Author's note : there is a specific ending theme for this chapter, feel free to have a listen here on Youtube AFTER finishing this chapter, cheers.
Youtube link here : https://youtu.be/C-YYTPGjfPw
Chapter <ⅩⅦ>
3645 days before.
In a world that was white, walled in white, sealed in white.
Pale veils concealing the outer realm of color.
And in that small world, that small white empty classroom in the void
were children in white. Dressed in velvet clothes, covering the vital spots and nothing more, staying at their corners to themselves in their own silent world.
There, four children resided in that room of ivory white, two of which a boy of red hair and a girl of green both the age yet mature but able to understand and surmise the happenings of their secluded world and brew plans to seek more of the truth through sheer curiosity and the urge to escape this monotone sky of neon light.
“ Who do you think is chosen today ?” the green-haired young girl asked the boy next to her, as the two stood at the side wall of the empty classroom, looking at the only object that was not at all white but shimmering metallic silver at the far end.
The door. The sole entrance that could only be opened from the outside, and by the cloaked entities that sounded and moved like the gears and engines outside their room, working in bigger rooms, in a massive room full of white rooms, as to that be the children’s understanding of their current habitat.
The red-haired boy scoured across the classroom with his slight frown of brooding and contempt towards the children that were not like him, those other two children on the other side of the room that never seemed to be aware of a bigger world outside of the massive establishment they were kept in.
One of them was too young and too immersed in the imaginings in her own small mind and the doll the cloaked entities left for her, and the other was unresponsive and cannot be reached through any form of communication and moved and acts according to nothing but the unknown machinations in his head.
The red-haired boy hated them two, the younger playful girl with long pink hair and the unresponsive boy with messy silver hair, for both of them, were inept in helping him escape and venture out of this huge facility of white.
“ Whoever they choose, it won’t be me.” snapped the red-haired boy back to the girl that asked
“ They don’t pick us twice in a row.”
“ They might.” the green-haired girl whispered uncertainly
“ They just haven’t done it yet.”
“ They won’t because they haven’t done it yet.” the red-haired argued impatiently to make the girl agree with him, to make the whole world agree with his assessments.
The boy then looked at the young girl playing with her doll in the far corner with a deepened frown
“ If I have to guess, it might be number six’s turn.”
“ But she hasn't been chosen yet. They won’t choose her because they never chose her before, right ?” the green-haired girl asked using the assessments of the boy back on him.
“.......They might.” the red-haired boy replied shortly, feeling beaten in this round of conversation. That’s why he only makes conversations with the green-haired girl, who they call number five, because she is the only person that is able to respond and question his assessments.
Number five stayed with the red-haired boy, who they refer to as number four, because he is simply interesting enough to entertain her in this mundane room of nothing but white. Number four was like the doll she plays with and talks back to her which the young number six’s toy doll can’t.
“ But number four.” Number five pointed in the direction of the well-sealed silver door
“ Should we tell Number three to stay back? They say the door will attack if we stand too close.”
And sure enough, a moment before the unresponsive Number three was at one side, sitting with his own thoughts, and the next he was standing at the silver metal door, one finger distance away from the metal surface.
Reluctantly, Number four stepped forward.
“ Oy, Number Three ! Keep away from the door !! It will attack !” Number four called out yet as expected, Number Three just stood, unresponsive to his roommate’s words.
“ Ah !” the green-haired girl clapped her hands in sudden realization
“ I see, Number Three thinks that the door will not attack because it has never attacked before! We think it will because they told us it will !”
“ You idiot ! I saw doors that will attack outside, and they look just like this door !”
Number Four argued angrily, so quick to lose his temper, quite an entertainment for Number Five
“ Forget it! Number Three can be gone for all I care !”
And just before Number Four was about to turn away from the door and the silent Number Three,
The Silver metal door slid open with a snap.
And in came two cloaked tall figures, covered in pale white from face to toe, not even an opening was needed for the place where the eyes would be, or maybe they never needed eyes in the first place.
The two cloaked figures looked down at Number Three standing before them for a short moment before addressing the quiet boy with a smooth monotonous genderless voice
“ You are not the subject today, Number Three. Move aside.”
and with that, the two cloaked figures moved passed the boy and stopped before the young girl playing with her little bear doll at the back.
“ Number Six, you are the subject today. Come with.”
ordered the emotionless voice at the young girl who looked up at the two towering figures, frightened.
“.....No…” the young pink-haired Number Six whined, taking her bear doll and trying to escape
“ Luka doesn’t want to go! Go away !!”
“ Who is Luka ?” asked one of the cloaked entities to the other cloaked figure.
“ Yeah, Who is Luka ?” the red-haired Number Four asked as well.
“ I am Luka !!” The pink-haired young girl shouted back angrily
“ And she is Kumabelle! And we don’t want to go!”
The pink-haired girl Number Six held her doll high which she named Kumabelle and attempted to run away, running around in circles in that not-too-wide empty classroom.
Number Five watched on, very much entertained by the scene.
To their surprise, Number Three kicked one of the cloaked figures in the shin!
The kicked figure was not at all perturbed as if nothing had happened, but kicked Number Three back, gently, sending the silent boy off flying and crashing to the wall on the other side.
