Chapter 29: The Lacour Hope

-Lacour castle laboratory, Leon

Take the time to get things right; get things done soon. The conflict of interests made Leon cross. On one hand, if he didn't construct these parts right, the cannon would fail while building energy and possibly blow up, killing those around it instead of protecting them. On the other hand, if he didn't get those parts done as soon as possible, the hordes of demons and monsters would overwhelm Lacour Castle. The knights and guards were getting weary, which meant that the return of Claude and the others was a relief to have fresh support. Yet the Elurian devils seemed content to continually raise more demons as if their lives were cheap.

The energy stone was to be inside the cannon's mechanisms, so looks weren't important. They could stop the refinement once the crystals lost their maddening influence and became safe. At this point, most of the crystals were pulverized into dust. This was blown into the tubing that made up the vacuum chamber, vent, and barrel; the crystals weren't an ideal substance to make pipes out of, so this was the quickest method. However, they had to be sure that the dust stuck to the tubing cleanly and thoroughly. Portions where the base metal would be exposed to the building energy could weaken and break, causing a premature release.

Fortunately, a test with specific light spells and a dark room would cause the crystals to glow again, showing how much surface was covered. Leon also found that if he entered a meditative quiet, he could hear the energy stone hum. Like with the moat the other night, he could tell in that way where bare spots were and patches were needed. That was quite a help, as looking over the glowing crystals in a dark room irritated his eyes after a while. He just couldn't explain why he could suddenly hear things that shouldn't make a sound.

Now there was a decision: finish coating the last few pieces of tubing, or have a break for lunch. Leon really wanted to get this done. Once this step was complete, it just needed to be installed in the base cannon and hooked together. Then again, he had been at this since early this morning, and now that he was told about food being in the lab, his stomach growled some. Mistakes might be made while he was hungry. After making sure the pipe he had was ready, he set it with the other completed pieces and went to the break room.

His parents were in there, but it was another of the adult scientists who first spoke to him. "Glad to see you join us, Master Leon," he said, as if he wasn't really that glad. But then he said, "You really seem to be zipping along getting those pipes done precisely. Good for youthful senses being quick."

"I worry about them getting done a little too quickly, but it is nice progress," Murdoch said.

"He's not been making any mistakes, I've been double-checking," another said.

"It's a simple process," Leon said, irritated. He had a theory that adults liked to make things complicated: saying one thing while meaning another but claiming not to be lying. And they liked kids, but once the kids got too close to their intelligence, they started to hate such kids instead, trying to get them to fit back into the mold. That would explain how most adults treated him. Thankfully, there were a few exceptions like Nicolus and Claude.

Unfortunately, the exceptions didn't always include his parents. Murdoch kept questioning him about the whole process of making the Lacour Hope, even now when it was very nearly done. And he was nitpicking to find anything to lecture Leon about. "You have to break up the surface into even spaces and examine each space to make sure the glow is level and unbroken," he said.

"I know, that's what I'm doing," Leon said. Then, in a hopeful attempt to get him to stop lecturing, he asked, "Hey, Poppa? If elements of heraldry made sounds when not being cast, what would they sound like?" Because one explanation for him hearing water and crystals was that he was actually hearing the magical elements of these elements instead. Somehow, he couldn't quite explain that yet.

"They wouldn't make sounds if they're not in use," Murdoch said. "The elements are basic things, like the ground, the water, the sky, the plants, and so on. If they make sound, then something is being done with them or they're vibrating."

"But what if it was like you could hear the potential magic and power within them?" he rephrased it.

"That's not possible, although some people can train themselves to see heraldic power better than the average person." He stated it like absolute fact, not willing to consider that it might be possible.

Leon tilted his ears down, but before he could reply, Florice came back into the room. Since Leon had come in late, most of the other lab workers were back at work by now. "How are we going to decide who should fire the weapon first?" she asked.

"I can handle it," Leon said.

"Well other than the three of us, the other best capable who knows enough about it would have been Nicolus," his father said. "But he's gone now."

