Chapter 14
Aisha
She couldn't believe he'd actually made her do it. She was somehow able to push everyone up to the airship, and they all landed in relatively the same place. Her powers were growing, and she was curious to learn more about them. However, before she could even so much as to think about her powers, she realized the drawback of using so much energy the way she did, and her body felt heavy.
Upon landing on the ship's deck, they were welcomed by… nothing. No workers, no defenses, nothing. It was suspiciously quiet, and too much so for her. Something was definitely up, but she didn't have the energy to come up with a possible reason why. She needed to find a place to rest, and fast.
"Elsword, I-"
Elsword
She fell into his arms with her eyes closed. He didn't know much at all about how magic worked, but he guessed that she used up all her energy getting them onto the ship.
"We should probably find somewhere for her to rest, before Wally's crew finds us."
Rena looked over then nodded in agreement. "That would be best. I'll scout ahead."
"I'll help you carry her, then." Rose started walking over to him, but he stopped her, having a better idea.
"Actually, Rose, how about this. You scout ahead, and Rena will come with me as cover."
She paused. "Why? Rena seems like she would be much better suited to this."
"I'm with Rose here, Elsword. I'm much more suited to stealth and reconnaissance than she is."
"I know, I know, just hear me out. Rena, I know you could provide cover with extreme accuracy, and if anything goes wrong, I'm counting on that. Rose, however, I've only known for a few hours at most. I don't have the same trust in her that I have in Rena. You could consider this building up that trust."
"That's… strangely mature of you, Elsword." Rena replied after a pause, "But I see your point. I'll stay with you, and Rose will scout ahead for a resting place. Sound good, Rose?"
"Um, sure, I guess."
Rose
She understood why Elsword made the decision he did, but that didn't mean she liked it. Sure, her title was that of an agent, but she was much better as security. As a guard. But more to the point, it felt like she was being excluded or kicked out. She wasn't used to this feeling.
But even so, she was given a job to do, and she wasn't going to let her feelings get in the way of doing it well. She went swiftly down the hallways, carefully scanning for any guards that may be present, and checking rooms for places that may have hiding places. She found it suspicious that, like on deck, there was no one at all below deck. It felt like something was being set up for them.
She found a room with a back area concealed by a couple boxes and went back to the others to report what she found.
"I see," Rena replied, as if she were now the leader, "We'll rest there then."
It seemed to her that the group had no designated leader, and it was someone who happened to take charge at the moment who they followed as the leader. It was an interesting setup, she thought, even for a small group. It normally doesn't work, as multiple people decide to take charge, get in fights, and the group breaks up. Even in a small group like this. However, the three of them seem to have a mutual respect for each other that makes this system work for them.
When they arrived at the room, she volunteered to take first watch while the others rested. After a few hours, Rena came up to her and offered to take her place.
"Actually, I want to go see something. You know how there's seemingly no one on the ship at all?" Rena nodded. "If there's anyone anywhere on the ship, they'll be in the control room. I'm going to see if there's anyone up there in that tower."
Rena paused a moment. "Are you sure you want to go alone? I could get Elsword and-"
"I'm sure!" She cut her off. "Look, if there's anyone here, the more people there are, the more likely we are to get caught. Besides, Elsword trusts you more than he trusts me, so if we both go missing and get caught, he'll blame it all on me."
Rena paused again, this time in thought. "You have a point, and we need to know what's going on here before we walk strait into a trap. Go ahead. I'll cover for you."
She let out a light sigh of relief, smiling a little. "Thanks, Rena. I'll be back shortly."
She headed off to the tower, retracing her steps to get back on deck before entering the tower, the whole time, still not seeing a single person of any kind, even on the climb to the top of the tower.
Upon entering the room at the top of the tower, she was met with a gruesome sight. Pieces of what she could assume to be the crew were all over the place, which was coated in a red color she assumed to be their blood. The machines that she believed once controlled the ship all had damage, coming from what she assumed to be a spherical shape from the center of the room. Purple fragments of what she could only guess to be glass could be found near the center as well.
Upon looking out the window, she immediately sprinted back down to the room as fast as she could. The ship was approaching an island, and there was nobody to land the ship.
Rena
A few minutes after Rose had left, she heard stirring within the room, and decided to see what was happening. Elsword was sitting up and Aisha was looking around.
"W-where are we?"
"Still on the ship," Elsword replied, not seeming to have noticed her, "We found a place to hide while we rest up for a bit."
