Heya everyone, back for another week. Was sick all last week, not to mention the battery of tests I had to take for school. It wasn't a fun week. Anyway, here you go, chapter 26. Enjoy.
Chapter 26: A Devil and a Puppet
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The path through the forest had been long, and thankfully, uneventful. Dispatching Grimm wasn't an issue for Inuba. The fact of the matter was that she was by herself, and had been so for two days after splitting up with Dante and the others. Now and then she encountered a Grimm, and virtually annihilated them within a few seconds. But still...not seeing a face for a good while is a bit…
But despite not seeing others for some time, the kitsune was more concerned with Dante at the moment. He was still injured and...the other troubling thing she noticed some time ago. She never mentioned anything because she thought it would be impertinent of her to question whether or not if he was aware of his other situation.
The way that his Aura Reserves fluctuated could become a serious problem.
Inuba noticed this happening when she first reunited with him months ago. However, she made nothing of it at the time, perhaps but an error in her Aura Sensing. But traveling together for the past few months as they, the kitsune was able to accurately calibrate her Aura Sensing to measure the immortals Aura Reserves with stunning accuracy.
And the fluctuations...they were quite serious…
Certain intervals during the fluctuations dramatically increased his Aura Reserves, making him exponentially stronger. But there were times the fluctuations greatly decreased his Aura Reserves, severely weakening his abilities. On the immortals own, his physical abilities were a cut above that of any normal human or Faunus, even those of veteran Huntsmen and Huntresses.
However, physical abilities can't simply win all fights, not in this world.
Aura was an important tool when it came to fighting the Grimm, and especially other humanoid rogues. Without it, it would make a fight incredibly difficult, especially against experienced warriors.
From what Inuba could gather currently, Dante's Aura Reserves were stable for the moment. But...she could feel something else from him as well...
Their souls were linked and bound together. And because this was the case, the power they shared through each other made them stronger. Not only that, but they could feel one another's emotions clearly in some circumstances, as well as hear each other's thoughts. Sadly, after their link was disrupted, and even with it restored, she could feel almost nothing of the immortals emotions, much less hear most of his thoughts anymore.
It was clearly the same for him as well, otherwise he would know…
Inuba's fox ears flicked about suddenly, picking up noise not too far from her current location. She readied herself by letting her hand hover over the handle of her katana, her crimson red eyes scanning the area around her as she kept her ears open.
"It's just me."
The kitsune spun around and stared for a moment, relaxing her guard when she saw it was only the girl cloaked in white.
"Thank goodness… What are you doing here? Did you not say you were going to see if you could find anything on the towers?" Questioned Inuba.
"I am. Sort of. While the real me is here, I sent out an Echo Specter to do the search for me."
"Echo Specter..?"
"Do you remember how Dante's Shadow Skin used to look like?"
"Yes, virtually as it is called. A Shadowy second layer of skin."
"An Echo Specter is basically that, but a Shadowy projection. Through it, I can see what it sees and the like. It's basically a clone I control and share an extent of my abilities with. One of them being able to use my Presence Erasure ability."
"So you sent your Echo Specter to perform your search for you... But why are you here?" Inuba asked as both she and the cloaked girl continued throughout the forest.
"I thought it best to keep you company. It's just you out here and I can imagine it can be quite uncomfortable being alone. So I decided I would be your back up."
"Oh… Well, thank you then for your assistance. This will make things progressively faster."
"Indeed. By my estimation, we should be reaching the tower within two more days or so. Then, within a few days, you can be reunited with Dante again."
Saying this made Inuba's cheeks turn red for a few moments with the implications that were subtly made, fully aware that the cloaked girl was teasing her.
"Perhaps you'll have worked up some courage to confess to him?"
"That's-! I..!"
"Honestly, you make it too easy for others to pick you apart about the matter. Especially Ciel. It'd be best if you get it done and over with next time you see him."
"I understand, but…"
"No buts. You've waited too long. And frankly, you've earned your due. You're not taking no for answer."
"What of ms. Rose..?"
"You'll just have to have a sit down with her. That, or with Dante himself, and explain the situation surrounding you and him. Either way, he has a choice to make at the end of this. A difficult one, but he has to make the decision. So...when the time comes, make sure he chooses you."
"I can't just ask him to break up with the girl because I love him more. That would be-"
"Bad. That's understandable. But if you want what's supposed to be yours, you're going to have to be selfish, Inuba. Quite frankly, he shouldn't even be in a relationship with anyone else. Maybe if things with the fight against Aultus had gone better...you could be the one at his side right now… I'm sorry it didn't work out that way."
"You have nothing to apologize for… And...you are right. Had I been more selfish in the past…" The kitsune fell silent, her thoughts quickly racing about in her mind as she made her choice, and said "I won't back away. Not this time. I've gone through too much to just...let it all fade away…"
"So then...you're telling me you're not going to run away from it next time you see Dante?"
"I won't. It's time I start becoming more selfish and go after what I want, rather than let it escape me because of politeness. I've always been afraid that I would lose what I have with him forever. But I was always more afraid of wronging someone else and that he would hate me for it." The kitsune spoke as she stopped in her tracks.
The cloaked girl stopped as well, staring at Inuba and listening closely to her words.
"I was polite and bided my time, and...this may sound cruel...but...I was hoping something would be amiss to force him and the other person apart… The problem was, when it did happen, there wasn't ever a right time for it. But this time...I won't fail. I WILL get my feelings across to him."
"Glad to hear you're so resolved. It's going to be a bumpy road, but when is something like this ever not? Either way, make sure you live up to that promise." Said the cloaked girl as she continued forward.
Inuba began following behind her, quickening her pace to catch up to her.
I will keep to it. No matter the difficulty. I won't let there be a divide between us any longer. I've come too far to let him go. So this time...I will be the one who is standing at his side!
"What a pain in the ass…" Leo said with a sigh, walking along a side cliff in the rocky canyon he traversed, "Maybe if I ran the whole time, I would've been there by now. But that'd be too much work for me…"
Leonard wasn't one for long missions or ventures. If it was something short and simple, he'd have no problem and would make no complaints really. But he was already on a long venture to Haven as it was, and this side trip to go and investigate the towers was a nuisance.
