33
"Heh."
"Haha..."
"HAHAHA!" Cyrus let out a maniacal laugh, echoing through the silent complex. "Yeta! You're back!"
She returned his laughter with a cold glare.
"Release me." her lips barely moved as they whispered her command.
Cyrus smirked, and then drew a small knife. He slit the ropes holding Riu, who dropped down without a sound.
"Cyrus!" Argus marched angrily forwards, drawing out what seemed to be a black tome. "How dare you disobey-"
"Shut up." Cyrus muttered. "You can't ever shut your goddamn mouth. I'm going to tear you a new one."
He drew an ice-white handgun with deliberation, and pulling back the hammer. Cyrus took the weapon and planted the barrel on Argus' forehead.
Argus thrust his black tome in front of him, and then clenc-
"Hey." Riu said, rolling her neck. "Stop it. You're both annoying."
The two men, both towering over Riu, weapons already drawn, stared at her, who was standing there, disarmed, with a measure of fear.
Riu turned to Desirae, who was standing by with Riu's sword, carefully holding back, in case something bad happened.
"You. Return my weapon."
Desirae hesitated, hand on the AG saber at her hip.
"I know what you're thinking, Acolyte. I'm might kill you with the weapon that you return." Riu fixed Desirae with a vicious glare. "But know this... you have two options right now. You return the sword to me, and I may not kill you. Or, I kill you right now, and pry my weapon from your dead corpse."
"Your choice."
Desirae cautiously handed the AG saber over, by the strap of the sheath.
"Good." Riu looked up at Desirae.
A sudden swoop, a flash of light, and suddenly, Desirae was gasping, a sword hilt-deep in her gut. The Guild Shadow grasped at the metal, and then fell as Riu pulled the blade out.
"That was for Tiana."
She had stabbed her with the Mercy Blade.
Desirae lay on the ground, immobilized by the racking pain in her stomach.
Cyrus grit his teeth. An armed Yeta made matters a million times more complicated.
"Actually Yeta, that reminds me." He turned the handgun to Riu. "Mother wanted me to do something for her." He tilted his head. "Just tying up some loose ends.
"Sorry."
He squeezed the trigger, aiming straight at Riu. The handgun chambered the round, and the hammer of the handgun swung forwards.
"No!" yelled Rhiem. But his voice was joined by another. Jade's.
A crackling circle, seemingly made of pure light, locked around Cyrus' hand. The hammer of the handgun froze in mid-swing, and his hand was stuck in that position, holding him in. He struggled once with the lock, with an annoyed curio.
Jade, breathing hard, tears streaming slowly down her face, flexed her gloves again. She had on her hands, pure white gloves, that snapped and cracked with energy.
The lock, with Cyrus' hand, swung to the ground. It then released, sending the handgun back into it's original position.
"Jade... Are you disobeying Mother?" Cyrus sneered, half-angry, half-amused.
Jade shook her head, eyes shut.
"No killing... No more hurting anyone." She sniffed. "Yeta!" She ran to Riu, who regarded Jade with a far softer face.
"Jade..."
Jade hugged Riu tight around the middle, who lightly patted the younger girl at the back of the head. "Jade, I'm so sorry...for everything that's happened."
Rhiem was silent. He stared on, never blinking, at Riu, who was a different person. Who was she? How did she know these... these people?
He had a sudden sweeping feeling of helplessness. Riu... Her body, her face, her tone, they were now lined with hidden and past pains.
Most of all, her eyes. They were deeper than ever before, and filled with endless melancholy.
"Riu..." he breathed.
Riu heard her name being whispered.
She looked up, slowly, past, Jade, sobbing at her shoulder, past Cyrus, who was massaging his wrist; it had been nearly broken by the force of Jade's lock, past Argus, who was standing, black tome at his side, unsure at what to do, at what his precious Mother would want him to do...
At Rhiem. And he looked right back.
"Oh god, Rhiem..." She bit her lip, and she gripped harder onto Jade. "Rhiem, you have to be hating me..."
I lied to him without knowing. I stole his trust with my ignorance. But now I know my crimes.
"Enough of this drama." Cyrus grabbed a crystal from his neck. "I've got a job to do." He crushed the crystal, sending the pieces scattering.
"Cyrus!" Argus yelled."You can't call him here! All these people need to be converted!"
Cyrus looked up, the pieces sweeping around him, now in a torrent of glittering shards.
"Shut up." He shot Argus in the chest. Argus flew back from the impact, landing flat on his back, stunned.
The shards spun around, faster and faster, multiplying, until they began to take on a shape. A huge shape.
