Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
Lucy POV.
"Haa!? Your let that stupid dog escape!?" Rebecca shouted as we approached and looked at Fenrir, free of his chains.
"In case you haven't noticed, we have some problems!" Azazel exclaimed as he dodged Fenrir and continued attacking him. My eyes scanned the battlefield. Loki was laughing as he flung magic around. Fenrir was attacking basically anyone who moved at terrifying speed. Finally, there were the Midgardsormr clones, who had appeared while we were busy with Fenrir's children. The enormous dragons, which looked more like giant serpents than anything else, were moving all over the battlefield.
"Ha!? A couple of oversized snakes are giving you trouble?! You seem to be having performance issues, old man!" Rebecca mocked, then began firing her machine gun and laughed.
"Less talk and more attack! Can you do the same thing you did with Skoll and Hati with Fenrir?!" Azazel asked in our direction.
"No. It was something we had planned. And it worked perfectly because Fenrir's children weren't as strong as the original. Trying it with Fenrir himself wouldn't work. Even less so against Loki; he wouldn't be fooled. They're on a completely different level. Unless…" I muttered to myself as my eyes darted around. I clicked my tongue, created several screens, and quickly marked Loki, Fenrir, and Midgardsormr.
Then I pulled out a time bubble grenade and threw it at my feet. I saw everything blur and begin to freeze. Or well, not everything; despite the incredible speed at which some of them were moving, they still moved slowly, even though the bubble increased my speed thousands of times.
Even so, I let myself fall and sat down in a chair made of my own magic. I took off my jacket and threw it aside, then removed the faux-fur patch, unlocking my Deep Dive port. Several cables with iridescent crystal tips then shot out and plunged into the air. A new addition from GLaDOS that allowed me to interact with my Aether Editing by performing a Deep Dive.
I settled back in my seat and stared at the code in front of me. I narrowed my eyes, then took a deep breath. I let my mind start working; my fingers blurred quickly.
I'd been working on this damn code for the past few days. Loki and Fenrir were unlike anything I'd ever seen; I couldn't easily manipulate them with my Aether Editing. It was infuriating. It was like seeing entirely new, very different programming languages, like some damn alien programming language.
The syntax, the logic, and even the concepts of variables were so different from what I was used to. I could barely understand anything. In the few days I had to prepare, I could barely familiarize myself with that stupid language.
Indiscriminately throwing Quickhacks at them would fail. They would collide with their existential defenses and be eliminated even if they minimally affected any trace of them. And even if I managed to breach their defenses, the incompatible language would make it impossible for the Quickhacks to function correctly. Penetrating the Black Wall of the Old Net had been easier than trying to understand and break through the defenses of both divine beings.
Even after several days, I had barely been able to identify small gaps in Fenrir's existence. They wouldn't have been entirely effective against him, but they were effective against Skoll and Hati, simply because they were Fenrir's descendants and part Jotunn. The 'language' of their code was similar to Fenrir's, but much easier to understand than their father's, because of their shared origins and the fact that they were both weaker than Fenrir.
Skoll and Hati's existence codes—just weak enough to modify and translate the Quickhacks to make them more effective against Fenrir. The problem was, trying to encode them was no small task.
I didn't know how much time had passed so far, but it had taken me hours inside this time bubble, maybe days, to create something I was satisfied with. I stopped paying attention to time as the lines of code moved back and forth. Once I finished Fenrir's, I sighed shakily, saved them to my systems, and started working on Loki and Midgardsormr.
The Midgardsormr clones gave me the least trouble. Their core code was far simpler than Fenrir's. The clones, much weaker than the original and with their dragon-like nature, something I had already experienced, made breaching their defenses much easier, as did translating the Quickhacks to work on them.
Finally, Loki was the most troublesome. His children barely shared any lines of existential code, so I had to start over. Luckily, the small parts that were similar helped enormously to create the necessary gaps.
Once I finished, I sighed wearily. If it hadn't been for my body, or Serena's medallions and rings, I would have already collapsed. A quick ping from my internal date was enough to tell me I had been programming for over 27 days. I hadn't even noticed.
The cables of my Deep Dive Port trembled slightly before retracting into my body once more.
I finally stood up and stretched lazily. I felt all my bones crack loudly. I looked up and peered out of the time bubble. The fight had continued; I could see that a couple of minutes had passed outside.
I had been inside the bubble for 27 days. That was over 648 hours. 38,880 minutes. The time bubble I had used wasn't strong enough, so about 3 minutes had passed since I put myself in the bubble, and the fight was still in the same stalemate as before.
I placed my hand on my chin and the top of my head and rotated my head; my neck cracked satisfyingly before breaking the time bubble. The fight resumed at full speed.
"Everyone, get ready! Don't resist! Let me in!" I told everyone in the group. Several of them looked confused, but there was no time to hesitate. I extended my hand and snapped my fingers.
My body began to make noises as it kicked into full power. Several of my body's vents and cooling systems hissed and emitted steam as they released heat.
Then, all the Quickhacks activated at the same time and seemed to spread. Dozens of them were launched simultaneously, and icons began appearing above everyone present.
