EXEC FLIP ARPHAGE
METHOD_HYMME_GRANZARO=SPEAR
"Who is God to create such illusions?"
"Who is the devil with the strength to defy this God?"
-The Kingdom of the Grail
In the evening as the sun sank below the horizon, illuminating the landscape in scarlet and auburn brilliance, a song dances with the breeze. The light teasing gusts carry the pure crystal notes while frolicking with the emerald leaves of an elm tree whose trunk is laden with ivy. A young girl looks up from under silky violet hair restrained into two low-hanging pigtails, her amethyst orbs wide with wonder as the diaphanous notes chime through the air. Spellbound, she places one foot in front of her and then another, and before she can think through what she's doing, she finds herself racing through the forest, the solemn oaks, lively maple trees, and hardy alders whizzing by her as she continues her mad dash towards the song's source.
The purplenette's mad dash through the purple loosestrife and luxurious tangled locks of willow herb and comfrey startles a willow-wren from the its perch on a silver birch, and it flies off twittering into the dusky sky. The song grows louder and the notes clearer and more vibrant as she races towards the melody's source.
Rushing past an antiquated weir in the silvery-green river, the young woman comes into a clearing. A towering structure made of sea glass green crystal ascends to the heavens from the lush verdant grass, its surface an opalescent canvas of rainbow hued brilliance. Slowly, the purplenette approaches it, her eyes half-lidded and her hands held up as a blissful peace overtook her, making her delicately structured facial features radiant.
Standing right next to the incandescent structure, the purplenette can hear the faint humming of other descants and harmonies flowing towards the tower. The air buzzes with the electric tingle of energy and feeling the back of her neck prickle with the lyrical current, the young woman reaches out and gently brushes the smooth surface with a leather-gloved hand.
This tower… somehow… it was taking all the mismatched melodies and synchronizing them into this single mellifluous harmony.
A discordant scream shatters the melody and silence descends.
Startled, the young woman looks around the clearing, scrutinizing the wild growth encircling her in a perfect circle but she sees nothing that would be a cause for alarm.
A pealing crack resounds through the air and a violent wind buffets the clearing, rousing the purplenette's violet locks into a frenzy, making them whip the air fervidly as they rose up. With wide eyes, she throws a restless glance over her shoulder and a soft gasp escapes her as she sees herself being reflected on the faceted surface. With an apprehensive mien, she takes a wary step closer to her reflection. Her mirror image mimics her movement.
With a great deal of trepidation, she reaches out and lightly presses her hand against the gem-like surface. Her mirror image copies the movement so her hand is pressing against the purplenette's. Marveling silently to herself, the young woman looks down at her feet.
"Stupid little Lementa. Who the hell do you think you are?" A derisory voice much like the woman's own jeers cruelly.
"Wha-" The woman-Lementa yelps and her gaze shoots up to her doppelganger. The green crystal distorts ripples like the surface of the pond and her reflection is no longer a carbon copy of the young woman's. She is donning an elegant stygian black dress and her hair is done into spiky pigtails held up by two night violet bows. There is a malevolent smile on her face and her sharp violet eyes are laced with malignant glints of pure spite. Sheer horror distorts Lementa's face turning her into a misshapen, terrified ghost of who she was just moments ago.
"You are-" Lementa screams stridently but her words are drowned out by a mocking chorus of laughter from the girl in black.
"Pervertunt! Mortuus! Si maledicit! Clamate!"
"A mundi sunt torta et cinere!"
The mysterious girl chants in an arcane language. With each word, the tower throbs with a depthless black light and an icy bolt of fear lances Lementa's heart. "Stop…" She whispers and slams her fist against the crystal. The girl in black ignores her and continues to sing.
"Clamate! Cupiditas! Mors! Morbus! Eum!"
"Gloria! Cupido! Invidia! Ira!"
"Maledictum est hominum!"
