Chapter 8

Through Chaos and Hate

In a dark office in a mechanical castle, a man looked out onto the streets below. He had reddish-violet hair and amber eyes and was wearing a black trenchcoat and pinstripe trousers alongside black spats. Noticing a dark red portal manifesting on the streets, a look of concern appeared on his visage. Out stepped another man in red armour, holding a sinister black and purple katana, pulsating with an equally sinister darkness. "Seems Moebius is here already.", the man said. Walking to the door, the man opened it to witness a man with spiky green hair and yellow eyes wearing a black and dark yellow hooded cape alongside a dapper black suit and tie. "Well, if it isn't Ardyn.", the green-haired man said to the reddish violet-haired man. "Nice to see you too, Terumi.", Ardyn said to the green-haired man. "Whatcha bet Moebius is here for?", Terumi asked. "Maybe the purple Chaos Emerald at the chemical plant.", Ardyn replied.

Entering a sterile mechanised laboratory, Ardyn noticed a bald and morbidly obese man with a rotund torso shaped like an egg wearing blue tinted glasses, green goggles on his head and an elegant red coat alongside black tights and an unkempt mahogany moustache. Turning to face Ardyn, the man scowled. "So, what do you want, Chancellor?", the man asked. "Don't be like that, Doctor. I only just wanted to know where the purple Chaos Emerald is.", Ardyn replied. "Well, if you want to know where the emerald is, chances are that horrid little hedgehog stole it from the chemical plant I own. Now I don't know where it is.", the fat man said. Thinking, Ardyn then said, "Well, have you actually tried looking for the emerald?". Outraged, the fat man snapped, "What do you think I've been doing?! Of course I've tried to search Niflheim to search for the emerald; I'm not stupid, you know.". Then, Terumi burst in. "Well, it seems I've found the emerald's present location, Eggman.", Terumi said to the fat man. Turning to Metal Sonic's damaged body, Terumi asked, "What happened to him?". "What do you think happened to him?", Eggman responded.

Whilst Terumi was speaking with Eggman, Ardyn entered a dimly lit prison block where he saw a young girl with waist-length long purple hair and blank purple eyes wearing a grubby dark grey bikini with red splotches on the bottom slumped in a prison cell crying. Approaching the girl, Ardyn said, "Well, Nepgear, you do understand why you're here? You know that you should have told us the location of the green Chaos Emerald and maybe saved yourself the trouble of us…persuading you, maybe even making you a duchess of the Niflheim Empire too. But you didn't and thus you're now our prisoner until you tell us.". "B-But I don't know where the emerald is. Honest!", Nepgear desperately cried. "Oh, you know that won't be enough, girl. How to persuade you further, I wonder.", Ardyn thought aloud before looking at the bikini bottom Nepgear was wearing. "Oh, I know! How about a little cutting and snipping without anaesthetic to make you reconsider?", Ardyn asked gleefully. "No, not that! Anything but that!", Nepgear howled in despair. "Well, to be honest, that would be a little overkill given that I had the Empire's best medical surgeons already sew your vagina shut already.", Ardyn admitted. As Nepgear's crying grew louder, Ardyn left the detention centre. "No good, Terumi. She still won't tell us the location of the green emerald. Even worse, we need all seven to gain the power to make our ideal worlds a reality and we have none of the emeralds.", Ardyn said to Terumi. "Well, I could give her some extra persuasion, rough her up until she'll have no choice but to speak.", Terumi said. "Yes, but the problem is she apparently doesn't know where the emerald is and our scanners can't properly pick up the other six. So until we know the location of the green emerald, we can't feasibly locate the other six.", Ardyn said, frustrated.

As Ardyn walked into a dark chapel, he spied a glimpse of an old man wearing a white vicar's robe and a white hat. Talking to the man, Ardyn said, "Sanctus, I believe Moebius has found us. Why they're trying to perpetuate the Endless Now in a dying world's simulation is beyond me.". Turning his attention to the chancellor, Sanctus replied, "Don't you worry, Chancellor. Moebius shall lead us into a new world once they acquire all 7 Chaos Emeralds. Once that happens, the bounds between dimensions will break and we will all know the freedom of only living in the present. We shall never need to feel guilty of the past or fear for unknown futures ever again. There will only be a constant stream of now, regardless of whether people are in the real world or Cyber Space.". "But that's exactly my problem. We have no way of knowing how the fusion of Earth and Nintentopia will result with no guarantee that we shall all know and appreciate the Endless Now. And we also have no way of protecting it against any…rogue elements that seek to destroy it.", Ardyn replied in turn.

