The End Of The War

Vienna, Austria

With a mighty blow, a metal curtain opened, the sound of gunfire raged in the distance, alarm sirens screamed at the living to seek shelter. And as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over my head, I immediately stood up completely disoriented, the light burning in my eyes, my body numb, feeling quite cold, struggling even to try to walk, clumsily hitting the ground. With great effort I try to stand up and observe what the hell is happening around me.

Once again, all I could see were streets in ruins and columns of smoke in the distance. But this time it's not the coastal city that I see, but the remains of an older city. There's no spring green and no midday sun, just snow, the cold surrounding me again, and the night with its strong moonlight, as if I'd gone back in time. I can see several Alliance soldiers moving north; it looks like they're heading for a large white neoclassical building with huge gardens that have been turned into trenches. It was easy to see that it was the Austrian parliament building, and through the columns you could see the remnants of the Empire's flags. I couldn't believe it; we were really on the verge of ending the war.

With this thought in mind, I remember the words I heard in my dream. But before I have a chance to think about what I have done, an explosion occurs close to where I am, and I am thrown several meters and fall amidst various debris; the pain I feel is real, as real as the war that surrounds me. I try to get up quickly to fight and stay alive. In the distance, I manage to see a very strange red flag flying proudly on a building that I remembered as a hotel, despite the poor state of the entire city. I remembered the words that told me to go to the basement to be safe, so I set off immediately, not having a better plan.

Getting there was not without its problems. When an Empire machine gun nest unexpectedly began firing at a squad of soldiers walking across the street, Alliance soldiers returned fire almost immediately, and in the middle of it all was me, dragging myself on the ground to get ahead and avoid the shots. I had no weapon to defend myself; all I could do was move forward and take cover. Advancing a few streets became a true odyssey of courage and patience, but somehow I managed to avoid confrontation and make it to the entrance of the hotel.

Back in the building, recovering and trying to calm down a bit, I finally realize the predicament I'm in. Near me are the remains of a mirror I used to look at myself in.

Once again, I didn't recognize myself in the mirror. Instead, a white girl was staring into my eyes, Namami's face close to mine, and all I could do was be afraid when I saw her. Anxiously, I looked down at my feet, only to be completely stopped by two massive mountains. I turn around and try to look at my rear, but a huge white tail also makes the task difficult. There was no other way to see it; it was clear what had happened. I was trapped inside Nanami's little body once again. The albino fox girl was the Alliance's secret weapon against the DOLLS, and what was worse, I had become her. The only good thing about all this was that I could see the Codex Crystal tied to one of my two hair ornaments, so I wouldn't have to search for it.

But while I was still processing what had happened, a concerned voice called out to me from a hallway.

"Cesar! Over here!"
"Hurry, come! We don't have much time!" were the words spoken by a strange silhouette in the darkness.

"!!!!"
"It can't be! Momo?"
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"This place is very dangerous! You can't be here!" I said, worriedly recognizing the girl of glass who was hiding.

"I already know that!"
"But getting you out of here is important! The C.S.S. needs a capable engineer and I thought about helping you."

"Momo, you are the least qualified person for this that I know."
"Don't you freeze when there are problems?"

"I KNOW!"
"I'm doing this because I have my reasons, okay?"
"Now come here quickly, we don't have much time."

Worried about the poor angel's situation, I followed her down the stairs until we reached an abandoned room in the basement, where there was a chair and a messenger bag with tools that Momo had put on. She invited me to sit down and turned on a flashlight, starting to inspect the strange collar around my neck.

"Just as I thought."
"The Alliance uses the collar as a security device to control you."
"It has a tracking device, a powerful sedative injector and a bomb."
"Don't worry, it's within what I expected, I can handle it."
"That antenna there amplifies the communication signals, so we can pretend you're still within range of their mission."
"I'll leave the GPS to throw them off and confuse the Alliance command."
"As for the bomb, please hold your breath for a moment and pray."

"That's it? Sounds pretty simple, actually."
"Did you really come all the way here just for that?"

