(This was originally the last half of the last chapter, but I decided to split it in half when it proved to be so long.)
天元突破
フリーダムエメル
〜パラレルワークス〜
Tengen Toppa
Freedom Emerl
~Parallel Works~
by
アムラス・フェラグンド
Amras Felagund
May You All Burn!
Down on the floor of the hangar, Gnonine and Salasine had not yet reached their Gizoids, Syne was just at Baihuu's waist, and Undenine was at Qyinlone's feet. Ceneca-9001 was only just at her Silver Ringer. This sudden appearance of a ball of purple fire had been a surprise on its own, but then a dark demon had emerged from it and grappled Huenlonix's arms before Lucus could even move.
Almost all pilots had stepped out of their Gizoids before the warp to get a moment to breathe before the battle, so the surprise of Black Doom's appearance had stunned them into inaction.
It would have been the end of Lucus Darkoak if no Gizoids but his had a pilot in them.
Boss Gillman slashed at Black Doom's back, forcing him to release his grip on the Spiral Knight's Gizoid.
Lucus took this time to leap into the air, Huenlonix hovering tentatively by the purple vortex of flames, sword poised for a potential strike.
—ARE YOU AN ALLY OF THE ANTI-SPIRAL?— the Xorda pilot demanded in its mechanical screech.
Black Doom faced Boss Gillman balefully, unaware of the Gizoid pilots boarding their mechas.
I AM NO SUBORDINATE OF THE ANTI-SPIRAL, he boomed. I AM USING THEIR RESOURCES TO ANNIHILATE THOSE WHO WOULD CHALLENGE MY SUPERIORITY. AND WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT, I SHALL REMOVE THEM FROM THE UNIVERSE. ONLY ONE CAN RULE THE UNIVERSE. ONLY I AM WORTHY OF SUCH HONOR.
—YOU ARE AN ALLY OF THE ANTI-SPIRAL?—
IF YOU WILL QUIET YOUR INFERNAL SCREECHING, I WILL TELL YOU: YES.
Boss Gillman's eyes flashed, and the spots along the elongated fish-tail coming from the back of its head glowed green... producing silver drills, which extended and pointed at the Anti-Spiral.
—EX-TER-MIN-ATE!— the Xorda screeched, Boss Gillman rushing at Black Doom. —EX-TER-MIN-ATE!—
Black Doom grabbed it by one of its extended arms and threw it to the floor, the drills dissipating in an instant into green photons.
YOU FOOL, Black Doom snarled. YOU CANNOT CHALLENGE ME.
"But I'll challenge you!"
Black Doom looked up, and caught Huenlonix's blade before it could pierce his middle eye.
"Have you no shame?" Lucus asked furiously. "Siding with the Anti-Spirals... Are you insane?"
SMALL MINDS HAVE ALWAYS BELITTLED GREAT AMBITIONS, Black Doom hissed. I AM NOT SIDING WITH THE ANTI-SPIRALS. I AM MAKING USE OF THEIR CAPABILITIES, TO LESSEN THE MASSES WHO WOULD THREATEN ME.
"Coward!" Lucus forced his sword further down, his teeth grit in rage. "You think you can defeat them? You can't even defeat me!"
WE'LL SEE ABOUT THAT! growled Black Doom, hurling himself backwards, forcing the Huenlonix off balance and falling behind the demonic invader.
"LUCUS!" shouted Gnonine, his Xuanwuo moving towards the fallen Huenlonix. The other three Spiral Knights' Gizoids were behind him.
"Don't help me! Lead the Star Gizoid forces into the battle! I'll handle this abomination... alone!"
Lucus could tell his friends were hesitating, but when the Hellship shook from some enemy attack unknown, they merely saluted before blasting off towards the opening hangar bay doors.
Now, it was just Lucus and Black Doom.
—I SHALL ASSIST YOU IN ERADICATING THIS INFERIOR INVADER!— snarled Boss Gillman, clenching his claws.
"You can assist me..." Lucus said.
Huenlonix grabbed one of Boss Gillman's arms...
"BY GETTING THE FUCK OUT THERE!"
And hurled the Xorda Gizoid with all of Lucus's considerable Spiral Power-assisted strength out after the Gizoids and Star Gizoids.
HOW NOBLE, Black Doom mused. BUT THE RESULT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE SAME. YOU HAVE ONLY DELAYED THEIR DEATHS BY MINUTES.
"What makes you think you'll kill them?" Lucus cracked Huenlonix's knuckles. "You have to get through me!"
I DO NOT HAVE TO, Black Doom said, pointing at the swirling vortex of purple flame. LOOK THERE.
Lucus did.
Scores of strange creatures were pouring from it. They were a bright purple and had horns, three tentacles, and wide gaping mouths that took up their entire faces. They had no eyes.
Lucus's stomach lurched.
These were Wisps.
"Wh... What did you do to them?"
I AM MERELY COMMANDING THEM, Black Doom said, brushing his hand slowly through the air. THESE WISPS HAVE HAD THEIR INNER SPIRAL INVERTED BY THE ANTI-SPIRAL. IT HAS MADE A REMARKABLE CHANGE. THESE FRENZIED BEASTS WILL NOW DEVOUR YOUR FLAGSHIP FROM THE INSIDE-OUT, AND YOUR FEEBLE INSURRECTION WILL WATCH IN DESPAIR AS THEIR WEAKNESS IS MADE APPARENT.
"You bastard!" Lucus choked. Had they been beaten?
"Our Super Spiral shield is failing in various sectors! Now activating bulkheads across the board!"
"General Goldyew, Meta-Gizoid forces are down to 42%!"
"Hold in there, people!" cried Crysantem, keeping his eyes on the helixometer displayed on the main screen. The shapes of the Excalibur and various Anti-Spiral dragon battleships could be seen in the distance, raining their energy attacks down on the Spiral Warriors. "Don't let fear overtake you! If we fear for our victory, we'll have already lost!"
The radar officer, a Teragosan, turned in her seat and said, "General, sensors are picking up hundreds of anomalous readings across the battlefield! They're..." She looked back to the screen, gulping. "They're devouring the Gizoids!"
Crysantem's eyes widened.
"What...?"
A violet shape flew by the window. Its head was shaped like a spiral galaxy, and its grinning mouth full of fangs almost split its head in half. It had three tentacles. It opened its mouth, and a passing satellite of neither Spiral not Anti-Spiral make was drawn in despite being much larger than the creature, crumbling to pieces as it was consumed. Some sort of golden disc was briefly visible inside before it was all drawn into the maw.
Yacker recoiled in horror.
"Oh, Mother Wisp! Of all horrors the Anti-Spiral have perpetrated...!"
The engineer, a Marmolinian, in the hangar appeared on the main monitor.
"General! We have a situation down here in the hangar! It's Black Doom, and he's—"
Her message was cut off by her own bloodcurdling scream as a purple tentacled creature with a mouth for a head bit off her arm. Her head was the next to go. The corrupted Wisp then lunged at the camera with a bloody snarl. The screen went blank.
Yacker bolted towards the teleporters.
"Lieutenant Commander Yacker!" cried Crysantem, reaching out futilely.
But Yacker was already gone to the hangar.
黒穴
Chaos.
