Shift

[Andromeda]

Seiji’s right arm jumped from an invisible force crashing against it. He tried to hold his position, but it was too strong. His body flew backwards, the pressure still on him. Shaking in his arm grew worse as he braced himself with his other hand. However, the moment he did it sliced off all of his fingers from his left hand. The pain caused him to yelp. He lost any sort of position he had thrown off with the force sliding past him. It sliced up him left arm in several places passing through in a straight line removing everything from his upper arm.

“Damnit all to hell!” Thrown to the ground, blood poured out of his wound. Behind him, the world’s split grew wider until it faded away at the edge of his field. Seiji ground his teeth through the pain as talisman moved to cover up the stump before blood lose left him unconscious.

Cosmas appeared before Seiji holding the sword at his face. “The dimensional sword can’t break that right arm of yours, but it doesn’t protect the rest of your body.” He grinned at him. “You’ve been very fun to play with, but things end now.” The sword moved into pierce his skull.

Something flew in knocking Cosmas back, sending him flying controllably for meters. Another presence arrived on the battlefield. “It’s not over while I still draw breath! I won’t allow you to kill him!” declared Nerine, in her return to battle.

Seiji had more surprise on his face than Cosmas. He did not expect Nerine to show up. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” He tried to stand up, but did not think about his missing arm and fell back down.

Moving quickly, she caught with her gauntlets Seiji before he collapsed completely. “I should be asking you that in your condition.” She planned to stabilize only him, but he insisted on standing. So she was forced to help him to his feet.

Once he had his footing back, Seiji stood on his own. He pushed in front of Nerine. “You shouldn’t be here. This is my fight.”

“I’m not letting you fight him alone,” corrected Nerine. She stepped out before Seiji facing him. If she had arms, they would likely have been crossed. “You’re falling apart and he just cut off your arm!”

Seiji threw out his right arm in a slashing motion. “I don’t care, damnit! He wants to kill you! He’s already taken both of your arms! I can’t allow him to finish the rest!” The sight of Nerine brought back all of his memories of their fight before. Everything he struggled to keep down rose so fast to the surface he could not control it. His emotions ran hot. The desire to kill became overwhelming. ‘I’ve got to keep myself in control!’

“Unlike last time, I actually have the ability to protect myself. I don’t need you to protect me.” More than a dozen of her gauntlet weapons appeared around her floating. She then immediately moved her gauntlet out in the direction of Cosmas, just in time to block one of his dimension slashing attacks. Nerine looked back at Seiji. “I’m better suited to dealing with another MP.”

It relieved him to see Nerine appearing strong enough to deal with Cosmas, but he still had his concerns. “You don’t have your arms! How are you going to fight when you’re style is dependent on it?”

Nerine turned away to start walking towards Cosmas. She sent most of her gauntlets flying towards him keeping him business. “That’s one of the benefits of our powers. I don’t need physical arms to use my power.” Her remaining gauntlet moved in to float at her side where her forearms would have been. The gauntlet raised with the fingers in the armor closing in a fist. “I’ve made adjustments to my powers to adapt to my current situation. It won’t be a problem.”

As she left Seiji, she paused for a moment to tilt her head back at him. “I’d be more concerned about yourself and resolving your problems.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“I fought you before remember. I know how you fight. This isn’t like you. Something’s weakening your punches. Resolve yourself before you worry about me.” She charged off after Cosmas.

Seiji lowered his head. ‘Weaker? I guess she’s noticed.’ He tightened up his fist at the frustration built. All of the rage boiling inside him was difficult to contain. It took so much of his concentration to keep himself in check. ‘But I can’t allow myself to fight like I want, not against him. If I did…if I did, I wouldn’t be able to control myself.’ He could not allow that side of him out again. No matter the cost.

Chapter 236 – Death’s Excitement

The pleasure on Cosmas’ face exceeded what he held during Seiji’s fight. He seemed caught up in the ecstasy that he was merely holding a defense against Nerine. “So you’ve come to me! Come seeking your death! Well I’ll be more than happy to grant it to you, Second Lieutenant Nerine!”

The sound of his voice was enough to annoy her. He took too much enjoyment in killing. It was a disgusting feeling. She narrowed her expression and focused fighting him.

Once he got rid of his initial excitement, the mood of the battle turned back to the dark killing intent. He tried the dimensional sword again, but Nerine used one of her gauntlets to crush the sword. Since it became a battle between two MPs, he started to change up his tactics. Multiple swords appeared around him. She let her weapons deal with them while charged for Cosmas.

He saved a few for defense as she tried some straightforward punches to test his reactions. Once she failed to get through, she slid down throwing her leg down into a sweep. He leapt back to dodge her, but her gauntlets swapped out letting her push herself after him. Throwing her punches into the air, she bounced around to get around him striking him from behind. A clean hit landed on him knocking him forward.

Nerine did not let him have a chance to stand up as she punched off into the air. She redirected herself above him and threw herself down ramming her fist into his back. There was a brief reaction from him, but she grabbed him and threw him up into the air. Jumping, she followed him up dancing around the air to land repeated blows to him before casting him back down in a cloud of smoke. ‘I haven’t beaten him yet, but I had to have hurt him with that.’

Waiting to see what he did next, Nerine held back. She did not want to go in blind into the cloud. Out of the smoke, a sword flew out at her, but she caught it. However, more swords appeared around her, more than her gauntlets. She ground her teeth at the sight. The gauntlets and swords exchanged quick blows around her defensive zone, but several broke through. She punched herself out of the area, however they followed. It gave her enough time to deal with them head-on.

Cosmas emerged from the smoke clapping. “You’re doing great! I’ll admit I had dismissed you as someone to hold my interest, but I’m pleased to see that you won’t disappoint me.” A wicked dark grin came across his face as though he had a new idea.

The dimensional sword appeared in his hand along with a matching one for his off hand. He swung the swords through the air throwing out several of the reality cutting waves. Nerine already dealt with the attack, she knew how to manage it. Focusing her power, she negated the effects of the slashes letting her gauntlets absorb the remaining physical damage.

Blood sprayed out from her back. Shock painted across her face. She fell down to one knee trying to understand what happened. The wound in her back pulsed in pain. ‘I didn’t miss one did I?’ While Nerine tried to understand her situation, Cosmas already had another attack incoming. Events played out in the same fashion, she succeeded against all of them, but another wound show up. This time her lower back. ‘I know I didn’t miss it. He’s doing some trick to attack while I’m focused on his primary attack.’

Unfortunately, she set her focus to look back attacks and missed the movement in his field. Several more wounds came from it before she escaped. ‘He’s switching things up knowing that I already know something’s off. Damn, he’s a tough one.’ Nerine could only keep her awareness open to any sides, but it still slowed her down. It forced her into a defensive position.

After the last attack, she decided to try to return to the offense. The gauntlets at her side changed again to a slimmer version. She caught sight of incoming swords and punched the air to push herself forward. However, the swords crashed upon something before hitting her. Nerine closed the gap quickly bouncing around Cosmas quickly from all sides. His swords blocked her hits, but was not her purpose.

When she finished, she landed on top of something invisible above Cosmas. The gauntlets on her swapped out for a larger pair. They glowed brightly as she raised them up into the air. Her fist slammed down on the surface she knelt upon. Once invisible, it shined faintly charged with energy. It completely surrounded him. A moment later, the interior exploded in light completely engulfing Cosmas.

Nerine leapt off just as the whole container blew up from the contained pressure. Smoke rose off the area in the wake of the explosion. She ordered in her floating gauntlets to attack while he was still inside. However, she heard clashing of metal from inside. Another switch in weapons, she directed her fist at the smoke blowing it all away.

The devilish man still stood, though blood dripped down his face and along his arms. She injured him, even though he still looked even more maniac than before. He laughed loudly as though not in control. “Splendid!” He drew his hand over his face unable to stop laughing. “Oh this is perfect! A real challenge!” Suddenly swords erupted from the ground all around him.

Uneasy from the feeling in the air, Nerine stepped back. She did not know what he planned for her. ‘What’s the matter with him?’

He stretched out his hand towards her. “Oh don’t leave now!” All of the swords appeared around her with a count greater than a hundred. In a flash, they all attacked. Her gauntlets rained down in chunks of metal utterly destroyed. Blood sprayed up from the numerous wounds Nerine received.

Collapsing to her knees, Nerine fell in shock. ‘His power increased! He must have used a fold.’ Blood dripped over most of her body. Pain stung her from all sides. She could only bit through it all. ‘I can’t believe he was holding back so much…’

“Nerine!” shouted Seiji from the side. The sight snapped him out of his self-pity. He could not intervene in the fight Nerine began. He was too afraid of what he would do. But that man hurt her again. His blood boiled intensely. It was impossible for him hold it back.

Seiji started walking towards Nerine. A heavy shadow fell over his eyes. ‘I’m so sorry, Yuki. I have to walk in the darkness.’ Each step he made cracked the earth ever so slightly. ‘I tried to hold it back, but I can’t anymore. I won’t be able to walk by your side anymore, not as I am.’ Light began to glow stronger from his arm. ‘It’s wrong to kill regardless of the reason, but I must. I’m sorry, Yuki. We must walk different paths now.’

Pulsing warmed up from his arm pushing into his fingers. Each tip glowed brightly. The talismans rippled into waves around his arm. Wind ripped around him tugging at his tunic.

Darkness around Seiji’s eyes grew deeper. Within the center, sadness and loneliness filled up his eyes. Surrounding his eyes, his face grew harsher with severe angles. He ground his teeth, bearing them ever so slightly. ‘I don’t care anymore! If I hold back, she’ll die! I won’t allow that to happen!’

The talismans exploded off his arm revealing the bright light behind. Each paper straightened out hovering in front of him. Seiji tightened his fist up exploding the light out creating a crater underneath him from the release. All of the talismans moved behind him creating a wide wall, each glowing white. “I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!” roared Seiji. Wrinkles intensely dug into his face around his eyes.

In an instant, Seiji disappeared. Earth exploded behind him at his last location. Ahead of him, swords exploded into a mass of metal rain. It happened so fast that it was another few seconds before a stream of blood blasted out from Cosmas’ left shoulder as his entire arm was ripped from his body.

Seiji appeared far behind Cosmas holding his arm in his hand, dripping blood. He tilted back towards Cosmas. “KILL!” Black completely covered all of Seiji’s face. Only the whites of his eyes popped free.

Cosmas dropped to one knee as the pain finally reached his brain. “DAMN!” he yelped. His right hand clutched his left shoulder. Immediately, he used his power to tend to the injury. Metal closed up the wound, keeping it from bleeding out further. He looked back at Seiji. “Bastard…” Cosmas eyes went wide with insanity.

Nerine pulled herself back up. Her eyes shook a little witnessing the darkness coming from Seiji. ‘What’s happening to him? This isn’t like him!’

The killing intent suddenly became very clear in Cosmas’ eyes. It was as though the whole time it was all just play for him. The notion of killing had merely being something he talked. It was still very clear he was serious about it. However, the look in his eyes threw away all signs of making things exciting or interesting for him. He only wanted to kill Seiji. Seiji’s look matched him, equally steeped in darkness.

The dimensional swords appeared again, but all of the swords were dimension swords. Dozens of slashes tore through reality at Seiji. Seiji dodged the first few while talismans set up in front turning to ash immediately on impact with the attacks, negating any damage.

