The third day of battle.
Sebas, who was steadily recovering from his injuries thanks to the most advance medical treatments the city had to offer, had a worried expression on his face.
“Still no word from Carter?”
He asked a nearby attendant.
“Still none as yet, my lord.”
Answered the attendant. She was rather worried with Sebas showing signs of anxiousness.
Sebas has a right to be anxious.
It's been more than a day since Carter set out to fight and destroy Miko, but there hasn't been any kind of contact since then.
“My lord!”
It was at moment that a soldier ran into Sebas’ tent.
“What is it?”
Sebas asked with an annoyed tone.
“We received news that the 16th District has fallen into the enemy's hands.
“What kind of crap are you spurting?! How could my district be conquered without me knowing?”
Sebas shouted.
“It's true my lord! We just receive the report from Gaia herself! She said that the district changed masters!”
“Impossible! I'm the only one that possesses the code to change owners!”
It was then that Sebas realized something.
“Wait…Gear once hacked into Gaia and stole the 1st District from Jun as a prank a couple years. If I remember correctly Gear shares his ability with his brother…”
Sebas widen his eyes in shock.
“Shit! I fucked up big time!”
He suddenly shouted.
“W-What's wrong my lord?”
The attendant asked.
“Tell me. Were there any reports of Miko's partner Edward Akabe taking part in this war?”
“No, my lord. There hasn't been any sightings of Lord Gear’s brother.”
“That's because he sneaked into the 16th District and hacked into Gaia!”
Gaia was the system that controls the city. Or better yet, its best to say that Gaia was the city itself.
Gaia is able to modified the city in anyway possible way by just a simple input of one of the Four master codes in the position of the Four Pillars.
Each pillar has a district which they use as their base of operations because Gaia recognized them as the owners of that district. If the owner was to be changed in Gaia’s database, Gaia would obey that person and give them full authority to customize or utilize the district in any way they wish.
Even if they ordered Gaia to destroy that district, Gaia would carry out the order without hesitation.
Sebas believed that Edward hacked into Gaia and stole the master code for the 16th District.
“This is bad. The 16th District not only possesses the city's top military technology, but it also possesses the Pillars greatest sins.”
Sebas mumbled to himself.
“If the public learn of its existence then not only would the Pillars lose all credibility, but Jin Makoto would immediately turn on us.”
He suddenly had a determine look in his eyes.
“Order the troops to focus all their strength on locating Edward Akabe and recapturing the 16th District!”
“What about the battle here, My lord?”
“It's only a temporary retreat. Recapturing our HQ is far more important!”
“Yes!”
The soldier quickly left the tent to carry out his orders.
Sebas looked at his attendant and spoke.
“Lets go.”
“What about General Carter?”
Sebas froze when Carter's name came up.
He had an agonizing expression on his face.
“W-We’ll have to believe in him and wait for his return!”
Sebas words shocked the attendant.
As someone who’s been by his side for countless years she had a good grasp of his personality. In fact no one knew Sebas more than her, not even Carter.
It's for that reason that she could tell that Sebas decision to basically abandon Carter took a lot of resolve and was literally eating away at his heart.
This was how important recapturing the 16th District was to Sebas, no to the entire city.
“Yes!”
Realizing all this the attendant answered with a determination to abandon her friend to help another friend.
Sebas nodded and he and the attendant hastily left the tent.
“M-My Lord!”
Sebas didn't walk even ten steps when another soldier rushed towards him with a panic expression.
“What is it now?”
Sebas asked with an eager tone.
“My lord you need to take a look at this!”
The soldier operated his bracelet and a holographic window started projecting from it.
The hologram showed a video.
“What is this?”
Sebas asked.
“It's a live feed of inside 11th District!”
“What?!”
Sebas looked at the video again and realized that he recognized lot of the places that were being shown in the video.
“When did this stream began?”
“We discovered it through a messenger just now, but according to them the feed has been going on since the raid began!”
Sebas frowned when he heard that.
