For the time being Leon returned to the school, and to the waiting concerns of his new classmates. Honestly? It was kind of refreshing. It was one thing to come home to Angelica and Olivia and their concerned gazes but it was another to receive the same concern from what amounts to total strangers. As it stood.
"I appreciate your concerns. I really do. But they are unnecessary." Leon spoke with the dispassionate tone of someone who has had to say this way too many times today. "The lost of my ship is regrettable yes, but I have filed the appropriate claims with Alzer's government to have it given back to me."
"I don't know if you know this or not Leon but Alzer isn't good at the whole 'giving back' thing." Noelle stared ahead with a dead pan glare as Leon casually dismissed every nightmare that she ever had.
"Then I will have the excuse I need to settle this my way." Leon shrugged again as if it was normal. "You saw Pierre on my first day here, do you think that he has the ability to keep my ship from me when I have the mind to take it back?" Leon snorted dismissively as he returned to getting ready for his school work.
The fact of the matter was that Noelle did see Pierre on his first day at school, as she also saw him the night before as well, in the middle of his usual routine of getting plastered out of his mind and wreaking havoc. And yet contrary to Noelle's expectations, the man she left to die because she couldn't oppose Pierre not only walked away the victor but traumatised the ass hole so badly that he couldn't even Look at Leon without running away in terror.
"Can you teach me?" Noelle looked at Leon with a desperate look in her eyes, of someone who was at the end of her rope and desperate for the slightest life line someone could throw to her.
"A question if I may." Leon asked looking at Noelle suspiciously. "Would this have anything to do with why you're wearing a long sleeve shirt in the middle of the biggest heat wave in Alzer?"
Noelle was taken aback by Leon's statement. Instead however she undid the cuffs of her blazer and pulled up her sleeves. Her arms were lined with bruises, and not only that but they were a long continuous line, as if someone had wrapped her arms in a long rope, or vines and roots. Based on the yellowing Leon would place it as old as two weeks.
"Not pretty is it?" Noelle asked shame clear on her face. "Imagine signing up for the exchange student program, and then being denied citing poor academic performance when you're in the top 80% of the school's grade point average!? Not only is he after me, but he's also hard at work to keep me from leaving the country as well!" Leon could see why Noelle was desperate.
"Meet me after school." Leon stated as he let out a sigh.
Hebi no Yosei: A pair of razor sharp farming implements turned deadly weapons.
A farming sickles with a chain attached to each lined with the sharp bones of a vicious snake, the Hebi no Yosei, or 'Snake Fairy' contains the essence of a woman overtaken by a vicious demonic parasite.
The Chain possesses the power to control plant life, making existing plants obey the whims of the wielder or forcing them to grow at an accelerated rate.
The blade is deadly sharp and hollow, filled with a deadly poison that breaks down the opponents bones and forces them to heal into deadly shards to pierce their internal organs, the chains on the other hand acts on the whims of the wielder either playing the role of a deadly grapple or dramatically extending the range of the weapon the Hebi no Yosei is a deadly tool whether it's attacking, incapacitating or escaping.
Excerpt from Rodin's Weapon's Catalogue
Leon found himself legitimately wondering if someone was screwing with him. Here was some random ass girl that he had agreed to help on a whim all the way in Alzer, and she turned out to have the same super rare affinity that made her perfect for one of the two weapons that Rodin had just given him. The Hebi no Yosei was a pair of weapons, Kusarigami to be precise, though Leon was quite certain that they weren't supposed to be wielded this way, what with being two handed weapons after all. Noelle had the chains wrapped around her arms, swinging her blades as she hacked apart a post Leon had retrieved from a construction site, using the chain mounted weapons to pull a target to herself and then tear it apart.
"That was fun!" Noelle stared as she breathed heavily.
