rhaspody [editing]

i.

First Child

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THE shrill scream of the Angel pierced through the quiet night.

Meanwhile, clipped onto the ear of the girl who grasped her weapon with ease, the nerve earclip carried out the voice of the captain located back in headquarters. Her voice was calm, carefully composed with a thin layer of confidence. Confidence, sprinkled with self-doubt, the girl noticed. She has no trouble in detecting the true nature of the voice that has guided her through many encounters like the one right now. She wondered why the captain felt the need to appear calm to the girl, but then she allowed herself to think indifferent to it.

The quiet voice told her to approach the Angel carefully, as it may try to hurt her if she was too sudden in her movements. Yet again, the girl had heard this line a thousand times.

She did not complain. She knew that that was not allowed.

It would be breaking the rules.

Instead, she tightened her grip on her weapon, and focused on the Angel.

She heard the voice in her head ordering her to change positions. She did, narrowly avoiding the canopy in her line of sight to tangle with her. She pressed up against the tree trunk nestled in the darkest corner of the woods, farthest from the Angel, and awaited further instructions.

The girl could hear the loud and clumsy footsteps of the Angel from where she was standing. If they were in a town somewhere, with the Angel creating havoc amongst the townsfolk, it would already be in rubbles. Luckily for her, the tree trunks and greenery growing everywhere provided to be an advantage, because they were all larger than the Angel, and therefore indestructible.

She waited, with the unhuman sounds echoing around her in the night. A crackling noise caused her eyes to reopen, blurring her vision for a short moment. She heard the familiar voice of the captain telling her to go ahead with physical attack on the Angel. She describes the Angel as having pattern type Blue, confirming its current status, and adding that the Commander centre indicated the core being in the hollow of its throat, exposed.

The girl armed herself with her weapon again.

She followed the sounds of low grunts and heavy footsteps, stealthily moving through the woods, along with the voice of the captain in her ear, telling her whether she was close to the Angel or not. She had done this so many times, it was beginning to grow tiresome to her. The girl heard the woman’s voice, and the sound of her increasing heartbeat.

After a few moments of tracking, she noticed a different voice talking in her head.

“Captain. Subject’s stability is decreasing.”

Her footsteps faltered.

“Confirmed. It’s at a healthy point, Lieutenant.”

“Go ahead.”

The girl picked up speed, and the Angel turned to her. Its core came into view, fully exposed. The Angel let out a wailing sound when the girl dug her weapon deep into its back, slicing the thick armour that was the Angel’s flesh. She pulled out her weapon, Unit 00 and with it, a pool of dark red liquid came oozing out. By the time the Angel reacted, the dirt ground was drenched in blood.

The spindly Angel roared in pain, raising an elongated hand in an attempt to slap the girl away. The girl spun away from its humanoid body, and hit the core once with her weapon. The core, to her disappointment, did not crack. She dodged the incoming energy lance from its palm, missing an impalement to the head, but its other hand clocked the girl in the chest and flung her into a stack of trees. The voice in her head yelled out.

She hit the trunk hard, and landed on the floor with a thud. The floor vibrated.

“Subject has decreased in synch rate. Synchronization at 56.2%”

“Charlotte? Charlotte, get up!!!”

The girl felt herself being lifted from the ground.

“Captain. Eva is not currently equipped.”

The girl’s eyes snapped open. Without her weapon, she would not be able to defeat the Angel. And if the Angel is not defeated…

The Angel shook her once, promptly regaining the girl’s attention. Its eyes were locked onto hers, and she could see the red irises deep within its eye sockets, which, in the long-beaked face, were capable of blinking. It’s long and sharp fingernails were wrapped around the girl’s waist.

One flinch, and it could crush her. She felt like a doll in its hands. She did not move even the slightest.

“Sachiel, the Angel, is appearing to be projecting an A.T Field, Captain.”

Surely enough, the field started to take shape around the girl and the Angel that held her. It hummed with energy, yellow, blurring the outside world to the girl. She started to panic. An A.T field was known to be the greatest weapon an Angel could ever possess. It was extremely powerful, mainly used as an almost impenetrable shield. But, there were only two things in the world that could be strong enough to break it.

The girl’s Eva… and her progressive knife.

How could she get to her weapon when she didn’t know where it went? She struggled within the Angel’s grasp, and in response, the Angel tightened its grip. The A.T field was starting to take on a dizzy side-effect to the girl. She was half-blind, without a weapon to defend herself.

!

“First child has lost secondary contacts. Synchronization rate decreasing at a high speed.”

The girl started to wail. The numbness was excruciating. She fisted and unfisted her hands, feeling no friction, nothing. She reached downwards, towards her thigh, and felt for her progressive knife.

The Angel sensed what she was doing, and gripped her even tighter. The captain, along with the voices of the first lieutenant’s in her head were chaotic.

“24.5%!”

“Get out of there!!”

The girl inhaled in shock, and she screamed at the top of her lungs. The A.T field retracted. Sachiel did not release her, but it relaxed its grip. The girl saw this as an opportunity to reach all the way down to equip her progressive knife.

She dug her nails into the needle-like fingers of the Angel, and heaved herself out of its grasp. She collided with the Angel, taking it down with her. The girl cried out as she gripped the knife shaped simply like a bowie knife in both of her hands and plunged it down into the red, spherical organ at the Angel’s throat, causing the blade of the knife to pierce deep within its core. It opened with a loud crack. Thick, red liquid came gushing out like an ocean.

The girl heaved in huge breaths of air. She stood there for a while in silence, letting the blood soak into the ground. Her pale legs and arms were drenched in the stuff. She didn’t really care about the blood, though but she had to do something about the oncoming pain in her right eye.

Her hand was still wrapped around the handle of the progressive knife.

“Charlotte, this is Commander Rune. Good work.”

The Angel had perished under the First Child.

Charlotte looked up and glanced at the near-brightening sky.

It was time for school.

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