Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 9
(PART 3)
"How did I end up getting paired with you as a guinea pig?" asked Lennox. He is walking right in the open of the city alongside Jessiah. "Oh yeah that's right, because you volunteered me without my consent!!!"
Jessiah smiles as the light from the fires they leave behind shine on his bald head. "Come on Lennox, we're not guinea pigs, we are diversions."
"That's the same thing dumbass!"
"Whaaatever, either way this is definitely the best job because all the action comes to us. Stop being such a pansy."
Lennox lets out a sigh of exasperation and stops talking.
The two walk in the middle of the street with weapons in hand, each building or house lights on fire the moment they pass. This isn't their doing though, flame tipped arrows land perfectly into windows, lighting the curtains on fire and sending the structures ablaze.
"Wow, Allia sure is a good shot ain't she?" said Jessiah as he looked at the destruction in awe.
Lennox scratches his head. "No shit, that's her job. If she wasn't the best she wouldn't be here."
"You sure are in some kind of a piss ant mood aren't ya? You seem a lot happier around everybody else."
"That's because you are by far the most annoying out of everyone."
Jessiah is about to reply to this insult when he sees a group of a few dozen soldiers running up the road toward them.
"Hey hey, no cavalry?"
Lennox pulls his sword out of its sheath and says, "Beggars can't be choosers."
Jessiah swings his long spear over his head and readies himself in a battle stance.
"I ain't begging, I just wanted a little bit more of a warm up to start off the night."
He fearlessly rushes at the group of soldiers.
Lennox holds a straight face as he follows closely behind.
The soldiers have no clue what to think about this situation, they look around in confusion trying to find more intruders, but instead of over thinking it they let their instincts take over and they run to attack the two.
However, the instincts and adrenaline that go along with hand to hand combat would never be felt by either side of the opposing forces. The reason for this is that the group of a few dozen Trojan soldiers are brought to an abrupt halt when a bundle of flaming arrows hits the front line of the men square in the chest. The front men drop and the back men fall over them, the ones that fell struggle to get off of their dead and flaming comrades without lighting themselves on fire.
Lennox and Jessiah stop their attack and have disappointed looks on their faces, it’s like they are children who just had a piece of candy snatched away from them.
The two look at each other and Jessiah says, "We can't let her have all the fun."
Lennox smiles as if he hates to agree with him and the two rush towards the remaining men.
But once again they are stopped, this time it's by something that makes the two have no choice but to jump backwards in fear for their life. The remaining men burst into a swirling inferno.
Running along the rooftops is Allia, she had just thrown a makeshift molotov cocktail into the center of the group of soldiers who had flaming arrows sticking to their chests.
The result of this is the painful death of every last one of them.
Allia smiles and waves at the two as she jumps from one rooftop to another and disappears out of sight.
The two men stare in amazement toward the direction where she ran off to, the only thing of her that can be seen is her flaming arrows flying through the night sky and the sound of the screams after they land.
"Ahh fuck that! She snaked us!!" shouts Jessiah.
Lennox scopes the area and wonders which way is the best way for a strategic attack, that's when he remembers that from the beginning, the two of them are the only members of the Ten Knights that are purposefully left out in the open.
They are not hidden in order to lure the brunt of the Trojan army occupying the town while the other 8 pick them off in stealth like attacks. It would seem that it has worked because of Allia setting all of those fires and leading soldiers to their position, it's only a matter of time before a full fledged defense force is sent to counter the intruders.
"Alright, now it's time for the marathon to start." said Lennox as he keeps his hearing set on the approaching footsteps of countless soldiers. Jessiah smiles wholeheartedly as his adrenaline rises more and more with each passing second. "On the count of three?"
Lennox runs his fingers through his hair and pulls a mirror out of his pocket, he makes some faces like he is some kind of model and then says, "I'm too damn good looking for this kind of grunt work."
Jessiah twitches his eyebrow. "Hey, we kind of have a tense moment here, why the hell do you always do that before a battle? Is it some kind of superstition?"
Lennox smiles and says in a cocky tone, "Superstition? Na, I just need to keep the look of my pretty face stuck in my mind so I make sure it doesn't get scratched. I guess you can call it extra motivation."
Jessiah smacks him rather hard on his back and laughs, "That's a little gay but whaaaaaatever. Do the damn countdown already."
Lennox frowns and shouts, "Finding motivation in my beauty does not have to be gay at all!!"
Jessiah laughs aloud causing Lennox to start his countdown in frustration.
"3! 2! 1! GO!!"
The two split up and run in opposite directions down two different alleyways, as soon as they do this, hundreds of soldiers run down the street to confront them.
All of the soldiers stand battle ready as they scour the surrounding area in silence, the sound of the fire cracking a wooden post breaks their focus and they all shift their attention toward the source of the noise.
When they see that it was nothing, they turn back to their original post.
But something is odd, it feels like they are missing something.
The left, and the back flank each have four or five downed and dead men.
How this happened is certainly a mystery.
They all ask themselves the question of how and try to come up with an answer, in the time it takes them to think of what could have happened, a few more of them are dead.
This time the men died on the front and the right flank.
By now, the soldiers realize that they are dealing with a formidable foe; little do they know, they are dealing with the best that La'Juune has to offer.
Celestia Letrova is inside a house directly in the center of Tronoble, this area is surrounded by homes, condominiums, restaurants, shops, and even an outdoor theater. All of these living areas are cast over a town circle that has a fountain with a bronze statue of a large horse standing in the middle of a man-made lake.
Close to a thousand soldiers are packed in the town center and are being debriefed from a few higher ups as to what is happening. Celestia carelessly pokes her head out through the window as she wears a smile and listens in.
One of the soldiers is standing on the platform to the outdoor theater, he has decorations all over him so it is obvious that he is a man of rank. He holds his arms out as he addresses the men, "As you all know, enemies have intruded Tronoble. Though we don't know how many intruders there are, it is safe to assume that the country of Eiyalazo has commenced this attack to assassinate the King. What we all need to do is start our search from here, and work our way to the outskirts of town, there are seven more battalions of our size occupying the city so they will be searching as well. Our job is to protect the King at all costs, the manor in which the Ball is being held is completely surrounded by our soldiers so all that is left for us to do is find, capture, and kill our enemies."
