The Amy/Sakuya entity paused, its gaze shifting from the broken Nowa to the scorched carcass of the first entity floating on the water. It glided over, reached down, and laid a hand on the blackened husk.
A sickening, organic crackle filled the air. The carcass convulsed, then began to rejuvenate at an impossible rate, shedding its destroyed exterior in a grotesque metamorphosis. From within, the triangular entity ripped its way out, fully restored, its glitching form and uncanny smile back intact, as if the brutal beatdown had never happened.
"TAYK thuh MEE-koh NOW,(Take the Miko now,)" the Amy/Sakuya entity commanded in their broken English language.
The triangular entity's smile widened as it immediately locked its sights back on Reimu.
"EYEL HOHLD thuh FLAY-M NOH-ah AT BAY,(Ill hold the Flame Noah at bay,)" the doppelganger said, turning its gaze back towards the kneeling Nowa, hovering closer to him.
The triangular entity lunged for Reimu with renewed vigor. Sakuya met its charge in a whirlwind of knives, but the entity had learned; it phased through her attacks, its movements more adaptive and aggressive than before.
"Damn it! It's faster!" Sakuya gritted her teeth, barely managing to deflect a spear-limb aimed for Reimu's heart.
Marisa let out a furious yell, "Stay back you freaks!" Unleashing a Master Spark along with a spread shot of star shaped bullets that the entity simply absorbed it as if eating it. "It's no use! It's already adapted to our attacks!"
Ran could only shoot weak bullets, her power still a hollow ache. "We can't fight it again like this! Nowa, please!"
But Nowa was unreachable. His knees on the ground, staring at the doppelganger, his eyes wide with a trauma that had frozen him solid. The Amy entity looked down with gentle, false concern.
"You've been fighting for so long, Noah," it whispered to their language now, its voice a perfect, cruel mimicry of a memory. "You don't have to fight anymore. Just let go."
"Noah…?" he muttered. 'No… Amy didn't call me Noah, she gave me the name Nowa! Stand up and beat it, Nowa!' He struggled, but the fear of failure from the past, the one before him, paralyzed his body. 'Fuck… My body won't move… Why?!'
The Amy entity mockingly smiled. Then it hovered its hand toward Nowa. "Emotions lockdown."
'No… No!' He protests, yet he is powerless in the face of the one he killed in the past by accident. Then a pink and black local mana flowed towards him, locking him in his despair in his memories.
Meanwhile, the girls fought a losing battle. Sakuya threw a volley of knives at the triangular entity's back; it deflected them without looking, the blades ricocheting back and forcing her into a desperate parry. She was injured to press the attack, and her time-stop was useless.
Ran and Marisa, despite their injuries, bravely stepped in front of Reimu, forming a final, fragile line of defense.
"You will never get my friend!" Marisa yelled, her Mini-Hakkero flaring to life, only to sputter and die, overclocked and broken from the battle's abuse. "No! No! No! no! Not now!!"
Ran lunged at the entity. It met her with a spinning axe kick that sent her crashing to the ground with a pained gasp.
Seeing the last defense broken, Sakuya mustered her final strength. In a blur of motion, she grabbed Reimu and Marisa, Nowa's coat swaying from her shoulders. "We must retreat to the Scarlet Manor! We need backup!" she commanded, her voice strained.
The triangular entity gave chase, its uncanny smile fixed on its fleeing prey. Then, it stopped dead. Its arms slammed on each other, then it morphed into a grotesque, organic shifting bones, reconstituting into a crystalline arm cannon aimed at the fleeing trio.
There was no charging sequence, no buildup of energy. It simply fired. A lance of heat ray energy, designed to pulverize, shot across towards them.
Reimu, sensing the attack, mustered the dregs of her spiritual power to cast a barrier. And the vaporizing beam pierced it through, breaking her barrier.
Sakuya, glancing back and seeing the beam about to connect, made a split-second decision. With a final burst of speed, she threw Reimu and Marisa forward, out of the direct path, placing herself between them and the blast.
She turned her head, offering them a last, serene smile. The calm, accepting look of a servant fulfilling her highest purpose.
"Tell my mistress—"
The Heatray-beam struck her square in the back.
But instead of being pulverized, the dark blue coat Nowa had given her flared with a sudden, violent incandescence. A hexagonal barrier of light energy shattered into existence for a split second, absorbing the full force of the pulverizing beam. The concussive shockwave still sent her flying, crashing into a thick tree trunk with a sickening crunch, where she slumped, unconscious but intact.
The horror on Reimu and Marisa's faces melted into a split second of stunned, breathless relief. But there was no time to celebrate. The triangular entity had already closed the distance, its glitching form now right upon them in the air.
