Book IV:
Of Princesses and Peons
Chapter XXXI
I woke up drowsily and stood up, almost losing my balance. I felt like I'd gotten hit by a truck.
"Hello?" I called out before my head cleared and I looked around.
I was alone in a metal room, there was a bucket in the corner and I had been sleeping on the ground, probably the reason I was so stiff.
I then remembered what happened and hurriedly looked for an exit. The only one was a large metal door with a small barred window at the top center.
I quickly jumped up and looked outwards, only to see a small hallway lined with metal doors similar to mine. I assumed that this a prison ward.
"Mythra?" I called out. No answer. "Acacia? KOS-MOS? Anyone?"
Who had been with me? Rafi, Gabriel, Kassandra, and Azami had all stayed behind, Malos was nowhere to be found, and Poppi was with Juliani. KOS-MOS, Mythra, and I were knocked unconscious, Acacia... had been stabbed. Was she alright?!
"ACACIA?!" I yelled out.
"Pipe down dumbass, unless you want some unpleasant company!" she yelled back from across the room.
"Are you alright?" I asked, concerned.
"I'll be fine, they want us alive for some reason. They treated the stab wound, but we're stuck here."
I pulled my pistol and cocked it, aiming an earth bullet at the door.
"The probability of that working is zero percent," I heard KOS-MOS say from a different room.
"Hey genius, do you think they'd have let you keep your weapons if they were gonna work?!" Acacia yelled.
I shot anyway, and this resulted in a loud boom and the bullet almost ricocheting into my torso.
"Son of the Architect! Will you listen to me for once in your life you hard-headed fuck?!" Acacia scolded, startled by the shot.
"Right, sorry," I apologized. "But if we have our weapons, why can't KOS-MOS break us out?"
"There is an ether net in this hold, using blade weapons or abilities is one hundred percent impossible," KOS-MOS replied.
"Well we can't do nothing! Where's Mythra?!"
"Judging by the anguished screams I heard earlier I'd say Juliani's having her fun," Acacia answered.
"What?!" I yelled as I reloaded with an assortment of different bullets.
"Silas don't you fucking dare!"
I fired multiple shots into the door, to no avail and almost hitting to myself.
"Silas if you end up hitting yourself with one of those bullets I'm going to personally kick your dumb ass. Quit it already, if we could've gotten out of here we would've done it already, we can't do anything other than wait," Acacia scolded again.
We immediately went silent as we heard another door opened.
"My, my! What's all this ruckus about?"
"Juliani!" I yelled, recognizing the voice. "What's going on here?"
"Simple, a business transaction. Adonis wants you alive and I'm bringing you to him," she said.
"I thought you said you hated him!"
"I do, however he made an offer I couldn't pass up," she laughed.
"What could he possibly have offered the most powerful woman in Alrest?" Acacia asked.
"I'm flattered you think so highly of me!" she giggled. "You speak honestly so I shall do the same."
I went up to the window so I could see her.
"I believe you all saw the state of Alba Cavanich, I want to fix it. However if I fight the other gangs it will just be a mindless gang war that will solve nothing. But if It were an assault by Alrest's official police force under authorization of the Ardainian province's government, well then things could be tipped very nicely into my favor."
"Police force?" I questioned.
"Oh right, I wouldn't expect a Leftherian peon like yourself to know this," she laughed. "Long ago Waylon, the fourth driver of the Aegis laid down the framework for a basic united government for the many nations of Alrest. In doing so, one of the biggest benefits was the abolishment of any and all militaries in Alrest. This was to ensure that the Nation of Alrest would live peaceful, since no other civilizations exist outside of Alrest, there's never be a need for war. However he failed to lay the ground for a police force, and the mercantile guild now known as the BAP took that position."
"The BAP would never help you gain power!" I yelled back.
"You're correct, but they're not who I'm referring to," she smiled. "Eventually Adonis found a way to convince the governments of this nation that a mercantile guild should not be considered a valid police force as it functioned outside of an official representation. On top of that his entire family line had turned the widely popular New Tornan population against blades. This allowed him free reign to create whatever non-blade weapon he could imagine and enforce a 'fair and just' means of upholding the law. As long as it appeals to those New Tornan imbecile's unrealistic ideals, they'll eat it up like discount fast food."
"So your plan?" Acacia asked impatiently.
"To lay Alba Cavanich to waste, and purge it from the map. Once that's done, I'll rebuild it and then my power will be spread further."
"How many innocent people will die?!" I questioned.
"Oh please, spare me the theatrics. None of those filthy Ardanians are worth those tears."
