„Sorry, sorry, sorry… Got nothing else to say?" Leone mocked the woman in front of her as she pulled herself out of the Hive's body. The pain was unbearable, the missing flesh almost drove her insane, but she still stood strong, staring daggers into the other woman. "If you've got time to drown yourself in apologies, kindly use some of it to break free, would ya 'general' Cassandra?" Her eyes widened.
"H-How..." She spoke. The Hive was already attempting to take over her mind again, but she was holding it back, holding onto the one spark of hope that was just ignited by Leone's words. There was only one reason she could think of and she almost didn't want to believe it was true. She was dead after all. Long gone from the world and reduced to nothing but a mere thought in the Hive's mind. It's...impossible… It can't be!
The cat-woman only smirked at that. "How else? I asked your girlfriend." Cassandra almost fell to her knees from the weight of these words. "Surprised? Guess I can't blame you, I didn't exactly expect to hear a voice of someone trying to help me among the thousands of others. And guess what. She heard it all. Every single apology you made and every single tear you shed." She clanged her fist. "Wanna know what she had to say?" Not bothering to wait for an answer, Leone dashed forward, right in front of Cassandra. "Make this fucking idiot shut up already!" She slapped her with an open hand, hard enough to throw her into the wall. "She's still somewhere out there! Still waiting for you to get your shit together and find her!" She dashed at the woman again, this time smashing her foot into her face. "For all this time she was fighting the Hive all alone, while you little bitch cried and cried over your sad little fate!" Next, Leone's fist struck her face. "No one's going to win this for you Cassandra! Either you get your ass back in the game, or I'll end you, and this whole place along with your-" This time, she was the one who's face was struck.
"Don't you dare!" Cassandra rushed out of a hole Leone was slowly beating her into as the woman in question was thrown out of it. "Nothing will stand between me and my Velvet! Nothing!" She could feel something inside of her. Burning. It was like a warm touch of flames she felt so long ago… Her angry outburst disappeared in the comfort of that warmth as she looked down at Leone. She was getting up from the ground, grinning like a madman as she rubbed the side of her face. A large burn mark resided there… She then looked down at her hand, the one she struck Leone with, only to see flames dancing in her palm. She immediately recognized them. "I-In... Incursio..." It almost didn't make sense to her. The armor was gone, it rejected her all those years ago… So, could she still feel it's flames inside of her? And more importantly… Did it even matter? It was back, and right now, that's all she really cared about.
She closed her hand into a fist, allowing the flames to spread out throughout her body, first her arm, then her chest… Flames soon engulfed all of her, inside and out, burning away the grasp Hive had on her and melting down the years of despair and sadness into pure, boiling rage. "Heh, now that's more like it..." Leone said as she looked at her, the lone shining spot in the seemingly endless darkness around them. She watched her hands forming into fists as her eyes slowly opened. They were full of rage, but none of it directed at her, rather the Danger Beasts that were starting to appear all around them. "Oh boy, someone here's throwing a tantrum! The big all mighty Hive can't handle loosing it's toy to the power of love? Well cry me a fucking river. Of blood preferably." She turned to Cassandra. "What do you say, sister. Think we should give those-"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" Cassandra cut her of with a wild rage-filled scream that even the Beasts surrounding them couldn't ignore. She smashed her burning fists into the floor, pushing fire into it.
Before Leone knew it, the surface she was standing on had fire burning underneath it. "Fuck! It's hot!" She jumped into the air to at least for a moment protect her feet from the heat. A process she quite comically was forced to repeat as the flames lit up the whole chamber, burning just under the surface of the chamber's walls, turning the darkness into a beautiful, yet deadly light show that continued until the Beasts around them became nothing more then charred statues and the flesh walls they came out of died. Once it all ended, Cassandra remained still, frozen in place as her tired breath tried to refill her lungs with air. Slowly, she stood back up, holding back tears of joy. First in nearly three hundred years. "God damn it!" She turned towards Leone, hearing her angry screams. "At least tell me next time you do something like that! I thought my feet are gonna melt!" She continued to jump for a few more seconds before falling down on her butt once she decided ground cooled down enough, only to start blowing air at her feet. A sight Cassandra couldn't help but laugh at. And laugh she did. Hard. Before she knew it, she was crying on the floor, holding her stomach as she rolled around. "Yeah, yeah, sure. Laugh at someone else's pain! It's your fault I'm like this!"
