FULLHEART

ANGEL: ONE MILLION

…

| 5:54 PM.

| August 14th, 865. / August 14th, 2015.

| The Ruins Of An Ancient Library. Washed Up On The Surface Of Pluto.

“I got you! Keep steady!” Jasmine ordered, tugging on a wire that was wrapped around her left hand and using it to pull Cross up to an open window. Both Torjin’s made their ascent from the library’s exterior, using a hook and line to climb up past the first two floors and enter what looked to be a library from its uppermost insulation. At first, Cross was a little skeptical of this approach, as Jasmine had a penance for being much less coordinated with any job that befit the characteristics of a “wild goose chase”. Despite that, she’d be making an exception this one time, as what was in front of her was a chance to make things right. She needed to be as focused as possible for Cross’s sake.

What they were looking for was a piece of lost history that needed to be returned to its rightful owner, and regardless of whatever circumstances may have landed the weapon itself on Pluto, by the time they were done here, they were going to have it back in the right hands. That is, if Jazz could satiate Cross’s book-thirst. When you’re ferrying around a guy who’s been dead for almost a hundred years, it’s expected that he’d be more than a little curious as to what the world’s chronicles had in store, so as soon as the duo of Torjin descended to ground level and were met with a cavalcade of books and shelves scattered across the libraries halls, Cross ran off, giddy as a child, and started skimming through anything he could find that would hopefully catch him up to speed on the happenings of the past century.

Jazz, though scowling the smallest bit as she took to the search at hand, didn’t mind as much as her face may suggest. Cross had every right to pick up a book or two–or seventeen–about the world he once gave his life for, so she was more than willing to flex her chops while the hero accompanying her got his mojo back by reading himself up to the present day; specifically, about a variety of important conflicts and events that have shaped the world into what it was, and the entire known solar system besides.

“...A war?” He’d exclaim, flipping through the pages of a specific chronicle that, based off its details on the paperback, was only published last year. “Took place in 2012 on the planet known as “The Sun’s Shadow”, was contested between the Earth-stationed armament, Gladiolus, and eco-terrorist group, the Misted Flames-”

“Idro.” Jasmine spoke, shuffling a few fallen shelves to the side to clear any debris in her path. “Some call it The Sun’s Shadow, others call it the Moon’s spherically challenged little cousin–but the planet’s actual name is Idro. I helped write the report that made it into that book’s recounting of the war. Which is…kind of weird. How’d a book so recent end up on Pluto…?”

“Were you there, Jasmine?” Cross inquired, being given a shake of the head in response while she carried an armful of reading material over to the Bear, who was beyond ecstatic when he saw just how much she had.

“No, but I wish I was. Imagine the stuff I could have learned! The reports I could have made…without the threat of getting caught in a planet wide shoot-out, preferably.”

That chronicle was one of the many that Cross decided to pocket for their journey ahead, using a pouch he was given by a BA of his to keep them contained and pristine for when they’d eventually get off-planet. The thought of reading all of these once they weren’t in any mortal danger was more than enough to keep him going, and his friend smiled upon seeing how jovial he was to have something to look forward to besides getting his old weapon back.

Jazz pushed aside any further obstructions that kept them from accessing deeper parts of the library, and in doing so, uncovered a flight of stairs going down that revealed a massive greenhouse overrun with foliage at its bottom. Trees, plants, flowers–unfortunately for Cross, pollen–and monsters. Monsters of all shapes and sizes, known as Elemental Beasts. They caught Jasmine’s eye and reminded Cross of a few beasts he used to hunt back then. He missed those times. He missed everyone he once knew. But this was about that very same history, and setting it right with his own two hands. Well, four, considering the woman who gave him this opportunity in the first place was as giddy about fighting those EB’s as Cross was about reading his heart out later.

“Ya’ see that!?” She exclaimed to her friend while bouncing in place. “Lock us in, Jazz.” Cross responded while digging a hand through his pouch, soon retrieving from it a stopwatch that came attached with an MP3 player on its front, and a speaker on its back. He tossed it to Jasmine who turned and tuned the device onto its loudest setting, doing so at the same time as Cross made a call to a certain group of four who were waiting outside for them. The duo inside felt like challenging themselves, so they set the stopwatch for a forty minute time limit and leapt from the stairs into the greenhouse below.