When the attack finished, the talismans already moved out in front of his arm. They built into a cylinder in front of Seiji. The light glowing from him grew more intense as the papers shined. Suddenly energy built up in the cylinder. “DIE!” A large beam shot out of the front speeding towards Cosmas. Earth tore up from the path of the beam, destroying everything in its path.

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

The killing intent suddenly became very clear in Cosmas’ eyes. It was as though the whole time it was all just play for him. The notion of killing had merely being something he talked. It was still very clear he was serious about it. However, the look in his eyes threw away all signs of making things exciting or interesting for him. He only wanted to kill Seiji. Seiji’s look matched him, equally steeped in darkness.

The dimensional swords appeared again, but all of the swords were dimension swords. Dozens of slashes tore through reality at Seiji. Seiji dodged the first few while talismans set up in front turning to ash immediately on impact with the attacks, negating any damage.

When the attack finished, the talismans already moved out in front of his arm. They built into a cylinder in front of Seiji. The light glowing from him grew more intense as the papers shined. Suddenly energy built up in the cylinder. “DIE!” A large beam shot out of the front speeding towards Cosmas. Earth tore up from the path of the beam, destroying everything in its path.

Light bleached out Cosmas until he completely disappeared from sight. Even before it reached him, the massive light engulfed him. However, just as it washed over Cosmas, the direction of the beam changed. It was only a few degrees, but it had been enough. After the energy faded away, Cosmas emerged from the smoke and falling debris. His swords crumbled unable to hold their form from the damage. The left side of his body looked burned and his cloths completely destroyed. His power restored the clothing damage quickly.

Still seething and now confused, Seiji looked down to see one of Nerine’s gauntlets pressed up against his arm. The talismans floated back behind him after the end of the power. He batted the gauntlet away, the force creating a crater. “…the HELL? WHY?” It was clear Seiji had lost any control.

Nerine ignored her injures marching over to Seiji. She summoned up her gauntlets behind her. “I should be asking you, THAT!” she shouted over the field. The end of her sentence was loudly punctuated by her first gauntlet disappearing and suddenly ramming into Seiji’s face. Its impact deafened the area around them barely budging Seiji a centimeter. “What’s wrong with you?” Another gauntlet flew at him pushing him back a little more.

The barrage continued with the gauntlets moving too fast for Seiji to see. Each landed on his face knocking him back more and more with each strike. “Wake up!” One punch finally knocked him off his feet. The angle of the gauntlets changed to throw him into the ground. They continued to rail on him. “This isn’t you!”

She stopped at his side, the battery ending. “Well? What do you have to say for yourself?”

Flames of rage still burned brightly on Seiji. All the beaten did was bruise his face. “…nerine…protect…”

Ordering another punch, she knocked him a little further into the earth. “I didn’t ask for you to protect me! I can look out for myself! So return back to your stupid, naïve, fight-loving self!” She sent another gauntlet at him.

However, it stopped before reaching him. Seiji’s fingers surfaced around the armored fist, holding it back. He pushed aside the weapon, allowing his awoken face to be revealed. “…-rry…I’m sorry…” Guilt and sadness washed over his face as he stared at Nerine.

“As long as you’re yourself.” She smiled back at him, relieved to see the darkness lifted. “That’s all that matters.” Using her gauntlets, she offered him a hand.

Accepting her, Seiji walked out of the pit she put him in. He saw his arm still glowing brightly making it impossible to actually see it. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the sight of the talismans floating. It was all strange to him. ‘I don’t remember any of this happening. I let it all consume me. Damn! I’m so weak!’ He looked back at Nerine. “Thank you. I allowed my fear to consume me. You brought me back.” A small smile worked up in his lips staring at her.

Concern still settled into a part of Nerine. ‘He’s afraid of something? I don’t know what’s wrong with him, but the middle of a fight is hardly the time for this.’ She turned to face Cosmas, who was still recovering from the damage taking from Seiji’s last attack. “I don’t know what’s wrong, but you just need to focus away from it. Your strength is in the way you love to fight, but not to hurt or kill just simply for the challenge and enjoyment of testing yourself. That’s what I saw in you from our fight. Focus on that, on who you are and leave the fear behind you.”

He stared down at his glowing arm. It was foreign to him. The whole thing was a mystery. He understood none of it. He wanted none of it. “You’re right.” He was certain of one thing. All of the strange powers showing up around him, he wanted one thing. “I want to beat him, so that he knows never to come back. I want to show him that he’ll never be able to kill us. I want the power to prove to him that he can’t win!”

Chapter 237 – Death’s Winnings

Laughter erupted from the opposite side of the field. It was Cosmas, as to be expected. He seemed to have recovered and entertained by their little motivational speech. The absolute void of dark killing intent lifted away from him. He was back to his talkative self. “You lost your only chance. Such naïve sentiments, it’s laughable!” Cosmas began walking towards them, putting the tension back up.

The dimensional swords all appeared around him. “You really think you can beat me like that? Even if you managed to win, it’s not going to change my mind. Beat me to a sliver of my life? Pressure me, torture me, rip off all of my limbs, cast me to the bottom of the sea. I will return. I will find you. I will kill you. There is nothing you can do to change that reality.” Dozens of his clones started to appear around his field. “Remember what my power is. If I must I can kill you any number of ways without you even putting up a fight. I only fight you head on because taking you apart piece by is more enjoyable. But leave me with no other options, I’ll kill you in your sleep. I’ll give you that certainty.”

Seiji felt assured in what the man said. It actually sent an eerie chill down his back. He believed what Cosmas said. ‘Such a man…no!’ Squeezing his fist tightly, Seiji focused on what mattered. “Then I’ll just find another way to do it! You won’t stop me!”

“Focus on who you are,” encouraged Nerine.

“Yeah!” Seiji threw up his fist into the air. Suddenly, the glowing came to a stop. The light faded away. His arm returned to normal. Underneath his skin, a faint pulse came out from his shoulder to the tips of his fingers. The pulsing continued until a little of the light seem to be left behind. His two scars that ran up the entire length of his arm glowed brighter. It seemed to be absorbing the light. Soon the scars increased with intensity until they became solid white lines.

His body felt different. Seiji stared at his arm. It was not the same as before. It was still foreign to him, yet more familiar and comfortable. “Huh?” Talismans appeared in his hand. He found that all of the ones floating behind disappeared. It felt very familiar.

Nerine jumped out in front of Seiji when one of the slashes came after him. Cosmas stopped waiting on them to do something. The attack washed over them dampened enough to do nothing. Chunks of metal from her gauntlets dropped to the ground. “You ready to fight?”

Tightening up his fist, it was still him. “Yeah!” Seiji tried to pound his fists together to psych himself up, but found that he missed. “Right, I’ve only got one arm.” He stepped out to stand next to Nerine, ready for Cosmas. “I only need one arm to beat you!” Some of the excitement returned into his expression.

Pleased, Nerine felt reassured with him. ‘Still looks a little forced, but he’s closer to himself.’ She threw out her gauntlets to start dealing with the numerous clones. ‘He seems to have more than just his strength now. I don’t know what his new power can do…’ Then she saw Seiji charge in blindly like he always did without regard to plans or surroundings. It made her sweat a little watching him. ‘I guess I’ll find out later.’

Seiji grabbed the first Cosmas he found planning to throw him into the neighboring one coming after him. But the body stopped moving. He stared at him for a moment before he vanished. One of the talismans floated down evaporating a moment later. ‘Just a clone. I’m going to only be finding clones with the way he fights.’ It did not mean a lot to him. He did not have a way of getting Cosmas to surface. He just started clearing the clones out.

An attack from behind flipped Seiji around. He confronted another one of the dimensional slashes. Seiji threw up his arm to block it, but talismans appeared in the air tracing his movement. They formed a line that guarded Seiji from the attack and allowed him to charge in for a counter. ‘Just another clone,’ he commented, dropping the vanishing body. ‘I need a way to deal with these clones. He’s altered his power so I can’t find him using the previous method.’ Seiji charged off after the next one, likely to be another clone. He had few options.

The battle leaned towards Cosmas with his clones. Neither side had achieved anything meaningful, but Seiji and Nerine had the disadvantage. Nerine was wounded and Seiji would eventually get exhausted from all of the running around. They could not last.

Inevitability did not matter to Seiji. He continued to charge around the field in search of the real Cosmas. It proved empty. The clones naturally came back. His talismans could block the attacks, but he could land nothing on him. Seiji came to rest next to Nerine. “Damn him, can you do anything about these clones?”

“His field’s bigger than mine and stronger. I’m barely able to keep up with him. He keeps moving out so much every time I think I’ve found the center I’ve missed.”

“I thought it was strange I couldn’t find the center.”

“He’s aware of the weaknesses and has countermeasures.” Nerine did not like the direction things headed. He was a skilled MP. His talents as an Omega agent could not be doubted with what she saw.

“We need away to get rid of all of his clones so we can focus on the real one!” Seiji’s frustration came out in him punching the ground. He did not put much force behind it, just annoyance. However, the ground lit up suddenly. Small orbs of light ignited around the field in response. “Huh? What’s happening?”

“Did you do something?”

“I don’t think so.” Large circle drew at across the ground along with Japanese kanji carved within. The kanji for the cardinal directions marked out in the key locations. It all glowed brightly filling the whole area with light. Then suddenly, the clones all started to fade away.

Seiji stepped out among the strange drawing on the ground. He saw one of his talismans firmly affixed within the drawing. “Did I cause this?”

“Found a way to deal with that, huh?” Cosmas resurfaced, forced to fight them face to face once more.

Looking away from the talisman, the whole thing still confused him. “…sure…” Little of it mattered anymore, he could fight directly. Seiji charged in after Cosmas. The same swords as before. Long slashes through the air came for him. Seiji already knew his talismans would negate them. He cast them out to deal with the threat while he focused on Cosmas. However, the slashes ripped through the talisman effortlessly coming straight for him. “Damn!”

Seiji had to recklessly dodge, throwing himself towards the ground. It still was not enough as the attacks dug into his back. The pain would not stop Seiji. Nothing would stop him. He was too close. Seiji pushed through grabbing Cosmas’ leg to slam him into the ground with him. The sword in his hand came down glowing to unleash a point-blank attack. Seiji threw up his hand directing the talismans to cover the sword up sealing it before it could attack.

Annoyed, but not detoured, the sword disappeared briefly to rid itself of the seal. The sword was still in motion for Seiji, but Nerine’s gauntlet flew it deflecting the attack away just in time. The earth only a centimeter away from Seiji carried a new deep wound.

Nerine entered the melee throwing around her gauntlets to push back Cosmas. She threw herself around the air to keep dodging the attacks coming at her, narrowly maintaining her position. Once Seiji recovered, he jumped in with her throwing his fist in as well. An uneven two-way struggle exploded across the night.

“Damn bastard!” Seiji barked, landing on the ground. Cosmas slid back several meters to a safer distance.

She came to rest next to Seiji. “This isn’t getting us anywhere.”

“I know! We need to finish this!” Seiji glanced over at Nerine. “How much are you holding back?”

The question returned to Seiji with a bit of an indignant expression. It changed quickly for her. “I’ve still got one thing left. But my body isn’t exactly in the best shape right now.”

“Good!” He grinned a little with the thought of something reckless coming to mind. “Throw everything into it! No time to worry about your health! Damn caution!” Seiji threw up his fist, the two strips of white pulsed in waves down his arm. “Throw everything you’ve got into this! We’re finishing this now!”