The children gasped in shock, mortified by what had just transpired of what attacking a cloaked figure would turn out.
Number Six stopped running, and let the cloaked figures take her.
“ Number Six, drop your equipment before you go.” ordered one of the cloaked figures to Number Six to leave her toy bear doll behind.
“ No !! Kumabelle stays with me !!” the little girl refused.
And Lo, with a show of action, the cloaked figure held tight to the girl’s doll and ripped it off of her grasp, leaving the bear doll’s arm in young Number Six’s small hands.
“ Kumabelle !!!” Number Six wailed and struggled even greater as the two cloaked figures left the room, one grabbing tightly at Number Six, and the other holding the single-armed bear doll.
“ Oh dear.” Number Five sighed, not at all worried and saddened by the scene
“ I hope ‘Luka’ will come back. Like we all did, right ?”
“ I don’t know.” Number Four replied, with his assessments being challenged time after time
“ She might not.”
Number Six wailed the whole way down the corridor until she was brought into a new room, a smaller room with a metal seat, the seat facing a glass wall, yet the glass was opaque, and the other side undiscernable.
“ Kumabelle !! Luka Wants Kumabelle back !!” Number Six whined and screamed in tears as the two cloaked figures put Number Six down on the seat and strapped seatbelts around the little girl’s tummy, in case she falls off.
“ Number Six.” spake one of the cloaked entities to the wailing girl
“ put your hands in the boxes.”
There, between Number Six and the opaque glass before her, are two hand-sized boxes wired into the room behind that glass.
“ NO !” Number Six shouted, and the two cloaked figures could but place the little girl’s hands into the boxes on their own, and with contraptions and transforming flowing metal clinging to the girl’s wrists, pulling her hand inward closer to the boxes did the young Number Six cease her wailing, for the machinations trapping her hands caught more of her attention.
The cloaked figures nodded to one another as they both pulled down levers in the small room, activating something on the other side of the opaque glass, that something that emerged as soon as the levers were pulled and shot straight at the glass, leaving a giant pitch-black silhouette before the young girl’s eyes.
Number Six screamed in terror as the dark beast roared and crashed at the glass nonstop that shuddered slightly with each crash, showing no sign of breaking, but the force of the beast on the other side never seem to diminish.
Suddenly, the black beast stopped, noticing the wires attached to the boxes on the other side were activated, and with a roar, the unknown beast transformed, and the wires connecting to the boxes and to the young girl's hands turned pitch black and sizzled in dark burning pus-like essence.
Number six felt the beast’s dark energy surging in through the wires and metal cuffs and she could feel the black flames devouring her hands and up to her arms, and soon the girl screamed in agony as her whole body felt as if being roasted, and eaten by the beast whole, and immediately the girl passed out before the excruciating pain could torment her any further.
The two cloaked figures pulled the levers up once more and began examining the test subject’s hands and vital signs.
One of the cloaked figures looked up at the surveillance camera hanging on the ceiling of the room and spoke to it
“ Connection incomplete. Test Subject Number Six failed, will schedule retesting in near future.”
And as soon as the report finished, the two cloaked figures brought Number Six back to the empty classroom and left her there with the other children, ending another day of experiment.
“ Number Six won’t make it.” Number Four remarked after a long silence, sitting next to Number Five, who sat next to the passed-out Number Six in the corner. A blanket was placed upon the unconscious little girl as the two older children sat by and took care of the injured girl trapped in slumber.
“ See? She’s been sleeping for two days after the first time. She’s gonna sleep forever.”
“ You slept for a week after your first test.” Number Five taunted the red-haired boy with a sneaky sneer
“ I know, because Number One told me.”
“ No, I did not !!!” Number Four shouted angrily, red all over the face now
“ How about you ?! You slept for a year ?!”
“ I cannot fall asleep, you know that. Idiot.” Number Five turned away from the angered boy in disappointment and tended the young Number Six’s wounds, leaving Number Four in his own embarrassment.
“ Ah. She’s waking up.”
And indeed, with a weak whine, Number SIx slowly regained consciousness and opened her eyes to the neon lights above.
“ Come now, ‘Luka’. Here, we brought you some food.” Number Five helped the little girl sit up and handed her a piece of good bread.
But the little girl didn’t want any food.
“ Where is Kumabelle ??” Number Six asked frantically, looking around the empty classroom
“ Where is she ?! Where is my Kumabelle ?!?!”
“ They took it away the day you went to do the testing.” Number Five told the weeping Number Six gently
“ It’s alright. You have this blanket now. It’s yours.”
“ NO !! I WANT KUMABELLE !!! WHERE IS MY KUMABELLE !!!!” Number Six won’t stop shrieking at the top of her lungs, driving Number Four crazy until finally,
a stuffed soft object was placed before Number Six’s teary eyes.
“ KUMABELLE !!!!” Number Six squealed in delight and hugged the suddenly returned bear doll tightly in her small hearty embrace
“ Thank you….Number 3……”
Number Six sniffed with gratitude to the other two children’s surprise.