The Cyclone-class cruisers, built for speed and not for defense, had to move quickly in order to avoid the more damaging blasts from the Anti-Spiral's energy blasts. The Xorda saucers, built specifically to get in close to the enemy and deal deadly damage at point-blank range, had advanced upon the Anti-Spiral's Drayk battleships, in spite of the heavy losses. The Meta-Gizoids of all types - Flare, Sea, Wind, and Rock - were deployed in Compass Formation such that they could combine into singular units, covering each type's weaknesses and bolstering their strengths.
The Star Gizoids, armed to the teeth and numbering in the tens of thousands, along with the Core Machine Gizoids and four of the five Spiral Knights, were engaged in direct combat with the Anti-Spiral's rank-and-file mechas.
The Anti-Spiral rank-and-file had definitely taken a turn for the bizarre; spiders with translucent red bellies and knight armor along their heads and spear-like legs; mechanical fish with extended legs and knight's helmets; and skeletal knights with screaming skull-faces as they swung their claymores and polearms at any Gizoid that came too close, leaking blue smoke from the joints in their armor.
—EX-TER-MIN-ATE!— Boss Gillman was screeching as it hacked and slashed at the surrounding Anti-Spiral mechas, its capabilities with a Core Machine seemingly forgotten, although it did an impressive amount of damage on its own to the Star Gizoid-sized spider and fish mechas. —EX-TER-MIN-ATE!—
"I hear you, jelly-brain!" Syne bellowed as his Baihuu swung its Goldion Hammer about this way and that, the Anti-Spiral mechas that it struck being reduced to photons in instants when the hammer came down. "Maybe you could ex-ter-min-ate more quietly?"
"No infighting!" Gnonine growled, Xuanwuo depriving a Skullknight of its scimitar with the hooked blades of his dual swords. "We're swamped enough as it is!" Hooking his swords together, Gnonine then bisected the Skullknight with a wide swipe.
"Wise words in the middle of a bloodbath!" Ceneca-9001 shouted, the rings of her Silver Ringer spreading out, producing spiraling strings of light that coalesced to form a half-dozen silvery drills that rocketed out and pierced several Kish, Arasen, and Skullknights.
"Really, roughhousing is so unbecoming!" Salasine snarled, using Zheuque's mirrored staff to deflect the Anti-Spiral energy blasts back at the attackers.
"We gotta do what we gotta do, Sally!" Undenine snapped, snapping Qyinlone's energy whip about, snatching Skullknight weapons and ripping out Arasen's legs, leaving them to drift in space.
Gnonine glanced at the Skullknight's body that he had just sliced in two, and started.
He had never thought of what the Anti-Spiral would look like before. His need to win had always overridden any interest in what his foe's true form was.
From what he saw in the Skullknight, it would still be a mystery.
Unmanned mechas? he thought. Have we merely been fighting drones all this time? Who controls the Anti-Spiral war machine?
At that moment, a violet creature with a spiral galaxy-shaped head and three tentacles drifted by.
"What the...?" Syne said.
The creature opened its mouth impossibly wide, and the debris of the battlefield began to be drawn in, vanishing into its gullet despite being so much larger than the creature or its mouth were.
Then it turned its mouth towards the Boss Gillman, and the Gizoid started being pulled into the void.
—NO! THE XORDA... MUST... SURVIVE! THE XORDA... MUST... EX-TER-MIN-ATE!— it screeched, reaching our desperately. Its legs were stretching out far too thin...
"NO!" Ceneca-9001 screamed, a ring twisting around itself before tightening around one of Boss Gillman's wrists. The back of Boss Gillman's head crumbled apart, exposing the pale-green of the Xorda's Core Machine.
—NO!— the Xorda shrieked in terror, its electronic voice breaking down. —NO! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooo oooooooo...—
In its panic, the Xorda must have accidentally hit the open-canopy button, because it burst open, the water the Xorda breathed crystallizing in an instant before the iced Xorda was drawn into the Void Wisp's maw.
"NO!" Ceneca-9001 sobbed.
They had lost a Core Machine pilot.
At that moment, a shout of UNLIMITED COLORS! resonated from the Hellship, and the Void Wisp began to glow. All the Void Wisps in the battlefield began to glow. When the glow faded, they were returned to their original form.
The five Gizoids present looked back and forth at each other, wondering what had just happened.
アンリミテッド・カラーズ
YOUR FLEET WILL NOT SURVIVE, Black Doom hissed as the Frenzy Wisps gnawed away at the gantries and equipment scattered around the hangar. THE NEGA-WISPS DEVELOPED BY THE ANTI-SPIRAL WILL DEVOUR YOUR GIZOIDS, AND I SHALL BE THE UNIVERSE'S SUPREME BEING.
Lucus drew up Huenlonix's sword.
"Not on my watch...!"
At that moment, the teleporter flashed, and Yacker burst into the room. The Wisp leader was trailing some peculiar blue smoke.
"My people!" he chittered. "Return to your senses! You are not too far gone!"
The curling appendage atop Yacker's head began to glow blue, and the frenzied Nega-Wisps stopped in their tracks, glowing white.
WHAT? Black Doom breathed, stunned. WHAT ARE YOU DOING, WISP? STOP!
But it was too late. When the white light faded, the Wisps had returned to what they were before. White three-tentacled Wisps, yellow drill-shaped Wisps, green hovering Wisps, and pink spiky Wisps with one eye; cyan angular Wisps and orange rocket-shaped Wisps with two eyes; and blue cube-shaped Wisps and red flame-shaped Wisps with three eyes.
NO... Black Doom hissed, reaching menacingly for Yacker. YOU SHALL PAY FOR THAT!
The Wisps descended on Black Doom, smothering him, slapping him with their tentacles, forcing him to the ground. Yacker was attempting to poke Black Doom in the eyes.
YOU VERMIN... THAT... IS... ENOUGH!
There was a flash of blood-red fire, and all that was left of the Wisps that were striking Black Doom were burned bits of flesh. Yacker, two of his tentacles burnt off, was sent flying against the wall, where he struck his head violently.
The few surviving Wisps glanced around hesitatingly.
Then they glared at Black Doom, who laughed mockingly.
YOU SIMPLE LITTLE FOOLS... THINKING YOU CAN DEFEAT ME?
"We don't think we can defeat you," Lucus snarled. "We know we can defeat you!"
HOW TRITE. WHAT MAKES YOU SO CERTAIN?
Lucus smirked.
"Nothing, really. We just know."
Black Doom growled in burgeoning fury.
"Lu–cus."
Yacker, his eye narrow from pain, unsteadily floated up from his location on the ground. Lucus, Black Doom and the Wisps' eyes were centered on the wounded leader of the Wisps as he drifted towards Huenlonix. He placed his single remaining tentacle against the green orb of its face.
"Luc–us. Ta–ke my powe–r."
Lucus shook his head, even though Yacker probably could not see him. "No... I can't. That's your power. I can't take it. You'll die."
"That ca–n't be stopp–ed now. You mus–t defeat the An–ti-Spir–al. Do it for... S–piral l–ife."
Yacker began to glow, his eye closing.
"We... wil–l do thi–s togeth–er..."
Yacker's light flowed into G-Merl as an orb of photons, hovering before Lucus's face. He could swear he heard a voice in his mind telling him, Take it.
