A tale of Sword and Shield
Chapter 5: The Hardships of being Heroes
Central Plaza of Schwarzwald, Bordaussie.
Alpharia´s Pov:
Agony, fear, disbelieve, wrath, hatred…, these were just few of many emotions we felt as she rose above our heads, with wings of darkness, her eyes gleaming with the light of the flames, the inferno she had unleashed upon our city, upon this very place, her smile, a crude and disgusting reminder of how little a life meant to her.
She would gladly sacrifice anyone just to reach her goals.
From the woman she was before only little remained, that is if you disregard her insane persona, which she had before as well, still, nothing at her was normal anymore, if everything, she was an abomination, a freak of nature, even more than what I thought myself to be, something which should not exist in our world.
However, the unfortunate truth was, that she indeed did exist and she was very, very real to us.
Lunnare Wolfenstein, General of the Dark-Wing Fleet of Lycan´s Army.
One of several of his Children, so she said, apparently created by his DNA and other dark experiments, half-Lupycan as well as half-Batmori and surely many other things were thrown into the mix as well to create her before she was imbued with Dark Rano.
At first all we thought of her was that she was a hybrid similar to us, but after we managed to get some good firm hits on her, she turned up for real showing us her true power as she activated her Shadow Force.
A power-up in form of a black crystal, which imbued her with even more power, which made it harder to fight against her, especially since she was able to call upon so-called shadow-familiars and once her Chaos Trigger was switched on after we finally managed to get her on her knees battered and beaten and were about to end it all, she transformed to something even more evil, but also far more powerfull, something near nefarious and demonic.
However, different than her men, which transformed into ghouls once they activated their Chaos Trigger, which apparently were fakes, or at the very least inferior versions of the likes which Lunnare had received, she did not lost her mind, instead she gained powers beyond our comprehension, enhanced physical strength, enhanced physical speed, enhanced shadow-based powers.
But as we all know, obtaining great power always comes with a harsh price.
In her case it was herself, the way she changed it was obvious to say, that she can never return to her prior state.
She was forever doomed, trapped into a body, hideous but powerfull.
Large horns sprouted from her forehead, large scaly claws on both legs and arms, her Batmori-Wings grew double their original size, surely making her even faster in the process.
The Flamethrower that was attached to one of her arms was powered by the Black Rano within her, as well as a Fire-Elemental Crystal, who knows what kind of damage she can do this way.
"And we have to fight this thing now…, this is just plain ridiculous…, not to mention completely suicidal." I though as I readied myself for the worst, Armatura Impervius´ shield at the ready, both my brother and my Sister as well as our friends, the twins, at my side, one each having picked up their weapons themselves.
Although exhausted and unnerved had we to fight, for the survival of the few survivors which currently still hid in the raid shelter.
We did not planned on it, but we were well aware that some of us might lay their life down in this fight, but if I had to, I at least knew whom to haunt as a ghost later on.
Both Sword and Shield of our Set pulsated stronger than ever before, maybe because they were in direct presence of something evil and unnatural, dangerous for every living being.
"I hope you have made peace with yourselves and the world, for soon your life-lights will be extinguished like a candle lit in a hurricane…, You sure have resisted so far, but I am tired of playing around with you, I still got a lot of things to do, so say your final prayers, for now your time is over!" Lunnare's voice, nothing but a mere amplified hiss, echoed over the plaza.
"We will see about that, but one thing is for sure, even if we go down, we will surely put up a fight!" Betakin exclaimed loudly.
And I really wish I had the time and energy to punch him in the face for these words, screw heroism, screw the rightful thing to the right time, this here was one completely unnecessary fight.
"That might be, but you should very well know, that your struggling is but in vain…, then again, I must congratulate you, as unwilling as I am.
Until now, no one has ever made me use my Chaos Trigger before, but you surely will be the last to piss me off like that!" The Hiss echoed again, followed by a low growl, as the dark silhouette hovered above us, her wings beating strongly, sending gusts of wind down over the plaza, the stench of burnt corpses, metal and other things mixed within the air around us, making it already hard to breath to begin with.
"Let´s see if someone is still alive and help them, even if they are enemies, we can arrest them later on, he said.
We have to prevail over the evil, by taking it out and serve them the rightful punishment, he said.
We shall not kill, we are no villains, but Heroes…, those were your words, you stupid brother of mine, I should have known that this would just trigger a death-flag…., why the hell am I still keeping up with you.
Who the hell will help us now, now that we are in the deepest shit ever?" I thought as my glare pierced my brother from behind, who simply ignored it, or maybe he just was numb to the feeling, as his focus laid upon an entirely different target right now.
"I swear on my name, if we die here, I will haunt you as a ghost for as long as my soul remains." I thought with as much venom as I still had remaining, all the rest already had been wasted on that bitch of a Lycanian Hybrid.
"One thing is for sure, I am totaly glad that being a hybrid of our kind, does not turn us into something like this!" Yang stated as he eyed this thing with disgust.
"Just wait until you turn into a human the first time, I bet you will regret these words." I mumbled under my breath.
"Being a Human is not that bad, at the very least it sure is better than this" I heard Cetala mumbling as a reply.
"Sure, only that they were basically responsible for the strange and deadly world we are living in, after they very well destroyed their own habitat, with their greed and warmongering, they well reduced 7/10th of the planet´s surface to ashes, before the Continents were set afloat." I replied back, Mom told us about what they found out about the past, once Red and Co. returned from the old Earth, during their mission to find a clue on how to stop Baion.
Cetala only sighed knowing that in a way, I was right about that, Human´s did anything wrong which possibly could go wrong, so occasionally transforming myself into one was on the very first place of things I despised to do.
"Guys get ready, she can attack any moment now, we have no idea how strong she has gotten now, she already was a handful half an hour ago, there is no telling how much her forces have been amplified all of a sudden.
