"Three aces and a pair of kings, make a full house," Kirche said with a smug grin as she laid her cards on the overturned box. Annoyed groans came from the town guards she was playing Germanian poker with signalling the end of the game as her opponents were broke which added up to her doubling her money, she made off of the sailors on the trip here, expanding her wealth further. It had been hard finding her marks as this city was considered Romalian territory thus their laws applied to the city. No gambling, drinking or prostitution was allowed although not everyone adhered to this, most notably the lower income areas where most of the non-Romalian mercs gathered.
If she was being honest to herself, this wasn't her first priority when she arrived. She had wanted to explore the town with Tabitha, see what the quarantine was actually doing to people. If it were calm enough, she would perhaps purchase a house and join the guard. Sure, she would have to do morally grey things, but when hadn't she had to question her morals in order to survive, she had done it in Germania, and she would have to continue to do it here. All in order to stay away from THEM.
But without Tabitha to keep her mind focus, she began to wander around looking for something to do which led her to this small rundown inn where she found three guards who had just gotten off their shift. A few drinks and some sweet talk later she found herself outback in the alleyway playing cards with them.
"You're one lucky lady." the man to her left commented, his voice muffled by the percaline mask.
Glancing at the man she let out a playful chuckle. "I was a merc on the eastern frontier of Germania for a good year, you have to be lucky." to which the man laughed.
"Founder, east Germania. damn if that place ain't a cursed frozen hellhole in the winter and a shit swamp in the summer." The one to her right replied in German causing a genuine smile to form on her face.
"You speak German?" She asked in the same language.
"We all do. It's the reason why we're in the same squad."
The smile only grew wider, for all the baggage that her home country carried the people she met out in the countryside were some of the most genuine and helpful people out there. If she had to guess why, she would put her money on the fact that everything was so deadly. You had to band together in order to survive. That also made them easy marks. "It's nice to be able to find people from the Fatherland this far away from home."
"A year ago, it would have been rare, now practically one and five people here are Germanian." The man to her left said as he leant back up against the wall of a building. "Although if I can ask what is east Germania like, I've only heard stories."
She knew that it was a bad idea to get close to her marks, but against her better judgement she leaned forward, using her knees to support her arms and began to tell stories. "I've only been to the northern regions a single time but what do you want to know?"
"Well, I always wondered why anyone would live out there?"
"That would be due to the elves; you see the Emperor of Germania pays people to live there in order to create a buffer between the mainland and the elves."
xXXXx
They had spent a good half hour sharing stories from their adventures. She had learned that the man to her left was named Heinz, he had been a shoemaker from a small mining town in the northern frontier. With the industrializing of the major cities, the miners were working twenty-four-seven to supply the metal that was needed they also needed more workers in order to be able to maintain the shifts. However, when the mine dried up and everyone moved away, he was out of the job which lead him to join up with the quarantine since while being a bastard could throw around fire easily enough.
The man to her right was named Veit; he was an older man although his face was hidden behind porcelain like the rest of the guards here, he spoke about being in conflicts that were fought well before she was born. If she had to guess he was an old man who had retired but due to some reason or another decided to reenlist.
Although there was one person, who was completely silent during this exchange. The man who sat across from her was an enigma. Hidden behind his porcelain bird mask, he had started out joyous and chatty sharing jokes and drink with them all but had gone silent once she had started her winning streak that ended the game.
It puzzled her, but in the end, it didn't matter. Kirche stretched, letting out a fake yawn to complete the image of a tired woman weary from her travels. "Well, it's been fun fellas, but I really should find a place to rest my head."
"No problem," Heinz responded with a smile as he leaned forward. "If you're around tomorrow I'd like a chance to win my money back."
She let out a short chuckle she reached forward a plucked a gold coin from the pile to examine it. "That's if there is any left by tomorrow morning." She replied with a wink.
"Well, we're not going to complain about how you spend your winnings," Veit said as he stood up and stretched.
Grabbing a large burlap sack from her side, she placed it at the end of the box. Using her arm, she attempted to pull her winnings into the bag when a sudden knife impaled itself into the box. Looking up, she found the silent man had done it. "One more round." He demanded out of the blue.
Her heartbeat kicked up a notch, had she been made, this wouldn't be the first time but for it to happen with everyone else's guard was down. Her mind ran over the few rounds they played together thinking of anything that she could have done to have given off the impression that she was cheating.
Heinz grabbed his wrist is a sudden rage. "What are you doing Urs!?"
"What the hell is wrong with you boy!?"
The silent man continued to stare at her saying, nothing for the longest time before finally answering. "I want to play another hand."
She looked around at the other men that surrounded her, all of which were confused by the man's declaration. Letting out a nervous chuckle breaking the silence. "I'm sorry, but you seem to be out of money."
The man shook his head as he reached back into a back pocket. The tension in the air built as he fished around for something. A moment later he produced a piece of paper. "Here is a deed to a plot of land in west Germania." Even behind his mask, she could see the fire in his soul. "Deal me another hand."
He knew he had to have figured it out. Sweat formed on her brow as she glanced at the massive pile of gold that was hers. Swallowing her fear, she nodded. "Sure... No problem." Pulling her hand away from the gold pile, she shuffled the cards once more before dealing the man two cards before giving herself two.
"Come on Urs; you lost don't be sore about it."
The man shot to his friend. "I didn't lose." He growled.
She would have to lose this hand and give up all of her gold. It wasn't the first time she would have to start back at square one, but every time she did, it hurt more and more. No, if she didn't want to be run out of yet another town, she would have to throw this hand. Placing the five cards on the table face down she dealt both herself and Urs a hand.
Looking at her cards, she found an ace of spades and a queen of the same suit which caused a chill to run down her spine. That by itself wasn't the problem, what was the problem that the other cards that three of the cards that were overturn was a king of spades a jack of spades and a ten of spades. She inwardly cursed at herself, leave it to now for her luck to pull through. A royal flush, there was no way that she was losing this hand, and if she displayed a hand like that, she would no doubt be branded a cheater and be thrown out of town.
No this was a problem that she could solve, it wasn't hard all she had to do was change her cards and be done with it. Glancing up at the man, she could tell he was tense. His shoulders were taut, and he was hunched over his cards like a mother bird guarding her eggs. She clenched her hands tight as she pooled willpower into her fingers. Under normal circumstances, she could do it without much thought, but the stress of the situation she was in was just too much to keep herself from exaggerating her actions.
As the cards began to change in her hands, she let out a sigh of relief; she was going to make it. As if sensing her relief, the silent man sprung forward grabbing the ace of spades as it was transforming into a three of hearts. Her eyes shot wide before she could do anything the man pulled his hand back and slammed the transforming card onto the table. "I knew that bitch was cheating," Urs told the rest of the group who all stared at the card in sheer bewilderment that they had been had.
"How?" Heinz muttered as he turned towards her.
"I recognized her. She's the same cunt that stole my entire life savings two years ago in this same game!"
What!
Kirche shot her hand to her axe but was quickly stopped by both Veit and Heinz who both grabbed her arms. "Here we were sharing stories with one another like we were friends when you were nothing but a low born whore." They said as they stood her up.
Urs rose up from his seat and sauntered around the table. "It seems to me that we found a person who's infected."
The two men looked to the leader of the group, for a brief second before nodding. "That we did." The two other men commented.