And he did.
He did not reach up to take it, but he accepted it into him, his head bowed, his eyes closed.
Instantly, Lucus felt a boost in his already obscenely great Spiral Power. He felt that he could do anything.
No.
Not anything.
One thing.
Defeat the Anti-Spiral, and all their ilk.
Starting with...
Lucus opened his eyes, which glowed white.
"Yacker, let's do this together!"
His helixometer maxed out from white to green.
WHAT IS THIS? Black Doom snarled, as Huenlonix erupted in white flames. He raised his hands, preparing to summon a purple crescent of energy.
Huenlonix bellowed, "DRILL! ROCKET!"
Two yellow Wisps nodded to two orange Wisps, who propped them up and blasted at Black Doom's exposed hands, piercing them and drawing green blood. Black Doom growled in pain as the rocketing Wisps carried him to the far wall, pinning him to it. The drill Wisps had pierced his hands all the way through.
Huenlonix raised its left hand to the ceiling.
"UNLIMITED COLORS!" Lucas shouted to the heavens, a disc of light appearing around Huenlonix's left wrist.
Inside G-Merl, the helixometer turned to rainbow colors. The glass of the helixometer shattered outwards (the glass burning to ash at the light from Lucus's eyes), a helix of rainbow light showering Lucus.
"LASER!"
A cyan Wisp flew up to fly around this disc of light in a clockwise motion. A beam of cyan light spiraled upwards to a point some six Huenlonix heights off the hangar floor.
"DRILL!"
A yellow Wisp joined the cyan Wisp, just ahead of the latter. A beam of yellow light spiraled up as well.
"SPIKES!"
A pink Wisp jumped ahead of the yellow Wisp, sending a pink beam of light up as well.
"ROCKET!"
An orange Wisp flew up to lead the pink Wisp, an orange beam of light joining the other three.
"CUBE!"
A blue Wisp shot to the head of the pack, a beam of blue light joining the others.
"HOVER!"
A green Wisp shot up to lead the blue Wisp, sending up a green beam of spiraling light.
"BURST!"
A red Wisp shot to the point between the green and cyan Wisps, sending out a beam of red spiraling light to the tip that now glowed white.
The space between the colored beams of light glowed white.
"FINAL..."
The white glow shattered away, revealing a silver drill with seven grooves down it, five times larger than Huenlonix itself.
"PRISM..."
The rainbow-glowing drill pointed at Black Doom, the Wisps moving to the head of the drill.
"AUGER!"
The Final Prism Auger began to spin rapidly, spewing a torrent of rainbow Spiral Energy behind Huenlonix, Lucus launching the Gizoid and its Unlimited Colors finishing move at Black Doom...
When a meteor burst from a vortex of purple flames at the floor just below Black Doom, smashing against the Final Prism Auger and directing its path upwards.
Not quite enough.
Although Black Doom had tilted his head backwards, the Final Prism Auger had tore away his cloak and ground up much of the flesh that covered his chest.
Huenlonix and the Wisps stopped several hundred meters from the ceiling, the Final Prism Auger dissolving into rainbow particles of light. Lucus looked down at Black Doom, still pinned to the wall by vengeful Wisps. He descended to Black Doom's level, switching his sword back to Huenlonix's left hand.
Placing Huenlonix's right hand on Black Doom's ribcage, Lucus closed his eyes.
He tried to feel for the flow of Spiral Power in Black Doom.
He felt for a few seconds...
Then his eyes shot open.
He addressed Black Doom, "You sealed off your Spiral Power, haven't you?"
Black Doom coughed, IT WAS FALSE FEALTY TO THE ANTI-SPIRAL. AS WAS MY DESTRUCTION OF MY HOMEWORLD.
At this, Lucus froze. Black Doom had destroyed his own homeworld? His own kind?
MY RACE HAD GROWN STAGNANT - LAZY - WITH THE PASSAGE OF TIME, Black Doom continued. IT WAS AN EASY DECISION TO DESTROY THEM. AS FOR MY SPIRAL POWER, IT WILL BE SIMPLE TO RECONNECT THE PATHWAYS ONCE I'VE DEFEATED THE ANTI-SPIRAL. AND THEN, THERE WILL BE NO ONE TO STAND IN MY WAY WHEN CONQUER THE UNIVERSE!
"Not if I do... this!" shouted Lucus, stabbing his golden sword into Black Doom's chest, directly into one of his hearts.
Black Doom let out a long, unearthly shriek.
"Sorry," Lucus said hotly. "Guess that was important."
Huenlonix grabbed the monster's head.
"How does that feel?" he shouted hoarsely, slamming Black Doom's head against the wall. Again. And again. And again. "Does that feel good? Does it? Does it? DOES IT?"
After several moments, becoming increasingly aware of the spreading spot of Black Doom's green blood on the wall, Lucus stopped. He stepped away, Huenlonix shaking just like its pilot.
Black Doom's evil eyes no longer carried a burning hatred.
They simply stared emptily at nothing.
The yellow drill Wisps in Black Doom's hand sheepishly drew themselves out. Black Doom's body slid down, leaving a trail of green blood along the wall.
"I won't kill you," said Huenlonix. "I'll let you live exactly like this... so that you can see exactly what it's like to live with such a gaping hole in your heart."
And he left the hangar, at long last, the Wisps following him.
虹のドリル
Even without the Nega-Wisps, the battle still would have been going badly for the Spiral Warriors. The Anti-Spiral's sudden attack had made it difficult for them to organize any successful retaliatory strike. While the Hellship had planet-pulverizing weapons batteries and a pair of ultra-powerful superlasers, and the Star Gizoids and their pilots were more than worth their stripes, and the Meta-Gizoids were more than capable of drawing fire and holding their own in return, and the Core Machine Gizoids and their pilots were the cream of the crop of mecha pilots that Spiral races had to offer, and the Spiral Knights were easily capable of going toe-to-toe with a round dozen of any Anti-Spiral mecha...
The fact of the matter was that they were just far too few.
No matter how many Skullknights were put down, a city-sized Kish would simply open its mouth and scores more would replace it. And no matter how many Arasen and Kishes that were taken down by the Star Gizoids or the Spiral Knights, the planet-sized Drayks would simply dispatch more.
And there was Excalibur to contend with still.
For all the awe at the size of the Hellship, it was quickly dawning on every Spiral Warrior present that the pristine-white Drayk battleship Excalibur was simply too big to be allowed.
The Anti-Spiral outclassed the Spiral Warriors in almost every manner possible.
Ceneca-9001 was lost when a clutter of Arasen had drawn in on her from every angle. Her Silver Ringer blazed gloriously, and songs would be sung of her for years to come as she felled the demonic spider mechas with clever usage of her rings and the powers of her Core Machine. In the end, though, even she was outclassed when a full-frontal assault by the Arasen drew her fire while a straggler attacked from behind, one of its legs splintering into numerous tentacles, ripping her Core Machine out from her Gizoid and prying the Core Machine open, tearing Ceneca-9001 limb from limb as she screamed.
Even Lucus's four friends, who had remained steadfast and loyal to him to this point, could not help but wonder if he had forsaken them as the noose drew tighter.
