THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR REVIEWS! 33333 here's the next chapter, ready for reading! i can't wait to write the next few parts! ugh, so many ideas, so slow fingers :P enjoy :)))
/
KYOTEN CRAP 15
"HEY! HO!" Harry starts singing out of nowhere, and they all jump in surprise and shock. They all look back, but the young boy doesn't notice any of their shocked faces since his eyes are closed as he is marching forward while continuing to sing his song.
"HEY! HO! Stand up, stand up if you love football! La la la!..." He trails off, and he skips ahead of Riccardo without even noticing that he is heading straight for a cliff.
"HARRY!" Jude shouts-no, screams as he runs forward to stop the boy from skipping to his death.
"Punching, punching!" Harry continues to sing, not noticing that the ground is getting somewhat more unstable. "No matter what the weather, it's sunny in our he-WAHHHHH!" His shriek sounds like Skie's as he suddenly sinks beneath the earth's surface, just right before the edge of the cliff. Everyone rushes to the huge hole that had formed in the ground.
"Harry!" Wanli bellows into the huge pit. From the pitch black, they hear a tiny cough.
"Uwughh...I'm fine...I think..." They hear the little boy say, and they all sigh in relief.
"OOH! There's water here!" He suddenly says, making them all jump in fright. "Uncle, can you please give me a lantern?"
Jude sends a small orb of light into the pit, and sure enough, they see Harry smiling up at them as he is sitting on a rapid current.
"Is there a waterfall down there?" Riccardo asks, and Harry nods.
"I see one up ahead," he says, and Victor jumps in the hole.
Everyone follows in, and Riccardo walks over to Galadriel in the river.
"Can you hold it for a while? I'll carry you to the waterfall," he says, and she nods.
Carefully, he picks her up, bridal style, and he jumps into the hole. They don't notice Aitor's scowl as he jumps in after them.
When the scout hits the ground with a perfect landing, Rosie taps his shoulder.
"What?" He looks at her, a bit annoyed, and she just smiles at him.
"If you want to rant, you can always talk to me," she says, kindly, as she walks ahead towards the other girls.
Aitor blinks. He knows that Rosie likes the team leader, so probably she offered her help because she knows how it feels. Was she a little bit jealous too?
Aitor shakes the lousy thoughts of his mind.
"Whatever," he mutters under his breath as he walks alongside Harry and J.P.
True enough, they see a waterfall, and they all wade to the deeper waters before swallowing their stones. Just like the waterfall where they met Rondula, another cave is under the water barricade. They follow it, exiting just beside a jewelry shop, and they are on their way to the castle until someone calls out.
"Galadriel!"
The said mermaid spins around for the umpteenth time today, but her face suddenly lights up when she sees the girl.
"Terry!" She squeals, and they hug each other tight. The silver-haired merman waves at the San de Salvatorre, but his face falls when his eyes land on Rick.
"'Scuse us for a second!" He smiles sweetly as he pulls Galadriel inside his shop.
"What is he doing here?! I specifically told you not to bring his posh ass anywhere near here!" The angry white-haired boy with a dolphin-like tail starts fussing as quietly as possible, but Galadriel covers his mouth.
"I know I know! Ugh, it's complicated," she tells Terry, who just huffs before swimming over to the counter.
"Anyway, please bring these to your snooty cousin." As he says the words Galadriel pinches his cheek lightly, to which the boy responds with an 'ow'. "Plus, your dad left this for you."
At the word 'dad', tears well up in Galadriel's eyes. Terry sighs.
"I miss him too, okay? He treated me like his own son. But we have to carry on. He'd tell us that." He comforts the young royalty, as he hands a separate package for the girl. It is contained in a little, quite crusty, old coral box.
"He had it made for you, when you were supposed to become queen," he tells Galadriel, and the pink-haired girl smiles a bit in the midst of her tears. "He told me to give it to you when you came back."
"Thanks for everything, Terry," Galadriel says, and she sets down the packages to hug her friend. "I'll go now, okay?"
Terry does a thumbs up, and he watches as Galadriel leaves the shop.
"Don't trust Rick the dick!" He screams after her, but the door is already closing in his face.
"Come on, we have no time to waste," she says when she gets out, wiping the tears from her cheek.
When they finally reach the castle and the doors of the vestibule swing open to welcome the tired travellers, they are met with more surprises when they see an extremely pale, ghost-like man with meadow green hair kneeling in front of the young queen. He is holding her hand to his face, but she remains unimpressed, as well as the other silver-haired merman who is examining his perfect nails.
"My queen," the boy says as he kisses Leia's hand, much to the young queen's distaste since he doesn't have any eyebrows.
