COI C106
Ruby and Gemina can’t believe Silfa ditched them. Her younger sister acting all embarrassed again how she is going to hang out a friend. Gemina says to Ruby
“They’re probably dating”
Ruby looks at her with a sly grin. Ruby has to accept their decision. Ruby guesses Gemina would be more attentive since she likes to see those Enders. Her cases are still stored inside the city guild. Piles of files regarding Benedictus or the Enders in that matter, talking to them inside the sphere is already been done. The people they need to found out more are in the Taiyou Industries. They both sigh and give their trust to Silfa.
Silfa, Joanne, and the shield student sit down on the simulated chairs. To where the opposite side where the man sits. His demonic voice persists “Now I heard, you people want something from me. The boy is here to learn and you two has something to do finding out the invisible phenomenon, right?”
His voice goes deeper and more identical to a demon would be. The shield student heard a demonic voice before from Sanquin, it was threatening, but this man sounds like a stereotypical demon. He said to him
“I heard Sanquin’s demon voice, but you sound like fake to me”
The girls look at him nervously as they are in front with the demon himself. Everything around them changing colors, more typical to display what most hellish landscape portray. The ground cracks and fiery light comes up from the ground. The man stands up, his eyes glow red, and his body turned in dark silhouette. His deep voice shaken the ground,
“Are you sure . . .?”
His slow calming laugh sounds threatening with his gaze shines on to him. The simulation starts to malfunction as it reverted back to normal.
“. . . Oh, no?!”
He picks up a simulated glass and throw at the computer. A static of electricity starts buzzing and buzzing throughout the system. The computer stops.
The simulation disappeared leaving only his magic held them to their seats. The shield student sees the design and everything flowed with magic. Magic markings and the table carved with different designs that looks like an UI. The man laughs at his pathetic entry. “My, my, my. I’m just too much a gentleman here. Boy, you are something not being provoked. I guess those two still have their UIs, no wonder the boy didn’t disturbed by the computer’s false information”
“False information? Joanne, are you guys seeing something that I’m not seeing?”
Silfa did, a notification showing signs of threat. Not knowing it was hacked, her younger sister reacts the same thing. The notification keeps popping up are slowly weakening since the computer stops. Silfa asked
“How did you interact with our UIs? I heard none of you able to discover it until now”
The man gives them a device “Purely artificial, I have to say, I don’t know either let alone the computer done its own thing. It’s pretty old, but you must be the same people who entered this world too”
“Same people?”
“People before you, transferred to this world. I can’t say much how a time gap did this from another world thing. I’d say I am probably a descendant of your people, though I look rather different than yours”
They look at him carefully, now they realized it, he looks rather foreign. A man that looks like that probably from Europe or America, but how he behaves and interact is more believable that he is in this world. The man continues
“Alright, let’s introduce ourselves and leave this mystery to end. First, call me Spokesman”
“Spokesman, you don’t sound like your real name”
“I know about the demon curses, it’s more like a familiar name called by my guild . . . Huh, names”
“I’m Silfa, this is my younger sister Joanne, and your recruit . . .”
“. . . It’s the shield student. You can just call me Miyusuki”
The spokesman taps the table as the magic brightens up, no need for chit chat to this man. This man is on his role. Swipes his hand on the table as he swipes on it bringing up one of the panels showing his goods. Magic drawings start to twist and turns like an interactive UI.
“Let’s get back to the training. You girls will have time questioning how they can’t see me. I have secrets to keep and work to be done without bother. This boy needs a tutor, and earn a bit for himself with the treasures you are in”
The seats start to move as the shield student being pulled to his side, where the two have their seats rise a bit and look down on them from the top. Hearing their conversation clearly and loudly, they see his sphere releasing magic. The awry feeling that this is an actual demonic magic. They look at him as something clings around him from unknown figure.
The spokesman starts talking with his mature voice “Alright boy, I am hear . . .”
“hear? You mean here”
“. . . don’t question me, boy. You are s-starting to be-become one of us noW as your hiring become deluded . . .”
The shield student is laughing how he is becoming strange with his dialogue. Meanwhile the two sisters saw the figure is messing with him, they look at their UIs to see what happened to him. Something blocks it and with a special note
“Turned back on the computer, he should be working”
Silfa tries to summon, out of fear, Puma from her inventory as she is about to order it to turn the computer on. Her notification pops out with the same message
“Turned back on the computer, he should be working”
Joanne held her older sister’s arm as she is starting to freak out. While the two at the table continue to work on the details on the table. Joanne asks Spokesman
“Hey! Can you turn on your computer?”
