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Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 1

2022-04-08T17:53:44Z

Deck of cards:

Chapter 1: The End of Royalty

1000 years after the Apocalypse...

The peace after the Apocalypse foretold in the book of revelations never happened.

It was said that the aftermath of such devastation would bring about a thousand years of prosperity to man; but the battle didn’t go as prophesied. Instead, both forces had just about completely destroyed each other. The result of the massive war has left a world drastically different, 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 and others are separated by large oceans.

As a result, most everyone left alive had settled in land masses relatively close to each other, their past cultures forgotten, they began to forge a new path with just 1/5th of its original population.

The extinction level event left the past version of humanity in shambles.

In God’s final judgment, the belongings of the remaining humans were taken away, this included governments, weapons, knowledge, history, even basic human identity was returned to the heavens as if to give them one final chance to start over.

And so in the thousand years since the restart, the human race has 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 instead of the metropolises of New York or Tokyo. The humans of today have simply evolved intellectually down an alternative path, and in doing so created an incredible new world.

There are three superpowers of this new world, each with cultures not too dissimilar to one another.

La’Juune of the west, Troy to the north, and Eiyalazo to the east.

These three Kingdoms 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 and resources in each other’s country, many of each country's citizens once occupied tell of terrible tragedies bestowed on them by the opposing nations.

However, countless years of conflict have been endured at a dreadful cost to mind, body, and purse, and the leaders along with their people have grown weary of the accumulating toll.

After 10 years of relative peace at the conclusion of their biggest war to date, the three Kingdoms have decided it is now time for an attempt at permanent peace.

Through arranged marriages between the princes and princesses of the three countries, the royal families will call a truce to generations of past wars and conflicts and become allies with the goal of obtaining world peace.

It is under these circumstances, that the story of that dream begins...

A horse drawn carriage with 20 guards armed with swords, shields, and silver armor moves slowly on a marble road through a temperate forest. There are six women sitting in the extravagantly designed carriage. Four of whom are dressed in nun attire.

“You should be happy, Princess Trojia, this could really be the first step to world peace you know?” said a woman dressed in armor.

The princess she is addressing has glowing blonde hair and deep forest green eyes that are peering out of the window.

She looks agitated as she stiffly replies, "Niomyo, there’s no such thing as world peace. 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 north and 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 gives off the impression that she is wise beyond her years.

”Come on 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.” Trojia swiftly interrupts, “’ll have to poison the King quickly so I can become the Queen and stop this mess.”

Her stern declaration was accompanied by a wry smile, but her bodyguard didn’t notice.

With a shocked look on her face, the brown haired guard 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 five of the women held their chests 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.”

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, similar to how we Trojans feel... you don’t think that there will be any retaliation from radicals on our convoy?”

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

As soon as Niomyo finished talking...

BOOOOOOMM!!!!

A loud, fiery 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; 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 with a painted face is pointing a bow and arrow 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 show a strained smile as if knowing what is about to happen and resigning herself to it.

A short moment later, an arrow explodes through the temples of her head.

Blood sprays all throughout the cabin and stains the frilly 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, it all happened so fast that the next thing she knew, she has awaken find herself bound 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 investigates her surroundings, only to see the huddled mass of the armor clad dead bodies of all the guards that were 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’s apparent that he is the one in charge.

With a satisfied smile he answers, ”You know, I had a daughter once, she was around your age when the armies of Troy invaded our land and burned down my village. She’d be damn near 30 now if she wasn’t murdered by you bastards.”

”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 princess's voice, the man licks his lips when he replies, “They’re being taken care of.”

The implication of those words were meant to be obvious, she frowns and shouts, “Don’t you dare lay a finger on them!”

“I don’t think you understand the position you’re in, we are the ones in control here, not the kings or royal families. How can we let this disgraceful marriage happen? Not while the evils of your country are still so fresh in our minds. It’s time we stand up for ourselves if our King won’t do it for us. With you dead, we can avenge our fallen comrades and keep La’Juune for the La’Juutians.”

Trojia looks at the man, his face turns distorted with a twisted smile and it repulses her.

“Of course, we can’t let an opportunity for the spoils of war to pass us by, it’s not often that mere peasants like us get a chance to put our hands on the untouchable body of a princess.” He then shouts towards the younger men in the group. “Who wants to be the first to take her!?”

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 much 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 closed her teary eyes, begging in her mind for someone to help even though she knows that she is all alone and helpless.

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

Trojia looks up as a reaction to the sound and sees a whitish silver flash, darting in every direction as her captors collapse one by one.

As quickly as the flash started, the blur of the moment ended, and all of 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 silver hair wearing a navy cardigan above slim gray pants.

He confidently holds a red diamond sword that’s of an unfamiliar shape compared to any weapon she’s seen before. The man turns to look at Trojia with his unusual light green eyes that have pupils that look more like a reptile than a human.

“Are you okay?”

Trojia, still in shock cannot utter a word, she is still overwhelmed by the whole situation that has unfolded in front of her.

He sheaths his sword, reaches out his hand and unties the ropes that bound the princess's arms; Trojia doesn’t even flinch as her eyes are set on the face of the man who looks not much older than her.

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, there is an energy about his presence that sends shockwaves of electricity through her body.

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 and begins to walk away from her.

Without realizing it, her instincts take over and she grabs the sleeve of his cardigan.

“Who are you?”

"I’m just someone trying to do good.”

Before the man could say anything more, the sound of approaching horses and voices are heard echoing through the trees and coming from down the marble road.

After a few short moments they are now visible, it is the La’Juutian army on its way to the late rescue.

The young man looks at Trojia with another smile, “I’d rather not have to explain myself to them, so I’ll see myself out.”

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, the hero who saved her had made his exit before any more pleasantries could be exchanged.

“I never got to thank you….”

(PART 2)

The La’Juutian army arrives at the scene of the massacre with Niomyo in tow.

Overwhelmed with happiness, the princess’s bodyguard runs at Trojia while exclaiming, “Princess! I'm so glad to see your okay!”

She then gets on her knees, and with 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 glare replies, “What did they do to you, Niomyo?”

Surprised at the princess’s concern, Niomyo hesitantly answers, “They didn't do anything, 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 traumatized by the happenings of this incident, so Trojia didn’t pry any further.

Breaking their moment of silence, a powerful 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. And I'll make sure that the attackers will never see the light of another day.”

The voice came from a tall black man decorated in an extravagant suit of golden armor. He is Napoleon Leopolo, the world famous twenty six year old military leader who has been the Commanding General 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 Trojan deaths in his eleven year tenure.

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. Trojia has only ever heard of the horror stories that surround this man’s legend, even her own father had fought with Napoleon and barely escaped with his life. So having him appear in front of her not as the monster she had imagined in her head left her not knowing how to react his presence.

“I don’t need an introduction from you.” she said curtly.

The General shows an expressionless face as if knowing exactly what she implied, but purposely ignored the malice in her tone.

He gestures towards the road leading deeper into the forrest 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. The Capital City of 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 traveled on; flower pedals, music, and the smell of food flowing through the air welcomes them warmly.

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

Trojia, who is equally mesmerized by this but is too proud to show it, replies with suspicion. “It seems like they were already in the process of celebrating someone else's arrival, doesn’t it?”

“Now that you mention it, it kind of does.”

“Yeah, could it be that ‘they’ are here as well?”

After quite some time traversing the busy city streets, they reach the large castle of the King, the castle stretches dozens of stories up and seemingly shines in gold as they enter.

Almost every member of the army that accompanied them to gates of the castle were left outside, and only two of them are with general Napoleon who is now leading Niomyo and Trojia through the labyrinth like innards of the massive castle.

Finally after what seemed like a long walk, they are led to the top suite of the castle; it is a luxurious room with gorgeous oak furnishings and rare paintings. Underneath their feet are expensive rugs that they both almost feel guilty to even stand on.

This room really shows off the riches of the La’Juutian Kingdom, from the massive windows allowing sunlight in to the very details of the porphyry marble columns along the walls of the room.

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

Feeling like she was being talked down to, Trojia is a little offended by his choice of words.

Just as she was about to say something snippy in reply, she was interrupted Niomyo bowing and saying, “Thank you for saving my life, General.”

Much to the surprise of both women, Napoleon reveals a slight smile and 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 can't help but be grateful for the great Trojan murdering general for just a brief moment for saving the life of her precious guard.

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 stealthily dressed men; they aren’t La’Juutian, instead they are the two princesses and bodyguards of the eastern country of Eiyalazo.

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

“Hmph, princess Daey DiVore, I see you're as loud as ever.” Trojia replies with a puff out of her nose.

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 afterwards 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 a competitive animosity towards one another, though to Trojia, the only one who really takes the grudge to heart is Daey.

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

She resembles her older sibling but her hair is black. She has always been shy, gentle and kind, much to the opposite of how Trojia views Daey. She very much likes Niera and the two were both very close friends before their country’s relations took a sour turn.

"It’s great to see you too Niera, we’ve all grown so much since the last time we were together. I wasn’t told that we were all going to be here at the same time, so this is a nice surprise.”

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 Daey’s insult, Trojia holds onto her chin in contemplation when she replies, “That’s odd, that wasn’t mentioned to me either. I was summoned specifically to live here as the prince’s wife... this is my first time in this country, I never had to go through some official engagement process."

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

In walks Napoleon, guiding a priest dressed in black; the priest is a black man with glowing purple eyes and starch white hair. Behind him comes two teenagers dressed in royal garments, and beside the two are what seems to be their bodyguards, both of whom are women.

"Alright then let’s get the introductions over with, you all have met Napoleon, the priest here is Phoenix Navara, and last is my bodyguard Tsubiri.”

Those hurriedly spoken words came from the Crown Prince and rightful heir to the throne of La'Juune, Xavier Courlivet.

“So you didn’t feel the need to introduce yourself, huh?” said 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 when both princess Daey and Trojia never before had to visit that reason?”

He is a tall man wearing a long coat that covers half of his face so only his black sunglasses 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 reveals 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 ourselves.” Trojia asked.

All of the La’Juutians look 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 heard an unfamiliar voice coming from the other side of the room saying.

“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 wrap around the linings of the coat, 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 their 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 is genuinely frightened by this person, he gives off an evil aura that she’s never felt before. But she is somehow able to nervously force out a question of her own.

"What do you mean the king is dead?”

The smile leaves the man on the throne, 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 whether to believe him or not, the two princes of La'Juune are very uneasy upon hearing that, they are experiencing similar a sensation from his aura to Trojia, and it is because of this that they have no reason not to believe him.

The man stands up and spreads his arms. “The answers to all of your questions lie 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 dust has settled and the young man is standing in the middle of the large room with his red diamond sword ready to slash down his enemy. Shaking off the shock, everyone looks up 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 because she has seen the abnormality of this person just hours earlier, Trojia shouts out to him. But the look that he gave her in return was the complete opposite of what he had expressed to her in the forest, a frown filled with hate caught Trojia off guard.

The frown gave way to a confused look when he asked, “You!? What are you doing here?”

Hearing him ask that, she realizes that this boy had no clue who she was from the very beginning, and just like he said, he saved her for no reason other than the fact that she was in trouble.

Before she could reply, the man 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 the young man named Ubica completely disregarded the presence of the others, “Where is she? Damien!”

When Damien replies with silence, Ubica is overcome with anger as the two exchange knowing glares.

This triggers him to rush in and attack.

This is when the sky outside suddenly turned a maddening black, filling the room with darkness.

The attention of all the occupants in the room was shifted toward the shattered window 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 a large scythe.

Ubica, not looking surprised at all clicks his tongue and spits out the name of the man, “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 Rage, here is where you're 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.

As if the appearance of the man on the throne was the last person he expected to see, Rage is caught completely off guard.

“Damien!?”

“Who would have thought this would happen after all this time.” Ubica said, posturing himself into a position to strike whoever makes their move first.

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 was 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 I want them to be.”

Ubica looks confused by Damien’s words and Rage has a face of anger as he realizes he had fallen into an avoidable trap.

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

”It is finally time for me to change it all. I would appreciate it if you all play your part.”

Damien reveals a final look of content 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 one's hands over the neck and head for protection, which is exactly what everyone other than Ubica and Rage are doing. On the contrary, the two of them are 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 are 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 was 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 she sees Ubica. 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.

“Are you alright!!?”

Ubica looks down at her and with an impish smile replies, “What!? I can’t hear you, the wind is too loud!”

After a minute of intensity, the wind and earthquake like shaking eases 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. If it’s a fight you want, then I’ll give it to you. Just know this, there is no way I will die before I get what I want out of Damien. I will not lose.”

Ubica draws his sword and points it at Rage.

Without flinching Rage calmly says, “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 this time trying to kill me you expect me to just call a truce?" Ubica sighs and lets his guard down. "Well, by looking outside I guess I have no choice.”

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. They are met with an eerie silence accompanying those gray clouds.

Rage looks at the crowd of royals and then shifts his attention back toward Ubica.

“This is bad...”

“What do you think he's trying to accomplish by bringing us here?”

“I don't think it's just about us, do you have any idea who is standing behind you?”

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

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

Ubica is now surprised, he had no idea.

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

Both Rage and Ubica send him a sharp glare and simultaneously 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 shrugs 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 away toward the door and he grabs the handle. “H-Hey, why aren’t my bodyguards 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 she is so afraid of Rage and overwhelmed by everything that has just happened that her legs can’t move.

Naturally, Xavier took their reactions as blasphemy, oblivious to the situation he is in and feeling betrayed by his subjects, 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 back into the room, Xavier shakily sits with his back against the wall, struck with the feeling of shame at his actions along with the undeniably helpless feeling of falling out of the sky. It would seem he has finally realized that the defense mechanisms of using his title as Prince will do him no good any longer.

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

Trojia shoves him in jest and says, “That’s a mean thing to say.”

Xavier lifts his wary 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.

“You want to marry this guy?"

"Of course I don’t! It’s just, I have no choice in the matter...”

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

“I'm the princess of Troy and my mother and his father arranged the marriage between us. You really haven’t heard the news about all this? Have you been living under a rock until now?”

Ubica scratches his head and looks away a little embarrassed. "Well, actually..."

"We have much larger things to worry about now.” Rage interjects, “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 what is happening?”

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

Upon hearing this, the 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.

"I take it you’ve never read the Bible, General?” Rage asks.

“I haven’t.”

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

Ubica looks back to Trojia and says, “If I would have known what your situation was when we first met, I would’ve done something to help.”

Flustered by the thought of Ubica's kindness, her comfort in his words is abruptly interrupted when the a loud noise is suddenly heard.

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 grabs Trojia’s hand, 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 of 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 that might be necessary in the near future. They grab extra clothes and weapons once in cabinets that are now scattered around the room, and then the group joins Rage on the evil looking black cloud before floating down towards the ground gently like a falling feather.

Seeing the structure of the living room dissolve from outside on the black 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 what should be a terrifying situation. Even though the wind is loud she feels as though 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 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 cheek of a surprised Ubica.

“That’s for saving my life... thank you.”

He smiles and let’s her out of his grip when he asks, “Is that how you plan on thanking me from now on?”

Flustered, her shoulders tense up when she replies, “N-No, I just felt like that was the best way to show you my appreciation.”

“That’s a relief.” Ubica replies, “As much as appreciate kisses, if you did that every time I help you going forward the others will get the wrong idea.”

“Going forward?”

Ubica takes a deep breath and looks up towards the incoming black cloud carrying the rest of the group.

“All of you are going to need a lot of help now. If I want to do good, this is my best chance.”

(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 tired royals have seen since the beginning of their journey.

“Let's rest here, It’ll be night soon.” said Rage, fatigue not anywhere near apparent in his body language.

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 replies, “We’re not in a world as predictable as Earth, no matter where the sun is there is a chance it would drop and be dark at any moment, This could be the safest place in Purgatory for all we know, but it can still be 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?” asked Tsubiri.

“You shouldn’t separate from the group, it might not be safe for you. I’ll take care of everything for tonight.” Ubica politely replied.

Ubica grabs a few of the canteens that were grabbed from the room and gets ready to walk off.

“You can handle the fire right?”

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

The group gathers together 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 in an attempt to set ablaze the little bit of kindling he found.

“That’s not necessary.” said Rage.

He grabs his scythe, and with it he simply touches the pile of wood on the ground, in a flash it is engulfed in a bright 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?”

Now completely dark, under the dazzling star filled night sky the group begins to huddle in their blankets to prepare themselves for the first night here. The outside living is totally new to the royals, but Napoleon and the bodyguards have experience due to training or times spent on the battlefield.

Rage is leaning on the tree with his eyes closed while the rest chat.

Upon realizing that Ubica has been gone for more than an hour, Trojia no longer partakes in conversation with the others. Lost in thought she harkens back on what he said about how it may be dangerous to separate from the group.

Thinking of the potential for the worst, Trojia quietly gets up and sneaks away from the circle and heads in the direction of the lake that 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. The sky is flushed with the many different colors of stars that are all reflecting brightly off a large 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 Ubica's cardigan by the shore of the lake.

Trojia has yet to see any movement in the water, so panic pokes at her chest when the picture of him drowned flashes through her mind.

It's been about ten minutes, she is now pacing back and forth anxiously, becoming more and more frantic by each passing second she considers shouting out his name when the water remains still and there is no movement outside of the lake in sight.

She walks to the shore of the lake while asking herself, (What should 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 rapidly with each second.

The water expands like an inflating balloon and then

BOOOOSHHH!!!

A huge splash is heard and water is sent flying all over; 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 at a crazy speed.

Thinking she is going to be crushed she instinctively shuts her eyes and braces herself.

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?”

Upon seeing Ubica so casually show up, her relief is sidelined by frustration when she shouts, “You’ve been gone for so long! I was 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 he is soaking wet and completely naked; her face turns bright red as she pushes him away and covers her eyes.

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

“Hey I’m not the one who is perverted! You’re not supposed to be here!”

“Why 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!”

“Am I not allowed to dry off first??”

With 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.

“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 until it tired itself out. I didn’t think that the lake was so deep!”

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

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

“Y-Yeah.”

Walking to Ubica’s side she looks at him dragging the large fish on the ground effortlessly, once again he amazes her, 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 well over a ton.

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

The two 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 bodyguard and chuckles a little before saying, “Okay who’s hungry?”

“Whoah look at the size of that thing!!” 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 enjoyed a huge dinner.

The vibe of the night was truly filled with no worries at all, until Niera’s elderly bodyguard broke the jovial atmosphere by looking to Rage and asking, “Now, would you mind telling us exactly what’s going on?”

As if expecting the question to be asked sooner or later, Rage shrugs his shoulders and begins answering.

“I’ll start with introducing myself.”

The group goes silent.

“My name is Rage... I am the Angel of Death.”

The power of Rage’s words sent chills down the spines of the group, even the usually calm Napoleon felt a little unnerved at this.

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

“That sounds pretty hard to believe.” Napoleon said while rubbing his temple.

“That’s because you haven't read the bible, it was always there for you. But you soldiers were always so against it.” said the priest Phoenix Navara.

Napoleon tries to hide a grimace, to him the story was even more unbelievable then than the situation they're in now.

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

“In order to fulfill his plan, it seems it was necessary for him to kill the King. Unfortunately, I do believe your father is dead.”

Both Xavier and Luke slump their shoulders, they don't cry, even though the king is their father, they are both able to handle the thought of his death well. One must wonder just what kind of relationship the two had with him before this.

“So what is Damien planning by sending us here?” asked Napoleon.

It would seem that his king's death has affected him more than the two brothers, but as a soldier he can only control what he can currently control.

Rage shows an expression 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 their army’s Commanding General 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 the acting King and he'll likely react instinctively.The result will without a doubt be a world war.”

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

“I think 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 souls to allow them to rise. But this time is different, I won’t be there to gather my share of 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 replies, “Damien is definitely strong enough to inflict massive amounts of damage on his own, but I'm sure he used a substantial amount of power to break the seal to get to Earth, and even more just to send us here. He wouldn't want to risk fighting Rage and I at the same time on Earth in a weakened state so he chose the easier option. But Purgatory on the other hand is a neutral world that exists independently. Damien will send countless demons to kill us. So don’t any of you ever let your guard down.”

Startled by the thought of such a looming threat, Xavier speaks, “W-Well can’t you just send us back to home? Don’t you have that ability?”

“No, I don’t." Rage answers. "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 while overcome with frustration at being so powerless. “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 answer, instead the both of them 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 wary 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 are 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 until just a moment ago, thought they were going to be stranded.

“Well that sounds easy enough!” declares Xavier.

Hearing this, Ubica sighs and Rage chuckles with a wry smile, the relief of the rest turns into an awkward silence because of their reaction.

Rage suddenly halts his light 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 are able to adapt, I won't be surprised if you're the first one to die in this place.”

Xavier’s face turns blue and he cowers 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 just because there is a way out.”

The faces of the royals turn pale at the thought.

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 to 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 the world over.” With arms folded as though he were deep in thought as he spoke, he continues, “Naturally there will be obstacles keeping us from passing the Purgatory gates, Damien’s demon allies will surely come for us, 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 upon hearing that.

“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.”

“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 answering in his stead, “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 stops Rudo from speaking again by gesturing with his hand.

“I know all of you want more answers, and you’ll get them in due time, but for now just give it a rest.” He then gestures towards Rage with a shrug of his shoulders, “Besides, you don’t wanna see him when he’s cranky.”

-----------------------

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, frogs, and other 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 Ubica sitting up against a tree, but he is not there, and neither is Rage.

She is not as worried about Ubica’s safety this time; perhaps because she is only half awake, 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 castle, he was chasing after Ubica to steal his soul.

She immediately jumps out of her makeshift blanket that was once a curtain in the King’s room and scours around the premises for any sign of where they went.

Walking behind a couple trees she can hear the faint sound of a voice, and after walking ever so slowly closer to its source she can sense the cold energy of animosity emitting from it.

Trojia can now see Ubica and Rage scowling at each other with a tremendous amount of killing intent.

Frightened, 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 as Ubica demands, “That’s right, it was an order. Keep my past out of your lips.”

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 them? They're better off knowing who you really are, they’d be smart not to get too close to you and your unforgivable sins.”

“Unforgivable sins, huh? Why am I not allowed to at least try to make up for them when I have the opportunity to do it? And who do you think you are to judge me? You’re not much different from me, you only have the luxury of acting high and mighty because you think you were forced into yours.”

“What I am is no secret. You have known this group for less than a day and you already want to hide what you are. There’s no point in trying to save face to strangers, it's pretty pathetic don’t you think?”

“Pathetic or not, I deserve a chance to do right by them and to the world they left behind. I won’t let you and your self righteousness get in the way of that."

Rage clicks his tongue and turns his back to him, as he walks away he says, “I won’t say anything to them about you. But, that princess you’re getting close to will become your greatest weakness, and Damien will exploit that weakness and use it to destroy you. You can try your best to keep her and the rest from your darkness, but you should know that them finding you out is inevitable.”

A black mass begins to form under Rage’s feet and he slowly rises into the air. Looking down on Ubica he says, “At the end of all this, I’m going to take your soul and all your pitiful efforts to save face will be pointless.”

Rage rides out of sight on his black cloud and leaves Ubica standing there clenching his fists.

As though releasing the tension in his hands and shoulders, he takes a soft breath and exhales slowly; he looks up at the diversity of different colored stars and softly says to himself, “Pitiful… is what I want now really so bad..? No, repentance is never pitiful no matter how little it will make up for what I’ve done.”

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 beating wildly at the mystery behind it. It would seem that the person she has so quickly become so fond of has a horrible secret; she can’t help but wonder what he could have done that would be so bad to where he’d go to such lengths to keep it from her.

She then asks herself if this is a secret she even wants to know?

She’s already created this image of the person who saved her life twice over in her head; to her, he is this magical savior like boy who could do no wrong. What about his past could make her not see him that way?

Stopping the walk in her tracks she realizes the answer to that question.

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, whether 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.

“You’re awake? You really should get some rest, it’s been a long day for you.” he said, hiding his discomfort behind a fake smile.

Ignoring his words, Trojia walks closer to him and says, “You know, I’m okay with it.”

“Okay with what?”

“Whatever you are, I’m okay with it!” Trojia declares with a flushed face.

Ubica is taken aback, and the thought immediately comes to mind that she overheard the conversation he just had with Rage.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that if I were you.” He replied while scratching his head in exasperation.

“I know that the person in front of me right now is good. I’m sure of it! So don’t torture yourself,” Trojia puts out her hand to him and looks away bashfully. “If you want to make amends for whatever it is that’s hurting you, take my hand and let’s go join the others.”

Ubica smiles; though he’s sure that she has overheard his conversation with Rage, she’s not prying into it and instead is just accepting the person in front of her for who he is now. He might feel guilty about it, and he certainly wants to keep it from her despite sensing that she is curious as to what it is that’s bothering him, but she is still standing here, her hand outstretched to him in acceptance despite it.

This person is special.

He takes her hand and asks, “Is this really alright?”

“It is.” Trojia replies, confidently leading him back toward the light of the campfire, “Because what matters is that we’re all in this together. We have a lot to look forward to!”

The End of Royalty (END)

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| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 2|Chapter 2]]
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Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 1

2022-04-08T08:32:10Z

Deck of cards:

Chapter 11: Her and the King

(PART 1)

A blond haired woman is walking down a long corridor accompanied by a large man clad in blue and white armor. The woman is wearing a light white dress that drags to the floor, on her wrists and around her neck are beautiful gold and blue diamond jewelry with the inscribed letter of a capital T. The man's armor has similar inscriptions on it as well.

“So what is the war report, Sturgess?” the woman asks.

To which the man named Sturgess replies, “The La'Juutians were the first to take the initiative with an offensive strike, but our western border defense regiments are holding their own for now. Our eastern offensive regiments are in the process of invading Eiyalazo, though getting through that wretched forest is to our disadvantage.”

“All in all, are things going good or bad?”

“Well I'd say they are going better than expected; plus, our recruitment centers are adding thousands of applicants each day. It seems that our country has united for this cause.”

The woman smiles, she turns her head toward him, revealing her large dark gold eyes. She is strikingly beautiful and looks much younger than her her 35 years of age.

“That's good... though so many of them disagreed with my decision to obtain peace with the other two countries, it only takes a betrayal of that promise in order for them to all agree on something, it's actually quite funny. But I am sympathetic to their outrage; one of those rotten countries has my daughter, I'd expect nothing less than righteous indignation from my citizens.”

The woman continues to walk down the corridor until they reach a large glass door, they walk through it and enter a large balcony.
The balcony sits near the top of a tall castle. Though not as massive as the castle of La'Juune, this one has a much more intricate design to it and the granite stone that makes up the structure is white. The curtains in the windows are all blue, and at the top point of four castle spires flies a white flag with a large blue letter T.

The view from the balcony is like it came out of a fairy tale, beautiful snow capped mountains tower over lush green fields. Dark green pine trees are spotty throughout these fields and intertwine wooden homes and places of business that lay to the side of cobblestone roads. Similar to what a more densely populated mountain town in Switzerland would look like, all the manmade structures in this part of the city feels like it has perfectly bonded with its natural environment.

Sturgess sighs and rubs his light beard, his hair both on his face and his head is of a salt and pepper color, with his hazel eyes he looks to be in his late thirties and has a rather large scar printed over his right eyebrow.

“I definitely didn't foresee this happening, Earth’s first official attempt at world peace ends up turning into a world war... the irony certainly stings a little.” he said while looking at the view.

The woman pulls a long pipe out of a nap sack connected to the belt on her waist, she lights a match and begins to smoke the scented tobacco leafs already ground into the bowl of the pipe.

She roughly blows out a cloud of smoke as if emphasizing what she is about to say.

“Do you know why a woman such as myself is the one to rule this country, and not a man?”

Sturgess stands in silence as she continues.

“It's because men are only good for fighting, whilst women are better suited for decision making. Thus the reason why I alone run this country through my intellect, and that idiot husband of mine is out there on the front lines.”

Sturgess's mouth makes a sour expression and he looks away from her.

The woman inhales another drag off her pipe. “The La'Juutian government has taken for granted the fact that I gave them my only daughter and rightful heir to my throne in an attempt at finally making amends for past violence. Whether they kidnapped her themselves, or allowed her to be taken away from under their noses is an unforgivable offense.”

With her eyes she scales the beautiful city, she rests her head on her hand and says, “The people of my country see it the same way as I do. I rather like my daughter, if something happens to her my anger would know no bounds. Plus, I'd need to have another child to become the future Queen, and that would mean that idiot husband of mine will have to live through this war. This could lead to a dreadful succession if we don’t get her back.”

Sturgess twitches his eyebrow and quickly replies, “In the case of the King's death, wouldn't it be easy to find another husband?”

The woman smiles and answers, “Of course it would be, the thing is, I don't want to. Nor will I do so if that becomes the case.”

Sturgess frowns and raises his voice, “But that would jeopardize our country's future!”

The woman turns to him, blows a plume of smoke in his face and laughs. “No need to get so worked up Sturgess, I'm only kidding. Though I wouldn't want to bare a child with anyone other than him, I'd have no choice in the matter.”

She tips her pipe over and watches the ashes float away in the wind off the balcony.

Once they fall out of view, she walks toward the door and pats Sturgess's shoulder before teasingly saying, “Perhaps you would be the best candidate for my future husband?”

His hazel eyes brighten up with excitement, the woman continues to walk into the castle, leaving him behind.

Through the echo of the hallway she continues to speak, but this time she makes the mockery in her tone more obvious. “But I wouldn't get my hopes up if I was in your position. You and I both know very well that that idiot is way too lucky to die out there like a dog in the mud.”

The door shuts and his vision of the woman can no longer be seen.

Sturgess turns and leans on the balcony railing, he takes a deep breath and says to himself, “Oh Queen Lelaine, that's where you're wrong. The King fights in my army, he won't be so lucky with me in control of his environment. Hehehe, with his death, I'll finally have that body of yours and become the King of Troy!”

------------

“Hey you idiot! I said get your ass over here!!!”

Responding to the sound of this girl's a voice, a man scurries out of a group of soldiers huddling around a campfire. This man has faded brown hair and dark green eyes, he's wearing blue soldier's armor and looks to be a typical army man.

He runs to the front of the girl who called out to him, moves his arm to a saluting position and shouts, “Yes ma'am!”

The tan skinned girl frowns and grabs his collar to maneuver his upper body lower to her position. “If I remember correctly, I specifically asked you to clean the latrines did I not?”

The man shows a nervous smile as a cold sweat rolls down his temple, the girl's crimson red eyes grow bright at the sight of his face and she loudly blows air out of her nose.

“You're lucky I'm in a good mood tonight, I had someone else do it.” She turns her head around quickly, and as a result whips the man with her wavy black hair, she walks a few feet away from him and fiddles with the white clothe worn under her thin red armor. “But! If I catch you slacking off again, I'll have you on guard duty for twenty four hours straight!”

The man jumps in fear at her declaration and once again postures himself for another salute before replying, “Y-Yes ma'am!”

The girl stops her walk and turns half of her body toward him, with a blushing red face and her eyes diverted away, as if not wanting anyone else to hear her voice she softly says, “I've told you this before... call me Ash.”

She blinks awkwardly a couple times and then walks away into a crowd of loitering soldiers.

The man sighs loudly and scratches his head, he walks back to the campfire and rejoins the group, he heavily drops his body and sits on a log seat. The whole group of nine men simultaneously burst into laughter at the expense of the scolded man.

“Buahahaha, jeez Zurvick, she really has an out for you.”

“No kidding, she's a total nightmare for all of us but she is a complete demon to you!”

The man named Zurvick scratches his head and comes to her defense. “Oh it's not that bad, she's just doing her job as our Captain.”

One of the men nudges Zurvick's shoulder rather hard and says, “Being a strict captain is one thing, but sadism towards one of her underlings is another.”

Another one of the men adds, “Isn't she only a teenager?”

“Ooh yeah that's right! She's only nineteen, we all tend to forget her age because she talks to us like we're the children.”

Zurvick drops his head and says, “Okay okay, give her a break.”

A man teasingly wraps his arm around around Zurvick's head and asks, “Could it be that you're some kind of masochist?”

Zurvick attempts to move the man's big arm and replies with a panicked voice, “No! Of course not! It's just, it's just...” He gives up on escaping and shows a troubled expression along with a strained smile, “She's close to the same age as my daughter... though their personalities are different, I can't help but be reminded of her when I see the Captain.”

The vibe of the group suddenly drops; they all show saddened faces.

One of the men tries to comfort Zurvick by saying, “That's what we're fighting for, right? I'm sure we'll get her back!”

The rest of the group all say their agreements and Zurvick smiles.

“Thanks guys.”

This group, along with the entire division of 350 men are currently residing in the Liceiin forest of Eiyalazo. Most, if not all of this country lies in a continent wide forest, an abundance of large pine, sequoia, and banyan trees spread throughout its entirety. In this country, nearly every species of tree exist here as a result of an equator shift and a north and south pole slide after the Apocalypse. But this Liceiin forest is located at the western border of Eiyalazo, the forest is densely populated with an excess of 300 foot high sequoia trees and whittled with the roots of hundred foot high banyan.

Unlike most other sequoia forests, the massive and thick trees are so close together that at some points they are touching; this, combined with the intertwined roots of the banyan trees that hang overhead makes this a deadly terrain. If one were to get lost or stuck, it'd be near impossible to escape a certain death. It's only noon in the forest but it is close to pitch dark due to the tightly encroached trees that make daylight spotty and it gives off the feeling that it is a never ending night.

Captain Ash walks through the fire lit camp and proceeds towards a large tent. She glances at a few men standing guard and they nervously stiff up.
Ash huffs air out of her nose, walks in the tent and sees three men with concerned looks on their faces. One of them is holding a piece of paper in his hand and a messenger hawk in the other.

Ash's eyebrow twitches and she asks, “Message from the higher ups?”

The man replies, “Yes ma'am.” and hesitantly hands her the paper.

She reads it and her eyes grow large, with a double take she frowns and shouts,

“What the hell is this!?”

------------

Zurvick is still loitering around the campfire with the group, due to the lack of sunlight, the campfire is needed for both warmth and light. Out of a nap sack he holds on his waist, he pulls out a canteen filled with a sweet Trojan liquor. He takes a swig and lays back in his log seat.

The man next to him sees this and says, “I see you’re still drinkin' eh?”

Zurvick leans up and replies, “Yeah, both my wife and I ought to kick these little habits of ours.”

The man looks at him with an interested expression and asks, “Your wife drinks also?”

Zurvick smiles and replies, “Nope, she smokes tobacco out of a pipe. Every time I drink, I think about how we need to quit so we don't leave a bad influence on our daughter. Haha, but the thing is, I'm always the one sending her the many different kinds of tobacco leafs from all the lands that I have visited, and she always brews me this delicious sweet liquor so I can make it through these long days a little easier. Huahhh~, such bad parents we are.”

He is still wearing a sugary smile after his faux complaint, it only hits him now that he just went off in a tangent about himself and turns to apologize when he sees the large eyes of the nine soldiers staring at him intensely.

“W-What? Is there something on my face?”

One of the men drools and says, “Wait a minute... so you're saying that the liquor you always carry is handmade by your wife?”

“...Well yeah.”

In an instant, all of the men pounce on him in an attempt to grab his canteen.

“Ooooaahhh!! What's going on here!?” Zurvick desperately shouts as he protects his flask with his life.

All the men are yelling at him and shoving at each other to obtain his alcohol, they yell, “Zurvick you bastard! You've been holding out on us this entire time, huh!?”

“Come on come on, just one little sip of her liquor and I'll be set for life!!!”

“Uahhh I can smell it in your breath! I bet it tastes like heaven! GIVE IT TO ME!!!”

Zurvick continues to try to push the nine meathead soldiers off of him.

“No way! She made it for me!”

This rowdy scene is truly quite comical, one can't help but see how well they all get along.

This is when Ash walks to them and sees the men wrestling around, her eyebrows steepen and a vein can be seen in her forehead.

She takes a deep breath and releases a thunderous roar, “ATTENTION!!!”

All the men scurry around and fall over themselves, after a few moments they all stand astute and simultaneously shout, “Yes ma'am!”

Ash puts her hands on her hips and walks to none other than Zurvick; her bitter frown is making him increasingly nervous.

She sighs and her frown dissipates, she shows a wary face and hesitates to say, “Our spy in the Eiyalazonian military has given us a map of their location, and the plans of their next assault on our very own 105th Specialist Division.”

The group's body language completely changed upon hearing that; a seriousness invades the aura of this once jubilant air.

Ash folds her arms and continues, “The problem is that they heavily outnumber us three to one. We'd be slaughtered if we go up against the a force like that in this forest, thus making preemtive a counterattack impossible.”

One of the men strokes his beard and asks, “Pardon my interruption ma'am, if that is the case, what are we supposed to do?”

Ash shrugs her shoulders and wears an almost bitter smile when she answers, “The higher ups specifically ordered an undercover mission to go behind enemy lines to kill the Captain of the Eiyalazonian Assault Platoon to disrupt their plans.”

The men all jump at this, they smile and laugh as they excitedly say, “An undercover mission!? All right! They won't know what hit em' if the ten of us fight together!”

The men shove and nudge at each other until they are halted by the sharp voice of Ash. She holds out her hand, lifts her finger up and simply says,

“One.”

They grow silent in confusion as she continues.

“The higher ups specifically ordered one man to attempt this mission.”

Ash maneuvers her index finger and points it into the group.

“Specialist Zurvick Niveusvenia, you alone have been selected to assassinate the Eiyalazonian Captain Ditreig Von Ronheim.”

All of the their faces contort in shock.

“What the fuck kind of order is that!?”

“That's right! It's a goddamn suicide mission for one person alone!”

An immense anger is felt among them as they all shout obscenities and question this unreasonable order.

Ash lowers her head and with a frown replies to their uproar, “I tried to dispute it... but those damn bastards, all they said was, 'Once an order is made, it is absolute.'"

“Why him of all people!? It's bad enough that he is only a Specialist grunt like us, but this is just ridiculous! If anything, he should always be protected!”

The man halts his rant when he feels a hand press on his shoulder; he turns around only to see Zurvick, completely geared up and ready to go.
The man shouts, “You can't be serious!?”

Zurvick's face grows intense as he walks past the group; with his back to his comrades he says, “It is the job of the King to protect his people... not the other way around.”

The men pause in silence, as if intentionally breaking this tense moment, he turns around wearing a big smile and says, “Don't worry about it guys! You know me, there's no way I'd die here of all places.”

Along with the group, even Ash is wearing a troubled expression.

Zurvick sees this and puts on another stupid smile and says, “Ooh, Ash! Could it be that you are worried about me??”

Ash's face glows to the same color of her crimson red eyes as she shouts, “O-Of course not! Why would I be worried about an idiot like you!?” Her eyes shift from him to the group and back to him again, she shoves him and yells, “And who said you could call me Ash!?”

“Huh? Didn't you just sa-”

“Shut up you idiot!!”

Zurvick jumps back and looks at the men, he thinks to himself, (Ohh okay, I think I get it now.)

He laughs in his usual nervous tone, with a smile he waves goodbye and walks off towards the darkness of the forest.

Ash tut-tuts, shows a troubled face and follows after him.

All of the men lean on one knee and bow their heads, in perfect unison they all say,

“Good luck, King Zurvick!!”

-------------

“Hey, you've been following me for quite some time now... aren't you going to turn around soon?” Zurvick said to Ash, who is no more than a few feet behind him.

“I'm just making sure you don't get lost, I'm leaving soon.”

“Uh, I have the map in my hand you know?”

Ash gently punches him in the back of his head. “Yeah but you have nothing in that dome of yours, it's imperative that I lead my dumbest soldier on the right path.”

Zurvick sighs and rubs the area of his head that was just hit. “I could be as dumb as a rock, but I'd still be the luckiest man alive.”

“Jeez, you always go on and on about your luck.”

“Well it's true, since the war started I've been on a few missions similar to this one and I've made it out each time without a scratch!”

Zurvick continues his leisurely walk as if there is not a single worry in his mind.

Ash stops and frowns, “Now that I think about it... you have been on a lot of these near suicide missions.”

She is about to continue but her thought process is stopped by the feeling of a gentle flick of a finger on her forehead.

“Whenever something bothers you, you always furrow your brow. You know you’d get wrinkles if you keep doing that?”

Ash rubs her forehead and says, “How nice of you to worry about my appearance, idiot old man, trying to smooth talk me like that. But might I remind you that I still outrank you, you can’t be going around flicking your superiors on their forehead so casually!”

He laughs and replies, “Ah I apologize, Captain. You’re right, I just get a little carried away when I see you like that. You’re so much like my daughter it’s hard for me to remember that you’re a soldier.”

Zurvick takes the canteen from his pocket and takes a light drink before saying, “You have a long military career ahead of you, you shouldn’t worry about what my role in the army is as the King. Just keep your head down and survive this war.”

“Humph! You’re talking like someone who doesn’t believe he’s as lucky as he says he is.”

Ash is still frowning, her glare is suspicious and Zurvick can feel the heat of it beating down on him as he looks into her eyes.

“You know,” Zurvick says, smiling stupidly, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile, I bet you’d be very cute if you did.”

Caught off guard by the sudden change of subject, she jolts back with a flushed face.

The King turns and begins walking away, “You take care of yourself, Captain. I’ll be back in a few days.”

She grabs a stick from the ground and hurls it at him, it slams into his back and he hits the deck like a ton of bricks.

“Guaahhh!!!”

Zurvick twists his body while shouting his ouches, he slowly looks up as if he is expecting Ash to do something else to hurt him. But much to his surprise, Ash is standing over him with her hand held out.

“You may be the King of Troy, but you're still my underling, so don't get too cocky with those sweet words of yours. It's gross!”

Zurvick grabs her hand and smiles. “Yes Captain.”

She helps him to his feet and says, “You know, I also notice things about you.”

“What do you mean?”

“When you’re lonely, you drink out of your flask. When you’re feeling nostalgic, you drink. When you’re worried, you drink. And when you’re nervous, you pretend that what’s making you feel that way doesn’t exist.”

She pats him on the shoulder and shows him a toothy determined grin.

“So because of that, I’ll be accompanying you on this mission.”

“Hah?” Zurvick moans in confusion as she walks past him.

She turns around with the same smile on her face and says, “And I thought I told you... call me Ash.”

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Dantega:Volume 2 Novel Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
| Return to [[Dantega|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 2|Chapter 2]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Dantega

2022-04-07T17:52:14Z

Deck of cards:

{{Status|Active}}

[[File:LelaineBT.jpg|thumb]]

Dantega is a light novel written and illustrated by [[User:Deck of cards|Deck of cards]].

==Story Synopsis==
Based 1000 years after the battle of Armageddon and the Apocalypse...

The human race has virtually started over and is trying to put the pieces of its past glory back together. But with God's enemies still lurking in the shadows, the world is once again thrown into chaos by the Devil's son Damien, when he abducts a group of young royals and sends them to Purgatory.

The princes and princesses were set to be married in an attempt at world peace by the three largest kingdoms of Troy, Eiyazalo, and La'Juune. And their simultaneous disappearances send a ripple of hate and distrust through the world.

The royals aren't the only ones spirited away to Purgatory however, along with them is a man named Ubica, who holds tremendous power and along with it a mysterious past.

The other man is the Angel of Death named Rage.

These intentional actions by Damien threatens a world war with the potential to devastate what remains of humanity.

In order to stop this war, the group must travel through the 5 gates of Purgatory and escape back to Earth before it is too late.

To accomplish this, they must navigate their way through these new worlds, interact with its residents, defeat each of the 5 'Gatekeepers' and survive relentless attacks from the 7 Demons of the Hierarchy.

== Updates ==
*16 April 2021: Dantega project re-edited & new chapters.

== Series Information ==
*'''Genre:''' Action, Seinen, Romance, Drama, Supernatural, Adventure, Thriller, Tragedy
*'''Author:''' Deck of cards
*'''Illustrator:''' Deck of cards
*'''Volumes:''' 1-9
*'''Series Status:''' Ongoing

===Format Standards===
'''Every chapter (after editing) must conform to the general format guidelines.'''
*[[Format_guideline|General Format/Style Guideline]]

===[https://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=75&t=5740 Feedback]===
'''If you enjoyed the OLN, why don't you tell us in the [https://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=75&t=5740 Feedback Thread]'''

==Dantega==

===Volume 1 ([[Dantega:Volume 1|Full Text]])===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Prologue|Prologue]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 1|End of Royalty]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 2|First Contact]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 3|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 4|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 5|The Map to the Gates]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 6|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 7|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 8|The Devil's Advocates]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 9|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 10|(Part 3)]]

===Volume 2 ([[Dantega:Volume 2|Full Text]])===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 1|Her and the King]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 4|Rain on the Battlefield]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 7|Night of the Ball]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 8|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 9|(Part 3)]]

===Volume 3 ([[Dantega:Volume 3|Full Text]])===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 1|Northbound Reunion]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 4|Revelation]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 7|Trust]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 8|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 9|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 10|The Ransom]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 11|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 12|(Part 3)]]

===Volume 4 ([[Dantega:Volume 4|Full Text]])===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 1|Pursuit on the Water]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 4|One Step Behind]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 7|666 The Mark of the Beast]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 8|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 9|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 10|An Angel's Revenge]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 11|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 12|(Part 3)]]

===Volume 5 ([[Dantega:Volume 5|Full Text]])===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 1|Movement on the Chessboard]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 4|Their Rebellion]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 7|Checkmate]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 8|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 9|(Part 3)]]

===Volume 6===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 1|Conflict of Interests]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 3|(Part 4)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 4|Rosemary's Baby]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 7|The Death of One Beast and the Birth of Another]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 8|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 9|(Part 3)]]

===Volume 7===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 1|The World's New War]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 4|Capital Attack]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 7|(Part 4)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 8|(Part 5)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 9|(Part 6)]]

===Volume 8===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 1|Crown of Thorns]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 4|(Part 4)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 5|(Part 5)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 6|(Part 6)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 7|(Part 7)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 8|(Part 8)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 9|(Part 9)]]

===Volume 9===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 1|Resistance]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 4|Desperation]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 7|The Convergence]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 8|(Part 8)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 9|(Part 9)]]

==Project Staff==

*Project Administrator: [[User:Deck of cards|Deck of cards]]
*Project Supervisor:

===Author===

[[User:Deck of cards|Deck of cards]]

===Editors===

==Project Status==

Project Status: '''Ongoing'''
[[Category:Original novel]]

Dantega

2022-04-02T06:11:08Z

Deck of cards: /* Story Synopsis */

{{Status|Active}}

[[File:LelaineBT.jpg|thumb]]

Dantega is a light novel written and illustrated by [[User:Deck of cards|Deck of cards]].

==Story Synopsis==
Based 1000 years after the battle of Armageddon and the Apocalypse...

The human race has virtually started over and is trying to put the pieces of its past glory back together. But with God's enemies still lurking in the shadows, the world is once again thrown into chaos the Devil's son Damien, when he abducts a group of young royals and sends them to Purgatory.

The princes and princesses were set to be married in an attempt at world peace by the three largest kingdoms of Troy, Eiyazalo, and La'Juune. And their simultaneous disappearances send a ripple of hate and distrust through the world.

The royals aren't the only ones spirited away to Purgatory however, along with them is a man named Ubica, who holds tremendous power and along with it a mysterious past.

The other man is the Angel of Death named Rage.

These intentional actions by Damien threatens a world war with the potential to devastate what remains of humanity.

In order to stop this war, the group must travel through the 5 gates of Purgatory and escape back to Earth before it is too late.

To accomplish this, they must navigate their way through these new worlds, interact with its residents, defeat each of the 5 'Gatekeepers' and survive relentless attacks from the 7 Demons of the Hierarchy.

== Updates ==
*16 April 2021: Dantega project re-edited & new chapters.

== Series Information ==
*'''Genre:''' Action, Seinen, Romance, Drama, Supernatural, Adventure, Thriller, Tragedy
*'''Author:''' Deck of cards
*'''Illustrator:''' Deck of cards
*'''Volumes:''' 1-9
*'''Series Status:''' Ongoing

===Format Standards===
'''Every chapter (after editing) must conform to the general format guidelines.'''
*[[Format_guideline|General Format/Style Guideline]]

===[https://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=75&t=5740 Feedback]===
'''If you enjoyed the OLN, why don't you tell us in the [https://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=75&t=5740 Feedback Thread]'''

==Dantega==

===Volume 1 ([[Dantega:Volume 1|Full Text]])===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Prologue|Prologue]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 1|End of Royalty]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 2|First Contact]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 3|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 4|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 5|The Map to the Gates]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 6|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 7|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 8|The Devil's Advocates]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 9|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 10|(Part 3)]]

===Volume 2 ([[Dantega:Volume 2|Full Text]])===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 1|Her and the King]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 4|Rain on the Battlefield]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 7|Night of the Ball]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 8|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 9|(Part 3)]]

===Volume 3 ([[Dantega:Volume 3|Full Text]])===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 1|Northbound Reunion]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 4|Revelation]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 7|Trust]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 8|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 9|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 10|The Ransom]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 11|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 12|(Part 3)]]

===Volume 4 ([[Dantega:Volume 4|Full Text]])===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 1|Pursuit on the Water]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 4|One Step Behind]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 7|666 The Mark of the Beast]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 8|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 9|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 10|An Angel's Revenge]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 11|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 12|(Part 3)]]

===Volume 5 ([[Dantega:Volume 5|Full Text]])===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 1|Movement on the Chessboard]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 4|Their Rebellion]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 7|Checkmate]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 8|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 9|(Part 3)]]

===Volume 6===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 1|Conflict of Interests]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 3|(Part 4)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 4|Rosemary's Baby]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 7|The Death of One Beast and the Birth of Another]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 8|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 9|(Part 3)]]

===Volume 7===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 1|The World's New War]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 4|Capital Attack]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 7|(Part 4)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 8|(Part 5)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 9|(Part 6)]]

===Volume 8===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 1|Crown of Thorns]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 4|(Part 4)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 5|(Part 5)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 6|(Part 6)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 7|(Part 7)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 8|(Part 8)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 9|(Part 9)]]

===Volume 9===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 1|Resistance]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 4|Desperation]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 7|The Convergence]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 8|(Part 8)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 9|(Part 9)]]

==Project Staff==

*Project Administrator: [[User:Deck of cards|Deck of cards]]
*Project Supervisor:

===Author===

[[User:Deck of cards|Deck of cards]]

===Editors===

==Project Status==

Project Status: '''Ongoing'''
[[Category:Original novel]]

Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 3

2022-03-29T18:10:46Z

Deck of cards:

(PART 4)

Lilith is wearing a tightly fit golden silk robe that’s more or less transparent; with nothing like a bra or underwear beneath the robe, just about everything can be seen under the right lighting. Unlike the restricting and degrading outfit of Asmodeus, Lilith’s is the exact opposite. She shows freedom in her presence that oozes pride and liberation.

She is the first woman, she came before Eve, and broke away from the unreasonable situations cast on her in the Garden of Eden. She had forsaken the word of God and decided to make her own, for that she was punished of course, but after thousands of years she's grown far stronger than even God could have imagined.

When God created her, she was meant to be below Adam, who existed as the representative of man. Now, it's very likely no man could stand up to her will. So much time has been spent honing her abilities to manipulate men that she simply sees them as inferior beings.

The candlelight shines off her hazy orange hair and her multicolored eyes gleam as if they were glass marbles. Lilith is a stunning beauty, and her presence sparkles in confidence as though very aware of how she must look to the people she feels are fortunate enough to gaze upon her.

She spreads her arms and smiles when she says, “I can’t let you kill her.”

She then slides her open palm down the side of Trojia’s face, caressing the princess as though she were a prized possession. “If you were to do that, your soul would lose the irresistible pureness that has gotten me so fond of you.”

Trojia stares blankly forward with her red eyes as Lilith begins touching her in ways that can only be described as inappropriate. Lilith uses her thumbs to caress Trojia’s lips, and her hands smoothly slide down to Trojia’s breasts and begin fondling them.

For whatever reason, Trojia’s not fighting it one bit; it could be the result of Lilith manipulating her into complacency; but no matter what it is, Trojia doesn’t make a move.

Not even her deadened red glare shows a hint of rejection.

This invites Lillith to continue her groping, she now slides her hands down Trojia’s back and begins touching Trojia’s skin from under her skirt.

“Ahh, such a fine figure you have.” Lilith said, the pitch of her voice dances as though she were reciting poetry. “Even I can be envious of your youthful body. But the truth is, I can feel your soul within my fingertips when I touch you.”

Lilith halts molesting the princess and looks to the fabled False Prophet; the only person who stood by the side of the Antichrist is stuck helpless against the wall like a pin up butterfly.

“There’s no need for you to stain your purity with the likes of this imposter. I will kill her myself and use her to keep myself looking as young as you.”

“Geh!!” Messor hisses through bloodied teeth as she tries to think of a way she can escape this danger.

Lilith smiles and takes her first step forward in an attempt to devour Messor’s soul when all the sudden she feels a light prick on her neck.

“..?”

Trojia has stepped in between the two and is poking Lilith with the tip of the blade being held in her right hand, and with her left she’s grabbed the grip of the other twin sword impaling Messor to the wall.

“...She’s mine.”

“What do you think you’re doing? You shouldn’t even be able to move well” As surprised as Lilith is, she seems to be unafraid by Trojia’s sudden threatening movements. “You’re letting your hatred for the False Prophet cloud your judgment. You’ve felt what’s in my touch haven’t you? That should be more than enough to replace your desires for revenge with what I can offer you.”

In one fluid motion, Trojia pulls the blade out of Messor’s abdomen, sending blood flying into the air; and with her other sword in her right hand she pushes it to the left side of Lilith’s neck. The sword in her left hand then crosses over the other to create an X shape around the base of Lilith’s throat.

“What?”

This all happened so fast that Lillith didn’t have time to react and defend herself. She simply never saw this turn of events coming, so she never had her guard up to begin with.

“You’re In the way.”

“Is this some kind of a joke? You’re telling me that you’re actually rejecting my touch?”

A cold sweat falls down the Gatekeeper’s temple as she looks into the glowing red eyes of Trojia.

It’s at this moment that the confidence in herself has wavered upon being confronted by this girl with the pure soul. She was arrogant enough to believe that no one could ever fight against her temptations, the fact that she has touched someone with her bare hands should have been a foolproof way of assuring their loyalty forever.

She has now realized that she has made a fatal error.

“W-Wait!”

SHLINK!!

Trojia pulled outwards with both of her hands as if she was opening a double door. The result of this simple movement is gruesome, Lilith’s head flies upwards being trailed by a fountain of blood as if it were a cork from a celebratory champagne bottle.

“Khaa?”

Is all that Lilith was able to mutter before the inevitable happened.

Her severed head hits the ground in a wet sounding thud.

Just like that, the first woman that was so strong that she opposed God back when there were only two humans alive on Earth, has been slain.
In that short moment, all of the magnificent history and a trail of biblical events that followed behind this woman are no more. The third Gatekeeper has been defeated; she died thinking she had full control of the situation all the way until she felt the sensation of her head being separated from her body.
Once she realized that, there was nothing left of her.

In that quick second where the legend of Lilith was destroyed by a teenage girl; that certain teenage girl has taken her first life.

And that girl didn’t even bat an eye once the blood spray painted her face, hair and clothes red.

Trojia feels as though she has just killed two birds with one stone. She’d have to go through Lillith eventually, why not take advantage of it now when the Gatekeeper least expected it?

Even Messor is shocked, Trojia turned into a heartless monster on par with her and Ubica in a mere second.

Now, it has truly dawned on her, this girl can, and will kill her.

(Tch! Like I’ll let that happen!)

She leans back on the wall with all her weight and starts to impossibly sink into it as if she were a ghost that held no mass. What she’s doing is nothing like that however; being the False Prophet that was born of the Earth; she’s able to freely move through earthly material.

She’s lucky that the castle is made of stone otherwise she’d be doomed.

Trojia senses something is amiss and immediately forgets about the headless corpse she just created. Lilith’s body has barely dropped to the ground when Trojia turns and flings both of her swords into the area where she knows Messor is.

Two solid thunks reach Trojia’s ears as her eyes catch up; she knows right away that those noises don't match the sound of a flesh and bone body being pierced.

Just below where her swords stick into the wall, she spots Messor’s feet scurry backwards into the wall and disappear.

Trojia’s emotionless face begins to contort and her eyebrows form into a frown when it dawns on her that she’s just let her greatest enemy get away. She kicks Messor’s puddle of blood on the wall with great strength, and surprisingly, that kick was enough to send chunks of the wall scattering about.

Gritting her teeth in frustration, she says to herself,

“I bet you think you’re clever… I’m still coming for you, Messor!”

She prepares another bone breaking kick against the wall to break through and give chase when the door that she entered this rectangular room from, opens up and a bright light shines on her.

Her red eyes flash as she looks through the light and notices that Rage and Napoleon had just rushed into the room.

She halts her kick and turns away from the light as a reflex, the sudden brightness stung her eyes.

“Trojia! Are you alright!?” Napoleon asks worriedly, the first thing he noticed was all the blood on and around her.

“I’m fine.” she coldly answers, “Where are the others?”

“We split up in groups of two so we can travel down each of the three doors a little ways back.” Rage answers.

“That’s good... The rest of you are bound to run into the other girls, we did the same thing at those doors.”

“So...” Napoleon says as he looks around the room, it looks like a tornado has blown through here. “What just happened?”

“The Gatekeeper is dead. We’re free to pass through the Gate once we find it.”

“What!?”

Trojia’s body seems to weaken as her tone of voice begins to gain more humanity, “Let’s go... We’ve still got to find the Gate before we can pass.”

Her frame leans to the side and she falls against the wall. Rage and Napoleon can tell that she’s on the verge of collapsing and rush to her aid. Before they get there however, she falls unconscious and drops like a sandbag to the ground.

“Trojia!”

Napoleon takes her into his arms and checks her pulse; he sees that she’s fine and breathing regularly before he takes a sigh of relief and looks up to Rage.

Rage then leans down and reaches towards her face, instead of checking for her breathing like Napoleon did, he lifts up her eyelids and stares into her eyes.

“Green?” Rage asks himself.

“What exactly are you trying to find?”

“I’m absolutely positive that when we got in here... her eyes were red.”

-----------------------

Asmodeus is flying through the city with a trail of smoke being left in her wake; she’s been ruthlessly beaten like this for minutes now. After banging into the side of a building and ricocheting violently to the ground, she bounces to a stop and quickly tries to get up before her body gives out. She doesn’t even reach one knee when out of nowhere, Ubica appears behind her.

“!?”

He swings down his sword immediately.

Asmodeus barely has enough time to block it by stretching the chains tied above her hands by metal bracelets worn on her wrists.
The sound of metal clashing rings through the air and sparks fly all about.

On a normal occasion, these chain links should have snapped from the force of the sword made of pure diamond; the only thing keeping it intact is Asmodeus’s own power surging through the chains.

A yellow light surrounds these chains and the shackles around her wrists vibrate.

She uses this as a weapon of defense and a weapon of offense, with a certain amount of power taken from a spike inside the bracelets stabbing into her wrists that she uses to send to the links, she can use the chains as an unbreakable shield, or a weapon so sharp it could tear through any material.
Knowing that, Asmodeus changes the properties of her chain into an offensive weapon so she can cut Ubica’s sword right through. She’s pretty much been trying to do similar things this entire fight, the problem is that Ubica hasn’t even given her a chance to do anything but defend.

Sure enough, the same thing happens again.

Ubica jumps up into the air and disappears in the smoke of a destroyed building.

“Damn it!! What kind of power is this!? Haah?? Ubica!”

Unlike before, Ubica has allowed her to stand on her feet; she looks around the smoke and dust for any sign of him and flinches at every sound.

Asmodeus is not this weak, she should not be playing the role of a mouse with Ubica the cat, it should be the other way around. It’s just that Ubica has revealed a benevolent strength the likes of which she’s never seen before, it’s almost like she’s found herself in a battle with an Angel. This type of battle needs to be prepared for appropriately, it’s going to take a few minutes for her to figure out just how she is going to go about combating this.

Her main power allows her to control the wind, and because of this she is able to move extremely fast and also propel large objects, the issue is that it takes time to stir up the atmosphere like that. With the way Ubica presses forward with his relentless assault, she hasn’t even been close enough to be able to take advantage of her strength.

Despite her handicap, and despite knowing that she doesn't have that long to come up with a plan, she smiles confidently as though she knows she still has a way out.

“Good thing I have backup coming to help me.”

---------------------

Tsubiri is running through the city with her head down, not caring where she goes. She doesn’t notice the onlooking citizens out on the street and the panic of the populace, all she can hear are the sounds of explosions coming from the area behind her being caused by the battle between Asmodeus and Ubica.
Sprinting for over a few minutes or so has gotten her quite winded, it is only now that she decides to rest her tired legs and take a look back at the scene she had fled from. Out in the distance of the metropolis, she sees large plumes of smoke rising, and flashes of white light zoom across the sky and leave a green vapor trail behind. She’s never seen this kind of power before but she has a strong feeling that it’s coming from Ubica.

Even with that feeling as intense as it is, that little bit of doubt is enough to make her very nervous. She’s scared to death of him not making it out alive; and she’s also afraid of what he’ll have to put himself through in order to survive.

Not being able to bear it any longer, Tsubiri turns her back to the battle and begins running away again.

Ubica had told her to get as far away as possible from him, and unlike the time before, she has every intention of sucking up her reluctance and waiting for him to find her once he’s done fighting.

She bites her bottom lip and says to herself, “I know you can win...”

A deep breath follows her words in an attempt to inflate faith into her chest, there’s nothing she can do other than that. Almost feeling secure about his victory, she suddenly hears a voice from in front of her that shatters that false sense of hope in an instant.

“Long time no see girly, I’m tickled to see that you’ve made a fine man out of my old pal Ubica.”

Standing in front of her is a child with bright orange hair; his eyes of an amber shade stare menacingly as he smiles thinly at her.

Tsubiri immediately recognizes him and his sudden appearance sends shivers down her spine. This child was the Demon that represented Greed out of the 7 Deadly Sins; that child was an absolute monster that slaughtered thousands of people and laughed about it pleasurably.

Standing short and imposing in his dark blue overcoat is Mammon, he’s casually swinging his circled tip sword in his hands and it gleams off the surrounding skyscrapers.

“Come on now, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“I-I thought you were...”

“That I was killed? Nah, we demons are quite tough to kill, you know? Especially when we have access to so many souls here in Purgatory, it’s going to take a lot more than what he did to destroy this little body of mine.”

Tsubiri is terrified of this monstrous demon taking on the form of a child; if Ubica’s ferocious attack back on the Second level wasn’t enough to kill him, she shivers to think just what it will take to defeat these Demons of the Hierarchy. Now Ubica is up against two of them, and she’s found herself alone with one that would have killed her multiple times over the last time she was confronted by him if not for Ubica saving her.

She takes a couple shoddy steps backwards and starts booking it away from him as fast as her legs can take her. Just because she now has the power to fight, doesn’t mean she stands a chance against one of the 7 strongest Demons of Hell.

“Hey hey where ya goin? Did you forget?”

A ball of antimatter appears in front of Tsubiri and the now adult Mammon hops out of it, cutting her off.

He leans in and looks square into her frightened eyes and says, “I promised that I’d kill you for electrocuting me when I was fighting Ubica... Greedy people have amazing memories, you know?”

“!!!”

Tsubiri turns around once again and tries to flee; and once again, it’s to no avail.

One of Mammon’s orbs of antimatter encircles her legs as she runs. Tsubiri knows full well what these bubbles are capable of and is stricken with a fear so deep that it shakes her very soul. A slight of hand is all it would take for Mammon to have this ball capsize and take her legs with it.

With her attention focused on trying to get away from this ugly ball of death, Mammon again appears in front of her and latches onto her throat with his little hand.

Her movements grind to a sudden halt and Mammon smiles thinly as he says, “But before I do that, we’re gonna have a little fun.”

Both Mammon and Tsubiri are engulfed in a churning dark gray bubble that then shrinks and pops.

Mammon has taken her to the opposite dimension of Antimatter; a world that he created himself where escape is impossible.

----------------------

Messor finds herself in a very small room lit by a solitary candle, this room is odd because unlike the other, there is no door leading in or out of it. The only thing in here is a dark tunnel imposingly stretching into the darkness before her, the cold air blowing from within is seemingly telling her to enter, but the coolness of the breeze communicates danger as if she’s staring directly into a trap.

Her blood is falling from her stomach like a leaking faucet but she pays no mind and lets it drip down her legs and to the floor; the floor that she has found herself in is covered in dark green grass for whatever odd reason. She’s more focused on her new surroundings and her possible pursuer than her wound, no matter how gruesome it looks it shouldn’t take too long to heal with the help of Dantega.

Exactly like Ubica, her body heals itself without much work, with no need for medicine to ward off infection, her body’s natural function will take course and she’ll be as good as new in no time. Of course, that doesn't mean the pain caused by this horrific wound isn't affecting her; she's still hurting quite badly and it pulsates with each heartbeat.

“Tch, I’m not going anywhere near that tunnel.” she says as if speaking to the castle itself.

She walks up to the wall and prepares to morph through just like last time but is shocked to find that it isn’t working.

“..?”

She tries once more and when nothing happens yet again, she realizes that there must be some kind of barrier keeping her from doing so. She then walks towards the tunnel and notices a plaque placed conveniently just before the entrance stating:

‘For those who have found themselves at the entrance of this tunnel, you have broken the number one rule of my castle. If one wishes to reach the Gate, they ‘must’ go through each door on the pathway to it. If you are here, that means you’ve tampered with the pathway you were on in an attempt to shorten your route. As a consequence, the one(s) responsible are sent down a different route to the Gate, one much more dangerous and difficult called the ‘Punishment Labyrinth’. If you are able to reach the other side of this maze, then you will have arrived at the Gate, where I’ll be waiting.’

This message was obviously written by Lilith. The message does enough to explain how this massive castle works; there are certain tests one must go through to reach the Gate, no matter what path one chooses. If a person finds a shortcut of any kind, they are automatically transferred to this little room and forced into the labyrinth ahead.

To Messor, this path is no different from any other one, it’s still her ticket to the Gate.

“Hmph, even after death I see you still intend to make this a pain in the ass. Fine then, I’ll get through this and wait for that girl to show up. This time however, I will be ready.”

Messor enters the tunnel and disappears in the darkness without an ounce of doubt in her ability to overcome whatever dangers awaits her.

----------------------

Phoenix walks along the dark hallways of the castle, his aura is blending in perfectly with his surroundings.

Xavier, who is holding a torch can only stare at his back as each step his priest moves forward the farther away his presence feels. It’s just like the last time they were separated form the others, Phoenix was acting rather dour then as well.

“U-Um...” Xavier mutters, trying to find something to say.

“Don’t bother talking.” Phoenix coldly replies to the prince’s discomfort.

“.....”

Xavier droops his head and looks at his feet as he continues to walk; lacking the social skills needed to handle this kind of situation, he decides to just stay quiet. With his mind racing, he fails to hear the footsteps of Phoenix slowing to a stop and accidentally walks right into his back.

“Whaaa!?”

He falls backwards and drops his torch, causing sparks to fly all over and darkening the already black path ahead.

“What’s going on, why’d you stop??”

“Shut up, Xavier.” Phoenix says, grabbing the prince’s face to keep him quiet whilst without turning to him. “There’s someone up ahead.”

Phoenix is glaring at something in the darkness like a dog growling at a ghost. There’s nothing in front of him that can be seen but he can feel it.

This tenseness lasts for a few moments when a girl's voice is heard from within the darkness yelling,

“Who’s there!?”

Phoenix immediately drops his guard, releases his grip on Xavier’s face and takes a slight sigh of relief.

“Aria, it’s me and Xavier.”

A clattering of footsteps pitter-patter towards them and sure enough, it turns out to be Aria and Daey.

“So you guys made it huh?? Where’s everybody else?” she asked excitedly, quite happy to see a friendly face from within all this darkness.

“We split up at that pathway a little ways back.”

“I see.” Daey added. “We’re kind of in a jam here, we’ve been contemplating turning around because this hallway seems to go on for miles... We can’t help but feel like we are getting ourselves even more lost than we were before.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, but the lady of the castle told us that all three routes would eventually lead to the Gate. I’m starting to think that she is playing a trick on us though.”

“Hmmm.” Phoenix mutters as he holds his chin and walks deeper into the dark hallway.

“H-Hey!” Daey shouts, a little ticked that he ignored her and kept going.

“There’s only one way to find out.” Phoenix says, his figure disappearing with each step. “I have no intention of backtracking away from the Gate and traveling in a larger group. It’d take longer, and not to mention it’d be more dangerous.”

Leaving the others alone and confused, all thoughts of going back are instantly quelled, and they begin following the priest who looks confident in his decision to walk down the hallway.

Xavier in particular doesn’t feel safe at all being separated from Phoenix so he starts running to catch up. “Hey Phoenix, hold up for a sec!”

He doesn’t get more than a few feet closer when,

CLICK

“!!”

Xavier’s foot sinks into an indentation on the stone floor; the square block dropped down about a foot and causes him to lose his balance. While falling, two strange circles of light flash on the walls directly on each side of him; the two lights make a strange hissing noise that starts deep and rises to a high pitch as if it’s ready to blow.

Being the explosion expert Aria is, she knows what is going to happen right away.

She shoves Daey backwards and rushes to him.

“Xavier!!!”

In a swift motion, she jumps, grabs Xavier in mid-air, and twists her body.

BAAAAAAAAAMMMMM!!!

As quick as it started, it ended in a flash and a loud noise.

Through the rubble clattering on the ground, Xavier’s frame rises and he gingerly stands to his feet.

“Are you okay!?” Daey shouts, running to his aid but weary of her steps after seeing what had just happened.

With his eyes hung downwards and firmly planted on the sight of something, he answers, “Y-Yeah... But.”

“But what!?”

Daey clambers over the rubble and looks down to see what he’s staring at; laying there bloodied and covered in rubble is Aria.

“Oh no... Aria!”

She begins moving whatever debris out of the way to make room for her to breathe while Xavier stands there motionless; it’s as though shock has overcome his senses. Aria has a wound somewhere on her head that’s causing blood to slide profusely down her face, her breathing is shoddy and she keeps sliding in and out of consciousness.

“I don’t get it... Why did she do that?” Xavier asked softly as if stating his thoughts aloud.

“We don’t have time to worry about that now! We have to do something!”

Daey pulls a handkerchief out of her pocket and covers the wound on her head, when the blood soaks the handkerchief right away; she loses the ability to think ahead.

“Phoenix!” she shouts further down the hallway, “Phoenix! Aria is hurt! Phoenix!!”

Judging by the silence after the echo of her frantic voice, it would seem that just like he said, Phoenix has no intention of backtracking away from the Gate.

He left them behind.

--------------------

Cyrus and Strauphius are walking along a hallway so bright it almost hurts their eyes; it gleams in a fluorescent blue light and makes the pillars posted every ten feet on the side of each wall seem like crystals.

“Is this really the right way?” Straphius asks while scratching his ear with his finger.

“How am I supposed to know that? I wasn't all too keen on separating like this, I’d feel a hell of a lot safer if I was with Napoleon and Rage rather than you.”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean??”

Cyrus stops in his tracks when he spots something out in the distance. “Please don’t tell me that’s what I think it is...”

“Huh?”

Out in the distance seen plain as day are two people scrunched down and not moving. At first he had hoped that the bright light was playing tricks on him, but he could perfectly see two figures lying lifelessly on the ground.

As soon as Strauphius takes a gander, he notices the same thing and shouts, “Are those bodies!?”

“Let’s go!”

The two of them rush over and to their dismay they find the limp bodies of Sora and Niera firmly planted on the ground. They have no obvious wounds, but it’s quite apparent that there’s something horribly wrong; their eyes are wide open as if they’ve been petrified

“What’s wrong with them!? Princess!” Cyrus shouts frantically.

Strauphius doesn’t know what to say; all he can do is check their pulse and hope for the best. But before he could, he and his partner heard the sound of metal against metal clattering out in the distance. Due to the light of this hallway, they can see what it is that’s causing the noise immediately.

There are four armored suits moving towards them as if they are on wheels; they shine in a bright silver and look almost fake as they rush forward in their gleaming light. Each of them have the same crest on their chests as the Colossal’s outside, and each color is different.

Seeing this again, they know that these objects are moving by the use of the souls of the men tempted by Lilith into coming here. All it would take is for them to break those crests and free the souls trapped inside, with that they’ll be able to pass; it sounds simple enough.

However,

Not giving the two any time to formulate a proper plan, the armored knight suits gather into formation and move forward for a physical assault.

“Get ready!” Cyrus shouts, guarding Niera with his body by stepping in front of her.

Strauphius doesn’t respond but his body language gives him an answer, in these types of situations words are borderline useless; all that matters is if the job can get done or not.

The two rush in for a head-on attack, with the suits of armor moving forward at the same speed, the imminent sound of swords clashing is soon to be heard.
That is, if it ever got to that point.

Before any metal clashes with each other, Cyrus’s heart stops momentarily and he suddenly drops to the ground. The thunk of his body banging against the smooth crystal-like floor stops Strauphius in his tracks and fills him with confusion.

“Huh?”

Cyrus’s eyes are wide open and seen through the black tint of his glasses clearly; Strauphius can see that he’s still breathing but the look of death on his face is enough to throw the heavy weight of fear down on his shoulders. It’s not just the fear of Cyrus's health, it’s the fear of the unknown, it’s the fear of not even knowing how it happened and not knowing if the same will come his way and when.

Without realizing it, the four suits of armor encircle him and send their weapons screaming towards his defenseless body.

At the last second, Strauphius comes to his senses and uses his intense speed to scatter; the weapons of all four armored suits crash into the ground he was once standing on.

Once he gets a safe distance away, he attempts to regather his racing thoughts; in the past, he’d normally flee from such a situation. But now, his comrades are downed right in front of him so there’s no way he can just leave, he must fight.

“Oooaaaahhh!!!”

With this scream of determination, he readies to charge; however, his first step forward doesn’t land on the ground, it swings underneath him and he falls face first onto the ground.

“Eh!?”

He immediately tries to stand back to his feet, but his body is paralyzed.

“!?”

Strauphius has found himself in the same state as Cyrus, Niera, and Sora. He doesn’t know how or why that happened but the answer seems to get closer to him in the form of footsteps. The back of his collar is forcefully pulled upwards and his limp body hangs towards the floor.

He can’t tell what’s going on but he knows that his body is being dragged off somewhere; the only thing his stuck in place eyes can see are the suits of armor throwing Cyrus and the two girls over their shoulders and following him.

This level of uncertainty has gotten him genuinely afraid, and it’s very likely that the other three are also conscious and aware of what’s happening as well, trapped in their own bodies and helplessly being moved against their will..

(Damn it! Damn it! What’s going on!!) he thinks to himself as he’s carried off down the hallway.

They take a quick left into a very dark room and he is stricken with the frightening realization that he’s going to find the answer to that very question any moment now.

---------------------

Asmodeus's body is firmly planted into the ground, being forced in by the foot of Ubica.

Even though she’s in a position of obvious defeat, she’s still smiling.

“What’s so funny?” Ubica asks as he presses down even harder; the ground below her cracks as a result.

With her chest collapsing under the weight of Ubica’s foot, she still forces out a laugh and replies, “Oho, it’s just the fact that you’ve changed so much... It’s actually quite funny because you’re so fake, your’e like a high-school girl.”

“Is that so?”

CRRAACKKK!!

The ground under her starts splintering like a glass window that's had a rock thrown through it; and if one listened closely enough, they’d hear the sound of Asmodeus’s chestplate cracking along with it.

“I think you’ll find that I can still be just as ruthless as I ever was.”

“It’s not that same!” she yells, spitting out blood that flies up and lands back onto her face. “I want to know how this happened! I have to know how it is that the man who was once the Antichrist could kill off thousands of people and not be swayed in the least! Before you kill me, tell me how!”

Ubica releases the pressure on her chest and points his sword at her neck; he sighs and replies, “It’s a whole chain of occurrences that led me to becoming the person I am now... But there’s really only one reason why; there’s only one thing driving me away from my darkness.”

“Then tell me!”

“Asking me like you really care... you’re trying to bide your time, what are you waiting for?”

“Don’t think I have any sneaky plans up my sleeves, I’m pretty incapacitated at the moment if you haven’t noticed. But you see, my natural curiosity as the Demon of Lust is longing for the explanation of how the once brilliant man that I admired so much could throw away his true self. You could at least do that for me, right?”

Ubica pauses for a moment, and then answers coldly, “I won’t”

He raises his sword and swings for her neck; in his mind, he has no reason to tell her anything about him. He knows exactly what has changed him and how, and that’s all that matters, he couldn’t care less if anyone else wants to know.

The answer to her question, and the reason why he’s become stronger, is known only by him, Tsubiri, and Michael...

---------------------

Two months earlier at the Second Gate, there was a battle raging between the last remaining Angel and Ubica. The fight for one of the two was over revenge, and the fight for the other was to protect his friends.

In this battle, the righteous intentions won out, and it has left the vengeful Angel lying at the foot of the righteous man.

“Kill me...” Michael says as he floats on the water of the lake which surrounds the Gate.

Standing triumphantly over him is Ubica the victor.

“I won’t do that.” Ubica replies as he sheaths his sword. “I’ll get nothing out of it.”

Michael frowns and grits his blood stained teeth. “I don’t want your damn pity! You didn’t hesitate to kill all the other Angels, so why am I any different!?”

“Because now I don’t have to.” Ubica sternly replies.

He gestures to Tsubiri and the two begin walking towards the Gate.

“Yes you do have to! I will chase you to the ends of any world! I won’t stop until I kill you, Antichrist!”

With his back turned, Ubica says, “If revenge is still your driving force to stay alive when you do, then the results will always be the same. You’ll alway lose.”

Michael spits out blood and asks, “You think your confidence is enough to sway my grim resolve? I’ll get stronger from this and I’ll---”

“You won’t.” Ubica coolly interrupts. “You’ll only get weaker.”

“How would you know that!?” Michael’s shouts carry pain and anguish. “How can you be so damn sure that I can’t win!?”

Ubica then smiles and grabs onto Tsubiri’s hand, they continue their walk up the stairs to the Gate as he leaves the defeated Archangel with some final words.

“Because we both know what true strength is… It just took me until now to realize it.”

The two walk through the Gate and into the next level, leaving the injured and disabled Michael behind to gather his thoughts. He hisses in anger at the fact that he has once again lost to Ubica; what makes it worse is that the current man he lost to is nowhere near the strength he once held as the Antichrist.

That thought brings him to Ubica’s parting words, just what is strength anyways? What is true power?

The Antichrist had absolute power, but is that really the truest form of it?

Michael had once believed that good would always defeat evil, until he was so ruthlessly crushed by evil that it altered the very fiber of what he once was. Could it be that the roles have been reversed yet again? After the Apocalypse, Michael existed in a constant world of hate, he did so in order to gain enough strength to defeat an even worse evil; but instead, he has tasted the chalky flavor of defeat.

The only difference all of these years of giving up on himself has made is how he was crushed.

Michael has lost to the one thing that he himself had once so proudly represented.

He has been defeated by the power of good.

Ubica found strength in the love he has for Tsubiri and he used it against Michael in a brilliant display.

Michael never had any chance of winning.

Ubica has proved to him that good can still defeat evil, and the cruel irony of this hits him worse than Ubica’s final attack as he contemplates just what has happened to him.

“Damn it!” he shouts as he tries to move his arm to slam the water he’s floating on.

His body is more or less paralyzed, so he failed to do even that.

All he can do is take deep breaths in frustration and glare into the sun as he asks himself,

“What am I supposed to do now!?”

------------------------

The current Ubica that has so easily handled Asmodeus is using that very same strength he had found while battling Michael. Tsubiri helped him realize this true power of his, if not for her, he’d have never recovered from the atrocities he was just forced to commit.

So long as she’s by his side, he’ll use his new strength to destroy what he once was and the people who are attempting to send him back into that darkness.
His sword is only inches away from Asmodeus’s neck, but the smile on her face doesn’t leave and her eyes still shine bright with confidence.
The reason why she can stare death in the face without a hint of fear, comes in the form of a churning gray bubble planting itself between her neck and Ubica’s sword.

By the time Ubica reacts to it, it’s far too late, the two collide and the second they touch the bubble explodes outwards and knocks the sword right out of his hands. The force was enough to twist Ubica’s arm backwards at an awkward angle and dislocate his shoulder.

“Arrrghh!!”

“That’s payback for the time you busted up my arm, old pal.”

This is undoubtedly the voice of Mammon.

Ubica’s face contorts in shock, he has locked eyes with the person he thought he killed over a half a year earlier.

“I’m sure Mammon being alive will come as quite the surprise to you.” Asmodeus says as she stands to her feet and dusts herself off. “And you were right; I was trying to buy time. But you didn’t even let me do that, I guess still can be a cold-blooded bastard.”

“H-How?” Ubica asks, replaying the events of that night in his mind.

Looking closely and analyzing the final part of that battle, he feels that there should be no way that he could’ve survived.

His theory contradicts the facts planted firmly in front of him, but instead of dwelling on his confusion he decides to charge. While running, he pops his arm back into place by twisting it in front of him; he then holds out his hand and his sword flies back into his grasp. If he could defeat Asmodeus, he can handle Mammon as well; he knows exactly what it will take for him to win.

Asmodeus jumps in between the two and intersects him by jumping over his head and allowing his neck to catch on the chains latched to her wrists. Ubica is clotheslined at such a speed he does three or four back-flips before viciously landing onto the ground.

He coughs wildly as his throat feels like an elephant has just stomped on it; he didn’t even see it coming.

(How did she become so fast!?) he thinks to himself frantically as he struggles to breath.

“You know I could’ve ripped your head off right there if I really wanted to.” she said smugly, walking towards him as she continues, “I think it’s about time to take things a little more seriously, though I gotta say, getting beat up by you was quite the turn-on.”

She’s implying that she was pretty much losing on purpose because she enjoyed it. Ubica doesn’t believe that to be the case, but it still does enough to sprout the seed of doubt planted deep within him.

“Hey Ubica...” Mammon asks, forming dozens of his bubbles of antimatter and letting them surround him as if it was a barrier. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed it yet, but all we’ve been doing is putting you in really fucked up positions in order to see how you’ll get out of them. We give you so many chances to make your way out, but in spectacular fashion you always choose the wrong one. You’re like a carnivore caught in a trap; in any normal occasion the fight or flight instinct will take over and it it should bite, it should only be natural when there’s nowhere to escape. But like the pacifist beast you are, you turn away and run into that wall countless times, just hoping that it’ll break under the weight of your will... It’s not going to work old pal, it’s time that you use those sharp teeth of yours for real.”

“I can beat you guys without resorting to Dantega, all of your stupid attempts to take a power that will soon no longer exist, it’ll all be a waste of effort!”

“Oho, you say that with such vigor, but you have yet to show us any proof otherwise.” Asmodeus adds, her chain making noises as she gestures her hands. “There hasn’t been one occasion where you haven’t let Dantega seep out of you while fighting us, and you know it.”

“.....”

She’s right; he used it against Nero, he used it against Mammon, although he didn’t fully use it on Leviathan, once Ubica’s revenge was taken away he was almost completely overcome by it. The only reason he didn’t use Dantega’s power during the fight with Abaddon and Beelzebub is because he simply didn’t have time; under that kind of pressure, there’s no doubt the Antichrist’s power would devour the strength he gets from his love for his comrades.

“So we’ve constantly put you between a rock and a hard place in wait for you to unleash your true self; thus far we’ve tempted you with Greed, Lust, and Envy, since it hasn’t really worked, we’ve decided to try something a little different. That’s the reason why I’m here as well. Our goal today is to completely overwhelm you with a situation impossible for you to get out of without unleashing the power of Dantega.”

Ubica still finds it within him to reject what they say, he knows better than anyone what is going on inside of his body. There’s light in there that is in the process of destroying the power that stands in the way of being the person he wants to be.

“...That won't happen, I'll show you both how wrong you are.”

He rushes in at Mammon once more, this time more mindful of the movements of Asmodeus. He gets within five meters of the unwavering demon when a bubble forms in between them about ten feet in diameter.

Knowing that if he carelessly tries to power his way through that, Mammon could have it retract and send a large chunk of his body to another dimension; he also can’t blow it away with brute strength because he’d just turn it into a bomb and explode it in Ubica’s face. So instead of using either of these tactics, he decides to send a long range attack directly through the bubble.

He swings his sword and slices the wind to create a pressure zooming forward horizontally; what this does is create a very thin pocket of still air sandwiched in between two gusts flying a hundred times faster than the speed of a category 5 tornado on the Fujita scale. This still air acts like a blade being hurled faster than the speed of sound; Mammon won’t have the time to send the brunt of the attack to another dimension through his bubble so it would pass right through and slice Mammon in half.

“Not so fast, old pal.”

The bubble suddenly turns transparent and its contents can now be seen. There is a certain girl inside this sphere, and in the instant she’s able to see outside she locks eyes with Ubica.

Ubica doesn’t understand how or why she’s in this situation, as far as he knows it’s just a hallucination. But one thing is for sure, seeing her in that bubble knowing full well what could so easily happen to her is enough to make his chest burn in angst. Ubica has seen firsthand the powers of those orbs, he’s watched as Mammon compressed over ten people into the size of a golf ball from within it.

"!!!”

“Ubica!”

Just hearing her voice was enough to shatter his train of combative thought as if a truck had run into it; now the only thing rolling through his mind is panic. In less than a second, his own attack will slice through the bubble and along with it the upper body of Tsubiri.

In this state of pure heart stopping panic, he pushes off the ground and rushes to her at such a speed it quite literally explodes the air behind him. He can’t even think straight as his blurry eyes are set solely on Tsubiri; he’s attempting the impossible, he’s trying to out run his own attack. The attack meant to hit Mammon at such a speed he’d have no way of countering it.

Ubica’s body is surrounded by a bright light and with him in it, that light shines wide like a television screen that had abruptly been shut off and it zooms parallel with his own attack.

He’s going to make it to her, he’s going to save her, he’s going to pull off the impossible.

At least that’s how it looked for that short moment.

The transparent sphere that Tsubiri is trapped in quite literally fizzes away like a sugar cube dropped in water and her entire presence disappears. It’s like he saw her through a mirror room in a carnival house, she vanished like she was nothing but a mirage.

With her gone, the sight of the man standing behind that sphere can be seen once more. But this time, the blurred figure of the man Ubica barely catches sight of in his intense speed shocks him worse than the sudden appearance of Mammon.

Although he can’t make it out clearly, he knows it’s not the Demon of Greed.

Ubica is on a collision course with this man, both his attack and his body have no way of stopping before it is too late.

Time seems to slow down in this instant and the man’s face can clearly be seen as he holds his hand out in front of him.

He has red eyes with white pupils, jet black hair and is wearing a confident smile on his face.

Ubica instantly recognizes him as Damien.

With his right hand, Damien grabs onto Ubica’s face.

The wind attack that was trailing behind takes a sharp turn towards Asmodeus before it is knocked away by the back of her hand as if someone threw a cotton ball at her. As soon as these motions are made clear, time speeds up once more and,

SSLLLLAAAAAASSSHH!!!

The wind of Ubica’s attack that was rerouted towards Asmodeus and effortlessly deflected before crashing into the middle of a building, it doesn’t stop until it slices through a few more structures and sends them all toppling to the ground.

Loud explosions from the collapse of dozens of buildings ensue behind the Demon of Lust when she says, “Well look at that, I finally got to show off my ability to alter wind.”

The next thing Ubica knows, he feels his equilibrium being thrown backwards and then is followed by a blunt pain in the back of his head.

With a firm grip on Ubica’s face, Damien slams the back of Ubica’s head into the asphalt road and sends it splintering into thousands of pieces.

BOOOSH!!!

Not being able to comprehend what had just happened, all Ubica can do is feel himself sink deeper into the ground as his own blood is seen floating in his peripheral vision.

“I’ve finally got my hands on you, Ubica...” Damien says as he releases his grip and jumps out of the crater he created in the ground with Ubica’s body.

Asmodeus and Mammon walk to each side of him and peer down on their enemy as if he were a dying eagle stuck in hole; it’s just as Mammon said, Ubica is nothing but a beast constantly being cornered.

With the sudden appearance of the puppet master behind all of this, Ubica can’t help but feel the weight of his instincts beating down on him to combat the glares of the three above.

Although Damien isn’t one of the 7 Demons of Hell, he’s certainly on a different level than everyone else, especially if he can give orders to the highest ranking members of the Hierarchy. Satan, who’s one of the 7 Demons himself and is supposedly the leader of the legendary group is hard pressed to even do that; the fact that they are following Damien means he offers them something worth fighting for that he’s yet to show. That could be something beneficial to the demons, or it could be that Damien is just that strong.

Ubica hasn't seen Damien’s real powers after all this time, but he’s just caught a good glimpse of it, he can feel it in his aching bones after finding himself buried in the ground.

He tries to lift his broken body out of the crater and struggles to climb up the steep wall over ten feet high; to his surprise, Damien and the other two don’t do anything to stop him and allow him to shakily pull his way back onto the road.

He stands to his feet and after a couple wobbles, he asks a question that somewhat surprises the others.

“Where’s... Tsubiri?”

“Oh? I actually had thought the first thing you’d ask me is why I’ve decided to come, but I guess now I know where your priorities are.” Damien replies.

“You have her don’t you? Tell me where she is!” Ubica’s voice cracked slightly when he shouted out that demand.

His legs feel like wet noodles and his eyesight is still very hazy due to the impact of Damien’s attack.

Mammon takes a rather long sigh of exasperation and answers, “Yeah, I got her right here.”

He then raises his arm and the same dark gray bubble forms to his side and becomes transparent once more, revealing Tsubiri.

“Let her out of there!”

“Hmph, like I’d just casually let her free, I don’t know if you recall, but this little lady here shocked the shit out of me the last time we met. I promised that I’d kill her for that, and here I am, looking to carry out my word. I just thought it’d be much more fun if I had you watch, old pal.”

“You!”

Ubica tries to take a step forward and drops as if he lost all strength in his legs.

“Ubica!” Tsubiri shouts; despite her situation she finds herself more worried about him.

Damien slightly huffs air out of his nose in a little laugh and starts walking towards Ubica; he gets to the pathetic beast desperately trying to reach Tsubiri and steps on the hand that’s holding the sword, forcing Ubica to drop it and become even more defenseless.

“Look at what you’ve become... under my foot groveling like a neglected dog. Tell me, what do you expect to do once you reach her? Do you honestly think you can save her in your condition?”

“...I’ll find a way.”

Ubica said that with about as much of his confidence broken as humanly possible.

Truthfully, he knows the real answer to Damien’s question.

“Your only way is through Dantega. If not, she dies.”

“Don’t listen to him!” Tsubiri shouts from within the bubble.

Mammon clicks his tongue and shrinks his bubble rapidly; forcing her to roll herself up into a ball to avoid being compressed.

The bubble doesn’t stop until Damien says, “Stop that Mammon, I won’t let you kill her just yet.”

Without even questioning him, the boisterous demon of Greed stays silent and stops the bubble in a small enough size to force Tsubiri into a sitting position. If the bubble hadn't stopped there, any further could have broken her neck.

Ubica’s chest rose into his throat when he saw that, so much so he couldn’t even yell out to her.

The pressure of the whole situation is crippling Ubica’s soul, earlier, he was very confident in his newfound ability to gain strength without resorting to Dantega. The crack in that confidence formed when Asmodeus mentioned that she wasn’t really trying to fight him, and a chasm formed when he was confronted with an additional demon of the Hierarchy. Right now, with Damien present and Tsubiri’s life in their hands, the overwhelming presence of inadequacy has landed upon him like a falling planet.

He had spent the last 3 months since his battle with Michael truly believing in himself and trusting that he was on the right path, to have it crumble so easily under the weight of an outside force, and faced with the deadly result of losing the very person that helped him feel that way, is enough to make him want to cry out in anguish.

The fear in Ubica’s eyes doesn’t go unnoticed by Damien.

“Your expression looks so familiar to me.”

“..?”

“The hopelessness and desperation, the injustice of it all. You want so bad for it to not be this way that it’s enough to make you want to grind your teeth into sawdust. But you have a magical tool you can use to save you from it, I don’t understand why you’d let yourself go through this when in your hands is the ability to make it stop.”

Ubica grits his teeth in contemplation, he knows as well as anyone what he can do. But there is a price to that power, and the price is losing everything that he truly wants.

“It’s not as simple as that.”

“But it can be.” Damien quickly added. “You don’t have to lie there and suffer through hopelessness like I did. You don’t have to spend hundreds of years struggling to make even the smallest change in your situation like I have. You can flip a switch and end it all in a second.”

Surprised by what Damien had just said, Ubica looks up to him and sees a chink in the impenetrable armor of what he had always seen of the son of Satan as. He had never known anything about Damien, but in his mind he had created an image of him that always seemed so in control, so what is this hopelessness Damien is speaking of? What struggle could he have possibly been put through that led him to this point now?

Ubica can't, and refuses to see him as someone operating from within a hopeless world of suffering, there is simply no way Damien can understand that human of a world.

So instead, he looks at Damien as though he were looking at a fraud.

“I see… you’re not doing all this because you know what hopelessness is.”

Ubica pulls his foot out from under Damien’s shoe and stands to his feet. Looking the son of the Devil square in the eyes, the feeling of this stand off is palpable.

“You’re doing it because you do not know what absolute power is.”

Damien clicks tongue and grabs onto Ubica’s throat.

The glare that Ubica is returning to him doesn’t budge, it’s just like he is looking down on a child.

“You talk as though you even know what you once had, if you did, you wouldn’t be forsaking it when everything you care about can so easily be destroyed. This is why I hate you, so much of what you are is what I was supposed to be. So I’m going to take it all for myself.”

Ubica doesn’t blink. His green eyes stare holes into Damien.

Damien pushes him away and turns his back to the Antichrist.

“But not yet, you’re going to have to become your true self first. It’s become obvious that our tactics haven’t worked thus far, we’ll need to go with our back up plan.”

Seeing Damien walk away from Ubica, Asmodeus is confused. “Hey what’s this all about? Can’t we just kill that girl and get this over with? He’s bound to turn if we take her away from him.”

“No...” Damien replies, “It won’t be enough right now.”

Damien looks at Mammon and says, “Let her out.”

Mammon is biting his lip in resistance, he wants nothing more than to kill her and torment Ubica.

“You can’t be serious..?”

“I agree, we have him right where we want him. How are we just gonna pass on this chance!?” Asmodeus voices her displeasure as well.

“We might have him where we want him, but not where we need him. So long as he’s missing the most important part of himself, he’ll be able to handle the loss of his friends.” Damien smoothly replies.

“But...”

They doubt him because it seems like for the first time, Damien has allowed his own personal interests to outweigh his logic regarding the plan involving Ubica. If the goal is to break him, then killing those most important to him is the easiest way to do it. To them, it just feels like Damien is making it more complicated than it needs to be.

“That will be the last time either of you question my command, understood?”

The two stay silent and Mammon sends Tsubiri out about a hundred yards away down the street and frees her from his bubble of antimatter, dropping her firmly onto the asphalt.

The three walk away a couple feet when Damien turns around, prompting the others to do so as well.

He looks at the silent and slightly relieved Ubica and sends him a malicious smile, “So long as you keep rejecting yourself, you’ll be living on borrowed time.”

“...I don’t need absolute power to defeat you, I need true power. There is nothing you can do to change how you’ll lose.”

“True power… Is that what you want to call it?”

Damien holds out his hand in the direction where Tsubiri was dropped off at; Ubica shifts his tired gaze to her position.

“Enjoy it while it lasts.”

Damien's next move is a simple wave as if he was shooing someone away. It is that simple motion that will bring about an attack that shakes the very core of this metropolis.

Within a millisecond, every window in the entire city pops and a head wrenching screech rings through the boulevards and alleyways as if brought forth by a powerful wind.

The shards of glass don’t even reach halfway to the ground when,

GAGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSHHHHH!!!

A tremendous explosive noise burst out from the area of the city around Tsubiri.

Actually, it was not just one.

Thousands and tens of thousands of explosive noises shoot from the core of each building at such short intervals that they all sounded like a single massive blast.

However, Ubica had no clue what had happened.

If one had an aerial view of the city, they’d see the top of every last structure in the metropolis break and fall into their own debris as though each mass had a detonation charge. If one had a view even higher than that, even one from space, they’d see a stain of gray towering into the atmosphere as if a great fire has purged the land of Purgatory. That is how devastating this attack is, that is how much destruction the son of Satan has caused with a simple wave of his hand.

Ubica doesn’t even see this unfathomable attack; he doesn’t notice everything around him crumbling like a stacked deck of cards that had the base card at the bottom suddenly taken out. He doesn’t pay any mind to the hundreds of thousands of people who have certainly all lost their lives in this very instant.
As if he has tunnel vision, he only sees the frame of Tsubiri disappear in a great plume of dust followed by her silhouette being engulfed by the falling buildings collapsing from each side of the road she found herself in the middle of. What he’s so sure he’s seen, is the dreaded sight of the girl he loves being crushed to death under the weight of Damien’s power.

Ubica’s next breath is filled with soot and debris; he doesn’t bother to flinch at the sharp pain it sends his throat into. He merely holds it in as all sound is replaced by a deafening ringing in his ears, and only the gray cloud where she once was is seen through his wide eyes.

“Ah...” Is all he can mutter as he starts walking towards that plume of smoke.

He’s completely ignoring the presence of Damien and the other two Demons, his mind simply can’t function in a way that tells him his enemies are still standing just a couple feet away.

Asmodeus and Mammon are more or less amazed at the display Damien had just put on, not just because of his immense power, but because he was so quick to change his mind on letting Tsubiri live. It’s like he chose to let her live on a whim, and chose to kill her on a whim. Standing in front of them is the powerful leader they chose to follow instead of Satan. This is what they’ve wanted to be a part of this entire time.

Damien, who has surrounded Ubica and his two allies with a pocket of untouched air, faintly frowns and snaps his fingers.

This gesture immediately engulfs Asmodeus and Mammon in a bright red flame and sends them back to Hell.

As if he wanted to keep the two demons from hearing his next words, he looks at the pathetic form of Ubica making his way into the dust.

“You may think that I seek absolute power because I don't know how terrifying it really is, but I am the enemy you need to fear most because someone like you who has had absolute power knows nothing of true suffering. With absolute power you always have a way out, you'll never be human enough to know real pain. But me? I know it all too well, it lives within me like Dantega lives within you. But I won't accept my struggle any longer, since I don't have the power to change things on my own, I will steal it from the person that does."

Damien engulfs himself in flame and sends himself back to Hell along with the others; leaving Ubica in this now desolate wasteland of a once booming metropolis.

Those words of Damien’s struck the innermost part of Ubica’s soul and added weight to his already heavy legs as he inched his way forward through the rubble.

It’s more than likely he’ll never find her, between the thick dust polluting the air and the never ending layer of rubble on the ground, he’d be lucky to find a whole car in this desolation, forget finding what might remain of a human body.

He doesn’t even want to look at the bits and pieces of human flesh littering the cracks and crevices of fallen buildings. Unable to find the courage to get close enough to the severed limbs to attempt to identify them, if he had found her in a mangled state like that he’d be crushed.

“...hhhaaa.”

Realizing this pitiful search of his is fruitless, he allows the world around him to blur over as he walks forward over the rubble and through the smoke. The question is, what will he do now? What will he do if he never finds her, or worse, what would he do if he stumbled upon her corpse?

These thoughts begin to manifest into a pain brewing deep inside him, and he’s fighting back his body’s instinct to manage that pain.

He shuts his eyes as he continues walking forward.

This is when an odd warmth hits his eyelids and the color of orange is seen through them; feeling this unusual sting he opens them only to find that he’s staring directly into the sun.

He turns away quickly to free his eyes from the sudden brightness.

(The sun..?) he thinks to himself as he looks at his surroundings.

There is no longer any sign of Damien’s ferocious attack, he’s found the booming metropolis is intact and completely unscathed. It’s as if he had awoken from a cruel dream; the ground below him is untouched, the sky above him is crystal clear, and the air he’s now breathing has lost its poisonous flavor.

His entire body has been thrust into a completely different realm of existence than what was just felt on his skin.

“W-What..?”

“... Ubica.”

A girl's soft voice is heard to his left, this is the very voice he had thought he’d never hear again no more than a few seconds earlier.

Standing there, completely untouched by the devastation he had thought he just witnessed is Tsubiri.

Her eyes are wallowing up with tears as she sees Ubica in such a horrible state.

She was in the same situation as Ubica; she had no clue what happened and was under the impression that Damien had killed him in that blast.

“Aaah...”

Ubica mutters, unable to articulate any words to go along with what he’s feeling.

A surge of strength is felt in his legs as he rushes to her, when he gets within a few feet his knees give out and he falls to them.

Tsubiri is about to lean down to help him back up to his feet but she is stopped when Ubica throws his face just below her chest and squeezes her back tightly. She can feel him breathe into her stomach as if he’s on the verge of tears as well.

What was once a place destroyed by a horrendous blast where the two had thought they lost one another, has now been replaced with life and relief.
Tsubiri wraps her arms around him and squeezes as well; the two of them share similar emotions as they embrace.

“Well then...” Tsubiri says as the sun reflects off of her still intact glasses. “This has been some kind of birthday huh?”

Her attempt at injecting comedic relief to the tense situation doesn’t go unappreciated.

She helps stand him up to his feet and he takes a sigh that releases the rigidness he had felt constricting his body up to this moment.

“Your future birthdays can only improve from here.”

“Ha, yeah the bar has been set pretty low. But before they showed up, I was really having a lot of fun, and my present made it out unscathed too!”

“At least there’s that.”

Looking around, he can’t help but be amazed at what Damien has done, to be able to create an illusion that Ubica could taste, smell, and feel isn’t something he had thought possible. Though he realizes how truly scary Damien is, he still feels that if Damien fights solely to gain power, he will win.

But…

What if it’s more than just that?

What if Damien is truly is fighting for something more than just a desire for strength?

Can he compete against something more complex than simple desires?

Not knowing for sure just what it is, strikes more fear into Ubica than Damien’s ability to alter his reality to the point of truly believing he was in a destroyed city.

Not to mention, they are going to commence this alternate plan to extract Dantega from him that he can't even venture to think on what it may be. Tsubiri an his friends are safe for now, but what lies next for them?

“... Tsubiri," Ubica says, shaking off the anxieties that no longer need to be dwelled upon. "thank you for everything.”

With his hands on her shoulders, he puts his angst into the back of his mind and manages a smile.

He can handle these things because right now, the person most important to him is right in front of him.

“Let’s go back to the others, pass through the Gates and get home so we can end all of this. The kind of life we want is there at the end of this road.”

Seeing the peaks and valleys of Ubica’s emotions first hand, Tsubiri is grateful for that smile he’s giving her, it’s genuine, and void of despair. It’s the look of his that tells her he hasn’t, and will never give up on her. It tells her that there will never be a day when he goes back on the birthday promise he made earlier.

Tsubiri smiles wide at the prospect of reaching the end of this road, she’s not ready to give up either, even in the face of overwhelming power.
Even though she had earlier requested that the two of them leave this dangerous road and live a life outside of it, she knew deep down that this desire isn’t fair to everyone else. Ubica doesn’t only belong to her, at least not yet.

He has a responsibility to see this thing through, and it’s now her obligation to help him do that as his partner.

The most important part is that there is light at the end of the dark path of this journey, and the reward of that light is something she’s willing to spend as much time in the darkness needed to reach.

“I like the sound of that!”

Conflict of Interests: (END)

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| Back to [[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
| Return to [[Dantega|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 4|Rosemary's Baby]]
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</noinclude>

Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 3

2022-03-29T08:27:25Z

Deck of cards:

(PART 4)

Lilith is wearing a tightly fit golden silk robe that’s more or less transparent; with nothing like a bra or underwear beneath the robe, just about everything can be seen under the right lighting. Unlike the restricting and degrading outfit of Asmodeus, Lilith’s is the exact opposite. She shows freedom in her presence that oozes pride and liberation.

She is the first woman, she came before Eve, and broke away from the unreasonable situations cast on her in the Garden of Eden. She had forsaken the word of God and decided to make her own, for that she was punished of course, but after thousands of years she's grown far stronger than even God could have imagined.

When God created her, she was meant to be below Adam, who existed as the representative of man. Now, it's very likely no man could stand up to her will. So much time has been spent honing her abilities to manipulate men that she simply sees them as inferior beings.

The candlelight shines off her hazy orange hair and her multicolored eyes gleam as if they were glass marbles. Lilith is a stunning beauty, and her presence sparkles in confidence as though very aware of how she must look to the people she feels are fortunate enough to gaze upon her.

She spreads her arms and smiles when she says, “I can’t let you kill her.”

She then slides her open palm down the side of Trojia’s face, caressing the princess as though she were a prized possession. “If you were to do that, your soul would lose the irresistible pureness that has gotten me so fond of you.”

Trojia stares blankly forward with her red eyes as Lilith begins touching her in ways that can only be described as inappropriate. Lilith uses her thumbs to caress Trojia’s lips, and her hands smoothly slide down to Trojia’s breasts and begin fondling them.

For whatever reason, Trojia’s not fighting it one bit; it could be the result of Lilith manipulating her into complacency; but no matter what it is, Trojia doesn’t make a move.

Not even her deadened red glare shows a hint of rejection.

This invites Lillith to continue her groping, she now slides her hands down Trojia’s back and begins touching Trojia’s skin from under her skirt.

“Ahh, such a fine figure you have.” Lilith said, the pitch of her voice dances as though she were reciting poetry. “Even I can be envious of your youthful body. But the truth is, I can feel your soul within my fingertips when I touch you.”

Lilith halts molesting the princess and looks to the fabled False Prophet; the only person who stood by the side of the Antichrist is stuck helpless against the wall like a pin up butterfly.

“There’s no need for you to stain your purity with the likes of this imposter. I will kill her myself and use her to keep myself looking as young as you.”

“Geh!!” Messor hisses through bloodied teeth as she tries to think of a way she can escape this danger.

Lilith smiles and takes her first step forward in an attempt to devour Messor’s soul when all the sudden she feels a light prick on her neck.

“..?”

Trojia has stepped in between the two and is poking Lilith with the tip of the blade being held in her right hand, and with her left she’s grabbed the grip of the other twin sword impaling Messor to the wall.

“...She’s mine.”

“What do you think you’re doing? You shouldn’t even be able to move well” As surprised as Lilith is, she seems to be unafraid by Trojia’s sudden threatening movements. “You’re letting your hatred for the False Prophet cloud your judgment. You’ve felt what’s in my touch haven’t you? That should be more than enough to replace your desires for revenge with what I can offer you.”

In one fluid motion, Trojia pulls the blade out of Messor’s abdomen, sending blood flying into the air; and with her other sword in her right hand she pushes it to the left side of Lilith’s neck. The sword in her left hand then crosses over the other to create an X shape around the base of Lilith’s throat.

“What?”

This all happened so fast that Lillith didn’t have time to react and defend herself. She simply never saw this turn of events coming, so she never had her guard up to begin with.

“You’re In the way.”

“Is this some kind of a joke? You’re telling me that you’re actually rejecting my touch?”

A cold sweat falls down the Gatekeeper’s temple as she looks into the glowing red eyes of Trojia.

It’s at this moment that the confidence in herself has wavered upon being confronted by this girl with the pure soul. She was arrogant enough to believe that no one could ever fight against her temptations, the fact that she has touched someone with her bare hands should have been a foolproof way of assuring their loyalty forever.

She has now realized that she has made a fatal error.

“W-Wait!”

SHLINK!!

Trojia pulled outwards with both of her hands as if she was opening a double door. The result of this simple movement is gruesome, Lilith’s head flies upwards being trailed by a fountain of blood as if it were a cork from a celebratory champagne bottle.

“Khaa?”

Is all that Lilith was able to mutter before the inevitable happened.

Her severed head hits the ground in a wet sounding thud.

Just like that, the first woman that was so strong that she opposed God back when there were only two humans alive on Earth, has been slain.
In that short moment, all of the magnificent history and a trail of biblical events that followed behind this woman are no more. The third Gatekeeper has been defeated; she died thinking she had full control of the situation all the way until she felt the sensation of her head being separated from her body.
Once she realized that, there was nothing left of her.

In that quick second where the legend of Lilith was destroyed by a teenage girl; that certain teenage girl has taken her first life.

And that girl didn’t even bat an eye once the blood spray painted her face, hair and clothes red.

Trojia feels as though she has just killed two birds with one stone. She’d have to go through Lillith eventually, why not take advantage of it now when the Gatekeeper least expected it?

Even Messor is shocked, Trojia turned into a heartless monster on par with her and Ubica in a mere second.

Now, it has truly dawned on her, this girl can, and will kill her.

(Tch! Like I’ll let that happen!)

She leans back on the wall with all her weight and starts to impossibly sink into it as if she were a ghost that held no mass. What she’s doing is nothing like that however; being the False Prophet that was born of the Earth; she’s able to freely move through earthly material.

She’s lucky that the castle is made of stone otherwise she’d be doomed.

Trojia senses something is amiss and immediately forgets about the headless corpse she just created. Lilith’s body has barely dropped to the ground when Trojia turns and flings both of her swords into the area where she knows Messor is.

Two solid thunks reach Trojia’s ears as her eyes catch up; she knows right away that those noises don't match the sound of a flesh and bone body being pierced.

Just below where her swords stick into the wall, she spots Messor’s feet scurry backwards into the wall and disappear.

Trojia’s emotionless face begins to contort and her eyebrows form into a frown when it dawns on her that she’s just let her greatest enemy get away. She kicks Messor’s puddle of blood on the wall with great strength, and surprisingly, that kick was enough to send chunks of the wall scattering about.

Gritting her teeth in frustration, she says to herself,

“I bet you think you’re clever… I’m still coming for you, Messor!”

She prepares another bone breaking kick against the wall to break through and give chase when the door that she entered this rectangular room from, opens up and a bright light shines on her.

Her red eyes flash as she looks through the light and notices that Rage and Napoleon had just rushed into the room.

She halts her kick and turns away from the light as a reflex, the sudden brightness stung her eyes.

“Trojia! Are you alright!?” Napoleon asks worriedly, the first thing he noticed was all the blood on and around her.

“I’m fine.” she coldly answers, “Where are the others?”

“We split up in groups of two so we can travel down each of the three doors a little ways back.” Rage answers.

“That’s good... The rest of you are bound to run into the other girls, we did the same thing at those doors.”

“So...” Napoleon says as he looks around the room, it looks like a tornado has blown through here. “What just happened?”

“The Gatekeeper is dead. We’re free to pass through the Gate once we find it.”

“What!?”

Trojia’s body seems to weaken as her tone of voice begins to gain more humanity, “Let’s go... We’ve still got to find the Gate before we can pass.”

Her frame leans to the side and she falls against the wall. Rage and Napoleon can tell that she’s on the verge of collapsing and rush to her aid. Before they get there however, she falls unconscious and drops like a sandbag to the ground.

“Trojia!”

Napoleon takes her into his arms and checks her pulse; he sees that she’s fine and breathing regularly before he takes a sigh of relief and looks up to Rage.

Rage then leans down and reaches towards her face, instead of checking for her breathing like Napoleon did, he lifts up her eyelids and stares into her eyes.

“Green?” Rage asks himself.

“What exactly are you trying to find?”

“I’m absolutely positive that when we got in here... her eyes were red.”

-----------------------

Asmodeus is flying through the city with a trail of smoke being left in her wake; she’s been ruthlessly beaten like this for minutes now. After banging into the side of a building and ricocheting violently to the ground, she bounces to a stop and quickly tries to get up before her body gives out. She doesn’t even reach one knee when out of nowhere, Ubica appears behind her.

“!?”

He swings down his sword immediately.

Asmodeus barely has enough time to block it by stretching the chains tied above her hands by metal bracelets worn on her wrists.
The sound of metal clashing rings through the air and sparks fly all about.

On a normal occasion, these chain links should have snapped from the force of the sword made of pure diamond; the only thing keeping it intact is Asmodeus’s own power surging through the chains.

A yellow light surrounds these chains and the shackles around her wrists vibrate.

She uses this as a weapon of defense and a weapon of offense, with a certain amount of power taken from a spike inside the bracelets stabbing into her wrists that she uses to send to the links, she can use the chains as an unbreakable shield, or a weapon so sharp it could tear through any material.
Knowing that, Asmodeus changes the properties of her chain into an offensive weapon so she can cut Ubica’s sword right through. She’s pretty much been trying to do similar things this entire fight, the problem is that Ubica hasn’t even given her a chance to do anything but defend.

Sure enough, the same thing happens again.

Ubica jumps up into the air and disappears in the smoke of a destroyed building.

“Damn it!! What kind of power is this!? Haah?? Ubica!”

Unlike before, Ubica has allowed her to stand on her feet; she looks around the smoke and dust for any sign of him and flinches at every sound.

Asmodeus is not this weak, she should not be playing the role of a mouse with Ubica the cat, it should be the other way around. It’s just that Ubica has revealed a benevolent strength the likes of which she’s never seen before, it’s almost like she’s found herself in a battle with an Angel. This type of battle needs to be prepared for appropriately, it’s going to take a few minutes for her to figure out just how she is going to go about combating this.

Her main power allows her to control the wind, and because of this she is able to move extremely fast and also propel large objects, the issue is that it takes time to stir up the atmosphere like that. With the way Ubica presses forward with his relentless assault, she hasn’t even been close enough to be able to take advantage of her strength.

Despite her handicap, and despite knowing that she doesn't have that long to come up with a plan, she smiles confidently as though she knows she still has a way out.

“Good thing I have backup coming to help me.”

---------------------

Tsubiri is running through the city with her head down, not caring where she goes. She doesn’t notice the onlooking citizens out on the street and the panic of the populace, all she can hear are the sounds of explosions coming from the area behind her being caused by the battle between Asmodeus and Ubica.
Sprinting for over a few minutes or so has gotten her quite winded, it is only now that she decides to rest her tired legs and take a look back at the scene she had fled from. Out in the distance of the metropolis, she sees large plumes of smoke rising, and flashes of white light zoom across the sky and leave a green vapor trail behind. She’s never seen this kind of power before but she has a strong feeling that it’s coming from Ubica.

Even with that feeling as intense as it is, that little bit of doubt is enough to make her very nervous. She’s scared to death of him not making it out alive; and she’s also afraid of what he’ll have to put himself through in order to survive.

Not being able to bear it any longer, Tsubiri turns her back to the battle and begins running away again.

Ubica had told her to get as far away as possible from him, and unlike the time before, she has every intention of sucking up her reluctance and waiting for him to find her once he’s done fighting.

She bites her bottom lip and says to herself, “I know you can win...”

A deep breath follows her words in an attempt to inflate faith into her chest, there’s nothing she can do other than that. Almost feeling secure about his victory, she suddenly hears a voice from in front of her that shatters that false sense of hope in an instant.

“Long time no see girly, I’m tickled to see that you’ve made a fine man out of my old pal Ubica.”

Standing in front of her is a child with bright orange hair; his eyes of an amber shade stare menacingly as he smiles thinly at her.

Tsubiri immediately recognizes him and his sudden appearance sends shivers down her spine. This child was the Demon that represented Greed out of the 7 Deadly Sins; that child was an absolute monster that slaughtered thousands of people and laughed about it pleasurably.

Standing short and imposing in his dark blue overcoat is Mammon, he’s casually swinging his circled tip sword in his hands and it gleams off the surrounding skyscrapers.

“Come on now, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“I-I thought you were...”

“That I was killed? Nah, we demons are quite tough to kill, you know? Especially when we have access to so many souls here in Purgatory, it’s going to take a lot more than what he did to destroy this little body of mine.”

Tsubiri is terrified of this monstrous demon taking on the form of a child; if Ubica’s ferocious attack back on the Second level wasn’t enough to kill him, she shivers to think just what it will take to defeat these Demons of the Hierarchy. Now Ubica is up against two of them, and she’s found herself alone with one that would have killed her multiple times over the last time she was confronted by him if not for Ubica saving her.

She takes a couple shoddy steps backwards and starts booking it away from him as fast as her legs can take her. Just because she now has the power to fight, doesn’t mean she stands a chance against one of the 7 strongest Demons of Hell.

“Hey hey where ya goin? Did you forget?”

A ball of antimatter appears in front of Tsubiri and the now adult Mammon hops out of it, cutting her off.

He leans in and looks square into her frightened eyes and says, “I promised that I’d kill you for electrocuting me when I was fighting Ubica... Greedy people have amazing memories, you know?”

“!!!”

Tsubiri turns around once again and tries to flee; and once again, it’s to no avail.

One of Mammon’s orbs of antimatter encircles her legs as she runs. Tsubiri knows full well what these bubbles are capable of and is stricken with a fear so deep that it shakes her very soul. A slight of hand is all it would take for Mammon to have this ball capsize and take her legs with it.

With her attention focused on trying to get away from this ugly ball of death, Mammon again appears in front of her and latches onto her throat with his little hand.

Her movements grind to a sudden halt and Mammon smiles thinly as he says, “But before I do that, we’re gonna have a little fun.”

Both Mammon and Tsubiri are engulfed in a churning dark gray bubble that then shrinks and pops.

Mammon has taken her to the opposite dimension of Antimatter; a world that he created himself where escape is impossible.

----------------------

Messor finds herself in a very small room lit by a solitary candle, this room is odd because unlike the other, there is no door leading in or out of it. The only thing in here is a dark tunnel imposingly stretching into the darkness before her, the cold air blowing from within is seemingly telling her to enter, but the coolness of the breeze communicates danger as if she’s staring directly into a trap.

Her blood is falling from her stomach like a leaking faucet but she pays no mind and lets it drip down her legs and to the floor; the floor that she has found herself in is covered in dark green grass for whatever odd reason. She’s more focused on her new surroundings and her possible pursuer than her wound, no matter how gruesome it looks it shouldn’t take too long to heal with the help of Dantega.

Exactly like Ubica, her body heals itself without much work, with no need for medicine to ward off infection, her body’s natural function will take course and she’ll be as good as new in no time. Of course, that doesn't mean the pain caused by this horrific wound isn't affecting her; she's still hurting quite badly and it pulsates with each heartbeat.

“Tch, I’m not going anywhere near that tunnel.” she says as if speaking to the castle itself.

She walks up to the wall and prepares to morph through just like last time but is shocked to find that it isn’t working.

“..?”

She tries once more and when nothing happens yet again, she realizes that there must be some kind of barrier keeping her from doing so. She then walks towards the tunnel and notices a plaque placed conveniently just before the entrance stating:

‘For those who have found themselves at the entrance of this tunnel, you have broken the number one rule of my castle. If one wishes to reach the Gate, they ‘must’ go through each door on the pathway to it. If you are here, that means you’ve tampered with the pathway you were on in an attempt to shorten your route. As a consequence, the one(s) responsible are sent down a different route to the Gate, one much more dangerous and difficult called the ‘Punishment Labyrinth’. If you are able to reach the other side of this maze, then you will have arrived at the Gate, where I’ll be waiting.’

This message was obviously written by Lilith. The message does enough to explain how this massive castle works; there are certain tests one must go through to reach the Gate, no matter what path one chooses. If a person finds a shortcut of any kind, they are automatically transferred to this little room and forced into the labyrinth ahead.

To Messor, this path is no different from any other one, it’s still her ticket to the Gate.

“Hmph, even after death I see you still intend to make this a pain in the ass. Fine then, I’ll get through this and wait for that girl to show up. This time however, I will be ready.”

Messor enters the tunnel and disappears in the darkness without an ounce of doubt in her ability to overcome whatever dangers awaits her.

----------------------

Phoenix walks along the dark hallways of the castle, his aura is blending in perfectly with his surroundings.

Xavier, who is holding a torch can only stare at his back as each step his priest moves forward the farther away his presence feels. It’s just like the last time they were separated form the others, Phoenix was acting rather dour then as well.

“U-Um...” Xavier mutters, trying to find something to say.

“Don’t bother talking.” Phoenix coldly replies to the prince’s discomfort.

“.....”

Xavier droops his head and looks at his feet as he continues to walk; lacking the social skills needed to handle this kind of situation, he decides to just stay quiet. With his mind racing, he fails to hear the footsteps of Phoenix slowing to a stop and accidentally walks right into his back.

“Whaaa!?”

He falls backwards and drops his torch, causing sparks to fly all over and darkening the already black path ahead.

“What’s going on, why’d you stop??”

“Shut up, Xavier.” Phoenix says, grabbing the prince’s face to keep him quiet whilst without turning to him. “There’s someone up ahead.”

Phoenix is glaring at something in the darkness like a dog growling at a ghost. There’s nothing in front of him that can be seen but he can feel it.

This tenseness lasts for a few moments when a girl's voice is heard from within the darkness yelling,

“Who’s there!?”

Phoenix immediately drops his guard, releases his grip on Xavier’s face and takes a slight sigh of relief.

“Aria, it’s me and Xavier.”

A clattering of footsteps pitter-patter towards them and sure enough, it turns out to be Aria and Daey.

“So you guys made it huh?? Where’s everybody else?” she asked excitedly, quite happy to see a friendly face from within all this darkness.

“We split up at that pathway a little ways back.”

“I see.” Daey added. “We’re kind of in a jam here, we’ve been contemplating turning around because this hallway seems to go on for miles... We can’t help but feel like we are getting ourselves even more lost than we were before.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, but the lady of the castle told us that all three routes would eventually lead to the Gate. I’m starting to think that she is playing a trick on us though.”

“Hmmm.” Phoenix mutters as he holds his chin and walks deeper into the dark hallway.

“H-Hey!” Daey shouts, a little ticked that he ignored her and kept going.

“There’s only one way to find out.” Phoenix says, his figure disappearing with each step. “I have no intention of backtracking away from the Gate and traveling in a larger group. It’d take longer, and not to mention it’d be more dangerous.”

Leaving the others alone and confused, all thoughts of going back are instantly quelled, and they begin following the priest who looks confident in his decision to walk down the hallway.

Xavier in particular doesn’t feel safe at all being separated from Phoenix so he starts running to catch up. “Hey Phoenix, hold up for a sec!”

He doesn’t get more than a few feet closer when,

CLICK

“!!”

Xavier’s foot sinks into an indentation on the stone floor; the square block dropped down about a foot and causes him to lose his balance. While falling, two strange circles of light flash on the walls directly on each side of him; the two lights make a strange hissing noise that starts deep and rises to a high pitch as if it’s ready to blow.

Being the explosion expert Aria is, she knows what is going to happen right away.

She shoves Daey backwards and rushes to him.

“Xavier!!!”

In a swift motion, she jumps, grabs Xavier in mid-air, and twists her body.

BAAAAAAAAAMMMMM!!!

As quick as it started, it ended in a flash and a loud noise.

Through the rubble clattering on the ground, Xavier’s frame rises and he gingerly stands to his feet.

“Are you okay!?” Daey shouts, running to his aid but weary of her steps after seeing what had just happened.

With his eyes hung downwards and firmly planted on the sight of something, he answers, “Y-Yeah... But.”

“But what!?”

Daey clambers over the rubble and looks down to see what he’s staring at; laying there bloodied and covered in rubble is Aria.

“Oh no... Aria!”

She begins moving whatever debris out of the way to make room for her to breathe while Xavier stands there motionless; it’s as though shock has overcome his senses. Aria has a wound somewhere on her head that’s causing blood to slide profusely down her face, her breathing is shoddy and she keeps sliding in and out of consciousness.

“I don’t get it... Why did she do that?” Xavier asked softly as if stating his thoughts aloud.

“We don’t have time to worry about that now! We have to do something!”

Daey pulls a handkerchief out of her pocket and covers the wound on her head, when the blood soaks the handkerchief right away; she loses the ability to think ahead.

“Phoenix!” she shouts further down the hallway, “Phoenix! Aria is hurt! Phoenix!!”

Judging by the silence after the echo of her frantic voice, it would seem that just like he said, Phoenix has no intention of backtracking away from the Gate.

He left them behind.

--------------------

Cyrus and Strauphius are walking along a hallway so bright it almost hurts their eyes; it gleams in a fluorescent blue light and makes the pillars posted every ten feet on the side of each wall seem like crystals.

“Is this really the right way?” Straphius asks while scratching his ear with his finger.

“How am I supposed to know that? I wasn't all too keen on separating like this, I’d feel a hell of a lot safer if I was with Napoleon and Rage rather than you.”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean??”

Cyrus stops in his tracks when he spots something out in the distance. “Please don’t tell me that’s what I think it is...”

“Huh?”

Out in the distance seen plain as day are two people scrunched down and not moving. At first he had hoped that the bright light was playing tricks on him, but he could perfectly see two figures lying lifelessly on the ground.

As soon as Strauphius takes a gander, he notices the same thing and shouts, “Are those bodies!?”

“Let’s go!”

The two of them rush over and to their dismay they find the limp bodies of Sora and Niera firmly planted on the ground. They have no obvious wounds, but it’s quite apparent that there’s something horribly wrong; their eyes are wide open as if they’ve been petrified

“What’s wrong with them!? Princess!” Cyrus shouts frantically.

Strauphius doesn’t know what to say; all he can do is check their pulse and hope for the best. But before he could, he and his partner heard the sound of metal against metal clattering out in the distance. Due to the light of this hallway, they can see what it is that’s causing the noise immediately.

There are four armored suits moving towards them as if they are on wheels; they shine in a bright silver and look almost fake as they rush forward in their gleaming light. Each of them have the same crest on their chests as the Colossal’s outside, and each color is different.

Seeing this again, they know that these objects are moving by the use of the souls of the men tempted by Lilith into coming here. All it would take is for them to break those crests and free the souls trapped inside, with that they’ll be able to pass; it sounds simple enough.

However,

Not giving the two any time to formulate a proper plan, the armored knight suits gather into formation and move forward for a physical assault.

“Get ready!” Cyrus shouts, guarding Niera with his body by stepping in front of her.

Strauphius doesn’t respond but his body language gives him an answer, in these types of situations words are borderline useless; all that matters is if the job can get done or not.

The two rush in for a head-on attack, with the suits of armor moving forward at the same speed, the imminent sound of swords clashing is soon to be heard.
That is, if it ever got to that point.

Before any metal clashes with each other, Cyrus’s heart stops momentarily and he suddenly drops to the ground. The thunk of his body banging against the smooth crystal-like floor stops Strauphius in his tracks and fills him with confusion.

“Huh?”

Cyrus’s eyes are wide open and seen through the black tint of his glasses clearly; Strauphius can see that he’s still breathing but the look of death on his face is enough to throw the heavy weight of fear down on his shoulders. It’s not just the fear of Cyrus's health, it’s the fear of the unknown, it’s the fear of not even knowing how it happened and not knowing if the same will come his way and when.

Without realizing it, the four suits of armor encircle him and send their weapons screaming towards his defenseless body.

At the last second, Strauphius comes to his senses and uses his intense speed to scatter; the weapons of all four armored suits crash into the ground he was once standing on.

Once he gets a safe distance away, he attempts to regather his racing thoughts; in the past, he’d normally flee from such a situation. But now, his comrades are downed right in front of him so there’s no way he can just leave, he must fight.

“Oooaaaahhh!!!”

With this scream of determination, he readies to charge; however, his first step forward doesn’t land on the ground, it swings underneath him and he falls face first onto the ground.

“Eh!?”

He immediately tries to stand back to his feet, but his body is paralyzed.

“!?”

Strauphius has found himself in the same state as Cyrus, Niera, and Sora. He doesn’t know how or why that happened but the answer seems to get closer to him in the form of footsteps. The back of his collar is forcefully pulled upwards and his limp body hangs towards the floor.

He can’t tell what’s going on but he knows that his body is being dragged off somewhere; the only thing his stuck in place eyes can see are the suits of armor throwing Cyrus and the two girls over their shoulders and following him.

This level of uncertainty has gotten him genuinely afraid, and it’s very likely that the other three are also conscious and aware of what’s happening as well, trapped in their own bodies and helplessly being moved against their will..

(Damn it! Damn it! What’s going on!!) he thinks to himself as he’s carried off down the hallway.

They take a quick left into a very dark room and he is stricken with the frightening realization that he’s going to find the answer to that very question any moment now.

---------------------

Asmodeus's body is firmly planted into the ground, being forced in by the foot of Ubica.

Even though she’s in a position of obvious defeat, she’s still smiling.

“What’s so funny?” Ubica asks as he presses down even harder; the ground below her cracks as a result.

With her chest collapsing under the weight of Ubica’s foot, she still forces out a laugh and replies, “Oho, it’s just the fact that you’ve changed so much... It’s actually quite funny because you’re so fake, your’e like a high-school girl.”

“Is that so?”

CRRAACKKK!!

The ground under her starts splintering like a glass window that's had a rock thrown through it; and if one listened closely enough, they’d hear the sound of Asmodeus’s chestplate cracking along with it.

“I think you’ll find that I can still be just as ruthless as I ever was.”

“It’s not that same!” she yells, spitting out blood that flies up and lands back onto her face. “I want to know how this happened! I have to know how it is that the man who was once the Antichrist could kill off thousands of people and not be swayed in the least! Before you kill me, tell me how!”

Ubica releases the pressure on her chest and points his sword at her neck; he sighs and replies, “It’s a whole chain of occurrences that led me to becoming the person I am now... But there’s really only one reason why; there’s only one thing driving me away from my darkness.”

“Then tell me!”

“Asking me like you really care... you’re trying to bide your time, what are you waiting for?”

“Don’t think I have any sneaky plans up my sleeves, I’m pretty incapacitated at the moment if you haven’t noticed. But you see, my natural curiosity as the Demon of Lust is longing for the explanation of how the once brilliant man that I admired so much could throw away his true self. You could at least do that for me, right?”

Ubica pauses for a moment, and then answers coldly, “I won’t”

He raises his sword and swings for her neck; in his mind, he has no reason to tell her anything about him. He knows exactly what has changed him and how, and that’s all that matters, he couldn’t care less if anyone else wants to know.

The answer to her question, and the reason why he’s become stronger, is known only by him, Tsubiri, and Michael...

---------------------

Two months earlier at the Second Gate, there was a battle raging between the last remaining Angel and Ubica. The fight for one of the two was over revenge, and the fight for the other was to protect his friends.

In this battle, the righteous intentions won out, and it has left the vengeful Angel lying at the foot of the righteous man.

“Kill me...” Michael says as he floats on the water of the lake which surrounds the Gate.

Standing triumphantly over him is Ubica the victor.

“I won’t do that.” Ubica replies as he sheaths his sword. “I’ll get nothing out of it.”

Michael frowns and grits his blood stained teeth. “I don’t want your damn pity! You didn’t hesitate to kill all the other Angels, so why am I any different!?”

“Because now I don’t have to.” Ubica sternly replies.

He gestures to Tsubiri and the two begin walking towards the Gate.

“Yes you do have to! I will chase you to the ends of any world! I won’t stop until I kill you, Antichrist!”

With his back turned, Ubica says, “If revenge is still your driving force to stay alive when you do, then the results will always be the same. You’ll alway lose.”

Michael spits out blood and asks, “You think your confidence is enough to sway my grim resolve? I’ll get stronger from this and I’ll---”

“You won’t.” Ubica coolly interrupts. “You’ll only get weaker.”

“How would you know that!?” Michael’s shouts carry pain and anguish. “How can you be so damn sure that I can’t win!?”

Ubica then smiles and grabs onto Tsubiri’s hand, they continue their walk up the stairs to the Gate as he leaves the defeated Archangel with some final words.

“Because we both know what true strength is… It just took me until now to realize it.”

The two walk through the Gate and into the next level, leaving the injured and disabled Michael behind to gather his thoughts. He hisses in anger at the fact that he has once again lost to Ubica; what makes it worse is that the current man he lost to is nowhere near the strength he once held as the Antichrist.

That thought brings him to Ubica’s parting words, just what is strength anyways? What is true power?

The Antichrist had absolute power, but is that really the truest form of it?

Michael had once believed that good would always defeat evil, until he was so ruthlessly crushed by evil that it altered the very fiber of what he once was. Could it be that the roles have been reversed yet again? After the Apocalypse, Michael existed in a constant world of hate, he did so in order to gain enough strength to defeat an even worse evil; but instead, he has tasted the chalky flavor of defeat.

The only difference all of these years of giving up on himself has made is how he was crushed.

Michael has lost to the one thing that he himself had once so proudly represented.

He has been defeated by the power of good.

Ubica found strength in the love he has for Tsubiri and he used it against Michael in a brilliant display.

Michael never had any chance of winning.

Ubica has proved to him that good can still defeat evil, and the cruel irony of this hits him worse than Ubica’s final attack as he contemplates just what has happened to him.

“Damn it!” he shouts as he tries to move his arm to slam the water he’s floating on.

His body is more or less paralyzed, so he failed to do even that.

All he can do is take deep breaths in frustration and glare into the sun as he asks himself,

“What am I supposed to do now!?”

------------------------

The current Ubica that has so easily handled Asmodeus is using that very same strength he had found while battling Michael. Tsubiri helped him realize this true power of his, if not for her, he’d have never recovered from the atrocities he was just forced to commit.

So long as she’s by his side, he’ll use his new strength to destroy what he once was and the people who are attempting to send him back into that darkness.
His sword is only inches away from Asmodeus’s neck, but the smile on her face doesn’t leave and her eyes still shine bright with confidence.
The reason why she can stare death in the face without a hint of fear, comes in the form of a churning gray bubble planting itself between her neck and Ubica’s sword.

By the time Ubica reacts to it, it’s far too late, the two collide and the second they touch the bubble explodes outwards and knocks the sword right out of his hands. The force was enough to twist Ubica’s arm backwards at an awkward angle and dislocate his shoulder.

“Arrrghh!!”

“That’s payback for the time you busted up my arm, old pal.”

This is undoubtedly the voice of Mammon.

Ubica’s face contorts in shock, he has locked eyes with the person he thought he killed over a half a year earlier.

“I’m sure Mammon being alive will come as quite the surprise to you.” Asmodeus says as she stands to her feet and dusts herself off. “And you were right; I was trying to buy time. But you didn’t even let me do that, I guess still can be a cold-blooded bastard.”

“H-How?” Ubica asks, replaying the events of that night in his mind.

Looking closely and analyzing the final part of that battle, he feels that there should be no way that he could’ve survived.

His theory contradicts the facts planted firmly in front of him, but instead of dwelling on his confusion he decides to charge. While running, he pops his arm back into place by twisting it in front of him; he then holds out his hand and his sword flies back into his grasp. If he could defeat Asmodeus, he can handle Mammon as well; he knows exactly what it will take for him to win.

Asmodeus jumps in between the two and intersects him by jumping over his head and allowing his neck to catch on the chains latched to her wrists. Ubica is clotheslined at such a speed he does three or four back-flips before viciously landing onto the ground.

He coughs wildly as his throat feels like an elephant has just stomped on it; he didn’t even see it coming.

(How did she become so fast!?) he thinks to himself frantically as he struggles to breath.

“You know I could’ve ripped your head off right there if I really wanted to.” she said smugly, walking towards him as she continues, “I think it’s about time to take things a little more seriously, though I gotta say, getting beat up by you was quite the turn-on.”

She’s implying that she was pretty much losing on purpose because she enjoyed it. Ubica doesn’t believe that to be the case, but it still does enough to sprout the seed of doubt planted deep within him.

“Hey Ubica...” Mammon asks, forming dozens of his bubbles of antimatter and letting them surround him as if it was a barrier. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed it yet, but all we’ve been doing is putting you in really fucked up positions in order to see how you’ll get out of them. We give you so many chances to make your way out, but in spectacular fashion you always choose the wrong one. You’re like a carnivore caught in a trap; in any normal occasion the fight or flight instinct will take over and it it should bite, it should only be natural when there’s nowhere to escape. But like the pacifist beast you are, you turn away and run into that wall countless times, just hoping that it’ll break under the weight of your will... It’s not going to work old pal, it’s time that you use those sharp teeth of yours for real.”

“I can beat you guys without resorting to Dantega, all of your stupid attempts to take a power that will soon no longer exist, it’ll all be a waste of effort!”

“Oho, you say that with such vigor, but you have yet to show us any proof otherwise.” Asmodeus adds, her chain making noises as she gestures her hands. “There hasn’t been one occasion where you haven’t let Dantega seep out of you while fighting us, and you know it.”

“.....”

She’s right; he used it against Nero, he used it against Mammon, although he didn’t fully use it on Leviathan, once Ubica’s revenge was taken away he was almost completely overcome by it. The only reason he didn’t use Dantega’s power during the fight with Abaddon and Beelzebub is because he simply didn’t have time; under that kind of pressure, there’s no doubt the Antichrist’s power would devour the strength he gets from his love for his comrades.

“So we’ve constantly put you between a rock and a hard place in wait for you to unleash your true self; thus far we’ve tempted you with Greed, Lust, and Envy, since it hasn’t really worked, we’ve decided to try something a little different. That’s the reason why I’m here as well. Our goal today is to completely overwhelm you with a situation impossible for you to get out of without unleashing the power of Dantega.”

Ubica still finds it within him to reject what they say, he knows better than anyone what is going on inside of his body. There’s light in there that is in the process of destroying the power that stands in the way of being the person he wants to be.

“...That won't happen, I'll show you both how wrong you are.”

He rushes in at Mammon once more, this time more mindful of the movements of Asmodeus. He gets within five meters of the unwavering demon when a bubble forms in between them about ten feet in diameter.

Knowing that if he carelessly tries to power his way through that, Mammon could have it retract and send a large chunk of his body to another dimension; he also can’t blow it away with brute strength because he’d just turn it into a bomb and explode it in Ubica’s face. So instead of using either of these tactics, he decides to send a long range attack directly through the bubble.

He swings his sword and slices the wind to create a pressure zooming forward horizontally; what this does is create a very thin pocket of still air sandwiched in between two gusts flying a hundred times faster than the speed of a category 5 tornado on the Fujita scale. This still air acts like a blade being hurled faster than the speed of sound; Mammon won’t have the time to send the brunt of the attack to another dimension through his bubble so it would pass right through and slice Mammon in half.

“Not so fast, old pal.”

The bubble suddenly turns transparent and its contents can now be seen. There is a certain girl inside this sphere, and in the instant she’s able to see outside she locks eyes with Ubica.

Ubica doesn’t understand how or why she’s in this situation, as far as he knows it’s just a hallucination. But one thing is for sure, seeing her in that bubble knowing full well what could so easily happen to her is enough to make his chest burn in angst. Ubica has seen firsthand the powers of those orbs, he’s watched as Mammon compressed over ten people into the size of a golf ball from within it.

"!!!”

“Ubica!”

Just hearing her voice was enough to shatter his train of combative thought as if a truck had run into it; now the only thing rolling through his mind is panic. In less than a second, his own attack will slice through the bubble and along with it the upper body of Tsubiri.

In this state of pure heart stopping panic, he pushes off the ground and rushes to her at such a speed it quite literally explodes the air behind him. He can’t even think straight as his blurry eyes are set solely on Tsubiri; he’s attempting the impossible, he’s trying to out run his own attack. The attack meant to hit Mammon at such a speed he’d have no way of countering it.

Ubica’s body is surrounded by a bright light and with him in it, that light shines wide like a television screen that had abruptly been shut off and it zooms parallel with his own attack.

He’s going to make it to her, he’s going to save her, he’s going to pull off the impossible.

At least that’s how it looked for that short moment.

The transparent sphere that Tsubiri is trapped in quite literally fizzes away like a sugar cube dropped in water and her entire presence disappears. It’s like he saw her through a mirror room in a carnival house, she vanished like she was nothing but a mirage.

With her gone, the sight of the man standing behind that sphere can be seen once more. But this time, the blurred figure of the man Ubica barely catches sight of in his intense speed shocks him worse than the sudden appearance of Mammon.

Although he can’t make it out clearly, he knows it’s not the Demon of Greed.

Ubica is on a collision course with this man, both his attack and his body have no way of stopping before it is too late.

Time seems to slow down in this instant and the man’s face can clearly be seen as he holds his hand out in front of him.

He has red eyes with white pupils, jet black hair and is wearing a confident smile on his face.

Ubica instantly recognizes him as Damien.

With his right hand, Damien grabs onto Ubica’s face.

The wind attack that was trailing behind takes a sharp turn towards Asmodeus before it is knocked away by the back of her hand as if someone threw a cotton ball at her. As soon as these motions are made clear, time speeds up once more and,

SSLLLLAAAAAASSSHH!!!

The wind of Ubica’s attack that was rerouted towards Asmodeus and effortlessly deflected before crashing into the middle of a building, it doesn’t stop until it slices through a few more structures and sends them all toppling to the ground.

Loud explosions from the collapse of dozens of buildings ensue behind the Demon of Lust when she says, “Well look at that, I finally got to show off my ability to alter wind.”

The next thing Ubica knows, he feels his equilibrium being thrown backwards and then is followed by a blunt pain in the back of his head.

With a firm grip on Ubica’s face, Damien slams the back of Ubica’s head into the asphalt road and sends it splintering into thousands of pieces.

BOOOSH!!!

Not being able to comprehend what had just happened, all Ubica can do is feel himself sink deeper into the ground as his own blood is seen floating in his peripheral vision.

“I’ve finally got my hands on you, Ubica...” Damien says as he releases his grip and jumps out of the crater he created in the ground with Ubica’s body.

Asmodeus and Mammon walk to each side of him and peer down on their enemy as if he were a dying eagle stuck in hole; it’s just as Mammon said, Ubica is nothing but a beast constantly being cornered.

With the sudden appearance of the puppet master behind all of this, Ubica can’t help but feel the weight of his instincts beating down on him to combat the glares of the three above.

Although Damien isn’t one of the 7 Demons of Hell, he’s certainly on a different level than everyone else, especially if he can give orders to the highest ranking members of the Hierarchy. Satan, who’s one of the 7 Demons himself and is supposedly the leader of the legendary group is hard pressed to even do that; the fact that they are following Damien means he offers them something worth fighting for that he’s yet to show. That could be something beneficial to the demons, or it could be that Damien is just that strong.

Ubica hasn't seen Damien’s real powers after all this time, but he’s just caught a good glimpse of it, he can feel it in his aching bones after finding himself buried in the ground.

He tries to lift his broken body out of the crater and struggles to climb up the steep wall over ten feet high; to his surprise, Damien and the other two don’t do anything to stop him and allow him to shakily pull his way back onto the road.

He stands to his feet and after a couple wobbles, he asks a question that somewhat surprises the others.

“Where’s... Tsubiri?”

“Oh? I actually had thought the first thing you’d ask me is why I’ve decided to come, but I guess now I know where your priorities are.” Damien replies.

“You have her don’t you? Tell me where she is!” Ubica’s voice cracked slightly when he shouted out that demand.

His legs feel like wet noodles and his eyesight is still very hazy due to the impact of Damien’s attack.

Mammon takes a rather long sigh of exasperation and answers, “Yeah, I got her right here.”

He then raises his arm and the same dark gray bubble forms to his side and becomes transparent once more, revealing Tsubiri.

“Let her out of there!”

“Hmph, like I’d just casually let her free, I don’t know if you recall, but this little lady here shocked the shit out of me the last time we met. I promised that I’d kill her for that, and here I am, looking to carry out my word. I just thought it’d be much more fun if I had you watch, old pal.”

“You!”

Ubica tries to take a step forward and drops as if he lost all strength in his legs.

“Ubica!” Tsubiri shouts; despite her situation she finds herself more worried about him.

Damien slightly huffs air out of his nose in a little laugh and starts walking towards Ubica; he gets to the pathetic beast desperately trying to reach Tsubiri and steps on the hand that’s holding the sword, forcing Ubica to drop it and become even more defenseless.

“Look at what you’ve become... under my foot groveling like a neglected dog. Tell me, what do you expect to do once you reach her? Do you honestly think you can save her in your condition?”

“...I’ll find a way.”

Ubica said that with about as much of his confidence broken as humanly possible.

Truthfully, he knows the real answer to Damien’s question.

“Your only way is through Dantega. If not, she dies.”

“Don’t listen to him!” Tsubiri shouts from within the bubble.

Mammon clicks his tongue and shrinks his bubble rapidly; forcing her to roll herself up into a ball to avoid being compressed.

The bubble doesn’t stop until Damien says, “Stop that Mammon, I won’t let you kill her just yet.”

Without even questioning him, the boisterous demon of Greed stays silent and stops the bubble in a small enough size to force Tsubiri into a sitting position. If the bubble hadn't stopped there, any further could have broken her neck.

Ubica’s chest rose into his throat when he saw that, so much so he couldn’t even yell out to her.

The pressure of the whole situation is crippling Ubica’s soul, earlier, he was very confident in his newfound ability to gain strength without resorting to Dantega. The crack in that confidence formed when Asmodeus mentioned that she wasn’t really trying to fight him, and a chasm formed when he was confronted with an additional demon of the Hierarchy. Right now, with Damien present and Tsubiri’s life in their hands, the overwhelming presence of inadequacy has landed upon him like a falling planet.

He had spent the last 3 months since his battle with Michael truly believing in himself and trusting that he was on the right path, to have it crumble so easily under the weight of an outside force, and faced with the deadly result of losing the very person that helped him feel that way, is enough to make him want to cry out in anguish.

The fear in Ubica’s eyes doesn’t go unnoticed by Damien.

“Your expression looks so familiar to me.”

“..?”

“The hopelessness and desperation, the injustice of it all. You want so bad for it to not be this way that it’s enough to make you want to grind your teeth into sawdust. But you have a magical tool you can use to save you from it, I don’t understand why you’d let yourself go through this when in your hands is the ability to make it stop.”

Ubica grits his teeth in contemplation, he knows as well as anyone what he can do. But there is a price to that power, and the price is losing everything that he truly wants.

“It’s not as simple as that.”

“But it can be.” Damien quickly added. “You don’t have to lie there and suffer through hopelessness like I did. You don’t have to spend hundreds of years struggling to make even the smallest change in your situation like I have. You can flip a switch and end it all in a second.”

Surprised by what Damien had just said, Ubica looks up to him and sees a chink in the impenetrable armor of what he had always seen of the son of Satan as. He had never known anything about Damien, but in his mind he had created an image of him that always seemed so in control, so what is this hopelessness Damien is speaking of? What struggle could he have possibly been put through that led him to this point now?

Ubica can't, and refuses to see him as someone operating from within a hopeless world of suffering, there is simply no way Damien can understand that human of a world.

So instead, he looks at Damien as though he were looking at a fraud.

“I see… you’re not doing all this because you know what hopelessness is.”

Ubica pulls his foot out from under Damien’s shoe and stands to his feet. Looking the son of the Devil square in the eyes, the feeling of this stand off is palpable.

“You’re doing it because you do not know what absolute power is.”

Damien clicks tongue and grabs onto Ubica’s throat.

The glare that Ubica is returning to him doesn’t budge, it’s just like he is looking down on a child.

“You talk as though you even know what you once had, if you did, you wouldn’t be forsaking it when everything you care about can so easily be destroyed. This is why I hate you, so much of what you are is what I was supposed to be. So I’m going to take it all for myself.”

Ubica doesn’t blink. His green eyes stare holes into Damien.

Damien pushes him away and turns his back to the Antichrist.

“But not yet, you’re going to have to become your true self first. It’s become obvious that our tactics haven’t worked thus far, we’ll need to go with our back up plan.”

Seeing Damien walk away from Ubica, Asmodeus is confused. “Hey what’s this all about? Can’t we just kill that girl and get this over with? He’s bound to turn if we take her away from him.”

“No...” Damien replies, “It won’t be enough right now.”

Damien looks at Mammon and says, “Let her out.”

Mammon is biting his lip in resistance, he wants nothing more than to kill her and torment Ubica.

“You can’t be serious..?”

“I agree, we have him right where we want him. How are we just gonna pass on this chance!?” Asmodeus voices her displeasure as well.

“We might have him where we want him, but not where we need him. So long as he’s missing the most important part of himself, he’ll be able to handle the loss of his friends.” Damien smoothly replies.

“But...”

They doubt him because it seems like for the first time, Damien has allowed his own personal interests to outweigh his logic regarding the plan involving Ubica. If the goal is to break him, then killing those most important to him is the easiest way to do it. To them, it just feels like Damien is making it more complicated than it needs to be.

“That will be the last time either of you question my command, understood?”

The two stay silent and Mammon sends Tsubiri out about a hundred yards away down the street and frees her from his bubble of antimatter, dropping her firmly onto the asphalt.

The three walk away a couple feet when Damien turns around, prompting the others to do so as well.

He looks at the silent and slightly relieved Ubica and sends him a malicious smile, “So long as you keep rejecting yourself, you’ll be living on borrowed time.”

“...I don’t need absolute power to defeat you, I need true power. There is nothing you can do to change how you’ll lose.”

“True power… Is that what you want to call it?”

Damien holds out his hand in the direction where Tsubiri was dropped off at; Ubica shifts his tired gaze to her position.

“Enjoy it while it lasts.”

Damien's next move is a simple wave as if he was shooing someone away. It is that simple motion that will bring about an attack that shakes the very core of this metropolis.

Within a millisecond, every window in the entire city pops and a head wrenching screech rings through the boulevards and alleyways as if brought forth by a powerful wind.

The shards of glass don’t even reach halfway to the ground when,

GAGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSHHHHH!!!

A tremendous explosive noise burst out from the area of the city around Tsubiri.

Actually, it was not just one.

Thousands and tens of thousands of explosive noises shoot from the core of each building at such short intervals that they all sounded like a single massive blast.

However, Ubica had no clue what had happened.

If one had an aerial view of the city, they’d see the top of every last structure in the metropolis break and fall into their own debris as though each mass had a detonation charge. If one had a view even higher than that, even one from space, they’d see a stain of gray towering into the atmosphere as if a great fire has purged the land of Purgatory. That is how devastating this attack is, that is how much destruction the son of Satan has caused with a simple wave of his hand.

Ubica doesn’t even see this unfathomable attack; he doesn’t notice everything around him crumbling like a stacked deck of cards that had the base card at the bottom suddenly taken out. He doesn’t pay any mind to the hundreds of thousands of people who have certainly all lost their lives in this very instant.
As if he has tunnel vision, he only sees the frame of Tsubiri disappear in a great plume of dust followed by her silhouette being engulfed by the falling buildings collapsing from each side of the road she found herself in the middle of. What he’s so sure he’s seen, is the dreaded sight of the girl he loves being crushed to death under the weight of Damien’s power.

Ubica’s next breath is filled with soot and debris; he doesn’t bother to flinch at the sharp pain it sends his throat into. He merely holds it in as all sound is replaced by a deafening ringing in his ears, and only the gray cloud where she once was is seen through his wide eyes.

“Ah...” Is all he can mutter as he starts walking towards that plume of smoke.

He’s completely ignoring the presence of Damien and the other two Demons, his mind simply can’t function in a way that tells him his enemies are still standing just a couple feet away.

Asmodeus and Mammon are more or less amazed at the display Damien had just put on, not just because of his immense power, but because he was so quick to change his mind on letting Tsubiri live. It’s like he chose to let her live on a whim, and chose to kill her on a whim. Standing in front of them is the powerful leader they chose to follow instead of Satan. This is what they’ve wanted to be a part of this entire time.

Damien, who has surrounded Ubica and his two allies with a pocket of untouched air, faintly frowns and snaps his fingers.

This gesture immediately engulfs Asmodeus and Mammon in a bright red flame and sends them back to Hell.

As if he wanted to keep the two demons from hearing his next words, he looks at the pathetic form of Ubica making his way into the dust.

“You may think that I seek absolute power because I don't know how terrifying it really is, but I am the enemy you need to fear most because someone like you who has had absolute power knows nothing of true suffering. With absolute power you always have a way out, you'll never be human enough to know real pain. But me? I know it all too well, it lives within me like Dantega lives within you. But I won't accept my struggle any longer, since I don't have the power to change things on my own, I will steal it from the person that does."

Damien engulfs himself in flame and sends himself back to Hell along with the others; leaving Ubica in this now desolate wasteland of a once booming metropolis.

Those words of Damien’s struck the innermost part of Ubica’s soul and added weight to his already heavy legs as he inched his way forward through the rubble.

It’s more than likely he’ll never find her, between the thick dust polluting the air and the never ending layer of rubble on the ground, he’d be lucky to find a whole car in this desolation, forget finding what might remain of a human body.

He doesn’t even want to look at the bits and pieces of human flesh littering the cracks and crevices of fallen buildings. Unable to find the courage to get close enough to the severed limbs to attempt to identify them, if he had found her in a mangled state like that he’d be crushed.

“...hhhaaa.”

Realizing this pitiful search of his is fruitless, he allows the world around him to blur over as he walks forward over the rubble and through the smoke. The question is, what will he do now? What will he do if he never finds her, or worse, what would he do if he stumbled upon her corpse?

These thoughts begin to manifest into a pain brewing deep inside him, and he’s fighting back his body’s instinct to manage that pain.

He shuts his eyes as he continues walking forward.

This is when an odd warmth hits his eyelids and the color of orange is seen through them; feeling this unusual sting he opens them only to find that he’s staring directly into the sun.

He turns away quickly to free his eyes from the sudden brightness.

(The sun..?) he thinks to himself as he looks at his surroundings.

There is no longer any sign of Damien’s ferocious attack, he’s found the booming metropolis is intact and completely unscathed. It’s as if he had awoken from a cruel dream; the ground below him is untouched, the sky above him is crystal clear, and the air he’s now breathing has lost its poisonous flavor.

His entire body has been thrust into a completely different realm of existence than what was just felt on his skin.

“W-What..?”

“... Ubica.”

A girl's soft voice is heard to his left, this is the very voice he had thought he’d never hear again no more than a few seconds earlier.

Standing there, completely untouched by the devastation he had thought he just witnessed is Tsubiri.

Her eyes are wallowing up with tears as she sees Ubica in such a horrible state.

She was in the same situation as Ubica; she had no clue what happened and was under the impression that Damien had killed him in that blast.

“Aaah...”

Ubica mutters, unable to articulate any words to go along with what he’s feeling.

A surge of strength is felt in his legs as he rushes to her, when he gets within a few feet his knees give out and he falls to them.

Tsubiri is about to lean down to help him back up to his feet but she is stopped when Ubica throws his face just below her chest and squeezes her back tightly. She can feel him breathe into her stomach as if he’s on the verge of tears as well.

What was once a place destroyed by a horrendous blast where the two had thought they lost one another, has now been replaced with life and relief.
Tsubiri wraps her arms around him and squeezes as well; the two of them share similar emotions as they embrace.

“Well then...” Tsubiri says as the sun reflects off of her still intact glasses. “This has been some kind of birthday huh?”

Her attempt at injecting comedic relief to the tense situation doesn’t go unappreciated.

She helps stand him up to his feet and he takes a sigh that releases the rigidness he had felt constricting his body up to this moment.

“Your future birthdays can only improve from here.”

“Ha, yeah the bar has been set pretty low. But before they showed up, I was really having a lot of fun, and my present made it out unscathed too!”

“At least there’s that.”

Looking around, he can’t help but be amazed at what Damien has done, to be able to create an illusion that Ubica could taste, smell, and feel isn’t something he had thought possible. Though he realizes how truly scary Damien is, he still feels that if Damien fights solely to gain power, he will win.

But…

What if it’s more than just that?

What if Damien is truly is fighting for something more than just a desire for strength?

Can he compete against something more complex than simple desires?

Not knowing for sure just what it is, strikes more fear into Ubica than Damien’s ability to alter his reality to the point of truly believing he was in a destroyed city.

Not to mention, they are going to commence this alternate plan to extract Dantega from him that he can't even venture to think on what it may be. Tsubiri an his friends are safe for now, but what lies next for them?

“... Tsubiri," Ubica says, shaking off the anxieties that no longer need to be dwelled upon. "thank you for everything.”

With his hands on her shoulders, he puts his angst into the back of his mind and manages a smile.

He can handle these things because right now, the person most important to him is right in front of him.

“Let’s go back to the others, pass through the Gates and get home so we can end all of this. The kind of life we want is there at the end of this road.”

Seeing the peaks and valleys of Ubica’s emotions first hand, Tsubiri is grateful for that smile he’s giving her, it’s genuine, and void of despair. It’s the look of his that tells her he hasn’t, and will never give up on her. It tells her that there will never be a day when he goes back on the birthday promise he made earlier.

Tsubiri smiles wide at the prospect of reaching the end of this road, she’s not ready to give up either, even in the face of overwhelming power.
Even though she had earlier requested that the two of them leave this dangerous road and live a life outside of it, she knew deep down that this desire isn’t fair to everyone else. Ubica doesn’t only belong to her, at least not yet.

He has a responsibility to see this thing through, and it’s now her obligation to help him do that as his partner.

The most important part is that there is light at the end of the dark path of this journey, and the reward of that light is something she’s willing to spend as much time in the darkness needed to reach.

“I like the sound of that!”

Conflict of Interests: (END)

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| Return to [[Dantega|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 4|Rosemary's Baby]]
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Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 9

2022-03-28T10:38:41Z

Deck of cards:

(PART 3)

(Fight him, fight him, I have to fight him!)

These thoughts are running through Lelaine’s head as Sturgess zips down his pants and readies to force himself on her.

Her body is weak, and the will to fight takes its time to reach her body in the form of any physical movement, but when it finally does, she is able to weigh her next option.

She first considers clawing and scratching at him, she can imagine the sensation of it in her fingertips. Then it molds into plucking his eyes out with her bare hands, and the image of that in her head is enough to send an electric signal into her limbs.

With this newfound strength, her next course of action dawns on her when she remembers one of the maids putting a pencil-like metal hairpin in her hair. The maid looked at her with pleading eyes as she did so, they were the eyes of someone desperately asking for Lelaine to fight back.

The light in her golden eyes shine once more and emotion resurfaces in her previously sodden face, and right before Sturgess can get close enough to enact his desires, Lelaine grabs the sharp hairpin from her hair without him noticing, and sparing no moment of hesitation, stabs right into Sturgess’s neck.

“Hbbbgnnghhh!!??”

Sturgess slides off of Lelaine and grabs at his throat. Blood is gushing from his mouth, his tongue feels like a ball of barbed wire between his teeth as he struggles to breathe.

Lelaine gets up off the bed and covers her bare body with her loose robe. Ignoring the blood on her hand, she stands over him triumphantly as he gurgles for wet air.

“You’ll have a hard time raping me with that hole in your neck, you rat bastard.”

The first words she’s spoken in over a month came out smooth, yet simultaneously vicious.

“Nngghhckk!! Cuuaaacckk!”

By now, Sturgess’s eyes are bloodshot, looking up at her confusedly as if suddenly realizing that he’s been attacked.

With a shoddy move of his hand, he grabs at the hair pin and begins pulling; the eight inch hair pin took excruciating seconds to fully extricate, and upon doing so he desperately holds his neck as blood comes squirting out like a fountain.

“Gbbbahhhgggh!!!”

“I'm slightly offended that you’d think so little of me that you didn't see that coming.” Lelaine said, turning away from him and making her way to a dresser by the closet.

She opens a drawer and pulls out a small wooden box.

The delicate way in which she moves is not like someone who had just inflicted a fatal wound on a man, she seemingly floats effortlessly along the ground as if she were a ballerina. She opens the small box and grabs her tobacco pipe as though the sound of Sturgess’s agony were music she could dance to.

She then reaches back into the box and pulls out Zurvick’s charred flask, staring at it in remembrance, she says, “I’m pleased to see that my two most important items are here. I’m not so sure I could live without my tobacco and the dearest memento of my husband.”

She holds up the flask and looks through the hole stabbed through it during the Night of the Ball, when she was delivered the terrible news and first saw the hole, she had felt sick knowing that the blade that caused this hole had caused Zurvick’s death. Now when she looks at it after all this time, she feels as though this sharp puncture in the flask is her doorway into Zurvick’s former life.

Lelaine clutches the flask into her bosom before returning it to the wooden box.

Filling the bowl of her pipe with chopped leaves of tobacco, she manages a thin smile when she says,“I bet you’re feeling pretty cold right about now.”

Lelaine then opens the balcony door and steps outside, feeling the sun on her skin for the first time in so long revitalizes her; she can’t help but think of the contrast between her and Sturgess at this very moment. While he lays there writhing, getting colder and colder with each ounce of blood lost, she takes in the sunlight of this beautiful morning like a blooming flower.

“It’s a funny thing, the situation we’ve both found ourselves in.”

Turning back to him, she lights her pipe and casually watches as he dies.

“I’m sure at one point, you were feeling warm with the fruits of your ambition. You had what no man has ever had in the very palm of your hands. You had Troy. Your only problem was that you just couldn’t live with all that power if I wasn’t included in it.”

The once tall and proud General of the army is lying on the bed in a pool of his own blood, staring back at her like a fish plucked from the ocean.

To him, it’s a surreal moment of clarity.

“Because you didn’t kill me when you had taken Troy, you’re left lying there in a heap while I stand here in the warmth of the sun watching you freeze. Even you have to admit that the irony of it all merits at least a little laugh.”

Even though he can’t breath and the pain in his throat is unbearable, he feels as though Lelaine’s glare is the only thing killing him.

The color of the world surrounding him has begun to melt into a dark brown void, and he’s beginning to feel a weight pulling him down into this all encompassing sludge. It’s as though every paint on a color pallet were mixed together and brought to life solely to devour him.

“My country and I will forget about you, and we’ll carry on. So die here like the spineless coward you are, and know that your desire for what you could never have is what got you killed.”

The glare she looks at him with is so poignant and so familiar that it brings upon a torrent of memories swirling into his head, she had looked at him the same way when he confessed his desire to marry her when they were children, her eyes pierced him this same way when she outright rejected him upon meeting Zurvick.

Just what is this menacing beast that he put so much energy into conquering that he delved into psychosis to defeat? What has his infatuation with the queen of Troy ever brought him other than pain and misery? What is it about her that led him to this point here at death’s door?

The answer comes clear as his consciousness fades.

It was never about her.

It was always about him.

She is the living evidence of what he never deserved to have.

The glare of hers communicates what he’s always known.

It says that he has never once been good enough for the one thing he’s truly always wanted.

All of what remains of that desire will soon be his corpse at her feet.

Sturgess’s vision completely fades, and the pulling sensation he’s felt on his body has sunken him completely into the void.

He has died.

Lelaine has sensed his presence fade and the weight of his life and his control over her is lifted off her shoulders, she turns away from him and looks out to the city.

The capital of Troy is split into five boroughs by two winding rivers, and at the tip in a bend of the eastern river sits the northern borough in a land spur; this is the view Lelaine’s room looks out to from high up in the castle. The mountains shine brilliantly in the morning light, and as if serenity had conscious intentions, a gentle breeze dances through her hair.

She can’t help but take in a deep breath and allow herself to be taken away by the sight and sensations of this beautiful country she has ruled her entire adult life. In this state of mind, she begins to find the strength and will to carry on with the weight of her losses.

She can now at least entertain the thought of finding a way to live without Trojia and Zurvick so long as this country is here to take their place. As selfish as she would rather be, there’s a responsibility to protect Troy and her people that are fighting for her at this very moment. Even though she wants to give up on the world that has left her alone without her family, there is still the hope of others to live on for.

“I’ll smoke to that.” She says, bringing the pipe to her lips. “Zurvick, Trojia, you two will have to wait for me to get to you. There’s still a lot of work left to do here.”

------------------------------

“Was it worth it?” came Satan’s voice from within the void.

“Nothing is worth this.”

“Well, I can give you another chance.”

“Another chance?”

Satan’s voice has surrounded Sturgess just like the void has, but the voice has become the only thing alive for Sturgess to grasp onto.

“The power you let slip away because of your desire for Lelaine, I can give it back to you if you truly wish for it. Now that you see that you can’t have her, wouldn’t the next best thing be good enough? If you want to live, fulfill my contract and kill her. You still have a chance to rule this world.”

Sturgess can’t even move his face to express any form of reaction to this new opportunity. He’s simply a corpse in the dark brown void trapped from the outside looking in.

“Kill… Lelaine?”

Yet somehow, the thought of killing her sent a pulsating force beating into his chest, bringing sensation back to his limbs.

It’s at this moment, a light appears in front of him and gleams into his dead eyes. The light is the first form of warmth he’s felt since before he was stabbed in the neck, it has felt like ages since this sensation was last pulsating at his skin.

Now his entire body can move.

His shoddy hand longingly reaches out to the warmth of the light.

“Do you accept the conditions of this contract?”

“I…”

His hand is tantalizingly close to touching the light.

It’s taking everything he has inside to accept the meaning of this light.

But the thought of a life in power is just enough for him to make the choice clear.

“I accept!!”

The light is grasped, and a contract is signed.

--------------------

Exhaling out a big plume of smoke that was immediately taken away by the mountain breeze, Lelaine lets herself relax. All that is left for her to do is await the arrival of the rebellion and she can begin the process of healing her country and reuniting her people; though the task sounds daunting, she finds herself feeling motivated at the prospect of coming out of this a stronger nation than before.

Each puff of her pipe is more pleasurable than the last, it could be because she has been separated from her vice for so long, or it could be the victorious nature of this moment. Whatever it is has made her appreciate the life she will be fortunate enough to live going forward despite the absence of the two people she cares about most.

“Don’t get so comfortable, Lelaine.”

The deep voice of Sturgess came from the queen’s suite like an avalanche coming off a mountain.

It was so jarring that Lelaine froze instead of becoming shocked by it.

She slowly turns around to find that a bloodied Sturgess is standing, alive and even more menacing than before. The wound on his neck is healed, and a churning black smoke is emanating from where the wound was and is orbiting around his body.

His threatening presence exudes an unbridled power that seemingly pushes an extra force of gravity on Lelaine’s shoulders, the terrific power is proof enough that the monster in front of her is untouchable.

No eight inch metal pin to the jugular can stop him, no magical weapon could she produce to fight back against such an overwhelming force.
Trapped on the balcony, she quickly comes to the realization that her life is now completely in his evil hands.

But despite this, she still smiles.

“You think I’m uncomfortable now?” she asks.

“You certainly should be. As surprised as I was to find that you still had the will to fight back, in the end you’re nothing but a regular frail woman up against an unstoppable man.”

“Hah, unstoppable man. You lie to yourself with such ease that even I have a hard time not pitying you. You’re a fraud with the power of someone else that you claim to be your own.”

Sturgess scowls at her, angered at the fact that she stands there unafraid and unsurprised by his sudden leap back to life from well within death’s door.
The woman in front of him can still be arrogant despite the difference in strength, and as much as he hates her for it, it has always been the driving force of his desire for her.

“Not this time.” he says with gritted teeth. “You aren’t going to defeat me with your words either. You’re going to learn here and now that I have finally won!”

“And how will you do that?” she asks, taking a puff out her pipe and leaning her backside against the stone railing of the balcony. “Will you finally have the nerve to kill me?”

Understanding the contract he had signed with Satan that brought him back to life, he knows that killing her is exactly what he must do.

“I can do it!.”

“Oh?”

“But killing you won’t be enough to have truly won. I need to take everything from you. by killing every last person still loyal to you with my own two hands, I will take your people. By adjusting the very foundation of Troy the way I see fit, I will take your country from you.”

Sturgess then spreads his arms out triumphantly, pushing out the black smoke orbiting him and making his shirtless frame bigger.

“But to take it all!” he declares. “I need to take your body from you!”

It’s at this moment, the snake’s voice comes from within the smoke.

“Why would you risk losing it all again for something as meaningless as her body?”

“Because that is the only way I’ll win!” Sturgess replies with a cockeyed smile. “You don’t think I haven’t realized that if I kill her, you’re going to be the only one who wins?? I accepted that offer knowing just that, it’s something I’m willing to sacrifice, but you can’t have your victory before I have mine damn it!”

Satan stays silent from within the smoke, his silence seemingly accepting what Sturgess has to say.

“The contract I signed says that I must kill her, but it doesn’t stipulate when that needs to happen. I can kill her, and I will! But I need to defeat her first! I need to taste victory for myself first!”

“So you’ll continue on this path… very well then. Fulfill the contract as you deem fit.”

The presence of the snake disappears, and even Lelaine can sense that what is left standing in front of her is a truly depraved shell of the person she had grown up with. He’s no different from a bloodhound now, he has the scent of Lelaine and is simply unable to follow the path towards anything else.

She has finally come to the conclusion that there is one way to fight against a blood thirsty vampire that can only survive off the nutrients of her body.

“What a pathetic mess you are, Sturgess.” Lelaine said, lifting herself onto the stone railing and sitting completely on the edge of it. “To so casually reveal what I need to do to make sure you’ll always consider yourself the loser you and I both know you as.”

“What do you think you could possibly do to stop me now?” he asks, still smiling confidently as he inched his way towards her.

“I’ll take away your sweet victory.”

“..?”

By now, Lelaine is dangling her feet off the ground, shifting her center of gravity further back as she takes another drag from her pipe.

“You see, upon your death I had just finally found motivation to live on. As hard as it is for me to accept that Zurvick and Trojia are gone, I had come to realize that there was still something worth living for. That doesn’t mean that dying has suddenly became a less desirable option however, I’m just as comfortable with either, truly.”

Sturgess begins feeling a pressure in his chest as a new threat has presented itself in front of him.

“You wouldn’t…”

Striking a subtle pose meant to antagonize him, Lelaine reveals a weaponized smile that shines in the sunlight.

[[File:LelaineBT.jpg|thumb]]

At this very moment, a breeze comes off the eastern mountains and gently tosses her golden hair to the side and wisps away the smoke from her pipe as she flicks the ashen remnants of her tobacco.

“Living and dying are my only two options left to me as I sit here now. How can I choose life when the other option means defeating you?”

“Lelaine, get off that balcony right now.” Sturgess’s voice wavered when he said that, and he doesn’t want to make any sudden moves that may push her off the edge.

In his craze, he had never thought that Lelaine would be willing to die to avoid him. It’s likely that the narcissistic lens in which his mind works within simply didn’t allow himself to think that he’d be an option worse than death. How could he have possibly thought that he was so repugnant that anyone would sooner kill themselves then allow his touch?

The sudden realization of this is a devastating blow.

“Oh, I’ll be off of this balcony soon enough.”

“W-Wait!” Sturgess pleas cautiously, “You’d really give up on yourself just like that? Just what the fuck were you staying alive this long for then!?”

“I lived because I hoped.” She smoothly answers, Lelaine doesn’t blink as she continues, “That flask, you know as well as I do how lucky Zurvick is… If that one knife wound through that flask wasn’t enough to kill him by itself, then there was hope that he’d still be alive.”

Hearing her say that is yet another blow to the deranged general, she’d live through hell just for the hope of seeing Zurvick again, but die like a dog to avoid him.

He’d be foolish not to understand that this has always been the case after spending so many years as a spectator to their love, but the further he’s gone down this path of madness with the Devil, the more the reality of it had driven him so deep into his madness that there’s nothing of a normal human remaining.

“Then don’t!”

Sturgess hesitates to continue, and grits his teeth at the thought of telling her the truth to keep her alive. If she will die to beat him and live for Zurvick, he must do what it takes to not lose the one thing he wants most.

“Zurvick is alive!”

“Oh?” Lelaine skeptically tilts her head.

“He’s fighting with the rebellion as we speak, he might even be the one to run through that door to save you!”

This sudden confession has brought upon an expression of surprise to Lelaine’s face.

Sturgess feels like he’s reaching her. If he can convince her that Zurvick is coming to her rescue, she’ll keep herself alive long enough for Sturgess to kill them both comfortably with his upgraded power.

“So get down off that ledge and wait for him.”

With these thoughts in mind, the face of a lying schemer is what is presented even though he is telling the truth.

Keen on the physical tell of these thoughts of his, Lelaine replies, “I refuse. Like I'd ever believe the sugary words of a man on the verge of losing everything.”

“I’m telling you the truth!” Sturgess gestures with his hands. “I had thought he was dead too, but I saw a picture of him in the paper alongside the rebels just this morning, and before I got to you I saw him with my own two eyes fighting at the gate!”