"Well you're better at vacuum magic than me," she said to Murdoch, not looking at Leon at all. "And I'd really rather not operate the weapon if I don't have to."

"I'll handle it then," he said.

Leon bit his tongue trying not to lose his temper. Sheesh, he was the lead scientist around, even if they were his parents. And this was his invention! He'd come up with the method and means mostly on his own. The main things others had done were clean up his furiously written notes, answer some questions that he wasn't certain of, and helped with the crafting of it. He had done the design and much of the building. Was his father trying to steal his work, his moment of triumph?

"Good, because I'd rather Leon not be around it either," Florice said. "A weapon like that is too dangerous for a child to be around while its operational."

"I know exactly how the thing works and how it might fail, Momma," Leon said.

She bowed her head. "It's unfortunate that you do. But with the enemy our country has, we don't have much choice but to accept what ideas come."

"What, so it was only accepted out of desperation?" Leon asked harshly. Ugh, adults! Why couldn't his parents be some of the more reasonable ones?

"Well you are a smart child and we're proud of you," Florice said. "Still, this has all been a bit much and some of the others are complaining you could be more modest."

"They'll appreciate it when it works," Leon said. "Besides, are you really telling the truth about me being your child? I've heard some stories about a ghost who looks similar to me around."

Unexpectedly, his mother got angry. "Don't listen to her! She gave you up because she couldn't protect you. We've done our best for you, but why do you have to be so strange?" Then she ran off.

"Florice!" Murdoch said, nearly running out of the room after her. But then he paused. "You know you shouldn't agitate your mother like that. Now she'll be in one of those moods; it was months before we could get her back to normal last time."

"Well why does she have to be so difficult like that?" Leon asked, his face burning in embarrassment. "It's not like there's any warning, she just turns face so quickly."

"It's not her fault," he insisted. "And you're right, you're not our child. You came from some half-dead stranger who fell from the sky. I thought we should have just left you because you obviously weren't a normal child, but she insisted. Agh, Florice." He then went off after her.

"Why do you both have to be so difficult?" Leon grumbled.

Adults just didn't like clever children. Besides, this was ridiculously irresponsible of them for running off in strange moods at the final stage of a major construction. Not to mention calling him strange... he wasn't strange, just different! Leon sniffled a little, but then clenched his fists. No, he wasn't going to be irresponsible like them. He was going to finish work on the Lacour Hope and save people. Then, everyone would know that it was his genius that did so and would honestly respect him.

After rubbing his tears away and blowing his nose, Leon went back to the work area with the pipes. One of the other lab workers was there, looking over an uncoated pipe and nearby diagrams to see what should be done. From the look of it, no others had been coated. "I can handle this quick and proper, so I'll be doing this stage, thank you."

The lab worker scowled for a moment, then took the expression away. "If that's what you want, Master Leon." He then put the pipe down walked off.

"You'll be taking back your rudeness, all of you," Leon grumbled as he took the pipe. Before long, he was able to get his mind off stupid adult things and focus entirely on the soothing hum of the energy stone dust.

After this, maybe he'd ask the moat if he should stop listening to the adults once he'd proven himself.


-Lacour castle wall, Ashton

The monsters that were coming to attack Lacour were the same ones who ravaged the countryside of Eluria months ago. Maybe some of them were even transformed humans; there really wasn't a way to tell as they fell as monsters, not people. Doing this all over again was like reliving a nightmare… Ashton shook his head, trying to dispel those thoughts. He couldn't afford to be afraid again. Although his country had fallen, these demons seemed interested in overtaking the whole world. They had to do whatever they could to stop them. At least no one was going insane and turning into demons here. Perhaps that only happened in close proximity to the Sorcery Globe. But then that didn't account for some stories his friends had, like a man named Alen who was saved by Rena's magic, or a master mage who let himself be turned and couldn't be saved. Both them, and a handful of other tales going around the castle, seemed to be connected to energy stone. Perhaps the Globe was made of it.

Ururun poked him. Hey, you got friendly company.

"Thanks," he said quietly, turning to see Rena coming along the castle wall with a basket under her arm and a water jug tied to her belt. "You okay on your own up here?"

