"So, you're a minuteman now, huh?" Sturges chuckled nervously, sharpening the edge of a machete's blade, "Figured Katherine would talk you into it. She could probably talk even a deathclaw into joining the Minutemen, if it could stop and listen for a minute,"
"I don't have much of a choice. And I owe her for saving my life," grumbled Elesis, who eyed the pieces of her claymore on the table in front of him, "Get my weapon fixed. I can't exactly help her if I don't have something to use,"
"Hey now, chill. Last I heard, she wasn't going to send you out just yet," he said, putting away a now-sharp machete and starting on a combat knife, "Besides, there's a lot of guns there. Why don't you pick one up and give it a shot?"
Elesis looked at the rack of guns on the wall of the armoury and snorted. "It's cowardly. A knight should look the creature she's killing in the eye," she declared, before picking up the freshly-sharpened machete and giving it an experimental swing. It was well balanced, for sure, but far too light for her liking.
"Well, there aren't any dragons for you to slay here, brave knight. Maybe deathclaws would count, if they breathed fire," joked Sturges, "And I thought that knights of yore wore much more armour than...whatever that is. Not that I'll complain about a bit of eye candy,"
He laughed as he barely dodged a poorly aimed slap from Elesis, whose cheeks flushed an intense crimson matching her scarf. Clearing his throat, he resumed sharpening the knife still in his hand.
"Well, I do have a point to make. I'm not saying that just because...you know. If you like fighting up close and personal, you need to be able to get close to your enemies without getting shot to pieces first. If you want, I've got a few spare ceramic plates I could put on that leather armour,"
"I'll pass on that one. More armour only gets in the way," she replied dryly, swinging the machete in her hand one more time before sheathing it.
"Suit yourself, then. As usual, if you get that suit banged up, come back and see me. I'll fix it right up,"
Shrugging, Elesis turned to leave the cramped, hot armoury. A part of her craved a good fight, one that she had not had for the last week in convalescence. And the mention of this 'deathclaw' creature intrigued her. The way in which every settler seemed to shrink in fear at its mention suggested that it was a creature to be feared. Almost like a greater Glitter demon, in a way, and an enemy which would probably make for good practice.
Only as she walked past the door did she notice a familiar dark purple glint on the wall of the armoury. Taking a step back, she took a closer look at the source of the colour.
"This..." she breathed, reaching out to the crystal on the wall. It was only the length of her palm, and the width of two of her fingers, and yet...
The vivid purple colour. That rush of energy as her fingers brushed against its jagged surface. That insatiable desire for violence, for blood, for destruction.
This was the dark Elshard. Or at least, a piece of it. She was certain of it. A hole had been drilled through its top, through which a fine metal chain had been threaded into, forming a necklace.
"Sturges," she said, not taking her gaze away from the crystal. The man did not so much as glance away from his whetstone, and so she snarled loudly, "Sturges! Where...how...did you get this? Who else has touched it? Tell me!"
"Whoa, keep it down. I'm not deaf," he yelped, "Katherine's the only one that touched it, as far as I remember,"
"You're certain? Nobody else has touched it?"
"Aside from myself on one occasion? Absolutely. Every person that's come near it says that they get a sense of...power. Like they could pick up a brahmin and throw it a hundred feet. I don't know what it does, but I felt the same thing when I turned it into a pendant on Katherine's orders. Now, I don't know what it is, or what it does, but...it doesn't feel right. You know something more about it?"
"It...well, let's just say that I'd better hold on to it," Elesis muttered, picking it up and looping it around her neck.
"I suppose that since we found it on you, it's yours. Everything about it seems wrong, though. You be careful with it, you hear?"
"Yes...I will..."
In truth, Elesis was not even listening to the man any more. The piece of the dark Elshard, as small as it was, contained tremendous power. Something that should not be trifled with. Something that should be kept under her control, and not simply lying where anyone could find it.
Yes. Under her control, where its power was hers.
Her train of thought was broken by Katherine's second-in-command. "Elesis. Nice...necklace?" Preston said, cocking his head to one side.
"...It's probably safer on me than inside the armoury. What do you need, Preston?" replied the knight, a hand on her blade's handle, "You need something dead?"
