eye from anywhere, code swirling through the being’s purple surface.
purple:
Whenever you are ready.
purple:
I will begin a combat-oriented simulation against randomly-assigned opponents.
purple:
You shall likely become stronger by the end of the simulation.
Mu nods, then heads over to the apparatus. She pauses, taking a good look at the items that lie in front of her and seeing how she might need to interface with them, then she leans over and grabs hold of a headset. When she puts it on, the room around her suddenly glows a strong purple colour, code spiralling around in the interior as the very realm around her appears to change, warping and shifting at almost complete random. The AI near her seems completely unfazed, it too appearing to disperse into the background of the old world and become left behind…
>Simulation loaded
Mu immediately takes a look around. It’s very dark here. Thankfully, there is a shine of light creeping in through a hole in the ceiling above, letting her at least figure out what the room contains, or rather, does not appear to contain at all. There’s nothing to see but the floor. Thankfully, there appears to be a path to move onwards, which she heads along without hesitation. A room or two later, she encounters… the same AI, still in sphere form but much smaller now. There’s a pause.
purple:
Excellent.
purple:
The simulation loaded correctly.
purple:
You already seem to know how combat works outside of the simulation.
purple:
It works the same way inside the simulation.
purple:
Now prepare yourself.
purple:
The way this simulation is designed means you might have to wait for combat.
The AI then vanished from sight. Mu blinked a few times, looking around in utter confusion as to where it went, then she heard footsteps approaching. Initially, her blades started rising up to prepare for battle, but then she remembered what the AI told her. She’d have to wait. Maybe this was not the combat she was told she’d have to fight through. Slowly, her blades lowered back down into an inactive state again, just in time for someone to walk into view.
This woman appeared to be almost entirely blue. Her clothing, her body, her eyes, her hair, they’re all blue. Part of her hair seemed to have been tied back in some manner akin to a ponytail, the other part of it drooping down on each side of her head. Her jacket was also blue, her shirt underneath was blue, everything about her was blue. When she noticed Mu’s presence, she responded with a bit of a wide-eyed look, then regained her composure.
EN-904:
“Goodness. I didn’t think I’d see anyone down here in quite some time… Who are you? How did you get lost here?”
Mu:
“…”
EN-904:
“…Mute, too? You really are a mystery… I’m EN-904. Come with me. I’ll show you the way out of here.”
Mu nods, then headed off after EN-904, curious as to where the blue woman would take her. They walked for quite some time, occasionally stopping so that EN-904 could clear the path of some obstruction of some type, up until they came upon a bend in the road. EN-904 didn’t see anything amiss, so on she walked, but when Mu tried to follow her, something moved to block her way. It seems there was a small automated turret left over from a time long past. It turned to Mu, recognizing her as an intruder and beeping quietly as it took aim…
Mu proceeded to smash it to pieces with one of her swords. She briefly felt stronger for having done that, then hurrieed to keep up with EN-904, not wanting to be left behind and lost again. Then, they came to a large ravine, apparently carved into the ground below through years of exposure to something. EN-904 held up a hand, gesturing to Mu to wait.
EN-904:
“I’ll bridge the gap. Just wait a second.”
She focused… then, in front of Mu’s eyes, the ravine became bridged, a hard-light blue glow taking the place of the gap. With it free to walk across, Mu did not feel like informing EN-904 about her power of flight that she no doubt can access, and so she walked over normally. Then, EN-904 rushed past to lead the way again, moving onwards to lead Mu further through the corridors around her.
Eventually, after some time, EN-904 stopped just outside a room. There, the two of them took a moment to pause, then the blue woman turned to Mu, summoning something into her hand and reaching out to hand it to Mu. Mu responds with staring at the thing being handed to her until she recognizeed it as a phone, at which point she reacheed out to take the phone.
EN-904:
“Here. Take this if you need to call me. I just remembered I have something to do.”
EN-904 ran off moments after finishing her sentence, leaving poor Mu a little stranded and confused. Mu stared blankly at a wall for a good while, then moves on. As she explores further, she keeps encountering more of those turrets around the place, like that one that interrupted her earlier. They also go down easily enough when she uses a sword to cut through them, moving on further and further still without pause. As she destroys more turrets, she feels… strange. She’s definitely improving, but this is one creepy simulation. Briefly, she turned back and looked behind her, and she almost swore she could see that AI in the background just fading into nothingness… That did not make her feel any more comfortable with the situation.
Soon enough, Mu found herself twitching, expecting to walk around a corner and walk straight into a turret, but always found nothing to be there. She’d already wrecked all the turrets, it seems, and there wasn’t anything else showing up… She could probably get used to the feeling of emptiness in the place around her, if she focused enough on not having to acknowledge it. Soon enough, she ended up wandering up to a strange little house of sorts, one that looked remarkably out of place amongst the terrain. It seemed to have been made of something not from here, almost… arcane in nature. Arcane being, of course, a particular brand of magic. Mu couldn’t help but be quite fascinated by how realistic the simulation managed to make the arcane house look, almost as if it
was real… As she approached, she remembered something. EN-904. The woman who looked to be entirely blue… Maybe this house was her doing. It certainly looked like a possibility to Mu.
As Mu walked in through the front door, her thoughts were confirmed, as she saw EN-904 waiting in a side passage. Waiting… for what? Mu felt a sense of confusion run through her mind, then she turned and walked towards EN-904. Then, the blue woman lead her off down that side passage in the house, up until she came to a door. When Mu turned to take a look at the door, it immediately opened, and EN-904 turned to her.
EN-904:
“You seem a little bit… not from around here, so maybe you’d like to rest for a while? There’s a bed in there.”
Then, the blue woman turned and wandered away. Mu stood there and stared blankly for quite a while, then shrugged and moved to enter the room. Once inside, she closed the door behind her, walked over to the bed, and promptly sat down to stare at the other side of the room. It felt… quite comfortable, actually. It might only be a simulation, but this definitely felt like a real bed, and a good one at that. She failed to stifle a yawn, then pushed back the sheets and tucked herself in. A rest would be nice, just for a little while…
Some long period of time that she couldn’t quite figure out later, Mu found herself waking up on her own, gazing around the room in confusion for a scant few seconds. Then, she got out of bed, about to turn and leave the room before she noticed something on the ground. It seemed to be a small glowing orb of some sort… She crouched down to pick it up, wondering where she could put it. Eventually, she managed to find room somewhere on her body, and so tucked the orb in place. Then, she left her room and head off down the hall to see whether EN-904 might have something to say.
When Mu walked into what looked to be a dining room, she saw EN-904 sitting in a chair in the corner of the room, apparently reading a book of sorts. Mu took the time to look around the room, noting the interior decorations, then headed on over to EN-904, who glanced up at her when she heard her coming.
EN-904:
“Glad to see you’re awake. Now… Is there anything I can get you?”
Mu barely even hesitated before indicating she wanted to move on from here. She could see a brief sign of regret in EN-904’s eyes, but the blue woman stood up nonetheless, beckoning to Mu to follow her as she walked out the door, heading off down a staircase… Mu followed without hesitation. Soon enough, the two of them walked through a few long passages, right up until the pair came to a large, rather ornate door. At this point, EN-904 turned around to Mu. A moment passed in absolute silence.
EN-904:
“Here’s the exit. But, before you go, there’s something bothering me. The people out there… Some of them are inevitably going to want to fight you. You’re… not from around here, and I see you’ve probably got some combat experience already. But, I have to make sure I’m not just letting you walk to your death.”
At that moment, arcane energy pulled itself from the blue walls around the pair, immediately drifting over to EN-904 and apparently merging with her clothing. In mere seconds, she’d transformed from a seemingly ordinary if very blue woman into a fully-armored knight, complete with halberd and an arcane aura.
EN-904:
“Fight me.”
Mu noticed that the woman had not made any armor to cover her face. Nonetheless, she decided to oblige the request, deliberately making sure to aim her sword strikes at the blue woman, while also dodging back or bringing her own armor up to evade and deflect the halberd strikes. The arcane energies, she couldn’t do much to prevent from impacting her, but they didn’t cause meaningful damage, so she didn’t worry too much about them.
The battle soon came to a rather unceremonious end when one of Mu’s strikes went a little high, shanking EN-904 straight through the skull and pinning her against the door. Mu took a moment to look at what just happened, feeling just a little bad about what had happened, but then she brought her blade down to tear it through the rest of EN-904’s body. Arcane power spat out of the open wound violently, drifting away from the broken armor and the body of the blue woman. Then, slowly, she collapsed to the floor.
EN-904:
“…I… I think… I may have misjudged… who’s death it would be…”
Then, something happened that alarmed Mu to quite a great degree. EN-904’s wrecked body proceeded to explode, arcane energy dissipating into the air from the aftermath. Nothing remained of the woman. A sudden rumbling from the building around her prompted Mu to push open the door and rush through, only just fast enough to avoid a huge set of loose blue bricks slamming into the ground behind her. As she left the building, the door slammed shut. She knew she’d not be able to go back through there now.
Onwards, then. The land around her looked quite cold and mechanical, something of a contrast to the terrain she’d just been through. She could feel the chill and hear the crunch of the snow beneath her feet as she walked, up until she came to a tree that fell over the path. There wasn’t anything she could do to budge it, but luckily she had flight, so she pushed herself up and over the tree, then moved on…
The sound of an explosion behind her made Mu flinch, and she turned around to see what had happened. While she couldn’t see anyone’s presence anywhere, the intimidating sight of the entire tree having been reduced to a smouldering pile of ash greeted her, some blue fire still burning where the tree had once been. Mu had to suppress the feeling of alarm that threatened to break out as she turned to move onwards, now unconsciously moving a little faster. She swore she could hear the crunching of footsteps that weren’t her own behind her. But yet, every time she turned to check, nobody was there. So who was following her? Who could’ve left those flames burning on the pile of ash?
She soon received her answer when she continued onwards, coming to another ravine, this one clearly having been bridged at one point. Unfortunately, the bridge had collapses, but she could fly over, so it didn’t bother her too much. What did bother her was the sound of those footsteps in the snow drawing up behind her. Whoever was there, they were getting very close to her very quickly, and yet she still couldn’t see anything behind her. Then, she heard a voice speak.
???:
“You’re new around here…”
Without thinking, Mu quickly turned around. Now, up close, she could see the outline of somebody standing there, mostly invisible but still with enough of a presence to generate an outline in the air. The mystery person then began to flicker, eventually becoming fully visible in front of her eyes. This person had a blue hoodie on, the hood pulled over his head and black hair reaching down low enough to almost cover his eyes. He also looked very unnaturally pale. He’d probably have been unable to blend into the snow due to being
too white, Mu thought to herself.
???:
“Huh. You turned around without even needing to be prompted to.”
???:
“I suppose I should introduce myself now, huh? Name’s…”
???:
“…”
???:
“Hold on. That look in your eyes… This world isn’t real to you. Heh… guess there’d be no point to me saying who I am. Maybe if the circumstances were different, I would.”
The stranger shrugged, then glanced past Mu. It seems he was looking ahead somewhere…
???:
“Hmm. You probably haven’t met my not-bro yet. Well… Onwards. You’ll meet him soon enough. I wonder how he’ll react.”