Aisha visibly shuttered, and Rena spoke up to comfort her. "Don't worry, Aisha. We all needed some rest. You're just the one who made us realize that."
"Rose is still outside?" Elsword asked, calmly.
"Actually, she went to see why we haven't seen anyone yet. She went out to investigate the control room."
"What?! You let her go alone?!"
"Elsword, I know what you're thinking, but you said it yourself, we need to trust her more!"
"That's not what I'm talking about! What if she gets caught?! She's part of our group now, Rena! We need to look out for each other!"
As if on cue, Rose burst through the door. "Brace yourselves! We're going to crash!"
The ship began shaking violently as it hit what she believed to be the island, and reflexively ran towards Rose, grabbing her hand and pulling her into a corner as the ship continued to crash and break apart around them
-o0~|~0o-
When the ship, or the remains for that matter, stopped moving, she pushed the scraps that had fallen around them out of the way and began looking around.
"Elsword? Aisha? Can you hear me?"
She pulled Rose up as she awaited a reply that didn't come.
"Elsword? Aisha?"
She started walking around the area she believed to once be the room they were in as Rose began calling and searching as well.
"Elsword? Please tell me you can hear me!"
She heard a muffled sound followed by a slight movement of a pile of rubble a few feet from her.
"Elsword!"
She immediately began digging before finding a large beam that seemed to have folded into a triangle, presumably keeping him safe. Rose ran over and together the two of them managed to push the beam out of the way enough for Elsword, supporting Aisha with one arm, to get out.
Having gotten out, he carried Aisha to a more open area and sat her down. Aisha immediately began grabbing her right arm, and was bleeding slightly from her head.
"Rena, do you have a healing potion?" he asked nervously.
She began searching around her belt, grabbing the bottle when she found it, but seeing there was a small chip in the bottle and all the fluid had drained away.
"Ah. Sorry, it seems that I don't."
Elsword looked away in disappointment.
"Elsword, I'll be fine." Aisha let out a small laugh and smiled. "After all, I've survived worse before." Her right hand unconsciously moved to the faint scar on her left side.
Rose then walked over to them. "Um, it's my last one, but here. You can have it." She handed them a bottle containing a red liquid.
"Rose, are you sure? I-" Elsword snatched the bottle before Aisha could finish her sentence, uncorked it and handed it to her.
"It's fine, Aisha. You need it more than I do. Besides, I can put up with a few bruises for a while."
She took the bottle and began drinking it, and Rena then spoke up.
"I'm going to find us a place to stay for the night. It won't take long for Wally's supporters to come after us once they've found out their ship crashed."
Eve
Queen Type B: Time
Time=11:43 AM
Queen Type B: Scan,local subject=lifesignatures
=8
Queen Type B: locate subject=lifesignatures
4 lifesignatures direction=west
4 lifesignatures direction=southwest
:
Human=3
Elf=1
Southwest,lifesignatures:
Human=3
Demon=1
Nasod signatures also found on Southwest,human.2
Name=Raven
Queen Type B: Does Raven=trustworthy
False
Raven= = 2
Queen Type B: Locate Nasod,foundry
Searching…
=Northeast
Show route?
Queen Type B: Yes
Route Shown
Queen Type B: Time
Time=3:27 PM
Queen Type B: Scan target=foundry interior
Interior scanned
Queen Type B: Create blueprints source=foundry,interior
Working…
Blueprints created!
Queen Type B: Begin Nasod Production
Working…
Beginning procedures…
Chung
In the time since he decided to investigate the Water Temple, he had been working on his cannon, or rather pistols, they should be called. He had changed the form of his family's weapon in order to make himself lighter and more capable of faster movements. With this, he was ready to head out to investigate the temple.
He headed out alone in the dead of night, being careful to avoid being seen by any demons on their patrols, and left the city limits, continuing on the trail that leads to the temple through the mountains. There were surprisingly few demons on this trail, but it worked to his favor as he experimented with his new, light weapon.
As he continued on this trail, the water level was visibly rising, and the current was growing faster. Whatever it was that they were doing, the effects were speeding up.
When he reached the temple, he was met with the bright sun beaming down on the ice surrounding the area, giving the air in the area a cool and crispness as he breathed it in. It seemed that this was a paradise, untouched by the evil just on the other side of the mountains. However, he knew that this had to be a façade for what was probably awaiting him just within the temple walls.
