And after weeks of excrutiating work, I finally finished Chapter 4. If all goes according to plan, there's only one chapter left.
I hope I can finish it in time for the contest deadline at devART.
Chapter 4: The Mortality of Innocence
For all his lack of ability to see or hear, Isaac's sense of feeling was left intact, though he currently begged of Gaia to take it away. A pain unlike any he had ever felt devoured either arm. Slowly the sheer darkness subsided and was replaced by the dim crimson of light filtering through the boy's eyelids. He realized that he only heard nothing because there were no sounds to take in.
He opened his eyes with a groan and found himself lying upon the bed in his designated room. A glance at his arms, which were now rather numb, revealed them to be covered with four metal plates each. Upon closer inspection, he found that the plates were not merely resting atop his skin, but the edges continued beneath it. He winced at the notion of having slabs of metal beneath his skin, but it appeared to be the case.
Foolishly he attempted to sit up and was reproved by a pain dozens of times more intense than what he thought before the worst agony one could suffer. The door opened with a click, though Isaac could barely manage to turn his head and see who it was in such a condition.
"I see you underwent the grafting as well." It was Iodem. Isaac didn't bother to try and utter a response.
"Grafting is pretty painful, but you'll get used to it by sundown. Babi said he's going to require all of his Adept soldiers to have grafted armor. Says it'll offer better protection for when he throws them onto the front lines of war."
"Don't care," Isaac muttered. His throat was coarse and dry, but it was minimal discomfort compared to what he was feeling elsewhere on his body. Iodem chuckled in amusement.
"Of course you don't," he shrugged. "But then, why should I care what you care? You're my captive audience." He laughed again when he noticed the expression of sheer hatred upon Isaac's face.
"Well, since you can't do anything about it, how about I tell you what Babi has planned for your companions?" he offered, a grin spreading when the mask of disgust melted into one of worry.
"Lord Babi said he's going to force them all into his service. Every last one. And if they resist, he won't hesitate to kill them. Of course, why should they resist? All I have to say is, 'We have Isaac' and they'll come like lambs to the slaughter."
With great care the boy reached down and grabbed his shoe from the floor, enduring the excruciating pain for long enough to perform this task. With all the strength he could muster, he flung the boot at Iodem's head. The target stumbled backwards upon impact. The heel had collided squarely with his right temple. Largely unharmed but enraged beyond the imagination, he stormed across the room and clutched Isaac's wrist tightly. A sinister grin came to his lips when the Adept's will gave way and he could ignore the sensation no longer.
"Iodem!"
The named released his grip immediately and looked about before remembering the black box dangling from his belt. He unlatched the item and held it to his mouth.
"Yes, Lord Babi?"
Isaac temporarily marveled at the communication device. Babi had made many scientific advances with Alchemy.
"Leave him be. He will suffer enough without your help. I'll make sure of it."
"…Yes, my lord," Iodem replied as he turned around and stiffly marched out of the room without another word, shutting and locking the door behind him. Isaac found the latter unnecessary as he couldn't manage to stand at the time being. Wistfully he glanced out the window. The sun was low. The young Adept had been missing for two or three days. Wasn't anyone worried about him?
---
"Isaac," Iodem said, the steel door sliding open upon detecting his presence, "Lord Babi desires a word with you."
"A word, eh?" a young boy clothed in a crimson shirt and azure pants repeated. He fingered the brooch holding the golden cloak he had fashioned into a scarf. The smooth topaz resonated with the power of Venus. "Have another five years passed so soon?"
The blonde boy about-faced and headed for the hall where Iodem stood in waiting. His once vibrant blue eyes were dull and livid. His expression was one of someone who had given up on the thing called hope long, long ago.
Isaac, the Venus Adept of Vale, no longer required an escort. After nine hundred and fifteen years, he was perfectly obedient to Babi and Iodem. Anyone else, though, was beneath him, and he wouldn't hesitate to put a one of them in their place if they questioned him. Isaac had spent uncountable years serving Babi, and he was his finest soldier. He was also a highly respected commander and the hero of the Proxian War. And on top of everything, he was a cold-blooded killer.