The moment of joy, while very welcome, was not meant to last for long. There were things to do after all. Things to kill and things to get back. The smile lowly turned into scowl as she got back up, facing Leone who rose to her full height as well. "Well, you have an idea on how to tear this place apart? Or do we just rip and tear til' it's done?"
Cassandra looked at the scorched ground below. "The Hive's 'brain' is right below us. I can burn the tissue down into coal but you'll need to break it down. Then we kill the Queen and this place will die on its own. Before that happens though, I need to find Velvet. The moment the hive dies, this place will fall to the bottom of this hellish pit." She walked past Leone, ignoring her calls for an 'escape plan' to instead focus on finding the right place to start drilling into the heart of the beast. That's most likely where she will find Velvet anyways. She intensely searched through all the bits and pieces she actually remembered from being moved around the structure and the one thing she did know for sure, is that the Queen stores anything it deems worthy of researching and if Velvet was able to resist getting absorbed for all this time, then that's most likely where she was held. "Stop questioning things. We have a job to finish!" She said, turning to Leone.
"I know, I would just prefer being alive to tell about it!"
Cassandra rolled her eyes. "We'll get there when we get there. Now move it! I've wasted more then enough time already!" Her hand closed into a fist as she brought it down to the ground. Fire erupted below her, turning everything it touched into black rock. This time, I won't give into despair… This time, I'll come out victorious… Leone could only smirk as she watched her work her magic. The legendary general was back. And she was pissed.
"There it is!" Tatsumi screamed as he pointed his finger at the giant gate in front of him. That was it, his target – the archive chamber where everything known about Murasame's curse and how it affects it's user was stored. Excluding medical papers on Murasame's previous users, those would be in other chambers. Luckily for him, this one was very close to the top. The oldest records were stored in the chambers that were built first after all and each was meant to cover 100 years worth of documents. The size of this place is a testament to the Empire's age… I never even though about it before… It didn't matter now though. What mattered, was that he was close to what he needed. With one casual move of his hand, he ripped the lock open as if it was not even there, stepping inside the second the gate was opened… Or at least he would have, if the guardian of this chamber wasn't waiting for him right behind the gate.
He had to waste a whole second to get rid of the Zmei that threw itself at him. "Damn, that scared me!" He said, looking at the steaming pile of broken bones he splattered against the wall. "I almost had a heart attack!" Having dealt with the unexpected encounter, Tatsumi continued looking in amazement at the huge bookshelves filled with huge amounts of paper. Fiction, non-fiction, banking documents, official decrees, copies of messages between the emperor and nobles, medical records and so much more. All preserved in a near perfect condition. How that was achieved, Tatsumi didn't know and quite frankly, didn't care about. The currant era started with birth of the first Emperor, but the Archive was initially made before then and was simply remade into what it is now over time, so the higher floors still use the old dating system… So if Murasame was made a few years before Incursio, I should be looking at year… 2723, that's the year when Tyrant died and since the first user died after using Murasame on himself in a fight against Tyrant, all mentions of the poison's effects of the user would have to be placed from that year onward. He quickly located the section storing all medical documents and from there, he was shortly facing a metal plate with the number he searched for.
The exact date of Tyrant's death was not known even to the Beast itself, as it never bothered itself with keeping a note of that, let alone comparing it's own internal clock to human's idea of time passage. It only started to take note of that after about a dozen or so users took Incursio into their possession and only knew the year of it's death through remembering one of Incursio's users mentioning it. Knowing that, Tatsumi proceeded to carefully look through each and every single file and book in the whole medical section. Starting from the very beginning. "...The growing skepticism among the general population in regards of viability of vaccines is becoming a major problem to the medical community. We, the representatives of Imperial Academy believe the fanatical belief in inherent dangers of vaccination despite the overwhelming evidence to the opposite should be considered a mental illness as is the case with denial of scientifically proven fact that our home planet is in fact a sphere as opposed to a flat disc… Nope!" Tatsumi slammed the file shut and put it back in place. "I can't believe these kinds of people were a problem even back then..."
