Another World
Summary : A man found himself in another world. Can he survive and go back to his world?
Rating : T
Genre: Adventure/Comedy
Disclaimer: I don't have Ar Tonelico series, its characters, anything, duh.
Chapter 21 = Boss Fight
"Talks"
'Thoughts'
*Sound Effects*
Lift IX
Luca continued using her Song Magic on Gilbert. Slowly, his wounds healed. However, they left marks that would not disappear. All in all, he now felt much better.
"Really, you went into the Grand Bell just to help us? It's much safer to you to wait somewhere!" Luca lectured him after he explained his actions.
"I can't. I am part of this team; I can't just stand here while watching you and Lady Cloche get executed. But in the end, I didn't help at all…"
"Please, don't say that Gilbert, you already tried hard just by coming here…"
"Anyway, what happened to Lady Cloche?" He asked.
She wanted to explain her own situation to Gilbert, but her attention went back to Lady Cloche, who was calling.
"Luca…" Lady Cloche said. It was apparent that she wanted to say something.
"Lady Cloche! Are you alright? Oh, I'm so glad. I thought you were gone for good." Luca immediately said.
"You… saved me… back there…Thanks…" She tried to say.
"No, you don't need to thank me…There was a part of me that still wanted to run away again," Luca honestly answered.
"Such… a Luca… kind… of answer… Hey… I… kind of had this feeling… Could it be…" Lady Cloche tried to say something again, but now the Lift had stopped and the door opened.
"We're here, Lady Cloche. Can you move?" Luca asked.
She nodded and tried to get up, only to be helped by the dark-haired Reyvateil.
"Luca, give me back my things, I feel much better now." Gilbert said to her. He could not let her be burdened even more by his stuff. She nodded and gave them back to him. He became burdened again, but not as bad as before, as he was already healed by Luca.
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Telmina
As they three got out from the lift, they met Croix and others, who were also walking to Lift VII.
"Croix!" Luca called out to him.
"Luca!" Croix exclaimed. He then walked straight to her.
"I'm so glad you're okay… I'm really glad…" She said.
Croix noticed Lady Cloche is now carried by Luca. "What's wrong with Lady Cloche?" he asked.
"When the Song began, she suddenly collapsed. Soope, too…" Luca explained.
Gilbert could not understand what the connection was between the song and her collapse. He added a mental note to ask about it later.
"What! Could it be that Lady Cloche is…" Croix started to say something, but stopped. This made Luca curious about his statement.
"Huh? What? What were you going to say?" She asked.
"I'll explain later. And who is…" Croix noticed there was a man behind her. The knight didn't recognize him at first, but once he noticed his right eye, he was able to guess who the man was. "Gilbert? How…"
"I tried to get into Grand Bell once I saw Luca and Lady Cloche were about to be executed. Long story."
"You really want to get yourself killed by coming alone…But thanks…" Croix sighed, "Let's go to Lakra's chamber."
They took Lift VII and went to Lakra's chamber. As they got inside, Gilbert noticed that Cocona and Laura are being carried by Leglius.
"They also collapsed when the song began?" Gilbert asked.
Leglius gave him a nod.
'Maybe it's affecting I.P.D? But what about Lady Cloche, she isn't I.P.D…or is she?' He shrugged off the thoughts, none of them were important now.
"Gilbert…" He heard a woman's voice. It was Laura's.
"She was mumbling your name since she collapsed," Amarie said to him.
He looked at her; wondering, 'Why is she doing that? Is my place in her heart that big? No, not now…This isn't time to thinking about that.'
Lakra
The place was really messed up, with Sacred Army's vanguards and Reyvateils scattered around, either unconscious or dead.
"Wha-what is this!" Croix said when he saw the mess.
"You shouldn't have come here… "Chester said, as he stood up. He was still alive.
"Are you okay!" Croix asked.
"It's dangerous…Step away from this place…" He said.
Something big came close...really big.
"Croix! Watch out!" Lady Cloche said to him, and he quickly stood in front of her.