Salasine glanced around at the Skullknights, Arasen, and Kish that were closing in around them. They were cut off from the Hellship or any sort of help. Their forces were down in strength significantly, several thousand Gizoid pilots had already lost their lives, and at least four of the Core Machine Gizoid pilots were dead.
"Looks like the end, doesn't it?" asked the image of Undenine in his eye.
Salasine gripped Zheuque's butterfly controls tightly.
"It's not over yet," he growled.
Syne's image appeared beside Undenine's.
"He's right! We'll make these bozos remember us, at least!"
For all the good that will do, Salasine thought bitterly, all too prepared to at least go down swinging.
It was the least he could do with the Anti-Spiral having sullied his beloved Zheuque.
"FINAL PRISM AUGER!"
Huenlonix, with a glowing silver drill emerging from its left fist, each of the seven different colored Wisps leading the drill along, their colors trailing down the drill's grooves, blazed straight through several Kishes and Arasen, which detonated in clouds of purple-white flame.
The Huenlonix was being followed by a horde of hundreds of multi-colored Wisps, who dispersed themselves across the battlefield to aid the Spiral Warriors.
The Skullknights turned in surprise at their larger brethren being slaughtered so suddenly, which in turn gave the Spiral Knights the opportunity to smash, whip, bash and slice their way out from being cornered in space.
Gnonine, Salasine, Syne, and Undenine watched in awe as Lucus's Huenlonix traced a path of color through the sky with this unexpected move.
"He just keeps pulling new tricks out of the hat, doesn't he?" Gnonine said, hope returning to him.
"It certainly looks that way," Salasine concurred.
Now, the Final Prism Auger was directed at the nearest Drayk battleship, which opened its mouth in readiness to blast Huenlonix and its pilot to space dust. The rainbow blazing drill shot straight down the Drayk's gullet, and explosions erupted along the Drayk's length, before Lucus and his Huenlonix emerged from the Drayk's tail, the planet-sized dragon battleship detonating behind him.
"AWESOME!" Syne shouted, Baihuu raising its Goldion Hammer in homage to Lucus.
Then a blue Wisp flitted up to his cockpit, passing through the orb as though it were nothing, entering Syne's chest as a ball of blue light.
"What the—?"
Suddenly, a new thought came into Syne's mind.
An image of the Drayk battleships directly below him.
He was not sure what was going on, but he was sure of what he was going to do.
One word erupted from his mouth:
"CUBE!"
And in a flash of light, Syne became a blue cube with glowering yellow eyes. His Baihuu followed suit around him.
And pilot and Gizoid dropped out of sight from Syne's thoroughly bewildered comrades.
The cube-Baihuu ploughed straight through the four Drayks that had positioned themselves below the Hellship to prevent its further movement. The perfectly cube-shaped holes through the Drayks then expanded outwards with explosions that tore the battleships in two.
Many tens of thousands of miles below, Syne and Baihuu returned to normal, a happy little blue Wisp flitting away.
At that moment, a pink Wisp had flitted into Salasine's cockpit, a yellow one into Undenine's, and a cyan one into Gnonine's. Now that they had seen what the Wisps were capable of when their Spiral Power combined with another's, they were all too eager to put these new powers to use.
"SPIKES!" shouted Salasine.
"DRILL!" Undenine bellowed.
"LASER!" Gnonine snarled.
Salasine Blacknarcissus and his Zheuque turned into pink spiky orbs, Undenine Redpine and his Qyinlone became large yellow drills with glowing yellow eyes, and Gnonine Pale-Bayleaf and his Xuanwuo became a cyan beam of light.
Salasine drove his Zheuque along the surface of a Drayk, pink energy clawing its way clean through the titanic Anti-Spiral warship. The Drayk's energy attacks ceased, and it began to drift apart into two pieces as Salasine and Zheuque separated from the pink Wisp.
Undenine and his Qyinlone ploughed through space, tearing through a Drayk, then turning rapidly and drilling through it from another angle. And another. And another. In time, the Drayk exploded, and Qyinlone and its pilot returned to their natural state as the yellow Wisp darted off.
Gnonine and his Xuanwuo, fused as one with cyan light, darted about the battlefield, penetrating countless Anti-Spiral mechas - Kish, Arasen, Skullknight, Drayk - refracting out of each at a separate angle to strike at another enemy vessel. In moments, the battlefield was alight with the heavy destruction of Anti-Spiral technology, and the cyan Wisp separated from the now-dazed Gnonine.
All about the battlefield, Wisps were temporarily combining with the Gizoids and their pilots. Soon, the battlefront was filled with orange rocket-shaped Gizoids tearing through Anti-Spiral mechas, green cloud-shaped Gizoids that dodged enemy attacks with ease, cyan laser Gizoids that zapped around and pierced the vitals of many Anti-Spiral constructs, blue cube Gizoids that fell straight through Drayks without resistance, pink spiky Gizoids that cut enemy robots to ribbons, yellow drill Gizoids that punched holes in their foes, and red fiery Gizoids that melted all nearby enemy units down.
希望
"The enemy are suffering massive casualties, General!" the radar officer piped up. "Drayk units are down by 67%! Anti-Spiral general forces down to less than one-quarter!"
"Enemy bombardment weakening!" cried the mechanic. "Shields now holding steady on all sectors!"
Crysantem looked out at the colors darting across the battlefield. For several minutes now, he had nearly given up on this battle and was almost going to resign himself to defeat.
But now, with the captured Wisps returned to their senses, and a heretofore unmentioned ability had come to light...
"Was this because of the Wisps?" he mused. "Can we win this battle...?"
The helixometer, which had been flagging, began to inch upward.
合体なんてクソくらえ！！（合体挿入曲第一番 ハ短調アレグロ Ｋ２５６４）
Dispersing the Final Prism Auger, and watching the Wisps fly off to aid in this turning battle, Lucus turned his thoughts back to Yacker, the reason this all could happen. Somehow, he was able to return his people to their former selves, and this allowed him to not only defeat his nemesis Black Doom, but also allowed for this sudden reversal of fortune. In the distance, Lucus could see the Hellship firing its dual superlasers, the Maelstrom Cannon and Mega Vortex Cannon, twin beams of purple energy lancing out from its eyes at a Drayk, punching a hole in its side and forcing its detonation.
But Lucus did not know whether or not his friends were alive or dead, and he needed to traverse this battlefield quickly to find them. If they were dead, he would never be able to forgive himself, and he would make the most use out of himself by using his Huenlonix Overload to convert a deadly enemy attack into Spiral Power for his allies to use.
At the cost of himself.
Lucus shook his head.
Just don't think about it.
On either side of him, a Cyclone-class cruiser and a Xorda saucer were both going down, billowing smoke and fire. Escape pods containing the surviving crew members jettisoned from the two vessels, their thrust vectoring engines directing them towards the Hellship.
On a whim, Lucus formed a large, needle-like drill of violet steel on the end of each if Huenlonix's hand, blasting through space on a wave of Spiral energy, burrowing one drill into the pointed tip of the now-abandoned Cyclone-class cruiser, fissures forming in the yellow metal of the Cyclone cruiser's tip.
Then he pointed the other drill at the Xorda saucer, the needle drill lancing out and penetrating the bronzed hull of the warship.