Although, I have the sinister feeling that she is overwhelming us already and she just keeps on getting stronger by the second." Betakin exclaimed, a grim expression on his face but I knew him better, same as we all he was freaking frightened and just barely could suppress the urge to run away.
I wasn´t any different in that case.
"No shit Sherlock Hound, as if it isn´t obvious by merely looking at her, we are hopelessly powerless, not even the encouraging words of Dad can help us now, if only he, Dahlia and Frey would be here, maybe, just maybe we would stand a chance, while having an actual Leader to guide us." I replied and I saw his angry side glance.
"Maybe but as a matter of fact and as you can well see for yourself, this isn´t the case, so we have to do this on our own." He hissed.
"We wouldn´t even have had to do so, if you wouldn´t had to expose or position and number, I told you that you couldn´t safe that man, we were too far away, even with superior speed we cannot outrun a Bullet that is shot straight to the head from only a few millimeters away, but no you had to stand up, shout out loud and run up to her.
If we did it right, we could have killed her silently from the distance, as I suggested, but no, you just had to blow our cover and engage the enemy in a battle to the death, in which you then pulled us all along." I hissed back with a growl.
"We couldn´t well let her get away, she is responsible for all the death and destruction that has occurred in the last few days, if we would have let her escape, she would surely have run havoc somewhere else." Betakin stated, trying to reason with me.
"She will do so anyways if she is done killing us, so what was the point in getting us all in needless danger, as I was saying, you could have assassinated her from the shadow, that would have ended all the madness that has now been unleashed, but no, you just had to jump right into the spotlight and engage her in combat…, you just had to have it your way again, didn´t you?
Who do you think you are, the Hero in shining armor?
The one, who rights all what is wrong in the world?
Well guess again, idiot, right now you are lower than a knave, in war there is no right or wrong, its kill or be killed, or at the very least crippled, is this too high to get into that thick skull of yours?" I asked but he just snorted.
"We ain´t got time for your complaining, Alpha, we have a job to do, so shut up and concentrate!" He stated harshly.
"I cannot remember of ever having chosen you as our Leader, just to remind you Betakin." I snorted.
"For God´s sake, put a sock on it, Alpha, just do something, that isn´t stupid for once…, like arguing during a battle." Betakin replied, well more spat, looking at me with intense anger.
If I wouldn´t know it better, I would say that he truly regretted what he did and now lashed out on us to find a scapegoat, but I surely ain´t gonna have this.
I was about to shout my remark to his stupidity, but was interrupted before I could do so, and although I knew she surely would do so, the words she said instead came quite unexpected.
"Alpharia is right, you know." Cetala suddenly butted into our argument, which surely was terribly displaced right now, I knew that myself.
However, it was inevitable, this whole situation has been built on Betakin's shit, his compassion for someone who did not deserved the same in the slightest and the stupidity of him to believe she would stop resisting altogether, just because their Airship went down and she was more or less the only true survivor of her crew.
Those Lycanians are born, maybe even bred, for war, death and destruction, surrendering is not in their repertoire of abilities.
"An hour ago, if you would not have stopped us form killing her, we would have one major problem less…." Cetala explained and in her eyes, I saw a wrath I have rarely seen and it was even rarer to see it being directed towards Betakin.
"As if you guys would have been able to just kill her, while she was un-armed." Betakin mumbled swallowing his own anger.
"She had a damn gun at the ready, she even shot someone´s head right infront of us, only to provoke us, she knew we were there but she did not know where we were, you could have at least immobilized her out of hiding, shoot her legs, her arms, what do I know, just somehow disabling her to fight back.
But now you even gave her the chance to re-arm herself with even more weapons, before you engaged her in battle.
You know, sometimes overzealous honesty and misplaced compassion can kill you." Cetala kept going.
"Shut up, shut up, both of you, now is not the time for this…, once we have beaten her, I very well make some time to listen to your complaints, but for now just keep quiet and do as I say." Betakin replied his eyes never leaving Lunnare.
"You are right, but I think, that once we are done here, we will have to have a long hard talk about who is most capable of leading us, when we are on our own." I replied to him.
"Yeah keep dreaming Sis, as if I would give the leadership to a coward like you." Betakin stated and I was shortly before having a damn falling out with him.
"At the very least I wouldn´t try to prove something bend or break, while endangering the life and well-being of my comrades." I growled as deep and low as I could as I grabbed him by the collar.
"From now on we do things in Cetala´s Way, if neither of us both is suited to lead, then she surely will, as she still got more brain than me and you combined." I replied, I knew very well that I surely was the last to lead this team, despite being the oldest, after all, was I basically only the shield of the group, should it come to a distance-fight, at least once all my technical instruments are gone.
But lately Betakin keeps taking risks, just to prove to himself and maybe also to our father and others, that we are heroes…, that we can save and defend everyone…, and that's where he is wrong.
We aren´t like the mighty heroes from centuries or millennia ago, we are not heroes out of a comic strip, we are real life person tossed into a war without our choosing, we are, or at least I know for most of us, hellbent on trying to survive the fate which has been thrown upon us.
We are no mighty powerfull Superheroes, nor are we that strong, we surely cannot safe and defend everyone…, but we should give it our best effort to at least safe all those we can, even if distrust and animosity between us and the normal populace of Bordaussie might remain this way, as it surely is going to happen thanks to a certain someone, again.
Changes and differences encourage distrust, animosity but even more than that, it ignites fear in the heart of many, that is the nature of time.
The fear before the new and unknown.
Sometimes I really wish we could go back to the days, before we had become adults and involved in all this grown up stuff, when we were still little giddy kids, living our life with laughter and fun.
To go back to a time when Mom would kiss us goodnight, where Dad told us Bed-time-stories.
"This simple but stupid moment, which lasted not more than merely 5 seconds at most, it was one of those crossroads in life that define the path to the future and thanks to a certain someone, the chance for a safe one is all but gone now.