The big monster rushed in and suddenly stopped. Croix fell in surprise.
"What is this!" He yelled.
"They suddenly began spawning out of Infel Pira's memory. They took Sonia…" Chester said.
'Why does he use the word 'they'?'
Gilbert took a look at the big monster. It consisted of a something that looked like the head of a rabbit doll, with more shark's teeth than in a certain shark horror movie. Its body was made of several things that he found hard to explain. On its neck, there was a big clock.
"Well well well, this is some big trouble we've got here," Jacqli said.
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"They'll fight Zodom soon. Should we allow Gilbert helping them?" Karen said.
"Well, of course yes. Even if we don't allow Gilbert to fight that, I doubt that he'll follow our orders. Just imagine his feelings after all his fighting into Grand Bell and he can't help the party at all," Josh said.
"But you know, I hope that we have bigger things for that thing…Like a rocket launcher…" Billy said. Just as they talking, a scientist came into their room.
"I got some news for you all," He started to talk. "First, as compensation for Gilbert's damage because of the medicine, and considering the fact that we got a lot of valuable test data from him, the board has decided that the maximum power limit that you can use for the teleporter will be lifted."
"It's not that we have many things to teleport in, by the way…" Billy said.
"And we'll provide some things that you might need, that's if we can actually provide it. For example…" The scientist stopped as some man pushed some boxes in.
"This is some pure nitroglycerin. We got...a bit more than what we ordered. At first we were going to ship this back, but then we thought that maybe you guys can use it…" The scientist said.
Hearing that Billy jumped and ran into the corner of the room.
"Um…Bill?" Karen said.
"It's nitro, dammit! That substance can easily explode!" Billy yelled.
The scientist laughed a bit.
"Don't worry. It's frozen. If you want to use it, just press this button and it'll defrost the whole thing. Just be sure that you stand far from it, or already have teleported that somewhere. We also sometimes manage to get some…resources from the government. We'll give some to you if possible," The scientist said, "And second…The board wants to meet with you Hans, as soon as you can. It's about recent…incident."
"Alright, but let me check some things with Gilbert first," Billy said. The scientist gave a nod.
"Okay, that's all. I hope that Gilbert will do well," The scientist said, and went away.
"You know, I feel Gilbert's like a guinea pig for testing…like the new eye and the drug…" Karen said.
"But they also help us. Without them, Gilbert can't have a new eye. Also they're the only ones that research how that machine works and try to recreate it. It's possibly the only way to bring Gilbert back to earth," Billy said.
"So…What we're going to do with these explosive boxes anyway?" Josh said, now standing beside the box, feeling the chill from whatever it was that kept the nitro frozen.
"Hmm…I got an idea…" Billy said.
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"…I can create a Song that works really well for emotions like this. When you think you're ready, talk to me. I can start singing any time," Jacqli said.
"Oh, yeah... alright." Croix said. He asked Leglius to put Cocona, Cloche and Laura away from the room first, since it was too dangerous for them. After that he told Jacqli that they were ready.
"Alright... Then, let's begin," Jacqli said. She started to sings something, and then the place started shaking. The monster was covered in some rune alphabets that Gilbert could not recognize or understand.
"It's panicking!" Croix asked.
"It's reacting to the Song!" Luca also said, as the monster got covered in something resembling electric balls.
"Here it comes!" Leglius yelled.
As the party was ready for battle suddenly there was an explosion that came from the monster's body. The party covered themselves, and the monster had now lost half of its body. Somehow the upper half was still flying for a moment before the clock vanished, along with the rest of the monster.
"What just happened?"Croix asked.
Gilbert then felt his PDA vibrating. He discovered that he had an incoming call.
"Yes, what is it?" he asked in their language.
"That monster got destroyed, right?" Billy's voice can be heard.
"That's your doing?" Croix asked.
"Sort of. We teleported in a box full of explosive substance directly inside that monster's body."
"Creative." Jacqli said, impressed.