The address is cut short by the sound of a giggling girl heard from above, all of the soldiers look up and see a cheery looking pink haired girl standing atop a rooftop a few houses away with a smile on her face.
Now standing on the roof and looking down on the soldiers, she declares, "Fufufu, you're all so cute when you're confused like that. You all really have no clue what exactly is going on, but luckily for you I'm here to give you the answers!"
The mass of soldiers all glare at her in a serious confusion, they don't know whether to take her as an intruder or just a girl. That is, until she speaks to the man in charge standing on the platform.
"Eiyalazo isn’t behind this attack... take a look behind you."
The decorated man turns his head to the wall behind him and that is the last thing he would ever see.
The man's head is decapitated at his shoulders by what looks like a golden rounded shield and it slams into the wooden wall and sticks.
The edges of this shield are razor sharp and over six inches long, its shape faintly bulges up towards its center and a small hole with an extremely thin wire flows out of it.
The men all jump in shock, the shield then slides out of the crater it was in and falls to the floor next to the man's body. A few soldiers quickly rush to the scene and find an emblem embedded on its center, it is the simply designed crest of La'Juune.
One of the men has a cold sweat run down his temple when he says, "No way."
Celestia laughs, "Nyaahaha that's right! Your enemy tonight is La’Juune!”
Celestia jumps off the roof top and lands in the middle of a road that's just outside of the town circle. With a flick of her hand, the shield jumps from the platform and slings itself all the way back to her position.
She can do this because of the silver-mail glove she is wearing that connects to the wire of the shield. With a simple flick of a finger she can control the distance, direction, and angle in which the shield travels.
Despite her air-headed attitude and demeanor, Celestia is actually a full blown genius, she invented and made this weapon herself and has been making many other weapons for the La'Juutian military since she was the young age of ten.
"Let's see if all of you muscular men can put up a fight against a small girl."
The soldiers become infuriated and a group of about twenty rush at her, Celesia smiles and doesn't even attempt to move.
The sprinting men show no sign of wavering until they are suddenly halted in place. Every last one of the twenty men are cut and bleeding before they could even comprehend what had happened, and the rest of the soldiers look at the gruesome scene in shock. Some men lie injured on the ground, stacked on each other, some had their necks cut and are bleeding out, others have died instantly and are stuck to the wire.
Celestia cheerfully laughs and twirls her bladed shield over her head when she says, "This is one of my very own inventions, this transparent wire is razor sharp.”
She points at the area where this string is tied, the entire length of the gap between the houses and buildings are bound with this invisible wire. Celestia stretches her arms and back as she finishes, "Every last alleyway is covered, don't even try to cut it, it's pretty damn close to unbreakable. And I wouldn't recommend trying to ease your way in between the gaps either, one wrong move and you'll get stuck and be cut to bits, as you can tell, it can inflict a lot of damage."
After stretching, she swings her shield and throws it atop a building, the wire retracts itself and it shoots her up like a bungee cord.
"All of you are trapped in my web and none of you will escape! Nyaahahaha I hope you guys are ready!"
Celestia starts sprinting across the rooftops, the majority of the gaps in between the houses aren't too big, but the bigger street side ones are more than thirty feet across. She easily jumps that distance with length to spare. A bold attempt considering she just got done saying that there are razor sharp invisible cable wires below her just waiting to chop her into pieces.
She flings her shield downwards and attacks a group of fifteen or so men that are separated from the rest. They are picked off like they were made of cardboard, limbs fly all over and the area and just like that, a small chunk of the battalion has been defeated.
She continues her run and continues her assault, taking out large numbers of men as they scurry around in a panic, some try to run into a house to get to the rooftops but find that they are completely useless once there. They cannot jump half as far as she can and are killed instantly from one of her long distance attacks. Some try to cut the wire that holds the shield but their steel swords are sliced in half as if they were sticks of butter.
Many other desperate attempts are being conjured up and attempted but none of them seem to work, the water of the pond in the middle of the town center turns red with blood as many more men are systematically being eliminated.
All of this carnage carries itself out while one cheery pink haired girl dances atop rooftops.
"Let go of me." Rain viciously says, the hate in her blue eyes not lost on her captor.
Noah squeezes her even tighter and says, "Keep watching Rain, this is a once in a lifetime experience for someone like you."
"Tch, I don't know what makes you think you know me well enough to address me so casually."
"The best spy I have has been in Eiyalazo, he is very close to you, and he has given me a very detailed profile on your personality."
Rain's eyes grow large in shock.
"Spy!? Impossible!"
Noah ignores her surprise and continues, "I have grown very interested in you Rain, so much so that one of the reasons I chose to invade this town was specifically in spite of you."
Rain grits her teeth, "And what is it that makes a lowly member of nobility such as myself so interesting to someone like you?”
Noah smiles and presses her body up against the balcony railing as he looks out at the destruction of Tronoble. "Quite a few things actually... one of them is what goes on in that head of yours, the way you think as a Battle Strategist intrigues me to a certain extent."
"I see, so you are hoping that I'd give up some strategic information if you torture me... I doubt an idea like that will work, I'll bite my own tongue off before I ever offer you a single word."
Noah faintly laughs until his face turns solemn and his demeanor turns cold, he squeezes her hand extremely hard and says, "What I really want to learn about is this disgusting hand of yours."
Rain is once again in shock.
(It can't be...) she thinks to herself.
Then she thinks back at how she hasn't been able to use the powers bestowed on her by the tattoo of the pentagram on her hand, it was only a few days ago that with its help, she easily killed off nine men.
"What are you talking about?" she warily asks.
Noah leans into her ear so close that she can feel the warmth of his breath when he replies, "You are being used... and there is a reason why this is so. The one pulling the strings definitely needs you to fulfill something, and it is that pitiful thought of revenge flowing through your head that makes you so much easier for him to control."