He'd gotten word months after the grafting procedure, while he was still recovering, that Kraden had died. Isaac desperately wanted to attend the funeral of his teacher and friend. He'd swallowed his pride and begged Babi, swearing absolute and unconditional loyalty to the villain. Still he had been denied his one request.
His friends never came looking. Often he had dreamed of them. As time dragged on he came to believe that they had all been killed resisting Babi. After a hundred years he gave up on ever seeing a one of them again.
Meanwhile Babi, his life further preserved by his Alchemic Draught, had made staggering advances in science. His empire, an incredible city he had named Babilon in his own honor, was built upon a massive craft eternally suspended far above the ground by Alchemy. Those within the castle were completely immune to all mortal disease and illness, including all known species of viruses. Outside, though still blessed with lives upon Babi's marvelous city, people were impoverished. Scores of them died every day. Isaac hadn't seen hide nor hair of the place for a good two hundred years; Weyard was largely peaceful at the time and didn't required the might of a top Adept warrior.
The boy turned his mind from the thoughts and memories as he approached the medical quarters. His was a special case, and there were normally many doctors in the room during the procedure. It seemed the effects of the inappropriate dose of Draught he had received nearly a thousand years ago were permanent. Often his body reacted violently to the Alchemic Draught, occasionally leaving him consciousness for a time. Luckily, he only needed to suffer for one day every five years.
The hydraulics hissed as the door glided open. Isaac sighed and seated himself upon the cushioned chair on the other side of the room. He found the metal examination table crude and uncomfortable. What drew his thoughts from this was that he noticed the strange absence of the dozen or so doctors that were normally pattering about by now.
"Just a moment, please," called a serene feminine voice from behind a different door. The sound of it inspired nostalgia for Isaac, though he couldn't place why. He turned his attention to the ceiling and began inspecting a blinking fluorescent light.
"All right, I'm coming," the woman said. The Adept heard the door open but didn't respond until he heard the doctor's clipboard clatter to the ground.
"A bit clumsy, eh?" he said sarcastically. His bitter remark was silenced before it could be spoken when his eyes met those of his company.
"Mia?" he breathed in disbelief.
The woman before him, though considerably older than he remembered her, greatly resembled his dear from Imil with whom he had traveled Weyard over. Her teal hair was drawn back in the same manner as Mia's, and her cerulean eyes sparkled with the same love of life. However, this woman was probably twice Isaac's age; she was old enough to be his mother.
"Isaac… I… Is it really you?" she inquired hesitantly as she slowly began crossing the room. The Adept began to severely doubt his doubts.
"Well, that's the name that's on the clipboard, isn't it?" he jeered, arriving at the conclusion that this woman wasn't Mia. "Can you hurry it up? If I'm going to be dead from the neck up for twenty-four hours, I'd like to get it over with already."
"You don't recognize me?" the doctor presumed, her voice heavy with sorrow. "But… you said my name… You do recognize me, don't you?"
Isaac's heart grew cold. This was Mia. "Mia… of Imil," he murmured. The woman nodded enthusiastically and hurriedly closed the distance, throwing her arms around her lost friend's shoulders.
"We were all so worried about you, Isaac!"
The boy's cold heart suddenly flared up with rage. He shoved Mia backwards, giving himself room to leap from the chair angrily.
"If you were so worried, why didn't you come looking for me!" he shouted. "Why didn't you get me out of this hellhole while I still believed I had a chance! Why did you leave me here all alone!"
Mia's eyes shimmered with tears. She turned around to face away from the Venus Adept. "We tried, Isaac," she whispered. "Really, we did. We agreed it was too dangerous to come in a group, so we came one at a time. Jenna went first, then Felix when she didn't return a week later. Ivan grew worried after a few weeks, and Sheba was concerned for him. Months passed and none of them returned. Imil was hit by a terrible epidemic, and as much as I wanted to help, to leave them would have been to desert dozens of lives…"
"What about Piers? And Garet?" Isaac inquired, now considerably less irate but still quite upset.
"Babi sent someone for me after many years; I assume Piers was still in Lemuria at the time. He visited every now, but he never stayed long and always left in a hurry. And Garet…"
"No way Lo-… Babi got Garet without a fight," Isaac thought aloud, correcting hundreds of years of habitually referring to that madman as his lord.
