“So….how long have you been with the Ecclesia?”
“My whole life, essentially,” Sariah answered. The walk from the church to Humilde proved quite uneventful on its own, and conversation was the only thing available to break through the monotony of the seemingly endless dirt road that parted the sea of grassy plains, since Lance had left his handheld back in his locker.
“How old are you?” he asked next.
“Take a guess. I’m a little curious how old I look to a teenage boy.”
Lance puffed indignation from his nostrils. “I’m not a teenager.”
“Nineteen is definitely teenaged.”
The speed at which Lance’s head swiveled in Sariah’s direction gave away his surprise. “H-how’d you know I’m nineteen?”
“Everyone in the Ecclesia has a file, and anyone can read it.”
“Really? What else is in my file?”
Sariah smirked. “No idea. I didn’t read your file. I didn’t even know you existed until I walked into the G13 room. But it’s not too hard to tell. You still have a bit of a baby face, and you don’t carry yourself confidently enough when you’re around adults. You try to look like you’re confident, but you’re very clearly not.”
“What? Ugh.” He grumpily kicked an errant rock out from the dirt trail before turning to face his companion, thinking back to her original question.
Sariah was mostly facing forward, but occasionally angled her gaze to take in her surroundings, giving him a nice look at her profile. Nothing about her appearance stuck out to Lance as indicting her as especially young or old. From the way she carried herself, and the way she spoke down to him, she was obviously quite a bit older than him, but probably not by a lot? He couldn’t spot any gray strands in her black hair, and no wrinkles in her olive skin. There were a few scars on her arms, but that still didn’t say much. She was nearly as tall as Lance’s own six-foot frame, and was quite muscular to boot. She walked in firm strides, and didn’t seem to have anything affecting her gait, like old age.
“I’m gonna guess….twenty-seven?”
That elicited a light laugh from her. “Twenty-seven? Really? Is that you hitting on me, or do you just have no proper frame of reference?”
Lance’s face began to redden. “I-I wasn’t hitting on you!”
“Of course not. You seem like you’re more into the graceful elven types.”
“Wh-?!”
Luckily, their arrival at Humilde saved him from any further elaboration on that conversation. Sariah asked one of the villagers for directions to the home of the witnesses of the ULTRA Knight, and took off, with Lance composing himself as he followed after her.
“Thirty-five, by the way,” she said, just before knocking on the front door.
Lance’s eyebrow arched up. “No shit? Wow, you’re almost as old as my mom….”
* * * *
ULTRA KNIGHT
* * * *
As Mary made her way into the kitchen, she set down two cups of tea before her guests, although Lance was the only one to actually bother drinking it. Sariah had actually declined Mary’s offer for a cup to begin with, but Mary was the type of person completely incapable of not providing service to others, even if it led to wasting food and drink in the process.
When she sat back down on the other side of the dining table, there was an unmistakable enthusiasm on her face as she beamed at Sariah and Lance. “My, how exciting! We’ve never had guests from outside of the village before! May I ask where you two hail from?”
“Oh, I’m from Vash,” Lance answered. He was referring to the Vash Republic, situated a few miles west of Humilde. It was one of the most technologically-advanced nations in the world, and was also the birthplace of fast food arcade restaurant chain juggernaut Ulty’s, which Lance had been craving since watching Bianca eat it a few hours ago.
“Vash? Oh, how lovely! Where is that?”
That question had caught the rookie off guard. “Um….it’s not too far from here. It’s just a few miles west.” He had actually assumed that Humilde was a part of Vash to begin with. Following Mary’s comment, however, he decided it must thus belong to the neighboring Kingdom of Leotera, the largest nation in the world. Neither answer was correct, as Humilde was so removed from the rest of civilization, that it didn’t actually belong to any nation, and no nation cared enough to claim it for themselves.
Sariah quickly stepped in to direct the conversational train back onto the tracks. She was quite strong. “What did the knight from the incident look like?”
“Hm? Oh, yes!” Mary clapped her hands together. “He was quite tall! Even taller than my dear James, and-!” She suddenly got up to her feet and held onto Lance’s arm. “Pardon me, Mister, um….?”
“Lance.”
“Lance! Would you mind standing up for me, dear?”
“Huh? Uh, sure?”
As Lance stood up, Mary looked up at him. “Ah! You are about James’s height! Splendid!” She took hold of one of the unused dining table chairs and stood on it. She then held her hand up above Lance’s head by a good two feet or so. “I believe he would have been about….this tall!”
“No shit?” said Lance. “What is that, like eight, nine feet? Dude’s massive.”
“Can you remember anything else about him?” came Sariah’s follow-up question.
“Well, he was wearing armor from head-to-toe, and he carried a very, very large sword! Why, it might have been nearly as tall as I am!”
“What did his armor look like?”
Mary pressed her finger against her lips to help herself focus. Meanwhile, Lance sat back down. “Well….I couldn’t really make out any details about his armor. I’m not terribly familiar with them to begin with, and his armor was very difficult to see, you see!”
