JUST LOVE

Chapter Fourteen

"Okay everyone, Lance is here so let's all skedaddle," Millenia suggested with enthusiasm.

"Where should we go from here?" Roan asked. "It is a big place, we could easily get lost."

"It looks like we're going to have to gamble," Ryudo answered.

Melfice shook his head. "No, we should find a direct exit instead. Wandering around aimlessly and hoping that we'll find a way out will take longer."

Elena frowned. "Where do we find for a way out?"

"...and won't the enemy be expecting us at an exit?" Ryudo added.

"I know they will be expecting us." Melfice turned to Tio. "You're an Automata, part human and part machine... that makes you an expert with machines, right?"

Tio nodded. "Yes. Why do you ask?"

"Can you find an exit that has the least defenses?" Melfice asked.

"If I had access to their computers, maybe I could," Tio said.

Melfice scoffed. "If it's just their computer you need, then I'll find you one." The group then ran to the end of the corridor with Melfice on the lead. He found a door and opened it. He poked his head through the door and discovered that the room is empty. After that, he checked the next room, which was just a storage room. Melfice then turned to the door across from the second one. He opened it and found what he was looking for.

Roan looked to his left and saw two Cathedral Knights coming at them. "We have company."

Ryudo smirked and took out the Granasaber. "Melfice, you go find the exit and I'll take care of these two."

Roan unsheathed the Gladius. "I will stay and help."

Melfice motioned with his hand for the rest to get in the room. "Come on, let's go!"

Everyone went inside the room and Tio immediately helped herself on a computer with everyone watching behind her. Tio typed on the keyboard to look up the base's structure. A minute ticked by and the Automata found their way out. "I found the best exit," she announced.

Millenia turned to Melfice. "You know, since we're here, why not look up some stuff about yourself too?"

Tio sighed in disappointment. "I already did that and I also tried to find something about the Cathedral Knights but I could not access the files. It seems that some of the files in the data base are missing."

"I probably destroyed them when I blew up the other room," Lance thought.

"Well at least Lance has information about the Cathedral Knights," Elena said.

Melfice hid his disappointment. "Oh well. Let's get out of here." The group ran out of the room and found Ryudo and Roan standing over the Cathedral Knight's corpses.

"Did you find it?" Roan asked.

"Yes, I did it," Tio smiled.

"Oh yay! Are we going to stand around here or escape?!" Ryudo said sarcastically.

"I shall lead the way," Tio suggested and ran to the end of the corridor. "This way." She pointed to her left and made a turn. The others nodded in unison and followed her. The group made a lot of twists and turns and ran down a couple of spiralling staircases, the Granas Base was big.

"Are we there yet?!" Millenia asked Tio impatiently. "My feet are starting to hurt."

"Just a bit more," Tio answered.

Melfice, who ran beside Millenia, let out a small laugh. "They wouldn't hurt if you didn't wear high heels."

Millenia jabbed his arm with her elbow. "Was I talking to you?!"

"Heads up!" Ryudo exclaimed as he saw two Cathedral Knights guarding the door at the end of the hall.

Lance reached for one of the many pockets inside his trench coat and threw a couple of shurikens at the Knights. Roan followed up the Ninja's attack with a Howlslash to finish them off.

Tio walked up to the door and pressed a combination of buttons on the control panel on the wall. The door slid open and the Automata entered. The others followed Tio and their jaws dropped in awe as they realized where they were. They were in an underground dock. In the middle of the dock was a Granasaber ship. Tio turned around to face her friends. "Well, what do you think?"

Lance quickly composed himself. "She wasn't kidding when she said she found the best exit," he thought.

"Awesome..." Millenia whispered to herself.

"Tio! This is amazing!!" Roan said with a laugh.

"Great work Tio," Melfice commented.

"Thank you. Now, let us make our escape," Tio suggested and ran towards the Granasaber with everyone behind her. As they reached the ship, Tio formed a red barrier around herself and the gang and warped into the Granasaber's control room.

"Will this thing work?" Ryudo asked.

Tio sat down on the pilot's seat and typed on the keyboard on the control panel. "The ship has one hundred percent power. It will fly but it does not have any weapon systems installed."

"But we can take it to Cyrum and add weapons to it. This thing will be of great use to us," Roan replied.

Elena clasped her hands together on her chest. "We are taking this flying vessel to Cyrum?"

"We're stealing it, okay? Get over it!" Millenia snorted.

"Wow, this is the first time I've seen or been in something like this. Ryudo, you rode one of these before, right?" Melfice said.

"Yeah, but it got destroyed though," Ryudo replied.

"Shall we take off now?" Tio asked.

"By all means yes," Skye answered.

Tio nodded. "Okay. Brace yourselves."