For Leon however the Mystery of Noelle and Louise had only deepened. Alzer was quite well known for its 'Sacred Tree Magic' which revolved around the manipulation of its titular overgrown houseplant. Now Leon was learning that Noelle had a affinity for this rare magic, which either means that she's some bastardised daughter of one of the Great Houses, or this 'Loic' Schmuck has a much better reason to be after Noelle than mere lust. That didn't even mention that Angie and Livia got the idea put into their heads by those wretched games that they were on the cusp of some kind of localised apocalypse in Alzer.
"The weapon knows how to wield itself better than you do, so letting it do the fighting isn't a bad idea." Leon grabbed the weapon as it was about to go into his neck from Noelle swinging the thing around. "That said be cautious. That thing needs a new body to get back to full strength, she will happily take yours." As Leon finished explaining he walked away.
"Thank you!" Noelle shouted across the Courtyard as Leon walked away.
The weapon made from the bits taken from Yumeria's body wasn't the only thing that Leon brought to Alzer with him, he had also taken Yumeria himself with him, standing on prosthetic legs as she waited next to the rented limousine.
"Good afternoon master!" Yumeria bowed awkwardly as she opened the door for Leon to enter. "If you don't mind me asking is it wise to just give that away like that?"
"If you're missing your old room mate I can always reunite you two." Yumeria's eyes went wide in horror as she rapidly shook her head back and fourth.
"Stop teasing Mom would you?" Kyle had been in the Driver's seat, which was both alarming and impressive considering his size. "Where are we going? Are you off to terrorise that Pierre guy again?"
"No we're going to see a far more difficult individual. We're off to the Umbran base of operations." Leon explained as he let out a sigh and took out a disk case from his coat pocket. Kyle was a surprisingly smooth driver, but then he knew that from this morning, and the very least he was better than Yumeria who crashed Luxion's simulator.
"The same mansion that we left this morning right?" Kyle stated more than asked, he was already on the way there after all.
After a short drive the two elves and Warlock arrived at the mansion in question, and to Celine who was watching something on a TV set up in the Court Yard. On closer inspection it was a woman on stage who had turned a box around as she walked by it and opened it to reveal a woman in a Play boy Bunny uniform.
"You're getting sloppy Celine." The woman said to herself as she sipped at her wine.
"Based on that angle I don't think the audience would've even noticed." Leon stated as he walked in on his Aunt's private review of her own performance.
"We need to talk." Celine reached over and turned a knob on the TV turning it off. "It's hard to tell who is going to cause more trouble right now, you or your ship. To speak nothing about how flustered you have Louise right now."
"Most people would just lump the two of us together." Leon prepared to take a piece offering out of his pocket however Celine interrupted him.
"Compared to that blasted castle you are rather cute." Celine stated in a tone of voice that indicated she was suppressing her anger.
"Well, I would hope so. Anyone would be cute compared to Bernhard." Leon took out the disk case in his pocket and handed it to his aunt. "...this will be a good lesson for you." Celine appeared to have given up on trying to get her point across.
"You are too reliant on your Mother's bloodline, getting bit by one of your dogs will teach you an important lesson." Celine only now accepted the disk case. "Now what's this about?"
"It's one of Aunt Chiyo's old prophecies." Leon stated shrugging his shoulders. "Apparently it concerns the fate of Alzer."
"A two bit romance novel written by a talentless hack." Celine put the disk back on the table. "Any remotely useful information she whimsically decided to include is close to a thousand years worth of the butterfly effect screwing it up."
"Yes. This we agree but it makes my Fiances feel better." Leon stated shrugging his shoulders. "Last question. Why are you getting Louise to bully Noelle Beltre?" Leon asked as he glared suspiciously at Celine.
"...how much do you already know?" Celine let out a sigh at this. She had no intention of lying but Leon being able to suss out large portions of the details did make things convenient.
"Louise has taken a sacred oath involving Noelle, who is also getting harassed by at least one other nobleman and with and with a great deal more violence, Noelle also possessing a affinity with the plant based magic that's supposed to be exclusive to this countries nobility. Noelle is thus most likely the bastard child of one or more great noble families. I also believe that someone is taking direct effort to make sure that she never leaves the country. How am I doing?" Leon asked looking at his aunt suspiciously.