"Boldar, can you not see that she clearly is revolted by your looks?" The silver-haired man taunts, flashing an evil smirk at the boy. "You don't have eyebrows, and worse, you have a rock stuck in the middle of your forehead," he scoffs before looking again at his nails.
"Don't act so supreme; I don't like you either," Leia shoots back at the fair-skinned merman. Leia turns her head slightly, and she sees the San de Salvatorre patiently waiting at the door, which makes her smile.
"Ah! Victor, I have been worried that you might not return," she says with feigned vexation as she immediately pulls her hand from Boldar's grasp to swim to him, dragging the poor vampire into the room.
"What's this all about?" Vladimir asks, eyeing the queen as she pushes her veil out of her face a little to get a better look at Victor while she 'checks his body for any injuries and relieves him of his stress'.
"Leia." Galadriel says sternly, making her cousin stop massaging Victor's shoulders momentarily. She narrows her eyes at the pink-haired mermaid.
"Yes, Galadriel?"
"What are Boldar Ozrock and Desmodus Drakul doing here? And more importantly, is there something you aren't telling us?" The mermaid inquires, and Leia snorts in contempt before turning her back to them.
"Since I have been regent for a few years already, it is almost time for me to pick a rightful king to rule by my side. So I have to entertain these ridiculous suitors," she explains, glaring at the two guys before glaring back at Galadriel and the San de Salvatorre.
She then turns her attention to Victor, and she puts on her sweetest smile.
"Victor, I wanted to talk to you about something," she says as she locks her arms around his neck. "Do you have a moment?"
"I'm busy," he declines flatly, breaking off a little too roughly for a gentleman, and he swims back to his company. Annoyed, Leia crosses her arms.
"It's about Arion."
As she says the words, Victor instantly turns around.
"You have my attention. When?" He says, cutting to the chase before she could say anything else.
"My servant will call for you," she replies with a funny grin that Riccardo absolutely does not like. He watches as Leia fixes her veil again, arranging it over half of her face. Talk about horrible fashion sense.
"Sorry if I sound rude, but are you mourning for someone?" He asks the queen before she could turn around.
"Is it your business if I want to wear a veil?" She asks as she raises her eyebrow at him. "All of you, including you two, are dismissed," she says with a wave at her two suitors and the company, who are now being shown out by the guards.
Leia is about to take a seat at the huge clam shell throne, when suddenly, one of the maids shriek in horror.
"EEEEEKKKK!" As the shriek resounds, the travellers barely dodge the object flying through the doors, and it shoots so fast like a comet that the raven doesn't see it coming until the black, thorny thing gets lodged in her hair.
"EEK! GET THIS THING OFF!" She screams with a pitch beyond normal frequency as she attempts to rip the thing out. The San de Salvatorre quietly snicker to themselves as they watch some other servants flock around the queen, trying to get what apparently is a sea urchin out of the finely-spun veil. When they pull the creature off and take it away, the queen looks as if she is about to explode. The fact that her hair looks like a huge snowcone also is not helping the others in stifling their laughter.
"WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?!" She screeches, which makes Galadriel clamp her hand over her mouth to no avail. However, what makes her laughter die out quickly is when she notices her cousin wearing an eye patch over her left eye.
"Uh..." Galadriel's mouth opens and closes as she tries to find a way to approach the topic. The others have also stopped laughing when they notice it too.
"What now?" She hisses, and when a totally unsure Galadriel points at her left eye, Leia's only visible eye widens before the queen covers the eyepatch with her hand.
"It's nothing! Just scram and do your thing!" She bawls as she scampers out of the room to go upstairs.
The team is left in the receiving hall, still not so sure of what just happened.
"Erhmm that was weird..." J.P. says as he scratches his head. "What now?"
"I'll wait for news on Arion. The rest of you should try to find out about Galadriel's grandfather so that we could get a clue on the next rune," Victor orders. The rest of them nod, and they all divide themselves into groups to go out and ask questions or to hit the books at the library.
/
Victor proceeds by himself to the wing where Arion is being held. At the door, a scruffy-looking guard is standing in front of the doors.
"Sorry, sir. Queen says it's off-limits," he says, standing to full height as Victor stops in front of the guard. The henchman doesn't say anything, instead, he stares straight into the guard's eyes.
"Sir, it's off-UMPH!" The guard gags when Victor pins him by the neck against the door, slowly tightening his grip around the man's neck.
"ACCH-N-n-eed-a-ai-r!-" he pleads with the heartless monster, and only when the man's face turns blue does Victor release his grip on the man's neck. Victor doesn't even pay attention as the guard slides down against the door, and he simply swims past him.