The only explanation he could think of for this was that Edward hacked into the Uranus Observation Satellites and broadcast the entire war, but he couldn't figure out his reason for doing so.
“My lord, thanks to this video feed we were able to discover something.”
The soldier operated his bracelet and the video changed sceneries.
“This was from almost a day ago.”
The video showed Miko being shot out of the sky by soldiers, before turning into a demon and slaughter them all.
Sebas grew angry when he saw his men's miserable fate at the hands of a rampaging Miko.
“That bastard! I’ll definitely kill him even if it's the last thing I do!”
“Wait my lord! This isn't what I wanted to show you!”
The soldier fast forward the video and stopped when Miko finished killing all of the soldiers.
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“Carter?!”
Sebas exclaimed when he saw Carter.
“So he already faced Miko…”
Sebas had an anxious look on his face as he watched the video.
His eyes widen when he saw Carter pull out a black suitcase wrapped in chains.
“That's the Zodiac Parasite Suit! Why does Carter has it?!”
“We believe that he stole it from the safe, my lord.”
Said the soldier.
“That's impossible….”
As one of the pillars Sebas naturally knew what a Zodiac Parasite Suit was.
The Zodiac Parasite Suits were considered one of MYTH’s greatest and most dangerous inventions by countless people.
The suits were based on the 12 Zodiac with each suit having its own speciality. However, although they were based off the zodiacs they weren't just 12 suits. In actuality, there were a total of 36 suits.
Because of how dangerous the suits were there were several improvements made to them over the years. In short, there were upgrades for the first set of suits.
There were a total of three generation of Zodiac Parasite Suits, with the 3rd generation being the closest to perfection.
The Zodiac Parasite Suit that Carter had was the 1st Generation Taurus Suit, which grants the user monstrous strength resembling a bull’s.
Sebas was given this suit by MYTH themselves before he was assigned to the city. This made him one of the two owners of a Zodiac Parasite Suit in the city and on the entire continent.
However, despite receiving such a powerful item from his superiors, Sebas didn't dare use it.
The reason was simple, the suit was far too dangerous.
He didn't know how they did it, but when MYTH created the Zodiac Parasite Suits they were able to create a completely alien life-form.
That's right, the suits were living creatures.
Not only were they living creatures, they were parasitic and possessed a high intellect. They could change themselves from its liquid forms and into a powerful yet flexible armor specific to its user. It could also directly use its wearers’ life force to repair any injury they suffered as long as they had sufficient vitality.
This freedom to manipulate its users’ life force and vitality as well as body, was what made it so dangerous.
The suits were parasitic, and just like normal parasites they didn't care about its host’s well being as long as it received its nutrients. Meaning Zodiac Parasite Suits would give its users all the power they need in exchange for its “nutrients”. Whether the user dies as a result had nothing to do with it.
Once its host runs out of nutrients to feed on, the suit will detach itself and search for a new host without a care about the old one. Most times it didn't care if the person was willing to become a host or not. It would just plunge onto a random person and forcibly make them become their next host.
Because of this, the suits were stored inside specially designed cases to keep them under control.
Sebas never wished to wear anything as dangerous as that, and locked it away. But his suit was stolen by the person he trusted the most. This caused his heart to ache.
He grimaced as he watched Carter put on the Zodiac Parasite Suit and fight Miko.
“Looks like the General had a grudge with the heavenly demon king and chose to fight him to death, even if it cost him his life.”
Said the attendant.
Sebas silently watched and was soon flabbergasted by what he saw.
“Carter lost?”
He saw Carter fought Miko with everything he had and put up a very good fight, but he still lost in the end.
“Don't tell me that Carter didn't know how to properly use the suit?”
Sebas suddenly grew angry.
While it's true that the Taurus edition of the Zodiac Parasite Suits focused around increasing physical abilities, it had lots of other abilities.
Carter didn't used a single ability, in fact he used the suit in the most basic way.
What angered Sebas was that Carter still stole the suit despite his inability to use it and expose it to the world.
“Here's the most important part, my lord.”
