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Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 1

2013-05-08T12:40:44Z

68.102.51.171:

Chapter 1: The End of Royalty.

1000 years after the Apocalypse...

The peace after the apocalypse foretold in the book of revelations never happened. God works in many ways but apparently the promised world peace was not of his agenda from the very start. The world is drastically different after the apocalypse, the map of the land has completely changed.

The continents have been slightly broken apart and shifted closer towards each other, certain countries are now connected making travel much more simple. As a result many different surviving cultures have integrated. Due to the four horsemen the world is left with just one sixth of its original population. And one of God’s final judgments was to take away all belongings of the remaining humans as if to give them one final chance to start over. God’s army was victorious the decision was with heaven, and to mankind's benefit, heaven is forgiving.

And so the human race has now worked their way back to grandeur, although there are no cars, guns or planes, the cities and roads much more resemble the drawings of ancient Alexandria or the fabled Atlantis rather than the metropolis feeling of a New York or Tokyo. So while the human race is closer to its past intellectual level, they still are slightly behind.

There are three super powers of this new world called Aires. La’Juune of the west, Troy to the north, and Eiyalazo to the east. These three nations have been at an on and off war since their founding, thus bringing hate and animosity that will likely never fade.

Due to the power struggle of obtaining land in each other’s country, many of the people who were once occupied tell of terrible tragedies bestowed on them by the opposite countries.

However, the future is of the utmost importance now so through arranged marriages between the princes and princesses of the three countries, the royal families call a truce to generations of past wars and conflicts and become allies under the bravado of obtaining world peace.

A horse drawn carriage with 20 guards armed with swords shields and silver armor moves slowly on a marble road through a rich green forest.

“You should be happy Princess Trojia, this could really be the first step to world peace you know.” says a woman dressed in slight armor, for the most part is quite under dressed.

There are six women sitting in the extravagantly designed carriage. The one being spoken to is the beautiful fair skinned princess of Troy dressed in an expensive looking white dress.

With an irritated look on the young blonde haired green eyed girl’s face, she stiffly replies, "There’s no such thing as world peace Niomyo. This so called tri-alliance between La’Juune, Troy, and Eiyalazo is just a ploy to see who can gather the most territory from the south, only to declare war on each other once they have what they want. You should know how my mother and the other Kings think by now.”

The princess is only sixteen but is wise beyond her years because she has been raised around and taught by the best instructors and philosophers of her country. This has made her into more of an adult than a teenager.

”Now now, that can’t happen, you’ll have some kind of control over La’Juune in the future as the Princess and then-"

”You’re right, I’ll have to poison the King quickly so I can become the Queen and stop this mess.” Trojia swiftly interrupts her maiden bodyguard, her stern words accompanied by a smug smile.

With a shocked look on her face, the slightly tanned dark brown haired woman exclaims ”You can’t be serious!?”

”Of course I'm kidding, you idiot."

A loud sigh of relief spread through the inside of the carriage as all the five women hold their chests as to control the nervous beats of their hearts.

”But... I truly don’t want to get married, not like this, and especially not to that spoiled brat of a prince.” says Trojia with a frown and a strained smile.

Paying no mind to the concerned glares of the four nuns sitting across and next to her, Trojia blankly gazes out the window towards the greenery of the forest.

Something in the distance flashes and catches her eye when she says, ”Hey Niomyo, I remember overhearing our archbishop saying that almost half of La’Juune’s population is against these marriages just like Troy… You don’t think that there will be any retaliation from radicals on our brigade right?”

“Of course not, we’ll be meeting with the commander of their army in a few miles for added protection.. Besides, I’ll be here to protect you!”

As soon as Niomyo finished talking

BOOOOOOOOOOMM!!!!

A loud explosion rips through the right side of the carriage, two of the four nuns seemingly disappear in smoke and flame. As the carriage suddenly halts; on the side of the carriage where she is seated, Trojia looks back out the window in shock and sees what the flashing was that caught her eye earlier.

A man clad in camouflage apparel and with a painted face is pointing an arrow with a bow directly at the window of the carriage, directly at the face of the young princess.

One of the nuns sitting next to Trojia shouts, “Get down!!!” as she pushes Trojia to the floor.

The green eyes of the teenager are still frozen as she looks up at the face of the one pushing her down, she sees the woman probably in her mid twenties show a strained smile as a large arrow explodes through the temples of her head.

Blood sprays all throughout the cabin stains the expensive looking white dress of the princess, and on to the unconscious faces of the last surviving nun and the maiden bodyguard Niomyo.

Seeing someone die for the first time, the sheltered princess faints, only to wake up bounded and gagged by a surrounding group of fifteen men.

One man notices the frightened glares of the princess and proceeds to remove the gag cloth from her mouth.

Trojia looks around her only to see the dead bodies of all the armed guards protecting her carriage just moments earlier, she then nervously asks, ”An ambush? Why? Who are you people!?”

A man approaches dressed in armor with a fur coat; with this outfit it seems like he is the one in charge. With a contempt smile he answers, ”We are simply humble farmers just trying to get by little girl. Hmm, I had a daughter once, she was around your age when the armies of Troy invaded and burned down my village. She’d be damn near 30 now if she wasn’t murdered by your army.”

”Where is my bodyguard and the nuns who were with me in the carriage?” Trojia demands, ignoring the story of the man.

Angered by the tone of the princesses voice the man licks his lips as replies, “They’re being taken care of.”

The wise beyond her years teenager knows exactly what that implied and shouts, “Don’t you dare lay a finger on them!”

“Hahaha I don’t think you understand the position you’re in, we are the ones in control not the kings or royal families. We the people don’t want this disgraceful marriage because we can’t forget the evils of your country, and we have the courage to actually do something about it. So guess what princess of Troy? We have you, and your death will solve our problem.”

Trojia looks at the man, disgusted, as his face turns distorted with a wry smile as he says, “Of course we will get a fine ransom price before you die, plus it’s not often that one gets a chance to obtain the innocence of a princess.” He then shouts towards the younger men in the group “Who wants to be the first to take it!?”

Seeing three men shove at each other while making their way closer to Trojia, she finally reveals an expression of fear while thinking to herself that she’d rather die.

One of the young men gets within a few feet of her and reaches out his hand attempting to grab her arm. Trojia tightly closes her teary eyes, begging in her mind for someone to help but she quickly comes to the realization that her situation is awfully bleak.

Suddenly a ghastly scream is heard, it’s the approaching young man holding the area where his arm should be, there is nothing there but blood and bone.

Trojia looks up as a reaction to the sound and sees a white and silver flash as her captors collapse one by one.

The red of the blood spatter, the sunlight gleaming through green of the trees, and the white silver flash slaying the demon like men gives off the sight of a glorious angel coming to the salvation of a damsel in distress.

As quickly as the flash started, the blur of the moment ended, all the men who sought to kill the princess were writhing on the ground in pain.

In the midst of all the carnage stood a light brown skinned man with astonishingly gorgeous silver hair wearing a white long sleeved shirt with an etching of an abstract dove on it. He holds a red diamond sword that’s of an unfamiliar shape compared to the weapons of this day and age.

He turns to look at Trojia with his unusual light green eyes as his pupils looked more like a reptile rather than a human. He politely smiles revealing two overly long canine teeth and tenderly asks,

“Are you okay?”

Trojia, still in shock cannot utter a word, she is still overwhelmed by the beautiful yet different appearance of her savior.

He sheaths his sword, reaches out his hand and unties the ropes that binds the princess's arms; Trojia doesn’t even flinch as her eyes are set on the face of the man who looks only maybe eighteen or nineteen.

He then holds his hand out to help her back to her feet, the sun shining through his silver hair made his appearance even more angel like as she looked up at him, Trojia obliges and grabs his hand.

As soon as they touch her heart races and beats like never before, through her dried throat she nervously asks, ”Why did you help me?”

The young man smiles and explains, ”Because you were in trouble.”

He turns his body and begins to walk away from her.

Without realizing it, her instincts took over and she grabs the sleeve of his shirt. “Who are you?”

"My name is Ubica, what’s yours?” He replies in a manner that says he's only asking so he can get the conversation over with quickly.

Fumbling her words with excitement she says, “Um um m- my name is Trojia…”

As if Ubica was about to say something, a sound is heard in the distance of the marble road, it’s the sound of approaching horses and voices. After a few short moments they are now visible, it is the La’Juutian army on its way to the late rescue.

Ubica looks at Trojia with another smile and says, “Well, even though it was short, it was a pleasure to meet your acquaintance. You should be safe now, I’m glad you’re alright!”

He then waves goodbye and jumps freakishly high over the trees and disappears from sight.

Trojia only had time to shout, “Wait!”

But it was too late, she then says under her breath with a saddened expression. “I never got to thank you….”

(PART 2)

The La’Juutian army arrives at the scene with Niomyo in tow, overwhelmed with happiness the princess’s body guard runs at Trojia while exclaiming, “Princess! I'm so glad to see your okay!”

She then gets on her knees, sorrowful eyes to the floor she says, “I'm so sorry... I failed to protect you, please punish me as you deem fit princess…”

Trojia ignores the words of her servant and with a concerned demeanor asks, “What did they do to you Niomyo?”

Surprised at the princess’s body language, Niomyo replies hesitantly, “No, thank goodness the army came just in time to save me…. But our nun Sherry wasn’t so lucky, they chose her first..”

It was obvious that Niomyo was deeply troubled by the happenings of this incident so Trojia didn’t say a word.

Breaking their moment of silence, a somewhat deep voice is heard coming from behind them. “Let’s get going towards the city your highness, our King awaits your arrival. I’ll leave behind some men to bury the dead.”

The voice came from a rather tall black man decorated in an extravagant suit of armor, he is Napoleon Leopolo, the world famous twenty six year old who has been the leading general in command of the powerful army of La’Juune since the young age of fifteen. Next to the king of La’Juune, he is the most hated man in Troy, he is responsible for tens of thousands of Trojian deaths in his eleven year rule.

Napoleon walks to within a couple yards of princess Trojia, he bows and introduces himself in such a humble way it catches the wise teenage royal completely off guard.

She smugly replies his gesture, “I don’t need an introduction from you.”

The general shows an expressionless face as if knowing exactly what she implied, but purposely ignored the malice in her tone when he asks, "Shall we? “

The group travels for another few hours or so until they reach the apex of a large hill, and over that hill in a valley is the sight of the renowned city of grandeur. La’Juune.

