Chapter 30: Dropping A Bomb

Evelyn didn't know how long the fight lasted. Her entire world had been reduced to the few yards surrounding her, no thoughts to spare for anything farther away than ten yards or a single second. Any major mistake could have led to death, either hers or that of some of the people relying on her to hold her part of the flank. She could have been fighting for five minutes or five hours, it wouldn't have made a difference to her. The only change she noticed was one so infinitesimally small she didn't even understand it at first.

She had been surrounded on all sides. Behind her were her companions, both the other cadets and the camp guards, while in front of her was the enemy. And while Evelyn had gotten far stronger, far more powerful than a normal human could hope to be, she hadn't grown any taller. She was still only five feet four and all of the cyborgs she faced towered above her. She couldn't see over her foes and she couldn't see past them. These crowds of foes weren't merely dangerous, they were also oppressive, a horde of enemies pressing towards her to such an extent that they crowded out the light.

So when her surroundings started to get lighter she barely even registered what that change meant. And then it clicked. She, no, they, were making progress, gradually thinning their opponents' numbers until, finally, light was beginning to break through their ranks.

“One last push!” the dark-skinned Awakener Elaine had gone out drinking with shouted and it was as if a switch had been flipped.

Even the Shard Bearers that had only barely managed to hold their own stormed ahead, spells and guns blazing and M-skills at the ready. Everyone did their part, no matter how big or small, while Abigail's voice rang out with the most overblown Power Metal cover Evelyn had ever heard.

**

Those numbers seemed a little engineered to Elaine. If she wasn't completely off her mark they would be exactly enough to let every single one of her... girls... reach a nice, even number of EXP. She wasn't about to question it, though. After all, the Professor had already mentioned that these EXP were an abstraction.

Although that opened up the question of whether there might be ways to gain EXP that didn't involve fighting...

She shook herself out of it and instead admired the carnage. There had been an army standing against them. Her and a few of the others had taken out their back-line and the mechs had taken care of the big stuff but still. Project Divinity consisted of less than three dozen fighters. Even taking into account the several dozen camp guards they'd been ridiculously outnumbered and not only had they won, they'd won without any casualties or major injuries.

If this was the best this Caulder guy had to offer then they might not be in as much trouble as they'd thought. Elaine bit her lip as she wondered whether she'd made the right decision, shedding her humanity just to make this a little easier. But then she remembered that the vast majority of the world was still overrun by Outsiders. She also remembered the Professor's words, his mention that Lacrima had once been barred from entering the afterlife but weren't anymore. If she ever truly desired death, she could make it happen.

She shook her head violently. This was not the time to be thinking about that. She'd just won a major victory in the fight against the Outsiders, her family was safe and she had four gorgeous hotties fawning over her. If ever there was a moment to not worry about death and the future, it was now.

So when Marcus let out a cheer she joined in, as loud as she could. But as she did she noticed a figure, far off in the distance, on a hill just barely tall enough to overlook the entire battlefield. He was far enough away that, if her eyesight hadn't grown supernaturally good, she wouldn't have noticed the figure at all. But it had and so she did.

The figure was a man, his skin had a Mediterranean tan and he wore a black toga. His hair was long and gray and he had a full beard to go along with it. Everything inside of Elaine screamed at her that this man was not a man at all but a being so vile and evil that her mind would strain to make sense of it. She was about to give the figure a scan when he shifted just slightly and suddenly she felt his gaze on her. Even with her supernaturally good eyesight she shouldn't have been able to make out his eye color but even so she knew his eyes were purple and millions of stars swirled inside his pupils. He was miles away but even so it was as if she could feel his breath on the back of her neck. She shuddered and he gave her a very small smile before disappearing.

But before she could worry about what the figure had been her team was crowding around her. Soon enough her worries were forgotten for the moment and she made sure to hug them all, even Abigail, who stiffened a bit in surprise before melting into the hug.

“You've gotten even buffer,” Ophelia said with a bit of a purr in her voice. “Can't wait to see you out of that armor. Oh wait, I already did when I helped clean you up. Yum.”

Elaine smiled. She was glad to have her girls back, even if she'd never really lost them.

