Chapter 6 is here! Yeah it is surprising. I have been writing this for weeks continuously. Sorry that I'll have to delay Spirits by 1 or 2 chapters. And also, due to exam nearing, new chapter will probably be delayed depending on my workload. And also I will be on vacation. Without further ado, enjoy!
Chapter 6: A New Storm
Kansas City, United States
Kyo now meets another Majestic member, the two are viewing the files while having a breakfast
"Aren't you tired? Sudden teleportation like that does not eliminate jet lag. You should sleep if you are tired."
The Psychic Hunter is in his early 20s and with a shoulder length black hair and brown eyes. He can tell Kyo has not slept well quite some time as there are dark circles around his eyes.
"Well, Ward, you better have something to let me sleep. If the intel is good enough, we have to drop the hunt of Arashi and focus on this." Kyo jokingly replied.
Both of them have a short laugh and then Ward takes out an envelope which has many notes, documents and photographs in it.
"Ward, so you have this group of people that are hunting Spirits."
"Yeah, but I don't know what they are up to yet. My interception of their messages and surveillance have found out our target of interest."
The man pulls out a photo of the Daniel brothers and show it to Kyo.
"Kenny and Kendrick Daniel, Chief and Vice Chief of DARPA. In case you have no idea, DARPA backed Academi PMC is now in war with DEM. Though DARPA develop weapons for US Military, most of them are developed for the Anti Spirit Force and the SOCOM units like DEVGRU and Delta Force. DARPA now intends to create next gen fighting force with the integration of realizer. Asgard sold them one, they bought from DEM one and then they attempt to steal from both."
"Let me guess, spy war between all 3 organizations?"
"Yeah, Academi is good enough in covering their ties with DARPA. Ratatoskr uses Yggdrasil as their front and DEM using their agents too. I found this by rummaging their server for Arashi's information, things are crazier than I thought. The president, NSA, CIA have absolute no idea on what the Daniel brothers are doing."
This intrigues Kyo as he can sense the anxiety in Ward, who is usually non-chalant and close to fearless. The writings are on the wall saying the big implication in the situation. Kyo pulls out his tablet and play a sound log.
Sound log
"So, how's the progress going?"
"Spirit mana infusion is successful, but the test subject is now completely insane and mindless, but oddly, they understand order."
"Then this is not a success at all!"
"No Kenny, the thing is, by infusing the subjects with larger amount of Spirit mana, their brain activity surprisingly becomes more stable. Think of this, our PMC, our company. We are not only creating soldiers that can use territory freely without the side effects, super soldiers with the augmentation and Spirit mana enhancements. We can patent this, and even jumpstart an economy made of war. Think of the money… How many wars we can start and end."
"You are right… We need to find ways to extract more mana from our precious ones… I guess Ghosts will take care of that."
Back to the Hunters
"How long ago is this sound log taken?" Kyo asked in a serious tone.
"6 months ago. There is another log, but this one involves some crazier stuffs."
Another sound log
"Our precious died, they were too weak."
"Managed to find anything?"
"I found that by fucking them, their ejeculation yield the highest mana. But the concentrations were too dilute, probably what we have done. I have the scientists break both of them down to mere molecules, guess what. The mana concentration is just right, using the universal constructor for our nanomachine research, we can even replicate the mana and make it more concentrated. But it reaches its limit because of the Spirit's spiritual strength, I made two, one for both of us."
"I also have good news, the nanomachines of Nanaya is compatible to most population, samples made for both of us and Jaren are ready for infusion."
"Great, nanomachine augmented soldiers, more way to control the world."
Back to the Hunters
Rage start to engulf within Kyo, he think that this power is sacred and should not be replicated. Also, he realizes that their prized patent has been sold.
"This blasphemy… They are trying to create Psychics! And Nanaya's nanomachines… Did my foster father sold the patents to them?"
"What? Just what are those?" Ward asked.
"Those are next gen augmentation technology, we lost many patents of Nanaya research and stuff. And now Psychic… The sacred power of Spirits… We must not let that happen, Emperor Lucifer will not allow it either!" Kyo explained.
"If it is Emperor's will, I shall carry out his and your orders." Ward assured.
With situation turns complicated, he decides to drop the hunt on Arashi.
"I'm staying here for a while Ward. I might need to get Tenno too."
"No problem. I also planted a lot of bugs in their systems. I can track their every moves." Ward added.
"Good, I'm gonna go to sleep now."
