The monster chose a new mortal shell to inhabit. He was no longer a monster but a knight, a human- like any other. A fake mortal. A fake knight. Proud of his disguise, he hummed to himself a lullaby long lost to time without a care in the world. After all, he was here just to check on his new pawns. In total darkness, he walked confidently, for he could see far better through the darkness than under the sunlight. For most of his life, he had only seen the dark across all worlds; out of all of them, Elrios's darkness was the most welcoming.
The echo of a girl's voice reached his ears. It was so faint that he could safely assume the girl was too far away to hear and see him. The voices of two other women and a man mixed themselves to the faint murmur. The fake knight closed his eyes and focused a small part of his Authority on the surrounding mana, reaching almost most of the network of sewers. His face underneath his helmet shone with a royal blue light, unveiling his true nature for a moment.
Once he spotted his pawn, the fake knight tore through the chainmail as he extended his wings and leapt into the air. A flap of his wings propelled him forward, the force displacing the puddles of water underneath him. He banked left and right, navigating through the maze of tunnels thanks to the mark he had left on his pawn. No matter where that human was, he would find him.
After he squeezed through some narrow passages, the fake knight landed back on his feet without a sound and began to walk through the sewers. The light of various lamps already signalled the presence of his pawn and Vergnert. The fake knight had used him before, but he did not need to make his presence known to that man this time.
"What on earth happened to you, Banthus?!" Vergnert growled, "That albino and Wally must-!"
"Why do you guys keep acting like someone had to do something to me, huh?" The pawn seethed. "That crazy brat gave me back my arm. And Wally gave me enough ED to last a lifetime. It ain't that deep, but it sure is more than what you and Lenphad have ever done for me."
There was no immediate riposte. The fake knight hoped for a more explosive end to their allegedly unbreakable brotherhood, but to think it would come by so fast. At least demons knew how to make their fallouts entertaining.
The fake knight emerged into the passage, where the two equally imposing men were talking to each other. One wore full-plate armour and had a mace slung over his back. The other proudly showed his scarred yet muscular physique, refusing to cover his torso with a shirt. His battle scars, as well as the surgical burns left between his shoulder and mechanical arm, were on full display. He was missing an eye, too, but the pawn showed no interest in covering the ugly, cross-shaped scar that deformed half his face. A claymore as imposing as the Beastslayer hung on the pawn's belt.
As he should, the pawn noticed his presence first, and he turned his attention towards him before the other man did.
The fake knight saluted the two men, taking on the voice of his shell to not raise any suspicions.
"Captain Evans, Lord Vergnert," He greeted, "I'm so glad to have found you at last, sirs."
"What is it, lad?" The pawn asked.
"I have terrible news. Intruders, sir. They're in the sewers, near the walls! I'm the only one left on patrol, and they're at least four!"
Vergnert huffed, "Those rats sure chose a bad time. Let me get my men and lead the way, soldier."
The pawn soon touched Vergnert's shoulder, forcing him to stop.
"Oh no, you're not going to. Wally expected visitors, and I'm the one who's gotta welcome them, remember? Otherwise, no ED for me."
Lord Vergnert shook his head before pushing the pawn away. However, the only thing that did was force his hand away from his shoulder.
"You and what men?!" Vergnert hissed, "You don't even have any armour or a proper weapon! That rusty thing will get you killed."
"Your mace is not much better," the pawn replied with a chuckle, "All your armour will do is attract their attention. I'll ambush them, or even better, let those rats we sealed off swarm them. I don't need armour here."
"...Fine. You're dead to me, Banthus." Vergnert turned and walked away.
The pawn responded so well, and the fake knight was glad he did not have to push Vergnert. The fake knight walked away with his pawn. Neither impostor said anything when they walked past the usual route. The pawn, in fact, did not even question the moment when the monster emerged from his shell. There was no longer a reason to continue being a fake knight.
The monster, now free from its mortal shell, took a deep breath in, refreshed by the coolness of the air.
"I lied, you know?" The monster informed his pawn with his natural voice. "As we speak, the guards on the wall are aware of the intruders. They can pincer them. A good man doesn't have to risk his life for this, Banthus Evans."
The tall man laughed, "Good men get no money. Fly me where they are. I need to try those laser-arrows that the brat told me about."
"Lasers are more like a continuous lightning bolt than arrows, soldier," the monster explained, "I have somewhere else to be, so I'm afraid you'll have to welcome those humans alone. You can teleport part of the way there, can you not?"
"Yeah, but," the pawn yawned, "Using magic so soon is such a pain in the ass. Getting used to a shell's not as easy as you make it seem, y'know?"
