The hour passed quickly for Lyra. Sharnid and Layfon had gone to help with preparing the bikes. Lyra just sat there quietly. She was doing some breathing exercises to channel the internal kei throughout her body to heal any small wounds that she had received while fighting the infectant earlier. She was ordered to by Nina. Lyra figured she may as well since they didn't know what would happen next. It was better to be in the best shape possible.
However, with the hour now up. The group went over the plan one more time and then they were all off. Lyra and Nina snuck close to the edge of the city, as they traveled. It was now dawn. The sun was starting to rise. Watching the area suddenly begin to lighten made Lyra feel weird. It had been dark the entire time and there had been a cold eerie feeling, but this light gave her hope in a way. She wished that there could have been a way to save the city rather than destroying it. Perhaps the Haikizukou could take over and lead this city again, but Lyra knew that wasn't possible. It would depend on the Haikizukou and also the strength of those in the city, which there weren't any. There were only those that were infected and for that reason there was nothing they could do for the group.
"That looks like the building," Nina spoke softly, pointing ahead. Lyra nodded her head and then followed her captain into the building. At first, nothing seemed wrong. The building itself was in decent shape. Lyra and Nina continued down towards the mine. As they got deeper, it was then things started to get more difficult. The biggest was that they weren't sure about the layout of the building and so they were going by instinct.
Lyra was about to enter into the room, but as she stepped in, she suddenly tensed and instantly moved back in, quickly shutting the door. In front of her, Nina stood there, slightly confused.
"It's the infectant," Lyra explained and moved to the side to allow Nina to see. Slowly her captain opened the door a bit and her eyes widened seeing the number of them just standing there. Lyra peaked through as well. It seemed they were all just resting. A few Lyra noticed to be injured. Whether that was due to those attacking them or just from fighting one another, Lyra wasn't sure. She then noticed Nina suddenly move back. The door then began to shut, but Lyra stopped it, making sure that it shut slowly.
"Captain?" she asked concerned, as she turned to face her captain.
Nina shook her head, "it just feels strange… I mean these are people that are suffering with this infection…"
Lyra couldn't help but raise her brow at that. She was thinking of something like this at this time? She lowered her dite and then turned around to face her captain, her face holding a dark look which Nina had not seen before.
"Captain you really can't be sentimental in this situation," Lyra started, "right now, Zuellini is on its way here and these Infectants are thinking of food. If you sit here trying to think about the possibility of them being cured, then you're wasting the little time we have left."
Nina was a bit taken aback at how Lyra wasn't even considering what these people were. Here, she was thinking Lyra would understand the fact that these people were still human on the inside, but Lyra didn't seem to care. Instead, Nina just nodded her head, "well, obviously you and Layfon would know more about this. We should find a way around so we don't disturb them." Nina then turned around and slowly headed out of the room. Lyra quietly followed behind her. Lyra nodded her head.
"Can you help with that, Felli?" she asked, looking to the pink petal that was quietly floating next to them.
"One moment," Felli's voice echoed. She was then gone for a bit. Both Nina and Lyra sat quietly. While they were away from where the infectants were sleeping, neither of them dared to speak. That, and Lyra felt Nina was still a little moody about everything going on.
The pink petal soon came back, "This way."
Nina and Lyra, quietly followed the pink petal. Finally, they arrived to where multiple tanks stood. All of them holding a high amount of selenium in it.
"It's almost as if they had just refilled somewhere…" Nina muttered.
Lyra nodded her head, "my guess would be that was when they were attacked. And if Zuellini is coming this way due to the mine, we're going to have to be very cautious around that area."
It was then they saw a few pink petals floating their way. It was obviously Felli, keeping everyone in contact, "this is Gorneo here. We are in position and ready to activate the mine," he reported.
"Captain, I'm in position as well," Layfon announced.
"Group two is in position," the psychokinesis spoke up from the fifth platoon. Following him, the third group confirmed their position as well.
