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Chapter 1: High Stakes

No! It's going to crush the civilians!

Tatsumi made a mad dash for the Shikoutazer. It was toppling over, heavy and fast like a boulder down a cliff. He could hear the citizens of the Capital screaming from this far up, and it spurred him to move faster. He had to stop it. Every second counted. As it fell, the monstrosity of a Teigu was kicking up plumes of dust and debris that sounded like hell. Tatsumi didn't know if anyone could even halt something so massive, but he would give it his best shot. He figured the chances were slim even if he was in perfect condition, and even slimmer because he wasn't. He barely had any strength as it was.

Tatsumi clenched his teeth. Every inch he moved, his muscles burned, hot with a pain beyond what he had ever imagined or ever experienced in any previous combat. The intensity of it... This was the price of the power to save what mattered to him. Incursio's evolved form was taking further toll on his body and drained him even more, but it didn't matter. He was no longer operating on strength, but on something else deep inside him. Sheer willpower. It was all that was keeping him glued together at this point.

Tatsumi saw himself getting closer to the Shikoutazer.

He could do it. He could do it! He was going to make it in time; he just had to keep going!

It was only a few seconds, but it'd felt like a million. Tatsumi planted his hands on the colossal Teigu. Reaching the Teigu had a been a challenge in itself, but once he laid his hands on it, he had realized the true extent of what he was about to do. The weight was punishing, like trying to lift the entire world off your shoulders. If it wasn't for Incursio, the sheer force of it falling would've shattered his arms like a rock through glass. He knew, from the moment he put his hands on it, that he couldn't stop it from collapsing, but he could at least keep it from sliding further across the Capital. Yes, he had to try!

Bro.

Mine.

Lubbock.

Chelsea.

Susanoo.

They were all watching.

It was going to take everything he had. Tatsumi didn't know if he had it in him, but he began to push with all his might, growling and gritting his teeth. His arms quivered and his shot muscles strained against the unrelenting weight as his armor was pushed to the limits. His fingers, his hands, they felt like they were going to implode from the pressure of holding it back. He held on anyway and drove his body against the falling Teigu as much as he could, heaving and huffing for his life. Tatsumi's face flushed red with strain and his eyes became bloodshot. He didn't know if his head was going to pop; he could feel the pressure, the tension in his blood vessels.

No! No, it wasn't working!

Tatsumi's eyes widened. The Shikoutazer was plummeting towards the Earth with the force of an asteroid. It would not yield.

When Tatsumi looked back, he found the ground a lot bigger, and a lot closer than before. The longer the Shikoutazer fell, the more momentum it gained and the more unstoppable it became. His prospects were becoming worse. The momentum! It was too strong! In a few moments, it would crush him and take the citizens below with it.

No, no, no! He was powerless! Tatsumi cursed with blood-curdling rage. He began to punch the Shikoutazer. He was pushing with all he had, but deep down, he knew he wasn't strong enough with his current reserves. That couldn't be. He was trying, and yet he was going to fail all the same. What could he do? No one else was going to stop it, but he was too weak from his battle with the Emperor. He needed more strength, and he needed it now, but he had nowhere left to pull it from.

At least... not if he wasn't willing to risk it.

Tatsumi looked towards himself. Towards Incursio. By now, Incursio's armor had regressed from a brilliant gold to a dull silver. It's previous power had dwindled away with its wielder like a fading fire. Once again, Tatsumi needed more strength, but he had already surpassed the limits of his Teigu once.

To push Incursio a second time...

He could barely control the last evolution, but that was a risk he was going to have to take. The armor was there for him. It had bonded with him, and it would respond to his demands. He wasn't going to die. Not without putting up a fight! He didn't know what it'd mean for him in the end, but whether or not it mattered wasn't part of the question. He knew what he had to do. Even if it killed him, so be it. It was a noble death, and he would gladly die fighting for those who needed his help.

Tatsumi readied himself as much as he could in the split-second he had. It was going to hurt like hell, but it was too late to turn back now. He'd come too far for that. In an instant, he began to muster all his strength. From every corner of his body, he gathered anything he could find, and he felt the rage build inside him, the rage that burned for his allies and for his friends, and the rage that had brought him so far despite everything. Then, the word began to flow all by itself. He let it out, like a dragon breathing the flames of death.

"INCURSIOOOO!"

The armor responded. Tatsumi's rage consumed his heart like a blaze, and Incursio fed off it's explosive power. It knew what he desired. Tatsumi screamed in agony as the Teigu began to harvest the very essence of his life and evolve once more. His heart beat in agony, as though a sinister evil had penetrated his chest and gripped the organ in it's wretched hands. The smell of death lingered on his screams. It needed more resources. It ripped even further into him at the core of his being and devoured anything it could to give Tatsumi what he wanted. The evolution had been too premature; he wasn't strong enough to resist the effects of it, and so it took a piece of him as payment. As he braced himself under the falling Shikoutazer, he could feel it wrenching at his soul until it got what it needed.

This pain... What unbelievable pain.

It was like being torn from your own body.

