(28)

The motorcycle's engine roared between her legs as she gunned the throttle, sending the bike nearly skipping across the field. The vehicle should have been an uncontrolled mess careening toward a fiery crash, as Nariko Kelly had certainly never driven anything more complex than a bicycle. And it was true that the brunette had no memory of ever having driven a motorcycle, either.

But the body never forgets. This reckless charge, rather than an adrenaline-pumping danger, felt familiar. Normal. Not safe. No one would ever describe these speeds as safe even on a flat, straight road in full protective gear, and she was doing it across an unpaved, brush-pocked field in near-darkness without so much as a helmet or goggles.

Reina's motorcycle was no dirt bike, and she was pretty sure that if this hadn't been one generated by the seal, she'd be paying back her upperclassman for all of the undercarriage damage this was going to do. Her mind drifted briefly between dodging rocks and small trees to how she wouldn't mind just doing the repair work, herself, but she had a hunch Nariko didn't have much of a history in small engine mechanics. Too much of a red flag.

Damn, she wanted her own bike. But then what would Nariko do with it after she left? And how would her parents react?

... Okay, Marcus would probably be all on board, but Saki seemed like a hard sell. Maybe she could get Anna to help her convince them to let her get a fixer-upper.

The motorcycle tried to buck away from her, but she immediately compensated with her body mass. The next moment, she sent it shooting up a half-fallen tree and flying into the open air.

At the height of the jump, she chanced a glance back. In the distance, she could see the train, but several of the cars were already lagging behind. The girls were already on it, then. That meant it was almost time for her to do her part.

She turned her attention ahead again, her body keeping the bike level instead of letting it spin out of control as it headed back toward the ground. The bridge was in sight, and the back tire tried to spin out while the shock absorbers strained against the impact before the treads caught traction.

... Y'know, if she did get a fixer-upper, it'd be like bringing it back from the dead. Would it be too edgy to name it Dullahan?

She skidded sideways into a cloud of dirt as she brought the bike to a stop, then kicked the stand down. She climbed off of the bike and a few quick steps brought her onto the tracks.

She could already feel them vibrating through her boots as she turned her back to the bridge, and in a flash of gold, her other weapon appeared in her off-hand.

She could see the flames coming out of the front of the train, and a part of her quivered in deeply-ingrained fear of such a machine. All of her life, people were told not to do exactly what she was doing now. Countless stories of reckless idiots populated entertainment media and safety classes. Even within a steel car, you wouldn't survive, and the train was always faster than it looked. If a human were at the wheel, there would still be no way for it to avoid her. At full brake, it took a train a solid mile to come to a complete stop.

She quashed that line of thought immediately. Magic was driven by will, like Shield Witch's impenetrable barrier. Only absolute will would create the most miraculous outcome. She wouldn't permit the thought that she could fail. For that matter, she wouldn't even tolerate the thought that she could succeed.

She raised the pistol as she took a breath and planted her feet like Reina had shown her. Maybe it was mystical hooloo, but she had a hunch that precious little in this world reached the Witches accidentally. The pistol barrel was level with her ear and her eyes were focused on the front of the oncoming train. She would pour her all into this, all at once, and then keep pouring.

Her grip tightened on the gun as energy began to spark around her. Only one thought could possibly be allowed: Her success was inevitable, because she was Sword Witch, and her obstacle was only a train.

... Yeah, no, she couldn't name her bike Dullahan. That was stupid. She wasn't even really a high school student, there was no excuse for catching a second bout of Middle School Syndrome.

The plasma particle beam lanced across the distance with such pressure that the air contracted into silence ...

... And then the world between the two forces detonated.

* * *

The shockwave hit the car with so much force even the three Witches inside were slammed against whatever was in front of them. Flame Witch cried out and swore, but Sacred Witch turned back toward the civilians, fearful of what she'd see.

"Ran!"

"I've got them," Shield Witch confirmed, and sure enough, barriers surrounded each of the passengers, despite the gunmetal-haired girl, herself, being plastered up against Sacred Witch's back. As Sacred Witch watched, all of the individual bubbles gathered into a large one holding all of the car's passengers and it began rising up through the hole in the roof. "But I am only able to focus on the car I can see. We will be seeing more injuries in the rest of the cars."

"Damn it," Flame Witch swore again. "Isn't this too soon?"

"If Sword Witch has already started her attack," their leader observed as she pushed herself back to her feet, "then we are out of time. Homura, go straight to the front-most passenger car and sever it directly. Wakumi and I will follow. We no longer have the luxury of taking these one at a time. We have to remove as much mass as possible, defenses be damned."

"I'm on it!"

The redhead jumped for the hole, but she hardly set foot on the roof before her jaw dropped open, blinding cascades of light reflecting off of her eyes. "... What the heck, Kelly?!"

Behind her, she vaguely heard Sacred Witch and Shield Witch landing on the roof, as well, but they stopped, too. She looked back at them, the corona of lightning energy washing across their senses causing all of their hair to drift upwards despite the decreasing winds. "You guys are seeing this, too, right?! Isn't this way too much?!"