Grimm were easy to eliminate, especially since he kept his Aura Sensing constantly on and pushed it outward in a five mile radius. As soon as he could determine accurately if it were a Grimm, all he had to do was take out one of his handcannons, part of his weapon pair Nuntius, take aim for a moment and pull the trigger. Within the next second, a bullet from his gun coated in a super high density beam of his white and black Aura shot forward like a laser, burning through just about anything that was unfortunate enough to get in its path.
However, there were some larger varieties of Grimm that were harder to kill, most notably DeathStalkers since they had thicker armor than the rest of the Grimm. At least, they have the thickest armor out of the Grimm he's seen.
Unfortunately, DeathStalkers seemed to be prominent in this area, which wasn't really surprising given the desert terrain. Even the smaller ones were a bit of an annoyance...
"I always get stuck with the annoying jobs… I got to talk about this with brother when I see him again…"
Leo stopped on his tracks and looked on ahead, feeling a small tremor in the ground. The whites of his eyes turned black, and his bright sky-blue irises a glowing white. Squinting with his now present Shadow Eyes, his vision focused in on the rumbling ahead, zooming in almost like a pair of binoculars.
"Beowolves again? Looks like some Griffons too… Not surprising, the forest area is a mile or so off to my side."
Leonard let out a sigh as he reached within the inner breast pocket of his white coat and slowly pulled out one of his Nuntius handcannons, the gun's base color a pure white with black trimming and intricate, wavy black patterns adorning the vertically wide barrels, the barrels themselves were a foot long each.
From anyone else's perspective, Leo had to look insane for shooting in front of him haphazardly without really aiming. But most people never really knew of Leo's abilities.
He shot in those empty spaces twelve times on purpose.
In those empty spaces where he shot, twelve small rings of white and black Aura immediately formed in front of him as he kept his gun raised and aimed at the oncoming flock of Grimm.
"Horizon of Subterfuge."
As soon as he pulled the trigger, the same twelve rings unleashed massive beams of white and black Aura, quickly closing the distance between Leo and his targets within a matter of seconds. The beams burned through the bodies of the Grimm with ease, passing through them and hitting any other Grimm rallying behind them. Large, burning white holes were present in their bodies as they collapsed into nothingness, glistening white embers rising up into the morning sky.
Leonard let out another sigh as he placed his handcannon back into his inner breast pocket and continued moving onwards.
"Maybe if I do run, I can get this done quicker and get back to brother. Then I can poke at Ciel with how slow she is."
He's known his sister for a very long time compared to their older brother, and he knew Ciel could be as lazy as he was, even lazier. It wouldn't be surprising if she was having difficulties, or would be the last to finish.
Leonard and Ciel had a bet before they parted ways along the road to their respective towers, the bet being whoever finished first not only gets bragging rights, but the loser can't play Phantom Souls for a whole week. And the twins enjoyed playing Phantom Souls more than eating. Though, eating wasn't a necessary thing to keep them alive. In any sense, the bet held much importance to them, and for Leonard, who didn't find much joy from various other aspects of life, Phantom Souls was the one thing he enjoyed doing more than anything.
Then again, the same could be said for Ciel.
"Damn… I should probably get this done quicker… Thankfully I have an advantage since Ciel can't teleport to a place she's never been to. And because of that, she can't easily teleport back to brother once she's done with her tower. It's about even for the two of us, but I can get this done quicker."
The other thing that most people didn't know, was that when Leonard was motivated to do something, he would dedicate all his time to getting it done, however long it took and by whatever means at his disposal.
Though currently, he had to put his "bet" on hold.
Along the path, he could feel more tremors. Although, they weren't coming from directly ahead of him. Bits of rubble from up top dropped onto his coat, prompting Leo to brush it off his shoulder as he looked up.
Explosive impacts. Steel clashing against bone.
Someone else was up there.
"I was pretty sure we were the only ones mental enough to be out here by ourselves... But from the sound of it, it might be a small group or just one person."
Leonard looked above, then looked ahead on the path he was already on. A few things were going through his head at the moment, but the main thing he thought about doing was to keep walking and leave whoever up there be. They sounded like they could handle themselves up there. But...there did seem to be quite a few…
Annoyingly so, he could hear his brother now…
"This is such a pain…"
Leonard lowered himself towards the floor, then kicked off it, leaping high up into the air up towards the top of the cliffside, where the battle was taking place. He noticed he was beginning to lose speed, so he quickly planted his feet on the cliffside, quickly running up its side while leaving behind trails of crackling white and black Aura until he made it to the final stretch and leapt above the cliff side.
Leonard's feet touched the earthy ground beneath him as he stood back up slowly, taking a quick glance around. Boulders and brick colored stony columns lined the plateau as far as the eyes could, only minor signs of desert vegetation and the like.
"It was about here, right? So where's..?"
The young immortal's question was answered when he saw some of those stone columns falling apart in the distance, dust kicking up violently into the air. His body blurred out in streaks of white and black Aura, reappearing behind a formation of boulders with a silenced noise resembling static.
He wasn't going to step in at first just in case whoever was fighting wasn't friendly and more of a rogue.
Out of the dust emerged the large stinger of a DeathStalker that was cut apart in numerous sections, the yellow glow in its stinger disappearing seconds later. But it didn't end just there. A whole slew of body parts came flying out of dust; legs, pincers, chunks from heads.
How many DeathStalkers were they fighting?
Another stinger came flying out from the dust and nearly hit Leo had he not ducked down and let the body part hit the top part of his cover and bounce off.
"How many are there? And what are they using to get through the armor to lob off all the limbs? It's almost impressive…"
Another earth shattering crash shook the ground, and the eviscerated corpse of a large DeathStalker flew out from the dust, skidding to a halt just as few feet away from Leo's position.