Her steely glare never leaving Sturgess and never once wavering upon hearing what she believes to be an attempt to trick her, she smoothly allows some devastating words to leave her lips.

“I’ve heard enough out of you, I won’t let you patronize my resolve any longer.”

“Lelaine, just listen to me!”

“The answer is no, Sturgess.” Tilting herself completely back, she still manages to look him square in the eyes with a triumphant smile when she says, “You lose yet again.”

As soon as she finished saying that, she tilted her upper body backwards and flung herself off the balcony.

“!!”

“LELAINE!”

Rushing into the room at just the right time to see the form of Lelaine falling off the balcony, Zurvick had stumbled upon a nightmare.

Without a moment’s hesitation he runs after her, quickly sprinting past a frozen in shock Sturgess and lunging his arm over the railing of the balcony in a desperate attempt to reach her.

“NOOO!!”

The attempt is futile.

He’s now watching her fall.

In her rapid descent, Lelaine had heard Zurvick calling out her name, but with heightened senses assaulting every inch of her body, his voice came to her as though it were a dream through the wind. Hearing his faint voice has reminded her that she is falling towards the place where her beloved husband is, and the thought of it allows her a smile of comfort, almost relieved that the trials she has been put under over the last year has come to an end.

(My love.) She thinks to herself, time slowing down but the wind blowing in her ears increasingly grows louder. (My daughter.)

In the waning moments of her life, the memories she’s shared with Zurvick and Trojia replay in her head in astonishing detail. From meeting Zurvick for the first time, to giving birth to Trojia, to dinners spent laughing with the two of them, it all came rushing into her mind like a waterfall of emotion.

(We’ll all be together again soon.)

Feeling grateful and prepared for what’s next, Lelaine's body twists in the air and now she finds herself looking up towards the 25th floor balcony from which she jumped from.

It’s in this very short moment that time comes to a complete stop for her.

Frozen in a waking instant, her vision is heightened to the point that she can make out the details of Zurvick’s face staring down at her.

She can see the twisted fear on his face.

Her hearing becomes so heightened that she can now hear him calling out her name as clear as it would if he were right in front of her.

She can hear the desperation and sadness in his voice as he calls out to her.

In this heightened state of awareness, she has come to realize that what she’s seeing is not an illusion and what she’s hearing is not the voice of a phantom.

Zurvick is alive.

Her eyes widen in shock, and she takes a sharp gasp of despair that ever so suddenly fills her heart with regret.

Time returns to normal and the loud noise of the wind rushes back into her ears in a gale.

SPPLLAASSHHH!!!

Her body lands in the moat surrounding the castle in a devastating impact.

From the very top floor all the way down to the ground is a fall of 250 feet, and Lelaine’s body fell in at terminal velocity.

She died instantly.

Zurvick can see her lifeless body float in the water of the moat with a circle of red around her.

Down there is the woman he vowed to spend the rest of his life with, the mother of his daughter, the person he loves most in the world. Down there is the woman that will never come back to him, he’ll never be able to touch her again and she’ll never touch him again.

They will never see each other again despite being so tantalizingly close to being reunited.

His tongue grows very dry and he has a hard time breathing as he drops to his knees and puts his head up against the smooth stone railing of the balcony.

His body begins to convulse as though he was struck by a gust of the most bitterly cold wind.

Because he didn’t make it back in time, his wife is dead.

It's likely that the two of them suffered the exact same emotion just before she landed, finally being so close to each other, but impossibly far away is the worst possible fate for duo.

His body is so overcome with shock, despair, and regret that he can't even cry.

Sturgess on the other hand remains frozen in disbelief.

He had just been defeated in the most insulting way to him.

She truly meant what she said all these years, she truly rejected every last bit of him.

Now he is left with nothing, and the loss of purpose is almost enough to cripple him mentally.

In his daze he locks onto the form of Zurvick and replaces the emotions that have come with his sudden defeat with a burning rage.

He still can not come to blame himself for his loss, and quickly shifts responsibility onto Zurvick’s shoulders. After all, it was his appearance back when they were kids that spelled the end of his chances with Lelaine and the beginning of many years of torment. The person in front of him had stolen the life he had always wanted, lived as a king and had the unrivaled love of the woman he felt he had to have in order to survive.

To Sturgess, Zurvick never even had to work for it. Zurvick was just as lucky as always, constantly in the right place at the right time and reaping the benefits of such luck at the expense of those around him.

“It’s your fault!” he shouts towards Zurvick’s back. “You didn’t make it here in time to save her and now I have nothing!!”

Zurvick hasn’t even turned to acknowledge the powerful beast in his room, the menacing presence isn’t near enough to steal away his stuck gaze on Lelaine’s corpse floating in the moat below.

Sturgess points his hands at Zurvick’s back and prepares to blow Zurvick to bits, the cloud that was surrounding him swirls and forms in front of his palms.

With just one push, he will kill Zurvick and destroy the last external being left to blame for his ultimate failure.

But before he could exact his pathetic revenge, the snake exits out of the pentagram on the back of his hand.

“You will do no such thing, General.”

“Get out of my way, snake! I’m going to kill him!”

“No no, you’ve failed to understand me, your body is now forfeit.”

The next heartbeat Sturgess feels is so intense that it buckles him to his knees and he coughs out blood.

“Gbbbhhaaah!?” He holds his chest in anguish as he moans. “W-What!?”

“You shouldn’t be so surprised, this was in the contract after all.”

“Nnnggghh! I never promised you anything of the sort!”

The snake begins slithering around Sturgess’s neck as it continues to speak, “You’re wrong General, you promised me everything if I gave you everything.”

“But you haven’t given me that!”

“That’s because you didn’t fulfill your end of the bargain.”

“!?”

The pain Sturgess is feeling is almost unbearable, the bulging veins in his forehead and neck are pulsating and are taking on the appearance of squirming black worms under his skin.

“All you needed to do was kill the Queen and you would have joined me in taking over this world. Instead, you allowed her to kill herself, you broke the one very specific rule of our newly formed contract.”

“What difference does it make if she’s dead by my hands or not!? How could you betray me like this!?”

The snake’s eyes glow a bright red, and to Sturgess it looks like it is sneering at him, mocking his pain and confusion.

“The difference is that I knew you could never actually kill the one thing you needed most, and I was predicting Lelaine’s actions upon the threat of your existence. You see, she was the only one I couldn’t temp after all, she was the only one strong enough to take fate into her own hands. Just because she is that way, you ended up breaking our contract and betraying yourself.”

In the end, Satan has simply done what he has always been known to do; the master conniver has again fooled another victim. By presenting delusions of grandeur as reality and offering people their wildest dreams on a gold platter, he tempts them into signing a contract that only he can benefit from. Every man he’s made a deal with loses out in the end, Sturgess is no different.

Sturgess had no clue that if he was not personally the one to kill the Queen he’d lose his body and soul, and that is because the rewards flashed before his eyes at the time clouded his judgment. He had truly been led down a path where it seemed like he had control over the powers given to him, he had believed that he had autonomy over how the contract would be carried out and how much time was afforded to him to do it.

“Y-You double crossing bastard!”

“If only you were as smart as Lelaine, you’d have avoided this dreadful fate.”

“No... I won’t allow this!” Sturgess shouts at the snake, the reality of his situation is beginning to make him panic.

“You truly no longer have a choice.”

All of the snake’s scales fly off its skin and roam around Sturgess’ head like a swarm of bees; the body of the snake then dissolves into what looks to be a fine powder and storms into every opening in Sturgess’ face. It would seem that this is very painful for him because his screams of agony are loud enough to hurt Zurvick’s ears.

After a few agonizing moments, Sturgess’ hair turns jet black and the blackened veins bulging in his forehead and cheeks grow even larger.

Satan’s poison is eating him alive.

This is a hostile takeover of a human body; what he’s experiencing is far worse than any average possession by a demon. He’s literally having his soul ripped from his body.

“I have reserved a special spot in Hell for people consumed by Lust such as yourself.” Satan’s voice echoes around Sturgess’ screams. “You will become nothing but a statistic in the mass numbers of men who are to be swept by terrible winds to and fro without any hope of rest for all eternity. A fitting punishment for your final failure.”

When he is referring to never ending winds blowing people all about he is talking about the Second Level of Hell; the place where humans who lived their lives consumed by lust are doomed to. In the Second Level, a wind so loud and so severe blows that the constant torrent sends naked men and women bashing into each other violently, making sure that each contact with one’s skin results in nothing but the pain of broken bones instead of pleasure. This torture continues forever as they are doomed to never sleep, eat, and drink. They must endure the pain of the ear shattering noise of the wind and the horrors that go along with it for every waking moment.

“Noooo!!! This can’t be happening! This is not how it’s supposed to be!!” Sturgess shouts in denial.

“I do have to thank you for your splendid sacrifice though, I’ve been dreaming of this day for over a thousand years.”

“I am supposed to be someone that achieves greatness in life! Someone who gets everything that he’s ever wanted! It can’t end like this!!”

Sturgess’ eyes roll back in his head and his tongue seems to shrivel to the back of his throat as his humid mouth becomes as dry as a desert. With one final gasp of air, his breathing stops, and as stiff as a board he falls backwards and leans on the wall.

He twitches a couple times when seemingly out of nowhere a black tornado of wind swirls all around his body and he is engulfed.

The wind is so hard that it’s leaving gashes in the wall of the castle behind him and sending lightweight items of the room swirling all about.

After a few seconds of this the wind suddenly stops and the room is peppered with an eerie silence; only a ball of smoke surrounds his body and that slowly dissipates, finally revealing the man in the middle.

There stands Sturgess with a smile on his face.

His hair is completely black, his eyes that were rolled in the back of his head just moments earlier are now positioned forward and shine in an evil red glow.

Resting atop his forehead is a black pentagram.

Just these three things are enough to show that this is not Sturgess any longer, and that truth becomes even more evident when the man begins to speak.

“It’s done... I have returned to this world once more!” The voice of Satan exits out of Sturgess’ mouth as he spreads his arms in triumph.

Zurvick is just standing there speechless, he was told by London and the others that this is what they were fighting to avoid at all costs, but something as far-fetched as the Devil taking over Sturgess’s body and replanting himself on the face of the world was a little beyond him. Actually seeing it happen before his eyes is borderline maddening, especially when he could've stopped it if he made it to Lelaine in time.

The guilt of it all has absolutely crushed him.

“I must say King Zurvick, you’ve done nothing but help me since you’ve returned. I was worried that Sturgess would lose control and easily be defeated by you and the Knights once you gallantly returned to save your beloved. But all it did was hurry him into one bad decision after the other.”
Satan walks to the frozen Zurvick and continues to speak.

“You know this whole thing, the war, the kidnappings of your daughter and the others, that was all a precursor to this moment. Everything was for me to rise once more. I’ve gambled everything on this chess game of mine, I sacrificed every piece I’ve placed a thousand years worth of my power into just to get to where I am now.”

Satan can see the dead look in Zurvick’s eyes as every word that exits his mouth stabs into the broken King like knives.

“If it weren’t for you, I’m not so sure I would have won this game.”

Zurvick’s reaction to his words feeds his pleasure.

“My final chess piece was Sturgess. And the enemy King piece was none other than Lelaine... Would you like to know why?”

“.....”

Zurvick can’t speak, he’s heard the gist of this ‘Chess Game’ between Noah and Satan but couldn’t see it as anything more than a figure of speech.

“I saw all of this coming.” Satan says with a confident smile, “I knew that this country would fight back after a hostile takeover from Sturgess, I knew that there’d be thousands of deaths in this city. In fact, I was already thinking ahead of even that when I took the General’s soul. You see, I am the Devil, but with only a fraction of my strength in this vessel I'd still be vulnerable to mass numbers. If the population of La’Juune and Eiyalazo were to attack me it's very likely that I'd be defeated eventually if I were to fight by myself. I needed a contingency plan so I figured I’d take advantage of the fact that along with your daughter, my son abducted the Angel of Death and sent them to Purgatory. Sure there are other reapers desperately trying to send souls to their proper destinations but they’re not enough to do it all. He stole the one man who could harvest the souls of all the lives lost in this world war.”

Satan can still sense that Zurvick is borderline clueless about where he’s going with this so he decides to get to the point.

“What if I told you that I have my own reapers collecting souls? Well I have many, and the majority of them are here today, around this very castle, specifically for this very rebellion.”

“You can’t mean...”

“Oh you’re starting to get it now huh? That’s good, I hope you understand that in order to win in any game, sacrifices must be made. In this case, in order to raise my army once more, a certain amount of souls must be sacrificed.”

Zurvick takes a deep gasp of air as what Satan is planning on doing finally hits him. He’s heard the stories of the Apocalypse, he’s heard that in order to raise an army from Hell, the Antichrist killed off millions of people at once and used their souls to do it. What Satan is saying is that he’s planning on doing the same thing and he’s using the deaths of this rebellion as a kick-start.

“Everyone in this castle will be used as kindling for the flame of my victory. No soul shall escape, they will all be used to bring about my full power.”

Satan takes another step towards Zurvick and puts his hand on his shoulder. The mere touch from the Devil is enough to break a man but it would seem that Zurvick has already long been in pieces.

As if pitying him, Satan reveals a smug expression. “But don’t worry my fair King. I won’t use your wife’s soul, instead I’ll send it where it belongs. I’m sure you’ve heard about the unfair fate of those who commit suicide?”

“!!”

“She’ll be in Hell for all of eternity. Far from the reach of tenderness from any man. She’ll be in a state of despair, suffering through the regrets of her past life forever.”

Zurvick’s breathing becomes shoddy and his body begins to rock back and forth.

“What do you think of that?” Satan asks as he squeezes onto his shoulder. “What do you think about that being your fault? How will you deal with that? Would it make you want to die?”

“.....”

He doesn’t answer.

“I could end it for you now. You wouldn’t have to see the world become swallowed by my darkness, you wouldn’t have to suffer with the guilt of knowing that you played a direct role in it. I can give you the easy way out if you simply say the word.”

“.....”

It’s very likely that Zurvick would rather die than live through that kind of pain, but sadly he can’t even speak. His loss is too great, not only did he lose his wife but he’s lost her in a way that she’ll be forced to spend the rest of time in Hell. The guilt he feels for that is enough to constrict his heart so badly that he has trouble breathing.

Satan releases his grip on his shoulder and says, “Killing you would only be doing you a favor, a much stiffer punishment for coming a few seconds too late is for you to remain alive.”

Satan walks to the window and peers outside.

“I think you deserve to watch your Kingdom and your people… the entire world, all succumb to me. I think that you should watch closely as they worship me and address me as God, and live with the fact that you had a chance to stop it.”

These words absolutely demolish Zurvick, he throws his face in his hands and stares at the ground with small pupils peering through the gaps between his fingers. The look in his green eyes is that of pure devastation.

“Now go.” Satan says as he gestures towards the door, “Get out of my castle, and live the rest of your pathetic life with this guilt as your burden.”

Zurvick fumbles as he takes his first few steps until he shoddily turns his head toward the dresser, seeing his charred flask. He takes it out of the box and squeezes it tightly against his chest, he then somehow steadies himself as he exits the room.

Leaving this once warm room filled with memories of many happy nights spent together with Lelaine in the hands of the Devil is a dreadful pain he’ll never forget the feeling of.

Zurvick makes his way down a flight of stairs from the top floor of the castle and ends up on the level where he last saw London. In a blank haze he is walking down the bloodstained hallways of his home, weaving his way through the bodies of his own countrymen.

These dead men, all of them, whether they fought for the Queen or for Sturgess, their efforts were all for the benefit of Satan, their souls are just going to be sacrificed for a different cause. There are still people fighting even now but their figures are all blurry to him and their screams don’t reach him, he can only hear the sound the blood makes under his feet with each step.

He’s in such a daze that even the enemy soldiers pay no mind to him as they don’t see him as a threat, to them he’s just another casualty of mental illness on the battlefield.

He takes a slight turn to the left and sees an even more gruesome sight, dozens of dead bodies tattering the area around London as he walks towards another batch of frightened enemy soldiers.

The Knight is such a force that a group of ten soldiers are scared stiff of him; the men allied with Sturgess have been trying to find a way past him this entire time and every last one of them has failed miserably.

But there is someone brave enough to stand in front of those ten frightened soldiers and confront the Knight. He is Anders Henson, one of the co-conspirators of Sturgess' coup, and the leader of the Royal Guard.

"I don't know who the hell you think you are, but you're blocking the path to my King." Anders said, he wears a bitter frown as he walks towards London.

"Captain!" One of the frightened soldiers behind him shouts in relief as though Anders' appearance is their salvation.

London simply sighs and replies, "Ah, I see. So you're the leader of the pack?"

"Step aside." Anders demands.

"Not until the true King exits that door." London said as he gestures down the hallway leading to the Queen's room.

"Fine then, it's about time I shake off some rust. I haven't fought in a while."

Anders rushes London without another word. He pulls out his sword in a full sprint and holds it up above his head for a downwards strike.

London doesn't even flinch, he smoothly takes his right leg and pivots forward. Immediately after that simple motion, a gurgled moan is heard.

"Gbbbhh!?"

"Didn't anyone ever tell you not to blindly charge an enemy? You should've taken your time to at least see what kind of weapon I have."

That weapon, the fencing sword, has been stabbed into the back of Anders' throat through his mouth.

One must wonder how this happened so fast, Anders certainly wants to know, and London answers.

"I use this sword because it causes confusion in an enemy's depth perception. The blade's thin, very thin, so if you're not careful you'd think that I was swinging it further away than it actually is."

London twists on the pointed fencing sword and blood gushes out of Anders' mouth. The pain causes the leader of the castle's guard to collapse onto his knee.

"In this case." London continues, "You couldn't judge the space between us by looking at the front of my sword. You probably thought you had plenty of room. That's why when in doubt you should always look at the arm of the man swinging the sword."

The Knight pushes the blade deeper into his throat and Anders begins to fall back.

"Auuuaaahhgghh!!"

"Too bad no one taught you that."

Without any further ado, London pushes his weight into the sword and it skewers through his throat and out the back of his neck. As if that wasn't enough, London swings his sword to the side and sends half of Anders face flying in a gale of blood.

It's definitely overkill, but he only did that because if he pulled straight back out, the blood would've sprayed on his shirt. Instead it sprayed on all the onlooking men who had thought that they were going to be saved by their captain.

London killed him so easily that it sent even more fear into them.

The Knight's glare turns to those men and with it, a few of them make nervous groans as if they've just been spotted by a bear alone in the woods.
This is when London starts walking towards them. It's obvious what he intends to do once he closes the gap.

However...

Out of the corner of his eye, London catches sight of Zurvick and turns to him.

“King Zurvick? What are you doing here so soon?”

Zurvick doesn’t answer and simply walks right on past him and right on past the confused enemy soldiers. London is bewildered as well; he wonders what has put him in such a state and what could possibly be the reason for his separation from his wife at the top floor.

Then it hits him, the many different situations roll through his mind at once and his eyes instantly widen.

He makes his way past the frightened men in pursuit of Zurvick, as he leaves the enemy soldiers with some final parting words.

“The battle’s over.”

The men don’t do anything and just stand there as London runs after Zurvick.

London grits his teeth and has genuine worry in his eyes when he thinks to himself,

(I have a bad feeling about this...)

--------------------------

Ash is at the bottom floor of the castle, her day of fighting has ended because this certain floor, and just about the entire castle has been won over by the rebellion. The remaining enemies still fighting are completely surrounded and it is only a matter of time before they surrender.

The mass of loyal Trojans are already celebrating their hard fought victory, and Ash is no exception. For the most part, this is her first real battle. To have it happen here and for this cause, and to obtain victory is more euphoric than she could have ever imagined.

“I can’t believe we did it.” Ash says as she leans up against a staircase in somewhat of an exhausted fashion. “We won...”

She smiles wholeheartedly and takes a look around, through the carnage of this morning, happiness has broken through. A new surge of emotion brews in her chest and all she can think about is Zurvick, she figures he’s probably enjoying his reunion with the Queen at this moment, but that won’t stop her.

After taking a deep breath of determination she says to herself, “Alright! Let’s go find him!”

She begins to run up the large staircase leading to the upper levels of the castle and weaves her way through a couple people when,

Thunk!

She nails someone straight on.

She barely keeps herself from falling down the stairs and after grabbing the guardrail she instinctively shouts, “Hey watch where you're going!”

That’s when she catches a glimpse of the person her verbal assault was directed towards. She recognizes the man, and can tell right away that the life in his eyes has been dulled, it’s as though she has just run into a zombie.

“Zurvick!?” she shouts in surprise.

------------------

“Damn it all, how the hell could I lose track of him?” London says to himself while squeezing his temples in annoyance. “He’s walking a grand total of no miles per hour for Christ’s sake.”

London is up on the tenth floor of the castle and is quite angered at the fact that he lost track of Zurvick in the fray. Even though he was walking lifelessly and rather slow; he managed to blend in with the thousands of people making their way throughout the castle.

To be perfectly honest, he’s not the only one wearing that kind of face and moving around with that kind of demeanor. Nonetheless he was still careless, for one of the Knights to get distracted so easily is pretty embarrassing.

Trying to find the stairs down and pushing people out of the way in the process, he stumbles upon a few familiar faces in the crowd. Coming up the clustered stairs are Ebihara Seiri, Haas Avondale, and Lennox Applewood.

Their appearances are completely different from everyone else because they are completely unscathed and have this disinterested air about them whilst everything around them is so hectic.

Lennox shoves a guy out of the way and waves to London. “Yooo! There you are, for a second there I thought we’d never find you in this cluster-fuck of humanity.”

“Now that we have, can we go home now? We’ve won this battle already so there’s nothing keeping us here.” Seiri added.

Haas stays completely silent like usual.

London sighs and pushes up his glasses; his voice turns solemn when he replies, “Something’s telling me that we didn’t win this one...”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m sure we’ll find out at any moment now.”

---------------------

Zurvick ignores Ash’s presence and walks right past her as if she were a ghost. He slowly makes his way through all of the cheering Trojans and heads toward the large front door of the castle. The morning sunlight beams through that open door and it makes Ash feel as if he is going to walk into the light and never return.

She immediately pursues him and rushes to his side. “What’s wrong, Zurvick!?”

The broken Zurvick just keeps his wide eyed glare directly toward the light in which he is walking to.

With yet another snuff of a reply from him, Ash shows her frustration and kicks him about as hard as she can in the shin.

But this time he didn’t even flinch.

His reaction is completely different from normal, he should have hit the deck and shouted ridiculously.

Not seeing that reaction, her frustration is replaced by a heart pounding anxiety.

“Z-Zurvick... where’s the Queen?”

This question finally gets an answer, but not one that Ash wanted to hear.

Outside of the castle proper, a cool late morning breeze hits them as the light from the sun reflects off their bodies. The smell of fresh air replaces the smell of blood that their noses had gotten used to inside the castle.

With the breeze blowing through his hair, he slowly turns to her and answers,

“...She’s gone.”

----------------------------

“It’s time.” Satan said as he walked out on the balcony where Lelaine had jumped from.

About a hundred feet above him is the crow’s nest that holds the Trojan flag atop it; he simply looks up and he begins levitating towards it. Standing impossibly on the thin flag pole, he takes a deep breath and holds his finger out. From above comes a little black orb that floats down and lands on his fingertip.

“Hmmm... Not quite enough yet.” he says as he squeezes the orb in his palm.

He then drops it and it stops its fall directly below his feet. With a snap of his finger, the orb flattens and expands to form a massive pentagram that surrounds the entirety of the castle from above.

This is obviously some kind of seal, and if one looked at it closely, they could see that all the little intricate designs of it hold similarity to the seal used to bind Ubica to the eternal lake during the Apocalypse.

“But I don’t need many more souls to complete this seal. The ones left in the castle should be more than enough for now.”

With a couple hand gestures, Satan then slams his open palm down towards the pentagram seal and it turns bright purple.

It begins to spin as he says, “All men in this castle, I hereby claim you as enemies. As punishment, I demand your souls!”

The pentagram seal shoots downwards and makes its way through the castle while spinning.

This pentagram is actually a spell used to consume the souls of the living in mass numbers, once the mass of the pentagram reaches the bottom floor, everyone who survived the gruesome battle for the Queen will be wiped out.

-----------------------

On the tenth floor, London and the other three Knights stand cautiously as a rumbling sound from above makes its way down towards them.

The rest of the men in the hallway are clueless as to what is going on and are continuing in the reverie of their victory. Then a bang is heard so loud from above it actually stops them in their tracks, they all look up like turkeys on a rainy day and wonder what that sound was.

As if answering their worries, a man in a Cardinal's robe rushes down a flight of stairs that leads to the next floor.

The man is none other than Cardinal Luudnt and the men alongside the Knights instantly recognize him.

They figured that the Cardinal has been in hiding this entire time judging by his unscathed appearance, but the look on his face is absolute fear as he makes his way towards London and the others while shouting,

“RUN, RUN!!! IT’S COMING!!! IT’S--------“

All of the sudden, following him down the stairwell is a massive gust of wind that shatters every window of the hallway in its path. Four or five windows shatter before the wind hits Cardinal Luudnt and a purple orb of light screams out of his mouth, breaking his jaw and taking teeth along with it.

The Cardinal’s body falls lifelessly to the ground in a thud as if someone had dropped a sack of potatoes.

That purple orb then flies through the wind and makes its way back upstairs as if it was vacuumed by something.

This sight was all it took for the remainder of the men to turn away from the ensuing gust of wind and run as fast as possible to the lower floors.

London on the other hand, tries his best to remain calm and turns to the others.

He pushes up his glasses and his usual calm demeanor shatters when he shouts,

“We need to get out of the castle now!!!”

The other three don’t ask questions and quickly jump to their right and directly through the closed windows of the hallway, shattering the glass with the weight of their bodies and sending themselves flying into the open. Once outside, the rushing wind from inside the castle blows the already broken glass in their direction as they fall and they can only cover themselves as the loud sound of the passing air surrounds them.

They have narrowly avoided having their souls sucked out of them, but they are not out of danger just yet.

And Lennox points this out while the shards of glass chase them as they fall.

“HOLY SHIT THAT’S A LONG WAY DOWN!!!”

-----------------------

“What do you mean she’s gone..?” Ash asks in disbelief.

Zurvick’s face twitches awkwardly for a moment, he turns away from her and begins to walk across the bloodstained bridge over the moat from the battle earlier. He has no intention of going into detail about Lelaine, if possible, he’d like to block the entire thing from his mind somehow since reliving it is just too painful.

Ash doesn’t let him get off easy however, she latches onto him and again asks, “What do you mean!?!?”

Now Zurvick frowns, he turns to her, grabs her shoulders and shakes her violently. “What else could I possibly mean!? She’s dead, Captain, my wife is dead!”

Faced with his sudden outburst, Ash is left speechless. She’s never seen such pain in a person’s eyes, she’s never heard such despair in someone’s voice.

Until now.

The fact that it has come from him of all people is enough to break her heart.

Zurvick lets go of her and falls to his knees, it would seem that his own words made the reality of his wife’s death all the more realistic. His shoulders drop and his head hangs low as tears start to fall from his eyes for the first time in what seems to be years.

The sobs of the person Ash cares about the most hurts her ears, she had never thought she’d see him in such a state. This is the man that she has only seen smile for as long as she can remember, she now feels that he’ll never smile again; it will be replaced permanently by the expression he’s wearing now.

What can she do to give him back that smile?

What can she say that will help ease his pain?

Is there even anything that can do that?

Ash doesn’t know, and she doubts heavily that her words will even reach him at this moment, but she decides that this is the only thing she can do for him.

She leans down to his level and grabs onto each of his cheeks, she looks him square in the eye and says,

“Listen Zurvick... I’m so sorry, I don’t know what happened but I need you to know that all isn’t lost.“

Zurvick is sobbing uncontrollably, the heat of the falling tears on his face feels like hot lava on Ash’s hands.

“We all still need you to be strong, there are still so many people that love you. Me included.”

Her words seemed to have momentarily struck a comprehensive cord inside the beleaguered King, almost to the point where he can reply to her.

But before he had a chance to speak…

VVVOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!

A thick, loud bass noise is heard from behind them as a severe concussion is felt under their feet. The water of the moat begins to wake as the suspension cable of the draw bridge begins to swing a little.

“!?”

Ash turns around and looks up to see a sight that so far outstretches her length of imagination it’s mind blowing.

Thousands of purple, blue, green, and red orbs float upwards toward the sky, followed by a massive pentagram seal. The little lights seem to scream in agony as they twirl about towards a shirtless figure at the very tip of the castle.

“Wha..?”

She doesn’t even have time to think when all the windows of the castle begin popping like balloons.

The shards from the smaller ones can’t reach them; but she is terrified when she catches sight of the largest window of the castle that stretches from the second floor all of the way to the fifth expanding from within and exploding outwards in a great torrent of wind.

The hailstorm of glass is sent on a direct collision course with her and Zurvick.

Some pieces of the falling shards are so big they easily double the size of a human body, if the small shards weren’t deadly enough, if one of these giant pieces were to hit them they’d be crushed instead of skewered..

Knowing what comes next, Ash shouts, “Zurvick get down!!!”

She immediately dives on him without even thinking.

The two lay on the wooden draw bridge as the splashes from the shards of the massive window hit the water around them. Then what follows is the sound of the wooden bridge being pelted by the razor sharp shards, it’s as though someone was playing a dart game with their position on the bridge as the board.
From within the fray of all these different noises, a distinct sound is heard. It is the sound of flesh being sliced, followed by a liquid being spilled.

Zurvick knows this noise all too well and once the warmth of that liquid is felt on his chest his tongue feels like a ball of cotton.

He takes sharp, deep breaths as the glare from the shard of glass that fell atop them beams his eyes.

Ash slowly gets up and looks around; they are absolutely surrounded by glass protruding from seemingly every spot on the bridge. She then looks at Zurvick, and other than the shocked expression on his face, she can see that he is completely unscathed.

She smiles at him as the light from her eyes begins to fade.

“Thank goodness... you’re... okay...”

Her body falls limp and she collapses on top of him.

Stabbed into her back, is a foot long shard of glass from the window of the castle.

She has sacrificed her body to protect the King of Troy, and by the looks of it she has paid the ultimate price.

Zurvick can’t handle this, he can’t watch another person he cares about die right in front of him. He leans up and pulls the glass shard out of her back, and to his dismay, blood squirts everywhere and begins to puddle around their legs.

The usual tanned Ash is losing her color rapidly and becoming as pale as the moon.

She is dying in his arms.

He groans as he tries to stop the bleeding by applying pressure to the wound, but he is in such a poor mental state that he can’t even find the words to beg her to stay awake.

All he can do is hold the wound tightly and look down on her with pleading eyes.

When she doesn’t even budge, it hits him again.

This is all his fault.

His wife, his daughter, his country, and now this young girl who’d sacrifice herself to protect such a weak man like him. He can’t lose her too; he refuses to lose her too. But sadly he doesn’t know how not to lose, he has forgotten what it was like when he was able to win and protect others in the process.
He is now completely useless, a helpless man who is watching everything he’s ever cared about being taken away one by one.

Once Ash is gone, everything is gone.

He’d have lost it all.

The words she had spoken to him just moments earlier were forgotten and replaced with thoughts of self destruction.

He’s only capable of squeezing her limp frame tightly within his arms and letting all of the pent up emotions of guilt, shame, regret, and despair, exit his mouth in a blood curdling cry.

“UUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!”

---------------------

The souls of all the soldiers of the rebellion shine above Satan’s head like stars until he raises his hand and they all begin to swirl and mold into each other.

The souls mix all the way until there are only two orbs left, they have mixed in so much that the pretty colors are now gone and instead are an ugly black, the same dark color that formed the pentagram.

Satan holds the two orbs, one in each hand and smiles. He then tosses them to the side and they both float off in opposite directions until landing about a hundred meters away on each side of the castle.

After a few moments of silence, two beams of black energy shoot from the ground and tower into the sky. The two towers are so high it seemingly stands parallel with the mountains that surround the city. The two structures have got to be at least five times the size of the Trojan castle.

These two towers, formed from the two little orbs, have hundreds of windows that stretch all of the way to the top.

Satan spreads his arms and begins to speak, “To every man and every woman of the world, I speak to you in every tongue, to inform you that you are all under my rule.”

When he says he speaks to every man and woman, and in every language, he is literally doing that. The Archangels have used this very method during the Apocalypse, and in some sense, so did Ubica. Everyone in the world can hear Satan’s voice at this very moment.

“I am Satan and I am now your God! Worship me! Pray to me! And I shall give you life!”

Out of the windows of the two towers come thousands upon thousands of demons, flying, climbing, falling from the darkness and into the light of the world.

“This is my army! You can all see it can’t you?”

Satan showed visions of his army through every human’s mind as he said that, this way they can get a grasp on what is actually happening. This is more or less a way to intimidate them into believing that his words are true; no one in their right mind would be able to refuse the reality of it all after seeing it with their own eyes.

“No one can stop us now, I rule this world, I rule all worlds! So join me! Share with me the ownership of this world! All it takes is to accept me as God, and you can indulge yourselves in my spoils! You can have riches, women, fame, your wildest dreams for saying but only a word! To anyone who would still dare to oppose me, my army and I will begin a great purge of the non-believers. I give the world three months to make a decision, for those who haven’t by then, it will be death to you all!”

This has always been his main tactic. Conform or die.

With that jumble of threats, Satan’s message to the world ends and he is left laughing in pleasure as the form of his army begins to multiply in size from behind him.

This is it, this is his time, this is what he’s been waiting over a thousand years to do.

Satan once again has control of this world.

--------------------------------

“I’ll tell you what; I’m amazed that we didn’t break any bones after that.” Lennox said while scratching his head in amazement.

The four Knights had all jumped out of a tenth story window and landed on the down-slope of a grassy hillside and slid into the water of the moat. In there they share space with a countless number of dead people as they float uninjured in the blood red water.

“You know, even I can get grossed out. I’d really like to get out of this nasty water.” Seiri said, her misery is written all over her face.

“Moats were made so people can’t get out of them, it might take a while before we find a sewage drain to swim into.” London states.

“Whatever, let’s just get going, I’m starting to get uncomfortable with all those weird looking monsters hovering around us.” Seiri responds as she points to the many demons circling the castle.

Perhaps due to them being covered in the blood of dead soldiers and blending in so well, the demons don’t seem to notice them. If they were spotted, it’s likely the demons wouldn’t hesitate to attack them, chances are they are chomping at the bit to get their hands on a human.

“...Agreed...” Haas struggled to say his first words in a while.

With that, the four of them begin swimming in order to find a way out.

Of course, that is not the only thing on their minds. One thought they are trying not to think about is the fact that they have failed their mission. Their job was to protect the Queen and kill General Sturgess, and looking at what has occurred it is quite obvious that both of those objectives went unaccomplished. It is almost a complete disgrace for them, and the feeling of actually failing has yet to fully sink in because it has never happened before.

Since this is their first time, they don’t know the protocol of what happens in the aftermath of such a failure.

This prompts Lennox to ask,

“So... What are we supposed to do once we get out of here anyways?”

“That much should be obvious.” London replies as he leads the group through the bloody water of the moat. “We return to La’Juune and prepare for war.”

----------------------

Down in the most southern point of La’Juune; Celestia, Allia, Olin, and Jessiah are riding back to the Capital through the snow on a lifesaving dogsled. They had heard Satan’s message loud and clear and all stayed in silence as the dogs pulled them towards their destination.

Jessiah is the first one to break this silence and he does so in a way that makes it seem like he has no clue how dire their situation is.

“What a bunch of losers. How the frig’ did they fail? Four Knights should be more than enough to handle a stupid rebellion.”

The other three don’t respond, in hindsight, they had almost failed as well. They couldn’t count the numerous times they almost died in their battle with Captain Red.

“I hope they’re still alive.” Olin says, showing a rare expression of concern.

Allia sighs and turns to Celestia to ask, “So what do you think our next orders will be?”

“We fight, duh.” Olin answered before Celestia had a chance.

“I wasn’t asking you, idiot.”

Celestia looks very serious when she says, “I don’t know what they’ll be... but I know what I must do.”

“Oh?”

“Those weapons back at the plant, I think I know how to make them. And something’s telling me that we’re going to need them against this new enemy.”

“So you’re buying into this whole mess with the Devil? I thought you didn’t believe in that stuff.”

“I didn’t, at least not completely until now. I’d be stupid to not believe in Heaven or Hell now that all this happened; it has officially become a fact. That being said, we’re going to fight in a war on a scale this world hasn’t seen since the Antichrist’s time. We’re going to need everything we got to win this, so I’m going to make as many weapons as possible for us to fight with.”

For a non-believer, she knows about the Antichrist and the happenings foretold in the New Book of Revelations. For the most part, the entire world has heard of that story, and that was one of the reasons why there were so many people like her. The Battle of Armageddon was simply on a scale too epic and too farfetched to be considered anything more than myth.

But now, that stunning story is unfolding itself once more right before their eyes. They have no choice but to deal with it.

Their futures depend on it.

Allia smiles, looks tenderly at her tattered arm and says, “Make me the best weapon possible... With my arm the way it is, I think it’s time to graduate from a bow and arrow.”

Celestia smiles back and replies, “I already have one in mind for you. I’m going to use the same philosophy behind Jeffrey’s rings for it.”

“Something to do with magnets?”

“That’s right, except this just might even make you more of a monster than Jeffrey.”

--------------------------

“Well that’s going to put a fat wrench in our plans.” said Jeffrey as he and the rest await the Eiyalazonian soldiers at the top of the castle.

They were waiting anxiously as they tried to figure out a way they could talk their way out of this mess without being thrown in prison or executed on the spot.

“I can’t believe London and the others actually failed...” Elise replied, completely disappointed.

“I’m sure there were extenuating circumstances, but now’s not the time to be worrying about that. We need to figure out how to handle all this.” Jeffrey says as he glares at his unconscious King and adds under his breath, “Sorry Noah, but I won’t be leading La’Juune after all.”

He then turns to Diana and looks her square in the eye, she seems genuinely frightened just as most people should be when confronted with such a bleak future.

He sighs and folds his arms.

The rest can tell he’s in deep thought and they wait anxiously for his decision.

“Here’s the plan... Elise.”

“Yeah?”

“When you get back to La’Juune, I want you and London to rule the country.”

“Hah? But what about you? And wouldn’t it be better if I was paired with Celestia instead? I mean, London just failed in Troy, we don’t even know if he’s still alive.”

“Celestia works at her own pace, I’m guessing she has a plan to make weapons or something. She’s not going to want to lead the country. London on the other hand is the most qualified out of all of us no matter which way you look at it. He’s the only one capable of thinking many steps ahead and acting accordingly. He’s the closest thing to Noah we have so I’m sure he’s alive and going to head back to the Capital as soon as possible. As for me...”

He turns to Diana and says, “I’ll be staying here with the Queen.”

“Are you kidding? Why in the world would you do that??”

“Think about it Elise, you heard what Satan said right? It's to worship him or die. Do you honestly think that this shitty Prince could keep the country united under that kind of pressure? The people will falter and this whole country would be fucked.”

“.....”

“We need as many allies as possible in this war, and now we all have a common enemy. I’ll be damned if I leave the people of this country out to die. We’re all in this together now, so it’s about time we put past grudges in the garbage where they belong and fight for a future.”

Elise understands where he's coming from, she actually thinks that that might have been the coolest thing the normally dry Jeffrey has ever said.

She smiles and pats him on the shoulder rather hard before saying, “If you were a girl I’d totally fall for you.”

“I don’t have anything to say to that.” Jeffrey replies, completely indifferent to her words.

“What about me?” Came the soft voice of Rain from below, she has Noah’s head in her lap and is still quite distraught about everything.

“That’s a good question, I haven’t really thought about that.” Jeffrey answered while scratching his chin.

“Then have you thought about Noah yet?” she asks rather coldly.

“If you mean his funeral, I haven’t.”

“How could you be so cold to your King!?”

“He’s not the King anymore, you heard him shift his power to us before he died right? As far as I’m concerned, all three countries no longer have a single ruler.”

Rain scowls at him and hisses, “He’s still breathing you bastard, he isn’t dead.”

Jeffrey begins to laugh slightly, he throws his hands on his waist and fights back a smile when he responds to her glare.

“Alright alright, I’ve seen enough.”

“..?”

“There’s no point in continuing to give you shit when you can help me.”

“What are you getting at?”

Jeffrey walks up to her and leans to her level, with a straight face he asks, “What would you do to save Noah’s life?”

“Anything.”

“Then you are just the right girl for the job.”

He stands back up and walks away from her, he continues speaking as he begins pacing.

“Remember when I said that we’d need some kind of miracle to keep him alive? What was it again? Oh yeah, killing the one responsible for poisoning him.”

A new light begins brewing in Rain’s eyes as she starts to see where he’s going with this.

“Well that person is here, on Earth, and we are about to fight a war against him. The leader on the losing side of these kinds of wars usually ends up dying right? So what do you say we win this thing and wake Noah up?”

Determination boils in her chest when she replies, “What can I do?”

“You are going to go back to La’Juune with Noah and Elise. From my understanding you are one of, if not the best Battle Strategist in the world. We could use your talents on our side, you will be the leading Strategist for all of La’Juune.”

“Do you really have that much faith in her?” Elise asks skeptically.

“I do. You can see it in her eyes that she’ll do anything for Noah. Even more than we ever could.”

“Thank you.” Rain bows, “I promise I’ll wake him up.”

“Good... With that I think we’re ready to get the preparations underway. Diana, come with me, we have a lot of shit to talk about; it hurts my head to think about all the political nonsense we’re going to have to go through to get the other Royals of this country on board.”

“O-Okay Jeff.”

“Ahhh Jeff, I like that.” he says with a pleased smile.

He’s wanted the others to call him that all along but everyone strongly rejected it for whatever reason.

Diana follows Jeffrey but she hesitates when she looks back towards her unconscious son.

Jeffrey answers her gaze by saying, “Leave Dice here, the medics will tend to him once the soldiers get here.”

“...Right.”

She runs to his side and the two get to the door leading to the innards of the castle, he lets her in first and turns to the others to leave them with some final words.

“We only have a few months until the war of all wars starts. I’ll be doing my part here; you two make sure that La’Juune is mobilized and ready to put a serious hurting on that bastard by then.”

Both Elise and Rain salute him and reply in unison,

“Yes sir!”

---------------------

In Hell, on the shore of a certain massive swirling lake, stands Damien with a confident smile on his face.

As if sensing Damien’s presence, Leviathan appears from the swirling torrent of agony that he calls home and stands atop it as if there was nothing below him.

“Judging by the look in your eyes, I can see that you are pleased about something.” Leviathan said.

“What a good eye you have... would you like to know what it is?”

“Does it involve me?”

“It involves everyone allied with me, so if you are on my side then yes it does.”

Leviathan walks onto the shore and says, “After messing around with Ubica a little, I’ve come to the realization that what’s best for us is your plan for him. If that means I’m allied with you over your father, then so be it.”

“Good, I actually came here in regards to some news about my father.”

“I’m listening.”

“You’re one of the very few people that know of my true intentions, so I’m sure I’ve told you of my prediction on what my father was going to do about a vulnerable Earth after the abductions.”

“He was going to raise a portion of Hell’s army right?”

“Yes, and he’s done that, just as I thought he would. He has half of his power in that human container up on Earth, wasting it all day by day just to stay there, it's why he'll have to raise his army to subjugate the humans. The other half of his power remains here in Hell with his real body."

Leviathan’s interest is piqued. He wants to know what is in store for the future and asks, “What are you going to do about that?”

“I’m going to continue things as originally planned. What you are going to do is what's going to matter most.”

“Oh? And what might that be?”

“Get my father to Purgatory...”

---------------------------------

In the familiar room with the checkered floor, Satan sits on his throne with the chessboard resting in front of him. It shows that there are many white pieces left whilst there is only one black piece. But that one black piece is all that was needed to win the game.

With his bright red eyes he glares at the game and a deep chuckle forms in the back of his throat.

“Noah, you ambitious child, you were never going to win this game no matter how much you cheated with those powers of yours.”

He moves his black King piece and knocks over the white King piece, sending it off the table and bouncing onto the marble ground.

“With this, the world is now mine...”

His deep chuckle makes way for a heavy laugh as he leans back in his chair and lets the glory of his victory sink in. He’s finally accomplished something that took thousands of years to fulfill; he now has an able body on the face of Earth.

Only this time, he doesn’t have to worry about the interference of Angels, they’ve been long dead.

He doesn’t have to worry about Jesus interfering because he’s stuck in Purgatory.

He doesn’t have to worry about an armyless God up in Heaven.

But most importantly, he doesn’t have to worry about Ubica any longer, because in his mind, Ubica will be killed and Dantega will be rid of forever before he even gets a chance to see the light of the Earth again.

This is an absolute victory, and there is nothing here to hold him back any longer.

“Hehehe…. Hahahahahahaha!!!!”

His hysterical laugh is followed by a quick kick of the chessboard in front of him, the board and the pieces fly off everywhere and the clacking of the wooden bits bouncing off the ground seems to add applause to the rousing laugh of winning this game.

During this moment of bliss he realizes that he has yet to say the word used after a victorious chess battle.

His eyes shine brighter than ever before as he stands to his feet and shouts,

“CHECKMATE!!!”

Checkmate: (END)

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 8|Checkmate (Part 2)]]
| Return to [[Dantega|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 6 Novel Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
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</noinclude>

Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 3

2022-03-05T20:38:43Z

Deck of cards:

(PART 3)

The story of the False Prophet starts with a little girl at the age of 11.

The girl has light brown hair and bright gold eyes; she's dressed all in white and is standing on the plank on the starboard side of a large wooden ship sailing in the middle of the ocean. Her wrists are tied with a silk like cloth and her ankles are bound as well.

The long brown hair that falls all the way down past her waist waves as a cool ocean breeze gently makes its way past her. Though she is wearing a straight face and looks to be very calm, someone with sharp eyes can tell that her flushed little nose and cheeks indicate that she had been crying for quite some time before finding herself hovering dangerously above the ocean surface.

The calm demeanor she carries is due to the fact that she had resigned herself to her fate.

"You must stay strong, Holy Light. This is for the greater good of all of mankind." a woman's voice said from the safety of the boat.

The little girl turns her head to look at the woman and says, "I'm nothing more than your daughter. You won’t even call me by my name anymore?"

The woman on the boat is surrounded by a couple dozen people clad in white swinging censers expelling the smoke of pungent smelling incense. They chant an ominous hymn as they do so, and the billowing smoke rising up into the sails of the ship takes on the presence of some great monster pushing the bound girl towards the water.

The woman gazing upon the little girl from within the throes of smoke looks like a breathing cadaver, she is pock faced with brown hair and dead looking brown eyes that seemed to have completely lost their humanity.

"You were never my daughter, from the moment you were born you were always the vessel to the Holy Light, sent here to cure us of all our woes."

"No, mother! I'm just a normal girl, you and the others made me out to be something else!"

The woman's eyes widen as she shakes her head. "You don't understand, the voices have told us your future. You are to become the Holy Light and free us all from the darkness of this world!"

"Destroy the darkness!" came the crazed voice of a man from within the smoke.

"Fulfill your destiny!" shouted another.

It would appear that the smoke from the incense they're burning is making them crazed, they speak as though they are in the presence of a long awaited miracle. By now the whole boat deck is engulfed in the pungent gray smoke of the incense and their hymns pitch rises into an ununiformed mumble.

"What voice?? What darkness? You have gone mad mother! Please don't do this!"

"Be patient, Holy Light! You will soon hear the voice too, but first you must see the darkness! Only then can you ascend to your throne in the sky! Look, Holy Light, look at the darkness behind you!"

The woman and all the others point out to the sea behind her, prompting the girl to quizzically turn around. Upon doing so she is shocked to find that the ocean as far as her eyes can take her has gone pitch black. The feeling emitting from the water almost buckles her knees when her body is overwhelmed by great pressure.

Looking down at the water just below her feet, the girl is frightened when she sees faces in the black water, horridly pale faces that look tormented as though they want to escape. Then the white and water ravaged hands of the tormented faces writhe out and break the surface of the ocean, their pleading hands wish to grab her, their moans bubbling out in maddening desire.

"Mother! Let me back on the boat! Mother!!"

"Do you see it now? The darkness calls for you, it's pleading for your light! You must save them, and you will save our souls as well!"

"No it's not true, I can't do anything like that! I really can’t, please please please don’t make me do this!"

One of the men dressed in white comes from behind the woman with a wooden paddle and doesn't hesitate to push the girl away from the plank and send her falling into the ocean.

“!!”

With a light spash, the girl quickly resurfaces, but with her legs and hands bound it's only a matter of time until her awkward squirms fail to keep her afloat and she drowns.

"Mother! Gbfhhh---- Mo-!!"

Her desperate attempts at pleading for them to save her falls on deaf ears, and only quickens her path towards drowning. Every drop of seawater she swallows steadily steals her voice and her ability to cry out. If the desperation of beginning to drown wasn't enough, she can feel the slimy pale hands of those ghoulish creatures under the water begin to grab at her and try to pull her down.

"Only your soul can free us from the darkness!" The woman shouts, and then the men behind her join in when her expression turns cockeyed and they all simultaneously yell, "Thank you!!"

They smile and wave as though they had just dropped their child off for her first day of school. Their expressions are so amazingly twisted with insanity it almost seems like a joke, it's as though they are really bad actors in a low budget play.

This poor girl's fear hit the ultimate high before the inevitable doom awaiting her. She feels the pure hopelessness as she watches the wooden ship carrying her mother quickly move further and further away.

Even if she tried to scream out once more, her voice would never be heard; she can only grasp for desperate air and shrink in terror every time she feels a pruned hand slide across her face.

As soon as she resigns herself and stops resisting, all the sudden the hands tugging at her stop, and the moans of the voices disappear.

“!?”

Now bobbing alone in the sea, she doesn't feel the kind of relief one would expect at the sudden departure of things wishing to harm her, it's more of the feeling one gets when alone in the forest and the birds all collectively stop chirping.

There's an ominous danger looming in the form of some kind of predator that scares away even the most frightening of beasts.

And that very predator quickly swims right beneath her, it's scales so bright and blue that she can even see it from within the black water.

Whatever it is, it's massive.

Like a snake it continues to move past her and she knows that if she lets herself sink she'll land right atop it.

She watches it make its way past her and towards the wooden ship out in the distance until its blue scales can no longer be seen.

Then comes an eerie silence.

But that silence is quickly destroyed when the wooden boat is shredded by a massive dragon-like creature flying up from the sea at a great speed.

BOOOOOSHH!!

The entirety of the monster jumped a hundred meters up into the air, the sun glistens off its scales in brilliant displays of light as it twists its body and begins its descent back down towards the water before landing atop the survivors in a massive impact.

SPLAASSH!!

"Mother!!"

The little girl, even in her last moments cared for the safety of the mother that so mercilessly bound her and tossed her into the sea. She even feels pity as she watches those still left alive in the water get devoured one by one by the jagged mouth of the serpent.

Their screams of confusion and pain are rough on her ears as the waves from the beast’s movements lift her up and down.

The girl is still selfless enough to find herself caring for the wellbeing of those who had wished to harm her.

It didn’t take more than a few moments before all the screams came to an end and was replaced with the sound of waves gently breaking. The head of the serpent, now covered in the blood, clothes, and flesh of its victims twists and looks in her direction.

The girl and the monster lock eyes with each other.

Even the most selfless person becomes selfish if their life is in danger, any thoughts of the others are quickly forgotten and are replaced by pure fear.
The serpent immediately starts swimming towards her at a speed so fast it won't be more than a second before she shares the same fate as her mother and the men in white.

"Aahhh--!!!"

She slams her eyes shut as she feels the giant monster's presence get closer, and that's when she feels a very sudden and sharp tug at her legs and she is pulled into the water so fast that she almost blacks out. She feels her insides rise into her chest as the intense pressure of the fall continues to pull on her.

It went on for a very long minute and then suddenly stopped on a dime.

She doesn't try to breathe in, but senses an odd emptiness as though there were nothing around her.

She opens her eyes and is shocked to find that she's alone in pure darkness, she can see herself but can't see anything else, her once bound hands and ankles are untied and her hair and clothes are completely dry. She takes a breath and can feel the sensation of air enter her throat; she knows she's not in the water anymore.

But if not there, then where?

"...Am I dead?" she asks herself, her voice echoing in the darkness.

This is a very valid thought. The last thing she remembers is a dragon-like monster coming to eat her and that was immediately followed by the unmistakable sensation of falling.

"If I really am dead... Then why do I only see black?"

The girl starts crying, never has she felt more alone than from within this darkness. There's something maddening about this place, and she doesn't know what to do.

Thoughts like, (What if I'm stuck here? What if this is Hell? What should I do!?) begin plaguing her mind, sending her into despair.

Her tears don't stop until she feels someone's hand gently touch her shoulder.

"!!?"

She quickly jumps forward and turns around to see a boy standing there. The unclothed boy has silver hair and looks to be the same age as the girl.

By all accounts he looks normal, if not for his eyes.

They are purely black, both the sclera and irises.

"Yaaaaah!!!"

As a natural reaction to his appearance, the girl covers herself and cowers in fear.

The boy walks to her, he tilts his head, leans to her level and asks, "Who are you?"

The girl doesn't answer, she just sits on her knees and covers herself with her eyes tightly shut.

"She was a girl worshiped as a goddess in a small country up on Earth." replied a voice from out of nowhere.

"That doesn't mean anything to me, Leviathan."

"Her appearance here should mean something to you.” the echoing voice of Leviathan smoothly replies. “Didn't I tell you that you're going to need someone to share your power with? Well here she is. Satan manipulated this girl's followers and forced them into committing horrendous atrocities in her name."

The boy stays straight faced and keeps his black glare pointed at the girl when he asks, "And what makes this one special?"

"If you knew how many thousands of people we've tried to send to you, you wouldn't find the need to ask that." Leviathan pauses for a moment and then continues, "Satan had this girl's followers commit terrible sins in her name just to darken her soul, but she was resilient enough to not be tainted. Anyone or anything humans worship is susceptible to corruption, yet his girl's soul stayed pure despite all that. We've tried to send someone with a pure soul here many times, only to have Dantega devour their darkness and rip them apart. This is the first person to make it, we’ve finally found your perfect partner."

"Listen Leviathan..." The boy says as though talking down to the demon speaking to him. "I understand what you and your leader are trying to do. All this effort is going to do you any good, I'm not going to be swayed by gifts like a child."

"This girl is more than a gift. She's the only person with a soul pure enough to carry the weight of Dantega without being consumed by it, she's your ticket to the surface. You do want to go don't you?"

"....."

"We've told you what you need to do in order to get there, now you have the key to do it. It's your choice how you want to use this key, though I’m sure you already know what to do with it."

Right after saying that, the presence of the voice disappears and leaves the two alone in the darkness.

The boy once again turns to the girl, it's obvious she heard that conversation and looks very confused, the two's eyes lock and once again she quickly shrinks and turns away.

"Don't come any closer!"

“So what they’ve been telling me is true, there really are people up in the world who aren't corrupted. That would mean that you’re someone I’m not made up of…”

The boy takes a step closer and reaches out to her.

“I said stay away!”

The boy ignores her distress and places his hand on her shoulder, turning her towards him in the process. He gazes upon her like someone who had never seen an airplane in the sky; to him she is the rarest and most impossible of things, he can’t believe he’s touching something like this.

“Do you fear me?”

Her eyes start to water and she reveals an expression similar to a scared kitten when she replies, "Of course I do! I don’t know what's going on! Who are you?? Who was that voice!? What about my followers!? What am I---!"

The boy interrupts her by resting his free hand on her other shoulder and says, “You no longer need to worry about any of those things.”

"But!"

Trying to calm her down, he gently grips her quivering shoulders a little bit tighter.

"You’ve reached a place where the world exists outside of you, anything that has troubled you in the past will never trouble you again.”

The girl is still dreadfully confused, there is no way for her to find comfort in what this nightmare of a person grabbing on her shoulders has to say.
Looking into his pitch black eyes only serves to exacerbate her anxieties, he looks more like an alien preparing to operate on her against her will than someone with her safety in mind.

All she can do is look away from the terrifying boy and hope he doesn’t devour her with his darkness after delivering those deceptively sugary words.

Sensing her unease, the boy tilts his head and asks, "What's wrong?"

"Please don't hurt me!"

"What makes you think I'm going to hurt you?"

She pauses for a couple seconds, and as though troubled by the thought of angering him she coyly answers, "Y-You're eyes."

"My eyes?"

"Yes... they're evil and frightening."

"Just because my eyes are evil doesn't mean I am going to do anything to harm you."

"....."

"How about I do this..."

The boy shuts his eyes and covers them with his palm, after a second or so he moves his hand away and shows her a pair of green eyes that look no different from any other human.

"Better?"

Now that the boy's eyes aren't jet black, she can actually see expression in his face. No longer looking like an emotionless statue, she's taken aback by how different his appearance is. She's never seen anyone like him before, and now he doesn't seem like the monster she had thought would devour her.

"Y-Yeah..."

"Good..." He stands her up to her feet and says, "You are mine and I am yours. The outside world is ours to share. So believe me now, you no longer need to fear anything.”

"...Okay."

Even she doesn't know why she so readily accepted him. She has been completely swept into the power of the boy in front of her, all forms of anxiety had vanished solely because he told her that they don’t need to be felt.

She has just been sacrificed by her mother, she has just watched her and the others devoured by a giant sea serpent, she has just been taken to an unknown darkness, met a strange boy with black eyes, heard an ominous voice talking of things she cannot possibly understand, yet she now feels true calm.

“Thank you…”

"So tell me, girl with the purest soul… what's your name?"

She hasn't even said her name in so long that it's hard for her to allow it to leave her lips, she's been called the 'Holy Light' for as long as she can remember. She had longed for her mother to call her by her name just once more, if only to serve as proof that it was real, but she never was awarded the pleasure.

But here in this moment, a surge of pride in her true identity rises from deep within her, she finally feels capable of separating herself from the role of goddess she had been forced into. Feeling as though she can own her name for herself and no one else, strength wells up from within her chest at the thought of reclaiming her name and experiencing a new truth.

Her lips faintly rise when looks him square in the eye and replies,

"My name is Messor."

As soon as she spoke her name, her light brown hair began to brighten as a halo began swirling above her head. Taking on the color and texture of silk, her glistening white hair cascades over her now shining body; she stands there as a torch from within the darkness and the black world around the two begins taking on many different brilliant warm colors.

The boy can feel the warmth coming from the girl and the colors she’s brought into him, he can even smell the wonderful fragrance of Earth, something he had never experienced before. Caressing his senses are the blue sky, white clouds and green grass; a gentle breeze hits him and sends a surge of electricity dancing upon his skin.

He can truly sense life in the void he has been growing in for the very first time. He’s mesmerized by her and the energy she’s sharing with him.

What he sees in her is the living embodiment of the world he was born to own, and this fills his bosom with a grateful pleasure. The boy knows he has been gifted with the person he can share himself with, and what she offers him will be as mutually valuable as trading components for life itself.

“Messor…” The boy said with a little smile, he softly let out a bouyant sigh before saying, “Your name is Latin for harvester… My one and only Idol,
Messor… a wonderful name.”

-------------------------------

“Kill me you say?” Messor asks as she wipes the blood from her mouth with the black ribbon she wears on her wrist. “Hahaha, come and try it girl.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Trojia attacks.

Perhaps due to her telekinesis, she is able to cover the ten meter gap between the two so quickly it seemed like she was a blur. Before Messor even knew it, she’s face to face with the new, empty red eyes of Trojia.

“!!”

With a twist of her body, Trojia swings the twin blade in her right hand in an attempt to lop off the head of her target. Having no chance of physically avoiding this attack, Messor sends a couple of her butterflies to intercept the incoming blade.

The two collide and Messor does a quick hand gesture; the butterflies explode like a grenade and send Trojia flying back while guarding her core with her arms.

The sleeves of Trojia’s white shirt shred and char, but with a little shake of her arms the burning cloth flies off and leaves her skin unscathed. She then catches her footing and reestablishes her firm position as the aggressor.

Messor only had the time to put enough strength into the butterfly just to make some space with that explosion. Knowing that Trojia’s attacks are going to be relentless, Messor gets onto her feet and starts running to her left.

It’s a good thing she did too, Trojia instantly sent a heavy ax and longsword screaming off the surrounding walls and stabbed the stone wall where Messor’s head should’ve been.

Trojia doesn’t stop there, every single one of the hundreds of weapons posted like trophies in this rectangular room are flying off the hinges and hurling themselves towards Messor.

This level of telekinesis is not too dissimilar to the magnetic properties used in Jeffrey Durbin’s weapons. There is still a considerable amount of math needed to be calculated in order to have the desired effect; what is different between the two is that Jeffrey has to do it manually alongside a couple external devices, whereas Trojia’s brain is now working on an unfathomable level that is processing all of this automatically. All Trojia needs to do is imagine what she wants to move and it does so, the same thing applies to how much speed she wishes for the object to travel.

Of course, there should be limits to this power, she can’t move a large unseen mass or shift mountain ranges with her mind. Her brain can literally explode if she tries. The human body can only use specific parts of the brain to operate specific things from within the body, most of which are done unconsciously like breathing or the beating of one’s heart. There is a reason for that, if it were to overuse one conscious or unconscious function over another, the body part of that said function would sap the energy of the many others operating simultaneously to keep the person alive. The organs would collapse because the brain would literally forget about sending proper energies into keeping the many bodily functions going, it’s because of this the human body has a set limiter on its operational output.

In theory, these limiters can be either inhibited or built upon to form psychic powers.

This is why what Trojia is doing should be absolutely impossible; there is nothing inside of her being sacrificed in order to pull off such incredible feats. She’s moving hundreds of objects simultaneously and hurling them at a specific target. She’s using at least ¾ of her brain's functional capabilities solely to focus on the movement of those objects right now, and doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

Spears, shields, swords, axes, and even the occasional full bodied knight suit standing on platforms against the walls are now being levitated and shot forth as if they were blown from a cannon.

The crashing sound of all these objects hitting the wall so dangerously close behind Messor as she runs gets louder and louder in her ears, judging by this she knows that it’s only a matter of time before she is impaled or crushed by one of these projectiles.

“Tch! I guess I have no choice!”

She gets a steady piece of footing from underneath her and stops running, she claps her hands together and a gold light encircles her hands as she shouts,

“TERRA AMNIS!”

The ground below her splinters into thousands of pieces and begins swirling around her body in a torrent of brick and rock. The rotating mass of dirt, rock, and brick repel the oncoming projectiles and send them scattering across the room. It then expands and looks to engulf Trojia, picking up even more debris on the way.

“If you’re just going to fling shit at me, you’re in for a surprise!” Messor yelled loudly enough to reach her opponent’s ears.

Trojia starts jumping back with her eyes planted firmly on the approaching mass of certain death.

Seeing that her attention is stuck on one thing, Messor again claps her hands and the butterflies that surround her shoot out of her barrier of rock and multiply above Trojia’s head.

Just when Trojia looks up and notices this, Messor shouts,

“Now die!”

BBBBOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!

Over a dozen explosions, ten times more powerful than the earlier blast, concuss violently above Trojia’s head.

Within an instant she is engulfed by the inferno. The flames swirl about and the roof of the room over thirty feet above her shatters and falls into the fire.

There is without a doubt, nothing left of the young Princess after this, it’d be considered luck if her body even keeps its form once all the smoke clears.
Messor is finding it difficult to hold back a triumphant laugh, she’s just killed what she knows to be her biggest threat. Her platinum golf eyes glow in anticipation as she stares at the carnage through the twister of sediment swirling in front of her.

That’s when she feels something strange...

It's the presence of someone directly in front of her.

Messor’s eyes instinctively stroll downwards and she spots that which has given her this strange tinge of tightness.

Crouched down at the level of Messor’s waist is Trojia; she is pressing one of her twin blades against Messor’s stomach and doesn’t hesitate to push forward with all her might. The blade skewers the False Prophet and the pressure of being pushed is painfully felt in the area just above her navel.

“!!??”

The swirling mass of brick and rock that Messor created falls helplessly to the floor as she is lifted upwards and pushed toward the wall by the strength of Trojia. She slams into it and is impaled all the way to the hilt of Trojia’s sword.

“Kuuuhhaahh!?” she moans, the last bit of air puffs out of her lungs as blood sprays from her mouth and onto Trojia’s face.

The blood from her stomach sprays as well, painting Trojia’s white one piece dress with the distinct color of red.

The young Princess pays no mind to this when she lets go of the twin blade impaling her enemy to the wall and readies the other one for another merciless strike.

Messor stares into the empty red eyes of her assailant and in the split second of realizing what has just happened, she tries to put together an explanation.

What could she have possibly done to avoid being caught in her butterfly’s explosion?

How could she have gotten from point A to point B so fast?

Not only that, just how was she able to get in between the torrent of sediment that was used as an impenetrable barrier?

There can only be one answer.

She teleported...

Teleportation is a form of Psychokinesis, which is a blanket term for Telekinesis. Teleportation is such a small factor of Trojia’s new power that should be physically impossible to do, especially since doing both at once far exceeds the limits of the brain’s capability.

Teleportation uses a completely separate mathematical system than Telekinesis, it’s much more precise. She’s literally bending time and space and walking through to the other side which can only be seen through millions of random numbers floating about in a haze; one would need to pick the exact numbers out of the fray that signify the coordination of her desired destination. If she got it wrong, she could teleport herself directly into a wall, or arrive with half her body jammed into the floor. If she got stuck in any other object, inanimate or not, it would result in certain death.

One’s legs would still be on the other side of their body, but their organs would be crushed in at such a level it’d be considered pressed into another dimension.

Trojia has pulled this feat off while avoiding a high category explosion; it’s a miracle that she didn’t at least teleport herself into the brunt of Messor’s torrent of sediment. Instead she managed to execute this maneuver perfectly the first time she’s ever tried it, and in the process inflicted a fatal blow on her enemy.

Messor is in such a shock about this fact that it numbs the pain in her stomach; all she can do is stare down into the emotionless eyes of Trojia.
That’s when Trojia lets go of her grip on the blade and the pain Messor was numb to just a moment earlier is felt growing, this time spreading upwards towards her chest.

“Ugguuah!”

She looks down at her wound and catches sight of the part of the blade that can still be seen in between her body and the hilt of the sword’s handle; the blade is upside-down so the sharp end is pointing upwards. Knowing that the laws of gravity itself will cause her to split in half, she grabs the grip in order to hold herself up, leaving her even more defenseless than before.

It would seem that’s exactly what Trojia was counting on, with her other hand she readied to swing the blade; this time aiming towards Messor’s arms.
(Don’t tell me... she was planning this all along!?) she thinks to herself in a panic.

She has realized that Trojia did this to her on purpose as a sick way of making her death as slow as possible. Once Messor’s arms are severed, the weight of her body will slowly cause her mass to fall to the ground, the razor sharp end of the sword, which stands between her and the floor will eventually split her horizontally like a banana peel.

Revenge is best served with a side of torment, and Trojia has every intention of making Messor’s death as slow as possible for what she did to her precious friend Nyomio.

Trojia doesn’t hesitate to cut off her foe’s arms, but as soon as she makes her vicious move, her body is suddenly overcome with a thick pressure; her movement is stopped just inches before she could lop off Messor’s arms.

“Very good, very good!”

A familiar voice comes from behind; it’s without a doubt the voice of Lilith.

Trojia’s emotionless red eyes turn to the source of the voice and lands on the figure of the owner of this massive castle.

The Third Gatekeeper has made her arrival.

---------------------

All Tsubiri saw was a flash, and the man who was attempting to lick the side of her face is no longer there.

Before she could even fathom to articulate what had happened, Ubica’s soft voice interrupts her train of thought.

“Tsubiri, close your eyes...”

She doesn’t hesitate to comply. Unlike earlier when he asked her to shut her eyes to surprise her with a birthday present, this time the request is to protect her from seeing something awful.

He doesn’t want her to see him undertake the violence he is about to unleash upon the men of the city, and she doesn’t want to see him do it either.

The thought of the promise he made to her out of love becoming a driving force to take human lives weighs heavy on the two of them. It’s a sad dilemma, but Ubica must power through the tragedy and take in the guilt later if he wishes for her to survive the day.

Tsubiri hears a couple more thunks and the sound of liquid spilling onto the ground floods her ears. As soon as she feels the grip of the men’s hands slide off her arms, she throws her hands over her ears to keep any more of these sounds from entering her head.

It only took a minute, and the claustrophobic atmosphere that looked to strangle her had been replaced by a feeling of space that swept the air out from her lungs. The presence of the thousands of men that once surrounded her seem to have completely disappeared.

Hearing her own breath as she covers her ears, she realizes that the outside noise has ceased to a dead silence; prompting her to slowly open her eyes to see just what had happened.

The first thing she notices is the distinct color of red, it’s literally everywhere. On the surrounding buildings stretching up over two stories; street lights soaked, cars painted, the ground has puddled in the red liquid like a lake that had overflowed. All of this red no matter where she looked, except one place; the area of about a ten foot radius in which she stands is untouched by blood, and looking closely at herself none of it has stained her clothes either.

The blood seemed to deliberately avoid her.

Her eyes then catch sight of the one other moving thing not covered in blood. It’s Ubica, and he is holding the face of a man and lifting him off the ground, with his free hand he points his sword directly at his heart.

The aggressive action looks natural to him, it’s just like he’s done this same thing on numerous occasions before and is acting out an unconscious motion implanted deep from within him.

It’s then that his eyes look to Tsubiri, he felt her gaze upon him and halted his assault on the man. The pain in those green eyes of his is more than evident to her. She can see the guilt eat at the shine of those eyes and the pain felt behind the scenes spewing from them as if he were bleeding.

Tears fell down her cheeks upon meeting his gaze; it’s hard enough for her to handle the fact that the carnage laid out in front of her was done to protect her, but what makes it unbearable is that it had to be by Ubica’s hands. She’s just seen his goals and dreams of doing good by others completely shattered by simply looking into his eyes. Everything he’s built up slowly has crumbled down around his feet and meshed into the red color of the blood surrounding him.

This has broken her heart.

Seeing Tsubiri cry obliterates the hyperfocus he allowed himself to fall into in order to commit this heinous act, he releases his grip on the man’s face and he drops the last living man to the ground.

It has all been too much to handle now that the horrible deed has been done.

To make things more cruel on Ubica and the poor men unfortunate enough to have been thrust into a conflict they had no control over, Asmodeus’s spell over them ended just before they were stricken down. All of the men showed no fear of death until their very last breaths when they finally realized what was happening.

This man who has been so mercifully spared is no different, he’s shown Ubica his weakest moment, and now that he’s free from the grasp of death he begins to flee on his hands and knees like an injured animal desperately trying to escape a predator.

Suddenly finding himself covered in the blood of thousands of other people and essentially crawling through corpses and bits and pieces of flesh, is enough nightmare fodder to induce a nervous breakdown. The way he squeals in fright and hyperventilates as he crawls away is evidence of his mental state.

The fleeing man has regained complete control in his body, that is, until the moment he catches sight of Tsubiri. As if that was a trigger that flipped a switch in his brain, he stands to his feet and sprints towards her, in zombie-like movements, he reaches his shaky hand out to grab hold of her.

The extent of Asmodeus’s words truly hit home at the sight of his desperate attempt, just like she said, they will never stop targeting Tsubiri unless they are killed.

Stunned by everything hitting her all at once, she’s frozen in place as the man inches closer.

He makes it a few feet away from her when...

SHLUNNKK!

His back is impaled by Ubica’s sword and his body is mercilessly skewered.

In a smooth motion, Ubica quickly pulls it out, sending a geyser of blood out of the man’s chest.

With that, the last of the many thousands of men has perished. Killing off unarmed humans, no matter how great the number is like child’s play to a monster like Ubica; the death of all these men was so unfair it could hardly be called something as simple as a massacre.

This fact just adds to the guilt that is weighing so heavily on Ubica’s shoulders, these were just regular people, even whilst under the control of Asmodeus, they were just frail humans that held no real threat to him. Yet he struck them down one by one, snuffed out their lives because he wasn’t strong enough to avoid it.

“Ubica...” Tsubiri softly says.

The distance between them is now separated by a corpse; she wants to reach out and touch him but the source of his pain can literally be stepped on. She just stands still hoping that he’ll lift his lowered head and look at her.

He doesn’t do that, however, and his body trembles as his eyes lay focused on the proof of his atrocities lying beneath him. He shivers at the thought of what she may now think of him after watching firsthand such an amazing form of brutality. He’s frightened at the prospect of her disgust.

If these fears of his are true, he’ll not only break, he’ll fall into a despair deeper than the lowest part of the ocean he was born in. Her tears alone make his stomach churn in nervousness, through his fear he could only see that as meaning the worst possible thing.

“Please...” she said softly, struggling to conjure up a word to follow that.

It would seem that what she said has reached him though; he takes a deep breath and raises his head.

“...I thought I told you to close your eyes?”

His voice alone causes her tears to overflow, she’s genuinely hurting for him and the people who just had their lives so tragically cut short. She ignores the dead body between them and takes a giant step over the corpse; she grabs onto Ubica’s shoulders and throws her head in his chest.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I’m... so, sorry...”

Ubica droops his head back and stares up at the sky. While keeping his glare up at the moving clouds, he replies,

“... You have nothing to apologize for.”

Breaking their dour reunion, a shrill laugh of pleasure is heard from above.

“Huuahahahahaha!”

Asmodeus is leisurely sitting atop a two story building, blood stains from the men reach just below her dangling feet.

“Ubica, my gosh that was all so touchinggg~!”

Ubica’s cold stare lands on her wretched face, he sends her a scowl filled with pure anger; if looks could kill, Asmodeus would have turned to ash.
“Ahhhn~ if you look at me like that I just might melt from the beauty of it. But I still like the real you a lot more. I can’t believe that killing so many innocent people wasn’t enough to throw you overboard!”

Ubica gently removes himself from Tsubiri’s grasp and says, “I need you to get away from here, get as far away as you can and don’t look back.”

“B-But...”

“Please, if something happens to you now, I’d have done all of this for nothing.”

“.....”

He nudges her away from him; she struggles to get her legs working for a few moments before she starts to walk away. Her walk speeds into a run, and doing her best to dodge the carnage on the streets she starts sprinting.

Ubica takes another deep breath as the sound of her footsteps getting further away sends relief to his tense body.

But the sound of her footsteps suddenly stop, prompting him to turn in her direction.

He is met by her voice out in the distance shouting, “Ubica! I don’t know exactly what you’re feeling right now, and I don’t know how I can help you through it... But just know that when you’re done with all of this fighting and we’re together again, I promise you I’m going to find a way to make you feel better!”

Ubica’s shoulders jolted upon hearing that.

Seeing his reaction, Tsubiri knows that her words are reaching into the darkest depths of his hurting soul.

She puts her hands over her mouth to make sure her final words reach him. “No matter what happened; I still love you! No matter what happens in the future, I will always love you! So win and come back to me Ubica, I love you!”

Confident that he heard what she said clearly, she makes her exit and disappears down an adjacent city street.

It’s now just Ubica and Asmodeus, but this time he feels a sense of security that was missing until just this moment.

With a new wave of energy, he stares up at Asmodeus.

If she looks closely enough, she can see that the pain of what he’s done has receded a little in his eyes and has been replaced by strength. Though his face is straight and aligned with the intensity of the moment, his body is astute and almost looks fulfilled; it’s as though he realized that he can still do good despite the bad he had just done.

Asmodeus frowns, she hates that look, it serves as the exact opposite of the desired result she had in mind when she put him through this trial. He wasn’t supposed to come out of it looking more secure in his chosen path than he was going into it.

She’s infuriated by the version of the Antichrist who can use love to quell his true self, under her gritted teeth is the chain of her tongue piercing grinding away, making a metallic sound exit her mouth.

“That girl...” she grumbles through her teeth, “It looks like I’m just going to have to kill her in order to bring you back.”

Ubica points his bloody sword up at her when all of the sudden, an intense pressure is felt all around the street. It’s shaking the ground, rattling the windows and shaking the buildings to the point of them almost collapsing. These earthquake-like phenomena are coming from the power of Ubica.

An odd, bright aura begins to shine around Ubica, one that hasn’t been seen by anyone until now.

Surely this power is benevolent; this type of power shouldn’t be anywhere near a man like Ubica the Antichrist.

“What the fuck is that?” Asmodeus asks herself as this strange benevolent-like power of Ubica’s surges and grows into an even more imposing force.
The black, reptilian-like pupils in Ubica’s eyes fade away and only a green ball of light shines through his now white aura.

He takes a deep breath, and in a flash he vanishes.

Faster than anything Asmodeus could comprehend, he appears directly behind her.

She doesn’t even have the time to turn around when Ubica speaks into her ear.

“I’m going to end this quickly...”

“!!!”

BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!

<noinclude>
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|-
| Back to [[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
| Return to [[Dantega|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 4|Rosemary's Baby]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Dantega

2022-03-05T20:26:05Z

Deck of cards:

{{Status|Active}}

[[File:LelaineBT.jpg|thumb]]

Dantega is a light novel written and illustrated by [[User:Deck of cards|Deck of cards]].

==Story Synopsis==
Based 1000 years after the battle of Armageddon and the Apocalypse...

The human race has virtually started over and is trying to put the pieces of its past glory back together. But with God's enemies still lurking in the shadows, the world is once again thrown into chaos by Damien, the son of the Devil, when he kidnaps a group of young royals and sends them to Purgatory.

The princes and princesses were set to be married in an attempt at world peace by the three largest kingdoms of Troy, Eiyazalo, and La'Juune. And their simultaneous disappearances sends a ripple of hate through the world.

Due to certain events, two men join the group of royals, one named Ubica, who holds tremendous power and along with it a mysterious past. And Rage, who is actually the Angel of Death.

This is all according to Damien's somewhat unknown plan to start a world war amongst the humans.

In order to stop this war, the group must travel through the 5 gates of Purgatory and escape back to Earth before the world is again thrown into utter turmoil.

However, to accomplish this, they must find their way through this new world, fight through its residents, the 'Gatekeepers', Demons from Hell, and even themselves.

== Updates ==
*16 April 2021: Dantega project re-edited & new chapters.

== Series Information ==
*'''Genre:''' Action, Seinen, Romance, Drama, Supernatural, Adventure, Thriller, Tragedy
*'''Author:''' Deck of cards
*'''Illustrator:''' Deck of cards
*'''Volumes:''' 1-9
*'''Series Status:''' Ongoing

===Format Standards===
'''Every chapter (after editing) must conform to the general format guidelines.'''
*[[Format_guideline|General Format/Style Guideline]]

===[https://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=75&t=5740 Feedback]===
'''If you enjoyed the OLN, why don't you tell us in the [https://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=75&t=5740 Feedback Thread]'''

==Dantega==

===Volume 1 ([[Dantega:Volume 1|Full Text]])===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Prologue|Prologue]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 1|End of Royalty]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 2|First Contact]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 3|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 4|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 5|The Map to the Gates]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 6|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 7|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 8|The Devil's Advocates]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 9|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 10|(Part 3)]]

===Volume 2 ([[Dantega:Volume 2|Full Text]])===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 1|Her and the King]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 4|Rain on the Battlefield]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 7|Night of the Ball]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 8|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 9|(Part 3)]]

===Volume 3 ([[Dantega:Volume 3|Full Text]])===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 1|Northbound Reunion]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 4|Revelation]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 7|Trust]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 8|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 9|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 10|The Ransom]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 11|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 12|(Part 3)]]

===Volume 4 ([[Dantega:Volume 4|Full Text]])===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 1|Pursuit on the Water]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 4|One Step Behind]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 7|666 The Mark of the Beast]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 8|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 9|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 10|An Angel's Revenge]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 11|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 12|(Part 3)]]

===Volume 5 ([[Dantega:Volume 5|Full Text]])===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 1|Movement on the Chessboard]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 4|Their Rebellion]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 7|Checkmate]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 8|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 9|(Part 3)]]

===Volume 6===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 1|Conflict of Interests]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 3|(Part 4)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 4|Rosemary's Baby]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 7|The Death of One Beast and the Birth of Another]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 8|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 9|(Part 3)]]

===Volume 7===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 1|The World's New War]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 4|Capital Attack]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 7|(Part 4)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 8|(Part 5)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 9|(Part 6)]]

===Volume 8===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 1|Crown of Thorns]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 4|(Part 4)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 5|(Part 5)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 6|(Part 6)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 7|(Part 7)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 8|(Part 8)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 9|(Part 9)]]

===Volume 9===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 1|Resistance]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 4|Desperation]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 7|The Convergence]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 8|(Part 8)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 9|(Part 9)]]

==Project Staff==

*Project Administrator: [[User:Deck of cards|Deck of cards]]
*Project Supervisor:

===Author===

[[User:Deck of cards|Deck of cards]]

===Editors===

==Project Status==

Project Status: '''Ongoing'''
[[Category:Original novel]]

File:Asmodeus (1).jpg

2022-03-02T19:16:01Z

Deck of cards:

This is Asmodeus, she one of the 7 ranked Demons of Hell's Hierarchy

Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 2

2022-02-27T19:23:48Z

Deck of cards:

(PART 2)

“How are we going to go about getting through this hurricane of sand? This is obviously a barrier to keep us away from the castle.” Napoleon said while staring up at the swirling mass of sand covering the castle.

The entire group had made it through the Lilitu and managed to land safely onto the desert floor; the zeppelin that took them here took off and left them immediately upon landing.

With no reason left to stay, the charter company that ran the zeppelin had no problem abandoning their passengers here alone.

As it turns out, everyone on the third level knows where the Gate is at all times and are constantly being lured here by the power of the Gatekeeper. Though Rage didn’t know the identity of the Gatekeeper at first, once he found out that it is Lillith, it all finally makes sense to him.

The consistent pull of Lillith has made it profitable for zeppelin transportation services; they are hired at an extremely high rate to take people here.
The only people able to avoid this are women, and they are the ones profiting most from wealthy men who simply cannot control their urges. It has been noted that no one who has ever made the pilgrimage to the Gate has come back, and this has stricken a fear so deep in people’s minds that it is common knowledge to not go anywhere near this place if they can manage.

But naturally, there will be people who ignore the warning signs and go in spite of it, lured in by the Gatekeeper named Lilith. The company that owns the zeppelins is making a large profit off their deaths, to them it’s just like robbing a corpse, it’s not like they’re going to need that money anyways so it might as well go to them.

There are no roads for the cars to tread on and no water to power the steam engines. With temperatures ranging from freezing to 120 degrees, making the trek on foot is out of the question, despite all the modern technology of the 3rd level of Purgatory, zeppelins are the only thing capable of traversing the desert to reach the Gate.

On that note, it leaves the group in quite the predicament. The zeppelin company only drops people off at the site of the Gate; there is no ride back for them. So now they are alone and stranded in the middle of a barren desert with no way to get back.

The only way out of this mess is through the Gate and on to the next level.

That would in turn mean that they are going to have to get through this hurricane of sand, maneuver their way through the miles wide castle, and defeat the Gatekeeper Lilith.

Acknowledging that the task is daunting, they begin coming up with plans to proceed.

“The barrier of sand is going to be the easiest part of this whole mess. Now that we’re here, the Gatekeeper will allow us to enter.” Rage stated, seeming very confident in his declaration.

“How can you be so certain?”

“She let us land didn’t she?”

KKKKAAASSSSHHHHHHH!!!

A loud sound through the wind is breaking within the mass of swirling sand, prompting everyone to look up.

What they see surprises them.

A woman’s smiling face is forming in the torrent.

“No need to worry…” The tone of the woman’s voice coming from the sand seemingly dances in pitch as she speaks. “What kind of person would I be if I rewarded your efforts getting here by leaving you outside my castle to rot?”

As if her words were a trigger, the sand splits apart like the red sea and reveals what it has been hiding; the entrance to the massive black castle. The double doors that begin to slowly open are so large that if it were to fall forward, it would easily cover a hundred yard span. The size of this structure is on a scale completely different than any other building they've ever seen, it stretches as high as a skyscraper and is literally miles in width and length. To add to the size is the delicate intricacies of its design, the windows, the walls, each square foot of this entire structure is detailed. One can’t help but wonder how painstaking it must’ve been to build such a thing and put so much effort into each stone block.

Once the doors open wide, the group attempts to peer inside, they see nothing but pitch black and it makes them nervous to step foot in there. It’s as though they would be stepping into another world upon entry.

“Can’t say I’m surprised, come on let’s go.” Rage says as he throws his scythe over his shoulder and walks toward the entrance.

“Don’t be so hasty now.” The woman’s voice came echoing through the desert as if she had heard what Rage said. “The men stay outside.”

“!?”

“There’s no way we’re splitting up now!” Strauphius protests.

“You don’t have a choice in the matter.” The woman’s voice rings. The door begins shutting as she continues to speak, “Men have to go through a test before they receive anything from me. The beautiful women however, are free to enter.”

“Do you think this is some sort of trap?” asks Napoleon as he walks to Rage’s side.

Messor chimes in and answers his question, “During a fight with her she wouldn’t hesitate to take a girl’s soul and use it for her own good, but she isn’t known to play tricks on women.”

“Then what about us?” Cyrus asks.

“Well she hates men, so I doubt it’d be an easy task for you. She’ll make it impossible for all of us to enter if we insist on going in together though, it’s best that we split up for now and carry out what needs to be done.”

“But...”

“I agree.” added Trojia, she steps in front of the rest and explains, “If for whatever reason this test she is planning on giving you guys causes you trouble, then you can just tough it out until we get done with the Gatekeeper. With her gone, there is no test, and there would be nothing keeping you from joining us at the Gate and all of us can go through together.”

“You make it sound so simple.” Cyrus says, pushing up his dusty sunglasses with his middle finger.

“Isn’t it actually pretty simple? The concept of our scenario is laid out right in front of us. It shouldn’t be that difficult to decide what to do from there.”

“That all depends on what this ‘test’ is. If it’s something that we can’t easily prolong or breeze through, then it’s not going to go as smoothly as you think.” Rage replies bitterly, agitated by the prospect of what is about to happen.

Trojia’s eyebrow twitches as she blows a haughty air out of her nose, she turns to the door of the castle and begins walking towards it.

With her back turned to the others, she waves her hand and says, “Well, you’ll find out soon enough yourself.”

With Trojia walking toward the castle by herself, it prompts Niera to nervously follow her. “U-Um... Please take care of yourselves!” she said with a bow before running to Trojia’s side.

Aria is hesitant to leave her brother behind, but she couldn’t help but find herself agreeing with what Trojia had to say.

“Take care guys, you got this!”

Sora says nothing, and follows the Trojan princess towards the dark entrance of the massive castle.

“What has gotten into Trojia lately I wonder? Her personality has really changed since we left Ubica behind...” Daey asks herself with her hand on her chin.

“Forget about that for now, you should all head in before Lilith changes her mind.” Rage urges, gesturing for her to follow Trojia inside.

Once all the woman of the group make their way to the entrance, Rage stops Messor by putting his hand on her shoulder and leaves her with some parting words,

“Keep an eye on Trojia, she may be becoming too reckless for her own good.”

“I’m way ahead of you on that.” Messor replies, “I’ll be watching her closely for an entirely different reason though.”

Messor walks off and heads into the castle along with the rest, leaving the men behind.

As soon as the group of girls enter the darkness of the castle, the massive double doors immediately shut behind them, spraying a plume of dust outwards that stretches hundreds of feet into the air. A loud clicking noise is heard and reverberates through the desert ground as if a giant lock had shut behind them.

Immediately after the rumble from that noise ended, the sand that parted to reveal the entrance to the castle began to suck into two of what seems to be black holes in the middle of the castle. This whirlpool effect is sucking not just the sand from the parted hurricane, but sand from the desert floor as well. Even Rage and the others find it extremely difficult to stay grounded in this torrent of wind.

After a few moments, two massive silhouettes can be seen from around the epicenter of the whirlpools; both figures stand on each side of the door and tower above the ground over a hundred meters in height. With each passing second, the width of these silhouettes grow and the humanoid figures of two giants can be seen.

The remainder of the once hurricane of sand enters the black hole and reveals the rest of the miles wide castle behind the two massive statues.

The statues are clad in heavy armor, the gunmetal color is intimidating and it really stands out against the brown desert ground.

In the chest of these statues are the black holes that were sucking up all the sand, upon taking in the last grain of sand, a seal with some hieroglyphic markings begin shining in a pulsating light , the one on the left being red, and one on the right is blue.

Pulsating a few times like a heartbeat, the hieroglyphic seal twists and shines even brighter, then the two statues begin moving one colossal step at a time.

Each step shakes the ground below and kicks up a maelstrom of desert sand.

“This is my test for you disgusting men.” Lilith’s voice echoes, “If you can find a way to topple these two ‘Colossals’, the doors to my castle will open up for you and you will receive your chance to pass through the Gate…”

“We’re supposed to take down those things!?” Strauphius exclaims, doubting their chances at surviving in a fight against 100 meter giants clad in armor.
“But because I am a generous woman…” Lilith’s voice echoes in the desert as if answering Strauphius’s distress. “I am obliged to tell you that pure force alone will not be enough.”

The two Colossals make their way towards the group when Lilith’s voice suddenly stops. The answer they need is right in front of them and is as singular as it gets, destroy the Colossals and enter the castle.

“Well, there is that phrase that the bigger they are the harder they fall.” Strauphius says sarcastically.

“You guys enjoy that while I step aside with the Prince. I can feel your confidence from here.” Phoenix said as he grabs Xavier’s sleeve and hurriedly walks away from the oncoming Colossals.

Phoenix has revealed himself to Rage as the Son of God, yet he has refused to get his hands dirty with anything since then. This makes Rage wonder if he’s the type who won’t lift a finger unless absolutely necessary; not a very benevolent way of doing things to say the least.

“That’s fine, you guys would just get in the way if you stick around. I’ve been meaning to test out the powers that Messor gave me, what better way to make use of the training I've been going through the last couple months.” Cyrus says as he further shoos Xavier and Phoenix away.

Napoleon takes a long hard look at the two insanely large moving objects heading their way and gets an odd lump in the back of his throat. Not someone who would normally be afraid of a fight, the prospect of this battle is making him exceedingly nervous,

A lot of it is coming from not being able to predict what these things are capable of.

If he’s fighting a human, or even a demon for that matter, he has a pretty good idea what their next move would be and can act accordingly. The two Colossals however, are supposed to be inanimate objects that are entirely too big to be mobile, there’s no way of knowing what kind of power they're hiding.

With that in mind, he tries to warn the others.

“I don’t think that------“

BBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!!

Napoleon is interrupted by two bright beams of red and blue light ripping the ground in front of them, a loud explosion accompanied by a massive blast contorts the sky above them with sand and sends a blazing heat radiating against their skin.

The men of the outside group begin coughing and can hardly see anything when they feel an overbearing presence right on top of them.

The red and blue seals of the two Colossals can be seen shining through the sand just feet in front of them, the two masses almost a hundred meters in height got in front of them so fast that they didn’t even notice. All it would take is another one of those beams of light, or even just a stomp of one of their feet and it would be more than enough to kill them.

The four combatants scatter off in different directions with no sense of where they are going in the thick blanket of sand.

Being lost and separated in a confused state causes Rage to shout to himself,

“This is definitely not going to be simple!”

-------------------------

Ubica opens his eyes and finds himself shirtless and tied by leather belts at four points on a large king size bed in a dark room. There is an odd red tint in this room, giving it an ominous vibe, it’s likely coming from the red sheets atop the bed he’s lying on but he gets the feeling that it is a little more sinister than something as innocent as such.

“Where are you, Asmodeus..?” Ubica inquires into the darkness surrounding him.

From what feels right beside him, a woman answers, “I must say, your sleeping face really is something else, I envy your attractiveness.”

Leaning up against the bed is the same woman from the bar that Tsubiri was having a conversation with.

Ubica turns his head and scowls at her, causing Asmodeus to chuckle.

“Oho, your angered face is enough to make me melt.”

“What are you planning?”

Asmodeus gets up and walks a few steps away, with her back turned to the bed she says, “There are quite a few things actually, but my main objective is to put you through as much despair as possible. At least that’s what Damien ordered me to do.”

Leviathan used the same modus operandi, instead of physical pain, he put Ubica through as much mental anguish as possible in an attempt to break him.

Knowing this, Ubica is beginning to feel especially nervous when thinking about what this means for Tsubiri.

As brutal as Leviathan is, Asmodeus is known to be even more ruthless; there’s no telling what she has in store for him.

Ubica’s sharp breathing is enough to prove to Asmodeus that he’s worried, and this prompts her to ask,

“I bet you’d like to know what I’m going to do you huh?”

“.....”

“My goodness, even an anxious face suits you.”

Asmodeus puts her hands out into the darkness and a bright light fills the room, a movie screen like square presents itself in the light behind her. On the screen is a scene filled with the afternoon glow that surrounds the metropolis, the focus zooms in on the streets and shows a panicked girl running throughout the city in a panic.

The sound turns on and Ubica hears his name being yelled, accompanied by some heavy breaths.

The girl all alone in the big city is none other than Tsubiri.

“I’ve taken a few pointers from Leviathan, from what I understand his technique worked brilliantly.”

Ubica’s face loses its color when he remembers what had happened to Amber and her family the last time something like this happened.

“What did you do to her!?” he shouts, his voice filled more with a helpless fear than anger.

“I haven’t done anything to your sweet little human girl, although I can control the lust in her body if I really wanted to, because she already broke my attempted spell on her earlier it wasn’t worth the effort to try again.”

Asmodeus stands in front of the screen and shrugs her shoulders.

“She’s free to do whatever she wants, and apparently that is looking for you like an idiot in a city filled with hundreds of thousands of people.”

Ubica grits his teeth and tries breaking the belts that are tying him to the bed-frame, to his surprise, he can’t move any part of his body. Breaking out of something like this should be extremely easy for him, so he quickly realizes that whatever it is that’s keeping him on this bed isn’t the physical restraints.

“!?”

“Struggling won’t do you any good, I may not be controlling the lust of that girl, but it doesn’t mean I don’t have a hold on yours. You’ve got a while before you’ll be able to move your body.”

Asmodeus walks back to the side of the bed and slides her hand across his face, she moves close to him and whispers, “Which is going to make this all the more difficult for you to watch... Being unable to do anything about what is going to happen will certainly be torture.”

“Listen, Asmodeus. I’m going to kill you if you do anything to her.”

With nothing else to leverage against her in this situation, his only defense is to threaten her.

As intimidating as his deathly serious glare was when he had said, he’s not in any position to act upon his threat. He’s more like a tiger trapped inside of a cage at the zoo, and she is a child taunting him from the outside knowing there’s nothing this caged up wild animal could possibly do to hurt her.

Standing back up to her feet and giving him space, she begins prodding at the beast trapped in the cage.

“I’m sure you’ve noticed that every man here knows exactly where the Gate is, it’s because they’re drawn to it by a force they cannot comprehend. Do you know why that is?”

Because this has nothing to do with Tsubiri, Ubica doesn’t answer and just glares at her instead.

“The Gatekeeper is Lilith.”

“!?”

“Oho so you’re familiar with the name? I was the one that tempted her into rebelling against Adam back at the Garden of Eden. Though we’re certainly different, t’s because of my temptation that we’re both quite similar. She manipulates the inner most desires of men and uses their souls to keep her body youthful, and devours the souls of women to give her strength. I, on the other hand, can use the desires of men to do my bidding and control the minds of women with ease.”

“What does she have to do with Tsubiri?”

“She is the ultimate siren, the wind of this level of Purgatory is entirely made up of her power; it is so subtle that no one even notices it when they are touched by the gentle gusts, yet they are implanted with the location of the wind's source. I’m sure you know what is in a song of a siren right? With the men of this world absorbing that woman’s temptation day in and day out, what do you think they’re filled with?”

“Y-You’re saying that...”

“Oho you’re beginning to understand now. This level exists entirely in a climate of Lust courtesy of Lilith. Thanks to her I have a convenient outlet to exploit that I will use to break you down, and I’ll have it help me bring you back into the darkness where you belong.”

"....."

Asmodeus chuckles when she doesn't get a reply, but the expression on his face is more than enough for her to find pleasure in.

She points at Tsubiri on the screen and says, “Would you be able to stay silent after I get every man in this city to rape that girl? You’re going to have to watch, you know? It should be quite the spectacle.”

“!!!”

Ubica’s eyes grow large and burn with a fury that even Asmodeus has never seen.

That’s when Tsubiri’s shouting of his name halts and he can hear her say,

“Who are you people?”

On the screen, Tsubiri is surrounded by a dozen men and they all move in on her and attempt to grab her. She escapes the grasps of a couple of them and shocks the others with her electricity; after creating some space between her and them, she runs away as fast as she can.

However, her pursuers seem to multiply tenfold with each street she runs by.

Cars begin chasing her down to cut her off, and even more men abandon their workplaces, exit their homes, leave behind children and spouses, all in an attempt to grab her.

“What the hell is going on!?” Tsubiri yells as the numbers of men grow with each second.

All she can do is sprint as fast as her legs take her and electrocute whoever gets too close. Although she is fending for herself as of this moment, she can’t help but feel the intense pressure of being surrounded.

When that squeeze is felt, she begins to hyperventilate, it won’t be long until the walls close in on her and nothing can be done. When this deadly panic strikes her, she shouts the name of the only person she feels that could save her.

“Ubica!!!”

Asmodeus smiles at the scene that the two had just watched, she then turns off the screen. The room's wall takes the place of the screen and he is met with silence, this was done solely to allow Ubica’s thoughts to run rampant with the horrible images of what might be happening out of sight.

“What I am curious about is what you would do to keep her safe. Would the current Ubica kill every man in this city? Maybe you’d even fuck me if I promised to stop all this.“

“Or I could just kill you.” Ubica said with a frown.

“Ha, we both know that’s not what’s going to happen here.”

“You’re underestimating what I’m capable of.”

“Oho I think not, you’ve done a good job at keeping your true self dormant, but I imagine that being forced into killing an entire city’s worth of innocent people is just what you need for Dantega to erupt.”

“.....”

“I believe you are willing to kill many to save the life of one; your lust for her is enough to spell that out for me in bold print. If I was underestimating you then I would just kill her myself and have you hate me for it. So I am going to let you save her, you either watch her get defiled repeatedly or go out there and take some lives.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Ubica says,

“Then let me go.”

“Just as I thought.”

With a snap of her finger, Ubica can control his body again. He immediately breaks through his restraints and gets off the bed.

Asmodeus grabs his white shirt and black hoodie and tosses them to him. “You’d better hurry, I don’t think she can last much longer.”

After putting on his clothes, he gestures for Asmodeus to hand him his sword.

Seemingly not threatened by arming him, she casually tosses it to him.

Ubica unsheathes his sword and points it at her when he says, “Before I go, I want to see your real face again. The face of the woman you’re wearing right now is only going to sway my determination to kill innocent people.”

“Oho I thought you’d like this face a lot more, I figured it’d tempt you into sleeping with me if I presented myself to you as a beauty. You always used to say I was ugly as I watched you cling to Messor, you flaunted her at me, purposely making my lust for you to grow and tormenting me with my own power.”

“You can obviously see that I'm different now.”

“You most certainly are different, Antichrist, you’ve thrown away your Idol and claim to be in love with a regular human girl after all.”

“Then indulge my curiosity so we can both find out if that’s still the case.”

“Alright then, if my physical appearance is what you need to use as motivation to break yourself, there’s no point in hiding any more.”

Asmodeus puts her hands over her face and an odd skin colored smoke clouds her head and body. After a few moments, the smoke begins to dissipate and the first thing that can be seen from it is a chain that drops just past her chin with a pendant hanging at the tip. It swings in a pendulum-like fashion until the smoke finally clears and reveals a wretched form of a girl.

Her face is tattered with piercings over her eyebrows, nose, lips, ears, and even her cheeks. The most noticeable piercing however, is the one on her tongue; a chain hangs from her tongue and falls out of her mouth, dangling over her neck.

Her white face is heavy with so much of the pale makeup she comes across almost ghoulish. Around her eyes are messy smears of black mascara that make her hazel eyes shine brightly in contrast. Her outfit is tight and full of rips and tears, the tattered white shirt is worn over a mesh top that is covered in belts and other restraints that circle around her body like snakes.

Her figure itself is perfect and if one looked beyond the ugly makeup and face defiling piercings, she’d undoubtedly be considered beautiful. However, she expresses herself through her Sin, she is the Demon of Lust and is the representative of all that is ugly in a person. She chose this appearance because that is simply who she is.

“Are you happy now? Will you still call me ugly with this new found purity of yours?” she asks, the chain hanging from her mouth swaying from side to side with each word.

Ubica takes a contemplative breath and sheaths on his sword.

“I find you more revolting now than ever before. But if it makes you feel better, it isn’t because of your appearance." He turns his back to her and says, "You’re going to pay for making her afraid.”

“Hmph, whether you’re the Antichrist or this new pathetic version of yourself, I truly do hate you. I may have a maddening yearn for your touch, but it’s because of that fact that I am really looking forward to putting you and that stupid little girlfriend of yours through as much torment as these hands can accomplish.”

Asmodeus grabs his back and pushes him away from her.

With her black painted fingernails point at him when she leaves him with some final words.

“Go on Ubica, sacrifice everything you’ve worked for in order to save her.”

She claps her hands and the next thing Ubica knows, he’s in the daylight of the outside world once more. He finds himself in the middle of the street in an eerily silent city; where there were once thousands of people walking, there is now no one here.

Every man of this city is after Tsubiri, all of them attempting to do the unthinkable to her.

Ubica doesn’t know exactly where she is, but he can sense the presence of the mass gathering of men and chooses to run towards that energy. All he can do as he rushes forward is hope that by the time he arrives, he doesn’t find Tsubiri in the middle of it all.

------------------------

Trojia and the rest of the group of girls are walking in the dim light of Lilith’s massive castle. There is a resounding echo with each step they make, producing a blanket of tenseness into an already unnerving situation.

“This place is extremely creepy.” Aria points out, walking shoulder to shoulder with a frightened Niera.

Lagging behind is Daey and Sora, and leading the rest is Trojia and Messor. The two leaders of the pack seem unusually calm all things considered.

“Keep your guard up.” Trojia says, her tone befitting of a captain of a sports team. “Being scared at a time like this will only serve to distract you and make you more vulnerable.”

“W-What do you think is going to happen?” Niera nervously asks.

Messor doesn’t turn to her and answers, “There’s no way of knowing, that’s why it’s best to stay alert. As much as I hate to agree with her, Trojia’s right.”

Trojia’s eyebrow twitched in agitation when Messor said that.

She folds her arms in a combative manner and replies, “Why is agreeing with me so disagreeable to you?”

Messor side eyes Trojia when she says, “Oh? How about you take a guess?”

The two glare at each other and the rest of the girls can sense that this is not some kind of joke between friends; the malicious way in which they’re interacting feels like a sudden heatwave.

“Hey calm down you two, didn’t you both just say we need to keep our guard up? Fighting isn’t the way to go about doing that.” Daey interrupts their deathly glares.

Messor clicks her tongue and turns away while Trojia huffs an angered air out of her nose and does the same.

If being locked inside a massive castle doesn’t do enough to fray the nerves of the group, the dysfunction between the two leading women surely will.

After walking in an awkward silence for quite some time, the group reaches a crossroad of sorts; they find themselves on a circled platform lit by the sun from a window atop the castle hundreds of feet above them. The platform has three sets of stairs leading downward onto a candle lit pathway that stretches towards the darkness of a large door.

There’s one door straight ahead, one to the right, and one to the left; forcing them into a tough decision.

With no way of knowing just which direction would eventually lead to the Gate in such a huge structure, they face the possibility of getting lost. As far as they know, they are in a labyrinth built by the Gatekeeper, it could be that they were never supposed to reach the Gate in the first place.

While contemplating which door to walk through, the familiar voice of the woman in the sand is heard echoing through the castle as if they were surrounded by loud speakers.

“The castle walls can sense the tension between the strongest of you ladies, your interests are in conflict, and I can’t help but foresee a violent end to it.”

Messor furrows her brow and speaks as though Lillith was the castle herself, “The only interest I have is finding you and getting to the next level.”

“And how does reaching the next level serve as your benefit?” Lilith’s queries.

“Isn’t it obvious to you? You’re supposed to be able to sense the desires of women after all.”

“So you’re saying that what I see in you is my only answer?”

“It is.”

“If that’s the case, aren’t you better off killing the rest of them here?”

Messor stays silent, but the others all collectively shrink back in alarm.

Trojia on the other hand, shifts her body into a defensive posture; it’s almost as if she’s been waiting for Messor to do something like that all along.
Lilith continues to speak despite the other’s reactions,

“Someone in this group has the intention to take the Antichrist from you.”

“.....”

“Wait a second!” Aria interjects. “What are you two even talking about? None of us are trying to take anything away from anybody.”

“You speak only for yourself. You don't know the people you are with as well as you think you do."

The way in which the dancing pitch of Lillith’s voice rises and falls is interpreted as antagonistic, and it does just enough to fluster the minds of the group.

“I think she’s trying to trick us into not trusting each other.” Daey says, “We’d be stupid to fall for whatever she has to say.”

“You’re wrong.” came the stern voice of Trojia, her green eyed glare fixed on Messor. “She knows exactly who we shouldn’t trust in this group.”

Messor frowns when she clicks her tongue and says, “You’re not even trying to be subtle with your threats now. I’m not one to take that lying down.”

“You two really need to cool it!” Daey shouts.

Messor removes herself from the escalating situation and begins walking toward the bridge straight away from the group. “I’m not the one starting problems here.” she replies, her back turned to the rest. “Let’s just pick a damn door and go.”

By making the decision herself, Messor assumes the others will follow her lead; she's halfway across when Lilith speaks again.

“The girl with the intention of taking Ubica… She’s just like you.”

Messor pauses upon hearing that and turns back towards Trojia, who for whatever reason is standing only a few feet behind her.

Her sudden close proximity felt like a box of heavy weights were dropped onto the ground at Messor’s feet.

The rest of the group didn’t follow Trojia’s lead, in fact, they didn’t even notice Trojia leaving their side in the first place. It’s as though Trjojia had just suddenly appeared behind Messor.

“!?”

“The blond girl’s innermost desire is dark.” Lilith says. “But her soul is truly pure, just like yours was.”

“Her soul is what?” Messor mumbles, as if realizing what the Gatekeeper meant.

It’s now that Messor can see Trojia’s eyes shifting color from green to red intermittently as though they were changing christmas lights; the young princess grimaces each time her eyes shift, it’s like she is struggling to keep herself from succumbing to a great pressure.

“She truly is quite the specimen.” Lilith said with a laugh.

Taking a cautious step back, Messor asks, “What are you trying to do, princess?”

“I just don’t trust you.” Trojia quickly replies through gritted teeth, her eyes flickered between colors as she spoke.

Lilith butts into their tension filled conversation. “It’s not only you that she distrusts.”

“Is that so?”

“That’s right.” Trojia answers, “You and Ubica are the same person, there’s no way I could trust either of you after seeing what you’ve done firsthand.”

Lilith begins to laugh again, “Hahahahaha, it is amazing that she can say that to someone like you without even flinching. I just might have fallen for this girl, I have no clue how she’ll act upon the confusion caused by the soul inside of her.”

GAAAGAAAASSHHHHHH!!!!

The platform in which they stand begins to crumble and fall into the unknown darkness below.

“But!” Lilith’s voice is still heard clearly despite the heavy rumbling noise. “I believe it’s time we see where she is heading!”

As if the bricks were sand falling off the side of a staircase, they crumble towards the bridges on each of the three doors. This prompts Sora and Niera to run towards the left door, Aria and Daey to run to the right door, and Trojia and Messor to remain by the door on the other side of the center bridge.

With a sound like multiple fireworks going off, there is no ground left to stand on and only three routes are left to take, unfortunately those routes separate them in groups of two.

“All of these doors will lead to me, the opportunity for all of you to reach me is there. It’s just a matter of getting through the obstacles that lay before you without turning on each other first... Good luck, I really do hope to see you beautiful women soon.”

The echo of Lilith’s voice fades away and leaves the large room in silence; only the clattering echo of the debris from the shattered platform and broken bridges hitting the ground below remains. The six girls all look at each other and then back at their surroundings, it’s obvious that they can’t get to each other, the space between them is too large.

It just might be possible that Trojia could use her psychokinesis, but that would be too big of a risk figuring she doesn’t have full control of her power just yet, a fall from here is certain death.

“S-So what do we do now?” asked Niera from the left bridge.

“We do what she wants, let’s go.” Trojia coldly answers, annoyed at the fact she’s found herself stuck with Messor of all people.

She walks into the darkness, leaving the rest behind without so much as a care about the other’s safety.

Messor is feeling trapped as well, and is likely the only person who could get out of this situation herself using her powers; however, she can’t just let the mystery behind Trojia’s soul be left unsolved.

She has to know what is happening with the princess.

“Once again I hate to say it, but she’s right, we need to get moving. If we can find our way to the Gate then we can all just meet there.”

She then turns and follows Trojia into the darkness of the middle door.

“I guess we don’t have a choice...” Sora says, seemingly nervous about what lies ahead.

“Let’s just get going... You guys be careful out there, we’re all going through this Gate together, you got it?” said Aria.

Her words do enough to instill them with much needed confidence, and they get a move on with a little more of a spring in their step.

Daey however, still feels an odd pressure on her chest when she thinks of Trojia and Messor.

It’s as though the two of them are proceeding down a much darker path than the others.

--------------------------

Rage is flying atop his black cloud while narrowly avoiding being hit by the two Colossal’s beams of red and blue energy. Each time it passes them and hits the desert ground, a massive explosion rips through the desert. The blasts repeat over and over and the dust begins to torrent around him and the rest as they figure out a way to destroy the two giants.

“Napoleon!”

BOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Another blast lands and shakes the ground.

Rage has to speak in between the incoming attacks and yells down to Napoleon during one the silent breaks in the action.

“You and I are going to go for the blue one first! Start at its feet and work your way up and I’ll start at the top and work my way down!”

“Understood!”

“What about us!?” Strauphius yells as he runs next to Cyrus.

Napoleon, who isn’t too far from them, is able to give them orders without having to yell too loudly. “We’re going to need you two distract the red Colossal while we destroy the blue one. All you have to do is keep it busy until we can all focus on one objective.”

“Are you crazy!? It’s only a matter of time before that thing steps on us or blows us to shit!”

Struaphius adamantly voiced his displeasure upon being confronted by the command of what seems to be an impossible task.

“Then avoid that by getting off the ground.”

“Hah?”

Napoleon faintly smiles and bumps his fists together.

“Be sure to hang on.” he says, and then slams his open palms onto the ground.

The ground under the feet of Strauphius and Cyrus splinters in a ten by ten foot square; it suddenly rises upwards at such a speed that it topples the two onto their backs. The rapid wind pounding against their faces is noticeable enough evidence that they’ve found themselves zooming up towards the sky.

“WHAAAAAAA!?!?!?”

“!!!!!!!”

Cyrus isn’t one to yell out in terror but Strauphius’ screech can be heard as loud as the constant barrage of explosions below on the ground.
Not only are they going up towards the sky on an object that’s not meant to fly, they are zooming towards the knee area of the red chested Colossal.

Their danger-meters triple in a flash when all the sudden the block of solid land abruptly stops and flings them into the giant like a catapult.

They land on the armor just above its shin guard of the red Colossal and begin their free-fall until they instinctively latch on to whatever they can.

“What in the shit was that??” Strauphius yells in surprise.

“So that’s Napoleon’s new power...”

“He could’ve at least told us what he was doing!”

Cyrus looks up and sees that the red chested Colossal they’re hanging onto is still fully fixated on the movements of Napoleon and Rage, they’ve managed to latch onto this massive beast without it noticing.

“We don’t have time to think about that. If we’re to distract this thing, we’d better do it before it’s too late.”

He then begins to do something borderline crazy.

He starts climbing.

With an exasperated sigh, Strauphius begins to climb as well. Even though he has no clue what Cyrus is planning on doing, he knows that this is what must be done. Although he often acts like a child, even he can be serious when the situation calls for it.

Rage looks on in amazement at what Napoleon had just done and says, “I’m glad to see you have so much command over your new power.”

“It would seem that I can manipulate land. Things like trees, rocks, and even the ground itself are things I can bend. It’s surprisingly natural for me to do it.”

“It looks like Messor gave you some of her own power personally... It’s a long story, but she was born from the Earth whilst Ubica was born from the sea. Their main powers are those two elements.”

“Maybe that would explain why my powers are quite a bit stronger than the others...” Napoleon ponders aloud to himself.

The two are still running along the desert ground toward the blue Colossal, and continuing their conversation as if the danger level has dropped drastically.

Their comfort is in large part due to their comrade’s successful attempts at distracting the red Colossal.

Strauphius and Cyrus are climbing up its body and narrowly avoiding the massive hands of the Colossal as it attempts to crush them.

“This is good.” Rage says as he twirls his scythe, “Your power will be just what we need to execute my plan.”

“What do you have in mind?” Napoleon asks.

Rage lifts his scythe over his head and out comes a stunning white light so bright it temporarily blinds Napoleon.

“I think I know what these Colossals are.” Rage says as he maneuvers the light in the direction of the blue Colossal. “If I’m right, it won’t be hard for us to win this battle. I’m going to need you to use your power to keep that thing’s legs from moving, even ten seconds should be more than enough time for me to end this.”

“Understood.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Napoleon slams his hands on the ground and what seems to be vines of rock begins to swirl up the Colossal’s feet. Rising quickly up its shins, it reaches its thighs about fifty yards up and seems to solidify itself; causing its movement to halt immediately.

As if on cue, Rage jumps to the forefront and points his scythe at the chest of the Colossal.

That odd white light manifests itself into a beam and shoots toward it like a massive laser.

The resulting flash was so bright and so loud it temporarily halted the six senses of everyone near the blast. As soon as one’s eyes adjusted and what’s around them can be seen once again, they are able to see the sight of Rage’s light encircling the blue crest on the chest of the Colossal.

The Colossal stops struggling to get out of Napoleon’s hold on its legs and soon after, its head droops and its body falls limp. The blue crest in its chest begins twisting as if it was a soda bottle being opened and even more light begins to exit out of it in brilliant flashes.

After a few seconds of this, the blue crest loses its color, fades to black, and then pops off and falls over three hundred feet to the ground, landing a loud crash.

After the crest fell, the giant hole in the Colossal’s chest once again becomes illuminated; this time however, a torrent of different colored orbs of light come screaming out of it and into the sky.

“What are those things?” Napoleon asks in bewilderment.

“It’s just as I thought, these giants are given power by the souls of the men Lilith has collected. She’s using the men to protect her long after their original lives ended.”

“So are you saying that once these souls escape, the Colossals can’t harm us?”

“Not necessarily, these souls are still programed with the instinct of protecting this castle, if they aren’t taken care of we’re not out of danger just yet.”

Rage then holds his scythe back up and begins muttering something into the collar of his thick black coat; his black cloud grows larger from under his feet and sends him soaring into the air alongside the countless number of souls.

With a swing of his scythe, the souls begin rushing into his cloud as if they were being sucked by some kind of vacuum.

This is not too dissimilar to what Satan did at the castle of Troy, the only difference is that Rage is reaping these souls to free them from captivity, whereas Satan sacrificed them to raise a portion of his army.

Reaping every last one of these souls is child’s play for him; although there are tens of thousands of separate souls, it’s almost trivial compared to the numbers he’s reaped through the countless times of human tragedy back on Earth.

It only took a few short seconds and it was over.

The Colossal loses its form and crumbles bit by bit to the ground, each large piece landing sends a plume of sand spraying into the surrounding area.

Avoiding these large objects falling from above is Napoleon, who looks up to the triumphant Angel of Death as he descends and asks, “How did you know?”

“It was easy, the encryption on their chests are written in Hebrew, it’s an ancient language that you’ve likely never heard of... It stated ‘The Flask of Loyal Men’, it was quite obvious actually. I don’t think she knows that it is me who is trying to get into the castle.”

Rage doubts Lilith knew just who she was dealing with when she kept the men outside to fend off against her guards.

Every Demon of Hell knows that Rage is traveling through Purgatory at the moment, but the Gatekeepers have no clue. She now knows that Messor is in her castle, but until Rage enters, as far as she knows he’s just another man lured in by her charm.

“So can you do that with the other one too? I’d like to get into the castle and join the women as fast as possible.”

“Yeah, it should be an easy task.”

Rage readies to repeat the same feat against the red Colossal, but is shocked when he shifts his attention in its direction and is met with the sting of a searing wave of heat.

The massive giant is engulfed in a flame that easily rises five times its height; the red crest is separated from its chest and lies black on the desert ground. The souls kept inside of it are swirling all over, each of which is on fire. The sight is similar to molecules vibrating and flying about when they are heated to an extreme temperature.

It’s almost as if they’re screaming in agony as one by one, the souls turn black, turn to ash and fade off into the sky.

“!?”

The Colossal begins to break apart from its head downwards and send shards of flaming debris landing like meteors from above.

Standing completely calm in the middle of all this is none other than Phoenix, he’s holding his hand upwards to the sky as he watches the fire he created burn everything in his sight.

Looking closely, Rage can see that Cyrus, Xavier, and Strauphius are at a safe distance away from the torrent of flame. They must have hightailed it out of there as soon as Phoenix started burning the giant.

Rage takes an inner sigh of relief at their safety before frowning and walking towards Phoenix.

“Just what the hell are you doing!?” he shouts.

Phoenix slowly turns his head to him and replies, “I’m getting rid of this giant, what else would I be doing?”

“You’re destroying the souls of countless innocence!” he yells, emphasizing the severity of Phoenix’s actions.

Earlier, Rage had sucked in all the souls of the blue Colossal with the intention of releasing them in the near future, this would give them a chance to go where they rightfully belong; be that Heaven or Hell, or even back to Earth. What Phoenix is doing is completely erasing their existence, once the human soul is gone, so is the essence of that person.

“Am I now?” The priest asks with an almost crooked look on his face. “These people were enticed by the Gatekeeper because of their sin, they are hardly innocent.”

“That’s not for you to decide!”

“Then whose decision is it? You? Don’t make me laugh, I have more of a right to decide than anyone else here don’t you think?”

“.....”

“These people... You would have released their souls and they would have been damned to Hell. You know that, I know that. So how is this not merciful?”

“There’s no way of knowing that...”

“My flame, it is the same flame that nearly destroyed Dantega. Even after a thousand years, this flame will never stop until the evil of its target is completely destroyed. Whichever souls are still shining after being burnt are the ones not completely tainted by sin and won’t be sent to Hell.”

Upon hearing that explanation, Rage understands what he is trying to do. Phoenix got his flame from Michael, and Michael had three different techniques that altered the way his fire burned.

One of which is to burn his target, no matter what it is, all the way until the target is destroyed.

This technique is certainly the strongest, and unfortunately for the Archangel, Ubica tricked him into using it on the two people he cared about the most.
The second: is the fire that never stops burning no matter what.

It is said that when Hell was created, this fire was used to form its landscape. The same fire continues to expand Hell each and every day; working just like the universe, it is constantly pushing its way outwards and forging a new path for others to follow. The reason why Hell's sky always has an orange and red tint is the leftover radiation of the forever expanding flame.

The third: is the fire that burns away the evil of its target until said evil is obliterated.

This attack was primarily used against people who are possessed, or consumed by only one sin. Once the fire burned out and the evil was gone, the body of the man containing that evil was still left intact.

Similar to a very extreme version of a baptism, this flame is what was used on Ubica in the eternal lake, it was expected that this fire would need to burn forever to fully destroy Dantega.

This is what Phoenix is using on these souls; whatever survives this flame has the right to move on to the next world.

But so far, nothing has escaped the fire.

Watching the souls burn for a little bit longer, the smoke begins to clear and one simple light drops helplessly down like a falling feather.
The little purple light falls into the palm of Phoenix’s hand and he smiles.

“Just one...” he says, and begins squeezing on the orb. “Only one person lived any kind of life worthy of Heaven’s acceptance.”

He sighs and squeezes the orb until it seems to pop, its light flickers all over and fades into nowhere.

“It would seem that no matter what world I travel to, there is no man truly capable of surviving the burden he was born with.” Hiding his face, he says softly under his breath. “Has my faith in humanity really been misplaced this entire time? Or is it something else entirely?”

“What did you do with that soul?” Rage asks.

Phoenix takes another sigh, this one is pointedly disappointed. “I sent him to Heaven... Although I’ve traded my benevolence for fire, I can still do certain things that you can’t. Would you like to know the story of that soul?”

“..?”

“It was a little boy... He had no desire to come to the Gate, but his father lost himself in Lilith’s song and threw away everything in order to come here.
The father sold his home, left his wife, and dragged his son to this very castle where he in turn sacrificed the child to gain the favor of Lillith.”

Rage stays silent; he doesn’t quite know how to respond to something like that.

“I’m sure you can guess how that turned out. That story sounds familiar don’t you think? A father throwing away his son to gain the favor of someone who only intends to devour him...”

The shine in Phoenix’s eyes begin to fade as he zones out on the hand that had just sent the little soul to Heaven.

Rage can see this and a cold sweat runs down the side of his brow; he knows that the story the priest is talking about is his own.

Phoenix's father sacrificed him for the sake of mankind, and it was only a couple thousand years later that it became painfully evident that it was all for naught.

“The burden of man… I am forced to wonder if it was intended to be so difficult to overcome… If it was truly intentional, now I am forced to wonder why it has always been that way.”

Now it’s obvious that the words of Phoenix have shifted from the story of the little boy to the story of himself, but those words are no longer past-tense. He is talking about the current situation he has found himself in, and what’s even more chilling, is that he is talking about the current situation between him and God.

Something has happened in the past that caused a severe change in the Messiah’s personality, it is almost certain that Ubica the Antichrist caused this change, Phoenix has even said so himself. But now however, there is a course of actions between Phoenix and God that no one other than the two of them know about.

This burden, or whatever it may be to him, is beginning to break something inside of Phoenix.

To an onlooker like Rage, the wound it has inflicted on the priest has presented itself clearly.

GGAAAAGAAASSHHH!

The sound of the double doors of the castle opening can be heard, despite the means in which they did it, they've successfully passed Lilith's test.

The Gate is ever so close, but Rage pays no mind to this at all, he pretty much hasn't noticed the fact that the castle door is open wide and inviting them in. All he can do is stare at Phoenix as the crooked look on the priest's face twists even more.

Rage’s eyes grow wide, and the words almost drip out of his mouth when he asks,

“Is there something wrong with you?”

---------------------

Ubica finally reaches Tsubiri’s location, though he can’t see her from within the countless number of men under Asmodeus’s spell that are desperately trying to get at her. Like zombies, they push and pull at each other, climb over one another unconsciously as they move forward despite any obstacle in their way.

She’s been shocking whoever she can to keep herself safe, that much is clear by dozens of men unconscious on the ground at her feet, but she can’t shock them all. Exerting this much effort to create her electricity has fatigued her, and it’s only a matter of time before she runs out of strength, becomes defenseless and is viciously swarmed on.

“S-Stay back!” she shouts as she electrocutes an encroaching man.

Just hearing her frantic voice from within the crowd sends Ubica into a panicked state, it’s as if there was a switch that just flipped inside of him that made his body hot with an angst that he immediately acts upon.

He pulls out his sword and begins rushing toward the outer rim of men packed in a frenzied crowd trying to get to where Tsubiri is.

He readies to slash through whoever it takes to get to her with his sword, but not before gaining his composure and flipping the dull side of his blade upwards at the last moment. From there, he starts knocking people away and one by one forges a path towards Tsubiri through the throng of thousands of bodies.

(I don’t have to kill them.) He thinks to himself as the thunk noise of each man he hits with the dull side of his sword reaches his ears. (All I need to do is get her and run away!)

Although he is thinking calmly as he methodically makes his way through the mass of men, he’s actually quite anxious, the feeling of wanting to get to her is so great it’s as though the weight in his legs have disappeared.

(Almost there!)

After swinging through the last line of men blocking his path, he reaches his hand out through the gaps of men and shouts,

“Tsubiri!!!”

“Ubica!”

Her voice hits his ears like a crashing wave of relief, just hearing her call out to him means that she’s safe and there is still hope that they’ll escape this mess unharmed. If he can just grab her hand, the two can even make it through this without having to harm others.

Expecting to feel the warmth of her hand as he reaches out, he is surprised to be met with the pressure of the slender hands of someone cold grabbing him instead. He is then pulled through the gaps of men and is met with a sight that obliterates all the hope he had built up in a flash.

The evil eyes of Asmodeus meet his, and with her left hand she squeezes at his wrist, her opposite hand is clasped onto the neck of Tsubiri.

She has intercepted their reunion and has arrived as their most dangerous threat.

“Uuaaahhhh, noooo~~ Ubica! This is so disappointing!”

“Tsubi------“

KSHKSHKSHKSHKSH!!!

Before Ubica could even finish shouting her name, he is electrocuted so violently it causes blood to come spraying out of his nose before his body stiffens up and falls limply to the ground.

Asmodeus still keeps her grip firmly on the two when she says, “This girl’s trying to shock me to protect you, how cute.” She turns to Tsubiri and continues, “I eat the energy of women and make it my own, I suggest you stop unless hurting your boyfriend is something you’re into.”

Tsubiri grits her teeth and stops struggling, she can hardly breath as it is, and this desperate attempt at using electricity to free them both from Asmodeus has sapped the last bit of strength she had left. There is nothing she can possibly do in this situation.

With that interruption settled, Asmodeus then lifts Ubica up by his arm and pulls him close. “Did you really think that you were going to get out of this without getting your hands dirty?”

“.....”

It's likely that Ubica can't talk due to the temporary effects of Tsubiri's lighting, but he still has enough strength to send Asmodeus a deathly glare. He looks at his foe with the glare of someone who believes that he can still win this fight. This isn’t lost on Asmodeus, who can’t help but find this feigned display of confidence amusing.

“Oho my sweet sweet Ubica, you really are something else… It’s amazing how naive the current version of yourself is. You don’t have the luxury of time to keep searching for a way out of this pinch.” She twitches her head as if gesturing to the men who have formed a circle around the three. “These men aren’t going to stop unless they’re dead.”

The men all rush in and start grabbing at Tsubiri, tearing her clothes, tugging on her hair, yanking her arms and pulling her in every which direction. She can’t even scream because of the tight grip on her neck, all she can do is plead to Ubica with eyes full of tears.

“I’m sure I don’t need to tell you what’s gonna happen if you don’t get on with the killing.” The thin smile stretches up her face as she lets go of Ubica’s arm.

Watching Tsubiri get grabbed on by the men while held in place in Asmodeus’s grip has brought him to the point of desperation; it’s just as Asmodeus say, there isn’t any more time to waver in his convictions.

He and Tsubiri are trapped unless he does something about it now.

He grits his teeth and stands to his feet, flips the blade of the sword around and prepares to rush in to save her.

Asmodeus laughs, the piercing in her tongue that hangs to the top of her chest swings as she releases her hold on Tsubiri’s neck and jumps out of the way.
Landing on top of a nearby street light, she delights in watching the show from above as she shouts, “Don’t you dare let me down this time Ubica~~ I’m going to get so much pleasure watching you do what you do best!”

Ubica ignores her and hones in on his first target; it is a man who looks to be in his mid 40’s whose face is only inches away from Tsubiri’s. The man sticks his tongue out grotesquely and leans in to lick her cheek.

As he inches closer to her, time seems to slow down to the point where he can think clearly. Frozen in this waking instant, he is reminded of the promise he made to Tsubiri earlier.

He said that he’d do anything for her, even if it’s something he doesn’t want to do.

This may not be as innocent as taking a drink of some strong alcohol, but that gesture applies to this exact moment.

In order to fulfill that promise, he’s going to have to sacrifice the lives of many to save just one.

Watching the man’s tongue inch closer and closer to her face, he’s willing to take on the consequences of whatever action he must take to ensure her safety.

He’s willing to completely eliminate any immediate remorse and resort to violence.

Ubica’s determined eyes shift to the man’s neck, and with a mighty recoil back, he swings the sharp end of his sword.

It happened so fast that it couldn’t be seen with the naked eye.

The man’s head is sent flying.

The bloodbath has begun.

------------------------

Alone in the dimly lit hallway of the massive castle is Messor and Trojia; not more than a word has been spoken between the two.
The thick and heavy atmosphere surrounding the two isn’t coming from the damp darkness of the castle they’re navigating, but instead it serves as an incubator for their increasing animosity.

Messor’s glare beats on Trojia’s back, she’s found herself feeling almost offended at the fact that the Princess in front of her can so casually lead the False Prophet despite knowing full well who she is.

She can’t stand the fearlessly smug air coming from someone she feels is stealing the affection of the other half of herself.

(I really do despise this girl...) she thinks to herself, her gold eyes beginning to glow bright. (It’s her fault that he’s become so distant in the first place.)

Messor’s wild thoughts feel extremely out of control, it is very likely that Lilith is manipulating her mind through the walls of the castle, she doesn’t notice that this is happening but it is likely that she wouldn’t care even if she did know. It’s like she is drunk, when people drink they tend to make a big deal out of nothing and their passive thoughts bleed into emotions that eventually become an action carried out by the body.

It’s that very emotion that’s steadily causing her body to move, her hand is held towards Trojia’s back and her fingers prepare to snap.

(With a simple snap of my finger, she’ll be gone...)

Even though she knows she could dispose of her in an instant, there’s still something deep inside of her that refuses to commit such a shameless act. She still holds honest intentions, and she couldn’t possibly throw away her commitment to Ubica to protect his friends so haphazardly. She shivers to think of how much such an action would hurt him, and hurting him is the last thing she’d ever intentionally do.

She bites her lip and reluctantly puts her tense hand back down to her side.

“Is there something wrong?” Trojia asks, not even turning to acknowledge Messor’s presence.

Agitated by the fact that Trojia could sense the energy exuded by her inner conflict, she remembers the very alarming warning Lillith presented to her back on the bridge.

“There might be.” she answers.

“And what do you think that is?”

“Hey princess…” Messor says after a brief pause, her glare is intense when she asks, “I would like to know about your true thoughts on Ubica after seeing what you saw. ”

“You mean how I spent three years of my life watching the two of you destroy the world?”

“Spare me your sanctimony, I couldn't care less about how you feel about that.”

“Tch.”

“I want to know what it is you intend to do about Ubica going forward. When you woke up you told me you thought he was awful, but there’s been a lot of time since then for you to really interpret your feelings. Since you’ve seen firsthand what Dantega is capable of, what will you do now that you know what we really are?”

Trojia stays silent for a moment, she seems to really be contemplating this question. She still doesn’t turn to Messor when she sternly answers, “If it comes down to it, I’ll do whatever it takes to protect the people I care about.”

“Do you actually think that he’d harm you or the others? That’s ridiculous.” Messor replies.

The two keep walking through the hallway and reach a large black door, Trojia opens it and the moment she enters, hundreds of candles instantly light up and reveal the room they’ve found themselves in.

The large room is shaped in a rectangular fashion, with another large black door on the other side about a hundred meters ahead. Hanging on the walls in between the two doors are many different weapons ranging from spears to longswords; they all look brand new and light from the candles reflects off them as though they were mirrors.

Paying no mind to her new surroundings, Trojia continues her walk toward the other door and says, “It’s not so much that I think he’d hurt them with his own two hands, but If he loses control, who’s to say they won’t be collateral damage? What if something snaps inside of him and he decides to do what he did a thousand years ago? I won’t allow that to happen.”

“Hahahahaha.” Messor immediately laughed upon hearing that.

This prompts Trojia to turn around and glare at her quizzically.

Messor’s laugh is almost more relieved than amused.

”And here I was worrying about what Lillith said about your soul. There’s no threat of you taking my place after all, in the end, you’re no different than any other person stupid enough to try and hurt Ubica becasue they’re afraid of what he may or may not do. You must’ve learned such a weak trait from that bodyguard I killed.”

Trojia’s shoulders jolted and her eyes widened to an alarming size. Those last words hit her like an arrow shot right into her heart.

“...What did you just say?”

“I said you sound just like your bodyguard Niomyo did... When I killed her.”

As if the most important cog in the machinery of Trojia had broken, her head tilts to the side and her eyebrow twitches; any evidence of life in her eyes fades and is replaced by a broken glare.

As far as Trojia knew, Niomyo was in the midst of Ubica and Mammon’s fight back on the Second Level. She had no reason to think otherwise due the thousands of casualties caused by Mammon's balls of antimatter.

But putting the pieces together from that horrible night, it really does make sense that Nyomio met her end in a different manner; she had no external wounds to speak of other than her crushed hand, which Trojia had found suspicious at first but had brushed it off to allow herself to grieve.

So hearing this sudden confession has come as a gut wrenching confirmation of a quiescant suspicion that she can now place upon Messor’s head.

“...Huh?” she mutters, that same dead look still evident on her face.

“She threatened to kill Ubica in the name of your safety. He was unconscious on the ground and she held a knife to his throat; if I hadn’t been there he’d surely be dead. That look in her eyes, her tone of voice, it’s the same as you.”

Trojia’s stiffened gaze doesn’t soften for even a moment as Messor explains.

“People like you are far more villainous than any demon; the way Ubica is now, he’d sooner accept death before he’d ever defend himself against someone he cares about. You see yourself as righteous, but the truth is that you’re sinister enough to make an enemy out of someone who has shown you nothing but kindness for something as selfish as to make yourself feel safe.”

The words that are leaving Messor’s lips are surely venomous, in any normal situation Trojia would at least be affected by them. However, the flickering red ring around Trojia’s green eyes is evidence of her lack of empathy.

The mental state she’s in is also due to the effect of Lillith’s power inebriating her senses, she simply can not separate herself from the emotion of standing mere feet away from her best friend's murderer.

“As the False Prophet, how could I continue to allow such a threat to exist? I especially can’t allow the powers I’ve given to you to be used against him.”
Messor again holds her steady hand up and presents it to the princess. “All it’s going to take is a snap of my finger and your heart will explode from within, you’ll die just like your bodyguard.”

‘Snap’

Messor snaps her finger and fully expects to see blood scream out of every opening in Trojia’s face.

She has taken back the power she gave her and as a result, taken her life along with it.

Messor can’t help but smile in anticipation of seeing the death of this girl in front of her.

A few moments pass and Messor is shocked to find that Trojia is still just standing there glaring forward with her flickering gaze. There’s no way it should have taken this long for her to collapse to the ground; she impatiently snaps her fingers once again and is met with overwhelming confusion upon seeing that nothing has changed.

“!?”

Trojia takes a step forward and blankly states, “You…”

The circle around her green eyes glows a bright red, taking on the form of a solar eclipse as she takes a menacing step forward.

“Why isn’t this working!?” Messor shouts, losing her cool completely.

That’s when Messor feels something intense push at her stomach and pull at her back, the wind instantly gets sucked out of her and she spits up blood.

BOMMM!

A thick base noise is heard in front of the False Prophet and as if she has been hit by a truck, she is sent flying backwards at an incomprehensible speed. The jolt was so great that it tore her loosely worn plaid shirt right off her shoulders.

WHAAAAACKKK!!!

Her body crashes into the stone wall of the castle so hard it leaves an indent a couple feet deep into the solid mass of brick. The whiplash alone causes Messor to feel like she has broken every bone in her body at once.

“Kaaaaah!?”

The back of her throat yelps through the blood that has accumulated in her mouth.

Her body slides off the wall and falls limply onto the ground, she can barely move; she has never been hit like that in her entire life.

The power from that attack was far greater than anything she could ever have imagined.

She may be the False Prophet and can heal incredibly fast with the aid of Dantega, but she doesn’t have the almost indestructible body of the Antichrist, her frame is just as frail as any other girl, it’s very likely that a few bones have been shattered.

Trojia takes slow steps towards her downed foe, each one inviting more malice than the last.

Her expression seems as though all human emotion has been abandoned and is replaced by an empty shell of some kind of robot. The red light that was encircling her eyes now engulfs the irises that were once a beautiful green and shines fully in the color of blood red.

A pressure surrounds her, so strong that it breaks off pieces of the roof above her head. The sound of bricks falling to the ground crack and add solidity to the rumbling bass noise of the room shaking the area around her.

Messor’s eyes grow wide as she stares at a girl so imposing it even strikes a deep sense of fear inside of her.

“This... Is impossible, you can’t be this strong!” she shouts.

With whatever strength she has left, she begins forming butterflies all around her to protect herself, it’s become quite apparent that the only way out of this is to fight her way out of it. Forming her own power and analyzing Trojia’s, it finally strikes her as to why this Princess’s presence is so overwhelming.

She instantly flashes back to what Damien did to her on the boat back in the Second Level of Purgatory; he didn’t just show her Ubica’s past in order to turn her against him, he sent her soul into the past by connecting it with the residual energy left behind by Dantega. An energy that strong never ceases to exist no matter how many years go by, somewhere within the frame of spacetime, all energy continuously exists.

The massive amount of energy that Dantega has spread into the universe is present in the same way the cosmic microwave background can be viewed all the way back to the big bang; theoretically, the current universe filled with carbon based life coexists with the very moment all physical matter came to be billions of years in the past. Somehow, Damien has managed to send Trojia's soul directly into the thick of of Dantega's microwave background that was left implanted into the fabric of reality 1000 years earlier.

Disregarding how something like that is even possible for Damien to pull off, the more surprising aspect of it is just how in the world Trojia's soul survived being put through something like that.

No normal human should be able to survive within that environment, and certainly not for the entire three years of that environment's existence where it radiated it's most potent energy.

So how is it that Trojia is now standing here in front of Messor as such an imposing foe harboring such incredible strength?

Again, Messor comes back to what Lillith said about Trojia’s pure soul.

(Her soul is truly pure, just like yours was…)

It makes perfect sense to her now, but this newfound clarity doesn't bring her any comfort.

“Hmph! I see, you’ve fallen right into Damien’s hands…”

Messor stands to her feet abruptly, despite feeling her bones crack under the pressure of her own weight, she somehow finds the strength to smile.

"You are his trump card if I'm unable to fulfill my end of the bargain. He must take me for some kind of fool."

The two stare each other down intensely when Lilith’s voice rings from above them.

“Perfection! It’s just what I thought would happen between you two!”

THUNK! THUNK!

The two doors on each side of the room shut rather loudly and are followed by a loud clicking noise as if someone has turned the deadbolts.

“These doors won’t open until one of you has been defeated. So entertain me my beautiful Trojia, I’ll only meet you once you prove to me that you have the strongest soul!”

Lilith’s voice fades away and the situation becomes even more dire, there’s no way the both of them will come out of this alive. The animosity flowing between the False Prophet and the Trojan princess is enough to make the core of the massive castle shake.

Trojia takes a step to the right and calmly grabs a weapon off of the wall, she takes two twin blades and holds them in front of her. The miniature katanas are a gunmetal color, but gloss in the candlelight.

She twirls them around as if she has had years of experience with the weapons and holds them to her side in a battle posture.

Staring at Messor, her mouth faintly moves and her monotonous voice exits.

“Messor... I'm going to kill you.”

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| Back to [[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 1|Conflict of Interests]]
| Return to [[Dantega|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
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</noinclude>

Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 2

2022-02-27T19:17:59Z

Deck of cards:

(PART 2)

“How are we going to go about getting through this hurricane of sand? This is obviously a barrier to keep us away from the castle.” Napoleon said while staring up at the swirling mass of sand covering the castle.

The entire group had made it through the Lilitu and managed to land safely onto the desert floor; the zeppelin that took them here took off and left them immediately upon landing.

With no reason left to stay, the charter company that ran the zeppelin had no problem abandoning their passengers here alone.

As it turns out, everyone on the third level knows where the Gate is at all times and are constantly being lured here by the power of the Gatekeeper. Though Rage didn’t know the identity of the Gatekeeper at first, once he found out that it is Lillith, it all finally makes sense to him.

The consistent pull of Lillith has made it profitable for zeppelin transportation services; they are hired at an extremely high rate to take people here.
The only people able to avoid this are women, and they are the ones profiting most from wealthy men who simply cannot control their urges. It has been noted that no one who has ever made the pilgrimage to the Gate has come back, and this has stricken a fear so deep in people’s minds that it is common knowledge to not go anywhere near this place if they can manage.

But naturally, there will be people who ignore the warning signs and go in spite of it, lured in by the Gatekeeper named Lilith. The company that owns the zeppelins is making a large profit off their deaths, to them it’s just like robbing a corpse, it’s not like they’re going to need that money anyways so it might as well go to them.

There are no roads for the cars to tread on and no water to power the steam engines. With temperatures ranging from freezing to 120 degrees, making the trek on foot is out of the question, despite all the modern technology of the 3rd level of Purgatory, zeppelins are the only thing capable of traversing the desert to reach the Gate.

On that note, it leaves the group in quite the predicament. The zeppelin company only drops people off at the site of the Gate; there is no ride back for them. So now they are alone and stranded in the middle of a barren desert with no way to get back.

The only way out of this mess is through the Gate and on to the next level.

That would in turn mean that they are going to have to get through this hurricane of sand, maneuver their way through the miles wide castle, and defeat the Gatekeeper Lilith.

Acknowledging that the task is daunting, they begin coming up with plans to proceed.

“The barrier of sand is going to be the easiest part of this whole mess. Now that we’re here, the Gatekeeper will allow us to enter.” Rage stated, seeming very confident in his declaration.

“How can you be so certain?”

“She let us land didn’t she?”

KKKKAAASSSSHHHHHHH!!!

A loud sound through the wind is breaking within the mass of swirling sand, prompting everyone to look up.

What they see surprises them.

A woman’s smiling face is forming in the torrent.

“No need to worry…” The tone of the woman’s voice coming from the sand seemingly dances in pitch as she speaks. “What kind of person would I be if I rewarded your efforts getting here by leaving you outside my castle to rot?”

As if her words were a trigger, the sand splits apart like the red sea and reveals what it has been hiding; the entrance to the massive black castle. The double doors that begin to slowly open are so large that if it were to fall forward, it would easily cover a hundred yard span. The size of this structure is on a scale completely different than any other building they've ever seen, it stretches as high as a skyscraper and is literally miles in width and length. To add to the size is the delicate intricacies of its design, the windows, the walls, each square foot of this entire structure is detailed. One can’t help but wonder how painstaking it must’ve been to build such a thing and put so much effort into each stone block.

Once the doors open wide, the group attempts to peer inside, they see nothing but pitch black and it makes them nervous to step foot in there. It’s as though they would be stepping into another world upon entry.

“Can’t say I’m surprised, come on let’s go.” Rage says as he throws his scythe over his shoulder and walks toward the entrance.

“Don’t be so hasty now.” The woman’s voice came echoing through the desert as if she had heard what Rage said. “The men stay outside.”

“!?”

“There’s no way we’re splitting up now!” Strauphius protests.

“You don’t have a choice in the matter.” The woman’s voice rings. The door begins shutting as she continues to speak, “Men have to go through a test before they receive anything from me. The beautiful women however, are free to enter.”

“Do you think this is some sort of trap?” asks Napoleon as he walks to Rage’s side.

Messor chimes in and answers his question, “During a fight with her she wouldn’t hesitate to take a girl’s soul and use it for her own good, but she isn’t known to play tricks on women.”

“Then what about us?” Cyrus asks.

“Well she hates men, so I doubt it’d be an easy task for you. She’ll make it impossible for all of us to enter if we insist on going in together though, it’s best that we split up for now and carry out what needs to be done.”

“But...”

“I agree.” added Trojia, she steps in front of the rest and explains, “If for whatever reason this test she is planning on giving you guys causes you trouble, then you can just tough it out until we get done with the Gatekeeper. With her gone, there is no test, and there would be nothing keeping you from joining us at the Gate and all of us can go through together.”

“You make it sound so simple.” Cyrus says, pushing up his dusty sunglasses with his middle finger.

“Isn’t it actually pretty simple? The concept of our scenario is laid out right in front of us. It shouldn’t be that difficult to decide what to do from there.”

“That all depends on what this ‘test’ is. If it’s something that we can’t easily prolong or breeze through, then it’s not going to go as smoothly as you think.” Rage replies bitterly, agitated by the prospect of what is about to happen.

Trojia’s eyebrow twitches as she blows a haughty air out of her nose, she turns to the door of the castle and begins walking towards it.

With her back turned to the others, she waves her hand and says, “Well, you’ll find out soon enough yourself.”

With Trojia walking toward the castle by herself, it prompts Niera to nervously follow her. “U-Um... Please take care of yourselves!” she said with a bow before running to Trojia’s side.

Aria is hesitant to leave her brother behind, but she couldn’t help but find herself agreeing with what Trojia had to say.

“Take care guys, you got this!”

Sora says nothing, and follows the Trojan princess towards the dark entrance of the massive castle.

“What has gotten into Trojia lately I wonder? Her personality has really changed since we left Ubica behind...” Daey asks herself with her hand on her chin.

“Forget about that for now, you should all head in before Lilith changes her mind.” Rage urges, gesturing for her to follow Trojia inside.

Once all the woman of the group make their way to the entrance, Rage stops Messor by putting his hand on her shoulder and leaves her with some parting words,

“Keep an eye on Trojia, she may be becoming too reckless for her own good.”

“I’m way ahead of you on that.” Messor replies, “I’ll be watching her closely for an entirely different reason though.”

Messor walks off and heads into the castle along with the rest, leaving the men behind.

As soon as the group of girls enter the darkness of the castle, the massive double doors immediately shut behind them, spraying a plume of dust outwards that stretches hundreds of feet into the air. A loud clicking noise is heard and reverberates through the desert ground as if a giant lock had shut behind them.

Immediately after the rumble from that noise ended, the sand that parted to reveal the entrance to the castle began to suck into two of what seems to be black holes in the middle of the castle. This whirlpool effect is sucking not just the sand from the parted hurricane, but sand from the desert floor as well. Even Rage and the others find it extremely difficult to stay grounded in this torrent of wind.

After a few moments, two massive silhouettes can be seen from around the epicenter of the whirlpools; both figures stand on each side of the door and tower above the ground over a hundred meters in height. With each passing second, the width of these silhouettes grow and the humanoid figures of two giants can be seen.

The remainder of the once hurricane of sand enters the black hole and reveals the rest of the miles wide castle behind the two massive statues.

The statues are clad in heavy armor, the gunmetal color is intimidating and it really stands out against the brown desert ground.

In the chest of these statues are the black holes that were sucking up all the sand, upon taking in the last grain of sand, a seal with some hieroglyphic markings begin shining in a pulsating light , the one on the left being red, and one on the right is blue.

Pulsating a few times like a heartbeat, the hieroglyphic seal twists and shines even brighter, then the two statues begin moving one colossal step at a time.

Each step shakes the ground below and kicks up a maelstrom of desert sand.

“This is my test for you disgusting men.” Lilith’s voice echoes, “If you can find a way to topple these two ‘Colossals’, the doors to my castle will open up for you and you will receive your chance to pass through the Gate…”

“We’re supposed to take down those things!?” Strauphius exclaims, doubting their chances at surviving in a fight against 100 meter giants clad in armor.
“But because I am a generous woman…” Lilith’s voice echoes in the desert as if answering Strauphius’s distress. “I am obliged to tell you that pure force alone will not be enough.”

The two Colossals make their way towards the group when Lilith’s voice suddenly stops. The answer they need is right in front of them and is as singular as it gets, destroy the Colossals and enter the castle.

“Well, there is that phrase that the bigger they are the harder they fall.” Strauphius says sarcastically.

“You guys enjoy that while I step aside with the Prince. I can feel your confidence from here.” Phoenix said as he grabs Xavier’s sleeve and hurriedly walks away from the oncoming Colossals.

Phoenix has revealed himself to Rage as the Son of God, yet he has refused to get his hands dirty with anything since then. This makes Rage wonder if he’s the type who won’t lift a finger unless absolutely necessary; not a very benevolent way of doing things to say the least.

“That’s fine, you guys would just get in the way if you stick around. I’ve been meaning to test out the powers that Messor gave me, what better way to make use of the training I've been going through the last couple months.” Cyrus says as he further shoos Xavier and Phoenix away.

Napoleon takes a long hard look at the two insanely large moving objects heading their way and gets an odd lump in the back of his throat. Not someone who would normally be afraid of a fight, the prospect of this battle is making him exceedingly nervous,

A lot of it is coming from not being able to predict what these things are capable of.

If he’s fighting a human, or even a demon for that matter, he has a pretty good idea what their next move would be and can act accordingly. The two Colossals however, are supposed to be inanimate objects that are entirely too big to be mobile, there’s no way of knowing what kind of power they're hiding.

With that in mind, he tries to warn the others.

“I don’t think that------“

BBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!!

Napoleon is interrupted by two bright beams of red and blue light ripping the ground in front of them, a loud explosion accompanied by a massive blast contorts the sky above them with sand and sends a blazing heat radiating against their skin.

The men of the outside group begin coughing and can hardly see anything when they feel an overbearing presence right on top of them.

The red and blue seals of the two Colossals can be seen shining through the sand just feet in front of them, the two masses almost a hundred meters in height got in front of them so fast that they didn’t even notice. All it would take is another one of those beams of light, or even just a stomp of one of their feet and it would be more than enough to kill them.

The four combatants scatter off in different directions with no sense of where they are going in the thick blanket of sand.

Being lost and separated in a confused state causes Rage to shout to himself,

“This is definitely not going to be simple!”

-------------------------

Ubica opens his eyes and finds himself shirtless and tied by leather belts at four points on a large king size bed in a dark room. There is an odd red tint in this room, giving it an ominous vibe, it’s likely coming from the red sheets atop the bed he’s lying on but he gets the feeling that it is a little more sinister than something as innocent as such.

“Where are you, Asmodeus..?” Ubica inquires into the darkness surrounding him.

From what feels right beside him, a woman answers, “I must say, your sleeping face really is something else, I envy your attractiveness.”

Leaning up against the bed is the same woman from the bar that Tsubiri was having a conversation with.

Ubica turns his head and scowls at her, causing Asmodeus to chuckle.

“Oho, your angered face is enough to make me melt.”

“What are you planning?”

Asmodeus gets up and walks a few steps away, with her back turned to the bed she says, “There are quite a few things actually, but my main objective is to put you through as much despair as possible. At least that’s what Damien ordered me to do.”

Leviathan used the same modus operandi, instead of physical pain, he put Ubica through as much mental anguish as possible in an attempt to break him.

Knowing this, Ubica is beginning to feel especially nervous when thinking about what this means for Tsubiri.

As brutal as Leviathan is, Asmodeus is known to be even more ruthless; there’s no telling what she has in store for him.

Ubica’s sharp breathing is enough to prove to Asmodeus that he’s worried, and this prompts her to ask,

“I bet you’d like to know what I’m going to do you huh?”

“.....”

“My goodness, even an anxious face suits you.”

Asmodeus puts her hands out into the darkness and a bright light fills the room, a movie screen like square presents itself in the light behind her. On the screen is a scene filled with the afternoon glow that surrounds the metropolis, the focus zooms in on the streets and shows a panicked girl running throughout the city in a panic.

The sound turns on and Ubica hears his name being yelled, accompanied by some heavy breaths.

The girl all alone in the big city is none other than Tsubiri.

“I’ve taken a few pointers from Leviathan, from what I understand his technique worked brilliantly.”

Ubica’s face loses its color when he remembers what had happened to Amber and her family the last time something like this happened.

“What did you do to her!?” he shouts, his voice filled more with a helpless fear than anger.

“I haven’t done anything to your sweet little human girl, although I can control the lust in her body if I really wanted to, because she already broke my attempted spell on her earlier it wasn’t worth the effort to try again.”

Asmodeus stands in front of the screen and shrugs her shoulders.

“She’s free to do whatever she wants, and apparently that is looking for you like an idiot in a city filled with hundreds of thousands of people.”

Ubica grits his teeth and tries breaking the belts that are tying him to the bed-frame, to his surprise, he can’t move any part of his body. Breaking out of something like this should be extremely easy for him, so he quickly realizes that whatever it is that’s keeping him on this bed isn’t the physical restraints.

“!?”

“Struggling won’t do you any good, I may not be controlling the lust of that girl, but it doesn’t mean I don’t have a hold on yours. You’ve got a while before you’ll be able to move your body.”

Asmodeus walks back to the side of the bed and slides her hand across his face, she moves close to him and whispers, “Which is going to make this all the more difficult for you to watch... Being unable to do anything about what is going to happen will certainly be torture.”

“Listen, Asmodeus. I’m going to kill you if you do anything to her.”

With nothing else to leverage against her in this situation, his only defense is to threaten her.

As intimidating as his deathly serious glare was when he had said, he’s not in any position to act upon his threat. He’s more like a tiger trapped inside of a cage at the zoo, and she is a child taunting him from the outside knowing there’s nothing this caged up wild animal could possibly do to hurt her.

Standing back up to her feet and giving him space, she begins prodding at the beast trapped in the cage.

“I’m sure you’ve noticed that every man here knows exactly where the Gate is, it’s because they’re drawn to it by a force they cannot comprehend. Do you know why that is?”

Because this has nothing to do with Tsubiri, Ubica doesn’t answer and just glares at her instead.

“The Gatekeeper is Lilith.”

“!?”

“Oho so you’re familiar with the name? I was the one that tempted her into rebelling against Adam back at the Garden of Eden. Though we’re certainly different, t’s because of my temptation that we’re both quite similar. She manipulates the inner most desires of men and uses their souls to keep her body youthful, and devours the souls of women to give her strength. I, on the other hand, can use the desires of men to do my bidding and control the minds of women with ease.”

“What does she have to do with Tsubiri?”

“She is the ultimate siren, the wind of this level of Purgatory is entirely made up of her power; it is so subtle that no one even notices it when they are touched by the gentle gusts, yet they are implanted with the location of the wind's source. I’m sure you know what is in a song of a siren right? With the men of this world absorbing that woman’s temptation day in and day out, what do you think they’re filled with?”

“Y-You’re saying that...”

“Oho you’re beginning to understand now. This level exists entirely in a climate of Lust courtesy of Lilith. Thanks to her I have a convenient outlet to exploit that I will use to break you down, and I’ll have it help me bring you back into the darkness where you belong.”

"....."

Asmodeus chuckles when she doesn't get a reply, but the expression on his face is more than enough for her to find pleasure in.

She points at Tsubiri on the screen and says, “Would you be able to stay silent after I get every man in this city to rape that girl? You’re going to have to watch, you know? It should be quite the spectacle.”

“!!!”

Ubica’s eyes grow large and burn with a fury that even Asmodeus has never seen.

That’s when Tsubiri’s shouting of his name halts and he can hear her say,

“Who are you people?”

On the screen, Tsubiri is surrounded by a dozen men and they all move in on her and attempt to grab her. She escapes the grasps of a couple of them and shocks the others with her electricity; after creating some space between her and them, she runs away as fast as she can.

However, her pursuers seem to multiply tenfold with each street she runs by.

Cars begin chasing her down to cut her off, and even more men abandon their workplaces, exit their homes, leave behind children and spouses, all in an attempt to grab her.

“What the hell is going on!?” Tsubiri yells as the numbers of men grow with each second.

All she can do is sprint as fast as her legs take her and electrocute whoever gets too close. Although she is fending for herself as of this moment, she can’t help but feel the intense pressure of being surrounded.

When that squeeze is felt, she begins to hyperventilate, it won’t be long until the walls close in on her and nothing can be done. When this deadly panic strikes her, she shouts the name of the only person she feels that could save her.

“Ubica!!!”

Asmodeus smiles at the scene that the two had just watched, she then turns off the screen. The room's wall takes the place of the screen and he is met with silence, this was done solely to allow Ubica’s thoughts to run rampant with the horrible images of what might be happening out of sight.

“What I am curious about is what you would do to keep her safe. Would the current Ubica kill every man in this city? Maybe you’d even fuck me if I promised to stop all this.“

“Or I could just kill you.” Ubica said with a frown.

“Ha, we both know that’s not what’s going to happen here.”

“You’re underestimating what I’m capable of.”

“Oho I think not, you’ve done a good job at keeping your true self dormant, but I imagine that being forced into killing an entire city’s worth of innocent people is just what you need for Dantega to erupt.”

“.....”

“I believe you are willing to kill many to save the life of one; your lust for her is enough to spell that out for me in bold print. If I was underestimating you then I would just kill her myself and have you hate me for it. So I am going to let you save her, you either watch her get defiled repeatedly or go out there and take some lives.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Ubica says,

“Then let me go.”

“Just as I thought.”

With a snap of her finger, Ubica can control his body again. He immediately breaks through his restraints and gets off the bed.

Asmodeus grabs his white shirt and black hoodie and tosses them to him. “You’d better hurry, I don’t think she can last much longer.”

After putting on his clothes, he gestures for Asmodeus to hand him his sword.

Seemingly not threatened by arming him, she casually tosses it to him.

Ubica unsheathes his sword and points it at her when he says, “Before I go, I want to see your real face again. The face of the woman you’re wearing right now is only going to sway my determination to kill innocent people.”

“Oho I thought you’d like this face a lot more, I figured it’d tempt you into sleeping with me if I presented myself to you as a beauty. You always used to say I was ugly as I watched you cling to Messor, you flaunted her at me, purposely making my lust for you to grow and tormenting me with my own power.”

“You can obviously see that I'm different now.”

“You most certainly are different, Antichrist, you’ve thrown away your Idol and claim to be in love with a regular human girl after all.”

“So indulge my curiosity so we can both find out if that’s still the case.”

“Alright then, if my physical appearance is what you need to use as motivation to break yourself, there’s no point in hiding any more.”

Asmodeus puts her hands over her face and an odd skin colored smoke clouds her head and body. After a few moments, the smoke begins to dissipate and the first thing that can be seen from it is a chain that drops just past her chin with a pendant hanging at the tip. It swings in a pendulum-like fashion until the smoke finally clears and reveals a wretched form of a girl.

Her face is tattered with piercings over her eyebrows, nose, lips, ears, and even her cheeks. The most noticeable piercing however, is the one on her tongue; a chain hangs from her tongue and falls out of her mouth, dangling over her neck.

Her white face is heavy with so much of the pale makeup she comes across almost ghoulish. Around her eyes are messy smears of black mascara that make her hazel eyes shine brightly in contrast. Her outfit is tight and full of rips and tears, the tattered white shirt is worn over a mesh top that is covered in belts and other restraints that circle around her body like snakes.

Her figure itself is perfect and if one looked beyond the ugly makeup and face defiling piercings, she’d undoubtedly be considered beautiful. However, she expresses herself through her Sin, she is the Demon of Lust and is the representative of all that is ugly in a person. She chose this appearance because that is simply who she is.

“Are you happy now? Will you still call me ugly with this new found purity of yours?” she asks, the chain hanging from her mouth swaying from side to side with each word.

Ubica takes a contemplative breath and sheaths on his sword.

“I find you more revolting now than ever before. But if it makes you feel better, it isn’t because of your appearance." He turns his back to her and says, "You’re going to pay for making her afraid.”

“Hmph, whether you’re the Antichrist or this new pathetic version of yourself, I truly do hate you. I may have a maddening yearn for your touch, but it’s because of that fact that I am really looking forward to putting you and that stupid little girlfriend of yours through as much torment as these hands can accomplish.”

Asmodeus grabs his back and pushes him away from her.

With her black painted fingernails point at him when she leaves him with some final words.

“Go on Ubica, sacrifice everything you’ve worked for in order to save her.”

She claps her hands and the next thing Ubica knows, he’s in the daylight of the outside world once more. He finds himself in the middle of the street in an eerily silent city; where there were once thousands of people walking, there is now no one here.

Every man of this city is after Tsubiri, all of them attempting to do the unthinkable to her.

Ubica doesn’t know exactly where she is, but he can sense the presence of the mass gathering of men and chooses to run towards that energy. All he can do as he rushes forward is hope that by the time he arrives, he doesn’t find Tsubiri in the middle of it all.

------------------------

Trojia and the rest of the group of girls are walking in the dim light of Lilith’s massive castle. There is a resounding echo with each step they make, producing a blanket of tenseness into an already unnerving situation.

“This place is extremely creepy.” Aria points out, walking shoulder to shoulder with a frightened Niera.

Lagging behind is Daey and Sora, and leading the rest is Trojia and Messor. The two leaders of the pack seem unusually calm all things considered.

“Keep your guard up.” Trojia says, her tone befitting of a captain of a sports team. “Being scared at a time like this will only serve to distract you and make you more vulnerable.”

“W-What do you think is going to happen?” Niera nervously asks.

Messor doesn’t turn to her and answers, “There’s no way of knowing, that’s why it’s best to stay alert. As much as I hate to agree with her, Trojia’s right.”

Trojia’s eyebrow twitched in agitation when Messor said that.

She folds her arms in a combative manner and replies, “Why is agreeing with me so disagreeable to you?”

Messor side eyes Trojia when she says, “Oh? How about you take a guess?”

The two glare at each other and the rest of the girls can sense that this is not some kind of joke between friends; the malicious way in which they’re interacting feels like a sudden heatwave.

“Hey calm down you two, didn’t you both just say we need to keep our guard up? Fighting isn’t the way to go about doing that.” Daey interrupts their deathly glares.

Messor clicks her tongue and turns away while Trojia huffs an angered air out of her nose and does the same.

If being locked inside a massive castle doesn’t do enough to fray the nerves of the group, the dysfunction between the two leading women surely will.

After walking in an awkward silence for quite some time, the group reaches a crossroad of sorts; they find themselves on a circled platform lit by the sun from a window atop the castle hundreds of feet above them. The platform has three sets of stairs leading downward onto a candle lit pathway that stretches towards the darkness of a large door.

There’s one door straight ahead, one to the right, and one to the left; forcing them into a tough decision.

With no way of knowing just which direction would eventually lead to the Gate in such a huge structure, they face the possibility of getting lost. As far as they know, they are in a labyrinth built by the Gatekeeper, it could be that they were never supposed to reach the Gate in the first place.

While contemplating which door to walk through, the familiar voice of the woman in the sand is heard echoing through the castle as if they were surrounded by loud speakers.

“The castle walls can sense the tension between the strongest of you ladies, your interests are in conflict, and I can’t help but foresee a violent end to it.”

Messor furrows her brow and speaks as though Lillith was the castle herself, “The only interest I have is finding you and getting to the next level.”

“And how does reaching the next level serve as your benefit?” Lilith’s queries.

“Isn’t it obvious to you? You’re supposed to be able to sense the desires of women after all.”

“So you’re saying that what I see in you is my only answer?”

“It is.”

“If that’s the case, aren’t you better off killing the rest of them here?”

Messor stays silent, but the others all collectively shrink back in alarm.

Trojia on the other hand, shifts her body into a defensive posture; it’s almost as if she’s been waiting for Messor to do something like that all along.
Lilith continues to speak despite the other’s reactions,

“Someone in this group has the intention to take the Antichrist from you.”

“.....”

“Wait a second!” Aria interjects. “What are you two even talking about? None of us are trying to take anything away from anybody.”

“You speak only for yourself. You don't know the people you are with as well as you think you do."

The way in which the dancing pitch of Lillith’s voice rises and falls is interpreted as antagonistic, and it does just enough to fluster the minds of the group.

“I think she’s trying to trick us into not trusting each other.” Daey says, “We’d be stupid to fall for whatever she has to say.”

“You’re wrong.” came the stern voice of Trojia, her green eyed glare fixed on Messor. “She knows exactly who we shouldn’t trust in this group.”

Messor frowns when she clicks her tongue and says, “You’re not even trying to be subtle with your threats now. I’m not one to take that lying down.”

“You two really need to cool it!” Daey shouts.

Messor removes herself from the escalating situation and begins walking toward the bridge straight away from the group. “I’m not the one starting problems here.” she replies, her back turned to the rest. “Let’s just pick a damn door and go.”

By making the decision herself, Messor assumes the others will follow her lead; she's halfway across when Lilith speaks again.

“The girl with the intention of taking Ubica… She’s just like you.”

Messor pauses upon hearing that and turns back towards Trojia, who for whatever reason is standing only a few feet behind her.

Her sudden close proximity felt like a box of heavy weights were dropped onto the ground at Messor’s feet.

The rest of the group didn’t follow Trojia’s lead, in fact, they didn’t even notice Trojia leaving their side in the first place. It’s as though Trjojia had just suddenly appeared behind Messor.

“!?”

“The blond girl’s innermost desire is dark.” Lilith says. “But her soul is truly pure, just like yours was.”

“Her soul is what?” Messor mumbles, as if realizing what the Gatekeeper meant.

It’s now that Messor can see Trojia’s eyes shifting color from green to red intermittently as though they were changing christmas lights; the young princess grimaces each time her eyes shift, it’s like she is struggling to keep herself from succumbing to a great pressure.

“She truly is quite the specimen.” Lilith said with a laugh.

Taking a cautious step back, Messor asks, “What are you trying to do, princess?”

“I just don’t trust you.” Trojia quickly replies through gritted teeth, her eyes flickered between colors as she spoke.

Lilith butts into their tension filled conversation. “It’s not only you that she distrusts.”

“Is that so?”

“That’s right.” Trojia answers, “You and Ubica are the same person, there’s no way I could trust either of you after seeing what you’ve done firsthand.”

Lilith begins to laugh again, “Hahahahaha, it is amazing that she can say that to someone like you without even flinching. I just might have fallen for this girl, I have no clue how she’ll act upon the confusion caused by the soul inside of her.”

GAAAGAAAASSHHHHHH!!!!

The platform in which they stand begins to crumble and fall into the unknown darkness below.

“But!” Lilith’s voice is still heard clearly despite the heavy rumbling noise. “I believe it’s time we see where she is heading!”

As if the bricks were sand falling off the side of a staircase, they crumble towards the bridges on each of the three doors. This prompts Sora and Niera to run towards the left door, Aria and Daey to run to the right door, and Trojia and Messor to remain by the door on the other side of the center bridge.

With a sound like multiple fireworks going off, there is no ground left to stand on and only three routes are left to take, unfortunately those routes separate them in groups of two.

“All of these doors will lead to me, the opportunity for all of you to reach me is there. It’s just a matter of getting through the obstacles that lay before you without turning on each other first... Good luck, I really do hope to see you beautiful women soon.”

The echo of Lilith’s voice fades away and leaves the large room in silence; only the clattering echo of the debris from the shattered platform and broken bridges hitting the ground below remains. The six girls all look at each other and then back at their surroundings, it’s obvious that they can’t get to each other, the space between them is too large.

It just might be possible that Trojia could use her psychokinesis, but that would be too big of a risk figuring she doesn’t have full control of her power just yet, a fall from here is certain death.

“S-So what do we do now?” asked Niera from the left bridge.

“We do what she wants, let’s go.” Trojia coldly answers, annoyed at the fact she’s found herself stuck with Messor of all people.

She walks into the darkness, leaving the rest behind without so much as a care about the other’s safety.

Messor is feeling trapped as well, and is likely the only person who could get out of this situation herself using her powers; however, she can’t just let the mystery behind Trojia’s soul be left unsolved.

She has to know what is happening with the princess.

“Once again I hate to say it, but she’s right, we need to get moving. If we can find our way to the Gate then we can all just meet there.”

She then turns and follows Trojia into the darkness of the middle door.

“I guess we don’t have a choice...” Sora says, seemingly nervous about what lies ahead.

“Let’s just get going... You guys be careful out there, we’re all going through this Gate together, you got it?” said Aria.

Her words do enough to instill them with much needed confidence, and they get a move on with a little more of a spring in their step.

Daey however, still feels an odd pressure on her chest when she thinks of Trojia and Messor.

It’s as though the two of them are proceeding down a much darker path than the others.

--------------------------

Rage is flying atop his black cloud while narrowly avoiding being hit by the two Colossal’s beams of red and blue energy. Each time it passes them and hits the desert ground, a massive explosion rips through the desert. The blasts repeat over and over and the dust begins to torrent around him and the rest as they figure out a way to destroy the two giants.

“Napoleon!”

BOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Another blast lands and shakes the ground.

Rage has to speak in between the incoming attacks and yells down to Napoleon during one the silent breaks in the action.

“You and I are going to go for the blue one first! Start at its feet and work your way up and I’ll start at the top and work my way down!”

“Understood!”

“What about us!?” Strauphius yells as he runs next to Cyrus.

Napoleon, who isn’t too far from them, is able to give them orders without having to yell too loudly. “We’re going to need you two distract the red Colossal while we destroy the blue one. All you have to do is keep it busy until we can all focus on one objective.”

“Are you crazy!? It’s only a matter of time before that thing steps on us or blows us to shit!”

Struaphius adamantly voiced his displeasure upon being confronted by the command of what seems to be an impossible task.

“Then avoid that by getting off the ground.”

“Hah?”

Napoleon faintly smiles and bumps his fists together.

“Be sure to hang on.” he says, and then slams his open palms onto the ground.

The ground under the feet of Strauphius and Cyrus splinters in a ten by ten foot square; it suddenly rises upwards at such a speed that it topples the two onto their backs. The rapid wind pounding against their faces is noticeable enough evidence that they’ve found themselves zooming up towards the sky.

“WHAAAAAAA!?!?!?”

“!!!!!!!”

Cyrus isn’t one to yell out in terror but Strauphius’ screech can be heard as loud as the constant barrage of explosions below on the ground.
Not only are they going up towards the sky on an object that’s not meant to fly, they are zooming towards the knee area of the red chested Colossal.

Their danger-meters triple in a flash when all the sudden the block of solid land abruptly stops and flings them into the giant like a catapult.

They land on the armor just above its shin guard of the red Colossal and begin their free-fall until they instinctively latch on to whatever they can.

“What in the shit was that??” Strauphius yells in surprise.

“So that’s Napoleon’s new power...”

“He could’ve at least told us what he was doing!”

Cyrus looks up and sees that the red chested Colossal they’re hanging onto is still fully fixated on the movements of Napoleon and Rage, they’ve managed to latch onto this massive beast without it noticing.

“We don’t have time to think about that. If we’re to distract this thing, we’d better do it before it’s too late.”

He then begins to do something borderline crazy.

He starts climbing.

With an exasperated sigh, Strauphius begins to climb as well. Even though he has no clue what Cyrus is planning on doing, he knows that this is what must be done. Although he often acts like a child, even he can be serious when the situation calls for it.

Rage looks on in amazement at what Napoleon had just done and says, “I’m glad to see you have so much command over your new power.”

“It would seem that I can manipulate land. Things like trees, rocks, and even the ground itself are things I can bend. It’s surprisingly natural for me to do it.”

“It looks like Messor gave you some of her own power personally... It’s a long story, but she was born from the Earth whilst Ubica was born from the sea. Their main powers are those two elements.”

“Maybe that would explain why my powers are quite a bit stronger than the others...” Napoleon ponders aloud to himself.

The two are still running along the desert ground toward the blue Colossal, and continuing their conversation as if the danger level has dropped drastically.

Their comfort is in large part due to their comrade’s successful attempts at distracting the red Colossal.

Strauphius and Cyrus are climbing up its body and narrowly avoiding the massive hands of the Colossal as it attempts to crush them.

“This is good.” Rage says as he twirls his scythe, “Your power will be just what we need to execute my plan.”

“What do you have in mind?” Napoleon asks.

Rage lifts his scythe over his head and out comes a stunning white light so bright it temporarily blinds Napoleon.

“I think I know what these Colossals are.” Rage says as he maneuvers the light in the direction of the blue Colossal. “If I’m right, it won’t be hard for us to win this battle. I’m going to need you to use your power to keep that thing’s legs from moving, even ten seconds should be more than enough time for me to end this.”

“Understood.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Napoleon slams his hands on the ground and what seems to be vines of rock begins to swirl up the Colossal’s feet. Rising quickly up its shins, it reaches its thighs about fifty yards up and seems to solidify itself; causing its movement to halt immediately.

As if on cue, Rage jumps to the forefront and points his scythe at the chest of the Colossal.

That odd white light manifests itself into a beam and shoots toward it like a massive laser.

