Chapter 58: An Old Enemy
Saito and Louise arrived at the Germanian capital city of Vindobona riding their two furred companions. Their two kids sat in front of them, bewildered by everything. A crowd soon gathered around them and word began to spread not only of their arrival, but of their two children.
It seemed that everyone was grateful for their role in ending the war. Most likely because their living conditions had greatly improved thanks to support from the victorious countries, and their new Empress.
After about an hour of walking through the city and being showered with flowers, they arrived at the gate of the palace. The guards immediately let them in into the palace and led them to the Empress's room, despite the immense fear they felt when they saw the two dragons they rode.
After a few seconds, they were allowed into the room. On a bed in the room, Empress Augusta sat playing with her kids. Her kids first noticed the two dragons that entered the room, cowering behind their mother.
Saito and Louise hopped off the creatures, letting them lay on the ground together. They then bowed towards the empress and her kids.
"Hello, Augusta." Louise said.
"No need for formalities." Augusta replied, giving Louise a hug. "This must be your husband."
"Yes." Louise replied as Saito raised his head.
"My name is Saito. I apologize for not being able to meet you when the war ended." Saito said.
"No apologies are necessary." Augusta replied. "I assume these two adorable children are yours? Last I saw them, they were still inside your wife's belly. Friedrich, Hermann, come and say hello."
The boys scurried from their bed and stood next to their mother. They didn't say anything, still terrified by the two monsters that were laying down behind Saito and Louise.
"Don't be afraid." Saito said. "They're friendly."
They slowly moved closer to them and touched their fur, which the dragons weren't bothered about. Slowly, the boys became more comfortable around them. After a few moments, Tempus opened one of her eyes and looked directly at the boys.
"Such nice boys." She said softly.
"This one can talk?" Augusta asked. "Where do you find these things?"
"We're just lucky." Louise said nervously.
Saito squatted to talk to Augusta's kids. They seemed transfixed by his eyes, something he found amusing.
"Listen, my wife and I need to talk to your mother for some time." He said with a smile. "I'll be leaving my kids and dragons here, so I need you to protect them for me, okay?"
They nodded, looking at Saito's kids with intrigue. Saito stood up and walked back towards Augusta and his wife.
"Louise told me you needed our help with some things." He said.
"Yes. There are a series of locked rooms in the palace which we cannot open." She said. "We are hoping that with the strength of you and your wife, we may be able to get through their doors."
"Easy enough." Saito said. "Lead the way."
Augusta nodded and led them out of the room. They walked into Albrecht's former office, where they found in the floor a secret doorway. They walked down into the dark stairwell, with Saito's tail providing them enough light to see.
Eventually, they reached the bottom of the staircase, where there was a large room. There were three metal doors on each of the walls. They didn't seem to have any locking mechanisms. There was not even so much as a door knob or a handle.
"Are these the doors?" Louise asked.
"Yes. No magic seems strong enough to get through it." Augusta replied. "Perhaps one of you are strong enough."
Saito walked towards one of the doors, putting his hand on it. His hand slowly began to heat up. He decided he could try melting through the metal. His hand got hotter and hotter, but the metal remained unfazed.
"Louise, you try your void magic." Saito said, backing away from the door.
She nodded and walked towards. She pointed her finger at it and soon, a beam of light shot onto the metal. However, again, nothing happened to the door.
"Hm. Nothing seems to be working." Saito thought to himself. "Gandalfr, any ideas?"
"Use your magic." The beast said in his head.
"I already tried that." Saito replied.
"The magic that you acquired after the war." The beast replied.
"But I don't even know what it does." Saito replied.
"Figure it out then." Gandalfr said.
Saito sighed and looked back at the door. He allowed his magic to envelop his hand. Soon, a dark red flame-like aura covered his hand. He put his hand to the door, waiting to see if something happened. After a few moment, as he was about to give up, the door began to corrode away.
He slowly walked forward until the door was finally gone. Inside the room were several shelves filled with papers and scrolls. He picked up one of the books and opened it. The writing in the scrolls wasn't anything Saito had seen before, so there wasn't much he could deduce from it.
"What is all this?" He asked.
"I don't know." Louise said. "None of these are in Halkeginian. Maybe Colbert will be able to decipher them..."
"I guess we better check the other rooms." She said.
They checked each of the rooms, all of them filled with similar contents as the first, except for one. The door that was directly in front of them when they came to the bottom of the staircase was the last one remaining to be opened.
As Saito destroyed the door, he expected to find the same thing as before, but inside, there was nothing but a splintered, worn out box. As Saito walked closer, he got a very strange feeling from it, but he kept inching closer anyway.
In a very swift motion, he pulled the lid from the top of the box. Inside, he was surprised to find nothing but a skeleton of a person. It was creepy, but at the same time, relieving to know that there was no threat.
"This must be a tomb of some kind." Saito said.
"But for who?" Augusta asked. "A Germanian king?"
"I don't think so." Saito replied. "Not from what I saw in the other rooms. Perhaps this was created before Germania ever existed. I wonder why I was able to open it..?"
"Regardless of that, we should have these documents examined." Louise said. "We should also reseal this man's tomb."
"Yeah. We can have some earth mages create a new door." Augusta said.
"No, I can do it." Saito said, although he seemed confused as to why he felt this way.
"What do you mean?" Louise asked.
He didn't say anything. He simply put his hand on the pile of dust that was once the sealed metal door. Slowly, the magic that covered his hand enveloped the dust. After a few seconds of nothing happening, the door started to rebuild itself until eventually, it was as if it was never destroyed.