"Note taken… Do not mess with the people slaughtering those Grimm…"
But something was odd… It didn't sound like "people", but…
"One person..? That's…"
He wasn't going to say impossible. Many months now have taught him to exclude that word from his vocabulary. Anything in this world was possible.
A sudden shockwave rippled through the air, forcing away the massive dust cloud to allow Leonard to finally see the person that was fighting.
And he was mesmerized…
He saw a girl, about his age, who wore tight, black high-heeled kneehigh boots that went slightly over the top of her knees, and black thigh-high stockings that reached just slightly above her thighs. In addition, she wore a tight black dress with intricate white, wavy patterns woven around a small chest window to her rather...ample chest. The hem of her dress sat directly above her stockings, just a bit above the center of her thighs. Her dress also had tight sleeves that reached just below her elbows and spanned out into wide cuffs, almost like a kimono. She also wore white gloves that had black palm and finger fabric instead of white, like the majority of the her gloves.
Leonard took note that she stood as tall as he did, 5'9, but that was due to the four inches her heeled boots gave her, making her actual height 5'5.
The fabric of her dress covered her shoulders and reached upwards to cover only the base of her neck, where he looked up further and saw she had chin length, ash colored hair, nearly light gray, that was parted towards the left side of her face, almost like my brother. Those strands of hair that were parted to the left would have covered her left eye slightly if wasn't for the black hair clip keeping those strands up. Lastly, and probably the most interesting part of her apparel was the grey blindfold she wore with no free flowing strands, which made Leo curious as to if she were she blind. If so, she was a very impressive combatant.
The final thing Leo noticed was the weapon she was holding in her hand. It was a katana with a black colored blade that spanned four feet and was slightly curved. The oval shaped guard was colored white, as was the handle with a few black etchings, and was hollowed out at the center, leaving four prongs within the guard to hold it in place. At the butt of the handle was a black tattered ribbon of sorts, at least a foot long.
It was a fine weapon. Looked to be very sharp too.
There was also another weapon on her back that, oddly enough, floated in place, keeping in place just enough that it almost touched her back. That weapon was a Nagamaki, a katana-greatsword with a long handle. It's design matched her katana's design, color, guard, handle and all, minus the black ribbon. The only difference was that the blade of the Nagamaki spanned five feet, while the handle sat comfortably at two feet.
"Can she even swing that thing..?"
The mysterious girl's katana vanished in a flash of white Aura, swapping places with her Nagamaki while her katana floated centimeters from her back. Grasping her larger weapon with both hands, the girl quickly twirled around as the DeathStalkers moved in for the kill, thinking they had her surrounded. But they were foolish to think so.
She wanted them to surround her.
In a quick and deft display of badassery, the girl turned herself into a vortex of death, slicing apart the pincers, the stingers and heads of any scorpion Grimm that dared approach her, as if she were only cutting through jello.
A few remained leftover, one of them trying to take a stab at her with its stinger, only to miss and have the appendage sent upwards into the sky. As it backed away, the girl spun around a delivered a powerful side kick into the base of the stinger where she cut, and sent it flying into the mouth of one of the survivors.
She skipped backwards twice to avoid the quick swipes of one of the Grimm and leapt up to avoid the stinger, only to quickly descend upon her enemy and plunge her blade directly into its head. With the next one on approach, the girl tore upwards through the corpse of the Grimm she stood on and went up into the air with her weapon. She did a quick spin and straight tossed her Nagamaki into the head of the one approaching her, killing it in the process.
One of the last DeathStalkers ran up to her, and all the girl did was round kick the flat edge of the blade, sending it out the Grimm's body and spiraling into the face of the other. Even so, it still kept coming at her.
Leonard could hear her let out a frustrated sigh before she hopped of the body and ran straight for the creature as it approached her, angrily roaring. The girl slid under the creature, keeping on the sides of her feet and using the fingers on one of her hands to keep herself from completely touching the ground. Once she slid past, she spun sideways out of the way of the tail almost flattening her and somersaulted onto its head, soom kicking her Nagamaki free from its head as spiraled out of the corpse and planted itself into the ground, blade point first.
"Alright. She can definitely swing it. Seriously...what the hell is that the girl to have that kind of strength to swing a sword that big so quickly?"
The young immortal's head shifted to what lay behind the girl, seeing it was the DeathStalker she cut the tail off of a while ago. Given how quickly she just turned around, she too just noticed it, and with how quickly she moved, she more than likely would have gotten to her blade. But just in case…
Before the girl could think of taking a swing after grabbing hold of her Nagamaki again, she paused as she watched a blast of white and black Aura pierce into and out of the side of the already damaged head of the DeathStalker, it's corpse slumping to ground and beginning to evaporate into black mist once again.
Leonard approached from his spot of cover, keeping his gun pointed up towards the sky as he approached the girl. A good distance away from one another, Leonard stopped in his tracks and slowly placed his handcannon back into the inner breast pocket of his coat while the girl moved her large Nagamaki towards her back, letting it float behind her in place next to her katana.
"You're not in any database system around Remnant. Would you care to identify yourself?" She asked in a cool, collected voice.
"I'm just a simple traveler. I heard the commotion up here and decided to examine the cause of the noise and found you...eviscerating these Grimm. Impressively so might I add despite um…" he finished pointing to his face, realizing that was unnecessary.
"I'm not visually disabled. My eyes function perfectly well."
"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't know, I just assumed-"
"It's alright, that's not important. I'll ask you again to identify yourself."
Leonard kept quiet for a moment, letting out a deep sigh before he gave his answer.
"I'm just simply Leonard. No last name."
"Alrighty then, Simply Leonard, what is your business out here in the wilds?"
"I could ask you the same thing, ms. ..?"
She hesitated for a moment like Leonard did just a bit ago, possibly for the same reason. Dante had once told Ciel and Leo that out in the wilds outside of a Kingdom, trust is important. But there is such a thing as trusting the wrong people and falling into trap that would be hard to get out of, if not impossible. It's why it was important to choose carefully and be wary of others, but not so wary that you completely avoid them. It was hard finding room to trust a stranger you only just met.
And from what Leo could tell, she was thinking really hard about whether to trust him or not.
