Thunder shook the skies with each clash of blade on blade.
The raw power behind each and every swing from the U-Knight and Fohrzen affected far more than just the opponent’s weapon — each collision sent ruptures through the air, and opened gashes in the earth beneath them.
The fight itself would have been near impossible to spectate, as the space around them became distorted when contact was made, as though they were opening cracks in the screen displaying their duel.
Neither had an advantage for the first few moments of the battle. When one attempted to let loose a follow-up swing faster than the previous, the other was ready to block it, and when one put more strength into their next attack, the other was ready to match it.
This early stalemate seemed to please Fohrzen, who began to break out into a cackle as the overhead chop of his chainsaw greatsword was perfectly halted by the horizontal guard from the U-Knight’s silver-white claymore. “Yes! Yes! This is the battle I was promised!”
Switching gears, the U-Knight stepped forward in a compact stabbing lunge, but Fohrzen was ready, catching the edge of the U-Knight’s claymore with the gaps between the fangs surrounding his own greatsword, redirecting the attack to strike naught but air.
With an opening now available to him, Fohrzen swung hard and fast, right for the U-Knight’s lower back. There was no time for the knight to twist around and block the attack.
There was, however, time for the U-Knight to completely release his hold on his sword, and bring his fists together in front of his stomach.
WATER!
In an instant, the U-Knight’s body broke down into liquid form, just before the jagged edge of Fohrzen’s blade could cleave into his back. The water did explode outward as the blade made contact with it, splashing it in all directions, but it was able to quickly coalesce a few feet away, where it rematerialized into the full form of the U-Knight.
The duel came to a momentary pause as Fohrzen hoisted his greatsword over his shoulder, looking his opponent over. The U-Knight simply stood still, refusing to budge an inch.
“So that is the power of the Installs….the power of the ULTRA Force….”
Fohrzen’s heavy, grinding voice leaked out a long, drawn-out chuckle. “Show me more, ULTRA Knight! Show me the extent of this newfound power!”
The U-Knight slowly stepped over to where his claymore lay, keeping the front of his helmet locked onto Fohrzen, although the skelemental warrior did not appear interested in attacking an unarmed opponent.
Rather than bend down to pick up the blade, the U-Knight stomped into the ground, and the force from the impact thrust the heavy sword skyward, dozens of feet into the air. A moment later, the U-Knight caught the weapon, holding it at the ready.
* * * *
ULTRA KNIGHT
* * * *
Nezumi Unus, more commonly referred to as N1, was the artifacts branch of the Ecclesia da Ultra. The branch handled everything from relic restoration to ancient weapon safekeeping, seizure of dangerous artifacts, and, of course, the study and collection of any physical item of interest to the church and the world of Planet ULTRA itself.
Due to the wide variety of items covered by this umbrella of jurisdiction, it was a complex branch with lots of moving parts, lots of procedures, lots of sub-divisions tailored for specific purposes, and lots of mystery and secrecy to those not authorized to be in the know.
Sariah was authorized to be in the know, regardless of the level of importance placed upon any particular artifact.
N1 had always been one of her favorite branches throughout her time in the Ecclesia, and her interest in it had grown stronger as she had gotten older, more experienced, and more respected within the church, as it afforded her greater access to its operations. In fact, were it not for the emergence of G13, it would likely have been the branch she eventually settled on prioritizing.
Her affinity for N1 made its current situation all the more frustrating to her, as her respect for it had suffered a heavy blow at the prospect of in-house thievery and sloppy artifact management.
“There wasn’t much research done on the artifact before its disappearance,” said Gren, the head of N1 in the city of Redvein’s church. He was an owl-like man who barely managed to reach four feet in height, although the extravagant mitre he wore on his head was able to bump up his silhouette an extra foot. “We went through basic testing and there was no response from it.”