A seemingly endless amount of incredibly designed buildings stretch across the horizon as it gives off a golden bluish tint, this is the first time the princess of Troy ever visited La’Juune and is amazed that the rumors of what it looked like were actually true.

After proceeding down the hill and through the center of the town they are greeted with a parade of people that stretched for miles down the road they traveling on; flower pedals, music, and the smell of fine food flow through the air.

“Woah! I thought the people of La’Juune didn’t want this alliance?” says Niomyo, who is entranced by all the colors of the surrounding buildings and people.

Trojia, who is equally mesmerized by this but refuses to show it, says with suspicion, “It seems like they were already in the process of celebrating someone else's arrival as well.”

“Huh? I’m sure you are just thinking things Princess.”

“Y-Yeah I guess so…”

After quite some time they reach the obnoxiously large castle of the King, the castle stretches dozens of stories up and seemingly shines gold as they enter. Almost every member of the army that accompanied them were left at the front gate and only two of them are with general Napoleon who is leading Niomyo and Trojia through the labyrinth like innards of the massive castle.

Finally after what seems like a long walk they are led to the top suite of the castle, it is a luxurious room with gorgeous oak furnishing and rare paintings.

Napoleon informs the two Trojians, “Please wait here and wash up, there is a change of clothes the bathroom for you both, the others will be here shortly so please refrain from taking too long.”

Trojia is a little offended by his choice of words because she felt she was being talked down to. Just as she was about to say something snippy in reply, she was interrupted by a bowing Niomyo expressing the words, “Thank you for saving my life General.”

Much to the surprise of both women, Napoleon reveals a slight smile and once again humbly replies, “You’re welcome.”

He then shuts the door and the two of them proceed to the bath.

After being told the story of what happened by Niomyo, Trojia is somewhat grateful to the great Trojan murdering general for just a brief moment for saving the life of her precious servant.

Soon after changing into a fresh pair of nicely made clothes, the mood changes when they exit the bathroom and look towards the giant window on the other side of the massive living room. That's when they see the figures of two women with two oddly dressed men; they aren’t La’Juutian, but rather they are the two princesses and bodyguards of the eastern country of Eiyalazo.

“What the hell are you doing here!?” yells the princess with pinkish hair and bright purple eyes.

“Hmph, I see you're as loud as ever princess Daey DiVore.” Trojia calmly speaks back.

Eiyalazo and Troy were once allies in a war against La’Juune ten years ago so the two princesses are quite familiar with each other. But after the war was called a truce due to a worldwide drought, the two allies became enemies immediately after words because of disagreements in economic policies. They also fought amongst themselves in bloody battles for the rights to the remaining lakes and rivers on the border between the two countries.

The former childhood friends now hold animosity towards one another, though if it was of the opinion of Trojia, it’s simply the over brazen princess Daey who actually holds the grudge dear.

“Um.. it is nice to see you again after all this time Trojia.” The light soft spoken voice came from the fifteen year old younger sister of the noisy eighteen year old princess, Niera.

She resembles her older sibling but has different features such as that her hair is jet black and she has gold eyes. She has always been shy, gentle and kind, much to the opposite of Daey. Trojia very much likes Niera and cares for her greatly because they always got along when they were kids.

"It’s great to see you too, we’ve all grown so much since the last time we were together, I’m quite pleased that it turned out this way even though I don’t know the reasoning of why we’re all here at the same time.”

The official marrying age of La’Juune is sixteen so the original plan was to have the elder sister Daey, marry the middle prince of La’Juune, and the younger sister Niera, marry the youngest at the same time. But both the young ones are under the age requirement, so it’s odd that Niera was even summoned in the first place.

“We were told that it was important to visit now to officially become engaged to the Princes. We weren’t told that Trojans would be here at the same time! I'm not ready to be around you people yet!” Daey shouts.

Ignoring the insulting tone of her voice Trojia replies, “That’s odd, that it wasn’t mentioned to me either, I was summoned specifically to stay here forever as the prince’s wife... This is my first time in this country, I never had to go through an official engagement."

Everyone in the room was left pondering what could possibly be the reason for this, but it is quickly shrugged off when the large doors open and they laid eyes on the people who stepped in through the hallway.

In walks Napoleon, guiding a priest clad in an upwards of standard church attire. The priest is a black man with glowing purple eyes and starch white hair, his facial features don’t match at first sight for his hair looks soft and white and he only looks like he is in his mid twenties.

Behind him walks two teenagers dressed in royal garments, beside the two are what seems to be their body guards, both women.

"Alright then let’s get the introductions over with, you all have met Napoleon, the priest here is Phoenix Novara, and last is my bodyguard Tsubiri.” The sarcastic feeling words came from the crown prince and rightful heir to the throne, Xavier Courlivet.

“So you didn’t feel the need to introduce yourself huh?” These words came from the other young man next to the crown prince.

Xavier, like a snobby little kid replies, “They already know who I am of course!”

The other young man smiles with an embarrassed look on his face. ”As you might not know this is prince Xavier, and I am Luke, the second prince of La’Juune, and next to me is my bodyguard Sora.”

Surprised at the difference in maturity between the two princes, Trojia and the rest introduce themselves as well.

After the formalities the doors shut and out comes the questions being pondered just moments earlier, but the questions oddly come from the bodyguard of princess Daey and Niera.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why was princess Niera summoned here for an official engagement while both princess Daey and Trojia never before had to visit for such a reason?” asked the tall man wearing a long coat that covers half of his face so only the darker than black sun glasses can be seen over his eyes, he introduced himself as Cyrus in a previous conversation.

The other bodyguard is an elderly man named Rudo, he is wearing a short sleeved shirt that show the abundant amount of scars that tatter his arms. He joins in and asks, “And from what I see here, Niera’s future husband is not present with you all.”

“Geez! It’s not often that a prince gets bombarded with questions by mere bodyguards, know your place you worms!” Xavier exclaims.

Once again embarrassed by his sibling’s words, the much more mature Luke tries to explain, “He is currently attending a military meeting, he should be arriving shortly.”

“What about the king? I do believe this is hardly a matter that can be handled by us ourselves.” Says a curious Trojia.

All of the La’Juutians look at at each other in confusion when Luke softly says, “That’s a good question… we actually don’t know where he is, he was supposed to be the first one here.”

Everyone stood in silence as they thought about the oddness of the situation when they hear an unfamiliar voice coming from the other side of the room.

“He’s dead..”

All the occupants of the room look at the source of the voice with surprise. A young man sits on a throne like chair next to the fireplace, he has black hair and blood red eyes with white pupils. He is wearing a gray coat with a series of small chains that oddly wrap around its innards, giving off a menacing look.

With a faint smile he then says to the confused group of royals, “It looks like everyone I need is here, except for the two stars of the show.”

Napoleon and the guards all simultaneously pull out there weapons and point it at the mysterious man.

“Who are you!? How did you get in here!?” shouts Cyrus.

The intruder mixes his faint smile with an emotionless glare and calmly responds, “I’ve been here the entire time, waiting…”

Trojia, who is genuinely frightened by this person as he gives off an evil aura that she’s never felt before, she nervously forces out a question of her own. "What do you mean the king is dead?”

The smile leaves the man and with a sharp stare he answers, “I killed him of course. Weak sin-filled men like him are easy to manipulate, once his use was up, I had him die.”

Wondering if to believe him or not the two princes were truly nervous about his comments for they felt a similar feeling to Trojia’s.

The man stands up and spreads his arms. “The answers to all of your questions lay with me. Though you will find them to be trivial once they arrive….Oh? One actually has just..”

GAAAAASH!!!

A loud sound of glass breaking is heard, in seemingly slow motion the giant window the size of the room has exploded into shards, and in the middle of the ear ringing noise, an even louder scream is heard.

“DAMIEN!!!”

The voice comes from a light brown skinned man with silver hair.

Trojia, the only one who hasn’t prostrated on the ground instantly recognized this person, he is the person that saved her...

The boy named Ubica.

The dust has settled and Ubica is standing in the middle of the large room with his red diamond sword ready to slash down his enemy.

Everyone has gotten up and look in amazement as they come to terms of what just happened.

“What the hell! Did he just jump through the window!?” yelled Xavier.

He spoke the thoughts of the others who know that the suite they are in is at the top of the fifty story castle.

Paying no mind to the physics of the situation cause she has seen the abnormality of her hero just hours earlier, Trojia shouts out his name. But the look that Ubica gave her was a complete opposite of what he expressed in the forest, a frown filled with hate caught Trojia off guard because she has only seen him smile.

The frown gave way to a confused look as Ubica asks, “Y-You!? What are you doing here??”

Hearing him say that, Trojia was both angered and happy because it meant that he had no clue that she was a princess.

Before she could reply, the man in which whom Ubica addressed as Damien spoke.

”Very good Ubica my old friend, for a while I thought you wouldn’t come. Now, there's just one more actor to join my play.”

After hearing Damien’s voice, it seemed like Ubica completely disregarded the presence of the others and ran to the attack when the sky outside suddenly turned a maddening black, filling the room with darkness.

The attention of the all the occupants in the room was shifted toward the shattered window because it is the place of origin from which the darkness came.

“Ah, he’s finally here,” Damien said with a faint smile.

Emerging from the darkness is a white haired man clad in black standing on a black cloud, in his right hand he holds an intricately designed scythe.

Ubica, not looking surprised at all clicks his tongue, “Rage…”

Speechless, Trojia and the rest are frozen with the overwhelming aura of death spewing like toxic smoke from the man.

“You’ve been careless Ubica, today is the long awaited day I obtain your soul.”

“No no Rage, here is where your wrong." Damien interjects. "It’s you who is the careless one..”

Damien is holding out his hand and makes a gesture of a finger snap.

Rage reveals a face of shock. “Damien?.”

Ubica smiles but there are no signs of confidence in his voice when he says, “I never would have thought that I’d have the opportunity to kill you both in the same day.”

The tension between the three gave off the feeling of gods saying their final words to each other before squaring off in an epic battle. Naturally, everyone else was curious as to what is happening but the intense vibe from the three sucks the will to speak out of their mouths, all they could do is watch stiffly.

”Everything is going just as planned, if you all have not noticed yet, everyone in this room is here because of my will.”

Ubica looks confused by Damien’s words and Rage has a face of anger as he realizes he was actually too careless.

Rage charges at Damien, scythe in a readied position for a strike.

