The Immortal of Zero

Chapter VIII: The Dream II

That night, after the interesting encounter with Wardes, Louise had another dream about her familiar.

*Louise's Dreamworld - ?*

She was walking through the desert, in Kai's body. Accompanied by her was Kai's wife and her servant; Evangeline A.K. McDowell - Deathstone and Chachamaru Karakuri. Both of them wore black cloaks, completely unconcerned by the heat. At the distance, a small town was visible.

"You know, you could've picked a nice location for our honeymoon, Nate." said Evangeline, yawning while walking. Before they left the Academy, they had a few minutes talk with the Temporary Holy Magic Minister named Ultimatum, they recieved their mission to gather allies from different dimensions, individuals with abilities far surpassing the limits, and determination of untold possibilities. A special force is needed to defeat Ryu-Kai and his disciples. So far, they had recruited Evangeline's classmates(which was met with animosity from the Ministry, until Ultimatum was on the recieving end of Asuna's Artifact Hama no Tsurugi, which shuts them up.); Negi Springfield, their teacher; Takamichi T. Takahata; and the whole Kansai Magic Association, led by one of the members of Ala Rubra, Eishun Konoe, though they left Konoemon back at Mahora; the old man can't leave the Academy's business alone...that and the fact that he kept his granddaughter and Kai into an arranged marriage, much to Kai, Konoka, and Evangeline's displeasure.

"Well, if Ryu-Kai was defeated, then we could have a normal honeymoon." replied Kai, his Golden Diamond shining in the desert sun.

"Master Nate, Master Evangeline, we have arrived at the town." said Chachamaru, before they stopped at the village entrance, which oddly enough was devoid of people.

"Chachamaru, can you sweep the town? Maybe the townsfolk are hiding. We need to know why they are hiding." said Kai. On the moment he said that, Chachamaru flew upward, looking at the entire town.

The gynoid then flew downward towards them. "Master, there seems to be trouble at the church near here." she said.

"Will Holy presence have an effect on me?" asked Evangeline warily.

"When you were married to me, all vampiric weakness, even if you're a Shinso, are all gone. The Pactio we did will give you a boost in all your powers." smiled Kai, before they all went towards the church, Evangeline smiling at that information her husband gave her.

The scene changed, and Louise stood before the unconcious bandit, right behind her was a middle-aged man wearing a swallow-tail suit, starting to get up. Evangeline cackled loud when she froze the two remaining bandits, who were trying to get away from Kai. Chachamaru stood before a pig-tailed girl, trying to help her up.

"Even in this world, violence still exist. How annoying." muttered Kai, as the middle-aged man stand up. One moment later, they both crossed swords; the man had a strange sword out, clashed with Kai's Zatetsuken. "Seems that you're fine now."

"Who the hell are you? Are you with them?" grunted the man in a swallow-tail suit. He retracted his sword, and it became a sash on his waist. Kai did the same to his Zatetsuken, only he willed it to vanish.

"Did you just realized that we saved your butt? You would've been dead if we haven't stepped in." replied Kai, as though nothing had happened. Both men turned to Chachamaru and the pig-tailed girl, who was bowing before them. Evangeline came and joined her husband, after freezing the third bandit and tossing the three of them out of the church.

"Thank you for saving us! We would have been goners if you haven't helped us. Even that man-" pointed at the middle-aged man. "-was having trouble because that third bandit got behind him. My name is Wendy Garnett." bowed the young lady. In her right hand was an old-model magnum. She had green eyes, like Evangeline.

"Think nothing of it, girlie. Anyway.. where are the people here? Did they evacuate somewhere?" said Evangeline, eyeing the magnum. Ever since the Mahora Festival, she had been a fan of Negi's Antique collection, the gun in this girl's hand was rare.

"Now now, Eva-chan... don't scare the girl with those eyes." smiled Kai, and Evangeline looked at him. a grin appeared in her face.

The scene changed again, and Louise was now standing the top of a broken structure, overlooking a large, metal golem, pointing it's arms at them.

"Hey Vann.. how about you take care of that Armor, while me and my group protect the citizens?" Kai said, pointing at one of the broken rooms, where Wendy, Evangeline, Chachamaru, and most of the villagers were hiding. "This way, you can finish him for disrupting your lunch yesterday." he grinned at this.

'Lunch?' thought Louise, frowning at this statement.

"Whatever.." Vann said, before turning to the 'Armor'. "You and your so-called 'Luck' have run out!" he added, turning his large hat by the ring 180 degrees to the other side. Holes appeared in his sword in different sizes, and there was a surge of lightning at it. He then made a V-shaped slash in the air in front of him.

Louise gasped, as the 'Armor' launched some kind of Blazing Fire spell at Vann, only to be blocked by something. She realized that Kai hasn't moved from his position to help him, as he was busy maintaining an invisible barrier, surrounding him and the other civilians. An explosion occured, hiding the man in view, clouds of dust envelop the place he's standing on.

