COI C107
Northern Mihayara District, that’s what most Horsin people keep naming it. Close to the border alongside with Fuku City from the west and Taiyou Industries from the east. An example, an example what threats lie that is their equal against the unknown enemy, a demon, but experiences were the major part in that battle. The demons are able to learn their weakness and proven it through the lost lands. Somehow, the citizens were able to hold off as many heard that their allies are going to east mountain. Finally, the attacked ceased but packs are still roaming in the ruins, everything made by the demons.
Hiding through the alleyway, R-cord discussed everyone about the situation is happening. A race against time where the fourth moon cycle is coming, the third moon cycle; where there is still Alga’s after glow and Jigeram’s presence at the northern region of Kinteinnou. This moon cycle will cause so many animals to trickle down in numbers as food loses its abundance growth. It opens up the isolated creatures hiding beneath the soil/ground like forest. These monsters in this city however are hybrids made by the demons, if they are naturally formed by Alga’s light, then they shouldn’t be here with so little food.
Silfa and Joanne are taking a peek to the side of the wall, they are something trouble happening to the border. They should’ve made it through without trouble, it was a boring walk as the area look safe except for the light dense air. The air shows threat according among the Enders, they advise the city to expand during the next moon cycle. Now, in front of them, they see it as faint in the night. R-cord comes to them seeing through his monocle, the report already sent to him as they about to ask.
Silfa said “I’m not here to listen to your lecture, and neither would I have to wait for this situation to settle. They are just police personnel recovering some old realms from the gangs”
Joanne responds “But sis, this guy found monsters when we got here”
Silfa turns back her head and look at the shield student. Her long look of his face from the efforts he did to try to charge the gauntlet, there are so many chances for him to get as much as energy as he can. He looks at his gauntlet for his recent charged status, 20%.
The progress he had is very slow, and Silfa thought those monsters are probably weak. R-cord looks at her expression, truly so, and the one he brought down earlier is one of the monsters what the police are trying to investigate. It is the shield student’s mission to gather as much as energy as he could from the safest area they walk across. Sadly, more and more people passed by leaving no chances to collect the mana. He is just glad that this place is safe, he thinks.
The shield student approach to them. “You guys can leave now. I have my mission here and . . .”
Joanne stops him “There’s no need, this place is secure as and looks too easy for your training. I was hoping something is going to happen, you know, that guy who will be guiding you throughout the night is the one who brought that train war machine. I would like to see their version of battle mech”
“Oh, come on Joanne, this is my first night in training. I couldn’t even where to begin”
Through the far distance, they see something coming up near the border. The realm starts to blinking of numerous lights, small lights in size of a marble. A powerful light that sees around them in such a small spec. The police set their audio to high as they hear the sound of the warning call.
“Loud siren* . . . Repeat, lesser demons are found in this realm. To all back up, please send for rescue team as it kidnapped our citizens . . .!!! . . . The suspects are heading your way!”
The police move away as the light bursts open a portal from the realm. A strange humanoid like monster appeared from the portal with more of them in tight groups. One of them pulled out an item from its hand and throw it at the portal. It exploded causing the entire realm to be destroyed and sealed the realm’s entrance. The monsters tripped and fell down on the ground and few crystals dropped. The crystal rolls away as one of them breaks open. A person comes out from the crystal as it is clearly one of the abducted citizens.
Silfa sees the unconscious person to be a woman, and soon after, some of them breaks free with more younger people. Joanne recognized those girls
“Sis! It’s my classmates from my school”
She turns and see her older sister already springs into action with more random adventurers join in to help the police. Joanne follows along leaving the two behind. The shield student was about to join them, but R-cord stops him. He reacted
“Why did you stop me?”
“Stay in reserve, we have no idea what kind of tricks they have. For them to be able to abduct your people is something to be warry about”
The shield student reluctantly watches them as the fight begins. The police pull back and brings out their stun baton. They use their flashlights to blind the monsters, once the blinding light straight hits their eyes. The monsters’ face revealed, dead grayish eyes as if it is able to see, where they can see them only by magic as they immediately throw their crystals at them. One of the police covers them and raised his riot shield, expand widely with his magic to block the throwing projectiles. The crystal touches his shield, it quickly shatters like glass. It shatters along with him and absorbed the police into the crystal and fell to the ground back to original state.
