Chrono X Angel, Book 6: Branching Paths

AT ODDS

October 31st, 8:50 PM local time, Ireland

There was a distinct chill in the air, and Iris Drake could feel it across her abs through her newly-shredded shirt. Herself, along with a Lich named Midori Suzumiya, a time traveler (what even??) named Misato Tachibana, and a Dhampir who once served her father named Elisabeth Kousaka, had just been thoroughly trounced by the witch known as Abigail Williams. The quartet had been positioned outside of a small, nondescript cave which led to something called the "Veil" that this chick desperately wanted to destroy, for reasons none of them really understood. They were not meant to stop her, Iris and the others, though they had certainly tried their damndest all the same. Even seemed for a moment like they had done it too until Williams, in a rage, summoned an immense golem made of shadows which sent all four girls first into defense and then ultimately retreat.
Now, as Iris watched on from a nearby hillock, she wondered if Usoko and the others could actually beat her. The Dragon, for that is what she truly was despite telling the others she was a gargoyle, could sense the fight going on underground. She was both astounded and, she had to admit, a little afraid from what she felt even from this distance. This was undeniably the same power that had killed her sister Spriggan some six months back: holy energy from the half-Angel's surprisingly deep power well. As she continued to observe, Iris could feel a distinct change... it was not just Usoko's energies being turned on Abigail now, it was all of them. All of those girls with their weird elemental powers were turning those very energies on Abigail and... it felt like it was working!

"They actually did it..." she whispered, catching Misato's attention as she attended to the currently disassembled Midori. The Lich had taken a bad hit from the shadow golem, literally falling apart at the seams, but was saved by that future girl who was carrying medical grade suture thread, and had already begun putting the girl back together.

"Did what?" Asked the half-oni, not looking up from her work as she put the final touches on Midori's arm. The Lich, little more than a torso, right arm and head at the moment, gave her reattached limb a few cursory movements before offering Misato a shaky thumbs up.

"Beat Abigail," answered Elisabeth as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "I might not be able to sense what's going on in there, but I can feel it in the air. That sense of dread that seemed to permeate this place a few minutes ago, it's completely gone..."

She checked the time on her phone.
"And not a moment too soon, the time just hit 9pm."

As the words left her mouth, a circular wave of teal and violet energy cascaded from the top of the far off hill which contained the cave, tumbling across the countryside in all directions faster than blinking. Fortunately for the girls it seemed harmless enough, as they hardly had a chance to react to it anyway as the wave passed through them. Well, harmless for most of them.

It felt like a part of Iris had been burned away in an instant, seared off with laserlike precision. Though she could not even begin to explain how it could be possible, it felt like her connection to Ahrimanes had been... damaged somehow. As a being created from his essence, originally a Deathstalker that had fed on multiple servants of the great demon in order to evolve, Iris and her sisters had always maintained a sort of mental link to their "father". Now though... it was gone. She could not feel his thoughts in the back of her mind. Could not hear his voice telling her to bring him Tachibana. She was free of him... and it shook her to the core. True, she had already begun harboring thoughts of abandoning him, leaving Ahrimanes and his doomed cult to their little corner of the earth. The problem was that no matter where she went, Ahrimanes could rend open a portal to retrieve and reassimilate her. That was until now, anyway. With the link severed, Ahrimanes could not open a portal to her without visually seeing her, and given he could not leave Ahrimanabad until he was fully reconstituted...