Noah turns her around and holds her right hand with his left and her neck with his right, it would seem that he is confident in his strength to kill Rain if needed so he lets her left hand hang free.
Sensing this, Rain doesn't try to fight back, without the use of her right hand she is just a regular girl.
Looking into his cold eyes makes her very angry, it's as though he is looking down on her.
She halfheartedly smiles and says, "My pitiful revenge huh? Prince Noah, weren't you the one who declared war on my country and Troy as vengeance for the death of your father and disappearance of your two brothers? I refused to be pitied by a hypocrite who has sacrificed so many lives for the same reason."
Noah holds a straight face until his lips faintly rise. "You're wrong about that."
"What?"
"Something as boring as revenge, as a child I modeled myself after a person who held nothing towards his enemies and felt close to the same for his friends and family. If one can do that, revenge would be the last thing on their mind in a situation like this."
"Then what the hell did you declare war for!?"
"That is simple, whoever killed my father and abducted Napoleon and my two brothers committed an act of war."
Rain stares at him in silence, she can't understand how his mind is so set on military and political actions that revenge doesn't even matter when his father is murdered.
All she can do is mutter in sarcastic disbelief, "Is that so..?"
Noah looks down at the ground behind Rain and then his eyes shift back at her. "But... there is something that has been bothering me. How is it that the intruders murdered a heavily guarded King, kidnapped eleven people, demolished a large castle room, escaped the city and then the country without anyone noticing their presence?"
Rain, knowing that it wasn't Eiyalazo that committed the crime, had come to the conclusion that La’Juune had likely staged the whole event. If what he’s implying is true, she has no idea how these things could have happened.
"....."
"There is something not right about this whole war... and I'm closing in on its source, starting with you."
"I still don't get what you are talking about."
"Are you familiar with the religion of the bible, Rain?"
"Huh? I can't say that I am, I don't see how that has anything to do with---"
"That wretched tattoo on your hand is a religious symbol, and according to my numerous spies in both Troy and Eiyalazo, you aren't the only one who has it. General Sturgess of Troy has one, and Prince Dice as well. This is becoming more and more intriguing as the numbers of higher up players in this war begin to have their souls swallowed by their Deadly Sins."
Rain glares at him in confusion, "...Dice has the tattoo?”
Hitting her like a cold gust of wind, she remembers that Dice said he had burnt his hand, and since she noticed that he has been hiding it from her by wearing gloves. She paid it no mind at the time, but she still noticed that it was there. She was already suspicious of the way his personality suddenly turned against Jalet, and how much conviction he spoke about his feelings for her afterwards. It's only now that she can see it clearly. Dice has the pentagram on the back of his hand.
"!!"
Noah can feel her surprise, her hand tensed up the moment she put two and two together.
He slightly smiles before his cold glare returns and says, "You are controlled by Wrath. Prince Dice is swallowed by Lust... and General Sturgess is consumed by Greed. Only one person is capable of controlling all of these sins and is able to tempt people into letting themselves become devoured by them. People like you who can hold influence on the world are needed to fulfill this puppet master's plan, and I truly believe that you three have met one of the real culprits behind the disappearances."
Rain tries to piece together what he is saying, it takes her a few moments but it is slowly starting to hit her as her eyes grow larger. In an instant, her perspective has gotten much wider and her mind begins to move closer to his direction; she can't discredit his theory because she knows that the impossible and far-fetched has already begun to happen, starting with the snake and her hand.
Noah looks like he is about to speak again when he is interrupted by a voice from above saying,
"I recommend that you take off now Noah, things are going to get really sketchy in a minute."
Jeffrey is standing on a rooftop and nonchalantly scratching his head as if the danger doesn't apply to him.
Noah doesn't turn around when he responds, "Alright then, you know what your job is."
Jeffrey cracks his neck and replies, "Yeah yeah, kill the King of Troy right? That shouldn't be too hard."
All the thoughts of the bigger picture that Noah has presented in Rain's head snap and turn to nothing but black.
Her face contorts and she shouts, "Don't you dare touch him! He is mine to kill!!"
Jeffrey smiles and waves at her, his figure disappears as he jumps off the roof and walks through the balcony door leading inside.
Rain pleads in anger, "WAIT! WAIT!!!"
Noah squeezes her neck so she can't speak and says, "I see that this hatred runs even deeper than what I've imagined. You'll be coming with me for some intense rehabilitation."
The white of Rain's eyes turn red, not only out of lack of oxygen but also out of pure anger, the thought of someone else slaying the King of Troy has gotten her blood running so hot that it could heat up an entire room if she were standing in it. Feeling helpless because the powers the snake had given her are mysteriously nonexistent, she is enraged that she cannot blow this pestering Prince to pieces.
Noah is amused at how much her psyche has deteriorated due to the pentagram. He lets go of her neck and picks up her mask that was hanging on the balcony, he puts it on her face and then pulls his own mask out of his pocket and does the same.
"You'd be wise to hang on to me."
Noah hops up atop the ledge of the three story balcony and jumps off, pulling Rain along with him.
"What's going on Dice?" Ash asks as quietly and as calmly as possible.
"Do you remember fighting an Eiyalazonian Captain by the name of Detreig Von Ronheim?"
"Huh? Why does-----ggrraahh!"
Dice interrupts her by pushing the knife so hard into her back that it breaks her skin.
"Just answer the question."
Ash winces and replies, "Y-Yes I do.."
"Which one of you killed him? Was it the King?"
"I-I don't understand what's going on? Who are you?"
Dice slowly starts walking her away from the rest of the dancing crowd when he says, "My name is Dice Di'Vore, I am the Prince of Eiyalazo."
"What!?"
"Quiet down." he says as he presses the knife further into her back.
Ash is really starting to feel like a slip of his hand would result in a fatal injury, she takes deep breaths and calmly asks, "Why is someone like you threatening me like this?"
Dice politely smiles at a few people passing by as their numbers become smaller and smaller the more the two walk deeper into the castle. His polite smile turns sour when he says, "If you just answer my question, you might be able to live through this... who was it who inflicted the fatal blow on Captain Detreig?"
