Operation: Shadow Purge [CHICAGO: NORTH SECTOR EVENT]

Her own inner hunch had been well founded. The beast was not only clever but immensely more powerful than she was initially led to believe. Despite her efforts and her carefully planned strategy, the disk created through Engelscheibe had not managed to hit its target. Regardless of her attempts to use her ability, The Melody, to enhance the chances of it connecting, an ulterior force had been at play. Instead, Engelscheibe had seemed to slow down before caving onto itself, creating an explosion that was both surprising yet beautiful nonetheless, however contrasting to the dreadful look of her surroundings. The outcome made the prodigy question what sorts of abilities the titanic being kept largely stowed away from them. It was impossible to figure out the details of such skill but the hints provided were enough to make assumptions based on what was witnessed. However right or mistaken she might have been about her hunches would likely be gambles she would need to weigh in and balance, in careful assessment to down the demonic entity.

In some way, the ability managed to slow and break down or eat away at Engelscheibe. It didn’t seem to be a wall or a kind of barrier as she would have been inclined to believe her technique would have sliced through it effortlessly had that been the case. The question remained as to whether she possessed an acid like ability or the means to break down energy. Regardless however, Sofia would keep her guard up and remain extra cautious. There was no reason to believe the demon’s ability was limited to only acting up against spiritual forces. Most likely, it could also have an effect on spiritual beings. That however, was a gamble she was not willing to stake her life on at the time. Despite it, perfection did not exist in anything. Even beings who clamored and boasted about being god-like suffered the flaws and disadvantages of imperfection. The ability shown by the beast and the results of its use seemed to be without flaw, but Sofia knew otherwise. As a musician, she was well acquainted with the trek and struggle in creating a musical art that was as close to perfection as possible. However, even for her, an individual who was known and praised for her prodigious musical skill, she was far from perfection. As the battle ensued and its climax inched closer, the ebony hair lady would continuously make attempts to force the demonic titan to make a mistake until the fated one which would likely seal its end.

”Proud to be fighting alongside you, both.”

The mental words were meant to be directed at both Niflheim and Toshiko, the latter whom had just arrived onto the field. The battle was about to become all kinds of interesting with the trio amassing their skills in unison to rid the city of the dark intent of the demon. Despite the incurred distance among them however, the three would be able to talk to each other telepathically with ease thanks to the construct and benefits awarded by the reishi convergence systems they were a part of back in the City of Light. Before Sofia could say anything else however, she received a rather strange and oddly timed mental picture.

W-was that a wink… she thought to herself, widening her eyes in shock as a an expression of bewildered confusion overwhelmed her.

It didn’t take long to figure out who had done so however. It would have been difficult to assign fault of it to Niflheim, so the only logical choice was her good perverted childhood friend, Toshiko.

”Not the right time Toshiko,” she grunted in her mind as she watched a plethora of the infected run in numerous locations seemingly without orderly reason or intent to do so.

Toshiko was an interesting and integral part of Sofia’s life. She was a childhood friend that was both unlike her as far as personality and drive, and very much alike in terms of talent in different fields like her. Above it all, she was a dearly beloved friend, just as Niflheim was slowly becoming not just someone Sofia respected and trusted, but someone she could eventually truly come to call a good friend. Though she was pleased with Toshiko’s arrival, easily noticeable through the smile of amusement and gratitude she displayed, there was also a very clear uneasy look to her expression. The nature of the uneasy look however would be unclear to most besides Toshiko, perhaps, maybe Niflheim. There were very little chances Toshiko would allow the pervy side of herself show too much during a battle where their lives hanged by a thread, but the memories of events of the past were recollections that made Sofia stop, think, and take a subconscious and metaphoric step back.

”Niflheim, Toshiko, please limit your use of communication to strictly necessary information. The enemy is unruly and unpredictable, and the abilities it possess, largely unknown. We can’t risk plans being foiled by unnecessarily discussed information.”

As a celebrity in the social levels that had any interest in music, she was aware of the term every mic is a hot mic. Even when people were not listening, if something had even the slightest possibility of being heard, one always had to assume that it was. As such, it was best to be cautious about what was shared around a beast whose full extent of power was largely unknown. The three knew each other enough to be semi aware of at least some of the abilities they possessed. As for the rest, they could easily communicate without giving long winded speeches.

