The Infinite Chronicles

Act 9: Final Hope

Plot twists are fun!

Chapter 26

"Please stay seated and with your straps on, we are about to enter in the range of the Erimos Defence System," Atlas announced. I held on tightly to my strap. Despite remembering how difficult it is to enter Erimos, I couldn't help but feel excited. I was finally coming home, and avenge my family.

After a few barrel rolls, flashes of yellow light and much screaming, we finally made it. I stepped outside, taking a fresh breath of air in the depressingly grey landscape. "Feels good to be home," I smiled. Hazel looked a little green, "I think I'm going to be sick," she ran off into a bush, where she promptly heaved.

Avoiding most of the robots, except a few which we cut down, we arrived at the gate and it opened for us. Everything was quiet, and everyone seemed to stare at us as we walked down the long main road to the palace. "State your name and business," the emotionless guards of the palace asked. "We demand an audience with the king," I said formally. "This way," one of them guided them and we waited in the waiting room.

"So, you say that the king today was actually just some nasty commoner with mercenaries who killed your family and took the throne?" Ace asked. I nodded, "Yep, this happened about five hundred and ten years ago.". "We can't have that," Jess frowned. "That's exactly why we're here," I stated. "It feels strange, coming back here," he said in my mind. "Soon enough we will finally restore the honor of the true royal line," I assured him. "So wait, how old exactly is friend?" Steve asked. "Let's see," I pursed my lips in concentration, "Since at the end of the war I was 20, fought against the king for about a year or so, went to sleep for 500 years, so 21," I answered.

"This way please," a guard entered our room and led us to the audience chamber. "Ah so you're back, I see you managed to survive your ordeal," the old man said, his voice emotionless, but hinted displeasure. "I've come back to reclaim the throne," I stepped forward. The room went quiet, no one spoke for a good minute. "And pray tell me dear, who are you?" he wrinkled his nose in disgust. I deactivated the mask and for a fraction of a second, his face changed to one of pure terror, before being replaced with one of hate.

"You," he spat. "Yes, me, now I believe you have something that belongs to my family," I stared him down. He shook his head, "Guards! Arrest them!" he yelled. 16 guards moved and pointed their spears at us. We moved quickly, slamming our weapons against them while Hazel used a Life bomb to knock them out. The king became furious. "Very well, then I'll deal with you myself!" he began glowing white. He grew in size and his clothes changed. In the middle of his forehead, a core crystal glowed.

"He's a blade eater! Get ready!" Ace yelled holding an arrow to his cheek. Before, the king was a sour faced, crippled old man, now he was like a really buff shiny grandpa. I moved first. Grabbing my sword, I summoned a tornado, grabbing all the fallen spears of the guards and threw them using my wind powers at him. He laughed and simply deflected them all.

I got in front of him, delivering blow after blow, but he didn't seem to care. Steve and Jess were in the front with me while Hazel and Ace were in the back, popping shots. Jess shot a torrent of water at him but he absorbed it and he healed himself. "H-How?!" she said in surprise. He grinned, "Ether absorbing attacks are useful," he backhanded her, sending her flying towards a pillar.

Hazel ran to her, checking her injuries while we kept distracting him. "Enough," he boomed. He let loose a shockwave that threw all of us out of the palace and into the main road. I summoned enough wind to cushion my fall, but I was pretty sure something inside me had broken, even blade healing wouldn't heal it in the next twenty minutes. The rest landed better than I did, their blades shielded them from the fall. Jess however, had to be caught by Ace as she was unconscious.

The people who were just carrying on their normal business immediately hid behind a wall or anything they could hide behind and watched like scared alley cats. "Look, citizens of Erimos! These people have come to steal the throne!" he gestured to the rest of the crowd. "And she," he pointed at me, "is the one who stole the Paragon of Erimos!" he announced. The crowd collectively gasped, and started murmuring. "Lies," I managed to stand, despite my body screaming at me to just lie down.

"I am Elanis Aigiou, daughter of Queen Regina Aigiou, true heir to the throne, and this, is Grice Prodotis, the one who killed the true royal line," I challenged him. Avalon stared at me when I revealed my full name. The crowd gasped, again. "And you would believe this thief?" He looked around the crowd. I took off my glove on the right hand and held out my palm. They all gasped, some even started kneeling. In the center of my palm, was a golden symbol of a wrench with gears surrounding it, the symbol of Leo.

Grice growled, seeing that he couldn't win the public's opinion, pulled out a large claymore and swung at Elanis. She expertly dodged by flipping backwards. She stabilized herself as he charged her again. This time, she was ready, ducking under his blade and kicking out his legs, causing him to trip and faceplant himself in the hard cobble streets. She drove the sword through his back, but he just kicked her back and the wound regenerated.