“What the actual fuck?!” The police are being pushed away from the charging monster, one of the monsters picks up the crystal and continue to move forward. The adventurers used their magic to form a small barrier to trap one of them. The barrier reveals one of the monsters inside. The creature is nothing more than a rat man, its lifeless eyes trying to move around the small barrier, able to climb easily like some kind of lizard. Trying to break free, it gnaws the barrier as it eating the mana. The adventurer who casts the barrier sees it being eaten, and forced the barrier to squeeze it. Crushing it, then it dissipates.
The crumbling critter fell into dust as the monsters collect it by using its own mouth. The adventurers continue to fend off the monsters as they quickly being taken down. One after the other, the rat man quickly being taken out by their sheer number. Until the last one swiftly holding the crystals on its bag and the remains of dust gobbled down from its mouth. The adventurers and the police suppressed the monster where it stands. Its body fell to the ground as it dropped a crystal, as it lies straight flat on its gnawing teeth to the crystal. A gun fired shot at the head, impaled and hook, then pulled it off as it goes down.
The adventurers follow the direction of the hook being reeled to the back. R-cord grabs the head and ordered the shield student. “Drain it, NOW!”
“OK!”
He uses his gauntlet and place on its head. An immense power burst open as the two are receiving the damage they could not expect. The shield student’s shield automatically open and redirect the damage to it. R-cord’s Taiyou power armor is being ripped off parts of his helmet, opening a shrapnel of the torn metal. He pulls out his helmet as he bleeds.
One of the healers is coming to help them. The police check on the victim “There are three civilians abducted, we can’t pick them up for some reason”
Silfa and Joanne are trying to help the police “What happened to them?”
“No readings, as if they are mid teleporting, sealed away, or something. You can look, we can’t even try to touch them”
The victims remained unconscious, no indication, nor hearing their breathing. The static noise and the visual of their body as if they were holograms. Joanne tries to touch them. Through the energy shield given by R-cord, the gem she had starts reacting.
Joanne can touch the victim as she feels their hand. The emitted energy shield counters the presence of the fragment crystals still touching them, Joanne told her older sister.
“The gem! R-cord’s gem is negating the crystal’s spell . . .”
As she is about to give the gem, the energy shield quickly covers the victim and something appearing around them. Strange invisible marking start appearing then erased, something inside of the victim releasing some strange magic from her body, and then the magic slowly being removed by the gem. A slight image of a monster slowly turned to air.
Silfa takes her gem and given it to the others, same sequence and more is happening inside of them. One of the victims is vomiting as she is tried so hard to open her eyes and her voice is faint and weak. Murmuring as if she is having a bad dream. The police see what happened and said to them
“You two, what did you do?”
“We have Enders gem, the energy shield might have freed them from the crystal”
The police are touching one of the victims “What else this magic logic going to put us through . . .”
“Sir! The monster is reacting”
“GUYS! These two are having trouble over here”
Everyone looks at in two different directions. The monster and the two holding the head. R-cord shouts at the top of his lungs at the shield student’s side
“Miyusuki! Gather all the energy as much as you can . . .”
Armor starts bending “. . . That’s the only Enders item could resist this immense power!!! AAH! This prototype wasn’t made against demons”
Miyusuki distances himself away only letting his gauntlet absorbing the skull. The energy indicator is reaching 60%, the rat man is releasing terrible magic.
He watches R-cord’s power armor torn to shreds as his hand gripped on the skull. The vibration is coming to his suit already shaking to the point of its internal parts already rattling inside, his arm feels the loose tight edges already cutting lightly on his skin. As his face exposed including the shield student, the healer sees their faces wrinkling or aging only by their own skin. He tries to heal them, the magic exploded and knocking anyone who is close to them. R-cord pushed away leaving blood from the wreckage of his power armor and his arm.
The shield student held it firm. He tries to continue to drain the power it has as it reaches to 78%. He looks at the direction where he was being pulled. The adventurers were occupied from the body releasing magic from its body. The abomination occurred where its insides are pulling out from its body; fumes, flesh, blood, and bones coming out forming into the rat man like features. Trying to break free from the suppression, the adventurers try to take it down as it persists to molded back inside of it.
The adventurers tried to break through the monster. The crystals hid inside its bag protected itself being torn to shred, as the crystal breaks, it fused back in and with little remains being absorb pushed out. A piece of the crystal is struggling to form while the adventurers disrupt it
“Oh, what in the hell are we getting into”
“This is a lesser demon for fuck sakes, how weak they should’ve been?”
An agathean adventurer turns around and notice about the two “It’s the kid, the head is trying to revive itself”
The agathean adventurer casts his spell to teleport to the back, brings out his magic scroll place on the ground. He throws another one to the back of the shield student. The shield student held tightly as he looks old as his strength starts to wane. When he is about to be pull to the monster’s body, the agathean adventurer activates his scroll and switch both of them. The shield student switches with him all the conditions he had on him. He slightly pulls a bit with and restoring his health. The agathean adventurer fell down as he takes the kid’s aging state and said to them with his weakening old voice.
