38
The brunt force of the shimmering shield was like an explosion, it grabbed you and slammed you against the very air itself, threatening to break everything in your body, and scatter the pieces to the wind.
Rhiem felt for sure, the only thing holding him together was the strands of his armor, which was already beginning to show strain.
He flew backwards, skidding on his feet, and then falling over on his hands. Pain blossomed in Rhiem like a bloody flower... He wanted nothing more than to just lay down and die.
He drew the Southern Eagle again, at Cyrus.
A glint of metal, too swift to be seen, knocked Rhiem's gun from his hands, sending the enormous piece of metal clattering against the concrete floor.
She punched Rhiem, striking Rhiem's cheekbone. A sharp CRACK! snapped through the night as bone collided with bone.
Her hand slipped down, resting on his collar.
So gentle.
She drew her fist in, dragging Rhiem with it. Her knee came up, and drove into Rhiem's gut. She then pushed out with the shin, striking the same spot, and sending Rhiem, clad in Anacholite armor and supremely heavy, flying ten feet uphill.
Rhiem landed upon the power seats of what was once an auditorium for visiting government officials.
Riu stayed on him, landing on Rhiem with her knee, right as he landed. Her pointed knee drove into his gut. The combined force of Riu and Rhiem smashed the aluminum seat into it's concrete base. Rhiem screamed out in pain; the sound seemed to fly out of the Greek-like mask ghostlike.
Riu pulled Rhiem up.
"I'm sorry Rhiem, that I have to do this." She drew her Mercy Blade. "But I have to show you... that we live in different worlds now." She slashed him in at the chest.
A weak gasp came from Rhiem as the feeling of being cleaved in two disabled his lungs.
He collapsed on the crushed seating, a deep slash in his armor, but flesh untouched.
"Rhiem, this is my world. It's bleak, and cruel, being powerful with no equal. I can't love anyone, and they can't love me. There can be only fear and pain."
She pulled Rhiem's mask off.
She tilted the writhing Rhiem's chin up. Pain racked his body, his mouth started to foam.
"Rhiem… you still wish to fight?"
She leaned closer.
"If you don't, Rhiem. If you don't want anymore pain, just say: "I never knew you, Riu.'"
She caressed his chin, wet with spit and sweat and blood. Inciting him to speak.
"And it'll all be over. No more pain."
"Wh-…wh-."
"Hm?"
"Who…" Rhiem drew a greedy breath "Who do you think I am?"
He managed to open his eyes, and stared into Riu. Their eyes locked. And she saw everything, everything in Rhiem's heart and soul.
She recoiled for a second, as if she was stung. Through willpower, she relaxed.
But inside, Riu's mind was racing.
Somehow-!…through all of this-!
It can't be... you still care about me?
A terrible sound woke KJ. He tried to stand up, but remembered the two bullet holes in his thigh the hard way.
*bleep*, thought KJ, his leg slipped uselessly against the slick concrete, as his. Footsteps were sounding down the hall. He had already seen Rhiem run the opposite way, so it wasn't him. Any other ally he had was lying in a heap, unconscious and bound. The only one awake was a truck driver with both ankles broken.
If it was a Guild Proper, everyone was dead. And it had to be a Guild Proper.
KJ glanced at the pistol he had liberated from one of the Guild Knights he killed. The gun had exactly two shots, and he didn't have the ability to find more.
*bleep*.
The footsteps grew louder.
He raised the pistol as best he could, while the Truck Driver laughed weakly.
"Kid, what're planning to do with that pea-shooter? Miss them to death?"
KJ smiled grimly.
"I'll do what I can. Rest is up to God"
The Truck Driver wiped the blood from his forehead with his good wrist, chuckling.
"With all the crap we've been through, if God still wants us to live, I'll stop drinking, stop smoking and marry my girlfriend."
"...It's all we can do."
The footsteps were right at the corner, they stopped, briefly.
"Pray yet, old man?"
"Shit…" breathed the Truck Driver. A sudden bout of giggles, from hysteria not humor, struck him. "heh, heh, oh God.. It's it, this is it."
KJ cocked the pistol.
She drew her blade.
One motion, too swift for the naked eye to see, and she cut Rhiem through the neck with the Mercy Blade.
"Even if this won't kill you, your mind'll think it's dead. So you'll stay that way, for a while."
Rhiem fell, seeing nothing, hearing nothing, feeling nothing...
He fell bodily onto the ground, stock-still.
"Rhiem…."
She knelt down by his side.
"I'm sorry. Goodbye."
KAM!
"Eek!" Jade whirled away as a bullet whizzed five feet past her head, and killed the concrete wall behind her. She poked her head around the corner.
"Please.. please don't... shoot..."
Her silver hair pooled around her shoulders as she clutched the corner of the wall, ready to jump back in an instant.
KJ lowered the gun, transfixed. The truck driver was at a loss for words. It wasn't that the girl was extraordinarily pretty, but that she was so innocent. This innocence radiated out of her like a flood, and overwhelmed proper judgment and reason. No malice could come from such a pure being.
