I lost… I overestimated myself and underestimated my opponent, ending in the loss of an entire city and more importantly… the ones who had trusted me. My hands clenched so hard the steel in of my gauntlets creaked. Cat… I failed you, now you must be a caricature of your former self. A husk searching for meaningless pleasure and nothing else, at least you and Markus got together right? Now you two will wallow in corruption together, let's hope we never see each other ever again. If I see you ever again I'll… I'll do something…
But first I'll recover, I will get stronger. I will become so powerful that no one else will have to fight my battles. I can't bring those I lost back but I can kill those that took them from me and erase the disgrace of my defeat.
But for now I have to listen to my 'uncle' ramble on and on until we get back to the Republic. From there I can build up my own power and make better weapons. As If my current disgraced situation and less than appealing conversation 'partner' wasn't enough my only options for sitting are either hanging off his back or sitting in his lap like a child. Admittedly neither are very appealing but hanging on to him for dear life is better for my self-image, so I sit behind him and try to answer his many questions about my childhood.
"Ahhhh! Had I only been there! Throne, I always wanted to be the weird uncle, who teaches young kids how to clean and maintain a gun and the like! Oh well… I'll make sure you have a sibling I can be the weird uncle to!" Aren't custodians supposed to be poets and philosophers and such? Why did this one end up weird?
"Well even if you quit eventually, if you spend a hundred years as one of the companions you eventually snap, kid! All companions, especially old ones like your father and I, are weird. We have to be, when you see what we have and fail like we have!" I said that aloud?!
"My Father seems pretty sane. No doubt he must be an exception."
I shouted over the fierce wind, trying to refute the madman's claims.
The white and gold clad custodian turned to face me and looked at me as if checking whether I was telling the truth or not.
"He's better then." His voice took on an oddly sad tone, he stared for a second longer and turned his vision back to the horizon. He eventually began talking again.
"Kid, no way to put it lightly… your father was breaking down. Even us custodians have our limits and your fathers purpose already strained his mind combined with his growing age and the scars he accumulated during his service his mind began to break down. That was why he retired, why he was sent to this planet. If what you say is true it worked."
Father's mind was breaking down? But… how? He's always been stable, or at least that's what I had always seen. Maybe he did have problems, maybe I had never noticed… Have I ever asked my Father about his problems, his feelings? I have never thought to look further into his emotions beyond what was clearly apparent.
"Don't feel bad about not seeing it, he probably got better. Saying that Lucius always did have a dramatic side to him. Throwing wine glasses around, orating grand speeches, wearing a grey cloak to battle and throwing it off when things started getting feisty, jumping off cliffs and walls to enter combat and such. You know the things drama kids would want to do."
I felt myself stagger, I inherited the jumping off thing?! Before I had known I had started asking questions about what my Father was like before.
"Back during the Great Crusade we used to have debates with the Emperor about things like philosophy, art, warfare, technology so that we would be more than just super soldiers, but some folks liked to debate different things. Good old Lucius being one of the few people who actually knew off old entertainment methods usually picked that as his topic. Now that I think about it, it was just as much for the Emperor's sake as for his. I had never seen him nostaljik like that, he apparently quite liked living anonymously as a simple human and enjoying mundane entertainment."
My uncle kept going on and on about my Father, were they close. I asked him.
"Uncle, were you and Father close?" He was silent for a moment.
"We weren't just close, he was my… mentor I guess. I became an Emissaries Imperatus just to have the opportunity to meet him. I had no doubt I would meet him someday if I served long enough, I jumped on this mission knowing my survival was less than likely. Turns out I was right, after I deliver you to your destination I'm going to go and meet him."
"We aren't going to the Republic? I thought you were taking me back to Father."
"Oh no, we would've already arrived if that were the case. No, we're going to Dragonia to meet with an old 'friend' of your fathers and for you to meet your Patron."
Patron? What patron?
"I have a Patron? I don't remember getting any kind of help." My voice had the odd amount of sass only a young daughter could intone. The only thing that sass did was force a laugh out of my uncle.
"Of course you haven't noticed, the blessing has been with you all your life. Ahhh, I should explain this. You see this little paradise you all call home is sitting on the very edge of the galaxy and naturally if it weren't isolated enough it's surrounded by an ancient warpstorm, so ancient that it predates human civilization by a good few millennia."
"It fucking what? Why did a warpstorm even form here?"
"Language, young lady! Anyways, others think that an ancient super alien called an Old One made the warpstorm as protection from warp entities. Personally I think the cause is just warp fuckery messing with humanity again."
"'Old One'. they couldn't have found anything better? Seriously wow, an ancient super alien called 'Old One'. What a name."
"Give them some credit, they are literally the most ancient life form and civilization we know of. Each of them were essentially as powerful as the Emperor, so 'Old One' seems to fit, yeah?"