When she about to end her request, the computer suddenly turned back on. Then the spokesman looks back from his right side, he stared at nothing, laughs, and return back to them with an embarrassing expression.
“Sorry girls, I didn’t d-d-o anything. More precisely, have you i-i-ever seen me using magic before?”
The shield student can’t detect his magic while those two had already being intervene since the notification ramble. Whereas the room starts to quiet down as the sphere comes out from the table, phasing through causing the shield student jumps out from the table
“Ah! What in the hell did your magic ball come out of nowhere?”
It starts to get confusing, the spokesman’s dialogue getting janky, the computer starting up itself, and their UI was hacked by an unknown presence.
A laughter coming behind the spokesman side as managed to grab something from the figure’s body, ripped off the hidden silhouette and suddenly appeared to be a woman. A screech of joy as she is being exposed in her newly dressed citizen’s dress. The Spokesman and the others see her hiding through the magic. A cute woman sits on his lap as everything around them return back to normal. Return back to the start, where they will be sitting the opposite side of the table while Spokesman and the woman sit at the other side, with only one sit.
The woman introduces herself “I am Lilith from the Dexter Guild. Sorry for the rude entrance, because I thought someone infiltrating and found my husband”
The Spokesman carried her to another seat. Where Silfa pointed out to her along with the others with a surprised look “Are you from the Dexter Guild? But why you are using magic?”
“Oh my, my guild always used archscience and . . .”
“No, I mean that magic has demonic presence”
Lilith gives a nice smirk with her innocent face showing to them, the spokesman sees her face, he immediately covered her mouth, pulled to her ear to him, whispering to her.
The three watches Lilith’s reaction all keeping changing expression while Spokesman is actually arguing with her. A couple bickering, they look at their hands as there is no ring on each of them. Joanne talks to the shield student while those two continue to quarrel a bit.
“So, what your first impression from all this?”
“Everything, I need to know more about the other guildmembers. Teacher Ironno said to me to raise my physique naturally and on my own while hearing some guidance from Teacher Haw. This is just the first night”
Once the couple’s quarrel is over, the two focuses on the recruit. The spokesman said to him “Let’s start from the beginning or less so. I wasn’t supposed to help you but my wife wants to. You know what Raker Mawn how to help, right?”
“Beside teaching, you mean to tell me that she wants something from me”
“Sanquin had already been telling you about it before. Good, treat it as what you call a side gig, I preferred called it a side quest. If you wanted more quest, but there will be no rewards except the journey along the way. Stealing, looting, or anything on that matter to help you to earn bit of coins are your personal objectives . . .”
Spokesman stands up shakes his wrists. Lilith watches him turning his wrist as she hides her face with anxiety. “I honestly didn’t expect you to come here so early. Sanquin mentioned about you before, with her magic flow inside you. Without giving consent that your powers are slowly diminishing as your inner mana naturally trying to free you from her grasp”
He brings out a magic scroll from his bag “We can renew from the start and you alone to master your own paces”
The shield student reaches out the scroll as he misses his UI and the magic he supposed to use conveniently. He stops “How much will I lose when I regain my old power back?”
Spokesman said “Come closer, right here to the side. I’ll show you”
The girls take their seats elsewhere as Lilith looks at her husband in such worried state and frowning all the way. Silfa and Joanne look at them especially Spokesman’s shaken hand. They have the convenience to use UIs as their guide and limit it to fit on other matters. Asking themselves what Enders method to provide an alternative.
Spokesman held him at the boy’s back, grabs his shirt up to the same level to his height, eye to eye. The shield student wiggles his legs and his feet off the ground
“Uhm Spokesman, what are you doing?”
“Boy, be quiet. Do you feel it? But I won’t let you”
“What are you talking abou . . .!”
Lilith is reacting to her husband’s free hand continuing to shake beyond the limits of human reflexes. Silfa and Joanne feel the demonic presence next to her.
“What the fuck?!”
Stolen story; please report.
Everything feels strange, the shield student’s body beginning to feel nothing from the tension grabbing his back shirt into the air. Then he sees Spokesman’s other hand shaken to beyond belief, marks coming from his hand as it was not there since he last saw it. Spokesman’s hand raises up to let him see better, he calmly speaks but his tone is loud and clear
“Sanquin is giving you a different path. Our guild already had one from your city, who is a pacifist. But I heard from her, you want to be something more . . . Am I right?”
The shield student watches his hand continue to shake, and the hand made him feel terrified of its abnormal movement.
“Shield student? Be quick . . .”
Spokesman turned his head to look at the girls, and the shield student follow his gaze to them. One of them is genuinely terrified, it was Lilith . . . his wife, and something behind her is an aura that they can see without the girls noticing. Enraging gaze and it leads to no end blazing through all around her back without a single threat from her powers. The shield student hears her in such both anger and sorrow
“ANSWER HIM!”
