Rex opens his eyes to look on at a boundless battlefield at the strewn bodies around him. He was facing Exodus and he was leaning on the hilt of his blade trying to keep himself propped up as he can feel streaks of blood dripping from his forehead and he finds that he can't get back up. He's stuck on one knee trying desperately to get up. Exodus looks at him with a face of sadistic bliss that bore into him with the almost maddening gaze he was giving to Rex. His clothes were splattered in blood, but none of it his own. He sees Exodus holding in one hand a katana that was longer than Exodus' whole body and it was lightly resting the tip on the ground. The blade was covered in thick blood.
"Foolish human. You thought you could best me? Your species is nothing without my children. You would've been eaten long ago by the beasts of the wild if it weren't for them. Now look at what you caused. All of your friends were slain because of your own weakness to protect them."
Rex suddenly realizes that all of his friends are around him. All laying on the ground unmoving. They all have hollow eyes and one massive slash mark across their chests. The sight sickens Rex as he realizes someone is missing.
"Now I will make you realize just how helpless you really are."
Rex realizes what is in Exodus' other hand. He has his hand roughly wrapped around Nia's throat slowly squeezing the air out of her.
"AAAKKKGGHHHH!" Nia lets out from Exodus' grip tightening.
"Didn't you say 'you wouldn't let me lay a finger on her?' Pathetic. You are nothing but talk, ant."
"L-let her g-go." Rex's voice came out more hoarse than he was intending to let out.
"Make me." Exodus' grip tighten even more and Nia begins to start kicking and turning a bit blue.
Rex tries desperately to move again but can't. He's too injured. He manages to move an inch before a sharp pain courses through his entire leg.
"Oh well. I have no use for this abomination. Good riddance." Exodus abruptly twists his hand and snaps Nia's neck from the motion. He then proceeds to throw her in the air and impale her on his sword as she slowly slides down his blade coating it in blood.
"NIA! NOOOOOOOOOOO!"
He feels hot tears fall down his face and he hiccups from crying so much.
"How about you join her?" Exodus rushes forward and pierces Rex with the blade and he looks up to see Nia's corpse slowly sliding towards him as she crashes into his body, cold and lifeless."
Rex feels the sword going through his stomach and out of his back.
As Rex begins to fade he hears this extremely loud crying.
Rex opens his eyes only to find that he's back in his house and sitting at the table. He looks around to see Nia over at the kitchen cooking some breakfast for them as she hums a soft tune to herself. He looks to the other side of him to see a baby sitting in a high chair. This confuses Rex immensely.
"Hey Nia? Who's baby is this?" Rex asks in concern as he turns back around towards Nia.
Nia chuckles softly at this. "Really? Your pulling that joke now?" Nia has a warm smile on her face and loving eyes bearing down on the two.
This confuses Rex even more. "I'm bein completely serious." Rex looks at Nia with clear confusion on his face.
"Your son of course. Don't play around with me Rex."
This leaves Rex flabbergasted at this response. "Wh-wh-wh-what?! My son?! But we didn't even... you know." Rex goes bright red at that thought.
Nia looks offended at this. "Are you being serious right now? And after you gave me the best night of my life and you already forgot?!" Nia looks pissed at Rex.
"Uuuuhhh n-no no I r-remember now." Rex lies and puts his hands up in defense.
"Well good. I would've had to beat you otherwise." Nia shows off her arm with a gleaming smile.
"Y-yeah I'd probably deserve it." Rex responds in fear.
As Nia goes back to cooking Rex noticed something. Nia's chest looked fuller. 'Wait that doesn't make any sense. She's a blade she shouldn't be able to age. Unless...' Rex slowly looks back towards the baby and he connects the dots. 'Oh crap. I think she's right. This kid really is ours.' Rex narrows his eyes at the baby and realizes a small core crystal in his chest. 'Huh. I wonder how that works.'
Suddenly there is a knock at the door.
"Oh that might be Zeke. He said he wanted to come by and see his new nephew. Go let him in Rex." Nia tells Rex as she puts the breakfast on plates.
"Right." As Rex is getting up to answer the door a thought crosses his mind. "Wait a minute. Since when have you called Zeke by his real name?"
"Since he got serious during the war against REDACTED."
Rex completely stops at that. "Could you say that name one more time please?"
"Are you trying to mess with me again Rex?" Nia looks upset at Rex.