The resulting flash was so bright and so loud it temporarily halted the six senses of everyone near the blast. As soon as one’s eyes adjusted and what’s around them can be seen once again, they are able to see the sight of Rage’s light encircling the blue crest on the chest of the Colossal.

The Colossal stops struggling to get out of Napoleon’s hold on its legs and soon after, its head droops and its body falls limp. The blue crest in its chest begins twisting as if it was a soda bottle being opened and even more light begins to exit out of it in brilliant flashes.

After a few seconds of this, the blue crest loses its color, fades to black, and then pops off and falls over three hundred feet to the ground, landing a loud crash.

After the crest fell, the giant hole in the Colossal’s chest once again becomes illuminated; this time however, a torrent of different colored orbs of light come screaming out of it and into the sky.

“What are those things?” Napoleon asks in bewilderment.

“It’s just as I thought, these giants are given power by the souls of the men Lilith has collected. She’s using the men to protect her long after their original lives ended.”

“So are you saying that once these souls escape, the Colossals can’t harm us?”

“Not necessarily, these souls are still programed with the instinct of protecting this castle, if they aren’t taken care of we’re not out of danger just yet.”

Rage then holds his scythe back up and begins muttering something into the collar of his thick black coat; his black cloud grows larger from under his feet and sends him soaring into the air alongside the countless number of souls.

With a swing of his scythe, the souls begin rushing into his cloud as if they were being sucked by some kind of vacuum.

This is not too dissimilar to what Satan did at the castle of Troy, the only difference is that Rage is reaping these souls to free them from captivity, whereas Satan sacrificed them to raise a portion of his army.

Reaping every last one of these souls is child’s play for him; although there are tens of thousands of separate souls, it’s almost trivial compared to the numbers he’s reaped through the countless times of human tragedy back on Earth.

It only took a few short seconds and it was over.

The Colossal loses its form and crumbles bit by bit to the ground, each large piece landing sends a plume of sand spraying into the surrounding area.

Avoiding these large objects falling from above is Napoleon, who looks up to the triumphant Angel of Death as he descends and asks, “How did you know?”

“It was easy, the encryption on their chests are written in Hebrew, it’s an ancient language that you’ve likely never heard of... It stated ‘The Flask of Loyal Men’, it was quite obvious actually. I don’t think she knows that it is me who is trying to get into the castle.”

Rage doubts Lilith knew just who she was dealing with when she kept the men outside to fend off against her guards.

Every Demon of Hell knows that Rage is traveling through Purgatory at the moment, but the Gatekeepers have no clue. She now knows that Messor is in her castle, but until Rage enters, as far as she knows he’s just another man lured in by her charm.

“So can you do that with the other one too? I’d like to get into the castle and join the women as fast as possible.”

“Yeah, it should be an easy task.”

Rage readies to repeat the same feat against the red Colossal, but is shocked when he shifts his attention in its direction and is met with the sting of a searing wave of heat.

The massive giant is engulfed in a flame that easily rises five times its height; the red crest is separated from its chest and lies black on the desert ground. The souls kept inside of it are swirling all over, each of which is on fire. The sight is similar to molecules vibrating and flying about when they are heated to an extreme temperature.

It’s almost as if they’re screaming in agony as one by one, the souls turn black, turn to ash and fade off into the sky.

“!?”

The Colossal begins to break apart from its head downwards and send shards of flaming debris landing like meteors from above.

Standing completely calm in the middle of all this is none other than Phoenix, he’s holding his hand upwards to the sky as he watches the fire he created burn everything in his sight.

Looking closely, Rage can see that Cyrus, Xavier, and Strauphius are at a safe distance away from the torrent of flame. They must have hightailed it out of there as soon as Phoenix started burning the giant.

Rage takes an inner sigh of relief at their safety before frowning and walking towards Phoenix.

“Just what the hell are you doing!?” he shouts.

Phoenix slowly turns his head to him and replies, “I’m getting rid of this giant, what else would I be doing?”

“You’re destroying the souls of countless innocence!” he yells, emphasizing the severity of Phoenix’s actions.

Earlier, Rage had sucked in all the souls of the blue Colossal with the intention of releasing them in the near future, this would give them a chance to go where they rightfully belong; be that Heaven or Hell, or even back to Earth. What Phoenix is doing is completely erasing their existence, once the human soul is gone, so is the essence of that person.

“Am I now?” The priest asks with an almost crooked look on his face. “These people were enticed by the Gatekeeper because of their sin, they are hardly innocent.”

“That’s not for you to decide!”

“Then whose decision is it? You? Don’t make me laugh, I have more of a right to decide than anyone else here don’t you think?”

“.....”

“These people... You would have released their souls and they would have been damned to Hell. You know that, I know that. So how is this not merciful?”

“There’s no way of knowing that...”

“My flame, it is the same flame that nearly destroyed Dantega. Even after a thousand years, this flame will never stop until the evil of its target is completely destroyed. Whichever souls are still shining after being burnt are the ones not completely tainted by sin and won’t be sent to Hell.”

Upon hearing that explanation, Rage understands what he is trying to do. Phoenix got his flame from Michael, and Michael had three different techniques that altered the way his fire burned.

One of which is to burn his target, no matter what it is, all the way until the target is destroyed.

This technique is certainly the strongest, and unfortunately for the Archangel, Ubica tricked him into using it on the two people he cared about the most.
The second: is the fire that never stops burning no matter what.

It is said that when Hell was created, this fire was used to form its landscape. The same fire continues to expand Hell each and every day; working just like the universe, it is constantly pushing its way outwards and forging a new path for others to follow. The reason why Hell's sky always has an orange and red tint is the leftover radiation of the forever expanding flame.

The third: is the fire that burns away the evil of its target until said evil is obliterated.

This attack was primarily used against people who are possessed, or consumed by only one sin. Once the fire burned out and the evil was gone, the body of the man containing that evil was still left intact.

Similar to a very extreme version of a baptism, this flame is what was used on Ubica in the eternal lake, it was expected that this fire would need to burn forever to fully destroy Dantega.

This is what Phoenix is using on these souls; whatever survives this flame has the right to move on to the next world.

But so far, nothing has escaped the fire.

Watching the souls burn for a little bit longer, the smoke begins to clear and one simple light drops helplessly down like a falling feather.
The little purple light falls into the palm of Phoenix’s hand and he smiles.

“Just one...” he says, and begins squeezing on the orb. “Only one person lived any kind of life worthy of Heaven’s acceptance.”

He sighs and squeezes the orb until it seems to pop, its light flickers all over and fades into nowhere.

“It would seem that no matter what world I travel to, there is no man truly capable of surviving the burden he was born with.” Hiding his face, he says softly under his breath. “Has my faith in humanity really been misplaced this entire time? Or is it something else entirely?”

“What did you do with that soul?” Rage asks.

Phoenix takes another sigh, this one is pointedly disappointed. “I sent him to Heaven... Although I’ve traded my benevolence for fire, I can still do certain things that you can’t. Would you like to know the story of that soul?”

“..?”

“It was a little boy... He had no desire to come to the Gate, but his father lost himself in Lilith’s song and threw away everything in order to come here.
The father sold his home, left his wife, and dragged his son to this very castle where he in turn sacrificed the child to gain the favor of Lillith.”

Rage stays silent; he doesn’t quite know how to respond to something like that.

“I’m sure you can guess how that turned out. That story sounds familiar don’t you think? A father throwing away his son to gain the favor of someone who only intends to devour him...”

The shine in Phoenix’s eyes begin to fade as he zones out on the hand that had just sent the little soul to Heaven.

Rage can see this and a cold sweat runs down the side of his brow; he knows that the story the priest is talking about is his own.

Phoenix's father sacrificed him for the sake of mankind, and it was only a couple thousand years later that it became painfully evident that it was all for naught.

“The burden of man… I am forced to wonder if it was intended to be so difficult to overcome… If it was truly intentional, now I am forced to wonder why it has always been that way.”

Now it’s obvious that the words of Phoenix have shifted from the story of the little boy to the story of himself, but those words are no longer past-tense. He is talking about the current situation he has found himself in, and what’s even more chilling, is that he is talking about the current situation between him and God.

Something has happened in the past that caused a severe change in the Messiah’s personality, it is almost certain that Ubica the Antichrist caused this change, Phoenix has even said so himself. But now however, there is a course of actions between Phoenix and God that no one other than the two of them know about.

This burden, or whatever it may be to him, is beginning to break something inside of Phoenix.

To an onlooker like Rage, the wound it has inflicted on the priest has presented itself clearly.

GGAAAAGAAASSHHH!

The sound of the double doors of the castle opening can be heard, despite the means in which they did it, they've successfully passed Lilith's test.

The Gate is ever so close, but Rage pays no mind to this at all, he pretty much hasn't noticed the fact that the castle door is open wide and inviting them in. All he can do is stare at Phoenix as the crooked look on the priest's face twists even more.

Rage’s eyes grow wide, and the words almost drip out of his mouth when he asks,

“Is there something wrong with you?”

---------------------

Ubica finally reaches Tsubiri’s location, though he can’t see her from within the countless number of men under Asmodeus’s spell that are desperately trying to get at her. Like zombies, they push and pull at each other, climb over one another unconsciously as they move forward despite any obstacle in their way.

She’s been shocking whoever she can to keep herself safe, that much is clear by dozens of men unconscious on the ground at her feet, but she can’t shock them all. Exerting this much effort to create her electricity has fatigued her, and it’s only a matter of time before she runs out of strength, becomes defenseless and is viciously swarmed on.

“S-Stay back!” she shouts as she electrocutes an encroaching man.

Just hearing her frantic voice from within the crowd sends Ubica into a panicked state, it’s as if there was a switch that just flipped inside of him that made his body hot with an angst that he immediately acts upon.

He pulls out his sword and begins rushing toward the outer rim of men packed in a frenzied crowd trying to get to where Tsubiri is.

He readies to slash through whoever it takes to get to her with his sword, but not before gaining his composure and flipping the dull side of his blade upwards at the last moment. From there, he starts knocking people away and one by one forges a path towards Tsubiri through the throng of thousands of bodies.

(I don’t have to kill them.) He thinks to himself as the thunk noise of each man he hits with the dull side of his sword reaches his ears. (All I need to do is get her and run away!)

Although he is thinking calmly as he methodically makes his way through the mass of men, he’s actually quite anxious, the feeling of wanting to get to her is so great it’s as though the weight in his legs have disappeared.

(Almost there!)

After swinging through the last line of men blocking his path, he reaches his hand out through the gaps of men and shouts,

“Tsubiri!!!”

“Ubica!”

Her voice hits his ears like a crashing wave of relief, just hearing her call out to him means that she’s safe and there is still hope that they’ll escape this mess unharmed. If he can just grab her hand, the two can even make it through this without having to harm others.

Expecting to feel the warmth of her hand as he reaches out, he is surprised to be met with the pressure of the slender hands of someone cold grabbing him instead. He is then pulled through the gaps of men and is met with a sight that obliterates all the hope he had built up in a flash.

The evil eyes of Asmodeus meet his, and with her left hand she squeezes at his wrist, her opposite hand is clasped onto the neck of Tsubiri.

She has intercepted their reunion and has arrived as their most dangerous threat.

“Uuaaahhhh, noooo~~ Ubica! This is so disappointing!”

“Tsubi------“

KSHKSHKSHKSHKSH!!!

Before Ubica could even finish shouting her name, he is electrocuted so violently it causes blood to come spraying out of his nose before his body stiffens up and falls limply to the ground.

Asmodeus still keeps her grip firmly on the two when she says, “This girl’s trying to shock me to protect you, how cute.” She turns to Tsubiri and continues, “I eat the energy of women and make it my own, I suggest you stop unless hurting your boyfriend is something you’re into.”

Tsubiri grits her teeth and stops struggling, she can hardly breath as it is, and this desperate attempt at using electricity to free them both from Asmodeus has sapped the last bit of strength she had left. There is nothing she can possibly do in this situation.

With that interruption settled, Asmodeus then lifts Ubica up by his arm and pulls him close. “Did you really think that you were going to get out of this without getting your hands dirty?”

“.....”

It's likely that Ubica can't talk due to the temporary effects of Tsubiri's lighting, but he still has enough strength to send Asmodeus a deathly glare. He looks at his foe with the glare of someone who believes that he can still win this fight. This isn’t lost on Asmodeus, who can’t help but find this feigned display of confidence amusing.

“Oho my sweet sweet Ubica, you really are something else… It’s amazing how naive the current version of yourself is. You don’t have the luxury of time to keep searching for a way out of this pinch.” She twitches her head as if gesturing to the men who have formed a circle around the three. “These men aren’t going to stop unless they’re dead.”

The men all rush in and start grabbing at Tsubiri, tearing her clothes, tugging on her hair, yanking her arms and pulling her in every which direction. She can’t even scream because of the tight grip on her neck, all she can do is plead to Ubica with eyes full of tears.

“I’m sure I don’t need to tell you what’s gonna happen if you don’t get on with the killing.” The thin smile stretches up her face as she lets go of Ubica’s arm.

Watching Tsubiri get grabbed on by the men while held in place in Asmodeus’s grip has brought him to the point of desperation; it’s just as Asmodeus say, there isn’t any more time to waver in his convictions.

He and Tsubiri are trapped unless he does something about it now.

He grits his teeth and stands to his feet, flips the blade of the sword around and prepares to rush in to save her.

Asmodeus laughs, the piercing in her tongue that hangs to the top of her chest swings as she releases her hold on Tsubiri’s neck and jumps out of the way.
Landing on top of a nearby street light, she delights in watching the show from above as she shouts, “Don’t you dare let me down this time Ubica~~ I’m going to get so much pleasure watching you do what you do best!”

Ubica ignores her and hones in on his first target; it is a man who looks to be in his mid 40’s whose face is only inches away from Tsubiri’s. The man sticks his tongue out grotesquely and leans in to lick her cheek.

As he inches closer to her, time seems to slow down to the point where he can think clearly. Frozen in this waking instant, he is reminded of the promise he made to Tsubiri earlier.

He said that he’d do anything for her, even if it’s something he doesn’t want to do.

This may not be as innocent as taking a drink of some strong alcohol, but that gesture applies to this exact moment.

In order to fulfill that promise, he’s going to have to sacrifice the lives of many to save just one.

Watching the man’s tongue inch closer and closer to her face, he’s willing to take on the consequences of whatever action he must take to ensure her safety.

He’s willing to completely eliminate any immediate remorse and resort to violence.

Ubica’s determined eyes shift to the man’s neck, and with a mighty recoil back, he swings the sharp end of his sword.

It happened so fast that it couldn’t be seen with the naked eye.

The man’s head is sent flying.

The bloodbath has begun.

------------------------

Alone in the dimly lit hallway of the massive castle is Messor and Trojia; not more than a word has been spoken between the two.
The thick and heavy atmosphere surrounding the two isn’t coming from the damp darkness of the castle they’re navigating, but instead it serves as an incubator for their increasing animosity.

Messor’s glare beats on Trojia’s back, she’s found herself feeling almost offended at the fact that the Princess in front of her can so casually lead the False Prophet despite knowing full well who she is.

She can’t stand the fearlessly smug air coming from someone she feels is stealing the affection of the other half of herself.

(I really do despise this girl...) she thinks to herself, her gold eyes beginning to glow bright. (It’s her fault that he’s become so distant in the first place.)

Messor’s wild thoughts feel extremely out of control, it is very likely that Lilith is manipulating her mind through the walls of the castle, she doesn’t notice that this is happening but it is likely that she wouldn’t care even if she did know. It’s like she is drunk, when people drink they tend to make a big deal out of nothing and their passive thoughts bleed into emotions that eventually become an action carried out by the body.

It’s that very emotion that’s steadily causing her body to move, her hand is held towards Trojia’s back and her fingers prepare to snap.

(With a simple snap of my finger, she’ll be gone...)

Even though she knows she could dispose of her in an instant, there’s still something deep inside of her that refuses to commit such a shameless act. She still holds honest intentions, and she couldn’t possibly throw away her commitment to Ubica to protect his friends so haphazardly. She shivers to think of how much such an action would hurt him, and hurting him is the last thing she’d ever intentionally do.

She bites her lip and reluctantly puts her tense hand back down to her side.

“Is there something wrong?” Trojia asks, not even turning to acknowledge Messor’s presence.

Agitated by the fact that Trojia could sense the energy exuded by her inner conflict, she remembers the very alarming warning Lillith presented to her back on the bridge.

“There might be.” she answers.

“And what do you think that is?”

“Hey princess…” Messor says after a brief pause, her glare is intense when she asks, “I would like to know about your true thoughts on Ubica after seeing what you saw. ”

“You mean how I spent three years of my life watching the two of you destroy the world?”

“Spare me your sanctimony, I couldn't care less about how you feel about that.”

“Tch.”

“I want to know what it is you intend to do about Ubica going forward. When you woke up you told me you thought he was awful, but there’s been a lot of time since then for you to really interpret your feelings. Since you’ve seen firsthand what Dantega is capable of, what will you do now that you know what we really are?”

Trojia stays silent for a moment, she seems to really be contemplating this question. She still doesn’t turn to Messor when she sternly answers, “If it comes down to it, I’ll do whatever it takes to protect the people I care about.”

“Do you actually think that he’d harm you or the others? That’s ridiculous.” Messor replies.

The two keep walking through the hallway and reach a large black door, Trojia opens it and the moment she enters, hundreds of candles instantly light up and reveal the room they’ve found themselves in.

The large room is shaped in a rectangular fashion, with another large black door on the other side about a hundred meters ahead. Hanging on the walls in between the two doors are many different weapons ranging from spears to longswords; they all look brand new and light from the candles reflects off them as though they were mirrors.

Paying no mind to her new surroundings, Trojia continues her walk toward the other door and says, “It’s not so much that I think he’d hurt them with his own two hands, but If he loses control, who’s to say they won’t be collateral damage? What if something snaps inside of him and he decides to do what he did a thousand years ago? I won’t allow that to happen.”

“Hahahahaha.” Messor immediately laughed upon hearing that.

This prompts Trojia to turn around and glare at her quizzically.

Messor’s laugh is almost more relieved than amused.

”And here I was worrying about what Lillith said about your soul. There’s no threat of you taking my place after all, in the end, you’re no different than any other person stupid enough to try and hurt Ubica becasue they’re afraid of what he may or may not do. You must’ve learned such a weak trait from that bodyguard I killed.”

Trojia’s shoulders jolted and her eyes widened to an alarming size. Those last words hit her like an arrow shot right into her heart.

“...What did you just say?”

“I said you sound just like your bodyguard Niomyo did... When I killed her.”

As if the most important cog in the machinery of Trojia had broken, her head tilts to the side and her eyebrow twitches; any evidence of life in her eyes fades and is replaced by a broken glare.

As far as Trojia knew, Niomyo was in the midst of Ubica and Mammon’s fight back on the Second Level. She had no reason to think otherwise due the thousands of casualties caused by Mammon's balls of antimatter.

But putting the pieces together from that horrible night, it really does make sense that Nyomio met her end in a different manner; she had no external wounds to speak of other than her crushed hand, which Trojia had found suspicious at first but had brushed it off to allow herself to grieve.

So hearing this sudden confession has come as a gut wrenching confirmation of a quiescant suspicion that she can now place upon Messor’s head.

“...Huh?” she mutters, that same dead look still evident on her face.

“She threatened to kill Ubica in the name of your safety. He was unconscious on the ground and she held a knife to his throat; if I hadn’t been there he’d surely be dead. That look in her eyes, her tone of voice, it’s the same as you.”

Trojia’s stiffened gaze doesn’t soften for even a moment as Messor explains.

“People like you are far more villainous than any demon; the way Ubica is now, he’d sooner accept death before he’d ever defend himself against someone he cares about. You see yourself as righteous, but the truth is that you’re sinister enough to make an enemy out of someone who has shown you nothing but kindness for something as selfish as to make yourself feel safe.”

The words that are leaving Messor’s lips are surely venomous, in any normal situation Trojia would at least be affected by them. However, the flickering red ring around Trojia’s green eyes is evidence of her lack of empathy.

The mental state she’s in is also due to the effect of Lillith’s power inebriating her senses, she simply can not separate herself from the emotion of standing mere feet away from her best friend's murderer.

“As the False Prophet, how could I continue to allow such a threat to exist? I especially can’t allow the powers I’ve given to you to be used against him.”
Messor again holds her steady hand up and presents it to the princess. “All it’s going to take is a snap of my finger and your heart will explode from within, you’ll die just like your bodyguard.”

‘Snap’

Messor snaps her finger and fully expects to see blood scream out of every opening in Trojia’s face.

She has taken back the power she gave her and as a result, taken her life along with it.

Messor can’t help but smile in anticipation of seeing the death of this girl in front of her.

A few moments pass and Messor is shocked to find that Trojia is still just standing there glaring forward with her flickering gaze. There’s no way it should have taken this long for her to collapse to the ground; she impatiently snaps her fingers once again and is met with overwhelming confusion upon seeing that nothing has changed.

“!?”

Trojia takes a step forward and blankly states, “You…”

The circle around her green eyes glows a bright red, taking on the form of a solar eclipse as she takes a menacing step forward.

“Why isn’t this working!?” Messor shouts, losing her cool completely.

That’s when Messor feels something intense push at her stomach and pull at her back, the wind instantly gets sucked out of her and she spits up blood.

BOMMM!

A thick base noise is heard in front of the False Prophet and as if she has been hit by a truck, she is sent flying backwards at an incomprehensible speed. The jolt was so great that it tore her loosely worn plaid shirt right off her shoulders.

WHAAAAACKKK!!!

Her body crashes into the stone wall of the castle so hard it leaves an indent a couple feet deep into the solid mass of brick. The whiplash alone causes Messor to feel like she has broken every bone in her body at once.

“Kaaaaah!?”

The back of her throat yelps through the blood that has accumulated in her mouth.

Her body slides off the wall and falls limply onto the ground, she can barely move; she has never been hit like that in her entire life.

The power from that attack was far greater than anything she could ever have imagined.

She may be the False Prophet and can heal incredibly fast with the aid of Dantega, but she doesn’t have the almost indestructible body of the Antichrist, her frame is just as frail as any other girl, it’s very likely that a few bones have been shattered.

Trojia takes slow steps towards her downed foe, each one inviting more malice than the last.

Her expression seems as though all human emotion has been abandoned and is replaced by an empty shell of some kind of robot. The red light that was encircling her eyes now engulfs the irises that were once a beautiful green and shines fully in the color of blood red.

A pressure surrounds her, so strong that it breaks off pieces of the roof above her head. The sound of bricks falling to the ground crack and add solidity to the rumbling bass noise of the room shaking the area around her.

Messor’s eyes grow wide as she stares at a girl so imposing it even strikes a deep sense of fear inside of her.

“This... Is impossible, you can’t be this strong!” she shouts.

With whatever strength she has left, she begins forming butterflies all around her to protect herself, it’s become quite apparent that the only way out of this is to fight her way out of it. Forming her own power and analyzing Trojia’s, it finally strikes her as to why this Princess’s presence is so overwhelming.

She instantly flashes back to what Damien did to her back on the boat in the Second Level of Purgatory; he didn’t just show her Ubica’s past in order to turn her against him, he sent her soul into the past by connecting it with the residual energy left behind by Dantega. An energy that strong never ceases to exist no matter how many years go by, somewhere within the frame of spacetime, all energy continuously exists. The massive amount of energy that Dantega has spread into the universe is present in the same way the cosmic microwave background can be seen all the way back to big bang; theoretically, the current universe filled with carbon based life coexists with the very moment all physical matter came to be billions of years in the past. Somehow, Damien has managed to send Trojia's soul directly into the thick of of Dantega's microwave background that was left implanted into the fabric of reality 1000 years earlier.

Disregarding how something like that is even possible for Damien to pull off, the more surprising aspect of it is just how in the world Trojia's soul survived being put through something like that.

No normal human should be able to survive within that environment, and certainly not for the entire three years of that environment's existence where it radiated it's most potent energy.

So how is it that Trojia is now standing here in front of Messor as such an imposing foe harboring such incredible strength?

Again, Messor comes back to what Lillith said about Trojia’s pure soul.

(Her soul is truly pure, just like yours was…)

It makes perfect sense to her now, but this newfound clarity doesn't bring her any comfort.

“Hmph! I see, you’ve fallen right into Damien’s hands…”

Messor stands to her feet abruptly, despite feeling her bones crack under the pressure of her own weight, she somehow finds the strength to smile.

"You are his trump card if I'm unable to fulfill my end of the bargain. He must take me for some kind of fool."

The two stare each other down intensely when Lilith’s voice rings from above them.

“Perfection! It’s just what I thought would happen between you two!”

THUNK! THUNK!

The two doors on each side of the room shut rather loudly and are followed by a loud clicking noise as if someone has turned the deadbolts.

“These doors won’t open until one of you has been defeated. So entertain me my beautiful Trojia, I’ll only meet you once you prove to me that you have the strongest soul!”

Lilith’s voice fades away and the situation becomes even more dire, there’s no way the both of them will come out of this alive. The animosity flowing between the False Prophet and the Trojan princess is enough to make the core of the massive castle shake.

Trojia takes a step to the right and calmly grabs a weapon off of the wall, she takes two twin blades and holds them in front of her. The miniature katanas are a gunmetal color, but gloss in the candlelight.

She twirls them around as if she has had years of experience with the weapons and holds them to her side in a battle posture.

Staring at Messor, her mouth faintly moves and her monotonous voice exits.

“Messor... I'm going to kill you.”

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| Back to [[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 1|Conflict of Interests]]
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| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
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</noinclude>

Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 1

2022-01-10T17:50:12Z

Deck of cards:

Chapter 53: Conflict of Interests

(PART 1)

Three months after the battle with Michael at the Second Gate of Purgatory...

Ubica is sleeping on the bed in a rather large hotel room, the sun is out and even with it beating on his face through the window he’s still out like a rock.

Echoing through the room is the humming of an offbeat tune coming from Tsubiri from within the bathroom. It’s the kind of song that if she were to sing it to children they’d most certainly start crying.

After her terrible tune comes to an abrupt end, she comes out of the bathroom in a plume of steam with her damp hair down wearing only a small white towel. The steam from the hot bathroom follows her out of the door as she lets out a refreshed sigh.

The nice atmosphere around her turns a little sour when she looks to the bed and finds Ubica still asleep and showing no signs of waking up. She puffs her cheeks out and peers at the clock on the wall to find that it is close to noon.

“Wake up already will you! I’ve been bored out of my mind for hours now!” she shouts as she hits him over the head with a pillow.

He doesn’t budge.

She then jumps on top of him and begins doing things to him that would only be seen in a torture chamber, and he still doesn’t move. Tsubiri sighs, and prepares to give up and get off of him when he stirs from his slumber.

The sun hits his eyes and they light up in a bright green, Tsubiri can’t help but be infatuated by them, it’s like he’s a character in a fairy tale that wakes up beautifully after a good night’s rest.

However, that fairy tale-like face is quickly shrouded in a dejected look as the first thing that leaves his mouth is, “What are you doing on top of me..? And why does my body ache all over!?”

“Whaa!? Is that anyway to talk to a cute girl who’s lying on top of you while dressed so skimpily??” she replied, puffing out her chest in the process.

Ubica rubs his eyes and sees that other than the towel wrapped around her body, she is completely naked on top of him.

“Oh, you aren’t kidding!”

He immediately tries to sit up and move away but his chest is pushed by the open hands of Tsubiri and his back once again is pressed flat on the bed.

“Look at me.” she says in a very serious manner.

The two stare at each other in the eyes for a few moments when Tsubiri smiles and sits back up on top of him.

“Guess what today is?”

“Uhhh, Tuesday?”

“No idiot, I want you to actually guess.”

“...It’s your birthday?”

“Bingo! I turned 20 today!”

“Really!?”

Ubica exclaimed as he sat up happily, he had completely forgotten about the suspicious nature of his sore body upon hearing that. If this was just one of her excuses to get out of trouble it would have worked perfectly.

“That’s right, so what are you going to get me?”

“Hah?”

“I don’t know if you understand the concept of birthdays, but loved ones give each other gifts for such an occasion.” she said as if confused about it herself.

Perhaps it’s because every birthday she’s had her entire life has gone unnoticed by the people around her. She’s never had someone she could actually call a loved one until now, so she’s looking to take full advantage of that fact after such a long wait.

“I’m not that clueless, I know that birthdays are celebrated... I wouldn’t know what to get you though.”

A slight smile forms on Tsubiri’s face and her cheeks grow red as she leans into him, causing her chest to almost fall out of her towel.

“I think I know what I want.”

Ubica feels her chest rub against his and it causes him to blush as well.

“And what might that be?”

“You.”

“Oh come on, that's the corniest line ever!”

Tsubiri shines bright red when she replies, “I-I’m serious! Don’t just step on my efforts like that! It took me a lot of courage to say...”

Ubica can see just how flustered she actually is; she’s wearing the same look someone would have after doing something outrageously embarrassing.

“Wait a second, you’re not joking?”

“Of course I’m not! I don’t always kid around, you know?”

“But it’s so sudden...” he said as he averted his gaze.

“I-It really isn’t... I mean, we’ve been together for three months now.” Her heart is beating so fast that she can hardly find the strength to speak these next words. “A-And I’m officially in my 20’s... This is what normal couples my age do, right?”

“Uhhhm... I guess so.”

“So does that mean you’ll do it?”

Ubica is struggling as hard as he can to not do anything rash, he has a beautiful girl sitting half naked on his lap and asking him to sleep with her. A normal guy in his right mind would never refuse such an offer.

But therein lies the problem, Ubica is no normal guy.

He’s been worried about allowing himself the physical pleasures of a normal person because it could be a slippery slope to becoming someone he desperately doesn’t want to be. He doesn’t know how little or how much it would take for Dantega to take control over him, even the slightest sin might be enough to thrust that reality upon him unintentionally.

It’s his own fear of himself that is keeping him from enjoying himself, the fact that it has been a burden on the person he cares for most in the world has made him feel guilty.

“I... I!”

“Would you stop mumbling already!? Don’t tell me that you’re one of those aloof characters that everyone hates who gets all the girls to fall for him but is too much of a pansy to do anything about it!?”

She pretty much hit the bull's eye on that one.

“No I’m not!”

“Then do something! Move your hands and touch me already!”

“I can’t!”

“Why not!?”

“.....”

Her eyebrows steepen a little upon being confronted by his silence.

“I know that look… you only look like that when you’re feeling guilty about something. I think I know what’s going through that cute head of yours.”

Ubica feels like she couldn’t possibly know what he’s thinking, and that makes him feel even worse about it.

“Just answer me this… what do you think we’d be doing if we went through with this?”

“We’d be having se---“

“Kyaah! Don’t say it out loud!!!” she shouts as she slams her palms on his face to keep him from finishing that embarrassing sentence.

“Well that’s what it’d be!”

“You’re wrong Ubica!”

“..?”

“You love me right?”

“I do.”

“And you know I love you right?”

“I do.”

With the palms that just slapped his face, she gently caresses each of his cheeks and looks him in the eyes when she says, “Then wouldn’t we be making love?”

It would appear that she actually can sense what has been going on in that head of his.

He’s astonished that she has grown to know him well enough that she could so confidently pinpoint exactly what was tormenting him.

Looking deeper than just the physical aspect of things, Ubica realizes that his selfish fear of succumbing to an unreasonable sin is nothing like what she is proposing. There isn’t anything sinful about sharing love with one’s partner in the most physical way, by not allowing himself to understand that fact he has been holding the two of them both back.

Without thinking any further, Ubica grabs her shoulders and flips her position, pressing her backside on the bed.

She reveals a surprised face as Ubica looks her square in the eyes with an intense glare. It’s almost like he’s turned into a completely different person.
He maneuvers his hand slowly toward Tsubiri’s chest and reaches for the spot where the towel is tied. All it will take is a flick of the wrist and her bare body will be shown in complete view; just the thought of this causes her to blush and shut her eyes nervously.

But she isn’t fighting it, this is what she wanted after all, she just doesn’t know how to handle this kind of thing because she’s never been anywhere close to going this far with a guy. In fact, she’s never even held a guy’s hand until she met Ubica, so this is all completely foreign territory.

His hand inches closer and closer until he makes contact and one of his fingers slides across her bare skin, causing her to shrink back nervously.

This makes him pause for a moment, but his mind is so clouded by the sensation of her skin on his finger tips and the smell of her freshly washed hair that he couldn’t stop even if he wanted to. He gently tugs on her towel and it comes loose, just a few more inches is all it will take.

Once it is just about there, and they are about to reach the point of no return...

BANG BANG BANG!!

An extremely loud knocking is heard on the hotel door.

“Time’s up! Your stay only lasts till noon!” A man's shout is heard from the other end of the door.

His angry tone is enough to make them stop dead in their tracks and have them look at the clock on the wall.

It says 12:04.

“A-Are you kidding me!?” Tsubiri asks in frustration.

She most likely meant to say that to herself but she shouted it so loud that the man outside could hear.

“I specifically told you guys last night that your stay only lasts till noon the next day! This is a very busy place, you know!? I’ll give you five minutes to get outta here!”

She sighs and throws her hands over her face. “Ugaaah~! What a mood killer! We were just getting to the good part!”

After pouting for a bit, she is released from under the weight of Ubica, he moved to the corner of the bed with a very odd look on his face. It’s obvious that he’s flustered because his cheeks are bright red and he’s trying to hide it with his forearm.

(Ahhh cute!) she thinks to herself before snapping out of it and saying, “I feel like you shouldn’t be the one looking so embarrassed here.”

“.....”

He doesn’t answer and instead just looks away.

“Hey!” The angry manager outside the door yells, “You have 4 minutes and 32 seconds to get out of here or I’m calling the cops!”

The fact that he even went into the specifics of adding seconds to the total makes her realize that he's definitely serious.

“Alright already!” Tsubiri shouts while gritting her teeth, “Geez what kind of guest service is this!?”

She gets up off the bed and grabs her clothes hanging in the closet; she rushes to the bathroom to change when she is stopped by the soft voice of Ubica.

“Tsubiri.”

“Hm?” she mutters as she tilts her head, standing halfway through the doorway.

“I’m sorry for holding back for so long… I hope it didn’t seem like I was avoiding making a move on you because I don’t care about you..”

“I knew that wasn’t the case… It’s okay to be afraid of things you can’t control, but I think that you shouldn’t worry about that when you’re with me. I’m here to support you.”

Ubica smiles, warmed by her kind words he can’t help but be grateful; the young woman he has fallen for is truly the most wonderful person he’s ever met.

“I really love you, you know?” he says softly.

“I do know, and I can’t wait for the next opportunity to have sex with you!”

After so casually tossing a bomb into the room, she quickly rushes into the bathroom and shuts the door behind her, leaving Ubica to duck for cover.

“So I am actually the only one embarrassed here!! I thought you couldn’t even say that just a second ago!?”

His newfound heart is beating like crazy, and his face is so flushed that steam could plume out of his ears.

Tsubiri laughs from within the bathroom and says, “I’m allowed to be bold sometimes, I just want you to know how I feel about you that’s all!”

Ubica takes a sigh of resignation and calms himself down before looking up at the clock and seeing that they only have a minute or so left before the inn keeper’s threatening phone call to the police.

He hurriedly dresses himself and begins frantically packing.

------------------------

Rage and the rest of the group find themselves in a zeppelin flying hundreds of feet up in the air. It isn’t the kind of zeppelin that is closed off and connected to the helium filled streamlined shaped aircraft, the dock carrying the passengers is connected to zeppelin with thick metal cables. The open air cabin makes the ride a little bit more uncomfortable due to the wind, and a lot more nerve racking due to the way the cabin sways from side to side in heavy gusts.

Just because the technology of Purgatory seems to double or even triple on each level, it doesn’t mean there still aren't designer flaws.

In the last three months here on the third level, they have been able to experience things such as steam engine cars, zeppelins, analog phones and many other convenient modern inventions. This early 20th century technology is cutting edge to everyone here other than Rage and Messor.

Of course, the current world’s tech is fairly advanced as well, they have running water and plumbing, they can use electricity for light, but they’re still quite far behind in catching up to this world.

But adjusting to the technology of the 3rd level is the last thing for them to worry about, in fact, such a little thing like technology is the furthest thing from their minds at this very moment.

The multiple explosions happening from all around the zeppelin every second is more than enough to occupy their attention.

BOOOOOOOMM!!!

“Another one’s coming!” shouts Napoleon as he points out into the sky.

Moving directly towards them and the zeppelin at a fast pace is what seems to be some kind of bird. It’s wingspan looks to be over ten feet and it leaves a trail of smoke behind as if it’s shadow carried mass. If one were to look closely enough, they could see that the head in between those large wings is not that of a bird, rather the face of a man surrounded by the hair of a lion’s mane.

With this freakish sight, it is apparent that these things are some kind of demon, and Rage knows exactly what they are.

“These are Lilitu Demons!" Rage shouts as he waves to Napoleon and Strauphius as if telling them to be prepared. "We can’t let them get too close to us, these are the kind of demons that will sacrifice themselves by self-destructing!”

Messor runs up to the edge of the ship and replies, “Lilitu!? That’d mean that---“

BBAAAAANNNGGGG!!!

An explosion rips the air above them and the aircraft they are riding on shakes violently. Before they could even react to the loud noise they were covered in a maelstrom of sand.

Naturally, no one other than Rage and Messor knows just what in the world this is; the others are more panicked about the attack itself than just what it is that’s attacking them.

“And how are we supposed to stop them!?” shouts Aria as she ducks for cover.

“They’re demons, and if we don’t keep them away we’re done for! I want all of the women here to cover their mouths quickly!” Rage replies anxiously.

“What? Why??”

The zeppelin does a couple horizontal spins after being hit by a blast, and the resulting centrifugal force of the open air cabin sinks their weight onto their seats.

“Don’t ask questions you stupid girl! If you don’t do it now you will lose your soul!”

Once the zeppelin is again under control, Rage gets up from covering himself, walks to the ledge of the ship and points his scythe out to the sky, moving it along with the movement of the silhouette of one of the Lilitu.

The Lilitu banks its way backwards and begins zooming toward Rage and the zeppelin once more. It’s as though the two are in a showdown as Rage and the demon both prepare to attack each other. Without a moment’s hesitation the Lilitu opens its mouth freakishly wide, revealing its sharp teeth and lets out an ear shattering screech.

As if that was a trigger to something, the demon puffs up to three times its regular size and explodes in a great fireball and sends another torrent of thick sand heading right towards them.

“Do something about that sand already! We can’t afford to take another hit!” Messor yells as she continuously creates little black butterflies.

Dozens of her butterflies float around her to be used as a barricade for the zeppelin against the incoming barrage of demons.

The fine particles of the sand can and will eventually rip a hole in the zeppelin’s balloon, but if that’s not enough of a threat by itself, the power of that sand specifically carries two different negative effects for each gender.

“Not yet, if I hit it now it’ll just spread even faster.”

“If any of the men breathe in any of that sand, their insides will be on the deck of the ship! Just buy me some time and I’ll take care of the rest!” Messor shouted while turning back to the barrage of birds.

She’s sweating and looks to be in some sort of pain as she makes her butterflies; this is obviously taking a toll on her.

Noticing her efforts, Rage sends a black mass of cloud shooting from his scythe and directly toward the incoming sand of the Lilitu. It hits the sand and its mass instantly widens and spreads all over, though its movement is slowed, its radius has doubled, and it’s only a matter of time before it makes contact with the ship and the passenger’s lungs.

Rage looks anxiously in Messor's direction, hoping that whatever it is she has planned will help stop this assault.

It’s then that he finds that all of the butterflies that once surrounded her are nowhere to be seen, instead they have all dispersed and surrounded the zeppelin, flapping their wings outward in the direction of the incoming mass of sand.

A fierce wind comes from them and begins to blow the sand away from the ship. Everything seems to be going fine until the sand maneuvers itself through Messor’s wind and continues its collision course with the balloon; this time it hardened into a solid giant ball the size of a pick up truck.

The lungs of the men of the ship may be safe, but there is no doubt that this will destroy the zeppelin.

“!?”

“Shit!” Rage hisses, and immediately attempts to use his scythe to keep it from making contact.

But before he could, the escaped ball of solid sand suddenly stops cold in its tracks and flies off in a different direction, completely missing the zeppelin. Immediately after, the sand looming all around the ship disperses into the sky and the sun once again shines on them.

“!?”

“Sorry for not helping sooner, I was taking care of a couple more of those flying things on the other side of the ship.” said Trojia as she calmly walks between Messor and Rage.

“What do you mean you took care of a couple more?” Rage asks.

Trojia points to behind her and they can see a couple plumes of smoke and feathers left by the remnants of multiple dead Lilitu. The dangerous sand left by their remains fall harmlessly to the ground as if falling to the bottom of an hourglass.

The zeppelin has been attacked by a dozen of these strange demons and both Rage and Messor had trouble destroying some of them without damaging themselves and the others in the process. It’s not as though it was difficult for them to kill off the Lilitu, it’s just that they have too much destructive power to keep them from damaging the areas around them as well.

Trojia on the other hand, had no problem disposing of two of them herself, and just aided in keeping the debris of the third from making contact with the zeppelin. This shows that she has more control over her power than even Rage and Messor.

“How did you??”

“It would seem that objects that aren’t anchored to anything are the easiest for me to move with my psychokinesis. I simply had them crash into each other before they could harm us.” Trojia calmly replied.

It’s as though she is somehow accustomed to such an irregular thing.

“So what exactly are these things? Does this have something to do with the third Gate?”

The wide eyes of her amazed comrades are locked onto her as she walks to the edge of the open air cabin and looks down.

Flying over a seemingly endless desert, she spots the form of the top of a massive castle poking out of a thick sandstorm. The ground below them isn’t visible but it is obvious that this castle is miles away; what is so amazing is how this structure looks so large even though they are so far from it.

“That’s it...” she said under her breath, answering her own question before Rage and Messor could.

She then walks into the main cabin of the ship to confront the petrified captain and his crew members, leaving Rage and Messor behind.

“There’s something off about that girl...” Messor said while biting her lip.

“You noticed too?”

“How could I not? She’s gotten way too strong over the past couple months; the limiter on her brain shouldn’t be able to manipulate the abilities I gave her to such an extent so quickly.”

Messor put in place those limiters intentionally, guaranteeing her victory in a fight with the people she gave those powers to should things escalate into that. This stopgate to protect herself shouldn’t have been broken so easily, even though she opened the gate to the abilities already stored from within them; getting stronger, and being able to mentally control such power takes a lot of time.

Two or three months is far too soon for her to be doing anything close to this, she’s long since broken Messor’s limiter.

This causes Messor to be suspicious, she simply cannot understand how her progression is even possible.

What could’ve happened to make her take such a giant leap in her evolution process that it surpassed what was put in place to keep her controllable?

Not only is she suspicious of Trojia, she’s now threatened by her; the whole point in doing this for them the way she did was in order for her not to feel that way.

Messor frowns slightly and stares at Trojia through the window of the cabin.

Rage catches this but chooses to ignore it by saying, “We don’t have time to think about that... up ahead is the Third Gate, and judging by the Lilitu I’m sure you can guess who the Gatekeeper is.”

“I know who it is, it would explain why the entire third level of Purgatory knows the location of the Gate; she’s luring them in.” she replies.

“I got the same feeling from all this, she is the strongest Siren after all. She’ll tempt all men who are weak of heart and devour them as soon as they get close enough... The men in our group aren’t safe from it either, we’ll have to be careful.”

Messor sighs and gazes out to the massive black castle that's surrounded by a hurricane of sand.

She then folds her arms and softly says,

“To think that this is where you ended up... Lilith.”

-------------------------

Tsubiri and Ubica walk along the bustling street of this hectic city they’ve found themselves in. They have been staying at random hotels on the outskirts of town and haven't gone in to go sightseeing yet, and after walking around for a while they are amazed at how big of a city it is. This place is similar to the neoclassical era of New York or Chicago in the beginning of the 1900's, so it's more or less a culture shock for them to go from one environment to the other so quickly.

The two have a hard time getting used to walking on the sidewalk and pressing buttons to cross the street to avoid being hit by cars. The sights of the street lights and the smell of the steam engine smoke is something from before Ubica’s time and seems foreign to him, and in Tsubiri’s case she has yet to experience anything close to something like this.

Rather than be negative about it, Tsubiri’s face is lit up like a child’s first time at an amusement park witnessing things her eyes have never seen before.

Seeing how happy she is, Ubica can’t help but smile. He nudges on her shoulder and asks, “Have you found anything you might want for your birthday?”

“I want one of those things!” she replied excitedly as she pointed to a bright red steam engine car speeding down the street.

Ubica looks at her dejectedly and replies, “How about something a little cheaper?”

“Geez, you’re so broke.”

“You’re in the same boat as me!”

Tsubiri looks around at all of the signs hanging off of the tall buildings when something catches her eye; she squints slightly and begins dragging Ubica along.

“The least you can do for me right now is get me a drink, doesn’t a cocktail sound nice?”

“I guess, but we really ought to be figuring out what to do next. Getting drunk isn’t going to help us do that.”

“Oh come on we’re taking the day off from that! Today’s special.”

Ubica takes a sigh of resignation and continues to allow himself to be dragged along the sidewalk.

He doesn’t fight it until it becomes apparent where he’s being led to.

“Wait a second, where do you think you’re going?”

“To the bar obviously, it’s right here.”

“No no no, this is definitely not a bar!”

“What are you talking about?”

She ignores him and pulls him inside a shady entrance way at the bottom of a rundown building. The first things they hear are loud music, people hollering, and glass breaking. All of this is accompanied by the smell of cigar and cigarette smoke, along with the sight of bright multicolored lights flashing from the ceiling.

Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not a bar, it has all the ingredients for an especially lively one.

Confident that she’s found the right place, Tsubiri puffs out her chest and says, “See, there’s nothing in here but alcohol, drunken men, and naked girls. So quit your whining and let's... huh?”

There’s something that doesn’t fit the description of a normal bar in her sentence, and she doesn’t catch on to that until after she finishes speaking. Her face instantly grows red and her eyes widen as she looks to a stage in the center of this amphitheater-like room and sees five women dancing to the loud music butt naked while men throw money at them.

“HAH!?!?”

“I told you! This is a strip club!” Ubica shouts as he finds a way to shift his gaze from the sight.

Tsubiri on the other hand has her eyes glued on the naked women.

“W-W-What are they doing!? Don’t they know that guys can see them!?”

“That’s the whole point!”

“What kind of a place is this!?”

“Couldn’t you read the sign out front that said ‘The Bare All Saloon’?”

“Obviously not! You make it sound like the sign was way noticeable!”

“The sign stretches across the entire building! You have to be blind not to see that!”

“J-Just shut up and let’s goooo!”

Tsubiri pushes his back to make him hurry up and get out of the strip club. Even though she is trying to leave as soon as possible, Ubica teasingly leans his weight back, forcing them to move slowly so he can make a point.

“Not before you admit that you either need glasses, or say that you are an absolute idiot for not listening to me.”

“Forget it, that's not gonna happen!”

The two of them exit the building and stumble back onto the bustling boulevard; even though it’s only the early afternoon there are still hundreds of people walking around, riding bikes, or driving their cars from one destination to the other. This kind of environment can only be found in a metropolis like this one and even though they’ve been here for a couple hours, they still find it hard to get used to.

They walk aimlessly for a few minutes when they come across an actual bar that doesn’t double as a strip club. The entrance is normal, there are windows in the front so one could actually see inside, logos of this town's most popular beer can be seen hanging on the walls. This is definitely what they were looking for in the first place, and if one of them still had any doubt, the sign at the top of the door that says 'Gillian's Pub' is confirmation.

The two walk into this decent size barroom and grab a seat on a couple stools at the tall pub table.

Tsubiri signs and gestures to the bartender when she says, “Give me a shot of the strongest stuff you got. I need it after what I just witnessed.”

“Alright.” the bartender replies smoothly.

After pulling a sketchy looking bottle off of the glass cabinet behind him, he pours it into a little cup and slides it to her. This bottle is not only sketchy, it has a skull and crossbones plastered on the label of it, and in bold letters the warning disclaimer on the bottle says,

‘'''MAY CAUSE BLINDNESS'''.'

“Do you want to open up a tab?” The bartender asks as if he’s not expecting her to want to drink any more after this one shot.

Tsubiri smiles, points at Ubica with her thumb and says, “This guy does.”

Ubica slumps his shoulders and gives her an exasperated look. “You’re kidding right? You can’t possibly want to drink that after reading that label.”

Tsubiri ignores him, grabs the shot glass and smells it, a content smile forms on her face as she proceeds to shove it under Ubica’s nose.

“Take a whiff of this and tell me how good it is!”

The fumes of this poisonous drink hits the innards of his nose and instantly causes his eyes to water. Fighting back the nauseating feeling brewing in his gut he covers his mouth and starts coughing.

“Hahahahahaha!”

Ubica turns away from his laughing lover and that poisonous drink while shouting, “Not only are you blind, your nose doesn’t work either! That stuff smells awful!”

“My nose works fine, one has to appreciate these strong beverages before you can drink it.”

“I appreciate the fact that it’s not drinkable!”

“Hehehe, bottoms up!”

Tsubiri throws the alcohol down her throat and swallows it down effortlessly, her cheeks instantly grow red and she smiles as she slams the glass down on the bar table.

“Fuuaahhh! Good stuff!”

“Just where in the world did you learn how to drink like that anyways??”

She shrugs her shoulders at him and once again flags down the bartender, she asks him for a couple beers knowing that Ubica isn’t going to go anywhere near that hard drink she just had.

The bartender begins pouring them their drinks when Ubica's gaze is caught by a shop on the other side of the street from the bar.

“Hold off on my drink for a second, I gotta step out real fast.”

“Wha?? You’re going to leave me just because I had a shot?”

“Of course not, that would be ridiculous. There’s something I want to get before I start drinking.”

“What is it?”

“Can’t tell you.”

Ubica gets up off of his stool, pats her on her shoulder and proceeds to walk toward the exit.

“You’re seriously leaving?? What if a guy tries to make a move on me while you’re gone? A girl alone in a bar is a target, you know?”

“If a guy hits on you, just electrocute him.” Ubica waves and walks out of the door, “I’ll be right back.”

Tsubiri pouts and starts drinking her beer with puffed out cheeks, she assumes that Ubica left for a good reason but she’s still feeling sour about being left drinking alone.

“Whatever, it’s not like anyone’s going to come and hit on me anyways...” she says to herself while shrinking her face into the glass mug.

“Hey there.” A man’s voice comes from the bar stool adjacent to her.

“Pffffth!” She spits out her drink in surprise. “An instant approach!?”

She turns to her left and sees a very attractive guy sitting next her and leaning in close with a seducing smile.

Tsubiri sighs and looks away, she can’t believe that someone would come in and hit on her literally seconds after Ubica left.

The man has flowing black hair and stunning hazel eyes, his tall and thin figure and the clothes he’s wearing gives off the impression that he is someone very important. However, this raises a red flag in Tsubiri’s mind; it’s because of this air of his that instantly causes her to be suspicious of him. An upper-class guy in a janky bar is more than enough to ring her alarm bells.

“I saw that your date left you alone, did you two get in a fight?” he asks innocently.

“Nope.” she replies bluntly.

“So he's your boyfriend?”

“Yup.”

Tsubiri is answering his questions abruptly and in such a short fashion because she is completely disinterested in anything he has to say.

The man notices this and doesn’t seem to mind, so he presses on.

“Hmm, I can see that you’re not very tolerant towards members of the opposite sex... I can help you with that, you know?”

Tsubiri pugs the rest of her beer and slams it on the bar table, she turns to him and with a frown on her face says, “Listen pal, whatever it is that you want is not going to come from me. You’re better off just walking away before you get hurt.”

The man smiles and replies, “I don’t think that there’s anything you could do that’d hurt me. Despite my appearance I’m quite strong.”

“I’m not talking about breaking your heart if that’s what you mean.”

“Neither am I.” he quickly responds.

Instead of that innocent smile that’s been plastered on his face the entire time, a devilish grin takes its place.

Electricity begins surging in Tsubiri’s fingertips as soon as she sees this threatening glare.

The two look into each other’s eyes for a moment until the man backs away from her and his gentle smile returns. “I see that my pursuit of you isn’t going to go anywhere, perhaps a woman is better suits you better?”

He turns around and walks away, not giving her a chance to say anything in return. Tsubiri watches him disappear into the crowded dark bar and she gets back to what she was doing before.

“Geez what a creep.” she says to herself as she signals the bartender for another drink.

“I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation with that guy.” said a woman sitting a few stools down from Tsubiri.

Surprised, Tsurbiri turns toward the woman, she didn’t even notice she was there until now. The woman has long and wavy black hair with light brown highlights rolling down to the tips, she’s dressed even better than the man earlier and their eyes are the same hazel color.

“Eh-Uh...”

“What’s wrong?”

“I-It’s nothing...”

(Those two kind of remind me of each other...) she thinks to herself as she snatches the drink slid to her from the other side of the table.

The woman smiles and tells the bartender, “I’ll cover this one for her.”

She then puts the money in front of her and waits for the bartender to get it whenever he gets a chance.

She turns back to Tsubiri and continues to speak,

“You were right to give that guy the cold shoulder; every woman in this area knows that he’s a scumbag. Apparently his family is very wealthy so he uses that to get with gold digging girls looking to land the big one. Once he’s done with them he dumps them like trash.”

“Oh I see... I did get a weird vibe from him.”

“Hmm a woman’s intuition never fails. Well anyways, just forget about that guy, I’d like to hear about the cute boy you were with earlier. He’s your boyfriend right?”

A little uncomfortable making conversation about Ubica with a complete stranger, she still wants to be polite so she answers, “Yeah we are, it’s been a couple months now.”

“Good for you, he’s quite the attractive man. I haven’t seen a guy like that in years.” she said, shooting a glare towards the exit as she leans her head on the back of her hand.

“Years? You’ll sound like an old lady if you say things like that.” Tsubiri replies, changing the topic off of Ubica for her own comfort.

She is curious though, the woman she’s talking to looks to be in her mid-twenties, but the way she talks makes her feel almost too wise for her appearance.

The woman doesn’t flinch when she responds, “Old enough to tell that you guys haven’t done anything with each other yet... am I right?”

Tsubiri’s shoulders jump. “Eh? W-Where did that come from?”

The woman laughs, “Your reaction tells me it’s exactly as I thought it was.”

Tsubiri doesn’t know why she can’t say anything in return; she instead just stays quiet and sinks her face in her beer mug.

“Let me ask you something.” The woman says as she leans in closer to Tsubiri, “How badly do you want him?”

In a flash, a tremendous weight overruns Tsubiri's body and her mouth seemingly moves on its own when she answers,

“A lot.”

(I didn’t want to say that...) she thinks to herself, chilled to the core upon realizing it.

The woman keeps getting closer to Tsubiri, so much so that their shoulders begin to touch.

Tsubiri is stuck in a paralytic state and cannot move; a cold sweat rolls down her cheek as the woman’s presence begins to weigh more and more on her.
“I can help you with that.” The woman whispered.

Now Tsubiri can really feel the similarities between the woman and the man that she shrugged off earlier; the way they both said this phrase, it’s almost as though they are the same exact people.

“Just one little touch; and I can make you irresistible to him. Just say the word, just tell me that this is what you want.”

The woman’s hazel eyes begin to glow into an almost gold color, they look just like it would if the sun was shining into them directly.

“Say it... Tsubiri.”

“Kkhh...”

(How did she know my name? Is she some kind of psychic??) Her mind races, unable to put her thoughts into words.

“Say it.”

The woman’s words cause Tsubiri’s mouth to open by itself; the woman smiles as she lays in wait for the words she wants to hear, but she is surprised when the words Tsubiri says is not what was expected.

“W-Who are you..?”

The woman frowns, she backs up slightly and says, “I guess it won’t hurt to tell you who I am.”

The two stare into each other’s eyes when the woman begins to say,

“My name is... Asmo-----“

“Hey sorry for the wait!” said Ubica as he sat on the seat to the right of Tsubiri.

His voice interrupted what the woman was saying and the heavy weight that plagued Tsubiri disappeared in a flash.

“Whoah!”

“Sorry, did I spook you?”

“N-No, I was just...”

She turns to the stool on the left where the woman once sat and is shocked to see that she is gone, it’s like she vanished into thin air. The bar isn’t all that big so one would figure they’d still be able to see a person that stands out as much as her somewhere, but she’s nowhere to be found.

(Who was that lady..?) she asks herself in her head.

“I’m surprised you’re not asking me where I went.” Ubica said while nudging her to get her attention.

She turns to him and puts the mysterious woman out of her mind, she assumed she was just some person who was ‘aware’ that was attempting to rob her or something.

“I can see the excitement in your face so I’ll go along with it. Where did you go?” she asks, completely swept back into his pace.

“Alright! I left to get you a present.”

Her face lights up.

“Really!?”

“Yup!”

“What is it? What is it??”

Ubica reaches into his jacket pocket and says, “Close your eyes.”

She looks at him dejectedly and says, “Ugh, if this just ends up being a kiss or something I’m going to kill you.”

“It’s not, don't ruin the moment and just shut your eyes already.”

“Huahh fine.” she replies with a sigh and shuts her eyes.

That’s when she feels Ubica’s hands slide across her face followed by the feeling of something on the bridge of her nose and in the creases of her ears.

“?”

“Okay, you can open your eyes now.”

Her bright gold eyes open and the first sight she sees is Ubica’s flushed expression through two lenses; that’s when she realizes that he had put glasses on her face.

“You know that I can actually see fine, right?”

“O-Of course I know! They aren’t functioning glasses, it’s more of an apparel item for fashion. It’s just that since we were talking about it earlier it got me thinking...”

“Thinking what?”

“That you’d look good in glasses...”

Tsubiri chuckles and asks, “Oh so you’re into that kind of thing huh? Well, did I meet your expectations?”

Ubica’s blushing face seems to shine brighter as he looks away nervously and replies, “No... you crushed my expectations by a mile. You look absolutely amazing.”

“C-Come on, no need to overdo it on the flattery. I can’t look that good.”

“I’m not overdoing it at all, I’m serious…” As if realizing that projecting his own preferences onto her could be considered offensive, he then tries to sugarcoat his reasons for presenting her with such a gift. “A-Ah it’s not like I’m saying you weren’t pretty without them or anything! I just figured you might like how you look in them too.”

“I get it.” she says with a tender smile, “If you say they look good on me, I’ll take your word for it. And if you like it then I like it too. I’ll cherish this gift, thank you Ubica.”

“That’s not the only thing I got you.”

Ubica reveals the hand he had hidden from behind his back and she finds that he is holding a large multi-colored sprinkled cupcake with a purple candle sticking out of it.

He sets it on a little plate and lights the candle with a match that he found on the bar table available for smokers.

“I know it’s not a full cake or anything, I just figured that something at least a little similar would be better than nothing... It’s chocolate by the way.”

She smiles brightly and wipes her eyes from under her new glasses, she’s fighting back tears of happiness. Tsubiri has never had the proper birthday experience she’s always longed for; when her parents abandoned her at the gates of the La’Juutian castle her youth had officially ended. In fact, she wouldn’t even know that this day is actually her birthday if it weren’t for the note her parents left with her to give to the guards of the castle that stated her general information, without that she could be any age and not even know it.

It’s because of this reason that she is so grateful to share this day with Ubica, she never would have guessed less than a year ago that she’d be celebrating her 20th birthday with someone like him. Although things have been stressful, and sometimes tragic since she met him, she wouldn’t trade any of the hardships she’s gone through if it meant she wouldn't be by his side at this very moment. This has been the happiest time of her life, and to celebrate this birthday adds confirmation to her feelings.

“I don’t even know what to say...”

[[Image:Dv06-chp01_img001color.png|260px|thumb]]

Ubica puts his hand on her shoulder and says, “You don't even need to say anything, so long as your happy that's more than enough.”

He then signals the bartender and has him come over, he leans over the counter and gestures with two fingers pointed up.

“I’d like two shots of that strong stuff you served us earlier.”

The bartender takes the same bottle with the skull and crossbones and pours two shot glasses full and slides it in front of Ubica.

Ubica takes one of the shots and hands it to Tsubiri, he then grabs the other one and holds it up while saying, “Before you blow out the candle, I want to take this shot with you.”

“Didn’t you almost throw up by just smelling it earlier? What’s with the sudden change of heart?” she asks while tilting her head.

“Trust me, having it this close to my face is burning my eyes, but that’s the whole point.”

“?”

“This is my last gift for you. I guess it’s more like an example than anything else really.”

He holds the shot glass up, prompting Tsubiri to do the same.

Looking at her square in the eye, he continues, “This is my way of showing that I will do anything for you, even if it’s something like drinking down this poisonous liquid you call a beverage, I’ll gladly do it because it means that you and I can share an experience together.”

Tsubiri is so red it looks like she’s about to explode, she’s utterly speechless while looking at the earnest expression on his face.

“That being said, let’s drink this together and celebrate your birthday knowing that I’m going to do anything it takes to be able to celebrate it with you again next year.”

Tsubiri can no longer keep the tears from falling; they roll down her cheeks as her lips rise into a beautiful smile. There are a bunch of things she wants to say back to that, the least she can do is articulate the feelings in her chest that match his.

The way she does that, is by saying,

“Cheers.”

The two drink down the shot of alcohol and celebrate this special day with a heartfelt commitment.

Nothing can destroy the fuzzy feeling of this moment shared between the two.

That is, until Ubica starts coughing as if he’s about to die, shattering the romance in an instant.

“Uwahhh! Kaaaagghhhh! I'm choking! I actually can’t breathe!” he shouts, his face turning blue as he holds his throat.

The back of his throat feels like it is being constricted by a belt, and if it weren't for that belt, a heap of something nasty would exit his mouth and likely clear the entire room.

“Bwahahaha! Here, take a bite of this, it'll help you.”

Tsubiri blows out the candle on the cupcake and proceeds to comically shove it down Ubica’s throat, laughing loudly while doing so.

This is how the two of them get along after all, things will always turn hectic one way or another.

Judging by how happy they look is proof that the two of them wouldn’t want it any other way.

------------------------

After sharing the cupcake and polishing off their drinks, the two stumble out of the bar and back onto the bustling street of the metropolis. Tsubiri is latched onto Ubica’s arm, causing him to walk off balance. The look of content on their faces is brought to them both by their shared pleasure in time spent with each other and by the effects of alcohol, Ubica seems a bit more wobbly than Tsubiri though, that one shot was enough to get a lightweight like him feeling pretty drunk.

“Hey Ubica.” Tsubiri said while leaning her head on his shoulder.

“What’s up?”

“...How about we stay like this?”

“I don’t see why not.”

“I’m not talking about right now, I’m talking about the future.”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean to ask is... How about we keep doing this? You know, just the two of us. Can’t we just forget about going back to Earth? We could find a place to settle down here and live a life without worrying about anything. We can do that right?”

“Tsubiri...”

“I know you have your goals back at home, but isn’t the life we're leading right now all you need? It’s less stressful, it’s easier, and it’s more fun..."

Tsubiri’s hiding her face deep into his shoulder so he can’t see her. However, Ubica can tell from her demeanor just how badly she wants a life like that, but he can sense that she also knows it’s not something that is possible.

She asked him that question so longingly because she knows it isn't possible, such a prospect seems like a far away fantasy.

After a few second’s pause, Ubica reveals a strained smile and replies, “I want that more than anything… But-----.”

A woman’s voice coming from the sidewalk in front of them interrupts Ubica's rejection.

“Oho well look at you two. How nice it must be to display your affection in public so easily.”

The sudden appearance of this woman has seemingly darkened the world around her and illuminated herself, making her feel like the only person in front of them.

“It’s you…” Tsubiri points out cautiously.

Standing in front of them is the suspicious woman Tsubiri had met in the bar a little while back. The woman is walking toward them with a wide smile, looking like a person who had just found a long lost treasure.

“It sure has been a while, Ubica, I’m glad to see your appearance hasn’t changed since the last time I saw you.” The woman says, continuing her menacing walk towards them.

Ubica steps in front of Tsubiri and puts up his guard. “Who are you?”

He understands that if someone knows who he is, it’s definitely someone from his past and he has to assume that the person walking toward them is an enemy.

"....."

The smiling woman just glares back at him.

“Answer me!”

She shrugs her shoulders and says, “Do you know that there is a very fine line between loving and lusting over your significant other? The two are so similar that I can operate between both."

Ubica’s eyes widen as if he’s realizing something, his mouth faintly opens and a slight groan of shock exits the back of his throat.

The woman feeds off this and says, “That girl, she loves you so much that she can’t possibly hide her lust no matter how hard she tries. Back at the bar I took the form of an attractive man to test her body’s self-control, just to find that her body only reacts to you. A lust that I can’t steal for myself is like a beacon in the gloom.”

“Y-You’re...”

“But I needed more than just her feelings alone to find you, thankfully your lust for that girl is even stronger than hers. In the end it was the guiding light of your own lust that brought me here.”

Now knowing exactly who this person is, he prepares to rush in for an attack.

But he cannot move at all, he remains planted in front of Tsubiri like a statue.

“Oho my precious Ubica, you should know that I can use the lust in your body to make it react the way I want. Don’t expect to be moving anytime soon, it takes a while to wear off.”

“Tsubiri... Run away.” Ubica said, trying to remain calm.

“I-I can’t...”

“Yes you can, just go.” he urges.

The woman reaches Ubica and puts her hands on his cheeks, she chuckles when she says, “She can’t run away because she’s in the same boat as you, she can’t move.”

“If you touch her, I’ll---”

“If you don’t want me to hurt you, you’re going to have to come with me.” She then turns to Tsubiri and says, “Oho how rude of me not to introduce myself, my name is Asmodeus, I hope you don’t mind that I steal your boyfriend away.”

Asmodeus, the only woman in the Hierarchy of the 7 Demons of Hell, shifts her face towards Ubica and proceeds to kiss him.

Ubica can't even shrink back as he feels her tongue slide down throat, in this paralytic state she has complete autonomy over him.

Tsubiri instinctively shuts her eyes tightly as she waits for it to stop; and that’s when she hears an odd sound.

It’s as though a flock of birds are flying all around her.

She opens her eyes to find that seemingly hundreds of small blackbirds are flying off from the area Ubica and Asmodeus were just standing.

Once the birds fly off and disperse, the figures of Ubica and the demon disappear.

The control over Tsubiri’s body returns and she frantically looks around the bustling metropolis to catch sight of them. She grows increasingly nervous with each second, and the way the people of the city go about their business as if nothing happened adds to her panic.

“Ubica!” she shouts as she runs into a few alleyways to find him.

After a few minutes of searching, her panic turns to hopelessness; knowing that he had just been so easily abducted has her feeling like he has gone impossibly far away in a direction she’d never guess.

He’s in danger at this moment; and in her desperation, she continues to frantically run across the city in order to find him. But running towards an unknown destination while simultaneously feeling like she may be inadvertently running in the opposite direction is enough to make her stop dead in her tracks.

She simply can’t commit to moving forward any longer and her brain shuts her body down.

Surrounded by the crowds of passersby moving about in every which way, she begins feeling like she is trapped alone within a giant beehive.

Tears fall down her face and land on the sidewalk behind her as she shouts his name at the top of her lungs.

“Ubica!!!!!!!”

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| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
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Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 9

2022-01-10T06:25:42Z

Deck of cards:

(PART 3)

(Fight him, fight him, I have to fight him!)

These thoughts are running through Lelaine’s head as Sturgess zips down his pants and readies to force himself on her.

Her body is weak, and the will to fight takes its time to reach her body in the form of any physical movement, but when it finally does, she is able to weigh her next option.

She first considers clawing and scratching at him, she can imagine the sensation of it in her fingertips. Then it molds into plucking his eyes out with her bare hands, and the image of that in her head is enough to send an electric signal into her limbs.

With this newfound strength, her next course of action dawns on her when she remembers one of the maids putting a pencil-like metal hairpin in her hair. The maid looked at her with pleading eyes as she did so, they were the eyes of someone desperately asking for Lelaine to fight back.

The light in her golden eyes shine once more and emotion resurfaces in her previously sodden face, and right before Sturgess can get close enough to enact his desires, Lelaine grabs the sharp hairpin from her hair without him noticing, and without a moment’s hesitation, stabs right into Sturgess’s neck.

“Hbbbgnnghhh!!??”

Sturgess slides off of Lelaine and grabs at his throat. Blood is gushing from his mouth, his tongue feels like a ball of barbed wire between his teeth as he struggles to breathe.

Lelaine gets up off the bed and covers her bare body with her loose robe. Ignoring the blood on her hand, she stands over him triumphantly as he gurgles for wet air.

“You’ll have a hard time raping me with that hole in your neck, you bastard.”

The first words she’s spoken in over a month came out smooth, yet simultaneously vicious.

“Nngghhckk!! Cuuaaacckk!”

By now, Sturgess’s eyes are bloodshot, looking up at her confusedly as if suddenly realizing that he’s been attacked.

With a shoddy move of his hand, he grabs at the hair pin and begins pulling; the eight inch hair pin took excruciating seconds to fully extricate, and upon doing so he desperately holds his neck as blood comes squirting out like a fountain.

“Gbbbahhhgggh!!!”

“I'm slightly offended that you’d think so little of me that you didn't see that coming.” Lelaine said, turning away from him and making her way to a dresser by the closet.

She opens a drawer and pulls out a small wooden box.

The delicate way in which she moves is not like someone who had just inflicted a fatal wound on a man, she seemingly floats effortlessly along the ground as if she were a ballerina. She opens the small box and grabs her tobacco pipe as though the sound of Sturgess’s agony were music she could dance to.

She then delicately reaches back into the box and pulls out Zurvick’s charred flask, staring at it in remembrance, she says, “I’m pleased to see that my two most important items are here. I’m not so sure I could live without my tobacco and the dearest memento of my husband.”

She holds up the flask and looks through the hole stabbed through it during the Night of the Ball, when she was delivered the terrible news and first saw the hole, she had felt sick knowing that the blade that caused this hole had caused Zurvick’s death. Now when she looks at it after all this time, she feels as though this sharp puncture in the flask is her doorway into Zurvick’s former life.

Lelaine clutches the flask into her bosom before returning it to the wooden box.

Filling the bowl of her pipe with chopped leaves of tobacco, she manages a thin smile when she says,“I bet you’re feeling pretty cold right about now.”

Lelaine then opens the balcony door and steps outside, feeling the sun on her skin for the first time in so long revitalizes her; she can’t help but think of the contrast between her and Sturgess at this very moment. While he lays there writhing, getting colder and colder with each ounce of blood lost, she takes in the sunlight of this beautiful morning like a blooming flower.

“It’s a funny thing, the situation we’ve both found ourselves in.”

Turning back to him, she lights her pipe and casually watches as he dies.

“I’m sure at one point, you were feeling warm with the fruits of your ambition. You had what no man has ever had in the very palm of your hands. You had Troy. Your only problem was that you just couldn’t live with all that power if I wasn’t included in it.”

The once tall and proud General of the army is lying on the bed in a pool of his own blood, staring back at her like a fish plucked from the ocean.

To him, it’s a surreal moment of clarity.

“Because you didn’t kill me when you had taken Troy, you’re left lying there in a heap while I stand here in the warmth of the sun watching you freeze. Even you have to admit that the irony of it all is pretty funny.”

Even though he can’t breath and the pain in his throat is unbearable, he feels as though Lelaine’s glare is the only thing killing him.

The color of the world surrounding him has begun to melt into a dark brown void, and he’s beginning to feel a weight pulling him down into this all encompassing sludge. It’s as though every paint on a color pallet were mixed together and brought to life solely to devour him.

“My country and I will forget about you, and we’ll carry on. So die here like the spineless coward you are, and know that your desire for what you could never have is what got you killed.”

The glare she looks at him with is so poignant and so familiar that it brings upon a torrent of memories swirling into his head, she had looked at him the same way when he confessed his desire to marry her when they were children, her eyes pierced him this same way when she outright rejected him upon meeting Zurvick.

Just what is this menacing beast that he put so much energy into conquering that he delved into psychosis to defeat? What has his infatuation with the queen of Troy ever brought him other than pain and misery? What is it about her that led him to this point here at death’s door?

The answer comes clear as his consciousness fades.

It was never about her.

It was always about him.

She is the living evidence of what he never deserved to have.

The glare of hers communicates what he’s always known.

It says that he has never once been good enough for the one thing he’s truly always wanted.

All of what remains of that desire will soon be his corpse at her feet.

Sturgess’s vision completely fades, and the pulling sensation he’s felt on his body has sunken him completely into the void.

He has died.

Lelaine has sensed his presence fade and the weight of his life and his control over her is lifted off her shoulders, she turns away from him and looks out to the city.

The capital of Troy is split into five boroughs by two winding rivers, and at the tip in a bend of the eastern river sits the northern borough in a land spur; this is the view Lelaine’s room looks out to from high up in the castle. The mountains shine brilliantly in the morning light, and as if serenity had conscious intentions, a gentle breeze dances through her hair.

She can’t help but take in a deep breath and allow herself to be taken away by the sight and sensations of this beautiful country she has ruled her entire adult life. In this state of mind, she begins to find the strength and will to carry on with the weight of her losses.

She can now at least entertain the thought of finding a way to live without Trojia and Zurvick so long as this country is here to take their place. As selfish as she would rather be, there’s a responsibility to protect Troy and her people that are fighting for her at this very moment. Even though she wants to give up on the world that has left her alone without her family, there is still the hope of others to live on for.

“I’ll smoke to that.” She says, bringing the pipe to her lips. “Zurvick, Trojia, you two will have to wait for me to get to you. There’s still a lot of work left to do here.”

------------------------------

“Was it worth it?” came Satan’s voice from within the void.

“Nothing is worth this.”

“Well, I can give you another chance.”

“Another chance?”

Satan’s voice has surrounded Sturgess just like the void has, but the voice has become the only thing alive for Sturgess to grasp onto.

“The power you let slip away because of your desire for Lelaine, I can give it back to you if you truly wish for it. Now that you see that you can’t have her, wouldn’t the next best thing be good enough? If you want to live, fulfill my contract and kill her. You still have a chance to rule this world.”

Sturgess can’t even move his face to express any form of reaction to this new opportunity. He’s simply a corpse in the dark brown void trapped from the outside looking in.

“Kill… Lelaine?”

Yet somehow, the thought of killing her sent a pulsating force beating into his chest, bringing sensation back to his limbs.

It’s at this moment, a light appears in front of him and gleams into his dead eyes. The light is the first form of warmth he’s felt since before he was stabbed in the neck, it has felt like ages since this sensation was last pulsating at his skin.

Now his entire body can move.

His shoddy hand longingly reaches out to the warmth of the light.

“Do you accept the conditions of this contract?”

“I…”

His hand is tantalizingly close to touching the light.

It’s taking everything he has inside to accept the meaning of this light.

But the thought of a life in power is just enough for him to make the choice clear.

“I accept!!”

The light is grasped, and a contract is signed.

--------------------

Exhaling out a big plume of smoke that was immediately taken away by the mountain breeze, Lelaine lets herself relax. All that is left for her to do is await the arrival of the rebellion and she can begin the process of healing her country and reuniting her people; though the task sounds daunting, she finds herself feeling motivated at the prospect of coming out of this a stronger nation than before.

Each puff of her pipe is more pleasurable than the last, it could be because she has been separated from her vice for so long, or it could be the victorious nature of this moment. Whatever it is has made her appreciate the life she will be fortunate enough to live going forward despite the absence of the two people she cares about most.

“Don’t get so comfortable, Lelaine.”

The deep voice of Sturgess came from the queen’s suite like an avalanche coming off a mountain.

It was so jarring that Lelaine froze instead of becoming shocked by it.

She slowly turns around to find that a bloodied Sturgess is standing, alive and even more menacing than before. The wound on his neck is healed, and a churning black smoke is emanating from where the wound was and is orbiting around his body.

His threatening presence exudes an unbridled power that seemingly pushes an extra force of gravity on Lelaine’s shoulders, the terrific power is proof enough that the monster in front of her is untouchable.

No eight inch metal pin to the jugular can stop him, no magical weapon could she produce to fight back against such an overwhelming force.
Trapped on the balcony, she quickly comes to the realization that her life is now completely in his evil hands.

But despite this, she still smiles.

“You think I’m uncomfortable now?” she asks.

“You certainly should be. As surprised as I was to find that you still had the will to fight back, in the end you’re nothing but a regular frail woman up against an unstoppable man.”

“Hah, unstoppable man. You lie to yourself with such ease that even I have a hard time not pitying you. You’re a fraud with the power of someone else that you claim to be your own.”

Sturgess scowls at her, angered at the fact that she stands there unafraid and unsurprised by his sudden leap back to life from well within death’s door.
The woman in front of him can still be arrogant despite the difference in strength, and as much as he hates her for it, it has always been the driving force of his desire for her.

“Not this time.” he says with gritted teeth. “You aren’t going to defeat me with your words either. You’re going to learn here and now that I have finally won!”

“And how will you do that?” she asks, taking a puff out her pipe and leaning her backside against the stone railing of the balcony. “Will you finally have the nerve to kill me?”

Understanding the contract he had signed with Satan that brought him back to life, he knows that killing her is exactly what he must do.

“I can do it!.”

“Oh?”

“But killing you won’t be enough to have truly won. I need to take everything from you. by killing every last person still loyal to you with my own two hands, I will take your people. By adjusting the very foundation of Troy the way I see fit, I will take your country from you.”

Sturgess then spreads his arms out triumphantly, pushing out the black smoke orbiting him and making his shirtless frame bigger.

“But to take it all!” he declares. “I need to take your body from you!”

It’s at this moment, the snake’s voice comes from within the smoke.

“Why would you risk losing it all again for something as meaningless as her body?”

“Because that is the only way I’ll win!” Sturgess replies with a cockeyed smile. “You don’t think I haven’t realized that if I kill her, you’re going to be the only one who wins?? I accepted that offer knowing just that, it’s something I’m willing to sacrifice, but you can’t have your victory before I have mine damn it!”

Satan stays silent from within the smoke, his silence seemingly accepting what Sturgess has to say.

“The contract I signed says that I must kill her, but it doesn’t stipulate when that needs to happen. I can kill her, and I will! But I need to defeat her first! I need to taste victory for myself first!”

“So you’ll continue on this path… very well then. Fulfill the contract as you deem fit.”

The presence of the snake disappears, and even Lelaine can sense that what is left standing in front of her is a truly depraved shell of the person she had grown up with. He’s no different from a bloodhound now, he has the scent of Lelaine and is simply unable to follow the path towards anything else.

She has finally come to the conclusion that there is one way to fight against a blood thirsty vampire that can only survive off the nutrients of her body.

“What a pathetic mess you are, Sturgess.” Lelaine said, lifting herself onto the stone railing and sitting completely on the edge of it. “To so casually reveal what I need to do to make sure you’ll always consider yourself the loser you and I both know you as.”

“What do you think you could possibly do to stop me now?” he asks, still smiling confidently as he inched his way towards her.

“I’ll take away your sweet victory.”

“..?”

By now, Lelaine is dangling her feet off the ground, shifting her center of gravity further back as she takes another drag from her pipe.

“You see, upon your death I had just finally found motivation to live on. As hard as it is for me to accept that Zurvick and Trojia are gone, I had come to realize that there was still something worth living for. That doesn’t mean that dying has suddenly became a less desirable option however, I’m just as comfortable with either, truly.”

Sturgess begins feeling a pressure in his chest as a new threat has presented itself in front of him.

“You wouldn’t…”

Striking a subtle pose meant to antagonize him, Lelaine reveals a weaponized smile that shines in the sunlight.

[[File:LelaineBT.jpg|thumb]]

At this very moment, a breeze comes off the eastern mountains and gently tosses her golden hair to the side and wisps away the smoke from her pipe as she flicks the ashen remnants of her tobacco.

“Living and dying are my only two options left to me as I sit here now. How can I choose life when the other option means defeating you?”

“Lelaine, get off that balcony right now.” Sturgess’s voice wavered when he said that, and he doesn’t want to make any sudden moves that may push her off the edge.

In his craze, he had never thought that Lelaine would be willing to die to avoid him. It’s likely that the narcissistic lens in which his mind works within simply didn’t allow himself to think that he’d be an option worse than death. How could he have possibly thought that he was so repugnant that anyone would sooner kill themselves then allow his touch?

The sudden realization of this is a devastating blow.

“Oh, I’ll be off of this balcony soon enough.”

“W-Wait!” Sturgess pleas cautiously, “You’d really give up on yourself just like that? Just what the fuck were you staying alive this long for then!?”

“I lived because I hoped.” She smoothly answers, Lelaine doesn’t blink as she continues, “That flask, you know as well as I do how lucky Zurvick is… If that one knife wound through that flask wasn’t enough to kill him by itself, then there was hope that he’d still be alive.”

Hearing her say that is yet another blow to the deranged general, she’d live through hell just for the hope of seeing Zurvick again, but die like a dog to avoid him.

He’d be foolish not to understand that this has always been the case after spending so many years as a spectator to their love, but the further he’s gone down this path of madness with the Devil, the more the reality of it had driven him so deep into his madness that there’s nothing of a normal human remaining.

“Then don’t!”

Sturgess hesitates to continue, and grits his teeth at the thought of telling her the truth to keep her alive. If she will die to beat him and live for Zurvick, he must do what it takes to not lose the one thing he wants most.

“Zurvick is alive!”

“Oh?” Lelaine skeptically tilts her head.

“He’s fighting with the rebellion as we speak, he might even be the one to run through that door to save you!”

This sudden confession has brought upon an expression of surprise to Lelaine’s face.

Sturgess feels like he’s reaching her. If he can convince her that Zurvick is coming to her rescue, she’ll keep herself alive long enough for Sturgess to kill them both comfortably with his upgraded power.

“So get down off that ledge and wait for him.”

With these thoughts in mind, the face of a lying schemer is what is presented even though he is telling the truth.

Keen on the physical tell of these thoughts of his, Lelaine replies, “I refuse. Like I'd ever believe the sugary words of a man on the verge of losing everything.”

“I’m telling you the truth!” Sturgess gestures with his hands. “I had thought he was dead too, but I saw a picture of him in the paper alongside the rebels just this morning, and before I got to you I saw him with my own two eyes fighting at the gate!”

Her steely glare never leaving Sturgess and never once wavering upon hearing what she believes to be an attempt to trick her, she smoothly allows some devastating words to leave her lips.

“I’ve heard enough out of you, I won’t let you patronize my resolve any longer.”

“Lelaine, just listen to me!”

“The answer is no, Sturgess.” Tilting herself completely back, she still manages to look him square in the eyes with a triumphant smile when she says, “You lose yet again.”

As soon as she finished saying that, she tilted her upper body backwards and flung herself off the balcony.

“!!”

“LELAINE!”

Rushing into the room at just the right time to see the form of Lelaine falling off the balcony, Zurvick had stumbled upon a nightmare.

Without a moment’s hesitation he runs after her, quickly sprinting past a frozen in shock Sturgess and lunging his arm over the railing of the balcony in a desperate attempt to reach her.

“NOOO!!”

The attempt is futile.

He’s now watching her fall.

In her rapid descent, Lelaine had heard Zurvick calling out her name, but with heightened senses assaulting every inch of her body, his voice came to her as though it were a dream through the wind. Hearing his faint voice has reminded her that she is falling towards the place where her beloved husband is, and the thought of it allows her a smile of comfort, almost relieved that the trials she has been put under over the last year has come to an end.

(My love.) She thinks to herself, time slowing down but the wind blowing in her ears increasingly grows louder. (My daughter.)

In the waning moments of her life, the memories she’s shared with Zurvick and Trojia replay in her head in astonishing detail. From meeting Zurvick for the first time, to giving birth to Trojia, to dinners spent laughing with the two of them, it all came rushing into her mind like a waterfall of emotion.

(We’ll all be together again soon.)

Feeling grateful and prepared for what’s next, Lelaine's body twists in the air and now she finds herself looking up towards the 25th floor balcony from which she jumped from.

It’s in this very short moment that time comes to a complete stop for her.

Frozen in a waking instant, her vision is heightened to the point that she can make out the details of Zurvick’s face staring down at her.

She can see the twisted fear on his face.

Her hearing becomes so heightened that she can now hear him calling out her name as clear as it would if he were right in front of her.

She can hear the desperation and sadness in his voice as he calls out to her.

In this heightened state of awareness, she has come to realize that what she’s seeing is not an illusion and what she’s hearing is not the voice of a phantom.

Zurvick is alive.

Her eyes widen in shock, and she takes a sharp gasp of despair that ever so suddenly fills her heart with regret.

Time returns to normal and the loud noise of the wind rushes back into her ears in a gale.

SPPLLAASSHHH!!!

Her body lands in the moat surrounding the castle in a devastating impact.

From the very top floor all the way down to the ground is a fall of 250 feet, and Lelaine’s body fell in at terminal velocity.

She died instantly.

Zurvick can see her lifeless body float in the water of the moat with a circle of red around her.

Down there is the woman he vowed to spend the rest of his life with, the mother of his daughter, the person he loves most in the world. Down there is the woman that will never come back to him, he’ll never be able to touch her again and she’ll never touch him again.

They will never see each other again despite being so tantalizingly close to being reunited.

His tongue grows very dry and he has a hard time breathing as he drops to his knees and puts his head up against the smooth stone railing of the balcony.

His body begins to convulse as though he was struck by a gust of the most bitterly cold wind.

Because he didn’t make it back in time, his wife is dead.

It's likely that the two of them suffered the exact same emotion just before she landed, finally being so close to each other, but impossibly far away is the worst possible fate for duo.

His body is so overcome with shock, despair, and regret that he can't even cry.

Sturgess on the other hand remains frozen in disbelief.

He had just been defeated in the most insulting way to him.

She truly meant what she said all these years, she truly rejected every last bit of him.

Now he is left with nothing, and the loss of purpose is almost enough to cripple him mentally.

In his daze he locks onto the form of Zurvick and replaces the emotions that have come with his sudden defeat with a burning rage.

He still can not come to blame himself for his loss, and quickly shifts responsibility onto Zurvick’s shoulders. After all, it was his appearance back when they were kids that spelled the end of his chances with Lelaine and the beginning of many years of torment. The person in front of him had stolen the life he had always wanted, lived as a king and had the unrivaled love of the woman he felt he had to have in order to survive.

To Sturgess, Zurvick never even had to work for it. Zurvick was just as lucky as always, constantly in the right place at the right time and reaping the benefits of such luck at the expense of those around him.

“It’s your fault!” he shouts towards Zurvick’s back. “You didn’t make it here in time to save her and now I have nothing!!”

Zurvick hasn’t even turned to acknowledge the powerful beast in his room, the menacing presence isn’t near enough to steal away his stuck gaze on Lelaine’s corpse floating in the moat below.

Sturgess points his hands at Zurvick’s back and prepares to blow Zurvick to bits, the cloud that was surrounding him swirls and forms in front of his palms.

With just one push, he will kill Zurvick and destroy the last external being left to blame for his ultimate failure.

But before he could exact his pathetic revenge, the snake exits out of the pentagram on the back of his hand.

“You will do no such thing, General.”

“Get out of my way, snake! I’m going to kill him!”

“No no, you’ve failed to understand me, your body is now forfeit.”

The next heartbeat Sturgess feels is so intense that it buckles him to his knees and he coughs out blood.

“Gbbbhhaaah!?” He holds his chest in anguish as he moans. “W-What!?”

“You shouldn’t be so surprised, this was in the contract after all.”

“Nnnggghh! I never promised you anything of the sort!”

The snake begins slithering around Sturgess’s neck as it continues to speak, “You’re wrong General, you promised me everything if I gave you everything.”

“But you haven’t given me that!”

“That’s because you didn’t fulfill your end of the bargain.”

“!?”

The pain Sturgess is feeling is almost unbearable, the bulging veins in his forehead and neck are pulsating and are taking on the appearance of squirming black worms under his skin.

“All you needed to do was kill the Queen and you would have joined me in taking over this world. Instead, you allowed her to kill herself, you broke the one very specific rule of our newly formed contract.”

“What difference does it make if she’s dead by my hands or not!? How could you betray me like this!?”

The snake’s eyes glow a bright red, and to Sturgess it looks like it is sneering at him, mocking his pain and confusion.

“The difference is that I knew you could never actually kill the one thing you needed most, and I was predicting Lelaine’s actions upon the threat of your existence. You see, she was the only one I couldn’t temp after all, she was the only one strong enough to take fate into her own hands. Just because she is that way, you ended up breaking our contract and betraying yourself.”

In the end, Satan has simply done what he has always been known to do; the master conniver has again fooled another victim. By presenting delusions of grandeur as reality and offering people their wildest dreams on a gold platter, he tempts them into signing a contract that only he can benefit from. Every man he’s made a deal with loses out in the end, Sturgess is no different.

Sturgess had no clue that if he was not personally the one to kill the Queen he’d lose his body and soul, and that is because the rewards flashed before his eyes at the time clouded his judgment. He had truly been led down a path where it seemed like he had control over the powers given to him, he had believed that he had autonomy over how the contract would be carried out and how much time was afforded to him to do it.

“Y-You double crossing bastard!”

“If only you were as smart as Lelaine, you’d have avoided this dreadful fate.”

“No... I won’t allow this!” Sturgess shouts at the snake, the reality of his situation is beginning to make him panic.

“You truly no longer have a choice.”

All of the snake’s scales fly off its skin and roam around Sturgess’ head like a swarm of bees; the body of the snake then dissolves into what looks to be a fine powder and storms into every opening in Sturgess’ face. It would seem that this is very painful for him because his screams of agony are loud enough to hurt Zurvick’s ears.

After a few agonizing moments, Sturgess’ hair turns jet black and the blackened veins bulging in his forehead and cheeks grow even larger.

Satan’s poison is eating him alive.

This is a hostile takeover of a human body; what he’s experiencing is far worse than any average possession by a demon. He’s literally having his soul ripped from his body.

“I have reserved a special spot in Hell for people consumed by Lust such as yourself.” Satan’s voice echoes around Sturgess’ screams. “You will become nothing but a statistic in the mass numbers of men who are to be swept by terrible winds to and fro without any hope of rest for all eternity. A fitting punishment for your final failure.”

When he is referring to never ending winds blowing people all about he is talking about the Second Level of Hell; the place where humans who lived their lives consumed by lust are doomed to. In the Second Level, a wind so loud and so severe blows that the constant torrent sends naked men and women bashing into each other violently, making sure that each contact with one’s skin results in nothing but the pain of broken bones instead of pleasure. This torture continues forever as they are doomed to never sleep, eat, and drink. They must endure the pain of the ear shattering noise of the wind and the horrors that go along with it for every waking moment.

“Noooo!!! This can’t be happening! This is not how it’s supposed to be!!” Sturgess shouts in denial.

“I do have to thank you for your splendid sacrifice though, I’ve been dreaming of this day for over a thousand years.”

“I am supposed to be someone that achieves greatness in life! Someone who gets everything that he’s ever wanted! It can’t end like this!!”

Sturgess’ eyes roll back in his head and his tongue seems to shrivel to the back of his throat as his humid mouth becomes as dry as a desert. With one final gasp of air, his breathing stops, and as stiff as a board he falls backwards and leans on the wall.

He twitches a couple times when seemingly out of nowhere a black tornado of wind swirls all around his body and he is engulfed.

The wind is so hard that it’s leaving gashes in the wall of the castle behind him and sending lightweight items of the room swirling all about.

After a few seconds of this the wind suddenly stops and the room is peppered with an eerie silence; only a ball of smoke surrounds his body and that slowly dissipates, finally revealing the man in the middle.

There stands Sturgess with a smile on his face.

His hair is completely black, his eyes that were rolled in the back of his head just moments earlier are now positioned forward and shine in an evil red glow.

Resting atop his forehead is a black pentagram.

Just these three things are enough to show that this is not Sturgess any longer, and that truth becomes even more evident when the man begins to speak.

“It’s done... I have returned to this world once more!” The voice of Satan exits out of Sturgess’ mouth as he spreads his arms in triumph.

Zurvick is just standing there speechless, he was told by London and the others that this is what they were fighting to avoid at all costs, but something as far-fetched as the Devil taking over Sturgess’s body and replanting himself on the face of the world was a little beyond him. Actually seeing it happen before his eyes is borderline maddening, especially when he could've stopped it if he made it to Lelaine in time.

The guilt of it all has absolutely crushed him.

“I must say King Zurvick, you’ve done nothing but help me since you’ve returned. I was worried that Sturgess would lose control and easily be defeated by you and the Knights once you gallantly returned to save your beloved. But all it did was hurry him into one bad decision after the other.”
Satan walks to the frozen Zurvick and continues to speak.

“You know this whole thing, the war, the kidnappings of your daughter and the others, that was all a precursor to this moment. Everything was for me to rise once more. I’ve gambled everything on this chess game of mine, I sacrificed every piece I’ve placed a thousand years worth of my power into just to get to where I am now.”

Satan can see the dead look in Zurvick’s eyes as every word that exits his mouth stabs into the broken King like knives.

“If it weren’t for you, I’m not so sure I would have won this game.”

Zurvick’s reaction to his words feeds his pleasure.

“My final chess piece was Sturgess. And the enemy King piece was none other than Lelaine... Would you like to know why?”

“.....”

Zurvick can’t speak, he’s heard the gist of this ‘Chess Game’ between Noah and Satan but couldn’t see it as anything more than a figure of speech.

“I saw all of this coming.” Satan says with a confident smile, “I knew that this country would fight back after a hostile takeover from Sturgess, I knew that there’d be thousands of deaths in this city. In fact, I was already thinking ahead of even that when I took the General’s soul. You see, I am the Devil, but with only a fraction of my strength in this vessel I'd still be vulnerable to mass numbers. If the population of La’Juune and Eiyalazo were to attack me it's very likely that I'd be defeated eventually if I were to fight by myself. I needed a contingency plan so I figured I’d take advantage of the fact that along with your daughter, my son abducted the Angel of Death and sent them to Purgatory. Sure there are other reapers desperately trying to send souls to their proper destinations but they’re not enough to do it all. He stole the one man who could harvest the souls of all the lives lost in this world war.”

Satan can still sense that Zurvick is borderline clueless about where he’s going with this so he decides to get to the point.

“What if I told you that I have my own reapers collecting souls? Well I have many, and the majority of them are here today, around this very castle, specifically for this very rebellion.”

“You can’t mean...”

“Oh you’re starting to get it now huh? That’s good, I hope you understand that in order to win in any game, sacrifices must be made. In this case, in order to raise my army once more, a certain amount of souls must be sacrificed.”

Zurvick takes a deep gasp of air as what Satan is planning on doing finally hits him. He’s heard the stories of the Apocalypse, he’s heard that in order to raise an army from Hell, the Antichrist killed off millions of people at once and used their souls to do it. What Satan is saying is that he’s planning on doing the same thing and he’s using the deaths of this rebellion as a kick-start.

“Everyone in this castle will be used as kindling for the flame of my victory. No soul shall escape, they will all be used to bring about my full power.”

Satan takes another step towards Zurvick and puts his hand on his shoulder. The mere touch from the Devil is enough to break a man but it would seem that Zurvick has already long been in pieces.

As if pitying him, Satan reveals a smug expression. “But don’t worry my fair King. I won’t use your wife’s soul, instead I’ll send it where it belongs. I’m sure you’ve heard about the unfair fate of those who commit suicide?”

“!!”

“She’ll be in Hell for all of eternity. Far from the reach of tenderness from any man. She’ll be in a state of despair, suffering through the regrets of her past life forever.”

Zurvick’s breathing becomes shoddy and his body begins to rock back and forth.

“What do you think of that?” Satan asks as he squeezes onto his shoulder. “What do you think about that being your fault? How will you deal with that? Would it make you want to die?”

“.....”

He doesn’t answer.

“I could end it for you now. You wouldn’t have to see the world become swallowed by my darkness, you wouldn’t have to suffer with the guilt of knowing that you played a direct role in it. I can give you the easy way out if you simply say the word.”

“.....”

It’s very likely that Zurvick would rather die than live through that kind of pain, but sadly he can’t even speak. His loss is too great, not only did he lose his wife but he’s lost her in a way that she’ll be forced to spend the rest of time in Hell. The guilt he feels for that is enough to constrict his heart so badly that he has trouble breathing.

Satan releases his grip on his shoulder and says, “Killing you would only be doing you a favor, a much stiffer punishment for coming a few seconds too late is for you to remain alive.”

Satan walks to the window and peers outside.

“I think you deserve to watch your Kingdom and your people… the entire world, all succumb to me. I think that you should watch closely as they worship me and address me as God, and live with the fact that you had a chance to stop it.”

These words absolutely demolish Zurvick, he throws his face in his hands and stares at the ground with small pupils peering through the gaps between his fingers. The look in his green eyes is that of pure devastation.

“Now go.” Satan says as he gestures towards the door, “Get out of my castle, and live the rest of your pathetic life with this guilt as your burden.”

Zurvick fumbles as he takes his first few steps until he shoddily turns his head toward the dresser, seeing his charred flask. He takes it out of the box and squeezes it tightly against his chest, he then somehow steadies himself as he exits the room.

Leaving this once warm room filled with memories of many happy nights spent together with Lelaine in the hands of the Devil is a dreadful pain he’ll never forget the feeling of.

Zurvick makes his way down a flight of stairs from the top floor of the castle and ends up on the level where he last saw London. In a blank haze he is walking down the bloodstained hallways of his home, weaving his way through the bodies of his own countrymen.

These dead men, all of them, whether they fought for the Queen or for Sturgess, their efforts were all for the benefit of Satan, their souls are just going to be sacrificed for a different cause. There are still people fighting even now but their figures are all blurry to him and their screams don’t reach him, he can only hear the sound the blood makes under his feet with each step.

He’s in such a daze that even the enemy soldiers pay no mind to him as they don’t see him as a threat, to them he’s just another casualty of mental illness on the battlefield.

He takes a slight turn to the left and sees an even more gruesome sight, dozens of dead bodies tattering the area around London as he walks towards another batch of frightened enemy soldiers.

The Knight is such a force that a group of ten soldiers are scared stiff of him; the men allied with Sturgess have been trying to find a way past him this entire time and every last one of them has failed miserably.

But there is someone brave enough to stand in front of those ten frightened soldiers and confront the Knight. He is Anders Henson, one of the co-conspirators of Sturgess' coup, and the leader of the Royal Guard.

"I don't know who the hell you think you are, but you're blocking the path to my King." Anders said, he wears a bitter frown as he walks towards London.

"Captain!" One of the frightened soldiers behind him shouts in relief as though Anders' appearance is their salvation.

London simply sighs and replies, "Ah, I see. So you're the leader of the pack?"

"Step aside." Anders demands.

"Not until the true King exits that door." London said as he gestures down the hallway leading to the Queen's room.

"Fine then, it's about time I shake off some rust. I haven't fought in a while."

Anders rushes London without another word. He pulls out his sword in a full sprint and holds it up above his head for a downwards strike.

London doesn't even flinch, he smoothly takes his right leg and pivots forward. Immediately after that simple motion, a gurgled moan is heard.

"Gbbbhh!?"

"Didn't anyone ever tell you not to blindly charge an enemy? You should've taken your time to at least see what kind of weapon I have."

That weapon, the fencing sword, has been stabbed into the back of Anders' throat through his mouth.

One must wonder how this happened so fast, Anders certainly wants to know, and London answers.

"I use this sword because it causes confusion in an enemy's depth perception. The blade's thin, very thin, so if you're not careful you'd think that I was swinging it further away than it actually is."

London twists on the pointed fencing sword and blood gushes out of Anders' mouth. The pain causes the leader of the castle's guard to collapse onto his knee.

"In this case." London continues, "You couldn't judge the space between us by looking at the front of my sword. You probably thought you had plenty of room. That's why when in doubt you should always look at the arm of the man swinging the sword."

The Knight pushes the blade deeper into his throat and Anders begins to fall back.

"Auuuaaahhgghh!!"

"Too bad no one taught you that."

Without any further ado, London pushes his weight into the sword and it skewers through his throat and out the back of his neck. As if that wasn't enough, London swings his sword to the side and sends half of Anders face flying in a gale of blood.

It's definitely overkill, but he only did that because if he pulled straight back out, the blood would've sprayed on his shirt. Instead it sprayed on all the onlooking men who had thought that they were going to be saved by their captain.

London killed him so easily that it sent even more fear into them.

The Knight's glare turns to those men and with it, a few of them make nervous groans as if they've just been spotted by a bear alone in the woods.
This is when London starts walking towards them. It's obvious what he intends to do once he closes the gap.

However...

Out of the corner of his eye, London catches sight of Zurvick and turns to him.

“King Zurvick? What are you doing here so soon?”

Zurvick doesn’t answer and simply walks right on past him and right on past the confused enemy soldiers. London is bewildered as well; he wonders what has put him in such a state and what could possibly be the reason for his separation from his wife at the top floor.

Then it hits him, the many different situations roll through his mind at once and his eyes instantly widen.

He makes his way past the frightened men in pursuit of Zurvick, as he leaves the enemy soldiers with some final parting words.

“The battle’s over.”

The men don’t do anything and just stand there as London runs after Zurvick.

London grits his teeth and has genuine worry in his eyes when he thinks to himself,

(I have a bad feeling about this...)

--------------------------

Ash is at the bottom floor of the castle, her day of fighting has ended because this certain floor, and just about the entire castle has been won over by the rebellion. The remaining enemies still fighting are completely surrounded and it is only a matter of time before they surrender.

The mass of loyal Trojans are already celebrating their hard fought victory, and Ash is no exception. For the most part, this is her first real battle. To have it happen here and for this cause, and to obtain victory is more euphoric than she could have ever imagined.

“I can’t believe we did it.” Ash says as she leans up against a staircase in somewhat of an exhausted fashion. “We won...”

She smiles wholeheartedly and takes a look around, through the carnage of this morning, happiness has broken through. A new surge of emotion brews in her chest and all she can think about is Zurvick, she figures he’s probably enjoying his reunion with the Queen at this moment, but that won’t stop her.

After taking a deep breath of determination she says to herself, “Alright! Let’s go find him!”

She begins to run up the large staircase leading to the upper levels of the castle and weaves her way through a couple people when,

Thunk!

She nails someone straight on.

She barely keeps herself from falling down the stairs and after grabbing the guardrail she instinctively shouts, “Hey watch where you're going!”

That’s when she catches a glimpse of the person her verbal assault was directed towards. She recognizes the man, and can tell right away that the life in his eyes has been dulled, it’s as though she has just run into a zombie.

“Zurvick!?” she shouts in surprise.

------------------

“Damn it all, how the hell could I lose track of him?” London says to himself while squeezing his temples in annoyance. “He’s walking a grand total of no miles per hour for Christ’s sake.”

London is up on the tenth floor of the castle and is quite angered at the fact that he lost track of Zurvick in the fray. Even though he was walking lifelessly and rather slow; he managed to blend in with the thousands of people making their way throughout the castle.

To be perfectly honest, he’s not the only one wearing that kind of face and moving around with that kind of demeanor. Nonetheless he was still careless, for one of the Knights to get distracted so easily is pretty embarrassing.

Trying to find the stairs down and pushing people out of the way in the process, he stumbles upon a few familiar faces in the crowd. Coming up the clustered stairs are Ebihara Seiri, Haas Avondale, and Lennox Applewood.

Their appearances are completely different from everyone else because they are completely unscathed and have this disinterested air about them whilst everything around them is so hectic.

Lennox shoves a guy out of the way and waves to London. “Yooo! There you are, for a second there I thought we’d never find you in this cluster-fuck of humanity.”

“Now that we have, can we go home now? We’ve won this battle already so there’s nothing keeping us here.” Seiri added.

Haas stays completely silent like usual.

London sighs and pushes up his glasses; his voice turns solemn when he replies, “Something’s telling me that we didn’t win this one...”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m sure we’ll find out at any moment now.”

---------------------

Zurvick ignores Ash’s presence and walks right past her as if she were a ghost. He slowly makes his way through all of the cheering Trojans and heads toward the large front door of the castle. The morning sunlight beams through that open door and it makes Ash feel as if he is going to walk into the light and never return.

She immediately pursues him and rushes to his side. “What’s wrong, Zurvick!?”

The broken Zurvick just keeps his wide eyed glare directly toward the light in which he is walking to.

With yet another snuff of a reply from him, Ash shows her frustration and kicks him about as hard as she can in the shin.

But this time he didn’t even flinch.

His reaction is completely different from normal, he should have hit the deck and shouted ridiculously.

Not seeing that reaction, her frustration is replaced by a heart pounding anxiety.

“Z-Zurvick... where’s the Queen?”

This question finally gets an answer, but not one that Ash wanted to hear.

Outside of the castle proper, a cool late morning breeze hits them as the light from the sun reflects off their bodies. The smell of fresh air replaces the smell of blood that their noses had gotten used to inside the castle.

With the breeze blowing through his hair, he slowly turns to her and answers,

“...She’s gone.”

----------------------------

“It’s time.” Satan said as he walked out on the balcony where Lelaine had jumped from.

About a hundred feet above him is the crow’s nest that holds the Trojan flag atop it; he simply looks up and he begins levitating towards it. Standing impossibly on the thin flag pole, he takes a deep breath and holds his finger out. From above comes a little black orb that floats down and lands on his fingertip.

“Hmmm... Not quite enough yet.” he says as he squeezes the orb in his palm.

He then drops it and it stops its fall directly below his feet. With a snap of his finger, the orb flattens and expands to form a massive pentagram that surrounds the entirety of the castle from above.

This is obviously some kind of seal, and if one looked at it closely, they could see that all the little intricate designs of it hold similarity to the seal used to bind Ubica to the eternal lake during the Apocalypse.

“But I don’t need many more souls to complete this seal. The ones left in the castle should be more than enough for now.”

With a couple hand gestures, Satan then slams his open palm down towards the pentagram seal and it turns bright purple.

It begins to spin as he says, “All men in this castle, I hereby claim you as enemies. As punishment, I demand your souls!”

The pentagram seal shoots downwards and makes its way through the castle while spinning.

This pentagram is actually a spell used to consume the souls of the living in mass numbers, once the mass of the pentagram reaches the bottom floor, everyone who survived the gruesome battle for the Queen will be wiped out.

-----------------------

On the tenth floor, London and the other three Knights stand cautiously as a rumbling sound from above makes its way down towards them.

The rest of the men in the hallway are clueless as to what is going on and are continuing in the reverie of their victory. Then a bang is heard so loud from above it actually stops them in their tracks, they all look up like turkeys on a rainy day and wonder what that sound was.

As if answering their worries, a man in a Cardinal's robe rushes down a flight of stairs that leads to the next floor.

The man is none other than Cardinal Luudnt and the men alongside the Knights instantly recognize him.

They figured that the Cardinal has been in hiding this entire time judging by his unscathed appearance, but the look on his face is absolute fear as he makes his way towards London and the others while shouting,

“RUN, RUN!!! IT’S COMING!!! IT’S--------“

All of the sudden, following him down the stairwell is a massive gust of wind that shatters every window of the hallway in its path. Four or five windows shatter before the wind hits Cardinal Luudnt and a purple orb of light screams out of his mouth, breaking his jaw and taking teeth along with it.

The Cardinal’s body falls lifelessly to the ground in a thud as if someone had dropped a sack of potatoes.

That purple orb then flies through the wind and makes its way back upstairs as if it was vacuumed by something.

This sight was all it took for the remainder of the men to turn away from the ensuing gust of wind and run as fast as possible to the lower floors.

London on the other hand, tries his best to remain calm and turns to the others.

He pushes up his glasses and his usual calm demeanor shatters when he shouts,

“We need to get out of the castle now!!!”

The other three don’t ask questions and quickly jump to their right and directly through the closed windows of the hallway, shattering the glass with the weight of their bodies and sending themselves flying into the open. Once outside, the rushing wind from inside the castle blows the already broken glass in their direction as they fall and they can only cover themselves as the loud sound of the passing air surrounds them.

They have narrowly avoided having their souls sucked out of them, but they are not out of danger just yet.

And Lennox points this out while the shards of glass chase them as they fall.

“HOLY SHIT THAT’S A LONG WAY DOWN!!!”

-----------------------

“What do you mean she’s gone..?” Ash asks in disbelief.

Zurvick’s face twitches awkwardly for a moment, he turns away from her and begins to walk across the bloodstained bridge over the moat from the battle earlier. He has no intention of going into detail about Lelaine, if possible, he’d like to block the entire thing from his mind somehow since reliving it is just too painful.

Ash doesn’t let him get off easy however, she latches onto him and again asks, “What do you mean!?!?”

Now Zurvick frowns, he turns to her, grabs her shoulders and shakes her violently. “What else could I possibly mean!? She’s dead, Captain, my wife is dead!”

Faced with his sudden outburst, Ash is left speechless. She’s never seen such pain in a person’s eyes, she’s never heard such despair in someone’s voice.

Until now.

The fact that it has come from him of all people is enough to break her heart.

Zurvick lets go of her and falls to his knees, it would seem that his own words made the reality of his wife’s death all the more realistic. His shoulders drop and his head hangs low as tears start to fall from his eyes for the first time in what seems to be years.

The sobs of the person Ash cares about the most hurts her ears, she had never thought she’d see him in such a state. This is the man that she has only seen smile for as long as she can remember, she now feels that he’ll never smile again; it will be replaced permanently by the expression he’s wearing now.

What can she do to give him back that smile?

What can she say that will help ease his pain?

Is there even anything that can do that?

Ash doesn’t know, and she doubts heavily that her words will even reach him at this moment, but she decides that this is the only thing she can do for him.

She leans down to his level and grabs onto each of his cheeks, she looks him square in the eye and says,

“Listen Zurvick... I’m so sorry, I don’t know what happened but I need you to know that all isn’t lost.“

Zurvick is sobbing uncontrollably, the heat of the falling tears on his face feels like hot lava on Ash’s hands.

“We all still need you to be strong, there are still so many people that love you. Me included.”

Her words seemed to have momentarily struck a comprehensive cord inside the beleaguered King, almost to the point where he can reply to her.

But before he had a chance to speak…

VVVOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!

A thick, loud bass noise is heard from behind them as a severe concussion is felt under their feet. The water of the moat begins to wake as the suspension cable of the draw bridge begins to swing a little.

“!?”

Ash turns around and looks up to see a sight that so far outstretches her length of imagination it’s mind blowing.

Thousands of purple, blue, green, and red orbs float upwards toward the sky, followed by a massive pentagram seal. The little lights seem to scream in agony as they twirl about towards a shirtless figure at the very tip of the castle.

“Wha..?”

She doesn’t even have time to think when all the windows of the castle begin popping like balloons.

The shards from the smaller ones can’t reach them; but she is terrified when she catches sight of the largest window of the castle that stretches from the second floor all of the way to the fifth expanding from within and exploding outwards in a great torrent of wind.

The hailstorm of glass is sent on a direct collision course with her and Zurvick.

Some pieces of the falling shards are so big they easily double the size of a human body, if the small shards weren’t deadly enough, if one of these giant pieces were to hit them they’d be crushed instead of skewered..

Knowing what comes next, Ash shouts, “Zurvick get down!!!”

She immediately dives on him without even thinking.

The two lay on the wooden draw bridge as the splashes from the shards of the massive window hit the water around them. Then what follows is the sound of the wooden bridge being pelted by the razor sharp shards, it’s as though someone was playing a dart game with their position on the bridge as the board.
From within the fray of all these different noises, a distinct sound is heard. It is the sound of flesh being sliced, followed by a liquid being spilled.

Zurvick knows this noise all too well and once the warmth of that liquid is felt on his chest his tongue feels like a ball of cotton.

He takes sharp, deep breaths as the glare from the shard of glass that fell atop them beams his eyes.

Ash slowly gets up and looks around; they are absolutely surrounded by glass protruding from seemingly every spot on the bridge. She then looks at Zurvick, and other than the shocked expression on his face, she can see that he is completely unscathed.

She smiles at him as the light from her eyes begins to fade.

“Thank goodness... you’re... okay...”

Her body falls limp and she collapses on top of him.

Stabbed into her back, is a foot long shard of glass from the window of the castle.

She has sacrificed her body to protect the King of Troy, and by the looks of it she has paid the ultimate price.

Zurvick can’t handle this, he can’t watch another person he cares about die right in front of him. He leans up and pulls the glass shard out of her back, and to his dismay, blood squirts everywhere and begins to puddle around their legs.

The usual tanned Ash is losing her color rapidly and becoming as pale as the moon.

She is dying in his arms.

He groans as he tries to stop the bleeding by applying pressure to the wound, but he is in such a poor mental state that he can’t even find the words to beg her to stay awake.

All he can do is hold the wound tightly and look down on her with pleading eyes.

When she doesn’t even budge, it hits him again.

This is all his fault.

His wife, his daughter, his country, and now this young girl who’d sacrifice herself to protect such a weak man like him. He can’t lose her too; he refuses to lose her too. But sadly he doesn’t know how not to lose, he has forgotten what it was like when he was able to win and protect others in the process.
He is now completely useless, a helpless man who is watching everything he’s ever cared about being taken away one by one.

Once Ash is gone, everything is gone.

He’d have lost it all.

The words she had spoken to him just moments earlier were forgotten and replaced with thoughts of self destruction.

He’s only capable of squeezing her limp frame tightly within his arms and letting all of the pent up emotions of guilt, shame, regret, and despair, exit his mouth in a blood curdling cry.

“UUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!”

---------------------

The souls of all the soldiers of the rebellion shine above Satan’s head like stars until he raises his hand and they all begin to swirl and mold into each other.

The souls mix all the way until there are only two orbs left, they have mixed in so much that the pretty colors are now gone and instead are an ugly black, the same dark color that formed the pentagram.

Satan holds the two orbs, one in each hand and smiles. He then tosses them to the side and they both float off in opposite directions until landing about a hundred meters away on each side of the castle.

After a few moments of silence, two beams of black energy shoot from the ground and tower into the sky. The two towers are so high it seemingly stands parallel with the mountains that surround the city. The two structures have got to be at least five times the size of the Trojan castle.

These two towers, formed from the two little orbs, have hundreds of windows that stretch all of the way to the top.

Satan spreads his arms and begins to speak, “To every man and every woman of the world, I speak to you in every tongue, to inform you that you are all under my rule.”

When he says he speaks to every man and woman, and in every language, he is literally doing that. The Archangels have used this very method during the Apocalypse, and in some sense, so did Ubica. Everyone in the world can hear Satan’s voice at this very moment.

“I am Satan and I am now your God! Worship me! Pray to me! And I shall give you life!”

Out of the windows of the two towers come thousands upon thousands of demons, flying, climbing, falling from the darkness and into the light of the world.

“This is my army! You can all see it can’t you?”

Satan showed visions of his army through every human’s mind as he said that, this way they can get a grasp on what is actually happening. This is more or less a way to intimidate them into believing that his words are true; no one in their right mind would be able to refuse the reality of it all after seeing it with their own eyes.

“No one can stop us now, I rule this world, I rule all worlds! So join me! Share with me the ownership of this world! All it takes is to accept me as God, and you can indulge yourselves in my spoils! You can have riches, women, fame, your wildest dreams for saying but only a word! To anyone who would still dare to oppose me, my army and I will begin a great purge of the non-believers. I give the world three months to make a decision, for those who haven’t by then, it will be death to you all!”

This has always been his main tactic. Conform or die.

With that jumble of threats, Satan’s message to the world ends and he is left laughing in pleasure as the form of his army begins to multiply in size from behind him.

This is it, this is his time, this is what he’s been waiting over a thousand years to do.

Satan once again has control of this world.

--------------------------------

“I’ll tell you what; I’m amazed that we didn’t break any bones after that.” Lennox said while scratching his head in amazement.

The four Knights had all jumped out of a tenth story window and landed on the down-slope of a grassy hillside and slid into the water of the moat. In there they share space with a countless number of dead people as they float uninjured in the blood red water.

“You know, even I can get grossed out. I’d really like to get out of this nasty water.” Seiri said, her misery is written all over her face.

“Moats were made so people can’t get out of them, it might take a while before we find a sewage drain to swim into.” London states.

“Whatever, let’s just get going, I’m starting to get uncomfortable with all those weird looking monsters hovering around us.” Seiri responds as she points to the many demons circling the castle.

Perhaps due to them being covered in the blood of dead soldiers and blending in so well, the demons don’t seem to notice them. If they were spotted, it’s likely the demons wouldn’t hesitate to attack them, chances are they are chomping at the bit to get their hands on a human.

“...Agreed...” Haas struggled to say his first words in a while.

With that, the four of them begin swimming in order to find a way out.

Of course, that is not the only thing on their minds. One thought they are trying not to think about is the fact that they have failed their mission. Their job was to protect the Queen and kill General Sturgess, and looking at what has occurred it is quite obvious that both of those objectives went unaccomplished. It is almost a complete disgrace for them, and the feeling of actually failing has yet to fully sink in because it has never happened before.

Since this is their first time, they don’t know the protocol of what happens in the aftermath of such a failure.

This prompts Lennox to ask,

“So... What are we supposed to do once we get out of here anyways?”

“That much should be obvious.” London replies as he leads the group through the bloody water of the moat. “We return to La’Juune and prepare for war.”

----------------------

Down in the most southern point of La’Juune; Celestia, Allia, Olin, and Jessiah are riding back to the Capital through the snow on a lifesaving dogsled. They had heard Satan’s message loud and clear and all stayed in silence as the dogs pulled them towards their destination.

Jessiah is the first one to break this silence and he does so in a way that makes it seem like he has no clue how dire their situation is.

“What a bunch of losers. How the frig’ did they fail? Four Knights should be more than enough to handle a stupid rebellion.”

The other three don’t respond, in hindsight, they had almost failed as well. They couldn’t count the numerous times they almost died in their battle with Captain Red.

“I hope they’re still alive.” Olin says, showing a rare expression of concern.

Allia sighs and turns to Celestia to ask, “So what do you think our next orders will be?”

“We fight, duh.” Olin answered before Celestia had a chance.

“I wasn’t asking you, idiot.”

Celestia looks very serious when she says, “I don’t know what they’ll be... but I know what I must do.”

“Oh?”

“Those weapons back at the plant, I think I know how to make them. And something’s telling me that we’re going to need them against this new enemy.”

“So you’re buying into this whole mess with the Devil? I thought you didn’t believe in that stuff.”

“I didn’t, at least not completely until now. I’d be stupid to not believe in Heaven or Hell now that all this happened; it has officially become a fact. That being said, we’re going to fight in a war on a scale this world hasn’t seen since the Antichrist’s time. We’re going to need everything we got to win this, so I’m going to make as many weapons as possible for us to fight with.”

For a non-believer, she knows about the Antichrist and the happenings foretold in the New Book of Revelations. For the most part, the entire world has heard of that story, and that was one of the reasons why there were so many people like her. The Battle of Armageddon was simply on a scale too epic and too farfetched to be considered anything more than myth.

But now, that stunning story is unfolding itself once more right before their eyes. They have no choice but to deal with it.

Their futures depend on it.

Allia smiles, looks tenderly at her tattered arm and says, “Make me the best weapon possible... With my arm the way it is, I think it’s time to graduate from a bow and arrow.”

Celestia smiles back and replies, “I already have one in mind for you. I’m going to use the same philosophy behind Jeffrey’s rings for it.”

“Something to do with magnets?”

“That’s right, except this just might even make you more of a monster than Jeffrey.”

--------------------------

“Well that’s going to put a fat wrench in our plans.” said Jeffrey as he and the rest await the Eiyalazonian soldiers at the top of the castle.

They were waiting anxiously as they tried to figure out a way they could talk their way out of this mess without being thrown in prison or executed on the spot.

“I can’t believe London and the others actually failed...” Elise replied, completely disappointed.

“I’m sure there were extenuating circumstances, but now’s not the time to be worrying about that. We need to figure out how to handle all this.” Jeffrey says as he glares at his unconscious King and adds under his breath, “Sorry Noah, but I won’t be leading La’Juune after all.”

He then turns to Diana and looks her square in the eye, she seems genuinely frightened just as most people should be when confronted with such a bleak future.

He sighs and folds his arms.

The rest can tell he’s in deep thought and they wait anxiously for his decision.

“Here’s the plan... Elise.”

“Yeah?”

“When you get back to La’Juune, I want you and London to rule the country.”

“Hah? But what about you? And wouldn’t it be better if I was paired with Celestia instead? I mean, London just failed in Troy, we don’t even know if he’s still alive.”

“Celestia works at her own pace, I’m guessing she has a plan to make weapons or something. She’s not going to want to lead the country. London on the other hand is the most qualified out of all of us no matter which way you look at it. He’s the only one capable of thinking many steps ahead and acting accordingly. He’s the closest thing to Noah we have so I’m sure he’s alive and going to head back to the Capital as soon as possible. As for me...”

He turns to Diana and says, “I’ll be staying here with the Queen.”

“Are you kidding? Why in the world would you do that??”

“Think about it Elise, you heard what Satan said right? It's to worship him or die. Do you honestly think that this shitty Prince could keep the country united under that kind of pressure? The people will falter and this whole country would be fucked.”

“.....”

“We need as many allies as possible in this war, and now we all have a common enemy. I’ll be damned if I leave the people of this country out to die. We’re all in this together now, so it’s about time we put past grudges in the garbage where they belong and fight for a future.”

Elise understands where he's coming from, she actually thinks that that might have been the coolest thing the normally dry Jeffrey has ever said.

She smiles and pats him on the shoulder rather hard before saying, “If you were a girl I’d totally fall for you.”

“I don’t have anything to say to that.” Jeffrey replies, completely indifferent to her words.

“What about me?” Came the soft voice of Rain from below, she has Noah’s head in her lap and is still quite distraught about everything.

“That’s a good question, I haven’t really thought about that.” Jeffrey answered while scratching his chin.

“Then have you thought about Noah yet?” she asks rather coldly.

“If you mean his funeral, I haven’t.”

“How could you be so cold to your King!?”

“He’s not the King anymore, you heard him shift his power to us before he died right? As far as I’m concerned, all three countries no longer have a single ruler.”

Rain scowls at him and hisses, “He’s still breathing you bastard, he isn’t dead.”

Jeffrey begins to laugh slightly, he throws his hands on his waist and fights back a smile when he responds to her glare.

“Alright alright, I’ve seen enough.”

“..?”

“There’s no point in continuing to give you shit when you can help me.”

“What are you getting at?”

Jeffrey walks up to her and leans to her level, with a straight face he asks, “What would you do to save Noah’s life?”

“Anything.”

“Then you are just the right girl for the job.”

He stands back up and walks away from her, he continues speaking as he begins pacing.

“Remember when I said that we’d need some kind of miracle to keep him alive? What was it again? Oh yeah, killing the one responsible for poisoning him.”

A new light begins brewing in Rain’s eyes as she starts to see where he’s going with this.

“Well that person is here, on Earth, and we are about to fight a war against him. The leader on the losing side of these kinds of wars usually ends up dying right? So what do you say we win this thing and wake Noah up?”

Determination boils in her chest when she replies, “What can I do?”

“You are going to go back to La’Juune with Noah and Elise. From my understanding you are one of, if not the best Battle Strategist in the world. We could use your talents on our side, you will be the leading Strategist for all of La’Juune.”

“Do you really have that much faith in her?” Elise asks skeptically.

“I do. You can see it in her eyes that she’ll do anything for Noah. Even more than we ever could.”

“Thank you.” Rain bows, “I promise I’ll wake him up.”

“Good... With that I think we’re ready to get the preparations underway. Diana, come with me, we have a lot of shit to talk about; it hurts my head to think about all the political nonsense we’re going to have to go through to get the other Royals of this country on board.”

“O-Okay Jeff.”

“Ahhh Jeff, I like that.” he says with a pleased smile.

He’s wanted the others to call him that all along but everyone strongly rejected it for whatever reason.

Diana follows Jeffrey but she hesitates when she looks back towards her unconscious son.

Jeffrey answers her gaze by saying, “Leave Dice here, the medics will tend to him once the soldiers get here.”

“...Right.”

She runs to his side and the two get to the door leading to the innards of the castle, he lets her in first and turns to the others to leave them with some final words.

“We only have a few months until the war of all wars starts. I’ll be doing my part here; you two make sure that La’Juune is mobilized and ready to put a serious hurting on that bastard by then.”

Both Elise and Rain salute him and reply in unison,

“Yes sir!”

---------------------

In Hell, on the shore of a certain massive swirling lake, stands Damien with a confident smile on his face.

As if sensing Damien’s presence, Leviathan appears from the swirling torrent of agony that he calls home and stands atop it as if there was nothing below him.

“Judging by the look in your eyes, I can see that you are pleased about something.” Leviathan said.

“What a good eye you have... would you like to know what it is?”

“Does it involve me?”

“It involves everyone allied with me, so if you are on my side then yes it does.”

Leviathan walks onto the shore and says, “After messing around with Ubica a little, I’ve come to the realization that what’s best for us is your plan for him. If that means I’m allied with you over your father, then so be it.”

“Good, I actually came here in regards to some news about my father.”

“I’m listening.”

“You’re one of the very few people that know of my true intentions, so I’m sure I’ve told you of my prediction on what my father was going to do about a vulnerable Earth after the abductions.”

“He was going to raise a portion of Hell’s army right?”

“Yes, and he’s done that, just as I thought he would. He has half of his power in that human container up on Earth, wasting it all day by day just to stay there, it's why he'll have to raise his army to subjugate the humans. The other half of his power remains here in Hell with his real body."

Leviathan’s interest is piqued. He wants to know what is in store for the future and asks, “What are you going to do about that?”

“I’m going to continue things as originally planned. What you are going to do is what's going to matter most.”

“Oh? And what might that be?”

“Get my father to Purgatory...”

---------------------------------

In the familiar room with the checkered floor, Satan sits on his throne with the chessboard resting in front of him. It shows that there are many white pieces left whilst there is only one black piece. But that one black piece is all that was needed to win the game.

With his bright red eyes he glares at the game and a deep chuckle forms in the back of his throat.

“Noah, you ambitious child, you were never going to win this game no matter how much you cheated with those powers of yours.”

He moves his black King piece and knocks over the white King piece, sending it off the table and bouncing onto the marble ground.

“With this, the world is now mine...”

His deep chuckle makes way for a heavy laugh as he leans back in his chair and lets the glory of his victory sink in. He’s finally accomplished something that took thousands of years to fulfill; he now has an able body on the face of Earth.

Only this time, he doesn’t have to worry about the interference of Angels, they’ve been long dead.

He doesn’t have to worry about Jesus interfering because he’s stuck in Purgatory.

He doesn’t have to worry about an armyless God up in Heaven.

But most importantly, he doesn’t have to worry about Ubica any longer, because in his mind, Ubica will be killed and Dantega will be rid of forever before he even gets a chance to see the light of the Earth again.

This is an absolute victory, and there is nothing here to hold him back any longer.

“Hehehe…. Hahahahahahaha!!!!”

His hysterical laugh is followed by a quick kick of the chessboard in front of him, the board and the pieces fly off everywhere and the clacking of the wooden bits bouncing off the ground seems to add applause to the rousing laugh of winning this game.

During this moment of bliss he realizes that he has yet to say the word used after a victorious chess battle.

His eyes shine brighter than ever before as he stands to his feet and shouts,

“CHECKMATE!!!”

Checkmate: (END)

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| Return to [[Dantega|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 6 Novel Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
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</noinclude>

Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 9

2022-01-08T06:08:40Z

Deck of cards:

(PART 3)

(Fight him, fight him, I have to fight him!)

These thoughts are running through Lelaine’s head as Sturgess zips down his pants and readies to force himself on her.

Her body is weak, and the will to fight takes its time to reach her body in the form of any physical movement, but when it finally does, she is able to weigh her next option.

She first considers clawing and scratching at him, she can imagine the sensation of it in her fingertips. Then it molds into plucking his eyes out with her bare hands, and the image of that in her head is enough to send an electric signal into her limbs.

With this newfound strength, her next course of action dawns on her when she remembers one of the maids putting a pencil-like metal hairpin in her hair. The maid looked at her with pleading eyes as she did so, they were the eyes of someone desperately asking for Lelaine to fight back.

The light in her golden eyes shine once more and emotion resurfaces in her previously sodden face, and right before Sturgess can get close enough to enact his desires, Lelaine grabs the sharp hairpin from her hair without him noticing, and without a moment’s hesitation, stabs right into Sturgess’s neck.

“Hbbbgnnghhh!!??”

Sturgess slides off of Lelaine and grabs at his throat. Blood is gushing from his mouth, his tongue feels like a ball of barbed wire between his teeth as he struggles to breathe.

Lelaine gets up off the bed and covers her bare body with her loose robe. Ignoring the blood on her hand, she stands over him triumphantly as he gurgles for wet air.

“You’ll have a hard time raping me with that hole in your neck, you bastard.”

The first words she’s spoken in over a month came out smooth, yet simultaneously vicious.

“Nngghhckk!! Cuuaaacckk!”

By now, Sturgess’s eyes are bloodshot, looking up at her confusedly as if suddenly realizing that he’s been attacked.

With a shoddy move of his hand, he grabs at the hair pin and begins pulling; the eight inch hair pin took excruciating seconds to fully extricate, and upon doing so he desperately holds his neck as blood comes squirting out like a fountain.

“Gbbbahhhgggh!!!”

“I'm slightly offended that you’d think so little of me that you didn't see that coming.” Lelaine said, turning away from him and making her way to a dresser by the closet.

She opens a drawer and pulls out a small wooden box.

The delicate way in which she moves is not like someone who had just inflicted a fatal wound on a man, she seemingly floats effortlessly along the ground as if she were a ballerina. She opens the small box and grabs her tobacco pipe as though the sound of Sturgess’s agony were music she could dance to.

She then delicately reaches back into the box and pulls out Zurvick’s charred flask, staring at it in remembrance, she says, “I’m pleased to see that my two most important items are here. I’m not so sure I could live without my tobacco and the dearest memento of my husband.”

She holds up the flask and looks through the hole stabbed through it during the Night of the Ball, when she was delivered the terrible news and first saw the hole, she had felt sick knowing that the blade that caused this hole had caused Zurvick’s death. Now when she looks at it after all this time, she feels as though this sharp puncture in the flask is her doorway into Zurvick’s former life.

Lelaine clutches the flask into her bosom before returning it to the wooden box.

Filling the bowl of her pipe with chopped leaves of tobacco, she manages a thin smile when she says,“I bet you’re feeling pretty cold right about now.”

Lelaine then opens the balcony door and steps outside, feeling the sun on her skin for the first time in so long revitalizes her; she can’t help but think of the contrast between her and Sturgess at this very moment. While he lays there writhing, getting colder and colder with each ounce of blood lost, she takes in the sunlight of this beautiful morning like a blooming flower.

“It’s a funny thing, the situation we’ve both found ourselves in.”

Turning back to him, she lights her pipe and casually watches as he dies.

“I’m sure at one point, you were feeling warm with the fruits of your ambition. You had what no man has ever had in the very palm of your hands. You had Troy. Your only problem was that you just couldn’t live with all that power if I wasn’t included in it.”

The once tall and proud General of the army is lying on the bed in a pool of his own blood, staring back at her like a fish plucked from the ocean.

To him, it’s a surreal moment of clarity.

“Because you didn’t kill me when you had taken Troy, you’re left lying there in a heap while I stand here in the warmth of the sun watching you freeze. Even you have to admit that the irony of it all is pretty funny.”

Even though he can’t breath and the pain in his throat is unbearable, he feels as though Lelaine’s glare is the only thing killing him.

The color of the world surrounding him has begun to melt into a dark brown void, and he’s beginning to feel a weight pulling him down into this all encompassing sludge. It’s as though every paint on a color pallet were mixed together and brought to life solely to devour him.

“My country and I will forget about you, and we’ll carry on. So die here like the spineless coward you are, and know that your desire for what you could never have is what got you killed.”

The glare she looks at him with is so poignant and so familiar that it brings upon a torrent of memories swirling into his head, she had looked at him the same way when he confessed his desire to marry her when they were children, her eyes pierced him this same way when she outright rejected him upon meeting Zurvick.

Just what is this menacing beast that he put so much energy into conquering that he delved into psychosis to defeat? What has his infatuation with the queen of Troy ever brought him other than pain and misery? What is it about her that led him to this point here at death’s door?

The answer comes clear as his consciousness fades.

It was never about her.

It was always about him.

She is the living evidence of what he never deserved to have.

The glare of hers communicates what he’s always known.

It says that he has never once been good enough for the one thing he’s truly always wanted.

All of what remains of that desire will soon be his corpse at her feet.

Sturgess’s vision completely fades, and the pulling sensation he’s felt on his body has sunken him completely into the void.

He has died.

Lelaine has sensed his presence fade and the weight of his life and his control over her is lifted off her shoulders, she turns away from him and looks out to the city.

The capital of Troy is split into five boroughs by two winding rivers, and at the tip in a bend of the eastern river sits the northern borough in a land spur; this is the view Lelaine’s room looks out to from high up in the castle. The mountains shine brilliantly in the morning light, and as if serenity had conscious intentions, a gentle breeze dances through her hair.

She can’t help but take in a deep breath and allow herself to be taken away by the sight and sensations of this beautiful country she has ruled her entire adult life. In this state of mind, she begins to find the strength and will to carry on with the weight of her losses.

She can now at least entertain the thought of finding a way to live without Trojia and Zurvick so long as this country is here to take their place. As selfish as she would rather be, there’s a responsibility to protect Troy and her people that are fighting for her at this very moment. Even though she wants to give up on the world that has left her alone without her family, there is still the hope of others to live on for.

“I’ll smoke to that.” She says, bringing the pipe to her lips. “Zurvick, Trojia, you two will have to wait for me to get to you. There’s still a lot of work left to do here.”

------------------------------

“Was it worth it?” came Satan’s voice from within the void.

“Nothing is worth this.”

“Well, I can give you another chance.”

“Another chance?”

Satan’s voice has surrounded Sturgess just like the void has, but the voice has become the only thing alive for Sturgess to grasp onto.

“The power you let slip away because of your desire for Lelaine, I can give it back to you if you truly wish for it. Now that you see that you can’t have her, wouldn’t the next best thing be good enough? If you want to live, fulfill my contract and kill her. You still have a chance to rule this world.”

Sturgess can’t even move his face to express any form of reaction to this new opportunity. He’s simply a corpse in the dark brown void trapped from the outside looking in.

“Kill… Lelaine?”

Yet somehow, the thought of killing her sent a pulsating force beating into his chest, bringing sensation back to his limbs.

It’s at this moment, a light appears in front of him and gleams into his dead eyes. The light is the first form of warmth he’s felt since before he was stabbed in the neck, it has felt like ages since this sensation was last pulsating at his skin.

Now his entire body can move.

His shoddy hand longingly reaches out to the warmth of the light.

“Do you accept the conditions of this contract?”

“I…”

His hand is tantalizingly close to touching the light.

It’s taking everything he has inside to accept the meaning of this light.

But the thought of a life in power is just enough for him to make the choice clear.

“I accept!!”

The light is grasped, and a contract is signed.

--------------------

Exhaling out a big plume of smoke that was immediately taken away by the mountain breeze, Lelaine lets herself relax. All that is left for her to do is await the arrival of the rebellion and she can begin the process of healing her country and reuniting her people; though the task sounds daunting, she finds herself feeling motivated at the prospect of coming out of this a stronger nation than before.

Each puff of her pipe is more pleasurable than the last, it could be because she has been separated from her vice for so long, or it could be the victorious nature of this moment. Whatever it is has made her appreciate the life she will be fortunate enough to live going forward despite the absence of the two people she cares about most.

“Don’t get so comfortable, Lelaine.”

The deep voice of Sturgess came from the queen’s suite like an avalanche coming off a mountain.

It was so jarring that Lelaine froze instead of becoming shocked by it.

She slowly turns around to find that a bloodied Sturgess is standing, alive and even more menacing than before. The wound on his neck is healed, and a churning black smoke is emanating from where the wound was and is orbiting around his body.

His threatening presence exudes an unbridled power that seemingly pushes an extra force of gravity on Lelaine’s shoulders, the terrific power is proof enough that the monster in front of her is untouchable.

No eight inch metal pin to the jugular can stop him, no magical weapon could she produce to fight back against such an overwhelming force.
Trapped on the balcony, she quickly comes to the realization that her life is now completely in his evil hands.

But despite this, she still smiles.

“You think I’m uncomfortable now?” she asks.

“You certainly should be. As surprised as I was to find that you still had the will to fight back, in the end you’re nothing but a regular frail woman up against an unstoppable man.”

“Hah, unstoppable man. You lie to yourself with such ease that even I have a hard time not pitying you. You’re a fraud with the power of someone else that you claim to be your own.”

Sturgess scowls at her, angered at the fact that she stands there unafraid and unsurprised by his sudden leap back to life from well within death’s door.
The woman in front of him can still be arrogant despite the difference in strength, and as much as he hates her for it, it has always been the driving force of his desire for her.

“Not this time.” he says with gritted teeth. “You aren’t going to defeat me with your words either. You’re going to learn here and now that I have finally won!”

“And how will you do that?” she asks, taking a puff out her pipe and leaning her backside against the stone railing of the balcony. “Will you finally have the nerve to kill me?”

Understanding the contract he had signed with Satan that brought him back to life, he knows that killing her is exactly what he must do.

“I can do it!.”

“Oh?”

“But killing you won’t be enough to have truly won. I need to take everything from you. by killing every last person still loyal to you with my own two hands, I will take your people. By adjusting the very foundation of Troy the way I see fit, I will take your country from you.”

Sturgess then spreads his arms out triumphantly, pushing out the black smoke orbiting him and making his shirtless frame bigger.

“But to take it all!” he declares. “I need to take your body from you!”

It’s at this moment, the snake’s voice comes from within the smoke.

“Why would you risk losing it all again for something as meaningless as her body?”

“Because that is the only way I’ll win!” Sturgess replies with a cockeyed smile. “You don’t think I haven’t realized that if I kill her, you’re going to be the only one who wins?? I accepted that offer knowing just that, it’s something I’m willing to sacrifice, but you can’t have your victory before I have mine damn it!”

Satan stays silent from within the smoke, his silence seemingly accepting what Sturgess has to say.

“The contract I signed says that I must kill her, but it doesn’t stipulate when that needs to happen. I can kill her, and I will! But I need to defeat her first! I need to taste victory for myself first!”

“So you’ll continue on this path… very well then. Fulfill the contract as you deem fit.”

The presence of the snake disappears, and even Lelaine can sense that what is left standing in front of her is a truly depraved shell of the person she had grown up with. He’s no different from a bloodhound now, he has the scent of Lelaine and is simply unable to follow the path towards anything else.

She has finally come to the conclusion that there is one way to fight against a blood thirsty vampire that can only survive off the nutrients of her body.

“What a pathetic mess you are, Sturgess.” Lelaine said, lifting herself onto the stone railing and sitting completely on the edge of it. “To so casually reveal what I need to do to make sure you’ll always consider yourself the loser you and I both know you as.”

“What do you think you could possibly do to stop me now?” he asks, still smiling confidently as he inched his way towards her.

“I’ll take away your sweet victory.”

“..?”

By now, Lelaine is dangling her feet off the ground, shifting her center of gravity further back as she takes another drag from her pipe.

“You see, upon your death I had just finally found motivation to live on. As hard as it is for me to accept that Zurvick and Trojia are gone, I had come to realize that there was still something worth living for. That doesn’t mean that dying has suddenly became a less desirable option however, I’m just as comfortable with either, truly.”

Sturgess begins feeling a pressure in his chest as a new threat has presented itself in front of him.

“You wouldn’t…”

Striking a subtle pose meant to antagonize him, Lelaine reveals a weaponized smile that shines in the sunlight.

[[File:LelaineBT.jpg|thumb]]

At this very moment, a breeze comes off the eastern mountains and gently tosses her golden hair to the side and wisps away the smoke from her pipe as she flicks the ashen remnants of her tobacco.

“Living and dying are my only two options left to me as I sit here now. How can I choose life when the other option means defeating you?”

“Lelaine, get off that balcony right now.” Sturgess’s voice wavered when he said that, and he doesn’t want to make any sudden moves that may push her off the edge.

In his craze, he had never thought that Lelaine would be willing to die to avoid him. It’s likely that the narcissistic lens in which his mind works within simply didn’t allow himself to think that he’d be an option worse than death. How could he have possibly thought that he was so repugnant that anyone would sooner kill themselves then allow his touch?

The sudden realization of this is a devastating blow.

“Oh, I’ll be off of this balcony soon enough.”

“W-Wait!” Sturgess pleas cautiously, “You’d really give up on yourself just like that? Just what the fuck were you staying alive this long for then!?”

“I lived because I hoped.” She smoothly answers, Lelaine doesn’t blink as she continues, “That flask, you know as well as I do how lucky Zurvick is… If that one knife wound through that flask wasn’t enough to kill him by itself, then there was hope that he’d still be alive.”

Hearing her say that is yet another blow to the deranged general, she’d live through hell just for the hope of seeing Zurvick again, but die like a dog to avoid him.

He’d be foolish not to understand that this has always been the case after spending so many years as a spectator to their love, but the further he’s gone down this path of madness with the Devil, the more the reality of it had driven him so deep into his madness that there’s nothing of a normal human remaining.

“Then don’t!”

Sturgess hesitates to continue, and grits his teeth at the thought of telling her the truth to keep her alive. If she will die to beat him and live for Zurvick, he must do what it takes to not lose the one thing he wants most.

“Zurvick is alive!”

“Oh?” Lelaine skeptically tilts her head.

“He’s fighting with the rebellion as we speak, he might even be the one to run through that door to save you!”

This sudden confession has brought upon an expression of surprise to Lelaine’s face.

Sturgess feels like he’s reaching her. If he can convince her that Zurvick is coming to her rescue, she’ll keep herself alive long enough for Sturgess to kill them both comfortably with his upgraded power.

“So get down off that ledge and wait for him.”

With these thoughts in mind, the face of a lying schemer is what is presented even though he is telling the truth.

Keen on the physical tell of these thoughts of his, Lelaine replies, “I refuse. Like I'd ever believe the sugary words of a man on the verge of losing everything.”

“I’m telling you the truth!” Sturgess gestures with his hands. “I had thought he was dead too, but I saw a picture of him in the paper alongside the rebels just this morning, and before I got to you I saw him with my own two eyes fighting at the gate!”

Her steely glare never leaving Sturgess and never once wavering upon hearing what she believes to be an attempt to trick her, she smoothly allows some devastating words to leave her lips.

“I’ve heard enough out of you, I won’t let you patronize my resolve any longer.”

“Lelaine, just listen to me!”

“The answer is no, Sturgess.” Tilting herself completely back, she still manages to look him square in the eyes with a triumphant smile when she says, “You lose yet again.”

As soon as she finished saying that, she tilted her upper body backwards and flung herself off the balcony.

“!!”

“LELAINE!”

Rushing into the room at just the right time to see the form of Lelaine falling off the balcony, Zurvick had stumbled upon a nightmare.

Without a moment’s hesitation he runs after her, quickly sprinting past a frozen in shock Sturgess and lunging his arm over the railing of the balcony in a desperate attempt to reach her.

“NOOO!!”

The attempt is futile.

He’s now watching her fall.

In her rapid descent, Lelaine had heard Zurvick calling out her name, but with heightened senses assaulting every inch of her body, his voice came to her as though it were a dream through the wind. Hearing his faint voice has reminded her that she is falling towards the place where her beloved husband is, and the thought of it allows her a smile of comfort, almost relieved that the trials she has been put under over the last year has come to an end.

(My love.) She thinks to herself, time slowing down but the wind blowing in her ears increasingly grows louder. (My daughter.)

In the waning moments of her life, the memories she’s shared with Zurvick and Trojia replay in her head in astonishing detail. From meeting Zurvick for the first time, to giving birth to Trojia, to dinners spent laughing with the two of them, it all came rushing into her mind like a waterfall of emotion.

(We’ll all be together again soon.)

Feeling grateful and prepared for what’s next, Lelaine's body twists in the air and now she finds herself looking up towards the 25th floor balcony from which she jumped from.

It’s in this very short moment that time comes to a complete stop for her.

Frozen in a waking instant, her vision is heightened to the point that she can make out the details of Zurvick’s face staring down at her.

She can see the twisted fear on his face.

Her hearing becomes so heightened that she can now hear him calling out her name as clear as it would if he were right in front of her.

She can hear the desperation and sadness in his voice as he calls out to her.

In this heightened state of awareness, she has come to realize that what she’s seeing is not an illusion and what she’s hearing is not the voice of a phantom.

Zurvick is alive.

Her eyes widen in shock, and she takes a sharp gasp of despair that ever so suddenly fills her heart with regret.

Time returns to normal and the loud noise of the wind rushes back into her ears in a gale.

SPPLLAASSHHH!!!

Her body lands in the moat surrounding the castle in a devastating impact.

From the very top floor all the way down to the ground is a fall of 250 feet, and Lelaine’s body fell in at terminal velocity.

She died instantly.

Zurvick can see her lifeless body float in the water of the moat with a circle of red around her.

Down there is the woman he vowed to spend the rest of his life with, the mother of his daughter, the person he loves most in the world. Down there is the woman that will never come back to him, he’ll never be able to touch her again and she’ll never touch him again.

They will never see each other again despite being so tantalizingly close to being reunited.

His tongue grows very dry and he has a hard time breathing as he drops to his knees and puts his head up against the smooth stone railing of the balcony.

His body begins to convulse as though he was struck by a gust of the most bitterly cold wind.

Because he didn’t make it back in time, his wife is dead.

It's likely that the two of them suffered the exact same emotion just before she landed, finally being so close to each other, but impossibly far away is the worst possible fate for duo.

His body is so overcome with shock, despair, and regret that he can't even cry.

Sturgess on the other hand remains frozen in disbelief.

He had just been defeated in the most insulting way to him.

She truly meant what she said all these years, she truly rejected every last bit of him.

Now he is left with nothing, and the loss of purpose is almost enough to cripple him mentally.

In his daze he locks onto the form of Zurvick and replaces the emotions that have come with his sudden defeat with a burning rage.

He still can not come to blame himself for his loss, and quickly shifts responsibility onto Zurvick’s shoulders. After all, it was his appearance back when they were kids that spelled the end of his chances with Lelaine and the beginning of many years of torment. The person in front of him had stolen the life he had always wanted, lived as a king and had the unrivaled love of the woman he felt he had to have in order to survive.

To Sturgess, Zurvick never even had to work for it. Zurvick was just as lucky as always, constantly in the right place at the right time and reaping the benefits of such luck at the expense of those around him.

“It’s your fault!” he shouts towards Zurvick’s back. “You didn’t make it here in time to save her and now I have nothing!!”

Zurvick hasn’t even turned to acknowledge the powerful beast in his room, the menacing presence isn’t near enough to steal away his stuck gaze on Lelaine’s corpse floating in the moat below.

Sturgess points his hands at Zurvick’s back and prepares to blow Zurvick to bits, the cloud that was surrounding him swirls and forms in front of his palms.

With just one push, he will kill Zurvick and destroy the last external being left to blame for his ultimate failure.

But before he could exact his pathetic revenge, the snake exits out of the pentagram on the back of his hand.

“You will do no such thing, General.”

“Get out of my way, snake! I’m going to kill him!”

“No no, you’ve failed to understand me, your body is now forfeit.”

The next heartbeat Sturgess feels is so intense that it buckles him to his knees and he coughs out blood.

“Gbbbhhaaah!?” He holds his chest in anguish as he moans. “W-What!?”

“You shouldn’t be so surprised, this was in the contract after all.”

“Nnnggghh! I never promised you anything of the sort!”

The snake begins slithering around Sturgess’s neck as it continues to speak, “You’re wrong General, you promised me everything if I gave you everything.”

“But you haven’t given me that!”

“That’s because you didn’t fulfill your end of the bargain.”

“!?”

The pain Sturgess is feeling is almost unbearable, the bulging veins in his forehead and neck are pulsating and are taking on the appearance of squirming black worms under his skin.

“All you needed to do was kill the Queen and you would have joined me in taking over this world. Instead, you allowed her to kill herself, you broke the one very specific rule of our newly formed contract.”

“What difference does it make if she’s dead by my hands or not!? How could you betray me like this!?”

The snake’s eyes glow a bright red, and to Sturgess it looks like it is sneering at him, mocking his pain and confusion.

“The difference is that I knew you could never actually kill the one thing you needed most, and I was predicting Lelaine’s actions upon the threat of your existence. You see, she was the only one I couldn’t temp after all, she was the only one strong enough to take fate into her own hands. Just because she is that way, you ended up breaking our contract and betraying yourself.”

In the end, Satan has simply done what he has always been known to do; the master conniver has again fooled another victim. By presenting delusions of grandeur as reality and offering people their wildest dreams on a gold platter, he tempts them into signing a contract that only he can benefit from. Every man he’s made a deal with loses out in the end, Sturgess is no different.

Sturgess had no clue that if he was not personally the one to kill the Queen he’d lose his body and soul, and that is because the rewards flashed before his eyes at the time clouded his judgment. He had truly been led down a path where it seemed like he had control over the powers given to him, he had believed that he had autonomy over how the contract would be carried out and how much time was afforded to him to do it.

“Y-You double crossing bastard!”

“If only you were as smart as Lelaine, you’d have avoided this dreadful fate.”

“No... I won’t allow this!” Sturgess shouts at the snake, the reality of his situation is beginning to make him panic.

“You truly no longer have a choice.”

All of the snake’s scales fly off its skin and roam around Sturgess’ head like a swarm of bees; the body of the snake then dissolves into what looks to be a fine powder and storms into every opening in Sturgess’ face. It would seem that this is very painful for him because his screams of agony are loud enough to hurt Zurvick’s ears.

After a few agonizing moments, Sturgess’ hair turns jet black and the blackened veins bulging in his forehead and cheeks grow even larger.

Satan’s poison is eating him alive.

This is a hostile takeover of a human body; what he’s experiencing is far worse than any average possession by a demon. He’s literally having his soul ripped from his body.

“I have reserved a special spot in Hell for people consumed by Lust such as yourself.” Satan’s voice echoes around Sturgess’ screams. “You will become nothing but a statistic in the mass numbers of men who are to be swept by terrible winds to and fro without any hope of rest for all eternity. A fitting punishment for your final failure.”

When he is referring to never ending winds blowing people all about he is talking about the Second Level of Hell; the place where humans who lived their lives consumed by lust are doomed to. In the Second Level, a wind so loud and so severe blows that the constant torrent sends naked men and women bashing into each other violently, making sure that each contact with one’s skin results in nothing but the pain of broken bones instead of pleasure. This torture continues forever as they are doomed to never sleep, eat, and drink. They must endure the pain of the ear shattering noise of the wind and the horrors that go along with it for every waking moment.

“Noooo!!! This can’t be happening! This is not how it’s supposed to be!!” Sturgess shouts in denial.

“I do have to thank you for your splendid sacrifice though, I’ve been dreaming of this day for over a thousand years.”

“I am supposed to be someone that achieves greatness in life! Someone who gets everything that he’s ever wanted! It can’t end like this!!”

Sturgess’ eyes roll back in his head and his tongue seems to shrivel to the back of his throat as his humid mouth becomes as dry as a desert. With one final gasp of air, his breathing stops, and as stiff as a board he falls backwards and leans on the wall.

He twitches a couple times when seemingly out of nowhere a black tornado of wind swirls all around his body and he is engulfed.

The wind is so hard that it’s leaving gashes in the wall of the castle behind him and sending lightweight items of the room swirling all about.

After a few seconds of this the wind suddenly stops and the room is peppered with an eerie silence; only a ball of smoke surrounds his body and that slowly dissipates, finally revealing the man in the middle.

There stands Sturgess with a smile on his face.

His hair is completely black, his eyes that were rolled in the back of his head just moments earlier are now positioned forward and shine in an evil red glow.

Resting atop his forehead is a black pentagram.

Just these three things are enough to show that this is not Sturgess any longer, and that truth becomes even more evident when the man begins to speak.

“It’s done... I have returned to this world once more!” The voice of Satan exits out of Sturgess’ mouth as he spreads his arms in triumph.

Zurvick is just standing there speechless, he was told by London and the others that this is what they were fighting to avoid at all costs, but something as far-fetched as the Devil taking over Sturgess’s body and replanting himself on the face of the world was a little beyond him. Actually seeing it happen before his eyes is borderline maddening, especially when he could've stopped it if he made it to Lelaine in time.

The guilt of it all has absolutely crushed him.

“I must say King Zurvick, you’ve done nothing but help me since you’ve returned. I was worried that Sturgess would lose control and easily be defeated by you and the Knights once you gallantly returned to save your beloved. But all it did was hurry him into one bad decision after the other.”
Satan walks to the frozen Zurvick and continues to speak.

“You know this whole thing, the war, the kidnappings of your daughter and the others, that was all a precursor to this moment. Everything was for me to rise once more. I’ve gambled everything on this chess game of mine, I sacrificed every piece I’ve placed a thousand years worth of my power into just to get to where I am now.”

Satan can see the dead look in Zurvick’s eyes as every word that exits his mouth stabs into the broken King like knives.

“If it weren’t for you, I’m not so sure I would have won this game.”

Zurvick’s reaction to his words feeds his pleasure.

“My final chess piece was Sturgess. And the enemy King piece was none other than Lelaine... Would you like to know why?”

“.....”

Zurvick can’t speak, he’s heard the gist of this ‘Chess Game’ between Noah and Satan but couldn’t see it as anything more than a figure of speech.

“I saw all of this coming.” Satan says with a confident smile, “I knew that this country would fight back after a hostile takeover from Sturgess, I knew that there’d be thousands of deaths in this city. In fact, I was already thinking ahead of even that when I took the General’s soul. You see, I am the Devil, but with only a fraction of my strength in this vessel I'd still be vulnerable to mass numbers. If the population of La’Juune and Eiyalazo were to attack me it's very likely that I'd be defeated eventually if I were to fight by myself. I needed a contingency plan so I figured I’d take advantage of the fact that along with your daughter, my son abducted the Angel of Death and sent them to Purgatory. Sure there are other reapers desperately trying to send souls to their proper destinations but they’re not enough to do it all. He stole the one man who could harvest the souls of all the lives lost in this world war.”

Satan can still sense that Zurvick is borderline clueless about where he’s going with this so he decides to get to the point.

“What if I told you that I have my own reapers collecting souls? Well I have many, and the majority of them are here today, around this very castle, specifically for this very rebellion.”

“You can’t mean...”

“Oh you’re starting to get it now huh? That’s good, I hope you understand that in order to win in any game, sacrifices must be made. In this case, in order to raise my army once more, a certain amount of souls must be sacrificed.”

Zurvick takes a deep gasp of air as what Satan is planning on doing finally hits him. He’s heard the stories of the Apocalypse, he’s heard that in order to raise an army from Hell, the Antichrist killed off millions of people at once and used their souls to do it. What Satan is saying is that he’s planning on doing the same thing and he’s using the deaths of this rebellion as a kick-start.

“Everyone in this castle will be used as kindling for the flame of my victory. No soul shall escape, they will all be used to bring about my full power.”

Satan takes another step towards Zurvick and puts his hand on his shoulder. The mere touch from the Devil is enough to break a man but it would seem that Zurvick has already long been in pieces.

As if pitying him, Satan reveals a smug expression. “But don’t worry my fair King. I won’t use your wife’s soul, instead I’ll send it where it belongs. I’m sure you’ve heard about the unfair fate of those who commit suicide?”

“!!”

“She’ll be in Hell for all of eternity. Far from the reach of tenderness from any man. She’ll be in a state of despair, suffering through the regrets of her past life forever.”

Zurvick’s breathing becomes shoddy and his body begins to rock back and forth.

“What do you think of that?” Satan asks as he squeezes onto his shoulder. “What do you think about that being your fault? How will you deal with that? Would it make you want to die?”

“.....”

He doesn’t answer.

“I could end it for you now. You wouldn’t have to see the world become swallowed by my darkness, you wouldn’t have to suffer with the guilt of knowing that you played a direct role in it. I can give you the easy way out if you simply say the word.”

“.....”

It’s very likely that Zurvick would rather die than live through that kind of pain, but sadly he can’t even speak. His loss is too great, not only did he lose his wife but he’s lost her in a way that she’ll be forced to spend the rest of time in Hell. The guilt he feels for that is enough to constrict his heart so badly that he has trouble breathing.

Satan releases his grip on his shoulder and says, “Killing you would only be doing you a favor, a much stiffer punishment for coming a few seconds too late is for you to remain alive.”

Satan walks to the window and peers outside.

“I think you deserve to watch your Kingdom and your people… the entire world, all succumb to me. I think that you should watch closely as they worship me and address me as God, and live with the fact that you had a chance to stop it.”

These words absolutely demolish Zurvick, he throws his face in his hands and stares at the ground with small pupils peering through the gaps between his fingers. The look in his green eyes is that of pure devastation.

“Now go.” Satan says as he gestures towards the door, “Get out of my castle, and live the rest of your pathetic life with this guilt as your burden.”

Zurvick fumbles as he takes his first few steps until he shoddily turns his head toward the dresser, seeing his charred flask. He takes it out of the box and squeezes it tightly against his chest, he then somehow steadies himself as he exits the room.

Leaving this once warm room filled with memories of many happy nights spent together with Lelaine in the hands of the Devil is a dreadful pain he’ll never forget the feeling of.

Zurvick makes his way down a flight of stairs from the top floor of the castle and ends up on the level where he last saw London. In a blank haze he is walking down the bloodstained hallways of his home, weaving his way through the bodies of his own countrymen.

These dead men, all of them, whether they fought for the Queen or for Sturgess, their efforts were all for the benefit of Satan, their souls are just going to be sacrificed for a different cause. There are still people fighting even now but their figures are all blurry to him and their screams don’t reach him, he can only hear the sound the blood makes under his feet with each step.

He’s in such a daze that even the enemy soldiers pay no mind to him as they don’t see him as a threat, to them he’s just another casualty of mental illness on the battlefield.

He takes a slight turn to the left and sees an even more gruesome sight, dozens of dead bodies tattering the area around London as he walks towards another batch of frightened enemy soldiers.

The Knight is such a force that a group of ten soldiers are scared stiff of him; the men allied with Sturgess have been trying to find a way past him this entire time and every last one of them has failed miserably.

But there is someone brave enough to stand in front of those ten frightened soldiers and confront the Knight. He is Anders Henson, one of the co-conspirators of Sturgess' coup, and the leader of the Royal Guard.

"I don't know who the hell you think you are, but you're blocking the path to my King." Anders said, he wears a bitter frown as he walks towards London.

"Captain!" One of the frightened soldiers behind him shouts in relief as though Anders' appearance is their salvation.

London simply sighs and replies, "Ah, I see. So you're the leader of the pack?"

"Step aside." Anders demands.

"Not until the true King exits that door." London said as he gestures down the hallway leading to the Queen's room.

"Fine then, it's about time I shake off some rust. I haven't fought in a while."

Anders rushes London without another word. He pulls out his sword in a full sprint and holds it up above his head for a downwards strike.

London doesn't even flinch, he smoothly takes his right leg and pivots forward. Immediately after that simple motion, a gurgled moan is heard.

"Gbbbhh!?"

"Didn't anyone ever tell you not to blindly charge an enemy? You should've taken your time to at least see what kind of weapon I have."

That weapon, the fencing sword, has been stabbed into the back of Anders' throat through his mouth.

One must wonder how this happened so fast, Anders certainly wants to know, and London answers.

"I use this sword because it causes confusion in an enemy's depth perception. The blade's thin, very thin, so if you're not careful you'd think that I was swinging it further away than it actually is."

London twists on the pointed fencing sword and blood gushes out of Anders' mouth. The pain causes the leader of the castle's guard to collapse onto his knee.

"In this case." London continues, "You couldn't judge the space between us by looking at the front of my sword. You probably thought you had plenty of room. That's why when in doubt you should always look at the arm of the man swinging the sword."

The Knight pushes the blade deeper into his throat and Anders begins to fall back.

"Auuuaaahhgghh!!"

"Too bad no one taught you that."

Without any further ado, London pushes his weight into the sword and it skewers through his throat and out the back of his neck. As if that wasn't enough, London swings his sword to the side and sends half of Anders face flying in a gale of blood.

It's definitely overkill, but he only did that because if he pulled straight back out, the blood would've sprayed on his shirt. Instead it sprayed on all the onlooking men who had thought that they were going to be saved by their captain.

London killed him so easily that it sent even more fear into them.

The Knight's glare turns to those men and with it, a few of them make nervous groans as if they've just been spotted by a bear alone in the woods.
This is when London starts walking towards them. It's obvious what he intends to do once he closes the gap.

However...

Out of the corner of his eye, London catches sight of Zurvick and turns to him.

“King Zurvick? What are you doing here so soon?”

Zurvick doesn’t answer and simply walks right on past him and right on past the confused enemy soldiers. London is bewildered as well; he wonders what has put him in such a state and what could possibly be the reason for his separation from his wife at the top floor.

Then it hits him, the many different situations roll through his mind at once and his eyes instantly widen.

He makes his way past the frightened men in pursuit of Zurvick, as he leaves the enemy soldiers with some final parting words.

“The battle’s over.”

The men don’t do anything and just stand there as London runs after Zurvick.

London grits his teeth and has genuine worry in his eyes when he thinks to himself,

(I have a bad feeling about this...)

--------------------------

Ash is at the bottom floor of the castle, her day of fighting has ended because this certain floor, and just about the entire castle has been won over by the rebellion. The remaining enemies still fighting are completely surrounded and it is only a matter of time before they surrender.

The mass of loyal Trojans are already celebrating their hard fought victory, and Ash is no exception. For the most part, this is her first real battle. To have it happen here and for this cause, and to obtain victory is more euphoric than she could have ever imagined.

“I can’t believe we did it.” Ash says as she leans up against a staircase in somewhat of an exhausted fashion. “We won...”

She smiles wholeheartedly and takes a look around, through the carnage of this morning, happiness has broken through. A new surge of emotion brews in her chest and all she can think about is Zurvick, she figures he’s probably enjoying his reunion with the Queen at this moment, but that won’t stop her.

After taking a deep breath of determination she says to herself, “Alright! Let’s go find him!”

She begins to run up the large staircase leading to the upper levels of the castle and weaves her way through a couple people when,

Thunk!

She nails someone straight on.

She barely keeps herself from falling down the stairs and after grabbing the guardrail she instinctively shouts, “Hey watch where you're going!”

That’s when she catches a glimpse of the person her verbal assault was directed towards. She recognizes the man, and can tell right away that the life in his eyes has been dulled, it’s as though she has just run into a zombie.

“Zurvick!?” she shouts in surprise.

------------------

“Damn it all, how the hell could I lose track of him?” London says to himself while squeezing his temples in annoyance. “He’s walking a grand total of no miles per hour for Christ’s sake.”

London is up on the tenth floor of the castle and is quite angered at the fact that he lost track of Zurvick in the fray. Even though he was walking lifelessly and rather slow; he managed to blend in with the thousands of people making their way throughout the castle.

To be perfectly honest, he’s not the only one wearing that kind of face and moving around with that kind of demeanor. Nonetheless he was still careless, for one of the Knights to get distracted so easily is pretty embarrassing.

Trying to find the stairs down and pushing people out of the way in the process, he stumbles upon a few familiar faces in the crowd. Coming up the clustered stairs are Ebihara Seiri, Haas Avondale, and Lennox Applewood.

Their appearances are completely different from everyone else because they are completely unscathed and have this disinterested air about them whilst everything around them is so hectic.

Lennox shoves a guy out of the way and waves to London. “Yooo! There you are, for a second there I thought we’d never find you in this cluster-fuck of humanity.”

“Now that we have, can we go home now? We’ve won this battle already so there’s nothing keeping us here.” Seiri added.

Haas stays completely silent like usual.

London sighs and pushes up his glasses; his voice turns solemn when he replies, “Something’s telling me that we didn’t win this one...”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m sure we’ll find out at any moment now.”

---------------------

Zurvick ignores Ash’s presence and walks right past her as if she were a ghost. He slowly makes his way through all of the cheering Trojans and heads toward the large front door of the castle. The morning sunlight beams through that open door and it makes Ash feel as if he is going to walk into the light and never return.

She immediately pursues him and rushes to his side. “What’s wrong, Zurvick!?”

The broken Zurvick just keeps his wide eyed glare directly toward the light in which he is walking to.

With yet another snuff of a reply from him, Ash shows her frustration and kicks him about as hard as she can in the shin.

But this time he didn’t even flinch.

His reaction is completely different from normal, he should have hit the deck and shouted ridiculously.

Not seeing that reaction, her frustration is replaced by a heart pounding anxiety.

“Z-Zurvick... where’s the Queen?”

This question finally gets an answer, but not one that Ash wanted to hear.

Outside of the castle proper, a cool late morning breeze hits them as the light from the sun reflects off their bodies. The smell of fresh air replaces the smell of blood that their noses had gotten used to inside the castle.

With the breeze blowing through his hair, he slowly turns to her and answers,

“...She’s gone.”

----------------------------

“It’s time.” Satan said as he walked out on the balcony where Lelaine had jumped from.

About a hundred feet above him is the crow’s nest that holds the Trojan flag atop it; he simply looks up and he begins levitating towards it. Standing impossibly on the thin flag pole, he takes a deep breath and holds his finger out. From above comes a little black orb that floats down and lands on his fingertip.

“Hmmm... Not quite enough yet.” he says as he squeezes the orb in his palm.

He then drops it and it stops its fall directly below his feet. With a snap of his finger, the orb flattens and expands to form a massive pentagram that surrounds the entirety of the castle from above.

This is obviously some kind of seal, and if one looked at it closely, they could see that all the little intricate designs of it hold similarity to the seal used to bind Ubica to the eternal lake during the Apocalypse.

“But I don’t need many more souls to complete this seal. The ones left in the castle should be more than enough for now.”

With a couple hand gestures, Satan then slams his open palm down towards the pentagram seal and it turns bright purple.

It begins to spin as he says, “All men in this castle, I hereby claim you as enemies. As punishment, I demand your souls!”

The pentagram seal shoots downwards and makes its way through the castle while spinning.

This pentagram is actually a spell used to consume the souls of the living in mass numbers, once the mass of the pentagram reaches the bottom floor, everyone who survived the gruesome battle for the Queen will be wiped out.

-----------------------

On the tenth floor, London and the other three Knights stand cautiously as a rumbling sound from above makes its way down towards them.

The rest of the men in the hallway are clueless as to what is going on and are continuing in the reverie of their victory. Then a bang is heard so loud from above it actually stops them in their tracks, they all look up like turkeys on a rainy day and wonder what that sound was.

As if answering their worries, a man in a Cardinal's robe rushes down a flight of stairs that leads to the next floor.

The man is none other than Cardinal Luudnt and the men alongside the Knights instantly recognize him.

They figured that the Cardinal has been in hiding this entire time judging by his unscathed appearance, but the look on his face is absolute fear as he makes his way towards London and the others while shouting,

“RUN, RUN!!! IT’S COMING!!! IT’S--------“

All of the sudden, following him down the stairwell is a massive gust of wind that shatters every window of the hallway in its path. Four or five windows shatter before the wind hits Cardinal Luudnt and a purple orb of light screams out of his mouth, breaking his jaw and taking teeth along with it.

The Cardinal’s body falls lifelessly to the ground in a thud as if someone had dropped a sack of potatoes.

That purple orb then flies through the wind and makes its way back upstairs as if it was vacuumed by something.

This sight was all it took for the remainder of the men to turn away from the ensuing gust of wind and run as fast as possible to the lower floors.

London on the other hand, tries his best to remain calm and turns to the others.

He pushes up his glasses and his usual calm demeanor shatters when he shouts,

“We need to get out of the castle now!!!”

The other three don’t ask questions and quickly jump to their right and directly through the closed windows of the hallway, shattering the glass with the weight of their bodies and sending themselves flying into the open. Once outside, the rushing wind from inside the castle blows the already broken glass in their direction as they fall and they can only cover themselves as the loud sound of the passing air surrounds them.

They have narrowly avoided having their souls sucked out of them, but they are not out of danger just yet.

And Lennox points this out while the shards of glass chase them as they fall.

“HOLY SHIT THAT’S A LONG WAY DOWN!!!”

-----------------------

“What do you mean she’s gone..?” Ash asks in disbelief.

Zurvick’s face twitches awkwardly for a moment, he turns away from her and begins to walk across the bloodstained bridge over the moat from the battle earlier. He has no intention of going into detail about Lelaine, if possible, he’d like to block the entire thing from his mind somehow since reliving it is just too painful.

Ash doesn’t let him get off easy however, she latches onto him and again asks, “What do you mean!?!?”

Now Zurvick frowns, he turns to her, grabs her shoulders and shakes her violently. “What else could I possibly mean!? She’s dead, Captain, my wife is dead!”

Faced with his sudden outburst, Ash is left speechless. She’s never seen such pain in a person’s eyes, she’s never heard such despair in someone’s voice.

Until now.

The fact that it has come from him of all people is enough to break her heart.

Zurvick lets go of her and falls to his knees, it would seem that his own words made the reality of his wife’s death all the more realistic. His shoulders drop and his head hangs low as tears start to fall from his eyes for the first time in what seems to be years.

The sobs of the person Ash cares about the most hurts her ears, she had never thought she’d see him in such a state. This is the man that she has only seen smile for as long as she can remember, she now feels that he’ll never smile again; it will be replaced permanently by the expression he’s wearing now.

What can she do to give him back that smile?

What can she say that will help ease his pain?

Is there even anything that can do that?

Ash doesn’t know, and she doubts heavily that her words will even reach him at this moment, but she decides that this is the only thing she can do for him.

She leans down to his level and grabs onto each of his cheeks, she looks him square in the eye and says,

“Listen Zurvick... I’m so sorry, I don’t know what happened but I need you to know that all isn’t lost.“

Zurvick is sobbing uncontrollably, the heat of the falling tears on his face feels like hot lava on Ash’s hands.

“We all still need you to be strong, there are still so many people that love you. Me included.”

Her words seemed to have momentarily struck a comprehensive cord inside the beleaguered King, almost to the point where he can reply to her.

But before he had a chance to speak…

VVVOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!

A thick, loud bass noise is heard from behind them as a severe concussion is felt under their feet. The water of the moat begins to wake as the suspension cable of the draw bridge begins to swing a little.

“!?”

Ash turns around and looks up to see a sight that so far outstretches her length of imagination it’s mind blowing.

Thousands of purple, blue, green, and red orbs float upwards toward the sky, followed by a massive pentagram seal. The little lights seem to scream in agony as they twirl about towards a shirtless figure at the very tip of the castle.

“Wha..?”

She doesn’t even have time to think when all the windows of the castle begin popping like balloons.

The shards from the smaller ones can’t reach them; but she is terrified when she catches sight of the largest window of the castle that stretches from the second floor all of the way to the fifth expanding from within and exploding outwards in a great torrent of wind.

The hailstorm of glass is sent on a direct collision course with her and Zurvick.

Some pieces of the falling shards are so big they easily double the size of a human body, if the small shards weren’t deadly enough, if one of these giant pieces were to hit them they’d be crushed instead of skewered..

Knowing what comes next, Ash shouts, “Zurvick get down!!!”

She immediately dives on him without even thinking.

The two lay on the wooden draw bridge as the splashes from the shards of the massive window hit the water around them. Then what follows is the sound of the wooden bridge being pelted by the razor sharp shards, it’s as though someone was playing a dart game with their position on the bridge as the board.
From within the fray of all these different noises, a distinct sound is heard. It is the sound of flesh being sliced, followed by a liquid being spilled.

Zurvick knows this noise all too well and once the warmth of that liquid is felt on his chest his tongue feels like a ball of cotton.

He takes sharp, deep breaths as the glare from the shard of glass that fell atop them beams his eyes.

Ash slowly gets up and looks around; they are absolutely surrounded by glass protruding from seemingly every spot on the bridge. She then looks at Zurvick, and other than the shocked expression on his face, she can see that he is completely unscathed.

