I don't own Chrome Shelled Regios, this is a fan fiction only

She was still staring at me as we began to look through what used to be the business sector. The long silent treatment was making me think two things, first that she was upset, and secondly that I was the reason she was upset. I know I killed a few people in those fights, but to be fair I didn't see the problem, they were trying to kill me too.

I mean come on, since when self-defense is a good reason to treat your lover like this? "You know Nina if you have anything to tell me, no matter what it is, you know you can talk with me right?"

She just turned around and glared at me, "You killed people for money, are you telling me you have no remorse of doing something so horrible?"

I looked at her and moved closer to her, "Nina, they were trying to kill me too. Do you think it is cheap to feed, cloth, and keep healthy over two hundred and fifty orphans? I did what I had to do, and thanks to that those kids grew up to be nice and healthy people. I hope that this is the case. Nina, do you think I would not do something to keep the people I care about safe?"

She was in tears as I told her that, she walked near me and she leaned against my body. "Layfon, that may sound sweet and caring but most people would only expect that from heartless mercenaries. Maybe it is that since I never believed you capable of doing something like that, it's a bit shocking."

I hugged her and after a brief kiss on her lips. I tried my best to smile, "Sweetheart you are describing bread to a baker, I was a Captain in a Mercenary company and you don't need to tell me how heartless they can be, there is only one thing they love, their money. I care about our squad which is feeling a lot like our family, my lover, and my surrogate daughter that just happens to be the electronic fairy that pretty much is the heart of the city we live in."

"Life in Glendan is never easy, all these contaminoids have molted and if they are still here, these things will be a threat you never have seen before. Don't believe me, tell me Nina doesn't that flag over there look familiar to you?"

She looked at it and she was shaking so bad I was feeling it through her hand, "That can't be, there is no way this place is that place, this place won the last municipal challenge against Zuellni they had plenty of resources thanks to the mine rights they won from us, how, why would they end up like this?"

I put my arms around her as I hugged her and waited for her to stop crying, "Because like I told you, my love, the contaminoids care nothing about mines, resources, or who beats who in a municipal challenge, they care about two things I told you, to eat, and multiply, that is it. They don't care how proud their food is, they just care that there is plenty of it."

I felt her hitting her closed fist against my chest until she finally calmed down. "So you don't expect any survivors in this place?" I began to shake my head, I knew better than to expect miracles like that, I know how efficient contaminoids are in searching and finding prey, it seems they are born able to detect signs of life, almost like they can smell it or see it.

"No, I don't think there will be any survivors, just look around you, all these molted skins tell me dozens if not hundreds of contaimoids had enough food to actually grow strong enough to shed their skin, that is by far no small amount. Eventually they will not be able to find food anymore, and they will turn on each other, the ones that survive will eventually go on their own and form their own hives, it is the way they do things, and those that live long enough to give up reproducing, they are true monsters, the elder grows stronger each year they live."

"You and many others would call me a monster, but this is what happens when a city forgets the danger that surrounds us, this is what happens when citizens think that having a few mines makes them immune to the dangers of the world, and this is why Military Arts exist, to combat the creatures that treat human lives as nothing more than a meal."

She began to cry again and I knew I was being harsh, some might even say cruel to the woman I very much love, but the reason I decided to mention this is simple, this is the sort of thing a person needs to know to finally awaken from the fantasy most citizens live in and realize why getting stronger and becoming better in the Military Arts is not to win competitions as if it was a sport, it is to prevent tragedies like the one she was seeing from ever happening in the first place.

The dozens of shed shells could be seen as we walked through the business sector of the city, not too long ago these were full of happy people going to their favorite shops and restaurants, going on dates, and enjoying a chat with a friend about the acknowledgments in their chosen path of life, a few people would buy things for a party and some might even buy things to celebrate a wedding or to mourn the passing of a loved one, but not any more.

Nothing but empty shells that the killer creatures and ruins of this place remained, nothing alive as far as the eye can see, and the fact that the idiot Gorneo had not stopped his idiotic attempts to avenge his scumbag of a mentor also did not escape my notice, too bad for him his attempts to me were the actions of a child throwing a tantrum, but should his stupidity threaten Nina, I will put a stop to him, much like I stopped countless contaminods.

That is when I saw the particles that were clearly a message come my way, it seems Feli found something or she was told someone else found something that should be mentioned to me and Nina, my guess it is not going to be pleasant news.

"I hate to intrude in you lovely little date, but I began doing some scans of the temperature of this place, and I found that the reactor in this city has activated, and it is increasing in temperature at an increasing rate, I thought you might want to know FonFon."

I knew this was not going to be good news, "Thank you Feli, could you inform the rest of the squad to get ready to evacuate this place, I have the feeling that the team that came as our back up is long gone, or most of them are, better tell that pervert to get his ass in gear in case I don't make it, you, him and Nina better be ready to leave in case I fail."

"Nina not that I don't enjoy being this close to you, but I think you should go and check with Feli, it seems she sent me a message about something I need to check out, you might want to prepare an evacuation of our squad in case things go south, no need to glare at me, smile Nina, you know how I love to see you smile."

