Decrypted Starcrash Log (Molly)
| Decrypted Starcrash Log (Molly) | |
|---|---|
| Date of Cutscene: | 26 March 2025 |
| Location: | |
| Synopsis: | In the datadump hurriedly transmitted from Starcrash to Nicomachea on the eve of Seriss Nyx's awakening, a video recording is recovered, that Starcrash may or may not have meant to send.
Content Warnings: Injury, Peril, Character Death. |
| Cast of Characters: | Molly Skyline |
<< ALERT ALERT >>
<< IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE REQUIRED >>
<< FATAL INJURY TO MOLLY SKYLINE >>
The tower is destroyed, and the portal is closing. Molly's last spell fades, leaving just a glowing after-image on her retinas, that almost obscures Rashmi's screaming, desperate face. Almost. But then the portal closes; the tendril impaling her from behind lifts her up until her feet leave the ground then whips around, shaking her off of it and sending her tumbling across the ground.
Alerts flash across her flicking battle visor, most of them deeply concerned with injury, blood loss, the ruined nature of her barrier jacket and the loss of most of her defenses, and her mana reserves hovering at zero-point-three percent. She gasps a short, ragged breath, and feels her life ebbing as she takes it. But Starcrash is still in her hand; and there are still monsters.
Somehow, she rises to her knees, and settles back to sit upright, looking around herself as the monsters gather, forming a tightly-packed circle around her. The hole in her chest makes itself known as a sharp pain, enough that she forgets the wound to her abdomen as she grips Starcrash with both hands and hauls herself up to unsteady feet, leaning heavily on her staff for support.
"Come on then," she gasps. She sets her feet, taking the staff in both hands and holding it low with the star-shaped end pointing at the closest Duskzone creatures.
"COME ON!!" Molly lurches forwards, rushing into the array of foes with a sudden burst of speed. Starcrash swings in a wide arc, and the first creature it connects with lands in two writing pieces; she screams, swinging her weapon with it's star-shaped end glowing with heat. She cuts her way into the horde, getting battered on all sides but pressing forwards, not fighting to escape but just for the sake of it.
<< MANA RESERVES BELOW ZERO-POINT-ONE PERCENT >> Starcrash warns her.
Something hits Molly in the small of her back, and her legs abruptly cease working. She collapses hard with a shriek, and lays on the ground while the horde fall upon her, biting and scratching and pulling at the ragged remnants of her barrier jacket. She lays there gasping, until eventually, one by one, the monsters lose interest. There's no appreciable mana left; no magic to be performed, as the heat dissipates from Starcrash, and the wounded Mahou lays still. As the creatures abandon their assault and wander off, Molly closes her eyes.
The purple haired girl breathes shallow and lays still. With every movement, she can feel her life draining away more quickly, and she already used up too much; she knows her friends will be working feverishly on a way to save her, and she knows they won't make it but maybe she's wrong, so she rests without moving, breathing only as much as she needs to, especially in this place of darkness and decay where the air is toxic to the lungs. She can feel the flow of time around her, as seconds ebb into minutes and minutes into eternity.
<< I AM SORRY >>
When Starcrash speaks, it feels as though Molly has been laying in that place for days. She know it can't have been days; she wouldn't stay alive for days. But it come just as she was feeling herself drift off into a deeply needed sleep; and it's enough to wake her back up again.
"Why?" she whispers, opening her eyes to look around at what she can see without moving her head, and seeing only the same grim, corrosive landscape.
<< I HAVE FAILED YOU >>
Molly closes her eyes again, and a single tear rolls down along her nose. "No..."
Time passes into something unknowable for Molly. Her body throbs, her life leaks out of her chest and abdomen, and her legs won't work. And then, she becomes aware of a presence; someone else is here, and her heart beats faster, prompting a warning to flicker up on her Battle Visor just briefly before the display returns to visual silence. But someone is here, and they're standing beside Molly, looking down at her.
It's Viluy.
The Witch looks down at Molly, as the purple haired girl tilts her head, looking up at her through the cracked lenses of her glasses. Their eyes meet; but Viluy doesn't say anything. She just watches.
"Please," Molly gasps, looking desperately up at the Witch. The Witch who doesn't move; who doesn't do anything, rather than simply watch. Molly moves one hand, feeling across the ground until she finds purchase, and drags herself and Starcrash closer. She gasps, eyes bulging as she struggles to make this small movement, until her lips are almost touching the toe of Viluy's boot.
"Please," she gasps again, pouring hope and desperation into the word.
Viluy remains unmoved.
Molly lets out her breath.
And then she gives up, and there are no more breaths.
"Fascinating," muses Viluy, as the recording degrades into meaningless static.