All of Nerine’s gauntlets disappeared suddenly. “I haven’t used this form without my arms before.”

“You’ve been doing fine! Just believe in yourself!”

“This coming from you…”

“I’m just returning the favor! Come on, Nerine! Let’s end this!” Talismans streamed up around Seiji in response to his need.

Armor appeared on Nerine’s legs and covered where her arms would have been. The armor clamped down across her chest, locked into place. “Right! Now or never! Let’s go!” A blast came off the backs of the armor acting as thrust propelling her forward. She closed the distance with Cosmas. Immediately, she spun herself down starting things with a kick. Cosmas blocked it with ease, but flames erupted over the whole area. He retreated out of the smoke only to find Seiji tagging in.

Knocked back, Cosmas flew over to Nerine. She caught him with her fists throwing out blades of wind. She bounced around the air making use of her entire body to navigate landing numerous blows to Cosmas. He crashed into the ground, but not without swords following in after Nerine unleashing close range slashes. Explosions covered her up with smoke.

Seiji jumped in throwing down his fist erupting Cosmas in light. He went tumbling away. The swords cut in keeping Seiji back. It forced him to back off. Nerine fell from the smoke to land next to him unharmed.

Recovering and confused, Cosmas stared at the two of them. He found the talismans burning away from Nerine’s armor. Grinding his teeth, he knew what it meant. “You think you can win working together?!” A ripple came out from Cosmas’ feet.

“He’s folding again!” reported Nerine. “This isn’t good! He’s going to be too much for me to handle!”

Confidently, Seiji moved a little closer to Nerine. “Then we do it together. He can’t beat us!” They nodded in agreement and charged forward. An array of swords came flew at them. Seiji took the front blowing away most of them to open up a path. Nerine covered his back as the rest came throwing out dimension cutters. She threw up her arms to the attack, but it sliced through them with no effort. Her field could no longer dampen his power. Kicking out of the way, smoke coughed up from the ground as the attacks dug through.

Seiji threw out an easily telegraphed attack with a beam that Cosmas dodged. However, Nerine appeared above him spinning down. Talismans appeared at her foot channeling the flames and giving them a slight white coloring. The blast drilled a hole through the earth burning away Cosmas’ clothes barely evading.

Talismans stretched out to crush all of Cosmas’ swords, preventing any attack. He was completely open. Nerine landed in front of Cosmas her arm already pulled back. Seiji charged up coming up on her left side matching his fist with hers. The two fists slammed into Cosmas’ chest sending him flying back with his field disappearing.

Several minutes passed with Nerine tending to Seiji and Cosmas’ injuries. She was reluctant to do so for Cosmas, but Seiji insisted. Once everything finished, they woke up Cosmas.

He sat staring at the two of them getting a read on everything. “So you think things are over.”

“No,” answered Seiji. He knelt down to meet the man at eye. “You made yourself pretty clear earlier.”

“Damn right. If you don’t kill me, I will keep hunting you down. Just remember, I won’t be polite about it anymore.”

Seiji stared at Cosmas deeply for almost a minute. He believed what the man said. As long as he ran free, he would keep haunting their shadows. It did not matter how long it would take he planned to finish. “That’s fine with me. It just means I’ll always be watching my back for you.”

Smirking, Cosmas narrowed his eyes. “The next time you won’t even know it was me until it’s too late.”

Their conversation was over. Seiji stood up and started walking away. “I look forward to it.” He motioned with his hand back at Cosmas, telling him he had his freedom.

“Are you sure about this?” Nerine asked. “I put a seal on him, so he won’t be able to use his powers until someone finds him, but this is a big risk.”

“Yes.”

“Did you overcome your fear?”

“For now.” He looked back at Cosmas, walking away. “That man brought out a terrible side in me. Now freed, I can’t put the lid back on. All I can do is live with that part of me and not let it control me. I’ll always struggle with it.” Seiji felt a little better about the whole thing. “If I feel I’m losing myself, I’ll just remember what you told me.” He smiled over at Nerine. The long night was finally over for him. At least for the moment.

Nerine tilted her head in the direction of Cosmas. The man was already too far away for her to see. Her eyes narrowed to harsh lines. ‘Killing for the sake of killing is wrong. But there are times when it is necessary, necessary to protect those important to you. There are the right reasons to do something evil.’

Far in the distance away from Seiji and the others, a body laid alone in the grass of Atlantis. Blood poured out into the grass from their neck. A violent action had removed their head from their body. Evil rested alone by the act of another evil. Alone their secret would hold, for now.

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Calm returned. The tension disappeared. Everyone was prepared, but it was unnecessary. The distant rumbling ceased. A little uncertainty still existed; the silence meant it was over. But it did not last for long.

Chiharu appeared back with the group, who all waited on news of Seiji and Nerine’s battle. “They won. They’ll be heading back soon,” she reported. She could see relief passing through everyone. Chatter already started up. None of it interested her. She turned to look in the direction of Seiji’s battlefield. ‘Were you able to overcome your fear?’

A few minute wait was all they had before Seiji and Nerine appeared through the night haze. Despite his fully healed appearance, the fatigue was clear in his eyes. The fight exhausted him in a way none of the other fights had. “I’m back!” he shouted, nonchalantly brushing the whole experience off as if it was nothing.

Yumi ran out along with Saki to check on them. “Are you badly hurt?” Yumi asked, trying to look over his body with only the moonlight.

“Made it back in one piece, I see,” commented Saki, covering up her relief. She worked hard to maintain her annoyed expression to keep up the façade.

Laughing a little out of awkwardness, Seiji remembered all of the things that happened to him during the fight. “Well there might be a piece of me back there still, but Nerine fixed me up good!” He patted her on the back lightly.

Unfortunately, Nerine’s injures were still not recovered like Seiji’s. She staggered forward from his hit, only to collapse to the ground immediately. Blood splattered out from her countless wounds.

Seiji was the first to act. “Nerine!” He grabbed her up to check on her. She breathed heavily having trouble keeping focused. “Why didn’t you tell me damnit?!” The closer view of her made him see how many wounds she took from the fight. Her uniforms torn to shreds barely seemed to be holding together. Blood soaked through the major of the white appearing as if she wore a red uniform.

The longer he stared at her the more he cursed his blindness. ‘I forgot that she wasn’t like the rest of us. She has a normal body. Damn, why was I so blind!’ He turned up to looking for Yuki. He knew that he would be able to fix her up, but naturally, Yuki was not with them. Anyone, someone in their group had to be able to do something for her.

He stood up carrying Nerine with him. Without Yuki, his eyes searched through the group. “Fumiko, you!” He immediately charged in front of her. “You’ve got magical powers or something, right!”

Fumiko stared at Seiji for a moment, as she already knew what he wanted from her. “I have offensive magic. I don’t have healing magic.”

“What the hell use are you?! You’re supposed to be one of those mage-thingies from those RPGs right!”

Her face immediately went flat in disbelief and some annoyance. “I’m not some video game character!” she shouted back. The thought of being defined so one-dimensionally into a stereotype bothered her more than anything else he said.

“Why the hell not? She needs healing!”

She needed some distance. Seiji kept pushing in closer with more of a demanding look in each step. “Seiji!” Fumiko slapped him hard to try to snap him out of his hysterics, however it still felt more painful for her. ‘Damn his tough body.’ It seemed to work a little as it stopped Seiji from pressing closer. “None of us here have that ability, but I don’t think she looks to be in a life-threatening condition. All of the adrenaline finally wore off and caught up to her. We’ll patch her up, she’ll just have to recover until we find someone that can help her.”

“But—“

Nerine lifted her head up. She tried to speak, but it only came out in Atlantean. Enough shouting by her forced them all to look at her. Unfortunately, speaking in Atlantean left them all confused.

Seiji looked over at Yumi. “What’s she saying?”

Surprise caught Yumi’s face. “I don’t know, I don’t speak her language.”

“Sure you do! You were before!”

“Huh? When?”

“Don’t both, Seiji,” interrupted Fumiko. “She’s not going to be of help.”

“Eh?”

“English?” asked Simonides in English. He saw how the language barrier blocked any hopes of communication. Unfortunately, he did not know Japanese. It was not one of the languages for the South Gate recommendations.

Yori stepped forward, finally feeling like he had something useful to do. “I can speak a little English,” he replied in English as well.

A quick conversation played out between the two men. Even in English, neither being perfect, finding the necessary words made them struggle. Yori had words he did not understand from Simonides. Simonides seemed to be also finding it difficult to pick English words to explain him. Only a rough primitive dialogue seemed possible. A lot of gesturing went on between them explaining the more complex ideas that their vocabulary lacked.

“I think I understand the gist of it,” began Yori, returning to the group. “He said that Nerine should be able to use her power to make some medical supplies to help with the injuries, but her strength is weak. She’s only got enough in her for one more attempt to use her powers.”

The news excited Seiji. He immediately jumped over to Yori ignoring everyone else. “Really?! That’s what she said?”

“Best that I can tell from talking with him.”

“Well let’s get started!” Seiji looked around at everyone and then Nerine. He did not know what he needed to do. He just stood there holding Nerine waiting for something to happen.

Yumi stepped in, poking his shoulder. “You should probably set her down first.”

Chapter 238 – Arrival

Quiet. Unnaturally so. Something had to be wrong. It just had to be wrong. It only made sense. It could not possibly be. The same thoughts ran through on repeat like a tape stuck with the rewind button held down.

It was how it was. Yuki just had to accept the fact that it was actually going to be easier. The struggle they had with escape the Omega soldiers made it seem like they walked into a trap. However, Ayumi seemed very confident. He trusted her, but it just did not seem like it should be like this. Honestly, if it was following proper story development, there should be a massive showdown with all of the opposing forces all spread out in front of the city’s walls. The heroes should be struggling and crawling to reach the city and only after a long, hard won battle make it to their destination. It was just too easy.

Such a terrible story.

Yuki could see the Capital staring at them. For hours now, he watched it grow larger and larger. Previously, he only saw a massive spire and then a couple of other larger structures. One of them looked grand, even from a distance it seemed to shine with a special sort of beauty that should not be able to exist in the world yet it still did. The impossibly beauty of it made him only want to stare longer at it. Yuki realized the more he saw of the Atlantean Capital how much their power had to have shaped it.

In the last couple of hours, he saw a massive pale white, maybe off-white, maybe gray, maybe dirty white (Yuki was still uncertain what sort of white it was, it was not dark or pure, but it was not average either). The white he realized in the last few minutes belonged to a wall. Then he realized all the white he saw before that seemed to go on forever as that wall. The size of the city quickly became something too large for his head to really get wrapped out it.

He always imagined it being some fantasy city out of the books he read. A great city stretching up to the sky built out of a mountain. Maybe a massive lake sat at the center of the city with beautiful marble structures played out around it. It could be a multi-tier city built up on a wide hill. The castle sat the top overlooking everything and even from outside could be seen. It would be fantastic and beyond imagining, but still small. He did not know why he thought it, but he just assumed the Capital to be small. It had maybe a few thousands or tens of thousands, nothing more. Maybe his hobby ruined his expectations.

None of the expectations could equal what he saw. It was the Capital, but it was no town or village. The village of Skoupa would have fit on top of the wall it seemed. No, even to call it a city seemed not to do it an accurate justice. It was a metropolis, a massive ancient city kilometers and kilometers in length. Millions of Atlanteans had to live inside.

