Chapter 19 :: Sirius' Medicine
-------------------------------------------------"Where is Alice?" Kratos asked the next morning. The sun rose high in the sky, yet she had not awakened. Mithos had actually gotten up on time, if one could call 10 o'clock on time. Mithos came into the hangar after finishing his breakfast, hoping to get a good seat on the flight back to Sirius and see his sister again.
"She overslept?" Mithos suggested.
"Lady Enigma would never oversleep," Darius said. The dwarf wore a thick fur coat instead of his usual lab gear.
"I am all right, Kratos," Alice said, teleporting into the hangar. During the night, the crystallization spread beyond her neck to parts of her face.
"You are most certainly not," Darius angrily said. "I will take charge of the Zephyr since you are in no condition to fly."
"Really, I can..." Alice started, but this time Mithos interrupted.
"Miss Alice, I think you should rest for the trip back. The passenger compartment is quite comfy," Mithos said.
"I guess if you put it that way, I don't have much of a choice," Alice said.
"Kratos, is it? I will need a navigator," Darius requested.
"Perhaps Mithos would be a better choice. Technology is for the young," Kratos answered.
While Kratos and Alice went to the cabin below, Darius took the pilot seat on the right while Mithos got in the chair beside him. Being just 14 years old, some of the instruments were out of his reach. Mithos then looked at his partner, who was shorter than him and out of reach of all the instruments.
"The Zephyr responds to voice commands, mainly. I don't know why Lady Enigma prefers to do things manually," Darius said. "Seal hatch, open hangar door."
"Hatch sealing, hangar door opening," a computerized voice replied. There was a hiss as the doors closed and a click as they locked. Before them the Arctic Base's metal doors opened with a creak to the outside.
"Wow, it's just like some of the futuristic stories Martel read to me about people traveling to other planets," Mithos said excitedly. Darius explained the function of all the panels to Mithos. Some of them guided the airship, while others controlled the two beam cannons directly under the cockpit.
"You had better not say 'Fire Dark Matter Cannon,' understand?" Darius said.
"Acknowledged, firing dark matter cannon."
Two black beams fired from the cannons and hit an iceberg at sea, sending it to the bottom of the ocean.
"Well, better not try that again," Darius said. "Take flight."
The Zephyr's brand new engines ignited and roared with flame. Pushed forward slowly at first, the airship then rocketed out into the sky.
"How is Mithos doing?" Alice asked Kratos. A blanket covered her as she lay on a couch below.
"Darius seems to be doing a good job teaching him," Kratos answered.
"Wahoo!" Mithos shouted. Darius let him take over for a moment, and Mithos seemed to do just fine steering the aircraft.
"Now, don't tell it to make such sharp turns, Mithos," Darius instructed. Finally, after a few hours in the air at hypersonic speed, the Zephyr touched down in the center of Sirius' village. The residents, surprised that a warship had landed, briskly returned to their homes. Darius set the airship to turn invisible as soon as they got off.
"We can only hope that Martel's group succeeded," Kratos said.
"Yuan has a perfect mission record. I doubt he will do anything to tarnish that," Alice said. "After all, he is my successor."
Alice and Kratos disembarked first, going directly to the villa of the governor. Mithos and Darius followed behind, hauling the box that contained the Zircon crystal.
"Has my sister returned, yet?" Mithos asked George at the gate.
"We're right here, Mithos," Martel said, with Yuan at her side and Solstice behind them. Alice's eyes spotted the ring on Yuan's hand.
"A gift from Amaterasu," Solstice said.
"Yuan, I have told you to be wary of magic rings that bestow power upon you. You may end up becoming the next overlord of Aselia," Alice said. Her voice grew hoarse from the infection reaching her vocal chords.
"It's not an evil ring, Lady Enigma. Martel and I..." Yuan replied.
"I see. My student found someone to love before his teacher did, how pathetic of me," Alice said with a grin. "You should be proud to have someone like Martel."
"Um... shouldn't we first do something about your Chronic Angelus... disease?" Martel asked.
"I have the laboratory prepared in the basement," Lord Sirius said, dressed in his lab coat and wearing a pair of thick spectacles. Darius stepped forward and presented the Zircon crystal.
"I'm Darius, chief scientist for Enigma's Ghosts," he said. "I've had a lot of experience creating crests."
"All right, I'll need to have Martel and Alice lie down in their rooms while we prepare," Sirius replied. Sirius and Darius went into a spiral staircase to the cellar of his villa while Mithos, Kratos, Yuan, and Solstice waited above with the patients. An hour later, Sirius returned with two small jewelry boxes.
"It's ready," he said. Sirius placed the gold crest onto Alice's neck first and a second crest onto Martel. "I will stay here with them overnight to monitor the progress. With any luck, the disease will be permanently cured tomorrow."
Night fell on the village, so Mithos retired to his guest room a floor above where Alice and Martel were sleeping. With much work to do at the Arctic Base, Darius returned on one of the Zephyr's four Rheairds. Just as Mithos was about to get in bed, his nose caught the smell of something burning in the air.
"What on earth?" Mithos exclaimed. An ear-shattering explosion tore through the gates to Sirius' mansion. Mithos got dressed again, taking his Starsword. Kratos and Yuan already stood at the door with their weapons drawn.
"What's happening?" Solstice inquired, coming down the stairs with agility unknown to a man of his age.
"We'll know soon enough, but it seems like some of Macerdon's soldiers have marched into town," Yuan said. He backed up to the side of the door, waiting to ambush anyone coming in through the front.
"When that door opens, I want you to Divine Storm Blade with me, understand?" Kratos said to Mithos. Both took their stances with one foot forward and the other behind. His hands gripped the sword's handle firmly. BANG! An explosion hit the lock on the door and someone on the outside attempted to push it open. "Go!"