Erina and Lazarus moved as fast as they could. The wind rushed by as they launched from one head to the next, leaping over open flames of the burning city and through pillars of thick black smoke. Just three heads left…!

  Orochi stirred. Its remaining heads fought back against the crushing gravity, huge sinuous muscles shuddering with the effort. The heads slid across the earth, scraping through the dirt and crunching rubble underfoot. One in particular forced its jaw to open, trembling as it struggled to move at all under its own magnified weight.

  It was a stream of flame that was barely a spark compared to what it could normally do. It was enough to flinch Akira.

  All at once, Orochi exploded to life. All its remaining heads lashed, snapping away from Erina and Lazarus, and at its own necks. They ripped at the necks of their unmoving brethren in a feral tangle of muscle and fang.

  Lazarus rushed to dive in, but backed up as boiling poisonous blood gushed forth. The noxious blood was like a steaming lake where even the air threatened to suffocate.

  "As if I'd let you!" Akira threw out her arm and gravity magnified again.

  Orochi's heads bowed, but didn't crash to the earth. She had reached her limit. Orochi tore a gash in one of its necks and lashed, spraying a crescent of blood to strike her down and cancel her gravity.

  "We need to stop it!" Erina began charging her railgun, but she knew as well as anyone that the moment had passed. The opportunity had come and gone.

  They had nothing to stop it.

  Asayuki's motorcycle roared down the empty road. Streetlights whipped by. Her long red scarf trailed her in the wind. The chunk of metal ripped from Orochi's tail was slung over her back, bound in talismans.

  But soon, that roar fell to a snarl, which fell to a growl. Asayuki slowed to a stop and pivoted to face the way she came. Even from here, she could see the colossal form of Yamata no Orochi in the distance, its figure defining the horizon as much as the city it ravaged. Tremendous swords of light lay staked in the earth, keeping its jaws from reaching the shimmering sky on the other side of the colossal runes that summoned Darius' skyscraper-sized swords.

  Asayuki watched from behind her black visor. A quiet breath escaped her. She pointed her ride the way she came, engine rising—

  "Where are you going?" Julian's voice cut her off before she could start. "The destination isn't that way."

  "I'm going to help," said Asayuki.

  "He knew what would happen as much as us."

  There was a pause. Eventually, the grainy sound of other voices came through, too quiet and indistinct to make out. Asayuki knew he was discussing something with the rest of mission control.

  "Expected rate of survival is over 97%," said Julian. "Expected likelihood of severe damage to arms predicted at 73%. Expected likelihood of other lasting damage predicted at 11%."

  Asayuki didn't respond. Her grip tightened on the handle of her bike.

  "I've confirmed Emisane and the others are present. They seem to be fighting Orochi as well. In reality, his statistics will likely be even better than stated."

  "It's not about statistics," said Asayuki. "I just hate running. I'll cleave Orochi in half."

  "Use of Separation of Heaven and Earth is not authorized."

  She made for the throttle—

  "If you go, the time will pass."

  She stopped.

  "Every preparation we can make, we already have. We can only proceed further when you arrive with the payload. The ritual can't begin without it. Darius wasn't able to ferry you back with it… we already accounted for that possibility when preparing the timeline, but there is only so much leniency. If you turn back, the critical hour will pass and the operation will fail."

  Asayuki's grip tightened on the handle like she wanted to strangle the life from it.

  "Asayuki. The internal audit has already begun. With this, we've made enemies of the Kano Clan as well. There will not be a second chance."

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  "Shut up." She stared in the direction of the battle for a moment longer. Then, she turned her back on it. "Returning to base. Don't contact me again unless absolutely necessary."

  Rivers of blood poured across the streets and soaked the earth, withering the trees. As its heads regrew, Orochi severed the rest exponentially faster. The great dragon loomed over them, over two dozen heads tangling with each other, knotting and unknotting as they gazed down on these tiny, foolish morsels that thought they could slay a divine beast of myth.

  "Erina," said Akira as she and Lazarus retreated to her. "Put it down."

  "What?" said Erina.

  "You heard me, put it down! Just like you did on Mount Hakusan!"

  It took Erina a moment to understand what she meant. "Asayuki isn't here. Even if I shrink it, we don't have any way to kill it."

  "Healing or not, we'll see how the damn thing likes being pulled through an event horizon. All you need to do is shrink it small enough for me to stuff it in there. Get casting!"

  Erina sized it up and gulped. She raised her arm and traced a circle into the air. Glowing runes followed suit, forming a large spell circle at the base of Orochi's necks, the first of the dozens of seals she'd surely need to…

  "Erina?" Akira watched the girl lower her hand. The incomplete spell circle faded away. "Erina, what's going on?!"