Seeing it loom over the defenseless Reimu, Marisa acted on pure instinct. With a furious roar, she turned in mid-air and her magical broom blasted with laser, propelling her at top speed. She body-slammed into the entity, wrapping her arms around it in a desperate grapple, propelling them both away, giving Reimu the distance. "I'm your opponent now, you bastard!!"
"MARISA, NO!" Reimu screamed, but it was too late. Her friend had willingly put herself in the jaws of the beast.
Back with Nowa, the Amy doppelganger pressed its advantage.
"See?" it whispered. "They left you. They always leave. But I won't. I'll always be here, Noah."
"Always.. be there.." he muttered. His body quivers from struggle, trying to make a move. 'Reality override: crash… Reality override: crash… Shit! Don't make me remember that scene! …FFFFUUUCKKKK!' His words echoed in his skull, a desperate technique he often used to cancel the imposed conceptual attack.
But the flashback, raw and unbidden, erupted in his mind.
—Chaos. A city street turned into a warzone. Himself at fourteen, his wrists held by two super-powered men, utterly helpless. His eyes, wide with terror, were locked ahead, forced to watch as Amy, the woman who had saved him, his only light, was brutalized and raped by a laughing group of them. He screamed. He begged. He cried until his voice was raw. His hatred became a physical thing, a boiling acid in his veins. But no one came. No one saved them. The world was empty of heroes.
Back in the present, the triangular entity made a swift calculation. Its gaze turned from the fleeing Reimu to Marisa, still clutched on. With a grunt of frustration, it flung the magician aside, sending her crashing into Ran's limp body. Its focus was absolute. It resumed its chase, gaining the distance it lost once more.
Reimu couldn't outpace it. She spun, firing a volley of ofuda. The entity didn't even bother to phase; it simply swiped them from the air with a glitching limb before they could detonate.
It lunged, grabbing her ankle. She dissolved into a shower of paper tags, the decoy exploding in its face. It didn't waver.
Again, she reappeared and flew. Again, it caught her. Another decoy, another explosion.
A third time.
A fourth.
On the fifth attempt, as she materialized, her hand went to her own pouch and found it nearly empty. She was out of tricks, out of space, out of time, unprepared.
The entity's hand closed around her real arm. Before she could even form a spell, she was violently slammed face-first into the earth. Dazed, she felt her body being lifted by her leg, only to be smashed down again.
And again. And again. And again.
Marisa pushed herself up, her own injuries screaming in protest. The sight of Reimu in the distance, the proud, untouchable Reimu, being brutalized like a ragdoll sent a fresh wave of horror through her. "STOP IT!!!" she screamed, her voice cracking, but the entity didn't even acknowledge her.
Her head whipped towards Nowa, who was still locked in his internal prison. She limped into the air, flying clumsily to his side. She grabbed his shoulders, shaking him hard. "Nowa! Wake up! Please! You have to help us! We're your friends!"
The Amy/Sakuya entity let out a soft, mocking laugh. "It's useless, little magician. He's broken. He can't hear you. He's too lost in a past where no one ever came to save him."
The Amy-Sakuya entity watched as the triangular being. "TAYK HUR IN. WEE HAV OUR PRYS TAG.(Take her in. We have our price tag.)"
The triangular entity ceased its brutalization and gave a jerky nod. With methodical precision, it began stripping Reimu of her sacred tools. Her Gohei, the very symbol of her role, was torn from her grasp and cast aside. Then her persuasion needle, her ofuda pouch, each item representing her identity as Guardian of Balance, discarded like common trash.
Reimu, her body broken and pride shattered, let out a low, trembling whisper. "H-help... me..."
A rope of conceptual binding energy materialized, binding her arms. Then, a strip of duct-tape sealed her mouth, silencing the Hakurei Miko's final plea. The entity held by her feet and hoisted her upside down, her red hakama falling toward her face, and began dragging her towards the pulsating rift.
The entity took one step, then stopped as its foot was caught. Sakuya had dragged her broken body across the ground. One bloodied hand clamped around its ankle. "I… will not… let you…" she gasped, her voice ragged.
The entity didn't even look down. It simply kicked, and the Chief Maid was sent tumbling back to the earth, her body curling around fresh pain.
It resumed its grim march, Reimu's helpless form dragged against the torn ground. This time, it was Ran who intercepted, lunging with what little strength remained. "Release her!" The entity stomped down, crushing the kitsune against the soil before kicking her aside.
Marisa watched in horror as the entity approached the rift's threshold, Reimu's captive form dragged like a ragdoll trophy. She turned back to the catatonic Nowa, her hands gripping his shoulders so tightly her knuckles turned white. She shook him with every ounce of her strength, her voice cracking. "NOWA, PLEASE WAKE UP!"