Awkward.
That's the single most fitting word that can be used to describe the tension between me and IF as we travelled in the city, side by side, unwilling to even try and talk with each others.
To be fair, I'm pretty sure some of it is my fault. I wouldn't want to walk with someone who tried to kill you twice, so I can't fault her for giving me the cold shoulder- hell, I'm not even trying to talk to her either! Though, for me it's because I don't want to buddy up with ASIC goons.
Or are they? I mean, I didn't entertain the idea before, but it's possible that Linda was wrong about them. What if her organisation was wrong, or-
"Hey, you seem kinda lost in thoughts, youngun. Pray tell, has anyone told you about the tale of the cursed sword that fell the Deity of Sins?"
Startled, I turned back to look at an old woman, who was barely managing to stay on her feet. At my side, IF let out a huff.
"Again with this nonsense? If such a sword existed, I'm pretty sure Histoire would have heard about it, and yet she told us that no records existed of it."
The old lady laughed. "My dear, it is a tale as old as the Sin itself. Those who knows about it agree that it is the only way to defeat the Deity of Sins; hidden in the depth of..." she stopped, interrupted by my (rather undignified) snort of derision.
"A sword that can tear through someone that's called 'divine' and destroy it as easily as it could cut butter- you've got more stories like that? Is there a gun that can pierce the Heavens, hidden in the depth of a mountain in a hidden continent, far in the West? Maybe a hammer that can break down galaxies in the depth of our own planet?"
The Old lady merely laughed, and started to leave, before stopping and turning back to us. "The future holds what the future hold, dearies. Keep the legends in mind, for they could make the difference between your victory or our doom."
As the old lady was disappearing in the distance, I turned back to IF, before finally initiating our first conversation since we left the Basilicom.
"As soon as I have to team up with you people, I attract all the crazies in town."
IF smirks. "Would you believe me if I told you this wasn't the first person talking about some cursed sword?"
With the ice finally broken, we started talking of pretty much anything and everything, while dodging some heavy subjects.
It took me until we finally neared the shop that I realised- I just wanted to hate them, but it was proving to be rather hard. IF, while quite sarcastic, proved to be really devoted to her friends, and whenever she talked about the nurse (Compa, if I remember correctly), Nepgear, or a "Neptune", her eyes would light up a bit.
That made her surprisingly human, and... I didn't want that. She is my enemy, they all are, and it would be easier to fight them if I just knew them as "those fuckers that want to destroy the world I guess". Still, here we were.
We went our separate ways in the shop, as she started browsing the weapon section and I went into the utilities. I was piling up healing pods and a few eject buttons; after my close-call in the N Lab, I realised they were a must-have, because I always end up in shitty situations that I escape by pure, dumb luck.
That's when I laid my eyes on several bottles, filled with what looked like energy juices, that I didn't recognise. Hero Drinks, Nep Bulls, the like.
I looked at them for several seconds, trying to understand what these were doing in a shop that catered to adventurers, before I noticed IF coming towards me, her arms loaded with several weapons. A beam sword, two claws, a toy set, and a giant syringe.
"They look kinda expensive, you're sure you've got enough money for them?" I asked, and she raised an eyebrow.
"I mean, yes they're expensive, but Guild members get a huge discount on weapons and items according to their Guild levels, so it's still reasonably within our budget."
She looked at me, and I must have made quite the face, because she was soon snickering. "Don't tell me you forgot about this?"
I sighed. "Nobody ever told me that we had a discount. I've been spending everything I have on those," I raised the healing pods that were still in my hands, "barely making do with the money I was making."
"Wait, nobody ever told you about it? But it's the main benefit of raising your guild rank! It's the number one selling point for recruiting new Guild Members! You can't just- not have known about that!"
She sounded aghast, as if she were outraged on my behalf.
And now it's getting harder and harder to see her as pure evil.
"Anyway, I wanted to ask- what're those energy drinks doing here? They seem kind of out of place."
She took a look at them, before grabbing one- a "SP Charger"?- and giving it to me. "They just ease the magic flow in your body, and that allows you to squeeze a few more skills and attacks before you reach the critical point. Some of those also have regenerative properties, but they're much more expensive, so I'd tell you to stick with those ones for now."
I looked at them, before shrugging and grabbing ten of them. IF looked like she wanted to say something, but stopped herself.
My Guild rank gives me a 33% cut on anything I buy. I've been wasting so much cash because I'm unable to listen to basic explaination, that I want to go back in time with the sole purpose of punching my younger self.