“What happened after basic testing?” Sariah asked, arms folded across her chest. “You’re supposed to transfer it over to a blast wing afterwards, right?” Blast wings were church facilities wherein tests of dangerous artifacts and Installs were conducted.
Gren nodded his little bird head. “Indeed we are, and we were in the midst of preparing the paperwork and transportation to the blast wing in the capital, but it vanished before the process was completed.”
Sariah’s nostrils fumed. “So it was internal.”
“It appears that way, yes.”
“And you don’t have cameras in this church?”
The owl shook his head no, a bit more fervently than he probably should have, as his slightly-oversized headgear threatened to fall right off of him. “No, we do not. We monitor the church via guardian wards, but none of them detected anything.”
Guardian wards were special glyphs that scanned over certain areas. They had historically been a very powerful surveillance system, as they had the ability to provide a complete overview of a room, no matter where they were placed, and even if objects were obstructing them. They could monitor sound, detect the presence of ULTRA Force, and some were even said to be capable of reading one’s intentions, which made them just about the strongest security systems available.
That meant that whoever had taken the artifact was keenly aware of the guardian wards, and somehow had a means of bypassing them, which heavily suggested a member of the Ecclesia itself.
“What did the artifact look like?” Sariah said, just barely able to push the words through her clenched jaws.
“It was small, crystalline, and deep violet in color,” Gren answered. “It was square in shape, and you could fit it comfortably in the palm of your hand.”
She paused for the briefest moment. “A violet crystal? Like amethyst?”
“It was not amethyst, but it looked quite similar, I suppose.”
“Would someone who didn’t know any better mistake it for amethyst?”
Gren nodded his head slowly. “I….suppose so, yes?”
Sariah spun around in a harsh circle towards the exit. “Got it. Thanks.”
* * * *
ULTRA KNIGHT
* * * *
FIRE!
The U-Knight swung his claymore in three consecutive arcs, each one releasing a red wave of blazing fire.
The flames lit up the battlefield, bursting outward in bright flashes of sparks as Fohrzen blocked each one with his greatsword. While the flames themselves never managed to harm the skelemental warrior, the raw force behind each projectile kept him locked in place as he defended against the barrage, which bought the U-Knight time for his follow-up.
The silver white knight advanced in a half-circle around the shield-acting sword. He brought the blade in at a sharp angle, forcing Fohrzen to attempt a defense with his arm only.
The claymore bit into the skelemental’s black armor, ripping open a spread of cracks through the metal, and sending vibrations throughout Fohrzen’s body.
The U-Knight stepped in for a follow-up attack, jamming his shoulder right into the center of Fohrzen’s chest, uprooting him from the earth.
As the skelemental began to fall backwards, the U-Knight let loose one more powerful swing, igniting his claymore in a ferocious aura of bloody ember.
Fohrzen hit the ground dozens of feet away, conjuring a massive bubble of dirt and dust around him. When he came to a stop, his chilling, mechanical laugh cut through the cloud of dust. “Excellent….You are every bit as formidable as I had hoped!”
The dust cleared, rendering Fohrzen visible once more. A long, diagonal line had been opened up in his chestplate, bordered on all sides by a layer of soot.
Both Fohrzen and the U-Knight’s gazes fell to the ground between them, both fighters realizing that the skelemental had dropped his weapon far away from where he now stood.
The U-Knight, rather than cash in on his opportunity, thrust his claymore into the ground, extinguishing the flames around the blade.
Fohrzen smiled wide as he realized his opponent was waiting for him to reclaim his weapon. “You’re enjoying this as well, aren’t you?”
The skelemental strolled over to his sword, retrieving it from the grass.
The instant he did, he slashed upward, having anticipated the U-Knight’s incoming dash swing.
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An explosion of sparks and distorted air burst around the area as the two swords battered against one another, edge to edge.
After parrying a low swing from the U-Knight, Fohrzen suddenly lunged forward, grabbing hold of his opponent’s throat with his bare hand.