He walked into the temple, facing no demons until he reached the heart of the temple. There, he met with a demon of much more power than that of the others he had faced to this point. He appeared to be much more humanoid than the others. He then spoke in the voice of a human rather than that of a human.
"You must be Chung. Your arrival has been greatly anticipated."
He was taken off guard by this at first, but he came to his own realizations.
"I suppose you would know that it was inevitable that I would come here eventually."
"You think that was our thinking? Chung, we've been aware of your movements for quite some time. All the way back to the tunnel leading to the docks. We've known about that little weakness there for quite some time. The simple fact of the matter is that allowing that weakness to remain would speed your arrival here."
"You seem to be certain that my being here is a good thing. Are you really that confident that you can beat me?"
"As a matter of fact, I am. But not for the reason you think."
Chung drew his guns and prepared to fight.
"Let's just see how well placed that confidence of yours is!"
He fired a bullet at the demon, who simply stood in response. A girl then dropped from above, deflecting the bullet with the blade of her spear with a saddened look on her face.
Ara
He wasn't a bad person. He really wasn't. That's why she had to defend him. Her brother wasn't the kind of person to do bad things without some kind of higher motivation. Sure, he was possessed, but this couldn't be something of his doing, and if it was, he had some higher plan that he couldn't tell anyone about.
"Chung… please don't kill him. He's… he's not a bad person."
He hesitated, leading her to believe that he was caught off guard. "Person? I don't know what you're trying to pull, but you're protecting a demon!"
"He's not a demon!" She snapped at him. "My brother's not a demon…"
Another pause. "I don't know who you two are, but if he really once was your brother, he's not anymore. He's become nothing more than a ruthless killing machine."
"He's not! He's just… he's not…" She didn't know how she could explain it to him, but she had to find a way to stop him. For her brother.
Chung then was looking down with a shadow across his eyes as if he was about to do something he really didn't want to. "If you don't get out of my way, then I'll just have to kill you too, human or otherwise." He lifted his gun again, this time towards her.
"Ara Haan! M-my name…"
"I don't care! It doesn't matter how prestigious your family is! If he's become a demon, then there's no going back!"
She walked up to him, grabbing his gun and placed the barrel to her forehead. "Then you'll have to shoot me, too."
There was a silence, and a painful expression on his face.
A gunshot resounded through the hall.
Raven
They had started walking towards the town when he had looked back to the left, seeing smoke rising on the horizon. Thinking about it, that's roughly where the ship should have landed if it stayed on course, and he didn't awaken on a dock.
"What happened to the ship while I was out?"
Elesis responded. "That's kind of a random question. Where's it coming from?"
"There's smoke rising from where the ship should have docked. What happened over there?"
"It wasn't us, I promise. After we knocked you out, we took you below deck so as to not be discovered. A few hours later, the ship crashed. Other than that, we don't really know any more than you."
"And I assume you took me south before I awakened?"
"It seemed best to get as far away from the wreck as possible."
"I see."
At this point, they had arrived at the entrance of the town, visible now to be nothing more than ruins, and they appeared to have been that way for some time.
Elesis stood there, stunned by the destruction. "What… what happened here?"
Raven looked towards the tower in the center of the island. "I don't know, but I bet it has something to do with that."
Lu
She could recognize immediately that this wasn't Scar's doing. He doesn't usually destroy towns, they for the most part, they can become strategic places in a moment's notice. This was far too sloppy to be Scar. This was someone else.
"It's not Scar's work, but I still think we should take out whoever did this. They could become a potential ally to him if we're not careful."
Ciel nodded in agreement. "I think you're both right. We should head to the tower and take out whoever is responsible for the destruction of the town."
Ain
If there was any doubt that he is not who he once was, it was gone. His time spent within Henir's power has corrupted him beyond any point of return. He could feel the shift of the source of his power from that of the goddess, to that of Henir.
This change in his power also brought a change in his ideals. He had completely abandoned his purpose of protecting the El, and had instead begun to seek out its power for his own. Though Henir suggested the gathering for his own uses, Ain still had enough of his will left to keep secrets from the dark god.
Through various methods, he began searching for the locations of the massive El shards. In theory, the Earth El should be in Sander, the Fire El in Lanox, the Wind El in Altera, the Water El in Hamel, the Light El in Elysion, and the Dark El in Varnimyr. He had felt the central shard, normally kept in Ruben, be destroyed by some force.
That left only six shard he needed to find in order to break free from any commanding deity to control his existence. Then, and only then, would he be able to achieve his true goal.