"I guess, it still seems a bit simplistic."
"I get that. More importantly since the warpstorm prevents the Emperor from reaching this place he had to get a bit creative. So he struck a deal with a local god." I felt my eyebrows raise and shock flow through me. From all I've heard from my Father it would be… out of character to say the least for the Emperor to tolerate a deity much less making a deal with one.
"I know what you're thinking but even my ever stubborn Master had to concede here. He can't reach into this place easily but the deities inside also can't reach outside this place. What forced his hand is that something from outside took refuge inside, both the gods inside and we need someone to kill it. That someone is naturally you."
Wait wait wait… me? I mean I'm fucking great but I'm not Father, I'm not even strong enough to beat Druella let alone what could be problematic for the Master of Mankind. I tried to make my disagreement known.
"Uncle, surely there's someone better tha-" But my uncle retorted before I could even finish my thoughts."
"Kid, there's no one else, it needs to be you. Even the local gods think it needs to be you. From what they tell me your Father is a lot weaker than he shows the world and me… I still have a job to do. The enemies of mankind are many, allies non-existent and forces stretched thin. There's a lot of pressure on you but He on Terra has a plan." Wow… no pressure Nao, your Godlike Grandfather is relying on you to deal with a genuine threat to all that you value and you're the only one potentially capable of protecting it.
"Hehe…haha hahaha… no pressure I guess? I should just ,you know, do it" Even I was surprised about the amount of sarcasm in my voice.
"Well, you can tell your patron about that. For now hold on tight."
Huh? We left the forest we were riding through and a wave of high purity demonic energy washed over us. It was different than the one I was used to, warm and for lack of a better word, pure. However even if it was pure it still felt like I was under the water or as if I had entered the oven room of a bakery. The pressure almost knocked me off my makeshift seat.
"Did we enter Dragonia?" I planned my gaze around taking in the sight of the ore rich mountains of Dragonia. From our position high up I could see the valleys and flowing rivers of the scenic mountains, a beautiful view without a doubt. I could hardly believe my eyes. This place… it didn't look corrupted, surely it was different. Everything had an odd hue to it, causing an uncanny valley effect. The grass looked a tad bit too shiny, the rocks were just too metallic and the sky too blue.
My musings were interrupted by uncle Priamos's shouting.
"I'd recommend holding on! We've got company!" The engines underneath us rumbled and the Jetbike started picking up speed rapidly approaching the mountainside. Trying to see the company my uncle had warned me about, I whipped my neck around and spotted five dots we were rapidly approaching, dragon knights and their riders. Troublesome but from what I gather uncle was simply planning to head right past them.
Shouldn't we announce who we are? I mean we didn't come unannounced right, my so-called patron should've been informed of our rapid arrival. With the jet bike the normally seasons long trip had taken a mere day, maybe they hadn't anticipated our arrival? My musing in the end didn't matter. We passed by the flying patrol with such speed that even I could barely see the eyes of the riders trying but failing to track us.
Oh this is going to get me into so much trouble, isn't it? I could barely silence my screams as we kept picking up speed dodging whatever spells, fireballs, overzealous knight pairs, even genuine pureblood Dragons trying to prevent us from reaching what I presumed to be the capital. Sadly for them Priamos's demigodly reflexes and the overwhelming speed of the marvellous technology combined with the skill of a messenger ,who rode his stead for millenia, was simply beyond anything they could offer.
The Red River still hanging from my neck fluttered in the fierce winds as my uncle yawed, pitched and rolled to evade all pursuers and projectiles. I turned my gaze towards the magnificent and opulent city that had just shown up on the horizon. Peaked with towers with caps of gold and made entirely out of white marble and rich wood, built on the slope of a massive mountain and framed by the clear blue sky and midday sun it was a sight I wish I had time to paint.
My sense of awe and artistic desire was broken by what looked like a giant reflective dome covering the rapidly approaching city. By rapidly approaching I mean there was barely a fucking Kilometre left! And uncle wasn't stopping!
He chuckled and for a second I thought he had gone mad, then he pressed a button on his console and a constant Wfuuuuu! noise followed closely by red streaks began emerging from underneath the jetbike.
Rockets? But they weren't scattering, no instead they were grouping up closer. The thirty or so rockets launched from the Jetbike impacted the dome with a wondrous blue explosion and made a gap for us to fly through.
"You shouldn't worry about the small things. Usually enough violence solves everything." Priamos chided me as if he had offered a particularly insightful remark.
"Well most people don't have high powered explosives conveniently at hand when trouble finds them!" My voice pitched higher than normal due to the stress but I think I played my 'straight man' role perfectly enough. Still my panic didn't subside even with the little quips, now that we had breached the barrier the draconic monsters and their husbands were getting desperate.