He immediately answers “YES! I want more just to survive. I want to be the people who defended this city. My uncle tells story what happened to this place, how he almost took down a humongous tree and beat a ghost with his partner”
His frightened responds grew deeper to the point of his resolve maturing a bit. Yet his expression not seem to handle to be emotional. Lilith takes the chance to sneak inside the boy’s heart. Spokesman’s hand’s wrist materialized in a blink of an eye.
Everyone sees his wrist being wrapped with a bangle or bracelet. The item on his wrist starts to tear itself apart, the abnormal movement of his hand switched to the bracelet as it begins to twist and turns. Each part of the bangle mold into a wrist brace, trying to merge back to his skin. Spokesman said to the boy
“Bound myself and my past life with this item. I am free to choose what I have received in Enders Bridge, secrets that you will never attain, history fell to fiction as you no longer believe the truth, and you yourself believe you are free”
The shaken of the bracelet on his hand suddenly stops, the shield student looks at his eyes as he is concentrating on it. He feels his powers trying to burst out inside of him, his power grew stronger but feel nothing from his grip on his back. He doesn’t want to be this close for what is about to happen. The bracelet broke and his wrist is releasing unforgettable magic flowing out to the surface of his skin. Spokesman’s eyes are gone, empty, while the rest of his face and head faded into a skull. The mana sealed away is free from the bracelet’s effects.
Spokesman says to him loud and clear with such resounding voice that they never heard before. He suddenly and horrifyingly turned his head “What you see now is the very essence of my free will. Able to break free from what is given me from this world. The power of your gods’ true nature of their creations. Unleashing it to this world and it will never take it from you, unless willingly. It is a gift from your god and only yourself alone can bring it on to you. Be careful”
The shield student dropped to the ground when Spokesman’s hand fell off as turn into bones. His body keep falling apart, his bones keep falling off and starts to get weaken. The bracelet slowly returns with every moment loses his power. His bones fell to the ground as he keeps holding free of his power, then a bright light finally comes out from him with no words to say as his fading bones flows brightly to the light. The light is warm and didn’t blind them. Lilith walks to it and squeeze the bits of the bracelet back to his wrist. Everything that happened revert back to normal, Spokesman returned back alive as her magic fix his body.
Lilith said to them as her eyes keep dripping in tears, no sobbing tone on her voice. She looks at them in the eyes then to her husband’s gaze, he looks at her smiling apologetically with his eyes being sincere.
“Thanks for letting me talk to him in own accord . . .”
He turns to him “. . . Boy, your time to receive that kind of power will be difficult. What you’ve seen even I not reach such enlightenment, for I have chosen to be with her”
She covers his mouth as she continues for him “Well, this is getting embarrassing. Do you want to continue?”
The shield student watches the two worried together from what just happen. He feels the presence for both him and the bracelet, the bracelet felt like an imprisonment but he manages to break free from it. His UI for this kind of power made him realize is there more other powerful magic hide secretly that he didn’t know. The UI is a tool of the best utility and information, while the man shows him an ability that is not magic but his soul tries to break free from the curse. Questions on his head being piled up, and this opportunity from what teacher Haw said. He shows his determine and said,
“Yes”
Lilith brings her sphere to the computer and change the settings of this area. It turns into a bunkroom and she carried her to the simulated bed, she covers herself and her husband with the simulated curtain floating in the air. They hear smooching sounds that is more than once. Then a slight slapping sound on the chest. Lilith comes out from the covers and said to them
“As a Raker Mawn member, I’ll introduce you one of my members. Like my husband said before, I too want to help you something . . . with this”
A gem and something else inside of it.
“Thank you”
“Are you not going to open it?
The shield student tries to but failed, he gives it to Joanne and she failed, then finally Silfa tries to pull out puma from her inventory and both failed to open it. She innocently laughs to all of them
“When you’re getting stronger, I guess. You know that gem couldn’t be open with neutral mana, and don’t think using your runes. It will break what it is inside. You’ll figure it out once someone know how to”
“Yeah, thanks. So where are you taking us?”
“Outside, I know is not safe and I have already called one of them to meet with us”
Silfa pulled him and her sister. “You’re getting closer to be our special member of our city guild, right sis?”
“My older sister is right, Miyusuki, there are exceptions from other guild members who visit the city. But you, you have people who are above S ranks. Those two shows off some more than just viewing pleasure”
Lilith eavesdrop them that they thought of her and her husband to be powerful in a sense. They are not wrong, but they are not fully right because recruits need masters to train better. Neither of them had the common ground with him yet.