Since the offer was there, Mu nodded, then turned around and started heading over the gap. She noticed that the blue hooded man didn’t move to follow her, but rather vanished from sight again until she crossed the gap. Afterwards, he reappeared beside her, leaving Mu confused as to how he actually got over. Then, he sprinted ahead of her to lead the way, stopping a short distance away near a fairly large rock.
???:
“Here he comes now. If you’re feeling shy, you can head over there and hide.”
…Mu did not opt to hide. Soon enough, someone else ran into view. This new person closely physically resembled the blue-hooded man, but instead of a hoodie, he was clad head to toe in a strongly red-coloured suit of armor. Mu could see a revolver of some sort at the man’s hip, secured in place via the armor, and a decently-sized shield was strapped to the man’s other arm. She briefly felt a pang of guilt, remembering a certain woman in armor…
???:
“Hey, Verdana. Much happen?”
Verdana:
“Nope. It’s boring here. I mean, the people are cool and all, and I met a fairly nice woman at the bar yesterday, but aside from that, it just seems like we’re not doing anything important. I see you’ve made a friend, though… Who’s this gal? She looks underdressed.”
The blue-hooded man turned, took one quick look at Mu’s combat armor, and blushed briefly. He rather hurriedly turned away, hiding his embarrassment by pulling the fabric of his hoodie forward to cover his face from her view, but it was too late for him. Mu had already seen his reaction. Not that she really cared.
???:
“Truth be told? I haven’t asked. She hasn’t said. But I haven’t said my name to her either, so fair’s fair.”
Verdana:
“…NEITHER of you know who the other one is? Well, come on then! Have a chat! You two could get along nicely.”
???:
“No. I have… better things to do than talk with people.”
Verdana:
“Like what? You don’t even have a job! All you do is sit inside all day, doing… uh… I can’t even recall what you do! You’re always sleeping in for some reason! 12 in the afternoon is the earliest I’ve seen you get up under your own power! Just admit it. You’ve got nothing better to do than talk with other people.”
???:
“…I don’t.”
Verdana:
“Ugh… You’re hopeless, bro.”
With that, Verdana turned around and ran off elsewhere. Mu slowly trudged off to go on further, curious to see what might lie ahead, but then she felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to face the stranger. He stared at her for a few seconds…
???:
“I saw that look in your eyes earlier. You’ve already met someone in armor before. And you seem to feel guilty about something… Was it EN-904? I haven’t heard from her in a while. Wonder how she’s doing.”
Mu felt that pang of guilt surge forth again. The stranger immediately frowned when he saw the expression in her eyes, and she realized too late that he already figured out what happened back there. As he spoke, there seemed to be a more dangerous tone in his voice.
???:
“I see. I hope you don’t do the same thing to my not-bro. That would be… very tragic. He’s the only family, heh, that I’ve got left. It’d really pay out for you if you stopped using those swords of yours.”
The stranger vanished from view, turning invisible once again, and Mu could hear the crunching of footsteps in the snow walking away. With that said and done, she let out a sigh of relief, turning and leaving the area as quickly as she could. Onwards. She felt as if she needed to get out of the simulation, and the sooner she left, the better it would be for her.
Soon enough, after briefly getting distracted by what appeared to be a snow golem of some sort attacking her and her quickly dispatching it via excessive sword slashes, she progressed onwards. The way was blocked. Verdana and that blue stranger were on the path, apparently discussing something with each other.
Verdana:
“You’ve already run off and left that friend of yours behind?”
???:
“Nope. She’ll be right along soon enough. Something might’ve caught her attention for a bit, but trust me. And- oh, there she is now.”
He glanced over to Mu. Then, he turned to Verdana, who also glanced over to Mu. Verdana turned his attention back to the stranger, while the stranger glanced over to her again. What followed was the two… possibly-brothers having a back-and-forth of turning to look at each other, then Mu, getting faster with each turn until the ice made them start spinning around rapidly in place. At that point, Verdana spoke up.
Verdana:
“Oooh... I’m dizzy now. Where’d you say she was?”
???:
“Over there.”
Verdana:
“…Oh. Yeah. I see her now. She’s still wearing that outfit of hers?”
Mu nodded.
Verdana:
“Miss, you need a better, more properly-covering set of armor. Or a hoodie, like what my bro has. Not the same one, though! He keeps getting uppity when people try to make off with it.”
???:
“It’s not JUST a hoodie. It’s also my armor and my method of getting around the place. Would you be mad if someone ran off with your shield?
Verdana:
“Nope! I have plenty of them out the back, remember?”
???:
“Ah, right. Forgot about those.”
Verdana:
“Anyway! This newcomer could be a nice person to have around town! Even if she’s apparently mute. Y’know what? I feel like dragging her through a few fun games on the way! How’s that sound?”
Mu didn’t even react to this one. The blue-hooded stranger briefly shrugged to her, then turned to Verdana, shaking his head.
???:
“I don’t think she’s keen on that idea…”
Verdana:
“Nonsense! Nobody is ever not keen on having fun things happen!”
He proceeded to run off. Mu and the stranger both turned to watch him leave, sharing a similar sentiment in terms of what’s going to happen, then the stranger turned to Mu. As he spoke, Mu noticed that his voice had gone a little softer.
???:
“He’s quite excitable at times… Sometimes, almost too much to bear, but he is still my brother. Well, sort of. It’s a complicated story. I might tell you about it sometime.”
The stranger then vanished from sight. Mu continued on her way, her swords pulled in close. The world around her seemed so interesting, she almost could feel herself starting to forget it was just a simulation. That naturally made it a bit harder when she ran into a few combat encounters, as it felt too much like the things she was cutting through were… too real. It unnerved her a little bit. Even when they were just things like those accursed turrets popping out of the ground and shooting at her. But, she did have to admit, she certainly felt a lot stronger than she started out as being when she initially entered this simulation. Every so often, she glanced back over her shoulder, and she swore she could notice a glimpse of purple code at times. Like that AI who initially plugged her in here…
Eventually, after quite some time of wondering through the cold and the metal of the land around her, she came across the two sort-of-maybe-brothers again. This time, the pair were standing at the edge of a large square of ice, the snow having been cleared away at some point. If Mu really concentrated on looking at it, she could just see the very faint image of some walls between her and them… Something a lot more obvious was that the obstruction in her path didn’t go all the way to the edge of the area they were standing in. She could just walk around if she wanted to. Verdana turned, noticing her first, then grinning and waving. The blue-hooded stranger just stared at her through the obstruction with a fainter smile.
Verdana:
“Ah, there she is. Took her long enough… Hey, bro, you ever thought about slowing down and guiding her on the way a little? It’ll help her move through quicker.”
???:
“Nah. She can handle herself fine on her own.”
Verdana:
“…Suit yourself, then. I still reckon you two would get along wonderfully if you bothered interacting with her more. Now then!”
As he was about to say something, Mu quickly turned around and walked down through the area that the obstruction didn’t cover, looped around to the other side, walked up to Verdana and the blue-hooded stranger, and stood there with a flat expression on her face. A moment passed in awkward silence, with Verdana apparently being a little bit concerned.
Verdana:
“You’re not supposed to walk around the maze! You’re supposed to walk through it! Maybe that was my fault… I didn’t make it opaque enough for you to recognize it.”
???:
“Or maybe she just didn’t want to have to navigate your maze?”
Verdana:
“…Ugh… But I spent a lot of time making that!”
He left quickly enough, looking a little flustered and probably coming up with something else, in the hope that Mu would pay a bit more respect to it. The blue-hooded man just stood there, watching him leave in silence, then turned to Mu. He sighed quietly.
???:
“I know he’s hard to deal with at times, but would it kill you to humor him just once?”
Then, he left too, turning invisible and walking off to the sound of the snow crunching under his feet. It seemed that the stranger had lighter footsteps than Verdana, probably due to not wearing heavy armor… Mu decided to shelve that thought for another time and move on.
She continued walking. There was, for some reason, what appeared to be a sort of abandoned soccer field or something in the snow. Or perhaps a skating rink. Who knows? Mu didn’t really know or care. Soon enough, she came across some piece of paper in the snow. Something that looked like it had been ripped from a newspaper and placed there on purpose. She glanced forward, expecting one of the two possibly-brothers to have been responsible for placing it there. Maybe they’d say something to her…
Only problem was, they weren’t there. Well, not that she could see, at least. Out of brief curiosity, she went over and took a look at the piece of paper, briefly smiling in amusement when she saw a cartoon strip on one side of it, then turned it over to see what the other side might hold. A sudoku puzzle. Strange, that the funny pages would be on the opposite side of the puzzle pages, but Mu didn’t mind too much. It was then that she became aware of somebody watching her from close by, causing her to turn her attention upwards. She immediately noticed the blue-hooded man standing there, observing in silence right up until he in turn noticed her looking at him. Then, he spoke to her.
???:
“That caught your attention… I’ll remember that.”
He soon faded away into invisibility. Mu couldn’t help but start to feel a bit sick of the way he always did that after every single encounter. It was getting old fast. At the same time, she couldn’t help but wonder if he’d be significant later on. He seemed like he might have a trick or two up his sleeve if fought in combat…
Again, she moved on. The cold was starting to get to her, so she was almost thankful to encounter a few enemies along the way, namely strange masked people(?) with flamethrowers who immediately attacked her on-sight. The heat from the flames did wonders for warming her back up, so once she finished off those battles, she decided to break off a bit of a flamethrower to take it with her as a personal source of warmth. Or, you know, setting fire to someone if she got really pissed off with fighting them.
She just about let out a sigh of exasperation when she encountered the not-sure-if-brothers again, seeing that one of them, presumably Verdana, had laid out several Twister mats onto the path. Without even stopping to look at them, she just trampled over the mats and walked right up to the pair. A second passed.
Verdana:
“…Are you serious?”
He threw up his hands in annoyance, turned around, and walked away without another word. At this point, Mu noticed that when she turned to look at the blue-hooded man, he had an expression of annoyance on his face. At least, what she could see of his face from under his hood. He didn’t even speak as he disappeared, this time doing so by turning into a flash of blue flames and scorching the metal below his feet. Mu felt her body automatically recoil away from the flames for her, even though she didn’t want to back off… She shivered despite the heat near her, turning to move on.
At some point, she found her way being mostly clear, aside from a few piles of snow, but as she approached to move on past them, a bundle of the snow rose up and coalesced together in the shape of a snowman. It even had a stick to go with it as a sort of weapon, and it stood there, menacingly challenging her to approach… Mu bulldozed right through it without issue and kept walking. The cold was getting to her again, and her walking was growing so slow. She didn’t want to walk anymore. She wanted to fly, like she knew she could, and so she took to the air to begin hovering along. This felt more comfortable to her, and not only that, it was faster too.
More hastily than she did so earlier, Mu hovered along the ground, soon coming up to a bridge. She moved to hop on it, then recoiled backwards as a ballista bolt suddenly careened past where her head had been, sailing off into the distance and embedding itself against a wall. She glanced across the bridge to see who did that, and to her lack of surprise, she saw Verdana and the blue-hooded guy standing at the other end. Verdana looked rather uncharacteristically upset about something, while the person who she still couldn’t identify stood there calmly. Then, she hoped onto the bridge and moved forward again, her swords rising up. At seeing this, Verdana was about to do something before the guy in the blue hoodie raised a hand, stopping him short to say a few words.
