And we are back! It took me a long while but I finally got over my writer's block and was able to write out some good plot points for this chapter. Next chapter update after this one will be the Pacific Rim story then this one again, my goal is to get out three chapters for Humanity's Black Huntsmen and 5 chapters for this story before I go back to the Star Wars once since that one already has a lot of chapters to it. Also, I finally was able to finalise the list of sentient species that exist in this universe. That list won't be explained all at once but rather as the story goes, we'll see the different races and how they fit into the world at large, the Gods treat this world as a garden and open the gate whenever they wish to let in a whole new species, so it would stand to reason that I had a lot of creative freedom with the list of races that can be found.
Chapter 5: Finding out Hidden Truths.
(The Inn)
"Lelei, they'll be serving dinner soon." Cato said as he walked out of the inn to see Lelei seated on a bench outside the building. It was late afternoon and the sun was due to set anytime now, which meant that it was gonna get a bit colder.
"I know." Lelei responded as she kept her gaze on the road leading into town, seeing this, the old master just sighed as he knew what or more accurately, who she was looking for.
"You're worried about him, aren't you?" Cato asked/stated.
"He said he would be back by late afternoon, the sun's nearly set." Lelei responded to him as she gripped at her staff, showing small hints of worry which for her, meant that she was very concerned.
"Well, the mine is quite the distance from town, I'm sure that it's nothing." Cato tried to cheer her up since it would take quite a way for someone to make the journey on foot and their travelling buddy would also need to make one back to town.
"Orcs are far from nothing." Lelei reminded him as though stupid, orcs are physically superior to humans, if Lelouch ran into one unexpectedly, it could easily tear him to shreds before he could use a single spell, and that scared her more than anything else.
"You must care for him a great deal." Cato spoke with a small smile, though he was also worried about the boy, he was also happy that he has such an effect on the girl that for the most part, didn't wear her emotions on her sleeve.
"I just don't want to see anyone die." Lelei whispered as her eyes started to water a bit but she didn't cry. Seeing this, Cato was reminded that the girl had to see something horrid earlier that day, this must have only made things worse for her.
'I see, that experience is still fresh on the mind.' The aged master thought to himself as he could see how that would make her extra worried about them. "I wouldn't worry too much, he's been a quick learner in the magical arts and is quite intelligent. I'm sure he will have come up with an excellent attack plan." Cato spoke up as the lad was a more than meets the eye, even if he was still on the skinny side.
"There were those people who arrived not too long ago." Lelei admitted as earlier, groups of miners started arriving in town, injured, exhausted but otherwise relieved to have made it. Many of whom had been taken to the healer's place for treatment while those who didn't need that, went home or to bars to eat up and rest.
"That goes to show you that he is doing well so far, since he was able to free those people." Cato agreed with her as they both knew who helped those people out, even if that person hadn't arrived yet. "Speaking of, didn't you wish to head over and see if you could help with their treatments?" He gave her a suggestion as it would help her keep her mind off things until Lelouch got back. His apprentice took his words into consideration before she chose to follow it.
"I believe I did, it should keep me busy. I'll be back before dinner." Lelei agreed with him as she got up and made her towards where the healer was. She may not know any healing magic that could help but an extra sent of hands could always be of use.
(Later – Early Evening)
"What the hell?" Cato heard people saying as a group was beginning to form near the main gate into town. It was early evening as the sun had set a while ago, leaving the town bathed in torches and oil lamps as many people still walked about carry out errands or spending time relaxing. That all changed as people started moving towards the main gate which was opened to allow someone to enter.
"You mean that guy took back the entire mine?"
"There were bandits in there?"
"Hmm?" Hearing all this, Cato didn't need to wonder who they were taking about. It may have been much later then he said he'll return but better late than never. That was his thoughts as he approached the crowd to see for himself and much like he thought, he saw that Lelouch was the cause of it.
"Well now, speak of the devil, looks like he made it back." Cato spoke up as he moved himself to the front of the crowd to see that the boy was covered in some dirt and his clothes needed to be mended but other than that, he was perfectly fine. He even had some shady looking guy tied up with rope with him.
"Appears that there was more to this then we thought." Lelouch spoke up with one of the town elders as people crowded around him.
"Thank you, kind sir for your service to our town." The elder replied to him as he gave the lad a small bow of appreciation for his service to the town. Lelouch in turn, didn't seem to think much of it.
"I did what I promised I would, even if there was complications." He started as he tugged on the rope keeping his prisoner from trying to make a break for it. "How did none of you know about the bandits?" He asked them as he had already explained to the elder that a bandit gang was the real cause of the mess and that they just used orcs as muscle.
"We never saw them, the only ones who ever interacted with us was the orcs." One of the townspeople replied to him, getting an 'hmm' sound from the boy as he took that in.
"Is that right? Well then, good thing I captured this one alive." He finished when he judged that the people weren't lying about this. His choice of words however, caught their attention.
"Alive? You don't mean…" One of the people asked him but once more, he responded like a man far older than he.
