MJC: Hullo e'erybody~! Unfortunately(or fortunately, whichever you decide), this story is nearing it's completion. Funny, as this will be only the, what? Second completed story of mine, not including one-shots? And I'm not even sure if I will finish this.
Rena: Way to lift the reader's hopes.
MJC: YOU are supposed to be cheerful! I know exactly what's going to happened in these last six chapter. Yes, this story will be twenty-five chapters exactly. However, I think their will be an alternate ending chapter, so it will technically be twenty-six chapters.
Rena: MJC does not own Elsword.
MJC: Things are gonna pick up quickly, it may seem rushed, but everything will(hopefully) be resolved by the twenty-fifth chapter~!
Chapter Nineteen:
Dark Nephilim Awakened
Third PoV
Rena sat at her desk, typing a few bits and pieces of info on her old computer. It was large, and blocky, and all sorts of tacky. She sighed a very bored, and complaining sigh. Of course, all she was assigned was communications, as if a communications officer was even releva-
A 'ding' emit from the cubed computer monitor.
Perking up a bit, Rena clicked on the sudden E-Mail, curiousity growing. It was from Elsa.
"Aisha and Els found El shard. Report to Commander immediately. Going back to Hope Bridge next."
Rena sighed at her allies' shortened sentences mournfully. Was grammar even put into consideration anymore? Shaking it off internally, Rena once again sighed, but this time in a manner of ceding. She picked up her desk's phone receiver and dialed a short number.
"Hello, sir?" She spoke professionally into the receiver, well trained in the arts of professional phone speaking, what with her being the ONLY MEMBER OF THE COMMUNICATIONS UNIT. "Yes, the Hope Bridge. Of course, sir. I will." She placed the receiver back into it's place on her desk, and leaned back as well as she could on her stool(her chair had somehow managed to get torn up, then briefly caught on fire. She only had a stool for replacement).
Shaking her head in exasperation as pounding footfalls emit from the stairwell, Rena glanced at said stairwell. A man clothed in a white cloak, and a scar permanently carved onto his cheek emerged. He straightened his cloak and turned to Rena.
"The Hope Bridge?" He inquired, to which Rena gave a jerky nod in confirmation. Raven exit then, leaving Rena once again alone. She sighed for the umpteenth time that day(and surely not the last), and leaned forward, planting her chin in her palm and her elbow on her desk. What a boring job, at least Elsa and Raven got to have fun.
"We're leaving!" Elsa hollered at her sibling's closed door, and ignored the temptation to stab that door multiple times. A muffled response floated to Elsa's ears. Despite, she could not understand a word he had spoken. This resulted in her stomping towards the door, and planting a high-landing kick into the door's weather wood. It cracked, leaving a good-sized hole. She repeated, in an only slightly calmer voice.
"We're leaving." A fiery glare was shot through the hole at the woman. Crimson met crimson in a battle of glory! Crimson won, and Elsword was appropriately dragged away from his computer and out the door. Elsa promptly reentered momentarily to retrieve Conwell.
"Why'm I coming along, again?" Elsword grumpily questioned once the two had boarded a bus headed towards the Hope Bridge.
"Because you seem much stronger than Aisha, and you know what El looks like." Elsword groaned.
"But Aisha's not weak, she could've handled it fine." He whined.
"She's also a teenage girl." Elsa stated with an extremely obvious, mischievous smirk.
"What's that got to do with anything?" Throwing arms up in exasperation, Elsa slumped in her seat.
"Have you no sense of heroism?" Scowling at the elder Sieghart sibling, Elsword turned away and began intently staring out the window. "Besides, we won't need Aisha, and I think she needs a break." Elsa nodded to herself matter-of-factly. Elsword rose an eyebrow.
"Why are we going back to the Hope Bridge? That Chloe lady moved the El, didn't she?" Elsa shook her head as a reply to her brother's question.
"Some scouts reported that there was still a trace of El left on the Hope Bridge." The red-headed woman stated.
"Scouts?" Elsword, being surprisingly observant, queried. "Do you have a whole company dedicated to finding El?" Elsa froze, a bit uncomfortably. Since when had Elsword been so intuitive?
"Well," she began, realizing that the youth deserved a bit of an explanation. "There kind of is. We're basically an El search party. An underground corparation, if you will. We were established around twelve years ago. Actually, it was originally just me and the commander," Elsword gave a confused look at the word 'commander.' "However, we grew as more people realized that our world was-is-dying. In fact, we now consist of four factions, roughly. There's the Scouting or Recon unit, Communications, Combat, and the 'Higher ups' so to speak."
"Hold on." Elsword interrupted, head whirling at the amount of information being processed. "There was this whole group, that you are a part of, and I never even knew about it?" He glared at his elder sister.