Still, with everything done, it was time to meet up with the others, at the western entrance. And, as I should have guessed, we were the first ones here.
Stuck in uncomfortable silence, IF and I just stood there, awkwardly, waiting for the others to finally arrive.
After a while, bored with this silence, I decided to engage her in a conversation. "Soooo, what are you doing in Lowee anyway?"
"At first, we were supposed to find the Mascot and asks for its help. But Lady Mina said we can't actually do that, so... I guess we can say we're waiting it out?" she answered, fidgeting on the spot.
This Mascot thing again. What the hell is this supposed to really be? Linda did say they were things used by ASIC, but-
"What about you?" IF asked, cutting my inner monologue.
I weighted the pros and cons of telling her anything, before shrugging. "I'm here on a mission, probably because I'm not worth much to my... Employer, I guess you could say? Got ripped off and everything, I'm basically working for nothing. It's fun."
IF was aghast, but before she could say anything, I pointed at the people coming towards us. "Look, they're finally here. We can finally go on our scheduled mission now!"
IF whispered "we'll talk about this later", to which I snorted. Because no matter how much you all look like good guys...
Urg. I feel like I'm making so many mistakes here.
Our journey to the N Labo didn't take that long, now that I knew where we needed to go. Instead of the several hours it took us a week ago, we stood in front of the entrance after thirty minutes of walking.
The travel from the city to here was... Okay, I guess. No one talked or anything, we were just awkwardly walking together, trying our best not to look at each others.
The place looked as clean as the last time, except...
"Hey, I almost forgot the twins went crazy on this whole place. I'd say, it kinda looks better now."
"Really? That's your definition of "looks better"? This place is a mess!" RED. screamed, to which I shrugged.
"Yes, but a mess is better than a messier mess, ain't it?" I replied, and RED. just huffed before entering the burning N labo. The burning lab. Whatever its name is now.
"So, what's your goal here anyway?" I asked, trying to cut some of the obvious tension between us. RED. gave me a dirty look, but before she could say anything, Nepgear answered, "we are trying to do some quests, to get our shares up. We also wanted to look for clues about the location of Lowee's mascot. What about you?"
"I-" suddenly, a deranged laugh cut off my answer, coming from further inside the lab. We looked at each others for a short second, before running in direction of the voice.
It led us to a place I recognised very well. A circle of flames in the middle of a big room, with traces of explosions everywhere. A familiar handle was sitting near the flames, and in front of it...
"Spurlius!" I snarled. "What the hell are you made of, plot armour?"
He froze, and then turned back to look at us, a nasty scowl on his face. "Su. Lei. Mu. My name, is FUCKING SULEIMU! WHAT SHALL I DO FOR PEOPLE TO REMEMBER IT?!"
I noticed he was holding several papers in his hands. He may be a goon, but they might be important- it could be his orders, or a plan or something. "What are you doing here, Seitumour? Here to watch the place where your brother lost the labo because he couldn't fight a dumbass and two kids?"
"He is still leagues ahead of you, chump," he chuckled, before raising his right hand high in the air. I tensed and got ready to dodge, but he wasn't done speaking; "and because of his brilliance, we now have a general location for the mascot! You may be fast, and strong, but there's hundreds of us in the World Labyrinth already, and now we're ready to build a... Mascot finder..." he paused, and then paled.
At my side, I could see IF facepalming, while RED. just repeated "he can't be that dumb." over and over.
I laughed, turning his attention to me. "Thanks for the tip, pal. I'll be sure to tell your boss who gave them away when I beat him up."
"NO!" He screamed, before grabbing a black eject button. "WHY? You haven't left me to monologue last time, and the time before! You were supposed to stop me before I revealed everything!"
I gave a deadpan look at him. "You're my enemy, and you were telling us useful things. Why should I have stopped you?"
"Sh-SHUT UP!" he screamed, before activating the button, and teleporting out of the dungeon. The girls were having their own conversation behind me, so I decided to leave them to their own devices, and got closer to the handle, on the ground.
I grabbed it, and raised it higher, to look at it fully. To my surprise, the handle was warm to the touch, and the tip was actually still on fire. And it didn't seem to stop.
Did I just get my first weapon upgrade? Barely any time after getting a magic weapon? What is this world, some kind of cliché RPG?