"What's easy for me should be even easier for you, soldier," the monster retorted, "Don't tell me this shell is any different from those you use in the Dimension of Sinister Intent."
"Eh, kinda," The pawn answered with a grimace, "The Soul of this one's persistent and his abilities aren't that outstanding without that weapon. It'd come real handy if you gave it back, m'lord."
The monster stopped, and a frown soured his expression momentarily before he let out a chuckle. He opened the palm of his hand, letting his Authority flow within a tiny incantation circle until his father's sword began to emerge. Once the pommel was in his hand, he turned and showed his pawn the weapon in all its splendour.
"Go ahead," he taunted his subordinate, "Take it, soldier."
Banthus frowned at the sight of the weapon.
"Ugh, why did I even hope this shell would use something at least a little clean?" The pawn chided, "Don't you feel like destroying it, m'lord? I could do it for you. The power of that goddess can't survive in the Deep Rift."
The monster shook his head, "No need. As disgusting as the power of Ishmael is, wouldn't it be funny if she died by one of her own relics?"
The pawn smirked, "For sure."
The monster hid his father's sword, wishing he did not have to lie brazenly about how he truly felt about the power within the sword, nor why he kept it.
"Well, I should get going, m'lord, shouldn't I?" The pawn sighed, "Take care."
The monster opened his wings.
"You, too."
In the blink of an eye, both men were gone.
Edward slept very little, though his body had more or less adapted to only a couple of hours of sleep per day. That was what his implants helped him do - at least initially. The boy's Nasod-enhanced awareness became the only thing those monsters saw of value in him.
The shackles around his neck were so painfully tight they bit into him until they drew blood. He worked as hard as expected, gaining enough trust to aid in his future escape.
One night, he made it outside. His shackles jingled as he strove towards freedom. Though his collar hurt the further away he went, the boy had built a tool to deal with that, too. The iron collar fell unceremoniously to the ground, and the boy continued to run. Edward's first breath as a freed slave was his most significant victory.
The soil felt cool and fresh under his naked feet, dressed in nothing but rags and a collar to hide the scars that marked his former status. The wind that enveloped him as he ran felt like the finest silk. He still hoped that he would somehow find his mother in another place. The boy smiled for the first time in ages, his lilac eyes lighting up as he continued to stride forward, looking at the sea of stars above.
A piercing beeping noise suddenly interrupted his bliss, and the quietude of the night suddenly turned red with the barking of the dogs and the gunfire of those monsters who called him a 'Heretic'. Edward turned and remembered exactly what he had refused to see when he was captured.
His mother had been hanged. The only thing left of his father was a charred corpse tied to a stake. Edward was the only one taken alive by those winged monsters and the Steel Crosses. He backed away, slowly shaking his head, denying the reality in front of his eyes. His foot blindly found the edge of a cliff. The ground gave in, and he was swallowed into the depths-
'Security Alert! Security Alert!' The same robotic warning repeated over and over until everything turned to white.
'Add! Wake up! Security Alert!'
The albino jolted back awake, frantically looking for what had set off the Dynamo surveillance system. If it had woken him up, it had to be a threat. The teen dragged the holographic screen in the corner of his minuscule room -barely any wider than a closet- before his eyes. He saw an armoured castle guard sitting in front of the machines he had set up to split the El Shard. He seemed to be levitating, considering that the room had no chairs or anything to allow him to see the spectacle while sitting at the same level as the shard.
"How did he get here?" He mumbled, quickly grabbing some pants and putting them on alongside his hoodie. With a quick hand gesture, he summoned all his dynamos to his side. Wally was about to lose a guard, and nobody would find out about it.
The albino opened the door to his room, entering his lab, where the guard was seemingly levitating, mesmerised by the machines cutting up the shard. The process was almost finished, so Add figured he had to go for a swift and silent kill. Any interruption to the process now and the consequences could be catastrophic.
"Particle Prism: overcharge", the teen called as he snapped his fingers. His dynamos flew in the blink of an eye, spreading in two triangles that stretched into a prism-shaped field of highly charged El energy. The heat and pressure such a field created were enough to bring anyone to the ground and slowly crush them to the bones. And the man was no exception.
"We meet again, kid," the soldier said. His voice was somewhat distorted as he forced himself back up. He stumbled a few times but finally stood face-to-face with the teenager. He did not seem too bothered by how his feet dug small craters on the floor nor how his knees bent despite his best efforts to keep himself straight.
