95TH GEAR - LILITH AND DELILAH

Winter is coming.

The air has been noticeably cooler, and most of the people are already wearing their jackets. If you walk by the central district, you would see people breathing out fog. People are already preparing the decorations for Christmas. Snowflakes randomly pop down from the air.

Swoosh! A glittery pink contrail streak finally stopped at the academy gates.

Flu and I finally made it to the Saint Crusade Academy to attend the Joint Training Camp. It was 7:12 in the morning, and practice starts at eight. As soon as we stepped on the academy gate, Flu touched her Speedmage Shoes to stop the Stardust Accel spell.

We walked hand-in-hand while humming some anime songs as we ventured toward the Merry Knights Training Grounds. We’re certainly alone as we are too early for practice. Classes have already ended for the year, and the only ones who will be going here to this school are the Speedmages who are participating in the training camp.

I closed my eyes and smiled, enjoying the peaceful surroundings. All I can hear is Flu’s soft hums which are relaxing music to my ears. Suddenly, I felt that Flu’s footsteps and songs came to a halt.

“Jonathan.” Flu’s soft voice whispered to me.

When I opened my eyes, I saw President Levi, on his varsity jacket. He has this stern look on his face and is holding a big scroll imbued with magical energy.

“Coach Wardenorth. I would like a word with you, together with the whole Merry Knights.” Levi said.

Whatever it is, he looked serious and concerned.

“Okay. Where should we talk?”

“I would like to borrow the Merry Knights Guild Building’s conference room. I know your building might be a bit filthy for my excellence, but I will give you an exemption for this. For I am a kind President of the Eaglecrest.” Levi clapped his chest.

Would it kill him to stop being narcissistic for a moment, even at serious times?

We three approached the Merry Knights Guild Building and first went to the lobby. I immediately saw Ericka at the front desk sorting papers, and Cruzo relaxing on the sofa trying to munch beefy nachos.

For some reason, his excellency and his royal highness President Levi gave a stern look at our favorite panda who is now gaining weight due to his constant eating 24/7.

“Grrrr!” President Levi snarled when he saw Cruzo. He immediately approached the macho panda and slapped away the whole box of nachos! “Rrraaaah!

“Wha! Nooo! My nachos!” Cruzo cried.

“What are you doing, Muscle Bro!?” Prez Levi roared.

“M-Muscle Bro?” Cruzo tilted his head, slightly confused.

“Since you have the perfect manly body that I also have, you should maintain your muscles! Stop eating junk food and focus instead on working out early in the morning! Don’t let your dreams be dreams! Aim for excellence and grind, Muscle Bro!”

“B-But I want to be fat so that Heffy could like me…” Cruzo muttered.

“Unacceptable! Do you want to turn back to your old fat loser self!? Where did I go wrong in teaching you!?” Prez Levi cried.

“Um, you did not teach me anything,” Cruzo said.

“It doesn’t matter!” Prez Levi roared like a lion. “As a Muscle Bro, I will never let your perfect muscles die! Now get your ass on the ground and give me ten thousand pushups!”

“A-Are you the Demon Coach now!?” Cruzo cried. “I thought it was Jon?”

“Stop whining and do it!”

“R-Roger!”

Flu, I, and even Ericka who was watching from the front desk just gave a wry smile. We do not know what is happening between them, and we can’t even decide if they get along or not.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Ericka’s eyes looked at the big scroll Prez Levi is carrying. She left the papers and whatever she was doing at the front desk and approached us.

“Levi, is that-?” Ericka pointed at the big scroll.

“Oh yes, I almost forgot.” Prez Levi said as he raised the big scroll while flexing his popcorn-looking biceps. “Can I use your filthy conference room, Useless Prez?”

“This is not your territory, so you should refrain from insulting me and my guild,” Ericka said in a disappointed tone. However, she seemed to submit as she started to walk to the west side of the building and opened the door. “Come on.”

Flu, Levi, and I followed and left the muscle panda still doing pushups.

I guess Cruzo’s participation in this emergency conference is not a priority as Prez Levi is only interested in his body improvement.

There was a big rectangular glass table in the middle of the conference room. Prez Levi unrolled the gigantic scroll on the table, and it contained a magical circle formula that I cannot read. Well, I’m not a mage, so I could not bother learning any spell formulas that do not help us in Speed Battles.

Wait, if it isn’t about Speed Battles, then I should excuse myself here. I can’t afford to waste time on trivial matters.

“Is this about Speed Battles or the National Speedmage Tournament?” I asked.