The true read of the size came to him when he discovered from Ayumi that they were still an hour walk away. “Unbelievable…” he said, staring still.

“Hey, focus!” snapped Ayumi, grabbing his wrist to get his attention.

“Oh, right! I’m sorry.” He had to maintain his concentration. Using his powers certainly was a lot easier for him now that they felt more like an extension of him rather than something added on to him like some mysterious technology that activated an ancient power from a long dead civilization that needed a full series to truly understand its potential. The reason he needed to focus was because he kept them hidden.

Using his power, he made a bubble around them that allowed them to keep talking, but their voices would never leave beyond. The more important part was that it made them invisible to the outside. Anyone too close would have discovered them, but at a distance nothing would have been off. None of the scouts would be able to find them.

It bothered him that they just walked up to the front door and walked in. It did not feel right, even though he knew why. “So we just going through the front?”

“No, that’s the reason I have you keeping us hidden.” Ayumi suddenly changed their course away from the straight-line path to the Capital’s wall. She motioned over to him to follow.

Now curious, Yuki followed Ayumi wondering what she had planned for them. “I just thought it was another test you were giving me to keep myself flexible with my powers.”

“What?” She looked back at him for a moment. Shaking her head, she kept moving forward. “No, you’re powers are already more than enough.”

“Ok.” But it did not answer his curiosity. He hurried a little to catch up to her. “So why are we not moving towards the Capital anymore?”

“Because we aren’t going through the Main Gate. They have security measures in place to identify anyone going through, even hidden like we are.” Ayumi came to a stop. She turned around as though in search of something. It took her a few moments to scanning the area before she moved on.

Immediately, Yuki’s mind started stirring up ideas. The first to jump to him came out of his mouth. “A secret passage!”

“Corre—“

“All castles and royal families have secret passages. I bet they run through the whole city. Some ancient labyrinth underneath the city from a long forgotten civilization. If you stray from the correct path you’ll become lost and never able to find your way out as there are secret powers at work to keep unwanted guests from passing through. I bet there are even monsters down there, giant minotaur’s and dragons, maybe even—“

“Will you shut up!” she yelled, breaking her normally characteristically stoic controlled voice.

“Sorry.” Yuki looked away, not wanting to see her staring at him. The daggers from her eyes were painful enough. It felt like she wanted to punch him for speaking.

Silence returned for Ayumi, something she greatly enjoyed. She finished her search after another moment, finally able to think straight. It was all she needed to find what she needed. A few minutes of following a strange path through a forest put them at the destination. “We’re here.”

“Huh?” It was nothing. He jumped around all over the place in search of the secret passage. He made use of all of his knowledge (from his manga and anime) for the switch that would open up the entrance to the stairs. It had to be obvious and hidden. He knew he could find it. It would be something that should stand out to him. Yet there was nothing. It was just a forest, completely random with no markers or any signs that anyone traveled through it.

Yuki realized it had to be not even a switch. It had to be just a chain or handle to pull up. He scrambled over the grass with a fine precision. His hands ran through the grass and dirty. Time had to have buried it. It was just under the surface. It had to be. It only made sense.

Ayumi allowed him his time. He seemed heavily engrossed in it. Even when she did try to say something, he just waved her off. So she waited until he seemed less focused. “What are you doing?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” He stared over at Ayumi with excitement glowing brightly in his eyes. However, his enthusiasm did not seem to transfer to her. Yuki did not really see her looking completely blank faced at him. “It’s a secret passage, so there must be a switch or lever or handle, something that opens it up! I’ve always want to find something like this! So don’t tell me the secret! I want to figure it out on my own!”

Crossing her arms, she could not believe what she heard from him. He looked like a kid hyped up on sugar and just finished watching his favorite super sentai show feeling need to go act out the whole thing in the front yard (oddly specific, especially for Ayumi). The longer she watched him the more painful it became. Her hand rolled over her face in exasperation. A sigh soon followed, naturally. “Yuki—“

“No, hints!”

“You’re wasting time. It’s—“

His hand went up again to stop her. “I’ll figure this out!”

“I need to use my power—“

“Of course!” Yuki jumped up at his epiphany. “I was approaching this from the completely wrong angle! You would use your powers to open it! You wouldn’t want just anyone using it. It all makes sense!” He kept nodding to him in agreement. Any idea popped in his head on how to solve the puzzle.

Ayumi immediately recognized the look in his eyes. She leapt off to him quickly slapping him. “Stop now! If you turn off your power you’ll expose us!”

“Ow, Ayumi that hurt.” He stepped back a step catching the deadly serious glare she leveled at him. “You know if you hit me too hard it’d do that same thing.” The comment he slid earned him another even more menacing glare.

Finally, she seemed to have his attention. “Yes, you’re right that it can only be opened through our power. Which is why I’m going to do it. I know where it. So when I give you the signal drop your field. Do you understand?”

He nodded to her. “Yes.” Ayumi’s look cut through all of the excitement and antics of Yuki. He quickly understood he had to be serious again. Following her led, he waited for the signal. Once she was ready, she activated her field and his dropped soon after. It might have been brief, but they should not have been visible for long.

The difference in their fields was that Ayumi’s cut into the earth. A perfect sphere carved out the ground below them. An anti-gravity law kept them from falling endlessly through the earth. She lowered them down slowly until dirt and earth changed to stone. The stone soon appeared as smoothly polished and carved, a manmade structure.

Ayumi dropped her field once they cleared the ceiling. They fell the rest of the distance of half a meter to the floor. “We’re inside the Capital now.”

It was just a tunnel to Yuki. He looked behind him at the ‘entrance’ to see it all just caved in with stone and earth. It looked like it had been like that for years or even centuries. “That’s not an entrance at all, it’s just a cave-in! There’s nothing special about this!”

Her eyes lowered in annoyance again. “Is that all that matters to you?”

Pouting, Yuki walked on ahead. He refused to answer someone that did not understand the enjoyment of such things. ‘Fumiko would understand. I wish she was here. She’d get excited.’ The length of the tunnel seemed really straightforward. It turned frequently, but there were no forks or traps. Just a simple path.

Yuki was really bored.

Until he left the tunnel at least. He stopped at the exit staring wide-eyed. “I didn’t expect this…” Yuki kept staring trying to take it all in. A couple of people in ragged cloths passed by him, then a few more. They were in a street, an underground street. Houses were everywhere packed in tightly like they were the only thing holding up the ceiling that pressed on upon them. Ahead, the street fell as the whole area sank like a basin. The further he looked the more of the subterranean city he saw. A lot of structures blocked his full view, but he walked slowly out into the city to get more and more of a picture.

He reached a balcony on the side of the street that was built on top of another building underneath it. It all stretched out endlessly it seemed. Then he understood the street he walked on was the roof of someone’s home. Support pillars ran through the entire space. He kept finding more and more people too. All of them dressed poorly.

Ayumi stepped up next to Yuki’s right side. “Welcome to the Capital.”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

He stopped at the exit staring wide-eyed. “I didn’t expect this…” Yuki kept staring trying to take it all in. A couple of people in ragged cloths passed by him, then a few more. They were in a street, an underground street. Houses were everywhere packed in tightly as if they were the only thing holding up the ceiling that pressed on upon them. Ahead, the street fell as the whole area sank like a basin. The further he looked the more of the subterranean city he saw. A lot of structures blocked his full view, but he walked slowly out into the city to get more and more of a picture.

He reached a balcony on the side of the street that was built on top of another building underneath it. It all stretched out endlessly it seemed. Then he understood the street he walked on was the roof of someone’s home. Support pillars ran through the entire space. He kept finding more and more people too. All of them dressed poorly.

Ayumi stepped up next to Yuki’s right side. “Welcome to the Capital.”

In a way, it felt almost anti-climatic for Yuki and yet also immensely dramatic to see the view stretched out before him. He was under the city, something that he never even considered a possibility. ‘An underground city with the poor, it feels like a cliché development, but this is supposed to be a fantasy setting. Atlantis is more of a high fantasy setting, but this makes it feel more low fantasy. With all of the conflict between the two different classes it’s a much darker setting. I feel like I’m in some dystopian setting rather than a fantasy one. Such a mixed-up genre…but this is reality.’

The Capital continued to meet his expectations and then promptly invert them to something completely different. The scale of the underground matched much of that with the visible city above. Buildings or supports obstructed much of his view of the city, but it gave him a clear sense of the size. The neighborhood he stood in was merely a small part of the massive structure. Everywhere he looked things looked old and run down, but patched up. It felt like things wanted to fall about, but something would not allow it to happen. Everything was against its will.

Yuki had so many questions about it. He tilted his head over to Ayumi, who actually seemed a little lost. It seemed that the view held her entranced as well. However, the look in her eyes was quite a bit different from the one in Yuki’s eyes. “Ayumi?” he opened, stretching his hand out to touch her hand.

Snapping a little back to reality, she shook off her thoughts. “Sorry, I was just a little lost in thought.” She looked over at Yuki. He was very close, staring in concern.

‘It’s unlike her to so freely admit that, but she’s back in her hometown. She must have old memories coming back, though down here seems a little odd since her life was above ground.’ Despite learning so much about her in the last few days, Yuki still did not feel like he knew her. It still felt a wall was between them. “What sort of thoughts?”

“It’s nothing.” She pushed off from the ledge and started down the street. “Let’s get going. Now that we’re in the Capital, we just need to sneak into the palace.”

Yuki smiled a little happy to see the normal Ayumi back. She stared at him for a moment giving him a ‘What are you smiling at?’ sort of look. It only made him grin wider. “Nothing.”

“Right…”

Chapter 239 – Morning without the Sun

Following the road only took them so far. Ayumi dragged them off the main street into extremely narrow passages between ruined homes, still used to live in. He guessed being underground shelter from the elements took on a different meaning.

Just as he passed through the housing-Yuki sandwich something grabbed his pant leg. He looked down to see a young man in rags sitting. “Spare a brass?” It caught him a little off-guard that he did not have a response. He had seen others like him begging for money. They seemed to be everywhere.

“Well…I-I-um…” He fumbled around his cloths as though looking for loose change, though he knew that he did not have any on him. They could all beg however much they wanted, but it made no difference.”

Ayumi came back grabbing him by his arm. “We don’t have time to waste.” She dragged him away from the man. Her hand held on to him until they were out of sight.

“Th-thanks.” Yuki caught up to her and discovered a scarf around her neck and part of her face. He looked a little confused by it. “What’s with the scarf?”

“Low profile.”

“Doesn’t that make you stand out more?” He sighed a little remembering the reason. The identity of the Captain of the Royal Guard was a highly visible position according to Ayumi. Though he wondered if anyone down in the underground actually would recognize her. “What’s with the Haruo level briefness?”

However, he did not have time for an answer as two kids ran past him. They lightly brushed up against playing with each other. Both were gone up the narrow street. Yuki started to walk away with Ayumi when a rock hit him in the back of the head. “The hell hit me?” He turned around having to dodge another one.

It was the two kids. They were sticking their tongues out at him and yelling. “What the hell is this?”

“Why don’t you have money on you?!”

“Huh?” Yuki patted himself realizing that they just pick pocketed him. “You’re the one’s stealing! And you have the nerve to complain about not having anything to steal!”

“All rich people have fat purses!”