”Father’s army will rise again, with this, soon enough, it will become a reality…”

Damien reveals a final look of contempt and with a snap of his finger he vanishes. Suddenly a strong tornado like wind blows, the entire room starts shaking violently; all of the expensive furniture is sliding through the room at dangerous speeds. Wooden chairs slam into the walls and shatter, all the broken glass once on the floor is slicing through the air across the entire length of the vicinity.

All one can do is hit the deck and throw ones hands over the neck and head for protection, which is exactly what everyone other than Ubica and Rage were doing. On the contrary, they were simply just standing in the midst of the chaos glaring at one another like there wasn’t even a hint of danger.

Trojia looks up and sees the two men who were standing calmly in the center of the mass of glass, furniture, and other large objects when in the corner of her eyes she sees a large oak cabinet hurling towards her. Not being able to move due to the shaking of the room, she is currently the textbook definition of being defenseless. All she could do close her eyes and wait for the pain of the broken bones caused by the heavy object slamming into the side of her body.

CRASH!!

The disturbing sound of the cabinet smashing into a person is heard, but it is not Trojia who was hit. She opens her big green eyes only to see the chest of someone who is embracing her tightly, tilting her head upward the face of Ubica is seen.

He took the full brunt of the force to protect the helpless princess, realizing this, Trojia’s face turns a little blue, she figures he must be terribly hurt after such an event.

“Ubica! Are you alright!!?”

Ubica looks down at her and with a joke of a smile shouts, “What!? I can’t hear you the wind is too loud!”

Trojia can hear him very little but easily picked up what he was saying so she repeated herself only to have the now laughing Ubica repeat himself as well. By now she knows that he could hear her fine but was just avoiding the question. Feeling safe and secure in the arms of Ubica, she faintly smiles and loosened her tense body in his arms.

After a minute of intensity the wind and earthquake like shaking halt to a stop. Ubica helps Trojia to her feet as the others all check themselves for any injuries, to their relief they find that no one is hurt.

As if the moment of kindness towards the endangered princess never happened, Ubica’s facial expression turns cold as he shifts his body toward Rage.

“Well then, it seems I can’t just avoid you anymore. I gotta say I'm tired of running from death. Just know this, there is no way I will die before I kill Damien, so I will not lose…” Ubica draws his sword and points it at Rage.

Without flinching Rage calmly speaks. “I don’t believe us fighting is all too wise…”

“Why’s that?”

“You can feel it right? You should know where we are, you are going to need my help, and I am going to need yours.”

”After all these years of trying to kill me you expect me to just call a truce? Hmph…. Well, by looking outside I guess I have no choice…” Ubica says while sheathing his sword.

The rest of the group look towards the broken window, what catches their attention is that there is no longer a view of the city of grandeur, but only the color of gray clouds can be seen.

Rage looks at the crowd of royals and then shifts his attention back toward Ubica. “This is bad…”

Ubica takes a deep breath and asks, “Is it what he said about his father’s army rising again? Isn’t that impossible?”

“Do you have any idea who is standing behind you?” replies Rage.

Ubica looks back at the group of weary and confused royals and thinks nothing of them.

Rage continues to speak, “There are heirs to the throne of the three largest countries on Earth in that group.”

Ubica now gives off a look of surprise.

But right as he was about to speak the panicked voice of Xavier is heard. “What the hell is going on here! Who are you people!? Answer me!!”

Both Rage and Ubica look at him dejectedly and at the same time say, "Shut up.”

Xavier looks stunned by what they said and shouts, “You bastards! How dare you speak that way to the prince of La’Juune!”

Ubica laughs it off and ignores him but Rage moves closer to the young prince, grabs his collar and with a mild hint of anger says, “Listen boy, in this world, there is no such thing as royalty.”

Shocked and scared, Xavier backs toward the door and he grabs the handle. “H-Hey why aren’t my body guards attacking these monsters!!? Napoleon!! He threatened me, you saw him threaten me!!! Tsubiri kill him!”

Napoleon looks at his cowardly prince with a dejected glare, it is obvious he has no intentions of making a move on his behalf. Tsubiri on the other hand looks completely determined to follow the orders from her master, but her legs can’t move due to the dark aura of fear surrounding Rage.

Naturally, Xavier took their reactions as blasphemy, feeling betrayed he opens the door to the hallway and shouts, “I’ll have you two killed for this, I don’t need you guys! My father will execute you for insubordination!”

He runs out the door and instantly finds himself falling uncontrollably into the thick gray clouds, before he could even scream he was grabbed by both Napoleon and Tsubiri. His life was saved by the very people he had just threatened to have executed.

Once pulled in the room, Xavier sits against the wall obviously struck with the feeling of shame at his actions along with the undeniably helpless feeling of falling out of the sky.

“Damn I was kind of hoping he’d fall to his death, it would’ve been much quieter if he had.” Ubica says sarcastically.

Trojia shoves him jokingly, “Hey now, that’s a mean thing to say.”

Xavier lifts his weary head and shows her a face filled with gratitude. “Thank you princess Trojia, even though everyone else turned on me at least I know that my future wife is supportive.”

Trojia’s face turns pale, she has forgotten about the marriage until now. She has always disliked the spoiled prince of La’Juune since the first time she met him. During the peace talks after the war ten years ago, the King of La’Juune met with the Queen of Troy and brought his little eight year old son along, and in Trojia’s eyes he hasn’t changed at all since, still arrogant and still spoiled.

“What!? You want to marry this guy Trojia!?"

"Of course I don’t Ubica! It’s just, it’s just that I have no choice in the matter…”

Ubica tilts his head and asks, “What do you mean you don’t have a choice?”

“I guess you really didn’t know who I am, the truth is I'm the first princess of Troy and my mother and his father, arranged the marriage between us …”

Ubica stands speechless when Rage interjects, "We have much larger things to worry about now, so you can both stop this pointless conversation.”

Responding to his words, Napoleon walks towards the giant broken window. “I agree, so if you don’t mind, would you kindly explain to me where we are and who was that man earlier that claimed to have killed the king?”

Looking at the calm demeanor of the legendary general, Rage felt much obliged to answer his question. “That man’s name is Damien, he is the son of the devil and has brought us to Purgatory… The world between Heaven and Hell.”

Upon hearing this, the up until now quiet priest exclaims in surprise, “Purgatory!?”

Napoleon looks at the royal priest and begins to have a feeling that they are involved in something beyond human comprehension.

Rage sees the slightly confused face of Napoleon. "I take it you don’t read the Bible much general?”

“That’s correct, the teachings of the Bible would only get in the way of my job…”

Hearing his words, Rage halfway smiles and says, “I think you and I will get along well in the near future…”

Ubica breaks his silence, he turns his back to Trojia in an almost guilty fashion. “I'm sorry Trojia… If I would have known what your situation was when we first met, I would’ve taken you with me to a place far away.”

Trojia is now blushing by the kindness of Ubica but before she can speak

CRACK!!!!

The room starts to shake again and now is breaking apart.

“We’ll finish answering the rest of your questions when we get to the ground.” Rage says while he raises his scythe.

Ubica suddenly embraces Trojia and with a smile looks at the scythe bearer. “I assume you can handle the rest right!? I’ll see you on the surface!”

With the princess in tow he jumps out the window into the dense gray clouds and disappears.

“Princess!!!” shouts a horrified Niomyo. She runs after her only to be stopped by dark black clouds with a frightening looking man standing on it.

“She’ll be fine.. If you all want to live, gather what you feel is important and come with me.”

Hesitantly, the royals still skeptical of the reality of it all begin to gather items in the room such has rugs that can be used as blankets, and grab extra clothes and weapons once in cabinets that are now scattered around the room. The group joins Rage on the evil looking black cloud and float like a feather towards the ground.

Seeing the falling apart structure of the living room from outside on the cloud was quite an astonishing spectacle. The only form of stability holding the suite are four extremely large pillars on each corner that are fading in and out of the moving gray of the thick clouds. The most amazing thing about it is that there was once the fifty story castle of La’Juune beneath the room where the pillars are now. One can’t help but believe that they truly have been taken to a different world.

Tightly held by Ubica, Trojia is free falling rapidly towards the ground, but the princess is not afraid in the least, she has an odd sense of security in such a situation. Even though the wind is loud she feels she can hear his heartbeat as her head rests on his chest, and entrances her in an unwavering calm.

After a couple minutes the speed in which they are falling drastically decreases and halts when they land on the ground like a butterfly on a flower. Trojia, still embraced looks up at a smiling Ubica and with the sunlight breaking through the clouds and shining on his silver hair, she works up the courage to finally do what has been on her mind since they first met a few hours earlier.

Trojia moves her face upwards and kisses the lips of a surprised Ubica.

“That’s for saving my life… Thank you.”

They are both looking at each other’s eyes and not reading the atmosphere well at all Ubica cracks a joke, “Oh? If a princess kisses a lowly man like me, wouldn’t her husband want to punish her?”

“He’s not my husband! At least not yet…” she pauses for a moment and with a flustered red face continues. “I didn’t want my first kiss to be with him, I don’t want anything in my life to be with someone I don’t want be with… But I guess its unavoidable.”

“You’re wrong.”

Trojia shows a shocked look at the sudden rise in Ubica’s voice.

“You won’t ever have to do something you don’t want to.”

“What do you mean?”

"I mean that I’ll make sure that you aren’t ever forced into anything, once we get back I will make it so that you will never get married to that noisy brat. If you'll allow me to, I promise I will always protect you.”

Trojia’s heartbeat is now moving extremely quick, looking to the floor, she softly speaks, “Why?... We haven’t known each other for too long, why do you want to help me so much?”

Ubica fumbles his words at the question. “ I don’t know… I guess its because you remind me of myself a little?”

About to speak more Ubica is stopped by the sight of the rest of the group floating gently towards them on a large dark black cloud.

He begins to walk where they are landing and on his way he turns his body at Trojia, with a strained smile he gently says,

“Let’s go Trojia.”

(PART 3)

The sight that is seen is a lush green grassland, the occasional tree, and many flowing rivers and large lakes. One would never expect that they are in a different world other than Earth. The terrain of the land is actually quite beautiful as the sun shines through the clouds onto the water and grass. The group has been walking for hours now and there is no end to the view that the tiring royals have seen since the beginning of their journey.

“Let's rest here, It’ll be night soon,” says an unfatigued Rage.

Soon after they stop the rather loud voice of Cyrus replies, “What? The sun is still high it won’t be dark for a few hours, we should keep moving.”