7 hours after the attack, DEM London HQ
"This attack must have been related to the assassination attempt! All these happened in just 2 weeks!" One of the directors said.
"There are not enough evidence yet. Not to mention the pattern of attack is very different. Using unsuppressed firearms and brute force this time as compared to the stealth infiltration. Not to mention the last contact we had the deceased actually said it is augs that are attacking." Westcott attempts to assure everyone.
"I also have eye witness statement that the assassin and the attackers are complete different group of people. The assassin is not an aug, but rather a man in specialized combat suit." the other director also voiced out.
Westcott is lucky that this time, he has director at his side. Now he managed to get everyone thinking who would have attacked them.
"Augs are not that common, military rarely augment their soldiers unless he or she is willing to and lost their limbs. Terrorist have way too little funds to even support these augmentations."
"According to Germany's intel, they suspect the attackers are Charon LLC's Ghost. A rumoured black ops unit that consists of augmented Wizards able to fight without the use of CR-Unit and able to pass off customs freely due to their advance augmentations."
Finding an aug is definitely hard, they are so many of them worldwide. The military grade augmentations are literally light years ahead and able to disguise their weapons from X-Rays easily, to make matters worse, there is little regulations to it.
"We can't just ask the US government like that, too little evidence, and we will be dealing with NSA and CIA due to our status."
"…"
After the meeting
Westcott is in his office along with Ellen, Origami and Tenno is at the ground zero at Harz. Tenno and Origami are in Quanta and Mordred CR-Unit respectively. GSG 9 counter terrorism unit, German AGK (Anti Geist Kraft, German Anti Spirit Force) and DEM Wizards are clearing and scanning the site for evidence.
"Not good, boss. They literally blew the whole place to pieces."
Tenno shows the trio around and the facility is completely ruined.
"So far we found lots of shell casings. 5.56x45mm round casings are everywhere. And, bodies of our people."
Tenno shows the amount of body bags that are filled with deceased Wizards. There are two Wizards bagging up a charred body too. The scene is disturbing as Origami start to feel a bit enraged.
"We are still trying to unearth of our server. Hopefully the surveillance footage and radar data are still intact."
"Hey Tenno! Look what we've found!" Origami said.
She alert from the 3 of them and passes Tenno an oddly shaped blade.
"What in the?" Ellen exclaimed when she looks at the blade.
The blade is at least 30cm long and it is in rectangle shape. The tip of the blade is flat but sharpened.
"Boss, this blade… Not even a scratch, this thing is still sharp." Tenno exclaimed while inspecting the blade with Origami.
"Bring the blade back, continue to find the server." Westcott ordered.
"Roger that!"
The video call with Tenno and Origami cuts off and Westcott gives out a sigh.
"First the sellout, second the assassination, and now the bombing. What's going on?" he lamented.
Ellen only remain silent on the matter.
2km South West from ground zeroes
"Looks like they have recovered a weird weapon. And that guy, I recognize him, Tobiichi Origami too."
After the attack, Yggdrasil is notified by Woodman, they decides to send Arashi to the site. Using air insertion, they dropped Arashi from 14km without parachute, Arashi landed safely thanks to the AR-Unit's advance feature of creating an off-load territory field that breaks and exhaust all energy of a fall, allowing the user to land safely at all altitude. Arashi's visor has a built in binocular functions that allow the user to zoom in and view distance up to 6km away.
"That is the newly appointed Adeptus 3, Tenno Scotts. And in case you are wondering, these are the 3 Adeptus." Dante said.
The visor display 3 photos, Adeptus 1 being Ellen, Adeptus 2 being Origami and Adeptus 3 being Tenno. The sighting of Origami still surprises Arashi.
"What? Tobiichi Origami as Adeptus 2? Does she want revenge so bad that she has to join DEM?"
"Nobody knows, but it is clear that we will clash." Dante said it lamentably.
"I managed to get Mana to leave the place for off day because of this attack." Ian joins in too.
"What? This is a black ops mission?"
Arashi is surprised as he was not told of the nature of the mission since he was woken up very early.
"It is a Spirit research facility after all, in my experience back then, they like to backup informations of Spirit worldwide to research facility server from the DEM cloud. Mr Woodman insisted this to be black ops too." Dante explained.
"I see, Ian, how's the follow up on the comms just now?"
"Server must have some clue, infiltrate the facility and find what you can find. Let's hope they unearth the server before Mana comes back." Ian ordered.