'What kind of magic is that! More importantly, how did that man survive that attack without even falling from where he's standing? And what's with that sword? Is it made of Magic, that he can adjust to the situation?' thought Louise, as the dust cleared, and a white golem, much different from the 'Armor' that attacked the man. 'Where did that...that thing came from! I swear that one wasn't there before.' she added, as she marveled at the golem's almost human appearance. It even has a sword on it's right 'hand'.

"Lucky... give back my Lucky! PLEASE!" said the red 'Armor', pointing an arm at the white golem.

"No way." said Vann's voice, from the white golem, as the golem stanced it's sword at the 'Armor'.

The scene changed again, as Louise was now looking at Vann, holding the leader of the bandits named Lucky by the scruff of his neck. Yet there's something wrong here; Lucky was shaking and choking at Vann's hold, as the man himself was beside rage when the bandit said something to him about the Armor. Evangeline was beside her, looking absolutely disgusted after she heard the bandit's answer. Chachamaru was busy helping the Mayor open the broken vault; the mall that they had taken refuge against the bandits had taken damage, and the bank inside it was almost destroyed by the two Armors fighting. The only thing intact inside was the vault, but the locking mechanism was damage, and there's no way they could open the vault without the Gynoid's help.

The scene changed yet again, and Louise was running up the metal tower using the walls(no pun intended). She was accompanied by the middle-aged man wearing the swallow-tail suit. They were rushing upward towards the top floor of the tower, where there's an open window, it's curtain billowing in the wind.

"We need to hurry. The girls are in big trouble, knowing that Baron's skyscraper-up-his-ass look, I doubt it's something they can get away easily." said Kai, jumping upward now and then, to quicken his pace.

"You're right.. Carmen and I also saw a part of an Armor inside one of the Bridge's support columns.." panted Vann, trying to keep up, using his sword as a hook.

They have arrived at the open window, into an office. It almost looks like Osmond's own chambers, except almost every inch of the room was tailor-made to look practically royal. Louise stared in wonder, as she now moved towards the desk, where almost all the documents were scattered on the floor by the open window. Vann was busy looking over at the books, which is mainly about metalworks, especially Adamantium.

"It's safe to say, that he's really devoted on creating sturdier metal." said Vann, tossing a book behind him, as he then took another book, and skim through it. "I can understand how terrorist couldn't blow up the bridge, even if they have a thousand dynamite ready to take out 3 blocks of street."

"Hey Vann. What does that part of the Armor look like?" asked Kai, who was looking at the documents he picked up from the floor. It read 'Confidential - Top Secret; For your Eyes Only!' and 'Operation: Metal Utopia'. The first page consisted of a blueprint of a Warship-type Armor, with a ship as it's mobility.

"Err... yeah... I think it was the arm we saw.. It's kind of thick.. like wearing a gauntlet-like component itself." replied Vann, struggling to remember the details of what he and Carmen saw.

"Gauntlet-like component in the arm? You are sure about it?" said Kai, as he casually looked at the blueprints again, then at Vann. The middle-aged man only nodded. Kai dropped the documents. "Let's go.. Carmen and Wendy is in danger." He then went towards the door.

"What about your wife...Eva-something...and that weird girl with you?" said Vann, slightly worried about his charge. But Kai didn't reply at this, as he went out of the door. Vann groaned, then followed him out.

The scene changed again, and Louise now faces the 'Armor' that Kai was talking about; the upper part of the golem on top of a ship, with it's cannons pointing at her. She was holding Kai's Zatetsuken, as Vann's 'Armor' was stuck on the walls of the bridge, with metal that glued the golem there.

"Vann.. You know, you can get out of that wall... You said that you would be the one that will beat that fake Mayor." smirked Kai, pointing the Zatetsuken at the golem ship, as though using the sword as a medium for the invisible barrier, in case that the conflict would go out of control.

"Come on boya, make him suffer, or I will." grinned Evangeline, as she was maintaining a bridge of ice for the female prisoners of the Fake Mayor to cross over the chasm. The deployment of the 'Armor' ship almost destroyed the bridge that connects the middle together. Chachamaru was firing at the ship using some kind of large rifle, like the Princess of Tristain's gunpowder squad uses. Each shot fired lets off a loud sound that could break windows if on point-blank range.

"Master, I have confirmed that the Armor is made of Adamantium. However, it would take an Adamantium-based weapon to damage it." said Chachamaru, still firing the rifle in rapid succession.

"Chachamaru, convert to Anti-Adamantium-Based AP Bullets." said Kai, as his barrier was bombarded by a series of magma-like bombs, from the 'Armor' itself.