"Stop it right now!" Lementa screeches. The girl stops singing her curses and with narrowed eyes, she glowers malignantly at Lementa. Her heart slamming against her rib cage, the young woman collapses to the ground, ashen and tremulous. A hushed silence falls across the clearing and the world is deathly still.
"Make me." The girl in black spits contemptuously.
"Please don't! V-" Lementa cries vainly.
"Sileo mundi et succendatur!"
A web of amethyst light splays itself across the jade-green surface of the structure, the light emanating from it rapacious. The world around Lementa trembles and a crack of hellish light splits the sky. With a resounding crack the towering structure flies apart, no longer a resplendent green, but an abyssal black with a nebulous red core that pulsates like a beating heart. The shockwave from the explosion throws the purplenette into an oak with concussive force, stunning her.
A tepid red dribble trickles down from her forehead into her eyes as she watches the world disintegrate into black ash through her blurring vision.
On an expanse of summer forest green intertwined with bands of liquid moon silver surrounded by natural orchards of wild cherry, crabapple, and sloe rose a formidable barrier of granite, encasing a sea of baroque stone structures and haphazardly constructed wooden shacks and vending stalls. The solemn medieval-style structures observe the cries of all of life's joy and miseries below as people moved through their daily lives.
Moving through a throng of commoners like a wraith was a snowy-haired girl with expressionless cerise eyes, donning a crass cloak made of rude brown material. Despite her crude clothing, she carries herself with a poise and grace that betrays her waifish appearance. She ghosts past a noisy carpenter shop and the ringing forge of a smithy where a master armorer is crafting crossbow bolts and spearheads. She passes the shops of cobblers, chandlers, spinners, tinkers, and glaziers. Strolling by a boutique where ladies peruse the goods, outdoing each other in displays of exotic bird plumage, mink and ermine, gold-thread, pearls and silk, a greasy-faced child clad in tattered rags streaks by her clutching two ripe apples close to his breast in his bony arms. Vehement curses spewed by the ruddy apple vendor fly after the child, but he cannot do anything as the young rapscallion races into the twisting bends of the alleyways, a giddy childish laughter bubbling from his lips.
The snowy-haired woman watches the child rush by her with a detached interest. How petty… She thinks, but she has a far more important task than dealing with thieving ragamuffins. She is careful to keep her head down, but still, the people inadvertently pull away from her as she passes by. They sense something different about the snow-haired woman and are prudent enough to keep their distance.
In the town square, the chapel-an incongruous building of elegant obsidian pinnacles and sculptured saints, overlook the whispering mass of people who have gathered together to listen to a young woman's ramblings. Standing on an elevated block of stone in front of an adroitly carved marble fountain where a Patrician-style naiad spews water from her cupped hands, is a svelte silver-haired woman with nine shimmering fox tails and ruby eyes lending her an otherworldly appearance. She dons a dress of ebon and cream silk with gold filigree embroidered on the dress, and a mantle of sable fur is slung over her shoulder. Flanking both sides of her are two figures. One is a young man with white hair tinged a pale lavender and mismatched eyes that are differing shades of violet giving him a rakish yet somewhat crazed visage, he is wearing narrow black pants and a royal-purple jacket with fur trimming. The other figure is a busty elven woman with jade eyes wearing a flouncy dress made of lime-green cotton and her silken blonde hair is drawn back into a jaunty ponytail with two black ribbons spiraling around it.
The snowy-haired woman smirks darkly as she enters the square and looks up at the three figures in front of the fountain. She has found her target.
Eliminate the nuisance Proto.
Those were Queen's exact words to her.
Savoring her victory, Proto slowly weaves her way through the crowd with a maniacal smile.
"People!" The silver-haired woman- known to others as Eun cries. The murmuring of the crowd stops and the only sound left reverberating through the air is the knell of the cast-iron church bells as the magnificent chapel glares down disapprovingly at the crowd.