“ What the…” both Number Four and Five turned around to see, Number Three, standing before the elated little girl, who had just placed the bear for Number Six to hug,
With a rare gentle smile on the once calm unresponsive boy’s face.
“ How is that possible ?!” Number Four questioned the silent Number Three, eager to know how
“ How do you get it back ?! They took it outside! How do you find it ?!”
“........sneaked out…….after test…..”
was all Number Three revealed to them bewildered children.
.
.
.
And that is what Luka remembered, every time she looked at the bear zombie doll she now commands among many other zombie dolls by her side.
The testing was halted one day when Number Three didn’t return. And they were separated into different labs, different positions.
That was when Luka was old enough to protect herself, and awakened her special abilities to command lifeless objects to do her bidding, an ability that was already planted inside her since the first moments of her creation as a genetically engineered homunculus in the facility yet with no place to shine, until she arrived to the new firm she was sent to which used her unique abilities to the extent, making Luka their secret agent to infiltrate the common society and assassinate targets with unexpected ways.
Akahanon Zabi was then the head of said small firm Luka stayed, which was just a small faction under the secret League of unearthly experiments and history-turning deeds that never was shown to light, and Luka has been working for Akahanon Zabi, taking lives for Akahanon Zabi and the League ever since.
Luka had met her old roommates Number Four and Number Five, who all have different names now and serve much higher ranks than her in the League, but the most memorable reunion is with Number Three, nearly ten years after they were separated.
But Number Three was no longer the same.
His name was no longer the same.
His demeanor was no longer the same.
And His silent caring attitude Luka remembers was never the same, now but cold and heartless, seeing everyone even Luka as enemies in this world, filled with hate and devoid of compassion at the same time sorrow filling his dimmed lifeless pupils, for in his ten years of journies he has lost too much, and lost his own will, succumbing to the Demon inside of him, and locked everything and everyone out of his world.
And this change Luka cannot accept, and she seeks to know what made him this way, what happened that turned Number Three into this depressed husk, but no matter how she asked of him, Number Three will never tell her.
So Luka brought upon herself the mission to change Number Three back to the one caring person that helped her through the hard times back then when they were young, way back in the white colorless facility, to once again bring joy into those dim melancholy filled eyes of Tenmei.
“ Sadly, Luka my dear, That is classified.” Akahanon Zabi waved Luka off as he polished his nose still back in the not-so-long-ago days before.
“ Come on, Zabi !!” the pink-haired Luka whined impatiently
“ I’ll do twice the missions for you! Anything! Just say it, and I’ll do it.”
Zabi hummed in sinister brood
“ Well, there is something you could do for me…..in exchange for Tenmei’s past….”
Akahanon Zabi sneered sadistically, looking at Luka’s small body frame standing before his desk.
And Zabi made his sinister move forward to where Luka stood, as he snaked his obscene hands and fingers around Luka’s flesh, which Luka let him have his way. For she had been treated worse in various tormenting ways in many missions before by the orders of the League. This too is just a mission, Luka told herself, holding back the tears as Akahanon Zabi went on savoring deeper into Luka’s tender flesh, a mission to find out about Number Three, Tenmei Akiro’s past, and help him out of his misery.
“ Here.”
Akahanon tossed a disk to the floor in front of Luka as Zabi help himself get dressed.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“ This is the first year of Tenmei’s mission out there.”
“ …….Just the first year…?”
Luka asked, mortified, looking at the disc on the wet floor with utter shock, feeling betrayed.
“ Hey, it’s hard to get even for my level of authority! Honest work gets honest pay, though. Glad to know we still have nine or more decent evenings to pass together, haha….”
And Akahanon Zabi delightfully walked out of his office, leaving the scarred humiliated Luka alone with the wet disc in her quivering hands.
It is part of the mission, Luka told herself, as she looked into the disc for clues, and found the happenings in a small town under the protection of the Ealdorman Tenmei Tarou.
“ Tenmei Tarou….?” Luka thought the name was familiar, very close to what Number Three now calls himself.
“ ‘Tenmei Tarou, lord of Edenville…successfully adopted Number Three…named him Tenmei Akiro’…..I see.” Luka studied the files in her computer and found more shocking news.
“ ..... notorious Prime Minister Lasvet Hikaru invades Edenville, executed Tenmei Tarou’…..! “ Luka read and finally pieced out a part of Tenmei Akiro’s past, of the death of Number Three’s stepfather, killed by the now Prime Minister Lasvet Hikaru !!
Luka smiled as she finally felt some progress made through all the hard endeavors, and sought out a plan to help Number Three, Tenmei Akiro regain joy in life, through the only way Luka knows how.
One night,
Akahanon Zabi assigned a mission to both Luka and Tenmei with the help of the mercenary terrorists The Red Spider to secure the Seed that is kept in Lasvet Hikaru’s secret lab underneath the Freedom and Justice Memorial tower.
“ Lasvet Hikaru is our benevolent sponsor and copropriator.” Akahanon Zabi briefed them on the mission
“ But the Director deems it safer to keep the Seed in our own hands, so we are to rob our sponsor tonight, under the cover of the Red Spider terrorist gang! Chum chum, off you go now.”