"Maybe. Maybe I do," he said quietly. His eyes were locked on the woman's weapon, "Not here, though. There have been reports of deathclaw sightings nearby. A few of our patrols have been dispatched, but one has failed to report in on time. I hope they're alright, but if it's really a deathclaw, then I hope that whoever is left is quick enough to outrun it,"
The mention of a deathclaw had caused several nearby settlers to look at the minutemen in fear. One of them then piped up in a quivering voice, "A-a deathclaw? Here?"
"No, not in Sanctuary. Please continue on your way, there's nothing to be worried about," Preston called out, motioning them to move along. When the settlers slowly dispersed, he whispered to Elesis, "I don't have heavy weapons here, and the general is out with another patrol to observe a settlement's development. But between you, me, and two more minutemen, we should be able to find the missing patrol and bring them back,"
The memories of her unit came flooding back to her mind. The soldiers sent to their deaths to delay or halt the Glitter advance, no matter the cost. Many died on the spears and arrows of those demons, and countless more crushed under their hammers. The few that escaped could only do so because she stood before the tide of enemies, alone, repelling them in a hopeless last stand. A last stand, in a forgotten chapel, wading through pools of black blood as she hacked down as many of those demons before she was too wounded to fight back.
Her eyes flared in anger at those memories. Enough of Feita's knights – her men – had died on that day. She would never allow that to repeat again. Not while she was standing, breathing, and could still swing a blade.
"If they're still alive," she snarled, adjusting her scarf, "Then we must find them. Where were they supposed to go, and how long ago were they supposed to report back?"
"Uh...yes. They were supposed to be back in Sanctuary two hours ago. They were supposed to investigate the availability of supplies in an old government supply depot,"
"Then let's go. There's no time to waste,"
Deathclaws, it seemed, were aptly named.
From at least half a mile away from the last known position of the Minutemen patrols, there was a telltale trail of total destruction. Tree trunks were shredded and torn aside, with grooves larger than what a claymore could ever achieve seemingly carved by claws. Here and there, a corpse of a raider lay slumped against trees or ruined vehicles, missing legs or arms – or occasionally, a head, permanently fixed in a horrified stare.
"What sort of creature is a deathclaw?" Elesis whispered, running the edge of a blade on a raider corpse's cloven neck. The wound was ragged, as though his head had been bitten off by an enormous bear trap.
"One that you don't want to meet," Preston replied, his voice low, "The first one that I've seen was from the safety of a building, with at least half a dozen other minutemen. We threw every last grenade we had, and only managed to cripple its legs. Dozens of fusion cells later, and we finally killed it. It's tough, it's fast, and it's strong enough to rip your limbs off if it so much as scratches you,"
"Sounds like something that I need to kill,"
"If we can help it, I'd rather not fight one," murmured Preston, followed by two grunts of agreement from the two other minutemen behind him, "It'd take at least a rocket launcher or a good shot from an artillery piece to even take it out. We're getting close to that depot, now. Everyone, keep quiet and stay hidden,"
The depot was a massive pit in the ground, with what seemed to be a concrete building jutting out of one side of the pit. Ruined armoured vehicles formed a ring around the centre, surrounding a mountain of shattered bones and fetid scraps of flesh. Olive green crates with a white star in a circle on its middle were piled neatly off to one side; the sight of which, Elesis noted, drew all the focus of all the minutemen with her.
"Those are the supplies we were after," Preston said, drawing his rifle and looking through the scope, slowly scanning the battlefield.
"No sign of the missing patrol, sir," one of the others added, "Plenty of dead raiders, though. Looked like they'd been eaten,"
"What about our patrol? Any sign of them?"
"No, sir. Well, not quite. I couldn't see anything. Maybe they're holed up inside the building,"
"That's possible, I guess. Alright. There's no use in us just sitting around here, doing nothing. Jacob, Isley, you scout the perimeter. If you see anything, throw a signal flare and we'll come running. Elesis, you're with me. We'll be searching the centre for anyone that might be alive,"
"Understood," the three responded in unison, each readying their weapons for what may lurk in the base ahead. The other two minutemen soon disappeared into the bushes to the side of the depot, leaving only Preston and the knight.
"Well, looks like it's just you and me, now. Stick close, and keep your guard up," he said, raising his rifle.