Said the soldier.
Sebas tried to calm himself down and continued to watch the stream.
He saw Miko approached Carter, who the suit was detaching itself from. If Miko continues to approach it, the suit would forcibly take Miko as a host.
Sebas’ heart tighten when he realized that.
“Huh? He stopped?”
Just before he reached Carter Miko suddenly halted his steps and showed an evil smile.
Sebas than saw him turn his back to Carter and walked in a different direction.
After walking for a bit Miko stopped and picked up the case that the Zodiac Parasite Suit was in.
“It can't be! He stole the suit!”
Sebas didn't need to watch the rest of the feed to know what Miko had done next.
“That's right my lord! The enemy as captured General Carter and took possession of the Zodiac Parasite Suit!”
Sebas gritted his teeth in anger.
He knew that Miko couldn't have known about the Zodiac Parasite Suit, much less how to capture it. It was obvious that this was Edward's doing.
“Not only have we've lost control of our HQ, they now have a hostage and the priceless Zodiac Parasite Suit! What else could go wrong?!”
Sebas shouted.
“My lord!”
This time another soldier came running along.
Sebas immediately cursed his previous statement before facing the soldier.
“Speak, what's wrong?!”
“Yes! The Nemean Armored Vehicle we sent out a few days ago finally returned!”
“Oh? What's wrong with that?”
“It's under the control of the enemy!”
The soldier immediately showed a video of Ishma riding the armored car with a triumphant look on her face.
When she fought against the Nemean Armored Vehicle a couple days ago Edward gave her info on how to defeat it.
She only needed to force it use up most of its power and then that'll create a chance for him to hack into its control systems and overwrite the previous order through the military's network. This will then allow Exsul to capture it for themselves.
For this to work, Ishma need to the deplete the armored vehicle’s power by continuously clashing against it.
It took a day and a half of continuous fighting for her to do so.
“Fuck, Edward Akabe!”
Sebas roared.
In the end the one who was causing him endless damages wasn’t Miko but Edward.
He couldn't help but feel frustrated.
“There's more my lord. The leader of the 4th army along with his officers were captured by one of Miko's swords, Regis after an intense series of battles between them.”
Said the soldier.
Sebas no longer screamed or shouted and dejectedly sat on the ground.
“….We lost.”
He mumbled.
“We lost too much in a short amount of time. I have to admit that we lost. I lost.”
“It's good that you're willing to accept a lost. It's a sign of a great leader.”
Edward voice suddenly echoed through Sebas’ camp.
“….That pest even took out over communication channels.”
Sebas said with a frown and a strong look of hate and disgust.
“Now now. There's no need for that look.”
Edward's face appeared on the video feed.
“I'm here to talk about something that would benefit the two of us and put an end to this war.”
“And that is?”
“A truce.”
Sebas eyes widen when he heard that.
“A truce? You guys basically won. What reason would there be for a truce?”
Edward shook his head.
“Everything that we've done up until now was to ensure our footing in negotiations between you and us.”
“….You mean taking everything important to me hostage was only preparations for this?”
Sebas asked with an angry tone.
The attendant watched him with anxious eyes.
Considering his personality it wouldn't be strange for Sebas to enter a fit of rage and order everyone to destroy the 11th District and capture Edward while ignoring the damages to himself.
“That's right.”
Edward nodded with a proud expression.
“….I see that you're beginning to take after Miko. Even the way you talk is resembling him.”
Surprisingly Sebas didn't lose his cool and spoke calmly.
“Well I'll take that as a compliment.”
Edward said with a laugh.
“What are the conditions of this truce?”
Asked Sebas.
“It's simple really. Pull out of the 11th District and officially hand it over to Exsul as an independent nation in the city.”
Sebas eyes twitched when he heard that.
Edward ignored that and continued.
“Also I want you and the other pillars to promise to not invade here again or come to us looking for trouble.”
“Anything else, master?”
Sebas body was trembling with anger when he said that.
“Yes. Revoke Miko's criminal status.”
