Jumkou burst into the room Sachiel is in, without warning. The barging of the door caused Sachiel to get alarmed. However, he was reading a book, enjoying his free time.
“Sachiel! There’s something I need to tell you!” She seemed more serious than ever. This was unlike Jumkou, in Sachiel’s eyes. Since the time he has known her, he always saw her as a happy individual.
“H- Jumkou, you seem rather stressed today. Is something the matter?” He closed his book, looking at her.
Jumkou hesitated for a moment. She knew that if she was ever going to say it, she had to say it right here, right now, to Sachiel. If not, she would lose this moment forever. She hesitated even more now.
.:. Just come out with it, Jumy... It’s not... or never! .:.
“Listen. Sachiel. I know this is going to sound insane but.” She stopped but then took a deep breath, holding her composure.
“I’m from the future. I know it sounds crazy! But I didn’t end up at Snowfall Heights for no reason! I travelled back in time and ended up there. I... I come from the year 2215.”
“...” He looked her in the eye. Future? There was no such thing as time travel. How could you ever time travel without the equipment needed? Overall, it was impossible. No one could bend space-time continuum in a way like that.
“It... appears that the doctor failed to examinate your injuries properly, Jumkou... perhaps you should sit down for a bit. All this talk about the future makes you seem insane... It is hard to believe such a t-“
“I know it seems hard to believe but the Soul is capable of anything!” She released her Soul-Aura for the first time, matching the level of a powerful person such as Sachiel. It had a time-ticking sound embedded into it with a white outline and a grey whooshing air.
“I wield the Soul of Time. When Mr. Magami was here the other day, the look on his face showed confusion, am I right? How did I know his name, you may ask? You may say that I’ve met him before but I have never met him before, not yet at least!”
“Perhaps... repressed memories returned...?” He still couldn’t believe it.
“Agh... Sachiel! He is a Kyvernian! He comes from a long destroyed race! On Nuvaria, he fights against the two souls of evil, Kaioshun-Rymela and Kariya-Vecta.”
Jumkou held her chest like she was venting. She was venting, but she was also telling him about the dangers that were to come.
“You have to believe me, Sachiel! That will happen in the coming year... Nuvaria... will be destroyed! And he will die along with it!”
All of these were her memories recollected from when she was younger.
Sachiel’s interest was sparked, but he still couldn’t believe it. This felt even more stupid now that she mentioned Kyvernians. Claude Magami, a Kyvernian? That was not possible. Kyvern was destroyed 25 years ago.
“Kyvernians died out... 25 years ago, Jumkou.”
“Exactly, Sachiel! Exactly that! Nobody, not even himself, knows that he is a Kyvernian! But I do! Because he was my best friend’s father! Sachiel, there is something larger at hand here! I didn’t come alone! I was... followed! From the darkness that destroys this galaxy in the future... 20 years from now!”
“...” Sachiel was left speechless. A level-headed person with unwavering mindset and charisma, was left speechless. “...”
“Agh!” She banged her head against the table. “Listen! If you don’t believe me, fine! But at least get me off-world so I don’t lose focus of my mission! I have to find a man named Flynnigan Shotaro because he is the key to prevent the Milky Way from falling into absolute entropy!”
Sachiel was once again taken aback by the sudden slam on the table. Was this girl just crazy? It really seemed like it. And if she was crazy, she needed help. The rehabilitation didn’t have effect on her, so Sachiel needed to take matters into his own hands.
“I’m sorry... I don’t... I don’t want to go through it all again... I’ll lose all sense of myself... this time... This need to work... this time, it has to! Sachiel it has to! Otherwise I’m done! I’m done with all this! I can’t survive another time! You need... to believe me... you have to... believe me... anyone... please... help me... help me!”
Tears began to slowly stream out of Jumkou’s eyeballs. The future she lived in was nothing but suffering, there wasn’t even a single day where the skies were clear, and the stars shined bright.
Sachiel, seeing Jumkou crying, stood up and walked towards her. He put a hand on her shoulder and squatted to her level.