Elesis pulled her scarf higher, trying futilely to mask the horrible stench of the creature's lair. Even at this distance, the smell of rotting corpses was almost unbearable. Preston did not fare much better, coughing and retching as they passed a particularly decayed corpse.
A few overgrown flies – bloatflies they were called, if she remembered correctly – rose up from the pile of refuse to their left. Buzzing angrily, they began to spit globs of sickly green goo at the pair. Elesis ducked underneath, and cleaved through two with a single stroke, while Preston reduced the last to a pile of sizzling ash with two quick shots. Looking at the sticky orange-green residue on her blade, the knight immediately regretted having struck them.
"What does a deathclaw look like?" muttered Elesis, furiously shaking her machete to try and remove the disgusting residue to no avail.
"Something that you don't want to see. Big, overgrown lizard. Built like a mountain of muscle, and has claws the size of your whole arm, harder than steel and sharper than anything that Sturges could ever come up with. Horns that would put the biggest brahmin bull to shame," Preston replied, slapping another fusion cell into his musket, "And teeth...well, let's just say that anybody who's looked into its jaws isn't in any condition to talk,"
An overgrown lizard, armed with teeth and claws? To Elesis, it sounded almost as though it were a Glitter commander, but without weapons nor armour.
"Sounds like a challenge,"
"I wouldn't even try it with what you've got, or what I've got. Even if all four of us were here, and the patrol team was still alive, we wouldn't do much more than scratch it,"
Some time passed with the pair searching through piles of fetid flesh. Not a single recognisable person did they find. A few pieces of shoddy raider equipment they found, still attached to decaying limbs; but there was no sign of any minuteman gear, not even the smallest trace of the leather hat that they all wore. The sun was now overhead, chasing away the chill of early morning with its blazing heat.
"I don't see the patrol team," Elesis grumbled, loosening her scarf to cool herself down.
"Neither do I. But there seems to be no sign of the deathclaw either. I don't like this- hey, you hear that?"
A loud metallic thump came from their right, along with a muffled scream.
"From inside the building," Preston whispered, raising his rifle. Like the bunker beneath the satellite station.
Panicked footsteps echoed from inside, approaching quickly. Elesis had hardly enough time to raise her sword before the door burst open, and two sweaty, dishevelled minutemen came bursting out of the tunnel.
"Pre – Lieutenant Preston, sir! Am I glad to see you again!" one of them gasped, looking over his shoulder. The other lay on the ground, wheezing and panting.
"Relax, Jack. Elton. What's happened? Where's Miranda?" Preston asked, pulling the one on the ground to his feet, "What's going on?"
"No time to talk, sir. Mira blew up a cache of grenades to delay the...that...thing!" the other minuteman, Elton, spoke, "She died covering our escape. We've got to get out of here!"
"You mean it's still alive, even after a whole crate of grenades blew up in front of it?" Preston exclaimed incredulously. Jack, shaken as he was, nodded feverishly, glancing left and right as though the creature would emerge from anywhere.
His fears, however, were well founded. A deep, rumbling growl sounded from the bowels of the building. The earth shook as thunderous footsteps approached, getting closer and closer. A wave of nausea hit all of them as a putrid, gust-like breath washed over the group. And finally, the creature's face appeared in the bunker's gateway, covered in black soot and smears of blood.
Its beady black eyes surveyed the minutemen intently, its fang-filled grin growing wider with each passing second.
"It's here! Go, get out of here!" screamed Jack, firing his pistol wildly at the beast. It raised its arm to block the bullets, growling all the while, before a stray bullet struck the door mechanism's electrical box. Sparks flew from the box as the thick metal blast doors sprang to life, slamming closed in front of the charging deathclaw. The creature bounced against the solid doors with a loud thump, followed by an annoyed growl.
"Good work, Jack. Go! Let's get out of here!" yelled Preston, grabbing Elesis' arm and running as fast as he could away from the sealed door.
Elesis, however, shook her arm free of his grasp and snarled back angrily, "Cowards! You...your fellow sacrificed herself to allow you to escape. You would allow her death to mean nothing?"
"If we're all dead, then it would really mean nothing! Now come on, let's go!"
"Not while I still have a weapon,"
"Forget it, sir. Let's get out of here!" Elton said, pulling Preston's arm. Reluctantly, the minuteman walked away, shooting Elesis another worried glance.
