Me lora and jin…just like old times…i'm glad i went back to torna…my heart feels lighter. My head is more clear. And now…i had a mission to finish…destroy malos…and find elysium. I arrived back in torigoth. But i could tell something was up. The mor ardain soldiers were on the hunt for something.
"Look over there. Isn't that the emerald crystal!?" a soldier yelled.
"Nah…she's not red. The one we're looking for is red." another soldier said. They both left.
"Sounds like rex and pyra got into trouble…better go find them." i said.
"That's the name of your new friend right?...what could they have done to warrant being hunted by mor ardain?" lora asked.
"From the sound of it…sounds like they want the aegis…luckily for us. They fail to realize there's three aegises now." mythra said.
"I actually wouldn't mind if they were after us…after all. I wouldn't mind beating up some tin men. And also rex isn't a warrior like i am. He's a young salvager. Only battle experience he has is the occasional giant crab when a dive goes bad. We need to-" i said.
"Kaku! Jin! Mythra!" rex yelled as he ran towards us. I noticed a few differences. For one. Pyra was wearing an adorable bear hoodie. And nia was nowhere to be seen. Instead who was with him. Was a nopon with a robot girl by his side.
"Rex! What's going on? Where's nia? And who's the nopon?" I asked.
"My name tora. This poppi." tora said.
"Poppi is artificial blade. Tora is masterpon." poppi said. An artificial blade…these hairy beach balls have always been incredibly smart. Whether it's a new invention. New fashion. Or new scams. These guys always find a new way…despite that. I don't i've ever seen a nopon standing side by side with a robot swinging around a megalance or a great axe...having the aptitude for it must be rare to the point of nonexistence with nopons…so it looks like they made one. A blade that doesn't require the aptitude to wield. This kind of invention would probably make a very rich nopon. But for right now…
"Nice to meet you...but where's the angry welsh cat? And her tiger?" i asked. After arriving at tora's place…quite the hideout he's got. After lora introduces herself. pyra and mythra cooked up some food. We ate while talking about what happened. Apparently despite her bounty picture looking nothing like her. They still figured she was apart of the destroyers…the name of malos group. Classy. Also quickly figured out that rex was the driver of the aegis when a blade named brighid showed up…that was a name me jin and lora are familiar with. It's been five hundred years. So she's most likely forgotten us…which means she won't remember me cutting off her arms…silver lining. I guess. After eating. Glad to see what me jin and aegaeon taught her stuck. I chuckled at the smug pose she made which was honestly ruined by her blush. But we decided to let her have it. We came up with a plan to rescue nia and dromarch.
"I guess we'll just have to mound a full on attack!" rex yelled.
"I'm down for that!" i yelled.
"No! Rex! Kaku! We can't put everyone in danger." pyra said.
"Ugh…fine. Will i ever get the chance to bust some bucket heads?" i asked.
"Kaku-kaku really not like mor ardain..even less than tora?" tora said.
"So what's the plan then?" lora asked. Pyra looked at the map of the mor ardain ship.
"There! This is one of the grandarbor's roots right? If this map is correct. It goes all the way from the quay to the hull of the warship. And here looks like a cargo bay…could we sneak on that way?" pyra asked.
"We can thanks to rex's anchor shot." jin said.
"Huh…salvager gear is pretty damn handy…alright. We wait until the tides down. Then go to that root. Good work pyra." i said.
"That's my sister." mythra said with a smug grin. I chuckled. After resting up. We headed for that root. Had to be careful not to fall. After reaching the end of the root. Rex anchor shot his way up. And then lowered it.
"Pyra, you first. I'll pull you up, so hold tight." rex said. Pyra hopped on. Only for rex to almost fall from the weight. "Gh…so…heavy!" rex yelled.
"Wh-what did you say!?" pyra yelled. Stepping back off the anchor shot causing rex to fall on his ass.
"Smooth move romeo!" i yelled.
"Sorry about that, i guess i was just a bit surprised!" pyra yelled. Her face in her hands. Poppi jetted up towards rex and helped him pull up pyra.
"Nice, poppi." rex complimented.
"Poppi is artificial blade, this is…noooo problem. Poppi could lift gonzale if necessary." poppi said. Pulling up pyra who had a blush on her face. After the rest of us got pulled up. We made our way through. Knocking out what ever mor ardian bucket heads we need to. And poppi soon felt that there was a blade nearby. Nice function that tora wasn't even aware of. Pyra got the door open…by blasting through it with fire. Hope she didn't accidentally roast dromarch.
"Umm…i didn't hurt anyone did i?" pyra asked.
"Everyone check your eyebrows!" rex yelled.
"Are mine okay?" i asked mythra.
"Your eyebrows are fine." mythra said with a deadpan look.
"Sorry! It's hard to judge the power sometimes." pyra said.
