Lord Joyde The Madman: Heylo, everybody! How're you all doing?
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Oh my oh my! It would seem that my previous chapter left all of you guys and girls wanting for more!
I wish I could know what exactly caused this reaction so that I may emulate it in the future.
Hmm, also Euphoria really does sound like a name for a drug.
Also, LINE BREAK GALORE.
Anyways, here comes the next chapter of EUPHORIA! I sincerely hope that you enjoy, let us begin!
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Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break...
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Unknown Time - Unknown Place - Leonardo's Point Of View...
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"You cannot take me! I won't allow it!" I felt myself scream out in agony.
My hands twitched hard as the metal chains around them clinked and clanked against the cold stone of my cell.
A robed man came inside and laughed at me."You do not have the power to make it any different, Darkroad. Now stay still, so that we may divine what exactly you are!"
A flash of gold struck me and I stopped yelling, unimaginable pain erupting around my chest before dispersing completely."Hmm, seems as if you are sinless... yet, we both know that isn't true."
"My sins are done in the name of God!" I yelled out loudly and the priest took a step back in uncertainty."Is that so? Then tell me why did the wench who hath brought food to you have do die? What had she done to deserve her fate?"
An image of wine and gold and filth showed itself to me."SHE WAS A WHORE!" I heard myself scream out and the priest merely quirked an eyebrow.
"And what proof could you possibly have of this? You have been here the entire time, there is no way you could have investigated her private life." He states with disbelief.
I merely scoffed."The visions granted to me by the Lord most holy are all the proof I need!"
He let out a sigh."The Lord, I'm afraid, does not grant visions to false prophets. You are naught but a madman lost in your own imagination..." He signaled the guards and left the cell.
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The scene shifts and I find myself standing on top of a very modern building.
A tower to signal my ascension. Or so the little people think.
"You. Are. A. Difficult. Human." A machine-like voice echoes from behind me.
Turning around to see nothing more than a black void."How so, Maxima?"
The name I spoke was unknown to me."Ever. Since. You. Have. Given. Me. This." A metallic hand raises itself into the air, bearing in its palms a vial filled with crimson blood.
My. Blood.
Filled with the same mana-forming nanites as the veins around my heart."I. Have. Been. Trying. To. Figure. You. Out."
"Oh? And to what conclusion did you come?" I asked the machine with some curiosity in my voice.
It smiled."There. Is. No. Doubt. Left. In. My. Soul."
Its eyes opened and gazed at me, the ever-so-overbearing logo of The Aurelius Company etched into its forehead."You. Are. L!?r."
I laughed."No, I am not."
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"Sir... although I cannot deny that I am interested in running some tests, I must admit that outright giving me a blood sample is... strange."
"Whats so strange about it, Kurzow? I just want to know what exactly I am becoming." I answered the disgruntled doctor with a knowing smile upon my face.
He shakes his head in negative."Pardon me sir, but I call bullshit on that. You seem to know exactly what you are. There must be another reason as to why you are giving me this."
Turning around to face him, I felt my smile become even larger."To see what you will make of it, Doctor."
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Back In The Real World - Leonardo's Point Of View...
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"ARGH! FOR FUCKS SAKE!" I screamed out loud as I finally woke up from that fuck fest of a trip.
What the hell just happened?!"Memories... unbound... by... time..."
Eadom whispered into my mind with a patient tone as I got myself out of bed. Today's the day I go to Japan."Memories, you say?.. Maybe they're directives."
"They... can... be... seen... as... such..." But there is no way to know the exact outcome of following them.
A nod of approval is sent resonating within my mind. Well, if nothing else, at least I have a name. Maxima.
Guess I have to go pay the Aurelius Company a visit once I'm finally in Japan.
"URGH!" Yet another headache slams itself against my poor fragile brain, as the world around me shifts and reality tears itself apart.
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Unknown Place - Unknown Time - Leonardo's Point Of View...
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"Argh..." I heard myself mutter out as I woke.
The screams and battle cries of a thousand men tore through my ears as I noticed the corpse of a strange man on top of me.
I pushed him off and realized that I was in the middle of a battlefield. A part of me said to remain still, to let the fight go on.
"DEUS LO VULT!" An Italian man exclaimed at the top of his lungs somewhere behind me and I finally took note of what the corpse on top of me was wearing. A chain mail armor, with greenish cloth beneath and a leather cap.
I'm in the middle of a crusade?
No, this is older.
The battle raged on as I laid paralyzed on the ground, the blood of the fallen solider seeping into my clothing, which I realized was my normal assassin gear, combined with the Gourmet Mask. Blinking at the realization, I turned my head to the left."Finally... awake...?" Eadom whispered into my mind and I nodded dumbly.
