Editing BlazBlue:Phase Shift 2 Chapter 5 (section)

===Part 3===

The Black Beast roared loudly. Its paralyzing howls combined into one and would inspire terror instinctively within any animal.

The destructive voice was enough to shake the ground. It was giving off vibes of despair to the world.

The black mass went beyond normal human comprehension. The shadow monster. The Black Beast.

Its eight heads were raised and the ominous red eyes were lit up. It moved around like it was searching for something.

Red lines marking its veins were running over its entire body. It looked almost like the wiring of an electrical device. The veins were pulsing light as if they were beating. It went beyond fear as to being repulsive.

The eight heads roamed about until they made a discovery all at once. A young girl standing alone in the wasteland… Celica.

Its red eyes were glaring as if some kind of emotion was crossing his features.

However, the color was nothing but sinister. The sensation was far from any emotion a human could have.

Her eyes met the Black Beast's. Celica wasn't able to tear her gaze away from its many heads.

Her body was frozen in place from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. With her gaze frozen in place, Celica was at her wit's end as she trembled in fear.

(This is… the Black Beast…)

Her throat was stuck. Her scream strangled and unable to escape.

She was afraid. It was different from the vague fear she had a while ago as it made Celica wither in pain.

The eight crooked necks bent like whips as they moved. Befitting its large size, the black giant moved ahead in grandiose manner.

Several steps more and the eight snakes would reach Celica. She might get eaten. Or else, she might get crushed. Either way, that moment would be the end for her.

Although that thought permeated her mind, there was nothing she could do to move from that point. She could only tremble and stood there, petrified, unable to do anything, like a baby…

(…But Ragna…) 

For an instant, the precious color of an cut through her other terrified thoughts.

It was clear green. A warm and gentle color of green, like a tree in summer, full with leaves. But probably because of his wound, only the left side of his eyes was fine. He was always astonished, angry, and laughing with only one half of his eyes.

A transparent wind blew through Celica's chest. Her panic disappeared like it had all been a lie.

(Ragna… faced this alone.)

Thanks to it, Celica hadn't lost her life.

Humanity obtained one year of time that to her felt both short and long.

And Ragna had not yet come back.



''——mise.''



The words she heard exactly one year ago were echoing in her ears.

"…na."

As if the feeling was pushing her back, Celica took a step forward.



''——Yeah, I promise.''



Yes, he promised.

Ragna had promised to return. To take back the red coat he had entrusted to Celica.

Celica had held onto it, awaiting for Ragna to return... She promised.

Then if Ragna was somewhere inside the black mass in front of her eyes…

(I want to meet him——!)

One foot fell in front of the other. Celica ran toward the Black Beast. While running, she shouted with all her breath.

"RAGNA——————————————————!"

The next moment.

A swift, silver light flew and tore the sky. It cut apart the head of the approaching black snake in a flash.

[[Image:BB_PS2_179.jpg|thumb]]

"…!?"

Celica stopped moving, startled.

It threw its whole body towards the black giant without any hesitation.

For an instant, that figure was overlapped by a nostalgic silhouette.

(No, that's wrong. It's not Ragna.)

It was Hakumen.

After he landed on top of the cleaved snake head, Hakumen flipped his sword and without any unnecessary movement pierced the crown of the head, drawing a vertical line.

The head took almost all of the long blade, and then it violently struggled. But before it did, Hakumen pulled out the sword and leaped away. Next, he gave another slash to the neck part.

The sharp noise from the slash was vividly audible. It sliced the part under the jaw in a straight line.

Nonetheless, there was a drastic size difference between Black Beast and Hakumen.

Even the eye-snatching white gleam of the long sword was unable to completely chop through the demon's neck. Perhaps the wounds of the squirming neck had healed since it calmly began to brush Hakumen away.

Still not paying any heed to its counterattack, Hakumen jumped high and didn’t hesitate to swing the sword.

The strokes of the sword were many and the blows cuts deep.

While keeping the monster's jaw, that had received blows to keep it in check with his brute strength, he slashed it from the bottom up.

Jumping up to follow his cut, he rose up below the jaw and stabbed the sword to the monster's throat. Then allowed gravity to assist his cut as he slip down the long neck to the ground.

The beast shrieked dreadfully in rage.

Hakumen's was knocked away and he hit the ground hard. The impact dented the earth. But before the soaring cloud of dust had a chance to settle, the white warrior was already standing up.

Highlighting the gallant figure of Hakumen against the battlefield, white lightning was cast about as if falling like rain.

It was the Armagus unit led by Nine.