…

| Mission: 134 Arboretum.

| Rank: Platinum. Grade: 1.

| Battlemages: Cross Garrison, Jasmine Viatolo, Jourdain Rowe, Ariana Lexus, Noelle Vanusha, Malik Caldwell.

| 40:00 Time Limit.

“Forty minutes? That’s it?” A younger, spryer Jourdain shook his head. “Those two are crazy. Crazy, and lucky that we thought to wait for ‘em. You three ready?” In the midst of his confusion at their choice of timing, the other three in his care celebrated this development coming to light; mainly because it gave them an excuse to beat up a bunch of monsters, and Noelle for one was more than ready to show herself off to do so.

Inspired by an animal farm run by her side of the family, Noelle specialized in the discipline of a Beastmaster, flanked by a magically summoned wolf and eagle, both powered by Ice. On top of that, her Subclass gave her a whole heap of extra powers to take for herself, owing to the Copy Anima that came infused in her armguard, Rose Larian. Ariana meanwhile wanted to let her robotics speak for her, marching on-planet with a box full of drones and a rover racing next to her, courtesy of her discipline as a Machina. Those two kept it simple while Malik came with “old reliable”, a massive staff toted on his back that the Mythologian polished both ends of for good measure.

These four were known as Shadow Intelligence; a quartet of Battlemages privately owned by an outside source, hired by Orias to ferry Cross and Jasmine to and from Pluto. Originally, they were gonna up and leave until eventually being called back, but a feeling they couldn’t shake told them to stick around. Now, their mission had changed. If Elemental Beasts were hogging this place, then all of Pluto could be in danger. What if the average treasure hunter bumped into these things? Better safe than sorry, Jourdain thought, even past the impossibility of clearing out an entire conservatory in just forty minutes. These crazies who he had lucked into being the squad leader of would have his back until they were called out of action, so at the very least, he could count on them to not mess this up while under his supervision. Hopefully.

Cross and Jasmine, meanwhile, were pushing the envelope their own way. As soon as that timer started counting down from forty, the Hunter and Striker came out swinging on anything and everything that moved. The greenhouse didn’t have floors, but layers, which would shift in and out by the flip of certain switches that closed different openings and revealed new ones like an interactive maze. Even being as big as it looked from outside, somehow, this place was bigger on the inside, often getting both Torjin’s mixed up as to where they’ve been and where they were going. It didn’t help much that on top of that confusion, the EB’s in their way were rolling as deep as the trenches on Pluto’s very surface.

Elemental Beasts came in three different types—Dodgers, Fullbusters, and Sirens—each pertaining to their build and befitting different situations with different ways to take them down. Not only that, but per their name, every EB was attuned with a specific element, the traces of said magic coursing through their bodies like blood. There were classes taught all over the world about which elements do what against different EB’s, but the situation that Cross and Jasmine were in didn’t pertain to their Disciplines or knowledge of affinities. They just needed to watch each other's backs, and not get hit.

Of the three, Dodgers were the smallest and most versatile. They didn’t have as much attack power as their counterparts, but made up for that with lightning-fast speed and a pack mentality. You’d be a dead man if they were to outnumber you. Fullbuster EB’s were the largest and most effective in combat, boasting exceptional physical strength and defense in contrast to a lack of speed. Then came the real problem. Sirens.

Siren EB’s were the rarest and most dangerous for a reason. The innate ability of possession, under a limit of two uses and completely irreversible unless mitigated through means that hadn’t yet been discovered. Luckily for Jasmine, she had a guy covering her who didn’t have to get too close to kill stuff, and of the two Sirens that they did happen upon, both were put down by a bullet through the brain that left the chamber and got reloaded so that Cross could keep his flow going.

He shot stuff down and kept his distance, Jasmine punched stuff away and managed the switches. They attributed their efficiency to the music from the latter’s stopwatch, noting that they could focus better when their ears were occupied. All they had to do was gun down and punch down a few monsters, and they’d be clear to look for Cross’s weapon with nothing to get in their way. Of course, the job wasn’t easy, as noted by Jasmine who realized far too late that her and Cross hadn’t run into a single Fullbuster yet.