She struggled against the two other men but found that they were too strong for her. Urs slowly pulled out a burlap sack, that she had seen them use on the other sick people. As the bag grew closer and closer, she struggled as hard as she could.
As if the gods were watching over her the land beneath them began to shake violently. The loud rumbling drowned out the muttering of her captors. Gold coins fell off of the box; cards began to scatter. In the distance, she could hear the screams of the people. Using this as an opportunity to escape, she pooled her willpower into her mouth and unleashed a torrent of fire.
Urs fell backwards as the flames engulfed him. "Elf!" The man to her left shouted in fear. Turning towards him, she kept up the flames, causing him to let go of her in fear of being lit ablaze. With her arm now free she closed her mouth stopping the torrent of fire as she turned to the last guy. Clenching her hand, she punched Veit in the mask right around where his left cheek would be. The man could do nothing as the single punch knocked him out. Turning back to Heinz, she found him attempting to pull out a wand, acting on instinct alone she swiftly kicked in the chest, knocking him down to the ground.
Not wasting a single moment, she spun around, put on her helmet and levitated herself off the ground as fast as she could before barreling down the alleyway. Grabbing her hatchet off of her hip, she pointed it at the ground behind her. "Flamma mur-!" She was suddenly cut off by a cough. The willpower still left her arm, and a moment later, a massive wall of fire sprang up where she was aiming, blocking her attackers from getting to her. As she flew through the alleyway shingles from the roof above her fell down upon her. She easily dodged them but it still costed her precious willpower.
The earthquake passed as fast as it came, which she was both thankful for. Setting herself down just outside the alleyway, she got to see the full extent of the destruction that the earthquake brought. Across from her was where a small house used to be was now nothing but rubble. She was completely taken by surprise, how had she not heard the building crash? The townsfolk that were still up at this hour quickly began to deal with the rubble. She shook her head she needed to get out of here right now, and thankfully the collapsed building made a wonderful distraction. Looking to her left, she found a checkpoint far down the street manned by guards who seemed uninterested in what the townsfolk were doing. To her right, she found yet another checkpoint effectively trapping herself in this area of the town.
Shifting her gaze upwards, she found an open window of the inn which those guards were staying at. She weighed her options, she could try and pass through those checkpoints, or she could head into the inn where she could lay low till morning and then head back to the ship and get Flame. "Dispel this fucking fire you elf bitch!" The mob behind her shouted obviously fine from the attack. Biting her lip, she looked back to the window and found something that she hadn't noticed before. The familiar silvery black helmet of her dear friend Louise. Her luck had held up.
Levitating herself once more, she flew up to the window. "Outta the way Louise!" Was the only warning she gave as she crashed through the window impacting the armoured girl. A small yelp from the young girl was all that she heard as the pair fell back onto the floor.
"Where the fuck did that elf go!?" The voice of Urs shouted causing Kirche to audibly gulp. How had he survived? She wondered. As she thought it over, she realized that it must have been the garb he was wearing, being that he was part of the quarantine team he would be around a lot of fire, and having a flameproof tunic would make that a lot easier to deal with. "You go check the western checkpoint, ill check the eastern."
"Right!"
As she heard the men run off, she let out a sigh of relief. "Louise you don't know just how happy I am to see you." She soon caught a whiff of something that smelled nice. Looking around, she found a single bed in the room which was a queen-sized made of two smaller sized beds that was situated halfway down the wall in the middle of the room with end tables on either side of it. By the door that was across from her was a plain bookcase which housed a wide verity of books lining its shelves.
Her nose drew her gaze over to the other side of the room where a small round wooden tube laid. Water soaked the wood all around it, no doubt due to the earthquake that had just hit. Beside it was a table that held a candle and wand. Both Louise's sword and bow laid near it but Kirche did not doubt that they were resting against the table before the earthquake. But as she peered around the room, she realized that Louise was nowhere to be seen. "Louise, where are you?" She spoke in a hoarse tone
"Mmmph." Before she could register what, that sound was, she was thrown forward. Her eyes shot wide as she flipped through the air, allowing her to see a seething Louise on the floor, her armour glowed a demonic red, and she had a single leg in the air which is what she had probably used to send her flying. She landed a moment later with a loud clank of her armour and her helmet being thrown off. "Kirche what do you think you're doing!?"
The redhead brought a single finger to her mouth in an attempt to silence the girl, but her anger only seemed to grow from the action. She picked herself up and stomped over to where she lay "Please Louise, I just need a place to hide out for the night."
The pink-haired girl only narrowed her eyes. "What. Did. You. Do. Kirche." Louise slowly asked causing her to flinch with each word
Flipping herself onto her stomach, she began to bow at her rivals' feet hoping that it would show her just how desperate she was. "I may have played poker against some guards, and they may have caught me cheating, and now they may or may not want to toss me out of the city, and now I'm begging you to hide me."
Louise stared on in silence for several moments before speaking once more. "Why couldn't you get Tabitha to help you?"
"She left on a mission, so now I'm all alone."
Louise let out a small sigh as her suit turned red once more. She reached down and picked her up by the pits of her arm and lifted her up to her feet. "And here I was about to take a bath."
"You don't have to change your plans because of me," Kirche told her as she patted herself off.
Even with the only source of light in the room being the few candles strewn about the place, Kirche could see grow red at the implications "I'm not getting naked in front of you."
"Why?" Kirche asked genuinely confused. "Just think of this as the girl's bath at school."
"That was different, if sister Elenore were to catch me bathing in front of a Zerbst there would be hell to pay."
"I'll just lock the door if you're so worried about your sister barging in on us.
"Don't put it that way." Louise deadpanned, before going silent. She sat there for a moment, as she thought it over. "Fine but you have to look away."
"Whatever." Walking over to the door, she locked it before turning back to Louise, finding that she had already taken off her helmet which now rested on a table beside the tub. Kirche couldn't help but stare as she fiddled with the silver spine on her back. She watched her as she seemed to struggle against it.
Remembering what she was asked to do, Kirche spun around and faced the wall which was adorned with a painting of a sunrise coming over the mountain range. She heard Louise let out a grunt from behind her as she seemingly continued to struggle against the spine. "Why... Won't... It... come... Off!?" She spoke between grunts.
Kirche, curious as to what was happening, peered over her shoulder, finding Louise standing there, her suit the same demonic red from before. Both hands were on the silver spine as she stumbled around the room, pulling and pulling, struggling and struggling, until she suddenly tripped over the tub falling into it, spilling water all over the floor.
Louise, barring her teeth once more, shot to her feet and grabbed her wand. Seeing this, she braced herself for the explosive outburst that was no doubt about to destroy this room. But it never came. Peering back over her shoulder, once more she found Louise standing in the middle of the room. The expression covering her face could only be described as horrified her gaze was fixated on a blank wall, her arms were up in a defensive position.
xXXXx
IN ORDER TO INSURE NANOSUIT 2 OPERATOR SURVIVAL, SUIT LOCKDOWN HAS GONE INTO EFFECT.
Louise was petrified with fear as she stared at the red text in front of her. It was such a simple sentence with a precise meaning, but she couldn't help but find trying to wrap her mind around. Perhaps this was due to the fact that even with her helmet off she could see the text floating in front of her. She couldn't even touch it so how was it here in front of her.