Ubica hears this and with a slight chuckle. “We’re not in a world as predictable as Earth, no matter where the sun is it could be night at any moment, I recommend taking his advice… This is probably the most peaceful place in Purgatory, but it can still very dangerous at night.”

Silenced, Cryus hides his discontent by lowering his face further in the long neck of his coat.

“If we’re gonna stay here then, how about I go gather some water, and perhaps I can find some food by one of these lakes?” asks Tsubiri.

“Don’t go anywhere near that water, It’s not safe for you. I’ll take care of everything for tonight.” replies Ubica.

The rest couldn’t argue, they saw how serious he looked when he said that. Ubica grabs a few of the canteens that were grabbed from the room. “You can handle the fire right?”

He asks this to Rage as he walks toward the nearest body of water and disappears in the haze of the rapidly setting sun.

The group begins to form a circle under a patch of trees and casual conversations begin to start. Napoleon walks back with a burrow of wood and places it in the middle of the circle, he then begins to rub some sticks together to catch fire the little bit of kindling he found.

“That’s not necessary.” says Rage.

He grabs his scythe, and with it he simply touches the pile of wood on the ground and with a flash it is engulfed in flame that lights the whole area.

“I’ll make sure this fire won’t go out, so don’t worry about gathering any more wood.”

Napoleon shows a calm face but with a twitch of his eyebrow in curiosity, he asks, “How did you do that?”

It’s now completely dark, under the dazzling star filled night sky the group begins to huddle in their blankets to get ready for the first night. The outside living is totally new to the royals and their body guards, the only one use to it is Napoleon because he has been in this kind of situation countless times on the battlefield. Rage is leaning on the tree with his eyes closed while the rest chat about random things.

Trojia stops her talking when she realizes that Ubica has been gone for more than an hour, she thinks back on what he said about the night and water being very dangerous so she begins to worry profusely. Thinking the worst, Trojia quietly gets up and sneaks away from the circle and heads in the direction of the lake in which Ubica was heading to.

After a few minutes of walking she encounters a hill, what she sees when she gets to the top is a view so amazing that it nearly took her breath away. There are three moons all spread throughout the distance, the sky is flushed with the many different colors of stars that are all shining brightly on the lake. A soft cool breeze blows through the moonlit grass and her blonde hair.

Mesmerized by the scene, she looks around the area and spots a white long sleeved shirt near the shore of the lake, the closer she walks to it she can clearly see the rest of the garments worn by Ubica. Trojia has yet to see any movement in the water, so panic pokes at her chest as she pictures a drowned Ubica.

Its been about ten minutes, she is now pacing back and forth uncontrollably, becoming more and more frantic by each passing second she shouts out his name at the top of her lungs but to no avail, the water remains still and no movement outside of the lake in sight.

She walks to the shore of the lake while asking herself, ‘What do I do?’

Tears begin to form in her green eyes when she notices the sound of bubbles popping, she looks toward the sound coming from the lake and sees the bubbles form and pop more rapid with each second.

The water expands like an inflating balloon and then

BOOOOOOSHHH!!!

A huge splash is heard and water is flying all over the vicinity; through the water one can clearly see the silhouette of an extremely large fish the size of a mid size car.

Trojia’s face is full of shock as she watches the giant fish fly towards her with great speed, thinking she is going to be eaten she instinctively shuts her eyes and curls up in a ball.

“UBICA!!!” she shouts without realizing.

But much to her surprise she hears the sound of the huge fish land on the ground far out in the distance over her head.

“Trojia? What are you doing here?”

Of course, the voice is none other than that of Ubica.

With tears in her eyes she looks at his confused face and leaps forward and embraces him tightly.

“You’ve been gone for so long you idiot! I was, I was so worried…”

“Eh..Um… I appreciate your concern I really do but, I don’t think now is the right time for you to talk to me.”

“Why not- EEHH?”

Trojia is taken aback when she looks down and realizes that she is tightly hugging a completely wet and naked Ubica, her face turns bright red as she pushes him away and covers her eyes.

“P-P-P-P-Put your clothes on you pervert!!!”

“Hey I’m not the one who is perverted! You grabbed me!”

“Why the hell are you naked in the first place!?”

“Isn’t it obvious!? I’ve been swimming in the lake to find us all dinner!”

“Alright alright! Just put your clothes on already!”

“I have to dry off first stupid!!”

Trojia now has her back turned to Ubica who is in the process of getting dressed, she looks up the small hill and sees the massive fish that flew out of the water. It’s fairly apparent that it is dead but she is still slightly afraid of it, she has never seen a fish that large after all, the size of its mouth could easily swallow a human whole.

“Ubica.. How did you catch that thing?”

“Hmm? Well I jumped in the lake and spotted it right away; I figured that it’d be the perfect amount for everyone so I swam after it, it ran away though so I was chasing it for a while. Huaaaah~ who would’ve thought that the lake was so deep! That really wore me out.”

Trojia is actually disappointed at his explanation because it seems he is trying to downsize his inhuman abilities.

“Alright I’m all dressed up you ready to go Trojia?”

“Y-Yeah.”

Walking to Ubica’s side she looks at him dragging the large fish on the ground effortlessly, once again it amazes her cause she is getting fatigued just from holding the three canteens filled with water that he brought, and she figures that the weight of the fish has to be close to a ton.

She wants to ask him how he got so strong, she wants to ask him who he really is, she wants everything about him, but for whatever reason she is afraid to ask.

The two finally reach the rest of the group and they all stand to their feet when they see them.

“Princess!!! Please don’t run off like that without telling me!” exclaims Niomyo as she sighs in relief.

Ubica looks at Trojia getting scolded by her body guard and chuckles a little. “Okay who’s hungry?”

“Whoah look at the size of that thing!!” Princess Daey shouts.

Everyone is amazed at the size of the fish and all have something to say about it. The rest of the night proceeded just like this as they all ate to their hearts content.

The vibe of the night was truly filled with no worries at all, until Niera’s elderly bodyguard speaks, “Now, would you mind telling us exactly what’s going on?”

As if expecting the question to be asked sooner or later Rage begins to speak.

“I’ll start with introducing myself.” The group goes silent. “My name is Rage… I am the God of Death…”

The power of Rage’s words sent chills down the spine of the bystanders, even the usually calm Napoleon felt a little unnerved at this but he soon comes back to his form and is actually thinking to himself that it is surprising they haven’t met sooner in one of his death filled battlefields.

“The one who sent us here is named Damien, like I said earlier, he is the son of Satan the devil.”

“It’s hard to comprehend things like this.” says Napoleon.

“That’s because you’re not a believer.” These words came from the priest Phoenix Navara.

"That man said that he killed our father, is that true?” asks Luke.

Rage replies back, “In order to fulfill his plan, killing the King is a necessity. Unfortunately, I do believe your father is dead.”

Both Xavier and Luke slump their shoulders, they didn’t cry, even though the king is their father, they didn’t know him all to well as a person.

“So what is Damien planning by sending us here?” asks a non affected Napoleon.

Rage shows a look demanding the utmost attention of the group.

“Imagine how the people of your country are going to react to the death of their King, and the disappearance of the beloved general Napoleon along with two of their Princes? The same thing applies to Troy and Eiyalazo, they are all going to blame each other for the vanishings. La’Juune is now in a weakened state without the leader of their army and the king of the country. The youngest Prince will be crowned the new King and he'll likely declare war on the other two countries. The result will without a doubt be a world war.”

“So what does that have to do with Damien’s plan?”

“It has everything to do with his plan, a thousand years ago Satan’s army rose from the depths of Hell and fought God’s army on the Earth’s soil... At that time, a world war was the key to harvesting enough wayward souls to allow them to rise. But this time is different, I won’t be there to gather all the souls and send them to their rightful place, so all the souls of the departed will easily be stolen by the Devil's reapers.”

“I don’t get it, why would he go through all the trouble to send us here? Couldn’t he have just killed us in that room?” asked Cyrus.

Ubica answers, “No, other than possession and a few other tricks, demons of Hell don’t necessarily have much power on Earth… But Purgatory on the other hand might as well be Hell itself for them. Damien will send countless demons to kill us. So don’t any of you ever let your guard down.”

Startled by the thought of never being safe, Xavier speaks, “W-Well can’t you just send us back to Aires? Don’t you have that ability?”

“No, I don’t… I can only travel from Hell, Heaven and Earth, Purgatory is a separate world than the ones I have freedom of passage to.”

Daey, who hasn’t said much most of the night stands up and looks at the stars with a frustrated look. “So what exactly are we supposed to do then, sit here and wait for him to catch us?”

Ubica and Rage look at each other as if wondering which of them is to speak, instead both end up saying at the same time.

“There is a way out of here.”

The comments of the two immediately catch the attention of the group, beginning to grow weary of being pestered by questions Rage explains. “Just like Hell, there are different levels of Purgatory in which you must go through in order to escape. Whereas Hell has seven of them, there is only five in this world, if we get past the five gates of Purgatory we will end up somewhere back on Earth. It is our only way.”

Relief strikes the crowd that thought they were going to be stranded.

“Well that sounds easy enough!” says Xavier.

Hearing this, Ubica softly laughs and Rage chuckles with a wry smile, the relief of the rest turns into an awkward silence as they listen to them.

Rage suddenly halts his laughter with an eye piercing glare and simply stares at the Prince. “This world is large, plus we don’t necessarily know where these gates are, and there is an abundant amount of dangers that will follow us wherever we go specifically to keep us from escaping… Unless you change the way you are soon, I can guarantee you’ll be the first one to die in this place.”

Xavier’s face turns blue and cowards behind Tsubiri.

“Listen, this involves everyone… Some of you will not make it out of here alive, and that is a fact. So don’t be a foolish optimist.”

The faces of the Royals turn pale. Napoleon, still remarkably calm begins to clarify. “So, I take it we're on the first level, and we need to travel upwards to the fifth in order to escape and put an end the soon to be world war? This is the only way to keep that Damien fellow from being able to resurrect his father’s army of Hell and take over Aires. Naturally there will be obstacles keeping us from passing the Purgatory gates, Damien’s demon allies correct?”

Pretty much exactly spot on with the gist of the situation, Rage felt like he was done explaining things for the rest of the night. One reason is that he was tired of talking, and the other is that he feels Napoleon is truly the only one that needs to know. As the world’s best general, he can grasp the situation properly, and handle the actions of the others himself.

