World Of Blazing Part 1.5
In the privacy and security of Kiran's personal carriage, the legendary "hero" and his nephew were able to discuss whatever they wanted without people bothering them. Kiran even closed the door from inside to be sure.
"So... what did you discover? do you have good news or bad news for me?" Kiran sat as he crossed his arms.
The black mage placed the sample on the table along with the microscope. "There wasn't any reaction that could be understood as negative." he shrugged. "I just see blood more similar to mine. That's it."
Kiran took a look... and, indeed, his blood had obtained a coloration that made it partially silver.
"We shouldn't get cocky though... a tiny part may react differently to the system as a whole..." as much as gaining some centuries more to exist sounded so tempting... and as much as surviving long enough to be present when AI became a thing was important... a single step bad calculated could end up in disaster. "What about our test subjects?"
"They are fine." commented Raigh as the collocated three jars with three flies inside of each one.
The mage that Nino had described to him a long time ago must have made an experiment that would have led him to discover that quintessence could extend the life-span of other live beings...
Because even mouses lived too long to be useful to obtain information the soon as possible, it had occurred to them to attempt it with these tiny beings.
Regularly, flies only lived a few days but in the best scenario, they could survive two months... the first one didn't receive any quintessence in its food, the second one received a little and the third one had a lot to consume.
Kiran was sure that, just like even drinking so much water could kill you, there must be a limit of how much quintessence you could insert into your body without committing suicide involuntarily. For any species, it would be different, of course, but it was never bad confirming suspicions.
If quintessence did what Nino claimed... perhaps at least one fly would live at least six months.
"I wonder," Raigh scratched his hair. "could it be possible that this is the secret of the Manakete longevity?"
Kiran rubbed his chin. He had never thought about it. "It's a possibility we cannot discard... probably it's an important factor, but their biology itself must be "superior". For example, apparently, they can remember detailedly events from thousands of years ago. Their brain must be very special to hold such an insanely level of information. Based on what I read back home, the human brain could only store 3 million hours of memories... which is equivalent to almost 3.5 centuries. Of course, the brain erases information regularly, but you could expect that, after thousands of years, you would have forgotten the eighty percent of your first five centuries."
"Yet, they do not seem to be naturally smarter than us..." Raigh scratched his head in confusion.
"Or perhaps they are but their lack of education and knowledge is not allowing them to reach their true potential..." Kiran remembered at that moment the fact that Naga was probably the smartest being of the planet. If she had been able to discover the secret of time travel and calculate everything to ensure Lucina didn't die of suffocation in the vacuum of the outer space... who knows what kind of magitek stuff she could possess... she had been able to manifest herself inside his dreams... yet, her ideals and the fact she was mostly alone may be decisive factors to explain why she hadn't constructed her own personal rockets...
"Anyway, we will wait more time until we insert some of that stuff inside me."
"Affirmative."
Something crossed Kiran's mind as he remembered an important detail regarding the next battles.
"By the way, there's something else we're going to study once we get a test subject."
"Mmmh?" Raigh smiled, filled with interest.
After days of avoiding the Emblian army, the traveler had found a farm in the middle of nowhere.
"Yi dno impare hoanto illo couest! yi onlo neceed tel horllo (I don't care how much it costs! I need the horse)" he said as he placed a bag of money on the hands of the owner.
The farmer, seeing an opportunity to get much easy money to increase the production of his precious place decided do not to say no. He just pointed to five horses and told the traveler to choose the one he preferred.
Once he got on the mount, he wasn't going to spend more time. "Granks! (Thanks!)"
He rode into the horizon... or rather said, in direction to Caelin.
He thanked a lot Lyn had taught him how to ride one of these things.
More days passed and he barely bothered to rest a little, just when his mount just couldn't keep going. He knew he wouldn't feel secure at all until he knew if his precious friends were safe.
It finally came a moment when he began to recognize the landscapes. In a way, seeing all those places again brought him memories of his first adventure with the woman from Sacae.
Meeting her was something he could only describe as a miracle... how high were the possibilities of him being found by her after he passed out in those plains? what were the odds that the woman who saved him would be a princess?
He would never change that moment of his life for anything else.
The more places he recognized, the faster his heartbeat was.,. only to suddenly stop a few seconds when his eyes went wide as he considered that... he wasn't sure at all if Lyn would be there...
No!
He must have faith! that faith in his friends was what allowed him to get that far in his life...
He had to believe!
Unfortunately, the reality is indifferent to what humans want... he would find a horrible surprise...
"So, any doubts? opinions? something?" Kiran asked. At that moment, Robin, Alfonse, Anna and the legendary "hero" were inside the war tent.
"It's a solid plan." Anna commented.
"We still don't know our exact location on this continent though... I mean, it's Lycia as far as I can tell and remember from what happened when I..." the prince growled as he remembered that all this was his fault... he rubbed his face in frustration.
"We just need to obtain that information from the locals once the town is ours." Robin shrugged.
