“You will leave my city as well, fraudulent knight. Or I will tear your soul to pieces.”
The Spirit Queen’s threatening words momentarily caught the U-Knight off guard, eliciting the slightest cock of the head in confusion.
The Spirit Queen raised her hand, and the U-Knight readied prepared for a fight, but the gesture turned out to not be an attack. Instead, the Spirit Queen released streams of light towards the nearby totem, and the structure began to repair itself.
The U-Knight’s shoulders and hands relaxed, though the Spirit Queen did not seem quite finished with him just yet. She leaned forward, moving her face close to his featureless helmet, venom dripping from each word that escaped her.
“Or, more appropriately, your souls.”
The Knight’s hand gripped more firmly onto the handle of his claymore, but still he did not raise his weapon to strike. As confrontational and aggressive as the Spirit Queen was being, she had not escalated the situation to violence. Not yet, anyway.
She continued to stare daggers through his helmet, and he continued to remain stock-still. The night air around them was deathly silent, and the only movement to be seen was the shimmering lights of the silver-white and emerald green auras radiating from their bodies.
Her face soon contorted into a snarl, and her long flowing hair began to rise. “None who walk this Existence are fit to carry his legacy, and certainly not wastes of life like you!”
The U-Knight’s hand twitched once again, though not in preparation to defend himself, but rather to strike first. However, he kept his hand steady, which ultimately turned out to be for the best, as the Spirit Queen indeed did not attack him. Rather, she turned his back to him completely, and began floating away.
The Knight similarly shifted in the opposite direction in order to take his leave, and that was when the Spirit Queen struck.
* * * *
ULTRA KNIGHT
* * * *
“You….want to meet Gata the Cat.”
Bianca nodded, though she did not elaborate straight away, preferring to prolong Sariah’s uncertainty as long as she could by obnoxiously slowly reaching for a bag of potato chips, popping it open obnoxiously loudly, and biting into it obnoxiously slowly and loudly.
Recognizing Bianca’s play, Sariah took control of the conversation, not keen on letting the young girl drag things out. “The Celestial Beasts are long gone, Bianca.”
A snort escaped Bianca’s nostrils. “Most of ‘em, sure, but I know the cat’s alive. Don’t even bother trying to hide it.”
“….And how do you know this?”
Bianca chomped into another chip, not even bothering to prevent crumbs from spilling all over herself and her chair. “I have my sources.”
Eyes narrowing, Sariah replied, “Stop playing around, Bianca.”
Bianca held her hands up, still wearing the signature shit-eating-grin on her face. “I’m not! I just don’t think that’s any of your fucking business.”
In the blink of an eye, Sariah was on her feet, standing directly in front of Bianca, pistol a mere inch from the young girl’s forehead. “Who are you, Bianca?”
It took a moment for Bianca to process what had happened and the current situation she found herself in. When her brain finally pieced it together, she tried her best to remain composed and on top of the situation, but her body ultimately did flinch, even if just a tiny bit. Not enough for most people to catch, but Sariah saw it clear as day. “Bianca S. Hope.”
“Who do you work for?”
“Myself, duh. I don’t wanna have an icky boss; that’d be so lame.”
Before Sariah could prepare her next question, the screen at the head of the room lit up, and a video feed of King Garn’s big lizard face appeared. “Stupendous! Have you already completed your investigation, Miss Sari-?”
His eyes nearly popped out from his skull at the sight of Sariah aiming her gun at Bianca’s face. “G-g-gadzooks! What is happening?!”
Bianca spoke up before Sariah could in order to take back control of the conversation. “Relax, Garny. Mom here’s just showing me some cool interrogation techniques.”
“Joyous!” King Garn responded, his clawed hand clutching over his chest. “You certainly had me spooked for a moment, ladies! I’d feared the worst!”
Exhaling from her nostrils, Sariah re-holstered her weapon, and returned to her seat at the conference table, making sure to keep Bianca in her line of sight at all times. “Sorry to worry you, Your Majesty. But you are correct; I’ve finished my investigation into Rushuna.”
“Marvelous! And so quickly, too!”