On all the allies, half a dozen icons appeared above them as their stats rapidly increased. Most of them let me in, so their defenses from their existing code were almost nonexistent, and the Quickhacks with buffs activated on all of them.
Finally, red icons appeared on the enemies as their stats dropped. Loki and Fenrir slowed down. Nothing truly extraordinary; I hadn't really been able to eliminate most of them, only about a fifth, but it would do.
Finally, I leaped. The Light of the Void flowed through my body, and I began launching Void Arrows. Void Anchors erupted upon impact, ensnaring and entangling all nearby enemies, including Loki and Fenrir.
"That's all I can do! I reduced their abilities by a fifth! The Void Anchors slow them down even more and slightly suppress their abilities, so don't let them get away! I can't move if I want to hold them off!" I yelled at everyone. That seemed to stop everyone for a few seconds before they all moved at once.
Loki seemed to glare at me with hatred. He raised his hand to attack, but Issei reached his side and tried to strike him with Mjolnir, which he still hadn't fully activated or used.
The fight then turned in our favor. Vali disappeared with Fenrir and Kuroka to fight on their own. Tannin and Rossweisse quickly dealt with the Midgardsormr clones.
So everyone else focused on Loki. Being partially sealed, Loki began taking damage from everyone else, especially Rebecca, Issei, and Azazel. After several seconds, Loki was badly injured, but to my dismay, he broke the Void Anchor's effects as he freed himself, quickly destroying my Quickhacks in the process.
" These kinds of games for children are useless! You can't capture God with something like this!" Loki exclaimed furiously. I prepared to attack him again when black flames erupted beneath Loki and sealed him away once more. I stopped myself, then shook my head.
With Saji and Vitra's arrival, it was more than enough to defeat Loki. So I sighed, walked away, and watched the fight. With Vitra's seal, Loki couldn't defend himself, and since he was already too badly wounded, Loki was finally defeated and left unconscious.
The fight was over. I sighed wearily as I watched everyone else begin to relax in relief. Even Odin appeared once it was all over, only to look sadly at Loki and shake his head. Then Odin went to speak with everyone else while checking on them. I simply stayed put; the escort mission was finally over, so there was no reason to linger.
I was about to go look for Rebecca when Odin, Azazel, and the rest approached me.
"Good fight, girl. It was impressive how you took care of Skoll and Hati," Odin said, nodding.
"We were prepared." I said, shrugging. Odin chuckled.
"I can see that. I've been watching the fight from afar, and I must admit, girl, I'm really interested in your kind of magic. It's unlike anything I've ever seen." Odin laughed as he stroked his beard and looked at me curiously.
"And he's not the only one. I have several questions. I've seen your fights in the Rating Games, and the things you do are often almost instantaneous and last much longer, but against Loki, Fenrir, and his descendants, that doesn't seem to be the case." Azazel said, intrigued. Rias and the others also approached. I just stared at them.
Sera, Lucius, or Ravel hadn't actually given me any orders about explaining my Aether Editing or anything about my powers. I'd already been... quite helpful in explaining about our Light, especially our resurrection method, only because Lucius had asked me to. He'd mentioned it would be immensely fun in the future, when Serena finally emerged from the sand and realized it.
That confused me, but I was genuinely intrigued by what he was planning behind Serena's back. It didn't seem like anything harmful, just harmless fun, but very entertaining for him. I admit I was curious, but I could wait, just like Lucius.
That said, Lucius and Ravel hadn't said anything about explaining what we were really capable of, but they did say that we should both be as honest as possible, so I didn't really know what they were planning. It wasn't my job to plan things; I'd leave that job to them.
"It's called Aether Editing," I said honestly. I could see the confusion on their faces. "It allows me to manipulate and rewrite the data of reality as if it were a computer program," I explained simply.
"Oh?" Both Odin and Azazel seemed really interested. I just hummed. I moved my hand and a holographic screen appeared in front of me, then I turned it around to show it to the others. I crouched down and picked up a stone from the ground. I moved my fingers, and the screen marked the stone; then a cascade of code began to appear.
"All objects, living or not, exist solely as a line of code. Whether it's a stone or a god, they have a line of code that determines the boundaries of the entity or object." Then I pointed to the long line of code. "This is the line of code for the stone. If I do this..." I reached out and created a keyboard; my fingers moved rapidly.
The stone in my hand began to float slightly, then trembled and changed shape into a perfect cube.
"I can modify its line of code to reshape it into whatever I want. It can be its shape—" I continued, modifying the shape of the stone to a sphere, star, pyramid, or random things, even a realistic figure of Azazel. "Or even its color or material." I said before doing so.
The stone changed color, first neon blue, then a deep red, a greenish yellow, a rainbow, and then I started changing its material. Metal, wood, ice, and then I returned it to a predetermined stone.
"It could even erase the code itself," I said gently before issuing the command. The stone's code began to be destroyed and erased as the stone itself crumbled into motes of light and was erased from existence.
"That... is incredible. I have so many questions." Azazel said, sounding genuinely excited.