"Bailey Lianna. I am out here performing a mission, Simply Leonard."
"Simply Leonard..?" He quietly asked himself before a thought ran across his mind, "Your mission wouldn't happen to be the tower a couple miles in that direction, would it?"
She seemed more attent now that he mentioned the tower.
"And what business do you have with the tower?"
"I was part of a group until a few days ago. We took note of the towers and were unsure of whether or not they were a threat, so four out of the five of us decided to split up and investigate a tower each. Our fifth decided to move on ahead and regroup along the road with another group of allies, which he more than likely has done so by now. Now then...what might your business be with the towers? Or at least, the one ahead of us?"
"Why assume my mission to be the tower?"
"The way you asked me hinted towards you having knowledge of those towers and a possible task in mind concerning them. Therefore, I would like to make a proposition, if you would entertain the idea."
"I'm listening…"
"It would appear to me that you and I have the same goal in mind." started Leonard, "As such, I propose that we should travel together for the time being. Strength in numbers as they say."
"Hmmm… You do seem to be a capable combatant given how you dispatched that DeathStalker. And having another ally could very likely help move this along at a faster pace…"
"Proposal: Bailey Lianna should accept Simply Leonard's proposition to join forces in order to increase the success rate and completion time of the current mission." Spoke a robotic voice that nearly sounded human.
From behind Bailey, Leonard saw something fly up near her left shoulder and float in the air. It was some sort of machine with a black metal body and white line highlights that pulsated every three or so seconds. The main shape of its body was like that of flat hexagon, only the rear portion was elongated by at least a foot into a fine spear-like point, giving it a total length of about nineteen inches.
On its front facing point, metal covered its entire top, forming an upwards and backwards slant in a diagonal formation before slanting back down towards the elongated rear point. It was there Leo saw more white, pulsating lines forming alongside the inner edges of its body. There was another v-shaped white line further inwards, which He assumed to be its "eyes" and how it could see.
On its underside near the sides with points where two robotic arms, each with three, flat finger-like appendages, two on one side, one on the other. It's circular "palms" seemed to have closed off gaps. What for though? More importantly…
"What on earth are you..?" The young immortal asked as he approached the small, floating robot as it floated directly toward him.
"I am Support Unit SOL 004 assigned to Bailey Lianna to provide different means of support on and off the battlefield." It replied to his question.
"Incredible… An AI Support Unit for usage out in the field…" Leonard said as he touched one of the Unit's arms, which surprisingly used its "fingers" to grasp a few of his own and shake hands with Leo, "Where exactly are you coming from ms. Lianna?"
"I'm curious to see what you might answer, Simply Leonard. So please, take a guess for yourself."
"Well, if I had to venture a guess… With technology this complex, you would have to come from Atlas, would you not?"
"Your answer is close. We're not located directly in the Kingdom, but hidden just a few ways away. You're able to keep silent and not disclose information, right? Especially since you and I will be working together for some time."
"Um, yes, absolutely!" He quickly answered, "Your secrets are safe with me and everything… Oh, uh, do I have to sign a confidentiality agreement, or..?"
She hummed briefly in humor as a smile formed on her lips, "I'll take your word for it, Simply Leonard."
"Proposal: Bailey Lianna and Simply Leonard should relocate to a safer area to further communicate and relay information between one another." Spoke SOL.
"I agree with SOL. I've been traveling through the canyon for some time now and noticed a large amount of DeathStalkers up above. It's why I relocated to the ledge path down below. There are a few more Grimm now and then, but they are of the lesser varieties. Small fry if you will. It is a lot safer."
"But a space like that would be enclosed and would leave very little room to escape, except for moving upwards on the wall like I assume you did to get here."
"That is true ms. Lianna, but I can easily dispatch them with my Semblance, which you caught a brief glimpse of. The tighter the space, the deadlier it is for my enemies."
"I see… That's useful information…"
"Um… We can discuss about ourselves further in a little while. Perhaps now would be an opportune time to leave while we can?"
"Agreed." Bailey said nodding towards Leo, "SOL, keep a constant five mile radius scan for both Grimm and other human or Faunus life forms."
"Affirmative."
"Now then, shall we be off, Simply Leonard?"
"Y-Yes... Absolutely."
For some strange reason, Leonard felt a form of joy come over him. Was it because he had a new ally to work alongside of out in the wilderness? More than likely. But...he did have a bit of problem on his hands.
He had to figure out a way to stop her from calling him Simply Leonard.
"Haven?"
"Yes. One of my brother's colleagues uncovered information directing him to Haven Academy. Thus, from the outskirts of Vale, my brother traveled with his partner for months, and met my sister and I along the road. Ever since then, we've been traveling together."
For some time now, Leonard and Bailey had continued onwards through the canyon together with SOL floating at Bailey's side. Few Grimm had attacked now and then, but it was nothing the two couldn't handle with their combined might.
"What about you ms. Lianna?"
"Me?"
"You said you came from near Atlas yourself. Is all going well at the moment?"
"I wouldn't say 'well', but matters could be worse. Just last week they closed off the borders and enacted a Dust embargo in an attempt to facilitate lesser resources and materials that would be stolen for usage by whatever enemy plans to attack next."
"Hmmm… They are acting cautious, but perhaps too cautious. Maybe a few restrictions here and there, but to enact an embargo and close off the borders entirely? That seems a bit extreme."
"Atlas takes threats very seriously, and their safety just as sternly. Of course, they also have to make face when concerning other Kingdoms."
"I do have one question though, ms. Lianna."
"Bailey."
"Hmm?"
"You can drop the formalities and call me Bailey, Simply Leonard."
"Uh… Right…" he said with a hint of dejection in his tone, "Bailey then. I, uh, meant to ask if you were perhaps working with the Altesian Chain of Command since, well, operations like this are more or less along their...thing."
"I don't operate under Altesian Chain of Command, rather our own form of operations. In a sense, we're not based with Atlas, but we do work with them time to time."
"Is Atlas aware of the towers?"