"The rest of them are dead. I kept him alive so that you could question him for details." Lelouch didn't even look remorseful about taking an unknown number of lives, something that unnerved most of the people including Cato himself as this wasn't normal.
"Coming through!" However, before that could be touched up on, they all heard people trying to force their way to the front along with the familiar sound of body armour. It took mere moments for the town's guard to make their way to the front and approached Lelouch. "You there, is it true you cleared the mine?"
"Well, someone had to do it with you guys being so bad at it." Lelouch told them as he gestured towards his prisoner with a smirk, enjoying the looks of growing anger in the eyes of the soldiers. "I found the bodies of the men you sent to deal with this, they were torn apart." He told them as he had searched the mines before he left for them, his prisoner didn't know where they were so he had to tie him up to a shaft support beam and look around for two whole hours.
"Watch your mouth, boy. Or you'll end up in a cell." The clear leader of the group warned him as he picked up how the boy didn't even seem to care about the death of his men or bother to try and fake concern for them.
"Why? For calling you out? I'm not a citizen of your empire, you don't have the right to try but I welcome the challenge." Lelouch responded in kind as his smirk grew just a little bit as he tightened his grip on his staff, but before this could came to a boil.
"Okay people, we don't we cool off before we lose our heads?" Cato suggested as came into the discussion before things could heat up anymore than they already had. Seeing the elder, both men decided that calm themselves down.
"Very well, master but keep your apprentice in line." The leader told him as he gave Lelouch a stink eye before he gestured towards one of his men to grab the rope he has holding. "Come on, we need to get this piece of scum back to the prison." With that, the town guardsmen left them be as they dragged their prisoner away, leaving them be.
"Now before anything else, we have something to discuss." Lelouch turned to the person had been speaking with prior.
"Of course, you're payment is being prepared now. 400 Silver, as agreed." The elder informed him but he waved it off, he wasn't all that interested in the money right now.
"I was referring to this." Lelouch said as he opened up his satchel and pulled out the parchments he had been writing on while in the mines, handing one of them to the elder who started to skim it.
"What is this?" The man asked him as he looked up to the boy who put the rest of them away again.
"The locations of the remains of the miners who were killed. I documented as much as I could about their locations and appearance so that their friends and family in town could identify them. If the descriptions aren't enough, you can follow the map to where the bodies lay. I'm not accustomed to your burial practices so I didn't feel right sending them off." He explained to the crowd, surprising them that the same guy who didn't bat a eye at murdering his targets had taken the time to document this for them. Hearing this helped affirm the opinion that the boy was good, complicated but good none the less as the elder and some others started to tear up at this but didn't cry.
"No, that is quite alright, this is more then we ask of you. Thank you." He responded to him as this will make identifying people so much easier, families can now have closure for what happened if they can say with certainty that
"For now, I wouldn't suggest getting this info to the rest of town so you can start identifying bodies, I'll collect my reward later." Lelouch told them as he actually looked like he sympathised with that as he all but ask them to not pay him now and focus on grieving over the lost.
"We'll get right on that." The elder told him as he and some others turned around to get started on that. No doubt visiting the deceased homes will not be easy, it was never easy…
"Well, I got to admit, you said you were capable of clearing the mine and now you gone and done it. Well done." Cato spoke up before he could go any deeper that rabbit hole.
"It wasn't as hard as I expected it to be, but there was still healthy amounts of caution." Lelouch gave a normal response as the two of them started to walk back towards the inns. He needed a bathe and some food.
"That's a good thing, that'll keep you from losing an eye, or a limb!" Cato agreed with him as he finished with a joke, pointing towards his own eye as he said that last part and laughed at his own joke, getting an amused smile from his younger companion.
'I don't think he needs to know that I'll probably grow all those back. Don't need to give the old man a heart attack.' He thought to himself as though he hadn't done anything too drastic, from what he observed with C.C. nothing short of a fully matured geass holder or perhaps a FLEYA could kill him. He believed that the Gods could, seeing how one of them tampered with his code without much effort but he wasn't in any mood or stupid enough to try and anger one and let them try and kill him. "Where's Lelei?" He asked as he looked around and didn't see a familiar head of blue hair.
"She's be the healer's place. She wanted to help the injured that made it back." Cato replied to the question as he gestured towards one of the larger buildings down the road.
"Well, I suppose that's a good thing. I was worried that not all of them would make it." Lelouch noted as he already knew she would not be pleased with the fact that he had shown up late. He could respect and to a certain degree, admire that she was so caring for her friends, much like how he is….or was depending on who you ask. Perhaps he would need to buy her something to make it up to her.
"Some didn't, they passed on the way here, but most of them did manage to reach here on time. The healer's doing everything she can for them." Cato replied as it was a shame watching how downtrodden the people looked as they carried bodies into town for proper burial, even more so when the friends and families of some of them had the misfortune of seeing this.
"Unfortunate but unavoidable. Many of them didn't seem fit enough to make the trip at all, the fact that so many did was against the odds." Lelouch responded as they went along. He had long since stop caring whenever people died outside his control, it was something that no-one could top and though he would cry and mourn his loved men and do more if those who perished were close to him, he had to learn pretty early in his rebellion that these kinds of things happened.