She smiles at him as the light from her eyes begins to fade.

“Thank goodness... you’re... okay...”

Her body falls limp and she collapses on top of him.

Stabbed into her back, is a foot long shard of glass from the window of the castle.

She has sacrificed her body to protect the King of Troy, and by the looks of it she has paid the ultimate price.

Zurvick can’t handle this, he can’t watch another person he cares about die right in front of him. He leans up and pulls the glass shard out of her back, and to his dismay, blood squirts everywhere and begins to puddle around their legs.

The usual tanned Ash is losing her color rapidly and becoming as pale as the moon.

She is dying in his arms.

He groans as he tries to stop the bleeding by applying pressure to the wound, but he is in such a poor mental state that he can’t even find the words to beg her to stay awake.

All he can do is hold the wound tightly and look down on her with pleading eyes.

When she doesn’t even budge, it hits him again.

This is all his fault.

His wife, his daughter, his country, and now this young girl who’d sacrifice herself to protect such a weak man like him. He can’t lose her too; he refuses to lose her too. But sadly he doesn’t know how not to lose, he has forgotten what it was like when he was able to win and protect others in the process.
He is now completely useless, a helpless man who is watching everything he’s ever cared about being taken away one by one.

Once Ash is gone, everything is gone.

He’d have lost it all.

The words she had spoken to him just moments earlier were forgotten and replaced with thoughts of self destruction.

He’s only capable of squeezing her limp frame tightly within his arms and letting all of the pent up emotions of guilt, shame, regret, and despair, exit his mouth in a blood curdling cry.

“UUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!”

---------------------

The souls of all the soldiers of the rebellion shine above Satan’s head like stars until he raises his hand and they all begin to swirl and mold into each other.

The souls mix all the way until there are only two orbs left, they have mixed in so much that the pretty colors are now gone and instead are an ugly black, the same dark color that formed the pentagram.

Satan holds the two orbs, one in each hand and smiles. He then tosses them to the side and they both float off in opposite directions until landing about a hundred meters away on each side of the castle.

After a few moments of silence, two beams of black energy shoot from the ground and tower into the sky. The two towers are so high it seemingly stands parallel with the mountains that surround the city. The two structures have got to be at least five times the size of the Trojan castle.

These two towers, formed from the two little orbs, have hundreds of windows that stretch all of the way to the top.

Satan spreads his arms and begins to speak, “To every man and every woman of the world, I speak to you in every tongue, to inform you that you are all under my rule.”

When he says he speaks to every man and woman, and in every language, he is literally doing that. The Archangels have used this very method during the Apocalypse, and in some sense, so did Ubica. Everyone in the world can hear Satan’s voice at this very moment.

“My name is Satan, and I am now your God! Worship me! Pray to me! And I shall give you life!”

Out of the windows of the two towers come thousands upon thousands of demons, flying, climbing, falling from the darkness and into the light of the world.

“This is my army! You can all see it can’t you?”

Satan showed visions of his army through every human’s mind as he said that, this way they can get a grasp on what is actually happening. This is more or less a way to intimidate them into believing that his words are true; no one in their right mind would be able to refuse the reality of it all after seeing it with their own eyes.

“No one can stop us now, I rule this world, I rule all worlds! So join me! Share with me the ownership of this world! All it takes is to accept me as God, and you can indulge yourselves in my spoils! You can have riches, women, fame, your wildest dreams for saying but only a word! To anyone who would still dare to oppose me, my army and I will begin a great purge of the non-believers. I give the world six months to make a decision, for those who haven’t by then, it will be death to you all!”

This has always been his main tactic. Conform or die.

With that jumble of threats, Satan’s message to the world ends and he is left laughing in pleasure as the form of his army begins to multiply in size from behind him.

This is it, this is his time, this is what he’s been waiting over a thousand years to do.

Satan once again has control of this world.

--------------------------------

“I’ll tell you what; I’m amazed that we didn’t break any bones after that.” Lennox said while scratching his head in amazement.

The four Knights had all jumped out of a tenth story window and landed on the down-slope of a grassy hillside and slid into the water of the moat. In there they share space with a countless number of dead people as they float uninjured in the blood red water.

“You know, even I can get grossed out. I’d really like to get out of this nasty water.” Seiri said, her misery is written all over her face.

“Moats were made so people can’t get out of them, it might take a while before we find a sewage drain to swim into.” London states.

“Whatever, let’s just get going, I’m starting to get uncomfortable with all those weird looking monsters hovering around us.” Seiri responds as she points to the many demons circling the castle.

Perhaps due to them being covered in the blood of dead soldiers and blending in so well, the demons don’t seem to notice them. If they were spotted, it’s likely the demons wouldn’t hesitate to attack them, chances are they are chomping at the bit to get their hands on a human.

“...Agreed...” Haas struggled to say his first words in a while.

With that, the four of them begin swimming in order to find a way out.

Of course, that is not the only thing on their minds. One thought they are trying not to think about is the fact that they have failed their mission. Their job was to protect the Queen and kill General Sturgess, and looking at what has occurred it is quite obvious that both of those objectives went unaccomplished. It is almost a complete disgrace for them, and the feeling of actually failing has yet to fully sink in because it has never happened before.

Since this is their first time, they don’t know the protocol of what happens in the aftermath of such a failure.

This prompts Lennox to ask,

“So... What are we supposed to do once we get out of here anyways?”

“That much should be obvious.” London replies as he leads the group through the bloody water of the moat. “We return to La’Juune and prepare for war.”

----------------------

Down in the most southern point of La’Juune; Celestia, Allia, Olin, and Jessiah are riding back to the Capital through the snow on a lifesaving dogsled. They had heard Satan’s message loud and clear and all stayed in silence as the dogs pulled them towards their destination.

Jessiah is the first one to break this silence and he does so in a way that makes it seem like he has no clue how dire their situation is.

“What a bunch of losers. How the frig’ did they fail? Four Knights should be more than enough to handle a stupid rebellion.”

The other three don’t respond, in hindsight, they had almost failed as well. They couldn’t count the numerous times they almost died in their battle with Captain Red.

“I hope they’re still alive.” Olin says, showing a rare expression of concern.

Allia sighs and turns to Celestia to ask, “So what do you think our next orders will be?”

“We fight, duh.” Olin answered before Celestia had a chance.

“I wasn’t asking you, idiot.”

Celestia looks very serious when she says, “I don’t know what they’ll be... but I know what I must do.”

“Oh?”

“Those weapons back at the plant, I think I know how to make them. And something’s telling me that we’re going to need them against this new enemy.”

“So you’re buying into this whole mess with the Devil? I thought you didn’t believe in that stuff.”

“I didn’t, at least not completely until now. I’d be stupid to not believe in Heaven or Hell now that all this happened; it has officially become a fact. That being said, we’re going to fight in a war on a scale this world hasn’t seen since the Antichrist’s time. We’re going to need everything we got to win this, so I’m going to make as many weapons as possible for us to fight with.”

For a non-believer, she knows about the Antichrist and the happenings foretold in the New Book of Revelations. For the most part, the entire world has heard of that story, and that was one of the reasons why there were so many people like her. The Battle of Armageddon was simply on a scale too epic and too farfetched to be considered anything more than myth.

But now, that stunning story is unfolding itself once more right before their eyes. They have no choice but to deal with it.

Their futures depend on it.

Allia smiles, looks tenderly at her tattered arm and says, “Make me the best weapon possible... With my arm the way it is, I think it’s time to graduate from a bow and arrow.”

Celestia smiles back and replies, “I already have one in mind for you. I’m going to use the same philosophy behind Jeffrey’s rings for it.”

“Something to do with magnets?”

“That’s right, except this just might even make you more of a monster than Jeffrey.”

--------------------------

“Well that’s going to put a fat wrench in our plans.” said Jeffrey as he and the rest await the Eiyalazonian soldiers at the top of the castle.

They were waiting anxiously as they tried to figure out a way they could talk their way out of this mess without being thrown in prison or executed on the spot.

“I can’t believe London and the others actually failed...” Elise replied, completely disappointed.

“I’m sure there were extenuating circumstances, but now’s not the time to be worrying about that. We need to figure out how to handle all this.” Jeffrey says as he glares at his unconscious King and adds under his breath, “Sorry Noah, but I won’t be leading La’Juune after all.”

He then turns to Diana and looks her square in the eye, she seems genuinely frightened just as most people should be when confronted with such a bleak future.

He sighs and folds his arms.

The rest can tell he’s in deep thought and they wait anxiously for his decision.

“Here’s the plan... Elise.”

“Yeah?”

“When you get back to La’Juune, I want you and London to rule the country.”

“Hah? But what about you? And wouldn’t it be better if I was paired with Celestia instead? I mean, London just failed in Troy, we don’t even know if he’s still alive.”

“Celestia works at her own pace, I’m guessing she has a plan to make weapons or something. She’s not going to want to lead the country. London on the other hand is the most qualified out of all of us no matter which way you look at it. He’s the only one capable of thinking many steps ahead and acting accordingly. He’s the closest thing to Noah we have so I’m sure he’s alive and going to head back to the Capital as soon as possible. As for me...”

He turns to Diana and says, “I’ll be staying here with the Queen.”

“Are you kidding? Why in the world would you do that??”

“Think about it Elise, you heard what Satan said right? It's to worship him or die. Do you honestly think that this shitty Prince could keep the country united under that kind of pressure? The people will falter and this whole country would be fucked.”

“.....”

“We need as many allies as possible in this war, and now we all have a common enemy. I’ll be damned if I leave the people of this country out to die. We’re all in this together now, so it’s about time we put past grudges in the garbage where they belong and fight for a future.”

Elise understands where he's coming from, she actually thinks that that might have been the coolest thing the normally dry Jeffrey has ever said.

She smiles and pats him on the shoulder rather hard before saying, “If you were a girl I’d totally fall for you.”

“I don’t have anything to say to that.” Jeffrey replies, completely indifferent to her words.

“What about me?” Came the soft voice of Rain from below, she has Noah’s head in her lap and is still quite distraught about everything.

“That’s a good question, I haven’t really thought about that.” Jeffrey answered while scratching his chin.

“Then have you thought about Noah yet?” she asks rather coldly.

“If you mean his funeral, I haven’t.”

“How could you be so cold to your King!?”

“He’s not the King anymore, you heard him shift his power to us before he died right? As far as I’m concerned, all three countries no longer have a single ruler.”

Rain scowls at him and hisses, “He’s still breathing you bastard, he isn’t dead.”

Jeffrey begins to laugh slightly, he throws his hands on his waist and fights back a smile when he responds to her glare.

“Alright alright, I’ve seen enough.”

“..?”

“There’s no point in continuing to give you shit when you can help me.”

“What are you getting at?”

Jeffrey walks up to her and leans to her level, with a straight face he asks, “What would you do to save Noah’s life?”

“Anything.”

“Then you are just the right girl for the job.”

He stands back up and walks away from her, he continues speaking as he begins pacing.

“Remember when I said that we’d need some kind of miracle to keep him alive? What was it again? Oh yeah, killing the one responsible for poisoning him.”

A new light begins brewing in Rain’s eyes as she starts to see where he’s going with this.

“Well that person is here, on Earth, and we are about to fight a war against him. The leader on the losing side of these kinds of wars usually ends up dying right? So what do you say we win this thing and wake Noah up?”

Determination boils in her chest when she replies, “What can I do?”

“You are going to go back to La’Juune with Noah and Elise. From my understanding you are one of, if not the best Battle Strategist in the world. We could use your talents on our side, you will be the leading Strategist for all of La’Juune.”

“Do you really have that much faith in her?” Elise asks skeptically.

“I do. You can see it in her eyes that she’ll do anything for Noah. Even more than we ever could.”

“Thank you.” Rain bows, “I promise I’ll wake him up.”

“Good... With that I think we’re ready to get the preparations underway. Diana, come with me, we have a lot of shit to talk about; it hurts my head to think about all the political nonsense we’re going to have to go through to get the other Royals of this country on board.”

“O-Okay Jeff.”

“Ahhh Jeff, I like that.” he says with a pleased smile.

He’s wanted the others to call him that all along but everyone strongly rejected it for whatever reason.

Diana follows Jeffrey but she hesitates when she looks back towards her unconscious son.

Jeffrey answers her gaze by saying, “Leave Dice here, the medics will tend to him once the soldiers get here.”

“...Right.”

She runs to his side and the two get to the door leading to the innards of the castle, he lets her in first and turns to the others to leave them with some final words.

“We only have a few months until the war of all wars starts. I’ll be doing my part here; you two make sure that La’Juune is mobilized and ready to put a serious hurting on that bastard by then.”

Both Elise and Rain salute him and reply in unison,

“Yes sir!”

---------------------

In Hell, on the shore of a certain massive swirling lake, stands Damien with a confident smile on his face.

As if sensing Damien’s presence, Leviathan appears from the swirling torrent of agony that he calls home and stands atop it as if there was nothing below him.

“Judging by the look in your eyes, I can see that you are pleased about something.” Leviathan said.

“What a good eye you have... would you like to know what it is?”

“Does it involve me?”

“It involves everyone allied with me, so if you are on my side then yes it does.”

Leviathan walks onto the shore and says, “After messing around with Ubica a little, I’ve come to the realization that what’s best for us is your plan for him. If that means I’m allied with you over your father, then so be it.”

“Good, I actually came here in regards to some news about my father.”

“I’m listening.”

“You’re one of the very few people that know of my true intentions, so I’m sure I’ve told you of my prediction on what my father was going to do about a vulnerable Earth after the abductions.”

“He was going to raise a portion of Hell’s army right?”

“Yes, and he’s done that, just as I thought he would. He has half of his power in that human container up on Earth, wasting it all day by day just to stay there, it's why he'll have to raise his army to subjugate the humans. The other half of his power remains here in Hell with his real body."

Leviathan’s interest is piqued. He wants to know what is in store for the future and asks, “What are you going to do about that?”

“I’m going to continue things as originally planned. What you are going to do is what's going to matter most.”

“Oh? And what might that be?”

“Get my father to Purgatory...”

---------------------------------

In the familiar room with the checkered floor, Satan sits on his throne with the chessboard resting in front of him. It shows that there are many white pieces left whilst there is only one black piece. But that one black piece is all that was needed to win the game.

With his bright red eyes he glares at the game and a deep chuckle forms in the back of his throat.

“Noah, you ambitious child, you were never going to win this game no matter how much you cheated with those powers of yours.”

He moves his black King piece and knocks over the white King piece, sending it off the table and bouncing onto the marble ground.

“With this, the world is now mine...”

His deep chuckle makes way for a heavy laugh as he leans back in his chair and lets the glory of his victory sink in. He’s finally accomplished something that took thousands of years to fulfill; he now has an able body on the face of Earth.

Only this time, he doesn’t have to worry about the interference of Angels, they’ve been long dead.

He doesn’t have to worry about Jesus interfering because he’s stuck in Purgatory.

He doesn’t have to worry about an armyless God up in Heaven.

But most importantly, he doesn’t have to worry about Ubica any longer, because in his mind, Ubica will be killed and Dantega will be rid of forever before he even gets a chance to see the light of the Earth again.

This is an absolute victory, and there is nothing here to hold him back any longer.

“Hehehe…. Hahahahahahaha!!!!”

His hysterical laugh is followed by a quick kick of the chessboard in front of him, the board and the pieces fly off everywhere and the clacking of the wooden bits bouncing off the ground seems to add applause to the rousing laugh of winning this game.

During this moment of bliss he realizes that he has yet to say the word used after a victorious chess battle.

His eyes shine brighter than ever before as he stands to his feet and shouts,

“CHECKMATE!!!”

Checkmate: (END)

<noinclude>
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|-
| Back to [[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 8|Checkmate (Part 2)]]
| Return to [[Dantega|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 6 Novel Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Dantega

2022-01-08T05:06:23Z

Deck of cards:

{{Status|Active}}

[[File:LelaineBT.jpg|thumb]]

Dantega is a light novel written and illustrated by [[User:Deck of cards|Deck of cards]].

==Story Synopsis==
Based 1000 years after the battle of Armageddon and the Apocalypse...

The human race has virtually started over and is trying to put the pieces of its past glory back together. But with God's enemies still lurking in the shadows, the world is once again thrown into chaos by Damien, the son of the Devil, when he kidnaps a group of young royals and sends them to Purgatory.

The princes and princesses were set to be married in an attempt at world peace by the three largest kingdoms of Troy, Eiyazalo, and La'Juune. And their simultaneous disappearances sends a ripple of hate through the world.

Due to certain events, two men join the group of royals, one named Ubica, who holds tremendous power and along with it a mysterious past. And Rage, who is actually the Angel of Death.

This is all according to Damien's somewhat unknown plan to start a world war amongst the humans.

In order to stop this war, the group must travel through the 5 gates of Purgatory and escape back to Earth before the world is again thrown into utter turmoil.

However, to accomplish this, they must find their way through this new world, fight through its residents, the 'Gatekeepers', Demons from Hell, and even themselves.

== Updates ==
*16 April 2021: Dantega project re-edited & new chapters.

== Series Information ==
*'''Genre:''' Action, Seinen, Romance, Drama, Supernatural, Adventure, Thriller, Tragedy
*'''Author:''' Deck of cards
*'''Illustrator:''' Deck of cards
*'''Volumes:''' 1-9
*'''Series Status:''' Ongoing

===Format Standards===
'''Every chapter (after editing) must conform to the general format guidelines.'''
*[[Format_guideline|General Format/Style Guideline]]

===[https://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=75&t=5740 Feedback]===
'''If you enjoyed the OLN, why don't you tell us in the [https://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=75&t=5740 Feedback Thread]'''

==Dantega==

===Volume 1 ([[Dantega:Volume 1|Full Text]])===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Prologue|Prologue]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 1|End of Royalty]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 2|First Contact]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 3|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 4|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 5|The Map to the Gates]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 6|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 7|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 8|The Devil's Advocates]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 9|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 10|(Part 3)]]

===Volume 2 ([[Dantega:Volume 2|Full Text]])===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 1|Her and the King]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 4|Rain on the Battlefield]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 7|Night of the Ball]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 8|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 9|(Part 3)]]

===Volume 3 ([[Dantega:Volume 3|Full Text]])===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 1|Northbound Reunion]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 4|Revelation]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 7|Trust]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 8|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 9|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 10|The Ransom]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 11|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 12|(Part 3)]]

===Volume 4 ([[Dantega:Volume 4|Full Text]])===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 1|Pursuit on the Water]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 4|One Step Behind]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 7|666 The Mark of the Beast]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 8|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 9|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 10|An Angel's Revenge]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 11|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 12|(Part 3)]]

===Volume 5 ([[Dantega:Volume 5|Full Text]])===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 1|Movement on the Chessboard]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 4|Their Rebellion]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 7|Checkmate]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 8|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 9|(Part 3)]]

===Volume 6===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 1|Conflict of Interests]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 4|Rosemary's Baby]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 7|The Death of One Beast and the Birth of Another]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 8|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 9|(Part 3)]]

===Volume 7===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 1|The World's New War]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 4|Capital Attack]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 7|(Part 4)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 8|(Part 5)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 7 Chapter 9|(Part 6)]]

===Volume 8===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 1|Crown of Thorns]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 4|(Part 4)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 5|(Part 5)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 6|(Part 6)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 7|(Part 7)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 8|(Part 8)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 8 Chapter 9|(Part 9)]]

===Volume 9===

::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 1|Resistance]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 3|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 4|Desperation]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 6|(Part 3)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 7|The Convergence]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 8|(Part 8)]]
::*[[Dantega:Volume 9 Chapter 9|(Part 9)]]

==Project Staff==

*Project Administrator: [[User:Deck of cards|Deck of cards]]
*Project Supervisor:

===Author===

[[User:Deck of cards|Deck of cards]]

===Editors===

==Project Status==

Project Status: '''Ongoing'''
[[Category:Original novel]]

Dantega:Volume 5 Illustrations

2022-01-08T05:02:40Z

Deck of cards:

[[Image:Dv05_img001.jpg|260px|thumb]]
[[Image:Dv05-chp03_img002.jpg|260px|thumb]]
[[Image:Dv05-chp05_img003london.jpg|260px|thumb]]
[[Image:Dv05-chp06_img004-2.jpg|260px|thumb]]
[[Image:Dv05-chp07_img005jeffrey.jpg|260px|thumb]]
[[File:LelaineBT.jpg|thumb]]

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Return to [[Dantega|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 1|Movement on the Chessboard]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

File:LelaineBT.jpg

2022-01-08T05:01:51Z

Deck of cards:

Lelaine on the balcony in the castle, overlooking the northern borough of Troy

Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 8

2021-12-31T20:55:51Z

Deck of cards:

(PART 2)

Dice is up in the garden at the very top of the Eiyalazonian castle.

He’s here for one specific reason, to kill the people who gave him life.

The blissfully unaware King Gile and Queen Diana enter through the door at their promised meeting time of noon, and after cordially greeting each other the three walk into one of the green houses and take a seat on a table.

This green house is full of many different kinds of colorful plants; normally, a building like these tends to feel a little more synthetic, but since the vines wind all throughout the structure and blend in along with the flowers so well, it feels more like stepping into a different world. The sweet aromas from the flowers really give off a soothing air to add to it, out of the four greenhouses atop the castle, this has always been Queen Diana’s favorite one to relax in.

Dice’s eye twitches slightly upon feeling the warmth emitted from what he thinks to be his two-faced mother. The genuinely happy smile she’s wearing is sapping away the light from his eyes as she speaks.

“I’m glad you’re safe, Dice... did you run into any danger out there?”

When she asked that, she was referring to his days on the front-lines with the 1st Royal division. Even though his parents are aloof to the intricacies of that whole situation, they still know that the division was involved in at least one battle.

Dice stares right through her and throws on a fake smile when he replies, “Nothing really... It wasn't as bad as I thought it’d be.”

An obvious lie.

For the most part, he was at the center of many different life threatening moments and took part in the biggest battle of the war thus far. To say it wasn’t that bad after everything he’s seen and been through is dishonest.

“Hmm, I don’t believe you.” Gile says, glaring at Dice suspiciously with one eye shut.

“Is that so?” Dice answers, still wearing the smile of a perfect son.

“I can see it in your face, you don’t look anything like the boy I raised.”

Dice’s eyebrow now twitches, he can’t help but think that Gile has found something out about him.

But that thought is quickly uprooted when Gile continues, “You look like you’ve been through more than enough out there, and you look stronger because of it... am I right?”

“You are right... I didn’t want to worry you two by telling you everything that happened.”

Gile leans back in his chair and folds his arms. “What do you think we want to talk to you about? Of course we want to hear everything. The fact of the matter is that you’re here safe, so knowing how you got to this point should be quite the story.”

Diana smiles and adds, “I agree, we’re both really interested in your story of survival out there.”

“That’s nice of you guys... But it might get a little tedious if I explained it in detail, so how about I summarize it shortly in the way I saw it through my eyes?”

His parents look at him as if telling him they’d love it if he did just that, and Dice begins to explain.

“As you both know, my journey started with Rain... You remember her, right?”

“Of course we do.” Gile quickly replies.

“We both feel terrible about what happened to her...” Diana added.

Dice’s lips shrink as he blows a sharp puff of air out of his nose. “Well let’s start my story with her, shall we? You see, her brilliance shined brightly on the battlefield as we wiped out an entire division of Trojan soldiers on the way to Tronoble. You would’ve been impressed, I'm sure of it.”

He takes a deep breath and his glare becomes thinner as the fake smile he’s trying to keep planted on his face begins to dissipate with each word. After exhaling to regain his composure, he sits astute to gather their attention and continues.

“A week or so after that, we had finally reached Tronoble; once there she came up with a great plan to weaken the city before sending the brunt of our forces to attack. She had wanted to go alone, but I wasn’t going to let her do that, so I ended up joining her. After a series of events we ended up at the Ball that was held for the King of Troy. The plan to weaken the city was to kill him, and once done with that we’d send word to our soldiers that lay in wait just on the outskirts of town and claim victory.”

“You were actually attending that Ball?” Gile asked in disbelief.

By now the happenings of the Night of the Ball are world famous, partly due to the military ramifications of the loss of that city, and also due to the fact the King of Troy was supposedly killed that night. Hearing that his son was in such a hot spot at such a pivotal time in the war has piqued his interest.

Dice doesn’t answer his question, but presses on with the original story.

“After a while, I was able to get close enough to the King to be able to kill him myself. And you know what? It would have been easy too. But to my great surprise I was interrupted by a group of La’Juutians. They kept me from killing the King by kidnapping Rain and ended up taking all the glory for themselves. They had killed King Zurvick, destroyed the ballroom and sacked the entire city in a matter of hours. Ten soldiers was all it took; which leads me to what has made me so angry about that whole night...”

His parents look at him anxiously, wanting to hear more of his incredible story.

He holds his hand out as he says, “If there were only ten of them, there’s no doubt that our waiting soldiers would come to the rescue and save Rain. But they never came, and as Rain was being taken away by those ten Knights, she told me that there was a spy in the higher-ups of the Eiyalazonian military that sold us out. Upon fleeing the burning city, lo and behold our soldiers were nowhere in sight. We were abandoned.”

“I-Is that really how the whole thing went?” Diana asks, still in disbelief.

“That’s what I was wondering as well...” Dice replies, “Could it really have been as simple as that? I don’t think so, you see, to me that night still isn’t over. I’ll forever be living in the Night of the Ball until I fulfill the promise I made with Rain before she was taken away. I promised her that I’d find the culprit and kill him before I go and rescue her from La’Juune.”

“So you’re saying she’s still alive?”

“Yes, she is out there waiting for me to fulfill my promise to her as we speak. It’s an unfortunate turn of events for you two, your plans have gone up in smoke.”

“..?”

“??”

It took them both a moment to catch the ill intended tone of those words. They’ve been caught completely off guard by what he had just said.

“Don’t look so surprised. Did you think I wouldn’t find out? Fearing how bad it would look if she actually succeeded in anything meaningful, you had sabotaged her from the very start. Did you really think that you would be able to hide behind your power to eliminate evidence?” Dice’s fake smile and polite tone are long gone and his voice steadily rises, “Did you really think that you could try to kill off the girl I love and live out the rest of your days consequence free!?”

“What are you talking about!?”

“Shut it!!! I won’t accept your lies!!”

Dice stands to his feet and his arm is engulfed with black smoke, it twirls around until it takes the form of a sword and he points it at them.

Whether it be from the shock of this strange sight or the fear of the malevolent power of Dice that they’re feeling, they are left frozen.

A wide smile taints Dice’s face as a deep laugh exits his throat, “Huuahahaha, and here I thought killing you two in order to have her love me was going to be difficult! I can already tell that it isn't going to be hard at all!”

He swings his sword back and readies to send the blow that will utterly destroy his parents when he is halted by a familiar voice yelling,

“Stop it, Dice!!!”

His eyes grow wide and he quizzically turns his whole body around.

Standing in the foot of the doorway is the person he’s doing all this for, Rain Von Ronheim.

He is in absolute disbelief and blinks a few times to make sure that what he’s seeing is real.

“Don’t do this.” Rain says, inching her way closer to him cautiously.

Dice immediately runs to her and embraces her tightly, even with his arm covered in black smoke. He is beyond ecstatic to see her and can barely contain himself.

Rain on the other hand feels the ever so familiar sting of hate spewing from him. As much as Dice is happy to see her, she is equally disgusted at the assault on her five senses brought forth by the black smoke.

“You’re here... you’re okay, thank goodness.” Dice said, the amount of relief present in his tone came across as almost inhuman.

“Dice... What are you doing?”

“I’m avenging you. You can see it now, can’t you?”

“.....”

“You can see that I love you so much that I’d destroy anyone who causes you pain. Even if those people are my parents, I’ll do anything for you.”

The tinge of insanity coming from the air of those words felt like shards of broken glass in her ears. She can’t help but feel that what Jeffrey said about him being a lost cause is likely true.

“If you’d do anything for me... then you’d stop this madness immediately.” she responds sharply.

“...What?”

“This isn’t what I want. In fact, this is the opposite. As much as I’ve always hated the King and Queen, I still found a way to vow to protect them.”

Dice stops hugging her and backs away, with his hands still planted firmly on her shoulders he asks, “You’re kidding right? You’d never do such a thing for someone who has disgraced you and your family.”

“That’s correct, I wouldn’t... I wouldn’t go so far as to give them a bread crumb if they were starving; but it’s not them I’m doing this for, it’s your sister.”

“Daey?”

“Your sister is my best friend... I refuse to let harm come upon them for her sake.”

“So you’re saying that what I’m doing is wrong..?”

“Yes... I don’t want this Dice, so please stop.”

Dice’s face twists awkwardly and he backs away from her in jagged movements.

He drops his head and from under his hair’s shadow his lips thinly rise, “Kukukuhahaha, I get it now... I’m being fooled once again by your words. Hahahahaha! That’s right! That’s what it is! It’s just another one of your backward statements that you always use so well to torment me!!”

“What? That’s not it at all!”

“Well I’m not falling for it this time!” Dice shouts.

Rain’s words and the look of concern on her face don’t reach him. It’s as though he has shut his ears and completely closed his eyes to reality.

“You’ll see, you’ll see how heavy the weight of your burdens are once I destroy them in front of your very eyes! You’ll certainly love me for taking it on for you!”

Dice’s speech begins to give her a headache and the swirling smoke rising from his body makes her feel nauseous. This is the pit of denial showing its ugly face to her, Dice is so far gone that any chance of reason or rationality is impossible.

The words of the person he’s doing this for can’t even reach him now.

It becomes even more apparent that that is the case when Dice’s face stops twitching and becomes calm. He opens his eyes and reveals that their color has been replaced by two pentagrams. These are the same eyes Rain once held when confronting a certain Trojan girl a couple weeks back.

He smiles, and from his lips comes a voice that doesn’t belong to him, “It’s too late girl.”

Rain takes in a sharp gasp of air, this voice has exited her own mouth once before and she knows his name.

Satan.

The pentagrams disappear and Dice quickly turns around and swings his black arm that holds the shape of a blade in one motion. A huge gust of black wind rips through the greenhouse and utterly blows it to oblivion; the attack was directed towards the King and Queen and was committed in such a flash that Rain couldn’t even mutter a word before it was too late.

The afternoon sun that was once blocked by the greenhouse shines down upon them and an eerie warmth hits their bodies. That’s when it becomes obvious that the attack that should have ripped his parents to shreds never hit its targets.

The King and Queen are gone.

“HAAH!?” Dice groans in anger as he scours the garden for any sign of them.

The sound of his teeth gritting in frustration is heard when he doesn’t spot them right away.

He sharply turns to Rain and shouts, “Where are they!?”

“They’re safe and away from you.” This answer came from behind the newly formed pile of destruction.

Noah walks over the rubble of the greenhouse from behind Rain and steps in front of her.

“I figured you’d be distracted for a few moments after seeing her. I couldn’t help but use that opportunity to get them out of harm’s way.”

During the short amount of time Dice was confronting Rain, he had Jeffrey slice through the greenhouse and quietly pull the King and Queen through it. Of course, there was a possibility something could’ve gone wrong with that, but they had no other choice.

“Who the fuck are you?”

“We’ve actually met before, I was wearing a mask though so it's no surprise you wouldn't recognize me.” Noah replies, shrugging his shoulders in the process.

This seems to trigger something in Dice’s mind, his eyes widen when it hits him.

"The Night of the Ball!?

“I am Noah Courlivet, the acting King of La'Juune. I was the one who kidnapped Rain back at Tronoble. I am your villain, not your parents.”

“YOU!!!”

Dice swings his black blade and sends a gust of wind just as powerful as the last toward Noah. Not even phased in the slightest, Noah holds his left hand out and with a smooth motion, deflects the attack and sends it flying off into the sky.

The repelled blast of wind hits the metal antenna holding a large Eiyalazonian flag at the highest point of the castle and it is ripped in half. The sharp end of the antenna tips downwards and falls into the garden, piercing through it like a knife through butter it quickly disappears into the castle. The sound of repeated bangs and crashes reaches the ears as the antenna likely makes its way down to the bottom floor.

Noah can only hope that somehow no one happened to be standing in its path.

“Something tells me that this isn’t going to be as easy as I first thought.” Noah says as he keeps his guard on Rain.

Dice grits his teeth and takes a deep breath before saying, “It’s clear to me now... She isn’t playing a mind game on me, not at all. The reason why Rain is acting this way is because you brainwashed her, you bastard!”

Noah frowns, he knows that there is no avoiding a conflict. Any thought of resolving this peacefully is shot out the window as the apparent sight of Dice’s insanity reveals itself.

Fully expecting Dice to attack him, Noah prepares himself for yet another attack when to his surprise, Dice turns around and runs out into the open of the garden.

“!?”

“He’s going for the King and Queen first!” Rain shouts as she pursues him.

Noah quickly follows suit, his mind racing as he does so.

(So he is still able to comprehend the situation, choosing to take out the intended and easier targets is the correct thing to do after all. I figured he’d have gone berserk like Rain did by now... If he can still think, then he’s not a lost cause just yet!)

---------------------------

Jeffrey is with Diana and Gile crouching behind a bush in the thick of the garden. This whole garden area atop the castle is a hundred yards long and fifty yards wide so there are numerous spots to hide in such a radius. Ignoring the confused glares of the people he is desperately trying to protect, his whole body is on high alert ready for an upcoming attack.

“Harold? What’s the meaning of this!?” Gile shouts.

Jeffrey doesn’t even bother to turn when he answers, “You saw what just happened with your own eyes, do you really think it’s wise for you to raise your voice like that? Throw away your pride and keep your mouth shut, you’d be surprised at how much good it can do for you.”

Gile frowns and is about to say something in return but is interrupted by Jeffrey.

“Oh and by the way, my name’s not Harold. Neither is the woman that’s accompanying me, we’re impostors.”

“!?”

“Don’t act like it’s such a big surprise, anyone and their mother could’ve fooled their way into having you believe they were actually family members. For future reference, you really ought to pay more attention to those kinds of things.”

Diana, who is almost as shocked as the King tugs on his sleeve and asks, “If you’re not Harold and Melissa, who are you two?”

“Are you sure you want to know? I don’t think you’d like it if you found out.”

“Does it really matter now?”

Jeffrey huffs air out of his nose and smiles, “Well then, let me formally introduce myself and my currently absent partner. My name is Jeffrey Durbin, and she is Elise Whittier. We are two of the Ten Knights of La’Juune.”

“What!?” Gile shouts, prompting Diana to cover his mouth to keep quiet.

One can understand his surprise, not only did he unknowingly bring in impostors, but they happen to be two of the strongest Knights in the world that are loyal to an enemy country during wartime. The two of them could have easily assassinated him in the last month since they started living under the same roof.

Jeffrey figures that frightening truth has already dawned on him, so he speaks as though the point has been made.

“Take a deep breath and think for a second, if we didn’t kill you after all this time, why else would we be here?”

After a moment’s pause, Diana asks, “To Protect us?”

“Bingo bango bongo, exactly.”

“But why? And from who?” Gile inquires.

“You’ve got to be blind not to be able to tell who we’re protecting you from, it’s your insane son.”

“Dice would never hurt us!” Diana shouted.

It was not as positive a statement that one would expect when speaking about their own son, there was most certainly a little doubt in her voice.
Jeffrey sighs and says, “That black smoke around his arm should tell you otherwise.”

Gile, not trying to fight the reality of their disposition any longer calms himself and asks, “Who gave you the order to do this? If you knew that our son was after our lives, then why would you go to such lengths to protect the enemy rulers?”

“I’d like to say that it was out of the kindness of our hearts, but I’d be lying.” He shoots them a serious glare and lifts his finger to add intensity to his words as he continues, “Here’s the deal, we know where your daughters are and our King is doing everything he can to stop this war and bring them back. In order to do that we’re going to need your cooperation, we can’t have you being killed off without before they come back.”

Ignoring his statement, both Gile and Diana simultaneously exclaim, “Where are they!?”

Jeffrey shrugs his shoulders and replies, “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. And keep your damn voices down.”

Gile grabs onto Jeffrey’s shoulders and intensely stares into his eyes, “My son has some kind of mysterious power that he’s trying to use to kill us. I’m pretty sure I’ll believe in anything at this point.”

“Hmph, well if that’s the case, I’ve got a story and a half for you. How about I fill you in on the details before Dice gets here?”

--------------------------

Dice is running through the garden at full speed, he doesn’t know exactly where his parents are hiding, so with each step he sends more of his black wind attacks ripping through the trees in hope that one hits them. Noah and Rain can’t keep up with him and they both know that if they don’t stop him soon, he’s bound to connect with one of those wild strikes.

A storm of leaves, branches and other forms of debris impedes their view of him and the smell of sawdust reaches their noses. With each wind gust, the shade that the trees once surrounded them in is overtaken by the afternoon sun and adds to the surreal intensity of the scene. Between the adrenaline rush and the noise, this could almost be considered an out of body experience.

The desperate dash in pursuit of the mad Prince comes to a sudden halt when everything abruptly stops. Dice stops in his tracks and before they know it, Rain and Noah are right on top of him.

The reason for this is standing in front of Dice.

It is a young woman holding what looks to be a large hammer with pointed ends on each side and a pointed top where the shaft protrudes.

“Not another step, pal.” Elise says while swinging her hammer in a jolly fashion.

Dice clicks his tongue and doesn’t even give her a word when he immediately runs in for the attack. With one swing he sends a black gust of wind directly at her torso; not being able to avoid it by jumping off to the side, Elise has only two choices to make in order to not be cut in half, duck under it or jump over it.

She picks the latter.

Using the sharp tip of her hammer she slams it into the ground and pole-vaults herself above the girth of his attack. While in the air she tilts her center of gravity and takes a front flip, the centrifugal force swings her hammer along with her and the sharp end is swung at an incredible speed towards the top of Dice’s head.

Dice takes a jump back and narrowly avoids getting his head smashed in.

Thinking that was the end of it, Dice thinks about his next move when,

GAAAAASH!!!

Debris from the granite pathway strikes his face and upper body as if it was shrapnel from a grenade.

“Guaah!?”

He then hears a strong gust of wind zooming towards his left ear and his body instinctively knows to avoid making contact with this incoming sound at all costs. He buckles his own knees and Elise’s hammer swings above his head; desperately attempting to gain distance on her, he swings his sword down and propels himself backwards by creating a gust of wind.

Little does he know, he’s heading in a collision course for Noah and Rain.

Noah isn’t one to pass on a chance like this, he takes a big crow's step forward and sends his left fist directly into the back of Dice.

If the impact of such a blow wasn’t enough, Noah’s power to negate dark energy is put to use and Dice’s body is sent flying into the trees at a bone breaking speed.

The silhouette of Dice disappears in the bushes and trees of the garden and a moment of apprehension engulfs them.

It’d be stupid to go rushing in after him solely because getting close to that arm of his is suicide. Elise, Noah, and Rain are forced to wait for him to come out, not able to predict what he’ll do next.

“I gotta say King Noah, that’s the fastest I’ve ever seen you move.” Elise said, twirling her hammer once again.

“I don’t think now is a good time for jokes.”

“Oh lighten up, it’s just another battle.”

“Maybe for you, I’m not used to this kind of thing. Plus, it’s definitely not just another battle, the world is at stake here.”

As cliche as that may have sounded, failure will result in Satan’s rule over the world; they cannot afford to think lightly on this possibility.

“Noah.” Rain says, tugging on his sleeve as she speaks, “You said you have a plan to get him out of the hands of Satan, right?”

“I always have a plan.”

“Then can you use it already? I have a bad feeling that someone is going to get hurt.”

Elise walks in between the two and butts in, “By someone, you mean that Prince right? You never struck me as a tenderhearted person, I gotta say, it doesn’t suit you.”

“Being tenderhearted is far from being one of my personality traits. But I take full responsibility for the way Dice ended up, if something happened to him I’d never recover from the guilt. And that’s not an emotion that I’m accustomed to feeling.”

“Oho you’re sassy too, I like that in a girl. But your stupidity outshines that pretty face of yours. If you feel responsible for that Prince, then how about you do something about it instead of getting Noah to do your dirty work?”

“!?”

“Enough.” Noah calmly interjects, he senses the emotion in Elise’s tone and can see that it has affected Rain. “I’m doing this because I want to. I’ve already heard enough from Jeffrey, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t throw in your two cents as well.”

Elise scowls at Rain and says through her teeth, “Yes your highness.”

The tension brewing between the three is broken by an enraged shout that comes from the innards of the garden. Suddenly, the light of the sun shining through the trees of the garden is engulfed by a black fog.

“OOOOAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”

With a screech of wind, what seems to be tentacles of black smoke come spewing from every angle and they shoot towards them at tremendous speeds. Being at the epicenter of a 360 degree attack like this really makes one feel that the walls are closing in.

Elise uses her hammer to smash some of the approaching tentacles and dodges whatever she can’t hit.

Noah uses his left hand to negate them whilst doing whatever he can to keep them from coming in contact with Rain. Though he’s quite sure that Dice wouldn’t do anything to harm Rain, he still has to be cautious.

Having these odd tentacles attacking them from all over adds to their disposition; not only do they not know where Dice is positioned, but they are being attacked at the same time while he awaits in the darkness of the trees ready to strike at any moment.

“This is bad, Noah! Make sure you stay alert, he’s planning on using these things as a diversion!” Elise shouts as she does a spin and smashes three or four tentacles.

“Right!”

Noah scours the area with eyes completely focused on whatever target is to appear before him. All he needs to do is catch Dice in the act of revealing himself and with the slightest touch of his left hand he can negate the tentacles attacking them from within the darkness.

After scouring the area for a few moments and blocking a few attacks; his eyes finally caught sight of something.

Dice comes running in a direct line towards Noah with his black sword pointing forward.

Perhaps due to Dice’s brazen attack, or maybe just the whole situation in and of itself, Noah reveals a rare frown and rushes toward Dice as well.

“You're underestimating me!” Noah shouts as the two are mere feet from a collision course.

Noah sidesteps to the right and avoids Dice’s thrust; he has got a beat on the Prince.

With his left hand he grabs onto Dice’s face and squeezes as hard as he can.

With this, the series of attacks by the tentacles will come to an end and a more straightforward battle is to be expected.

Or so he thought.

The mass that Noah grabbed eviscerates, and the pure momentum from Noah’s movements almost causes him to fall flat on his face.

Quickly turning around to find out just what had happened, he sees that the form of Dice all together turned into a puff of black smoke that quickly dissolved into the air.

“A clone!?”

“Haaagghhkk!!?”

Near the edge of the darkness, Rain’s gurgled scream is heard. Around her neck is one of the tentacles.

“Rain!” Noah shouts as he starts running to help her.

As if blocking his path, a couple more tentacles get in between the two and begin to take on yet another shape. After swirling for a second, the tip of the two tentacles form into the figure of Dice’s face.

He’s wearing a cockeyed smile as he speaks, “Perhaps being around Rain has got me to think of strategy a little more often. You see Noah, I didn’t underestimate you, it was actually the opposite. I never thought you’d fall for such a simple trick!”

“Tch, gross.” Elise said as the horrid form of Dice’s face in the black tentacles begins to laugh evilly.

“Let her go.” Noah demands.

Dice squeezes the darkness around Rain’s neck even harder and replies, “No no no, that’s just flat out ridiculous. If I did that, I wouldn’t be able to get her out of the brainwashed state that you put her in. How will I ever make her love me if I let her go!?”

By now Rain’s face is beginning to turn as blue as her eyes, she can’t hold out much longer if this continues. Both Rain’s condition and the nauseating insanity spewing from Dice sets the bar of intensity very high.

Noah is desperately trying to figure out a way out of this when the intensity bar doubles its height in a flash. Before he knew it, he is watching Rain being dragged off into the darkness by her neck, it’s as though she is some kind of worthless rag-doll being pulled along the ground by a spoiled child.

Any rational thoughts in Noah's head shatter and he instantly begins running after them. There’s no telling what might happen to Rain if she is taken into that darkness, as far as he knows, it would mean the last time he’ll ever see her alive.

Dice’s insanity is at such a level where he might just kill her in the name of an unrequited love; with his logic tossed out the window, anything is possible from inside that madness of his.

“Rain!!!” he shouts as he holds his hand out to her.

She holds her hand out as well and the two stare each other in the eyes as they plea for their hands to make contact. Coming agonizingly close to that contact adds to their despair when Rain’s throat is yanked harder and the speed in which she is being dragged doubles and leaves Noah in the dust.

He can’t catch her, she is going to disappear in that darkness alongside Dice. His legs simply won’t move fast enough to stop this from happening.

An extremely rare surge of emotion overruns his body as he shouts at the top of his lungs, “NOOOOOOO!!!”

At that very instant, a sound of meat being sliced hits his ears and Rain’s body grows limp and drops to the ground in a heap.

At first glance, by combining the scene with the sound, one would think that Rain has just been killed. But that is not the case here, the tentacles that were pulling her were cut into multiple pieces and wriggle like worms on the ground before puffing into a ball of smoke and dissipating.

“Wow, this kid must be a serious pain in the ass to be able to get the upper hand on both of you like that.”

Those words came from Jeffrey, who has nonchalantly appeared from the darkness of the trees and looks rather disinterested in what’s going on around him.

Elise scoffs at him and replies, “It wouldn’t be that way if we didn’t have to protect that girl’s ego and not kill the brat.”

“I’m with you on that.”

Noah ignores the two and immediately rushes to Rain’s aid.

“Rain! Are you okay!?”

He lifts her limp body onto his lap and braces her neck, he checks her pulse and is relieved to feel a heartbeat in his fingertips. She has just passed out from asphyxiation, although she is not out of the clearing just yet, he is relieved she is still breathing.

“Hey Noah, I recommend you take the girl and get away from there.” Jeffrey said while holding out his hand towards them.

Looking closely, one can see that there is a silver ring with a rather large metallic red circle on his left middle finger shaking violently. He pulls what seems to be a metal wire out of the lining of his sleeve and drops it on the ground.

It bounces and shoots itself past Rain and Noah and into the darkness.

He takes a confident huff of air out of his nose and says, “He’s right behind you.”

From the exact area where Jeffrey is pointing comes a storm of jaggedly sharp forms of darkness screaming towards Noah, he grabs onto Rain and runs away as fast as he can.

Expecting to at least be grazed by that attack, he is surprised to find that nothing has even touched him.

Only the sound of yet another slicing noise and Dice’s dull groan of pain is heard.

“Hnnghh!?”

Shortly after, the sound of fluid dropping to the ground follows.

The black smoke that plagued the garden disappears and the sunlight reveals Dice’s position.

It is just as Jeffrey said; Dice is standing only a few feet away from Noah and Rain. Except he isn’t showing a threatening pose, instead he is leaning on one knee pressing his hand against his bloodied stomach.

“W-What, how did this happen..?” he asks as he winces in pain.

Jeffrey gestures to Noah to take Rain further away and begins walking toward Dice. “Those buttons in your coat. They’re made of metal.”

“What the fuck does that have to do with anything!?”

“It has a lot to do with it, that’s how I found your location in the darkness after all.”

Elise, who is standing by watching, sighs and says, “Can you skip the explanation and just take him out already? You always have to be the guy that plays it cool, you know it’s lame right?”

A vein forms on Jeffrey’s forehead as he replies as calmly as possible, “What is this, ‘give Jeffrey shit day’? I don’t wanna hear it.”

“Tell me how!?” Dice demands.

“Magnets. Take a look around you and tell me what you see.”

Dice hesitatingly uses his eyes to scour the area and notices that there are dozens of shards of red steel all around him. They are somehow floating by themselves and the unusual sight of this alone is enough to make someone double take in disbelief.

“I don’t know if you’re familiar with them, but through mathematical equations, I can control the vectors in a ‘Magnetic Moment’ to either produce its own magnetic field or react to another. In this case, I had my red ‘Positive’ magnetic blade react to the cobalt buttons on your overcoat.”

“That’s ridiculous! I’ve never heard of such a thing!”

“Not many have, to be perfectly honest with you I had no clue about this stuff until Celestia somehow managed to turn magnets into weapons. The only thing that makes me unique is the fact that only I can calculate the math that goes along with using it. Without that, my blades wouldn’t be able to move the way I want, they’d just go in a straight line towards the nearest positive metal.”

This is the Ten Knights of La’Juune in a nutshell, each one of them has a talent that they are literally the only ones capable of. In this case for instance, Celestia created a weapon that only she would have been able to conjure up, and Jeffrey is the only one smart enough to use it.

Magnetic science was far from perfect back during times of universal electronic technology; nowadays the entire field is near non-existent. That being said, Jeffrey has perfected the science itself a thousand years after its height of relativity.

Dice scowls at him and responds by grabbing his overcoat with his dark hand and rips it to shreds. “If I don’t have any metal on me, then your stupid magnets have no effect right?”

“Well, I guess you can say that.”

“Then good!” Dice stands to his feet and flings the blood off his hand with a flick of the wrist. “That means there are no more tricks up your sleeve and I can kill you without any problems!”

Dice charges at Jeffrey with an incredible dash of speed, he shoots forward so fast that a black wind trail is left in his wake.

Faced with an unfathomably strong attack, Jeffrey still finds a way to sigh and look disinterested as he lifts his right hand up and smoothly takes a swipe at the air.

With that simple motion, a dozen shards of metal pierce Dice’s back and his fast movement comes to a painful halt.

“Uggaaaaackk!?”

“I told you, didn't I?” Jeffrey says as he walks up to the Prince and peers down on him as if the Prince was a dog. “I can maneuver my magnets any which way I want with math. There doesn’t have to be metal on you, that’s what these are for.”

Jeffrey then reveals the rings on each hand, on his left hand is a red one, the other on his right hand is black.

Positive and negative magnets.

With these two rings constantly creating a magnetic flux density, no one is safe upon entry. This magnetic field of his can be used in a similar fashion to the gravitational pull of planets and moons, and can also be used as repellent to keep things away or shoot things forward. Anyone who enters this perimeter is walking directly into a vector field in which he has free reign and full control of.

In fact, back in the age of heightened technology, scientists were close to developing guns that fired bullets out of the barrel from magnetic force alone. Having a weapon like that would make the use of gunpowder obsolete and promptly eliminate all sound in the process. That along with the doubled speed would’ve made it a perfect weapon.

Jeffrey is virtually attacking under the same principle, except he’s only using the aid of his two rings and the rest is done manually from within the body.

“Did you know that all movements of the human body have an electrical kick-start that happens in the brain? Well, using that electricity and pouring it into the rings, I’m using them as a charge to constantly create a field. I gotta say, it is a pain in the ass, one miscalculation and it can backfire and leave me brain dead, or my heart could just suddenly stop.”

When he mentions calculations, he’s talking about the precise equation needed to cause the vectors in the magnetic field to react the way he wants it to, and in turn cause his magnets to do what he wants it to. It might sound simple, but even a basic magnetic math equation can make one’s head spin.
For example, a regular bar magnet may have a magnetic moment of magnitude 0.1 A•m2 and a volume of 1 cm3, or 1×10−6 m3, and therefore an average magnetization magnitude is 100,000 A/m. Iron can have a magnetization of around a million amperes per meter. That is just a simple bar, what Jeffrey is dealing with is an entire vector field filled with hundreds of positive and negative reactions that are hundreds of times the strength of an iron bar. To calculate the SI units and amperes per meter without killing himself in the process could be considered a miracle.

With yet another sigh, Jeffrey again lifts his left hand and the blades exit Dice’s back and begin to form into something above his forearm. It’s a small sword about three feet long, the pieces fit perfectly like a puzzle and have now turned into yet another menacing weapon.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he swings down the blade directly at Dice’s neck.

This isn’t an attack to incapacitate him, it’s an obvious motion intended to lop off his head.

“STOP!” Noah shouts at the top of his lungs.

His time as a simple onlooker comes to an abrupt stop when his end goal is put in jeopardy.

“This isn’t what you think, King Noah.”

“Don’t take me for a fool, I can plainly see that you have no intention of following my orders.”

Jeffrey laughs smugly through his nose and replies, “Ah damn you caught me. You’re right; I have every intention of killing this little shit.”

Hearing that, Rain, who has just awakened after catching her breath, joins in and yells, “You can’t!”

“Shut it, girl!” Jeffrey shouts, revealing a rare surge of emotion. His raised voice alone is enough to stop everyone in their tracks and listen intently.

“This is an unreasonable order that I refuse to follow. My job is to protect the King, not to aid in his destruction!”

“It’s not as simple as that, Jeffrey. This is what must be done in order to secure a peaceful world after this.”

Noah is trying to remain as calm as possible to keep Jeffrey from doing anything rash while he’s out of reach.

If there’s one thing the Knights of La’Juune all have in common, it’s reason. However, Jeffrey being the most reasonable out of the whole bunch, is not giving in.

“A peaceful world huh... at what expense? Our country without a King? Laid naked out in the open to be attacked by the very countries that we saved? I won’t stand for it! I’m going to kill him whether you like it or not!”

Jeffrey swings down his magnetic blade but is met with a surprise when the sparks formed from metal touching metal flashes before his eyes.

“!?”

His sword has been blocked by a six foot long pole, held by a teenage girl with silver hair and transparent emerald eyes.

Dice, who is also surprised, says out loud the name of the person who had just saved his life.

“Evelyn!?”

“I won’t let you touch him.” Evelyn said, shooting a steely glare at Jeffrey.

“Listen kid, I don’t know who you are or what you’re thinking, but you’re making a mistake! Out of the way!”

She scowls at him and pushes him with all her weight.

Jeffrey is shocked to find himself flying backwards a good distance.

(How the hell did she generate that much power!?) he thinks to himself as he regains his footing.

As if answering his question, Elise rests her hammer atop her shoulder and says, “She’s just like me. She uses her balance and momentum with that pole to create a force strong enough to destroy a brick wall. Who might you be?”

“My name is Evelyn Le’Fluer. I am Prince Dice’s Royal bodyguard.” She declared proudly without a hitch. She then postures in front of Dice and guards him as she continues, “I don’t know who you people think you are, but if you wish to harm my Prince, you’ll have to go through the strongest soldier in all of Eiyalazo.”

“Ohoo how cute. Well if it involves titles like that, you’ve found yourself in good company.” Elise replied, a fire begins brewing in her eyes and Jeffrey can see it.

“You take care of the guard.” he says, “That Prince is enough to deal with by himself, I can’t be bothered by two people right now.”

“Roger roger.”

With that, Elise comes rushing in for the kill.

In a full sprint she lifts her hammer over her head and slams it in the direction where Evelyn and Dice stand. Evelyn pushes Dice out of the way and prepares to dodge the attack by jumping backwards when Elise’s hammer skims off the ground, swings under her own legs and her body is propelled into an amazingly fast front flip.

The momentum of such a violent motion almost breaks the air as the sharp end of her hammer readies to fall directly on top of Evelyn’s skull. With a reaction befitting of a cat, Evelyn twists her body and swings her pole. It barely grazes Elise’s hammer but it did just enough to knock it off course and cause it to slam into the ground beside her.

The only damage she takes from the intense attack is a few shards of stone hitting from the impact of one the pathway.

“Kkhh!!”

Elise doesn’t let up from there, with a slight step she tilts herself to the side and sends the hammer directly towards Evelyn’s abdomen. Evelyn blocks it with her pole but the impact was so forceful she is sent flying ten meters off into the trees.

Elise smiles pleasurably and jumps into the trees in pursuit.

The two disappear out of sight and the sounds of their weapons clashing can be heard out in the distance.

“Do you know that girl, Rain?” Noah asks as he keeps his eyes on Dice and Jeffrey.

“I’ve only met her a couple times when she was around Dice, I’ve never seen her fight though. I’ve only heard rumors about how strong she is.”

“That’s good, hopefully she doesn’t get defeated before we end all this. I’d like to avoid any unnecessary deaths if I can.”

“That girl has the nickname of ‘The Castle’s Monster.’ I’m sure she won’t lose so easily, no matter how strong your Knights are.”

“I see, then it’s safe to put all my focus on the matter at hand. Jeffrey is not going to obey my command so I need to settle this once and for all.”
Noah runs at Dice and prepares to grab him with his right hand.

This is what he did to take in all the hate and evil that once plagued Rain, all he needs to do is make contact with him and the first part of the battle will be over.

Dice can sense his presence, and instantly feels the need to avoid contact with him. He forms his black sword around his arm and swings down at the ground, sending debris flying in an attempt to use it as a smoke screen of sorts.

But Noah doesn’t stop advancing, he powers through the dust and once out on the other side he finds that his target is only a few feet away from. Like this, he will be able to make contact with him and begin the extraction of the Prince’s evil.

That is, until he feels a sharp pain on his calf that immediately tumbles him onto the ground.

“!?”

He has been cut and blood begins rolling down his pant leg and into his boots.

“Sorry King Noah, but this is for your own good.” Jeffrey said as a shard of the magnet covered in Noah’s blood comes back to him and forms into a blade once more.

“Jeffrey!? You dare harm me!?”

“Ah, I think that’s the first time I’ve ever seen you angry, I like that in a King, this sensitive nonsense of yours is really getting on my nerves.”

“You... You’ll really do whatever you can to stop me..?”

“That’s right, I’m not going to let you die for that girl. I won’t try to convince you to see things my way either, actions speak louder than words after all.”

Jeffrey then turns to Dice, the two make eye contact with each other and the blood lust between the two can be felt in the surrounding environment. These are two people who have every intention of killing each other, and they will go to any lengths possible in order to do so.

After a brief moment, the two charge at each other and begin a battle that shakes the castle to its very core.

Jeffrey touches the blade that formed in his left hand and it shards into a dozen razor sharp pieces that float around him as if they had a mind of their own.

Dice swings his blade horizontally and sends his own razor sharp attack.

Jeffrey takes a leap forward and slides under the wind like a baseball player to home plate. Now out of the attack’s range, the shards all fly off in different directions and surround Dice; with a hand gesture the blades zoom in from all angles to skewer him.

Dice swirls his body and a tornado of wind blows the many shards away from him as if they were feathers caught in a strong breeze.

Not phased in the least, Jeffrey keeps moving and pulls a coin out of his pocket and tosses it towards Dice.

Thinking nothing of it, Dice lets it hit him in the chest, fully expecting it to bounce off of him and fall helplessly to the ground. But to his surprise, the coin sticks to him; and in that moment of distraction, Jeffrey had ample time to get in close and under Dice’s guard.

With an open palm Jeffrey slams on the area on Dice’s chest where the coin is stuck, and an odd bang echoes through the trees.

Dice’s body jolts and his skin shakes violently when a concussion hits the innards of his body and shoots him backwards.

Jeffrey had used a cobalt coin as a positive magnet and did a set of intricate calculations to stick to the very small amount of iron in the blood on Dice’s shirt, and then with an open palmed strike he turned it into negative in an instant to repel the iron away.

The sudden change is what caused the impact to be so forceful. It is likely that the coin would’ve been helpless the entire time if it weren’t for the quick transference in physical properties.

With Dice still flying back, Jeffrey swings his arms and the previously knocked away magnetic shards once again make their way towards Dice. The Prince catches a glimpse of this and swings his black sword against a tree, cutting it clean in half.

“That damn trick is not going to work on me twice!”

A huge gust of wind turns the tree horizontally and blows it like an arrow towards Jeffrey, the magnetic shards caught in the fray are rendered useless.

“!!!”

The tree bounces across the ground and picks up dirt, bushes, flowers, and even smaller trees along with it. This has turned into an unavoidable attack and Jeffrey knows it, unless he thinks of something quick on his feet, he’ll be a pile of broken bones in no time.

A series of ridiculously complicated numbers flash in his head and he hurriedly picks one out of his mind and puts it to use. He slams his right hand into the soil and a huge mound of dirt forms in front of him, barricading himself from Dice’s relentless assault. He winces as he uses all his strength to keep the soil from losing its solidity, one slip up here will be the end of him.

In the heat of the moment he had come up with the perfect equation to form that wall from all the iron, and other magnetic materials in the rich soil of the garden. All that needed to go wrong was to miscalculate one number and the solidity of that mass would have fallen apart, or his heart would’ve stopped before the tree could even crush him. But he managed to pull it off, and he can’t afford to think of anything else but the next task at hand; the Prince should be gunning for him as soon as he lets his wall down.

After a few short seconds that felt like minutes, the wind gusts and the flying debris stop and he finally lets go of his wall of soil. He scours the area for any sign of Dice and becomes slightly nervous when he doesn’t get a spot on him.

That’s when he hears Noah’s voice out in the distance shouting, “He’s behind you!!”

Jeffrey only had enough time to dive forward, and that was not enough to avoid having his back ripped open by a gust of wind and seeing his own blood fly in his peripheral vision. He twists to his side and lands on his back before desperately trying to get his magnets back in front of him for protection.

But it is too late.

Dice is directly on top of him and will send his black sword down through his heart.

(Damn it!) he thinks to himself in this brief moment.

Through his mind he thinks of many different ways he could possibly escape this situation unharmed and none of them work.

The numbers simply don’t add up.

However, one does reach his brain as he watches Dice’s blade come down on him, (I was hoping to avoid using this unless I absolutely needed to!)

Even though he said that to himself, his body’s natural instinct to protect itself takes over and he moves accordingly. He claps his hands together and a loud bass noise is heard, the sound itself is borderline nauseating and it emits a clear ball of energy that expands outwards in a blast.

The blast halts Dice’s attack momentarily and Jeffrey sits up and puts both hands about a foot away from each of Dice’s ears; surrounding his head.

Dice grits his teeth and his downward thrust once again continues its motion and slides across Jeffrey’s shoulder, sending blood squirting onto the ground below.

Perhaps due to the adrenaline rush, Jeffrey doesn’t feel the pain of being sliced just yet and instead of wincing, he smiles and says, “It’s over Dice, you're unable to move right?”

Dice attempts to move his body but has found himself stuck in this position completely unable to budge, he can’t even blink in this paralytic state. His eyes, filled with anger, are stuck onto Jeffrey’s smiling face as if he was a statue.

“I’ve created a magnetic field around your head, the electronic signals used by the brain that are needed to move are at a standstill. The only way your body can function is by doing the mathematical calculations needed to maneuver around the vectors swirling in a torrent through your brain.”

“!?”

Even though Dice can’t make any kind of facial expression, one can still see the shock in his eyes.

“Give it a couple more seconds and your entire bodily functions will misfire and jolt out of control. Every breath you take from here on out will destroy you.”

As if his words were a trigger, blood comes screaming out of Dice’s ears, nose, mouth, and eyes.

With each heart stabbing gasp of air he takes, more of the red liquid squirts out of him. The sounds permeating from his organs malfunctioning is enough to make someone vomit in disgust.

With this, Dice’s innards will explode and the threat of Satan’s upheaval of the world through him will be completely demolished.

This is Jeffrey’s victory, and in turn it is the world’s victory.

He is taking pleasure in the fact that he is capable of such a thing as he watches the life getting sucked out of the Prince, what he is doing defies the laws of human capability. This attack puts him in almost as much danger as Dice, but he is focused and determined to end this quickly and take himself out of harm’s way.

However...

The focus needed to destroy the enemy in front of him will lead to his failure.

He wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings when the hurried footsteps of someone running up to him can be heard. The next thing he knew, a bright flash blackens his vision and the only thing he can hear is a high pitch ringing noise before he falls unconscious.

Noah ran up to him and kicked him directly in the temple, knocking him out cold.

The magnetic field instantly vanishes and Dice falls to the ground unconscious as well.

The two bloodied men lay harmlessly next to each other as if they were never fighting to begin with. Such a scene brings solace to what was once so hectic.

“I figured if your brain abruptly stopped, your magnetic field wouldn’t be able to harm you. I’m glad I was right and I’m glad that I was able to knock you out in one shot. Judging from what you told me, I’m sure you would’ve died if my kick only caused you a distraction on what you were doing.” Noah said in an almost guilty fashion.

Even though Jeffrey didn’t follow orders exactly the way Noah had wanted, he had still done a good enough job to incapacitate Dice. Now all that’s left is for Noah to use his right hand to take in the evil that Satan has poisoned the Prince with.

Noah takes a deep breath and doesn’t hesitate to lean down and reach for Dice’s bloodied face.

But before he could make contact, the soft hand of Rain grabs his forearm.

“Wait a second.”

“What is it?” Noah asks.

With her sky blue eyes she looks into the black of Noah’s eyes before asking,

“What that Knight said... about you dying if you do this, is that true?”

Noah pauses for a moment and answers, “I’ll be fine.”

“Liar.”

Noah sighs and says, “I really can’t hide anything from you...”

Rain looks to Dice and glares at him for a long moment and then back to Noah.

“If that is truly the case... then please, don’t do it.”

“...What?”

“That Knight... He’s right, you can’t throw your life away for a person like me. And to be perfectly honest, I’d be willing to sacrifice the Prince, and live with the guilt of driving him to such a state if it meant saving your life.”

“That’s an awfully cold thing to say about someone you were just so desperate to save.”

Rain squeezes on his arm even harder when she sternly replies, “If it’s your life or his, I choose you, Noah.”

Noah rests his other hand on the back of Rain’s and responds to her cold words.

“What if I said that I don’t believe those words of yours?”

“Then I’d say that you’re mistaken.”

“If that’s the case, then I’ll be up front with you and say that you’re full of shit.”

Rain’s eyebrow twitches but she still holds on to her stern expression.

“I’ve grown to know you quite well these past couple months.” Noah says, “We’ve spent almost every minute of it together after all That being said, I’ve studied the many faces of Rain Von Ronheim, and I’ve found out what expressions you make when you aren’t being honest.”

“I thought you said that you trust in my word wholeheartedly?”

“Oh I do, but 'you' don’t.”

“..?”

“I know when you’re not being honest with yourself, Rain. This is one of those moments where I can see that it’s hard--- no, it’s unbearable for you to see what Dice has become. The fact that it’s all for your sake is breaking your heart, is it not?”

Noah squeezes onto the hand that he has become so familiar with since he had met her, the warmth is an almost nostalgic feeling to him now as he thinks about his future.

“I don’t like it...” he says in a low voice and his head down, “I don’t like to see you suffer, that’s why I’m doing this. Don’t consider it as me sacrificing my life for you, don’t consider it a waste. If I thought of it that way I wouldn’t have made this decision."

After being hit by those words, the stern face that Rain was showing has grown soft. Tears begin to form under her brow when she says, “But it is a waste! Can you really not see that I need you alive more than anything else!?”

Noah smiles and can’t stop himself from throwing his arms over her and embracing her tightly.

"It's already too late for me to make that happen."

Speaking into his shoulder, Rain says, “It’s not too late, all you have to do is walk away.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about.”

“Huh?”

“I told you already, haven't I? I’m going to die. Taking in your hate was too much for my body to handle by itself. I’ve been dying since that day anyways, so doing this for you will only shorten my already depleting life.”

“Y-You mean it was my fault from the very beginning..?” The despair cracked in her voice when she said that.

“Not at all... I was bestowed the powers I hold in my hands specifically to help people, no matter what the cost. By me fulfilling the will of these powers, I got to meet you. And in turn I’ve found happiness; it was you who gave that to me and I'll take that gratefulness to the grave.”

Noah can see how distraught Rain has become over this, he’s sure that in her mind it’s a lose lose situation for her. If Dice dies, it’s her fault for trampling on his feelings so badly in the past that he’d sell his soul to the Devil to change things between them. If Noah dies, it’s her fault for selling her own soul to the Devil for revenge.

He doesn’t want her to dwell on these feelings anymore, all he wants is to put her pain to rest and have her start her life anew. To him, she is the most amazing person he’s ever met. He sees her as someone capable of achieving anything; if she can forgive Ash Alworth then she can forgive herself.

With that in mind, he begins the extraction of Dice’s evil.

With his right hand he places his palm on Dice’s chest and is instantly met with a severe pain coursing through his body, it’s as though thousands of needles are piercing him simultaneously. He powers through it but begins coughing up blood as a result.

Just seeing this is enough to cause Rain to panic.

She is watching Noah slowly die right before her eyes and there is nothing that she can do about it, he has made his decision and it is far too late to convince him otherwise. Seeing the black smoke leaving Dice and making its way into every gap in Noah’s face is making her feel sick to her stomach, she’s almost begging herself for him to stop but she’s frozen in place.

It would seem that her wish will come true however, a certain man makes his appearance and stops Noah in his tracks by shouting,

“What are you doing to my son!?”

The King of Eiyalazo appears alongside his wife not too far behind, he has a look that can kill in his eyes and his face is red with rage.

“King Gile??” Rain asks in surprise.

This is the first time she has been face to face with him since she originally left to fight the 105th Specialist Division of the Trojan army.

Gile ignores her presence and begins walking toward Noah, each step he takes emits a threatening air.

“Stay away!” Noah shouts through the smoke entering his mouth.

The King doesn’t listen and his walk gets faster as he intends on attacking Noah with his own two hands. With Noah in such a vulnerable position the King could really inflict some damage.

Seeing this firsthand, Rain can’t help but jump in front of him and block his path. “Stop King Gile! Noah is only trying to help your son!”

“I already understand that, I heard everything from that damn Knight earlier. The problem is that a La’Juutian is doing it. If anyone can save him it should be me!”

The plague of Eiyalazonian pride has so arrogantly come in the form of the King’s presence, the worst people of this country would rather do something themselves than accept the help of a longtime enemy.

The King lives by this arrogance more than anyone.

Rain can’t believe that under these circumstances he won’t accept this favor, no matter how futile his own attempt would be.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Rain says in disbelief.

“I don’t want to hear it from you, you’re supposed to be dead like your father by now.”

Rain looks at him quizzically and he answers her look.

“What? Did you think that I was doing you a favor when I let you take command of the 1st Royal Army Division? Of course not, your name was growing far too big as a battle strategist, people in the royal family were questioning me about the use of your services.”

“You... So you're telling me that what Dice is accusing you of is actually true?”

“For the most part, yes. Though my wife was under the impression that I actually cared about you, I on the other hand still bear a grudge on that name of yours. Our embarrassment at the hands of Napoleon was caused by your father, and there won’t be a day that goes by where I don’t look at you and am reminded of it.”

She can’t even be shocked at his words, to be perfectly honest she knew how he felt all along.

Like the King of the most prideful nation would do anything for the daughter of the man who suffered the country its greatest loss. The Battle of La’Juune ten years ago will haunt the people of Eiyalazo so long as they breathe the Earth’s air.

Gile continues walking closer to Rain and says, “It was a win win for me, if you actually sacked Tronoble and put us on the forefront of winning the war, then it’d be a great bonus. I’d just have you killed afterwards and place the glory be given to someone else.”

“That’s enough Gile!” Diana shouts from afar, she has heard all she can and has found herself disgusted by the sudden admission.

Gile ignores her and continues, “And if you failed, like you did, I would finally be rid of your name once and for all. You are nothing now girl, a shadow at best. So you have no right to be in my presence!”

With the back of his hand he strikes Rain’s face and sends her to the ground, and his next target is Noah.

If it weren’t for the black smoke entering through his eyes, one would see the seething anger brewing in Noah upon seeing Rain so ruthlessly struck. But there is nothing he can do about it, he is stuck the way his body is positioned due to the extraction process.

“Wake up, Dice!” Gile shouted confidently as if he knew his words would work.

To Noah’s surprise, the words do work.

Dice’s eyes fling open as soon as Gile gets within a couple feet of him, these cold eyes so filled with insanity are stuck on the figure of his father when they mold from that of a human to that of a monster.

A huge gust of wind shoots Dice’s limp body upwards and away from Noah.

About ten meters up, a tornado-like wind swirls under his feet and keeps him floating there. For whatever reason, Dice’s shoulders hang loose and his head droops a little to the side, perhaps this is due to the brain damage he suffered at the hands of Jeffrey.

As if moving subconsciously, he shoddily moves his arm upwards and begins to speak through a cracked voice.

“F-Father...”

“That’s right son! Come back to me! You’d be foolish to allow yourself to be defeated by the likes of La’juutians or some damn snake! Abandon your foolish ambitions for that lowly girl and follow me!”

At this very moment, Jeffrey happens to open his eyes; and what he sees is something completely different from what he saw before he lost consciousness.

To his right is Noah, who is violently coughing up blood and being tended to by Rain.

To his left stands the King of Eiyalazo in the middle of the battlefield he had told him he must avoid at all costs.

Out in the distance is the Queen with a horrified look on her face as she looks up toward the tree line.

Jeffrey follows her eyes and sees Dice, alive, and completely engulfed in darkness while peering down on his father.

“Oh shit...” Is all he can say as his body still shakes off the butterflies of being knocked out.

Dice smiles thinly, his eyes grow wider as the use of his bodily functions return to him.

The arm that he could barely move just a second ago regains its strength and his sword forms once more, but this time it is three times the size.

A deep laugh begins to brew in his chest and exit out his mouth; he can now see it, the end goal.

Gile starts laughing with him, thinking that his words have reached him.

He spreads out his arms and says, “Very good Dice! Now come to me, let’s kill these bastards and get your sisters back! After that we can take firm control over-------“

An ear deafening gust of wind interrupts Gile’s speech.

It would seem that he’s noticed that something is off, evident by the shocked expression on his face.

With eyes wide open, he glares up at Dice in confusion.

“I knew it was you...” Dice murmured with his head lowered.

From under the shadow of his hair he starts laughing, and after a few moments his laughing voice changes into that of another man.

“HAHAHAHAHAHAH, HALFWAY THERE!!!”

The entire castle begins to shake uncontrollably and a wide pillar of dust plumes directly behind Gile. Immediately after, in the same formation, blood sprays from Gile’s abdomen and his upper body splits from his lower half.

He has been cut clean in two.

It happened so fast that his brain still functions, not having time to register what had just occurred.

Then his brain finally latches onto the sensation of falling to the ground in two different directions.

Blood screams out of his mouth and the last image imprinted in his mind is that of Dice looking down on him and laughing hysterically.

The image slowly fades into darkness and in his final moment he realizes it...

His son has killed him.

Rain takes a gasp in shock as his organs fall from his stomach and slide onto the garden soil like jelly spilt from a jar.

Diana covers her mouth in horror and is about to pass out when she herself feels the sensation of falling.

The ground beneath her has split from the ground in front of her and begins to tilt. The entire corner of the castle was sliced off and there is nothing keeping it from falling onto the ground dozens of stories below.

“Damn it!” Jeffrey hisses as he gets up and runs in her direction.

By now the level of the castle’s rooftop is separated by over twenty meters.

Jeffrey doesn’t hesitate however, he jumps the gap and lands onto the falling mass of the castle where the Queen is.

Knowing that the fall from here would leave them a stain on the Earth’s surface, he instantly regrets making this move. But he knows that if the Queen dies, the world just might be over.

“Take my hand before you fall!!!” Jeffrey shouts as he latches onto a tree with his left hand and holds out his right.

The corner of the castle they are standing on tilts almost vertically and Diana loses her footing.

As a natural reaction to this, she swings her arm toward Jeffrey and grabs onto his hand. The two stare into each other’s eyes and share a surreal moment as flowers, leaves, and other plants fall out of their pots and trays and zoom down past them.

Jeffrey needs to think of something fast, it’s only a matter of time before the falling edge of the castle completely flips and sends them on a free fall to their deaths.

(Damn it! What can I do!?)

Jeffrey thinks to himself while gritting his teeth and moving his eyes back and forth to find some kind of hope. When nothing comes to him after a few moments he begins to doubt their survival.

The situation gets even more dire when the corner of the falling castle tips and propels them towards the ground even faster. Not only will they be flattened by the fall, the mass of the castle will land on them as well, when all is said and done no one would even be able to find traces of their remains.

Diana screams at the top of her lungs and her voice rings in Jeffrey’s ears, he more or less just wants her to shut up so he can concentrate but he knows that isn’t going to happen.

With the sight of the ground growing closer with each passing second, he officially abandons all rational thought and thinks outside the box of logic.
That’s when he spots something through a large window of the castle, piercing through that certain room is the antenna that Dice broke off.

What’s more is that this certain antenna is made out of metal.

Before it was broken, it was connected to an electric generation room that functions as the power source for light in the castle.

In a flash, thousands of numbers and letters fly through Jeffrey’s vision and he begins sorting them out at an amazing speed. As if he was struck by something, a certain series of numbers grows bold and a solution can be seen.

This is the answer he was waiting for, by sorting out all of the calculations of what is humanly possible, he has found a way out of this mess.

Without further hesitation, he holds out his left hand and they are sucked toward the window. With their sudden change of direction from down, to the side, the falling mass of the castle zooms towards them, looking to take them down along with it.

[[Image:Dv05-chp07_img005jeffrey.png|260px|thumb]]

Jeffrey notices the mass and all of the falling debris and speeds up, the two narrowly avoid being crushed and with a loud whooshing noise, the castle passes them and continues its sharp descent.

“We’re going to go through the window!?” Diana shouts as she begins to comprehend just what is happening.

Jeffrey doesn’t reply, but her question is answered when they get within a few feet of the window and suddenly stop in midair. The two float ominously as the loud banging noise of the castle colliding with the ground reaches their ears, the next thing they know they are engulfed in a brown smoke as the dust and the debris rises up.

Remaining calm in this surreal moment, Jeffrey takes a deep breath of polluted air and says, “I’ve played a little trick on your son.”

“..?”

“I attacked him earlier and said that I used the cobalt in his buttons as a magnetic source. The truth is, that was a lie, he’s actually wearing steel toe boots that contain iron. During our fight I wrapped a little bit of this around his foot without him noticing.”

Jeffrey throws Diana’s arms over his shoulders and releases his hold on her, with his right hand he pulls a rather long piece of thick wire out of the linings of his jacket that instantly coils up into what looks like a slinky. This is an electromagnet coil, this solenoid is lined throughout Jeffrey’s clothing to constantly produce a magnetic field around him, when he created a field around Dice’s head, this was needed in order to transfer it.

A slight smirk appears on his face as he begins to chuckle. “Little does that brat know, I literally have his number.”

He then raises his left hand and the two begin floating upwards, bangs and crashing noises can be heard from inside the castle as the gigantic antenna makes its way up with them.

Jeffrey smiles as he explains, “If this coil of wire is wrapped around a material with no special magnetic properties like cardboard or something, it will tend to generate a very weak field. However, if it is wrapped around a soft ferromagnetic material, such as an iron nail, or to be more exact, iron boots, then the net field produced can result in a several hundred to a thousand fold increase of field strength.”

To simplify, it means that the solenoid coil that he had wrapped around Dice’s boot is permeating a strong enough magnetic field for Jeffrey to latch onto and send materials towards it. He is using the ring on his left hand and a set of calculations for that sole purpose, and the ring on his right hand along with a separate batch of calculations to keep him moving along with the antenna at a safe distance away.

“I hate to do this to you lady, but your son is fucked.”

---------------------------

“HAHAHAHAHA WITH THAT, I’VE ARRIVED!!!” Satan shouts through Dice’s mouth.

The scene in the garden at the top of the castle is that of absolute dread.

Not only did the King get sliced in half, but the Queen and Jeffrey had most certainly fallen to their deaths. To make matters worse, Noah is barely conscious and is coughing up blood violently; it would seem that there is nothing they can do.

Dice’s body grows wings and he floats towards Noah and Rain; the roles are reversed this time and Rain gets in front of the struggling Noah and guards him.

“What do you think you can do, girl?” Satan asks as a smile forms on Dice’s face.

“I won’t let you touch him!”

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill him. I’m just going to cut off those pesky arms of his and torture him until he succumbs to your hate. A fitting death for a man who opposed the Devil don’t you think?”

Rain scowls at him and firmly keeps her position.

This prompts Satan into a sigh, he shrugs his shoulders and says, “You on the other hand, I’ll show you the power you could’ve had and turn you to dust.”

Satan spreads Dice’s arms and a huge mass of dark energy pulsates above his head and grows larger every second, the mass causes the castle to shake and makes the air crack with static. He begins to laugh pleasurably as the power that has been absent from the world for over a thousand years can finally reveal itself once more.

However, his laugh comes to a stop when his energy fizzes out and loses power before fading into nothing.

“What!? I should be able to use my full power once the contract is fulfilled!” he asks himself in confusion.

Then the answer dawns on him like a bolt of lightning...

The Queen is somehow still alive.

If that wasn’t enough of an answer, an extra one comes from below.

GGGGAAAAAAAAAAASSSSHHHHH!!!!!!

In a massive blast, the antenna screams through the innards of the castle and exits out of the garden floor.

All of the debris the thirty meter long mass of metal brought up with it suddenly appears right below Dice’s feet.

Satan’s vision is clouded by the dirt, wood, branches, and even whole trees plumbing up towards him.

“!!??”

Before he can even react, the fat end of the antenna crashes into his legs at such a speed they both instantly compound fracture, and his vertebrae smash together before his face violently meets the metal with a loud thunk.

His silhouette disappears along with the uprising debris and the antenna screams over the side of the castle and flies a hundred meters before beginning its descent to the ground.

The force of impact was so great that a torrent of wind still blows even after the initial hit is long over.

The clattering of thousands of pieces of the castle landing on the ground doesn’t stop for almost a minute as the maelstrom of noise and wind finally comes to an end.

Standing in absolute shock is Rain, she has to shut her eyes and shake her head to fathom the severity of what had just occurred.

But she is brought back to her senses when she feels the gentle touch of a hand on her shoulder.

“S-Stay here...” Noah struggles to say as he shoddily walks to the side of the massive crater caused by the antenna.

From above falls Jeffrey, holding Diana in his arms. Perhaps due to the physical exhaustion caused by what he had just accomplished, he stumbles upon landing.

“Now that...” he says as he lets Diana to her feet. “Gave me a migraine.”

Blood squirts out of his ears as he winces in pain and drops to one knee.

“You did good, Jeffrey.” Noah said as though he expected something of such magnitude from the Captain of the Ten Knights of La’Juune.

He walks past Jeffrey and into a pile of rubble, he removes some tree branches and some planks of wood and finds Dice laying there in terrible shape.
His legs have been horribly mangled, his body seems to be tilting the wrong way, and his left eye is gone.

Noah leans over and checks his pulse, and to his surprise he’s still alive.

This is likely the result of Satan’s power, because a normal human should have been flattened by such an impact; and Noah is certain that was Jeffrey’s intent.

Nonetheless, he can still be saved.

by the looks of it, he’ll likely never walk again but he can still be saved, he must be saved.

Noah holds out his right hand and gets ready to do what he came here for when from out in the distance comes Elise. She is carrying the limp and unconscious body of Dice’s royal bodyguard Evelyn, other than a few scratches she looks uninjured.

It's obvious that the rumored 'Castle's Monster' wasn't much of a match for her.

She smiles and says happily, “ Yohooo I’m all done here! What did I miss?”

She takes one good look at the destruction she had heard during her battle and looks at Jeffrey dejectedly.

“Don’t look at me like that, I was just doing my job.”

“You’re a monster, you know that?”

“Why thank you. One of the core values of magnets is the planet’s gravitational force. By reversing the direction of it from pulling downwards to pushing up, I can create the same effect of having a heavy mass of metal falling on someone from below.”

In other words, what had just happened to Dice was equivalent to having something that weighed tons landing on him from hundreds of feet above.

“Listen everyone.” Noah interrupts their conversation and addresses everyone present. “You are to run our country and settle this war in my absence until Napoleon and the others return. This is my final order to you two and the rest of the Knights.”

“What makes you so sure they’ll return?” Elise asks.

Noah smiles and answers, “I just know it, they’ll be back one day and the world can be at peace. So trust me on this.”

Jeffrey can hardly move, so stopping Noah is out of the question, this time he has no choice but to accept what is to come.

He sighs and replies, “Yes sir.”

Noah then turns to Rain and looks at her tenderly.

“Rain... There’s so much that I want to tell you, but I hope that my actions reveal my feelings for you at the end of all this.”

She fights back tears as her emotions weigh heavily inside of her chest. “Noah I... I---“

“Don’t worry about it.” He again turns to Jeffrey and says, “On second thought, this is my official last order as King.”

He looks at him intently as Noah finishes, “Rain is to be happy... and you are to ensure that, got it?”

“Yes sir.”

“Good... With that, I’ll be going.”

“Yes sir.” Both of the Knights say simultaneously.

Noah doesn’t hesitate and puts his right hand on Dice’s chest; the remnants of Dice’s evil and hate screams into his body and he is overwhelmed by a horrid pain.

“Noah, wait!” Rain shouts as she runs to him.

Elise blocks her path and keeps her from getting any closer. Rain tries to get past her but even with Evelyn on her shoulder, the Knight is simply too much for Rain to get by.

She shouts as she watches Noah die before her eyes. “Noah!! I don’t want you to do this anymore! Let him go!”

Noah doesn’t stop, the floodgates have already been opened and by now almost all of the evil of Dice has been taken in by Noah.

“NOAH!!!”

Rain shouts, but her words seem to go unheard.

That is, until she shouts the one thing that gets Noah’s attention.

“Please stop!!! I love you!!!”

The last torrent of darkness slithers its way into Noah’s body and the job is done.

He stands motionlessly for a moment and falls to his knees. If one looks close enough through the blood on his face, he’s wearing a smile as he rocks from side to side uncontrollably.

From this position, he says to her what will be his final words.

“...Then I have made the right choice.”

He then falls limply onto the rubble.

Rain’s heart sinks to her stomach and she is finally able to get away from Elise and run to him. She pulls him into her arms and shouts his name a few times to no avail.

“He’s gone.” Jeffrey said in a bitter tone after watching her desperate attempt at getting him to wake up.

“No!! No he isn’t! He can’t be!!”

With denial written all over her face she spoke those words in anguish. She squeezes him tightly and begins to weep hysterically.

With her cheek pressing up against his, she then notices a small breath of air blowing against her ear.

“!?”

She looks at Noah and checks for a pulse and finds that his heart is still beating.

“He’s still alive!” she shouts to Jeffrey as if expecting him to do something about it.

“No he’s not. He’s as good as dead.”

“How can you say that so coldly!? He’s your King isn’t he!?”

“Of course he is, but that doesn’t change the fact that he isn’t coming back.”

“!!”

“Don’t you get it? King Noah and that brat are in a coma; the difference between them is that Dice’s coma will end once his soul is used to functioning without the use of darkness. Noah’s on the other-hand is slowly being eaten away by that brat’s and your hate. Once it is completely engulfed, it’s over."

“B-But there’s a way to stop it right?? There’s got to be!”

“That hate comes directly from Satan himself, unless we magically find a way to kill him before his darkness eats Noah’s soul completely, there is no chance of his survival. I don’t know about you, but I happen to think that’s entirely impossible.”

“N-No way...” Rain said in disbelief as all shreds of hope were dashed for her.

She had finally realized what he meant to her leading up to this moment; and now there is nothing she can do other than cry into his chest now that he’s gone.

Jeffrey takes a deep breath and turns to Diana, he points in Dice’s direction and says, “Go to your son... and be grateful that the King of La’Juune was a merciful pansy who kept him alive for a stupid girl.”

Diana looks him in the eye and bows, “Thank you... as shocking as it is to lose my husband, I never loved him. If one of my children were to die, I don’t know how I could live with myself.”

After saying words that Jeffrey found a little unnecessary, she runs to the aid of her battered son.

Jeffrey scratches his head and says to himself, “That’s a little sad... For a woman as beautiful as her to never have fallen in love.”

“Oh? So older women are more your type huh?” Elise asks as she pats him rather hard in the shoulder; she had dropped Evelyn in a pile of flowers a few feet away.

“Now’s not the time for your damn jokes. We’re in deep shit here.”

“I've heard that twice already today, so trust me I know, it’s just too irresistible to pick on you.” She looks around at all the destruction and it prompts her to ask, “So now what?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean... what do we do next?”

Jeffrey looks around at the scenery as well and he figures that at any moment, soldiers will be arriving to see that the King is dead and La'Juutians are standing over his body.

One glance would be enough to execute them on the spot, and he highly doubts with a tattered and unconscious Prince present that the words of the sole surviving Queen would be enough to soothe their rage. They'd more likely think that she was forced into protecting them than to actually believe her.

With those thoughts and many others in mind, such as the future of both the Kingless countries of Eiyalazo and La'Juune, he answers to the best of his ability.

"I have no clue."

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| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 9|Checkmate (Part 3)]]
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Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 7

2021-12-21T00:57:40Z

Deck of cards:

Chapter 50: Checkmate

(PART 1)

Satan sits on his usual throne in the dark room. The familiar sight of the chessboard that signifies the way in which the main characters of the world are moving, sits on a table right in front of him.

The game has taken a turn for the worse for him and the look on his face shows it.

He only has three black pieces left on his side of the board and they're almost completely surrounded by the white.

His pieces are a rook, a queen, and of course the king. Each piece is in place as Sturgess, Dice, and Red Spektor.

The white pieces are the game’s version of the Ten La’Juutian Knights, Lelaine, Zurvick, Gile, Diana, and Noah.

“To think I’d be put in this position by a fellow cheater… But I’ve been at an advantage since we started this game, it’s no different now.” Satan’s voice echoes in the dark room as if he is talking to the darkness itself. “You see, Noah, with the right moves, I can win with far fewer pieces than you. The key is sacrificing the right pieces, which I’ve done multiple times already just to get myself out of ‘check’, I only need to do it one more time to win.”

He moves the black king piece forward two spots and in turn has it surrounded by the white. Satan does this so confidently because the shift of position leaves his last rook piece resting on the square adjacent to the king.

“I’ve used almost all of my power maneuvering my way into the lives of the pawns. I had hoped to keep my efforts minimal by taking over the world from within the shadows through them. But as I’m sure you know, not everything is distributed equally, just like chess, some pieces are more important than the others. All I need is for one of these final pieces to fulfill my contract and I’ll win this sham of a game.”

Knock Knock Knock

The sound of someone knocking on the door echoes in the room. Satan doesn’t give whoever it was permission to enter but the man does so anyways. The light from outside pierces the dark room and hits Satan's face, causing his eyes to shine an even more menacing red.

In comes Amon, the 4th ranked demon of the Hierarchy.

Being met with a glare that can kill, he skips the formalities and gets straight to the point. “I remember hearing you mention something about some kid on Earth with a certain power giving you problems.”

“What of it?” he sharply replies.

“I also recall you saying that that kid said he got that power from one of the people Damien sent to Purgatory right?”

“.....”

Amon throws his hands in his pockets and his lips faintly rise, he is happy that he is the one that gets to reveal the news before anyone else.

“Man oh man, there’s a certain priest I’d love to tell you about...”

-----------------------------

“So how was it!? How was my superhero entrance!?” Olin shouts, giving the puppy dog eyes to Allia and Celestia.

The three of them along with Jessiah are standing safely on the part of the staircase that hasn't collapsed.

Allia sighs and says, “As much as it pains me to do so, I have to thank you guys.”

“Yeah no kiddin', we were in quite the pinch back there. So what's the reason why you two came here to back us up?” Celestia asked.

Jessiah swings around his spear and explains, “Well we actually got done with our missions a lot earlier than we expected. I mean, we took out eleven of those monster bastards before we knew it.”

“Eleven!?” Allia and Celestia shout simultaneously.

“Well yeah.” Olin replies, “They weren’t that tough after all, other than a couple magic tricks, most of those people were untrained noblemen trying to benefit from the results of the war. They couldn’t hold a torch to us.”

“No way, weren’t they spread out over all three countries?”

“Most were actually around the borders trying to influence the war in and around hotspots, so it wasn’t that hard to get from one to the other. The furthest one away is this bastard down here in the south.”

Celestia sighs and says, “I think we got the short end of the stick in this. The one that Allia and I took out a few weeks back wasn’t a slouch, and this Captain Red guy is flat out ridiculous.”

“Or it could be that we are just that much more bad-ass than you are?” Jessiah asked while striking an arrogant pose.

“Yeah right.” “No way.” The two girls said at the same time.

“Whaaaaaatever.”

Olin walks up to the broken guard rail and looks down, revealing an intense expression. Down a couple stories below on one of the metal walkways above the magma is Red, and he is beginning to stand to his feet.

He gestures to the others to come take a look and says, “We’re not out of the clearing just yet, if that guy is as tough as you say he is then we’d better end this quick.”

“I agree.”

“But before that, I gotta ask one thing.” Olin says, his eyes so full of intensity that it makes Allia and Celestia’s body stiffen up.

Olin looks to Allia and asks, “Why isn’t your bra black?”

The whole atmosphere around him shatters like glass falling on the ground and the two girl’s mouths drop instantly.

“HAH!?”

“Don’t you get it? Purple is weak, black is beauty!” he shouts, fists clenched as though he is proving an important point.

“What the hell are you talking about at a time like this!?” Allia yells in a flustered manner.

“There is no time where this proven fact doesn’t take precedence over everything else! Purple? Really Allia? This is the first time I’ve seen you topless and I gotta say, you have a perfect rack. How could you ruin this moment for me with a purple bra!?”

Allia covers her chest and her face turns bright red. She didn’t give it much thought before when it was just her, Celestia, and the enemies. But now looking at it, she comes to the realization that this is the first time any guy has ever seen her like this; it’s bad enough it has to be these two knuckleheads.

“Y-Y-You pervert!!”

“I’m not perverted at all!” Olin shouts, “I’m just stating the obvious here, if you had a black bra on there’d be nothing holding me back from having a nosebleed! Don’t you realize how powerful of a weapon you have?? You’re wasting it right before my eyes! Such a tragedy!”

Allia hides behind Celestia and says, “Celestia, do something about this guy! He’s embarrassing me!”

She sighs and replies, “Well you shouldn’t have thrown away your shirt. It’s your own fault.”

“Whhaaaa such blatant victim blaming?”

Olin’s disappointed eyes switch to Celestia, and looking at her he notices that for the most part, she is dressed pretty skimpily as well. Her white shirt is almost transparent due to the heat of the room and her bra can be seen too.

“Hmmm, pink huh?”

“Eh?” she mutters as she looks down on her chest. “Kyahh!”

In a flash she uses her shield to block his view.

“Photographic memory, okay!” he shouts, taking a picture in his mind. Wriggling around in a creepy fashion, he continues, “Your chest isn’t nearly as big as Allia’s so a cute pink bra suits your childish appearance perfectly.” He then holds his thumb up and smiles stupidly at her. “Nice touch!”

A flame begins to brew in Celestia's eyes; the sound of her teeth grinding together is similar to a nail on chalkboard. With the strength of a thousand men she grabs onto Olin’s neck and begins to strangle him.

“I’m going to kill you.”

Judging the terrifyingly dark expression on her face, it would seem she is actually going to do it.

Sensing the force of the wrecking ball that is Celestia Letrova, Jessiah is forced to intervene. “Now, don’t get your panties bunched up in a wad.”

Celestia turns her head like she is possessed by a demon impossibly to the side and scowls at him. Her grip on Olin’s neck doubles and he begins flailing his arms and legs around in a panic.

“...WHAT ABOUT PANTIES?”

The horrid voice exiting her mouth scares Jessiah into complacency, he shrinks within himself as he takes frightened steps back. He glances into the pleading eyes of Olin and shrugs his shoulders as if saying, 'I tried.'

Olin flips him off, sending a message of his own, sarcastically implying, ‘Thanks for the effort!!!’

Jessiah bows to him and politely says, “May you rest in peace.”

Before Olin passes out of asphyxiation, a loud noise from below snaps Celestia out of her angry death mode and she releases her hold.

Having his life saved, Olin takes a deep, well needed breath and hops up to his feet, smiling stupidly like usual. That’s when he notices that everyone else has dropped down, guarding themselves.

“What’s up?” he asks.

“Get down!!!” They all shout.

“Huh?”

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Multiple shots ring out and debris from the rock wall to his side scatters all over as if someone threw grounded chalk into the air.

“Whoa!! What the hell was that!?”

Looking down, they can see that the remaining twenty men who work on the assembly line are pointing strange objects at them and shooting projectiles that fly at an incredible speed.

“These are the weapons that they are planning to overthrow La’Juune with!” Alla shouts while a cloud of debris from the fragile rock above her head falls down on top of her.

“This is insane! If we get hit by one of these things we’re toast!” Olin points out.

“Then let’s move! They suck at aiming, but if we just wait here we’re bound to get hit!”

After Celestia’s order, they all get up and jump off the staircase in different directions. Below them are numerous walkways that are rather wide, but to hop off without any hesitation knowing full well of the presence of the magma below takes extreme amounts of courage.

Nonetheless, they each end up in different parts of the factory and the workers scramble along firing pop shots in every direction they can. Although the bullets ricocheting off the metal rails of the walkway seem close enough, in reality, the Knights aren’t even close to getting hit.

In addition to the speed in which they move, is the fact that the men wielding these weapons have no clue how to actually aim and fire efficiently. They have yet to even use the guns they manufactured. It’s a lot like handing a pistol to an adolescent who’s only seen one in an action movie and asking him to shoot a bird out of the sky. He’s got a better chance of holding it sideways and having the clip fall out after the first shot than actually hitting the target.

With ax in tow, Olin reaches the main walkway that holds the five assembly line factories which spread all across the inside of this manufacturing furnace.
The main force of workers are on this particular walkway, and they begin firing as Olin makes his way toward them.

Now having a target moving in a straight line and getting closer to them with each second, the men have a proper grasp on how to take him out. A few of them shoot at him and are shocked to find that the bullets are brushed off by the ax of Olin as if they were flies.

"W-What!? How!?” One of the men shouts in surprise.

While running, and continuing to knock away even more bullets, Olin answers with a smile, “This isn’t that special guys. Just cause you’re shooting shit at me at such a speed doesn’t mean I can’t knock them away.”

He takes a big jump and does a couple flips before landing right in the middle of the ten or so men.

“I can tell where the attack is coming from by simply looking where you’re aiming.”

The ten men all point their weapons at him and fire simultaneously.

Olin takes a big sweep with his ax and sends some of the bullets ricocheting in multiple directions and striking some of the men in the chest.

After dropping three of the men with their own bullets, he uses his ax to take out a couple more.

Still, having guns pointed at him from so close puts him at a severe disadvantage, but he shows no worries as he gestures to the remaining men to look behind them.

Naturally, they don’t look and prepare to fire.

However, they are all cut down by the spear of Jessiah.

Jessiah had used this moment of confusion to leap across a couple of the walkways and jump behind them unnoticed.

With that, half of the gun carrying men are taken out by two people with an ax and a spear.

Seeing that their guns are of no use against these freaks of nature, the other ten workers begin to run away, firing pop-shots in order to gain some distance between them. In a flash, three heads go rolling on the ground as Celestia’s shield swings horizontally into the fleeing group of men.

It would seem that Celestia has no intentions of letting the survivors escape, so she chases after them as their scared screams grow more frantic.

“Just let 'em go. They aren’t gonna do us any harm outside in the snow.” Jessiah said, scratching his bald head in an exasperated fashion.

Though Celestia would normally never listen to him, she decides that he’s right. Useless killing is not what she gets paid to do; once they are done attacking, they might as well be normal citizens. Although she worries about them making more guns once they escape, she quickly realizes that they most likely wouldn’t be able to replicate them without the technology of this top notch plant.

She turns around to walk to where Olin and Jessiah are when she suddenly hears the horrified screams of the men she had just shown mercy to.

She twists around to look and sees that the fleeing men have been cut off by a certain captain with flaming red hair who’s surrounded by an abundance of black liquid.

“Hey hey, leaving me behind huh?” Captain Red says, a distinct evil shines in his eyes. “You know I read this book once, some old story about some old fort in the middle of dick-fuck nowhere in some old war. They were being attacked and it became obvious that they’d lose... Do you know what happened?”

The men don’t answer; they just quiver in fear as Red’s darkness inches its way towards them.

“They fought. All the way down to the last man. That’s courageous ain't it? I mean, imagine being that guy. All alone, surrounded, totally fucked and knowing it. Don’t you wanna be like that guy? Don’t you wanna die like a bad-ass? Haah!?”

Red holds his arms out and shakes his head when no answer again comes. “Dying can be cool if you do it the right way. You guys on the other hand, are gonna go out like shit flushed down a toilet. What a bummer, shame, tragedy!”

Red slams his foot onto the metal walkway and a loud noise ensues.

The middle of the fifteen foot wide walkway splits apart and sharp edges violently stretch up like jagged teeth towards the ceiling. The remaining men are caught in that wretched deformation of twisted metal and are skewered from between their legs. This of course doesn’t result in an instant death, a few of the men scream in agony whilst others squirm and make gurgled screeches through the back of their throats.

The jagged metal twisting upwards along the middle of the pathway doesn’t stop once it impales the men; it picks up speed and zooms its way toward the three Knights.

Not wanting to end up like the unfortunate people in front of them, they once again jump off the walkway in separate directions.

Jessiah barely latches onto the bottom of one of the walkways about ten feet above him and pulls himself up.

Celestia uses her shield and slings herself up a couple of stories onto a different walkway.

But Olin stays on the same platform; he hops up on the thin railing and runs across it as though he was on regular ground. He is just one inch in either direction from death by magma or the twisted metal, but he seems unafraid as his thin smile grows wider.

“Get out of there you dumbass!!!” Celestia shouts with all her might.

But it seems that her words fall on deaf ears as Olin hops off the railing and swings his ax for a downward strike atop Red’s skull.

Red holds out his hand and grabs the sharp end of Olin’s ax; using that as an anchor, he pulls Olin in and viciously knees him in the gut. Olin spits blood out of his mouth and misses out on a couple breaths when the functionality of his lungs grinded to a sudden stop.

Red releases his grip on the ax and clasps his hands together; using them as a clever he hammers down on the top of Olin’s head, sending his face screaming into the metal ground.

FONNKK!!

“Gbbbhhhhh!?”

“Hahahaha what a thud! Hey hey, I wonder if I can pound you through this bridge and into the magma with one kick?”

Red lifts his leg and prepares to stomp on the top of Olin’s head.

Considering how devastating his last kick was, which deformed the metal of the bridge into skewers, there is no doubt that Olin’s head will become mush if he takes this hit.

Celestia clicks her tongue and sends her shield flying down at a tremendous speed in the direction of Red’s leg. The mad Captain catches a glimpse of the shining gold projectile heading his leg’s way and moves it as quickly as he can.

Not able to move it fast enough, the sharp edge of the shield slides across his shin and sends his blood flying.
Under her control, the shield retracts back towards Red’s neck but he uses his hand and knocks it away. She regains control of her shield and begins running off in the opposite direction.

“Ohoo big daddy Red loves playing tag!” he shouted cynically as he used his hand and pointed it at her moving frame.

He intends to send the strange black liquid chasing after her in order to blow her to bits like he did the stone staircase earlier. That’s when he feels a dull pain in his shoulder and finds that a six foot long spear is stabbing into him.

“!?”

Jessiah had thrown it from his position atop the overhanging walkway above.

Before Red can pull it out, Jessiah runs from a couple dozen feet away and follows up that javelin throw by kicking the wooden butt end of the spear, sending the blade pushing through to the other side of Red’s body.

Red stumbles forward and prepares to face Jessiah when another dull pain is felt, this time in his stomach. Looking down he finds the sharp back end of Olin’s ax stabbing through the area just above his naval.

“Kahh!?” he hisses, spitting out blood in the process.

Olin is under him, smiling once again even though his whole face is covered in blood. “Let’s face it, even with these powers of yours you have no chance against all of us.”

“Ha! You think so!?”

Jessiah rushes at Red’s back for another attack.

As if predicting this, Red turns his body at a sharp angle and twists the ax out of his stomach. The wooden shaft of Jessiah’s spear swings along with his body and strikes Olin directly in his face, knocking him back a couple feet.

Jessiah, still in his full sprint is met with the big fist of Red slamming into his chest.

The black liquid surrounds his arm and as though it was some kind of spring, it coils and recoils along with his punch, sending Jessiah flying back the entire length of the walkway until he slams into the opening of one of the large factories.

BAAAAAM!!

The sound of his body crashing into the assembly line echoes throughout the furnace room.

Red pulls Jessiah’s spear from his shoulder and begins swinging it at Olin, and doing it quite skillfully.

Olin is narrowly avoiding being hit as he dodges, and blocks the spear with his ax.

Now pinned between Red and the jagged metal holding the skewered men, Olin is stuck between a rock and a hard place. His only option now is to go on the offensive; he catches a firm piece of footing and lunges forward.

The two take swings at each other and sparks fly when the metal of their weapons meet.

“You’re quite good for a guy who doesn’t see combat.” Olin says as he drops his level and swipes at Red’s ankles.

Red jumps just high enough to avoid having his feet cut off and swings Jessiah’s spear down.

“I’ve killed enough people to know how to kill people. You know?”

SHHIIING!!

The two weapons clash.

Pushing at each other, their arms uncontrollably shake as sparks fly between their faces.

“Well you’ve never killed anyone like us.”

“I think a certain amount of numbers adds up to the quality of death of you Knights. It’s like a game where you collect coins for each monster you kill. Sure you get more coins for taking out the boss, but you can get just as many by taking out a bunch of the small fries.”

“No wonder why you’re stationed down here away from combat, you’d be too much of a liability as a real soldier with fucked up thinking like that.”

“I happen to think of myself as the most rational person who’s ever lived. It’s as simple as realizing that everyone dies one way or another. It doesn’t matter if they die in a fire, in a flood, disease, murder, war, famine, hell even a damn lightning strike. Death is just death no matter how you dress it up.”

By now Red’s strength begins to overwhelm Olin and the tip of Jessiah’s spear gets closer to his face.

“With that logic, I find that I’m best suited to be the person doing the dressing, rather than being the one who’s getting dressed. Makes sense right? Of course it does. Kind of like a kid who plays with dolls, would you rather be the one who owns the doll or be the doll itself?”

Olin can’t help but smile, even though he knows his position in this fight is leaning more towards the losing end, Red’s words still make the tip of his lips rise.

“Like I thought, you’re out of your damn mind.”

Even though Olin is an oddball himself, he isn’t clinically insane like Red is, he can still function. Adding to that, the man in front of him has sold his soul to the Devil for no other reason than the fact that he wants to kill, he’s even working on destroying his home country in order to do so.

Red simply smiles at Olin as if agreeing with that statement, he then uses the rest of his strength to bring down the sharp edge of the spear upon Olin’s head.

Completely overwhelmed, Olin’s leg’s buckle and his struggle for survival gets that much more severe.

Sensing that he can’t hold out much longer he shouts,

“Allia, take the damn shot!!!”

BANG!!!

A gunshot rings from the assembly line factory on the other side of the mountain of skewered bodies.

Red’s attention is instantly moved towards the sound of the blast; and perhaps due to the influence of power in his hand, everything around him slows down.
Looking carefully, he notices that there is a gap, a stupidly small gap in the formation of the jagged metal connecting a spot of air between him and a certain girl pointing a rifle in his direction.

This little gap is no bigger than two inches and he can see the bullet spiraling perfectly towards the area directly between his eyes. Unless he moves quickly, his brains will be scattered out the back of his head.

With eyes following the bullet intently, it takes all his might to pull his head to the left.

But the effect of slow motion is moving it at a dragging speed.

With his eyes locked solidly onto the incoming bullet, and his mind still knowing full well what will happen if it connects, he watches it slide past his lips and rip skin as it slides across the right side of his face.

In a flash, time speeds back up to its regular pace and the bullet zooms by faster than the speed of sound.

Blood falls down Red’s face as he backs up and drops Jessiah’s spear to the ground.

“Krrrrrgghhhaaah!?”

He removes his hand from the wound and finds that almost half his face has been blown off; the bullet had enough force to peel the skin of his cheek and take a chunk out of his ear.

Olin jumps to his feet and postures up in a battle position. Much to his surprise, a deep blood curdling laugh begins to brew in Red’s bloodied mouth.

“Huahahahaha! That bitch! That was an amazing shot!”

Red abandons Olin and jumps over him and the rest of the impaled men and onto the side of the walkway where Allia is.

He walks toward her and says, “I was wondering where you disappeared off to. You were waiting for me to be distracted so you could take me out. I gotta say, I’m amazed that you can shoot one of those things. I find using them to be a colossal pain in the ass.”

Allia points the gun at him and replies, “I’m the best in the world with anything that involves aiming and firing.”

Her bloodied left arm is still hanging down but she holds the rifle in her right hand without any wavering, its steadiness never sways as the barrel continues to point at Red’s forehead.

The pressure on the trigger tightens and,

BANG!!

A dull shot rings out and the bullet screams forward.

Instead of using the inhuman heroics of the last time he was shot at, he simply smiles and keeps moving one foot in front of the other. The bullet that was on a collision course with his skull is met first by a mass of his black liquid.

The bullet is engulfed and dropped harmlessly to the metal ground.

“It ain’t gonna work twice.” Red said, pointing at the horrific wound on the side of his face.

Allia huffs an arrogant air out of her nose and responds, “I thought as much.”

She quickly re-aims the rifle and fires yet another shot; but this time however, the bullet zooms three feet off target to Red’s right.
This was either a terrible shot or some kind of weak diversion.

With these thoughts running through Red’s mind, he feels a burning sensation on his back.

He had been shot.

“!?”

Even Red would reveal a shocked face at the sudden impact causing his body to jolt forward. He turns his head and catches a glimpse of Celestia’s shield spinning off in the distance.

“Let me guess, you thought that I missed you for a split second there right?” Allia asks, smiling confidently and pointing her weapon three or more feet to the left of him now.

Celestia’s shield takes a sharp turn as if it was a boomerang and comes flying at the Captain; he clicks his tongue and ducks, and the shield zooms over the top of his head.

“I told you, right?” Allia continues, grabbing his attention once more. “I’m the best at what I do.”

BANG!!

She shoots again, and just like last time, the bullet flies past Red; and if one listens carefully, they’d hear a ‘tink’ noise followed by a whooshing sound.

Immediately after that, a thud is heard and blood comes spraying out of Red’s side; he had been shot from behind once more
.
Allia has actually been intentionally missing Captain Red and hitting Celestia's fast moving shield in motion, causing the bullet to ricochet off and hit Red in his blind spots.

Judging the velocity, angle, and the direction in which the bullet needs to hit the shield in order to bounce off and land on her intended target is borderline impossible. This truly shows her skills as a marksman that allowed her to reach the position as one of the Ten Knights of La’Juune.

Red falls on one knee as the warmth of the blood from the wound in his side rolls down his leg.

“Amazing,” he said in a low pitched tone.

“Do you see now? Against four of us there’s no way you’ll win.” Allia said, her rifle moving along with the flow Celestia’s shield.

“Hehehehehahahahahaha! Don’t be so full of yourself now, this is just gettin' started!”

Red stands back up and spreads his arms out, all while laughing in a distinct manner different from anyone else.

“I heard somewhere that people like you are able to make an absolute dime of a shot under the worst kind of pressure... Well how about we put that to the test!? I’ll leave myself wide open for you, but just know that if you miss you’re fucked!”

“Tch.” Allia clicks her tongue in annoyance at his ridiculous attitude.

For a man who’s missing a chunk of his face and has multiple other wounds to be acting this way is beyond the point of insanity. She almost pities the state of his mental health.

She readies to take the shot when out of nowhere, a severe quake forms in the lava below and the metal walkway begins to shake uncontrollably. A few more seconds of this and the balance it takes to stay on her feet will no longer be possible.

She needs to take the shot before she ends up on the ground.

Trying to refocus as quickly as possible, she again takes proper aim; and that’s when she finds that Red is standing in the middle of what seems to be a tornado of magma.

“!?”

“Haha, what’s wrong? I thought you said you were the best?”

Allia frowns; she can’t shoot him through that swirling inferno of lava because her bullet would melt and veer off course in a random direction. There is literally no way she can inflict any damage on him; even though she senses that he’s only doing this to make fun of her abilities as a marksman, there is also no way anybody else could lay a hand on him.

“Don’t worry I’m gonna give you a free shot. I’m actually quite honest, you know?”

“.....”

“Oh come on don’t make such a skeptical face... here, look.”

Red spreads his arms and the tornado of lava opens up and leaves him wide in the open.

As if trying to coax Allia into shooting him, he sticks out his chin and smiles.

Allia isn’t one to let opportunities like this slide by; she’ll make him pay for his taunting. She puts some extra pressure on her trigger finger and is about to pull when Red slaps his two hands together and an intense wave of heat is felt on her face.

As if it was some kind of wall, the tornado of lava flattens itself and shoots forward at her like it was shot out of a cannon. The mere heat from it alone contorts the metal of the walkway as the speed in which it moves forward increases.

“The only way this is gonna stop is if you can shoot me! So what are you waiting for!? Take the fucking shot, soldier!!!”

This is the intense pressure that Red was talking about; he is testing her to see if she can accurately hit her target under such critical circumstances. If this wall gets much closer to her, the charring heat alone will torch her skin and she will melt once she makes contact with the magma.

She is left with a simple decision; shoot or die.

Allia narrows her focus the best she can until she reaches the intense sensation of tunnel vision. From there she can see a small gap in the lava, not much bigger than the last little area she shot between before. She knows that if she shoots through this, the destination of the bullet will be Red’s heart.
Without any more preparations needed, she pulls the trigger and sends the bullet flying.

The sound of the gunshot is overrun by the screeching of Red’s attack, so for a moment she wasn’t even sure if she had fired or not.
Allia only becomes certain that she did when the recoil of the rifle is felt against her shoulder; the only thing left is to wait to see Red’s lifeless body fall limply to the floor.

However...

After an instant, the sickening feeling of a miss jolts her shoulders far worse than the recoil of the shot.

The bullet had missed that gap and Red’s attack proceeded toward her unhindered.

"!?"

Her eyes reveal the shock that her body is feeling after missing a target for the first time in many years; and the convulsive manner in which her knees shake reveals the pain in her heart that knows this can only mean one thing.

She is going to die.

All it took is one shot; one missed opportunity will spell the end for her.

The wall of death screams forward and the only thing left to do is shut her eyes and await the inevitability that’s rapidly approaching her. But instead of doing that, she stares blankly in an almost catatonic state; the thought of her missing still brewing freshly in her mind.

With limp fingers, she drops her rifle to the ground and remains motionless.

The moment in which she collides with the wall of orange and red reaches her position, engulfs her, and mercilessly flies by, destroying the walkway and making its way to a collision course with the three story high assembly factory.

But something is off about this; Red feels an odd tinge of disappointment as the high he gets from taking another’s life doesn’t reach him.
The reason for that can be seen out of the corner of his eye.

Two girls fly over the magma, slingshot out of his vision and land atop a higher walkway.

“Haah!?” he groans with the most dumbfounded of expressions.

“Are you alright?” Celestia asks, twisting her hand wearing the chain-mail glove and causing the shield to swing back into her grip.

She had used the shield as a hook shot to shoot herself to Allia’s position, grab her mid-flight, and propelled herself with momentum all the way to the safety of a separate level of the plant. All this while avoiding the oncoming wall of magma shot forward by Red.

Allia is still in a shocked state, her mouth chatters before she could answer when,

BAAAAAAAAAAAAMMM!

The wall of lava from Red’s attack hits the factory holding the assembly line and tears it apart. Either due to the speed in which the wall was moving, or the destructive power of the lava alone caused the over-sized structure of the metal to melt and fly off in different directions.

The innards of the intricate assembly line can now be seen and out of the many crates and other holders, all the rifles and bullets slide down the mountain of rubble and fall into the lake of magma. Each weapon or bullet falling into it makes a distinct popping sound upon entering.

“That noise...” Celestia mutters, deep in thought as she glares at the weapons being destroyed. “Why is it making that noise?”

“Guuah you’ve seriously been busting my balls!” Red shouts, glaring at the two girls above. “How many damn times are you gonna come in for the late rescue with that stupid shield of yours!? It’s such a pain in the ass! Piece of shit! Fucking annoying!!!”

Celestia pays him no mind and keeps her glare at the destroyed factory, that’s when she notices a rather large mountain of black powder that has been spilled from a silo and is slowly making its way down the rubble like an hourglass.

“That’s it!” she yells suddenly, “Nyahaha I’m such a genius!”

She quickly lifts Allia to her feet and smiles at her, with her hand still holding on, she pulls Allia and begins running away from Red.

“Hey hey! What the shit!?” Red shouts in annoyance upon seeing them flee.

Red begins to give chase when he is met by two vicious kicks in his torso.

While being sent flying he finds that the two footprints left on him are that of the two smiling Knights named Ollin and Jessiah.

He clicks his tongue and tries to regain his footing but is met with quite the quandary.

There is no ground below him; he had fallen off the walkway that he had just destroyed.

“!?”

The 50 meter descent towards his death begins, and for the first time he reveals an expression of worry. He hurriedly points the hand holding the pentagram upwards and shoots out the destructive black liquid towards the adjacent walkway.

“Don’t tell me he’s gonna copy what Celestia just did!?” Jessiah shouts, thinking that he’s somehow going to get out of this by sling shooting himself to safety.

To his and Olin’s surprise, he didn’t do anything of the sort.

The black liquid latches on to the girth of the metal pathway and Red pulls back his arm with all his might. The walkway is literally yanked off its connection to the surrounding walls and a large chunk about thirty meters long zooms in his direction. With a twist of Red’s body, the entirety of the metal walkway takes a sharp turn and narrowly avoids a collision with the falling Captain. The tail end of it lands in the lava at a 45 degree angle and Red miraculously lands on the top of it.

“WHAT!?” The two Knights shout in disbelief.

The pure momentum of such a large structure moving at such an angle swings like a closing door in the direction of the ruined factory. Even with the lava quickly melting the tail end of the walkway, Red is given just the right amount of distance for him to use his inhuman strength and the momentum of the walkway to make the jump and land safely on the other side.

“Are you shitting me!?” Olin yells.

From what they thought he was going to do, to him doing what he actually did, was so far away from their comprehension level that it added a heavy weight to their chins as their jaws dropped in shock.

Captain Red Spektor, the man who had been shot three times, sliced and impaled by an ax and a spear, was able to pull off an impossible feat.

This fearsome man stands up astutely and puts his hands on his sides. “Huahahaha, what are you guys looking at? Did you think I had the finesse to do what that girl does with her shield? Na, I don’t roll that way. I’m a wheel and deal, ground and pound kinda guy, a cool guy. I’m awesome, strong, brilliant!”

“This guy... Is seriously ridiculous.” Jessiah said, an odd tinge of seriousness in his tone.

Perhaps now they actually see the monster that their two comrades were warning them about.

“Huh?” Red mutters as he looks around, he scratches his head confusedly and asks, “How the fuck do I get off this thing?”

“Eh?”

Red has found himself stuck on something of an island; the walkway leading up to the facility has been destroyed, and the one nearest to him has just been sacrificed as well. He’d normally walk through the facility holding the assembly line, but that has turned into a three story pile of sharp and jagged rubble. If he really had to, he could probably scale that rubble and get through it unscathed but that’d take some time, and time is something he currently doesn’t have with Celestia and her shield lurking in the shadows to pick him off while he's defenseless.

He sighs and shrugs his shoulders. “Well it looks like I only have one way of doing this.”

He holds his hands up and with that gesture, the entire plant begins to shake wildly.

“Don’t you dare do what I think you’re doing.” a deep voice echoes.

The snake comes out from the back of Red’s hand and slides down his arm, its eyes glowing an even more sinister red than usual.

“Why not?”

“Are you mad!? Do you want to destroy the entire plant!?” it shouts.

“Do I want to?” Red replies, “No I don’t; but I want to kill these damn Knights! If the plant goes down with them, I couldn’t give two shits.”

“I’ve given you the knowledge needed to produce a weapon that has the ability to rule the world! You’re going to just throw that away just to kill these four!?”

The earth shaking rumbling grows as the black liquid surrounding Red floats above him and shoots itself into the lava.

“That knowledge ain't going anywhere! It’s in my noggin; I’ll just have to rebuild the plant later.”

“Nonsense! We don’t have time to rebuild, I need these weapons now! This is madness!”

“Hahahahaha didn’t you know that already when you formed the contract with me?? No fucking shit I’m crazy, you dumb fuck!”

“!!!”

“Hey! You bastard Knights! I’m sure you all know that we’re inside of a dormant volcano right? Well, what do you say I activate it just to see what happens?”

“!?”

“Huahaha that’s right! I’m no volcanologist but I do know that on certain occasions an earthquake near the base of a dormant volcano can stir it into blowing up.”

This is actually correct; dormant volcanoes always have some form of magma flowing at the deepest pits of its base. With the right amount of pressure, these turn into geysers that push its way upwards towards the surface. In reality, all it needs is a little push from below to send it over the top. Nature’s way of fulfilling this process is certainly much slower, and could take up to thousands of years.

But in Red’s case, he doesn’t have the entire volcano to deal with because the magma is just 50 meters below him.

That being said, it has become obvious what he intends to do; he will violently shake the deepest parts of the volcano with all his might and cause an eruption.

“Jessiah...” Olin says.

“Yeah?”

“Run.”

“Roger that.”

The two turn around and dash towards the exit.

The flight of stairs leading up to the door has been taken out, but the two jump up between the gaps and desperately escape. The two get up atop of yet another walkway only to find that they have another two stories to go, and that’s when they run into their two comrades standing there.

“We gotta get going!” Olin exclaims.

Celestia blocks their path and replies, “We can’t!”

“Why!? He’s going to blow this place up!”

“Exactly! This is the biggest weapons plant in the world, if we abandon it our soldiers on the front-lines will be starved for weaponry.”

“Then what do you suppose we do?”

Celestia looks over to Allia, who is still zoned out and staring at the floor. She walks to Allia's side and without a second’s hesitation, rips off the remainder of the white shirt she's wearing.

The two guys can’t help but look flustered seeing her put herself in a state of undress so suddenly.

Celestia then pulls the canteen she used earlier for warmth and for Allia’s wound and pours the remainder of the alcohol onto her shirt.

Holding it out to Allia, she says, “That black powder behind Captain Red Spektor... That is what is used to shoot the projectiles out of those weapons. It is extremely combustible, perhaps even on a level par with Seiri’s bombs.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah, I’m sure of it. Looking closely it’s actually quite simple really, it makes perfect sense. Though I don’t know what that powder really is, I’m sure once more people find out about it everyone will be wondering why it hasn’t been discovered before this.”

What she is referring to is gunpowder.

There’s a reason why knowledge of it has been forgotten. Even a thousand years after the Apocalypse and all the modern technology that brought humanity to this point now, gunpowder has yet to be discovered and cultivated into ways to kill one another.

If not for Satan, it’s likely that the obstacle specifically in place by God to keep them from it would have continued on forever.

The rumbling in the plant gets much more severe and all the walkways begin to shake like a windblown bridge throwing their balance out of whack. To add to the urgency of the matter, the lava below them begins to bubble and pop, sending pockets of scorching hot air pressing against their skin.

“Allia! If we want to stop that monster from doing this we need to take him out now! Once we light this shirt on fire you need to connect it to the tip of your arrow and shoot into that pile of black powder. We can beat him with this!”

“B-But...” Allia mutters.

“But!?” The other three shout simultaneously.

Celestia grabs her shoulder and looks her square in the eye. “What do you mean but!?”

“I-I can’t take the shot...” she replied, her eyes shifted away.

“???”

“I’ll miss... Between my hurt arm and my broken confidence, I’ll most certainly miss it.”

Celestia clicks her tongue and frowns.

Even through the rumbling of the plant, the next sound is heard as plain as day.

SLAP!!!

With her open palm, Celestia slapped Allia’s cheek as hard as she could.

“Get your shit together!!! We can’t all be perfect Allia, we can only be who we are!”

“.....”

“Your country needs you right now... but more importantly, your comrades need you! So you ‘are’ going to take the shot!”

This goes back to the conversation they had earlier when Celestia was hanging off the broken staircase. By letting her insecurities get the best of her, she has forsaken the words that she herself said. By doing that, she will have sacrificed the lives of her precious comrades.

Is she really willing to let something like that happen over a simple miss?

“You’re right...” Allia says as she stands astute, a new wind of determination brewing in her chest.

She then pulls out an arrow and connects it to her bow.

Celestia sighs, “Huuahh good... I was getting a little nervous ya know?”

Tying the last remainder of her shirt onto the tip of Allia’s arrow and pouring the alcohol on the cloth, she smiles confidently.

“Nervous!?” Olin shouts, “I was shittin’ bricks!”

“Seriously, that’s why I told you that girls are useless, all emotional and whatnot.” Jessiah added.

“Shut up you two. Don’t ruin our moment.” Celestia hisses as she lights a match and sets fire to Allia’s arrow.

By now the room is shaking so violently that the foundation of the walkway in which they stand begins to crumble and break apart.

It is now or never.

Lava bubbles explode all around Red’s position at the downed assembly line factory. But when the molten hot rock hits anywhere near him, they are repelled by a stream of black liquid swirling around his feet. This is obviously how he plans to survive the eruption he’s attempting to cause; though everyone else will be melted, he will end up just fine.

Looking up at the Knights he sees that Allia is again pointing her arrow at him.

She hasn’t used it at all since the hallway because of its ineffectiveness, so he begins to laugh at her fruitless effort.

“Hahahaha come on, not that shit again!! You’ve already shown me that you can’t shoot under pressure! Don’t you feel it?? That amazing feeling of death breathing down your neck!? You’ve failed once when it was just your life on the line, now you have your comrade’s lives teetering on whether you hit me or not. You have no chance!!”

Allia takes her aim at the mountain of black powder that’s covered in rubble and pulls back the string of the bow as hard as possible. The left arm that’s supposed to be the anchor to an archer's shot is tattered and bloody.

When the pressure squeezing onto it by the mere action of the shot hits it, pain is sent like lightning throughout her whole body.

But this won’t sway her; she narrows her focus and goes through all the mental preparations to take the shot.

This is what she has trained her whole life for, the one shot that can change the world.

With one final inhale, she releases the string and the arrow is sent flying in Red’s direction.

Red smiles and prepares to use his mass of black water to block when all the sudden it disappears completely, leaving him wide open.

“What!?”

The snake's voice echoes in his head and all the events just like earlier begin to move in slow motion.

“I didn’t think I’d have to do this.”

Allia’s arrow makes its way towards his position and he’s watching it get closer and closer as if it were walking towards him.

“What the fuck is going on!?”

“It’s a termination of contract.” The snake answers. “By betraying my side of the deal so blatantly, I’ve decided that you have not held up your end of the bargain.”

“Fuck that! That’s shit, garbage, nonsense!”

“Is it, Captain? I do believe I stated that if I gave you the abilities you possessed in order for you to kill, you’d carry out my will by creating guns and distributing them across the world. Your attempt at destroying the one plant that can produce those weapons is an obvious breach of that commitment. For that, there is a special place reserved for you in Hell. A place that’s best suited for the punishment of people consumed by ‘Wrath’.”

“Hey hey... do you really think you can do this without me!?”

“There’s always another fool to trick. As long as this weapons plant stands, somebody will be here to take your place.”

“Hahahahahaha you conniving bastard! Fine then, I’ll see you in Hell so I can fuck your shit up personally!”

“You’re in for a surprise...”

The snake disappears along with the pentagram and time moves back to normal; the arrow that was so slowly moving towards him is now seen moving at its regular speed.

Even with it doing so, he notices that something is off; the arrow isn’t actually going to hit him. It instead flies over his head and lands in the destroyed factory behind him.

“Hahahaha what kind of a shot was that!?” he yells in an attempt to mock them.

That’s when he sees the four of them hit the deck as if guarding themselves from something.

He quizzically turns around to find out where that arrow actually hit.

The flame hit a wooden post directly above a pile of black powder.

Watching the flame of the arrow burn into that post and inch its way closer to the powder he quickly realizes what she meant to do all along.

Knowing what it takes to make these guns, he fully understands his carelessness in this whole thing; and by not considering his surroundings, he’s left himself completely defenseless.

“Ahhh…” he groans solemnly as the wooden post splits and the fire is only a moment away from igniting it.

“They got me.”

BBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!

The mountain of gunpowder ignites and explodes, sending a shockwave even more powerful than the earthquake shaking the innards of the facility.
With Red only being a few feet away from the source of this blast, he disintegrated.

The suspended walkways shake even worse than before and break apart before falling into the already churning lava.

“We better get going!”

“Right!”

The four of them make their way to the door, and once there, the rumbling finally stops. It would seem that Red’s attempt at causing the volcano to erupt ended in failure and an eerie silence befalls them.

They collectively take a sigh of relief and bask in the feeling of no longer being in danger.

However, that feeling is short lived when the entirety of the facility once again shakes and the walls begin to crumble and fall.

Looking down, they can see that the magma that they had thought to be dormant is rising at an exceptional pace. In fact, it’s moving upwards in a pace that can be described as the movement of water in a cup after a large ice cube has been dropped in it.

“What the!? I thought the eruption stopped!” shouts Jessiah as a cold sweat falls from his bald head.

“He must have done enough damage beforehand! That or the explosion Allia caused made it even worse! We need to get out of here!” Celestia yells, running through the door and back into the bulk of the weapons plant.

"H-Hey don't blame that on me! You're the one who told me to do it!!!"

Seeing how quickly things are about to get messy, the others follow as well.

Once in the hallways of the plant, they try to shake off the feeling of switching from an extremely hot atmosphere to one below freezing. Keeping composure in such a drastic change is not the only thing they have to worry about; at the end of the hallway are the rest of the soldiers stationed here at the plant.

With weapons in tow, they have come to help their Captain after hearing all of those explosions from below their feet.

The Knights grind to a stop and find themselves in a stare down with the remaining forces. The intensity of this moment cannot be put in words as the path to life for the Knights is being blocked by the determined faces of these soldiers.

“I need you all to listen to me.” Celestia addresses the soldiers sternly. “Your Captain is dead, and the volcano below the plant is erupting...”

The men all look at her with skepticism as she continues.

“At any moment, a huge amount of lava is going to be flowing through these hallways. And once that happens, I don’t know if we’ll make it out of here alive no matter how fast we sprint. So as fellow La’Juutians... We need you to let us pass so we can all escape together.”

The men still hesitate at first, but they slowly spread out to give the Knights a passageway through. Of course they didn’t want to give up so easily, but at the same time they know just how fierce the Knights are to be able to kill off Captain Red and all the others like that.

A group of around 50 men fearing four people shows just how much they respect them.

The Knights walk through them cautiously and are sent to a flying sprint when from behind them a loud bang is heard.

BBAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSHHH!!!

Lava comes flowing towards them like a river going downstream, and whatever doubts the remaining soldiers had are replaced with fear.

Together, just as Celestia said, they all run for their lives.

Of course, some of them simply don’t run fast enough to get away, others trip and fall in panic and are trampled by their comrades. The ones unlucky enough to not remain upright are engulfed by the fast moving current of lava and are melted into nothing.

Having its foundation destroyed from below is causing the entirety of the weapons plant to lose its structural base. Bits and pieces of the roof and walls begin to crumble and fall apart, adding more obstacles to impede the paths of those who are fleeing.

Easily avoiding everything blocking their path are the four Knights; they move along at speeds that far surpasses the rest, and they go about their business as quietly and focused as possible whilst the others scream and run away in a panic.

After winding their way for what feels like miles through the innards of the world’s largest plant, they reach the massive double door of the main entrance. They find relief in the fact that they’ve made it here alive, but there are plenty of problems they still need to overcome.

The two doors are sealed shut by a mechanism built solely to keep the bitter cold air out of the building. The doors likely weigh over three tons each so prying them open is out of the question. The only thing they can hope for is that the button used to open this door automatically hasn’t had its wiring compromised in the desolution of the plant.

There’s a high possibility that the innards have been burnt by the intense heat flowing through the vents by the volcano, or that it has simply fallen apart due to the earthquake. Nonetheless, with an imminent flow of scorching hot death coming toward them, they have no choice but to hope for the best.
The Knights, along with the last remaining group of about twenty soldiers all stare in angst as Olin walks straight faced toward the door and holds out his hand to push the button. Even though his expression seems calm, he’s sweating profusely and his nerves shake uncontrollably under his skin.

He understands that if this button doesn’t work, they’re all dead; there would be no way to escape the fast approaching river of lava.

With a deep inhale, he presses the big red button for the door and waits for some kind of reaction.

To their relief, a light ‘beep’ sound is heard and a rush of cold air from the outside world hits their faces.

“Let’s go!!!”

They unhesitatingly rush out into the white land of the south with perfect timing, right when the last man left the plant, the lava came rushing out and the entire structure of the plant came crumbling down in a towering inferno.

Pillars of flame fly up as if they were octopus tentacles and swirl off in multiple directions. The sounds of explosions pop off from within the inferno like popcorn and the true sight of destruction singes their eyes with an unbearable heat.

The valued weapon’s plant that Celestia and the other Knights wanted to protect has been destroyed and this will no doubt put them in a bad spot concerning the war.

Celestia sighs and takes a seat on the cold snow, her body steaming from the heat left on her by the plant. “Damn it all... I don’t even know if we could say that we accomplished our mission now.”

Allia walks up to her, still out of breath she responds, “We definitely did what we came here to do... At least now we don’t have to worry about those weapons reaching anyone else. It might’ve been a good thing that all of those things were destroyed.”

Little does she know, that what she had said is spot on. The world has literally dodged a bullet in the fact that it doesn’t have to worry about the mass production of these weapons.

Jessiah swirls his spear around and says. “I’m not too into thinking deep on things---“

“We know.” The other three interrupt.

He clears his throat in annoyance and continues, “Soooooo, I say we go home and think about all the other stuff later.”

“Hahaha.” Olin laughs, “That’s actually a good idea.”

They all stand to their feet and smile at each other, they have just made it through another deadly mission and the last thing they want to do is dwell on it any longer.

Not caring about what the others plan on doing, the four Knights walk off in an almost triumphant fashion.

But the sparkling aura of victory is broken by the ground under their feet shaking violently once more.

GGGAGAGAGAAGASSSSHHH!!!

“!?”

“What the hell is up with this shaking! It’s ten times worse than before!” Olin shouts as he tries to regain his balance.

Jessiah helps him up and says, “Remember when I said that I’m not too good at thinking??”

Glaring at him quizzically, Olin quickly comes to realize exactly what he meant by that.

Jessiah regains his footing and begins sprinting away when he shouts, “That’s right! Fuck thinking! Let’s run awayyyyyyy~~!!”

Everyone runs as fast as they can through the shin deep snow; naturally, their movement is slowed by this and they don’t gain much distance from the plant when...

BBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!

The volcano under the power plant ends its surge and officially erupts; sending bright orange lava flying into the sky thousands of feet upwards. The shockwave itself knocks some men to the ground and the ensuing rainfall of lava lands atop them and they are melted in a flash.

It’s as though they are being chased by a meteor shower, hundreds of falling balls of molten rock land all around them, melting the snow as they tread through.

One of these lands directly in the path of a fleeing soldier and the mere heat from it engulfs him in flame.

Others share the same fate as the sound of hundreds of explosions hitting the ground and melting the Earth’s surface cascades all around them. The debris alone from one of these is enough to rip through one’s body as if it was a hot knife through butter.

A few other men are hit, and their lives end so quickly that they’re dead on their feet while continuing to run until they finally collapse.

Narrowly avoiding the torrent of hellfire are the Knights; they hurl over miniature lakes of lava that landed in front of them out in the distance and dodge whatever they can see from the corners of their eyes.

Entirely focused on putting one foot in front of the other as fast as possible, the exist in a state of mind where everything else is purely reactionary. The sheer intensity of the moment is enough to keep them from panicking; in this hailstorm of lava, they simply don’t have time to be afraid, they must continue moving in order to survive.

By now there are only five soldiers left from the plant fleeing alongside the Knights when they reach a large frozen lake. Not worrying about whether the ice is thick enough to hold their weight, they begin to run and slide across it as the ash and flame filled sky continues its relentless pursuit of them.
A huge falling comet of lava lands about twenty meters to the right of them and instantly melts a huge chunk of the frozen lake, and a smoke screen of hot steam envelopes them. Numerous other projectiles land as well before they realize that the ground in which they are running on is spider webbing like broken glass.

This poses an entirely new threat in and of itself; not only do they have to worry about being melted from projectiles above, now they have to worry about falling in a below freezing lake. One little dip in there in this weather is enough to freeze someone to death within minutes; being out in the open of this Antarctic desert will make any chance of surviving an impossibility.

With that in mind, a couple of the other men tread carefully and look down, desperately trying to avoid falling in. These cautious actions will lead to their downfall, they aren’t paying attention to what’s above them.

A ball of lava crashes on their left and sends shards of thick razor sharp ice zooming in their direction.

Not being able to avoid such a thing in this short of a time-frame, their limbs are sent flying and the red of their blood adds to the hot colors of the already crimson sky.

Another soldier is running separately from the rest, and he is actually feeling quite secure in the fact that the melee coming from above seems to be ineffective in his area of the lake. But of course that is simply a false sense of security, he is in just as much danger as everyone else, he just doesn’t know it yet.

The source of his danger lands around a hundred feet in front of him; this time however, it wasn’t a ball of lava, rather, it was just a stupidly large rock that likely weighs hundreds of tons.

The impact of the rock causes a huge crack in the ice in front of him, and then the sensation of being catapulted hits his senses.
The boulder made the thick ice under the man’s feet break apart in a solid block and flipped it over like a pancake.
As a result, the force of which sends the man hurling into the air hundreds of feet high.

There is no escaping his fate now; looking down as he falls he can see where he is going to land, the area of the lake that was destroyed by that giant rock.

Normally, one would find comfort in knowing they’d land in water since falling from such a height on anything solid would surely result in a flattening impact. But the water from this height might as well be the same thing, assuming he keeps his consciousness once he lands in this freezing cold water there’s no way he’d have the strength to find his way out and warm up in time before a severe case of hypothermia kicks in.

Seeing his death get closer with each passing second, he closes his eyes as he screams.
SPLASH!!!
The remaining two soldiers are running alongside the Knights as the relentless rain of fire from above lands all around them. Even the cold water from the splash of that giant rock adds to the sensations felt on the skin and blur their vision in a mix of different colors.

They take in as much air as they can as the ash from the volcano enters their lungs and steals away the strength in their legs. It’s becoming ever more obvious at how bad their endurance is holding up when they fall behind and the cracks in the ice become wider and more difficult to traverse.

At their pace there is no way they are going to make it, and their disposition dawns on them with horrifying reality.

With their eyes solely on the path in front of them, they notice that Celestia has formed quite the distance between herself and her other three comrades as well.

They think that she must be feeling the effects of the tarnished air too; though this isn’t going to do them any good, they still feel a little comfort knowing that it’s not just them suffering.

That’s when another huge boulder lands between her and the other Knights, sending a huge wall of thick ice towering down at her. Showing an almost insane amount of composure, she throws her shield as hard as she can over the wall and sticks onto the other side, she twists her wrist violently and the wire holding the shield retracts, pulling her over the wall and she lands on top of it. From there she makes a colossal leap and sores over the gap made by the boulder and back onto the ice, never stopping even for an instant, she keeps running and catches up with the others.

The shadow of that wall of ice is closing in on the two men who found themselves deadlocked after that last impact. In a shocked disbelief at the feat they had just witnessed, they resign themselves to their position as regular humans.

This is the difference between the Knights and the lucky two who had managed to make it this far; they just aren’t the type of characters to live through a situation as insane as this.

The falling wall of ice lands on their position and flattens them into the lake with a giant thud.

Now it’s come down to the final four survivors.

The falling lava begins to slow, but that doesn’t make their sprint for survival any less threatening.

The ice atop the lake is completely shattered and the gaps between one ice pad to the other is widening with each second. They have to use their tired legs to leap six to ten feet at a time in order to not fall in the water, and they have to avoid sliding off after landing in order to escape the same deadly result.

With their focus on an otherworldly high level, they notice that in less than fifty meters the lake comes to an end. Once they reach the shore, they’ll be out of the range of the hailstorm of lava and finally reach safety. The only problem is the dwindling spots in which they can physically move on; there’s no telling how much longer they have until there will be nothing left but water to fall in.

The shore is tantalizingly close and the first to reach it is Jessiah. In an obvious overreaction, he does an unnecessary belly flop into the snow.

The second is Olin, who instantly throws his hands on his knees and takes a huge sigh of relief.

The third is Celestia, who since the outstanding feat of survival she displayed earlier, has seemed to gather a ton of momentum before reaching her final destination.

The last is supposed to be Allia, but to the other’s chagrin they find her marooned on a small piece of ice about fifteen feet away.

Perhaps due to her injury that slowed her down, she was unable to reach the shore before the ice splintered apart.

Swimming to the shore is out of the question, so all she can do is glare at Celestia as if telling her to do something.

Answering that look, Celestia’s face turns blue when she yells, “Allia, jump!!!”

“Haah!? I can’t make it that far without a running start! Can’t you just use your shield or something??”

“Didn’t we go through this earlier!? Just do what I say!!!”

Allia clicks her tongue and hesitates until she feels an intense heat on her bare back. Not fully turning around to look, she catches a glimpse of a smoking chunk of molten rock travelling on a direct line to where she is standing.

This is plenty enough motivation for her to use the last bit of her strength to desperately leap toward shore.

Just like she feared, she can’t make it to shore and gets about halfway when,

BBAAAAMMMMM!!!

The chunk of molten rock crashes into the area in which she once stood and the force of the impact shoots her forward as though she were shot from a cannon. The impact was so great it knocked the other three back as well.

Allia is helped by this and flies to the shore, they all slide across the snow like sleds until they come to a screeching halt, only to look up and see that hundreds of shards of scorching sharp debris from the molten rock is raining down on their position.

Something like this renders their incredible abilities completely useless, all they can do is cover themselves and hope not one of these orange shards drills a hot hole in their bodies.

The sound of melting ice sizzling from all around them reaches their ears until it suddenly stops.

The four of them lift their heads and look around, checking themselves for injuries in the process.

“No way.” Olin said in disbelief as he finds that he and the others aren’t hurt at all.

Allia flops onto her back and takes in a deep breath as though she were holding it this entire time, upon letting out a loud exhale, she says, “I guess the saying 'the more you sweat the luckier you get' is really true.”

“Pfft...”

“Hahahahahahahahah!”

The four share a knee slapping laugh as the thought of them actually making it out alive through this whole thing finally hits them.

Fighting back tears at just how crazy all of this was, Celestia finally gets her head back on straight and she realizes that they are not out of danger just yet. In fact, they are far from it; Allia’s arm is still in horrible shape, Olin likely has a concussion from the head injury he received earlier, they have no way to get home, and to top it off, both Allia and herself are only wearing bras in negative degree weather.

With those facts now out in the open, she can clearly see that they are completely screwed.

“Wait wait wait, how the hell are we gonna get home!?”

Jessiah and Olin stand to their feet and point off behind a small hill a couple hundred feet away.

Tied to a rock are a group of a dozen dogs connected to a sled, barking and playing with each other and looking comfortable in the snow as they wait.

“Whaa!? Is this action-packed chapter really going to end so conveniently!?” Celestia shouts.

“Well what did you think was going to happen?” Olin states nonchalantly. “We conveniently got here didn’t we? It’s not like we walked through the snow to get to you guys.”

“Hahaha yeah, duh!” Jessiah reiterates.

“Oh and by the way, we have extra clothes and a killer first-aid kit for you guys too.”

Celestia and Allia look at each other and then back to them; sharing a large sigh of resignation, they quietly stand up and start walking to the sled.

“What’s this!?” Olin shouts, “No thank you!? No ‘Kyaaaah! Olin you’re so cool!’ talk!?”

The two girls ignore him and keep moving, and rather fast at that.

Almost as if it finally dawned on them that they are still half naked with guys like Jessiah and Olin around, they run to the dogsled and Olin gives chase, begging them for some kind of acknowledgement.

Jessiah scratches his bald head and laughs as he begins jogging as well.

This is how the battle for the weapons plant ends.

Whether they think of it as a failure because the plant was destroyed; once all is said and done, there is still no doubt that this surely is a mission accomplished.

Somewhere in Hell at this very moment, Satan hisses in anger as a black chess piece is knocked off the board and falls to the floor.

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| Back to [[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 6|Their Rebellion (Part 3)]]
| Return to [[Dantega|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 8|Checkmate (Part 2)]]
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</noinclude>

Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 7

2021-12-21T00:57:08Z

Deck of cards:

Chapter 50: Checkmate

Chapter 50: Checkmate

(PART 1)

Satan sits on his usual throne in the dark room. The familiar sight of the chessboard that signifies the way in which the main characters of the world are moving, sits on a table right in front of him.

The game has taken a turn for the worse for him and the look on his face shows it.

He only has three black pieces left on his side of the board and they're almost completely surrounded by the white.

His pieces are a rook, a queen, and of course the king. Each piece is in place as Sturgess, Dice, and Red Spektor.

The white pieces are the game’s version of the Ten La’Juutian Knights, Lelaine, Zurvick, Gile, Diana, and Noah.

“To think I’d be put in this position by a fellow cheater… But I’ve been at an advantage since we started this game, it’s no different now.” Satan’s voice echoes in the dark room as if he is talking to the darkness itself. “You see, Noah, with the right moves, I can win with far fewer pieces than you. The key is sacrificing the right pieces, which I’ve done multiple times already just to get myself out of ‘check’, I only need to do it one more time to win.”

He moves the black king piece forward two spots and in turn has it surrounded by the white. Satan does this so confidently because the shift of position leaves his last rook piece resting on the square adjacent to the king.

“I’ve used almost all of my power maneuvering my way into the lives of the pawns. I had hoped to keep my efforts minimal by taking over the world from within the shadows through them. But as I’m sure you know, not everything is distributed equally, just like chess, some pieces are more important than the others. All I need is for one of these final pieces to fulfill my contract and I’ll win this sham of a game.”

Knock Knock Knock

The sound of someone knocking on the door echoes in the room. Satan doesn’t give whoever it was permission to enter but the man does so anyways. The light from outside pierces the dark room and hits Satan's face, causing his eyes to shine an even more menacing red.

In comes Amon, the 4th ranked demon of the Hierarchy.

Being met with a glare that can kill, he skips the formalities and gets straight to the point. “I remember hearing you mention something about some kid on Earth with a certain power giving you problems.”

“What of it?” he sharply replies.

“I also recall you saying that that kid said he got that power from one of the people Damien sent to Purgatory right?”

“.....”

Amon throws his hands in his pockets and his lips faintly rise, he is happy that he is the one that gets to reveal the news before anyone else.

“Man oh man, there’s a certain priest I’d love to tell you about...”

-----------------------------

“So how was it!? How was my superhero entrance!?” Olin shouts, giving the puppy dog eyes to Allia and Celestia.

The three of them along with Jessiah are standing safely on the part of the staircase that hasn't collapsed.

Allia sighs and says, “As much as it pains me to do so, I have to thank you guys.”

“Yeah no kiddin', we were in quite the pinch back there. So what's the reason why you two came here to back us up?” Celestia asked.

Jessiah swings around his spear and explains, “Well we actually got done with our missions a lot earlier than we expected. I mean, we took out eleven of those monster bastards before we knew it.”

“Eleven!?” Allia and Celestia shout simultaneously.

“Well yeah.” Olin replies, “They weren’t that tough after all, other than a couple magic tricks, most of those people were untrained noblemen trying to benefit from the results of the war. They couldn’t hold a torch to us.”

“No way, weren’t they spread out over all three countries?”

“Most were actually around the borders trying to influence the war in and around hotspots, so it wasn’t that hard to get from one to the other. The furthest one away is this bastard down here in the south.”

Celestia sighs and says, “I think we got the short end of the stick in this. The one that Allia and I took out a few weeks back wasn’t a slouch, and this Captain Red guy is flat out ridiculous.”

“Or it could be that we are just that much more bad-ass than you are?” Jessiah asked while striking an arrogant pose.

“Yeah right.” “No way.” The two girls said at the same time.

“Whaaaaaatever.”

Olin walks up to the broken guard rail and looks down, revealing an intense expression. Down a couple stories below on one of the metal walkways above the magma is Red, and he is beginning to stand to his feet.

He gestures to the others to come take a look and says, “We’re not out of the clearing just yet, if that guy is as tough as you say he is then we’d better end this quick.”

“I agree.”

“But before that, I gotta ask one thing.” Olin says, his eyes so full of intensity that it makes Allia and Celestia’s body stiffen up.

Olin looks to Allia and asks, “Why isn’t your bra black?”

The whole atmosphere around him shatters like glass falling on the ground and the two girl’s mouths drop instantly.

“HAH!?”

“Don’t you get it? Purple is weak, black is beauty!” he shouts, fists clenched as though he is proving an important point.

“What the hell are you talking about at a time like this!?” Allia yells in a flustered manner.

“There is no time where this proven fact doesn’t take precedence over everything else! Purple? Really Allia? This is the first time I’ve seen you topless and I gotta say, you have a perfect rack. How could you ruin this moment for me with a purple bra!?”

Allia covers her chest and her face turns bright red. She didn’t give it much thought before when it was just her, Celestia, and the enemies. But now looking at it, she comes to the realization that this is the first time any guy has ever seen her like this; it’s bad enough it has to be these two knuckleheads.

“Y-Y-You pervert!!”

“I’m not perverted at all!” Olin shouts, “I’m just stating the obvious here, if you had a black bra on there’d be nothing holding me back from having a nosebleed! Don’t you realize how powerful of a weapon you have?? You’re wasting it right before my eyes! Such a tragedy!”

Allia hides behind Celestia and says, “Celestia, do something about this guy! He’s embarrassing me!”

She sighs and replies, “Well you shouldn’t have thrown away your shirt. It’s your own fault.”

“Whhaaaa such blatant victim blaming?”

Olin’s disappointed eyes switch to Celestia, and looking at her he notices that for the most part, she is dressed pretty skimpily as well. Her white shirt is almost transparent due to the heat of the room and her bra can be seen too.

“Hmmm, pink huh?”

“Eh?” she mutters as she looks down on her chest. “Kyahh!”

In a flash she uses her shield to block his view.

“Photographic memory, okay!” he shouts, taking a picture in his mind. Wriggling around in a creepy fashion, he continues, “Your chest isn’t nearly as big as Allia’s so a cute pink bra suits your childish appearance perfectly.” He then holds his thumb up and smiles stupidly at her. “Nice touch!”

A flame begins to brew in Celestia's eyes; the sound of her teeth grinding together is similar to a nail on chalkboard. With the strength of a thousand men she grabs onto Olin’s neck and begins to strangle him.

“I’m going to kill you.”

Judging the terrifyingly dark expression on her face, it would seem she is actually going to do it.

Sensing the force of the wrecking ball that is Celestia Letrova, Jessiah is forced to intervene. “Now, don’t get your panties bunched up in a wad.”

Celestia turns her head like she is possessed by a demon impossibly to the side and scowls at him. Her grip on Olin’s neck doubles and he begins flailing his arms and legs around in a panic.

“...WHAT ABOUT PANTIES?”

The horrid voice exiting her mouth scares Jessiah into complacency, he shrinks within himself as he takes frightened steps back. He glances into the pleading eyes of Olin and shrugs his shoulders as if saying, 'I tried.'

Olin flips him off, sending a message of his own, sarcastically implying, ‘Thanks for the effort!!!’

Jessiah bows to him and politely says, “May you rest in peace.”

Before Olin passes out of asphyxiation, a loud noise from below snaps Celestia out of her angry death mode and she releases her hold.

Having his life saved, Olin takes a deep, well needed breath and hops up to his feet, smiling stupidly like usual. That’s when he notices that everyone else has dropped down, guarding themselves.

“What’s up?” he asks.

“Get down!!!” They all shout.

“Huh?”

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Multiple shots ring out and debris from the rock wall to his side scatters all over as if someone threw grounded chalk into the air.

“Whoa!! What the hell was that!?”

Looking down, they can see that the remaining twenty men who work on the assembly line are pointing strange objects at them and shooting projectiles that fly at an incredible speed.

“These are the weapons that they are planning to overthrow La’Juune with!” Alla shouts while a cloud of debris from the fragile rock above her head falls down on top of her.

“This is insane! If we get hit by one of these things we’re toast!” Olin points out.

“Then let’s move! They suck at aiming, but if we just wait here we’re bound to get hit!”

After Celestia’s order, they all get up and jump off the staircase in different directions. Below them are numerous walkways that are rather wide, but to hop off without any hesitation knowing full well of the presence of the magma below takes extreme amounts of courage.

Nonetheless, they each end up in different parts of the factory and the workers scramble along firing pop shots in every direction they can. Although the bullets ricocheting off the metal rails of the walkway seem close enough, in reality, the Knights aren’t even close to getting hit.

In addition to the speed in which they move, is the fact that the men wielding these weapons have no clue how to actually aim and fire efficiently. They have yet to even use the guns they manufactured. It’s a lot like handing a pistol to an adolescent who’s only seen one in an action movie and asking him to shoot a bird out of the sky. He’s got a better chance of holding it sideways and having the clip fall out after the first shot than actually hitting the target.

With ax in tow, Olin reaches the main walkway that holds the five assembly line factories which spread all across the inside of this manufacturing furnace.
The main force of workers are on this particular walkway, and they begin firing as Olin makes his way toward them.

Now having a target moving in a straight line and getting closer to them with each second, the men have a proper grasp on how to take him out. A few of them shoot at him and are shocked to find that the bullets are brushed off by the ax of Olin as if they were flies.

"W-What!? How!?” One of the men shouts in surprise.

While running, and continuing to knock away even more bullets, Olin answers with a smile, “This isn’t that special guys. Just cause you’re shooting shit at me at such a speed doesn’t mean I can’t knock them away.”

He takes a big jump and does a couple flips before landing right in the middle of the ten or so men.

“I can tell where the attack is coming from by simply looking where you’re aiming.”

The ten men all point their weapons at him and fire simultaneously.

Olin takes a big sweep with his ax and sends some of the bullets ricocheting in multiple directions and striking some of the men in the chest.

After dropping three of the men with their own bullets, he uses his ax to take out a couple more.

Still, having guns pointed at him from so close puts him at a severe disadvantage, but he shows no worries as he gestures to the remaining men to look behind them.

Naturally, they don’t look and prepare to fire.

However, they are all cut down by the spear of Jessiah.

Jessiah had used this moment of confusion to leap across a couple of the walkways and jump behind them unnoticed.

With that, half of the gun carrying men are taken out by two people with an ax and a spear.

Seeing that their guns are of no use against these freaks of nature, the other ten workers begin to run away, firing pop-shots in order to gain some distance between them. In a flash, three heads go rolling on the ground as Celestia’s shield swings horizontally into the fleeing group of men.

It would seem that Celestia has no intentions of letting the survivors escape, so she chases after them as their scared screams grow more frantic.

“Just let 'em go. They aren’t gonna do us any harm outside in the snow.” Jessiah said, scratching his bald head in an exasperated fashion.

Though Celestia would normally never listen to him, she decides that he’s right. Useless killing is not what she gets paid to do; once they are done attacking, they might as well be normal citizens. Although she worries about them making more guns once they escape, she quickly realizes that they most likely wouldn’t be able to replicate them without the technology of this top notch plant.

She turns around to walk to where Olin and Jessiah are when she suddenly hears the horrified screams of the men she had just shown mercy to.

She twists around to look and sees that the fleeing men have been cut off by a certain captain with flaming red hair who’s surrounded by an abundance of black liquid.

“Hey hey, leaving me behind huh?” Captain Red says, a distinct evil shines in his eyes. “You know I read this book once, some old story about some old fort in the middle of dick-fuck nowhere in some old war. They were being attacked and it became obvious that they’d lose... Do you know what happened?”

The men don’t answer; they just quiver in fear as Red’s darkness inches its way towards them.

“They fought. All the way down to the last man. That’s courageous ain't it? I mean, imagine being that guy. All alone, surrounded, totally fucked and knowing it. Don’t you wanna be like that guy? Don’t you wanna die like a bad-ass? Haah!?”

Red holds his arms out and shakes his head when no answer again comes. “Dying can be cool if you do it the right way. You guys on the other hand, are gonna go out like shit flushed down a toilet. What a bummer, shame, tragedy!”

Red slams his foot onto the metal walkway and a loud noise ensues.

The middle of the fifteen foot wide walkway splits apart and sharp edges violently stretch up like jagged teeth towards the ceiling. The remaining men are caught in that wretched deformation of twisted metal and are skewered from between their legs. This of course doesn’t result in an instant death, a few of the men scream in agony whilst others squirm and make gurgled screeches through the back of their throats.

The jagged metal twisting upwards along the middle of the pathway doesn’t stop once it impales the men; it picks up speed and zooms its way toward the three Knights.

Not wanting to end up like the unfortunate people in front of them, they once again jump off the walkway in separate directions.

Jessiah barely latches onto the bottom of one of the walkways about ten feet above him and pulls himself up.

Celestia uses her shield and slings herself up a couple of stories onto a different walkway.

But Olin stays on the same platform; he hops up on the thin railing and runs across it as though he was on regular ground. He is just one inch in either direction from death by magma or the twisted metal, but he seems unafraid as his thin smile grows wider.

“Get out of there you dumbass!!!” Celestia shouts with all her might.

But it seems that her words fall on deaf ears as Olin hops off the railing and swings his ax for a downward strike atop Red’s skull.

Red holds out his hand and grabs the sharp end of Olin’s ax; using that as an anchor, he pulls Olin in and viciously knees him in the gut. Olin spits blood out of his mouth and misses out on a couple breaths when the functionality of his lungs grinded to a sudden stop.

Red releases his grip on the ax and clasps his hands together; using them as a clever he hammers down on the top of Olin’s head, sending his face screaming into the metal ground.

FONNKK!!

“Gbbbhhhhh!?”

“Hahahaha what a thud! Hey hey, I wonder if I can pound you through this bridge and into the magma with one kick?”

Red lifts his leg and prepares to stomp on the top of Olin’s head.

Considering how devastating his last kick was, which deformed the metal of the bridge into skewers, there is no doubt that Olin’s head will become mush if he takes this hit.

Celestia clicks her tongue and sends her shield flying down at a tremendous speed in the direction of Red’s leg. The mad Captain catches a glimpse of the shining gold projectile heading his leg’s way and moves it as quickly as he can.

Not able to move it fast enough, the sharp edge of the shield slides across his shin and sends his blood flying.
Under her control, the shield retracts back towards Red’s neck but he uses his hand and knocks it away. She regains control of her shield and begins running off in the opposite direction.

“Ohoo big daddy Red loves playing tag!” he shouted cynically as he used his hand and pointed it at her moving frame.

He intends to send the strange black liquid chasing after her in order to blow her to bits like he did the stone staircase earlier. That’s when he feels a dull pain in his shoulder and finds that a six foot long spear is stabbing into him.

“!?”

Jessiah had thrown it from his position atop the overhanging walkway above.

Before Red can pull it out, Jessiah runs from a couple dozen feet away and follows up that javelin throw by kicking the wooden butt end of the spear, sending the blade pushing through to the other side of Red’s body.

Red stumbles forward and prepares to face Jessiah when another dull pain is felt, this time in his stomach. Looking down he finds the sharp back end of Olin’s ax stabbing through the area just above his naval.

“Kahh!?” he hisses, spitting out blood in the process.

Olin is under him, smiling once again even though his whole face is covered in blood. “Let’s face it, even with these powers of yours you have no chance against all of us.”

“Ha! You think so!?”

Jessiah rushes at Red’s back for another attack.

As if predicting this, Red turns his body at a sharp angle and twists the ax out of his stomach. The wooden shaft of Jessiah’s spear swings along with his body and strikes Olin directly in his face, knocking him back a couple feet.

Jessiah, still in his full sprint is met with the big fist of Red slamming into his chest.

The black liquid surrounds his arm and as though it was some kind of spring, it coils and recoils along with his punch, sending Jessiah flying back the entire length of the walkway until he slams into the opening of one of the large factories.

BAAAAAM!!

The sound of his body crashing into the assembly line echoes throughout the furnace room.

Red pulls Jessiah’s spear from his shoulder and begins swinging it at Olin, and doing it quite skillfully.

Olin is narrowly avoiding being hit as he dodges, and blocks the spear with his ax.

Now pinned between Red and the jagged metal holding the skewered men, Olin is stuck between a rock and a hard place. His only option now is to go on the offensive; he catches a firm piece of footing and lunges forward.

The two take swings at each other and sparks fly when the metal of their weapons meet.

“You’re quite good for a guy who doesn’t see combat.” Olin says as he drops his level and swipes at Red’s ankles.

Red jumps just high enough to avoid having his feet cut off and swings Jessiah’s spear down.

“I’ve killed enough people to know how to kill people. You know?”

SHHIIING!!

The two weapons clash.

Pushing at each other, their arms uncontrollably shake as sparks fly between their faces.

“Well you’ve never killed anyone like us.”

“I think a certain amount of numbers adds up to the quality of death of you Knights. It’s like a game where you collect coins for each monster you kill. Sure you get more coins for taking out the boss, but you can get just as many by taking out a bunch of the small fries.”

“No wonder why you’re stationed down here away from combat, you’d be too much of a liability as a real soldier with fucked up thinking like that.”

“I happen to think of myself as the most rational person who’s ever lived. It’s as simple as realizing that everyone dies one way or another. It doesn’t matter if they die in a fire, in a flood, disease, murder, war, famine, hell even a damn lightning strike. Death is just death no matter how you dress it up.”

By now Red’s strength begins to overwhelm Olin and the tip of Jessiah’s spear gets closer to his face.

“With that logic, I find that I’m best suited to be the person doing the dressing, rather than being the one who’s getting dressed. Makes sense right? Of course it does. Kind of like a kid who plays with dolls, would you rather be the one who owns the doll or be the doll itself?”

Olin can’t help but smile, even though he knows his position in this fight is leaning more towards the losing end, Red’s words still make the tip of his lips rise.

“Like I thought, you’re out of your damn mind.”

Even though Olin is an oddball himself, he isn’t clinically insane like Red is, he can still function. Adding to that, the man in front of him has sold his soul to the Devil for no other reason than the fact that he wants to kill, he’s even working on destroying his home country in order to do so.

Red simply smiles at Olin as if agreeing with that statement, he then uses the rest of his strength to bring down the sharp edge of the spear upon Olin’s head.

Completely overwhelmed, Olin’s leg’s buckle and his struggle for survival gets that much more severe.

Sensing that he can’t hold out much longer he shouts,

“Allia, take the damn shot!!!”

BANG!!!

A gunshot rings from the assembly line factory on the other side of the mountain of skewered bodies.

Red’s attention is instantly moved towards the sound of the blast; and perhaps due to the influence of power in his hand, everything around him slows down.
Looking carefully, he notices that there is a gap, a stupidly small gap in the formation of the jagged metal connecting a spot of air between him and a certain girl pointing a rifle in his direction.

This little gap is no bigger than two inches and he can see the bullet spiraling perfectly towards the area directly between his eyes. Unless he moves quickly, his brains will be scattered out the back of his head.

With eyes following the bullet intently, it takes all his might to pull his head to the left.

But the effect of slow motion is moving it at a dragging speed.

With his eyes locked solidly onto the incoming bullet, and his mind still knowing full well what will happen if it connects, he watches it slide past his lips and rip skin as it slides across the right side of his face.

In a flash, time speeds back up to its regular pace and the bullet zooms by faster than the speed of sound.

Blood falls down Red’s face as he backs up and drops Jessiah’s spear to the ground.

“Krrrrrgghhhaaah!?”

He removes his hand from the wound and finds that almost half his face has been blown off; the bullet had enough force to peel the skin of his cheek and take a chunk out of his ear.

Olin jumps to his feet and postures up in a battle position. Much to his surprise, a deep blood curdling laugh begins to brew in Red’s bloodied mouth.

“Huahahahaha! That bitch! That was an amazing shot!”

Red abandons Olin and jumps over him and the rest of the impaled men and onto the side of the walkway where Allia is.

He walks toward her and says, “I was wondering where you disappeared off to. You were waiting for me to be distracted so you could take me out. I gotta say, I’m amazed that you can shoot one of those things. I find using them to be a colossal pain in the ass.”

Allia points the gun at him and replies, “I’m the best in the world with anything that involves aiming and firing.”

Her bloodied left arm is still hanging down but she holds the rifle in her right hand without any wavering, its steadiness never sways as the barrel continues to point at Red’s forehead.

The pressure on the trigger tightens and,

BANG!!

A dull shot rings out and the bullet screams forward.

Instead of using the inhuman heroics of the last time he was shot at, he simply smiles and keeps moving one foot in front of the other. The bullet that was on a collision course with his skull is met first by a mass of his black liquid.

The bullet is engulfed and dropped harmlessly to the metal ground.

“It ain’t gonna work twice.” Red said, pointing at the horrific wound on the side of his face.

Allia huffs an arrogant air out of her nose and responds, “I thought as much.”

She quickly re-aims the rifle and fires yet another shot; but this time however, the bullet zooms three feet off target to Red’s right.
This was either a terrible shot or some kind of weak diversion.

With these thoughts running through Red’s mind, he feels a burning sensation on his back.

He had been shot.

“!?”

Even Red would reveal a shocked face at the sudden impact causing his body to jolt forward. He turns his head and catches a glimpse of Celestia’s shield spinning off in the distance.

“Let me guess, you thought that I missed you for a split second there right?” Allia asks, smiling confidently and pointing her weapon three or more feet to the left of him now.

Celestia’s shield takes a sharp turn as if it was a boomerang and comes flying at the Captain; he clicks his tongue and ducks, and the shield zooms over the top of his head.

“I told you, right?” Allia continues, grabbing his attention once more. “I’m the best at what I do.”

BANG!!

She shoots again, and just like last time, the bullet flies past Red; and if one listens carefully, they’d hear a ‘tink’ noise followed by a whooshing sound.

Immediately after that, a thud is heard and blood comes spraying out of Red’s side; he had been shot from behind once more
.
Allia has actually been intentionally missing Captain Red and hitting Celestia's fast moving shield in motion, causing the bullet to ricochet off and hit Red in his blind spots.

Judging the velocity, angle, and the direction in which the bullet needs to hit the shield in order to bounce off and land on her intended target is borderline impossible. This truly shows her skills as a marksman that allowed her to reach the position as one of the Ten Knights of La’Juune.

Red falls on one knee as the warmth of the blood from the wound in his side rolls down his leg.

“Amazing,” he said in a low pitched tone.

“Do you see now? Against four of us there’s no way you’ll win.” Allia said, her rifle moving along with the flow Celestia’s shield.

“Hehehehehahahahahaha! Don’t be so full of yourself now, this is just gettin' started!”

Red stands back up and spreads his arms out, all while laughing in a distinct manner different from anyone else.

“I heard somewhere that people like you are able to make an absolute dime of a shot under the worst kind of pressure... Well how about we put that to the test!? I’ll leave myself wide open for you, but just know that if you miss you’re fucked!”

“Tch.” Allia clicks her tongue in annoyance at his ridiculous attitude.

For a man who’s missing a chunk of his face and has multiple other wounds to be acting this way is beyond the point of insanity. She almost pities the state of his mental health.

She readies to take the shot when out of nowhere, a severe quake forms in the lava below and the metal walkway begins to shake uncontrollably. A few more seconds of this and the balance it takes to stay on her feet will no longer be possible.

She needs to take the shot before she ends up on the ground.

Trying to refocus as quickly as possible, she again takes proper aim; and that’s when she finds that Red is standing in the middle of what seems to be a tornado of magma.

“!?”

“Haha, what’s wrong? I thought you said you were the best?”

Allia frowns; she can’t shoot him through that swirling inferno of lava because her bullet would melt and veer off course in a random direction. There is literally no way she can inflict any damage on him; even though she senses that he’s only doing this to make fun of her abilities as a marksman, there is also no way anybody else could lay a hand on him.

“Don’t worry I’m gonna give you a free shot. I’m actually quite honest, you know?”

“.....”

“Oh come on don’t make such a skeptical face... here, look.”

Red spreads his arms and the tornado of lava opens up and leaves him wide in the open.

As if trying to coax Allia into shooting him, he sticks out his chin and smiles.

Allia isn’t one to let opportunities like this slide by; she’ll make him pay for his taunting. She puts some extra pressure on her trigger finger and is about to pull when Red slaps his two hands together and an intense wave of heat is felt on her face.

As if it was some kind of wall, the tornado of lava flattens itself and shoots forward at her like it was shot out of a cannon. The mere heat from it alone contorts the metal of the walkway as the speed in which it moves forward increases.

“The only way this is gonna stop is if you can shoot me! So what are you waiting for!? Take the fucking shot, soldier!!!”

This is the intense pressure that Red was talking about; he is testing her to see if she can accurately hit her target under such critical circumstances. If this wall gets much closer to her, the charring heat alone will torch her skin and she will melt once she makes contact with the magma.

She is left with a simple decision; shoot or die.

Allia narrows her focus the best she can until she reaches the intense sensation of tunnel vision. From there she can see a small gap in the lava, not much bigger than the last little area she shot between before. She knows that if she shoots through this, the destination of the bullet will be Red’s heart.
Without any more preparations needed, she pulls the trigger and sends the bullet flying.

The sound of the gunshot is overrun by the screeching of Red’s attack, so for a moment she wasn’t even sure if she had fired or not.
Allia only becomes certain that she did when the recoil of the rifle is felt against her shoulder; the only thing left is to wait to see Red’s lifeless body fall limply to the floor.

However...

After an instant, the sickening feeling of a miss jolts her shoulders far worse than the recoil of the shot.

The bullet had missed that gap and Red’s attack proceeded toward her unhindered.

"!?"

Her eyes reveal the shock that her body is feeling after missing a target for the first time in many years; and the convulsive manner in which her knees shake reveals the pain in her heart that knows this can only mean one thing.

She is going to die.

All it took is one shot; one missed opportunity will spell the end for her.

The wall of death screams forward and the only thing left to do is shut her eyes and await the inevitability that’s rapidly approaching her. But instead of doing that, she stares blankly in an almost catatonic state; the thought of her missing still brewing freshly in her mind.

With limp fingers, she drops her rifle to the ground and remains motionless.

The moment in which she collides with the wall of orange and red reaches her position, engulfs her, and mercilessly flies by, destroying the walkway and making its way to a collision course with the three story high assembly factory.

But something is off about this; Red feels an odd tinge of disappointment as the high he gets from taking another’s life doesn’t reach him.
The reason for that can be seen out of the corner of his eye.

Two girls fly over the magma, slingshot out of his vision and land atop a higher walkway.

“Haah!?” he groans with the most dumbfounded of expressions.

“Are you alright?” Celestia asks, twisting her hand wearing the chain-mail glove and causing the shield to swing back into her grip.

She had used the shield as a hook shot to shoot herself to Allia’s position, grab her mid-flight, and propelled herself with momentum all the way to the safety of a separate level of the plant. All this while avoiding the oncoming wall of magma shot forward by Red.

Allia is still in a shocked state, her mouth chatters before she could answer when,

BAAAAAAAAAAAAMMM!

The wall of lava from Red’s attack hits the factory holding the assembly line and tears it apart. Either due to the speed in which the wall was moving, or the destructive power of the lava alone caused the over-sized structure of the metal to melt and fly off in different directions.

The innards of the intricate assembly line can now be seen and out of the many crates and other holders, all the rifles and bullets slide down the mountain of rubble and fall into the lake of magma. Each weapon or bullet falling into it makes a distinct popping sound upon entering.

“That noise...” Celestia mutters, deep in thought as she glares at the weapons being destroyed. “Why is it making that noise?”

“Guuah you’ve seriously been busting my balls!” Red shouts, glaring at the two girls above. “How many damn times are you gonna come in for the late rescue with that stupid shield of yours!? It’s such a pain in the ass! Piece of shit! Fucking annoying!!!”

Celestia pays him no mind and keeps her glare at the destroyed factory, that’s when she notices a rather large mountain of black powder that has been spilled from a silo and is slowly making its way down the rubble like an hourglass.

“That’s it!” she yells suddenly, “Nyahaha I’m such a genius!”

She quickly lifts Allia to her feet and smiles at her, with her hand still holding on, she pulls Allia and begins running away from Red.

“Hey hey! What the shit!?” Red shouts in annoyance upon seeing them flee.

Red begins to give chase when he is met by two vicious kicks in his torso.

While being sent flying he finds that the two footprints left on him are that of the two smiling Knights named Ollin and Jessiah.

He clicks his tongue and tries to regain his footing but is met with quite the quandary.