“Rich? Do I look rich? I’m just a teenager!”

“You ain’t dressed like us! So you have to have something on you!”

His expression went flat unable to believe that he was in a yelling match with thieves over not having something to steal. He wondered how he got into such a situation. “It’ll tell you not to judge people by their appearance! I’m just as poor as you!”

“Not likely! We actually have money!”

Now they were getting arrogant with him. He could not believe it. “That you stole!”

“Still counts!”

Ayumi tugged on Yuki to get him moving. “Enough use of your field to yell at street thieves. They deploy agents down here too. We don’t need them picking up your field.”

“Right.”

An hour passed in wandering around the city. Yuki started to think they would not get out of the underground slums. The entire place felt like a labyrinth. Guidance from Ayumi made him thankful for having her along. He never would have made it anywhere without her. In fact, he was worried about losing sight of her, keeping close the entire time.

Still, he wondered about the history. The city’s appearance was old beyond any sort of measure he could come up with. Guessing seemed like a bad idea. “Hey Ayumi, what happened here?”

“What do you mean?” She kept moving forward not allowing for a break. The distance they had to their goal was so small in comparison. She could not let it go.

“You don’t just build something like this. The Capital looked like it had plenty of room to expand. So why is there such a massive underground? I could understand some ruins or old passages from long forgotten days, but this exceeds any sort of scale like that. People live here.”

“This used to be the Capital.”

She did not really explain anything with such an answer. All it did was fuel more ideas for him. He had too many stories in his head to develop ideas from. He needed something more straight from her. “The Capital? What are you saying?”

“We call this the Old Capital.”

“The Old Capital? You make it sound like this used to be where everyone lived and then you moved. Did something happen?”

“You’re close. In reality, this is the third Capital.”

“Third?” Suddenly, his mind started to piece everything together. All of his guessing finally got narrowed down. He understood better what was going on now. “Which means there was a First and Second and what I saw on the surface was the Fourth? There some accident?”

“You’re correct. There have been four Capitals, each new one built on top of the old one. If you go even further down you’ll find the ruins of the ancient Capital. Some people still live there, but it’s mostly a den of criminals where only the military enter.”

“Taking the word ‘underground’ a little too literally, aren’t we?” For his joke, she tossed back a piercing gaze. Yuki quickly clammed up on his humor returning to a serious tone. “What caused you to have to do that? This place looks too civilized to have been a natural disaster or war. Did a Kasou-ryoku user do it?”

Ayumi did not answer immediately. It seemed she needed time to think about an answer. “It’s nothing like what you’re thinking. It was disaster, fire and bad construction that destroyed the old cities. We built top of the ruins each time. It impossible to see anymore, but the Capital is actually built on slightly higher ground because it is built on top of the old.

“It was through our power though that we helped with the rebuilding. Over time, each new Capital continues to push down the older parts until you have what you see now. Layers of ruins stacked on top of itself. Most was destroyed when it happened leaving only parts of buildings behind. But these ruins are more than a millennia old. In that time, people have settled here and built a new city.”

“Sounds rather incredible.” Images filled Yuki’s mind of their history. The more details he received the more elaborate the picture became. However, he came to a sticking point for him. “How come people live down here? It’s not as though you’re hurting for space above and with the power you possess it would be simple to make new homes for everyone.”

Ayumi came to a stop suddenly. Her gaze changed away from their goal and back to the slums. “Life is rarely equal or fair. The truth is that using your power requires orders or government permission, especially for something like construction. You can’t just do whatever you want.”

“But all of these people.”

“Can you imagine what sort of chaos we’d have if everyone with power was free to use it however they wanted? That’s why they are all in military service and under the government’s control.”

“So these people just go homeless?”

“They’ve found a life. They have their pride still.”

“Pride?!”

“They have a home they built with their own hands, not relying on anyone.”

Yuki had trouble agreeing with her. All of the stories he heard from her past painted a terrible picture of Atlantis. Everyone struggled or lived in fear. Those with power had no future or freedom. Those without power lived in fear. How could they live in such a state? Yet they did find a life, as she said. They even seemed fairly content with their situation. ‘It doesn’t seem right. Even like this. Is this really freedom and pride?’

Her eyes narrowed watching Yuki’s reaction. Grabbing his hand, she snapped Yuki out of his thoughts. “Come on, we still have a ways to go. You can’t try to impress your Japanese values on these people. Think of it like different worlds, this is life and you can’t sit in judgment of the way things run.”

“Ok.”

“Good, we’re getting close to being under the palace.” Ayumi pointed out a heavily fortified wall that ran through the entire underground from ground to ceiling. It was a massive structure with no windows. It almost seemed as if the palace was truly above it, then what they saw was the foundation stretching down for countless meters. “It’s still a bit away, so I’ll entertain everyone with another flashback.”

“Hey! You’re breaking the fourth wall!” complained Yuki. He jumped out in front of her. “And you’re stealing my gimmick! This is out of character for you. I’m the one that should be saying such things.”

“Fine. I’ll do it normally.” She motioned over to him like handing off something invisible.

He threw his fist into the air for excitement. “The chapter next will finally see the final piece of Ayumi’s mysterious past! Look forward to it!”

Ayumi’s face went a little flat watching his enthusiasm over it. “Feel better?”

“Yeah.” He wiped off the sweat from his forehead actually appearing relieved.

“I think you over did it. I was only leaning on it a little, I think you destroyed it.”

“Never like that wall to begin with. On a more serious note…” Yuki flicked his index fingers back over to Ayumi passing the scene back to her (he is enjoying this too much).

Clearing her throat, Ayumi pulled things back into the correct tone. “This also used to be my home as well,” she declared as if it was nothing.

Yuki grimaced hearing her reply. “Sounds too forced. You need a better transition.”

“I’ll try to work on that,” she replied in a non-committal tone. Her gaze turned briefly down to the lower city from the bridge they walked. Below her, countless homes painted the ground. The whole place brought back memories for her. She tried to avoid them as much as she could, but nostalgia won out in the end. Thoughts of the time alone in the slums came back to her. Her life before he found her. When she was barely even a child, no longer a baby. The harsh reality she spoke of she knew too well.

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Whether it be one year, ten years or twenty years, time held very little meaning to the Slums of the Capital. It was the same in any year, for the most part. Coming off the post-years of the rebellion certainly left stronger sense of fear among the populace. However, life continued the same as it always had. Nothing changed in the end. Before the rebellion still felt the same as after it.

It was always the same. Thievery ran out of control in the streets. Death was just as common. If something happened, no one cared. They had their own life to live and wanted nothing to do with others problem.

That was the general case for people in the underworld, the shadows of the glorious civilization of Atlantis. A few sparks of weak light could still be found, one just had to look hard enough. One such faint sign of hope had adopted an abandoned child. A girl no one wanted.

Still only a baby, barely two years alive in the world, she already saw too much of the ugliness of the world. But she was too young to understand any of it. She could just play and live. It was simple.

Reality forced her to grow up fast. Fate had other plans in store.

“Now wait a minute!” interrupted Yuki. He shifted his position around from Ayumi’s side to stand in front of her. They had a place to be, so he kept walking backwards to keep their pace. “You’re telling me that you remember in detail your life from the age of two? Bull!”

Hardly affected by him anymore, Ayumi stopped her story. It was not the first time he interrupted her to deal with some inconsistency in her story. She could not even get annoyed at it anymore. He was so picky. “No, I don’t remember the details of my life that far back. My first memory is leaving the Slums.”

“Then how are you claiming to know what happened then?”

“I never said I didn’t return back here at anytime. My power’s simple enough to extract the information I need.”

Yuki saw the cold expression in Ayumi’s eyes. “Scary.” The thought of her forcibly hunting down the people with her memories just to know what happened hardly seemed out of character, but still the lengths to go still came off a little shocking. “The way you talk about your life here, it doesn’t seem like something you’d want to remember. Why do you know so much?”

“Because I was looking for something.”

Now she had Yuki’s attention. She could not say something so mysterious and enticing without expecting to get some curiosity. “What were you looking for?”

“It’s personal.” Ayumi walked around Yuki, making her stance on the matter clear.

“What!?” Yuki turned to rush after her. “You can’t just drop something like that and expect me to just let you drop it. It was important enough to you to dredge up your past. What was it?”

She stopped abruptly. Her head turned just enough to meet his gaze. “It’s a private matter.” The finality in her stare said everything else.

Sweating a little and turning a bit blue in the face, Yuki cut his losses and accepted things, for now anyway. “Fine.”

Chapter 240 – The Unwanted Gift

Aella was the woman that took her in off the street. She just found the baby crawling around an alley with no direction. No one seemed to be giving her any notice. They just ignored her. Most had no interest in complicating their life further with an unknown child. However, Aella could not let her just roam.

It was not something that went unnoticed by the others. “What were you thinking, Aella?”

“A child? She’s going to die anyway.”

“She needs someone to watch over her. It’s because she is a child that I’ll give her protection.”

“But she was abandoned.”

“There must be a reason for it.”

“All the more reason to keep her safe. It’s too harsh for a child alone.”

“What if it was because of that.”

“You’re right. She might be one of them, Aella.”

“Does that change the fact she needs help?”

“You’ll regret it.”

Despite the warnings from her neighbors, she continued to watch over the child. They kept talking about her. They tried to convince her to get rid of the baby. It had to be only trouble. No one wanted the baby. She was not even the first person to take her in. Everyone that took her in threw her out just as quickly. There was never a welcome home. Yet Aella kept her.

It was nearly a year. Persistent fear mongering was not enough. Aella resolved herself to the task. Nothing she could imagine would be enough to change her mind. She felt it impossible to break.

However, it was a simple act that revealed the greatest crack to shatter everything. It was not even anything dramatic or threatening. Just an everyday wish.

Everything changed. A frozen time.

Complaining, the baby wanted something. Aella was busy working on dinner for them. She had just enough to keep t hem from not having growling stomachs. Anymore was too much to ask for. “I’m making dinner, dear! Just wait a little bit longer! I know you’re hungry!”

The baby whined again. She seemed to be getting more impatience with Aella. Calming and reassuring words meant nothing. They cried more. “Just a little bit longer.”

Longer was too long for the baby.

Suddenly, the air felt cold and Aella could see her breath. “Why’d it get so cold so suddenly?” Everything in the room was covered in snow an instant later. She stared down at her hands holding what used to be a knife, but now looked like a toy a kid made out of snow. It was impossible. The impossibility quickly turned into a single thought in her mind. She knew, just not who. Fear rattled her bones. “The baby!”

Aella turned around to the table to see her cheerfully playing with the snow. She did not seemed to understand. Rushing over to her, Aella pushed her up quickly. “It’s alright. We just have to hide and they’ll pass by.” The baby whined wanting something, they stretched out their tiny hands to something no longer in their reach. Aella realized quickly they wanted their cup. However, when she picked it up she realized it not one of her cups. It was made from pure crystal so clear it acted like a prism. “This isn’t yours…” She still wanted it and Aella gave into the request since she went quiet.

Taking cover in the furthest part of their snow-filled house was all she could do. The temperatures kept dropping as she tried to keep the baby warm, even though it did not seem to notice even the cold. Aella shivered in the corner praying for it all to end soon. The water in the cup emptied with the baby happy. All of the snow disappeared a moment later with the room warming back up.

It was over.

