SPILLAGE OF CORRUPTION
Tear's mind was filled with agony and despair as she struggled to retain what little consciousness she had at that moment.
The nightmare had happened right before her eyes, and she herself would be consumed by her own nightmare. She heard Hilla leaving her with a possessed Kyle. She could not open her eyes, and heard energy cackling, presumably Kyle charging his powers to finish her off once and for all. She had no chance - or even will, for that matter - to fight back. As she slowly lost her consciousness, her mind kept repeating to herself.
Why Kyle, why?
Then, she felt as if someone had swooped down, grabbed her body and darted forward. Strong winds blew past her, as she heard a violent crash of debris behind as though a large object had crushed everything that was there. And then it was all dark and silent.
When Tear came to, she felt dizzy. She heard unfamiliar siren in a distant, and people speaking hastily in Pantheose. She felt herself lying on something soft, and that she seemed to be transported somewhere by that something. Then she fell unconscious again.
When Tear came to a second time, she felt very warm in wherever she was in. She was no longer on the move, but she was still lying on the same softness. Was she in the Afterlife? Was this what death felt like?
Her head still felt heavy, but she was in a much better condition. She tried opening her eyes, but everything was so blinding that she closed her eyes again. Slowly, she got used to the brightness, and opened her eyes again.
She seemed to be on a bed, and she was lying along with other people in a ward of sorts. These people were mostly severely injured. She looked down upon herself. Her Buster suit was already stained with dried blood, while she herself was bandaged at several areas. She looked at her arm to see that the IV was administered to her; there was a needle through her right arm which was connected with a tube to a bag of liquid hung on a pole. Compared to some of the injuries sustained by her fellow patients, hers was relatively light - she was still alive.
Her bed was directly adjacent to the big windows and she looked outside. The city was so different from how she perceived it when she first came to this world. It was clearly torn apart, with enraging blazes through buildings and skyscrapers, while a battle between the Black Mage's forces and the military of this world raged on. More buildings were still collapsing down as she saw attack projectiles flying everywhere.
Tear did not know what had happened. In her mind was a slew of events that happened so fast and her memory was a pile of mush.
And Kyle, oh Kyle. Tear could only weep as she thought of the events that transpired. Several more injured people were rushed into her ward, and on the television was a series of urgent news reports about the attack on the city, but she could not care less. She could not take her mind off him. How did all of this happen? How could she have expected that she would lose him so quickly?
Tear had had a rosy vision of her with Kyle. She had previously admired Kyle when she took on the role of the Kaiser, even when she herself was likewise taking up an equally important role. But her love for him only grew the moment they got swept into the reality. That was one of the few times she got intimate with him, and the lovey-dovey decorations all around town certainly made her feel even more dazed by her closeness with Kyle. She had wholeheartedly believed and supported him when he said he would find a way to get both of them out. Tear was going to confess her feelings to Kyle the moment they were both back at Grandis, and she swore she had noticed Kyle wanting to do the same to her.
But these were all gone now. She was even more heartbroken as her mind drifted towards when Kyle started attacking her. Kyle had already turned, and he could no longer recognise her. Gone were their good memories together with each other. Gone were their dreams and aspirations as part of the Heliseum Force, which were still part of her motivation even after Velderoth's departure. Gone were any hope at all for the two of them to be together. Forget about going back to Grandis, Tear did not even know if there would be a way to get back the Kyle she had always known and loved.
As she continued to think of that tragic moment, her mind started to grow curious.
Who saved her?
She was certain that there was nobody close enough that could save her back in Lotte World, as most people have already fled from there. It could never have been Hilla, or one of her own minions for that matter. So who did it?
The light in her ward turned off as Tear lied back down, unable to do anything to help with the situation outside. She had not felt so helpless before in such a situation. Back in Grandis, she had been hailed as the idol of the battlefield as she confronted and put down numerous invasions. In this world, she was merely a nobody.
Kyle could not fathom how powerful he was in this world. He had been endlessly confronted by strange machines in the reality that meant to take him down, but each time they approached and attacked him, he merely shrugged them off. The newfound power within him was so overwhelming, a dozen times more than that at the time he realised his original Kaiser powers, and it disintegrated these machines and infantries trying to defend the city. But of course, they were no match for him, after all, or even Hilla's own minions.
