A/N Alright everyone here's the next chapter, and I havnt recieved not a single PM about asking to be apart of my private Discord to see the character images! Dont be shy!
Leave a favorite and Review.
Chapter 11 - The Megalith
After recovering from their quick flight from the port city, Night Raid regathered themselves and began to trick through the uncharted territory of Judecca, Esdia their guide across the terrain.
"This place reminds me of the New Republic...flowing grasslands, it's relatively flat…" murmured Leone as they walked over a tiny little hump.
"This actually constitutes a small part of Judecca, most of it consists of rocky plateaus and deserts, as well as tundras to the north. It's a harsh environment, which is why most of the population is situated near the coast." replied Esdia.
"Where are we going anyways Esdia?"
Esdia pointed out into the distance, stopping for a moment in her walking, to direct their attention to a tall structure in the distance that stretched high into the sky above a mountain range.
"There….the Megalith."
The Megalith, Judecca's most ancient and infamous of its structures, dating back to a time even before Zion all the way to the nation's birth. Built during Judecca's earliest days, the Megalith was first a symbol of might for its impressive size and scale, acting as the home of Judecca's ancestral population.
When Zion was constructed in the fertile land near the coastline, the massive tower was left empty as its denizens moved to the newer city, and it wasn't touched again until much, much later in its lifespan.
The Megalith was once again used by the people of Judecca as not another place of living, but rather a place of isolation and discipline...the large tower had become Judecca's prison. A small fraction of the massive tower's intestines were used as a prison where the nation's criminals were sent to serve out their sentences under the watchful eye of an appointed Warden.
As a result of this change...the Megalith's once noble and mythical name soon turned to an infamous and ominous one when horror stories of how its new denizens were treated by the Warden and his employed prison guards. Meager meals, limited time spent out of their cells, discrimination, they piled on an on until Karna Masta took the throne and changed the head of the prison.
"The new Warden my grandfather put in charge of the Megalith was my Uncle...Lazarus." said Esdia to finish her story telling behind the structure.
"Well damn…" murmured Wave, his gaze locked on the tower in the distance.
"Let's get a move on then….let's get there before nightfall." ordered Najenda as they group continued to move again.
- Far Eastern Judeccan Territory -
"It would seem there's no much out here left to conquer…I have a feeling we'll be going back home soon." said Grimmjaw as he popped his neck and sheathed his rapier.
"You think so Grimmjaw? I mean, its not like we destroyed the entire town and have nothing else left to do." asked a physically fit, lean, Caucasian man standing next to him in a sarcastic manner.
With his various tattoos on his arms, a brown and black vest on his upper body, and a long gown-like garment featuring various belts and straps, the final piece a top hat resting on top of his dull grey hair, he looked straight out of a Steampunk-themed movie.
"It's a possibility, Giovanni." replied Grimmjaw with a chuckle.
The man named Giovanni grinned, one of his hands coming up out of habit to rub that vicious burn scar on the left side of his face and the half Glasgow smile he sported.
"Well, stay here or go back, I expect money either way."
"Your material desires disgust me…" muttered a third man wearing a black cloak with long sleeves, a large collar, and a single red cloud on the lower chest area.
His face was covered by a face mask and he wore a unique head-protector with flaps that covered his ears and left his spiky dark teal hair open to the elements. There was no feeling of emotion in his pasty white eyes, and his sleeves flapped a little in the breeze as if there were nothing in them at all.
"Well no shit, I'm the sin that embodies Greed, so of course I like money." rebuked Giovanni. "What about you, Mister Gluttony?"
The shorter man gave him a stone-cold death glare. "I hunger for death. Nothing more, nothing less. Killing satisfies my hunger."
"Well, I'm certain that there's plenty of willing volunteers that would be glad to help satisfy your hunger~"
The three men turned as their fourth travel companion scaled the small hill they were standing on to be with them, her back facing the smoking ruins of the town they had just destroyed. The soft breeze caused her long blue hair to flow and wave around slightly, and her confident grin brought a smile to Giovanni's face.
"Everything taken care of down there, Ice Queen?" asked Grimmjaw with a chuckle.
"Of course, just like she asked...no survivors."
All of a sudden a massive column of ice smashed down into the town from above, shaking the earth and obliterating what remained with its sheer size and the shockwave it produced from impact.
"Well damn...you certainly live up to that old title, Esdeath." jeered Giovanni with a grin.