“Was it because it was dark out?” asked Lance.
“No, no, actually! Well, yes, it was dark out, but he was-!”
“He was glowing, wasn’t he?” said Sariah. “Brightly enough to blur the space around him?”
Mary clapped her hands again. “Yes, yes! Indeed! Did you see him as well, Miss….?”
“What color?”
“Hm?”
“What color was he glowing?”
“What color….white, I believe?” Another sudden clap. “Oh! Like Baihu! Yes, I believe he shined very much like Baihu!”
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
Baihu was the largest of Planet ULTRA’s three moons, and that comparison was enough to satisfy Sariah. “Silver-white, then.”
“Yes! I believe so!”
Without being able to offer much, Lance decided to finish off the tea Mary had prepared. He’d never drank tea before now, and found it quite dull, but a part of him felt that if he said as much, he would look rather childish. Adults drank tea, after all, not orange soda.
“One final question: do you recall him saying anything?”
“Mmmm….yes, actually! I believe he yelled out ‘U-Knight’ just as he arrived!”
Lance snorted. “He yelled out ‘U-Knight’? What is he, a superhero?”
“A superhero?” said Mary. “What is that?”
“Uh….forget it. Don’t worry about it.”
Sariah stood up, nodding her head in Mary’s direction. “Thank you for your time, ma’am.”
Mary jumped up to her feet as well to escort them to the front door. “Oh, the pleasure was all mine! It was so exciting to have guests over! Please, feel free to stop by anytime you’d like, Lance and Miss….?”
Rather than answer, Sariah opened the door and stepped out. “If you have any more information that might be helpful, don’t hesitate to contact the Ecclesia again.”
Mary waved the two G13 agents off with a smile. “Oh, yes, of course! Have a wonderful day!”
* * * *
ULTRA KNIGHT
* * * *
“Any reason you didn’t wanna tell her your name?” Lance asked Sariah as they departed from Humilde.
“It wasn’t important.”
“I guess not….” Lance stuffed his hands into his pockets and started the trek back to the church. “So what’s it like being a secret agent?”
When he received no answer, he stopped and turned around. Sariah had taken the dirt road heading south rather than north. He jogged over to catch up, annoyed she hadn’t said anything. “Where we going? They said the knight headed northeast, right?”
Sariah nodded her head in the direction of a cave a bit in the distance. “I need to check something there first.”
The cavern had a downward slope to it, and from the entrance, it was impossible to see very far inside. “Torch,” Sariah said flatly.
It took Lance a moment to catch her meaning from one singular word stated out of the blue, but his Ecclesian Knight training luckily kicked in to direct him. He held his hands in front of his chest, one atop the other, forming an invisible sphere between them. A heavy, distorted voice then echoed from within the space between his hands:
FIRE!
A ball of red-and-orange flames sparked alight between his palms. He gently pushed against the ball of fire, and it floated away from him, hovering in the air about a foot above his head.
Sariah nodded her head approvingly, then led the way into the cavern.
It was strangely warm inside, and that wasn’t due to the torch that Lance had lit. The atmosphere in the cave was more soothing than foreboding, despite the darkness and silence.
“So what are we looking for?” Lance questioned.
“There should be a wide open area. Once we hit that, it shouldn’t be too far from there.”
That didn’t quite answer him, but he got the feeling he would just have to live with that.
The two walked on in silence for a few short moments, but the unmistakable growl of a monster up ahead cut through it all.
“Crap,” Lance muttered. “I didn’t bring my sword.”
“Tsk, tsk,” Sariah said. “What kinda Knight doesn’t bring his sword with him?”
“I thought we were just walking to the village. I didn’t think I’d need it!”
Sariah’s hand slipped down to the holster on her leg, and she removed the handgun from within it. “Is Roy going easy on you guys now or something?”
Lance sighed. “Nah, Commander Roy would definitely beat my ass for forgetting it.” His eyes locked onto the gun in Sariah’s hand. He’d never seen one before in person, but had heard about them, and was definitely intrigued to see one in action for the first time. “So you use guns, huh?”
“That a problem?”
“Nah. You’re a spy, after all. That’s perfect for you.”
A slight smirk appeared on Sariah’s face. “Why would a gun be perfect for a spy? They’re pretty damn loud.” To demonstrate, she suddenly fired a shot into the ceiling, causing Lance to jump in place. The blowback exploded around the cavern, echoing in all directions. “See?”
“Gah! Little warning, next time?!”
Attracted by the sound, two six-legged monsters scrambled towards the two G13 agents. Their gray, hardened skin suggested they had been born straight from the rocky walls of the cave, and their eyeless faces with massive maws suggested they were disgusting and creepy.
“What are those things?!” Lance asked, surprised by how quickly they moved.