Ash has no choice but to oblige to his question, this threat is very real and like any hostage would, the demands of the hostage taker come before anything.
"I-It was me... I was the one."
Dice viciously frowns and he explains, "I'm in love with that man's daughter... but she cares more about her revenge on the ones who killed him than she does about my feelings. So what do you think I have to do to get that devotion of hers turned towards me?"
A sickening feeling surfaces in Ash's chest, she knows the answer to his question and doesn't need him to clarify it before she realizes that she has to do something. Ash is trained in martial arts and is actually an extraordinary fighter, but due to the surprise of Dice's attack and the manner in which she is being held, there isn't much she can do without running the high risk that she'll be stabbed.
The only thing she can think of doing is something that will certainly not work, her only hope has been shut out and despair surfaces upon her face.
Dice notices this and smiles when he whispers in her ear, "I can tell by the look on your face that you know what is going to happen... hmph, I bet you never would have thought in the beginning of the day that this night would be your last."
Ebihara Seiri and Haas Avandale are sitting atop the roof of a building; no matter where one goes in Tronoble, the large castle that holds the Ballroom can be seen.
Seiri has a smile on her face as she stands atop a chimney. "Just a little bit longer."
She is anxious about what the scene that awaits them will look like; this girl is much like Aria, she gets very excited by explosions. The one difference between the two is age and the way they go about making their bombs.
Aria can turn any object she touches into a bomb, but she is clumsy when determining how big and what kind of an explosion that object will have when she uses her ability.
Seiri on the other hand uses bombs she makes from scratch with her own two hands, most of her explosives have a sole ingredient of alcohol, but being the genius she is she has mixed combustible chemicals together and created something that is far more flammable. Once it is deprived of oxygen it turns into something so explosive that it is even stronger than dynamite.
She carries this liquid in little flasks that she always has with her, some aren't very dangerous at all, and some can level dozens of city blocks if not treated with care. One of the semi harmless flasks was given to a certain man just a couple hours earlier. She calls these potent flasks of destruction 'Light shows.'
When someone asks her why, she brings up some kind of nonsense about how bombs and actors are similar to each other.
Haas looks at his watch and struggles to say, "...I... Need to go... Help... The others..."
Seiri flips her hair at him and says, "Fine fine, my mission is accomplished for the night, so I'm just gonna stay here and watch the light show."
"...Understood..."
Haas pulls two small swords out of his duffle bag and jumps off the roof, leaving the twelve year old Seiri by herself.
She pays no mind to his absence, instead her eyes grow large with the reflection of the castle as she repeats what she said earlier,
"Just a little bit longer..."
The knife that Dice holds is about to sink into her back and Ash knows it, she shuts her eyes and shouts the only thing that comes to mind, "ZURVICK!!!!!"
Dice lets go of her arm and covers her mouth with his palm, with his knife wielding hand he readies to make a huge thrust forward when
BBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!
The roof atop the ball explodes and thousands of pounds of debris and flames fall on the patrons who are dancing on the Ballroom floor.
The frilly dresses worn by the women ignite and they all panic and run about, lighting tablecloths and curtains on fire as well. Literally within a couple seconds of the explosion, the entire Ballroom is ablaze.
"What the fuck was that!?" Dice yells angrily in shock.
He shakes off the ringing in his ears and switches his focus to the assassination of the girl in front of him.
"First thing's first."
As soon as his arm moves to stab her, his vision goes black and a loud thud can be heard. He senses that something has just hit him square in the eye and pain quickly follows. His body flies away from Ash and crashes into a pillar one the wall of the Ballroom.
Ash falls to her knees thinking that she has been fatally wounded and just hasn't felt it yet; from her knees she again falls to the ground but she is caught in the arms of a man before she lands.
As soon as she feels the security of the man's arms it hits her, she hasn't been stabbed and she will survive.
(But how?) she asks herself.
She shifts her eyes upwards to look at the person whose arms she rests in and sees a sight that fills her with joy.
The man is Zurvick.
The King of Troy has come to save his Captain when he hears her yell his name in horror. A switch went off in his head and his heart dropped when he heard her frantic voice, so much so that he instantly rushed to her and almost completely ignored the explosion that had just occurred. Once he saw what the shout had indicated, he unhesitatingly clenched his fist and struck the assailant to get him off of her.
On the King's face is a frown full of anger. He lifts Ash to her feet and steps in front of her, guarding her intensely.
Addressing Dice, who is holding his eye and glaring at him furiously, Zurvick says, "I don't know who you are and what you are intending to do... but anyone who dares to harm Ash in any way, is an enemy of mine."
Dice clicks his tongue and takes his hand off his already swollen eye, the bloody knife he holds in his right hand shines ominously with the light of the surrounding flames. He stands straight on his feet and his lips begin to rise.
"Hehehehehe.... HAHAHAHA!!!"
He squeezes the hilt of his knife with all of his strength and an odd black smoke surfaces from the back of his hand and flows up his arm.
"There isn't a doubt that she'll fall for me now! All I need to do is kill the both of you and she's mine!!! Hahahah she'll be all mine!"
Dice's words hold a severe tinge of insanity and it seems that the mysterious black smoke feeds off his cockeyed expression when it wraps around his whole body.
His arm is so covered that it is not visible, Zurvick and Ash look at him in disbelief at what their eyes are seeing. The black smoke around his arm stretches to the ground, spreads wide and then dissipates in a small blast, what comes out is a three meter black sword he holds in his hand.
He takes a deep breath and reveals a blank face full of blood lust, it was as though he needed to calm himself to give form to the smoke before he can just wildly go about attacking.
After harnessing the power of the smoke, he smiles widely and declares, "You both die here, and I will finally be able to hold her in my arms!"
He readies to rush forward to slay them.
Just by standing in the fearsome presence of such energy, it is blatantly obvious to them who would win the fight in this situation. Ash's knees are shaking uncontrollably and even Zurvick is feeling the fear that the aura of evil surrounding him is causing.
Dice takes his first step forward but is suddenly stopped by the figure of a man in a stylish black suit with dirty blond hair.