"You mean "Empire's Strongest General"? That's all in the past...here I have the chance to make a new name for myself and crush new opponents beneath my heel." replied Esdeath with a malicious grin, some of her toxic bloodlust leaking out.
Grimmjaw chuckled as Giovanni shivered from the tiny fraction of the former Empire General's powerful bloodlust, the third male hardly even moving and remaining emotionless. Esdeath noticed this and playfully bumped her elbow into his arm, her grin turning into a carefree smile.
"You know you can breath right, Xerxes~? Lighten up a little."
"I'll refrain…"
"So, Grimmjaw...what do we do now?" inquired Giovanni.
Before he could answer a familiar sound came within earshot and he turned his head, spotting a fully mechanized falcon soaring toward them through the air at high speeds.
"Ah, a message."
He extended an arm out and the mechanical falcon dropped a wrapped scroll into his open hand, then soared away without stopping or slowing down for that matter. Grimmjaw then proceeded to unwrap it and start to read its contents, the other three watching him closely for any facial reactions that could give them a hint.
"What does it say?" asked Esdeath when Grimmjaw finished reading and crumpled up the paper.
"We're being summoned back by the Empress. There seems to be some visitors from across the ocean she's not to keen about keeping alive."
Esdeath's eyes widened a fraction of an inch when he mentioned visitors from across the ocean, which mean to her they would have come from the old Empire...her old home. She held a hand over her heart when it skipped a beat and thought to herself what this meant, her mind having trouble deciding if she should be excited or not.
"Oh? What do you mean by visitors?" questioned Giovanni.
"It doesn't say." Grimmjaw crossed his arms over his chest. "But we can assume their threats strong enough to have caught her attention."
"He...he might have come here...Tatsumi…" thought Esdeath, Grimmjaw's voice like a distant echo.
"Esdeath…..Esdeath!"
"Huh, what?"
She looked at Grimmjaw after being shaken free from her thoughts by his voice, Giovanni and Xerxes staring at her with expectant looks.
"Did you hear me? I asked if you had any idea who these guys could be."
Esdeath blinked and expertly hid her feelings and thoughts behind a porcelain mask and grinned a little while shrugging.
"I might have a few ideas, but we can talk as we travel. Let's get going."
- The Wastelands, Judecca Center Territory -
- Sunset -
"There it is….the Megalith."
Esdia pointed from the top of the hill when everyone crested it to the large tower stretching upwards into the sky before them, the setting sun coming down behind it.
"Holy shit…." murmured Wave at the sheer size of the tower. "And this place used to be a...city…?
"Mhm...now it's a prison, like I said….only the very bottom i used through….ninety percent of the tower is still empty." explained Esdia as they walked down the gentle slope of the rocky mound toward the front gates of the Megalith, which were surrounded by large rocks and boulders.
"Just let me talk to the guards…"
"Understood."
Najenda hung back with Tatsumi, Mine and the others while she walked up to the gate, pulling back her hood to uncover her slightly messy silvery white hair.
"Who are you?" asked one of the prison guards as they tightened their grip on their rifles.
"Is...my uncle here?" asked Esdia with a shy expression, the guard on the left hesitating slightly before he gasped.
"Miss Esdia!"
The other guard gasped and they instantly shouldered their rifles, the two men running to Esdia and kneeling next to her out of concern.
"Where have you been all of this time?!"
"Away….listen, I need to see my uncle, me and my friends."
She motioned to Najenda and the others and the guards looked at them for a few moments before one gave the signal with his hand for them to approach. Najenda walked ahead of them with Tatsumi, Mine and Firenze right behind her, and Kurome, Wave and Leone at the rear.
"These are your friends, Lady Esdia?"
"Mhm...this is Najenda, Tatsumi, Mine, Firenze, Leone, Wave, and Kurome."
They all introduced themselves with a smile or a handshake, or both, and the guards stood back up with Esdia between them and bowed.
"Welcome to the Megalith, we'll take you to Lazarus."
One guard then turned and approached the heavy iron gates, the obstacle rising upward after a few moments to grant them entry into the Megalith. Tatsumi held Mine's hand as they followed Najenda inside past the gates, the massive entry chamber bigger then anything they had seen before. Columns dotted the walls and ancient tapestries hung from those walls, easily being oldest things aside from the tower itself they could see.
"Wow….you can practically feel the history of this place….." murmured Kurome as she gazed up at the high ceiling.