"I would assume not since the towers are only visible throughout this part of the continent under the jurisdiction of the Kingdom of Mistral."
"Wait...do you mean to tell me that the towers are only visible within the space they formed?"
"That's right. Anyone outside of the space won't be able to see the towers at all. We were lucky to take notice after we sent a recon drone on a path to Vale to assess their current situation and see how much progress has been made in recovering the city. That was when we caught wind of one of the towers, and the drone identified three similar structures."
"Have your sources been able to identify the functions of the towers at all?"
"Negative:" replied SOL as he floated in between the two now, "External recon drones were sent to further analyze the structures. Further details unknown."
"Unknown..? Did you lose the drones?"
"We completely lost connection to them. The last thing the drones were able to pick up was an internal personalized network in each, but any attempts to penetrate the network were completely halted." said Bailey.
"Interesting… A personal network cut off from the rest of the Kingdoms… And sophisticated enough to block out any hacking attempts from the outside…" Leo stated as he raised a hand to his chin, "In any sense, we have no idea why the towers are there and if they're meant to incite hostile conditions. Attempting to disrupt the shared CCT network between the Kingdoms would be an illogical play since the entire network went down with the collapse of Vale's tower. And it wouldn't be right to assume the towers are in place to restore the network through the kindness of a unknown benefactor…"
"Especially considering communications between the Kingdoms still haven't been restored. In fact, the closer the drones got to the tower, the weaker their transmission signals were until they completely cut out."
"So a means of jamming signals as well… I'd have to venture a guess that whatever someone is up to, they certainly don't wish to have prying eyes upon them. What could they be possibly doing..?"
"Alert: Enemy forced detected five hundred meters ahead from current position." SOL said notifying the two.
"Grimm..?" Bailey asked as she looked to her floating robotic companion.
"Negative. Signals detected ahead are unknown."
"Unknown as if you're not sure they're human or Faunus? Or..?"
"Unknown." SOL replied to Leo.
"Right then… Let's check it out."
The duo quickened their pace along the ledgeside cliff, Leo following close behind Bailey as he attempted to keep his eyes focused directly ahead, given that his new allies' skirt was moving upwards considerably. And so to keep his mind off it…
"If I may Bailey… If you aren't blind, then why are you wearing that blindfold?"
"Have you heard of VISR blindfolds?"
"VISR..? Now that you mention it, I actually have. Is that what your blindfold is?"
"Yes. VISR Systems recently created a new type of Visor Display Unit in a more compact and less obvious form."
"When you say less obvious, I assume that means these weren't contracted to other companies and the like, not even to the Altesian Military."
"Correct. We kept it strictly within our own organization and circulated it amongst our forces personally. Our Tactical Blindfolds display everything such as our personal health levels, weapon reserves, etc."
"A personalized HUD compacted into a blindfold. Clever."
"Simply Leonard, prepare to jump!"
The young immortal snapped to attention and followed after Bailey as the both leapt off the canyonside cliff, soaring through the air as they fell towards the forest below them. Bailey kicked off of any trees she came into contact with until she reached the ground, while Leonard killed some of his momentum by stretching out his arms until he grabbed hold of a large branch, spun around a few times to further slow his momentum until he let go and landed on the ground near Bailey with a silent thud.
From there, they silently moved through the forest, seeing rays of light peeking in from a clearing in the distance, but stopping short of it instead of moving through, hiding behind the trees. It was down below in a large ravine that Leo saw something very surprising.
"What on earth..?! Altesian Knight 200's?! But those are the newer models Atlas put out months ago before Vale fell… What are they doing so far out here?!"
"Alert: No recent deployments of AK 200 Units have been confirmed by Altesian Chain of Command. Enemy Units detected below." SOL stated as he looked over the field.
"How odd… SOL, why are they popping up as enemy units on our radar?" Bailey asked.
"Analysis: Mechanized Units below posses unknown foreign signals separate to that of known Altesian standard programming for the AK 200 Units."
"So they've been hijacked and repurposed… There has to be at least fifty units down below, possibly even more as we continue onwards. How could anyone have gotten their hands on this many?"
"It would actually make sense." Bailey stated as she presumably kept her eyes on the field, "After the attack on Beacon and Vale, retrieval Units were sent to reclaim all shutdown and dismantled AK 200 Units, but before the retrieval crews could even begin, all the salvageable and disabled Units had already been removed from the Academy and around the city."
"These must be the missing Units then… How many were deployed in Vale?"
"Over a thousand, by General Ironwood's report." Bailey answered.
"Proposal: Unit Bailey Lianna and Simply Leonard should attack the enemy encampment and gather data from the fallen Units."
"Hmmm… Fifty units shouldn't be a problem…"
"That, and their targeting arrays aren't superbly accurate as Atlas would have you believe. If you're fast enough, you can easily get around their lines of sight and eliminate them."
"My speed isn't something I need to question." Leonard spoke as he whipped out both handcannons that formed his weapon pair Nuntius from their individual breast pockets inside his coat, "However...are you able to keep up?" He asked Bailey with a cheeky smile.
"I know how to fight, Simply Leonard."
"Right. I'll take the first row. Please take the back row and work your way up to me."
"Understood."
Leonard was the first to leap off the cliff and land in front of the black and silver colored AK 200 Units, all of them turning around to train their assault rifles on Leonard.
"Intruder detected. Identify yourself."
The young immortal smirked as he held both handcannons raised, thinking of something his older brother would say.
"None of your damn business from the country of who the hell cares."
"Error, no name-"
Before the android could speak another word, Leo pulled the triggers on his handcannons and fired into the crowd of androids, beams of white and black Aura mowing down crowds of the androids one after the other, their armor charred and melted within an instant upon contact. Of course, they fired back.
But it did them no good.
Leo dodged back and forth far too quickly for their fire to catch him, but what made them troublesome was the combined fire. It didn't matter if they hit him, but what would he say to Bailey? It's a fact that Dante, Ciel, and Leo himself never used any form of Aura Shielding to protect their bodies, there just wasn't any need considering their bodies regenerated from any injury they sustained.