The man steps in between the two and says, "I doubt that you'll be holding anyone at the end of all this."
Dice frowns and spits at the ground. "Who the fuck are you??"
The man standing in between the three is Jeffrey Durbin.
He shrugs his shoulders and says, "I don't really matter all too much, but the person that matters the most to you is being taken away as we speak."
"What?"
Jeffrey points to the window behind Dice and says, "Take a look."
Dice turns around and looks out the window to see Rain being held tightly against her will and taken away by the same orange haired person he saw her with earlier.
"Rain!!" he shouts out the window.
Rain hears his shout and turns to look at the source of the noise, she shows him a face that screams out for help.
All of the thoughts that he had of engaging Ash and Zurvick go screaming out of his head and only one thing remains. Dice's eyes widen and he takes a few steps from the window, he lifts his black sword and swings at the wall; with that simple motion, the wall holding the window violently exploded sending debris flying into the night sky.
Dice hurriedly jumps through the large hole in the building and abandons his aspirations of exacting Rain's revenge on the two; the black smoke that surrounded him gently leaves the hallway and eerily follows him outside.
A strange feeling of calm reaches the two with Dice's exit. Ash takes a deep breath and doesn't know which of the numerous questions in her head to snatch out and ask. Zurvick's tense shoulders loosen up as he looks at the destruction that had just taken place. That feeling of calm is short lived when the sound of screams coming from the burning Ballroom are heard.
Zurvick knows that he has to go into the fire to help as many people as he can, he lets Ash out of his arms and turns to Jeffrey. "Thanks for your help, you really saved us back there."
Jeffrey shrugs his shoulders and says, "Just doing my job for my King."
Zurvick smiles and lifts his hand for a handshake as if to say thanks again. Jeffrey smiles softly and grabs his hand, the two's eyes meet for a moment and it becomes obvious that something is wrong.
The second this becomes evident, Zurvick feels a dull pain in his gut, he looks down and sees an eight inch knife stabbed deeply into his abdomen.
His eyes shift from his wound and back to the eyes of Jeffrey, who sighs when he says,
"The only problem with that is... you are not my King."
Zurvick drops to his knees and blood begins to puddle below him, by looking at how much red fluid is flowing from him one can't help but think that could be a fatal wound.
Ash is taken aback by this, so much so that there was a delayed effect in her comprehension speed; now that she sees his face growing paler and paler, she is thrown into a blind rage.
She turns to Jeffrey and glares at him with her bright crimson eyes, the anger that brews in her frown is more than evident when she rushes him for an attack.
Jeffrey sidesteps and easily avoids her wild punch, he grabs her arm and brutally kicks her in the stomach, the air flies out of her lungs and her whole body becomes limp when she falls face first on the ground, completely unable to move.
"Easy there Captain, I don't have orders to kill you. If you want to live I suggest you get out of here as soon as possible. Two of my men set up a fuse bomb that will systematically destroy this entire castle with a different explosion every few seconds." Jeffrey looks at his watch and says, "You only got another minute.”
He turns his back to the two and ganders out of the massive hole in the wall that Dice made, there he sees Dice chasing after Noah and Rain.
He releases a sigh of exasperation and says, "I guess I'd better help him, it sure looks like he'll need it."
Without paying Ash or Zurvick any more mind than they are worth to him, he jumps out of the hole and disappears out of sight.
This is the way the Ten Knights of La'Juune work, once the job is complete, it is on to the next one.
Ash is desperately trying to breath as she attempts to stand, she shakily reaches her feet and moves to tend to Zurvick, but to her surprise he is already standing there with a broken smile on his face.
"We gotta escape Zurvick, we gotta get you some help." she says.
He shakily stands himself back up and replies, "No... you have to escape."
"Huh? What are you talking about? Can't you see that this whole damn building is on fire!?"
Zurvick stumbles when he walks toward her. "That's exactly why you are the one that needs to leave."
"But we need to get you stitched up as soon as possible."
Zurvick grabs her shoulders and walks her to the ledge of the hole that Dice created, "I need to help them..."
"N-No that's ridiculous! You are injured and you can barely move! What kind of help do you think you can accomplish!? You may even need it more than they do!"
He smiles and pushes her out of the hole in the wall, it's only about ten feet to the ground but she definitely felt in when she landed square on her back.
She quickly rises to her feet and glares at him with desperate eyes.
Zurvick salutes her and says, "I'll be damned if I don't do anything."
He turns and gets ready to walk into the blaze; watching the back that she adores so much become smaller with each one of his steps leading away from her, she becomes more and more distraught. She knows that if he goes into the burning Ballroom, there is no way he'd survive. He has a dagger sticking into his stomach and is losing incredible amounts of blood, and if his assailant’s warning is true, there will be another explosion any moment.
She puts every last bit of her strength in her voice box when she yells, "DON'T DO IT!!! YOU'LL DIE!!"
Zurvick keeps walking as he replies, "You know me well enough to know that I'm extremely lucky Captain Ash... there's no way I'll die here."
And with that, the injured and bleeding Zurvick waves her goodbye and vanishes in the bright light of the fire.
Ash is devastated. "He left me..." she says to herself as tears begin to fall from her eyes, "That idiot really left me..." She bites her lip and frowns, "I'm not letting this happen!"
She runs to the ten foot wall below the hole and begins to climb, with all her might she is going to give chase to him.
But these efforts are fruitless, before she can even get half way up the wall it is obliterated.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!
The second explosion rips through the area where she just was and knocks her more than twenty feet back, she slams into the manor lawn in a heap. For the most part she is unscathed, just a few scratches around her arms, she is extremely lucky that she didn't lose a limb in that blast. She shakily lifts her upper body up and opens her dazed eyes. The only thing she can see is orange and red blurs and she smells a bitter smoke through her nose; it takes her a few moments to recover from this out of body experience she is having.
Upon regaining her senses, she can see the horrifying scene that stands before her, the area that she and Zurvick was just in is now nonexistent, only rubble and flames remain. The Ballroom is just about utterly demolished and the rest of the castle begins to deteriorate as well. Not much of anything is left of the Ballroom and there is no doubt that everyone who hadn't escaped yet is dead, and that includes the one person she cares about most in the world.
