Book II Finale
Chapter XVIII
Soon, all of us had sat down over a large table inside the palace, Zeke sat next to Mythra, I sat next to her and Azami, KOS-MOS and Acacia opposite to Zeke, Gabriel and Kasandra sat on the other side of Zeke, with Gabriel sitting closer to Zeke, and Poppi and Rafi left and started browsing the market like children do.
"So you don't remember a thing?" Zeke asked Mythra.
"I remember my time with Rex, and as I visit more places and see more things, I begin to put names to faces. I remembered Nia not too long ago, and I'm beginning to remember you too," she responded.
"And this must be your new driver," Zeke assumed, pointing towards me.
"Yes, I am Silas," I introduced simply.
Zeke stared into my eyes, studying them very carefully. "I'd recognize those eyes anywhere."
I didn't pry too much into what he meant, as I wasn't really known for being nosy.
"So I noticed Brighid's journal on your person Mythra? Is it helping you remember Waylon at all?"
"No, actually," she responded. "It's, as you said, not my journal. However as I read her story, I can't help but feel like I really want to be her. She seems so calm, and composed..."
Zeke began laughing hysterically as we stared with questioning looks on our faces. He then looked at her and explained. "The Mythra I knew would've stabbed someone before ever admitting that. You've really grown, haven't you?"
"I... guess?" Mythra said, unsure.
"Have you tried reading the back section of the book?" Zeke questioned.
"I... why?"
"Because you wrote your part in after finishing her story," Zeke explained.
Soon Poppi and Rafi joined us. Zeke, upon seeing Poppi, walked up to her and gave her a huge hug. "I thought we'd lost you!"
"Poppi missed friend Zeke as well," she said. "But, friend Zeke isn't crying, is he?"
Zeke immediately hid his face for a bit before responding. "No! Of course not. The Zekenator never cries!"
"The Zekenator?" I thought to myself. "Guess I know where Gabe gets his personality from."
"You see..." Zeke continued, trying to explain why tears were flowing from his eyes. "I..."
"Zeke must be performing routine eye cleaning because of debris, right?" Poppi said, cutting him a break.
"Ah yes, that's it!"
I hated to interrupt, but did so anyways. "We can catch up later, we came here for two reasons. To compare the copy of Mythra's history book here to that of the one Nia had and to prove the existence of Malos' core crystal."
Zeke looked up at Acacia's expressionless face. One that seemed like she was just waiting on this whole episode to be over.
"You must be from the BCC, how is Adonis?"
"Oh he's fine, not too much he isn't doing these days," Acacia answered before realizing that Zeke's gaze was now fixated on KOS-MOS.
KOS-MOS eventually decided to say something. "Is there a problem, Your Highness?"
"Where did you acquire that blade?" Zeke asked simply.
"She's an artificial blade designed by the BCC for combat and peacekeeping," Acacia stated.
"No, she's not," Zeke said bluntly. "That was MY blade that disappeared while on a deformed blade eater hunt some three hundred years ago. She left with T-Elos and she wasn't ever heard from again."
Acacia tried to hide her surprise.
I chuckled. "Need any more proof?"
She sighed. "You've yet to prove the existence of the Aegis, Malos or the history book."
"So that's what this is about. Very well, come," Zeke beckoned. "I will show you to the Aegis. Afterwards you'll need to go to Garfont, Uraya to obtain the history book. It's currently with my most intelligent blade who works to regularly update its data."
"Tisk tisk," an unfamiliar female voice said from the background. "Province Leader Zeke, you weren't seriously about to give the power of an Aegis to these low-life criminals without the approval of the other Province Leaders, were you?"
We all spun around to see a short girl, about five foot six, with bright, purple eyes. She looked absolutely gorgeous. Her long, black hair went down just below her shoulders and she was wearing a long, black jacket and had a skirt that overlapped her black jeans. She was somehow walking around in black heels too. I say somehow because the streets and sidewalks this place was made out of were composed entirely of rough, chiseled stone.
"Stay out of this Lieutenant, this is none of your concern," Zeke ordered.
She let out an almost-seductive giggle as she looked at Acacia.
"Hey Colonel, fancy seeing you here. Especially considering you're supposed to be in Leftheria. What happened to that anyway?" she asked.
"Lieutenant Uzuki, they wish to prove their innocence by proving that his blade is the Aegis and the weapon given to me is truly a blade," Acacia explained.
The Lieutenant shook her head. "The General told me something was wrong when he noticed the Binoceros' GPS showed you heading for Tantal."
"I wanted you guys to know where I was heading. That way when these criminals turned out to be liars as well, we could cut them down here."
"Oh is that it?" she laughed. "Well it's gonna be hard to explain that to the General, I just sent him a voice recording of everything you just said. He's telling me that you are now to be considered a traitor and to use all available force to contain you."
