JR 7.1

Hey Guys, Had to let the main catch up a bit but after the next one I think we should be basically separate ninety percent of the time. But no guarantees lol

Puppet POV~~~~~

We made quick time following the destruction the horde left behind. Even going full speed we still failed to catch up with them. Even more surprising was that we didn’t catch up with the creature either. I wanted to fix the problem I had created one way or another. I connected with my drones then looked ahead of us. I was able to see the dust and debris cloud that such a large body  of creatures creates make when they move en masse like that, it was several hours ahead of us still. 

I concentrated on the mana fluctuations that the creature created and saw him just behind the horde. From the drone senses, he looked like a wave of shadow that was eating away at the back of the horde. I shook my head, as I feared we wouldn’t even be able to catch up before they reached Father. I focused then looked inside my storage ring, I quickly worked to take the drones apart and rebuild them using the parts to create an aircraft that could carry the party. We would have to leave the regular automata behind, but I felt they would be outmatched with the equipment they were packing. 

“Stop the convoy,” I ordered. Once we came to a stop, I jumped out then pulled the new aircraft from my inventory. I had created a chassis for us to sit and took all the repulsors so that it would be able to fly with the added weight. I believe Father would call it a helicopter only without the blades that created the uplift. 

I turned to one of the drivers, “I need you to come with us, it needs a dedicated pilot.”

“Understood, my Lord.” He jumped into the pilot seat and took a moment to familiarize himself with the controls. While he was doing that, I went around the vehicles and took the guns from them. I told the rest of the automata to wait here as I’ll send someone to get them once we handled the crisis. I quickly mounted the weapons to the vehicle then hopped aboard. Natsuo had his hand inside the baseboard, but I left it alone as anything he was doing would only help. 

The pilot took us up then angled towards the horde. In the air, we were able to make much better time, as we quickly started to gain on the rear of the horde. It was getting into the night at this point so visual was lower, but everyone in the heli was basically able to see at night, so it was of little concern. 

“We’re getting close to the creature get ready for the fight of your lives,” I said to the party. 

A flash of light in the far distance pulled my attention for a moment, but I had to disregard it as a tendril of shadow nearly slammed into the heli. The pilot was able to avoid it, but more soon followed. It looked like the creature had seen us. 

“Move over!” Natsuko shouted at me over the wind. I moved over and noticed as I did so that her weapon had changed, it was a large tube now, with spikes that were sparking towards the back. She leaned out over the edge as she aimed the cannon towards the ground, “Eat this!” She yelled then a beam of energy blasted from the cannon. The particle beam lit up the night as it burned through trees and the ground alike. The creature took the beam full on as the necromancer like barrier he used was sliced through like butter. 

The…. otherworldly voice roared in anger as it seemed to reverberate in my mind. Natsuko’s gun changed back into her normal rifle form, and she slumped back. Four spots on her back opened as steam blasted from her body. Natsuo leaned in then placed a hand on her, as he channeled mana into cooling her down. 

“Well… at least I hit it,” Natsuko said weakly. 

“That’s a good start,” I said with a small smile. 

“Incoming!” The pilot shouted just as a wave of shadow slammed into the bottom of the heli. It was jerked around as the pilot fought for control. We held on as best we could, but Azra was thrown from the heli. I wasn’t even able to see where she landed much less if she was alright.

“Get us out of the sky!” I shouted to the pilot. He nodded, and the heli tipped straight down. I wanted to yell that I didn’t mean it quite like this but just before the heli hit the ground it tipped back up, and the repulsors flared bringing us to a stop a few centimeters from the ground. 

“Bottom floor,” the pilot said smugly. 

“If we survive this I’m going to kill you,” I growled at him.

We got out of the heli, and he pulled away from the ground before I could say anything. The machine guns started to revolve as he was leaving the tree line. I just hoped that he survived. 

“Alright, I had hoped that we could test the waters a little more from the air, but we’ll just have to go like this. Azra is down somewhere so we need to hurry up and finish this so we can find her,” I said to the party, “Its made from four mana sources, air, unholy, death and life, that means it’s going to be a bitch to kill. We need to make sure it stays away from the horde so it can’t recover.”

“Containment. We, unable. Father able.” Natsuo said with what I think was the longest sentence I had ever heard. 

“We need to contain it so that Father can deal with it,” I reiterated for everyone. 

“I… I think my ice can do the job. Unlike with the mutt,” we had had to leave him back with the automata, “this thing can’t counteract the element entirely.” 

“Let’s go with that, I’ll back you up.” 

We followed the sound of gunfire then quickly left the living trees behind. The pilot was evading the tendrils of shadows like it was child’s play, but if we had been in there, it would have sent us flying. I noticed that the metal seemed to have changed color, but I had no way of confirming that. Bullets slammed into the creature doing little damage but still managing to hold the creature in place and not pursue the horde. 

Natsuko changed her rifle into another form, this one still looked like a rifle, but it had several of the spikes the cannon had inserted around the body of the weapon. She and Natsuo made their way over to a boulder where Natsuo set up what looked like a barrier. 

I looked over to Z2, “Ready for this?” 

“I was created for battle,” She said quietly. 

I channeled mana into my blades so that light coated the edges giving me unparalleled cutting. I would slice this thing to pieces if I had to. Z2 pulled her weapons out as well, white smoke rising from the edge of her blade and the nozzle of her gun. 

Before we attacked a voice echoed in my mind, “You… I know you.”

“That’s right! I created you!” I shouted to the creature. 

“Created… me… Why?” It echoes as everything got eerily quiet. 

“You already fulfilled your purpose! There’s no need to kill anymore!” I said hoping that it could be reasoned with. 