Grrrr, I could twist his neck, seriously…., geez alright, calm down Alpha, you got this, you don´t need to fight to the death, you just need to stall her long enough for anyone to find a way out of here safely, then we regroup with Dad, Dahlia and frey and then we can discuss whether we try to engage her in a fight, potentially risking everything yet again, or if we finally snipe her from afar." I thought as I tried to focus, but the internal wrath and anger at Betakin´s stupidity and lack of understanding, was keeping me from doing just that.
"If only I executed her, before Betakin could react, then all of this here might not have happened." I wondered as my glance looked around to the horror scene we were facing, the central plaza had been reduced to a ruined battlefield, everywhere you could see ruins of houses, large pieces of broken walls, buildings burned to the ground or blown away by the attacks.
It was the first time in my life that I truly considered killing someone out of my own volition, not just as a joke or a figure of speech, or because I had to defeat him in order for my comrades to be safe, none of that, I wanted to kill her for real…., back then when I had have the chance before, I should have shoot Lunnare in the head.
One headshot and it would have been over, no one else would have had to die nor suffer anymore, not even her…, the Normal Lycanians were fierce and brutal yes, but nothing we could not handle unless they used their shadow trigger, but now that all of them had turned into Light-resistant Ghouls and their mistress into some demonic entity, I was very unsure if me nor anyone else would still make it out alive of here.
I always knew that a battle of Hybrids would become anything but easy, but I would have never imagined just how much damage it truly can create, then again, it hasn´t been any different by the time Nero and Blank attacked Pharaoh and those other Islands.
Also, and that had to be said, none of us did yet used our paladin forces, mainly because we don´t know if we don´t do more additional damage to the town than necessary and partially also because we never actually used them in true Life or death Combat, only ever in training and just enough to knock our sparring partner out, if we attack with full force and misfire who knows what might happen.
It was a risk we were all aware off and it was that very knowledge which paralyzed us from actually using our greatest trump cards here, not for the last also due to our not so existent Teamwork lately.
"Are you finally done with praying or arguing whose fault it is that you all going to die, shall we finally begin, this dance of ours had been fun but its high time to finish it, there are still a lot of other dances I have planned." Lunnare snarled, as she looked at us in mockery, re-igniting my wrath to a seething level.
"If only…" I mumble as I thought back at the events of an hour ago.
Flashback, 1 hour ago:
Rubble, burnt machines, destroyed houses, caved in walls, broken windows, bended streetlights, a completely destroyed infra-structure.
That was all that remained from the rest of the town which we traversed, that part that hasn´t had been bombed down by now, but which hadn´t been spared either.
Our way towards the Central Plaza was nerve wrecking, on one hand we feared to walk right into a group of Lycanians, on the other hand it was unnatural to not meet anybody at all.
Were truly all of the remaining citizens, which haven´t been found yet, dead?
I truly hopped this would have not been the case, but seeing countless of dismembered and crippled corpses lying around, I soon lost hope for that.
"This is war…., how sad…, how gruesome." I stated as Cetala and I made our way over the rubble towards our designated destination.
"Well as the saying goes, War cannot give life, it can only take it away." Cetala replied, her mine hard and her glance focused forward, as if to shield herself from falling into despair, as she carefully walked and climbed, not to accidentally step on a buried corpse.
We were in a hurry, yes, but most of these dead people had been citizens, people we might have met the one or the other time, maybe less that acquaintances, but definitely more than bloody strangers.
I always knew that War was nothing cool or badass or any of the terms which those brats in elementary school and junior high used, to justify them playing war in the school breaks, or play war related games on video-consoles, once they actually could get a hold on one as they weren´t that cheap to begin with.
I might have been what people called a tomboy and I did had more guy-friends than girl-friends around me, but I never once believed that War was something to be simplified.
Maybe it was to a part because of Dads stories and Mom´s telling about the cruelty of men, most specifically of mad scientists such as Baion…, and I think to a certain amount herself, War is gruesome and something unnecessary but it always will come back, sooner or later…
"I wish we wouldn´t have to see all of this here." I stated and I saw Cetala nodding.
"I too…, I wish things would go back to how they were before…, but as we all know are time travels just fiction, there is no way to return back in time to undo something.
It will only create two alternative realities with two whole different futures, they might even become worse than the previous present we had, which has then become our past, as the past we traveled to becomes our present." She explained and although I wasn´t sure that I truly understood her, I just nodded.
Making things worse than they already were, was the last that I wished to do.
"You think that Betakin and the twins are alright?" I asked Cetala, after a while of climbing over endless tons of rubble.
"Well according to father´s report, they were, you heard him yourself, also are the twins with him, they are strong, you should know that by now." She replied.
"I know but i´m worried, you know how he is, maybe he already sits in deep trouble with them, somewhere else…, while we make our way here to the Central Plaza." I continued, it was my brother we talked about here, one can never be so sure in what situation his over-the-top- goodwill character has dragged him and others into again.
He might call me the troublemaker of the family, but once pressure came upon him, he easily began to crack under its weight which then leads to him making stupid decisions himself, which in hindsight complicate things even more.
He is always striving to prove himself somehow, i´m not so different in that, but Betakin tends to take it to the extreme when push comes to shove, making him becoming noticeably overzealous.
"I really hope he can contain himself this time." I mumbled as we crawled on further.
"We are not here to play hero, we just have to save everyone we can, and if it so happens that we encounter and defeat the enemy then so be it." I thought to myself, but I could see on Cetala´s face that she likely thought about something similar along these lines.
If Betakin was afraid he might truly go as far as to use the Hero´s mantra as a phrase to justify our doing, the `with great power comes great responsibility´ bullshit.
We had powers, yeah, but if it was our responsibility therefore to literally fight a war with someone, I highly was in doubt about the significance of such words.
After all a Hero is someone who only kills when necessary, but by the count of how many Cetala and I might have killed during our own operation, I highly doubt that we could call ourselves heroes anymore, maybe there were even innocent and forced people in these Airships, who knows, fact is, that we took their deaths into account and still acted upon our believe, that with taking out the ships, the Island might be saved.