"I... I'm sorry for what my brothers were doing to your friends. I..." She started shaking her head, like she was trying to forget a bad dream. "I hate it, myself."
She glanced down at KJ's bad leg.
"Ah! You're hurt."
KJ shook his head, and managed a small Agh! of pain as she grabbed his leg, but relaxed immediately.
"Stay still." She passed her left hand over the bullet holes, as she did, her hand started glowing, and then the wounds stitched themselves as if by magic.
"I'm sorry, the bullets will stay inside, but you'll stop bleeding.
She then hurried over to the stunned truck driver, and repeated the action on his broken ankles.
A small nod was all the truck driver could manage when asked "Are you alright?", after which Jade turned to KJ.
"I'm so sorry for what happened here...I don't want anymore people to be hurt..."
She glanced at the charred corpses of the Guild Proper that KJ killed.
At the sight of KJ's worried face, she shook her head.
"It's alright, these were bad people..."
She tilted KJ's face to her face her.
"But please... stay alive. It'd be best... if we all could be that way..."
He nodded, and she swiftly got up, and hurried to the hallway. For a second, she hesitated, and turned to KJ and the Truck Driver.
"I...I'm Jade."
Jade left, as swiftly as she came.
Dumbstruck, the Truck Driver turned to KJ.
"the Hell?"
"Ah, just be grateful. You can keep your promise."
"?"
"To God. I heard something about no drinking, smoking, and some marriage."
The Truck Driver leaned his head back, laughing silently. He covered his eyes with a moan.
"Ah..." He shook his head "Shit. Kill me now, kid, I don't wanna live no more!"
"Heh, hahah!"
Yeta made her rounds. On her first trip, she gathered all remaining Guild Proper, and sent them working, looking for her siblings, by her proof as an Archeria elite, or by threat of death. On her second trip, she collected her dear sister and her eldest brother, the former was wandering along the halls of the central complex, looking for people to heal and to care for. She found her brother lying in a heap in an abandoned room, he was dropped with care, but also with haste. She lifted the man up, and carried him over to her last destination, Cyrus.
Cyrus had not gone far, given his current health status as a sliver from death. The boy had covered only ten feet towards Rhiem in a half hour. In his left hand, shining with glints of metal from the body of the poor boy he had conquered, a knife, meant for the throat of Rhiem.
If only he had five more hours, he could have done something, thought Yeta dryly ...pity.
She kicked Cyrus about the temple, and knocked her second brother out in a flash.
A small hand motion, and Ravenna, her silver Wrath LOS, was by her side. She reached into Ravenna and retrieved a small crystal.
Turning to Jade, Yeta managed a small smile.
"Jade, we're going home, together."
Her hand crushed the crystal into a powder in an instant, and the pieces began to eat away at the four, leaving only empty air, until there almost nothing left.
Yeta's eyes were the last to go. She had a clear view of the motionless, defeated Rhiem. His pitiful, crushed form called on infinite sadness.
"I hope to never see you again, Rhiem." The pieces of the crystal snatched away at her vision.
"Because the next time I do... I will have to kill you."
Then she was swept away.
Reinforcements from Ootya expected to come just in the nick of time, assisting their allies the PFA in Dasiokas against Guild Proper. Inside, they come to a graveyard of a battlefield. Unconcious and dead bodies lay everywhere. Anyone alive, and on their side was taken in to be treated. Anyone that was an enemy and alive... well, were put out of their misery quickly.
Chief Sakami stands over the motionless form of Rhiem as he is lifted onto a stretcher. She knows he will be fine; what bothers her is not the health of Rhiem, but who he is without.
What happened here, Rhiem would never leave Riu along, she thought, and where... where is Riu?"
Tired, and world-weary, Chief Sakami returns to her tent, and for one of the few times in her life, she is a scared little girl once more.
Guild Proper HQ - siege lines.
The field commander of the operation, General Howe, stood almost mournfully over the fortress-like HQ of the rogue guild, Guild Proper. As an agent of Rubina, it was his duty to put down any sign of insurgency. Yet, he felt terrible not because of the fact that he will be destroying fellow human life, but the method that he would employ to do it. He had the HQ surrounded, setting up easy contains all around the fort. The structure had a moat of jagged rocks, but that moat was what made this form of long-range contain possible.
General Howe consulted the radio again, his tone almost pleading.
"Please! Yield! We will annihilate your men and the entire fort utterly, we have a terrible weapon, and I don't want to- "
A swear, and then the angry slam of a receiver shut Howe down.
General Howe hung his head.
He turned to the team of scientists behind him. With a visible effort, he nodded his head.
"Go ahead. Get it over with."
The lead scientist nodded, and then immediately got to work double-checking the warhead. One of the scientists snickered to his friend,
"This should make some fireworks." They both laughed, goofily, in a sickening, gut-clenching way. This pissed Howe off. He swept up to them, and dragged them by the collars.
"Shut. Up." His scratchy beard clawed at their soft, pale faces.