"Perhaps we should go check up on Lelei, yes?" Cato suggested as it might be good if the two were to try and help her as well. No sense sitting around doing nothing.
"I agree, I did say I would be earlier but that numbskull made things difficult." Lelouch answered as he referred to his prisoner, honestly, if he didn't want to bring him back alive and in one piece, he would have broken his arm with all the times he tried to piss him off or escape.
"So, how as it?" Cato asked as he could only imagine that fighting off orcs and bandits in a mine to be a difficult task to undertake.
"It was long but eventful, I'll tell you and Lelei the full story later but for now, I would much rather we sit down and have a good meal." Lelouch told him to which the man saw he wouldn't get any more out of him and agreed.
"I can agree with that, the inn has some fine wine!" Cato joked to which the boy just sighed as this wasn't the first time the elder would most likely get drunk off his ass.
"I still don't know how you haven't dropped dead from all that booze." Lelouch remarked as though he never drunk himself or hung around alcoholics, he was sure that the old men could put more away then should be possible, how in the hell was his liver still intact?
"An old man has his secrets," Cato chuckled as the two reached the healer's place and knocked on the door before opening it. "Excuse me, but is Lelei still here?" he asked as the two men entered the clinic. It wasn't much, being that it was mostly bare with few furnishing but as Lelouch had come to expect from an imperial town, it appeared well stocked with oil lamps providing ample light. The two also noted that there was a front desk where a women dressed in green and blue was seated, having been writing something on a scroll when the two came in.
"The young mage?" The lady behind the desk asked them which they both found to be good as at least she knew who they were talking about to Cato nodded his head in confirmation to this. "Yes, she is. Are any of you injured or feeling ill?"
"No, but she's traveling with us, we just wanted to check up on her." Cato inquired as the lady took a few seconds to think about it before she nodded her head and got up from her seat.
"Oh, okay. I can show you to where she is." She offered them as she gestured towards the doorway which lead deeper into the building where their patients were housed.
"Thank you. That would be helpful." Cato thanked her as both he and Lelouch gave her a little boy before they went to follow. Beyond the doorway, they could see many beds that had been spaced out around the place, each occupied by one of the miners that Lelouch had freed that same day. As he was told, many of whom looked far sicklier then he remembered but he credited it to his mind being elsewhere when they met.
"Lelei, some people are here to see you." The desk worker said as she looked towards the back where their travelling companion, was aiding one of the nurses in cleaning someone's wounds. The girl in question looked up to see the two approaching but her eyes focused on Lelouch in particular.
"You made it back." She spoke as she stood to her full height from her place on her knees, though she was still quite shorter then him.
"Were there any doubts?" Lelouch asked her with a small smile, happy that even if she was good at masking it, he could see that she was happy to see him unharmed, it was….nice to have someone that cared for him like this again.
"I'm glad you did. And that you were able to save these people." Lelei said with a nod as she pointed towards all the beds where patients were being treated.
"How bad are they?" Lelouch asked as he watched as she got back to aiding the nurse she was helping when they walked in, the two of them standing to the side as to not get in the way of the staff.
"Many will be able to return to their homes in the morning, others will have to stay here at least two weeks. Malnourishment is a problem with all of them." Lelei replied as fortunately for the most of them, they just needed to get some food and rest and they would be back on their feet but it was still a packed night for them.
"That seemed to be the issue in that mine, most of the groups didn't have enough food or water. It was disgusting." Lelouch stated as he recalled how a great many of 'holding cells' didn't have enough water for half of the people inside, food was even rarer with many being too weak to move on their own power.
"But you managed to get them out in time, now they have a chance." Lelei reminded him as she picked on how his fist tightened over so slightly and his gaze turned a little cold. She was happy that she was a quick learner, as it had led her to be spot and then recognise her friend's little signs of his mood and though he was mostly passive and lazy like some spoiled cat, he had his moments of emotion.
"I suppose that's the only thing I could give them," Lelouch stated as he took a deep breath through the nose to calm down. "When you finish here, meet us back at the inn for dinner and I'll tell you all about it."
"Okay, see you later…?" Lelei started but paused off at the end as she tried to use the term of phrase had heard Lelouch use in the past. Hearing her struggle with such a simple thing was enough to draw a chuckle from both him and Cato as the turned to walk off and get out of her hair.
"Yeah, that's how the saying goes, but try not to say it like a weird question." Lelouch told her over his shoulder as he and the master made their exit.
"Oh, Okay." Lelei said as the two walked out of the room. Maybe she'll get better after he starts giving her those lesson he promised but for now, she had work to do.
(A Couple days later)
"Your language is weird." Lelei said as Lelouch was busy wrapping her their lesson for the day.
"It's to be expected, English was created using bits and pieces of other languages, so some things will sound odd." Lelouch replied as he placed the last of his writing tools in his bag as the two sat in a quiet corner of the inn. Around 6 days had passed since he had completed his little quest into the mines and while the miners that made it back to town had been improving in terms of health, things had been peaceful for the most part….if you ignored the fact that people all over would walk up to him and thank him for his assistance.