“Time travel is an unbelievable concept, Jumkou. This is a common thing. It is not believable thing, not even to me. But I can see it in your eyes, and the way you speak to me, that you are not lying either. Help is always received here in Testharia. What you are saying feels true. But how will you prevent such a catastrophic event from happening all by yourself, Jumkou? You need people alongside you. People you could perhaps trust.”
“...” Jumkou looked up at Sachiel and took another deep breath.
“Kaioshun-Rymela isn’t just some Soul-Wielder. He has incredible power. He has so much power that he could even kill you or Kytan Veyron with just a wave of his hand. He killed my best friend. His body was the last thing I saw before I came here. He isn’t working alone this time around. He is with another Soul-Wielder I mentioned. Kariya-Vecta. But I don’t remember any mentions from him in the future... Something must’ve been altered on my way here.”
Sachiel smiled. “Perhaps altering time comes with grave consequences. If an old thing is gone, a new one must be there to fill in the gaps. Perhaps it duplicates... perhaps it changes the very fundamentals of history and the future itself. We are the balancers.”
“... Sachiel... Wait...” She wiped the tears off her eyes. Sachiel looked at her, waiting for her to continue talking.
“... Do you believe in the long existing legend...? The Call of the Gods?”
Sachiel nodded, which was ridiculous. How would a Testharian know about a fairy tale? Except this wasn’t just some fairy tale.
“There shalt be the one who procures the Soul of the Gods and shalt vanquish the hearts of impurity which is ‘the balance’. Do you believe in this legend?”
She nodded in return. She didn’t know much about the legend herself, as she overheard it in a conversation mentioning it, but now that Sachiel explained the whole thing in short terms, she understood it fully now.
“...What you are saying is true, Jumkou. I do believe you. If I were to help you, however... My people will be left unmanned by a fundamental Soul-Wielder. Leaving them vulnerable will certainly call the outsiders for an immediate war against us... But my people will suffer the same fate by this calamity that you are talking about.”
He sighed.
“Very well. I will join you to stop this catastrophic event from happening, Jumkou. I want my people and everyone to survive.”
He would then raise his hand and held it close to his chest, bowing.
“By the greatfather Azrael Testharia and his brothers, peers, and the son of Wersar Eria and the fourth Kamisword of Testharia, Sachiel Eria. I entrust my blade to you and to you only, until the day I die.”
He made an oath for himself to be Jumkou’s knight in shining armour. Even though Jumkou was strong enough to fend for herself, having a strong, if not, stronger knight alongside her was enough to take this monster down.
Jumkou, summoning her staff, bowed towards him too. “Great Kamisword. Jumkou Katatoria will do whatever she can to save this galaxy.”
“For you.”
“For Mr. Magami.
“For Flynnigan Shotaro.”
= = =
As always, there sat two members of the Eria family on the holy sofa, conversing about all sorts of events happening around the world. Now that they were in an alliance, or better yet, a coalition against Dark Intrinium. However, that was not the main for their conversation.
It was something else.
“Our greatfather was not a good one. But we could’ve done so much to stop him from going down a dark path. The last days of his rule, he executed his authority resembling more evil than good.”
Asheera sat, thinking out loud. She was drinking Shukrann Wine together with Sachiel Eria.
“He was stressed. Very stressed. Yet we sat around... like scared babies. We watched a king spiral into madness, Sachiel.”
Sachiel crossed his arms, thinking as he closed his eyes.
"He was not perfect. No one is." He started, opening his eyes as he turned to face Asheera. "But we can make things better for the future. We can prevent what happened in the past from repeating itself. And it starts with us and the people we surround ourselves with."
Asheera turned to look at him.
"Testharia has turned from a state of turmoil into a bustling place in my time of rule. I have made allies with those who were once my enemies. We will have peace in our world. We will do this together." He continued, smiling at her.
"Sachiel..."
"No matter how much stress he had to deal with, our greatfather was still an old fool. You know it as well as I do, Asheera. We can make things better for the future. If you want to do something that will make a difference, then stand up and lead. But be warned, we will not always have friends or family by our side. That is why you must stand strong, even when no one else is there to support you."