"'This is actually the easy part."
"The real challenge is the escape."
"Just a few blocks from here, in the basement of the Austrian parliament building, there's a portal similar to the ones the angels use."
"I need to get to it and modify it with our coordinate system so I can use it to get you out of here to a place where they can never follow you again.
"And then destroy the device with explosives."
"That's what that bag is for, it contains the parts I need."

"Wait a minute, I think I just heard about an almost suicidal plan in the works."

"For a moment, I heard something ridiculous about trying to sneak through the front lines, into the trenches where the Empire's resistance is making its last stand, and somehow give you about 30 minutes while you repair the machine that will get us out of here, all while carrying a briefcase full of explosives on your back."

"........."
"I didn't say anything about carrying the briefcase during the trip."

"Can you tell me the name of your supervisor and the clown who approved the mission?"

"It's the only way we can rescue you."
"Maybe you don't know because you've been asleep for the last 9 months, but you've been under extreme surveillance."
"We've been planning and rehearsing this for almost 3 months."
"Don't worry, half of the Empire soldiers in the parliament are our own agents; they'll turn a blind eye if we go through there."

"And what about the other half?"
"Don't they find it strange to see a crystal statue of a naked girl running in the middle of a war zone?"

"........"
"They won't be alive tomorrow."

"And we may not make it through the afternoon."

"Come on, I'm standing next to the great Cesar, the survivor."
"This is the natural habitat of such an incredible, legendary monster."
"I'm sure he'll protect me without a problem."
"Besides, he's not my only card; I've been planning this for three months."
"Ta-da! With these bad boys, we can go on ignoring them when they shoot at us!"
"Here I have two state-of-the-art energy shield generators from the C.S.S., and I even modified them for extra power!"

*Crash*

"Here I have one state-of-the-art energy shield generator that will get me out of this mess."
"Good luck, Cesar, you'll need it to survive."
"You're on your own in this one."

Yes, I imagined something like this would happen, knowing the background of my luck. Once again I would have to improvise on the fly if I wanted to get out of the strange mess I had somehow gotten myself into alive, by the way THE BOSS decided to revive me. Momo went back to work, carefully removing the collar, while outside the sound of artillery and its explosions made the ground shake. It seemed that the attack was on what was left of the city's power supply, because after the explosions the lights went out, leaving everything in darkness. Shortly after, I felt a strange stabbing sensation in my neck and saw the collar break into two pieces and fall to the ground at my feet.

"Oh no! No! No!"
"This is bad," Momo said, taking a flashlight and inspecting the remains of my collar.

"What just happened and why is that bad?"

"The collar had an additional safety measure and due to the lack of light I accidentally triggered it."
"The sedative from the collar has just been administered."

"'That's bad.'"
"It's quite difficult to escape while I'm sleeping."

"Don't worry, I have something for emergencies."
"Take this injection."
"A shot of adrenaline will keep you awake."
"But it will only delay it for a few minutes, after that you'll have to sleep."

"How many of these shots do you have left?"

"I had two, now there's only one left."

"Really?"
"Then we have to go right away."
"What is this day? The day when everything goes wrong for César?"

The sound of the slowly opening door interrupted our conversation. Momo froze in panic, as still as the work of art she must have been. When I turned around, I saw a young Asian girl, well built, her black hair perfectly straight, suggesting an out-of-place personal care, like in a war zone, maybe just a little more than the exotic clothes she wore or her strange pale yellow eyes. In her hands she held two thin golden stilettos, almost needle-like, chained together, and her gaze reflected the cold and calm of a professional. This girl meant trouble, much more than the three heavy soldiers behind her.

"Ma'am, this is WarLady. I have located the target girl."
"She's right in front of me. I will proceed with the original plan."
"I will proceed with her elimination."

And just when everything was going wrong, more trouble arrived to prove that things can only get worse.

"Hey, I already have a tight schedule to keep."
"How about we reschedule our confrontation for another day with more time? How about next week?"

"!!!!"
"I didn't know Valkyria could talk, that wasn't in the report!"
"We have a problem! She's showing signs of high intelligence!"
"Open fire!" said the surprised Asian girl.