"Better than me or my volatile driver…no offence kaku." mythra said.
"None taken, can't be offended by the truth." i said.
"Pyra! Rex! Kaku! Mythra!" dromarch yelled happy to see us.
"Nice to see you alright cat man. So where's your kitty driver?" i asked.
"Indeed! Where nia?" tora asked.
"See masterpon! I told you there was a blade here!"
"...who are they?" dromarch asked.
"That's right got an few introductions to make…these two are our new buddies tora. And his artificial blade poppi." i said.
"Nice to see you haven't lost your edge jin." lora said as she walked side by side with jin. After dealing with the bucketheads that were in the cafeteria…we got really lost on the way here.
"Who is she?" dromarch asked.
"My old friend…and jin's driver. Lora." i said with a smile.
"Hello…you must be dromarch. Nice to meet you." lora said with a precious smile. After getting dromarch out. We went to find nia. Who was being guarded by a couple of bucketheads.
"It's the terrorists friends!" the soldier yelled.
"We are her friends! But we won't let you call her a terrorist!" rex yelled as he drew his sword. This fight was so one sided that it's not even worth remembering. "You alright nia!?" rex yelled as he barged in. i followed alongside.
"Rex, kaku, you…" nia said. Baffled that we actually came for her.
"My lady. Apologies for my late arrival." dromarch said as he bowed to nia.
"Don't mention it. I didn't think anyone was coming at all." nia said with a sad smile.
"As if we'd leave you! 'Always help those who help you' that's the second rule of the salvager code!" rex yelled and offered a hand to nia.
"Well that's you all over, ain't it?" nia asked as she took his hand and got up.
"Rex-rex! Kaku-kaku! Tora has found escape rout! Hurry hurry!" tora yelled as he motioned for us to come on. Lora also peaked inside.
"Hi there…your nia right?" lora asked.
"A nopon?...and who's she?" nia asked
"That's tora. And that's lora…a new…and an old friend." i said with a smile. As pyra poppi and azurda pops up behind tora.
"Uh…nice to meet you." nia said.
"We found who we came here…we should leave before reinforcements arrive." jin said.
"He's right…let's book it before that 'special inquisitor' arrives." i said. We reached a big metal door that was the exit.
"Not much further to exit!" tora yelled.
"Not so fast, My dear intruders." a guy said as the metal doors open revealing a fat guy with purple hair and a tiny mustache. Behind him was a blade in the form of a mix between a roman gladiator and a golem with a shield hammer. "Letting a terrorist from the destroyers out of my grasp would make me look very bad indeed." the fat guy said.
"considering how ugly you already are. Any worse and you'll end up in tantal." i said. Mythra tried to hold her laughter in while the guy seethed in anger. But he soon smirked when looking at pyra
"Ah, that emerald core crystal! You must be the aegis!" the fat guy said. He then looked at mythra. "There's two of them? Even better! As much as it pains me to admit it. Morag was right in the money." the fat guy said.
"You know who pyra and mythra are? Are you trying to capture them too, you ratbag?" rex asked.
"Now now, language. But of course. The most powerful blade in all of history, with the power to rend all of alrest asunder? Only a fool would know of that power and not seek to claim it and i am no fool! Therefore, i will claim them as my own! You cannot argue with such logic." the fat guy said.
"Flaw detected in final step of logic." poppi said.
"There's never any logic when your dealing with a prick with an ego. Anyway ." i said.
"My name is dughall! I'm an bureaucrat of mor ardian!" dughall yelled.
"I couldn't care less. Hate to break it to ya. But neither me nor rex are going to hand over pyra or mythra. So some selfish and cowardly bureaucrat can further his career. So get out of our way. Or i'll make your face look even worse! Which is bad considering watching a brog mate with a parisax is more pleasant then looking at the puddle of wrinkles and fat i'm looking at right now!" i yelled. Mythra laughed. Lora cringed at the thought of seeing a huge frog and bug mating. And dughall's face went red with anger.
"Crush that disrespectful terrorist dolme!" dughall yelled. His blade charged and brought it's hammer down on me. Only for me to catch it with my hand and throw him across the room. Dughall tried to pull out a rifle but i was too quick i grabbed the rifle. Snapped in two. And punched him in the face. Hard enough to knock out quite a few teeth. And sending flying back out the door. Until he hit the metal bunker on the other side.
"Beserker of torna indeed…" dromarch said. I brushed off my hands.
"That's what he gets for trying to execute." rex said.
"What? He was trying to take me back to mr ardain…rex this is a trap!" nia yelled.
"A trap? So they weren't going to execute you?" rex asked.
"No…they knew we would come running for nia if we heard she was being executed…i would have done the same for lora." jin said.
"Oh jin…" lora said with a blush.
"You two can smooch later….we need to get out of here!" mythra yelled.
