Chapter 16
The Markswoman
Port Wzinbun had a residential area of its own. The port itself however was perceptibly inferior to the one in Rashfall. Nevertheless, so far it seemed like the population in Gernn was a lot more dense. Mirage, Lieber, Ascal, and the others met yet another forestry region just as they exited Wzinbun. This one was a lot less tropical than the ones they had encountered in Rashfall.
"Gernn used to be civilized and all like Rashfall." Ascal mentioned
"Before the fifth yogen was declared, right?" asked Xeim.
Ascal nodded as he kept walking forward. "It was the people of Gernn who oppressed Professor Neel when he stated the prophecies which our ancestors in Rashfall found scattered in many regions of this continent. I guess that's another reason why our enmity with Gernn still exists. Some say that the fifth yogen is the punishment Gernn is getting for their acts of oppression."
Welch scratched her head in confusion. "Hey Ascal... you say these yoguns or whatever were found by your ancestors, right? But why were they even scattered around in the first place?"
"Hey, that's a really slick question coming from you!" Ascal chuckled. "I really don't know. If I were to guess, it's probably related to his death."
"Prophecies... seems like a waste of time." Lieber whined slightly. "I just can't wait until all this is over."
"Don't tell me you're missing home already, Lieber." Mirage said surprisingly.
Lieber shook his head. "Hey, i'm only worried about Marietta and the others."
"No... I think you're just missing home!" Welch exclaimed amusingly.
Mirage got an eerie feeling as they walked deeper into the forest into a region known as the Pessoto Forest. The forest itself was rather peaceful, Mirage could hear the sounds of the leaves rustling from the wind. But a sharp piercing cry shattered the peace within the forest while Mirage felt as if her eardrums were about to burst. It went on far too long for it to be coming from a normal being. She covered her ears and looked around as the others did the same.
"The hell's that noise!" Ascal shouted but the noise drowned his words.
The shriek ended abruptly as a demon with long silver hair teleported into their sight. He smiled ravishingly but he had a troubled look on his face at the same time. Mirage noticed a deep scar that ran across his left cheek. Just then it came to her that it was the same scar she had given to the demon in the Sanctuary of Linga with her right foot.
"It's you again! You're that demon." Mirage pointed out.
The demon managed to force a smile on his face. "Well, it's good to see you pawns again. Forgive me for not introducing myself earlier as I was in a hurry. My name is Rodrigue."
"So you've met this one before?" Misty asked calmly.
Xeim nodded slowly. "You can't fool us again, you're with the Alliance! Get out of our way now before we're compelled to make you!"
"Easy, settle down. We wouldn't want to make another mistake again, would we now, Hakhim?" Rodrigue narrowed his eyes on Xeim who tried to look away. "So I assume that little sharp-eyed girl ran away and had you come instead."
"Girl? The heck are you on about?" Ascal said while wielding his sabre in his right hand.
"Are you looking for me?" out came a young middle-aged girl wearing a small feather hat behind one of the large oak trees as she siderolled directly in Rodrigue's vision. She aimed at his right thigh and fired two rapid bullets from her handgun with lightning quick speed.
Rodrigue lost his balance and fell down on his knee. "Agh!" He held his thigh from pain. "Dammit, you just won't give up will you!"
"Who are you calling little? Please give a more appropriate introduction next time." she taunted. It was a young, blue-haired girl, about five and a half feet tall wielding a handgun which looked familiar to Mirage. She was the strong-willed, tough-minded, charitable, preceding leader of Quark.
"Maria! What a surprise!" Mirage was astonished as she put both her hands on her cheeks in disbelief.
"W-Wow..." Lieber had the same reaction.
Maria looked back over her shoulder trying not to turn her back towards Rodrigue. "It's good to see you guys again. But let's hold this reunion for just a few minutes, shall we? We seem to have quite a problem here ahead of us."
"Then you're gonna give us a hand, right?" asked Ascal.