She countered his attacks, summoning her whirlwind to give her an advantage. She flew around him, slashing at him from all directions. Next to me, Jess began to stir. "What'd I miss?" she rubbed her back. "That," I pointed at Elanis, who at this point was going at full power. The tornado circling her was becoming more wild and powerful. Her silhouette was still the same scary dark outline of her body, but now it was much darker than usual, and her red eyes were brighter. Her blade had extended as well, becoming more blood red rather than her usual bright red. Grice wasn't holding up well.

Knowing he was about to lose, he pulled a cowardly tactic. He threw his claymore at a high speed towards the unarmed crowd. I moved at the speed of light and caught it by the blade. The crowd didn't even register the large sword that I caught for a second, before they started shouting at him. "Coward!" one yelled at him. "How could you attack unarmed peasants!" another said. The mob began protesting before cheering for Elanis. With no weapon left, she slowed herself down, before completely shutting off her power.

"Well? You lost, aren't you going to say something?" she calmly said. He sighed, "Fine, I surrender, but what do I do now?" he asked. "You leave, I put you in exile," she stated. "Thank you, your most honorable highness," he bowed. She turned and started walking towards us, with her back facing him. Grice moved suddenly, grabbing a knife from his side and raising it over her head. I tried to warn her, but, before I could say anything, she turned around and slammed it with her sword so hard it shattered. A big chunk of the blade flew towards his forehead, which caused his crystal to shatter. He yelled out in pain, and clutched his forehead. She got in front of his face and said, "Karma's a bithc ain't it?" she smiled sweetly, before driving her sword into him and whispered in his ear, "Die, pig,". His body turned black and he faded away like Corvin.

We were stunned. Normally, Elanis was level-headed and kind, but this seemed quite out of character for her. I suppose she had saved all her anger and hatred for this one moment. The crowd lifted her on her shoulders and chanted, "Hail Elanis!" as they carried her to the palace. They set her down on the throne, where she gladly accepted the crown. The crowd cheered and sang praises. After an afternoon of partying, Elanis stepped out on a balcony and delivered her speech. "Ladies and gentlemen," she began. "I would like to thank you all for electing me as your queen," she paused as the crowd cheered. "First, I would like to say that no longer shall we be an isolationist nation, we shall be able to roam to other titans, meet other people and have a better economy!" she declared.

The crowd cheered, some even began dancing. "And now, a word from my friend," she stepped aside as I stood in front. "Hi, I'm Hazel, friend of Elanis and driver of the Aegis, and I'm here to inform you of some terrible news," I paused. "We are all in terrible danger, the dragon below us stirs, and in three months she will wake and destroy all of Echaos, but there is hope, we can survive by going to a new world. Through a gateway, and I trust that your new queen Elanis can guide all of you to safety," I finished. The crowd wasn't sure what to make of that. "Well, with all things considered, we will all be safe, I will make sure we all survive, for no man or woman shall be left behind, but, it's getting late, goodnight all," Elanis finished, retiring to the meeting room.

"Wow, what a bombshell we just dropped on them," Jess lounged on a couch. "I agree with her, they must be terrified," Wildcard said. Ace frowned at him, "Since when were you so good at human relations?". "Ever since you failed to," he replied sassily. We had to hold Ace from giving Wildcard a beating. Avalon, being silent for a good part of the day, finally spoke up, "If you're all done fooling around, I would like to show you all something," he got up and gestured to us to follow. He led us through a series of passages and through some walls that slid sideways before we arrived in an area that was definitely not like any part of the palace. It was constructed of some metal, with high tech holograms and screens. "Woah, what is this place?" Elanis asked.

"Tech here seem more complicated than Steve ever see!" he exclaimed, examining a button, which he pressed. It exploded in a shower of confetti. There were hologram scans of the Erimos and the defence systems. "This, is Leo's control room," Avalon said. "Quite the tech nerd Leo was, but nonetheless a genius," he remarked. "Oh and by the way, Leo is Luke's youngest brother," Gran said. "So, you're my cousin then," I asked Elanis. She just shrugged.

Avalon swiped through some holograms and found a digital button which he pressed. A sound of an engine powering down rumbled across the room. "What was that?" Jess asked. "I deactivated the Defense System, now everything should be able to come to Erimos." Avalon said. The room began tilting and we started to slide downwards. "Warning, Titan Erimos' guidance system has been deactivated." Atlas announced. Avalon quickly pressed another button stabilizing the titan. "Not a word," he stared at us. We tried to hold out laughter, but ultimately failed. "Hopefully, I did disable the Defense System, hopefully," he muttered.

