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 26 = Vanguard
"Talks"
'Thoughts'
*Sound Effects*
15:00 Croix's House
Croix and others came back to pick up Gilbert and Laura. They now had a new objective to do.
"Gilbert? Laura? Are you there?" Croix called.
Not long after, the two came down from upstairs.
"Hello Croix. We got a new task?" Gilbert asked.
"Yeah, We'll go to Dreamy Field's underground passage. I'll explain more on the way there." Croix said. Gilbert nodded in understand. He then noticed that there's an extra person in the party, or more like robot dog, he can't decide. He recognized the new member right away.
"Well, it seems that we teamed up again." Gilbert said to Shun.
"Right." Shun said, more as matter of fact. As they walk outside, Cocona noticed something on Laura's neck, something that looked more like a bite mark.
"Uhm, Laura, there's a mark on your neck. Did you get hurt?" She asked. The girls overheard her and see Laura's neck too.
"Laura, are you…" Luca want to ask something but quickly cut by Laura, with a very red face.
"Uh, it's nothing! Really!" she quickly said. Luca and Amarie giggled at her reaction. Cocona was confused of what that could mean, while Lady Cloche pretended not to hear that.
"What are you talking about?" Cocona asks.
"Again, this is nothing that kids should know or understand." Jacqli said.
"I'm not a kid!" She complained.
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15:40 Dreamy Fields
The party went back to the cave where they went to Kanakana Pier before. This time, though, they were using an airship, so they arrived at the location much faster. They just needed to take a different path when on the intersection.
"This place again huh?" Gilbert said.
"Yeah. What's wrong with it?" Croix asked.
"Well, reminds me when earlier when I needed to get out of Kanakana Pier. I had to run from that place to here, until I got outside. It was nonstop, because of robots chasing me from behind," Gilbert said.
"Well, at least it trains your stamina!" Cocona remarked.
"Yeah." Gilbert rolled his eyes.
Not long after the party stopped at a hologram panel or something that looked like it from Gilbert's point of view.
"Here it is. The gate to the Secret Space. I authenticate, and the gate should open," Shun said. He then stepped into the hologram, after a while a circle appeared.
"Right, now we can move on." He said.
The party stepped into the portal and went into a new area, then resumed walking.
'If Shun can operate that teleportation machine, maybe he know how it works. Maybe the Goddess also know it works, but I can't just ask them how…' Gilbert thought deeply about it for a while, and came to a realization: he was tagging along with Croix and others, who were trying to save this land, so he was 'technically' helping them in this task. This would make them consider returning the favor to him by sharing their technologies. Yeah, tthat might work. Good thing that he was helping Croix and others in their quests now…
"Gilbert, what's wrong?" Laura asked to the man that was deeply in his thought.
"Ah, nothing important. Really." Gilbert said.
After walking for a while, the party reached a panel. It seemed that it was the control panel controlling the coupler.
"I'm going to purge it, you're sure, right?" Shun asked.
"…Yes." Lady Cloche said.
Before Shun could do anything to the panel, an alarm went off, and then some robots fell down, unknown from where, and ready to attack the party.
"Huh? Tsk…What an annoying thing!" Shun said. Gilbert quickly prepared his guns and shield. There was no way hiding or flanking them, as this attack was too unpredictable, and there were no hiding places here.
'Good thing that this place will be purged.' He thought. Gilbert then quickly went in front of Laura.
"Eh? Gilbert?" Laura asked, surprised that Gilbert would be protecting her, since he always went hiding and took out enemies from nowhere when in battle.
"I'll cover you, okay?"
"Okay, I believe in you Gilbert!" She said, and then started by helping Luca charging her song magic. Gilbert suppressed the robot's attack, thanks to the target marker utility marking enemy's movement, and the shield did well in protecting against lasers. He didn't try to shoot back with M107, since one of his hand holding the shield, and another with the P90. Even if he had put his P90 away, he couldn't shoot the M107 one handed, as the weapon was too heavy.
After a while, Luca finished her song magic. A little girl sitting on a ring showed up and somehow turned the enemies into a diamond and smashed it. Then the diamond was broken, along with the enemies, ending the battle.
The party sheathed their weapons. Croix had something on his mind though.
"Hey Shun." He called the robot dog.
"What's wrong?"
"Is it really impossible to recover the lift generators?"
"Not if Frelia still had enough strength, but it's not a good idea right now." Shun gave the answer.
"So, what's going on between this world and Frelia's power?" Jacqli asked. Shun wondered how to best explain this to them.
"This is a simple way of putting it. This world… is Frelia's Song Magic." He finally explained.
Jacqli was surprised by this, which Gilbert found weird. 'How can she be not surprised when facing a giant monsters back at Lakra's chamber but surprised that this world is created by song magic?'
"Right. The same as what you sing. Frelia created this world. So, do you understand it all now? You have experience, so you should know what happens when you run out of energy while singing. That's why it's not a good idea to try and keep Dreamy Fields afloat," Shun continued his explanation. Croix nodded in understanding.
"So it's true that this world heading towards its end…" Lady Cloche said.