"Roger."
Arashi in his Mercurial-AR pulls out Boltor and turns on active camo and starts infiltrating. He carefully treads his way in the woods to the facility. GSG 9 personnels are patrolling the area, probably to find and kill any daring journalists from taking photo of the secret facility. Arashi deliberately puts himself a distance away from the patrolling soldiers. In just 30 minutes, Arashi reaches the ground zero. Due to the large amount of electronic device in the area, it interrupts Tenno's sensing ability, masking Arashi's presence this time.
"Infiltration complete." he reported.
"Good, try go to the west wing of the facility. See what else you can find." Dante ordered.
"Roger."
Arashi slowly sneaks to the west wing. On the way to the west wing, he can hear the cries of the dead, constantly reminding him of his past. It reminds of him murdering the Wizards.
"The deads are crying… I'm no different from those murderers…"
Although it is 7 hours into the attack, the west and the north wings are not being investigated yet. There are only a few GSG 9 operators sparsely spread across the west wing. The visor immediately highlights a shell casing which Arashi go and pick it up, the shell casing is very big, he can tell that the bullet is even bigger than .50cal.
"Dante? Ian?"
Arashi picks the shell casing up and uses his territory to cloak the bullet from outside view, he raises the bullet into his vision in an effort to let Dante and Ian see what's that.
"Freaking 20mm cannon shells! This is not your average Phoenix Connexion tier terrorist, more like military funded PMC terrorists!" Ian exclaimed.
"There are tonnes them too, they brought a gattling cannon here?" he asked.
"Probably." Dante contemplated.
As he walks, he realizes that he steps onto something sharp, though not piercing his nanotube body. He picks the thing up and find that it is some kind of barb.
"This looks like taser barb? The sharp end pierces the wiring suit and the skin, that small cylinder at the top is fuel cell, it can't do much on its own and it needs another barb to complete the circuit." Ian guessed.
"I suppose none of these barbs landed. DEM Wizards are not the kind of people one can be tazed easily." Dante commented.
"There are not much else in the west wing, most of this place are blown up by the bomb."
"Proceed to the north wing."
"Roger."
Arashi moves to the north wing without much trouble as he is cloaked. He still treads carefully on the rubbles, avoid making any noise. As soon as he reaches there, he is shocked by what he have seen. From the ravaged fence all the way to the remaining wall, there is a very shallow ditch, there are dried up blood around the ditch. There is a GSG 9 operator and a German Wizard bagging a body up. His head and upper body is beat up, suggesting to Arashi that the attacker grabbed the man's face and dragged him across the area.
"Poor guy, but still, how the hell can this even happen?"
"Beats me, those augs have ridiculous strength, but I never know they can do this."
The operator and the Wizard converse in German. The sight still disturbs everyone in the area.
"What kind of monster can even do this? I'm positive that there is no Spirit or Fallen Spirit mana in the area."
"This must be the works of Wizard, Adeptus calibre." Dante answers firmly.
"Wizard attacking DEM? That's very daring." Arashi expresses his doubt.
"Well, US special forces are known for their nerves of steel, even more so with augmentation program for volunteers. And DARPA is trying to get their hands on DEM new realizers too. In case you have no idea, DARPA's chief and vice chief are brothers and they are the CEO of Daniel Arms Tech."
Dante's explanation shocks Ian who realizes that Dante is implying that United States is involved.
"Wait, you're thinking US SOCOM is involved?" Ian ask in a surprised tone.
"I don't have a definite answer yet, and I doubt it is SOCOM. According to past intel Daniel Arms Tech has a black PMC subsidiary known as Charon LLC, which rumored to be consist of augs. There are not much info on the soldiers as it appears that they use normal, exoskeleton enhanced soldiers as their front. Many of our men were ex-Deltas and ex-Rangers who were given opportunity to join Charon LLC and thrown out. We will need to talk with Ratatoskr operatives in USA soon."
As Dante finishes explaining his reason, an English voice came out loud at the ground zero.
"Guys, gather! We've found the server!"
The voice alerts the operators and Arashi and the operators and Wizards rush to the area. Arashi picks up his pace and walks to where the Wizards are gathered too. The server closet, is intact from the rubble, but charred by the fire.
"This server is definitely dead…"
"…"
Origami only remains silent while the operatives try to inspect the damage. Meanwhile, Tenno contacts Westcott. However, this time Ellen is the one that is handling him.