"How..?" Louise began.
"I don't know..." Saito said, more to himself than to his wife. "I feel tired. Let's get out of here."
Louise let him lean on her shoulder as they walked back up the staircase. Once they were finally above ground, they went back to where their kids were. Augusta's children were happily playing with Saito's when they arrived. They had been gone for several hours, so they were quite happy to see them return.
"Thank you for your help." Augusta said. "I'll send word back to you as quickly as possible about the contents of those chambers."
"No need for thanks." Saito said, weakly.
"Are you sure you want to travel home like this? You seem very tired." Augusta asked.
"It'll be fine. Trust me." He said.
"I'll take care of him." Louise said, still supporting her husband's body.
She helped onto Soren's back, then picked up her kids and got on Tempus. She waved goodbye as they rode out of the palace. However, as soon as they were out of sight, she looked down at the white dragon.
"You wonder what's wrong with him?" The dragon asked.
"He shouldn't be feeling this weak." Louise said. "I know it's because of that magic he used."
"Yes, it was." Tempus confirmed. "He used divine magic. Magic of us gods. Mortals should not be able to acquire it."
"Will it kill him?" Louise asked.
"It's his own power, so it's unlikely." She replied. "However, how he attained such power is a mystery to me."
In Saito's Soul
Saito laid on the ground. His head was partially submerged in the liquid like surface. After a few moments, he slowly got up, feeling very lethargic.
"Gandalfr...what happened?" He asked.
"You used magic which you should not be capable of using." The beast replied.
"Why can I use it?" Saito asked.
"Perhaps it is because you have fused with me." The beast said. "I, as an extension of the gods, have this kind of power. It must have been fused with your own."
"I see. I'm so tired." Saito said, laying back down.
"It will be a long time before your body is used to using it." Gandalfr said.
"Is that why you refused to unseal all of my magic?" Saito asked.
"It is part of the reason." The beast said. "Do not worry, you will master it soon. You will have no choice."
"No choice? What do you mean?" Saito asked.
"Wake up, boy." The beast said, closing his eyes.
Saito's eyes immediately shot open. He was laying in bed the next day, early in the morning. Louise lay next to him, her soft breathing giving him some comfort. He slowly got up and went to the bathroom, looking in the mirror.
He was sweating profusely. He wasn't particularly warm. If anything, he felt cold, but he felt extremely nervous. His dark red aura surrounded his body, clearly visible in the mirror. He immediately began to feel very weak, but he did his best to stay standing.
He closed his eyes and began to focus. After several moments, the fire like aura disappeared and his strength started coming back. He got back into bed and began to think about what could be happening to him.
He and Louise's main objective at this point in time was to decipher the documents they found in Germania. However, since that relied on Augusta reporting back to them, it would be a while before they could make any progress.
They therefore had several days to somewhat relax until anything got back, mainly occupying themselves with managing the country. Saito also took the time to try and figure out what he could about his magic. Gandalfr refused to give him answers about anything, so it wasn't very easy to do. After the eighth day after they arrived in their palace, they heard a very loud commotion from the guards outside.
"I'm going to go check it out." Saito said to Louise, who was writing several executive orders from behind her desk.
"Okay. Let me know what's wrong." She said without looking up.
When he walked outside, he saw his guards surrounding one spot on the ground. When he moved forward to get a closer look, he nearly dropped to his knees in shock.
Alex, Shion, Mariel, and Sasha lay on the ground unconscious and, more importantly, severely wounded.
"Take them inside immediately!" He ordered.
The guards nodded and carefully picked them up, taking them to the infirmary. While they occupied themselves with that, Saito went back to Louise, who had no idea that her friends were clinging on to life.
"Louise, come with me. Right now." Saito said in a stern voice.
She knew immediately that something terrible happened, so she didn't argue. They ran as fast as they could through the hallways, with their dragons seemingly appearing from nowhere behind them.
When they arrived in the infirmary, Louise gasped at the state of her friends. Each one of them was bleeding from several deep cuts and wounds in their bodies. Their entire bodies were bruised and burned, and some of their bones were clearly broken.
"What happened?" She asked.
"The one with white hair dragged the rest here..."One of the guards said. "As soon as she saw us, she collapsed."
"Go and fetch doctors." Saito told the guards.
The guards all bowed and left the room, leaving the two monarchs alone to absorb what was happening. As they sat in silence, Sasha coughed up a large amount of blood. Slowly, one of her eyes cracked open. She tried to speak, but it seemed that her throat had been crushed.
"Don't try to speak." Louise said. "You can tell us what happened when you heal."
Sasha slowly shook her head, as if she wanted them to know everything right now. Again, she strained her voice to speak, this time managing to at least make air pass through her mouth.
"Don't try to talk, please." Saito said. "If you insist on saying something, then tell us who did this."
She kept straining and straining to speak. Just as she was about to pass out again from her injuries, she managed to say one word which sent shivers down the spins of Louise and, perhaps even more so, Saito. In a voice barely audible even to their acute ears, she spoke one word before falling into unconsciousness.
"Bri….mir."
Author's Notes:
Hello everyone! I'm being consistent in posting these chapters. Are you proud of me? Lol. Feel free to send me PM's about what you thought. The next several chapters (by several, I mean maybe 10-20) will be rather morbid. Well, there may be a happy one or two thrown in there. We'll see. Anyway, see you next time! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!