A black-and-green light washed over the U-Knight’s body in the span of a nanosecond, but it was enough to stun him into submission, causing him to drop his weapon.
Fohrzen tightened his hold just as a wild circle of air began to spin around the battlefield, uprooting dirt and patches of grass and flinging them in all directions.
The black-and-green winds began to bite at the U-Knight’s armor, chipping it away, one silver-white particle at a time. In seconds, the tornado that had begun to form around the two had a streak of silver-white mixed into it, and that streak was only getting bigger with each tick of the clock.
The U-Knight dropped his fists to his stomach, attempting to slam them together, but Fohrzen was ready, battering away the knight’s left hand with a swing of his sword.
“Taste a power you have yet to witness, ULTRA Knight!” Fohrzen yelled out as the raging winds began to pick up in speed. “Feel it as it tears you into nothingness!”
* * * *
ULTRA KNIGHT
* * * *
Sariah stepped out from the Radecross church. The city was uncharacteristically quiet, even as late into the night as it was, but Sariah wasn’t very interested in paying that fact much attention.
Instead, her mind was occupied by the information she had just gleaned from Gren. Based on the description he had given her, she was able to conjure up a mental image of the missing artifact, and the connection to the “amethyst” that the pirate captain Nadia had mentioned before was clear.
They most likely weren’t the exact same item, as the timetables didn’t match up — Redvein had lost theirs weeks back, whereas Nadia’s was taken just a few days ago. But while they were not the same exact items, they were almost certainly related to one another.
A nagging feeling in her brain took her attention away from the missing artifacts, focusing specifically on this supposed thieving nun the pirate had mentioned. According to the description, she was tall and had blue hair. None of the nuns in the teleporter travel log from the time period had fit the description, and neither the church in Radecross nor the one in Redvein had any staff who matched.
She entertained the thought it might be Bianca for a brief moment, but because Bianca was not a member of the Ecclesia, wasn’t particularly tall, and was far too lazy to do anything more physically demanding than play on her computer, she was taken off the suspect list before her name was even fully printed on it.
Sariah brought her hand up to her chest, freeing the necklace she kept hidden beneath her shirt. It was a silver-white, lens-shaped locket on a thin chain. In the center of the locket was a thin purple vein of metal that shimmered even in total darkness.
Her hand tightened around the locket, as though she were trying to somehow transfer her anger into it to relieve herself of it.
She felt the hairs on her arms and neck stand on end.
Her hand shot down to her holster, retrieving her pistol. She whipped around in the same motion, hoisting the gun up and pulling the trigger.
The bullet made contact with an incoming round. Thanks to the custom fortification she had installed into her ammunition, her bullet was able to tear the enemy one into pieces, sending tiny chunks of metal in all directions except for Sariah’s.
Her eyes darted to the direction the enemy bullet had come. It was difficult to see anything in the darkness, but she was able to catch a brief movement as her attempted sniper took off running.
She raced after the sniper as quickly as she could, but the distance between the two had been too much of a head start, and she knew the chase was pointless.
“Shit!” she said with a hiss.
After taking one final look around the area, she holstered her handgun, and made her way back to the church.
* * * *
ULTRA KNIGHT
* * * *
The ferocious winds continued to eat away at the U-Knight’s form, as though an eraser were wiping his image clean from a page.
Fohrzen’s grip on him grew stronger and tighter, and the giant skelemental warrior was beginning to put more physical force into the press, threatening to sink the knight down into the earth if the tornado proved too slow to kill him in time.
The U-Knight no longer had access to his weapon, and Fohrzen was keeping his hands apart, rendering him unable to utilize any of his Installs.
Fohrzen brought his other hand to the U-Knight’s throat, adjusting his body position so that he could maintain further control over his opponent. The sound of grinding metal and stone escaped from his jaws, just barely managing to pierce through the whirlwind around them.
“Vanish, ULTRA Knight! The superior warrior has been crowned! My purpose has been fulfilled!”