"I'm being very serious." Rex looks very intensely at Nia.
"REDACTED? Did you forget his name?"
Rex begins to break out into a cold sweat.
"H-how did we defeat him again? My memory is a bit hazy." Rex looks scared at Nia.
"Oh Rex." Nia softly speaks to him. "He never died."
"W-what?"
"He never died."
Rex finds himself at the door ready to open it. He feels an enormous amount of stress from hearing that.
"Then how did we win?"
"He never died."
"I know that but did we seal him away or something?"
"He. Never. Died."
Rex opens the door to look outside. What he finds is the entire village is desert.
"Hey Nia? Where is everyo-" As Rex turns around Nia and the child are gone.
"HE NEVER DIED."
Rex looks around only to find a blade stuck in his chest as he turns around in horror to see Exodus standing there looking down on him with a smile. He slowly lifts Rex up still on his blade and brings him close to lightly whisper into Rex's ear.
"I never died Rex."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Rex wakes up screaming and breathing heavily with sweat dripping down his entire body. He can feel his heart racing so fast it could run all the way around Elysium in under an hour with time to spare. He feels a sickness welling up in his stomach as if he's about to vomit.
The screaming jolts Nia awake instantly and she nearly falls out of bed from the sudden shock.
"What the hell Rex?! Why d'you have to go hollerin in the middle of the night?! I'm tryin to sleep to y'know?" Nia looks grumpy at Rex. Nia suddenly realizes the state that Rex is in and immediately tries to calm him down. "Hey Hey calm down now." Nia grabs Rex's head and puts it to her chest as she slowly strokes his hair. "Calm calm calm." Once Rex calms down he immediately examines her face and softly touches her face. "Hey quit that." Nia swats Rex's hands away. "What was that for?"
"To check that this is reality and not that hellscape." Rex replies raggedly.
"What happened?"
"What I saw was awful." Rex looks downcast and buries his head back in Nia's chest as she enwraps him.
"I'm listening, that is if you want to talk about it." Nia quietly tells Rex.
There is a long pause for a minute as Rex takes in the warmth and love of Nia. "I couldn't save you. I couldn't save anyone. They all died by Exodus' hand and he forced me to watch as he slowly killed you. It was horrible. I was helpless."
Nia looks at Rex with worry as she realizes that telling him what happened to her in their last battle has put Rex in such a state.
"Are humans this inherently weak?"
Nia seems confused by this question. "What do you mean?"
"No matter how hard we try, we can never dream of fighting a blade on our own. We might actually be nothing without blades."
"Nonsense." Nia chides Rex.
"What do you mean?"
"I've seen blades fight without their drivers before. Blades that fight long distance with their driver nowhere in sight. They are just as 'weak' as a human is without a blade. It is not a case of blades being stronger than humans." Nia tilts Rex's head up so she is looking directly into Rex's eyes. "It's our bonds that make us strong. The bonds we share doesn't only make blades stronger, it makes humans stronger as well. Exodus doesn't seem to understand that it's our bonds that make us strong. After all we have the strongest bonds out of anyone right?" Nia closes her eyes and smiles softly at Rex.
Rex leans upwards to kiss Nia very deeply which catches Nia off a little bit. When they break up the kiss they are both panting heavily with their foreheads touching each other. "Thank you Nia. I really needed that." Rex cheekily looks at Nia. "Plus the speech was pretty neat too."
"Oh you can be such an ass sometimes." Nia pouts.
Rex chuckles at that and begins to straighten up to look at her before bringing up something else. "By the way I only told you the first half of my dream."
"Oh? More bad times huh?"
"Yes, but there was a little bit of good in it as well."
"Well what was it?"
"Before my dream went to hell a second time I was dreaming of us at home... with one other person there."
"Oh, you mean Dromarch?" Nia asks confused.
"No, it was actually someone related to us."
Nia looks very confused by this statement and furrows her eyebrows as this. "But we don't have any relatives. They're all dead." Nia sadly remarks.
Rex smiles warmly while looking at the bed sheets before meeting Nia's eyes. Their is a brief pause and then Rex responds. "It was our child."
Nia looks surprised at this. Then she looks down at the sheets. "So you've been having those thoughts too huh?"
"Yeah, it's always been in the back of my head but this is the first time it's been front and center. I hate that it had to be in a nightmare though." Rex's head suddenly perks up. "Wait a minute, you've had these thoughts too?"