With a sigh, he grabbed onto another file, though seeing it's title - 'Academical research on subject of prostate issues' – he quickly returned it to it's rightful place. From then on he found descriptions of various diseases – many of which were long gone, research papers and books every subject connected to medicine. Only half way through the whole bookcase, he found what he was looking for. 'Ayumu Akamine, Imperial General – Medical Records'. The file was large, but Tatsumi immediately got to reading it, skipping only a few pages in the beginning that touched on his medical problems before he was made general and the first wielder of Murasame, which only made for about a third of the file. Everything else was about how he died. There were descriptions of various attempts at saving his life, the experimental surgeries, medicine… None of which worked, obviously. A whole section was devoted to describing his mental decline from a proud general, respected by his peers and loved by his family, into a mumbling shell of a man, capable of little more then begging for someone to end his life.
Ultimately, there was nothing in there that could help, but the file did point Tatsumi in the right direction. It gave him names of the doctors that tried to save him, references to other files that were connected to this one and a whole bunch of other papers he needed to look for. Tatsumi looked up at the huge bookshelf in front of him and sighed deeply before sharply focusing his gaze in search of what he needed. It doesn't matter how much of this place I have to search. I will find a way to save you Akame. I swear…
"HIYAH!" Leone smashed her fists into the burned flesh under her feet, sending hundreds of small, charred rocks all around. "Done! Give me more!" She screamed at Cassandra, who had just kicked off a Danger Beast's head. Even with the main chamber burned to a crisp, it wasn't long before the Beasts started to rush in from other parts of the Hive, forcing them to defend themselves against their overwhelming numbers. It really slowed down their descent down towards the very core of the Hive, but with their combined strength, it was in the end, no issue. Merely an inconvenience. At first at least.
Just as Leone jumped into the attacking horde, Cassandra retreated behind her to focus on burning through another layer of flesh. She placed her hands flat against the fleshy surface and released the fire into it. The heat could be felt even dozens of meters away, effectively keeping the Beasts away from her, while Leone ripped them to pieces. It was an effective tactic, but it wouldn't last long. Cassandra could no longer regenerate her body and strength having severed her connection to the Hive and Leone had a limited strengths to begin with. After fighting Cassandra she was already on the edge of her endurance and now with hundreds of Danger Beasts charging at them, it was only a matter of time before they find themselves struggling to catch their breath. "How much longer will that take!?" The lioness screamed among the roars of Danger Beasts as her claws slashed at them.
"We're almost there! Don't give up!" Truth be told, Cassandra was not feeling great either. The constant use of her flames started to put a strain on her quite some time ago and by now she was struggling to continue generating them at the same rate. It was painful, her head felt it was constantly being smashed to pieces with a war-hammer but she didn't allow it to put a stop to what she was doing. Nothing would stop her from saving her precious Velvet. Especially not her own weakness. "Now!" She screamed at Leone and immediately sent a blade of fire right at her. The woman jumped over it, not even turning around and as the blade exploded in the face of a Danger Beast, Cassandra rammed her body into it. She placed her hand at it's side, sending a powerful shockwave through it's body. It immediately exploded into pieces, sending bone and flesh fragments flying towards the surrounding Beasts. Without a pause, she used the distraction to send a wave of flames around her, killing even more Beasts.
Leone meanwhile gracefully landed back on the ground, only now turning around towards her target. She jumped again, this time rising her fist up to only to slam it into the ground. And this time, as the whole chamber shook from the force of her punch, she fell down into another chamber below. She barely had time to turn back to look at Cassandra. "We're in!" She screamed as she fell.
Cassandra was quick to disengage from the fight and rush towards the hole. The Beasts naturally followed her but even though she was more then fast enough to simply outrun them, she had a different idea. She kept running just fast enough to not let them get her in their claws, but slow enough for them to not give up. She continued this right until she was just a few meters away from the hole. That's when she dashed right into it. She then turned around midair, watching as the Beasts trample over themselves to be the first one to catch her. None of them did, because as they continued to mindlessly fall down after her, Cassandra's hand extended towards them to rain hell. The flames swallowed the Beasts in an instant turning them into one big mass of molten flesh and bones that easily blocked the way in for other Beasts.
The fall lasted only a few seconds and as soon as Cassandra landed, she turned towards Leone. "Alrighty, so what's our next move? And may I remind you that we still have no escape plan whatsoever?"
It was probably about time to address that bit, she decided. "There is a straight way from here." She pointed her finger at the ground. "This chamber is only a few layers away from the outside. Once we end this place, it will start to fall apart but we should be able to smash our way out like we did just now. Then we just grab one of the flying Beasts and use them like parachutes. And as for our currant objective..." Now her hand started pointing up at one of the walls. Her hand was in an instant twisted into an angry scowl as she stared daggers at the creature they saw hanging there, staring at them with an equal amount to anger. "That's it. The monster Xardas brought into the palace, and the one that took my wife from me..."