Nine nodded to the petals and then turned to the second set that was with them, "Felli, where are you guys?"
"We are all in position," she replied.
"Alright then. Now then, on my mark, we'll set the mines to activate in sixty seconds. That should be enough time to get out," Nina decided.
While Nina was preparing and communicating with the others, Lyra stood a little off on look out. They were here. She could sense them.
"Captain, you might want to hurry. They know we're here and are coming," she warned Nina.
"Right." Nina nodded her head and soon activated the computer to begin the process. Lyra stood a few steps back from Nina, facing away and eyeing the area. The presence was growing. They were getting closer.
"Captain?"
"I'm trying, Lyra. You know, I may have worked in the machineries, but I only do the cleaning there. This is not my forte," she muttered, while staring at the screen before her intently, while her fingers moved on the keys.
Lyra could only smirk at the comment and shrugged, "well, you're in a better position than me." She started to walk towards Nina to see just what she was doing.
"Alright, everything is set here. Activating the mine now," she announced. A response from both Layfon and Gorneo came, saying they had activated it. Nina nodded and went to activate hers as well, but suddenly an energy of blue kei came, hitting her in the side and Nina was sent flying back.
Lyra's eyes widened, seeing the sudden event and instantly she was hurry towards Nina, "Captain!" she called out and hurried forwards. Where did that attack come from? The kei energy she had been sensing was coming from the entrance in front of her so that's why Lyra had moved that way in case they tried to surprise anyone. No one should have been at the other one. Of course that should have been the case if the man had not been hiding himself. Now Lyra felt stupid for falling for that.
"You shall not be destroy this place."
Looking up, she tensed at who appeared. Three cloaked figures appeared from one of the halls. Lyra didn't seem to stare any more as she knew who came. It was the Wolf Masked people.
"Damn," Nina groaned, sitting up. Lyra looked down at her to see if she had any injuries that needed attention. Luckily the captain did not, "where did they come from?"
Lyra only shook her head. She then stood up and offered a hand to her captain to help her up. Nina stood up as well. By they had been surrounded.
"You have made a grave mistake coming here," the one in front of her spoke up.
"And just what do you have planned for this area?" Lyra demanded.
"You know exactly what," the one in the center replied.
Lyra bit her lip as she realized, but then she was smirking, "well that's too bad. The Fairy of this city has already been destroyed. You should have realized that by now."
"Ah, that is where you are wrong. There is a much stronger entity here, hiding within the city."
Lyra's eyes narrowed as tried to understand what they were saying. A stronger entity? Just what did they mean by that? It was then Nina suddenly let out a gasp.
"They mean the Haikizukou..."
Lyra then blinked. So their theory was correct.
"We're in position here, what's going on?" Gorneo's voice appeared. He sounded slightly annoyed.
Lyra then blinked remembering their situation. Now she wanted them to stop what they were planning and search for this Haikizukou as well, but it was too late. The other two had already activated the mines and they needed to activate their side as well and get out.
"We don't have time right now to deal with these people," her captain remarked, knowing exactly what Lyra was thinking.
Lyra nodded her head, "I'll cover you." and with that, she ran forwards, sending out a blast of kei at the enemy while Nina hurried towards the machine to finalize everything.
During that time, Lyra continued to send out attacks at the Wolf Masked warriors, keeping them from getting close to Nina.
"Almost done!" she called out.
As Nina pressed the final few buttons, Lyra blocked an attack sent at Nina. Two of the cloaked figures had both sent a blast of kei towards Nina, which ended up combining. Lyra couldn't move away due to the selenium mine tank being behind them. If even one attack hit, they would all be dead instantly. For that reason, Lyra brought her dite up and to block the attack. As the blast hit, she went sliding back, but the impact caused her to lose her footing and she fell back.
"Captain, look out!" she called, as she hit the ground.