“Close,” Ericka answered as she crossed her arms. “This is all about Lilith Nightshade.”

“Are we spying on her?” I asked.

“Close again. This is all about her history.” Ericka answered.

“Ooooh! This is so awesome! I can’t wait to learn more about Lilith!” Flu pumped her fists due to excitement.

“Don’t be excited!” I cried. “I’m pretty sure this is a crime against her privacy!”

“Do you want to defeat her or not?” Ericka curled her eyebrows and stared at me with threat.

“...”

I was silenced. Sure, I want to defeat Lilith and Gaylord, but how will learning about her private life solve anything?

Levi whispered some magical chants under his breath and then he touched the center of the magical circle formula on the scroll. The magical circle glowed and then created a three-dimensional hologram screen.

“Don’t worry, Coach Jonathan,” Levi said with a smile. “Justine hacked this information back at the Regional Speedmage Tournament. It is not like we were the ones who did the crime. Most Eaglecrest Speedmages already know this anyway, so It will be better if you learn about her too.”

I just gave a deep sigh of resignation. It seems that they are all eager to know more about Lilith, so I will just go with the flow. “Whatever.”

<>

The hologram screen projected the image of an open field, more specifically, a Triangle. Two Speedmages are racing towards the 2nd Checkpoint Tower. The time left for this match is twenty seconds, and the scoreboard gave the names and scores of the players.

Delilah Nightshade: 3

Charles Vortex: 8

The hologram recording is kind of blurry, so we cannot make the appearance of the Speedmages. All we can see is that there are violet and red contrail streaks racing against one another. These streaks also clashed over and over, trying to prevent another from reaching the Checkpoint Tower.

Meanwhile, at the edge of the outdoor arena, are three people. One person seemed blurry and pixelated, but I can make of the image of the other two people. It was a man and a young girl. Both the man and the young girl are hugging and trembling as if they are crying.

Beep! The 2nd Checkpoint Tower's sound echoed when the red contrail streak touched it.

Point for Delilah at 4:8!

“Five seconds, Delilah…” An ominous voice echoed. I am betting that the voice came from the blurred man at the side. I don’t think he is a navigator though. He looks like a third party, an audience, or maybe a referee.

“No! Stop! Please stop this!” A womanly cry echoed from the Triangle, which I suspect was Delilah Nightshade’s voice.

“You better score fast, or else two of you will die.” The blurred man laughed as he started the countdown. “Five. Four. Three. Two. One.”

“Nooooooo!” Delilah gave a chilling scream as the timer goes zero.

Fweeeeeeeeeeet!

The blurred man raised his hand. “Match over! The winner is Charles Vortex with a score of 4:8!”

“Noooooooo!”

Delilah cried as she stopped running and fell to the ground on her knees. I can finally make her figure. She is a tall pale-white-skinned woman with long black hair and golden eyes. She looks a lot like the present-day Lilith Nightshade.

“As per the rules of the Abyssal Speed Deathbattle, the loser shall have their soul eaten by the Great Abyss!” The blurred man proclaimed.

“Mama! Mama!” The girl immediately ran to Delilah.

Now that the young girl has finally shown her face, I can say that she is the young Lilith Nightshade. She has the same heterochromatic eyes of yellow and crimson, and also her pale white skin. She must have been around four years old at this point. Her different-colored eyes are unleashing tears.

“Mama! Mama!” Young Lilith cried as she hugged her mother.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry, my dear Lilith! Mother has lost…”

All of a sudden, the body of Delilah turned to dust that mixed with the breeze. Lilith plops down on the ground as soon as her mother disappeared.

“Ah! Aaah! Aaaaaaaah!” Lilith’s father also cried in pain as he saw his body disintegrate to ashes inch by inch.

“Papa! Papa!” Lilith tried to rush.

However, just before she could reach the dissolved hand of his father, she trips down to the ground. When she raised her face to look at her father, he is no longer there. Instead, there is a pile of ashes where her father used to stand.

<>

The magical hologram player ended, and we are left in silence.

Flu was crying, and she is covering her mouth with both hands. She must have realized that it was too horrible of a backstory even for the witch.

Ericka was leaning on the wall, her arms crossed, with a poker face. She may be putting up a brave front but I can see that she is squeezing her arms to suppress her emotions.

While me, I was left astounded. I do not know what to make of what we just watch.

“Brings chills every time I watch it,” Levi said as he closed the scroll.

“Prez Levi, what the hell was that?” I asked.

“Have you ever heard of Abyssal Speed Death Battles five hundred years ago?”