All non-original Characters/Setting/Weapons will be tagged with '*' and will receive a proper sourcing.
This is based from the famous sword-fighting game "Soul Calibur IV" by NAMCO and Bandai.
Elements and information of "Star Wars" are owned by George Lucas and LucasFilm (Disney).
+Updated: July 6, 2016+
{ Soul Calibur IV: Soul Resonance }
[Chapter 12: Take to the Skies, 3 v 1]
"Ha-ha-ha-ha. We are finally the gods of the air. Ha-ha-ha-ha!"
"Yes, my lord!"
Eiman Zole was enjoying himself. Standing in the main command console of his newly forged Airship, the EZS (Eiman Zole Services) The Magnificent Eiman, the War Lord enjoyed the view of both his personal control sector and the sight of the earth miles below his feet.
It was a large chamber made out of reinforced glass everywhere, the ceiling, the walls, and even the floor. Soldiers in dark blue uniforms scurried across the glass, as if it were a regular floor, none of them daring to check to see that their shoelaces were untied and flopping around.
In a way, they were the best of the best in order to stomach working across a sky-floor on a 24/7 basis, so they were trained to work under these stressful situations.
Now, back to Eiman Zole.
"Mr. Egde. I've collected a handsome amount of sacrifices for your upcoming feast. We shall arrive to your location in exactly 1 hour."
"….Why 1 hour?"
"Oh come now, my boy. Can't you let this general enjoy his newly made ship for that long? If you weren't the main investor of this lovely little craft, I wouldn't mind making you wait for your dinner by 10 days and 10 nights, ha-ha-ha-ha!"
"…. You're humor is too flat."
Eiman Zole stood in the center of the command console, directly on top of large circle of large plate of glass, emblazed with stained colors. With the light that reflected from the earth's crust, it gave him a saintly feeling as if he was the stain-glass portrait himself. He grinned towards a large independent window pane that was hanging in front of him.
A young man in a red vest could be seen projected on the screen.
To best describe him, he was quiet… quieter than the aftermath of a murderous battlefield. He held a sort of pressure that could only exist in the deepest depth of oceans, a burden that not even an Angler fishes could survive in. His eyes were cold, not heartless cold, but rather… soulless cold.
For now, let us call him Egde.
"I'm hungry. I don't like waiting."
"I clearly can see that you are impatient, my boy. Do you think I wouldn't notice the napkin wrapped around her neck and the utensils in your hands. You must really enjoy feasting on humans."
Egde, the young man on the screen, let out a sigh, the table-cloth wrapped around his neck like a napkin and a fork and knife ready in his gloved hands.
"I don't like eating people. Their meat is terrible no matter how well Tira* can cook them… It's their souls that are the most delicious."
"Finer than wine?"
"What does wine taste like?"
Eiman scowled at the response of the young man's in the window pan, the latter tilting his head in genuine confusion. Its as if he wasn't joking, and really wanted to know how does Wine taste like… heck, he may not even know what wine is.
"Fruity. Sour. And Bitter."
"No. Human Souls are more like honey and milk, mixed with scrambled eggs."
"… Ye'gawds. That's a disgusting flavor."
"Not to me."
Egde nodded to himself, the hair on his head covered his eyes. A maid appeared in the background, but her face was outside of the projected screen. She leaned in seductively to whisper seductively into Egde's ear, licking her lips seductively.
Egde listened as if he received the news his dog just died…
…Which was pretty much a flat expression as if a regular human was put up with a bored lecture.
"He's here."
"Who."
"My friend."
"What do you mean, your friend?"
"When you see him, tell him 'hi' for me."
"Confound it all you little brat! Explain to me who this friend of yours is!? I can't understand cryptic speeches!"
"…. Who built Calliope for you."
"It's The Magnificent Eiman you little…President sir…. You…"
"Hmm. So please give my regards to your wife."
"… What?"
"Sorry. I lost track of my memory. This happens when I'm too hungry. Hurry up with the food, and tell him 'hang-ten'."
"I can't understand what your—"
Before Eiman Zole was allowed to finish, the maid lowered her seductive body to reveal her lower half of her face and gave the war lord a seductive smile, the mole under her hidden right eye dancing…before pressing a button on off screen with a seductive finger.
… Since this story is Rated for Teens, the following will be censored for Parental Guidance. Thank you.
" # %^&% #&^%$# #$%^& &^%$#$# #$%^&*!"
[++++++]
"… Achooo! Who the freak is talking spat about me again!?"
Seele Rubilac gave that roar of a shout and sneezed three more times. This time, it was from the rushing wind that kept slapping him in the face while he walked across the top of the airship.
