Voltiana

Inside Dachii's mind…

Dachii was floating inside an empty void, akin to the vastness of space. He opened his eyes, but there was nothing of note.

"No forest or women this time…?" he wondered.

But soon after, a pair of glowing gray gauntlets enveloped his hands and forearms, weighing down on him.

"Where did these come from? They're so tight!"

Dachii held his arms up, and immediately the gravity in the area shifted, and he began to fall down.

"WOAH! How am I falling? There's nothing to fall TOWARDS!"

But a dark, cold voice, seemingly coming from the void itself, rang out through the entire area.

"That is an Elemental Weapon. Harness the power, Dachii! HARNESS IT!"

Dachii continued to fall, but he was able to catch a faint glimpse of a vast ocean below him. "A weapon? This must be what Luca was talking about!"

"Reach out your arm and feel the pull of the gravity on you. SLOW IT DOWN, make it YOURS."

Dachii held out his hand, and the gauntlet began to glow even brighter. "Okay, slow! Slow! Slow fall!"

As if responding to his body, he gradually began to descend through the air, almost as if he were on the moon. His body hit the water with a loud SPLASH.

"Ew! What the hell? This isn't water!"

The voice began to laugh, and Dachii saw a large chunk of the water swirl in the air, forming a humanoid figure: himself, but with dark black eyes.

"Congrats. You actually did it."

Dachii tried to swim upward, but the weight of the sea seemed to pull him down. As he struggled, he saw the figure walk right up to him, moving across the water.

"Now, only one more thing to do. We need to coexist."

Dachii spat out water, glaring at him. "Let me have my body back! I don't even know who the hell you are!"

The other Dachii leaned right up close to him, face inches apart. "If you want to survive…"

The waves rose to form a wall, which showed Dachii the raging battle taking place in Umego.

"…you'll give me FULL ACCESS."

Dachii began to sink under the waves, looking at his gauntlets, and he remembered the danger his family was in.

"Damn it."

Then he tilted his head back and closed his eyes.

Meanwhile, back in Umego…

The entire bridge leading to Umego began to shake. Alterna lifted both of her arms and slammed them into the bridge, causing pieces of it to break and fall into the ocean.

"RAHHHHHHH!"

Prismar stood up, summoning a giant crystal in his hand. "Enough goofing around, Alterna! Kill them and grab the Holder!"

As if on command, Alterna slammed her hand down again, making more citizens fly into the air.

"AHHH!"

Shu and various Protection Force Soldiers began helping civilians who fell into the ocean. "Come, evacuate to the mainland!"

As people ran down what remained of the bridge, Prismar formed a MASSIVE crystal blade, and he dropped it in Alterna's hand.

"Alterna, catch!"

She grabbed in her right hand, smiling at the blade. "Aww, THANKS FOR THE UPGRADE!"

He scoffed, and without hesitation she turned and slammed it right beside Dachii and the others, sending them toward the Umego entrance.

"THIS IS GONNA BE FUN!"

As they landed near the gate, the forcefield began to destabilize, and an alarm began to ring out.

"WARNING! WARNING! HEAVY DAMAGE DETECTED NEAR ENTRANCE. DIVERTING POWER TO ROBOT SECURITY SYSTEM."

A dozen armed robots walked out of the gate, and with ease, Alterna used the blade to destroy them all.

Luca and Yuri emerged from behind the gate and began to help the others up.

"What happened?" Yuri asked. "I thought we got her!"

As Alterna began to lift the blade again, Atomu quickly got to his feet. "The plan got a little complicated! Get inside!"

She swung it, just as everyone dove behind the gate. Just like butter, it cut right through.

"DON'T RUN!"

Nishiyama backed up, trembling. "We're so gonna die! We're so gonna die!"

Atomu put a hand on her shoulder. "Just calm down! Is everyone accounted for?"

He looked around, seeing Yuri and Luca together, Tomoko and Nishiyama, and Marachii holding Kia in his arms.

"Dachii! Where's Dachii?"

Everyone looked around, but there was no trace of Dachii in sight.

"He was right next to me! Nishiyama exclaimed. "Where has that idiot gone?"

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

They heard a noise from outside the gate and immediately rushed over to take a look.

"Dachii!" Marachii called out.

Dachii slowly walked up towards Prismar and Alterna, who stared at him with an amused look.

"Come to give yourself up?" Prismar asked.

Dachii chuckled and extended his arms out at his sides, and his gauntlets began to glow. Dachii brought his fists together, back at the duo.

"Peek-a-boo."