"Yeah, but this is only the ground floor...a few of us have managed to explore more of this tower and it's incredible." remarked one of the guards next to Esdia. "Judecca's ancestors left behind so much evidence of their stay here, it's almost as if they had never left."
"Maybe we could check it out once we meet this uncle of yours, Esdia…" said Wave.
They crossed the threshold of the entrance hall on the first floor and reached a guarded entryway, several prison guards wearing armor and wielding rifles standing motionless. However once they recognized Esdia walking with their compatriots they relaxed their stances almost instantly and greeted her with smiles on their faces, the former Princess responding in kind.
"Could a call be made to my Uncle?" she asked politely to the gate checkpoint operator, the man nodding.
"Of course, Mistress."
He pulled up a microphone for the integrated PA system and sent an announcement through the occupied levels of the prison for the Warden. When the announcement ended Esdia remained standing where she was while the others engaged in their own little small talk to pass the time.
"So...I wonder if this place is as old as the Empire…" said Mine to Tatsumi and Firenze within their little group.
"It probably is...say, Firenze?" She looked at Tatsumi when he addressed her. "Do you remember ever seeing this place before?"
"Hmm….I don't think so, not in the time I was here….but I can feel the history this structure contains within its walls...it's very humbling, really." replied Firenze with a small smile.
"Humbling?"
"Look around you...this tower is older then old itself...a testament to those who built it since it's lasted this long."
Tatsumi and Mine could only stare at her in shock, the usually fiery Danger Beast acting like a scholar, almost a philosopher. She saw their expressions and grinned at them while winking, putting her hands on her hips.
"What, didn't think I could talk in a way like that~?"
They nod their heads simultaneously and the three of them all laughed together, the sound echoing off the walls of the entrance chamber. A few minutes later the doors being watched over by the guards opened and a tall gentleman wearing a uniquely stylized dark purple suits and dress pants with gold and grey elements emblazoned in the fabric walked in. Purple gloves covered his hands, the left gently holding on to a maroon book, but the most startling feature of the man was what covered his head.
Ragged, labored breathes echoed out from the unique helmet he wore around his head, his green eyes staring out from the eyeholes built into it, and it seemed that after coming to a stop that the hunched over slightly and had to recover from some unknown ailment.
"Uncle Lazarus…?" asked Esdia shyly as she timidly approached the man.
"...Esdia….you..."
He spoke with a pained voice, like one of a smoker, before he kneeled and hugged her tightly like a mother would its child after being seperated for too long. Najenda refrained from asking anything until the two had their moment of reunion, Lazarus finally letting go of Esdia and looking at her in the eyes.
"Esdia, I'm so sorry I couldn't come to you...I can't go anywhere outside the prison without being monitored…"
He coughed a few times before Esdia'ss expression softened heavily and she gingerly ran her fingers along the jawline of the helmet around her uncle's head, the cold metal hiding a sinister secret beneath it.
"Uncle….what's this around your head…?"
"It's...a punishment. After you escaped...my face was heavily burned and scared, leaving me disfigured to the point I'm unrecognizable, and this helmet feeds on my stamina constantly to produce an incident, hellish burning sensation that can never go away."
"That's awful…" murmured Mine under her breath while Esdia teared up at her Uncle's misfortune.
"Lazarus….I'm so sorry…."
She gently placed a kiss on the forehead of the helmet and Lazurus smiled and rubbed the top of her head, standing up soon after and coughing again.
"You're a sweet girl Esdia….I'm glad I could help you live but, why come back…?"
"She brought us here, sir."
Tatsumi approached the Warden and stopped a respectable distance away, holding his hands behind his back as he made eye contact. "My name's Tatsumi, and we're from the New Republic across the ocean, my friends and I."
"Ah...so you're from there...I already know why you're here. Before we continue, follow me to my office...there we can talk."
He motioned for them to follow and with aa glance back Mine and FIrenze rejoined his side as the three with Najenda, Leone, Wave and Kurome followed them and Esdia as Lazarus took them through the doors he had walked through. They ascended the stairs hidden behind them and came to another door, which he opened and led them out into the first of the massive chambers that comprised the Megalith.
Adorning the walls of the first floor of the tower on all sides were homes akin to the dwellings of some mountainside natives, each living space and building built one on top of the other like bricks. Winding stairs and ladders made of stone connected each tier of buildings to one another, and the middle was just as congested as a city built inside of a tower should be, however there were still buildings that had been flattened out.