???:
“Hold up. If you’re planning to fight her, please take it away from the bridge. Maybe to the other end of town? With everyone else being curiously absent…”
Verdana:
“Fine. You, at the other end of the bridge. I’ll be fighting you soon! Mark my words.”
He then ran off without fanfare. Mu took a look over at where she saw the ballista bolt come from, then sent off a sword in that direction to wreck whatever device Verdana had been trying to use to hit her. With that destroyed, she then hovered off over the rest of the bridge, stopping once she’d gotten to the other side and felt safe walking again. As she went to move on, she briefly saw a flash of purple behind her somewhere, and noticed that the blue hooded guy looked visibly alarmed at the same flash that she saw. A moment passed in silence.
???:
“I… I had hoped that wasn’t true. Well then. That tells me all I needed to know.”
He vanished in flame, frustrating Mu to no end when the flames proceeded to catch on her armor. A quick walk through the snow managed to alleviate that little problem easily, and so on she continued, looking around the town as she passed through it. It seemed oddly abandoned, houses having closed up and shops having been emptied out, nobody present at all as far as the eye could see. Well, except for one little girl around the age of 10 standing around, doing seemingly nothing important. As Mu wondered past, she noticed the little girl had rather strikingly blue eyes… it reminded Mu of someone she’d seen before. Mu shivered, but moved on, not wanting to stop and talk to her.
Eventually, as she wandered out of the other end of the town, she began to notice the air grow thick around her with falling snow. It was getting hard to see anything through the constant rain of whiteness, blocking out what she assumed would be the vision of most people. She, however, was quite different. She still had quite a while left to go before she’d be completely blinded by the storm, and so soon she found herself staring through the snow at a silhouette amongst the white. Presumably, Verdana, as the figure was obviously well-armored, and had a revolver drawn and readied at her. Time for another fight.
Verdana:
“That’s far enough! I’ve grown tired of trying to outwit you with challenges that you’ll just walk past. Not-bro warned me about doing this, and told me about everything that you’ve already fought on the way here, but I’ll show you that I’m better than them!”
He put his shield up in front of him, took aim at Mu’s body, then began opening fire. A number of railgun blasts emerged from the barrel of his revolver, racing at Mu almost too fast for her to avoid, forcing her to bring her swords up to defend herself. Despite her best efforts, she found it pretty hard to advance on Verdana, having to use her swords to absorb and deflect the railgun blasts. How was a simple revolver packing so much firepower? She couldn’t tell. Her swords gathered around her, beginning to spin around as she advanced, forcing Verdana to begin backing up. Then, he took a bold choice of action by bringing his shield up, adjusting it with one hand, then charging in and batting aside a sword to bash her in the face with it. Caught off-guard, she flew backwards, noting that it didn’t hurt that badly.
Verdana:
“Not bad! Then how about this?”
What hurt a surprisingly lot more was the feeling of suddenly being pelted with… batteries? Yes, a closer look revealed that she was being shot at with batteries as bullets. Mu felt a sense of indignance, then a sense of alarm as she noticed the batteries were striking hard enough to risk denting her armor. She had to crouch down to advance, using a shoulder pad as a massive shield to protect the rest of her body. It suddenly became a lot easier for her. She could see the alarm on Verdana’s face as he noticed his attacks having little effect.
Verdana:
“My revolver isn’t even harming you now? I… I… Close quarter combat, it is, then! Have at you!”
He proceeded to rush into melee range of the mecha girl with giant swords for wings. Mu herself almost facepalmed from the idiocy, but found that he was putting up more of a fight than EN-904 had, back at the arcane house. Even so, with a tactical blunder as big as that one, he wasn’t going to last much longer. He swung one hand around to whip her with the revolver, only for Mu to immediately grab his wrist, use her other hand to grab hold of his neck, lift him up in the air, then let her swords loose on his armor. It didn’t hold for long, as a sword soon bit through the plate metal and into the flesh below, followed by a sword being driven through his neck. He twitched momentarily, backing up with a look of shock on his face, then put one foot forward to steady himself.
Verdana:
“…You… You’ve killed me… I didn’t expect this to happen! Why…”
He collapsed forward. The injury in his chest soon made him topple forth to the ground, only his head failed to remain attached to his body, snapping off and rolling forward just far enough to stare up at Mu.
Verdana:
“Why are you killing everyone? You… you don’t have to…”
Mu stared back down at him. She couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt again, this one strong like the one she felt after ending EN-904. Internally, she reminded herself that this was just a simulation and she didn’t have to care about everything that happened, but when it all seemed so real, so genuine… That was becoming hard for her to do.
Slowly, she gently pushed Verdana’s head back to his body, then walked around and moved on past him, her swords hanging lower than usual in a depressive manner. As she walked, she stopped for a second and turned her head back. She swore she could hear someone gasping faintly in shock, but once again, she could not see anyone. Turning back to the path and walking on further, she felt as if she’d made somebody somewhere extremely mad about something. Mu could place a guess at who she’d enraged, and how.
Mu took a look around as she noticed the terrain change. It seemed to be… somewhat darker here. There was no snow, but it also looked a bit dilapidated, as if nobody had been taking care of it for a long while. The metal around her was rusty, and the lighting seemed to be a little bit broken. She could tolerate it, as uncomfortable as it was to walk through this dismal scenery. As she walked, she passed by that kid from town again, making sure to pay her no mind as she wandered beyond. Soon enough, she walked by what she noted to be a heap of spare parts for something. The path was blocked. No way past. She sighed, readying herself and diving in to walk through it.
It was then that she felt a sense of somebody being there. She dared not move for a good while, glancing up to see who might be there. As the feeling faded away when she saw nobody, she moved forward again, wincing as she bumped a spare part.
Something made a noise of alarm, turning and walking up to the wall beside her and staring down into the parts piles from above. The somebody watching her was an enormously tall person of sorts, clad in a full gray cloak turned black by the poor lighting, his face impossible to make out from the shade. In his hand, he wielded a huge sword easily as long as he was tall. He seemed to be watching from above… Mu almost said his name out loud, but then remembered, being in a simulation means a few rules may have been changed. She dared not speak, only wait for the moment to pass. Eventually, the person sheathed his sword and backed away from the wall, vanishing into the shadows without so much as a sound. Mu continued watching, making absolutely sure she wasn’t about to become the victim of a surprise attack, then breathed a sigh of relief and walked forward to exit the spare parts pile. The way he’d faded out wasn’t at all like blue hoodie’s invisibility. That was more annoying than anything. This felt very different to her.
Once she left the pile of spare parts, she distinctly became aware of somebody having been in there with her. It surprised her when she identified that person as the kid she saw back a while, but she also noted that the kid seemed to have a look of awe in her eyes over… something. Presumably that figure from above. Mu shrugged to herself, then moved on before the kid could get out a single word, not wanting to delay her continuing any longer. She had to keep moving, else she’d never leave the simulation in a timely fashion.
As she moved on, Mu noticed that there were a few areas where the floor had broken, leading down to what would almost certainly be a fatal drop for most people. Since she could fly, a drop like that didn’t bother her, but she did wonder if the kid was going to try to follow her over. Still, no time to stop, and it was just a simulation after all, right? Thus, she flew over without hesitation, pausing only to look behind her for some sign of that child. Nobody in view, and she didn’t seem like the blue-hooded stranger…
It came to her attention that there seemed to be a few piles of wood around. Maybe this simulation had been built without taking her power of flight into account. There seemed to be a few more of those gaps too, and on the way to those gaps, a few assorted turrets and such. Destroying the turrets was relatively trivial now for Mu, her swords almost effortlessly sweeping them aside in a single move. It was almost starting to get a bit boring for her, the more she had to destroy them.
As she moved on, drifting over whatever gaps there were in her path, she noticed a few computers plugged into the walls. They seemed to be powered on and active, despite the dilapidated appearance of almost everything else around her. Maybe she could sit down at one or two of them and check what’s there… Or maybe not. They didn’t seem at all relevant to what she was trying to do, and they’d only slow her down if she took the time to go through every single one. Thus, she moved on, thankful that those weren’t also enemies set up to attack her.
When she wandered out of that area and into a new one, one which apparently had no walls on either side of it, she suddenly stopped short for a reason she couldn’t quite explain immediately. Not even a second later in the exact place she would’ve otherwise been, an electrical bolt sparked down and smashed against the ground. She felt quite lucky to not have run right into that one. Who sent that at her?
Her eyes drifted over to see who exactly tossed a lightning bolt. That intimidating gray-cloaked person was standing there. Mu felt a shiver run up through her body, then she turned and ran as quickly as she could to get away from the risk of death. She could hear the loud thudding of heavy footsteps pursuing her from the wall, and more lightning bolts crashing down behind her as she ran, but there was no time to so much as turn back. Only running would be an option for now. Running until she could lose her trail.
As Mu took a look up ahead to where she was running, instinctively leaping into the air for a moment to avoid a lightning strike that passed just underneath her, she could make out another one of those piles of spare parts. She also swore she could see somebody waiting inside, but there wasn’t any time for her to think about that, she just had to find some way of shaking her pursuer’s path. Sending out a sword and spinning it around to toss a spare part in the direction of her pursuer, she quickly dove into the pile and backed up out of sight, hidden away among the old, unused machinery. Seconds later, she could hear the thudding of those heavy footsteps approaching again…
They passed right by her without incident. That was far too close for her liking, but also very convenient, as the person chasing her had obviously lost her trail. He’d even gone so far as to investigate the other somebody in the pile, soon revealing that it really was just that kid from earlier. Mu felt a bit of confusion over why the kid would’ve followed the two of them there, even hidden in an active area of danger, but she soon dismissed the thought and waited for the swordsman to leave. Eventually, when she heard his heavy footsteps fading away into the background, she turned and sprinted through the spare parts pile, making sure to put as much distance between herself and him as possible.
Once she’d left the pile and felt safe enough to stop running, she let out a sigh of relief, slowing down to her normal walking pace. The scenery around here was pretty beautiful, she decided as she walked, despite the… poor condition of most everything metal or otherwise artificially created. It created colourful and interesting patterns on the walls and floors, each one looking quite different depending on the angle she viewed it at, almost like an art gallery made by time and neglect.
Briefly pausing to take down a disguised turret that she almost didn’t notice, Mu felt herself starting to relax as she continued along her walking path. This simulation was nice. If she could figure out a way to replicate the scenery elsewhere, maybe she’d take the time to see to getting a house that looked pretty like this. Although maybe she could do without the rain…
Wait, rain? She took a second to glance up. Yes, it appeared to be raining through a large crack in the roof. Interesting. On she advanced, bringing her swords up to act as a makeshift umbrella. Despite the gaps between the swords, it served well enough to block out the water, allowing her to progress without too much discomfort. She passed by what appeared to be the ruins of some kind of statue, although she couldn’t identify what it was or could have been, so she just kept on walking without stopping to check it out.
