Adah and Iris flew side-by-side across the battlefield, gathering both of their teams into a defensive formation at a great distance from the two Cruelties. This posture would allow the monsters to advance farther past the interception point, but would give the teams some much needed space to strategize. They just couldn’t give up too much space.
“Okay, Heartbreak,” Iris said in a sickly sweet voice, “By process of elimination, you must be the brains of your team. So what’s your plan?”
At this distance, the turtle’s eyestalks gave up on casting any light upon the teams. Whatever reaction Iris’s words might have baited out of Rika or the twins was shrouded by shadow. That was probably for the best.
“Up close, the rolling one seems like it can sense us,” Adah said. “But when we’re farther away, it relies on the light beams. Our goal has to be destroying those eyes.”
Ekki floated in the middle of Adah and Iris, looking back and forth between them.
“My spells are useless for that—it hides as soon as it sees me coming,” he said. “What about your—”
“No,” Iris shot down his idea before he even finished. “It’s too early. This has to end that way.”
Ekki stared into her eyes, perhaps trying to see past the shadows. Adah looked at her, too—the way she phrased her denial was odd. Too odd for Adah to understand. Ekki, however, was swayed by whatever he saw in Iris’s half-hidden face.
“Fine,” he said, then turned to Clair. “Can you sleep them? Or slow them down at all?”
Clair hovered by Iris’s mascot, who was present as always. She scratched the cat behind the ears, the tattoo on the back of her hand glowing against its fur.
“I can’t get inside,” she said. “There’s no door.”
Her word choice was odd as well, though probably for a different reason than Iris. Adah had found no information on the mechanics of Sweetdream Soulslip’s spells beyond the obvious. In fact, the names of her spells weren’t even publicly known. She could make Cruelties drowsy, or even completely knock out weak ones, but how she did it was a mystery. This talk about a door certainly didn’t clear things up.
“I can snipe them if I get a second to breathe,” Rika spoke up. “But with that light on me, I can’t see a thing.”
“And you’d wind up impaled,” Adah added.
“That too.”
“Protection’s not a problem,” Iris said. “You can prime your shot inside my flower. I’ll take good care of you in there.”
“The problem is I need to be able to aim,” Rika said. “Unless those petals are see-through, it’s no good.”
Iris sighed dramatically and looked to Ekki for sympathy, but he feigned ignorance and acted as though he was keeping an eye on the Cruelties.
“Don’t be so self-centered, my diva,” Iris mocked. “You don’t need to see a thing. Clair will whisper to you.”
“Whisper?” Emi joined the conversation, taking the opportunity to look over at Clair.
Iris flashed a wicked smile, relishing in yet another secret the DreamRise members kept between themselves.
“It may be uncomfortable at first, but you’ll just have to deal with it. You’ll see what you need to see, so just focus on landing your shot. I’ll drop my shield when it’s time.”
The confidence behind Iris’s words—along with the fact she advanced toward the Cruelties without waiting for a response—left little room for debate. Adah scrambled to issue some secondary orders for the twins. She still wasn’t sure how this tactic would play out in practice, so she told them to stay mobile and focus on grabbing the attention of as many of the eyestalks as they could. As for herself, Iris made that decision for her.
“Stay near me,” Iris said, grabbing Adah’s hand and pulling her along as they flew to the Cruelties. “I may need you two if this goes poorly.”
On her other side, Ekki had already positioned himself close by. He looked properly knightly now as he flew a step ahead of his queen with a stony look on his face. Since Iris was handling Rika’s protection, Adah put aside her reservations and allowed herself to be dragged along as well. What exactly would Iris need her for, though?
A short burst of flying later, they were back in range of the eyestalks’ vision. The searchlights immediately began hunting, and Ami and Emi happily offered themselves up as particularly elusive targets. Strange as it was to think, Adah was thankful that the twins put themselves so close to danger. The idea of leaving Rika hanging in the air like bait still didn’t sit well with her.