Roan sat next to Tio, on the second pilot's seat. The others seated themselves on the computer terminals on the sides. Tio typed on the keyboard and a couple of lights on the ceiling, and the other computers went on. The gang strapped their safety seat belts on as the engines roared and the computers hummed. The ceiling in the dock rumbled and opened up, forming an exit to the outside world. The Granasaber rose from the floor and blasted out of the dock.

"Finally, we're out of there!!" Millenia cheered.

A 3D, semi transparent map appeared in the middle of the room to display the landscape below, the St. Heim Pastures. "That is what is below us," Tio said.

"Who would've thought that there's something like this under all of that grass," Ryudo remarked.

Elena pointed at the screen on her terminal. The screen was black and in the middle of it was a blue dot with a green circle around it, displaying the ship and its perimeter. Behind the blue dot were two red dots heading straight towards it, the red dots being incoming intruders. "There is something unusual on my screen."

"It's the enemy, they've followed us," Melfice told everyone.

"And they're probably not too happy," Ryudo added.

"I will give you a visual on the enemy," Roan announced. The 3D map vanished and was replaced by a screen showing two winged, white dragons.

"Damn, just what have those guys been doing?! First there's Cathedral Knights, then an underground base, plus Granasabers, and now dragons?!!" Ryudo snarled.

The screen showed the dragons firing lasers with their mouths and the next second, the gang felt the Granasaber rumble. "My screen says five percent energy loss," Millenia said.

Lance looked at his screen. It just said, "NO WEAPONS AVAILABLE FOR USE" in red.

"We're going to get roasted if we don't do something!!" Ryudo exclaimed.

"But we cannot fight them, the Granasaber has no weapons," Tio replied.

"We're going to have to fight them ourselves, outside the ship," Melfice ordered.

"Right. Only four of us can fight. Tio has to stay here to keep piloting the ship. I'm definitely fighting," Ryudo agreed.

Millenia undid her seat belt. "You'll need me out there."

Roan looked at Ryudo. "I am going to stay here and help Tio pilot the ship."

Melfice stood up. "I'm fighting too."

Lance chuckled coldly. "Hmph, I guess I'm going up there too."

"Good luck to you all," Skye said, who was perched on Tio's shoulder."

Elena sighed. "I guess I will just stay here."

Ryudo strapped off his seat belt and stood up. "So Tio, how do we get out there?"

Tio pointed at the end of the control room. "At the end of the room is a red, round platform. It is a warping platform. It could take you on the deck, the hangar, the lounge, the rooms, and other parts of the ship."

Ryudo nodded his head. "Okay, gotcha."

Before Ryudo could stride away, Elena reached for his arm. "Ryudo, please be careful."

Ryudo gave her a charming smile. "I will, don't worry about us." The Geohound then walked to the end of the room with Millenia, Melfice, and Lance behind him. All four of them stepped onto the red, round platform. Ryudo turned to the control panel on the wall and pressed the button that said "Deck." A red barrier formed around them and were transported outside the ship. The group found themselves standing on the red sphere at the rear end of the Granasaber.

Melfice pointed something behind them. "There they are."

The two dragons fired beams again but the Granasaber managed to avoid them. "We have to draw their attention to us," Ryudo suggested.

"Leave that to me." Millenia bent down to her waist and sprouted a pair of black wings on her back. She took to the air and took out her Black Angel Bow. She fired two Arrow Shots at the dragons and hit both of them on their left hind legs.

The dragons roared in pain and their heads swung back and forth to see who just attacked them.

Millenia whistled and waved her hand in the air. "Hey, over here!!!" she yelled.

The dragons snarled and narrowed their eyes at the red head. They flapped their scaly wings faster so they could catch up to their attacker.

Millenia landed back on the ship. "Okay boys, here they come!"

Ryudo took out the Granasaber Sword. Lance unsheathed the Falchion. Melfice assumed his fighting stance with his Cardinal Blade.

One of the dragons appeared to the ship's right side. The other stayed behind the first one as if it was waiting for its chance to attack. The dragons roared. The first dragon turned around and swung its long, whip like tail at the group.

Millenia spread her black wings out and took to the air. Ryudo, Lance, and Melfice quickly got down to the ground and rolled back to safety. Before the three could get up, they heard the second dragon screech and looked up. The giant, winged lizard reared its head back to gather energy for an attack. It screeched again and fired several energy balls with its mouth.

"Dammit!!!" Ryudo cursed to himself. He closed his eyes and braced himself for the attack. Lance covered himself with his trench coat and Melfice did the same with his cape. The three expected the attack to hit them hard but it never came. Ryudo opened one eye and looked around. The dragons were right behind them again. Apparently, the Granasaber Ship sped away before the attack could nail them. "Whoo, close one," Ryudo sighed.

