The Rising System

The Rising System

Maybe I have lost. But it doesn't matter. My attack was just the opening curtain...a grim reminder that we still live, and we still rule. System-M still stands…

The words that she had imparted on her enemies continued to hang from her mouth as she stood on the cliff overlooking the city. She smirked, the truth of the matter making itself clear in her head. The Quarter’s destruction was not her goal; that would have been far too ambitious. No, she was ordered to do only one thing, her one sole purpose: to instill fear. Yes, even though she had lost the battle, she knew the frightened civilians realized her immense power. How powerful she was, how fragile their life was in comparison…such was all that was required of her to make clear. Such was a simple warning, the grim reminder of their existence…

However, the more she relished in her victory, the more a question wouldn’t leave her. As she closed her ears finally to entertain that question, her smile slowly collapsed into a frown. Could the Magical Girls belonging to that Regulator, Mr Keibey, truly stand up to us? How, in their right minds, will they—

“My Generals, report this instance.”

The Executioner’s thoughts were interrupted by the calling of her Supreme Leader. There was no escaping that for sure, and furthermore, she’d be forced to go into detail about the battle. With a sigh, the girl turned around and walked further inwards towards the barren plain behind her.

As soon as she felt she was alone, the girl closed her eyes, as if to concentrate into the inner recesses of her soul. The voice that commanded her…it was not simply another figment of her imagination that her mind conjured up. It called for her; the beckoning of a queen to her servant…the beckoning of the System to its followers.

When she opened her eyes, the barren plain was no longer in its original state. Darkness had covered it, and a bright, glowing circle appeared in the ground, sigils decorating its center and rims, and 6 separate circles encircling it as well. As The Executioner stood on one of them, she looked upwards, the harsh wind causing her red garbs to fly in the wind, and to pull down her red fedora over her ever darting eyes. Appearing directly above the center was her Leader. Or at least, a faint silhouette.

No one had ever seen her. Every time a meeting as such had occurred, the core of System-M would appear to them as a shadowy, female figure, her lower torso hardly visible. What was to be seen of her was pale, almost grey-ish flowing hair disappearing into the darkness, equally obscured tendrils wrangling around the back, and a most sinister face, grin curling up to one corner and parts of the face deeply embedded with pieces of metal and wiring.

The moment her eyes darted towards their original position again, The Executioner noticed that the other circles were now filled, having the much clearer silhouettes of her fellow comrades standing on them. After a brief moment of silence, they all followed up with their standardized salute to their leader: their right hand covering the left eye, fixated on their Leader.

“Down.” Was the only command the resounding voice replied with. The pale lady then leaned back onto her vaguely seen quartz throne and glanced towards the scarlet-clad girl.

“Executioner, you’ve returned from your assigned mission, no? Come, tell us all of the current status of our…rivals.” The lady replied with a calm, surly tone, almost as if she was pleased to hear her servant speak, no matter what the report was.

“Yes, well, the mission itself has been accomplished…” The Executioner began, contemplating how to word her rather mixed news, “I assure you, none of the civilians of the Navy Quarter could have remained a straight face after I had beaten some into submission, as well as destroy a good portion of the commoner areas, my lady…”

With a mixture of distaste and amusement at what she was expecting the response to be, the girl turned towards the one on her right, spluttering out, “Yes, Marinelle, I used Red Calamity, no, I didn't yell its name as I used it.”

She was a tall, intimidating young lady, perhaps slightly older than The Executioner. One could clearly read her mind just from her mere appearance: her dark blue uniform, belts jangling with every move, her large cap with insignias on it, arms folded and nothing but a satisfied smile; yes indeed, she was quite amused at her comrade using something she had come up with.

“Took you long enough!” The Magical Girl remarked, laughing slightly as she did so, “With that, I think the Sethera fools would've gotten a stern enough warning. Oh, I can only imagine the collateral damage that must have caused! It would be easy enough for me to act on that…” Another chuckle escaped her mouth, her eyes refusing to leave her red comrade.

