Divine War: The Lancasterian Chronicles

Three Armored, giant war machines, fight near close to the outer edge of the Earth's atmosphere. It's not an ordinary combat, it's a chase. One of the humanoid weapons has blue tonalities and moves like lightning, though perhaps that is not enough; the second is white and shines like the sun; the last one is purple and red, it melts into the cosmos' darkness to attack the blind spots.

"Do it now, Hetalia! For the glory of Super Lord Musk, destroy the criminal scum!" The white armor pilot exclaims, with an optimistic tone that makes it easy to imagine the wide smile she wears.

Hetalia, the pilot of the purple and red Armored, remains silent as a tomb, but moves with the effectiveness of death. She rams the blue Armored from the side and spins it out of control.

The cockpit's stabilizing mechanisms struggle to keep the pilot's body quiet as the machine spins around. Chester curses through gritted teeth as he feels the blood dance inside his body and the ribs burn. A warning appearing in the corner of his eye clarifies to Chester that this is not a real hurt, but the armor transmitting the blow received through the human-machine nexus.

"We are not on equal footing, get away from me!" shouts the Lancastrian. The communication line is open, so his pursuers can hear and reply.

"If you surrender, perhaps we can negotiate. There are options, reparations" For the first time Hetalia speaks.

"But we were told just the opposite! No exits, no repairs for the blue rat!" Elixis immediately complains. Hetalia lets out a long sigh. Elixis blinks several times and realizes her mistake. "Oh, I see, you were trying to cajole him! Sorry for ruining your ruse, sister"

Elixis laughs nervously at her clumsiness, but falls silent and arches an eyebrow as she watches the blue machine move away.

"Chester Lancaster, don't run away!"

"I'm not running away! I just can't fight you, understand that and leave me alone! Nobody likes desperate women!" Chester answers without slowing his retreat, sweating and with bloodshot eyes.

"Chicken, coward, cuddly kitten! And you dare to call yourself a man?!"

Elixis' words strike a chord with Chester, who curses, stops the retreat, and turns to face the Saga sisters even though his values scream he is making a mistake. What Chester didn't count on, is that the sisters were prepared.

The right arm of Elixis' Armored, and the left arm of Hetalia's, possess the same length as the machines they belong to, like a thick spear that ends in a three-pronged claw very similar to the machines for obtaining stuffed animals at carnivals. Now, elbow to elbow, the arms are attached through external connectors and the claws move and join until they look like the projectile of a colossal harpoon capable of splitting a luxury yacht in two.

Inside the cabins the women stand sideways, each extending an arm, as if positioned back to back, hands intertwined in the air. Although the sisters are separated by metal and outer space, the two feel as if they are side by side. Arms now converted into a single electromagnetic rail gun that they both control.

"Chester Lancaster, Super Lord Musk's sentence is clear and unappealable!" Elixis and Hetalia speak in perfect synchrony "Your crime is the ultimate treason! And your punishment is immediate death!"

The cannon fires, the projectile breaks multiple times the sound speed. Chester hesitates, and when a pilot hesitates, he fails his machine. The lightning-fast Armored now stands paralyzed like a stone in the firing line, and the Lancasterian has only a chance to smile bitterly at his own stupidity.

He could have done better.

...

In the wasteland falls a giant.

Cut the sky in half, turned into a fireball, and upon impact, powerful, traces in the earth a crack like an immense mouth. The consequent tremor disturbs the beasts that plague that hostile land.

The giant's impact releases water from the underground. Valuable and very scarce liquid on the surface of that decayed continent. La Cuna tribe, the closest settlement to the incident, sent out a team of scouts equipped with bows and arrows.

The scouts discovered the giant and the water. Ancient Zakary and the rest of the venerable elders pointed to the event as the arrival of the hero prophesied in the legends. Stories passed down for generations about the one who will lead them on an exodus to a paradise without equal, where food and water abound, the grass is green, and the invisible death, that which devours the skin, is kept far away.

The tribals, while filling their clay vessels with water, give offerings and prayers on their knees on the stones of the new fountain: Wake up, show us the way! They cry out to the titan, unanswered and undaunted. Only one of them was distant and suspicious: Neddin, the tribe chief. The reasons for his distrust? Unknown to most.

The only truth is that the place would never be the same again.