Her body starts to convulse and her breathing becomes very spotty.
"N-N-No... this isn't happening right?"
As if to add insult to injury, dozens of smaller blast suddenly wrap around the circled tip of the castle and blow their way down until the seven hundred year old structure is nothing more than dust.
Ash throws her hands on her face as she looks at the destruction in horror.
"This isn't happening..."
All of the smiles and happy moments between her and Zurvick flash through her head like an old movie and eventually morph into a scene of despair when she thinks about how that smile of his is going to be gone forever.
As if in denial at his fate, she shouts for him at the top of her lungs.
"ZURVICK!!!!"
Dice is running after Noah and Rain who are entering a horse drawn carriage that was supposed to be guarded by Trojan soldiers. Those soldiers are now all dead and their bodies are scattered all over the area, a large battalion of them has been slaughtered within the time frame of the Knight's assault only an hour earlier. All of this destruction was brought to this city by only Ten soldiers.
On the carriage holding the reins is one of those Ten, Elise Whittier. She is covered in blood and looks very annoyed by the thought of how long it is going to take for her to wash it all out of her hair.
Once Rain and Noah enter she says, "Ooooaah she's cute! This is gonna be a better ride than I thought it’d be."
Rain recognizes her from the dress shop and mutters in surprise, "Y-You..? Wha?"
"Keep your pants on and drive." Noah orders.
Elise sticks her tongue out at him and asks, "Where to boss?"
Noah glares at Rain and then out to the burning city of Tronoble, he slightly smiles and blows a sharp breath of air out of his nose. "To La'Juune."
"Roger that!"
Dice is gaining on the carriage, each step of his that lands on the ground carries so much fury and determination that it almost sends shock waves into the ground as though it was an earthquake.
"I’ll kill you!!!"
Noah stares at this abnormality in pursuit of him with a straight and unworried face, he holds out his hand and simply snaps his finger. With that, Dice is surrounded by the weapons of Jeffrey, London, and Allia.
The carriage begins to move and Dice's rage becomes seemingly unstoppable, but the black and evil aura surrounding him doesn't seem to faze the three. Without a hint of nervousness, Allia points her bow and arrow at him, Jeffrey has a small sword pressed against his back, and London has a long fencing sword pressed against his neck.
Rain stares at the evil aura around Dice and has a different reaction to it than the others. "It’s that power... he really was telling the truth..."
Through the window Noah the rest, "I don't think it'd be too wise to waste your energy on that abomination, it's already far too late for him."
London pushes up his glasses and asks, "So what do you want us to do?"
"Just keep him here for a little, we'll be out of the city soon. I don't want that pest to follow me."
Rain is sitting in the moving carriage gritting her teeth, just by looking at how these knights had damn near killed off an entire city, she feels that there is no way Dice will win with his mind in such an out of control state. In a normal circumstance like this, one would worry about the other comrade's wellbeing, but in this case, Rain is only thinking about how she can somehow benefit from this situation.
She throws her head out of the carriage window and shouts, "Dice! You have to go back to our regiment! We can still win this battle if you tell them to invade!"
With an unworried look on his face, Noah leans his back into the leather carriage seat as she continues.
"There are only ten La'Juutians who caused all this, we can defeat them by shear numbers when we attack!"
Dice looks surprised and asks, "La'Juune? They are the ones who did all this??"
Rain is moving farther and farther away and her voice is very faint when she says, "There is a spy that knows of everything in the higher ups of Eiyalazo! Find that spy and kill him! Once you're done..."
By now she is so far that the carriage she is riding in can barely be seen, but her faint voice rings loud and clear in Dice's ears when she finishes with,
"Come find me!!!"
Dice watches her drift out of sight, she has been taken from under his nose against her will and there was nothing he could do except watch.
He flares his nose and frowns when he glares at the three La'Juutian Knights. "I'm coming back to kill you all."
The black smoke envelops his body and blows outward, slightly knocking the three back and allowing him some room to escape.
Dice begins to run with all his might, but this time it is in the opposite direction of the person he wants to be with the most at this moment.
With his head down he begins to shout his curses, "Urraaaahhh no!! How could I have let this happen!!??"
He then lifts his head up and screams at the sky with all his might,
"DAMN IT ALL!!!!!!!!!"
Allia had been raining down fire on just about everyone she saw in the town until she made her way back to the now destroyed castle and ran into Dice, so she isn't well informed as to what is going on.
She looks to her two comrades who casually sheath their weapon and relax.
"Should we really just let him go? If he gets that regiment to attack us I don't like our chances of winning." she asked.
London pushes up his glasses and smoothly says, "Don't worry about that."
Then Jeffrey lets out a tired sigh of exasperation and says,
"That regiment is long gone by now."
On the outskirts of Tronoble stands the thousands of men that belong to Rain's regiment, Dice's division is stationed there as well and they are all watching the city burn in awe. The murmurs of questions spread throughout the mass of men, but there is one man here who is not surprised about this in the least.
This man with two different colored eyes is the second in command to Rain, his name is Heinrich Zimmer.
He is so calmly watching from afar because he has known about the looming destruction of Tronoble for a while now.
He is Noah's spy, and he is the best the country of La’Juune has to offer.
One of the soldiers warily walks to Heinrich and asks, "What should we do?"
Heinrich doesn't turn his way and answers, "We retreat."
"What? But Rain and Prince Dice are in that town!"
Heinrich stands from a sitting position on top of a large rock and coldly states, "It looks to me like they’re most likely dead, the city was attacked by La'Juune from right under our noses, if we head in there carelessly without a plan we risk annihilation."
The man looks troubled and says, "But Rain told us to attack the city if she isn't back by 10 o'clock."
Remaining calm, Heinrich rebukes, "Yeah, but she didn't plan on the city being sacked by an enemy army before that time. This whole mission has gone bust, Rain Von Ronheim's carelessness got the prince killed, and as the new Captain of this regiment I will not allow the rest of us to die for her negligence."