“That’s correct, now I believe it is time for all of you to rest. I sense that we will have quite a long walk before we enter the nearest village.”

This catches the surprise of the group. “Village!? You mean there are people here!?” inquires Rudo.

Rage frowns and with a mouth full of annoyance is about to speak when he is interrupted by Ubica, “Of course there is.. This place wouldn’t exist if there weren’t people occupying it.”

Ubica can see that the elderly man wants more of an explanation but Ubica stuffs Rudo from speaking again. “I know all of you want more answers, and you’ll get them in due time, but for now just give it a rest. Besides, you don’t wanna see him when he’s cranky.”

They all understand his words and begin to ready up for sleep.

It’s been a few hours since the last words were spoken between the group, the royals and their bodyguards are all fast asleep in the thick green grass that actually makes for quite a comfortable bed. The sound of crickets, and other strange animals are serenading the atmosphere around the plains, rivers and lakes. The landscape is truly breathtaking as the different colors of the stars and the three moons reflect gracefully on the gentle windblown lakes that surround the area.

Despite the perfect conditions for sleep, Trojia is awakened by the sound of the firewood cracking, she slowly opens her dark green eyes and yawns gently. After a slight rub of her eyelids she looks in the direction of where she last saw a sitting Ubica, but he is not there, and neither is Rage.

She is not as worried about Ubica’s safety this time; perhaps because she is half asleep, she yawns again and readies to fall back to sleep when she realizes that when she first met Rage in the suite of the La’Juutian he was chasing after Ubica to steal his soul. She immediately jumps out of her curtain of a blanket and scoured around the premises for any sign of where they went.

Walking behind a couple trees she can hear the faint sound of a voice, after walking ever so slowly closer to its source she can sense a serious tone emitting from it. Trojia can now see Ubica and Rage scowling at each other with a tremendous amount of killing intent. Trojia is quite frightened by this so she hides herself behind one of the lone trees in the area, now unable to move, she has begun to eavesdrop into a conversation that she feels she might regret hearing in the near future.

“That’s a stupid request Ubica.”

“I never said that it was a request.” Ubica replies.

Rage’s face turns cold and angered when Ubica speaks again.

“That’s right, it was an order. If you tell her of my past I’ll kill you.”

With a twitch of his eyebrow, Rage swings his scythe and points it at Ubica’s face. “How interesting, what is it that you want me to keep from her? Your age? Your origin of birth? The relationship of you and Damien? She is better off knowing who you really are, she’ll be smart not to get to close to you and your unforgivable sins. Perhaps I shall tell her despite your threat.”

“I will not allow her to get involved in the darkness of my world. If you speak to her in a way I don't like, I’ll send you straight to Limbo.” says Ubica with a stern stare.

“You have known her less than a day, why would you care so much as to feel anything towards that child? Is it what humans call love?”

Even though hearing the God of death asking this seems cliché, Rage asked that question in a serious tone.

“My instincts… I feel an unsustainable need to protect her for some reason."

Rage sees that he is genuinely confused about his own feelings and decides it’s best not to even talk to him.

Rage turns his back and begins to walk away when he says, “I won’t say anything to her about you.. But, that girl will become your greatest weakness Ubica, and Damien will exploit that weakness and use it to destroy you. You can try your best to keep her from our darkness, but you should know that it is unavoidable. Sooner or later all of them will see the horrors and the true disgusting reality of the battle between us and them… Oh and Ubica. when we get back, I will take your soul, and destroy it once and for all.”

Rage rides out of sight on his black cloud and leaves a stiff Ubica in his wake.

He clinches his fist violently and releases it with along with the tension of his shoulders. He looks up at the diversity of different colored stars and softly says to himself, “Why the hell am I feeling this way?... Love huh?.. That kind of thing couldn't even be possible for someone like me…”

Trojia stands shocked and silent behind the tree, she peeks her head over only to see Ubica staring blankly into space. ‘This is a good time for me to head back’ she thinks to herself and starts walking back to the circle of sleeping royals.

All the while Trojia is rewinding the conversation she had just overheard in her head, her heart is beating wildly at Ubica’s determination to protect her at all costs when she thinks of the words ‘instincts’.

She couldn’t help but ask herself what her own instincts were. Stopping the walk in her tracks it hits her, just like Ubica, the reason for these instincts are unclear but certain.

Trojia’s legs are moving rather quickly now, however they are not moving in the direction of the campfire. Thinking to herself with each step she comes to terms with what her instincts are saying.

“I want to know everything about him! Even if it's good or bad, I have to know!"

Trojia is breathing rather hard, she has run back to where Ubica is and they are both now staring at each other.

“Why are you here? You should really get your sleep you know.” says Ubica.

Ignoring his words, Trojia walks closer to him and now is within a couple feet when she says, “Who would have thought that there really is such a thing as love at first sight.”

Ubica is completely dumbfounded by the suddenness of her statement; and before he can come up with the words to respond, he finds himself stuck in some sort of a trance as she reveals a smile that sets off a strange feeling in his chest.

Under the surreal lights of the night sky, Ubica can't help but feel that there is something different about this girl, she just might be the light for him to follow.

The End of Royalty: (END)

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| Back to [[Dantega:Prologue:|Prologue]]
| Return to [[Dantega|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 2|Chapter 2]]
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</noinclude>

HEAVY OBJECT:Volume2 Chapter 1

2012-05-05T03:59:30Z

68.102.51.171: /* Part 5 */

==Chapter 1: It is Only Natural to get Muddy in an Obstacle Course >> Battle to Control Antarctica==

===Part 1===

''I have an exceedingly important mission for you two!!

“…”

Heivia, a boy of a solid build with short brown hair, thought back on the words of his superior officer as he silently moved his fingers with a look in his eyes reminiscent of a dead fish.

He was in a cramped room.

Inside the room was a table with a pile of small metal devices on top of it. Quenser, a boy with blond hair that did not quite reach his shoulders, sat across the table performing similar task.

Instead of chairs, they were sitting on cases for the shells used by the smaller of the railguns used by Objects. Heivia had no idea how many shells fit inside, but each case was the size of a sofa for three.

The table was also not really a table; it was a large wooden box. It was empty, but it had been crammed between the railgun shell cases to create a work space.

They were loading ammunition.

They had been handed a large number of empty assault rifle magazines, and they were using their fingers to cram bullet after bullet inside. While an inefficient clicking noise was coming from Heivia’s magazine, Quenser was using his slender fingers that were like those of a sheltered maiden to systematically carry out the job.

They had started only 15 minutes ago, but Heivia was already down for the count.

He kicked his heels against the railgun shell case he was sitting on and said, “Hey, I can’t go on. This isn’t war!! With those Objects that can keep moving after a nuclear blast, loading these puny little bullets isn’t going to be of any use!!”

“Heivia, redo that magazine. You used to much force and bent the spring into an S-shape. I can tell from the sound.”

“Why do you look so happy!? This annoying work is going to drive me insane!!”

“Eh? Doesn’t this trivial kind of job soothe your heart? I’d say running around the wilderness with a heavy rifle is more messed up than this.”

“Oh, I didn’t realize you Object design students were insane. And what point is there in this? Can’t the munitions companies load the bullets in the factories before packaging them and shipping them out?”

“Doesn’t storing them inside for so long loosen the spring, increasing the risk of malfunctions? That’s why we have to load only thee necessary bullets when they’re needed and remove them again if they aren’t needed anymore.”

“Really? Isn’t that just the same as printer ink? I’m betting you could keep them in there forever without issue, but they tell you these things so we’ll keep buying more.”

“Heivia, that magazine’s spring is messed up. You need to remove the bullets and redo it.”

“Gahhh!!” he shouted out of utter annoyance, but Quenser naturally ignored him.

Heivia was not the type to back off because he received no reaction, so he pointed toward the many cardboard boxes placed next to the large wooden box they were using as a table.

“How are we supposed to finish all of these!? And isn’t this something a machine should be doing!? If they got just one machine to do this, we could just set the magazines in it and press a button. Then they would all get loaded automatically like with a soft serve ice cream machine!”

“Aren’t they just trying to save on their budget? Everything about war is centered on the Objects these days. Normal soldiers don’t fight anymore. When would a loaded rifle bullet actually be used? To them, it makes more sense to use their idle soldiers for this than to bring in a ridiculously expensive machine.”

“You really have a way of wearing away people’s motivation, you know that?”

Fed up with it all, Heivia tossed the assault rifle magazine on the wooden box they were using as a table. He arched his spine backwards as he stretched and glanced behind him.

He spotted a small cupboard.

Heivia casually glanced through the items lines up there, but then…

“Hey, Quenser. Look at what I just found.”

“?”

“There’s a single porn video mixed in with the training videos.

===Part 2===

After pushing an incredibly boring job onto two boy soldiers under her command with a smile on her face, Froleytia had headed back to a special officer room prepared on the base. However, the base was really a large scale convoy made up of over 100 large special vehicles, so even her office was similar to a blocky container.

Quenser and Heivia were both 17 and Froleytia was 18. The average age in units was continuing to lower, but that was just a sign of the times. That silver-haired girl was a minor, but no one found it odd that she was commanding a large group of around 800 people. That was simply how things were done.

Currently, Froleytia was using a tablet connected to her computer to recheck the invasion route of her force on their next mission.

As she did, she glanced over at a different monitor.

With a microphone and video camera attached to the computer, it was something like a video chat device. On the other end was a guest from the safe country that was a great distance from the battlefield.

She could have just had two windows open on her laptop rather than preparing two computers, but Froleytia had a reason to not do that.

This guest was the kind of person that would find it rude to even have her face covered by another window. She only had a rank of three stars, but she acted like it was five stars.

“I see. So how is Heivia doing?”

“Oh, fine. After all, he is the heir to the well-known Winchell family. He would never be put in danger by being sent to the front lines.”

Froleytia said that to move the conversation along, but the truth was that she had used Heivia for everything from loading puny rifle bullets into empty magazines to destroying 50+ meter Objects.

(Well, I’m living quite the unfortunate life myself…)

The guest displayed on the monitor was not aware of any of that. She was a blonde girl of about 15 who was wearing a dress that did not belong in the modern era. However, the corset and other important points had been modified enough that it could be put on without needing someone else’s help. Even if she was a noble girl, it seemed her upbringing had not been so sheltered that she used her servants for everything.

She scratched at her cheek with her index finger and said, “That is fine. Even for me, it would be a waste if he died before that grand ceremony could be held.”