Rodrigue had gotten up by the time everyone was finished talking, "My, my, what a sweet little reunion. Stop it! You're bringing a tear to my eye. Pfff! Hahaha! So we've got a fully party this time, eh? This should be fun!" he jeered back.
"Are you done now then?" asked Maria. "Take this! Pulse Blast!" Four laser shots were executed at the slight push of Maria's finger as she held her handgun tightly.
Before any of the bullets could reach in physical contact with Rodrigue he vanished in thin air and teleported behind everyone. "You're still naive, kids! Looks like i'm going to have to teach you the hard way once again," he laughed as he lashed his sword into the ground and created as a pool of blood began to surround his demonic blade. "Sword of Darkness!" A bloody demon was summoned from Rodrigue's chant as it lashed its attacks all over the forest.
Before the summon could harm anyone on the field, Misty had made sure everyone stayed safe with her spells, "Bless us with divine powers! Angel Feather!" Mirage felt a boost of vitality within her and felt as if a shield covered in light was protecting her just like everyone else. Everytime the monster showered in blood would try and slash her, it would bounce right back. The grass had been fried and the almost every tree was damaged in the forest from Rodrigue's summoning spell. Blood started spewing from his mouth once his spell ended and appeared to be a little weak.
"Now, let's attack him!" Maria yelled. As she gave it another two shots this time on the tempo which Rodrigue was barely able to block it with his sword.
"Sparks of lightning in my sword, break the barriers and dance! Radiant Discharge!" Ascal's slashed his sword horizontally in a full 360 motion twice generating sparks of lightning on his sword before discharging them onto Rodrigue. Unable to move, Rodrigue was paralyzed from the electric blow he suffered.
Seeing his condition, Mirage nodded towards Xeim. They both rushed towards the pale demon who was immobilized at this point and delivered a hard blow with a shoulder charge from both sides sandwiching the ferocious villain, "Hyaaagh!"
"Ooofff..." the demon fell onto his knees once again this time clutching his chest trying to gasp for air and recover at the same time. "I w-won't forget this..." Rodrigue muttered before vanishing into thin air once again via teleport.
"Ahh, the hell? How can he just disappear like that!" Ascal complained as he leaned against a tree to catch his breath.
"That's one of the demon's notable features..." Maria answered.
Once things had settled down. Maria and Mirage decided to stick around in Pessoto Forest for the meantime after exchanging a few words during their reunion including a warm hug.
"Hey, where's mine?" Lieber whined looking depressed.
Ascal jumped towards Lieber to give him a hug instead. "Aww, i'll give you your hug!"
"Mmmf-!" Lieber tried to speak but his words were unfortunately obstructed by the Ascal's embrace.
Mirage looked towards Maria not being able to think of anything else. "You don't know how great it is to see you again. You have grown a lot since I last saw you! What have you been eating?"
"W-What do you mean? I haven't gained weight, have I?" Maria inspected her figure nervously.
"I don't think she meant that... you just seem to have grown... er naturally!" Lieber exclaimed trying to be careful with his choice of words.
"Well it's good to see you again. I'm Welch Vineyard if you don't rememer me! Hiiii!" Welch jumped in front of Maria and shook her hand.
"Xeim Juran here." Xeim nodded as he started to raise his hand.
"Man, how dense. He thinks he's in a classroom again." Lieber raised an eyebrow looking towards Xeim sarcastically. Xeim, as usual, was not interested in replying to his colleague's wise crack.
"I'm Misty Lear." Misty took a few steps forward as she was usually the tail of the group. "Nice to meet you, Maria..."
"Ahem And I don't think I need to give any introductions, am I right!" Ascal proclaimed, to which no one responded. "Er... right, call me Ascal."
Maria smiled as she looked at each of them. "It's nice to meet you all. You've got quite a crew here." She slowly turned towards Lieber who looked a little nervous throughout the whole situation. "It's good to see you too Lieber."
"Yeah. Hi." Lieber replied. There seemed to be some sort of aloofness between the two.
Mirage glanced over Maria's head and spotted a small feathered cap which seemed somewhat odd to her. "Hey Maria, what's with the funny-looking cap?"