"I have heard your cries and I have known of your pain." Eun states, her rich voice carrying throughout the town square and reaching everyone. "I have known of the massacre at the village of Decir. I know of the widow whose husband's soul was taken by the U virus leaving her with nine children to care for. I also know of how the tower of El is losing its power and that the world is slowly sickening" At those words, a chorale of disbelieving cries erupted from the crowd. With a brittle stare, Eun silences them. "Surely you have seen how pitiful the fishermen's harvest is? Just three years ago their sturdy hemp nets used to be ripping apart from the sheer weight of all the trout they were reeling in! Now the haul is pitiful, at times barely any fish are trapped and half of those trapped are tainted and unsafe to eat! The water is alkaline! The crops withering in the fields!" Eun exclaims ardently and gesticulates towards the murmuring crowd. "Can any of the elders out there remember how bountiful and rich the land once was?" The older iron-visaged members of the gathering dip their heads and mutter darkly to each other. This unfamiliar and unearthly woman had a valid point.
"Now I must ask the question. What is being done to solve the problem?" She queries and narrows her sharp eyes as if daring someone to challenge her. A sibilant mist of hissing whispers erupts from the crowd but nobody challenges her.
"I notice nobody is rebuking my remark and that is precisely my point!" Eun shouts and holds her hands out to the heavens. "The Magistratum has done nothing! They condemn the people who do try to do something and sit back as we suffer!" Several people in the crowd nod approvingly at Eun's words and around Proto, a couple whispered words of agreement were heard. Narrowing her eyes, Proto spits angrily at the ground and hastens her walk. This brazen twit has twittered enough!
The blonde elf's ears twitch and sensing something amiss, she scans the crowd with a grave expression. Scrutinizing the indistinct blur of faces, she spots the cat among the pigeons.
"Milady." She whispers in Eun's ear and tentatively taps the silverette on the shoulder. With a peeved expression, Eun's gaze shoots towards the elf. "What Rena?" She hisses lowly. Rena grimaces and points out Proto, whose movements are too lissome and sure to let her blend in effectively with the crowd. Eun clenches her teeth together in a fearsome scowl and whips her gaze to her right where the male is standing, looking interested in the proceedings for the first time.
"Add!" She growls and clamps her hand on his shoulder. "Yeah?" He drawls indolently and cocks his head to the left, the jagged purple line marring the left side of his face glistening in the sunlight. "Take care of her!" Eun snaps and jabs fervidly at the approaching form of the white-haired woman. Add nods lazily and holds up his right hand which is clothed in black leather, a throbbing amethyst orbs titivates the back of his hand and around it one can smell a faint but acrid whiff of ozone.
Seeing Add's action, Proto realizes that the three are aware of her presence. She whisks her tattered cloak of her, revealing an ornate battle suit of vivid fuchsia and holds her own hand up a beautiful rose quartz cabochon adorning the back of her pastel wristband.
"Mauris eu elit! Codex Iuris Canonici: VIDEO HARMONICIS."
Proto sings and is enveloped in a writhing halo of cherry-blossom light. Smirking, Add chants his own verse.
"Codex Iuris Canonici: nigra animae CHORUS eu."
Crackling tendrils of purple electricity arc out of the amethyst on Add's hand, illuminating his pallid skin in a ghostly glow. With a humorless smile, he snaps his hand summoning eight blades of stygian black el alloy. Proto, wanting the initiative makes the first strike.
"Nimii-rubro caelum angelos milites jacula sagittarii ad iudicium!"
"Lacrimas in oculis eorum, et vita eorum permaneat valeant ad durus fragilis vox!"
"Qui enim non est sine vita est ut chaos!"
A machine gun materializes in her hands, alien and cruel. Proto scowls cantankerously as she squeezes the trigger, aiming at Eun. A flurry of blood-red bullets erupts from the muzzle but the attack is intercepted by Add who shoots a sputtering orb of mauve electricity. "If you'd be so kind." He jeers and leaps into the alarmed crowd, the people are tripping over themselves to escape the town square and in the pandemonium Add's taunt is swept away with the startled shrieks.
