-----==+==-----
At the storage zone
We find Arlan struggles against three Voidrangers, his dark blue security uniform torn. He's lean and young, short black hair matted with sweat, gripping his weapon with determination despite the blood on his arm.
Stelle quickly rushes summoning instinctively her Baseball Bat, hitting away the blade of the Voidranger and the smashing the head into dust, I'm not sure what to do when I am suddenly surprised, time slows and the progress bar previously hidden of centre had now taken up most of my vision when I notice is it full:
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SYSTEM NOTIFICATION
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>> The Group Chat has loaded. Thank you for your patience.
>> [BEGINNER'S LUCK] activated
>> Beginning 3 Gacha Spins...
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[SPIN 1] WEAPON ACQUIRED
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
- Name: Rhongomyniad (Sealed)
- Rarity: GOLD+
Description:
The pillar that binds the world, restrained by thirteen
seals. A lance of light that pierces through destiny itself.
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[SPIN 2] ABILITY ACQUIRED
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- Name: For Shits and Giggles
- Rarity: FLOWING SILVER (SPECIAL)+
Description:
An ability that is the amalgamation of the power of three
Aeons. Use it wisely... or don't. (Aha)
┌─ SUB-ABILITIES ───────────────────┐
│ │
│ [1] Stereotypes Done Right! │
│ Uses stereotypes from Earth as buffs. │
│ Currently Active: The Russian, The Canadian │
│ │
│ [2] World of Broken Glass │
│ Status: [????] │
│ │
│ [3] The Info Helper AI │
│ Name: B.B │
│ A chaotic AI created by the agreement of │
│ 3 Aeons, based on your memories of the │
│ Nasuverse. │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────┘
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[SPIN 3] ABILITY ACQUIRED
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
- Name: World Lost[1]
- Rarity: FLOWING SILVER- (SPECIAL)
- Status: 🔒 ERROR: LOCKED!!!
Description:
You, your world gone, are no longer bound. You can travel
between worlds without consequence, and your body adapts
to any power or language. Those who travel with you are
also unaffected by restrictions.
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Seeing this I have little time to just even take in the whole lot of it, so seeing a weapon I summon it, a long spear like weapon shows up in my hand. It's metal a soft ocean like colour, I recognize it but it is not the time for thinking about such things, seeing the 3 void rangers charging at Stelle who is protecting Arlan, I charge.
The cold metallic lance that I hold gives me a kind of reassurance, I know what this weapon, this gives me confidence, because even if I currently lack skill, I - I have Rhongomyniad. It is mine now, the reassurance of its presence its legend drives me forward
With surprising speed, even to myself, I appear behind the left one raising this legendary lance, feeling its weight. This lance, the one which tethers reality itself. I cry out, I strike, and like a hot knife through butter the head of the Voidranger gets pierced and it starts to vanish.
A flash of movement to my right. Dan Heng appears like a shadow, his spear moving with practiced precision. The rightmost Voidranger doesn't even have time to react before it's impaled and disintegrating.
He doesn't even look winded. Just pulls his weapon free and moves on like this is a Tuesday.
*Show-off.*
The middle Voidranger lunges at Stelle. She meets it head-on with her bat—*CRACK*—the impact sending it stumbling backward directly into March's line of fire.
An ice arrow, glowing cold blue, materializes and punches through its chest. The Voidranger freezes solid for a heartbeat before shattering into nothing.
Silence.
I'm stunned by my own speed. My eyes saw the world blur around me, yet I was able to perceive *everything*. The slight twist of the Voidranger as it noticed my approach and tried to dodge. The weak points—joints, neck, skull— almost highlighted like targeting pointers within my vision.
My ability to perceive has greatly increased. I hadn't noticed before because everything felt surreal, but now? The world appears more vibrant. More orderly, yet somehow more chaotic. I can see the muscle movements of my companions, able to predict what they'll do next.
Not just them—the arrows, the Voidrangers, even the debris in the air. All of it moves in slow motion in my mind, patterns emerging, trajectories calculating themselves.
It's... overwhelming. And exhilarating.
Then I focus on us—our group. I'm surprised. Our coordination was flawless. No... it was just luck. It had to be.
I'm breathing hard, heart pounding, adrenaline making my hands shake. The lance hums softly in my grip, almost... satisfied?