"... don't you agree Gyone?" I heard, behind me. Getting up, I tightened my grip on my lance, and answered "I don't know, I wasn't listening. What are you talking about?"
RED. stomped the floor, but before she could say anything (again), Nepgear stole her fire. "We are going to the World Labyrinth! It's, um, I know it wasn't in your plans but..." she trailed off, looking unsure.
On one hand, I could leave them. I told Mina I'd only go the lab and that I'd come back right after. On the other hand, if I come back alone, I'm dead.
"I value life quite a bit, so I'm gonna have to choose ASIC before Mina, I guess. Lead the way?" I tentatively said, before everyone started running out of the lab, and I reluctantly followed them.
It took us an hour of constant running (to which my lungs add: all of you can go die in a ditch), but we finally arrived! In front of a massive hole. In fact, the whole place was a hole, with some kind of tetris-like blocks serving as platforms.
"So, this is a rift, huh..." I whispered, before jumping on the first platform. To my surprise, it didn't move, and it didn't fall. I was soon followed by everyone else, and we started jumping from platforms to platforms, and for a short while that was all we were focused on.
I don't know what would happen if I fell down, but I don't want to know, which means I was cautious about my every moves. And it was a good thing I did, because I almost fell several times.
Still, we managed to land on a much, much larger platform. There were no monsters around us, for some strange reason. Almost like it was cleaned up not long before we arrived.
Which it actually was, because we had landed just in the middle of an ASIC patrol group. And to top it all off...
"Sprotum, you again?" I said, smirking, while my arch-nemesis gasped in outrage. Outrage which was quickly replaced by fear.
"How did you get here so fast? I barely managed to finish making the mascot finder!" he said, before gasping and putting a hand in front of his mouth. I could see the grunts around him facepalm, and the girls behind me facepalm, and there was a still not-dead monster (some kind of tetris cube thing, very cute) who was facepalming on the floor.
"That's sweet, you can give it to us then!" I exclaimed, before taking my gun out and shooting him. He let out a tiny "eep!" before using one of the grunts as a human shield. The grunt, sadly, did not survive. Well, he did, but he fainted, so same difference.
Throwing him away, Sporo started fleeing, running towards one of the end of the platform, and before anyone could say anything, I ran after him. I could hear the girls shouting "wait!" behind me, but I didn't. This man has been a pain for too long, and I refused to let him flee one last time.
In front of me, I could see him stumble, searching for something in his pockets with one hand while grabbing tightly the mascot finder in his other. He then yelled "Aha!", and slid a bit before facing to turn me, with a tablet in his hand. He drew something with a flourish, and suddenly, there were marbles raining down on me.
I tried to run towards him, but it was proving to be rather difficult with all the marbles everywhere. Still, I managed to cross the marbles field, and I could still spot him in the distance, running away. And so I continued to run after him, before he could disappear from my field of view. He seemed to be slowing down, actually- either he was tired, or he thought he had a bit more time than that.
I was closing in on him, but my footsteps must have alerted him, because he started running faster, still drawing something on this damnable tablet of his. Knives started appearing in the air, aimed at me, but there were barely a few of them. Must be because it's quite hard to draw while on the run. So I dodged his knives, and continued to get closer.
He jumped on a narrow corridor-like platform, with the only exit being behind and in front of us. He then stopped and turned back to look at me, which prompted me to do the same.
He sighed. "You won't let me go away, I take it? That is fine, really. After all, I tire of seeing you everywhere."
I gasped, before anger took over me. "Seeing me everywhere? You're kidding me, right? You're the one who's following me everywhere! In the middle of nowhere, I find you; there's a kidnapping attempt, it's you; hell, I go to my dungeon to take my lance back, and what the hell do I find? You again!" I spat on the ground, before grabbing my lance and pointing it threateningly at him. "But now, now we're through. I'll beat you up one last time, find this mascot thing, and throw you in jail or something."
He stared at me, a smile on his face, before he started laughing. He then started drawing something on his tablet, and two giant swords appeared to block the corridor-like platform we were on- there was no leaving this fight.
"You want the mascot? That's funny, because it's just behind us. And I may hate her, but the Failure is quite the capable fighter. Even if you were to defeat me..." he chuckled, pocketed the mascot finder, before raising his arms in the air. "There's no defeating the might of ASIC! Now, let us FIGHT!"