Sariah and Bianca both watched as Garn seemed to shuffle into his seat in order to get more comfortable. He appeared to be wearing a t-shirt and pajama pants, although the former had already been ripped in several places by his big scaly arms, and the latter by his tail.
“It will be so nice to put an end to this international quarrel! Huzzah!”
“The warehouse attack wasn’t executed by Leotera, Jura, or any nation in particular,” Sariah began. “It was the work of a war goddess hiding underneath Rushuna.”
King Garn’s eyes nearly bulged out of his skull. “Astonishing! A war goddess!”
“Did you have a nice chat with her?” Bianca asked with a smile.
Choosing not to respond to her, Sariah instead continued recapping King Garn with her findings. “She was trying to cause a war in order to regain her power, but she’s been dealt with.”
The lizard king giddily clapped his hands together. “Wonderful! It’s such a relief that this conflict can be brought to an end! The good people of Planet ULTRA should not be battling one another! Thank you dearly for your service in resolving this matter, Miss Sariah! You truly are a hero!”
Sariah waved his words off with her hand. “Thank you, Your Majesty, but there’s really no need for all of that. I’m just doing my job.”
“Ah, the humility! Amazing!”
She cleared her throat, although it was moreso to get the conversation back on track. “In case the other heads of state don’t take your word for it at your next meeting, I’ve sent copies of some artifacts I picked up in the war goddess’s lair, as well as a report from C7 containing all of the written information the Ecclesia has on her to churches in Leotera, Jura, and Vash so they can all see for themselves.”
“Incredible! You’re always one step ahead of everything aren’t you, Miss Sariah!”
Sariah and Bianca’s eyes both flickered to meet one another in response to the king’s words, with the latter adding in a cocky little wink as she did.
“Excitement!” the king said, though neither woman pulled their eyes away from the other. “I shall hurry and assemble another meeting with the other heads of state! We can’t let this tension continue any longer than necessary! Goodbye, Miss Sariah and Miss Bianca! I hope you two have a wonderful rest of your day!”
“You as well, Your Majesty.”
“Thanks, bro,” Bianca replied before tossing a chip into her mouth.
The instant King Garn’s video feed cut out, Sariah was on her feet again, pistol in hand, centered on Bianca’s forehead. “Out with it.”
Bianca held her hands up, though there was no sign of actual fear on her face or in her body language. In fact, she even went so far as to kick her feet up to get herself even more comfortable. “Not without cutting a deal first, Mom. It’d be pretty stupid for me to give up my valuable info without getting something in return, right?”
Stolen story; please report.
The air in the room grew cold as neither budged even a fraction of an inch. And while no words were spoken, their gazes carried clear messages to one another, and they soon came to an understanding.
Bianca smirked. “Fine. I’ll start with one piece of info so you can see that I’m legit. Then you take me to meet Gata, and then I’ll tell you the rest.”
“….Fine.”
As Sariah returned her gun to its holster, Bianca rolled her shoulders and began typing on her computer, pulling up some sort of secret folder locked with multiple passwords, a fingerprint scan, and a voice-activation gate.
When she was finished with her multi-tier security bypassing, she pulled open a single image file.
She looked over her monitor at Sariah, who was staring down at her expectantly. “Okay, I’ve got piece of info numero uno for ya.”
“Alright. What is it?”
“Wanna know who the U-Knight is?”
* * * *
ULTRA KNIGHT
* * * *
The Spirit Queen’s strike was not a traditional attack; she was not a warrior by nature, and with her existence as a spirit, she had no real need to fight hand-to-hand like a more corporeal being.
Instead, the Spirit Queen’s offensive methods revolved around, well, spirits. More specifically, the spirit plane.
As the U-Knight turned around to leave, she flicked her hand in his direction, and a glowing blue eagle initially not much larger than her hand sprouted in thin air.
The spirit eagle quickly made its way across the distance between the Queen and the Knight, rapidly expanding in size until it was larger than an elephant.
It wrapped its talons around the U-Knight’s body just before he could finish turning around. The instant the spirit eagle had a grasp on the Knight, the two vanished into thin air, transported to the spirit plane.