“Cross! How deep have we gone so far?” Jazz shouted towards her friend. The Bear put his third magazine into the chamber and clicked it into place, having spent the past fifteen minutes watching Jazz run around like a house of fire while his keen eyes kept track of their progress. “You’ve pulled four switches and have two paths ahead of you! The ones behind you won’t open again until you pull the ones you’ve already passed to reset ‘em.”

Feedback rang out from Cross’s earpiece in the middle of him speaking. Shadow Intelligence were trying to make contact to no avail—likely the result of something getting in their signal’s way the further into the maze they explored. From Cross’s perspective, he was going to have to find another vantage point anyway so he wouldn’t lose sight of Jasmine, and seeing that their backup couldn’t get a signal on such a pivotal mission gave him another reason entirely to reposition himself.

“Hey, are you getting this? Shadow Intel’s not picking up.” He slung his rifle over his right shoulder. “A place like this wouldn’t have any active jammers on site, so I can only assume it’s the density of the building that’s cutting us off.”

Jasmine groaned out a reply while cracking her knuckles. Of course a tech issue had to come up while she was having fun. “Are you getting any feedback at all?” She’d ask.

“Just static. It sounds like clicking.” Cross replied.

“That at least confirms they got your call-in about the time limit. Should we wait for ‘em or keep it pushing?” Her friend didn’t reply. He just looked at her. He gave her a look that she came to recognize as a “the choice is obvious” look over the last year, and knew that if she chickened out of the chance to show off, it’d probably hit her paycheck. Or Cross’s ego.

Either way, she wasn’t gonna let it happen. So, Jasmine went down the left path of the two before her while Cross made a sprinting circle around the maze’s outer edge, moving as fast as his legs could carry him so he could find something else to climb on.

| Meanwhile, With Shadow Intelligence.

| The Northern Entrance of the Arboretum.

Noelle shouldn’t have been having as much fun as she was. Not only was she unable to copy any magic from the EB’s that her team went barreling through, but both of her summons were out-gunned by way of utilization. Unless she got lucky enough to bump into something that had magic worth copying, all she had to work with was Ice and her fists. But despite that, despite all of the limitations that came with the selection before her, she was hooting and hollering like this was the first mission she had ever been on. That’s because it was. At least, with Shadow Intelligence, it was.

She was their rookie, having been personally trained by Malik during her entry exam and only recently being put to the test on something their employers considered low stakes. Sure, they weren’t expecting to have stuck around on Pluto long enough to actually get their hands dirty, but it was very, very clear that she didn’t mind the extended work block too much. Her Battle Agent in question fought at his own pace while she and Ariana worked their wonders, his staff spinning too and fro between a horde of Fullbusters that tried to out-power and outnumber them to embarrassing results. Monsters, regardless of physical attributes or special properties, were just that; monsters, who acted on instinct and patterns that were child’s play to keep track of for guys like Shadow Intelligence.

The exhilaration that blossomed from Shadow Intel’s newest prospect wasn’t just from having an excuse to fight or to show off either; more than that, this was about her proving to herself and the people around her that she, as well, was growing into something more than her training. As far as her teammates were concerned, until she put up enough of a fight to earn some credit, she was just Malik’s protégé. So, she had to go in hard, and did so through the copying of her own summon’s abilities, using them herself with the added brunt of Rose Larian’s metal. On top of that was the Ice Magic she used being relegated to more opportune occasions than a frontal assault—mainly in the form of a shield around herself, shields around her allies, or spikes that she could summon for a counter if anything got too close.

Of the three “veterans” that helped her cut down the opposition, all of them were working on a sort of spectrum from most to least engaged. It was no secret that Noelle couldn’t get enough of the action, but behind her on that fluctuating scale were Jourdain and Malik more focused than enamored, and Ariana was having such an easy time that she could scroll through her phone while two drones and a rover did all the work for her. Being smart enough to make your own tech and fitting them with all kinds of guns and blades did wonders for someone as laid-back as she was, and on top of that, everything she knew was either self-taught, or so simple that it’d take no effort to figure out.