"We will soon be there." Cetala said with a definite tone.
"How are you so certain, this town is so destroyed I don´t even know which block we currently are in." I replied as looked around lost.
1st Block, lower Eastside." She continued, again with that definite tone.
"How do you…?" I asked but instead of an answer she just pointed in a certain direction.
I looked to it, only to see what she meant.
"Oh no…., I hope they got away before all of this, I haven´t seen them before." I stated dejected.
The Place Cetala pointed at was the oldest, most famous and coziest Café in all of Bordaussie, The Millefeuille, run since 10 generations by the Millefeuille family, they were related to our Million Family on Father´s side…, something about two Sisters going their separate ways after having a massive falling out after a certain disastrous event in the far past, only several decades of verbal feud, the fighting parties reconciled and more or less reunited again.
I think the Current head of the Millefeuille family was Father´s 10th grade cousin.
Panacota Millefeuille, the oldest daughter of Grandmanier and Tiramisu Millefeuille, often babysit us, when Mom and Dad were late for work or wouldn´t be able to come home for a couple of days, other than that she helped out in her family´s Café and she was bound to someday inherit the same, keeping it going.
She was about 20 years older than we were, but she has always been like a big sister to us and we surely loved her dearly, she never once let us feel like we were strangers, even though they were by far the only ones, outside of Project Renaissance, who knew of our secret.
Especially since, none, not the professors, nor mom and dad knew if our forces might not accidentally manifest themselves, without our direct influence while we are little children, if that were the case surely anyone who didn´t know about them, would be weirded out, calling us strange, maybe even monsters.
But with a history of magic and mystery on our back, not much was weird for our family.
Seeing their café now, being destroyed, almost burnt to the ground rose in me a wrath and a sorrow I didn´t know was possible.
"How could they…., Panacota and her family…, they didn´t deserved this, not at all!" I stated with clenched fists.
"None of the citizens have deserved such, but it is the unfortunate truth, as long as these madmen can roam freely around here, such sights and even more gruesome ones, will only increase in numbers, the number of victims of these attacks are already too high to count.
We must find those Lycanians and stop them from wrecking anymore havoc, if we want to prevent anymore disasters to innocent peoples, we are here to save our people and drive the enemy out, by every means necessary." Cetala explained and I nodded.
"I know." I stated understanding what she meant, or so I thought, for suddenly she stopped in her tracks.
"Alpharia, sister…, I´m going to ask you a question and I want you to answer me truthfully." She stated and I saw how she began to shake and hug herself.
"Do you too think that we are Heroes, or should become such?" She asked.
"No, I don´t think so, if anything we are more like Avengers, once attacked and provoked we slay back, if anything you could call us Anti-heroes, we fight and kill, if necessary and if it is the last resort, when we are engaged into a deadly fight we do not seek to safely defeat the enemy without ever thinking of killing him.
No our objective shall be to stop him from causing any more harm, even if drastic measures are necessary." I replied and she nodded.
"Well spoken, I knew that you are of different believe than Betakin, and maybe Yang as well, I am not sure but I think, in order to keep their sanity intact they might go so far as to claim that all we did up until now and what we are likely about to do was all in the duty of a Hero.
But reality is different, until now all we did was fight for our own survival and that of the people we had sworn to protect…, but now thing´s have changed, the people we ought to protect are as safe as they probably can be right now, so all we have to do is to hold our positions on this island and stand bravely against the flood that has swept over our shores.
We are the Wave-breakers, the Rock in the sea, on which the waves shall scatter to droplets of water, we are the walls to keep our kingdom safe.
But we are not just simple walls, no we are fortresses, we are one of the few Bulwarks against the evil, that currently spreads across the entire Republic, we are part of the resistance.
As you rightfully said, we are like Anti-Heroes, those who get the job done, even if it means to stain ourselves with blood, because that is the true nature of reality.
Sometimes, killing someone is the only option left.
Therefore, I ask of you…., can you kill…, can you take in the death and destruction they bring and serve it right back at them, do you have the heart to end a live, even if it means that no one around you is in immediate danger but yourself?
Can you assault an enemy from afar, who might be unaware of your presence?
Can you kill for killing´s sake, like they do, or do you need a personal reason to assault someone?
They surely attacked us first and they surely won´t surrender, but fighting back and fighting to kill are two entirely different things, if you see their general, the one who is responsible for the excessive destruction of our home, can you contain yourself, hold up your dignity and kill that Man or women with swift motion, maybe even going as far as to execute her from afar, sniping her, assassinating her, with the hopeful end-result of their command-line falling into shambles?" Cetala asked.
But I didn´t even needed to ponder, the sight of Panacota´s home being destroyed, even though she was a totally innocent, outgoing big-sister-type of girl, her family one of the most friendliest and selfless I can imagine, brought my mind back into the here and now, for where it had wandered off to seek secure shelter from all this madness I saw.
This sadness, this whole madness of War, it will not end, until we end it ourselves.
Whatever it takes.
"Yes, I am ready, ready at all cost." I curtly stated.
Regret was for after the deed was done.
Once we reached the Central Plaza, we could see Betakin, Yin and Yang approaching it as well.
"Hey you guys, fancy meeting you here." I stated to, at least for a moment, lighten up the mood.
"Indeed, I would say, the pleasure is on us." Yin replied with a smile while the boys nodded.
"So, father stayed behind, a lot to do on your end?" Cetala asked.
"Yeah I think so, General Beluga practically sent us away, but I think he had a good reason for that, I could feel a dark presence far behind us, once we had reached the second block…, whatever it was, it was sinister and definitely nothing normal." Yin explained, did I mention that she was highly sensitive to dark things and evil minds?
She said that she could almost visually perceive the dark aura around narrowminded and shady people.
It sure came in handy when you were on foreign terrain.
Enemies had barely a chance to surprise us.