The only thing imperfect was that he could not help Hilla kill off her rival, the renowned battlefield idol. He wanted her to suffer from a powerful blow to her fragile body, but someone else rushed before him and grabbed her, soaring away after that. He moved so fast that Kyle was not able to get a good look of him.
'Who was he?' Kyle thought. But his thoughts did not last long, for more land and flying machines were coming to attack him. He cut each and every one of them before he heard his own lover calling out to him.
'Heeey loverboy, let's leave this place and let my minions finish the work shall we?'
Near Hilla, Magnus felt like he was about to puke.
'Really, Hilla?' Magnus questioned her actions.
'Oh there you are….Hey, don't judge me!' Hilla snapped, 'I already said Kaiser will be mine!'
'Whatever, let's get back to business shall we?'
Magnus was still sitting on the bench as Hilla inadvertently went to where he was sitting. She was commanding her minions to commence the attack on Lotte World and subsequently the whole city, and when she moved out of Lotte World she did not notice him sitting at the entrance. The dark Kaiser slowly levitated his way to them before descending to the ground.
Hilla walked over to the dark Kaiser, who by then had already transformed back to a soulless Nova man. She kissed him on the cheek, and sensually whispered, 'Good job, honey. I drooled a little just from seeing you…'
'STOP IT!'
'Okay, okay, geez Magnus, can't people roleplay a bit longer?'
'Well if you do that one more time I swear to our master that I will….. Oh. Hello, Kaiser,' Magnus turned to cynically greet Kyle as he saw him there.
Kyle, still a bit dazed from his lover's kiss, did not immediately recognise Magnus. He only got back to himself after Magnus stood up, walked over to him and patted him on the shoulder, 'Did quite a bit of work there, Kyle-ssi. I hope your date went well!'
Aside, Hilla folded her arms and shook her head. 'Tsk tsk tsk, look who's trying to roleplay now, dimwit.'
'Says the one who just made the Kaiser her boyfriend,' Magnus fired back, 'But enough of that, what's our next plan? And Kyle, since you're here, you're one of us now.' Kyle merely blankly nodded.
'Hmm…' Hilla thought for a bit. She and Magnus had already covered Seoul, what next? They had only received directives from their master the Black Mage about a very vague mission when they were similarly thrown into the reality. For all that Hilla knew, they had already completed theirs, one a little bit too easy for them, for in the past they had to deal with a considerable resistance that is the Maple Alliance whenever they launched attacks. It was one of those times when she felt there was nothing to do.
Just as she was about to toy with Kyle again to deliberately provoke Magnus - she loved Magnus as a rival, and to be able to toy against him was her second most enjoyable things to do for her - Magnus had signalled them to him, for he had felt something vibrate within his pocket. He had pulled the source of this vibration - a smartphone - out from his pocket, indicating a message from Whatsapp.
'I forgot to tell you guys that the peeps of this world got their very own special gadget for communication and thanks to whomever I just took form of I learned of the existence of this thing. And this message is coming from… wait who's…"
'Lemme see this!' Hilla impatiently snatched the phone from Magnus. She tried to flick the phone a little bit but she could not figure out how to get it to work.
'Oh, you're hopeless, Hilla!' Magnus snapped as he snatched the phone back and flicked to reveal the conversation. This is…. from Damien! And one from Orchid too!'
Kyle stretched his neck from their backs to get a good look at the phone's screen, wanting to learn about this curious little gadget. The header of this particular conversation read 'The Commanders of the Black Mage'. Magnus read out the two messages that were on there.
'Met with strong resistance. Recuperating with the Lion King now. Beware of the girl with unimaginable powers…...'
Magnus and Hilla felt strange seeing Damien's message. Meanwhile, Orchid's message below made them feel even stranger, though not before feeling amused at first because it came with little images of a generic angry expression.
'I almost got killed this time! That bitch will pay for it! :-('
'I can't get through her powers though…'
'I think they had trouble at their places…...' Kyle remarked.
'Eyy… bunch of weaklings, I knew their powers are no match for ours,' Magnus sneered.