Mu would probably have kept walking for forever if she didn’t eventually come to a stop in front of a large wall. It seemed that this part of the path was blocked off, although she couldn’t tell why. Gradually, she concentrated, then hopped upwards in the air enough to jump over the wall, allowing her to continue walking. There were more of those computers against another wall, but again she ignored them. She had places to be, dammit, and stopping to look at things that caught her attention would just slow her down.
And then she stopped short once again. That feeling she felt… It reminded her of the thing that caused her to stop and avoid being bolted in the face. Nothing seemed off, though, so she wanted to move on quick. Then, she noticed the floor. Metal. Perfect for conducting electricity. Then, bolts of electricity began jumping up from the floor at random, prompting Mu to start running again. At certain points, she noticed the path had some gaps in it, so she hovered to pass over those with no issue. Every time she hovered over a gap, she looked down and saw that same gray-cloaked person from earlier, still pursuing her and still determined to electrocute her with those bolts for some reason. She had to keep moving. Who knew what would happen if she ended up being defeated in the simulation?
Eventually, the bolts stopped coming, and Mu sighed in relief, continuing to run until she felt safe. Now, she was standing on a dead end, wondering where she could go next. It didn’t seem like there was any way past here, at least not on this level, and the dead end meant she couldn’t loop back around. That’d bring her right to her pursuer. So, carefully spreading her blades out around her and hoping as hard as she could, she jumped and began to hover down to the ground below.
When she landed, she immediately took a look around to figure out where she’d gone. This appeared to be some abandoned storage area full of all sorts of things. Not only were there machine parts, there were also some other miscellaneous things like old food, thrown-out books, old rags… It fit in with the earlier theme of the place she’d seen, but for some reason, this area did not appeal to her at all like the past places did. Thus, she hurriedly moved on as quickly as she could, gliding along the way and quickly slamming a blade down on an old but presumably still functional turret, just in case.
Once she left the storage area, for lack of a better term, Mu glanced briefly at her surroundings to check where to go next. Since there was plenty of choice, she decided to head to the right and hope she’d gone the right way. Soon, she found herself in a very poorly illuminated area with nothing to guide her but broken old lamps on the floor. Thankfully, they were numerous enough and she could jury rig them to function.
Soon, she found herself walking into an open clearing with no more of those lamps in sight. What was this area? She couldn’t tell… She had to walk through, just to make sure she’d explored everything. But it was so dark inside that clearing. Mu immediately went for the nearest lightswitch she could find and slammed the button hard. Then, she froze cold in her tracks, feeling a presence behind her and turning to see what it was.
That grey-cloaked swordsman again. Mu felt a sense of unease around him. Maybe it was the resemblance to somebody she knew very closely. The two stared each other down in silence, the swordsman raising his sword and beginning to advance, with Mu responding in kind by readying her set of swords. The distance between them drew less and less, and she felt like a fight was about to start…
Then that kid she’d seen tagging along earlier accidentally interrupted the scene by running into the middle of it. Mu had to stifle a laugh at the fact that the confrontation had so much build-up but never went anywhere. The swordsman, on the other hand, looked utterly livid over being interrupted. He put his sword away, walked over to the girl, took hold of her, and proceeded to drag her away from Mu without another word. With the way clear, Mu let out a sigh of relief and went to head onwards.
Mu passed by another one of those computers, also displaying something like the other computers had been. Once again, she ignored it, having something better to do. She had to get out of this simulation. Or, rather, complete it, assuming completion meant she’d be able to leave. She came to a bridge soon enough, hovering as she moved over it due to not trusting it to hold her weight, then landed safely back on the ground at the other side. It was then that she noticed something in her way. That kid again. The swordsman must’ve said something to that child about her…
She wouldn’t normally consider it, but Mu had an idea. She wanted to bait out that swordsman and confirm a suspicion or two, but the only way of doing that made her feel so incredibly guilty that she almost couldn’t go ahead with it. She’d have to stop short with her swing, she decided, to avoid harming the child. Thus, she raised her sword, staring at the exact location of the child as the child stared back at her, then brought her sword down with the intent to stop it before impact…
CRUNCH. Wait, what? That didn’t sound right at all. Something had to have gotten in the way. Mu drew her sword back, taking a look to see what she’d hit by accident, and soon she felt quite surprised. The grey-cloaked swordsman stood in front of her, only now sporting a large gash in his chest. It cut through his clothing and bit into his armor, possibly striking something deep in the swordsman as he didn’t look like he was doing so well. The child, though, she was fine. Then, the swordsman spoke, and Mu made a quiet gasp.
S!Walker:
“KID. GET OUT OF HERE. NOW. YOU’RE NOT READY FOR THIS.”
The child nodded to him, then what appeared to be Walker swung his sword at Mu’s face, forcing her to block the strike to avoid harm. At the same time, the kid ran right past her, ducking under her legs and running away from the battle as quickly as possible. Then, the simulation Walker paused, pulling his sword back and staring down at the injury he’d taken.
S!Walker:
“…OW. THAT HIT SOMETHING IMPORTANT. I’M NOT SURE WHAT, BUT I’M PROBABLY DEAD FROM THAT STRIKE ALONE. BUT… NGH… THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE. ONE STRIKE… THAT WOULDN’T BE ENOUGH TO KILL ME, RIGHT? …AGH…”
Mu felt a little bad for him now. She backed off a little, letting the simulation of Walker have some room. He seemed to be starting to shut down already, so his assessment of his own condition was probably accurate. Mu also felt quite relieved, since that’d allow her to progress relatively easily.
Only, one small problem. Right after the simulation of Walker looked like he was about to die, he somehow didn’t. Something kept him standing up straight, locked in position but still blocking the way. Mu could see his eyes glowing red through his mask’s eyepiece, stronger than she’d ever seen them do so before. What was happened, she wondered? Her answer soon came to her when she noticed the rest of his body glowing.
S!Walker:
“NO. I REFUSE. NOT YET. THE WAY YOU’VE BEEN GOING, YOU’LL JUST END UP KILLING EVERYONE ELSE YOU COME ACROSS IF I LET YOU PAST ME. THAT’S NOT ACCEPTABLE. I CAN’T AFFORD TO LET YOU PAST, EVEN IF IT FEELS LIKE I’M GOING TO SHORT-CIRCUIT AND COLLAPSE AT ANY MOMENT. I DON’T CARE WHAT I HAVE TO DO. YOU’RE A THREAT TO EVERYONE I KNOW ABOUT HERE, SO…”
Suddenly, Mu found herself blinded by a powerful flash of white light, apparently having come from the simulation of Walker himself. When she could finally see again, a very alarming sight greeted her. This seemed to be the exact same simulation of Walker from before, only he had radically changed in almost every aspect. Both of his eyes were shining a powerful red through his mask, his entire body was glowing a powerful blueish tinge, and Mu noted that his entire outfit had changed colour. Now, he was clad in white, his injury having seemingly vanished when he changed his form. This, she could feel, was him bringing his full power to bear. This might actually be some fun for her, she thought.
S:
“I’M ABOUT TO HAVE THE TIME OF MY ING LIFE.”
Mu would not back up now. Neither would the simulation of Walker. She struck first, lashing out with a sword and managing to catch him in the side with a slash, noting that he seemed way tougher now. He pretty much shrugged it off like it was nothing, and retaliated with his own attack, a storm of electrical bolts from all sides that Mu had to use her other swords to defend against. She frowned a little, her other swords spinning around her, then she tried launching into a frenzy of sword slashes that should deal more damage to him. He began to back up a little, bringing his own sword around to deflect her strikes aside, then advanced forth and took a huge swing at her.
She felt a jolt of pain rocket through her body as the sword impacted her hard enough to dent her armor in, on top of launching her backwards onto the bridge. She felt thankful for her power of flight, just in case the bridge hadn’t managed to hold her weight properly, and decided to start backing up during the fight if necessary. But she couldn’t run. He was in the way, and he wouldn’t get out of the way if she just turned tail and fled. Now, her swords lashed out from afar as she backed up further onto the bridge, baiting him to follow her. Despite managing to land a few good hits on his body, he was still going strong enough to rise to her challenge, swinging his sword wildly at her and sending powerful swordbeams in her direction. While she could counter with her agility and her own swords, the sheer number of beams being sent at her was almost too much for her to be able to bear.
Nothing was going to get him to relent in his attacks, and Mu knew this well, so she decided she’d have to put more pressure on to force him on the defensive. When she tried finishing the battle a little quicker by sending a sword directly towards the simulation Walker’s neck, he managed to catch the sword out of the air and throw it aside, dashing forth in a quick and strong rush to nick one of her shoulders with the blade. Despite being a glancing blow, Mu felt as if that little nick hurt a lot more than anything she’d fought so far. She’d have to be a lot more careful when dealing with him, because those were some strong hits.
If it weren’t such a high-pressure situation, she’d have freely charged up a sword of the godslayer to use on simulation Walker. As it stood, he was just too strong and capable of putting on pressure to let her do that easily. She’d have to charge it over the course of a much longer battle… Her tactics shifted to become more defensive, her blades now aimed to knock him back and push away his own sword. Sparks flew as their blades clashed together, the wind howling around them as they let loose with their full power right into each other. The simulation of Walker was putting up far more of a fight than Mu expected it to ever have done. She couldn’t help but grin at the excitement.
Her swords came up in front of her body, locking together to form a defensive shield on top of her existing armor. Then, she felt a sense of overwhelming power, peeked past the shield she made, and managed to dodge only just fast enough to avoid being hit by an immensely powerful slash. The blade hit the ground so hard that the bridge itself snapped, forcing the simulation Walker to jump backwards off it so he wouldn’t plummet into the abyss. Not that he strictly needed to do so, as his power seemed to be granting him the power of flight, much like Mu herself.
As she hovered where the bridge once was, staring across the abyss at simulation Walker, he suddenly lashed out at her with the sword again, sending a storm of swordbeams at her to force her to take action. She began weaving through the swordbeams, spinning and deflecting aside what she could with her swords, the blades reaching out much further once she’d cleared the storm. One of them managed to bite deeper into the simulation of Walker, aiming for the already-damaged parts of his body so Mu could inflict more damage. But even then, it seemed like everything Mu was dishing out just wasn’t getting through his armor quickly enough.
The simulation of Walker concentrated for a moment, and Mu felt a tingling feeling behind her. She brought her swords back to parry aside a lightning blast from behind just in time, then whirled around to pay attention to the attacks from behind. She also had to check on her opponent, make sure he wasn’t doing anything sneaky or underhanded. One half of her swords began spinning around her in a defensive pattern as she weaved through wave after wave of swordbeam and lightning blast, while her other swords focused on swinging at the simulation of Walker and trying to chip away at his armor, bit by bit. Mu felt as if she was making progress, albeit very slowly, as she noticed the swords start to bite in deeper into his body…
Sword of the Godslayer. She suddenly remembered about that, checking on the charge status. Only halfway there, but she could deal with that. She just had to keep fighting, after all, and that was pretty fun. This felt like the first actual challenge she’d faced in a long time, since neither EN-904 or Verdana ever managed to compete with her on this level when she fought them! Suddenly, the simulation of Walker rocketed forth off of the ledge, moving in behind Mu and rocketing at her again, forcing her to swerve sharply to the side to avoid his strike. Despite getting in a few hard stabs into his body, she still felt like nothing she was doing could even so much as slow the animatronic down. Was he ever this strong outside the simulation, she wondered? Well, the data probably had to come from somewhere…
Mu had to doubt the bit where the simulation of Walker was apparently flying around in the air through nothing but sheer power alone. Unless his time as a descendant in the world she knew had changed him that drastically. That could explain the scene she was both seeing and fighting hard again. Still, no backing out of this now, she’d come too far to turn around and leave the way she came. Thus, she rushed back into combat again, her blades swirling around to clash against simulation Walker’s sword.
