Chapter 57: An Eventful Dark Moonlight
=Back at the Skeleton Fort/Castle=
Hilda was in her room, seated on her bed, silently reading a book. She still felt depressed and bad about what had happened earlier, even after David had accepted her apology. She stood up, put her book down and approached the closed window to see David. He was looking into the horizon, as if focusing his eyes on something for afar. She felt very concerned as she silent thought about what to do now.
"I already apologized to him...and yet I still feel sad..." She thought sadly looking at the mirror distantly beside her. "What I did was idiotic... why... what's wrong with me?" She was in question of herself, her actions have taken a toll on her emotions.
Hilda's train of thoughts were interrupted by a soft knocking on her door.
"Come in." Hilda replied, as a female humanoid skeleton maid stepped inside the room.
"Good evening, Mistress Hilda." The skeleton maid bowed, before setting down the tray of biscuits and tea on Hilda's table beside her bed.
"Oh, hello." Hilda replied nonchalantly, a little sad perhaps.
"What's wrong, Mistress?" The skeleton maid had already noticed Hilda's sadness, as suspected by her position by the window and confirmed by the sadness of tone.
"Oh, hey... nothing's wrong." Hilda replied.
"I can tell from your eyes and tone, that something's wrong." The skeleton maid was very concerned about this, adolescent emotions can be quite hectic if one lets it to be burden.
"N-no...I'm alright." Hilda tried to cover it up as she turned to the maid. "Really. I'm fine."
The maid then joined Hilda's view of the window. "Is this about Sir David?" She referred to the knight who was now shining his sword down below with an oiled rag.
"Don't be ridiculous! It's...it a not like I...I...c-care for him." The Wither skeleton princess turned away and hid her face as her tears would boil up in her eyes.
"Right, I shall handle!" The maid declared loudly as she opened the window. "Sir David!" She called out, loudly, to the knight below.
"W-wait...what are you doing?! St-stop!" Hilda was very feeling nervous now and quite mad.
"Yes?!" This caught his attention as he turned from the oily rag and the blade, screaming to the maid.
"Would you mind coming here? It's an emergency!" The maid asked.
"Will do!" few moments after his reply, he suddenly levitated towards the window.
"What the hell?! Stop it!" Hilda would be on between rage and sadness as she tried controlling herself.
"What's up?" David was then in front of the maid, squatting down on the window pane, this made Hilda scream as she ran for her bed, stuffing her face on a pillow.
"Umm..." David grab a biscuit, feeling a bit hungry, before talking to the maid. "What's up with her now?" He only got a silent reply from the maid, but she did avert her eyes to Hilda before going back to David. "Hilda?" David understood as he approaching Hilda on her bed.
"Y-yeah?" With the pillows covering her face, Hilda her shame and sadness to David.
"Is something wrong?"
"N-no..."
"..." David fell into silence and sighed. "Really, you can tell me, I honor the code of honesty and privacy."
"N-Nothing is wrong D-David..."
"Alright..." Hilda then heard David unsheathe something from his belt. "If you don't tell me, I'll make myself bleed just to prove how honest I truly am..."
A few moments of silence again struck the room, with the maid still present. Hilda didn't seem to say anything at that point and David took note of her sudden shivers as she shook violently.
"Hilda..."
Hilda stood up and then removed the pillow from her face to reveal her eyes, which had been from her crying. Faster than a blink of an eye, David suddenly hugged her, gently.
"I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...I just can't forgive myself!" Hilda cried out, tearing on David's shoulders.
"Why can't you forgive yourself?" The knight tried to understood the princess' problem.
"Because... I just can't..." Hilda sniffled and sobbed as she tried not to look at David. "I betrayed you... so how I can ever forgive myself..."
"Oh Hilda..." He pulled away for a moment, taking off his helmet, revealing a face with slightly pale skin, dark red eyes, and dark gray hair. "No matter how severe the things you do, I know you were just lonely and all without me... in fact, I should be the one who's sorry since I made you feel like I'm not there anymore..." He hugged her tightly; warmth circling around him as he gently did so. "No matter what you had done, it's already over, and I forgive you, and I'll always try to understand you..." Hilda whimpered in response, sobbing softly, as she reciprocated his affection with a smile. "You can always tell me anything that affects you, and I'll try to understand them, since I'm your closest companion."
Hilda was quiet for a moment there, and David waited for an answer but got nothing. Curiously, he felt that she had gotten heavier, and that she was snoring slightly, he then realized that her own cries and tears had tired her out, while still hugging him.