"Yeah I have. You know I love you more than anything in this world so I've been having these thoughts lately of what our children would be like. It kind of spiraled into the thought of wanting to have children." Nia's face goes dark red. "Even though we haven't done... that yet."
Rex understands the implications and also goes red. "Yeah. We never did it before because we were still too young back then and as we got older we've just kind of pushed it to the back of our minds." Rex then looks very scared for a second and looks at Nia very seriously. "Can we even have kids?"
"If you're referring to me being a blade then you shouldn't have to worry then."
Rex looks confused at this. "But I thought blades couldn't reproduce?"
"And you're right. Under normal circumstances a human and blade cannot conceive due to the blades lack of reproductive organs. But when a blade becomes a flesh eater they awaken more human aspects of their bodies such as organs, blood,... and even their reproductive systems. I know this because I can feel all of that right now." Nia looks down at her body thoughtfully.
"Pheeeewww. That's a relief." Rex puts on a small smile. Rex then gets really nervous. "When do you think we'll be ready?"
Nia takes a long moment to think about it. "I think we'd be ready right now if I'm going to be completely honest with you. However, I feel that with this whole Exodus debacle going on right now and with our wedding coming after that I think we should wait until at least after the wedding."
"I'd say that's pretty fair." Rex scratches his cheek.
Seeing as they're talking about all this personal stuff Nia decides to bring up something that's been bothering her since that day. "There's actually something I've been wanting to ask you but could never find the right time to bring it up."
"What's been on your mind?"
"Something Exodus said during our battle has been bothering me a lot."
"What did he say to you?" Rex leans in closer to listen to Nia.
"When we were fighting and right before he injured me he said 'how could you betray your father?' why would he refer to himself as my father? I know he's most certainly not my da and on top of that blades can't reproduce. So what did he mean?"
"Maybe he means a symbolic father?" Rex guesses.
"But if that were the case then that would mean... Wait a minute. Do you think he's Ontos?"
Rex looks at Nia as if she'd grown a second head. "No way. Klaus said Ontos was flung into a far dimension. Exodus has supposedly been here for over two thousand years. There's no way he's Ontos. Plus his core crystal is way larger than Malos or Pneuma's. I'd assume Ontos' crystal would be similar to theirs."
Suddenly something clicks inside Nia's head. "Wait say that last part again."
"About Exodus' core crystal being larger?"
"Yeah that's it. What if Exodus came before the Aegis'?"
Rex puts a fist to his chin in a thinking position. "Hmmmmmmm. Maybe. But how far back we talkin?"
Nia shrugs her shoulders. "I don't know. We don't know how old Exodus truly is."
Rex narrows his eyes in thought. "I think... we might be on to something."
"I think so too." Nia agrees.
Rex then yawns quite loudly and stretches his arms out. "I'm starting to get sleepy again." Rex unconsciously pulls Nia closer to him. "I think I'm going back to bed."
"Will you be ok?" Nia checks.
"With you by my side I think I'll be fine."
"Well in that case goodnight Rex." Nia gives Rex a quick peck on the lips.
"Goodnight Nia." Rex closes his eyes and goes back to bed.
It is a quiet day outside with Rex and Nia walking around looking for some of their friends that Rex has questions for since that day they fought Exodus. During their battle Rex had seen Zeke and Morag use techniques he had never seen before and has been curious about them ever since. Nia is just as curious about this. As the two walk towards Morag's office they notice a familiar voice coming from within. Upon opening the door Rex and Nia see Morag and Zeke both in the office, more than likely discussing battle deployments of troops for when Exodus next attacks.
Rex peeks his head in and confirms with the group of blades and drivers: "I hope we're not interupting anything."
Zeke and Morag both turn around to see Rex and Nia coming in.
"You are not interrupting anything. Is there anything you needed?" Morag asks the two.
"We actually are a bit curious about a few things from the both of you." Nia responds this time.
"Me as well?" Zeke asks as he eyes the two of them. "Well shoot chums."
"Zeke, what was that eye of yours?" Rex asks Zeke.
Zeke looks at them for a moment before taking his eyepatch off and looking at the two of them with both of his eyes. "This is what I like to call; 'The Eye of Shining Justice'. The technical term for this eye is the Ether Reducter."
"The Ether Reducter?" Nia questions.