Leone quickly adapted an equally angry look on her face though in reality she was more… disgusted. Not just by the creature's hideous looks, but by the malevolent aura it generated. It was just as what she felt from Cassandra when she first saw her, only multiplied tenfold. A twisted need for justice. A desire for good in all the wrong ways… And anger. Hate… The creature was mad at the world and it's desires reflected that. It felt wronged, backed into a corner by things outside its control. And it wanted vengeance… Against the world… And something else… Something more specific...
The monster's two black eyes gazed at the two woman standing before it. "YOUUUUUUUUUU..." It spoke in it's deep commanding voice. It sounded almost human, but there was something uncanny about it. Like an animal trying to speak. Cassandra recognized that voice all to well though. It was the one that gave her orders. The one that controlled her like a puppet for all this time.
The creature let go of the wall, showing it's full form, hanging over them as if it thought itself to be nothing less then a god. It looked like worm, with a massive torso coming out of a wall. It's two arms were large, each ended with a massive spike that it used like a pair of canes, supporting it's weight as it emerged from the wall on a long, snake like tail. It opened it's jaws, aggressively presenting it lineup of sharp, dagger-like teeth. On top of it's head were two plates that looked almost like a crown of sorts. "IF YOUUU..." It spoke again after a moment of bombarding them with it's anger. "WILL NOOOOT..." It started lifting it's two arms, prompting Cassandra and Leone to prepare for battle. "SUBMIIIIIIT... YOU WIIIIIL..." With an angry growl, the spikes at the end of each arm stabbed the ground, right where each of the two woman stood. "DIEEEEEEEE!"
Both woman were easily fast enough to dodge, but the monster didn't end there. It quickly brought it's open mouth at Leone, aiming to swallow her whole. "Crap!" She had no way to move out of the way, so she braced herself to grab onto one of its teeth before she gets swallowed, but luckily it didn't come to that.
Cassandra threw a fireball into monster's open mouth, forcing it to retreat immediately before it had a chance to even get close to Leone. "Thanks." She said as they both landed. "Got myself in a bit of a pinch there. But damn, that's one ugly queen." It didn't seem to appreciate being called ugly as mere second later, another attack came at them, this time a wide sweep of its arm along the ground. This again was easily avoided by the two woman, who merely jumped over the approaching appendage and landed safely before it had a chance to attack again. This time they were first though. Cassandra sent a cloud of flames right into it's face as it tried to go for another sweep and as it was getting away from the heat, Leone jumped right through it, smacking it straight in the face. With a pained roar, it hit the wall it came out of, now with a large dent in it's exoskeleton.
"That's it? Figured we'd be in for a bit more of a fight." She said, swinging her fist at the creature again. This time broke one of it's arms in half.
"Of course it's not strong. Why do you think it needed me to fight its battles." The queen tried to get away from Leone, but in doing so only fell into Cassandra's hands. It was quickly greeted by a flaming fist that melted through it's face. Cassandra ripped one of its sharp teeth from inside of its jaw and stabbed it right into its eye. A burst of gooey blood hit her in the face as she jumped away, enjoying the sight of the creature wriggling in pain. "It's as good as dead, and knows it!" It was clear that the Queen was perfectly aware of her predicament. Each of the two woman standing against it could have ended her single handedly even in their exhausted and battered state. Were they at their full strength, this wouldn't even be called a fight, but it definitely hoped their previous fight against each other as well as their struggle against the Danger Beast horde would cut down their strengths enough for it to handle alone… That obviously wasn't the case and now it was desperately trying to escape back into a hole it crawled out of, but was immediately stopped when Leone jumped onto the very top of it's 'crown' and sunk her hands into the hard, bone-like tissue. The screams of agony filled the air only for a second as it's face was suddenly being melted down, enveloped with Cassandra's flames.
