Author's Note: Okay so starting to get settled down with the new rig, still upset at the other one biting the dust at only two years. In any case, Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 29: The King of Camelot
The old turtle known as Oroko had prepared a waiting area for when Kuro would arrive. Chair's and a bar, all suitably treated for exposure to the elements for the arrival area cannot be indoors with the limitations on the Hero's Portal ability. Glass of fine wine in hand the old turtle watched as the light of the portal skill was dropped into the area and from within Kuro and her party emerged, with new additions it would appear for two Hakuko were with her.
"Chem, take them to the dragon hour glass and have them classed up." Kuro stated handing him a bag. "They can use those to perform a special class up ceremony if it so pleases them."
"Haven't you done-!" Atla whipped out her sword and rest the blade against her brother's neck.
"Though you are my brother that does not give you the right to repay gratitude with bile." The blind folded girl stated worthless eyes narrowed in a glare. "Whatever comes from her actions I am alive now when before I was only surviving." Fohl withdrew his anger though there was a sadness mixed in as Atla withdrew the blade. "Whatever happens, I will need you both at my side to face it." The two siblings hugged each other as the older looking and taller carried the younger and shorter in his arms.
"What's with those two?" Oroko stated though he could already hazard a guess.
"Hakuko human hybrids, just hit sixty the other day." Exactly what kind of beast was Sadeena that she could apparently take a person's own magic, and order it to kill them from the inside out. "I sent them out to get classed up just now." Dragon core provided by Maple, and Filolial crown feathers via Filo. Whether magic or physical prowess they should have no shortage of options in the pursuit of power. "Old man. I think I made a huge mistake."
"Do tell." The old man replied some what interested in the story.
"The weapons I create?" Kuro climbed onto and situated herself on the bar stool. "Each one of them have a story behind them that maintains their existence. I used one to heal her, and in doing so might've decided her fate."
Atla was already well known to the other slaves, and to the people of Zeltoble, and the nations they had come from. Fohl was always a crowd favourite when he stepped into the ring, the desperate child fighting tooth and nail to buy medicine to save a deathly ill younger sister. Kuro used a literal miracle to save her, in front of a tent full of witnesses no less, a good old fashion tale of telephone retelling and altering the story as it was passed along. The constructs were so small that they needed a equally small amount of energy to sustain them, at first that was Atla's own magical power and her stubborn refusal to let the gift of her saviour go, now it was the story Kuro had forged through her.
"How bad do you think it will get?" Oroko debated the benefits of giving the girl something to ease her sorrows and decided against.
"She knows how to use a sword now, something that should be impossible considering it wasn't too long ago that she couldn't even move let alone fight." Avalon was bleeding into her, what was meant to heal was now taking hold in her body, and what was worst was that Atla refused to let them go. The fear Kuro had on her features was palpable and plain as day.
"A tool for healing is teaching her how to fight?" The old turtle looked visibly confused but Atla shook her head.
"Avalon..." Kuro bit her tongue, how much damage did the mere rumour of what Kuro did to her friend do without knowing the full story. "I've said too much already."
About the child who would be king pulling a sword from the stone and being declared king. About the sword and sheath given to her by the fairies of the lake one to strike down all opposition and the other to keep her alive whatever the costs. How that responsibility broke her so badly that she would give anything to undo it, to not have been the one who made those mistakes. That story, her achievements, her actions and her sorrows, Atla was making all of that a part of her now. And she didn't know what to do about it.
"Would knowing more about her help any?" Oroko stated brow raised in the air though Kuro shook her head.
"Melromarc's prince consort, or Trash he's started calling himself, might not know his sister as well as he thought he did but he does know enough to recognise her progeny." Atla told Kuro that the aura's of the King and Fohl were identical implying a biological relationship, and the King recognised the same genetic disorder that left Atla blinded and crippled in his younger sister. He mastered himself well upon realising who they were, but Kuro knew the eyes of a broken man when she saw them.