There is no ground below him; he had fallen off the walkway that he had just destroyed.

“!?”

The 50 meter descent towards his death begins, and for the first time he reveals an expression of worry. He hurriedly points the hand holding the pentagram upwards and shoots out the destructive black liquid towards the adjacent walkway.

“Don’t tell me he’s gonna copy what Celestia just did!?” Jessiah shouts, thinking that he’s somehow going to get out of this by sling shooting himself to safety.

To his and Olin’s surprise, he didn’t do anything of the sort.

The black liquid latches on to the girth of the metal pathway and Red pulls back his arm with all his might. The walkway is literally yanked off its connection to the surrounding walls and a large chunk about thirty meters long zooms in his direction. With a twist of Red’s body, the entirety of the metal walkway takes a sharp turn and narrowly avoids a collision with the falling Captain. The tail end of it lands in the lava at a 45 degree angle and Red miraculously lands on the top of it.

“WHAT!?” The two Knights shout in disbelief.

The pure momentum of such a large structure moving at such an angle swings like a closing door in the direction of the ruined factory. Even with the lava quickly melting the tail end of the walkway, Red is given just the right amount of distance for him to use his inhuman strength and the momentum of the walkway to make the jump and land safely on the other side.

“Are you shitting me!?” Olin yells.

From what they thought he was going to do, to him doing what he actually did, was so far away from their comprehension level that it added a heavy weight to their chins as their jaws dropped in shock.

Captain Red Spektor, the man who had been shot three times, sliced and impaled by an ax and a spear, was able to pull off an impossible feat.

This fearsome man stands up astutely and puts his hands on his sides. “Huahahaha, what are you guys looking at? Did you think I had the finesse to do what that girl does with her shield? Na, I don’t roll that way. I’m a wheel and deal, ground and pound kinda guy, a cool guy. I’m awesome, strong, brilliant!”

“This guy... Is seriously ridiculous.” Jessiah said, an odd tinge of seriousness in his tone.

Perhaps now they actually see the monster that their two comrades were warning them about.

“Huh?” Red mutters as he looks around, he scratches his head confusedly and asks, “How the fuck do I get off this thing?”

“Eh?”

Red has found himself stuck on something of an island; the walkway leading up to the facility has been destroyed, and the one nearest to him has just been sacrificed as well. He’d normally walk through the facility holding the assembly line, but that has turned into a three story pile of sharp and jagged rubble. If he really had to, he could probably scale that rubble and get through it unscathed but that’d take some time, and time is something he currently doesn’t have with Celestia and her shield lurking in the shadows to pick him off while he's defenseless.

He sighs and shrugs his shoulders. “Well it looks like I only have one way of doing this.”

He holds his hands up and with that gesture, the entire plant begins to shake wildly.

“Don’t you dare do what I think you’re doing.” a deep voice echoes.

The snake comes out from the back of Red’s hand and slides down his arm, its eyes glowing an even more sinister red than usual.

“Why not?”

“Are you mad!? Do you want to destroy the entire plant!?” it shouts.

“Do I want to?” Red replies, “No I don’t; but I want to kill these damn Knights! If the plant goes down with them, I couldn’t give two shits.”

“I’ve given you the knowledge needed to produce a weapon that has the ability to rule the world! You’re going to just throw that away just to kill these four!?”

The earth shaking rumbling grows as the black liquid surrounding Red floats above him and shoots itself into the lava.

“That knowledge ain't going anywhere! It’s in my noggin; I’ll just have to rebuild the plant later.”

“Nonsense! We don’t have time to rebuild, I need these weapons now! This is madness!”

“Hahahahaha didn’t you know that already when you formed the contract with me?? No fucking shit I’m crazy, you dumb fuck!”

“!!!”

“Hey! You bastard Knights! I’m sure you all know that we’re inside of a dormant volcano right? Well, what do you say I activate it just to see what happens?”

“!?”

“Huahaha that’s right! I’m no volcanologist but I do know that on certain occasions an earthquake near the base of a dormant volcano can stir it into blowing up.”

This is actually correct; dormant volcanoes always have some form of magma flowing at the deepest pits of its base. With the right amount of pressure, these turn into geysers that push its way upwards towards the surface. In reality, all it needs is a little push from below to send it over the top. Nature’s way of fulfilling this process is certainly much slower, and could take up to thousands of years.

But in Red’s case, he doesn’t have the entire volcano to deal with because the magma is just 50 meters below him.

That being said, it has become obvious what he intends to do; he will violently shake the deepest parts of the volcano with all his might and cause an eruption.

“Jessiah...” Olin says.

“Yeah?”

“Run.”

“Roger that.”

The two turn around and dash towards the exit.

The flight of stairs leading up to the door has been taken out, but the two jump up between the gaps and desperately escape. The two get up atop of yet another walkway only to find that they have another two stories to go, and that’s when they run into their two comrades standing there.

“We gotta get going!” Olin exclaims.

Celestia blocks their path and replies, “We can’t!”

“Why!? He’s going to blow this place up!”

“Exactly! This is the biggest weapons plant in the world, if we abandon it our soldiers on the front-lines will be starved for weaponry.”

“Then what do you suppose we do?”

Celestia looks over to Allia, who is still zoned out and staring at the floor. She walks to Allia's side and without a second’s hesitation, rips off the remainder of the white shirt she's wearing.

The two guys can’t help but look flustered seeing her put herself in a state of undress so suddenly.

Celestia then pulls the canteen she used earlier for warmth and for Allia’s wound and pours the remainder of the alcohol onto her shirt.

Holding it out to Allia, she says, “That black powder behind Captain Red Spektor... That is what is used to shoot the projectiles out of those weapons. It is extremely combustible, perhaps even on a level par with Seiri’s bombs.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah, I’m sure of it. Looking closely it’s actually quite simple really, it makes perfect sense. Though I don’t know what that powder really is, I’m sure once more people find out about it everyone will be wondering why it hasn’t been discovered before this.”

What she is referring to is gunpowder.

There’s a reason why knowledge of it has been forgotten. Even a thousand years after the Apocalypse and all the modern technology that brought humanity to this point now, gunpowder has yet to be discovered and cultivated into ways to kill one another.

If not for Satan, it’s likely that the obstacle specifically in place by God to keep them from it would have continued on forever.

The rumbling in the plant gets much more severe and all the walkways begin to shake like a windblown bridge throwing their balance out of whack. To add to the urgency of the matter, the lava below them begins to bubble and pop, sending pockets of scorching hot air pressing against their skin.

“Allia! If we want to stop that monster from doing this we need to take him out now! Once we light this shirt on fire you need to connect it to the tip of your arrow and shoot into that pile of black powder. We can beat him with this!”

“B-But...” Allia mutters.

“But!?” The other three shout simultaneously.

Celestia grabs her shoulder and looks her square in the eye. “What do you mean but!?”

“I-I can’t take the shot...” she replied, her eyes shifted away.

“???”

“I’ll miss... Between my hurt arm and my broken confidence, I’ll most certainly miss it.”

Celestia clicks her tongue and frowns.

Even through the rumbling of the plant, the next sound is heard as plain as day.

SLAP!!!

With her open palm, Celestia slapped Allia’s cheek as hard as she could.

“Get your shit together!!! We can’t all be perfect Allia, we can only be who we are!”

“.....”

“Your country needs you right now... but more importantly, your comrades need you! So you ‘are’ going to take the shot!”

This goes back to the conversation they had earlier when Celestia was hanging off the broken staircase. By letting her insecurities get the best of her, she has forsaken the words that she herself said. By doing that, she will have sacrificed the lives of her precious comrades.

Is she really willing to let something like that happen over a simple miss?

“You’re right...” Allia says as she stands astute, a new wind of determination brewing in her chest.

She then pulls out an arrow and connects it to her bow.

Celestia sighs, “Huuahh good... I was getting a little nervous ya know?”

Tying the last remainder of her shirt onto the tip of Allia’s arrow and pouring the alcohol on the cloth, she smiles confidently.

“Nervous!?” Olin shouts, “I was shittin’ bricks!”

“Seriously, that’s why I told you that girls are useless, all emotional and whatnot.” Jessiah added.

“Shut up you two. Don’t ruin our moment.” Celestia hisses as she lights a match and sets fire to Allia’s arrow.

By now the room is shaking so violently that the foundation of the walkway in which they stand begins to crumble and break apart.

It is now or never.

Lava bubbles explode all around Red’s position at the downed assembly line factory. But when the molten hot rock hits anywhere near him, they are repelled by a stream of black liquid swirling around his feet. This is obviously how he plans to survive the eruption he’s attempting to cause; though everyone else will be melted, he will end up just fine.

Looking up at the Knights he sees that Allia is again pointing her arrow at him.

She hasn’t used it at all since the hallway because of its ineffectiveness, so he begins to laugh at her fruitless effort.

“Hahahaha come on, not that shit again!! You’ve already shown me that you can’t shoot under pressure! Don’t you feel it?? That amazing feeling of death breathing down your neck!? You’ve failed once when it was just your life on the line, now you have your comrade’s lives teetering on whether you hit me or not. You have no chance!!”

Allia takes her aim at the mountain of black powder that’s covered in rubble and pulls back the string of the bow as hard as possible. The left arm that’s supposed to be the anchor to an archer's shot is tattered and bloody.

When the pressure squeezing onto it by the mere action of the shot hits it, pain is sent like lightning throughout her whole body.

But this won’t sway her; she narrows her focus and goes through all the mental preparations to take the shot.

This is what she has trained her whole life for, the one shot that can change the world.

With one final inhale, she releases the string and the arrow is sent flying in Red’s direction.

Red smiles and prepares to use his mass of black water to block when all the sudden it disappears completely, leaving him wide open.

“What!?”

The snake's voice echoes in his head and all the events just like earlier begin to move in slow motion.

“I didn’t think I’d have to do this.”

Allia’s arrow makes its way towards his position and he’s watching it get closer and closer as if it were walking towards him.

“What the fuck is going on!?”

“It’s a termination of contract.” The snake answers. “By betraying my side of the deal so blatantly, I’ve decided that you have not held up your end of the bargain.”

“Fuck that! That’s shit, garbage, nonsense!”

“Is it, Captain? I do believe I stated that if I gave you the abilities you possessed in order for you to kill, you’d carry out my will by creating guns and distributing them across the world. Your attempt at destroying the one plant that can produce those weapons is an obvious breach of that commitment. For that, there is a special place reserved for you in Hell. A place that’s best suited for the punishment of people consumed by ‘Wrath’.”

“Hey hey... do you really think you can do this without me!?”

“There’s always another fool to trick. As long as this weapons plant stands, somebody will be here to take your place.”

“Hahahahahaha you conniving bastard! Fine then, I’ll see you in Hell so I can fuck your shit up personally!”

“You’re in for a surprise...”

The snake disappears along with the pentagram and time moves back to normal; the arrow that was so slowly moving towards him is now seen moving at its regular speed.

Even with it doing so, he notices that something is off; the arrow isn’t actually going to hit him. It instead flies over his head and lands in the destroyed factory behind him.

“Hahahaha what kind of a shot was that!?” he yells in an attempt to mock them.

That’s when he sees the four of them hit the deck as if guarding themselves from something.

He quizzically turns around to find out where that arrow actually hit.

The flame hit a wooden post directly above a pile of black powder.

Watching the flame of the arrow burn into that post and inch its way closer to the powder he quickly realizes what she meant to do all along.

Knowing what it takes to make these guns, he fully understands his carelessness in this whole thing; and by not considering his surroundings, he’s left himself completely defenseless.

“Ahhh…” he groans solemnly as the wooden post splits and the fire is only a moment away from igniting it.

“They got me.”

BBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!

The mountain of gunpowder ignites and explodes, sending a shockwave even more powerful than the earthquake shaking the innards of the facility.
With Red only being a few feet away from the source of this blast, he disintegrated.

The suspended walkways shake even worse than before and break apart before falling into the already churning lava.

“We better get going!”

“Right!”

The four of them make their way to the door, and once there, the rumbling finally stops. It would seem that Red’s attempt at causing the volcano to erupt ended in failure and an eerie silence befalls them.

They collectively take a sigh of relief and bask in the feeling of no longer being in danger.

However, that feeling is short lived when the entirety of the facility once again shakes and the walls begin to crumble and fall.

Looking down, they can see that the magma that they had thought to be dormant is rising at an exceptional pace. In fact, it’s moving upwards in a pace that can be described as the movement of water in a cup after a large ice cube has been dropped in it.

“What the!? I thought the eruption stopped!” shouts Jessiah as a cold sweat falls from his bald head.

“He must have done enough damage beforehand! That or the explosion Allia caused made it even worse! We need to get out of here!” Celestia yells, running through the door and back into the bulk of the weapons plant.

"H-Hey don't blame that on me! You're the one who told me to do it!!!"

Seeing how quickly things are about to get messy, the others follow as well.

Once in the hallways of the plant, they try to shake off the feeling of switching from an extremely hot atmosphere to one below freezing. Keeping composure in such a drastic change is not the only thing they have to worry about; at the end of the hallway are the rest of the soldiers stationed here at the plant.

With weapons in tow, they have come to help their Captain after hearing all of those explosions from below their feet.

The Knights grind to a stop and find themselves in a stare down with the remaining forces. The intensity of this moment cannot be put in words as the path to life for the Knights is being blocked by the determined faces of these soldiers.

“I need you all to listen to me.” Celestia addresses the soldiers sternly. “Your Captain is dead, and the volcano below the plant is erupting...”

The men all look at her with skepticism as she continues.

“At any moment, a huge amount of lava is going to be flowing through these hallways. And once that happens, I don’t know if we’ll make it out of here alive no matter how fast we sprint. So as fellow La’Juutians... We need you to let us pass so we can all escape together.”

The men still hesitate at first, but they slowly spread out to give the Knights a passageway through. Of course they didn’t want to give up so easily, but at the same time they know just how fierce the Knights are to be able to kill off Captain Red and all the others like that.

A group of around 50 men fearing four people shows just how much they respect them.

The Knights walk through them cautiously and are sent to a flying sprint when from behind them a loud bang is heard.

BBAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSHHH!!!

Lava comes flowing towards them like a river going downstream, and whatever doubts the remaining soldiers had are replaced with fear.

Together, just as Celestia said, they all run for their lives.

Of course, some of them simply don’t run fast enough to get away, others trip and fall in panic and are trampled by their comrades. The ones unlucky enough to not remain upright are engulfed by the fast moving current of lava and are melted into nothing.

Having its foundation destroyed from below is causing the entirety of the weapons plant to lose its structural base. Bits and pieces of the roof and walls begin to crumble and fall apart, adding more obstacles to impede the paths of those who are fleeing.

Easily avoiding everything blocking their path are the four Knights; they move along at speeds that far surpasses the rest, and they go about their business as quietly and focused as possible whilst the others scream and run away in a panic.

After winding their way for what feels like miles through the innards of the world’s largest plant, they reach the massive double door of the main entrance. They find relief in the fact that they’ve made it here alive, but there are plenty of problems they still need to overcome.

The two doors are sealed shut by a mechanism built solely to keep the bitter cold air out of the building. The doors likely weigh over three tons each so prying them open is out of the question. The only thing they can hope for is that the button used to open this door automatically hasn’t had its wiring compromised in the desolution of the plant.

There’s a high possibility that the innards have been burnt by the intense heat flowing through the vents by the volcano, or that it has simply fallen apart due to the earthquake. Nonetheless, with an imminent flow of scorching hot death coming toward them, they have no choice but to hope for the best.
The Knights, along with the last remaining group of about twenty soldiers all stare in angst as Olin walks straight faced toward the door and holds out his hand to push the button. Even though his expression seems calm, he’s sweating profusely and his nerves shake uncontrollably under his skin.

He understands that if this button doesn’t work, they’re all dead; there would be no way to escape the fast approaching river of lava.

With a deep inhale, he presses the big red button for the door and waits for some kind of reaction.

To their relief, a light ‘beep’ sound is heard and a rush of cold air from the outside world hits their faces.

“Let’s go!!!”

They unhesitatingly rush out into the white land of the south with perfect timing, right when the last man left the plant, the lava came rushing out and the entire structure of the plant came crumbling down in a towering inferno.

Pillars of flame fly up as if they were octopus tentacles and swirl off in multiple directions. The sounds of explosions pop off from within the inferno like popcorn and the true sight of destruction singes their eyes with an unbearable heat.

The valued weapon’s plant that Celestia and the other Knights wanted to protect has been destroyed and this will no doubt put them in a bad spot concerning the war.

Celestia sighs and takes a seat on the cold snow, her body steaming from the heat left on her by the plant. “Damn it all... I don’t even know if we could say that we accomplished our mission now.”

Allia walks up to her, still out of breath she responds, “We definitely did what we came here to do... At least now we don’t have to worry about those weapons reaching anyone else. It might’ve been a good thing that all of those things were destroyed.”

Little does she know, that what she had said is spot on. The world has literally dodged a bullet in the fact that it doesn’t have to worry about the mass production of these weapons.

Jessiah swirls his spear around and says. “I’m not too into thinking deep on things---“

“We know.” The other three interrupt.

He clears his throat in annoyance and continues, “Soooooo, I say we go home and think about all the other stuff later.”

“Hahaha.” Olin laughs, “That’s actually a good idea.”

They all stand to their feet and smile at each other, they have just made it through another deadly mission and the last thing they want to do is dwell on it any longer.

Not caring about what the others plan on doing, the four Knights walk off in an almost triumphant fashion.

But the sparkling aura of victory is broken by the ground under their feet shaking violently once more.

GGGAGAGAGAAGASSSSHHH!!!

“!?”

“What the hell is up with this shaking! It’s ten times worse than before!” Olin shouts as he tries to regain his balance.

Jessiah helps him up and says, “Remember when I said that I’m not too good at thinking??”

Glaring at him quizzically, Olin quickly comes to realize exactly what he meant by that.

Jessiah regains his footing and begins sprinting away when he shouts, “That’s right! Fuck thinking! Let’s run awayyyyyyy~~!!”

Everyone runs as fast as they can through the shin deep snow; naturally, their movement is slowed by this and they don’t gain much distance from the plant when...

BBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!

The volcano under the power plant ends its surge and officially erupts; sending bright orange lava flying into the sky thousands of feet upwards. The shockwave itself knocks some men to the ground and the ensuing rainfall of lava lands atop them and they are melted in a flash.

It’s as though they are being chased by a meteor shower, hundreds of falling balls of molten rock land all around them, melting the snow as they tread through.

One of these lands directly in the path of a fleeing soldier and the mere heat from it engulfs him in flame.

Others share the same fate as the sound of hundreds of explosions hitting the ground and melting the Earth’s surface cascades all around them. The debris alone from one of these is enough to rip through one’s body as if it was a hot knife through butter.

A few other men are hit, and their lives end so quickly that they’re dead on their feet while continuing to run until they finally collapse.

Narrowly avoiding the torrent of hellfire are the Knights; they hurl over miniature lakes of lava that landed in front of them out in the distance and dodge whatever they can see from the corners of their eyes.

Entirely focused on putting one foot in front of the other as fast as possible, the exist in a state of mind where everything else is purely reactionary. The sheer intensity of the moment is enough to keep them from panicking; in this hailstorm of lava, they simply don’t have time to be afraid, they must continue moving in order to survive.

By now there are only five soldiers left from the plant fleeing alongside the Knights when they reach a large frozen lake. Not worrying about whether the ice is thick enough to hold their weight, they begin to run and slide across it as the ash and flame filled sky continues its relentless pursuit of them.
A huge falling comet of lava lands about twenty meters to the right of them and instantly melts a huge chunk of the frozen lake, and a smoke screen of hot steam envelopes them. Numerous other projectiles land as well before they realize that the ground in which they are running on is spider webbing like broken glass.

This poses an entirely new threat in and of itself; not only do they have to worry about being melted from projectiles above, now they have to worry about falling in a below freezing lake. One little dip in there in this weather is enough to freeze someone to death within minutes; being out in the open of this Antarctic desert will make any chance of surviving an impossibility.

With that in mind, a couple of the other men tread carefully and look down, desperately trying to avoid falling in. These cautious actions will lead to their downfall, they aren’t paying attention to what’s above them.

A ball of lava crashes on their left and sends shards of thick razor sharp ice zooming in their direction.

Not being able to avoid such a thing in this short of a time-frame, their limbs are sent flying and the red of their blood adds to the hot colors of the already crimson sky.

Another soldier is running separately from the rest, and he is actually feeling quite secure in the fact that the melee coming from above seems to be ineffective in his area of the lake. But of course that is simply a false sense of security, he is in just as much danger as everyone else, he just doesn’t know it yet.

The source of his danger lands around a hundred feet in front of him; this time however, it wasn’t a ball of lava, rather, it was just a stupidly large rock that likely weighs hundreds of tons.

The impact of the rock causes a huge crack in the ice in front of him, and then the sensation of being catapulted hits his senses.
The boulder made the thick ice under the man’s feet break apart in a solid block and flipped it over like a pancake.
As a result, the force of which sends the man hurling into the air hundreds of feet high.

There is no escaping his fate now; looking down as he falls he can see where he is going to land, the area of the lake that was destroyed by that giant rock.

Normally, one would find comfort in knowing they’d land in water since falling from such a height on anything solid would surely result in a flattening impact. But the water from this height might as well be the same thing, assuming he keeps his consciousness once he lands in this freezing cold water there’s no way he’d have the strength to find his way out and warm up in time before a severe case of hypothermia kicks in.

Seeing his death get closer with each passing second, he closes his eyes as he screams.
SPLASH!!!
The remaining two soldiers are running alongside the Knights as the relentless rain of fire from above lands all around them. Even the cold water from the splash of that giant rock adds to the sensations felt on the skin and blur their vision in a mix of different colors.

They take in as much air as they can as the ash from the volcano enters their lungs and steals away the strength in their legs. It’s becoming ever more obvious at how bad their endurance is holding up when they fall behind and the cracks in the ice become wider and more difficult to traverse.

At their pace there is no way they are going to make it, and their disposition dawns on them with horrifying reality.

With their eyes solely on the path in front of them, they notice that Celestia has formed quite the distance between herself and her other three comrades as well.

They think that she must be feeling the effects of the tarnished air too; though this isn’t going to do them any good, they still feel a little comfort knowing that it’s not just them suffering.

That’s when another huge boulder lands between her and the other Knights, sending a huge wall of thick ice towering down at her. Showing an almost insane amount of composure, she throws her shield as hard as she can over the wall and sticks onto the other side, she twists her wrist violently and the wire holding the shield retracts, pulling her over the wall and she lands on top of it. From there she makes a colossal leap and sores over the gap made by the boulder and back onto the ice, never stopping even for an instant, she keeps running and catches up with the others.

The shadow of that wall of ice is closing in on the two men who found themselves deadlocked after that last impact. In a shocked disbelief at the feat they had just witnessed, they resign themselves to their position as regular humans.

This is the difference between the Knights and the lucky two who had managed to make it this far; they just aren’t the type of characters to live through a situation as insane as this.

The falling wall of ice lands on their position and flattens them into the lake with a giant thud.

Now it’s come down to the final four survivors.

The falling lava begins to slow, but that doesn’t make their sprint for survival any less threatening.

The ice atop the lake is completely shattered and the gaps between one ice pad to the other is widening with each second. They have to use their tired legs to leap six to ten feet at a time in order to not fall in the water, and they have to avoid sliding off after landing in order to escape the same deadly result.

With their focus on an otherworldly high level, they notice that in less than fifty meters the lake comes to an end. Once they reach the shore, they’ll be out of the range of the hailstorm of lava and finally reach safety. The only problem is the dwindling spots in which they can physically move on; there’s no telling how much longer they have until there will be nothing left but water to fall in.

The shore is tantalizingly close and the first to reach it is Jessiah. In an obvious overreaction, he does an unnecessary belly flop into the snow.

The second is Olin, who instantly throws his hands on his knees and takes a huge sigh of relief.

The third is Celestia, who since the outstanding feat of survival she displayed earlier, has seemed to gather a ton of momentum before reaching her final destination.

The last is supposed to be Allia, but to the other’s chagrin they find her marooned on a small piece of ice about fifteen feet away.

Perhaps due to her injury that slowed her down, she was unable to reach the shore before the ice splintered apart.

Swimming to the shore is out of the question, so all she can do is glare at Celestia as if telling her to do something.

Answering that look, Celestia’s face turns blue when she yells, “Allia, jump!!!”

“Haah!? I can’t make it that far without a running start! Can’t you just use your shield or something??”

“Didn’t we go through this earlier!? Just do what I say!!!”

Allia clicks her tongue and hesitates until she feels an intense heat on her bare back. Not fully turning around to look, she catches a glimpse of a smoking chunk of molten rock travelling on a direct line to where she is standing.

This is plenty enough motivation for her to use the last bit of her strength to desperately leap toward shore.

Just like she feared, she can’t make it to shore and gets about halfway when,

BBAAAAMMMMM!!!

The chunk of molten rock crashes into the area in which she once stood and the force of the impact shoots her forward as though she were shot from a cannon. The impact was so great it knocked the other three back as well.

Allia is helped by this and flies to the shore, they all slide across the snow like sleds until they come to a screeching halt, only to look up and see that hundreds of shards of scorching sharp debris from the molten rock is raining down on their position.

Something like this renders their incredible abilities completely useless, all they can do is cover themselves and hope not one of these orange shards drills a hot hole in their bodies.

The sound of melting ice sizzling from all around them reaches their ears until it suddenly stops.

The four of them lift their heads and look around, checking themselves for injuries in the process.

“No way.” Olin said in disbelief as he finds that he and the others aren’t hurt at all.

Allia flops onto her back and takes in a deep breath as though she were holding it this entire time, upon letting out a loud exhale, she says, “I guess the saying 'the more you sweat the luckier you get' is really true.”

“Pfft...”

“Hahahahahahahahah!”

The four share a knee slapping laugh as the thought of them actually making it out alive through this whole thing finally hits them.

Fighting back tears at just how crazy all of this was, Celestia finally gets her head back on straight and she realizes that they are not out of danger just yet. In fact, they are far from it; Allia’s arm is still in horrible shape, Olin likely has a concussion from the head injury he received earlier, they have no way to get home, and to top it off, both Allia and herself are only wearing bras in negative degree weather.

With those facts now out in the open, she can clearly see that they are completely screwed.

“Wait wait wait, how the hell are we gonna get home!?”

Jessiah and Olin stand to their feet and point off behind a small hill a couple hundred feet away.

Tied to a rock are a group of a dozen dogs connected to a sled, barking and playing with each other and looking comfortable in the snow as they wait.

“Whaa!? Is this action-packed chapter really going to end so conveniently!?” Celestia shouts.

“Well what did you think was going to happen?” Olin states nonchalantly. “We conveniently got here didn’t we? It’s not like we walked through the snow to get to you guys.”

“Hahaha yeah, duh!” Jessiah reiterates.

“Oh and by the way, we have extra clothes and a killer first-aid kit for you guys too.”

Celestia and Allia look at each other and then back to them; sharing a large sigh of resignation, they quietly stand up and start walking to the sled.

“What’s this!?” Olin shouts, “No thank you!? No ‘Kyaaaah! Olin you’re so cool!’ talk!?”

The two girls ignore him and keep moving, and rather fast at that.

Almost as if it finally dawned on them that they are still half naked with guys like Jessiah and Olin around, they run to the dogsled and Olin gives chase, begging them for some kind of acknowledgement.

Jessiah scratches his bald head and laughs as he begins jogging as well.

This is how the battle for the weapons plant ends.

Whether they think of it as a failure because the plant was destroyed; once all is said and done, there is still no doubt that this surely is a mission accomplished.

Somewhere in Hell at this very moment, Satan hisses in anger as a black chess piece is knocked off the board and falls to the floor.

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 6|Their Rebellion (Part 3)]]
| Return to [[Dantega|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 8|Checkmate (Part 2)]]
|-
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</noinclude>

Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 6

2021-12-14T04:55:06Z

Deck of cards:

(PART 3)

“Damn it, what a useless soldier I’ve become!” Allia shouts as she and Celestia frantically run about the winding hallways of the weapons plant at the most southern point of La’Juune.

“Shut up and run, thinking about it isn’t going to do you any good!” Celestia replies as they turn to the left and begin running down a long flight of stairs.

The panicked way they run is similar to a mouse chased by a cat. Allia’s left arm is tattered; her blood drips on the stone stairs made from the wall of the volcano as she takes each step downwards.

The farther they go down, the hotter it gets; the temperature went from near freezing to close to a hundred degrees in an instant.

“Run to where!? Going deeper into the plant isn’t going to help us at all!”

“Going outside would be worse, we’d freeze to death out there.”

“Tch! How did things turn out like this!? We’ve been running and hiding for hours now!”

Allia’s usual calm composure has been shattered, perhaps it’s her wound talking for her, or maybe the heat, but something has her completely rattled..
Celestia, who is leading the way yells in reply, “Calm down Allia! We’re going to get through this alright?”

Dragging her bloody arm behind her, Allia shouts, “How!? I can’t even use my weapon with this arm! If we don’t do something about this fast I might have to amputate it. Don’t you get how screwed we are with that monster chasing us!?”

Celestia grits her teeth and continues her run down the stairs until she sees three soldiers of the plant running up the staircase in their direction. The soldiers don't know who they are, but they do know that the two girls aren't one of them.

Without a second of hesitation, Celestia throws her shield; the men who are unfortunate enough to be on lower ground don’t even have a chance. Their body parts are sent flying all over and Celestia and Allia continue their advance unimpeded.

Traveling down one more flight of stairs, Celestia suddenly stops and says, “Hold on a minute.”

She takes off her thick red jacket that has a few girly designs on it, reaches into one of the pockets and pulls out the flask filled with alcohol before throwing the jacket off the staircase. Now wearing a white turtleneck undershirt; she lifts the bottom part of it and slides it across her shield, ripping a huge chunk out of it.

She then points it at Allia and says, “I’m sweating like a whore in church here; I don’t need all this clothing. I’m going to use the alcohol to fight infection and wrap this around your arm to stop the bleeding. Since you’re already injured, I’d recommend taking off most of your clothes too. You need to keep as much fluid in your body as possible to avoid a stroke, you're already sweating from your injury so you have to stay as cool as you can in this heat.”

Allia takes off her brown jacket and reveals the fact that she is wearing nothing underneath but an expensive looking purple bra.

“Are you serious?” Celestia asks.

“What?”

“Where the hell is your shirt!?”

“It was hot when we were traveling through the vents so I took it off. It was either that or the jacket.”

“Geez you sure do some pointless stuff every once in a while. Don’t tell me you’re not wearing underwear either!?”

“Of course I am! They match this bra perfectly might I add!”

“Nyaah you’re so ridiculous!”

“It doesn't matter, now’s not the time to be arguing about this. Just wrap me up so we can figure out what to do next.”

“Fine, fine.”

After she tends to Allia’s beat up arm, she puts the flask in her back pocket and takes a deep breath as she looks over the railing and down to the floor.
This is the spot where all the weapons are made, with the help of the dormant volcano under the plant, metal is able to be molded freely in mass numbers.
The pool of magma down below is 150 meters long and about a hundred meters wide; all the machines used by the blacksmiths to make the weapons are built 50 meters above it.

There isn’t a floor in this entire level of the plant, only metal bridge-like walkways and stairs that lead to different levels of the workplace. One slip over the four foot high railing will result in being melted by the lava below. With the threat of that present, and along with the intense heat and sulfuric fumes in the room, working in here is about the most dangerous job one can do.

There are more than fifty men walking along these walkways doing work, they have yet to hear of the intruders so it’s business as usual, no doubt that once they find out, they will attack the two girls as soon as they get the chance.

“Even though there are more soldiers to deal with down here, we can use this place to our advantage.” Celestia said, her eyes fixated on the bright orange color of the magma.

“What do you mean?”

“I had us retreat to this furnace because we would’ve been killed if we kept fighting Captain Red at close quarters. He only uses his hands, so being in that hallway gave him an edge over us. However, since we specialize in long range attacks, we can now take the upper-hand here with more space to fight..”

“I get it... but my arm.”

“Don’t worry about that, there are plenty of other weapons down here. There are five different assembly lines in this massive room, each one of them carries different weapons. I assume they are standard swords, axes, spearheads, broadswords, and that weird weapon that they plan to betray La’Juune with. We’ll put them to good use. I know you’re not too good of a swordsman, and it’s going to be difficult with just one good arm, but we have to improvise with what we got if we want to live.”

Allia frowns and looks at her bloody arm. “Damn it... There’s no worse feeling for a soldier than becoming a burden to her comrade. I was careless, I’m sorry.”

“Nyaha don’t apologize with such a cute look on your face, I can’t take you seriously.”

“I am serious!”

“I know you are. But you don’t need to be, you said it yourself, we’re comrades. Comrades are never burdened by each other no matter how bad the situation gets. Injured or not, comrades find a way to win with each other. So get rid of those thoughts and fight with me.”

Allia smiles gently and replies, “You can be quite the level headed person sometimes you know that? It always amazes me how much your personality changes when things get intense.”

“Nyahaha, I am a genius after all!”

The two share a momentary laughter until they are interrupted by a loud noise coming from the top of the stone staircase about three stories up. The bang came from the door exploding and flying into the furnace room, the sound of the metal door clanging off the metal walkways below gathers the attention of all the men working on the assembly line.

“QUIT YOUR DAMN RUNNING ALREADY!!!”

Captain Red Spektor walks through the smoke of the doorway and instantly catches sight of Allia and Celestia down below. He has a wicked smile on his face as he begins to make his way down, and following closely behind him are ten other soldiers.

“Shit... I was hoping to come up with some kind of strategy while we waited for him to arrive.” Celestia said as she put her guard up.

“Celestia...”

“What?”

Allia gestures to her to look down, she does and what she sees adds to the severity of their disposition. The men once working at the assembly line are gathering freshly made weapons and rushing up the staircases leading up to them. With Red and the others coming down to them, they are surrounded with nowhere to run.

“What should we do?”

“We take out the guys at the bottom first. Captain Red can only use his hands to attack, remember? If we get rid of the small fries first, we’ll have a better chance at winning the main battle.”

Allia looks up and then back down before replying, “Right, let’s go.”

The two start running down towards the oncoming blacksmiths.

“Hey hey!” Red shouts, “Don’t ignore me!”

That is exactly what they do, they don’t even bother to look up at him as they make their way down the winding staircases.

“I SAID DON’T FUCKING IGNORE ME!!!”

GGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSHHHHH!!!

The stone staircase connected to the volcano wall that separated the two Knights from the blacksmiths is ripped to shreds by a black liquid that engulfed it and blew up violently. The ground which they were running on shatters and starts falling apart, stairs fall into the magma like raindrops and the sound of them melting can be heard.

“!?”

“Go back up!!” Celestia yells as the stairs that are breaking continue to rise toward their position like falling dominos.

She pushes Allia back and while doing so, loses her footing. She slides helplessly down the crumbling stairs until there is nothing under her except the heat of the magma.

“Celestia!!!”

Celestia tries to think of some way she can get out of this as she begins her descent towards death.

Nothing comes to mind.

That is, until she feels her arm being grabbed and the sensation of falling helplessly abruptly ends.

“Wha?”

Looking up, she is met with a red liquid falling on her face; this blood is coming from the injured arm of Allia.

“I got you...” Allia says as she winces in pain.

With her bad arm grabbing Celestia, and her good arm latching onto the guardrail of the destroyed staircase, she finds herself in quite the pinch. It’s only a matter of time before one of her arms gives out, both of which will result in the death of her comrade.

“Ghhhhh! I-I'm going to pull you up!”

Allia pulls as hard as she can and as a result the wound in her arm rips open even wider and turns the white of the shirt used to bandage her a deep red.

“Uuuuuaaaaahh!!!”

“Allia! Don’t strain yourself! Let go of me!”

“A-Are you kidding!? You just got done giving me that whole speech about camaraderie, there’s no way I’m letting you go!”

“Just do as I say!”

“No!”

Red, who is staring at the destruction he had just caused can’t help but laugh, his own men who were at the lower part of the staircase are falling into the magma one by one due to the aftereffect of his attack.

“Hahahahaha would you listen to the sound of them falling in!? It’s like throwing bacon onto a burning hot skillet! Beautiful, gorgeous, perfection!”

“Damn that sick bastard.” Celestia says angrily as she looks behind her and notices that more than half of their pursuers have fallen in and the survivors are scrambling away from the broken staircase.

“Grrrrraahh!! I thought he could only use short range attacks with hand to hand combat!?” Allia asked, gritting her teeth as the pain of Celestia’s weight pounds on her body.

“... You’d think he’d have used that attack on us earlier if he had the chance... I was wrong.”

The reason why he didn't use that attack which could have torn them to shreds in the hallway earlier is revealed when Red loudly declares,
“Hey hey!! I highly recommend that you guys get moving, I only missed you because that was the first time I tried that attack! I ain't gonna miss twice!”

He holds out his hand and that destructive black liquid forms around his arm once more.

“Shit! Hang on Celestia!!” Allia shouts as she uses all her strength to pull her up.

“Just let go of me Allia! I can use my shield to latch on to something so I can get up myself!”

“What!? Why didn’t you tell me that earlier!? My damn arm feels like it’s about to fall off!”

“You’re supposed to listen to me without me having to explain, you damn exhibitionist!”

“Exhibitionist!? Fine then, down you go!”

Allia prepares to let her go when the voice of Red is heard from above shouting,

“IT’S TOO LATE!!!”

He shoots a blast of that black liquid directly toward them; with the position that they’re in, there is no way they can avoid being torn to shreds by it.

“!?”

“Damn it!!”

All they can do is close their eyes and resign to their upcoming fate when the sound of the blast reaches their ears.

BBBBBBAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNGGGG!!!

However, the explosion is heard rather far off in the distance.

They opened their eyes to see that Red’s attack had missed them and hit around twenty yards below them.

“Huh??”

"Ehh?"

They both mutter as they stare in confusion.

That’s when they hear the screams of people above falling all the way from the top of the room to the molten ground.

With a rough sizzling sound, ten men land in the magma and die instantly.

The two Knights look up and see what had happened when they catch sight of another man falling in their peripheral vision.

It is Captain Red, except he ends up landing on one of the metal bridge-like walkways above the magma with a loud bone crunching thud.

“I had a bad feeling that you two were going to have trouble with this mission.” Came a voice from above where the Captain once stood with his men.

Another chimes in, "Holy shit did you see that!? I was all like 'bababoooooosh!' and he tried to duck but I still hit him anyways and he went 'waaabaaaammm!' and fell off the side taking a couple others with him!!"

"Would you just shut up with that! You're fucking up our totally cool entrance. Don't you get how awesome it is to save a couple girls from trouble in the nick of time!?"

“There's nothing special about saving girls at all! I’m telling you man, chicks are no good for anything other than cooking! My dad always told me that and he was smart!”

“If he was involved in creating you I highly doubt that!”

Allia and Celestia instantly recognize these two voices and they both look up in surprise. They see two of the last people they’d ever think to see at this moment. One has brown hair and is carrying a large ax over his shoulder, and the other is a spear wielding bald young man with a black tattoo on his forehead that stretches down below his eyes.

“What are you guys doing here!?” Allia and Celestia both shout simultaneously.

In reply, the two men both say, “We’re here to back you up.”

The reinforcements are none other than two more Knights of La’Juune.

Two of the ten deadliest warriors in the entire world.

Olin Strausslend, and Jessiah Riddings.

-------------------

“Well look who it is.” Jeffrey says as he greets a carriage at the gate of the Eiyalazonian Castle.

Out of the expensive looking carriage comes Noah, hand and hand with Rain.

“I hope things are going well here Jef--- No, Harold.”

“Hmm, I guess you can say that.”

Noah looks around and asks, “Where’s your wife?”

“She’s tailing the brat right now.”

“I see.”

The castle guards let both Rain and Noah through the gate without so much as a question, just the fact that someone from inside the castle came to greet them is enough to show that they should be allowed access.

This is the kind of shoddy security this place, and castles like this have. The guards want to do their job and be strict with things, but they also fear that they’d lose their job if they did something to anger a nobleman. The guard knew that Jeffrey came in with the King and Queen, he’d be foolish to question him now. If his questioning angered him he could be severely punished, getting fired would be a blessing if the nobleman was the kind of person who equates a guard with a dog.

One of the guards in front escorted the chauffeur and the carriage to a nearby stable, the three of them safely get through the gate and headed onto the long garden surrounded pathway toward the entrance of the castle on foot.

“I see that the girl isn’t talking as much as she used to.” Jeffrey said, as if poking fun at Rain, who has her head down and has been silent this whole time.

Despite being back home for the first time in months, she looks as though that's the last thing on her mind.

“Don’t worry about her.” Noah sternly replies.

“Gladly.”

“You know, I don’t like it when my Knights split up from each other, you all work better as a team. I hope there is a good reason why Elise isn’t here with us.”

“That kid, he’s going to do something today, I’m sure of it. If we both left to greet you, we’d leave the King and Queen vulnerable.”

“What do you mean by that?” Rain finally speaks.

“She doesn’t know?” Jeffrey asks, slightly raising his voice.

“.....”

“I don’t know what?”

“.....”

Now the both of them grow silent and this makes her realize something very important has been kept from her.

She squeezes Noah’s hand and shouts, “What’s going on with the King and Queen!?”

Noah sighs, after a deep breath he stares at her intently and answers, “Prince Dice... He’s going to kill his parents.”

“What!? Why!?”

As much resentment she has harbored toward the King and Queen, hearing that their own son is trying to kill them comes as quite the shock.

Noah again stays silent, coaxing Jeffrey into speaking in his place, “He’s doing this for you.”

“F-For me?”

“You know that brat loves you right? Well, the Devil manipulated him into believing that his parents were the ones that sabotaged you back at Tronoble.”

Rain had just met the true culprit behind the failure at Tronoble, and he escorted her and Noah all the way to the Capital. She can’t believe that Dice would even consider his parents as suspects in this particular matter.

“But I don’t get it, why would he go so far as to kill his own parents for something like that?”

“Because the Devil also convinced him that by doing this, it will get you to see how much he loves you.” Noah answers. “And that you’ll return his feelings for doing something as devoted as killing his own parents in your honor.”

“I’d never allow something as ridiculous as that! We have to stop him!”

“That’s what we’re planning on doing.” Jeffrey said in a way as if stating the obvious.

“How?”

“We’re going to kill him.” The Captain of the Ten Knights replied without a moment’s hesitation.

“You can’t!”

“What are you talking about? The kid’s a goner; if we don’t kill him he’ll kill his parents. And if that happens, your country is a giant shit stain on the face of the planet. Both ways, Prince Dice dies; I don’t know about you but I like the first option a lot more than the latter.”

Rain looks at Noah with pleading eyes and asks, “There has to be another way out of this, you saved me from the Devil... Can’t you save him too?”

Noah keeps his gaze forward on the road leading to the front entrance of the castle.

“I... I don’t know if I can.”

“Please Noah! It’s my fault that he’s in this situation, I don’t know what I’d do if he died because of me.”

“From my understanding.” Jeffrey interjects, “You disliked Dice to the point of him turning himself into such a monster. What’s with the sudden change of heart?”

Rain grits her teeth; what he said is true and it hurts when he puts it into words like that. If she would have at least given him a shot, perhaps things could have drastically turned out a different way. Instead she was cold to him, and occasionally led him on in order for him to do things for her. In hindsight, he’s continuing the same behavioral patterns so he can achieve the same results as before. The only thing different from now and then is the scale of what he’s doing to prove his devotion to her.

He’s doing this on his own by way of a love that has been distorted and bent to accomplish the desires of a third party.

“Of course I never liked him... But I didn’t hate him either, he’s my best friend’s brother! How can I look her in the face when she comes back to find her only brother dead and I didn’t do anything to stop it!?”

Jeffrey reveals a rare frown, he clenches his fists in anger as he raises his voice, “You’re not doing a damn thing to stop it! You are asking Noah to do it for you! You’re treating him no differently than the way you used Dice!”

“W-Wha?”

“How can someone as smart as you not see that? What you’re asking my King to do is die for your own selfish reasons!”

“I’m not----“

“You are, and you don’t even know it! He’s-----“

“That’s enough, Jeffrey.” Noah calmly interrupts.

Jeffrey immediately stops and stands astute in a natural reaction to Noah’s order.

Noah then turns to Rain and asks, “Do you want me to save him?”

“I do...” she replies weakly.

“Then I will save him.”

“King Noah! You’ll----”

“Quiet...” he says, shifting his gaze in Jeffrey’s direction. “She is right about the two Princesses of this country. His death would certainly cause more problems for us in the future, so it's best to save him now.”

“That’s not your reason for doing this and you know it.”

“Hmm, I guess not.” Noah shoots Jeffrey a steely glare alongside a slight smile and says, “But it’s an added bonus.”

Jeffrey has a strained look on his face, as if he’s holding himself back from doing something that he’ll regret. “You never think about what’s best for you.”

“That’s right.”

Jeffrey clicks his tongue and turns his back to Noah, which could be considered a huge insult depending on how one looks at it. If that’s not bad enough, he adds, “Please pardon my insult, your highness... but you’re a fucking idiot.”

Jeffrey speeds up his walking and gains distance between Rain and Noah, leaving them to themselves.

Rain can’t help but glare at Noah worriedly. There must be something behind all that, she wants to pry but doesn’t want to become a nuisance, especially after he agreed to help her.

All she can say is, “Thank you, Noah...”

He adds an extra bit of tightness to his grip on her hand and smiles, a tender smile that tells her that he’d do anything for her. The kind of smile that makes her feel secure, and she is extremely grateful for it.

That’s when the words that he spoke the day before suddenly hit her,

(I’m going to die...)

With that in her head, her eyes start watering, she hides her face in his shoulder and says through a broken voice, “Noah... I... I----“

“Shit!” Jeffrey shouts from in front of them.

“What is it?” Noah asks.

He points up to the middle of the castle about twenty stories up at a flashing light through a window.

“That’s Elise, she said that if something was up while I was getting you, she’d shine a light with a mirror through a window to alert us.”

“Could it be that Dice is attacking the King and Queen!?” Rain asks, her face still a little flushed from the earlier conversation.

“I don’t know, but this means that we need to hurry. Let’s go!”

The three of them rush into the castle and head to where they saw the light. Not knowing what to expect when they get there, anxiety builds in their chests as the determination to stop this assassination grows with each step.

-----------------------

Horrible screams of agony resound around the entrance of the Trojan castle, every passing moment someone on one side of the battle falls dead, killed by their fellow citizen.

All of the men of the rebellion are here attempting to break through the wall; these are regular people who just a few days earlier were likely going about their daily business. People who were going to work, taking care of their families, enjoying the moments of normal living. These people are now fighting to the death against traitors to the crown in order to restore the country that they love so dearly.

These people are fighting to protect the very lives they had lived before this horrible battle.

“It’s not working!” A man shouts from within the crowd of people storming the massive wooden door keeping them from entering the castle.

The sense of hopelessness taints their morale as they are so easily killed off by the men atop the castle walls.

Be it searing oil, flaming arrows, or shrapnel bombs, people are dying terrible deaths.

And for what?

They aren’t advancing any further than they were when they first made it here.

“Don’t give up!” Zurvick shouts as he joins a group of around twenty men holding a large wooden battering ram.

He grabs onto one of the prongs and shouts with all his might as he and the men run forward and slam the jagged edge of the battering ram into the massive castle door.

The door to the castle barely budges, but a few more hits might result in the door caving in. The only problem is that with each strike, the ram gets heavier. About five people are killed in the process by archers from above each time they push forward.

The carnage has gotten so bad that a lot of the people fighting with them are too afraid to attempt to help in fear of putting themselves in such a vulnerable situation. Anyone who stands defenseless on one of the prongs can be easily picked off by arrows, or doused in scalding hot oil.

Seeing people hesitate and even flee from the castle door, and sensing the dismay of his people, Zurvick desperately shouts, “Just a little more!”

But the people won’t listen, their morale has been shattered, the lack of intensity in which they fight is evident of that fact.

Knowing full well that if this continues there’s no way they can win, Zurvick presses forward with the remaining survivors at the door. They get ready to make another lunge when a voice is heard from behind Zurvick’s ear shouting,

“Stop!”

Zurvick turns around and finds London standing there, looking almost too calm considering the hectic situation they are in.

“Don’t waste your energy on something as pointless as trying to force the door open.” he said, walking toward them in a nonchalant manner.
Even when a flame tipped arrow zooms past his face, he simply moves his head to the side and continues walking as if nothing happened.

“But we need to get through this door! Can’t you see we’re getting slaughtered out here!?” Zurvick retorts.

“I can see that, that’s the reason why I’m telling you to do this instead.”

With his hand, London gestures to someone in order for them to come.

From in between a mass of fighting soldiers of the rebellion and castle guards, comes Haas and Lennox. They run up to the battering ram and London joins them.

“This should just about be the right height.” Lennox says, “Now! Seiri!!!”

From seemingly out of nowhere, Seiri comes running.

Perhaps due to her size she is relatively unnoticed by everyone there. She jumps up and effortlessly lands atop the arrow pierced and blood stained battering ram.

“If you want to destroy a castle door, why not use the strongest weapon possible?” London asked with a slight smile.

That’s when Lennox shouts, “Stand this thing upright! On the count of three!”

Zurvick doesn’t ask questions, these Knights are the best at what they do, considering the hopeless situation he’s found himself in he’d be foolish not to listen to them.

To get the others to join in without any problems, Zurvick initiates the countdown.

“3,2,1, GOOO!!!”

With that, the log that weighs thousands of pounds is lifted up with great speed by the strength of all the men holding it. Perched on top, Seiri jumps forward right at its apex and is sent flying as if her small body had just been shot out of a cannon.

After a couple smooth looking flips in the air to maintain her balance, she lands softly on the top of the wall that holds the door to the castle grounds. The men who were raining down arrows and hot oil onto the rebellion stare at her in amazement.

“Ah, hesitating because I’m just a little girl, huh?”

There are dozens of soldiers to each side of her, encircling her, waiting for someone to make the first move.

This hesitation will prove to be fatal, the first one to act is the La’Juutian Knight.

She pulls two flasks out of a duffle bag she is carrying on her waist and uses her mouth to take the lids off them.

After spitting the two lids out of her mouth she says, “There’s a first time for every soldier, maybe you’ve never fought a child before, in my case I’ve never used this weapon. I might even lose my arms doing this if something goes wrong.”

She slams the butt end of the flasks together and moves her hands away as fast as possible.

“But every soldier eventually dies, here goes nothing!”

BBAAAANNNGG!!!

BBAAAANNNGG!!!

The two flasks are shot off in opposite directions as fast as a bullet and rip through the air, causing a loud cracking noise. They each strike an unsuspecting guard standing on both sides of her, and they fall back violently before crashing into a pile of fellow soldiers.

Seiri folds her arms and smiles, “Well hey what do ya know, looks like I made it out just fine.”

BBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!

From each side of her, a massive explosion rips through the foundation of the wall holding the entrance to the castle. The soldiers are blown in all directions as Seiri stands safely in the middle of the two blasts. The hot wind blows through her long silky black hair while smiling at the destruction she caused.

Excluding the area in which she stands, the wall is blown to bits and crumbles down to the ground.

Of course, some of the members of the rebellion on the ground below are knocked back after being caught in the shockwave of the blast, but surprisingly none are injured. The trail of devastation flowed around them as if they were left standing in the eye of a hurricane.

The door that everyone tried so desperately to break through still stands, but the castle wall around it is gone.

“Now that was easy wasn’t it?” Lennox says as he pulls out his sword and runs into the ruins of the entrance.

“Come on Haas, let's go.” London says as he and Haas rush in to join him.

This is the way the Knights go about things; what the average man struggles mightily to do, they accomplish it effortlessly and think nothing of it once they’re done.

Zurvick can’t help but be amazed by this as he regains his senses and shouts to the rest of the men,
“Into the castle!!”

With that command, hundreds of rejuvenated rebels storm in and the battle continues inside the castle proper. Running through the well-kept hallways that have never seen a bloody event such as this, Zurvick comes to the realization that he hasn’t noticed Ash’s presence for quite some time. Fearing that something might've happened to her without him noticing, he turns back around and looks upon the faces of all the people fighting behind him.

“Look out!” someone shouts.

Sensing something amiss, Zurvick again turns his head and spots an enemy soldier swinging his sword down on him.

“Shit!” he hisses as he tries to parry the man’s attack.

Suddenly, the enemy soldier’s blade is stopped and his blood is sent flying onto an expensive painting on the wall.

He was defeated in one strike and fell to Zurvick’s feet.

“What the hell are you doing spacing out like that, you idiot!?” shouts Ash.

There she is, right by his side just like he had hoped. She was the one who had perhaps just saved his life in his moment of distraction.

Zurvick sighs and smiles stupidly, “My bad...”

“Come on, let's get going! I need you to lead the way to where the Queen is. I’ve never been here before!” she yells as she pushes forward.

“Right!”

The two fight their way through the cluster of bodies in the hallway. It has gotten so crammed with people that if one fell, there is no doubt they’d be trampled. Hundreds of people are fighting to the death in the now narrow hallways of this castle.

Around the first bend of the hallway that leads to the stairs going up, the enemy soldiers position themselves in lines of ten and in five deep rows with their body sized shields out in a defensive position. When soldiers of the rebellion clash with the shield wall; the guards on the second level of the blockade stab their spears through the gaps in the barrier. The ones unlucky enough to be the first wave are easily impaled and fall to the ground.

“There’s gotta be a way past them... Ash!” Zurvick shouts, gesturing for her to do the same thing they did on the bridge over the moat.

Without even speaking readies herself for Zurvick to toss her over the top, but her shoulder is grabbed before she can make her move.

The one holding her back is Haas Avondale and his expressionless face is joined by a nod of his head.

“...I’ll... Go...” he struggles to say.

He rushes through the openings of bodies and right past Zurvick, who was kneeling down in order to give him a boost. However, Haas doesn’t use anyone to help him; with just a short running start he easily leaps over the heads of the guards and lands on the other side of the five deep blockade.

Something as ridiculous as that should be impossible; his vertical jump was extremely high, and using his hands he propels himself off the top of the soldiers’ metal helmets, catapulting himself over the first wave of guards and the full twenty feel to get behind them.

With the twin blades he carries in each hand he begins slashing in a meticulous manner, killing off what seems to be three men with each strike.
These deadly smooth movements are his specialty, hitting the vital points of his enemies is what he’s known for. Though a lot of these vital points are small, and hard to aim at in the heat of battle, he has a direct hit virtually every time due to countless hours of training. Sometimes he aims for nerves that instantly incapacitate a man, and others he aims for an organ that if severed will lead to an instant death.

The point of this is to keep the usage of his stamina to a minimum; if he were to leave a man alive after his first strike, then that means more effort to kill him off, and more effort means less enemy soldiers dead.

Before the blockade even knew it, half of their fifty men were slain and the rest ended up easily overwhelmed by the surging rebellion.

With that, the first floor of the castle has been won.

There are still plenty more floors to go, and having the severe disadvantage of fighting an enemy from a lower position, the battle is far from over.
The rebellion continues to the stairs and just as they thought, there are enemy soldiers waiting for them with arrows drawn. With the order of a superior officer from above, a storm of arrows is sent flying down on them. Dozens of people die in that instant and the large staircase leading up begins to become tattered with the dead and wounded.

“Let me handle this one.” Lennox says with a smile as he takes the lead in running up the stairs.

He is holding a body sized shield taken from one of the dead guards in one hand, and his sword in the other.

The archers atop the staircase reload and send more arrows directly at Lennox. The shield is large enough to cover his body, but it is not strong enough to withstand dozens of arrows being shot at it from such a close range.

But, Lennox still uses it to protect himself, the arrows hit the shield and it instantly starts falling apart.
The shield drops and is sent hurling down the stairs.

The archers above think that the one who had just charged them must have been suicidal.

However...

Looking closely, they see that the shield that has been impaled by the arrows is not being held by anyone at all.

Where did the man carrying it go?

That question is answered when they hear a voice saying, “I’m right here!”

Lennox is running on the wall as if defying the laws of gravity.

He jumps into the middle of the couple dozen archers and smiles as he says, “There are two things I like about fighting archers. The first is that they put so much focus on their targets they tend not to realize what they don’t expect.”

Lennox swings his sword and sends limbs flying, the men scream in agony as they try to scramble away from him.

“I was plainly in front of you but you didn’t notice because your target was the shield. Archers attack like bulls do to the color red.”

He slices a couple more viciously and he starts to laugh.

“The second thing I like about you guys is that you usually don’t carry any other weapons!”

This happens to be true in this situation, the archers that were raining down death just a few moments ago are now defenseless.

Due to certain issues, be it monetary, or efficiency, archers will likely only carry bows because their sole purpose is for long range attacks. Only when the battle is planned to go to close quarters at some point do they carry small swords on their sides. Unfortunately for them, the nature of this battle was a surprise so they are left with just their bows.

Sure, some might have small daggers to fight with, but they are no match for the La’Juutian Knight. Being virtually unarmed against a man like him is like being trapped in a room with a hungry bear.

The rest of the rebellion rushes up the stairs and onto the next floor, not knowing what will be there to await them.

“Damn it, we’ve lost so many people in just these two floors alone... how many more are there?” Ash asks as she runs up the staircase next to Zurvick.

Zurvick looks almost embarrassed when he answers, “Twenty-four...”

“Haah!?”

The castle is twenty five stories high; though not as large as La’Juune’s and nowhere close to Eiyalazo’s, this castle houses a lot of different people. Unfortunately the Queen lives on top.

“It’s going to take forever to get up there!” Ash shouts.

“No it won’t.” London calmly states as he runs to their side, “The enemy defense is going to narrow the further we go up. I’m willing to bet that the top floor holding the Queen only has a few soldiers guarding it.”

“What makes you say that?” Ash asks.

“You can tell just by looking at it, despite all the rooms and living areas, it’s still cone shaped. Assuming that they have all the soldiers stationed at the castle in order to defend it against us, it’s safe to say that there is no way they’d be able to fit a large amount of them at the top. They’re basically using the brunt of their force down at the bottom floors to keep us from reaching the Queen.”

“He’s right.” Zurvick adds, “Though our castle hasn’t ever been attacked before, we’ve made preparations in case it was and it goes exactly as he says. It’s going to be tough until we get past the fifth floor solely because of the design. But once we’re through there, we’ll be able to get to Lelaine!”

Feeling quite relieved after hearing that, Ash smiles and shouts in determination,

“Let’s do this!!!”

--------------------------

Sturgess is standing in the Queen's room looking out of an open window with his hands behind his back. The morning sun shines on his salt and pepper hair as the black of his dark eyes soak in the light. An empty glare is being sent out on the castle grounds and the Capital; he can see plumes of dark smoke rising in the air and through his narrow focus, he can hear the subtle sounds of screams coming from the floors below him.

What he sees with this glare is everything this morning has to offer, the beauty of the oncoming day, the ugliness of death, the hopelessness, the determination.

What he sees is the face of the rebellion.

Yet here he is, not doing anything to stop it, it has been over an hour since it started and he hasn't made any effort to help.

But why?

Why is he standing around doing nothing? Perhaps he is confident in his victory? Perhaps he doesn’t feel the need to fight?

The frozen glare from his cold eyes is warmed by the sun and a thin smile surfaces on his face. The answer to those questions had just knocked on the door.

“She’s ready...” A frail voice of a woman said from outside of the room.

“Bring her in.” Sturgess replies as he walks away from the window.

The door slowly opens and in comes Lelaine, accompanied by a maid. The maid still wears a frightened expression as Sturgess’s eyes molest Lelaine’s body from head to toe.

The Queen is wearing a nearly transparent white gown that gently sways when a small gust of wind enters the room through an open window. Her long hair is down and blows along with it as the sunlight hits her golden eyes.

This woman, the object of Sturgess’s deepest desires is standing beautifully before him, defenseless. She is now his to take and he won’t allow anything to stop him.

He looks at the maid and says, “Leave.”

Since the maid thought that he might’ve killed her once the job was done, she takes a big sigh of relief and hurries out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

“You look amazing. It’s like I never put you in that hole to begin with.” Sturgess says as he walks to her and puts his hands on her bare shoulders. “Come.”

He pulls her along to the bed and lays her flat on her back.

“I see you’re not fighting me this time?”

The blank stare of hers that carries even more emptiness than his own is seeing through him as if he wasn’t there. Her emotionless expression signifies the pit of despair a person sinks into once every last part of them has been broken. This stare is communicating to Sturgess that he has won; no matter the outcome of the battle down below, he is the victor.

She has been defeated.

Sturgess finds it difficult to hold back a triumphant laugh as he gets atop of Lelaine and mounts her; how he has wished for the moment he could see her flat on her back on a bed like this. Years and years of dreaming about it has finally become reality.

He leans down and whispers into the ear that most likely can’t hear him, “Is it okay?”

Lelaine still stays motionless, like a soulless stature she glares up and doesn’t reply.

“Hahaha, if you don’t say no that must mean that you want this right!? Such a whore you are my Queen!”

By now his face is beginning to distort like a portrait on fire. He pulls his shirt off from over his head and tosses it up against the wall.

“Oh Lelaine, I want this too...” he says, his voice begins cracking in an almost inhuman way as he grabs a lock of her hair and begins smelling its sweet fragrance.

Lelaine doesn’t even flinch, she is letting this happen.

However, she isn’t allowing this because she wants it, she simply can’t move.

She can’t even speak for that matter, she can’t hear, she can only see through a blurred vision.

Despite feeling like she’s frozen in ice, she is conscious, trapped in her own mind as a man she despises is fondling her inappropriately.

She wants to move, she has to move, she has to shout, she has to fight... but she can’t.

(W-Why can’t I?) she asks herself, the feeling of his tongue sliding down her neck hits her senses.

Her heart beats furiously at this, she grows sick when his scent hits her nose, it’s as though someone is stabbing her repeatedly in the chest. It’s as though an anvil is holding her body down.

She doesn’t like this, she hates this and she wants it to stop. But her body simply just won’t move.

Why is that?

It could be that her body has just grown that weak due to lack of exercise in the cell.

Or maybe this is the result of losing everything that gave her strength in the first place?

She finds herself thinking that must be the reason.

Losing her daughter because of a poor decision, and losing her husband because of another.

The two, and only people that kept her going are gone and nowhere to be found; neither of them is going to walk through that door and return that strength to her. She has come to the quick and ugly realization that she has become nothing without them.
Evident by the state she’s in at this very moment, she ‘is’ nothing without them.

With his big hand, he grabs the blouse area of Lelaine’s dress and rips it off like an eager child opening a birthday present.

In that simple motion, the full form of Lelaine’s beautiful body is feasted upon by the eyes of Sturgess. What was once only imagined in dreams is now projected right in front of him.

Mercilessly looking at her up and down, he notices something on her face.

Tears...

Through the blank of her stare, a stream of tears fell down her cheeks from each eye.

“Oh?” Sturgess mutters, that wicked smile never leaving his face. “So you are still in there, huh?”

Seeing her humanity, he bursts out laughing, a sick laugh that should only belong in a horror film exits his mouth.

“Perfect!!!” His hands latch onto her shoulders and he moves his face close to her. “Since you’re still in there, that means you will finally understand what all these years of your rejection has done to me!!”

Sturgess takes off his belt and pulls his pants down, ignoring the ever flowing tears on Lelaine’s face.

Leaning in close to her, he mockingly says, “Time to get started!”

----------------------

Zurvick slashes his way through a couple more soldiers and reaches the twenty-fifth floor of the castle.

“We made it.” he said, breathing hard while doing so.

Standing beside him is London. “It was a lot easier to get here by leaving the others behind. Traveling in a large group would just slow us down.”

Zurvick leans against a wall for a quick rest and asks, “Was it really okay leaving Ash and your two men to fight through an entire floor alone?”

The reason he said two and not three is because Seiri has been stationed outside this whole time using explosions to keep reinforcements away. She is doing it quite effectively too, because there seems to be a different explosion sounding off from all across the castle every minute or so. None of the other soldiers have been able to get in yet.

London pushes up his glasses and smiles almost arrogantly, “With Haas and Lennox accompanying that girl, I doubt your Captain would have to fight at all.”
“You’re awfully confident about that aren’t you?”

“I’m positive about it. I can just see her running around like a kid trying to keep up with them and getting frustrated by her lack of contribution.”

Zurvick laughs, even though this isn’t something to really laugh about, the image of it lightens his mood up a little.

“I can see her doing something like that too...” After his laugh he sighs and reveals a strained smile, zoning out down the hallway he says, “She’s such a good person.”

“I agree; people like her are a rare case nowadays. My comrades and my King can see that too. So you don’t have to worry, she’s in good hands. All you need to think about is saving the Queen.” London said, revealing an unusual expression of emotion.

Zurvick’s face tightens up a little when the thought of seeing Lelaine reaches his mind; he stands up straight and replies, “You’re right. Our room is over this way, we should get going.”

He starts to run, but halts when he notices that London isn’t following behind.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s more fitting for you to be the one to rescue the Queen. I can hear enemy soldiers coming our way, so I’ll keep them from interfering.”

With a quick flick of his wrist, London causes his fencing sword to make a whipping noise and turns away from Zurvick. He stands there unworried, waiting for the arrival of the enemy soldiers knowing that he’d be outnumbered.

Zurvick can’t help but admire people like him; he never would have thought that he’d come to respect a La’Juutian soldier other than Napoleon, but here he has found four of them.

He smiles and begins to run towards he and his wife’s room, but not before leaving the Knight with some final words, “After this, we should all go out for a drink!”

London smiles and huffs air out of his nose, waving his free hand he replies, “Sure thing.”

Zurvick continues his sprint towards Lelaine, with each step the anxiety rises.

He hasn’t seen her in many months and he’s missed her dearly.

He misses her smile, her voice, her eyes; he even misses the smell of the smoke from her pipe.

All of those once far away desires are only a few steps away from becoming a reality.

He has gone through so many hardships in order to reach this point. From fighting on the front-lines with the 105th Specialist Division and killing his old friend Ditreig Von Ronheim. From being stabbed at a Ball in Tronoble and almost dying in the inferno that ensued shortly after. All the way to joining La’Juutian Knights and fighting against his own people as part of a rebellion.

Through the most hopeless and trying of times, one thought kept him going, one feeling helped him in making his fight for survival all the more fulfilling. Even though he had the help of others, one person and one person alone kept him alive up until now.

That person is his wife Lelaine, the person he loves most in the world.

Once Sturgess is out of the picture, and once Trojia returns safely to their arms, they can live a life no longer taken for granted.

After one last final turn, he reaches the large double doors of his old room, pushing back the feeling of nostalgia; he opens it and shouts with a smile,

“Lelaine!”

That’s when a sight is sent like a ball of fire into his eyes.

The mere sight alone knocks the wind out of him as if someone had taken a sledgehammer to his gut.

In an instant, everything seemingly grinds to a halt. His eyes are so wide that the reflection of what he is looking at can be seen perfectly in his pupils as if they were mirrors.

“LELAINE!?”

Their Rebellion: (END)

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Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 5

2021-12-03T00:58:37Z

Deck of cards:

(PART 2)

Jeffrey pulls out his dagger with a smooth motion so quick that nobody has even noticed it yet.

Unfortunately he won’t have the time to intersect Dice before he reaches his parents, so he plans to throw the blade from his position. Of course, there are about a dozen people standing in his way so he awaits the perfect time for him to weave his throw through the gaps in their figures.

Dice pulls his hand out of his pocket, and in that instant, time slows down and hits Jeffrey like a ton of bricks. He readies to throw the dagger with all his might when he catches sight of something that forces him to halt halfway through his motion.

What Dice pulled out of his jacket wasn’t a knife, nor any kind of weapon for that matter; it ended up being a small box with a little red ribbon on it.
Jeffrey immediately puts his dagger back into his coat pocket and to his surprise no one noticed.

All eyes are on Dice at this moment when he says, “I’d like to give you a gift upon celebrating your safe return.”

A perfectly inauthentic smile was worn on his face as he said that, it’s almost as fake as someone being forced to smile for a picture they didn’t want taken.

However, Gile and Diana don’t catch the imposturous grin and happily accept the item.

“I’m no good with opening frilly presents like these.” Gile says as he hands the box over to his wife, “Will you do the honors?”

Diana accepts and begins unwrapping the present neatly.

“You don’t think that could be a bomb, do you?” Elise asks, still on her guard.

“He isn’t Seiri, I doubt he could get his hands on something like that... I think.”

The two take weary steps back as Diana finally pulls out the item in the box and holds it up so everyone can see. It is two, expensive looking diamond necklaces, a silver one for the King and a gold one for the Queen. Though it doesn’t look like much thought was put into buying these, it still looks like it must have cost a fortune to purchase, so they are much appreciated both by his parents and the patrons surrounding the table.

“Thank you Dice, they're beautiful, this is a wonderful gift.” Diana said graciously, sounding like she meant every word.

Gile stands to his feet and addresses the party goers. “Everyone, my son has just returned from the battlefield. He has survived many hardships in order to return here to us, please give him a round of applause for his bravery.”

All the people in the hall begin to clap and Dice scratches his head bashfully.

Really though, his performance has all of them so fooled he should be put up for some kind of acting award. Only Jeffrey and Elise see the hate hidden behind that mask-like smile.

While still being applauded, Dice walks around the back of his parents and whispers to them, “I know you two are busy with being hosts tonight, would you happen to have time to meet in private tomorrow? I’d like to go over my experiences over the last few weeks on the battlefield.”

“Of course, I’d like to hear all about it. I’m curious as to why you’ve returned so early.” Gile replies.

Dice politely bows and replies, “I promise, I’ll tell you all about it.”

In the back of his mind an angry voice is speaking the words he can’t allow to leave his mouth.

(You already know, you bastard.)

“Good.” Gile says, patting Dice’s shoulder. “How about we meet at the top of the castle for lunch? Does noon sound good to you?”

“Noon sounds great.”

Dice again bows and walks off with his head held high; with his back turned to everyone who could see, his face contorts as he clenches his fists.

“Tomorrow’s meeting will be the death of you... Mom and Dad.”

“Should we follow him?” Elise asks upon seeing Dice exit the room.

Jeffrey is now relaxing near the buffet table and pouring himself a glass of wine, he chugs it quickly and lets out a loud exhale of relief. “Forget it. He’s not going to do anything tonight; we’ll continue our surveillance bright and early tomorrow. Until then, I’m going to take advantage of all this free shit.”

Elise takes a sigh of resignation and joins him for a drink. “Fine, let’s just make sure we have our own weapons on us tomorrow. I don’t know if we could’ve won tonight if it came down to a fight.”

“I agree, I don’t want to be caught with my dick in my hands again. We’ll be fully prepared to assassinate the Prince come tomorrow.”

--------------------------------

“So let me get this straight, you were the object of that girl Rain’s hate and Noah used you to save her from it. Once you weren’t of any use to him there he then sent you here to join us in retaking the country?” London asks.

[[Image:Dv05-chp05_img003london.png|260px|thumb]]

Ash, who is sitting on the other side of the table where Zurvick was just at, replies, “W-Well yeah in so many words.”

London made it sound like she was some kind of tool for Noah that lost its value after he used it. It actually offended her a little. With the little girl with black hair and violet eyes staring at her with a face full of skepticism, she finds herself feeling even more uncomfortable by that line of questioning.

“You sure did come at the perfect time; we’re just about done with the recruiting stages for the rebellion. You’d be surprised at how many people want to jump right into something like this even though having a new leader hasn’t affected them personally. A couple weeks is all it took to gather over four thousand citizens and rogue soldiers who swore allegiance to the Queen.”

“That’s reassuring, I was worried that not many people would join. Even when I got here there didn’t seem to be any sense of urgency with them.”

“Oh trust me there is, if you looked close enough you’d find it. Today is the last day before we launch our attack, a lot of people are going to die tomorrow. They know it, we know it, an inevitability to say the least.” London leaned back in his chair and looked around when he said that.

The dozens of other people in the wine cellar are all chatting with each other, sharing drinks and being merry. This is their way of preparing for the bloodbath to come. Of course, others will react differently but most just want to enjoy the day that could be their last to the fullest.

Ash looks around and somewhat notices the same thing, a solemn sigh is given when she replies, “It’s just a shame that everyone who dies tomorrow, no matter which side, will be Trojans.”

“You can’t think that way.” London says, shifting his gaze to her. “There are only two types of people in this world, allies and enemies. It doesn’t matter where you’re from; the person trying to kill you is no one other than the enemy.”

It is likely this stern statement has come from his experiences as a Knight, or he was taught to think that way since the beginning of his training.

But Ash thinks those words remind her of someone.

“Did you get that from Noah?”

“I will admit that he has said something along those lines before, but both he and I were taught that lesson by General Napoleon.”

“General Napoleon huh.”

Just hearing that name gives her the shivers, she had grown up hearing horror stories about him after his stunning victory over Troy in the Battle of La’Juune, she finds it hard to separate the myth from the man that the people in front of her trained under.

“That’s right; if you’re smart you’d take that advice. Abandoning all the guilt that goes along with killing someone beforehand makes the job easier.”

London’s voice is as unwavering as ever, he knows that he’s right and this is his way of trying to help her so she doesn’t become a burden.

“I won’t be able to do that. A man once told me that after killing someone comes the most empty feeling in the world. I don’t want to forsake the pain it’ll give me, that’d be like throwing the essence of the other person’s being away. That’s not fair.”

London faintly laughs, “An innocent girl you are... too innocent. I hate to say it to you but that man was wrong; there is no other feeling than what you want it to be. If he was smart he would force himself not to feel anything, only the weak do the opposite. The essence of a dead person only exists for scavenging animals feeding on his corpse.”

His words come across as exceptionally callous; he’s an expert and one of the ten best at his job in which the main work he does is kill people. He knows all too well what it’s like to end a life, and it would seem that he has lost his humanity in the process of the many times he’s done so.

She could be staring a monster like that straight in the eye, but what he said simply proves to herself that Zurvick was right.

She frowns and squeezes the skirt she is wearing when she replies, “Don’t you dare say something like that.”

“No reason to get offended, I’m merely telling you how it is. When people die, they die. There’s no sugar coating it with gentle words and pretty euphemisms, once they’re dead, they’re worthless to the living.”

This sends her over the edge; she stands to her feet and scowls at him. The next thing she knew, she had sent the table flying across the room in a blind rage. To her, he is specifically tarnishing the memory of Zurvick, he is basically telling her to forget about him just because he’s dead, he is nobody now that he’s not breathing.

Well she won’t accept that kind of talk, especially not from one of the men responsible for his death.

“Even after they're gone, the lives of those we care about still have the ability to shape those of us left behind. Do you think that just because some heartless bastard like you says so, I’ll accept that King Zurvick’s life is now meaningless and toss him aside? He’s not dead in my mind, nor will he ever be, you got that!?”

London smiles and stays silent; he folds his arms and leans back in his chair as though he was expecting her outrage.

“Who’s dead?”

A man said confusedly from the other side of the room, Ash shifts her scowl in that direction and sees a sight that makes her face turn pale in an instant.

“Wooaah it’s you Captain! It’s been a long time!” Zurvick shouts, completely unaware of Ash’s emotional state at the moment.

He and Haas just happened to walk through the door and caught the tail end of Ash's exclamation.

“Y-You’re alive..?” Ash mumbles in shock.

“Did you believe Sturgess’s lies about me? I told you I’m one lucky bastard, there was no way I would go out like that.” Zurvick replied while scratching his head in a laugh.

“B-But I couldn’t find you... I saw you blow up!” she shouts, becoming teary eyed with each word.

“A funny story about that, I’m gonna have to tell you later though.” Zurvick then turns to London and says, “About the rebellion... Let me join you.”

London finally stands up himself; he pushes up his glasses and answers, “Glad to have you aboard.”

“WAIT A SECOND!!” Ash yells as she runs up to Zurvick and kicks him extremely hard in the shin.

He, like usual, overreacts and hits the deck as if he had been struck by a baseball bat.

“Oooaaah!? What did you do that for Captain!? This was supposed to be a happy reunion!”

Ash pounces atop of him and starts beating on him, “This was supposed to be a happy reunion until you decided to ignore my shock and talk to someone else like it never even happened! To me, I just saw a freakin’ ghost!”

“But I told you that I wasn’t going to die.” Zurvick replied softly with a strained smile, he was beginning to see the distraught on her face.

“Shut up, don’t think you’re getting off easy on this one... I thought I saw you die, and I looked for you in the rubble for hours. So give me a break.”

By now tears are falling down Ash’s cheeks and landing on Zurvick's forehead.

“I’m sorry.”

Ash takes a couple deep breaths and wipes her face quickly to hide the fact that she was crying. But the thought of all she has gone through the last couple months since the Night of the Ball is overwhelming her with emotions. She had travelled to La’Juune and slept under the same roof as the person that ordered Zurvick’s death and found it in her heart to forgive him. She had fought against a vessel of Satan and narrowly escaped with her own life. All of this was done under the impression that the person she had just kicked was dead, she had completely altered her life to make amends for it.

Now here he is, alive and well, and he looks surprised that she had ever thought he was dead in the first place.

It takes her another few moments to compose herself before huffs air out of her nose; with both her hands she pinches Zurvick’s cheeks and starts stretching them out.

“I can’t believe you’re actually here.”

“I’m here and that hurts.”

“You’re alive, you’re alive!!”

“Uuuahhhhahaahh!? Stop it! What’s with this sudden assault on my face!?”

Ash is squeezing him, slapping him, pulling his hair, poking his eyes, doing whatever it takes to cause him discomfort. She was serious when she said she wasn’t going to go easy on him, she’s lived what has felt like a lifetime of events since she thought he died, and until things are properly explained to her she’s going to punish him for making her think that for so long.

Seiri, who was sitting beside London on the table before it was tossed, hops off of her booster seat and walks over to London. “What are you, some kind of shrink?”

“Oh so you noticed?”

“The way you dug at those two, there was a reason for that right?”

“Yeah... You know, it has been said that when one feels the greatest pain that their true character reveals itself. I knew that that girl was the Captain of Zurvick’s division, and I knew that the two of them were in Tronoble together and that just like us she thought the King was dead. By telling her the wicked truth of death it stirred up a deep resentment in her that showed me who she really is, it showed me if I can trust her with my life or not.”
“And the verdict?”

“It’s just as Noah said, her role in this story is here with us.”

London leans down and grabs the paper carrying the battle plans and hands it to Seiri.

“Take a quick picture of the King alongside the others once he is done being beat up by that girl. Go to the newspapers and have them make as many copies of our plan and the picture as possible. Don’t be careless and get caught while doing so.”

“You don’t have to worry about me screwing up.” Seiri replies, offended that he even felt the need to say that.

She turns away and goes to get her camera when London speaks once again, “Oh and one more thing. Tell him that the front page of tomorrow’s newspaper should say, ‘The King is alive and here in the Capital.’”

Seiri smiles and trots away, “Yes sir.”

London looks over to Lennox and finds that he is at the bar talking to one of the few women in the room at the moment. He sighs at his comrade’s dispassion in a time like this; apparently Lennox doesn’t think this mission is important enough to stop him from hitting on a random girl.

Nonetheless, he grabs a glass and a butter knife and beats on it, gathering everyone’s attention.

“All of us are here for the future of Troy... so allow me to make an announcement.”

--------------------------

Captain Red Spektor is walking alone in a hallway at the La’Juutian weapons plant in the most southern part of the country. It is extremely cold in the building because the vents that pump hot air are currently on operational downtime. Each step he makes, the sound of his steel-toe boots hitting the metal ground makes an ominous echo.

He stops for a moment and begins talking. “You know what, I’m tired of looking for these damn intruders. I thought you told me that I’d be able to kill as many people as I want when I joined up with you?”

Out of Red’s hand comes the familiar black snake that has been plaguing the world the last few months. “You haven’t had any consequences for your actions yet have you?”

Red scratches his head. “I guess not, but I want to kill more than what I have been. Killing off the same kind of people gets boring, I need some excitement.”

“Things will get exciting I promise you that... What if I told you that the intruders are actually two of the Ten Knights of La’Juune?”

Red’s face lights up when he hears this. “Really!? Ohooo that’d be fucking great, I’ve been dying to test out my strength on someone worth killing.”

The snake slithers up his arm and says, “That is why I respect you Captain Red, your only desire in life is to kill as many people as possible. Someone with a mindset like that deserves to have the shackles of law unhooked from his ankles.”

“Damn right, everyone dies, they should be happy that they were killed by me. Living a boring, carefree life is a waste of breath. That being said, when I die I fully expect to go to Hell. You promised me that I'd snag a spot as one of your Dukes down there, don’t forget.”

“Of course my fair Captain, I never go back on my word.”

“Hahahaha bullshit I don’t believe that, you’re the fucking Devil, of course you do.”

“You have no need to fret, you see, that pentagram on your hand is a contract formed between you and I, the terms and conditions are set. The only way I can terminate that contract is if you fail.”

“I ain’t gonna fail, I’m too cool to lose. I’ve always been that way, and I always will. Consider the distribution of those new weapons done.”

“The guns that I taught you to make are the best killing machines man has to offer. We’ll expand from there, the weapons used to destroy human life will become more advanced and you’ll watch the degradation of humanity right before your very eyes.”

“Oho man do I like the sound of that. There's poetry to it that’s soothing to the ears, like a mother's lullaby or some shit. It’s beautiful, gorgeous, perfection!”

“This contract is mutually beneficial after all; we’ll share in the pleasures of watching the world burn. All that’s left for you to do is get rid of those Knights and restart our normal operations here, once back in operation we’ll be just a short time away.”

The snake recedes back into Red’s hand and disappears from sight; Red stops walking and picks at his ear while looking around.

“Oh yeah I almost forgot about those intruders... Hmmm, if I was a well-trained killing machine like those two are, what would I be doing at this very moment?”

He then starts tapping on the wall with his knuckles, causing a clicking noise that echoes in a similar fashion to his boots.

“I’d move in silence until I found the perfect opportunity to assassinate whoever it is I was supposed to kill. Which means I’d wait for him to be alone and defenseless, just like I am now.”

Red keeps tapping his knuckle on the metal walls when he suddenly stops. The sound the last click made is different from the others. Instead of the hollow ‘Clack’ noise, it made a more solid sounding ‘Clunk’.

A thin smile arises from the edges of his mouth as if he had just found gold. He sets his palm flat on the wall and shouts,

“FOUND YOU!!!”

He swings his palm away from the wall and the metal wall contrived like aluminum foil and crashes onto the hallway floor. The heating vent that was connected to that wall falls and hits the ground, he grabs onto that as well and the vent splits in half vertically and opens up wide as if being forced apart by some giant can opener.

Two figures fly out of the vent and dash away from him on both sides.

Now surrounded, Red shows no sign of worry when he holds his sides and starts laughing. “Huaahahaha well looky here. Two fucking chicks caused all this damage!?”

Allia immediately prepares to fire an arrow from her bow; she points it directly at the back of Red’s neck when she says, “Captain Red Spektor, the Crown of La’Juune has found you guilty of treason. Therefore you are sentenced to death.”

An odd chuckle forms in the pit of Red’s chest upon hearing that. “Oho how professional, hearing a cute girl talk in such an orderly fashion is quite the turn on. It’s a shame, such a damn shame that I’m gonna have to kill you.”

“Such a waste of your final words.”

Allia shoots her arrow, Red doesn’t even turn around or try to avoid it. The arrow gets within a couple inches of his neck when it is suddenly stopped in its tracks and suspended in the air.

“!?”

“Come on, a fucking arrow?” Red turns around and reveals his right hand that has a black ink-like substance swirling around it.

Looking closely, Allia can see that the black water is connected to the tip of the arrow, this is what stopped it from striking him.

Red snaps his fingers and the arrow turns around and shoots in Allia’s direction. She desperately tries to move out of the way but it becomes obvious that she won’t be able to avoid being hit. That’s when a gold shield bounces off the walls of the hallway and deflects the arrow at the last second.

After successfully defending Allia, the motion of the shield doesn’t stop, it skims off the roof and zooms at Captain Red. The tips of this shield are razor sharp, if this connects with human flesh at this speed the results will certainly lead to decapitation.

But to the chagrin of the laws of physics, Red smiles and holds out his bare hand and grabs the shield before it hits him. The shield’s momentum is brought to an abrupt stop.

Red examines the weapon and says, “Now this is what I’m talking about. You must be Celestia Letrova right? Being in the business of weapons I’ve heard about this little toy you've invented. It must feel great to lop off someone’s dome with this thing.”

“I-Impossible...” Celestia mutters in disbelief, Red’s hand should easily have been cut off.

Red cracks his neck and shouts, “I hope you don’t mind if I try it out, do you!?”

He swings his body and hurls the shield back at Celestia like a frisbee, sending it sliding against the metal wall at an incredible speed. The wall is viciously split as sparks fly all about; Celestia tries to maneuver the shield back under her control with her glove but the force in which it is moving is far too great. The shield bounces off the wall due to its spin and dashes straight right, directly on a path towards Celestia’s neck.

The razor sharp edges of her own weapon will decapitate her unless she moves quickly on her feet, not having enough time to evade, she twists her wrist as fast as she can. The shield’s trajectory remains the same but its rotation switches from a horizontal spinning motion to vertical. This narrows its kill radius tenfold; but this maneuver is not enough to avoid getting hit by it, it zooms past her face and barely grazes her shoulder before crashing into the wall behind her with a loud bang. Her blood flies as she falls back from the force of the impact.

“Celestia!”

Even though the wound will definitely need stitches, it’s not life threatening, she narrowly avoided having her head roll on the ground by intentionally allowing herself to get hit.

“I’m fine.” she says as she winces, she sends an angered glare at Red and finishes, “Something tells me this bastard isn’t going to be as easy as the last one.”

Allia clicks her tongue and her whole demeanor changes, she takes another arrow and points it at him.

Being in the middle of the two girls in this narrow hallway, Red can’t help but feel cornered. However, not a worry appears on his face as he smiles and holds out his arms.

“I can feel it... Someone’s gonna die here for sure! There’s no better feeling than this! To kill or be killed is the best drug one could ask for, this is better than sex don’t you think?”

“.....”

“.....”

The two girls stay silent and keep their guard up, glaring at him intently.

“Oho no reaction eh? I guess this must be the Knights of La’Juune’s way of doing things, work is work for you guys. You probably think nothing of taking another’s life. And you know what? I hate those kinds of people the most, you’re supposed to take pleasure in it. It’s a waste of time otherwise.”

Allia shoots her arrow and it slides by Red’s face, even though she intentionally missed him to intimidate him into silence, he didn’t even flinch.

“Shut up you freak.”

“Huahahaha that’s not the professional talk that I think is sexy. That was weak, lame, garbage, unattractive.”

“We’re not here to talk.” Celestia added, “We’re here to kill you.”

“That’s more like it, a great improvement!! Show me the best La’Juune has to offer!!”

A black watery substance surrounds Red, this is the trigger motion for Allia and Celestia. They simultaneously fire their weapons and the battle for the weapons plant officially begins.

----------------------------

Rain is frozen; the Eiyalazonian soldier is alone with the King of La’Juune and a former Battle Strategist in the cabin of a carriage. Even with her great mind she can’t find a way out of this, the only thing she can hope for is to lie to him and see if he’ll fall for it. By all means telling the truth is out of the question.

Without looking the soldier in the eyes she bows and says, “How can we help you sir?”

“If you don’t mind me asking, I’d like to know where you’re from and where you are heading.” The soldier asks.

Rain is trying to come up with an excuse when her thought process is interjected by Noah saying, “The Capital.”

“Is that so? Well then, where are you coming from?”

“We are Eiyalazonian citizens that were in the country of La’Juune when the war started. We were taken in as hostages but we managed to escape.” Rain smoothly lies, if one didn’t know any better anyone would believe her story from the delivery of her words alone.

“Would you mind showing us some sort of identification? There’s been a lot of people defecting to different sides from all three countries. We’re never too sure who’s lying or not.”

Rain tightened her jaw when he asked that; she doesn’t have any form of I.D and Noah certainly doesn’t have any.

She continues with her lie and says, “The country of La’Juune took everything from us, they had even blinded my partner here during an interrogation. All we want is to go back home, please let us pass.”

Such a sob story, who knows where she came up with that, perhaps she even thought of it on the spot the moment when the soldier knocked on the cabin door. Whenever it was, it’s definitely the best she has to offer. During times of war, things like that happen quite often, it’s not too much of a stretch for the soldier to actually fall for it and show her sympathy.

Rain is still bowing while she pleads.

The man sighs and leans his back up against the cabin door. “Is that so..?” he says in a fashion that screams out skepticism. “Then how did you come about this expensive carriage?”

This question is what she was hoping to avoid, she hasn’t come up with an excuse for that yet. Being prisoners of war that had narrowly escaped torture, there’s no way they’d be able to acquire something as high class as this, anyone can see that this is certainly off. That’s like living in a mansion but still having to dig potatoes out of the dirt for food.

Rain has nothing to say to that, she stays silent and contemplates another way out of this when Noah steps in front of her and removes his blindfold.

“What are you doing!?” Rain inquires as she pulls his sleeve trying to get him to sit back down on the seat.

Noah shrugs her off and says to the soldier, “Enough with the silly games... Captain Heinrich Zimmer.”

That name is sent flying through Rain’s memory like a flash of lightning. She lifts her head up with eyes wide open and catches her first good look at him.
He has blond hair with two different colored eyes, one being green and the other being blue. He’s not too old but not a young man either, he’s most likely in his mid-twenties so he doesn’t give off the impression of a battle hardened soldier. This man is undoubtedly the person Rain was giving orders to only a little more than a month ago. He was second in command to Rain in the 1st Royal Army division that she was supposed to lead to victory in the sacking of Tronoble.

“Heinrich!?”

He winks at her, revealing his blue eye and waves arrogantly. “Long time no see Brigadier General Rain Von Ronheim.”

“Y-You...”

“Sorry for interrogating you. You see, I knew who you were all along, I just wanted to get back at you for all the crap I had to deal with when I was serving under your command.”

Heinrich shifts his attention from the shocked Rain to Noah. He bows respectfully and says, “King Noah, I await your orders.”

“Wait a second, just what the hell is going on here!? The two of you know each other?” Rain shouts.

Noah shrugs his shoulders and answers, “Remember when I told you I had a spy working in the Eiyalazonian military that was close to you? Well, this is him.”

“You’re the spy?”

“That's right.” Heinrich says politely, “Allow me to reintroduce myself... I am Heinrich Zimmer, the ‘Chameleon’ of the Dravic Branch of La’Juune.”

“I’m sure you’ve heard of the Dravic Branch.” Noah adds, “This man here is the top spy from there. The nickname ‘Chameleon’ was given to him because of his ability to adapt and change his own personality in order to fit the environment the people around him have created. He never wavers from the personality that suits the people he’s spying on, thus the reason why you never suspected him of being an enemy.”

Hearing praise from the King is like music to Heinrich’s ears, he soaks it all in as Rain asks, “So the reason why my division didn’t come back with Dice to help me in Tronoble was because of you..?”

“Yeah, I assumed control of the 1st Royal Army division the moment the time in which you promised your return had passed. I hope you don’t hold a grudge against me, but I naturally blamed the whole thing on you.”

“I see...”

Normally, Rain would be brewing with the hot sensation of hate right now. She looks over to Noah, who is sending her a glare of worry about this very thing.

She smiles and flicks Noah’s forehead, “Don’t look at me like that.”

She then turns to Heinrich and says, “I’m no longer interested in holding grudges for things I can do nothing about now. This pest of a king of yours has helped me see the errors in my ways.”

“Wow King Noah, I must commend you. I personally thought that this girl was the most rotten person in the world. For you to have changed her like this must’ve been a miracle.”

“No, it wasn’t me.” Noah replies as he rubs his forehead, his sleepy expression lights up a little when he grabs onto the familiar right hand of Rain. “She changed herself, I had nothing to do with it.”

“That’s even more surprising.” Heinrich says, a little flustered at the cute face Rain is showing at this moment. He grumbles as he clears his throat and asks, “So what are your orders King Noah? Where do we go from here?”

Noah smiles confidently and answers, “To the Capital.”

“Understood, it’s quite the coincidence that my division is heading back to the Capital on leave. Since we’re all going to the same place, shall my division and I escort you?”

“That’d be great.”

“Yes sir.”

Heinrich hops out of the cabin and salutes to Noah through the doorway, before shutting the door he says, “From here, we’ll reach the Capital by noon tomorrow. I’ll inform you when we get close to the Castle.”

“Thanks Heinrich, you’ve done a great job.”

The door is shut and the feeling of the carriage moving once again is felt. Looking out the window, one can see that they are moving in unison with the entire division that Rain used to command.

An amazing turn of events to say the least; what are the chances of something like this actually happening?

Extremely low; far too low for this to even be a possibility, that is unless...

She turns to Noah who is sitting comfortably on the seat while still holding her hand and asks, “You knew this was going to happen... This was all part of your plan right?”

Noah pulls her hand down gently, prompting her to sit alongside him when he answers, “You should know by now that I never haphazardly do anything unless I’m forced to. When I say we’re going to do something, even if it is something as silly as flying a kite, I’ll make proper preparations for it ahead of time.”

“Hmph!” Rain puffs, “You could have at least told me, you shitty Prince. That whole situation almost made me panic.”

“You were worried about my safety? Why thank you Rain, that means a lot.”

“About you? Don’t flatter yourself, I wasn’t worried about you at all. It’s just that without you this war can’t be stopped.”

“Hahahahaha.”

“What’s so funny?”

“I’ve heard of this kind of attitude before, it’s called... Hmm what was that? Oh yeah, Tsun-----”

Rain takes a pillow from the seat and hits him in the face with it really hard. “Don’t even think about finishing that sentence.”

The smile on Noah’s face doesn’t leave him and he keeps on laughing.

Rain tries to get up and walk to the other side of the cabin but is stopped by his grip on her hand.

“Let go, I won’t just sit by while you make a fool out of me like you always do.”

“Oh come on, I was just joking.”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you’re terrible at jokes. So let go.”

“No.”

Rain clicks her tongue and scowls at him, the persistent part about Noah is the part she dislikes the most.

With a sigh of resignation, she relaxes her shoulders and asks, “Well then, since you’re the kind of person who’d think so far ahead just to fly something as dumb as a kite, what makes you want to hold my hand right now?”

Noah stands up and gets close to her; he looks her square in the eyes when he answers, “Do you really want to know?”

“Of course I do, I wouldn’t have asked you otherwise, you idiot.”

Noah inches his face closer to her, she backs up a little confusedly but he doesn't stop pressing forward until her back hits the cabin wall. By now Rain’s thought process is clouded and her body’s senses are tingling from his energy.

Just what is he doing? Is he teasing her again? But what’s with this serious look in his eyes?

“W-Wha---“

“Ssh, don’t talk.” Noah interrupts.

The two of them can feel the warmth of each other’s breaths on their faces and the tension in between them is like a wall ready to be broken at any moment.
“Close your eyes, Rain.”

Rain is hesitant at first, but she is not really in the mood to fight him for some reason. She shuts her eyes just as he asked her to.

(Is... Is he going to do what I think he is?) Rain thinks to herself, her face is becoming red and her heart is beating wildly. She starts feeling his face getting closer to her and her mind continues to race. (Is he really going to kiss me!?)

Thinking that this is what he is going to do, she considers moving her head, but her body won’t move. It’s as though it wants this to happen, and won’t budge until it is over. She is going to let him kiss her without even knowing why.

However, she feels his face move past her lips and the air from his breath hits her ears.

His voice is soft, so soft that if his mouth wasn’t so close to her ear she wouldn’t be able to hear him.

“Rain...”

“Y-Yeah?”

“I’m going to die.”

She instantly opens her eyes in shock, her shoulders jolted when he said that and her body starts shaking.

“I thought I told you to close your eyes.”

“W-What!?”

Noah then grabs onto her other hand, he stares at her intently when he says his words in an almost monotonous tone, “The reason why I’m holding on to your hand is because I like to. To be perfectly honest, I love it. There’s no thinking ahead here, there’s not a thought of anything other than the moment of touching you. I want to cherish these moments because I know I won’t have many of them left. You see, I’m extremely happy right now, can’t you see it on my face?”

Looking at the expressionless face residing on Noah, there’s no way she can tell that he’s actually happy. It’s more like he is giving a stern speech to a school child that had just stolen a piece of candy.

She doesn’t understand, she’s hopelessly confused; the sounds coming from the back of her throat are attempting to ask questions but aren't forming out of the front of her mouth.

“You were right about me being sick.” Noah continues. “I’m horribly sick, unfortunately, an irrecoverable sickness that can’t be cured. I don’t know how much time I have left, so I want to allow myself to be a little selfish before I pass. Of course, if you really don’t consent to it I’ll force myself to let go of your hand.”

“Y-You’re kidding... This isn’t a funny joke Noah!!”

Noah faintly smiles, “You were right, I’m not good at jokes; I don’t even know why I try. I’m no good at many things actually, how I express my feelings seems to be my worst trait.”

Noah squeezes her hands and never shifts his gaze from her eyes as he continues.

“You see, I had thought I’d abandoned them a long time ago in order to become a perfect General. I was on that path until I had come across a troubled Battle Strategist from an enemy country who I found an incredible need to help. That’s when I started to see what that girl was truly like, and it made me feel... I guess odd is the best way to explain it. She made me want to give myself away to her, the person I was supposed to be was bred to live in a world of conflict, and this Battle Strategist gave me the hope that I could exist outside of that world if only I gave myself to her instead. Does that even make any sense?”

“N-Noah... Wh---“

“I guess not, it certainly doesn’t make sense to me.” Noah interrupts her again, “Knowing why this has happened is beyond the realm of what I can understand, I wasn’t prepared for it, nor am I equipped to handle it now.”

Having Noah spill his guts to her so suddenly has gotten her feeling as if this will be the last conversation with him. It’s like a criminal that confesses to crimes no one ever found out about on his deathbed.

It’s leaving a horrid pain reverberating in her chest as he continues to speak.

“But because I don’t know, I’m obliged to act upon these feelings with no plan for the future… Even though the setting of this cabin behind enemy territory isn't romantic at all, even if you end up hating me for it, I can’t keep myself from giving everything I have left to you.”

Noah pulls her towards him and asks, “So can you please close your eyes once more?”

She takes a deep breath and hesitatingly closes them again.

Noah’s voice gets closer to her when she feels the air of his words as he says,

“This is all I have.”

Their lips touch, much to the contrary of what she expected, the kiss he gave her is surprisingly gentle.

To Noah’s surprise, she didn’t even flinch when the feeling of her soft lips reached his.

This sends his feelings in a jumble, does she want this? Is she just scared? Is she sowing a cute blushing face right now? Or is she frowning in disgust?
But none of these thoughts matter, nothing is going to keep him from stopping this moment in time. He’s going to take this experience to his heart’s content because chances are, it won’t happen again.

After a couple long seconds, Noah backs his face away from her and opens his eyes, he looks at her and is amazed to see the beautifully cute blushing face she’s wearing with her eyes still closed.

He smiles tenderly and says, “You can open your eyes now.”

She slowly opens her eyes, and a warm sensation escapes them and flows down her cheeks. She is crying as though she had just let out the pressure in the dam that was holding her heart back. The truth is, she is aching, her heart hurts so bad it’s forcing her to cry.

“I’m sorry...” Noah says as he looks away, “I won’t ask you to forgive me.”

“What are you talking about!?”

“..?”

“There’s nothing to apologize for...”

“Then why are you crying?”

“B-Because...”

She puts her face in his chest, her lips are quivering.

“You said you’re going to die soon... if this is another terrible attempt at a joke, I’ll kill you myself.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Stop apologizing and tell me that it isn’t true!”

“I’m sorry, Rain… I am going to die.”

------------------------

The next morning, the Capital of Troy awakens to a historic day. Today is the day that the Trojan people take their country back from a traitor, today is the day that the Queen reinstates her rightful position as ruler of this great country.

The morning sun shines gracefully over the white castle of Troy. The morning air is crisp with a gentle cool breeze, and the warmth of the water in the moat that stretches around the castle is steaming upon its touch, adding serenity to the atmosphere around the place.
Just another perfect morning in the most beautiful city in the world.

No one would expect that the fresh clean air reaching the noses at this peaceful moment of time is about to be tainted with the smell of blood.
There is a large clock tower above the entrance of the castle grounds, and there are four guards stationed there and many more throughout the outskirts of the grounds and inside the castle’s gates. These guards are led by Anders Henson and are under the control of General Sturgess.

These people are the enemies of Troy.

The men standing at the foot of the clock tower are yawning in boredom, they’ve been stationed here since earlier in the morning, and the fact that they are almost off shift seemingly makes the time move slower. The clock is only a minute or so from 9, and when it gets there, their grueling eight hour shift is over.

They stare at it anxiously as the minute hand slowly reaches the twelve and the bell sounds for the new hour. They all take a weathered sigh in relief as they prepare to make their return to the barracks.

However, an odd sensation comes over them and they are suddenly stopped in their tracks.

BBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!

The clock tower explodes and debris is sent flying all over, the men under the tower who were walking to the barracks are shredded to pieces along with it.
All across the walls of the castle grounds, more explosions that stretch in the mile long radius circling the castle pop in split second intervals. Like dominos falling, the explosions spread and the morning sky is filled with the color orange and the smell of smoke.

“Wow wow wow so perfect!” Seiri shouts as she looks on from a distant building through binoculars.

She has a perfect view of the destruction she caused from this vantage point.

Standing next to her is Lennox, Haas, and London.

“I thought I told you not to destroy any structure of the castle?” London asked after the tailend of a sigh.

“Collateral damage is collateral damage. There’s no avoiding it.” she replies.

“She’s right.” Lennox says, looking at himself in the mirror like usual. “Who cares if the King gets pissed, it’s not our problem.”

“...Agreed...” Haas added.

London pushes up his glasses as he watches thousands of Trojan citizens rushing into the castle grounds, by now an alarm has set off at the castle, guards and other enemy soldiers come rushing to the moat in order to stop the invading citizens.

Bodies fall into the lukewarm water of the moat, instantly turning it red with blood. He is witnessing the battle for Troy unfold and the immediate loss of life is quick evidence of what’s at stake here, this rebellion is the human embodiment of determination and grit. Watching this scene of two opposing views of the same nationality clash is brewing up an indescribable feeling in him.

He smiles and pulls out his fencing sword, he walks toward the door and addresses the others, “Let’s go, it’s time for the Knights of La’Juune to fulfill their mission here in Troy. Collateral damage be damned.”

Haas pulls out his twin blades, Lennox takes his broadsword and throws it over his shoulder, and Seiri juggles a few of her flasks as they follow him out of the room and head out to the battle.

---------------------------

“King Sturgess! The castle is under attack!” A man shouts after banging on the door of Sturgess’s room.

“I know.” Sturgess replies with an angered frown on his face, he is looking out the window and watching the scene unfold.

Just a few minutes earlier he was awakened by the sound of dozens of explosions from all around the castle.

He clicks his tongue and opens the door only to be met by the panic stricken face of the guard who had just reported the chaos outside.

“Who is responsible for this? The people of Troy are actually trying to fight back?” Sturgess asks himself as he strokes his beard.

Not expecting an answer, his petrified guard hands him a newspaper and says, “This was shot over the moat a moment ago by a catapult.”

Sturgess grabs it in an annoyed motion. “Don’t feed into this propaganda, they are trying to mess with your heads. This is just a-------“

In a split second, his face contorts into an odd shape.

He caught glimpse of the headlines stating,

‘KING ZURVICK IS ALIVE AND HERE IN THE CAPITAL!’.

“What the fuck is this?” he mutters, glaring at the picture of Zurvick alive and well with a group of citizens in some kind of wine cellar.

He tries to debunk this picture as some kind of fake, but his instincts know that this is a real situation he’s found himself confronted by.

He crumbles it up and throws it on the ground while shouting, “Damn it!! That bastard always finds a way to survive!”

“Sir?”

“Go down to the castle grounds and fight with the others!”

“Yes sir.”

The guard rushes off and leaves him alone.

He grits his teeth so hard that a cracking noise exits his mouth. “There’s still time.” he says through his shut mouth, a thin smile forms as he takes off running. “There’s still time!!”

Sturgess enters the dungeon where he is keeping Lelaine imprisoned, it has been close to a month since he put her in here and she hasn’t been out yet. He lights some candles and with his sword he starts banging the metal bars of her cage to agitate her into waking up.

“Lelaine!!!” he shouts, “It’s time for you to come to me!!”

He pulls a key out of his pocket and opens the door to the cell, it is so quiet in here that he becomes suspicious that she is even alive. In the corner of the cell is the form of a person huddled in a blanket, he walks to it and kicks it.

Still no noise, his face distorts in worry when he fears that she might actually be dead. He hurriedly pulls the cover off of her, and to his relief, she is there, breathing with her eyes open.

She is alive.

But the terribly cold and empty look in her eyes and her overall body language looks like a person who has long been dead mentally. She looks to be the definition of a person whose body is alive but is dead inside.

Pleasured by her sad state, he feels as though he has accomplished one of his goals, he has broken her.

He grabs her arm and lifts her to her feet, she struggles to keep up as he walks her up the stairs and out of the dungeon.

She is in such a state of incoherence that she doesn’t even try to fight it, she has lost whatever strength she had when her hope was shattered.

Once in the castle, the light of the sun hits her through the windows and she feels a burning pain on her skin as her broken body reacts to the dramatic change in atmosphere. Her eyes burn due to them being in continuous darkness, exposed to such little light is like staring into the sun for her, yet she is so weak that she can’t even find the strength to close her eyes to stop the pain.

She can’t see, nor hear, she is gone.

Like a doll, she holds the same expressionless face and a motionless body.

Her legs stop and Sturgess begins to drag her along like a dead animal.

“You’re not in that bad of shape, you spoiled Queen. I made sure to feed you enough to where you didn’t lose too much weight, you pretty much look the same as when I left you.”

Sturgess knows that he is talking to no one, he’s speaking to her as though she understands him just so he can release his pent up frustration at the urgency he’s been forced to operate under.

He reaches a door with a couple of frightened looking maids standing in front it.

These maids do the basic work of the castle, as employees of the castle they’ve essentially been held hostage here since the coup. Now caught in between two fighting forces, their lives hang delicately upon the will of others.

Sturgess viciously tosses the limp body of Lelaine on the floor in front of them and orders, “Give her a bath and clean her up, put makeup on her, make her look nice and pretty and take her to my room when you’re done.”

The maids shake as they help Lelaine back to her feet and stare at him in fear.

“Hurry it up! I don’t have time for you to just stand there and stare at me!!”

“Y-Yes, right away sir!”

The maids take Lelaine into the room and shut the door behind them.

Sturgess rushes to one of the windows and looks down on the battle ensuing at the moat.

A wicked, thin smile surfaces on his face as he squeezes his right hand.

“This damn luck of yours has run out, Zurvick. I have the power to kill you myself now, so come to me! Hahahaha, I’ll be waiting with your wife!”

-----------------------------

Zurvick and Ash run through the wave of enemy soldiers on the suspension bridge over the moat. It would seem that the surprise attack didn’t allow them enough time to pull it up because it is stacked with hundreds of people from both sides. Zurvick is leading the way, cutting through all who stand before him until he hits a wall of shield-bearing soldiers and he is pushed to a halt.

“Ash!” he shouts as he holds his hand out.

Ash doesn’t reply, but runs at him at full speed; she unhesitatingly jumps up and with her right foot lands on his open palm. He then catapults her over the opposing soldier’s heads; the guards have no clue what happened until they are struck down from behind by the sword of Ash.

This gives Zurvick just enough wiggle room to break through the line and reach the other side of the moat.

“Push forward!!” he shouts, gesturing to the citizens of the rebellion to follow his lead.

They all rush in simultaneously and overwhelm the last remaining guards on the bridge. Zurvick catches up to Ash and pats her on the shoulder.

“Good job, I’m glad to have you on my team again.”

“Idiot, don’t you realize that you’re on ‘my’ team?”

“Haha fair enough.”

The sound of screams from in front of them interrupts their touching display of camaraderie. Soldiers of the fortified castle are pouring down boiling oil and shooting flaming arrows at the citizens of the rebellion. Dozens of people are burning to death as the struggle to get through the castle door ensues.

“I’ll go help them!” Ash says as she sprints to their aid.

“Look out!”

Zurvick tackles her to the ground just in the nick of time, three arrows narrowly zoom past them and stick into the ground.

“You always have to look up when invading a castle. If you can time the attacks of the defenders, you can adequately uphold your offense.”

“O-Okay.” Ash replies as she stares at his hand that’s resting on her chest, she knows now isn’t the time to be flustered but she can’t help it.

Zurvick gets up from atop of her and looks up at his castle intensely. A little bitter that he didn’t even notice that he accidentally groped her, Ash stands to her feet and looks up with him.

In the window more than thirty stories up is the figure of the man responsible for all of this, Sturgess is looking down at them with a smile on his face while Trojans are dying.

“That bastard... What do you say we wipe that smile off his face, huh?” Ash asked Zurvick, pumping herself up in the process.

She runs to the aid of the others, all while looking up for incoming arrows.

But Zurvick’s glare is set solely on his former friend and ally; he takes a deep breath and forces himself to turn away.

“Hold out for just a little while longer Lelaine... I’m coming for you!!”

He rushes in and fights with the rest of the others.

Though everyone has their own reason to fight, Zurvick’s reason is simple.

Though the others have the pride of their motherland they are fighting for, Zurvick’s is more singular.

Though they fight for their loyalty to the Queen, he fights for the love he has for his wife.

But in this moment, they all share this battle together, whether it’s for the idea of the person and all she stands for, or the person herself.

They are all fighting to save Lelaine Niveusvenia, the Queen of Troy.

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Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 4

2021-12-03T00:39:06Z

Deck of cards:

Chapter 47: Their Rebellion

(PART 1)

Noah and Rain sit in a horse drawn carriage travelling eastward on a road in what seems to be an area completely void of human activity. After a twelve hour train ride to the border, the two had proceeded onto a scheduled carriage to take them across the border to Eiyalazo.

All around them are nothing but rolling hills of green grass and the paved road they are on makes its way through them in delicate ups and downs.
The red oak carriage is enclosed and rather large, it takes six horses to pull it and the chauffeur holding the reins is secluded outside in order to give the passengers their privacy. On the inside is a red suave seat that wraps around the entirety of the cabin, and the walls even hold fine art. The bar in the corner for drinks really gives it the extra tinge of first class needed for royalty.

To put it simply, this carriage is the horse drawn version of a limo.

However, the face Rain is making shows that all these amenities mean nothing to her at all, she has her arms folded in a combative manner and wears a light frown.

“Don’t give me that look.” Noah says when he feels her demeanor weighing on him.

“What did you think I’d say when all the sudden you told me that we’re going to Eiyalazo? You didn’t even give me a reason why.” Rain replied.

“Aren’t you excited that you get to go back home?”

“Not really, there’s nothing for me here.”

“I’m sure there is someone at home that means something to you. Stop being so pessimistic and look forward to it.” Noah said, he didn't even turn his head to address her when he said that.

Rain clicks her tongue and is left thinking about what he just said to her, and that’s when Prince Dice just so happens to unintentionally pop in her head. She had almost completely forgotten about him due to the events of recent weeks. The last time she saw him he had succumbed to the poison of anger and hate he was overcome with.

Understanding that just recently she was in the same position, and was miraculously saved by the right hand of Noah, she figures that he is still consumed by it.

She begins to worry about him, and she feels a strange pressure in the pit of her chest as she looks at the back of her hand and zones out on the area where the pentagram once was.

“Putting my feelings on the matter aside, you can at least tell me what we’re supposed to be doing once we get there.” she said, her gaze still fixed on her hand.

“We’re going to try to stop this war. We now know where our abducted loved ones are, there’s no reason why the war should continue if none of our countries are responsible for their disappearance.”

“You certainly know there’s no way they’d buy an explanation like that. It would be a ridiculous thing to explain to them, they’d think you’re crazy.”
“I’ve already planned for such an occasion...” Noah holds out his right hand and finishes, “God and his Son had to use miracles to convince people of their existence, so I’m going to have to do the same.”

“Then what about Troy?” she asks, “Wouldn’t they need to be involved in stopping this war too?”

Noah holds his index finger up as he quickly answers, “They will be informed as soon as the rebellion reinstates Queen Lelaine as ruler of the country. With that bastard Sturgess at the helm and under the control of Satan, he’d certainly continue the war even if everyone were to suddenly return tomorrow.”

Rain sighs, she understands why he would wait out the results of the rebellion, but is worried about the success of the whole situation in Troy.

“You have a lot of faith in Troy’s citizens if you have based your plans off of their victory.”

“You’re right, I do, with four of my Knights and people like Ash leading the charge to take the country back, I’m very confident in their success”

Finding herself perplexed by the confidence of his declaration, she still can’t help but feel a sense of security in it; she has seen the Knights work firsthand and knows just what kind of person Ash is.

“I’ll believe in them as well then… let’s do our job here in Eiyalazo and get this war over with.”

Rain hasn’t seen Gile and Diana in quite some time and wonders how they will receive her considering she failed miserably in Tronoble and fell captive to La’Juune. Showing up with La’Juune’s King isn’t going to help her cause either, so she is a little hesitant to show her face.

“When is our scheduled meeting time?”

“Meeting time?”

“You know, like what day are we supposed to meet with the King and Queen?”

Noah looks at her in a bewildered fashion as if he has no clue what she is talking about.

“There’s nothing like that going on.”

“...Hah? Are you stupid!? We’re already past the border and you’re telling me the King and Queen don’t even know you’re coming!?”

“Well yeah, if they knew I was coming there’s a good chance that they’d try to kill me before I even got there.”

“What the hell do you think a regular Eiyalazonian soldier would do if he caught you trying to sneak in!?”

“Calm down, I already have two Knights stationed at the castle in the Capital posing as members of the Royal family. We’re going to be smuggled in by them.” he replied coolly and without any worry at all in his tone.

Rain throws her hand over her face in disappointment, she can’t believe that they are going about this in such a hap-hazard way.

“I have a feeling that this isn’t going to go as smoothly as you think it is, Noah. You shouldn’t have rushed this kind of thing.”

“...I had no choice.” Noah replies.

The way he said that blanketed the cabin in tenseness. It's obvious those words meant something, and the weight of the air in the cabin felt like weights placed on Rain's shoulders.

Rain wants to ask what he meant but is interrupted by Noah’s sudden violent coughing.

He doesn’t slow down or stop after a few moments and Rain pulls a handkerchief out of her pocket and hands it to him.

“Here use this... You’ve been pretty damn sick the last week or so, you really should’ve waited until you got better so you could have planned this out properly.”

Noah takes the white handkerchief and coughs into it, it is a deep and painful sounding cough that one makes as if there is something clogged in their chest.

Rain looks away out the window so she can give him his space while he clears his throat.

Noah finally stops and it takes a few moments for him to catch his breath, he glances down at the handkerchief he was just coughing into and sees that the white cloth has been stained with a black ink like liquid.

He folds it up and puts it into his pocket as he wipes the remaining black liquid from his lips with his sleeve.

Talking into his arm, he mutters, “I had no other choice... I don’t have much time left.”

“Excuse me?”

“It’s nothing.”

A knock is heard on the window connected to the chauffeur's seat used by the driver to communicate to the passengers if needed. Judging by the intensity of the knock it seems pretty urgent, so Noah reluctantly gets up and opens it.

“We have a big problem, your majesty!” The chauffeur shouts anxiously, “Eiyalazonian soldiers straight ahead!”

Noah sighs and sits back down in his seat, leaning back nonchalantly.

Rain on the other hand, turned blue with fright upon hearing the news.

This is extremely bad, a carriage holding the most hated man in the world is rolling defenselessly into enemy territory. There’s no telling what the average soldiers would do to him if they were able to put their hands on him.

Rain hurriedly searches throughout the cabin for something, her frantic movement speeds up when the sight of numerous soldiers can be seen surrounding the carriage through the window. Naturally, the carriage stops abruptly and awaits the soldier’s search.

They hear another knock, but this time on the door of the cabin, but luckily for Rain, she found what she needed behind the bar at the last second. She takes a silk towel used for the decoration of the glass cups and quickly runs to Noah.

“Put this on quick!” Noah doesn’t move, so instead Rain wraps the cloth around his eyes and orders, “Pretend that you’re blind, I’m going to have to talk our way out of this. If they find out where we came from we could maybe get away with being arrested, but if they find out who you are we’re as good as dead.”

Noah remains silent as Rain puts her finishing touches on the knot.

At this very moment, the door to the cabin slowly opens and an Eiyalazonian Captain enters saying,

“Pardon the intrusion.”

Rain is frozen in fear as she thinks about what she needs to say to get them out of this.

All things considered however, they need a miracle.

----------------------------

A rather large, red headed man is walking with a couple men through the hallways of a facility in the most southern part of La’Juune. The walls have thick pipes running from one end to the other and blue lights line the roof.

The man is wearing a La’Juutian winter coat that has a fur hood; thick black pants are tucked into shin high steel-toe boots that clang loudly on the ground with each step. He is obviously a man of rank just by the air he gives off.

A deep frown resides on his face and the two men behind him look nervous as they follow his fast paced walk.

The three cut to the right and enter a large storage room filled to the brim in a maze-like fashion with metal cargo boxes. These boxes likely carry weapons and other metals like tools and utensils. The lights in this room are red and it really gives off an eerie feeling as the freezing temperature causes the breath of the three men to plume out of their mouths like a heavy smoke.

After making their way through a pathway between a couple cargo boxes, they come upon a grizzly sight. Four men lay dead on the ground, blood splattered all over the place and separated limbs are scattered across the room.

“They were found like that not too long ago sir.” One of the men shoddily reports.

The other one adds, “We have no way of knowing how long they’ve been here because of the cold, if these bodies were here for more than a day they’d be frozen just like this. So it’s safe to assume this wasn’t too recent.”

The red headed man sighs and pulls a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, putting one up to his mouth he takes his lighter and lights it. Taking a big drag, he blows it out and remains silent.

One of the men behind him turns his head as the smoke hits his nose before saying, “These four put the death total to 28 in the past few days. This is certainly the work of intruders. It’s gone past the point of one of our men going rogue and committing serial murders.”

“But who could it be? No one has ever gotten past our defense lines before; we’re way too far from Troy for it to be one of them. It must be Eiyalazo.” The other man added.

The red haired man blows a big puff of smoke out and calmly asks, “Do you guys believe in ghosts?”

“Ghosts?” They both answer quizzically.

The red haired man shakes the hand holding his cigarette and continues in an almost annoyed manner. “Yes ghosts, ghouls, goblins, phantoms, whatever the fuck you wanna call it. Do you believe in them?”

“U-Uh... Sure?”

“Not really?”

They both answer differently at the same exact time.

“Hmmm...” The red haired man scratches his chin in wonder. “That’s interesting... I remember when I was a kid I was always afraid of those kinds of things. Wanna know why?”

The two men don’t answer but the red haired man continues anyway.

“Because I couldn’t kill them. Seriously, it took me a while to get over something like that. I mean, most people are afraid of things like bears, sharks, wolves, shit like that; but how can you be afraid of living things if you could kill them? Do you get what I’m saying?”

“Yes sir.” The men reply, going along with it as if to avoid trouble.

“Good.”

He takes his big boot and steps on one of the severed heads on the ground, he leans his upper body on his leg as he continues to speak.

“Cause I really don’t like things I can’t kill. Especially if that thing has a conscience of its own and I can’t kill it; that takes all the fun out of life right? Not being able to die is a waste of existence. So in turn, that was the reason why I was afraid of ghosts.”

By now, the man is putting so much weight on the almost frozen head that the skull is beginning to crack and make a horrible squishing sound.

But he pays no mind to the disturbing noise as he continues, “What if the person or persons that are killing off my men in such a fashion are actually phantoms? What do we do then?”

“I’m sorry sir, but I don’t think that a ghost is behind this.”

“Shut up, didn’t you just say that you believe in them?”

“No sir, that wasn’t me.” he replies as he points to the other man standing next to him.

“Oh yeah, all of you background characters look the same nowadays.” he said, picking at his ear and turning to the other man. “Since you believe in ghosts. I gotta ask, are you afraid of them?”

Fearing that this is some kind of trick question, the man decides to answer honestly, “No I’m not, they can’t actually touch me or anything so there’s nothing to be scared of.”

The red haired man stomps all of his weight down on the severed head and flattens it, sending frozen bits of brain sliding across the smooth metal floor.
He then flicks his cigarette at the man and the cherry explodes off his face, causing him to back up in reflex. That’s when the red haired man sends his fist into the nose of the so-called ‘background character’, causing his body to slam into one of the metal cargo boxes and fall to the ground.

The red haired man doesn’t stop there, with the same boot that crushed the skull of the severed head, he stomps on the man with all his might as he shouts.

“Are you implying that I’m some kind of pussy who’s afraid of something that you aren’t!? Huhhhh!?!?”

His eyes twitch as a twisted smile surfaces on his face.

The other man retreats back in shock as the blood coming from his downed comrade’s head squirts up and splashes onto his face. The sound of meat being pounded reaches his ears as he watches the red haired man stomp the other to death in horror.

“Do I seem weak to you!? Do I seem afraid!? Hahahahahaha, you stupid fuck!”

The red haired man gives him one last square kick to the face and stops his assault, he takes a deep breath as his smile becomes calm and a gentle laugh leaves his throat. He pulls out another cigarette and lights it up, while blowing out a puff of smoke he says rather calmly considering he had just beat a man to death,

“All kidding aside, who the fuck actually believes in ghosts?”

He walks off and exits the blood stained cargo room, but not before addressing the other man who’s frozen stiff with shock.

“Let’s go, it’s about time we find the real culprit behind these killings.” The red haired man starts to laugh, “I’m looking forward to getting my hands on those real life phantoms.”

The only man left standing in the room of dead people slowly follows him, more afraid now than ever before he answers,

“Y-Yes sir... Captain Red Spektor.”

--------------------------

In a dark room sits Allia and Celestia, two of the Ten Knights of La’Juune.

They are huddled in a thick blanket together drinking alcohol out of a little flask in order to stay warm. The room’s temperature is below freezing and if one’s not careful their strength could be sapped in a few seconds.

“We’ve been here way too long for my liking. We should’ve made a more direct assassination plot, killing off these soldiers is becoming more of a drag each day.” Allia said as she stands to her feet and takes a gander at her wristwatch.

“I guess we could have tried that, but realistically; there are over 150 soldiers stationed here at this weapons plant. It’s best to kill off as many of them as possible without being seen before we jump right into another battle with one of those monsters.” Celestia smoothly replied.

Allia sighs, she then looks up at the roof in the corner of the dark room they are in and sees a vent that’s making a loud blowing noise.

“It’s just that if things continue on the pace we’re going, it’ll be another couple weeks before we can finally get out of here. Travelling through those vents periodically in order to get from one place to the next is time consuming.”

“Well what did you expect? If we got careless and happened to be in those vents at the wrong time we’d be baked to death. All the hot air comes from the volcano below the plant, the vents periodically bring in that air. This place was built here specifically for the hot magma below the plant to be used to mold the weapons being made and to heat the entire place. Without using the volcano’s heat, this place would be below zero and impossible to occupy.”

“It’s a good thing we know when the ducts open up and release the hot air. It didn’t take all too long to figure out.”

“That’s right!” Celestia smiles and taps her head with her knuckle, “I’m a genius after all! These kinds of calculations are nothing.”

“I don’t think it’d be that hard even for a regular person.” Allia says under her breath.

She sighs and walks over to a rather small cargo box in the middle of the room, she uses a pocket knife to pick it open and takes a gander inside.

“What are you doing?” Celestia asks.

“I’m looking for arrows so I don’t run out. This place makes all the weapons for the La’Juutian military, there’s bound to be plenty of arrows stored in one of these boxes.”

“Hmm, I’d think you'll most likely find the arrowheads only. We’re at the bottom of the world; I don’t recall seeing any trees around here that could’ve been used to make the shaft.”

“Huh? What are these?” Allia asks in wonder.

“Ooh was I right!? Nyahaha I knew it, I’m so smart!”

“No you’re wrong.”

“Haah?”

“Come here, take a look.”

In Allia’s hands are little metal cigar shaped balls. At least that’s what they see them as; anyone from a certain time frame in the past would instantly recognize them as bullets. Bullets that have an aerodynamic tip and a shell carrying gunpowder behind it.

“What do you think it is?” Celestia asks.

“You are the genius aren’t you!? You tell me!”

“I’ve never seen one of those in my entire life. Here, let’s try this.”

She gets up and walks to another one of those cargo boxes, this one is much bigger than the other. The two of them both pry it open and what comes tumbling out are dozens, if not hundreds of rifles.

“Whoah!”

“Don’t tell me that all these boxes are filled to the brim with these weird things?”

“I don’t get it, I’ve never seen one of these in La’Juune before. And I don’t even know what these would be used for...” Allia says, folding her arms across her chest in deep thought. “This confirms our suspicions, the weapons plant has betrayed us and is selling weapons to outside countries that are looking to take advantage of the aftermaths of this war.”

This has always been a worry for the three world powers of Troy, Eiyalazo, and La’Juune. Once the war is over, the losers and even the winners will be vulnerable to smaller country’s attacks. All they need is for some of them to unify and they could create a force strong enough to rival the three great nations.

It would seem that Noah has predicted this would happen all along, this is the main weapons plant for all of La’Juune, and the biggest plant in all of the world for that matter.

When everything was going smoothly it was business as usual, but when the weapons started to reach the soldiers at the Capital at a much slower pace, it became obvious that something was wrong. That’s when he acquired the information that there was a ‘Devil's Pawn’ residing in these walls and it is likely that the pawn is trying to sabotage La’Juune in order to fulfill Satan’s desires.

“That makes our job a lot easier, it completely eliminates doubt. Killing off our own soldiers was a bit discouraging before.”

“I agree, but now that I know that they are creating mysterious weapons in order to weaken us, they are enemies of La’Juune.”

The sound coming from the vents stops and the temperature in the room drops even further, Celestia hops up a cargo box and pokes her head in.

Her voice echoes when she says, “We’re good. It’s time to get a move on.”

“Right.”

Allia grabs their things and quickly jumps up into the vent to join her comrade on this dangerous assassination mission.

Little do they know how important it is that they stop the distribution of bullets and guns; if they don’t, it is more than likely that the face of the world will once again be shifted in the direction of disaster due to mankind's ability to find more convenient ways to kill each other.

Just like it was in the past.

--------------------------

“Shut up, there’s no way you’re the King of Troy.” said Ebihara Seiri while sitting on a booster seat in order to stay eye to eye with Zurvick, who is on the other side of the table.

Joining them on the table is Lennox, Haas, and London Stott.

The four have met in order to lead a rebellion against the hostile takeover of Sturgess.

In this large wine cellar room along with them are dozens of others socializing as well.

“Why’s that?” Zurvick asks.

London uses his middle finger to push up his glasses when he answers, “Because the King is supposed to be dead.”

“Did you guys hear that from Sturgess? I’m sure he twisted it around to make it seem like I died in order to fool all the citizens into hopelessness. Well let me tell you, I’m alive and well, and once the people know that, they’ll join us in our rebellion.”

“You’re missing the point here.” London completely ignored Zurvick’s high and mighty speech.

“Huh?”

“You’re supposed to be dead because our leader is the one that killed you.”

“...What?”

Seiri elbows him and says, “Are you stupid? The people of this city can’t know our identities! It’ll blow this whole thing up!”

Lennox sighs and agrees, “She’s right, wasn’t the whole point of keeping our identities hidden so the people of Troy can savor their victory knowing that no one helped them?”

“What are you people talking about..?” Zurvick asks, his hands that were once laid flat on the table have molded into clenched fists without him realizing it.

London puts his hand up to keep the others from speaking, all the while continuing to address Zurvick. “Our leader Jeffrey Durbin had stabbed you, and then if I recall correctly, you went into the burning Ballroom to save whoever you could when it exploded, killing everyone inside.”

Zurvick’s eyes grow wide as he hears this explanation.

London slightly smiles as he notices this and continues, “That explosion was caused by this little one here.”

He pats Seiri on the head and she hisses at him.

Paying no mind to her, he continues.

“She’s the youngest in our military and the only one under the required age limit. Want to know why? She’s our greatest chemical physicist, the liquid that she carries in her flasks is highly combustible, blowing something like a 700 year old castle was nothing.”

“S-So you’re saying that...”

“That’s right.” Seiri interrupts, “The flask full of alcohol I gave you was a bomb, it’s not harmful if you drink it though. It probably got you super drunk right?”

London glares at Zurvick with his empty black eyes and asks, “So tell me, if you’re the King, what would you think about having us lend you a hand?”

This sets off a trigger in Zurvick, he lunges across the wooden table and grabs on to London’s collar, violently lifting him in his direction.

“You bastard! All of those people! Do you have any idea how many people died that night!?”

London hasn’t even flinched, Zurvick is much bigger than he is, a normal man would have at least batted an eye.

But not London, he coldly continues his stare as he says, “1,873 people to be exact. Plus the amount of destruction caused to the city of Tronoble. The entire place was just about demolished.”

“YOU!!!”

The rage in Zurvick turned to fire upon hearing him so casually say that.

“Since you probably don’t know what exactly happened that night, allow me to inform you that it was only ten of us who caused such devastation.”

“...What?”

“The Ten Knights of La’Juune were the only soldiers who attacked the city.”

“I-Impossible.”

“With that in mind, let me ask you. Divide the number of dead Trojans by the number of the La’Juutian soldiers responsible for their deaths, and what do you get?”

“.....”

“That’s right, a lot. So what if I told you that four of those ten Knights are all present here at this table, at this very moment?”

That’s when Zurvick notices it, Haas has two small swords pointed directly at two of his vital points. Lennox has a weapon directly under his throat, and even Seiri has a steak knife pointed at the soft spot under his chest cavity.

London stays straight faced as he asks one more question, “What do you think your odds of survival are?”

Zurvick backs off and sits back in his seat, even though he’s reluctant, he’s not dumb enough to take on four of the most elite soldiers in the world.

“So what are you people doing here?”

“We’re trying to stop the war.”

“Don’t tell me, once you're done aiding the Trojan rebellion you plan to take over in the shadows?”

“Not at all, no need for conspiracy theories. Once the mission here is done, it’s on to the next. That’s just the way it is for us.”

Zurvick can’t believe something as far-fetched as this. Having the La’Juutian Knights, who had just sacked Tronoble and killed off almost two thousand people, helping the Trojan citizenry retake the country sounds ridiculous.

“You saw a man with tremendous power back in Tronoble, correct?” London asks.

Still a little wary of this whole thing, Zurvick slowly answers, “Y-Yeah, he was covered in black smoke.”

Just by remembering that, it sent a cold chill down his spine.

“Very good. That’s all I needed to hear from you.”

London faintly smiles and relaxes his posture, leaning back into his chair.

This was all just a way for him to find out if Zurvick was telling the truth about his identity.

Considering the way he reacted when London told him of the night of the ball, and how much he knew about it, London has deduced that Zurvick actually survived that whole ordeal somehow.

Though he wonders how Jeffrey was careless enough to let him survive in the first place, he is glad he did, because this will certainly help their mission in the long run.

“You passed my test, King Zurvick, so sit back and stay calm, I'm going to tell you everything you need to know. Consider it an apology from King Noah.”

-----------------------

“Wow I’m actually home.” Ash said in awe as she took her first step into the Capital city of Troy.

It’s been over a year since she’s been here due to her time in the army. There’s so much she misses about this place, the fresh air, the perfect snow-capped mountain scenery, the beautiful white castle. All of this overruns her with nostalgia, she takes a deep breath and the feeling is accompanied by the relentless pounding of determination brewing in her chest.

Of course she wants to stop and see the sites, along with her parents, and do other things now that she’s home, but this is not the time. She needs to find Noah’s Knights so she can join them in taking the country back from Sturgess’ control.

Even though she can’t forgive the Knights for what they’ve done in Tronoble, she won’t shy away from what she has to do. She has promised to aid in ending this war, and in order to do that she must put her personal feelings aside.

In her hand is a piece of paper with an address on it, the address is to the headquarters of the rebellion. She rushes quickly, checking streets and making turns accordingly to the directions until she reaches it. However, she is immediately overrun with skepticism when she sees that the building is just a regular old style barber shop.

It’s one of those kinds of two story buildings where the business is downstairs, whilst the owner of the place lives and sleeps upstairs.
These kinds of businesses are very popular, especially in Troy, because due to high property taxes, it costs much more to own a business in a separate location. Most shops in the Capital city are just like this one, and this is the reason why she is so dejected upon her arrival here.
She was expecting something much more out of the ordinary.

Ash takes a deep breath and walks in, and just like what the sign outside says, it’s a regular old barber shop. Four barbers are cutting their customer’s hair as if this was a normal business, she double checks her address to see if she walked in the wrong place but it only confirmed her position.

“U-Um...” she mutters, trying to find something to say to get one of the busy barber’s attention.

One of the barbers stops the clean shave he’s giving a man with a razor and addresses her, “You know, women don’t normally come in here for haircuts.”

The barber glances at one of his colleagues and gives him a head nod, he then turns back to Ash and asks, “Are you looking for a shave?”

“Whaaa!? Do I look like I need a shave!?” Ash replies, bewildered as to why he asked something like that.

She then puts her hand on her face, the area right under her nose to be exact and gasps.

“Could it be that I have a mustache!?”

She nervously checks and to her relief finds that her face is hair free and as smooth as it should be.

The barbers all collectively sigh and one tries to shoo her off by saying, “Alright nevermind, this is a barbershop for men. So go on and get out of here.”

Offended by the way this whole interaction went, she puffs her chest out and declares, “I’ll have you know that I’m a Captain in the Trojan army! I don’t want to be talked to like I’m some kind of stray dog.”

Things grew eerily silent after she stated that; the barbers all glared at her with the look of death on their faces.

And that’s when she feels it, something cold pressing up against her neck.

One of the barbers is standing behind her, holding a razor blade to her throat.

She knows that one flick of his wrist will paint the walls with her blood so she doesn’t make any sudden moves.

“Tell us Captain... whose side are you on?” The man with a razor asks threateningly.

“I’m on Troy’s side.” she replies smoothly.

“I don’t know if you realize this or not, but there are two sides of Troy now. The side allied with the Queen, and the side allied with the General. Which is it?”

Ash slightly frowns and repeats herself in a manner as if she's stating the obvious,

“Troy’s side.”

The man sighs and drops his razor, with those two words he knows exactly who she is loyal to.

“You should have said that earlier.”

“I’m sorry, but I was under the impression that this was a normal barbershop.”

“Since you’ve found your way here you should know that this isn’t a normal barbershop. When we asked you if you needed a shave you were supposed to say ‘A Trojan cut’. It’s our password.”

“I kind of joined the game late so I didn’t get the memo. I thought you were just trying to insult me.” Ash replies, scratching her head a little embarrassed.

“Nonetheless, you’re here to meet with our leaders right? Then come with me.”

The barber walks to the corner of the room just past the large mirror used for the customer's view of their haircut and leans down. On the black and white tile floor is a little rope, he pulls it up and a set of stairs leading down to a hallway can be seen.

“Go down.” he instructs, “Walk through the hallway and knock three times on the door, someone will open it and you’ll find what you need in the basement.”

“Okay.”

Ash heads down and the man’s voice is once again heard, “Don’t come back up this way, there’s a back door that leads to a back alleyway, someone will show you out.”

“Thanks.”

The latch shuts behind her and she is left alone in the dark hallway, the door is about twenty feet away and she lightly slaps herself on the cheeks to boost her determination.

“Alright, here I go.”

-----------------------------

“That’s a lot to take in...” Zurvick said in disbelief.

London has just told him everything about Noah’s plans, and all that goes along with it. Starting with the mysterious disappearance of his daughter and the others, all the way to the ‘Devil’s Pawns’ that are being controlled by Satan. Such a story was so far from his mind that he is having trouble comprehending just what all this means.

“We had problems coping with the facts as well, but you and I have both seen these strange powers firsthand so believing it shouldn’t come too hard for you.”

“That’s not necessarily the problem here, sure it’s a shock that Sturgess has those powers, it explains why he was able to accomplish a hostile takeover so easily. But what’s really hard to believe is that La’Juune really doesn’t have my daughter... I was certain it was you guys.”

“It’s reasonable to think that we’ve staged this whole thing, but we’re just as confused as you are. Now that we know it isn’t Eiyalazo, a far deeper mystery lies behind their disappearances. It’s Noah’s firm belief that the man who bestowed the powers unto all of those people is the key to unraveling it and getting them back. That being said, our reason for fighting each other is no longer there.”

“But Purgatory? And the Devil? I mean, this is insane.”

“I agree, I was never too keen on religion. To be perfectly honest I had always thought it was just some story made up to make the lives of desperate people easier. But this is our reality now, this is who we are actually fighting. Are you able to put aside your grudge against us and help?”

Zurvick takes a deep breath and looks away, he is still trying to wrap his mind on all this, it isn’t an easy feat to fully believe in what they are saying.

He stands up off his chair and asks, “Can I take a moment to get my head straight?”

“Of course, if you want some fresh air then go on outside through the backdoor. Haas will lead you out.”

Haas gestures to Zurvick to follow him and the two head to the door behind the bar to get outside. They exit the basement and leave the others sitting there.

“That went well.” said London as he tilted his glasses up.

Seiri sighs in exasperation, to her, that totally didn’t go well at all.

“Can we really trust that guy? He can’t possibly be the King can he?”

“He’s the King alright, that I’m sure of.”

Lennox nods his head and agrees, “Yeah I don’t think he was lying. Besides, there’s no reason to lie now, if he wants his country back he’ll have to join us and do whatever it takes.”

“Geez this is becoming a hassle, we weren’t supposed to tell anyone except for the Queen about any of this. The plan is already veering off track.” Seiri moans.

“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that, if Noah knew the King was alive all along he’d make us inform him of the truth anyways. Let’s just improvise on this one.”

“Then what do we do next?” Lennox asks as he pulls out a mirror and looks at himself.

London reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a rolled up piece of paper, he unravels it on the table and replies, “This is our battle plan for the rebellion; we’ve already gathered enough people to pull this off. But...” He takes a feathered pen and circles a spot in front of a line that signifies the allied forces, in that circle he writes ‘KING’ in bold letters. “This time, the King will be leading in our place.”

“I take it we should inform the others? Once we go public with this news, the battle officially starts. Sturgess' men will do anything it takes to find him, I bet they'll even start arresting people en masse for even spreading this info. We won't have a choice but to start our offensive before they get a chance to declare martial law on the citizens.” said Lennox.

“We do have the guy who makes all the newspapers for the Capital on our side. We can use him to do it.”

“Yeah, this is a perfect way to unite the city and waver the resolve of those loyal to General Sturgess. An uprising of sorts is needed in order for our rebellion to be victorious; this is the perfect trigger for that.”

“Well first thing’s first, we should at least let all the guys in this room know.” Lennox puts away his mirror and runs his fingers through his hair in order to make sure he looks good for his address.

But before he can make his speech, he is interrupted by a sound coming from the door.

Knock-Knock-Knock

London lets out a sigh and gestures to someone to go answer the door.

He turns to the others and says, “I guess one more person can join us for the big announcement.”

------------------------------

Elise Whittier and Jeffrey Durbin are attending a welcoming party for the King and Queen at the Eiyalazonian Castle.

They are in a large dining hall that’s twice the size of anything that borders on necessity. That’s the way this country works, they pride themselves on overdoing things just to one up their rivals.

What’s amazing about this hall is that the pillars any other normal castle would use as a frame base is not made out of stone, but rather they are planted sequoia trees that have been smoothed out and glazed over with wax, giving it a distinct shine.

All around them are expensive items, whether it’s the dresses or suits the patrons wear, or the table clothes made of the finest linen. Everything in this hall could be stolen and hawked for a good price at the local pawn shop.

The atmosphere is stuck up and snooty and the two Knight's discomfort is written all over their faces. If one looked closely it’d be obvious that they don’t belong.

“Damn, I hate this shit.” Jeffrey says under his breath as he politely waves to a woman walking by.

“Tell me about it, I haven’t even seen any cute girls here.” Elise replies in a disappointed tone.

“Yeah, not one girl under eighteen around he---- Wait a second... How did I just get pulled into your pace!?”

“Oooh so you have the same eagle eyes as me I see!” An antagonizing smile forms on her face, “Though I gotta say, you should keep those thoughts to yourself since you’re a man. You could get in some serious trouble for that.”

“Don’t talk to me like I’m some kind of lolicon! I’ve just been around you way too much, you’re rubbing off on me, you pervert!” He then puts his two index fingers together to form a cross and points it at her. “Evil person be gone! Go away!”

Elise grabs one of his fingers and twists it violently. “Hey now don’t overreact on me just because you’re insecure about your sexual preferences.”

“That’s not true! I’m a normal straight guy who likes women his age and older!”

“Never trust a man so overly defensive.”

In the process of her assault on Jeffrey’s finger, something catches her eye out in the distance of the room.

“Huh?”

Prince Dice is standing alone, leaning up against the wall with a horrid frown tainting his brow. He is glaring at something, and following his eyes she sees that his gaze is directed at the King and Queen who are sitting at a large table happily socializing with party goers.

“That Prince, he hasn’t stopped glaring at his parents since they got back.”

“So you noticed too huh? I guess it’s true, he really is going to kill his own parents in order to make that girl love him... kind of pathetic don’t you think?”

Elise releases him and shrugs her shoulders. “I happen to think it could be seen as romantic.”

“There’s nothing romantic about it at all. If that kid succeeds then the world is totally fucked, we need to take him out at all costs.” Jeffrey responds, a strong tinge of seriousness in his tone.

“I know, but it really is a shame. He most likely isn’t the same as he was before the pentagram was put on his hand. He’s being manipulated from the shadows by somebody and we’re going to kill him for it.”

“Don’t tell me you actually feel sorry for him? It’s his own damn fault in the first place for being a loser who couldn’t even get the girl he likes to notice him. Fuck that guy.”

Elise turns to him and puffs her cheeks, “That was super mean.”

“Well it’s not like I’m a nice guy.”

Elise sighs, she takes a look at herself in the ridiculous white dress she’s wearing and says, “I’d normally fight you more on your lack of empathy, but I’m beyond the point of my patience breaking. I just want to get the hell out of here so I can get out of these clothes and as far away from this stuffy environment as possible.”

Jeffrey folds his arms and nods his head in agreement, and continues that even when Elise finishes her statement.

“And also, I wanna get my hands on Seiri and rub her silky white smooth body all over until I’ve had my fill. Ahhhnn~ and then I’ll take off her little teddy bear underwear and throw on some hot lingerie and start licking her!!”

Jeffrey smiles and while still nodding his head says, “Yeah that’d be nice------ Hahh!? Where did that come from!? I will not allow you to do that!!”

By now Elise is wiggling around creepily as drool drips from her mouth. “Huuahahah you not only have the same eagle eyes as me, but the same sense of fantasy!”

“No I don’t! You had changed the subject way too fast and it caught me off guard!”

“Ohohoh liar!”

“You do realize that it’s just as creepy for a woman to have these fantasies as a man right!? Just what kind of demon are you!?”

He again holds his two index fingers out in a cross and begins to chant something under his breath. His incantations carry no effect on Elise as her perverted thoughts continue in her mind and it shows on her face.

Shifting his attention away from her to keep himself from falling for her antics, he notices that Dice, who was being a wall-rat just a few moments ago has now left his position.

He didn’t want to lose sight of him because an occasion such as a party where a lot of people are present is a good time to carry out an assassination. He frowns as he scours through the hundreds of people in the room.

Elise catches this and stops her perverted dance and joins him.

With two sets of eyes they quickly spot Dice walking intently towards the King and Queen.

“Shit! Is he actually going to do it now!?” Jeffrey asks as he reaches into his coat pocket and grabs onto a small dagger he is carrying just in case of an event like this happening.

Elise has one in her stocking but can’t reach for the weapon without causing a scene, she’ll hold off until absolutely necessary.

“This is bad, I’d rather have my own weapon fighting against a monster like that Prince.”

The two keep walking, weaving through people in an attempt to cut Dice off from reaching his parents.

Jeffrey keeps his eyes forward when he says, “We’re going to have to do something. At the first sign of him doing anything that threatens the safety of the King and Queen we’ll stab him in the back if we need to.”

“Understood.”

The two walk on a collision course with Dice; intensity rises with each step as the thought of what’s to come lays itself out in front of them. This will very likely be the decisive moment in both Satan’s and Noah’s plans; if things don’t go well, there’s no telling what might happen to the landscape of the world.

All of this danger looms over the heads of King Gile and Queen Diana without them even knowing it.

Dice reaches for something in his pocket and it becomes obvious that the threatening motion in which Jeffrey talked about is occurring. The fast paced walk of he and Elise turn into a sprint; and the world turning moment they are so worried about will unfold as a result of the actions they take at this very second.

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| Back to [[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 3|Movement on the Chessboard (Part 3)]]
| Return to [[Dantega|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
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</noinclude>

Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 4

2021-11-27T21:14:14Z

Deck of cards:

Chapter 47: Their Rebellion

(PART 1)

Noah and Rain sit in a horse drawn carriage travelling eastward on a road in what seems to be an area completely void of human activity. After a twelve hour train ride to the border, the two had proceeded onto a scheduled carriage to take them across the border to Eiyalazo.

All around them are nothing but rolling hills of green grass and the paved road they are on makes its way through them in delicate ups and downs.
The red oak carriage is enclosed and rather large, it takes six horses to pull it and the chauffeur holding the reins is secluded outside in order to give the passengers their privacy. On the inside is a red suave seat that wraps around the entirety of the cabin, and the walls even hold fine art. The bar in the corner for drinks really gives it the extra tinge of first class needed for royalty.

To put it simply, this carriage is the horse drawn version of a limo.

However, the face Rain is making shows that all these amenities mean nothing to her at all, she has her arms folded in a combative manner and wears a light frown.

“Don’t give me that look.” Noah says when he feels her demeanor weighing on him.

“What did you think I’d say when all the sudden you told me that we’re going to Eiyalazo? You didn’t even give me a reason why.” Rain replied.
“Aren’t you excited that you get to go back home?”

“Not really, there’s nothing for me here.”

“I’m sure there is someone at home that means something to you. Stop being so pessimistic and look forward to it.” Noah said, he didn't even turn his head to address her when he said that.

Rain clicks her tongue and is left thinking about what he just said to her, and that’s when Prince Dice just so happens to unintentionally pop in her head. She had almost completely forgotten about him due to the events of recent weeks. The last time she saw him he had succumbed to the poison of anger and hate he was overcome with.

Understanding that just recently she was in the same position, and was miraculously saved by the right hand of Noah, she figures that he is still consumed by it.

She begins to worry about him, and she feels a strange pressure in the pit of her chest as she looks at the back of her hand and zones out on the area where the pentagram once was.

“Putting my feelings on the matter aside, you can at least tell me what we’re supposed to be doing once we get there.” she said, her gaze still fixed on her hand.

“We’re going to try to stop this war. We now know where our abducted loved ones are, there’s no reason why the war should continue if none of our countries are responsible for their disappearance.”

“You certainly know there’s no way they’d buy an explanation like that. It would be a ridiculous thing to explain to them, they’d think you’re crazy.”
“I’ve already planned for such an occasion...” Noah holds out his right hand and finishes, “God and his Son had to use miracles to convince people of their existence, so I’m going to have to do the same.”

“Then what about Troy?” she asks, “Wouldn’t they need to be involved in stopping this war too?”

Noah holds his index finger up as he quickly answers, “They will be informed as soon as the rebellion reinstates Queen Lelaine as ruler of the country. With that bastard Sturgess at the helm and under the control of Satan, he’d certainly continue the war even if everyone were to suddenly return tomorrow.”

Rain sighs, she understands why he would wait out the results of the rebellion, but is worried about the success of the whole situation in Troy.

“You have a lot of faith in Troy’s citizens if you have based your plans off of their victory.”

“You’re right, I do, with four of my Knights and people like Ash leading the charge to take the country back, I’m very confident in their success”

Finding herself perplexed by the confidence of his declaration, she still can’t help but feel a sense of security in it; she has seen the Knights work firsthand and knows just what kind of person Ash is.

“I’ll believe in them as well then… let’s do our job here in Eiyalazo and get this war over with.”

Rain hasn’t seen Gile and Diana in quite some time and wonders how they will receive her considering she failed miserably in Tronoble and fell captive to La’Juune. Showing up with La’Juune’s King isn’t going to help her cause either, so she is a little hesitant to show her face.

“When is our scheduled meeting time?”

“Meeting time?”

“You know, like what day are we supposed to meet with the King and Queen?”

Noah looks at her in a bewildered fashion as if he has no clue what she is talking about.

“There’s nothing like that going on.”

“...Hah? Are you stupid!? We’re already past the border and you’re telling me the King and Queen don’t even know you’re coming!?”

“Well yeah, if they knew I was coming there’s a good chance that they’d try to kill me before I even got there.”

“What the hell do you think a regular Eiyalazonian soldier would do if he caught you trying to sneak in!?”

“Calm down, I already have two Knights stationed at the castle in the Capital posing as members of the Royal family. We’re going to be smuggled in by them.” he replied coolly and without any worry at all in his tone.

Rain throws her hand over her face in disappointment, she can’t believe that they are going about this in such a hap-hazard way.

“I have a feeling that this isn’t going to go as smoothly as you think it is, Noah. You shouldn’t have rushed this kind of thing.”

“...I had no choice.” Noah replies.

The way he said that blanketed the cabin in tenseness. It's obvious those words meant something, and the weight of the air in the cabin felt like weights placed on Rain's shoulders.

Rain wants to ask what he meant but is interrupted by Noah’s sudden violent coughing.

He doesn’t slow down or stop after a few moments and Rain pulls a handkerchief out of her pocket and hands it to him.

“Here use this... You’ve been pretty damn sick the last week or so, you really should’ve waited until you got better so you could have planned this out properly.”

Noah takes the white handkerchief and coughs into it, it is a deep and painful sounding cough that one makes as if there is something clogged in their chest.

Rain looks away out the window so she can give him his space while he clears his throat.

Noah finally stops and it takes a few moments for him to catch his breath, he glances down at the handkerchief he was just coughing into and sees that the white cloth has been stained with a black ink like liquid.

He folds it up and puts it into his pocket as he wipes the remaining black liquid from his lips with his sleeve.

Talking into his arm, he mutters, “I had no other choice... I don’t have much time left.”

“Excuse me?”

“It’s nothing.”

A knock is heard on the window connected to the chauffeur's seat used by the driver to communicate to the passengers if needed. Judging by the intensity of the knock it seems pretty urgent, so Noah reluctantly gets up and opens it.

“We have a big problem, your majesty!” The chauffeur shouts anxiously, “Eiyalazonian soldiers straight ahead!”

Noah sighs and sits back down in his seat, leaning back nonchalantly.

Rain on the other hand, turned blue with fright upon hearing the news.

This is extremely bad, a carriage holding the most hated man in the world is rolling defenselessly into enemy territory. There’s no telling what the average soldiers would do to him if they were able to put their hands on him.

Rain hurriedly searches throughout the cabin for something, her frantic movement speeds up when the sight of numerous soldiers can be seen surrounding the carriage through the window. Naturally, the carriage stops abruptly and awaits the soldier’s search.

They hear another knock, but this time on the door of the cabin, but luckily for Rain, she found what she needed behind the bar at the last second. She takes a silk towel used for the decoration of the glass cups and quickly runs to Noah.

“Put this on quick!” Noah doesn’t move, so instead Rain wraps the cloth around his eyes and orders, “Pretend that you’re blind, I’m going to have to talk our way out of this. If they find out where we came from we could maybe get away with being arrested, but if they find out who you are we’re as good as dead.”

Noah remains silent as Rain puts her finishing touches on the knot.

At this very moment, the door to the cabin slowly opens and an Eiyalazonian Captain enters saying,

“Pardon the intrusion.”

Rain is frozen in fear as she thinks about what she needs to say to get them out of this.

All things considered however, they need a miracle.

----------------------------

A rather large, red headed man is walking with a couple men through the hallways of a facility in the most southern part of La’Juune. The walls have thick pipes running from one end to the other and blue lights line the roof.

The man is wearing a La’Juutian winter coat that has a fur hood; thick black pants are tucked into shin high steel-toe boots that clang loudly on the ground with each step. He is obviously a man of rank just by the air he gives off.

A deep frown resides on his face and the two men behind him look nervous as they follow his fast paced walk.

The three cut to the right and enter a large storage room filled to the brim in a maze-like fashion with metal cargo boxes. These boxes likely carry weapons and other metals like tools and utensils. The lights in this room are red and it really gives off an eerie feeling as the freezing temperature causes the breath of the three men to plume out of their mouths like a heavy smoke.

After making their way through a pathway between a couple cargo boxes, they come upon a grizzly sight. Four men lay dead on the ground, blood splattered all over the place and separated limbs are scattered across the room.

“They were found like that not too long ago sir.” One of the men shoddily reports.

The other one adds, “We have no way of knowing how long they’ve been here because of the cold, if these bodies were here for more than a day they’d be frozen just like this. So it’s safe to assume this wasn’t too recent.”

The red headed man sighs and pulls a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, putting one up to his mouth he takes his lighter and lights it. Taking a big drag, he blows it out and remains silent.

One of the men behind him turns his head as the smoke hits his nose before saying, “These four put the death total to 28 in the past few days. This is certainly the work of intruders. It’s gone past the point of one of our men going rogue and committing serial murders.”

“But who could it be? No one has ever gotten past our defense lines before; we’re way too far from Troy for it to be one of them. It must be Eiyalazo.” The other man added.

The red haired man blows a big puff of smoke out and calmly asks, “Do you guys believe in ghosts?”

“Ghosts?” They both answer quizzically.

The red haired man shakes the hand holding his cigarette and continues in an almost annoyed manner. “Yes ghosts, ghouls, goblins, phantoms, whatever the fuck you wanna call it. Do you believe in them?”

“U-Uh... Sure?”

“Not really?”

They both answer differently at the same exact time.

“Hmmm...” The red haired man scratches his chin in wonder. “That’s interesting... I remember when I was a kid I was always afraid of those kinds of things. Wanna know why?”

The two men don’t answer but the red haired man continues anyway.

“Because I couldn’t kill them. Seriously, it took me a while to get over something like that. I mean, most people are afraid of things like bears, sharks, wolves, shit like that; but how can you be afraid of living things if you could kill them? Do you get what I’m saying?”

“Yes sir.” The men reply, going along with it as if to avoid trouble.

“Good.”

He takes his big boot and steps on one of the severed heads on the ground, he leans his upper body on his leg as he continues to speak.

“Cause I really don’t like things I can’t kill. Especially if that thing has a conscience of its own and I can’t kill it; that takes all the fun out of life right? Not being able to die is a waste of existence. So in turn, that was the reason why I was afraid of ghosts.”

By now, the man is putting so much weight on the almost frozen head that the skull is beginning to crack and make a horrible squishing sound.

But he pays no mind to the disturbing noise as he continues, “What if the person or persons that are killing off my men in such a fashion are actually phantoms? What do we do then?”

“I’m sorry sir, but I don’t think that a ghost is behind this.”

“Shut up, didn’t you just say that you believe in them?”

“No sir, that wasn’t me.” he replies as he points to the other man standing next to him.

“Oh yeah, all of you background characters look the same nowadays.” he said, picking at his ear and turning to the other man. “Since you believe in ghosts. I gotta ask, are you afraid of them?”

Fearing that this is some kind of trick question, the man decides to answer honestly, “No I’m not, they can’t actually touch me or anything so there’s nothing to be scared of.”

The red haired man stomps all of his weight down on the severed head and flattens it, sending frozen bits of brain sliding across the smooth metal floor.
He then flicks his cigarette at the man and the cherry explodes off his face, causing him to back up in reflex. That’s when the red haired man sends his fist into the nose of the so-called ‘background character’, causing his body to slam into one of the metal cargo boxes and fall to the ground.

The red haired man doesn’t stop there, with the same boot that crushed the skull of the severed head, he stomps on the man with all his might as he shouts.

“Are you implying that I’m some kind of pussy who’s afraid of something that you aren’t!? Huhhhh!?!?”

His eyes twitch as a twisted smile surfaces on his face.

The other man retreats back in shock as the blood coming from his downed comrade’s head squirts up and splashes onto his face. The sound of meat being pounded reaches his ears as he watches the red haired man stomp the other to death in horror.

“Do I seem weak to you!? Do I seem afraid!? Hahahahahaha, you stupid fuck!”

The red haired man gives him one last square kick to the face and stops his assault, he takes a deep breath as his smile becomes calm and a gentle laugh leaves his throat. He pulls out another cigarette and lights it up, while blowing out a puff of smoke he says rather calmly considering he had just beat a man to death,

“All kidding aside, who the fuck actually believes in ghosts?”

He walks off and exits the blood stained cargo room, but not before addressing the other man who’s frozen stiff with shock.

“Let’s go, it’s about time we find the real culprit behind these killings.” The red haired man starts to laugh, “I’m looking forward to getting my hands on those real life phantoms.”

The only man left standing in the room of dead people slowly follows him, more afraid now than ever before he answers,

“Y-Yes sir... Captain Red Spektor.”

--------------------------

In a dark room sits Allia and Celestia, two of the Ten Knights of La’Juune.

They are huddled in a thick blanket together drinking alcohol out of a little flask in order to stay warm. The room’s temperature is below freezing and if one’s not careful their strength could be sapped in a few seconds.

“We’ve been here way too long for my liking. We should’ve made a more direct assassination plot, killing off these soldiers is becoming more of a drag each day.” Allia said as she stands to her feet and takes a gander at her wristwatch.

“I guess we could have tried that, but realistically; there are over 150 soldiers stationed here at this weapons plant. It’s best to kill off as many of them as possible without being seen before we jump right into another battle with one of those monsters.” Celestia smoothly replied.

Allia sighs, she then looks up at the roof in the corner of the dark room they are in and sees a vent that’s making a loud blowing noise.

“It’s just that if things continue on the pace we’re going, it’ll be another couple weeks before we can finally get out of here. Travelling through those vents periodically in order to get from one place to the next is time consuming.”

“Well what did you expect? If we got careless and happened to be in those vents at the wrong time we’d be baked to death. All the hot air comes from the volcano below the plant, the vents periodically bring in that air. This place was built here specifically for the hot magma below the plant to be used to mold the weapons being made and to heat the entire place. Without using the volcano’s heat, this place would be below zero and impossible to occupy.”

“It’s a good thing we know when the ducts open up and release the hot air. It didn’t take all too long to figure out.”

“That’s right!” Celestia smiles and taps her head with her knuckle, “I’m a genius after all! These kinds of calculations are nothing.”

“I don’t think it’d be that hard even for a regular person.” Allia says under her breath.

She sighs and walks over to a rather small cargo box in the middle of the room, she uses a pocket knife to pick it open and takes a gander inside.

“What are you doing?” Celestia asks.

“I’m looking for arrows so I don’t run out. This place makes all the weapons for the La’Juutian military, there’s bound to be plenty of arrows stored in one of these boxes.”

“Hmm, I’d think you'll most likely find the arrowheads only. We’re at the bottom of the world; I don’t recall seeing any trees around here that could’ve been used to make the shaft.”

“Huh? What are these?” Allia asks in wonder.

“Ooh was I right!? Nyahaha I knew it, I’m so smart!”

“No you’re wrong.”

“Haah?”

“Come here, take a look.”

In Allia’s hands are little metal cigar shaped balls. At least that’s what they see them as; anyone from a certain time frame in the past would instantly recognize them as bullets. Bullets that have an aerodynamic tip and a shell carrying gunpowder behind it.

“What do you think it is?” Celestia asks.

“You are the genius aren’t you!? You tell me!”

“I’ve never seen one of those in my entire life. Here, let’s try this.”

She gets up and walks to another one of those cargo boxes, this one is much bigger than the other. The two of them both pry it open and what comes tumbling out are dozens, if not hundreds of rifles.

“Whoah!”

“Don’t tell me that all these boxes are filled to the brim with these weird things?”

“I don’t get it, I’ve never seen one of these in La’Juune before. And I don’t even know what these would be used for...” Allia says, folding her arms across her chest in deep thought. “This confirms our suspicions, the weapons plant has betrayed us and is selling weapons to outside countries that are looking to take advantage of the aftermaths of this war.”

This has always been a worry for the three world powers of Troy, Eiyalazo, and La’Juune. Once the war is over, the losers and even the winners will be vulnerable to smaller country’s attacks. All they need is for some of them to unify and they could create a force strong enough to rival the three great nations.

It would seem that Noah has predicted this would happen all along, this is the main weapons plant for all of La’Juune, and the biggest plant in all of the world for that matter.

When everything was going smoothly it was business as usual, but when the weapons started to reach the soldiers at the Capital at a much slower pace, it became obvious that something was wrong. That’s when he acquired the information that there was a ‘Devil's Pawn’ residing in these walls and it is likely that the pawn is trying to sabotage La’Juune in order to fulfill Satan’s desires.

“That makes our job a lot easier, it completely eliminates doubt. Killing off our own soldiers was a bit discouraging before.”

“I agree, but now that I know that they are creating mysterious weapons in order to weaken us, they are enemies of La’Juune.”

The sound coming from the vents stops and the temperature in the room drops even further, Celestia hops up a cargo box and pokes her head in.

Her voice echoes when she says, “We’re good. It’s time to get a move on.”

“Right.”

Allia grabs their things and quickly jumps up into the vent to join her comrade on this dangerous assassination mission.

Little do they know how important it is that they stop the distribution of bullets and guns; if they don’t, it is more than likely that the face of the world will once again be shifted in the direction of disaster due to mankind's ability to find more convenient ways to kill each other.

Just like it was in the past.

--------------------------

“Shut up, there’s no way you’re the King of Troy.” said Ebihara Seiri while sitting on a booster seat in order to stay eye to eye with Zurvick, who is on the other side of the table.

Joining them on the table is Lennox, Haas, and London Stott.

The four have met in order to lead a rebellion against the hostile takeover of Sturgess.

In this large wine cellar room along with them are dozens of others socializing as well.

“Why’s that?” Zurvick asks.

London uses his middle finger to push up his glasses when he answers, “Because the King is supposed to be dead.”

“Did you guys hear that from Sturgess? I’m sure he twisted it around to make it seem like I died in order to fool all the citizens into hopelessness. Well let me tell you, I’m alive and well, and once the people know that, they’ll join us in our rebellion.”

“You’re missing the point here.” London completely ignored Zurvick’s high and mighty speech.

“Huh?”

“You’re supposed to be dead because our leader is the one that killed you.”

“...What?”

Seiri elbows him and says, “Are you stupid? The people of this city can’t know our identities! It’ll blow this whole thing up!”

Lennox sighs and agrees, “She’s right, wasn’t the whole point of keeping our identities hidden so the people of Troy can savor their victory knowing that no one helped them?”

“What are you people talking about..?” Zurvick asks, his hands that were once laid flat on the table have molded into clenched fists without him realizing it.

London puts his hand up to keep the others from speaking, all the while continuing to address Zurvick. “Our leader Jeffrey Durbin had stabbed you, and then if I recall correctly, you went into the burning Ballroom to save whoever you could when it exploded, killing everyone inside.”

Zurvick’s eyes grow wide as he hears this explanation.

London slightly smiles as he notices this and continues, “That explosion was caused by this little one here.”

He pats Seiri on the head and she hisses at him.

Paying no mind to her, he continues.

“She’s the youngest in our military and the only one under the required age limit. Want to know why? She’s our greatest chemical physicist, the liquid that she carries in her flasks is highly combustible, blowing something like a 700 year old castle was nothing.”

“S-So you’re saying that...”

“That’s right.” Seiri interrupts, “The flask full of alcohol I gave you was a bomb, it’s not harmful if you drink it though. It probably got you super drunk right?”

London glares at Zurvick with his empty black eyes and asks, “So tell me, if you’re the King, what would you think about having us lend you a hand?”

This sets off a trigger in Zurvick, he lunges across the wooden table and grabs on to London’s collar, violently lifting him in his direction.

“You bastard! All of those people! Do you have any idea how many people died that night!?”

London hasn’t even flinched, Zurvick is much bigger than he is, a normal man would have at least batted an eye.

But not London, he coldly continues his stare as he says, “1,873 people to be exact. Plus the amount of destruction caused to the city of Tronoble. The entire place was just about demolished.”

“YOU!!!”

The rage in Zurvick turned to fire upon hearing him so casually say that.

“Since you probably don’t know what exactly happened that night, allow me to inform you that it was only ten of us who caused such devastation.”

“...What?”

“The Ten Knights of La’Juune were the only soldiers who attacked the city.”

“I-Impossible.”

“With that in mind, let me ask you. Divide the number of dead Trojans by the number of the La’Juutian soldiers responsible for their deaths, and what do you get?”

“.....”

“That’s right, a lot. So what if I told you that four of those ten Knights are all present here at this table, at this very moment?”

That’s when Zurvick notices it, Haas has two small swords pointed directly at two of his vital points. Lennox has a weapon directly under his throat, and even Seiri has a steak knife pointed at the soft spot under his chest cavity.

London stays straight faced as he asks one more question, “What do you think your odds of survival are?”

Zurvick backs off and sits back in his seat, even though he’s reluctant, he’s not dumb enough to take on four of the most elite soldiers in the world.

“So what are you people doing here?”

“We’re trying to stop the war.”

“Don’t tell me, once you're done aiding the Trojan rebellion you plan to take over in the shadows?”

“Not at all, no need for conspiracy theories. Once the mission here is done, it’s on to the next. That’s just the way it is for us.”

Zurvick can’t believe something as far-fetched as this. Having the La’Juutian Knights, who had just sacked Tronoble and killed off almost two thousand people, helping the Trojan citizenry retake the country sounds ridiculous.

“You saw a man with tremendous power back in Tronoble, correct?” London asks.

Still a little wary of this whole thing, Zurvick slowly answers, “Y-Yeah, he was covered in black smoke.”

Just by remembering that, it sent a cold chill down his spine.

“Very good. That’s all I needed to hear from you.”

London faintly smiles and relaxes his posture, leaning back into his chair.

This was all just a way for him to find out if Zurvick was telling the truth about his identity.

Considering the way he reacted when London told him of the night of the ball, and how much he knew about it, London has deduced that Zurvick actually survived that whole ordeal somehow.

Though he wonders how Jeffrey was careless enough to let him survive in the first place, he is glad he did, because this will certainly help their mission in the long run.

“You passed my test, King Zurvick, so sit back and stay calm, I'm going to tell you everything you need to know. Consider it an apology from King Noah.”

-----------------------

“Wow I’m actually home.” Ash said in awe as she took her first step into the Capital city of Troy.

It’s been over a year since she’s been here due to her time in the army. There’s so much she misses about this place, the fresh air, the perfect snow-capped mountain scenery, the beautiful white castle. All of this overruns her with nostalgia, she takes a deep breath and the feeling is accompanied by the relentless pounding of determination brewing in her chest.

Of course she wants to stop and see the sites, along with her parents, and do other things now that she’s home, but this is not the time. She needs to find Noah’s Knights so she can join them in taking the country back from Sturgess’ control.

Even though she can’t forgive the Knights for what they’ve done in Tronoble, she won’t shy away from what she has to do. She has promised to aid in ending this war, and in order to do that she must put her personal feelings aside.

In her hand is a piece of paper with an address on it, the address is to the headquarters of the rebellion. She rushes quickly, checking streets and making turns accordingly to the directions until she reaches it. However, she is immediately overrun with skepticism when she sees that the building is just a regular old style barber shop.

It’s one of those kinds of two story buildings where the business is downstairs, whilst the owner of the place lives and sleeps upstairs.
These kinds of businesses are very popular, especially in Troy, because due to high property taxes, it costs much more to own a business in a separate location. Most shops in the Capital city are just like this one, and this is the reason why she is so dejected upon her arrival here.
She was expecting something much more out of the ordinary.

Ash takes a deep breath and walks in, and just like what the sign outside says, it’s a regular old barber shop. Four barbers are cutting their customer’s hair as if this was a normal business, she double checks her address to see if she walked in the wrong place but it only confirmed her position.

“U-Um...” she mutters, trying to find something to say to get one of the busy barber’s attention.

One of the barbers stops the clean shave he’s giving a man with a razor and addresses her, “You know, women don’t normally come in here for haircuts.”

The barber glances at one of his colleagues and gives him a head nod, he then turns back to Ash and asks, “Are you looking for a shave?”

“Whaaa!? Do I look like I need a shave!?” Ash replies, bewildered as to why he asked something like that.

She then puts her hand on her face, the area right under her nose to be exact and gasps.

“Could it be that I have a mustache!?”

She nervously checks and to her relief finds that her face is hair free and as smooth as it should be.

The barbers all collectively sigh and one tries to shoo her off by saying, “Alright nevermind, this is a barbershop for men. So go on and get out of here.”

Offended by the way this whole interaction went, she puffs her chest out and declares, “I’ll have you know that I’m a Captain in the Trojan army! I don’t want to be talked to like I’m some kind of stray dog.”

Things grew eerily silent after she stated that; the barbers all glared at her with the look of death on their faces.

And that’s when she feels it, something cold pressing up against her neck.

One of the barbers is standing behind her, holding a razor blade to her throat.

She knows that one flick of his wrist will paint the walls with her blood so she doesn’t make any sudden moves.

“Tell us Captain... whose side are you on?” The man with a razor asks threateningly.

“I’m on Troy’s side.” she replies smoothly.

“I don’t know if you realize this or not, but there are two sides of Troy now. The side allied with the Queen, and the side allied with the General. Which is it?”

Ash slightly frowns and repeats herself in a manner as if she's stating the obvious,

“Troy’s side.”

The man sighs and drops his razor, with those two words he knows exactly who she is loyal to.

“You should have said that earlier.”

“I’m sorry, but I was under the impression that this was a normal barbershop.”

“Since you’ve found your way here you should know that this isn’t a normal barbershop. When we asked you if you needed a shave you were supposed to say ‘A Trojan cut’. It’s our password.”

“I kind of joined the game late so I didn’t get the memo. I thought you were just trying to insult me.” Ash replies, scratching her head a little embarrassed.

“Nonetheless, you’re here to meet with our leaders right? Then come with me.”

The barber walks to the corner of the room just past the large mirror used for the customer's view of their haircut and leans down. On the black and white tile floor is a little rope, he pulls it up and a set of stairs leading down to a hallway can be seen.

“Go down.” he instructs, “Walk through the hallway and knock three times on the door, someone will open it and you’ll find what you need in the basement.”

“Okay.”

Ash heads down and the man’s voice is once again heard, “Don’t come back up this way, there’s a back door that leads to a back alleyway, someone will show you out.”

“Thanks.”

The latch shuts behind her and she is left alone in the dark hallway, the door is about twenty feet away and she lightly slaps herself on the cheeks to boost her determination.

“Alright, here I go.”

-----------------------------

“That’s a lot to take in...” Zurvick said in disbelief.

London has just told him everything about Noah’s plans, and all that goes along with it. Starting with the mysterious disappearance of his daughter and the others, all the way to the ‘Devil’s Pawns’ that are being controlled by Satan. Such a story was so far from his mind that he is having trouble comprehending just what all this means.

“We had problems coping with the facts as well, but you and I have both seen these strange powers firsthand so believing it shouldn’t come too hard for you.”

“That’s not necessarily the problem here, sure it’s a shock that Sturgess has those powers, it explains why he was able to accomplish a hostile takeover so easily. But what’s really hard to believe is that La’Juune really doesn’t have my daughter... I was certain it was you guys.”

“It’s reasonable to think that we’ve staged this whole thing, but we’re just as confused as you are. Now that we know it isn’t Eiyalazo, a far deeper mystery lies behind their disappearances. It’s Noah’s firm belief that the man who bestowed the powers unto all of those people is the key to unraveling it and getting them back. That being said, our reason for fighting each other is no longer there.”

“But Purgatory? And the Devil? I mean, this is insane.”

