Xaltwind
Ryik
Renose
Joshua Tamashii
Azure Bubbles
Shazamrock
Savo
Tortoise
AtomicNut
Sigma
and
Annabelle Irons
A collaboration between @Crusader Lord and @ERode
A voice. A familiar voice, carrying with it all the messy, complicated feelings. A painful voice, crossing through space to fill the mind with a language shared by humans, rather than the slicing tongue of a sword-god.
As the world blurred around her, Sammy’s tiger steed shooting through with impressive speed, the Knight of Rose narrowed her eyes, sensing the magical connection that kept the two of them bound even now. Her chains lived still, writhing and corrupted as they were, and through that, such a link could be created.
How invasive.
“Maiden, has the veil over your eyes finally been lifted?”
That voice...wasn’t the most pleasant one to hear echoing in her mind right now. It made the remaining part of her former right arm throb a bit more with each surfacing of pain just remembering…remembering what had happened to it. Her ignored pleas….desperate cries of others...being stabbed in the back by her own patron….it sent chills down her spine. All of it, all of that mess that had gone on, she hated it. And now the one she cared about most was in danger, and she was dying, and the city was going to be potentially destroyed if not the actual planet potentially.
’Agh!....I believe so- hah, AH!!!’
Stupid brain, letting the sounds of her pain leak over in these messages. Stupid her, for letting things go this far and not trying to stop this sooner...but she couldn’t fuss about it now. She could only try to move forward, gritting her teeth to get this far. She couldn't relent.
Not with everything that was at stake.
’...My patron led me on, and did so to everyone he could to get to this point.
And...and i had no idea what he was really up to. I just...i just wanted to help people. He’d never done things like this b-before now.
...I wanted...i wanted to be friends with you, even…i’ve been so alone....’
The words slipped off of her lips as the old situation came to her mind. It hurt to admit it, however, but she soon tried to get back on track. The stupid pain was wracking her mind enough still, took a lot to focus properly at that.
’I wasn’t meant...AGH!!!....to be his m-magical girl. I was his first attempt to make an...an avatar.
B-But my boss, h-he’s right now trying to incarnate into the body of a magical girl he had stolen and prepared.
A-And if he succeeds...the city, the world even, m-might not survive t-the ritual...’
“In the end, Horrors are merely Horrors, huh?”
An involuntary thought, transmitted to another’s mind as easily as breathing. The pain of another shot through her as easily as if it were her own, and Amaryllis set her lips into a tight line. The end of the world, huh. With so many incidents occurring in the same city, over and over again, how has the world not yet fallen prey to any of these undying celestial scourges?
Because humanity, as collectives, as individuals, refused to keel over.
“I cannot be your friend, Annabelle. But I certainly should have tried harder to slap you awake. Before it came down to this.”
Her heart roared, her blood sang, her mind bloomed.
“For that, I apologize.”
A sword of silver to vanquish all the evils of the world. A god in her hands, guiding her to the pinnacle of bladeskill. A mighty steed, a companion with a set of powers she’d never have. And now, a maiden, pure of heart, clear of eyes, to illuminate the path within grotesque shadows.
“So guide me. How can I save you?”
Time to try harder.
’Ha….ah…m-maybe you have reasons for that, but y-you can’ tell a girl….she can’t try to make a friend out of you….haha- AH!!!
A vain attempt at humor, or to sound better off than she was.
Truth be told, she wouldn’t argue with what the Rose Knight had let slip. Soth...he had always been the same, she supposed. They all were the same...heh….took too long to get to this point though. Too long for her, maybe too late even.
’Ah...hah...i-if you can get to the crypt in the graveyard...i can let one or two people in before S-Soth stops me. M-Maybe. B-But Regina and E-Elroy are defending, a-and its dark. I-I-I...have an idea to t-try to handle that, w-while we have this connection going.
...B-Boss, h-he’s draining my life, to b-bring his new avatar to l-life before he gets into it. B-But the chains that make my new right arm….that’s my magic a-alone. W-We...we can use it t-to try to fight back...interrupt things….if i...can get some h-help in here.’
“On the sword of my soul, the flower of my heart, deliverance shall doubtlessly descend upon you. For now, stay strong and stay silent.”
The Knight of Rose smiled, despite the nearing calamity. Drawing into her magic, seeping through the connection the two had, she regained power over a very small portion of the chains that made up Annabelle’s arm. Glistening threads grew through corrupted metal, weaving together to form a silver clover.
Her token, her assurance, her compass.
“I’ll make it on time. Don’t worry about it.”
’Heh...y-you have a good sense of t-timing with t-that….AH!!!
..ah..hah....Just t-tell me when you...get t-to the barrier...or R-Regina...’