There were numerous lightning bolts as the spell was cast repeatedly. Explosions of electricity were punctuated by a thunderous roar that matched the intensity of the Black Beast's howl.

Subsequently, Jubei's unit approached with great speed from behind the Black Beast. Their target was its feet. The alchemical weapons that Trinity had provided helped to trip the giant's feet and obstruct its movement.

Various offensive magics were fired off from the magician unit who had positioned themselves to surround the beast. The military forces from the assorted nations also commenced their attack simultaneously.

Celica watched on from the mountainside as the battlefield became intense in a blink of an eye.

It was a ghastly spectacle.

It couldn't be more obvious that it was a struggle in which humanity had concentrated all of the power they had at their disposal. 

The Armagus squad's attacks were proving to be the most effective.

The number of armagus weilders that had been assembled spanned several times the number of Ishana's inhabitants. The average offensive ability from the Armagus couldn't be compared with that of the smaller magicians' unit.

Because Nine was giving commands to the armagus squad, the raining spears of the Armagus's light weren't fired wildly. The combined force of the lightning worked to stagger the Black Beast as it struck at its ankles.

It was effective. The faltering steps of the beast made it feel like humanity was drawing a victory for the first time.

…But when the hands that were used to attack repeatedly stopped for a moment, the Black Beast cried out with its ferocious voice and swung its eight necks.

When the long necks brushed off the sky, the thick fog roared and gouged the earth like a whip. Along with a howl, the descending mass of seithr crushed the earth and living beings like a lump of iron.

Then after stopping one moment, it resumed its advance. This time it slid on the ground, imposingly moving forward.

It was aiming for Celica.

"It’s coming to my location…?"

The distance was no longer mattered. The seithr would blow around violently whenever the Black Beast was near. The following rampage of wind toyed with her hair and mantle annoyingly.

Even while squinting her eyes to protect from from the head wind, Celica couldn't take off her eyes from the approaching black mass that was causing the quake.

It wasn't because she was terrified. She was searching for a presence inside this dreadful and grotesque figure of a giant.

Celica had a thought. The monster kept walking in Celica's direction even while withstanding the fierce attack. There might be a part within it that remembered the promise to 'return'.

A foolishly optimistic thought that be laughable to anyone else if they had heard  it. But once she gave it a thought, Celica couldn't stop feeling like it was the truth.

"I must go!"

At this short distance, Celica could reach the beast with a short sprint. Steeling her resolve, Celica dashed off over the ocher soil. …However, someone suddenly caught her arm.

"Wha… Nirvana?"

When she turned to look, Nirvana, who had been standing motionlessly beside Celica, used her large, weaponized hand to grab Celica's wrist.

The beautiful artificial eyes were staring at Celica silently.

She had judged that it would be dangerous for Celica to go any further. Celica struggled, shaking her arm to loosen Nirvana's hand, but she was undaunted and continued her tough restraint.

"Let me go, Nirvana! I want to go there. I might be able to meet Ragna. So ple…"

Her desperate objection was cut midway.

Under Celica's feet, veins of light were appearing.

As if in the middle of drawing a pattern, it crawled along the ground at a great speed, the pattern becoming more complex every moment.

She didn't know its purpose, but Celica soon realized what the light was drawing.

It spread wide with Celica on its center. Furthermore, it pulled along small magic circles as if they were connected somewhere, making a strange shape.

"Trinity, what is that magic circle!?"

After she entrusted the Armagus unit to another person, Nine teleported to the headquarters. While yelling, she walked at quick pace to her friend who was wearing yellow robe.

The location of the headquarters was a little higher than other places. Trinity who had been watching over the battlefield got in a panic from Nine's voice. After she lifted her face, she shook her head with complicated face.

"I don’t know. I was just looking at the user now."

"Where?"

"Somewhere around the dispatched magicians who are on Celica-san's left and right sides. There's a chant of unusual spell… Found it! There!"

Trinity probed for the stream of magic power while manipulating her hearing. She pointed at the magician unit gathered within the shade of a few rock within the wasteland. Simultaneously, Nine amplified her vision.

With her telescopic eyes, Nine saw a pair of magicians she recognized well.

"Seven, Eight…!"

Crushing her anger, Nine groaned.

Beside her, Trinity's voice screamed.

"NINE, PLEASE LOOK AT THAT!"

At the same time of the shrieking voice, Nine turned her sight back to normal.

What had burst in to her regular sight was a drawing of huge magic circle like a geoglyph that appeared behind Celica.

A magic circle unknown to Nine. But it was easy to decipher by looking at the magic circles that had been used as foundation, the objects that were added, and its gigantic size.