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“Hold it, the monster is trying to escape with those abducted. It needs its head to complete the escape!”
Barely to hear to anybody, it was the healer who had to repeat what he said. The adventurers try to stall the monster channeling its magic. Silfa summons her doll as it helps the shield student. The doll grabs the head, but immediately being pushed down to the ground as crystal shards burst open from the monster’s body. Every one of them got hit and getting pulled into the crystal. One big blast around it hits everyone nearby. They were taken inside of the crystal.
It wasn’t enough, the shield student slips his hand after one big crystal piece hits his hand. The head returns the body and its head opens up to the air. Its mouth opens and shout like the sound of the bell. The first bell struck, the magic around them gone. The second bell tolls, slightly something stops it from behind. More Enders come to help as it quickly unleashed its demonic magic out from its body, revealing captured people sealed inside the crystal. Fresh and unstable the monster tries to flee with it.
R-cord fell unconscious to see that his teammates came. After the bell ringing for another time, it disappears. As for the shield student, he runs to check his friend and her sister. They were gone, the blast from the crystals have abducted many people, including the guards. Sweep away from his eyes where there are the victims who were protected with R-cord’s energy shield. Someone comes in and pick out the gems from them, the man worn with warrior like power armor. Using light energy to pick them up from the ground. Levitating them to the air with no hassle.
“Are you one of our units?”
The shield student looks at himself to his gauntlet, he looks at the Enders who face is worn with his helmet and his round body got figure on his power armor, the shield student immediately responds
“No sir! I’m in the Raker Mawn guild and . . .”
The man took something out of nowhere and give it to him, it is R-cord’s monocle and the man said to him
“Data received; Miyusuki, your companions are taken away. As your mission should’ve collect energy for your training. Do you want to proceed for solo mission for now?”
“Solo mission?”
The man gives him the monocle, quickly places it to his eye and all the information flashing on his side view. Information place on his vision as he carefully read it, his responds
“Yes! Sir . . . X2L, I want to save my friends with the guidance of your . . . what?”
He continues to read the mission as he will be doing it alone, X2L said to him as he grabs his gauntlet and use his other hand to his monocle. The monocle gives special information on his view and see the capability of the gauntlet, without hesitation he nods back to him and said,
“YES! SIR!”
Loud and clear, there is no time for waiting for help. X2L dashes to R-cord then the agathean adventurer reach out to him in his still old body form
“I have traces to where it goes . . .”
Without hesitation, X2L’s visor quickly trace the man’s eye with past memory when he sees. Able to trace the magic abilities he had to see. The coordinates match the demonic magic through his system and aims his energy weapon, from the arm bracer, and opens a mechanism. He shoots to where the monster disappeared, a rift forced open giving an unstable appearance. X2L stared to the boy, and the message received through his monocle. Without a single word, he jumps inside.
The rift exploded without giving a single sound, X2L reads the message from him as he was at the moment entered the rift.
“I won’t let you down . . .”
The people who are left trying to pick themselves up from the chaos whereas reinforcement is coming to their direction. Ruby appeared in a sudden flash, she stops as she finds Silfa’s doll, puma, she looks around for any clues. She gritted her teeth
“No, not her too”
Smokes coming from behind her, where X2L and R-cord saw two toys going through the portal, blocked by the shamanistic smoke and they say what they hear . . .
“Duck, Puma?”
The shield student bears the pressure happening when he sent inside the rift, the torn portal, unstable, and made him feel the pain through his passage. No harms but the feeling of pain, he’s blinded by the strong light, and only his monocle was able to see what is going on. His body falls weak and his surrounding turn bleak, everything what he sees so far is a trembling mess as if he was in a battlefield. The monocle explains that he is in a demonic realm now, limited to his own strength as corruption easily demented any excess mana.
As he sees clearly, he is in the large public fountain, doesn’t recognized like the ordinary park of the city he knows. The design as he looks up is a stranger to his eyes, the model, the features show the appearance of a statue. Only the clothes he had seen but the other appearance like upper body and the face is gone, a ruined state. Weak and still able to move, he crawls as he immediately stops. Rat men appeared like ghosts. it puts itself on the dirty ruined fountain as the remains hid beneath the dirt. It collected and starts to materialize into its cultic body, then it leaves. The dirt removed, as it shown dead bodies preserved and leaving no decay. Someone twitches among it as the man raises his hand.