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Sachiel stood up, pouring some more wine for himself, before hearing Asheera talking about their deserted sibling now. "Even so, when our grandfather was ill and mad, was it okay for her to do that?"
"..." Sachiel fell silent, not knowing what to say. However, his silence spoke volumes. "She broke our family apart and we're just now picking up the pieces. We acted like she did not exist, casted her out of our family and turned our backs on her."
Sachiel turned around, looking at her now. He decided not to sit and glared at her.
"Satono will remain our beloved sibling until we die, but you cannot overlook what she has done. She infiltrated the library, infiltrated the Testharian Records and burned all records of herself, just for her to forget that we are family. That is betrayal and you know that."
Asheera remained silent, thinking about Sachiel's words. He was right. Yet, they were both responsible for their sister's decision.
They were too young to understand everything, but they should have stood up for her.
Their greatfather was the reason for Satono's choice.
"I have never told you this, Asheera. Which is why I will do now." Sachiel sat down.
"Satono's fighting abilities were remarkable, even at such a young age. When she turned 10, she was already stronger than you. When I was heir to the throne, she was as strong as me. But when she turned 14, her development abruptly stopped. If you remember, her Soul is not cooperative. They are not on the same wavelength and that was a huge concern for our greatfather. He was ill and grew mad, and his madness resulted in him revoking her citizenship in this city and ordered Satono to live with my mother in Nymeria Town."
As Satono grew older, she became increasingly disillusioned with the Mobilizers of Testharia's glory and prestige.
Her frustrations were exacerbated when Sachiel's mother died from an incurable disease. Shortly after her death, she noticed the neglect of the towns and cities outside Tristate City.
Despite the absence of crime and clean surroundings, the lack of people in Nymeria Town made Satono resent living there.
As Satono grew older, her anger towards the government and her family members intensified, motivating her to infiltrate the Eria Tower. She was particularly outraged that her family members had cut off all contact with her and sought to uncover the truth.
At the age of 23, she launched an attack on the Eria Tower, resulting in the first and only terrorist attack experienced by the tower and Tristate City.
Satono searched for her family and personal records in the vast library of the Testharian Records, hoping to find evidence that she was not permanently banned from the Eria Tower. To her dismay, she discovered that she was indeed banned and denied any form of contact with her family members, as confirmed by Wersar Eria. Satono's anger and despair drove her to the top floor of the Eria Tower, without permission, triggering a lockdown.
There, she confronted Sachiel and Asheera, accusing them of causing her current state of isolation and unstable mind.
In a futile attempt to restore her dignity, she fought both Sachiel and Asheera, losing badly and being registered as a terrorist in the Testharian Records.
Satono was incarcerated in the Garden of Sinners for rehabilitation, but she had other plans. She became the first person in Testharian history to break out of the Garden of Sinners and infiltrate the Eria Tower and the Testharian Records twice. Satono burned a quarter of her family records and all of her personal records, then fled the planet to live as a loner.
"Even if we had the power, we were not allowed to retain any form of contact with her. I tried to rewrite his orders and rules, but I could not. I could not deviate from my greatfather, as he perhaps would have done the same thing to me."
"But... I never knew that..."
"You did not know as our greatfather kept it a secret from you. He adored you more than he adored us, and he had no issue bringing that topic up with me. As I was next in line, I could not do much as I was powerless. However, I do regret not doing anything to change our greatfather's mind. Perhaps, she would still be here if I did something. But I did not. It is my fault as well."
"... If we're not perfect, then why were we bound by such a rule!? She just needed more training!
"We can't ask a dead man questions, we can only imagine how he would answer them. Even if you tried to change our greatfather's mind, he would never let you see or talk to Satono, even if she was your own sibling. He was stubborn, he did not let anyone change his mind once he had decided on something. Which was why he became so inflexible in the later years of his life. He was no longer open-minded. He was stuck in his ways."
Sachiel looked down at the ground, before looking at Asheera. "We need to do better for the future. We will make mistakes along the way, but we will learn from them. We are both old enough to understand everything. We were young when Satono was casted away, but we can do better now."
"It's too late." She replied, standing up and walking to the window, looking out of it.