They could see the beam from there, slamming into the front of the engine, but it was so much energy that it couldn't all dissipate on impact. Instead, it flowed out and over the train like a wave, forming an intense, extremely low-altitude aurora.

Shield Witch began to stretch out her hand, but hesitated. "... I didn't realize she could generate this much energy ... Even as Thunder Witch ... She shouldn't be able to maintain this level of output ..."

Flame Witch's mind immediately went back to the fight against her family armor. How much fighting Kelly had done before she started to flag. On one hand, a part of her questioned if the brunette had taken it easy on her, or if she really had such limited understanding of her powers back then. If she'd struck with that sword with even a portion of this energy, she would have blown the entire dojo into the sky. Nevermind that open shot she'd landed.

But the overall focus of her mind was understanding what Ran was talking about. "She should have burnt out in seconds already. How is she still going?!"

And what enemy had they faced before now that could have endured it? Weren't they witnessing something utterly ridiculous?!

"A last stand is truly a miraculous thing to witness ..."

Natsumi's eyes shot to Sacred Witch like her leader had just turned into a monster. "What did you say?!"

But Tamashini just started forward. "She's giving everything she has for the sake of everyone still onboard. If that's going to count for anything, we have to hurry."

The redhead grunted, but redoubled her grip on the demonic wakizashi. Don't you DARE fucking die on us, Kelly, she thought to herself as she hurried after Sacred Witch. I won't forgive you!

The Witches cleared the last few cars at a sprint and jumped down to a platform between the foremost one and the engine. The back of the protodemon train snarled at them with a monstrous face made of smoke that twisted like black snakes, blocking the door to the inside.

The bigger concern was the wall of guns and cannons around it that all wheeled about to aim at the girls.

Sacred Witch and Flame Witch dove for what cover there was while Shield Witch raised her barrier against the incoming fire.

"People, I get!" Natsumi yelled over the lead hailstorm. "You're bound to meet plenty of nasty passengers over the better part of a century! But when did this thing get the opportunity to copy a fucking military train?!

"It doesn't matter!" Reina shouted back. "If we can't get past it, Sword Witch and everyone still on board could die!"

Flame Witch's eyes widened. "No ..." She raised her voice again. "We don't have to get past it! We just have to sever the car!"

She charged from her cover, blade in hand, leaving Sacred Witch to only reach out after her. "Homura, wait!"

Natsumi went right for the hitch, determined to cleave it apart at any cost, drawing the sword back high overhead, prepared to focus all of her fury on the demonic steel beneath her feet.

A stray shot made it past Ran's barrier and a force like her limb was being yanked from her body threw her back.

"Natsumi!" Ran screamed, turning away from the barrage.

"I'm fine!" she shouted back. She wasn't actually sure she was, but she knew she wasn't dead, and that was close enough. It was more important that Ran didn't lose her focus. She pulled herself up and examined her hand. It was intact, but sore. She ran her other hand over her forearm as she flexed her fingers. Nothing seemed broken.

... Wait ... she was flexing her fingers. Her empty fingers.

Flame Witch immediately jerked her head around. "The sword!"

"It's gone ..." Sacred Witch's expression from behind her cover was crestfallen. "The shot knocked it out of your hand ..."

The redhead turned her attention down to the linking assembly and cursed. Just one more. They only had one more ...!

"... We've got to get the people out of the cars," Sacred Witch said, changing priorities as if the conclusion were absolute.

"No."

Sacred Witch paused and looked back at Flame Witch, who looked like she was starting to snarl at the connector. "It's over, Homura. The sword is gone. We can find it later, but we have to do what we can for the people now."

"It's just a sword!" Homura clenched her fist so hard it shook. "All it does is focus power! It was my strength!" She started stalking toward the hitch again. "RAN, COVER ME!!!"

Shield Witch looked back only for a moment to confirm what was going on, then moved to provide her friend total coverage with her barrier, her sole focus on protecting that small reverse cone. Her barrier shrunk, but brightened with its concentration of power.

Sacred Witch clearly wanted to step in, to stop her. A part of Natsumi almost wished she'd try. Instead, Flame Witch stopped over the connection, drew her fist back and slammed it down into the steel.

Her knuckles rebounded off painfully, but the pain only riled her up more. There was no way this thing was more stubborn than she was!

The next blow was loaded with explosive fire magic, and the next one, and the one after that. She rained blows down, but when she paused to catch her breath, the metal was only dented. She'd never get through at this rate, and that thought drew a snarl out of her.

Was the sword really that big of a deal?! It was just a weapon! Sure, it channeled her magic, but ...

She brought her fist up before her and stared at its clenched form speculatively. She only vaguely heard Sacred Witch shouting something at her from behind. Probably wanting her to give up.

Natsumi Homura didn't give up.

She tried to remember her lessons about focusing her strength into her blows, concentrating on the basics to still her mind against her rage. Surely, it could apply to her magic, as well.

Kelly had tried it, against that demon at the haunted house. But Kelly hadn't been transformed, her innate resistance to her own electricity had been present but minimal. Even Natsumi could be burned when she wasn't transformed.