But it was something that gave Nine a tremendously bad feeling.

"Summoning magic? …It can't be!"

Faster than the transformation of her surprise to anger, the expanded magic circle on the ground began to emit a sinister light.







The large magic circle that appeared all of a sudden began to shine. After realizing it, Celica was shaking in confusion while looking behind.

"Huh? W-What's this!?"

Even the magic circle below her feet began to glow after a bit of delay.

She couldn't understand what was happening. Celica tried to get away from that place.

But for some reason, she wasn't able to go outside the magic circle. It was like she got imprisoned within a cylinder glass bottle.

She hit the invisible wall with both hands. There was no sound, but the sensation blocked Celica from getting out.

(What should I do… I somehow got a very bad feeling…)

As if confirming that ominous hunch, a lukewarm chill brushed against Celica's spine.

To shake it off, Nirvana stretched her arms and hugged Celica tightly. Both of the hard, inhuman arms covered Celica to protect her from everything.

At the same time outside of Celica's sight, Nirvana's back opened. Something like a rod was pushing up and went toward the empty sky. The object that looked like an antenna and lighting rod engraved a violet crest. It wore light as if acting in agreement with something.

"Nirvana…"

Question and relief. With a voice mixed with both, Celica whispered to Nirvana.

Before her sigh ended, an unusual phenomenon happened.

The light from the magic circle suspiciously started to flicker strongly. After the noise and shock diminished like they were sinking furiously, it tried to drag Celica from everything else and knock her down.

"Wh… what's going on… Why's this happening…"

Still getting taken to the bottom of the ground by the force, Celica desperately clung to Nirvana and endured it.

But soon, the circulating chill stroke her spine and went inside her skin. The cold touch of ice snatched strength from Celica's whole body.

Body heat, sensation, emotion. Everything that dwelled within her warmth was seized, frozen, and unfolded.

(No…)

She put strength into the arm that was clinging to Nirvana. But all of that strength were turning to liquid, making it meaningless.

Celica's knees crumbled, light enough to make the illusion of noise.

Her consciousness became distant like it was absorbed.

(No… if I faint… I can't meet… Ragna…)

The hand that was supposed to grab Nirvana slipped and dangled beside her body. While she was relying on the neck that couldn't support her head, her sight went around and couldn't see anything but the night sky.

(Ragna…)

She wondered if this was what dying felt like. With her back still could only feel the stiff hands of Nirvana who was supporting her… Celica lost her consciousness as if she went sleeping.







——Celica didn't know what happened afterward.







Delivering what had been extracted from Celica, the extended magic circle connected its light to the main part of the magic circle which was lying in wait behind.

The gigantic magic square that appeared on the sloppy ruin of hill received it. It was gushing out a light that had the color of flame. The light was spreading to the jet black figure within the circle.

The figure immediately grew large and began to crawl out from the circle.

Its huge arms were stretched before placing both hands on the wasteland. Then it pulled its body like it was crawling out of a swamp.

It had a really vague depiction of a man's features. It had one head, two arms, one torso, and two feet.

Its whole body was black like it was built by molding solidified darkness. Like it was split by cracks, the skin had some kind of blood vessels that were like red veins circulating as they pleased.

Its appearance… resembled the Black Beast.

The titan that appeared from the magic circle made deep noises and waved its long arms. It moved its clutched fists forward to grasp the Black Beast, which had been confined by the Armagus attack, from the side. With unbelievable strength, it knocked off the beast's large build.

Making a violent roar that shook the earth, the Black Beast forcefully gained a distance.

Everyone was watching over that scene in blank.

It was no longer a battle of humanity. It was the clash between absurdity with absurdity, monster with monster.

When the black titan's stance changed to crawling on all fours on the ground, it widely opened it mouth with compulsory movement like a machine.

A white magic circle was unfolded within the mouth cavity that had transformed into a black cave. The magic circle rotated like the gears of watch that had gone awry. It made the red veins that covered the titan's body to swell slowly.

The next moment.

A straight, white flash was fired from the black titan toward the Black Beast.

The ear-piercing roar and shriek robbed the owners of their sense of hearing to hear all noises for several seconds. The powerfully strong light burnt every shadow, fading their sense of sight.

But everyone heard and saw it.

The sound when the beam fired by the titan penetrated the Black Beast's abdomen, and its condition.

As the spear of light vanished, the world regained its colors and sounds. Then the black titan once again submerged into the swamp of magic circle as if it had accomplished its duty.