Beams of energy started to shoot out of its eyes, but none hit its mark, and before long, Beast's eyes melted as well, leaving it completely defenseless. Leone started to slowly spread the Queen's head apart, listening with amusement to the sound of cracking bones and flesh ripping. Soon enough, she was looking right at its brain, exposed and defenseless… "Cassie! I'll leave the finish for you!" She jumped back down, leaving a large hole for Cassandra to enjoy. And looking at the taller woman's face, twisted with sick mix of rage and joy, Leone knew she will enjoy every single second if it. She grabbed onto the Queen's melted face and held it down, even thought it barely had any fight left in it. Cassandra gracefully landed right on top of the gap Leone left for her, rising her hand high up. For a moment, the world seemed to freeze as she felt flames spread between her fingers. Her eyes fell on the blood-covered brain matter below her, slowly feeling herself be filled with pure disgust. Just how many people's lives were stored in it? How many died before this moment? Why did her friends have to die for this?
She quite honestly wasn't sure, and knew she probably never will be. But it didn't matter in the end. Just having these questions in her mind was enough for her rage to turn the flames in the palm of her hand into a true inferno, hot enough to scorch the sun itself. Her fist smashed into the brain, turning Queen's skull into a furnace that reduced it's insides to less then ashes. Light shone through Queen's eyeholes and mouth for just a second before molten flesh started pouring out of them. There were no screams to be heard, just the satisfying splashes of Queen's body exploding from the inside out as water turned to vapor. Leone had to shield her eyes from the light, unable to handle something so bright after spending so much time in complete darkness, but once it all calmed down, she was more then happy with the sight of a dead, steaming body before her. She smiled slightly as she looked at Cassandra's figure still standing on top of the Queen's head. Her legs were trembling, barely keeping her still… and shortly after, she fell. Leone was quick to catch her before she even lost her footing. She allowed the general to rest on her arms for a while so she can catch her breath and as soon as that was done, Cassandra rose to her feet again.
"Velvet..." She immediately turned towards the wall Queen's dead body stuck out of. Almost as if led by pure instincts, she run straight at it, somewhat dragging her feet behind. She was tired, clearly just a step away from passing out but still, she persisted. She would not allow herself to rest until she saw her lover again. Focusing all of her remaining strength, she grabbed Queen's body and started to pull it out of the wall. The sound of tearing flesh rang in her ears, but the massive body remained seated where it was. The use of her flames had drained her considerably, far more then she thought it would. Luckily for her, Leone was rather quick to help out, even if she wasn't sure what Cassandra hopes to achieve.
With her help, Queen's body was quickly removed from the wall, leaving a large, bleeding hole that Cassandra immediately jumped into. "Hey, wait!" She jumped after her, quickly greeted with a sight of a large tunnel running for what seemed like miles… All of it filled with bodies. Animals and humans, dead and alive, big and small… It was pretty clear what this place was. Just as Cassandra said before, the Queen was gathering things for research. Anything it deemed useful was placed here to rot on the inside as all of its worth was slowly sapped away… She could barely force herself to look at the ones that were still 'alive'. They were… empty. Just... completely deprived of everything… It disgusted her more then anything short of the most twisted atrocities she witnessed during her time in Night Raid. "Fucking hell..." She forced herself to turn away from the scene and continue towards where Cassandra headed. On the inside however, she felt somewhat relieved. Whatever torture these poor souls had to endure was about to end.
And speaking of that, she just felt the ground below her shaking... "Oh shit!" The shaking only continued as she run at full speed. She could see walls around her loosing their lively red and pink shade, slowly fading into gray as they dried out in matter of seconds. "Cassandra!" She screamed at the woman as soon as she saw her but was promptly ignored. Cassandra was kneeling down next to one of the Queen's 'belongings', crying as she held another woman's face between her hands. It was Velvet... or rather what was left of her. There were... holes in her. Chunks of flesh simply missing. Tendrils were sinking into her body through her mouth, eye, ears, stomach... And despite this, she was still the most alive one out of all the things trapped in here. She would actually dare to say she was the only one alive.
With her one remaining eye she looked back at Cassandra and a few tears rolled down her face. "Velvet..." Cassandra hugged her torn body to her chest, gently holding her hand on Velvet's head. "I'm so-" She stopped herself, knowing fully well that's not what she really needs to say now. "Thank you, Velvet... You saved me... And now, I will save you." With that said, Cassandra raised her hand and promptly cut off all of the tendrils that held her tied to the Hive's body and pulled them out of Velvet's. Blood started to pour out of her body but Cassandra was no longer able to see it. She passed out and fell on the ground along with Velvet's body, thus leaving Leone alone in a crumbling, living cave with two unconscious bodies to pull out of there.