The Executioner merely turned away, anxious still as to how to deliver the rest of her news. Aside from Marinelle’s little remark, the rest of the Generals, and System-M, were silent, anticipating the rest of her report before speaking anything else, as was their practice. The Red Magical Girl then looked upwards once more, finally letting out her bad news.

“But, as Sophia had predicted, I was intercepted by the Magical Girls of Regulator Keibey, and they sustained much of the damage that I had caused, as well as protecting the surrounding civilians. Quite likely, the damage is being fixed as we speak.”

“Hmm, I see…”

The Executioner then looked across her at the one named Sophia Floros, a green-cloaked girl with limbs that resembled that of the metal face of their Leader. Despite the fact that she was dancing her fingers across a large keyboard, with a screen right in front of her, she could not help but glance at the Red one and smirk, as if to give a “I told you so” expression.

“I’d like to believe our enemies haven’t been sitting around diddle-dallying,” System-M spoke, her amusement not subsiding at all, “Yes, they’ve been anticipating us as much as we have them. Now tell me, Executioner…what’s different this time?”

“Well, they…” The Executioner began, pausing for a moment whilst unsure of herself, “They seem to have gained more allies to help them. They’ve certainly grown, seeing as the only one I could recognize was their long-time veteran, Vita Desiderium, but how or why, I am still unsure.”

For a moment, she expected her lady to be disappointed, perhaps brush off everything she had said. Then she caught eye of who exactly System-M was looking at now, and she could merely silently groan as her Leader spoke again.

“Sophia, I take it you could help fill in the blanks for us all? This was certainly a nice update, but I’d like more substance…as I’d always ask from you, my dear.”

“Of course, my Lady!” the green Magical Girl replied with a hinge of enthusiasm and arrogance, “Searching Executioner’s memories for these worms will be no problem for me. In time, I’ll have information on even the smallest ant in Sethera, and you’ll see…”

On this one rare occasion, The Executioner was secretly begging Marinelle to speak up, which she eventually did, and at this point, it was clear everyone was free to speak.

“Well, at the very least, we’ve let them be aware of what we are, and just how much of a danger we can pose. With that kind of fear, it’ll be no problem getting them to obey. And then we can whittle down the forces of that feline fool, just like we—I mean you have to those other planets, my Lady…”

“Aw man, I keep forgetting why you’re called Marinelle the Wicked. Geez, way to be a psycho!” came a voice from another General, one to the right of the blue Magical Girl. She appeared to be almost like a mirror image of Marinelle, a young girl with a bright vermillion coat and an equally big cap, the ensuing words that came from her mouth were sadly brushed aside.

“Oh my, Lyudmila, concerned for the lowly beggars and dirt-poor street sleepers, aren’t we?” Marinelle snickered.

“Shut up! They don’t deserve ta’ get pulverized by all of y’all! And some of them might be our future soldiers! One of these days…”

The little knight gritted her teeth and glared at her blue counterpart, who was restraining some form of laughter. Her only other option was to turn back to face her Leader and sigh…with a question.

“Hey, now that we’re on a new place and all, maybe we should start getting’ ta work on expanding our System? I mean, I know for sure Marinelle the Paranoid here is gonna worm some other things outta them, but what about new Magical Girls? Maybe we can get started?”

The red-garbed girl could only look up to her Leader once more, again trying to following the empty eyes. They rested onto the remaining two Generals who did not speak at all the entire time. If anything, they were in their own world, and judging from the suddenly unamused looks on System-M’s face, The Executioner could only imagine her last two comrades were thinking of…unsavoury ideas.

To her left was a light blue-clothed director-like lady, cap and sunglasses drooping down her messily tied-up hair, but she didn't seem to be the least bit concerned. The only thing that mattered to her was whatever her hand was writing on bits and pieces of papers attached to her equally blue clipboard. And next to that girl's left was a dreamy one, a princess dressed rather elegantly in pink all over, her luxurious brown hair stained with even more streaks of pink and dotted with several precious jewels. The young lady's eyes were completely shut tight as her mind wandered off to some sort of dreamland. Neither of these two had paid any mind to their fellow comrades and Leader staring at them intently.