"Trash. I see." Oroko seemed to understand something. "So he's declared war on Faubrey." The Old Turtle stated inhaling deep.
"Aye." Kuro didn't know the story there, but it's not what she was here for. "Siltvelt's stance?"
"We'll need to hold council to determine that. The wave?" Oroko stated in response.
"Aye." Kuro clenched her hand. Someone wasn't getting away alive here. "I need to make something hurt today."
And that said volumes about Kuro's state of mind. While it would be good to follow up on that the ground suddenly started to rumble and church shook cracking stained glass windows in the process. Immediately Kuro rushed over and entered the church.
"What the hell's going on in here!?" Kuro snapped with Oroko following behind.
"This has never happened before." One of the priests tending to the hourglass stated as the smoke around Atla cleared away. "The materials... competed over her."
"And what pray tell does that mean?" Kuro asked staring at the animal eared man in question. Basically, both the chunk of dragon emperor core and Filo's crown feather seemed to leap at the selection at the same time, both trying to shove themselves into her selection screen at the same time, and both ending up integrating into her class up process at the same time. Information flew into Kuro's mind at a rapid pace, the priests began whispering into each other's ears, messengers ran out of the the church building, and chances are good half the town just felt that. Damn it. It's too late to stop more rumours about Atla from spreading.
"I'll need a room." Kuro stated looking to the old Turtle and leaving no room for arguments. Kuro was currently examining Atla's body looking for signs of the Micro-Avalon's might be doing to her. "Heir to the crown, returned at last." Kuro began to recite what she found, of the story being written. "Curse of mother's blood turned blessing." That would be the disease, the same one that blinded and crippled her but was also probably responsible for her proficiency with energy and Ki. "Blessed by the four gods." That would be the heroes growth bonuses. "Fought for by entropy and salvation." The Dragon Core and Filolial crown feather maybe?
"What does all of that mean?" Atla asked moving the blanket over her body now that Kuro was done her examination.
"You have something in common with the person who use to own what I put inside you." Kuro stated holding her chin.
"Artoria Pendragon." Atla stated and Kuro knew that wasn't something she told her. "It's... showing me things."
"Like how to fight?" Atla nodded her head.
"Eugh. Damage control." They did not need this on top of the impending battle against Faubrey with everything else going on. "If we take you off the front lines..." Atla shook her head in the negative. "Do you know what you'll become if you do that?"
"Do you?" Atla asked brow cocked. "I don't want to return to the hell of being protected." Kuro and the other girl hugged each other.
"I'll come up with a way to suppress Avalon's influence." Kuro stated rubbing circles into the other girl's back. "Delay, whatever this transformation is going to do to you by as much as possible."
Okoro was looking at the latest report to come out of the Zeltoble situation. It's mercenary armies had been subjugated into Faubrey's armed forces, reports of slave seals to force compliance were already circulating in a fine bit of irony. Because it turns out stripping a nation of it's most well known resource, stealing all of it's money and then triggering a three way civil war can leave it in no fit state to defend itself from invasion. Who would've guessed? More important though were the rumours of the so-called Dragon Emperors participating in the efforts, included among them being the Aototsu chief of Shieldfreeden.
"It would appear that our old enemy has aligned themselves with Faubrey." Okoro stated throwing down the contents of the report to the other council members. The hatred ran deep there, for all three countries involved in this mad power block. Zeltoble for their blatant slave raids. Shieldfreeden for the long standing competition for the Shield Hero. Faubrey and it's Pig of a King for his blatant disregard for others, treating the world as his own personal brothel. "All in favour to join Melromarc in the war on Faubrey?"
Many angry fists slammed against the table.
"Have you gone mad you turtle geezer!?" The Bull headed, in every sense of the word, snapped his fist on the table. "Melromarc's King...!"