The soldier shifts his eyes away for a moment and then back.
"...Yes sir."
With his new command due to Rain's absence, the entirety of the Eiyalazonian army that are present all leave the burning city and head back home.
Heinrich can't help but smile at how great things have turned out for La'Juune, with this, the approaching La'Juutian army can easily occupy Tronoble with no conflict. This has been a successful mission, everything has gone exactly the way Noah had predicted.
La'Juune now holds the reins to this bloody world war.
"What do you intend to do to me?" Rain asks, breaking the awkward silence in the cabin of the carriage. Noah simply answers, "I don't quite know yet."
Rain clicks her tongue and begins to pound him with questions. "How do you know so much about the powers of my hand?"
Noah is holding her right hand and hasn't let it go since they were dancing.
"I know a lot of things."
This angers her and she shouts, "God damn it would you just give me an explanation already! How can you suppress the powers of my right hand!?" Noah glares at her and replies, "You just said it yourself... God."
"God?"
"I am a glutton for knowledge, and before the war started there was a certain priest who preached to me the word of God. You told me earlier that you know nothing about the religion of the bible, correct?"
Rain huffs air out of her nose and looks out of the window. "People rely on that religion just like a fairy tale is used for children who are afraid of the dark."
Noah mockingly laughs and replies, "In a way, is this not what you have done for your powers?"
"I didn’t do this to run from the dark, I did this to embrace it."
"Do you realize you no longer have a soul? You are damned forever Rain."
“I’ve never not been damned. What good has a soul ever done for me, it’s worthless.”
He squeezes her hand and looks her in the eye. "What if I can change that?"
Rain pauses for a moment before asking, "What could you possibly do to change it?"
"That priest of mine was not an ordinary priest... before he was abducted along with the rest, he revealed his deepest secret to me, and soon after, with the touch of his hand... I was blessed. Though I am not benevolent to say the least, I have still been given a gift.”
“So you’re one of the people afraid of the dark then.” Rain said with a combative smile.
“Perhaps I am afraid…” Noah smiles and leans back in his seat, “But I was born into this world specifically to fight against that darkness; I will begin to negate your powers, in doing so, I will find out the whereabouts of my loved ones and put an end to this war."
Dice is running to where his comrades are supposed to be, and when he reaches the spot, he finds that they are long gone. Not knowing which direction they went off to he becomes confused, and that confusion turns into anger when he shouts at the pentagram on his hand,
"This is your fault!! How did you allow her be taken from me!?"
The snake's voice takes a few moments to appear and then it rings in his head. "This is all in due process, my fair Prince."
"I don't see how her being kidnapped will make her fall in love with me!"
"You need to open your eyes... This is the perfect opportunity to show her how devoted you are. She told you to find the spy and kill him correct?"
Dice sits on the ground, it would seem that he is exhausted from all of the effort he has put into the night, he lays on his back and points his hand to the air.
"That's right."
"Who do you think that spy is?"
"How the fuck am I supposed to know that!?"
The presence of the snake becomes more and more heavy on his arm with each passing second.
"I can tell you."
Dice becomes irritated and demands, "Then tell me."
"Who do you think has the power to make all of today's events possible?"
"....."
"Since you know that it was La'Juune that commenced the attack on the city, you must know that the spy who is able to work with the elites of that country must have an immense pull amongst the soldiers of Eiyalazo."
"I just don't see who can do something like that..." Dice said while clenching his fists in wonder.
The snake's voice reverberates loudly as it begins to inquire, "Let me ask you something... didn't your parents oppose you coming along with Rain on this mission?"
"Of course they were hesitant at first...”
"Have they not held a grudge against Rain's father for these last 10 years?"
Dice's face moves as if he is starting to realize something.
"Now that you mention it... they disgraced her father after the failure at the Battle of La’Juune."
"Has that embarrassment not continued to fester over time? Wouldn't be most plausible that they would do anything to sabotage her efforts in reinstating the Von Ronheim name?”
Dice sits up and his eyes widen.
"You don't think that---"
The snake's voice interrupts, "That's right... there is only one type of person that would betray her over such a trivial reason."
"It can't be..."
"It makes sense doesn't it? The spies.... the true betrayers are..."
Dice stands to his feet and frowns.
"The King and Queen of Eiyalazo... my parents."
"Yes, my fair Prince, now is your chance to show her the true extent of your love…”
Dice grits his teeth and puts all of his strength in his clenched fists.
“What will you do?”
"I have no choice... I must kill my parents."
The sun has almost completely risen over the destroyed city of Tronoble and the majority of people are either dead or they evacuated the town. But Ash Alworth remains behind, desperately digging through rubble. She is moving away the brick and stone of the castle with the remainder of her sleep deprived strength, trying to find Zurvick Niveusvenia, the King of Troy.
But sadly her search is of no avail, all she finds are burnt and crisped corpses of the former nobles who died in the blast the night before. The destruction is so bad that she hasn't even found a hint of life in the many piles of broken castle; the dress that she wore so beautifully the night before is torn and stained and her hands are bruised and bloody.
The wounds on her hands are proof of her belief that he is still alive, but the longer she searches she understands that her belief is actually denial. There are no signs of life around and La'Juutian soldiers surrounding the area begin to grow by the hundreds.
This is it, the end of her search.
(It's all over...) she thinks to herself as she lets her tired body finally take a break.
She begins to weep and tears fall rapidly from her tired eyes and slide off her cheeks like two flowing rivers. It has finally hit her that he really is gone, the only man this young Captain has ever loved is somewhere buried in the rubble.
It would seem that all of the energy she put into her search has gotten to her both physically and mentally drained; after hours of back breaking work, her frail body finally succumbs to exhaustion.
Her crying stops and her body falls limp onto the manor lawn, sadly for her, she will eventually have to wake up once more and experience the pain of her loss.
Three days later, the afternoon sun shines over the castle in the Capital city of Troy.
Queen Lelaine walks down the hallway and reaches the bathroom door. Once inside that unnecessarily large room with a pool sized bath she takes off her clothes and gets ready to enter.