I could see the men behind her raise their weapons and aim to shoot. Behind me, Momo remained completely paralyzed with fear, and the shield generator she was so proud of lay on the ground, inactive. With her delicate glass body, it was easy to imagine that a single bullet hitting her could cause a tragedy. A tragedy for someone close to me, someone who had risked herself to help me in a moment of need, someone I didn't want to see suffer because of me. The sense of injustice enraged me; despite the initial traces of drowsiness, my anger was greater, my blood boiled with rage, and I could feel my eyes changing from their light blue color to a pure crimson red. But most importantly, I had to keep the poor angel girl out of harm's way. Taking a small step back, I called out a name, one I hadn't uttered in a long time for various reasons, but they didn't matter anymore if I wanted to save someone else.

"AVALON!" I shouted into the air.

And once again, my trusty sword answered the call of its master. Through a magical portal in the ground, it made its triumphant appearance to save another life. Although calling it a sword was not the correct way to refer to such a monstrous, uniquely designed piece of metal. Perhaps it had the shape of a great sword from some lost legend, but it was much more accurate to call it a giant shield due to the enormous width of its heavy blade, more than enough to protect both me and Momo from the gunfire by simply placing the sword perpendicular to the soldiers' weapons. The sounds of the bullets stopping abruptly or ricocheting everywhere except towards what was behind it, once again Avalon had fulfilled its sacred sworn duty of protecting its bearer, while the sharpness on the edges of its blade was nothing more than an extra addition that did not detract from its effectiveness.

"!!!!"
"What the hell is that? That thing came out of nowhere!"
"Don't just stand there! Shoot again!" I heard the other girl scream in surprise.

I could hear the sound of gun magazines hitting the ground as they reloaded before attacking again, which meant it was the perfect moment to counterattack and win. So I launched myself from the side of the large sword buried in the ground and sprinted full speed towards my enemies. Going for the soldier furthest to the right, I grabbed the barrel of his rifle and pushed it up toward the ceiling. Then, with my free hand, I punched him in the nose with all my strength, seemingly enough to knock him unconscious on the ground. But I wasn't done yet. Immediately, I crouched down and kicked the other soldier near him in the stomach with the force of my left feet, not enough to kill him, but enough to throw him off balance and steal his pistol. The assassin girl didn't wait any longer and lunged at me with two stabs from her weapons, but with my free hand I managed to deflect one while using my tail to entangle her and prevent her from touching me. Then it was only a matter of taking the pistol and pointing it at the girl's head, threatening the last soldier who had finished reloading.

"One more fucking move and the girl's brains will be on the wall!" I shouted menacingly.

"Stop! Stop it!"
"Let Xian go, she's innocent!"

"Innocent? Innocent of what?"
"Just look around the dumpster we're in."
"Isn't she your boss? What else would she be doing in a war zone?"

"You filthy brat! You think it's okay to have hostages?"
"You don't have the guts to shoot," said the soldier whose gun I now held.

The Asian girl kept trying to free herself skillfully, but I maintained pressure on her neck despite the pain from the bite she was inflicting. Seeing it was almost three against one, I decided to tip the scales in my favor and shot the unarmed soldier in the leg. He fell to the ground in great pain, but alive, for although we were now enemies, they were nothing more than soldiers following orders and trying to end the war. It would be a shame to die so close to victory for someone who had probably fought alongside me before. Unfortunately, my condition wasn't much better. My body was starting to feel heavier and less responsive, I was beginning to feel a fatigue I shouldn't have, the sedative was starting to show some of its effects despite the adrenaline injection.

"Damn bitch!" the girl whose neck I was holding screamed.

The remaining soldier hesitated what to do, he couldn't just shoot and risk the life of his superior or his comrades just because of a last second bad decision, and I could feel that doubt consuming his mind. Seizing the moment, I released the girl and gave her a strong kick in the back to send her towards the soldier. Instead, he dropped his weapon to try to save her, but that only made his situation worse as I stepped forward and quickly got behind him to hit him on the head, knocking him unconscious as well.

"Shit!"