“I agree, I was never too keen on religion. To be perfectly honest I had always thought it was just some story made up to make the lives of desperate people easier. But this is our reality now, this is who we are actually fighting. Are you able to put aside your grudge against us and help?”

Zurvick takes a deep breath and looks away, he is still trying to wrap his mind on all this, it isn’t an easy feat to fully believe in what they are saying.

He stands up off his chair and asks, “Can I take a moment to get my head straight?”

“Of course, if you want some fresh air then go on outside through the backdoor. Haas will lead you out.”

Haas gestures to Zurvick to follow him and the two head to the door behind the bar to get outside. They exit the basement and leave the others sitting there.

“That went well.” said London as he tilted his glasses up.

Seiri sighs in exasperation, to her, that totally didn’t go well at all.

“Can we really trust that guy? He can’t possibly be the King can he?”

“He’s the King alright, that I’m sure of.”

Lennox nods his head and agrees, “Yeah I don’t think he was lying. Besides, there’s no reason to lie now, if he wants his country back he’ll have to join us and do whatever it takes.”

“Geez this is becoming a hassle, we weren’t supposed to tell anyone except for the Queen about any of this. The plan is already veering off track.” Seiri moans.

“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that, if Noah knew the King was alive all along he’d make us inform him of the truth anyways. Let’s just improvise on this one.”

“Then what do we do next?” Lennox asks as he pulls out a mirror and looks at himself.

London reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a rolled up piece of paper, he unravels it on the table and replies, “This is our battle plan for the rebellion; we’ve already gathered enough people to pull this off. But...” He takes a feathered pen and circles a spot in front of a line that signifies the allied forces, in that circle he writes ‘KING’ in bold letters. “This time, the King will be leading in our place.”

“I take it we should inform the others? Once we go public with this news, the battle officially starts. Sturgess' men will do anything it takes to find him, I bet they'll even start arresting people en masse for even spreading this info. We won't have a choice but to start our offensive before they get a chance to declare martial law on the citizens.” said Lennox.

“We do have the guy who makes all the newspapers for the Capital on our side. We can use him to do it.”

“Yeah, this is a perfect way to unite the city and waver the resolve of those loyal to General Sturgess. An uprising of sorts is needed in order for our rebellion to be victorious; this is the perfect trigger for that.”

“Well first thing’s first, we should at least let all the guys in this room know.” Lennox puts away his mirror and runs his fingers through his hair in order to make sure he looks good for his address.

But before he can make his speech, he is interrupted by a sound coming from the door.

Knock-Knock-Knock

London lets out a sigh and gestures to someone to go answer the door.

He turns to the others and says, “I guess one more person can join us for the big announcement.”

------------------------------

Elise Whittier and Jeffrey Durbin are attending a welcoming party for the King and Queen at the Eiyalazonian Castle.

They are in a large dining hall that’s twice the size of anything that borders on necessity. That’s the way this country works, they pride themselves on overdoing things just to one up their rivals.

What’s amazing about this hall is that the pillars any other normal castle would use as a frame base is not made out of stone, but rather they are planted sequoia trees that have been smoothed out and glazed over with wax, giving it a distinct shine.

All around them are expensive items, whether it’s the dresses or suits the patrons wear, or the table clothes made of the finest linen. Everything in this hall could be stolen and hawked for a good price at the local pawn shop.

The atmosphere is stuck up and snooty and the two Knight's discomfort is written all over their faces. If one looked closely it’d be obvious that they don’t belong.

“Damn, I hate this shit.” Jeffrey says under his breath as he politely waves to a woman walking by.

“Tell me about it, I haven’t even seen any cute girls here.” Elise replies in a disappointed tone.

“Yeah, not one girl under eighteen around he---- Wait a second... How did I just get pulled into your pace!?”

“Oooh so you have the same eagle eyes as me I see!” An antagonizing smile forms on her face, “Though I gotta say, you should keep those thoughts to yourself since you’re a man. You could get in some serious trouble for that.”

“Don’t talk to me like I’m some kind of lolicon! I’ve just been around you way too much, you’re rubbing off on me, you pervert!” He then puts his two index fingers together to form a cross and points it at her. “Evil person be gone! Go away!”

Elise grabs one of his fingers and twists it violently. “Hey now don’t overreact on me just because you’re insecure about your sexual preferences.”

“That’s not true! I’m a normal straight guy who likes women his age and older!”

“Never trust a man so overly defensive.”

In the process of her assault on Jeffrey’s finger, something catches her eye out in the distance of the room.

“Huh?”

Prince Dice is standing alone, leaning up against the wall with a horrid frown tainting his brow. He is glaring at something, and following his eyes she sees that his gaze is directed at the King and Queen who are sitting at a large table happily socializing with party goers.

“That Prince, he hasn’t stopped glaring at his parents since they got back.”

“So you noticed too huh? I guess it’s true, he really is going to kill his own parents in order to make that girl love him... kind of pathetic don’t you think?”

Elise releases him and shrugs her shoulders. “I happen to think it could be seen as romantic.”

“There’s nothing romantic about it at all. If that kid succeeds then the world is totally fucked, we need to take him out at all costs.” Jeffrey responds, a strong tinge of seriousness in his tone.

“I know, but it really is a shame. He most likely isn’t the same as he was before the pentagram was put on his hand. He’s being manipulated from the shadows by somebody and we’re going to kill him for it.”

“Don’t tell me you actually feel sorry for him? It’s his own damn fault in the first place for being a loser who couldn’t even get the girl he likes to notice him. Fuck that guy.”

Elise turns to him and puffs her cheeks, “That was super mean.”

“Well it’s not like I’m a nice guy.”

Elise sighs, she takes a look at herself in the ridiculous white dress she’s wearing and says, “I’d normally fight you more on your lack of empathy, but I’m beyond the point of my patience breaking. I just want to get the hell out of here so I can get out of these clothes and as far away from this stuffy environment as possible.”

Jeffrey folds his arms and nods his head in agreement, and continues that even when Elise finishes her statement.

“And also, I wanna get my hands on Seiri and rub her silky white smooth body all over until I’ve had my fill. Ahhhnn~ and then I’ll take off her little teddy bear underwear and throw on some hot lingerie and start licking her!!”

Jeffrey smiles and while still nodding his head says, “Yeah that’d be nice------ Hahh!? Where did that come from!? I will not allow you to do that!!”

By now Elise is wiggling around creepily as drool drips from her mouth. “Huuahahah you not only have the same eagle eyes as me, but the same sense of fantasy!”

“No I don’t! You had changed the subject way too fast and it caught me off guard!”

“Ohohoh liar!”

“You do realize that it’s just as creepy for a woman to have these fantasies as a man right!? Just what kind of demon are you!?”

He again holds his two index fingers out in a cross and begins to chant something under his breath. His incantations carry no effect on Elise as her perverted thoughts continue in her mind and it shows on her face.

Shifting his attention away from her to keep himself from falling for her antics, he notices that Dice, who was being a wall-rat just a few moments ago has now left his position.

He didn’t want to lose sight of him because an occasion such as a party where a lot of people are present is a good time to carry out an assassination. He frowns as he scours through the hundreds of people in the room.

Elise catches this and stops her perverted dance and joins him.

With two sets of eyes they quickly spot Dice walking intently towards the King and Queen.

“Shit! Is he actually going to do it now!?” Jeffrey asks as he reaches into his coat pocket and grabs onto a small dagger he is carrying just in case of an event like this happening.

Elise has one in her stocking but can’t reach for the weapon without causing a scene, she’ll hold off until absolutely necessary.

“This is bad, I’d rather have my own weapon fighting against a monster like that Prince.”

The two keep walking, weaving through people in an attempt to cut Dice off from reaching his parents.

Jeffrey keeps his eyes forward when he says, “We’re going to have to do something. At the first sign of him doing anything that threatens the safety of the King and Queen we’ll stab him in the back if we need to.”

“Understood.”

The two walk on a collision course with Dice; intensity rises with each step as the thought of what’s to come lays itself out in front of them. This will very likely be the decisive moment in both Satan’s and Noah’s plans; if things don’t go well, there’s no telling what might happen to the landscape of the world.

All of this danger looms over the heads of King Gile and Queen Diana without them even knowing it.

Dice reaches for something in his pocket and it becomes obvious that the threatening motion in which Jeffrey talked about is occurring. The fast paced walk of he and Elise turn into a sprint; and the world turning moment they are so worried about will unfold as a result of the actions they take at this very second.

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| Return to [[Dantega|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 5|(Part 2)]]
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</noinclude>

Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 3

2021-11-27T20:59:53Z

Deck of cards:

(PART 3)

“Finally, we can get out of here.” Allia said in an exasperated tone upon reading from a letter she holds in her hands.

Both she and Celestia are resting on a comfortable leather couch in the living room of an over-sized mansion.

“Is that the new order?”

Allia waves the piece of paper in her hand that was just delivered by the postman through the mail slot in the door.

“That's right. It says we're supposed to go all the way to the southern point of La'Juune.”

“Ughh... It snows down there, I hate cold weather.”

“Well at least we can start moving again, I need to shake these injuries off.”

Celestia agrees and adds, “Yeah, who would've thought that Edward guy would be such a monster? Those powers really are frightening, I've never had that much of a problem fighting anyone before that. I mean jeez, I actually got hurt!”

Celestia has her left arm in a sling and she is waving it around to prove her point. Allia, who has a gauze pad on her cheek that totally cramps her pretty face even more than her hair style, is also quite amazed at how difficult the battle was.

The battle between them lasted for hours and they had barely won with their limbs intact, but the end result worked in their favor. After the fight with Edward they decided to wait in the man's house for further orders. Living leisurely in such a mansion has its benefits, free food and expensive liquors were a great reward to treat themselves with, but in the end they are still soldiers, if there isn't any action they become uneasy.

“To think that there are more of them hanging around the world right now... I hope the others will be okay, especially King Noah since one of them is alone with him in the castle.” Allia said worriedly.

“I'm sure they'll be fine, we can't really afford to stress about them when we have another mission to head to. Our focus should be on ourselves.”

“Oh wow look at you, so serious.”

“Hee hee I have my moments every now n' then.”

Celestia stands to her feet and picks up her shield with her available arm, she heads toward the door and urges, “Come on let's go, we have more of these 'chess pieces' to knock out of the game.”

-----------------------

“Take off my clothes?” Lelaine asks in shock.

That wretched smile is still on Sturgess' face as he demands, “That's right, do it now.”

Knowing what he intends to do, her fear is piqued. If she denies him, it is likely she will be ripped to pieces by his strange power. But if she agrees, she could live through this and wait for a chance to get control of the country back.

This is when she asks herself, just what is the true cost of either decision?

On one hand, she'll die and her country will forever be doomed to be run by a man who committed a great betrayal. On the other hand, she herself would have committed a great betrayal, not to the country of Troy, but to herself and her beloved husband.

She is still clinging to the belief that he is alive and can walk through her door at any moment to embrace her in his arms, she wonders if she’d be able to accept his touch if she goes through with doing whatever it takes to survive.

This overbearing thought of guilt and disgust for herself overruns the fear of death, she'd rather die than be forced into Sturgess’s sick fantasy.

This makes the decision easy, she frowns and looks at him with so much hate it feels though her glare alone could start a fire.

“No.”

Sturgess' face twitches abnormally upon hearing that.

“No??” He takes a few steps towards her and the pitch of his voice rises, “No!?”

He takes a large step forward and smacks her with the back of his hand, she flies back and lands on top of his bed. He leaps on top of her and with that frightening right hand he grips the girth of her neck, cutting off any kind of air to her lungs.

His eyes contort as he looks down on her blue face.

“No!? It’s always a no with you, isn’t it!?”

“Kkkkkaahhh!?”

“It was no when the candidacy for me to be your husband was denied back when we were kids! It was no when I offered myself to help you bear your second child in case Zurvick was killed. And it's no now! Even when I can kill you with a snap of my finger, it is still a no!?”

As if he wants any kind of reaction from her, he loosens his grip on her neck to let her speak.

Lelaine gasps for air and keeps that strong scowl pointed in his direction when she answers, “It's always going to be no... I'd rather die than ever have to look at you again. You'd be better off killing me now, because I'll fight you until you are forced to kill me.”

She's saying this as an off hand threat in case Sturgess still wants to force himself on her, she has already come up with a dozen ideas that would make his attempt an extremely painful and unpleasant one.

Sturgess understands this and it enrages him, he postures up and sends a clenched fist directly down on her forehead.

THUNK!!

The solid sound of a fist hitting a skull resonates through the room. The punch had so much force that they both bounced a couple feet in the air as a result of the springs in the mattress contracting and retracting so quickly under their weight.

Lelaine's vision becomes hazy but she refuses to let herself lose consciousness in fear of him doing something to her in her sleep. A steady pressure pulsates with each heartbeat on her forehead and she knows a large knot is quickly forming.

However, she can't be thinking of such a thing at this moment because the black smoke that she saw floating around him has returned. It spreads from the back of his clenched right fist and into both of his ears from behind his head.

It's only then that she realizes that the person she is dealing with is no longer human; this is a monster that has revealed its evil in the plain of day. He is a man possessed by a demon, and that demon decided to show itself by coming out of the back of Sturgess' hand.

It is in the form of a black snake with blood red eyes.

Lelaine instantly recognizes it as the snake from her dream that offered to bring her daughter back safely at the beginning of the war.

The snake slithers up to her face and begins to speak, “You can see now what power you had refused by rejecting me. You could have had your daughter back, and your husband would still be alive if only you had allowed me to help you.”

“.....”

Perhaps still hazy from the punch, Lelaine is left speechless at such a spectacle, this more or less feels like reality has left the world around her.

“But now look at you, quite literally on your deathbed because of your stubbornness. A sad fate for such a proud woman.”

It looks like the snake’s presence is causing Sturgess some pain, he holds his wrist in discomfort above the hand that the snake is coming out of.

“Let me handle this snake.” he says as his face contorts.

“Then handle it by killing her, she plays no part in our glorious future.”

The snake begins to shrink back into the pentagram, its eyes looking directly into Lelaine's as though it is mocking her on its way back in.

That is, until Sturgess does something that catches both the snake and Lelaine by surprise.

“I refuse.”

“..?” The snake stares at him awaiting an answer.

“This woman... If I kill her, she wins, I won't let that happen.”

“Then have your fun with her and get rid of her. We don't have time to be wasting on---”

“SHUT UP!!”

The snake recoils back in shock as Sturgess continues.

“Forcing myself onto her eliminates all the pleasure... I want her to have to beg for my mercy, I want her to beg for my touch!”

“You fool, that won't ever happen!”

“Of course it will! All she needs is a little persuasion!”

A sick and scheming smile forms on his face, it's the kind of smile that would be nightmare fodder for children. This twisted smile is cast down upon the helpless Lelaine; the worst of thoughts rolling through her head as she contemplates what he means by 'persuasion.'

The snake shouts angrily. “You’d dare defy me now!? I have given you everything you've ever wanted have I not!?”

“If I kill her now, then what you have given me is not enough!!”

Sturgess slams his left hand into the snake and it disappears into the pentagram. But the black smoke still continues to float around him as he grabs Lelaine by the arm. He pulls her up to her feet and forcefully leads her out of the room.

Outside in the hallways and all over the castle grounds, the fighting of the coup still continues, but it would seem that the side allied with the Queen is on its last leg. Just by judging how the military men around her don't even care to give her a second glance tells her so.

“...Where are you taking me?” she asks weakly.

“To a place that will break that resolve of yours.”

After walking through a hidden passageway and down a long flight of dimly lit stairs, they reach their destination, a dark and dank dungeon that wreaks of mold and rusted metal.

Sturgess opens up the only jail cell in the room and roughly throws her in, he slams the cell gate shut and declares, “You're going to stay in here until you beg me to take you out.”

Trying to feign strength despite her devastation, she resolutely replies, “You should have listened to that snake and killed me, I’m never going to let you beat me.”

“Hahahaha! You say that now but what will you say in a couple week's time when you haven't eaten anything for days? What will you say when your throat is so dry that you begin to choke on your tongue? What will you say when you haven't seen even a hint light for weeks? What will you say then, hah!??”

She can feel his spit land on her face from behind the bars, this man that she grew up with is so far gone that he’s become a complete stranger.

She gives him a look of pity and leans against the uncomfortable stone wall.

The ten by ten cell has a toilet area and a small hay area in the corner for a bed with a little ratty blanket over it. On the walls are the graffiti of men who were once held captive in this little cell before her. Most of them are just scribbles but some are the etchings of how many days or weeks they have spent until they abruptly stop, the sudden end of which almost certainly meant their deaths.

She takes a deep breath and tells herself she can handle the dimly lit and windowless room as long as it takes in order for her to prove him wrong.
She looks at him in disgust and shouts, “Go die, you pathetic man.”

Sturgess takes her insult in stride and smiles menacingly, he turns away from her and begins to head up the stairs to head out of the secret door. But not before blowing out every lit candle on the way.

Lelaine hears the door opening and slamming shut, it is then that she realizes it is so dark in the cell that she can't even see her hands. The eerie quietness is occasionally broken by the sound of water dripping from the ceiling or the rats squealing as they squabble over bread crumbs left behind by former prisoners.

This place, and this moment, is the definition of solitary confinement; and unlike the fairy tales, there is no knight in shining armor coming to save this damsel in distress. Her knight had been declared dead just a week earlier.

These looming thoughts can't keep her down though, she lays down on the straw bed and says to herself,

“Hurry up and come home, Zurvick...”

Just saying his name fills her heart with hope.

That is...

Until the darkness becomes so all encompassing that she doesn't even know if her eyes are open or closed...

Until the overwhelming smell of death in this dungeon finally reaches her nose in that terrible silence.

Until the knot forming on her head pulsates in pain with each heartbeat, with her senses dulled in the darkness if feels as though the very pain in her head is taking on a the physical form of a monster eating her alive slowly.

The sensations of the dreadfully dark world she has been thrown into assault her; it causes her to experience something she had so successfully thwarted until this very moment.

Doubt...

--------------------------

It has been two weeks since the Ten Knights of La'Juune were sent out to numerous locations across the world in order to defeat the mysterious power holders Noah calls the 'Devil's Pawns'.

It has also been two weeks since Ash was taken in by Noah for reasons unbeknownst to her.

Ash has yet to find out that she has been living only a few doors down from a certain girl who would go to any lengths to kill her.

Confused about her extended stay, Ash finds herself becoming restless at her disposition. She had come here to see if she had the will to forgive Noah, but with each passing day she finds it more difficult to do so. He is cold and demeaning, and has an uncouth smug air about him that makes her frustrated by the mere sight of him.

Any conscious attempt to hide her disdain for him has been abandoned as she glares at the back of Noah's head like she is trying to make it explode.
Noah feels this pressure squeezing the area between his ears and asks, “Is there something in my hair?”

“Nothing but your ego.” Ash huffs.

The two of them are walking along the green grass of the castle grounds, earlier on in the day, Noah woke her up to tell her that they'd be going out on a picnic for lunch. She doesn't know what the occasion is but she had no choice but to oblige due to the situation she is in.

Though the company is bad, the day itself is perfect. Puffy white clouds spot the clear blue sky and their shadows occasionally block the gentle rays of sunlight. From atop the castle grounds, the skyline of the magnificent city stretches for as far as the eye can see, framing the green of the grass with a golden hue.

“For such a nice day, you sure are in a bad mood. You haven't gotten used to me at all these past two weeks?”

“Hmph! You are intolerable. I'd be surprised if anybody could get used to you.”

Noah doesn't reply immediately and keeps on walking until he reaches a table resting directly in the center of a grassy field.

“Here we are, have a seat.”

He pulls out one of the chairs from under the table and gestures to her to sit.

She scowls at him and sits down forcefully as she folds her arms combatively, intentionally trying to make him feel uncomfortable.

“You look like a pouting child.” Noah said as he took his seat on the other side of the table.

He then gestures to one of the butlers standing nearby, and the man walks up and pours them both a glass of wine.

“Do you like to drink, Captain Alworth?”

Ash isn't a drinker at all, in fact, she has never even had a sip. But with it presented to her like this, she considers the offer and finds the thought of it appealing when the pleasant memories of Zurvick drinking the Queen's homemade liquor comes to mind. She’s reminded of how he indulged himself whenever he was stressed, or celebrating one his numerous small victories or stroke of fortune.

This makes her smile and grab the cup to take a sip.

“Bugguaahh!?” she yelps as she spits it out. “This stuff tastes terrible!”

“I don't think I've ever seen that much of a bad reaction to wine, I’m finding it hard not to laugh.”

“S-Shut up! It's not my fault I'm not used to alcohol!”

“Then why'd you drink it then?”

“Because---”

Ash stops herself from speaking by putting her hand over her mouth. She doesn't want to get overly comfortable with him so she decides to go back into her bad mood and lean back in the chair with her arms folded once more.

“You were about to say something weren’t you?” Noah asks while grabbing one of the sandwiches prepared on the table and taking a bite of it.

She hisses at him and turns her head away.

“Since I already have you here, I'm quite interested to find out why you have surrendered yourself to an enemy country...”

“Can't you guess?” she replies sarcastically as if implying that he is the all knowing King who should already have the answer.

It would seem that Noah didn't catch that and began to answer her question seriously.

“If I were to try and guess... I would assume it has something to do with the death of your King.”

She flinches and Noah continues.

“But it can't be as simple as you wanting to get revenge for your leader, to come after me personally means that...'' He takes a sip of his wine and comes to a conclusion, “You were with him the Night of the Ball, you know it was I who ordered him dead.”

Ash frowns and viciously slides the back of her hand across her side of the table, the wine and the food that were so elegantly prepared fly off and it makes quite the loud noise.

She then grabs a knife that was supposed to be used for cutting bread and lunges it toward Noah's throat as she jumps atop the now bare table.
Noah doesn't even flinch as the knife gets closer and closer to him.

It's as though he knew it was going to stop.

Ash doesn't take the final step needed to exact her revenge and instead has stopped herself just a few inches away.

The butler who poured the wine likely has some kind of battle experience because he unhesitatingly pulled a dagger out of one of his pockets and is holding it to Ash's neck with a straight face.

In such an intense situation, the only one calm is Noah.

With his hand he gently pushes the butler away and orders him to stand down.

Noah is now staring directly into Ash's crimson eyes and ignores the vibrating knife being held shakily in her hands that's only an inch away from his throat.

In as cold of a way as possible he says to her, “Just being present in Tronoble that night isn’t enough to bring about this look in your eyes. The truth is, you are in love with him aren't you?”

Ash talks through her teeth as she replies, “That's right...”.

“Then I was correct in assuming that you wouldn't kill me.”

“..?”

“If it was for a political reason, you wouldn't hesitate to slit my throat. But since you came here out of love for that man, you came to try to forgive me in his honor... Hmmm, you are much stronger than a certain girl I know who's going through somewhat of the same situation.”

“You know... I'm having a real hard time with this.” she says in a low voice, “King Zurvick... He was so much better of a man than you, I can't stand the fact that a person like you gets to live while he had to die! How is that fair!?”

With his index finger he pushes the knife away from him.

Tears are welling up in her eyes as she lets him move away the weapon that was so close to enacting her revenge.

“You're right, it isn't fair,” he replies.

“Then why!? Why can't I kill you!? Why can't I decide what I want to do and do it!? Why can you, who's such a rotten person, know yourself so well and I can't!?"

Ash is yelling out her insecurities without much thought put into what’s causing her to do so. She speaks from pure emotion, feeling like she has become a fence sitter since Zurvick had died. Not being able to decide what to do or what kind of person she really is has made her resent herself.
Looking at somebody like Noah, who makes his decisions instantly and acts upon them with an almost inhuman level of confidence adds to her anger. She doesn't want to be just like him, but under certain circumstances like dealing with the aftermath of a death, why is it that he gives off the vibe that he can deal with it better than she can?

Is it because he is better than her?

Is it because she is weak minded?

Just what kind of person is Ash anyway?

What is there to live for now that her most important person is gone?

Just what is she supposed to do now?

Noah can sense those questions rolling through her mind as she fights back the decision to kill him.

What he knows that she doesn't, is that those questions all fall under one answer, and it is the most difficult one to find.

Noah stands to his feet and puts his hand on her shoulder. “I can only speak for my rotten self. Those questions you have for yourself can only be answered by you... whenever you manage to find it, you'll be fulfilled.”

“I-I can't do that on my own.” the stunned Ash said while zoning out on the knife in her hand.

“Then I'll help you.”

Ash quizzically looks up and stares at him.

“...You’ll what?”

“I won't be able to give you the answer that you need, but I can help you find it.”

Having the King of La'Juune offer his assistance to an enemy soldier sounds absurd to her, but he presses forward.

“I'm going to need your help with a person who is very important to me as well, so the least I can do is help you forgive me... Even if I have to take on your hate, I'll do anything I can.”

Noah begins to walk away, leaving her swirling in a dustbowl of her emotions.

Ash wants to ask why he’d do this, but she feels that whatever answer he gives would only add to her confusion. She drops the knife and stands to her feet, glaring at his back that she hates so much, and then out of nowhere she feels that it may not be so bad after all.

Once back inside the castle, the two of them reach Prince Luke's room and Noah opens the door for her. She walks in silently and then glares at him as if she wants to say something but can't find the words to do it.

“I'll have dinner sent to your room for you tonight.” Noah said with a faint smile.

He then shuts the door and the last thing he sees is the glow of concern in Ash's eyes, before the door completely shut he thought he heard her softly say,
“Wait.”

He pauses for a moment, but at the end he thinks nothing of it. He takes the key to the keyhole to lock her in but at the last second, he decides that locking her up like a prisoner isn't needed since she isn't a threat.

Noah throws the key in his pocket and turns to walk away when...

“There you are.”

Looking at the source of the voice, he finds Rain standing there with a look of displeasure on her face.

“I'd really like it if you'd stop sneaking up on me like that.”

“I don't care what you like... You said you had something that you wanted to show me, so I want to see it.”

“Oh? Could it be that you are excited about something like that? It's not a wedding ring so don't get your hopes up.”

“Don’t be stupid.” she puffs, her cheeks slightly flushed. “why would I want something like that??”

“Hahahahah, I could get used to that look on your face, Rain. But seriously, I can't show you just yet, it's not ready.”

“Fine then, I'm not gonna beg you.”

Noah is trying to lead her away from Ash’s room in order to avoid disaster. He was actually planning on revealing her to Rain today, but feels that she isn't ready to drop her revenge just yet. The only reason he brought Ash to the castle in the first place was so he could introduce the two and have it somehow result in Rain abandoning the hate that has consumed her.

The two words of 'revenge' and 'forgive' seemingly circle around Noah and he can't help but feel surrounded by the pressure of them.

The two walk along the hallway in silence until Rain holds out her hand to him.

Noah looks at her hand and then to her face and asks, “What?”

“Hold my hand, you idiot. Don’t embarrass me and leave me hanging like this.”

“I thought we got through this phase already, your power is almost gone so I don't need to hold your hand anymore.”

Rain scowls at him, she turns her head away and asks, “What if I said that I just wanted you to do it?”

Noah is certain he had heard this somewhere before, and he is pretty sure she had taken these words out of his own mouth. With this in mind, he replies by returning the favor.

“Then I'd say you're full of shit.”

Rain begins to laugh, she tries to act like him in order to jab at him and in turn he ends up acting like her to give it right back. Since her stay here at the castle she has tried to wittingly one up him multiple times but has yet to do it even once.

But, she has a secret weapon, she is still an attractive girl, this alone can outdo any form of witty words.

She grabs his hand anyway and leans her head on his shoulder, she knows this got to him because his shoulders instantly tensed up.

She smiles and in a soft chuckle she says, “Think what you will.”

Noah is genuinely confused about what is going on, he has many thoughts running through his head. However, the thought of enjoying this peaceful and carefree moment with her, even if she is only teasing him, makes him genuinely happy.

“Hey...” Rain says softly.

“What is it?”

“You know... I remember you once told me that you must be a terrible person in order to be hated so much...”

Noah sighs as if anticipating an insult.

“What about it?”

“...That's not true.”

“..?”

“You're not a bad person at all. In fact, I have grown to find you quite wonderful.”

“Are you kidding me?”

His normal sleepy expression lightens up in disbelief, he is waiting for her to say something sarcastic afterward but nothing happens. She instead says something that makes him feel like he stopped breathing for a moment.

“I'm serious.”

He can't see her face, but if he could he would probably see her blushing.

Since the war started he has likely been the most hated man in the world, he has accepted that hate and was rewarded with loneliness. It was only confirmed that he is such a despicable person when the feelings of Ash and Rain were so negative towards him. It has gotten to the point where he has just given up on trying to change his image and has chosen to embrace it as a way of protecting himself.

Noah tries to fight back a smile but it isn't working, he is overcome with happiness.

Trying to do good things and being hated while doing so is enough to destroy the toughest of men. Having the person he is trying to do good by showing her appreciation for the first time is enough for him to feel like he has stumbled upon salvation.

“Thank you...” he replies shyly.

This is a moment that both of them have yet to experience, it feels like this could go on forever and they'd enjoy every second.

And then...

Thet joy comes to an abrupt halt when he hears a voice from behind him calling his name.

“Noah, wait!”

He recognizes this voice and turns around to see Ash running down the hallway towards him wanting to say something.

(Oh no...) he thinks to himself as a cold sweat falls down his temple. (I knew I should have locked that damn door!)

He feels his arm being squeezed tightly and looks toward Rain.

Her eyes are wide open and she is glaring at Ash with a broken look that screams agony. The person who killed her father is in the castle of La'Juune, the only living source of her hate is defenselessly running towards her.

Not caring how or why she is here, Rain steadily loses all control of which way her body moves.

Her right hand that was holding Noah's left begins to shake violently, the pressure of her hate sends shock-waves up his arm so severe he's forced to let go.

Shaking off the sudden surge of pain, he quickly grabs her shoulders and shouts,

“Rain! Don't look at her! Turn away!”

But Rain's eyes never leave their target, it's as though she is some kind of robot that has locked on to something it intends to fire heat seeking missiles at. Any kind of rational thought process Rain had just a split second earlier has been eliminated and replaced by the desire for one thing...
Revenge.

Suddenly, out of the back of her right hand a black smoke comes rushing out, it zooms behind her back and begins forming what looks to be wings.
Those wings flap and

CRAAASSHH!!!!

The hallway behind her gets blown into bits.

Pieces of the wall are sent flying and the ground collapses to its lower levels. The wind sent all kinds of debris flying in a vortex through the hallway window and out of the castle like a vacuum.

The noise was so sudden that Ash fell to the ground. This black smoke and evil aura reminded her of Prince Dice of Eiyalazo. The same killing intent that flowed to her from him is felt tenfold from this girl she has never seen before.

“Rain!” Noah shouts, hoping desperately that his voice will reach her.

The delicate features of Rain’s feminine face became distorted like a plastic doll on fire. Her eyes turn from its transparent sky blue into two black pentagrams.

The sleeping hate that was thought to have been sealed has revealed itself darker than ever before.

[[Image:Dv05-chp03_img002.jpg|260px|thumb]]

“Damn it!” Noah shouts before rushing to Ash's side.

“W-Who the hell is that!?” Ash asks as Noah shields her with his body.

Trying to be as calm as possible he replies, “Rain Von Ronheim... You and King Zurvick are the ones that killed her father Ditreig.”

That name seemingly haunts Ash wherever she goes, the last time she heard that name Zurvick was killed; and now it shows up once again. The man she killed in a secret mission during a world war has brought her nothing but disaster.

How can such a man's death cause her world to change so much?

The answer is right in front of her, spewing the desire to kill under that terrible word called revenge.

Rain floats towards them and Noah takes nervous steps back, if he isn't careful they could both be blown away by one of those ferocious attacks. Thinking about how to get out of this situation is making his head spin, and to add to that, Rain opens her mouth and lets out a voice.

“What did you expect would happen if Rain saw the person who killed her father standing right in front of her?”

The voice exiting her mouth is not hers, it is a deep voice of a man that is filled with the overbearing pressure of evil.

“Who are you!?” Noah inquires.

Rain's mouth again moves and the voice replies, “I am the opponent you are playing this game of chess against.”

----------------------------

“Holy shit I'm tired!” Elise says in exhaustion as she and Jeffrey finally reach the Capital of Eiyalazo.

The two of them are traveling with a convoy of numerous knights and other higher up officials. Carriages are being pulled by large white horses that are wearing decorative saddles and robes, the carriage proudly displaying the Eiyalazonian flags and colors.

“Yeah that was a pain in the ass... But who would've thought that we'd be lucky enough to stumble upon this political convoy.” Jeffrey responds while picking at his ear, “To top it off it was the one holding the two people we were sent here to protect.”

Elise takes a look at the leading carriage where the King and Queen of Eiyalazo are.

“Lucky'' is an understatement, but then again it's easy to fool people like them when pretending to be a part of the Royal family. Especially ones they haven't even met in person.”

On their way to the Capital, they stopped in a city and found out that the King and Queen were in town on a campaign to boost public morale and raise funds for the war effort. In order to get close to them, they decided to do some snooping around to find out who the local members of the Royal family were. Once they found out that it was a husband and a wife, they decided to invade their home and take their place.

As brutal as that may sound, they didn’t end up killing the couple, instead they just tied them up for a while and dropped them off somewhere random in the middle of a forest.

Part of this political campaign involves meeting all the people in person supporting the war effort, the couple whose identity Jeffrey and Elise took were on that list. It couldn't have worked out any better really, these particular Royals have never met the King and Queen in person, so there is no way that they would suspect anything.

The two of them showed the campaign sympathy and asked to join them on their way back to the Capital to continue their support. They offered a great deal of money to spend a couple days at the castle and then go back home, to which the King and Queen happily agreed to.

As of right now, Jeffery's name is Harold Berman and Elise's name is Melissa Berman, both are distant relatives of the King.

Jeffrey is definitely taking this luck in stride, crowds of people in the streets welcome them back and he waves back at them politely as if he deserves to do so.

He then shows a somewhat sour face and says, “I still can't believe this is happening though... I mean the two leaders of one of the enemy countries are right in front of us, on any given day we'd do anything to kill them. But now we are to do anything in our power to protect them, the irony sure is a kick in the balls.”

Elise agrees and leans back in the seat of the open carriage as the view of the world's most massive castle becomes closer and closer. The convoy eventually reaches the front gate and crosses the suspension bridge over the moat.

At the very front of the castle grounds, a certain young man is waiting to greet them.

This young man is immediately recognized by Jeffrey, an uneasy feeling instantly reaches his stomach as this young man's face brings back memories of a monster.

He pokes at Elise's shoulder and gestures to her to look in the young man's direction.

“Although the King and Queen may no longer be our enemy... their son is.”

------------------------------

“Y-You can't be...” Noah struggles to speak out of his dried throat.

“It’s taken a lot of work over the last thousand years, but the great God Satan has made his triumphant return to Earth.”

“I knew it! I knew it was you!”

“I’ll have to admit that I am surprised, receiving an open challenge from a simple human child like this.”

As if finding courage in the fact that he was correct, Noah confidently smiles and demands, “Did you really think now one would be here to stop you? Let her go.”

“I don’t think you understand the position you’re in, what makes you think you can do anything to stop me?”

Rain takes her hand and points it out towards Ash and Noah.

An invisible wave of energy is sent flying towards them and it is ripping the hallway apart in its wake.

Ash knows that if they take a hit from this incoming wave, they would be turned into mincemeat; she shuts her eyes instinctively and shrinks away from it.
But Noah again guards her, and with his left hand he takes the invisible energy into his hand as though it were a ball being tossed to him, and tosses it aside.

It smashes into the side of the wall and explodes in the adjacent room, ripping it to shreds.

He then takes Ash's hand and shouts, “Run!”

The two run as fast as they can whilst Rain flies in the air in haste.

“I still don't know what's going on here!” Ash yells while being dragged along.

“All you need to know is that girl is possessed by the Devil, and is trying to kill you.”

Ash easily believes him upon hearing that. She has been raised as a Catholic just like most Trojans are and the horror stories such as possessions are preached about occasionally in the pew. But once she reached a certain age she stopped taking such things to heart and drifted away from the religious beliefs of her upbringing. She still held those memories inside though, thus the reason she is able to comprehend what is going on if only just a little.

“Why is the Devil trying to kill me and not just that girl!?”

“Because that girl sold him her soul under the condition that you'd die. If he can't kill you, then the contract binding Rain's soul is nullified. On the other hand if he does kill you, Rain's soul is lost forever and he can have complete access to her body, the full power of Satan would be brought upon my country and it would likely be destroyed.”

Seeing how big of a deal her life is and how much her death would affect the world actually makes her extremely nervous.

“Then should I hide somewhere??”

“No, we're going to fight.”

“Haah!??”

The two were so deep in their conversation that before they knew it, they had entered the large and bare ballroom of the castle.

The ballroom here is at least three times bigger than the one in Tronoble; It has been used not only for balls, but even as a courtroom for popular criminal cases. For the most part however it is used for the King's speeches, especially during wartime. In fact, Noah had a speech here just a few days ago addressing some military commanders and their battalions about what to do now that the Knights were gone.

To get a proper grasp on how large the ballroom is, there were four battalions of three hundred people occupying it at the time.

The chairs they had once sat on have been removed and placed in storage so the only thing remaining is the bare smooth marble floor that seemingly stretches forever.

Rain follows them into the room and demolishes the door she had entered from with a flap of her now extremely large black wings. With the roof of the room being so high, she flies even further upwards as though she were a bird of prey stalking a rodent.

“You were able to stop my attack with your left hand… this power, tell me, how did you obtain it?”

“I'd rather have you answer my questions first.”

“Will this be an equivalent exchange?”

“If that’s what you want.”

“Then ask away.”

Noah takes a deep breath, although he feels like he has a trump card, he knows he is still dealing with a being that has been the source of mankind's dismay for thousands of years. To be confronted by such a being has him frightened, it takes all of his willpower not to show it when he asks,

“Where are they?”

“You mean the people whose absence started this war?”

“That's right.”

Satan pauses, and this leaves time for Ash to grasp the topic of discussion. She pulls on Noah's sleeve and asks, “This guy knows where Princess Trojia is!?”

“Of course he does, I am under the firm belief that it was him who kidnapped them.”

“Hahahahahaha!” Satan laughs, causing them to look puzzled. He folds Rain's arms and declares, “It's funny how you are only a few steps away from the truth, yet so far from knowing it.”

“Then tell me the truth!”

“I can't say that I'm not involved in it in any way. But this war, and those disappearances are caused by my son Damien.”

“Damien?”

“Yes, that son of mine never even told me what he was planning. To this day I still don't know his true intentions, but I'm not one to pass up an opportunity to take advantage of a situation like this. While he's dealing with 'him' over there in Purgatory, I'll take control of Earth.”

“So they’ve been sent to Purgatory... General Napoleon, my brothers, are they alright?”

A thin smile surfaces on Rain's face, it's as though Satan is taking sick pleasure in what he's about to say.

“Your middle brother Luke is dead.”

Ash, who has been just standing by feels a tight pressure in her chest upon hearing this, she has been staying in Luke's room after all. She understands the feeling of loss that comes with the death of a loved one.

Not even giving him time to soak it in, Satan demands, “Now tell me, how did you obtain the power in your left hand?”

Surprisingly, Noah only needs a deep breath to soak in the death of his brother before finding it within himself to answer calmly.

“It's an interesting story actually…” The tips of Noah’s lips rise. “Your son has made a big error... the man who gave me this power was abducted along with the rest. So in his absence, it is my job to fulfill his wish.”

“That's not good enough of an answer. This man, who is he?”

As if those words were a trigger, Noah rushes toward the sky bound Rain.

The look of Satan on Rain's face is that of confusion, and behind him he can feel the quizzical glare of Ash as well.

“In my hands, is the power to destroy you.”

“Tell me who the man is!”

Noah spreads his arms and shouts, “You’ll find out with this!”

He then slams his left hand into the ground and is catapulted up to her level.

Knocking away the shock of the situation, Satan swings Rain's right hand and sends a black beam screaming towards him.

“No, I’ll find out with this.” Satan said as his eyes rolled from Noah and onto Ash.

The beam makes an awkward bend to the right and is now heading directly toward the Trojan Captain.

Noah turns around mid flight and shouts, “Ash, get out of the way!!”

Ash quickly dives forward and the beam hits behind her, accelerating her dive by the explosion. She flies a good ten meters away and tumbles along the ground, she then takes a look and sees a massive crater behind her. No doubt she'd have been turned to dust if that thing hit her.

Noah can't stop his momentum and ends up grabbing Rain's shoulder with his left hand, and in that instant Satan becomes paralyzed.

“!?”

“As long as Ash is still alive you are nothing but a shadow of your real self. In this state, you are weak.” Noah said as the two hang in the air.

“Don't underestimate Rain's hate, you pathetic human boy! This is more than enough to kill you!”

Rain grabs his throat and begins to choke him while black smoke swirls around her arm.

Even though he is struggling to breathe, Noah smiles and explains, “You know... There isn't anything that benefits God fully from the left hand.” While saying that, he pulls her closer so he can look into her pentagram eyes. “There were angels sitting at the front, at the back, and at the right of God's seat. But nothing on the left. Jesus cured illnesses, blessed people, and performed miracles with his 'right' hand. Even the Bible was written with the right hand…”

“What?”

“My left hand has the power to deflect an evil like yours, it’s why Rain hasn’t been able to wreak havoc here in my castle this entire time.”

As if knowing what is going to happen, Rain's eyes grow large as Noah concludes.

“But in my right hand, I hold the power of the Son of God! I am no mere human, I have the power to destroy you!”

Noah takes his right hand and grabs the hand holding his neck, a sound like that of glass splintering and then breaking reverberates throughout the room.

As if being electrocuted, Rain's body jolts in many different directions as Satan screams at the top of his lungs.

“Urraaaagghhh!!! It can’t be! How is it that you have this ability!?!?”

The black smoke is sent into a frenzy and flows all over, Ash stares upwards in amazement as the gurgled screams become louder. Looking closely at Noah, she can see that there is blood flowing out of his mouth, ears, nose, and even his eyes.

The pain that Satan is going through answers the questions rolling through his mind while looking at Noah, it dawns on him that the person he is in this chess game with was given an advantage as well. He’s found himself in a game where his opponent can simply jump pieces on the board and attack his king piece without any interference.

He’s found himself competing in this sham of a game against an opponent on equal ground.

The luxury of having the power to dictate the game has been taken from him right at the first move on the chessboard.

“The man that you were talking about, it couldn't have been him!?!?”

Noah shows his blood stained teeth in an intense glare, revealing to Satan that it is exactly what he feared.

“I won’t let you survive this!” Satan yells. “You might think that you are no mere human, but your body tells me otherwise, you can’t take on Rain’s hate! It will eat you from the inside out and you will die!”

“I don't care if it kills me! You will never have her, even if it costs me my life! Now give her back!!”

The black smoke moves from its frenzied state and zooms into every opening on Noah’s face, his body writhed as the pain hits him in an avalanche.

He still musters up the strength to shout a word whose meaning only he and Satan would know.

“Check!!!”

KKSSHHHHH!!!

The electric sounding noise reaching the ears pierces the air as evidence of the pain he must be feeling.

"Ahhhhhggghhh!!!”

He lets out a ghastly yelp as blood falls from his body and splashes on the ground.

"Noah!!” Ash shouts.

But he doesn't respond, he simply twitches as the evil from Rain's hate rushes into his body like a poison.

Satan's voice begins to dissipate from Rain's mouth and he leaves Noah with final words.

“You have found yourself ahead in this game, but you won’t survive long enough to see it through.”

Rain's eyes shut and she drops her head, the wings that kept them afloat vanish and the two fall toward the hard marble floor.

With his last bit of consciousness, Noah wraps his arms around her and tilts his weight so he lands on the ground first to cushion her fall.

Knowing that a fall from that distance could be bad, Ash rushes to them as fast as she can to help them after they land. The sound of Noah's body smashing into the ground increases her leg speed, and when she reaches them, the damage has already been done.

They are both unconscious and she doesn't know who to tend to first, she pulls Rain off from atop him and holds Noah's head in her lap. In case he broke his neck in the fall, she tries to keep it as straight as possible.

She contemplates giving him CPR but when she feels him breathing without much restriction, she lightly taps him on the face and shouts his name, but no answer comes.

“Y-You...”

Came the voice of a girl who has just opened her blue eyes and is looking at her with an intense glare.

“W-Wait! This isn't what it looks like” Ash attempts to explain, gesturing with her hands to emphasize her point. “I'm not trying to hurt him!”

Unbeknownst to her, Rain was conscious during the whole ordeal, she was literally trapped in her own body as it was attempting to kill them both.

Throughout time, most possessions are just like this, otherwise the person wouldn't ever know that they were under the control of a demon in the first place.

Rain pushes Ash away from him and shouts, “Get away!”

Wrapping her arms around him, she begins to sob.

“Wake up Noah...”

He still doesn't answer.

“Wake up! I can’t depend on you if you leave me just like everyone else! You’re not allowed to make me a promise and just die like this, damn it!”

The tears fall rapidly down her face as she contemplates coping with another major loss.

What would be even worse for her is the fact that it would essentially be her fault.

The emotions of it all are just about to boil over when she feels the gentle touch of a hand wiping the tears from her eyes.

It is Noah, even with blood all over his face, he still manages to show her a smile.

“Don't worry... I have no intention of leaving you just yet.”

Rain is immediately overcome with relief, she almost can’t believe that her words actually reached him.

“Good...” She takes his hand and helps him wipe the tears off her cheek. “I’m not near ready for you to go.”

Noah gestures to Rain to sit him up and she does so.

Ash looks almost as happy as Rain to see that he is okay, and she takes a big sigh as if letting out the pressure that has been building up since this whole thing started.

He takes deep but short breaths when he addresses Ash, “I need you to listen to me...”

Sensing the seriousness of his tone, Ash replies in kind, “What is it?”

“Your role in this game is not here in La'Juune... you need to go back to Troy. Your Queen... Satan has control of someone very close to her... he needs to be stopped.”

“B-But what can I do? I can't fight something like that by myself.”

“I sent four of my Knights to the Capital of Troy specifically to fight him. They will help you.”

“Who will we be fighting?”

“General Sturgess, I'm sure you know of him.”

“Of course I do, that guy...”

Ash stands to her feet and addresses Rain.

“Your father Captain Ditreig, his dying words were warning King Zurvick about him... we were on our way back to the Capital for that very reason when Tronoble was attacked.”

“My father really did that?”

“That's right, he said he had a bad feeling about him for years... and that the only reason he gave him this information is because he felt they would always be friends, no matter what.”

Rain laughs out of her nose and looks away. “That's just like that buffoon..."

Hearing what his final words were, the familiar feeling of admiration for him returned; even disgraced and on death’s door, he remained the honorable person she had spent her whole life looking up to.

"To try to help the man who killed him... only my father would do something like that.”

“Please listen to me...” Ash said with a determined look on her face, she takes a deep breath and then bows as low as she can go. “I'm sorry! I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me one day, I truly never meant to hurt anybody!”

Rain reveals a strained smile and says something that would have never crossed her mind if it weren't for Noah.

“There's nothing to forgive... You were doing your job in a war you have no control over. I was foolish to ever bear hate towards you, my father would be ashamed of me...”

This puts both Noah and Ash in a state of disbelief, to be able to come to terms with the death of her dad so quickly after being so angry about it is amazing.

This is when Ash realizes that she ought to do the same, she gets ready to speak to Noah but he speaks before she can.

“Since we're on that topic, I must apologize too... I know I ordered the death of a great man, I wish I was smart enough to have found another way. I wish I had never made a decision that caused you and so many others so much pain, but I had to take on the burden of Rain’s hate if I wanted to find out what happened to our loved ones. I really am sorry.”

The words that Ash was about to speak were swiftly taken away with that.

All of that animosity that she held towards Noah since the Night of the Ball had built up to this point, only to be destroyed and replaced by a sense of appreciation for him.

She has learned that can do it after all, she can truly forgive Noah, the King of La’Juune for the great injustice of taking her one true love away from her.

Ash responds with a smile and heads for the exit of the ballroom.

With her back turned to them she says, “It's like Rain said... It's war.”

She turns around and raises her voice, “I couldn't protect the King, but I'd be damned if I let his wife be in harm's way without a fight. You said you would help me find the answer right? I know I'll get a better handle on myself once this whole mess is over, and perhaps then I can finally move on..."

She smiles and clenches her fists in determination.

"So let's end this war, together!”

“I see... Then go, Captain Alworth, protect everything that man stood for and find the answer for yourself.”

Ash smiles and begins to run off, but not before leaving him with some final words,

“You can call me Ash.”

------------------

Satan sits alone in the dark room with his chessboard laying in front of him.

He has an evil grin on his face when he speaks to himself, “As much as I wanted to use Rain to kill you, the raw evil that I fed to that girl now coursing through your veins should be more than enough to take care of that problem in due time.”

He rests his head on his knuckle, "And let's not forget about that friend of yours who gave you that bothersome right hand... I'll be sure to pay him a visit.”

Out of his wide grin a deep snicker starts to form, and it in turn grows into a loud laugh of confidence.

However...

There isn't much for him to be confident about, he has just lost a crucial piece in Rain on his side of the chessboard.

Not to mention, the presence of his great enemy in Purgatory, and the power of his great enemy left with Noah on Earth is something he never could have foreseen happening.

To add on to that, Dice has yet to kill his parents.

To add on to both of these problems, Sturgess has defied his orders and left Lelaine alive.

All of those together, equals a game in which he is in the process of losing, and the chessboard before him shows him that as if mocking him.

“DAMN IT!!”

Satan swings his hand and knocks the board off the table, chess pieces fly all over and the sound of the ivory pieces rolling along the ground eat at his ears. Before it was knocked down in anger, the board most certainly told him exactly what Noah had said earlier.

'Check.'

--------------------------

“Stupid London and Lennox. They shouldn't have left me alone so they could go find a hotel that's closest to the castle.” said Ebihara Seiri in a way befitting of her young age.

Standing behind her is Haas, and he is as stone faced as ever when he attempts to say,

“...I'm here...”

The two of them are walking in the Capital city of Troy in a town plaza to go shopping for food that will last them for a couple of days. She and Haas, along with London and Lennox are the Knights in charge of assassinating General Sturgess. So as of now they are in the preparation stage after having just arrived in the city a few hours earlier.

“Yeah well you don't count as anybody, you might as well be my shadow.”

Her insult flew over Haas’s head and hit a woman who just happened to be walking by; the woman doesn't know what their conversation is about but those simple words sent chills down her spine as she went on her way.

Haas would love to give her some kind of witty reply, but sadly he is physically unable to do so. All he can do is accept it.

Seiri looks around the bustling town square and changes the subject. “Really though, it's like these people don't even care that their country has been taken over from under their noses. It's just like it never happened.”

This is the typical reaction of people who are put in this kind of situation.

Of course there are ones who vehemently disagree with a political upheaval like the one that had occurred just a couple weeks earlier. But for the most part, people will just go along with it in order to protect themselves and the lifestyles they live. To them, it's already done, no amount of protest would change the situation they’ve found themselves in, it’s much easier to mind their own business and blindly hope for the best.

“It never ceases to amaze me how Noah can predict these things though, I'm pretty sure he sent the four of us here specifically to end this revolution of sorts before the coup even started.”

This is in fact true, the others were paired in groups of two because they would only be fighting one enemy at a time. However, he sent four here because chances are they would be fighting whole battalions. He even gave them orders ahead of time to try to create a disturbance in the general population and form a rebellion so the people of Troy would be involved in winning the country back.

This way, no one would even know that it was La'Juune that actually saved them.

The thought of saving the people of Troy's pride in the process of completing this mission wasn't even overlooked in his plans.

“...Yes...” Haas agrees.

“Alright then, let's not let his efforts go to waste. We'll get this shopping done and start gathering people for a rebellion. Hehehehe, I see a lot of light shows in our near future!”

---------------------

A man wearing a thick brown overcoat with its hood over his head walks into the Capital city of Troy.

He looks out in the distance and sees the beautiful white castle that seemingly floats into the sky like a cloud. A smile forms on his face as the cool breeze flows through his nose and he is overwhelmed with the feeling of nostalgia.

The two legs that have moved him along this long journey can finally relax. The shoulders that have been carrying a heavy luggage bag for countless miles drop in relief, and the tension in his bones seemingly disappear once freed from the effort of his trek.

He starts doing some ridiculous looking stretches in the middle of a town plaza which prompts hundreds of creeped out passersby to give him dejected looks. But this man doesn't care, he says the reason why when he stretches his arms upwards and declares,

“I'm home!”

After speaking in a voice that obviously hasn't had much action as of late, he starts to do an outstandingly disturbing form of a jumping jack.
In the process of doing this he accidentally bumps into a little girl of about twelve.

“Kyah!” she yelps as she falls to the ground, dropping a duffle bag and having its contents roll all over the street.

“Ooh!? I'm so sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going!” he shouts in an overly apologetic manner.

The girl with long black hair has a cute pouting face as she picks up the contents of her bag; the man immediately tries to help her, but is taken aback when he notices she is hastily grabbing alcohol flasks.

“Eh..?”

The girl scours the area with her slightly teared violet eyes as if searching for someone, she finds him and grabs onto the pant-leg of black man who holds no emotion in his face.

She turns to the man in the brown coat and starts to sniffle adorably as she softly says, “P-Please forgive me... I don't want to make anybody mad because I just moved to the Capital.. You see... m-my parents died when I was little, me and Haas here escaped from the orphanage that mistreated us."

The man waves his hands to interrupt her.

“Wait wait wait wait! I'm 100% sure I've heard this story before!”

The little girl's face that was just so adorably cute, turns twisted in a way that resembles a delinquent that has just found out that the kid he has been stealing lunch money from had ratted him out.

“Hah!?”

“No no it's not like I don't believe you or anything! Look!”

The man takes off his hood and shows her his light brown hair and his dark green eyes.

His face is lodged somewhere in the back of her memory and it takes her a few seconds to fully recognize him.

“Oh? You're that guy!”

The man smiles and pulls her up to her feet when he says,

“I guess I never properly introduced myself back then... The name's Zurvick.”

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| Back to [[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
| Return to [[Dantega|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 4|Their Rebellion]]
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</noinclude>

Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 2

2021-11-27T20:33:53Z

Deck of cards:

(PART 2)

“An interesting play Prince Noah.” said Satan as he stared down on his chessboard.

On the white side where there were once three pieces left, now has thirteen. He is playing the game in which Noah has positioned more characters against him. The dynamic has changed from these ten extra pieces that include rooks, knights, bishops and pawns.

But Satan feels that it is too little too late.

He has already infiltrated all three countries to the highest of ranks, he is extremely close to the leaders and nothing is standing in his way.

“It is amusing how you think this would be fair game between equal opponents. If only you knew just how close I am to winning already, I’m only one favorable move away..”

Chess is a game of positional strategy, one has to think many moves ahead in order to win, but what kind of chess game would it be if one player’s pawn could jump the entire board and defeat the king in one move?

It’d be a sham.

It’s exactly the type of advantage Satan enjoys operating within the most.

“I’ll let you have your hope for now and enjoy watching you struggle.”

Satan takes a black rook and moves it to the far right corner of the board, parallel to the King piece representing the real life Queen and King of Eiyalazo.

His red eyes glow and with an evil grin he says,

“Check.”

----------------------------

Dice awakens to find himself alone in his room in the middle of the night.

(How long was I out for?) he thinks to himself.

Looking at the clock he sees that it hasn't been too long, just a little over six hours.

He rubs his tired eyes and remembers that the snake had promised to devise a plan to kill his parents.

“Snake... Did you come up with a plan?”

An onlooker would think that Dice has gone mad talking to no one in the dark of his room, but he is not alone.

The snake's bright red eyes shine the room in an eerie red tint as it speaks, “I have secured a pathway between here and your parents room... Once you walk through your door you will end up walking through theirs.”

“What do you mean?”

“There are hundreds of guards in this castle, if you simply enter their room and kill them, there’s bound to be witnesses. While you were asleep I set up a spell that will give you the benefit of absolute obscurity, you can finish the job and walk right back into your room without anybody noticing.”

Dice looks towards his room door, just beyond it is where the source of his hate likely sleeps right now.

Without a hint of hesitation he walks to it and opens it.

Just like the snake said he finds himself in the large room of the King and Queen, the lights are off and the atmosphere is ominous. This is the kind of room that is so big that one could get lost in it if he isn't careful; in fact, this is Dice's first time here, so he is treading cautiously.

Making almost no noise he weaves his way around the fine wood furniture and expensive vases, after what feels like a long walk he finds the bed where his parents sleep. It is a large bed that is covered by the extravagantly designed curtains that are used to block the morning sun.

Seeing that the curtains are down he realizes that his parents are currently sleeping behind them, he inches closer and the insanity in his eyes grow. A wicked grin surfaces on his face when he holds his hand out, all around his arm an evil black smoke forms, it grows larger the closer he gets to the bed.

The snake's voice rings in his head, “This is for Rain, this is for the person you love most... Soon, very soon you will be able to hold her in your arms.”

With visions of his dreams coming true swirling in his head, he quickly opens the curtains and sends his black hand into the bed forcefully. The entirety of the bed explodes and sends cushion fabric flying throughout the room. The destruction caused by this simple motion is truly frightening, the bed and its frame is mangled so badly one couldn't wouldn’t guess the shape of it beforehand.

Although blinded by his delusions, the sensation of hitting only cushion is still felt in his hand. Now with the blur of his adrenaline filled eyes gone, he sees a sight that makes him bite his lip in anger.

There is no one there, not even a trace of human remains.

“What the fuck is this?” Dice hisses to his hand.

The snake doesn't answer his question, it is already apparent what is going on.

Dice quickly turns around and heads toward the door.

He runs through and finds himself in the hallway leading to the innards of the castle. Though the original plan was for him to end up back in his own room, the snake ended the spell so Dice could get to the inner castle faster.

Running through the dimly lit hallway he turns to his left and heads down the absurdly long flight of stairs leading to the lobby. Once at the bottom he carelessly bumps into someone and falls on one knee.

Just the mere surprise of such contact inflames his anger.

With eyes full of fury he looks to the person he ran into and sees the flushed face of a girl in her teenage years.

The fury quickly fades when he recognizes who he knocked to the ground.

“Evelyn?”

The girl moves her short grayish hair from over her bright silver eyes and says, “Prince Dice! I heard you were back and I came rushing!”

“It’s so unlike you to have so gracefully found me.”

The girl named Evelyn shrugs her shoulders and smiles off his subtle insult; she gets to her feet and holds out her hand to help him up.

“You know, I was worried about you when you left for the battlefield... When I heard about the division you were with losing its Brigadier General in an enemy attack, I couldn't help but panic. You should have let me come with you...”

“If I brought you, I'd just be constantly annoyed.”

Evelyn frowns and shouts, “B-But I am your bodyguard! Why would you not bring me!?”

Annoyed by the rise in the tone of her voice, he rubs his ears and replies, “I needed to prove to my parents that I was able to fend for myself... Bringing you along would make them think less of me.”

“There’s no shame in going into battle with your retainers. Please allow me to accompany you next time, I could have helped.”

“Wait a second…” Dice takes her hand and stands to his feet, he rubs the back of his neck while saying, “What do you mean by losing the General?”

“You know, that girl... Detrieg Von Ronheim's daughter. I heard she went into the battle of Tronoble and was killed when the LaJuutian's attacked.”

News traveled fast back here in the Capital, of course there is the possibility that numerous runners brought this false information here but it is still suspicious. The only thing he could think is that the King and Queen knew of the result well beforehand and doomed Rain to death before they could even prove it.

He knows she is alive, he knows that she has been kidnapped by the La'Juutian Knights that sacked Tronoble. What makes him angry is that his parents didn't even make an attempt to save her, he's sure that they purposely did this to destroy her name permanently.

He grits his teeth, but takes a deep breath to calm himself down, he then grabs Evelyn's shoulders and inquires, “Where are my parents!?”

Such a change in his attitude has gotten her confused, but nonetheless she answers, “They went out on a campaign earlier in the day.”

“...Campaign?”

“Yeah, you know, those kinds of campaigns where they go around the country to boost up public morale during war time. I'm pretty sure every country does that kind of-----”

“When do they come back!?” he sharply interjects.

“Eh, Uh... They're supposed to be gone for a couple weeks.”

Dice grits his teeth and pushes her away, “Damn it!!”

“W-What's wrong?”

Evelyn is extremely confused by this sudden outburst, he morphed from his normal self just a few seconds earlier into an angry person she doesn't even recognize.

Because he went straight into his bed for sleep once he got home, his parents left the Capital from right under his nose. He wants to blame the snake for this disposition but realizes that he can only blame himself for succumbing to his body’s exhaustion.

It's his fault that Rain is being held captive by La'Juune in the first place and now he is forced to leave her in that situation until his parents return in two weeks time.

Dice grips his hand over the front of his face extremely hard and says bitterly into his palm.

“I was careless.”

----------------------

Noah and Ash are walking along the grounds of the castle, the parade is long over and the sun has been down for quite some time now.

Guards alongside the castle walls salute Noah proudly and Ash can’t help but feel bitterness towards their devotion. To her, this person has nothing that should be honored or saluted; as a person of military rank such as herself, she finds adult men paying such respect to a despicable young King to be disturbing.

“Where are you taking me?” she asks coldly.

Noah keeps walking in front of her, without turning to acknowledge her question he answers, “I'm going to have you stay in the castle for the time being. I'm taking you to your room.”

“This makes me a prisoner?”

“Hmm, you can think that way if you want to... Personally, I consider you more of a necessary tool than a prisoner.”

Glaring at his back, Ash frowns and smiles simultaneously. “A tool or a prisoner, it’s still unwise to turn your back to an enemy like me. I am a trained soldier after all, I could easily kill you and end this war.”

Noah still doesn't bother to turn to her, it's as though he doesn't even comprehend her words as a threat.

He calmly replies, “I doubt my death would end the war though, we have quite the capable militarial command structure here in La’Juune.”

“Even if the war doesn’t end after I kill you, I’ll still get what I need out of it.”

“You aren't the type of person to attack someone with his back turned to you.”

She flares her nostrils in anger, he is right. Unlike most others, Ash’s honor would never allow her to do something so cowardly.

What she is left wondering is just how he could tell that this is the kind of person she is, they haven’t so much as made eye contact yet.

The two start an awkward silence that extends all the way to the room where Noah wants Ash to stay in. He opens the door for her and points his hand in, this is actually the first time she has seen his face since she was invited onto the float. This makes her feel like she is more on the same level as him instead of feeling unbearably low in his presence.

The room is very extravagant, the castle itself has dozens of rooms but this one would seem like it has a lot more put into it than the others.

“This is my brother Luke's room. I hope you understand that this is only a temporary accommodation.”

This will explain why this room is so much better than the others, an actual Prince of La'Juune once slept here before he disappeared.

Ash doesn't say her thanks and walks in without hesitation, this is her way of expressing how little she cares about the wealth of the royal family of La'Juune.

Before shutting the door, his words about this being temporary enters her head once more so she asks, “How long do you intend on having me here?”
Noah plainly answers, “As long as it takes.”

The door shuts abruptly and the two part ways through the wall.

Ash leans her back against the door and finds herself breathing hard.

She's not tired, nor is she nervous about how long she'll be held captive for. She is shaking with fists clenched as the hate she holds for him is desperately being subdued by her conscious thoughts.

With these emotions running through her mind she thinks it is going to be impossible to forgive him.

“I have to stay strong.” she says to herself unconvincingly.

To her this means everything, and she won't give up until the bitter end, for Zurvick's sake.

Noah turns to head to his room when he’s surprised by the sudden appearance of Rain standing just a few feet away from him with a suspicious look on her face.

“What are you doing here?” Noah asks.

Rain puts her weight on her left leg and throws her hand on the right side of her waist.

“You're late.”

“Who cares about that?”

“You know, I am Eiyalazo's best Battle Strategist for a reason... I came up with more than a few reasons on why you're late.”

Noah sighs slightly and smoothly replies, “That’s just you acting upon your boredom. I didn't know that my presence is so essential for your amusement.”

Rain furrows her brow and puffs. “Don't get conceded, I'll never need you for anything. I just assumed that you would only be late due to something important... with that in mind I realized that what is most important to you, is me... So since it involves me, I'd like to know what it is.”

Surprised by how well her suspicious instincts sense his intentions, he decides not go further into it and changes the subject.

“Whatever I do outside of you is besides the point, I’m interested in hearing how you got out of my room?”

Rain smiles confidently and replies, “Like anyone else would, I used the door.”

“I assumed as much, but the thing is, I locked it.”

“Well I picked that lock, I'm not an idiot that can simply be put in a room alone and not try to escape.”

Her answer is self-evident, but the real question is why didn't she go on a rampage with her power and kill off whoever she could to escape the castle?

Noah is wondering this and Rain can see it in his face, she frowns when she answers,

“I originally left the room in order to flee from this damn city... But my power still didn't work, even when I got outside of your room.”

“Oh? That's certainly interesting enough.”

“What did you do to me?” she queries in anger.

Noah shrugs his shoulders and walks up to her, he grabs her hand and begins to pull her away from the room.

“I didn't do anything, the only answer I can give you is that your evil is beginning to dissipate. In other words, your hate is fading.”

Getting pulled helplessly along she hisses, “I don’t believe that, my hate for you is stronger than ever.”

Noah sighs and smiles, in somewhat of a tender voice he says, “I really must be a terrible person... To be hated so much.”

She halts the assault of her words on him, for some reason seeing him like that has shattered her desire to continue any further insult.

She stays silent as they walk hand and hand and she softly says, “You know, since my power doesn't work you don't have to hold my hand... Or is it that you think I am lying to you?”

“Not at all, I actually trust the things you say completely.”

He stops walking and turns, he looks at her in the eye and a thin smile surfaces on his face.

“What if I told you that I just want to hold your hand?”

Rain looks at him confused for a moment, then a frown surfaces on her face to counter his smug expression.

“Then I'd say you were full of shit.”

He lets out a little laugh and starts walking again.

“Think what you will.”

Getting further away from the door that Noah had exited, Rain begins to forget what she originally asked him in the first place. She realizes this and says, “You are hiding something from me... aren't you?”

Noah ignores her question like he so commonly does and replies with one of his own, “Tell me Rain... If you met with the person that killed your father, what would you do?”

Without hesitation she replies, “I'd kill her.”

A slight smile forms, this is exactly what he thought she'd say if that was brought up.

He meant what he said when he mentioned that he completely trusts her word, he believes that this would actually be the case if she found out he is hiding Ash.

“That's a shame... But at the same time, that is what I'm here for, I am going to destroy that hate of yours.”

As if accepting his challenge, Rain says,

“Good luck.”

----------------------------

“Well this is lame, I thought that we'd be traveling to a far away land to find one of these so-called 'Pawns'... We're only a five hour train ride from home!” Celestia groans in annoyance.

Both she and Allia are cooped up in the bell tower of a large cathedral.

It's close to midnight and it looks as though the lack of sleep is beginning to pick at their psyche.

They, just like the other eight Knights, have been sent off to assassinate the people that hold the same powers as Rain in an attempt to thwart the puppet master's plan.

All of them didn't get a route in which they were going until they were already on the road, and out of all of them, the pairing of Celestia and Allia were sent to a city just outside the Capital.

“This really isn't that much of a bad thing, I heard that the ones sent to Troy and Eiyalazo aren't allowed to take breaks on the way. It must be hell for them to travel non stop like that.”

The others' mission is that of the utmost urgency, so much so that once at the end of the train tracks of La’Juune when they are forced onto horseback, they are to ride until horses pulling their carriage grow so tired that they need to kill them off or let them go and replace them. Because of this, Noah has set up relay points to where certain spies are to resupply them with energized horses.

This marathon will certainly be hard on them; travel time from La'Juune's Capital to the others usually takes well over a month, with the constant speed in which they are currently traveling they hope to make it in half that time.

Celestia sighs and agrees halfheartedly, “Hmmm, that is true... but still, being in La'Juune during war time for a secret mission feels kind of off.”

Allia reaches into her expensive looking nap sack that's strapped to her side, from there she pulls out binoculars and puts them up to her face.

She stares out of the window intently and Celestia asks, “How's our target lookin'?”

Through the binoculars she stares towards the direction of a mansion atop of a hill, through a second story window of that mansion, she can see the figure of a man sitting at a desk. On the desk are tons of gold coins that he is counting and charting off on a piece of paper with a feathered pen.

This sight really gives off the feeling of a stereotypical rich man doting over his fortunes and Allia holds back a laugh as she is reminded of her father back at home.

“He's been cooped up in his room counting his money all day... I don't think I've seen him even move from that desk yet.”

“That's to be expected, he is the Royal in charge of gold after all... I'm pretty sure he is a cousin of the former King or something, it's hard to believe that we're ordered to kill off a member of Noah's family like this.”

“It is... but according to our information this man named Edward has been abusing his authority and supplying mercenaries with funds in order to take out other Nobles and Royals to obtain their resources through 'WTA'...”

WTA, which stands for War Time Absorption, is a term used by the Royal family as a legal way to obtain the resources of others or of their kin during times of war. If the Royal in charge of silver has died, then the one controlling a similar mineral can absorb that into his or her own wealth structure. The only reason it goes to another Royal instead of the King is because of the special occurrence of war, the King has to waive all responsibilities concerning that and concentrate his efforts on the war under La'Juutian law.

This will make it so the King doesn't make any decisions that would disrupt or damage the home front while being distracted by problems abroad. During war, the balance structure of the Royals and Nobles literally teeters on who will use the most off-hand methods to acquire more power. By the end of all this there could be one Royal holding three or four resources and there is nothing the King can do about it unless they are being handled improperly. This is one of the reasons why members of parliament tend to overwhelmingly support a war proposal, especially when they are certain that victory is obtainable.
The selfishness of the world shines brightest during times of tragedy.

“Doesn't this put your dad at risk?” Celestia asks while twirling her hair with her finger.

Allia's glare remains through the binoculars as she replies, “No not really, my father runs the cotton industry. People like this Edward fellow here who are involved with monetary elements wouldn't waste their time on the riches of my dad.”

As mentioned earlier, Royals are part of the family whilst Nobles aren't. Allia is a Royal but she is not related to Noah in any way, the reason for this is that her father used this backhand tactic of 'WTA' to acquire his fortune during the war ten years ago.

Celestia nods her head as if agreeing as she pulls a blanket out of a duffle bag at her feet and wraps her body in it.

Boredom has crept into her, and as a natural result she yawns, “Uuuaahhhh! I've never been one to have enough patience to pull off an all night surveillance mission like this, so wake me up when----”

“He's moving.” Allia says unconsciously as the sight of him leaving the desk chair for the first time reaches her eyes. “Wait, now he's talking to someone.”

With her interest piqued, Celestia looks out the window in the mansion's direction as well.

“With who?”

Allia pauses for a moment, and replies confusedly, “With himself?”

“Haah?”

“I'm serious, he's not talking to anyone, it's like he's holding a conversation with the wall.”

“Oho? Or maybe he has an imaginary friend.”

“Now's not the time for jokes Celestia, this is a serio---- Wha? What in the world is that!?”

The man named Edward is talking to a black snake coming out of the back of his right hand, the snake swirls around his arm as if it has control of him.
Something like this should certainly be impossible and Allia's mouth hangs low in disbelief because of it.

Seeing how rattled Allia has gotten, Celestia pouts and snags the binoculars out of her hand.

“Lemme see.”

Looking through, she sees what has gotten her partner so rattled.

“I-Is that snake coming out of his hand!? Eww that's gross!”

It would seem that the snake and the man are conversing with each other as if such a freak thing is commonplace.

Celestia is fixated on this as she tries to wrap her head around just what is happening, nothing comes to her mind that can be logically explained. All she can do is watch in amazement.

That is, until she sees the red eyes of the snake shift its gaze from Edward, directly towards her.

They make eye contact with each other for a split second and a chill runs down her back, coming to her senses she ducks behind the wall and takes deep breaths.

“What's wrong?” Allia asks.

With a pale face Celestia replies, “That snake... It saw me...”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

Allia finds it easy to shrug off because from the mansion to the cathedral is well over two kilometers in distance, something like someone seeing them crouched in the bell tower would be impossible.

“I'm serious! I swear it spotted me...” Celestia shoves the binoculars into Allia's chest. “Look for yourself.”

The two switch positions and Allia prepares to look through the window for the sole purpose of proving her wrong.

“Huh?” she mutters.

“W-What?”

Allia squints her eyes through the lenses of the binoculars as she says, “There's no one there.”

“You're kidding right? Lemme see again.”

Celestia takes another look herself and sees the same thing, no one is there. There's almost an eerie emptiness about the room that makes her heart pound.

“What in the world... Where did he go?”

Suddenly, on the backs of their necks they feel the warm breath of someone accompanied by a deep voice saying,

“I'm right here.”

They both turn around as quickly as possible and find that the man named Edward they were doing surveillance on is standing just on the outside of the bell tower.

In that exact short instance where they were looking him in the eye, the midnight bell rang like it does every hour in the day.

With that, the bell tower explodes and sends the two girls flying violently into the air before crashing onto the cathedral rooftop.

“Gaaaah!!”

“Gyyaahhh!!?”

The two go sliding down the roof's angled slope towards a fall that would definitely kill them, this cathedral is massive. Knowing that they must stop their momentum if they are to live, they both regain their senses and dig their feet into the tile-plated roof to halt their movement.

Once stopped, they quickly stand to their feet and look in the direction of the demolished bell tower and find that the large bronze bell is hurling down the roof in their direction like a bowling ball dropped down a flight of stairs. The bell likely weighs more than a couple tons, if they are hit by something that heavy they would jellify upon impact.

The two dive out of the way and luckily the bell takes one extra bounce and barely passes over their heads. They take deep breaths in a state of shock for a couple seconds until the sound of the bell smashing into the road below wakes them up to how close they are to death.

“It's interesting... being spied on like this. Who are you? Who ordered this?” The man named Edward asked while walking down the roof towards the girls.

They both struggle to stand but quickly grab their weapons and guard themselves, Celestia with her shield and Allia with her bow and arrow.

“We're here to kill you, that's all you need to know.” Allia smoothly responds.

Edward chuckles, and that chuckle turns into an arrogant laugh. “Do you know how many people have tried to kill me since this war started? I've already faced off with famous assassins hired by other Royals to take my fortune. What damage can a couple of young girls do?”

Little does he know, the two girls in front of him are part of the ten most elite soldiers the world over.

Allia and Celestia smile confidently, but they too must be worried. Because in that man's hand holds the power of a demon, a certain demon that can oppose the power of God himself.

-------------------

Rain and Noah sit in the King's room in an awkward silence, at least it would be awkward if some other party were witnessing it. To them, it's as though they are communicating in silence like this is their natural way of doing so.

Rain is laying on the large King's bed; to be more precise, King Noah's bed.

Noah on the other hand is sitting on a chair on the other side of the room.

It is well past midnight and the lights have long been turned off since the two began trying to sleep, but the two are wide awake.

Rain is staring at the wall with an angered look on her face, Noah has his arms folded and is staring at her back that is coldly facing him. It is a full moon outside so the light from it that enters the room adds to the tension in the air.

“Why aren't you sleeping?” Noah asks.

“How can I sleep when I feel your sharp glare beating on my back?”

Noah doesn't answer, he instead huffs a sarcastic air out of his nose and looks away.

“Feel better now?”

“Not in the least.”

“Then there is nothing I can do for you.”

Rain bites her lip in order to sooth her pent up frustration.. This still doesn't prevent her voicing her displeasure.

“You know what, I'm tired of your shitty attitude Noah! You need to stop treating me like I'm an idiot that deserves to be looked down on!”

“Or what?”

She grits her teeth, he is doing it again, this time he is adding a childish spice to it just to agitate her. She can't threaten to kill him because that has been done daily since arriving here as his hostage, it’s long lost its value as an actual threat.

When she really thinks about it, she wonders, what exactly can she do? She can’t help but feel she’s reached the limit of what she can possibly do for herself, the weeks living here under this situation has made it painfully evident.

This sense of entrapment and the emotions of anger it brings out of her, clouds her vision when she realizes something.

(...Am I really?)

Finishing her thought process for her is the voice of Noah saying,

“I know how much you hate depending on others to survive, but being dependent doesn’t have to be a bad thing.”

“..?”

“I looked into your profile, or past if you will... I know how your life went from the moment you were born, from that I was able to grasp what kind of person you really are...” Noah says as his glare is returned into her back. “You always relied on the bravery of your father to give you the will to become strong yourself... Once he was disgraced as a coward, you lost faith in your own abilities that were modelled after him. So you abandoned them in favor of playing your part in the sociopolitical game of Nobility, it made it much easier for you to accept the whispers and insults from those around you I’m sure, stooping yourself to their level like that. But an imposturous version of yourself could only last so long, soon you switched your dependent nature to the comfort and the support of your mother.”

His words are beating on the back of her head, her throat becomes dry and she feels as if there is something trying to pull it down to her stomach. She can't retort, she just lets him continue with the pounding.

“You may have been able to withstand the vitriol flung your way for a time, but your mother couldn’t. When she died, the support that you desperately needed was finally taken away from you for good... With the attacks from within the Nobility continuing to follow you, you had no choice but to turn to the only friend you had left in Princess Daey.”

She feels as though the words that are entering her ears are taking on a life of their own. Those sorrowful memories are resurfacing in her head like a replay of a cheap film.

“Not long after, she was sent away to another country to be married and mysteriously vanished in the process, followed immediately behind that loss is the death of your father in a war caused by her very disappearance... With all of that loss, you gave your soul to an unknown being that promised you power of your own, he promised you freedom from ever having to depend on those that had always left you alone in the end.”

Noah pauses for a moment, but continues shortly after.

“Now I’m the one who took that liberating power away, leaving you once again with nothing.”

Suddenly, Noah feels the soft sensation of a pillow hitting him directly in the face.

Rain's voice is cracking as she yells, “You don’t think I haven’t realized that!?”

Noah glares at her in shock, tears flow down her red cheeks as she lets her emotions finally reveal itself to him.

“I’ve always known that I'm a weak person in reality, I feign strength in order to help myself get by… I hope you’re really proud of yourself for figuring that out.”

She throws the blankets off of her and starts using the assistance of her hands to prove her point.

“Since you have all the answers, why don’t you tell me just what I was supposed to do instead!? Everyone I cared for has been taken from me! Stolen from me by someone else!!” She puts the palms of her hands over her face and talks into them, “Can you really blame me for wanting something more than constant loss?”

Noah leans back in his seat in awe. This is Rain, this is the normal girl who was thrown into a tragic situation and exploited because of it. It's as though this is the first time he has met her, an overwhelming feeling is warming up in his chest.

This sensation prompts him to say,

“I don’t have an answer for your past. But I have an answer for you now.”

Rain takes her hands off her face and looks at him with an innocent face that she hasn’t shown since she was a child.

Noah's confident voice is brimming with security when he says, “You still have the power to make a change that no one else but you can, and you still have someone you can depend on. Everything you’ve lived through has led you here in front of me at this moment.”

“.....”

Noah grabs Rain’s hands and looks her square in the eyes when he says, “My answer for this moment is for you to depend on me..”

“Depend on you?”

“You’re free to depend on me for however long it takes for you to embrace the power you do have. You have me to help you until you feel that you are finally at peace with yourself.” Noah smiles, “You're Rain Von Ronheim, and you have a lot more within your grasp than you think.”

The two look at each other for a few moments, Noah can feel Rain’s heartbeat pulsating through her hands as the two share this almost surreal moment. Rain is looking at him through her tear filled eyes as if she’s asking him if such an offer is really okay to accept.

Noah is astonished at how different she looks compared to before. What was once a face whittled with malice is now filled with an expression of hope and tenderness.

“You're an idiot.” Rain puffs and sharply throws herself back onto the bed. “I'm not going to be that easy.”

“I wasn't expecting it.”

She throws the covers back over shoulders and turns away from him, revealing the same cold back as earlier.

Noah lets out a sigh and gently smiles before resting his eyes to go to sleep.

“Hey.” Rain’s voice cuts through the silence. “You've been sleeping on that chair every night since I've come here...” She pulls the covers from her shoulder over her head and speaks in a small voice, “You can sleep here with me, the bed is big enough, and it is yours after all...”

“Is this a trick so you can smother me with a pillow in my sleep?”

Rain’s agitation at his reaction to her kindness can be felt permeating through the blankets when she replies, “I wouldn't do something so cowardly... If I'm going to kill you, I'll make sure you are looking me in the eye.”

Noah waits for a moment, and says under his breath so she can't hear,

“If, huh?”

Rain is normally one to speak in absolutes, all the way to this point, she had always expressed with ruthless assurity that she ‘will’ kill him. Hearing her say ‘if’, means she doesn’t hate him nearly as much.

Feeling grateful for what she just said, he decides to hop in the bed he hasn't slept on for quite some time.

“You are gullible, Noah. Who would’ve thought some sugary offer would entice the King to willingly allow himself to be so vulnerable.”

“I don’t think gullible is the right word,I told you before that I trust what you say completely. I don't think you realize how honest you are.”

“Hmph... I guess I don't.”

“Goodnight, Rain.”

“Don't get cozy with me. You’re still a piece of shit.”

Amused by this version of the once stray cat-like Rain, he can’t help but let out a laugh.

“Hahahahahah.”

“S-Shut up! I'm trying to sleep.”

As though letting a valve release the pent up pressure of this entire day, Noah allows himself to succumb to the moment he’s found himself. He begins to lose control of his laughter; Rain couldn’t possibly know it, but Noah is laughing in relief, appreciation, hope, and happiness.

“Hahahahahahaha!”

Rain frowns and her face turns red, she doesn’t know why he’s become hysterical after she insulted him, but she feels as though his laughter is at her expense.

Certain that he is laughing at her and not with her, she takes the pillow from under his head and begins her comical attempt to smother him with it.

-------------------

Lelaine's sleep is abruptly ended by the ear ringing noise of a loud explosion.

Two weeks have passed since the news of her husband being killed in an attack by La'Juune had reached her, and despite the explosion that has just shook her from her sleep, she struggles to find enough motivation to get out of the warm covers of her bed to investigate.

It isn't until she hears the accompanying noises of anguished screams that she gets up to take a good look. She slowly walks to her window to peer outside, and what she sees wakes her from her half drowsy mental state.

Hundreds, if not thousands of men are fighting to the death on her castle grounds.

If this sight alone wasn’t enough to frighten her, the men who are fighting are all wearing the uniforms of Trojan soldiers or Royal Guards.
Her country's men are fighting amongst themselves.

“What the hell is going on here?” she asks herself, attempting to suppress the overwhelming shock of the sight.

She rushes out of her room for the first time in days and hurries into the hallway, all throughout the castle are the sound of swords clashing and the resounding echoes of battle cries and death screams.

Without a doubt, with each step she takes, her beloved castle is being filled with blood.

Not knowing which way to turn, she heads in directions at random until she runs into a guard of hers. He is bloody and injured, his breathing is shoddy and it looks as though he has been desperately running towards something.

“My Queen!” he shouts in exhaustion. “Y-You must escape!”

“What's happening!?”

“General Sturgess... he has staged a coup!”

“!?”

The guard grabs her arm and attempts to lead her to safety, but he suddenly feels the sensation that what he is pulling becomes weightless.
He looks over to the source and sees the Queen standing with wide eyes a few meters away from him, and then, he sees an arm lying on the ground in front of him.

His arm has been severed at the shoulder, and the sharp loss of blood causes him to go into shock and lose and quickly lose consciousness.

Watching the bloodied man hit the ground in a loud thud has caused Lelaine's body to become stiff.

“I can't be letting a lowly guard put his grimy hands on you, Lelaine.” came the stern voice of Sturgess.

Sturgess is standing there triumphantly, holding a bloody sword with an exceedingly evil grin on his face.

Lelaine finds his smile to be so utterly disgusting that she has an acute difficulty staring him in the face when she asks, “You... how could you do this?”

“It was quite simple really...” He pulls out a rolled up piece of paper from the inside of his Trojan armor and hands it to her. “Go ahead and take a look.”

She unfolds it and begins to read as her eyes shake, she reads it aloud as if to make sure her mind is working.

“As a result of the King's death, we have concluded that Queen Lelaine is no longer suitable to run the country due to her mental state. Because of the harsh environment of the world during war time, she is to be relieved of her duties in order to protect the best interest of Troy. This is an official request for permission to commandeer the authority of the Queen.”

At the bottom of the letter is the signature of many members of Royalty and Nobility from around the city. The ones that stand out the most are the Leader of the Trojan Church Cardinal Franz Luudnt, and the Commander of the Royal Guard Anders Hansen.

These two have worked around the castle grounds and by her side for many years, for them to look her in the face with the intention to betray all this time makes her sick to her stomach.

At the bottom of the declaration is the large signature of Sturgess Wilhelm, the man who has been considered a childhood friend has written down his name so boldly on a proclamation of betrayal.

“I put a lot of effort into minimizing the bloodshed by getting this paper authorized. But some people didn't take the death of their King well, and they weren't about to accept power to be taken from the Queen without a fight... That's why some soldiers and guards are opposing me at this very moment.”

Sturgess said while twirling the sharp end of his sword on the smooth granite floor.

Lelaine stays silent in disbelief, Sturgess was supposed to be more than what he’s presenting himself to her as. This person she has watched grow up alongside her is revealing himself as a warped monster.

Sturgess continues to speak as though he is addressing the people still opposing him, or like he is attempting to break Lelaine's will to resist by pointing out the obvious.

“It's pointless of them though, even if the miracle of my men being defeated actually happened, it'd be too late. My coup has spread from the castle all the way to the front lines. Sooner or later the country's citizens will follow my rule as well, especially since I've already gained control of Troy's gold reserve. It's amazing how easy it is to sway the hearts and minds of people by dangling that pretty color in front of them.”

Lelaine despairs, dreadful thoughts of panic immerses her as she tries to comprehend the consequences of what has just happened. Without her title, the Queen is just a normal woman vulnerable to the men with weapons around her.

“It's the Queen!” a man shouts from deeper in the hallway.

He is accompanied by five others and they are all members of the Royal Guard. These men are loyal to the throne of the Queen and the sight of the blasphemous traitor named Sturgess sends them into a rage. They all charge to protect the woman they consider their ruler.

Seeing the men attack for her sake, Lelaine is filled with hope once more.

It's people like this who have given her strength as Queen, and even more so as a person.

With men like this working under her, there is no doubt that they will prevail in stopping this absurd coup.

And then...

All five of the men are ripped apart by an explosive wind that flies past her shoulder. Their limbs go flying in every direction and blood and flesh sprays and sticks to the walls like an abstract painting.

They didn't even get a chance to scream, as quickly as it started, the sight of the bloody aftermath of the massacre impacted her so greatly it immediately brought upon an intense migraine.

She quizzically moves her stiff neck towards Sturgess and sees that an evil black smoke is floating around his right hand.

A twisted thin smile is on his face when he says in an annoyed voice, “Those damn loyalists are a lot more persistent than I thought they’d be, but it is nice to test out my new powers. I enjoyed that.”

Lelaine can't even fathom what had just happened. What she had just seen is something that defies the laws of everything physically possible.
Her hands begin to shake when one is grabbed by the evil hand of Sturgess, he tugs her towards him and the two begin to walk.

“W-Where are you taking me?” she struggles to ask through her dry throat, it's as though she is choking on a cotton ball while trying to speak.

“.....”

He doesn't answer, but that thin smile remains on his face, and it grows wider and wider until he reaches a door and opens it.

The two walk in and he shuts the door behind him.

This room wasn’t chosen at random, this large and well decorated room is Sturgess' personal room given to him as the General of the Trojan army. This is where the plan to betray Lelaine was hatched and she can feel the energy of the lingering maliciousness towards her beating on her temples.

Lelaine turns to him and gives him a look of confusion, the look is asking him what he intends to do.

Sturgess feels obliged to answer, in fact, he is taking so much pleasure in tormenting her he is shaking.

With that horrifying look on his face he answers her glare by demanding,

“Lelaine... Take off your clothes.”

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| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 3|(Part 2)]]
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</noinclude>

Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 1

2021-11-27T19:39:33Z

Deck of cards:

Chapter 44: Movement on the Chessboard

(PART 1)

Ash Alworth is lying alone on the back of a horse drawn carriage, looking up at the afternoon sky and watching the clouds fly by has left her deep within her own thoughts.

She remains that way until the man driving the carriage says, “I hope you know how difficult it was for me to smuggle you across the border. Because I'm a traveling merchant it gives me a passport to move freely between Troy, Eiyalazo and La'Juune, but it doesn't mean that I wouldn't be put to death for human trafficking between enemy countries.”

Ash ignores his words and coldly replies, “As a traveling merchant you obviously like money, I gave you more than enough to last you a whole year so you could take me to the Capital. You shouldn't be complaining.”

The man takes a sigh of resignation and says, “Well, you’re not wrong about that.”

Ash has bought the service of this man to bring her from Troy to La'Juune, and she has paid him almost all of her and Zurvick's military money to do so.

“Do you mind me asking what you plan on doing here?”

Ash halfway snorts and replies, “That is irrelevant to you, unless you're a La'Juutian nationalist... If that's the case I recommend you drop me off right now.”

The man who looks to be in his mid 40's shrugs his shoulders. “I actually moved here from Eiyalazo when I was a teenager, La’Juune doesn't mean too much to me. If what you are after is the life of the King or some other high ranking official then I have no problem with that. Truth is, the death of a Royal family member could raise the prices of certain goods, so if you'd be kind enough to let me know who it is you're going to assassinate it'd be greatly appreciated. That way I can buy up those goods at a cheap price beforehand.”

He said that because the King gives members of the Royal and Noble families management of certain goods; Royals own resources and Nobles own materials. Some are in charge of coal, some of steel, and some are even in control of agriculture. The King decides this because it evenly distributes La'Juune's wealth so all members of the Noble and Royal families don't use class warfare to rise the ranks. Of course, some make more money than others but that is the privilege bestowed upon them by the favor of the King, they can hardly use that to say they are better than one another.

Naturally, if the King doesn't like the way one of these factions are being run he can legally repossess it. For instance, if he sees that the granite industry is not making it's deadlines for the new buildings being built, the King can either oust the Royal who's running it or seize control of it himself and decide what to do at a later time. For a Royal or a Noble to lose their position as leader of a resource or good, equals a punishment worse than death, the majority of them end up dying poor in disgrace.

With this rule adding such an importance to the role of those particular people, their untimely deaths can drastically lower prices or immediately boost the prices of certain goods. More often than not it is the merchant with the sharpest ear who gets to make a profit, the man holding the reins of this carriage would be really keen to know ahead of time if one were to be assassinated.

She is somewhat surprised by how nonchalantly he said that, it would seem as though this man is very business savvy and notices every little thing around him. People like him are on a far different level when it comes to economic knowledge than she would ever be as a career soldier. She finds him to be quite intriguing.

Nonetheless, she has no intention of trusting him at all, she is an enemy soldier invading the country of La'Juune for reasons unknown to him and she'd prefer it to remain that way.

With this in mind, she answers, “I have no plans for the future anymore, so I can’t promise you any information that might make you rich.”

“No future plans huh? Did something bad happen back at Troy?”

The merchant wasn't expecting to get much of an answer out of her because he understands that sometimes the tragedies that go along with war are better off being kept to oneself.

But much to his surprise, Ash quickly concedes, “Yes... I lost someone, the most important person in my life was killed.”

“Then that means you're here for revenge right? I can maybe get rich by just knowing that.”

Ash pauses for a little while, though she doesn't want to reveal any information, she desperately wants someone to talk to, she's been alone for over a month now.

During the silence as she contemplates her words, the man forms his own answer for her in his head. Just another sad war story that won't end well, the cycle of hate continues and the merchant who's seen it all knows the ending of these kinds of stories all too well.

Ash takes a deep breath, stands up on the back of the cart being pulled by the two horses and declares,

“I won't seek revenge.”

The merchant turns around and looks at her in surprise as she continues.

“The person who died is someone who'd never consider something as terrible as revenge. He'd be disappointed in me if I had that kind of goal, so I want to do something in his honor, something that even I don't know if I can do.”

“And that something can be accomplished here in La'Juune?”

“It can only be accomplished here. I know who killed the most important man in my life... and I'm here to meet him... I'm here to see if I can look him in the eye and forgive him.”

Seeing how her knees were shaking when she said that, the merchant can't help but understand how difficult doing such a thing will be for her. He's never seen anyone like her before, the world needs more people who are willing to forgive and he is proud to see that there still are youths who are willing to do so.

He smiles and looks back to the dirt road in which he is guiding his carriage and says, “Then allow me to help you as much as possible. I may not get rich off of your forgiveness, but believe it or not even I know there are things more valuable than money.”

Ash sits back down and again zones out on the scenery, watching the dust from the carriage flow into the blue sky.

“I’ll need all the help I can get...”

----------------------

Back at the Capital, there are two people walking in a large and well designed hallway. Holding hands, one could easily mistake them as young lovers, but their disjunctured expressions reveal the opposite.

The girl with long black hair that parts at her shoulders named Rain Von Ronheim frowns and asks, “Doesn't holding my hand all of the time become tiring for you?”

Noah, the orange haired boy doesn't avert his gaze away from the innards of the hallway when he replies, “Not really, it needs to be done in order to keep myself and others safe from your wretched power. As of now I've made it so in certain rooms such as mine your power is automatically nullified, but in the majority of the castle and in public I must always hold your right hand.”

“People may get the wrong idea, you know?”

“What do you care about that? You don't strike me as the type of person who'd be embarrassed over appearances.”

“I'm just trying to tell you that people will think you have found a wife and expect a wedding.”

“I doubt that, chances are they'd just think of you as my mistress... Technically my actual wife is currently a missing person.”

Rain, still skeptical of him as it pertains to the disappearance of Princess Niera and Daey, noticed the sarcasm in tone when he said that, this prompts her into the assumption that he knows more than he's letting off.

“Where is the Princess?”

Noah finally looks at her and replies, “That's a good question.”

Rain clicks her tongue at that response, the way he double speaks to her makes her feel like the two are constantly in a cat and mouse situation. She hates that most about him.

“You're lying, whatever game you’re playing with me won’t work out in your favor, you might as well tell me the truth.”

“You’re in luck, I'm about to show you the truth.”

The two reach an entrance way that obviously leads to a room of importance. The Courlivet family crest adorns the large polished wooden double doors, the handles of which are tied with a red cloth, sealing it shut.

Noah lets go of Rain's hand and says, “It's the King's suite…” Noah then proceeds to untie the cloth and toss it to the side. “This is where it all started, and it’s where you’ll finally get your truth. Why don't you take a look for yourself?”

Rain sends him a suspicious glare, but she doesn't want to waste her chance of having her hand freed by refusing him.

She huffs air out of her nose and opens the door and walks through without much thought, only to feel herself falling uncontrollably.

“!?!?”

She suddenly feels a pressure on her hand and the falling stops, she looks up and she is being held by Noah.

With a straight face he says, “Look down.”

Rain hesitatingly does so and finds herself dangling over fifty stories in the air, at the bottom of such a height are the castle grounds that surround the big structure.

Rain isn't naturally afraid of heights, but dangling this high has gotten her petrified, she doesn't speak nor demand to be pulled up. Instead she is stuck in this state of shock and Noah can see it, he pulls her back up into the hallway and she quickly latches onto him.

Noah takes her body and turns it once again towards the door, looking closely over the edge she can see that this entire block of the castle is completely gone. It's as though it has been cut perfectly out of the structure like a piece of cake; she understands that there was no explosion that caused this and no human could possibly cut something so perfectly.

“On the day they disappeared, they were all in this room when we heard a loud blast, we immediately rushed to their aid and this is what we found. Nothing... Nothing at all.”

Rain remains silent but the sound of her teeth chattering can be heard, Noah continues to speak despite her state of petrification.

“At first, we naturally thought that either Troy or Eiyalazo were the ones behind this, so we began our investigation right away. However, we were left with more questions than answers. With both of the other countries blaming us, it would have been foolish not to mobilize our armies and declare war preemptively.”

Noah squeezes her hand and keeps talking.

“But deep down inside I knew that what happened in this room is part of something much deeper than the ties of our three countries... It wasn’t long after that, I began finding people like you lurking in the shadows of this world, and I now firmly believe that the one giving you all powers is also the one behind the disappearances.”

Rain glares at him with her eyes wide open, it would seem that she finally understands what Noah has been saying all along.

Confident that he’s reached her, he faintly smiles and says,

“Now do you see what I mea----”

“You idiot!!”

Noah is interrupted by the loud voice of Rain and the accompanied strikes on his chest with the sides of her fists.

“How could you let me walk into that room like that!?”

She keeps beating on him and Noah can’t help but be surprised, her face is flushed and her tone sounds like she is on the verge of tears.

“What were you trying to prove by doing that!? You piece of shit! I'll..! I'll!!”

Apparently this tactic of scaring her into submission to his opinion backfired, he did scare her alright, so much so that perhaps not even a word of his opinion was heard.

She never seemed like the kind of person who'd get rattled by anything, but when he thinks about it, he can see that other than her right hand, she is still just a normal teenage girl. Being one slip away from falling to your death is most people's worst nightmare, it must have been traumatic for her to be safe in one moment and thrown into a life threatening situation the next.

It’s only now that Noah can see that he’s been dehumanizing her this entire time. It’s easier to see foes in that light, as unreasonable as a projection he’s put onto her, he now understands the error in doing so.

She stops her assault and throws her head into his chest, with her fists still clinched she softly says, “I'll kill you... No matter what, I'll definitely kill you..”

Noah lets her stay like that, allowing her as much time as she needs to recuperate.

“At the end of all this, you probably will.”

------------------------

Lelaine is holding the flask she once gave her husband as a parting gift when he left for the military; it has been passed down as a family heirloom in the Niveusvenia family for centuries. It's something that should be treasured, yet here it is, the item that once carried all the love between her and Zurvick is charred in her hands.

There is a gash from what seems to be a knife piercing the flask clean through, if not for the severe charring from the fire that distorted the metal, she may have noticed Zurvick’s dried blood. She shivers at the thought of what Zurvick's flesh and bone body went through alongside this ruined heirloom.

The disgruntled Queen has been locked in her room for two weeks, ever since she heard the news of her husband's death she has yet to talk to anyone. In a state of disbelief she has been consumed by grief and her distraught only grows with each day.

Glaring at the wall in front of her she hears a knock on her door.

The voice of Sturgess is heard from the other side saying, “We will commence the funeral in two day's time, it will be a grand funeral that all of Troy can see.”

Sturgess smiles and thinks to himself how much easier it will be to stage a coup during such a large event.

But those thoughts are destroyed when Lelaine says, “Throw that body in the damn trash for all I care, I will not allow any kind of funeral and I will not allow any information to leak about the supposed 'King's death.'”

“But my Queen...”

“But nothing!! If I find out that anyone speaks a word of it to the public I will have them executed! That charred mess of a man is not my husband!”

Sturgess truly thinks that she is going senile, he isn't angry about her sense of loss and the way she handles it, but, he doesn't want his future mistress to be crazy. The thought of the woman he has always dreamed of being a broken mental mess of a person by the time he finally gets her displeases him.

“Please Queen Lelaine, don't let King Zurvick be buried in an unmarked grave... That is the ultimate insult to a man.”

“Listen Sturgess... Don't you ever doubt my orders again, do your job or I'll find someone else to do it for you.”

Sturgess sighs and relinquishes his pursuit in burying Zurvick's body in such a grand way, it looks like things will go as originally planned and in two days time the country of Troy will be taken the hard way.

He walks away from Lelaine's room and informs a couple guards, “Tell the coroner's office to put King Zurvick's body in a coffin.” The two guards look at him quizzically and Sturgess explains, “By the order of the Queen, he is to be taken away and buried right away, the pauper’s graveyard at the outskirts of the city should be just fine.”

“Yes sir.”

The men salute him and run off to follow his orders.

Sturgess watches them off and leans against the wall. Looking out on the city from one of the hallway windows he says to himself, “As much as I was jealous of you Zurvick... even I wouldn't have wanted you to be buried as an unknown... your wife has truly gone mad, but don't worry.”

He walks his way back through the castle and licks his lips when he finishes,

“I'll take good care of her.”

----------------------------

Dice has finally reached the Capital city of Eiyalazo, this trek normally takes a couple weeks to a month but he has exhausted the powers given to him by the snake in order to get here as quickly as possible. His face is full of hate and distrust and each step he takes carries disdain for the ground he walks on.

This is a person who has lost control of his soul and let darkness take over his mind, this is a person whose thoughts are consumed with how he will kill the people who gave him birth.

His eyes are red with sleep deprivation as he mutters to himself, “I'll kill them I'll kill them I'll kill them.”

Walking in such a miserable state, he finally reaches the Castle; the guards look at him questioningly but let him in without making any fuss about it.
Dice makes his way to his room and collapses onto his large bed. He feels as though he shouldn't be wasting any time, but knows that if he's not careful, he could end up losing everything after killing the King and Queen.

(There is definitely a way for me to kill them and be declared the new King in the process... Once that happens I'll be able to expend any resource to get Rain back.)

He turns over on his back and points his hand to the ceiling, as if talking to someone he asks, “What do you think?”

Out of the pentagram tattoo comes the head of the black snake, it slithers down his arm and replies, “I think that is something easily attained... would you feel more comfortable if it was I who came up with the plan?”

Dice rests his eyes and thinks before saying, “I would.”

“Then sleep my fair Prince, by the time you wake I'll have a foolproof plot ready for you.”

The tired Prince doesn't say thanks nor does he even bat his eye in gratitude, the only thing Dice cares about is getting Rain back. It's come to the point where he expects the snake's help with everything, and the snake wouldn't want it any other way.

To the snake, this is Dice's point of insanity, and just like always, the insane are easiest to manipulate.

Dice drops his hand and quickly falls asleep, the snake slithers its way back into the pentagram while laughing the entire way.

---------------------

Ebihara Seiri is packing a large duffle bag full of silver canteens, it would seem she is off to another battle excluding the fact that she is half naked in her little white underwear.

On the other side of the room sits Allia with a sour look on her face, she also has some frilly expensive looking bags packed sitting next to her.

While tapping her foot impatiently she says, “You know, it's a bad habit for young girls to take so long to get ready. This kind of problem can really affect your married life in the future.”

Seiri doesn't turn her way but replies with venom, “Says the nineteen year old virgin who's never had a boyfriend. You are the last person I want to hear any criticism from.”

Allia's face instantly shines bright red, her shoulders rise as she tries to retort, “Y-You cheeky brat! W-What do you know about anything!??”

“To be perfectly honest I really don't. But I'm right, aren't I?”

Allia looks away in embarrassment. Her flustered face is so cute it should be a crime.

“I-I've never had the chance to find a boyfriend...”

She said that because as a member of the Royal family, she has always been caged from living a free life. Used more as a political tool, she was more likely to be married before ever having a boyfriend.

Seiri looks at her with her eyes watering, and sniffs her nose as she clenches her tiny little hands together.

Allia is surprised by this and asks, “Ehhh?? Why are you crying!?”

Seiri wipes her eyes and drops her head, Allia walks up to her to comfort the little girl.

“Just kidding.”

“..??”

“You didn't actually think I'd sympathize with your inability to find anyone to love you, right?”

This immediately angers Allia, she grits her teeth and a vein bulges on her forehead. “You little...”

“Wait, you did?”

Seiri puts her hand over her mouth and laughs cockily like some sort of ojou-sama would.

“I must say, my acting skills are increasing with every moment! You even thought that I was crying for real, I truly am an artistic genius!”

“I just might have to kill you Seiri.”

The little girl continues her obnoxious laugh and Allia feels the sting of it beating on her, she has been insulted and embarrassed at the same time and it's something she's not used to.

Allia is about to pounce on the half naked Seiri when the closet door violently swings open and out comes Elise Whittier.

She is breathing rather hard and pieces of clothing fly all about as she shouts, “I FOUND IT!!”

In Elise's hand is a beyond skimpy lingerie outfit, this black strip of clothing would make a stripper blush and the mere fact that Elise has one is very suspect. What is worse about it is that it is the perfect size for a girl much younger than an outfit like that should be made for.

Elise points it at Seiri and says, “Don't you think this is perfect!? You have got to try this on!”

Seiri's face turns blue in horror as she replies, “There's no way that thing is going anywhere near me.”

Allia can only stand by and blush at such a thing, she is quite innocent for someone who is considered an elite soldier. With her shoulders raised she attempts to show her displeasure at such a sight.

“S-S-So shameless!”

Elise pays no mind to their complaints and presses on, “Come on Seiri! This outfit will show off your silky smooth white thighs, ahhhhhnn~! Not to forget about your-----”

“Eeyyaaaahh!”

Seiri groans in fright and covers her ears as the perverted Elise continues her rambling.

Though Seiri is young and Elise's attraction to her is creepily unnatural, the young actress is quite the beauty. She's the type of girl that would make a grown man awkward if he found himself in an elevator with her.

Elise pounces on a struggling Seiri and attempts to put the lingerie on her, such a sight is so inappropriate it makes Allia shriek and rush to the door to flee.

As soon as she reaches the door, it flings open and in comes Celestia Letrova saying cheerfully, “Alrighty are y'all ready to go!?”

“Ehh, uh... I am.” Allia replies, surprised by Celestia’s sudden appearance.

Celestia looks to the left side of the room and sees the sight that the police should be called for.

She sighs and interrupts the commotion with a shout, “King Noah is waiting for us right now! We must leave immediately!!”

Seiri and Elise both stand astute and without question pack up the rest of their stuff and are ready to go shortly after. Of course, Seiri is no longer half naked, she threw a small navy blue one piece over her head and slipped boat shoes onto her feet.

This look of hers is causing Elise to find it extremely hard to hold her composure, the only thing going through her mind when she follows the three out of the room is,

(Moe moe moe moe moe moe!!!)

The four girls walk down the innards of the castle until they reach the large double doors that lead to the library room. This particular library room is small and filled with historical books. It is normally used for meetings involving economic problems or battle strategies, only the most important country matters are discussed in here.

Once the girls enter they find that the men are sitting around the large table as well, they take their seats and look towards the tip of the table.
There sits Noah, and holding his hand is a girl that they are unfamiliar with.

The girl is Rain, and she sits next to him with a scowl on her face.

Noah snaps his finger on his extra hand and London Stott pulls out a wooden case, he opens it up and sets its innards on the table so everyone can see.
It's a chessboard.

This makes the others who aren't in the loop a little confused so Noah begins to explain.

“As you all know, there have been people with powers popping up as of late, and the girl next to me is one of them... These people pose a grave threat to our country and we can't allow them to get any closer to the Capital.”

The Ten Knights who are usually loud and unsettled are listening intently as Noah continues.

“This doesn't exclude Troy and Eiyalazo, I am under the firm belief that the one giving these people their powers is the one responsible for the abductions that started this war. So we must absolutely destroy his pawns in order to ensure his plans are doomed to failure.”

For the most part, the Ten Knights know about the people with powers bestowed on them like Rain, four of them almost fought Prince Dice when he was in such a frightening state. They understand that this is something on a level in which they are not familiar, so they make sure they try to know every detail possible.

“So what's with the chessboard?” asked Lennox while fixing his hair.

“I was waiting for one of you to ask that. I have dozens of Dravic Branch spies throughout all three countries and they report to me every detail on the ones who are being controlled. If there is one thing I've noticed, it's that they are assassinating lower ranking officials and rising the ranks slowly. All of them have killed, and are after people who will have a direct impact on the war for all three sides. The number of these controlled people match the exact amount of squares on a chessboard, I figured it’d be fitting to present our new battle this way.”

The ten of them begin to get where he is coming from and let him finish to consolidate it.

“The side that represents Earth only has three chess pieces left, the pawns with the powers have killed everyone they needed to in order to get close to the leaders of our countries.”

“So what would happen if those last three pieces were to be taken out?”

“Checkmate. The world is over.”

They all collectively take a gasp in disbelief, it’s a struggle to imagine such dire consequences to this game they’ve been presented with.

London tilts his glasses up and asks, “So what do you want us to do?”

Noah faintly smiles and answers, “What do you say we add some chess pieces to our side of the board? There's a reason why I told you all to pack your things before coming here, I'm going to split you all into groups of two. Your jobs are to seek out these troublesome pawns and kill them. But I will warn you that some of these pawns are high ranking officials behind enemy lines, one of them is even the Prince of Eiyalazo. So this mission is going to be extremely dangerous.”

Some of the Knights smile in excitement at such an opportunity and some sigh as if this is just another hassle.

For some, the most worrisome thought that comes to mind is who their pair will be. In Seiri's case, if she gets paired with Elise it could result in a disaster.

Noah can read the vibe and is ready to announce the pairings but he is interrupted by the sharp voice of Rain saying,

“You... It was you who killed the King of Troy right?”

Her hate filled glare is directed at Jeffery Durbin, the Captain of the Knights.

He shrugs his shoulders and nonchalantly answers, “Yeah it was.”

Rain frowns and turns to Noah, she looks him square in the eye when she says, “I want him to be the one to assassinate Prince Dice.”

“Oh?”

“This man has taken something very dear to me, and in turn he also took it from Dice. But we'll be even if the Prince defeats this despicable man in the process.”

Jeffrey chuckles and says, “That sounds like a challenge.”

Noah turns to Jeffrey and asks him, “Is it a challenge that you're willing to accept?”

He again shrugs his shoulders and in his usual tone he replies, “Sure, I don't see why not.”

Rain's disdain towards him hit a high, she is bitter at the fact that all she can do is put her hopes onto Dice. This situation has long since spiraled out of her control and she is beginning to feel like she is being tied to a leash by Noah. At least she feels that this opportunity for Dice to help her exact revenge is still present, she’ll use it as her own way of taking back a semblance of autonomy.

“Now then, the pairings will go as follows: Jeffrey, you'll be with Elise. Allia and Celestia: Seiri and Haas: Lennox and London: Jessiah and Olin:”

“So when do we leave?”

“Immediately.”

The Ten Knights all stand up and salute, once done they walk to the door.

Before they can leave, Noah speaks again.

“However."

The ten stop and turn around.

"There's something I need you all to do before you go.”

“..?”

“There will be a parade celebrating your departure, it's already been set up so chances are there are thousands of people waiting for you in the streets outside the castle.”

Sending him quizzical glares, they wonder why he’s bothering to go through the trouble to do this, it's not like they have celebrity status like Napoleon did.

Perhaps this is a kind gesture from their King?

As nice as that sounded in their head, those thoughts are demolished when Noah explains plainly, “The people of La'Juune need to know that we are making drastic moves in order to win the war. Sending our best soldiers across the globe would boost public morale on a large scale. So be sure to smile and wave.”

They all collectively sigh and reply, “Yes sir.”

With that, they exit the room and head to a parade they would rather not attend.

Now alone, Noah and Rain sit in an awkward silence, the dreaded atmosphere of absolute hate pours from the air around Rain as she glares at him with killing intent.

Noah senses the sharp stare beating on the side of his face but chooses to ignore it, instead he looks at the chessboard and moves one of the ten white pieces that represent the Knights upwards.

Rain breaks the silence and asks, “Do you intend on killing me as well? I am one of those people with powers after all.”

Noah ignores her again and speaks to himself, “Who would've thought that I, now the King of La'Juune, would be sending my soldiers into battle to protect the rulers of Troy and Eiyalazo..?” He then turns to Rain and asks, “Tell me... what kind of person do you think I am?”

This question catches her off guard, she wonders if his words signify an answer to her question.

The frown doesn't leave her face when she replies, “A piece of shit.”

Noah faintly smiles, “You know, I’ve never met anyone who can hold a grudge quite like you.”

Rain tut tuts and looks away. “Then you should have known it was dumb of you to ask me what kind of person I think you are. You already knew damn well what my answer was.”

“I guess you're right.” He stands to his feet and lifts her up in the process, looking at her with a rare, genuine smile he says, “At least try to enjoy the festivities with me.”

Seeing such an unusual side to him, Rain is left speechless for a moment,

“I don't want to.”

Noah wasn't thinking that she'd actually want to go, so he has already prepared his room for her, this way she couldn't do any damage while left alone.

He chuckles while holding his hand out to her, “Well then, I'll have you wait for my return.”

Rain flares her nostrils and looks away while saying, “Fine.”

With no fight between either of them, she walks with him hand and hand out of the library room.

------------------

Ash has already gone through the amazement of her first sight of the City of Grandeur and is now weaving her way through a mass of people.

“There’s so many people, this is crazy!”

The sound of people cheering rings through the air as trumpets are heard playing a triumphant nationalistic tune, she notices that all of the people around her are staring towards the road leading from the castle.

With her curiosity piqued, Ash cuts through the crowd to get a good look. On her way there she gets jammed and a man tells her rudely to watch where she is going.

She pouts in frustration and asks herself, “Just what the hell is going on here??”

Out of nowhere she gets an unexpected answer from someone nearby who happened to hear her.

“It's a parade for the King and the Ten Knights of La'Juune. They should be coming by any moment.”

Ash's face drops and a frown forms above her eyes, she remembers clearly who it was that killed Zurvick and sacked Tronoble. Under the orders of the new King, the Knights are the source of her misery, without replying to the passerby she shoves the people in the way to clear a path to the road.

After struggling for a while she reaches the road, and just in time because the horse drawn float that's carrying Noah and the others just happened to be rolling by. She stares at the awkwardly smiling Knights with fists clenched, especially when she gets a good look at Jeffrey, the one who inflicted the fatal wound on Zurvick.

Without thinking she shouts, “King Noah!!!”

Just about every person attending this parade is shouting the name of Noah, so he doesn't pay any mind to one voice of many lost in the din of the crowd. The float passes her by and the sight of his back infuriates her.

However, Instead of giving up she chases the float down and continues her shouting, she is mere feet from the people who are the ultimate enemies of Troy, and this adds to her desperation to get their attention.

“King Noah! My name is Ash Alworth! I am the Captain of the 105th Specialist Division of the Trojan army! I am the Captain of the division that King Zurvick was serving under!!”

Something so different from the other chants of the crowd is enough to reach Noah's ears, he looks to his left and sees the girl weaving her way through the mass of people with a look of intensity. Not doubting her for a second, he asks her to announce her name once more to make sure.

“What was your name again?”

“Ash Alworth!!”

This is the name he knows as the source of Rain's hate, standing a few feet away from him is the person that's holding the veil of darkness over her head. He knows he can use this person for something, and in that instant a plan forms in his mind.

“Interesting.” he says under his breath.

This spot of luck that has shined on him will not be taken for granted, whenever things like this happen it is best to take advantage of it. Realizing how slim of a chance this is, he walks to the edge of the float and smiles confidently.

Not caring that she is an enemy soldier, he orders a guard standing by to let her under the ropes that lead to the road. While the carriage is still moving, he holds out his hand to her and says,

“Come with me.”

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| Return to [[Dantega|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 5 Chapter 2|(Part 2)]]
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</noinclude>

Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 12

2021-11-27T19:18:57Z

Deck of cards:

(PART 3)

“What is this place?” Niera asks as she looks around in awe.

She, along with the others have found themselves standing on a narrow stone bridge floating impossibly in what seems to be a starry sky. There is no ground below them, but rather, the many different colors of what space looks like through infrared. A 360 degree view of such a sight is astonishing.

Their voices echo as they all question themselves in the same manner.

“This is the pathway to the other side.” said Phoenix, standing farther up on the bridge alongside Xavier.

“I’m glad to see that you waited for us.” Rage says sarcastically.

As if choosing not to notice, Phoenix replies, “We would’ve left you long ago if it wasn’t for that." He then points towards the end of the mysterious bridge. There is a large door that blends in with the surrounding area so well it’s almost difficult to distinguish. “Take a look above it.”

Resting a few feet atop the door is an old looking clock that has its hour hand resting on the 11 and its minute hand around the 1; signifying that it is 11:05. With each second, the old clock tick-tocks as any other would, but that clicking sound is intensified by the odd echo that this strange place holds.

“What’s that for?”

“When we got here it was 10:47 and this room was filled with the light blue of the daylight. We were going to go through when all the sudden I had a feeling that the time on that clock meant something.”

“Like what?”

“Once the hour turned to 11, the scenery around this odd place changed to the night sky you see now.”

Rage taps his scythe in the ground and matches the sound of the clock’s ticking as he wonders aloud, “Could that be important in regards to the other side?”

“I think it does.” Phoenix answers as he heads to the door and looks closer at that clock. “Remember learning about how the location of the Gates are supposed to change after the first level? I’m willing to bet that each hour that clock turns, walking through this door will send you to a different location on the 3rd level.”

“That’d mean that it’s a crapshoot on where we end up.” Cyrus added.

“Exactly, we could end up in the middle of a desert or on an ice continent if we’re not lucky.”

The thought of walking into an overly exposed environment and making an attempt to blindly escape is discomforting to say the least. For example, if they end up somewhere on top of a mountain range with nothing to survive on and no villages around, it’d be impossible to escape that circumstance without having a couple lives lost in the process.

“B-But it is possible it could turn out in our favor too.” Sora says, without much conviction in her tone.

“I guess you can look at it that way, but it’d be a damn shame if we end up months away from the 3rd Gate.”

They all stand in silence and contemplate their situation when Rage once again taps his scythe on the ground, but this time it is loud enough to break their train of thought.
“If that is the case, I think it is best that we wait for the others. We can’t afford to be split up on two different sides of the world once we all get there.”

“We also can’t afford to be sitting here for days, we’re on a bridge in the middle of nowhere.” Phoenix protests.

“As I’m sure you know, Ubica is on the island we just left.”

“And your point is?”

“If he’s there, the others aren’t far behind.”

Cyrus folds his arms and opines, “I hate to be a pessimist, but you heard the story that Ubica told us. We can’t even say for sure that Princess Daey and the rest are alive, there's no telling how long we'll wait here until we are forced to give up hope on them even coming at all.”

Rage understands where he’s coming from, even he himself is curious as to why he is so certain that they’re alive and well. But nonetheless, his instincts are telling him to wait it out.

“Listen, we won’t be waiting near that long. I’ll give them enough time to join us within the hour, if they don’t show, we’ll move along to the other side.”

“That seems like an awfully short time frame.” said Aria, reiterating the other's thoughts that the odds of that actually happening are slim to none.

“She’s right.” Phoenix says, “Do you honestly think that Ubica can defeat Michael and bring the others here in less than an hour?”

Knowing full well how preposterous his proposal actually is, Rage speaks with absolute certainty.

“They’ll be here.”

----------------------------------

“We’re here!” Caesar says excitedly as he looks down on his map.

All the years of searching for the Gate have finally paid off. He and his men immediately start celebrating as they gaze upon the lake and the large set of stairs that lead up and through the waterfall. The crew can barely contain themselves; one man pops open a celebratory bottle of champagne and begins to spray it all over. Another man happens to be carrying a fiddle and decides to play a tune and sing; some men begin dancing and singing along with him. Even Caesar is having trouble holding himself back as an uncontrollable smile forms widely upon his face.

Ubica, who’s skin tone is growing ever more pale stares at them dejectedly, they may all be enjoying this moment, but he knows of the foreboding nature of the immediate future. They have no idea that at any moment, their dreams will be dashed by the Gatekeeper.

He calmly levels his breathing and thinks to himself, (Now where is he hiding?)

His green eyes scour the area around the waterfall in order to spot him, but nothing catches his sight.

“Hey Ubica... you said the Gatekeeper was Michael, right?” Messor asks, breaking Ubica’s concentration.

“Yeah that’s right.”

“Are you okay with that?”

“What do you mean?”

“The chances are, you’ll have to kill him in order for us to pass. Are you okay with doing something like that to an Angel?”

“I don’t have much of a choice.”

Messor smiles, what she is seeing out of him is the resolve that he has been lacking up to this point. She was always worried where his priorities were, and this at least gives her a hint as to where protecting the lot of them is. Just a few weeks earlier he most likely would have tried to avoid killing him, and somehow do it while keeping the rest safe in the process.

“You’ll be able to defeat him again I’m sure… But this time I’m going to help you.”

Ubica reveals a strained smile, “Thank you, I-----“

Something interrupts him; a little white light flashes in front of Messor’s chest and Ubica instantly knows what it is.

Michael appears out of that light directly in front of Messor, he arrives so quickly that she doesn’t even have the faintest idea that he’s there.

“Look out!!”

Ubica shouts as he dashes in front of her as quickly as he can, and is met with a fist moving at the speed of light directly into chest.

Michael’s punch lands right at the center of his wound, the pressure of that punch sends so much air through his wound that it rushes through his body and escapes out of his back, causing a wind that’s carrying a large amount of his blood to blow out onto Messor’s face.

The blood sprayed out of him like a whale blowing water through its air hole while coming to the ocean’s surface to breathe. A red mist is sent about the jungle, giving the already wet air an eerie humidity.

Ubica crumbles to the ground in a heap, the hit was so hard it made breathing impossible, all he can do is writhe in pain as he helplessly looks up at Michael.

“Well look here, the Idolatress has returned from the pit as well.”

Messor is still in shock, having Ubica’s blood spray on her like that has her frozen.

Ubica shakily reaches out his hand, attempting anything he can in order to make Michael stop.

The Archangel points his spear at Messor’s face, and from the tip a light forms. “One would call this killing two nasty birds with one stone, wouldn’t you say?”

The light grows and grows until it is shot in a beam, the light screams towards Messor’s face when its brightness knocks her back to her senses. She forms a little black butterfly in front of her nose and the two power sources collide.

BAAAAANGGG!!

Michael’s light destroys the butterfly, but it gives Messor just enough time to get out of the way and avoid being hit.

Unfortunately, the crew members behind her weren’t so lucky as to see what exactly was happening.

The man playing the fiddle is obliterated and the other man spraying the champagne bottle is ripped to pieces. About five others share the same fate.

Once the smoke clears, panic strikes them as they all run away in different directions; Caesar on the other hand is motionless in shock. The whole thing just happened in less than a second, in the last blink of an eye he and his men were celebrating, now, they are running for their lives from a man who has literally appeared out of nowhere.

A few of the crew run and swim across the shallow lake and toward the stairs leading through the waterfall, even in their panic they know that being safe is only a few steps away through the Gate.

Michael’s teal eyes shift to them and he clicks his tongue in annoyance, he disappears in a flash of light and reappears an instant later directly in front of the men, impeding their path. He mercilessly swings his spear and cuts one man in half, the other two men once again try to flee but with one more swing, a flash of light envelopes them and they disintegrate.

Michael continues to go about his killing spree on all of the men running around the lake. He is hurriedly doing so as well, he wants to get this over with so he can enjoy the moment he finally destroys Ubica. But in his mind, his duty comes first, he must protect the Gate, not even one soul can go through without his permission.

“Is that the same Michael from before!?” Messor shouts in disbelief.

“N-No...” Ubica struggles to say as he shoddily stands to his feet, Messor quickly rushes to him and helps him up. “He’s no longer an Angel. His soul has been destroyed by the darkness I’ve planted there.”

“..?”

“That is why I must kill him... It’s my responsibility.”

He takes Messor’s shoulders and gently pushes her away from him. “Go and get the others, when you have an opening, I need you to take them through the Gate.”

“I’m not going to leave you behind again! Especially not in this state!”

Ubica’s injury is extremely bad; it’s a minor miracle that he’s still even breathing, the hole in his chest and back is bigger than a baseball, and there's a good chance that that size of a chunk is missing from one of his lungs.

“You have to, with his ability to move through light there’s no way I can protect everyone. You have to get them to the other side.”

Messor grits her teeth and looks away, she reluctantly replies, “Fine.”

“It’s a little too late for that Ubica.”

Ubica turns to see Michael, holding two frightened girls under his arms.

“Tsubiri! Daey!”

Michael laughs as Ubcia’s face contorts with fear. “Hahahahaha! While I was killing off those weaklings, I took a good look at my surroundings and noticed the faces of these two girls... They were looking at your blood with such horror in their eyes that I instantly knew.”

“L-Let them go.” Ubica demands through his shaking mouth.

Standing behind Michael and staring in surprise is Napoleon and Strauphius, just a moment earlier they were guarding both Tsubiri and Daey. They have no clue how they ended up under his arms, even Strauphius, whose specialty is extremely fast movement couldn’t even fathom the speed of Michael.

“They love you. And judging by the look in your eyes, it’s reciprocated.” Michael says, the smile leaving his face, replaced by a bitter frown.

An eerie silence falls upon his and Ubica’s glare; he squeezes harder on Tsubiri and Daey’s necks, causing them to choke when he asks,

“Tell me Ubica... which one do you love more?”

-------------------------

11:23 is what the clock indicates above the door connected to the strange stone bridge in the middle of nowhere. Almost twenty minutes have passed, and nothing has changed from before. The only occurrence is that the stars and what seem to be the galaxies that surround them swirl and change color from green to red, blue to gold, purple to yellow and so on. This certainly helps the time fly by, but nonetheless the silence is borderline maddening, adding to the every growing feeling of disbelief brewing in their chests.

“Only thirty seven minutes huh? What do you think the chances of them actually coming are?" Aria asks Cyrus, who is leaning up against the railing of the bridge and looking out at the amazing scenery.

“One in a million.”

“That low huh?”

“Well yeah, think about it.”

Aria throws her head into her arms as she leans on the railing as well, “Hmmm I guess so... It sure would be great if they came.”

“Yeah, it sure would.”

----------------------

“Y-You’re telling me to choose?” Ubica says as his eyes grow larger with each breath.

“Doesn’t this situation seem familiar to you!?”

He’s right, this is the exact situation the two of them had in the past, except this time the roles are reversed. If the outcome has any similarities to what it was then, it would mean that Tsubiri and Daey will die a horrible death.

“Don’t do this Michael! They have nothing to do with this!”

Ubica’s yelling causes blood to squirt out of his stomach. He falls to one knee in pain when he feels his blood exit his body.

“If they have anything to do with you, then they have everything to do with this! It’s only fair, right!? An eye for an eye, right!?”

The features of Michael’s face contrive into that of a monster.

“You’re wrong! They’re innocent!”

“So were Catherine and Margaret!!!”

Looking from a safe distance away is Trojia, she has seen this scene before. She recognized Michael the moment she laid eyes on him and knows just how much suffering Ubica has put him through. Though she is terribly worried about the well-being of Tsubiri and Daey, she can understand where he’s coming from.
He was forced into killing his two lovers in a gruesome way with his own attack, how else would one expect him to feel?

To her, she agrees with his inability to forgive Ubica. She had witnessed it firsthand and knows an atrocity like that cannot simply be overlooked through the passing of time or because of Ubica’s current nature. The 3 years worth of images that Trojia had to endure have tainted him forever, so much so she can’t even mutter a word, even when her friend’s lives are in danger.

Ubica knows this as well, in fact, he’s been punishing himself over it ever since he escaped the pit. He understands that he doesn't deserve any form of forgiveness, but that doesn’t stop him from forming a deep frown and retorting,

“No, they weren’t.”

“What?”

Everything grows silent, Trojia is in disbelief at his words, and Michael’s face twists in a weird way.

“They weren’t innocent.” Ubica says, “They were my enemies in a war. The means weren’t justified, but the ends were.”

Tsubiri and Daey are clueless as to what he is saying, even being held hostage their focus is solely on his words.

“Every Angel, every being from Heaven was my enemy in that war. None of you were any different from the other. Anyone who stood on that battlefield was there to fight, they were there knowing that there was a chance they might die.”

“You bastard!! How can you so shamelessly say something like that!? Michael shouts, putting more pressure onto the necks of the two girls with his trembling hands.

“Because I’m right! And you know it. Using those two to fulfill your spite for me is wrong, you’re nothing but a spineless coward! They are mere humans put in an awful situation by Damien who are just trying to get back home. There are people back on Earth who love them and are awaiting their return that have nothing to do with the two of us. If you can so ruthlessly crush that innocence, then you are doing the Devil’s work with your own two hands!”

Michael’s eyes have shrunken to such a size that only the white of his eyes can be seen; there is a fire burning in his chest as his mind churns uncontrollably.

“Tell me Michael! Are you truly willing to sink even lower than me for the sake of revenge!?”

Michael takes long and deep breaths as Ubica’s question pounds in between his ears.

Has the Archangel really become someone who’ll kill off two girls just to get back at him? Will it really bring him that much pleasure?

The answer becomes clear as the feeling of a tooth cracking under the weight of him gritting his teeth in anger hits him. He takes another long inhale and exhales harshly, he shoots Ubica a cold glare and says expressionlessly,

“I said pick one.”

----------------------

Rage and the others are still waiting on the strange bridge that connects the second and third levels of Purgatory. The ticking of the clock echoes and it’s time shows 11:40, only 20 more minutes remain until their departure.

Steadily becoming more impatient in the silence, Rage walks over to Phoenix and makes conversation, “To think that Michael has become a revenge thirsty man... It’s a shame.”

Phoenix likely knows all too much of the feeling of pity for him, the two have been good friends for thousands of years. Before Phoenix’s time, Michael was at the right seat of God in the early days, he had even been the one to banish Satan to Hell.

Phoenix already bears the pain of witnessing every Angel being slaughtered before his eyes by Ubica, to have the last remaining Angel lose his soul to hate is extremely disturbing to him.

“It is. I never thought he’d be the one to let evil consume him.”

“You didn’t try to stop him?”

“No, just because I am who I am, doesn’t mean I'm obliged to make decisions on how my underlings live their lives. Besides, if he was really to be kept from falling from grace and becoming evil, God would’ve stopped him before he could even get a chance.”

“You mean---“

“He’s not evil!” Sora yells, her voice echoes inside the strange world they’re in. Not allowing Rage to finish, she presses on, “There’s no way that man is evil... He saved me twice, even though he didn’t know that I was with you guys, he still saved my life while assuming I was attempting to pass through the Gate at some point. For all he knew, I was with the pirates.”

“I can’t explain why he did that for you, but you saw the look in his eyes, he’s gone. He’ll do anything to settle his score with Ubica, even if it means forsaking himself.” Phoenix said, looking displeased at his own words.

“You’re wrong. There’s good in him, I know it.”

-------------------------

“I said pick one damn it!” Michael shouts.

“I can’t do that.” Ubica replies, “Please, they need to get back to Earth safely; a countless number of lives are at stake.”

“I don’t care! Just do it!”

At this point, it becomes obvious that there will be no changing Michael’s mind with words. If Ubica actually picks which girl it is he loves, he’ll kill her without a moment’s hesitation. There is now only one option, and that is to pry them loose from his arms.

He desperately wants to avoid doing something that can put them in harm’s way, so he gives him one last answer.

“No.”

“Tch.” Michael clicks his tongue, he releases his hold on Daey and Tsubiri and tosses them to the ground. “All I wanted was for you to pick one... I never said I’d do anything to them if you did.”

“...What?”

Ubica is standing there in shock, watching as Napoleon and Strauphius rush up and take Tsubiri and Daey away from Michael.

Was he not going to harm them all along? Or was this some kind of test?

“Hahahahahaha.” Michael starts laughing, “My oh my how the roles have changed.”

This might be the third time he’s said this, but what he said does hold true. Almost everything that has happened so far has been a repeat of what happened during the battle of Armageddon.

“It has changed in so many ways, except for one little thing.” He points his finger out at Ubica and says, “I’m not you... Nor will I ever be you. Although I’m running low on the good in me, I need to keep you lower than me where you belong.”

Michael turns away from Ubica and addresses the rest, “You are all travelling back to Earth in order to stop a war, correct?”

Napoleon doesn’t know how he has obtained that information but replies, “That’s correct.”

“Then go.”

They pause momentarily and don’t move a step.

The Angel shrugs his shoulders and says, “You can stay here if you’d like. Just so you know, whoever doesn’t pass through that Gate and decides to help Ubica in any way will be considered an enemy. Which means I’ll kill you without a second thought.”

“T-Thank you Michael...”

“I don’t want your damn thanks, Antichrist.” Michael spat. “If you want to thank someone, thank the Messiah.”

“The Messiah?”

“Oh? You never knew huh? Not that it matters now anyways, you’ll never know.”

Caesar and the few remaining men left in his crew don’t ask any questions, they immediately rush through the water and up the stairs.

Once at the waterfall, he turns and shouts, “I wish you luck Ubica! But we must be going, I can’t risk losing all of my men trying to help you.”

Ubica smiles and waves, “That’s fine. Thanks for fulfilling your promise by bringing all of my friends here unharmed.”

Caesar gives him a passing salute, and along with the 3 remaining men, dashes through the waterfall and through the Gate.

-----------------------

The door from the second level of Purgatory suddenly opens, and four people enter in a bright flash of light. The light is blocking the view for Rage and the others so their hopes rise in the thought that the people they are expecting will be the ones making their way in.

But when the light fades, they are met by a large black man and a few rough looking men, dashing their hopes instantly.

“Who are you?” Caesar asks in surprise, “And what the hell is up with this place?”

Rage thinks that these men must be some pirates that were lucky enough to get through the Gate during the confusion of the battle between Ubica and Michael. So he doesn’t pay them much mind when he points behind him and says, “The next level is through that door.”

Ernest and his men smile and rush to the other side of the bridge. “Thanks pal! I don’t know what you’re waiting for, but we’re outta here.”

Rage turns away in annoyance and sends them off with the sound of a clicking tongue.

And just like that, Cesar and his men finally reach the next level, after trying for so many years and coming up short, the feeling is bliss when they walk through the door and disappear in another light.

“Wait a second, doesn’t that guy’s description seem familiar?” asks Aria as she tilts her head in wonder.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m recalling the story Ubica told us about how the others were on some ship... And that the ship’s captain was a big black guy with an eyepatch.”

“That could’ve been him!” Cyrus exclaims.

“If that’s the case, then the others must be here as well.” Rage said calmly, deliberately choosing not to match the excitement of the others.

He takes a gander at the clock above the door and sees the time 11:49.

“Just a little while longer...”

------------------------

“You heard him guys, get going.” Ubica says, his knees are still shaking from the wound in his stomach.

“There’s no way I’m leaving you here like this.” Messor replies.

There is a seriousness in her voice that can’t be tempted nor swayed. She has every intention of fighting to the death alongside him right here and now.

Ubica smiles gently and walks to her, “Listen, the best way for you to help me is to take care of the others once you all get to the other side.”

“Stop it with this nonsense already! I’m tired of doing things for them! It’s time for me to fight with you!”

“Don’t be a child, Messor.” He takes his shaky hands and rests them on her shoulders, “I know what it is that you really want, but I can’t promise that to you until they’re all safe and returned home. This is the only way to ensure that result, in this world I can only rely on you. It’s always been that way.”

“....”

He moves his face closer to her so he can whisper in her ear, “So please Messor, it will all be okay in the end if we keep walking down this path.”

Messor blushes, those tender words of his felt honest, and it has swayed her into agreeing with his resolve.

“Okay… I’ll trust you on this. When the time comes you’ll give me what I want?”

“I promise I will.”

Kissing him on his cheek, she takes her steps away from him. But not before leaving him with some lingering black monarch butterflies that begin fluttering around his wound.

“This will help replenish what you’ve lost. Use it to kill this Archangel bastard.”

Feeling an immediate form of rejuvenation, Ubica smiles and says, “Thank you, Messor, for everything.”

She walks to Napoleon’s side and the two make their way up the stairs to the Gate.

Napoleon, looking down on Ubica from atop the stairs, faintly smiles and simply says, “Win.”

Ubica holds his thumb out and smiles as he watches the two go through the second Gate.

Now next up is Daey, who’s showing a face that is obviously reluctant to leave.

“I really feel like I should stay.”

A bold statement coming from her, even though Messor has given her some kind of ability, she certainly realizes that it is no match for Michael.

“Don’t worry, I’ll meet you on the other side.”

“I have this terrible feeling that even if you make it there, I still won’t see you for a long time. Ubica, I really think I should stay, I think we all should.”

Ubica glances over to Strauphius and gives him a head movement.

Struaphius scratches his head and says, “Yeah yeah I gotcha.”

Even with the injuries he sustained from Damien on the ship a couple days back, he quickly uses his intense speed and grabs Daey, and before she knew it, she was being pulled under the waterfall.

“Let me go!”

“I’m sorry Daey, but your sister and the others are waiting to meet you. Go and be with them, and I’ll be with all of you again soon.”

“You better make it soon, Ubica! We all have to make it home together.”

Strauphius pulls her deeper into the waterfall, even he doesn't want to leave without saying his peace, so he shows Ubica a dumb smile and says, “You’re a lucky guy, Ubica, don’t go tossing this affection away by losing this fight.”

Ubica smiles in reply as the two go into the Gate.

Shifting his attention to the last two still present, Tsubiri and Trojia, the expression on his face communicates to them his desire to follow the rest.

“You don’t need to tell me twice.” Tsubiri says bitterly as she walks up the stairs.

Trojia doesn’t say a word as she silently follows.

“Wow Tsubiri, you’re awfully tame right now.” Ubica says, cracking a little smile.

“I know when and when not to be. There’s no choice in this situation right?”

“...Yeah.”

“Yup yup, noooo choice at all.” She said as she reached the waterfall and walked through.

The last one is Trojia, she hasn’t said more than a few cold words to Ubica since their reunion but now her heart yearns to speak the words that continue to build in her chest. She looks down to Ubica, and tears begin forming in her eyes. This is it, this is what she wanted to say to Ubica since she reached the island.

The words struggle to come out, but when they do, she says,

“Goodbye, Ubica...”

She doesn’t give him a chance to say anything back as she rushes through the waterfall.

Even Ubica felt that this goodbye wasn’t the kind that expresses the desire or belief that they will be seeing each other again, It was more of a farewell to someone that will never return.

Ubica doesn’t fully get it, but Trojia does, she knows exactly what her words meant.

This goodbye was directed at the feelings she once had for him. This is goodbye to all the happy moments they’ve shared together, this is goodbye to the feeling of warmth and security she always had when she was with him. This is goodbye to the smiles they were so easy to join in together.

From the bottom of her heart, this is simply, the most sincere goodbye to her love for him.

“Now that they’re all gone, what do you say that we finish what we started?” Michael said, stretching his neck as though he were bored witnessing such tender acts of friendship.

Ubica picks his sword off the ground and swings it in front of him, “Let’s do this.”

-------------------------

“Oh my goodness you all really made it!!!” Aria shouts as she runs up to her brother and gives him a giant hug.

Daey and Niera do the same; the reunion is officially underway.

The only one not seeming to care about the reunion is Trojia, she was the last in and is wiping the remnants of her tears off her cheeks.

Rage notices this and asks her, “So where’s Ubica?”

She knows that he is fighting Michael at the moment, but for some reason those words won’t exit her mouth, she fears that if they knew, they’d likely want to wait. She stays silent and drops her head slightly.

Rage looks back at the clock and sees that it is 11:58.

“There’s not much time left if we all want to end up in the same spot on the next level. Is Ubica going to make it or what?”

“He’s battling Michael as we speak.” Napoleon says.

For some odd reason Rage is relieved to hear Napoleon’s voice after all this time apart. He sighs and replies, “If that's the case we might as well wait for this part of the world to pass us by. I’m sure he’ll be here within the next hour.”

“No.” Trojia mutters.

Rage shifts his glare to Trojia, who is standing there as if she has something to say.

“We need to leave him behind...” she says, her voice growing more resolute with each word, “He told us that we should move forward without him, so we should do just that.”

"We also don't truly know what happens when that clock reaches 12." added Phoenix. "For all we know, we could get stuck in here permanently if we miss our window. I gambled on my passage by waiting for you all to arrive, I'd rather not risk it again while Ubica settles the score with Michael."

Still a little hesitant, he looks to Messor, who is standing by the the entranceway underneath the clock with her arms folded as if resigning herself to whatever they decide on. She knows full well what Ubica wants in this situation, and truly believes that whatever choice they make will lead her to him in the end.

Seeing that Messor has no intention of inserting her opinion on the matter was all the convincing Rage needed; though he doesn't understand Trojia's sudden willingness to leave Ubica in a dangerous situation, he does understand Phoenix's reasoning for doing so.

He turns and addresses everyone, “Alright! We need to get through that door before the hour changes. Hurry!”

All of them rush through the door just in the nick of time, as soon as the door shuts in their wake, a bell rings and the starry scenery turns into a sky of dusk, a beautiful sunset through immense clouds has taken the place of the stars.

With them gone, the clock noise keeps ticking and the odd echo still arrives after each second.

But another noise is adding to the rhythm of the ticking clock.

It is the sound of footsteps.

Someone has decided to gamble on their future by waiting for the clock to strike 12.

---------------------------

CRASHHHH!

Ubica slams into a thick tree and the impact splinters it violently.

Michael travels through his light and ends up directly in front of him.

He swings his spear and Ubica ducks as fast as he can, narrowly avoiding the same damage the tree took when it is split in two like a piece of paper.
Ubica slides out to the left and jumps onto the lake, he slams his free hand down and a huge snake-like form of water forms right beside him and zooms its way at Michael.

Michael jumps out of the way but when the water crashes onto the ground it reforms and chases after him.

Ubica is controlling the way the water moves with his mind alone, and when he sees that his attacks aren’t keeping up with the Angel, he twists his hand and the water breaks apart.

Now separated, they freeze over and turn into razor sharp icicles moving twice as fast toward Michael’s direction.

It would seem he is a little worried about this and swings his spear in a 360 degree turn, destroying the ice and sending shards flying everywhere.

(Why didn’t he use his light?)

Ubica asks himself as he takes this opportunity to rush him and take a slice with his sword.

With a little direction change in Michael’s center of gravity, he ends up face to face with Ubica; from in front of him, a light forms and shoots out in a tremendous blast. Ubica forms a shield of darkness in front of him but the impact of the two forces still results in Michael’s win.

Ubica is pushed to the side and skips onto the water before catching his footing. He looks up quickly and notices that the light that Michael attacked him with is still moving in the same straight line in which it was sent. But what really catches his eye is the fact that when the light plows into the trees of the jungle, nothing is damaged.

“!?”

Not giving him much time to even think, Michael forms right beside him and sends a hard elbow directly at Ubica’s face, the impact of which pushes him about ten meters away along the lake’s surface.

“I’m too fast for you to hold your own against me, Ubica. My light is impossible to outrun.”

Ubica stands back up atop the water and wipes the blood from his mouth with his sleeve. “I know, but I don’t think that your light is all you make it out to be.”

“.....”

“If it was, you’d use it constantly. Every attack and defense would be with it. But from what I can see, it only has its certain functions.”

"....."

"I'm right aren't I? You can only use your light on living things."

“Hmmm, an interesting deduction, Antichrist. Let’s see what you think when I do this!”

Michael swipes the water with the tip of his spear and sends a torrent of water splashing all around, from behind that, three bright lights form and rise up above it in a triangular position. The three light’s shine and glow, reflecting off the water when all of the sudden Ubica feels as though he is surrounded by stars.

“This will throw away that theory of yours.” Michael snaps his finger.

Hundreds of light beams zoom at Ubica from every direction; there is no avoiding an impact. He can’t jump because there are beams coming down on him, he can’t go side to side either, and he can’t dive into the water because light is exemplified through shallow water.

“Shit!”

All he can do is brace himself and hope that beams don’t skewer every last inch of his body, he guards himself and slams his eyes shut when...

“NNNNGGGGUUUAAHHHHHH!?!?”

Michael is heard screaming and the beams of light halt and drop back into the lake in the form of helpless water droplets.

When all is said and done, Michael is floating face first on the lake’s surface, his body smoldering in an odd smoke.

“Huh?” Ubica asks himself.

And then, the voice of a girl is heard from the bottom of the stairs that lead up to the Gate.

“I remember reading somewhere that the strength of electricity multiplies in water.”

Standing there, with a helpful smile on her face is Tsubiri.

It takes a moment for Ubica to even process what has just happened.

“Tsubiri!? Why are you still here!?”

She doesn’t answer the question directly, but instead takes a seat on one of the steps and says, “Promises work both ways right?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You promised me that you’d stay by my side, remember? Well you can’t do that if I’m not with you.”

“You idiot! Do you have any idea what you’ve just done!? When he gets up he’s going to try to kill you! I wanted you all to leave so I could keep you safe!”

“I know.” she quickly replies, “But you should know by now that I’m willing to take that risk.”

“Damn it Tsubiri, this wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“You don’t have to be the cool guy all the time, Ubica. Especially not with me because I already see you for the dork you really are.”

“Now’s not the time for jokes!”

“Hmmm I suppose now isn't the time for jokes, but it sure is a good time to run away, right?”

“..?”

“Since the beginning you were in no condition to fight. You would’ve died I’m sure of it. If I knew all this and still left you alone, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”

She’s right, Ubica was more or less on the verge of death before the battle with Michael even started. He doubted his chances of actually winning without giving himself time to heal, moving around was only going to make the wound worse.

“Tsubiri...”

“Now come get me already! I can’t swim!”

Ubica starts walking to her, “Like I’d fall for that again.”

Ubica walks atop the water, in order to get to her he has to walk right past the downed Michael, however, before he could his leg is grabbed violently.

“!?”

Michael is glaring up at him with red eyes and a frown. “That girl is no longer innocent.”

The Angel makes his way up, using Ubica as a boost to pull himself to his feet but Ubica won’t let it happen. With his free foot he viciously kicks Michael in the side, making him lose his grip and sending him flying across the lake.

Now the sense of urgency kicks in, in his condition there is no way he can protect Tsubiri and defeat Michael at the same time. He runs to the bottom of the stairs, takes Tsubiri into his arms and runs off as fast as he can.

From behind him he can hear the raspy and angered voice of Michael shouting,

“I’ll find you, I swear to God himself! The moment you shine a light, I’ll be there to kill you both!!”

Hearing that as they make their way through the darkness of the jungle makes their spines tingle.

Although Ubica is used to it, Tsubiri is quite frightened, “That guy... he really hates you.”

“He does.”

“What did you do to him?”

“Something awful.”

She stays silent for a moment, then looks him square in the face when she says, “Will you tell me?”

Ubica doesn’t answer, instead his eyes are focused on the path through the jungle in which he’s running. It’s as though he didn’t want her to ask and now is trying to avoid answering by staying silent. Normally he can get away with a polite refusal, but judging by the hot feeling of her glare beating on the side of his face, and the situation they’ve found themselves in, there’s no avoiding it.

Without shifting his glare from the jungle he answers, “If you’re really prepared to know what I am, then fine, I’ll tell you everything.”

Tsubiri’s eyebrows steepen in determination, “I’m prepared.”

-----------------------

“O-Oh my goodness that’s quite the story.” Tsubiri says in disbelief upon hearing Ubica’s past.

He went into every detail, from the moment he was born all the way through to his rule over the world, and his role in the Battle of Armageddon. He’s revealed it all, including his relationship with Messor, and he explained the reason why Michael hates him so much.

The two have found a shelter in a conveniently found cave a couple miles away from the Gate. It really couldn’t have worked out any better because the cave already has leaves padding the hard rock ground and a used fire pit inside. It would seem that this cave has been used by somebody a few years back; it is likely that some pirates camped here in search of the Gate when it was located on this island the last time before being changed to a different location.

A spot of luck to say the least, the cave is so deep that they can light a fire to keep warm and not have to worry about its light reaching Michael.

Ubica is flat on his back while Tsubiri is sitting beside him, leaning up against the side of the cave.

She has given him first aid with medicinal plants from around the jungle, she happened to know of some due to her training as a royal guard. To cover the wound, she ripped Ubica’s coat and wrapped it around his torso tightly.

Along with Messor’s butterflies, he’s on the fast track to healing up as good as new.

“Are you happy now that you know?” Ubica asks, revealing a weak strained smile, “I can only imagine what you think of me after hearing that.”

Tsubiri stays silent for a moment, she still can’t fathom that Ubica was such an awful person in the past. She had certainly entertained the thought that he’s done something wrong by how all the enemies thus far treated him. She knew for sure that there was something, just not on a scale that large.

For a girl who has never really been out of the Castle grounds of La’Juune before being sent here to Purgatory, hearing of worlds beyond her reach being ruled and destroyed by the evil hand of Ubica is too hard to comprehend properly.

Nonetheless, she dispels those thoughts by shaking her head and answering, “I am happy... and I don’t think of you any differently.”

“You don't? How?”

“Listen Ubica, when was the last time you were that person? Truly, how long ago was it that you were actually the Antichrist?”

“...Over a thousand years.” Ubica answers, confused as to where she is going with this.

“Then tell me, who have you been since you got back to Earth? More importantly, who have you been since the two of us met?”

This question hits his chest so hard that his body jolts, he has no clue how to answer that. But he feels that the answer means something, he just can’t put it in words.

Tsubiri smiles and puts her hand on his shoulder, “You’re Ubica.”

A small breath of air escapes Ubica’s mouth.

“You’re not anything other than who you are. You are clumsy, dense, occasionally idiotic, but you are a good person Ubica. And think about it, if we do the math you’ve actually been good for a lot longer than you’ve been bad.” Passing that last bit off as somewhat of a lighthearted joke, she then looks to him tenderly before finishing. “I refuse to hold what you’re made of against you, especially since you’re doing the best you can now. I guess what I’m trying to say is... I'm glad that you are you.”

These are the words he’s wanted to hear for a long time now; this is what he has yearned to be looked upon as. She looks at him in a way that can’t see his evil, she looks at him as the person he truly is, not as the person he was. With those beautiful gold eyes of hers, she looks at the person who is obviously standing in front of her giving it his all.

Ubica throws his forearm over his eyes and desperately tries to fight back a smile. This strong feeling surging in his chest is giving him strength, and the person who placed that strong feeling in his heart is Tsubiri.

With his eyes still covered, his cheeks glow red when he says, “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure, as long as it’s not something perverted.”

“It’s not gonna be perverted you idiot, don’t ruin the mood!”

“Hahaha I’m kidding, relax. What is it?”

Ubica takes a deep breath and turns his head away from her and softly says, “When a ‘person’ truly enjoys being around ‘someone’. And that ‘person’ is genuinely happy every time he sees that ‘someone’. And when that ‘someone’ always makes that 'person' laugh and have fun no matter what. And when the ‘person’ thinks that ‘someone’ is very beautiful… what do you suppose that means?”

“Umm... You lost me Ubica. Too many someones and persons.”

“Ugh, and you say I’m dense.”

“Well speak in a less confusing way and I can answer your damn question!”

“Just try to answer it the way I told you okay!? I don’t know any other way to explain it without embarrassing myself even more than I am now.”

Tsubiri scratches her head and rethinks what he said, “Hmmm, I think it means that the ‘person’ is in love with that ‘someone’.”

“Is love really something as simple as that?” Ubica asks softly.

“I believe so.” Tsubiri answers, not entirely sure of it herself.

Ubica’s shoulders scrunch up as he continues to block his eyes with his forearm, his whole demeanor shrinks slightly when he says in his softest voice,

“Then I think I’m in love with you.”

“What? I couldn't hear you.” she replies, putting her hand over her ear in order to hear better.

“I said I love you.“ he repeated himself in an even softer voice than before.

Tsubiri only caught the ‘I said I’ part of it. She frowns and pulls on his shoulder to make him face her.

“Look at me and speak up if you want me to hear you!”

Ubica quickly twists his body in frustration and reveals a bright red face when he shouts,

“I said I love you!”

“Whhhuuuaaaa!?!?” Tsubiri squeels as she jumps back against the cave wall in shock. “Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-You wha!?”

Her face is also shining red.

The two share an awkward silence as they both look away from each other like little school children after a valentine’s day gift exchange.

Tsubiri finally musters up the courage to speak but the only thing that comes out of her mouth is,

“I-I-Ieeeiiiiiiiiiyaaaaaa!?!?”

Ubica can’t help but be confused by her reply until a distinct sound hits his ears.

SPLASH!!!

“Hahh?”

Ubica looks to where Tsubiri once was and sees that she is no longer there, it’s like she had vanished into thin air.

“Ubica!!!”

Hearing her shout, he instantly becomes worried and quickly stands to his feet, grabbing his sword in the process.

“Are you okay!?”

“I’m down here!”

“Huh?”

Looking closely, the spot where Tsubiri once stood has been capsized; she had fallen through a sinkhole on the cave’s floor.

“You gotta come see this! Hurry up!”

Ubica, still a little frazzled, unhesitatingly jumps through the hole before looking through it. The next thing he knew, he’s under water. He feels the soft hands of Tsubiri pull him up and the first thing that hits him is the brilliant color of blue.

The two have found themselves in a solutional cavern; the water shines an amazing blue and mirrors the image of the limestone and dolomite rock surroundings. Up above, the three moons shine brightly down through a hole on the surface likely caused by a quake of some sort. There are what seems to be some kind of crystal lodged in the rock walls and the moonlight hitting those adds different colors such as green, red, yellow, purple and many more to the sensation of the cavern.

The water they are in is fairly warm because whatever warm air the sun gives to the innards of the cave gets trapped inside. This dream-like place would be a speleologist’s paradise.

“Wow this place is amazing!”

“I know right! It’s so pretty!”

They both exclaim, then the two accidentally bump shoulders and they both instantly realize what kind of situation they’re in. They are alone in this romantic setting so soon after one had just confessed to the other.

Despite the sudden realization of the moment, Tsubiri couldn’t be any happier, in fact, neither could Ubica. The two look into each other’s eyes as they float in the still water, the many colored lights help add beauty to them as they continue to stare in a gentle silence.

Tsubiri grabs Ubica’s hands underneath the crystal clear water, gets close enough to him where their bodies are touching and says,

“Say it one more time.”

When she asks this, for some odd reason Ubica finds it extremely easy to answer.

After a short pause he smiles and says,

“...I love you.”

Tsubiri tears up, she tries to hold it back but when she blinks they come sliding down her cheeks.

“What’s wrong?” Ubica asks.

“I can’t believe it... I’m so happy right now I could die.”

“What a time to use that figure of speech considering our situation.” Ubica replies.

“What a time to be dense and not let that slide.”

“Hehe, sorry sorry.”

“Just shut up for a second...”

Tsubiri presses her index finger on his lips and looks at him sensually.

She moves her face forward and kisses him.

Ubica wraps his arms around her waist and lifts her to his level. She throws her arms over his shoulders and they continue on.

“So this is what it feels like to really kiss someone.” she said with flushed cheeks.

“Was this your first kiss?”

“Well no not exactly...”

“Oh..." Ubica says awkwardly as he shifts his gaze. "Well who was it with?”

“It was with you obviously.”

“Wait a second, I don’t remember that!”

Tsubiri looks up in wonder, “Oh yeah, you were pretty much asleep.”

She is referring to the time in the tundra where she kissed Ubica, but he had unfortunately fallen unconscious just seconds before due to the cold.

“I knew it! You have been doing weird things to me in my sleep!”

“Wha? N-No there’s an explanation for that one I swear!”

Ignoring her, Ubica presses on, “Now that I think about it, there was that one time during the harvest festival when I woke up to you on my lap!”

“That’s explainable too!!!”

“Uaaaahhh I’m not listening!”

“Nooooooo you have to let me try to tell you what happened!!”

“Ngyyaahhh that hurts! Pulling my hair isn’t going to make me want to listen!”

Somehow, someway, the romance of the moment is shattered and results in the two yapping at each other like they always do.

Or perhaps the romance is still moving along just as it should, the way these two interact is the reason why they love each other. So perhaps this is the proper ending to a beautiful scene.

--------------------------

The next morning, Ubica is healed and back to full strength. He and Tsubiri reach the Gate to confront Michael once more; and sure enough, the Archangel is standing right there under the light of the morning sun.

“After some thinking, I realized that looking for you was pointless... I knew you’d have to come back to the Gate eventually.” Michael said, admitting that his thought process was a little sloppy due to his anger the night before.

[[Image:Dv04-chp12_img003.jpg|260px|thumb]]

Ubica and Tsubiri look at each other share a smile.

She takes a few steps to the right and lightning bolts form all around her.

Michael frowns upon looking at that, reminded that it was she who electrocuted him so badly it allowed an injured Ubica to escape.

He pulls his spear out of a light and postures himself in a battle stance. “I’ll be sure to kill you for interfering with my revenge.”

Ubica pulls his sword out, the same smile still on his face. “Not a chance, you won’t even get to touch her.”

“You stand in front of me with a new face, Ubica. It’s as though the guilt that you said you felt has gone.”

“No, it’s still there, and it always will be. But I won’t let it get in the way of my future.”

“So you’re willing to take the life of the last Angel. You do realize that means you’d have killed all of us if you were to succeed right?”

“That’s correct, if I must, I will kill you. But the only Angel I'll kill is you, and that is because I must take responsibility for the Antichrist’s role in turning you into the man you are now. I at least owe you that much.”

He talks as though the Ubica now is a completely different person than the Antichrist.

In many ways, that is the truth.

The two share memories and experiences, but they are not the same.

Both would be disgusted with each other if they were to meet.

The past doesn't define the present character of a man, no matter how ugly it was.

“Hmph! Then come! Try and take my life, Antichrist!”

Ubica charges at him atop the lake which now shines in sunlight.

He lets out a battle cry as he shouts, “I am only what I am right in front of you. I am Ubica!”

The two collide in the middle of the lake and a great explosion rings.

A light brighter than the sun blots out the sky, and once this white noise ends, the aftermath will surely reveal the victor.

An Angel's Revenge: (END)

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Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 11

2021-11-23T18:50:07Z

Deck of cards:

(PART 2)

“I can’t believe it, is it really you?” Sora asked with eyes wide open.

“Who else would I be?”

“I’m just so surprised, I haven’t seen you in such a long time and now you’re suddenly here. Have the others arrived safely?”

Ubica reveals a strained smile and replies, “We were separated a little over a week ago... I was hoping that they’d already be here by now.”

Sora finally takes his hand and is lifted up to her feet, her body still feels light with the feeling of relief. She was never this afraid to die in the past, she would fearlessly fight anyone if it meant protecting the Prince; but being eaten alive by a Demon frightened her to her core, it takes her a few more seconds to compose herself.

“What happened?” she asks.

Ubica purses his lips and looks down to the ground, answering such a simple question is proving to be very difficult. As far as he knows they could all be dead, a vision of all of them dead with Abaddon triumphantly standing over them laughing flashes in his head, he slams his eyes shut and tries to shake it off.

“The boat we were on… The Captain wanted me off his ship after a demon attacked us out in the open sea. We made a deal that he would continue to take them here if I left the ship.”

“Well that doesn’t sound too bad, you looked so troubled when you said that.”

“I could never be so sure about anything, there’s no telling what kind of danger they’ve been in since I left. But I have to trust in them, and believe that they’ll arrive here safely.”

“Sounds like there’s no choice but to do just that then, right?”

Hearing words of comfort from Sora of all people gives him a sense of reassurance for whatever reason. It’s not like he thinks she knows any more about the situation than he does, but he finds her voice to be quite soothing.

“Yeah, you’re right.”

“Get away from Sora you bastard!!” shouts a voice from within the jungle.

“Eh?”

Ubica turns around to see its source but is met with a fruit hitting him square in the face.

Of course this would normally mean nothing but a bump on the head, but in this situation the fruit has the explosive power of a hand grenade.

BOOOOOM!

The blast hits Ubica dead on and he disappears in the smoke.

“Sora! Are you alright!?” shouts Aria as she rushes to Sora’s aid.

Sora is blue with shock; she can’t believe that Aria just blew Ubica up without even giving him a chance to reveal himself.

“W-W-What did you do!?”

Aria grabs her shoulders and smiles as though she had just finished up with her life's greatest accomplishment, “I saved you, what do you think?”

Aria remains happy and carefree until she feels an angered glare beating on the side of her face, she can’t help but glance over and sees a face through the smoke of the aftermath of the explosion she caused.

“If you don’t mind me asking... who is this girl that just threw a bomb at my face!!?” Ubica asks in a raspy voice while cracking his knuckles in a threatening manner.

“Uwaaah!? He’s a lot stronger of an enemy than I expected! Stay back Sora, I’ll handle this!”

Because Ubica’s face is covered in dark dirt and ash, Aria doesn’t recognize him at all. And because Ubica never got a chance to properly meet Aria in the past, he doesn’t recognize her either.

Sensing that this could turn out extremely bad, Sora jumps in between them and shouts, “Stop it you two!”

They both look at her and simultaneously shout,

“Why!?”

Even though Sora has retained her ability to talk, she is still not quick enough on her feet to explain before the two go at each other’s throats.

But thankfully for her, Niera jumps in latches onto Ubica’s arm.

“Ubica!”

“Huh?” Aria halts.

“Wha?”

Ubica stops as well to look down on just who’s grabbing his arm.

Niera’s smile instantly breaks the conflict that has just been narrowly avoided.

“I’m so happy you’re alright.”

He’s surprised that she realized it was him so quickly, it’s been a while since they last saw each other and when they were together they weren't as close as he was to some of the others.

“Wait a second, this guy is Ubica?” Aria asked.

“Can’t you tell?” Niera asks as if stating the obvious.

Aria takes her sleeve and rubs it rather hard across his face, removing the dirt.

“Ooaah, it is you!”

Ubica frowns at how rough she was wiping the dust off his face when he says, “Now that we went through all this effort to reveal my identity, can someone tell me who this person is??”

“I’m Aria, I’m happy to know I made an impression on you the one time we met..” she replies sarcastically.

“I’m pretty sure I was unconscious for that.”

“Strauphius is my identical twin, you really don’t at least recognize me through him?”

Even though Ubica has never seen her in person, he does actually know her name, and also the fact that she’s Strauphius’ sister.

“Speaking of Strauphius,” Aria continues, “Where is he? Shouldn’t he be with you?”

Ubica doesn’t want to bring up the bad news without being consciously delicate with his words, he pauses for a moment as he contemplates where to start. He also wonders if he should tell her that the last he saw of Strauphius, he had been thrown up against the railing of the ship and injured.

This delay gives ample time for Cyrus to join in the conversation from behind, “I’d like to know where Princess Daey is as well.”

“Woah you sure came out of nowhere!” Aria explaims in surprise.

“This isn’t a good time for jokes; I need to know where the Princess is.”

Ubica sighs and decides to tell them everything that happened when a familiar scythe bearing man who looks awfully beaten up shoddily walks up to them.

“Ah it’s Rage.” Niera points out.

With a glare expressing a lack of emotion about their long awaited reunion, he walks right in the center of everyone before looking Ubica in the eyes to say,

“I’d like to hear about what happened as well.”

--------------------------------

Phoenix walks up the stairs that lead to the Gate through the waterfall.

He doesn’t speak to Xavier about the conversation he just had with Michael and it prompts the young Prince to ask,

“Who was that guy?”

“The Gatekeeper.” Phoenix sternly replies.

“Wha!? He’s not going to try and stop us?”

“Not this time.”

“Then what do we do?”

Phoenix twitches his eyebrow in annoyance before smoothly replying, “We go through the Gate.”

“But what about the others? What if that Gatekeeper goes and attacks them? Shouldn’t we-----“

“Shut up!”

Like a child shouted down by their parents, Xavier immediately tenses up.

“You ask too many questions. The Gatekeeper isn’t going to lay a finger on any of our comrades; they will meet us on the third level of Purgatory in a few short minutes. If you want to go back to them then be my guest, I’m going through to the other side. The last thing I want to do is be here for ‘his’ death.”

Xavier doesn’t know what exactly Phoenix meant when he said all that, but one thing is for sure, he won’t be asking any more questions in order to find out. Fearing the vulnerability he’d face if Phoenix left him behind, he comes to the conclusion that he’d best keep his mouth shut and follow the priest.
The two silently walk under the waterfall and through the shine of the second Purgatory Gate, leaving the others to catch up.

-----------------------------

“How could you be so damn careless?” Rage hisses.

Ubica, who found a rock to sit on, tries his best not to express the shame he’s feeling.

He had just told them all about what happened in the past couple weeks, from start to finish. About how they came across the Black Dandelion, how he was kicked off the ship due to Leviathan’s attack, how he stumbled upon the island, and how everyone he became acquainted with on that island met a grizzly fate.

Though the sympathy felt upon hearing the tragic story of Amber and her family is certainly there, the bulk of the hurt that came along with the terrifying truth is due to the fate of their family members and friends.

As far as Ubica knows, the ship was under siege by Abaddon, which means there is a very good chance none of them are going to make it to this island.
Aria is sick to her stomach thinking about Strauphius being in such danger.

Niera and Cyrus are as well, they know how easy it would be for someone like Abaddon to capsize the ship, if they were simply left stranded in the ocean they would never survive.

“Oh my god...” Aria says loathsomely, “This is a disaster.”

“Don’t say that Aria.” Sora urges, “You have to believe that they are alright.”

Aria throws her hands in her face and replies, “How? How can I believe something like that!?”

"...."

Sora replies with a befuddled silence.

Niera and Cyrus are feeling the same anxieties, they are finding it very difficult to believe that all of them could possibly be safe.

“I have a friend that we met up with back in the first level.” Ubica declares, perhaps feeling appreciative of Sora’s earlier optimism. “She has given all of them the power that comes along with being ‘aware'. With Messor at their side, it’s not too far-fetched to think they have actually won that fight and are on their way here as we speak. At least, that thought has kept me going.”

His words actually do help ease the feeling of despair filling their chests, if only slightly. They take cautious sighs of relief and breathe in what little hope that fact has to offer.

Rage on the other hand had to double take and repeat what Ubica just said back in head, with a threatening step forward he asks, “This friend of yours... Did you just say it was Messor?”

Ubica’s shoulders jumped for a split second when he realized he so casually dropped her name in front of Rage of all people.

“Yeah, she managed to find me.”

Rage’s face contorts in shock and then his eyebrows steepen to form an angered frown. He charges Ubica and grabs his collar, lifting him up off the ground.

“Have you gone mad!? How could you have brought that girl anywhere near them!?”

“You’re overreacting.” Ubica struggles to say due to being slightly choked, “She’s here to help us, I trust her.”

Rage shakes Ubica and shouts, “She’s here to help you! She couldn’t care less about the others!”

“Keeping them alive is helping me, and she knows that.”

“This is ridiculous! She’s definitely scheming something, how did she even escape the pit after you left her behind!?”

“Watch what you say about her in front of me.” Ubica sharply replies.

He didn’t need to raise his voice in order for those threatening words to strike Rage with the force of an attack. He lets Ubica to the ground and backs off, all the while gritting his teeth in anger.

“She’s changed, just like I have. I trust her with my life and the lives of the rest of us. They’ll be here soon, I’ll promise you that right now.” Ubica says, fixing his collar in the process.

The rest of them don’t even bother to ask just who this girl they are talking about is, judging by how fierce the atmosphere is around the subject they feel it’s best to stay out of it. Ubica and Rage glaring at each other like that is sending an electric wave of threatening energy onto each of them.

“Come on guys, the two of you arguing over what’s already done won’t help to solve anything.” Sora interjects, breaking the tense atmosphere.

“She’s right! Let’s get back on the topic of the situation we're in now.” Aria yells, coming to Sora’s aid and changing the topic. “Was it you who made that huge white explosion, Ubica?”

“Me? No, I came here thinking that it might’ve been Rage somehow.” he replies as he shifts his gaze back to Rage.

“It wasn’t me.” Rage replies with a shrug of his shoulders.

“It was ‘him’.” Sora claims.

“Him as in who?”

Sora takes her finger and points in the direction behind Ubica and the rest; they all turn their heads and see the culprit behind that massive light.

“Him as in me.” Michael says with a slight frown on his face.

“!?” Ubica’s face drops in shock and he is immediately frozen stiff in disbelief.

“Before any of you ask me any questions, allow me to tell you all that I am the Gatekeeper of the 2nd Level of Purgatory. If you wish to pass, you’ll need my permission.”

Rage scowls and squeezes the hilt of his scythe. “So we are forced to battle with someone like the Archangel in order to pass… what kind of sick trial is this?”

Michael holds out his hand as if telling Rage to take it easy as he says, “You and your friends are allowed to pass. The other two men in your group are awaiting your arrival on the other side.”

“??”

“The Gate is behind me, walk in that direction for about a mile and you’ll arrive there. Now go.”

“Isn’t that great!?” Sora asks, beaming with a bright smile.

Niera and Cyrus are relieved as well. Aria too for that matter, because at the last battle with a Gatekeeper Luke was killed, if another one of them were to die she wouldn’t know how to handle it.

“Hmph, then I’ll take your word for it. I won’t even bother to ask how you ended up as a Gatekeeper in the first place.” Rage says, he turns to the others and finishes, “Let’s go.”

Michael walks in front of Rage and points out his finger. “Not all of you are allowed to pass.”

“What do you mean?”

“He's talking about me.” Ubica says, causing the rest to turn back to him.

He is standing farther away from the group than before as if he was expecting this to happen all along.

“That’s right; the rest of you can go join the other two.”

“B-But.”

“Don’t worry about me. I need to wait for others to show up anyways.” Ubica said with a strained smile.

“Let it be.” Rage said as he began walking in the direction Michael pointed.

This prompts the rest to hesitatingly follow.

Once far away from twe they left behind, Sora can’t help but ask, “Why wouldn’t Michael let Ubica pass?”

Rage takes a shallow breath and answers, “Because Michael intends to kill him.”

-------------------------

Aboard the Black Dandelion, Caesar is looking through a pair of binoculars out on a distant island, a few miles back he had noticed a huge flash of white light, and as if using it as a beacon he followed towards its source. Cross Checking the map with the direction he’s leading the ship to, he finds that the island in which the light came from is the x that marks the spot.

The island is where the 2nd Purgatory Gate is located.

“Wow we got here much faster than I thought!” he says with his face still buried in the map.

“We must have got caught in a heavy ocean current that sped up our destination by a day or so.” Napoleon said after overhearing Caesar’s explanation.

Earlier that morning, it was estimated that the ship wouldn’t get to the island until late the next day.

With his binoculars, Caesar looks around the shores of the island, all over are already docked ships, some destroyed and some intact ships clearly showing signs of a recent battle. But what is quite interesting is that there aren't any people near or around the beach.

“Something big just went down here. There should still be enemies within the island in search of the Gate. They’ll do whatever it takes to get there first.”

“I’m sure we can handle fighting regular humans, it’s the Gatekeeper we need to worry about.” Napoleon said as he examined his sword’s edges, checking its sharpness.

“The humans on this island are all ‘aware’, they haven’t been regular humans for quite some time. There’s a high possibility that they have extraordinary powers.”

Napoleon smiles in confidence, “We don’t have to worry about that now do we?”

Caesar matches his smile, “That’s right, that Messor girl truly came through with her word.”

Napoleon puts his sword back in his sheath and walks towards the barracks. “I’m going to inform the others that we’ll be arriving shortly.”

“Sure thing.”

As Napoleon opens the door to the stairs leading down from the deck to the innards of the ship, he thinks to himself,

(I sure hope you are there by now… Ubica.)

--------------------------

“Long time no see.” Ubica says, breaking the silence of his and Michael’s glare.

“It hasn’t been that long really... I’ve seen your image every day for the past thousand years.”

“I see...”

Ubica takes another good look at Michael, he sees that his knees are shaking in apprehension and that he’s clasping onto his spear so tight his knuckles are as white as his clothes.

This is a man who’s desperately holding himself back from immediately attacking; this is a man who wants Ubica dead at all costs.

Sensing this, Ubica unsheathes his sword and holds it to his side; a bitter look is written across his face as he knows that avoiding conflict is going to be impossible.

“Before we do this...”

“???”

A sight Michael thought he’d never see, Ubica is bowing his head to him.

“I’m sorry for what I’ve done.”

“...You’re apologizing?”

“I know my apology means nothing to you, and I know an apology isn’t enough to right the wrongs of the past. But I truly feel guilty for what I’ve done, I’d do anything to make things right.”

Michael takes a step back in amazement; the person he has been visualizing in his head all these years would never do something as weak as saying sorry. It’s almost beyond belief that those words can even exit his mouth.

Michael mutters the first words his instincts brought to mind.

“Prove it.”

“What?”

“Prove to me that you’re actually sorry. Repent for what you’ve done.”

“How do you want me to do that?”