What remained afterward was the Black Beast. But the gaping hole in its body didn't get healed.

The light which the titan had fired even burnt and wiped the seithr around the Black Beast. The Black Beast would cease to exist if there were no seithr.

The snake demon that was the embodiment of nightmare roared to the distant moon with a shriek. Then its large build trembled once.

And like a bag stuffed with sand that was released at once, its form crumbled. While still crumbling, it ran away to underground.

The rasping noise was getting absorbed by the earth.

The vast amount of black was getting swallowed.

Then without taking a long time, the Black Beast vanished from that place.

…After its gigantic body was gone, the remaining scenery could be seen clearly.

Toward the location where the Black Beast was, the ground was greatly demolished in a straight line. The beam which the titan had fired had burnt it.

The tall cliff that existed above the titan and beast lost its contour as if scooped by spoon like ice cream. A part had transformed into a gentle plain.

It was a tremendous power.

That abnormal strength had repelled an abnormal apparition.

It was the very first moment for humanity to succeed in repelling the Black Beast.







No one knew where it had originated from, but the desolated battlefield was engulfed in cheers.

It seemed like the cheers within the wasteland was done to celebrate posterity and the act of god as it went across the deep traces of the attack. The soldiers who shouted their joy were competing to assemble at the disfigured terrain.

It was like they had witnessed the act of god. At any rate, it repelled the Black Beast with a blow. Toward the monster that couldn't be stopped for an instant even if they had concentrated their own energy.

But that wasn't the case for Nine.

"CELICA!!"

Making a sorrowful voice that split her throat, Nine ran at the top of the hill that bad footing.

Nine usually didn't think of them as obstructing, but she had thrown away the high heels and Ten Sages hat somewhere. Getting covered with cloud of dust, she stumbled and came into a stop.

Nirvana was standing there. She was holding Celica on her arms.

Her tawny hair was completely disarrayed. Her head was supported by the chest of the feeble Nirvana while her limbs were stretched out like a puppet that was snapped of its thread and broke its joints.

Even the fingertip that she would took out to immediately meddle in everything, the cheeks that usually dyed in slight pink, the lips that fit her lovely smile. All was so pale it would make anyone shuddered.

Nine's hands tucked in her sister's cheeks. Then as if to support them, she pressed her own forehead to Celica's forehead. The forehead she touched was cold.

"Nine, how's Celica-sa… n…!?"

Trinity who was running late pinned her bursting chest and asked a question while still breathing roughly. Before she finished her question, Jubei who had arrived just before muttered with a sharp voice.

"She's okay, ain't she?"

Nine's shoulders slightly trembled. But there was no tear flowing. When Nine raised her face, she brushed off bits of dirt on Celica's cheeks with her fingers while replying with the kind of voice like she had crushed her emotions.

"She just fainted. It was thanks to Nirvana who was beside her. …But her magic power got sucked out, so she won't wake up for a while."

"The Black Beast's… dead yet?"

"No. It was only running away. It seems the strength of the finishing blow was lacking."

While calmly answering another question from Jubei, Nine untangled Celica's bangs with her fingers.

Hakumen walked with undisturbed pace and stopped at a separated place. His emotionless face stared at Celica and Nirvana.

Valkenhayn, who was among the largest army of the allied countries, joined them with the appearance of wolf that he wouldn't normally expose. Still in that appearance, he bared his fangs and groaned a question.

"Nine. Tell us if you know about it. What on earth was that?"

"…Artificial Causality Weapon."

Nine spoke quietly. After letting go of her hands from Celica who looked more like a doll than Nirvana, she used the hand to tightly grip the chest part of her own clothes.

Looking over Nirvana's shoulder, Nine glared at the location where the titan had appeared. Her pupils were shaking in fury. Directing her burning gaze to the wasteland that was presently empty, Nine squeezed her stomach and continued to speak.

[[Image:BB_PS2_193.jpg|thumb]]

"That was Nox Nyctores… Gigant: Takemikazuchi. …Something I created."







Exactly at that time, he stood alone at a separated location.

The excited crowd were cheering while swarming the scar from the overwhelming destruction that had carved the earth. Looking over from the position where he could see them, his long coat was fluttered by the dry wind. Putting both hands to the pockets, a glint in his eyes was shining dully under the hood he wore low over his eyes.

"Khukuku… Nice, real nice. You're really some extraordinary geniuses…"

He laughed, shaking his thin shoulders.

"Thanks to you, looks like I might get what I want faster than expected… Guess I have to give a gratitude, HYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The joyful voice that didn't reach anyone's voice silently thickened the color of darkness.

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