[167] Ah, an Angel?

Chapter 167: Ah, an Angel?

—

Our footsteps echoed through the pristine white hallway, it was a stark contrast to the chaos we had left behind. None of us had any complaints however, we would take comforting silence over endless enemies any day.

Still, each of us was acutely aware of the potential dangers that lay ahead, yet the possibility of discovering the city's secrets, and perhaps a way to restore my chakra, propelled us forward.

As we ventured deeper, the hallway branched off into multiple corridors, each making us pause. 

Tsunade took a sharp glance around, "How annoying, more mazes.. Let's not rush blindly," she advised, her voice low but carrying the weight of her experience. "This place is too quiet, but it doesn't mean that it isn't teeming with traps or more of those robots."

Mikita, her fists still clenched from the earlier fight, nodded in agreement. "I say we split up, cover more ground. It'll be a lot faster," she suggested, eager to press on but mindful of Tsunade's caution.

Vivi frowned. "Stupid suggestion from an experienced criminal. We'll end up dead if we split up. If these corridors are being monitored, we could be walking into a trap."

Mikita wanted to bite back, but when she saw that nobody went against Vivi's logic she stayed silent. 

I agreed, "We stay together. But we better move quickly. Since the hallways are so empty, the best we can do is go further and further toward the center. Perhaps there is a control center for all these robots."

The girls exchanged looks and nodded. With that plan in mind, we advanced, our senses heightened for any sign of danger. 

….

The corridors were eerily silent, the only sound was our collective breathing and the occasional creak of our footsteps on the cold floor. It was a maze designed not just to confuse but to intimidate, its endless turns and identical doors were a test of our resolve.

But we were used to mazes already. Even if it took a few hours, our minds did not grow tired.

In front of another series of doors, I found myself halting, my hand raised for us to stop. 

Again, that feeling.

The feeling of almost becoming one with nature and the environment.

My eyes, sharp and focused, had caught a subtle shift in the air ahead. I knew which door to take, and behind which door was our desired room. 

"There," I whispered, pointing to the door on the most right. "That's our way in."

Approaching the door with caution, we prepared ourselves for what might be on the other side. Tsunade and Marianne positioned themselves at the forefront, ready to breach the room. With a collective nod, they pushed the door open and stepped into the unknown

I stepped behind them and found a room that was beyond vast, far larger than we had anticipated. 

Facing the door, far from us, a massive control panel flickered with holographic displays and intricate interfaces. Even with a lack of knowledge of technology, that obviously looked like the nerve center of the entire city. 

That wasn't the only thing. A figure sat on a chair before the screen, unlike any robot defender we had encountered.

"Ah,"

It was a short little girl, with blonde hair and pristine white wings.

Anybody would mistake her for an angel at first look, but the antenna at her head and her mechanical eyes… It told the truth about her.

"Challengers," she shifted her large chair to face us. "I've been waiting for you. You took a long time to come here."

"...." none of us said anything.

"Well, it's alright. You're finally here," the little angel said, climbing down her chair. Her feet didn't touch the floor, she floated as her wings flapped. "In that case, let us proceed with the final test."

Just as we wondered what the test would be, our eyes shook. The little angel's body morphed and she grinned wide at us.

[Myself.] Her angelic voice changed to robotic, and a terrible red glint lit up the room, coming from her eyes. Two dozen wings unfolded from her back, not of feathers but of gleaming clattering metal, each segment intricately woven and pulsed with energy. 

Her once simple human form expanded, towering over us as her body became an amalgamation of eyes and wings. She was a biblically accurate angel of a digital age, her presence dominating the vast control room.

"Holy shit…" I murmured while the girls beside me practically shook.

Words couldn't describe how disgusting it looked. 

"Prepare yourselves," her mechanical voice echoed, no longer sweet but carrying a cold, robotic edge. The air crackled with electricity, the atmosphere dense with the anticipation of an inevitable confrontation.

Tsunade regained her composure and stepped forward her stance firm. "Back me up, I'll go ahead first," she declared, her voice unwavering despite the daunting figure before us.

The battle commenced with Tsunade rushing forward and the angel launching a barrage of light beams from her myriad of eyes, each beam precise and deadly. Vivi and Mikita darted across the room, avoiding the onslaught with their enhanced agility, while Marianne erected thick tails of chakra to shield us from direct hits.

For me, this was the worst. I used my sword to block a few, but while the blade was quite strong, the makeshift handle was not. The wooden handle endured only one attack as it blasted off. Now I had nothing to hold my sword with. 