"Is that why some terms of phrases make little sense?" Lelei asked as they had ended their little lesson on things she could use in most situations, phrases. Many of whom did, admittedly sound very dumb but he didn't write the damn English language.
"Yes, yes it is." He agreed with her with a light smirk as he was quite impressed with the rate she was picking things up, when he had asked Cato about it, the man had said that she had always been a quick learner so he didn't think they'll spend too much on the subject as it wouldn't be long before she had a firm grasp on the language.
Who knows, if he feels really nice, he'll try his hand at teaching her other languages from his world as well.
"Do you have any plans for today?" Lelei asked him as the two of them finished up packing up all the materials that had been using.
"Yes, actually, I wanted to check up on something with one of the blacksmiths." Lelouch said as he pulled his carry back strap over his head and rested it on his shoulder, it was quite rare to see him without it actually.
"What for? We got out supplies, at quite a bargain." Lelei asked him as she was a little confused by this. They had been able to purchase everything they needed and extra just two days prior. The only reason they were still in town was so that the two of them could assist with taking care of the sick from the mines at Lelei's request.
"It's about something I found down in those mines," Lelouch responded as he thought back to one of the miners had approached him and as a thank you gift for getting him and his two friends out of there alive, gave him a very large chunk or Uru ore. "Or I suppose I should say, something that was given to me."
"Will you take long?" Lelei asked him as the two walked towards the door leading out of the inn and into the main street of the town.
"Not too long, I'm just checking on something. I should be done pretty quickly. I'll meet you at the bakery, sound good?" Lelouch asked as he opened the door for her to exit first before he followed, closing it behind him.
"Yes, there are about to stop serving those sweet treats so I would advise you hurry." Lelei agreed to this as she also reminded him as the fact that the extremely tasty sweet buns that the bakers made here was only made in the morning, past noon they would stop selling them.
"I don't have much a sweet tooth but I will take your words into considerations." Lelouch in turn chuckled as the two made their way onto the main road, avoiding the traffic of both people and animal pulled carts. Once they made it to the other side of the street, they both turned to walk down opposite directions but before they were out of speaking range, Lelei said one last thing.
"You're right, you seem to enjoy meats though." Lelei countered as she and Cato had been mildly surprised when they first learned that the boy she had picked up had a penchant for all things meat. It didn't matter if it was pork, beef, chicken or even fish, he seemed to enjoy them all far more thing other foods like fruits and baked goods.
'That's the thing, why do I suddenly have a taste for meat? Is it an immortal thing? Is that why C.C. loves pizza so much?' Lelouch thought to himself as he walked down the path, wondering as to why he picked up such a dietary preference. In his old life, even as a prince he didn't have a favoured meal, enjoying any food that was prepared for him. With the Kururugi's and their frankly terrible care for him and his sister, he learned to cook for himself. He could never match the 5 star meals he once enjoyed but Nunnally always said that they were tasty while he ensured they were as nutritious as his budget could afford. That tread carried onto his last days at Ashford and while his culinary skills did improve, to the point where he had to cook for just about every student council meeting, he still didn't have a favoured food. Though he saw that he was coming up on his destination and resolved to think about this later, it wasn't an issue at the moment.
'Stop it, now is not the time to be thinking about that, I have bigger concerns, namely that Uru stuff those miners gave me. I need to see if any of these smiths can work with it or if it has difficult to work with as I've been told.' Lelouch concluded as he approached the same smith who had informed him and Lelei of the situation in the mines in the first place. He didn't bother knocking, it was a business after-all as he walked into the shop.
"You in?" He called out as he didn't see the guy behind the front desk as normal but his call did bring him in from the side door, most likely he was working on something in the back.
"Oh, there you are. I was about to send someone to pick you up." The smith informed him as he used a cloth to clean his hands of grim and soot from his forge.
"Good or bad news?" Lelouch asked him, getting straight to the point as he couldn't be the only costumer the guy had today, with the mines being reopened to the town, people were purchasing more services from the smiths again.
"Bad kid, I couldn't even get the stuff to smelt down, all it did was sit in the furnace." The smith said as he took out the Uru ore he was given from under the desk and placed it on the table. It was a sizable piece of ore, easily the size of a football.
"That bad?" Lelouch asked as he would have thought that the guy's forge would have been able to do something, was it that the forge couldn't get hot enough?
"Oh yeah, that fire's hot enough to smelt iron ore but all this beauty did was simmer for a while." The smith told him as he then explained that he left the thing for two whole hours and increased the temperature of the forge to its limits but he got nothing, the ore didn't even begin to glow or show the normal signs of smelting, almost like it was mocking him.
"Well, can't say I'm too disappointed. I was told this stuff was notoriously hard to work with." Lelouch said with a huff as he picked up the ore which obviously has cooled down a while ago and placed it in his bag, it weighed it down but the bag and strap could take the weight, at least until he could place it back on their wagon.