“Oi! Noelle!” Malik called out to the girl he trained. He called her once, then a second time, and then a third time, only to find that she was so engrossed in fighting that she was shutting out everything around her. Mal was too occupied with the EB’s in front of him to make a fourth call, so the Calico Lion gestured for Ariana to get Noelle for him. The engineer looked at him, nodded, looked down at her phone, walked past Noelle while looking at her phone, and gave her a smack on the ass while muttering out the man’s order.

“Caldwell wants you.” Was all she said. It took a few seconds of dusting off the blush on her cheeks for the Vanusha to actually receive her teacher, and when she did, she was given a thumbs up and a smile to compliment her performance. “You’re doing great.” He told her. “Keep it up.”

But before Noelle could return the gesture, A Dodger—the first they'd encountered on the mission—charged at Malik from behind, cutting across his back with a deep, puncturing slash. Jourdain swung his katana at their query’s midsection and cut through the air instead of its skin, having been a second too late to intercept the ambush, and being kicked in the stomach with enough force to send him sliding backward. He had to use his sword to slow himself down and made a quick head count of his squad. Malik was in front of him, Ariana was next to him. The former was holding his wound, and the latter was recalling her rover. Including himself, that’s three.

Where was Noelle? And better yet- “Why the hell is this thing showing up now?” Jourdain spouted. “Dodgers hunt in packs, and I doubt it has enough of a death wish to push four people by itself.”

“Because it’s not by itself.” Ariana relayed. While her hands were occupied with tugging on the pull cord of her rover, her eyes were spotting two, then four, then six, and then eight more Dodgers all forming up together behind the first one. They were ducking around debris, perching onto rocks, and had plans to intercept both her and Jourdain if they made any moves to save Malik. Hostage tactics in the middle of a fight. The fact that these things were smart enough to even think of that made Jourdain cringe to the point of disgust. Noelle, on the other hand, found an opening in their approach.

From the corner of Ariana’s right eye, she took a running start, and bashed the first Dodger to the ground with the fist of Rose Larian. A second Dodger lunged at her and went straight into a wall of ice that the woman rose in an instant, making it crash into the wall and fall to the floor. A spike of Ice was formed over the heel of her boot and driven straight into the back of the fallen monster’s head, and as soon as it happened, Noelle breathed in, breathed out, and felt like a whole new person in the face of such danger. “I feel like new all a’ sudden. Maybe it’s the Magic i’m sensin’....These babies got somethin’ I might just take for myself!” Jourdain rolled his eyes. She was enjoying this way too much, but then again, Malik was still alive because of her. At least he and Ariana had someone in their front line.

“Come ‘n get me!” Noelle challenged, responding to a hoard of roaring and screeching by blowing the Dodgers a kiss. “Mwah!~”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

| Meanwhile, With Cross and Jasmine.

| The Interior of the Arboretum. Four Switches Into The Maze.

| 25 Minutes Remaining.

Having to maintain a steady aim was difficult enough for Cross. Having to do it with allergies was nothing short of a nightmare. Pollen was floating through the air with such volume that the Bear could mistake it for an EB’s Magic, and was sneezing so often that he would’ve missed his shots if he was any less talented with a sniper rifle than he was. The left-hand path that Jasmine chose to travel down had, luckily for him, less EB’s than the right path offered, and Jazz’s fists were more than welcoming of less targets while her partner was sneezing up a storm from on top of a broken bookshelf.

Despite them having different views on how to handle this time limit they set, both Jasmine and Cross were more than confident that they could clear out the Arboretum before they hit the fifteen minute mark, and weren’t afraid to cut what corners they could find to speed up the process however they could. The latter of the two was much more heavy-handed in his approach, and only took shots that he knew he could make–sneezing or not–while Jazz bobbed and weaved without a care in the world around the monsters that came at her and sent them packing with an all too familiar efficiency.

“Anythi-ACK!” Cross cut himself off with his ninth sneeze of the mission. “Anything at all?” He’d ask while making another move to a different vantage point. This time, instead of a bookshelf or a fallen set of stairs, he found himself perched onto the sill of a window that was directly in front of an opening Jasmine was about to travel down. It was good enough for both keeping an eye on her and retaining his accuracy, but unfortunately, he couldn’t spot her quick enough from such an accelerated viewpoint to warn her about a massive EB that went crashing into her back.