The night before the mission, Luka made a plan to infiltrate the secret lab through the Metro and came to then Tenmei Akiro’s flat to tell him of the plan.
“ From this stop closest to your cover-up job in the press company, we’ll ride the metro together with the terrorist gang and reach the Freedom and Justice Memorial tower stop in ten minutes time. What do you think, Akiro ?”
Luka placed the mission plan sheets over his low desk, which Tenmei wasn’t looking. He wasn’t even by the table.
Tenmei just stared out the window, preparing his guns and ammunition in silence, not making even close face-to-face contact with Luka.
This made Luka really cross.
“ Tenmei Akiro…..this name really sounds weird. Not that I hate it, really…”
Luka tried to make conversation but Tenmei still silently did his thing while back facing her.
But Luka still tried
“ I hate being called numbers back then, that’s why I called myself Luka. I also named the others but they don’t like the names I gave them. But I never gave you a proper name, I always wanted to, but you are special…and the names I come up with never really match who you are……You are important to me, Number Three. You helped me survive back then, and…I want to help you too !”
“ I don’t need your help.” this Tenmei loaded his pistols with a short melancholy grunt.
“ But look at your face right now !!” Luka shouted, heartbroken by the sight
“ See what you have become !”
And with a quick turn of his hand, the gun he pointed at Luka’s face, silencing the girl at once.
“ You have no idea what I have become.”
Tenmei Akiro warned menacingly at Luka
“ Go. Before I hurt you, like all the others.”
The gun.
Pointed at Luka.
None of them moved, but stayed in silence.
“........You will never hurt me.” Luka said calmly after the long silence
“ Because you have never hurt me before. And I trust you will never do it. I don’t know what made you this way, but I can show you something, something on the Metro that would make you happier. Come to this stop tomorrow night.”
And Luka, leaving the mission plan sheets on the table, left Tenmei’s flat in silence.
Only to break down into tears after closing the door behind her, walking alone in the night.
And then, that fateful night happened.
“ Look who I found, Akiro！I have brought you a present !”
Luka cried joyfully, handing him the tied-up Nanali, back in chapter one, when they have successfully boarded the Metro and Tenmei had killed a huge load of terrorists, not according to the plan at all.
“ Akiro, this is your nemesis Lasvet Hikaru`s daughter! He who killed your father! Kill her!
And have revenge !!”
Luka shouted with glee, for of her simple knowledge, she believed this was what Tenmei needs.
Sadly, she was wrong, for the rest of the discs she hasn’t had the courage to get from Zabi, and it was of those that hold much more import.
“ Let her go.”
Tenmei Akiro ordered Luka disdainfully
“ That is not of my concern right now.”
And again, Luka had failed in bringing joy to Tenmei Akiro and those eyes, that never cared how much she had cost to know more about him, to try and bring the smile back to his face, those eyes, that seemed to tell Luka that all she has done were futile and her sacrifices meaningless.
And at that fateful moment, Luka’s sadness turned to anger.
“ Don't you look away from me….”
Luka hissed with growing rage and despair
“ Do you know how much I sacrificed, For You ??!!”
Then Luka snatched Tenmei`s gun and pointed it at Nanali.
But Lo! It all happened so quickly.
A devastating gunshot from yonder, tearing the Metro compartments and also Tenmei Akiro’s chest apart,
Separating Luka and Tenmei once again,
After countless searching around the Freedom and Justice bombing site, Luka realized she had lost Tenmei yet again,
And this time, it might be permanent.
And just like Tenmei, Luka locked herself up in her tiny flat, filled with all the dolls and pink colored wallpapers she loved since young, and stayed there, surrounded by zombie dolls she commanded, in that empty room left only herself.
That was when Luka realized, some things can’t be resolved through revenge or more killing.
Until, of course, when it can be.
“ I got good news.”
Zabi sneered snidely in Luka’s flat one fateful afternoon
“ your Tenmei Akiro is still alive.”
Finally, Luka has one more chance, to make things right.
“ Where….. WHERE IS HE ? ! Tell ME Where HE IS ?!?!?!? !”
Luka demanded impatiently, readying her squadron of zombie dolls that are fully capable of assassinating any political enemies of import.
“ I will tell you.”
Zabi spake with a sadistic sneer from ear to ear
“ But first, The Director has orders. Harken, for the DIrector orders you, to assassinate a LORD, assassinate the all Awesome Toshiumi, and bring his head on a platter ！”
To murder a Lord, especially a Lord of Exia, even more so The Awesome Lord Toshiumi Al Seraphim, Brave of Zabanya and Savior of Timbaktitu, is such as sentenced to death.
But Luka will do it, in exchange for Tenmei Akiro, Number Three’s whereabouts.
And all that led her to a long week of trial and error, assassinating the Golden Exian Lord in various ways in Vilencia, only to be either outsmarted or swarted by pure force.
One time Luka disguised as the King of Vilencia Phaldemon and bombed Toshiumi’s office, only to find out the Awesome Lord is immune to fire and explosions.
Second Time, with the help of military genius Austria Van Hillingdale, an artificial Exia Rune which she gave to Legion, the dude she accidentally dropped a building on and broke his arm, helped her cause havoc upon Vilencia while she tries to kill Lord Toshiumi in his Awesome sleep, which of course still failed.
