High above the clouds, Altair found herself looking up for the first time in a very long time.
Her floating halo of sabers hummed aggressively, vibrating with intense localized energy. Yet, against the sheer, titanic scale of the mechanical beast looming before her, they looked like mere sewing needles.
"I AM THE METAL OVERLORD!"
The dragon's voice thundered through the sky. It was a synthetic, dual-toned roar that shattered every window within a three-mile radius, rattling the very foundations of the city below.
"Pile of scrap," Altair hissed, her eyes narrowing in sheer disdain.
With a sharp, sweeping motion of her military cap, she activated Holopsicon.
Hundreds, then thousands of shining blades manifested out of thin air around her, forming a massive, glittering vortex that blotted out the sun.
"The Twentieth Movement of the Cosmos: Vicissitude of Fortune!"
The mountain of swords launched forward, transforming into a hypersonic barrage meant to shred reality itself.
But the Metal Overlord didn't even bother to dodge. He opened his massive, alloyed jaws, and a terrifying crystallization of dark energy began to condense within his throat. A second later, a beam of pure, localized Chaos Energy erupted.
The two forces collided in mid-air. The sky literally split. The sheer shockwave of the impact blew the storm clouds away in an instant, exposing the bright blue afternoon sky above the ruined city center. Altair's swords were vaporized instantly. The raw, kinetic back-force sent the military-uniformed girl skipping across the sky like a flat stone skipped across water.
Meanwhile, back on the rooftop...
"Hey! Pay attention to us!"
I blinked, breaking my gaze from the aerial battle, and turned around. A young man with messy hair and glasses was pointing a tablet at me, his hands shaking. It was Sota Mizashino. Next to him stood Takashi Shimazaki.
"Where did you get a killer robot, a giant dragon, and that?!" Sota shouted, his voice cracking under the sheer absurdity of the situation.
I let out a sharp, manic laugh, clutching my stomach as my Uma Musume ears twitched with genuine amusement. "Well... That's a story for another time."
I stepped closer to them, the hem of my lab coat billowing wildly in the wind.
"You creators think you hold the power over your creations just because you wield a pen," I said mockingly, tilting my head. "But now you're no longer in control. Quite sad, really."
"What!?" He said confused from what i said.
Up in the air, the battle was already reaching its end.
Altair, realizing her standard materialization abilities weren't enough to pierce Metal Overlord's hyper-reinforced hull, floated backward. Her expression darkened, losing its usual composure.
"If I cannot break you with my blades, I will erase your concept entirely," she declared coldly, raising her violin bow. "The Fourteenth Movement: The Extraction of Change!"
A bizarre, shifting aura enveloped the Metal Overlord. The universe itself began trying to rewrite the mechanical dragon back into a simple toaster, forcefully reversing his timeline.
"ERROR. REWRITING ATTEMPT DETECTED," Metal Overlord's internal sirens blared.
But before the erasure could manifest, I materialized directly behind her.
"Nuh-uh. Don't touch my creation," I whispered.
Then, I uttered the words:
"Za World!"
Time ground to a halt. The entire world turned a muted, inverted shade of gray. Altair froze mid-motion, her violin bow suspended a mere millimeter above the strings.
Within these frozen seconds, Metal Overlord's massive tail swung with the cataclysmic speed of a falling meteor. When time snapped back into motion, the kinetic energy of the frozen impact detonated all at once.
BOOM!
Altair was launched downward like a falling shooting star, crashing directly into the center of the plaza below. The impact carved a massive crater fifty feet deep. Her uniform was torn, her pristine cap was missing, and for the first time, genuine frustration and rage on her face.
Before she could even attempt to stand, a shadow loomed over the crater.
I was already standing at the edge, hands tucked neatly into my lab coat pockets, smiling down at her. Metal Overlord hovered majestically in the sky above us, his piercing red optics locking her down. Then, shifting light enveloped his massive form as he compressed back into Neo Metal Sonic. He dropped down right next to me, crossing his arms in a classic, arrogant pose.
"It seems your plot armor has run out of juice," I said, tilting my head.
"Who... what are you?" Altair spat, coughing up dust as she tried to summon her swords once more.
"I'm Agnes Tachyon," I said proudly, adjusting my collar. "And more importantly..."
A wicked grin spread across my face. "You're mine."
Altair looked confused, but before she could question me, massive pillars suddenly erupted from the earth around her, forming an inescapable prison that completely trapped her.
"Don't bother. You can't get out. More so with thi—"
Before I could finish my sentence, a magical girl and a knight-looking girl suddenly materialized right at my flank.
"Magical Flash Flare!" the magical girl screamed.
A blinding blast of magic erupted, sending me skidding backward. Simultaneously, the knight launched a heavy magical attack of her own, the sheer force blasting me clear across the plaza and crashing into a nearby building.
"We will get you out of there, Altair!" the magical girl yelled, immediately shattering my barrier.
Cough! Cough!
I dragged myself out of the rubble, brushing the debris off my lab coat, absolutely livid. "Hey! You jerks, those were expensive!"
I glared at them, my patience entirely spent. "Just... Agh, no more games."
I turned my gaze to Neo Metal Sonic. "Kil—"
BANG! BANG!
Before I could issue the order, a man holding a revolver opened fire on me. Sparks flew as my automatic energy shield flickered to life, blocking the incoming shots effortlessly.
But the assault wasn't over. One of the girls stepped forward, purple electricity crackling violently around her gauntlet.
"Gotz von Berlichingen! I summon you with my gauntlet!" she bellowed.
The surging lightning quickly condensed, forming a massive, unstable purple orb around her fist. She chanted the final activation phrase
"Donnerschlag des Jeghers! Reveal yourself here!"
CRASH!
She slammed the attack directly into me. The explosion rocked the plaza.
When the smoke cleared, I stood there, my expression completely blank.
"You're really getting on my nerves..." I muttered, my voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.
Without wasting another second, I tapped my system interface, instantly transporting Neo Metal Sonic back into my inventory. In his place, a new summon materialized. Mecha Sonic Mk. II.
"Mecha, do your thing," I ordered coldly, before activating my teleportation to stay away from the battle to come.
Left on the battlefield, the mechanical entity's optics flashed with a murderous light as he locked onto the surrounding People.
"Even when I copy your bio-data, I doubt I would even use it..." Mecha Sonic's synthesized voice echoed through the crater, vibrating with pure malice. "I WILL CRUSH YOU!"
A brilliant, blinding light consumed the plaza as seven mystical gems materialized around him, spinning at hypersonic speeds. Absorbing the ultimate power of the Chaos Emeralds, his metallic hull shifted, transforming first into Metallix and then, into the, unstoppable form of Super Metallix.