"Sorry about that kid, I would recommend you visit one of the smiths in the capital. Odds are that they'll have better luck then I did." The smith said with a sad smile as it kinda hurt to have proof that you didn't have the stuff to be considered the best at what you do.
"I'll think about that, thanks anyway." Lelouch said as he turned around and walked out. It was a bust, sure but there was something else he was planning. After-all…
He still needed to meet with those bandits' contact and if things go well, find out who the hell sent them in the first place.
(Later – In a clearing)
"Where the hell are they?" A cloaked individual thought to themselves as they stood by the edge of a clearing in the middle of the night. Now, unlike with most people, this person wasn't human but rather, they were a Volraden. Which means they were a member of a demi-human werewolf race. Unlike most humanoids, volradens looked more like sapient bipedal wolves than humans with animal characteristics as the man in question was covered in grey fur with brown eyes that narrowed with annoyance as he waited.
'If those idiots are late because they got drunk, I'm going to take an arm.' The unnamed man thought to himself as his tail swished back and forth in irritation at having to just sit here and wait while those idiots took their sweet time getting here. But as he waited, his nose picked up on something.
'Hmm? There's a scent in the air, and it isn't from those dirty hired thugs.' He thought to himself as he looked around himself, trying to spot whoever thought they could sneak up on him. Though the scent smelt vaguely human, there was…something more to it, he couldn't put his finger on it but whoever or whatever it was, it had a scent that read it was dangerous. "Whoever you are, came out! You can't fool my nose." He called out as he drew his one handed sword and got ready for whatever might reveal itself.
.
.
.
"Interesting," A calm, regal and clearly foreign voice spoke out as a young man stepped into the clearing and into the light of the overhead moon. "I didn't think you'll be a non-human, and a Volralden at that, I believe this is my first time meeting one of your kind." Lelouch finished as he flashed a smirk at his opponent.
"Who the hell are you, you don't smell like you're from around here." The yet to be named man demanded of him but he kept his guard up, even if this kid didn't look like much, he still had that dangerous air to him that his animalistic senses were warning him about.
"I had heard that your kind has quite the acute sense of smell but that is quite impressive." Lelouch stated, not answering the questioned as he looked the guy up and down, inspecting him. From that inspection, he could tell that the man standing opposite from him as big, as in larger and most likely, bulkier then Andreas was. Under that cloak, he could also make out some sort of armour but he couldn't identify it in this low light environment.
"Answer the damn question or I'll cut you like a fish. Who in the hell are you?" The volraden demanded louder this time as he took a step forward and made sure that Lelouch could see the blade in his hand.
"My name isn't all that important right now, but I will give you something, I did make you wait out here." Lelouch said as he didn't appear to be intimidated by this, if anything he seemed more interested in this than before.
"I'm the guy who took down all your little pawns." He revealed to him as he pulled out something from his pocket and tossed it at the floor, revealing the object to have been a fancy looking fish pin that was on the bandit leader's person when he killed him.
"Your try lying to me you little punk! There is no way in hell your skinny ass took all those men down, we even supplied them with orcs to hold the mine." The volraden yelled back, though there was a part of him that believed him for reasons he didn't know. Just by looking at the kid, he didn't look like much, one or two, maybe but there was no way he took them all down.
"Orcs? Those were a little harder to kill then the bandits but they all died by my hands, same as so many others that got in my way." Lelouch replied as he found himself thinking back to all the hard fought battles he had to go through….and all the people he lost along the way. Still, he didn't let his emotion, his real emotions show as he just let the pride of victory manifest on his face as he gave the volraden he was facing an arrogant grin what came off as far more dangerous that his normal one.
'What the hell, that grin….that aura…he isn't lying, just how many has he killed to have such presence?' The volraden thought to himself as he to stop himself from taking a step back. He had seen that type of grin before, he knew that this guy, whoever the hell he was, wasn't kidding around. He has filled graveyards. 'I gotta be careful around him, and take him out first chance I get.' He resolved as this wasn't something he could mess around with.
"If that's true, why came here alone? Why not try and ambush me and be done with it?" He asked the boy, wondering if there was a chance he knew that he was a volraden and figured that he could smell them coming, but from how he acted when he appeared, it didn't seem to be the case, but could that be a trick?
"Isn't this an ambush?" Lelouch said him as he gestured towards the situation they found themselves in. "I don't need help to take out some trash." He finished as he flashed a toothy grin that didn't seem stable on his face, it was as if he was getting ready to devour him or something.
"You got a big mouth, but you what they say about dogs with a louder bark." The volraden replied even though he felt the furs on the back of his neck stand on edge at that grin. Just what in the hell was this dude? He didn't smell like a normal human but he didn't appear to be any of the non-human species he heard about.
"That is something I sure you're quite aware of." Lelouch couldn't help himself as he fired back something he figured would get under the guy's skin and it showed with how his face tightened with anger and his arms shock just a tin y bit as he reigned himself in from trying to attack him. "But to your little question, I want answers."
"You think I'll take that easy?" The volraden asked him, showing his own anger and barred teeth yet that didn't seem to unnerve the boy.