"You have most everything right, and there are points that we will circle around to later." Celine looked surprised by the contents of some of Leon's statements. "Noelle is in fact the eldest daughter of House Lespinasse, and thus heir."
"My Alzeran politics is quite shoddy but..."
"Yes. The Lespinasse household are 'the family of the Sacred Tree's Priestess' they're also the family that my husband Albergue exterminated a decade ago, aside from the young twin daughters that is." Celine explained letting out a sigh.
"Why?" Leon made his confusion known. "Because it came to Albergue's attention that the Sacred Tree disowned them, and aware of the fact that there's only a limited number of reasons why it would do that he invaded their territory and learned the reasons behind it." Celine took something out of the void of space, a file that she started perusing. "They were experimenting on the tree itself and hacking off pieces of it to make a variety of instruments that they were planning on using in a bid for world domination, including this." Celine held up a picture of an item that looked suspiciously like a dog collar with chain, except both the collar itself and the chain were made out of wood. "If you attach the collar to a person, it fuses into their body, the same for the handle that you wrap around your wrist. You can attach this to anyone that you fancy, draw them to your side no matter how far away they are, or even suck the life out of them just like the Sacred Tree." What a nasty sounding collar. "If you mass produced enough of these you could secretly attach them to people of importance from all over the world you could take them hostage no matter how far away from them you are." A remote control kill switch, it seems that Alzer's boundless innovation had taken them into a bad direction in this case. "Needless to say, this plan required a very specific material to be used up."
"The Sacred Tree." Leon concluded following Celine's leading. "At the most conservative elements I wouldn't be happy with someone hacking off my toes to make trinkets like this. That is the most conservative estimate." Leon shuddered to imagine how far they planned to take this scheme of theirs. An army of collared mages fuelled directly by the Sacred Tree? Alzer itself turned into the most massive warship to exist? The possibilities were endless and insane.
"I'm so glad you agree with me." Celine stated bluntly. "Then the fact that Noelle is running around free, or rather as free as someone who can't leave Alzer can get?"
"As if we were going to punish children for their parents' stupidity. What kind of monster do you think I am?" Celine scoffed as she turned much more serious. "As for this other individual that has been pursuing young Noelle." The Witch shrugged her shoulders, clueless as to what was going on.
"Then you aren't inconvenienced by Miss Noelle leaving Alzer? Excellent! Then I'll arrange for her transport to safety as soon as I have my ship back." Leon stated as he shrugged his shoulders.
"The loss of a spare is a minor inconvenience at most, and if it keeps someone from wasting precious resources by staging a coup against us, a boon." Celine rested her chin on her hands as she glared. "Your ship on the other hand is either going to be a boon or a problem. What exactly did you tell it to do?"
"Torture Pierre Io Fieval until he is begging for death, then ensure the he dies slowly. Bernhard told me the total process would take four days to complete." Leon stated, already the memory had put him back into a bad mood.
"Nothing else? No instructions on what form this torture is to take or how the body is to be disposed of afterwards?" Leon shook his head in the negative.
"Leave." And Leon did exactly that, and once he was out of sight Celine wrung a bell a handsome black haired cat man butler appeared, or at the very least someone who looked a great deal like one. "No Fieval ship is to enter our borders for the time being. Advise Albergue to give the same advice to any of the Great Noble Houses that we're actually on good terms with, shoot it down, especially if it's his." Let no crisis go to waste as the saying goes.
At the time of the Umbran Clan's destruction, Walter Bernhard was one of the most powerful Warlocks alive. He and his family have accumulated vast knowledge of the dark arts related to the demonic, the undead or simply the damned whether as a result of extensive research and boots on the ground effort or as a result of their own experiments.
Since Walter Bernhard's death the castle has continuously accumulated knowledge on the dark arts from those who come to live in and visit the castle and through innovative research blending multiple styles together from across the continent and even from across seas at times.