She said nothing of those fears to Rika, however. The other girl needed a clear mind to land her shot. Otherwise, they’d all be in danger.
“Everything clear on your end?” Iris called back to Clair, who had remained back where the searchlights couldn’t reach her. She floated far overhead the rest of them, observing the battlefield like it was a game playing out before her.
“Ready,” Clair confirmed.
Iris turned to Rika, who readied herself to the left of their trio, and said, “Start whenever you’d like. I’ll cover you once the light spots you. And one last thing: I’d recommend closing your eyes before Clair whispers. That makes it a little less scary.”
Rika shot a glance to Adah. She, in return, gave a slow nod. If they were going to attempt this, they had to trust in the DreamRise members and in Iris’s confidence. If nothing else, it’d be a good chance for reconnaissance on some of their more mysterious abilities.
Slowly, the crimson light around Rika grew in intensity. The unoccupied eyestalk noticed this almost immediately, and snapped to stare at Rika’s position in the sky. The blinding searchlight shot out of its eye and, in the same moment, Iris cast her [Bulwark Bud] around Rika’s body. The girl and her magic aura vanished behind the petals. Without any time to spare, a spiked bullet ricocheted off the shield.
Then the world went strangely silent, as if the wind, the wildlife, and even the Cruelties had stopped to listen for a sound so faint that even breathing could drown it out. The searchlights still chased after the twins, spiked bullets still shot into the air, and the world carried on as normal. Yet, a disturbing stillness had been introduced to the scene.
Above it all, Clair’s lips moved silently, suppressing all other noise. There was indeed a sound hiding away somewhere—perhaps whatever words Clair whispered—but it cloaked itself in the shadows of a tree trunk or sunk out of sight behind a row of bushes, and Adah could not make it out. A nauseating anxiety welled up in her gut as the disconnect between her different senses expanded and she slipped further into derealization.
Just when she felt overwhelmed by the urge to shut her own eyes, a line of red light erupted from the bud shield and shot toward the turtle Cruelty. As always, the railgun appeared all at once, as though it had always existed. In the time it took Adah to trace its trail, the shot had already annihilated its target. Rika had found the perfect angle of attack—the light pierced not one but two eyestalks, striking with such force that the appendages were simply erased from existence.
The night turned darker with two fewer eyestalks scanning the sky, like someone had flipped off a light switch in an adjacent room. The last remaining eye had been tracking Emi, but instantly retreated inside the turtle’s shell once the others were destroyed.
Free from the bud, Rika regrouped with Adah. The two of them spoke quickly while the twins and Clair made their own ways back.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“What exactly just happened?” Adah asked in a whisper low enough only Rika could hear.
The other girl shook her head. “I don’t know. She was talking to me, but I couldn’t hear any of it. Or like I wasn’t hearing it, like if you left the TV on while you were falling asleep. I can’t explain it. Even though my eyes were closed, I started seeing things—probably whatever she was seeing.”
As everyone else returned, they silently agreed to talk more after the mission. From the way Rika described it, it sounded like whatever spell Clair had cast was designed to be used on other magical girls. Like it was a transfer of some kind.
“Okay,” a sharp call from Iris cleared the air. “Now it’s your turn to play support. Which one of you has the chains?”
Ami floated forward as a wordless answer.
“Then Raindrop will tie up the rolling Cruelty so Ekki has space to take out the turtle,” Iris started dishing out commands.
“I’m Dewdrop,” Ami said.
“Dewdrop, Raindrop, Amy, Emily—it’s all the same,” Iris said, flapping her hand around. “The loud one goes for the armadillo, the quiet one goes with Ekki for the turtle. Clair and I will cover you.”
“Do you still want me with you?” Adah asked. There had been more than a little urgency in the way Iris had grabbed her hand earlier. Though she wasn’t sure what Iris needed her for, the other captain had clearly felt strongly about it.
But apparently not anymore.
“Not even a little,” Iris said, and flew off.
Adah turned to Ami and shrugged. “Guess I’m with you then.”