“Shhhsh, what a way making an entrance kid. Follow me, we won’t be made it out alive in this wretched realm”
The shield student looks at the man. Cameras, devices, and other electronic equipment put into the dirt and show the signs of it being rusted. Both of them crawl their way to the other side of the fountain, continuing the ruins as more bodies in mix of flesh and bones as it neither fresh nor man
“. . . Don’t underestimate this realm, kid. Or else you will be having nothing but to go through hell. Now, look over there”
The student looks through the holes of the fountain, where he sees the realm’s strange world.
“Take my camera, look at the lens and see through the far reaches in this shit hole . . .”
The student takes the camera and sees through the lens. The rat men carrying crystals and transporting it deeper inside the buildings. A wide opened transparent seal where there the people he saw during the fight before, then he sees his friends, imprison inside the crystal.
“Watch carefully, my camera is able to freeze any enemy when taken a picture through that lens. Once they froze, took any measure to take them out . . .”
The sounds of lightning strikes and thunder coming from across the distance
“. . . Take the picture, we strike when the lightning strikes again”
The shield student uses his camera and trying to understand the situation. For the moment, he has questions to where this man came from and there should be more like him. This realm freaks him out but his heart focus on his bravery to save his friends. He looks at the man, tired. Trapped in this unfamiliar world and nowhere to escape, he waits for the moment to act. A spark of lightning appears, after few short seconds, the thunderous sound reached them. The man signals him
“NOW!”
The flash of the camera hits the monsters in front of them. They suddenly froze as he gazes it in surprised.
“AGAIN!”
He immediately acted as more of them are coming, the flash of the camera stops them.
The man charges forward bringing a device and hit every frozen monster in a digitized freeze. It shatters to dust in pixelized matter falling to the ground, the static pixel being pulled into his device and the device revealed to be makeshift recycled phone. The panel shows the data is sealing the demonic magic. The man took is breath in a happily relief. The shield student comes in and follow up against the remaining frozen rat men, after he hits the last of it, a surprised attack appeared from behind. He quickly grabs its head as it fights back. His gauntlet activates to release the energy to his shield, and bashes it to its gut.
The rat man got stun and its head starting to drain off to the gauntlet’s grip. Its stunned body didn’t move as it already being absorb, it disappears leaving the man witness such a surprised. The thunderous sound is slowly fainting to silence, no time for them to react as he pointed to him at the building. The shield student nods and they quickly got inside. Out from plain sight of the enemies as they hurriedly coming to their direction, they watch them to find their kind as the place is empty. The man said to him
“I have never seen a monster was easily getting stunned with neutral mana, what type of magic did you use?”
The shield student didn’t answer but asking him “First, how did we end up here?”
He sighs “Nevermind, let’s go up the stairs. Those monsters are clever than what you seen near the city”
They walk up the stairs and saw the rat men are already clawing at the walls and windows to see what is inside. Hiding in the second floor, the two are safe, for now. The man asks him
“What’s your name kid, you don’t look like an abductee from Chojima district”
“I’m the shield student . . .”
The man doesn’t look convinced having him a long name and said again
“Ok, what’s your nickname? I’m Flashes by the way”
“Sorry, just call me Miyusuki. What happened here?”
The sounds of the window being tampered as the eyes of the rats and claws trying to see through the windows or from the broken glass, where they are now is still safe. Both of them stops for a moment until they left, Flashes whispers to him
“Monsters are abducting people near both Fuku City and Chojima District, I got caught and now I’m free, injured but free. I hid inside their corpse pit, then you appeared as I tried to hide. You almost got me caught after that dramatic entrance”
“Corpse pit? I thought we are in a fountain”
“Up close, maybe, how about take a look outside?”
The windows are cleared as the lightning keep flashing along the view, the rat men have already left as the shield student takes a look at the fountain. The fountain is actually a pit from the view at the back as it was covered with cultic ward at the front, with his monocle focus on it. The remains are no rat men, as it is been identified further, the scan shows the remains are molded together with different races. Whereas the skulls are being molded instead its original features. He steps back and started puking as too much information being added to his monocle, revealing the most disgusting image in high definition.
The lightning strikes closer to where they are and the building starts turning. The demonic magic is seeping inside of the building. Flashes pulled him to his senses
“We need to get out here, the building is starting change”
They rush to go downstairs but the floor starts releasing foul poisonous stench. They move on to the windows, the windows start shifting into a monstrous like flesh with the hard stone walls moving. Flashes look around and sees another opening, there’s a massive hole from the other room. Both of them runs toward it through the halls.