"And you can do that to a person? Because it would have been much easier to remove the code from Fenrir's children than to do anything else." Odin hummed. I shook my head.
"A person's code is thousands of times more complex than a rock, hundreds of times harder to understand, and incredibly resistant to manipulation, as if they had a natural firewall," I said with a grimace. At least they only had one firewall. Until now, I hadn't encountered any entity that possessed an ICE, or worse, a Black ICE, naturally.
A firewall simply rejects my connection based on its existence code. An ICE, or Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics, are more specialized cybersecurity programs. They can detect intruders, trigger alarms, block certain actions, track, and attacking programs. Meanwhile, Black ICE programs are the category of ICE that are purely offensive and lethal.
I had prepared myself for divine beings to have some ICE, but until now I hadn't encountered anyone with those abilities.
"Furthermore, as I've discovered, it's sometimes incomprehensible. The line of code for the existence of Loki and Fenrir was in a language I'd never seen before; I had to understand it before I could even think about altering it." Continue with ease.
"Does that mean you deciphered a god's code?" Odin asked, raising an eyebrow. I snorted.
"Oh no, not even close," I said dryly. "But enough to put my Quickhacks inside their code and have them work reasonably well," I said, shrugging. I could only see the bewildered looks on their faces, and I sighed again. "A Quickhack, just like the name suggests, is a quick hack. You simply target a program or a Daemon, and load it directly into their system."
"A daemon is a program, file, or process that, once started, can continue running without requiring any user intervention. It will simply execute and perform its programmed function."
"A quickhack is simply opening a small hole in the code's defenses, placing that daemon, or really anything, inside, and letting it act on its own and produce various effects on the body. I have several different hacks. They're quite general, as you've probably noticed."
"They only increase or decrease things, like strength, resistance, speed, reaction, or similar things. It simplifies things, and they act faster; they're codes that I already have constantly loaded and can use quickly."
"If I wanted something more specific, more detailed, I'd need much more time than necessary, something you don't usually get in a fight," I said, shrugging.
"Wow, even so, that's impressive," Azazel said, looking curiously. "I must admit, I've never heard of this Sacred Gear before. It must be some subtype or evolution of another Sacred Gear. Interesting."
"The concept of hacking must have originated in the 70s, maybe a little earlier. It's impossible that a Sacred Gear of this type existed, or that Father possessed it from the beginning. That means it was changed or evolved because of you into something modern that you're capable of using," Azazel said quickly. I shrugged without correcting him.
"My mother was a fairly competent hacker. I learned from a young age. By the time I was 7, I had already hacked my father's personal computer, and my skills only grew," I said vaguely. Azazel's eyes gleamed slightly.
"Tell me, do you want to come to Grigori? Subtypes and evolved Sacred Gears are truly rare, and something worth studying. Obviously, with Serena's permission, she's also invited; I'm sure she'd be interested in a collaboration." Azazel said quickly with a smile. I just shrugged.
"I'll think about it," I said curtly. Azazel practically pouted.
"And what powers does Rebecca have?" Rias asked, staring at me. I raised an eyebrow and looked at Rebecca, who was busy maintaining her weapons.
"None," I said easily, then smiled. "She was the first of the two of us to meet Serena. She wanted to be with Sera. Everything else is a nice bonus for her, especially when violence is involved."
"Sera gave her access to The Light and a full armory, and Rebecca did the rest herself. She's the one who's integrated with The Light the easiest and the best at using it among all of us," I said playfully.
"Yeah... that Light, every time I learn new things about it, I have even more questions." Azazel said with a grimace. I shrugged.
"Ask Sera; I've already answered everything I know about her," I said easily. Azazel just looked at me and sighed.
"Forget it," Azazel said resignedly.
"As interesting as it is, we'd better finish cleaning up here," Odin said with a sour expression, glaring at Loki. We all watched as Rossweisse continued sealing Loki with countless Norse seals.
"Vali is still missing with Fenrir, isn't he?" Rias asked solemnly. Azazel nodded.
"It seems he was indeed Fenrir's true target," Azazel said, grimacing.
"Hmm, Sera thinks they're trying to control Fenrir with Excalibur Ruler, though they'll probably need to seal away much of its original power for it to work." I said simply. Azazel sighed.
"Yeah... that sounds right," Azazel said, running a hand over his face. "Just... let's go. I guess we've earned a break after that," Azazel finally said. "Are you guys coming, or do you have to head back?" Azazel asked, looking in my direction.
"We will stay until Lord Odin finishes his duty," I said easily. Azazel simply nodded.
"Then it may be another day or two," Azazel said casually before turning away. "Now, let's go find the others so we can leave." Azazel said with a sigh. I nodded and went to find Rebecca. I guess we'll have to wait a couple of days for the ritual. Rebecca will hate it. I smiled slightly at that.
Lucy icons!
https://imgur.com/a/KZDZiXx
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Once again, I apologize for the unedited chapters! Life and busy schedules keep getting in the way! As soon as the edits are available, they will be uploaded immediately, just like last week's!