My Calling: Second Cycle
Author: Cornell Valentine Gainsborough
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
MAKAI! Seperates Paragraphs
Chapter 13: (Not so) Special Delivery
"Yeah, we saw that kid."
"Really?"
"Just a few days ago, actually. As he was walking out of the store, we decided to follow him, and right as we cornered him, his wings gave off this big flash of light, and by the time we can see again, he's long gone!"
Having made it to the town of Midnight, one of Sirea's vassals, a Strider known as William, was interviewing the three residents who had momentarily made contact with Nelius as of one or two weeks ago.
"Did you happen to see which direction he went?" William questioned.
"Last I saw, he was headed out that way, toward the old port." The Succubus, who had made the previous statement, pointed out. "It looked like he was getting ready for a trip past the place." He nodded, jotting down this vital piece of information, before thanking the three and heading toward the city's edge. He reached into his pocket and extracted a cellular phone, hitting a particular number on speed dial. It took a moment before it patched through.
"William reporting in. Target was last seen heading in the direction of the Dimension Port. I'm en route to gather more information." He ended the call and pocketed his phone before heading toward the Port. 'Still, I can't understand as to why Sirea's dead set on chasing after that boy. I've never noticed anything particular about him...' He looked ahead, seeing something on the ground... 'Blood? Whose is it?'
Elsewhere, you could hear an explosion. Actually, it was the fifth one that day. To wit, it came from the upper floors of the Overlord's castle.
"Mark those five down for termination. They won't be causing any more trouble."
Nelius' Room
Lying in bed, Nelius could do little but stare at the ceiling, though more accurately he was glaring at the ceiling.
'Eighteen hours.... aren't they ever going to stop?' With the addition of Esara onto the team, things had been more lively aboard the ship; of course, this wasn't always a good thing. Ever since her addition, there was always some sort of reason for her to round up a few hundred ship members and throw some kind of party, whenever she wasn't hanging around Radara.
Nelius was trying to get some rest before their next stop, but with the fact that she'd unknowingly chose a room right next to his this time around, he was going to have to suffer through it all. Just as his patience bottomed out and he was ready to go raise some hell of his own, a cry of surprise came from the room.
"Hey, the power ran out!" One of the Nekomata in the room complained. "Did we blow a fuse?"
"Close, but no catnip for you." Even though there was a slightly sound-resistant wall between the rooms, Nelius could hear a good chunk of the whole exchange. Brad was talking to them through the communication system he had personally installed. "I can understand you all wanting a good party; I've been to some myself. Unfortunately, you've chosen a rather inappropriate spot to host it, so I've taken the liberty of cutting off the power to that room."
"What the--"
"Do not forget, you're all aboard this ship for a good reason. As it is, we're soon to hit our next stop, so it's time to shut this down." Relieved to hear this, Nelius finally conked out.
Next day
"Uahh, man was I tired." When he finally woke up, it was to roaring laughter that was echoing throughout the ship. "Now what's going on?" When he got to the bridge about seven minutes later, he saw what had to have been the funniest sight so far.
"Uh, someone wanna explain to me what happened to Major Catnap?" Brad's entire face, fur and all, was a bright burning red, the look on his face appropriately matching.
"You remember that black-furred Nekomata?"
"Yeah, what about her?"
"She got loose." The Tailring who explained this to him pointed over to the furthest corner of the bridge, where the Nekomata in question was chained up, a beaming grin upon her face. "And got to him rather quick. She decided to go with Cherry-apple Red for this occasion."
Brad had tried washing the lipstick off, but it hadn't been successful; instead his efforts ended up smearing the stuff all around his face. The jaguar Overlord now looked like either a big, furry tomato or someone who saw something he shouldn't have. Most of the Felynn were having a good laugh as their leader was shooting them all a death glare.
"Not one word out of you." Brad warned as he saw Nelius. As Brad went over to grab the Nekomata in question, Nelius felt something being pressed into his hands.
"What's all this?" He was now in the possession of a shipping package.
"Pictures, video, all supplementary material. We made so much, we had to share it with everyone. Shame you weren't there to see it first-hand, though."
"Hang on a second... did you let her out?"
"Served him right for shutting us down." Before he could tell her off, Brad had apparently chosen him to accompany him on this task, nearly dragging him along. From their landing area in the middle of a field, the three of them began walking for several minutes before a castle, situated right above the middle of a volcano, came into view.
"So, what occasion calls for the near drag-off today?" Nelius questioned.
"A delivery. I told you about this one." He motioned toward the Nekomata.
"Say, why did we land so far away from the place?"
"Unfortunately, I don't quite get along with one of the inhabitants here. Hence, we go in, drop her off, then leave."
"Wouldn't it have been easier to land closer, then drop her off and leave? It'd cut down travel time."