The roof collapses and fell on Flashes. The beam starts to form teeth where Flashes try to pull it out, biting through his hand as it becoming sharper. The shield student was ahead as he sees him down with the falling rebar beam. He charges up his gauntlet and transfer its energy to his shield, bashing the teeth off as it is smooth enough to carry it out. He helps Flashes up as the hallway starts squeezing onto them.
“Come on, Flashes. We need to get out of here”
They run towards the hole as the building is exhaling its foul breath. The shield student jump first and rolling on the floor, while Flashes tumbles to the ground and lies down.
The shield student tries to pull himself up, but the foul breath reaches to his face and breathe the toxic air. He falls down without a single resistance or coughing from his mouth. Flashes looks at the building as it is completely transformed. Its steadily moves at the sight of the lightning coming down. The building’s steel rebars and steel supports start to pull out from its structure. The metal parts and shrapnel are bending forcing the building not moving properly. Flashes hears someone casting “Polarized! Metal!”. The metal forced back inside the building burst everything around it ins and outs with one metal spike comes out from it.
The monster wasn’t stuttered after that spell as the living building turns to the man who casts it. Someone comes along, landing on the building, bouncing off back and forth, with every metal spike leaves the rat men’s body stuck on it. The rat men try to pull themselves out as they impaled deep to the walls, the lightning flashes as the man keeps going back and forth until every metal spike has a rat impaled. One flash to the air as the man slams down to the large metal spike as a lightning rod, a huge drop of lightning strike reaches it as a trail of intense electricity rushing down along with a thunderous fall.
Both men cast their spell together against each other, the polarization and the lightning shock connects to the tip inside of the metal beam. Magic collided together forming nowhere else to flow out from the powerful currents. A big spark erupts inside and thunder blow up inside the building including the monsters impaled, the explosion erupts as the entire building fall into pieces. After the smoke clears the two men saw Flashes lying on the ground with a young boy recovering from the toxic air. One of them spoke
“Flashes! We thought you were taken away deep inside the realm”
Flashes slowly stands up “Yes, I was, now I’m here with this kid beside me. Miyusuki, stand up and used that thing of yours to suck out the powers over there”
He pointed out to the smoking debris where the building was, fall into rubble and glimpse of bright light glowing through the smoke. The shield student stands up and checks where the man pointed for him. Others follow him as they talk.
“Miyusuki, huh. A kid like him able to survive in this realm. I thought he was one of them, Magnet”
“What’s a change of tone, C? Do you recognize him?”
The shield student turns his head to see the two, Flashes pulled him in as they have no time. Just a small sight of them under the view of the smoking debris, the monocle scans them appropriately as it shown the details. The shield student trips a bit to see something more than he had thought. Flashes said
“There is no time, take the crystal and absorb it. I saw you do it to the monsters”
The shield student touches the crystal, the gauntlet reacted and the monocle opens a notification to his side eye. Warning signs, appearing before him in foreign language. Automatically activate the gauntlet as its mechanism sprung open as it tries to take the piece of the crystal.
The gauntlet suddenly become fully charged and it grips his hand without him realizing it. it goes deep inside the crystal as he panicked. Trying to pull out from his hand sinking into the crystal. Cdown approaches to him and help him pull out in an impulsive lightning speed. The crystal is being ripped apart like wood, the glass texture changes after it being drained and the object comes out after that pull. The reaction occurred from the distance as the horde of notorious magic coming in their way. Flashes and Magnet reacted, used their magic and teleport them in the safe distance . . . closer inside the realm.
They teleport goes deeper inside the realm as they thought, the crystal leaks mana so wide that they teleport further in. Flashes is shocked to see they are inside a building that he hid before. He turns to look at Cdown and Miyusuki lying on the ground, both surprised to see what the shield student had on his hand. A magic item, clearly made from Horsin in design and foreign power that they can’t identify. The shield student’s monocle easily identifies it as he explains to them
“This magic item belongs to someone died a long time ago, it has no owner and its curse. If we able to remove it, it can be able to switch someone in a worldwide radius”
All four gathered deep inside the realm, Flashes returns where the abductees are. With only four of them, this is going to make a decision over this. The boy had shown promised tools on his hands and the others are not ready for this. Yet, the gauntlet able to null against the demonic magic and the kid able knows how to. Flashes said to them
“I don’t know how deep we are inside the realm, but staying here would be worse for all of us . . .”
They look at the window as they found them, a traumatizing view “. . . And I don’t want to see this all over again”