But this time, Luka, having been spared by the Golden Lord too many times, found a way to sneak alongside Toshiumi’s golden Awesome jet and fly across the Vilencian sea to mainland Kingdeniom, stopping at a rundown city called Helltron.
“ This time……” Luka exhaustedly promised to herself
“ This time….I will assassinate Toshiumi……”
But things got very out of hand from there soon after, for an Archdemon was on the battlefield, and a chaotic war immediately broke out between Lord Toshiumi and the Archdemon, alongside many strong powers including the father of all laser cannons and planets crashing down here and there above Luka’s head, which she hid for dear life in the background of the War of Helltron, only able to be seen if you pause the screen and squint at each frame of the last episode.
And finally, after many casualties and injured folk, the war ceased to an abrupt stop, and Luka poked her head out of the dust and debris, only to see Toshiumi King shot through the stomach by a Dragon-killing bullet !!
“ Hey !! That’s supposed to be my job !!” Luka hissed angrily and traced the position of where the Dragon-killing bullet was shot from with her virtual binoculars, and found on a lone building top at the far end of devastated Helltron, the shooter.
“ Is that…not Lord Toshiumi’s clansman…??” Luka was perplexed, for there on the building top stood Arashi the second aide to the Golden Lord, with the Dragon-killing rifle in hand.
“ Hmm, with that through the stomach, that Toshiumi is done for !” Luka cheered and rose up from the ashed to finish the kill, only to stop at the last second, for she heard someone cry out a short distance away, shouting
“ You are more than just a host of the Ark’arios !!!
You are Tenmei Akiro !!!!!!
…….And I believe….you need a chance to prove it…..!”
And with a blinding light, Luka with her very eyes see,
Tenmei Akiro !!!!!!
Being separated from a huge black grotesque demonic smog, roaring with rage and agony and condensing into a huge ugly humanoid shape.
Luka froze.
That huge black demonic shape,
The same pitch-black beast that was experimented on them when they were young back in the white facility!
Luka still remembers the pain and fear the experiment caused and scarred her childhood memories, and to see that demon being pulled out of Tenmei Akiro did Luka realize all these years, Tenmei had been under the pain and torment that Demon brought onto him.
And that same Demon, now stood before her, between herself, and Tenmei Akiro.
…
………
“ YOU FOOOOOL !!!!!!” the Ark’arios cursed at the top of its lungs, crawling menacingly towards Haru and the unconscious Tenmei Akiro, our man!
“ This is more than just you and this mere husk !! It Is for Salvation !!!! For My Promise !!!!”
And the humanoid Demon smog lunged towards Haru who in terror shielded herself with just her arm !!
But Lo !! To Haru’s sheer amazement, and all the other wounded witnessing folks too, Thrond the Mobile Walker suddenly rose up in action and reached out its huge bulky arm to shield Haru away from the Archdemon’s plunge attack.
The Ark’arios looked forth with such ferocity at who dared navigate this Mobile walker to hinder his wrath, to see the cockpit wide open and no pilot in sight !!
All the others watching were shocked as well.
Griffon, with Nina supporting him as they both helped each other stand, looked up to see who was piloting the Thrond, to see the bulky Mobile walker was not at all controlled or navigated by any person, but now animate through its own will !!!!!
Thrond was no longer a weaponized vehicle, but a sentient robot giant !!
“ What the…..how……????”
Haru was so amazed by the sight that someone had to shout to her to pull her out of the amazement.
“ What are you standing there for ?!?!” Luka shouted, using all her special powers to animate zombie dolls, to concentrate on one mobile walker and make Thrond alive into a Zombie Mobile Walker
“ Run while you still can !!!!” Luka shouted as Haru escaped out of the Ark’arios’ reach.
And Lo, not just Thrond animated, but Luka’s whole army of zombie dolls all swarmed in from the dilapidated city remains and ganged up on the Ark’arios beating and slashing with their blunt weapons and knives, and also guns, trapping the Archdemon on the spot of agony and annoyance!
Angered, the Archdemon smog transformed out of human form and became a huge winged devil that flew up high and soared to snatch Haru away, only to be slashed by the burning blade of Awesome Toshiumi !! withstanding the pain of his punctured stomach and helping Haru escape to safety.
Rang the military genius quickly rushed down from the terrain to his Awesome Lord Toshiumi and Haru’s presence
“ Follow me, My Lord, Ms. Haru !” Rang bade in hurry
“ The Axalara is ready.”
“ But Tenmei….!!!” Haru tried to turn back and fetch the unconscious young man but Rang ushered her along, for the Archdemon now raged and entwined in a fierce battle against the animate Thrond Mobile Walker.
“ Your highness !!” Flaming Genale cried and helped his Lord Varche to his feet, the Terminas King struck by grave melancholy of the untimely passing of his secretary and love of his life Milina
“ Your wounds need instant care! We must retreat !!”
“ But….BUT THE ARCHDEMON TOOK MILINA !!!!!” Varche King shouted desperately at the top of his lungs, but with a great cough of pure blood, Varche King lost consciousness and fainted to hypovolemic shock.