The night shift workers saw them walk out from the Enders makeshift facility. No one see who is controlling or someone there. There are now four people left the facility, leaving them wandering about them as they head to the outside of the station. Lilith watches the workers being curious as she changed her dress into one of the Dexter’s lab coat uniforms, and the workers stop themselves from interfering as Lilith and the others are heading to the ruin remains of Taiyou Industries.
Lilith pretends to have an earpiece and calls out one of the Dexters “We’re here, I have something for the boy that you would like to test . . . Not the archscientist nor the other two departments . . . I request a, more, safer procedure”
Lilith waits for the Dexters to bring what she asked for, letting the other three to look at the devastating remains of the ampstalk tree. The searchlight constantly focusing from top to bottom of the dead tree, the bomb wasn’t able to destroy it, and when the bomb subsides, everything is slowly returning back as if the monsters return without harm.
The shield student stands outside and being exposed by the dust. Silfa and Joanne looks at their UIs as they are gradually gaining the exposure.
“Hey Ma’am, we can’t stay here for long when we are getting exposed”
“If you wish to join us, while the Enders should offer the hospitality . . . I’m sorry, my Dexter’s guild ego is acting up”
Someone is coming in the night, the sounds of the footstep are coming from the crumbling debris. Lights shine on to them where a man in power armor dragging his feet with more debris of scrap materials.
They see him clearer where the lights from the station lit to his direction, a reflection on his monocle and with a logo painted on his armor-plated chest. The logo from Taiyou Industries with the words to the side; ‘hired’. The man in power armor uses his monocle to scan them, a ray of light scanning every part of their body. The three looks at him all deck out with nothing but Taiyou produced equipment. Only his monocle resembles the combination with magic and runes carefully fit together.
The shield student’s uncle also wore a power armor. The adventurers know his uncle as Kombat, and compared how the man wore, this is must be just a prototype, the shield student lowered his mouth and a nervous voice keep trembling to see such a man with a weapon pointing lower at them. Lilith spokes out first
“The boy has my gem. You can test it with that invention of theirs. Be careful, he is an Enders now”
The man responds, speaking through the sound of buzzing like a radio. “Let me guess, a Raker Mawn member”
She nods and reach out to the three. “This is as far I can go. The training is starting. If you two girls don’t want a slow adventure, because they won’t going to use magic, my dears”
Lilith disappears leaving them to the man. The man is already looking at the shield student’s gem and more about the detail he will be doing for the night. The man sees that Lilith already left.
“. . . She left. Are you two will continue on foot with us? I need to figure it out what this gem wanted to find”
The girls stood silent as he meant go through the ruins. Silfa is fine with Puma, she turns to her younger sister. Looking like a puppy that Joanne wants to join too, Silfa almost refuse her but Joanne stubbornly pulled out Puma from her inventory. She stared Silfa’s eyes again with the same expression along with Puma.
“Puma?”
Silfa can’t refuse, her younger sister already forgot the favor when going to meet these people. She secretly hid her intention and make it subtle
“Alright, fine. Puma protect her at all cost”
“Puma?”
Joanne cheers and meet the other two. The shield student introduces themselves
“I’m Miyusuki, but you can call me the shield student. Also, this is Joanne and her older sister, Silfa, and we hope you could take care of us”
The three waited for the man to introduce himself as he is scanning everyone with his monocle.
“I am codename; R-cord or just R-cord, intellect specialist and gunsmith. If you are willing to go through this dangerous barren, then your training will continue. As for you two, you need this . . .”
The girls received some gems, once held in their hands, the exposure dissipates and an energy shield protected them from the hazards
“. . . To the trainee, I heard the woman who was with you to test you. This training is exercise, the more you use your magic, the better I could see you struggle”
The shield student looks at the girls carelessly used their magic. The energy shield protects them from the exposure but the magic they released in crystallized specs. This training will be difficult.
R-cord and the shield student walks through the ruins going deep back to the Mihayara district. A long walk with no magic in use, his tired legs feeling the pain whereas the debris are everywhere and no safe passage except few citizens passed by giving detours. Meanwhile the sisters able to use magic and seeing him going for the worse, they watch him trying his best. They stop at the park, where there is a playground still stand. R-cord shushes to the shield student and the girls’ energy shield cloaked.
“This place isn’t secured yet. Let’s stage here for a moment, you need to know some tools to get through this environment”
They sit on the swings while R-cord is standing and placing a gauntlet on the ground.
