Another day and another chapter am I right? Now the week is coming up so I might not be able to put these out day after day but maybe every other day. I have a job you know :/. But come the weekend again and I'll be back at full speed.
As Emilia and Ryan walked through the slums the sun was setting and it was casting an orange glow. They both were walking down a dirty and littered street and Ryan was visible nervous and Emilia turned to look at him.
She saw him quickly glance from every piece of trash that littered the street almost as if he was looking for something she wasn't. She didn't know what was wrong with and didn't like the nervous look on his face, so she spoke up.
"Um… Ryan? Are you okay?" Emilia asked in a concerned tone
Hearing her voice caused Ryan to jump a little until he realized what he had been doing
"Fuck we're not back there man get your shit together" Ryan thought to himself
"Uh yeah, I'm alright I just really don't like trash you know? Really dirty and ichy stuff" Ryan said trying to play it off
Emilia wasn't buying it but decided to believe Ryan against her better judgment and spoke up to him again.
"Do you think anyone around her might know this Felt girl?" She asked him
As Ryan looked around the street and the houses they were passing all he saw were the eyes of the inhabitants living there staring at both Emilia and him as if they didn't belong there and that they were trespassers in their own cut off part of the capital.
"It is possible, but I get the funny felling from the vibe around here that no one might be willing to talk to us. But again, I guess all we have to do is just find someone friendly and they might be willing to talk to us." Ryan replied
Emilia nodded agreeing with Ryan as they continued to walk down the dirty slum street. As they kept walking, they saw a man who was sitting on the porch of his house noticeably intoxicated. Ryan stopped and looked at the man when he spoke to Emilia
"This has got to be our guy. The nice friendly drunk, it's a classic." Ryan said to Emilia
"Ryan" she said glancing at the drunk man "Are you sure about this? He doesn't seem very dependable, and he doesn't even look like he knows where he is right now" Emilia said doubting Ryan
"Look Emilia I've done this before and trust me guys like him nine times out of ten are likely the ones that are most willing to talk to you" Ryan said reassuring Emilia
"Just let me do the talking and I promise he will talk back to us" he said as he walked up to the drunk man
When he approached with Emilia close behind him the drunk man looked up both at them and smiled
"My, my. What a lovely couple. What are you two doing here? This isn't a place for a date." The drunk man said catching them both off guard with the idea that what they were doing was anything close to a date. Also, to the fact that they could be dating.
Emilia's face almost turned completely red at the thought and was about to scold the man before Ryan held up his hand to stop her. She saw that he was laughing at the thought before he composed himself to ask the man a question.
"I can assure you that we are not in any relationship and if anything, it is strictly a business one." Ryan said to the drunk man.
The man looked amazed that he was wrong about these two and that they were in fact not dating.
"Why waste your youth young man? Go after her while you have the chance before you end up like me" the man said in a deprecating way gesturing to his stained clothes and unkempt hygiene.
Ryan starting to blush slightly himself on the man's insistence that these two start dating was starting to get to him. Ryan quickly tried to get his emotions under check before asking the man the question he intended to.
"Listen like I said it's a business relationship and right now we're here for business. Can you help me look for a short girl with yellow hair and red eyes? Her name is Felt" Ryan asked
The drunk man pondered the thought before pointed further down the road the two were walking down
"She lives down that about two or so streets down. Go down there and you will find Felt den. If she's there try checking the shop close to it she goes there a lot too" The man says before taking a swig of his drink
Ryan gives the man a thumbs up "Thanks man I appreciate it"
The man returns the gesture and says "Live Strong"
Ryan nodded to him and walked away back down the street with Emilia next to him. Ryan leaned over and spoke to her
"See? Told you he would talk to us"
She puffs her cheeks a little before giving in and saying "Yes, I suppose you were right about that one thing"
Ryan smiled in satisfaction before they both continued down the street. As they did the sun was going down even further and it was starting to get dark out. After a while they didn't pass by anything that resembled a shop or a house that they could guess Felt lived in.
After walking for a couple of minutes Puck then appeared out of nowhere on Emilias shoulder.
"I would love to stay with you two but I'm almost out of time" he said drowsily leaning on Emila's cheek
"Out of time what to you mean?" Ryan asked confused
"I might be a cute face, but it takes a lot of manna for me to stay in a physical form, after all I am still a spirit. I tend to go back to my crystal late at night in case of emergencies or just to recover manna for the next day" Puck clarified
"Jeez, you sound just like a regular person working a nine to five" Ryan said jokingly
"We will be fine without Puck. Let's keep moving forward." Emilia said
Puck then yawned and began to disappear "Yell if you need me Emilia" he said before completely disappearing.