Victor closes the door gently, so as not to disturb the occupant. He swims over, and drawing the curtain aside, he sighs when he sees the Angel in a condition that is not any better than the one earlier.
"Arion," he says gently as he touches the sleeping boy's face. He doesn't know if it's just him, or if he really sees a slight smile pass through the boy's features.
Of course, there is no response. Victor simply grabs a nearby stool, and he sits down next to the bed. He holds the Seraph's hand tenderly, and he listens to the boy's heartbeat. Slow, but alive.
"Why did you have to heal him?" Victor asks angrily, but mostly to himself, as he squeezes the boy's hand.
"Tell me Arion, what did you gain from that? All you're doing is causing trouble!" He says as he shakes the body. "The least you can do is wake up so we can leave. Don't you want to get this over with? Are you just trying to escape your fate? Wake up! Wake up...please..." Victor says subconsciously, and he gradually stops rocking the small frame of Arion as he just sits back down in his stool while hanging his head. He knows it's such a stupid and irrational reason to get mad at the boy, and he feels so pathetic for actually attempting to do that.
Maybe he simply just doesn't want to admit the real reason why he's more worried than he should be. Of course, Arion is important. The fate of his brother, as well as the whole Empty Page depends solely on Arion. Yet, being so worried to the point that he's getting mad at Arion for being selfless? Ridiculous. After all, that selflessness...is what attracted Victor to Arion in the first place.
So, why was he way too worried about the Angel if he was Victor Blade, the mercenary who sold his conscience and had no heart of his own?
"Are you scared of losing someone you love?"
Victor's gaze shoots towards the door, grabbing the conch shell sculpture on the table to arm himself. All he sees at the doorway is a tall, slim slihouette, and he just puts back the sculpture while sitting back down, uninterested.
"What is it about Arion?" He simply asks, and the mermaid swims forward, sitting on the empty space of the bed near Arion's feet.
"Well, handling big responsibilities can be difficult," she explains, and she gives a sickly sweet smirk. "But I have a wonderful proposition for you."
Victor straightens his back, implying that he is all ears.
"Anything for Arion," he says, with the unmistakable look of determination in his cold, golden eyes.
He simply isn't doing this for his brother, for the people, for revenge, or for himself.
He's doing it for Arion.
/
"Nnghh..." A small muffled noise comes from the boy's lips as he hears a few voices.
He remembers unleashing a huge wave of light, directed at Riccardo. He had no idea what he did back then, but when he realized that it saved the captain, he was more than relieved. However, his exploitation on his still-developing powers took its toll on his body. He remembers Victor holding him tightly before he blacked out.
Now, he hears strange things; even if he can't register anything, he can tell that they're speaking his language, one a woman and the other a man, probably. They seem engaged in a matter of life or death.
He rubs his eyes, and when he sits up straight, he sees Victor sitting on his left. The boy, washed over with elation and relief, is about to launch himself at Victor and embrace him, until he realizes that the henchman is looking forward, to the boy's right. Following Victor's line of vision, he is greeted by a jolt of shock at seeing Queen Leia Orbes leaning over, a little too close towards Victor's space.
"Do you not have a suitor who suits your preference?" He could hear Victor ask without trying to seem so rude.
"I can't just settle for second-best. The moment I met you, I remembered someone important to me," she says, looking away with a faint blush and a nostalgic smile.
"Well forget it, I'll find another way to wake him up," Victor replies as he looks at the boy. He smiles, eyes widening as Victor comes closer. He expects the man to touch his cheek, to pull him close and maybe, just maybe, give him a kiss?
As Arion feels Victor drawing nearer, his heart starts beating out of its ribcage because the man is so close.
"Victor..." Arion says quietly, and he closes his eyes, but he opens them again when he feels as if Victor is passing through him.
"Huh-what?!-" he asks looking around in alarm, and he gasps when he sees Victor lean over and touch his own face. How could his face be lying down on the bed if he's right here?!
Arion tries pulling the man's shoulder, but he passes right through as well. Then, realization dawns on him like an early sunrise, as he thinks of the only possible reason.
He's having an out of body experience.
Arion looks around in confusion and bewilderment. What should he do? How will he get back in his body? Does he even want to get back and be unconscious? What is Leia talking about with all the suitor business?
"Oh, so you want to play it that way, don't you?" The Queen asks, smirking at Victor, who is stroking the boy's cold cheek. She gets off the bed, swims to him, and grabs his chin to force him to look at her.
"What if I cured Arion and gave you the second Deus Relic as well?"