Alterna tried to grab him but he quickly moved out of the way, and before either of them realized, he was on Alterna's other shoulder.

"DENSITY—-!"

He tried to swing a haymaker at Alterna's head, but Prismar immediately stepped in and kicked him off.

"You're leaving yourself too wide open!" Prismar remarked.

 "Thanks…but I didn't need YOUR HELP!" Alterna pulled her fist back and threw it right at Dachii, who leaped back into action and matched it with a fist of his own.

BOOM.

The force created a massive shockwave which shook the entire bridge.

Alterna reached out and tried to swipe at him, but he jumped onto her arm and delivered another strong punch to her chest, making her stumble. 

"Why is he so much stronger?" she asked.

Prismar pointed at Dachii's arms, which began to glow even brighter. "It must be damn gauntlets! Use your own bag of tricks!"

Alterna used her other hand and swung the blade at him, and he managed to narrowly vault over it.

The citizens of Umego watched from the mainland as Dachii jumped and delivered another punch to Alterna's stomach.

"Woah, what's that human MADE OF?"

"I didn't know those puny creatures could fight like THAT!"

"Wow…"

Akira watched the fight closely, observing Dachii's every move. "To think that's not even his strongest power…he MUST BE OURS."

And with that, Akira ran down the bridge, heading into the fight. Shu immediately called after him.

"Sir, WAIT! It's too dangerous!"

Akira continued to run, and he extended a hand right toward Alterna and Prismar.

"You and Kobayashi will ALL DIE FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE!"

Prismar looked at him with a dismissive look. "What's he babbling about? Alterna, kill him."

She rolled her eyes and swung the blade at him, but a pair of metal tendrils stopped it.

"Guys, over here!" Marachii called out.

Akira laughed. "Marachii, my dear boy, thanks for the save! For that, you get a free prototype!"

Marachii's eyes lit up. "Really?"

Alterna swung her blade at the group, and Atomu grabbed Marachii and pulled him back before the blade could reach him. "We can focus on that later, Marachii!"

"Sorry!"

Alterna tried to grab Dachii again, but Akira quickly extended his hand again and fired a spike right into her eye.

"Eat that, demonic hellspawn!"

Alterna merely ripped the spike out of her eye and threw it back at them, but Marachii used one of his tendrils to catch it in mid-air.

"Hey, can we use this to get to her chest?" Marachii asked.

Atomu examined it. "They look sharp enough, and it just went through her eye! If we can get it close—"

"Then you'll what?"

They all jumped back as Prismar appeared right in between them, blade in hand.

"You're all in the way. So let's fix that!"

He spun around with his blade, sending them all in different directions.

Akira got up first, trying to punch Prismar. "You think you can ruin my home and just get away with it? You're a DEAD MAN!"

Prismar easily dodged Akira's punch and slashed him across the chest. "Then show me."

Atomu's eyes shifted from Alterna, who was battling Dachii, to Prismar, whose blade was at the ready.

"I don't like saying this, but if they've split up, we've got to as well!" Atomu called out.

"What do you mean split up? We'll die that way!" Nishiyama cried.

Prismar swung his blade at Luca's head, who narrowly dodged. "He's right. None of you inhumane pests will live to see daytime."

Luca jumped back, looking at the spike next to Marachii. "I know! Me and Marachii will go help Dachii beat the big girl!"

Atomu nodded. "Alright, the rest of us will keep him at bay!"

Marachii and Luca took off, heading towards Dachii and Alterna, who were still fighting.

"COME HERE, KID!"

Right before they made their way to Alterna, Atomu yelled out one thing to them before Prismar attacked him.

"Guys! Use the bars! Eat the bars!"

Luca and Marachii stopped next to Dachii, feeling inside their pockets. Sure enough, they both had the chocolate bars Akira gave them.

"Do we really eat these?" Marachii asked, hesitant.

Luca smelt his bar before shrugging. "Smells clean! It's worth a shot!"

As Dachii evaded more of Alterna's attacks, Marachii and Luca consumed their bars.

Alterna watched them suspiciously, seeing their aura change. "Hmm? What the hell did you guys just do?"

Marachii's eyes began to glow red, and Luca's began to glow green.

"Woah, I feel so…different!" Marachii remarked.

Luca clenched his fists, feeling the energy course through him. "That man wasn't joking, this DOES work!"

Dachii landed in between them, seemingly laughing to himself.

"He's wrong…it's not the gauntlets. I've found…the perfect host."

Alterna slammed her fists into the bridge, crumbling the entire thing to pieces.

"Guys! There's no more platform—-!"