This time, the clang that resulted from their weaponry meeting in the air was much louder than before, and Mu felt a jolt of electricity race along her blades. Good thing they weren’t attached to her, otherwise that’d have hurt badly. Still, she needed to be wary now. A direct hit would surely end worse for her than all the other attacks have so far. At this stage, the simulation of Walker was pulling out all the stops, sending a constant barrage of swordbeams and lightning blasts and fly-by slashes at Mu. He was determined to bring her down, it seemed, and she was determined to bring him down in kind.
Her swords quickly locked onto her body, forming a defensive shield around her as she focused entirely on defense. All the while, her eyes kept a close watch on the amount of percentage of Sword of the Godslayer charge she had. Soon, she’d have it ready for sure, and by the look of things, she’d need it just to break through her opponent’s seemingly indestructible armor. But even then, Mu couldn’t tell if she had the endurance to hold out that long, as much as she knew she had no other choices now.
Her defensive strategy seemed to be paying off, to a certain extent. Some of the attacks came out too fast for her to avoid, but her armor proved to be strong enough to defend against them. Some of the attacks were too powerful for her armor to take, so she avoided getting hit by them. Evidently, the fact that she was holding her own quite comfortably even without attacking annoyed simulation Walker to no end, as his sword suddenly flashed black straight before cleaving through the ground below him. Just the shockwave of his attack was enough to break through Mu’s guard and send her flying backwards into a hard metal wall, denting the surface and almost cracking her armor off of her body.
Mu lay flat against the wall for a moment, breathing softly, then collapsed onto the ground, having to use her swords to push herself up to a standing position. In front of her, on the other side of where the bridge had formerly been before the fight, she could see simulation Walker just standing there. He seemed to be waiting for her to advance back into battle… clearly, he didn’t know what she had planned instead of that. When she checked again and saw that Sword of the Godslayer was ready for use, she made a simple gesture forward, her swords immediately rushing over to the simulation of Walker to lock him in place. Despite the sheer power he had at his disposal, those swords locked together and held tightly enough to prevent him from pushing past, making sure he’d stay in one place. Then, she gestured again. The swords rocketed upwards out of view in an instant, but they had done what they needed to do to the simulation Walker. He couldn’t evade this strike, even if he tried. Since he had fought so hard to stop her, and she… felt something, Mu spoke for the first time.
Mu:
“…I’m sorry.”
Then, the eight swords crashed down on top of the simulation of Walker, simultaneously exploding with their full power and annihilating the battlefield in their wake. Surely, there was no surviving that, as Mu had almost been caught in the blast even from how far away she was standing. She almost felt sad at the conclusion of the fight, knowing that whatever sight greeted her now would surely not be a pretty one. After the smoke cleared and she could retrieve her swords, she commanded them to return to her as she hovered over the gap where the bridge once was, landing on the other side and staring straight ahead.
A heavily-damaged white-clad animatronic glowing with power stared back at her, sparking from every open segment of his body. Slowly, he managed to take a step towards her, but then his feet gave way under him, causing him to crash down onto the base of his legs. He emitted the sound of a sigh, and cursed under his breath at his own defeat.
S!Walker:
“OW. THAT REALLY HURT. SO, YOU WON THEN? DAMN… I WAS HOPING THAT I COULD HOLD YOU OFF, SAVE EVERYONE WHO’S STILL ALIVE FROM YOUR DESTRUCTIVE PATH. BUT THAT’S OUT OF MY HANDS NOW. PLANNER AND 913 WILL HAVE TO DO WHAT THEY CAN, AND IF THEY FALL…”
He proceeded to emit sparks, then the power faded from his body as he collapsed over backwards and exploded. With nothing but wreckage remaining of the animatronic, Mu took a few seconds to bow her head and pay her respects to him, then carefully stepped around the remaining wreckage to move on. Onwards into whatever awaited her next.
Initially, Mu couldn’t even see that much of a change in the environment around her as she proceeded, but upon looking closer, she noted the metal was becoming more polished, as if this area were better maintained than the appalling state of earlier terrain. That both encouraged and disappointed her, as she knew she was making progress towards the end, but at the same time those patterns in the walls had been quite pretty and interesting to look at. Still, if this was the way to the end of the simulation, she’d have to move through here.
The terrain around her started to feel searing hot. Maybe if she were a more vulnerable type of person, Mu would’ve been badly affected by it, but for her it was trivial to shove her way through the heat. As she walked, she noticed what looked like a gigantic structure in front of her, having to lean back just to take in all the upward and sideways views. This appeared to be… erm. She had to take a longer while than expected to get an idea of what it was. Eventually, she came to the conclusion that it was a TRULY MASSIVE battle tank of some form or another, albeit fallen and maintained only for a population hidden within.
Mu advanced. As she got close, she saw a door in the hull that she could walk through freely, sending out a pair of her swords to push it aside and wandering in without incident. She had the feeling that someone was watching her, but she brushed that feeling off and took a look around, immediately spotting a TV screen of sorts. It seemed to link to cameras in the areas she’d already been to before, including one she immediately recognized as viewing the terrain of her battle with simulation Walker. And then she noticed a hole in the wall, looking a lot like somebody crashed through it with immense force. As she moved to continue on, she became aware that someone was standing in her way.
EN-913:
“Took ya long enough. You sure did clear out the snow region and the caves far quicker than any of us here expected you to. Good thing Walker went out and held you off long enough for the evacuation. Now, almost everyone who can move has gotten somewhere out of the way. Some of us are still here to fight you, though. See, this area is pretty big, and so we gotta make sure we’ve got everyone we can.”
Mu took a step forwards, advancing on the grey woman with all 8 of her swords at the ready. Was this obstruction going to bar her way for some meaningless talk? She’d already killed off what she figured was the single strongest fighter the simulation could throw at her… and yet, the way the grey woman grinned back at her, a feeling of doubt began to grow.
EN-913:
“Eager to get going, huh? Well, I ain’t gonna stick around here much longer. You’ve obviously got places to go, and all the patience of a queue-barger, so I’ll just be off for now. Hopefully the defences take care of ya so we don’t gotta.”
A pair of wings popped out of the woman’s back, then she leaned away from Mu and quickly rocketed out of the room. Mu felt quite thankful that she didn’t have to fight just yet. That’d give her some more time to rip through more of those turrets if she found any, make absolutely sure she was ready to fight before going up against the grey woman. Then, she’d be able to move on, hopefully at last be allowed to leave the damn simulation. Since she walked into the next room, and was immediately set upon by what she could only assume was a smaller version of the giant tank. What a good place to start, she thought.
After wrecking the mini-tank in a few swipes of her swords, Mu continued on, noticing a few places where the path seemed to require a few good jumps. She drifted over the gaps without issue, seeing as she already had the power of flight to completely blow jumping out of the water, then moved on until she could find a change in scenery. Namely, she appeared to have wandered into the kitchen of a cafeteria of sorts. Taking a look around didn’t reveal anything too interesting, aside from some sentry disguised as a trashcan in the corner of the room, which she quickly disposed of with a stab from afar.
Eventually, she came across an elevator. Looks like the thing still worked, thankfully for her, so she floated inside and hit the button to go up a few floors, not sure which one would be best suited to visit. After all, she wanted to get through this area quickly, not accidentally end up at… an art exhibit or something else stupid like that. It frustrated her to no end when she wandered into what seemed like a research lab. Still, she could see an exit on the far side of the room, so moving on through would be important, she hoped. But, when she had run only half-way through the room, she felt the sensation of being stuck in place. Looking down to see what happened, she realized her feet were now trapped in a hole.
Mu slashed the hole with one of her swords, cracking the floor and allowing her to get out and keep running, but by then the door had slammed shut in a single motion. Seems someone was determined to keep her there, not that she’d let them stop her anytime soon. But, now that she looked closely at her surroundings, she could see a woman in a suit, standing in one shadowy corner of the room. As the woman stepped forward, holding something in her hand, Mu began to ready her swords in anticipation of a fight.
Planner:
“Knowing that you’re going to destroy everyone in your path, I can’t afford to let you go any further. As you can no doubt see, I hold the control for that door in my hand. Since I have it and you do not, you cannot progress-“
Mu proceeded to cut off whatever the suited woman was about to say by immediately sending a sword out to her. The blade slashed right through her wrist and cut her hand clean off, then returned to Mu with the control for the door stuck on the end. A moment passed.
Planner:
“I see. Judging by the strength of that one strike alone, I don’t have enough physical durability to be able to reliably stall you anymore. Somebody else shall have to do it instead… but now I fear for the only one I know of who has that durability. Surely, if she stands in your path as intended, she will be destroyed. And then… then…”
The suited woman visibly suppressed a shudder, then turned and walked away without another word, not caring about the fact that her hand had been cut off. Mu watched her leave to avoid risking a surprise ambush, then unlocked the door and moved on, swords drifting along behind her in preparation for fights to come. To be honest, she felt relieved that that hadn’t taken too long, but who would be in her way now?
Coming to a three-way fork in the road, Mu chose to head off along the path to her left, climbing up stairs and looking where she was going to check. Ahead of her, she could see what she could only guess was some form of residential area, perhaps a block of apartments or some such structure. She figured she’d have to be getting close to being able to leave sometime soon, surely…
Once she headed into the apartment building, she took a brief look around to survey the inside of the place. It seemed very empty at first glance, although there clearly was somebody around recently, as a drinks cabinet appeared to have been recently stocked. Still, Mu couldn’t use anything there, and since there wasn’t anyone else around of note, she might as well just move on through. Left and right both head off to other parts of the building, so where did straight ahead lead? She went down that path to go investigate.
As it turns out, going straight ahead just lead to another bridge. She seemed to cross a lot of those, often before people were about to give her as hard of a fight as they could put up. Was that a coincidence, or did people just like fighting near bridges? Thoughts like those swirled around in Mu’s head as she walked across, pushed through a door, and stared at an elevator for a few seconds. After a quick ride up, she hopped out, turned to her right, and stared down a hallway for a few moments. Another door… She moved to head through it.
Soon, she walked down another short corridor for a while, stopping once she found herself in a round room. Her path was obstructed. That grey woman from earlier, standing right in the middle of the room and eager to fight. She didn’t look entirely set up properly yet, maybe there’s a speech incoming or something. People seemed to like talking before battle, Mu noted. She could remember back as far as EN-904 doing a little speech of sorts.