"Hopefully it wont come to that" Ryan said before walking down the road again with Emilia following behind him. After a while of walking again Ryan stopped as if releasing something and then turned to Emilia
"Okay so we know the general direction she lives and" and then he stretched his arms out to emphasize the area "but WHERE could she possibly live?" he said aggravated and them being so close yet so far from the thief
Emilia then spoke up "Well I could ask the lesser spirits." She said stopping completely
Ryan turned and looked at her "Wait you can use magic and talk to dead people?" he said amused by the idea
"Not dead people. Lesser spirits" she said clarifying on the term
"R-right, lesser spirits" Ryan said to her "but what are lesser spirits anyways?"
She spoke to him as if it was something to talk about "Lesser spirits are spirits that haven't become spirits yet" she said
"Okay, I can get that part" Ryan said at the rather childish explanation
Emilia continued "Over time they grow strength and self awareness and sooner or later end up a full spirit like Puck." She finished and then turned to closer her eyes and start to focus on something
Ryan observed Emilia as she then began to talk to herself in a hushed whisper where he couldn't hear from where he was standing. After a couple of seconds hundreds of tiny glowing blue orbs began to appear around Emilia causing her to also glow blue.
"Well, I'd be goddamned, if I had my phone with me, I'd take a picture of that" Ryan said regretfully remembering he left it back at the mansion in his assault pack.
Ryan looked around and observed the tiny glowing orbs around him taking in the sight as mesmerizing as it was for him. He then looked back at Emilia seeing that she stopped whispering and was now completely focusing on something.
Watching her Ryan couldn't help himself except almost be completely charmed by the sight. Not only was Emilia beautiful as she already was but the blue glow and the orbs around her only seemed to amplify that for Ryan.
After a moment the glowing orbs began to disappear and so did the blue glow around Emilia.
"Well, what did they say?" He asked her
"That way" she pointed down a street branching off from the one they were already walking on
"Well, maybe next time we talk to the spirits first?" Ryan said leading the way
"Doing that would draw to much attention to me so doing that here was the only safe place to do it" Emilia said in defense
Ryan nodded "Yeah that's fair" he said as he continued down the street.
After a long walk down the street the sun was now completely down and it was dark. As the continued down the street Emilia spoke up
"The lesser spirits told me that they saw someone that looked like Felt around in this direction"
Ryan raised an eyebrow "So they did huh? Kinda cool that you can talk to them like that. Kind of useful."
"It's nothing" Emilia simply responded
As the pair kept walking down the street Ryan saw a lone man with his walking toward them. He didn't look suspicious at all but when they began to cross both he and Ryan locked eyes in the dark.
"He looks like a guy who might know a thief I guess" Ryan thought
Ryan then stopped and turned and spoke up to get the man's attention
"Hey man, does a girl named felt live up in this direction?"
The man stopped and met Ryan's gaze.
"Huh? Felt?" He then stopped to think for a moment
"No, nothing in that direction except Old Man Rom's loot house" he then chuckled to himself slightly before talking again "Did Felt steal something from you guys? Well, you can try and go to negotiate it back. Live Strong." He ended by holding up his hand palm facing them.
Both Ryan and Emilia turned to look at each other puzzled by hearing this saying again. When they both looked back at the man he was already turned around and walking away again.
They then kept walking down the street now confidant that they were indeed heading in the right direction. When the darkness got too much to pair Ryan fished out a flashlight that he had in his vest. He clicked it on and placed it on the railing of his M4 giving them both the lighting they needed to traverse the street.
Emilia looked at Ryans flashlight shining brightly in the dark lighting up everything he pointed his M4 at.
"Is that another thing of science?" She asked
Ryan turned to her and said "Yeah basically, trust me it's not magic"
They then kept walking until the came up to a big looking building. When Ryan pointed his M4 at it the flashlight revealed a sign and on it read.
"Rom's loot house" Ryan said out loud causing Emilia to look at the sign as well.
"My insignia has got to be in there then!" she said with renewed determination
As they approached the front door Ryan got a bad feeling.
"Hey Emilia, how about you let me go in first and you keep watch outside while I go and negotiate with Old Man Rom?"
Emilia looked at Ryan and after only about two seconds she agreed
"Alright, I'll leave it to you"
Ryan was surprised at how quickly she replied and agreed with him.
"Really just like that?" he asked
Emilia nodded "Yes, seeing deal with people and figure out where this place even was is something I respect. If anything, it seems you have more skill with people than I do" she replied
"Aww, don't go saying something like that if you're the future to be queen. But I do appreciate you putting your faith back into me." He said as he began to walk up the steps
"Be safe Ryan you don't know who this guy is" she said to him before he reached for the doorknob
"That's what this is for" as he slightly lifted his M4 "if you'll know if I get into trouble" he said referring the loud bang that she would hear.
She nodded and then Ryan turned and opened the door to enter the shack.
As he entered, he closed the door behind him only to realize just dark it was In the shack.