Thus Castle Bernard is a bastion of dark magical research, the potential list of horrors that could be birthed inside of it is vast and infinite.
Excerpt on the History of Dark Magic
In the evening of the fourth day, Bernhard acted. The massive warship flew over Alzer itself, making a Beeline for Fievel territory, then as it approached the border to their territory...
"Hahaha!" A sick laughter sounded out like a donkey with a throat infection, broadcast across the entire territory. "Did you enjoy looking down on me so much you shitty geezer and shitty brother of mine!?" Pierre sounded quite good for someone who should be begging for death by now Leon noted in the courtyard where he was teaching Noelle to make use of the Hebi no Yosei. "I'm the heir of the family now!" And then the ship opened fire, spewing demonic flame into its surroundings and destroying various ships as part of the Fievel families personal army.
"Isn't that your ship?" Noelle asked noting the appearance of the familiar warship. "So it is." Well it seems that whatever plan Bernhard had enacted is coming to a head today. "I fear we will have to cut today's training short." Leon stated as he walked away.
"If this means that you're getting that ship back under control I'll take it." Leon thus walked out onto the side walk.
"Do me a favour, when Yumeria and Kyle show up for me tell them I already left for the mansion." And so Leon dug deep.
When Leon was confronted by the possibility of someone stealing Angelica and Olivia out from under him a seed of power was born inside of his chest, a seed of Joy and Jealousy. A normal member of the clan would at this stage train to assume a variety of useful transformations, birds, beasts, swarms anything that can help them in the weak areas of their fighting styles. Leon on the other hand got mauled by a pack of werewolves.
"Grr...!" Leon soon broke out into a sprint quickly transitioning from a bipedal humanoid into a four legged wolf with a crescent shaped blade going through his back. "I'm faster in this form than my normal human form, and unlike Devil Trigger it doesn't use up any mana or demonic energy. It's convenient for moving around." Leon stopped running at a Red Light at which point in time he turned back to human. "But I turn back to normal when I stop running? Am I associating being a wolf with going fast? What about attacking?" As Leon was thinking about that he saw an opportunity, a purse snatcher who was now running down the street towards him. "Don't mind if I do!" The Purse snatcher looked pretty confused when he saw a person down the street from him suddenly turn into a wolf that started running at him at full speed, the animal in question pouncing on him claws first and sending them both skidding across the ground allowing the woman to reclaim her belongings while Leon continued his run. "I've got a good idea of how strong I am in this form too. In comparison to just using a Devil Arm my offensive power is garbage. Are normal werewolves like this? I should avoid biting anyone just in case."
Leon ran up to the Umbran's mansion, the guards were surprised to see an overgrown demon wolf running up to the front gates, but it seems that Leon was expected. From the mansion Leon had been loaded onto a limousine and delivered to the parliament in former Lespinasse territory. While on the road Leon saw the battle happening in the sky, Bernhard was spewing fire dropping Fievel house ships one after another to the sound track of Pierre's laughter, the magic crest painted on the side of the ship had a mass of vines and roots growing out of it attacking the ship they had been attached to, to no visible effect.
"Poor bastards are just feeding Bernhard materials." Leon just shook his head at the military strategy of Alzer, or rather the lack there off. Leon would have to carefully make sure that he disposes of all of the Sacred Tree Materials inside of Castle Bernard when this is over. For it was time for his trial as it were, no doubt the people inside would be demanding that he retakes control over his ship for them.
Leon was escorted to a room where a middle aged man he only barely recognised was seated, Albergue Sera Rault.
Contrary to Leon's expectations he didn't get any angry shouts nor was he snapped at to get his ship back under control, his aunt's husband simply stared at him.
"Hm. You really do look like him." Albergue commented as he returned to his surveillance of the rogue war ship.