“Kill yourself. Right here on the spot, slit your own throat. Fall on your sword. Light yourself on fire! If you die right in front of my eyes, perhaps then I can believe you’re actually sorry!

Michael’s face contorted in anger as he said that. The memories of what Ubica has done have shattered any possibility of accepting an apology.

Ubica takes a deep breath and lifts from his bowing position. He looks Michael square in the eyes as a soft breeze weaves its way through the jungle and gently beats on the side of his face; adding a serenity to the moment.

“I can’t do that.”

“Hehh!?” Michael moans as he twists his neck to the side in a disgusted manner. “Then have you reneged your pathetic excuse of an apology?”

“I haven’t, I truly meant what I said.”

“Then why won’t you die!?”

“Because...”

Flashes of the human world at war, of Satan’s army rising once again, of Damien and the others having free reign on the world while waging their own war on Heaven shows itself in his head. The all too familiar images of destruction another war like that would cause to beat on him. He cannot let something like that happen again, in his mind, preventing such a thing from happening is entirely up to him.

Following visions of that grim future are the faces of his friends, his comrades that have been traveling with him the past couple months. Napoleon, Strauphius, Messor, Daey, Trojia and Tsubiri. The memories he’s shared with them pass through his head like scenes from a film.

“I have a reason to live.”

“Hahaha.” Michael laughs, “You? A reason to live? To me, you only have a reason to die!”

Michael charges Ubica with revenge shining in his eyes; the unavoidable second battle between the Antichrist and the Archangel begins with a bright flash of light and a loud bang.

----------------------

Rage and the others all walk up the stairs to the Gate, with thoughts still on the well being of Ubica and the rest, nothing is spoken between them. There’s a feeling of emptiness that has come with leaving behind a friend to fight for his life alone, and it is exemplified with knowing that their particular group might be the only ones to make it to the next level.

Each step they take, these troubling emotions grow, it gets to the point where they begin trying to find justification to not go through with leaving them all behind. The humid air of the waterfall in which they are about to walk under is seemingly attempting to push them back. The loud crashing of the water is like a wall of sound not permitting entry.

But Rage presses on, half of his body is under the water when he looks back to see the others hesitatingly moving forward. It becomes obvious to him what it is they truly want to do.

Rage sighs, even if it’s obvious to him what they want, it doesn’t change what needs to be done.

“Ubica won’t lose, and the others will come. Once we reach the other side, we’ll wait as long as it takes for them to catch up.”

Niera’s face lights up at the thought of being reunited with her sister.

“Really!?”

Rage doesn’t respond with words but nods his head.

It would seem that hearing something even slightly optimistic from Rage was enough to lighten up their spirits to the point where they can move forward.

“If Negative Sensei himself thinks they’ll be alright, then it must be true.” Aria says as she pats him rather hard on the back and walks under the waterfall and through to the other side.

Niera quickly follows Aria and says, “Thank you Rage, I mean it!”

Cyrus scratches his head and takes his own steps towards another new world. “You sure have a way with words. I need to learn a thing or two from you.”

The last one on this side of Purgatory with Rage is Sora, she now has a voice to speak with but chooses not to say anything as she walks through the Gate. Instead she just smiles gratefully at the fact she is somehow still alive. With an almost childlike skip, she makes her triumphant exit from all dangers she had made it through.

Now alone, Rage looks out into the distance and sees yet another bright flash of light from within the jungle. The battle between Ubica and Michael is underway and it’s undoubtedly going to be difficult for Ubica, both mentally and physically. Though it is sad to see the Archangel deteriorate into what he is now, he knows that no matter what the circumstances are, it is clear who the good guy is in this battle.

He faintly smiles and turns away from the flashing lights while saying under his breath,

“I’m rooting for you, Ubica.”

-------------------------

“This is odd...” Caesar says as he scours through the jungle of the island, “There should be hundreds of people here, yet we haven’t seen anyone.”

Following Caesar is Napoleon and the others, along with all thirty of his crew members. Having this many people walking through the jungle is bound to attract attention, but oddly enough there hasn’t been a single encounter.

“Considering the fact that there are dozens of ships docked on the shore it’s almost a freak occurrence that no other pirate has been spotted.” Napoleon said, rubbing his chin in wonder.

“Do you think they’ve already passed through the Gate?”

“I think that’s pretty unlikely, there’s a better chance they’ve all been wiped out by the Gatekeeper.”

“Whaaaaaaaa!”

A man suddenly shouts, shifting everyone’s attention on him.

“It’s a body!” he says as he lifts his foot and finds that he had just stepped on a severed head.

“Kya!” Daey squeals, to her right a couple more mutilated bodies lay tangled in a bush.

“What’s going on here!?”

Looking closely around the area, dozens of body parts are seen throughout the darkness of the jungle. As gastly of a sight anyone could imagine, Napoleon and Messor calmly analyze the situation.

“Do you think it was the Gatekeeper?” Napoleon asks Messor, who is now standing beside him and looking down on a mangled corpse.

“I can’t say for sure. But it looks like they’ve been chewed on by some kind of animal.”

“But what though?”

“Hmmm.”

Messor racks her brain at what possibly could have done this, she would be most surprised if there were an actual animal living here naturally on Purgatory. Because of that, she finds her thoughts immediately land on what could be brought here from Hell.

“It can’t be... Cerberus?”

“Guys, this one is all swirled up.” A pirate a couple yards away states.

Messor walks over to the body and finds it in almost a liquidized state, now there is no doubt in her mind what happened here.

“Tch... Amon brought it here.”

She turns to all of them and warns, “Be on the lookout, there’s a good chance that we may come in contact with a very powerful demon.”

Even though the pirates have no clue what a demon would look like if they were to see one, they find it hard to discredit that statement due to the happenings on the ship with Leviathan a few nights earlier. Not to mention the carnage they’ve found themselves walking through here in the jungle.
Before anyone could respond to that terrifying thought, they are interrupted by the feeling of the ground shaking.

Thrown completely off balance by the tremor, some fall to the bloody jungle floor and can’t get back up.

The shaking continues for another couple seconds before it suddenly stops; what comes next is an eerie silence.

And then...

BBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

A huge explosion rips through the jungle and the night sky shines in both green and white.

Messor’s eyes open wide as she instantly recognizes this power.

“It’s Ubica!”

She immediately rushes toward the explosion and weaves her way through the shrubbery of the jungle, leaving everyone else behind without so much as a second thought.

A bright smile forms on Tsubiri’s face as she says, “Ubica’s here!?”

Without a moment’s hesitation, she runs after Messor. She is quickly followed by Daey.

Caesar and his men want no part in going anywhere near that explosion, but when Napoleon and Strauphius both rush towards it without saying a word, he and the crew reluctantly follow.

The only one not rushing into danger is Trojia, who is idly walking with a nervous face and shaking shoulders.

There was once a time where she’d be the first to rush to him in a situation like this, but that time belongs in a past life she has long forgotten. Now she wouldn’t know how to face him even if she wanted to.

Almost in spite of herself, her body moves towards the great uncertainty she feels compelled to move toward.

----------------------------

The Antichrist and the Archangel once again battle to the death, but this time on different grounds.

The Archangel is fighting for revenge, no longer bound by the benevolence of the Heaven from which he came.

The Antichrist is fighting for his friends, and to protect those in danger on Earth, no longer bound by the malevolence of his birth.

The two fight with such an intensity to them it’s as if the world has focused itself around the two.

This battle, this hate, has seemingly caused the world of Purgatory to seize its movement as a whole.

“Tell me Antichrist, do you wish to kill me!?” Michael asks as he takes a colossal slash of his spear towards Ubica’s neck.

Ubica blocks it with his red diamond katana but the force knocks him back into a batch of trees.

“I don’t want to, but I will if I have to!”

Michael swings his spear and a line of light spreads horizontally from left to right. Ubica ducks under it and the force of that attack is felt on the back of his neck, the light rips into the jungle behind and a loud wind noise is heard rattling the trees.

“You’d apologize to me in one breath, and threaten to kill me in the other. What trash you really are!”

By now Michael’s face and demeanor are so filled with hate it’s disturbing to look at. A sad sight considering what he once was.

If not careful, Ubica could find him pitiful.

This is a dangerous way to see the foe in front of him, by pitying him, it deflects blame from the culprit that brought such a person to life. The truth of the matter is that Ubica should only see his own guilt in Michael.

The shadow of a man Michael has become is the direct result of Ubica's evil; just one of many men taken down by it.

The Archangel is no exception.

“You’re right; I’m the worst kind of person.”

Ubica maneuvers under one of Michael’s flashes of light and gets within arm’s length of him; he slams his left palm into the Angel’s chest and shouts,

“Pulsus!”

Michael is sent flying violently as if being hit by a tremendous weight.

This is one of Ubica’s special attacks, he moves his arms as fast as he can, and whatever air his hands cause to move in that motion, forms tenfold into his palms. After storing the energy of that air, he is able to push it out in an intense forward force; the air is so strong that it is more similar to a train hitting someone at full speed.

“My very existence is enough to bring ruin to everyone around me, and I lack the strength to do anything about it… But damn it, I’m doing the best I can!!”

This is his resolve.

He certainly doesn’t have the ability to create an equitable world around him, that’s been painfully evident by the tragic ending of his most recent relationship with Amber and her family. But that doesn’t change the fact that giving up on it would make vain the sacrifices of those that guided him on that path.

Amber’s dying wish was for him not to change, giving up now would be tantamount to throwing that away.

“So stand up Michael! I’ll defeat you!” he declares as he points his sword in the direction in which the Angel was sent flying. “Once you’re gone, I’ll apologize to you again by continuing on the path towards doing good!”

Awaiting Michael’s return, he notices a small flash of light from the darkness of the trees. The light only glitters for a moment when it disappears back into the dark.

Thinking nothing of it, he readies to rush into the jungle after him but is quickly halted by a dull feeling in his stomach. This sensation is quickly followed by a sharp pain and the feeling of liquid running down from his chest to his legs.

The tip of a cross shaped blade of a spear has penetrated his body, and the man holding that weapon is Michael, in a crouching position below him.

Squinting his eyes and gritting his teeth in pain, Ubica asks, “How?”

“Are you surprised? I have the power to freely move through light, I can get from point A to point B faster than anyone.”

Travelling as fast as the speed of light is something that should be physically impossible. Even if the laws of physics didn't exist and it were actually possible, the human body would literally fall apart by moving at such a speed. But after a thousand years of nonstop training, Michael has turned himself to become one with light, thus making it his most powerful weapon.

Michael pulls his spear out of Ubica’s solar plexus and kicks him to the ground; he stands over Ubica and points his spear down at him, signifying a position of victory.

“My oh my how the roles have changed. All of that delusional nonsense you were just spouting, the the truth is, the best you can do is be pitiful to me. That’s not good enough of an apology! ”

Ubica takes his free hand and puts it on his chest and over his wound, a black smoke rises and molds around his hand as his body is rejuvenated with a new found determination.

“Pity me all you want, it doesn’t change the fact that I’m going to defeat you here.”

“Tch.”

Michael clicks his tongue and another bright light forms, this time around his spear and his whole body, he is preparing the attack he used to rip the flesh clean off Cerberus.

The black smoke engulfs Ubica in a similar fashion and it becomes apparent that these two attacks signify the light vs. darkness that was spoken of.
The two forces are about to collide when some voices are heard out in the distant jungle.

Ubica and Michael halt and they move away from each other.

Michael’s glow fades and a bitter expression forms on his face when he says, “Damn it... there are still people here.”

He scowls at Ubica and then turns and walks away, causing Ubica to wonder just where in the world he is going.

Sensing this, Michael states, “I made a deal with God that I’d fulfill my job as a Gatekeeper. As much as I hate to stop this battle, protecting the Gate is my number one priority.”

In a quick flash, Michael vanishes and retreats back to the Gate.

This could either be considered good luck or misfortune, there is a possibility that Ubica could’ve been defeated in that attack; but at the same time it could’ve gone the other way.

With the adrenaline of the battle wearing off after the Angel’s sudden departure, Ubica can really feel the pain of the wound in his chest.

“Shit.” he says in annoyance as he staggers up to his feet. “I hope this doesn’t take too long to heal.”

He buttons up his coat to keep things such as dirt from entering the wound as the black smoke of Dantega begins slowly repairing damaged tissue.

Contemplating how he is to fight against Michael’s power, his thought process is broken when he hears a gentle voice calling his name from behind him, a voice that instantly saps the feeling of pain that’s currently plaguing him.

“...Ubica.”

He quizzically turns around and sees a sight that makes him drop his sword in disbelief; Messor is standing there holding her hands over her mouth in joy.

He doesn’t say a word, the look in his eyes does all the speaking for him, she’s alive and well and he is overrun with the feeling of relief.

He slowly walks to her and she walks to him, this will undoubtedly result in an emotional embrace.

That is, until Ubica is decked by a girl with magenta hair shouting,

“Ubica!!!”

“Oooaaaahhh!!?”

Being leveled flat on his back so suddenly knocked the wind out of him, while struggling to catch his breath, he locked eyes with the person who attempted to tackle him.

“Tsubiri..?”

She is sitting on his lap and looking down on him with a huge smile on her face, he instantly sits up and gives her a big hug.

“You’re okay! Hahaha you’re okay!!”

A vein bulges on Messor's forehead as she attempts to ignore their happy reunion, they’re almost too happy to see each other as he lifts her up and they begin dancing around ridiculously.

“Oh how I’ve missed your stupid face Ubica!” she says as they dance.

“I could say the same for you!”

They both share a laugh as they insult each other and it makes one wonder just what kind of relationship they actually have.

This is quickly interrupted by Daey dashing in between them to break it up.

“Okay you two can stop this shameless display of affection now, some of us would like to enjoy being reunited as well!”

“Whooah, it’s Daey too!”

His excitement quickly shifts in her direction, he grabs Daey from under her arms and throws her into the air.

“Kyyaaah!?”

He catches her and starts laughing, “I’m so happy to see you!”

“Welcome back, I’m glad to see you’re alright.” she replied with a warm smile.

“Geez, he looks a little too excited just seeing the girls. He didn’t even notice that we’ve been standing here this whole time!” Strauphius said with a sigh of exasperation.

Standing quietly next to him is Napoleon.

“Hey guys how’s it going?” Ubica asks without much care in his voice.

“What the hell kind of greeting is that!?”

“Hahahaha I’m just kidding.”

Napoleon chuckles slightly and gives Ubica a firm handshake. “It’s good to see you.”

“Likewise... so where’s Trojia?”

Before Napoleon can answer, a small voice is heard from farther back in the group of pirates.

“I’m right here.”

“Trojia! Huaaah what a relief, all of you guys made it here safely.”

Ubica walks up to her and puts his hand out to pat her on the shoulder, but to his surprise she flinches and backs off quickly.

“Huh?”

“I hate to interrupt this warm reunion but we’d like to get to the Gate already.” Caesar chimes in, his words expressing his obvious annoyance.

“R-Right.” Ubica says, still a little confused at Trojia’s defensive reaction. “There’s a lot for me to explain to you about the Gatekeeper, before that though, is it true that Abaddon had come to your ship while I was away?”

After getting the rundown about the happenings on the ship, Ubica explains the situation at hand with Michael.

To be perfectly honest, despite the relief of hearing about how they survived their dangerous encounter with Abaddon, he doesn’t know how to think about what happened aboard the Dandelion. He has found himself most worried about why exactly Damien showed up, and what he did to Trojia.

While all of them walk towards the inevitable battle with Michael, he pulls Trojia aside and asks, “Are you really okay?”

Trojia doesn’t even turn her head to acknowledge him when she coldly replies, “I’m fine.”

“U-Um...”

He doesn’t know how he is supposed to respond to her curt answer, and while thinking of something, she speeds up her walking and leaves him behind.

(Something is definitely off with her...) he thinks to himself.

Immediately after thinking that, a wave of physical discomfort hits him, the pain of his chest wound pounds on his body like a jolt of lightning. In his happiness, he had forgotten how weak his body is and how bad of a spot he’s in. He can hardly breathe.

“Hnnggh!” he groans, the sound of his blood falling to the ground in a stream beats his ears.

His legs buckle momentarily and he falls to his knees. Quickly rising back to his feet so no one notices, the realization hits him when he says under his breath,

“Damn it… this wound is going to be a big problem."

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</noinclude>

Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 10

2021-11-12T18:21:37Z

Deck of cards:

Chapter 41: An Angel's Revenge

(PART 1)

“The Archangel!? What the fuck are you doing here!?" shouts the male voice of Cerberus. The blood from its middle mouth falls to the island floor as it grits its teeth in both shock and pain.

"I'm here for a few reasons actually, none of which you need to know of." replied Michael sharply.

He then turns to Sora and holds his hand out to lift her off the ground, she naturally obliges and stands to her feet.

Sora glares at him in awe as his aura sends a warmth through her body the likes she has never felt before. It's as though she is staring into the eyes of salvation itself.

She ignores the presence of Cerberus, the beast she was once so frightened of and says, "T-Thank you for saving me..."

Michael smiles and shifts his eyes back to the demon. "It was my pleasure, by helping you I'm killing two birds with one stone."

Cerberus hears this and the woman's voice inquires, "Did you actually come from Heaven just to stop me??"

"Don't be stupid, I wouldn't waste my breath on a mutt of the netherworld like you. If I had any intentions of that sort I'd most certainly be after the demon you are accompanying at the moment."

"Amon?"

"Yes, there's no way I'd miss a presence like him, but I can sense that our resident angel of death is occupied with him right now... I'm here because I have a much bigger fish to fry, one that makes you two look worthless in comparison."

"Is that so?" The woman's voice asks, the voice of the child quickly follows, "Then allow me to take a momentary leave.."

Cerberus then turns and retreats into the jungle.

For reasons unbeknownst to both Michael and Sora, the threat of the dog demon is over.

"That damn mutt, it isn't going to just leave like that for no reason." Michael says as the spear in his hand burns brightly and then disappears into thin air. He then turns to Sora, "It's planning something, and I'm sure that it won’t rest until it tastes your blood... Come with me."

Michael starts walking in the opposite direction in which Cerberus went, leaving Sora behind.

He's obviously expecting her to follow him, and considering the situation she was just in it'd be foolish not to do so.

“W-Wait!”

She quickly chases after him and walks alongside the last remaining Angel of God.

--------------------------------

"Did you feel that?" Amon asks, halting his attack on Rage.

Rage doesn't pause though, instead he uses this as an opportunity to gain the upper hand on the situation. He rushes Amon and swings his scythe horizontally in the direction of Amon's neck.

The demon narrowly avoids it by forming a ball of distortion in front of his face, causing the scythe to veer off course.

"Hey now, I'm being serious."

"So am I!"

Rage yells as he sends another swing of his scythe in the demon's direction.

Amon easily parries the attack and sighs when he says, "Your earnestness gets you in trouble sometimes you know that? There's a reason why you were never able to retrieve Ubica's soul, your judgment is clouded far too easily to notice the little obscurities that go along with a battle."

"Shut it!"

"I'm just trying to help you out, I would like to sway you from your worst instincts so you can actually fight me on even ground. I mean really, this is just boring."

When Amon speaks of Rage’s instincts, he is referring to Rage's nature of being the Angel of Death. His natural instinct is to retrieve the souls of the departed without so much as a second thought; with such a strong base of action, it is very difficult to diverge such feelings onto anything else that goes on around him. It isn't as though he is physically unable to sense something odd in the process of a battle, after all, he was able to save the lives of his human comrades on more than one occasion. It is just that this force drives him to subconsciously attack his enemy in the best possible manner in order for him to retrieve his or her soul.

However, this hyper focused state of mind is causing him to turn a blind eye to something very important.

Amon on the other hand, notices quickly and slips out of the way as fast as possible.

Rage, not understanding quite what his sudden retreat meant, is met with a gold blast of heat and energy directly onto his side, he is then sent flying with it at an incredible speed through the thick trees of the jungle.

It takes a good twenty collisions through those trees before he even begins to slow down, the cracking noises echo in the darkness as each impact seems louder than the last.

Amon keeps backtracking while laughing at the same time. "Hahaha if only you listened to me, I tried to warn you.”

As soon as he finished saying that, another one of those golden beams was sent in Amon's direction, except since he saw it coming, he was able to avoid being hit.

The beam misses and zooms through the jungle, but surprisingly, no damage was dealt to the trees and surrounding shrubbery.

"Don't be so impatient." Amon then cracks his neck and in a manner similar to that of someone quite annoyed before he says, "Michael."

"It's been quite a long time since I've seen either of you. Over a thousand years right? Hmph, how about that." said Michael as he reveals himself from behind a batch of thickly leafed trees.

Following closely behind him is Sora, she is wearing a surprised face and queries, "Why did you attack Rage?? He's on our side!"

"Oh, I apologize, attacking him just came naturally to me, I didn’t even think about it."

Amon laughs momentarily before saying, "This is all too interesting. So much so that it has got me thinking... Just what the fuck is the last Angel of God doing in a place like this?"

"You don't think I'm here to stop you?" Michael replied sarcastically.

"That presumption would lower my intelligence points. Thinking that is more on Cerberus' level.”

"Then how about you take a guess?"

"Oho I love playing games... If I were to guess it'd be..."

Amon doesn't finish, instead he immediately attacks Michael, he moves so fast that the Angel didn't have much time to react.

Amon opens his palm and a ball of distortion forms; he slams his palm into Michael's gut and sends him flying into the jungle similar to the way Rage was.

"Like I have the patience to be playing a stupid game right now!!" Amon shouts furiously.

He walks rather fast toward Michael, who is now tangled in the branches of a low tree; his spear was knocked out of his grip in the attack and is lying in front of him just out of reach. He has truly become defenseless.

With each step, Amon creates more swirling vortexes of distortion, while doing so he says, "It's not as though I feel you are important enough to interrogate by torture. It's just my natural reaction to want to inflict bodily harm upon Angels. Not too dissimilar to how you dealt with Rage, it makes sense to you right?"

A wide grin forms on Amon's face, out of the crescent moon shaped hole in his face, a maddening laugh filled with pleasure comes. "Did you know that I consider myself somewhat of an artist?"

Michael glares at him quizzically.

"I've always had a passion for artwork where the paint seemingly melts down the canvas. It's something that I like so much that when I kill people I try my damnedest to make it as similar as possible."

Even though the 7 Demons of Hierarchy usually seem so much more composed when compared to a standard hell dwelling demon, all of them have their own psychotic quirks. Usually that quirk is centered around the Original Sin they represent, but something even more cynical molds into their bodies and causes them to teeter over the edge occasionally.

These quirks that they gradually succumb to more often than not results in the death or torture of someone else, it is something they have gotten so used to they hardly even notice that they're doing it.

In this case, Amon intends to distort Michael’s body into a swirling form of liquid and use it to make one of his own forms of abstract artwork.

Just the thought of doing that to an Archangel brings Amon a great deal of pleasure.

Michael smiles, seeing the face that Amon is showing him and understanding the psychosis behind it, he finds himself amused.

"It’s funny, seeing you now is like looking at a reflection in the mirror..." Ignoring the obvious danger in front of him, Michael shrugs his shoulders. "Tell me, what do you see staring back at you?"

"..?"

Amon’s sick smile shrinks and is replaced by a look of confusion.

But before Amon could get a chance to speak, Michael shifts his gaze toward Sora, who at this moment is only a few yards behind the back of Amon with weapon in tow. The look of determination on her face signifies her intent to attack Amon on his blindside in order to save Michael. This new face is a far cry from the one that was twisted in despair when Cerberus was on the verge of devouring her.

A mere human attempting to interfere in a battle of such fearsome participants borders on the edge of insanity, but she couldn't convince herself to sit idly by while the man who saved her life just minutes earlier is in danger.

"Do me a favor Sora." Michael says, ignoring the presence of Amon. "Can you take about twenty steps to your left?"

"W-What?"

"Don't ask questions, just do it."

Though Sora doesn't understand the reasoning behind this, she does it anyway.

Discouraged at the fact that she is now farther away from Amon than before; she begins to think that Michael really might be slain without her being able to do anything about it.

Amon also doesn't get it, but in all truth he doesn't care. He didn't even notice that Sora was sneaking up behind him because of just how small her presence is, he is about as threatened by her as someone would be to an ant crawling up one's leg.

He sighs and turns back to Michael; he lifts his hands and readies to send the swirling vortexes of distortion down when he is once again interrupted by the words of Michael.

"Seeing myself in you, feeling and thinking the way you do..." Michael smiles and gives Amon a short moment to ponder this statement before saying,. "You have all become so predictable."

As soon as the air of those words exit his mouth...

CCCCRRRAAAAAAAASSSHHHH!!!!

Cerberus comes storming out of the thick of the jungle at full speed in Sora's direction; pulling leaves, branches, and even whole trees with it.

This happened so fast that Sora had no time to react to it, and even if she did her legs wouldn't move fast enough to avoid being snatched by one of Cerberus' three sets of jaws.

This was its plan all along, it knew that Michael was going to confront Amon at some point, all it needed to do was lay in wait for the exact moment where the two were occupied with each other and stealthily move in for the kill.

Michael begins to laugh loudly, his eyes shine and in the brief moment that Amon is distracted with Cerberus, the spear that was just out of reach stands itself up in between the Angel and Demon.

In a flash, the spear is engulfed in a bright white light and grows brighter as Michael laughs; its size doubles, then triples, and multiplies further on until it stands like a solid wall some 10 meters high and 10 meters wide.

"!!??"

Amon tries to flee but before he could even move an inch...

VVVVVVVVOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!

The blazing hot white light shoots forward faster than the speed of sound and completely engulfs Amon. The light zooms in a straight line directly past the spot in which the demon once stood, and in that straight line, at this very moment, is a certain three headed dog demon.

This strange hot white light carries no noise, rather a distinct base sound that pounds on the innards of one's ears. This sound is much more akin to being in a small room and having a large speaker to one's head while a bass guitar hits a constant note that never stops. Then multiply that feeling by a thousand and this would be it.

The light crashes into Cerberus and its skin is immediately peeled off by the force, its flesh literally dissolves off its bones and the liquid in its eyes boil and melt away. Cerberus didn't even have time to scream before the white light completely engulfed it and its silhouette disappeared within the light.
Sora watched as much as she could of this until the brightness caused her to instinctively slam her eyes shut and turn away. If she had stared any longer, her eyes would have suffered the same consequences of staring into the sun for an exceeded amount of time, she most certainly would have gone blind.
There is something odd about this assault, though she doesn't know exactly how close she actually is to the initial attack, she knows that she should be close enough to be affected by it. But if she had her eyes shut the entire time and never saw the light, she would almost have no clue that there has actually been a devastatingly strong attack in the first place.

She can't feel the heat of the light that shined brighter than the sun nor can she feel any energy permeating from it, she can only feel the base beating on her ears. A normal person might only think that this was an earthquake because of how the ground is shaking. But for some reason, this feeling makes her feel safe and secure; it has taken away all sense of danger that has been beating on her since arriving on this island.

The base noise eases up until it finally comes to a stop, all feelings of angst quickly disperse and an overwhelming sensation of tranquility fills the air.

Sora slowly opens her eyes and tries to look around the now quiet area, she blinks repeatedly as to shake away her momentary blindness caused by the light. The darkness eventually comes to blurry vision and her sight begins to focus in on her surroundings.

She finds that the entirety of the jungle, barring the area Cerberus ran out of, is relatively unscathed. Which is surprising figuring the destruction that light caused to the dog demon was so great. To have the flimsy in comparison shrubbery still be standing is quite the shock.

Sora takes a huge sigh of relief and stands to her feet; she readies to turn her head in order to look in Michael’s direction when the sense of peace and security is shattered by a warm and putrid smelling breath beating on the back of her neck.

She quizzically turns around to see Cerberus standing there, but this time it has an even more gruesome appearance than ever before.

The fur, skin, and all the muscles and tendons that connect to the bones are now gone, stripped away as if it had just made a trip to the butchery.
Cerberus’ eyes and ears are melted away, and its bones shine white as if all fluid has been sucked out. Its bones are like a cage for all of its now visible organs, each breath it takes its lungs expand and retract and can be seen as plain as day. Every time its heart beats, the blood that is supposed to flow to the muscles slides off its bones and falls to the ground.

“I... can still... smell her...” came the raspy voice of the child. “She’s here, I know it!” shouts the man.

Cerberus moves its heads all over and the sound of bones rubbing against bone is heard, something like this shouldn’t be possible but it would seem there is enough strength left in this powerful demon’s body to instinctively move itself.

The three heads point in Sora’s direction and the woman's voice shouts, “THERE!!”

“No way...” Sora said to herself, her voice full of fear.

Realistically, all she needs to do is get up and run as fast as she can, chances are Cerberus would not be able to catch her in its horrific condition. But she is so stiff in shock that she can’t even budge, her legs will not move.

Cerberus inches closer to her and her shoulders jump, her teeth chatter together and she begins to mutter, “Save me...”

She turns to where Michael was tangled in those branches and to her absolute horror she finds that he is no longer there.

(Where did he go?) she thinks to herself.

Chances are, he left soon after the blast assuming that the job had been done or there was another enemy he needed to attend to. Either way or for whatever reason, Sora is once again in a situation that will lead to her death without the assistance of someone. Unfortunately for her, this time no one will come, with Rage likely injured off in the jungle somewhere and with Michael’s sudden and mysterious departure, she is alone.

“Someone save me...”

“Huuaahahahaha.” The child laughs, “Even if I die, I won’t go without tasting your blood!”

“Someone!!” Sora yells, throwing her eyes in every direction desperately trying to find salvation that won’t come.

“IT’S TIME TO EAT!!” The three voices of Cerberus yell as all three heads lunge down at Sora.

“SAVE ME!!!” Sora shouts at the top of her lungs with her eyes forced shut.

She takes a deep breath and awaits her doom but is shocked to find that nothing has happened. She keeps her eyes shut until a couple seconds pass with no change; this gives her no choice but to look.

What she sees is the back of a man, he is clad in hooded black coat standing between her and the dog demon, holding Cerberus’ nose on the middle head with the palm of his hand.

Her natural reaction is to think that it is Rage, but when she sees that he isn’t holding a scythe, she knows that it isn't him.

Even though Cerberus’ eyes melted away, one could still sense the surprise on its face.

“I know this scent, you are the Anti-----“

GGGAAAASSSSHHHHH!

Before Cerberus could even finish its question, its bones crack and break into thousands of pieces as though it was a glass window that just had a rock thrown through it. Its organs expand violently and explode in a dazzling flash of red, sending the broken pieces of bone along with it flying into the green of the jungle.

The entirety of Cerberus was literally blown to oblivion in just a flash.

Sora is left speechless, she was once again saved at the nick of time by yet another strange man, and this time there is no way that ferocious beast will come back.

She takes a huge breath and falls to her knees, this was truly a miracle and she has no clue how to fathom her luck or thank the person who saved her.

“That was the first time I’ve ever heard your voice.” The man in the black hooded coat said with his back still turned to her.

“Huh?” Sora mumbles, she recognizes this voice.

The man turns around and holds his hand out to help her back to her feet.

“It’s been a while, Sora.”

With his facial features clearly seen, Sora’s eyes widen and her jaw drops.

“Ubica!?”

-------------------------

“Holy crap did you see that crazy light!?” Aria shouts to Niera and Cyrus.

“W-What do you think it was?” asked Niera nervously.

Aria quickly replies, “Who cares, let's go!”

Cyrus frowns and steps in front of Niera. “Don’t be ridiculous, we can’t just go rushing into an area like that, it is way too dangerous.”

“Oh come on!” Aria begins to drool, “I gotta see! I gotta see it, that explosion was incredible!”

“U-Um Aria... could it be that you are getting turned on by this?” Niera asks while peeking behind Cyrus’ shoulder.

Aria smiles wide and lifts her new sword up over her shoulder. “Of course I am, I love explosions! Besides, one of our friends might need our help over there, we can’t just wait around.”

Cyrus takes a sigh of resignation and says, “I guess you’re right.”

Aria giggles and immediately runs toward the direction of the light.

“I’m glad you can finally see things my way ya old coot!”

“It’s not that I agree with the explosion part!”

“Yeah yeah!” she turns and sticks her tongue out at him before running towards the light.

“And I’m not old! I’m only 23!”

Niera begins to chase after Aria and back trots so she can face Cyrus when she says, “No offense but you do act a lot older than your age you know?”

“What?? Not you too!”

“Hehe come on let’s go!”

She leaves him behind as well, he scratches his head and asks himself, “Just where the hell did that scene come from?”

Without giving any more thought, he quickly chases after the two girls in order to find out the cause of the light.

--------------------------

“Wow that light was incredible!” Xavier exclaims in awe, he is still looking up in the night sky as the remnants of that light linger.

“It sure was.” replied Phoenix as nonchalantly as possible.

“Hey shouldn’t we head down there to take a look?”

The two of them are at the Gate already, so going back would mean they abandon their position at the helm of the next level.

Even though Phoenix had already said that he has no intentions of waiting for the others, Xavier is still surprised when he answers,

“No need.”

“B-But—“

“The source of that light is already here.” Phoenix interrupts and looks down on the other side of the lake.

Standing there is none other than Michael, fresh off his battle with Amon and Cerberus.

He walks atop the water rather slowly toward Phoenix and Xavier.

“Who is that guy?” Xavier asks, worried that he might be an enemy.

Ignoring the Prince, Phoenix walks off the steps and back onto the water; the two walk toward each other in silence until they are within an arm’s length. The two share an intense eye to eye stare until a slight smile surfaces on their faces. These smiles are followed by a pleasant handshake between good friends.

“You answered my call.” said Phoenix.

“Of course, I didn’t waste a second when you revealed yourself to me. I give you my humble thanks.”

“Come now, you don’t have to be so formal, we’re not in Heaven anymore.”

“I must disagree, whenever the Messiah graces me with his presence I must take this moment as though it was a miracle bestowed unto me by God himself.”

Upon hearing Michael say that, the smile on Phoenix’s face twitches awkwardly for a split second and reverts back.

“God huh?” he said in a breathy voice quietly.

“Excuse me my Lord?”

“It’s nothing... Anyways, might I ask what exactly the Archangel is doing here as a Gatekeeper in Purgatory? ”

As soon as he asked this, the atmosphere around the Archangel dropped and a heavy seriousness settled into his eyes. “I must ask you to forgive my silence on that matter, I’d be too ashamed to tell you.”

Phoenix raises an eyebrow, “Is that so? Then answer me this, were you sent here because God wanted you to, or are you doing this on your own accord?”

Michael keeps a straight face when he responds, “God was kind enough to let me go on this endeavor upon my request. Though to be honest, I would have gone without his permission.”

“Oh? It’s that important to you huh?”

“Yes messiah, more than you’ll ever know.”

Michael takes a sharp breath after saying that, only then noticing that his formal way of addressing Phoenix has slipped unintentionally. He glares at Phoenix to see if he noticed, but Phoenix glosses over it.

“And why wasn’t I notified of such a thing? I assume this was pretty recent.”

“I apologize, but I requested this to be kept a secret. No one knows that I’ve been working this position for the past couple months.”

“Hmmm. So you knew that I was here in Purgatory...”

“No my Lord, I am currently fighting back my shock that my Lord Jesus Christ has been put in this situation.”

“Then you now know that the original 'plan' for me back on Earth has gone awry. I needed to improvise, so I’ve come up with a new one since being here. For me to complete my new plan, my comrades and I need to get through the Gate. I’m sure you can make an exception for me?”

“I’m sorry to hear that the world must suffer a little longer due to your absence. God must be disappointed as well.” Michael bows and finishes, “I trust in your holiness, I believe that by you getting back to Earth, peace will come to the Heavens and all the lands below. If I can assist you in any way it would be an honor.”

Phoenix lowers his head slightly and a thin grin gently meets his lips, “Peace to the Heavens and all the lands below huh? Sure, if that’s what you wanna call it.”

“Hmm?”

“I want you to tell me...” Phoenix raises his head and his voice along with it, “Why are you here?”

Judging by his tone of voice and the overall look on his face, it is obvious that this is a stern command and not a friendly request. But despite that, this is still an order that Michael is trying his best to avoid answering.

"...."

He stays bowing and doesn’t speak, somehow hoping that Phoenix will perhaps give up on this inquiry.

But that is not going to happen, a frown surfaces on Phoenix’s face when an answer still doesn’t come, he takes a deep breath and gets ready to speak when from up above an unfamiliar voice is heard.

“He’s here to kill Ubica, you damn idiot.”

Michael and Phoenix both look up simultaneously.

Standing atop a flat rectangle of distortion is none other than Amon.

“!?”

“I thought I---!”

Amon lifts up his index finger and shakes it from side to side like a parent would to a child. “You didn’t actually think that you defeated me did you? Geez, I get no respect.”

“Then how?”

“Think about it, light is the easiest form of anything to distort because it has no mass. I’ll admit that attack was something else, but that attack is probably the worst possible weapon to use against me.”

“....”

“You certainly did a number on Cerberus though I’ll tell you what.”

“Then it looks like I still have some work to do.” Michael readies his spear and prepares to jump up to Amon.

But before he could he is halted by Phoenix asking,

“Is what he said true?”

Michael turns back to him and shows him a look of shame before shifting his gaze to the ground and answering.

“...It is.”

“For revenge?”

“That’s right.”

Amon starts laughing and clapping his hands from above, “Hahaha bravissimo! This is amazing, is the Archangel still mad that he burnt his two little girlfriends to a crisp because of Ubica?”

“Shut your fucking mouth.” Michael hisses.

“Woah such foul language coming from the last remaining Angel. I’ve learned so much about you today, I’ll have some good stories to tell to the others. Such things like how the man who once defeated Satan now thirsts for revenge against the Antichrist. And let’s not forget the most important thing the two of you have revealed to me...”

Amon takes his index finger once more and points it directly at Phoenix.

“!!!”

“That’s right! I came here just at the right time to find out that this priest is actually the Son of God! Hahaha I just might be promoted for this.”

“I won’t let you escape!” shouts Michael.

“Oh yes you will, do you wanna know why? Because a certain somebody has just showed up on this small island.”

“What?”

“A certain someone who is at the center of every action Heaven and Hell makes.”

“I-It can't be, I couldn't sense Dantega at all...”

“Well you sure are in for a surprise, this someone now lives his pathetic life swallowed by the guilt of what he did to all of you, so much so that he’s forsaken the one thing that gave him life. But I wonder what would happen if he was thrown into just one more life or death battle with an Archangel? Not only that, but 'the' last Angel! This couldn’t have worked out any better!”

“WHERE IS HE!?” Michael yells, a bright light surrounds him and the water of the lake begins to boil under his feet.

“Hahaha I can see it now! I can see the Wrath in your eyes! You asked me what I saw staring back at me... It's been my own reflection this entire time."

Amon starts laughing and sinks into his rectangle of distortion, the rectangle shrinks into nothing and the entire presence of the 4th ranked Demon of the Hierarchy is finally gone.

But now there is a new dark presence that has taken form on this island, and it goes by the name of Michael.

He doesn’t turn to Phoenix but speaks, “Do you know why I gave you my flame?”

“I never gave it thought.”

“Because that flame is the power that was used to burn Catherine and Margaret into dust. How could I wield such a thing after I used it for that? I thought that by giving it to you, the fire would become pure once again.”

“So what is your new power for then?”

“For a thousand years I’ve developed this light specifically to destroy that wretched darkness of Ubica’s. Every day since the Apocalypse, every breath I’ve taken since then, was to give me the strength to drown that darkness in light and avenge their deaths.”

“....”

Phoenix stays silent and glares at Michael’s back without much emotion worn on his face.

“So don’t try to stop me.”

This time it is Michael’s turn to make an order, the manners and formalities he had are blown away by the mere thought of the Antichrist.

Phoenix takes a quick inhale and responds, “I won’t.”

Without another word, Michael dashes off in a flash of white light, leaving Phoenix alone standing atop the water of the lake.

Phoenix clenches his fist momentarily and then releases them. His lips mold into a slight smile when he begins to speak to himself, “I won’t stop you Michael... but I'm sure Ubica will put an end to your revenge one way or another.”

He then sighs and looks up to the sky.

“Why would God let Michael come here specifically for something as dark as revenge? God should know how badly this situation could turn out...”

He turns back toward the steps and starts his walk to the confused Xavier. Because of the sound of the waterfall, the prince was too far away to get a proper grasp on what they were talking about. He was only able to pick up bits and pieces of their conversation and from what he heard he was unable to make anything out of it.

Phoenix has his eyes on the ground in front of him as he takes his steps, with his thoughts running rampant, an ugly frown forms from his eyebrows and the corners of his lips sink down to his chin.

He again clenches his fists and grits his teeth.

“Just what are you scheming, God?”

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</noinclude>

Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 9

2021-11-07T10:13:20Z

Deck of cards:

(PART 3)

The battle of Armageddon has been underway for hours now, ignoring the din of horror surrounding the Earth’s surface like a blanket of writhing insects, Trojia has her eyes solely on Ubica.

Ubica has killed so many people she has lost the ability to think of the lives he’s taken as anything more than a statistic.

Ubica is such a force that he is killing off Heavenly Beings without even clashing swords with them, it's as though his mere presence is enough to kill them in bulk. He viciously strikes down thousands of enemies at a time before they could even realize he was there.

This overbearing strength of his is what he is made of.

This is the closest thing to an absolute being of pure energy there has ever been.

The world crumbles under his force.

All of his attacks are manifested forms of energy from the evil of every human that has ever lived stored in Dantega.

If anything, this is evidence of man’s ugliness enacting its sweet revenge on those responsible for creating it.

To get a proper grasp on this battle, one must know who the ones fighting are.

On the side of Hell, are demons fighting alongside humans that have allied with Ubica.

And on the side of Heaven, are humans that God allowed to join him, along with past humans who died and are now fighting alongside the light.
Lastly, there are Heavenly Beings.

There is a difference between past humans, Heavenly Beings, and Angels though.

To put it simply, Heavenly Beings are in direct contrast to Hell's Demons.

They hold many different forms of many different animals but are all a hybrid between humans, almost as if they were the first prototypes of man that were determined to be flawed and eventually paved the way for the final design. A horse with a man's body, a man whose arms are the wings of a dove or a man with a lamb's head, these are the types of beings that are the equivalent to Heaven as Demons are to Hell.

Just because the beings of such immense strength are fighting, it doesn't mean that the living humans hold no threat. They all have modern weapons such as guns and bombs, and in the sky are fighter jets, drones, helicopters and bombers the best human technology can offer.
Trojia had no clue what these things in the air were when she was first thrust into this dark world, but now she can discern which killing machine is which by hearing the sound of their exhaust as they fly overhead.

The destruction the thousands of airplanes caused on the ground is something she could never have imagined in what she now considers her past life, the lights and sounds of the blasts followed by the concussions they cause are deafening.

The poor people below are being blown to nothing by ATGM missiles or brutally shot full of holes by 50 caliber bullets.

On any battlefield that uses modern technology to fight, the sounds are as horrific and frightening as war can get, but when the numbers of people fighting are in the billions it turns into a scene in which the world has never seen.

This is violence on a scale never thought possible.

Ubica leaves his army behind and runs through the crowd of ruin as he makes his way into the center of Heaven's Army, with simple swings of his sword his enemies turn to ash.

He's walking like a fire burning everything that is in his way until he reaches an area similar to the eye of a hurricane.

He is standing on bare land surrounded by a sea of white, the white being all of Heaven's Army, it is as though they all have spread out specifically for this moment. And it becomes obvious that this is the case once Ubica looks a few hundred meters in front of him and sees the sight of his opposite and 144,000 Angels standing atop of Mt. Zion.

The time for small fries is over, Ubica's battle now rests solely with the Son of God and his Angels, and this brings a wicked smile upon his face.
These Angels are the people who never swayed away from the shepherd's path, the most righteous of man that avoided the temptations of evil.

In other words, these are the so-called perfect beings.

Not every person who dies and goes to Heaven becomes an Angel, people like Saints and Biblical figures like Moses and Solomon have transcended their human forms into a higher being. The story’s of these people are etched in the books of the past, their physical being has returned out into the light of day once more.

Amongst those Angels, are the ones that hold the title of Arch.

Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael.

The three strongest Angels fly above in the sky triumphantly as they stare down on the Antichrist.

Gabriel, is the angel that blew a trumpet blast that initiated the end of time and the general resurrection at the Last Judgment. He is the Angel who's job as the messenger to man succeeded in changing the world in many ways, and as an Archangel his words are absolute.

The wind of the sky blows his light blue hair and his white robe sways in unison as he blows his trumpet once more. He then preached to all who live on the Earth, and to every nation and in every tongue, every man on the planet hears his voice as he says loudly,

“Fear God, and give him glory. Because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens and the Earth, the sea and the springs of waters.”

Ubica scowls at Gabriel's voice, he speaks as though this is the moment of their victory.

After Gabriel's words, the voice of another Archangel is heard, this one has long flowing black hair and bright turquoise eyes who goes by the name of Raphael.

He spreads his arms and declares, “Fallen is the False Prophet! She who has made all the nations drink the wine of the passion of her immorality.”

But what does Raphael mean when he says she has fallen?

The answer comes when a light shines from under Raphael's feet and the limp figure of a girl is seen floating from the mass of Angels up towards him.
It is Messor, Ubica can't tell if she is alive or not and watches in anger as Raphael cradles her limp body in his arms.

Ubica grits his teeth and a darkness spews from all around him.

“..."

His legs begin shaking as his hate causes his vision to become blurry at the mere sight of his Idol in that Archangel's arms.

But before he moves those legs to attack, Micheal finally speaks, both to Ubica and to everyone else in the world.

“Anyone who worshiped the Beast and his Idol, and received the Mark on his forehead or his hand... Will also drink the wine of the 'Wrath of God', which is mixed in full strength in the cup of his 'Anger'. And he will also be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb.”

Micheal stops and looks to Jesus, he then points out in the distance at a massive crater in which a certain Angel named Abbadon created at the beginning of the battle.

Micheal holds a spear in his hand in which its blade is in the form of a cross about a meter high and a half meter across with a red ribbon tied across the middle of it.

He points his spear out at the crater and sends a flame that lights up the already crimson sky in its direction. The flame enters the crater and expands violently as if the air in the abyss was combustible, the fire burns so hot that the heat is felt on Ubica's face from almost a mile away.

“And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever.” Micheal continues, “They have no rest, day or night, this is the punishment of those who received the Mark of his name.”

“That's enough.” Ubica says as he swings his sword, he stabs it into the ground and addresses all who stand before him. “We've all had enough of your so called punishments. Your unjust God has fooled you all into arrogance, your judgements on my followers will now be returned to you tenfold."

The Angels look at him with pity in their eyes as if he is some kind of cornered animal bearing its fangs, feigning strength to keep itself from being devoured.

These looks cause Ubica to smile, excited to see the moment they realize just who is the one truly in charge here.

“You're looking at me all wrong. There's no fear in your eyes.”

He slams his hand down on the but end of his sword that sticks into the ground, and in an instant the sky is blotted out and the entirety of Mt. Zion is engulfed in a pitch black sphere.

The light that shined from the Angels is no more, they are all stuck in an individual state of isolation.

The only thing they can see are themselves, all others have disappeared from sight.

Just like how Gabriel, Raphael, and Michael addressed everyone in the world with their voices, Ubica does the same to everyone in this large sphere that spreads miles wide.

“You are all so arrogant because your God has never shown you true darkness, he has sheltered you from it so you could never find out how fearsome it really is. I can't help but wonder how he expects you to fight the darkness if you have never witnessed it with your own eyes... I'll be the one to show it to you in his place."

--------------------------

Back in the second level of Purgatory, on a certain island, in a certain port city home, there is the sound of meat being cleaved violently.

That sickening thick noise could be heard in every room, in every corner of the house, behind every door, and the sound came from within the dining room.
There in the room that is supposed to hold happy moments between a family, lies the source of the noise. It is a certain girl swinging a foot long blade downwards in a stabbing motion repeatedly. With each swing, blood sprays into the air sending the red fluid onto the wall as if using it as a canvas for creating a horrid painting.

The artist behind this is Amber, and the ink used at this moment is her mother. Her father Albert is already slumped over dead on the dinner table with a slit throat.

Amber is crying as she keeps stabbing into the lifeless body of her mother, she wants to close her eyes to not look at this terrible sight, but just like how she can't control her body, her eyelids refuse to shut as well.

But she can still control her mouth, it moves as her voice lets out a ghastly scream of agony.

“UUUAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!”

The point of begging herself to stop has long since passed, no matter how many times she pleaded to her body it never listened, her merciless assault on the parents who gave her life relentlessly continued.

After one final strike, her body finally stops.

With eyes glued open she finally gets a good look at what she's done, Melissa almost has her head decapitated as most of Amber's attacks were focused on the head area. It is so bad that she cannot even recognize that the dead woman under her feet is actually her mother.

“T-This can't be happening...” Amber mutters, wet all over with the blood of her parents. “THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!!!”

Then, her body begins to move by itself once again, this time toward the exit, the machete-like blade still in her hand as she exits her house.
Walking along the streets of the city at night she seemingly goes unnoticed.

It is an exceptionally dark night because the usual three moons that shine brightly in the sky aren't apparent. Even with three moons it seems that Purgatory has its own lunar activity, this one in particular being its version of a new moon.

This is somewhat fortunate for her, because if someone got a good look at her they'd certainly call the authorities due to all the blood on her clothes and face.

She has been walking in a zombie-like motion for a few minutes when she reaches a building that she recognizes, it is a small medical clinic that doubles as a house.

It is her brother Nicklaus' home.

Amber walks up the stairs of the stoop and knocks on his door rather loudly, she knows exactly what is going to happen once that door opens.
The pressure in the hand holding the knife tightens and begins to shake in angst for the upcoming attack.

“No...”

She pleas as tears flow from her eyes and mix with the blood on her cheeks.

Amber happens to glance at the window to the right of the door and sees Nicklaus walking from the innards of his home towards her. He looks through the window from inside to see his sister covered in blood knocking on his door, suspecting the worst, his face turns frantic as he hurriedly opens his door.

Sensing the moment speed up in almost a blur, her blade is thrust forward in perfect unison with the opening of the door.

Amber's agony is heard through her throat as she yells,

“NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”

-----------------------------------

“You... horrible bastard.” Ubica says as he drops to his knees.

He had just witnessed Amber commit the murder of her parents because of Leviathan's manipulation of the water in her body. This is sending him into a blurring state of many different emotions.

Anger at Leviathan for doing such a thing.

Sadness at the fact that Amber's parents had to be killed by their own daughter in cold blood.

But one that is steadily sending him into despair is the guilt of it all.

It is his fault that Amber has to experience the emptiness of taking a life, especially the lives of her loved ones in such a gruesome way. If it wasn't for his carelessness, this would never have happened, he could have protected her and her family at all costs if he had just used his head.

And thinking back even further than that, he is overwhelmed with guilt because if it wasn't for him developing a relationship with her in the first place, this whole situation would never have unfolded.

When Ubica is overwhelmed with negative feelings, he instinctively uses a defense mechanism that discards anything that hurts him by replacing it with the darkness.

The pain of regret in his chest goes away when he is consumed by this evil and he knows it.

However...

He's fighting it, it isn't too late for him to fight it with all he has and try to save her.

Ubica stands to his feet and rushes toward the city as fast as his legs can move.

Leviathan takes pleasure in such a pitiful effort and says, “I won't let you do that.”

He molds into a mass of water and shoots at the speed of sound right in front of Ubica, he forms back into his normal self and stands as a blockade to Ubica's advancement.

“Get out of the way!” Ubica shouts.

He pulls out his sword and swings it violently at Leviathan with enough force to rip anything in half.

The Demon of Envy holds his hand out and smiles, as soon as Ubica's blade touches his hand, all of the force that went along with its movement halts abruptly.

This should be impossible, a flesh and bone hand stopping a fast moving razor sharp sword should never occur, but much to Ubica's dismay it has been done.

“!?”

Not even having a moment to configure what had just transpired, Ubica is sent flying backwards in an immense shock-wave. He skims across the beach sand and like a rock being skipped he takes a few bone breaking bounces on the ocean surface before sinking into it with a giant splash.

Hitting water at such a speed is the equivalent of hitting asphalt and no doubt it certainly felt like it as well, to get out of this collision without major injury would be a minor miracle.

“Think about this, Ubica.” Leviathan says as Ubica struggles to get out of the water and stand atop of it. “Do you honestly think you can save her?”

While coughing and pulling his dislocated shoulder back into place he replies, “Of course I do!”

“Why is that? What makes you think that girl isn't beyond saving? She has just murdered her parents and is in the process of slaughtering her brother as well. After this, she wouldn't even want to be saved.”

“It's not her fault! It's yours!”

“You're right about her not being at fault, but you're wrong about placing the blame on me.”

Ubica knows where he is going with this, it only clarifies the feelings of guilt already spreading in his body like a poison.

“Shut up!!”

“So you understand? If you'd have just left that girl alone, where do you think she'd be in her life right now?”

She'd be happy...

“I said shut up!!”

“Do you understand that the person you are now is better off being alone? Unless you are strong enough to protect the people who are unfortunate enough to meet you, being alone is the only way to keep them safe. That, or...”

Leviathan again sends his form into water and in an instant he reforms right behind Ubica.

He whispers in his ear, finishing off his statement,

“Become stronger.”

Ubica twists his body and swings his sword wildly, completely missing his target. But frustration overwhelms him and he continues to swing in a blind rage.
Leviathan takes effortless steps backwards and from side to side, speaking while avoiding Ubica's wide array of attacks.

“You said you've been training to be able to defeat me... But what I noticed is that no matter how strong you think you are, if I impose certain circumstances that send you into despair, the weak side of you shows its desperation and throws all strength gained out the window. You are at a stalemate with your own body.”

“What weak side are you talking about!?” Ubica inquired, a hint of desperation evident in his tone of voice.

“You know what I'm saying, don't play the fool now. It's your desire to reciprocate the kindness of others. This is sending your comrades on a fast track towards death, everyone you know and care about will die unless you change the way you are.”

“That's ridiculous!”

“Is it really? Look at what's happening before your very eyes, that girl is picking off her own family one by one because of how you so easily accepted her kindness. You’re like a damn child.”

“..!!”

“You told me a couple of days ago that the person you are now is much stronger than the you of the past. Well I'm doing this to test that claim.”

Ubica is trying everything he can to even lay a scratch on Leviathan as they speak, but no matter what attack he uses, Leviathan comes out unscathed.
His attacks become more desperate as Leviathan continues to speak.

“I recall a time in the past where you saved the life of Messor, your Idol, but you did it out of hate!”

Ubica remembers this as well, sadly though, that was a situation that has brought him nothing but pain ever since. He can't conjure up strength from such an accomplishment because the strength he used then is the opposite of what he is trying to use now.

“You see Ubica!” Leviathan says as he reveals an unusual frown. “I have given you a test! To see whether or not your words are true, and you’ve failed!!”

Leviathan avoids another one of Ubica's attacks and leaps backwards, he lifts his leg up and says,

“As punishment!”

He then slams his foot into the ocean and a solid wall of water rises ten meters high and ten meters wide.

“I'll force you to watch how your weakness affects those around you!!”

On that wall is the projection of Amber reaching yet another house, she opens the door and her elder sister Alison happens to be the first person she sees.
Alison gasps in horror at the bloodied state Amber is in and rushes to her aid.

But while doing so, she is met face first with the now dull dagger being thrust forward by Amber.

The blade enters Alison's eye socket and exits out the back of her head, blood sprays as the force of the attack is like a sledgehammer to a watermelon.
Because of Leviathan's water controlling her body, she is likely twenty times as strong as any human could be.

Amber is in such a state of shock that her brain has pretty much shut down, she can't even mutter any words as her body pulls the blade out of her sister's skull by ruthlessly stomping down on her face to use as leverage.

She then proceeds to walk up a flight of stairs.

Once on the second story she turns to the first door on the right and opens it.

In the room are two twins at the age of ten, one a boy named Jeremy, the other a girl named Alice playing happily with toys and teasing each other in the process.

Amber holds her knife out and the attention of the two twins finally shifts in her direction.

What comes next are two innocent looks of horror followed by two high pitch screams...

---------------------------------

The Archangel Raphael is holding an unconscious Messor in his arms, just a few moments ago he was holding her like a prized trophy to show the world that the Antichrist's Idol has fallen.

But now he holds her close to his body as if protecting himself from something.

“Do you know what you are holding, Raphael?”

The unmistakable voice of Ubica rings in his ears but no matter where he looks, he can't find him in the pitch black darkness.
He stays silent and keeps his guard up wearily.

Out of the three Archangels, Raphael is known for his silent nature. Throughout history he has been regarded as a great healer of man, oration was never something he participated in. This has caused him to be almost robotic in his role as a servant of God.

“I see you aren't much of a talker.” Ubica says when he doesn't get a reply, “I'll do the talking then. I'd like to tell you a little about myself.”

"...”

“As you know, I am the embodiment of all the sins of man throughout time. But even I find myself more inclined to act upon certain traits of that.”

Ubica's voice starts to surround Raphael and seemingly hits every corner of his brain as the embodiment of evil continues.

“I am very greedy. And what you are holding is something that I own.”

This is only natural, greed is a human emotion that is felt without even realizing it. Raphael assumed that Ubica's greed would be inflicted a great wound upon abducting Messor.

“But.” Ubica added, “She’s not only a prized possession of mine.”

“...?”

Raphael is a little confused as to where he is going with this, but lets him speak instead of interrupting.

“If a person had all of his possessions and titles stolen... Other than his body, what would remain of him?”

Suddenly, Raphael is struck with a dull yet numb feeling in his upper arms.

He looks down and sees an odd black wire of darkness constricting them like a snake. It squeezes harder and he loses all feeling in the hands planted on Messor's back.

Looking down at the state of his arms, it takes him a moment to realize that there is a presence breathing sharply against the back of his neck.

He knows this presence, the Antichrist is right behind him and with his arms bound and his hands on Messor, he is defenseless.

Ubica grabs onto each of Raphael's wings with both hands.

With a face contorted with anger he says,

“What you are holding is my pride.”

He pulls on Raphael's wings and the tendons and joints connecting them to his body begin to rip apart with each ounce of pressure on them.

Raphael grunts in pain and decides to abandon his grasp on Messor. He tosses her aside and notices that the binding feeling from the string of darkness dissipates as well.

Free to use his hands to pry Ubica's grip from his wings, he moves his arms that are now feeling incredibly light towards his back when...

Something is odd.

His arms are too light, it's a feeling of weightlessness that cannot be described unless...

He looks down in confusion and his face writhes in horror as the answer becomes evident.

His arms below his triceps are gone, cut so cleanly he doesn't even feel the pain.

“WHAT!?!?”

“So this is what it took for you to speak.” Ubica said upon hearing the angel's voice for the first time.

Instead of behind him, his voice comes from directly in front of Raphael, he looks toward the source and sees Ubica holding Messor in his arms as if this is what was happening the entire time.

“H-How!?” Raphael queries in shock.

“Look around you.” Ubica replies as he moves one of his hands free and grabs the lower arms of Raphael still clinching to Messor's back. “This is me... this is the darkness that your God has neglected to show you, in here, your benevolent light won't shine.”

He tosses Raphael's arms into the air and they are instantly engulfed in a black flame and disintegrated.

Watching his limbs burn into nothing sends his body into incredible pain, Raphael grunts as the horrid feeling sends shock-waves of misery down every inch of his body.

“Ahh that's right.” Ubica smiles. “This would be your first time experiencing pain, it must be so much worse than you would have ever imagined it'd be.”

“Grrraahhhhhh!!!!? Why is this happening!?”

“Such confusion, I'm sure this isn't how you thought this would end up.”

By now blood is streaming like a fountain out of the perfectly cut veins that still think they need to send blood to the hands.

“Your belief in God's promises has brought this pain upon you. He has lied to you all, forsaken you all. And now I have found myself responsible for acting upon his negligence."

With his free hand, he points his index finger at Raphael's severed arms and the blood squirting from them forms into a little river and flows towards Ubica's fingertip. At the tip of Ubica's finger, a little ball of what looks to be black water forms, and when Raphael's blood and his finger tip make contact at its point, the blood becomes black as well.

The black water-like liquid from Ubica's finger tip flows upstream in Raphael's blood and slowly takes it over, it reaches the wide open insides of the angel's arms and shoots in as if being injected by a giant syringe.

“AAAAAGGHGGHHHHHUURRRAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!!!”

Raphael screams in agony as every vein has its blood turned black with the power of Dantega, a benevolent being such as an Archangel being violated by such darkness is more painful than the worst torture.

Ubica is taking pleasure in this sight, to him, this is what the angel deserves for attempting to steal away his most prized possession, this is retribution for the angel's attempt to harm his pride.

His presence grows ever more sinister as his eyebrows steepen into a hate-filled frown while holding Messor tightly.

“Take a good look at me, Angel of God. You’re finally able to see the truth.”

--------------------------------------------

“Where is he!?” Gabriel shouts in confusion as he scours around the darkness for the Antichrist.

The Archangel's question is answered by the voice of Ubica, “Is that the depth of camaraderie toward your fellow Angels? I think you should be more worried about them than me.”

With eyes still wary of Ubica's presence, Gabriel answers, “The fact that I'm more worried about where you are, shows how much I trust my comrades.”

“Your trusted comrades are taking on a hideous form at the moment. I can assure you they're all being killed while you search for me here.”

“I would be considered foolish if I actually believed you.” Gabriel replies sharply.

“You think so?”

Ubica appears in front of Gabriel and snaps his finger.

Gabriel instantly moves on guard and backs off a little to be safe.

“No need to be so cautious.” Ubica says as the darkness around him begins to brighten and what lies behind him can be seen. “Take a look, Gabriel."

A bright flash of white temporarily blinds Gabriel and whilst in this state of immobility, he feels the gentle touch of something soft brush up against his face. A similar feeling follows but this time it is felt on his shoulder, and then that feeling multiplies by the hundreds and the tickles cascade all over his body.

“What is this?” he asks himself as he grabs whatever it is that is touching him.

Even without being able to see, he instantly recognizes what it is he's holding. Not caring about the sting still present in his eyes, he forcefully opens them anyway, and through a blurry haze he finds that what he's holding is something white with red stains all over it.

It is a bloodied feather...

Falling all around him as if raining from the sky are bloodied feathers.

“Don't let simple feathers distract you from the bigger picture... Look behind me.”

Shifting his gaze to the area behind Ubica, he sees a sight that he struggles to articulate in his mind.

Thousands upon thousands of dead bodies stacked on top of each other.

The bodies packed so close together it's as though it is a mountain of flesh climbing hundreds of feet high.

The dead bodies are all people that Gabriel knows very well, they are his Angel comrades that were supposed to valiantly join the battle of Armageddon and put a stop to the Antichrist's reign of terror.

Yet here they are, lying dead and wingless in a pile like trash waiting to be burned.

“!?!?”

Gabriel is speechless and in shock, seeing something that was previously so far from his mind has a paralytic effect on his body.

“One by one, right under your nose, a charnel house of Angels was made.”

Gabriel still looks at him quizzically and Ubica answers, “You want to know how? It's happening all around you as we speak.”

Ubica points towards an Angel holding his head and screaming in agony as foam comes gushing out of his mouth. There is nothing anywhere near him, but it seems that something is attacking him, the way he writhes makes it look as though he's gone mad. The white foam spewing from his mouth becomes red with blood and his whole body turns limp.

He floats motionlessly until his wings twitch unnaturally and move as if they are being pulled by something.

The skin of his back stretches until it can no longer withstand the pressure and his wings rip off. Right after that, his body is discarded and joins in the construction of the mountain of Angel corpses.

The wings that once graced his back float for a moment until they are enveloped by a black circle and sucked into it, disappearing from sight.

“Wha..?” Gabriel mutters.

“Everyone experiences darkness differently, it's a curious thing being killed by it... As for the wings that you saw disappear, I'm saving those for a very special occasion."

Ubica rushes Gabriel and swings at him with his sword.

"For that, I'll need your wings as well."

Although the attack surprised the Archangel, he still had time to parry and block Ubica's attack with a shield of water he formed in front of him.

“Ah, water.” Ubica says as he sheaths his sword. He then spreads his arms and two balls of black liquid form around his hands. “You know, I was born from the deepest darkest depths of the sea. Water is the perfect container for evil, just as it is the perfect container for good. What do you say we find out which current is strong enough to devour the other?"

The water grows into large spheres around his hands when he finishes,

"You, the water that gives life... Or me, the water that takes it away.”

----------------------------------------------------

The Archangel Michael is breathing hard and has been avoiding numerous attacks from beams of green light coming from the darkness all around him.

“This isn't going to work, Antichrist! Show yourself!” he demands.

“I'm sorry to have bored you with this game of cat and mouse, you see, I just needed to keep you occupied as I set the stage for a special occasion.” Ubica replies as he reveals himself in front of Michael.

“Special ocassion?”

“That's right.”

Michael frowns, he wanted more of an explanation than that.

But after forming his own answers in his head he says,

“If you even lay a finger on any of them, I'll turn you to ashes.”

Ubica leans his head back and smirks, “If a only a finger's touch will burn me, I shiver to think of what you'll do when you find out they're all already dead.”

“What?”

“There is good news however, there are a couple I left alive specifically for you.”

Michael swings his spear and grits his teeth. “Lies, you are nothing but a scheming liar.”

Ubica shrugs his shoulders, “It's true that lying is one of my better traits. But I am just as much of a liar as I am honest."

Ubica spreads his arms and out of the darkness behind them come two women that are bound and seemingly unconscious. Their whole bodies are wrapped in a barbed wire of darkness that is ripping their skin apart causing blood to stain their white gowns and white wings. Both women are strikingly beautiful, one with blonde hair and the other is a brunette, the fair skin that isn't stained with blood lights the darkness around them.

These two women aren't just any average Angels, these two are the main companions of Michael and very powerful Patron Saints in their own right.

The blonde woman goes by the name of Catherine and the brunette woman is known as Margaret.

Throughout time these two have been at each side of the strongest Archangel, it is even said that the two of them share a romantic relationship with Michael, so Ubica has decided to see for himself if that is true.

Michael's face drops in shock when he sees his two closest companions in such a state, this look of his is proof enough that the rumors were true.

Ubica laughs softly and backs away from the two captive Angels, disappearing into the darkness.

His voice still echoes from all around Michael as he says, “Is it really such a surprise that I'd target them? The relationship between you three hasn't ever been a secret.”

Ignoring Ubica's provocation, Michael demands, “Let them go!”

“I will let only one of them go, your job now is to choose which one.”

“...?”

“I'm telling you that you can't have both, only one of the two will survive your decision.”

“That's ridiculous! Your fight is with me! Just leave them out of this!”

Ubica's chuckle echoes all around the darkness as he says, “My fight is with God and everyone affiliated with him, you three are no different to me than he is. But here I am giving you an opportunity to pick the person most valuable to you to live through my battle with God."

Michael, who is usually so calm and collected, is losing his cool with each breath.

Squeezing the handle of his spear with all his might he replies, “I can't do that, I love them both the same. I'll never choose one over the other.”

"An angel with multiple lovers, even God allows those closest to him to indulge in bodily desires.” Ubica said mockingly.

“In Heaven there are no boundaries when it comes to love, that is the gift he has given us.”

“A gift you say? Given your circumstances now, this gift seems an awful lot like a burden.”

Michael becomes disgusted and it is written all over his face when he says, “I don't want to hear that from someone who doesn't even know what love is. If you did you'd be able to see why I can't choose between the two people I care about most.”

Ubica's voice halts for a few moments, and an eerie silence falls upon them until Ubica's voice resounds louder than before.

“The Archangel, the one that defeated Satan is admitting he can't even make a simple choice? Will you really concede defeat to me so easily?”

Michael swings his spear and thrusts the cross shaped blade under his arm as if trying to attack something behind him. And when a 'thunk' sound followed by the noise of a liquid spilling from a container, it becomes obvious that he had hit something.

“Love will never be defeated by evil. I used it during the war in Heaven to defeat Satan, and I'll use it again to defeat a weaker being such as yourself.”

As soon as Michael stops speaking, Ubica appears behind him with blood flowing from his mouth.

Michael had somehow found out that Ubica was behind him and sent the holy tip of his spear directly into the gut of the Antichrist.

Ubica looks shocked as the blade of the spear goes from his stomach above his naval all the way through his torso and out of his back.

“How?” Ubica asks meekly.

Michael is about to explain how it was he defeated the Antichrist so easily but he is interrupted by the sharp laugh of Ubica.

As if he feels nothing, he takes a slight breath in and says,

"I'm kidding."

“Huh?”

“Did you think you've won? Like I’d ever be defeated by something as weak as love.”

Ubica vanishes from the tip of Michael's spear and leaves him wondering just where he went. He looks back toward Margaret and Catherine and sees two Ubica's directly behind the two.

“An illusion??”

Both Ubica's speak in unison, “This is no simple trick, Michael.”

All throughout the darkness, dozens of forms of Ubica appear, all wearing a wide grin. As his numbers grow he speaks through all of their mouths and the multiple voices beat at Michael's ears.

“I am everywhere Michael, I watch everything, I am everything. You cannot escape me, and due to your inability to make a decision, neither will your precious lovers.”

The barbed wire of darkness that wraps Margaret and Catherine constrict and their bones crack, their delicate bodies are slowly ripped to shreds as the barbs sink into their flesh.

“STOP IT!!”

“It's far too late for that, in the end you did make a decision. You chose death for them both.”

The two Ubica's snap their fingers and both Margaret and Catherine are ripped into little pieces. Their body parts fall into the darkness and are engulfed in pitch black.

The two women that Michael has been sharing his love with for so many years have been murdered right before his eyes and he couldn't do anything about it.

He was helpless.

But why is that?

It wasn't supposed to be that way, it was said that the Angels will come out of this unscathed as the Antichrist was easily defeated.

Yet here, right in front of him, two of the strongest Angels were torn apart right before his eyes, and as the strongest Angel in Heaven, he didn't even come close to stopping it.

Was this the arrogance on his part?

Or was this a simple underestimation?

No matter what it was, the fact is that they are dead, and the person who committed this heinous act is standing in front of him smiling as though he had just won a sports competition.

The only thought now rolling through his head, is how much he wants to burn that wicked smile into nothing. His vision goes blurry and he only focuses his eyes on the two Ubica's that slaughtered his lovers with a snap of a finger.

With a roar befitting of a cry, the spear in his right hand bursts into an intense flame.

“OOOOOAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”

He swings his flame spear and sends a towering wall of inferno directly towards his targets.

This is the fire of the Archangel, this is a fire that will never wither nor fade until his target is reduced to ashes. His flames are the absolute purest of any kind and are supposed to be used as the final resting place for the Antichrist in the eternal lake.

However, the purity of this fire is replaced by the newly formed hate brewing in his soul, the malice filled attack no longer has any benevolent meaning behind it.

It is only there to destroy, to burn, to kill.

The great wall of flame hits the two Ubicas and they are instantly torched, but through the inferno Ubica is still seen smiling menacingly.

He laughs and says his final words, “You have just proved a very important truth to me... even the most righteous Angel can act malevolently."

The flames become so bright that only the silhouettes of the two Ubicas can be seen, and the two silhouettes let out a ghastly scream.

But these are not the screams of a man, rather, they are two obvious screams of women burning to death painfully.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

“UUUUWWWAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!”

Even despite the blood curdling screams, Ubica's voice is hear clear in Michael's head when he says,

"Look closely Archangel, look very close and see the results of your very first act of malevolence.”

The darkness suddenly disappears as quickly as it formed, and Ubica is standing without a scratch on him atop a mountain of dead bodies on the battlefield.

Michael happens to catch sight of this and wonders in shock just what in the world he is burning, he quickly turns his head to the two people he thought was Ubica and finds something that turns him bug eyed in horror.

The two people being burnt to death in Michael's hate-filled attack are his two lovers, Margaret and Catherine.

Their flesh is literally being cooked, their once beautiful hair begins to char and their eyes start melting in the intense heat. They continue their screams and beg for Michael to stop his assault but this is the flame that won't ever stop burning until his target is turned to ash.

There is nothing he can do to save them.

“You weren't wrong about my use of illusions.” Ubica says, standing triumphantly while looking down on his foe.

He then says something that was mentioned in an earlier conversation with the Archangel.

“I told you that I am just as honest as I am a liar.”

Ubica had lied to Michael about the use of illusions from the very beginning. Because Ubica used illusions in his darkness, he made it seem as though Margaret and Catherine were killed by his two clones. When in actuality he was never really there to begin with, his two clones were just images of himself painted on the two Angels.

This was all a part of his sick plan to trick Michael into killing the two most important people in his life if he was unable to choose between the two.

A ruthless tactic to say the least, especially considering that Ubica is strong enough to kill them all off with his own hands, this was just for the fun of tormenting them before they died.

“NOOOOOOO!!!” Michael shouts, but it is far too late.

Both Margaret and Catherine have already breathed their last breaths, the only thing left now is to watch the dust of their former bodies blow away in the wind.

Michael falls to the Earth's ground and sits on his knees as the ashes of his lovers slowly fade away.

Ubica jumps off the mountain of dead Angels and lands in front of Michael, who in his shocked state doesn't even look his way.

Ubica pulls out his sword and holds it to Michael's vulnerable neck.

“It's a shame really, your destruction is caused by God's lies as well."

Ubica raises his sword and readies to lop off Michael's head when...

“Uaaaaaaahhhh!!!!”

A scream is heard behind him, he glances over and notices that the voice belongs to Phoenix, who is currently on his knees covering his face with his hands.

“Not even the Messiah could handle the truth.” Ubica says.

He turns back to inflict the final blow on Michael but is shocked to find that he is gone. In that moment of distraction, Michael had slipped away from right under Ubica's nose.

He clicks his tongue in annoyance and says, “Prolonging the inevitable like a coward would. We will be meeting again soon enough Michael."

Ubica turns around and walks toward Phoenix Navara.

--------------------------------------

After Ubica gives Phoenix his 'offer of nothing', he is attacked from behind the mountain of wings he created by ripping them off from the Angel's backs.

He turns around to the source of the attack and sees that there are eight people looking up at him from the ground.

Eight people he knows all too well.

The group consists of Belphegor.

An older looking Mammon.

Asmodeus, the woman Demon that represents the Original Sin of Lust.

Amon, Beelzebub, Leviathan, and Satan.

Joining the fearsome 7 Demons of Hell to their front is none other than Damien.

“Well if it isn’t the perfidious eyes of Damien and the Seven Demons of Hell.”

He stays silent for a few seconds, and then a green and black glow starts to shine around him.

With a smile, he says under his breath, “An unforeseen detour?”

Looking up to the polluted sky above him, he speaks as though he is addressing someone when he finishes,

“Maybe you aren’t so weak after all…”

The eight Demons all disperse and a battle commences as they all simultaneously attack Ubica. Narrowly avoiding multiple attacks of insurmountable strength he somehow manages to build up a laugh.

“I didn't guess that I would find myself surprised by this turn of events. I had thought we had come to an agreement.”

Satan frowns and speaks to him while they fight, “Did you really think that we wouldn’t know that you planned on betraying us from the start?”

“No, I’m just surprised that you ever thought of us as comrades. I can’t betray what’s beneath me, I can’t betray an ally I’ve never needed.”

Satan becomes angry and charges Ubica, he holds a long sword and thrusts in toward Ubica's stomach.

Ubica easily brushes the attack to the side with his katana and sends a fierce kick directly onto Satan's face, sending him flying off at an incredible speed.

Whilst flying back, Satan does some kind of hand signal and shouts, “DO IT NOW!!!”

Damien appears behind Ubica and with an open palm strikes him on the back, Ubica loses his breath momentarily and attempts to turn to strike back when...

“!?”

He can't move, his body is frozen, he scours the area with his eyes and sees the other 6 Demons, including Satan, floating around him in a perfect circle whilst holding different hand gestures. A bright purple light shines under his feet and Damien backs away from it, soon after he also joins the others in a distinct hand gesture.

The purple light turns into a hundred meter wide pentagram seal with an outstanding number of connecting lines, the outskirts spin clockwise while the innards of the seal swirl counterclockwise. The intricate circle that binds Ubica is standing still.

Ubica knows what this is and is instantly angered, “Too weak to kill me, you’re going to try and seal me instead? It's not going to work, doing this also seals your movements, none of you can attack me in this situation.”

This is a special seal that uses all the power of the casters, the fact that it has taken all eight of the most powerful Demons that have ever lived to simply stall Ubica's movements shows how strong he is.

“You are right about us not being able to move.” Damien says with a confident smile, “But it doesn't mean that we aren't able to move you.”

The seal under Ubica's feet moves and with it so does all the others, they all float over the death-filled battlefield until it halts atop the eternal lake of hell-fire created by both Abaddon and the Archangel Michael.

The seal lowers and it becomes obvious what Damien and the other Demons intend to do.

His paralyzed body is to be dropped into a place where there is no escape.

“Ah, I see.” Ubica says, gritting his teeth. “So this is how the prophecy is fulfilled in the end.”

Damien laughs as he says, “I’m speaking for myself when I say this, but I knew our role with you was never considered equal in your mind. So I began creating this seal before you were even born in preparation for this moment.”

"That doesn’t shock me.” Ubica replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Enough talking.” Satan demands, “Let's get this over with, it is finally time to destroy Dantega.”

Satan then looks down to the edge of the crater that the seal is dropping towards and sees Abaddon standing at the edge.

“Abaddon, the key holder to the endless pit and our new ally, it’s time to lock this wretched man away forever.”

Abaddon smiles and replies, “Ts'all ready for ya boss.”

Ubica scowls and looks all of them in the eyes one by one.

This glare alone is enough to trigger the flight or fight instincts of the most powerful demons before him.

Before he is dropped into the fire, he ominously declares,

“I'm going to be back... and my return will be the harbinger of death to you all.”

Confident in their victory, they smile as though they have calmed their intimidation of him with the thought of knowing that there is no longer a threat.

Ubica reveals the same kind of condescending smile and speaks once more.

“Everyone who bears my mark will not serve under anyone but me. If they are dumb enough to choose to follow you in my absence, my mark will stop their hearts as punishment for betrayal. They won’t be free from me until this battle is long over.”

Shocked by this sudden revelation, Satan is taken aback with anger.

“You see…” Ubica says, managing a cheeky smile even as the heat from the pit is felt below his feet. “Even the strongest have to account for the potential actions of the weak. So enjoy your miserable defeat Satan... There will be many more to come.”

“Drop him in!!” Satan shouts.

The seal shrinks and is now only seen under Ubica's feet, it lowers slowly as Ubica looks up at them all as though accepting his fate.

On his way down he hears a familiar voice call his name, he shifts his gaze in that direction and finds Messor staring at him with her bright white gold eyes.

Despite his situation, he finds her presence comforting.

He doesn't say a word, he just stares at his Idol while his descent continues.

This is the moment the two are separated forever, yet proper words of parting are not said.

He smiles at her as though the pain of the flames that begin to engulf him are not felt charring his skin.

It only takes a moment, and then he is gone.

The eternal lake begins to close up rapidly as Abaddon turns a gold key he holds in his hand.

Inch by inch Ubica is moving away from her, and not knowing what to do she glares at the great betrayers of her master.

Soon after they all disperse to go fight the rest of the battle, even Abaddon leaves her alone after he puts his key into his pocket.

The lake has shrunk to such a size it couldn't even be called a small pool, and once this closes all the way, it will truly be over.

She will never see him again.

“Like I’ll sit here and let you burn alone.” Messor hisses, building her resolve.

She takes a step toward the flame and says gently,

“If you burn, I burn, Ubica.”

With one final step, she falls into the lake just in time before it closes up for good.

The hate and evil that is Ubica, is once and for all confined in a place where he can no longer harm anyone.

With that, the world can at long last, be at peace...

--------------------------------

The current Ubica lays motionless on the beach sand as Leviathan stands over him.

The two have been fighting for a while now and the winner is obvious, Ubica was once again easily defeated by his fellow Demon of the sea.

“Stand up Ubica, the exciting part is just about to begin.”

“.....”

Ubica doesn't move nor say a word.

Leviathan sighs and picks him up out of the sand by pulling the back of his collar, he tries to set him back onto his feet but Ubica's legs go limp and he drops right back to the ground.

“Is this all you have?” Leviathan asks in a way that seems bitter and disappointed.

He hasn't used much effort at all in his fight, and yet here lies Ubica, the one person most feared in all of existence collapsed on this sandy beach in such a pathetic manner.

“Fine then, if I can't talk you into standing, maybe 'she' can.”

“U-Ubica...”

A frail voice of a girl is heard behind him and Ubica instantly opens his eyes and attempts to stand, but he can only manage to sit up. He looks towards the stairs leading to town and discovers Amber walking toward him with a look of despair on her face.

The blood that she was once soaked with has been crudely cleaned from her face despite her clothes still stained in red; it would seem that Leviathan has cleaned her up specifically for this moment.

“Amber...” Ubica says in a broken tone.

He had just watched her kill her ten year old niece and nephew, the last of her family with a dull machete-like knife, he can't imagine how she is feeling at this moment in time. He can only look at her pitifully as his empathy takes on a fraction of the pain she must be suffering through.

“I've done something terrible, Ubica... I've done something terrible.” she said as tears flowed from her eyes.

“No, it wasn't you!”

“With my own hands... Mom, dad, Nicklaus, Allison and the twins... I killed them all.”

Ubica shakily gets to his feet and walks to her slowly, and when he gets within arms length she shouts,

“Get away from me!!”

“??”

“I don't want to hurt you too! Please, you need to get away!”

Ubica halts but doesn't move back, and Amber swings her dagger at his face as a result.

He barely avoids it in time and some of his silver hair is cut off in the process of dodging it, her calculated swings continue as Ubica maneuvers his body to keep himself from getting cut.

“Leviathan!” Ubica shouts, avoiding slash after slash. “Just leave her alone!”

“No no, this is far too amusing.” Leviathan replies, watching the scene with a triumphant smile befitting of someone watching a movie they’ve accurately predicted the ending of. “Why don't you stop her yourself?”

“How!?” he queries as Amber's blade skims across his cheek, causing him to bleed.

“Well that’s simple, you just need to kill her.”

This situation is also predictable in Ubica's mind, there is no way that Leviathan would just let her go after all this. The goal is and has always been to send Ubica into despair, by using a tactic as brutal as forcing him to kill his own friend, this can easily be attained.

“Don't look so disgusted, Ubica, you have done something similar to this in the past haven't you?”

He is right, as the Antichrist he has thrown the weight of such an unreasonable ultimatum on a certain Archangel; it is only natural that what goes around comes around. Although killing off someone that he has only known for a couple of weeks isn't near as harsh as murdering two lovers blindly, this is still something he cannot choose to do no matter what.

“What is he talking about Ubica!? Just who are you guys anyways!?” Amber asks as she swings the blade that is already soaked with the blood of her family.

“He is a bad man.” Leviathan answers, “The kind of person that walks like a fire burning everything in its way. You ended up caught in its path.”

“Don't listen to him Amber! This bastard is the one controlling your body right now, he poisoned you when you two met earlier!”

Even though Ubica can’t help but agree, he still found it within himself to protest.

“So that's why you were so angry at me for bringing him in..?”

“That's right, although this never would have happened if I weren't around, at least let me explain all this once it's over.”

He tries to reassure her, to keep her fighting spirit alive, but Amber is too far away from ever being saved, and they both know it.

“There's no need... I don't want to live after this. How can I move along with any kind of normal life after all this!?”

Just as Leviathan predicted, she wouldn't want to carry on after witnessing and committing such atrocities.

“Don't talk like that!”

“Shut up Ubica!” Amber yells as tears fly from her eyes with each swing of her blade. “Please just kill me... I know you are strong enough to do it, I've seen it firsthand. Just do me this one favor.”

“I will not! This is what he wants, we can work through this if we fight it!”

Leviathan chuckles as he watches the two argue over Amber's life; although this isn't quite what he wanted, to him this certainly makes for a good show.
“You have to kill her.” Leviathan interrupts. “If you choose not to, I'll make sure she goes on a killing spree the likes this island has never seen. I wonder how long it would take for them to put a stop to her mayhem? My water blesses her with inhuman strength after all, she could hold out for weeks. Or perhaps I'll take away her strength at the last minute instead, I'm sure the angry villagers will torture her and display her mangled body in the city streets.”

As if realizing his powerlessness will only worsen this already terrible result, he begins feeling trapped. There’s no escaping this snowball he’s put himself and Amber in, the hill is just too steep.

“Do it Ubica! I don't want to hurt anymore people! Please!!” Amber begs as the thought of Leviathan's prediction runs through her head.

This is a dead end, Ubica has nowhere left to turn as his back is pinned between one unreasonable situation and another.
The question now is what is truly best for Amber?

Is it really okay to selfishly keep her alive and let her bear the pain of killing her whole family in cold blood?

Is it possible that killing her because of Leviathan's temptations is the correct choice?

Just what is he supposed to do?

He avoids one final attack and grabs onto Amber's arms, he presses them against her body and squeezes her as tight as possible, keeping her from being able to move.

In this position he speaks intently into her ear, “I won’t hurt you...”

He pushes her to the ground and turns to address Leviathan, “This is the only way to stop this. The only person I have to kill is you.”

“Oh? And how do you intend to do that?” Leviathan asks smugly.

“Dantega.”

“!?”

“That's right, all the training I've been doing has specifically been directed towards being able to control the power of Dantega to a certain extent.”

“Control Dantega?”

“This is what you wanted right? This is the corner you've backed me into! All I need to do is kill you and help Amber shoulder the burden of what has happened here tonight! My friends have helped me cope with everything I've done, I know I can help her through this as well!”

Ubica holds his hand out and his sword flies right into his palm from the beach sand, with his left hand he presses it against his chest and a thick black smoke forms around it and grows all over his body.

Leviathan can sense the strength growing within him, it is something he hasn't felt in a long time. But something is off, it still isn't the same as before, because Ubica is still the same frail person he has been since escaping the eternal lake.

Leviathan sighs at this and speaks, “That's not what I wanted, I'd hoped for you to resort to letting Dantega control you, not the other way around. This is disappointing, this is not the way I wanted to go about this, but I guess in the end it'll still have the same result.”

He moves his eyes from Ubica and looks towards Amber who is right behind him.

Ubica catches that and what follows immediately after is a 'thud' sound and a groan.

He abandons all thoughts of attacking Leviathan and turns around quickly.

Amber is on her knees with her hands on the hilt of the dagger impaling her stomach.

Leviathan has controlled the water in her body and forced her to stab herself.

Her blood falls onto the ground rapidly and the puddle that would normally form at her feet soaks into the sand adding intensity to the scene.

“Amber!!” Ubica shouts as he rushes to her aid and stops her from keeling over.

He holds her in his arms as her blood stains his white shirt, the warmth from it makes his body hot with angst as he watches the skin of her face grow extremely pale. He doesn't know what to do nor how to treat her, the only thing he could possibly think of is pulling the knife out of her and applying pressure to the wound.

When he attempts to do this he is stopped by the gentle yet shaking hand of Amber, she looks up at him and smiles as blood drips from the edges of her mouth.

“Don't bother...”

It would seem she now has control of her body since she was able to touch him.

“It's all over now...”

“No, I can do something! There's definitely something I can do!” he speaks frantically as he looks around desperately trying to find something that can help her.

“There's nothing.” Leviathan says, “I made sure of it.”

“Shut up!!”

“Come now don't be rude, this is all your fault after all. You could have stopped this, if only you had changed. This unfortunate fate will continue to be cast on all the people around you unless you forfeit your need for the kindness of others.”

His words hit Ubica hard as he zones out on Amber's broken body.

Through a cracked voice he mutters,

“Change..?”

“You must change Ubica, look at what has happened here. That girl, and her whole family are gone. If you truly had the strength that you spoke of they would still be alive. So let go of that weakness! Save the people you care about! Change who you are!”

Ubica's face is clouded with distraught, it's as though he is in the process of giving up.

Although he likes who he is now, the lives of the people he cares about most are far more important.

If he has the ability to protect them, and he doesn't use that ability because of some selfish desire, wouldn't that make him the worst kind of person?

With thoughts like these running through his head, Amber's hand is felt on the side of his face, he doesn't notice the blood transferred from her palm to his cheek when he looks down and sees her glaring up at him.

She uses the last of her energy to tell him the words he needs to hear in order to break him out of his broken mindset.

“Don't you dare change...”

Even though her life is fading fast, she still found it necessary to tell him her thoughts on what Leviathan said.

Looking back, she had never met anyone like him, he was easy to talk to, he made her laugh, she genuinely enjoyed every moment spent with him. If the person that made her so happy would give in and become someone he isn't, it would just make the tragic events of the night all the more sad.

Through her fleeting breath, she reiterates her statement,

“Don't... Ever... Change...”

With a long exhale, Amber loses the shine in her eyes and stares lifelessly up at Ubica.

This poor girl, who has suffered horribly for no reason other than the fact that she was in the way, is dead.

He loses himself in her lifeless eyes as his body goes stiff with disbelief, the world around him has come to a halt and this moment in time is all that he cares about.

Leviathan laughs slightly, “What a shame. I bet you want to kill me right now don't you?”

Just hearing Leviathan's voice, releases a trigger inside of Ubica, his head begins to ring as an odd pulsating noise similar to a heartbeat pounds in his chest. Each pump is pouring hate into every part of his body, the white of his eyes begin to grow black and the ground below him starts to shake.

“Now this is more of what I wanted.”

Ubica doesn't answer, he just shoots a glare that is filled with the overwhelming feeling of hate. It is apparent that Ubica is losing himself to Dantega but is doing whatever he can to stop it, on his neck the curse mark from Beelzebub is sending sharp pains coursing through every part of his body and is making his fight all the more difficult.

“This is what Dantega does, as its container you can never escape it. Any negative emotions or pains that you feel are fuel for Dantega's fire, it feeds off your hate and pain and you feed off its evil. It is a non stop cycle that can never be avoided, as long as you carry disdain inside of you, you will never escape it!”

This throws Ubica into twice as much anger, so much so that Leviathan feels it beating on his temples.

But this doesn't stop him from pressing forward, “But it is not enough! Like a fruit you are not ripe enough yet. What can I possibly do now to send you into the deepest depths of despair? Now that I have ensured that everything you built up slowly crumbled down around your feet, what is left for me to take from you?”

Leviathan raises his arms and from the ocean behind him comes his massive blue sea serpent. “Having said that, the one thing in this situation that will throw you over the edge... is for me to take away your revenge!! The dragon's mouth opens wide and Leviathan hops in, as it flees back into the ocean, Leviathan lets out a laugh of victory. “Hahahahaha so let Dantega relieve its thirst for revenge on your own body. And once you do, you will be just like the person you were in the past. Except now, you and your power will finally be tamed.”

The mouth of the serpent closes and disappears into the dark of the sea, Leviathan is gone, and he took Ubica's revenge with him.

Paying the price for it is Ubica himself, his body writhes in pain as the thought of giving in to the desire to not care clouds whatever minute amount of judgment he has left.

His arms shake and Amber's limp frame convulses with them as he lets out a scream of anger,

“UUURRRRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”

He drops his head and stays silent, the sounds of the waves breaking signals the calm after the storm that had just occurred. It's an eerie silence that stings because even after all of this, the world still moves on as though nothing had happened.

The silence of the night is broken by the frightened voice of a man at the bottom of the stairs that lead back up to the city.

“I-It was you..!”

Moving his head slowly to see who is speaking to him, his eyes finally land on Tuscany, Amber's fiance.

Tuscany walks shakily toward the two, “I knew it... I had an argument with Amber back at her house and left.” Tears begin to fall down his face as he continues. “But I came back to make up and I found her parents there. Fearing the worst, I went to Nicklaus' house, and he was dead! After that I went to Alison's place, and found her along with her two kids murdered as well!!!”

Tuscany had just happened to walk down the stairs of the lagoon in perfect time to misunderstand what had actually happened. All he knows is that in front of him is Ubica holding the dead body of who is supposed to be his future wife with a dagger sticking out of her stomach.

Ubica just stares at him blankly in a state of incoherence; his eyes still have traces of black in them as his fight for control still continues. This is a volatile time for him, his mind is blank with the desire to release his hate on someone, at this point anyone would do.

“I knew it! The only person who could have done such a thing is you! How could you!? Even Amber... How could you do this to her??“

Tuscany falls to his knees and weeps as he sends blame toward the innocent Ubica.

“You took everything away from me. Earlier today she called off our marriage, she said that her feelings had changed. Even though she wouldn't tell me why or how, I knew it was you! She left me because of you! Do you know how long I've waited to be with her!? Since we were kids I always tried to act like the cool guy just for her, just so she'd notice me. I tried so hard and I was so happy when it finally worked out...But you took her from me!!!”

By now, Tuscany is in such a state of anguish the words he had spoken were slightly slurred, he wobbly stands to his feet and pulls a small pocket knife out of his pocket.

He grunts like a madman and rushes at Ubica while shouting, “I'LL KILL YOU!!!”

Ubica doesn't even bother to move, with Amber still in his arms he holds his position as Tuscany lunges the knife at him.

However, before the knife can reach him, Tuscany hits some kind of barrier around Ubica's body. Tuscany's movement grinds to a halt and the blade in his hand shatters, the wave of energy that had broken the metal weapon to pieces slide up his arm, and in turn breaks his bones in a few different directions.
Tuscany instantly passes out from shock and is sent flying away into the sandy side of the cliff.

Ubica gently lets go of Amber and walks toward the grounded Tuscany, each step of his seemingly shakes the ground below him. The killing intent spewing from him is enough to blot out the shine from the stars above him; it is becoming increasingly obvious what he intends to do to Tuscany as he holds his hand out to touch the floored man.

One simple touch is enough to rip Tuscany to shreds, and such a cruel fate is only a few inches away as Ubica's fingertip gets closer.
The unconscious man before him is the perfect person to release a fraction of the pain and anger being spread through his body by the power of Dantega. Like an addict, he feels that just one will suffice. All it will take is just one person and he'll be relieved.

But Ubica stops, he retreats his hand and walks silently toward the ocean, this is such a struggle for him to do as his body twitches unnaturally as he tries to fight his urge to kill.

With his body half in the ocean, the water suddenly splits and gives him space as if opening a passageway for him to walk.
His head slowly turns back so the sight of the injured Tuscany and the dead Amber reaches his eyes. It seems as though he is holding back tears as he looks at the scene of his regret.

“Don't ever change huh..?” he says to himself. He turns back towards the wall of the ocean and once again speaks in a saddened voice, “... I don’t think it’s going to work.”

The wall of water closes in on him and the dark of the ocean engulfs his presence, he finally departs the island, leaving a trail of tragedy in his wake.

---------------------------------

Trojia opens her eyes and finds herself on a bed being pounded by the sun shining through a window to the left of her. The brightness stings her eyes momentarily and she slowly recollects where she is when she glances down to her hand and it's actually visible.

She is back on the boat, and in one of the rooms in the barracks for that matter.

Her terrible nightmare is now over and what's left is to re acquaint herself with the sensation of having a body once more. Seeing her own hands for the first time in 3 years almost induced her to vomit.

After a few moments spent shaking off the many sensations of general feeling, she manages to sit her stiff body up and notices a certain girl sitting on a chair staring out the window at the foot of her bed.

The sunlight reflects off her white hair and sends her skin into even more of a gorgeous tint than usual, it's as though she is looking at a doll with glowing gold eyes that are there to captivate people.

This is a girl that she has gotten to know quite well without even speaking so much as a word to her. This astonishingly beautiful person sitting just a few feet away from her is none other than the False Prophet Messor.

“Oh, you're finally awake?” Messor asks as she feels Trojia's glare beat on her cheek.

Trojia rubs her eyes and asks softly, “How long was I out for?”

“It's been a couple days. That Captain said we're only one day away from the second Gate.”

The young Princess's expression almost looks displeased.

“I see...”

She then takes a deep breath and asks, “Has he come back?”

“You mean Ubica? No... There's been no sign of him.”

“I see.” she says again.

The two sit in an ominous silence until Messor speaks, “Don't you want to ask me something else?”

Trojia's shoulders twitch and her gaze shifts away to the wooden wall of the room.

“Are you expecting me to ask you something?”

“Well I wouldn’t say expecting so much as I’m interested...” Messor replies, “You saw everything right?"

"I did."

"Don't you want to know more about it? Or hear my side of the story?”

“I'd have to be stupid to ask you anything more about your relationship with Ubica. What I saw was more than enough.”

Messor chuckles a little, “I'm glad you understand, if you have nothing more to say to me, I'll be the one to ask you something.”

“What is it?”

The slight smile Messor had fades away and a serious face takes its place when she asks, “Now after seeing all of Ubica's past... What do you think of him?”

Trojia is somewhat surprised at this sudden question, it takes her a few seconds to even think of how to answer it, and in that time frame all of the horrific images that she existed within, rush into her mind play before her eyes like a projection screen.

She starts crying and throws her wet face into her palms.

“H-He's...”

Trojia struggles to speak as the only sound escaping her mouth is that of a sharp moan that goes along with crying uncontrollably. The image of the kind and smiling Ubica is overrun by the images of his atrocities as the Antichrist. The Ubica she thought she knew has long since faded into the deepest corner of her mind where it can no longer be seen.

With these emotions running through her head, she answers with words she had never thought she'd say...

“He's awful.”

666 The Mark of the Beast: (END)

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| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 10|Chapter 10]]
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Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 9

2021-11-07T10:12:49Z

Deck of cards:

(PART 3)

(PART 3)

The battle of Armageddon has been underway for hours now, ignoring the din of horror surrounding the Earth’s surface like a blanket of writhing insects, Trojia has her eyes solely on Ubica.

Ubica has killed so many people she has lost the ability to think of the lives he’s taken as anything more than a statistic.

Ubica is such a force that he is killing off Heavenly Beings without even clashing swords with them, it's as though his mere presence is enough to kill them in bulk. He viciously strikes down thousands of enemies at a time before they could even realize he was there.

This overbearing strength of his is what he is made of.

This is the closest thing to an absolute being of pure energy there has ever been.

The world crumbles under his force.

All of his attacks are manifested forms of energy from the evil of every human that has ever lived stored in Dantega.

If anything, this is evidence of man’s ugliness enacting its sweet revenge on those responsible for creating it.

To get a proper grasp on this battle, one must know who the ones fighting are.

On the side of Hell, are demons fighting alongside humans that have allied with Ubica.

And on the side of Heaven, are humans that God allowed to join him, along with past humans who died and are now fighting alongside the light.
Lastly, there are Heavenly Beings.

There is a difference between past humans, Heavenly Beings, and Angels though.

To put it simply, Heavenly Beings are in direct contrast to Hell's Demons.

They hold many different forms of many different animals but are all a hybrid between humans, almost as if they were the first prototypes of man that were determined to be flawed and eventually paved the way for the final design. A horse with a man's body, a man whose arms are the wings of a dove or a man with a lamb's head, these are the types of beings that are the equivalent to Heaven as Demons are to Hell.

Just because the beings of such immense strength are fighting, it doesn't mean that the living humans hold no threat. They all have modern weapons such as guns and bombs, and in the sky are fighter jets, drones, helicopters and bombers the best human technology can offer.
Trojia had no clue what these things in the air were when she was first thrust into this dark world, but now she can discern which killing machine is which by hearing the sound of their exhaust as they fly overhead.

The destruction the thousands of airplanes caused on the ground is something she could never have imagined in what she now considers her past life, the lights and sounds of the blasts followed by the concussions they cause are deafening.

The poor people below are being blown to nothing by ATGM missiles or brutally shot full of holes by 50 caliber bullets.

On any battlefield that uses modern technology to fight, the sounds are as horrific and frightening as war can get, but when the numbers of people fighting are in the billions it turns into a scene in which the world has never seen.

This is violence on a scale never thought possible.

Ubica leaves his army behind and runs through the crowd of ruin as he makes his way into the center of Heaven's Army, with simple swings of his sword his enemies turn to ash.

He's walking like a fire burning everything that is in his way until he reaches an area similar to the eye of a hurricane.

He is standing on bare land surrounded by a sea of white, the white being all of Heaven's Army, it is as though they all have spread out specifically for this moment. And it becomes obvious that this is the case once Ubica looks a few hundred meters in front of him and sees the sight of his opposite and 144,000 Angels standing atop of Mt. Zion.

The time for small fries is over, Ubica's battle now rests solely with the Son of God and his Angels, and this brings a wicked smile upon his face.
These Angels are the people who never swayed away from the shepherd's path, the most righteous of man that avoided the temptations of evil.

In other words, these are the so-called perfect beings.

Not every person who dies and goes to Heaven becomes an Angel, people like Saints and Biblical figures like Moses and Solomon have transcended their human forms into a higher being. The story’s of these people are etched in the books of the past, their physical being has returned out into the light of day once more.

Amongst those Angels, are the ones that hold the title of Arch.

Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael.

The three strongest Angels fly above in the sky triumphantly as they stare down on the Antichrist.

Gabriel, is the angel that blew a trumpet blast that initiated the end of time and the general resurrection at the Last Judgment. He is the Angel who's job as the messenger to man succeeded in changing the world in many ways, and as an Archangel his words are absolute.

The wind of the sky blows his light blue hair and his white robe sways in unison as he blows his trumpet once more. He then preached to all who live on the Earth, and to every nation and in every tongue, every man on the planet hears his voice as he says loudly,

“Fear God, and give him glory. Because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens and the Earth, the sea and the springs of waters.”

Ubica scowls at Gabriel's voice, he speaks as though this is the moment of their victory.

After Gabriel's words, the voice of another Archangel is heard, this one has long flowing black hair and bright turquoise eyes who goes by the name of Raphael.

He spreads his arms and declares, “Fallen is the False Prophet! She who has made all the nations drink the wine of the passion of her immorality.”

But what does Raphael mean when he says she has fallen?

The answer comes when a light shines from under Raphael's feet and the limp figure of a girl is seen floating from the mass of Angels up towards him.
It is Messor, Ubica can't tell if she is alive or not and watches in anger as Raphael cradles her limp body in his arms.

Ubica grits his teeth and a darkness spews from all around him.

“..."

His legs begin shaking as his hate causes his vision to become blurry at the mere sight of his Idol in that Archangel's arms.

But before he moves those legs to attack, Micheal finally speaks, both to Ubica and to everyone else in the world.

“Anyone who worshiped the Beast and his Idol, and received the Mark on his forehead or his hand... Will also drink the wine of the 'Wrath of God', which is mixed in full strength in the cup of his 'Anger'. And he will also be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb.”

Micheal stops and looks to Jesus, he then points out in the distance at a massive crater in which a certain Angel named Abbadon created at the beginning of the battle.

Micheal holds a spear in his hand in which its blade is in the form of a cross about a meter high and a half meter across with a red ribbon tied across the middle of it.

He points his spear out at the crater and sends a flame that lights up the already crimson sky in its direction. The flame enters the crater and expands violently as if the air in the abyss was combustible, the fire burns so hot that the heat is felt on Ubica's face from almost a mile away.

“And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever.” Micheal continues, “They have no rest, day or night, this is the punishment of those who received the Mark of his name.”

“That's enough.” Ubica says as he swings his sword, he stabs it into the ground and addresses all who stand before him. “We've all had enough of your so called punishments. Your unjust God has fooled you all into arrogance, your judgements on my followers will now be returned to you tenfold."

The Angels look at him with pity in their eyes as if he is some kind of cornered animal bearing its fangs, feigning strength to keep itself from being devoured.

These looks cause Ubica to smile, excited to see the moment they realize just who is the one truly in charge here.

“You're looking at me all wrong. There's no fear in your eyes.”

He slams his hand down on the but end of his sword that sticks into the ground, and in an instant the sky is blotted out and the entirety of Mt. Zion is engulfed in a pitch black sphere.

The light that shined from the Angels is no more, they are all stuck in an individual state of isolation.

The only thing they can see are themselves, all others have disappeared from sight.

Just like how Gabriel, Raphael, and Michael addressed everyone in the world with their voices, Ubica does the same to everyone in this large sphere that spreads miles wide.

“You are all so arrogant because your God has never shown you true darkness, he has sheltered you from it so you could never find out how fearsome it really is. I can't help but wonder how he expects you to fight the darkness if you have never witnessed it with your own eyes... I'll be the one to show it to you in his place."

--------------------------

Back in the second level of Purgatory, on a certain island, in a certain port city home, there is the sound of meat being cleaved violently.

That sickening thick noise could be heard in every room, in every corner of the house, behind every door, and the sound came from within the dining room.
There in the room that is supposed to hold happy moments between a family, lies the source of the noise. It is a certain girl swinging a foot long blade downwards in a stabbing motion repeatedly. With each swing, blood sprays into the air sending the red fluid onto the wall as if using it as a canvas for creating a horrid painting.

The artist behind this is Amber, and the ink used at this moment is her mother. Her father Albert is already slumped over dead on the dinner table with a slit throat.

Amber is crying as she keeps stabbing into the lifeless body of her mother, she wants to close her eyes to not look at this terrible sight, but just like how she can't control her body, her eyelids refuse to shut as well.

But she can still control her mouth, it moves as her voice lets out a ghastly scream of agony.

“UUUAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!”

The point of begging herself to stop has long since passed, no matter how many times she pleaded to her body it never listened, her merciless assault on the parents who gave her life relentlessly continued.

After one final strike, her body finally stops.

With eyes glued open she finally gets a good look at what she's done, Melissa almost has her head decapitated as most of Amber's attacks were focused on the head area. It is so bad that she cannot even recognize that the dead woman under her feet is actually her mother.

“T-This can't be happening...” Amber mutters, wet all over with the blood of her parents. “THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!!!”

Then, her body begins to move by itself once again, this time toward the exit, the machete-like blade still in her hand as she exits her house.
Walking along the streets of the city at night she seemingly goes unnoticed.

It is an exceptionally dark night because the usual three moons that shine brightly in the sky aren't apparent. Even with three moons it seems that Purgatory has its own lunar activity, this one in particular being its version of a new moon.

This is somewhat fortunate for her, because if someone got a good look at her they'd certainly call the authorities due to all the blood on her clothes and face.

She has been walking in a zombie-like motion for a few minutes when she reaches a building that she recognizes, it is a small medical clinic that doubles as a house.

It is her brother Nicklaus' home.

Amber walks up the stairs of the stoop and knocks on his door rather loudly, she knows exactly what is going to happen once that door opens.
The pressure in the hand holding the knife tightens and begins to shake in angst for the upcoming attack.

“No...”

She pleas as tears flow from her eyes and mix with the blood on her cheeks.

Amber happens to glance at the window to the right of the door and sees Nicklaus walking from the innards of his home towards her. He looks through the window from inside to see his sister covered in blood knocking on his door, suspecting the worst, his face turns frantic as he hurriedly opens his door.

Sensing the moment speed up in almost a blur, her blade is thrust forward in perfect unison with the opening of the door.

Amber's agony is heard through her throat as she yells,

“NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”

-----------------------------------

“You... horrible bastard.” Ubica says as he drops to his knees.

He had just witnessed Amber commit the murder of her parents because of Leviathan's manipulation of the water in her body. This is sending him into a blurring state of many different emotions.

Anger at Leviathan for doing such a thing.

Sadness at the fact that Amber's parents had to be killed by their own daughter in cold blood.

But one that is steadily sending him into despair is the guilt of it all.

It is his fault that Amber has to experience the emptiness of taking a life, especially the lives of her loved ones in such a gruesome way. If it wasn't for his carelessness, this would never have happened, he could have protected her and her family at all costs if he had just used his head.

And thinking back even further than that, he is overwhelmed with guilt because if it wasn't for him developing a relationship with her in the first place, this whole situation would never have unfolded.

When Ubica is overwhelmed with negative feelings, he instinctively uses a defense mechanism that discards anything that hurts him by replacing it with the darkness.

The pain of regret in his chest goes away when he is consumed by this evil and he knows it.

However...

He's fighting it, it isn't too late for him to fight it with all he has and try to save her.

Ubica stands to his feet and rushes toward the city as fast as his legs can move.

Leviathan takes pleasure in such a pitiful effort and says, “I won't let you do that.”

He molds into a mass of water and shoots at the speed of sound right in front of Ubica, he forms back into his normal self and stands as a blockade to Ubica's advancement.

“Get out of the way!” Ubica shouts.

He pulls out his sword and swings it violently at Leviathan with enough force to rip anything in half.

The Demon of Envy holds his hand out and smiles, as soon as Ubica's blade touches his hand, all of the force that went along with its movement halts abruptly.

This should be impossible, a flesh and bone hand stopping a fast moving razor sharp sword should never occur, but much to Ubica's dismay it has been done.

“!?”

Not even having a moment to configure what had just transpired, Ubica is sent flying backwards in an immense shock-wave. He skims across the beach sand and like a rock being skipped he takes a few bone breaking bounces on the ocean surface before sinking into it with a giant splash.

Hitting water at such a speed is the equivalent of hitting asphalt and no doubt it certainly felt like it as well, to get out of this collision without major injury would be a minor miracle.

“Think about this, Ubica.” Leviathan says as Ubica struggles to get out of the water and stand atop of it. “Do you honestly think you can save her?”

While coughing and pulling his dislocated shoulder back into place he replies, “Of course I do!”

“Why is that? What makes you think that girl isn't beyond saving? She has just murdered her parents and is in the process of slaughtering her brother as well. After this, she wouldn't even want to be saved.”

“It's not her fault! It's yours!”

“You're right about her not being at fault, but you're wrong about placing the blame on me.”

Ubica knows where he is going with this, it only clarifies the feelings of guilt already spreading in his body like a poison.

“Shut up!!”

“So you understand? If you'd have just left that girl alone, where do you think she'd be in her life right now?”

She'd be happy...

“I said shut up!!”

“Do you understand that the person you are now is better off being alone? Unless you are strong enough to protect the people who are unfortunate enough to meet you, being alone is the only way to keep them safe. That, or...”

Leviathan again sends his form into water and in an instant he reforms right behind Ubica.

He whispers in his ear, finishing off his statement,

“Become stronger.”

Ubica twists his body and swings his sword wildly, completely missing his target. But frustration overwhelms him and he continues to swing in a blind rage.
Leviathan takes effortless steps backwards and from side to side, speaking while avoiding Ubica's wide array of attacks.

“You said you've been training to be able to defeat me... But what I noticed is that no matter how strong you think you are, if I impose certain circumstances that send you into despair, the weak side of you shows its desperation and throws all strength gained out the window. You are at a stalemate with your own body.”

“What weak side are you talking about!?” Ubica inquired, a hint of desperation evident in his tone of voice.

“You know what I'm saying, don't play the fool now. It's your desire to reciprocate the kindness of others. This is sending your comrades on a fast track towards death, everyone you know and care about will die unless you change the way you are.”

“That's ridiculous!”

“Is it really? Look at what's happening before your very eyes, that girl is picking off her own family one by one because of how you so easily accepted her kindness. You’re like a damn child.”

“..!!”

“You told me a couple of days ago that the person you are now is much stronger than the you of the past. Well I'm doing this to test that claim.”

Ubica is trying everything he can to even lay a scratch on Leviathan as they speak, but no matter what attack he uses, Leviathan comes out unscathed.
His attacks become more desperate as Leviathan continues to speak.

“I recall a time in the past where you saved the life of Messor, your Idol, but you did it out of hate!”

Ubica remembers this as well, sadly though, that was a situation that has brought him nothing but pain ever since. He can't conjure up strength from such an accomplishment because the strength he used then is the opposite of what he is trying to use now.

“You see Ubica!” Leviathan says as he reveals an unusual frown. “I have given you a test! To see whether or not your words are true, and you’ve failed!!”

Leviathan avoids another one of Ubica's attacks and leaps backwards, he lifts his leg up and says,

“As punishment!”

He then slams his foot into the ocean and a solid wall of water rises ten meters high and ten meters wide.

“I'll force you to watch how your weakness affects those around you!!”

On that wall is the projection of Amber reaching yet another house, she opens the door and her elder sister Alison happens to be the first person she sees.
Alison gasps in horror at the bloodied state Amber is in and rushes to her aid.

But while doing so, she is met face first with the now dull dagger being thrust forward by Amber.

The blade enters Alison's eye socket and exits out the back of her head, blood sprays as the force of the attack is like a sledgehammer to a watermelon.
Because of Leviathan's water controlling her body, she is likely twenty times as strong as any human could be.

Amber is in such a state of shock that her brain has pretty much shut down, she can't even mutter any words as her body pulls the blade out of her sister's skull by ruthlessly stomping down on her face to use as leverage.

She then proceeds to walk up a flight of stairs.

Once on the second story she turns to the first door on the right and opens it.

In the room are two twins at the age of ten, one a boy named Jeremy, the other a girl named Alice playing happily with toys and teasing each other in the process.

Amber holds her knife out and the attention of the two twins finally shifts in her direction.

What comes next are two innocent looks of horror followed by two high pitch screams...

---------------------------------

The Archangel Raphael is holding an unconscious Messor in his arms, just a few moments ago he was holding her like a prized trophy to show the world that the Antichrist's Idol has fallen.

But now he holds her close to his body as if protecting himself from something.

“Do you know what you are holding, Raphael?”

The unmistakable voice of Ubica rings in his ears but no matter where he looks, he can't find him in the pitch black darkness.
He stays silent and keeps his guard up wearily.

Out of the three Archangels, Raphael is known for his silent nature. Throughout history he has been regarded as a great healer of man, oration was never something he participated in. This has caused him to be almost robotic in his role as a servant of God.

“I see you aren't much of a talker.” Ubica says when he doesn't get a reply, “I'll do the talking then. I'd like to tell you a little about myself.”

"...”

“As you know, I am the embodiment of all the sins of man throughout time. But even I find myself more inclined to act upon certain traits of that.”

Ubica's voice starts to surround Raphael and seemingly hits every corner of his brain as the embodiment of evil continues.

“I am very greedy. And what you are holding is something that I own.”

This is only natural, greed is a human emotion that is felt without even realizing it. Raphael assumed that Ubica's greed would be inflicted a great wound upon abducting Messor.

“But.” Ubica added, “She’s not only a prized possession of mine.”

“...?”

Raphael is a little confused as to where he is going with this, but lets him speak instead of interrupting.

“If a person had all of his possessions and titles stolen... Other than his body, what would remain of him?”

Suddenly, Raphael is struck with a dull yet numb feeling in his upper arms.

He looks down and sees an odd black wire of darkness constricting them like a snake. It squeezes harder and he loses all feeling in the hands planted on Messor's back.

Looking down at the state of his arms, it takes him a moment to realize that there is a presence breathing sharply against the back of his neck.

He knows this presence, the Antichrist is right behind him and with his arms bound and his hands on Messor, he is defenseless.

Ubica grabs onto each of Raphael's wings with both hands.

With a face contorted with anger he says,

“What you are holding is my pride.”

He pulls on Raphael's wings and the tendons and joints connecting them to his body begin to rip apart with each ounce of pressure on them.

Raphael grunts in pain and decides to abandon his grasp on Messor. He tosses her aside and notices that the binding feeling from the string of darkness dissipates as well.

Free to use his hands to pry Ubica's grip from his wings, he moves his arms that are now feeling incredibly light towards his back when...

Something is odd.

His arms are too light, it's a feeling of weightlessness that cannot be described unless...

He looks down in confusion and his face writhes in horror as the answer becomes evident.

His arms below his triceps are gone, cut so cleanly he doesn't even feel the pain.

“WHAT!?!?”

“So this is what it took for you to speak.” Ubica said upon hearing the angel's voice for the first time.

Instead of behind him, his voice comes from directly in front of Raphael, he looks toward the source and sees Ubica holding Messor in his arms as if this is what was happening the entire time.

“H-How!?” Raphael queries in shock.

“Look around you.” Ubica replies as he moves one of his hands free and grabs the lower arms of Raphael still clinching to Messor's back. “This is me... this is the darkness that your God has neglected to show you, in here, your benevolent light won't shine.”

He tosses Raphael's arms into the air and they are instantly engulfed in a black flame and disintegrated.

Watching his limbs burn into nothing sends his body into incredible pain, Raphael grunts as the horrid feeling sends shock-waves of misery down every inch of his body.

“Ahh that's right.” Ubica smiles. “This would be your first time experiencing pain, it must be so much worse than you would have ever imagined it'd be.”

“Grrraahhhhhh!!!!? Why is this happening!?”

“Such confusion, I'm sure this isn't how you thought this would end up.”

By now blood is streaming like a fountain out of the perfectly cut veins that still think they need to send blood to the hands.

“Your belief in God's promises has brought this pain upon you. He has lied to you all, forsaken you all. And now I have found myself responsible for acting upon his negligence."

With his free hand, he points his index finger at Raphael's severed arms and the blood squirting from them forms into a little river and flows towards Ubica's fingertip. At the tip of Ubica's finger, a little ball of what looks to be black water forms, and when Raphael's blood and his finger tip make contact at its point, the blood becomes black as well.

The black water-like liquid from Ubica's finger tip flows upstream in Raphael's blood and slowly takes it over, it reaches the wide open insides of the angel's arms and shoots in as if being injected by a giant syringe.

“AAAAAGGHGGHHHHHUURRRAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!!!”

Raphael screams in agony as every vein has its blood turned black with the power of Dantega, a benevolent being such as an Archangel being violated by such darkness is more painful than the worst torture.

Ubica is taking pleasure in this sight, to him, this is what the angel deserves for attempting to steal away his most prized possession, this is retribution for the angel's attempt to harm his pride.

His presence grows ever more sinister as his eyebrows steepen into a hate-filled frown while holding Messor tightly.

“Take a good look at me, Angel of God. You’re finally able to see the truth.”

--------------------------------------------

“Where is he!?” Gabriel shouts in confusion as he scours around the darkness for the Antichrist.

The Archangel's question is answered by the voice of Ubica, “Is that the depth of camaraderie toward your fellow Angels? I think you should be more worried about them than me.”

With eyes still wary of Ubica's presence, Gabriel answers, “The fact that I'm more worried about where you are, shows how much I trust my comrades.”

“Your trusted comrades are taking on a hideous form at the moment. I can assure you they're all being killed while you search for me here.”

“I would be considered foolish if I actually believed you.” Gabriel replies sharply.

“You think so?”

Ubica appears in front of Gabriel and snaps his finger.

Gabriel instantly moves on guard and backs off a little to be safe.

“No need to be so cautious.” Ubica says as the darkness around him begins to brighten and what lies behind him can be seen. “Take a look, Gabriel."

A bright flash of white temporarily blinds Gabriel and whilst in this state of immobility, he feels the gentle touch of something soft brush up against his face. A similar feeling follows but this time it is felt on his shoulder, and then that feeling multiplies by the hundreds and the tickles cascade all over his body.

“What is this?” he asks himself as he grabs whatever it is that is touching him.

Even without being able to see, he instantly recognizes what it is he's holding. Not caring about the sting still present in his eyes, he forcefully opens them anyway, and through a blurry haze he finds that what he's holding is something white with red stains all over it.

It is a bloodied feather...

Falling all around him as if raining from the sky are bloodied feathers.

“Don't let simple feathers distract you from the bigger picture... Look behind me.”

Shifting his gaze to the area behind Ubica, he sees a sight that he struggles to articulate in his mind.

Thousands upon thousands of dead bodies stacked on top of each other.

The bodies packed so close together it's as though it is a mountain of flesh climbing hundreds of feet high.

The dead bodies are all people that Gabriel knows very well, they are his Angel comrades that were supposed to valiantly join the battle of Armageddon and put a stop to the Antichrist's reign of terror.

Yet here they are, lying dead and wingless in a pile like trash waiting to be burned.

“!?!?”

Gabriel is speechless and in shock, seeing something that was previously so far from his mind has a paralytic effect on his body.

“One by one, right under your nose, a charnel house of Angels was made.”

Gabriel still looks at him quizzically and Ubica answers, “You want to know how? It's happening all around you as we speak.”

Ubica points towards an Angel holding his head and screaming in agony as foam comes gushing out of his mouth. There is nothing anywhere near him, but it seems that something is attacking him, the way he writhes makes it look as though he's gone mad. The white foam spewing from his mouth becomes red with blood and his whole body turns limp.

He floats motionlessly until his wings twitch unnaturally and move as if they are being pulled by something.

The skin of his back stretches until it can no longer withstand the pressure and his wings rip off. Right after that, his body is discarded and joins in the construction of the mountain of Angel corpses.

The wings that once graced his back float for a moment until they are enveloped by a black circle and sucked into it, disappearing from sight.

“Wha..?” Gabriel mutters.

“Everyone experiences darkness differently, it's a curious thing being killed by it... As for the wings that you saw disappear, I'm saving those for a very special occasion."

Ubica rushes Gabriel and swings at him with his sword.

"For that, I'll need your wings as well."

Although the attack surprised the Archangel, he still had time to parry and block Ubica's attack with a shield of water he formed in front of him.

“Ah, water.” Ubica says as he sheaths his sword. He then spreads his arms and two balls of black liquid form around his hands. “You know, I was born from the deepest darkest depths of the sea. Water is the perfect container for evil, just as it is the perfect container for good. What do you say we find out which current is strong enough to devour the other?"

The water grows into large spheres around his hands when he finishes,

"You, the water that gives life... Or me, the water that takes it away.”

----------------------------------------------------

The Archangel Michael is breathing hard and has been avoiding numerous attacks from beams of green light coming from the darkness all around him.

“This isn't going to work, Antichrist! Show yourself!” he demands.

“I'm sorry to have bored you with this game of cat and mouse, you see, I just needed to keep you occupied as I set the stage for a special occasion.” Ubica replies as he reveals himself in front of Michael.

“Special ocassion?”

“That's right.”

Michael frowns, he wanted more of an explanation than that.

But after forming his own answers in his head he says,

“If you even lay a finger on any of them, I'll turn you to ashes.”

Ubica leans his head back and smirks, “If a only a finger's touch will burn me, I shiver to think of what you'll do when you find out they're all already dead.”

“What?”

“There is good news however, there are a couple I left alive specifically for you.”

Michael swings his spear and grits his teeth. “Lies, you are nothing but a scheming liar.”

Ubica shrugs his shoulders, “It's true that lying is one of my better traits. But I am just as much of a liar as I am honest."

Ubica spreads his arms and out of the darkness behind them come two women that are bound and seemingly unconscious. Their whole bodies are wrapped in a barbed wire of darkness that is ripping their skin apart causing blood to stain their white gowns and white wings. Both women are strikingly beautiful, one with blonde hair and the other is a brunette, the fair skin that isn't stained with blood lights the darkness around them.

These two women aren't just any average Angels, these two are the main companions of Michael and very powerful Patron Saints in their own right.

The blonde woman goes by the name of Catherine and the brunette woman is known as Margaret.

Throughout time these two have been at each side of the strongest Archangel, it is even said that the two of them share a romantic relationship with Michael, so Ubica has decided to see for himself if that is true.

Michael's face drops in shock when he sees his two closest companions in such a state, this look of his is proof enough that the rumors were true.

Ubica laughs softly and backs away from the two captive Angels, disappearing into the darkness.

His voice still echoes from all around Michael as he says, “Is it really such a surprise that I'd target them? The relationship between you three hasn't ever been a secret.”

Ignoring Ubica's provocation, Michael demands, “Let them go!”

“I will let only one of them go, your job now is to choose which one.”

“...?”

“I'm telling you that you can't have both, only one of the two will survive your decision.”

“That's ridiculous! Your fight is with me! Just leave them out of this!”

Ubica's chuckle echoes all around the darkness as he says, “My fight is with God and everyone affiliated with him, you three are no different to me than he is. But here I am giving you an opportunity to pick the person most valuable to you to live through my battle with God."

Michael, who is usually so calm and collected, is losing his cool with each breath.

Squeezing the handle of his spear with all his might he replies, “I can't do that, I love them both the same. I'll never choose one over the other.”

"An angel with multiple lovers, even God allows those closest to him to indulge in bodily desires.” Ubica said mockingly.

“In Heaven there are no boundaries when it comes to love, that is the gift he has given us.”

“A gift you say? Given your circumstances now, this gift seems an awful lot like a burden.”

Michael becomes disgusted and it is written all over his face when he says, “I don't want to hear that from someone who doesn't even know what love is. If you did you'd be able to see why I can't choose between the two people I care about most.”

Ubica's voice halts for a few moments, and an eerie silence falls upon them until Ubica's voice resounds louder than before.

“The Archangel, the one that defeated Satan is admitting he can't even make a simple choice? Will you really concede defeat to me so easily?”

Michael swings his spear and thrusts the cross shaped blade under his arm as if trying to attack something behind him. And when a 'thunk' sound followed by the noise of a liquid spilling from a container, it becomes obvious that he had hit something.

“Love will never be defeated by evil. I used it during the war in Heaven to defeat Satan, and I'll use it again to defeat a weaker being such as yourself.”

As soon as Michael stops speaking, Ubica appears behind him with blood flowing from his mouth.

Michael had somehow found out that Ubica was behind him and sent the holy tip of his spear directly into the gut of the Antichrist.

Ubica looks shocked as the blade of the spear goes from his stomach above his naval all the way through his torso and out of his back.

“How?” Ubica asks meekly.

Michael is about to explain how it was he defeated the Antichrist so easily but he is interrupted by the sharp laugh of Ubica.

As if he feels nothing, he takes a slight breath in and says,

"I'm kidding."

“Huh?”

“Did you think you've won? Like I’d ever be defeated by something as weak as love.”

Ubica vanishes from the tip of Michael's spear and leaves him wondering just where he went. He looks back toward Margaret and Catherine and sees two Ubica's directly behind the two.

“An illusion??”

Both Ubica's speak in unison, “This is no simple trick, Michael.”

All throughout the darkness, dozens of forms of Ubica appear, all wearing a wide grin. As his numbers grow he speaks through all of their mouths and the multiple voices beat at Michael's ears.

“I am everywhere Michael, I watch everything, I am everything. You cannot escape me, and due to your inability to make a decision, neither will your precious lovers.”

The barbed wire of darkness that wraps Margaret and Catherine constrict and their bones crack, their delicate bodies are slowly ripped to shreds as the barbs sink into their flesh.

“STOP IT!!”

“It's far too late for that, in the end you did make a decision. You chose death for them both.”

The two Ubica's snap their fingers and both Margaret and Catherine are ripped into little pieces. Their body parts fall into the darkness and are engulfed in pitch black.

The two women that Michael has been sharing his love with for so many years have been murdered right before his eyes and he couldn't do anything about it.

He was helpless.

But why is that?

It wasn't supposed to be that way, it was said that the Angels will come out of this unscathed as the Antichrist was easily defeated.

Yet here, right in front of him, two of the strongest Angels were torn apart right before his eyes, and as the strongest Angel in Heaven, he didn't even come close to stopping it.

Was this the arrogance on his part?

Or was this a simple underestimation?

No matter what it was, the fact is that they are dead, and the person who committed this heinous act is standing in front of him smiling as though he had just won a sports competition.

The only thought now rolling through his head, is how much he wants to burn that wicked smile into nothing. His vision goes blurry and he only focuses his eyes on the two Ubica's that slaughtered his lovers with a snap of a finger.

With a roar befitting of a cry, the spear in his right hand bursts into an intense flame.

“OOOOOAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”

He swings his flame spear and sends a towering wall of inferno directly towards his targets.

This is the fire of the Archangel, this is a fire that will never wither nor fade until his target is reduced to ashes. His flames are the absolute purest of any kind and are supposed to be used as the final resting place for the Antichrist in the eternal lake.

However, the purity of this fire is replaced by the newly formed hate brewing in his soul, the malice filled attack no longer has any benevolent meaning behind it.

It is only there to destroy, to burn, to kill.

The great wall of flame hits the two Ubicas and they are instantly torched, but through the inferno Ubica is still seen smiling menacingly.

He laughs and says his final words, “You have just proved a very important truth to me... even the most righteous Angel can act malevolently."

The flames become so bright that only the silhouettes of the two Ubicas can be seen, and the two silhouettes let out a ghastly scream.

But these are not the screams of a man, rather, they are two obvious screams of women burning to death painfully.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

“UUUUWWWAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!”

Even despite the blood curdling screams, Ubica's voice is hear clear in Michael's head when he says,

"Look closely Archangel, look very close and see the results of your very first act of malevolence.”

The darkness suddenly disappears as quickly as it formed, and Ubica is standing without a scratch on him atop a mountain of dead bodies on the battlefield.

Michael happens to catch sight of this and wonders in shock just what in the world he is burning, he quickly turns his head to the two people he thought was Ubica and finds something that turns him bug eyed in horror.

The two people being burnt to death in Michael's hate-filled attack are his two lovers, Margaret and Catherine.

Their flesh is literally being cooked, their once beautiful hair begins to char and their eyes start melting in the intense heat. They continue their screams and beg for Michael to stop his assault but this is the flame that won't ever stop burning until his target is turned to ash.

There is nothing he can do to save them.

“You weren't wrong about my use of illusions.” Ubica says, standing triumphantly while looking down on his foe.

He then says something that was mentioned in an earlier conversation with the Archangel.

“I told you that I am just as honest as I am a liar.”

Ubica had lied to Michael about the use of illusions from the very beginning. Because Ubica used illusions in his darkness, he made it seem as though Margaret and Catherine were killed by his two clones. When in actuality he was never really there to begin with, his two clones were just images of himself painted on the two Angels.

This was all a part of his sick plan to trick Michael into killing the two most important people in his life if he was unable to choose between the two.

A ruthless tactic to say the least, especially considering that Ubica is strong enough to kill them all off with his own hands, this was just for the fun of tormenting them before they died.

“NOOOOOOO!!!” Michael shouts, but it is far too late.

Both Margaret and Catherine have already breathed their last breaths, the only thing left now is to watch the dust of their former bodies blow away in the wind.

Michael falls to the Earth's ground and sits on his knees as the ashes of his lovers slowly fade away.

Ubica jumps off the mountain of dead Angels and lands in front of Michael, who in his shocked state doesn't even look his way.

Ubica pulls out his sword and holds it to Michael's vulnerable neck.

“It's a shame really, your destruction is caused by God's lies as well."

Ubica raises his sword and readies to lop off Michael's head when...

“Uaaaaaaahhhh!!!!”

A scream is heard behind him, he glances over and notices that the voice belongs to Phoenix, who is currently on his knees covering his face with his hands.

“Not even the Messiah could handle the truth.” Ubica says.

He turns back to inflict the final blow on Michael but is shocked to find that he is gone. In that moment of distraction, Michael had slipped away from right under Ubica's nose.

He clicks his tongue in annoyance and says, “Prolonging the inevitable like a coward would. We will be meeting again soon enough Michael."

Ubica turns around and walks toward Phoenix Navara.

--------------------------------------

After Ubica gives Phoenix his 'offer of nothing', he is attacked from behind the mountain of wings he created by ripping them off from the Angel's backs.

He turns around to the source of the attack and sees that there are eight people looking up at him from the ground.

Eight people he knows all too well.

The group consists of Belphegor.

An older looking Mammon.

Asmodeus, the woman Demon that represents the Original Sin of Lust.

Amon, Beelzebub, Leviathan, and Satan.

Joining the fearsome 7 Demons of Hell to their front is none other than Damien.

“Well if it isn’t the perfidious eyes of Damien and the Seven Demons of Hell.”

He stays silent for a few seconds, and then a green and black glow starts to shine around him.

With a smile, he says under his breath, “An unforeseen detour?”

Looking up to the polluted sky above him, he speaks as though he is addressing someone when he finishes,

“Maybe you aren’t so weak after all…”

The eight Demons all disperse and a battle commences as they all simultaneously attack Ubica. Narrowly avoiding multiple attacks of insurmountable strength he somehow manages to build up a laugh.

“I didn't guess that I would find myself surprised by this turn of events. I had thought we had come to an agreement.”

Satan frowns and speaks to him while they fight, “Did you really think that we wouldn’t know that you planned on betraying us from the start?”

“No, I’m just surprised that you ever thought of us as comrades. I can’t betray what’s beneath me, I can’t betray an ally I’ve never needed.”

Satan becomes angry and charges Ubica, he holds a long sword and thrusts in toward Ubica's stomach.

Ubica easily brushes the attack to the side with his katana and sends a fierce kick directly onto Satan's face, sending him flying off at an incredible speed.

Whilst flying back, Satan does some kind of hand signal and shouts, “DO IT NOW!!!”

Damien appears behind Ubica and with an open palm strikes him on the back, Ubica loses his breath momentarily and attempts to turn to strike back when...

“!?”

He can't move, his body is frozen, he scours the area with his eyes and sees the other 6 Demons, including Satan, floating around him in a perfect circle whilst holding different hand gestures. A bright purple light shines under his feet and Damien backs away from it, soon after he also joins the others in a distinct hand gesture.

The purple light turns into a hundred meter wide pentagram seal with an outstanding number of connecting lines, the outskirts spin clockwise while the innards of the seal swirl counterclockwise. The intricate circle that binds Ubica is standing still.

Ubica knows what this is and is instantly angered, “Too weak to kill me, you’re going to try and seal me instead? It's not going to work, doing this also seals your movements, none of you can attack me in this situation.”

This is a special seal that uses all the power of the casters, the fact that it has taken all eight of the most powerful Demons that have ever lived to simply stall Ubica's movements shows how strong he is.

“You are right about us not being able to move.” Damien says with a confident smile, “But it doesn't mean that we aren't able to move you.”

The seal under Ubica's feet moves and with it so does all the others, they all float over the death-filled battlefield until it halts atop the eternal lake of hell-fire created by both Abaddon and the Archangel Michael.

The seal lowers and it becomes obvious what Damien and the other Demons intend to do.

His paralyzed body is to be dropped into a place where there is no escape.

“Ah, I see.” Ubica says, gritting his teeth. “So this is how the prophecy is fulfilled in the end.”

Damien laughs as he says, “I’m speaking for myself when I say this, but I knew our role with you was never considered equal in your mind. So I began creating this seal before you were even born in preparation for this moment.”

"That doesn’t shock me.” Ubica replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Enough talking.” Satan demands, “Let's get this over with, it is finally time to destroy Dantega.”

Satan then looks down to the edge of the crater that the seal is dropping towards and sees Abaddon standing at the edge.

“Abaddon, the key holder to the endless pit and our new ally, it’s time to lock this wretched man away forever.”

Abaddon smiles and replies, “Ts'all ready for ya boss.”

Ubica scowls and looks all of them in the eyes one by one.

This glare alone is enough to trigger the flight or fight instincts of the most powerful demons before him.

Before he is dropped into the fire, he ominously declares,

“I'm going to be back... and my return will be the harbinger of death to you all.”

Confident in their victory, they smile as though they have calmed their intimidation of him with the thought of knowing that there is no longer a threat.

Ubica reveals the same kind of condescending smile and speaks once more.

“Everyone who bears my mark will not serve under anyone but me. If they are dumb enough to choose to follow you in my absence, my mark will stop their hearts as punishment for betrayal. They won’t be free from me until this battle is long over.”

Shocked by this sudden revelation, Satan is taken aback with anger.

“You see…” Ubica says, managing a cheeky smile even as the heat from the pit is felt below his feet. “Even the strongest have to account for the potential actions of the weak. So enjoy your miserable defeat Satan... There will be many more to come.”

“Drop him in!!” Satan shouts.

The seal shrinks and is now only seen under Ubica's feet, it lowers slowly as Ubica looks up at them all as though accepting his fate.

On his way down he hears a familiar voice call his name, he shifts his gaze in that direction and finds Messor staring at him with her bright white gold eyes.

Despite his situation, he finds her presence comforting.

He doesn't say a word, he just stares at his Idol while his descent continues.

This is the moment the two are separated forever, yet proper words of parting are not said.

He smiles at her as though the pain of the flames that begin to engulf him are not felt charring his skin.

It only takes a moment, and then he is gone.

The eternal lake begins to close up rapidly as Abaddon turns a gold key he holds in his hand.

Inch by inch Ubica is moving away from her, and not knowing what to do she glares at the great betrayers of her master.

Soon after they all disperse to go fight the rest of the battle, even Abaddon leaves her alone after he puts his key into his pocket.

The lake has shrunk to such a size it couldn't even be called a small pool, and once this closes all the way, it will truly be over.

She will never see him again.

“Like I’ll sit here and let you burn alone.” Messor hisses, building her resolve.

She takes a step toward the flame and says gently,

“If you burn, I burn, Ubica.”

With one final step, she falls into the lake just in time before it closes up for good.

The hate and evil that is Ubica, is once and for all confined in a place where he can no longer harm anyone.

With that, the world can at long last, be at peace...

--------------------------------

The current Ubica lays motionless on the beach sand as Leviathan stands over him.

The two have been fighting for a while now and the winner is obvious, Ubica was once again easily defeated by his fellow Demon of the sea.

“Stand up Ubica, the exciting part is just about to begin.”

“.....”

Ubica doesn't move nor say a word.

Leviathan sighs and picks him up out of the sand by pulling the back of his collar, he tries to set him back onto his feet but Ubica's legs go limp and he drops right back to the ground.

“Is this all you have?” Leviathan asks in a way that seems bitter and disappointed.

He hasn't used much effort at all in his fight, and yet here lies Ubica, the one person most feared in all of existence collapsed on this sandy beach in such a pathetic manner.

“Fine then, if I can't talk you into standing, maybe 'she' can.”

“U-Ubica...”

A frail voice of a girl is heard behind him and Ubica instantly opens his eyes and attempts to stand, but he can only manage to sit up. He looks towards the stairs leading to town and discovers Amber walking toward him with a look of despair on her face.

The blood that she was once soaked with has been crudely cleaned from her face despite her clothes still stained in red; it would seem that Leviathan has cleaned her up specifically for this moment.

“Amber...” Ubica says in a broken tone.

He had just watched her kill her ten year old niece and nephew, the last of her family with a dull machete-like knife, he can't imagine how she is feeling at this moment in time. He can only look at her pitifully as his empathy takes on a fraction of the pain she must be suffering through.

“I've done something terrible, Ubica... I've done something terrible.” she said as tears flowed from her eyes.

“No, it wasn't you!”

“With my own hands... Mom, dad, Nicklaus, Allison and the twins... I killed them all.”

Ubica shakily gets to his feet and walks to her slowly, and when he gets within arms length she shouts,

“Get away from me!!”

“??”

“I don't want to hurt you too! Please, you need to get away!”

Ubica halts but doesn't move back, and Amber swings her dagger at his face as a result.

He barely avoids it in time and some of his silver hair is cut off in the process of dodging it, her calculated swings continue as Ubica maneuvers his body to keep himself from getting cut.

“Leviathan!” Ubica shouts, avoiding slash after slash. “Just leave her alone!”

“No no, this is far too amusing.” Leviathan replies, watching the scene with a triumphant smile befitting of someone watching a movie they’ve accurately predicted the ending of. “Why don't you stop her yourself?”

“How!?” he queries as Amber's blade skims across his cheek, causing him to bleed.

“Well that’s simple, you just need to kill her.”

This situation is also predictable in Ubica's mind, there is no way that Leviathan would just let her go after all this. The goal is and has always been to send Ubica into despair, by using a tactic as brutal as forcing him to kill his own friend, this can easily be attained.

“Don't look so disgusted, Ubica, you have done something similar to this in the past haven't you?”

He is right, as the Antichrist he has thrown the weight of such an unreasonable ultimatum on a certain Archangel; it is only natural that what goes around comes around. Although killing off someone that he has only known for a couple of weeks isn't near as harsh as murdering two lovers blindly, this is still something he cannot choose to do no matter what.

“What is he talking about Ubica!? Just who are you guys anyways!?” Amber asks as she swings the blade that is already soaked with the blood of her family.

“He is a bad man.” Leviathan answers, “The kind of person that walks like a fire burning everything in its way. You ended up caught in its path.”

“Don't listen to him Amber! This bastard is the one controlling your body right now, he poisoned you when you two met earlier!”

Even though Ubica can’t help but agree, he still found it within himself to protest.

“So that's why you were so angry at me for bringing him in..?”

“That's right, although this never would have happened if I weren't around, at least let me explain all this once it's over.”

He tries to reassure her, to keep her fighting spirit alive, but Amber is too far away from ever being saved, and they both know it.

“There's no need... I don't want to live after this. How can I move along with any kind of normal life after all this!?”

Just as Leviathan predicted, she wouldn't want to carry on after witnessing and committing such atrocities.

“Don't talk like that!”

“Shut up Ubica!” Amber yells as tears fly from her eyes with each swing of her blade. “Please just kill me... I know you are strong enough to do it, I've seen it firsthand. Just do me this one favor.”

“I will not! This is what he wants, we can work through this if we fight it!”

Leviathan chuckles as he watches the two argue over Amber's life; although this isn't quite what he wanted, to him this certainly makes for a good show.
“You have to kill her.” Leviathan interrupts. “If you choose not to, I'll make sure she goes on a killing spree the likes this island has never seen. I wonder how long it would take for them to put a stop to her mayhem? My water blesses her with inhuman strength after all, she could hold out for weeks. Or perhaps I'll take away her strength at the last minute instead, I'm sure the angry villagers will torture her and display her mangled body in the city streets.”

As if realizing his powerlessness will only worsen this already terrible result, he begins feeling trapped. There’s no escaping this snowball he’s put himself and Amber in, the hill is just too steep.

“Do it Ubica! I don't want to hurt anymore people! Please!!” Amber begs as the thought of Leviathan's prediction runs through her head.

This is a dead end, Ubica has nowhere left to turn as his back is pinned between one unreasonable situation and another.
The question now is what is truly best for Amber?

Is it really okay to selfishly keep her alive and let her bear the pain of killing her whole family in cold blood?

Is it possible that killing her because of Leviathan's temptations is the correct choice?

Just what is he supposed to do?

He avoids one final attack and grabs onto Amber's arms, he presses them against her body and squeezes her as tight as possible, keeping her from being able to move.

In this position he speaks intently into her ear, “I won’t hurt you...”

He pushes her to the ground and turns to address Leviathan, “This is the only way to stop this. The only person I have to kill is you.”

“Oh? And how do you intend to do that?” Leviathan asks smugly.

“Dantega.”

“!?”

“That's right, all the training I've been doing has specifically been directed towards being able to control the power of Dantega to a certain extent.”

“Control Dantega?”

“This is what you wanted right? This is the corner you've backed me into! All I need to do is kill you and help Amber shoulder the burden of what has happened here tonight! My friends have helped me cope with everything I've done, I know I can help her through this as well!”

Ubica holds his hand out and his sword flies right into his palm from the beach sand, with his left hand he presses it against his chest and a thick black smoke forms around it and grows all over his body.

Leviathan can sense the strength growing within him, it is something he hasn't felt in a long time. But something is off, it still isn't the same as before, because Ubica is still the same frail person he has been since escaping the eternal lake.

Leviathan sighs at this and speaks, “That's not what I wanted, I'd hoped for you to resort to letting Dantega control you, not the other way around. This is disappointing, this is not the way I wanted to go about this, but I guess in the end it'll still have the same result.”

He moves his eyes from Ubica and looks towards Amber who is right behind him.

Ubica catches that and what follows immediately after is a 'thud' sound and a groan.

He abandons all thoughts of attacking Leviathan and turns around quickly.

Amber is on her knees with her hands on the hilt of the dagger impaling her stomach.

Leviathan has controlled the water in her body and forced her to stab herself.

Her blood falls onto the ground rapidly and the puddle that would normally form at her feet soaks into the sand adding intensity to the scene.

“Amber!!” Ubica shouts as he rushes to her aid and stops her from keeling over.

He holds her in his arms as her blood stains his white shirt, the warmth from it makes his body hot with angst as he watches the skin of her face grow extremely pale. He doesn't know what to do nor how to treat her, the only thing he could possibly think of is pulling the knife out of her and applying pressure to the wound.

When he attempts to do this he is stopped by the gentle yet shaking hand of Amber, she looks up at him and smiles as blood drips from the edges of her mouth.

“Don't bother...”

It would seem she now has control of her body since she was able to touch him.

“It's all over now...”

“No, I can do something! There's definitely something I can do!” he speaks frantically as he looks around desperately trying to find something that can help her.

“There's nothing.” Leviathan says, “I made sure of it.”

“Shut up!!”

“Come now don't be rude, this is all your fault after all. You could have stopped this, if only you had changed. This unfortunate fate will continue to be cast on all the people around you unless you forfeit your need for the kindness of others.”

His words hit Ubica hard as he zones out on Amber's broken body.

Through a cracked voice he mutters,

“Change..?”

“You must change Ubica, look at what has happened here. That girl, and her whole family are gone. If you truly had the strength that you spoke of they would still be alive. So let go of that weakness! Save the people you care about! Change who you are!”

Ubica's face is clouded with distraught, it's as though he is in the process of giving up.

Although he likes who he is now, the lives of the people he cares about most are far more important.

If he has the ability to protect them, and he doesn't use that ability because of some selfish desire, wouldn't that make him the worst kind of person?

With thoughts like these running through his head, Amber's hand is felt on the side of his face, he doesn't notice the blood transferred from her palm to his cheek when he looks down and sees her glaring up at him.

She uses the last of her energy to tell him the words he needs to hear in order to break him out of his broken mindset.

“Don't you dare change...”

Even though her life is fading fast, she still found it necessary to tell him her thoughts on what Leviathan said.

Looking back, she had never met anyone like him, he was easy to talk to, he made her laugh, she genuinely enjoyed every moment spent with him. If the person that made her so happy would give in and become someone he isn't, it would just make the tragic events of the night all the more sad.

Through her fleeting breath, she reiterates her statement,

“Don't... Ever... Change...”

With a long exhale, Amber loses the shine in her eyes and stares lifelessly up at Ubica.

This poor girl, who has suffered horribly for no reason other than the fact that she was in the way, is dead.

He loses himself in her lifeless eyes as his body goes stiff with disbelief, the world around him has come to a halt and this moment in time is all that he cares about.

Leviathan laughs slightly, “What a shame. I bet you want to kill me right now don't you?”

Just hearing Leviathan's voice, releases a trigger inside of Ubica, his head begins to ring as an odd pulsating noise similar to a heartbeat pounds in his chest. Each pump is pouring hate into every part of his body, the white of his eyes begin to grow black and the ground below him starts to shake.

“Now this is more of what I wanted.”

Ubica doesn't answer, he just shoots a glare that is filled with the overwhelming feeling of hate. It is apparent that Ubica is losing himself to Dantega but is doing whatever he can to stop it, on his neck the curse mark from Beelzebub is sending sharp pains coursing through every part of his body and is making his fight all the more difficult.

“This is what Dantega does, as its container you can never escape it. Any negative emotions or pains that you feel are fuel for Dantega's fire, it feeds off your hate and pain and you feed off its evil. It is a non stop cycle that can never be avoided, as long as you carry disdain inside of you, you will never escape it!”

This throws Ubica into twice as much anger, so much so that Leviathan feels it beating on his temples.

But this doesn't stop him from pressing forward, “But it is not enough! Like a fruit you are not ripe enough yet. What can I possibly do now to send you into the deepest depths of despair? Now that I have ensured that everything you built up slowly crumbled down around your feet, what is left for me to take from you?”

Leviathan raises his arms and from the ocean behind him comes his massive blue sea serpent. “Having said that, the one thing in this situation that will throw you over the edge... is for me to take away your revenge!! The dragon's mouth opens wide and Leviathan hops in, as it flees back into the ocean, Leviathan lets out a laugh of victory. “Hahahahaha so let Dantega relieve its thirst for revenge on your own body. And once you do, you will be just like the person you were in the past. Except now, you and your power will finally be tamed.”

The mouth of the serpent closes and disappears into the dark of the sea, Leviathan is gone, and he took Ubica's revenge with him.

Paying the price for it is Ubica himself, his body writhes in pain as the thought of giving in to the desire to not care clouds whatever minute amount of judgment he has left.

His arms shake and Amber's limp frame convulses with them as he lets out a scream of anger,

“UUURRRRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”

He drops his head and stays silent, the sounds of the waves breaking signals the calm after the storm that had just occurred. It's an eerie silence that stings because even after all of this, the world still moves on as though nothing had happened.

The silence of the night is broken by the frightened voice of a man at the bottom of the stairs that lead back up to the city.

“I-It was you..!”

Moving his head slowly to see who is speaking to him, his eyes finally land on Tuscany, Amber's fiance.

Tuscany walks shakily toward the two, “I knew it... I had an argument with Amber back at her house and left.” Tears begin to fall down his face as he continues. “But I came back to make up and I found her parents there. Fearing the worst, I went to Nicklaus' house, and he was dead! After that I went to Alison's place, and found her along with her two kids murdered as well!!!”

Tuscany had just happened to walk down the stairs of the lagoon in perfect time to misunderstand what had actually happened. All he knows is that in front of him is Ubica holding the dead body of who is supposed to be his future wife with a dagger sticking out of her stomach.

Ubica just stares at him blankly in a state of incoherence; his eyes still have traces of black in them as his fight for control still continues. This is a volatile time for him, his mind is blank with the desire to release his hate on someone, at this point anyone would do.

“I knew it! The only person who could have done such a thing is you! How could you!? Even Amber... How could you do this to her??“

Tuscany falls to his knees and weeps as he sends blame toward the innocent Ubica.

“You took everything away from me. Earlier today she called off our marriage, she said that her feelings had changed. Even though she wouldn't tell me why or how, I knew it was you! She left me because of you! Do you know how long I've waited to be with her!? Since we were kids I always tried to act like the cool guy just for her, just so she'd notice me. I tried so hard and I was so happy when it finally worked out...But you took her from me!!!”

By now, Tuscany is in such a state of anguish the words he had spoken were slightly slurred, he wobbly stands to his feet and pulls a small pocket knife out of his pocket.

He grunts like a madman and rushes at Ubica while shouting, “I'LL KILL YOU!!!”

Ubica doesn't even bother to move, with Amber still in his arms he holds his position as Tuscany lunges the knife at him.

However, before the knife can reach him, Tuscany hits some kind of barrier around Ubica's body. Tuscany's movement grinds to a halt and the blade in his hand shatters, the wave of energy that had broken the metal weapon to pieces slide up his arm, and in turn breaks his bones in a few different directions.
Tuscany instantly passes out from shock and is sent flying away into the sandy side of the cliff.

Ubica gently lets go of Amber and walks toward the grounded Tuscany, each step of his seemingly shakes the ground below him. The killing intent spewing from him is enough to blot out the shine from the stars above him; it is becoming increasingly obvious what he intends to do to Tuscany as he holds his hand out to touch the floored man.

One simple touch is enough to rip Tuscany to shreds, and such a cruel fate is only a few inches away as Ubica's fingertip gets closer.
The unconscious man before him is the perfect person to release a fraction of the pain and anger being spread through his body by the power of Dantega. Like an addict, he feels that just one will suffice. All it will take is just one person and he'll be relieved.

But Ubica stops, he retreats his hand and walks silently toward the ocean, this is such a struggle for him to do as his body twitches unnaturally as he tries to fight his urge to kill.

With his body half in the ocean, the water suddenly splits and gives him space as if opening a passageway for him to walk.
His head slowly turns back so the sight of the injured Tuscany and the dead Amber reaches his eyes. It seems as though he is holding back tears as he looks at the scene of his regret.

“Don't ever change huh..?” he says to himself. He turns back towards the wall of the ocean and once again speaks in a saddened voice, “... I don’t think it’s going to work.”

The wall of water closes in on him and the dark of the ocean engulfs his presence, he finally departs the island, leaving a trail of tragedy in his wake.

---------------------------------

Trojia opens her eyes and finds herself on a bed being pounded by the sun shining through a window to the left of her. The brightness stings her eyes momentarily and she slowly recollects where she is when she glances down to her hand and it's actually visible.

She is back on the boat, and in one of the rooms in the barracks for that matter.

Her terrible nightmare is now over and what's left is to re acquaint herself with the sensation of having a body once more. Seeing her own hands for the first time in 3 years almost induced her to vomit.

After a few moments spent shaking off the many sensations of general feeling, she manages to sit her stiff body up and notices a certain girl sitting on a chair staring out the window at the foot of her bed.

The sunlight reflects off her white hair and sends her skin into even more of a gorgeous tint than usual, it's as though she is looking at a doll with glowing gold eyes that are there to captivate people.

This is a girl that she has gotten to know quite well without even speaking so much as a word to her. This astonishingly beautiful person sitting just a few feet away from her is none other than the False Prophet Messor.

“Oh, you're finally awake?” Messor asks as she feels Trojia's glare beat on her cheek.

Trojia rubs her eyes and asks softly, “How long was I out for?”

“It's been a couple days. That Captain said we're only one day away from the second Gate.”

The young Princess's expression almost looks displeased.

“I see...”

She then takes a deep breath and asks, “Has he come back?”

“You mean Ubica? No... There's been no sign of him.”

“I see.” she says again.

The two sit in an ominous silence until Messor speaks, “Don't you want to ask me something else?”

Trojia's shoulders twitch and her gaze shifts away to the wooden wall of the room.

“Are you expecting me to ask you something?”

“Well I wouldn’t say expecting so much as I’m interested...” Messor replies, “You saw everything right?"

"I did."

"Don't you want to know more about it? Or hear my side of the story?”

“I'd have to be stupid to ask you anything more about your relationship with Ubica. What I saw was more than enough.”

Messor chuckles a little, “I'm glad you understand, if you have nothing more to say to me, I'll be the one to ask you something.”

“What is it?”

The slight smile Messor had fades away and a serious face takes its place when she asks, “Now after seeing all of Ubica's past... What do you think of him?”

Trojia is somewhat surprised at this sudden question, it takes her a few seconds to even think of how to answer it, and in that time frame all of the horrific images that she existed within, rush into her mind play before her eyes like a projection screen.

She starts crying and throws her wet face into her palms.

“H-He's...”

Trojia struggles to speak as the only sound escaping her mouth is that of a sharp moan that goes along with crying uncontrollably. The image of the kind and smiling Ubica is overrun by the images of his atrocities as the Antichrist. The Ubica she thought she knew has long since faded into the deepest corner of her mind where it can no longer be seen.

With these emotions running through her head, she answers with words she had never thought she'd say...

“He's awful.”

666 The Mark of the Beast: (END)

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Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 8

2021-11-06T15:29:23Z

Deck of cards:

(PART 2)

“You know... when I invited you to stay at our house, I didn't mean I wanted you to follow me around everywhere! You haven't left me alone at all the past couple days!” Amber shouted while nudging the person to her right.

Her and Ubica are walking along the roads of the seaside city in which Amber lives; it is early morning and they are both heading to do some shopping at the local market for breakfast.

After the small typhoon that had just ended the night before, the morning is a little brisk but the air is clean and the sun is out making this a very pleasant start to the day.

“Who says I'm following you?”

“Hah? Common sense says so! When I woke up you were waiting for me! Are you some kind of stalker!?”

Since Leviathan's warning, Ubica has been keeping a close eye on her, for the most part he hasn't left her side whether she has noticed it or not. Though this fits the description of a stalker perfectly, the only reason he is doing this is to protect her from danger.

But still, hearing her say that makes his shoulders jolt.

“Stalker!?”

“Oooaaah! Oh no! I invited a stalker into my house! What should I do? Call the police? Somebody help me!!”

The two are causing a scene and the concerned glares from the citizens of the seaside city pelt them like a group of people throwing rocks.

It would seem that only Ubica feels this pressure and he frantically tries to cool the situation.

“S-Shut up Amber! You’re going to get me killed!” he yelps as he nudges her back.

The eyes of the onlookers set on fire at the sight of him doing this, so instead of cooling the situation he threw gasoline on the open flame. Flushed in frustration at how this whole thing unfolded he shrinks into himself.

“Hahahaha if you don't shape up you're gonna be in serious trouble! Stalker!”

Ubica puffs and looks away with a scowl, he sharply blows air out of his nose and walks the opposite way of her.

“Fine! If you're going to pick on me then I'm just gonna go back to the lagoon!”

“Oh come on.” Amber said with a sigh, her tone implying that he's being a baby.

She waits for him to stop and come back to her but he keeps walking away into the crowd.

(He can't be serious right?) she thinks to herself when he almost walks out of sight.

Thinking back on what she had just done, perhaps her little joke has offended him. (I don't want him to leave...) she thinks as she starts to walk toward him through the crowd. (Not over something as stupid as that!)

Her walk turns into a jog to catch up to him.

“Ubica wait!”

Ubica stops walking and she quickly latches onto his arm so he doesn't leave again.

“I'm sorry about that... don't be mad, okay? I was only kidding..”

"..."

Ubica drops his head and hides his eyes under his silver hair, he doesn't reply and stays silent.

“Ubica?” Amber asks, wanting some kind of a reply.

After a couple more seconds of silence she seriously thinks he might be very angry at her, she stutters a little as she tries to find words to make him forgive her when...

“Pffft...”

A puff of air escapes from Ubica's lips and is quickly followed by a laugh.

“Haha I couldn’t hold it in anymore.”

“Wha?” Amber mutters in surprise.

“I’m surprised you fell for that honestly, did you think I was actually mad at you?”

Amber's face turns bright red as the embarrassment of looking like an idiot and being laughed at for it hits her.

“Y-You... I was seriously trying to be considerate just now you jerk!”

“I know, that's what makes it even more funny.”

She puffs her cheeks out and frowns. “Fine, I'm not gonna give you any more credit than you deserve, you got me.”

He smiles widely and gives off a haughty air when he says, “There's a certain girl I know who always picks on me, so I've learned how to get sweet revenge from past experience with her."

As soon as he said that, he thought of that certain girl and his expression turned solemn. He doesn't even know if that girl is alright or not and the brief moment where his thoughts on this subject wavered ended abruptly upon mentioning her.

“You’re actually really bad at jokes.” Amber says with a straight face, “Of course I'd fall for it if you play it off like that... I was really worried.”

“Worried?”

“You know, I actually like having you around. If you left me for teasing you I'd be sad.”

Ubica looks at her with skepticism glowing in his eyes.

Amber sees this and answers, “I'm serious, mornings have been a lot more fun since you started accompanying me. My dad is too lazy to wake up with me and my mom only does housework. My brother is always cooped up in his office and my sister takes care of the kids. It's nice to have someone to talk to.”

“Oh...” He scratches his head. “Well why doesn't your fiance join you?”

“Hah!?” she groans.

“No?”

“No way! I couldn't do that, I can barely even mutter a word to him. I wouldn't dream of spending all morning fumbling for things to say, it'd be so embarrassing!”

“Well you have to learn to talk to him sooner or later.”

Amber puffs her cheeks out and blushes, just thinking of that gives her the feeling of butterflies in her stomach.

“Uuuuu~”

“It can’t be that bad, how is he so much different from me?”

“Because I'm not getting married to you duh!”

“Then it should be more difficult talking to me since I'm pretty much a stranger.”

“No it's not! You are way easier to talk to!”

“Why?”

“Because you're----”

Amber stops herself midway, she was about to blurt some dangerous words out without thinking.

“Because I'm what?” Ubica asks with a sigh assuming that she stopped herself from calling him an idiot or something to that affect.

Amber's face again turns bright red, she knows what she was just about to say and upon realizing the feelings behind it, her heart beats wildly.

“Eh-uh...”

Squirming awkwardly as she tries to find the right words to say, she reaches into her pocket and pulls out a piece of paper.

She slams it against Ubica's chest along with some money and shouts, “I forgot something back at home! Do the rest of the shopping and I'll meet you back there!”

Without giving him a chance to speak, she runs off into the morning crowd and disappears, leaving him confused.

He opens the folded paper and sees that it is a shopping list filled with the desired items and the prices of them hand written on the side.

Ubica sighs and asks himself, “What was the point in even coming to stop me if she was just going to leave anyways? And why do I have to do all the shopping!?”

-------------------------------

Amber swerves her way through people as if she had stolen something, not paying attention to where she is going.

In her mind, she repeats the dangerous words she almost carelessly let slip.

(It's because he's better?)

“It can't be..” she says to herself while breathing hard due to her sprint. “Do I like him more?”

Once brought out into the forefront of her mind, she starts realizing the pattern her feelings are laying out inside of her like a breadcrumb trail leading her out of a dark forest. This prompts her to question if she had ever truly had a relationship with Tuscany any deeper than a physical attraction.

The answer that immediately presented itself shocks her.

She shuts her eyes and shakes her head trying to shoo that thought away when...

THUNK!

Amber runs head on into someone and falls on her butt.

She looks to find out who it was so she can apologize and sees a tall man with bright blue eyes and dark blue hair still standing but with a spilled drink on his white coat.

Amber quickly jumps to her feet and bows, “I'm sorry! I wasn't paying attention.”

The man smiles tenderly and replies, “No problem, these things tend to happen every once in a while.”

“U-Um, you just bought that drink right?” she asks while pointing at a food stand directly behind him that sells cold drinks. “Let me reimburse you.”

“Oh no you don't have to worry about that.” he replies politely.

“No way! I'd feel terrible if I didn't! Come with me.”

Amber leads the blue haired man back to the food stand and walks to the clerk. “We need a refill on the drink this man here just bought.”

The clerk recognizes the man and pours it into a disposable cup, he holds it out and tells her what the price of the drink is.

Amber smiles and pulls out her wallet from her back pocket, she opens it up so she can pay him when,

“Eh..?”

The money she had in her wallet is gone.

“Crap! I gave all of my money to that idiot!”

The blue haired man chuckles, he can sense her embarrassment.

“Allow me to cover it.” The man pays the clerk and turns to Amber to ask, “Would you like anything?”

“N-No thank you! It's impossible for me to have you pay for me after this mess!”

“Alright then.” he turns to the clerk and asks, “Could I just get her a cup of water?”

The blue haired man gives her the water and says, “Drink up, you must be thirsty after all that running.”

Amber sighs and obliges, she downs the water and softly says, “Thank you.”

The man smiles, “Well it was nice to meet your acquaintance, please be a little more careful on your way.”
He then turns and walks off.

“W-Wait!” Amber yells, causing him to stop and turn around. “What's your name?”

The man again smiles and answers,

“Leviathan.”

---------------------------------------

Another year has passed for Trojia, and today she is watching yet another scene of horror as Ubica and Messor watch hundreds of thousands of desperate humans being led towards an army of demons to get branded with the Mark of the Beast.

They all wait in line in somewhat of a hectic manner and the screams of pain from the ones having red hot iron in the shape of 666 pressed against their forehead or hand is heard.

The people in line are being forced into order by demons, anyone who tries to escape is killed on the spot and the ones who refuse to be branded are tortured and killed as well. This way even the ones who have second thoughts about this would choose to be loyal to the Antichrist in fear of the most horrid kinds of death.

“Those humans... It's a lose-lose situation for them.” said Ubica, looking down on the people through a window of an office room in a factory building they are all in.

Messor latches on to his arm and puts her head on his shoulder. “Any human that believes in God not taken away in the Rapture will have to suffer through 'God's Anger' during the Apocalypse. His standards are far too difficult for a normal person, only the truest followers of his teachings were accepted into Heaven without having to die miserably here on Earth. They were the true losers of this war from day one.”

“And the one's actually saved in the rapture were so few it's comical. I guess there aren't too many devout followers left in this day and age filled with so much sin.”

“This scene of desperation...” Messor says looking at the hundreds of thousands of people getting branded. “In a way, it's beautiful isn't it?”

“It's about as pure of a scene one can witness.” Ubica quickly replies, his eyes never wavering from the scene in front of him. “They are like moths flying instinctively into fire, what we give them is what they hope to be salvation, and instinctively they’ll do whatever it takes to grasp at the chance without giving a second thought to whether they’ll actually be saved.”

“And this is happening all over the world as we speak. God is punishing everyone worse than we are, forcing people into choosing to join our side is more his doing than ours.”

“It certainly makes one wonder about his intentions for doing such a thing. I expect 2/3 of the Earth's population will join me in time to survive through 'God's Anger'.”

“I think we could both guess why.”

Ubica smiles and takes her hand, the two walk toward the exit when he replies,

“Then let’s play our part.”

--------------------------

The current Ubica is wearing a frustrated face as he finally gets back to Amber's house while holding multiple shopping bags filled with food items. He has been juggling them all by himself and is displeased at the fact that she wasn't there to help.

He knocks on the door with his foot and is surprised when the door opens by itself.

“Huh?”
Ubica walks in and instantly gets a bad feeling as he walks through the hallway and is greeted by nothing but silence.

But after a few moments, Amber's voice is heard talking like music to his ears.

He sighs before loudly saying, “You know you left the door open.”

He turns the corner and sees Amber in the living room talking to somebody, but the view of the person she is talking to is blocked by one of the many shopping bags he's holding.

“Ah, Ubica.” Amber says as she gets off the stool that rests by the bar area connected to the kitchen. “I want you to meet somebody, let me help you with that.”

She lightens Ubica's load by taking a few of the shopping bags from him.

As soon as she does this, his vision is no longer blocked and he sees a man with bright blue eyes and dark blue hair sitting on the stool as if he belongs there.

Ubica's body jolts and he almost drops the shopping bags in shock.

“This is Leviathan, I ran into him on the way back home earlier and spilled a drink on him.” Amber says with her back turned, “When I tried to pay him back I found out I gave you all the money so I figured the least I could do was invite him back for breakfast. We've been waiting for you to come so I can start cooking.”

Ubica tries to remain calm and keep himself from attacking Leviathan right on the spot.

He puts the rest of the bags on the kitchen counter and avoids eye contact with him.

“I-Is that so..?”

“So this is Ubica huh? This girl seems to think the world of you, it's nice to meet you.” Leviathan said with a smile that just eats at Ubica's soul.

Ubica holds back a disgusted frown and doesn't reply.

“H-Hey don't say something so embarrassing!” Amber shouts bashfully.

“It's true isn't it? Since we got here he's the only person you've been talking about.” Leviathan gently said, revealing a tender, non threatening face.

“Uuaah!? That's not true at all!”

Ubica, paying no mind to what he is saying, glares at the demon, trying his best to find the ulterior motive behind that fake smile.

Is this some kind of test?

Is he trying to see if Ubica can hold his composure under such threatening circumstances?

Not knowing for sure, he tries his best to avoid confrontation.

“So Amber, where are your parents?”

“My mom and dad left me a note saying they're going on a date and won't be back till later. Really, those two are still just like little kids.”

“So it was just you two until I got here?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re an idiot.”

“Whoa where did that come from!?”

Ubica fails in his desperate attempt to keep his composure and takes his anger out on the girl who's so kind it's dangerous.

“How can you just let a stranger into your house like this? Do you have any idea what could have happened if I hadn't come when I did?”

“Don't treat me like a child, I know what I am doing!”

“You obviously don't, you are too damn oblivious and you make decisions way too fast. If you actually think about what you do before doing it, this kind of thing would never happen!”

“So you're saying I shouldn't have brought you over either then!?”

When she said that, Ubica grits his teeth and holds back.

Little does she know, her kindness of taking care of Ubica has brought a potential disaster upon herself.

She shouldn't have ever given Ubica more than a few words, if she hadn't she and her family would be safe, and she would not have the 2nd ranking member of Hell's Hierarchy sitting in her living room.

“I think I should take my leave.” Leviathan said as he stood to his feet. “I don't want to cause any problems between you two..”

He starts walking towards the door and Amber tries to keep him in by saying, “No it's not like that, you really don’t need to go.”

Leviathan halts for a moment and then he feels the heavy words from Ubica beat on him.

“Get out.”

Leviathan smiles and walks to the door, bumping shoulders with Ubica on the way.

He pauses again and whispers into his ear, “Meet me at the lagoon at sundown. Tonight's the night we end this Ubica, I'm looking forward to seeing if you can pass this test.”

“I said get out!” Ubica shouts angrily.

He obliges and opens the door to leave, but not before he leaves Amber with some parting words.

“You really are kind, Amber.”

With his back turned to them, he purposely says under his breath so only Ubica can hear,

“Even I can’t help but be impressed at how you are able to attract the kindest among us… It’s truly such a shame.”

The door shuts and Ubica and Amber are left in an awkward silence.

Realizing what had just happened Amber shouts, “What was that all about!?”

She is genuinely angry at Ubica for what he had just done, she almost can't believe that someone could be so rude to a guest.

Ubica walks toward Amber with a straight face, for some reason this face of his causes Amber to instinctively back up when he gets closer and she keeps stepping backwards until her back hits the wall.

“W-What are you doing?” she asks nervously.

Ubica doesn't answer and holds out both of his hands.

Amber shuts her eyes and feels the sensation of his two open palms clasping onto her shoulders, she opens up her eyes and sees Ubica worriedly glaring at her.

His touch sends shockwaves of energy through her body, and she can feel herself lose the sensation of every other part of her body except where his hands are making contact with her.

After a short moment, he lets go of her.

The warmth of his touch left her shoulders and is now heating up her face and her ears.

Ubica lets out a sigh as though he had just released a pressure valve stuck inside him, and his breath hits her forehead like a gentle breeze.
The room is so silent that she is positive he can hear her heart beating through her chest.

“I'm sorry for my outburst Amber... I just want to make sure you're alright.”

Even in her flustered state, she can tell he is again hiding something from her.

(Making sure I’m alright is one thing, but why would he show me that kind of face if it was only that?)

Amber is confused by his actions and has no clue what to even think about all this.

“I-It's fine.” she replied softly as she looked to the floor.

“Listen... I have something I need to tell you…”

This prompts Amber to look up at him, expecting an answer to whatever it is he’s keeping from her that’s making him act this way.

“I----”

Knock! Knock! Knock!

This sound comes from the door and interrupts him, thinking that it could be Leviathan again, Ubica frowns and goes to the door, leaving a flustered Amber behind.

(What was he going to tell me?) Amber thinks as she watches his back.

Ubica opens the door abruptly and greets the person standing on the stoop with an unintentional frown.

The person receiving that look is none other than Amber's future husband Tuscany.

The young bachelor jolts back at Ubica’s unexpected presence but remains polite when he asks, “Excuse me?”

“Ah, my apologies if I had startled you.” Ubica says as he leads him in.

Tuscany reaches the living room and finds a flustered and silent Amber leaning against the wall, her appearance immediately draws his suspicion.

“Am I interrupting something?”

“No not at all.” Ubica replies, “I was just leaving actually. I helped Amber in her shopping this morning so she could make you food if you happened to come over, although I don't know what half the things she bought were, I'm sure it'll taste great.”

It's obvious that Ubica put on a fake smile and made up that story for her sake, she could see that from a mile away.

But Tuscany seemed to not notice and turned to her. “Is that so? Well then I'm looking forward to it.”

Amber smiles at him and shifts her gaze back toward Ubica's direction, only to see that he has already left the house.

Now alone with her fiance, she finds it difficult to conjure up a topic to talk about, so instead of speaking she just pours him a drink and hands it to him.

“Thanks.” he said gratefully.

Amber zones out on him while he drinks, causing him to blush when he feels the heat of her glare.

“Um, you’ll stare a hole in me if you look any longer.” he said bashfully.

Amber's intense glare doesn't leave him, but the only thing running through her mind is the leftover feeling of Ubica's hands on her shoulders, and the look of that worried face of his while he was doing so.

She takes a deep breath and puts her hand on her chest, her voice becomes very soft when she says,

“This isn't right...”

--------------------------------------------

Trojia has been stuck watching the build up to the day of the Apocalypse for three very long years.

It’s been such a trial for her to witness that she has felt like she has aged three lifetimes.

She can almost imagine her non-existent body being shriveled and weak if it were to suddenly appear.

The weight of the world she has found herself in is that heavy.

The trauma of her experience has been that destructive.

And it’s not over.

She finds herself looking down upon an army that's so massive it literally covers the Earth's ground as far as the eye can see in every direction.
Standing opposite of this army that numbers in the billions, is the benevolent army of Heaven which pales in comparison in sheer numbers but glows with the confidence that there is no way they'd lose.

The two massive forces stare down at each other on the grounds of the Valley of Harmagiddo in the desert of Jerusalem.

The sky is a dark crimson red and wreaks of sulfur and blood due to the ravaging of 'God's Anger'. The aftermath of this ruthless destruction still falls in the form of comets dropping from the dark sky in brilliant flashes of light. The sound of explosions reverberates from all around and aftershocks from the recent earthquakes still shake the ground in which they stand.