Meanwhile, Nina had just pressed the last button when she saw the attack coming and dove out of the way. A rumble was heard as the attack hit the large container."Okay. Everything is done. We have less than a minute to get out of here!" Nina called, as she hurried towards Lyra, who was getting up now.
"I have found a shorter route for you to take," Felli's voice suddenly came through the petals.
At that, Lyra then felt some relief, but not much. They still needed to get out of there.
"Lead the way!" Nina called, as they began to follow the pink petal out. However, their exit was now blocked with the Wolf Masked warriors in the way now with their dites out, forcing Lyra and Nina to stop.
Lyra groaned in frustration. Of course they couldn't just expect to easily get out of there - especially now that they had angered the group by activating the mine. Both were forced to jump separate ways as the attack came.
"Lyra, these people are holding us back, preventing us from escaping," Nina suddenly called out.
Lyra grunted, as she blocked an attack and jumped forwards to strike, "I realized that, captain."
"You do realize that we're going to die if we stand around and fight. And the others outside will be concerned for us," she went on.
"Nina, what are you trying to say? I know we're in a tight situation right now. We don't really have any options right now," Lyra replied, frustrated, as she jumped back.
"Idiot, we do have a chance!" Nina suddenly snapped, she struck the one she was fighting out of anger, sending him back towards the group by the entrance. She then jumped back and landed next to Lyra, who flinched at the glare her captain gave.
"You said that you only used certain attacks depending on the situation. Don't you think this is one of those?" she demanded.
Lyra blinked. She went to speak but was cut off by Nina's anger, "stop holding back and fight!"
Lyra realized what Nina was saying. It was true. Now that Nina knew that Lyra had abilities that she had hidden from the team, there was no point in pretending, plus their lives were at stake.
"Lyra!"
Lyra nodded, "okay, I'm on it." Lyra replied, taking a deep breath. She then began to focus her internal kei towards her hands and her sword. She could feel the static electricity her beginning to form around her. Lyra was satisfied by it. She then brought her sword up, which was now glowing a bright green color. Aiming at the Wolf Masked warriors, she swiped her sword downwards, sending out a blast of kei, followed by a bolt of lightning, blocking the combined attack sent by the group. Directly following the first swipe, she sent another one with the same amount of energy, which the masked warriors were not prepared for. They were hit by the lightning and went flying back, stunned.
Lyra then took a second to calm herself. She couldn't help but smirk. Savaris would have been proud... at least that's what she would say, but of course he would have found many flaws in it still. Like her posture and angle the attack was sent at. Lyra didn't ponder it too much. She just began to run forwards, with Nina right behind her.
"Well done," Nina replied.
Lyra was surprised by the compliment, but just nodded her head. "Felli, how long do we have left?" She then asked. Around them, the rumbling was happening. The other two mines had exploded and the city was beginning to fall apart.
"You have less than twenty seconds," Felli kept reporting. Lyra didn't bothering to respond. Her only thoughts were that she and Nina had to get out of the building at least before the explosion happened.
"We're almost there!" Nina's voice came.
Now there were ten seconds left.
The entrance was right there, but the door was shut. Lyra tensed herself to run through the door.
Five seconds left.
She crashed through the glass door out onto the street, but she didn't stop. Behind the explosion happened. Pieces from the building went flying forwards.
"Don't stop! We're almost there!" Nina's voice came from next to her. That was the last thing she heard before her voice was drowned out by the deafening explosion. Lyra felt the blast of air go past her and suddenly she couldn't feel her feet on the ground anymore. Lyra's eyes widened as she flew and saw the ground coming towards her and tensed. However, before she even hit the ground, everything suddenly went bright and that was the last thing Lyra remembered.
When Lyra came to, the environment that she was in was not one that she expected. Opening her eyes, Lyra took a few seconds and then sat up. Her eyes widened when she saw where she was. She was in a garden with wild flowers growing from everything. There were so many flowers in the area. The spot that she was lying, was surrounded by a circle of bushes with small pink flowers growing from them.