"Listen here, you filthy wretched scum," Acacia said as she pounded her fist into the door. "If you so much as hurt any of the people there, I will, personally, knock that furry head of yours so hard the Architect himself will question your anatomy, you hear me?!"
"What are you doing to Mythra?!" I yelled.
"I can't let Adonis have all the fun!" she said, laughing. "I'm poking around her core crystal, and she is so much more interesting than I ever knew she'd be!"
Juliani began leaving, and I noticed Sheba walking behind her.
"And what the hell is wrong with you, huh?!"
She smiled at me, a sarcastic smile, and floated out in her bathtub.
"You damn bathtub lesbian, I'll knock your ass out too!" Acacia threatened.
The door shut and Juliani returned to Mythra, who was still restrained and drained of ether.
"Now to get back to it!" she giggled at Mythra.
"You... don't know what you're doing, keep going and you'll kill us all," Mythra said weakly.
"Oh please, if that idiot Adonis could tame an Aegis you'll be no different," she laughed.
"Pyra and I are different, but she's still twice the woman you'll ever be," Mythra laughed.
"Oh? Still some fire in there, is there?"
"No, I gave that to someone else, I'm a light blade," Mythra smirked.
Juliani smiled. "Well I'm still curious as to what this does..."
"Wait stop! You don't want to do that!" Mythra yelled as Juliani used a device to mess with her core crystal.
"That only makes me want to do it more!"
Mythra's core crystal and the emerald on her tiara began glowing bright green as the lights began flickering.
"STOP!" Mythra screamed.
"Oh the curiosity!" Juliani said, intrigued.
Immediately a huge blast erupted into the ship.
"Wh-What was that?!" Juliani gasped.
"You just fired Siren you dumbass! This ship's going down!" Mythra answered.
"Ma'am! Get to the parachute room fast, we need to be prepared for impact!" a man said over the intercom.
"Damn you!" she yelled as she left Mythra chained up and ran to the room.
...
"What was that?" I yelled at the sudden lurch.
"Heavy impact at the hull, the ether net is down," KOS-MOS said before punching the door off its hinges. "I suggest we find measures to leave immediately.
"I recognize this model of ship," Acacia said. "There should be a parachute room, if we can sneak in there and grab a few, we should be good to go."
"Find Mythra, grab her, and go," I said.
"Are you stupid, this place is going to shit!"
"I'm going for Sheba, I have to!"
"You're an idiot! What are you gonna do when you find her?!"
I shook my head, "I don't know, but something's telling me that I need to. I can't explain it, but whatever it is hasn't led me wrong thus far."
"Our time for argument is over, we must move Acacia," KOS-MOS stated.
Acacia sighed. "You'd better not die, got it?"
"Understood Colonel," I teased before running towards the back of the ship.
I didn't know how I knew where she was, but I did. I assumed this was what Sarah had been telling me about, but I wasn't sure.
Sure enough, I ended up running right into Sheba as she was trying to evacuate.
"You wanna explain yourself?" I asked quickly.
"We frankly don't understand why you're so shocked! We never respected you or your laughable group! Even without the core crystal alteration, we would have never stayed with the likes of you," she said, disgusted.
"So that's what it is," I should have known something was up. Juliani gave her to me, but not without strings attached.
"Alright then I'll be sure to send you back into your core crystal, that way you can make your own decisions from now on!" I told her.
"We'd never let you!" she said as she hit a button.
Immediately we were sucked out of the flying ship as a cargo hatch dropped open and we were left free falling to our death.
"Are you crazy?! We're both gonna die!"
"No, we will will shield ourself. It will hurt, but the only death will be yours," she laughed.
I grabbed some cargo flying through the air next to me and kicked off of it in her direction, wrapping my arms around her and holding her tight.
"You either shield both of us or we die together!" I yelled.
"Damn you peon!" she yelled as she shielded right before we hit the ground.
After lying in the hot sand for a bit I got myself up to see her jumping up angrily.
"How dare you! We ought to kill you right now you insolent fool!" she yelled as the girl made of water picked up Sheba's bathtub and reinserted herself into it, once again allowing the bathtub to float.
"Well it looks like you're stuck with me now!" I told her.
"Oh? And why is that?"
"Well not to be your tourist guide, but if you look to any fucking direction around your dumbass, we're stuck, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FUCKING DESERT!"
She took a look around as she noticed endless sand dunes for miles on end no matter where we could look as she groaned.
This was not going to be fun...
Readability Level: 11-12th Grade
Time Taken: 5.5 Hours