"Put Kearu out of his misery induced from Jaralis's mistreatment of him." Okoro stated bluntly. "And while it's true that we have lived in fear for many years as to what Jaralis's army could do if he was turned loose, we have no right to be angry after leaving him to live as long as we did." Okoro's opinion on what happened was abundantly clear.
"The wisest move here is to recall our people as discreetly as possible before the Kingdom launches it's attack." To Okoro's knowledge The Wise King's, or rather Trash's, preferred declaration of war is the simultaneous destruction of his enemies entire power structure with as much damage as possible being done in the opening volley. The man should be more considerate of his wife and daughter, considering the fact that they're both still effectively prisoners of Faubrey ever since that so-called peace conference began. What precisely is he thinking?
"The order to recall our sssenatorsss hasss already been sssent." The familiar snake woman stated as her eyes turned the young girl that the turtle had brought in, not Kuro who they are reliant on to beat the wave and who has every reason not to after what happened last time. "What about her?" The main topic going through their minds was of a young Hakuko girl who wore her disability like a badge of honour with that overly decorative cloth over her eyes.
"What about her?" Okoro asked hands steeple.
"Hakuko, rare." Werner briskly summarised eyes darting suspiciously. "Blind too."
"Half Hakuko." Atla corrected as she stepped forward.
"Even rarer. And I cannot think of too many prominent pairings of a blind, a human and a Hakuko." Werner stated as he seemed to receive confirmation of what he had suspected.
"If you mean to ask who my parents were then I've not the foggiest." Atla stated as she stepped forward, walked on thin air and walked onto the table like she had merely being walking up a flight of stairs. "My mother died in Labour and my father before then. If you're asking if I have some strange desire to take this mass of bickering sheep you've assembled and lead it to some self aggrandise vision of glory then please discard your delusions at once." Atla assessed the blatant anger they felt for being insulted by a child through the disruption in their Ki flow and let it roll off of her back like water instead. "I am here for the wave, and when it is finished I will go to Faubrey." Atla stated speaking her mind on the matter.
"So what you can conquer it and claim the throne?" The man laughed at her. "Faubrey only tolerates pure her-" Atla slammed the butt of her sheath into the hippo man's nose sending him toppling over onto his back and sliding a significant distance.
"Keep your damned thrones and hide behind them if you think they will keep you safe!" Atla stated as she vented her disgust. "My brother once told me that this nation was one founded by a warrior king for his people." Was she talking about the first Shield Hero? Fairly interesting but not the point being made here. "I'm glad they are not here to watch this." Atla looked away in disgust.
"So what do you want?" The old turtle asked looking at the child before him.
"After spending the past decade in a cage of my own body?" Atla replied brow cocked in the air. "I want to feel alive. I want to walk the earth with my own feet, feel the fear of my enemy coming for my life and the exhilaration of beating them. Beyond that is not your concern, what is your concern though is the army of monsters about to come down from the sky in the days to come, I only hope I'm not as disappointed then as I am now." And on that note Atla and Kuro returned to their room for the night.
"You told them off?" Welt asked looking at Atla as she sparred with Chem using the weapons Kuro had made for her, sword, spear and shield.
"I was too mad to stick around last time, it seems that Atla was upset about what happened after I told her about it." To be fair who wouldn't be? But moving on. Let alone her skill with the sword, she was also showing herself to be highly proficient with the use of the spear, the shield and if given the chance she would probably be pretty good on a horse too.
"So someone remind me." Farrie limped over after having taken a arrow to the knee. "Why did we let the blind girl shoot a bow again?"
"Because she shouldn't be able to." Artoria should've never got the chance to use a bow before, certainly there was no Noble Phantasm to indicate as much, which Atla seemed to corroborate when she couldn't make use of either the bow or crossbow that she had given her so it wasn't some abnormal hero descended talent that let her learn how to use weapons at a faster rate either.
"So in other words it's..." Welt asked requiring if not Kuro then someone to fill in the blanks of what was happening here.