“Petals of Ass,” Ami spat. “Is that any good?”
“Keep workshopping it.”
Putting their sour feelings aside, the two duos launched a synchronized assault on their target Cruelties.
Ami and Adah’s job was simple now: without needing to dodge any spiked bullets, the pair could swoop in at whatever angle they liked to poke at the rolling Cruelty. The monster was “aggressively mobile,” sure, but lacked any real ability to do damage in more than one direction without its targeting system. The best it could do was spin around in search of the girls, then try to roll through them. Such a straightforward attack was easily evaded. In fact, Adah even had enough leeway to charge and launch a [Nightwind Whip] at the monster before it could strike back. Ami used the damage the whip caused to fly in and stake three chains into the ground with her [Frigid Fetter], completely immobilizing the Cruelty and disabling the last form of aggression it had.
Meanwhile, Ekki sought an angle to strike at the turtle’s core. Just like its animal equivalent, its underbelly was surely its weak point. The question was how to expose that belly—a question that Emi wasted no time in answering.
This was the perfect occasion to show off her [Raging Ripples] spell, something Adah had worried would only have a chance to shine during low-rank missions. Emi slammed the ground in front of the turtle, and the spell’s shockwaves knocked the Cruelty off its front legs. The force wasn’t strong enough to flip the monster completely, but it sent the front of the turtle airborne long enough for Ekki to rush in and cast his second spell: [Freezing Fog]. The spell functioned similarly to Ami’s chains, though Ekki left behind a trail of fog rather than water. When he clenched his fist, the fog crystallized into ice shards that sliced through the turtle’s belly and punctured its core. It faded into nothingness, that last hidden eyestalk being the last remnant to vanish from this world.
With the danger of the lights totally eliminated, the last puzzle to figure out was determining the most effective way to deal with the spiked Cruelty. Once both teams regrouped nearby, Adah started to brainstorm some ideas aloud.
“Since it’s locked in place, then we can—”
“Don’t trouble yourself,” Iris interrupted her. “Your job’s done, so please stand back.”
“What’s your fucking problem?” Ami shouted at her. At this point in the night, nothing Adah could say would reel Ami’s frustration back in. Not that she even felt like trying. Iris had been poking the bear all night; she deserved to get mauled a bit.
Iris, however, ignored the outburst and flew higher in the air. Her teammates must have known what she intended, as they followed right behind her without a word. Rika and the twins looked to Adah for a sense of what they should do next, but she truly wasn’t sure. Insults aside, she wanted to see what Iris had planned. The girl’s words from before resurfaced in Adah’s mind: this has to end that way.
They were about to find out what that meant.
[Fleur-de-lis]
Iris spoke a spell name Adah had seen no mention of during any of her research on DreamRise. Other than a renewed yellow glow around Iris’s body, nothing seemed to happen after the spell was cast.
Oddly though, Ekki and Clair turned toward Iris and crouched like they had dropped to one knee. They were still flying, but clearly mimicking a knight’s pledge. As they did so, the magic aura around Iris grew brighter much in the same way Rika’s railgun powered up. However, this magic very quickly surpassed any amount Adah had seen Rika produce—far surpassed.
It was obvious, even understanding nothing else about the spell, that Iris’s magic had exceeded any limit it should have been bound by. The energy accumulating in her body completely ignored an FP level. Something other than magic radiated from her body as well, something deeply unnerving. She became human-like in the same way Cruelties were animal-like. The shape and features of a human were present, but Adah couldn’t help but feel the entity before her was something she should run from.
Of course, she had to be human. She was the same Iris as before.
Yet, it was as though she had become a vessel for something inhuman.
When the power around Iris reached its peak, she pointed at the spiked Cruelty in the distance. She slowly turned her head to face toward Adah. The two of them made eye contact, and Iris winked. Then she pointed her finger to the sky.