The skelemental leaned in closer. The dull green lights in his eye sockets were starting to dance, as though they were circulating with thin, faint lines of electricity.
“I am free!”
The instant Fohrzen pushed forward one last time, the U-Knight made his move. With the strength he was able to conjure in his awkward positioning, he stomped his foot into the ground, sending a ripple of impact force up.
His claymore shot upward, spinning around wildly. He was just barely able to manage catching it in a reverse-grip at just the right angle to drive it through the side of Fohrzen’s skull.
The skelemental lashed outward, releasing his hold on the U-Knight as he stumbled backward, claymore still lodged in his head.
Despite this, the winds that Fohrzen had summoned did not stop. If anything, they appeared to lose control as the skelemental did, picking up in intensity.
But the U-Knight was now free.
He brought his hands to his chest as quickly as he could, forming a ball shape between them. A voice exploded from within, echoing around the battlefield, overpowering even the harsh roars of the violent winds.
PULSE!
A purple glow originating from his chest shot outward, racing across his body before exploding outward in a massive bubble.
Upon making contact with the black and green winds, the purple light vanquished them from existence, returning the area to relative calm and quiet.
With the winds now gone, the U-Knight was able to return his attention to Fohrzen, who had just managed to rip the claymore free from his head.
Two massive holes had appeared in Fohrzen’s skull, one on each side from where the sword had pierced through. The green lights in his eyes were now noticeably larger, fluctuating in more frenzied patterns.
“The result of my arrogance….” the skelemental warrior said, his voice low.
He held the claymore aloft in both hands, then brought the weapon downward in one swift movement, snapping the shining silver-white blade across his spiked, armored knee.
Tossing the fractured parts of the sword aside, Fohrzen held his palm outward, calling his chainsaw greatsword to it, escorting it across the battlefield with a line of black and green wind.
“A mistake I shall not repeat.”
The two warriors stood face-to-face in silence for a few seconds longer, preparing for what they both believed to be the final phase of their duel.
Fohrzen blasted across the battlefield far more quickly than he had ever moved before. His chainsaw greatsword led the way with a chop aimed directly for the U-Knight’s neck.
The knight was able to duck beneath the attack, but he did not have access to an opening just yet, as Fohrzen threw out a sneaky spinning back elbow meant to catch him off guard.
The U-Knight brought his arm up to block the attack, but still he was unable to strike, as Fohrzen was already in the midst of his turnaround swing.
Instead, the knight waited until the skelemental’s blade approached before rapidly jabbing his palm against the flat of the blade.
Another purple blast of light exploded from the U-Knight’s hand, sending the greatsword away at an awkward angle. Fohrzen was able to hold steady and resist being pushed away by the pulsation, but he was unable to protect himself from the heavy boot to the gut thrown at him.
As Fohrzen stumbled backward, the U-Knight dropped to his knee, slamming his fists together.
RIFLE!
A silver-white firearm materialized in the knight’s hands. He loaded the weapon in the blink of an eye, taking aim before firing three consecutive shots.
Fohrzen was struck in the back by the first shot, but managed to protect himself from the second with the flat of his sword. However, the third chipped one of his bone spikes, throwing him off balance.
The knight dropped his hold on the weapon and made a mad dash forward, knowing his window of opportunity was small.
LANCE!
A flash of silver-white light exploded outward from his hands once more, this time forming into the shape of a mighty twelve-foot-long lance. The sudden appearance of this new weapon did not slow his run down, either. In fact, once it appeared in his hands, he picked up in speed, blitzing across the battlefield in a flash.
The U-Knight stepped forward and put all of his weight into the weapon with a precision shot right to the center of Fohrzen’s head.
The skelemental brought his chainsaw greatsword up to shield himself from the sudden attack, but it was to no avail.
The tip of the lance broke through the massive slab of metal and bone, cracking the weapon into pieces. It continued its trajectory without slowing down, piercing the skelemental dead-center in the forehead.