"Roto Gravure, Mi Amore Medea," System-M barked, instantly grabbing the two's attention, "If there is something bothering you two, wouldn't it be right to share them with the rest of us here?"

The two generals immediately lifted their heads and stood at attention nervously. Their Leader would never call them by their full names...unless she was genuinely annoyed. And with that, they began to speak as well, the blue one first.

"I-I apologize, my lady! See, I had already found possible contractees, as Lyudmila had first spotted them..." the small knight gave a wink towards Roto as she continued to speak, "I was writing down...plans! Yes, plans should they ever...you know..."

The shadowed lady said nothing in response, but her expression seemed to have lost its prior darkness. She then glanced towards the pink princess.

"You always know love is forever on my mind, my lady~!" Medea immediately spoke, "Love is like oxygen! Love is a many splendorous thing, Love lifts us up from where we are, all you need is Love~!"

The Executioner could feel she was not the only one who felt like burying her face in her hands, but strangely enough, their Leader made a hand motion at the princess, as if motioning her to continue speaking.

"And oh, do forgive me if this surprises you, but..." the princess continued, "I could sense that one of my already-contracted Magical Girls is on this planet! Even more surprising, it's that little girl who mysteriously jumped dimensions right after her contract~!"

Sophia gave a small gasp after she heard that, then proceeded to continue tapping away at her keyboard. The Leader glanced towards the green girl once more, now a grin curling at her face once more.

"Visionary Requiem, The Ethereal Protection organization..." the girl mused, "Yes! This has to be the place! Medea, your Magical Girl must be from this place. There's also no denying that the chances of them being affiliated with our enemies is high. Those unfamiliar magical girls that Executioner mentioned, and this Division Omega group that I've been researching into...they could all be affiliated, considering how close the quarters are."

"So basically, we're in enemy territory." the dark officer sighed, "No matter. They are a community, just like us, and to crush any community, you work from the inside, crumbling their foundation before you strike. That's the way things works. And we shall all assure them that we are superior, and cannot be stopped..."

Everyone gave a confident nod to Marinelle's statement, including System-M herself, who now looked most pleased. The Executioner, though she felt a slight cruel twist of irony in the statement, had to bring herself to agree. They then all looked up at their Leader proudly.

"And that shall be what we must do as soon as we adjourn this meeting." she proclaimed, "Sophia, you are to examine every bit of detail that your fellow Generals will collect or see. Medea, I take it you'll be tracking down our missing Magical Girl, do that swiftly and without attracting attention. Marinelle, Executioner, both of you shall head to the Blue Quarters again to find any contractees, while Roto and Lyudmila shall head to another Quarter, but you are to inform us all which one first before you enter. And obviously..."

The Sovereign waved her hand, and in it now appeared the silhouette of a short-statured figure, a mask barely covering the blackness of its face, ears and tail protruding out of its body, along with a small hairband and a thing, long dress.

"You all are to take Murubey with you. I do wish for you all to prevent any assaults towards her, our main contractor..." her voice grew softer, almost gentler, as she went on, "We're a community, and the people of the community work with each other, protect each other, know each other, to produce a most glorious result. Has this been made clear?"

"Yes, our Lady!"

"Then you are all dismissed."

With one last glance, The Executioner saw everything fade before her eyes. Her comrades' silhouettes, her Leader, Everything. She turned around to look at Sethera once more, knowing she would have to re-enter.

With Marinelle the Wicked, no less. There's no doubt about it that with all the panic and chaos, it wouldn't be long before she was hunted down. That was exactly why her surly, sly, manipulative and slightly unpleasant comrade was always assigned to work with her. To control the fears of these mortals, to make it such that they'd only give into their despair even more...

The Red girl sighed as she realized her body was slowly glowing and fading away with a blue tint. Wherever Marinelle was, she was definitely teleporting The Executioner to her location. And there their job would begin.

The Rising System beckons to Sethera.