"Yeah, you're right..." Kiran crossed his arms and frowned. "Yet, there's something that is making me worried..."
"What is it?" The prince looked at his amigo.
Kiran sighed. "The grandmaster told me something very disturbing."
"And that is?" Robin made him a signal to indicate him to continue.
"It's something that, because we had just returned from fighting your friends..." he pointed to Robin to make sure everybody understood he was talking regarding the heroes of the world of Awakening, "we didn't pay it the attention necessary... it seems that... whatever the magic Veronica uses to enslave the heroes... she has managed to improve it to its next level... in the last battle, the grandmaster noticed that the heroes weren't holding back at all."
Alfonse scratched his hair. "Wouldn't it just mean that she's doing a similar tactic to the one she used with the shepherds?"
"I actually made that question... but, unlike Robin here, those heroes didn't get rid of the curse no matter how much they were hurt. He says that they behaved like... empty vessels. They didn't denote emotion, they didn't seem to feel pain at all... they didn't talk..." Kiran rubbed his forehead. "While Veronica managed to escape with most of the heroes... the grandmaster felt forced to kill two of them."
The news had the effect Kiran expected, silence... at least for half of a minute.
"So you're telling us we may find more heroes like those?" Robin didn't like this at all.
"Now you mention it..." Anna frowned. "I thought something was... off the last time..."
Alfonse quickly frowned and hit the table with force. "Damn you Veronica..."
Anna placed her hand on his shoulder as she tried to comfort her.
Yet, the commander hadn't failed at noticing how the prince was... becoming slowly more rageful, less depressed and smarter... as if he was becoming into a copy Kiran...
According to Kagero, they used to talk a lot regarding the future and things like those... but what exactly Kiran told to Alfonse... she wasn't sure.
"I told him that the next time he should capture them instead," Kiran sighed in frustration. "Even though I don't know much about dark magic, somebody expert at this stuff must analyze them to determine what in the hell is going on now and how to revert the hex... otherwise I'm pretty sure I don't need to explain what are we going to need to do in order to continue the mission to save the multiverse..."
Robin could only think that even though Walhart was a miserable bastard... he at least had some honor... the Emblian Empire was much worse. "It's bad Henry isn't here..." she commented.
"By the moment, the only competent dark mage on our army is Raigh, he will take care of this along Miriel."
"Regardless of how are we supposed to deal with this situation... we should be ready to face anything." Alfonse's face denoted determination. "Veronica and her followers aren't going to stop doing things like those with the heroes... if we can't save them... at least we should make sure their power is not misused... they wouldn't have wanted that at all."
Again, Anna grimaced as this last sentence didn't sound like something that she would have expected to hear from the prince...
Kiran, however, was more focused on other detail.
"Be ready to face anything..." he whispered.
Anything...
As those words resonated into his mind, he shook his head as an idea crossed his mind.
But it didn't matter at all. Once something like that appeared, his memories would store that information to be useful if it was necessary... and he knew this wasn't the first time his brain processed these thoughts.
A backup plan... El Proyecto Negro (The Black Project). The last resort tactic his mind imagined for a scenario where everything suddenly started to go wrong.
As much as the information he had indicated that such a horrible project wouldn't be necessary... there's always that tiny but existent possibility that Veronica would discover a new power that would allow her to win...
But El Proyecto Negro was just going too much far at creating something in case of that...
Right?
Robin had been watching Kirans' face. She actually heard what he had said.
She didn't know what he was thinking... but her "connection" to him made her able to guess what kind of feeling he was having...
"Anyway," Kiran spoke. "I'm gonna ask Caeda to take another look one last time to determine if a relevant factor as changed that would obligate us to change the plan... I'll see you on the battlefield."
"Would you mind if I follow you?" Robin asked.
"Eh?... no. not at all."
As the two left the tent, Robin didn't attempt to hide she was worried about his mental sanity as she hugged him. "Are you okay?"
"No, not all."
"Weird, this is normally the part where you try to lie to me saying you're fine." she smiled a little as she caressed his hair.
"What would be the point then?" he shrugged as he accepted the hug, hugging her back. "I just... my knowledge can have many applications... technology is not intrinsically good or evil... so it can be used for both purposes..."
"You're not thinking about using that... the dynamite of yours... right?"
"The grandmaster has already told me he wants to see its potential... he wants to end this war the faster as possible and perhaps it can be a way to accomplish it... I can make it illegal for military operations after this but... what's on my mind is not that..."
"Is there something even worse?" Robin looked at him with a mix of horror and... something that made clear to Kiran that he was losing some of her trust.
"Sorta, but I'm not sure if I can replicate it or even if it actually exists..." he lied. He just didn't want to tell her he could weaponize the life itself through evolution.
Robin could feel he wasn't being honest... but trying to get more information at that moment could be counterproductive...
"Sorry about that." he said.
"Don't worry." she caressed his hair... which he responded with a purr.
She giggled.
As the traveler finally saw the castle he had been so desperately tried to reach... what he saw was something he didn't like at all.
