Sunday, December 6, 2020

Chapter 11 Episode 11: The Ultimate Weapon Activates 2

Narration starts off by talking about Marduk, one of the top leaders of the Warmongers and the World Representative of Babel. His name means Calf of the Sun, and everyone would agree that the way he lives his life is one suited to being called a hero. He'd always meet his opponents head on and fight fair and square. Marduk is also constantly accompanied by the dragon Mushussu as he goes out to the most dangerous of battlefields, cutting a figure as a vanguard. He fears no injury and he suspects no trickery, and he extols nothing but trust. Even after a fight that ought to create grudges, the next day he will act as if nothing had happened. He truly is the embodiment of a hero.
 
Things then tune back in at Kabukicho where Marduk has turned up, asking what all the shaking is about after hearing about a vampire on the rampage. There's so much smoke around that he can't see what's happening, but he sets that aside to prioritize the safety of the soldiers as he calls out asking if anyone is there.
 
Scene then shifts to your end of things as narration says countless meteors are falling down the sky of Kabukicho, Shinjuku. All signs of the paved roads, the concrete buildings, and the streets that were once filled with life and activity are destroyed, and you are alarmed that another big rock is heading your way, bigger than the ones before it. This one is also tens of times bigger than Ellie is in height, but she says she'll take care of it as she leaps up and smacks the thing into dust without any trouble and poisons everyone with the resulting moon dust. You express shock at this, say vampires are amazing, and say you don't want to be her enemy again.
 
Fragments fall around between the rock(s?) Ellie breaks and the debris that scatters from things making impact with the ground. Suzuka attempts to call other Outlaws on the phone and tell them to evacuate from the area, but the line happens to get cut off in the middle. She sighs and says that means they'll just have to run around on foot and tell people in person despite the poor visibility. She turns to Ibaraki, Tetsugyuu, and the others as she suggests splitting up to spread the word to get to safety, or at least the shelter Tsukuyomi has in his store. Gyoubu, Marchosias, and the other two agree to the idea, and you ask about the shelter, be shocked they have that, or be amazed at the Outlaws.
 
Suzuka says it's something Tsukuyomi had prepped a whlie ago. She floats the idea that he saw all this coming but she doesn't seem to believe it herself. But anyways she thinks if you guys take shelter in there you should be safe no matter what happens. The idea of hiding underground and being safe from anything that happens sounds familiar to you, and Suzuka notices you thinking as she asks you what's up.
 
Tetsuya starts thinking aloud about the ultimate weapon, and he wonders what the point is if throwing soldiers at the place could achieve the same effect. Kengo coughs for a sec and says it's great that Ellie destroyed the meteors, but between all the dust and dirt floating around it's getting harder to see the sky. You observe that there's a lot of all that up there and wonder what would happen if this keeps up, then start to realize something. Kengo starts to ask you what's going on when he notices that Shirou is trying to radio in to you guys. The feed is choppy, and Kengo tries to get Shirou to repeat himself.
 
Camera shifts to base at the Ikebukuro dungeon as R-19 announces that the comm speed is falling, and with the phone/radio quality going down he tries shifting to bandwidth saving mode to compensate. Shirou continues attempting to get through to you guys from here as he says the transmission to your side is getting heavily restricted. He does manage to get through his request for a quick rundown on what's happening, and you inform him of the situation. Shirou repeats to himself about the bombardment and the dust kicking up, and he says it has to be related to the signal loss because of the timing.
 
Shirou turns to Snow for exposition time as he starts to ask him something, and Snow agrees that someone is jamming the comm channel. You ask if that means someone is interfering with the your connections, which Shirou confirms and guesses that this is all deliberate. Snow adds that it's possible the bombardment was also about cutting the underground transmission cables, and Shirou says Kabukicho is becoming isolated on the information front. You start asking what the point would be before you have an idea as to maybe why. Shirou suggests that maybe there's chaff being thrown out that has the same properties as the walls in the Ikebukuro underground passageways, then asks if you guys remember about the battle that happened way back then.
 
Back to your end of things, Kengo asks if Shirou means that time back when he first met you at the Ikebukuro Rankers' battles. You comment on how nostalgic and far back that was, which Kengo agrees with for a bit before a thought of Thor occurs to him. You either ask him what's up or have the same idea. Shirou says he's alluding to that possibility as he asks if you remember what the Berserkers and Wisemen were working together on at that time. What if the Warmongers are trying to do the same thing? If that's so, then this bombardment is just the first step of things. The next step would be the manifestation of that great power, but the radio fails at that point and cuts him off.
 
