My Weekly Gag Villain Job is Pretty Fulfilling: Chapter 20

My Weekly Gag Villain Job is Pretty Fulfilling: Chapter 20

…

Commissioned by Arksoul

…

Interlude: Chroma Scarlet: Aine Campbell

…

Dad decided to break the news to me while on a walk.

Not exactly the best sign, given that’s how he broke the news to me that Mom passed.

At least we weren’t walking outside in the dead of winter like last time.

“There are murmurings going around. A lot of people are starting to see those who wish to pay the tithe as part of the Legion. Bloody idiots, the lot of them… but there are a lot of them.” Our steps crunched leaves underfoot. The London Arcology was a system rather than a giant structure like most. Large towering pillars processed waste into usable materials and housed all the agriculture and infrastructure support the metropolis needed. They usually just melded with the sky thanks to optical camouflage. It let London look like a city and not a massive, sprawling crystalline palace housing millions under one roof. “I know a man in the SAS. They’re being brought in for meetings for… asymmetric shaping operations. The daft men up top think compromise is special forces teams smashing agricultural towers.”

War was coming.

“We never had to deal with this before. The Legion just wiped everything out that we couldn’t protect.” I felt like a broken record as I said it. Walking with Dad down the street, there were already signs. Arcologies had plenty of regular food and materials to go around. The necessities were never going to change. But goods not produced by the towers are another story entirely. It was nearing the holiday season, yet there were no signs for any sales. Special menu prices weren’t that special. Fewer people were on the streets and just walking around. “This method is insidious, to say the least. We need to win the moon back. It’s driving people mad.”

“Whatever happens next depends on the Guardians and whoever’s sent up there.” Pa said, and I gave a nod. “I can only hope the Templars or someone else decides to pull their heads out of their asses and decide to help.”

The Templars were Europe’s strongest organization of superhumans. Less than twenty in number, but each one a force to be reckoned with. Stylized as knights or dames, they fought against sorceresses or otherworldly entities. They rarely moved as a single group, but when they did, it was because the fate of billions of lives was on the line.

Even now they were out there fighting the good fight, and so were other groups from all over the world.

“If they move for us, they won’t be fighting against whoever it is they’re fighting now.  The Legion’s leader knows we’re in a bind and that we can’t throw more at them.” I followed Pa into a shop. The scent of frying oil hit me. It was a chippy. I looked over at the menu prices and found they were the same as always. Farmed fish, potatoes, and oil were all basic foods produced in mass. I gave an order along with some peas and mash, while Dad ordered the same along with a drink. I spent so many meals here, and it was always the same. Some part of my mind now, however, imagined what would happen if the sky turned black and the Legion turned its might upon us here and now. How much of my own neighborhood could I protect? “Even the UN’s task force is made up of volunteers and whoever they can scrounge up with light-based powers.”

Far less than I cared to admit.

Sometimes I thought about the Legion’s representative and its offer, but I discarded it immediately.

Oblivion isn’t how everything should end.

Not by a long shot.

Pa was quiet for a while before leaning forward and speaking to me.

“I have some friends who want to know if you have anything offensive at your disposal. Something like the defensive ritual in scale, but for an assault.”

“We don’t. Never had to develop it.”

“Well, we need it now. It’s for the sake of morale. A shield calms people down, but a sword gives people hope. Nothing is worse than being unable to retaliate.” Pa spoke and I listened. Some part of me wondered if the Light would approve of that thought process, but the Light never had to deal with this before. Everyone it could save used to be united and kept safe in a single sanctuary. It kept a lot of things simple. Now, the situation was anything but simple. The Legion was using that against us. It just had to win once, while we had to win every single time. “I know it doesn’t exactly fall under the purview of Sentinels, but… it is needed.”

“… I and the others will work on it. At least, something big and flashy. Something we can shoot at the moon and make the dome fall will do it.” I told Pa, and he gave a nod. “I don’t think we’ll be able to give that away like everything else, though. We’ll need to work together to get that much power out… and maybe we’ll need to pull the palace out of safety, too.”

“I’m just an advisor. I can’t tell you and your allies what to do, but I can tell you with certainty that you’ll cool off a lot of heads by showing them you can match the Legion.” Pa was making sense. We worked hard at first to be able to counter the storm of giants that we expected to come after the entire world. Now, we had to work hard to counter the new threat posed by the Legion. Becoming a strategic defense network and a deterrent seemed strange, but it made more sense than being overpowered quick-reaction forces. “In the end, though, it may be wise to start looking for someplace to move people if the world falls.”

I blinked at his words, the sound of frying food and the din of the world outside fading, while he took a sip of soda.

“You think… that it’ll end up the same way as the other worlds? After all this change, we’ll just be cornered into one city with the only hope being the next generation?”

“It might, and we should be prepared for that. We need to make sure there are enough people who can work and who can fight and that they can repopulate.” Pa’s tone became measured.  He always spoke calmly and directly when he wanted to get the point across. “I don’t think it will happen. If the Legion grows too powerful, someone on the planet will respond aggressively. It’ll change things, but life will continue. But it pays to be prepared, just in case the Legion’s hand manages to overwhelm us all. That general of theirs changed everything… he might just be what the Legion needs to pull off a win.”

“Him… he’s our target for this coming invasion. We’ll clear the path, sure, but beyond that it’s all him.” I agreed with Pa on that. I had some misgivings about making a strategic weapon on par with an island destroyer, but the general needed to go. “We can’t make any sacrifice plays, but we’ll give it as good as we got before running away if we can’t take him down.”

Pa’s shoulders slumped with relief, and a smile formed on his face at my statement.