"This eye is able to warp the very ether around us and can drain a lot of ether out of my surroundings very quickly." Zeke then activates his eye and the ether begins to move violently enough to become visible to everyone else before turning it back off.
Rex and Nia go wide eyed. "That sounds crazy. Why didn't you use it when we fought Malos?" Rex questions.
"At the time I had no control over my eye. You see when I was younger I would accidentally kill the servants working in the palace back in Tantal because I had no control over my eye and due to its nature of absorbing ether it would drain all the ether out of people who didn't have proper ether training. It was also the true reason my father kicked me out of our nation because he deemed me to big a threat to the people." Zeke grimaces at the memory.
"So that means your eyepatch really did seal your power. How does it do that anyways?" Nia asks next.
"It seals it by creating an echo chamber effect within my eye where it is constantly absorbing itself. That is, before I learned how to control it."
"He learned how to control it through our expeditions if you were wondering since you know being out in the wild is a great place to practice since you're not around any people." Pandoria adds.
"I also noticed that your eye has limits to it." Morag injects.
"Truth be told I've never experienced an attack of that size before so it took a lot out of me. Anymore questions?" Zeke asks towards the couple.
"How long have you had it?" Nia up again.
"I was born with it." Zeke responds.
"Is it genetic or a mutation?" Rex follows up.
"According to my father the first king of Tantal had this eye as well, but who knows for sure considering he lied about our heritage to Adam. For all I know I could be the first person to have such an eye and this is just a mutation as you had said." Zeke responds. "Anything else?"
The two think about it for a second before Rex comes up with two more questions.
"Does Tora know? And how long has Morag known?"
"The little furball asked me immediately after I woke up about my eye. As for Morag, I'll let her explain." Zeke motions to Morag.
Morag lightly coughs before starting. "Ehem. I found out about Zeke's eye when I ascended the throne. When I became Empress I had access to the archives of all the nations. What I discovered is that King Eulogimenos warned me on the true nature of Zeke's eye which is when I found out about it. It was for this reason I sent Zeke on these expeditions in the first place. He can not only defend himself but he can also train his eye while collecting data that will be useful to the empire. In short I've known for four years." Morag finishes.
"Is that it?" Zeke asks once more.
The two think about it for a moment before Nia answers. "I believe that's about it. At least for you... Zeke."
Everyone is shocked at hearing that, especially Zeke who has his jaw on the floor.
"Did Nia finally call me by my real name?!" Zeke says in a dramatic gasp.
"Oh hush you." Nia responds annoyedly. "It's apparent I finally have to take you more seriously now with this eye of yours. Even if you are still goofy as hell." Nia snorts lightly.
"Ha Ha! Nia has finally acknowledged me. My life has been fulfilled." Zeke does a dramatic pose and cries fake tears of joy.
Nia sighs and puts a hand to her head."I regret saying anything."
"If I remembered correctly, you had questions for me as well?" Morag tries to get the conversation back on track.
Rex answers first. "It actually has to do with you duel wielding your blades. How is that even possible?"
Morag closes her eyes in thought before answering. "This is a somewhat complex matter. Do you two have the time to listen to my full explanation?"
"Sure we can listen, we didn't exactly have anything planned for the day." Nia replies.
"You both know how the bond between a blade and a driver works correct?"
"Sure we do. A blade pours their ether into their driver and the driver gets enhanced by the blades ether. The stronger the bond between the two the more the blade is able to pour even more ether due to the two being in tune with each other." Rex explains from his own knowledge.
"Correct. Now what normally happens when a driver tries to use two blades at the same time?"
Rex puts a hand to his chin in thought. "From my experience it can either work in a single powerful attack or it simply doesn't work at all."
"I wondered how the former occurred and how I could use that concept and incorporate this idea into a fighting style." Morag pauses for a moment. "What normally happens is that when you try to use two blades at the same time your body simply cannot tap into both ether flows due to a difference of ether links. You must know by now that every blade has a distinct wave of ether correct?"
"Right." Rex pounds his fist into his hand. "Whenever I fought with Pneuma her ether link felt different from how Nia's does."
"Due to a contradiction of these ether links they end up either canceling each other out or one ends up over powering the other. Like I mentioned earlier there is an exception where one can tap into two blades at once for a brief instance in order to deliver a devastating blow. I had initially used this exception by testing several dozens of times attacking in single blows with Brighid and Aegaeon. Every time I attacked with both of them I kept getting a better and better feeling of what is happening to cause this. Every time I did this combination attack I realized that for a brief instance that both of their ether links were flowing through me at the exact same time."