This is without a doubt the darkest moment this world has ever seen, led into its deepest depths by none other than Ubica the Antichrist.

“Look at how they have been fooled into radiating such arrogance.” Ubica says as he stands at the helm of the billions strong army. “Can they really not see what is about to happen?”

He frowns and turns to a demon standing behind him to his left with three heads; one head being a human, the other a cat, and the last one is a toad. His body resembles a human, with thick brown hair all over but he has a long slimy tail that looks like it belongs to a tadpole sliding across the ground collecting dirt.

Quite a disgusting figure to say the least.

“Bael, take your legions and head behind the mountain range a couple miles away.” Ubica points out some rock mountains out into the desert when he says that. “You may be able to incapacitate a sizable portion of Heaven’s army if you attack their flanks at the moment of our initial advance.”

The disfigured demon replies, “I'm called 'King' Bael in the third circle of east Hell you know.”

Ubica looks at him dejectedly with the one eye that isn't behind that odd mask. “Do you actually think that I'd ever address you with any added honorifics? Why would I do that if I can easily kill you and take the 66 legions you’ve spent your entire life collecting?”

It would seem that Ubica is genuinely angry at that little comment, this moment is so tense that even the slightest thing can send him over the edge.
Bael, who is a respected figure as a King of Hell is very proud of his lineage. He, along with 71 other Counts, Dukes, Marquis, Presidents, Princes, and Kings of Hell are proud leaders with hundreds of legions of demons under their control.

Though their titles are grand, their ranks in the Hierarchy are still nowhere near the top 7 Demons of the Hierarchy.

So to Ubica, who is commanding even the highest ranked demons in the Hierarchy, calling him anything more than what's needed is felt as an insult. In his mind the demon standing before him is lucky that he even knows his name.

Apparently Bael doesn't feel that way and voices his discontent, “It isn't a matter of strength here, it's a matter of respect. You are nothing more than a few years old, the fact that I am serving under you as your elder should be enough for me to earn that right to be addressed by my title.”

Ubica grits his teeth and takes a deep breath, having this stubborn demon argue with him over something so petty in such a dire situation like the battle of Armageddon is really testing his impatient nature.

“Let me ask you something.” Ubica says as he looks into the human eyes of Bael. “Do you know why I wear this mask of mine?”

“..?”

Ubica puts his hand on his mask. “I use it to block off some of my power from harming my own 'comrades' and the weak humans that follow me.”

He takes the mask off and glares at him with both of his menacing eyes.

The Mark of the Beast on the hand of Bael begins to burn and the demon writhes in pain as the horrid sensation spreads throughout his body.

“Arrrrggghh!!” he groans.

“Do you feel it?” Ubica asks as though mocking him. “The difference between you and I?”

Bael's hand bubbles like boiling water until it literally explodes up his forearm like a building being demolished by dynamite and leaves him with a nub of an arm just below his shoulder.

“AAAHHGGH!!!”

“Without my mark, you are nothing… So do you still wish for me to call you king?”

Bael falls to the floor and squirms as his body feels like it is being eaten out from his insides, he screams with all three heads which is making the noise stomach churning.

Ubica turns to his right and sees a demon in the form of a pale old man that is riding a large crocodile three times as large as any on Earth and is holding a hawk in his hand.

“Agares, kill this thing and I will give you control of everything he owns.”

“Yes sir.”

The old man maneuvers his crocodile to Bael and lets the reptile, along with the hawk feast on his body, a bloody mess occurs and the old man thinly smiles as he watches.

Agares, is a Duke and also resides in the eastern zone of Hell, he is being served by 31 legions himself and did not hesitate to slaughter a higher ranking demon in order to gain more power.

This is the relentlessness of Hell and its demons, there is no honor code, not even for the ones at the very top. These demons are always waging a constant war with each other to gain more power and souls and will stop at nothing to obtain it.

All of these ruthless monsters bear the Mark of the Beast, and are standing ready to fight for one man.

That one man sends orders to the many others and the final preparations for the ultimate battle are complete, it is now time to begin the bloodbath.
Ubica throws his mask to the ground and shatters it under his foot, he no longer needs to hold back, his one and only job is to unleash his full power on the allies of Heaven.

His lips faintly rise as the excitement of the moment brews hotly in his body. He pulls out his red diamond katana from its sheath and points it at his opposite standing to his front a few hundred meters away.

His legs move forward slowly in a walk, and the walk turns into a jog, and that jog turns into a run, and that run turns into a fast moving sprint towards his enemies.

This signals the billions behind him to move and the hundreds of millions in front of him to move as well.

Both sides move on Ubica's whim, on a collision course with each other upon his actions.

This battle, this war, begins and will end depending on what he does.

Only one person can stand at the threshold of an event on such a scale, and that person is closely watched through the horrified eyes of a certain princess.

-----------------------------

Tucany and Amber stand in silence, he stares at her with an expression on his face that looks to plead for something. And when he tries to speak, Amber quickly looks away to the ground.

Some words have been said, and both of them are troubled by it.

Tuscany bites his lip and turns to the door, he slams it angrily behind him and the ringing aftermath of the sudden bang rings in Amber's ears.

She wipes her eyes and takes a deep breath, when she does this, her vision becomes slightly blurred and all the sudden her head feels heavy.

“Hmm this is weird, it's still early but I feel so drowsy...”

She wobbles a little as she takes a couple steps and holds her temple to keep herself balanced.

“I guess I'll take a nap until he comes back.”

She slowly heads up the stairs to her room and flops on her bed, the words of Ubica still ring in her head from earlier.

(You are too damn oblivious and you make decisions way too fast, if you actually think about what you do before doing it this kind of thing would never happen!)

From there her thoughts mold into her marriage agreement with Tuscany, perhaps what he said is true and has been applied to what she has done with both he and Ubica so far.

Hiding her face in her pillow she asks herself,

“This is the correct decision... right?”

----------------------------------------

The sun has almost completely set and the current Ubica is standing on the white sand of the lagoon in wait for the demon who has been tormenting him since he got to this island.

The intense glare on his face that is pointed at the sun dyed sea finally catches sight of something.

Out of the water comes a white and blue serpent, and out of its mouth comes Leviathan.

He walks down the steps of water forming under his feet until he reaches land.

“I'm glad you made it.” said Leviathan with a confident smile.

Ubica pulls out his red diamond sword and moves into a battle stance. “Like I’d miss this chance to kill you. You said it yourself, this is the end right?”

“Did I say that?”

“Che... I'm tired of all these stupid games you like to play. It’s time for you and I to settle this.”

Leviathan shrugs his shoulders in a way that is almost meant to insult his conversation partner. “If this were the past, I'd take that threat very seriously. But sadly, I don't feel you'd stand a chance against me right now.”

“You think that, but I've been preparing for this day. I'm a lot stronger now than the last time you faced me.”

“Why don't we test that out?”

“Fine then!”

Ubica prepares to charge when he is stopped by the voice of Leviathan, “But not like that.”

“...?”

“You were right, I did say that today we will end this... But I did not mean the battle between you and I.”

“What are you talking about?”

“This little life you've temporarily formed here. It's time I take it from you.” Leviathan holds his hand out and a ball of water the size of a basketball forms above his palm. “Have a look.”

Ubica follows his gesture and looks into the ball that now shows a perfect screen of the amber haired young woman that Ubica has gotten close with over the past couple weeks.

“!?”

Reading Ubica's expression, Leviathan answers, “Earlier today, while you were careless enough to separate from her, I treated that nice girl to a glass of water.”

The smile on his face grows as the look of despair on Ubica steadily rises as well.

“You know that 70% of the human body is made up of water right?”

“You didn't...”

“As you already understand, I can manipulate water. So if water is used to move the muscles and make the organs function properly, I'd hold complete control of that human life in my hands.”

Ubica's breathing becomes sharp as he watches through the ball of water and sees the girl get up from her bed half asleep and exit her room.

“N-No.”

“You see Ubica, by meeting me here you fell directly into my trap.”

Leviathan moves the ball closer to Ubica as if to rub it in his face.

Through the ball the sight of Amber's parents come into view sitting at the dinner table.

“With you here, and me to stop you, who's going to be at that house to stop her from committing the unthinkable?”

---------------------------------

“What in the world is going on?” Amber asks herself as she walks into the kitchen without any control over her body.

She almost thinks this is a dream but it feels far too real to pass it off as something like that, she can feel everything that is happening to her.

Her hands move against her will and she reaches for a wooden knife holder on the kitchen counter. The wooden knife holder holds five knives ranging from small to large, the knife on the far left is the largest and she grabs that one to pull it out to the open. The knife is ten inches long and is extremely sharp due to its use to cut through the hard scales and bones of large fish caught out at sea.

Seeing that this surreal moment is actually happening, Amber begins to speak through her dry throat,

“M-Mom... Dad...”

She hides the large blade behind her back and walks out into the dining room adjacent to the living room, at the dinner table sits her parents Albert and Melissa.

They each smile at her while Melissa says, “Oh my look who decided to wake up, you've been asleep since we got back.”

“Perfect timing!” Albert says loudly, “I brought home some great leftovers from this fancy restaurant I took your mother to earlier for dinner.”

“You'll really like it.” says the mom gently, “Have a seat.”

Amber walks toward them with the rigidity of a robot with a few screws loose in the joints, and the look on her face signifies the battle against her body that she is losing.

“Mom~”

Her voice is becoming harder to push out from the back of her throat.

“Dad~”

She takes another step toward them and now she is only a couple feet away from Albert.

He looks up at her and asks, “What's wrong? Are you feeling lonely without your new snuggle bunny!?”

Albert makes a joke out of it like he always does as he wraps his arms around his body and wiggles around in a ridiculous way.

“Oh my don't say something like that, it'll embarrass her.” Melissa said with a smile that shows that she had found what he said to be humorous.

Amber doesn't find his jab at her funny at all, in fact, she didn't even realize what he even said as she has been focusing on trying to hold her own body back.

When all attempts fail, she realizes that what is about to happen is going to result in tragedy without her being able to do anything to stop it.

“Mom... Dad...” she says as her eyes start to water.

Her parents look at her quizzically as she raises the hand holding the large machete-like knife above her head in preparation for a downward strike.

Before the inevitable swing she shouts with all her strength,

“RUUUUUNNNN!!”

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Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 7

2021-11-06T15:01:31Z

Deck of cards:

Chapter 38: 666 The Mark of the Beast

(PART 1)

Messor is watching Abaddon socialize with the men on Caesar’s ship.

Her eyes shine bright gold and a disgusted frown that doesn't match her usual demeanor resides on her face.

The reason for this, is that the person who helped create the abyss of eternal hell-fire for her and Ubica to burn in is right in front of her.

“You guys stay here...” Messor demands through her teeth.

The others try to plead her into staying but she has already opened the door and walked out onto the deck.

She shoves through a couple of men to get closer to Abaddon, and when she gets a proper sight of him, she raises her index finger.

A little black ball of energy floats above her finger until it takes the form of what looks to be a black monarch butterfly.

She gently pushes it off and it flies directly toward him.

The little black butterfly lands on his chest, and as soon as he notices it, he is propelled backwards at such a speed he viciously flies through the thick oak guard of the ship and is sent skidding across the water hundreds of meters away.

It all happened so fast that it took the crew a couple seconds to process what had just occurred.

They turn to Messor and glare at her in shock.

Napoleon comes rushing out of the barrack room to see exactly what is going on. He had heard the noise and immediately ran to the deck, and after seeing the destruction firsthand, he'd have to be dumb not to know what happened.

“What are you doing!?” Napoleon yells toward the back of who he thinks to be a Harvest God.

She doesn't turn when she replies in a mumble, “I'm going to kill him...”

Caesar is angered about the sudden attack on a helpless man, he grabs her shoulder to turn her towards him so he can give her a scolding.

However, when he pulled on her with all of his might, she didn't even budge, it is like she is a solid pillar of stone that has been planted in the ground.

Messor moves her eyes to him and gives him a look of murder.

A cold feeling rushes down his spine and causes his knees to instantly quiver like a scared child.

The captain doesn't even say a word and backs off.

“That guy is a monster! We need to come up with a strategy to somehow defeat him, we can't just attack him head on!” Napoleon tries to urge her back into the barracks.

“I know exactly who he is... “ she says as she takes off her trucker's cap and lets her silky white hair flow in the wind.

She then takes off her button up plaid shirt and tosses it aside as well.

Shedding these extra layers of clothing gives her body room to reveal her true self.

Messor shines in a gold light, and that light moves from around her body and forms into a mass above her head, and that mass of light in turn forms into a brilliant halo. From the white of her half bare back comes two white wings that shine in a gold tint, each of them are six feet long, giving her a twelve foot wingspan.

“What?” Napoleon mutters in surprise.

What he is seeing is an image that belongs in the color pages of the Bible, in front of him stands the perfect image of an Angel.

Messor flaps her wings and flies fifty meters up in one flap, the air pushed into the floor of the ship is so strong it blows a few men off their feet.
Floating in the sky, she looks down on her target like a bird of prey.

Coming out of the water and standing on his feet on the ocean surface is Abaddon.

Surprisingly, he has a wide grin on his face, and without batting an eye he speaks, “Well well, if it ain't the whore of the Antichrist! Damien did mention to me that you were here in Purgatory, I shoulda known you'd go rushing to Ubica.”

Even though the distance between them is rather far, Messor heard his words perfectly, that accent of his is unmistakable. Just hearing it causes her to grit her teeth in anger.

Without an ounce of hesitation she waves her white wings in his direction and hundreds of black butterflies come from the wind it created.

The butterflies zoom at the speed of sound and land in the water all around Abaddon, every last one of those butterflies explode violently and send multiple plumes of water stretching hundreds of meters into the sky.

The blasts are so intense and so loud that the crew on the deck of the ship are put in a hazy state where all they hear is an intense ringing noise in their ears much like someone is blowing a high pitched whistle right in front of their face. The hundreds of blasts seemingly block out the sunlight and replace it with the white of the water. An occurrence this outstanding is so surreal that they literally think they might have died.

In actuality, this is the power of the False Prophet, the one person who could stand beside the Antichrist and share in his strength.

Messor smiles devilishly, “I've wanted to kill you for a long time now... this is revenge for creating that wretched abyss. If it wasn't for what you did, Ubica and I would still be living the way we once were!”

As if responding to her words, a fierce wind brews from the center of the explosions and each blast that had sent the water upwards into the sky begins twirling in the form of numerous tornadoes.

The swirling masses of water rush toward Messor and the ship, and out of the center of that tornado comes Abaddon with two swirling forms of water under his feet propelling him into the air.

“Ha! How cute of ya to hold a grudge, too bad that without the Antichrist yer nothing!”

Abaddon keeps his laugh as loud as possible while he takes a marble out of the pouch he holds on his waist. He flicks it from his hand and the marble flies faster than a bullet towards the face of Messor, but this isn't just any kind of attack, the marble has a bright orange light trailing behind as though it were a comet.

“!!”

The destructive power in this attack is felt in the trembling air, Messor knows that she will likely be blown into oblivion along with the ship once his attack hits.

But not having time to counter attack, she covers herself with her wings and hopes to somehow get out of this without losing all of her limbs.

Abaddon uses the destruction point of any object, living or not, to manipulate it into doing what he wants.

He can literally control the flow of normality in an object or person and bend it in any direction.

With this ability he can turn water into a tornado, fire into a solid mass, and a marble into a projectile with as much destructive force as a comet falling from space.

If any of those don't happen to work, all he'd need to do is touch a person and reverse their bloodstream or expand their organs to turn them into a ball of flesh.

This is why he was able to rise the ranks from a disgraced Angel of Heaven all the way to the top 7 Demons of the Hierarchy. Other demons don't like his personality or his past, but it is more than likely they are intimidated by this seemingly unstoppable ability.

The marble is only a few feet away from tearing both Messor and the ship apart when it is suddenly intercepted and sent flying off in a random direction before exploding out in the distance over the ocean.

“What!?” Abaddon shouts as the momentum of the tornadoes under his feet behind him send him zooming uncontrollably towards Messor's direction.

Then, through the white wash of the ocean he feels a hand grip his face and the next thing he knows he is blown through the tornadoes and skipped across the ocean at an incredible speed.

Messor still had her wings shut so she couldn't see what had just happened, but all the danger that she had just felt from Abaddon's looming attack disappeared in a flash.

She realizes that she has just been saved, but who could possibly be strong enough to have saved her from a situation like that?

Upon moving her wings, she catches sight of him.

The man's sudden appearance puts her into a slight state of shock.

“Damien..?”

The confident grin that normally resides on Damien's face is not there, he exudes such an air of seriousness that it makes Messor's body feel like it weighs a ton.

“I can't have you being killed just yet Messor... don't let your foolish attempt at payback cost you your life.”

“Why are you here?” Messor asks hoarsely.

“You don't actually expect an explanation do you?”

“I'd like to know if it somehow involves me. I still haven't done anything contrary to our deal that would bring about a reason for you to show up.”

Damien begins to float down toward the ship as he says, “I know you haven't.”

That's all he needed to say in order to show her that he isn't here to harm her in any way.

As far as she knows, it is his time to personally kill off the rest of the humans, and she has no intentions of stopping him if that turns out to be the case.

On his way down from the sky, he is pelted by the frightened glares of the crewmen.

He gets ready to land when the voice of Abaddon is heard just to the right of him.

“What the fuck was that for!?”

The demon has reappeared winded and soaked in water, his shoulders rising with each heavy breath. However, he is uninjured despite the sudden and vicious attack.

Damien's eyebrows twitch at Abaddon's tone. “If I recall correctly, I believe that Leviathan told you not to touch the False Prophet.”

Abaddon shrugs his shoulders as if he doesn't care, “Tch, she attacked me first. Nonetheless, she's still alive ain't she? At least lemme finish my job in killing those humans, I haven't even started havin' fun yet.”

“There's been a change of plan.”

“Hah?”

“None of those humans will be dying today... so I'll need you to head back to Hell until further notice.”

Abaddon frowns and voices his displeasure, “Fuck that! I already got screwed outta havin' fun last time when Beelzebub got in my way!”

Damien takes his index finger, points it to the sky and replies, “Tell me something Abaddon... when I gave you a seat in the Hierarchy, what was the one condition?”

Abaddon clicks his tongue and looks away, signifying that he knows exactly what it is.

Damien smiles and then points that finger at his underling before saying, "Obey me.”

Out of nowhere, Abaddon is engulfed in a dark red flame and disappears into the sky.

This is apparently some kind of transportation spell that sent Abaddon straight back to Hell.

Now having no one between him and the ship, Damien floats down to the deck and scours the faces of the people with his eyes.

“Oh? I recognize you.” he said when he spotted Napoleon glaring at him with a face full of caution.

“Y-You...“

Napoleon pulls out his sword and readies his mind to attempt to defend his comrades and the crewmen.

Finding this all too funny, Damien decides to get straight down to business.

“Don't be wreckless, I'm not here to kill anybody. If you decide to come at me, you’re as good as dead.”

This threat hits Napoleon like a fast moving car crash, he had just seen Damien repel the ferocious attack of Abaddon like it was nothing. No matter what kind of ability he possesses now, Damien would be able to kill him as easily as stepping on an ant.

Seeing that he isn't going to do anything, Damien shifts his attention to the door to the hallway that leads down to the barracks.

His red eyes glow and he says, “My real target is in there.”

In a flash, the entire hallway is blown into pieces and are sent flying off in the distance, if one blinked, they would've missed the entirety of what just happened.

Standing where the hallway once was is Trojia, Strauphius, Daey, and Tsubiri.

They each look at him in shock and wonder why he is here instead of Abaddon.

“Who is this guy??” asked Strauphius.

He has yet to see Damien in person so as far as he knows, the man standing before him could potentially be an ally.

But that is so far from the truth it's comical, the person on the ship deck is the puppet master behind every single event that has plagued the group thus far.

Damien walks towards the four and Strauphius can feel the fear emanating from the girls behind him, his natural instinct is to protect them so he gets into a guarding posture.

"Don't take another step.” he orders.

But Damien doesn't stop, instead he keeps walking and points his index finger upwards.

“You're in the way.”

He simply motions his finger to the left and Strauphius is sent screaming across the wooden deck and into the ledge. He was moving at such a speed his body almost plowed right through it, he’d be lucky if a bone hasn't been broken in that impact.

The three girls don't even have a chance to look his way to see if he is alright because Damien is right in front of them, staring at them with those frightening red eyes.

Because the three of them are standing on the stairs that lead down to the barracks, they are looking up at him, which adds to the tension of this situation. It's as though they are small animals that have been cornered by a large predator.

Damien leans down to their level and speaks, “Would you ladies like to know why I'm here?”

Before he can continue speaking, Messor lands to the side of him and says, “I'd like to know the same thing.”

Damien ignores her presence and speaks as though she wasn't there at all.

“What if I told you that Ubica has abandoned you so he could protect a family he has met on the way to the Gate?”

“Abandoned?"

“I'm telling you that Leviathan gave Ubica an ultimatum earlier... he knew that Abaddon was coming here to attack the ship, but chose to stay on the island that family lives on instead of returning to help you.”

Messor frowns, “Let me guess, if he left, Leviathan was going to kill them?”

“He had to choose between the lives of you and the others or the lives of that family. He had to decide which was more important to him. And he isn't here right now is he?”

“There has to be more of a reason behind it than that. I'm not stupid enough to believe that it's that simple.” Tsubiri said, confident in her declaration.

“How loyal you all are to the image of him you’ve created...”

Damien takes something out of his pocket and holds it in the palm of his hand. It looks like it is a red diamond and it spirals in his hand as if there is some kind of magnetic force moving it clockwise.

“I would like to give one of you a gift... the problem is, I don't know which one of you three I should give it to.”

Even though he says he plans on giving them a gift, the statement came across like an executioner’s final words to someone he’s about to behead with an axe.

Damien moves his frightening red eyes to the right and begins to speak to Daey, “You seem to be a dear friend of his, I’m certain if you had grown to hate him, he’d be devastated. However, I think you are too kind to be capable of harboring a resentment strong enough to give you the strength needed.”

“ W-What are you talking about?” warily asked Daey in response.

Damien ignores her words and then addresses Tsubiri. “I think you’d be able to compartmentalize your way into forgiving him. You'd be more of a trigger if you were to just die.”

Tsubiri wears confusion all over her face, she also wonders just what in the world he is talking about. But hearing him say that she'd be better off dead is enough to throw a heavy weight of fear into her chest.

Not to be left out, Trojia takes the next glare from Damien. As if stumbling upon a great treasure, his eyes seem to glisten when he addresses her.

“But you… If you are anything like your mother, your feelings would change upon seeing the truth. You’d reject the cruel world he created and come to reject him. As the first person he’s ever protected, he wouldn’t be able to handle your hate.”

By now, the three of them know that he is talking about Ubica, they just don't know how he knows all these things about them.

Trojia can't help but want to ask that very question, but when Damien looks to Messor and then back to her, she gets her answer.

“A spy?” Trojia asked, her eyes widened by the revelation.

Messor shrugs her shoulders, “I wouldn't go so far as to say that, I'm merely working to make Ubica happy. I'll never do anything that doesn't benefit him.”

“How can you say that working with Damien is benefiting Ubica!? Just who are you anyway!?” Trojia inquires.

“You'll know soon enough.” Damien says, interrupting her interrogation.

Damien then takes the hand opposite of the one holding the diamond and grabs her by the neck, he pulls her from the stairs leading down to the barracks to his level on the deck.

“Trojia!!”

Both Tsubiri and Daey shout and they each head up the stairs to attempt to retrieve her, but before they can get any closer they are stopped by the wings of Messor.

“Don't be stupid, if you try to stop him you'll just be killed”

“B-But!”

“He's not going to hurt her, you heard him right? He isn't here to kill anybody.”

The only thing the two of them can do is watch in horror as he holds her up above his head as if he is hoisting a prized trophy. None of the crew members interfere either because they are either in a state of shock due to the pressure of his presence, or they were told not to move by Napoleon, who is also standing there watching.

While holding Trojia up by the throat he looks her square in the eye as he says, “It’s always been thought that you can’t see into the past. But I can assure you that it’s more than possible, in fact, the past is constantly flowing unseen around us in the form of never ending energy. At certain points, the energy of the past radiates stronger than others and lingers behind forever like an unforeseen ghost trapped in the modern world. I’ve been able to gather the remnants of that energy and encapsulate it into this little diamond you see here.”

He tosses the black diamond from his palm up in the air and points his index finger up, the diamond falls on his finger tip and swirls just above it.

“I am going to give the energy of a long forgotten part of the world to you. This gift will allow you to see the truth for the first time in your life, and you will harness it into a strength unparalleled amongst the humans unfortunate enough to continue living in ignorance of it. You’ll choose to use this strength accordingly I’m sure.”

With the index finger holding the diamond, he thrusts it into her mouth and sticks it as far down her throat as possible.

Trojia can feel the warmth of his finger with her tongue and she can't help but feel violated to a certain extent.

However, the feeling of being violated is overrun by the sharp feeling of pain falling from the back of her throat all the way to her chest. It's as though her heart is about to explode as each beat is more forceful than the last.

The pain keeps getting more and more intense until...

There's nothing.

Trojia blacks out and falls limp in Damien's hands, he tosses her on the ground and addresses the crew like nothing has happened.

“Well then, I shall be on my way.”

He takes a step off the ledge of the ship and levitates in the air, he bursts into dark red flames like Abaddon did and disappears into the sky.

The crew and the rest all take a collective sigh in relief before rushing to Trojia's aid.

Napoleon is the first to get there and he immediately checks her pulse. From his point of view, it looked like she was being strangled and may need some form of resuscitation to at least get air through her potentially blocked airways.

But to his relief he finds that she is breathing fine and the rest of her vitals are in check.

"What did he do to her!?” Daey shouts while running up the stairs to her side.

Napoleon has no clue how to answer that but tries anyways, “She's passed out, I don't quite know what happened but it looks like she'll be fine.”

Daey shifts her attention to Straphius and finds that there are a few crewmen including Caesar tending to him.

After that, she turns to Messor, whose wings and halo are now gone.

“Just who's side are you on anyhow? Why didn't you even try to stop him? How are you so familiar with those guys from Hell??”

Messor folds her arms and replies, “Having every question answered doesn't help when you're not supposed to know... That girl on the other hand, is going to wake up with a head so full of answers she might fall into insanity.”

-------------------

“What is happening?” Trojia asks upon finding herself floating weightlessly in a black world that holds no light nor sound.

Her cognitive ability had dropped considerably to the level of someone half asleep. She could not think logically and even her five senses and sensation of gravity are blurred in this dark space.

After several seconds, her mind rapidly cleared. It is now that she realized the ambiguous information coming from her five senses was not mistaken after all, she really can’t see her hands, nor her body. The sensation missing out on what she normally feels when she’s conscious makes her doubt she’s even existing physically.

Able to speak even without a mouth physically present, she starts yelling out the names of the others that she was just with a few moments ago.

When the only response is her own echo, she becomes even more frightened.

That is, until she hears a familiar voice saying,

“So you finally reveal yourself.”

“Ubica!?”

There is no doubt in her head that the voice that had just spoken is his, her field of vision turns to its source and a flash of light hits her from within the darkness. It was so bright that it took a moment for her vision to adjust, it's almost as though her entire being is a camera lens that was fully zoomed in and had been panned back out too quickly.

But once out of this disorientated plane of being, what comes into focus is the sight of a man walking alone down a long stretch of paved road leading towards a massive futuristic cityscape.

Looking closely, she finds that the man is Ubica; he’s wearing an odd wooden mask that covers half of his face with three horns on it and his visible eye's sclera is as black as night with a black line seemingly falling down his cheek. He is wearing a black robe that sways in the wind with each step, and a dark aura spews from his back like ash from a burnt tree after a strong gust of wind.

This person is nothing like the Ubica Trojia knows, she almost didn't recognize him even after analyzing him from head to toe.

She unintentionally follows him toward the city until out in the distance on the bare road in which he walks comes a little girl.

The girl is dressed in tattered brown clothes and looks to be a homeless child of around eight or nine years old.

The two of them are on a collision course and eventually stop just feet away from each other.

Ubica takes his mask off and drops it into a puddle of darkness that suddenly appears behind him, then from out of that circular puddle of darkness, his sword rises into his hand.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he points it at the little girl's neck.

Trojia is shocked that he'd even wield his weapon towards an innocent girl like this and her heart pounds when he gives off the feeling that he actually intends to kill her.

“Ubica don't!” she shouts.

But both he and the girl don't hear her, she is a phantom onlooker as she waits in fear for the worst.

“Why now of all times?” Ubica asks.

The little girl closes her eyes and above the top of her head a bright gold halo forms, she reopens her eyes and they go from a depressing and weak black to a bright gold.

She folds her arms in a combative manner and replies, “This is the moment where you and your Prophet fool the world into making an enemy out of me. I wouldn’t want to miss this.”

“And you have no intention of stopping me?”

“It’s not my job to interfere with what’s to come.”

“And here I thought I was supposed to be the heartless one between us.”

The girl smiles and shrugs her little shoulders.

This prompts Ubica to say, “In a way, I pity them. But at the same time there is some comedy in it, so many of them put their faith in someone that cares so little about their suffering.”

“Should they put their faith in you instead?”

“I'm not that selfish. I won’t punish them because they don't worship me, I will punish them because I can.”

“You're wrong, Ubica, you are punishing them because I wish it so.”

“You’re saying that this is all part of your plan then is it?”

“Not entirely, you yourself exist outside of my wishes. I simply have to constantly adjust to your actions.”

[[File:Dv04-chp07_img002.jpg|260px|thumb]]

The two of them give off similar airs, this mysterious young girl is glowing with a glorious confidence that shines brightly in a warm light.

Whilst Ubica's darkness leaves a trail of devastation behind him, this darkness gives him the same kind of confidence as the girl.

“Your wishes must be to watch the world crumble. If it wasn’t, you’d be here to stop me instead of bearing witness to destruction.”

The girl gestures to him to pass her as she takes a step aside.

“It’s much more than that.”

Ubica smiles as if he has just realized something.

“Then for now, I will do it on your behalf.”

The girl faintly laughs and the halo on the top of her head spins.

“It’s what you exist for, my child. You’ll never be thanked for it.”

The girl’s eyes turn back to black and the halo above her head fades away, the girl looks like she is almost in a trance and ignores Ubica as she turns and walks back toward the large city.

On her way she raises her arms and drops to her knees in the middle of the bare road.

She points her hands to the sky as if trying to grab the light and yells, “I'm free! Oh God, you’re real. Thank you! Thank you!”

The girl weeps and lets her weak body rest on the asphalt. But it would seem that all the pain of her miserable existence brought upon her by the civil war in her country had been lifted.

Ubica takes a look at the rejoicing girl and frowns as he says to himself, “So this is my desired action to bring upon the correct end.”

The sword that he once held toward the neck of the girl is now pointed at the center of the city.

Trojia is watching this whole thing unfold and almost has no clue what that conversation meant and who in the world Ubica was talking to.

The thing she understands for certain is the evil shining in Ubica's eyes at this very moment as he points his sword at the city.
It is just like when he fought Nero a couple months back, the stunning lack of empathy seemingly oozes from his aura.

She wants to stop him somehow, but no matter what she says her words won't reach him. She begins to get a sickening feeling in her chest as she almost knows what is about to happen.

“...Please don't do this Ubica.” she begs to herself as the only one that can hear this plea.

The edges of Ubica's lips rise to form a thin crescent moon like smile as he says,

“Let the journey to your end begin here.”

He turns his wrist and the sharp end of the blade turns up toward the sky.

It is that simple motion which signals an attack so loud that it takes a couple seconds for it to ring.

A massive shock resonates from within the city and a blast of intense heat rushes outwards in a giant circle. The city skyline disintegrates and sends millions of shards of glass and debris blowing into the air as if it was a water balloon popping. The buildings then split in half and break apart on their way to the ground.

And then...

BBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!

A light that shines brighter than a thousand suns turns everything visible into a hot white, the noise is so loud that it could destroy the eardrums if a person was within a hundred miles of the explosion.

The light and noise spreads towards Ubica and the girl, and it hits the little child first.

She looks toward Ubica and smiles as contentedly; and an instant after, the heat along with the shock-wave disintegrates her to dust.

The trail of destruction hits Ubica but flows around him as if it was afraid of touching him.

This is the power of Ubica, this is the power of Dantega, this is the power of evil.

Nothing and no one can stop him.

Millions of men, women, and children are all decimated with a flick of his wrist.

By simply imposing his will, they died in one instant.

But why is this? Why did he kill all these people?

Trojia has stumbled upon the beginning of Man’s third world war.

Now every moment she'll spend is watching this massive conflict unfold alongside the presence of Ubica the Antichrist.

Without knowing what kind of geopolitical situation that the world was already entrenched in before she reached this point, the coming week is spent watching Ubica’s daily actions begin to answer it all in explicit detail.

The country he had inflicted that original atrocity on is China, the city is Beijing.

By this point this massive nation has been in a civil war between anti-government rebels and party loyalists. In the streets at that very moment a year’s long battle was being fought between the two forces.

Drawn to a costly stalemate for the last few years, it was only recently that the rebels began growing in numbers to an extent that the Chinese government could no longer contain the movement.

The rebels of China have been led by a mysterious woman with silky white hair and white golden eyes named Messor; and ever since her appearance two years prior, the tides of war have turned in their favor, and the revolution has almost been grasped by the time of this attack.

What the destruction of Beijing did was effectively destroy the government, and deal a tremendous blow on the fighting power of the rebels, completely destabilizing the entire country.

In the coming weeks after the massacre, Messor seizes control and announces China as a new nation. In this new nation, she spends her days indoctrinating the people in this secular ideology, and blames the warring religious states for the attack on Beijing. It was easy for her to convince them since both sides were indiscriminately attacked by an outside force. She simply took advantage of the unifying power of a mutual foe.

The next biggest nation of the United States was currently in the throes of civil war as well, and Trojia is currently watching how every second of it unfolds in the months she’s spent following Ubica.

The structure of the American civil war is different from the one in China. The calamity here is structured by many different warring factions, each one with separate political ideals.

Dozens of different idealogical militant groups have been fighting for what they believe to be the true path forward, and with a population so large and so diverse, the fighting only intensified as the factions gained more and more members. The stunning amount of available arms to the citizens has even made constant martial law almost unattainable outside of the large cities. Wide open swaths of open land are controlled by the factions and used as home bases.
Ubica had gained control of a faction, secular in its foundation, and had been warring on multiple fronts starting from the south west coast of the continent and working its way inland. Gathering land, resources and troops along the way, it steadily rose into the most formidable of the warring American states. One so large that it has finally been at the cusp of overtaking the powerful Military Government set in place in the north east since the civil wars began.

But simply taking over as ruler of this one group isn’t enough to unite the people against a common enemy.

A war so complicated must end in an equally simple way.

And this means inflicting a blow on everyone involved, except a certain group of people to be used as a sacrifice towards a future unification.
New York city had become a bastion of social democracy and an anti war bubble filled with members of opposing warring states that fled the war. From anti-government Libertarians to Communists, to those who were not involved in the conflict in any way and just wanted to live a life separated from the fighting, the now tens of millions of people there have been able to live side by side in relative tranquility.

In order to do this however, they have banned refugees from the religious states of the south and midwest, and kept the entire city as a secular mini nation within the bigger nation, and have been left alone by the Military so long as they pose no threat to their war effort.

But this bastion of peace is set to be destroyed just like Beijing was.

Trojia had spent this particular day watching Ubica and Messor finally reunite from opposite sides of the world.

What was once an intricate jumble of fighting, the web of violence has broken down into a few sticky lines where Ubica and Messor have come together in an alliance to make an enemy out of a certain group of people.

In a large room with a stunning view of bright skyscrapers outside of the windowed walls, Ubica and Messor stand shoulder to shoulder looking out into the distance.

Messor is dressed beautifully in a white dress and Ubica is dressed sharply in a black suit.

“I had thought spending three years away from you would have been easier to handle.” Messor said, expressing her relief. “I’m glad that particular part of our plan is finally over.”

“Taking over a country of a billion people was easier than being separated from me?”

“Very much so. Can you confidently say you weren’t feeling the same way?”

Ubica doesn’t react with a facial expression, but blows air out of his nose as if puffing in agreement.

“I’ll admit that going so long without your touch was difficult. Especially on the long nights I fought as a simple human alongside war weary men.”

Ubica puts his hand on Messor’s shoulder, and with a flick of his wrist, Messor’s dress falls to her ankles. With her naked body glistening in the lights of the cityscape outside their window, she looks like a magical being one could only dream about in a fairytale.

Messor smiles, showing no sign of bashfulness upon Ubica’s glare.

“So today we should celebrate the years spent apart, and today we'll celebrate what’s to come tomorrow.”

She runs her fingers through his hair and kisses him before replying, “Then make this one special.”

Trojia is forced to watch a scene that hurts as much as the many atrocities she’s watched him commit. Not being able to escape the sight or the sounds of the two of them together creates a pressure inside of her that she can’t possibly relieve herself from.

Her only solace comes when Ubica is sleeping, and after what felt like many hours, the world she can feel and see goes black until this monster she has been forced to watch take over the world awakens.

The morning sun brightens the large bedroom of this highrise condo they’re in, and the light entering windows gleams on the two beauties as he gets out from underneath the covers. He then gets to his feet and leaves Messor naked and sleeping on the bed without much regard to how his stirring might awaken her.

Today is their biggest day, yet he casually prepares for it as though it were any other.

Upon leaving the building and getting into the street, he can see everywhere around him billboards with Messor’s likeness, and electronic news bulletins talking about the new alliance formed between the new country of China and Ubica’s faction in the United States. The city streets are abuzz with so much excitement that the people rushing about don’t even notice the object of their attention is standing amongst him.

Ubica smiles, not offended by his anonymity.

“You’ve done well, Messor. Now it’s my turn.”

As soon as he said that, he vanished.

Appearing suddenly in New York City, Ubica makes his way towards the mass of people and modern buildings before him.

After killing the hundred armed guards protecting the entrance to the city by simply walking near them, Ubica passes their corpses and stands on the Brooklyn bridge looking upon the giant city.

Trojia watches this and is almost immune to the shock of his disregard for human life. She has been stuck watching him for a year by this point, and has seen him commit countless atrocities since thrust into the world she had no idea existed before this.

This time however, there is no mysterious person here to greet Ubica.

He stands alone, confronted by no one and with no reason to hesitate in wiping millions of people off the face of the earth.

He holds his sword out, and without so much as a second thought, the simple turn of his wrist creates a wall of white so bright it seems as though reality ceased to exist for an instant.

Once the mind numbing blankness regains its shape, an explosion so loud ensues that Trojia would be surprised if not every last person on the continent could hear it.

It is exactly like Beijing.

Millions of people, dead in an instant.

The destabilizing effect of this attack will allow Ubica’s clout amongst the people to rise exponentially, especially when he gives them something to blame this on.

But this is more than just wrapping his fingers around the last bastion of the world functioning independent of him.

If he is to fight against Heaven, the power of man is not enough.

When the massive blast finally ends and the mushroom shaped cloud above the once vibrant city begins to fade away and the aftermath is seen. There is a massive crater that looks as though a huge asteroid has hit there, and the dust and debris ominously looms over the top of it.

Ubica takes a bite out of his finger and draws blood, he takes his thumb and wipes the blood from the hilt all the way to the tip of his sword. After that he draws it back and swings his sword toward the crater, this sends a red gust of wind that pierces through the dust like a knife through butter.

Once the light flies over the crater, Ubica puts his sword back in his scabbard and holds his arms out, he smiles and raises his voice.

“It’s time for you all to live once more.”

His voice is used like a trigger, and reacting to that pull of the trigger comes a large hand from the crater.

It rises up and reveals its disgusting figure.

A bloodied red demon the size of the skyscrapers that were just destroyed comes walking out of the crater, its freakishly deformed yellow eyes scour the area until they land on the Antichrist.

It opens its mouth and its jaw drops to its chest, then from the back of its throat come thousands of demons, flying, falling, climbing down as if being poured from a milk carton.

From behind the massive demon, the silhouettes of many others begin to appear, and from the edge of the crater, hundreds of more demons climb from the rubble of the city.

The numbers grow by the thousands with each passing second and after a minute or so it becomes obvious that an army has appeared before him.

Although the demons carry many different forms, some being human, some being a sort of chimera, they all have one thing in common.

666 the Mark of the Beast.

Somewhere on their bodies is the mark proving their loyalty to the strongest being.

They are part of his fighting force and are the chosen ones to fight the army of Heaven alongside him.

In their own way they all bow to their leader to show solidarity to his cause.

Ubica gestures to them and speaks in a tone of address like a natural born leader, “You have all been punished by the rules of God long enough, if what you want is to destroy the person that made you suffer, then follow me.”

He turns around and the wooden mask appears in his hand before putting it back on his face.

Each stride he takes on what's left of the bridge in which he walks on gives off the feeling of absolute strength; the army of millions follow this strength and look forward to the upcoming battle.

People will believe anything under the threat of annihilation from an overwhelming power, they will commit themselves against any foe if their existential preservation is at stake. So after blaming God and his followers for this massive attack while simultaneously continuing to put people through the peril of living under this threat, getting what remains of humanity outside of his control to flock to his side will be easy.

Soon, most of the world will bear the Mark of the Beast.

The smile brimming with confidence in this fact is evident on his face.

Under his breath, Ubica mutters, “Oh God... let’s see if this is what you really want.”

Trojia watches him lead his army towards the next massacre. Even now, she can't believe that the person she cares about so much was at one point capable of killing millions of people and turning them against one another; her mind is in genuine turmoil as the sight of the person she is looking at now completely replaced the Ubica she thought she knew.

“I can’t handle this anymore...”

If Trojia had hands, she would most certainly be wringing her hair in despair right now.

“How could I have so easily turned a blind eye to what everyone was telling me?”

Trojia knows that this is only the beginning of his sins, his evil will shine even more brightly onto the world in the many months to come and she will be forced to watch every detail unfold.

She now sees what Ubica has felt so guilty about all this time, she sees why he is so desperate to try and do good as a way to repent for what he’s done.
She can finally see why he’d starve himself of genuine happiness.

It is because he doesn’t deserve it.

Although she at first told him that what matters is the person he is now and the good he has been trying to do, she finds herself rejecting that statement and the naivety of those words wholeheartedly.

Stuck in this bodiless nightmare she has found herself in, and after already bearing witness to his existence for this last year, she has been forced into a maturity influenced by all that she has experienced alongside him.

“How could I have let myself ignore the lives of all these people before me?”

All of the warning signs were there, but what she was being warned about was as unfathomable to the human mind to truly grasp as a billion light years of distance.

It’s only now she can grasp the truth of Ubica.

It’s only now that she has the ammunition needed to hate him.

---------------------------------

The current Ubica is standing in the rain at the doorstep of a certain girl who has been pestering him to come to her house for days now. And due to certain circumstances he has brought the girl and her family into a dangerous situation in which their lives are in peril depending on what his next actions are.

After thinking about what Leviathan said, he has come to the decision that abandoning the helpless girl and her family to protect his able comrades is the wrong thing to do.

He knocks three times on the door and the sound of footsteps rushing from the inside reaches his ears along with the falling rain.

The door opens and Amber's relief filled face is the first thing he notices.

“I was hoping you weren't going to be stubborn once it started raining. Come in so you can dry off.”

Ubica shows her a strained smile and his eyes are filled with a certain look of despair that only a keen eye would be able to catch.
Amber is one of those people able to see that there is something hidden behind a smile.

“What's wrong?” she asks.

He would like to tell her, but he fears that she'd begin to panic and inquire as to why this is happening.

With these thoughts in mind he holds back his explanation and passively replies, “It's nothing.”

She raises her eyebrow, “It doesn't look like nothing, you look afraid.”

Ubica hides his eyes under his wet silver hair and leans his shoulder against the door.

What she said is spot on, he is afraid that his comrades could be getting slaughtered at this very moment and this is weighing on his conscience like an anvil. What's even worse is that he can't lift a finger to stop it. If he does, the girl standing in front of him and her happy life will come to a horrible end.

All of this because of what he's done in the past.

No matter what he does he can never escape it, instead he'll just bring this burden onto everyone he meets and cares about until they break under its weight.

He was foolish to think that he'd be rid of it so easily, and this is resulting in the hopeless desperation that Leviathan is pushing him towards.

He clenches his fist and squeezes his jaw tightly as he realizes that this is all going exactly how Leviathan wants it to go.

With that in mind there is only one thing he can do.

“You're right, I am afraid.” he says as he takes his first step into Amber's house since the awkward dinner. “But I'm going to do the best I can to fight it.”

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</noinclude>

Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 6

2021-11-06T14:16:22Z

Deck of cards:

(PART 3)

“Damn, we've been separated.” Cyrus quietly voices his displeasure whilst hiding in a bush in the middle of the jungle alongside Aria.

Due to their docked ship being attacked, the seven of them were forced to run off in three different directions.

“What should we do?” asks Aria.

Cyrus ponders for a couple moments and answers, “We should look for them, we have no clue where we are going otherwise.”

“This is bad, it’s so dark here that we could get lost pretty easily.”

Cyrus knows that is the case but they really don't have a choice; he can hear the voices of the other pirates and their footsteps seem to get closer to their position. If they stay much longer there is a high chance of a confrontation, so in order to avoid that they begin to move in a random direction.

Shuffling through the darkness, Aria twitches her eyebrow as if something has come to her mind.

“Hey I got an idea!”

“What is it?”

Aria grabs a melon like fruit from a tree and holds it in her hand, she walks until she finds an opening in the tree line and tosses it up.

BAAAAANGGG!!

The fruit explodes in a bright red light and shines much like a flare would.

“This should get their attention, they'll know it's us if they see it.”

Cyrus looks at her dejectedly and thinks that this is a terrible plan, there is a slim chance that Rage and the others were able to see it above the treeline. To make matters worse, it would more than likely bring unwanted attention to them, in his heart he really wishes that the pirates aren't foolish enough to move towards an explosion.

And sure enough, they are.

A silhouette of a group of six people are seen running towards them through the jungle.

Hissing at his predicament, Cyrus pulls out his thin long-sword and awaits the attack.

Once the pirates get there, they don't even say a word before they start attacking.

Two men with sabers rush at him and he ducks under one attack and blocks the other with his sword.

“Aria! You need to do something about the others, I can't handle all of them!”

“Okay!”

She picks up a couple sticks off the ground and holds them out; the other four pirates stare at her quizzically and then burst into laughter. Their reaction is due to the fact that they all have guns, late 18th century handguns to be exact, they point it at her and simultaneously pull the trigger.

The three iron balls zoom towards her face, she drops the stick and as it falls it blows up directly towards the four men and sends both the bullets and their bodies flying violently through the jungle.

“I knew it! I can control it now!!” Aria says excitedly.

She can now maneuver the size and angle of her explosions, with an ability like this she is virtually unstoppable.

The two men who are clashing with Cyrus stare at her in shock, and in that moment of distraction they are cut down by the sword of the Eiyalazonian guard.

“I think it's best we get moving, we either have to hope we bump into them or we need to find somewhere safe to stay for the night.”

“Ahhh man fine, let's just hope we don't run into more of these guys on the way. It's a killing spree out here.”

“Just like them, we need to do whatever it takes to survive and reach the Gate.”

---------------------------------------

“Wow Phoenix you're amazing!” Xavier exclaims in awe.

He has been watching Phoenix easily defeat a countless number of gun bearing pirates.

To Xavier, Phoenix is just his religious adviser and a normal priest, the fact that he can do all of these incredible things still hasn't hit home with him yet.

“No need for flattery.”

“But really, how long have you been able to do these things?”

Phoenix slightly laughs and puts his hand on his chin in wonder, “Hmmm, it's been a while.”

“Oh come on, be more specific.” the young Prince urges.

Answering with complete honesty, Phoenix replies, “Over a thousand years.”

The young Prince is gravely disappointed, and one can see it on his face. “I’m being serious, I’d really like to know.”

Phoenix can only laugh at this, he has just told the truth.

He has been able to fight with the weight of his words since the Apocalypse a thousand years earlier, his ability to control flame has come during that time frame as well when he was given the power by a certain Angel.

Xavier has no idea who Phoenix really is.

“Well then, we ought to get going so more people don't come.” Phoenix changes the subject while walking away from the scene of his triumph.

“Where are we going?”

“To the Gate, obviously.”

“But doesn't Rage have the map? How can we get there if we don't know where it is?”

Phoenix keeps walking. “Don't worry about that, I know exactly where it is.”

Surprised, Xavier wants to ask how but Phoenix answers his question before he could finish.

“The person guarding it is someone I know very well. So I'd like to meet him before everyone else. In a way, he’s guiding me to him.”

The way he explains this makes it sound like he was expecting this situation to unfold right from the beginning. But this feeling flies over the head of Xavier, who just agrees with him and readily follows the Priest into the darkness of the jungle.

---------------------------------

Rage is carrying an injured Sora while walking alongside a distraught Niera.

The three walk in silence and only the shoddy breathing of the injured guard is heard. Each breath causes Niera's anxiety to rise tenfold, she feels that this is all her fault because she didn't predict this outcome.

The amount of guilt she is putting on herself is causing her to melt down mentally.

“I've managed to slow down the bleeding a little, but you're still not out of the clearing yet. We need to get to Phoenix, I know he can't heal the way he used to but there is certainly something he could do.”

Rage said that and quickly realizes he is more than likely talking to himself, Sora wouldn't respond with more than one word even if she could and Niera is so deep in her own thoughts that she can't speak.

He doesn't need them to respond really, he just wanted to tell them what the plan was.

Whether it puts them at ease or on edge is up to their perspective, in this situation the chances are it's the latter of the two. Finding Phoenix in the dark of this large jungle island is like finding a needle in a haystack, adding to the low odds is the fact that they are on a strict time limit due to Sora's health.

Rage tut tuts and continues walking through the jungle until he hears the horrified screams of what seems to be hundreds of men. This sound catches him off guard cause he wasn't expecting it one bit, other than the occasional battle cry followed by a gunshot there hasn't been anything sounding quite like this.
This is the kind of sound only a demon could create, and he immediately gets a sickening feeling in his stomach.

“What in the world is going on over there?”

The screams continue and Rage is overcome with curiosity, he lets Sora to the ground and leans her up against the tree.

He then turns to Niera and says, “You two need to stay here for a moment, keep an eye on Sora while I'm gone.”

Niera doesn't respond but he knows she had heard him so he leaves the two behind.

Walking toward the source of the gurgled screams he becomes a little nervous. He doesn't know why, he knows that some of these pirates should have abilities because they are 'aware', it's just that he knows none of them would be strong enough that they would emit such an overbearing sensation of death.

He reaches a clearing in the jungle and sees a sight straight out of Hell, body parts scatter the grassy clearing, so much so that he can't distinguish just how many people they belong to.

In the middle of this carnage is a beast, it is a massive black dog with three heads, and it is covered with the blood of humans as it sloppily tears apart its victims and eats them as though they were a snack.

Rage knows exactly who this monster is, its name is Cerberus and for thousands of years it has been the guardian of the 4th Gate of Hell. This is a ferocious beast that will not hesitate to devour anything in its path, and this beast turns one of its heads toward Rage and looks him square in the eye.

This is the perfect signal to flee.

Rage quickly turns around to run and Cerberus gives chase without a moment's hesitation.

Rage reaches Sora and picks her up over his shoulder, he holds his scythe out and it stands on its own.

He then grabs Niera's arm and shouts, “Hang on to me with all you have!!!”

Without an explanation, Niera is confused as to why he is doing this but seeing the urgency in his face she obliges without question.

A black cloud rises from under Rage's scythe and it spreads to below his feet, they begin to float in the air and once at a certain height, he feels that this is about all the time he has before he has to flee before it’s too late.

Turns out that this gut feeling is spot on because behind him the sound of trees falling violently moves closer and closer, and then out of the brush comes Cerberus with its mouths wide open for attack.

The cloud they are standing on narrowly avoids a fatal bite and zooms through the jungle at a ridiculous speed.

If Niera of Sora were standing on the cloud with their own feet there is no doubt they'd be thrown off and seriously injured. Thanks to Rage's body being one with the cloud he can stay balanced atop such an object and hold on to them to keep them safe.

Even moving at such a speed, they are barely avoiding being devoured by Cerberus who is crashing through trees and overhanging branches as if they were twigs. This monster that looks so clumsy and big is moving with such agility it's frightening, just one miscalculation in the trees for Rage on his cloud and the three will be doomed.

This chase is as loud and hectic as can be and the pirates who happen to be walking by are caught in their path and trampled by Cerberus or crushed by the trees and debris it sends flying with each step.

The speeds in which the two are moving cause the sight of Rage on his cloud to feel like a blur, and Cerberus following it is like a giant black ball rolling downhill.

“What is that thing!?” Niera asks while looking back at this fast moving beast giving chase to them.

“Its name is Cerberus, it's a demon from Hell.” Rage calmly replies as if this anomalous monster is a normal occurrence.

“Then what is it doing here!?”

“I don't know, I haven't seen that thing for years. And I've never seen it outside of Hell before.”

Niera shuts her eyes in fear and throws her head into his shoulder; Sora is just glaring at it giving chase with no expression change as usual. However, it's not as though she isn't afraid, she is absolutely terrified about being eaten alive by such a beast, she can't help but think that all hope is lost for her.

Especially when she hears one of the voices of Cerberus speak excitedly, “The woman on Rage's shoulder! It's you! The delicious smelling blood from earlier is coming from you!”

“Shit!” Rage hisses.

Cerberus is blinded by the thirst for Sora's blood, which means it has lost control of itself and will stop at nothing to eat her.

“Is that thing targeting Sora!?” Niera asks as if Sora wasn't right there to hear such a frightening possibility.

“It looks like it, once that monster finds a target it wants it loses all control of itself.”

Niera keeps pounding Rage with questions, but each one is progressively more panicked.

“So how do we make it stop!?”

He hates to say this but he answers truthfully, “We can't... there is no way it will change its mindset on Sora.”

“No way...”

The two stay in silence and Sora's feeling of uneasiness grows, she has become a burden and there is nothing she can do about it.
But these thoughts are quickly interrupted by an unknown voice speaking from up ahead.

“That is, unless I do something about it.”

Sora is unable to turn around due to her position on Rage's shoulder which is causing her to look straight into the teeth of Cerberus.

For an odd reason this person's voice was spoken with such confidence that it actually gave her some kind of hope, but she finds that feeling is all for naught when Rage says the voice's name in shock,

“Amon!?”

The red haired man standing in front of them has a swirling vortex of distortion in front of him and Rage is about to make a head on collision with it.
He quickly halts his cloud but it is too late, the momentum in which they were moving makes stopping before making contact with this distortion impossible.
So as a last ditch effort he spreads his black cloud in front of them so it is that which makes contact first, and as a result the cloud distorts and explodes sending the three of them flying off in three different directions.

Rage lands into a pile of closely grown trees and tears them apart upon impact because he was the one who took the brunt of the initial attack.

Coughing up a little blood he grits his teeth while scouring the area to find that Niera and Sora aren't anywhere near him; he immediately gets the feeling that one of them will die unless he reaches them soon.

He uses his scythe to help himself stand to his feet and begins to run, that is until he is hit from behind by a swirling vortex of distortion and is sent flying in a twirling motion face first into a thick tree.

“Where do you think you're going? It’s been a long time since we last had a chat, how about we catch up?”

Rage wipes the dripping blood falling from his forehead and over his eyes before glaring at the demon in front of him.

Amon, the 4h ranked Demon of the Hierarchy and the one who represents the sin of 'Wrath' is walking towards him.

Rage understands how bad of a situation he and the others are in, so much so that barring a miracle, he feels there is no way all of them will survive this battle.

------------------------------

Niera happened to land in a creek and has no apparent injuries, she has completely lucked out, especially when she looks to the left and right of her and sees jagged rocks and sharp poisonous looking plants she could have landed on instead.
Once out of the water she looks around for any sign of Rage and Sora, and when she doesn't see them anywhere she starts to think that they are seriously injured or may have even been killed.

This makes her increasingly nervous so she starts to shout their names.

She gets no reply.

She keeps calling and calling and still no answer, she begins to panic before remembering that she could perhaps just predict where they are.
Having been filled with hope, she attempts to use her new found ability and shuts her eyes to await a vision.

At first she is very confident that this will work, but when nothing happens for a few seconds, her heart starts to beat wildly in angst. Then, to her worst fears, before she even got an image in her head the voices of a few men are heard coming closer.

“This way! I heard a woman’s voice over here I swear!”

“There really wouldn't be a woman alone on this island would there??”

“Shouldn't be, but I swear I heard it. If there is, just think about how great that'd be on a lawless island like this, she'd be fair game.”

Niera's shoulders jump, and she shoddily backs into a tree in a stiff shock.

Perhaps the worst possible outcome has fallen upon her, she is powerless and alone in a dark forest with blood thirsty pirates closing in on her position.
She puts her hands over her ears and drops to a squatting position, begging to herself,

“S-Somebody... please help.”

---------------------------

Landing extremely hard on the ground, Sora's wound reopens and she again begins to bleed profusely, still trying to catch air in her lungs she slowly opens her fuzzy eyes.

She finds herself in an open field tattered with rocks, when she attempts to get to her feet she is stunned with a pain in her stomach so bad she drops straight back to the ground.

Moving her head from side to side she tries to see if Rage or Niera are around, the royal guard finds that there is no one in sight and this makes her wonder just how far she flew away from her original position.

While thinking things like this, she feels a warm breeze of air flow over her head from behind her; she finds this odd and doesn't think much of it until she feels it again, this time accompanied by a deep sounding grunt.

This sound causes her face to turn blue because she recognizes the tone of this grunt, looking back as far as she can from her body's position on the ground, she sees what she feels to be her certain death staring at her square in the face.

Cerberus is standing over her chomping at the bit for the taste of her blood.

Sora is completely defenseless.

Barring the miracle that Rage was reluctantly wishing for, she will be devoured in mere moments.

-----------------------

“Jeez this is getting really repetitive, every few minutes we run into pirates and have to fight them. We're seriously not making any progress towards finding the others.” said an annoyed Aria.

“I don't want to say this is hopeless, but this is definitely close to impossible.” Cyrus replied.

“When you say it like that, it sounds like you’re saying it’s hopeless!”

“Well I'm not much of an optimist.”

“Doesn't mean you have to be so negative, we'll find them. It's just a matter of time.”

“I sure hope so...”

The way Cyrus said that signified just how worried he actually is, he is separated from the one person he is supposed to be protecting and has no clue whether she is safe or not. All he can do is walk blindly in the jungle and hope they stumble onto the others.

After walking for a few minutes the hope they were so desperately clasping to become non-existent and they really feel like this is completely pointless, frustration begins to take root deep within their chests as each step feels more useless than the last.

That is until they spot a few pirates running past them saying, “We're almost there!”

Cyrus and Aria hide behind a tree and watch them run rather fast down a small hill and disappear into the jungle.

“Where do you think they're going? It looks like it's pretty urgent.” Aria asks while thinking to herself.

The two of them ponder this for a moment and then they both jump to the same conclusion and simultaneously say,

“The Gate!?”

Thinking about it, everyone on this island is searching for the Gate so it's only logical that they'd assume that these certain pirates rushing to a specific location would have found it.

“Let's follow them!” Cyrus shouts as he takes off down the hill in pursuit.

The two chase after them, but quickly lose sight of the three men in the dense jungle.

Feeling as though they had lost them for good, they are relieved to once again get a grasp on their position when they clearly hear the pirate’s voices just out in the distance.

“Hey hey well look what we have here, I knew this is what we'd find.”

“Hahaha damn how lucky are we?”

Aria and Cyrus sneak around toward the voices without making much of a noise at all, from what the pirates are talking about they truly think that they have stumbled upon the second Gate.

Once they get closer they find that not to be the case, the three men are crowded around someone who is leaning against a tree.

“Why don't you come with us for a bit?”

One of the men asked while pulling out his gun and pointing it at the person.

Cyrus and Aria can't see who they are crowded around because the men’s bodies are blocking their view. Not knowing and not really caring what goes on between pirates, the two prepare to leave when the voice of the person surrounded is heard saying,

“I-I don't want to...”

They instantly recognize this girl's voice and it causes their hearts to skip a beat.

“Niera!?” The two shout loudly

This gets the pirates attention.

The three men move away to look and the view of Niera crouched up against a tree can be seen, her face is full of fear and this throws Cyrus into a rage.
Seeing the person his job is to protect looking so frightened has gotten his blood boiling, he knows exactly what those pirates were going to do to her if he hadn't been there at that exact moment.

He rushes the men and they look at him like he's crazy, they have pistols and rifles and he has a mere sword.
Knowing that Cyrus is at a distinct disadvantage, Aria decides to do something.

She picks up a rock off the ground and shouts, “Cyrus close your eyes!”

Not needing an explanation, Cyrus continues his run and shuts his eyes; right after he does, a flash bomb explodes and makes vision for the three men impossible.

Not having a clue what is going on the three men randomly fire their weapons, one of the bullets grazes Cyrus' shoulder but that doesn't stop him.
He opens his eyes and can see just fine.

His targets are still stunned and are only a couple feet away from him, with a simple slash of his sword the three of them are slain and Niera is safe.

“Are you okay Princess!?”

Trying to hold her tears back, Niera faintly smiles and replies, “You guys found me... thank goodness.”

Aria comes rushing up to her, she is very happy that her friend is okay but there are still others she is worried about.

So instead of beating around the bush she asks, “Where is everyone else?? Is Sora okay?”

The tears Niera was holding back come streaming out of her eyes, her voice cracks when she tries to explain, “Sora is... Sora is hurt... she really needs help.”

“What!? Where is she?”

“I-I don't know...”

Aria frowns and shouts, “Damn it!”

She then picks Niera up to her feet and yells,

“We shouldn't be waiting around here then! Let's go find her!”

-------------------------------

Xavier and Phoenix Navara are walking through the jungle without much action at all, in fact, there hasn't been a single encounter with anyone thus far.
The gunshots and screams that were heard earlier are now so distant it's as though there is no danger at all in this walk.

They enter a clearing and reach an environment that looks completely different from what they have been experiencing this whole time. It is a sheer limestone cliff about 50 meters high, and coming from the top of that cliff is a beautiful plunge waterfall that falls all the way to a large waking pond.
In the middle of this small lake there are stone steps that lead all the way into the middle of the waterfall, and looking closely one can see that there are two large pillars that are made up of diamonds.

“What is this place Phoenix?”

Phoenix walks up to the lake, turns around and replies, “It's the Second Purgatory Gate.”

“Eh?? This is really it!?”

“Yes.”

“Incredible, what do we do now? We're going to wait for the others right?”

“I don't know about that, I'm sure they'll find their way here eventually... It's just a matter of whether we cross and end up somewhere random or not. If it's a set spot then there is no point in waiting.”

“But don't you think that's a little unfair? I mean, we all went through the same troubles to get here, leaving them behind just feels... off.”

Phoenix ignores the prince and walks onto the water towards the steps, reaching the first step he senses that something is odd about this Gate.

He walks on the first step and realizes something,

“He's not here...”

Before Xavier could ask what he means, Phoenix says,

“The Gatekeeper is not here, we have a free ticket to pass through this Gate.”

Seeing the disappointed look on Phoenix's face, Xavier can't help but ask, “Then why don't you look happy about it?”

Phoenix sighs and answers, “The Gatekeeper... I could feel him from the moment we stepped foot on this island, he's a friend of mine who I haven't seen for many years. And I was really hoping to see him.”

---------------------

“Man you are really out of shape, Rage, I don't remember you being so weak.” said Amon mockingly as he stands over a downed Rage.

Rage is coughing up blood and looks really beat up, he is breathing hard as he attempts to stand.

“You know I am not defeated just yet.”

“What makes you think I know that? Are you holding back on me for some reason? Come on now that's just being stupid, if you're worried about collateral damage I recommend you forget it.”

Amon is dead on in this assessment, Rage is worried about dragging Niera and Sora into one of his attacks. He doesn't know how close they are or even if they are safe for that matter but he thinks it'll be too risky to lay out a full scale attack with that possibility still out there.

Amon laughs a little and points his index finger up. “I'm sure they are both dead by now, with a hungry Cerberus searching for them there is nowhere to run. It's impossible to escape that monster's nose.”

Rage grits his teeth and shoddily stands to his feet, what Amon says is true, and now that he thinks about it Cerberus was in a frenzy trying to eat Sora. There is no doubt that she is its first target; all he can do is hope for the best and try to end this battle as soon as possible.
Even though he says this to himself, he truly doesn't feel that there is any way to reach a successful outcome.

Amon is not an enemy that can just be blown over, and Cerberus is a beast that no regular human has a fighting chance against.

Rage scowls at this disposition and decides to try to attack with all his might anyhow, the black cloud surrounds his scythe and he points it at Amon.
With that, he rushes towards his enemy to start this full fledged battle to the death.

-----------------------------

Cerberus is breathing impatiently over Sora, it's like the beast is deciding which head it wants to chew her with.

Sora is looking up at it and is waiting for the moment where she is taken away by one of its mouths, this anxiety is truly heart wrenching and if she could she'd be crying right about now.

While waiting for such a moment, in a perfect cliché, her life flashes before her eyes.

She remembers everything that has made a lasting impression on her...

It all started on her seventh birthday when her parents sent her off to a school that specifically trains children to become military men and women. Which is somewhat odd because her parents weren't involved with the military in any way, her father was an architect and her mom a school teacher.
It's not as though Sora should have been considered a problem child, her only fault was that she had a lot of energy and was always hyper, so normal schooling never suited her.

Even her mother couldn't quite get a handle on her.

So with two other children needed to be raised, Sora's parents sent her off to the academy in hopes she'd come back a mature and prestigious person prepared for a lucrative career within La’Juune’s militarized society.

When Sora entered the academy she had no friends, that is until she was moved into the barracks and met a roommate who slept on the upper bunk above her.
She was a black girl and her name was Olga Avandale.

They immediately hit it off because they both had a loud and energetic type of personality.

Throughout the two years of knowing each other their bonds grew deeper, and eventually, Sora was introduced to another friend, his name was Haas Avandale and he was the older brother of Olga.

The three of them were inseparable, until another two years later on the day the capital city of La'Juune was invaded by Troy and Eiyalazo.

The three were no older than twelve when this happened, but due to the dire situation, everyone in the military schools no matter what age were called to arms.

Sora, Haas, and Olga, were ordered to fight head on with hardened military men.

Every child aged from seven to fourteen was fighting for their lives and their country in a battle that would go down in modern history as the biggest and most crucial of all time.

Naturally, most of these students were easily killed and did little to no damage to the opposing armies, but some thrived and showed skills that even they didn't know they had.

Three of those amazing children were best friends, they were better than half of the veteran La'Juutian soldiers on the front line.
They were able to deal far more damage to the invading forces because they were so small they could fly under the radar and take out opposing soldiers from behind enemy lines.

The battle raged on like this until the La'Juutian army was pushed back into the city, once there the remaining soldiers along with the three friends prepared to defend the city walls with all they had. That is when the news of their Commanding General's death reached them, panic ensued throughout the final line of defense, and dismay began spreading like wildfire.

The young Olga joins in this panic as she says, “Now we have no chance to win! I-I got to go find my parents!”

Sora is also worried about her parents but she feels that the best way to protect them is to keep the armies of Troy and Eiyalazo from entering the city.
She bites her lip and tries to remain resolute when she replies, “We need to stay here, our parents will be fine.”

Olga looks at her dejectedly and turns to Haas. “What about you Haas!? Aren't you worried? We are just kids, I don't want to die here before I get a chance to live my life!”

Haas shows the same reaction as Sora and pretty much says the same thing, “Mom and Dad would want us to fight for La'Juune, that's why they sent us to the academy in the first place... I can't disgrace them by leaving now.”

Olga frowns and vehemently disagrees with them, in a situation like this her instincts take over and her legs move themselves.

This time they are not moving along with her two best friends, but rather, they are moving away from them and the front line.

“Olga!!”

The two prepare to talk her into staying but they are interrupted by the sound of hundreds of men shouting,

“RAISE SHIELDS!!!”

Haas and Sora turn around and look up to the sky to see thousands of arrows falling toward them.

The first wave of the attack starts with taking out as many soldiers as possible with an aerial strike. It is a textbook invasion process that is followed by catapult mortar strikes to weaken the wall, and then a full frontal rush at the damaged wall to break through and enter the city.

A couple La'Juutian soldiers push Haas and Sora to the ground and cover them with large shields, these shields are normally only enough to cover one person, but since their size they were easily protected.

The sound of the arrows hitting the shields and the stone of the walls hurt their ears, but the fear of this situation is directed toward the area in which Olga went running.

She had no chance of escaping the arrows and within an instant there are three arrows protruding from her neck, stomach and leg.

Sora is forced to watch the blood of her best friend spill and Haas is forced to watch his only little sister die a horrible death.

Soon after this, Napoleon takes control of the La'Juutian army and reorganizes strategic defensive positions, and the Capital city, along with the entire country is saved from destruction.

The two live through the battle but at a terrible cost, not only did Haas lose his sister, his parents died fighting as volunteers on the front-line.
Sora lost one of her brothers and her father lost an arm.

This battle changed the two forever and the happiness of the past seemed to fade away, the two graduated from the academy at fourteen and immediately after, they joined the upscale and secretive Dravic branch of the military.

The Dravic branch specializes in creating robotic-like soldiers.

Haas and Sora were no exception, they graduated that phase of their lives at eighteen and their lives as youths were officially over.

The two rarely saw each other again and even when they did, they were physically unable to speak anything significant to one another.

Now, at 21 years of age, Sora is reminiscing about that tragic past as death grows ever closer to her; she finally realizes that she regrets how things went in her life and would do anything now to change it. She regrets how once she got out of the academy all relations with her family were pretty much dropped, and once out of the Dravic branch it was like they were complete strangers.

She wonders what her family is doing now and what they truly think of her.

Are they disappointed in the way she turned out?

She wouldn't have any idea because she hasn't talked to them since she was accepted as a royal guard immediately after completing her training in the Dravic branch.

She hopes that they are all well and wonders if her remaining brother has married the girl he was dating before she left, or if her parents still live in the family home she remembers spending her early years in.

These are things she'll never know and it finally begins to show on her face, her eyebrows move closer together and her nose flares a little. Her eyes start to water and tears fall down her face, she reveals a look that she hasn't shown since Olga died, and she cries and weeps as she looks up at Cerberus.

Cerberus seems to enjoy this and the child's voice speaks to her, “Hahaha your emotions will make you taste better! Cry for me more! Cry!!”

Sora's tears still fall even though Cerberus is cheering it on, all the emotion she has shut away for so long is finally being released and the burden of regret she carried finally breaks through the robotic expression that was implanted into her by years of severe training.

Through her cracked voice she speaks in a tone that doesn't even hint at how much she trained to eliminate her emotions.

“I don't...”

“Are you going to beg me for your life!?” the male voice of Cerberus asks in absolute enjoyment.

Sora knows she is about to die, but she wants to show herself she can say that she wants to live with the voice she hid away for so long.

At the top of her lungs she screams,

“I don't want to die!!!!”

Her words are like a signal for Cerberus to attack, and its middle head violently drops to eat her alive.

Sora slams her eyes shut.

BAATHUUUNNKK!!!!

She hasn't felt any pain yet and it makes her think that she has died so quickly that the pain never got a chance to settle in.

Something is odd about this though, she doesn't feel any different from before and her mind begins to wonder just what is going on.

She opens her eyes and looks up, only to see the night sky through the canopy of trees.

The area where Cerberus once occupied is empty and it causes her to become very confused.

She looks around but can only see a limited amount around her because of her injury, the pain from her stomach is still there so she knows she is somehow alive.

“What's going on?” she asks herself, fully not expecting an answer.

But sure enough, one came...

“It looked like you were caught in quite the pinch there, I'm glad I could help.”

Sora shifts her eyes towards the source of the voice and sees a man shining in a golden light.
He has longish blond hair and teal eyes. This man really gives off a vibe of immense grace, his white outfit looks like an angel's robe.

To her, this man has to be an angel.

And to prove that assumption correct, he walks to Sora and leans down.

He takes one glance at the wound on her stomach and smiles, he then takes his hand and rests it on the wound.

All of the sudden the pain dissipates and the hole in her abdomen heals back into the form of her smooth fair skin.

The energy lost flows back into her and she is able to stand once more, she gets up quickly and looks the man in the eye. She then notices that he isn't looking at her, instead his attention is on something from behind.

She turns as well and sees Cerberus struggling to get up, blood flows from the middle head's mouth and this time one could tell that it isn't the blood of someone else.

The beast reaches its feet and with its six eyes it glares at its attacker.

“You... who the fuck are you!?”

The man smiles and ignores his question by saying, “I knew I sensed a Demon," the man then sighs. "It seems you aren't the only one either.”

The man's face turns serious and he starts to walk toward Cerberus.

Sora is drawn to his aura and can't help but ask the same question the Demon had just asked a moment earlier,

“Who are you..?”
The man turns around and smiles in reply, “My name's Michael.”

Cerberus' hair rises up and all three heads gnarl their teeth, the man's voice rises loudly when it inquires,

“The Archangel Michael!?”

The man named Michael frowns at the beast and simply answers,

“I am.”

One Step Behind: (END)

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| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 7|Chapter 7]]
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</noinclude>

Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 10

2021-05-23T20:49:28Z

Deck of cards:

Chapter 29: The Ransom

(PART 1)

"How did you… why are you here?" Rage asks in confusion.

Phoenix huffs air out of his nose and shrugs his shoulders. "It's a long story, but I’ll make it short.” His gaze lands on the hand being held out to him by Pontius when he says, “I was sent to Earth to die once again."

Retracting his hand back to his side, Pontius statuesquely asks, "Then how did you end up here?"

Phoenix smiles, "That's an even longer story, and I don't care to explain."

"Very well then, I won't press on any further. Despite who you are, I will be forced to kill you again if you intend to pass the Gate,."

"Oh my how cold of you to say 'again', I bet you enjoy this job a lot more than your last one." Phoenix points his bible at him and finishes, "I'm happy that you're here though… this has given me a chance to fulfill a desire I had never thought possible."

"So be it."

Pontius jumps up atop a big rock and lifts his arms, out of the ground comes dozens of pale zombie like Roman soldiers all clad in their red tunics and golden hued armor. Pontius then points his index finger at the two and the soldiers all charge at them.

Rage is about to attack but he is halted by Phoenix's hand. "I told you to let me handle this didn't I?"

Rage frowns and asks, "You expect me to just sit here and watch?"

"No, I'm not expecting anything, I'm demanding it."

Rage clicks his tongue and takes a step back, displeasure painted all over his face.

Phoenix chuckles a bit and walks towards the charging soldiers, he shoots them a sharp glare and says, "Vanish."

The soldiers immediately dissolve and their ashes float into the sky.

"!?"

"You look surprised Pilate... did you still take me for a meek man?”

"Is this something you could have done back then?"

"I could, but of course I wouldn’t have done it in the past. I wasn’t allowed to be violent until Armageddon."

Pontius tilts his head and mumbles something to himself.

Phoenix mockingly says, "Oh that’s right, you must have been here for an awful long time to have missed out on the events back on Earth."

"All I need to care about is protecting the passageway of this Gate... matters of the Earth and what lies above and below it are not of my concern." Pontius methodically replies.

“Who have you been protecting this Gate from? Have you killed everyone who has ever tried to get through?"

"I only let the ones I deem worthy of such an honor pass to the other side."

"Is that so… then who gave you the authority to make such judgements?”

Pontius points his index finger to the sky and smoothly answers, "God."

Phoenix scowls and grits his teeth, he throws his bible and once it hits the ground it bursts into flames.

"How nice of him." the priest says bitterly. "So many of us do his bidding and are gifted with a pleasant ending."

He continues to walk when he takes his priest’s sash off his shoulders and holds it out.

"I would say that you got yourself a nice gift, you’ve been able to more or less remain the same person as you were in life. For killing me, you were rewarded.”

The scarf grows extremely large and turns into a winding cloth of multicolored flames, a very unholy looking weapon to say the least. He swings it toward Pontius, but he dodges, the flame cloth hits the rock he was sitting on and completely obliterates it, the power in this weapon can still be felt burning the air.

Pontius lands atop a cross that holds a crucified corpse on it, looking down with his white eyes he says, "That was certainly no benevolence in that attack."

"Who says I have to fight like an Angel?"

The two glare at each other and leave Rage wondering just what in the world is happening, he still hasn't completely coped with the revelation of the Messiah. And just why is he willingly attempting to kill someone with his own hands?

It would seem that Phoenix senses this so with his back turned to him he says, "Let's just say that I'm doing this because of a long story."

All he can do is imagine why, and what exactly happened throughout the times to make him act so different from the past.

The truth is, the answer can be found by looking back at the story of Phoenix, and also, the story of Ubica.

To understand why Ubica is involved, we'd need to go a thousand years into the past and take a closer look at the happenings of the Apocalypse...

---------------------

During the reign of Ubica The Antichrist over a thousand years earlier...

"I’ve been waiting for you to do this." said Ubica.

He is sitting on a throne and is wearing a wooden mask with three pointed horns on it over one of his maddening black eyes.

Phoenix is addressing him, his appearance is a little different however, his hair is black and falls to his shoulders, along with a full beard he’s almost unrecognizable.

"Waiting for my declaration of war?”

Ubica smiles and looks to Messor who is standing right beside him and then back, "It was prophesied in that book after all."

With a straight face Phoenix replies, "Then you know of the word of God, it isn’t too late for you to stop what’s to come and repent."

Ubica laughs, "That’s funny, and also dreadfully naive."

He stands to his feet, revealing his outfit of a long black robe that drags across the dark red carpet that stretches like a pathway on the marble floor.

He steps off the mantle of his throne and walks to his counterpart.

Now face to face and looking each other in the eyes, Ubica asks, "Do you really believe everything he says?"

"Of course, his word is absolute."

"The almighty, absolute God, creator of all things… couldn’t he easily end all this himself? Better yet, he could have made it so none of this would've ever happened in the first place."

"He’s given all of his children a choice, a free will to follow our own paths forward. Ending something or keeping something from happening goes against his very reason for creating us."

"It sounds more to me like God is too weak to end this and has been too weak to keep things from happening all along. You see, I am born of God’s weakness after all.”

"You’re insulting someone with more power than any of us can even imagine."

"If that were the case, if he were so powerful, then what are you for?"

Phoenix remains calm and answers, "I exist to exercise his will."

"Oh? So all of his children have a free will but you… how sad."

Phoenix's eyebrow twitches at that.

Ubica presses on and adds, "God should be able to impose his own will, not use you as a puppet for it. You shouldn’t even have to exist.”

Phoenix's eyebrows twitch yet again, it would seem that this has given him a slight spike in emotion. “If you believe that about God and I, then you’re no different than a tool for Satan.”

He starts walking back towards his throne when he replies, "A tool for Satan? How so?"

Phoenix's composure stiffens for a split second.

"Well, he is your creator is he not?"

Ubica halts his walk to his throne and instead walks back towards Phoenix. "And who told you that?"

"God has explained it all to me."

"What if I told you that God was lying when he said such a thing?"

Phoenix stays silent and tries to remain composed.

Ubica sees this and starts to get amused, "You see, I was created by the evil of man, my birth comes from the combined sins of every single person in the history of your father's creation. Like I told you, I was created from God’s weakness. Those sins that you died like a dog for had to go somewhere.”

Phoenix's face begins to contort and lose its firm shape, it is becoming obvious that Ubica's words are starting to affect him negatively.

Ubica feeds off such energy and keeps pressing, "The day you died was the day I was born. What a secret to be kept from you for so many years as I grew into the opposite that will come to destroy you.”

"You expect me to believe your word over his?"

"No, I don’t.” Ubica says, “But I suspect you will be forced to contemplate it.”

"....."

"You’re going to lose this fight, Jesus. And when you do, you’re going to change, you’re going to see the truth."

"You’re wrong, we are not going to lose, it’s impossible to lose to such evil. It has been---"

“Prophesied.” Ubica interrupts, “You know the word of God, it’s not too late for you to stop what’s to come and reject him.”

Clicking his tongue in anger, Phoenix replies, “In the upcoming moons, your worshipers will be judged, just like the prophecy has said, they will be punished for following you.” He turns and walks towards the exit. “And in seven days time, the battle will commence in the valley of Harmagiddo where the holy power of the light will finally destroy the evil of the darkness, and rid God's world of it for all time."

Ubica chuckles and sits back down on his throne, resting his head on his hand he says. "So much talk of prophecy, I would like to make one of my own now.”

Phoenix stops in the doorway and listens to Ubica’s declaration.

“In seven days time, I will rest on a feathered bed of every last one of your Angel's severed wings."

Phoenix doesn't reply and keeps his back turned to Ubica and Messor, without so much as a reaction, he leaves the room in silence.

In seven days, the two will find out just whose truth will prevail.

---------------------------

Back at the first Gate of Purgatory, the present Phoenix continues his battle with Pontius Pilate.

With the flame cloth swinging and destroying everything in its path; Pontius is jumping all over the place, displaying a mastery of escape considering that one hit from this cloth would most definitely pulverize him.

"A limber man you've become Pilate, did God give you such a power as well?" Phoenix asks while attacking.

"I have taken part in God's will, whether this power is a punishment or a reward, it is my obligation to accept."

Looking at this job as a Gatekeeper closely, the pros and the cons can be seen clearly.

On one side, he is stuck in such a place, forced to stare at the same scenery for all eternity, and fight in endless battles against people who have attained similar abilities by becoming 'aware'.

On the other, he had always loved his old job as a judge, being a Gatekeeper now means he continues to hold other’s fates in his hands. Without any fear of consequence, all of his actions are attributed to God’s will.

To Phoenix, Pontius’s position here is a grossly undeserved gift.

Phoenix bundles up his cloth so it wraps around his entire arm when he says, "Then you’re in luck, you’ll no longer have an obligation to accept anything after this."

The cloth whips forward at an incredible speed, thinking that he's out of range, Pontius stays calm. But to his surprise the cloth never stops so in a last ditch effort to avoid any crucial damage he pulls out his Roman sword and deflects it.

This action comes at a terrible cost.

During his defense his forearm was badly burnt, so burnt in fact that it reached all the way to the bone. The muscle and the tendons are all crisped away and the burnt flesh is spreading fast, so in order to halt any further damage he takes his sword and cuts his own arm off just below the elbow.

“You deserve to be burned.” Phoenix said, preparing for another vicious flame attack.

Pontius still holds on to his statue-like face despite his grievous injury, he keeps his stone gaze at phoenix and says, "Being here for so long... I had thought that nothing would surprise me anymore. But this, this malevolent power coming from you is shocking. "

"These flames, malevolent? I’ll have you know that they were given to me by the Archangel himself."

“No.” Pontius contends. “It’s not the flames, it’s you.”

Phoenix devilishly smiles and swings his cloth over his head like a lasso and a huge circle of odd colored flames float above him, the circle drops and then stops so it's waist high to his body and twirls much like a hula hoop would. With the flames now swirling around him, cloth wraps back around his arm and he proceeds to give chase to Pontius on foot.

The two play cat and mouse for a while until Phoenix rests his palm on the hoop and throws his hand forward, this results in smaller circles of flame giving chase to Pontius as well.

Narrowly avoiding a hit by one of the discs, Pontius jumps along the top of the crosses, much to his shock he hears a thunderous noise crash from behind him. The disc is following him and is mercilessly ripping through the wood of the crosses and the bones of the bodies that are nailed to them.

Trying to move faster doesn't work and he comes to the conclusion that this is some sort of attack that seeks its target and won't stop until it hits what it was intended to hit.

"These are the same eternal flames from the bottomless pit of fire that the Antichrist was cast in, these flames will never stop burning until the evil of its target is destroyed." explains Phoenix as he maneuvers the throw of three more of these lethal discs.

Rage is standing a safe distance away all by his lonesome with his mind racing trying to make sense of what he is seeing before him. He remembers back to the battle of Armageddon in an attempt to find a clue as to what made Phoenix change so much. But nothing that he personally witnessed at the time can explain it.

Only Phoenix and Ubica know the answer to that, and it all started during the Apocalypse...

-----------------

A thousand years earlier...

After revealing his trump card of 144,000 Angels atop Mount Zion, and long past the point where they all battled the Army of Demons.

Phoenix finds himself in disarray and despair when he looks at the world in which he stands; millions upon millions of people are dead and mangled across the horizon and as far as the eye can see.

Millions more continue to battle with all of their might in a blinded rage atop the corpses of their comrades. As if adding even more mayhem to the battle, falling out of the reddened sky above them are an abundance of hailstones that weigh hundreds of pounds.

This is the seventh bowl of God's anger.

Before the hail, the entirety of the world was ravaged with thunderous lightning and the biggest earthquake the likes of man has ever seen. This has left the terrain of the planet in absolute devastation.

But this isn't what has gotten Phoenix so shaken, a seemingly infinite amount of white, light brown, and gold feathers float in the wind in an odd discrepancy with the chaos surrounding them.

Phoenix walks amidst the dead bodies of demons, humans, and heavenly beings in a trance, his white robes covered in blood. Looking among the faces of the dead people, his temples begin to beat when he starts to recognize them; he starts breathing sharply and his ears begin to pulsate with pain when the sound of a loud laugh can be heard.

Phoenix's eyes roll off the dead and follow the feathered trail which leads to the base of what seems like a mountain of bloodied wings.

Atop of it sits the laughing man. The man who is enjoying himself to the fullest while holding an injured Angel hostage is Ubica the Antichrist.

Ubica grabs the back of the Angel's wings and puts his foot on her back, he begins to push with his foot and pulls with his hands.

The Angel screams in agony as the tendons and bone connecting the wings to her back are beginning to shred.

Through a cracked voice Phoenix shouts, "Let her go!!"

Ubica halts his attack and turns to him with a smile, "But if I did that, the prophecy wouldn’t be fulfilled."

He pulls on the Angel's wings once more and the tearing sound begins to crack like a rope snapping.

"Stop it!!"

Ubica once again starts to laugh.

Phoenix is standing there helpless, in a last ditch effort he decides to run to her aid but he is stopped by the voice of the Angel pleading,

"...Please don't come near."

"But..."

"This is what he wants... it's a trap to destroy your faith... you mustn't let anything he says or does affect you."

"To think you know my intentions so well. “ Ubica says and he leans in towards her ear. “But I’ve already succeeded."

He effortlessly rips her wings off and tosses them into the air.

Phoenix's shoulders jolt as her blood sprays under the light of the moon.

"Angelene!!!!"

As the Angel falls, she smiles at the sound of him shouting her name, and once she lands on the severed wings of her comrades she looks at him and softly says, "Don’t give in, don’t lose your faith."

She shows him one last smile and then...

CRACKKK!!!

Ubica slams his foot into her face; the crushing blow causes the mountain of feathers to rustle up and fly all about.

The Angel named Angelene has been ruthlessly killed, her head literally flattened by the weight of Ubica's vicious stomp.

Phoenix drops to his knees and sits there together with the corpses of his dead allies. Every last Angel is someone he considered a friend, throughout time he has grown an unbreakable bond with them, so seeing all of them brutally massacred like this has devastated him.

Ubica chuckles and moves his fingers as if counting, after a few moments he says, "That was Angel number 143,999... the one named Micheal escaped like a spineless coward..."

Phoenix puts his hands over his face in panic, this was absolutely not supposed to happen. Satan's Army is dominating the forces of good and even he, the son of God has been defeated by Ubica.

"Tell me." Ubica says, walking towards Phoenix, “What are you feeling right now? Are you sad? Angry? Or are you feeling betrayed?”

Phoenix looks at him through his fingers and speaks into his hand in denial, "T-This is all a part of his plan."

"Perhaps it is, but it’s such a shame that you always have to suffer in his plans."

"....."

"I want to know how you feel. Tell me what this is like for you."

"How I feel… how I feel!? You tell me how you think I feel!"

The sudden outburst of emotion stops Ubica in his tracks, with a straight face he looks into Phoenix’s eyes and listens silently.

“My friends, they’re all dead, my army is being destroyed, my people are succumbing to darkness… Yet here I am facing all of it alone! How do you think I feel!? This wasn’t supposed to happen, you weren’t supposed to be so strong!”

Phoenix begins punching the sides of his fists into the ground, ruffling up the bloodied feathers of his comrades in the process, his voice grows louder to a fever pitch when he shouts, “I feel forsaken!!”

Ubica disappears in a green flash and reappears right in front of Phoenix, he then takes Phoenix's hands and moves them off his face so the two can look each other square in the eyes.

"Remember this feeling."

Phoenix glares at him and can't find the words to reply.

"This feeling is the true word of God, but even now there’s still time for you to reject it."

"...Are you asking me to join you?"

"Not at all. We were born as enemies, and we’ll die as enemies."

"Then what are you trying to do..?"

"I'm going to offer something to you."

"An offer?"

"That’s right."

"I don’t understand..."

Ubica smiles and jumps backwards all the way back to the top of the mountain of severed Angel wings.

He spreads his arms and through the silhouette of the moon he firmly declares,

"I offer you nothing."

Looking up at the darkened silhouette of the Antichrist, he can only stare on in confusion.

"I don't get it..."

“One day you will. Today is not your time to die, you haven’t even lived yet.”

Ubica shows a triumphant smile, until he is interrupted by a piercing pain in his back that exits out of his gut; blood squirts outward but it quickly stops when he puts his hand over his wound.

“!!”

The attack came from the other side of the mountain of wings, so Phoenix was unable to see what had happened.

Ubica turns around and looks upon the source of the attack before saying, "Well if it isn't the perfidious eyes of Damien and the Seven Demons of Hell.”

He stays silent for a few seconds, and then a green and black glow starts to shine around him, a smile surfaces on his face as he says under his breath,

"An unforeseen detour? Maybe you aren’t so weak after all..."

-----------------------

Back on Purgatory, the scene is hectic as discs of flames chase Pontius and destroy anything in its way.

Rage is ducking for cover and dodging flying debris, while doing this he thinks to himself, (It's a good thing the others aren't here yet.)

But as soon as he thought that, the rest of the group came rushing to him right on que.

The sounds of the battle were an urgent matter to investigate.

"What's going on here!?" shouts Cyrus.

Rage clicks his tongue and gestures him to look for himself.

Niera sees the abilities of Phoenix and says, "I knew that there was something weird about him!"

Rage looks at her wanting an answer.

"That guy who attacked us a couple days ago, Phoenix used his bible and sent him away."

"An exorcism?" Rage asks himself.

"... Just who is he?" Niera asks while tugging on Rage's sleeve.

"He is someone I'm sure you've heard of."

Paying no mind to their conversation, Aria looks upon the scene amazed by all the explosions, ever since she gained her own ability to blow things up she has been infatuated with the looks and sounds they make. Watching the discs hit the crosses and boned corpses, she can't help but notice the bodies down the line of this seemingly endless row.

It looks as though the further the crosses go away from the Gate, the less decomposed the corpses on the crosses are. She is about to look away in disgust until she catches a glimpse of something that makes her heart skip a beat.

She inhales sharply and her legs start to move until she is at a full sprint toward the epicenter of this intense battle.

"Aria!?" Niera shouts when she sees her rush right into danger.

"What do you think you're doing!?" shouts Rage.

He readies to run after her but stops when the sight of Sora bolting past him catches his eye, she runs and avoids the destruction just as narrowly as Aria did.

Aria reaches the crosses and stops running, she holds her breath and slumps her shoulders as she looks up with wide eyes.

Sora catches up with her and she grabs Aria's arm, after turning her around, even Sora finds it hard to keep her usual emotionless face when she sees Aria pale and shocked.

Aria shakily points up at the cross, and Sora looks to where she is pointing and sees an extremely skinny man nailed onto it.

With eyes stuck on the haggard looking man, Aria stutters when she speaks the words she finds extremely difficult to say,

"Th-Th-That's... Papa.."

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 9|Trust (Part 3)]]
| Return to [[Dantega|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 11|(Part 2)]]
|-
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</noinclude>

Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 4

2021-05-17T16:11:30Z

Deck of cards:

Chapter 35: One Step Behind

(PART 1)

“Did you really have to be so violent?” Aria asked with a dejected look on her face.

This question is directed toward Rage, who is at the helm of a large wooden ship.

And he is steering this ship away from a port as fast as the sails can take it.

Arrows are flying all about and landing on the deck, bullets are ripping through the sails and peppering the side of the ship.

They are under attack.

Aria ducking for cover each time she hears and feels the whiz of a bullet or arrow pass by her, but Rage stands fearlessly as one flies just over his head and lands on a barrel.

“I'm sure you can tell, these aren't the kind of people who would just agree to give me their ship.”

“Yeah but I'm sure there was something we could have done to make things go smoother. It's like the whole city is attacking us!”

Just a few moments earlier, Rage ran into a group of pirates and commandeered their ship; of course they did not take his demand very seriously so he was forced to steal it from them. As a result, the entire port city that is apparently run by pirates has joined together in attacking the ship to put a stop to this theft.

Once the barrage of arrows halts and they are out the range of gunfire, the group begins to relax.

Niera comes out of a barrel she was hiding in and shoddily looks around.

“Is it over?”

“Yeah you can come out now.” Aria answers.

From a few other hiding places comes Sora and Cyrus, Phoenix is sitting down on the bow of the boat with arms casually folded against his chest as if he was there the entire time.

“Where's Xavier?” Aria asks, she scours the entire deck of the ship but he is nowhere to be found.

“Wasn't he with you?” Cyrus asks while pulling one of the arrows out of the deck and looking at its tip.

“He was following me up until we ran onto the ship.”

Sora walks up to her and looks as straight faced as ever, but one can see the faint glint of concern in her eyes.

“...Captured..?”

Before Aria can contemplate the answer to that, the sound of a cannonball flying is heard overhead, followed by a loud boom from the gunpowder.

The ball rips through one of the sails and they all hit the deck.

“They're aiming for the beam holding the sails so we can't move!” Cyrus shouts.

He knows that if one of the cannonballs connects with its intended target, everyone is in danger of being crushed by the heavy beam.

Looking toward the direction of the sound they can see a ship moving toward them at a fast speed, Rage is unworried that the pirates are firing to sink them because they would want their stolen property back with the least amount of damage as possible.

Because of this fact, he calmly lets the enemy ship approach; but his calm is shaken by the sight of someone familiar on the deck of the opposing ship.
Xavier is being held by a few men and has obviously been beaten a little.

“Shit.” Rage hisses, he leaves the helm and walks up to the railing, awaiting the ship to get close enough to board them.

The opposing pirate ship is only a few dozen yards away and one of the men who looks like an authoritative figure takes a step forward and shouts, “You fuckers have a lot of nerve trying to steal a pirate's ship! If you want to get this brat back to you with all of his limbs intact, I recommend surrendering immediately!”

“That idiotic kid, how could he have been captured so easily?” Rage mutters to himself.

Aria runs up to the railing and shouts back, “Let him go!”

The pirate smiles and pulls a knife up to Xavier's neck. “You heard the conditions, hurry up and oblige or I'll cut this kid's throat.”

Aria turns to Rage and intently orders, “I need you to distract them.”

“I don't like to be ordered around.”

She slams her new and stolen broadsword into the deck and yells, “I don't care what you like! I made a promise that I'd protect him, and in order for me to do that you have to distract them!”

Rage is taken aback by this sudden surge in emotion, so instead of fighting her any further he decides to let her have her way. He raises his scythe and the black cloud comes rushing out and settles itself between the two ships like a thick fog.

Aria says her thanks and quickly jumps over the railing and into the ocean.

Sora sees this and quickly follows, but before she could jump in she is halted by the voice of Rage saying, “Let her handle this, if you try to help her you'd only get in the way.”

“...But...”

“This is her resolve, and because it involves that promise this has become her battle alone. If it wasn't, I'd have already destroyed that ship myself.”

Sora turns away and anxiously waits for the cloud to clear so she can get a good look at what will happen.

On the other ship, the pirates are all scattering around in reaction to the appearance of this mysterious black cloud.

“This has got to be some kind of trick! Everyone get your cannons ready to fire it into the ship!” the pirate holding Xavier captive shouts.

“But if we do that we take the risk of sinking it!” another man responds.

“I don't care, it's better than having them steal it from us. We can always get another one, the pride we'd lose is far more than the value of a ship.”

The pirate puts the knife closer to the young Prince's neck and says, “It looks like your comrades are attempting to flee, you're being abandoned. If you aren’t that important to them then I have no use for you.”

The pirate readys to slit his throat but he feels a sharp pressure up against his back, through his peripheral vision he sees a girl with apple colored hair holding a large sword.

“If you move an inch I'll lop off your head. Let him go.” Aria demands.

The pirate stays calm and nonchalantly lets Xavier go, the prince backs away in fear but since his hands are tied and his mouth his gagged he just prostrates on the floor and watches.

“You have a lot of guts to come here girl... You do realize that you're surrounded right?”

With her eyes, Aria scours the ship deck and sees over thirty men with their swords and guns ready, glaring at her just waiting for a chance to strike.

She arrogantly laughs and says, “This ship will sink long before any one of you could touch me.”

“How's that?”

“Turn and look at me.” she orders.

The pirate shrugs his shoulders and turns to her, only to be hit in the face by a swift left hook.

The pirate falls on his back and the rest of the crew quickly rush at her with killing intent.

Some fire pop shots at the two but none of them hit, their adrenaline filled haste affected their accuracy.

Aria dashes to Xavier and grabs him.

“Hold your breath Xavier!”

With him in tow she jumps off the ship into the black cloud and takes the thirty foot drop to the water just before the swords of the pirates reach them.
On her way down she points her hand toward the ship and snaps her finger, the immediate aftermath is an intense heat felt against their skin accompanied by a loud

BOOOOOOOOM!!!

The two fall into the sea and the light from the explosion can even be seen from under the water. Flaming debris continuously lands in the ocean so the two cannot surface until the danger level drops, and Aria desperately tries to keep them away from the threatening onslaught landing just feet above their heads.

If that wasn't enough already, looking into Xavier's eyes it becomes obvious that he didn't take a deep enough breath, so after a minute he is struggling and is in serious need of air.

Aria has no choice but to bring him to the surface despite the danger overhead; the two break into water and take big breaths that are immediately polluted with smoke from the flaming debris surrounding them.

Aria removes the gag cloth from his mouth so he can breath better, while huffing and puffing herself she asks, “You okay!?”

Xavier doesn't respond but instead looks at her with a blue face full of shock, she ignores this look and shifts her gaze upwards to see if anything is coming their way.

Much to her expectations a large and inflamed wooden plank is hurling towards their heads, moving in the water is too time consuming so avoiding this plank is seemingly impossible.

Aria moves fast on her feet and grabs Xavier's shoulders, she pulls herself up on him and with her two feet pushes off his chest and sends him away from her and her away from him.

The fiery plank lands heavily in the vacant water in between them with a violent splash.

They had both narrowly avoided death in that instant and Aria takes a sigh in relief.

Xavier's hands are still tied and he is fruitlessly trying to stay afloat, there is panic written on his face until Aria swims to him and grabs him once more.

Toting his full weight in the water she swims for the hijacked ship where her comrades are, by now the black cloud is gone and the only smoke is the dark gray plume coming from the fire on the sinking ship.

The pirates who are still able to move are jumping into the water to escape being dragged down with it, but the pirate that was punched by Aria is still on the deck and is holding onto a rope to keep his footing on the tilted boat.

He has pure anger in his eyes as he looks to the few men still on board, “FIRE THE CANNONS! IF WE GO DOWN THEY'RE COMING WITH US!!”

The men barely cling onto the starboard cannons as the ship is getting swallowed by the ocean rapidly, there are only four cannons left operable but with these all firing at the same time at such a close range, the hijacked ship has no chance to stay afloat.

“FIRE!!”

The four men are all ready to pull the rope that fires the cannon, but in that very instant the gunpowder reserve at bottom of the boat ignites and the resulting explosion causes the entire right side of the ship to tilt downwards.

The starboard flank of the ship holding the cannons are tilted in a way to where they are pointing directly at the floating Xavier and Aria.

The men were in the middle of firing when this happened so they didn't really have time to react, so four cannonballs were sent zooming at the two defenseless teenagers.

This moment in time is moving incredibly slow as Aria awaits the worst possible outcome.

(What can I do?) she thinks to herself. (What can I do!?)

Without even flinching, she throws her sword up, but it would seem this does nothing because the cannonballs zoom by and a thunderous explosion rips through the ocean water, sending a massive splash into the air.

“ARIA!!”

The rest of the group stares in angst as the pirate ship sinks quickly in the background, every second that passes adds to the tension.

Aria and Xavier still have yet to surface and the chances of that ever happening seems slim after such a blast.

When all hope seems lost, the apple red hair of Aria breaks the surface and they all take a collective sigh of relief.

Soon after Xavier comes up gasping for air and Cyrus throws down a lifesaver and pulls them in.

Once aboard, Rage sets sail and they all exit the scene, leaving the few remaining pirates behind in the water.

Xavier is leaning up against a crate and is breathing rather hard, they all leave him because of how distraught he looks so the attention is placed on Aria.

“How did you survive that!?” Niera asks.

“Honestly... I don't really know.” replies the rattled Aria. She recollects the images of the event and says, “As a last ditch effort I threw my sword and turned it into a bomb to deflect the cannonballs, but I've never been able to control the intensity of my explosions before... We should have been caught in the blast.”

“Well I'm glad it didn't, I was so worried.”

“Hehehe I'm sorry about that.”

Sora comes up and stares at her uncomfortably, after a few moments she bows and says, “...Thank you...”

Aria awkwardly laughs and scratches her head.

“It was nothing..”

“...No...”

Sora then hugs her tightly, though she can't express her feelings through speech or even facial expressions, she still thinks just like a regular person would and the emotion of gratitude and relief are best represented through physical contact.

Aria can feel it, Sora is grateful that she had saved Xavier's life and she is also relieved and happy that Aria survived through such a scary ordeal.
Rage walks by and breaks the atmosphere of this touching moment between friends, just his presence is enough to do so.

But much to Aria's surprise he looks at her and says, “Good work.”

Before she can reply he continues, “But if you really want to accomplish Luke's wish, you need to talk to the brat and make him understand why people needed to die to ensure his survival.”

“Um.. I don't think I know how to do that.”

“Just put things into perspective, it's as simple as that.”

Aria smiles and nudges at his shoulder, “Oh? Is the ever so cold Rage giving me advice?”

Rage scoffs at her and turns away.

“Take it however you want.” he says, and then walks off annoyed.

Aria reveals a face full of determination and confidently says, “Alright, I know what I need to do."

-----------------------

Beelzebub walks along a river in Hell.

Of course there is water in such a rotten place, much to the contrary of modern belief, Hell is not a world of just fire and brimstone. Hell is more like a place where one always feels like the sky is about to fall in on them. The sky is gray and clouded, and it truly feels like there is nothing above the low hanging blanket of moist air.

Underneath this enclosed veil, everywhere one looks there is death.

In that slow moving river he is looking at, numerous bloody severed heads bobble like apples in a barrel.

The whereabouts of their bodies is unknown, it is likely that they were eaten by a demon and the bits and pieces that remained were casually tossed aside. These people aren't dead though, they will soon wake up in a designated spot where slaughtered humans are to be reborn. Most end up suffering the same fate over and over again, and their consistent demises bring power to the demons inflicting this upon them.

“It looks like Cerberus is enjoying itself today.” says a younger looking man who is accompanying Beelzebub on this leisurely walk.

“Well that's what happens when we let it run free in Hell, it has an insatiable appetite.”

The man with red hair and shining emerald eyes scratches his head and says, “Yeah, at least it's only once every few hundred years we take it away from guarding the entrance to the fourth circle of Hell. I wouldn't be able to deal with the mess it makes every day otherwise.”

Beelzebub puts his hand on his chin. “Now that you mention it... It is rare to have Cerberus away from its duty, it would be convenient if we put it to good use.”

“...?”

“That thing can smell out anything from any kind of distance.”

The red haired man puts his hand in the blood stained water and asks, “What are you getting at?”

“I'm saying that we should use Cerberus to take out Rage and those humans.”

“Hmmm, I don't think Cerberus would be enough, it'd just lose control and go on a rampage. With its mindset like that Rage would easily be able to kill it.”

“That would be the case if it were to be sent there alone.”

The man pulls a mangled head out of the water and tosses it away like it was a piece of trash.

“Sounds like you are implying something.”

“I am, I'd doubt that Rage could handle both Cerberus, and the one Demon who can control it.”

“Oh? Now what you're saying sounds intriguing, but is that kind of thing really alright?”

“I don't see why not, Leviathan has been in and out of Purgatory the past few days, and it looks like even Abaddon was sent there to confront Ubica.”

The red haired man clicks his tongue and makes a face like he had just eaten something too sour.

“Abaddon that shit bag, I can't believe he took out Belphegor. Now it looks like he intends to ride that wave right into our ranks.”

Beelzebub leans up against a blackened tree and folds his arms. “That's beside the point… What do you think about going?”

“You want me to go huh?”

“Seems to me that everyone else has been enjoying themselves over there.”

The red haired man smiles confidently as he turns to his demon counterpart.

“If you put it that way, I’m sure Cerberus and I will get a kick out of it… Let’s see if Rage can handle true Wrath.”

--------------------------

“Get your head out of your ass Xavier!” shouts Aria, agitated by the sight of the young Prince in front of her.

Xavier is leaning up against a rock with a blank look on his face, he hasn't said anything since the beginning of the day when he was captured and held hostage by pirates.

The group has sailed for hours and finally reached a large island, Rage decided to spend the night here because they needed to restock on fresh water.
The pirates who formerly owned this ship have plenty of food but not much water, most of the barrels on the boat are filled with rum.

Niera is sitting next to the two around the campfire and innocently cringes at Aria's tone. “D-Don't be so harsh on him, he's in shock.”

“Pshhh shock, what a load of garbage.” She grabs Xavier's collar and forces him to look at her in the eye when she asks, “What are you so shocked about? What part of that whole incident possibly could’ve had such an affect on you?”

Niera is a little uneasy about how roughly she is handling this but she knows she has no right to judge whatever is going on between them.

However, she still tries to defend him by saying, “He was afraid.”

Aria frowns and her eyes are filled with even more intensity.

“Everyone gets afraid, but what is fear really? It's a selfish reaction to situations that can do that person harm. When someone is afraid the only thing they care about are themselves, I know this because I used to be the same way. But now when I fear, it's for my friends, and even for this spoiled brat.”

“Aria...”

“Listen to me Xavier, it's time for you to change, if you can't do it for yourself then do it for your brother. He believed in you and asked me to help you become the person that he always knew you could be.”

A little light appears in Xavier's eyes and he meekly replies, “Luke did?”

“That's right, that was his final wish, to see you grow up. I'm not your mother so I won't always protect you like earlier today, but I'm your friend and I'm here to help you.”

Xavier slightly blushes and looks away, he thinks about her words for a few moments and mutters something he most likely has never said until this moment.

“Thank you...”

She smacks him on the back really hard and smiles when she says, “No problem!”

Now that Xavier has a little more energy, he joins the rest of the group in conversations of leisure around the campfire; they begin to drink the pirate's rum and share laughs and talk as if nothing life threatening had happened earlier in the day.

As the night drags on like this and they become fairly drunk, Xavier stands to his feet and interrupts,

“Hey guys.”

It grabs the attention of the rest, even Rage who is sitting by himself beside a tree gives the young Prince a moment of his time.

Xavier takes a deep breath and reveals a look of determination, he then bows to all of them and says, “I'm sorry! All of you have done so much for me since this whole thing happened, and I have always felt entitled to it. But now that my brother is gone I have come to realize how much danger we actually are facing here, and how much help is needed in order for us to survive this mess.”

Xavier is talking in a completely different manner than his usual crude tone.

It's as though his usual spoiled self is completely gone as he continues,

“Please continue to help me, and I promise I will become stronger so I can help all of you... Thank you very much!”

Rage huffs air out of his nose and says, “Didn’t think I’d ever see the day.”

Cyrus smiles, “Glad to have you aboard Prince Xavier.”

“Good job.” Phoenix said with a proud smile.

Niera chuckles gratefully, she never thought in her wildest dreams she'd see Xavier bow like that, and even give a touching speech nonetheless.

“I wish everyone else was here to see this, I'm sure Tsubiri would be floored.”

Sora glares at him blankly but puts all her heart into these two words, “...Thank you...”

She is truly happy that Xavier is in the process of growing up, even though it is most likely a result of her failing to protect Luke. As guilty as she feels about it she knows that to make amends for that failure, ensuring that they all get back home is what Luke would have wanted her to focus on.

Aria stands to her feet and walks over to him, she lifts his bowing head and looks at him tenderly, this causes him to blush and he gets an odd feeling in his chest. But that feeling is quickly dissolved when Aria wraps her arm around his neck in a choke hold and begins to squeeze.

“Hahaha congrats Xavier! I was wondering when you'd come around!”

“Aaaaggghhhh I can't breathe!!”

“Real men don't need to breathe!”

“Whaaa!? That makes no sense!!”

This is her rough and drunken way of showing her happiness, she keeps teasing him as if they have been friends forever and by the looks of it, it would seem that will certainly be the case going forward.

------------------

Damien is in a massive white room with a checkered white and black floor, and puddled on this floor is the distinct color of a red liquid.

He walks in the blood and takes a look around at the carnage, in the middle of this large blood puddle lies the demon who goes by the name of Belphegor.

His stomach still has a massive hole that was inflicted by Rage's scythe and now he is missing an arm and a huge chunk of his leg.

His skin is tinted in the same color as the white room due to the massive amount of blood loss.

“So you actually lost... that is disappointing to some extent.” Damien says without a shred of care in his voice.

Belphegor lays limp but is somehow still alive, he slowly turns his head to him and replies, “Did you honestly expect anything different? You tossed me into a one sided battle because you knew exactly how it'd end up.”

Damien faintly smiles and says, “Well, you’re not wrong.”

“So why did you want to get rid of me?”

“I am in the process of starting something, and I need people who will look forward and progress along with me. Demons of the old age like you that cling to my father would only get in the way of my plans.”

Belphegor stares at him through his blank blue eyes and attempts to laugh, “Hehaha... I think I see where this is going, I can guarantee it isn't going to work.”

“Even on death’s door, you still refuse to see the end of an era. I almost pity you.””

“Hmmm, pity from the brat of the old man eh? Don't make me laugh, you are nothing but a mutt of a human.”

Damien actually frowns at those words.

Belphegor knows that he has gotten under the skin of the son of Satan and continues to insult him.

“Is that why you are doing all this? Hahahahaha have you really been holding a grudge all this time because your father made you kill her? Could you really be that pathetic!?”

Damien grits his teeth and the frown on his face becomes steeper, and Belphegor doesn't stop his verbal assault.

“Pity me? Can you really so shamelessly look at my mangled form and say you pity me while harboring such intentions?? Pity me!? Pity me you say!?”

By now, Belphegor’s demeanor has morphed into hysteria.

“Pity me!? Pity your fucking self you worthless------------”

Belphegor's speech is interrupted by his head literally exploding.

Damien's eyes shine bright red and the light seemingly consumes his body as he shows a twisted face full of anger.

This was definitely overkill but Damien feels that it wasn't enough to suppress his rage, he takes a deep breath to calm his emotions and turns around.

He slowly regains his composure and clicks his tongue.

“If only it were that simple.”

----------------------------

The red haired man is walking on an island.

It is dark outside but the light from the moons and the stars shine brightly over him.

But something is odd about this, his shadow is entirely too large for the man's figure, it is more or less freakishly disfigured to be exact. His shadow has three massive heads and the body of some kind of large dog, what is even stranger is that the shadow begins to speak,

“Amon... they're not on this island.”

The red haired man who was addressed as Amon replies, “I know, you told me already.”

The shadow's voice changes from that of the deep tone of a man to one of a woman.

“Then why do you insist on walking when there is nothing here?”

“We don't get too many chances to venture onto the same path as living humans, so I want to take advantage of this situation. Relax Cerberus, you already have a fixed scent on Rage stored in your memory banks from long ago. That scent will never leave you so we don't have to worry about losing track of them.”

The shadow's voice again changes, this time to the higher pitched tone of a child, a pitch ambiguous enough that one could not tell if it belongs to a young girl or a young boy.

“That's not the point, I'm becoming impatient and hungry. I need to eat!”

Amon laughs and stops walking, “You should show a little more trust in me, there is a reason why I'm here.”

He points out in the distance towards the lights of a fairly large city and says, “Thousands of people probably live in this town, you said you were hungry right?”

The three voices of the shadow all speak simultaneously,

“YES!!”

“Well then...”

Amon turns towards his shadow and bites his thumb, causing it to bleed.

He sticks it into the ground and his hand disappears into the dark of the shadow.

Six red lights shine from the darkness and Amon pulls his arm out as if he has used his thumb as bait and pulled a fish out of water.

Out of the ground comes a massive beast three times the size of an elephant; it has black hair, three heads and has the body of a dog. Its six red eyes shine menacingly as its sharp teeth stained in yellow and brown chatter against each other.

This is the beast called Cerberus, for thousands of years it has been the guardian to the fourth level of Hell and has devoured countless souls.

Amon smiles as he turns back to the city, with his back turned to the beast he speaks as if he is giving an order.

“Let's show them what 'Wrath' is...”

The two rush towards the city and in an instant, the ear shattering sound of horror reverberates through the night as the two go on a killing spree.

The destinies for every person in the city has been decided by one of the 7 Demons of Hell and his beast.

In Amon's mind, this is only a precursor to what will happen to Rage and the rest of the group accompanying him.

This evil, and an immanent bloody battle, is only one step behind.

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 3|Chapter 3]]
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| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 5|Chapter 5]]
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</noinclude>

Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 3

2021-05-13T20:28:00Z

Deck of cards:

(PART 3)

“What do you mean by that!?” shouts Daey.

Caesar shoots them a cold glare and replies, “I meant what I said, I want him off my ship.”

“That's ridiculous! Where do you expect him to go!?”

“I don't care, I've prepared a life boat with a few days worth of supplies on it.”

The fact that they have already gotten everything ready for him to leave so quickly after he had just woken up has gotten Tsubiri and Daey extremely angry.

Tsubiri is about to speak up when her shoulder is gently grabbed by Ubica.

“It's alright.”

He walks his bandaged body past the two and grabs his shirt that is hanging off the desk by one of the windows, he then grabs a couple of accessories as if packing for a trip.

“You can't be serious...” Tsubiri says in disbelief.

Ubica's facial expression doesn't change when he replies, “I understand why he'd want me out of here, if I was in his position I'd do the same.”

Caesar smiles and says, “I'm glad that you are so reasonable, personally I like you, but I like my men a whole lot more. I can't put them in danger by keeping you around, if you attract another monster like that I doubt we'd survive next time.”

Ubica chuckles and grabs his last accessory, his sword.

He holds it over his shoulder and the reasonable tone he once held turns authoritative.

“I'll leave with no problems, but there will be conditions.”

Caesar’s eyebrow twitches.

“And that is?”

“All of my comrades stay, and you give me a copy of that map leading to the Gate.”

The captain glares at him momentarily before a shrug of his shoulders lightens the mood. “Fine, I don't have any problems with your friends anyway. I'll have one of my men make a copy immediately.”

“Good, thanks.”

Despite the desperate glares of Tsubiri and Daey beating him in the back, he calmly walks out of the room, but not before leaving Caesar and his men with some parting words.

“Listen close, I'll be at the Gate before you guys will, and if I find even a scratch on one of my comrades... I'll kill every last one of you.”

This causes a cold sweat to fall from their temples in fear, after witnessing the power of the enemy's attack on Ubica last night, they can't help but feel that he has an incomprehensible power himself since he was able to survive being slammed into the ocean at such an incredible speed.

The three men stand in silence as he walks out of sight, only to turn and see a sight just as frightening, the hate filled frowns of two teenage girls.

Tsubiri walks out of the room and scoffs at Caesar.

Following behind is Daey, who through gritted teeth says, “You people are cowards.”

Caear and the men simultaneously sigh and with his big black hand he rubs his head in relief.

He looks at his two underlings and says, “I think that went well.”

--------------------

Ubica takes a deep breath while he's walking up the stairs that lead to the deck.

“It's gotten a lot harder to act like a tough guy to people nowadays. At least with my threat I'd doubt that any of these crew members will try anything funny.”

He opens the door and prepares himself for a good scolding by his comrades because of what's about to happen.

-------------------------------

“What!?!?” Trojia exclaims when Ubica tells her of the situation that has just unfolded.

Ubica smiles and says, “Come on it's not that bad, I'll be seeing you guys soon.”

“That's stupid! How can you just go out on your own like that, what if that guy from the other night comes back and attacks us while you're gone?”

“That won't happen, he only has a track on my location, he'll follow me and abandon you guys.”

“That's even worse! You'll be all alone when he does.”

“It's what I have to do to keep you guys safe, you gotta trust me on this one... I'll be fine.”

Trojia frowns and bites her lip, with her head lowered she says under her breath, “You sound like my father...”

Ubica’s actions harken her back to the long periods of time Zurvick has been out of her life. Every instance when he left to go to battle or some kind of political excursion he'd always pat her on the head and say something to the same effect. Of course he came back each time, but the length between returns was far too long for her liking, and this is the same kind of situation. As much as she believes in him, she struggles to accept his upcoming absence.
All she can do is bite her lip and look away.

Messor stands on the deck waiting for her chance to speak.

She walks up to Ubica and looks him square in the eye and declares, “I'm coming with you.”

“No you can't, you have to stay behind and help the Captain's men with their powers. Plus the ship needs someone strong to protect them just in case something happens.”

Her eyebrows steepen and she clicks her tongue.

“Help these pieces of shit? Those pitiful ants are lucky I don't kill the whole lot of them for this.”

Her words are sharp and ruthless, what's most terrifying about it is that she is completely serious.

But Ubica has a feeling that she would do no such thing and he smiles at her reaction.

“I'm counting on you Messor...”

“What makes you so confident that I’ll help them?”

“If you really want to join me on my path, you’ll keep your end of the bargain. You’ve never been one to half ask anything before, I don’t see why you’d start now.”

Messor turns sharply and the breeze of her silky white hair is felt on his face.

“Hmph! How cunning of you to wrap this situation up to me like that, do what you want.”

She walks into the door that leads to the barracks and disappears out of sight.

Ubica takes a sigh of relief and thinks that she must be trying really hard to hold herself back against the crew members of the Dandelion.
If she had any ounce of her former self still left, the men would most definitely be dead by now.

He hopped onto the wooden single sail lifeboat and cut the rope to drop him into the water; as soon as he landed in the ocean the current started to drift him away.

Looking back towards the ship, he notices Caesar looking down to him.

He throws something down into the boat and says, “That's the map...”

Ubica gives him a look full of skepticism and he replies to it.

“Don't look at me like that, the thing's legit.”

From behind Caesar come the faces of the others wanting to wish him good luck and say goodbye.

He begins to drift further away from the ship and he shouts out to them,

“The next time we meet, we’ll be one step closer to home! Thank you all, I’ll see you soon!”

“Have a safe trip, Ubica!” Struaphius shouts back while waving.

Napoleon smiles and gives him a friendly salute.

Daey looks worried, but she finds it in her to send him off with a smile.

Tsubiri, confident that they’ll be reunited but saddened by not knowing exactly when, shouts out, “When I see you next I’ll be way stronger! I’ll protect you!”

Trojia’s face is red and she’s shrunken within herself as if she wants to let something out. Her sense of urgency seeing him get farther and farther away fills her with anxiety as her face becomes unnaturally warm.

“Ubica! I---!”

She stops herself mid sentence and again shrinks back, this time hiding her head on the railing of the ship.

“Ughhh.” she groans, letting herself sink into the wood. “I couldn’t do it.”

Daey pats her on the shoulder and says, “I don’t want to step on your feelings while they're at a low, but I commend you for holding yourself back. I don’t think right now would have been the best time for that.”

Trojia didn’t give it much thought before when her emotions were clouding her judgment, but now all of the sudden she remembers that everyone was standing right next to her as she struggled to shout out some very embarrassing words.

“Kkkkaahhh!”

Trojia squirms as the shivering sensation of shame starts from her feet and makes its way up to her head like an electrical current.

“There there.” Daey said with a maternal smile while continuing to pat Trojia’s back, “You’ll have better luck next time.”

----------------------------

It has been three full days and now the fourth night has fallen on Ubica who is alone on a boat in the middle of the ocean.

His sail is not set but the small wooden life boat is moving around quickly as if there was some kind of motor on it.

That motor is Ubica's hand, he has it rested in the water and a green light surfaces around it making the sea have an odd colored glow in the propelling boat's wake.

He hasn't just been sitting around in the boat trying to find land, if he really wanted to he'd be there by now, but he has been using every moment possible to train himself under the sea. Various exercises have left him physically exhausted.

“This is a perfect opportunity to train myself in the sea so I can stand a chance against Leviathan. Plus this allows me to protect the rest simultaneously, this actually ended up working out pretty well.”

He sighs at his own optimism and takes his hand out of the water. He has yet to sleep so he decides that this night is as good as any because the temperate weather is perfect for it.

"But still..."

He lays on his back and gazes into the stars and the three moons of the sky.

"I didn't think I'd be this lonely."

With this peaceful image of his friends who are now very far away engraved in his mind, he shuts his eyes and falls asleep.

----------------------------

“Hey... are you dead?”

This voice of a girl is ringing through Ubica's dream, he subconsciously feels that there is someone standing over him and slowly opens his eyes.

The heat of the high noon sun beats on his face and blurs his vision, but when the sun is blocked and the shadow of a person is cast on him, he can see the person very clearly.

It is a girl, she looks to be in her late teens and has amber colored hair and azure eyes, she is undeniably pretty and she gives off a sense of freedom by the clothes and the hair style she is wearing. A yet loose black tank top over her body and under that some very small jean shorts, her hair is oddly tied upwards but it fits her face and slim body type perfectly.

After glaring at her for a few short seconds his face turns bright red, not because of the good looks of this stranger who has just appeared before him, but because he just happened to shift his eyes from her face down to her visible chest.

The way she is leaning over atop him has caused her small shirt to hang down so he caught a clear glance.

It would seem that she is so used to dressing so freely that she didn’t even notice that he had seen down her shirt.

“Umm, and you are?” Ubica asks as he backs away from her, causing the boat to rock a little in the shallow water.

The girl tilts her head and replies, “I should be the one asking that, are you a pirate? Ooh lemme guess a shipwreck right! How long have you been out on the ocean in this life boat!?”

Being pummeled by questions, Ubica takes a deep breath and answers them all one by one.

“No. Kind of, and I don't know. It depends on how long I've been asleep for, but if I were to guess it'd be around five days.”

“Five days!?” she shouts in surprise.

She immediately grabs his arms and begins to check him in a few spots as if expecting to see something wrong with him.

“You must be in terrible shape! My brother is a doctor in town so you should come with me, he can make sure you're okay.”

Ubica nervously smiles and says, “No that's not necessary...”

“Nonsense! If what you said is true there is no way that there isn't anything wrong with you.”

He sighs at her persistence and looks around the area to scope where he is; he finds that he’s currently in a lagoon with crystal clear emerald water. His lifeboat has floated all the way to land, a large island to be exact, and this particular one is surrounded by large granite cliffs.

Many differently colored houses and buildings are built on top of these cliffs and stretch into the island. On the shore, in the middle of the lagoon are wooden steps that scale a small cliff leading up into a bustling city.

The girl puts one hand on her thigh and then points at him with the other, with a serious face she declares, “My name is Amber Lockeford, and you're coming with me!”

“As much as I appreciate the offer, I’m going to have to refuse.”

Before he knows it, he finds himself reluctantly following this girl around the city.

There are a lot of people doing daily activities so he comes to the conclusion that this city must stretch a long way into the island. This place has the feeling and look of a coastal city in Italy, all the different colored buildings stand out in contrast to the surroundings, but compliment each other very nicely.

“Hey, Ubica right? Stop zoning out we're here.”

Looking up he sees a two story building that has some weird writing on it, but he assumes that it has something to do with signifying that it is a doctor's residence.

“Is this where you live?” he asks.

"No, my brother lives here by himself, I still live with my parents.”

“Ohh...”

“Come in.”

Ubica stops at the door and glares at her discouragingly.

She raises her index finger to this look and says, “Just go in, you'll never know how it'll end up.”

“How in the world did I end up in this situation!?” Ubica asks with a bitter look on his face when he finds himself sitting on a dinner table with six people he doesn't know.

"Buaahahaha! Because our family never turns down anyone in need!” says the burly amber bearded father named Albert as he slaps Ubica really hard on the back.

Ubica sighs and says under his breath, “But I already told you guys that I'm fine..”

“Although I must say, you are in surprisingly good health after I took a look at you, what did you do to stay in such good shape? Amber said you didn't have much food on board when the two of you docked the boat.” asks the doctor Nicklaus, who is also the brother of Amber.

He is the oldest child but looks like a complete outsider compared to his father and the rest. He seems to be very frail and he wears glasses that add to this meek look of his.

There is one person at the table that obviously has Albert's genes, her name is Allison and she is a woman in her late twenties with two little ten year old twins who sit one a piece at each side of her.

“Now that I think of it... you haven't touched any of the food!!”

Ubica leans back in his chair and raises his hands, “Well you see I'm not hun--”

“Is my cooking not good enough!?” the elder sister exclaims.

“N-No that's not it at all.”

Amber's mother Melissa chimes in with a patronizing smile, “Oh no, that's never good when a mother can't cook.”

Allison takes a deep breath in shock, she looks at her two twins, one a girl and one a boy and asks, “Alice, Jeremy! Is my cooking good!?”

The two twins stare at her dejectedly and without much conviction they uncomfortably answer simultaneously.

“S-Sure...”

“Whaaaaa!? That was a terrible reply!”

She grabs the two kids heads under her each of her large arms and begins to strangle them, it would seem that they are used to it but from an onlookers prospective it really looks like child abuse.

“Waaaah! Your food is great! I swear I swear!!” the little boy named Jeremy yells frantically.

“I don't believe you, you little brat!!!”

Albert just sits back and laughs obnoxiously loud as he watches this scene that would certainly warrant a visit from child protective services.

Amber takes a sigh of exasperation and looks to Ubica, who seems to feel a little guilty because the two kid's torture is a direct result of him not eating.

She senses this and says, “Sorry, my family is a little crazy.”

“No it's nothing, to be honest my group isn't much different.”

Melissa overhears this through the noise and asks, “Now that you mention it, what brings you here anyway?”

With this question, all the noise suddenly halts and the awkward atmosphere hits Ubica really hard.

He tries to scramble and find something to say, “Well due to some circumstances I had to leave the ship that I was on and I just drifted here while I was asleep.”

“No no, that's not what I meant..” she reveals a lecherous smile and finishes, “Could it be my little Amber made a move on you?”

“Haaah?” Ubica groans as he tilts his head in confusion.

Amber's shoulders jump and her face turns red.

“Mom! What are you talking about!?”

“I'm just saying that it's not too often that a boy this cute falls on your lap like that. You never struck me as the type to bring someone to meet the family so soon after you first met. Oh-ho my daughter is finally growing up!”

“D-Don't just jump to conclusions like that! I would never------”

Amber is interrupted by the sharp voice of her elder sister saying, “Yeah that would be ridiculous considering the fact that Amber gets so nervous she can barely talk to the guy she likes, there's no way that she'd hit on a random fellow.”

Ubica has no clue what is going on but he is growing increasingly more awkward with each passing second.

Nicklaus tilts his glasses up and agrees, “True.”

Ubica's uneasiness reaches a level he’s not familiar with, and it’s making him physically ill, his stomach is actually grumbling because of it.

This is certainly not something he should be hearing from people he had just met, and by the look of it, Amber is about to blow steam out of her ears.

Ubica attempts to save her from this cruel and unusual punishment from her family and stands to his feet.

“Thank you very much for the meal, but I really must be goi---”

His speech is halted by the sound of the front door being knocked behind him, the house is fairly big but one could see the entrance from the dining room.

“Oh he's here!” Albert says in excitement, he walks over to the door and opens it.

There in the doorway stands a shining man with blonde hair and light brown eyes. He looks to be in his early twenties and emits a radiance to him that feels more like he belongs to some kind of royal family.

“Tuscany, it's great to see ya! Come on in I'll set up a seat for you.”

The man named Tuscany smiles politely and says, “Thank you.”

The two walk up to the table and both him and Ubica lock eyes for a moment, Tuscany gives him an odd look before turning back to the others.

“Who's this?” he asks.

“He's a drifter that Amber picked up out of the ocean.” Melissa answers in a carefree fashion.

“M-Mom that makes it sound bad...” Amber shyly says.

Tuscany glances at her and reveals an accepting smile, “I'm sure you had your reasons.”

He takes a seat and a heavy feeling reaches Ubica's body which makes him really feel like he needs to leave, but to be polite he decides to stick around until he finds the socially acceptable moment to make a friendly exit.

Things quiet down and the introduction process finally begins.

Ubica looks at the new guest and politely says, “My name's Ubica, nice to meet you.”

“Tuscany Reinhart, it's my pleasure.”

The two force a fake smile at each other and sit in silence for a few moments, when out of the blue Albert looks at Amber and blatantly asks, “So... Have you kissed yet?”

“WHAT!?!?” Amber shouts.

Tuscany puts his hand over his mouth and slightly coughs, obviously flustered.

Albert gets right into their business and yells, “Ahhh! How can I have another grandson if you guys can't even get to first base!!?”

Amber hides her face in embarrassment on the table as Albert waits for an answer that will never come.

Ubica is so embarrassed for her that internally he’s screeching in pain and writhing on the ground.

The awkwardness has hit an all time high.

He has no clue why he'd say something like that to his own daughter, but Niklaus nudges on Ubica’s sleeve and begins to explain.

“In case you're wondering, Tuscany and my sister are engaged. Please excuse my father's rude behavior, he's not used to guests so he treats these kinds of situations like there is nobody there.”

“O-Oh I see..”

Ubica looks to Tuscany and Amber, with a smile he says, “Congratulations on your engagement.”

Tuscany proudly says his thanks while Amber seems shyly nods.

The dinner seemed to last forever but it's finally finished, and along with it the last vestiges of Ubica's patience; he hasn't wanted to leave a room so badly in his entire life. It's not like they are bad people, but meeting people for the first time and spending a good amount of time immersed in their daily lives is usually a little too much to handle for even the most socially adept person.

“Thanks for inviting me to your home, it was a pleasure.” Ubica says kindly, trying to be as gracious as possible.

Tuscany had already left earlier due to some appointment, so the family members all say their goodbyes and Ubica hurriedly walks to the door.

But before he can leave, he is halted by the soft voice of Amber asking, “Wait, where are you going to stay?”

“Hmmm, I haven't thought that far yet, but I'll figure it out.”

They all look at him in concern, which catches him off guard.

Albert takes a step forward and says, “Well if you don't find somewhere to say, feel free to come here, the door will be open for you.”

This makes Ubica somewhat happy, not because he knows he has somewhere to go but rather the fact that there really are kind people who would do such a thing as let a stranger in need into their home.

“I guess what you said was true, the Lockeford family always helps someone in need. Thank you, but I've already imposed enough on you guys.”

“Buaaahahaha of course! Remember, the offer still stands Ubica.”

Ubica walks out the door and onto the road, he turns around and smiles, “I'll keep that in mind. Goodbye everyone!”

---------------------

“Huuaaahhh finally out of there.” Ubica sighs, letting out the built up social anxiety that once seemed to seek his destruction.

He walks down the steps that lead to the lagoon his boat is docked in, once at his boat he finds that nothing has been stolen out of it so he is quite relieved.

This lagoon is fairly secluded compared to others around the island, so one would really have to look hard to spot it and ransack it. But just in case, he had hid it behind some rocks and out of sight from anyone who just so happened to come down for a swim or some sightseeing. So he’s happy nothing went wrong while he was away.

He gets ready to jump in the boat when he happens to look out into the ocean, thinking about it, he finds that this is an ideal place for his training.
This lagoon is just enough out of the way from the town where he can get away with whatever he wants without notice, and the numerous islands out in the distance are good spots to swim to for fishing, so food would come easy if he ever got hungry.

The most important part of this is that the crystal clear water of this lagoon seems to be warm even at night, it's something that is desperately needed. If something happened where Ubica was tossed overboard and the water was freezing he would literally die in an instant.

“Alright, I can stay here for a couple days.” he says as he puffs out his chest in determination.

“You can stay at my place you know?” said Amber, who is sitting on the stairs leading up to town.

“Whoah what are you doing here!? Scared the crap out of me.”

“I came to find you before you left, I wanted to give you water.”

“Ooh thanks, I forgot to get some while I was in town.”

Amber walks down the stairs and walks into the water, splashing her legs around she says, “You are a strange guy, why wouldn't you accept help when it's offered to you like that?”

“Some people just don't like to impose, you know.”

“Hmmm, sometimes I think it's more rude to deny help than it is to accept it.”

Ubica never thought of it that way so he puts his hands together and says, “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you if that’s the case.”

“It's not offensive, it just gets me fired up.”

“Eh?”

“I'm not gonna leave you alone as long as you stay in this lagoon.”

“Why would you wanna do that?”

“To make sure you're okay you idiot!”

“Hey you didn't have to insult me.”

“Of course I do! You seem like one of those dense guys who have to get insulted before he realizes that he's wrong.”

What she says hits him like an arrow in the chest, he can't think of how many times he's been called dense or an idiot by certain members of his group.

This gets him a little riled up and he forgets that he is talking to someone he had just met when he says, “Well not everyone can be as composed as your fiance after all.”

Amber instantly becomes flushed and frowns at his words, she doesn't speak but gives him a look that shows how much displeasure that caused.

“Uhh, sorry about that, that was uncalled for..”

“It's fine, but you're right... You aren't like him at all, he's well spoken, polite, smart and proper. He's every girl's dream guy.”

Ubica tries not to take offense by that and takes it with a grain of salt, he sighs and pulls his shirt off to get ready to go into the water.

He walks past her and smiles when he says, “Then it looks like you got yourself a keeper.”

“Hey... do you have a girlfriend?”

“I don’t.”

“Then is there anyone you like?”

“I’m not quite sure about that yet actually... Wait, where did these questions come from!?”

“Y-You see, I just wanted to get some advice, I'm too embarrassed to talk about it with my family so I was hoping you'd know something about what I'm going through.”

“Aren't things going well for you right now?”

“I guess you can say that, I mean... I've had a huge crush on him in secret since I was little but I never had the courage to talk to him even once, but around three months ago he came up to me and asked me to marry him.”

“Wow, that's random.”

“I know right!? But I had to say yes, I was so happy that I thought I'd die.”

“Then what's the problem?”

“Since then.. I still don't really have the courage to talk to him, I always get so nervous that everything I say is really short and pointless. I can't even imagine touching him in any way, so I don't get why he'd still want to marry me when I have so little to offer.”

Ubica laughs a little, for one, he has no clue why she is confessing this to him like he is one of her girlfriends, and the other is because of how innocent her problems are. She lives in a world completely different from him, and he even finds himself envying her because of it.

He jumps into the water to get used to the temperature and then back out, with his hair hanging over his eyes he says, “I hate to say it but you are barking up the wrong tree by asking me that, I have no clue what those feelings are like... but.”

He shakes his head to get the water off of his hair and smiles at her.

“You are a beautiful person inside and out. If you can find confidence in knowing that, it might give you the courage to accomplish what you want to do.”

Amber gives him a slight smile and slightly blushes at that statement, she looks away for a moment then looks back, and to her surprise she finds that Ubica is gone.

Out in the distance he pops up and says, “Now go home! It's getting late!”

She huffs air out of her nose and walks away, heading up the stairs she stops and thinks about what he had just said, her body warms up and she says to herself,

“...I'm beautiful huh?”

------------------------------

It's been four days since Ubica drifted into this somewhat secluded lagoon, and the training he has put himself through has been vigorous and difficult. Such things like lifting the heaviest of boulders from the ocean floor and staying underwater for hours on end holding his breath are a daily occurrence.
The gist of what he is trying to do is become completely adapted to moving and fighting in the water, he knows that the chances of fighting Leviathan under water is very high so he must be as natural as can be when the time comes.

As of now he is laying on the sand under a makeshift umbrella made out of his shirt and a blanket that came with the lifeboat.

But he is not alone.

Every day, a certain girl he met always meets him in the morning, afternoon, and even the evenings.

“So are you ready to stay at our house yet?” Amber asks as she stands over him with her hands on her hips.

“You've been asking me this everyday and my answer never changes, so give it up already.”

“Not a chance, the Lockefords never give up on someone in need!”

“Do I look needy to you!?”

“Yeah you do, where in the world do you shower!? And what do you eat and drink!?”

“There's a big city just on top of that hill. Everything I need is up there, I'm just not sleeping with a roof over my head.”

“You do everything else in town but you can't come stay with us, you make no sense.”

“I'll tell you what Amber, the next time it rains I'll come to your house.”

Looking up, one can see that there isn't a single cloud in sight and it is obvious that unless a freak occurrence happens there is no chance that it'll rain anytime soon.

“Ahh geez you are so stubborn! Fine, I'm coming back tonight to take you back.”

“I’ll be seeing you tonight then.”

Amber tut-tuts and stomps off, this has become a recurring theme so the two have been spending a lot of time together.

For the most part they get along really well, and when he is not getting pestered to go to her house they have very normal conversations that any pair of friends would.

Ubica lays in the sun and decides to shut his eyes and take a nap, he hasn't slept much but this is as good a time as any to do so.

Once he doses off, Amber comes rushing back and says, “I forgot my---eh?”

She hasn't seen him sleeping yet so she starts to tip toe around him to pick up her purse that she placed right beside him earlier. Trying to be extremely quiet she stubs her toe into a rock and loses her balance.

With a rather loud “Kyahh!” she falls straight on top of Ubica.

“Ahh Ubica I'm sorry I...”

To her utter shock she finds that he is still sleeping like a log, she definitely fell straight on him and her full weight is still pressing against him.
She has to double take when she finally realizes this, and the feeling in her finger tips that rest on his bare chest reaches her body, the feeling of her legs intertwined with his makes her hips jolt.

She immediately jumps off of him, grabs her purse and stands to her feet, she looks down on him and her face gets really red.

(What in the world was that??) she thinks to herself.

She puts her hand on her chest and feels her heart beating quickly.

(I-I'm sure it's nothing.)

The truth is that it is something, though it is not much, she has finally realized that Ubica is a guy, and an attractive one at that.

Before that moment, she hadn't given him much thought.

She forcefully throws the image of Tuscany into her head and this calms her down, with that she smiles as if nothing happened and heads into the city.

----------------------

Amber is on her way from her house to the lagoon where Ubica is staying, the sun is almost down and because of some sporadic cloud coverage that finally showed up, the sunset is a brilliant display of both warm and cool colors.

She normally comes to visit him after the sun has already set but this time decided to come early since she was already out and about.
She gets down to the beach and sees that Ubica is nowhere in sight.

{Huh? Where is he?)

She looks around the area and still has no luck, she assumes he is swimming so she looks out to the ocean to check if she can see his wake. But something catches her eye that makes her heart skip a beat, it is Ubica, but he is not swimming, rather he is standing with his back turned to her on the slightly breaking water.

She can only stand there in disbelief as she watches this scene, and it's only going to get more foreign for her because Ubica gently sinks into the water and disappears.

“Wait wait wait wait, what in the world did I just see?” she asks herself in denial.

She waits for Ubica to come up out of the water but after a few minutes she becomes worried.

“You’ve got to be kidding me, there’s no way he can't hold his breath for that long!”

She unhesitatingly rushes into the water and dives in.

Swimming as fast as possible to the location where she thinks he is, she finds that things under water are getting hard to see now that the sun is going down.

(Damn it where is he!?)

It begins to look hopeless when she runs out of breath and breaks to the surface to breathe, she takes one giant inhale and swims back down, and when she does it's like she has just swam into a different world.

There is a bright green light that shines so bright that it looks like everything under water is actually out in the plain day, the fish that are swimming look like they are floating in the air and all the other sea life seems surreal.

In the middle of this gorgeous scene is a boy with his eyes closed standing impossibly on the ocean floor, and the light seems to emit from him as if he is some kind of deity.

Amber is in awe at this sight, she is experiencing the very definition of an out of body experience. She wants to get close to this light so she moves towards it, this is so entrancing that she forgot she was under water and tries to take a breath. It seems that the gulp of saltwater put her back to her senses however, she realizes that she had just swallowed a mouthful of sea water and immediately is under threat of drowning.

Desperately swimming up to the surface, it becomes obvious that she will not make it to the surface in time, that is until she feels her body become weightless and is sent upwards at a tremendous speed.

This is a similar feeling to what she had earlier under water, but this is on a different level then something that should belong in the realm of reality.
Amber opens her eyes and is staring up at Ubica as the setting sun shines over his outstanding figure and the thousands of droplets of water. Under his feet is a stream of water that he is balancing on and the orange tint of the setting sun shines through it making it look like he is standing on a beam of light.

At this very moment she is a part of something right out of a fantasy novel, in the arms of this incredible person suspended in air as everything around them slows down.

After a few moments that felt long and drawn out to her, she unconsciously spoke his name,

“Ubica...”

The water that once surrounded him in mid air falls and splashes back into the ocean.

He falls along with it and looks at her in confusion.

She gives him a shocked frown and musters up the courage to ask,

“...What are you?”

----------------------------

“I wonder how he's doing?” Tsubiri asks Daey, who is standing right next to her looking at the sunset.

“Who knows... I hope he’s looking after himself.” Daey replies.

Tsubiri sighs and says, “Nine days... That's a long time for any one of us to be separated, it feels like it's been forever since he left.”

“Yeah, it doesn't help that I feel really uneasy about all this with him not around.”

“Like how?”

Daey is wearing her hair wavy down so she is twirling it with her finger unconsciously in deep thought.

“I just have a feeling that by simply being away from Ubica, it doesn't make us any more safe from those monsters. Every night I feel like something terrible getting closer to us.”

“Uhhh, that's a creepy thought you got going there.”

“I know, I can’t help it.”

Tsubiri again sighs and this time even louder, “It’s a good thing you’re not a psychic."

Something out in the distance catches her eye and she squints to get a better sight of it.

“Hmm? Hey look at that... Is that a boat?”

Daey peers out towards the ocean’s horio and replies,, “Yeah.. I think it is.”

“You don't think it could be...” Tsubiri says as hope fills her eyes.

Daey starts to become excited as well when she tries to clarify, “It’s definitely the same kind of boat.”

“I gotta go tell somebody! I'll be right back.”

Tsubiri runs down into the barracks below the deck to tell Strauphius, Messor, Napoleon and Trojia.

Looking on as the little boat out in the distance gets closer, the figure of a single man can be seen.

It’s a small boat occupied by one person in the middle of the ocean, and she can’t help but feel that it must be Ubica.

By now the ship's men have all caught wind of the boat and Caesar comes to the railing to greet the incoming vessel. He is really hoping that it isn't Ubica, but due to a past experience where his life was saved by a passing fishing vessel after losing his ship in a storm, it’s part of his ship’s moral code to pick up anyone who is stranded in a lifeboat.

So he stands out there waiting to take him in as he orders a few men to bring some food and water for whoever this may be.

Getting closer, they see a man who seems to be bundled up in some sort of red cloak.

Daey narrows her focus on the man’s face as he gets closer, and is suddenly struck with a sickening feeling in her stomach.

She immediately goes pale.

“That's not Ubica...”

She cautiously turns to Caesar and gives him an intense glare when she says, “You absolutely must not let that boat anywhere near this ship.”

“What’re you yapping about? There's no way I'm gonna leave someone stranded in the middle of the ocean by himself.” He then turns and shouts to one of his men, “Throw down the anchor!”

Naturally, the man obliges.

They are now completely stopped here, and they will be taking this drifter onboard no matter how much she protests.

Daey is obviously not thrilled.

In fact, she is devastated.

She turns away from the railing and runs through the door that connects to the stairs leading down to the barracks, she slams the door behind her and sees that the rest of the group are all heading up the stairs courtesy of Tsubiri's high hopes.

“Don't go out there!!” Daey shouts.

The rest all look at her confusedly.

“Why not?” Napoleon asks.

“You just have to believe me, we have to find somewhere to hide!”

Judging by how frantic she is, the rest feel very uneasy about this, and this makes Napoleon want to investigate all the more.

He walks past her and says, “I’ll need a little more of an explanation than that.”

He opens the door and despite Daey's pleas to keep him there, he walks on to the deck.

He gets to the railing and joins a group of about twenty or so men who are greeting this incoming boat; he has to shove a couple of them out of the way to get a good look and as soon as he does, his eyes widen and a cold sweat falls down his temple.

He quickly ducks and literally crawls in an army style back to the barrack door.

He enters the stairway and leans up against the wall, breathing hard and attempting to slow his spiked heart rate.

The rest look at him anxiously.

“This is bad..”

--------------------

“That doesn't answer my question at all, there's no way I'd accept you saying, 'It's better that you don't know’.” Amber says.

Ubica shrugs his shoulders and says, “I know it’s hard to believe me, but it’s definitely for the best.”

“This is stupid, how is it a bad thing that you can do those things? I don't see why you can't explain it to me.”

Ubica stays silent and looks away, he's not good at saying no, but it’s much easier not saying anything at all. No matter how angry she’d be at him, he knows that they’re only a short time away from parting, there is no point in putting her in danger by revealing any more about himself than she already knows.

“So you're just going to stay quiet... I see.” she huffs air out of her nose and walks off.

Halfway up the stairs she turns back to him and says, “I told you everything about me, the least you can do is return the favor.”

Ubica fights back his guilt by rationalizing that she is only reacting as anyone would upon seeing such nonhuman abilities. Of course she’d be interested in how and why after experiencing the supernatural.

Watching her silently head back into town, he comes to realize that this is likely the last time he’ll ever see her, he'd be really surprised if she'd want to see him before tomorrow ends, so he'll probably be long gone before they even get a chance to have a proper goodbye.

But before Amber reaches the top of the hill she turns again and says one last thing.

“Don't forget to come over to my house if it starts to rain.”

This surprises him, she can still invite him over after seeing those freakish abilities of his. It would seem that there really are people who will accept someone like him unconditionally.

Nonetheless, he still has no intention of going over there.

He smiles at her kindness and says under his breath, “You’re a good person, that’s why this will be our goodbye.”

As soon as he says this, he feels a breath over his shoulder into his ear saying,

“Too late, Ubica.”

He quickly turns around and a dreaded sight beholds him, it is the very man that he is training to fight against, the second in command to the Hierarchy.

“Leviathan!?”

“Come now, don't look so surprised. I'd hope you weren't foolish enough to think that I wouldn't find you eventually.”

Ubica dashes for his sword and pulls it out to slash him with it.

Completely unphased by Ubica’s threatening move, Leviathan smiles and says, “Take it easy, just because I came here doesn't mean I want to fight you.”

“Why else would you be here?”

“Oh? I seem to have gotten you quite rattled. This is good, I need you to become that way lest this whole thing be pointless.”

“...?”

“If you truly want to know what I'm doing here, I'll happily tell you if you’d lend me your ear.”

“...Go on then.”

“I’ve done a lot of thinking about you over the years you see, there was a time where I nurtured and loved you, a time where I hated you. But the one constant is that I’ve always been envious of you. It’s because of that, I'm here---- no... because of that I exist to send you into despair.”

Ubica takes a step back and wonders what he meant by that.

But Leviathan takes a step towards him and continues, “Without despair, you can’t be the person that I love and hate and envy all at the same time. All you are now is frustrating to me, and it’s filled me with a desire to have you back to the way I’m most comfortable with.”

Ubica takes another step back and Leviathan in turn takes another step forward.

“But there is something fun about bringing you back, it’s as though my nurturing love for you has returned to how it was while you were growing from within the ocean. It’s an emotional state I had thought I’d never experience again.”

Closing the distance between the two, each step Leviathan takes becomes more imposing.

“Over the last week I’ve contemplated how I can nurture you back into my most hated foe... If there is one thing I've noticed about you, the new you, is that you get along with people quite well.”

“....”

Ubica’s silence conveys how threatened he is by what Leviathan had just said.

“In the time it took you to start caring for people other than yourself, it has since become your greatest weakness.”

Ubica frowns and finally takes a step forward in defiance of his intimidation. “I would argue that those feelings have made me strong.”

“Then will you put it to the test?”

“What..?”

“I'm interested to see if this truly is a strength of yours. I wonder how you will react when you find out that these feelings you cling to amount to nothing when precious lives are on the line.”

Leviathan spreads his arms and declares, “I predict that you will fall into despair, you will become angry, you will become consumed with a hatred for your own weakness. You will naturally return to what instinctually comes easiest to you.”

Ubica grits his teeth and hesitatingly says, “I will not...”

“Then I will give you an ultimatum.” Leviathan says as he walks closer to him and looks him square in the eye. “You cherish the life of that girl and her family right? Well... I'm going to kill them.”

Ubica grips his sword with all of his might and yells, “I won’t let you!!”

"I thought you'd say as much, which is why I must ask... Would you be so committed to protecting that family if it costs your comrade's lives?”

“...?”

Ubica stares at him with so much intensity it's as if the ocean behind Leviathan will boil from his glare.

“Soon enough, there will be someone commencing an attack on that ship carrying your friends, and without you there they have no chance of surviving it.”

“N-No way... How?”

“A mishap on your part Ubica, have you forgotten that I come from the ocean? Anything on or in that water is in my realm, I'll always have a track on them, even if you're not there as my beacon.”

“You bastard!!!” Ubica shouts as he swings his sword into the sand, the result of that frustrated action is an explosion of fine sand particles plumbing into the sky and glistening in the orange twilight of the sunset.

Leviathan smiles at his anger and says, “Calm down, you can still save them, if you left now I won't stop you.”

He shifts his eyes toward the town and sharply says, “But the moment you leave, I will make my way into town and slaughter that family.”

Ubica takes sharp breaths at the conundrum that has been thrust upon him, it's as if he doesn't want to take on the responsibility of choosing a proper solution.

“So now you must pick, this weakness of yours will cost one of these sides their lives. However… there is one way you can save them both..”

Ubica looks at him as if begging for the answer.

“Let your true self consume you, let Dantega take over... If you do that, you could possibly kill me and make it to the ship in time to defeat the man I sent there.”

“I-I can't do that...”

“You have to, you have no other choice, you are fighting a losing battle otherwise.”

“No!”

“I see you do not like to be the one being tempted, perhaps I should tell you who your friends are up against? It may help coerce you into making a hopeless decision one way or the other.”

To add to the tension of the conversation, thick clouds form overhead and the sound of a light thunder can be heard.

Ubica is absolutely dreading finding out who it is, because depending on who, he knows that there will be no mercy shown.

Rain begins to pour onto them, the water seems to fall away from Leviathan but drenches Ubica as if nature is rubbing salt in his wounds.
Leviathan laughs a little and says,

“The man is...”

-----------------------

“Okay is someone going to tell me what’s going on?” Trojia asked in frustration about being cooped up in the stairwell.

Daey shushes her and gives her a look screaming at her to stay quiet.

She then gestures to the little circle window of the barrack doors and gestures outside, signaling them to take a look for themselves.

Messor has been quiet because she can't sense what they are so afraid of, and personally she is not too worried because if it was Leviathan or any other of the 7 Demons from the Hierarchy, she would have felt it.

She, along with Trojia and Strauphius take a look through the window and simultaneously take deep breaths of shock when they see who the man is.

He is wearing a dark red cloak, he has light brown hair and blue eyes, in his hand he is tossing a little marble while wearing a big smile on his face.

He is none other than the man who split the group up into two by creating a crater that was almost the size of the entire first level of Purgatory itself.

He is the man who destroyed Aria and Strauphius' house and also the man who brutally murdered Daey's bodyguard Rudo.

He is the traitorous Angel who created the eternal abyss for Ubica and Messor to burn in for all eternity.

This man introduces himself to Caesar and the crew by saying,

“Thanks fer havin' me on board. I've been dyin' to find this ship... The name's Abaddon.”

Pursuit on the Water: (END)

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| Back to [[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 2|Chapter 2]]
| Return to [[Dantega|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 4|Chapter 4]]
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</noinclude>

Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 2

2021-04-17T16:48:51Z

Deck of cards:

(PART 2)

The blue haired man named Leviathan has just finished a conversation with the man who bears a striking resemblance to Damien.

He folds his arms and smiles before making his way toward the exit of the dark room.

"Well then Satan, it looks like you have everything on your end of the spectrum handled with no problems..."

Satan cracks his neck and says, "Of course I do, I'm not like my son."

Leviathan turns his head as though he had forgotten why he came in the first place.

"Oh that reminds me, I wanted to tell you something."

"Go ahead."

"Ubica and Rage have reached the second level of Purgatory."

Satan frowns for a moment and replies, "Those two absolutely must not make it back to Earth, especially Ubica."

"I would’ve thought that Rage would be a bigger threat to your plans, after all you’re able to gather the souls of the dead unimpeded with him gone."

“You’re not wrong. But Ubica is getting stronger by the minute. I don’t know how or why, but it’s like he’s getting closer to his original strength.”
"Dantega… such an imposing force it continues to be."

Satan stays quiet for a moment before saying, "Listen Leviathan, I want you to go to Purgatory to kill him. Do you think you can handle that?"

Leviathan is the second in command in the Hierarchy of Hell, the fact that Satan himself has become worried enough about the situation to send him there speaks for itself.

Leviathan opens the door to the room and gets ready to exit when he says, "With the way Ubica is now, there is no way I can lose... especially not in the second level of Purgatory."

"Then go there immediately, let's finally destroy the uncontrollable Dantega."

----------------------

Caesar calmly walks down the steps that lead from the Captain's room down to the deck, he passes through the bulk of men rushing around gathering supplies for the upcoming battle and reaches the edge of the deck.

Out in the distance he sees the opposing pirate ship's men preparing multiple cannons for a second volley.

He puts one foot on top of the railing and glares at them with his one uncovered eye.

He smiles confidently and lifts his black eye-patch off his face and reveals a swirling blue eye that contrasts his other eye significantly.

The opposing pirate ship is now so close that the voices of the crew men are heard yelling that they are ready to fire.

Caesar’s bright blue eye starts to shine brightly and the light swirls in front of his face.

The men manning the cannons shout "FIRE!!" and send three large steel balls zooming toward the Black Dandelion at intense speeds.

"Redirect..." Caesar says unhurriedly.

The flying cannonballs suddenly snap sideways and fly off away from the Dandelion at a sharp 90 degree angle.

Once the danger of being attacked from afar is gone, he turns to the rest of the men and shouts, "Pull closer to them! We will take the battle to their ship!"

The ship's distance between each other narrows and rope with hooks at the end are thrown to latch on to each deck’ with this, the battle reaches a new phase.

Throwing their ladders from the railing of one ship to the other, both sides start rushing across these crude bridges and onto each other's decks. Almost immediately it starts to become very difficult to distinguish between friend and foe.

It would seem that Napoleon has no problems with this however, as he slashes people with his La'Juutian sword, he is easily defeating the enemies with no concern of being injured himself.

His reputation as an unstoppable force of a soldier in hand to hand combat is finally showing now that he fights against regular humans with no outstanding powers to speak of.

Another man with a reputation as someone unstoppable is Ubica, he is someone who could destroy the entire ship with a flick of wrist but instead he is just standing there. The only time he moves is when someone comes to attack him, he'll defend himself by turning his sword around and knocking them out of the way.

Caesar notices this and yells at him, "Hey! That isn't doing anything you know!?"

Ubica ignores the sharp glare of the Captain as another man comes up for an attack.

While defending himself he replies, "Well what am I supposed to do?"

"You're supposed to kill them you dumbass!"

"I’d rather not."

A couple of Caesar’s men are slain by the opposing pirates and this throws him into a rage.

"Are you blind!? These men are trying to kill you! These men are killing our comrades!"

Ubica clenches his fists and turns to see how Tsubiri is looking at him, but she is occupied with fighting at the moment and using her lightning strikes to dispose of her attackers.

Now that he thinks about it, these men really are trying to kill them, they are trying to kill Tsubiri and he is watching it firsthand. If he isn't careful, sooner or later Trojia and Daey will be attacked and they will either have to kill or be killed.

That is, unless he does something about it.

None of his friends would need to dirty their hands with this violence if he can help them avoid it.

With this resolve in his chest, he gives Caesar a look of agreement.

He runs to the edge of the ship and holds out his sword.

With a simple swing he can blast the opposition into oblivion, but he is hesitating.

When he escaped from the eternal lake of fire, he had for this is because he vowed to himself that he'd never kill another human being again. He knows that he must do what he can to protect the others but that doesn't help quell the expectation of his imminent guilt.

During this brief moment of hesitation, an unexpected voice from the water is heard so loud and deep that it causes some men to be overrun with the feeling of nausea and immediately incapacitates them..

"I see the rumors about you are true, Ubica. How disappointing.."

Ubica's face turns blue with fright, he instantly recognizes the voice coming from the water.

The ocean rises underneath the enemy ship and bulges tens of stories upwards; Caesar’s crewmembers stare in shock at the sight and even the Captain himself has his mouth agape.

The men from the opposing ship all scream, some of Caesar’s men are on that ship as well and they too can be heard shouting.

The voice of the ocean is once again heard saying, "If there were any remnants of the old you, this would have already been done."

The water holding up the ship wraps around it and in turn makes a sonic boom so bright it shines the night sky so much that it looks like it has suddenly become day.

The sonic boom is so loud that it takes a few moments before the actual noise rings through the ears of all the rest.

The ship is blown into nothingness and only fragments of the ship drop from the sky and look like hundreds of shooting stars until they turn to dust and gently fall into the ocean and land atop the heads of the remaining men.

Messor finally leaves from the barracks and walks onto the deck, she sees the giant form of water still there.

"I thought I had heard 'his' voice." she said with scowl.

The water bulge slowly shrinks and the silhouette of what looks to be a serpent is swimming around in a circle as a blue light pulsates from within the water.

Out of the top of the bulge comes a dragon's head, peering at them with its bright red eyes.

The serpent looks up to the sky and opens its mouth, revealing its massive teeth, and out of its mouth a man rises up toward the stars.

He has dark blue hair and bright blue eyes.

Ubica takes an uncertain step back and his breathing becomes shoddy when he mutters the name of the man.

"Leviathan..."

"It’s been far too long since I’ve last seen you.” Leviathan smiles and says, “To think that I watched over you from within the ocean for all that time only for you to eventually shrink away from violence like this.”

Ubica clicks his tongue and looks towards Trojia, Tsubiri and Daey, who are glaring at him in confusion.

With Leviathan’s sudden appearance, the three of them have no chance of survival unless he does something. But there is one problem, his legs won't move, there is something about Leviathan's presence that makes him utterly immobile.

Leviathan notices this and mocks him.

"What's wrong? Is that fear I'm sensing?"

"...."

"You must know that you don’t have a chance of defeating me then.”

Messor frowns and walks to the edge of the ship, she looks up to Leviathan and says, "You say that with such confidence now, how pathetic you are."

Leviathan looks down on her and smiles, "You defend him with such valor Messor. Some things never change, you’ll forever be the whore of the Antichrist."

"Shut up!!" Ubica shouts, a green light surfaces around him and his power can be felt all throughout the ship.

"But you Ubica, you’ve changed completely. You used to be so calm and collected, now you’re this emotional over a little insult to your woman?”

Ubica responds by swinging his sword and sending a green flash of energy hurling towards Leviathan's neck; this is an attack that is supposed to slice an enemy in two but when it makes contact with the demon it merely passes right through like a rock being thrown into water.

The unscathed Leviathan begins to walk down the steps of water that are forming one by one before his feet and says, "This is useless, stop being a spineless coward and actually attack me."

Ubica rushes forward and lunges his sword into Leviathan's stomach, but once again his attack fails and both Ubica and the sword pass through the demon.

“!?”

Leviathan continues to walk down the water steps toward the ship when with a flick of his finger, a stream of water is spit out of the dragon's mouth and wraps around Ubica's leg. It whips violently and Ubica is flung into the sea with so much force that his wake caused the entire ship to rock back and forth so hard that it felt like it'd capsize.

The faces of Tsubiri, Daey, and Trojia all drop simultaneously and they all shout his name at the same time.

Messor simply clenches her fist, it's almost as though she could feel the impact herself.

Leviathan reaches the deck and pays no mind to the scared glares of the pirates as he walks past them, he calmly reaches the bow of the ship and takes a seat on the furthest railing.

He then sighs and waits for something to happen and becomes frustrated when things begin to take too long.

"While we wait for Ubica to come back from about a mile deep in the ocean, why don't we have a little chat, Messor?"

Messor grits her teeth and feigns confidence when she smiles, "I'll let you do the talking."

“Very well then, I guess what I want to know is… What are you doing here?”

“Shouldn’t that be obvious? It’s not like I’d be anywhere else.”

“Ah, I misphrased my question. What I meant was, how are you here?”

“So you don’t know... “

“I can venture to guess how, but I don’t yet understand why.”

“Then you can keep guessing, there’s no rush.”

Leviathan rests one leg atop the other and shuts his eyes. "If this is what I think it is, I don't think you are going to like the consequences of your actions."

Messor takes her hat off and runs her fingers through her hair when she says, “I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing. Consequences? When this is over, you’ll be the ones suffering consequences.”

“Hmm…” Leviathan blows air out of his nose and smiles, “Well this is all just too interesting. I believe I have just stumbled upon a conspiracy.”

"Since you don’t know what’s going on, tell me what you intend to do here."

"That's simple,” Leviathan quickly replies, “I’m here to kill Ubica."

With these words, Messor's eyes widen and she begins to show signs that she is actually going to fight.

Leviathan looks a little amused at her demeanor when he says, "But just because I say that, doesn't mean I'm actually going to do it."

"...?"

"Don't look at me like that, all I'm saying is that although I can kill him, it doesn't necessarily mean I will. At least not now anyways."

Messor scowls and begins to breath hard, her white gold eyes glow bright and her body tenses up.

"Then what are you going to do?"

Leviathan raises his finger and answers, "I'm going to test him… Depending on his results, I will choose a side between Damien and his Father.”

He stands to his feet and walks to the very tip of the bow, the serpent makes its way to him and opens its massive mouth.

“This conspiracy, all it takes is one good look at you to see what’s happening there. I agree with both the father and the son that Dantega cannot be left alone, but I’ll decide which way is better suited to deal with Ubica before I throw my hat into their ring.”

With his back turned to the rest he finishes.

"When Ubica comes back, I want you to tell him that as his brother of the sea, I will always be in pursuit of him, no matter how hard he tries to escape."

Leviathan walks into the serpent's mouth and disappears when it shuts, the dragon-like creature dives back into the sea and vanishes into the dark water.

Messor takes a sigh of relief and turns to the rest of the remaining people, some of the enemy pirates are still on the ship but all thoughts of attacking each other have ceased because of the incredible happening they had just witnessed.

Trojia takes a step back and leans against the wall of the staircase that leads to the Captain's room, she can't believe the strength of Leviathan and how easily he had defeated Ubica.

Tsubiri and Daey have different thoughts going through their heads.

Although Daey is speechless, Tsubiri finds enough strength to inquire, "What in the world were you guys just talking about..?"

Messor shows a face of displeasure when she answers, "Listen girl, there are a few things that you need to know, and many things that you don't. If Ubica hasn't told you anything, you aren't going to hear it from me."

Once Messor finishes this sentence, another explosion in the form of a splash is heard.

BOOOSHH!!

Coming out the white wash is Ubica flying upwards at a fast speed.

He lands on the ship deck and wears a face full of frightening anger as he catches his breath, there are veins all over his face and body from the compressed air bubbles in his bloodstream caused by the intense speed he came rushing out of the water with.

A normal man would have exploded from such a drastic change in pressure, but as Leviathan said, Ubica came from the sea, and as a being that holds such other worldly abilities like Ubica, water pressure isn't much of a factor unless at its utmost extremes.

With his bloodshot and enraged eyes he scours around the ship and shouts, "Where is he!?!?"

Messor walks up to him to see if he is okay and says, "He's gone."

Ubica falls to the ground and lays on his side, the impact of Leviathan throwing him into the water has broken many of his bones and he is just about at his limit when it comes to mobility.

It's only now that Messor finally looks worried, there is no reason to be strong and confident anymore now that the enemy is gone.

"Where are you hurt?" she asks, angst evident in her tone.

Ubica is having trouble speaking and he barely answers, "Everywhere..."

"Now's not the time to be cute, Ubica, you really need help here."

The veins in his face start to fade and but the awful pain still lingers, he slowly turns his head to see if Tsubiri, Trojia, and Daey are alright and sees a sight that he has been afraid of from the very beginning.

They look frightened..

Trojia comes rushing to his aid but both Tsubiri and Daey stand there as if something is holding him back.

(I’m glad they’re okay, but I wonder what Leviathan has told them?)

He thinks to himself as he watches them take cautious steps backwards away from him.

(I knew my secrets would catch up to me eventually… but I wanted to be the one to tell them.)

With these thoughts in mind, Ubica loses consciousness and lays limp on the wooden ship deck.

--------------------

"I heard from a little bird that you were sent to Purgatory by my father." said Damien, his usual smile has failed to surface his face when he asked this.

Leviathan shrugs his shoulders, "Birds sure fly fast nowadays."

Damien sends him a sharp glare and asks, "Did you harm him?"

"Only about as much as his ego could take. But physically he'll be just fine."

"My father isn't going to be too happy about that."

"I'm not too worried about the big guy, I'll just avoid him until the next time I go. He is always cooped up in his room playing his game of Chess with the Earth so it'll be easy to do."

"The only thing he cares about is being worshiped by the people of Earth... his obsessive nature will be the death of him.”

Leviathan walks towards a large lake that shines off the orange tinted dark sky that casts over what looks to be a barren wasteland.

With his back turned he said, "Like father like son."

Damien tries to hide a frown with a faint smile and replies, "Dantega is worth my obsession... humans are not."

Leviathan takes a step into the water and horrifyingly gurgled screams come from it, if one looks closely enough they can see an endless amount of people being whipped around in a ferocious and never ending whirlpool.

This is his world, water and anguish awaits those who committed his Original Sin throughout time and a never ending drowning is cast upon them. Once their lungs shrivel to nothing, they quickly regenerate and suffer the same feeling all over again.

This punishment will last for all eternity.

This terrible pain is only the beginning, this whirlpool is the home of hundreds of Leviathan's demons who swim in the water and personally torture and devour the helpless people whenever they so please.

Leviathan's form starts to disappear in the horrid water until the only thing left peering out into the open is his head and shoulders.

He turns to glare at Damien and shows neither a smile of confidence nor a frown of bitterness when he says, "You and I both know it’s more than just Dantega."

"Oh?"

"Perhaps the others can't see it, but it's obvious to me that you don’t makes decisions based on simple ambition like your Father. I don’t quite know why you’ve begun to walk down the path you’re on yet, but I have a nagging feeling you’re doing this for something silly."

Damien keeps his confident smile and asks, "Do you want me to tell you?"

"Not at all, you’d be lying to me."

Leviathan lowers his head, the bangs of his dark blue hair cascading over his bright eyes creates an intimidating shadow over his face.

"I hate to admit it but, I'm more like your father. My desires are simple most of the time. The difference between him and I is that I’m willing to make compromises for to attain them.”

"What are you trying to say?"

"Whatever it is you’re trying to do, I believe I can accomplish what I want through you."

“Is that so?”

"Yes, because of that I'm going to go along with your plan for a little while. If I can get closer to fulfilling my simple desires, I will be at your service. But if I find what I want to be unattainable, I will stay by Satan's side and kill Ubica off with my own two hands.”

Damien smiles and his red eyes glow. "That's a wise decision Leviathan, I think you'll find that being on my side is far more opportune than sticking with my father. Once Dantega is in our hands, the entire universe will be ours."

Leviathan smiles and sinks into the water, leaving one final statement, "Don’t insult me with a grandiose promise you have no intention of achieving, I know that the control of the universe isn't what you want... there's something different about your goals, and I'm interested in seeing what it is."

"You'll find out soon enough."

------------------------

Ubica's eyes slowly open and he finds himself looking up at the wooden walls of a pirate ship. The sun shines on his face and he looks out of the window and sees the endless blue of the ocean, the gentle row of the ship makes this rock hard bed a lot more comfortable to him.

But his comfort is broken when a weight is suddenly felt on his chest, the bed springs bounce up and down and in his sleepy daze he doesn’t quite realize what is happening.

"How long did you intend to sleep so lazily??"

Tsubiri's voice rings in his ears.

She is on top of him and bouncing in order to wake him up.

"W-What is this!?"

Tsubiri grabs the pillow, pulls it from under his head and hits him in the face with it, sending feathers flying everywhere.

"How come whenever you seem to go to sleep you end up passed out for two days!?"

Being hit repeatedly in the face by the pillow, Ubica begins to understand what is going on.

"Is this a proper way to treat an injured sailor!?"

"You're not injured unless I say so!"

"That doesn't make any sense!!"

The two wrestle around and even more feathers are tossed up into the sunlit room, making the scene look all the more hectic.

The door to the room quickly opens and Daey comes rushing in.

"I heard Ubica's voice, is he alr----"

Her words of concern are cut short by the sight of Tsubiri postured up on top of him in a dangerous looking position.

She immediately sends him a dejected glare.

"D-Daey?" Ubica says with a nervous smile.

Daey lets out a sigh and begins to walk towards him.

With each one of her steps, the wooden floor seems to ominously crack and this adds to the tension pulling towards his apparent doom.

"Now now, calm down Daey this isn't what it looks like."

She doesn't reply and he begins to panic.

“I swear it's all her fault!!!"

Tsubiri hits him again with the last remaining bit of the pillow and shouts, "My fault!?"

Daey puts her hand in between them and stops Tsubiri's second assault. She looks down on Ubica and sits on the bed.

The two stare at each other for a moment until Daey leans over and wraps her arms around him, giving him a tight hug.

Thrown off by this unexpected reaction he asks, "And what is this wonderful hug for?"

"I’ve been worried about you.”

Ubica bites his lip and holds back a smile, the thought of the other night when he was defeated by Leviathan rolls through his head and this fills him with doubt.

"But... the last time I saw you, you both looked so afraid of me, didn't that man reveal some awful things about me?"

Tsubiri, who had been quiet for this touching moment responds, "We'd never be afraid 'of' you, we were afraid 'for' you... you were hurt so badly, I didn't know what to do."

Daey adds, "And we don't care about anything you've done in the past. The most important thing is that the you I'm holding right now is safe and well."

"You guys..." Ubica hides his face in Daey's shoulder, he is fighting back tears of gratitude and doesn't want them to see it if one were to slip.

"Thank you..."

This tender and sweet moment is broken by Tsubiri punching him in the stomach quite hard.

“Gbhh!?”

He gasps for air and looks at them both quizzically when Daey grabs his shoulders and holds him down.

Tsubiri smiles menacingly and says, "But don't think our relief means we’ll let you off easy this time, you have some serious explaining to do."

"That's right.” Daey adds, “It’s time you open up to all of us about yourself. We won't let you go until you confess."

Surprised, but also impressed by their sneak attack on him, Ubica understands that holding things back is no longer an option. Ever since he has met these two, he has been steadily opening up bit by bit, especially to Daey, and never once have they indicated rejection.

He truly understands now that keeping the details about himself that constantly put his friend’s lives in danger hidden is both selfish and abhorrent behavior.

If these things are to continue to happen, and they will continue to support him despite it, he knows that it’s only fair that they know why.

“Okay…” Ubica says, a sigh of resignation exits out of his mouth. “Where should I start?”

The door suddenly flings open and makes a loud crashing noise, interrupting them.

The large frame of Caesar is standing at the doorway with a couple underlings behind him.

He is frowning and looks incredibly serious when he says,

"I hate to break up the mood but..." he points his big index finger and Ubica and finishes, "I want you off my ship."

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Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 2

2021-04-17T07:45:05Z

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