Infusing the cruiser and the saucer with his Spiral power, Lucus initiated the command to Combine.
The two vessels and the Core Machine Gizoid glowed like emeralds in the sun.
The twin turbines on either side of the cruiser's stern rotated to point down, a forearm and a fist emerging from each. The bow split down the middle, developing joints and rotating down to form a pair of legs, the runway along the bow breaking itself down to reconstitute as a head with needle-shaped horns atop the cruiser's bridge. A singular yellow orb appeared in the middle of its face, and on its chest directly opposite the main engine on its back.
The Xorda saucer, meanwhile, was being broken down into plates of bronzed steel, which affixed themselves to the new Star Meta-Gizoid, providing it with many more weapons ports and Gizoid hangars than would normally be present on the Cyclone cruiser.
And so the transformation was complete, leaving a tremendous bronze Star Meta-Gizoid bristling with weaponry, faster by far than its core Gizoid would be on its own, the twin yellow orbs on its face and chest glinting in the distant starlight.
Within the new Star Meta-Gizoid's head was a cockpit identical to the cockpits of rank-and-file Gizoids. Huenlonix was seated there, its arms folded.
This was exhilirating. Lucus had never combined Huenlonix with a larger mecha before, but according to Ceneca-6913, this would most certainly increase the level of Spiral Power he could produce. Flexing the new Star Meta-Gizoid's hands, Lucus decided it was time to move.
Lucus bellowed its name for the Anti-Spiral to hear and fear.
"CYCLONE... HUENLONIX!"
サイクロンホゥエンロニックス
Cyclone Huenlonix
Bringing up one of Cyclone Huenlonix's hands, a blast of green light produced a bronze drill five times the size of the new mecha.
"CYCLONE..."
It began to spin out rapidly...
"AUGER!"
And he took off through space to find his friends.
Once the reason behind the sudden shift in the Spiral Warriors' fortune became clear, the Anti-Spiral forces began to target the Wisps directly. This would not have been easy, since the Wisps themselves were very small targets, but they had the misfortune of flying in clusters, so the remaining Drayks fired immense turbolaser blasts that incinerated them, while the Skullknights began to pick off stragglers. The Wisp transformations of Gizoids became fewer and farther between, and though the Anti-Spiral's numbers were far fewer than was comfortable, the tide of battle began to turn in their favor again.
"Damn it!" Undenine swore, a Skullknight's axe in one hand, his own Qyinlone's whip in the other. "Aren't we making any headway at all?"
"Just... hang in there!" grunted Syne, his Baihuu back-to-back with Qyinlone. He had converted his Goldion Hammer into a large axe-pike combination, and was taking aim at any passing Anti-Spirals, crying out "GOD AND DEVIL!" and firing off double-helixes of red and yellow energy.
"'Hang in there'? For how much longer?" Salasine said wearily, the blades around the edges of his Zheuque's mirror-staff whirring testily.
"As long as it takes for Lucus to join us," Gnonine said testily, Xuanwuo's blades singing in the silence of space as he hooked away a Skullknight's polearm.
Almost as if on cue, a tremendous bronze Star Meta-Gizoid with an even larger bronze drill smashed the Anti-Spiral mechas attacking the four Spiral Knights.
It turned to face them.
"Hey guys. Sorry I'm late," it said in Lucus's voice.
The four sighed in relief.
"Lucus! Where've you been?" Gnonine said lightly.
"Oh, just getting dressed for the occasion," said the Cyclone Huenlonix, inspecting its fingertips.
Then its body language became more serious, and Lucus said:
"I just defeated Black Doom. The battle should be clear now. You saw how powerful the Cyclone Auger was. If I combine your Gizoids into this, then combine it with the Hellship..."
The four Spiral Knight Gizoids - Baihuu, Qyinlone, Zheuque, and Xuanwuo - all froze in anticipation.
The Cyclone Huenlonix clenched a fist.
"I bet we could punch a hole in that Excalibur beast!"
Syne, Undenine, Salasine, and Gnonine put their fists in the air with a "YEAH!", and because they were holding the butterfly controls, their Gizoids followed suit.
Cyclone Huenlonix's face-orb dissolved, revealing the bridge of the former Cyclone cruiser, and Huenlonix standing astride it.
"Then let's COMBINE!" cried Lucus.
A thin, violet, needle-like drill shot out from each of Huenlonix's arms and legs, stretching out towards each of the other Spiral Knights' Gizoids. Upon contact, the drills did not penetrate directly, but instead splintered into rootlike constructs and wormed their way into each mecha before drawing it in. Each mecha was incorporated into the metalwork around the bridge, and as they did, changes came about to the Star Meta-Gizoid. The Anti-Spiral mechas could only watch; a twister of green energy prevented them from getting too close.
The singular head split once, then twice, elongating tremendously, forming dragon's heads with long, spiny horns. From the neck up, each head changed color; its left head turned from bronze to pale green, its middle head to dark-purple, and its rightmost head to jet-black.
Its left arm bulked up, the armor color-shifting to blood-red, its fingertips developing extended claws.
Its right arm became even more immense than its left as it turned from bronze to bright yellow, its hand balling into a fist that swelled into a large hammer-head.
Its legs and torso glowed green, its legs splintering into numerous rootlike tentacles, growing and extending and forming entirely flexible joints, is torso swelling and bulging like a barrel. When the light faded, its bronzed torso and tentacled lower half had a rough, barklike texture, concealing many weapons systems.
The five of them, having come to silent agreement while the transformation was taking place, all bellowed as one:
"GREAT METAREX!"
完全要塞都市スターメタギゾイド
グレイトメタレックス
Absolute Fortress City Star Meta-Gizoid
Great MetaRex
The Anti-Spiral mechas, sensing a massive spike in Spiral Power on the battlefield, stopped whatever they were doing - attacking the Hellship, attacking a Star Gizoid, attacking a Cyclone cruiser, attacking a Xorda saucer, attacking a Meta-Gizoid - and made a beeline for the Great MetaRex, in the hopes of crushing the Spiral Knights.
The five Spiral Knights' Gizoids, seated with Huenlonix in the middle, with Xuanwuo above, Baihuu to the right, Zheuque below, and Qyinlone to the left, each grasped their own copies of the butterfly controls that controlled ordinary-sized Gizoids.
"Let's do this, guys!" Lucus shouted.
"GOT IT!"
Great MetaRex's hammer produced a golden light version of itself three times larger than itself and swung it mightily through space. Thousands of Skullknights were obliterated at once, and Drayks by the dozen lost limbs and heads, rendered inoperable.
"What in the world is that?" Crysantem asked, regarding the multi-colored Star Meta-Gizoid that had sprouted in the middle of the battlefield and had taken the brunt of attacks off of the Hellship, leaving the Meta-Gizoids, the Great MetaCompasses, and the thousand-some battleships to pick off the Anti-Spiral's forces.
"It would seem that Lucus Darkoak has combined his Huenlonix with a Cyclone cruiser and a Xorda saucer," said the navigations officer. "Looks like the Core Machine really does work with the Principle of Spiral Amplification."
Crysantem had no more words to offer. These past few hours had been so full of emotional swings every which way that he was beginning to feel rather faint.
He was starting to feel his age.