And then her regained good mood was wiped away when a message flashed up in her vision.

**

“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Jane the mermaid growled as she stared at her screens.

“What is it?” Clio asked. The green-haired mermaid had been busy monitoring the cadets' progress so she couldn't see what her partner at the scanners was seeing.

“That energy spike we noticed three days ago?” Jane asked. “You know, the one that meant some asshole had teleported an army onto the highway leading to the refugee camp?”

“What, have you managed to track it down to its source?” Clio asked.

“Fat chance,” Jane said. “No, but there was another one just now.”

“What?!” Clio demanded, halfway out of her seat.

“Yeah,” Jane said. “Hold on. Pru was smart enough to put a drone down where she spotted that army. Let me wake it up.”

Jane futzed around with some displays, both AR and real, while Clio and Themisto, the other two mermaids on staff, crowded behind her. Finally Jane had the drone up and running. It wasn't one of those big drones you hear about on the news, not something that basically amounted to an unmanned fighter jet. It was barely more than a little toy quad-copter drone, except state of the art – for Heaven. The thing came with more scanners than a military base and better cameras than the fussiest YouTuber used.

And as she sent it soaring into the sky Jane quickly realized that she had been right. There was a whole new army marching on the camp, even bigger than the first one.

Themisto, the last one of the three to have taken a dip in their nice indoor pool (read: glorified fish tank) put on her slippers and hurried to inform the rest of the staff.

**

Before Elaine could even begin to lament the news Prudence was already rushing towards her and her little group.

“Did you get the message?” the angel asked.

“Of course,” Elaine said as the rest of her team nodded.

“Good,” Prudence said. “Then I'm sure you understand what's coming next.”

Abigail and Cassie frowned in confusion but it was Evelyn who spoke up:

“I'm up, then?”

“Exactly,” Prudence said. “They're still far enough away that you won't turn the camp into collateral damage. But we need to move now.”

“Understood,” Evelyn said.

“I'm coming with,” Elaine said.

Prudence looked at her. “I'll bring her back safe and... You know what, fine. Just come along.”

**

“Can't help thinking this is a stupid move,” Elaine said.

The three of them were sitting in a Gospel, flying towards the new enemy force. Evelyn had wondered aloud why they hadn't simply used the Warp Drive to teleport straight there but Prudence had explained that it would disable the craft for the next twenty-four hours, which they really couldn't afford as they would need to get away from the explosion Evelyn was about to produce.

“What is?” Prudence asked.

“Like, this Caulder guy waited until we'd destroyed the entire army and then he sent in a second, even bigger one,” Elaine said. “Wouldn't it have been more efficient to just send in the entire force at once?”

“I think he assumed he could get away with only sending that first force,” Prudence said.

“Yeah, but even then. He must have had enough time to send in the second unit when he saw the mechs blowing his vanguard up,” Elaine argued.

Prudence nodded. “At this point I think it's more about psychological warfare. We beat his army so he's immediately sending in an even bigger force, as if implying that he can do this until we give up.”

“Okay, but should we really be doing this, then?” Elaine asked.

“Yes,” Prudence said. “Because we're doing the same thing. We crushed his first force with surprisingly little effort and, now that he's sent in an even bigger force, we'll beat that with even less effort. If his forces aren't limitless, which I'm pretty sure they aren't, then we're calling his bluff. Even if he doesn't give up after that, he'll still be short a big part of his force.”

Elaine considered that for a moment, then said: “I guess that makes sense.”

They were quiet for a little while before she spoke up again.

“Can I ask you something, Prudence?”

“Sure,” the angel said.

“Why are you here?”, Elaine asked. “I mean, not that I'm not grateful to have you but why did you come here instead of Jeanne?”

Prudence laughed at that, an explosive peal of laughter that caught Elaine by surprise. “You mean besides the part where you fucked her brains out?”

Elaine just stared at the back of Prudence's head, the angel never taking her eyes off the windshield.

“She loosened up for the first time since I've known her and it's all thanks to Rachel and you,” Prudence continued. “I volunteered to be here so she would have more time to spend with Rachel and also because she's a little embarrassed. The thought of bossing you around after what you did is apparently a little awkward for her. You must have really rocked her world.”