Where was she?
Slowly, she stood and walked towards the bushes. She could smell the sweet aroma of the flowers. From the smell, Lyra believed them to be jasmines or something of the sort. Touching one of the petals of the flower, Lyra was surprised to feel how soft they were. She then stood straight. This didn't make sense. She should have been in the city buried underneath rubble if anything since she was sure they had yet to get out of the building. It was then she began to panic. What if she was dead? Is this what happened to those who died? Was this the gateway to heaven?
It was then the area started to warm lightly. Lyra closed her eyes, as her body began to relax. It felt so nice. Maybe this was when she was officially dying. At least it was peaceful.
"Ow!" Suddenly, something went slapping her on the back of the head, making her stumble forwards.
Lyra instantly stood straight, rubbing the back of her head, which stung. A giggle was heard. "Hey, what gives?" she demanded, spinning around, only to find herself face to face with a little girl. She had long, green hair, flowing around her, with pink petals coming out as if a flower budding from a vine. They were similar to the flowers that had been budding from the bushes.
Lyra's eyes widened, as she stepped back.
The girl was floating in the air. Her pink, flower like dress, flowed around her. This was literally a girl of flowers.
"Noemi..." Lyra was only able to whisper the name out of shock.
"Silly girl. What are you doing, thinking you're dead?" the girl was suddenly scolding her.
Lyra could only blink, taken aback by the sudden look of anger on the - what first looked cute face of the girl. So many questions were going through her head. What was going on? How was she here? What about the city? According to her dream, the city had been completely destroyed. There were no survivors including the Fairy. So how was Noemi here? Unless she actually was dead.
Suddenly the smack came again, this time with both hands, clapping to Lyra's cheek and staying there. That obviously got her attention and her eyes widened again.
"Stop thinking you're dead!" the girl suddenly scolded her.
Lyra shook her head out of the girl's grip. "But, how can this be?"
The little fairy pouted, drifting back, "seriously, relax. Here I was hoping you would be happy to see me."
Lyra shook her head and quickly hurried to follow, "but I am happy to see you! I'm just very confused. Where am I? How and why am I here? What about the others? What happened to the-" she was cut off with the girl suddenly stopping and diving forwards, taking her hand.
"Like I said, relax. You're here because I wanted to tell you. You guys did it. You managed to prevent the spreading of the infected ones. You guys saved everyone from what Minerva couldn't. It was obviously because of those creepy guys. They're always causing trouble, but you guys stopped them. But that doesn't mean you're done. There's still a lot going on and those people will come again along with other danger. You have to be ready for them." the entire time Noemi was talking, she had a cheerful tone, spinning around happily, relaying the good news. However, as she started speaking about the last part, her face turned serious and the spinning stopped.
"What do you mean there's more to come, Noemi?"
Noemi shook her head, "I can't say more. I don't know anymore. But I do know the trouble is just starting. So please be careful, Lyra. It's been tough for you. I know. But you have to keep going. You can't stop."
Lyra shook her head, "I'm not stopping until I've avenged what they did to you," she replied.
Noemi was suddenly pinching her cheeks, "no you silly girl! You don't sound cool saying that! There's more to this than just avenging the city, you know that," she scolded Lyra again, who could only protest and tried to get away.
Finally Noemi freed her. Lyra stood there with a look of annoyance while rubbing her cheek. While what she had to say was wise, Lyra had forgotten just how childish and annoying this little flower fairy was. At least part of this fairy was. The look of annoyance turned into a smile of relief.
"I'm happy to see you again, Noemi."
The little girl giggled, spinning around again. "Yup. Too bad this is just a dream now. You have to go so bye bye!" she waved.
Lyra's eyes widened, "wait! I-" she was cut off by the sudden spinning of leaves around her. Suddenly everything turned dark.