A Fullbuster, of course, but this one was different. This one, instead of matching a majority of EB’s in a smoky black fur color and markings indicating their element, was a full stark black without a single discerning feature on its frame. As far as Cross could tell, this thing was about pure power, and it showed that through its explosive introduction by shoulder tackling Jasmine into her chosen opening and sending her sliding across the floor.

“Jazz!” Her name was shouted by her friend watching over her. “I-I’m’-” Blood coughed itself from her throat onto the metallic flooring below. “I’m okay! Little bitch had to sneak me…And with no element?” The Fullbuster roared into the air without a single pause in its motion. It was looking to rush Jasmine down with a completely frontal assault, but had its advance cut in two by a bullet to the chest from Cross’s rifle.

He kept up his own lay of pressure with each shot he landed, and allowed Jasmine to swing her way in from below with powerful strikes and knees meant to wear the monster down. “Come on! Ya’ can’t fight what’s in your face, ya’ fuckin’ pussy!?” Mouth of a sailor was an understatement. She leant her body to the left and swung upwards with a heavy uppercut to the ribs, and pulled back afterwards to lunge herself forward with a pointed elbow going straight into the EB’s stomach.

The monster caught her arm, pulled it down into a knee that it rose for an attack, and reeled itself back for a headbutt that not only went straight into her nose, but had Jasmine rocked to the point where she couldn’t react to having her face grabbed and being thrown into a wall. The Fullbuster had to turn to get a full rotation and full power in its throw, and was punished for turning by yet another bullet being shot into the back of its neck. It tried to turn back to Cross after the first bullet, but had a second one shot into its knee, and then a third into the side of its head that caused it to recoil full-on. But it was still standing. Something needed to be done to break its guard before anything offensive could dent it.

“You know what really pisses me off?” Jasmine spoke up from the slew of debris she climbed out of. “Bastards like this guy remind me a lot of the BMC—they see results, whether it’s in their favor or against it, and no matter how in-their-face it is, they just don’t get it!” The damage this EB had done to Jazz was enough to light a fire in her that Cross knew personally. A year on from when they first met, he was finally going to learn what her gripes were with the stalwart overseers of their wondrous world. That being said, the last thing he expected was for her to fight better as a result of needing to ramble.

She ran for the Fullbuster and drove her head into its midsection, applying so much pressure with so much stopping power that an audible crack came from its ribs. Then, she reeled back, swung in with a proper headbutt at the same target, and proceeded to focus on its sides and knees with heavy strikes thereafter; aiming to serve the same purpose that they did in her first engagement which was wearing down the beast until it couldn’t defend itself.

Cross, of course, was relieved that she was okay—even more so that she was okay enough to keep fighting. It gave him a break from having to carry such a heavy gun on his shoulder, and allowed him to listen more intently to what she had to say. He watched in awe as Jasmine rose her left leg and twisted to the side in a single motion, lunging it down to kick out the right knee of the monster with all the force she could build up. That kick served as a launching point of sorts, opening the door for Jazz to pull her leg back and raise it high for a second kick that clipped the EB on its chin.

“You remember a year ago, Cross?” She began. “When I told you how badly the Committee needed change? Unfortunately, due to our workflows and poor scheduling, I wasn’t able to elaborate! But now!? To hell with letting my thoughts go unspoken!“ Cross didn’t respond as he didn’t want to interrupt her.

“Every single person in the Vice Cavaliers is given their platform as a reward! It shows that, even when they reach the very top of the food chain, they refuse to sacrifice their values and principles, and hold fast to what makes them the people they are to the point that society’s most powerful people take notice of their efforts!” From this point in her assault would she make a full spin, delivering a back kick to the Beast’s damaged ribs with her right leg.

She then brought it down to wrap around the knee she already kicked, pulled it to the floor, and crossed her left fist over its face with such force that a book fell when the wind from the blow hit a wall. “But as soon as they take up their seat on the throne, what happens!? They abandon those values and principles! They kick them to the curb as if they were never there in the first place! They become husks! Shells! Apparitions of better, kinder people, who trade in their humility and understanding of why a Battlemage fights for power and glory that they can barely even handle!”