Tatsumi's harrowing scream continued; he felt like his insides were aflame. He fought for control of himself, he wouldn't let the Tyrant consume him, but he was slipping away faster than he could think. He had to survive or else his sacrifice would be in vain. As he writhed about in agony, images of his comrades filled his vision. Pain, anger, wrath... These are the powers that propelled him. It was all on him. He knew he couldn't stop now. He resisted with everything he had until the pain finally stopped. There was an ominous flash of red light, and then came a feeling of nothingness. The bright light blinded him, and then Tatsumi realized he had done it. Incursio had improved once more.

The armor was red. Like blood.

An armor built on the very fabric of the user's soul.

It had become even more reptilian. The eyes were glowing like two white hot embers, and a scaled dragon's tail stuck out on the aft side with wings to boot. Horns stuck out of the helmet, and along the fingers and toes were piercing claws that cut into the air like the sharpened teeth of a Danger Beast. The armor itself was thinner and sleeker than any previous version, redolent of a streamlined bullet, although with many slanted edges and points.

There was no power more refined than the essence of one's life. It provided the greatest potential for strength, but also the greatest cost.

Thank you, Incursio.

The armor was the pinnacle of efficiency. It radiated a hellish energy - heat - the burning fire of the user's spirit. He could feel the energy pulsating through his veins, and it continued to churn in a vortex of growing vigor. There was no pain anymore, only the goal in mind. The armor had deadened his nerves and he could no longer feel anything but the desire to finish the fight.

Tatsumi let out a mighty yell and drove himself against the Shikoutazer. The lack of pain gave him new clarity, and he felt himself pushing harder than ever before. He channeled the energy coursing through his veins with demonic precision, concentrating it on a single point. It was as if every star in his head had aligned perfectly. Everything, every ounce of his being, was focused on stopping the Shikoutazer, and it began to get slower and slower. It hit the ground with an earth-shaking thud and started skidding across the Capital towards more people, but Tatsumi pushed even harder. He wanted it to stop. He demanded it. The armor held steadfast against the pressure.

It's now or never!

The Shikoutazer grinded deafeningly against the Capital's streets. Tatsumi planted his feet into the Earth, splitting two ruts into the ground that were quickly erased by the colossal Teigu. He closed his eyes and magnified his focus ten-fold. Pushing upwards from his hands, he dug the ruts even deeper in an attempt to stop the Teigu from going any further. He didn't care if his arms cracked or his bones broke beneath him. He gave it everything he had. He was grateful that he couldn't feel the pain, but he could still feel the enormous pressure on the soles of his feet and tips of his fingers. It was working! It was slowing down!

Incursio backed his efforts. Like rage seeping from his body, Tatsumi began to see his armoured fingers burning into the metal skin of the Shikoutazer with red-hot glow. It was melting the exterior! The scarlet-colored aura that was all around his hand hovered just above Incursio's gauntlets and grinded against the Shikoutazer's metal skin with a sharp, harsh sound that pierced the air. It was the combined fury of the Tyrant and Tatsumi. The armor and the man that donned it worked in complete harmony.

This was it.

This was the end.

It wasn't long before it happened. In the face of Tatsumi's unyielding will, the Shikoutazer came to a screeching halt and stopped just short of a crowd of frightened people. By now, his ears were ringing with an earsplitting shriek. Although the noise of buildings being crushed and the ground being torn up from underneath him had muddled his hearing, he could still hear the pleasant sounds of victory. There was no screaming. There was no turmoil in the wind. The air was much more quiet now, as though the world wanted to show him a sign of respect for his accomplishment. All that was left for him to see was the sight of a colossal Teigu in the remains of a ravaged city.

He had done it.

It took him a second to fully grasp his surroundings. The blanket of dust and debris had already begun to clear by the time Tatsumi came to his senses. He stumbled back and away from the wall of metal he'd just stopped, and took a few weak steps towards the crowd of people. Although his muscles listened to his commands, he felt like he was a foreigner in his own body; it moved, and yet he couldn't feel it moving. It was strange to watch, and most definitely not normal. He didn't like the other signs either. His eyesight was blurred, but he didn't need good vision to see the splotches of red caking his person.

With his objective complete, Tatsumi's burning rage, the very thing that had kept him alive so long, had begun to wither and wane like a dying sun. It was the source of the armor's power. Just moments after the Shikoutazer came to a halt, Incursio deactivated, fading into a mist stained red with blood.

It had kept him alive this long.

No longer.

Tatsumi's eyelids got heavy, and he struggled to maintain consciousness as all the pain came rushing back in an instant. He thought he saw someone appear from the crowd, a feminine figure that started walking towards him from the center of his blurred vision. As he watched, the tickle in his chest grew into vicious throes of hellish torment. With one shallow breath, he took a small sip of fresh air; it felt cool on his burning lungs. He felt his knees weakening. He closed his eyes, and he thought he was going to hit the ground, but then that someone caught him.

"Tatsumi..." the woman whispered, pensive and sad.

The last thing he remembered was Esdeath taking him someplace else.