"I'm fine," she said, giving him a smile. "The castle servants had been asked to send supplies up here, but they were scared. I ended up volunteering. Here, I brought some sandwiches from the kitchen, plus water and medicine if you need it."

"Thanks, I could use some extra healing potions," Ashton said, taking the empty containers he had from his bag to trade her for new ones. "Is there some roast beef sandwiches in there?"

"Yeah, there should be a few left," she said, getting the potions swapped before looking for the sandwich. "Are you doing okay on this part of the wall on your own?"

He pointed over to a nearby guard tower. "There's other guys who have patrol routes overlapping mine, and the guard tower will call attention to someone who needs help. It's not that bad. Plus, it's not been long enough since the last wave to fit their attack patterns."

"Who said we all need to fit a pattern?" a rough voice said from an impossible position beyond the wall.

Quickly stepping to put himself between Rena and the voice, Ashton turned to it and saw that it was a winged devil, with black bat wings, a whip-like tail, and violet skin. This was more like what the transformed humans had been like, the strong ones like the king. However, it seemed to be on its own. It grinned with thin lips as the alarm sounded from a nearby tower.

"So quick to fight, even if you can't do so very well," the devil said, smug in hovering a few feet from the wall. Rena cast Starlight to strike it without leaving her spot, but it merely glanced off a shimmering polygonal shield that only appeared when hit.

"What do you want?" Ashton asked. He was pretty sure that Gyoro and Ururun's breath attacks could hit the devil, but it was just far enough away that it'd only get caught in the edge of the attack. If the attack got past that shield.

"Hee, well I'd love to come in and wreak havoc, but I have different orders," it said. "I'm not like the rest, see? I have a name: Shin. What's your name?"

"Ashton Anchors," he replied, not sure what this was about.

"Not you," the devil said dismissively. "I have no interest in men. You girl, what's your name?"

"Err, Rena Lanford," she said, keeping close to Ashton.

Shin giggled. "Oh, really? How intriguing. I wonder if you're that Rena."

"What Rena?" she asked.

That just made him laugh again. "It's a story, an old old story that's older than any story you've ever heard. I can guarantee it. But see, they say that one time, a woman named Reema was trying to harness a power that was so immense that it could put time and space at her bidding. Only, it didn't work. There was a failure and dozens of people died as a result. However, they say that one person survived because Reema managed to use a shred of that power to launch her young daughter Rena far away into the future. Calculations show that, hmm, she might have ended up in this time. What do you think?"

"I think you're making that up," Rena said.

"Maybe you just need to learn a thing or two about yourself," Shin said. "Hmm, well I think I've got what I came for..." he was interrupted by a bolt from a crossbow, fired by a knight further down the wall. Shin screeched and cast a spell that sent a horridly hot gale that burned their skin; Ashton grabbed hold of Rena so she didn't get blown off the wall. "Pah, don't disrupt me," Shin grumbled. "I'll have you know that I purposely held back, so that you know that I chose not to kill you here. Otherwise, you wouldn't be standing here as any more than a pile of ashes. Hmph." Shin then took off through the air at speeds that not even the fastest bird could match.

"Are you all right?" Ashton asked, taking one of his hands of her shoulder.

"Yeah, here," she cast her healing spell, but the crossbow knight wasn't in range to be helped with it. "Probably for the best that it didn't stick around. Oh, right, your sandwich." She got a roast beef sandwich out and gave it to him. "I hope things are quieter."

"Can't count on that, but thanks for the supplies," he said. "Be careful finishing your rounds."

Rena smiled. "Sure, got to do what I can to help you guys out. I'll see you later." She then headed off to heal up the other knight and continue on down the wall.

Rumor had it that the Lacour Hope was due to be completed later today. Once it had been fired, it wouldn't be long before they would sail for Eluria. The king planned on sending the cannon with them to help blast out the coast to make it safe for landing. Hopefully it would deter the monsters from continuing their battles here.

But if they had more like Shin, maybe not.