Sofia was powerful and talented, but that was hardly the only reasons she had been chosen to lead the Jagdarmee. Each of the Captains as well as members of the Vandenreich who meant something needed more than just power to claim the spots they possessed. They needed more than that to lead, and push the Quincy through new thresholds of development. Toshiko was a gifted prodigy in all technological and mechanical things. Her art, while definitely different than Sofia’s was amazing and beautiful in their own right. Sofia was known not just for her prodigal musical and artistically balanced combat style however. Her love and near addiction to order and balance allowed her to carry on the steady rhythmic tempo of music and battle to most things she did in life. It was that order, composure, and collected persona, even in the face of dire adversity that enabled her to keep her men and her companions sane. Even against unlikely odds, with a titan that possessed untold power, she was able to reflect an expression that exuded a serene and graceful nature, despite how she might have felt within. If anything, it was that serene and calmed disposition that usually allowed her friends to feel at ease and more readily capable to combat the forces that opposed them.

As the trio readied their attacks, the musical prodigy felt a sudden surge in her own power. It seemed to be thanks to Niflheim own abilities. She could feel her body lighter and more nimble, it also felt as if she could create surges of power and damage with her attacks beyond what she could have done on her on beforehand. Likewise, it seemed to enhance not just the offensive but also the defensive aspect of her abilities. In essence, from that time on, Sofia’s attacks and defenses as well as those of the Quincy in the field would see the spectrum of effect and outcome of their skills increase exponentially in the best of ways. With the increase in their energy potentials, the uplifting feeling allowed her to be able to discern yet another familiar spiritual signal among the field. Though she could be mistaken, it was likely Spranche. None of her men would have disobeyed her orders. He however… he was a special case. While it would have been best for him to stay elsewhere, a part of her was glad he followed his own rebellious nature through. The unique set of skills he possessed were odd and unorthodox enough that, if used with purpose, they could come in handy and potentially strengthen the Captain duo and the Elect on their effort to down the foe. His ability was something she still didn’t fully understand. But, it was that odd and currently indecipherable nature of it that made it so difficult to counteract. If he could figure out a way to assist them without dying, perhaps the music in the battlefield could play a different tune, one that was sweeter and largely in their favor.

Thanks to Niflheim’s own masterful use of reishi manipulation, a supernatural storm had been created in the field. It obscured not only their physical bodies but their spiritual signals as well. Whether that truly veiled them from the beast was to be decided, but alas, Sofia could still tell where her companions were. In her case, she believed it was thanks to her own talent with reishi and the ease with which she could pinpoint the areas of great reishi convergence. Those areas were most often where a Quincy stood. Beyond it however, there was the slight feeling as though the storm itself enhanced that notion, allowing the Quincy within it to be able to feel and see where their companions were at all times, despite the potential difficulty of the foes to do the same.

Rather than jumping into the action however, Sofia would await, momentarily to observe the result of her companion’s attacks and analyze the calculated movements and actions of the beast. If she could reason the intent, the notion, and the drive that made her react as she did, perhaps she could discover a weakness or the means to harm her with more ease. Despite having had to deal with Sofia’s Engelscheibe, the surge in the Quincy’s power and the supernatural storm, the titan was still able to face up against the incoming attacks. The plethora of arrows fired by the Elect had been deflected save for a single one that had managed to hit the titan’s backside. She needed to be weary of the twin blades of the demon. They showed to be capable of displaying enough power to smack away the powerful volley of arrows with ease. However, it was interesting to see that one had managed to hit for some reason.