"Can you at least tell us before you do that…" Croix sighed.
Chester ran to a girl that appeared in the place that the monster used to be.
"Sonia! Why did it have to be like this? Sonia... I couldn't protect you. I couldn't save you…" Chester said to her. Croix came closer to him, along with the party.
"Chester…" Croix said. Suddenly, a doll materialized in the room.
"Billy, you teleport in a doll?" Luca asked.
"No." He replied. She ran to the doll and checked it, then called the entire party.
"Look! Come!"
Croix came closer to her, and then the others followed.
"This doll has some letters sewn on it." She added.
"'Well done, the world will change.' What is this?" Croix was confused by the message.
"Maybe it's a message from the big boss. To us." Jacqli said.
Croix got even more confused by this.
"It's just an expression. Don't take it too seriously. Then again, it might not be," She added.
"Maybe they also have teleportation devices, just as we have?" Billy asked. He and others already know who it is, he made the statement just to stir things up.
As the party thought, they hear a clicking sound. They realized that Chester was about to shoot himself in the head, using a gun. Amarie quickly pushed him until he fell.
'Wait, a gun? Then why Sacred Army doesn't arm all of its personnel with guns? Maybe because they can defend Reyvateils more using close combat weapons than guns,' Gilbert thought as Amarie chewed him about his suicide attempt, followed by a speech from Croix to help the party restore the I..
"…I understand you're feeling very hurt about Miss Sonia right now, but I, and everyone in this world are feeling that same pain right now. So… please, if you have the heart to feel for the people of this world, then cooperate with us. I want to save Lady Cloche, Laura, Cocona, and the I.P.D.'s." Croix finally end his long speech. Chester was silent for a while, until he gave his reply.
"In all honesty, for me, Hibernation was solely for Sonia."
"Huh! What do you mean?" Amarie asked.
"The more I look at this situation, the more I feel like a sinner. I didn't expect all this. No matter what I do now, the sins and scars will never go away, but if you don't mind that, I'll do what I can." Chester said; making his agreement to help Croix restore the I.. Croix thanked him, before the Sacred Army man began to speak.
"Revealing this to anyone is against the treaty. I can't complain if the Goddess kills me. But even if She does, I can think of it as a delay in my suicide attempt from just a moment ago. This system is called Implant. There is a Song called Implanter, which executes and controls it," Chester explained.
"A Song! So it's a Hymn?" Croix asked.
"Yes. Singing the Song can recover the data prior to the initialization. This means, all I.P.D.s will regain their previous conditions," He said.
Gilbert thought, 'Why does all of this sound like computer-related things?'
"So we can think of it as restoring backup data?" Jacqli tried to make the things clear.
Chester confirmed her statement.
"Where is this Hymn Crystal?" She asked.
"The Hymn Crystal Implanter is within the Kanakana Pier, but where it's stored… I do not know."
"It's the part where the organization sends in the bots before Gilbert. They should be already hiding the bots somewhere in that room now," Billy said in English. Gilbert just nodded at his statement.
"That's fine. Telling us that much is more than enough," Croix said. It seemed that they now had new objectives to carry out.
"I see. I'm glad I was able to be of help," Chester said, while smiling.
Gilbert felt that he seemed to transform into a different person. Somehow, he could feel it.
"I'd say it'd be best if I go with you, but…" Chester started to say.
"No, please stay here, by Miss Sonia's side." Croix said, able to read his feelings.
"I'm sorry. Thank you. I would love to see the future you are trying to create." Chester said, and then the party went out from Lakra's room.
"Chester… thanks." Amarie said before she left. As they walked back to ride lift back to Telmina, Lady Cloche collapsed again. Luca helped her up again, seeing how Cocona and Laura were paralyzed, it was a wonder that Lady Cloche could walk and stand up, even just for a while.
Gilbert sighed while sitting at the corner of the lift. All of this was really tiring him, but he knew that he couldn't rest yet, as there were many things he still had to do within the party…
END OF CHAPTER 21