Jasmine wasn’t done. After that crossing jab came an elbow to the chin, and then another punch to the back of the head with her left hand that rocked the EB forwards. She grabbed its head, pulled it up for a headbutt to the temple, and unwrapped her leg from its knee as soon as she made contact so she could step back and drive her own knee into its nose afterwards.

“Damn.” Cross went while spectating the high kick. “Damn!” He reacted again at the crossing jab. “DA-ACHOO!” “Bless you!” Jazz blessed him. “Thank you! DAMN!” A third response was conveyed at her knee strike.

“I’m sick of no one getting us!“ Then she landed another knee to the nose. “I’m sick of no one understanding!” And another. “I’m sick and tired of the people who we’re supposed to look to for a brighter future forgetting where they came from, and acting like they're better than us cause some bullshit report card says so! They’re tone-deaf! They don’t get it! They don’t get us! They never get us! No matter how many times those titles change faces!”

Stains of the EB’s black blood covered her knees, knuckles, and shirt. Jazz was able to break its defense by out-powering it to the point of a complete overtake, and let it go once it was dead. “So that’s why you didn’t want to join them last year?” Cross asked, having come down from his vantage point to check on her. “Because you don’t trust them?”

“No.” The Rabbit Torjin replied. “If they can’t do their job, there’s a bunch of good people out there who’ll do it for them. That’s just life. I didn’t join because I didn’t want to end up like them.” She turned to Cross and put a hand on her hip, allowing herself to properly come down from such a battle-high and wiping her nose of her own blood while doing so. “I, for one, would like to hold onto what makes me who I am. I don’t plan on forgetting my roots any time soon like those clowns do every five years.”

Both bear and bunny shared a deep sigh. They could see from an opening that filtered outside the labyrinth that the EB’s they missed by not going right were regrouping. Now it was up to them to find Cross’s sniper and get out of there quick enough to help Shadow Intelligence. Nothing seemed to be in their way any further, so there was nothing stopping them from making one final push to the end. Although, Cross—being Cross—was just the smallest bit curious about something he was never told.

“Hey.” He inquired, walking up behind Jasmine and wrapping his arms around her waist. All this fighting had tired him out to the point where he needed a shoulder to rest his chin on, and he did so with a small nuzzle that made Jazz giggle into him and reach up to scratch at his left ear. Cross purred quite loudly. “What’s up, C?” She replied. “You never told me what it was that actually got the BMC interested in you. Was it the same thing you got promoted for last year, or?” He asked.

To make it easier to understand outside of spouting a bunch of science nonsense, Jasmine reached out both her hands and used them as an example. “It wasn’t all that.” She said, opening her right hand into a palm. “I took a bit of Light Magic…” She did the same with her left hand. “And a bit of Dark Magic…” Then, she brought them together. “And mixed them together to equal each other out. Hypothetically speaking, the perfect outcome.”

“That’s…huge.” Cross said. “Jasmine, that’s a whole new type of magic! Does it have, like, a name?” Jazz chuckled at how excited he was. She could hear his tail wagging. “Nothin’ too creative. Usually, Light Magic is associated with the color white, and Dark Magic, black. Put them together, and that’s gray.”

“So…what’d you come up with?”

“Mono Magic.” A big, proud grin plastered itself on her face.

| Meanwhile, With Shadow Intelligence.

| Still At The Northern Entrance.

| 10 Minutes Remaining.

With the benefit of hindsight and a good deal of training, Dodger EB’s weren’t all that tough. They didn’t have the raw power that Fullbusters had, or game-changing properties that Sirens came created with. Their “game-plan”, so to speak, began and ended with overwhelming numbers, and if that fails? Throw all coordination to the wind and attack as mindlessly as your body will allow you too. Such a drastic shift in operation was bound to throw off anyone, and unless they had seen it before, they’d no doubt be vulnerable to its consequences. That would be true in anyone’s case, but for Noelle, it was a reason to stop being humble.

She had spent months preparing for this position, and wasn’t gonna let something as sporadic as a mindless shift in approach throw her off from feeling so alive. Then again, in the case of the Dodgers, an answer to their assault came rather easily. This was uncontrolled. How would they know how to come at her, no matter their numbers, if they couldn’t even think to get out of each other’s way? Each and every one of these freaks wanted a piece of the pie more than they cared to coordinate for, and if Noelle could fight her way around that, then she wouldn’t have anything to worry about.

