Oh we're esca
ASTRA
Chapter 2 — When Heaven Gets Bored
Launch Coordinates:
35.6895° N, 139.6917° E
Former Greater Tokyo Impact Zone — Sector Delta-9
Altitude: 12,000 meters.
Velocity: Mach 3 and climbing.
---
Astra-1 tore through the clouds like a falling star moving in reverse.
Reina's consciousness spread across the sky.
She could see everything — heat signatures bleeding through rubble, fractured magnetic lines where buildings once stood, the faint gravitational warping that marked a Rank One's presence.
Kazuo held steady beneath her.
Impact feedback vibrated through his nervous system with every atmospheric shift, but he didn't flinch.
You feel it too, he said in the shared mental field.
"Yes."
This wasn't like the others.
Rank Twos radiated hostility. Rank Threes descended like natural disasters.
But this?
This presence was quiet.
Controlled.
Watching.
Reina's fingers tightened inside the neural harness.
If this went the way she feared…
She might have to use it.
The True Angel Form.
Astra-1's forbidden state.
A full reversion to its original biological configuration.
Synchronization required: 100%.
Survival rate for Vanguard: 0%.
Every recorded attempt ended in neural disintegration.
If she activated it…
Kazuo would die.
And maybe she would too.
---
"Visual confirmation," Control reported.
The clouds parted.
Below them, Tokyo was gone.
Not damaged.
Not shattered.
Erased.
A perfect circular zone nearly five kilometers wide had been flattened into smooth, glass-like terrain. No debris. No fire.
Just absence.
At the center—
It sat.
On a throne of broken concrete.
Humanoid.
Elegant.
Long pale limbs. Smooth white surface like polished bone. No visible armor. No weapons.
Three eyes arranged vertically along its face.
The middle eye slowly opened.
It was smiling.
"Descent velocity reduced," Reina whispered.
Astra-1 slowed, landing with enough force to crater the artificial glass beneath it.
The Angel didn't move.
It tilted its head slightly.
And then—
It spoke.
Not through sound.
Directly into the Astra's neural field.
"Ah. You brought the interesting one."
Kazuo's mental projection stiffened.
Reina's voice sharpened. "Rank One designation confirmed."
The Angel stood gracefully.
It was female in shape — unmistakably so. Not sexualized. Not human.
But intentionally feminine.
"You may call me Seraphiel."
Its three eyes focused on Astra-1.
"You are wearing our skin poorly."
Kazuo bristled. We're not here to talk.
Seraphiel laughed.
The sound fractured the air.
"Then show me."
It extended one hand.
And the horizon folded.
---
Combat Simulation — Astra-1 (Standard Form)
Reina moved first.
Astra-1 lunged forward, propulsion thrusters igniting in controlled bursts. Its right arm morphed — Angel tissue shifting into a high-density blade of refracted energy.
Strike velocity: Mach 5.
Seraphiel didn't block.
It stepped aside without moving its feet.
Space bent.
The blade missed by millimeters.
Impact shockwave obliterated the remains of distant structures.
Kazuo grunted as feedback slammed through his body.
Heart rate spiking — but stable.
Reina pivoted.
"Graviton Burst!"
Astra-1's chest split open, firing a compressed singularity pulse.
Direct hit.
The ground vaporized.
For half a second, Seraphiel disappeared inside the distortion field.
Then—
The singularity collapsed.
And she was still standing.
Unmarked.
Middle eye glowing faintly.
"Adorable."
She moved.
Reina didn't see it.
She felt it.
Impact.
Astra-1's torso caved inward as Seraphiel's palm connected.
Kazuo screamed.
Blood flooded his lungs.
External armor integrity: 63%.
Reina countered with a close-range kinetic discharge, blowing Seraphiel backward several kilometers.
She recovered mid-air.
Smiling.
"Use it."
The Angel's voice sharpened.
"Use your true form. This shell bores me."
Reina's pulse pounded.
She wouldn't.
She couldn't.
Another exchange.
Astra-1 launched into aerial combat, blades forming from both arms. Shockwaves split the sky. Every clash distorted light itself.
But Seraphiel wasn't fighting seriously.
She was testing.
Adapting.
Learning.
Within minutes, Astra-1's efficiency dropped 18%.
Kazuo's vitals destabilized.
Internal bleeding worsening.
Left lung partially collapsed.
Reina… he breathed inside the mental space.
"No."
You're calculating survival odds.
"I said no."
Seraphiel appeared in front of them mid-air.
Three eyes blazing.
She drove her fist through Astra-1's shoulder, ripping organic plating free.
Kazuo convulsed.
Cardiac arrhythmia detected.
Seraphiel leaned close to the cockpit core.
"He will die either way."
Her third eye widened.
"But if you transform… I might enjoy it."
And that word hit harder than any blow.
Enjoy.
This wasn't conquest.
This wasn't extermination.
This was entertainment.
Reina's hands trembled.
Kazuo was fading.
Sync rate: 97%.
98%.
She felt it climbing on its own.
Their fear.
Their adrenaline.
Their alignment.
Reina… look at me.
Inside the mind-space, she turned.
Kazuo stood before her — cracked with spreading lines of light across his skin.
He was dissolving.
If I'm dying, he said calmly,
let it mean something.
Her voice broke for the first time in years.
"I don't want another grave."
He stepped forward.
Placed his forehead against hers in the mental void.
Then don't fight alone.
Synchronization: 99%.
Their heartbeats began matching.
Not metaphorically.
Physically.
On the monitors, two pulses aligned into one rhythm.
Seraphiel watched.
Smiling wider.
"Yes."
Synchronization: 100%.
---
TRUE ANGEL FORM — ACTIVATED
The Astra screamed.
Not mechanically.
Organically.
Its frame split open.
Metal dissolved into living white matter. Wings tore outward from its back — not feathered, but layered in luminous fractal membranes.
The cockpit dissolved.
Inside the neural field—
Reina and Kazuo's bodies dissolved too.
Their forms became light.
Their outlines blurred.
Two silhouettes reaching—
And merging.
Not consuming.
Not dominating.
Intertwining.
Their consciousness braided together.
Two thoughts.
One mind.
Two heartbeats.
One rhythm.
They felt everything.
Each other's fear.
Each other's resolve.
Every memory.
Every scar.
No separation.
Outside—
The transformed Astra no longer resembled a machine.
It was an Angel.
Tall.
Radiant.
Terrifying.
And its three eyes—
Wait.
Three?
A fourth eye slowly opened along its chest.
Seraphiel's smile faltered.
For the first time—
She stopped laughing.
"Oh."
The sky cracked.
And the real fight began.
The end.....