Sariah pulled the trigger twice, each bullet landing dead-center in the skulls of the two creatures, even as they twisted and jumped in erratic motions. “No idea,” she answered. She looked over at Lance with a smile. “You scared, rookie?”
“N-no, I was just-!”
“Need me to hold your hand?”
As Lance simmered in annoyance, Sariah patted his back and continued moving. “Fine, fine, I’ll stop. We should be nearby. Let’s get this done and get outta here.”
They did, in fact, find the wide open area of the cavern that Sariah had mentioned before. There were more of those strange monsters along the way, but Sariah was able to dispatch them with the same ease as the first two.
Lance was a bit taken aback by the power of the handgun, especially given how simple it seemed to operate. Of course, Sariah’s skill likely made it look more effortless than it normally would be, but still….
Sariah led him down a curved pathway leading further downwards, and came to a stop a few feet into it. As she knelt down to inspect the ground, Lance noticed a huge, gaping fissure in the ground.
“Is that what you were looking for?”
She nodded, dragging her fingers along the edge of the fissure. “Doesn’t look like it’s been touched recently.” She stood back up. “Let’s get outta here.”
“Uh….that was it?”
“Yup.”
The two retraced their steps and made it out of the cave. As Lance put out the torch, he looked over to Sariah. “So….what was all that about? The cave and the hole in the ground or whatever?”
“You didn’t recognize it?”
Lance’s eyebrows scrunched up. “Uh….no? I’ve never been in this area before.”
“Neither have I, but everyone in the Ecclesia should recognize that cave. You skip out on your reading, rookie?”
“….Maybe.” Yes. Yes he did.
“That’s the cave the ULTRA Knight is said to have first appeared in the world 800 years ago, and that fissure specifically is where he emerged from.”
“No shit?”
Sariah nodded. “It’s obviously not a coincidence he suddenly appeared again so close to that cave, although it doesn’t look like he came from the same fissure. That’s worth noting.”
* * * *
ULTRA KNIGHT
* * * *
“U-KNIGHT!”
The shining claymore skewered itself through the skelemental’s open jaws before lodging itself into the tree behind it. The knight, now unarmed, proceeded to bash at the ferocious monsters with his fists and feet. Despite not having his mighty weapon in hand, he was still capable of destroying the monsters in single strikes.
Having carved a way through the crowd of skelementals, the knight marched towards the tree to retrieve his claymore. However, before he could close the distance, he felt a massive vibration rumble the ground beneath him.
The knight dived to the side, narrowly avoiding the ground’s eruption as a giant quadruped skelemental clawed its way to the surface. The monster roared in fury before swiping its long, bony tail at him like a whip.
The knight was able to bring his hands up to block the incoming tail, but the sheer strength behind the attack was enough to push him backwards several dozen feet all the same, further dividing him from his weapon.
As the giant skelemental beast began to rotate around to face the knight head-on, the knight brought his hands to stomach level and slammed the gauntleted fists together. The metal clang reverberated around the grassy midnight plains just before a deep, echoing voice boomed from within the knight’s gut:
RIFLE!
A glowing silver-white firearm materialized in the knight’s hands in a flash. The weapon was massive — nearly the size of the claymore itself, and glowed with a similar light.
The knight chambered the weapon and knelt down on one knee. He took aim directly at the giant skelemental as the beast began its thunderous approach, and fired.
A burst of silver-white light exploded from the barrel, and the bullet within tore through the air. Not even making contact with the giant skelemental’s forehead and drilling through the length of its entire body before exploding from the tail was enough to slow its trajectory.
The momentum of the giant skelemental carried its body forward even in death, but the knight did not move from his position. The beast collapsed to pieces all around him, but none touched his shimmering armor.
* * * *
ULTRA KNIGHT
* * * *
Atop a nearby cliff, overlooking the scene, two skelementals watched on as the knight retrieved his sword from the trunk of the tree, and began to march northward.
The skelemental standing on the left was much taller than his partner, standing at a looming nine feet tall. He was clad in armor nearly as black as the night sky, and this armor was littered with spikes of bone protruding from the skelemental’s body underneath. No helm covered his skull, leaving the dim green lights of his sockets visible. He was the mighty Fohrzen.
“The ULTRA Knight returns, Yunze.” he stated, his voice was powerful although distinctly inhuman. It was almost mechanical in nature, like an industrial machine crunching through metal.
The other, Yunze, was much smaller in comparison, and their body was shrouded in a multi-colored cloak. The cloak’s hood shrouded the skelemental’s face almost entirely, although the green dots of light in their eyes were able to just barely pierce through. “Are you going to fight him?” In stark contrast to Fohrzen, Yunze’s voice was a nearly inaudible whisper that seemed to creep in from multiple directions at once.
Fohrzen’s mighty hand grabbed hold of the handle of his weapon. It was a massive greatsword whose width was nearly the length of a standard sword. The edges were coated with jagged bone, giving the sword’s silhouette a chainsaw-like structure.
“Yes. That is my purpose.”