"Isaac… Please sit down," Mia requested. The boy objected and refused again when he received the order a second time. Giving up, the Mercury Adept continued anyway.
"A few days after you left, Garet was aiding in construction in the town. The ground was very soft due to a large storm the night before and many of the fountains threatened to give way. A tree fell and toppled large brick wall that had recently been built in a kind of domino effect, and Garet was crushed beneath it. By the time Felix was able to remove the wall…" Mia stopped, feeling it was sufficient to leave the explanation at that. She turned her gaze to Isaac to wait for a response.
"So he's dead," the soldier said emotionlessly, his eyes darkened. "And I heard nothing of it. For little more than nine hundred years."
Mia stood in reverent silence, an eerie quiet which was soon broken by Isaac's words.
"But if you what you say is true, the others should be here. Have you seen them?"
The woman sighed in thought. "Babi knows full well that we are close friends and that together we stand a chance of overthrowing him, so he's done everything in his power to keep us from ever seeing one another. Our case was special; he was tired of wasting valuable workforce on a single person, so he had one of his Mercury Adepts trained in the practice: me. My healing psynergy was the most advanced out of all the Mercury Adepts at Babi's disposal, so he appointed me to be your doctor today in case the process goes awry as it tends to do."
"So you haven't seen them," Isaac said, discreetly lecturing Mia for straying from the topic. "But that doesn't mean they aren't here."
The boy focused his gaze on the ground. After a moment's time, a brief tremor shook the room. The surveillance camera in the corner sizzled; the earthquake had severed a critical wire. "Mia, Babi can't see us now," he informed, "but we have to talk fast; no doubt he's sending someone down right now to investigate why his camera's signal was suddenly lost. How long does a person live without receiving Alchemic Draught after taking it for this long?"
"About a week, but—"
"A week," Isaac mused. "That's not much time… We'll have to make it work. I'm skipping this year's inoculation. Babi trusts me well enough that I have free reign of the castle; I'm going to look for the others. I suggest you do the same. We have to find them all, and fast. Let's meet in the training room in two days. Tell any of the others that you see. We'll discuss the rest then."
The door abruptly opened and a soldier entered. "What's going on?" he demanded. Isaac shrugged.
"Nothing apart from the norm. This doctor's good, though. A full dose of the Draught and not a one of those side-effects that I've come to know and love," he lied. "Is there a problem?"
"The surveillance camera shorted out," the soldier said gruffly. "Did you have anything to do with this, grunt?"
Hundreds of years of cruelty and uncaring surfaced in Isaac's disposition. He hauled the soldier off the ground by his shirt collar and glared daggers into his startled eyes.
"Just whom do you think you're talking to?" he growled menacingly. "Just who do you think I am? I am Isaac, Venus Adept Warrior First Class! And I will not tolerate being spoken to in such a manner!" He whipped a bladeless hilt out of his back pocket and pressed the seemingly decorative activation button. A sword of light, created by the graces of Alchemy, sprang to life. Isaac held the razor-sharp laser to his captive's throat, slowly applying pressure. The terrified man yelped as his flesh was sliced and cauterized all at once, leaving no blood but searing pain.
"Isaac, what are you doing!" Mia yelled, shaking the boy's arm pleadingly. The Adept retracted the blade and returned the hilt to its place, then tossed the soldier roughly to the floor. Frightened beyond words, the man scrambled out of the room whimpering for help.
Isaac's innocence had long since perished with his human life. This was what made him the valuable warrior he was. This was what made him the hero of the Proxian War: his utter disregard for life.
Mia stared at the cold-blooded murderer she had once known to be one of the most kind-hearted boys in all of Weyard.
"Isaac… Who are you?"
Dun dun DUN. Man, I loved naming Babi's city. Babilon. It's obviously a spinoff of Babylon. It makes me laugh. I've already kicked off Chapter 5 with a BAM, but as I mentioned a couple chapters back… summer reading. I gotta do fifty pages a night. That way I can finish Scarlet Letter in a week.
Like you care about my personal life.
And can someone PLEASE make me review Yuja's new chapter already? PLEASE.