Soon, the group of minutemen found themselves weaving between piles of crates and metal scraps. The confused roars of the beast gave way to silence, and the group halted, catching their breath. Fear had a way of making men run very, very quickly; in but seconds, they had reached the edge of the depot, resting beside a broken-down truck.
"Do you think...it's...?" Elton panted, glancing at the sealed blast doors. A dull pounding could be heard from behind the door, despite how far away the men were. Soon, that too stopped.
And then to their shock, the heavy metal door flew outwards, with an enormous charging deathclaw behind it. The creature snarled ferociously, sniffing the air for signs of prey.
"RUN!" the men yelled, hoping that Elesis still had enough sense to run before the deathclaw noticed her.
Yet Elesis stood firm. Her left hand was tightly clasped around the Dark Elshard pendant that hung about her neck, and her right tightly gripping the machete in her hand. Wisps of red-black energy began to form itself around her, growing more intense with every passing moment.
"...Ha, ha," she chuckled. Her body was shaking in silent laughter. Preston could only look on in horror as the deathclaw approached her, a single step at a time, its claws raised to strike-
And then the unthinkable happened. A pitch-black mass, covered in glowing orange runes, burst out of where her machete should be, forming itself into a greatsword almost as long as she was tall. The wisps of dark energy grew to a veritable whirlwind, whipping up her long hair into a wild, tangled mess. And if his eyes were not deceiving him, Elesis' eyes were glowing a bright crimson.
The deathclaw's razor-sharp claws lashed out, striking at her neck. Yet as if possessed, the woman swiped her blade upwards with inhuman speed. The beast howled in confused agony as several of its talons fell to the ground, still twitching.
"Unworthy. Weak. Pathetic!" shouted Elesis, who dashed forward, rushing at the wounded creature's legs. Her swings were erratic and wild, faster than the minutemen could see. But from each swing, crescent-shaped shockwaves of pure darkness shot out, slashing scorched grooves in flesh, concrete and metal alike wherever they touched.
But the deathclaw was still standing. Though its legs were shredded by countless gashes, it lashed out at Elesis with its other arm. Her eyes widened as the sword-like claws rushed towards her, quicker than any ordinary swordsman could ever swing. She hissed in pain as they claws struck her arm, hurling her across the yard like a ragdoll before her body slammed hard into a metal container.
"Fire at will!" barked Preston, who unloaded lasers into the back of the deathclaw as fast as he could. The other two minutemen followed suit, peppering the creature with a hail of bullets. Though not a single bullet penetrated its hide, a lucky laser blast struck one of the creature's eyes as it turned to look over its shoulder. Howling in blind rage, the deathclaw was now swinging wildly all around it. Ruined vehicles and empty drums were tossed about as though they were made of paper.
"So, the cowards have decided to stand and fight after all," the dark knight growled, gazing at the minutemen in the distance, "This is my fight, and I intend to end this pathetic creature. Leave. Now!"
It was then that she noticed the steady dripping coming from her left arm. Her armour had been torn just below her shoulder, where a stream of blood flowed from a ragged gash.
"Blood. Blood spilled calls for vengeance," she spoke, her voice dripping with disdain. She raised her blade and let the flow trickle onto the black edge; the runes glowing ever brighter, and the dark mass which formed its blade becoming thicker and more distinct.
Without warning, she lashed out with the blade, hurling a spinning disk of blood-red energy with a feral shriek. The deathclaw, still lashing about half-blind, only caught the briefest of glances of an ever-growing red disk speeding towards its neck. A disk that tore through the scales of its neck, and shooting out of its back with ease, slamming into the side of a cliff before vanishing into a cloud of black smoke.
Elesis slowly shambled towards the corpse of the overgrown lizard. Her dark blade dragged on the ground behind her, slowly fading away. Upon seeing the deathclaw's head, its expression frozen in horror, she thrust her blade into its remaining eye, before pulling it back out again.
The creature that the minutemen feared so was well and truly dead, and their fallen comrade was avenged. A strange sense of morbid satisfaction filled her, and she could not help but grin.