"Jesus some electricity wouldn't kill this place" he said as he pointed his M4 around illuminating the inside of the shop with his flashlight.
The shelves inside of the place were filled with all sorts of random items and books. What caught Ryan's eyes were some suits of full armor next to an assortment of melee weapons. Seeing these got Ryan to remember yet again that he wasn't back home and was now in a far different type of place.
"Cool, yet pretty fucking weird" he said as he continued to shine the light on his M4 around seeing even more items lying around and littering the shop
"You would think for a place like this in the slums someone would at least be here to guard it people like that little thief. But I guess this is where thieves come to sell their stolen goods." He said inspecting a creepy doll that was sitting upright on a shelf almost staring at him
As Ryan continued to search the front on the shop, he smelt something almost familiar.
The same exact smell Rick's body had.
"Don't fucking tell me" Ryan thought to himself now on edge and his heartbeat picking up
Ryan swept his flashlight across the room, and he found a thick red puddle of liquid. He already knew what the liquid was thought before his brain had time to process the thought.
"Blood" he said quietly to himself "but who's?" he said as he followed the trail of it up to the source.
What he saw was a giant of a man with his hand outstretched to a club equally as giant as himself. When Ryan fully shined his light on the man he finally knew who the blood belonged to.
The giant man was slumped over his back leaning against the main counter of the shop. Blood was leaking out of his mouth and nose dripping into his lap and off into the puddle adding to the mess it was making. He also saw that the man's torso had been gutted open letting the foul smell of his insides leak out and flood the room.
Ryan slowly started to back up and flicked the switch on his M4 to full auto.
"Jesus fuck looks like some shit a cartel would do" he said now out loud no longer to himself
As Ryan was backing up he heard a feminine voice behind him that caused him to jump.
"Oh my, you found that? Too bad, guess I have no choice now" the voice said adding a sense of fear to Ryan
Ryan as fast as he's ever moved before in his life spun around to try and shine his light on the voice. All he saw was a glint shining off from his flashlight before it quickly came at him knocking him down to the ground.
Air was knocked out of Ryan's lungs as he was launched to the floor hard, also causes him to lose grip on his M4. Disorientated Ryan quickly tried to get himself back up when he noticed how weak his body had gone.
The more he moved the more something felt wrong with his body and when he reached down to feel what the warm sensation was building up on his stomach his hand went through his vest.
"What the fuck?" he thought in disbelieve "what the fuck even could do that?" he said questioning the reality of the situation.
To add even more to his fear when he reached his fingers through the slit cut open in his vest, he felt something very warm, and a lot of it. Ryan brought his hand up to inspect it only to see it was completely drenched in blood.
His blood.
With his heart beating against his chest only allowing more blood to squirt out from his wound Ryan reached for his M4 before his body began to fail him.
"Sh-…shit" was all Ryan could say before reaching his hand up to his coughing mouth. Blood began building up in his throat and up to his mouth with every cough only adding to Ryan's fear.
"My fucking lungs are punctured. Fuck, I'm fucking fucked now."
Before Ryan could even think to yell out to Emilia, to warn her somehow Ryan's body now had completely failed him. Blood rushing into his lungs and out of his stomach both drowning him in his own blood while bleeding out. All Ryan could do was fall to the ground again and have his final thoughts.
"After all of this bullshit and I die in some fucking slum in the dark. I'm sorry Rick, I don't think I'll be able to make your burial after all."
Just then as Ryan was beginning to fade out, he heard the front door to the shop open.
"No. Fucking no! Stay away! Fucking run from here you stupid bitch!"
In walked Emilia calling out to Ryan "Ryan are you in here? Ryan, where are you?" She said cluelessly walking into her own demise
"G-.. get the fuck.. away" Ryan weakly got out not even above a whisper
As Emilia walked closer to Ryan she stopped suddenly and halfway turned her head behind her. Just then as quickly as it happened to Ryan, Emilia fell to the ground with a massive pool of blood coming out from her stomach.
It appeared as she died before she even hit the floor. Unlike her Ryan's vest possible saved him from instant death only to leave him in a more agonizing one.
Shock and then anger appeared on Ryan's face now seeing this once beautiful women now laying dead in a pool of her own blood. Ryan now quickly lapsing in and out of the dark that was trying to take him reached out for Emilia only to grab her hand.
"Sor- sorry.. I'm so sorry" he managed to get out while squeezing her hand as if it would bring her back to life. Then slowly, the darkness began to creep up on Ryan until he could no longer ignore it.
Closing his eyes, he was then fully swallowed by it.
I know some of you probably thought Ryan would stand a good chance against her but come on. Yes he is a soldier with more training and experience than any other regular person but he was ambushed in the dark by someone who could move far faster than any person from his world. I don't plan to give him any outrages plot armor or use my knowledge of the story to make him OP. He will learn with each try just like anyone would.