"Hey, Ellen, the server is intact, but the problem is, that thing is definitely dead and we have no idea if we can even take the drives out."
Before Ellen can say anything, someone shouted.
"The server doors are fused, the whole rack is dislodged from the ground."
Ellen can hear that, and she knows just how big is the server.
"We'll have to arrange a cargo plane to bring the server back. I want you to ensure the server makes it to the airbase and then take the plane back to here."
"Yes Mdm!"
The video feed is being cut off. Origami immediately uses her territory to lift the server, she does so easily thanks to the surgery on her. The feat impresses other Wizards too.
"Able to use territory like that at age?"
"That's DEM Wizards for you. And that is Adeptus 2."
The Wizards muttered in German, although Tenno couldn't understand German, but he figured that they are talking about Origami.
"This world is rotten… Caring only about something so trivial… Yet the world is slipping to the hands of the same monster…"
Tenno only thought to himself and help out too. There are other Wizards help out and uses their territory to decrease the stress on Origami as they fly to the nearest Wizard airbase.
"Arashi, follow them, I have dropped a teleportation device onto Scythe Wings, use them later when we have a chance to hijack the server."
"Roger, moving to rendezvous point."
Arashi immediately sprints as soon as he confirms that there was no one around. The cloaked Scythe Wings immediately fly towards Arashi and attaches itself. Arashi immediately flies towards the Wizards cloaked. This time however, Tenno can sense him.
"This electric signal… We are being followed!"
He glanced around, and pinpoints the location of the electricity, it is pulsating from all weapons and units of Arashi.
"But I cannot attack now. It'll be super suspicious to do that. And also, if he is the one I'm looking for…"
Origami can sense Tenno's anxiety. She immediately ask her comrade.
"Is there something wrong Tenno?"
"Nah, nothing. It's just that it's my first time coming to Germany." he explained.
Origami dismiss her doubt and didn't pay much attention to him.
"I know you are waiting for it. You'll strike when we are delivering."
Meanwhile Dante commands Arashi not to attack.
"Spectre, do not attack! Observing radio silence."
Arashi follows the team for about 10 minutes as they reaches the airbase. The Wizards quickly touch down and enters a hanger.
"Break radio silence, according to the comms a few minutes ago, Ellen arranged a cargo plane for the server. Easy to disguise as a supply transportation. Just wait here and we'll take it out as soon as it reach max altitude."
Arashi start to worry about the mission as he is told by Dante and Ian that no lethal methods is to be used. Breaking into a plane is dangerous and can be lethal to its passenger too.
"And the Wizards inside?" he asked.
"Relax, wiring suits are very advance as they have something like the landing system on the AR-Unit. And it is a standard protocol for everyone in a cargo ship to wear parachute at all times." Dante assured.
"I see."
"And according to the schematics, the plane has a special compartment that hold hazardous or top secret stuffs. Server will probably be housed in there, but nothing will stop your blade. Finally, no matter what you do, no explosives or EMP!" Ian added.
"Roger."
After a few minutes, the plane enters the runway and it speeds up and lift off. The Wizards inside are still wearing their CR-Unit in the event of super rare midair hijack. Which unfortunately for them, the luck decides to screw them over the 1% as Arashi closing in as they are reaching to their designated altitude. Meanwhile, in the plane, Tenno can sense Arashi closing in and even right above them.
"What? What the hell is he trying to do?" Tenno thought.
"Spectre, now!"
Arashi immediate use his unit to jam all radios and radar in the plane.
"Interference! Radar jammed!"
The pilots are baffled by the sudden interference. The Wizard's comms are also jammed, no one knows what is going on except Tenno, who can sense the interference by Arashi.
The shoulder mounted arm blades extends onto Arashi's arms. Long jets of plasma are formed as he uncloaks and he times his strike. He uses his visor to see where the passengers are, he aims the plasma blade well and give it a swing. The blade immediately slices the tail of the plane off. The sudden decompression of air sucked a few Wizards including Tenno out of the plane. He then fires four shots of lightning and takes out all engines on the plane.
"Ahhhhhh!"
The Wizards inside scream as they cling onto the handle bars. Origami only shouted frantically for Tenno.
"TENNO!"
The other Wizards immediately recover from free fall and uses their CR-Unit to fly. However, everyone sees a black object closing in very swiftly. Arashi has his Scythe Wings powered to full throttle at a staggering mach 3.