"Don't celebrate yet," Melfice said as he pointed at the first dragon. The first one was heading straight towards them again while the other went after Millenia.

The flying lizard eventually caught up with the ship and appeared to its left side this time. It swung its powerful tail again at the group but missed.

Lance glared ice cold daggers at the enemy and raised the Falchion into the air with both hands. The Falchion's blade glowed with a blue aura and the Ninja then slashed downwards. "Get ready! Dark Slash!" He fired a blue crescent projectile with his katana. He hit the dragon right on the left side of its neck.

Ryudo ran up to their opponent and reared back with the Granasaber Sword. With the weapon held with both hands, he swung the sword forward and pierced the dragon's arm. "Tenseiken Slash!!"

Melfice held the Cardinal Blade in the air with both hands. "HAA!!!" He then brought the sword down to the ground. "Demon Horde Slash!!!" A huge, crest of blue swords formed on the ground and the crest released destructive energy.

The dragon screeched in pain and eyed its assailants. It reared its head back to charge up for another beam. The Granasaber Ship sped away again just in time to avoid the attack. The dragon let out an irritated growled and fired more beams at its escaping prey.

Back on the ship, Lance charged up for a magic spell. He put his left hand forward and used Poizn. "Dark spirits of the forests, gather and destroy!!"

"This is why you're no good!!" Melfice reared back and raised the Cardinal Blade in the air. Several fire birds formed behind him and flew high in the sky. The fire birds screeched and dived bomb on the dragon.

"Freezing rage!!!" Ryudo put his left hand forward and casted Crackling on the enemy.

The dragon howled in pain. However, it would not let something like magic stop it from destroying the intruders who attacked the base. The giant lizard snarled and flew high in the air. It opened its mouth and fired several yellow, energy balls at the Granasaber below.

"Stay down!!" Melfice yelled to the other two. The three knelt down and shielded themselves with their weapons. It rained energy balls on the Granasaber and the ship rocked violently each time it was hit.

Lance stood up and checked the ship and the others for any signs of damages or injuries. Ryudo and Melfice seemed to be okay. The front part of the ship though was smoking. The Ninja heard a familiar roar and turned around to see their enemy come at them again. This time, the dragon flew above them and landed on the ship. "Bloody hell..." he whispered to himself.

The dragon swung its left clawed arm at Melfice but missed. Instead, it hit the ship and made a big scar on it. "We have to get it off or it's going to destroy the ship!!" Melfice shouted.

The enemy attacked Ryudo with its right arm and caught his left shoulder. The dragon's claws cut into his clothing and slightly tore into his flesh. Ryudo sank on the ground and tried his best not to yell out in pain with his brother around. The dragon snarled and brought its arm in the air to finish him off.

"Ryudo!! I'm coming!!!" Melfice ran towards the enemy and jumped onto its back. Quickly, he plunged his sword into its neck. The dragon howled and tried to shake Melfice off but held onto his sword tightly while he twisted the blade around the wound to inflict more pain.

Ryudo got up and backed away slowly with his right hand on his wounded shoulder to prevent the cut from bleeding. He winced in pain and the next second, he felt no more stabbing pains. "Huh?" He took away his hand and looked at his shoulder, the cut had completely closed. He looked back and realized that Lance just used Alhealer. For once, he was glad to have the Ninja around but there was no way he would say that to anyone.

Melfice withdrew his sword from the dragon and jumped off. He ran back to Ryudo. "Are you all right now?"

Ryudo nudged his head towards Lance. "Yeah, he used a healing spell on me."

Lance walked up to them and looked at their opponent. The dragon panted heavily and blue blood came out of its nostrils. "The wound you inflicted and the poison weakened it. We should finish it off now before it heals itself."

The brothers nodded. The three paused for a moment and then unleashed all of their attacks all at once. "Sky Dragon Slash!!!"

"Evil Horn Attack!!"

"Dark Flare!"

The combination of attacks pushed the intruder off the Granasaber. The dragon screeched as it fell off the ship. Ryudo, Lance, and Melfice looked down, the dragon just kept on spiralling down to crash on the ground. It did not have enough strength to fly back to its enemies.

"Whoo, that was a close one..." Ryudo sighed.

"I wonder how Millenia is doing with the other one?" Melfice asked himself.

***

Millenia dodged a beam from her opponent and retaliated by firing several arrows at it. "Damn!" Most of her shots missed and the ones that connected just hit its left leg. Millenia flapped her wings and flew higher. The dragon went after the red head and roared.

Millenia took out an arrow and kissed its tip. She put it on her bow and aimed. "This may sting a little," she said as she fired the arrow. She hit her opponent on the side. Thick, blue blood trickled down from the wound. The dragon just ignored the injury and continued its pursuit. "Stubborn little bastard," she muttered.