All that remained were their foundations, and in their place a multitude of cages and been erected to house the criminals of the nation, with armed guards watching over them from several raised towers that looked out over the collection of cages.
What came as an even greater shock to Tatsumi and the newcomers was that as they walked by these cages with Lazarus, they were met with smiles and waves from some, their attitudes more along the lines of actual, normal people.
"Lazarus…? What's going on here? I thought this was a prison...these people look happy to be here…" questioned Najenda under breath after walking up next to the Warden.
"I'll tell you everything once we get behind closed doors…" he murmured back as he took a turn down what used to be a street.
They reached a guarded house that was converted into the Prison's nerve center and they walked inside, the Warden taking them to his office. Once everyone had walked in Kurome closed the door and Lazarus sighed heavily as he stood before his desk and rubbed the back of his neck, the pain eating away at his face hellish and unbearable.
"Now that we're here...I'm sure you've heard tidbits of what's happened here from Esdia…?"
"Yes...she told us that the Consul led a coup against her family and killed them." replied Tatsumi as he crossed his arms, Lazarus nodding his head.
"Yes...and the Consul's name is Maxwell. She's a brilliant mind, so much so that she gave those under her sphere of influence special weapons that enabled them to secure great positions of strength within the new Judecca."
Lazarus walked around his desk and sat down in his chair, coughing roughly, before he raised a handkerchief to the teeth of the mask when blood began to seep out through the tiny gaps between them.
"Excuse me…" he wheezed when another coughing fit overtook him, Mine uncomfortably shifting her feet as more blood splattered onto the fabric of the handkerchief.
He lowered it once he had finally calmed down and sighed heavily, Esdia walking around to his side of the desk to gently hug him out of pity for him.
"Yes...Esdia's grandfather, Karna Masta, and the rest of her family were crucified by Maxwell before the population of Judecca in Zion. I saw it myself...and to make things worse, her speech as their bodies were hung from crosses like trophies produced a thundering applause because she promised change and a powerful new nation."
Najenda tightened her fist and Tatsumi's scowl deepened, Wave and Kurome producing similar reactions to the statement. They wanted to say that sounded just as bad as the late Prime Minister Honest, but there before any statement was made Leone stepped forward with another question.
"What's the reason for all these people here then? To be perfectly honest none of them look like real thugs or villains deserving of a cell."
"That's one of the most vile secrets of this place…most of those people...they don't belong in here at all." revealed Lazarus, the air in the room getting tense. "Over ninety percent of the occupants of this prison not including the guards are just normal people."
"Why…? Were they-"
"Yes." Lazarus calmly stopped Tatsumi's question and with a solemn nod. "They were wrongfully imprisoned here by Maxwell to ensure her rule was unchallenged."
Tatsumi had to turn away and gather himself from the anger bubbling up inside of him, Mine lowering her head so that her bangs could hide her horrifying scowl. Hearing of such an injustice was like a gut punch to them, since they had all experienced such travesties during the age of the old Empire.
"Now that's just like Honest….fucking hell…." snarled Leone as she clenched her fists.
"I take care of them to the best of my abilities, and so do my guards. Unlike the rest of this damned nation...my Prison Guards here we're hand-picked and entirely loyal to me."
"Well...that's good at least." murmured Najenda with a sigh. "Could you tell us all that you know about what's happened here?"
Lazarus nod his head and cleared his throat again before he told them all the full story of the coup, the public execution of Esdia's family, and his punishment for helping the young Princess escape from her home.
After talking for so long with gruesome detail he has to excuse himself again when another coughing fit overtook him, his blood seeping through the gaps of his helmet before it was wiped away. Esdia watched uncomfortably as her uncle struggled with the pain of the helmet and his damaged lungs, but once he was done he fixed his gaze on her and gently touched her hand.
"It's okay Esdia, my dear...this is nothing compared to what I would do for you." he assured her with a few gentle pats of his hand on hers.
Kurome smiles a tiny bit, their relationship reminding her of the one she shared with her older sister.
"That's so nice…"
All of a sudden a cold-Metal surface touched her arm and all of the instinctual warning sirens she developed as an assassin went off, and with a whirl, eyes wide open, she prepared to fend off the unseen opponent behind her.