He pries her hand off, pushing her away from him a good distance, but he doesn't break eye contact. It makes the mermaid's expression even more delighted.
"Is that your final offer?" He asks, voice dripping with impatience.
"You have until tomorrow. If you say yes, we tell everyone immediately," she says, giggling coquettishly at her own thoughts. "Besides, if no one does it, the full power of Atlas will not be bestowed upon me, and I will not be able to give you the second Relic. In the end, you have no choice, so I see no reason for you to think about it," she says, as she traces the line down his chest before winking playfully and leaving.
The door closes, and Victor sits again on the stool while rubbing his face in annoyance. He looks once again at the body of Arion, and his expression suddenly softens. The boy watches the henchman caress the soft brown hair.
"I will bring you back, and I will do anything in my power to save you and finish this quest. Even if it means pushing away my own desires." As Arion hears the words, tears form in the Angel's eyes. Strangely though, the body's eyes also starts to tear up, and Victor brushes away the tears beneath the chocolate brown lashes.
"How could you be so selfless? I don't deserve your tears, for I couldn't protect you in the first place," Victor says as he holds the boy's hand. To anyone else, he would look crazy talking to an unconscious boy, but to Arion, Victor's words mean everything.
"No, Victor-we can find a better way-you don't have to do this," Arion starts, trying to shake the man's shoulders even if he knows that it's pointless. "Please, don't leave me," Arion pleads, and a tear runs down his cheek.
Weeks ago, it wouldn't matter if Victor was going into a commitment like this. But now, after finally admitting his feelings to himself, Arion isn't so sure if he can watch Victor vowing his life to a woman he doesn't even love.
"Even if I don't deserve it...please, if you can...find it in your heart to forgive a selfish monster like me," he says with a wistful half-smile before he squeezes the boy's hand and gets up to leave.
"NO! VICTOR!" Arion screams, begs, pleads, calling the man's name again and again until his voice cracks from desperation, but all the Angel could do is cry as he watches his beloved Victor close the door behind him. And Arion is left with no shoulder to cry on, left to live with the agony of abandonment like it's a ball on a chain anchored to his ankle.
"Is this really goodbye?..." Arion asks himself, as he feels his eyelids getting heavier from the anguish. He can't bear this; he can't take the feeling of someone who's forced his way into the boy's life just leaving him.
"Please don't go..." he whispers, and the darkness spreads through his like a fan before he feels himself fall away into the land of dreams.
/
"I wonder what our plan is now," J.P tells Aitor as they swim back to the castle. They have just received word from Victor that he is waiting for them in one of the meeting rooms.
"I dunno. Maybe he's got news on the Seraph," Aitor replies lazily. Along the way, they cross paths with Hugh and Aoyama.
"Got anything from the public library?" J.P asks, but Aoyama shakes his head.
"Maybe Galadriel and Rick found something at the royal library; it's much bigger there, and I heard from some that there are forbidden books and such," Hugh says as they walk back together.
They are greeted by the guards once again, and they proceed to the second floor, where they hear voices coming from the end of the hall. They enter and take their seats, waiting for the others patiently. The Blade brothers, however, don't even seem to mind the others in the midst of their conversation.
"Are you serious?! I know you want to complete this quest, but what for? This is too much for you to handle! If you push through with your decision, no one is going to finish the quest. Our efforts will be for naught, Victor!"
"Brother, she told me I could finish the quest first. Then, I return to Etlancis afterwards."
At this response, Vladimir stares at him, lips parted in an appalled expression. He laughs, incredulity shining in his eyes before his mouth twists into a grimace.
"You go on this quest yet you do not know?"
"Know what?" Victor asks as he raises his eyebrows, making his elder brother sigh while tapping his head lightly.
"The Millenia Luna Ritua is more than just a rite. It is an eternal covenant in which no escape is possible. It is also a covenant centered on purity and sanctity, a covenant where the Holy Emperor and the Seraph are united. If you allow this to happen, then-!"
"-we're here, everyone. Sorry for being late."
The Blade brothers stop and look at the door, just in time to see Galadriel and Rick taking their seats. This makes Vladimir stop, recompose himself, and sit down.
"What is this all about?" Sam Gook asks, and they all turn to Victor. A hint of agitation is lurking in his eyes, and it's scaring them slowly to death because Victor never felt anything. He never felt anything...or did he?
His eyes, they look as if he's about to regret the words he's going to say next. He opens his mouth. And the words he says next create the longest silence in their lives.
"I'm getting married."
/
A/N: That cliffhanger though O_O makes me so uneasy HAHAH XD catch y'all next time :))