'Ours, Magnus? More like my own powers you lazy slob! And my own plans that you said were crappy!' Hilla retorted. 'Arkarium hasn't reported on his progress though, fat chance he got killed at his place already, that poor bastard.'
Magnus shrugged off Hilla's complaints and typed in a message. 'Messed them up. Magnus did all the work.'
'What the hell, man?! Gimme that!' For a good half-minute, Kyle stared blankly at the awkward situation while Magnus and Hilla got into a fight for ownership of the phone, and were only stopped when Magnus accidentally pressed the Send button, so that the actual message sent out was 'Messed Hilla alkl upp. Magnuz did all thge work.'
'Look what you did now!' screamed Hilla.
'No, look what you did now!' Magnus yelled back.
Kyle got a little impatient. Even in the reality Hilla and Magnus could not stop fighting over small things. Deciding he would take matters in his own hand, he snatched the phone over, and with a few quick taps sent a message to sort things out. '*Invaded this town. No resistance whatsoever.'
However, just as he had sent the message to the chat group, one popped up from an anonymous user.
'Who's this?' Kyle gave the phone back to the two Commanders who finally stopped fighting each other.
'This….. No idea,' said Magnus. Hilla also shrugged signalling her ignorance. The message here, however, was clear.
'It's time for me to take charge,' read the message.
'Last night, the capital city of South Korea, Seoul, faced a terror attack of an unprecedentedly large scale which tore down a few notable buildings in the capital. The government of South Korea has reportedly mobilised most of the country's military forces against this attack but to almost no avail. Officials alleged that the attack came from an unknown source that may even be otherworldly…'
On the screen, scenes of a war-torn metropolis flashed before Ruriko's eyes. She stared at the screen, stunned by an image she would not have imagined would happen to a city where a catastrophe would very unlikely occur, and unable to continue packing her clothes in preparation for a trip to the country in which that catastrophe had happened.
From further away, Claudine stared at the screen, frowning. There was no mistaking it. It was Hilla's and Magnus's own troops. She partly admired the technology that the military of the reality had used against them, comparing it with that of the Resistance back at Edelstein, but they were clearly no match for the otherworldly army that had inherited the Black Mage's powers.
'If the army of this world chooses to stubbornly fight on, the Black Mage's army will soon outnumber them. The city will fall at this rate,' Athena shook her head and declared.
Neinheart stared at the screen too along with them. As the scene progressed, he pointed to a figure that stood tall and proud. The military of this world seemed to be focusing their efforts on him, assuming that he was the commander of this disastrous invasion, but alas, he swatted the machines down with his mighty sword like flies.
'Isn't that… Kaiser?' Athena questioned. Indeed, the unique armour of the Dragon Warrior glistened under sparks of light, with the glorious wings flapping behind it and the tail crackling with power while his mighty Kaiserion swung without effort in putting down resistance against him. There was just one thing not right: he was all black in colour.
'And he's fighting…... alongside the Black Mage's army!' Athena gasped at this realisation.
The revelation shocked the others, and even Neinheart raised an eyebrow.
'Hilla and Magnus may not be able to win against the forces of the reality, but with Kaiser it's a different case. I am not sure how they were able to get Kaiser to fight for them, but it really seems like they're hell bent on taking the city,' said Neinheart.
'Look at the colour of his armour, Neinheart. I am pretty sure he was corrupted by the commanders,' said Claudine. Neinheart nodded in concurrence.
'That's one more enemy we will have to face…' said Xenon.
Meanwhile, Ruriko retrieved her phone and decided to inform Soro and Nami about the attack, swiftly tapping on her phone to send the message out.
A few moments later, a notification sound came from her phone, and she checked to see the messages that came on WhatsApp.
'You're not alone here,' read the first one.
A/N: Admittedly, things got real busy these past few months, and I barely managed to squeeze a chapter into all of this time.
I must also admit, that in this chapter, the swing of atmosphere is rather unprecedented even for me. I had noted to myself that I needed to make Tear's scenario as tragic as possible, yet at the same time for the scene of Hilla and Magnus, I couldn't think of any other way to present it except in a comedic manner. So... there you have it.
Now, the good news is, I have an outline set for the subsequent chapters, though not all of them. That should be able to speed up my pace of updating provided that I don't procrastinate.