What she saw was a young girl shorter then Kurome, being around 4'10", with bright red hair, orange and red eyes, and a dark purple hooded leotard with armored boots and vambraces. She calmed looked up at Kurome with an almost emotionless stare, her hand slowly dropping from her arm.
"...Excuse me."
"W-What….What the….I didn't sense her at all…." thought Kurome as she hesitated alight, but moved aside for the young girl to walk up to Lazarus.
"When did she get in here…?" thought Najenda after watching Kurome's reaction to the young girl, a quick glance to the door telling her that she must have somehow slipped in without being detected at all.
"Oh, hello Yūki. How was your walk?" asked Lazarus warmly as he hoisted her up into his lap and rubbed the top of her head after she pulled her hood down.
"It was fine Papa…"
"Papa?" asked Firenze.
"It's my Uncle's daughter, Yūki." said Esdia with a smile, the young girl merely nodding her head.
"Yes...she's my only daughter, and with Esdia they're my most precious treasures in the world…" He gently ran a hand through Yūki's hair before he began to cough again.
"She's certainly a unique one." remarked Najenda with a smile, the young girl eyeing her for a moment then hopping off Lazarus' lap to approach her.
"You knew the Red Eye Killer, right?" she asked innocently with a blank expression, Najenda's eyes widening slightly while Kurome stiffened Up.
"Red Eye Killer…?"
"Mhm...she looks like her." she pointed to Kurome without even looking at her.
"Yes...I do know her. Why do you ask?" questioned Najenda, the young girl looking up at her for a few moments before a large cleaver sword seemingly appeared in her hand, the razor-sharp edge mere inches away from the wide of Najenda's cheek.
"I want to fight her. To prove that I'm stronger then her." she said with dead serious tone, Lazarus sighing a little bit.
"Where did that-"
"That sword was resting in the corner of the room...and there's something I haven't told you yet about Yūki." stated Lazarus, the veteran assassins glancing at him. "Yūki here...she, like a few others here in this prison, used to be human test subjects for the former Consul turned Holy Empress."
Kurome had to bite her tongue in order to keep quiet when she was reminded of the same tragic childhood she shared with her sister. Wave sensed her discontent and gently slipped a hand into hers to comfort her, Kurome blushing ever-so-slightly and smiling a little.
"Human test subject…? For what purpose?" asked Mine.
"To test the capabilities of weapons created by Maxwell herself. Called "Arma"...they're built on the same principles as your country's Teigu are." explained Lazarus, Najenda's eyes widening considerably in shock.
"Just like the Teigu? Weapons?"
"You have got to be shitting me, there's no way that another country could mimic Teigu and their construction. They were made over a thousand years ago by the First Emperor!" exclaimed Leone in disbelief.
"Maxwell possesses an ingenious and sinister mind...she's had a multitude of spies sent to the Empire from the Inquisitorial to bring over information from your country." he pointed to the helmet he was wearing. "My helmet is an Arma named Tartarus, and Yūki has one of the experimental models...her eyes."
Najenda glanced back down again at Yūki's unblinking eyes and she got an uneasy feeling from their unique appearance, the edge of her large sword moving away from her cheek as she withdrew it.
"They're called God's Eyes, and they allow her to see in vectors. Basically, she can walk where people aren't looking, in their blind spots, and appear invisible to everyone around her. Her small stature only adds to this remarkable ability...she could walk through a packed crowd without even being noticed."
"So that's why she was able to sneak in here without being seen...but...shouldn't I have been able to sense her presence?" thought Kurome as Lazarus cleared his throat.
"The reason why she was given this Arma was so that she could become Maxwell's invisible hand...an assassin like you were in your country."
He held out an arm and after Yūki had put the sword back in its proper place she went to his side and he brought her up into his lap again, the girl still staring at Najenda.
"How...was she trained…?" asked Kurome in a small voice, the Warden glancing at her.
"That I do not know, I apologize. Once she was trained however, Maxwell lost interest in her and would have discarded her, but I saved her and adopted her. I've been trying to restore some parts of her former personality, but...it's a arduous task."
No other questions were asked for several long minutes, the two parties looking at one another before Lazarus cleared his throat with a painful cough and set Yūki down on her feet next to him.
"That's enough of that...you can explore the tower if you'd like. When night falls come back here and I'll have Yūki show you to one of the vacant homes not being used so you can rest there."
Najenda nod her head and with a quick glance to the others they left his office to carry out their own business.