… No, you didn't miss a chapter. Rather, everything jumped straight to this climatic part of the plot….
….. Let's continue.
"Mmm. Maybe I should have thought twice before I went and lassoed the questionable looking rhino to use as a steed. Honestly, how was I supposed to know it was a rudder for an Airship straight out of F*nal F*ntasy?"
Seele Rubilac made that comment as he marched his was across the top of the ship's deck. One of its international features was how it was guarded by the top dome of a Korean Turtle ship. In ancient times, their ships were designed to prevent people from boarding them, which came in the form of a black dome cover with anti-infantry spikes.
Then once you add in a dragon figurehead at the front of the boat that spits real fire, it's definitely a ship that would make enemies go 'Holy sh*t it's the Koreans got a live dragon!'… Something along those lines.
"… But it's not supposed to fly… Better yet, from a mechanical standpoint, 99.99999999% percent of this ship is impossible to build in this given time frame! Leonardo da Vinci who discovered the concept of flying wings hasn't even been born yet!"
Maybe that was inaccurate information in terms of the birth, still that's the importance of this situation.
The boy looked around him, at the ship she stoop upon. Though it looked like a regular war ship that would bravely serve the British Fleet, it still had features that not even the Queen at the time could pull it off.
"Solar Panels. Electric conduits. Plasma Furnace. Magnetic Propulsion, Plast-steel armor plating, Steam propellers…. This is like it was straight out of a galactic Home Dep*t!"
After saying all sorts of words and ideas that could never exist in a Medieval Setting, the boy had an idea.
"Either some smart idiot from the future decided to wreck everything by playing god… or I'm the one who is behind it."
Probably a mixture of both.
"Bzzzzzzzt. Wrong answer. First, I know I'm not an idiot. Smart - yes. Second, I don't remember shaking someone's hand to say 'let's rebuild the future by creating a new Star W*rs'…. Who the heck did this?"
Seele Rubilac tapped his heel into the ship's top hull. It gave a thick echoing sound, the same way one would tap a wrench against the hull of an ironclad ship…. Only for it to open a secret hatch unde rhis feet.
"….. Ship."
Yes. Ship.
"UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
In the end, the boy fell into a deep metal chute inside of the airship. Somehow, just somehow, he landed in a garbage dump… and somehow, just somehow, it resembled a certain garbage compactor.
"…. There's going to be a third thing…. Isn't there?"
Somehow, just somehow, that certain garbage compactor, had a squid like tentacle lashing out from under the burial of garbage.
"UWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH! WHY DID I HAVE TO FALL IN EVERY JAPANESE HIGH SCHOOL GIRL'S NIGHTMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARE!?"
Too much information, Mr. Protagonist.
"GUWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
[+++++]
"…..Ah."
"Don't worry, my dear lady. I have you."
Lucia could be found hanging 100 000 ft above the ground right now. No, she didn't discover a slumbering power in her body that made her transform into a magical girl and take off into the sky like a certain witch running a delivery service.
No, she didn't realize her potential for psychic powers and used some kind of scientific phenomenon that made her defy gravity.
….. Mr. Thro-Nez, could you care to explain?
"That was close, my dear lady. If we hadn't caught onto the back of this airship, those storming troopers back on the ground could have overwhelmed us and had blast us to oblivion. There's nothing to fear, so stay close to me."
To summarize, Lucia and Thro-Nez had worked together in taking down Eiman Zole's soldiers. They had been accused of false arrest and now they were on a false runaway. Though Thro-Nez was a self-proclaimed Jedi with a yellow laser blade, he and Lucia combined weren't enough to evade the soldiers from getting them. They had been cornered within the forest, surrounded from all angles.
Thankfully, Thro-Nez noticed the airship that floated above their heads, grabbed Liucia by the waist, and fired a special grappling hook from his belt to let the airship tow them into the sky.
Hence, why Lucia was screaming.
"IYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
"Wh-what!? M-Miss! Miss! D-don't thrashing around like that! Th-this cable was built to resist two Starfighters pulling against each other at full velocity, but one wrong move could break its tension power! Uwoooooh! W-we're swinging to wide!"
Thro-Nez struggled to hold onto Lucia was kicking and screaming in his one arm, while he held onto the grappling hook device in his other arm that was tied around the rudder joint of the airship. Both of them were hanging 100 000 feet above the ground.
"S-stop! If you keep shaking me off like the wire—" Thro-Nez stopped himself when he heard something. He turned to look up, and saw the thin wire from his grappling hook device started to untwine and break. In a few minutes, they would be free falling. So, Thro-Nez used his ingenuity to think of a plan, "Hang on!"