“Excuse me, but I thought the engagement was fiercely opposed by both the Winchell family and the Vanderbilt family.”

“The greater the obstacle, the more it burns within me. You should try falling in love sometime, miss soldier.”

Without thinking, Froleytia shrugged at having that pointed out by an influential noble girl. She shook her long silver hair and tried to change the subject.

“But was this really such a good idea?”

“Was what such a good idea?”

“Having Heivia treated as a private first class. As the heir to the Winchell family, shouldn’t he have at least been an officer such as a second lieutenant? This may sound rude, but a private first class is a bit…”

“Well, I’m sure there were various reasons that went into it. I really don’t know. I do not really care and I have no real knowledge of military ranks, so it really is not my place to comment on it. And if you are going to bring that up, you are the daughter of a noble family and yet you are firing weapons on the battlefield.”

Froleytia cleared her throat.

She had tried to avoid unnecessary trouble by changing the subject, but she had only dug up something worse.

“So may I speak with Heivia?” asked the girl.

“Honestly. I’ll connect the video chat, but keep this a secret. All the others are looking at photos of their lovers and saying they will marry them once they return home.”

“Oh, and I thought that only happened in movies,” said the blonde girl as she fixed her bangs and checked over various parts of her dress. It seemed she was a bit nervous about speaking with Heivia.

(I guess she can be cute at times.)

As Froleytia had that exceedingly rude thought, the noble girl gave one last demand.

“Please connect me to Heivia.”

“Fine, fine. He is in the third ammunition storage’s spare work room. I’ll connect you there.”

===Part 3===

Quenser and Heivia were facing a computer in a corner of the room. They put in the disk for the porn video and sat tensely while the media player software started up.

And then plenty of pink porn filled the screen.

“Okay!! I, Jessica the genius intellectual woman soldier, will now make men out of you new recruits who are too afraid to move!! This is an order! Everyone who no longer wants to be a child, leap into my cheeeeeesssssst!!”

“C-commander!!”

“Me too, commander!!”

“I…I…commander…commander!!”

“Wah ha ha ha! Okay, I, Jessica, will do something about this, so everyone come here!!”

While listening to the continued laughing, shouting, and grunts of exertion and watching the flesh and flesh and sweat and flesh and sweat and sweat and flesh and sweat displayed on the monitor, Quenser frowned. He looked back at the package and noticed it was titled “A Cool Female Soldier’s Secret Training of Pleasure and Tits”.

He turned back toward his fellow soldier who had found the video and said, “Um, Heivia? Are you the type of person that enjoys being bossed around by a female commander?”

“No, you idiot!! I was just saying we should enjoy what I found. I wasn’t the one that hid it here!!”

Quenser turned away from the images that were more gaudy than erotic and went back to putting rifle bullets into empty magazines. But…

“…Huh? What? Huh? For some reason I’m working faster than before. Why?”

“Quit slacking off, boy!! Who said you could take a break!? How many times do I have to tell you not to stop until I, Jessica, tell you to!?”

“Waahh!! I feel really motivated for some reason!! I thought this was supposed to be sexy, but I’m making incredible progress by working to the rhythm of her voice!”

“What? My hands are moving on their own. Why do I have this natural feeling that it would be wrong to take a break!? Do you think they could make an effective diet video by having a drill sergeant yelling at you!?”

“Quit yapping and move your fingers faster!! Don’t leave me, Jessica, bored for even an instant!! If you are men, then outdo even my expectations for you!!”

“Yes, Commander Jessica!! We will do exactly that!!”

“Commander! We will show you that we are competent soldiers!! Commander!”

The two boys’ hands started moving faster and faster until they were cramming rifle bullets into empty magazines at what looked like the speed of a sewing machine. As Quenser and Heivia took that task to its limit, they threw off all idle thoughts and become machines that did nothing but accurately put bullets in magazines while breathing heavily.

“Fnhh!!”

“Yesss!!”

Suddenly, they thought they heard the small electronic tone denoting an incoming video chat, and a new window opened over the porn video.

And…

“What are you doing?” said an adolescent blonde girl in a dress with a cold voice and gaze.

[[Image:Is0032.jpg|thumb]]

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!?”

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!?”

Quenser and Heivia screamed in unison and leapt over to grab the mouse and close the video player playing the porn video.

However, the blonde girl in the window pointed with dull eyes and said, “Heivia, I see a suspicious package lying on top of that wooden box.”

“Kyaaahhh!!”

That tough, experienced soldier screamed like a girl and knocked the porn video case off of the wooden box acting as a table.

Quenser leaned over and whispered to Heivia in order to gather some intelligence.

“(Hey, Heivia. Who is that girl? She seems to know you.)”

“(I’ll explain more later, but she’s the only daughter of the Vanderbilt family. Her family has about as much power as my own, but she can use pretty much all of her power as a noble while I’m relatively alone and helpless. I can’t let my guard down, so you be quiet and let me do the talking. This isn’t someone a commoner should be angering!!)”

“I don’t have such a short temper,” said the girl.

“I see. But if what milady says was true, I would not have had so many difficulties in the past.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about. Anyway, I do not need a reason to speak with you. As we are engaged, it is unnatural for us to even spend a day without speaking. In fact, if you would contact me, I would not need to do this, Heivia. It is not right for me to have not heard from you ever since you left for the battlefield.”

“Please give me a break. Any emails I write even to relatives are monitored in order to prevent information being leaked. They would find out I use all sorts of cute emoticons.”

Heivia spoke as if he was annoyed, but Quenser realized his tone was different from normal. It lacked its usual edge. Quenser decided it would be best to remain silent, so he went back to loading bullets. He was not one to butt into a conversation between a couple.

“But what kind of room are you in? I thought you were on the front lines performing valiant deeds to gain the right to succeed as the head of your family. Does the Winchell family determine its heir with side jobs?”

“Oh, things can be complex out here. A young lady sipping tea in the safe country probably would not understand how things work on the battlefield.”

“Heh heh. You would think that, wouldn’t you?”

“Ahn? What? You aren’t relaxing in a Paris mansion? …Don’t tell me you’re on your way here or something.”

“Not even I would be so impolite as to enter a base and throw everything into confusion while a war is going on. It is quite the opposite. I am currently headed to the place farthest in the world from this planet’s wars. In this place, the colors of national flags are irrelevant.”

“?”

“Well, if you manage to prove yourself on that muddy battlefield and finally convince those hard-headed members of the Winchell family, you come here too. It is a bit too inconvenient for a primary residence, but it is perfect for enjoying every once in a while.”

And then the door to the room opened wide without so much as a knock.

Quenser and Heivia spun around at the loud noise.

Their long silver haired commander, Froleytia, stood there.

“Quenser, Heivia, we have an urgent job. We need to gather in the conference room.”

“??? Why did a major like you head here directly? Couldn’t you have sent a message?”

“This room is oddly sealed, so radio signals can’t reach it. Also, this video chat was given priority, so I wouldn’t have been able to cut in until the transmission from the Vanderbilt family ended. I only realized that a bit ago. It was my mistake, so I came to get you.”

Froleytia then turned toward the computer’s monitor.

She grabbed Heivia by the back of the neck and said, “As I am sure you heard, I have to borrow him.”

“Yes,” said the blonde girl in the dress with a slight nod. “Work him as hard as you can without killing him, so he can finish with the military quickly.”

===Part 4===

Froleytia threw Quenser and Heivia into the conference room and began the meeting with the soldiers who had already gathered there.

“Our stage this time is Antarctica,” said Froleytia as she projected a large map onto a whiteboard. “One of our Legitimacy Kingdom survey planes was targeted by a surface-to-air missile while it was flying along the coast of the Ross Sea. It was exposed to a locking laser.”

“Is our mission to rescue the crew that crashed in Antarctica?” asked Quenser but Froleytia shook her head.

“Fortunately, the plane was equipped with emergency flares. One of those broke the enemy’s lock and they escaped out of their range. The problem is that some idiot in Antarctica was targeting them with a missile,” said Froleytia while grinning. “We directly contacted the Information Alliance, the Capitalist Corporations, the Faith Organization, and the other world powers to check, but none of them seem to know who it could have been. Whether they were telling the truth or not, this is being internationally treated as an attack by terrorists not associated with any world power. In other words, no one can complain if we take them out.”

Hearing that, Quenser and Heivia began whispering to each other.

“(Terrorists, hm? I had heard the ones in the Western European safe country could be more frightening than a battlefield where Objects deal with everything.)”

“(Yeah, I’ve heard it said the special forces in the police have a lot more training in direct combat. In fact, dealing with terrorists isn’t really a job for the military.)”

“(The police can’t head out to Antarctica. That’s probably why we’re being sent in.)”

Heivia raised his hand and spoke to his commander.

“So we’re getting them back?”

“This is nothing so uncivilized. The predicted location of the surface-to-air missile from the aiming laser is nearby an unmanned Legitimacy Kingdom observation post. We need to see if it has been destroyed, and if it has not, eliminate the threat to keep it that way. …Simple, right?”

“(So we’re killing them regardless,)” muttered Heivia upon seeing Froleytia’s smile.

Paying him no heed, the commander continued her explanation.

“As I said, the direction the aiming laser came from was used to estimate the location it was fired from. That location is at the base of Mount Erebus which is along the coast of the Ross Sea. We will send out a unit and attack. If possible, we would like to capture them alive to get their objective out of them, but if not, don’t worry about it. It seems killing them all would be no big deal.”

A stir utterly devoid of tension spread through the conference room.

Those monstrous 50+ meter weapons known as Objects were synonymous with war.

Objects had a certain characteristic. While they had over 100 weapons, those weapons were powered by a high output reactor and the weapons were primarily along the lines of laser beams, low-stability plasma cannons, railguns, and coilguns.

No one bothered putting surface-to-air missiles on them.

In other words, the odds of the supposed terrorists having an Object were quite low. And the Legitimacy Kingdom military could send out an Object filled with their latest technology at any time.

Their victory already seemed assured.

An Object could not be stopped even with a nuclear weapon, so small arms and missiles could do nothing. It was their understanding of that fact that led to all tension leaving the soldiers’ shoulders.

“Oh, right. I have one warning,” said Froleytia. “We cannot use the princess’s Object on this mission. Keep that in mind.”

“Hah?” said Quenser without thinking.

He thought he must have heard her wrong, but Froleytia awkwardly continued.