"You're talking about Leo aren't you?" Leon didn't mind admitting that he felt vaguely insulted, considering how sickly Leo was supposed to be but that was it, Leon know that Leo's parents were more worried about him than anyone else.
"Forgive me for my wishful thinking." Albergue stated without preamble. "For a moment I thought you were Leo." It was sad, when someone wishes for something so hard they mistake their dreams for reality.
"I'd love to have a nice dinner some time with you, Louise and Auntie Celine. But for now I have a unruly demon I need to corral." Leon stated as he indicated the sky where his ship was on a rampage.
"I see the wisdom in Celine's desire to have the creature put on a leash." Another ship was destroyed, accompanied by Pierre's voice proclaiming his colourful intentions for his parents' and siblings' entrails. "It's a bad actor though. Pierre isn't smart enough to know what a great many of those terms mean. Regardless it's quite convenient for me that it's eliminating so many of the Fievel household forces."
"I had forgotten about that." Leon recalled the chat with Louise. "The fact that the other families step in to protect these weasels means that their behaviour is quite common across the board."
"The Fievel's are the worst offenders, the others are more... pragmatic with their decision making processes." Albergue stated as he looked up in the air.
"If the Great Noble families were always horrible all the time for no good reason then nobody would live here. Take your Archaeology professor Narcisse Calce Granze for instance." Leon did remember his messy professor he seemed nice but that wasn't the point.
"Sacred Tree." The threat of the tree reaching up and grabbing people to suck the life out of them seemed like a good incentive to stay.
"There is a limit to the sacred Tree's generosity." Is that what they call it nowadays? "There are historical records of individuals who have drawn on too much of the Sacred Tree's power being suddenly cut off." Oh sure in theory the amount of mana that you can draw upon from the sacred tree is limitless, but Mana is the Sacred Tree's life blood. And like any individual if the sacred tree notices some mosquito drawing upon this blood then the natural response is to swat it, the secret here in this case is that the Mosquito's usually gives more blood than it drains. "Usually the threat of it is enough to keep people in line." Albergue stated as he shrugged his shoulders leaning back into his chair as he did a 'Evil Genius Finger Tap.'
"You're scheming something." Leon glared with suspicion.
"So I am. A number of the Fievel's relatives have lost the power struggle for control over their household and instead married into the branches of other families, my own included. If Celine is correct about that ship's offensive power then it will finish with the Fievel's ships soon." Albergue chuckled darkly at that thought. "Then the other houses will send their own forces out to try and claim the ship and seize control over Fievel territory in the process, and still fail."
"Then it will be your turn to take a shot at it with your own Fievel branch family." Leon could see where this was going, Angelica's lectures were sinking in.
"You will be on board, using your knowledge of the ship's capabilities to subdue it in exchange for retaking your wrongfully seized property." Albergue finished Leon's train of thought for him.
"They won't try to take it?" Leon asked suspiciously. "They're in the process of trying to take it." Another explosion, another sound of a ship being blown out of the sky. "As you can see they are not succeeding." Albergue smirked confidently that his plan was working. If Leon didn't know better he would say that Albergue was less of a person and more of a parody of an evil scheming nobleman made up for some child's story book. Then on cue said story book was brought up.
"On an unrelated note, I have to say I do not find your aunt Chiyo's depiction of me very flattering." Albergue moved on to the complaints of the day.
"You'd be surprised how many people have said that." Angelica was driven insane, Olivia was possessed, the Five Fools were... pretty accurate but they didn't bring that up with them. "Indeed." Albergue stated as if he was expecting that answer. "How did it go in Holfort?"
Leon could make an educated guess as to what the Prime Minister was talking about. By now he should've already been made aware of the situation between Fanoss and Holfort, but considering what he was just talking about...
"I have had as little to do with the game as possible. I know someone, a reincarnated, who followed the events of the game almost to the letter, she's in Alzer right now if you want to talk to her." Albergue indicated for Leon to continue. "The five romancible characters are head over heels for her, including Holfort's crown prince and the other of the five founding heirs. As a result Holfort's political climate was thrown into chaos and left us weakened for invasion. Considering the fact that they have my mothers playing guard for them right now they should be safe for the time being." Leon explained simply.