"So, we are supposed to search for survivors, but where shall we even start." Betakin asked unsure as he looked around.
"I think the best would be the furthest away from the Airship, this way we might not engage any surviving enemies for the time being." I suggested.
"I guess you are right, though we shall not forget, the longer those few survivors of the enemy can walk around, the more of our people might be in danger, also are we only five, if we miss to arrest them in time they could easily outnumber us." Cetala replied.
"That might become a Problem Cetala, at guard guys, someone…, or rather said something, is here." Yin stated as she suddenly began to shudder, while she looked around, before her glance rested upon the broken remains of the enemies Airship.
"Such malevolence…, I have rarely seen such hatred before." She mumbled as she took out her daggers.
"Bigger than our own?" I asked her, surely, she must see the dark aura around ourselves as well, for we too hate.
"Definitely, its as if this person…, or thing…, as if it is made of concentrated miasma." She stated as I could see the cold sweat on her forehead running down her face, which she quickly wiped away.
The helmets of the E.H.C.A. didn´t served much to us when our Mechas and other devices were inoperable, sure, they had some helpful functions on their own and they also served as protective gear for our heads, but none of them could help us currently, when their system has been shut off as well, during the destruction of our mecha.
So we left them back in the shelter, also, since Betakin exposed us to the People, it wasn´t really necessary to wear them any longer either way.
The newly surfaced full moon was drowning the central plaza in a silverish pale light.
Out of the shadow of the Airship´s Remains I could make out some motion but not just one but many different silhouettes began to emerge out of the darkness onto the illuminated plaza, right across of us about 150 meters away.
They looked like wolves, like the Lycanians we encountered these past few days, but different than them these here were on all fours and looked more like actual animals than members of the Caninu or Lupycan Race.
Except for the fact that some kind of black and dark purpelish mist was surrounding them, like an aura, an aura of evil.
"Ghouls…, and a lot of them, how is this possible, I thought they disintegrate once they are exposed to light?" Cetala stated, as we went into hiding, no need to pick a fight unless we know to win it.
"Maybe those are of a different kind, I mean, thanks to dad´s information we now know that there are different levels of Ghouls, maybe these ones are of a higher level than the ones we fought previously, which then again might mean, that they are also that more powerful, so by all means watch out." I replied and they nodded.
"You are probably right there, Alpha." Cetala said.
"Then again, Yin, didn´t you just said that there should only be one dark aura you felt?" I asked Yin but the same nodded.
"Because I cannot see any hatred from them, or any other thing for that matter, it´s as if these beings aren´t even picked up by my ability, or they just transcended emotions in general.
They are here and alive, if you can call that, but they are lacking of any emotion or feelings, that's why I cannot feel any hatred coming from them, they live solely on instinct and most likely the call of an Alpha, or the will of their creator, like familiars and Golems." Yin explained as she pointed forward, I followed her glance only to see how someone taller than the Ghouls and bipedal, emerged out of the rubble as well.
It looked like a typical Lycanian, if you don´t mind the Clothes this person wore, it was a female, as far as I could tell, or a guy with really long silver hair, its quite unsure to see from here with the light in their corner being broken by the shadow of the broken airship.
The most distinguished feature that differed her from anyone else however, were the pair of Skeletal Wings, with leathery skin between the bones which protruded from her back.
"What in the world is that thing?" Yang asked unsure.
"No clue, but I can tell from here that this person is dangerous." I whispered my answer.
"If I wouldn´t know better, I would say that this is their commander, or was, in this matter." Cetala explained and I looked at this being.
"So, this is their commander, the one who is responsible for all of this madness we are facing right now and since days…., alright let´s get this done with, I don´t know about you guys…
But I´m sick and tired of running, hiding, killing and fighting, lets end it here and now, let´s just snipe that bitch and everything might be over with that, just one more last kill, let´s cut off the head of the snake, who is our most skilled gunman?" I asked, the wrath upon the uncertain fate of the Millefeuille family as well as the overall wrath I felt upon seeing my home island literally being raped this way, still fresh in my bones and seething hot like burning iron.
"Are you out of your mind Alpharia, we can´t just snipe her, we need to catch her and interrogate her, I am sure she ain´t the only one send to the region.
We need to get us some info about their plans, what are their goals, where else are they planning to attack and where have they already attacked, places from which we yet don´t know, how much damage did they do there?
By all means, there are a lot of open questions, and all of them would be left unanswered if we kill her right now, I am certain we might never get that close to one of their Commanders again, we need to cease the opportunity and catch her." Betakin hissed at me.
"We can still get the data out of the black-box of their Airship, we don´t really need her specifically." I replied with narrowed eyes.
"Yes, we do, other than sheer informations which we need from her, she also will have to take the responsibility for this terroristic attack, she will be a war criminal and as such she is to be handled." Betakin tried to argue.
"Last thing I checked, we are neither in the army nor in the police, so those kind of rules aren´t really applying to us, or did father said anything different about it?" Cetala stated, taking my side, her expression a stole and frozen mask of grief and wrath herself. Much to the shock of Betakin.
"He did not per se said anything about that, all he did say was that we need to get ourselves a clear picture of what happened and what is still most likely to happen from here on out, so technically what Betakin said we should do.
Then again, the General never specified how we get these informations, so on that account I think Alpharia is right too, her approach for example would likely be the safest way to gather informations." Yang explained, while Betakin looked at him with a sour expression.
"So you neither denying nor approving that my Plan exists, maybe it is dangerous but then again, we need to capture her in order to find out their plans, I highly doubt that everything is being written in their black-box…, we need her alive." He stated.
"Let´s be real Beta, given the case that she indeed holds more information than the Black Box, do you honestly think she will tell us anything?
That bitch will surely not, she is mad, insane even, the way she bombed down the west side just to hit us two, after we destroyed their Moon-shade, is evident for her twisted character, there is no love, less any compassion and most definitely no regret in her.