Whilst Ardyn and Sanctus were debating philosophically over the Endless Now, Terumi and Eggman approached the Consul in the street. Terumi eyed the Consul feverishly, noticing their radiant golden armour and dark golden crown alongside the black and dark purple katana pulsating with a sinister crimson energy. "OK, Mr. Consul, what is it you want?", Terumi asked. "Oh? Terumi being nice for once? Consider me surprised.", the Consul replied, ignoring the question. "Cut the crap. We know you came for something so spill the deets on what you want. Or, if you just came to merely visit the Empire, then come inside and request a drink if you're thirsty.", Terumi replied in turn. The Consul laughed. The three then entered the castle.

Back at Garreg Mach, Byleth woke up naked. "Morning, dear.", Rhea murmured next to him. "Good morning to you too, my love.", Byleth replied. Walking up to the door, Byleth opened it to check the news for the day. Skimming through the paper, Byleth then brought the news inside, closing the door gingerly. Placing the paper on the chest of drawers, the king then entered the shower, Rhea following him. As this happened, Diamant, Ethel and Urbosa met in an unused war room. "OK, I think we can talk now.", Ethel said. "OK, Lady Ethel. By the way, I believe the Emblem Rings are returning to their original functionality. We'll be able to Engage with the Emblems within soon.", Diamant said. "That's good to know.", Ethel replied. "Moving on, my scouts have detected the blue and red Chaos Emeralds in Calaglia and Ganath Haros respectively, in Berg Volcano and Pelegion specifically. We need to find them so the Ouroboros can use them to ascend and become as Gods and break us out of this Cyber Space.", Urbosa said, taking control of the situation. "And what of the green Emerald?", Diamant asked. "I don't have a full hold of its location, but I believe it to be in Firene. Well, either Firene or Lythos, one of them.", Ethel replied. "Well aside from that, word on the street is that you and Cammuravi are getting married. My congratulations if it's true.", Urbosa chimed in.

Meanwhile, back at the Niflheim Empire's castle, Ardyn entered a second prison block, one that was remarkably cleaner and more sterile than the block Nepgear was being held in. As he walked down the hallway, he saw a prison cell with a woman with short reddish hair with blue crystalline barrettes wearing another grubby grey bikini and another woman with long platinum blonde hair and green eyes wearing a more well-maintained grey bikini. "Magilou, I'm scared.", the red-haired woman said to the platinum blonde-haired woman, crying into her arms. "Don't worry, Eleanor. We'll be out of this dump soon enough as long as we locate the green Emerald.", Magilou replied. Passing their cell, Ardyn approached a young girl with long white hair and pink eyes wearing a purple dress with an opening that exposed her cleavage tucking into a delicious slice of chocolate cake. "Tastes good, doesn't it, Lysithea?", Ardyn asked. "Oh, I could eat this forever!", Lysithea happily replied. "And you can, provided you help us find the Chaos Emeralds.", Ardyn said. "Oh, that's simple. The yellow, white, cyan and purple Emeralds are at Garreg Mach Monastery in the Kingdom of Fodlan.", Lysithea said. Satisfied, Ardyn left the prison block and saw a man with short platinum blonde hair wearing a white suit of armour and a metal left arm. "Any luck?", the man asked. "Oh yes, Ravus. We now know four of the Chaos Emeralds are in Garreg Mach. And it's all thanks to playing nice to Lysithea and sucking up to her interests. Next thing she knows, she'll happily be part of the Empire thanks to that secret something the kitchen slipped into her food.", Ardyn replied to the man. "It seems we'll need to reward her with more sweets mixed to turn their consumer evil as a result.", Ravus said in agreement.

At Garreg Mach, Rinwell entered the Black Eagles classroom to meet with Edelgard. "OK, my lady, what do you wanna talk about?", Rinwell asked. "Rinwell, you don't need to be so formal. Just call me Edelgard- I'm no longer a princess anyway after Byleth and Rhea were crowned as rulers of all of Fodlan. Anyway, we need to locate and find a way to safely extract Jack Sebastian Arnold from his underwater prison. While the Niflheim Empire tries to locate the green Chaos Emerald, we need to find a way to find Jack's location and get him back to us safely.", Edelgard replied. "I mean, who blows up a hospital just to try to kill an innocent man anyway?", Rinwell asked. Suddenly, Framme rushed into the room. "Framme? Why are you here?", Rinwell asked. "We have an emergency! Forces from the Niflheim Empire are on their way here!", Framme worriedly replied.

Meanwhile, Ravus gazed upon the monastery aboard a mechanised airship, flanked by mechanical soldiers holding mechanical rifles. "Imperial forces, prepare to attack! We are not to retreat under any circumstances and not leave until we acquire the four Chaos Emeralds in the monastery's possession!", he barked to the soldiers. "Yes sir!", the soldiers responded.

The story continues in the next chapter.