Flaming and Pablo had no choice but to rush their King to the closest hospital to keep their beloved Exia Lord alive.
As all the persons present started to flee and retreat, some stayed like Nison Char, well he is pretty much the only person that stayed, kneeling in the ruins lost in regret, as he gave a shout of pain and immense sadness on his own folly, of revenge that cost his sister’s life.
And as the animated Thrond battles the Archdemon with the armies of zombie dolls, knocking down a failing building and burying Nison Char among the wreck as the tormented man accepts the burying without a budge.
Seeing Toshiumi leave alongside Rang a thick trail of blood dragged along the crooked broken roads, Arashi, the Lord betrayer, the sinned milf seeker, the obscener, raised his dragon-slaying rifle to end this once and for all. If he stops now, all will be in vain !! Perhaps he too should kill the strategist and the Seed bearer then and there as well !!
Arashi aimed.
And from the focus of his aim, at Toshiumi’s awesome head, Arashi stared,
And Toshiumi the Awesome stared back at him !!!
The Golden Lord, his master who he dared not look in the eye after having obscene thoughts ont his Lord’s wife,
Stared Back At Him !!
With those wide golden blooming eyes of charm and charisma, staring into Arashi’s petty soul with the rage of the entire world…no, the entire universe, lashing their rage upon him like the sky falling onto him, crushing a mere pest he was to this Brave of Zabanya.
And with just a stare, Toshiumi had Arashi fall over and died on the spot.
“ Oh dear.” accompanying Arashi on the building top was darkstalker Austria Van Hillingdale, and seeing Arashi drop to sudden death, the military strategist quickly performed instant CPR with his skinny neet arms and fortunately brought Arashi back to life.
Learn CPR, kids.
“ ……I am doomed…..” Arashi whimpered as soon as he returned from the nether realm.
“ You should have kept me dead, great military genius. Now Lord Toshiumi will rain down the fires of the universe down on me until I fry like a roast rib and then eat me !! What do I do now ?!?!”
“ You look.” this calm contained strategist of dark Austria Van Hillingdale pointed at the skies and to Arashi’s surprise, a whole fleet of airships sailed down through the thick grey clouds, their sigils brightly sprayed on the metal sides shimmering of the colors of blue and red the mark of valiant Tron, the late joining fleet of notorious Prime Minister Lasvet Hikaru, showering down missiles and laser beams onto the trapped Archdemon forced to a kneel by the overwhelming armies of zombie dolls and the Thrond mobile fighting at it’s own will.
“ We are a league hiding in plain sight.”
Austria began to introduce the dark society that he works for to Arashi in riddle-like speech.
“ We are the snake that slithers in the grass, waiting to pounce any moment.
We are the vines that circle around the birch tree, sucking its essence yet keeping it alive for our bidding.
Of many, we accomplish in the shadows, but grand works that none know their makers.
Of the Stars that shine brighter than each other, never will outshine the darkness behind them.
That is who we are, Mr. Arashi, and I assure you, our League can help you in these trying times, and rise up higher than any Lord with Exia could ever reach.”
And as Arashi listened, his eyes also bore witness to how the Tron Airships shot down wires that cling onto the Archdemon and with high-tech interfering waveforms made the Archdemon succumb and cease to struggle, then did the airships that anchored their chains to the Archdemon’s smog-like flesh pull the Ark’arios up like fishing boats at harvest.
Akahanon Zabi standing close to Lasvet in the Tron airship, saw all this and was pleased.
“ The Seed may be in the hands of others, for now, Prime Minister.” Akahanon Zabi whispered to Lasvet gleefully
“ But the war is already won. We will have it all eventually.”
That is true, for now gaining the Ark’arios back to his possession, Akahanon Zabi has completed half of the orders the Director of the League has given onto him.
And Lasvet, with now the full support of the League, now sets forth his new upgraded army towards the North, closing in to the Vilencia borders in the name of taking back the Seed and also swarting some political enemies on the way, as Toshiumi foresaw.
At this time, Zabi made a call to his Master
“ League Director,” Akahanon Zabi bowed to a pillar of Light in a secret room of his liking on the Tron Airship as they sailed out of Helltron and towards Vilencia
“ The Ark’arios has returned and secured. And the Seed located in Toshiumi’s island hideout. With the new techno army of your permission, I will succeed in regaining all you ask.”
“ ………Good.”
Replied a thin manly voice calm like the sea and echoing throughout unlimited space, from above the light before Zabi’s presence
“ Then it is truly time for the Illuminatus League to bestow on Lasvet Hikaru our wholesome help.”
“ Lasvet will surely be informed.” Akahanon Zabi agreed and kowtowed, yes, kowtowed, bending his knees and lowering down his upper body to a worshipping bow, knocking the tip of his sharp nose to the cold metal floor.
“ ….But I have seen….”
Akahanon Zabi froze, for the tone of the Director changed, like the waves of the sea about to rage a tsunami and the black hole about to emerge and swallow the lights
“ That my creation…has been separated from the Archdemon. That is not supposed to happen.”