I bet she would even go as far as to bite her own tongue of, instead of speaking, just to spite us and laugh into our faces while she is dying of blood loss, which we then wouldn´t allow, which means that she might even get to live the rest of her life in a cell.
Mute but alive…., if I then think on all the people that were killed under her very command, people who could have lived if she never uttered these kill-commands with that twisted tongue of her…., I just want to see the responsible for all of this dead, in that matter I take Alpharia´s Side." Cetala stated.
"We cannot know what would have happened, when we just kill her off before, maybe, with the right arguments and methods she tends to be cooperative." He tried to argue
"Yeah right Brother, keep dreaming…, you know, I can tell you what will likely happen, this bitch over there surely is going to regroup with all of her Lycanian friends which she can find, before somehow trying to still fulfill their secret agenda.
Anyone who unfortunately gets in her way will be mercilessly killed, literally mowed down by them, just like that guy over there right now." I stated as I pointed towards the enemy, she, after looking around in confusing, anger and disappointment, seemed to have found some survivor, a citizen most likely, well…, if you can say you survived, while being stuck between a broken wall and the ground, your lower body half most likely completely crushed, struggling just to stay conscious above the intense pain you must feel.
It was too far from us as if we could do anything for that person, even if we wanted, even if we would use our special powers to enhance ourselves was I sure we wouldn´t make it.
The gun muzzle was already at his head anyway and I know for sure, that I ain´t faster than a bullet, straight to the brain.
"Shit, no, we need to help him!" Betakin stated, as he rose to his feet, faster than I could pull him back.
"Betakin, stop right there, we can´t do anything, it´s too late." I hissed after him but he already moved forward.
"STOP!" He shouted seconds before a gunshot was heard across the plaza.
The ringing went on for about a minute before it was as silent as on a graveyard, only the sudden chuckling of the woman in front of us disturbed the same, before it got louder and phased over into a near maniacal laughter.
She laughed for a minute or two before looking at us with her eyes full of evil intent.
"Hmmm, well, well, well…, look who has finally decided to crawl out of his hiding, my device had picked up your presence before, but I was unsure of how many you are and what you might be plotting over there, so I decided to test you a little and you promptly reacted like the good little lambs of Maranell, trying to save this poor, poor man from the evil and wretched me…., you sure know not to disappoint my expectations." The ice-cold voice of the woman, speaking in mockery and insanity drove chills over my spine, as it echoed over the plaza and reached my ears.
It was a voice so fully uncaring and yet filled with a seething lust for mayhem, she didn´t even looked back at the person she just had killed.
Before she could point her gun at Betakin, I moved forward as well, followed by the others, the shield at the ready, hiding that stupid brother of mine and Cetala behind, as it expanded its power into a wings-like spectral shield.
"Well that makes things easier, it seems to me, that all of our objectives have appeared right infront of me, I guess these might be two birds with one stone which I can hit and kill, demonstrating power and taking out the obstacles that live on this island.
You must be the Million Family and Friends I assume?" The woman asked us and the way she so casually spoke about the death of many and her planning to kill and destroy some more, made me sick.
"And you spoke of her, thinking that she would show regret…, think again brother." I thought as I looked at Betakin´s paling face.
"How the hell does someone like you know us and what the hell do you mean with your objectives?" Betakin asked before I could say anything.
"Darling, it should have been obvious to you from the start, our objective has, is and always will be world domination, of course, as far as I am concerned, your island belongs to said world, so of course we going to conquer it.
It will be one of the few bases needed to establish a network and army big enough to even dwarfing that of Shamballa, with that we can finally beat them and conquer the Savannah Archipelago as well as gathering the last few Spheres.
And since we had informations and a list about certain individuals, which might place a threat to our plans, of course we are going to take them out, that Geezer´s informations were actually quite helpful for once.
You are just unfortunate to be set upon that list, Million-Children, if not, you would have just been collateral damage like everybody else."
She stated and I just wanted to punch her.
Collateral damage she said, I don´t believe my ears, how dare she?
"Collateral damage, are you out of your mind, look at the Town, this used to be a place where people lived and worked in, now its´ nothing like and endless field filled with hills of rubble and dead bodies!" I shouted and Betakin had to hold me back or else I truly would have punched this madwoman.
"Actually, my mind is quite clear, clearer than it ever has been, I must admit though, I didn´t think that anyone could still piss me off like that.
Until now, no man, no machine, has ever managed to take one of my Fleet´s ships down…, but you, somehow, managed to almost do that with half the fleet, not to mention that you sabotaged my Ship, the Dark-Wing, and made it crashing down on this stupid island, killing nearly all of my crewmembers…, but believe me, I am strong enough to rip this island apart twice.
It might have been simple orders before, but in looking at your recent deed against me and my men, I have decided to indeed make killing you guys something personal, so be good children and die by my hands, would you kindly, I am sure to enjoy that.
Get them, but don´t kill them, that pleasure is mine and mine alone!" She stated aloud and all of a sudden, the silence was broken as at her command those ghouls came running at us.
"Guns out, swords up, here they come!" I shouted as I took my own gun.
Naturally, being in a secret agency, we kids were also trained in the use of weapons of all kind, then again, it was unclear if those skill mean much while we were fighting ghouls.
Since light didn´t seemed to do anything against them, it was hard to believe that our swords and guns could actually still harm those bastards, but we tried it anyways, though then again, my Shield threw more of them backwards with a swing, as my gun managed to get a good hit at them.
Betakin with the sword of Armatura Impervius wasn´t in any better position, he sliced and sliced but still didn´t seemed to be able to truly touch them.
"It´s like trying to grab fog, with bare hands." I thought as I evade one of them pouncing at me.
"We really should have shot that bitch when we were still hidden, now we have to deal with her beasts, while she can go looking for a weapon, as if she has all the time in the world." I stated as he and I ended up back to back.
"Well excuse me for trying not to lose myself during all this fighting." He simply stated and I rolled my eyes.