He swung themselves back and forth like a child on a swing, only to use their entire bodies as a wrecking ball to smash through a thick rectangular screen in the back of the ship.
"GUBYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Lucia felt her body shake up hard from the impact, even though Thro-Nez used both his body and his 'mystical powers' to shield them both. They made it inside of the ship, tumbling and groaning from their sudden fall, in time for Thro-Nez's wire to snap like the nerve of a human being.
"…. *Cough* *Cough*… Are you alright, miss?"
"… P…please let go…"
"Heh?... Ah."
Thro-Nez woke up to found himself lying across the metal floor covered in broken shards of glass. In his one arm laid Lucia, all curled up and her face burning red all over. That arm was wrapped around her chest.
"…..SORRY!"
The Jedi Knight sprung to the farthest corner in the room even faster than a certain eye-ball-shaped fighter.
"I-I didn't mean to….M-My lady, look!"
"… No. I don't want an eye-for-an-eye treatment!"
"N-no. I meant the children behind you! Look over there!"
"….Children?"
Lucia bolted siting up, as if she had woken up from an nightmare, and she whipped her head around with let her blonde ponytail swinging wildly.
There were children, hundreds of children, locked up in a tiny cell room with bars made out of hot light. There were also seniors, people who look too frail to be out of their houses that were also locked behind similar bars of hot light.
Lucia and Thro-Nez finally examined the area around them, the color draining from their faces with every corner checked.
People. People. People.
Man. Woman. Peasant. Nobles. Soldiers. Criminals. There were hundreds of them all held up in this massive chamber that could house over 100 000 individuals. They were all caged behind bars of light that would spark and burn the skin once touched.
"Wh…what's going on?"
"Is this some kind of slaver ship? Are the Trandoshians involved!?"
"… Mommy?"
Lucia shook upon the call of a voice and she looked down in front of her. She saw a child, no older than three, looking up at her with blonde pigtails.
"Mommy. I need to go to the bathroom."
"I-I'm not your mother!"
"…You always say that when you pretend to look super young, mommy. It's okay to be old."
Thro-Nez bolted over to restraint Lucia from kicking the child like a football.
"… You're not daddy. Don't touch her."
"SACRE BLEU! I – AM – NOT – YOUR—"
"I'm scared. The people said they're going have someone eat us."
"….Heh?"
Lucia's fury was doused out like a campfire to a bucket of water. Thro-Nez let out a sigh so hard, he ended up collapsing to his hands and knees from the trauma he withstood in holding back the French girl's anger.
Lucia etched closer to the child with blonde pigtails, looking at her in the eye.
"Who's going to eat you?"
"I don't know. The people in grey shirts said something about a real Boogyman. They said we're bad children and we're going to be cooked into a pie."
"….."
"… I don't want to be turned into a pie."
"….."
"…. I don't want to be a bad girl anymore… I promise I will listen to you, Mommy. Even if you pretend to be young, I'll say 'hello pretty big sister, where's my mommy'… if you like that, would that make me a good girl?"
"… Yes. That is why I am going to get you out."
"… Mommy?"
*SLASH!*
A brilliant cloud of sparks exploded in front of the child's face. It didn't hit her, rather, it erupted with a loud flash all over. Like fireworks flaring up the night.
*SLASH!* *SLASH!* *SLASH!*
More and more sparks danced into the air, warping the bars made of hot light over and over. No matter how hard a certain Epee struck it, the bar would only shimmer and twist but never break.
In the end, Lucia's Rapier kept melting and melting and melting with every strike.
"IT'S – BECAUSE – YOU – ARE – A – GOOD – GIRL – THAT I – WILL – GET – YOU – OUUUUUUUUUUUUT!"
The French girl let out a roar even greater than a lion and continued to pummel at the gates made of strange energy and heat. Sweat drenched her entire body and clouded her vision, but she still pushed on. Even if her sword was nothing but a handle, a handle that was now melting like an ice cream cone on a summer day… she still swung out at it.
Until she lost her only weapon and resorted to her fist.
"MY LADY!"
Thro-Nez had no choice but to tackle the girl over to keep her from losing her hands.
"…. I understand your pain… I feel your uncontrollable anger… I have no right to stop you… but please heed my words!"
Thro-Nez was crouched on top of Lucia's fallen body, his hands holding down her arms to keep them from touching the hot bars any more. Their eyes connect in that silent moment, and Thro-Nez spoke his true feelings.
"The Dark Side is a terrifying thing."
"…."