“This would be great for your adventures in these ruins. The gauntlet is modified for this purpose, all remaining monsters are all from the demons’ power, and with this will make no living creation to exist. Watch closely as you will be facing those monsters head on, by your own barehanded hands”
R-cord pulls out his rifle, remodify it as he quickly and strongly changes it. Removing the barrel replacing a scrapped misalign rod, turning the rifle into a poorly made harpoon rifle in quick succession. The rifle chamber remodifies into the worse from what they thought and see. R-cord finishes with it and take aim to the dark night. He shoots and the rod fires slightly forward to sideways. Through the dark, a sound of flesh being teared and a roar coming from it. R-cord quickly fixes his rifle in such suspense speed and fired the opposite direction. He switches a special ammunition as he fires.
The monster is pulled to where the shot is fired, the rod carved in runes glowing and forced it to follow the shot in full speed. R-cord catches it as he slides back. The monster’s size is so large that he fell to the ground by its own massive size. He pulls out his gauntlet and begins draining the monster. The monster covered in dust and struggling to fight back, the feint of demonic mana starts to flow out from it and starts to transform. The monster crippling itself to form where R-cord uses the gauntlet to grip on to it and hastily consumed its mana.
The monster’s roar muted and its size deformed and crushed itself to the gauntlet’s grip. It is being drained, its mana being taken, the demon’s mana had successfully taken away, and everything of its existence turned to nothing. The pile of dusts covered R-cord and wipes off the dust as nothing happens. He shows them the gauntlet, the indicator shows the charging and the percentage of how much energy it has left. Only 12 percent, R-cord gives it to the shield student.
“Whew, no wonder that one is big. It carries a lot of dust in that fake body. Anyway, that gauntlet can be modified. For now, it can only charge and discharge the energy it carries. It is not a battery, once you release it without even using its power. That monster will come back, I mean, monsters”
They look at him as if he is taking care a pest. Also, with that pile of dust in front of them. They will definitely use their failsafe to escape. The shield student doesn’t have it anymore. Joanne starts to worry for her friend
“Are you sure that this is even training?”
“From heals to potions, I have no keen idea why are you worried about. The Jigeram’s light is not strong enough to overwhelm you, yet”
“Yet? I’m not surprised, but where is the limit for all of this?!”
“The limit is here, if you go deeper among the buildings or worse, the sewers. The city guild should’ve provided the quest for purging the isolated”
Silfa holds her younger sister from the back, stopping her from being riled up. Joanne can’t hold herself where the shield student is getting in more dangerous situation.
Everything that is happening now is ready for him to face the unknown. First hand with the gauntlet that easily absorbing the demon’s mana. He asks “Then what’s my training then?”
“Use it, this is will be your most invaluable utility to come across. Soon more of your people will be receiving it to the guild or other organization. From here on, you will be travel here with supervision. Your gauntlet is unique and will ways need maintenance per day after use. It means you need me or the other Dexter’s guild members to fix it”
Silfa spokes out “It’s alright, shield student. I bet your teacher knows how to fix it”
“You mean teacher Haw”
R-cord heard a familiar name. It was an obvious assumption. He never forgot the draft switch and neither will be the other Raker Mawn members. He kept himself shut as he waits for him to be ready. They check the time as the night is still young. The shield student checks his gauntlet and starts touching the environment. It absorbs the essence of magic, but barely shows charging up.
“R-cord, I think I’m ready. Where should we go find some monsters?”
R-cord is contacting with the other Dexter guild members. Rogue monsters come and go and the adventurers did their best taken them out. A special message coming from them, but it is too far for them to travel on foot. R-cord has no information for easy harvest, and here is can be manageable for him.
“This is the only place I know, but we could look around inside the building. There shouldn’t be large monsters, to be more precise, wraiths”
The shield student drops his gauntlet out of shock. Wraiths or ghost, either be specters or any supernatural spirits, are no to his head. He is ok outside to fight them, but a claustrophobic hallway with fast moving ghost through the walls. It is too unfair for him to fight against it. He picks up his gauntlet and tries to reason with him, the sisters come along as they wanted to join the fight. All four people gathered around in one place whereas R-cord see them rejecting going inside.
R-cord has only one thing he would expect them to go. “Then let’s go back to your district, where most of the dungeons hid near the city barrier. If you are knock out, I’ll wrap your unconscious body and strapping it with tapes and hid you away from the fight. Your people will eventually find you when they saw a human sized bag along the way”
Silfa complains “Why are you suddenly saying it now?”
“Look” He pointed where the barrier is, the strange mist of dust collectively forming a wall. He uses his monocle and shared each of them to see what truly is. They couldn’t believe it. The mist of dust was hiding the wraiths. R-cord says
“Let’s get you home, the hard way”