-Precis

The Lacour court was so annoying! They had sent the guys off to help defend the wall almost immediately, but not the girls. Apparently they thought girls weren't good at fighting, even though Leon could tell them she was good with her punching arm too. Rena didn't mind; she helped out in the infirmary with Bowman and ran supplies around. Precis didn't like it, so she looked in the library for a little while.

But then, that wasn't enough to keep her occupied entirely. Listening to some knights, she figured out where the Lacour Hope was: it was in two places, the lab in the basement and up in a tower of the castle. Precis tried the basement but there were guards that kept her from going in. However, she didn't find guards in the supposed tower, so she climbed up to see what was there.

There was a large cannon up there. It was an advanced model too, with shafts that could extend the barrel so that it could fire for longer distances. On the side, there was a hatch she opened up to see the inner workings. There was a big gap inside that was unusual, probably the spot for mechanisms the lab was working on. Where there should be an area for the gunpowder and stuff for ignition, there wasn't anything. Since the barrel was narrow, it seemed this one didn't use cannonballs either.

"A magic cannon?" Precis wondered aloud. "Awesome, but I couldn't use it. Boo."

"Hey, what are you doing up there?" Leon asked, annoyed. He was coming over from the stairs, followed by some guards carrying large boxes and another lab worker.

"Nobody stopped me from coming up here!" she said cheerfully. "Hey, so you gonna use magic to make it shoot better?"

"Magic and some mechanical mechanisms," Leon said.

"You should leave so we can get to work," the lab worker said.

"Hey, I'm really good at machines and I want to see what it's gonna do," she argued.

"She actually is," Leon said. "Well, if it's you, I suppose it wouldn't hurt at this point. Maybe you could even help connect the shafts."

"Yeah, thanks!" She went over and watched as they unpacked the boxes.

The main part of the new mechanisms was a big coil of tubing, circling with one coil inside the other in order to make it one long continuous tube. A switch and a Y joint made it so something could travel in the big coils or escape out the cannon barrel. Along the big coils, there were magic crystals linked up to the firing operator's stand next to the cannon. According to Leon, that would allow the Lacour Hope to be used by a single operator instead of three. The crystals needed to trigger vacuum points, which otherwise had to be set up with separate spells.

Once they had it put together, Leon sent a small spell through it to make sure the connections were good. "All right, we're all ready to go." Then an alarm sounded, notice of a monster attack. "Good timing too, as we can make the first firing right away.

"Awesome!" Precis said, happy that she could be out here to see it. She went over to the wall of the tower to see what was out there.

There was what seemed to be a cloud on the horizon, gray and shimmering. It moved rapidly, pouring from the valley straight for the castle. After getting out her binoculars, she could tell that it was a flood of monsters, of all kinds and shapes, those she knew and those she never imagined. This was far more than what she thought the monster army had been.

"That's horrible," the guard next to her said, spooked. "There hasn't been a mass like that this whole time!"

"Don't worry, I've got it covered," Leon said, already in the operator's position. He raised his hand, causing a ring of light to appear around him. He cast a spell into the ring, transferring it into the cannon and to the crystals. Inside the cannon, there was a hum that quickly grew into a whistle. Leon watched the reactions of the ring, then triggered the shaft to extend and the switch to open.

A brief green glow appeared around the extended barrel before a beam of light burst out of the cannon. It certainly looked like a spell. Lowering her binoculars to watch, Precis saw as the beam of light held together until it was right in front of the oncoming wave of monsters. Then, it splintered into hundreds of smaller pieces that went flying everywhere, briefly obscuring the cloud of monsters. She looked back in the binoculars to see that many of the monsters were killed immediately in the onslaught. What ones weren't hit immediately didn't care and kept running. But, the spell from the Lacour Hope kept going too, sending rays after all of the monsters. When it was finally out of energy, she didn't see any survivors.

Up in the tower, they could barely hear some cheers from those who had been on the outer walls. "That was the greatest fireworks show ever!" Precis said, jumping in place. "Too bad it was daylight, though."

"I suppose you could alter it for more bursts of weaker power if you just wanted a show," Leon said, thinking it over.