"So what did you do next?" Rex leans in with interest.
"I began to learn how to control my ether. When I realized how brief the two ethers would flow into me I began researching proper ether control to see the specifics of how that functioned. We are all aware already how to control our ether but not the science behind it. Once I figured out the specifics of ether control I began opening and closing all my ether points periodically to have complete control over my ether network. That took me a year to fully master ether control to its highest extents. After that I had to figure out the right amount of ether that had to flow in certain parts of my body to compensate the two ether links from interfering with each other. Finding that out took me another year in order to properly use dual wielding. But their was one unfortunate problem I realized."
"What was that?"
"As you battle your ether network slightly changes as you get more tired. These slight changes can cause the entire frame of dual wielding to be completely thrown off as the two ether links could make contact and disrupt each other. So for one more year I had to learn to constantly change my ether network during battle to maintain dual wielding. It is extremely difficult to pull off and requires a lot of concentration. This is why I always need at least ten seconds to active dual wielding mode as even I can't activate it instantly."
"Incredible." Rex whispers.
"What are the positives and negatives of dual wielding?" Nia asks.
"The positives is that by dual wielding it increases your overall strength exponentially which leads to the driver being far stronger than what should normally be possible. The downsides is that it requires a lot of training and it can easily burn your body of its own ether from all the opening and closing and changing of your ether network."
"So it can hurt you?" Rex says in surprise.
"Exhaust is a more fitting word." Morag clarifies.
Rex and Nia have a new found respect for Morag and how relentless she has been training for the sake of protecting Elysium. 'And to think she was doing all of this ON TOP of all her duties as Empress.' Nia thought in amazement.
"What about that dual art? How does that work? I don't remember it being possible to fuse two elements at the same time." Rex asks.
"That is the culmination of my training. It is the peak of what a driver can achieve. As you just said, it is normally impossible to fuse two elements together. However due to the nature of dual arts flowing through the body simultaneously it allows for me to combine the two elements together. This requires me to release both elements at the same time to get the two elements to mix on the outside. Due to the combination of water and fire I create steam with my dual arts. This steam has a few special properties to it."
"Like what?" Rex inquires.
"Well for starters due to this steam being completely made out of ether it creates a cloud of ether that makes it impossible to discern where I may be hiding in the cloud due to the density of ether surrounding the target. Secondly I can sense everyone and everything within the steam cloud as I am connected to it. Thirdly, and this is where the rest of the name comes from, I can move at speeds within the mist that are not humanly possible. Due to this it usually leaves my opponent with thousands of cuts all throughout their body leading to not only bleeding out but also ether leaking out as well."
"Does it have any weaknesses?" Nia asks.
"The only real weakness is further draining my ether. As for a specific weakness, that would be him." Morag points at Zeke.
"Why him?"
"His eye can absorb my steam enough for him to see. Not only that but his reactions are actually quite fast."
"They don't call me Thunderbolt Zeke for nothing!" Zeke strikes another dramatic pose.
"How long did it take to learn to do this 'dual art'?"
"It took me another year after learning to dual wield."
"What was the official name of the technique again?"
"Secret Dual Art: Writhing of the One Thousand Phantom Blades."
Nia whistles. "I gotta say you sure did give that technique one hell of a name."
"It even puts my technique names to shame." Zeke sadly adds in.
"Is there anything else you wish to ask?"
Rex and Nia think about it for a moment but can't seem to think up anything. "I think that just about covers everything we wanted to know." Rex responds for both of them. "Thank you for taking the time to answer some of our questions, we've just been wonderin what these new powers that both of you posses were and how they worked."
"You are welcome for this knowledge." Morag simply replies.
"Same here chum." Zeke joins in.
"Speaking of which, what were the two of you discussing just now?" Nia inquires.
Morag simply hands a file over to the two and replies with: "We've been getting some interesting reports the past few weeks ever since the battle with Exodus."
Rex opens the file to see photos of several blades that have been spotted all over Elysium. "What is this?"
"According to our intel, there have been dozens of blades spotted all around our nation. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, however there seems to be something very off about all these blades."
"And what would that be?"
"These blades don't match any records of any registered blades. Normally a blade is registered here in Alba Cavanich when they are awakened."
"What if they're just illegal blades?" Nia responds.