The potential consequences to this was those around them finding out about their immortality, and with such information in hand, people would react in all sorts of different manners, good or bad. But Dante had taught Ciel and Leonard something valuable to cover up their immortality.
Whenever injured, they could specifically halt their healing of their wounds on the surface and heal deeper within the wound to avoid any detrimental side effects. That, and he had instructed them on how to properly act out "faking being injured". It was definitely something to have handy in case of injury amongst other persons unaware of their immortality.
More importantly, Leo had their attention on him, which allowed Bailey to slip in from behind through coverage of the forest. When she was certain no one's attention was at the back, Bailey grabbed hold of her Nagamaki, brought it across her body with both hands and swung outwards as she let go. The massive katana blade rapidly spun around in the air, boomeranging and slicing into the first row of the dozens of Androids in the back before her weapon returned to her grasp and floated behind her once again.
It was at this point she drew her normal katana and charged in from behind, quickly cutting through the masses with artful, graceful slices, almost as if she were dancing. Leo adjusted his targeting so that he could avoid Bailey altogether, even shot in alternate directions of her path.
Leonard left the last few to Bailey, who quickly sliced them to bits considering they had no option to turn around and attack her with their thinned out numbers, not with Leonard at the front blasting them to pieces. One of them did however attempt to turn around and shoot her, but Bailey was far quicker, and sliced its lower half off before performing a quick twirl of her sword and stabbing its head into the ground.
The red light coming from its visor flickered briefly before completely shutting off, the mechanical body now completely motionless.
"Report: No enemy units remain within the scannable vicinity. Data retrieval now recommended." SOL spoke on his mechanical voice as his small robotic body floated near Bailey.
Leonard stepped carefully around the robotic bodies, keeping his guns out to be cautious just in case. He stood behind Bailey, and soon averted his eyes to the side when he saw something he shouldn't. From the corner of his eye however, he saw Bailey raise up the left arm of one of the AK 200 units, one of which had a sleeker, more armored design compared to the rest of them.
"Altesian Knight units tend to contain their data in their left hands or arms. It's perfectly fine to destroy the bodies, just remember to keep their left hands intact."
"I'll keep that in mind from now on…" Leo softly replied as he pocketed his guns.
"SOL, can you hack into it and see if there's any relevant data pertaining to the towers?"
"Affirmative." Spoke the little Unit as a cone shaped light emerged from its Visor, moving up and down the arm, "Scanning: …"
Leonard wasn't one for hacking. It just took too long. Not that he couldn't do it, it was just annoying and too much work. If he had a nifty little partner like SOL though…
"Report: Signals transmitted to the fallen AK 200 Units are confirmed to be originating from the tower closest to our current position."
"Anything on the signal itself?" Asked Leonard.
"Negative: Attempted analysis of signal has been blocked by the source."
"Any other information?" Bailey asked.
"Affirmative: Data retrieved from this Commander Unit correlates with data on the acquisition of these Units. These Units were then reprogrammed with the signal emerging from the tower."
"You were right then. Whoever made the towers is responsible for cleaning out the AK 200 Units from Beacon and Vale." The young immortal said to Bailey as he gave a once over of the battlefield, "More importantly, is there any data that hints at using these Units as an invasion force? Perhaps to target Mistral?"
"Negative: Enemy Units retrieved were meant to be repurposed as defense Units around the tower or within its vicinity while business within the towers can be conducted in peace."
"Anything on what they might be doing in the tower?"
"Negative."
Leo let out a sigh as he crossed his arms, thinking as he looked around. He took into account that there were four towers, yes, but what was important was their function, their purpose. What could they possibly be doing within the towers that requires them to steal Atlas Military Combat Androids? And was there any meaning behind there being four towers?
"Wait…" started Leo in a soft voice, "The tower we're currently heading towards, what's its significance compared to others?"
"Scanning: … Scan complete. Tower identified as central hub of operations and origination of the signal."
"Then I was right to come in this direction first… This is good news, Simply Leonard."
"Or unfortunate." He stated bluntly.
"How come?"
"Think about it. The enemy's main base of operations is the one we're targeting first. We don't even know that the other three towers are for, or how important they can be in regards to the Main Tower."
"They could be just Hubs in order to spread the command signal to other stolen AK 200 Units near the other towers." Bailey quickly replied.
"Could be. Or they could be manufacturing factories for more Units. Perhaps they might even have a hazardous effect on the the environment. But the main thing to take note of is if that is indeed the Main Tower, the majority of enemy forces will be focused there. And I doubt all that we'll be running into is simple AK 200 Units. Perhaps we might face other mechanical Units. And more than likely we'll be seeing Grimm along the path and near the tower."
"No one said this would be an easy mission, Simply Leonard. I'm aware of the risks involved and the potential enemies that may come our way. But that changes nothing. If anything, this mission became a lot simpler."
"What do you mean?"
If anything, it would only increase in difficulty.
"I have you, don't I?"
Leonard's heart virtually skipped a beat when he heard her say that.
"W-Well… P-Partnering together certainly has raised our chances of success by a significant amount…"
"Then there's nothing to be concerned about, is there?"
"I...suppose not… But you should know, now that you are my ally, your life takes the highest priority. I won't allow you to needlessly put yourself in danger, nor charge in recklessly."
Leonard only now realized the alternate connotations behind his words and turned his head away from Bailey, keeping his eyes glued to the floor.
"Alright then, Simply Leonard. We'll do things your way as we go on through the mission. If you have suggestions on how to approach the enemy and combat them, I will gladly listen. But the mission matters just as much, and we can't afford to move at a leisurely pace."
"I understand." He said glancing at her once more, "It'll be dark soon. We should find a place to set up camp for the night before continuing onwards in the morning."
"You can keep going, can't you?" Bailey asked.
"I can. But it's preferable if we don't wander out at such hours. Hence why we'll make camp for the night in a suitable location. Then...we pick up where we left off in the morning."
(Omake: Skyla's Reckoning, by Xera Stark)
«»
Skyla Xerious was a girl of simple tastes.