"Miss Maid, can you please get her a blanket? This place is so huge; I could compare it to the labyrinth." David nicely gestured to the maid who was still there, and had apparent witnessed this emotional moment.
"Of course" The maid bowed and stepped out of the room, as David carefully and slowly carried and lifted Hilda back to her bed.
=Meanwhile=
Hayden, Ace, and Yuki were now seemingly lost, after about two hours of search throughout the misty graveyards.
"Well it's official." Ace sighed to them, as he looked at a gravestone. "We're getting nowhere."
"We have to face it, Kai may as well be dead with Willow and Silk." Yuki sighed in defeat, giving up on the search as she rested on the ground, touching the dirt.
Hayden was silent, with his eyes closed as he was thinking or tried feeling anything that was related to Kai's presence.
"My associate for got to mention something to you three." The blocky nuclear creeper spoke to them, as Yuki and Ace turned to him. "I think your friend might not be in this graveyard in anyway, but he might be in the nearby clinic...my associate forgot to mention that there was one." The nuclear creeper then noticed Hayden's silence. "Is your friend okay? I already told you the possibility of where he could be." This made Ace and Yuki turned to their silent friend.
"Hey Hayden." Ace tried to call his attention, as he got no response. "You in there?" Ace tapped Hayden on the back by still got no answer.
"Here..." The nuclear grabbed a fallen branch and gave to Ace. "Whack him to consciousness."
"Right." With the branch in his hands, Ace turned into a battle stance, with his attack going directly for Hayden's legs, who was still like a statue. Ace then pulled the stick back, and as it was about hit, Hayden caught it with his hands.
"Yes?" Hayden asked as Ace pulled the branch back.
"I think the nuclear creeper is onto something." Ace replied to the oblivious friend of his.
"Please explain, I was only paying half-attention, since I was... preoccupied." Hayden scratch his head.
"Just follow me you guys, I'll lead you three there." With that, Hayden nodded and Yuki stood up from the ground, as the nuclear creeper lead the way.
=Somewhere else...=
King Bones and Boom would now be busy finding locations for the upcoming, Mob Festival. Both of them would be roaming around the areas, along with their bodyguards and have stumbled upon a clear grass plain, next to a grey and roofed forest. It was also nighttime, so that meant; sunlight wasn't a problem to one of them.
King Boom appeared as a nice young man in his late twenties. He had shoulder length auburn colored hair, light tan skin, and red eyes. He wore an unzipped, golden colored sweatshirt with a black creeper face on the hood, a black shirt under it, dark green trousers, black combat boots and dark brown gloves. He also had a gas mask but it wasn't on his mouth and was wrapped around his neck.
Then there was King Bones who looked like a man in his mid thirties. He had long white hair that reached the mid-portion of his back, pale colored skin as if he had been dead for some time, black sclera along with black pupils and dark gray eyes. He wore a nice white trench coat that was unzipped and he used it as a cape as he also wore a long sleeve-skeleton looking white shirt, dark grey camo pants, black fingerless gloves which revealed his skeleton fingers, and grey camo boots . He also had a black and golden bow behind his back. Despite them being both kings, Bones was taller then Boom, as Boom stood at 5'8 and Bones was at 6'2.
Both kings would then stop in their tracks as they heard various sounds of battle (and gunfire) roaring in the distance within the forest.
"You heard that?" Boom asked Bones.
"Yeah, let's check it out..." Bones replied as he swiftly and silently ran to the scene, followed by Boom and the guards as they gestured for them to be quiet as well.
The two kings and their guards found themselves in a bush and tried to make out the situation. They both looked onto the scene, Boom took out a pair of binoculars, while Bones used his enchanted eye skeletal eyesight. Both kings and their guards saw a the massive battle between two factions of renegade mobs as they fought for territorial matters.
"Why am I not surprised..." Bones sighed, these matters were always mainly and mostly about possession of something or achieving something completely stupid.
"Wait..." Boom saw a mob from a faction turning into the opposite color of their suit. "... did that guy just change sides?"
"Tch, backstabbers, also known as assassins..." Bones sighed again, this wasn't an unusual sight in the battlefield, and someone is always bound to use deception, no matter what.
Then suddenly, a humanoid appeared wearing a dark suit wearing a skull on his head, he'd have a rose in one hand and a book in the other hand. Both sides looked at the seemingly brainless wonder, but they were soon about to find out they were wrong. Boom zoomed his binoculars and Bones narrowed his eyes, as they along with the guards watched, and they were alert and suspicious about this man.