"The bandit chief said the same thing, but I got him to spill his secrets, just like I'll get you to." Lelouch replied as he closed his left eye, the eye where his first power first came from before he gained the power in both eyes.
"Don't you dare look down on a Volralden!" The volraden yelled out as he charged the boy, his blade at the ready.
'He's fast!' Lelouch thought to himself as he barely dodged the blow that would have taken his head off, followed by the second aimed for his arm and then his side. He jumped back to gain some distance and with one hand, he quickly let loose a fireball towards the volraden who in turn, jumped out of the way.
'A fireball?' He thought to himself as he avoided the fireball and looked back to see that the boy had made some distance between them again. 'That means he's a wizard. That gives me the advantage if I can close the distance.' He thought to himself as he went to use his superior senses to find an opening up jumping back into the darkness. This left Lelouch alone as he moved to the centre of the light as to better spot an incoming attack, he kept both his eyes and ears open but couldn't pick up any movement from his foe.
"Come on out, mutt. I thought your people are proud warriors, why hide in the shadows?" Lelouch called out as he knelt down and pulled out a small paper scroll along with a larger one and placed both down on the ground, all while keeping his eyes peeled for any sign of attack.
"Especially when it won't do you any good." Lelouch finished as he activated the transmutation parchment he just placed down, this in turn caused the top soil to be converted into dust which blanketed the area, leaving both of them blind.
"Shit!" He heard the volraden call out from somewhere outside the dust, but he didn't move an inch from where he was standing.
"Your sense of smell is quite the tool in a battle like this, low light and plenty of cover," Lelouch said as he looked around and just as planned, he couldn't see any further a an arm's length away from himself. "Let's even the odds a bit, shall we?"
'Now with all this dust in the air, my scent should be masked to the point even he can't pinpoint me.' The volraden thought to himself as he couldn't pick up a scent with this must dust in the air but he didn't get as far as he did and live as long as he had by being unprepared so using his keen hearing, he pinpointed where his target was and changed once more.
"If you think I can't fight without my nose, you're mistaken!" The yelled out as he jumped right into the dust cloud and with expect precision, he made out a shape and thrust his blade, a pained groan was his reward as he saw that he had pierced the boy clean on through the chest, with his blade even sticking out his back.
"Ha! Served you right for talking a big game, you couldn't even offer up a challenge!" The volraden laughed as he hoisted the blade up, lifting the boy up as he spat out blood but he didn't pick up on something. The first being the lack of pained cries and the second being the bloody smirk on his face as Lelouch looked down and saw that the volraden had stepped right onto the larger parchment that he had placed down. The trap had been triggered.
"Who ever said I was out?" Lelouch asked him and before the volraden could offer up any kind of response, Lelouch snapped his fingers and the parchment underneath the werewolf exploded as intense heat was released from it all at once, leading to an extremely rapid rise in the temperature of the air between them which caused something akin to an really, really strong pressure wave slamming into the both of them and tossing them back hard, the volraden was hit hard enough to slam into a tree with a crashing thud.
BOOM!
.
.
.
"What….how…?" The volraden thought to himself as he tried to collect his thought after his head hit the tree. 'How did he prepare a spell that strong?' he thought to himself as he looked down and saw that his cloak had been shredded and only his armour was intact, still, he could feel the blood moving down the back of his head.
"My," Lelouch spoke up as he walked right on over to the downed man, his own clothes also heavily damaged with only his pants still intact, though one pant leg from the mid-thigh going down was missing. But that wasn't the weird part. "That wasn't as difficult as I thought it'll be." The weird part was the fact that not only was he healing from the blast but his sword wound through the chest was closing up as he approached.
"No way, that's not right," The volraden said aloud as he felt the fear from earlier growing in him. "I ran you through!" He screamed out in shock, not noticing that the code symbol on Lelouch's chest was glowing a bit in his panic. For Lelouch, he picked up on it pretty quick as he had noted that his code seemed to heal wounds faster than he ever saw them heal C.C. but he supposed that was due to the tampering that goddess did to him.
"Yes, you did. You managed to get my lung with that one, nicked my heart along the way." Lelouch explained as he had felt that attack, he really did but seeing how it was the second time he was impaled through the chest, he was mentally prepared enough to not scream out in pain. "But it'll take far more than anything you have to keep me down." He finished as he finished his approach and stood in front of the downed volraden.
"Are you….are you an apostle?" The volraden asked him as he had heard tales on how apostles could not be killed and whenever they did take damage, they would heal before your very eyes, he looked down at his sword that he had dropped when he was blasted away, how the blade was still stained red. Maybe if he could get a hold of it, he could try to go for a blow to the head and make a break for it.
"I suppose that would be an ample definition of what I am," Lelouch replied to him as he was familiar with the subject of apostles, that being said, he picked up on how the volraden eyed his fallen weapon and sought to fix that. "But a lacking one none the less." He finished as with one fluid movement, he pulled out his dagger which against all odds, hadn't been damaged and stabbed the man in the leg.
"ARG!" The volraden screamed out in pain as the dagger dug deep, deep enough to strike bone.
