Chapter 11: Apocalypse, Part 4 of 5: The Final Prison

Mika awoke and found herself in darkness. She felt horrible, like she had been knocked out. She slowly rolled over, and encountered a bright light. In front of her she could see three pillars, glowing a bright blue. No...those weren’t pillars. They were the Exarch DragonGuard!

 She stood up and looked around. Right now she was in a large half-spherical chamber. In the center were the three Gundams facing each other, and in the center was Valoth.

 Mika struggled to step forward. She slowly made her way into the light. “Valoth...”

“Oh, Mika. You’ve awoken. Welcome to the Shadow Circle.”

 “Shadow Circle?”

“This is where my plan will finally be realized. It is finally time for me to ascend to the level of a God. To go farther than those two idiotic Eternal Dragons.”
“What are you doing with the Gundams?” Mika asked.

 “The only way to defeat those two is to become Shadow. I need the power of Light, extreme light...your DragonGuard at their final level. It took you three such a long time to reach it, I’m a bit disappointed. Anyway, the Light combined with my natural Darkness, will create a great force of Shadow. And do you know what that will do?”

Mika was silent. Her eyes were angry, and this made Valoth smile.
“It will call forth the Shadowscythe. And those pathetic beings...I will merge with every single one of them. Then I shall be the ultimate Shadow being and this world will be mine.”

 “Do you need all the Gundams?” Mika asked.

“Yes.”

 “Good.” Mika said before exploding into a blue flame. The fire rocketed into Exarch Ramiel. The Gundam shimmered as the fire moved towards the pilot seat. And then, the world flashed.

***

 The mobile suit’s swords clashed. In a GEARS arena, two pilots were fighting each other as part of a class assignment. The professor, Denara, sat with the rest of the class in the stadium’s seats observing the students.

 The red mobile suit quickly withdrew its sword. This caused the opposing blue suit’s sword to rocket forward, in a perfect position to slice Red’s head off. But before it could reach, Red ducked and punched upwards. The force of the blow caused Blue to tumble forward, and was now flying through the air upside down.

Red spun around and leapt forward with it’s sword. Blue’s mobile suit was pierced. Both suits shut down immediately while the stadium’s systems made the announcement.

 “Winner! Red Pilot: Mika Ray!”

 The students in the stadium cheered. Denara was impressed. Mika was one of her best students, and was the best pilot she had seen in quite a while. She had already started to consider writing a letter of recommendation for the advanced course for her.

On the field, Mika and Blue walked back towards the stadium. “You’re going to have to do better than that if you want to fight the Shadowscythe.” she commented with a smirk.

 “It’s only our second week! You’re the odd one out. Some of the students here can’t even hit a stationary target.”

 “Well they have a long way to go.”

 “Hey, did you hear about the attack earlier today?” Blue asked.

 “No, what happened?”

“They say the Shadowscythe bombed one of the orbital stations. LOS-7 I think. Apparently everyone was killed. They even lost an Admiral. I think her name was Odessa.”

***

 Mika charged forth with her Gundam. She swung her broadsword at Valoth, but he simply sidestepped and stuck back with a roundhouse kick. Ramiel was pushed against the wall.

Reacting quickly, Ramiel threw a set of beam knives into Valoth. He groaned, but did not react as Mika expected. Instead of removing them he just charged forward and pinned Ramiel to the wall.

Ramiel charged its eye beams, but they were useless. Valoth acted quickly once again. This time he pushed Ramiel’s head sideways and the beams were released into the air.

“Pathetic. I expected more from an Exarch.”

That was when Mika noticed where Ramiel’s left palm was. It was adjacent to Valoth’s right arm. She activated her Astral Sword and the flame erupted from Ramiel’s palm and went straight through Valoth’s arm.

He screamed in pain. Mika used this opportunity to condense the sword into solid form and use it to swing Valoth away. The sword returned to flame and she made several quick cuts into Valoth’s flesh.

The beast fell over, in great pain. Ramiel prepared its final strike. Without the Gundam’s full power, the Astral system couldn’t be used to vaporize Valoth. But she could still plunge the sword deep into the heart of this monstrous being.

The sword plunged downwards, but was unable to connect. A tendril of shadow emerged from Valoth and knocked the sword aside. Mika could tell this was a reflex because Valoth himself had his eyes closed and was screaming in pain.

Mika struck again and again. But the tendril kept blocking. No, it wasn’t the same tendril. There were multiple tendrils emerging from the shadow. And with each strike one was vaporized and another came to defend Valoth.

On her twelfth strike, the sword disappeared. Her Astral Energy was too low to allow it to manifest. Ramiel raised its left arm, and an assault carbine unfolded from underneath. The tendrils once again came, but the blast from this weapon went straight through the shadow and into Valoth’s body.

He screamed in pain as the divine energy began to dissolve through his body. “Stop! Please!” he begged. “I’ll let your friends go..you can take your Gundams! Please, just leave!”

“Let me see them and then we can talk.” she said. She wanted to kill this demon now, but he was in critical condition. It was more important to make sure Omicron and Ryukai were safe. And if they were? Then she would finish him off.

Valoth said something in his own language, and a gate opened to reveal Omicron and Ryukai.
“Thank you, Valoth. Now it is time for you to die.” Mika announced.

A small laugh escaped through Valoth’s groans of pain. A large shadow tendril emerged and surrounded Ryukai and Omicron. Sharp teeth emerged from it.

 “Make another move, and I’ll devour them.” he announced barely managing a smile.

Next Time: Apocalypse, Part 5 of 5: Aversion