The Great MetaRex produced a large silver drill from its left fist, and by 'large', it was five times the size of the Star Meta-Gizoid. The Spiral Knights' ultimate Gizoid then made a beeline, not for Excalibur, but for...
The Hellship.
Lucus's face appeared on the main screen.
"Come in, General Goldyew! Come in!"
Crysantem hurriedly saluted.
"Y-Yes, Captain Darkoak!"
"General, I am about to combine with the Super Spiral Engine. I'm going to use myself as a power source for the Hellship's Maelstrom Cannon and Mega Vortex Cannon!"
The Hellship bridge went even more still than before.
"That's... that's..." Crysantem stuttered.
Then he broke out into a broad smile.
"That's a stupendous idea! This ultimate attack could potentially defeat the Anti-Spiral for good!"
Lucus grinned.
"I know. Now, everyone strap yourself down if you can, 'cause the Great MetaRex is coming in, and it's gonna get rough!"
The Great MetaRex blasted its way to the midsection of the Hellship, spinning around and gazing up at Excalibur with its three heads.
"You sure about this, Lucus?" asked Gnonine. "I trust you know what you're doing, but what if this doesn't work against that thing?"
Lucus grinned at Gnonine's image.
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained!"
Syne did a fist-pump.
"AWW YEAH! Now this is what I'm talking about!"
Undenine shrugged.
"Well, if Syne's ready, then I'm ready when you are, Lucus."
Salasine merely nodded.
"I concur with the wisest course of action, of course."
Lucus lowered his head, closing his eyes.
"Okay, then."
His eyes snapped open, glowing green.
"Let's do this!"
The drill emerging from the Great MetaRex's fist vanished in a flash of green light. But unlike the past times when Lucus had dispersed a drill, the light did not disperse. Rather, it began to grow around the Great MetaRex, until it was almost blinding. Then, it winked out. The Great MetaRex was gone.
Inside the Hellship, in the Super Spiral Power Plant, there was a flash of green light inside the cavernous Super Spiral engine, and the Great MetaRex appeared, to the surprise of the engineers and mechanics there. In three flashes of green light, its mile-long arms were replaced with titanic silver drills, and a drill of similar scale encompassed its lower half. Two drills extended from the walls of the Super Spiral engine, detecting a powerful source of Spiral Power.
ヘルシップ内・超絶螺旋機関
Inside Hellship - Ultra Spiral Power Plant
Lucus uncrossed his arms for the first time since he'd gotten into G-Merl at the start of this battle and grabbed the control sticks for G-Merl. All the better to channel his Spiral Power into the Hellship.
"Guys, I'm gonna need your fighting spirit, too."
Gnonine, Salasine, Syne, and Undenine grasped the butterfly controls of their Gizoids and let loose rising yells. The Spiral Power output of their Gizoids shot up considerably.
Up on the bridge, the helixometer skyrocketed.
"General, our Spiral Power is at four-hundred-fifty-thousand! That's more than enough to power for the Maelstrom Cannon and the Mega Vortex Cannon!"
Crysantem nodded. He took in a deep breath...
And gave the order.
"FULL POWER TO THE MAELSTROM CANNON AND THE VORTEX CANNON! FIRE UPON THE ANTI-SPIRAL FLAGSHIP!"
メイルシュトローム砲とメガボルテックスキャノン
The eyes on the front of the Hellship began to glow a bright purple. Then a green pulsating light began to become more and more rapid in timing, and more and more intense in brightness.
This did not pass unnoticed by Excalibur, which was the last of the truly threatening Anti-Spiral warships. It drew up its clawed hands, its seven eyes narrowing in loathing of the pest that was the Hellship. It opened its jaws wide, wider than any living creature possibly could. Light and energy was gathering in its mouth, evoking traumatic memories for those who had escaped from Greengate a decade ago...
Twin energy beams as green as emeralds blazed out from the Hellship's Maelstrom Cannon and Mega Vortex Cannon, each one far more potent than both were before combined.
And they each funneled out, growing wider as they lanced out towards Excalibur.
For several moments, all that anyone on board the Hellship could see was green light.
When it cleared, it took a few seconds for everyone's eyes to adjust to the sudden dimness compared to the brightness of the twin superlasers. The bridge crewmembers looked up to the space where the Hellship's cannons had fired.
Excalibur was gone. All that remained was a cloud of black-blue smoke, fragments of white scales, a single claw from one of its hands, and one of its eyes.
"We've DONE IT!" cried Crysantem, putting a fist in the air.
The bridge crewmembers stood and cheered at the top of their lungs, hugging each other and sobbing tears of joy, of relief. All throughout the Hellship, and across the remaining thousand or so ships of the fleet, the same events unfolded. Moments of euphoria, of relief and release, of a return to peacetime. The Anti-Spiral were defeated, at long last.
At heavy cost.
In the thousands of Gizoids, Meta-Gizoids, and Star Gizoids still floating out in space, the pilots who lived paid silent respect to those who had fallen.
Those who had died with their homeworlds.
Those who had died fighting the Anti-Spiral, whether in Gizoid or in battleship.
Those who had lost family, friend, or home to the Anti-Spiral.
Inside the Great MetaRex, Lucus and his four friends heaved heavy sighs.
It's over, he thought, disconnecting Huenlonix from the Great MetaRex. Around him, his friends mirrored his movements, the five using their Spiral Power to warp their Gizoids to the hangar bay, where Gizoids were presently flying back to their stations, or just landing wherever if a frenzied Nega-Wisp had eaten it. In the next few moments, the five Spiral Knights stood in a circle and were exchanging hugs and headbutts for a successful mission.
"Good work, guys," Lucus said, placing his Core Drill necklace back around his neck.
"It wasn't easy, though," Gnonine said, shaking his head with closed eyes. "A lot of people died in this battle."
"I just hope they didn't have painful deaths," Undenine said sadly.
"It's finished," Syne said gruffly. "That's all that matters now."
"You know? I must concur with Syne," Salasine said flippantly. "With the Anti-Spiral defeated, all there is left is the reconstruction."
Ordinarily, Syne would have socked Salasine for such a dig, but with the lifting of such a heavy burden from their shoulders, all he did was clap Salasine on the back with a large hand.
The five of them then walked to the teleporter, past enthusiastically cheering Gizoid pilots, to meet with Crysantem at the bridge.
The bridge was a veritable storm of mixed emotions, most of them positive. Someone had produced a bottle of champagne from somewhere and popped it, and people were having glasses poured out for them. A tad irresponsible, given that they had to go home and begin rebuilding from the destruction wrought by the Anti-Spiral, but that would take time. There were many things which had been lost that could not be replaced: lives, homes, planets, families.
Entire races had been lost as well, or been driven to the point of extinction. Avalon had not been the only home of Avalonians, but they were a shadow of their former self now. The Kaamdaarn had been lost completely. The Wisps were almost extinct after being hunted like vermin by the Anti-Spiral, culminating in the heavy losses they'd incurred in this battle. The few remaining Xorda after so many battles with the Anti-Spiral were entirely contained in the saucers they'd volunteered for this battle. The Bem, a race of clones, were in no real danger of extinction unless their cloning technology was lost (which it was).
For now, they would drink their sorrows away, drink to the memory of so many lost, and dream of better days to come.
