Book One: The Nation of Alrest

Chapter VIII

I walked into the staff entrance of the Blade Control Corp Headquarters and took the elevator to the 150th floor, General Adonis' office. I went to knock on the door, but before I did so I overheard him yelling at someone.

"Why are you so worthless?!" he yelled, before I heard a smacking sound, like someone being slapped. I heard a crashing like someone landing on a few chairs, and then decided to knock before it went on any further.

The room fell silent before I heard his voice again. "We will continue this discussion later, for now, continue your work in your office. Dismissed!" he commanded.

The door opened and a cloaked figure walked out, sniffling as she passed me by. I knew it was a she as the chest and buttocks jutted out in a manner that the female physique usually does. My thoughts were interrupted by General Adonis' voice.

"Ah, Colonel Acacia, come in," he invited as he picked up the things that had fallen over in his outburst.

"Everything alright General?" I asked skeptically.

"Yes, I simply had to get her head on straight. They don't train 'em like they used to," he responded.

It's true, thanks to the attitude of progressivism that this city had, drill sergeants we're going much easier on newer recruits, and often led to unwanted disobedience.

"Yes I suppose so," I agreed.

"I want to thank you for coming to that presentation. I know it wasn't your favorite use of your time, but I'm glad you came."

"Yeah don't mention it," I said bluntly.

"I have to do the official demonstration of my weapon this evening, Acacia, so what is it?" he asked impatiently.

"Right," I snapped out of my own thoughts. "I just— why did you let the boy live?"

"Pardon?"

"The boy we met in Elpys, Silas. Why did you let him live? Our resonation device clearly showed that an intense resonation had taken place minutes before we arrived. As the only form of life in that vicinity, it was quite clear that he was the one who caused it. So why did you allow him to keep his life after he lied to us?"

"The boy was a pitiful liar, but of course he lied to us. We were foreigners he'd never met in uniform holding guns much bigger than he'd ever seen in a cave that no one dared to enter. He would've had to have been an idiot not to."

"But why didn't you stop him there?" I persisted.

"Because we will be testing my new weapon against an intensively strong blade tomorrow. I can't just have two rivals fight because I tell them to," he answered.

"You... what?! If he really did find the Aegis, and it battles your creation, then that entire facility won't be able to take that battle!" I warned.

"Relax, the Aegis of light cannot use her true power inside of a building, it's too destructive. She knows this, and I know this. There will be no issue."

"You seem so sure he's coming. You have confirmation, don't you?" I interrogated.

"With as rarely as the passenger train leaves Leftheria this time of year, it wasn't difficult. Is that all, Colonel?"

"Yes, I suppose so."

"Good, the girl who left my office before you is currently in her office on floor 149, west wing, office number 52898. Please send her this way."

"Wilco," I responded before leaving.

We walked out into the train station, and then we were immediately lost.

"This place is so massive!" I exclaimed.

"That's an understatement, this is just one building! Where the hell did this architectural prowess come from? They weren't building things half this impressive a few hundred years ago..."

The building was indeed massive. Inside of the station, a couple hundred stores decorated the inside with souvenirs, food, clothing, household necessities, pretty much anything you'd need if you'd forgotten your luggage.

A man interrupted our thoughts as he walked up to us.

"Hello are you the young man from Leftheria? Silas?" he asked.

I put myself in between him and Mythra as a precautionary measure, she rolled her eyes, but I ignored her.

"Yes, what about it?"

"Your luggage is over here," he explained.

"Ah, thank you," I responded as we grabbed our things.

"You gonna act jumpy every time someone comes up to us?" Mythra asked teasingly.

"I don't know anything about this place and it's bigger than anything I've ever seen. This city is miles long and we've only seen one building. I'd rather play it safe than regret it later," I explained.

"Yeah but it's already apparent that I'm much stronger than you are, so why are you getting in front of me?"

"You asked me to guide you, did you not? You said that you needed my help?"

"Yes, what about it?"

"Well then I'm simply doing what you asked me to do. Once we get your memories, you can finally decide what you'd like to do afterwards and we'll be on our separate ways."

She laughed.

"What's wrong? What's so funny?" I asked defensively.

"I'm sorry, continue on, it's nothing."

She grabbed Granny's cloak out of the bag and covered herself so you couldn't see her core crystal or her clothing.

I stared at her briefly before we made our way out of the building, which took a good fifteen minutes, as the building had small mini-trains called trams to escort us to different parts of the building. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, I already felt homesick.

https/youtu.be/dfk-dQceR3Y

We walked out into an open street made of a glistening green metal. I looked at the vehicles around, people would get in the doors than opened upwards over their heads, shut the doors, and then these vehicles would create a blue under-glow as they'd float off the ground and take off at incomprehensible speeds.

"What the hell are these things?!" Mythra asked aloud.

A random person to our right commented. "Those are vesses. It's short for titan-less vessel. You guys aren't from around here are you?"

The man was wearing a suit and a tie with a confident smirk. A girl much shorter than him with black hair and cute black cloak with the hood down was standing next to him.

"You got us," I laughed. "We're from Leftheria."

"My, my! That's so far away! What're you doing way over here?" he asked.

"Well...," I realized that I needed to make up a quick story so that I wouldn't expose Mythra as an Aegis. "My... friend has just become a new driver and needs my help to get his blade's journal so that his blade can get her memories back."

"Oh? And where is this blade? Or this driver?" he interrogated.

"They stayed home, couldn't leave the farm. Sent me and my... erm... girlfriend to do it," I said, against my better judgement. I watched Mythra try to hold in her laughter.

"Well they don't usually give away that information without the blade and driver both present, but best of luck to you both. The building is the tallest one at the center of New Torna," he waved as he walked off.

"You two make a really cute couple!" The little girl that was next to him chirped.

Mythra took no time in responding. "Oh why thank you sweetie!" she exaggerated, putting her hand on my shoulder. "My boy over here is the absolute GREATest!"

She giggled back.

"Kasandra come, we must be on our way!" the man said.

"Coming master!" she said as she skipped away, following him.

Mythra looked at me, as if waiting for me to say something.

"Yeah no, not gonna dignify whatever that was with a response. You look too far different from me to say you were my sister so I went with the easiest route, that's all."

"Oh come on, she said we looked ADORABLE!" she teased.

"Come on Mythra, we've got things to do," I said, walking off.

She laughed as she followed me, continuing to make jokes about it.

We soon made our way to the Blade Registration Headquarters, which was simply the bottom two floors of a 150-floor beast of a building called the Blade Control Corp HQ.

"Why is every single building so intimidatingly large?!" I complained.

"Don't worry, 'babe', I'll protect you from the scary doors!" Mythra laughed.

I tried to give her an ugly look, but I ended up laughing along.

I sighed. "Let's just get this done with."

Readability Level: 11th-12th Grade

Time Taken: 2.5 Hours

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