She sighed with relief. Yet something nagged at her. Aella looked at the baby seeing the cup went missing. It was nowhere to be seen. “You were thirsty huh?” She looked happy and completely oblivious. Aella could only stare at the baby. The missing cup. The snow. The crystal cup. The baby. Each piece suddenly fell into place.

Aella set the baby down on the floor. It paralyzed her knowing it. She understood. It made sense. She stared down the content child, unaware. Aella’s hands shook. The cold she felt still chilled her body only more unnerving than before. She walked to the other corner of the room sliding down as small as possible.

More than an hour passed before she was startled awake to the world. It was a touch from it. The baby’s hand poked her. She tried to grab her finger. It wanted attention. She stared at Aella. It did not understand.

The shaking would not stop. It only seemed to get worse the more it stared at her. She could do only one thing. Aella rubbed her arms trying to warm up. The lingering chill still gripped her tightly.

The baby was alone again. However, everyone knew. Fear fell in quickly. Aella disappeared. Alone she quickly started to understand certain things. Her power responded to her desires. Even alone, she only needed it to survive. It came to be surprisingly useful. She even managed to evade the military searches.

Another year passed.

A stranger in worn cloths stepped into the Slums. They looked like they fit in, but still stood out. Something about them made people naturally wanted to avoid them. He looked aged from years of hard living. “I must be getting close,” he commented. It became very apparent to him passing another block. ‘There’s no one living in any of these homes. Normally, these would all be filled. I’m not even seeing beggars.’

It was a sign.

He knew it all too well. They all gave a silent message. ‘Leave and don’t look back.’ The message did not bother him. He kept walking forward deeper into the ghost town. A paper came out from under his tattered robes. Several notes were carefully written out along with a map. It matched the area he was in.

The stranger stopped in front of the house. He glanced down at the stone steps. Something seemed to have caught his eye. “It’s here.” He walked into the house. It looked abandoned, but with careful signs of life. He walked around the single room searching around before coming to a stop in the middle. Placing a hand on the floor, it suddenly opened with a tunnel.

Descent through the tunnel brought him to the no man zone of the Slums. The area between one layer of the Underground and the next. The area collapsed and built upon. Old never used tunnels formed from the crushing weight of the above on top of leftovers from a dead period. It was too dangerous to go inside with no chance for exits and high chance of cave-ins. Yet a perfect place to hide. It was something the military knew well, yet they still managed to miss it.

He found a wall that stopped him from progressing. “A strong one.” The wall disappeared like it was nothing and he continued. Traps and detours could not stop him. He was in search with no plans to be halted.

“Here you are,” he said, finally reaching the end of the line. He found a child hold up in a corner so far removed it was just as easy to have missed her. The difficulty of reaching made him understand why the Academy had such trouble looking for her. They would have eventually find her, even the best at hiding did not last forever. He was fortunate to have found her first.

Ice spread out everywhere. Cornered, she was not ready to go without a fight. He knelt down holding out his hand. “I’m not from the military. I was looking for you, but I wanted to help you.”

Shards of ice appeared around her looking ready to fire. “No you don’t.” The shards flew at the stranger without anymore warning.

The ice disappeared before even touching him. He smiled a little. “You’ve got a fire in you. That’s good.”

She immediately understood what he was. The signs were clear. She tried to back away even further. “Go away!”

“I don’t want to frighten you any further. I’m only here to help.”

“You’re lying!”

“It’s the truth.” He tried a warm grin for her as a sign of safety. Though he rough appearance made it look more forced than natural. “I want to offer you a new home.”

She shook her head. “No! You’re just saying whatever you want! You want to take me away!”

“I’m not with the military. You already saw before I’m stronger, but I want you to have the choice. They wouldn’t give you one.” He sat down trying to give every sign possible that he meant no threat to her. “You’ve been on the run. No one wants you. You’re afraid of everyone. You can’t trust. I’m sorry you had to learn the cruelty of this world at such a young age. But I’m like you. I know how everything changes and those close to you no longer look at you the same. When they know you can see it in their eyes. You can see their fear. Even when they try to hide it, you can still see it.”

The girl looked at him a little strangely. He realized that he was talking a little too complex for someone barely even child. She was too young to understand everything he said. He had to rewind his steps. “Would you like a home? A place where you’re among those that love you and aren’t afraid? Where you can be yourself?” He offered his hand out to her across the long distance. “Would you come with me?”

She stared at him for a long time. Everyone was always afraid of her. They all knew her and left immediately. The moment they learned nothing was the same again. He was like her. He was not afraid. She felt like he might be telling the truth. She just wanted to be warm again. “I-I’ll…I’ll come.”

He lit up quickly with a wide smile on his face. Jumping over to her and picking her up, he looked even happier than before. “I’ve always wanted a daughter!” He realized that it was a little too fast for her. She already started to look like she regretted the decision. The man set her back down. “Right! Let’s get you out of here. I’ll keep you hidden, so you don’t have to worry about anyone seeing you. You’ll be safe with me!”

It was all a whirlwind and daze for her. She did not know when the Slums changed, but eventually she stood in a gigantic room. It seemed larger than the whole Slums, but it was simply the scale that threw her off. She wandered around the place see a bed and toys, anything she might have wanted.

The stranger threw off his robes, suddenly changing back to his original appearance. His field dropped the disguise. He had an aged appearance, but a much kinder look in his face. Hidden behind it seemed to be something deeper, a darkness. The change startled the girl a little. “Sorry, I can’t use this face around the town, everyone would recognize me.”

“Who are you?” She did not know. Her head tilted a little curious, but seeing the real him actually made her feel more comfortable. The rough appearance gone, he seemed like the warmth she wanted.

“You don’t know?” He was actually surprised, but he was so used to being so will recognized that it only made sense a child would not know. “I’m the King of Atlantis.”

“King? What’s that?”

He laughed a little embarrassed and amused by her innocence. “Just a title with a heavy burden. But more important, what’s your name? I sort of forgot to ask earlier.”

“Name? I don’t have one.”

“What?! That’s terrible! How could no one have given you a name?” He raised his hand up to his face to think for a moment. “You’re name is Eudokia! You’re my daughter starting today!”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

A few days passed quickly for Eudokia. The new life was like nothing she ever knew before. She was never hungry and no one feared her. She had a massive room with more things to play with than she could possibly know what to do with. Every day, he came to her room and played with her for hours. Despite him having other duties, he always made time for her. His aides often had to pull him away.

She felt the warmth.

However, after time passed she realized something. “Why can’t I leave this room, daddy?” Every time he left the door was locked. She even tried opening, but found that even with her powers nothing freed her. Inside the room, she was happy, but wanted to see outside.

He smiled at her and patted her on the head. Kneeling down, he came eye-level with her. “The palace is a big place. You’d make me very scared if you got lost.”

“But I want to see the sky.”

The King leaned back a bit forgetting how sheltered of a life the girl had up to moving in with him. She never went out of the Slums. The only sky she was used to seeing was the ceiling of the city. So many experiences that seemed normal were foreign to her. He grinned a little having coming up with an idea. “Ok, I’ll take you outside, but you have to stay with me at all times. Promise?”

“I promise!” Eudokia leapt up to hug him unable to hold in her excitement. “Thank you, daddy!”

Chapter 241 – First Steps

“It’s so big!” she shouted, trying to stretch her hands out to the open blue sky. Her deep green eyes could not be pulled away. It looked to reflect through her. “And it really goes on forever, daddy?”

He could not help but laugh a little. “That’s right. It’s so big you could run after it and never be able to touch it.”

“Wow!”

Just watching her excitement was enough for him. It made him smile. An uncontrollable cough suddenly overtook him. It sounded horrible reaching up from his feet, but it passed quickly. She looked back at him a little surprised. “Just a little cold going around. I’m fine.”

It was not much later that the first meeting happened for her. The King opened the door to Eudokia’s room. He looked very happy. “Eudokia! I’ve got someone I’d like you to meet!”

“Daddy!” She dropped the blocks she played with to run over and hug his leg. “Who is it?” The thought of another face got her energy levels rising.

However, when he stepped aside to let them in, the sight of the new person completely changed the mood. She immediately hid behind his legs the moment she saw his face. Too excited to notice, the King tried to introduce them, but ended up doing so to the air. “This is Demosthenes Alexander.” It took him only another second to realize Eudokia was not in the same spot before. “Where’d you go, dear?”

Standing rigidly at the King’s side, Demosthenes looked like he wanted to receive another order. Yet, the King’s lack of sensing the mood and desperately trying to find his daughter left him out a little out of place. “Your Majesty, the Lady Eudokia is behind you.” He realized that if things went on the King would only look more the fool.

A little embarrassed for not seeing her sooner, he laughed nervously. “Thanks, Demosthenes! How’d she get there?” He still did not see it. He knelt down to pick her up. The shaking in her body immediately became clear to him. “What’s wrong, Eudokia? You’re shaking like a tree.”

“He’s scary.”

He looked a little surprised back at Demosthenes, still strictly maintaining his discipline. “What this guy? He’s an old softy.” The King rubbed Demosthenes’ head while he failed to react. “See, he won’t do anything bad to you.” He poked Demosthenes a little in the cheek trying to show his daughter.

She was not convinced and tried to hide behind the King as much as possible. “He’s got scary eyes.”

“What?! No…” He looked over at Demosthenes staring quite intently at him, getting almost uncomfortable close. “Maybe you’re right. Demosthenes, do something about those eyes of yours. You’re scaring my daughter.”

“Yeah!” Eudokia added in for extra measure. She immediately lowered herself back down afterwards just in case of retaliation.

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty. This was the face I was born with.”

The King slapped him on the back trying to get him to budge from his statue-like posture. “You’re too serious, old friend! I’m always telling you, you need to loosen up!”

“I’ll keep that in mind, Your Majesty.”

A little annoyed by Demosthenes resistance, the King turned to his daughter. He started to whisper to her suspiciously. “Think that’ll help?” She nodded slightly to him, clearly nervous about whatever he told her. “Demosthenes, I order you to sit down here, seiza style.”

“Seiza, Your Majesty?”

“Japanese! Whatever, just sit down and don’t move. Also close your eyes.”

Demosthenes’ eyes finally slid over to look at the King. He wanted to see the look on his face. Though the man tried to hid it, there was clearly a mischievous plot hiding behind the innocent face. However, the man was his superior and King. “Yes, Your Majesty.” All he could do was obey and pray his Majesty’s eccentricity did not go too far.

“There! I think that improves him a lot, don’t you?”

“No, he needs more there, daddy!” Eudokia had started to get really into part way through. She directed most of the efforts now.

“I think you’re right!”

“Your Majesty?”

“I thought you were a statue, Demosthenes. Statues don’t complain.”

“Yes…Your Majesty.”

“All done!” The King nodded to himself with pride. He looked over to Eudokia. She looked pleased as well. Summoning up a mirror, he handed it over to Demosthenes. “What you think? I think I really does wonders to improve that scary face of yours.”

Even Demosthenes’ stoic, rigid nature cracked a little beholding the paint job done to his face. He turned a little blue as depression set in. The father and daughter pair seemed especially happy with the results. “Yes…Your Majesty.” He resigned himself.

“So Eudokia, what you think? He friendly now?”

“Yeah, daddy!” She had trouble not laughing for more than a few seconds.

“So let’s do those introductions once more. This Demosthenes Alexander.”