It was really no surprise that Cassandra passed out at a moment like that. She's been running on fumes ever since her final attack on the Queen ended after all. It's a miracle she managed to crawl her way to Velvet at all, but I guess the power of love can only take you so far... Leone felt a huge urge to sigh and call the situation a major pain in the ass, but stopped herself on account of incoming doom in form of getting crashed to death as the tunnel she stood in started shrinking in size while the muscle tissue that formed it closed in on itself. She quickly grabbed both Velvet and Cassandra, placed them on her shoulders and promptly got the fuck out of there. Within seconds, she got out of the tunnel, but... she quickly was made aware that her problems don't end there. "You've got to be fucking kidding me!" She could only look as one of the flying Danger Beasts stand on top of the Queen's dead body, pulling out a small, larva like creature out of it... It quickly became obvious what the creature was. After all, that Xardas guy had to carry it in somehow. The Beast was quick to jump into a hole that formed in the floor upon seeing her and Leone, with an annoyed hiss, followed after it.
She found herself flying right out of the Hive's body soon after jumping down and quickly whistled for backup as she continued to accelerate downwards, noticing that the Hive's body seems to be moving down along with her. Shit, shit, shit, shit... She whistled for her pet Danger Beast – Gorge again, soon greeted with a sight of his happy beak. He screeched happily as she grabbed onto his back with her legs. "Boy, you're getting a reward when we're out of here!" She proclaimed. "Now come on! After them!" She pointed at the Danger Beast running away with a new Queen and Gorge immediately started flapping his wings to peruse but... it quickly became apparent that carrying three people was a bit much for him... "Um... Alright, scratch that. Take these two to the entrance and I'll... Think of something." Having received a confirmation in form of a screech, she placed both Velvet and Cassandra in Gorge's claws before jumping towards a different flying danger Beast.
There were many others around, but it seemed like with the Hive gone, they were left in a complete disarray. They didn't know what to do so they just... flew in circles. Some of them at least. Many simply started falling down like bags of potatos.
The one Leone grabbed seemed to be in the latter category. She was quickly forced to propel herself towards another one, leaving her previous platform to fall to it's death. As she jumped towards another one, she saw her target getting further and further away. It was clearly hoping to hide the Queen away until she can safely escape... Leone couldn't have that. She proceeded to remove the head of the Beast she now rode and throw it at her target, hitting it right on the wing. As she expected, it immediately started to fall and has let go of the queen. "Oh yeah!" Aaaaand she fell along with it. "Oh shit.." To make it even better, she there were no other Beasts range for her to jump on, not when she was not on a still ground. She had to increase her range, even by a little bit... And there was one way to do that. In a moment of desperate ingenuity, she sank her hand in the Beast's belly and ripped out it's intestines. With them in hand, she jumped in direction of the closest one of the Beast around her and as she expected, she missed by quite a bit, forcing her to throw the intestines at the Beast like a lasso, hooking to it so her speed can carry her forward. She let go of it as her speed reached it's peek, leaving her accelerating towards a wall just as the wriggling larva of the Queen appeared right in front of her. She smirked, feeling the panic rising in the small creature. It didn't last long though, Leone was more then happy to end all its fears with her fist.
Still grinning, she smashed into the wall she was accelerating towards, which might have knocked some of her teeth out of order... And it hurt. It definitely hurt. "Leone?" As she removed herself from the wall and fell back down, she found herself landing on something... well, not exactly soft, but definitely not cold stone. She cleared some dust and rock pieces from her eyes and looked around, suddenly realizing that Tatsumi is holding her in his arms. "Damn, you stink..." All she could really do is smile at him as her body relaxed in his arms with a tired sigh leaving her lips.
The relaxation didn't last long though. It was not time for that yet. She quickly remembered there was still one very important issue to handle. Namely, Velvet. The woman was bleeding when she threw her over her shoulder and the blood covering her was a testament to that. If she bled out then... Cassandra would be mad. Probably very mad. Instantly upon this realization, Leone's eyes snapped open and she jumped out of Tatsumi's arms. The entrance wasn't far away, so she made it there in a heartbeat and was immediately greeted by the sight of Gorge obediently waiting for her next to the two unconscious woman. One of whom was in a small puddle of blood. "Oh god! Oh shit! Oh god! What the fuck do I do!?" She rushed over to her and started to shake her body. "Hey! Can you hear me!? Are you awake!? Or alive!? Come on, say something!" Her chest was still moving, albeit weekly so she was still alive. How long that would last though, she couldn't tell. "Damn it, what do I do? I'm good at killing things, not healing them! I only know how to heal myself!"