"That was—" I start.
"Amazing!" March pumps her fist in the air. "Did you see that? Bam, bam, bam! Like clockwork! We're a dream team!"
Dan Heng gives her a flat look. "That was luck." I nod agreeing silently
"Ugh, you're such killjoys."
Dan Heng answers "I prefer 'realistic.' " and I follow up "More accurately pessimistic"
I'm still staring at the lance. "I have *no idea* what just happened."
Stelle approaches, those golden eyes studying me with unnerving intensity. "Where did you get that weapon?"
"I..." *How do I explain a gacha system?* "It just... appeared? Like, I thought 'I need a weapon' and suddenly—" I gesture helplessly at the lance. "—this."
"Appeared," Dan Heng repeats, suspicious.
"Yes! Appeared! Out of thin air! Which is *insane*, but also everything about today has been insane, so maybe I'm just rolling with it now—"
Seeing Arlan is still injured Himeko runs up as the rest of the group gathers in the now empty hallway.
In less than five minutes the heavily injured Arlan is bandaged up. He tries to stand up saying " I can still walk " but in that moment stumbles and falls. Himeko who is closest catches him, shaking her head she smiles and says "Sure, but for now, just in case let someone carry you"
I smile, chuckling to myself and volunteer to carry him on my back all the way to Asta as that is one of the safest locations currently.
He's... light. Like, really light. Concerningly light.
I frown. "Uh, are you okay? You feel—"
"*Please* don't finish that sentence," Arlan mutters.
"I just meant—" *Am I stronger? Is that a side effect of whatever happened to my body?* "Never mind."
March snickers. "Smooth."
"I'm *trying* to be helpful!"
"You're doing great, sweetie."
"I will drop him."
"You won't."
She's right. I won't. But the threat felt good.
Bringing him there Asta is shocked at the state of Arlan and has me quickly, yet carefully, lay him down on a nearby bench.
Asta turns to us, blinking rapidly. "Thank you. All of you."
"Don't thank us yet," Himeko says, her expression serious. "The station is still under attack."
"I know." Asta pulls up several holographic displays showing red markers throughout the station. "The Antimatter Legion is concentrating forces near the main docking bay. It's almost like they're trying to prevent something—or someone—from leaving."
Everyone's eyes turn to Stelle.
She doesn't flinch. "The Stellaron. They're after me."
"Most likely," Dan Heng confirms quietly.
March crosses her arms. "Well, they can't have you. You're ours now."
"I'm not a pet," Stelle says.
"You're *our* Stellaron-carrying disaster magnet," March clarifies. "Big difference."
This simple bickering, it's nice, for a moment I forget the danger of the situation, these moments they are warm, despite myself I smile. A real smile not just for appearance but because I can't help but smile.
"Now since we know they are after Stelle we need some sort of pla-" as we speak alarms go off, the holographic screen flashes red. What appears on it makes my blood run cold.
A Doomsday Beast.
The thing designed to *destroy planets*.
"Oh no," I breathe. "Oh *no*."
"We need to move. *Now*," Himeko says, already in motion.
Now with this forsaken thing having shown up we have little time to discuss.
Dan Heng grabs my arm, already moving. "You're with me. We're taking point—"
"Wait, I haven't even introduced myself, I -" I blurt out.
"Later!" March shouts.
"Call me Sane!" I yell as we run. "I'll explain later—or never—probably never!"
Dan Heng not wasting time nods and seeing the 3 others follow yells "Himeko, March, stay in the back, you'll be the rear guard. Stelle you are in the middle, you will support any side that struggles, now come on, we don't have much time! "
"Keep your comms open!" Asta shouts after us. "I'll guide you to the Express—just *run*!"
Meanwhile the other researchers and personnel are running around checking conditions of machinery ensuring all that needs to work, works
Asta stays behind in the control centre monitoring our escape path and giving directions back to the Astral Express, while also monitoring Arlan's condition so that it doesn't worsen.
Thankfully up until the docking bay we were able to avoid all the Voidrangers, yet now..