"It's bleed over from the life of Artoria Pendragon." Atla stated looking at something both near and far off. "She was given access to multiple divine weapons starting from an early age which she took a great deal of effort to master, and saw plenty of front-line combat to practice too."
"Which I take it she isn't supposed to know because you didn't tell her?" Berka asked and Kuro nodded to her.
"What I am trying to figure out is how deep that rabbit hole really goes." Kuro stated before she looked at Atla. "What do you remember?"
"The beginning. A young girl standing before a sword in a stone. Her god-father warned her that it would destroy her if she took it, but if she didn't her kingdom would have been destroyed instead." God-father? That would probably be Merlin she was talking about. "And the end. Her own daughter ran her through and left her to bleed to death, before she killed her too." Artoria's final battle with Mordred, by all accounts it was a unpleasant afternoon for everyone involved. "She tried to carry both burdens, sword and crown, and so after she was removed her kingdom was destroyed." Atla shook herself out of the daze. "I can't remember the parts in the middle."
"Small miracles." Artoria's years on the front lines were brutal and bloody, it would be better for everyone if Atla can't access those memories. "Do you still have all your memories?" Kuro asked though she realised she was talking to the wrong person. "Talk to her and..."
"Have you got the night?" Atla asked in response. "My memory is pretty good up to seven years ago."
As it turns out Atla's memory was astonishingly good, she remembered more details about their shared lives together than Fohl did, which again considering her blindness was impressive. Course when you can't do much you instead do as much as possible to pass the time waiting to die. The two siblings and hero of the sword was up throughout the night listening to her go over every grisly detail while Kuro worked on a potential plan B.
"Kuro, why are holding up that evil looking sword to my sister." Fohl asked as Kuro finished work on the dark black blade.
Dark Excalibur, the preferred weapon of the so-called Saber Alter.
"Heroic Spirits can be surprisingly vulnerable to different kinds of magic." Kuro explained. "This was the end result of a expert in black magic using the Rule Breaker to take control over Artoria after she was summoned as one. I won't bore you with the details but I'm hoping it can suppress the Micro Avalon's."
"The things keeping Atla alive right?" Fohl looked like he wanted grab the blade out of Kuro's hands but she was already way ahead of her.
"The Excalibur proper." Kuro stated handing the second blade of blue and gold over to Fohl. "In case we need to jump start them again." Fohl nodded his head as Kuro flipped the blade around and handed it over to Atla.
The other girl took the blade and went quiet, her skin started to darken and something seemed to crawl up her veins and into her skin.
"That's enough!" And so Fohl shoved the other blade forward and forced it into his sister's hands. The golden light met with black and seemed to cancel each other out like baking soda and vinegar.
"Well that was a failure." Fohl stated glaring at Kuro. "Are there any other of these Noble Phantasms that you wanna try?"
"Not tonight no." Kuro stated as she let out a sigh. "Everyone get to bed, there's work to do in the morning."
The maids opted to knock this time, less she walk into another disaster area. After Fohl confirmed it was safe to enter they proceeded to do so. They got through lunch where in Kuro had arranged for weapons for Fohl to fight with.
"More Noble Phantasms?" Fohl asked looking at the set of glove like things with heavy metal bumps sown into the fingers with blatant suspicion.
"A Noble Phantasm is ludicrously expensive to manufacture and maintain and disappears as soon as it leaves my side. I put this together out of real actual material. So it won't fall apart." Kuro stated simply as she none the less fitted the gloves over Fohl's hands.
"What're you up to?" Fohl asked looking at Kuro suspiciously.
"Do I have to be up to anything?" Kuro asked rolling her eyes. "I am giving the people under my care weapons to defend themselves and kill on my behalf."
"You're not concerned about me breaking it?" Clearly the boy, well fairly tall young man with a wild mane of hair at this point but a boy regardless, had been down this crossroads before and his owner had felt differently.
"Weapons break all the time Fohl. If I believed they shouldn't then I would treat them better." Kuro stated and Fohl seemed finally ready to accept her gift for what it was. The two looked to the Dragon's hourglass as the timer counted down. Ten... nine... eight...