"Nullo Deus, qui operatur adeo durum est, inclinet et tinkers fatis."
"Laetus et obligare ridiculi ejus, sed dic 'non!'"
"Quia leges et mundi fata ..."
"Et decernere!"
He rushes towards Proto in a blur of movement and shoots a rapid-fire series of electric bolts at her before teleporting behind her in a flash and conjuring a spinning circle of violet energy from which he shoots a large sphere of electricity. With inhuman speed, she dodges Add's assault and retaliates by lobbing several stormy grey spears at him.
"Penitenziagite!"
Stunned by the ferocity of Proto's relentless blitz, Add is taken off-guard, allowing the white-haired assassin to send him flying with a well-placed blow from a rocket launcher Proto summoned.
"Vaginae arch-angelo caeli aspicit gladio scientes numquam redire"
"You blithering idiot!" Eun snarls as the back of Add's head cracks against the stone block with stunning force and he slumps to the ground unconscious, ruby blood trickling from the back of his head and staining the lavender-tinged fur of his coat, red. "Rena!" Eun barks and pulls out a delicate black hairpin with gold and silver fox tails welded onto the end of it. Alarmed, Rena looks at Eun with eyes wide. "Yes?" She enquires breathlessly and leaps to the side to avoid a shivery orb of aquamarine blue energy lobbed her way.
"Take Add and get out of here, I'll deal with this bitch on my own." The silverette snarls and holds the hairpin in the palm of her hand.
"Miseri petunt in inferno quia maledictus deos eorum."
The hairpin glows with a lemon-gold brilliance and elongates into a jet-black spear with an ornamental but still lethal spear head. "Are you sure?" Rena breathes. Eun snorts and rolls her eyes. "I'm sure dammit!" She snarls and hefts her spear into a combative stance, giving Proto an acidic glare. Rena nods and leaps off the stone square, slinging the unconscious Add over her shoulder.
"Just where do you think you're going?" Proto shouts wrathfully and summons a machine gun. Several swirling portals of sky-blue energy materialize in the sky, spitting out an evanescent shower of cobalt blue sparks.
"Anima vestra ad maius bonum. Damnatio alis."
"Nutu propheta exclamat fletus ob causam? Quam ob causam?"
"Aut rogo combustum, usque adeo nihil est, et percussit eam in Hierusalem rursumque tintinnabulum aliud sollemni."
"Feret haec anima sicut pacis reformacionem damnatur."
The portals spit out a barrage of achromatic spears, decimating the town square in flashes of blinding light and setting fire to swaths of green grass dappled with patches of yellow-brown. With a startled cry, Rena is blasted off her feet and is thrown forward, her head smashing into the grass, which is unfortunately for her, not nearly as soft as it looks.
With a look that screams murder, Proto snaps her fingers and summons a deadly array of machinery- plasma disc launchers, rocket-launchers, heavy-duty artillery, it is all there. Sneering malignantly, Proto lifts up her machine gun and aims it at Rena.
"Just what the hell do you think you're doing?" Eun cries indignantly and raises a hand towards the sky.
"Si maledicit! Si maledicit! Confusi sunt et in maledictionem! Si maledicit! Si maledicit!"
"Sed solum ex hoc carcere inferni latere me virtus diaboli."
"Ad exprobrandum enim manu Dei sum?"
"Amissa spe et cum animus non sum Lux Clamo irata."
"Si maledicit! Si maledicit! Confusi sunt et in maledictionem! Si maledicit! Si maledicit!"
A golden magic circle traces itself in the air above Eun's outstretched palm and from it, several ebon chains erupt intercrossing with each other and forming a cage which restrains a throbbing crux of citron-colored energy. With a vehement curse, Eun hurls it at Proto who is about to squeeze the trigger and gun Rena down. The chains restraining the energy burst from the impact, allowing the ruinous energy to erupt and a forceful shockwave blasts Proto into a fruit-vendor's stall.