Another wave of intense pain rippled through the darkness magical girl’s body, causing her to nearly bite her tongue as she tried to avoid screaming. The touch of the small, tiny silver clover being somewhat comforting...and frankly perhaps lucky since it seemed to have four leaves to her eyes. It almost elicited a beleaguered laugh from the mindbent magical girl by just thinking about it, before another sharp pain hit and she let out a small scream within the ritual room’s stone walls.
None of the crawling horrors paid her any mind, however, as they continued about their business. It took a few silent minutes before the girl communicated again, however.
’....H-Have you ever…fallen in love with someone before, A-Amaryllis?’
“The whims of Aphrodite have yet to chance upon my heart, Maiden,” Amaryllis replied, slightly baffled. “Has that demon boy become the apple of your eye?”
Despite the pain she was in, a low chuckle could be heard from Annabelle over the mental link.
’N-No...not him….ah….
...she’s b-beautiful to me, a-at l-least, i suppose.’
She couldn’t ever recall another looking at her like that, or hearing of such from Regina herself. Not anyone in this world before she was a magical girl, nor ever since. It it wasn’t right, but...at the same time was it so selfish to want to be that first person to see her like such?
’...S-She’s someone hurt by...by the cruel w-world so much....s-she b-became a monster….
...y-yet she shines like a s-star t-to me, u-under the moonlit sky….AH!!!’
Like a crescent moon hanging in the sky, she could look at her forever. Heh...
...Perhaps she was being nostalgic, sappy to a fault, but maybe she liked it...maybe she liked those feelings those images in her mind gave her. Images of a girl who at that moment made it seems like everything really wasn’t so bad in this world. Dreams of a happy future, even, where nothing else mattered anymore.
’She is a-afraid t-to touch others...and b-by doing s-so has hurt s-so many....but her hands are so soft, l-like p-precious silk…
And that s-smile s-she has when she’s t-truly happy...it’s more r-radiant than the s-un, a-and more fascinating t-than all the stars in the sky…
Annabelle felt a few tears rolling down her cheeks. Perhaps...some of this was because her mind had been bent. Maybe she was desperate.
...But thats glimpse of what some might call “heaven”, at least to her, was more valuable than all the riches of the world.
’E-Even...even if o-others h-hate her forever f-for her sins…e-e-even if t-they c-curse my name for mine…..ARGH!!!...
….i c-can’t h-help but want to protect that s-smile f-forever…e-even if it costs me...my very l-life…
The secondhand embarrassment was unreal.
And the danger in those words was even greater.
Enough so that Amaryllis needed to take a step back.
“Annabelle, stop. Don’t confess these feelings to someone uninvolved, cause I’m not going to tell her this if you die, ok?” Too much of a burden for a loveless swordwielder, too much of a burden for anyone to carry the love of someone from beyond the grave. “So just sit tight and wait till you can say it in her face instead.”
There was a pause, and then Amaryllis let out an asymmetrical smile, equally diabolic, equally sympathetic.
“And no hero in all of mankind has managed to protect the smile of a beloved by using their own life. Self-sacrifice is just self-satisfaction for the weak...and referencing the stars during a moonlit night is a bad metaphor too, cause starlight is oft dimmed by Luna’s fair gaze. Just so you’re aware. Survive this and go read Shakespeare, Maiden.”
...Wait.
Wait.
WAIT!
WAIT JUST A SECOND HERE!!!
’UUUUUUUUUUUUUWWWWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!’
The void-touched magical girl's embarrassment rang out from her on all fronts, snapping her out of the pained yet increasingly romantic mindset she had been falling gradually into just a minute ago. Unintentionally she’d even let images slip through...t-though the m-mental link…..maybe she could just die now, yes? Just have them tear the rest of her life and magic out of her and put her out of her misery.
But by the Abyss, the raw blush and panic on her face was greater than the sum of all embarrassed anime girls combined. Or so it felt like, at least, to the utterly mortified Annabelle.
Even a few of the lesser horrors wandering the ritual site gave her strange, and ultimately very confused, looks. At least, before going on their business once more.
However, the situation itself was still rather serious despite the moment itself. This city, Regina, Amaryllis, and the world itself were in danger here because a Horror wanted to have an avatar and incarnate into the world. A Greater Horror who had as much of an understanding of mortal life as a slice of bread understood the complexities of a cat’s mind.
It was enough to help her sober back up after a few minutes of writhing in the most awkward manner. She couldn’t close the mental link either, as she had to stay in contact with Amaryllis. But there was one thing the darkness magical girl agreed with: She needed to say all of this to Regina...and maybe read some Shakespeare apparently, whoever he was.