“ Yay, that is never our intention.” Akahanon Zabi knocked his nose and forehead to the floor many times to show his apology
“ It seems to be done by someone outside the League.”
“ Only I, and My Creation, can modify my Creations.”
Like a storm that swept across the lands, pulling the trees out of their roots and plowing the mountains to crumble.
“ Yes, Director.” Akahanon Zabi agreed with his Master’s assessments with mouse-like squeaks.
“ And my Creation…still bears the Exia he sowed. He is still of use.”
continued the Director, brooding on the other omniscient side while speaking
“ Mayhap it is more secure to bind the Archdemon with a lifeless host. Very interesting. Listen carefully, Zabi.”
“ All ears, League Director.” Akahanon Zabi knocked his head twice.
“ A weapon will be designed tonight and sent to you tomorrow. Alongside my New Disciple.”
Akahanon Zabi raised his head up in sheer wonder.
“ ….Your…New…Disciple…..League Director ?” Akahanon repeated, as if he was not good with his ears.
“ You heard me.”
The Director confirmed
“ My New Disciple will therefore be my Spokesperson on Kingdeniom, for I shall return to the Silence for some time. Heed his words like heeding mine, beseech of him like you beseech of my blessings. He will meet you soon.”
And the Light pillar of the Director dimmed and diminished, leaving Zabi alone in the dark room.
“ New Disciple…spokesman of the Director himself…..Poppycock !” Zabi muttered as he walked down to his lab on the Tron airship, muttering with discontent to the news of a new boss to listen to, joining a large glass Cell that contained one person only.
Tenmei Akiro.
“ Long time no see, Tenmei !!” Zabi greeted our man with wide arms
“ Remember me ?! I was your boss! About…a week ago? Metro bombing? Killing ally Terrorists? Ringing any bells ??”
But Tenmei stayed silent, eyeing Zabi once, and turned away to sleep on his side on the cold cell floor.
“ Well, I wasn’t expecting anything from you anyways.” Zabi shrugged and was about to leave, when his sharp monocled eye spied a small shadow sitting close to the cell, in the dark corner.
“ Why, isn’t this Luka the Savior! Luka Demon smasher !” Akahanon Zabi laughed mockingly with much snide, coming close to the angered young pink-haired girl.
“ Well, there’s your Tenmei ‘Number three’ Akiro you’ve looking for all these days. Feel free to reminisce your cheerful days together, except, You Can’t !! Because Tenmei Lost his memories after the Metro Bombing !!! BOO HOO !!! Hahahahahahaha……”
And with the last laugh, Zabi saw himself out, leaving Luka alone beside the cell of Tenmei Akiro.
“ Is it true….?”
Luka asked the Tenmei inside the cell after a long pause of silence
“ You lost all your memories, after the Metro exploded ?”
“ They were shattered,” Tenmei replied shortly.
“ But someone showed me most of them.”
“ Then do you remember me ?” Luka asked, coming close to the glass to let Tenmei see her
“ Do you remember who I am ?”
Tenmei looked up at Luka for a long long moment of silence.
“ You are Luka.” Tenmei Akiro our man, our dude replied calmly
“ We met when we were young…..possibly I’ve hurt you one way or another
……..and……..…I am sorry I don’t remember you, I lied. I heard that guy call you Luka, so……….I am sorry.”
Tenmei Akiro failed to lie his way out of this, he wanted to at first, seeing the sad desperate expression on the young girl’s face, but decided not to, for more lies will come, and a lie can solve nothing but create more problems.
“ You have never hurt me before.”
This girl by the name of Luka whispered gently, leaning her hand on the glass of the cell
“ And you will never hurt me, because I know you won’t. I know you as a kind, caring, silent brother, that looks over me whenever I wasn’t well, bringing back what’s most precious to me when they were taken………and staying by my side when I needed you the most…..You were pretty depressed before, but now, I see that you are okay, And….and that makes me…..very happy……….”
And no longer can Luka hold back her tears as they flooded more and more out of her eyes and her hands kept on rubbing to cease them from flowing out more.
Looking up through her blurry view, Luka saw that Tenmei had come close to her just a glass wall away from her presence, reaching out his palm to the glass to her.
Luka reached out as well,
palm to palm.
Like the old days, when they were young,
the two of them, sleeping in the empty white classroom,
side by side,
Hand in hand.
…
…………
“ Prime Minister !!” a herald rushed his way to meet Lasvet in the cabin of his Tron airship, drinking red wine to signify his victory that has yet to come
“ We have two pieces of news !”
“ Then come with the bad one first !” Lasvet ushered, for he is the kind of person to first listen to bad news.
“ All due respects, Prime minister, but both news are…..unexpectedly good…?” the herald asked.
“ Hmm.” Lasvet had never met with such a situation before.
“ Then, the less good news first, I suppose.” Lasvet shrugged, gulping his red wine for another fill.
“ Well, it’s the Army Officer, Gelouch Dendrobium, Prime minister. He is revived, through…this League’s queer technologies….?”
The herald wasn’t even sure what he saw, but that robotic cyborg humanoid in his memory of some minutes ago sure sounded like the once Gelouch Dendrobium, who was presumably bombed and reduced to atoms in the previous battle of Helltron.