Her heartbeat quickened as the realization finally sank in. She was stuck in it, her suit. She was trapped inside of it. But why, what did it mean by Operator survival. It was evident that operator meant her but why would she die.
Her vision began to darken until she was staring into a black void. She panicked, finding the void was surrounding her on all sides looking to her hand she only saw that the void seemed to have consumed her body leaving her as nothing more than an observer to this world.
But before she could question what was happening, a new image appeared on the left side of her vision that followed her gaze forcing her to stare at it. It was a diagram of a black and white female body, the skin was a bluish tone and was translucent allowing her to see not only the bones but her organs and other tube-like things that ran around the body, were these the blood vessels?
Above it was the words, Operator Zero which clued her in on the fact that this was her. Below the image of her body was the words The 23rd day of the Founder's Six Month. Next to it was a calendar of sorts that catalogue the days in the month. Several of the dates most notably the 1st of the seventh month were marked with a red x. The day she summoned the suit. The fear that gripped at her soul had begun to fade, replaced with an odd sense of curiosity.
The date below the suit began to progress forward, until reaching the first of the marked dates. Two small red lines appeared on either side of her diagram's belly button. They slowly grew largerbigger as the organs laying behind the translucent skin turned red for whatever reason.
RECONSTRUCTING MEMORY.
A new moving image formed on the right side of the diagram, it was a bleak, damp looking cave illuminated bright blue, in the center of which was her wielding Derf with demons all around her. Her heart sank as she recognized the cave, it was the water spirits domain. She watched as she battled the demons, taking them out one at a time until she stabbed by one of them who had gotten past her defences.
WARNING: SUIT PUNCTUR DETECTED.
INJURY DETECTED: TWO LARGE LACERATIONS SURROUNDING, THE NAVEL REGION
LARGE INTESTINE BISECTED ALONG THE TRANSVERSE COLON, NON-FUNCTIONAL
ADMINISTERING ANESTHETIC
ATTEMPTING TO REPLACE DEAD TISSUE
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ERROR: LACKING BIOMASS
BEGINNING BREAKDOWN OF CLASS D ORGANS.
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BREAKDOWN COMPLETE, REPAIRING ORGANS.
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REPAIR COMPLETE: RETURNING TO COMBAT SUPPORT MODE.
She looked at the text in a panic what did it mean breakdown of class D organs, what did that mean? What was class D organs?
CLASS D ORGANS INCLUDE ALL OF THOSE WHICH ARE USELESS TO YOU IT INCLUDES HAIR, NAILS VESTIGIAL BODY PARTS AND SKIN.
Then, what did it take? Her breath hitched in her throat, what did it take in order to heal her.
Before she could complete that thought, the dates below her image began to move forward once more, stopping at the 3rd day of the month. The image of her body turned to its side allowing her to see the red streak of lightning fly from off-screen which impacted her in the chest. The tubes that were around the area where she was hit turned red. The redness splintered out going to every corner of her body fading as the distance between where she had been hit increased. But most notable was the fact that her heart one of the few organs she knew thanks to sneaking into her sister's room, turned orange
RECONSTRUCTING MEMORY
The image left of her diagram came back, only this time she was in the Princess's bedchamber standing between both her body which stood to her left and that man who was on her right. She watched the scene unfold once again, "I appreciate the enthusiasm but I must get going, my employers are waiting for me." His voice echoed in her ears as he brought up his wand.
She wanted to yell at herself to get out of the way, but she knew this was no use. Lightning cracked around the man's sword wand before being blasted towards her alternate self. The lightning-like before, impacted her body, causing her other body to collapse to the floor.
WARNING, NERVE DAMAGE DETECTED, SWITCHING SUIT TO NEUROLOGICAL MODE. STANDBY.
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SWITCH COMPLETE, EXPEDITING, REPLACEMENT OF NERVASsSTEM.
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INJURY DETECTED: SINUS-ATRIAL NODE. ASSESSING DAMAGE.
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DAMAGE NEGLAGABLE RETURNING TO COMBAT SUPPORT MODE.
Replacement of the nervous system? What does that mean?
BASE HUMAN NEUROLOGICAL SYSTEM IS BOTH UNRELIABLE AND INFERIOR COMPARED TO OTHER AVAILABLE MATERIALS, DUE TO VARIOUS FACTORS REPLACEMENT OF ORIGINAL NEUROLOGICAL SYSTEM WITH SUPERIOR VERSION HAS BEEN MADE A PRIORITY
She felt a cold dread seeping into every part of her when she saw what it meant: the diagram showed every part of her body had been filled with new lines, like the roots of a tree the lines had grown from the base of her brain and spread to every part of her body.
Before her mind could completely comprehend what, the suit had just told her, the date moved over to the 4th. The diagram shifted and zoomed in until she could see nothing but her diagrams left side shoulder. A large cylindrical object came from outside the screen; it impacted her diagram causing the bones in her shoulder and arm to break as they turned red.
RECONSTRUCTING MEMORY
Finding herself in that orc cave once more, she watched from a new point of view as the large warboss swatted away from the knight. The only response she gave to witnessing the memory was a shudder at the sound of cracking bones.
WARNING, CRITICAL DAMAGE DETECTED, ASSESSING.
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LEFT SUBCLAVIAN ARTERY SEVERED, CONTINUING ASSESSMENT
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SEVERAL FRACTURES DETECTED, ATTEMPTING TO REPAIR.
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ERROR, DAMAGE TOO EXTENSIVE TO REPAIR.
ASSESSING OPTIONS.
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POTENTIAL OF FUTURE COMBAT WHERE OPERATOR IS CRITICALLY INJURED, HIGH.
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BEGINNING BREAK DOWN OF LEFT ARM FOR FUTURE USE.
"No." She muttered to herself. Was her arm gone? Her breathing kicked up in pace as sweat began to form on her face. What did that mean, reaching over with her right hand she started to stroke her missing arm, giving it a quick squeeze to confirm that it was there which it was, there was no doubt about it, it was still as hard as it was several weeks ago, but the suit said it was gone?
The image of her body zoomed out while it turned to allow her to see the boulder as it crashed down on top of her, causing several bones in her neck to turn red. Afterwards, she noticed several red dots fly towards her chest. It impacted and pierced the diagram, causing the organs hiding behind the skin to turn red. One of the red dots impacted her chest bone, breaking through and splintering sending both pieces of lead and bone fragments into her heart.
The diagram then shifted to it laying down on a floor as more boulders crushed it, causing parts of her spine to light up red.
RECONSTRUCTING MEMORY.
The memory played out as well as she could expect it to. She watched the boulder crush the man she had been carrying and causing her to stumble forward followed by the loud bang of the orcs musket which tore through her. The familiar rage that she felt that day could do nothing to lighten the sombre tone. Her screams of rage filled her ears as she tore through her body. Above her body she noticed large boulders come loose from the top of the cave. "Stop, look out! Get out of the way!" She shouted at the top of her lungs. But like always it was no use. The boulders collided with her back knocking her doppelganger to the floor.
WARNING: EXTENSIVE DAMAGE TO CRITICAL CLASS B AND A ORGANS, ASSESSING EXTENT OF DAMAGE.
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LEAD SHRAPNEL DETECTED IN LEFT LUNG.
STERNUM FRACTURE DETECTED.
