Yuri had been alert since around an hour ago, when the sky was still dark and his companions were still blissfully asleep. Or at least Rita was still asleep. He was sure Judith had been as alert as he was, ever since he heard soft rustles and footsteps not far from where they were camping.
In the darkness of the tent - only illuminated slightly by a small torch Rita had invented and brought along with them - Yuri caught Judith staring at him, cross smile on her lips. The Krityan was laying some inches away from him, closer to the very corner of the tent. Her expression told him that she too was aware of the sounds and presence of strangers on the island.
The intruders did not make an effort to be silent, either. Yuri tightened his grip on the sword he held close to his chest as the strangers approached the small forest patch and grass field where their tent was set up. He closed his eyes, pretending to still be sleeping, but his mind was wary. Regardless of his role was going to be, if the strangers bore ill will towards him or his friends, he would be ready.
He counted the seconds ticking away in his brain, until finally the footsteps stopped right in front of their tent. A second later, the tent was torn open. Yuri could not bear to pretend to sleep anymore, and when he opened his eyes, Judith was already sitting - her fingers tightly wrapped around her Brionac – and her eyes darted at each of the newcomers.
Glancing quickly at the other sleeping bag spread behind him, slight incredulous expression crossed his face as he realized that Rita was still asleep – despite of all the commotion.
He withdrew the Abyssion off its sheath quickly as one person walked and pointed a sword at Rita, too close to her neck for his comfort.
Finally the young mage woke up and she slowly sat, analysing her surroundings and her arms slowly reaching out at her spell book placed under the blanket. Her eyes were particularly fixated on the blade still pointed at her, then at Yuri who was now standing behind her attacker, his sword at the person's neck.
"Excellent! We have some more rogue guinea pigs," a coarse voice was heard from behind the bunch of people surrounding them.
For the first time, Yuri could evaluate the intruders more closely. They did not bother to mask themselves or hide their identities and Yuri realized that they were all women – of different builds and sizes. He swore he had seen some of the faces long ago, some occasional acquaintances he had come across daily when he was at Dahngrest – some members of various Guilds he did not know their names. However, the women were stoic in expression; their posture straight and menacing, but their faces were empty and their eyes void of any emotion.
He and Judith exchanged a quick acknowledging look, reminding each other to stay alert.
Then the owner of the voice emerged – a slight young woman with unkempt blue hair. She walked unsteadily, her arms clutching her chest as she took each step. She was probably the only one of the whole bunch who showed any expression at all – she smirked at the three of them, her smile smug and arrogant.
Her appearance was nothing extraordinary – she was wearing a purple black tunic and long pants which almost closely resembled dirty rags. However her demeanour was mostly imperious, it reminded Yuri of the stuck up nobles he used to encounter daily back in Zaphias.
As the woman got closer and Yuri could see her more clearly, he frowned as he tried to recall the familiar face he had encountered before.
"Bring them to the cave!," she stared at the three of them, "it's about time. We need more zombies," she added as she flashed a crooked smile, her eyes glinting, "strong zombies..."
Yuri could not quite make out what she meant, but he could sense Rita tensing up. He bet the young mage was trying really hard to witheld the spell formulas she would always be ready to chant - her small body trembling from her anger.
Well, it was not exactly the ideal surroundings to wake up to in the morning.
The trio followed the strange women into the Aer Krene with swords pointed at their backs, where they saw more people - all females - spread around in the cave. Some of them were setting up a piece of machine, not bigger than a small chair, but still looked complicated to Yuri's eyes. He stopped and tried to work out what the machine was, and the expressionless woman serving as his guard nudged him to move forward by shoving the back of her sword at his back.
Finally, they were brought to a small structure made of metal, which was heavily guarded by yet some other women. The structure was more like a cell, around half the size of his room at the inn in Zaphias. It only had a small barred opening serving as a window, and a door much lower than Yuri's frame - he knew he had to bend very low to get through it.
The guard opened the door and shoved them in, the door locked shut again behind them. After adjusting his eyes to the darkness inside the cell, he saw two Krityans and a man he knew sitting closely at the corner of the room.
The man was dishevelled and dirty, and his clothes were tattered. At the sight of them though, he jumped on his feet with excess enthusiasm,
"Buon giorno, mon amici! Long time no see!"
"Professor Sicily," Judith nodded at him, smiling slightly as she evaluated his pitiful appearance. Though chirpy in greetings, the man was painstakingly thin and was hardly the man he used to be in appearance. His bony frame portruded beneath the dirty skin exposed through the tattered shirt.
"Tell us what happened!" Rita demanded, her tone more irritated but Yuri could sense that she too was taken aback.
"Judith," one of the Krityan stepped forward, her face finally visible to them, "I am glad you are safe, but I wouldn't expect any less from you."
Judith gave the Krityan's hands a slight squeeze then turned to Yuri and Rita,
"They are the Krityans that have disappeared from Mt. Temza."
"Yes, and I think we are the only Krityans captured," the other Krityan let out a soft sigh, "The ones outside are all humans. I don't know whether I should be relieved or not."
"It is all my fault," Professor Sicily slumped and rested his head on his knees, his face down and his body trembling.
"Well, you can start by telling us your story then we can decide if it's really your fault or not," Yuri spoke for the first time since entering the cell. He was intrigued and annoyed all the same time,
"What's wrong with those people outside? They are like zombies. They didn't speak, they didn't blink, hell they might not even breath!"
Professor Sicily looked up and looked at Yuri - bewildered, "You are Yuri! Mon ami! I thought you were a girl!"
Yuri scowled,
"Glad you remember. Now care to start talking already?"
Judith suddenly put her index finger on Yuri's lips and she hissed, "Someone's coming."
The door was banged open and the blue haired woman's voice boomed,
"You filthy man! Get out! I need my daily dose!"
She ducked her head and sneered inside, particularly at Yuri, "And you will be quite a fine specimen. I can't wait to experiment with you."
Professor Sicily stood and gauntly headed outside the cell, once again the door clammed shut after.
"Can you start by telling us what you know?" Judith asked her Krityan friends. They sat on the rocky floor, backs leaning against the wall,
"You can hardly blame Sicily. He is quite sweet, really," one of the Krityans smiled,
"That woman is just using him to produce these things," she took out a blue stone from beneath her robe - a similar stone they had seen back in Nordopolica - the object radiated faint blue light.
"This alters a person's inner mana, making it invariably lose control. It makes someone incredibly stronger by processing the person's mana into raw power. Unfortunately, the mana input is far greater than the power output."
"Hence it practically sucks people dry," Rita intervened.
"Correct. I see you have seen this object before and know what it could do," the Krityan looked at the young mage, "You have to be particularly careful. It only reacts to humans. We are the only Krityans here because the stone does not affect us. That woman did not take any more Krityans because Sicily has not invented something that would work with our race as it would with humans."
"Honestly... I thought she would still be in Zaphias' jail now...," Judith murmured.
"Yeah," Rita added - annoyed, "What the hell was your Commandant friend doing, Yuri? To have her escaped from the cell! What a poor excuse of a knight."
Yuri frowned, "Do you guys remember her?"
Judith frowned back at him, "It is Mimula."
"Idiot," Rita rolled her eyes and snorted, "She's Cumore's sister. Remember now?"
Yuri's lips formed a slight 'o' as he remembered the woman, then he could feel his anger growing and hissed,
"Truly some bad blood they have."
"Well... whatever is becoming of her, she is one freak of a nature," Rita looked through the barred window then shifted her body and gestured at Yuri, prompting him to look outside.
Mimula was standing by the crater, various cables strapped to her body from the machine he saw earlier. She had her top shirt opened, revealing her bare breasts and body, but that did not interest Yuri one bit.
Instead, he was disgusted with what he saw.
There were about five or six stones portruding from beneath her skin, making her body literally gleaming with the blue light when the stones were activated by the machine - Sicily working on some buttons and levers to work the device. The aer from the crater were sucked consistently into the stones and into her, Yuri could see her eyes glinting with madness as the blue lights surrounded her.
"The stones would suck people dry - except her," came a voice from behind him, explaining again, "She has been absorbing the Aer into her body to substitute the mana she lost by having the stones embedded in her. The Aer Krenes have the purest form of Aer - closest to a person's mana. We have been to Relewiese Hollow and Keiv Moc to get the Aer, too"
Judith lowered her head, saddened at her friend's explanation. Being one of the ancient race and a close acquaintance to Entelexias, Yuri could tell the revelation was hard for her to digest.
"What about the other humans?" Rita asked
"Well, she would just dispose them when their mana are spent."
"The merchant Kaufman found," Yuri gritted his teeth.
"The stones don't only alter the mana, they also affect the mind of the host," she added, "When the stones gradually deplete their mana, the easier they get controlled. With that machine, Mimula would inject some Aer into them once in a while to keep them under control, but once they are past their due dates, they would be disposed. If they don't get the occasional Aer injection, they go mad, and finally lost themselves altogether."
"You see, Sicily invented this by chance when he was researching on the ruins back in Mt. Temza," her companion spoke in turn, "He found some ancient scripts about the Blastia invented long ago, and managed to create a medium to channel the mana."
"To actually been able to produce something remotely similar to Blastias," Rita folded her arms and stared at the floor, "I hate to admit it, but that guy is a genius."
"He would have used his research to build Mt. Temza to be a beautiful town once again. But then Mimula and her companion got to him first before he could perfected his invention."
"His companion?" Yuri frowned.
"Do you think it was Sebastian?" Judith asked.
"I am not sure of his name..., " her friend pondered, "He is always hooded, and he is quite strong. The last time I saw him was when we were at Relewiese Hollow. I think he's quite upset with Mimula since he has not been able to use the stone for himself."
"The stone does not work on males," Rita nodded.
- tbc
lunat1's note:
Guess who the hooded man is... as always please review. Much much appreciated an it certainly motivates me. Well, apart from some unnamed (and highly insignificant) new characters, I use pretty much the very same characters from the game side quests etc. Call me unoriginal. LOL.