Add approached his prisoner, and as he got used to the intense light behind the soldier, the teenager could guess that his armour's irregular, battered edges were utterly different from the guards. The curved horns on the sides of his head did not come from his helmet, and his cross-shaped pupils were supernatural. They reminded Add of the one freak he never wanted to meet again. The same monster devised the plan of turning him into bait to anger Banthus. The entire thing felt a little too real to all have been an act, which terrified him. The monster might have just come to cut all loose ends. The albino swallowed hard, thinking as fast as he could of escaping his predicament. First, however, he needed to calm down.
"What the fuck do you want now?" He asked, trying to mask his nervousness behind his loud voice. It echoed across the empty room, only being interrupted by how the monster with a human-like form fell once more to his knees.
"Freeing me from this would be nice, for starters," the monster said as he got up, though after he fell once again, he capitulated and decided to sit down instead.
"Goodness me!" The monster exclaimed, "No wonder you humans destroyed yourselves with this technology."
Add crossed his arms, refusing to let the armoured man out of his sight. He weakened the force exerted by the field, but only to spare the floor from further damage. The monster could not get up, and they both knew it.
"I ain't freeing you," he hissed. "What does that goddess of yours want from me anyhow?"
The monster shrugged, "I haven't had the honour of talking to her if you're curious. But it's bound to happen."
Perhaps it was just the distortion caused by the field itself, but the tone of his voice let through a kind of madness even Add had never really experienced in his years of isolation or enslavement.
"But that's not why I'm here," the creature continued. "I was wondering why you're cutting the shard in two. Are you planning to hurt Wally more than what he's already done to himself?"
"Something like that, yeah," The albino grumbled.
"Fascinating," the armoured monster replied, turning his head towards the machine, almost done splitting the large, pumpkin-sized El Shard in two. "To think that some kid would prove that Luto's inventions work in practice..."
He remained silent momentarily and took his helmet off, freeing his long, white hair and the unnatural crown of crystals that floated over his head. The monster turned around, facing the teenager again. He looked like a regular demon now, but his odd eyes were mesmerising. The shades of blue they held soothed the teen's fears. At least a little.
"You're a fascinating kid, Add." The demon-like man said with a sincere smile. His eyes gleamed, if only briefly. "Could you perhaps reconsider and free me? You've got nothing to fear, as I'm sure you know. The stronger the El Energy, the weaker I get."
Add paused, considering his offer, but the last thing he had said made no sense. A Celestial would only be empowered by the El. Yet the man looked like a demon and was so sincere. No, Celestials could take any shape, so what did his sincerity even mean? Still, his promise had to mean something. No! Did his words even matter if they were based on a blatant lie?
The albino teenager growled, turning his back to his prisoner before slamming his head against the wall. Blood streamed down his forehead, and his mind was set.
There was no way he would trust that monster. The fact that he had even considered trusting him was only an additional reason to keep him imprisoned.
"You'll talk from there, you son of a bitch!" He roared. Add took a deep breath and lowered his voice. "I don't know what kind of sorcery you're using on me, but I ain't letting it work."
The pain was spreading through his forehead, but the nano dynamos he had injected into his body were already hard at work, diminishing the sharp pain to mild discomfort. Add refused to look at the monster again. If he was sure he could not escape, there was no need to watch him. Not when that was probably how he had fallen prey to his spell.
"Sorcery," the prisoner repeated with a whistle. "How did you know it was sorcery and not magic?"
"Huh?"
Add felt the urge to turn around and show his disbelief to the monster, but he reminded himself of what he had decided and stopped himself from turning around completely.
"Shouldn't you know why already, Mr. I-serve-the-betterer-goddess?" Add jeered, "Don't you just love watching all of us from high above until we step outta line or croak?"
"I, uh, am not exactly welcome high above. I've observed mankind, demonkind and other kinds by walking among them," the monster explained. "You see, Add, I strongly believe the goddess is mistaken because she has never listened to people like you or my mother. I don't think she's evil at all."
He briefly paused, and Add heard the stone floor crack again. "My father believed that, too. He implored her to listen. He showed her that her crusade against the so-called impure only weakened her. His efforts can't be in vain. I know how much hurt her followers have caused, but I want to help. I'll force her to listen to all of us."
Father? Mother? Ishmael being forced to listen to some schmucks because this one soldier of hers insists? Yeah, right. Was this creature mocking him? Add scoffed.
"Ain't your mother just Ishmael herself?" The teen spat out, "Didn't think you guys could develop mommy issues so deep you end up sounding delusional to me. Me, of all damn people."
"Ah, so you, too, don't believe me," the monster softly said, almost dejectedly. "I thought you'd realise that finding that library wasn't just a random miracle of life."