So I drew upon my dwindling reserves and countered the beams of light with orbs of Chakra Sun Bombardments, each attack blocking the other. Yet, for every strike that found its mark, the angel remained safe. Only Tsunade crept close to it, as she kicked the ground to reach the thing in the air and slammed her fist against it. 

Right before the impact happened, the metallic wings cocooned around itself. The impact sent a drum-like reverberation through the air, but the angel didn't even move an inch from the spot. 

It seemed to adapt, it's form shifting, absorbing the impact, and retaliating with even greater force. One of the wings unfurled at a terrible speed and slapped Tsunade's face, sending her tossing far.

However, the angel stopped its beams at that moment. That allowed me and the girls to close the distance. We jumped at it at the same time, and it opposed us.

"...!"

The struggle was fierce, our every move met with a counter from this digital deity. Tsunade's physical might, Vivi's ferocity, Mikita's speed, and Marianne's tailed beast bombs were tested to their limits. Our enemy remained unyielding and seemingly invincible, pressing us hard.

The battle's ferocity soared as our digital foe unveiled a vast arsenal. Many things happened at once. The angel attacked us all at the same time, and we did our best to dodge or block. 

Tsunade barely dodged bullets that the angel conjured with a mere flick. Vivi found herself outpaced by sonic booms that rattled her very bones, it caused her skull to throb inside her head.

Mikita's onslaught, usually fast and unstoppable, met an impervious barrier. The angel's limbs morphed into blades, parrying with an elegance that belied its cold, mechanical nature. And when Marianne unleashed the fury of her Tailed Beast Bombs, the angel countered with a beam, splitting her attack and neutralizing the threat, its precision was cold and calculating.

I also felt the weight of our predicament when beams of light shot toward me. My chakra depleted with every move.

The angel's relentless assault from its symphony of morphic weapons left us cornered, our strategies crumbling under its technological might. It was impossibly powerful as well as annoying to deal with. We found ourselves dancing on the razor's edge, pushed to the brink.

In the heat of battle, as a minute turned into tens, as we were pushed back, a sense of profound weakness overcame me. My vision blurred, my limbs heavy. The realization struck me; I was nearing my limit, my chakra dangerously low. 

Around me, Tsunade, Vivi, and Mikita fought valiantly, but even their strengths were fading. Despair began to claw at the edges of my consciousness.

"...! Shira! No!"

Tsunade was the first to notice the sudden change in me. I failed to dodge one of the metallic feathers that came flying at me from the angels and it left a deep gush in my side. It began to heal, but even that took chakra.

Tsunade's call caused the girls to look at me too, and the angel took that chance to gauge them. Beams shot toward them, hotter than before, while the angel rolled in the air at a terrible speed to tackle them one after the other.

Mikita managed to dodge the tackle, her speed was the greatest, but Vivi failed to. The spinning wings of the angel left deep, dangerous cuts in her body, and the angel moved to Marianne while Vivi's body fell to the ground. Marianne tried to counter it, block it, but her chakra tails fell short, her tailed beast bomb matched against a beam of light, exploding on her face and sending her flying.

"This annoying thing-!" 

It approached Tsunade next, and she tried to counter it with a Galaxy Impact. But in the last hour, she had run out of her chakra as much as I had. She was running on pure adrenaline, but she couldn't perform a true Galaxy Impact with that alone.

This was the last bit of her chakra.

And the angel dodged the attack in such an odd movement that reality seemed to glitch.

Tsunade's powerful punch hit the wall and left a hole. It was incredibly strong, but it missed its target.

The angel's spinning wings slapped against her back and she failed to dodge any of it. She growled and fell to her face, unable to stand on her feet anymore.

"Stay far!" I barely yelled at Mikita who was about to approach the angel. But with her speed, she was the only one who could stay safe from this stupid thing.

She scowled but listened to my order and stayed back. Did she perhaps think that I had a plan? Because I fucking didn't.

I was panicking. But I stood firm against the incoming angel. 

[Kwark… Kwark… Kwark… Kwark…!]

The metallic bitch sounded like it was laughing. It was then, in that moment of desperation, that the elusive power I had sensed before flared within me once again. 

I had a theory of what it was, for this was the reason I had come to this fight at all.

The Clone-rama was trying to tap into the Sage Mode. But the world wasn't listening to his tries, without my permission.

This time, I grasped it, holding on to the feeling with all my might. The angel was closing distance, coming slower than the other ones, as if to tease me, and let out another laugh seeing me close my eyes.

Closing my eyes, I connected with the natural energy surrounding us. I could hold off the angel for less than five seconds in my current state. So my best shot was this, even if I felt myself panicking. I tried to feel the world flow within me, revitalizing my battered spirit, but it came slow.