As I walked away I felt her looking at me, each of these cities was built differently except, for one thing, the core of the city, the center that provided energy that powered the city, some would call it the engine, I prefer to call it the heart of the shelled city.

As I walked I saw what was going on, the regulation valves had been pierced through, these valves control the energy produced in the core, the spirit of the city, the electronic fairy would use them to control the energy produced, but with them like they are,and the fact that the electronic fairy was missing, it means that there was nothing to control the core.

Even contaminoids know better than to mess with this place, the energy was building up and without control, the energy build up was increasing as time went by. There is only one person I know foolish enough to do something like this, and as far as I been told that person should be pretty much dead.

"Look, I don't have much time to play hide and go seek, you can come out of hiding, you have any idea what you have done to the core of this city? Had you not done that, this city could still be rebuilt, but thanks to your actions that is no longer a possibility. You have any idea how much this will harm the unfortunate people in your squad?"

That is when I began to hear laughter, laughter from a girl, a girl that was hiding and did all this damage with a spear, "Nothing bad will happen to my squad, you would need to report what I did for anything to happen, and since you will not be able to do that, I got nothing to lose but plenty to gain. You want to know why I did this? You hurt the man I love, you are the reason he will not smile, your death will make him happy again, so you should be glad because I am killing you for love."

I closed my eyes and sent my energy around myself, I could sense something, a location, but not clear, the silhouette of the person that did this was easy to perceive. "Oh this is rich, Gorneo could not defeat me himself so he sent his pet monkey to do it. I don't have time for this stupidity, I am stopping this and reporting this to the proper authorities, you can explain why you did this, maybe insanity will let you and your squad keep your heads."

I sent energy through my dite and slashed I hit every control valve and caused them to seal shut, causing them to activate and the built up energy was released. "NO, YOU MUST DIE! FOR HURTING GORNEO, FOR YOUR LIES, FOR HARMING THE MENTOR HE LOVED AS A BROTHER, SO THE MAN I LOVE CAN SMILE AGAIN, YOU MUST DIE!"

She jumped out of nowhere with her pike in hand trying to attack me, trying being the key term, I cut that pick or at least that was my intent, the energy that I sent through my dite was so much that I unintentionally fused it, so it was no better than a blunt weapon, it may be a blunt weapon but it was still a weapon I could use against that pike.

I hit the thing hard enough to break it in two pieces, and she just bounced off the steaming pipes and tried to attack me with her bare hands, it was nothing to me, but I threw my weapon in the air and with my open hands I used the skills I learned from my good friend, she might think that my dite was the only weapon I had, she clearly forgot that I still had my gauntlets.

I punched her leg as she tried to kick me and a second punch sent her flying against one of the large pipes in the room, she collapsed on the ground and clearly had a hard time getting up. "I hit two of your pressure points, you might not notice this, it is not fatal but you are also not getting back up anytime soon. I told Gorneo no lies, but you wanted to cause the death of my friends, and the woman I very much love, so do you have anything else to say to me before I end your life?"

She was easily disturbed by what I said to her last, she clearly did not expect this to end up the way she did, she honestly thought that her skills in Military Arts would be enough to kill me, it is ridiculous, these people that consider Military Arts a sport could never kill a person who knew exactly what these Military Arts were for. I fought in a gladiatorial arena since I was younger than she is now, I sent fighters to their graves so many times, I lost count, well it seems this monkey will just have to be one more.

As I walked over to her Gorneo finally decided to try and find his lost pet, it seems he finally noticed that she was nowhere near or that she was not where she told him she would be, he came running into the room as I took hold of her head.

"So Gorneo, you finally came, you should know your little friend here nearly caused the core of this city to explode, didn't she tell you that you needed to evacuate? So much for love it seems, well that works well enough, you can take the corpse back to the city for burial, now if you will excuse me, I need to crush this empty thing I am holding."

He jumped at me trying to get me to drop her, not going to work, "Layfon you don't need to kill her, she is impulsive, immature, and quite probably a little disillusion, I will get her to repent for her actions, but please don't kill my friend. You said that you were honorable, prove it, by showing mercy to my dear friend!"

I looked at him and I could not help but to glare at him, "What guarantee I have that she will not try something like this again? What is to keep her from harming innocent people pursuing her selfish goals again? Tell me Gorneo why should I show her any mercy when she was willing to cause the death of both our squads to achieve her selfish plan?"

He did something I was not expecting him, he dropped to his knees, and looked at me, "Because if she tries to do something like this again, my life will be yours, I am willing to pay with my life should something like that happen again, so please show mercy to my foolish dear friend."

I tossed her at him and he did catch her, she kept repeating the same thing, smile Gorneo, please smile. "She is your responsibility, I will hold you to that vow you just made, pray that I never am forced to fulfill it. Let's go, the city will need a report of what happened, we simply will tell them that the valves malfunctioned due to damage the contaminods happened and we three took care of them to prevent the explosion."