"And put more noise in it," Precis said. "Because it was a cool sound, like shiizooom, and kirizzle, but people expect bangs and booms from fireworks."

"Wow, that really worked," the guard said. "Forget about fireworks, we can really fight back against them now. No one would be able to stand against the might of Lacour."

"Of course it worked," Leon said, coming out of the operator's circle. "I did everything for it, from designing to testing to building. Well with some help form others, they were good, but I did a lot of it."

Precis clapped her hands together. "No wonder everybody calls you Master Leon! Haha, I've got to get you to help me with my punching arm so I can make it more explosive!"

Leon raised an eyebrow to that. "Are you sure you want a close-quarters weapon like that to be explosive? It's attached to the backpack that you're wearing, after all."

"Well then we just have to make sure the explosion is all on the enemy, not me," she said, tossing her ponytail happily. "Too bad your parents weren't out here to see it. I bet they'd be real proud of you now."

His ears twisted back. "One would think so," he said, but didn't really explain.


-Energy Nede, Central City Chisato

At the start, nothing was to come in or out of the protective shielding that was around Energy Nede. Chisato often wondered about that. Was it because their ancestors were afraid of retaliation? Or was it really to protect the rest of the universe from what they could do? Not many argued about taking it down either. There had been a few curious souls like herself who wanted to know more, but the general consensus of the population stuck to keeping it in place because many thought it was the best for everyone. But was it really?

They weren't completely isolated, though. At some point in the first hundred generations, someone shot a powerful satellite into the edges of the protective shield. There had been a lot of fuss about it, but then what they heard at the time convinced them that it shouldn't be a problem. They heard nothing from other civilizations through the satellite, even though it could get precise readings on any star in their home galaxy. Because of that, the satellite was able to remain.

Thus, the Nedians became capable of recording the rise and fall of other galactic civilizations. It nearly always started with a large amount of noise as the worlds grew communication technology. Eventually, the satellite would be transmitting a steady stream of broadcasts from the new galactic rulers. Broadcasts for entertainment, for scientific research, for assistance, for battles, it would all come down to Energy Nede and their scholars would study those roaming space. But in time, something would cause these civilizations to cease. Maybe it was wars between planets; maybe it was diseases that wiped out those wanderers. One time, it was because of a glitch in spaceship technology that caused an entire fleet to fail; theory had it that a similar glitch, or even the same one, had ruined that civilization's home planet and colonies, keeping it silent in death.

The important thing, at least what most Nedians thought, was that these other civilizations never got to the level where they could even detect Energy Nede's existence. They kept the records and kept listening. After all, new things were extremely rare for a race that had survived billions of years.

Actually, one of the newest things on Energy Nede was an upgrade that had been made to the spying satellite around two thousand years ago. Someone had detected the emergence of a primitive civilization on a planet within the steady and slow path of Energy Nede. There was novelty in watching a race that was still getting a hang on the basics, so a collaborative effort was made to launch a few Nedian objects to the planet that would allow a few devices to watch their planetary neighbors. And thus, a new position was born: the Expellian chronicler. Chisato was the current holder of this position.

She hadn't been too happy about it at first, as it seemed to be all fluff writing. Previous chroniclers had followed a few Expellians through their daily lives, describing their struggles to a population that knew no struggle themselves. Or they related myths and philosophies as they were being built. Sometimes, they even poked fun at the struggles of these people to learn what were basic facts to Nedians, like mathematics, heraldry, and even farming.

But a few months ago, she had stumbled on something big. In the tiny town of Arlia, which she had been watching to write about the teachings of a priest there, Chisato became a witness to an Expellian legend coming to life. The myth of the Warrior, who was an angelic being that would descend on Expel to drive away a horde of demons before they caused a catastrophic event with a shining blade of light, seemed to be fulfilled with the mysterious arrival of an ensign from the Earth Federation who was eventually asked to stop the trouble caused by the Sorcery Globe.