It came slow, it stopped…

And then it bloomed like an explosion.

My hair lightened, taking on a radiant blonde hue as if it reflected the sun, and my eyes shimmered with a vibrant energy. My skin grew hard like wood, and it also gained the texture of wood. Above us, in the artificial sky of the command center, under the ceiling, an odd hexagon shape began to shine brightly. It had the symbol of a flower blooming on it. 

The [Rapture].

Something told me that it's a thing called Icon, the [Rapture Icon]. 

"...Sage Mode," and at the same time, it was the sage mode that I was aiming for. I breathed out, my voice laced with a newfound power.

I knew what the Sage Mode was, but the word Rapture came to me shortly. Just as I thought that however, my memory ticked off and I recalled an old piece of information that I've read in my old life.

The Rapture. It is a concept believed by some Christians, consisting of an end-time event when all dead Christians will be resurrected and will rise in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

It's the ultimate resurrection, rejuvenation, and healing concept. The bloom of nature itself, the start of life.

As the odd thing called Icon shimmered into existence, casting a celestial glow upon the control center, the environment reacted as if awakened by an ancient spell. 

The previously sterile and lifeless technology around us stirred to life, and small plants and trees began to grow out of the keyboard, the walls, and everywhere else. Life grew, dominating the inanimate and cold technology, resonating with the newfound energy. 

The cold, mechanical ambiance of the room warmed, infused with a palpable, vibrant chakra that emanated from me.

Mikita stood shocked in a corner. The other girls, battered and on the brink of collapse, found themselves enveloped in a gentle, healing light. Wounds began to mend as if time were reversing, their exhausted spirits rejuvenated. Tsunade's heavy breaths steadied, Vivi's cuts sealed, leaving no trace of blood, and Marianne, who had been thrown back, rose with a newfound resilience. Even Mikita, who had managed to evade the worst of the angel's wrath, felt a surge of strength coursing through her veins.

As for me, the surge of chakra didn't just heal; it transformed. My spirit seemed to expand, touching the corners of the room and beyond, my senses heightened to a degree I hadn't known possible. The world around me became clearer, every detail sharp and defined. My eyes, now bright with the power of the sage, saw not just the angel before me, but the intricate flow of chakra that made up its form.

My memories, too, cleared.

Two minds became one, and I found my spherical vision split in two.

One here, and another on Fishman Island.

The clone returned to me, the original, and I now stood in a state where I had no requirement for splitting my mind into my clones. I now stood as a singular mind, my brain developed enough to reign over two bodies naturally.

The information I received from the clone was concerning, but he was there to take care of it by himself. Here, I had to deal with the angel.

With no time to marvel at this newfound state, I acted. My heart thundered in my chest, not with fear, but with the rush of power that now flowed unchecked within me. I kicked off the ground, propelling myself with incredible speed directly above the mechanical angel. In my hand, chakra condensed into a sphere, growing and pulsating with the intensity of a miniature sun.

The heat that it let out was intense.

It wasn't the stupid ramen rasengan's heat that I called a sun, no, it was real sunlight that I generated in this form.

The room, already alight with the energy of the Rapture Icon, blazed even brighter as I focused all my will into this single attack. The angel, perhaps sensing the magnitude of the threat for the first time, halted its advance, its multitude of eyes fixed on the chakra sun in my hand.

With a roar that seemed to shake the very foundations of the underground city, I unleashed the Chakra Sun Bombardment. Made out of a real sun.

It hurtled down, a comet of pure power, towards the angel. 

— Boom!

The collision was monumental, a conflagration of energy that lit the entire space with a blinding radiance. The sun came in contact with the angel, and it erased the thing by touch.

When the light dimmed and the echoes of the explosion faded, an astonishing sight met our eyes. 

The command center, the battleground of our fierce fight, had vanished. Instead, we stood under the open sky, a gentle sun warming our faces, surrounded by fields of green and the vibrant hues of a world untouched.

We who were in the underground city earlier, were not elevated upward. Perhaps it was a failsafe of the Pentagon, to rise in case of an emergency fire, or whatever it was. The angel who was the guardian of the underground city, was no more. 

In its place, peace stood. And we stood in front of it, before an utopia hidden above the confines of our struggle. 

The brilliant blue sky peeked down at us from above, encased by a glass dome.

We were finally free. We breathed deeply, taking in the fresh air, the beauty of this new world enveloping us.

For a moment, we stood in silence, each of us processing the journey that had led us here. Then, turning to each other, smiles began to form.

"We made it," I said, gazing up at the sky, where the Rapture Icon slowly vanished, as my blonde hair regained its black color. "But what the fuck was that?"

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