"Intercept him!"
The Wizards in air fly towards Arashi in an attempt to intercept the young man, but he is too fast as he closes the distance on the slowed down plane. In about 100m away from the hole, the scythe wings detach, in just a split second, Arashi channels the territory and using the strength enhancing property of Mercurial, he propels himself like a bullet. The velocity allows him to reach the plane interior, just as he is about to reach, a field of electricity surrounds him, the land absorbs the impact and unleashes a strong shock waves that knocks a Wizard out of the plane while Arashi performs a barrel roll and then stands right up. His legs have functions that allow Arashi to stick his feet upright with territory usage by offloading calculations to SECOND.
The Wizards manage to have a clear look at their foe. Completely in black, his swept back hair with the artificial jaw along with the visor, at the end of each finger are gunmetal coloured metal claws, this give Arashi an extremely menacing look. Arashi swiftly pulls out Requiem and immediately engage the helpless Wizards. A Wizard then draws out her SIG Sauer P250 to shoot at Arashi. Arashi focus to slow down everything, the Wizard pulls the trigger, the 9mm bullet exits the barrel. He takes a breathe, and times his strike, in one swing, the bullet is effortlessly deflected away.
The young man then swings his blade to sever the handle bars. With nothing to hold onto the Wizards are sent flying out of the plane. Origami also got sent out as Arashi with his devil like precision, sent everyone out unharmed. He uses his speed and cuts a hole on the isolation space and attaches 4 devices on the corners of the server.
"Alright, send this thing!"
Beams of light connects onto the devices, linking all of them together, then, the server disappear after a bright light is given off.
"Server is in, get out of there!" Dante ordered.
Arashi immediately sprints and jumps off the plane. But now, both Origami and Tenno intercept him. Scythe Wings is still a distance away, Origami pulls out Mordred's sword attempts to cut down Arashi. But the better swordsman parries the blade away. The impact alone however, knocks him away. Tenno immediately uses his Amprex lightning rifle and fires a charged lightning bolt at Arashi. This time, Scythe Wings is right behind him to attach onto him, but there won't be enough time.
Without more options left, he cranks up his territory to block the lightning bolt. His heart races very fast upon impact, the lightning is blocked, but the static electricity made all of his hair stand. With a burst from the afterburner, Arashi flies backwards, the arm blades extends to cover his arms. He then engages the Wizards in a dogfight.
Prioritizing the threats, he decides to take out the other 4 Wizards first. The maneuverability of Scythe Wings allows Arashi to dodge all shots despite having an energy shield. Other Wizards cannot lock onto Arashi because he is invisible in the radar. The targeted Wizard frantically fires her gattling cannon, since he is this close, Arashi decides to take a few hits with the energy shield.
Her eyes are widen as the cybernetic grim reaper is so close to her, as if he wants to take her life, Arashi takes aim and swings his blade. The HF arm blades effortlessly cuts through the CR-Unit, separating the Wizard from her CR-Unit. One Wizard decides to fire a volley of unguided missile hoping to score a lucky hit, Arashi's left arm blade quickly retracts and he blast five arcs of lightning one from each finger, detonating all missiles easily. He then switches his arm and blast a volley of lightning from the blade. The Wizard is hit and his unit is fried and he is down.
"Watch out! His blade can destroy defense territory!" Tenno shouted.
Arashi's usage of his superior speed, easily brings down two more Wizards. With Origami and Tenno remaining, Amprex turns into the sword form, the two engage him together. Origami's high wind up time in her attacks allow Arashi to parry away her attacks, but Tenno's attack is significantly faster and harder to parry.
"Damn, this guy is good." Arashi thought to himself.
With a small timing window of Origami staggering, Arashi immediately aims and blasts away Mordred's wing. Without the wing, Origami can't fly as the thruster is off balance.
"It's you and me, to think you would actually attack us twice."
Arashi enters a defensive stance as they both recognizes each other.
"Get out of there! We're done."
Arashi turns invisible and flies off, but Tenno can sense him and fires at him.
"You can't hide!"
Tenno aims and fires lightning bolts at Arashi instantly, he is surprised that Tenno can sense him.
"What? How in the?"
He dodges the bolt with a few narrowly missed him, in just a few second he is out of the area, the jamming is also gone.
"Jamming is gone, all personnel report!" Tenno ask frantically.
"We're alright. Parachuting to the ground." Origami reported.