"Well?... what... are... you... waiting... for?... Stand... up... and... FEAST!" My eyes grew wide and bloodthirst the kind I never knew I had took over me.
I threw the body off me with inhuman strength, hitting a horseman in the process and knocking him to the ground. My eyes burned gold and red as I felt myself leap, impaling the soldier through the chest with my Eadom. The body then turned to ash, as if burned. Suddenly, the world seemed to stop as everyone looked towards me.
With a bloodthirsty smile and an aura of insanity, I turned towards them, turning my neck in an inhumane manner and said."Deus. Lo. Vult."
The crowd of men roared behind me as I felt myself leap into the fight again, slicing an unfortunate man in half."SMRT OTTOMANIMA!" Another man yelled and I blinked in thought.
Smrt. A slavic word meaning death, Croatian if I am not wrong in this case.
So this is one of the battles against the Ottomans. Antemurale Christianitatis, indeed!
An Ottoman soldier tore through my chest with his saber while I was stuck in thoughts, his gaze full of relief, almost as if he just managed to kill a monster of some sort. Too bad for him, the monster merely smiled. I walked closer to him, pushing the saber through my chest even further as I approached."Hi."
A simple word, enough to terrify the man to the point where he fell to the ground as I raised Eadom into the air, the crusader-like claymore blazing with hellfire and threw my hand downwards, turning the man to ash without a scream. I continued on, pulling the blade out of the ash-stained ground and charging into my next opponent with a shoulder charge. Stunned and unable to react, he barely retained his footing as he clutched his head in pain, but just as he managed to slightly recover, he could already see his neck bursting with blood as his head rolled on the ground.
I felt myself losing control, as I began filling Qi into my right fist before throwing a punch towards another foe, intent on stunning him. Surprise and delight etched themselves upon my face as his head flew right off, a shattered spine following it from the power of my blow.
Another soldier attacked me, his saber digging into my shoulder before I threw an uppercut toward him, promptly sending his head flying as well. I tore the saber out of my shoulder and impaled another with it.
With that man dead and the first saber still inside of my chest, I saw the image before my eyes twist and turn upon itself once again.
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"Press the attack! End these filthy Saracens! Claim the holy land!" A crusader roared to the crowd as I found myself staring into a wall of golden stone.
A magnificent work of art, currently besieged by crusaders."Jerusalem... all... ready..."
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"Huh? Already? Do these memories mean that we're synchronizing, Eadom?" I asked and the blade sent a spree of chuckles to my mind."They.. are... not.. memories..."
I blinked in surprise as a crusader struck against my shoulder. The sudden pain from having a man in full plate charge against you woke me from my trance."Not memories... am I traveling through time?"
"They... do... not... call.. me... The... Living... Crusade... for... no.. reason..." So all of Eadom's wielders get to experience the crusades and like-minded battles in person, not to mention I also received a bunch of actual memories beforehand.
How...
I have no words to describe what I'm feeling right now.
Oh well, time to join the fray, I suppose.
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October 3rd, 2022, Rome - Leonardo Da Vinci Airport - Leonardo's Point Of View...
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"Are you sure its okay to just... let a comatose man onto a plane?" An attendant asked with a quirked eyebrow.
Tyrone sighed as he raised a hand into the air, symbolizing stop."Mate, it ain't yer business. So please, don't make it my business to make sure that you don't bring trouble to my boss, capiche?"
The poor man stumbles backwards."I-I-I'm just doing my j-job, s-sir! I don't want any problems!" And with that, he helped push whatever clinical bed they shoved me onto into the private plane.
My ride to Japan, it seemed."Ah, you're back." Yomi pointed out with an amused tone.
DADDY! You're alive! O_O
Whatever made you think otherwise, darling?
Oh, I don't know. How about the fact that you were in a coma for two whole fucking days!
Oh... well that.. is a good reason to think otherwise.
"Oh don't mind her, Leo. Shes just mad because she's had to continuously micromanage all the nanites inside of you for the duration of your coma since your body underwent a series of changes." Yomi explained and I quirked an eyebrow in confusion.
"Boss? Ya awake?" Tyrone asked with a questioning glance.
Deciding that it was time to stop pretending to be asleep, I promptly stood up from the clinical table and nodded towards him."Yep, been that way for a bit. Figured I should just stay that way in order to avoid complications. Anything you wanna tell me?"
He nodded back as I stretched myself, cracking bone resounding in the room we were in. He pointed behind himself with a thumb."Well, first off, we both might wanna go sit down since this plane's gonna fly soon."
Shrugging and deciding to follow him into the next part of the plane, which turned out to be an extended cockpit, improved with a round table, several beds and even a bar. The air inside gained a weight to it as I turned my head around to see the pale blue light of a gravity modulator. Hmm, so this is how airplane bars are possible.