She had an elegant, smaller frame, brown hair that went halfway down her back. It was styled with light purple highlights, of course, even through her side bangs that came down on the left side of her face.
A black crop top captured it nicely beneath her jacket, something that'd ordinarily expose her pale shoulders. Her black jacket had its sleeves rolled up to her elbows, thin bundles lacking any kind of bulkiness due to the thinner material of the clothing.
The tail of her jacket fell near where her shorts ended, length falling just slightly past them. She thought it made her look cool, but it was also just her preference to have a tail.
Her shorts were black, the material fading down to a deep purple before falling further into black tights and similarly colored combat boots. A white wide scarf lay delicately around her neck, its ends frayed while the article lay wrapped in a style to rest the majority of its soft cloth on her chest.
It was an ombre scarf with triangle-like ends, a look she pulled off nicely.
Plus, whenever she pulled the cloth up over half her face like a bandana, it helped her enter serious mode too.
She really was a girl of simple tastes, though.
She liked vanilla ice cream. It was her sister's favorite. She liked cookies and cream ice cream. It was her own favorite.
She liked talking to animals that couldn't talk back, she liked playing with kids who wouldn't remember her, she liked climbing trees too big for others to reach, she liked swinging from high places when others like to be grounded.
She liked a lot of things.
Someone once told her ice cream came from space.
She believed them.
Because it was more fun to believe the funny tale than it was to question it. She found it fun. Mining units in space that carved ice cream from passing comets? The no temperature void of space? The preserved creaminess of her favorite treats?
The delicious destruction of the dinosaurs in the prehistoric era?
What wasn't there to love?
She even-
Something hard bopped the poor girl's head hard enough to send her to the ground, landing with a harsh bounce onto her rump after the offending assault.
"O-owwww… who put you there?"
Deep purple aura sheened over her skin as she rubbed her head, glancing up through her brown bangs to see the corner of a brick wall staring right back at her.
So she stared back.
The staring contest lasted for about a minute before Skyla won.
With the brick wall admitting defeat, the girl popped back to her feet and brushed herself off. Now with a bit more carefulness in her step, she moved on.
After all…
Skyla Xerious was a girl of simple tastes.
She hated walls. She hated them ever since she was a little girl.
They put up barriers between people, further divided friends when they needed to come together, cut people off from the rest of the world, split nations when they could've conjoined.
She hated a lot of things.
Somebody once told her walls were evil.
She believed them.
Because she hated walls too.
But that stupid wall that came out of nowhere certainly wouldn't ruin her day! Nuh uh, not today! She was a girl on a mission!
Not a mission of kittens and rainbows, that was yesterday! Today, she had one goal to achieve!
Fly-! Wait, no, that was tomorrow.
Today, she planned the best of plans, the most awesome of awesomes, the biggest of the big, she, Skyla Xerious, was going to-!
Who put that hole there?
Skyla glanced down to see a significant lack of any ground, tilting her head quizzically as she floated there for just a brief second before realizing gravity was a thing that reality did.
"What if I just don't believe in gravity?" she questioned herself, still floating there, "No. That wouldn't make any sense."
And then she fell.
She fell with grace. She fell like an angel.
She screamed and flailed all the way down.
It took an hour of falling before she realized the blackness around her was starting to get further and further away.
When she turned to look up, twisting herself in the air, she noticed the hole above her wasn't there anymore.
"Kansas, noooooo!" she reached out into the blackness behind her falling form, "I don't wanna talk to a bunny who can talk back or run around on yellow-brick roads! I don't want my own Mad Hatter or red shoes!"
A moment of realizing struck Skyla in the form of a lightning bolt in the blackness, a passing thought gracing her mind as her body convulsed in electricity.
"I take it back!" She whirled around again as the trailing strands of her hair and scarf smoked, "If there's ice cream, I'm there!"
The blackness eventually folded away like waves dispersing before a robed man's stick, her eyes shining in blinking stars that burned to life all around her as she fell through the wormhole in time and space.
A new divide split far beneath her, a line of white light that quickly grew too blinding to even look at.
And before she knew it… it engulfed her and her entire surroundings as she fell leagues below the surface of her reality.
Space itself warped and bent, time itself clinging to her clothes with cold tingles against her pale skin as the empty air passed over her.
Nothing felt normal here.
And as the lids of her eyes flared and burned beneath the consuming white light, she felt wind for the first time.
Wind and natural air hit her as subtly as a nosediving airship, ripping into both her lungs and whipping coat as she took a deep inhale.
The blaring white went away from her closed eyes, sound coming back to her ears as she felt and heard a new atmosphere tugging at her body.
Skyla eventually opened her teary eyes, blinking away the bleariness as a sea of golden clouds swirled and fluttered far beneath her.
She couldn't help but gawk in awe at the sight, the sun filtering brightly against her joyous face far to her right in a magnificent sunrise.
Everything looked so beautiful from up here.
She couldn't remember the last time she was in the sky this high.
Ah, that reminded her. She needed to ask Xera for a ride at some point.
Blake's been silently asking for rides all the time from him, so it was only fair to share.
Wait, no, Blake was talking about a different ride.
She took that back! She didn't mean it!
She just wanted a thrill- no, wait! She just wanted to be taken to cloud nine- no, even worse!
"Kill me before I have more bad thoughts!" she whined into the chilled air of the upper atmospheres, gliding down through a split in the puffy clouds to see a spanning forest come into view far beneath her.
Her plea to the gods came in the answer of a Nevermore swooping in from the side, threatening to consume her in one fell strike.
She was ready to embrace it.
But as time slowed in front of her eyes and the bird's wings fanned out menacingly behind it, talons outstretched in an intimidating reach for her midsection, she watched as the gleam in its eyes died as quickly as a random bolt of lightning from Zeus above tore the creature in half.
"W-why?!" she wailed, falling ever faster toward the ground, "Smite me! Me! Not it!"
The tree canopy slapped her in the face when sure turned to face the ground again, leaves parting out of the way of her plummeting body to reveal the ground just beneath their branchy covering.