What had that sword felt like when she'd swung it? When she'd used it to shatter her family's ancestral armor? That feel of power sucking down her limb, swelling into a great weight.

... Yeah, trying it with her finisher might shatter her arm, resistance or no.

She narrowed her eyes down at the hated steel. What happened to her didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was breaking -

- this piece -

- of JUNK!!!

"Furious Dragon's EXPLOSION!!!"

* * *

The plume of fire was visible from clear back at the bridge, but as the final cars started to drift back away from the engine, Sword Witch couldn't spare the energy to be glad. All of her focus had to stay on maintaining the attack.

It felt like trying to exhale long after the last air had been shoved from her lungs, but she knew there was still "air" to give. A Witch's actual magical energy was near limitless, after all, or so her fifth-dimensional teacher had said. Far greater than they could actually expel, anyway.

If she stopped, if she let up for even a moment, a part of her felt that she might never channel magic again. That was no doubt overdramatic, but she'd surely fry so much of whatever arcane muscles did the deed that she certainly wouldn't be doing any more right away. Maybe not for days.

If she stopped, she wouldn't have days. She had to keep it going, she had to keep the channels open. Everything had to be poured into stopping this train, even as her eyes blurred from tears of strain, even as her muscles threatened to cramp. Even as she began to feel faint.

She thought the gun was getting warm in her hands, but they had gone mostly numb for a while, so it was hard to really be sure.

If this had been a regular train, it would have surely been obliterated by now, if she hadn't just blown a hole straight through it with her opening shot. The protodemon curse held it together like a barrier against her attack.

It was still coming, though. It had slowed tremendously, visibly so, but it was still coming.

What she wouldn't give for a second gun, though she wasn't sure it would really generate more force since it was still drawing from the same battery. If she was already putting out all she had, she couldn't really do more, just split what she was putting out.

The train was drawing closer, almost agonizingly. She didn't want to die.

Oh, gosh, why would that thought show up now?

She clenched her eyes and focused every ounce of her remaining willpower against the demonic engine.

The shrieking of its wheels was tremendous now, as they spun far more rapidly than the momentum they were generating. Sparks flew as they ground against the iron tracks. The engine seemed to pump all the more angrily as if it were trying to find that bit more steam to overtake her.

Most of the cars had been abandoned in favor of heading on to the next, and the next. Without being pulled, simple friction would stop them eventually, but empty of their cargo, there was nobody within to actually pull the emergency brakes.

They still held much of their force as they caught up with the engine and slammed into its back end. They crumpled, they derailed, they screamed.

Caught between the force of the Witch and the force of the cars, the engine's back end was knocked up, allowing more cars to pile in even as it changed the angle the blast was hitting its nose.

In an instant, all of the energy involved, its own drive train, the particle beam, the steel pile-up, collided and blasted it end over end overhead.

For a moment, the brunette froze, certain all of those tons of steel and fire were going to land on her.

...

... and it sailed over her head and into the ravine beneath the bridge as the last of the cars came to a stop in a pile of their own.

The explosion sent a plume of heat and fire high enough that it came back up above the tracks and several more stories still, the cloud cooling into an ominously skull-shaped mushroom before it dissipated.

Sword Witch still stood there, her pistol still raised, but some part of her just stopped working. She just stared blankly ahead as her body tried to process that it was over.

And then she face-planted onto the tracks.

* * *

Coal red eyes stared from a distance as Dakunaito watched the Witches reunite. The imposter would be fine in time, he knew. He could only imagine what she'd done to herself with that stunt, but a Witch's regeneration was in some ways even more impressive than that of a greater demon.

Moreover, she'd impressed him. She really had inherited Thunder Witch's power, but even that wouldn't have been enough if she hadn't so intelligently divided the resources at her disposal.

Technically, this meant that he had failed his emperor. This attack had been meant to thin their numbers in line with the predictions for the Arbiter's dues, to tip the scale that had so stubbornly remained balanced far longer than the diviners said it should have.

Surprisingly, he couldn't bring himself to care. Sure, he wasn't one of the zealots, and he'd never put much faith in divination, anyway, but normally, his dedication to the emperor was absolute. Something about it just didn't seem as binding in the wake of the display he'd just witnessed.

He had found a potential protodemon of such incredible power, and it hadn't been enough. The Witches had overcome it. The imposter had overcome it.

Her potential called to him. It wasn't a sensation he was familiar with, something deep within him like a forgotten objective. It felt similar to what he felt at the prospect of awakening a powerful protodemon, but at the same time, it was as if it were telling him that such a sensation for a mere protodemon was a whimpering thing. He wanted to see if she could go far enough.

Far enough for what? He wasn't sure. Still, how ironic it was that it would be the imposter of Thunder Witch, of all of their number, that would do so.

Dakunaito jerked his head to the side just as he felt a presence, only for it to promptly vanish, and the red lights within the darkness of his helmet narrowed.

... There had been someone else there, watching as he had been, but he hadn't even felt their presence until they went to leave. Who could have hidden themselves from him so thoroughly?

... No one, he concluded. No one could have, especially since he was certain it hadn't been a demon. But what else could it have been?