Zeke interjects at this. "I thought the same thing as well chum, but there are too many new blades for it to simply be a case of a shipping of stolen core crystals."
"Are you suggesting that Exodus has something to do with this?"
Morag simply stares up at the two and answers with a one word reply: "Correct."
"But how could he have anything to do with this?" Nia questions.
"Remember back to when we clashed with him? He had three rings when we fought him." Morag points out to the two.
Nia is baffled at this. "How did you even see such a small detail?"
"After our previous hypothesis on Exodus' rings giving him new abilities I made sure to focus on his rings. If you remember the reports correctly, Exodus wasn't able to teleport during my first battle with him. Once I realized that I focused on his rings and saw not two but three rings. In addition we already hypothesized that Exodus uses the cores of titans to fuel his rings and considering the fact that the Indol titan, the Cliffs of Morytha titan, and Uraya titans are all dead this would line up."
Nia slowly puts these clues together and comes to a sudden conclusion. "So you're saying that Exodus has some new ability to control blades?"
Morag closes her eyes and responds calmly. "Partially. If Exodus could control blades then why wouldn't he control already existing blades? Remember these blades aren't registered."
Rex puts these details together and comes to a chilling conclusion. "What if Exodus is creating these blades?"
"But that would be impossible chum. Only titans can create new core crystals." Zeke recollects.
"Well Exodus isn't exactly normal so it can't be entirely ruled out." Rex argues.
Morag thinks of this theory for a moment and folds her arms across her desk. "It could be a possibility. We can't entirely just rule it out."
Off in the research lab Tora begins to hear a periodic beeping coming from within the lab.
"Meh Meh, what is this?" Tora walks over to the beeping and finds he is too short to reach the monitor. "Poppi, Tora need a little help please."
"On it Masterpon." Poppi lifts Tora up so he can see the screen better and realizes that the beeping is coming from a radar that gets signals from around the city that checks to see if anything is amiss. What Tora discovers is quite terrifying as he sees a large red splotch slowly making its way right towards Alba Cavanich right now as they speak.
Tora panics. "Meh Meh Meh! This really bad! Tora must tell friends of problem immediately. Poppi, get Tora to Morag as quickly as possible. Must tell Morag of threat."
"On it Masterpon." Poppi grabs Tora and barrels through the castle with her jets to get to Morag as quickly as possible. After a minute Tora and Poppi are right outside the door and enter immediately.
"Morag there an emergency!" Tora realizes that the rest of his friends are there as well.
Morag motions for Tora to continue. "What kind of emergency?"
"Giant threat is making way towards city!"
"Tora what do you mean?" Rex questions.
"Tora mean that radar pick up on large entity making way towards city right now as speak." Tora clarifies for the group.
Everyone is put on edge by this and Morag asks Tora "What is the entity?"
"Tora not sure. Didn't check before coming here. Tora suggest looking through communicator."
Morag nods and turns to her communicator on her desk and turns it on. Everyone in the room crowds behind Morag to take a look at what is currently coming at them. As Morag flips through the various cameras set up around the kingdom Morag looks over to Tora. "What direction are these enemies coming from?"
Tora thinks back on what he saw and replies: "Entity coming from the docks."
Morag flips over to the dock cameras and begins going through the cameras between their and the kingdom and about half way through the group takes a glance at what is currently making there ways towards them. What they see is thousands of blades all marching towards the capital to siege it.
Rex is the first to respond. "Theres so many of them."
"They don't look far off." Morag notices. "These blades should be here in about thirty minutes if I was to take a guess."
"That doesn't sound like a lot of time." Zeke worriedly points out.
"No it is not." Morag turns over to some microphones and turns them on. "I need the heads of each division to report to my office immediately. This is a Code Red emergency."
Within a minute all twelve division leaders entered the office in a scramble at the news of a Code Red situation. The head of the group steps forward and requests a report on the situation.
Morag begins giving commands to her subordinates. "We were just recently informed that there is an army of blades that is currently making its way towards our city right now as we speak. I am going to need divisions 1, 4, and 7 to evacuate as many citizens as you can. Divisions 2, 6, 9, and 12 are going to need to go to the front lines and prepare to face the enemies; you are permitted to engage with the titan weapons. Division 8 will be arming the walls to make sure that none of the blades get into our city. Finally divisions 3, 5, 10, and 11 will be stationed inside the city just in case the front line breaks."