"If I did so, we'd end up being..." He trailed off, seeing something or someone speeding toward them, kicking up a large dust cloud. "What's that?"
"From this distance, it's hard to give an accurate guess at what's coming at us." Nelius had gotten out of Brad's grip and was viewing the object that was moving toward them. "If I had a pair of binoculars or something, I could get a better view... oh, thanks." The Nekomata handed him a pair as she worked her way out of her bonds.
"Where did you get those?" Brad had to ask.
"My tail. How else do you think we hold all our stuff?" She honestly answered. "What, you thought it was an asspull?"
"I'm not going there."
"A shame."
"Yeah... anyway, let's see what we have here... I see...." Now balancing on top of Brad's head ("Mind getting off my skull?"), he brought the binoculars up to his eyes and focused them on the faroff target. What he saw caused a big smirk to creep across his face before his next statement. "I see... Black.... and pink... with quite the considerable pair of assets too. And no, I'm looking at our little friend."
"What are you going on about?" The ground began to shake violently. Whatever it was that was rapidly approaching them, it was either extremely heavy, or it made the decision to bring some friends along. "Uh, I know you told us what it is you see out there, but the question now is how many?"
"Gimme a second, there's too much dust in the way. Ok, OK, I see two.. scratch that, eight... wait a second, ah, twenty.... holy exaggeration, Badman, there's over twelve thousand of 'em, and I'm not just talking people!" He began to grin as he lowered the binoculars and jumped down from Brad's head. "Well, Brad, if you value what remains of your easily shattered and broken sanity, I suggest you run away, right now, and never look back."
"What makes you say that?" The figure leading the mob took an impressive flying leap, getting far ahead of the aformentioned mob and landing right in front of Brad. "Uh...now I see why..." The Jaguar began to sweat ever so much more profusely, and with good reason.
"Hello, Brad. Long time, no see." It was Etna.... yes, that Etna.
Over the past 450 years since the Overlord Zenon and Baal Thievery incidents, she had definitely grown up and out, no longer the skinny, flat-chested Demon Lord who departed for Veldime in hopes of taking the title of "Goddess of All Overlords" for herself in an effort to show up Laharl after their feud (which was over pudding, of all things). Without any kind of doubt, she was completely worthy of her self-made "Beauty Queen" title.
She was wearing an outfit that was a modified variation of her original wear. While it, in fact, showed two-hundred percent less skin than her original one did (shock and awe, huh?), this particular outfit, combined with the fact that she allowed her hair to flow freely down the back of her neck, would definitely cause heads to turn, and several jealous tempers to flare.
"Brad.." She seemed to put on a mock pout, complete with eyes and everything. "Do you know how long it's been since we last heard from you? You never call, you never write... I thought we had something special."
"Uh, er... ah, Et-Etna, I.. thought w-we already moved past that pr-problem... gulp..." He was sweating quite profusely now, his eyes widening as Etna stepped closer and closer. A few more beads of sweat and he'd grow a brand new flower patch right beneath his feet... Oh look, there it is now. Meanwhile, Nelius and the Nekomata were both laughing at the sight of Brad's reaction. Who'd ever think that the Felynn Leader was scared shitless of Etna?! Yet another incident to make sure he'd never live down.
"Oh, but before we take that final step, I'd like to introduce a few close friends of mine." Stepping aside, one of Brad's secret fears had come to life... there were hundreds, no wait, thousands of Etnas all giving him a particular look. Methinks there was a rogue Clone symbol running about somewhere. "Say hi, girls."
"Hi, Brad." All in unison, they greeted him with the most sickeningly cheery voice they could muster.
Faced with this, Brad did the only thing he could do... he screamed in a particularly high-pitched voice (which must've set a new Netherworld record for all Felynn, shattering the previous one twice over) and ran back to his ship, taking off in the blink of an eye.
Dimension Space, another ship
In another ship, in a distant corner of the Netherworld Space...
"Hm?" A Felynn with snowy white fur looked up from a book she'd been reading, entitled "Souls through the Ages". "Now that was odd."
"HellStar, what's up?" A young man seated at the ship's helm, who some people would say looked like a human form of Brad, turned his head to look at her.
"Maybe it's just me imagining things, but I'd have sworn I just heard someone scream in an unusually high pitch." She turned her attention back to her book. "Someone familiar..."
"There's only one person I know who'd scream that loud." He let out a sigh. "Sounds like he's in over his head once more. Better plot the interception course." Bringing up a display of this section of Netherworld Space, he entered in a set of coordinates, and turned toward the right direction. "I should make a drinking game out of this. Nobody'd last to round three."
Laharl's Netherworld
"Though that was about the best laugh I've had this week, there goes my ride." Nelius gazed at the rapidly departing ship. "And most of my stuff."