“I mean, it's not as if I suddenly stopped respecting her or anything...” Elaine said.

“I believe you,” Prudence said. “And I'm sure she would have come if I hadn't volunteered. But, honestly, I came because I was a little curious about you.”

“Curious?” Elaine asked.

Evelyn, leaning against Elaine, raised an eyebrow.

“If you recall, I was the one who brought you that new batch of cadets, the one that Abigail belonged to,” Prudence said. “So I have a bit of a soft spot for those six. Abigail especially. I fought off a Jabberwock on the flight to Base 15 and she didn't even hesitate to take the wheel while I was busy. She piloted a state-of-the-art aircraft with no prior experience and she did it well. And I saw how you treat her. You had three teammates before Abigail joined and all three of them are your lovers. So I had assumed Abigail would join your little harem in short order. But she didn't. I later learned why and I agree she cocked that up, but... you didn't give up on her. At all. You still reached out to her, even when she didn't dare to do it herself, even when you were busy with your now four lovers. And yet, despite how emotionally vulnerable she clearly is, you aren't even trying to get with her. I respect that.”

“I feel like you're praising me for what anyone would do,” Elaine said.

“That's where you're wrong,” Prudence said. “The fact that this comes naturally to you is laudable. Many in your situation wouldn't have done that.”

Elaine opened her mouth to argue but Evelyn placed a finger on her lips, shushing her. “She's giving you an honest compliment. Own it.”

Elaine kissed the proffered finger, then said sheepishly: “Right. Thank you.”

“And then you go being all cute like that,” Prudence said. “Careful or you'll make me fall for you, too.”

That made Elaine sit up and take notice. Prudence was a very attractive woman. Tall, with wavy red hair, ginger rather than the wine-red Evelyn had, with skin that was only barely tanned enough to be considered fair rather than pale, and a light dusting of freckles on her soft-featured face. So far Elaine had always considered the angel too powerful to be attractive but now she realized how messed-up that idea was. For a long while she'd considered the idea of dating someone stronger than her weird but, now that she really thought about it, hadn't she spent her whole life up until two days ago expecting the same of all of her lovers?

In every relationship Elaine had ever been in, no matter how brief, she had always been physically stronger than her partners. Never in her life had she slept with a person she couldn't have physically overpowered.

The sense of vulnerability she'd felt at the thought of being with one of the celestials, it was the same thing Alexis and Evelyn must have felt. Elaine knew she'd never betray a partner's trust but those two hadn't known that. Not then, at least.

The first time she'd been with people who were stronger than her had been out of necessity. Oh, she wouldn't lie, she'd loved that threesome with Rachel and Jeanne, had loved making Jeanne come over and over, had loved pounding Rachel's ass, but the urgency of the situation had kept her from being intimidated by them. Of course the way both of them had worshiped her body had also helped.

She wondered if she would be able to just surrender and submit to a stronger partner. Would she have bailed if Jeanne and Rachel had tried to overpower her? Or would she have let them? She'd let Alexis have her way with her before but it'd been with the tacit understanding that Elaine was letting Alexis do it and that she could flip the tables if it ever got too much.

It was food for thought. Was there some deep-seated vulnerability inside her that didn't allow her to just show weakness?

She didn't think so.

She'd tried something new, something that could have gone horribly wrong and put her studlyness into question, when she'd decided to blow Cassie.

Maybe it wasn't a great change but she was still tentatively taking steps out of her comfort zone.

But even if Elaine were still subscribing to this asinine belief that she couldn't date a stronger partner, Prudence wasn't stronger than her. Not anymore, at least. If she truly was as powerful as a Cherubim now then an Ophanim like Prudence would be weaker than her.

At the same time, did she have the right to fish for more partners when she already had four lovers? She pressed her lips together as she thought of that. She was sure she knew what her girls would say about it, but...

She was saved from having to come up with a smooth answer when Prudence said:

“Alright, look alive ladies, I've got eyes on the enemy.”