Kengo attempts to contact Shirou and R-19 for a second before he gives up and says the line got cut. You talk about the signal and say you guys won't be able to reach them until you leave Kabukicho. Kengo spits out some dust that got in his mouth and says that the dirt cloud is getting worse, so much so that he's having trouble seeing you next to him. At that point, you guys hear someone scream somewhere in the distance, which gets his attention as he calls to you. You start heading in the direction of the voice with Kengo, who agrees to go and says he knows what you're thinking.
 
Over at the base, R-19 announces that the connection to you to has been completely disrupted and that it is impossible to continue with it. Shirou asks how the connections are with the rest of the gang, so R-19 tells them those lines are still fine. Shirou asks R-19 to continue trying to reconnect the channels with you guys, then asks Snow what he thinks. Snow says it looks like the Warmongers are moving on to a new phase, then excuses himself for a moment since he needs to confirm something with Claude. Since Claude will be on a Not Skype meeting with someone he wants to check to make sure his line isn't acting up either. Shirou says he'll go update Shuuichi about what's happening then and says he'll see him later.
 
The story then turns time back a little bit and tunes in at the Berserkers' temporary office where Claude is. He talks about how he was planning on heading to the Diet building and didn't expect to be beaten to the punch and be called first. Claude's online meeting is being held through the App to someone at the online parliament, and it turns out the other party is the Wa no Kuni Rep. Claude greets him as Congressman Minamoto, saying he hasn't seem him since his celebration party for his third term. He's heard about all the work he's done in office and mentions being proud of him as someone in the same age range.
 
Minamoto thanks Claude and comments that this period of time has been hard on his secretary. Claude suggests that's enough probing each other around for now, then asks if it's fine to refer to him as one of the Warmongers' leaders and the World Representative of Wa no Kuni. Minamoto says he can call him that or Onimusha or whatever else he feels like. Claude moves on to talk about Minamoto's intentions for making this call, then admits he can't understand why. What could have lead to this turn of events? Won't this just cause discord among the Warmongers?
 
Minamoto laughs and says that allies and enemies aren't that easy to classify. He frames war as an event where you keep one hand on your gun while you hold your other hand out empty for a handshake. Claude nods at that, so Minamoto continues on and says that in his opinion, a friend is another word for an enemy that is still of use to you. In which case, he doesn't have any issue about calling Claude a friend here. Claude laughs and comments on how bold it is of him to say so. Claude then says he's already heard rumors about Minamoto's most unique point as a politician. That would be his tendency to cut off anyone who poses a problem for him, which is the only certain thing about him at this time. Minamoto doesn't respond to this, so Claude says that if he hasn't been cut off yet, who is?
 
Camera then jumps over to where Marduk is, glad to find troops okay and asking their name and affiliation just in case. He's doing this to make sure they aren't under control of a vampire, and after that's done he says he's glad they're alright but says the comm lines are out. He orders the mobs to look into why that is and report to HQ, and the mobs all acknowledge the command.
 
Marduk says it's time to start the operation and says the first thing to do is do something about the darkness. He moves to do it himself as he says his star bow can clear the dust in the sky away, then starts commanding his artifact to shoot out a meteor to clear out the chaos. At that point, darkness rises from beneath the mobs and takes control of them. The mobs are then manipulated to stab Marduk in the back and stomach, interrupting him. The darkness lets go of the mobs after stabbing Marduk, leaving them confused when they come back to their senses. Marduk sadly questions why they did it before collapsing, and the mobs start yelling in fright about how their bodies moved on their own.
 
Scene then shifts to your side of things as Kengo laughs for a moment about you guys making it to your goal before being taken aback at someone being collapsed on the ground. You say that his injuries are terrible before demanding to know if the mobs did it. The mobs recognize you as being with the vampire from earlier, but they don't dwell on the point for long as they try to explain themselves. The darkness rises again to control them to their horror, and you ask what the hell is happening as you think they're Shadows for a second before deciding against it. Kengo tells you to save the thinking for later and focus on immobilizing the mobs first, which then leads to the episode battle.
 
 
 

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