A violent howl escaped from Fohrzen’s jaws as his body crumbled into pieces. The force of the U-Knight’s lunge carried him forward several more feet, even after he had cleaved through his opponent, before he was finally able to come to a stop.
The knight slowly turned to look back over his shoulder.
Fohrzen was no more. All that remained of him was a scattered pile of metal bone and armor, and even that did not remain, evaporating into green specks of light carried away by the breeze.
The lance in his hands blinked away in a flash of silver-white light. The knight stood back up, walking over to where Fohrzen had fallen to make certain the skelemental was no more.
Satisfied that he had fulfilled his purpose for coming here, the U-Knight turned back the way he had come, and walked away into the night.
* * * *
ULTRA KNIGHT
* * * *
Sariah was not expecting anyone to still be in the G13 room when she returned hours after the last meeting, but there was, in fact, someone there.
Bianca.
“Oh, hey, Mom,” the young girl greeted. She appeared to be in the middle of playing some sort of computer card game on her laptop. “Surprised you’re still awake this late. This is young people time.”
“What are you still doing here?”
Bianca shrugged. “I don’t have anything better to do. Don’t really feel like getting up.”
Sariah rolled her eyes before making her way over to the screen at the front of the room. “Turn this on.”
“Wow, can’t even say ‘please?’ Aren’t manners important in the church’s teachings?”
Bianca was prepared to give her best shit-eating grin, but the intensity in Sariah’s glare told her now was not the time, so she relented.
As the screen kicked on, Bianca questioned, “What’s this for? King Lizard call for a meeting?”
She didn’t get an answer from Sariah. Instead, King Garn’s bright happy reptile face appeared on screen, accompanied by his jolly voice. “Wonderful! Hello, Miss Sariah! Oh, and Miss Bianca as well?”
“Sup?” Bianca saluted.
“What did you need, Your Majesty?” asked Sariah.
The reptilian king clasped his hands together, bowing his head. “Apologies! I am so very sorry to call you on such short notice, and so late into the night!”
Sariah shook her head. “It’s fine, Your Majesty. You don’t need to apologize.”
“Gratitudes!” He then cleared his throat. “Do you happen to remember the situation I mentioned involving Jura, Vash, and Leotera?”
“Yes. They’re on some bad terms right now over some territory dispute, correct?”
The king nodded enthusiastically. “Indeed! I just returned from a scheduled peace meeting between the three just a few short hours ago, you see….”
Sariah let out a sigh, already able to tell where this conversation was headed. “Didn’t go well?”
King Garn’s head dropped low. “Regrettably! Relations between the three seemed to be going smoothly in the past few days, but it appears that one of the villages in Vash was attacked a few hours ago!”
From the back of the room, Bianca nonchalantly asked, “How many bodies are there?” Neither Sariah nor King Garn gave her question any attention.
“Tragedy!” the king wailed. “The meetings have all been called off, and I fear that the situation will soon become much, much worse between them!”
Sariah nodded. “Definitely. I’ll look into it tomorrow.”
Clapping his hands together, King Garn exclaimed, “Exemplary! Bless your kind heart, Miss Sariah!”
“Don’t mention it, Your Majesty.”
After giving Sariah several more thank-yous in spite of her assurance that none were needed, King Garn bid the two G13 women goodnight, shutting off the video call to them.
Sariah began to head for the exit, until Bianca called out to her. “Want me to call the rookie in tomorrow to play sidekick again?”
Sariah shook her head. “No. I have a feeling this isn’t going to be a standard investigation. I don’t want him getting in my way.”
Bianca’s eyes instinctively dropped down to the gun at Sariah’s side. A smile spread across her face. “Ooh, is Mom going on one of her serious missions this time?”
Sariah pressed her hand into the wall, and a green light washed over her as she began to step through it.
“That’s what I’m here for, isn’t it?”
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