"What are you doing woman?!" Eun bellows at the dazed Rena. "Move!" She shrieks as Proto staggers out of the rubble of the vendor's stall, splattered in melon, berries, and apples. Wiping the mushed black currants off her forehead, Proto's eyes narrow themselves into little slits and the assassin shoot scalding mental daggers at Eun. Rena shoots a worried glance at the silverette but she nods and scrambles madly to grab Add, slinging him over her shoulder with wild abandon she dashes away from the town square and disappears down an alleyway.
With an ugly smile, Eun diverts her attention back to a livid Proto, assured that her two comrades escaped to safety.
"Shall we dance?"
Half-tripping under the weight of Add, Rena streaks through the dank alley, her glossy tresses streaming out behind her. Her face bruised and scraped, and her heart pounding frantically in her chest, she is an alarming sight for anybody that would happen to see her as she hurtled out of the alley and collapsed to the ground, sending Add flying and having his limp form smash into a white wicker table that sat outside a spiffy little café with a small garden of butterfly bushes and bonsai trees decorating the front in a crescent moon pattern. Mercifully, the café front is deserted save for two people, who most fortunately happen to be friendly to Eun, Rena, and Add, as they happen to be members of the rebellion as well.
One of the two is a young man with unkempt scarlet hair that is tainted with a patch of black and sharp scarlet eyes. He is donning a black outfit and silver and cerise armor with a sword motif and he carries an air of nonchalant superciliousness. His companion is a young woman with vivid violet hair done into spiky pigtails by two royal purple bows and raffish amethyst eyes. She is clad in a scanty two piece of differing shades of violet ranging from mauve to sunset purple. Previously, the two were perched at a table with two steaming cups of caramel macchiato in front of them and arguing over a trivial matter. Upon seeing the elf and Add, they abruptly stopped their incessant arguing and rushed over to where Rena was sprawled out, breathing hard.
"Rena!"
That concludes the first chapter of the EXEC FLIP ARPHAGE project! I hope I didn't disappoint and I hope this was good enough to avoid being kicked in the behind. *Cough* Rosamanelle *Cough* If you want to know where the title came from, it is named after the epic and beautiful song "Exec_ Flip_ Arphage_" from the Ar Tonelico song track. Actually, I highly recommend checking out the Ar Tonelico song track as it is so beautiful, epic, and inspiring. A couple of my personal recommendations would be Exec_ Harmonious, Exec_ Chronicle Key, Exec_ Cosmoflip, Exec_ With_ Metalfalica, Exec_ Sphilia, and I'm going to cut myself off so I can get back on topic.
I really do think this chapter is some of my highest caliber writing yet, and I'm hoping that I can continue this quality. I had edited this chapter twice and I'm pretty sure it's mistake-free but sometimes FF can do weird things when I'm uploading. One thing is don't ask me why Ara is called Eun, I think you can figure that out. Another thing is that don't ask me why IS and VP are here, yes this will be an RS x EM FF but I cannot resist the allure of IS x VP… I swear I'm addicted to that pairing. I do have to say I believe this chapter was very engaging for a first chapter. A fight, an omen, and quite a few cast members introduced. This songs sung by the characters are also google translated into Latin if you feel like figuring them out. Everything sounds prettier in a dead language XD. The fight scene was so tricky to write, being able to keep the detail without sacrificing the action is next to impossible XP Another problem is that writing everything in the neurotic detail I do makes everything longer which slows the story. So, I kind of put in a weird timeline for this story so I could have some action. We will be jumping back in time next chapter so be warned! OxO
A final piece of news before I depart is that an authoress named Alice Neko who uploads stories that her friend has written has offered to continue Elemental Aria so that might not be dead either! :D The next update from me shall be a chapter of Yami No Tsurugi!