BONE AND LEAD SHRAPNEL DETECTED IN LEFT ATRIUM, RIGHT ATRIUM AND LEFT VENTRICLE.
ATTEMPTING REPAIR.
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REPAIR COMPLETE.
ASSESSING DAMAGE TO CLASS A ORGANS.
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SPINAL CORD SEVERED AT CERVICAL VERTEBRAE 3, 5 AND LUMBAR 2 AND 4.
REPAIR AND REPLACEMENT OF SPINAL TISSUE.
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REPAIR COMPLETE.
LEGS NOW CLASSIFIED AS EMERGENCY BIOMASS SOURCE.
"NO!" She shouted into the void. No this had to be wrong, she wasn't going to let it take her legs. No! This was all a ruse; it had to be, why else would it trap her, it was just trying to scare her into making her think that this was her only solution. It wasn't going to take her legs; it didn't even take her arm, all of those injuries were wrong. They had to be, because if they weren't what did that make her.
A corpse walking on its own? Her fear was replaced with anger. No, she wasn't some product of necromancy, she was going to find a way to take it off, and there was nothing it could do to stop her. "Stop this, I know what you're trying to do, and it's not working!" She shouted into the void through gritted teeth.
Everything in her vision seemed to stop and slowly faded leaving her alone in the void. As the seconds turned to minutes, her stoicism faltered all. Falling back, she landed on her bottom, finding that her body had returned. Taking a moment, she looked over at her left arm finding that it was still there, but just the mere sight of the limb that her suit had supposedly taken from her sent chilling thoughts to her head that made her doubt her belief that this was a lie. What if it wasn't, what if the suit was, in fact, keeping her alive.
Before she was about to shout for help, she noticed a blue hexagon in the corner of her vision.
HEAD TO THE DESIGNATED WAYPOINT. UNCOVER THE TRUTH.
Following it, she found a metal table standing near her in the void, illuminated by some unseen source of light. Atop of it was looked to be a body covered by a rugged looking blue cloth.
Audibly gulping, she slowly made her way over to the table. With each echoing step, her worry grew more and more, until she was upon the table.
REMOVE THE SHEET.
Seeing no alternative, she slowly outstretched an arm and grabbed hold of the sheet. Taking a deep breath in order to steady herself, she threw the blanket off of the body, revealing a sight that caused her to stumble back in shock.
It was a doppelganger underneath it, the only thing she wore was a simple braw and underwear revealing all of the wounds she had sustained over the past three weeks. Her left arm was gone, severed at the shoulder. Her chest was littered with cuts and scars, not to mention the burnt skin that looked somewhat like a tree. The smell of the charred flesh caused bile to rise up into her throat but combined with the sight of seeing herself like that was just too much for her. She collapsed to her knees as she vomited up what little food she had in her stomach. This was all too life like for her; she knew this was all lies to try and keep her in the suit but, just seeing herself like that.
Tears flowed from her eyes, falling into the void below her. Why had she summoned this suit, why couldn't she summon something like a horse, a tortoise? Gods she would even take a dog at this point. She was stuck in this suit; she wouldn't be able to live a life, won't be able to grow old, to have kids, nothing.
She couldn't even marry him not like this. She had just come to terms with it, marrying Viscount Wardes, she was excited for that day, now it was nothing but a dream that will never come to fruition because of her gods damned familiar. "Why, are you doing this?" She wasn't expecting an answer; she just didn't know what to do.
MY PURPOSE IS TO ENSURE THE SUCCESS OF THE MISSION, YOU OPERATING THE SUIT IS NECESSARY TO COMPLETE THIS GOAL.
Clenching her hand into a fist, she punched the ground. "Then why do you need me? Why couldn't you do it on your own?" As the final words left her mouth, she realized how dumb of a question that was, it was apparent that the suit no doubt needed a host like a parasite.
NANOSUIT 2 IS THE CLOSEST THING TO A PERFECT WEAPON, HOWEVER, IT IS INCOMPLETE. OPERATOR IS REQUIRED.
Her head slumped back down, allowing her to see the floor now vacant of vomit. The surface was now reflective allowing her to see her reflection, only now with the helmet covering her head and face. She couldn't tell if it was the suits influence or just her mother's rule of steel, but she was mad, furious. This suit had taken everything from her. She unleashed a flurry of punches against her reflection to no effect. A sudden idea popped into her head, if this suit had taken everything from her, she would make damn sure that it couldn't complete its purpose, but she would need to figure that out first. "And what even is your mission," she asked continuing to gaze into her reflection.
THE COMPLETE ERADICATION OF ANY AND ALL CEPH ASSETS.
Ceph? Was that some sort of enemy of the suit? It had to be; perhaps it was a group of humans, or maybe some other race of demi-humans that she had yet to encounter. Grinding her teeth together, a new resolve filled her core. It didn't matter; she would find this ceph and aid them in ending whoever created this suit. Perhaps they would even be able to get this suit off of her? It mattered not that there was a human spirit trapped within this armour, he was probably here against his will. She might even be doing him a favour by taking revenge for him. Using a knee to support herself, she stood up. However, she would have to figure out what a Ceph was in order to help them.
Turning her gaze upwards, she spoke into the void. "I will aid you in your mission to destroy this Ceph. But first I need to understand what the Ceph are." Like every time before there was a pause between the question asked and the answer given.
ACKNOWLEDGED
The table in front of her faded, as the void began to brighten up, returning to the grey hexagonally horizon that she was more familiar with complete with the tall black hexagonal towers in the distance. In front of her two rows of hexagons raised slightly becoming platforms for dark silhouettes who seemed weren't human in any sense of the word, but their outline seemed familiar like she had seen them before.
THE CEPH ARE A RACE OF HIGHLY ADVANCED EXTRATERRESTRIALS THAT ARRIVED ON EARTH APPROXIMATELY 65 MILLION YEARS AGO.
Sixty-five million? What was this suit trying to pull, and what in god's name is an extraterrestrial?
BEINGS NOT OF THIS PLANET.
Louise attempted to wrap her mind around what the suit was telling her, but what did that mean. No matter how hard she thought of the word extraterrestrial she couldn't make heads or tails of the word, from the sound of it, it was Romalian in some sense. She let out a huff, she never liked Romalian it was so boring, and whenever her father had tried to teach it to her, she would always tune out. Before she could dwell on the word that had perplexed her, a faint the voice of her suit chimed in her ears.
PROCEED TO THE DESIGNATED WAYPOINT.
A blue hexagon appeared over the platform closest to her, which grabbed her attention. Cautiously she walked on over to the blackened silhouette that stood on the platform. Each step closer to the figure caused a new sense of familiarity to perk up within her
Upon stepping in front of the platform, it lit up, causing her to fall backwards as a terrified scream escaped her lips. In front of her was a demon, the one that had stabbed her in the gut.
THE CEPH STALKER IS THE SHOCK AND AWE TROOP OF THE CEPH'S COMBATIVE FORCE.
WITH IT'S AMPLE SPEED AND AGILITY IT CAN MANEUVER OVER EVEN THE HARDEST TYPE OF TERRAIN.
THEIR WEAPONS CONSIST OF TWO TITANIUM BLADES LOCATED ON ITS WRIST AS WELL AS THE SMALL PLASMA BASED WEAPON PLACED IN THE CENTER OF THE TWO BLADES.