I suppose this is one of them, Woah Technology moments."Finally awake? You really ought to warn us about these... episodes of yours, Master." Belle spoke with an annoyed tone.
"Episodes? What did I do?" I asked her with a quirked eyebrow as I sat down onto a seat made out of the finest synthetic leather."Nothing much, you just tried to kill me and Anna while yelling Deus Lo Vult."
I blinked and turned my head around."Uhm, so how is your sister?"
She shrugged."Don't worry, shes ali-ahem, alright, resting inside of her coffin over in the storage room... module... ah, the part of the plane where you throw shit into."
A sigh escaped my lips."Guess I'll have to apologize when she wakes up. For now, would you mind making me some tea?"
She blinked in surprise."All these fine alcohol and you're asking for tea?"
"Do we have coffee?" Was my rather annoyed reply as Tyrone let out a laugh."Boss don't drink no alcohol, lady... don't smoke either, for that matter."
She merely blinked at me again."Weird-ass kid. Oh well, one cup of tea is on its way."
Tyrone then turned to me with a confused expression."Come to think of it, what DO you do for fun, boss?"
"I kill people." Is my cold, emotionless reply as an comical sweat drop forms on his forehead."I... I see."
Letting out a laugh at his antics, I promptly put my legs into a meditative position and close my eyes in thought."So, what was that about my body changing you two?"
"Nothing much, just about every single bit of muscle inside of your body condensing upon itself, causing severe damage to your bones, even breaking them on several occasions." Yomi replied with an amused voice.
Yeah! I've spent the last two days manually managing every single bloody nanite inside of your body in order to improve your bones!... How I managed to collect enough calcium to do that is something I have yet to discover, though. Its almost like you have a never-ending supply of biomass coming from... somewhere.
"Its... from... me... The... People... we... eat... their... flesh... does... not... simply... disappear... you... know..?" Eadom eagerly joined the conversation, explaining Aria's dilemma with a calm, yet clearly annoyed tone.
AH?! WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!
"Ahh, I was wondering when you were gonna show up, Eadom." Yomi said, voice seemingly perpetually amused as Eadom snorted."I... have.. been... here... awake... for... a... few... days... now... I... merely... did... not... let... you... hear... me..."
"Well that's not mean at all.. though, I did find it strange that neither of them was asking you anything." I pointed out with a snort of my own.
Okay, what in the absolute fuck, is going on here?!
I blinked."Is it just me, or has our dear daughter started to incorporate an abnormal amount of curse words into her speech, Yomi?"
"Why yes, I've noticed. It seems that she has entered AI puberty." She replied with a chuckle.
Puberty? Do you two even realize how stupid that sounds?!
"Why? Because you don't have a body of your own?... in case you don't realize it, we are currently sharing a body, dearest. My hormones could very easily be influencing you." I said with a sigh.
... Okay fine, I admit defeat. But still, who the hell is this Eadom person now? Could it be that you felt how me and mom weren't enough for you so you decided that you needed ANOTHER VOICE IN YOUR HEAD?!
"Oh... wow... are... you... sure... that... she... is... a... machine... or... construct?... her... soul... is... difficult..." Eadom asked with curiosity and confusion equal in his voice.
Yomi merely sighed."To be totally honest, we have no idea. Aria was born from a VI program inside of a bio-chip of some sort, a machine if you will, but her soul was born out of mine and Leonardo's mixing mana."
"Mixing mana?" I blinked for a moment as Belle put a cup of tea onto the table in front of me."Here ya go, master." She said with a dull tone and promptly walked away.
Shrugging and taking a sip of the cup, I returned to my meditative state."Yes, mixing mana. Its basically what happens when our souls are in sync. Normally, the amount of this mana present inside of a hosts body equates to the synchronization of the host to whatever spirit/monster inhabits their body at the time. As the amount raises or lessens, different events may happen. If the amount is high enough, the power of the two souls may be shared. If it is low, the distance between them becomes greater until the host expunges the spirit."
"But because there was a third member in the equation, the mana flowed into her instead of amassing." My realization makes Yomi nod in approval."Pretty much, yeah. Although, this also means that we're never going to be able to fully synchronize."
I tilted my head in confusion."Isn't that a good thing though? If our sync rate is low, then wont it be easier for us to separate once your real body is ready?"
An imaginary blink forms inside of my mind."Well... I guess that's a good point there.. strange, this almost feels..."
"Made up? Planned beforehand? Like it was fated to happen?" I smirked.
Yomi turned her head away with a che and Eadom let out a deep laugh."The... grip... of... chaos... is... omnipresent..."