“De-De-Dem…Alice?” Eudokia received help from her father in trying to say his name. It continued to only come up with mixed results. “…mos…hand…er…Moss head! Moss head!”

Demosthenes’ inner self screamed and cracked. He did not know how to react. She seemed so pleased to have gotten his name…wrong. He sighed in silence. “Lady Eudokia…”

With the introduction out of the way and Eudokia content, the two old men stepped out of the room. The King’s playful expression dropped the moment the door closed. “You understand your orders?”

“Yes. I’ll watch over her in your stead when you’re unable.”

“More than that, Demosthenes. I want you watching the eyes that watch me as well.” He looked around the hall. “No one can know about her, not until the time is right.” A coughing fitting broke out in the middle of his orders.

Demosthenes quickly moved to help him out. “Are you alright? It’s getting worse isn’t it?”

He recovered quickly from the interruption as though it never happened. “Yes, but it’s only brief.” The look in Demosthenes’ eyes told him enough of his concern. “Don’t make that face. We both knew this day was coming. I’ve known my fate since I’ve become King. Keep looking to the future, not regretting the past.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“So, the King…my father, was sick?” Yuki interrupted. The story seemed like it was concluding anyway. There was little more he could gain from her story. Plus, they had arrived at their destination. “Is that what…killed him?”

Ayumi manipulated her field to create a wood door in the support column of the palace. She opened it up granting them access to the interior. A simple, but massive chamber filled with nothing but gigantic columns spaced every three meters. Along the wall was a stairwell, the long climb up. Once Yuki was inside, the door closed and then disappeared. “That’s correct. Though the council plotted against him for years, it was that that actually took his life.”

They started up the stairs. It seemed like a very long walk. “But with your power can’t you just make medicine to fix him?”

“There was no medicine to cure him. It was beyond our control.”

Yuki paused on the stairs. ‘There’s something beyond their power? What could it be?’ The thought of some disease killing the King consumed his thoughts. It was something he lived with for years. He looked up at Ayumi. ‘He was so important to her. How can she still be moving forward after losing someone so important?’ Yuki had seen moments of weakness out of her in desperate times, but he never saw her sad over his death. He wondered how she held herself together, was it revenge?

Inside the Titan’s room, Demosthenes appeared before them once more. The gathered Titans sat around their table. Rheia already had an eager look in her eye that she did not try to hide. They watched the reports all closely enough. It was obvious what was coming. “I’m granted you all permission to act. The defense of the Capital is now in your hands. Keep them from entering.”

Grinning with excitement, Rheia leaned back in her chair. “That shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Defense? I’m not interested in defending dirt,” commented Nereus. He still had the same disinterested expression on his face. Even the threat of the invasion breaching the Capital did nothing for him. However, he did see the look he got from the General. “But if it is an order, I’ll do it. Hopefully, they prove to at least to be human.”

Glykeria bounced in her chair. She held onto her doll, no longer combing it’s hair. “I hope they have someone that’s fun to play with.”

“They have some interesting abilities, “Teris remarked. “It should be different.”

Ourias looked the most serious about the situation. Something bothered him deep inside. “I won’t allow them to step a single foot inside.”

“According to the last reports, they should arrive in the next hour or two. Depart immediately.” Demosthenes turned away. “I’ve ordered all other soldiers to hold back. You’ll have them to yourselves.” He left the room already with something set on his mind.

Rheia stood up from the chair once he left. “Alright! Pick your targets! I don’t want anyone trying to take the same one!” She drew her finger across the table, dragging on the profiles with her. “This one’s mine, the rest are for you.” Walking out of the room, she smirked a little. ‘You better be everything your report makes you out to be or I’m going to be very disappointed.’

A little over an hour had passed in waiting. The five Titans stood outside of the main gate to the Capital. Their waiting finally ended. The intruders appeared in the distance.

“So we didn’t find Yuki here,” commented Seiji, still looking very tired from last night’s fight. “We didn’t pass him up back there?” He looked back towards the way they came.

“Seiji,” called Saki, trying to get him to quiet down.

“What? We’re looking for Yuki.”

“We have a new problem.”

“Huh?” He looked forward to see what bothered Saki. Five figures all in the same white uniforms they came to expect from the MPs of Atlantis. However, they had a completely different look from all of the rest that they faced. They did not even try to hide or use any other ambush tactics. He could feel the difference in the atmosphere. “New problems, are right.”

As they kept moving closer, they exercised caution. It was too late to back away, they all got the sense running away was pointless. Simonides was the first to react out of the normal humans, when they were close enough for him to see them clearly. “They sent the Titans?!”

Everyone looked back at Simonides, who actually looked shaken by their presence. However, it was Nerine that lost her composure. Sweat covered her body. “Titans?! Why them?” The longer she stared at them the more frightened she got. Stories alone were enough for her. Nerine glanced over at the Captain. “You were right, sir. They could bring ruin to Atlantis. We can’t fight them!”

Yumi felt a little warm from the weight of their words. They managed to get victory up to now, but they felt like nothing she saw from the others. “I don’t think we’re going to have much of a choice.”

Grinding his teeth together, Simonides saw each of the Titan members, recalling all of them. However, worst of all it was her. “Even Commander Rheia is out. Things must be bad if they allowed her out.”

Saki stared out at the line up of opponents. One of them seemed to be very interested in her. She could see their eyes only saw her, rest were just trash to be ignored. “How bad are we talking?”

“She’s the third most powerful and peerless among everyone even in the Titans.”

“That bad…well at least the strength is meaningless.”

“But no one knows what her powers are, I don’t have any information on her.” Public information on the Titans was thin to begin with and their powers were all carefully guarded. Most knowledge was just vague rumors, nothing to trust.

Rubbing her hands together, Saki tried to get the tension that built up out of her body. Everything they kept saying only made things worse. “It’s not like we ever went in knowing what they could do in the past. This won’t be any different.”

Yumi stepped out a little from all of them. She tilted her head back towards her friends. “We’re within reach. Yuki is here somewhere. They are the last thing stopping us. Let’s end things, find Yuki and finally go home!”

Across the Capital, inside the walls of the palace another wooden door opened. Ayumi and Yuki surfaced from their long walk out into a massive square. On the left stood the majestic structure of the Kings and the right a wall locking them inside. Ahead however, Demosthenes stood awaiting their arrival.

He stepped forward declaring his presence to them both. A spear already rested in his hand, propped up against his shoulder. “I figured you’d come in this way…Eudokia.”

“Demosthenes…”

Yuki could not hold himself back any longer than a second. The sound of the man’s voice was enough to set off the trigger. An image of Kazuhiro appeared in his head. He needed nothing more. A ripple exploded out from Yuki as he blasted forward. “Demosthenes Alexander! I’m going to KILL YOU!”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

No one seemed to be making a move. The Titans remained in a line-up, the wall to hold back the tide. The intruders clumped together poorly with a clear view of uncertainty. Talked up big, the Titans made them a little uneasy. Atmosphere from their presence alone was enough to make them understand the difference in them stacked up against all of the others they faced. None of them had the same sort of look in their eyes from what they were used to seeing. They all have very different looks like they were only pretending to be soldiers because it made the others feel better. Something about them made it clear that there was no controlling them.

A frightening, unsettling aura came from each of them.

Yumi looked through the group at Simonides, as always he tried to remain the most hidden. The hood over his face made him the most conspicuous of the group, but it protected his identity. Keeping his face hidden was more important as it maintained his faked death. Most times, he managed to stay out of battle and away from the sights of the Omega soldiers, so he remained safe. “Do you have anything you can provide on them to help us?”

A short pause from him did not provide confidence. He already made it clear before that he knew nothing about their Commander. “I know only what they’ve allowed to be public information. The Titans are a closely guarded group sent out only when there is no one else and all other solutions have failed. They are the problem solvers. It wouldn’t be very advantageous for them if their methods were known.”

Crossing her arms looking a little bothered, Rheia changed her sights. “No need for such a pathetic disguise, Captain Simonides.”

The group was all caught by surprise, but no more so than Simonides. His face hardened up quickly, to try to hold onto what remained of his composure. ‘This is Rheia we’re dealing with. She probably just used her power to see through. It was bound to happen I knew, but I thought it’d be through a slip up. Damn…’ No longer needing to hide himself, he removed the hood. The exposed position was not lost on him. He could see Rheia understood just as well.

“That’s better. So you’ve decided to turn traitor? Or have you always been the traitor? Perhaps the mastermind behind all of this? Your codling methods no longer working with the pups?”

‘She’s well informed.’ Keeping up the front against Rheia proved to be more difficult than he first imagined. “I’m honored that the leader of the Titans would know so much about a simple border Captain.”

“Always giving me too little credit. So what is it? I’m curious why the ‘perfect’ Simonides would become so dirty. Your naivety finally run out?”

“I only act in the interests of Atlantis.”

Grinning like a cat, he had her curiosity. Rheia leaned a little wanting more. “This should be interesting. Do tell me more.”

“I’m protecting Atlantis and its citizens.”

“Really? Last I checked, the people next to you are the ones causing the trouble. They’re the ones that Atlantis is needing protected from.”

“I have my doubts. I’ll learn if there is truth to my fears soon.”

“Oh? This gets more and more interesting by the moment.” Rheia wanted to know more, but it was not going to happen.

Taking the chance to end things, Saki disappeared. Rheia vanished for a moment as well. An explosive blast erupted from the middle between both parties. Saki appeared along with Rheia, though Saki’s eyes were wide with surprise. “What?!” Rheia stopped her completely in her tracks with only an open palm. All of the excess energy tore behind Rheia as a gale.

Excitement lit up Rheia’s face in the sight of Saki. “I’m glad I picked you. Show me everything you’ve got!”

Chapter 242 – Pick Your Partner

“What?! That’s impossible!” shouted Seiji from the sidelines. “How can she block a punch from Saki?”

Everyone was in so much shock that none of them had a reply, even if they might have had an answer. The one they relied upon to keep everyone off their back the last few days was effortlessly stopped. A terrible sign revealed itself. Further proof the fight ahead of them would be their toughest yet.

Yumi snapped back first ahead of the other. She already tried to understand what happened. The first guess came from their experience with fighting Simonides. “It might be like when we fought with you before, but the timing of everything doesn’t look right.” All of it happened too quickly for her to even see.

“Her fist never made contact,” commented Chiharu. Unlike the others, her eyes were well-tuned to faster and more subtle details. “It’s not the sealing of powers like before. This is all just use of their powers for dramatic effect. From this distance, it looks like she was stopped, but there was a thin gap between them that her fist hit, just made to appear like she blocked the attack.”

“Then what about her movements?” asked Fumiko, her eyes were okay, but nothing like Chiharu’s. She never was able to see Saki when she actually moved when she meant it. “The woman moved just as a fast it seemed, which shouldn’t be possible.”

Unfortunately, it was where things ended for Chiharu. She could only analyze what she saw. Rheia remained a mystery. “I couldn’t see her movements. In her case, she literally disappeared and then reappeared. I don’t know how she managed to cover the distance or move to the correct location to counter the attack.”

Seiji looked back at the two women. Saki tried greater punches of strength. The results against Rheia remained the same, the woman was unmoved. It was only through the environment that anyone knew Saki tried. The first attempt was only a gale, but the second flattened all of the grass behind Rheia, the third ripped up the earth and the fourth tore everything into a crater. “Which means even Saki didn’t see her. She’s dealing with someone that can counter her speed and strength, the only special power she has.”