"What will you do once the war begins for real, sure it is hard but we have to kill in order to survive, especially when the enemy comes with the clear intention to kill us off likewise." I stated as I remembered Cetala´s words.
"War cannot give life, it can only take it away, the only difference is how and why you take those lives." I explained.
"That is for people without a moral, we are hybrids that fight to protect lives, not to take it away, so why are you now so hellbent on killing her." He asked while fending of several Ghouls.
"Huh…, are you serious right now, look around you, look at what she and her henchmen have done, our town, our home is destroyed, our entire world is being threatened by them, they killed countless of people who never said a word against them or who haven´t done anything to deserve that.
You still want to keep that bitch alive?
You should have listened to me and instead of engaging her, just let her being shot from afar, then none of us would have to get hurt." I replied with a hiss.
"This is not how we do things Alpharia, we still have a moral codex, don´t we, as heroes of the common man, we need to keep our image clean."
"Are you actually listening to yourself right now, are you seriously saying that we have to defeat a person without any moral with moral in our hearts, while they just sit there pushing the buttons of destruction as if they play piano.
Wake up goddammit, we need to end the killing and the madness once and for all, right here, right now, we have to kill her or else things never stop." I stated.
"Are you listening to yourself, because all I heard out of your mouth lately is to kill the enemy by every means necessary, what is the point then in resisting, what will make us different from those who kill for their agenda, the good side need to triumph upon the evil one, that has always been so."
"WE ARE NOT IN A FREAKING COMIC NOR GAME, YOU DUMB IDIOT!" I shouted at him while a few ghouls tried to jump me, just for me to beat them back with my shield and firing at them.
"This is the real fucking life, get it into your stupid head." I hissed at him, how could he be so ignorant of our current situation, right now it was kill or be killed, regretting could be done after we survive this.
"The real Question we have to ask us, is why you are so hellbent of keeping even the bad guys alive, those who kill for fun and sport, who kill for death´s sake?" Cetala, who undoubtedly has heard our not so silent conversation, asked him.
"As I was saying, if we kill every enemy, regardless who it is, then what´s the point in trying to resist them, then we might as well join them, since we are also just mass-murderers then." Betakin stated.
"I don´t believe what i´m hearing, sure needless killing is unsuited for us, or for anyone else, I get that, but sometimes you cannot pass on killing someone, especially in a Life or Death situation like this one.
I don´t want to hear anything about hesitating from you ever again, you got it, I wish to have my family alive, do you understand that?!" I asked loudly as I fixated him.
"Yeah, yeah!" He answered lamely as he shot at the ghouls in his vicinity, it was strange, his whole behavior was strange, on one hand he tells us not to kill, on the other hand he just shoots at the ghouls as if they were paper-targets at the Funfair.
Somehow it does not add up.
"Oh How sweet you all are, Especially you little boy, you try so hard to keep your sanity intact by refusing to fight for the death and killing your opponent…, how cute!" That bitch mocked Betakin.
"You shut up, or else I'll make you a sieve!" I replied with as much venom as I could gather in my mouth, as I shot a barrage of bullets at the woman, only for one of her ghouls to shield her.
"Nice try, sweety, but it won´t help you much, you can´t touch me, not me, Lunnare Wolfenstein."
"Let´s see about that!" I replied as I kept firing at her.
The gun fight, thanks to my skills in quick recharging and my large amount of munition which I got from the I.D.A. men, dragged itself out for nearly 20 minutes, without me being able to hit her…, or so it seemed.
"You are missing by quite half a meter, have you ever even used a gun before, little girl?
This surely is such a waste of precious ammunition, after all you likely will need them, once I am tired of playing around." Lunnare asked me mockingly, as I dodged her swings, she bore some kind of Iron mace, with which she tried to bash our heads in, it was hard keeping an eye on the ghouls and her, but somehow I managed.
Since I was the first and only to fire at her, she had most of her attention drawn towards me, just as I planned.
It was not much of a big plan just something I came up with on the spot as I observed my surrounding before we engaged into combat with the enemy.
"Sure, but I wasn´t firing at you in the first place." I replied, as the last bullet I shot finally hit the real target, towards which I drove her by my earlier bullet rain.
"Maybe I can´t shoot you directly, since your ghouls defend you, but if it´s an impact neither you nor them can block, there is just nothing you can do about it, aren´t you?" I mocked her, as my bullet hit through the rails of one of the baskets, filled with Gas-bottles, that had fallen over from a capsized truck, detonating the same in a violent explosion.
Luckily neither my siblings nor the twins were in any proximity towards the explosion, as we all kept our distance from the attacking ghouls with guns and other projectiles.
The explosion knocked Lunnare several meter to the side, right into a broken wall.
"Uargh, you are smart, I give you that, but don´t think this will be enough to kill, let alone stop me." Lunnare stood back up, her right side bashed and bruised and partially burnt, here arms most likely broken, but instead of it being unable to use them anymore, her wounds seemed to suddenly heal in an alarming speed.
"What the hell…?" I asked myself.
"Your tactic was nice and it would have even worked out…, if your opponent would have been anyone but me.
I am different from the average Lycanians you have encountered so far; I am special, I am one of King Lycan´s favorite, one of his Children blessed with the shadow-force.
This wonderful force allows my wounds to instantly heal, even severed limbs could be reattached and healed, furthermore i can do this...!" SHe stated as she released some of the dark mist only for even more ghouls to appear.
"Never dare to understimate me again, for I am General Lunnare Wolfenstein, 7th Seat of the Dark-Moon Council, and I surely won´t be defeated by a bunch of premature teenagers." She stated as she walked away from the place he had been blasted off to, she held something in her hand, maybe a weapon, I instantly when in combat mode, only to see that she dragged something out from behind the wall.
It was a corpse of some citizen.