Not allowing the demon a chance to rest, a series of extremely loud shots could be heard, fired from Toshiko’s location in an attempt to finish the demon. The shots were loud enough to be easily discernable but not enough to drown out the sounds of music that still echoed throughout the field. Instead, they seemed to be akin to the perfect addition of drums or some kind of percussion to an already nearly perfect symphonic ensemble. The demon would react quite interestingly to the attack however. Using some of the infected as meat shields, it would guard against one of the shots. A different shot, aimed at the midsection of the demon would end up hitting her, but alas, the damage created seemed rather unnoticeable. It made no sense. Sofia had sparred and trained enough with Toshiko to be fully aware of how capable she was in combat. There was no way her shots had gotten that weak, let alone while already using on her Vollstanding. The situation reminded her of what had happened to her Engelscheibe earlier. Either through the same means used before, or some akin to it, the speed and power of the shot could have deteriorate it, saving the demon from excess harm. There was an even bigger burning question however. It puzzled her why Toshiko’s attack had managed to hit, albeit meekly, when her sharp spinning disk hadn’t. They both traveled at excessively fast speeds. Toshiko’s was a bit faster and was aided by her Vollstanding release. It could have been either because of that, or due to the large amount of attacks the demon was exposed to. Niflheim had not released either, and her power wasn’t much higher than Sofia’s so she had to assume, under quite testable hypothesis, that the demonic titan was at a disadvantage not just with speed, but against numerous attacks at once coupled with the latter. If she were to target the demon however, she would need to make sure to avoid the swords. For the most part, she had been able to deal with most attacks that had been directed there. The arrows had been deflected and the last of Toshiko’s shots had been swung back at her at speeds that seemed deadly. Though the analysis did little in securing a concrete victory, Sofia enjoyed taking in the details and making a calculated and orderly plan to follow. It was the best way she knew to do things. It was her preferred method to learn and master new music and master opponents in the battlefield as well.

While worried about Spranche and Toshiko following the arrows and the shot that had been swung their way, Sofia couldn’t allow herself to be distracted. She needed to trust they were strong and capable of defending themselves. If she allowed doubt to cloud her trust and her judgement, the battle would be lost before it even reached its climax.

”Stay strong everyone.”

When the titan jumped high into the air, the Jagdarmee Captain would make no attempt to follow. Though her analyses had proven useful, she was much too clever to rush forth foolishly. If she got too close without knowing, there was a chance she could end up like her disk or the center of mass shot fired from Toshiko’s location. Instead, she stayed back, Geigenbogen still on one of her hands, further analyzing the details to make the right moves at the right time. As the demon descended however, it seemed ready to unleash a devastating attack. From the location of the titan, large amounts of dense black energy would erupt upwards and away like a volcano spewing lava. There was no telling what kind of abilities the energy possessed or the nature of it. As such, the only real notion she could discern was that it was best to stay away from it, and to attribute it the potential effects she had seen used to weaken the Quincy’s attacks.

Wasting no time, Sofia would use her hirenkyaku, aided by her use of The Melody, to create a sound wave that helped her be pushed farther away from the beast at very fast speeds. At the same time, she would focus, one of her hands being coated in reishi. From that action, an extremely large Quincy pentacle, easily about 10 meters appeared right behind the titan’s back, and underneath the erupting flow of black energy. Due to the nature of the movement and direction the black energy possessed, the pentacle was safe from its effects, at least for the split second necessary to do as it intended. The pentacle was about half the size of the titan, and roughly about as tall as the distance from her head to her waist. The inside of the pentacle was lined up with several Quincy styled blades that formed the shape of the pentacle. Right as it was formed, the edges of the pentacle would break down on its letting the blades fall and acquire a very durable, rubber like shape that seemed adhesive in nature. The swords would drape over the titan. Thanks to Vergeltung, the ability nature, dodging its effects would be highly unlikely. The pentacle was created around an specific and foreign source of energy unlike that of the user, so attempting to flee would have only caused the pentacle to remain with the target as it moved, maintaining its original location. The blades wouldn’t pierce or cut however. Instead they would wrap and bind around the demon’s upper body. They would intend to gather around the face, the neck, wrists, arms and all the way down to her waist. The length of the malleable blades made it a perfect choice for someone as large as the demon. As such, it was highly unlikely that she would be able to move her upper body any time soon. And, should she choose to resist, overpower, or destroy Vergeltung through other unforeseeable means, she would encounter the aftermath of the effects created by the rather peculiar technique.