"Yes, Master. Applying Anti-Adamantium-Based AP Bullets." replied Chachamaru. The gynoid fired a shell at the 'Armor', which is more powerful than usual. The operators, plus the fake Mayor, laughed at this attempt on their 'Strongest Armor in the World', only to leave them in shock, as the shell pierced through the 'Armor's left shoulder, destroying the left arm altogether.

"Vann... you know, you're missing out on the fun." said Evangeline suddenly, looking at the 'Armor' battleship that got damaged by Chachamaru's Anti-Adamantium shot. Louise was dumbstruck by the sheer power of the rifle alone.

Then, the scene changed yet again, and now, Louise now lay in a bed, inside of a white room, similar to an infirmary at the Academy. She tried to move her arms, but can't because the body she's using wasn't moving at all. She then got up from the bed, thinking Kai is now conscious, then looked around at the infirmary room: there were strange machinations attached to the bed, some of them had wires attached on her body; there was a cloth stand where a royal-blue trench coat hung; a small cabinet-like device on the corner; a chair facing the bed she had got up from; a door to her right, and in front of her; and a table with a basket of various fruits on top of it.

"I wouldn't get up if I were you." said a voice, as Kai looked around. The door opened to reveal a green-haired teen looking at him. He was wearing a plain white polo shirt, and dark green shirt, similar to his eyes. His scowl-like look merely showed concern for the patient. Kai was looking at his visitor, ignoring the bandaged wounds on his waist. "You were pretty banged-up, before you were sent here."

"I take it as you were the one who sent me here?" asked Kai, as he began to grope his trench coat for his weapons and his Pactio cards.. Thankfully, it was still there. "Thank you for caring for me, Mr..." he added, but halted as he did not know the stranger's name.

"Ueki. Ueki Kyousuke. And don't mind it at all. I help people in need anyway." said the young man, shrugging as he went inside his room, and sat down on his bedside chair. Kai went back to his bed, laying down. "Anyway, how did you end up with those injuries? A normal person would've died from that." he said, curious.

'Injuries?' "Y-yeah.. I sort of...got rumbled upon by hoodlums in this place." said Kai sheepishly, but Louise knew that her familiar was lying. Ueki, on the other hand, took it without complaining.

"I know what you mean. There's so much injustice in this town, I could bump into a trouble-making group at least five times." sighed Ueki, as he took a fruit from the basket on top of the table next to his bed.

"Do you...err... fight these delinquents on a daily basis?" said Kai, frowning at Ueki's casual tone on violence as though he does this on a daily basis.

"No way! I have no choice but to fight! Do you realize how many victims got sent to hospitals if those creeps went around unchecked?" the green-haired young man retorted. Louise sensed that this person wouldn't let the bad guys roam free, even if he got killed in the process. In short, he was one of those 'Protect, no matter what!' persons, like Kai. If he had magic, he would've been a Square-Class Noble, upholding the wishes of Princess Henrietta without question.

"Alright.. I get it." Kai raised his hands, as though surrendering to his ideas.

"Man, Ai is late. She was suppose to bring Rinko and that towel-head here." groaned Ueki, after he finished eating the fruit he took from the basket.

"Towel-head?" asked Kai, curious.

"Seiichirou Sano. I call him towel-head, because he likes hot springs, and he wants to find the best one. He keeps wearing a towel on his head." chuckled Ueki, taking another fruit from the basket.

"Yeah, and you'll still be lawn-head to me." smirked a voice. On cue, both of them looked at the door, and saw four people there; a tall young man with black hair, maintained by a hot spring towel wrapped there; a tall young woman with glasses, with magenta-shade hair tied in twin-ponytails; a short young woman with aquamarine-blue hair, with red-rimmed glasses that held her hair to reveal a large forehead; and another tall young man, with big, pale-blue eyes, short blonde hair, and a bandage on his forehead. All of them were wearing their casual suits, except for the blonde man, who was wearing a suit.

"Hey guys...Wait, why is Robert here?" said Ueki, looking at the four of them.

"Well, I was in the neighborhood, so I decided to visit. Your sister said that you were here, visiting, so I went here. I met these guys downstairs." said Robert, smiling. Ueki and Robert were both enemies in the past, until they went past their differences, and become the best of friends, at least, that's the deduction Louise have thought of.

"Master, it's time to wake up." said Kai's voice, oblivious to the dream.

Louise woke up, then sat up on her bed. She looked around, and saw her familiar standing there beside her bed. Kai was wearing the same identical suit as the one he wore in the dream.

"Good morning, Master. Did you have a nice dream?" he said in a concerned tone.

"I'm fine. What time is it?" asked Louise, yawning as she stretched her arms to dispel her tired aura from her body.

"It is 6:00 in the morning. But that is not what concerns me. A letter arrived at your doorstep, with the insignia of the Princess." said Kai, as he held the envelope with the seal of the Tristain Royal Family.