“Once again, we cannot use the princess’s Baby Magnum. Objects are monstrous weapons that weight over 200,000 tons. Putting one on that icy continent could easily lead to the thick ice cracking and the Object falling through. Then how are we supposed to get it out? I certainly don’t know of a crane that can lift something that heavy.”

“U-umm… I thought we were supposed to be a maintenance unit that ensures the Object can quickly and accurately deploy. What are we supposed to do without the Object?” asked Quenser.

“Well,” said Froleytia as she tapped at the map with a baton. “I expect you to fight the terrorists with smaller weapons.”

===Part 5===

And so they headed to Antarctica.

The terrorists were supposed to be hiding at Mount Erebus which was near the sea, but Quenser and the others used a boat to land on the coast rather than fly directly there. From there, they and about 100 fellow soldiers slowly approached in a circle around the area. The soldiers taking part in the operation usually acted as guards around the base. As they were also using tanks and attack helicopters, they seemed like a force from an earlier age.

“Are you serious?” muttered Heivia as he walked alongside Quenser. “This is Antarctica. Let me say that again: Antarctica. What am I doing? I was supposed to work in a base for 3 years in order to become the next head of my family. What am I doing here? Has that giant-breasted commander of ours forgotten that I’m a radar analyst?”

“Come to think of it, I came to the base as a battlefield student in order to study the Object, so why am I on this ice continent that doesn’t have the first thing to do with Objects?”

“God dammit. We’re just human antennae. They could just use drones for this.”

“With this gusting wind, UAVs would be hard to use. Also, the radio signal is easy to intercept, so they probably aren’t a good idea for dealing with terrorists.”

“What kind of serious response is that? Did you awaken to your masochist side under that beauty of a commander?”

“I just want to finish this so we can leave. I really don’t care about a job that has no connection to Object designs. Heivia, you need to learn how to just get things over with like an adult,” said Quenser in a bored tone of voice, but it did not seem Heivia was listening.

Heivia looked up into the white sky and said, “By the way, this is Antarctica, right? There’s one thing I’ve been wondering for a bit now. Mind if I ask it?”

“The wonders of nature are outside my area of expertise. If you want an explanation, ask one of the environmental protection organizations.”

“Oh, it’s nothing tricky.”

Antarctica was an ice continent. In some places, the temperature was as low as 50 below zero, making it a true area of frozen earth. In that white land, water spent more time of the year as a solid than as a liquid. The same went for humans. If a flesh and blood body was thrown out into that extreme environment, it would be frozen solid more often than not.

Or so it should have been.

“Why is it so damn hot in Antarctica?” groaned Heivia as he removed the hood of his cold weather coat.

He awkwardly wiped the sweat from his brow and looked around. In the animal documentaries he had seen, the area had been a flat land of pure white, but they were currently standing on a ground made of black stone. Also, white steam could be seen coming up from the ground in places. A powerful crosswind was blowing through and white snow continued to fall from the clouds above, but the steam kept them from feeling cold and the snow melted just before it touched the ground, so it did not accumulate. Nothing matched the image he had had in his head.

Meanwhile, Quenser looked down at the reading from a digital thermometer.

“The seasons in the southern hemisphere are reversed, right? It’s almost summer here. Even so, the air temperature is -3.9 degrees. You’d get cold in no time if you took off your coat.”

“No way. This is below zero? I feel like I’m in a sauna.”

“This is a volcanic area, so a strange heat does temporarily come from the ground. I remember a major eruption 2 years ago that made news by majorly changing the crater. You’re just feeling hot because of that. If you stay still, you’ll start to get cold, so you should put your hood back up.”

“Ah ha ha ha ha ha!!” laughed Heivia without warning.

Quenser looked over with a confused look and Heivia pointed in a certain direction.

“Look, Quenser!! It’s a hot spring. We’re in Antarctica and yet there’s a hot spring coming up from the ground!!”

“…I already told you this was a volcanic area.”

“But it’s a hot spring! In Antarctica!! This place is destroying everything I thought I knew about it!!”

As he spoke, Heivia removed his thick gloves. He crouched down at the edge of the pool of water that had white steam rising from it and stuck his hand in.

“Oh…wow. It feels like it’s a perfect 40 degrees.”

“Stop it, Heivia. If we got in a hot spring, we would just stop caring about this war.”

They were reluctant to leave, but Froleytia was sure to yell at them if they fell into the trap of that hot spring. So the two headed onwards.

The 100+ other soldiers were heading along too, but the circle was so wide Quenser and Heivia could not see any of the others.

They walked across the land of hard, black stone based on the map displayed on their handheld devices. After travelling some distance, the dark ground became covered in white snow and ice. The ground seemed flat, but it was actually sloped gently down to the extent that a ball would roll slowly forward if it was placed on the ground. The temperature seemed to be slowly falling as well. The white land continued as far as they could see in every direction and they could see no obvious landmarks. Merely looking away from the map was enough to make them feel lost.

Quenser looked down at the small pieces of ice that crunched under their feet as they walked.

“Oh, now this is more like what I expected of Antarctica.”

“Ow!? This isn’t just cold; it hurts! Hey, Quenser. There’s something weird about my face, can you see anything odd there!?”

“The sweat on your face is freezing. I’m guessing it hurts because it’s pulling at your skin.”

“Shit, shit, shit, shit!!” shouted Heivia as he frantically brushed the tiny bits of ice off his face and pulled up his hood. “Dammit! If it’s suddenly going to get Antarctica-like, why can’t it just be something cute with penguins!?”

“This much ice is quite a sight. You’d probably get sick of it after a few days, though.”

“Why are you taking this so well, Quenser? Are you from some cold country?”

“No. I’m more fed up with ice than anything,” said Quenser with a shrug. “When I was in my safe country school, we did all sorts of experiments with breaking rectangular sheets of ice to teach us the basics of Object armor. We would see how the cracks would run through it by striking it in different places.”

“Why ice? Object armor is made of steel.”

“With water, it’s easy to reuse. With a freezer, the experiment can be repeated as many times as you want. Also, we just needed to learn the basics of how the cracks worked, so there was no reason to use steel plates fine-tuned with highly flame resistant reactive material that requires an expensive artisan. By mixing in some chemicals to increase the viscosity before freezing it, it cracks the same way. We also performed experiments where we found more efficient means of absorbing impacts by destroying the balance of the viscosity,” said Quenser with a sigh.

It was due to how boring he found those school lessons that he had actually headed out to the battlefield.

Quenser then changed the subject.

“Come to think of it, what are the terrorists doing in the middle of nowhere like this? Did they get a surface to air missile just for some sightseeing?”

“You know nothing, Quenser,” responded Froleytia over the radio. “Antarctica has been an area of intense competition between many nations over who has rights to what areas even before the UN was destroyed.”

“…? I thought Antarctica had no national borders?”

“Because it has none, various forces have tried to claim it for themselves and have gotten in fights over it. Antarctica has iron and coal mines after all. The ocean also has plentiful areas to fish. It has plenty to compete over,” explained Froleytia offhand. “Currently, the powers claiming rights to Antarctica are the Oceanian military nation that was destroyed before, Western America’s Central Valley area of the Capitalist Corporations, the Chonos Archipelago area of the Information Alliance, and the southern Great Britain area of the Legitimacy Kingdom.”

Quenser frowned at that.

“Oceania and the Chonos Archipelago are in the southern hemisphere, but West America’s Central Valley is around Los Angeles, right? And southern Great Britain is where London is… Those areas have no connection with Antarctica.”

“They are bringing out their pioneering spirit and insisting the people who first discovered the continent have a claim. If it went in the order the expeditions were sent out, they would have the best claim, but that thought process does not take the concerned parties into account just like during the Age of Exploration.”

That meant the terrorists (or so they were officially being called whoever they might actually be) must have targeted the Legitimacy Kingdom survey plane with a surface-to-air missile due to trouble related to either Antarctica’s territories or resources.

(But that is not the real issue. In this age of Objects, the soldiers like us being forced to run around with a gun have it worst…)

“Do you have something you would like to say, Quenser?” asked Froleytia.

“N-no!! Nothing at all!!”

“I have one piece of good news for you. You need not get into a firefight with the terrorists once you find them. Our wonderful Object is on standby at the Ross Sea, so our cute waitress can blow them away with a long distance barrage once you get us their location.”

“Then,” said Heivia with his breathe showing up white in the cold air. “Couldn’t you have just used a military satellite instead of having us walk all the way there? In this day and age, you can get a villa on the moon and shuttles are
either launched by laser trajectory elevators or mass drivers. Satellites are as plentiful as empty cans on the side of the street. But I suppose I can’t expect a commander giving orders while sipping hot cocoa on the bridge of an assault landing aircraft carrier to understand how we feel shivering in the cold.”

“Things get a bit tricky when it comes to the Arctic or Antarctic,” Froleytia replied smoothly while completely ignoring that last disagreeable comment. “A geosynchronous satellite using the centrifugal force of the earth to hang near the equator can’t see this far. Some satellites do orbit perpendicular to the equator, but they can only monitor an area during a specific time of the day.”

“Don’t they have satellites that stay exactly over the earth’s axis outside the atmosphere?”

“Yes, but that is right in the middle of an area of disputed ownership. ‘Exactly over the earth’s axis’ is practically a pinpoint, so only so many satellites can be there. The Legitimacy Kingdom has a powerful advantage over the North Pole, but that also means we do not have a single satellite over the South Pole.”

“And so you are making up for that lack of equipment by shoving this insanely inefficient workload onto us human soldiers,” said Heivia with a sigh and a frown. “This isn’t something a civilized human should be doing.”

“Heivia, civilized humans have something known as manners. Do you get my meaning?” replied Froleytia.

Heivia was about to give a light reply, but before he could…

A rifle bullet struck the ground between Quenser and Heivia.

(An enemy attack!?)

The two immediately tried to take cover, but they realized the snowy plain gave them nothing to hide behind. Heivia grabbed Quenser’s shoulders and forcibly pulled him backwards. Even on that flat plain, the ground has slight ups and downs. They retraced their steps a few meters to a protrusion in the snowy plain and hid behind that cover created by the icy ground.

“(What, what, what!? Is this those terrorists!?)”

“(Who else would it be!? We almost died out here in Antarctica. If it hadn’t been for this strong crosswind, one of us would definitely have been killed by that initial shot!!)”

“(This area is both volcanic and ridiculously cold, so it has major temperature differences. They’ve been here longer than us, so the metal of their gun barrels or sights may have altered somewhat.)”