“Good. That’s what I like to hear. Now, let’s get to eating. Otherwise, the food’ll get cold.”

Thankfully, even with all my worries, I was able to enjoy a meal with my father.

…

Ahead of the UN’s second assault, a series of daring raids were deployed against us, which were exotic in their origin.

The first was a creature that was sent onto the moon through a gap. It was a wriggling mass of scaled flesh that broke out of a prison of iron and proceeded to make more tears. Tears from which more of its kind began to enter the moon. In under an hour, there was a swarm of the strange, wriggling masses of flesh with teeth and eyes.

They were strong physically and even had some sort of heat-ray attack, but the Imps tore through them like paper. When the smaller ones realized this, they worked together to bring out bigger creatures. Some were able to fly, others were humanoid and made of wriggling flesh, and even a gigantic one came through that resembled a giant starfish.

In the end, though, they were made of flesh; even if that flesh was tough, it wasn’t tougher than steel, and their attacks were heat-based, even if they faintly glowed.

Imps ripped through them, and they served as food.

We tried to keep some of the smaller ones alive to keep summoning in a cave, but they escaped through the same tears that they made.

I tried to get an Imp through the tears, but it was met with too much physical force and thermal energy even for it to endure.

Whatever that place was, it’ll be a good place to get food and train.

The second exotic attack was along the same vein.

A demonic summoning circle unfolded just outside the fortress, and a horde of demons came forward hungry for opponents and souls.

Lia wasn’t a fan of them. They took souls and tormented them to use as power. So, she went there on her own.

Through the portal, after it was opened, after dealing with everything that came through in less than a minute.

After that the portal closed and she reappeared, not very pleased, because she was banished back before reaching a well.

They always managed to kick us out somehow.

Anyway, besides those two attacks, there were more satellites and reconnaissance. No more automated drone soldiers that replicated, but plenty of small machines that gathered surveillance data. There were flyovers of some stealth craft, but besides that, it looked like everything was just gearing up for the next battle with the Sentinels at the lead.

So, just in case, I relocated the underground base we built up into a cavern we carved out deep in the crust. The benefit of having a base that was built in a shell of darkness was that I could just move it, along with all the portals we needed to stay wired in.

With that done and the spot in the moon we occupied filled in, we just sat down and waited for the coming attack.

And, surprisingly, it came from the Sentinels.

“Have you seen that before?” It was a massive sword of light that formed from an immense magical circle with the five of them working in concert. Four were in cardinal directions, while one was at the center. It was blue, the sword-wielder, and once the sword formed, she held it up. A skyscraper-sized sword condensed into one fit for a single hand… and she swung it. “That seems new.”

“No. It seems that they have adapted to the current situation.” Ebb’s gaze was firmly on the Sentinels. The small sword disappeared with the swing and turned into a slash of light that was just a meter wide but many kilometers long. It flashed after fully forming, and then suddenly the dome was cut and breaking apart. I couldn’t help but let loose a whistle as the film that I forged unveiled the palace of darkness that I created on the moon’s surface. “Interesting. The attack is persisting and weakening many of the soldiers.”

“Sounds like a good opening attack. Shock and awe followed by a debuff.” Alex watched with us. We had a massive room where the walls showed what was seen in the battlefield. It was always important to watch this sort of thing as to not make the next season just a rehash. I was thinking a floating, moving city on the ocean would make for a good second-season base. We’ll bring back the palatial fortress of darkness in the fourth season, but on Earth. “Oldie but a goody. Start strong, but do something to keep the fight in your favor.”

Space warped over the palace, and the ISS Unity formed high above. The Sentinels covered it in protection, and so we couldn’t board it any more. Multiple transports detached while it used its point-defense lasers to start attacking. They were meant to be defensive, but in the vacuum of space any sufficiently powerful laser could travel vast distances without issue. Being a form of light and probably enhanced by the Sentinels, the lasers carved through buildings made of darkness with ease while a deluge of heroes came forth.

“Feh. If we weren’t holding back, this would be a failure of a landing. Titans could have grasped the station and brought it down. The ground could have swallowed every single transport.” Ebb groused as the heroes got to work making a landing zone. There were a lot of the new Akimitsu series cyborgs on the field going to work with blades of light and crackling electricity. They took on the swarms, carving through multiple imps at once, and practically flew across the battlefield. “These new machines are powerful, though. If an army of them were created, they would pose a problem.”

“We’ll secure a few and see if we can turn them our way. Probably won’t work, though.” AI was treated very carefully since a bunch already went crazy. These cyborgs had mostly human brains augmented with cybernetics. Not enough flesh to be considered people, but not enough machine to be monsters was the design principle. Suddenly, as one was speared through and destroyed, a soul came through. “Oh, huh. They’re people.”

The implication that the cyborg soldiers had souls was worrying, but at the very least they’ll be included in our plans to capture everyone’s souls at once.

“They’re supposed to be cloned brains controlled by tech. How can they have souls? That’s crazy. There’ll be riots if people find that out.” Alex weighed in with worry. “Are they just making people to be used like slaves?”

Out of curiosity, I took a look at the dead cyborg’s soul and almost raised an eyebrow.

“They’re not human souls. It’s different. More focused, precise, and honest.”

“A subservient artificial species. Not the first we’ve encountered. They deserve freedom from eternal conflict like any other.” Ebb chimed in before refocusing the battle. “Hmph. It seems that immense blade was not their only superweapon. Look.”

I did, and I stared for a bit before pumping my fist.

How couldn’t I when the Sentinels made their own titan and sent it careening towards the palace?

Magical girls with giant magical robots are the best!