The next thing she knew, when Lyra opened her eyes again, she felt a little awkward at first and realized she was sitting against something, staring down at her hands before her. Along with that she knew something was instantly wrong, as she felt her body suddenly burning from the inside.
Lyra's head suddenly shot up and she let out a gasp, as she realized just how difficult it was to breath. In the process, she tried to get up as well. It was a slight panic mode, which suddenly stopped when a voice was suddenly heard.
"Whoa, now. It's okay. Hold still," they reached out to grip her shoulder and keep her in place. Lyra turned her head to see someone was sitting next to her, they were working on something but then paused to make Lyra look at them and realize who it was.
It was Sharnid. When he saw that Lyra recognized him and felt her relax, he then moved back to work on something on her helmet.
"And just connect that here, and done," there was a slight nudge, but as he said that, suddenly Lyra could breathe again with pure oxygen pumping through her helmet. Lyra took a few deep breaths to get her head cleared again.
"There we are, how are you feeling?"
Lyra could only nod her head as she moved her limbs one by one to see if anything was broken. Her arms were functioning, her legs were, and her breathing was fine.
Sharnid just watched as she checked herself. When he saw her trying to get up, he stood up as well, offering her a hand to help her up. It was then Lyra felt the pain course through her body which was obviously expressed by her slowness.
"Yeah, that should be expected considering how you guys went flying out like that," Sharnid remarked, noting the obvious pain.
"But did it work?" Lyra asked. Now standing straight, Lyra scanned the area while leaning against the boulder that she had been first sitting against. It was then she noticed the giant city before them. It was almost a similar site to when they first saw it coming into view, but this time, there were flames erupting from the city and the city now lay crooked with one end, digging deep into the ground where the legs had broken off.
"So it did work..."
"Yeah and we got lucky," Nina's voice came from a little off. Lyra looked over to see that Nina was limping over. A little off, Layfon and Felli were on the motor bike with a few members of the fifth platoon next to him. Layfon and Sharnid must have instantly come this way when Lyra and Nina weren't replying to Felli anymore. It would make sense, but Lyra was impressed by the speed.
"How are you feeling? Any damages?" She asked.
"Her helmet was a little busted, and so the air began to leak out. Luckily we were right here and so she didn't breathe much. I patched it up quickly," Sharnid replied for her while tossing the repair spray in his hand lightly before placing it away, "though you're definitely going to have to get yourself checked out. You still breathed in more than you should have," Sharnid added, serious for once.
Lyra nodded her head to him. That would explain the burning throughout her body.
"Thank you though," she then looked at Nina, "but yeah, aside from that, just a little sore as well, but I'll be fine. Are you alright?"
"Just a dislocated shoulder due to how I landed. But I'll be fine as well," Nina explained.
It was then the sound of motor bikes was heard and the rest of the fifth platoon was seen coming over.
"Are you guys alright? We didn't get a confirmation from you after the explosion," Gorneo asked, as he got off his bike.
Nina turned around to answer him, "we had a little run in with the Masked Men while escaping. For that reason we were cut off," she explained.
Gorneo nodded his head. "This explosion will have caused a disruption. It's best to get out of here before any filth monsters appear."
The group nodded, as they headed to the bikes. Unfortunately they were now one bike short due to the explosion.
"Hooray, I actually get company now," Sharnid suddenly cheered. Lyra just shook her head at that. Of course that meant Lyra would be the passenger. Felli had already decided to ride back with Layfon. The only person left was Nina, but she had already gone and sat in the space behind Layfon's seat.
"Lyra, get on quickly. We need to get going," she ordered.
Lyra nodded her head and walked over to the bike Sharnid had set. "Your ride awaits you, Madame," he announced.
Lyra just smirked at the remark, but didn't say anything and got into the passenger seat while he revved the engine a few times. Once she was situated, Sharnid gave the okay and soon the two teams were off, back to their home that was awaiting them off in the distance.