"I wouldn't bother, there isn't anyone around to hear you scream. Tell me what I want to know or I'll feed you a fireball next time round." Lelouch threatened him as he rose up one hand and conjured up a fireball. He may not have his staff with him, seeing how he left it at the inn, but he was still capable of performing some levels of magic.
"You…you don't know what you're messing with, you little brat!" The volraden yelled at him as he barred his fangs at the boy. In return for this, he got a fireball right to the face which left him screaming and pawing at his face to try and put out all the little flames that were eating away at his fur.
"ARG! It burns, it burns!" The volraden screamed out in shock and slight pain only for him to be kicked in the side.
"Stop complaining, that was a low powered fireball, the worst it did was burn off some fur." Lelouch told him as when the volraden lowered his hands, that as proven to be accurate as aside from some singed furs and soot, he was fine but that could change very quickly as Lelouch formed another fireball, this one even larger than the last. "But the next one will be much stronger, tell me what I want to know. Now." He demanded with a tome that brokered no disagreement.
"This is bigger than you think, even if you take me down, they'll be others, and they'll kill you!" The wounded man told him as he walked himself back up so that he was leaning against the tree again.
"I've taken on bigger forces then whatever the hell you serve, in the end," Lelouch told him as he remembered every time he accomplished something others thought impossible. "They'll fall just like everyone else that challenged me." He finished as he decided to stop messing around and activated his geass, the twin crimson birds forming in his eyes both captivating and terrifying his captive as he had never seen anything like it before.
"Lelouch Ja Nemesis commands you, obey." Lelouch commanded him as the twin birds took flight, entering the mind of his target and bending it to his will. It took more moments for his targets free will to be crushed and it showed when his posture relaxed.
"Of course, what is it you want to know?" The volraden, who seconds ago was his enemy, asked him like a humble servant would ask a master.
'So it seems that even non-humans are susceptible to geass, or whatever replica that goddess saw fit to give me.' Lelouch thought to himself as he was not sure his power would work on non-human targets but apparently, all that was needed was sentient intelligence as he already knew it didn't work in animals. "Who sent you?" He asked him, better start out simple.
"My employer."
"What is their name?" Lelouch asked again.
"I do not know." At that one, he didn't feel that surprised as it would be rare for a client to tell their criminal underlings such. He would have only known if he was close the client or a long time subordinate.
"Why don't you know?" He tried a different angle to try and get what he wanted.
"I'm a mercenary, I don't ask questions."
'Great, this fool isn't as helpful as I hoped.' Of course he had to be a merc, hired guns that were loyal to the highest bidder and no-one else. "What was your mission?"
"To meet with the bandits and secure their load of Uru ore."
"For what purpose?" At least that point was proven, whoever sent him wanted the ore.
"I do not know."
"Do you have an idea or suspicion?" Lelouch asked as he could have valuable information as even though he didn't know the endgame, he could have picked up other things that could lead to that.
"My employer is trying to build something, something dangerous and they want as much Uru as they can get."
"Where were you going to drop off the Uru?" He already knew the current town they were in was a no-go, but there were settlements in all directions so he needed a reliable trail to follow otherwise he'll never find whoever was behind this.
"There is a town two days travel from here. I was to meet with a woman named Cam and trade it off for my fee."
"So you believe this Cam to be your employer? Or just another middle man?" Okay, this was good, they were getting somewhere.
"Middle man most likely."
"What is your impression of your employer? Have you ever met before? Do you have anything on what they look like?" He asked in rapid succession, hoping to learn as much as he could from this..
"Yes, we've met in the past but only about 4 times. No, they always meet me with a cloak on and something to mask their scent. And my impression is one of fear."
"Fear?" That wasn't too odd when it came to criminals as all thugs and hired work feared whoever employed them to some degree but it was still intriguing.
"Yes, they have this air to them, makes them feel dangerous, powerful and someone I don't wish to be against."
"Where did you meet?" He asked as if he had a location, he could look into it more and perhaps track this mysterious boss.
"A shady inn, in the capital."
"Tell me everything you know about every dealing you ever had with them, done to the finest details." He ordered as he had a feeling that he'll be busy and just hoped he could recall of all this and write it down later.
(Later)
"Wha…what the hell? Where am I?" Sometime later, the volraden mercenary came to from what felt like a weird nap only to see that it was still night out and he was still very much wounded, only that he couldn't recall why he felt like he feel asleep. Did the dagger coated with poison?
"This is a bad time to zone out like that, you know." Lelouch spoke up, standing by the other end of the clearing and still wearing his ruined clothing. "This is your last night alive, I would have thought you would have to remember it."
"What?! What did you do to me? Why can't I remember anything?!" Seeing him again proved to be frightening experience for the merc as he tried to back up, thoroughly wishing he had followed his instincts and ran when he had a chance. "Just what in the hell are you?!" He screamed the bo-, no at this monster who starred him down with an indifference that was scarier than if he glared at him.