"Oh yeah?! You and what army?" I threatened as I pulled Mythra's sword.
She winked at me and help up her fingers, letting out a dramatic snap as we were immediately surrounded by soldiers. They had been hiding outside the building this whole time.
"So the walls have ears, eh? I like these odds," Gabriel said as Kasandra passed him her weapon.
Lieutenant Uzuki let out one hell of a giggle. "Gabriel you are so cute when you don't know what you're up against!"
She threw a strange looking object at us and it immediately detonated, cutting the ether flow from Kasandra and Mythra.
Immediately, the guards restrained Gabe, Kasandra, Mythra, Azami, Poppi, Rafi, and I.
Lieutenant Uzuki approached Gabriel and dubbed her fingers through his hair. "Maybe after they finish handcuffing and beating you maybe you'll let me do the same?" she winked.
"Go choke on titan dung lady," Gabriel said, chuckling a bit.
"So rude...," she responded before kicking him square in the jaw, causing blood to flow out of his mouth. "You dogs should really learn your place."
"You organized an entire squadron of soldiers in our capital? Are you mad? This is a grave violation of—" Zeke started before Lieutenant Uzuki cut him off.
"You were about to give the power of an Aegis to some petty thieves, I don't want to hear it," she snapped. "However, if you will surrender the criminals and the weapon, I'll leave your son and his blade and you can keep your position."
"If you think I'm going to run with my tail between my legs, you've got another thing coming."
"Lieutenant I wish to speak to the General," Acacia interrupted.
"Oh yes, forgot about you," Uzuki grinned. "KOS-MOS, restrain her."
KOS-MOS immediately punched Acacia square in the face, but it wasn't enough to knock her out.
"Ow! What the hell KOS-MOS?!" Acacia said as she got up.
"My directives are to follow my driver's instructions. General Adonis is my driver," KOS-MOS stated simply.
"You don't even have any proof that the General even gave those orders! How can you believe it on such a whim?!" Acacia argued.
"Kid, forget it," Zeke warned. "If she's Adonis' blade it's likely she's been edited."
"Edited?" I questioned.
Zeke sighed. "It's when a human interfaces with a blade's core crystal before the blade is resonated with. By putting specific directives into the core crystal, the blade cannot disobey these directives until it is resonated again."
"The blade... is manipulated?" I questioned indirectly.
"That's awful!" Mythra protested. "A blade shouldn't be forced to do anything!"
"Shut it, scum," the Lieutenant ordered. "KOS-MOS, we don't have all day, get her under control."
"Affirmative," KOS-MOS responded before putting herself in a fighting stance.
Acacia readied herself, even though she knew there wasn't much of a chance of beating her.
KOS-MOS rushed her with a rush of punches as Acacia drew her sword and blocked them. She sliced at KOS-MOS, but KOS-MOS healed the wounds immediately.
"Shit! She really is a blade!" Acacia realized.
KOS-MOS grabbed Acacia's sword by the blade and yanked it out of her grasp before discarding it. Acacia drew her submachine gun, even though she knew it wouldn't do anything, and KOS-MOS did a backflip, kicking the gun into pieces.
Acacia flinched as KOS-MOS went for the final blow, but it never came...
Instead, Poppi had grabbed KOS-MOS by the leg and hurled her three hundred feet into the air. It looked like she landed well outside the city.
"What? How is this blade not out of energy?! You were hit with an ether grenade!" Lieutenant Uzuki shouted.
"Poppi is artificial blade and produces own ether," Poppi explained. "Poppi also has superstrength, petty soldiers could not hold Poppi if they wanted to."
"And Rafi go for the win!" Rafi yelled as he jumped up, holding a metal pipe, behind Lieutenant Uzuki in an attempt to knock her unconscious.
She caught the pole and punched Rafi, launching him into a wall.
Poppi gasped. "Rafi! Rafi not supposed to attack! Rafi not experience in combat."
"Rafi... going to be... great heropon!" he swore as he lie gasping in the ground.
Poppi hid her giggle, as she was still concerned. But then she knocked out the guards holding us down.
Mythra, Kasandra, and Azami could use their weapons now, but they weren't at full power. The ether grenade was obviously no joke.
"Send in the trump card," Lieutenant Uzuki said into a walkie talkie.
Immediately, I heard a loud whoosh. When it turned around, I saw Poppi had blocked a large wave of fire that was headed in my direction.
"Thanks."
"No problem! Silas need to go get Malos! Poppi and blades will stay here and protect you!"
"Hey losers! Did you miss me?" a very familiar voice greeted as she strutted into view.
"Pyra," Mythra said aloud.