He dumped the white-coats onto the ground, snarling. Stunned, the scientists fled from him.
The furious General Howe stormed from the command tent.
"Hey!" He yelled to an unfortunate ensign. "Where's your eye-shields?"
The poor man muttered about forgetting it in tent.
"Idiot! They're going to fire it now!"
The man said something, inaudible.
"What?"
"Well, sir. While there's all this huff about this new weapon, we're three miles from the fort, eye-shields just seem..."
"Too much?"
"...yeah."
Several men around him nodded in agreement, and took their eye-shields off as well.
General Howe said nothing. He reached onto his belt, and yanked all four pins off his flash bangs.
KAAAAM!
Immediately, everyone was blinded, stumbling, confused. Except for the General, who had his eye-shields on.
Aggh!
Ugh! My eyes!
I can see ONLY WHITE!
"Go get your eye-shields," he said to the blind ensign. The man nodded, or nodded the best he could, and stumbled off to his tent.
His radio crackled. It was the lead scientist.
"General, we are all set to go. Awaiting your mark."
"Just one second, Doc. I want to try once more at diplomacy."
The voice behind the radio was callous. "Suit yourself."
General Howe radioed Guild Proper again.
Second-Captain Kigan, the third in-command to Htu, answered the call. Kigan was sitting on a bench, outside in the center court-yard, able to see the blue sky.
"What? You again?"
"Please...for the love of God."
"Look, General, if you want to spare us so much, then withdraw your troops. It's as simple as that, but don't insult us with your 'weapon of doom' speech."
"...Captain Kigan, you and your men are guinea pigs."
A couple Guild Knights and Shadows were nearby the radio as Howe said this, and snickered.
"Oh?" Said Kigan. "We're guinea pigs? And you Rubine slaves are what? Sheep? Dogs? Better we be guinea pigs than to be chained to the evils of your command."
"Please, Kigan. For the love of God. This missile... it will wipe you all out. There is no defense for it, no honor, no glorious death in battle, just eradication."
"You know what I say to your missile?"
"..."
"Bring it on."
He threw the radio down, and his men started cheering.
"Alright, alright," Kigan said, "Since the General was so kind as to let us know that a missile's coming, we should get into the bunker."
General Howe changed his channel, and raised the radio to his lips.
"Come on, you guys." Kigan pointed to the sky "A big, bad missile's coming." The men laughed, and jeered.
"Do it," He breathed.
From the tent, an explosion of exhaust tore the structure apart. A missile, relatively small and fat, shot out into the heavens.
"Hey!" laughed Kigan, and his men turned. "There it is!"
The missile arced into the sky, disappearing into the clouds.
Kigan then revealed the reason for his confidence. He pressed a button, and immediately, dozens of RemoPDD shot out from their nest. These point-defense drones were designed to shoot down incoming missiles with lasers; shaped like snakes and able to fly like bats, no projectile would make it within 30 ft of the fort.
Just as the missile started coming down, the clouds parted, and a beam of light heralded the projectile.
Kigan smiled. Three dozen RemoPDDs flooded the skies, if a hundred rocket pods wouldn't make it through this missile defense shield, how could that tiny missile up above?
The missile was 2000ft from the ground.
Kigan licked his lips.
1000ft.
He glanced at his PDDs, confidence flooding back.
500ft-
He expected a lightshow of lasers and screeching, and the broken pieces of their weapon to fall to the ground. But no... it seemed to explode early. The missile exploded in midair, and seemed to contain itself in a ball of light. This ball of light was of all colors, sometimes pink, blue, furious red, until the sphere expanded at an alarming rate.
The RemoPDDs were annihilated. They fell, first shutting down, and then disintegrating in the sphere of light. The sphere reached the ground, and the ground, impossibly, was chewed up and dissolved.
Some of the Guild Proper tried to flee into the Bunker. Some stood transfixed by the awesome sight. Kigan hung there, radio in his limp hand, and eyes hypnotized by the sphere.
The sphere seemed to stop for a second, and hang there.
Then it exploded outwards. Everything was light.
Kigan brought his arms up, but to his surprise, his arms broke away and turned to dust. His clothes caught fire, his hair burned away, and his everything melted with everything else. There was a brilliant light, and a brilliant blackness, then he was no more.
The Fort was completely leveled. The bunker was completely destroyed. The only thing that remained of the Guild Proper HQ was a huge, black, mile-long smoking crater.
General Howe removed his eye-shields. They weren't enough. He couldn't see, could barely think, and could only fall down to the ground.
His radio crackled.
"General, was the test successful?" It was the Lead Scientist.
"Nuclear test successful."
"Are all enemies neutralized?"
General Howe glanced at the smoking crater.
"Without a doubt. Proceed with your testing, or whatever."
"Thank you, General."
The General saw a file of scientists, all wearing heavy lead suits, scurrying down to collect their data and find their results.
What is war coming to, he thought. I'm not sure I want to be a part of it.
Nuclear weapons... , what a power!
What a terrible power.