"Ah, don't worry about it. At least he'll still have it for you." The original Etna placed a hand on his shoulder. "Besides, I got what I came out here for." Lifting up her right hand, she revealed a wallet. "I knew there was reason I had that Awesome Hand on me. That guy owed me cash." She leafed through the wallet, taking her share, and then handed it off to Nelius.
"Well, since I'm stuck here for the moment... is Netherworld's Most Humiliating on?"
"Not until tomorrow... either way, I've got some old footage of the Prince that I have to send in. It's about that one incident involving Hanako and his..." Nelius looked at her, then began to grin. "I take it there's a particular reason you asked."
"Indeed there is. Sorry about interrupting that last bit, but it just so happens that one of his crewmembers managed to nab some obnoxiously rare pictures of Brad in his most vulnerable state right here. Don't tell him I sent you these beauties." Pulling out package in question, he handed it over to Etna before pointing to the Nekomata. "And, with her help, they even managed to catch some all too hilarious footage of Brad freaking out. Hope you got the good stuff squared away."
"Something tells me we're going to get along just fine." Motioning for him to follow, he followed along with the massive group of Etna clones, eventually arriving at the castle itself, which had undergone a rebuilding following a massive war Laharl'd staged in order to attract some healthy competition. Sure enough, he won, and even managed to acquire a few new vassals, but his competition's aim hadn't been perfect, and they ended up trashing his castle, which only spurred him on to utterly crush them.
Just from looking at the reconstructed areas, you could tell where his opponents had landed a hit, and with what as well. The front entrance had been smacked with a Mega Wind, while some of the castle's underside had been frozen solid (how that happened, we'll never know). Two of the taller spires had been the unfortunate recipients of some Star magic, and there were small craters dotting the way up to the castle; though wether those were from Laharl or his competition, you be the judge.
Laharl's Castle, Main Entrance Hall
The Etna clone group, having taken the tape and incriminating photos, were sitting in front on a television, laughing incredibly hard at the footage of the act the crew had staged in order to capture Brad freaking out. Having rarely seen the male Felynn in such a state, this was a gold mine to them, the Holy Grail (or Unholy Grail, depending on your point of view) of entertainment for them. They, alongside several of Brad's own crew, would make sure he could never live this incident down. At least, not once they posted the footage and the zillions of embarassing photos on the NWWW (NetherWorld Wide Web).
"And there I am!" At this point, the Nekomata, who had a hand in this, was practically being celebrated. After all, without her, most of this wouldn't have happened.
Nelius, on the other hand, was walking around the castle with the original Etna, mostly hearing about the miscellaneous things that happened ever since the Veldime conflict.
"Well, that's more or less how Rozalin ended up as Veldime's new Overlord. She's never had any problem bossing others around, so I think she fits the bill pretty well. And don't even start me on the crazy stuff happening around Evil Academy, especially since Raspberyl decided to--"
"Hate to interrupt again, but that reminds me.." Nelius interrupted, jerked his thumb back at the group of Etnas. "How did that happen?"
"It involves this weird gemstone Hanako found, Goleck's favorite warship, and Mao's interference. Extra details are going to cost you." Hearing a beep, she took a quick look at her watch. "Well, I gotta go get Sleeping Ugly off his lazy ass. Don't do anything I wouldn't do." She turned and headed for the throne room.
'I know there's those stories about all the crap she's done for the past four centuries, but I can't even begin to imagine why Brad is afraid of her. Must be that... what do they call it? Oh yeah, noodle incident.' He watched Etna's retreating form as she left. 'Either way, I've got some time to kill until Major Fuzzball realizes I'm still here, so, I best find something to pass the time.' He considered going over to watch whatever it was that was on the TV now, but something in his pocket gained his immediate attention. Reaching into said pocket, he extracted the white sphere that had been delivered to him back on Brad's Netherworld, it feeling like it'd been on the receiving end of a fire spell. As it hit the open air, a buzzing feeling began to radiate from the Shatter Gauntlet as a small section on the wrist opened up, revealing the black sphere, now solidified, that he'd been given on his first day leaving Sirea's.
"Why do I get the feeling I know what's gonna happen next?" Now within special proximity to each other, they began emitting a glow that overtook his sense of sight. "I knew it!!" When the glow died down, the Gauntlet, devoid of its wearer, clattered to the ground.
One warp later, and...
"Aaaagggghhhhh.. Ouch!" Another three point landing for Nelius. "Eh, where the hell am I now?" As he got up, he saw a scarecrow sign nearby. Getting closer, he saw that it read 'Depths of the Shatter Gauntlet'. "There's a camera around here, isn't there?" He took a look at his surroundings.
Anyone who saw this coming, please raise your hands. Don't care if you might look funny, get those hands up there.... that's better.
He was standing in the middle of that strange arena he'd seen in that weird vision he had yesterday before Esara had been recruited. In each corner of the room stood a pillar of light, each one a different color: red, green, blue, and yellow.