Maria was still the same attractive blue-haired girl, but the only thing different about her this time was her attire and of course, the small feather hat. She was wearing a light blue sleeveless vest which draped over her white tanktop, along with her favorite pair of black tights and a black miniskirt which went along with the tights and her footwear. Her maroon feather cup which sat on her blue hair was probably the most notable feature about her.
"Oh... uh... you mean this?" Maria asked as if she was trying to dodge the subject.
"Yeah, it looks like it's a little big for you too." Welch answered.
"Uh... w-well... I just found it when I was grubble! on my way here."
"Grubble...? What was that?" everyone looked at her in confusion.
Maria turned beet red just then, "Oh, it's nothing! grub!" she exclaimed.
"?...Right."
"Must be her tummy..." Xeim noted.
"Anyway, so Maria... can you tell us a little about on what's going on? And what brings you out here especially? I thought you were in Edifice." Mirage asked as the curiosity killed her.
Maria sighed, "I'm guessing you guys know about the attack on Edifice since you've come all the way here in pursuit of the Alliance. I had found out from the Pangalactic Federation just when I left Edifice to investigate on the invasion and that's when I had learned about the Alliance. A few days later, I found out Quark had been reformed so my next step was obvious. I tried to follow your paths just when I was informed by General Reed that you've left for Vanguard III."
"And that's when you arrived here, right?" Mirage asked.
"Yes," Maria nodded. "I hope you guys weren't planning on going grubble without me." she said as she brushed her hair back.
"Okay, i'm not sure I really get what you guys are smoking, but we're after the Calamity right now on our way to fulfill the yogen, right? That's all I need to know." Ascal said as if he wanted to cut to the chase.
"That's right. grub grub" Maria nodded. "You must be the Savior then, right? I've already gathered all the information I needed on this planet from my research before arriving. gobbleUnfortunately I was unable to get anything much on the Alliance."
"I see. Then I guess you haven't heard about Cliff yet..." Lieber sulked as he spoke.
Maria turned towards Lieber in a slightly confused fashion. "Cliff? Is he with you too?"
Mirage and Lieber did their best to explain whatever they knew about the Alliance and Cliff to which Maria was clueless about. Maria put one hand on her forehead to express her state of shock and grief at the same time.
"I see. My... this is horrific. Whatever has happened to Cliff? This matter has gone to a more personal level now... do you know where they are headed for?" she asked with a gloomy expression.
"We suspect they have planted many bases on this continent. I'm sure Commander Shin and Cliff must still be here. We overheard them talking about still having some business to deal with on this planet." Mirage informed.
"Yes. Commander Shin. He is the captain and commander of the Outer Alliance team, grubble! if you guys didn't know yet." Maria nodded in confirmation.
"Wait, Outer Alliance?" Lieber questioned. "Don't tell me there is more of the Alliance!"
Maria rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Well, I hope you didn't expect it to be that easy! GRIB! What I learned on the Federation vessel on my way here was that the Alliance has been formed in many divisions. These divisions include the Outer Alliance and the Inner Alliance... i'm not quite sure if there are any more branches but each seem to play a much more significant role than the other in their tasks. The one here on Vanguard is the Outer Alliance team."
"Well that certainly complicates this matter, doesn't it?" Xeim said as he crossed his arms.
"That demon, who called himself Rodrigue... i'm guessing he is working under Shin's command as well. I ran into him just after spotting one of the Alliance's platforms." Maria went on.
"And Cliff...?" Mirage asked.
"I'm guessing him as well..." Maria answered with a simple nod.
"So you mentioned that you know where one of the Alliance's bases are, right?" Misty asked quietly. "Then we have our answer. We are bound to find more answers over there."
All agreed with Misty's concerns. "Let's get going then. We're gonna to hafta pass through the village west from here to get out of Pesotto Forest. I think it's called Whipple." Ascal spoke as they moved through the forest passing the fallen trees and the narrow path.