"Same here, we can still glide to the ocean to crash this thing. We can bail out too." the pilots reported.
"Please do so."
Tenno immediately contacts Ellen on the comms.
"Mr Westcott, Ellen, mayday!"
This time Ellen picks up the comms and surprised to see Tenno in the air.
"What is it? We just lost all contact from you guys?" she asked.
"…The assassin, he is a Wizard and hijacked the server!"
"What?"
Ellen is surprised as she had never expect a midair hijack.
"We are all fine, the pilots are crashing the plane into the sea, requesting for extraction." Tenno requested.
It is visible that she is enraged, but the worst had happened.
"Alright, we'll extract you guys as soon as possible."
Back at Yggdrasil base
Arashi reaches the island base safely and stripped his AR-Unit, and he walks to the meeting area in wiring suit and visor to meet Ian.
"Good work Spectre." Ian complimented.
"Thank you, how's the server?"
"Well, it's dead for sure. We'll have wait for weeks to even recover the data inside." Ian explained.
Arashi and Ian are looking at the technicians extracting the hard drives.
"Hey, Dante has something for you. Go meet him at his special testing room."
"Got it."
Arashi walks to the special testing room, on his way, there are Yggdrasil Wizards that are gossiping about him.
"Hey that's the new guy, Spectre. I heard he was a terrorist in Afghanistan."
"Afghan? He looks too lean to be one."
"I even heard that he snuck into DEM HQ to assassinate some directors there all alone!"
"Alone? That's impossible…"
With his face covered, nobody knows what he looks like, nobody knows his name, no one knows why he joined Yggdrasil. He knows that and he doesn't mind as he want it to stay this way.
He enters the special testing room only to find Dante waiting for him there.
"Hey kid, are you prepared to meet your new toy?"
Dante shows him the Nevermore-AR, encased in a large capsule.
"I thought you said it was unstable…" he said as he removes his visor and mask.
"Well it was, but with some weird situations."
Nishiro appears in front of Arashi and continues to explain.
"We replicated your power of darkness, and thus created Nevermore-AR. Everything was going right, until the testing. This unit's mana is sentient, and we think Nevermore is inside."
"That's impossible. You can't just manifest a demon out from mana just like that… Not to mention I killed Nevermore along with Amon with the Eyes of Death. Amon can come back with a new soul but Nevermore can't." Arashi rebutted.
"But that just happened. Nevermore attempted to consume both of us. So, we thought of letting you tame it." Dante added.
"So I'm a guinea pig now?" Arashi asked.
"Sort of, after all, you want the power to stand toe to toe with Kyo isn't it?"
Arashi always long for some power to fight against Kyo after he lost all. He wants to save his own brother, protect his friends and the ones he love.
"Alright, I'm in."
Dante suits up Arashi with the Nevermore-AR. With everything checked, he prepares to turn on the mana link.
"Okay, good luck kid."
Dante flips the switch on, the dark mana now runs rampantly in the unit. Arashi's eyes involuntarily glow wispy blue and his vision turn dark. He cannot see anything, but the chained dark fiend that is roaring.
"Power! Give me power!" Nevermore speaks.
"You want power? I'm here."
The fiend look at Arashi and recognizes him. He then give out a horrifying laugh.
"You… Hahahaha… You thought you had killed me, you had stopped me from taking over you for sure. I gave you power, I gave you nearly all that you need to protect your loved ones…" the fiend lamented.
"Listen, I'm sorry back there. I had to do it, if Amon has your power, we are all finished. And I need you, Kyo is alive, Azazel has taken over him, purged his soul out. His soul is now the avatar of Itherael. Lucifer is now in the body too."
His statements shocks Nevermore, who did not expect the Burning Hells to strike so soon.
"What? Lucifer is in our world?"
"Yes. Kyo tried to kill me, I had to run away from the others. Give me your strength, I will free you… And my power, we will be together again." Arashi explained.
"Fair enough."
Arashi summons a wispy blue sword and severs the chain on Nevermore.
"Your power has grown…"
"I did what I have to. Now bow to my will!" Arashi ordered.
"Yes master…"
Nevermore shrouds himself over Arashi surround him in darkness. In real life, Arashi is knocked out cold with his eyes wide open as he communed with Nevermore. Dante cannot turn the thing off as if Kyo has intervened again. A spectral form of Nevermore is projected, the fiend roars while the blue fire engulfs it again, signifying the power of death has fused with darkness again.