"Word from the boarder!" One of the soldiers of Siltvelt stormed in clearly in a panic and something desperate on his features. "Shieldfreeden has attacked!"
"Ah damnit!" Kuro growled as the loud dong of the wave sounded and dragged her and her party off.
The sound of boots marching down the hallway belonging to The 'Whip Hero' and his women echoed as they moved forward.
"Is she in there?" Takt asked looking at the maid who was just leaving the room. What had she been cleaning in there? She smelled foul and her face was covered in ash.
"Aye, haven left da room for hours yed." The maid stated her voice thick with the accent common with people on the lower side. Takt was surprised the palace could still convince women to work here, then again he also heard that there was entire school of make up founded there designed to make women as ugly and unattractive as possible.
"Leave." Takt growled having clearly no mood for this and the maid did so. In the mean time Takt kicked open the door into the room where Melromarc's diplomatic party had been staying ever since the anti-wave conference had begun. "Mirellia Melromarc so we meet at last." Takt stated while he sized the woman up. That she was Malty's mother was little in doubt, all of her good looks but aged like a fine wine, look kind of young to have a fully grown woman for a daughter but as he understands it Melromarc tends to start marrying off the members of their family as early as their first period. It was a shame then that her good looks were spoiled by the knowledge of what her personality was really like, all those years of abused Malty suffered under her hands...
"And this must be Melty." That the other girl was Malty's younger sister was also beyond question, for as someone who knew Malty at the young age of 10 the other girl was like her spitting image of that time. That she was unreasonably cute there could be no doubt, when she grows up she'll be a complete heart breaker, after all she'll be spoken for already. If his memory serves him correctly Nana seemed rather fond of her during their time at school together, it'd be good to reunite the two friends. But all of his mental gymnastics managed to high light a point in this one sided conversation.
"Cat have your tongue vixen?" The woman and her daughter remained silent. "Nothing to say for yourself?" Make that silent and unmoving. He couldn't even see her breath. "Just what exactly are you playing at!?" Takt grabbed the Queen by her throat and picked her up at which point in time he realised that she was a fake.
Course that mostly had to do with they way that she exploded vaporising the entire wing in the process.
People often sneer at the use of chemical explosions, which to be fair the world where they had developed in did not have access to magic, and they were subject to decay and could be ruined by too much moisture and a thousand other complications. But they too were subject to the Law of Stats, and if you are careless in handling them that can be turned against you.
"That boy does like to talk." Mirellia stated washing out the foul smelling shoe polish she had greased her hair with in a wash basin. "It was taking so long I was afraid we had been careless." Mirelia noticed looking at the smoke column emerging from the far side of the palace.
"What do we do now mother?" Melty asked putting on some fresh clothes after being sneaked out of the palace under her mother's maid uniform. She liked that dress too.
"I will do what I should've done years ago and settle this." Mirelia stated walking towards the fresh clothes her shadows had prepared for her. "You on the other hand will return to the relative safety of our home land as quickly as possible." Melty nodded to her mother's words and turned to leave.
So you are finally dying, you ancient miserable creature. And since your peons don't know what they should do without you they decided that they would have a successor raised or burn the world trying. Don't think that just because the reaper's scythe is already on your neck that we will not make you suffer before you die.
Author's Note:
RonaldM40196867: True. No. Not as much as it could.
Captain Imaginat: Don't worry, everyone will be alright. The man murdered his own sister, her husband and in the process orphaned their children and left them to fend for themselves in Siltvelt for most their entire life, and he has to live with that. Guilt can be a powerful and toxic force, and if he ever does stop calling himself it would signify him letting go of his feelings of guilt.
drmcgraw186: Greed from her being a hedonist, and sloth from the general feelings of exhaustion that being in that world putting up with it's bull produces. Well they do call him the Wise King for a reason.