THEY CAN BE DIFFERENTIATED FROM THE GRUNTS BY IT'S HUNCHED OVER APPEARANCE AND MORE ANIMALISTIC TACTICS.
The ceph, they were, the demons? No, this suit called them Aliens. But what were they doing here? Louise let out a growl, clenched her head, she couldn't comprehend what was in front of her. The demons the suit. What did it all mean, were their more demons? Her eyes shot open; there were more. This suits entire purpose was to destroy them meaning that there had to be more. Right?
PROCEED TO THE DESIGNATED WAYPOINT.
With the command of her suit, she did as she was told, walking to the other row where the blue hexagon laid. "What are the chances that there are more aliens then the ones we found in the water spirit domain."
100%
Her breath hitched in her throat, so there were more demons out there. She thought back to the destruction of the town and that horrific blob of human body parts. It was obvious that they were far more powerful than even most mages. Especially that large alien, that wielded that huge canon upon its arm like it was nothing but a sword.
THE CEPH GRUNT IS THE WORKHORSE OF THE CEPH'S MILITARY.
The voice of her suit broke her from her thought allowing her to realize that she stood in front of yet another alien, this one wielded the strange gun that she had previously used to defeat the aliens.
THE CEPH GRUNT MAKES UP THE LARGEST PORTION OF THE CEPH MILITARY.
WITH IT WEILDING ARMED WITH A PINCH RIFLE, A PLASMA BASED WEAPON, NO ARMOUR SAVE FOR THE NANOWEIVE OF THE SUIT CAN WITHSTAND ITS ATTACK.
IT IS ESPECIALLY DEADLY TO ORGANIC MATERIAL AS THE PLASMA IT FIRES BURNS AT 20 000 CELSIUS OR 36032 FAHRENHEIT.
Her eyes widened at the suit declaration not even the most powerful fire mages could reach those temperatures, was such a heat even possible? Wait, what about Tabitha? if they had hit her anywhere else what would have happened. Closing her eyes she took a deep breath calming herself. She couldn't think about what ifs, she needed to look forward.
With her fear slowly subsiding, she found herself growing disinterested with the monster in front of her. She needed more information if these things weren't demons then what were they doing with the water spirit? What was their motivation? "And what if their goal, she asked into the void as she reached out and ran her hand along the alien gun.
THE COMPLETE AND UTTER ERADICATION OF HUMANITY.
Her heart skipped a beat which threatened to ruin the cool composure she had built up in front of these inhuman monsters. "So, they can't be reasoned with?" As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized just how dumb of a question that was, of course, they couldn't be reasoned with if their goal is the destruction of all of humanity then the pleas of a single girl wouldn't sway them.
CAN YOU REASON WITH AN ANTHILL?
A scowl grew upon her face. Her suit was mocking her now. But she noticed something curious about what the suit had just told her. It compared the aliens to an ant hill. Which was just an odd comparison? "What do you mean?"
CEPH ACT AS A HIVE MIND.
Hivemind?
ANTS SHARE KNOWLEDGE WITH ONE ANOTHER, THEY MAY CONTAIN SEVERAL BODIES, BUT THERE IS ONLY ONE MIND.
"So, they don't have any sense of individuality?"
NEGATIVE
With nothing left to ask she turned towards the next silhouette, its massive frame gave her some idea that it was that cannon wielding alien. As she began to walk over to it, it lit up allowing her to see the menacing figure that had nearly killed her before. The red blob that made up its body, the dark red glow of its eyes and its immense height only added to the terror of facing such a beast, and that was before its weapons were taken into account.
THE CEPH DEVASTATOR UNIT IS THE CEPH'S BREAKTHROUGH UNIT.
CURRENTLY, THE HEAVIEST AND MOST DURABLE CEPH INFANTRY UNIT EVER ENCOUNTERED IT IS DELIVERED TO THE BATTLEFIELD VIA DROPPOD AND ARE USED TO DEFEND AND ATTACK KEY AREA'S USING THEIR LARGE X-PAC MORTER AND REAPER CANNON MINIGUN. THE CEPH DEVASTATOR WILL BE ONE OF YOUR TOUGHEST OPPONENTS YOU'LL FACE ON THE BATTLEFIELD.
It was odd how her suit seemed to almost admire the beast with its detailed description of it. Gazing up at the hulking monstrosity in front of her, Louise felt fear beginning to creep up within her. "And I'm supposed to be the one to stop them."
MY MISSION IS TO ERADICATE THE CEPH THREAT, AS YOU ARE THE ONE TO USE ME, THIS MISSION NATURALLY FALLS TO YOU.
So that was her purpose now, be some pawn to her familiar? But then, what were her options. These monsters were going to destroy humanity if she didn't do anything, but why her? Why did she have to give up her life for this thing? Why did she have to be the sacrificial lamb? She let out a sigh, she had been over this before, and at this point, it was growing tiresome. No, now that this was her purpose, she needed numbers. "And how strong is their army?" They couldn't have that many. Right?
AT THE BATTLE OF NEW YORK CEPH FORCES NUMBERED BETWEEN 1.2-2.6 MILLION TROOPS.
What?
THE BATTLE OF NEW YORK CONSISTED BETWEEN 1.-
"I know that!" She shouted into the void. How could there be that many, and just what was this New York?
NEW YORK IS ONE OF THE LARGEST URBAN CENTERS ON THE EAST COAST OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Her eye twitched as the realization hit her. This wasn't total troop number or a significant battle that ran across an entire border of a country; this was troop density in a single city. She fell to her knees in shock, how, how was she supposed to fight this. Falling forward, she caught herself with her arms forcing her to stare at the dark hexagonal floor. Unable to contain it she began to laugh. Her suit was insane. Absolutely Insane. Asking her to fight an army in the tens of millions at least. Did it have no sense of self-preservation?
Her laughing grew louder. It had to be lying; there was no way for a country to field an army that large, the number of logistics needed to keep that army fighting, food water, medicine. The suit had to be lying; it had to be there was no other explanation. But why. Why would it lie to her? No matter if it lied to her about this then there may be a chance for her to get out of the suit. But should she, what if that alien threat was still around, she could be the only one to be able to fight them, back in Tristian she was the only one that could go toe to toe against them.
THREAT DETECTED, ENDING SIMULATION.
"Wait!" She shouted as the void around her slowly faded. But it was no use, the wooden ceiling of the inn that she was staying at came back to her although the image was distorted it was as if. Her eyes suddenly shot wide as she realized she couldn't breathe. Air bubbles escaped her lungs as she began to panic. Placing both hands on the bottom of the tub she pulled herself out of the water and quickly flung herself over the side of it as she attempted to cough up whatever water was still in her lungs.
After several seconds hacking, up water she tossed her self-back into the tub allowing her to relax Looking around in a state of confusion, she found herself in the bathing tub in the center of the room. Letting out a sigh of relief, she let her head fall back into the water. Closing her eyes, she brought up a hand to rub her temples, as she began to process her next move. She had so much to do after heading home. She had to go grab a potion of rebirth for Cattleya all the while looking out for this Ceph threat.
