11 August 2024

12:38 P.M MDT

NuArcade Denver, Denver, United States

Reaching the front counter, Drahoslav turned his person towards his accomplices in Roosevelt and Hamilton. Ensured they followed, he'd progress towards the main person at the counter. A store shelf's worth of rewards with steep ticket charges to obtain them from the prize area for the best.

"Welcome to NuArcade. Are you here to play?" the attendant at the bar's edge.

In typical arcade worker attire and the colors of pastel gray and blue in circle patterns. Maintaining eye contact with Drahoslav. The nod of his new customer's head brought a laminated paper sheet for him to see and decide on a few packages present.

"I'm with a larger group over there," said Drahoslav, lowering the package aid as he veers the worker's sight towards his other comrades present.

The attendant's eye squints. "What option are you deciding, mister umm…"

"Cizik, or Drahoslav. Chose whatever it is."

Drahoslav sets the sheet back above the glass of the counter. "I chose the seventy-dollars worth of credits in seven cards."

"Three-hundred-twelve."

Roosevelt expands his eyes at hearing the cost just to play at an arcade, "That's a lot of money."

"I know how to deal with this. Let me use my magic." Drahoslav responds promptly before refocusing on securing the deal. "You know who I am, correct?"

"Right."

"You were squinting your eye when you think I was up to some kind of trickery, is that correct?"

"Right."

"From the appearance of above-average muscle mass than what would be needed to conduct necessary life, are you working in another job?"

"Why are you-"

"Answer the question, or we are going to get it."

He sighs, "I work for Glowgen, but things have been occurring recently over the past few months. I guess you should know if it's you guys..."

"Gabriel and Glowgen deserve it for what is going on. The politics of this both within the capital of the country and within the company deserve what's gonna happen today."

"I'm gonna lose my income because of my boss's decisions?"

Drahoslav maintains sight of the guy while slipping an entire bundle of cash he got from a Kansas City bank yesterday.

"Are you… Bribing me?"

"I'm not rich, and we're beyond such a tactic. A former Glowgen employee named Lincoln is helping us with taking care of three artifacts. Although Jara, our eccentric big brain guy, doubts they have the soul of a child inside."

Jaraslav, hearing his name, advances to Drahoslav's position while having a brush out. "Yes?"

"Didn't need you, just talking to this insecure Glowgen employee about how we can help them if a disaster occurs when we raid for Fulgur."

He turns to the guy, "About that and the soul-attuned weapons. I don't believe Ignis and Fulgur would be truly attuned. The claim Lincoln also made-"

"Lincoln was a deputy in special weapons development for a while! It's insane it would be-"

"I don't doubt Lincoln's judgment that something is going on regardless if the claim of attuned weaponry was true. But it isn't confirmed or backed by evidence there is a child's soul in it."

"Well, all three looked quite techy, but the one called Aura was quite weird. Heard one person was shred to bits trying to carry it without protection. Had to move it within white cloth with a red towel something."

At the corner of Hamilton's eye, he noticed a usual object covered in a dusty gray cloth. Another one, red and white cloth with certain patterns. Partially in the shape of a sword.

"T-There's something on display over there!"

"Where?" Drahoslav looked around until noticing its presence.

"Oh, there it is. What is it-"

"The way the patterns move and the colour, I feel like it's a rushnyk."

All three, although Drahoslav had a better idea, turn to him. Unsure about what he was talking about if any of it held any substance to it.

"What's a rushnyk?" Hamilton asked, confused by the foreign nature of the term.

"A Slavic ritual cloth. It's common in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Although, when you're not talking about a typical towel, you'd say polotentse." Jaraslav explained his pronunciations with the unknown words perfectly.

"We need to see it." Drahoslav demanded, "Bring it down."

"You're breaking policy by asking it…"

"Lincoln asked us to obtain Aura and Fulgur alongside Ignis to destroy them to stop Gabriel's plan. Do I need to call him to remove your suspicion that we're bluffing?"

"Okay, okay, okay! Just don't get mister Miller's attention here because of this!"

Drahoslav lounges his head against a chair, watching the man do his work, "What's your name, by the way."

"F-Fulgur…"

"That's weird!" Zelislav arrived, staring at the guy raising a ladder to get the object.

To the side, another person heads to help Fulgur. Until caught under Zelislav's string, a leg ensnared and pulled to the ground by Zelislav.