'No amount of smartass comments can even describe this. Eh, better just pick one and be done with this.' He headed over to the green pillar. Stepping into the green glow, he then found himself standing in what appeared to have been a library or book emporium. I'm pretty sure there's someone out there who's dreaming about a place like this, right now.
"Ah, good to see you took our message to heart, young Nelius." The person who had addressed Nelius was sitting at a desk. Clothed in red and green magician's robes, he stood and turned around to face the young demon, hefting up a thick, leather bound book. Just from looking at him, you could tell he was an old fogie. "I was beginning to wonder if you'd ever find your way here."
"Who might you be, gramps?"
"That's Rudra of the Wind to you, Nelius. You'd best watch your words."
"And why is that?"
"I doubt you know this, but I'm the third in a team of four your father decided to create on a whim." That got Nelius' attention rather quickly. "I'll admit, sometimes I thought he was short in the mind, but after seeing his plans work so efficiently, I ate my own words."
"You actually know my old man? I can hardly remember anything about him."
"I do, and so does everyone else residing inside this piece of weaponry, but now's not the time to sit around a campfire and share stories. Your father somehow forsaw this whole ordeal, hell if I'll ever know how he did, and he had each of us place a piece of ourselves into this weapon. Now, we will see if we have a worthy inheritor to his will." Opening the book, the pages fluttered wildly as wind mana began collecting onto it.
"Conditions are about to get windy!"
Outside the Gauntlet
"Hm? What's this?" A ghost clothed in a green jacket, finding the fallen Shatter Gauntlet on the ground, picked it up. "Very odd thing to leave lying around. Did Lord Laharl lose this?" A shadow fell over him. "Ah, speak of the devil himself." Speaking of which...
Laharl, much like his cohort Etna, had shot up over the past 450 years. The once napoleonic Overlord now towered over most of his vassals, regaining the height stolen by Baal centuries ago, and the much awaited growth of his wings added to his already behemoth figure. He also had switched out his shorts for a longer pair of grey pants, and followed up on that with a new pair of jet black shoes and an open jacket that, much to his chagrin, looked highly similar to the one the Dark Adonis, better known as Mid-Boss, once wore. His golden wrist bracelets and his scarf were the only things that seemed to survive his sudden growth from shrimp to giant.
"What did you find this time, Ghoss?" Laharl noticed his longtime vassal holding the gauntlet.
"Haven't got a clue. It was just lying here when I ran across it. Maybe you can make heads or tails of it." The ghost handed it over to the Overlord.
"Weirdest fist weapon I've ever seen. I doubt I can get any use out of this thing." 'Wonder how much RosenQueen'll offer up for it.'
Inside the Shatter Gauntlet...
Nelius dodged between blasts of wind, hoping to see some kind of weakness in Rudra's form. He'd already had a few scars running down his right arm from where a few smaller attacks had hit.
"Come now, I expect better of you." Rudra taunted. Nelius tried getting in close to attack, but all the wind Mage did was simply float out of the way and throw another blast, if he didn't bring up a barrier to stop him. He even attempted to shoot the wizard, but most of his shots just got deflected back at him.
'Damn, he's an annoying old fart, and those gusts aren't making things any easier. How do I... !!' Dodging another blast of wind, an idea formed in his mind as he looked to his right hand, where he saw the other gauntlet he'd purchased back on Brad's Netherworld. 'All right, it stayed with me. Let's see if this idea will work.' Dashing forward, he made to lunge at Rudra, before his form turned a hazy violet. Several more hazy copies of Nelius appeared in a conical shape. 'Bingo! This fight's over.'
"The Tiger Charge, second form, is that it?" Rudra could see through this. 'You should've known better than this. I already know where you'll end up... here!' Turning around, he fired a column of wind, but nothing happened. "Now what in the... Where'd he go?" Seeing his own shadow grow in size, the wind mage looked upward, only to get a faceful of Nelius' fist. The force of the attack sent him skidding on his head, right into a bookshelf, which then collapsed on top of him. All that could be seen of him was his feet.
"You all right?" Nelius cautiously approached. Even though they were technically still fighting, he couldn't help but wonder about the state of the elderly demon. He forgot for a moment that he'd been fighting against a mage, and an old one at that. Not exactly what you'd call sturdy.
"You win..." Was the only response Nelius got before he found himself standing back in the arena again, though the green pillar had faded away. "Well, here's a little present from me." Looking at his left arm, Nelius saw the replica of the weapon he was inside of, but at the side of the wrist, a green node on the wrist lit up. "Here is proof of your victory, and the power to use wind mana to a new extent. How you make use of it is up to you."
"One down, three to go." He surveyed his remaining choices. "Where shall I go next? Eenie Meenie Mieny... wait, that won't work."
End of Chapter Thirteen
Until Next Chapter,
Cornell Valentine Gainsborough