The ground beneath the Cruelty split open, forming a canyon as black as the void. A great pillar of yellow light rushed out of the chasm, piercing through the center of the monster as easily as a drill through drywall. It happened so fast that the sound of it, a rumbling like a train coming from farther down the tracks, didn’t reach Adah’s ears until after the Cruelty was fully impaled. The monster was halfway dissipated by that point.
With the attack completed, the top of the pillar opened up, blooming in a matter of seconds into a fully realized image of flower petals. The light stayed there for a few seconds more, a monument to Iris’s power. The magic lit up the whole field as though it was daytime before eventually fading first into a shimmering afterglow and finally into darkness once more.
Ekki and Clair made themselves upright again, and the DreamRise trio flew down past Adah and her team.
“Be careful, princess,” Iris said to Adah as she passed. “You’re going to look starstruck for the cameras.”
Once the DreamRise members had gone by, Adah shook herself out of her daze and led her own team down toward the group of reporters who had wasted no time in rushing onto the scene.
“What the hell was that?” Rika asked as they flew.
“All their spells are weird,” Adah said, “but that…”
“They were sharing magic,” Emi said, the words sounding almost like a question.
That seemed the most logical explanation. Rika’s description of Clair’s magic matched with that as well. It was like they were transferring magic not from mascot to human but from one human to another.
It should have been impossible, but what other explanation was there?
On the ground, every reporter had already surrounded Iris. A couple crews had fitted their cameras with light panels that shone from atop tripods, looking scarily similar to the turtle’s blinding eyestalks. As expected, the first round of questions were entirely about Iris’s showstopper spell.
“Did you unlock this spell only recently? Why haven’t we seen it before?”
“What role do your teammates play in casting this new spell?”
“Does this mean you’ve advanced beyond the FP threshold for the IndieMagie?”
Iris held up her hands and blushed, which silenced the questions. Adah couldn’t tell if she’d planned that as well—everything this girl did looked simultaneously practiced and spontaneous.
“I promise I’m still well below the threshold,” glancing down for a moment as though embarrassed. “A spell like that one is only possible because of my teammates. What you saw was the result of combining a knight’s strength and a dreamer’s imagination. I’m just lucky to be supported by these two.”
She looked first at Clair, then at Ekki—just a beat longer and with just a bit more allure.
A reporter broke whatever mood she intended to create by asking another question. “Is this what the Secretary of Magic meant when he talked about the ‘unchained underground?’”
The question was so stupid even Iris struggled to hide her annoyance. Still, her voice came out as sweet as ever.
“Just a funny coincidence,” she said.
Finally, questions came that Sunbright might get a say in answering.
“How did you feel about your first K-Rank mission? What did you learn from working with another team?”
Or so Adah thought, but every camera and microphone remained pointed at Iris. Even her own teammates didn’t get a word in, not that they seemed to mind. Clair and Ekki stood just behind Iris: the former looking bored and the latter wearing just the tiniest smile.
“Easy peasy,” Iris said with a wink. “With these girls by our side, there was nothing to worry about. They’re full of fighting spirit—they really liven up the battlefield. Is it bad to say I had fun?”
She ended with a giggle, and all the news crew laughed with her. Adah could puke. Despite the obvious opening to expand the interview to include Adah and her team, another question popped up for Iris as soon as the laughter died out.
“Did I miss it,” Rika whispered in Adah’s ear, “or have they not asked us anything?”
“Didn’t miss a thing,” Adah said back. “Looks like the media has picked their favorite horse in this race.”
Or maybe they were told who to pick.
If the regional government was willing to prop up two specific teams in the first round of voting, then surely they had one in mind to promote during the second. They were laying the groundwork for that already. Spotlight Sunbright was being allowed to share the stage with DreamRise for now, but maybe they’d be kicked to the side as soon as the first round of voting concluded. After all, one of their teams had to lose in the second round no matter what.
DreamRise had the Secretary’s stamp of approval, and Iris looked ready to claim the nomination already.
Yet, a plan like that would only work if Sunbright stayed passive and played along, and Adah had no intention of letting that happen. Who better than Twilight Heartbreak to cause a little disruption?