EN-913:
“Damn. Figured Planner would’ve been able to do something more to at least slow ya down for a bit… Guess I should be thankful she’s still alive to begin with, eh? Everyone else who stood against ya got tore to bits. At least this way, someone’ll be around to make sure this place still runs… kinda a bit of a moot point if everyone’s dead, though.”
She cracked her knuckles.
EN-913:
“Sides, we’re not quite done evacuating yet. So, y’know… I ain’t budging yet. You’ll have to fight me if ya wanna get through.”
Then, Mu blinked. When her eyes had opened again, the grey woman was now sporting some seriously intimidating design changes. A minigun now adorned each of her arms, rocket launchers took aim from over her shoulders and around her hips, a pair of wings had opened up wide behind her and now were roaring with jets of flame from engines attached to each of them… Naturally, she also had guns in her hands too, a pair of what appeared to be extremely large shotguns. It looked like nobody else would even be able to hold them, so much as think about firing them, as far as Mu was concerned. Still, if this was what her opponent felt like using, then so be it. Mu sent a sword forth, aiming to test just how strong EN-913 might be.
The sword, upon contact, made a loud sound as if clashing against solid stone, then ricocheted back at Mu at a speed she almost couldn’t catch. Her conclusion was that EN-913 did have the durability that everyone seemed to think she had. This might be tough.
As Mu moved back to reposition herself, EN-913 took the opportunity to strike and unloaded on her with the force of both shotguns combined, a hail of lead pellets crashing against Mu’s armored body and hurling her back. She crashed against the wall of the room, spun around wildly, and crashed to the floor while hearing one of her blades rip a bridge down in the background. So, the bridge got destroyed again. How fitting…
She charged forward. Her swords spun around her body as she pushed to get in close, still being assaulted by the combined firepower of both shotguns at once. Despite them being able to push her back, the bullets couldn’t do any significant damage to her, so she was slowly gaining ground against the constant storm. When EN-913 brought up both miniguns to also join the barrage, though, Mu was stopped cold and promptly flung out of the room again, chased by a pair of missiles from the rocket launchers.
Outside the room, when the missiles hit her, Mu flinched as she felt the shockwaves blasting through her body. Then, a moment later, the explosive force flung her right into a wall, breaking it clean in half with the top part of it caving inwards. Mu got up using her swords to support herself, rose into the air for a brief bit, then launched herself forward to fly in through the door again… or, at least, what was left of it. This time, she wouldn’t let herself be held back by those bullets anymore.
This time, as she began forcing her way through the constant flow of shotgun blasts and minigun fire, her swords floating in front of her to form a shield so she could freely get through, she could hear the desperation of her opponent on the other side of the shield and bulletstorm. Two of her swords slipped away from the edge of her shield, lashing forward to smack against EN-913’s body, and the resounding ripping sound made Mu feel as if she got a damn good hit in. Slowly, she moved to peek over the shield…
Mu’s head snapped back forcefully as a sniper rifle cracked, having just been hit hard enough for the shockwave to crack the walls around her. The solid metal walls. Despite that, she felt relatively fine… maybe the battles she’d gone through earlier helped build up her resistance to these sorts of things. EN-913, on the other hand, had a massive X cut into her chest, evidently from the swords sent at her.
As Mu advanced again, the grey woman took to the air to rain down firepower from above, the bulletstorm holding Mu down against the floor without the ability to advance. Her sheer power kept her going just fine, and the shield she could put up with her swords helped with taking the edge off of the constant bullets. She’d have to strike blind again… This time, one of her swords split off, then lashed out as far as it could with a sideways cut. A resounding crunch filled the room, briefly overcoming the sound of guns, and Mu felt the barrage cut out for a split second. A quick glance let her know that she’d taken out one of the miniguns.
With this advantage now making the battle turn in her favour, Mu rose up from her place on the floor, swords flourishing to the side of her. EN-913’s wings both flashed, then she rocketed down to the floor and slammed hard enough to throw Mu back, forcing space to be made so she could get out a weapon to fight. A melee weapon. Namely, she’d somehow managed to open up her body and pull out a sword much bigger than herself.
Mu charged forward at the same time as EN-913, her set of swords rising up to clash with the grey woman’s own large one, sparks of both heat and lightning flashing between the two of them as they clashed. For a good while, it seemed as if both of them were perfectly evenly matched, with EN-913 expressing no small level of surprise over the matter. But, as they struggled against each other, Mu’s swords gradually began to overpower EN-913 and force her back, up until one of the swords broke free and lashed past the grey woman’s face.
Mu was fairly sure she heard something rip open. From the look of it, her sword had gone straight through one of EN-913’s eyes, but had not managed to completely disable the other robot. With the battle going south for the grey woman very quickly, she began to become desperate, resorting to more overwhelming manners of attack. Mu had to back off, lest she become atomized by a
massive beam cannon that suddenly emerged from the grey woman’s back, retaliating by throwing a sword forth to clash against the surface of the weapon. It didn’t work, the surface metal being too tough for her sword to slash through. So be it, she thought, as her sword moved back to regroup with the rest of them.
She rushed forward again, all her swords moving around so she could align them up, then she stabbed wildly with every single blade at once. Finally, results started to show, with EN-913 frantically dodging out of the way as best as she could to preserve her weapon. Still, the damage was done already, as her next shot blast a hole out the side of the cannon, then eradicated a large section of the wall. With that weapon being rendered too potentially destructive for EN-913 to safely use, she discarded it in an explosion of energy, then searched herself for another weapon. She couldn’t find anything.
Mu took advantage of the delay immediately, bringing one sword around aimed right at the grey woman’s stomach. Despite the shockingly powerful stab, the grey woman didn’t seem too badly injured, and Mu noticed a severe lack of sword going out the other end of EN-913’s body. Slowly, she backed up a little and withdrew her sword, preparing herself in case something bad happened. A moment later, something bad did happen. EN-913 opened up, and within the exposed parts, a single core item floated amidst a mass of black shadowy… erm… stuff. It oriented itself towards Mu, glowing faintly with some form of eldritch power.
EN-913:
“The evacuation’s done with! I just need to end you with what I have left!”
Mu decided very quickly that she did not particularly feel like seeing what that core would do to her. Thus, she rapidly gestured at EN-913, sending a sword rocketing forth fast enough to pierce through the grey woman’s wing joint. As that part of her body fell away, she returned fire right back at Mu, a massive blast of what could only be described as pure dimensional nothingness blasting by far too close to call for her liking. The wall where it impacted just… stopped being there, as if it had been removed entirely. She felt very thankful that it hadn’t gotten a direct hit on her, else that would probably have hurt.
One of her swords swung out wide, getting itself into the right position for it to be able to strike… then, just as it looked like EN-913 was about to fire again, the sword moved. Mu had to concentrate hard on this one, as even a minor error in flight path could lead to her whiffing the strike and going down in a single shot to whatever eldritch weapon this was. Mu didn’t want to find out from personal experience.
Thankfully for her, her aim was true. The sword rushed forth fast, the blade ripping through the device that EN-913 had exposed, providing her with a lovely view of the thing itself impaled on the end of the sword blade. The grey woman seemed quite surprised at the sight, and was just about to react to it when the blade ripped out of the device. She didn’t even get to say some final words before the device exploded violently, consuming the grey woman whole in a frenzy of dimensional mess. Mu had the feeling that she hadn’t achieved a full kill, but incapacitation would do just as nicely. Besides, she wasn’t going for anyone who had chosen to evacuate this place. She just wanted to get through it and not be blocked off by those who stood in her way.
Slowly, with the battle having concluded, Mu decided to get on with moving on. She walked to the exit of the room, a blade roughly slashing aside the door to let her progress, then she walked out of the room. The roof caved in behind her shortly after, sealing off the way back.
After corridors and corridors of walking, to the point where Mu almost got sick of the scenery around her never changing, she finally felt as though something were about to change. And, to her delight, it did, the AI from the beginning of her adventure suddenly flickering into being beside her and hovering along as she walked. It seemed to want to say something to her, so she turned her head to stare at it, waiting for the words to come.
purple:
You have almost made it to the end of the simulation.
purple:
However.
purple:
There are still two beings that will stand in your way.
purple:
I wish you luck in dealing with them as I cannot intervene.
It continued floating alongside her for a good while, then flickered and vanished from view just as suddenly as it had arrived. Mu felt a little annoyed that it went away so quickly, but then her attention was caught by what appeared to be a change, at long last. A building rested in front of her, strongly resembling the arcane house she had seen at the beginning of her time in the simulation… at least, on the outside. She’d have to go in to verify.
Mu quickly ran in through the door of the house, not caring too much if she accidentally damaged it on the way in. Initial appearances proved it to be quite similar in design, albeit not an arcane construct for one thing, and themed around a different particular colour for another. It mostly seemed grey-themed instead of blue. Why grey of all colours, she had to wonder while walking along a hallway to check the rooms. Most of them seemed to be the typical mostly-empty rooms she would expect to see in a living space, albeit each one being decorated with standard living requirements – at least one bed each, a dresser, a separate bathroom for private matters, all the works were there. After checking close to 20 or so different rooms, Mu found herself getting bored and deciding to check the other way.
Naturally, she ran right into a cafeteria of sorts, just as she expected from a house of this size. A kitchen would have been too small to support so many potential visitors. She could hardly imagine what it would cost to clean up every single room, given the possibility of all of the ones she’d seen and the ones she hadn’t beyond that being occupied. None of them seemed to have anyone staying right now. As Mu searched the cafeteria for some sign of something interesting, she starting feeling a bit hungry. Maybe she’d be able to find some food in here. Hell, maybe even a drink or two, although she had no idea what she’d have to drink if she found a selection. Too bad for her, she couldn’t find anything.
Mu left the cafeteria and just about went down the stairs before she noticed a clearly-labelled back door out of the house. It made more sense to her that the door would let her leave, rather than the stairs that might just go into a basement or something, so she opened the door and stepped out. Thankfully only having to walk through a single corridor, she rounded a corner and began to walk forward, but stopped short when she noticed a distant flickering in the middle of her path. Seemed almost like someone was there. She’d have to move closer to be absolutely sure… So, all of her swords at the ready and prepared in case someone turned out to be there, she stepped forth into the path.
In a single instant, the man in her way ceased his invisibility. Mu recognized the blue hoodie, the paler-than-snow skin, the way he seemed to be glaring at her… She’d met him before, all the way back in that snowy region. He had a sword with him now, a decently-sized longsword with a single large blue blade. The way he gripped it felt like a clear enough indicator to her that he was probably going to fight her soon. Of course, first she had to get to him. Making sure that she had everything that she might need with her, that namely being her swords and her armor, she began to advance. Before she had gotten even halfway there, she could already make out the rage in the eyes of her enemy. But, even still, he waited there. Waited for her to come to him, instead of the other way around.
???:
“Fancy meeting you here. I suspected you’d be going someplace like this one, although I didn’t quite click until after I had a look at a map or two. So… well… heh. You know how the drill goes. You step forth and try to get past, then I unleash hell.”
Mu took a step forward. She must’ve crossed some sort of threshold, as a moment later, the man in blue ignited in flames, strongly blue much like he himself seemed to be. She could hear him laughing quietly, although it wasn’t the laugh of a happy man. Rather, he seemed to be only in anticipation of a fight, a shot at revenge for… something she did.