But wait a moment here! If that's true then... when you two separate, what's gonna happen to me?! T_T
"So long as we both continue contributing mana to your growth, nothing. But you will need to get a body of your own one day." Yomi said with a worried voice and I sighed."I'll get on with it soon, don't worry you two. And sides' were going to Japan, the worlds center of AI robotics. If we can't build you a body there, we can't do it anywhere... yet."
Okay, dad... and thanks, both of you.
"Hey, no problem, darling." I answered with a smile on my face as I drank some more of my tea."Errr, who ya talking to, boss?"
Tyrone asked me with a confused glance and I laughed."Oh don't worry about it Dominique, I'm just talking to the voices in my head."
He promptly spat out his beer."W-what?! And since when did you know my real name, boss?"
"Oh come now? You think I wouldn't know the full names of my guards? Dominique T. Booker, quite the common name, perfect for anyone wishing to stay incognito. Perfect for anyone who actually wants to be the bodyguard of an infamous, and quite deadly, assassin." I answered with a smirk.
You see, when we employ people, we don't even ask for their real name. We just make up a codename for each and every one of them, so that if an assassin, thief or any other shady character comes to listen in on our Mansions conversations, they would find it quite difficult to discover the real identities of our men.
Thing is, I never really liked this idea. Though it ensured the loyalty of our not-so-legally-out-of-prison employees, it also allowed all sorts of unwanted characters to work for us."I'll take that as a compliment, boss."
He let out a sigh and continued drinking beer for a moment before his eyes grew wide and he pulled out his laser sub and loaded it in the time span of a single second."Now, I'm gonna ask this one time only. Who, the fuck, are you?"
I turned to look at the white metal walls of the plane, only to find that the space in front of it seemed to be shaking. Oh my, it would appear we have a cloaked spy.
To our surprise, the invisible man promptly turned visible and shrugged."Agent A of the I2. I was sent by the President to act as a bodyguard... and as a spy, though I believe that part of the plan can be thrown out of the window."
I2? Ahh, Italian Intelligence.
"Oh? Whaddya mean by that?" Tyrone asked him with a disbelieving stare.
"Probably this." Belle said with a disinterested tone as she pulled a needle out of her thigh and promptly threw it at A who skillfully caught and stored it into a pocket."Next time, you might wanna use acid instead if you want to do damage to a Vampire. Paralyzing venom really doesn't do much against someone who's already clinically dead, boy."
The agent nodded."I'll take your advice to heart, miss."
Tyrone's jaw dropped before he shook his hands in negative and stored his gun away."Nope. Fuck this shit. I don't want to know. If anyone needs me, I'm gonna be right here, sittin' in this chair, drinking beer and not paying attention to anything."
I laughed at his antics. Though he managed to wrap his head around vampires, magic and other inhuman's, it would seem that he is still processing the fact that they're actually immortal.
A then approached me and took a strange credit card out, handing it over to me. Its black surface shone with a strangely brilliant light."A gift from the President. Welcome to the World Elite, sir."
"As if I wasn't part of them already, but thanks. Can I use this anywhere?" I asked with a quirked eyebrow.
"Yeah, you can. Even in the Inhuman world, Omnicard Credits are an accepted currency." Belle answered before the agent could open his mouth, causing him to nod.
Shrugging and storing the card away, I spoke."Well A, welcome aboard. I'd advise to sit down because the trip is gonna take a while."
The masked agent nodded and silently walked over to a seat on the opposite side of Tyrone, who was still dunking on copious amounts of beer.
Pressing a button on the left side of my chair, I promptly laid down as it turned into a makeshift bed and closed my eyes. There's no way I was spending the trip to Japan awake."Belle, wake me up when we reach Japan. Tyrone, did dad give us any info or missions when we get there?"
"Nope. Though, the big boss did say that it would be a good idea to contact some guy named Minamoto. Old farts apparently a yakuza boss in Tokyo into who's territory we're going." He says, somewhat absentmindedly as I nodded and yawned.
"So apart from the four people here and Belle's sister over in the storage room, is there anyone else going with us?" He nodded."Yeah. Big boss said that he'd send some guys on a separate jet to follow after us in order to avoid suspicion."
Another nod from me was all the answer he received before I slipped into blissful sleep. For some reason, I felt really fucking tired right now.
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Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break...
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And that is it for this chapter of EUPHORIA!
I sincerely hope that you've enjoyed it.
... So, I'm somewhat free from college right now, although not really.
There's another test tomorrow, so don't expect much. And then there's two finishers at the 3rd.
But after that, I'm relatively free till like 15-17th day of the month.
So stay tuned!
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Anyways, read and review! And Good Morning/Day/Night to you all! ADIOS FOR NOW!