His tone got progressively more stern, a far cry from the passionate monologue he had offered him only moments ago.
"I could've let you fall to your death that night, Edward Grenore," he continued. "Ever thought about how strange it was that nobody followed you? The portal wasn't invisible to the naked eye."
Against his better judgement, Add finally turned around to face the same gleaming eyes he had fled from before. He did not even sense when the man stood up.
"Free me," the creature ordered.
His words echoed in his head, barreling through his every objection until his mind only remembered being ordered to free the man. And so it was done.
Add called back his dynamos with a flick of his hand, and the field of El energy vanished. The demon-like creature stretched his limbs, his joints popping. With a satisfied sigh, he walked towards the teenager. The man was incredibly tall, towering over him, so he had to bend his knees slightly to be at Add's eye level.
The creature put a hand over the teenager's head and ruffled his white hair.
"See? You had nothing to fear from me, Add," he mused.
"Now, I need you to listen very carefully to me, young man," he continued in a caring, almost parental voice. "If you help me reach my goal, we will have Ishmael's existence within our grasp. If she refuses to acknowledge our pleas, we'll destroy everything she still clings to to survive. Her Church, her followers, her mortal soldiers. All of it. What do you say?"
Add briefly felt invigorated by the man's promises. He wanted to avenge what happened to his mother and what he had gone through. And yet, the blood that dripped down his forehead snapped that illusion away. This monster was far more unstable than a shard of primordial El. He was acting friendly now, but if he refused, the same hand softly ruffling his hair would crush his skull like a walnut.
"Sure," he answered, trying to sound as neutral as possible.
"You still distrust me," the man complained as he began to walk away. "Well, you'll have a change of heart or soul, should I say, if you disobey in the future. Keep that in mind, will you?"
Each step the creature took was a relief and a source of worry. It was not until the lock of the door locked shut that Add realised that he was alone in the room again.
Add let out a sigh of relief and walked over to the advanced cutting machine he had built explicitly for the El. Behind the reinforced glass, two heavy-duty mechanical arms held the shard. A spinning saw made of Feitan moonstone dug its teeth in the middle with laser-focused precision. To prevent any uncontrolled chain reaction, compacted El dust was regularly sprayed as the saw did its job.
As long as the edges of the crystal had contact with other particles of El, the gem itself would overheat. Past a specific temperature, the consequences would be unprecedented. Add flicked his fingers over thin air, and his dynamos came, forever faithful to his every silent order. The machines opened multiple holographic menus, from which the teen selected the information he needed from the sensors.
The emergency cooling mechanism was still ready to go at any moment, and the temperature of the El was a very comfortable room temperature. The saw had only a few millimetres left to cut, with an estimated completion time of only two minutes. Add sighed, passing his hands over his head. Usually, such an achievement would make him celebrate for the remainder of the day if it was not for that creature. That Celestial presumably roamed the castle offering tea or killing whoever he met. Who knew what that unhinged creature would do once it was out of the prism field.
The monster was out…
Add's eyes widened as he summoned his dynamos to load new screens. This time, he searched for his intel on that Ara girl.
The various monitoring nano dynamos he had injected into her came to report on her health. It seemed the implant on her spine had fully taken over the function her spinal cord and damaged vertebrae could no longer provide. Her ribs had surprisingly already healed and no internal damage seemed to remain. By all means, she was back to normal. He swept that screen away to turn to the surveillance feed of her room, expecting to find her resting, given the hour.
His eyes widened briefly as he double-checked he was watching the live footage. There was no mistake. Add clenched his fists. His shock soon boiled into anger as he swept every screen away with hasty hand swipes.
"That stupid girl!" He yelled before storming out of his lab.
You can rest easy now, child.
Ara took a deep breath, immediately gagging at the foul smell she was now forced to inhale.
"You got me worried, Eun," the girl sighed, "Telling me to hide my inner energy for such a long time. What happened?"
That…creature. It was nearby.
"He was, huh?" Ara lowered her gaze, trying to piece together her memories, but no matter how much she tried, she could not remember the face of the man who had almost killed her and Banthus back in the hideout.
Do not give personhood to such a monster.
"But he looked human," Ara countered, "Or like a demon…I can't remember it anymore. Do you remember?"
We were close to dying, Ara. I cannot remember that monster's appearance well, but I can sense its essence from far away. It is as unique as it is dreadful.
The black-haired girl let out a long 'hmm', scratching the back of her head as she pondered the wisdom of the Millennium Fox.