He draw on his tablet, summoning knives that were thrown at me, and I barely managed to dodge them by getting closer to the edge of the platform. Suleimu then drew something else, before grabbing a mace that appeared in front of him and running towards me. I thrusted my lance at him, and to my pleasant surprise, flames got shot from the tip in his direction; he managed to dodge, but not before getting burned a bit.
I jumped backward to dodge his attack, before grabbing my gun and shooting at his head. He dodged and tried again to hit me, this time by the sides, but a shot in direction of his arm forced him to abort the attack and jump back. I pressed him on, trying to poke him with my lance, but he managed to deflect the hit and drew something else on his tablet. Nothing appeared, so I ran towards him, and-
Pain.
I fell to my knees, before grabbing the back my arm. Or rather, the knife that was stuck inside it.
I grabbed it, and took it out, before getting up and attempting to grab my gun to shot at him, until he fainted if possible. But somehow, my arm was not moving-
My arm was not responding.
"Kehehe, do you see now? All your previous victories were flukes!" he gloated, before laughing openly, and quite loudly. He stopped giving attention to me, instead dispelling his swords-barriers, and he started leaving.
But I got up. I might not be able to use my right arm right now, but I refused to let him leave.
You might even refuse to let him... live~
It started with weak steps, which gradually became faster and faster, until I was running at him. He had been preparing his jump, so when he turned back to look at the noise, he wasn't ready to do anything. I raised my arm, I saw his eyes widen a bit, and-
I punched him on the face.
I don't know what happened right after that- the adrenaline wearing off made me lose interest in anything, but the next thing I remembered was that I was here, alone. And in front of me, literally at my feet, was the never-ending abyss.
I knew we could make a good player out of you. My, we're finally back at one~
"Shut up..."
I got up, and tried to look at the next platform. To my surprise, I could see the girls running towards me, before they slowed down and the platform they were on started shaking.
I jumped to the next platform, and started getting closer to them.
"Gyone!" Nepgear exclaimed, before grabbing my defect arm. "We need to leave now, ASIC has summoned a lot of powerful robots!"
"What?" I gasped. "But what about the mascot? We can't just let them-"
"Yeah, well it's gone, thanks to Underling. Thank you for helping us, by the way." grumbled RED. before she shot me a nasty glare.
I huffed. "Yeah, well if I had been faster and hadn't accidentally thrown that clown down..." I paused, an uneasy feeling in my stomach. But why? It was just Suleimu, he was clearly with ASIC, he's tried to kidnap Rom... Why do I feel bad for disposing of garbage like him?
I grabbed an eject button, before I continued, "doesn't matter. Seems like we failed in every ways that matters. What's that about giant robots?"
As I activated the eject button, Nepgear started explaining about those Killachines and what happened on their end.
Author's footnote
This one didn't want to come out either. I am really weak to introducing new characters, it seems. It was ready four days ago but I just felt like it was missing something, but I still can't find what so here it is.
Anyway, that's the end for Suleimu! I realised I was replacing Linda with a worse underling for a while, so I decided to drop this off. If it creates drama, all the better.
Review Time~
AzuMazu: I didn't expect to upload chapter 14 so quickly either. And don't worry, I like having a review for each chapters people read, even if they're old- makes me see what people liked and all that.
IsekaiFanBoi: Linda is still his first friend, so of course her claims would seem more credible to him than anyone else's. Also, don't worry about him being a two-bit failure of a villain for the entire fic. Even I would be bored of that after a while.
Ace-of-Weeb: At first, it was all because rule of cool, and I needed the Boss Events to make sense. And then it kinda spiralled out of control.
Suleimu is still an ASIC member, he's just been demoted so much that even grunts feel more important just by being in his mere presence.
I was still looking at the place where the broads and Gyone had been, just seconds before. I don't understand- he's the enemy, has been since day one. Sure, he was a good companion, but...
I can't help but be thankful for that dumbass Smerlum. He wasn't a great loss, and he managed to delay my confrontation with Gyone- truly the only suitable ending for him.
"You'll have to face him one day, chu. And it may be sooner than you'd like." Warechu said, at my sides.
I shrugged. "Bah, ain't nothing to worry about. I'm sure he'll have left before the Killachines are set on the city."
"What if he doesn't, chu? What if he's still at the Basilicom while we storm them?"
I closed my eyes, and sighed. "Then I'll have to break one of the only meaningful friendships I ever had, I guess."
"Small loss for ASIC", Warechu nodded, "but I see it's a big loss for you. I know it won't help you, chu, but for what it's worth, I'm sorry."