“My… My purpose… has been fulfilled… A new, A new purpose… I must find a new purpose… But I must kill… but that’s not my purpose… I need a new purpose… To kill is my purpose… Yes, to Kill is my purpose… To KILL!” The voice seemed to have a debate with itself. I swore when it still reasoned to kill more. 

It turned towards us, its twisted face, lit up with green and orange light. Spikes of shadow shot towards us. Z2 and I dodged them easily enough, but there were so many that I still ended up getting nicked by one. I focused then threw a ball of light into the air, it exploded into light that would have rivaled the sun in midday. I wasn’t sure, but I hoped this would reduce the amount of shadow mana he had to work with. 

The creature had grown much larger since the horde camp but was still only roughly five or six meters tall. It still had no legs as they spread into a curtain of shadow once they touched the ground. We charged it, my blade burning every part that I sliced through while Z2’s blade froze it. She was firing her gun non-stop as well causing tendrils that were heading towards her to freeze then break off. 

The density of the creature made it hard to get past around ten meters without risk serious harm. We needed to create a containment field using Z2’s ice, but that was easier said than done while trying to stay alive. A beam of energy shot from a distance and burned a section clear of the shadow. Z2 took the chance to charge through the gap, a layer of ice coating her skin. 

As the shadow impacted her, it froze just before it could do any real damage, but if Z2 had been a mortal, the strikes would be leaving nasty bruises. I thought fast then pulled some electrum out of my inventory. I enscripted them to repeat magic, and I linked it to Z2, I was quite familiar with her ‘signature’ after all this time. 

I threw a spike into the ground, then took off in a circle around the creature inserting a spike every five meters or so. The creature had engulfed Z2 by this point, but I knew she was still alive as juts of ice would punch through every few seconds. When the last spike was in I linked them all together then yelled to Z2, “Hit it with your biggest one yet!” 

The strangest sensation happened next. It was as if the very atoms in the air stopped moving. Even I felt cold, and I shouldn’t have a sense of temperature. The spikes reacted to whatever Z2 was doing and amplified the effect even more as they pulled in all the mana in the area to fuel the spell Z2 was doing.

“No… Stop!” The creature cried in my head. The shadow convulsed within itself as it condensed in size. I wasn’t sure, but it looked like it was trying to crush Z2.

“We…” I started to say, but the sound couldn’t even leave my mouth, as it seemed just to disappear. 

I watched as its body was iced over, then iced over again. This happened several times until it encompassed the space within the spikes in a giant dome. I was worried about Z2, but whatever spell she had pulled off I couldn’t get any closer without freezing myself. 

We waited to see if anything would happen and were relieved when after ten minutes nothing seemed to move within the dome. I sent a message to Father that the threat had been handled, but we would need his assistance to finish it off. We had been keeping watch for maybe half an hour when Azra ran into the clearing. She was pretty banged up, but all her limbs were still in one piece. 

“Where’s the creature!?” She asked when she saw us. 

I pointed to the frozen dome, “Z2 was able to contain it, but not sure for how long.”

“Wow, how much mana would you need to create something like this?” She asked as she examined it. 

“Not sure, that’s why I’m worried,” I said honestly. 

“Something happening!” Natsuko shouted. I jerked my head towards the dome just in time to see a large crack form on the dome. I jumped back when an intense wave of shadow burst from the crack. A hand emerged and gripped the edge of the ice, I would have felt relief as it was a females hand, but it was different than Z2’s. Z2’s hands had been mostly like an ordinary mortal’s, but the ones that gripped the ice had claws made of black metal. 

It pulled itself from the crack that was slowly enlarging. Two large horns that started above the ears and curved around so that they almost pointed straight up. Steam that you would see drift off ice drifted from them. Silver-white hair that framed a face that had an unearthly beauty, her eyes were also silver, but with a bluish tint. 

The woman that emerged also seemed a bit taller than Z2 had been, but if she evolved then, that wouldn’t be a surprise. Wings that appeared to be composed of shadow and ice spread out behind her as her upper body emerged. They seemed to pull the light into them and hold it in the ice. Where the original Z2 had the body of a girl maybe around 15 that was a bit tall, this body would have men on their knees. 

She unfurled her wings then shot into the air, she breathed in deeply, and all the ice in the area started to float as it turned back into mana and streamed towards her. Up in the air, her outfit left little to the imagination as the material only covered her bust and her waist, where it turned into a skirt. A wicked tail seemed to complete the package. As the ice mana flowed towards her, the aura she was putting out, grew denser by the second. I had only seen a few tier 3 people while in the town, but she was getting close. 

The woman finished absorbing all the mana then streaked towards the ground. I expected a significant impact, but she landed without so much as a sound. She started walking towards us with a grate that said she wasn’t afraid of anything. 

“Ah, Puppet, what’s with the face?” The woman said with a slightly condescending tone. 

“Z2?” I came straight out and asked. 

“In the flesh, quite literally,” she answered as she took a deep breath her chest looked as if it was about to pop out of the piece of cloth that held them. 

“What… what happened?” I asked.

“Well,” Z2 said then waved her hand to form a throne-like chair to sit on, “the little beastie and I had a battle of wills inside my sub-zero ice. I used all my lifeforce to create, as I thought I would die. Luckily for me, the creature tried to stop me. Not sure why but when something kills me, my body absorbs it and turns it to my advantage.”

“I can see you’re quite powerful now…” I said not sure what to do with this situation. I couldn't read her mind to see if it was actually her or not, “Who is most important to you?” I asked.

“Father, of course,” She answered without a moment’s hesitation.