Everything she threw was meaningless. It annoyed Saki. The fight would be extended, dragged out, prolonged. She wanted things over quickly. It was impossible. ‘Everyone I’ve dealt with up to this point hasn’t tried to fight me head-on before. They’ve always had their tricks to keep me away from them once they realized, but this woman… She’s different. She wants me close…’ Saki backed a step away needing to find a different tactic.

Glancing behind her, Rheia admired the massive crater. ‘Anymore and she would have broke into the under city. Impressive power…’ The scale did not have any effect on her emotions. She still looked excited. The brief encounter gave her a good feeling about Saki. She might have finally found it, but she needed to test her. Rheia threw out her arm towards the Titans behind her, who remain unmoved the entire time. “The rest are yours.” It was the signal.

The Titans moved.

The Siege of the Capital began.

“Come! Things are not over yet!” beckoned Rheia, appearing to retreat. She vanished and reappeared numerous times not following a direct line, but a direction. The direction took her to the gigantic walls of the Capital. She stood on the side, as she seemed fond of doing, staring down at Saki, who stood on the remaining ground around the base of the city walls.

Motioning with her arm to the wall, she opened the invitation to Saki. “I’ll provide you with steps.” Suddenly, seams appeared all over the wall that held perfectly with no damage from the weather or age. It was not cracks, but like cuts through the wall. Massive blocks easily weighing thousands of kilos slipped out from their centuries of sleeping.

Shadows fell over Saki as she stared up at the sight. Dodging it all would be simple, but it still made her eyes widen a little. Perfect five-meter cubes began to rain down on her position. The size alone made her pause and then the fact that this woman destroyed the city’s wall just to do it. ‘Simonides’ fear…’ Saki had a quick explanation given to her on why Atlanteans joined their group. She had her doubts even if she felt he believed sincerely what he said. It all made sense to her now. ‘He was right…I need to try to end this quickly before it gets out of control…’

Saki narrowed her eyes and hardened her emotions. She needed to be focused. The fight ahead of her was nothing like the past. She knew from just looking at her face. Others seemed bloodthirsty or fight hungry, they all wanted something, but the woman was different. She was not battle starved like the rest. She had a desire, but she could not see it clearly. All of her attention was focused on Saki, she saw her completely. It was as if she had an expectation. She wanted her to meet something. Saki did not like the strangeness she felt from her eyes.

Disappearing, Saki appeared on the nearest falling block and leapt off it. The force sent the block hurdling down to the ground blasting out another crater until a strange heavy ring echoed from the bottom. Saki kept jumping, shooting the blocks off into different directions away from the Capital. Explosions of earth appeared all around in the distant horizon.

Landing on the broken wall, Saki stared over at Rheia. “I’m here. Steps were unnecessary.”

“Maybe so, but will you still be here in ten seconds?”

Down on the ground, Nerine had to use her power to keep one of the blocks from hitting nearby. It made Seiji blink, mostly because his strength was not back. He was pretty sure he could have dealt with it, but the speed was an uncertainly. Only Nerine’s quick forethought after the first one saved them. “Thanks, Nerine.” Above them, the fight only seemed to be getting warmed up. “Damn that Saki! She’s going to be just as much of a danger as them the way she’s fighting!”

“Oh, you look like you might be fun! Do you dance or will you just run?” a singsong voice said from within the group. Childish giggle came out as everyone jumped back in surprise to find that the child Titan appeared amongst them. She was small, enough to make even Chiharu not feel like a child in her group. Everyone stared down at the grinning pink haired child. She seemed like she merely wanted to play and looked for someone that would take her out to the playground.

“What the hell?!”

“How did she?”

“Lieutenant Commander Glykeria…” muttered Simonides.

Glykeria suddenly popped out of smoke on top of Simonides’ shoulders, as if he was her father giving her a ride. She bopped him on the head playfully. “No, silly-willy Simon-Lemon, you’re not supposed to do the introduction for me.” Simonides tried to recover from the surprise, but she already left back to her spot. She spun around for them showing her light yellow sundress and matched well with her single ponytail pinked hair held back with a yellow ribbon woven through her hair. “I’m the cute and adorable Glykeria! Age nine and two-tenths!”

“Wouldn’t that be one-fifth?” Yori inserted lowly.

“It’s a great super amazing pleasure!” She smiled at them with bubbly energy. If appearance could be judged, she seemed like a normal nine-year a little desperate for attention and containing a bit too much energy. Yet they all knew it to be wrong. She was a Titan, a monster behind that smile.

The rest of the Titans came walking in as though none of it mattered. Speed was unimportant. Not even the dangerous battle between Saki and Rheia held any significance. “Quit messing around Glykeria and make your pick,” the red-haired Nereus demanded, already short with Glykeria’s antics.

The child looked ready to cry staring up at Nereus’ stern rock like face. It never happened. “Fine! Sour puss, Neruss!” A giant stuff bear appeared lifting her up a full three meters into the air to tower over everyone. She rested on the shoulders of the bear. Her arm threw down pointing at her target. “I want to play with you!” The bear grabbed up Fumiko and leapt into the air taking them far out of sight.

“Fumiko!” several of the group shouted in vain, already beyond stopping the child. It happened without any warning.

Nereus stepped forward staring down through everyone. Water erupted from the air attempting to surround Chiharu, but she appeared out on top of it. A slight movement in his eyes seemed to acknowledge her position. “You seem alive.”

Holding her thoughts away from her face, she had mixed feelings on him. ‘He seemed to only be looking at me now and not before, like I was invisible. What’s with him?’ Chiharu was also not sure about his comment. Regardless, the act was clear enough. “So you’ve made your pick.”

Almost bored looking, he started walking away. “I was given the choice, you had the best chance. I’ll see if it was right.” His attitude was so different from Rheia that it threw off the group. It seemed like he did not even want to be fighting, it was only by order that he was standing on the field.

Everything about him made Chiharu even more curious. She landed on the ground and followed after him. It was almost polite, if it was not like he did not seem to care. However, she still knew if she tried to break for the Capital he would chase her down. He did not want to be here, but still did what he was told. ‘Strange one…’

Extending a finger suddenly, Teris pointed out Haruo. It was another one of the strange looks. “You’re the one that uses animals to fight right?” Typical Haruo only gave him a nod. “Some sort of spiritual power and it’s real according to the reports. Very fascinating. Something scientifically unproven. I want to see this up close.” Almost as if he was ordered, Haruo started walking off with Teris without a question.

The remaining group with Yumi could only stare at what was most certainly a very Haruo action, yet still strange to watch. However, the last Titan broke their stares.

“I’m the last line,” started Ourias. “I won’t allow any of you to pass.” He made himself the wall between the intruders and the Capital. “Don’t try to cross and you will remain safe. I can’t make the promise if you attempt to get to the Capital.”

Yumi stepped forward already knowing her position. Everyone in the group with her was not in a position to fight. Seiji and Nerine were the closest, but with their weakened states it would not be smart to let him fight. She had to stand for them. No one else could do it. “I’m afraid we can’t do that. We must get to the Capital.” The sword had almost complete become part of her. She rarely realized it was with her even though it still ran through her hand and chest.

Ourias stared at Yumi, his brow twisting a little. “Children should not be here. I’m giving you your last warning.”

Another step closer, she moved to Ourias. She fixed her sights upon him unflinching, despite her situation. “I’m no child. I lost those rights when I stepped into this country.” Yumi presented a solid game face for him. It was no mere words. Her presence backed her up.

Hesitation delayed him, but he accepted quickly. “I see. You’re correct.” He read into her features and lines of her face. ‘I didn’t expect to find someone like this among them. She’s mature. She understands the meaning of consequences and the weight to them. She’s willing to carry it all.’ It was the acceptance. The odds against her, she still stood in front of him. He could not ignore such resolve. “Fine. If you wish to test the sincerity of my words then I shall have to make them truth! All others are not allowed to interfere.”

Part of the sidelines, Yori did not understand what was happening. His sister stood up against one of the Titans without any powers. She could do nothing to him. “Yumi! What are you thinking?”

She began walking to Ourias in her defiance of his law. “What I must, brother. You can’t stop me.” Yumi broke out into a sprint going straight for Ourias.

“Yumi!” He could not stop her. She was already beyond him. It was out of reach. He could do nothing to prevent her from going to her death. ‘Why am I so powerless?! I’m always useless!’ Yori recalled all of the times he wanted to help his sister. The cave-in with the school, the Atlantean village, the ambush and the escape. He never did anything. He was unneeded. Someone always did what he wanted.

Yori looked over to the others, realizing he was not alone. “Seiji! You can do it! You can stop, Yumi! Save her from getting herself killed!”

Next to Yori, Seiji knelt down on one knee looking more tired than earlier. “I’d like to, but I can’t seem to move.” His body looked to be shaking, struggling against an unknown force.

“What?!” It was then that he realized, it was not his own fear or helplessness that paralyzed him, but the same thing that held back Seiji. Yori quickly knew it was the Titan’s doing. “Miss Nerine!”

“I’m not strong enough, he’s completely overwhelmed my field. I won’t be able to reach her.”

‘Damn! Damn! Damn this world! Damn everything!’ He wished he was not so useless. He did not want a world where he had to watch his sister die and he was unable to protect her. ‘I’m supposed to be the one that protects you! It’s my job! I promised! I promised her, I’d protect you!’

Yori’s body held firm forcing him to watch Yumi beat up by Ourias because she had to protect everyone. Each failed attempt by her made it that much worse for him to watch. ‘I don’t want to be on the sidelines anymore! I don’t want to be protected! Damn you stupid bastard, Yuki! Why didn’t you give me any power so I could stop this from happening?!’

Blood dripped down Yumi’s face, still determined to keep standing back up. Her unwillingness to stop made the situation worse. Ourias did not make light of his declaration. Her body shook and wobbled, but she kept going forward. All she had was her fist to throw, the fist that never landed.

“Stop!” A wind suddenly tossed up around Yori. “I…can’t!” Yori clenched his fists in frustration at his uselessness. He had nothing. He wanted something. Anything. He did not care. ‘Can you hear me, you bastard?! I don’t like you. I don’t trust you. You destroyed the world and gave Yumi powers. You ruin lives. But I don’t care anymore. I’ll take anything, even if it is from you! Give me the power to save my sister!’

Yori screamed aloud his frustration. The ground started to shake under his feet. Wind blew away from him alerting those around him to the reaction. Sparks ignited in the air, as everything suddenly seemed to become heavy. The very air seemed dense almost impossible to breathe. “Damn you, you bastard! Yuki Hayashi!”

Wind whipped around Yori’s hair blocking out his eyes for a moment. In the next, everything was solid white. The iris, pupil, everything was missing. A couple of veins around his forehead protruded to visibility. Yori leaned forward trying to fight the power that held him down. “You won’t stop me!”

Suddenly, Yori disappeared only for Yumi to appear in his place looking very confused. Across the field, Yori took over Yumi’s place still yelling completely blind on emotions. “I won’t let you harm her anymore!” A black barrier appeared in front of him shattering, but blocking the incoming attack meant for Yumi. In the next instant, Yori grabbed out at the shattered pieces of the barrier taking one piece in each of his hands. The pieces suddenly grew into transparent swords. “Hayashi bastard!” Yori swung down on an off-guard Ourias.

To be continued…