  "It's pointless," she mumbled. "This incarnation of Yamata no Orochi grows endlessly. When I noticed that fact, I reasoned there was a period when it was much smaller. By using spatial distortion combined with temporal reiteration, I was able to force it back into that diminished state. But now…" Erina shook her head. "It's been too long. The time window is too large. The size difference is too great. I can't reduce it."

  Akira's eyes flashed with anger. She turned and the ground rocked as she slammed her boot down, kicking up a plume of dirt. "Son of a bitch!"

  "Mister Hero of Light over there," said Lazarus. "You're all about saving the world. I don't suppose you're feeling up to the task right now?"

  "What do you think I—" Darius staggered with a grimace as Orochi heaved against its chains. The colossal swords of light shifted, blades pulled slightly free of the earth, and then firmly dug themselves back down. "I've been doing that for a while now, yes, thank you. If you returned what you stole, we could have this done and over with in the blink of an eye."

  "I don't want to hear that from the person who freed it in the first place—never mind that person being you, specifically! Who gave you this power to begin with?!"

  "Mom." Erina didn't take her eyes off Orochi. It seemed wary of them, waiting to see what they'd do next. She knew it wasn't going to wait forever. "Maybe we should give it back."

  "When he broke into my home and caused this whole mess? And he doesn't even have the common courtesy to explain himself! That'd be a good place to start!"

  "Sorry," he said. "Can't do that yet."

  "Then you better have something to bail us out!" barked Akira.

  "I'll have you know I do! This isn't your fight to begin with. You don't need to get in the way."

  A peal of mirthless laughter escaped Akira. "Oh, that's just rich! You made this our problem, dipshit! As soon as this oversized lizard is cold and dead, I'm not wasting one second pounding you into the dirt right after!"

  The massive head of Orochi smashed down in front of them. Distracted, Darius found himself snared by its jaws, and he was whisked away before they could react. The gunslinger was dragged into the coils of the beast, vanishing between walls of muscle and gouts of fire.

  The rest readied themselves as Orochi's other heads focused on them. The dragon opened all of its mouths at once, terrifying flame glowing to life within its jaws like the furnaces of hell.

  "Fuck's sake." Akira wiped the sweat from her brow and settled into a combat stance, bouncing on her feet. "Any bright ideas left?"

  Erina's mind raced. Lazarus could still disable it, but Orochi was aware of that possibility. Given it knew to prioritize Darius for pinning it, she didn't doubt it would do everything it could to avoid letting Lazarus in range. Even if she did disable its heads, Orochi was free to tear them out and grow more. That was the one issue more than anything; they had no way to not only disable Orochi's heads, but stop it from regrowing more. If they just had something, anything…!

  Why did Goukei have to make something this ludicrously powerful…? So this was the power of a divine beast of myth whose fangs could sunder reality itself. Erina wracked her brain, but no solutions presented themselves. Even the sky seemed to despair with her, black clouds letting the first drops of rain fall…

  Wait. What?

  Erina blinked. She pulled herself out of her spiral and looked up. They were in the Reverse. The barrier between the Surface and the Reverse existed somewhere below the clouds. The sky was always distorted here.

  If that was the case, why did those stormy clouds look so crisp and clear?

  Amidst the gentle rain, a single snowflake fluttered down before her, and Erina's eyes went wide.

  "Heed me, Sword of Seven Colors." A voice, calm and regal, cut through the falling rain and the crackling flames. "Caladbolg."

  One immense slash filled the sky. It was an immaterial, nigh-invisible blade that could well have stretched for miles. Half of Orochi's heads collapsed in an instant, severed necks falling limp as the rest reeled, blood spraying from the cuts in their necks. Glittering sparkles lingered in the wake of the blow. Even in the dim half-light under the clouds, Erina glimpsed a rainbow in the spray that faded as quickly as it formed.

  Erina breathed, "Aileen…san…?"

  The figure there when Erina turned around was not the old lady she expected. It was a knight in shining armor, cast from a material that caught and refracted the light in all its colors like diamond. Its helmet obscured all features beneath, crafted into the likeness of a fierce lion. It gripped a blade of ice. Water coursed along the edge at extremely high speed and pressure, enabling it to saw through any material. The stream stilled and silenced its high-pitched whine. A deep blue cape the color of the ocean billowed in the knight's wake.

  "Normally, yes." Its voice came through the helmet distorted. The mask melted into water and pulled aside, offering Erina a look at the smiling woman underneath. "But right now, I'd be better known as Vivian."