We're running and panting a little while about to reach the docking bay when - BOOM! The loud sound of something incredibly heavy arriving startles us, and to our horror, as we look up -
March gasps "wow... has this guy been waiting for us to show up here??" The Doomsday beast that we were trying to avoid... here it is, right in front of us, The Express has pulled back from the docking port to avoid getting hit. Which means this thing is blocking our only way out
"Well, hey at least we get to dance again" I chuckle hesitantly
"Dance?" - Dan Heng asks, confused and wearily eyeing the Doomsday beast.
"Fight" - I reply shortly
That was all I could say before the Doomsday beast swung one of its claws at us, Himeko and March 7th back up creating some distance, Stelle runs to the right getting out of the sweeping range.
Dan Heng and I jump during which I mutter "Well, as good a time as any to test my weapon" then at the climax of the jump height I glance sideways at Dan Heng, he nods. We know the new plan.
Dan Heng then charges, along the arm heading for the beast's core, I on the other hand sprint up to the shoulder of the beast and with all my strength I pull and push myself to soar.
I go higher than expected, I am now 3 meters above the beast's head.
Stelle, meanwhile, charges after the sweeping arm toward the core—same target as Dan Heng. She weaves right, left, right again—swerving around energy beams and dodging the beast's other claw. Her bat connects with the core. CRACK. A visible fracture spreads across its surface. Then a shockwave hits her and she is sent flying back. Then Dan Heng, in perfect position tenses and sends his spear straight at the core while still being airborne yelling "Take this!".
Unfortunately he is just a little off and so the spear while embedding within the core, causing little to no actual damage.
Watching Dan Heng's spear embed slightly off-target, I realize it's up to me.
Great. No pressure.
I spin in midair, bringing the lance into alignment with the cracked core. The weapon pulses in my grip—eager, hungry, powerful.
Too powerful.
I know this is stupid. I know I'm not ready. The seals are there for a reason—to prevent exactly what I'm about to do.
But what choice do I have?
I take a breath—or try to. The air feels thin.
"Light, may you be released from the ends of the world."
The words come from somewhere deep. Not from me—through me.
Power floods the lance. Golden light erupts, blinding and hot. I feel myself straining, practically bursting under pressure, even sealed, in its most basic state. The power this monolith of another world's history is too great. It is too late to change my actions - the beast is already turning its lifeless gaze on me.
"Split the heavens and tether the earth—"
My arms are shaking. The lance feels like it's vibrating apart in my hands. Or maybe that's my bones rattling.
*This is a bad idea. This is a VERY bad idea—*
"—anchor of the storm! *RHONGOMYNIAD!*"
The world explodes in gold.
The lance unleashes. A pillar of light tears downward, piercing the Doomsday Beast's head then core, and finally through the station falling like the wrath of an angry god. That light goes through the beast, the station and the station's force field like butter, disappearing into the distance with the memory of a falling star. The beast's armour shatters. Its frame falling apart, cracks of golden light splitting and piercing from its depths. The core detonates in a cascade of light and metal.
Victory.
And then the price comes due.
*Pain.*
I hit the ground hard, and the impact barely registers compared to what's happening inside. It feels like every blood vessel in my body is tearing itself apart. Like my skeleton is rejecting my muscles. Like existence itself is punishing me for overreaching.
My vision goes red—literally red. Not metaphor. *Red*.
I force my eyes down to my arms.
*Oh god.*
Blood vessels have burst. I can see them—dark lines branching across my skin like lightning scars. Some are bleeding. Others are just... *wrong*. Swollen and dark beneath the surface.
*I overdid it.*
The thought is almost funny. Almost.
*Rhongomyniad was too powerful. My body wasn't ready. The seals were supposed to protect me, and I just... blew right past them.*
My legs give out. I drop to my knees, gasping.
Someone is shouting. March? Himeko? I can't tell. The world sounds muffled, distant, like I'm hearing it through water.
*Weak. I'm so weak.*
My head feels too heavy. It drops forward. My vision is narrowing, darkening, failing—
Through the closing tunnel, I see it: the Doomsday Beast. Corpse. Broken. Cracks still glowing gold where the lance struck.
*We won.*
The thought brings a weak smile.
*Worth it.*
"What the—" March's voice, distant and shocked.
"The station—" Himeko starts.
But I don't hear the rest.
Darkness swallows me whole.
[1] Also do note that this ability does not let you travel worlds, only prevents the worlds from imposing restrictions upon you