"I didn't want to involve you. Anyways, you'll meet the commander soon. I believe we're almost there." The two Siegharts resigned to companionable silence as the bus tediously transported them to the Hope Bridge. They got off around twenty minutes later. The sight laid out before them baffled all spectators.
Scarlet plumes flickered across the bridge as smoke clouded the sky. The Hope Bridge sat in ruins. The water below it danced in hues of red and orange, reflecting the fiery sight above. Ashes filled the air like snowflakes, contrasting with the intense heat emitting from the bridge.
"Oh no." Elsa whispered as the bridge crumbled in flames. She dashed forward, elusively bypassing the police and fire department officers crowding at the entrance. Elsword followed.
Traversing across a bridge that is falling apart is not an easy task. The two managed to reach the center of the bridge, despite, however. Raven, whose cloak had been stained coal black as a result of the fire, stood waiting for the siblings. Narrowing eyes at the stranger, Elsword shot his sister a questioning glare.
"Els, this is Raven, the Commander." Elsa gestured towards the stoic man. Elsword's glare did not soften.
"Now's not the time for introductions," Raven stated, "we must continue across. There is an evil presence further along the bridge. Scouts believe that it is a part of Ran's army." Elsa seemed to momentarily ponder something.
"We've already seen Chloe, Uno Hound, and the Glitter Vangaurd. That leaves..." Elsa's eyes widened, and she slumped a little in dejection. "The puppet guy. Lady of El, I hate him." Raven smirked at the statement.
"Well, we have to defeat him is we are to defeat Ran's forces."
"What is up with this Ran guy, anyways?" Elsword suddenly interjected.
"Ran is the Demon Lord who caused this mess. We're not sure why, but around twelve years ago, he began stealing El from this dimension. We didn't know at the time, though. He's had several Division of Glitter demon soldiers, and Commander's. We've dealt with many of them, such as the Dullahan Knight, Teach the Tyrant, Amethyst a witch, Cutty Sark, and even Berthe." This was all met with a blank stare from Elsword, who had no idea who these people were.
"And now you've defeated several Division Commanders. There are only two left, we believe." Raven continued, finishing for Elsa, who nodded sagely. Elsword's mouth form and 'O' shape as he began to comprehend Ran's identity. After which, the three continued across the bridge. It didn't take long for them, whilst passing under the main arch of the bridge, to be 'ambushed' by the Crazy Puppet.
A great grunt escaped it's smiling, stitched up mouth as it landed behind the trio. All three drew swords, preparing to shred the Puppet. It grinned, wielding a staff, that quickly caused an eruption of flame to engulf the area in front of it.
"Prepare for battle, and be cautious!" Raven commanded, pointing his sabre at the large demented creature. It giggled a bit in response. Elsword, smirking, dashed forward, passing both his sister and Raven.
"Sword Blasting!" Escaped his lips as three phantasmal swords appeared, all directed at the puppet. It giggled again before the three blades pierced it cloth skin. The puppet crumpled, it's eyes losing their luster.
"Hah!" Grinning with satisfaction, the teen did not realize the small, scattered dolls picking themselves up and scittering around, and across the stones. Elsa, rolling her eyes, charged forward in a similar fashion as Elsword, but towards the smaller dolls. Hefting quite the claymore, she swung it horizontally, effectively striking all small dolls in her way.
Before long, Elsword, now accompanied by Raven, was attacking the large puppet again. The process repeated, and the battle dragged on and on and on until Elsword felt as if he couldn't stand it anymore. He'd sustained multiple burns, and now the battle was getting downright annoying! Growling, he bounded into the fray of newly came to life dolls, practically screeching.
"RAGE CUTTER!" Conwell, letting out a slightly disapproving 'tch' created a current of smaller versions of himself, all phantasmal, and all whirring to the sky. That made short work of the new batch of dolls. Raven and Elsa opted to taking down the large doll and, following that plan of action, the Crazt Puppet was defeated quickly enough.
It's smile did not leave it's face as it once again collapsed to the ground. Deflating like a balloon with only a small hole, it's folds quickly flattened enough to revealed a glittering blue stone, large enough to fill a dumpster that you might find in the alley behind your apartment. As the glint in it's eyes fade, it let loose a strangled cry.
Sounding a bit more like a cackle than a death throe, the call echoed throughout the bridge. The puppet's death came swiftly after. The three approached the large El shard. However, before they could, a darkish, purplish, blackish, and very complex magic circle appeared on the ground. The stone it surrounded seemed to melt, and Chloe emerged from the hole.
On her face was a devilish smile, and she held her bow ready. With a twang of the string, and arrow had been loosed and it ripped through Raven's cloak, piercing his shoulder with a stomach-turning sound of flesh being pulled apart. Red pooled around the arrow, staining Raven's white cloak. He grunted in sudden pain.