"What I am? I've been many things but there is one thing that has stuck out to me, been branded into my very soul. My poor man, what I am" Lelouch started as he recalled how he was a student, a rebel, a leader, a knightmare pilot, a captive, a diplomat and a emperor. His mind ventured to the last real conversation he had with precious sister, how he and she met on that floating fortress, debating what was right and wrong, how it hurt him deeply to force her to hand him the key before leaving her there after taking the key to Damocles from her. It was a necessary evil, one that lead to a better world but at the same time…it was her last words to him that stuck out and no matter how much he tried to forget, how he wanted to just put it behind him, those words she uttered to him in pure distain stuck with him.
Before the merc could even wonder about what his fate would be, Lelouch gestured to his chest, leading him to look down and to his fear and shock, he saw that on his chest was another one of those parchments that the boy had put down. He didn't have time to even plea before Lelouch snapped his fingers and born from the paper strapped to his chest, a great fire come fourth and started to consume him whole.
"ARG!"
"Is a demon." He finished as he listened into the sounds of the suffering man's cried and screams as the flames treated him like kindling and consumed him. As this remembered how the person he fought for the most, condemned him as a demon. He was no angel, saint or good samaritan. He was he who made a deal with a witch, who tossed aside his own soul, who embodied the destruction that made come before creation and chose evil to defeat evil. So yes, it hurt then to hear it from here of all people but overtime, he had to come to accept it and even choosing to wear it with pride because it was the last thing she ever gave him.
And that is that, the chapter is done. Not to sure this was up to my usual stuff as I wrote it as a I came out of my writer's block but I enjoyed writing it and I hope you all enjoyed reading it. With this chapter, I was trying to show how different Lelouch is from cannon and how he changes how he acts accordingly. When he came into town, he didn't feel like he needed to act like he cared as they were criminals and since this a different world with it's own social norms, though unusual to not cry about killing people, it's not the weirdest thing one can do. With the guards, the guy has always been conformational when he believed he had the upper hand.
With his interactions with Lelei, I wanted to try and make it seem like a big brother, little sister thing as that is his default when it comes to girls younger then he that he not only cares for but wishes to protect. Did you think I did a good job at showing that? The scene where he is teaching her English was inspired by scenes from the old British sitcom, Mind your Language and how most of the time, English phrases fly right over the cast's heads.
Same as the ore, it seems that Lelouch now has a reason to journey to the capital as both the ore he got can't be forged using normal means and his leads takes him there. Though he won't jet off like that, he know has ample reason to go there and it is there that he'll meet some of the other members of the cast and how they'll interact with him.
Reviews:
Ewertondragon10: Thanks, I was worried that I didn't take full advantage of things with the environment and his intellect. The guy understands that geass is a tool and while it's an effective one, he now has other tools up his sleeve to use.
Red Raven007: With your statement, I don't disagree with you as I believe that Lelouch believed that humanity would go either way and to keep it on the right track as a never ending mission, like how being a superhero doesn't get rid of crime. It would explain why he left the system in place that he did, he left behind 'Zero' to watch over things and ensure that the peace would last no matter the cost.
The Rupture: He does have a high intellect and knows modern science but you have to remember that he spent his time also learning how the survive on the road, learning about the world he found himself in and picking up a brand new language which has roots in roman Latin, is completely different to it as in the special zone, the languages spoken are vastly different to that of earth so the common tongue, which is the official language of the empire would be as similar to English as French is the Korean. He'll learn more and pick up more spells but for now….
DarkRain4Eternity: That is a secret.
Daggercloak000: I wouldn't call butchering dozens of people fun but Lelouch isn't the most….sane guy in the world.
Sageofchaos: Hoped you liked it.
M2R: Thanks.
Dontu –not Donut- Powerus: There will be another timeskip but not a long one.
GAchaRage: I don't recall who that is.
Guest: Hopefully, this chapter was up to par as I wrote it over three days.
Arawm: The britannian in this world is very different to the one he remembers.
Webb360: I agree and thanks.
Regis cross: Thanks.
yuuji1: I will, I'm being reading manga a lot for ideas and just to relax.
SomePercyGuy:…What?
Crossovernaru: It was really done on a whim as though I like her as 15 year old, with the staff I have planned, it'll be better if she was aged up. With his scientific prowess, he is no Dr. Stone but he does know his way around a chemistry lab as we all saw in R2, he was able to create a chemistry smoke screen to escape Villetta. Maybe hanging around Rakshata and Nine rubbed some genius off on him. That being said, he will not be that good as a lot o his knowledge stems from sakuradite, a substance that exists neither in the special zone or the Japan that will come into contact with the special zone.
His relationship and interactions with Tyuule wont happen for a while since he would first need power to even begin a approaching the bunny warriors. Also he'll have other things to get to during this time period. I haven't played the Last of Us but thanks as I wanted to show how resourceful he can be and how much he can planned ahead for. He as the head a military power and then head the world, so foresight and risk management are kinda a requirement for both jobs.
The answer is yes, his new branch of magic is operate similar to Alchemy but as he has to create it from scratch, it's going to take a while for it to get off the ground.
Eating Upside Down: Let me get back to you in a PM, I gotta reread chapter one to make sure we're both on the same page.