It was a cosmic storm in all directions. Streaks of light representing all hues of the spectral, wisps of other spirits weaving in an out of existence, clashes in the distance between realms that instantly rippled across the sky and restructured it, massive balls of white and red flames, black holes and quasars, green bolts of lightning that froze in place in the sky, only to shatter and crumble to glass moments later.
The spirit plane, or at least this specific dimension of it, was a hostile place unfit for mortals, as evidenced by the distorted screams echoing from all corners from those who had become trapped there.
The spirit eagle and the U-Knight appeared, bursting through a wormhole. The U-Knight struggled against the eagle’s claws, landing punch after punch until finally the animal was forced to release its grip.
The U-Knight fell, though there was ultimately no ground to stand on, and thus, nothing to stop said fall. The silver-white Knight instead plummeted through the vastness of the spirit plane, soaring through red clouds and blue winds. Other spirit animals appeared along the Knight’s trajectory, each one attempting to bite and scratch at him along the way.
With seemingly nothing within his power to stop himself, the U-Knight resorted to the one tool available to him; the only thread of hope of escaping and returning to the mortal plane.
His body became surrounded in a radiant purple glow, with three particularly bright spots appearing on his head, chest, and stomach.
The spot on his helmet formed a triangle shape, which then transfigured into a pyramid.
The spot on his chest piece formed a circle shape, which then transfigured into a sphere.
The spot on his stomach plate formed a square shape, which then transfigured into a cube.
The three shapes arose from his armor, which had almost completely shifted from silver-white to purple. The shapes were almost like amethyst; formed from a beautiful crystal-like material, glittering like the most radiant of gemstones.
As the three shapes separated from his body completely, his entire form was consumed by the purple light, which coalesced into the three gemstones.
Each stone shot back up in the direction his body had fallen, trailing purple light like tiny little comets. They continued on their upward path until they arrived at the wormhole the spirit eagle had brought the U-Knight in from, and escaped through it.
* * * *
ULTRA KNIGHT
* * * *
Commander Roy’s unconscious body lay dormant in the tunnel beneath Lunafei. That is, until a purple streak of light struck him in the stomach, startling him awake.
He coughed and gagged and thrashed around as his soul returned to him, having momentarily forgotten he had been trapped underground by Sinzen’s trap hole.
As he calmed himself down and took the time to gather his breath, he felt aches and pains course through him; the sting of electricity, the bite of a spear, the clutches of powerful talons.
It was impossible to see in the dark in this position, but fortunately there was something he could do about it. He tucked his right hand over his gut, and slowly opened the fingers of his gauntlets.
A radiant purple light washed over him and the surrounding parts of the tunnel. In his hand was a crystalline purple cube, in perfectly immaculate condition.
He craned his head left in order to try and get a read on where exactly he was, but even that little motion drained on what little energy he had remaining.
“I’m getting too old for this….We really gotta swap soon….”
His eyelids shut, and he dozed off to sleep.
* * * *
ULTRA KNIGHT
* * * *
“….Roy?”
Bianca nodded, tossing some more chips into her mouth. “Yup. See the little purple gem thingie in his hand? That’s what he uses to transform or whatever. Look a little familiar?”
Sariah almost didn’t even hear her question, as her eyes were too transfixed on the image in front of her. It was a photograph of Commander Roy, and he appeared to be sneaking off into the woods somewhere.
He was indeed carrying a “purple gem thingie”, and Sariah did in fact recognize it. It matched the description of the artifact that had gone missing from the Ecclesia’s records, and it also had similarities to the artifact that had supposedly been swiped from the pirate Cap’n Nadia.
“When was this taken?” Sariah asked. “And how do you know it’s connected to the U-Knight?”
“Couple days ago. And I know because I have other photos of the actual transformation.”
“Show me.”
Bianca held up a finger, wiggling it back and forth. “Ah ah ah! The deal was one piece of info, then Gata, then you get the rest. And here I thought the righteous and virtuous Ecclesia always preached about keeping your word and all that crap.”
“Fine,” Sariah stated, rolling her eyes. In the meantime, she reached her hand into her shirt, taking hold of her necklace. “Don’t try to pull anything, or I will deal with you.”