"Next time I won't miss." Chloe taunted, practically skipping over to the El shard. Elsa gasped, before dashing forward, preparing a swing of her sword. It came chopping down, just missing Chloe's head to embed itself in by a hair. The dark elf stumbled back, rosy eyes afire with rage as she clutched her shoulder where the large sword had nicked drew out her knife, bounding forward with inhumane speed.
"Sword Blasting!" Elsword yelled, shooting the three blades towards Chloe, piercing through her shin, and pinning her to the ground. A shriek of pain burst from her tongue, and she kneeled. The elf swiped at the blade, causing them to diappeare in a puff of phantasmal smoke. She once again narrowly avoided Elsa's sword cutting through her, straight down the middle.
However, as she backed up to gain a bit more ground, she met Raven's sword to her neck. A flash of fear scurried through her eyes as Raven held her secure. sword poised to cut clean through her neck. She had a feeling that it was sharp enough to do so with so much as a flick of the wrist. Lips curved upwards in a growling scowl, the dark elf began chanting.
Before any of the three could do anything, another great magic circle etched itself onto the stone. The ground again appeared to melt away, leaving a path. The path led deep into a void. The abysmal space seemed to take up the entirety of free space on the bridge. A figure emerged forth.
A large beast colored an array of purple hues smiled a sharp grimace. It's forefeet were covered with scales, and three horns protruded from it's head. It appeared to not be able to see, for it's were covered with almost feather-like... things. Pulsing scales adorned it's back. A great roar pounded through the three's ears.
"Go, Dark Nephilim!" Chloe laughed, before escaping through the magic circle. Dark Nephilim curled it's lips upwards, bringing down two claws into the ground. The bridge shook with the force.
"Elsa!" Raven called in a tone of authority.
"Right!" The Sieghart girl nodded brusquely, whipping out her cell phone, and calling someone on speed dial. "Yeah, Rena? We need someone who can deal with magic circles and different dimensions."
Pressing the silvery button, Rena felt as the elevator jerked, beginning it's ascent. Someone who could deal with magic and dimensions? It was obvious who Elesis was referring to. So, Rena waited patiently as the elevator made it's way to the floor of the purplette.
The doors slid open tediously, and the floor creaked as REna made her way to the door. Knocking, she waited once again for a door to open. It did, and purple irises peered out through the crack created.
"Rena? What is it?" Aisha queried, curious of the landlady's sudden visit.
"You need to come with me." Rena spoke with a graveness that frightened Aisha. Nodding, the girl quickly pulled on a pair of socks and shoes before departing, calling a quiet goodbye to Angkor. However, he insisted upon coming. After a minute or so of pondering, Aisha decided to allow him to, as she never got to see him anyways.
As the two females strode to the elevator, Rena began explaining.
"I haven't exactly been completely honest to you, Aisha." She began, causing the purple-eyed girl to cock her head in confusion. "You see, i've actually known all along that you're not from here." Rena winked at the confused girl.
"What? How?" Said confused girl questioned.
"Well, I'm apart of the ESP, or El Search Party. We were established about twelve years ago," and so Rena went on to explain the history of the El Search Party, how it was founded by Elesis and Raven to find the missing El.
"So El actually started disappearing twelve years ago?" Aisha, astonished, asked.
"Yep, I was recruited soon after that. But that's not why we need you right now. Elesis, Raven, and Elsword need some help." Rena smiled at the confused girl. They had gotten into Rena's car whilst she was explaining, and were now on their way to the Hope Bridge.
"Why do they need me?" Aisha looked at the bubbly women with narrowed eyes.
"Because they need someone who knows something of magic, and dimensions apparently." Rena stated, pulling into the parking lot, and hopping out. The two gaped a bit at the carnage, before recovering and attempting to think of how to get in. Soon, they decided on Aisha performing a teleportation.
They were transported well onto the bridge.
"Alright, let's go."
MJC: Oh, lookit that, a cliffhanger~!
Raven: You love those cliffers. don'tcha!
MJC: Stop acting like you have a personality. You're SUPPOSED to be STOIC!
Raven: Pfft, and Rena's supposed to be cheerful, right?
MJC: YES! Anywho, I'm gonna post a new story! Yes, it is an Elsword fic~! Aisha isn't the main protagonist this time, though. She's an extremely important part, though. It's based off of the series: Synchronicity! Goddesses, I love those songs. My favorite is the third part!
Raven: You're rambling.
MJC: SHADDAP, the readers should be thankful for the update.
Raven: Shouldn't you be thankful to them?
MJC: You're right. I've just been in such a weird mood lately :/
Thankees to Rosa~(You don't mind me calling you that, right?), xXLovelyAnimeLoverXx, and HelloKitty55443! I didn't even know people remembered me or this story... AT LEAST I HAVE ONE LOYAL FAN/PERSON/THING :D
Toodle-loodles,
~My-Joyful-Chaos
(I always start to type Not-Alone-Anymore when I do my sig up dere xD)