As they spoke back and forth in hushed voices, rifle bullets intermittently struck the white ground and sent ice crystals up into the air. The impact points were scattered. It may have been due to the crosswind that they could not hit their targets as Heivia had said, or it may have been due to numerous other smaller reasons piled on top of each other.

Still lying on the ground, Heivia held up his rifle with the sight attached that could pick up data from various sources such as the infrared and ultraviolet spectrums.

“(Their distance is 200 meters. There are 7…maybe 8 of them. The rifles they are using are those ones with the wooden stocks. They have forcibly attached grenade launchers with electrical tape.)”

“(Can you take them out?)” asked Quenser.

“(Why do you make it sound like you’re just a spectator? You should be pulling out your handgun or PDW!!)”

“(Sorry, but I don’t have any guns. I only have the usual explosives.)”

“(What are you even here for!?)”

Heivia was about ready to strangle Quenser, but then a rifle bullet struck the ground nearby. He frantically lowered his head and fired his own rifle back to hold the enemy in check.

“(Shit, shit, shit!! I’ll strangle you later, but I still need to ask! Why did you head off to fight terrorists without a single bullet!?)”

“(To be honest, I really did want to bring some!)”

“You can’t, Quenser,” cut in Froleytia. “A student who has not finished training cannot be authorized to carry a soldier’s firearm.”

“(Yeah, but doesn’t it take even more delicacy to handle explosives?)”

“You used explosives in your anti-shock experiments related to the shape of Objects back in your safe country school, didn’t you? That is why you have authorization for those. Also, that line of thinking is the sign of a boy who does not know how frightening an accidental discharge is.”

“(I see…)” responded Quenser faintly just as a terrorist bullet shot chunks of snow into the air right next to him.

At that point, Heivia snapped.

“Quit sitting around and do somethiiiinnnngggg!! Why am I the only one risking his life to fight back!? We know where the enemy is, so have the princess use her Object to blow them awaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyy!!”

“Oh, that’s right, that’s right,” said Quenser as he set his radio’s frequency to contact the Object.

The response he received was brief and clear.

“At that location, the shockwave and radiant heat would blow you two away as well. Are you okay with that? Over.”

“Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, fuck!!” shouted Heivia as he gave repeated quick bursts of 2 or 3 shots with his rifle.

Meanwhile, Quenser contacted their allies in the area, but none of them were in a position to arrive any time soon.

“Dammit. They aren’t lying about their position to avoid getting caught up in this, are they?”

He wanted to throw his weapon down and leave, but with the bullets flowing above, carelessly lifting his head would likely get him killed. Two hundred meters was relatively close range for rifles, so it was only due to the powerful crosswind and the plain white area affecting their visual comprehension that kept either side from hitting the other.

The enemy soldiers must have been more used to it because they were gradually spreading out. Only a few meters had opened up between the enemy soldiers, but they were clearly trying to circle around via different routes.

Quenser almost lifted his head up in shock, but Heivia held him down. Immediately afterwards, a bullet flew directly over his head.

Still covered in snow, Quenser said, “This is bad, Heivia!!”

“You mean that the enemy is splitting up to circle around on either side!? I already know! The problem is that there is nothing we can do about it!!”

“No, not that!! A penguin!!”

“Hah!? Who cares about a penguin right n-…A penguin!?”

“It’s a baby! A baby penguin!!”

With a shocked look, Heivia looked over in the direction Quenser was pointing. A small gray baby penguin was waddling awkwardly across right in the middle of the area between the soldiers firing rifles at each other.

It was going to be caught up in the firefight, but they could not exactly stop either.

Just as the veins in Heivia’s temple were bulging out in anguish, something odd occurred.

Just as he was about to remove his finger from the trigger, the terrorists stopped firing as well.

The only motion left on that white land was the baby penguin continuing to waddle along while paying no heed to the soldiers on the front line of a battlefield.

With sweaty palms, Quenser and Heivia watched its progress.

“(C’mon!! You can do it, baby penguin!!)”

“(Wait, why is it just the baby!? Doesn’t the parent need to be watching over it!?)”

And then the baby penguin tripped.

“Waahh!!”

“No, Heivia!! No human intervention is the rule of nature!!”

Heivia very nearly rushed out to help, but Quenser frantically stopped him. Meanwhile, the baby penguin used its small wings to force itself back on its feet.

“Gyah!” came a new avian cry.

“An albatross!?”

“It isn’t going to eat it, is it? It isn’t going to attack from the sky, is it!?”

Yet the rule of nature came into play again.

While Heivia was trying to aim his rifle at the sea bird and Quenser was trying to stop him, the albatross spread its wings wide and readied its aim from up in the heavens. The baby penguin that’s silhouette looked like a fluffy ball had no idea that it was being targeted.

And then the albatross attacked.

The penguin’s natural enemy soured down from the sky like a spear. Its deadly beak was accurately targeting the baby penguin.

Everyone envisioned the color and scent of blood.

Quenser and Heivia forget about fighting over the rifle and brought their hands up to cover their eyes.

But the tragedy they expected did not occur.

“Kmyaaaaaaaahhhhh!!” came a new cry from the side.

“!? Wh-what was that, Quenser!?”

“I think the mother is here. It’s the penguin’s mother!!”

Frightened by the warning cry, the albatross’s aim was thrown slightly off. The beak just barely grazed the baby penguin and it gave a high pitched cry for its mother.

The albatross did not seem willing to give up. It soared back up into the white sky, flew in a wide arc, and then aimed for the baby penguin once more.

However, the baby was no longer alone.

The large mother rushed over to act as a shield.

There was no guarantee the mother could save the baby.

The sea bird’s sharp beak and talons were enough of a threat for an adult penguin.

Even so, the mother penguin’s gaze did not waver.

It spread its wings that were meant for paddling through water, opened its beak as wide as it could, and let out warning cry after warning cry as loudly as it could.

Quenser and Heivia both held their breath.

The terrorists across the snowy plain were also silently watching on.

And then…

[[Image:Is0056.jpg|thumb]]

The albatross circled above the two penguins’ heads a few times before giving up. It left its previous trajectory, gave a defiant cry, and flew off into the white sky.

The penguin mother had protected its child.

In that instant, a great cheer as if from a stadium erupted within Antarctica. It sounded as if all humanity was letting out a cry of joy at the familial love of those penguins. Quenser and Heivia embraced each other and the enemy soldiers could be seen lifting their rifles up in both hands like barbells in a show passion. The spiral of joy surrounding the penguins seemed to surprise them. The baby hid in the small space between its mother’s legs and the two animals quickly left the area. Normally the male would have been doing this, but for some reason it was the mother.

After about 10 minutes, the penguins had cut across the battlefield, headed down a slight slope, and completely disappeared from Quenser and Heivia’s view.

Before long, the penguin fever quietly came to an end.

Immediately afterwards, both sides began the firefight anew without hesitation.

Quenser and Heivia hid as best they could. As Heivia pulled the trigger, he cried out with bloodshot eyes.

“Ahhhhhhhhh!! Fire fire fire fire fire!!”

“Dahhh! Dammit! I guess we really can’t come to an understanding!!” yelled Quenser as he operated his handheld device.

In Antarctica, everything was white no matter where you went, so he zoomed in and out of the map repeatedly to double check everything.

Seeing that, Heivia cried out in an annoyed voice. “What good will checking the map do us!? We can’t get help from the princess! The enemy is just going to split up and circle around!!”

“Let’s take care of them before that happens.” Quenser pulled some Hand Axe plastic explosive out of his bag. He stabbed the radio-receiver-equipped electric fuse into it. “When I give you the sign, fire like crazy to hold them back. I’ll throw this during that time.”

“Do you know how far away they are? That’s 200 meters. Not even a long throw with a regulation baseball can go that far.”

“I don’t have time to explain! Do it now!!”

“Already! Shit!!”

Still complaining, Heivia held up his rifle. Instead of carefully aiming for one enemy, he fired across all the enemies while swinging the rifle barrel in a fan shape.

As a result, his accuracy dropped even further, so his bullets did not even come close to hitting. However, it frightened the enemy soldiers enough to send them behind cover.

Quenser lifted himself up and threw the plastic explosive with all his might. The Hand Axe flew through a long arc, but it did not reach the enemies just as Heivia had expected. Also, the wind prevented it from flying exactly straight forward. Given how powerful the crosswind was, it must have taken quite some effort to throw it over 50 meters as Quenser had done. It landed on a patch of thick ice, so the Hand Axe slid along even further like a curling stone. The gradual slope of the snowy plain in that direction also helped, so the plastic explosive gained even more distance as it slid across the ground.

Even with all those factors, 120 meters was its limit. It was nowhere near the 200 meter distance of the enemies.

Heivia clicked his tongue and shouted, “Dammit! I told you!!”

“This is fine! This is what I wanted!! Get down, Heivia!!” Quenser shouted back as he used his thumb to send the detonation signal via his radio.

Heivia was doubtful, but the result came immediately thereafter.

With a great roar, a 200 meter long portion of the white earth ahead of them caved in.

It was like a giant pitfall. The earth crumbled and collapsed down a few hundred meters. The snow, ice, and soldiers on top were all swallowed up.

There was nothing they could do about it.

The enemy soldiers who had been firing bullet after bullet fell into the pit with shouts of surprise.

“Good, that seems to have worked,” said Quenser with a sigh of relief as he took his thumb off of the radio he had used for the detonation. “All I want to know about is Object design, so why do I keep learning new ways to kill people?”

“…Um, what just happened?”

“The area they were standing on was really and truly ‘on top of the ice’. A thick sheet of ice was covering the gap in a V-shaped stone cliff and nothing but a giant gap existed below. Thanks to the volcanic activity in this area, the space below had become something like a river. It was thick enough that a diesel snowmobile could have passed over without it budging, but it was not enough to withstand military explosives.”

“Oh, so that’s why you were checking the map.”

“I can see why they won’t send the Object out here.”

Quenser looked into the depths of the ice cliff he had created. He could not see the bottom within the deep, deep darkness. If an Object broke through that ice, a crane that could lift 200,000 tons would be needed. And of course, humanity had no such thing.

“Come to think of it, you did mention performing experiments with breaking sheets of ice back in your safe country school.”

“It was nothing this rough,” said Quenser with a shrug. “But aren’t you glad I brought these explosives?”

“Either way, I still feel like strangling you.”

===Part 6===

===Part 7===

===Part 8===

===Part 9===

===Part 10===

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