Gritting her teeth, she covered her eyes with her hands. She could feel the tears begin to form as her mind come to a conclusion that she didn't even want to entertain. She would need to tell the viscount. Clenching her hand into a fist, she punches the side of the tub shattering the wood that made up the walls. As the water flowed out onto the ground. She quickly grabbed her fist in her other hand holding it back from causing any more damage while internally scolding herself for the outburst. Her mother wouldn't approve. of.. That... Her thoughts trailed of as she realized the worst person that she would have to tell would be her own mother. It would be like what happened when Cattleya was first found to be sick. If the stories were correct, then Mother had spent a year outside of the estate looking for the cure for her sister's illness.
No, that could wait till later, she already had enough on her plate before trying to figure out how she was going to deal with her parents. Mother was busy with the quarantine as it is, so it would no doubt buy her a lot of time to try and find a way to explain to her why she couldn't take off the suit.
Letting out a sigh she began Looking around, soon found Kirche standing in the window, showing no concern for the fact that she had almost drowned. Pushing herself to her feet, Louise stomped over to her, furious as to why she was left in that tub. But as she drew closer, she noticed the roaring fire that Kirche was staring at. Turning back to her she found Her cheeks were marred by tears that ran down her face, Louise watched her body shake as her grip on the window frame tightened.
Turning back to the fire Louise finally noticed that it encompassed the entirety of the docks. A horrified gasp escaped her lips, that was quickly silenced by her hands as she saw the RTN Henry's mass poking out of the top of the flames.
"What happened?" She muttered to herself.
Kirche, remained silent, instead choosing to watch the flames as tears continued to roll down her face. "It's ok Flame; you don't need to fight anymore." Her voice was broken and fragmented. Confused Louise turned away from the flames to look at her friend once more. Finally noticing that one of her eyes had turned a shade of blue, indicating that she was using familiar vision.
Upon realizing this, her head shot back to the ship. Kirche's familiar was still in there.
Kirche leaned forward as she closed her eyes, tears continuing to fall to the floor. "You can rest now. Baby."
EXPLOSION IMMINENT, RECOMMEND, TAKING COVER.
What? The boat was well over half a mile away they shouldn't be in any danger. Granted she was in no position of authority on the subject, but it was so far away.
Kirche pushed herself off of the windowsill and turned to rest her back on the wall next to it. Sobbing as she slid down to a sitting position. Turning away from her, Louise looked back at the burning dock. Her vision zoomed allowing her to see the various mounts attempting to flee from the flames. In a single moment, the dock exploded throwing a giant ball of fire into the sky which illuminated the night. The shockwave that followed took a single second to reach her, allowing her to witness the wave of destruction before it hit the inn.
Before she could do anything, she was thrown back, her vision blurring at the impact of her head upon the wooden floor. She let out a groan as the pain shot through her head. Opening her eyes, she found the ceiling above her spinning around. As the sound of destruction faded, the sound of ringing in her ears replaced it. Slowly she brought a hand to the back of her head and began stroking it in an attempt to dull the pain. Lifting her head, she saw that the windowsill had caved inward littering the room with glass and wood. "Kirche." She muttered.
As she began to look for the redhead, she felt liquid of some kind run down her for head. Raising a hand to her head, she pressed her head into her palm before pulling it back, finding her palm covered in blood, her blood. She let her head fall back onto the floor. Her suit could fix this; she thought through the dizziness. Lifting her head up once more, she looked around for the redhead finding her lying face down on her stomach. Flipping herself over onto her stomach, Louise crawled over to her friend, seeing that she was perfectly fine save for the fact that she was still sobbing. Pushing through the new wave of nausea, she pushed herself to her feet and stumbled over to the window.
Her jaw hung loose as she surveyed the damage. Over half the town that had surrounded the pier was either on fire or had been completely destroyed. Her gaze shifted to the streets below where she found people wandering aimlessly, covered in soot, seemingly in shock to the whole situation. "Partner!" a faint voice shouted, breaking through the ringing in her ears. Turning towards where she assumed the sound come from, she found Derf lying flat on the ground; his hilt popped out of his sheath.
"I'm-" She attempted but was silenced by a cough. "fine."
"You don't sound or look like it." The sword questioned.
Turning away, she found her helmet resting near him. "My suit can fix it." She told him as the ringing began to fade. This, however, was both a blessing and a curse. As with the ringing gone, she was able to hear the horror going on outside her window. Screams of people trapped under rubble, the roar of fire that was tearing through the wooden slums. Pushing past the thoughts, she stumbled over to her helmet, collapsing to her knees when she reached it. Grabbing it with both hands, she put it on.
BEGINNING REPAIR.
With those simple words, she felt the dizziness leave her in a single moment; her mind cleared itself allowing her to focus once more. The door in front of her was suddenly flung opened revealing her sister in her plague suit. Before she could say anything, her sister rushed her, grabbing both her arms in order to restrain her before examining her. "Elenore? What are you doing? I'm fine." She attempted to explain.
But it was no use; her sister didn't even pause to process what she had been told. "Take off your helmet." She commanded as she let go allowing her to move her arms once more. Pouting she raised both her hands to her helmet, and gave it a quick twist as she silently hoped that the suit had finished healing her. Pulling her helmet off, her sister lunged her hand at her chin grabbing it in a tight grip, and swiftly examined every inch of her face. When that was done, Louise's head was yanked downward giving her sister a clear view of her nearly hairless scalp. "What happened?"
"I, don't know, all I saw was the dock on fire. And then a large explosion." She replied continuing to be sister-handled.
"A rupture in the ballast tanks wouldn't cause this much destruction." Her sister mused as she let go. Elenore stepped back as she surveyed the room, her gaze locking on the redhead causing her eyes to widen. She looked back to Louise, before looking back at the redhead. Her mouth opening and closing as she did. Closing her eyes, Elenore took a deep breath.
Louise's eyes widened as she put two and two together. She had been supposed to be taking a bath and here was another woman in her room. "Elenore it's not what it looks lik-" But she was cut off.
"We're going to have to have a talk about the guests you let into our room. But it can wait till after this horrific day is done." Elenore walked over to Kirche, crouched down and rolled her over, beginning her examination. "And a Zerbst at that." Louise heard her mutter. After a minute, she stood up and turned back to her. "Well other than the distress she is currently going through she is fine." Elenore turned to the windowsill and walked over to it, following the same pattern of gaping at the destruction that she had done previously. "Founder."
Louise watched as her sister's head trailed down to the street level below. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her sister clench her hand into a fist. "You three!" Elenore suddenly shouted. "You're water mages are you not?" She paused seemingly waiting for an answer. "Then help the populace, you lazy half-wits!" Elenore turned back to her who simply stood on in shock. "I'm heading out; I expect you to remain here while I help the people." Before Louise could get a single word in Elenore jumped out of the window and into the streets below.
Breaking out of the stupor, Louise rushed forward to the window and watched as her sister ran off down the street helping the people along her way. Her head trailed up until she was back to staring at the burning dock which was acting as an artificial sun, continuing to illuminating the darkness.
Letting out a sigh, Louise put on her helmet and turned back to her friend who still lay on her back, an arm draped over her eyes. She wanted to do something, to try and comfort her in some fashion, but what could she do? She was never in a situation like this. Never experienced loss like this.
"Maybe you should leave her alone partner." Her sword commented, catching her attention. "The familiar master bond isn't something that is easily broken and when it is the surviving side ends up feeling as if they had lost a part of their soul."