First, the massive steel-gray foot that Rhiem had seen so many days back when Cyrus made his first threat. Then, an equally massive steel-gray leg, that was joined by four more. These legs supported a colossal body, shaped nothing more or less like a mountain.
The head flickered into place, a shovel-like jaw that jutted out in front of the relatively tiny, evil eyes. It was covered in steel-gray, almost silver plates, that fitted perfectly onto the huge form. It seemed to have no weakness, not one on the entire figure.
Riu looked up, from underneath the huge shadow of the gargantuan machine.
"Ulkis has grown," She quipped.
Cyrus, standing on the top of the huge machine, laughed.
"He's not Ulkis anymore. He's Ulkhanns. And he's the last thing you'll ever see."
He held in his hand, a shining Soul Gear, the silver-gray of Ulkhanns.
"Good-bye, Yeta."
The huge machine moved slowly, deliberately, exhaling forwards a tidal wave of frost.
"No!" Jade rushed forwards, clutching her crystal Soul Gear. The Crystal burst, flickering into shape something that was horse-shaped, and running fast towards the wave. The thing formed into shape just as Jade screamed out, Riu closing her eyes in what seemed to be tired exasperation.
"Beigweimen! Northerly Gate of the Turtle! Lock!" A circular lock, again made of pure light, but three stories tall, formed immediately in front the horse shape.
The horse then completed, dazzling everything around it. It was twice as large as a normal horse, and even though it was infinitely small in comparison to the hulk that Ulkhans was, radiated just as much energy.
It's hoofs thundered with power on the dirt ground, and electricity skirted along it's sides.
"Come! Qilin!" The Qilin cantered back to Jade, and let Jade pet it on it's long face. A shining horn crackled on it's forehead, it bore only a slight resemblance to the cute unicorns of fantasy.
"Jade...", called out Cyrus. "You're going have to choose, now. Between Mother and Yeta. If not..." He glared down at Jade. "I'll have to kill you."
He turned to Argus, still stunned. "And Argus will help me. 'Cuz he puts mother first."
Argus said nothing, being unconscious.
Jade shook her head, not deliberately, but out of being torn between two inner forces.
"No..."
Then a hand was placed on her shoulder. "Jade."
Riu made her first step all night.
"It's alright. You don't have to disobey Mother, or fight me. Just drop the lock, and let your sister handle it."
Jade looked up at Riu, and then nodded, lowering the lock. The crackling stopped, and the wave of frost collapsed.
"Well?" Riu yelled. "You want to kill me, right?" Her silver hair shook as she yelled. It matched the color of Cyrus' and Jade's perfectly, along with the strands in Argus' mix.
"SO DO IT!" She screamed,
Cyrus grit his teeth, smiling in his special maniacal way.
"YETAA!" Cyrus yelled, He swung his hand forwards.
At this, Ulkhans charged, it's huge foot bearing down on Riu.
The massive foot could completely cover Riu; it swung down with a force that could pulverize tanks, but-
GROOAR!
Ulkhanns was struck in the face. Not by a round, or by a missile. But by a hurtling machine.The machine rolled back, and flapped it's wings, its silver scales shining in the darkness. It's wings swung out like an eagle, it's poisonous tail flickered gracefully in the air, and it had the balanced form of a true wyvern. it's armor shone in the night, fitting perfectly over it's form.
The Wrath LOS.
Its mark on its face, where the Teacher's RPG struck, was apparent, like a scar, and it had pock marks all over where it had been hit by the Quad Cannon.
Rhiem knew why he hadn't noticed it before. Instead of the rust-color that the Wrath LOS usually had, this one was pure silver, like a brilliant moon against the twilight sky. The first Wrath LOS he had seen...
He shivered. It had been this? It trembled and breathed power; why wasn't he a blackened crater back in Autzwutch?
He knew once again.
"Riu..." He breathed. "Riu's your operator. You weren't trying to kill us..." He thought the last part.
You were just trying to protect her. Like me.
Riu walked up to the silver Wrath LOS.
She placed her hand on the face crest of the machine.
"Ravenna..."
The machine lowered it's huge head in a caressing nudge. "It's good to see you again, too."
"And now..." She raised both her weapons to Cyrus, on Ulkhanns.
"Let's settle this once and for all, Cyrus."
Both blades, Mercy and Ag, flickered out. They spun around her form faster than the eye could see, but they did so with all the majesty in the world.
She spun the blades in both her hands, and ended in a finishing form.
Heh. Not rusty.
"Prepare yourself."