"And if this reincarnated allowed the 'Protagonist' to proceed with her 'destiny?'" Albergue asked as a pure hypothetical.
"Then she would be possessed by a sociopath who would use her new found love interests to grind Holfort and Fanoss together until only one was left, and then she'd use her power over the mind to have the survivors rip themselves apart."
"Then we'll proceed as we originally planned, using the information to predict threats to ourselves and eliminate them." Albergue explained as he watched the other houses deploy their ships. "If the way that thing has torn through the ships so far is any indication then those ships aren't going to get very far."
"Then it's time to let the fun begin." Leon stated with a smirk on his features.
As the ships approached the sides of the ship opened. From there unfamiliar armours emerged, jet black with one arm larger than the other. It looked like a Armour at first but flesh could be seen between the gaps, this was a actual giant dressed as a Armour, floating out on jets of flame as they carried tower shields and mechanical lances. Gargoyles flew out and around the ship, their brazier jaws stoked with flesh masses of chaotic flame. There would normally be more than this but there was a limit to Bernhard's abilities during the day, and besides you don't send nukes to crush ants.
"HAHAHA! Are you shits ready to go to hell now!?" A larger Armour, its body decorated with obviously evil spikes in various places, Pierre's voice had changed from being broadcast from the ship to being broadcast from the armour. "Imma gonna feed you all to my tree when I'm done with you!"
So 'Pierre's' ambition grew with the pile of rubble below him, after all in Alzer might makes right, and right now the most powerful individual since the currently-unoccupied-guardian was the commander of that ship. The Gargoyles were spewing chunks of explosive stone chunks onto the decks, ripping through them as they went and shattering them out of the sky and landing on the buildings below.
"That's enough you lousy thief!" The Rault's flagship appeared, with Leon standing on the bow, arms crossed and his hair weaved into a long coat that he was wearing as a cape. "Get out of my armour, clean your weeds off my ship, and never appear before me again!" Leon suspected that Pierre was quite dead by now. As soon as they were done posturing he'd have to destroy that armour, as long as he was in no actual danger he might as well take the opportunity to try a few things out.
"If it isn't the loser who got his toy taken away!" Pierre's voice was accompanied by a one finger salute. "Alright the hard way it is." Saying that Leon whipped out the Other Devil Arm that he had received from Rodin, a round tube with two prongs on the side and a lanyard tied around his wrist. With a flick of his wrist a blade of black light emerged from the tube, with two thumb sized blades appearing from the prongs to form a guard.
Bloody Moon: An enigmatic weapon crafted by the Umbra Witches, this weapon is the pinnacle of their moon-driven technology and can emit various coloured blades depending on the demon held within.
Here we see what remains of A master Swordsman and his blade made from metals of the Realm of Shadows. The blade imparts a fraction of the legendary skill of it's prisoner onto its wielder, each strike contains the power of Shadow, devouring heat and light making the blade difficult to see while freezing the surrounding flesh, in the meantime the heat and light is converted into kinetic energy to increase the speed and striking power of the wielder.
Excerpt from Rodin's Weapon's Catalogue
Review Section:
RonaldM40196867: Can't argue with that. Bat and hound, just cause I think it would be cool for the dog to fly.
RedRat8: I have a few ideas.
Dakota Bruder: Good to hear from you again. 1. No I made it up, I will say that it would've made much better lore for the Challenges in Bayonetta 3 instead of Tir An Nog for the Homonculi. Pierre should've been concerned.
LaUgHiNgmaN: Angie, Livia and Leon need friends that they're not sleeping with. Pierre's suffering is immense, I assure you. Jeanne and Cereza adopt some Animal habits when they're shape shifting, helps sell the act, but it's not something they do by default. Something closer to Yu Gi Oh or Chaotic.