And just like an angel face-planting into the ground with the grace of a falling tractor trailer, Skyla face-planted into the ground with the grace of a falling tractor trailer.
"G-good… to see… y-you… too… g-ground…" Skyla muttered, her body splayed out painfully and flatly against the dirt as she muttered into a tree's root, "A-always there to… catch me…"
"S-skyla?!"
A familiar voice struck an even more familiar chord in Skyla's awareness as she shot up to attention, whirling around to face it, "Ciel?!"
"What are you doing here?! Wait! How did you get here?! This is my reality!" Ciel tackled Skyla to the ground, the two rolling through the nearest tree before stopping with a slide into the middle of a nearby grassy clearing.
The girl against the ground couldn't help but smile as her purple eyes shined brightly beneath the other girl's white hair, "I fell in a hole."
"You fell in a… what?" Ciel's gaze grew as confused as it was happy, only for realization to strike her with the force of a falling tree, "Gosh dangit! Dante's stalker must've sneezed again!"
Somewhere far away, a short girl in a white cloak sneezed at the mere mention of her name.
"Someone talking about me?" she wondered to herself, Dante still in her line of sight as she hid in the crowd.
She glanced up for a moment as the distant voice of someone else falling through a hole in space echoed out across the realities, then shrugged her shoulders and re-cloaked herself.
"It's probably nothing to worry about."
Semblance Encyclopedia 10
«»
"Llllllllllllllllladies and gentleman, boys and girls, welcome to the most amazing after-show special in the entire universe!" shouted Ciel as fireworks went off on the large digital display behind her.
"Our tenth showing of Semblance Encyclopedia. Can you believe it that we made it this far?" Leonard asked as he took his place next to Ciel.
"Well duh, of course we're still airing! Its totally because we're the best of the best out there when it comes to explaining things."
"Yes... Things..."
"Anyway, who's the lucky duck today that we'll be picking apart?"
"A familiar face in fact."
"Really? I mean, we don't know too many people, so..."
"Alright youngsters, make way."
"W-What?!" both twins shouted as they leapt backwards slightly away from the pooling mass of black and dark green Aura that formed on the floor.
From it, Raum, one of the four Dark Entity Kings, emerged upwards through the mass with his arms crossed, staring out into the audience until he was fully through.
"Oh great, it's you." Ciel said with a roll of her eyes.
"Silence you factoring hectopascals! I'm not letting you screw things up the way radians like you can potentially do!"
"What language is he speaking even?"
"He's taken the time to learn highly advanced mathematics recently." Leo answered.
"Oh... Right. Alright pi-face, why don't you give us and the rest of a students a lesson before class is dismissed today?"
"Gladly. Now-"
Before the Dark Entity spoke another word, his hood came down, and sat upon his shoulders was the cute and fluffy wolf Faunus Irene, hands triumphantly raised in the air as she made her trademark "hmph!" noise.
"You're going to visually demonstrate for me while I talk?" he asked as he got a rapid nod and affirmative "hmph!" noise twice, "Alright then. Do your best."
Ciel and Leo sat down in seats off to the side, eagerly watching as to how this would unfold.
"Maybe we should bring Irene back onto the show more often..." Ciel whispered, Leo nodding his head side to side as if he were in half agreement.
"It's simple to understand, so pay attention closely." Raum said as Irene glanced ahead, pointing her finger, "My Semblance is called Devil's Raise, and what it does is it fully counters an enemy's Magic, Dust, or Aura related attacks."
Irene made a hand motion where her right hand crashed into the palm of her left, remaining completely frozen until Raum's next part of the explanation.
"Devil's Raise isn't simply a defensive blocking mechanism. As I explained, it serves as a counter. Which means when I counter the attack with a defensive counter-attack of my own, I reflect the attack back at the opponent full blast."
The little wolf Faunus girl then spread put her hands making a "kapew!" noise, her tiny fingers wiggling around to emphasize the scale of the "explosion".
"That's not the only thing however. I can choose to send the attack 'back' at the enemy with the same amount of power it was used to attack me, but I can choose to double the power of the returned attack to make it even stronger. That's why the stronger the enemy, the better this Semblance works." he explained as Irene held up two fingers to visually represent the doubled attack power.
"It's clear now why brother had so much trouble fighting you in the past." Leo stated as he rose from his seat, "The majority of his strongest attacks were Aura based after all... If I recall, there is a weakness to your Semblance to some degree."
"Yeah... If I can't see the attack at all, be it because the attack is out of my field of view or that it was moving too damn fast to track, then Devil's Raise won't work." said Raum as Irene made an x-formation with her tiny arms and shook her head slowly with a soft hum.
"Alrighty, thanks for being here I guess! And explaining your Semblance with your adorable assistant who you should keep bringing along!"
"That's if there's more to add in the future."
"You could just drop her off with us."
"Leave her by herself with you two? Not a chance." Raum said, quickly denying Ciel.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"
Letting Ciel and Raum have their arguement, Leonard stepped in front of them and said "That's all for this week everyone. Stop by next time for Weapons Illustrated."
"Later peeps!" Ciel managed to muffle out as she was having the sides of her cheeks stretched out by the Dark Entity.
Anyway, that's all for this week folks.
So with that...
I highly recommend you all go check out the freaking amazing story XSRA's Flame written by Xera Stark. His story overall is absolutely fantastic and is a must read, so I suggest you seriously read it. You won't want to miss out on this story.
Not only that, but check out his other awesome and highly entertaining story Rogue Huntsmen as I mentioned above. It's just pure awesomeness bundled into one story. Trust me, you'll love it pretty much immediately. And hey! Go check out HydraFLow's story Lost in Binary! It's equally as awesome and entertaining, and more than definitely worth spending the time reading and enjoying!
Questions? Ask them anytime. I will try to answer without spoiling.
Please remember to review, follow and favorite this story if you really enjoyed it and want to continue seeing more of it. And hey, even tell others about this story! Remember that your support is what helps make this story grow even larger and what helps improve it. With that, I bid you all an excellent week/weekend!
Bye-bye now!