The Asian girl grabbed her stilettos again and tried to attack me with them, but just as they hadn't worked the first time, they didn't work the next time either, as it was quite easy to simply turn my hands and deflect her attacks, even disarming them. Then I lunged at them, this time using a chokehold to make her faint from lack of air. The last man left was the one injured in the thigh, who tried to heal himself quickly and get out of there, but seeing that he was already out of danger from the bleeding, it was easier for me to hit him and take him out of the fight as well.

"Damn, I feel terrible."
"Momo, the danger has passed."
"Move your damn ass, we're leaving."

"!!!!"
"Oh! Yeah, sure, I'm coming! Right away!"

As if coming back to life, the beautiful crystal statue began to move again to gather her belongings. From her bag, she took out a huge yellow waterproof cape, which she put on to try to hide her transparent body with something perhaps much more eye-catching. Then she turned on her generator, and after seeing the unconscious men, she followed me on my way back to the main street, after taking care of returning my sword to the weird magical dimension it came from.

"Who were those people?"
"I thought the transponder I planted would fool the Alliance command."

"The girl was a professional assassin."
"While I was sleeping, I overheard a conversation about how they wanted to get rid of me very proactively."
"......"
"Ugh, shit, I don't feel good."
"I feel dizzy and sleepy."
"Also, my arm feels strange, it tingles."

Concerned about what I had just said, Momo approached me and tugged on my sleeve to check on me.

"!!!!"
"What the hell is this? Your arm is swelling up quite a bit, that's not normal."
"Could it be poisoned?"
"What the hell happened?"

"Poisoned... too?"
"I have no idea... what happened."
"Can you... do anything... about it?"

"I can apply a tourniquet to slow it down, but I don't have any medicine to treat poisoning."
"I can't give you painkillers because they might make you fall asleep even faster."
"But when we reach the portal, I can set the coordinates to jump to a hospital."
"They can surely treat you better than anything I can do."

"So... we need to... Continue."

"Wait, here, take the other injection."
"You're falling asleep."

"No... later... Still a lot... to go."

"No, it has to be now!"
"I'll find a way to make up for lost time!"
"For now, the important thing is that you don't fall asleep here!"

I could feel the prick of the needle in my neck jolting me awake as if someone had thrown cold water on me, but I could also feel the pain in my arm growing more and more, as if the extra effort in my body to stay awake was only spreading the mysterious poison further. In the distance, I could see the Parliament building and the battle between the Empire and the Alliance to capture it, and that was exactly where we needed to go at full speed to escape this strange chaos.

To say that we still had time was completely false; in fact, we were already late, so I took Momo's hand and carried her in my arms to run through the trenches of the garden and reach the inside of the building. On my way, I could tell that the angel was right when I saw a couple of Imperial soldiers throwing smoke grenades in my way and returning fire to allow me to pass with less difficulty; one of them even pointed out a small open window so that I could immediately enter the lower level. I couldn't believe that at least part of the plan had worked. Once inside, it was Momo herself who led me to one of the rooms; there were several bodies of Imperial soldiers lying around, indicating that there had been a fight before we passed through. Upon reaching one of the doors, I could see the possible origin of the bodies, as I saw only one Imperial soldier standing in front of a door. Instead of raising his weapon and attacking us, he took a security key from his pocket to open the door, let us pass, and then closed it before leaving. He must be another undercover C.S.S. agent.

Inside the room, I couldn't believe what my eyes saw: a huge, gigantic ring in the center of the room. Around its diameter were hundreds of symbols and constellations selected by small marks at the cardinal points of the ring. Looking at the circular structure was like looking at the surface of water with its ripples. This strange device was something that shouldn't be within human reach, as the sheer complexity of such a device was far beyond our technological capacity. This was something that only beings like angels should be able to achieve, and yet I saw it right in front of me, in a warehouse next to several tanks of the Empire. As soon as Momo saw it, she immediately started to install some new parts.

"What is it... something like that here?"
"Why does the... Empire have... this here?"

"We don't know that either."
"Stella's sister found it during a mission to steal some documents, and Stella thought of using it to get you out of here."
"..."
"Why it's here... Well..."
"..."
"It serves as a very good means of escape in case of losing a war."