"I will teach you pain…, you shall feel my wrath for pissing me off, these airships you took down were my property and I hate when people damage what is mine, only one single person has the authority to do so, and that is my King." She stated as suddenly out of her hand, which had not yet healed, a black liquid substance emerged which seemed to be absorbed by the corpse before the same suddenly began to move again, like in a freaking zombie movie.
"What in the world is this?" I asked myself in pure disgust.
"I guess that´s how she makes Ghouls, but how is she doing that, and is it only possible when the host is dead…, I would like to know the answer to the latter question, but I ain´t taking any chances here." Cetala replied and I nodded, although it surely would be helping to know all that, none of us had a death-wish, that was for sure.
"As weak as you are, you can never defeat me, so I ask you once more, out of pure kindness, would you please just let yourself be killed off by me, it would help me boosting my status and glory in my king´s eyes.
Maybe I would even reach the 6th seat, one seat closer to my King, and I could so also beat Meave to it, fucking wingless-one-eyed bitch, just because she is a former member of the Royal Batmori family, doesn't mean that she can go all lovey dovey with King Lycan, she shall know her place and I grateful will be the one to teach her about it.
I will be praised in all heights if I manage to kill of one of the seven swords of the Lunar King and get the sword for our King." She stated as she continued her assault, this time actively engaging into combat herself.
Wielding a thin but long sword, she swiftly sliced and hacked her way, while we had a hard time evading, the mace she used before had long been broken due to the impact with the wall.
God knows where she pulled that sword from.
"You are first, Shield-Girl, for daring to bruise my beautiful face!" She stated aloud as she rushed up to me.
"I don´t think so!" I shouted as I used my shield as it was intended while I kept firing at her, the only problem was that I wasn´t able to hit her.
"Is this…, a Body-shield, but how?" I asked in shock as I understood that my bullets indeed hit, but were disintegrated by some kind of forcefield over her body.
"Did you really think you were the only paladins out there, I am well versed in the usage of Rano, so something like this is second nature to me.
Though I have to admit that I did underestimated you, therefore I didn´t found it necessary to wear one before, but now I won't make any mistakes anymore.
Now I am all prepared to kill you, tell me little girl are you prepared likewise, how many bullets have you already used and how many have you left in that puny gun of yours?" She asked with that mocking smile on her face.
"Shit this is my last magazine." I thought in desperation, as her evil grin seemed to expand even more.
No matter how much I swung with my shield or shot at her, it had no effect, and then there were still the Ghouls to fight.
I ran out of bullets and ammunition faster than I anticipated, only for her to suddenly appear before me, as my last bullet was shot of, maybe it was desperation that made me needlessly firing at her, for I should have known that it wouldn´t work on her.
"Say Goodbye little girl!" She hissed , her Sword raised up high to split me in two with a clean strike.
"NOT ON MY WATCH!" I heard someone screaming as I suddenly saw Lunnare being blasted off yet again.
I looked up from where I had fallen to in shock as my legs caved in, only to see someone, who made me believe that there truly was a god or some kind of higher being that was taking care of those who fought for peace freedom and equality.
Someone whom I had secretly mocked in my head the whole time, for his believe of Heroes and knights in shining armor, but right now, he was as close as that to me, as anybody else could be.
"No one touches, nor harms my Sisters as long as I breath." Betakin stated as he stood there, Armatura Impervius´ sword in his right hand, extending his left for me to grab.
"You see, sometimes Heroes are real." He stated with a grin.
"I guess so..., sorry about all the things I said!" I replied.
"No harm done, I too have said thing I do regret..., I think what I truly want to say is, that I am afraid that with killing other people, we might get a good but false taste from it..., I fear that we might end up like Nero and Blank, drunken on the power we possess..., remeber what we said to Yin and Yang years ago as we met them the first time, that we shall never forget the lives we take, whenever the time for such has come..., I was afraid that with this war and the resulting killing that we might have to do, we might truly forget all about that, you and Cetala being so gung ho on killing that woman really frightened me." Betakin explained and to say that his words touched me, was an understatement.
"All the time you thought about that..., if only you would have said so..." I replied, all the things i said to him, all the names i called him came back up in my memories nd they truly left me feeling ashamed of myself.
"I precisely did hide it because I didn´t wanted to frighten you too, guess I really should have spoken up." Betakin stated.
"Yeah, maybe... anyways how´s your plan, how shall we defeat this Bitch, as we have seen killing her won´t be as easy as it seemed, so maybe defeating and capturing her might not be such a bad idea after alll, we we manage to do so, then again, I´m all out of Bullets here, all I have left is the Shield?" I asked him.
"Well that makes two, all I have is the sword anymore..., so how about we defeat her together, as it is intended, Sword and Shield united as one." Betakin stated.
"Sounds good, I´m all in." I stated as we stood side by side, while Lunnare Wolfenstein rose back to her feet yet again, her face an expression of wrath and hatred.
"This was the last time you tripped me, I will make you pay in full, hundredfold!" She growled loudly.
"Try it Bitch, we will stop you!" We replied as we readied ourselves.
"THIS IS OUR ISLAND, OUR HOME!" We screamed, as we leapt into another fight.
To be continued...
A/N: Another Chapter is done and we come to the end of this arc, only one chapter remaining, the next story is already half written and just waits to be posted as well, so please have some more patience.
As we all know this year hasn´t been the best there is and although it seems that I had enough time to write, I assure you I had not, since due to many lockdowns and other canceled events and happenings in my daily life, most of my inspiration sources have also been on a lockdown lately, this chapter is the best example as I had been writing on it for nearly 2 months which is far too long from usual.
Again I want to apologize for the long delays between each Chapter but I do try my best to stay positive and creative, believe me.
In anyways I hope you still enjoy my story and are delighted to finally see new content, in that regard I hope you all are and stay healthy, and we will see each other hopefully next chapter.
As always read and review, please...
With best regards, yours truly, The Storyteller and his Books.
Ps: Thanks to Norozco772 for your kind words and support, I truly appreciate them.