The woman spent a majority of this engagement ducking and doubling away from their offense, and allowed the Dodger’s that ran her down to stumble over each other and trip on their own assault. There were simply too many of them to work on equal footing, and coupled with the fact that she had the advantage of them coming at her with no plan, they were pretty much fighting themselves instead of her. It was getting so embarrassing that Jourdain had to look away. These were the coveted monsters of the world that they spent years training to fend off? They could barely handle a rookie with four months of training! Or maybe she was just a natural. That would track, considering her family name.

“Do you mind if I cut in?” Ariana called through the sound of a ripcord. From the moment Noelle blew a kiss to the opposition, she had been tugging and pulling at the kick-back of a drone while another one flew beside her, waiting for an okay. “Be my guest!” Noelle replied. “Just don’t trip over yourself like these guys are!” The engineer behind her chuckled in response.

That small laugh on top of asking Noelle permission to fight was the most emotion she had shown all day. Something about the rookie’s performance seemed to be empowering her. It gave her just the right vibe to play her trump card, which was just doing what she had been doing already, but with a more active mind than one that spent the whole mission staring at her phone. “Oh, please.” She said, “I barely even have to move.”

.243 Winchester bullets came gunning out of her flying drone at the speed of an assault rifle. These were sniper caliber shells being laced faster than the naked eye could see, and they were sweeping left to right through Dodgers of no quarter who were far too focused on Noelle to react. More specifically was it the driving force of two mounted machine guns pushing against their assault, all loaded to the brim with the shortest of shells that came customary with .243’s. Malik, for one, was horrified at what he was seeing. Unless Ariana was manufacturing sniper ammo in her free time, it was a complete mystery as to how she got them. And how she got so many of them! Why not just give them to Cross? Whatever, he thought.

Noelle wasted no time following through on the engineer’s assistance, and was getting quite bored of shooting ice spikes into heads and walls into crowds. She needed something heavier. Much heavier. Luckily, her intuition from earlier was rewarded with an out, as a Dodger came up from under her only to get palmed in the face by the glove of Rose Larian. Better yet, the EB she countered was lined with streaks of orange, coating through its black fur like a river. This was perfect for her.

…

Rose Larian is a red and black full-arm gauntlet that is latched onto Noelle’s left arm. It comes built with magic installed in the frame, and is fully functional as both a devastating weapon or a recolorable piece of fashion. The magic inside the gauntlet is the foundation for its Anima Cast, which is a siphon activated by physical touch that allows the wearer to copy the magic of anyone they touch–completely down to the most basic of attributes.

Copying said magic, however, doesn’t limit the wearer to a stolen spell. Once it’s siphoned into the arm, Rose Larian’s user can do whatever they want with it. From there, it’s down to the imagination.

…

“ELEMENTUS: FIRE!”

A volcanic crash of sweeping flame burst from the gauntlet into the Dodgers’ face. Noelle wondered why all these EB’s had gone this whole time not using their own magic, but now that one of those spells was hers, it wasn’t much of a worry anymore. She swung and frolicked with the surging flame to her heart's content, even dousing the bullets of Ariana’s drone in fire so that the added incendiary would deal more damage. Any of the Dodgers that tried to run away were cut off by Jourdain’s lightning-quick slashes or Malik’s three-section staff as well.

They had range, speed, and magic on their side, but considering their luck, a creeping feeling in the back of their minds expected something to go wrong. They were expecting a Fullbuster or a Siren or something to halt these huge steps, but nothing came of those fears, for a bullet from their right gave them more quarter than they could ask for. A single sniper bullet bounced from the head of one Dodger through four others in an instant, and allowed Shadow Intelligence the smallest push still needed to consider this a victory.

Sterling silver coated in two-layered gunmetal, accessorized and finished by a muzzle brake at the barrel. A panel on the side and a three-section scope all painted a striking, bloody red. After a year of getting back in the game with military-grade weaponry and below, Cross was reunited with the very firearm he once stuck to like glue a hundred years ago. His Astral Weapon was back in the right hands, pulled from the deepest depths of the labyrinth he had spent the past forty minutes exploring, and he was grinning so wide that he looked like a child. It felt so good to be so back.