"Hey, kid. Are you alright?"
"Arashi answer me!"
His vision recovers to normal, with Ian, Dante and Miruko in his sight.
"Hey are you alright?" Miruko asked.
"Yeah… I can feel it… Nevermore. Dante, this thing is tamed." Arashi replied.
Everyone gives out a sigh of relief. Arashi stands right up and tests his powers.
"Alright, let me try to summon my blades."
Arashi does so, only to summon the wispy blue blades instead of the dark blades.
"It's not working, if shadow blades can't be summoned, then I won't be able to summon my full sword either."
Arashi then snaps his fingers, but the ground do not burst out a blast of shadow. He is very sure that he did channels the mana.
"Try use it like how you blast lightning with Mercurial." Dante said.
Arashi does so and a hellish blast of shadow and dark blue flame is unleashed. Upon seeing that, he smiles as he it is one of his most used ability.
"Great! Now my wings."
He tries to manifest his wings, but he can't feel them, realizing that the wings cannot be used.
"Alright, and now the last one."
Arashi immediately focus and sends everyone including himself into a dark realm. He essentially cover them in absolute darkness.
"Nice! This will come in handy."
He releases everyone from the darkness. Everyone is amazed by how the unit is doing on Arashi. But Arashi can sense some envy and sorrow from Dante, he is curious to know why.
"Alright the work is done, Nevermore-AR is finally completed."
"Dante, I think it is best that I don't use this unless it is necessary." Arashi requested.
"What?"
"It is too much of a risk. Mana might figure out who I am, she's smart. And, I will only use this if I fight Kyo." Arashi explained.
"Fine. You'll use two units then."
Dante then walks out of the special testing room with Arashi stripping off Nevermore-AR. After Dante left, he then asks Ian and Miruko.
"Hey, Ian, Miruko, there is something I want to ask you."
Both of them are intrigued by Arashi.
"It's about Dante, I can tell that he is… Sad… And angry."
Both of them look at each other, then Miruko speaks.
"Dante used to love a girl. She was a Spirit, but another Spirit killed her. Dante since then always hunting down the Spirit while creating these AR-Units. The thing is, AR-Units infused with Spirit power although doesn't require body implants, it still has a negative effect to prolonged usage. Dante thought Nevermore-AR will be his answer due to your powers, but now this dream is broken, he'll have to start over again. Also, he has to halt his hunt because of your brother."
Upon hearing that, Arashi start to feel guilty about this. He understand about vengeance as he was in that position. Being in a position that stops someone's vengeance is definitely not where he wants to be.
"God… Where can I find him if he feels down?" he asked.
"The summit. He likes to be there." Ian answered.
"Alright, I need to talk to him."
Arashi puts on his mask and visor and runs out of the base. After ensuring that no one is around. He focus and teleports to the summit, surprising Dante who is indeed at there.
"What in the… You could have let me know before you even jump up." Dante reprimanded him.
"Dante, we need to talk. I'm sorry, that I got into your way."
Dante realizes what Arashi meant, he then gives a sigh.
"They told you huh…"
"After all this, or you do found that Spirit, let me know, I'll help you kill her too." Arashi assured.
"Aren't you a Spirit guardian?" Dante asked.
"Guardians don't just protect, but also kills those that are out of the line. I can turn a blind eye to this one. I let Kurumi lived because she did not harm anyone that I know." Arashi explained.
Dante only smiled, he is glad that he has a friend at his side. But he knows, there are things more important.
"Listen kid, vengeance is just a matter of time. I chose to help you, because there are lives that can be saved. We are protecting your loved ones, you want to save your brother too. So, just focus on what you are doing, threat at hand is more dangerous than threat of past."
"Yes, Dante."
DEM London HQ
"The wizard, has multiple features matched to the assassin 2 weeks ago. Weaponry also matches the assassin." Origami reported.
"I fought him before, that guy has all anti-Wizard weapons." Tenno added.
"Yggdrasil… They really love to pick up the pieces of DARPA." Ellen commented.
The 3 Adeptus is in Westcott's office who is visibly displeased with the failure of the mission.
"I'm very disappointed in the outcome… But, I think we got a new ally this time."
Westcott's statement surprise all three of them.
"If DARPA is behind the attack, then Yggdrasil will take them out. We'll just leave it be, hopefully we'll have some good news soon."
They don't understand why, but since Westcott has said so, they can't do anything.