Biting her lip, she turned back her friend. She would heed her blades advice; there was nothing right now that she could do or say that would get her out of the slump, she was in. "Louise!" a familiar voice shouted. Her eyes widened as she grew tense and blood ran cold. That voice belonged to Longueville. She slowly turned around finding the green haired dressed in a town's guards plague garb, in front of her was Wardes who had a dagger pressed up against his neck.
Her eyes widened. "Loungueville!?" What was she doing here? She should be locked up in th.. She did it, she had to have done it, it made too much sense, the ship blows up, and here she is safe and sound. Her head tilted towards the ground allowing her to see the legs of a person crushed beneath their own house. Louise felt a fire begin to burn within her, a new sense of rage, the woman in front of her, had caused so much death and destruction to this city to her life. "What did you do?" Louise growled clenching her fist.
IRREGULAR PATTERN FOUND IN THREAT,
ANALYZING, STANDBY.
"Nothing but a bit of revenge for what you did to my hand."
ANALISIS COMPLETE.
On the corner of her vision, she was able to make up several words. However, she ignored them
Muscle fatigue
Elevated cortisol levels
Sleep deprivation
There was not a shred of sympathy in her voice; she had no remorse for what she had done, the lives she had taken. She opened her mouth to speak, when a hand grabbed her on her shoulder and pulled her out of the way allowing Kirche to take her place. "You, did this?" She asked venom soaking her voice.
Louise was shocked, to say the least, the fire that had burned within her had just withered away consumed by the raging forest fire in front of her. "Yes, I may have had a hand in this?" Loungueville remarked.
The suited mage found herself nearly gasping as she continued to look on at the redhead whose hair began to ignite only for moments later be put out. She had assumed that she must be seeing things when a fire started near the small string that held her braid together igniting it and subsequently throwing her hair into chaos.
Kirche through an open hand behind her. Louise felt confused by her action when her hatchet flew by her face and into the awaiting hand causing her to let out a small gasp at the display of wandless magic something that only her mother was said to be capable of. "You're the one who killed my familiar." The air around grew chilly as she watched the fire within her friend grow more intense. This wasn't just some forest fire; this was a fire that looked as if it could consume the world. "I had to watch him burn, trapped beneath a wooden support. Because of you."
The killing intent emanating from her friend was almost palpable. It was such a far cry from her easy-going nature that Louise could only continue to stare. "Kirche?" She muttered.
Loungueville smugly smirked at the redhead. "And what do you plan to do about that Zerbs-" a red-hot chain shot right out of the redhead's arm flying right by the green-haired woman's head causing the vail of confidence to instantly vanished replaced by a look of fear to take its place. "Hey! Don't you see I have a hostage!?" She shouted pressing the dagger closer to the Viscounts neck
Looking back to her friend Louise found Kirche's hair was set ablaze, it seemed as if it was a fire that had no intention of dying anytime soon. Looking at her hands, she found another sharp chain being formed on her arm. Her suit quickly calculated the trajectory of the chain, forming a white solid line in her vision. Following it, she found that it went directly through the Viscount. Time slowed as the chain shot out of her arm. Her body sprang into action before her mind could completely comprehend the action, grabbing the chain stopping it from killing the pair.
The redhead shot turned to her a look of betrayal clear on her face. "What are you doing!?" She shouted, her ordinarily brown eyes replaced with red which was a window into the flame within her. A wave of fear to overtake her senses. It was as if she was looking into the eyes of a fire spirit that she had wronged.
No, she wouldn't be afraid, her suit would protect her, and she needed to stand up for herself. "You were going to kill them both!" She yelled as she stepped up to her rival.
"Sometimes sacrifices need to be made Louise!"
"I won't let you kill my fiancé for your revenge!"
"It wasn't go-" Before she could complete her retort the sound of volley fire cut them off.
"Seems like my backup has arrived." Loungueville chuckled her confidence returned. The pair turned back to the window allowing them to see the ranks of soldiers down the street wearing similar garbs with the only difference being the fact that they didn't wear any of the bird beak masks, instead opting for cloths covering their mouth and goggles to protect their eyes. There was no doubt in her mind that these men belonged to Reconquista as they readied their wind rifles. The head of the small squad was mounted on a horse guiding them "Well, leave you two to your squabbles. I need to deliver our latest prisoner to Cromwell and sell that ring."
Ring?
"Wait!" Kirche shouted as the pair hopped off of the roof and onto the street, a golem swiftly formed on the cobblestone road and just as fast took the viscount before the trio began sprinting past all the wounded citizens and dazed guards in the direction of the Reconquista line which parted for them.
As soon as they were through the line fired killing a large number of people on the street. "You let them get away!" Kirche shouted her hair still set ablaze. She did. She let them get away She simply ignored her, however, she needed to catch up to them. Racing over to her weapons, she swiftly put them on, however ignoring the belt. Instead, she placed Derf up to her hip, where after a small click sound it stayed put. Grabbing her bow, she looked around for her quiver, finding it laid out in a mess by the bedside with arrows strewn about the place. "Are you even listening?"
Grabbing as many as she could she placed them into the quiver which she attached to her lower back, leaving a single arrow in her hand. She raced back to the window just in time to witness another volley being fired.
CLOAK ENGAGED.
With her body now hidden from the world, she leaned out of the window and took aim at the leader who continued to command his troops without a single worry. She breathed in as she pulled back on her bowstring. Her breathing slowed as her vision zoomed in on the man's head. Letting out a breath she fired. The arrow tearing through the air, impaling the man's head.
The unit he commanded didn't seem fearful that their commander had been killed. Instead of acting in a panic, the unit divided up and marched into nearby alleyways. Deactivating her cloak, Louise stepped up onto the windowsill, preparing to give chase.
"Louise, do you even know where you're going?" She said nothing, lowering her head. Just what could she do in this situation? The ring could figure out what direction she needed to go in, but that would only work if they stood still.
MAGICAL SIGNATURE DETECTED.
As if her prayers were answered a blue hexagon popped up in her vision that was getting progressively further and further away.
LOCATE AND RETRIEVE THE VISCOUNT.
A smile perked up onto her face. She could find them. Looking up at the sky, she saw several dragon knights flying a weird coat of arms that looked nothing like the Albionese. "My suit is tracking them." Without another word she leapt from the window and landed on the nearly empty street. The few people that were still around were tending to the wounded and dead from the volley fire. In the distance, she could hear continued volley fire as well as a cannon every now and again.
This was way too confusing for her. She was told that Reconquista was disorganized and low on supplies. But the way they took this town. This was anything but. And the fact that they have dragon support only meant that they had a surplus of food, but how? Either way, this limited her avenues of movement in the city, she needed to stay on the streets or those dragons would tear her up.
"Wait!" Kirche shouted from above her. Before she could look up, the redhead landed beside her, her hair no longer on fire and helmet in hand.
Looking towards her Louise raised an eyebrow from beneath the mask. "What are you doing Kirche?"
"I know how much you want your boyfriend" Heat began to rise to her cheeks. "But you're my only ticket to finding that bitch. So I'm coming with you."
Louise turned back to face the blue hexagon. "Fine but you better keep up with me." In a single moment, she sprinted down the street, dodging rubble and wounded while weaving between streets and alleyways. Glancing behind her, she found Kirche keeping up with her by way of levitation. Turning back to the path in front of her, she found herself closing in on the blue hexagon.