"Now that you mention it, he did have-"
The young Haan warrior saw a light nearby, casting the shadows of a group of people over the wall. She instinctively put on a fighting stance, but she dropped it once she noticed that the silhouettes were too distinct to be those of soldiers. Cautiously, Ara emerged onto the alley where the group was walking, briefly blinded by the sudden light.
"You…" a boy hissed at her before he unsheathed his sword.
The Haan warrior, now used to the light, slowly began to see the El Search Party and one of the merchants who had refused to listen to her when she first came here.
Ara put her weapon down and raised her hands.
"I don't want to fight any of you," she announced, "I just…I just want to find Chief Evans. Do you know where he is?"
"Why would you think we'd know?" The Steel Cross asked.
"Chief Evans talked about you," Ara answered, focusing on the red-haired boy, "You, Elsword. After our encounter on the bridge, I heard you were his favourite pupil. If I had known before, I wouldn't have fought you!"
The boy's grip on his sword tightened, but his fighting stance was wavering. He looked down, and the mage to his side was now facing her the most fiercely.
"I need you to take me to him!" Ara insisted, "That monster did something to him, and I need to check on his well-being."
The mention of a monster first drew a reaction from Rena and Ciel. They both looked far more shocked than the rest of the El Search Party. The merchant softly tapped her feet, looking past the Haan warrior occasionally.
"A monster," the purple-haired girl echoed, "What kind of monster?"
The merchant loudly cleared her throat, bringing everyone's attention to her.
"If we're going to talk, why don't we do it while walking?" she suggested, "We can't just wait for the guards to come to us, can we?"
"Fine by me," The Steel Cross said.
Rena gave a hesitant nod, and the mage looked at Elsword, still lost in thought. The boy sighed and sheathed his sword.
"Alright, alright," Elsword muttered, "You can tag along, but you need to promise us something."
Ara nodded, "Sure. What is it?"
"You'll tell us everything that happened on that day. Swear it by the El."
"I will, undoubtedly."
Ara put a hand over her heart and bowed two times, as was the custom in her village when one swore something in the name of the holy gem of life.
"Then, get next to Ciel and start telling us everything, Ara," Rena suggested.
Don't.
"Can I walk next to you instead, Lady Rena?"
"It's not a big deal who she's next to," Elsword said, "as long as we hear her story."
Ara thanked the boy, picked up her spear, and lined up beside the elven woman. Now that she was up close, the Haan warrior saw there were scars over her back, not unlike hers. Though with what she was wearing, Ara could hide away the marks completely, even with her hair tied into a side ponytail.
"That day," Ara began, "Chief Evans told us a beautiful and tragic story. Vincent Conwell's story. I don't know if the story is real, but the sword was. Chief Evans wielded it."
"What do you mean he wielded it?" Elsword asked, "How could he when he stole the El?"
"He wanted to turn the Totos, the Mars and the Brure back into humans with it," Ara explained. "All the missing people from the forest were turned into monsters by some dark elf. He wanted to help them and return the El Shard to its rightful place. He's the first good person I met here."
The red-haired merchant seemed to smirk briefly at her words, but Ara could not be sure.
"So, Lua was…" Rena breathed out before shaking her head, "He told you the story and then what happened?"
"Then, that creature came. He took the form of Elder Hie," Ara answered. "I also haven't seen him. The real one, I mean, in a while now. That creature killed everyone but Chief Evans and me. He came with a knight, Vern, and a, uhm, Add, the scientist, to take the El."
"The what?" Aisha asked. "Scientist? Who calls themselves that in this day and age?"
"He's the only mage I know that goes by that," the girl explained. "Add is a bit strange, but he's been really nice to me."
She looked at the short but puffy skirt she now adorned and her beautiful long-sleeved shirt. The outfit seemed really expensive. It was too lovely to be worn in a place like this…
Ara wondered how Add got it or when he had left it in her room so neatly folded. She really ought to do something for him once she returned to his atelier.
"He had no reason to do it but saved my and Chief Evans' lives with his science magic."
"What about the monster? What did it look like?" Elsword asked.
"I'm really sorry," Ara lamented, "But I'm not so sure anymore. He was like a human, like a demon, and his wings… maybe he didn't have wings at all. I know his eyes were special. One was blue like the heavens, the other cold like the underworld."
Rena abruptly stopped, and Ara heard the click of Ciel's weapon go off just an instant before the echo of someone whistling behind them. The eerie sound of metal grazing against metal accompanied the lone whistling. The group turned around to see sparks fly from the metallic walls of the sewers. The brief glimmer they emitted showed glimpses of the silhouette of a very imposing man.
"Eyes like the heavens and the underworld," Banthus, the man approaching them, said. "If you remember that much, sure seems like he went too easy on you."