But a green figure scooped Dachii and Marachii up and began to swim toward Alterna.

"LUCA?" Marachii asked.

Hydra Luca, even bigger than he was before, used one of his heads to nod. Alterna took a step back, preparing to punch the water.

"You think fighting me in the ocean will do you any good? HAHAHA!"

She tried to hit them, but she missed and Luca shot beams of fire at her from three of his mouths.

"Hey!"

Marachii, with a tendril still wrapped around the giant spike, prepared to level it at her.

"I've almost got the right angle! We need to get a little closer!"

While they headed off closer toward Alterna, Atomu and the others tried to hold their own against Prismar.

"For such evil beings, you all have no REAL power at all!"

Prismar kicked away Tomoko, headbutted Yuri, sliced Atomu in the leg, and deflected a spike from Akira.

"Pathetic."

He advanced on Nishiyama, who was backing away in fear. "And what about you? What can you do?"

Nishiyama gulped, and she narrowly dodged a swing of Prismar's blade. "Guys, help!"

Atomu stood up, breathing heavily, looking at the lines on Prismar's arm. "Rank 16? Not exactly Rank 15, but can we actually beat him?"

Akira managed to get to his knees, staring down Prismar. "If my spike hurt his partner, maybe it'll be able to kill this bastard too!" he noted.

He snuck over to Atomu, whispering in his ear, while Tomoko leaped onto Prismar's back.

"Haha! Got you!"

Prismar simply tossed him aside. "Don't get involved, human."

Yuri watched for a moment before touching the ground, sinking Prismar inside of it.

"This again," he stated.

Nishiyama hesitantly reached out to try and touch his face,  but Prismar broke free from the ground and nearly sliced her neck.

"Wait, WAIT!"

Atomu tackled her out of the way, and Prismar missed.

"Hmph."

Atomu helped her up, lowering his voice to a whisper. "Nishiyama, we're going to try and make him use a heavy attack! Can you be the bait?"

"What do you mean, the bait?" she responded. "If he uses a heavy attack, I'll die!"

Atomu gave her a wink. "Not if I reflect it."

"W…what?"

Atomu stood up, clearing his throat. "Hey! Prismar, right? If you can't even kill one person, are you really as strong as you say—-?"

Without a single moment wasted, Prismar turned his attention to Atomu and Nishiyama.

"Is that supposed to be an insult?"

Atomu stood firm, staring right into Prismar's eyes. "However you take it, fraud."

Prismar launched a barrage of crystals, but Atomu pulled Nishiyama out of the way.  "Come on, this is a weak little girl! Can't you use anything more than that?"

Prismar scoffed and lifted his hand.

"You're noisy. Let's quiet you down."

He lifted his hand, and a massive crystal similar to the one he gave Alterna formed, nearly reaching the top of the walled gate.

"Now die."

Atomu softly smiled. "That's what I need."

And just as Prismar brought it down, Atomu put his arms together and banged them.

"REFLECT!"

As soon as he did, Akira stomped the ground, and a large spike emerged.

And they both pierced Prismar right in the chest.

Meanwhile, outside the gate, Dachii, Luca, and Marachii continued to head toward Alterna.

"Luca, this should be good enough! I need a boost!"

Marachii ran over to Luca's tail, and he used it to send Marachii flying into the air. Alterna looked at him, confused.

"Uh, what the hell——?"

Marachii prepared to throw the spike at her, but she knocked him out of the air, sending the spike flying.

"NO!"

As Luca went to catch Marachii, Dachii stared at the spike, before preparing to jump.

"I'll….do it…whatever….it takes…to WIN!"

Without any second thoughts, he grabbed the spike and punched the water with his gauntlet, ascending high into the sky.

"Harness…and…"

He threw the spike with as much force as he could.

"RELEASE!"

And it hit Alterna right in her chest, piercing her heart.

Alterna and Prismar both began to shake, and Alterna shrunk back to normal size.

"Damn it! Damn it! I lost?"

Dachii and Marachii were both picked up by Luca, who dropped them back off near the entrance.

Dachii's eyes began to return to normal, and he looked at his gauntlets, which were still glowing. "Did…we win?"

But when he looked back at Alterna, he saw her laughing.

And behind the gate, Prismar was doing the same thing, which unnerved everyone.

"Fools! Did you really think the win would be so easy?"

Prismar stood up, and everyone got into a defensive stance. "I think you did your math a little wrong."

And just as he and Alterna began to explode, a pair of smoke tendrils came from far away…

…and yanked both Dachii and Nishiyama away before anyone could react.

—-