"What!?"

"The portal is very premature to be a real threat to the C.S.S., so it falls into the category of human free will."
"'That's why I need to install these extra capacitors, the one-time power source, and add the new coordinate system to the main computer."
"Also, install these plates of new constellations."
"Take them and place them between these pedestals where the symbols go, use this drawing to indicate the order."
"Place them PERFECTLY if you don't want us to be stranded in the void of space."

"I think I just heard a terrifying implication... in that last sentence."

"I've got a lot of work to do, I can't be distracted!"
"You don't have much time, either from sleep or poison."

"I'm sorry... for... dying again... I guess."

Breathing was difficult and my eyelids heavy, my body again difficult to control, only this time the pain spreading through my arm helped keep me awake. With difficulty, I managed to place several of the plates the glass angel had asked me for, while she quickly installed the other pieces needed to upgrade the portal. As soon as the last of the plates was in place, she moved to the computer and began reprogramming the portal to make it work properly.

"Alright, I'm almost done."
"In the meantime, place the backpack near the portal, I'll set it to explode after we both cross."
"The bomb will be more than enough to wipe out any trace of its existence."

"My body... it's... killing me with pain."
"Now... my back... hurts too."

"Hold on a little longer, we're almost there."
"I'm going as fast as I can!"

But as if hell itself rejected the idea of leaving my torment in peace, as Momo finished speaking, a loud noise was heard at the door leading to the storage room. A strong thud, then another, a ram smashed into the only protection there was to enter, little by little the door could be seen to give way to such monstrous force.

"Momo, I need... you to be... even... faster!"

"The program is processing the last sequence of coordinates!"
"I can't push it any further! I don't need to give it any more commands!"
"It's a timer, when it finishes, the coordinates on the ring will light up and the portal will activate to go through."
"Only 5 more minutes!"

*BOOM

The heavy door in front of us finally gave way and fell to the ground with a loud crash. On the other side, I could see the figures of the intruders, three women in heavy armor with their energy weapons, a unit using arksuits alongside their captain, Miss Akane. The three of them went into formation and aimed their weapons at me.

"We've managed to locate the test subject V."
"She's in some kind of strange Imperial machine, looks like she's trying to defect to the enemy."
"Mr. Damien Raven expects the girl to recover in good condition, don't disappoint him."

"How much... money... is the... damn giant... paying you... to risk so much... for me?"
"I... don't... think... enough..."

"I take it back, it seems the subject is having trouble standing upright."
"It will be much easier to steal it from the Alliance than I thought."

"Try me... bitch..."

Irritated by my comment, Akane fired her weapon at the control panel where Momo was, but luckily I managed to call Avalon just in time to protect her from the laser beam. The other two girls ignited their engines to quickly run in my direction, and in less than a second they were on either side of me, both pointing their weapons at me. With all the strength I had left, I grabbed the hilt of the sword and twisted it slightly to point it perpendicularly at them, then jumped when they pulled the trigger and managed to avoid getting hurt. But Akane took advantage of my exhaustion to also approach me and grab me by the neck, a way to realize her mistake when she saw me pull out my stolen gun and point it at her head.

"Gotcha... Bitch."

But with good reason to be scared, Akane threw me backwards to buy herself some time. Just as I hit the ground, I heard the giant ring begin to turn its massive mechanism and an alarm sounded, warning everyone present that the portal was already powering up.

"It's done! Ready!"

"Jump!" Momo shouted with all her strength.

More worried about the safety of the angel than myself, I fired wildly at the girls in a vague attempt to distract them while I grabbed Momo's arm and threw her into the portal to save her. Akane, worried about understanding the true purpose of the device, launched herself to try and stop me, but in my last effort I threw Momo's open backpack in front of her so she would notice the bomb, and laughing like a madman, I managed to convince her of what was about to happen. Scared out of her wits, Akane ran outside with the others while I felt the last moments of my consciousness and energy. Without wasting any more time, I jumped into the unknown as I fell asleep, not knowing if I would wake up again, at the same time I heard the bomb detonate and destroy the machine that gave me my freedom.