The Quincy prodigy made sure to make no movement in vain however. A genius in music, just like a chess master or a genius in battle always tried to stay several steps ahead. It allowed the chance of careful planning to be successful, and to create fail safe alternatives should plans go astray. As soon as she had created Vergeltung, Sofia used a combination technique making use of her Zwanzig Engelsblätter. All around her, twenty large Quincy styled blades, just slightly larger than herself would appear. At her whim, the blades would fire off at speeds that were difficult to follow with the eye. While not bullet shots, they traveled almost as fast as the latter. As she created distance between the beast and herself, the subtle movements of her geigenbogen allowed odd and erratic musical waves to create equally odd and erratic movement patterns to the blades. Targeting a few of the blades could be possible, but targeting and succeeding at stopping or blocking all of them would be nearly impossible due to the nature of the misdirection applied to each of them in slightly different ways. Beyond that, the being would have to contend with not only the erratic movement but the speed as well of several blades. And it was that speed that had shown to cause the beast issues earlier. Furthermore, focusing on the rapidly moving and direction alternating blades before it, would render the binding pentacle behind her free to grab and take hold freely. Thanks to her own calculated strategy, both of the attacks had been placed on angles that were saved from the potentially deteriorating reach of the black energy. The swords were fired low enough and fast enough to be able to reach the target before the eruption of black energy descended onto the field. As for the pentacle, it was right underneath the eruption, causing the time for the energy to spew and redirect downwards and towards the giant both precarious and time consuming. Time however, was what the titan lacked, as the calculation had been made for attack patterns that revolved both around high speed and a plethora of movements.

”This is your chance, use it.”

The words were telepathically directed to both Niflheim and Toshiko. If they were going to make their move, the time was right.

Right as the blades seemed ready to pierce however, they would thin and blunt throughout their length leaving only the tips extremely sharp. The much thinner nature could only have made intercepting them more difficult. If successful, the twenty blades would hit and pierce the thighs, knees, and lower legs and feet. Right after piercing however, the tips of the blades would open up in a form of grappling hook, with nigh invisible dense strings of reishi connected outwards into the atmosphere around the Quincy. The combination was done as a way to trap both the upper body and the lower body of the demon through two extremely powerful techniques. Both techniques were extremely dense in reishi and her own reiryoku, so even with the effects of the blood from her arm, they would likely last long enough to allow the team to make their moves. While not deadly, it would allow Toshiko, Niflheim, and Sofia to deliver the blows needed to down the titan.

”Tell ya what Toshiko,” said Sofia once she had created quite a bit of distance, before impaling the Geigenbogen on the ground next to her.

”If we win this,” she started extending both of her hands, ”We can do anything you want next week.” It would be a statement that she would likely come to regret assuming they were able to make it out alive.

From one of her hands, a large conundrum of reishi like webbing in the form of strands was shot outwards. It was her customized technique, Ransotengai: Rengoku. Rather than sticking the technique to an object however, Sofia simply shot it outward despite the likelihood of the attack caving down on its own with nothing to tag itself to. From the other hand however, a large white and blue blast, Schweifstern, would be fired as well. The blast was easily among Sofia’s fastest technique, easily able to cross a 100 meters in a near instant. In fact, the very nature of the technique was to travel extremely fast, trying to avoid being stopped at all costs through any means. However, if the technique was stopped or the reishi and reiryoku it contained happened to be exposed against the spiritual signal of the foe, it would stop and cause its explosion of catastrophic proportions. And, finally free from her calculated moves, Sofia would pick up her geigenbogen again. With it, she would make extremely quick and short strokes with her violin bow. The music that flowed from her could be compared to the perfect fusion between classical music and a semi modern style known as dubstep. Regardless, the music had the effect of messing with Ransotengai: Rengoku and Schweifstern. By its unruly nature, Ransotengai: Rengoku was made of of a variety of webbing strands that spread out in different directions. The energy from Schweifstern was being carried by the latter, allowing both to coexist until the blast was stopped. The music from her ability, The Melody however, only helped to hasten the speed at which the techniques traveled and the distance it covered. Thanks to the unique nature of Schweifstern however, being stopped, specially with the space and range it had been allowed to attain was very likely. Unfortunately for the titan, using her abilities to slow, stop, or try to destroy Schweifstern would turn out to be quite disadvantageous to her.

And so, continuing to play her music, she would move out the energies, strengthen the bonds binding the titan’s upper and lower body, and create a rhythmic and beautiful battle cry that enticed and uplifted the spirits of the Quincy around her.

Spoiler: