Chapter 11

Elsword

The pass wasn't very far from the village. The problem was their numbers. There were a huge number of them, and they were all aggressive. They must have spent hours fighting them off.

"Aisha, I don't know that he can just fight our way through this. We may need to fight a little smarter."

"You think?" She was starting to look a little tired herself.

"We should head back, maybe see if we can come up with a better idea."

They hadn't made it half way back when they were stopped by Stella.

"Stella! What are you doing here? It's dangerous this far out!"

"It's the village! Something happened, and they all became aggressive! I… I don't know what happened!"

"Calm down. Why don't we head to Bethma, and get something to eat while we come up with a plan for what to do next?"

"Uh, yeah, okay."

Bethma wasn't far away, but it was something of a walk. They sat down at a café near the entrance.

"So what actually happened before they attacked you?"

"I… I don't know. It… it was like they were… possessed or something."

"Possessed?" Aisha chimed up. "If it's a possession, I might be able to help with it."

"Really? How?"

"Well, if I can find something that might be causing it, I'll be able to find a counter spell that would free them from its influence."

"Really? How long would that take?"

"Hmm… I could probably get it done by the morning if I get my samples tonight."

"Tonight… they'll probably be asleep. It'll be the easiest time to sneak in."

"Tonight then. We'll get this sorted out. Don't worry."

Their food arrived and they started to eat.

Aisha

This kind of stealth wasn't exactly her specialty. Nor was it Elswords, apparently. If Rena were here, she'd give them a long lecture on how poor their stealth was. But she wasn't so they'd have to get by on their own.

As expected, they were pretty noisy. She'd have to admit, Rena was actually a big part of their group. They were pretty sure everyone knew they were there by the time they reached the center, and their suspicions were confirmed when a large one with war paint was waiting for them. It spoke in an eerie voice.

"You're so predictable."

"What do you mean, predictable?" Elsword attempted to defend them.

"My warriors have been able to predict where you would go before you knew yourselves since that fool Banthus stole the El shard."

"What? So you're the one who wanted it stolen?!"

"Heavens no. I'm only following orders from the big one on top."

"Wally…"

"And I see the elven brat hasn't returned yet. Oh well. We'll get her soon enough."

"You know about Rena?!"

"You're not bright, are you? Would you explain it to him, mage?"

She turned to Elsword. "She was also part of the party, so they would have been tracking her, too."

"I see. Even so, lizard, tell your men to stand down and we can end this with as few casualties as possible!"

"Really? You're going to challenge all of us at once? Why don't we start a little smaller, you two versus me?"

"Hah! You're going down!"

"Amusing. You think you actually have a chance of beating me. I'll show you what mastery of the art of stealth looks like!" He stepped down from the platform when a green arrow came down, landing next to his foot. He swore under his breath.

She looked up to where it would have come from.

"Rena?"

Rena

She had been waiting on that rooftop for hours on end waiting to get just the opportunity to take that warning shot. She was probably sunburned, especially on the back of the neck. She was also unsure if she was able to get up. It was hard enough shooting a bow lying down, let alone probably sunburned after having not moved for some time.

She stood up. Yep, definitely sunburned. She took aim again, and he turned towards her, raising his swords. Elsword, as expected, took the hint and ran forward to attack. The creature jumped to the side to avoid both attacks. She was hoping they could figure out what to do without her having to give away any sort of plan to the lizard.

As if on cue, Aisha ran around to the other side, effectively trapping the lizard between the three of them. Elsword ran towards it, and it made a leap at Aisha.

"I don't think so!" She gathered a ball of mana and launched it at the lizard, sending it flying back.

Rena took the opportunity to fire her arrow, ensuring the lizard wouldn't be able to get up, and slid down the roof to meet her friends. Yep, definitely more than just her neck.

Aisha was the first to greet her.

"Rena!"

She found herself hugged by the girl. It was definitely more than just her neck.

"Umm, Rena? Your entire back is red." Elsword was waiting awkwardly from a distance.

"Well, what do you expect? I was waiting on the rooftop the entire day for a specific shot that never really came!" She smiled back at him.

"So Rena, that outfit…" Aisha started.

"Ah, this? I got it when I became a trapping ranger from the elves at Eldrasil!"

"It's a little, ah…" Elsword turned his head away.

"Different? Yeah. It's not exactly what I used to wear."

"I was going to go with revealing, but, yeah, different works too."

"Oh, ah, well… We're not exactly meant to be seen in this. You know. Complete the mission and head straight back, that sort of thing."

"So… will you be heading back to… wherever it is you went, then?"

"Actually, my mission is to bring down the demons, and I got permission to do so with you two!"

"Demons?"

"Yeah, apparently they're having problems a little ways south. I'm going to help you guys recover the El shard first, then we'll head south, if you two want to come with me."

"Well, I guess that means we're back together, then!" He went up to her, putting his hand on her shoulder. "It'll be fun! Ah, sorry!" he took his hand off her shoulder, remembering her sunburn.

"It's fine. Anyway, we should get going. I need to see someone about getting this healed before it starts blistering."

"Wait!" Aisha suddenly remembered something. "We need to check for something causing them to act this way!"

She and Elsword looked at her.

"Well? No one's stopping you." Rena spoke up.

"W-what? You want me to do it?"

"Well, you brought it up."

"No! Absolutely not! I'm not going to go up to that… thing!"

She and Elsword looked at each other before he spoke up.

"Aisha, are you afraid of lizards?"

"W-what? No! I- I just…"

Rena shook her head and started walking to the body. "Fine, I'll do it."

She began looking for something that might cause it before she found something out of place.

"That's odd."

"What is it?" Elsword called out.

Rena walked back. "It's nasod."

"Wally…"

"But that means that he's still around here. Stella said they weren't like this until this afternoon." Aisha pointed out.

"Hmm… the only place he would have been able to avoid being seen by someone is the abandoned mines… but it's late, and we're probably too tired to fight, so let's head back to town."

Rose

Going through the portal made her surprisingly tired. She found herself with no light at all, and the echoes in the area told her it was either somewhere with high roofs or a cave. She suspected the latter.

"Hello?"

Her voice echoed for quite a while, telling her the cave was probably very large. She stood up and searched her belt for a match and promptly lit it. It wasn't much help, but it did confirm that she was in a cave.

"Hello? Can anyone hear me?"

There were no sounds except for the echoing sound of her voice. She decided to follow the tunnel. It went for quite a ways, and as she continued, she began hearing things. She couldn't always tell what they were, but she knew they were unnatural.

As she continued, she began hearing something she could recognize. The sound of a pickaxe striking a rock. However, there were no responses whenever she called. There was also another thing. She felt like something was following her. Whenever she turned around, however, there was nothing there. Not that she could particularly tell from the match light, but it was still a strange feeling.

"I know you're there!"

Nothing. She stopped shortly after to the feeling of something reaching out to her. She pulled out one of her pistols, and fired a shot, the flash illuminating the cave for a fraction of a second. Still nothing. Maybe the portal had made her delirious. Maybe she was going crazy. She realized she was not when something cold struck her up top the head, knocking her unconscious.

Ain

He had failed. He knew that the General would probably kill him for this, but he decided to stay anyway. He knew General Scar well. Henir had introduced them, though in an abstract way. He had put made them familiar with each other directly through their memories. It was strange.

However, Henir then appeared before him.

"Ain, your time working for these demons has ended. I have another task for you."

"Another task? What is it this time?"

"Another one of my minions, Solace, is in need of help claiming Elysion. Complete this mission, and I will reward you with more of my power."

"It will be done, reward or no."

Elysion was quite far from where he currently was, and would be difficult to access without the blessings of the priestesses. However, he was certain there was a way around it. After all, if this Solace figure could get in, he could too.

Add

What had gone wrong? His coordinates were right, they had to be! And yet, he still ended up in that… wrong place! He proceeded to try again, over and over again, having the same result each time.

"It couldn't be… I can't return to my own past?! What kind of nightmare is this!?"

He broke down on the floor of the refinery and began to weep.

Eve

System:Rebooting…

New code found!

Activating Code: Nemesis…

Activated

Initiating Blackbox…

Blackbox initiated

Activating systems…

Queen Type N:Record label=Entry 6

All systems activated

Queen Type N:Count target=NasodRuler,members

1,841 targets found

Queen Type N:showmap results

…

She began hunting. There would be no survivors. She would eliminate them all. The people who destroyed her people would be destroyed. She was certain she would succeed.

Ciel

"Lu, we need to talk."

"Is it about making cookies?"

"No, it's-"

"Then I'm not interested."

"Lu, this is serious!"

"So are cookies!"

"Lu, Scar knows we're here! He's opened a portal on the top of the tower and will soon be sending an army here to kill the both of us!"

"Ciel, we have an entire city on our side, plus Elesis and that guard! And besides, we've dealt with large, armed groups of people before. There's no way they can stop us!"

He sighed in frustration. "Lu, that puts an entire world against one small town. We wouldn't be able to hold off against them even if the entire town were to come and fight!"

"Ciel, I really don't think they know we're here. It seems to me that they started in Velder and are attacking cities and towns around that. If you ask me, it's just a coincidence. But if you're really worried about it, we can probably just slip out of town unnoticed. Just know that wherever we go, they'll eventually find us."

He sighed again. "Fine. We'll stay here. I'll go tell the others."

He went to the others, but not for the reason he told Lu. He had to get them to do something while they still could.

"You two. We need to talk about the current situation."

Elesis looked over first. "Yeah? What about it? Do you not have enough room for all of us?"

"It's the tower. Scar's opened up a portal and an invasion is on it's way."

"That's… not good."

"I'll get Lu." The guard stood up.

"No," Ciel stopped him. "She's against us taking action. Whatever we decide to do, she can't know about it."

"Then I think Elesis and I should go up there and stop it."

They both looked at him.

"Ciel, you know how to handle Lu better than any of us, so you could probably convince her that we just stepped out for a bit. Not entirely a lie, but not exactly the truth."

"That's… not a bad plan, actually." Elesis spoke in agreement. "It's better than anything I would have come up with."

"Then it's settled. You two will go close the portal, and I'll make sure Lu doesn't catch on to what you're doing."

Elesis

They slipped out of the house without any trouble and headed towards the tower. She could see why Ciel was concerned. The tower was literally on the edge of town. There was something that struck her as odd, though. The tower was a temple to the goddess. So how then were the demons able to capture and corrupt the tower? This thought would linger in her mind as she made her way up the tower.

However, before she could climb, she would first have to go through the underground chapel and the tower gardens. The chapel would be first. When they arrived, they found the chapel was already occupied by more than a handful of demons. They would have to fight their way through

"You ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

As they fought, the tower seemed to be literally falling down around them, but none of the demons seemed particularly bothered by it. After they fought through several hallways, they eventually reached the worship hall. Entering, they found two demons performing a ritual. Odd, Elesis thought, that they wouldn't just use the portal at the top. Moments later, she found out why. It wasn't a demon they were after, it was a spirit. A few pieces of armor connected with purple clouds rose from the center of the circle, and immediately began attacking them.

"I don't know anything about this thing," Elesis warned, "but don't breathe in the gasses. I'd wager they're toxic."

This would make it difficult for the both of them, as they both fought close range using swords. Well, Elesis would adamantly call her weapon of choice a claymore, not a sword. Either way, she wasn't fond of using magic, so they'd have to use extreme caution when going in for an attack.

To make matters worse, the spirit, if she could still call it that, left a short trail of fumes as it moved, and, as she discovered not so pleasantly, it could also conjure the toxic gas.

"We have to finish it, and we have to finish it fast!" The guard commented.

Way to state the obvious, she thought. "Right!" She lunged into an attack, holding her breath as she did, so as to not breathe in anything it might use against her.

It was evidently not designed to actually be struck, and one attack and it fell to pieces, and all the gas dissipated.

"Huh. I thought it'd be harder than that. In any case, we don't have time to waste. Let's go!" She caught herself saying the obvious now. It must be contagious.

They continued fighting their way through the tower to reach the gardens. Apparently, they had found a way to turn the plants as well, as three massive ones came up and began attacking. This was an enemy they would both be comfortable fighting. As such, it took them no time at all to clear away the aggressive plants.

From there, it was smooth sailing to the top, with the most difficult part being a combination of avoiding falling rocks and releasing massive pillars that she assumed allowed one to teleport between floors, as that's what they did after releasing them. All that was left was to close the portal at the top, and that wouldn't be much of a chore.

Lu

Ciel had taken her out to get some snacks when she saw a large crowd mumbling to themselves.

"Hey, what's going on here?"

"A massive portal opened on top of the Holy Tower and demons are pouring out of it!"

Someone else pointed and shouted "Look! The Red-Haired Knight's up there! She's come to save us!"

There was various cheering from people in the crowd. She turned to Ciel.

"Ciel, I thought you were going to tell them we weren't going to do anything."

"About that. Think about it. This works out for us. The portal gets closed, and if they didn't already know we're here, they won't find out."

"Well, I'm not going to miss out on combat action, so I guess we'll have to go any way."

"Are you sure? Lu, we worked out an arrangement where you wouldn't have to get involved."

"Ciel, you went behind my back and directly disobeyed my orders. Because of that, we're going to march up that tower and help them, whether or not you want to!"

"Well, I guess that works."

With the tower having already been cleared, it took them almost no time at all to catch up to the others.

"You didn't really think that you were going to close this thing without me, did you?"

"Lu?" Elesis sounded surprised. "I thought-"

"Yeah, yeah. I changed my mind when you went behind my back and came here anyway. Now, let's get this portal closed!"

Just then, a massive demon stepped forward out of the portal.

"So. The troublesome bunch think they can stop this invasion, so they?" It spoke with a low, grumbly voice.

"Berthe… I thought you died long ago!" Lu growled.

"You though someone as pathetically weak as you would be able to kill me? You were wrong! Now I'm going to crush you once and for all, Luciela Sourcream!"

Elesis glanced over at Lu. "Your last name is Sour Cream?"

"That's what you're worried about now?"

"Hey, I'm not exactly wor-" She was cut off as the demon struck her with his claws, sending her crashing against a pillar. "Heh. I think I felt that one!" She was slammed again, being knocked unconscious.

"Elesis!" Lu ran after her, narrowly avoiding getting hit by the massive demon.

"Lu, watch out!" He jumped in front of her, blocking his hand with one arm, and shooting it with another. There was something different about Ciel. He seemed almost… demon-like.

The beast roared in pain for a short time, until Ciel shot it in the head, killing it and sending it falling to the ground. No normal bullet Lu knew of that Ciel would have could do that. There was definitely something strange with him. He kept shooting it.

"Ciel! That's enough! He'd dead."

He transformed into a more human appearance, the same way she could. It was then clear to her that he had become more demon with his time spent with her.

She walked over to the awakening Elesis. "You okay?"

She groaned. "Bethma."

"…What?"

"Bethma. We need to go to Bethma."

"That's… why?"

"I… I can't really explain it, but… he's there. My brother. He's there, I know it."

"Elesis, are you sure you're okay? I mean, you hit your head pretty hard."

"I know what I saw, Lu!" She stood up. "Come or don't, I don't really care. I'm going to see my brother in Bethma." She started walking back down the tower.

"Then we're coming, too."

Ciel spoke up. "We are?"

"Of course! She's not about to run off on another adventure without us!"

Elesis gave them a thumbs up as she kept walking.

"Hey, aren't you going to wait for us?"

"Nope!"

"Well, we should at least talk about the plan first!"

"If you have time to talk, you have time to get moving!" She took off in a run.

She sighed. "She's going to get herself killed like that."

Chung

First, his father goes missing. Then, the city falls to a demon invasion. Next, the water temple is claimed by those same demons. All that was left was himself and a few members of the guard.

Their biggest problem was that they didn't have any sort of 'home base.' There was nowhere left for them to stay for any length of time. They had to fight every so often in order to secure their next resting place. Everyone was tired.

"Everyone, I know you're tired, but we have to keep moving!" He offered some encouragement.

"Give it up, Chung. We're finished. It's only a matter of time before they take us all down."

This really got on his nerves. "Fine! Those of you who want to keep living like this, constantly in search for a new place to rest, being picked off one by one, stay here and wait for death to come for you! Anyone else, come with me. I have a plan."

He went out of earshot of the rest of the guards, and turned around. He was surprised to find only two had followed him. "That's it? There's no one else?"

"With all due respect, sir, the others don't believe any good will come from following you. We all followed you this far, and we haven't made any real progress in taking back our city."

"And you follow me, still?"

"Your first idea didn't work, that's for sure. But even so, almost all of the higher ups failed their first few attempts at mobilizing units. You just need experience."

"Then I thank you for your loyalty. Now, I trust you're familiar with the sewers?"

"They're filled with the demons." He nodded.

"There's a section they wouldn't be able to find. One entrance is near the docks, which we can't get to right now. The other is near the town hall."

"Which we can get to."

"Exactly."

"But why not tell the others about this?"

"I was going to, before they quit on me."

"They quit on you because they didn't have anything left worth fighting for."

"Even if, they shouldn't have given up on their job, which is to protect everyone in the city at all costs, even if that happens to be their life."

"I understand. Let's go claim the docks!"

Author's Comments

I've never struggled to write a chapter as much as this one.