Jourdain called up to him once he saw the man with Jasmine by his side. “How much longer do we have?” He asked, referring back to the frankly unbelievable time limit they’d set for themselves. Cross just smiled. It didn’t matter. They won.

| 134 Arboretum: Complete.

| Objectives Fulfilled: Acquire Cross’s Astral Weapon.

| 2:12 Remaining.

…

In my defense, when I set that time limit for us, I was under the impression that the closer we got to failing, the more Ronin we’d get paid. Cutting it close used to net you quite the reward back in the day, but with the years that have gone by, things have changed. Then again, that’s probably for the better. I was being reckless for the sake of impressing Jazz, and could have put us in much more danger if we conceded to such a condition. That’s on me. Mr. Volkart, rightfully so, chewed me out as soon as we got back to our high-rise in Scotland. But, we all got paid! Shadow Intelligence included. Those guys are something else.

Another year went by where I gave my efforts entirely to Orias Corp. I felt like something was missing, even with my Astral Weapon back, and made an effort to push a little harder with every job I took to get back to how I was last century. I wanted to feel entirely like me again, and was more than happy to take whatever job’s I had to to make that progress for both the company’s sake, and my own. I had a planet to give back to, after all.

Meanwhile, Jasmine was being recognized more and more as the next big thing in the magic field of science. The accolades she was getting and records she was breaking eclipsed all the publicity she got for the creation of Mono Magic, and her stock was only getting higher the more she impressed with her head held high. Of course, this was only one side of a double-edged sword, as getting that famous came with loads of more work. Even so, with a Scotland-born hardiness keeping her afloat, she was making it all work out. On the days it didn’t, I was with her every step of the way.

Two years was how long I spent at Orias Corp. That felt like enough. I had done everything I felt I could do as a Battlemage under their banner, and made a number of acquaintances who were willing to save me a spot if I came back. More than that, I made a real, true friend in Jasmine Viatolo. That woman saved my life, and as someone who grew up an orphan with no family to call my own, I was grateful to have someone I could call my sister. If she wanted to be. I wouldn’t want to put any “100-year old brother” pressure on her.

But now, I was off. I had another mission in mind that I wasn’t sure would even be possible, but I spent two years putting in the effort to get myself back into Seraphim-shape, and I knew that no matter how good I got, I wouldn’t be able to take on the world without the rest of my team by my side. I was off to find their vessels, and awaken them from their slumber. Then I fell in love with a man named Belleck Faire.

Strong, thoughtful, intelligent, compassionate. Everything that I could ever want out of another person came as a result of us sitting on the same bench in rainy London, completely by chance. How lucky was I to find someone who understood what I was after, and put it on everything he cared for to hold my identity to his heart. He held that and the rest of me, so, so close, and at first, I didn’t understand why. It all happened so fast. He knew what I was willing to give, not just for him, but for anyone who mattered to me, and he held onto that with everything he could. Hell, he was willing to give it back all the same, and made sure that I knew that for every hardship I faced, he’d stand right there with me. I didn’t think I had that effect on people. But I don’t want to take that credit. It was him. It was always him.

We got married after a year, and I was over the moon to call him my husband. Better yet, I was a dad now, too! Belleck had two kids, Caleb and Gabriel. Those two are stubborn, and strong as Ox’s. They’re the best sons I could have ever asked for. I just…I truly couldn’t believe it. A hundred years ago, I gave my life to protect this planet. And now, a hundred years later, my efforts were being rewarded in full.

Connections. Fatherhood. Love.

I hope I made Vietro proud.

…

| October 12th, 2018.

| 5:01 PM.

| Bridger-Teton National Forest. Wyoming.

“Papa! Papa!”

“…Mm?”

Cross was shaken awake by Caleb, who had resorted to tugging on his jacket to get his attention. Whatever it was the kid wanted, it seemed he was being called upon to oversee it. A normal day, for Cross Garrison. Or Faire.

“What’s up, kiddo?” He asked. Caleb was beside himself with excitement, all to the confusion of Cross who looked left and right with no sign of Gabriel. “And where’s your brother?”

“He’s training with dad right now.” Caleb replied. It was then that his excitement finally became clear.

“Riley and Xavier are on their way!”

——————————————————————

[END OF VOLUME I]