"Dvina! Caught the spy! Activate Command, Crucio!"

The rope, as Zelislav used his FLIC, glowed red, much like what the thing he based the name off of before the leg begins transmitting a feeling of torturous pain. Rallying several clients playing games to notice the person's sprung trap. Dvinaslav joined in and checked and discovered the person's Glowgen ID.

"Figures," she said, "This person was waiting for the right moment to strike us down for Gabriel."

"Hey, Jara! How's that unique prize?"

"We're uncovering it!"

At a table, Jaraslav unwrapped the rushnyk as he put it. Spacing to analyze the details of the item, leaving Drahoslav to uncover the weapon while Fulgur watched with interest.

As the weapon unveiled itself, a white blade with blue down the middle, with a curved appearance while a white sphere of energy in the middle of a metallic den of a hilt emitting a light. Causing an immediate shock to him.

"This is what they described Aura as?" he asked Roosevelt.

"Didn't know."

He'd turn to Fulgur.

"Yes."

"So it's one-to-one with Aurus, that forbidden weapon we said Stanislav shouldn't utilise for strange reasons I don't get. From both our lieutenant and Jara."

Fulgur's uncertainty with their words further confused him. Staring towards Jaraslav, who appeared finished with his look at the rushnyk.

"I'm don't understand this at all."

"You don't need to. I've reached my conclusion, the rushnyk has signs typically seen within Chernihiv Oblast. The weapon's shape also aligns, so I'm certain this is Aurus."

"Who's Stanislav?" he asked.

"He's what they call the fifth comrade. Doesn't fight much even when he wasn't acting the way he was. Was quite a pacifist in engaging in battle. But had fierce strength and skill that surpasses our combat skills." Drahoslav explains.

"Really? He seems… Very deadly-"

"That's the reason why he doesn't fight much." Jaraslav interrupts, "His strength is really good in our work when we're out loud. But he's about our level everywhere else."

"You are gonna spill too much, Jara."

"I'm very well aware! Drahoslav, what I was gonna say, we need to finish and destroy them quickly. The more we wait and the longer it takes, the more I feel we're gonna see a Glowgen bloodbath when they go for Aurus."

Drahoslav nods, staring at the Fulgur person, "How long has it been since you've seized Aura?"

"Two days if you're talking about its removal from the obstacle course protecting it."

"Once the weapon Fulgur is taken," Drahoslav began saying, pushing a hand on the long table for people to rest at, "No doubts they will check for Aurus, find it missing, and begin a manhunt. This arcade, if it is a major Glowgen source in the area, could be found, and I can't imagine what would occur."

Zelislav and Dvinaslav came up to the table with their unconscious Glowgen spy bound with the strings, "We better do something to keep him quiet. We also need to be wary that some Glowgen people may report this place as harbouring us."

"Take him to the backroom," Fulgur replies.

Zelislav and Dvinaslav follow Fulgur. But when they reach in, the LEDs around the arcade begin to flash heavily in white and blue tones. Raising the Belerusian's eyes as he gets up and rubs his hands together. Sparking a yellowish-green aura around himself cracking in electricity.

Fulgur rushes to another employee with the "What the fuck" expression on his face. Meanwhile, the other comrades arrive and notice Jaraslav activating his FLIC abilities.

"You're using your accumulating aura when you shouldn't," Dvinaslav asked, scanning the entire room for clues as to what.

"I'm not sure how or if it's true, but she appears to have noticed we're in the world with SAO!"

"Are you certain that presence is outside?"

"I can't take chances, now that there's the possibility she is looking for Stanislav, much like about four years ago. But if the LEDs say something, we can stop it before it begins!"

"EVERYONE! AVOID ANYTHING ELECTRICAL!" Drahoslav, Zelislav, and Dvinaslav shouted several times as many individuals rush for the exit.

With his comrades behind him, Jaraslav begins to mumble a command, " Activate Command, Lift Level 2 Block, Short Circuit! "

He'd lean towards the row of LEDs in their triggering pattern. As his body had been energized, overloading the LEDs as it leads to a cascading sequence from two directions. Small glass projectiles from the lights converting the interior edges of the building into a minefield of shards. More land deeper but failed to match the concentration from the sources. Other lights and arcade machines begin to die. Everything then shuts their power off by force.