Lucus was on his sixth glass when it happened:
The radar went berserk.
The radar officer stumbled over to her station, sloshing her drink this way and that, before seating herself in her seat sideways. She tapped at the radar screen...
And screeched three words that doused everyone present in icy sobriety.
"ANTI-SPIRAL SHIPS DETECTED!"
Out the viewport, a dark tear opened up in the fabric of space-time...
And another Excalibur descended into existence.
And another.
And another.
Within moments, the Hellship was surrounded by a round dozen Excalibur battleships, each of them affixing the Hellship with a hateful gaze.
Not a single person on board the Hellship or any of the Spiral Warrior fleet's ships dared to move; many were scared to blink, lest there be nothing there when their eyes opened again.
A flicker of movement overhead. The Hellship's bridge crewmembers looked up.
Silence.
Far above, farther than the span of an Excalibur from nose to tail, was an even larger dragon. Its skin was pure silver, and no joints or overlap of scales was visible at this distance. It was impossible to tell just how large it was, but it was on order of scale larger by far than Excaliburs could ever hope to be. It may even have been light-years long.
多元進化確率生命体反螺旋突撃艦
クラレント
Multi-Evolutionary Probability Lifeform Anti-Spiral Assault Ship
Clarent
The Spiral Warriors gaped at their foe's capabilities and resources.
"All of that fighting..." Crysantem mused aloud.
"All of that massacre..." Gnonine breathed.
"And the Anti-Spiral was just toying with us...?" Lucus gasped.
toying, lucus darkoak? we anti-spiral are not so petty.
Lucus looked wildly around.
"Who said that?"
Crysantem looked confused.
"Who said what?"
the situation is far too grave for such trifling behaviour.
Gnonine, Salasine, Syne, and Undenine were looking around as well.
"Not anyone in here, Lucus," said Salasine.
"It sounded like it was coming from... the walls," Syne said.
It did, now that Lucus thought on it.
It also sounded strangely familiar...
But how could that voice be familiar?
No. Not 'that voice'.
'Those voices'.
A chorus of countless voices whispering in exact cadence, barely above silence, and yet somehow perfectly comprehensible, as though it was communicating meaning directly into your mind. A chorus of countless voices of young and old, man and woman, blending into and out of each other.
The voice of the Anti-Spiral.
Somehow, only the Spiral Knights - only Lucus Darkoak, Gnonine Pale-Bayleaf, Salasine Blacknarcissus, Syne Yellowzelkova, and Undenine Redpine - could hear the Anti-Spiral.
Crysantem reached toward Lucus worriedly. "Are you boys heari—?"
"Shh!" Lucus shushed him. "The Anti-Spiral is speaking to us."
The atmosphere of the bridge became significantly more tense. The mechanic fidgeted anxiously.
the clarent that you see above you is the flagship of the anti-spiral fleet. it is precisely six trillion miles from nose to tail. what do you plan to do now?
"We're gonna smash it!" snarled Syne, clenching his fist.
will you? you barely destroyed one of our excalibur-class scouting ships. now, you are surrounded by eight, and clarent has entered your universe.
"We'll figure out a way," Lucus said, putting on a bravado he did not feel. He looked around the bridge, suddenly feeling uneasy. No one but him and his four childhood friends seemed to be here.
"What did you do to everyone else?" Syne demanded.
a perceptual barrier has been erected around you five. you can neither perceive nor be perceived by your crew until this barrier is lifted. your perception of them would be a distraction.
A shiver involuntarily went up Lucus's spine, and he could tell that it was happening with his four friends as well. It was as though a dark and sinister presence had entered the room. The stars seemed to have gone out.
"How have you appeared in this universe? And how were you speaking to us five, and us five alone?" asked Salasine.
clarent is a small fragment of our universe, the Anti-Spiral's voice replied. we have the capacity to appear within range of something from our dimension. much like how taking a stroll from a teleporter.
"So if we destroy Clarent, you'll shut up?" Undenine queried heatedly.
The five Spiral Knights felt a bristling in the air, as though the Anti-Spiral were recoiling from some sort of offense.
it is all that you spiral races know to destroy, the Anti-Spiral said acidly.
The Anti-Spiral's voice was now behind him. Lucus spun around, but he saw nothing.
"Who are you describing, us or you?" Gnonine asked, trying to sound brave. "All that we know of you is the casualty list you leave behind. If we knew the reason, we'd know what we're fighting against."
"Yeah, you never tell anyone why you're fighting!" Syne shouted, shaking a fist at nothing.
people ask of us, "why do you fight?" "why do you kill?" "why do you lay us to ruin?"
The glints of a legion of eyes met Lucus's.
they will go to their graves, never learning the answers. that is only bliss we will leave open to them. but you...
And Lucus realized.
Nothing was the Anti-Spiral.
A shape of sheer empty nothingness appeared before them. It resembled a robed bipedal creature of some sort, with a staff of some sort ending in a large bulb. A large tendril of some sort curled from the back of its 'head'. The dead stare of countless pairs of eyes nearly paralyzed Lucus.
The Anti-Spiral raised its staff, and dreadful, invisible, blinding light radiated from the bulb tip. Lucus, Gnonine, Salasine, Syne, and Undenine shielded their eyes.
you, who fight for your survival, are not fighting for survival in the correct manner. in this way, you have been a thorn in our side, and you shall thusly be neutralised by realising why we, the anti-spiral, fight. then this universe will finally be saved by the evils of the excess use of spiral power.
Lucus was shielding his eyes from the glare of the Anti-Spiral's invisible light.
"Wh... What do you mean...?" Lucus asked, suddenly majorly unsettled.
The tendril coming from the back of the Anti-Spiral's head reached around, splitting into multiple tentacles that drew Lucus, Gnonine, Salasine, Syne, and Undenine's hands away from their eyes, hoisting them up into the air. The invisible light shone deeply into their eyes.
spiral power is the power of evolution, the Anti-Spiral explained. lifeforms which carry helical dna; galaxies which take spiral shape; they are amplified to infinite levels by spiral power, which magnifies everything. that is the fundamental underpinning of this universe. however, infinite amplication of spiral power is a cataclysmic gamble for the stability of existence.
The invisible light took shape in Lucus, Gnonine, Salasine, Syne, and Undenine's minds; they visualized a Thorndrigan much like themselves, standing in the center of a galaxy.
spiral power is the force which binds together lifeforms and the universe. the growth of galaxies is proportional to the growth of life. life developed in search of forms that would let it acquire even more power of the spiral. this... is evolution.
Various lifeforms of every persuasion - legs, wings, flippers, antennae - swirled around the arms of the galaxy, the galactic core centered around the Thorndrigan's stomach.
a single lifeform is capable of drawing forth the power of the infinite universe. however, no lifeform is capable of controlling such power. that is the cold, hard truth of the universe.
The Thorndrigan's eyes and hands began to glow green. As the glow intensified, showing through his veins, he clutched his head in silent agony, cracks opening in his skin, beams of blinding green light shooting out of those cracks, as well as his eyes and mouth.
the end result of trying to draw out infinite spiral power would be a loss of control over that spiral power, and the energy that erupts from the lifeform's body would become a galaxy.