"Heh...heh...ha...ha..." she chuckled, before breaking out into mad laughter. Her machete fell to the ground, forgotten. The dark Elshard on her breast glowed brightly, filling her veins with even more power. If she had discovered this earlier, then perhaps her men would not have died. Perhaps she could have slain every last one of the demonic host of Glitters, and then some more.
If only she could show her brother's comrades what they had refused to accept when they chose to destroy the other dark Elshards.
A small part of her mind wondered where her brother was. But even that was quickly overwhelmed by the thrilling rush of power in her veins...
"She can't be dead. You're lying!" Elsword yelled at a Feita knight, standing on his tiptoes to try and appear taller.
"But it's the truth, Elsword. Only a handful of men escaped the corrupted chapel. Your sister volunteered to guard their retreat," the man calmly replied, rubbing his temples. The younger Sieghart sibling was not the easiest person to get along with on the best of days, and this was not one of them.
"She never reported in afterwards," the other knight added, removing his helmet, "For what it's worth, I'm sorry. The mission, however, was a success-"
He never finished his sentence before the young warrior leapt out of his chair and charged out of their house's door, screaming his sister's name. His companion, a blonde elf, sighed and cradled her face in disappointment.
"Looks like we'll have to clean up after him again, just when I thought he was calming down. Thanks for letting us know anyway," she said, before sprinting out the door after the red-haired warrior.
Another of his companions, however, sat on a rather large drone, seemingly deep in thought. When she did raise her head, she stared directly at the senior knight. Her yellow eyes unnerved him; there was no way in Elrios that a human or elf could have eyes naturally that luminous.
"I must ask. You stated that Elesis has been killed on a mission," she spoke, in a flat monotone, "But you do not have a body nor eyewitnesses to prove that she had been killed. Other than the fact that she has not reported in for a few days, there is nothing to suggest that she has been killed. The invading Glitter army has been repelled for now. Have your superiors sent any search parties to the location?"
"Well, no, we haven't," admitted the younger knight, who scratched his head, "We haven't exactly had enough manpower to spare, with all the destruction left behind..."
"Then any data you have regarding Elesis' death is based on pure conjecture. It is defective data with no basis on factuality. We will investigate this matter further on our own. Now, if you would please vacate these premises, it would be highly appreciated,"
The two Feita knights nodded and bowed, closing the door as they left. The purple-haired mage standing beside the golden-eyed woman looked at her in confusion.
"It's already five days, Eve. I'm already hungry after half a day of not eating. I don't even want to know what a day feels like, or five days. Why do you think that Elesis is...?" Aisha asked.
"A database search reveals that the underground chapel in Feita was a sacred place for the religion of the El Lady. It is likely that there is still a large El shard somewhere inside that is enough to sustain life,"
"I know nasods use El gems to keep going, but humans need food, too," said Aisha. But as she looked at Eve's impassive face, she could not be certain. "Don't they...?"
"Nasods use the power of El shards and El gems to continue functioning. But there is no reason to think that an El shard could not allow a living creature to continue living. It is, after all, concentrated life energy. She would be hungry, and thirsty, but still alive,"
"So...should we...?"
"There is no definite evidence that suggests that Elesis is dead. Without knowing her condition with certainty, I do believe that Elsword would be unable to function on our...adventures. It is probably beneficial if we would assist him with searching for his sister,"
Soon, Eve also left, mounting her custom-made scooter and zooming off into the distance. Only Aisha remained behind, shaking her head. A nasod – an ancient nasod – was showing more hope in the survival of Elsword's sister than she did.
A/N
Only Eve does the best slaps!
Welp, another chapter done. El search party finally gets wind of what happened in the Underground Chapel, and Elsword is just being...well, Elsword. Hot-headed shortie can't keep himself out of trouble, can he?
I've taken a bit of liberty with what the Dark Elshard actually does. It's a power source like any other El crystal/gem/shard, but of a much greater magnitude, allowing the user to perform extraordinary feats of combat. It does, however, have a very strong tendency to corrupt the hearts and minds of whoever uses it; and with prolonged exposure or a particularly intense use of it, perhaps it could even induce physical changes. Whatever the case, any that touch it are likely aware of its nature, and would not use it. Only the most desperate or deranged would risk using its power.
Until next time, readers! Feel free to leave thoughts in reviews, as is your right to do so.
-ArcturusWolf