“Oh I know you will, Sariah Knight. Trust me, you’re the last person on this planet I’d ever think of crossing.”
* * * *
ULTRA KNIGHT
* * * *
After having made certain that everything in Lunafei was back to running smoothly, Commander Roy excused himself from the Ecclesian Knights for the day, as he was to travel to the Ecclesian church in the capital in order to report on the incident with the skelementals.
Completing the task didn’t take long, which gave him a decent amount of free time to himself before he was due to return to Lunafei. Being in the capital, there was an infinite amount of things for him to do to pass the time, and he was growing excited just thinking about the nice, relaxing day to himself.
Of course, that freedom was soon stripped from him as he felt a pulsing vibration begin to resonate from the purple gemstone in his pocket; a signal he was familiar with as a meeting call.
“The work never ends, does it?” Roy said, releasing an exaggerated sigh. “I’ve no idea how Sariah ran this schedule for all those years….”
In spite of his whining, though, he carried out what needed to be done, returning to the church in order to use the teleporter, transporting himself to the location nearest to Rushuna.
He stepped into the bar, giving a familiar wave to the barkeep before taking a seat at a table in the corner.
A table occupied by Zane.
“Must be serious if you want to do this in person,” Roy stated. “What is it?”
A fanged smile appeared on Zane’s face. “Wanna take a shot at guessing?”
“Wanna take a stab at not making gun puns?”
Chuckling, Zane replied, “Hey, maybe it was about alcohol this time. More appropriate for this setting.”
Roy matched his laugh as the server slid Roy’s usual drink order across the table to his massive waiting hand. “True….but I know it’s not. It’s definitely a gun pun, isn’t it?”
“Bullseye.”
“I’m disappointed in myself for setting that one up.”
As Roy took a swig of his drink, the door to the bar swung open once more, and a female voice called out in their direction. “Sorry I’m late, boys. Was kinda in the middle of something when you called.”
Roy twisted around in his chair to face the approaching woman with a smile and a wave. “Hey, Meifang. Looking great as ever, I see.”
She tousled his hair before settling into the remaining chair at the table. “Always nice to be complimented. Thanks, old man.”
“Ouch.”
After receiving a drink of her own, Meifang rested her elbow on the table and dropped her cheek into her palm. “Alright, so what’s with the in-person meeting? You guys getting too old for phones or something?”
“Little off target there,” Zane said. “How’s your pneuma looking?”
Raising a brow, Roy retrieved the purple cube from his person, holding it out for the other two to see. “Fine, I suppose?”
“Mine too,” Meifang replied, holding up a purple sphere. “Why? Something wrong with yours?”
Zane reached his hand into his coat pocket, and brought it out onto the tabletop.
When he opened his palm, in it was a purple crystalling pyramid, though it appeared to have been nearly cut in half, barely hanging onto its shape.
“Cracked,” came his quiet response. “Think it’ll affect when we unite?”
“Damn, when’d this happen?” Meifang asked.
“After we came back from the spirit plane,” said Zane. “When I came to, it was like this. Was fine before we united.”
Both of them turned their attention to Roy, deferring to him for knowledge on the topic, given that he was a member of the Ecclesia. However, Roy could only offer a shoulder shrug as he usually did whenever this topic came up. “Sorry, I got nothing. Again, there aren’t any records on the pneuma at all.”
The next few moments went by without talk, with the three simply taking an occasional sip and nervously cradling their pneuma in their hand.
“So….” Roy began. “We still have those three talking skelementals to deal with….”
Meifang glanced over at the cracked pyramid pneuma in Zane’s hand. “What do we do if we can’t unite? How are we gonna fight them?”
Roy poked his elbow into Zane’s arm. “Guess we’re in a bit of a jam now, aren’t we?”
Both Zane and Meifang wore blank expressions as they stared at Roy in response. Clearing his throat, he explained, “You know, like how a gun can get jammed sometimes?”
Dead silence.
As Roy retreated to his drink in shame, Zane smirked and said, “Maybe we can get that Sariah dame to help us out.”
[https://i.imgur.com/fEVoU1G.png]