The Chosen One
"The take over of Outworld was a failure, huh?" a Seidan guardsman asked his partner. The two of them stood guard at the entrance of the door to Seido's headquarters.
"They say someone betrayed us and shut down our access to Outworld. The others never stood a chance there without our support," the other responded.
"Could it be our new commander?"
"I'd watch your tongue if I were you. It is not wise to speak ill of someone chosen by Abacus himself."
"Still—"
The men raise their guard as they spot a portal in front of the door. However, they are immediately knocked out cold. Appearing from the portal were half a dozen Lin Kuei warriors, including Frost herself. She looks around at the beautiful skies of Seido. She observes the building in front as she and her entourage stood behind a large tree. She notices that no one seemed to be looking out of the windows, relying solely on the presence of the two men guarding the entrance. Shelia shakes her head.
"This is their security?" She mutters. The other chuckle. "Alright, let's get this started." Shelia pulls out a sheet of paper with enough folds to fit inside her pocket. She unfolds it and pins it onto the bark of the tree. She draws different symbols in specific parts to help illustrate her plans. The others tried to make sense of it all as she changed the colors of her art to improve the readability of the plan. As she finished, she moved away and bowed.
"What is it?" one of them finally asked. Shelia began directing them to the map.
"We have intel on the location of Seido's Kamidogu—our primary target. The artifact is located in Room C7 Red. However, we currently do not know what this means. No floor number, No real room number. Just a cryptic locations within this building. This is why we'll need to take this slow and steady by first taking care of the first floor."
"And this map is only for the first floor?" Another man asked.
"That is unfortunately correct," Shelia responded. "It seems as though our intel was only able to get us an accurate detail of the first floor."
"There is another way," one of them says, this time a female, "if you'll allow me to take the security room instead."
"Oh, did I write the wrong number on that room? Shelia responded playfully. "You're up then," she says as she makes the necessary adjustments. "Any other recommendations while I continue assigning rooms?"
"Are we using lethal force?" another asks.
"Only if necessary," Shelia responds. "With these guys, I say it'll likely be necessary."
"Any promotions upon the completion of this mission?" one from earlier asked.
"In due time," Shelia responded. "If nothing else, then let us depart and begin our mission. Be quick. Be quiet. Be back in this spot." They all bow before walking toward the entrance.
The mission begins. The Lin Kuei warriors invade through the front door, yet the alarms didn't sound. Around the corner, one of them entered the front security office, taking out the men watching the courtyard cameras as well as the camera around the building. The Seidan Guard was known to take all measures necessary to reduce chaos from within the building and thus only one security room exists on the first floor. With the camera room in control and the alarm system cut thanks to one of the Lin Kuei's half-cybernetic members, Shelia and the others made their way through the rest of the building.
Door one on the left held no one. Definitely an office room. The room next to it held two guards seemingly slacking off as they had no armor nor were they prepared to defend themselves from the warrior who entered their premises. With that room cleared, he signals the others to enter their respective rooms. The room directly across held a female soldier in the middle of grooming her hair before she quickly put on her helmet upon seeing the warrior. Their was a slight struggle as she forced the man onto the wall with her naginata pinning him. However, he uses the power in his fingertips to cause a slight static shock that made her flinch. This would be fatal for her as it allowed the warrior to push her back and use her Naginata against her, thrusting it into her throat. The guards in the door next to it bursted through the room more prepared, but they were quickly defeated as the warrior in charge of the door chose to wait them out in a light trap. The blinding light ensured they wouldn't see their deaths coming. With the first floor cleared, Shelia ordered them to regroup in the security room. As they entered, she held one of the men back.
"The bodies," she whispered. The man nods and proceeds to take care of them. Shelia enters the room and observes the live footage on the cameras. She looks to her half cybernetic ally, whom nods before processing the footage. They use the information to virtually materialized a miniature map of the buildings 2nd through 4th floors. Shelia observes them all before deciding on her next move.
"We go for the third floor," she says.
"Why skip the second," one of the warriors asked.
"Look at the doors," she says. They observe, but obviously didn't see what she was talking about. "What's different about their doors compared to—"
"The doors on the third floor are red," he finally responded. "Room Red C7. But none of them are labeled C7."
"That mystery will be dealt with once we reached the third floor," Shelia responded.
"The second floor is the most heavily guarded, as is the fourth floor," the half cyber-warrior said.
"To allow for a heavy defense on the bottom or an ambush for the one who reaches the third floor," she says. The others nod. "Collect yourselves. Then, we move out."
Now on the second floor, Shelia orders three of her allies to remain there as best they could while she and the others sneak off to the 3rd floor. However, she orders one of them to head for the letter processing room, which they do. Coordinating and sneaking around the building felt natural to her. There were no mistakes thus far. No one broke rank and they've been able to hold their own in moments when things could've gone south. Yet this was no time to think about her accomplishments. She needed to reach that third floor. As she circled herself around the walls using the shadows, commotion could be heard in the letter room. Fire could be seen radiating from the room, drawing the attention of those on the second floor. No one from the other floors knew what was happening thanks to the alarm systems being shut off for the moment. There should be a backup, but it'll be awhile before it finally kicks in.