"This is my way of thanking you." She stretched out both of her arms and brought them backwards. A purple, energy ball formed on each of her palms. She then swung both of her arms forward and threw the energy balls at the enemy. There was a big explosion in the sky as the attack met its target.

However, the dragon survived the attack and emerged out of the purple cloud of smoke the explosion created. It snarled angrily and fired beams at its prey mercilessly. Millenia dodged the attacks but barely.

"I can't beat this thing alone," Millenia told herself and headed for the Granasaber. "I just hope the others beat the other one." The dragon followed her while firing beams with its mouth. The dragon attacked so quickly that its lasers got harder for Millenia to dodge. Millenia waved her hand and used Grudging Claws on her pursuer to slow it down and it worked.

Millenia flapped her wings faster to catch up with the Granasaber. A minute ticked by and the red head could make out the Granasaber ahead of her with no beams being fired at her, but not for long. The dragon recovered from Grudging Claws and caught up with her. The giant lizard began its assault again.

Millenia growled to herself after she avoided one of its attacks. "Will this thing ever give up?!!" The red head turned around to counter attack with a DragonZap but was hit before she could cast it. She let out a scream and fell out of the sky. Luckily, she was above the ship when she was hit and Melfice caught her in his arms.

Melfice knelt down and put her on the ground. He cradled her head on his lap and brushed her bangs out of her ruby red eyes. "It's okay now."

"Melfice..." Millenia rasped.

Ryudo and Lance ran to Melfice's side. "Millenia!!" Ryudo cried. "You okay?"

Lance immediately casted Alhealer on the red head. "This will help."

The pain that racked Millenia's body vanished. She broke away from Melfice's hold and stood up. "Here it comes again." She pointed at the dragon that was closing in on them from behind. She glared daggers at the winged lizard and restrained it with Spell Binding Eye.

The dragon just stayed where it was, unable to move. "Now!" Melfice said. Ryudo, Millenia, Lance, and Melfice, respectively, used Hellburner, Dragon Zap, BA-BOOM!, and Meteor Strike on it.

"Stirring fire, cleansing flame!!!!"

"Deep fried goodness!!!"

"Only death awaits you!!"

"This is why you're no good!"

There was a big explosion as the attacks hit the dragon. When all of the debris and smoke cleared, there was nothing left of the dragon. The four sank on the ground and let the wind caress their battered bodies.

"Damn, we... we did it," Millenia panted.

"I thought we were finished..." Ryudo added.

"I've never seen such monsters," Melfice said.

Ryudo stood up. "I've been chased by one of those things before in Raul Hills except the one I encountered couldn't fly."

Melfice got up from the ground. "Those things came from the enemy's base. Do you think that the followers of Granas made them too?"

Millenia put on a quizzical look. "But how?"

Ryudo eyed Lance suspiciously. "That reminds me, you have something to tell us."

"Inside." Lance stood up and walked towards the red sphere at the rear end of the ship. The others followed him. All four of them stepped on the red sphere and warped to the control room.

"Ryudo! Did you defeat the enemy?" Roan asked when the four entered the room.

"What do you think? We wouldn't be here if those things were still out there," Ryudo replied.

Elena looked at the Geohound. "Are you all right Ryudo?"

Ryudo seemed to have missed her question. He nudged his head towards the Ninja. "Hey, Lance here has something to tell us about the Cathedral Knights."

"Oh, that. I almost forgot about that," Tio said.

Everyone took their seats and all of their eyes fell on the turquoise haired Ninja. Lance gave everyone a long and serious look and spoke. "When I infiltrated the enemy's base, I saw people in cages, they were the citizens of St. Heim."

"Did you try to save them?" Ryudo interrupted.

"No. Finding information about the Cathedral Knights was far more important. I found information about the Cathedral Knights on a computer. The Cathedral Knights... they're just mutated people. When Granas was defeated by Valmar long ago, the parts of his body fell on Earth. Church officials couldn't accept or bear that Granas died so they collected his body parts and hid them in that factory and told the public that he's just sleeping from his battle."

"Cathedral Knights are human experiments. Scientists took cells from Granas' body parts and injected them to people, hoping that human cells would incorporate Granas' DNA into their own. The experiment didn't produce a new Granas. Instead, powerful "holy" soldiers were made."

Lance looked at Ryudo. "If you're wondering where scientists get people to experiment on, think about what the elder of Garlan said when the Cathedral Knights came and took away all of the young men from the town. The Cathedral Knights have been around for a very long time, probably since Granas died. Think about all of the people that they experimented on over the thousands of years. And the citizens of St. Heim, are probably going to be mutated into Cathedral Knights too."

Ryudo looked like he got hit by a truckload of bricks. "No way... everyone... everyone got turned into Cathedral Knights...? So... all this time we've been killing innocent people?"