The Thorndrigan exploded outward into an actual full-sized galaxy, each star glowing the same emerald hue.
when this spiral energy begins to run out of control, it will instantly spawn as many galaxies as there are lifeforms in the universe.
The lifeforms around the Thorndrigan that was now a galaxy became galaxies as well.
The view expanded. This was all happening on the surface of a planet, which crumbled as every lifeform on the planet turned into a full-sized galaxy at once. The galaxies collapsed into each other, becoming so massive that even the light they projected could not escape their gravity.
But this was not a localized phenomenon. Every planet in the galaxy was suffering this same phenomenon, and every star these planets orbited fell into these galactic black holes. These supermassive black holes then devoured each other, causing the galaxy itself to wink out of existence.
the imbalance of mass would lead these new mega-galaxies to swallow each other, forming an unfathomably large black hole...
And still this was not the only galaxy which suffered such a cataclysmic end. Every galaxy in the universe had suffered a similar fate - some slower than others, some almost instantaneously - and those that did not were being rapidly drawn towards the galaxies that had.
and so this universe would return to nothingness.
All the life...
All the struggles...
All drawn into the nothingness of supermassive black holes...
As though it had never been.
As though it all meant nothing.
Even the Lucus, Gnonine, Salasine, Syne, and Undenine were being drawn in by the gravity of this impossibly realistic simulation, every particle in their bodies being stretched as thin as they could before breaking off, their bodies bifurcating their way into the singularity at the core of this universe-sized black hole...
this is the Spiral Nemesis.
And suddenly it was over. They were all in exactly the same position they were in when the Anti-Spiral began its revelation about the end of everything...
the uncontrolled process of evolution will destroy the universe in a single instant.
The Anti-Spiral lowered Lucus, Gnonine, Salasine, Syne, and Undenine to the ground, where they collapsed to their knees, barely supported by their shaking hands.
Tears dripped onto the ground.
why does a flower bloom, when it is destined to wither? its beauty is so short-lived...
Lucus's jaw quivered.
"It can't be true..." Gnonine gasped.
"No..." Lucus said. "No, it is."
"Lucus, do you hear yourself?" Undenine sobbed. "It can't be true!"
"Have you gone mad?" Salasine asked.
"Yeah!" Syne barked. "You know it can't be true!"
"No, I know that it is true," Lucus said steadily, holding a shaking hand up to his face. "Everything the Anti-Spiral said is true. I can feel it, the power of the universe - of evolution - in every cell of my body... Oh Whiteaspen, it's such a terrifying power. I always knew it was a high-risk ability, but never did I dream of this."
He looked up at Gnonine, Salasine, Syne, and Undenine. They were all looking at him with disbelief.
"But now... it's all so obvious. Spiral Power can generate matter if channeled in a certain way; a long time ago, before Spiral Power was unlocked, creating or destroying matter was thought to be impossible. And what is a black hole, but an object of extreme mass packed together in a very tight ball? It's so dense, not even light can escape. You could run as fast as you could and you wouldn't outrun the gravitational pull of a black hole."
Gnonine, Salasine, Syne, and Undenine looked down at their hands. Their fingers were trembling, as though they were afraid that closing their fists would create universe-crushing black holes.
"But every time that I piloted Huenlonix," Lucus continued, "I felt like a whole new universe was being born in every cell of my body whenever I used my Spiral Power. And when it went rampant..." Lucus grimaced. "I felt like a galaxy wanted to burst out of my chest."
"That one time you vomited blood after Teragosa 6!" Undenine piped in.
Lucus nodded slowly.
"Exactly. I kept it bottled up, but... I was terrified. Now I know why."
He looked up to the Anti-Spiral.
"Anti-Spiral, we didn't know," he pleaded. "We didn't know that we held such a terrifying power. What should we do to make up for it?"
The Anti-Spiral looked down on them.
there is a planet in the nearest star system, it explained. this star has numerous natural satellites, but only the third planet from the star harbours life. the dominant species is very close to unlocking their spiral power. you are to travel to that planet, and exterminate all life on that planet.
Lucus, his purpose now very clear, stood up. He wasn't shaking at all. Behind him, he heard Gnonine, Salasine, Syne, and Undenine stand up steadily as well.
"We'll do it, Anti-Spiral," Lucus said, saluting by slamming his right fist on his chest. Gnonine, Salasine, Syne, and Undenine followed suit.
very well. if you plan to commandeer this hellship, you will need to exterminate everyone on board. many of them are also very strong with spiral power, and will need to be put down at any rate.
Lucus hesitated.
Only for an instant.
"If it keeps the Spiral Nemesis from happening, we'll do it."
He turned to face Gnonine, Salasine, Syne, and Undenine.
"Won't we, guys?"
"Yessir!" Gnonine, Salasine, Syne, and Undenine said, saluting.
Lucus nodded appreciatively, without a smile.
He would never smile again.
in that case, said the Anti-Spiral, rising up to the transparisteel ceiling of the Hellship bridge, we shall be lifting the perceptual barrier. be prepared to fight.
The Anti-Spiral vanished from sight, and the surrounding bridge suddenly became populated with the bridge crewmembers, all standing in a circle around the spot where Lucus, Gnonine, Salasine, Syne, and Undenine had vanished from. The surrounding bridge seemed a little too bright and colorful; had the perceptual barrier deadened the perception of colors?
"Lucus! Boys!" said Crysantem hoarsely, taking Lucus's hand. "You said you heard the Anti-Spiral talking to you, and then you just... vanished! The spot you were standing in went all gray and..." Crysantem's eye creased with annoyance. "Are you listening to me, Lucus? You look distracted."
Lucus was looking around the room at every one of the crewmembers on the bridge. There were ten million crewmembers on the ship in total.
Ten million possible triggers for the Spiral Nemesis.
Best remove them from the equation.
Starting here.
Lucus snapped his eyes to Goldyew and, before the general could respond, drove a fist straight through his chest. The old Thorndrigan was dead before he hit the floor.
The remaining bridge crewmembers were too stunned by this behavior - and the surrounding Anti-Spiral battleships - to put up much further resistance. Lucus tore crewmembers limb from limb; Syne crushed several skulls; Undenine suffocated them under his tail; Salasine snapped several necks; and Gnonine strangled those he could reach.
In a matter of minutes, the bridge was splattered with blood and broken bodies.
Looking around the bridge to ensure no more survivors, Lucus beckoned his four comrades to the communications console. He keyed in the security code, then set up a firewall to prevent any outside communications onboard the Hellship.
With a twitch of Lucus's will, the Gizoid hangar doors hundreds of miles away locked themselves.
There would be no escaping Gizoids.
Without another word, Lucus, Gnonine, Salasine, Syne, and Undenine stepped into the teleporter, heading for the hangar.
The communications officer crawled up to the console with her single remaining arm, petals falling from the flowers on her head. That they were wilting meant she would be dead soon. She activated the shipwide announcement system, and said into the microphone, "Attention, all crewmembers... Lucus Darkoak and his... companions... have been brainwashed... by the Anti-Spiral... They are... to be terminated... on sight... Do not... let them pilot... a Gizoid..."
She slid down the console, and the communications officer died.
The Hellship would live up to her name.
CHAPTER FOUR:
No...
つづく
To be continued...