Elaine and Evelyn got out of their seats and stared out the windows to see the army they were up against. The army was almost twice as big as the force they'd already faced and included far more constructs and genetically engineered monsters. Where before the ratio of cyborgs to monsters had been about 4:1 it was now more like 3:2. Elaine noticed to her satisfaction that many of the foes were slightly modified Thralls, hinting that maybe their opponent was already scraping the bottom of the barrel when it came to troops.

“So, this is my time to shine then?” Evelyn asked.

“Yeah,” Elaine said. “Let's see that trick of yours in action.”

“Remember, you'll probably fall unconscious once you've used this trick,” Prudence reminded her.

“Don't worry,” Elaine said, “I'll be there for you.”

“Yeah,” Evelyn said, smiling up at her lover.

**

Prudence navigated the craft into position and then opened the rear hatch, giving Evelyn a platform she could do her thing on.

Evelyn stepped onto the ramp, then reached deep inside herself for the ability she'd purchased hoping she would never have to use it. Evelyn had gotten very used to summoning forth her various M-skills and except for those damnable Thousand Eyes they appeared almost instantaneously and with zero effort required. But the same was not true for the Vasavi Shakti.

As Evelyn drew the Vasavi Shakti out of the depths of her self she felt as if the very act of pulling it out might split her chest open, so powerful was the thing she was bringing into the world. It was fire and devastation given physical form and as she drew it out of herself that fire entered the mortal plane, at least spiritually.

As she drew it out she felt as if she would melt from the sheer heat though the fact that the Gospel was still holding onto its steady course told her that it wasn't true. And although her chest felt as if it had split open, both her armor and the flesh underneath were still pristine.

The very act of drawing this weapon had drained her as much as fighting all those foes before had. But now, with its power unveiled, the world trembled before its might. From her point of view Evelyn couldn't see it but later people would tell her that they'd seen the incandescent flare all the way back at the refugee camp, many miles away.

She stared at her hand, at the object that would have such a profound impact on the world. It was a dart. An ornately decorated dart, but nonetheless just a dart. A throwing knife, the tip weighted so that it would strike point first instead of tumbling end over end, with copper designs laid into the surface, fletched with beautiful rainbow feathers. And in her hand it felt like uranium, far too hot and far too heavy to be metal but metal nevertheless.

She took one more deep breath, inhaling the might surrounding her, and then aimed the dart at the army arrayed against them.

**

Elaine had always thought Evelyn was beautiful. She was sweet, silly, sexy, and beautiful, a firecracker in an alluring package. But right at that moment Evelyn was so heart-stoppingly gorgeous Elaine wanted to sink to her knees in front of her.

Evelyn's eyes had gone gray like thunderclouds and the sheer spiritual heat radiating from the slender dart in her hand made her hair billow out, making Evelyn look like a furious goddess about to bring vengeance upon those who would trample the world under her protection.

Her chest rose and fell with very deliberate breaths and finally, when the pressure her new weapon was exuding was at its highest peak, she threw the dart. Elaine had thought of the weapon like a bomb, something to be dropped on their foes before they would fly away and watch the fireworks in the rear-view mirror. But that was not what happened.

The dart sped up instantly, its speed greater than any human being could have produced with a simple throw. It flew in the blink of an eye all the way down and struck one of the cyborgs at the center of the force.

Calling the attack devastating would have been too mild a word. Catastrophic didn't do it justice either. The impact the Vasavi Shakti had on their foes was cataclysmic. It didn't merely wipe the entire force down to the last construct from existence, it produced a crater large and wide enough that anything hoping to take the same route would need climbing gear just to scale its walls.

Elaine didn't even want to think what devastation this would have caused if Evelyn had used it closer to the refugee camp. She was certain a good portion of their windows had just been broken, even from miles and miles away. It was testament to both the Gospel's design and Prudence's skill as a pilot that they hadn't crashed after the shockwave had hit them from behind.

Elaine vividly remembered that quote from the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu holy text, the one quote from it that everyone knew. It wasn't a quote made by Indra and it wasn't even about Indra but Elaine still felt it was apt:

Now I am become Death, Destroyer of Worlds.

But Evelyn, for all the powers of the Hindu deity inside of her she commanded, was still just Evelyn, so what the sweet redhead said instead was: “That was fucking awesome!”

And then she collapsed, right into Elaine's waiting arms.