The village of Whipple was just in the northeasterern exit of Pesotto forest. The village, to everyone's surprise, had almost all been burnt down to ashes. Some of the flames were still lit up, the smoke covered most of the area. Just when Mirage heard a few coughing noises, she realized there were still a few survivors. She made her way past the clouds of smoke and followed the noises where she found a couple of children sitting in the corner of the fence cuddling each other shivering with fear.
"Are-Are you one of them? Please s-s-spare us...!" the boy mentioned.
The other one of the two whom was a young girl echoed the boy's words, "Don't do anything to us! Leave me and my brother alone!" she screamed as tears trickled down her cheeks.
"It's okay..." Mirage said as she kneeled down on one knee in front of them. "We're not going to hurt you. What are your names?"
"I-I'm Niklas... and this is my little sister Meena." the elder boy said as he slowly stood up on his feet. "So if you're not with that devilish monster, who are you people?"
Maria took a quick glance around the village. The houses and shops had all be torn apart. "So it was Rodrigue... Um, Niklas is it? Do you know if there are any others left in Whipple gribble?"
"We were the only ones left hiding in the corner of the village!" Meena exclaimed. "The others had already run away to the ruins north of the forest."
"I guess someone should inform them about this place then. Man, this place is in shambles." Lieber said as he kneeled down to pick up a small chunk of ash.
"It looks like the villagers have quite a job in their hands now. Niklas. Meena. Thanks... And don't worry about the Calamity, we're going to take care of it ourselves and make sure no one gets harmed here again." Mirage said confidently as she gave them her word.
"Thank you, miss." Meena replied as she wiped her tears. "You're a nice lady. You're just like that boy who came here a few years ago, and you look a lot like him too. He has the same funny ears."
"Yes, although I can't remember his name you are just like he was." Niklas added.
Mirage smiled back delightfully, "Well, whoever he was... i'm sure he was a very nice person for helping you out."
"Good luck in whatever you are after!" Niklas waved towards Mirage and the others as they passed through the south exit which was concealed by a few thorned bushes. "We hope you stop by again, everything will be back to the way it was by the time you will be back!"
After they gave their farewells to both Niklas and Meena, they followed the path further out of Whipple and they had finally reached the exit of Pessoto Forest. The only thing ahead of them were vast plains that stretched out only a few kilometres before more woods came back into sight again.
"Man, those kids sure seemed harmless." Ascal said in an amazed fashion.
"Harmless? grubble grubble What do you mean by that? Those kids are people that are oppressed by both the Calamity and Rashfall's Requiem Code." Maria asked as they walked further.
"I mean the yogens claimed these guys to be a threat. It just seems all hazy now." Ascal replied while looking a little mortified.
"I'm still worried about Cliff right now," Mirage sighed. "But... I cannot let him make me so weak-minded again."
"Well i'm just glad that i've found you guys again." Maria smiled. "If we could somehow get Cliff to snap out of whatever spell they put him under, we'll be back together like family again. grib"
"That's good and all, but could you please stop it with the noise!" Welch complained. "These little sounds are getting annoying. If you're having tummy problems, then maybe we should take you to a doctor first." She looked as if she was ready to tear her hair out.
"Well! Excuse me grub, but it looks like you're going to have to deal with it." Maria snapped back as the wind flapped the feather on her hat.
"So any ideas where the Alliance could be located from here?" Xeim asked.
Ascal seemed to be lost in his own thoughts at the moment. "I hope you guys don't mind... but i'm going to have to request we stop somewhere. There is a small laboratory that is located just south of here, near the woods. It's Professor's Neel lab, over a hundred years old now... but it's still been kept in its best shape ever since."
"What could you possibly want to stop there for? I thought Professor Neel wasn't alive anymore." Xeim retorted.
"Nope," Ascal shook his head. "Ricardo... Neel's great grandson, now resides there continuing his ancestors' research. He's a wise man... the last time I visited Gernn was to supervise all the work bein' carried out here by the Requiem Code. I met Ricardo during the trip. I asked him to look over one of the Fenrir crystals. Maybe we can find more about the yogens... and hopefully about the Calamity as well."