"It will consume you, it will destroy you, it will erase everything you hold dear."
"….."
"The second you step onto that bitter road…. It's impossible to turn back…."
"…."
"….. I know this too well, beyond my own good. So please… don't make that mistake."
"… Imbecile."
"… I beg your pardon?"
Lucia did not scowl. She did not frown, neither did she punch Thro-Nez in the face.
She… smiled.
"… I'm not an idiot… you are…. Thank you."
"…..Wh-why are you smiling?"
"So I can subliminally ask you to get off me before I deny your right to bear the future generation entirely."
…Using about 10 seconds to understand the words with a heavy meaning, Thro-Nez threw himself to the farthest corner possible even faster than a certain eye-ball shaped fighter.
"A-as you wish, my lady."
The girl with the blonde pigtails behind the heat bars looked at a dangerously smiling Lucia, and then at the cowering Thro-Nez. She then spoke up.
"Mommy. If you're going to cheat on daddy again, can't you find someone who is braver?"
[++++++]
"…A-chan… is it safe?"
"No. Please don't hold onto my arm too tightly. It'll fall out from the socket if it exepeirnece too much tension."
Ashlotte and Kami ventured deepered into the airship. The poor little oni girl still couldn't shake of her fear of heights so she did her best to brace her tiny body against Ashlotte's legs and arms as best as she could. Even then, she couldn't stop shivering.
"I want to go home, to Japan, and have udon. I want to remind myself I'm still alive – desu."
"… But Little Kami, you are alive. Otherwise, your body would have ceased to function some point in time and you would not have ben able to breath nor move. Are you sure you do not have an eror in your thought patterns?"
"… Are you calling me stupid – desu?"
"Does the term match the definition?"
Kami forgot about her fear of heights as she started to rail her tiny fists into Ashlotte's hip. The sound of flesh hitting metal bounced across the entire hallway, followed by a long squeal of pain.
"Why are you so difficult to hurt, desuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!?"
"My creators have designed me to resist the force of 1000 oxes in a stampede. This was to simulate the power of Astaroth and his overall combat power. If I had failed that test after my creation, I would not be functioning to this point in time."
"…"
The little oni girl bit her lower lip, to punish herself for thinking about crying.
"Come one, A-chan. Let's go see where this brick is taking us… I wonder if there's food… I'm so hungryyyy… desu…"
"Like I mentioned, this ship's nameis Calliope… And she is saying the cafeteria Is down this hall on the left. You require a food voucher to obtain a meal, but she will allow us to eat for free as we are the only people she could talk to."
"….. What's a food voucher?"
"I apologize, I do not know the definition of that term. I am still processing the concept of cafeteria right this moment. Please stand by."
[++++++]
"I don't like this situation one bit."
Seele Rubliac said those words as he exited out a sliding steel door, dripping with dirty water and questionable bits. After a certain battle with a garbage monster, he let out a groan and wiped the slime from his face. He took a moment to turn his crystal sword, Azure, back to its needle form and stuffed it up his sleeve again.
"I want a shower, really badly… but guessing I'm the main protagonist, I'm pressed for time to reach the plot."
The boy looked left and right, trying to find a way to wherever he needed to be within the airship. Fortunately, there was a long board listing all the locations and areas of the ship like a crossroad sign.
"…Mess hall, recreation room, teleportation room, virtual reality room…. What is this Star Tre—"
The overhead pipes pumped with loud gas at the moment, in time to block out dangerous words of copyright.
"… Meh. No matter. Just locate the boss, beat the cr*p out of him, and never ending story home… As simple as—GUWAAAAAH!"
Seele Rubilac suddenly dropped to his knees. He fell over to grab the floor, as if he felt the world rise up into the sky and he had nothing to brace onto. Sweat dripped from his face and arms and his muscles spasmed uncontrollably.
Eyes widened, mouth moving without a coherent sound.
Fear… filled his very blood vessels.
"Th-this feeling… it couldn't be."
Evil. It was faint, it was almost barely existing… but without a doubt, Seele Rubliac felt a sensation of hidden evil on this airship.
"…..That guy… he's involved in this…"
A fist smashed into the metal wall of the airship's interior. The metal wall. This is repeated because that one fact is very important.
The entire wall blew open, tearing open like a soda can trapped in an oven set at 350 degrees Celsius. In other words, a new port window was born in the ship.
"… I'll kill him."
Seele Rubilac said those words with a steady voice… but it was vibrating with a boiling anger under the surface. Like the growing rage of a sea storm.
And his eyes were glowing neon blue.
"It's time we finished our long forgotten business... Soul Edge."