A lot of it was mistakes made by witnessing things they couldn't explain, like the plasma weapon that the ensign Claude used. And the Sorcery Globe was truly a catastrophe, being brought by the wicked Ten Wise Men on some cryptic plan they were carrying out. It might even be one that couldn't be stopped. But, it made for good stories. People kept asking her for more updates on the situation, to the point where her boss took her off other projects to focus on being the chronicler. It was irritating in some ways, like how he'd taken her off the birds of paradise investigation (which she really wanted to make sure it got followed through). Still, it was the most interesting story she'd come across as chronicler, so she didn't complain for very long.

But it was getting down to the wire. Having watched the group that gathered around Claude struggle to get to their destination, she noticed things. Like how every time the Quadratic Key that Rena wore shone, Energy Nede and Expel made dramatic leaps towards each other. The latter was orbiting at its usual speed around the star (named Actura by the Earth Federation), but backwards. If Rena actually made it to the Elurian continent, then Expel was doomed without a doubt.

Chisato questioned the mayor about it, but Narl was the same as always. "It's being worked on. We're even considering some unusual options."

"Narl, there's been months to work on this," she said. "Over a year on their world and your researchers still can't come up with anything? Because if you keep being tight-lipped about this, that's what people are going to assume."

"We're doing what we can, and that's all we can say right now," he said, an immaculate politician to the core. Although, that was precisely how the genetic engineering group made the mayors, so he was simply doing as designed. "You should record as much as you can of Expel, if you do care about them."

It was almost like acknowledging that they really couldn't do anything, but she wouldn't be able to print a challenge to him based on those words. "All right, but I hope you've got something planned." She left the room and shut the door behind her. Chisato never liked talking to Narl. When he wanted to impress the populous, he would give wonderfully rousing speeches. But when he didn't want you intruding on his work, he would speak in the driest and most boring manner possible.

Chisato was so annoyed by him that she didn't see his secretary scurrying around with a large handful of files. On collision, papers poured out of the bulky files and onto the spotless tile floor. "Oops, I'm so so sorry, m'am," the secretary said frantically, hurrying to pick up the mess.

"No, I'm sorry for not watching my way," Chisato said, kneeling down to help her gather papers. However, one popped out at her for having an ancient letterhead on it; it was the sign of the Nedian Military Force that had been disbanded in the decades after Energy Nede was sealed off.

Since the secretary was still scrambling around, Chisato glanced over it. It was an automated notice, one that requested an investigation into possible treason. The reason for treason? Someone had attempted over twenty times to hack into the Library's database to open up the secret files that had long taunted Energy Nede's researchers. That someone was one Professor Reyfus of Giveaway University. Interesting...

Chisato shuffled it and a bunch other papers into one large pile, since she wasn't sure how to sort them. "Here you go. This is gonna be a mess, huh? Want some help sorting it?"

For a moment, the secretary was almost grateful. But then she saw the press badge that Chisato wore and shook her head. "N-no, I'll handle it. Besides, it's not like I have much else to do on slow days like this." She laughed nervously and set the stack she had on her desk and then went to retrieve the last few pieces.

Reyfus... Chisato was supposed to be working on the chronical position, but it would just be a dismal recording of facts before the world ended. It might more interesting to see how he was progressing in reading those files.


At this point in the game, you start running into a lot of unbeatable bosses, like Shin here. I can tolerate some unbeatable battles, because they can make for good story-telling. But one of the more annoying bits in SO2 is that when you run into an unbeatable boss, it's guesswork to figure out what you need to do to pass it. Some want you to last a certain period of time, some want you to have a total party kill, at least one wants you to run. Shin's especially annoying about this.

And it's around this time in the story that I stop following the game's progression closely. Chisato's section is based on a sidequest on the second disc, and I cut out the northern base where the Lacour Hope actually was. The latter half of the game is plagued by obvious filler. While the first half does have you running all over doing seemingly unrelated things, it's easy enough to explain with Expel's technology level not allowing fast travel anywhere. but then in the second half, there's one part where the game will even say something like, 'It's pointless to question what's going on, just keep going'.

I do love the game, though. This just gives me more work to tell its story efficiently.