Uncle barely avoided another drake flying at us, we were so close I could have touched the drakes head. I think he was doing it on purpose just to scare me now. I think I'm just gonna ignore all outside stimuli until we reach our destination. Saying that it's a bit difficult to ignore worldly matters when the Jetbike you're on is doing barrel rolls and cobra manoeuvres.
Thank the Throne our turbulent journey seems to have come to an end. The shining castle was approaching rapidly, sadly for me uncle Priamos wasn't slowing down. Man… why did I get this guy as a driver?
Just as we were about to crash down into the courtyard the purple and gold clad custodian pulled the nose up, placed one of his armoured feet on the ground and drifted to an abrupt stop. So abrupt in fact that I was thrown off and my helmet came flying off my head. I caught myself in the air and righted my pose so that I landed on my feet. I tried to gather myself and turn around to shout at my uncle but I found myself face to face with a pair of fiery yellow eyes and gorgeous white hair styled into a ponytail.
Huh, she's quite tall. I tried to make some space but a pair of scaly, strong arms wrapped around my back and my now bare face was smushed into a pair of extremely soft smooth pillows. Her skin was comfortingly warm and she was cuddling me, my arms moved unconsciously around her alluring body and I wrapped my arms around her. This feels… safe. My captor started talking to my uncle with her authoritative and silky smooth voice.
"Well you're a bit early aren't you? Caused quite the uproar. Well, I can't complain much since a lot of people want to meet sweet little Nao here and I wouldn't say no to having her to myself for a bit."
"I have a busy schedule I'm afraid, so we rushed a little bit here. Now if you'll excuse me I have a brother to talk to. Nao, don't forget to have fun!"
Where do you think I'm going to a summer camp!? Help me get away from her!
My voice was muffled by the juicy breasts in my face so all that could be heard were vague 'mpfh! Mfff!'s. I got myself out of her perfect cleavage and turned around to watch my uncle leave on his Jetbike dodging more pursuers on the way.
I turned back to the dragon in front of me and raised my eyebrow. She blushed for a second and then smiled at me in a very maternal way.
"Hello dear, I know who you are but you naturally don't remember me, even though I was there when you were born. Well, pleasure to meet you again, I'm Deonora the Empress of Dragonia." I felt my instincts kick in and I tried to bow my head to give an automatic response but the Empress's repeated hug stopped my bow.
"Now now, none of that. I owe quite a lot to your father and I am quite fond of you, even if I would've preferred to have given you a little sister." At the last bit of her speech my mind ground to a halt. Oh that explains the maternal vibes.
I tried to salvage the informal greeting into the familiar formal environment.
"I appreciate your… warm welcome, however I would prefer if-" Deonora interrupted me once again.
"Come on! I'm tired of everyone being overly formal with me, and we're going to be meeting someone quite close to you soon. That formal tone will get awkward real quick." She grabbed my hand and started dragging me off, I managed to pick up my helmet off the ground as I was dragged out the courtyard and into the castle proper. As we traversed the luxuriously decorated halls of the palace, passing by servants and knights.
"Shouldn't you deal with the confusion we caused? You know, prevent panic."
"Don't worry, I have good subordinates. Alto-Eris should calm people down and explain to the senate what's going on. She's aware you two were coming."
My complaints silenced we kept travelling through the massive castle until we reached an isolated wing and a specific room with an engraved door, decorated with the motifs of wolves and stars. Odd, it's a large deviation from the other decorations. The red dragon stepped forward and started pounding into the door.
"HEY, YOU NEET COME OUT! Someone important needs to see you! I promise it'll be worth it." The door didn't open and Deonora kept pounding on it. I feared it would fly off its hinges soon. A voice with an odd accent emerged from behind the doors saying that she was coming to open the door. Where had I heard it before? Stahlstadt? What's a stahlstadtner doing here of all places. It's practically the other side of the continent.
The footsteps patterned out and the large door was finally opened to reveal… my face? I staggered back for a second, some aspects were a bit different, her nose was a slight bit smaller, her hair was cut short and was messy, her height also stood out but ignoring the black skin, the furr coating certain places on her body and the red eyes spewing fire it was like a sister of mine was standing on the other side of the door.
I felt myself reach for her but the hellhound was about to run away. Thankfully Deonora stepped in and pushed the monster towards me, I felt my legs give out and I landed on my knees. Something awoke in me, tears filled my eyes and my arms were opened to be held. The hellhound stepped forward and wrapped her arms around me…
The tears began to wet my face and a cry emerged from my throat. I had found someone my body knew yet my mind didn't.
An: A quick little addition to the chapter. Last week didn't have a chapter because I wrote the first chapter of another fic called "The Road to Hell" , a Worm x Code Geass crossover post GM fanfic. Do check it out if it interests you. This fanfic won't be ending however after a few more chapters I will be taking a break for a month.