???:
“Called it in one guess. So, if you’re going along this particular route, and you’re acting the way you have, that can only mean one thing. Anyone else would’ve attributed those signs as you aiming to destroy the core of our world, bring down everything around us in an apocalypse of burning metal… But I know better. I knew it the moment I got a good look into your eyes. This is all just a simulation to you, isn’t it?”
Mu let out a quiet gasp of surprise. She’d already suspected he knew for quite some time, but she hadn’t expected him to be so direct and blunt about it, less for him to be so nonchalant about the ordeal. Almost an instant before the first attack came out, she was already dodging to the side to avoid being hit directly, narrowly missing an intimidating jet of flame. The ground beside her burned quietly, until the flames faded away without incident, revealing that the metal where she’d stood had been scorched into ash. Now, it was her turn to retaliate. She gestured and sent a sword forward to take a slash at the man’s neck, but he twisted at the last moment, trapping the blade in his hoodie and hurling it back at her.
???:
“What? I’m not going to just stand around doing nothing while you stab me.”
His hoodie wrapped around his body and he faded from view. Mu couldn’t see, but she could feel some presence near her, and rocketed upwards just in time to avoid being cut by the sword of blue. Above the battlefield, she glanced down and sent a sword in to try slashing at the man once again, only for his invisibility to render her attempt useless. She couldn’t find him until he reappeared again, sword at the ready.
???:
“I used to be a scientist back in the day. One of my fields of specialty happened to have been dimensional anomalies. Think about this all from the perspective of ourselves.”
The man rocketed forth, breezing right by Mu. She brought her swords up and locked them together to defend herself, then felt a smack hurl her backwards with flames going everywhere around her, her defense having barely held. It occurred to her that this man, who looked like he’d be killed off with ease if a sword snuck past his defenses, might be a more fragile speedster type of person. She felt like using more swords, lashing out with a long chain of blades and hoping one of them caught the man, but those hopes were for naught.
???:
“As far as the people here who aren’t in the know care, you’re an eldritch threat. Something that came from another dimension and tore through our strongest guardians with ease. Exactly the kind of thing that falls under dimensional anomaly categories.”
A set of unusual runes formed in the air around the man, then rocketed forth and slammed into the ground around Mu. She made a startled noise and pulled her swords in tight, watching as flame jets roared up near her, only just enough distance between herself and the jets to avoid getting burned by them. While thankful that none of the flames had managed to come into contact with her body, now she couldn’t properly aim a strike at the man she was fighting. Despite trying anyway, it didn’t pay off, and the man quite obviously had managed to get away from the battlegrounds long before she made the attack. Tutting quietly, the man continued his combination of combat and conversation.
???:
“But you’re much more of a threat to our world than you, or anyone else, really knew. Well, maybe Walker had figured something out, but I doubt that somehow. Not even Planner clicked on that one, and she’s not one to miss out the details, believe me.”
Mu felt the floor below her starting to burn, and rocketed up into the air just in time to avoid every part of the floor igniting in flame. Amidst the mess of heat and fire, huge towering walls of flame raced towards her, forcing her to duck and weave to slip through each of the walls of flame in turn. Once she’d managed to get through all the threat unharmed, she frowned as she glared down at the floor, trying to discern where exactly the man had gone… Funny thing, how come his fire wasn’t burning him? She had to wonder that one a little, but couldn’t figure out an answer just yet, so she’d have to wait and think about that a little more. Idly, she reached down with a sword, sweeping it through the flames until it bumped against something, then the flames receded as the sword was flung back at her again.
???:
“Hmm. But your goal isn’t to end everything. You just want… well, I can’t figure that one out for myself, given that you’ve beelined right towards one of the zones that, if destroyed, would bring everything down, but… hmm. Maybe you want to leave.”
He vanished from view, invisible amidst the smoke of his flames still filling the air. Mu suppressed a cough, looking around to see where he’d gone, thankfully noticing his silhouette and being able to find him despite all of the mess obstructing her view. He had the habit of tossing the swords she sent out back at her if not enough of them got to him, so she decided to put a very sneaky plan into action. Acting as though she hadn’t seen him yet, her head turned and her eyes stared straight ahead, waiting until she could only just hear a footstep behind her, then she turned and swung all of her swords in on the man at once. One of them managed to slip past his guard and slash a long line into the region below his hoodie, ripping open his flesh and causing him to start openly bleeding, shocking him into having to back off for a bit. Once he was safely distant from her, he continued.
???:
“Unfortunately for a good number of us, you’re so impatient to get out that you’ll crush everything in your path to get there. That’s lead to the death of 904 in her arcane house, Verdana back in the snowy region, Walker over at the bridge, even EN-913 fell before your blades due to an equipment malfunction. All things considered, maybe the two of us could stop this fighting for a while, try and figure something out. How about that?”
The man then turned to Mu, ceasing his attacks and standing there harmlessly. His sword still waved slightly as he idly swung it in his grip, and his hoodie drifted in the wind caused by their battle in the room around him, but aside from that, nothing seemed off. Despite appearances, there was just something in his eyes, the way he was looking at her, that gave Mu a very long pause for thought. She didn’t feel as if she could trust his words, especially considering his earlier desperation to murder her. So, she took the time to have a nice break from the battle, then advanced on the man. Her swords gathered up and swung forth… but the man responded by sparking and explosion at his feet and leaping over them.
???:
“What a shame. Even after you managed to inflict a nasty injury on me, I was willing to forgive everything you’d done leading up to this point. But, well, now I know better. You’re not going to cease battling… I won’t be making you the same offer again now.”
Mu briefly caught herself now wondering if the offer had been genuine for a second, then shook her head to clear that idea. No, someone with that type of fury in their eyes… He’d been trying to trick her, make her let her guard down. Thus, she steeled herself for the battle ahead, anticipating a tougher fight. She was right. Now, the flames came faster, there were more of them, and new patterns of flames erupted towards her. She focused on dodging more than on attacking, but noted that she managed to land a hit against the man’s hoodie. Not that her swords could do anything to that thrice damned article of clothing.
???:
“Hmm, as much as I feel I accurately guessed what you’re wanting to do, the fact that you’re not going to talk about it is… mildly concerning. Was that my fault, or yours?”
Mu glanced up briefly, then immediately ran for cover when she saw the man hovering in the air, surrounded by flames in the shape of a giant fist. Just in time, too, as the fist slammed into the ground hard enough to crack the metal floor, then rocketed after her, narrowly sliding underneath when she took to the air. Even so, she had to rush forward to avoid the fist when it pursued her once again, if only to avoid a direct impact with it. Turning around to keep track of where the man had gone, she threw a sword his way, but pulled it back towards her when she felt the blade glowing almost white-hot.
???:
“Either way, I’m one of the last people left who can fight against you on equal terms, as exhausting as it is to do so… So even if I didn’t have my own ulterior motives to do battle against you, we’d have to clash anyway. The world needs defenders.”
The fist slammed into the ground again, spreading out and standing up on the pointer and middle fingers, then walked towards Mu. She did not like how badly this battle was going for her, bringing her swords in close and lashing out at the hand to disrupt the advance, but failing to do anything significant to it. Then, the hand made a gesture, one finger miming kicking her in the face, causing her to be blasted off her feet and slide across the floor. Standing back up, she noticed that she’d caught on fire, her swords soon pulling in tightly to smother the flames and put her out. Now, the man dispersed the giant fist, lowering himself to the ground and taking a moment or two to breathe. He seemed to be getting tired…
???:
“I’ll admit. With how long you’ve survived my onslaught of flame for, I’m almost starting to feel like I won’t win this battle. Even so, I have to try. I’m not sure what would happen to the… simulation if you end up being killed, but it beats the guaranteed extinction of all of us. Survive this next one, and I’ll have to try doing something special to take you down.”
Mu felt the heat of something building up behind her, immediately turning around to send her swords forth to slash it away. Resounding success. A firey construct of blue flame and molten metal slowly collapsed over backwards, landing hard on the floor and splashing away into an unrecognizable mess. Another construct soon arose from another direction, prompting Mu to slash that one away too, then an onslaught of flames and metal rising up from the ground threatened to overwhelm her. She took to the air, raising her blades up and pinpointing each of the various constructs in turn, sending out a singular sword to snipe each one of them through the cores of the constructs, felling endless tides of flame and metal in her desperation to endure. Eventually, the constructs stopped rising up, so Mu gathered her swords back together and searched for where the man had gone, only to find herself looking down the barrel of a massive cannon of flame and metal.
???:
“Alright, finally I have you stuck in a bad position. Don’t move a single inch, or I’ll fire and obliterate you in an instant. Heh…”
Mu floated in place, staring at the cannon. This was it. She had to figure out a way out of the line of fire, or else her enemy would blast her to pieces with it. She felt as though there were something she was forgetting… How had she gotten that simulation of Walker out of the way? Oh, right. Sword of the Godslayer did him in. But, here, she didn’t feel as if that would be enough on its own. It did mighty fine damage to whatever she wished it to annihilate, but damage isn’t going to let her endure a direct hit from that enormous flame cannon. She still had one trick left that she could use… Metal Gear. That would save her for sure, mostly by taking the direct shot to the body so she wouldn’t have to risk anything.
She twitched. A huge metallic construct dropped down from the roof, having been summoned by her use of Metal Gear, and slammed into the floor right between her and the cannon’s barrel. Then, she moved, watching her summoned aide being burnt into a crisp by the onslaught of the flaming cannon in mere seconds. That would’ve ended badly for her if she took the shot instead. Still, Mu had a damn good idea of where that man would be now. Presumably, behind the cannon somewhere, aiming it at her to make sure his shot didn’t miss… But now that he missed the shot, there wasn’t a chance of him replicating it, and he seemed too tired to fight in melee combat any longer. Her swords flashed forward, one of them sweeping by to force the man to duck, another two slipping under his hoodie and removing it in a single quick motion, then the other five sailed forth and impaled his body.
???:
“…Oh. Guess I failed.”
In a single gesture from Mu, the man’s body was summarily ripped into pieces, leaving him dead on the floor and more resembling a form of pasta sauce than anything else. Mu felt conflicted, somewhat. On one hand, she’d finally managed to get that annoying flaming man out of the way, and she could move on at last. But on the other hand, some of what he’d said, the rage he’d expressed during their battle, the desperation he had fought with to not let her get past him, and the sheer defeat in his eyes when she’d stabbed him… She honestly didn’t know what her strongest feeling about that battle was. She had to avoid thinking about it too hard, so she gathered her swords up around her and slowly moved on.
She walked through another corridor, immediately getting sick of the repetitive scenery and carving a few sharp lines into it with her swords out of boredom, then stopped once she entered a new room. In this one, the decorations clearly had a fair level of significance for whoever had chosen them, else the strange designs would probably have been reserved for something other than this. They appeared to be large circles with roughly-drawn crosses passing through them, engraved into some of the walls and adorning tapestries… The symbol Escutcheon, symbol of power unrestrained at the cost of sanity. Probably. The backgrounds all shared a singular grey colour with only shadows providing contrast, but each of the circles and crosses were pure white. And then, standing in the middlemost section of the room, she saw the being that had them placed there. A single drone, easily towering over her in terms of height, probably even making Walker look like a dwarf in comparison from what she could tell. Slowly, it began to turn around, speaking quietly.