One of the division leaders speaks up: "But who will protect you your Majesty?"
Morag looks at him plainly. "There is no need to worry about me. I have my royal guards here to protect me if need be. Additionally I am more than prepared to face the enemy myself."
The solider steps back. "Thank you for the clarification."
Morag stands up from her chair and points with her arm towards the door the soldiers walked through and gives them a serious look. "Now all of you get to your positions immediately, we only have about twenty five more minutes until they get here."
Upon hearing of how little time they had the soldiers panic and begin scrambling out the door with each of them pulling out various walkie talkies to inform their divisions to get into position immediately.
"Do you think Exodus will be with them?" Rex asks no one in particular.
This makes the entire room grows tense.
"I would say there is a high probability." Morag grimly responds.
Zeke begins to walk out of the room. "Looks like I'll go face him myself."
"Aye Zeke where do ya think you're goin?" Nia responds.
"To settle the score of course. If Exodus really is out there then our army doesn't stand a chance against him. That's why I'll go out there. To keep him distracted so he doesn't maul are army."
Rex is shocked at what Zeke is implying. "Zeke do you even know what you're suggesting?"
"I am quite aware of what I am saying but we can't have Morag or Tora on the field for this fight. If Morag falls then our government will crumble and everything will be sent into chaos and if Tora falls then we will lose the greatest mind in our nation. That means the only logical choice..." Zeke points his thumb at himself. "...would be yours truly."
Pandoria seems extremely worried about this. "My prince you can't do this. I can't lose you again."
Zeke claps Pandoria on the shoulder and looks at her. "Don't worry about it Pandy. I'll be alright." However Zekes eyes show otherwise.
Right as Zeke is leaving the room Rex speaks up. "I'll go with you."
Nia looks over at Rex worriedly. "Rex..."
"Chum you really don't have to do that. I'll be just fine."
Rex glares at Zeke very seriously. "We both know that Exodus is too powerful to be taken on on his own. You're going to need back up. Don't forget I have my own score to settle with him. Plus you're going to need a healer am I right?"
When Zeke sees that look in Rex's eyes he knows there's no convincing him otherwise. With a sigh and closing his eyes Zeke gestures to Rex. "Alright then, follow me."
Rex turns to Nia. "Nia are you coming with?"
Nia seems slightly irritated. "Well I kind of have to or else you and Zeke are gonna become mashed potatoes if I don't."
Rex looks at Nia apologetically. "Sorry for dragging you into this."
"Ah whateva. You're always trying to help your friends out and I've just come to accept that part of you."
Right before the group leave Morag calls out to them. "I wish you all the best of luck."
With that Rex, Nia, Zeke, and Pandoria leave the room and make their way towards the entrance.
By the time the opposing army arrives the citizens are still being escorted out of the city and the Ardainian military gets tense as this could lead to the bloodshed of the innocent. As Rex and Zeke stand at the front of the army and look on at the thousands of blades that are preparing to attack they notice one very large man making his way to the front of his army to face them down.
"So we meet again, foolish humans."
"Exodus." Rex spits out.
"Will you finally give me your names so I may remember who the final defenders of your wretched species were?" Exodus grins eerily calm.
"My name is Rex." Rex points at himself. "That's Nia." Rex points behind him.
"The filthy abomination." Exodus grits his teeth.
"The names Zeke and this is Pandoria." Zeke says very seriously.
"Ah yes, you're the one with the odd eye." Exodus points out interested. "Where is your leader?"
Zeke narrows his eyes. "That is none of your business."
Exodus looks irritated but then suddenly gets a wide grin on his face. "Looks like I'll have to force it out of you then." Exodus summons a katana of light to his hand and points it towards Alba Cavanich and yells in a loud voice for everyone to hear. "My children! Lay siege to this wretched place and show these fools their own arrogance!"
The blades yell in response and begin charging forward to attack.
The division leaders yell at their men. "Don't let a single one into the city! We cannot lose the capital! For the Empire!"
The Adainians yell as they charge at their enemies. "FOR THE EMPIRE!"
to be continued...
Authors Notes: I'm back from another hiatus and I'm here to hopefully write a few more chapters before I inevitably go into another hiatus. Let me tell you that college sure does require a lot of my time but it looks like I'll have more free time soon so expect some more chapters to be released over the next few weeks. Anyways this is Exile Mansion signing off.