Emblian soldiers patrolled the area.
Lyn must be inside... perhaps being prisoner inside her own home... or even worse... perhaps she...
The rage that filled his being as that idea appeared made his blood burn.
Normally he would have chosen to wait... normally he would have prepared a more efficient plan... but the feelings he experienced... along with the fact that he was now the strongest mage in the continent made him think differently from normal.
He approached slowly towards the castle.
As one of the patrols noticed him and the leader yelled at him... the traveler didn't bother to look at them, he just opened his third most powerful tome. A massive fireball generated, he quickly impulsed it and, where before there was a squad of soldiers... now only the flames reigned.
Of course, this event alerted the rest of the army that protected the castle about his presence... and he couldn't care less.
He charged thunder energy on his hands and cast the magic.
Soldier after soldier that attempted to challenge him met his end.
For a moment, he saw other mage attacking with fire. The traveler didn't bother to move. As the fire spell almost touched him, the traveler grabbed it and quickly send the fire back.
The other mage managed to return the attack but the traveler didn't bother to continue the game as he quickly jumped to the left and released electrical energy.
"Hya! haaaa! hureeea!" the more energy he extracted from his tomes, the larger the number of bodies he was leaving behind.
However... as he turned around to cast another thunder spell... he suddenly stopped as he saw... an archer he instantly recognized.
"Wil?! eris tuat?! (is that you?!)"
His friend didn't seem to hear... or even care that he was seeing the same coat he should have recognized... as an arrow almost hit the traveler.
"Wil, quat hare hacppen?! Ies myo, Mark! (what are you doing, it's me, Mark!)"
Wil didn't care, he continued aiming and shooting arrows.
Mark should have paid more attention to what was behind of him... but he was so scared and confused for the "betrayal" of Wil that he didn't notice a pegasus knight approaching and then... a spear stabbed him on the back and crossed all his chest.
He expulsed blood through the mouth. As he raised his head... he couldn't believe it.
"F-F-Florina?... uuurgh..." he yelled in pain as arrows ended up on his chest, legs and shoulders...
His confusion and fear only increased when he saw... three figures standing in front of him.
The very woman he had been looking for... Lyn...
A red noble... Eliwood...
And the blue one... Hector.
Tears rolled through his cheeks... "W-Whqe? (W-Why?...")... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" He yelled even more as Lyn pierced him, directly on the heart...
This had to be a nightmare... this couldn't be real...
As he saw the katana-like weapon quickly swinging towards his neck...
Everything became black after a while...
The commander of that part of the Emblian army was happy to know that scum had been destroyed.
They didn't bother to move the corps of Mark. They just left it there...
... That... must be painful...
I told you important characters were going to start dying. This time is Mark, make your bet who's gonna die in the next one... I already know who.. and honestly, the one who's gonna kill that character... uuuh, it's gonna be even more painful!
Maybe you're wondering: Wait.. you said Kiran and Mark were going to meet each other!
And I say: Wait, I know what I'm doing... let's just say... let's just say...SPOILER, SPOILER SPOILER: Think about Sothis and Byleth and you'll understand.
And what are Lyn, Hector, Eliwood and the others doing there if they were with Veronica? they were the first test subjects, now Veronica has more of brainwashed heroes for her royal guard... that and the fact they were fighting the army of Frank before, they just happened to return to their world when the retreat was ordered. The Order Of Heroes is in Caelin, but there's a town between the castle of Caelin itself and the Gate.
Anyone who has been paying attention must know or at least have an idea of what is El Proyecto Negro.
It's not the quintessence though. While it's true Kiran has kept it a secret and it may be level 3 of secrecy, that's El Proyecto Elfo (The Elf Project)."
Talking more about other stuff, I'm about to end my Gate Story which means more free time for me. Regarding the virus that is destroying the world and its economy, I don't have anything of relevance to say. I am sick right now but since I don't have a fever and the fact that I'm not coughing as if there wasn't a tomorrow... I doubt it's that shit. I think I can take advantage of the quarantine to write more chapters.
You may notice that I changed the cover image. Let's say I wanted to avoid conflicts with the creator of that image (I'm really gonna miss it, the Kiran looked so badass) so I got a new one from a friend. It kinda displays a wrong idea since it shows Kiran holding a Master Sword that seems like a weird fusion between the Dorada and Azul ones... but well, it's better than nothing.
Anyway, time to answer the review:
HarmonyDST05:
Eh... no... Breidablik summons heroes that belong to that planet and belong to the past (because in this story, Heroes is the last one chronologically speaking).
I think I made pretty sure that, in this version of reality, Fire Emblem does not exist in our Earth. And I highly doubt I'm gonna include characters from Fate, Dragalia Lost or anything... it's just... going too much far...
Besides, summoning Link?! the same character Kiran has played with in the past?! if I do that, I would be obligated to make sure Kiran recognizes it and he would instantly accept that as evidence that he's living a dream/simulation and the plot would instantly become into something more similar to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance...
So... no... sorry, but no...