Shun then proceed with the panel. Not long after, an alert sound was heard again, and this time a quake shook the place.
"Now, let's hurry and go outside, this place will fall soon," Shun said.
The party ran back to the gate, getting out from the place.
"Shun, may I ask how long until this place is do-" Gilbert asked while running.
"Save your breath, just keep running!" Croix cut into his question.
Gilbert had a hard time breathing, thanks to his arsenal that he had to carry. When the party arrived at the gate, he used the time to take a breath.
'Circulating oxygen…Take deep breath while you still can…Keep focused on running again…' Gilbert thought. After the portal took the party out from the secret place, they started running again. As they crossed a big hallway, Gilbert stumbled and fell behind. He cursed his luck as the place shook even harder.
"Whoa!" Croix said, the place shaking so hard that it's hard to even stand still, and then they see the land's falling.
"It fell…" Jacqli said.
Laura noticed that Gilbert isn't with them.
"Wait, where's Gilbert?" Laura asked. She started to panic and went back to the big hallway. The outer wall's falling apart now. She found Gilbert sitting near the edge of the hallway. He appeared to be shaken from the incident.
"…That was close." Gilbert said to himself. He can feel his heart still beating very fast.
"Are you okay Gilbert?" Laura asked.
"Well…Sort of. My body isn't hurt, my mind is." Gilbert said.
As they two talking, Lady Cloche looked on from the edge of the land.
"The world is nearing its end…What can I do?" She said.
"Lady Cloche, it's okay." Croix said.
"Yeah! You're just tired so you're seeing things in a negative light! Let's rest a while at home. I'm also kinda worried." Luca added.
"Once we return to the Grand Bell, we'll be overwhelmed with work. Let's rest at Luca's." Jacqli said.
"Yeah… Good idea." Croix said.
Gilbert started to stand up and got ready to walk again, this time to Luca's house. A rest after all that running will do them some good.
"Hey…What is this smell…" Amarie asked
"Ah, sorry, that's mine…Seeing the land fall in front of me was really shocking. I still can remember how the ceiling nearly hit me and the floor started to fall," Gilbert said.
"…Get some new pants, Gilbert. Seriously." Cocona said.
17:00 Luca's House
The party went into Luca's house. Ms. Reisha seemed surprised.
"Luca! …Welcome home." She greeted
"Um…The earthquake…Were you okay...?" She asked, looking concerned this time.
"Yes, perfectly fine. It didn't shake too much around here."
"Oh…good. I was a little…I was just a little bit worried…" Luca said.
"Luca…"
'Maybe Ms. Reisha's concern earlier makes Luca's heart soften. Good to know that the tension between them is getting better. Man, this makes me want to see my family…' Gilbert thought when he saw the scene.
"Oh, um, Lady Cloche! Let's get some rest upstairs!" Luca said, and then she brought Lady Cloche upstairs.
"She's changed a little…" Leglius commented.
"Yes, it seems so." Ms. Reisha replied. Croix and others rested in the living room.
"Um, Laura, how was my guard back there?"
"Uhm, you were good Gilbert! I hope that you'll want to do it again for me…" Laura said.
"Uh…Don't know about that. I feel more useful when I was flanking from somewhere, and not directly involved in battle," He gives his honest answer.
"Well, it's okay if you said that, it just that I feel more protected when you do that…" Laura said. After that, Gilbert felt his PDA shaking, the call had to be from the support team.
"Hello Gilbert. I'll straight to the point: we'll teleport in some more things for you," Billy said.
"Why so hurry?" He asked.
"Well, you want me to bring a joke about how you wet your own pants?" Gilbert gives him a glare over the PDA.
The party then stood aside as a few things materialized. Gilbert noticed that there's a similar black pants that were teleported to him; he quickly took them and got changed.
"Good things that you teleported that quickly, he's smelling bad with his wet pants." Cocona said.
Jacqli took one of several books that was teleported along with the pants. She seemed interested in it.
"What's that book?" Gilbert asked.
"Well, that's some books for you to read, also to introduce the literature from here in this world." Billy said. Gilbert looks at the cover of the books, it was written in what looks like Japanese alphabets.
"Uh…I can't read…"
"Then learn. I'm sure that your new girlfriend will teach it for you." He said while giving a wink to him. Gilbert sighed, as Jacqli quick read the book.
"What's this about?" She asked.
"Um…About some scientist who goes through experiment because a species of bunnies was going extinct, but the experiment goes wrong and the scientist was killed by the mutated bunnies that he created. The protagonist will be sent there to clean the mess up," Billy explained. Jacqli looks at the book again, and there was part where the protagonist slaughters the mutated bunnies in gory details.
"Gilbert, mind if I take it after you done with this?" Jacqli said.
"Sure, if you want. You interested in that book?" Gilbert said.
"I know someone who it will interest," She said, while having a smile on her face, somehow it looked like an evil smile.
00000
"She took the bait, guys. Congrats," Major said to the anonymous persons that sent him the books. There are some joyous expressions on their faces.
"Trolling Her through Jacqli…heh. I can't imagine her reaction when she reads the book," Hax said.