"Good evening..." Greeted the skull humanoid. The villagers were silent and replied with a greeting, as the man's rose turned into a spiky flower. "Now die!"
And with that, he swung his rose as enchantments flew, then suddenly; sharp hails of ice came from every direction surrounding them. The renegades saw this, pointing their guns at the man, preparing to shoot as they were ready to fire. But before they could even pull the trigger, as the hails hit their guns, it instantly collapsed within their grasps. It took them a second to realize that they were defenseless, before they started running in panic and freaking out. They ran and ran from scene as the battlegrounds slowly turned deserted with used ammunition, some guns, some melee weapons and a few corpses.
"Cowards." The skull humanoid remarked, disappointingly. "You guys can come out now..." He turned to the direction of the two kings, and their guards, which made them freeze instantly.
"What the hell, how did he know?!" Boom asked his bony companion, surprised by this.
"Well... guess we can't hide any longer..." Bones slowly came out of the bushes, followed by Boom and the rest of the guards.
"Two kings." The skull humanoid sighed.
"What? You expected somebody else?" Bones asked, noticing the humanoid's disappointment.
"It's alright really, no one really expects two kings to be out here." Boom reassured Bones.
"And you have brought troops..." The skull humanoid looked at them, as they had themselves ready for combat. "For violence, I bet?"
"Violence? What do you think we are? Tyrants?" Bones seemed a little bit or rather hugely offended by this man's comment.
"My someone isn't quite bright..." Boom retorted as he sighed with Bones, seeing someone would say that.
"Don't take me for a fool." The humanoid skull said. "Infernal Scholars, such as I, know better than to scratch the mere surface." He spoke in metaphor, but the kings got the message thoroughly.
"Yes, but calling my friend and I tyrants isn't really smart." Boom replied. "Which I can assure you, we are not." The creeper king seemed to insulted too at this point.
"Then state your reason of presence."
"We're looking for a location for our upcoming Mob Festival."
"I suggest not here, perhaps."
"Yes." Bones agreed. "My friend and I were passing through until we heard the gunshots, of course that's when you showed up."
"I see, I think I know a better place." The skull humanoid said.
"Really?!" Boom asked in excitement.
"Of course, follow me..." The skull humanoid then gestured for both kings and their troops to follow, which both kings seemed to smile upon.
=Ace's POV=
The nuclear creeper lead us to a very strange clinic that was located next to the graveyards, it was actually underground too. It looked very bleak and creepy on the outside, but on the inside, it was very well maintained and looked very nice. From what I can tell, it was all made and crafted from natural materials from the Overworld, ranging from wooden logs to blocks of iron. Whoever built the place must've been a genius, since I've never seen quite a style like it, simple materials, yet good appearance.
"So you see, our associate is a very genius scientist." The nuclear creeper explained, in his human form, as we walked the halls from the reception.
"Dang, you don't see this in any castle..." I said in understatement of my shock, he wasn't kidding by the looks of things.
"I know." Yuki replied to my awe. "I want to meet whoever built this place."
"Mhm, and the best part is, he said it himself that he had made all this from scratch." The nuclear creeper said.
"From the looks of things, he seemed like a nice man." I glanced over at patients and various workers, all of them seemed content in this facility.
"Yes, he is." The nuclear creeper nodded.
"That one kinda reminds of Hayden." Yuki chuckled as she saw a blocky dark creeper with a bandaged head.
"Yeah, it does, am I right Hayden?" I asked him, but I got no response.
This made Yuki and I turn, only to see that our friend was no longer with us. Though the nuclear creeper just kept walking further, I just shrugged it off, I'm not worried, Hayden is capable of defending himself. The three of us continued on, until the nuclear creeper stopped in front of a muscular dude, who wore red-tinted goggle and his lab coat, which made him look very much like a scientist. But the military boots gave me another impression though...
"Hiya Geoff." The nuclear creeper greeted casually, in a very friendly way.
"Hi Quasar." The scientist greeted casually too, knowing that these guys must be buddies, both Yuki and I didn't know how to respond to this. "I see you've brought guests."
"Actually they're looking for a patient."
"Oh, then what's the name?" The doctor, who was tall by the way, looked at us with his question.
"Kai Spudera." I stated.
"With Willow and Silk Webs." Yuki added.
"Oh, follow me then, I'll take over from here Quasar." He gestured to the nuclear creeper, that everything will be handled by him, but to be honest I was more comfortable of the nuclear creeper than this guy. Both of us simply nodded and followed the guy.