"Man! Am I ever going to see you at full power or do I need to waste my time every time we meet?" Pyra asked tauntingly.
"I don't need full power to beat you. But I have my own help. Azami, you wanna lend a hand?" Mythra invited.
KOS-MOS walked out from behind Pyra.
Pyra smirked. "As do I."
"Gabriel!" I shouted. "Get Rafi and your dad out of here! Poppi, focus on KOS-MOS, be careful!"
"Right," Gabriel agreed. "Kassy, take care of sergeant succubus over there and her army of fanboys, you got it?"
"Ready as I am lucky!" she responded.
"Sergeant succubus, huh... I like that one," Uzuki giggled.
Gabriel winked at her just to annoy her before running off.
"Bottom floor!" Zeke shouted at me.
"Right!" I acknowledged before turning to Acacia. "You. With me."
"What?! I'm your enemy!"
"Well you're currently fighting my enemy so now you're my friend, let's move!" I argued, grabbing her hand and pulling her along with me.
She seemed confused but she followed along.
https/youtu.be/Z7YM9gAVeMs
Mythra and Pyra drew their swords in unison while Azami readied her ether cannon in the background.
"You should walk your flirty, ginger ass back through that door before I hit you so hard I make the General jealous," Mythra warned.
She giggled. "That's the closest thing you've done to damage since we met."
Immediately, their swords clashed. They both hopped back and Pyra let out a barrage of fire waves, Mythra dodged most of them, but was hit with the last one, which launched her to the ground.
Pyra approached her. "Still not at full power? Pity."
She went for the finishing blow but was blown back by a large blast.
"Why does everyone always forget about me?" Azami whined as she charged up another shot.
Pyra lunged at her, and Azami used the tremendous weight of her weapon to spin herself around as she parried every blow.
"My, my, so unskilled!" Azami giggled before slamming her gun into Pyra, knocking her to the ground.
"You bitch!" Pyra yelled before attacking again.
KOS-MOS shot her R Canon at Poppi, who used the rocket boosters in her feet to fly around, dodging them.
KOS-MOS studied Poppi's movement before firing a shot that knocked her out of the air. KOS-MOS then turned her arm from a cannon to a sword as she swooped in.
Poppi caught the sword and threw her arms upward, launching KOS-MOS through the air once again.
Poppi pulled her shield out. "Poppi Spinning Slash!" she yelled as she spun around in a circle at jet-speeds and landed the shield into KOS-MOS, violently launching her into the side wall.
KOS-MOS got up, more pissed off then hurt.
"Poppi not make enough money for this," she whined before repositioning herself.
As Acacia and I ran down the stairs and into the room with Malos' core crystal, we were immediately surrounded by soldiers.
"GET ON YOUR KNEES!" one yelled.
"Damnit, Acacia grab the crystal!" I said as I pulled out Mythra's bracelet.
"When did you get that?" she asked.
"I was prepared, now GO!" I yelled as I touched the core crystal. Summoning a blade with blonde hair with very long pigtails in the shape of conch shells.
She was wearing a form of swimsuit that was designed to look like shells and had an attached mermaid tail. She also was riding in a floating bathtub. The water in the bathtub flowed out in the shape of a woman and the woman rubbed her fingers through its hair as it ran back into the bathtub, turning into water. Definitely not what I was expecting.
She pulled out an ether cannon that was shaped like a large conch shell.
"We are Sheba!" she began to greet, but I cut her off.
"Look, I'm Silas, and I hate to be rude, but I REALLY need your help Sheba. Can you help me now and I promise I'll listen to what you have to say afterwards?" I pleaded
She sighed a deep sigh of annoyance before her bathtub disappeared and she readied her gun. "Very well."
She fired a large water blast into the crowd as I began firing shots from my pistol and engaged in one hell of a sword fight.
Acacia stared at the dark purple, cross-shaped core crystal, it seemed to pull her gaze into a deep abyss, and she couldn't look away.
Was this really a good idea?
Acacia reached out and touched the crystal with her fingers, and the crystal began to glow with the darkest aura she'd ever felt.
Immediately, Kasandra doubled backwards as she swung, she missed Uzuki but managed to knock the living crap out of a few of the guards.
Pyra swung at Azami, finally knocking her to the ground, and she went for the final blow.
But before she could, a large ball of pure dark energy collided with her sword, and she watched it disintegrate in her hands.
She stepped back, in shock.
She looked to see a man, about as tall as I was, look back at her. He was extremely muscular, wearing all black and purple, with black, spiked hair and black eyes, and his deep purple crystal that looked just like Pyra's and Mythra's green ones. His aura screamed power and he took one cold, empty look at her and gave her a half-smile.
"Sorry I'm late, mind if I tag in?"
Readability Level: 11th-12th Grade
Time Taken: 7 Hours