"Maybe, the next time I see her, I will give her all the answers she seeks.” Sachiel usually wouldn’t show his emotional side, which shocked Asheera.
But the shock came to an end as the doors of the hallway opened and out came Jumkou. She took the initiative to wear proper public clothing other than her bizarre outfit from her time.
.:. I guess this works. .:.
“Hello.” She walked into the main room.
“Oh hello, Jumk-“
“Oh hello, Miss Ka-“
Both looked each other in the eye, feeling awkward. It wasn’t often that they would sync up, however Asheera’s greeting was far more formal. Jumkou was not as close with Asheera as she was with Sachiel.
“Euh... how are you feeling, Jumkou?” He took initiative, walking over to her.
“Feeling like my prime now.”
Sachiel couldn’t help but all his rehabilitation measures worked on her. Feeling like her prime was the best answer she could give him, and he was happy to hear that from Jumkou, in which he deemed her his first foreign friend.
“Sachiel. I’m in the other room, call me when you need me.” Asheera stood up quickly, walking out.
“...” Jumkou watched her walk away, facing Sachiel after. She chuckled nervously. “Something wrong with you two? N-not that it’s my business!”
“It is perfectly fine, Jumkou. It is just family matters. We were talking about our other sibling who we have not seen for a long, long time.” He sat down, grabbing the half-full chalice of wine, crossing his legs for extra comfort.
“Ah... I would imagine a big wealthy family will have that one type.” Jumkou half-joked, scratching her head and smiling nervously.
Sachiel chuckled. “Is it really a common issue?”
But then he would think. What Jumkou said to him about her true purpose of coming here, he slowly started to believe it, taking them seriously.
“Your ‘future’ statements are still hard for me to process.”
Jumkou crossed her arms, turning serious. “I know. It’s a lot to take in. Even for me. The only way I can convince myself is to understand that the Soul is capable of anything. Even transforming the essence of time.”
He took a swig of his Shukrann Wine and exhaled. “You are right about the Soul. There is no limit to what the Soul can do, but this is not a matter of what the Soul is capable of. Such a statement is unbelievable, even to ones that research it. Manipulating the very essence and meaning of time... Such incredible power.”
This was the first time that he truly acknowledged her Soul’s power. Her Soul was the Soul of Time. It would be designated as a Fundamental-Grade Soul, if not the strongest Fundamental-Grade.
“... I’ve done it a couple times but in my first time, I wasn’t even sure if it was gonna work at all. For all I know, I could’ve gotten trapped between the physical and intangible realm forever.”
She laughed at that possibility.
“... That is not something to laugh about, Jumkou.” He was shocked that she was somewhat stoic about it. Something like that would even scare the fearless Sachiel Eria.
“Not like I had much of a choice anyway, Sachiel. And to add onto it. I’m not the only one who travelled back. Which gives me even less time to complete my missio- Aa- heh...”
She put her hand over her forehead, sensing a strong Soul-Wielder approaching the area. It was a tingling feeling, a strong one.
“Do you... have a visitor?” She asked, eerily gazing towards Sachiel.
“I have no meetings planned...” He looked at the meeting screen above the elevator. Standing up, he called a guard that was standing guard. “Samuell, get in contact with Asura.”
After a minute, he received word that the Grand Follower – Avu Fujimara, was making his way upstairs.
“The Grand Follower, hm...”
“What a very subtle title.” She smiled sarcastically. “Sachiel, before I go off-world, I would like to explore more of this city is that is okay by your end.”
“Of course, Jumkou. Help yourself. He smiled back.
"I'll return afterwards then. See ya around, Sachiel!”
She walked towards the elevator-
Enter: Grand Follower – Avu Fujimara
“Wh-“ She was immediately greeted by the Grand Follower who had used the elevator to make their way up. The elevator that connected directly to the high lobby, and not the elevator that the guards were standing in front of. That was suspicious. Is Asura Reynel, the receptionist, unharmed?
Sachiel’s smile faded right away and turned serious. “Grand Follower.”
The first thing Avu Fujimara saw was Jumkou Katatoria, whom he looked down at. She slowly made her way around him. “Pardon me...” But there was no need for that, as Avu stepped out of the elevator and properly entered the room.