"Oh and Tenno, your vacation is in 1st of February eh?" Westcott asks.
"Yes, Mr Westcott." Tenno replied.
"Alright, it's just less than a month away. Need a raise?" Westcott asks again.
"Well…"
But before he can finish, Ellen speaks out.
"With regards to that, Origami, please leave the office, as we need to have some private talk regard that."
Origami only remains silent and leaves the office. After that, Ellen starts to talk.
"I need to know just how did you spend all your 2000 pounds, your monthly wages before you got into Adeptus. You have a friend called in today saying that you owe him 2137 pounds. And that's after writing off another 4000 pounds of bad debts."
The word 2137 is a code use by Majestic to urge Tenno to call Ward. But now, he is pissed that Ward made him look like someone who is heavily in debt.
"Erm… Well, I spent on, let me see… Food, utilities, beer, party, clothes and women."
The answer disgusts Ellen as it would be a shame if words get out saying DEM Wizard owes someone so much money.
"Don't need to be mean Ellen. Well, Tenno, since you are going vacation for a month, and such a big debt, I shall have your salary raise to 3000 pounds, and another 3000 pounds as bonus."
With such a big amount of money this time, Tenno is smiling.
"Thank you, Mr Westcott."
"You may leave now."
Tenno then leaves the office, and Ellen now voices out to Westcott.
"Isaac! That guy has some serious money management issue. Giving him such a big bonus won't help."
"It's alright, our revenue is enough to cover it anyway. Now, I need additional forensic reports." Westcott said.
"Yes Isaac."
Two days later
Tenno calls Ward from a payphone angrily, as an attempt to scold and commune with Ward.
"Hello, Ward here."
"God dammit, Ward. Of all excuses, you made me look like I owe people money for all my life. FREAKING 6000 pounds! You could have came up with better thing to put in the code!"
Ward just chuckled a bit upon hearing that, he just said.
"Kyo will need your help in February."
"Oh?"
Kyo grabs the phone and answer to Tenno.
"Hey Tenno."
Tenno is surprised to hear Kyo's voice.
"Kyo? Just what happened?"
"Well… Shit got complicated. We'll have to drop the hunt on Arashi. I'll let you know when we meet. Our target of interest should not act soon." Kyo ordered.
"Alright. See you then."
12pm DARPA HQ, Virginia
The augmented Wizard, Jaren enters the building. His sunglasses are on, and wears a black trench coat.
"Good afternoon, Mr Jaren Steel. Mr Daniel is waiting for you at the top floor."
The receptionist greets the cybernetic augmented man. He only remains silent to her as he moves to the lift and takes it to the top floor. He quickly reaches the top floor, enters the office after a few knocks. Kenny and Kendrick Daniel are waiting for him. Both brothers has a light brown hair and cold blue eyes, albeit Kenny is swept back and Kendrick is brushed down.
"Good afternoon, Mr Daniel."
Jaren's sunglasses slides back, as a gesture of respect to both men's authority.
"Nah, Jaren, don't have to be so formal. We are friends, how many times do we have to remind you that. This is not Rangers anymore man."
"Sorry Kenny. It's hard for me to throw away my Ranger life."
The three have a short laugh. Kendrick then starts to reminisce the past.
"I still remember when I see you Jaren, you have the spark in your eyes. You were brave, saving your comrades from a grenade. And lost your limbs then, your comrades forked out all of their pay just to make you able to walk again."
"Yeah, I'm very thankful of them. And so, I want to be able to end all war so that they don't have to fork out money again." Jaren added.
"Well, we have an answer now."
Kenny reveals the 3 vials of nanomachines, one for each of them.
"These nanites, are ready for transfusion. And now, we shall inject them."
All of them now grabs a vials. Prepared to be infused with the nanomachines.
"Alright, one more step, to peace." Kenny said.
"FOR PEACE!"
The three said in unison and inject the nanites. Kenny and Kendrick's eyes then turn purple, but Jaren's ones does not as those are artificial eyes. The brothers' vision are now augmented and a HUD overlay is in their vision.
"Great… These nanites, we have succeed!" Kenny cheered.
That's all. I hope you all enjoy the story. I have to admit, it is really Wizard vs Wizard this far. And I think I have hinted enough, Arashi's rivaly with a DEM Wizard, and a war with US DARPA. Though now is just minor skirmish, all out war incoming guys!
Please leave a review to let me know where I can improve in. Thank you!