“What?!”
Sebas finally couldn't take it anymore and roared in anger.
“You want me to revoke his criminal status? Are you insane?! Do you know the amount of crimes he has committed? It would be easier to list the crimes he didn't commit!”
“I know. But if you want back your hostages, then you'll have to make Miko a normal citizen again.”
“And I said that is impossible! If I do that I'll lose all my prestige as a Pillar!”
“What's more important? Your prestige or the city?”
Edward's voice grew colder.
“Don't think I would hesitate to reveal all your sins to the city. I could even send them directly to Jin Makoto as well. I'm sure the city's Death God would have something to say when he finds out what you Four Pillars having hiding from him.”
Edward's words caused Sebas to grit his teeth.
If Jin was to find out one of their biggest sins, then the Pillars would lose their means of controlling him. If that happens, Jin who's equipped with some of MYTH’s strongest weaponry would turn against them and try to destroy them.
There was another important thing that Edward failed to mention, that was probably because he hadn't discover it yet. This was being protected by his brother Gear after all, so it was almost impossible to steal it undetected.
But there was also the secret that surrounded Kaido. If that was come to light, the image of MYTH would be distorted in the eyes of the people.
“Fine! I agree to your conditions!”
He gritted his teeth and said.
“So hurry up and return everything back to me! My weapons, my people, my home!”
“Huh? I never said that I would return everything we've stolen.”
Said Edward.
“You bastard!”
“Calm down. We're only keeping a minor thing, you can get everything back.”
Edward said with a smile.
“You….it can't be that you want the Zodiac Parasite Suit?!”
Edward shook his head.
“I'm not an idiot. I know how dangerous that thing is. It would bring us more harm than good. What I want is the Nemean Armored Vehicle.”
“No way!”
“Oh come on. Stop being so stingy. You have 3 them.”
“Do you know how much that thing cost?!”
“You're not in a position to refuse you know. We can just keep everything we have now and move in to destroy you in one swoop. I suppose we'll reveal everything after that.”
Sebas clinched his fist and spoke with a reluctant tone.
“…..Fine! Keep the damn thing! Just give back everything else!”
Edward smiled brightly when he heard that.
“It was good doing business with you, Sebas Lovefall.”
A couple hours later, Sebas and his armies pulled out of the Night District with only 40% of its original soldiers and one of its armored vehicles.
They announced the war has ended with a cease fire agreement between both parties, as well as the expunge of Miko's criminal status.
The Night District was also announced as an independent territory belonging to Exsul and its leader.
Back at the Exsul hideout hidden in the 17th District. Miko, Edward, Yota, Sola, and Regis and Ishma all were inside the main office.
“I still can't believe we won.”
Edward said with a tired tone.
“You did great Edward. I'm impressed.”
Miko praised.
“I still say that we shouldn't have given up everything we had and finished off Sebas.”
Said Ishma.
“Edward already explained it to you. If we had destroyed Sebas then and there it would invite the rest of the three pillars to team up and attack us. We already struggled to beat Sebas alone, so there was no way we could win against the other Pillars. So our only choice was to compromise after severely weakening Sebas.”
Regis explained.
“Then why give back that suit Miko fought against? It sounds pretty kick ass.”
“The Zodiac Parasite Suit is too dangerous for us to have around. I would prefer that none of us use it.”
Said Edward.
“Besides, if we kept the suit the Pillars would use their full strength to regain it.”
“We already lost nearly half our troops, we can't afford to fight another war for a while. We’ll need to take the time to rebuild our forces.”
Said Yota.
“Don't worry. After defeating a pillar, our name should be spread all over the city. There should be countless people willing join us, so it shouldn't take long to rebuild our forces and even becoming stronger than before.”
Said sola.
Miko nodded in agreement.
“The future of Exsul is now endless….or that is what I would like to say but we have prepare for another grand battle in the near future. And this one will engulf the entire city.”
He stood up and looked at everyone in the room.
“Everyone, from now on Exsul will prepare to fight the entire city and its forces!”