Drone:
“So, how’d it go, lad? Did you manage to get-“
Mu proceeded to stab a sword right through the drone mid-turn. It stood there for a second, sparking violently from the place she’d stabbed it, then reached up and grabbed the sword to pull it out and discard it. Habitually, she glanced to check on Sword of the Godslayer, finding it to be almost ready. Good. She might end up needing that really soon.
Drone:
“Oh, you killed him. Damn. He was one of my best ones. I’m going to have to regretfully clobber you with a hammer until you stop moving now.”
Mu brought her swords up together and pulled them in close, even the one that had been forcibly discarded earlier, while the drone reached back and pulled out… erm… Mu wasn’t entirely sure what that bizarre thing was. It looked like a mashup between a hammer and several different types of absurd artillery weapon. She decided to not be in the way of the line of fire, rocketing up into the air and watching an intimidating barrage of high-explosive shots sail far too close to her feet, crashing against the wall and exploding in a display that she felt almost outdid most of the other beings in the simulation. Now, she had to figure out where she was aiming her ultimate attack, thus her swords lashed forth to rip chunks away from the drone, shredding off an entire layer of armor. Still a few more to go.
Drone:
“You’ve killed all of them, haven’t you…?”
Mu nodded, pulling her swords back and driving them forward again. One of them aimed straight for the core of the drone, embedding itself inside but stopping upon hitting something incredibly hard. That must be her target, she reasoned, as the entire drone flinched at once upon impact. Now to shred away some more armor for a clear shot, which meant even more dodging incredibly lethal barrages. This time, it appeared to be a minigun emerging from the drone’s hammer, then firing off a storm of missiles that covered the entire area behind her in explosions, a single wave sweeping back and forth between the edges of the barrage. Her shoulder armor made it hard for her to dodge, but she managed to squeeze through the gaps in the firepower with some difficulty. Now to gather herself again.
Drone:
“Hah! No dessert for you!”
The fact that the drone felt like trying to hit her with a hammer was not the part that caught Mu off-guard, it was the sheer speed it had when it charged at her. Her swords almost didn’t make it up in time to defend, and even though they successfully had shielded her, the impact still flung her from the centre of the room all the way to the door, her body smacking against a low-hanging roof and collapsing on the floor. Then, she felt herself be knocked up into the air from the force of the hammer slamming the ground, and was subsequently blasted to the other side of the room like a spiked volleyball. Still, from here, she had a fairly good idea where to aim. Her swords flashed forwards, armor near the drone’s core falling away and exposing the centre. A single glowing grey crystal about as big as a golf ball.
Drone:
“Hey, no peeking! This body is the equivalent of my clothing, thank you very much!”
The grey crystal flashed once, the drone’s body flashed once, and then a railgun blast shot out and nailed Mu right in the shoulder armor. Despite the heavy build and incredibly tough armor, one shot was apparently all it took for the beam to blast right through, Mu staring at the resulting sparking hole in her shoulder with quite the level of concern for herself. Still, that shot had been terribly aimed on the drone’s part, as she still had her swords free and a plan of attack. Thus, the swords lashed out, two of them stabbing the drone’s feet to the ground, two of them racing forth and impaling the drone’s shoulders to stop the arms from working, two more to disable everything above and below the core of the drone and make it collapse backwards, then the last two was what Mu would strike with. The two swords rose up high into the air, carving through the roof and making a hole for them to fit through, then disappearing from view for a time. When they came back down, both of them had grown to a gargantuan size, oriented directly at the crystal in the centre of the drone. One alone probably wouldn’t have cut it, but both of the swords together proceeded to cleave clean through the golf-ball-sized crystal. There was a flash.
Drone:
“AAAAAAAAAAA-“
And then the entire drone exploded violently, Mu’s swords being flung to the sides of the room and impaling themselves in the walls. Even the big swords had been thrown up in the air by the force of the blast, returning to their normal size mid-flight and disappearing through the hole in the roof. Mu frowned in irritation over having almost lost those swords forever, but walked forward to below the hole and summoned the swords to her side. With all of them returned to her, she sighed and took the time to sit down, wanting only to relax. Maybe also patch up the hole in her shoulder armor soon.
…Wait. This was a simulation. That’s right. Slowly, she stood back up to move on a little further, soon wandering into a lonely clearing. With no decoration around and nothing else to distract her, she could focus and wait for the simulation to end. Slowly, the world around her deconstructed, reverting to what it came from. The AI appeared in front of her again.
purple:
…I am speechless.
purple:
EN-904 is recorded as being a competent and capable fighter rivalling eldritch abominations in combat ability and use of arcane magic.
purple:
That variation of Verdana lives and succeeds to a notable degree in a world where everyone is capable of warping reality to create absurdly powerful equipment.
purple:
Walker might not be much of a combatant in his normal form compared to the others but his unlimited mode allows him to easily trash even the toughest of foes.
purple:
Planner is one of our expert tacticians and you managed to intimidate her out of fighting you in a single solid strike with one sword.
purple:
EN-913 outclasses her sister in destructive power and durability simply by relying on her immense arsenal of weaponry that most people could never hope to wield properly.
purple:
That variation of the Operative has use of fire and invisibility that makes him the champion of the region he lives in on his home planet alongside his genetic relation.
purple:
You even managed to quickly dispose of an Engie drone that was deliberately designed to be utterly impossible to beat via normal simulation conditions.
purple:
That last feat of yours is completely unprecedented.
Mu felt a bit of pride surge up in her chest. She’d done so well at exactly what she’d been put into the simulation to do in the first place, from what she could hear. When the AI stopped talking to her for some reason, she felt a little confused, staring expectantly at it as if it’d suddenly start talking again soon. It didn’t do anything of the sort. Instead, it hovered in silence, up until she turned around and began to leave, at which point it started to speak.
purple:
Please do not speak of the simulation to anybody who appeared in it.
purple:
They would not take it well if they learned of what transpired within.
Mu nodded back to the AI, turning and taking her leave of the place. She walked back down the hallways, reminded somewhat of the many places she had to walk in the simulation slightly, then she turned a corner and took a look into the armory. Walker was standing there, apparently having gotten his foot stuck under a very heavy railgun of some kind, struggling to try to get his foot out from underneath it. As he struggled, Mu silently creeped up towards him, then suddenly reached forward to lift the railgun up…
She accidentally threw the entire thing so hard that it crashed into the wall of the armory and broke clean in half. The payoff for almost scaring herself was that Walker made a flabbergasted noise and jumped vertically upwards in the air far higher than she’d expected him to. That was kinda funny, at least. She had to suppress a laugh as she watched him drop back down to the floor, landing on his feet and stumbling back a bit, looking completely and utterly spooked by what just happened. A moment paused. He did the best he could to regather his dignity, turning to Mu with a flustered look on his face despite the mask obscuring it, then he tried to speak to her.
walker:
“WHAT THE HELL PLEASE DON’T SNEAK UP ON ME LIKE THAT. SO… WHAT HAPPENED IN THERE? HOW’D IT GO?”
Mu paused. She kind of wanted to speak about her experiences in the simulation, but at the same time, the AI had been quite clear that it didn’t want anyone else to hear of what really happened. She felt a bit conflicted over this. Maybe, once the two had some private time together away from eavesdroppers, she’d take the time to sit him down and tell him everything, but for the time being, she’d have to leave him in the dark regarding what she went through. She quickly gestured that sort of feeling to Walker, who almost objected before shutting up and nodding to her, understanding that he might eventually learn if he’s lucky. With that sorted, Walker turned and left, with Mu hanging around just in case.
Her waiting paid off, as soon she noticed a side door opening up, allowing her access to a room that she was fairly certain she hadn’t been in yet. With that way cleared up, she curiously decided to investigate, pulling her swords in close around her and stepping through the doorframe. Inside the room, it seemed kind of dark, up until she put a hand near the door and found a lightswitch. Slapping that on, Mu waited and watched, wanting the room to hurry up and light up already. Given enough time of waiting, it eventually and agonizingly slowly became light enough to see things properly. Once everything was lit up, Mu had to suppress a faint gasp. The sight greeting her made the other armory look like crap in comparison.
The entire room was filled, ceiling-to-floor, wall-to-wall with endless shelves of incredibly powerful forms of technology, the likes of which she could only guess at what each one could do. Sure, there were some labels to differentiate between weapons and tools, or ammunition and enhancements, but the sheer number of options on hand opened up almost limitless possibilities for her. And to boot, it was a pretty large room, too. She had to wonder if this was some form of reward for exceeding expectations back in the simulation she’d fought through… The items on offer certainly lent themselves to that idea.
Walking into the middle of the room, Mu began assessing weapons and armor that she might be able to equip. She noticed that some of them appeared to be grouped according to tier in a way, making her wonder just how all the equipment had been tested and ranked. Then, once she picked up a few of the heavier-looking weapons, she glanced down at herself. Oh, bother. In her excitement, she’d forgotten that she could only carry a certain number of weapons or wear a certain number of pieces of armor. That put a bit of a damper on the options available to her. She’d have to come back to those for a more thorough analysis soon enough, for when she checked on the rest of the room, more options awaited.
On the other side of the room, she noted that a lot of the things on offer appeared to be enhancements of various kinds. Some of them appeared to be more like a form of runic magic or enchantment, while other enhancements were more like mechanical systems she could install into herself. Still other enhancements appeared to be possibly compatible with some of the weapons she’d seen, maybe even with the armor she’d been interested in. As for the ammunition that got paired up with the enhancements categorically, she reasoned that most of the ammo linked up to specific guns back on the other side of the room. Although, which guns took which type of ammo? She couldn’t tell just by looking, so she’d have to ask about that, but who could she ask? Walker certainly wouldn’t know. Maybe that AI she’d seen floating around would have the information she needed, if she could just find the AI in the first place. For now, she’d just have to inspect the physical enhancements.
One of the enhancements in particular caught her attention. It seemed to be a curious little power core of sorts, glowing a faint grey colour as she clutched it in one hand. She began turning the device over, hoping to find some indication of what it might do. All Mu could find was that strange symbol she’d seen from near the end of the simulation. The round circle, with a cross etched over it diagonally, the circle neat and the cross rough. What a strange symbol. She couldn’t fathom what it might mean, although one thing she could guess on was that it held an abundance of power. She could probably do with a bit of extra power, once she figured out what she’d be getting out of the deal. No use having power if it took over her mind, after all. Tempting as it was, admittedly, it could wait for a more opportune time.
Mu carefully searched around, picking and choosing some specific enhancements, weapons, and armor for her to consider using at a later time. Which ones, you might ask? Sadly, that is not up to me, the guy narrating this section, to decide. I am not remotely capable of figuring out the exact statistical balance of things, and even if I was and I felt confident enough with it, that’s outside my jurisdiction. Eventually, with items chosen, Mu left the room, headed off down a corridor, hopped into an empty room, and beamed back down to the battlefield. She felt something in her growing… Mu is filled with determination.