But as she continued to chase after the blue hexagon, a new feeling of unease began to overtake her. Where were the attackers? They sort of just left after their commander was killed, but they didn't run off. They calmly marched away as if this was all normal. And the dragons, it was obvious that they saw her, she was running through the streets faster then any person should. But they didn't attack her.
Her mind was brought back to the present as she found herself in front of her was a white curtain, the blue hexagon resting still on the other side of it. Passing through it she found herself on the main street, in front of her was single stone pillar surrounded by the bodies of guards that were too many to count.
CRITICAL THREAT DETECTED.
She tilted her head to the left finding three groups of Reconquista soldiers supported cannons with their backs to the open gate of the city. All their weapons were aimed at them. Time once again slowed down as she looked back at Kirche finding her in a similar state of shock. She was close enough to the rock to make it and use it as cover from the assault, and Kirche could easily put up a wind barrier to protect herself from the attack. But did she have enough time to cast such a spell? No, she couldn't take that chance. Planting a foot in front of her, she stopped her forward momentum in a single second, turned and lunged at her. Kirche let out a soft grunt as she was pulled to the ground.
MAXIMUM ARMOUR.
"Fire!"
The area was blanketed by a thick layer of smoke as the deafening roar of the cannon blocked out any other sound. Quickly climbing up her rival, she wrapped her arms around her head and pulled her into her chest off of her rival while angling her back to the firing line doing her best to shield her friend from the incoming attack with her tiny body.
Grapeshot bounced off her armour taking with it a little bit of suit energy the volley of the less deadly wind rifle fire soon following it. Louise could only close her eyes in an attempt to shut out the world, but nothing could stop her from hearing the shots bounce off the armour and nothing could prevent her from witnessing the energy bar of the suit being depleted.
75%
They kept shooting
50%
The second cannon fired
25%
And yet another volley was fired
0% SUIT RUPTURE DETECTED.
Pain grabbed hold of her once again. The shots tore into her back, causing her to let out a pained scream at the top of her lungs. Her world was consumed with this feeling, this pain. She gripped the girl she was protecting harder as the fear of death loomed over her like it had so many other times. Only now she doubted she was going to get out of it. This was what Albion was famous for. Even with their old muskets, their tactics of volley fire allowed them to defeat any country due to just how effective their musketeers. The only country that ever stood a chance against them was Tristian due to the population of mages we housed. But she was no mage; she didn't have the magic to fight this, not while she was shielding her rival.
"Fir-"
"Ignus!"
An explosion rocked the street accompanied by a scream of several men and woman as the pain began to subside. Opening her eyes, she found the burning eyes of Kirche looking past her. Following her gaze, she found that the ranks had been broken, with most of the center column of troops lying dead or wounded on the ground. The centermost cannon seemed to have vanished the only evidence of the device was the shrapnel that littered the buildings around it and the wheel of the pieces of the wooden platform it rested on resting beside the duo. The remaining soldiers seeing that they were outmatched, marched off into the town opting to leave their dead and wounded where they were.
"Can you get off me!?"
Looking back at Kirche she found her scowling at her through the small T shaped helmet. "Sorr-"
"Don't apologize. Just bring me to that monster." Louise bit her lip, and slowly stood up, Kirche following her.
Turning back to the stone pillar, she found that the blue hexagon was no longer there. Looking around, she discovered that the blue hexagon had long left the town, already nearly a mile away already. "They already left the town?" She said breathlessly. How fast were they? They must have been using earth magic to get that far. Perhaps even travelling underground.
Out of the corner of her eye, she found Kirche already making her way to the busted open gate, only to pause when she realized that she wasn't being followed. "Well come on Louise, we have to go after them."
"But the to-"
"Louise!" She growled cutting her off, before quickly regaining her composer. "Think of the big picture here. I know how much you wish to impress your family, the trials that one must face when you grow up in a household with such high expectations." She turned and pulled off her helmet allowing her to see the warm smile. "If you were able to apprehend the person who had caused such destruction then your family will certainly see your value." She opened her mouth. "And besides, you have a fiancé to rescue right?"
Louise bit her lip once more. Her stance with her family wasn't in the best position, and any opportunity to improve that would be good to ease the blow of letting them know that she was stuck in her suit. And on top of that if she didn't go after Wardes then who would. What if he caught the plague? Then what.
But what about Elenore, what would she think? She hadn't even left a note for her. She would think I was either dead or kidnapped she very much doubted that she would die in this attack or be captured. "Louise we don't have much time, every second you waste they get further and further away."
Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it! She didn't have enough time to think, to weigh her options. She looked between the waiting Kirche and the blue hexagon which was getting further and further away. "I'm sorry." She muttered under her breath. Looking at the waiting fire mage, she gave her a small nod before began the journey towards their objective.
Soon leaving the town, she couldn't help but hope that Elenore was safe and that she made the right choice.
xXXXx
NANOSUIT DATABASE UPDATED
Cromwell light support cannon.
Weight. 1200 Lbs assembled 150 Lbs pounds disassembled
Class. Support gun
Ammo weight. 6 Lbs
As the name suggests this cannon is used in the support role. It is able to do this due to how it's constructed which incorporates a special windstone rod in order to make the movement and deployment of this gun as quick and painless as possible.
Moving over long distances the cannon is towed by horse, however once near a battlefield, a specially designed shaft made of windstone is shoved down the barrel of the cannon making extremely light allowing the metal cannon to be moved by hand to where it is needed.
The name Cromwell was created after the first major victory over the crown after General Willam used these cannons to great effect at the battle of Farnfoss where he was able to ambush lure individual units into their line of fire, by using their complicated city layout to their advantage.
Lover stones.
The lover stones defy what modern science has come to expect from natural rock formations. they come in both "Male" (blue) and "Female" (Violet.) and seem to have a connection to one another, this causes the stones to glow bright when in close proximity to only a faint shimmer when separated over a large distance. But the most peculiar thing has to be the "breeding" element to the stone. when the female and male come into contact with each other they begin to grow while glowing bright enough to blind those without eye protection.
Originally discovered in West Gallia five centuries ago by the famed explorer Jacques Cartier, in his last expedition westward and of his last discoveries before disappearing. The original use of such an item was to aid Dragon knights and other mounted riders find their way back to port if a heavy cloud had rolled in.
But as the literacy of the population began to pick in the past century. The idea of the rings changed. Suddenly the military application was looked at as a way to always find your way back to your lover. This was aided by the fact that lover's rings are incredibly cheap due to the self-creating nature allowing commoners to more easily purchase one.
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A/N
So I know I've been gone a while and I want to say sorry for that and I hope that this long chapter makes up for it.
As for the story, everyone is on Albion proper now. Louise Kirche Karin and Tabitha. Expect some more action coming soon probably in the next few chapters and some reveals.
Also, you may have noticed a new cover page for the fic. and that would be my OTP for this fic. Louise x M2 Browning-kun.
Now hear me out, you have to look at the positives of this magnificent piece of equipment.
It provides great fire emotional support something that she really lacks in canon.
He's tall dark and handsome coming in at a nice 5ft 4.
He's big but not too fat at 80lbs without ammo.
And finally he has experience, I mean browning-kun has been around since 1933 for ped sakes.
Now I'm going to stop this joke.
Anyways I hope you have an awesome weekend.