"You've been with kaku too long!" lora yelled with her face red. Mythra giggled as she ran. We ran for the exit. Only to be stopped by blue flames.
"These flames again!" pyra yelled.
"It's her!" rex yelled. Through the flames. I see a female officer wielding an all too familiar pair of swords and all too familiar blade standing by her side.
"Her driver's with this time!" nia yelled.
"That's morag! The flamebringer!" dromarch yelled.
"Morag?" rex asked.
"Special inquisitor morag of mor ardain, the most powerful driver in the empire and wielder of…" dromarch said. I finished his sentence.
"Brighid…one of the legendary treasures of mor ardain." i said.
"You seem to know me." brighid said.
"Yeah…we fought alongside each a long time ago. You may not remember it but…it's good to see you again brighid." i said.
"So your the berserker of torna?" morag asked. She then looked at mythra and sneered. "Looks like you got what you wanted…traitor." morag said. I drew mythra's sword and summoned my sword of the wasteland.
"I'm not expecting you to believe me…but let me try to make one thing…perfectly clear! I didn't betray anyone! I lost control of myself! Why would i want the power of the aegis when i can't even control my own power! Hate me for what happened to emperor hugo. Hell. i hate myself for what i did to him that dark day…" i said with rage filing my voice.
"Kaku…" lora said.
"Hate me as much as you want. But hate me knowing the truth. And not from the poisonous lies of a nihilistic and egotistical snake that's now the praetor of indol! Amalthus is a liar! A fucking liar!" i yelled.
"Regardless…the blood of a mor ardain emperor is still on your hands. Your punishment is way over do. Berserker of torna." morag said. Readying brighid's whip swords.
"I will accept whatever punishment you deem appropriate. Just not now…not until my mission is complete." i said. Readying to fight. Morag is definitely the most skilled driver brighid had. Of course my only person to compare is hugo. I do find it funny that everyone seems to have taken up lora and jins way of fighting…i wonder if they know that style was because of a girl and her blade were utterly broke. Needless to say morag has earned her title. But i still managed to hold my own. Having lora and jin have my back helped considerably. Lora wrapped her braid around one of the whipswords and ripped it out of morags hand. Jin knocked the other out. But the whipswords were both caught by brighid. Who went for a double stab at me. Which i dodged by sliding under. And got close enough to repeat history.
"Sorry!" i yelled as i swung mythra's sword cutting off brighid's arms again. She screams in pain.
"Brighid!" morag yelled not noticing lora coming in with a punch to the back of her head knocking her out.
"Y-you!" brighid said with a look of pain and hatred.
"...i'm sorry about hugo…i never wanted to hurt him…i'll face whatever punishment you decide just…not now." i said as a i ran away with everyone.
Three hours later/morag pov.
My head is pounding…i don't want to open my eyes. But i did.
"Are you alright lady morag?" brighid asked.
"I think i need a new skull…but aside from that. I'm fine." i said as i stood up.
"At least you didn't have your arms cut off." brighid said…she's got a point i looked towards the entrance. "What do you think of the berserker of torna?" brighid asked.
"To be honest…i don't think he was lying…i believed for a long time that the berserker was a power hungry traitor…but now i'm having doubts…after all. No guilty man would be that self-loathing if they were truly a traitor." i said.
"I agree…he said that he would take whatever punishment i decide…but not now…i do wonder what this mission of his is." brighid said.
"Probably the same one he had 500 years ago." i said.
"My lady. You don't mean…" brighid said in shock.
"We maybe having an second aegis war…we'll sit back and watch…and see if the berserker of torna can redeem himself…" i said.
"What about the other driver. that boy?" brighid asked.
"Can't really say…haven't seen enough to come to an conclusion. We'll cross paths again. And when we do. We shall see." i said.
Kaku pov.
After the battle. We ran. Nia tried to leave. Only for rex to give heartfelt speech about finding elysium to stop the war. And save the world. And how he needs her help because he's not strong enough. Honestly it was kind of ruined by tora dancing around him. Which got him smacked by rex which was funny. But his speech managed to convince her. As rex and pyra sat by a fire. Patching up each others wounds. Me and mythra left the camp to privately talk.
"So. still blaming yourself for what happened?" mythra asked.
"I lost control…but that doesn't change the fact that hugo's blood is on my hands…it will never wash away…but i'm not gonna lock myself away. I'm back…after 500 years…and this time. I'll do it right. Rex will find elysium. And i will destroy malos. He's the shield. I'm the sword. I have my doubts that i can control myself but…i'm not gonna let fear control me…i'll face my fears and do it right this time." i said.
"Hmm…wish the other me and pyra had your bravery." mythra said quietly.
"What was that?" i asked.
"Nothing…we got a long day tomorrow…so let's go back and rest." mythra said as she walked back to the campsite. I smiled as i followed.