Corpse March

Chapter 5

“Flame Bolt”

Haru’s walking towards her from the other side of the hallway, a smug grin on her face and her arm held out in front of her as she fires off flame bolt after flame bolt. So she did learn something in the end. Her incantation is calm, clear, commanding and the resulting spell bends to her will. It does not zig-zag or ricochet, it simply flies straight and true. Kuroko runs the numbers in her head. This isn’t the kind of low-level spell that can be countered. If she doesn’t move, then Haru will close the gap then she’s forced to fight both her and the Vice President in close combat. There have been times that she’s been able to take down Haru in less than a second but that was just sparring. She’ll have to think of another play. 

“Net.”

She conjures a thin web of wire between her and the flame bolts. It’s not enough to hold up against an entire barrage, but it will suffice to buy her an inch of space. Just enough to get away from the recovering vice president. By the time the flames manage to melt the web, she’s gained enough space that she can evade them with ease. She vaults over the first one, slides under the second, and wraps the third one in wire before throwing it back at Haru with her mouth. 

Haru lifts her ax, using its sheer size to shield her body from the reflected spell. She raises her hand again, ready to unleash another barrage but a hissing noise interrupts her. Behind Kuroko, the pair of double doors slide open to reveal an entire mountain range of white steel. The light pouring in through the windows sparkles as it bounces off of their armor.

Hulking beasts inside metal pupae. One by one, light flashes around their hands as they summon their weapons. Scythes, hammers, swords, knives and guns, or things that resemble them, spring into existence. They clench it with purpose, promising to reap, crush, slash, and kill anything in their way. If Haru squints, she can make out the vague suggestion of a smile on Kuroko’s face. The ball is in her court now. 

“We have to go. Now.”

Haru leans down to help the vice president up onto her feet but she does not break eye contact from the rolling thunder for even a moment. The vice president looks at her, incredulous, as though she’s just now learning about the concept of retreat. A near silent click rises above the sea of crashing thunder. The two juggernauts in front raise their guns. Or at least, they hold them like guns, the devices only have the vague suggestion of a stock and a barrel, other than that, their right angles and flat sides look nothing like any gun she’s ever seen before. Her wonder is interrupted by a whirring, followed by a Chirping. Like thousands of crickets. That’s the sound that the Magitech weapons make as they unleash hail upon hail of blue lightning.

Guard!

The sound of the spell manifesting translates from a vague thought contained within her head into a visible set of concentric circles that look like they’re made of mercury. They splutter into existence just in time to weather the storm. She curses herself for mentally incanting so weakly. As though it sensed her fear, the resulting spell is only as thick as her courage. That is to say, a pane of glass. Thankfully, even in a weakened state, even filled with cracks, even against a relentless tide, it manages to hold. 

“We should go.”

The Vice Prez says something stupidly obvious. 

“You think?!”

Haru slowly backs away like she’s retreating from a wild animal. Only it’s not a wild animal but instead an advancing tide of steel, framed by bolts of light as plentiful as the stars in the night sky. She starts sweating. The strain of keeping the shield active only gets worse and worse as the shield sustains more and more damage.

“Do you have a plan?”

“Yes, getting out of this facility alive was step four!”

“Did you have a plan to do that?”

“Er…”

“I suppose I can’t complain…”

“The hell’s that supposed to mean?!”

“It means I have to be the one to come up with a plan.”

She says it without a shred of malice or disappointment. Okay, maybe a shred of disappointment but no more than that. 

“Done.”

“Done? Already? That was qui–”

Suddenly, she wraps Haru in a giant bear hug. Blood rushes to her face, turning her face into a tomato. It’s only now that she feels just how large the height difference between them actually is. She can feel the Vice President’s… unspeakables pressed up right against her face. Though, strangely enough, it happens so quickly that she gains no pleasure from it. She curses her brain. 

“Huh.”

One second, she’s in the hallway, the next second there’s the sound of a tremendous crash, like the sound of glass being shattered. It takes her one more second to realize that glass actually is being shattered. It seems that the Vice Prez just jumped out the window. And it seems that she’s taking Haru with her. 

“HUH?!”

“Calm down, this is all according to plan–”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

There’s an instant where the full majesty of the facility reveals itself to her. More expansive than a city, more lavish than the Versailles. A complex made of lines upon lines upon lines upon a flat plane dotted by anti air guns and rimmed by guard towers. Though this facility technically has a radius of several kilometers, most of it is underground. The only thing that’s actually above ground are its defenses and the gigantic skyscraper that serves as the Monarchs’ base of operations. Miles upon miles of this facility is devoted to just containing Papilio. As to exactly what the Papilio even are, Haru has to admit that not even she knows what they are exactly. All she knows is that they’re what allows the Monarchs to speed through their research so quickly. They are an enduring mystery to her. It’s a pity she couldn’t stick around longer. She really wanted to figure out what they were. Her regret is so great that she forgets that she’s screaming in terror for a moment. 

“WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?”

“It’s not as if I walked into the trap without a plan. I told others about me going before I was captured. Help should be coming any second now.”

“YOU DIDN’T BOTHER CHECKING FIRST?”

“I have faith.”

“DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING THAT CAN KEEP ME ALIVE, MAYBE?”

“Let me check.” 

She earnestly checks her pockets.

“Nope.”

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

The Vice Prez opens her mouth to throw out another probably equally useless idea but nothing comes out. Something freezes her tongue. It can only be one of two things. Either it’s the Monarchs pointing their guns at them through the windows or the distant sound of something exploding. Curiously, the sound seems to coincide with what seems to be an approaching cruise missile. Or at least, the burning purple light looks like the blazing end of a cruise missile. However, cruise missiles usually have burn trails and aren’t purple. Haru manages to snap herself out of her panic momentarily to get a better look at what exactly that thing is. She squints, only to have her entire vision colonized by the purple light. One moment, she’s falling down, the next, she’s falling sideways. It feels like her leg snagged on something. Or, more likely, something grabbed onto her leg. Haru flails her head wildly, trying to figure out what just happened. It takes her a moment before she finally looks down. It’s hard to make out anything through the blur but it looks like a girl riding a flying broomstick. She rubs her eyes and yes, it’s still there. Even more bizarrely, she isn’t sitting on the broom like a witch, she’s standing on it, like she’s snowboarding. 

“Sorry to keep you waiting!”