We were shown to our rooms. I immediately made myself at home. Avalon was in the bed next to me. "Pretty crazy, how we have to move to a different world to escape a selfish woman," he said. "Speaking of other worlds," I began. I told him about the vision of some sort of tall metal structure exploding, and the voice I heard during our battle against Omega. He raised an eyebrow when I mentioned the voices. "During the battle, I knew the Conduit was going to unanchor, so I just had to keep an ear open on the other world, but it seems you also heard a part of what I was tapping in, interesting," he mused.

The next morning, we gathered outside the gates with some few other armed people. "Alright, to guarantee safe passages from here to the outer world, we must get rid of the robots," Elanis said. Today, she was wearing a sort of royal white mantle that Avalon constructed that went well with her armor. She had also modified her mask to have a crown on it, but not the official crown.

We were all divided into five groups, each consisting of eight people. I led the third group which had six men, two of which were drivers, and one woman who was our medic. We started with the East part of the Gate, cutting down the smaller robots in our path. With the bigger ones, which were the size of a house, we hid in the tall grey grass and used hooks to bring them down where I finished them off with a sword to the eye. The two other drivers helped me in cutting down the robots, while the other four used rifles. When we spotted a flying one, I switched to Osiris and we knocked them out of the sky.

After two hours, we took a rest. Suddenly, we heard a cry for help, followed by the sound of a laser. "Hurry!" I rallied my group and we ran towards the source of the sound. I spotted Jess' group, which were being surrounded by robots. "Rally to the Fourth Group!" I yelled, charging at them. The four men formed a firing line behind us, firing rounds at them. Crack! I stumbled. Apparently, one of my group had accidently hit my shoulder. I looked back, obviously pissed. They all unanimously pointed at the man on the left, who shouted, "Sorry!". I rolled my eyes before running toward the robots once again.

The other two drivers supported me, I fought like a whirlwind, slashing at the robots legs, deflecting lasers back at them. In a matter of a minute, I had laid low twelve robots. "Wow, that was impressive," Jess commented. "I would've fought better if I didn't get hit in the shoulder," I groaned. Fortunately, the bullet had only grazed me, but it still hurt. My healer applied a bandage on it, with some healing paste.

I smiled and thanked her. Soon, the light was getting darker and we headed back to the Gate. Elanis and the others had already returned and were waiting for us at the gate. "There you two are, I thought we might have lost you," Elanis hugged both of us. We all gathered in a sort of cafeteria, where there were three long tables, where we told stories while we ate.

They then recounted me saving the Fourth Group. "It was nothing," I blushed. "Nothing!? Girl, that was the most impressive fighting I've ever seen!" one of them said incredulously. "Not to mention, you got shot in the arm," another pointed out. "Yeah, by you!" he said. Soon they all were chanting my name as a hero. As it got louder, hero soon changed to knight. "Very well," Elanis stood up from her chair at the end of the long table in the middle. "The people have decided, tomorrow, Hazel shall be crowned a Knight!" she clasped her hands. "Huzzah!" They all cheered.

The next morning, we gathered in the plaza before the steps that led to the palace. A crowd assembled, watching me. "And now, her Majesty the Queen!" someone announced. Elanis made her way down the steps. I kneeled before her. She picked up a sword handed by a servant, which was a normal sword, except with the insignia of Leo. She tapped me on both shoulders, the crowd cheered. "Rise, Hazel Aigiou, Knight and Princess of Erimos!" she announced. She draped a royal blue cape which was supposed to only go over my left arm, and a medallion to it.

I smiled, "Since when did I become Princess?" I asked. "Since you're related to me," she answered. "As long as I don't have to do girly stuff, I think I'll be fine," I said. After the whole ceremony, we met up at the ship. "We have to go," Infinite said "We must warn the rest of the world about the dragon," he said. Elanis nodded, "I understand, unfortunately, I must stay here, although I can provide ships for you to split up,". "I think it would be more efficient to split up, so obviously, Ace goes back to Regeum, Jess to Phantomi, Steve to either Viomachina or Epitychimenos and I will go to Ischyros," I planned. "Very well, then I will provide you with the ships required." Elanis told her helper to write down an order of three ships to be brought to the dock.

I, Infinite and Atlas headed out first, as we didn't have to wait for the ships to arrive. "How's it going Princess?" Infinite teased. "Shut it you. I'm liking this cape," I replied. "So, where to now?" Atlas asked. "We're going to Viomachina, and after that, Home." I ordered. "Setting course for Viomachina, time to target, three hours," Atlas inputted coordinates.

I'll be honest, I thought I could end it on Chapter 27, but with my plans, it seems it'll be stretched to Chapter 28. More writing yay….