Just as it seemed her panic would make her do something stupid, she felt something grab her hand but she didn't pay any mind to it. Not until she felt her wrist being slashed open. "Hey!" She snapped her head to the side where she saw Tatsumi holding her hand in his own, with his thumb covered in her blood. "What was that for!?" In response, he only pointed his finger down at Velvet. She looked at her as requested and... she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Her blood landed right in the other woman's mouth and over her wounds, which were now steaming with something as the woman hissed in pain. And all the while, her wounds were closing. the holes in her body were slowly being filled with new flesh, the missing eye started to regrow... "W-What? How?" She asked, looking at Tatsumi questioningly.
"She used to be a Lionel user right? Most teigus leave a strong print on their user even if they are not able to use it for a long time. Your blood simply reactivated her healing capabilities for a moment, kind of how the real Lionel healed Tyrant long ago, but that was a special case. Either way, she still needs to get to a hospital soon. There's only so much Lionel can heal without the boost you received upon your transformation." He got up and made his way to a small cart he was pulling behind him, filled with various books and papers.
"Wait a second! How did you even know she was a teigu user!?" She only now noticed four other people behind him, two of whom were unconscious. "And who are they?"
He turned back to face her again. "They are from the unit sent down here in the first place. What's left of it anyways. The two unconscious lovebirds are Asako and Akira, the old man's name is Kazuto and the other guy is Gab. And about me knowing that she's Lionel's former user, you do remember Tyrtant was to an extant aware of everything his users did? And that I now have access to most of that? I know who she is and even more so the woman next to her."
"Oh, okay... No, wait!" She rose to her feet again and pointed her finger at him. "If you knew that, they have you also knew the damn Hive was above all along!?"
"Well, yes but actually no..." She gave him a puzzled look, demanding a clarification. "You see, I basically fused with Tyrant, right? A creature that was alive of thousands of years. With all of that memories flowing into my head at once, it's kinda hard to remember something randomly like that. I only now realized who these two are and only because I saw them. Can we go now? I need to get all of this to the doctor and help him figure out some way to help Akame." Without any further word, he turned around and headed to the entrance, followed by the others. Leone only sighed as she placed both Velvet and Cassandra on Gorge's back and followed them with her new pet in tow. They quickly made their way to the exit and... promptly stopped just as they stepped out of the archive. Everyone save for Leone stared at the gift left for them on a wall.
"Oh, I almost forgot about him!" As they continued to stare wide-eyed at the former prime minister Honest, crucified to a wall with swords Leone probably picked up from dead Imperials lying around the palace. He had a blade sticking out of each joint on his arms and legs, completely immobilizing him and more then likely, dealing agonizing pain. There were other swords too, going through his stomach, chest, testicles and even one that entered through his mouth. "You guys wouldn't believe it if you didn't see this right now, but this guy actually funded himself some genetic modifications. Don't know the details since most of what he said was begging for mercy and shit, but the point is, he has a healing factor akin to the one Lionel provides, just... you know, worse." She stepped over to him and roughly pulled the sword that was in his mouth. He coughed out blood, but as soon as the hole in the back of his stomach was healed he turned to face Tatsumi and the soldiers behind him.
His eyes betrayed only one thing. Fear. And it didn't take the levels of sensing Tatsumi and Leone possessed to know just how deeply terrified the man was. "Help me please! She's crazy! I'm innocent, you must believe me! T-The Emperor! He's the guilty one, I only did what he ordered! I had no choice, I'm just a frail old man! This is all a setup! You must-" He saw that Tatsumi started approaching him, staring him right in the eyes. "Y-You're from some village, right? Which one? Tell me. If you save me from this lunatic I will fill that village with enough riches to last for centuries! You'll all live like aristocrats! Like kings! Like-AAaAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaAAAaaaaaaaaAAuuuUuuuUUUUuuuuUUUaaAAaaa!" Tatsumi wasn't even listening. He simply spat on his face and turned away. His spit started to burn through Honest's body, melting through his fat and flesh until it drilled a hole straight through him, exiting his body through his ball sack, having emptied it along the way.
"You can shove your generosity up your fat ass, you blob of shit." Tatsumi walked away, not paying attention to the man's screams. He had more important things to do then bother himself with his punishment. He was sure Leone and the new Empire in its entirety will get the job done well enough in his place.
Song of the day: Korn – A Different World