“Great Kamisword.” He responded to his welcome. It was bitter.
Jumkou felt a harsh presence emanating from Avu Fujimara and knew that this would not end well. She rapidly pressed the buttons to leave the room quicker, the doors closing right away.
“I apologise for barging in like this.” Avu said, standing firm.
“May I ask how you were able to use the direct elevator?” Sachiel asked first, not acknowledging his apology.
“As per our alliance agreement, the receptionist gave me the token for the direct elevator.”
“I see. Come take a seat.” Sachiel said, sitting down. But Avu stood where he was. He was going to keep this short, because he only came here to get one answer.
“I do not desire a seat now. I came here to examine the patrolling force for Tristate City, are the soldiers doing okay?”
“The soldiers are doing good. They are well-fed and sleep in comfortable beds. Our soldiers have opened up to them and are treated like our kind.”
“That is superb.” Avu said, but without a smile on his face. It was as if he was hiding something to say. He began to walk around, observing the room.
“I heard something quite interesting on my way here, Great Kamisword.” He continued surveying the room.
“I have been hearing whispers about a Soul-Core division squad entering this very same tower in the same week. Could this be a false rumour, Great Kamisword?”
"Unfortunately, it is not." Sachiel said quickly. "They have come here to negotiate a few weeks ago. We have been negotiating with a lot of outside bodies for tra-“
“A paper was signed, Great Kamisword.” Avu interrupted the Great Kamisword. He was not in a position to do so, nor he had the right. The nerve to do such despicable thing, in the king’s own humble abode.
“Forming an alliance with Dark Intrinium has given you benefits for sure, but even so, there are things we recommend you uphold on your end.”
It sounded like a threat. No, it was a threat. Dark Intrinium made it clear to every body they were previously in an alliance with that once they’re allied with you, they own you.
But Testharia, a government capable of so many things and with a leader as strong as Kytan Veyron, could they own Testharia?
“With all due respect, Great Kamisword... It is very unwise for someone like you to allow enemy forces to tread in your territory.”
Sachiel crossed his legs and looked up at him. It was clear that Avu was using his height to look down on him and give him a false sense of insecurity, but it did not work. Sachiel was a hard skull to crack.
“I have not forgotten the papers, Grand Follower. But I must keep my integrity when I must, and I’m afraid I will not change my ways for the sake of an alliance. We Testharians put ourselves first and the policy of outsiders second, a topic I stressed to Lord Veyron also. We intend to stay that way.”
“Soul-Core is our enemy, as well as yours. They are ENEMIES, entering a PARTNERED SPACE with DARK INTRINIUM.” Avu didn’t want to stray from the main reason he came by, and he made sure that the Great Kamisword got that through his thick skull.
“Ah...” Avu realized, he understood that the Great Kamisword was hiding something. He was truly hiding something, and had no intention to tell Avu.
“Testharia has terminated their alliance with the Dark Intrinium. Is that right, Eria?” He finally dropped the honorifics and addressed him semi-informally. He was frustrated, angry even, that Sachiel sat there with a smile on his face the entire time. Did he just not feel anything, or was he really oblivious that you could call him mentally incapable of reasoning?
“If such notice was taken into effect, I would have been notified of that personally. With how it is standing currently, our alliance is still standing.”
“I don’t think so. I’ve gathered what I could. I’ll be taking my leave now.” Avu turned around, facing the elevator. It was clear that he fully understood now, and did not want to waste his own time.
Someone as worthy of the title Grand Follower as Avu Fujimara, he had bigger issues to worry about. Avu Fujimara is the person who directly answers to Kytan Veyron, and runs a group that primarily pulls the strings for Dark Intrinium.
It was made to honour the fallen father of Kytan Veyron, Kytron Veyron.
The elevator door opened, but he didn’t go inside just yet. He turned his head slightly – looking right at Sachiel Eria. He was now his enemy and was stood right before him. “This will not go unnoticed, Sachiel Eria. Surely you know that there will be consequences for your actions. You are now my enemy.”
He said as the doors closed.