“ Swell.” Lasvet cheered to himself with his glass of fine wine.
“ Make him lead the squadrons against Vilencia the next morn.”
“ I will, Prime minister. Now, the second news…….It’s your son. He is alive.”
The glass of fine wine crashed onto the cabin floor by the simple force of gravity, as the notorious prime minister’s hand still stayed held in the air above his chest.
“ Ha.” Lasvet chuckled
“ Haha….hahaha……hahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA !!!!! AHHHHHH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA !!!!!!!!”
Lasvet howled with victorious laughter.
“ And he is currently resting in our outpost base just a few miles away, at Denteimon province.”
“ Then Denteimon is where we’ll Be !!!!” Lasvet cried out joyously
“ To Me, All of Tron !!!!! My Son is In Denteimon !!!!!”
True it was, for Asuka Hikaru, and Yukari had finally traversed the woods and arrived first at the foremost province close to the Vilencian borders, Denteimon.
Overlooking the sea of green mountains on the high ground, the fleet of Kingdeniom airships came towards them from afar.
“ Asuka….you okay ?” Yukari asked, sensing something grave in Asuka’s fleet-gazing eyes.
“ I need to stop my father.” Asuka Hikaru spake seriously with deep resolve, sad but determined to do the right thing he learned in the Shambala desert
“ I must stop the Hate from consuming all of us, including himself.”
Yukari looked at her crush with much concern,
While the once failed Parusefor Master Striker Hassan Helsing rested on one side, breathing the air and sensing the Ark’arios, that is coming close also, within that fleet, sealed deep in a cell of opaque glass once again.
And overlooking the opaque cell, be elusive military genius Austria Van Hillingdale, running some simple tests and reading the results on the Ark’arios.
“ A weapon will be designed tonight and sent here tomorrow.” Akahanon Zabi came out of nowhere to check in on his personal nerd and the Archdemon altogether gleefully
“ That is what the Director told me.”
“ And that is what the Director ordered me to do.” Austria Van Hillingdale nonchalantly showed the designs of a massive weapon on his laptop, a humongous sharp muscular armored being to contain the Ark’arios within
“ The designs I have finished. The engineers back in the League will finish the making and send it to me tomorrow morn.”
“ Swell….” Akahanon Zabi was too impressed by his military genius nerd
“ But who is that sitting at the back ?”
Akahanon Zabi pointed at a melancholy dude, dressed in black now for his golden jacket he sprayed with Dark paint the hour before.
“ I….I am Arashi !”
Introduced this new member of the League nervously
“ And I know how to get into Aurora Island, to Toshiumi’s throne room, without the Vilencians, or the Golden company knowing.”
Akahanon Zabi could but sneer ear to ear in utter glee.
…
………..
“ …..have you heard of a person called, Varis ?”
Tenmei asked after Luka had ceased her tears and calmed down to chat with Tenmei.
“ She is number One.” Luka gasped in surprise to hear the name come out of Tenmei’s mouth.
“ You know her ?”
“ Know her? Man…I think I killed her…..” Tenmei sighed with regret at his own Berserker Archdemon actions.
“ No, F-cking way.” Luka refused to believe Tenmei
“ She is unstoppable.”
“ Yeah..But…..you know, the Archdemon taking control sometimes, and I tried to take control…and no matter who took control, someone either dies or gets very close to death……that’s what I am, I guess.”
Tenmei sighed sadly.
“ That’s not who you are.” Luka tried to put some optimism into Tenmei Akiro
“ That is the Beast, the Demon that tormented us since the beginning. They put it inside you and made you into a monster’s slave. But you are not that monster. See? That girl back there separated you from the Demon. You are who you really are now !”
" ……..”
Tenmei didn’t immediately reply, for Luka’s words reminded him of what Haru told him back in Helltron where she helped him separate from the Ark’arios.
Haru believed in him, just like how Luka believed in him also.
Now, having survived the great scourge of Helltron,
It is his chance to prove, that their trust in him is worthwhile.
“ ….You are right.”
Tenmei nodded, agreeing to Luka’s assessments with a slight smile
“ I am who I really am now.”
“ Indeed. That is what we are waiting for.”
Both Luka and Tenmei Akiro rose up vigilantly in combat positions, looking for the speaker of the surreal voice, that seemed to come from a jolly old soul in the room close to them,
But there was no one in the room save for themselves.
“ I am here.”
Luka and Tenmei turned around once more, to see with shocked wide eyes,
a silver veil-like shape of a person standing in the same cell as Tenmei Akiro, our frightened man, who gave out a shook gasp.
“ Ghost !!” Tenmei Akiro cried out.
“ Nay, not ghost, but close enough.” answered the silver shadow, brightening as each second pass
“ I am a watcher, and I have watched your journey with great interest, Tenmei Akiro.” chuckled the shining silver shadow with an old jolly voice of an easygoing cheerful soul.
“ We need to meet, Tenmei Akiro, Lord to Lord.”
“ ……Lord to Lord…….?”
And that was when Tenmei realized,
the Blue Exian Rune on his chest,
glowing rapidly as the silver entity came closer and closer.
[............to be continued]