Shelia and her two allies slipped onto the stairs leading to the third floor as the sounds of battle could be heard. On the third floor was very few guards, as she expected. She uses her Ice powers to seal off the path to the second floor. Her action garnished the attention of the few guards. As one pulled down the alarm, it came as a shock to him that nothing happened. One of Shelia's allies cuts the man's arm off, separating him from the alarm as he pulled back in agony. The second warrior engaged one on one with a guard. Shelia conjures four ice shuriken in her palm. She swipes her other hand over it, tossing them into the other Guards. Though it doesn't strike their open areas, it does completely freeze the parts of their armor she'd struck. Shelia uses the exploited areas as a way to shatter the guards' armor, leaving them exposed in many areas. She calls on her allies to cut off the limbs of their enemies, spooking them toward the upper floor to warn the others. As they started to tread up the stairs, they find a new wall of ice preventing them from returning to the third floor. Shelia pulls out her soul dagger and carves an Edenian symbol into the wall of ice, sealing it further. She turns to her allies as they finish off the remaining guard.
"Now for the room," Shelia says. The three of them inspect the floor as they search each and every door. They couldn't find anything in particular about them until they began thinking of the code for it once more.
"The center rooms," one said. "The C. It could stand for the center."
"What about the seven?" the other asked. They all shrugged before continuing to look. Shelia rubs her eyes as the exhaustion of her week in Earthrealm was finally starting to catch up with her.
"Hey," one of them called as he pointed to a nearby room. "There's prisoners here!"
"Leave them," Shelia responded. "They are not our responsibility. We have a mission to accomplish."
"Yes...ma'am," he responded somberly before closing the door. The other member nodded before looking at the next door.
"I think this is it," they said.
"What makes you believe so?" Shelia asked.
"Well come look for yourself," he said as he moved out the way for her. Shelia walks over and stands in front of the door, towering over the bodies of the guards she'd disposed of. The Red door in the Center of the third floor with 7 names listed along the door frame: Eunomia. Abacus. Hotaru. Clear...Skies? Ding Zui.Tallen. Dairou.
"Talk about Narcissism," one of the warriors commented.
"I'm going in. No one enters. And if something seems off about me…"
"We leave it, this realm, and you behind," the other said. Shelia nods before walking through.
The door closes behind her. She inspects the room for any security or traps, but saw none. She feels along the walls to reassure herself, hoping the ice covering her arms would cause any cameras near her hands to get foggy. As she was done, she carefully pulls the Kamidogu from the wall. She inspects it a bit before it starts to shrink small enough to fit into her pocket. She turns around to look at the view outside of the window, noticing the fighting going on below her. She found it strange that a room in the center would have a window to the outside, before realizing it was a monitor showing the outside of the building. She sees Li Mei effortlessly taking out the Locust members one by one, with Reptile's reptilian body lying still. She looks at her own platform, smiling at how thin their defense was. However, the area around the platform should've been empty now. She stares at a lone individual below, noticing...
Shelia bursts through the doors, alarming the men. Her naturally pale skin hid the sick feeling she was having. She shoves the Kamidogu into the chest of one of her allies. As the man held it, she immediately ran off. The man called for her, but she ignored him, continuing to the entrance. She stepped over and onto any bodies that were on the floor. She passed by all of her allies guarding the second floor and proceeded to do the same on the first floor, which was void of bodies as she instructed earlier.
Outside of the building, Shelia was finally able to get some fresh air compared to the claustrophobic feeling she had in that room. She focuses on the layout around the building to remember where she saw the figure. She runs to her right and dashes toward the back of the building before stopping as she saw the target. Shelia pulls forms two ice daggers in her hands and stands guard against the man, who remained seated on the ground.
"Did you come to talk or fight?" he asked.
"It depends," Shelia said, "are you truly alive or just one of Anomaly's puppets?" The man chuckles before rising to his feet.
"I am alive," the man confirmed.
"You're Nightwolf, aren't you?" Shelia asks. He nods. "Clear Skies. Someone knew I was coming. Seido was compromised for much longer than a year," Shelia thought to herself.
"I will ask again," he said.
"Did you come to talk? Or did you come to fight?"
End of Chapter 13
One Chapter left for the year. As stated in the last chapter, Chapters 15 and onward will be released in 2023 as I will be busy for the holidays. I'm hoping to get Chapter 14 done by Friday as a lot of it is done, but definitely plan to have it finished before Wednesday of next week at the latest. Sunday and Monday are definitely a no go. And yes there will be a definitive end for this half of the Seido arc. It will not end as these last five chapters have.
(Upcoming—Family Matters)