Walking past the expensive looking vases and other decorative items, she finally reaches the warm water that fills the bath and takes a step in; she has been overly stressed the last few weeks so the soothing aroma of the shampoos and soaps calm her mind.
She sinks in the water and thinks to herself, (Here comes another tiresome day...)
With these thoughts of weariness and self pity running through her head, the comfort of the bath starts to ease the stress. That is, until she hears an unusual knock on the bathroom door.
She can tell it isn't one of her maids knocking to see if she needs any kind of assistance simply by the force of the knock.
She lifts her head out of the bath water and asks, "Who is it?"
A familiar voice comes from behind the door.
"It's Sturgess."
"What do you want?" she replies in haste so he can leave her alone.
He pauses for a few seconds and says, "I have terrible news to report to you."
Lelain raises her eyebrow. "Is it so bad that you have to tell me while I'm bathing?"
"Unfortunately... it is. I hate to come to you with such bad timing but I'd assume this is something you'd want to hear immediately."
"Then spill it already."
The pause between Sturgess' words makes Lelaine quite anxious; her hard is racing so hard that she can hear it beat from within the water.
After what seems like an eternal pause, Sturgess’s voice breaks the silence.
"The King is dead..."
Lelaine grows silent and remains that way for quite some time.
"Really?" she asked frailly.
"Yes... from what our reports say, King Zurvick was on his way back to our Capital when he stopped in Tronoble, while he was there the La'Juutian army attacked the city and defeated all its military occupants. The city held a Ball three nights ago for the King's departure, but the Ball was cut short by more than a few massive explosions, King Zurvick was caught in one of those blasts and as result, he was killed."
Lelaine remains silent and just glares at a painting in the bathroom as if she is in a trance.
Like a judge sentencing a convict to a life sentence in prison, Sturgess coldly continues.
"A few soldiers found a charred body that held the King's flask, they are sending it here to the Capital for burial."
When no reaction comes from this, Sturgess takes a deep breath and begins to smile, but this smile of his is broken by the sound of pottery smashing against the bathroom door he leans on. He takes a few steps back and the sound of heavy and sharp objects breaking becomes more frequent. "I'm sorry Queen Lelaine, but you must calm down and stay rational."
Another pot was thrown in his direction and shattered against the wall.
"Rationality!? Bullshit!!!"
With the sound coming from the inside of the bathroom one can't help but think of the destruction occurring inside. Sturgess tries to suppress a laugh and realizes that it would be best if he just walked away.
But not before he leaves her with some final words, "I'm sorry for your loss."
Another vase is thrown into the door due to Lelaine's temper tantrum, she is searching for something to destroy when she shouts, "This is bullshit!!! It’s all bullshit!!!"
She grabs a bath stool and chucks it into a window, completely shattering it.
Now out of things to break, she herself begins to breakdown, she falls on her knees and then lays on her side in a half angled fetal position.
"No... oo... this is... false information or something, he has to come back."
Lelaine starts to shake uncontrollably and her wet body slides on the smooth tile floor, she remains like this for minutes as all of the moments between her and Zurvick pass through her head.
She once again remembers the day they met when they were children, the day they got married, the day when Trojia was born; but what hits her hardest is the day when Zurvick left as part of the lowest rank of the military after their daughter disappeared.
She remembers the last time she was held in his arms and the look on his face when he said, "Don't look so worried, I’ll be coming back."
She put her head into his chest and replied, "Promise me."
Zurvick lifted her head and looked at her square in the eye, with a sincere smile he said, "I promise I'll come back for you."
With the thought of that day running through her head she desperately clings for hope and tries to talk herself out of believing otherwise.
"...He's not dead. There's no way he's dead..."
Sturgess walks down the hallway with a huge grin on his face, his mission to dispose of Zurvick has finally been accomplished. Though this wasn't technically his doing, his death will still bring about all the same benefits.
At the corner of the hallway sits a set of stairs, he readies to walk down them when he sees the faces of his comrades Anders, and Cardinal Luudnt.
"So how did it go?" asked Anders.
Luudnt looks at him as if asking the same question.
Sturgess chuckles a little bit and answers the two, "Better than I expected."
Luudnt laughs and replies, "Well I have more good news for you, after raiding the country’s coffers, we have more than enough money to pay the mercenary soldiers to go along with our plan. "
Anders added, "Myself and the Royal guard, we’re all prepared as well.”
Sturgess's body is brewing with pleasure and excitement. "This couldn't get any better... give me a week, I'll set up a battle plan and we'll begin our coup the second I'm finished."
Anders leans his back on the wall and asks, "Should I set the schedule?"
Sturgess walks down the stairs and past the two, he turns to them and shows a confident grin when he answers, "Mark the day on the calander, one week from now, the country of Troy will be ours."
Anders and Luudnt smile and salute him.
Simultaneously, they both shout, " Yes sir!"
The three go their separate ways to prepare for an epic betrayal.
Now by his lonesome on the outskirts of the castle and resting on a grassy bank by the moat, Sturgess is staring at the back of his hand.
"I must say, you are indeed fulfilling your promise to me."
The snake's head appears from the back of his large hand and says, "I exist to serve you."
"I can't believe it, I finally get to have Lelaine all for myself. Both she and the country of Troy are within my grasp."
"Believe it my fair General, you will have your woman, and you will also have rule over all the Kingdoms of this world."
Sturgess's face becomes distorted with an insane smile, the thoughts of such grandeur extend his greedy nature tenfold as a sickening pleasure grows in his body.
"That's right! It will all be mine!"
The snake slides up his arm and seemingly grins when it says,
"With me by your side, it's only a matter of time."
In a dark room sits a man on a throne with a large chessboard in front of him. Unlike the last time where there were few chess pieces that were positioned away from its original starting point, today almost every piece, both black and white have been moved and some of them are on the floor by his feet signifying that they have been defeated.
Though his face can't be seen from within the darkness, his red eyes glow and it becomes obvious that a menacing grin has surfaced under them.
"Prince Noah... you certainly have a troublesome ability, but little do you know, everything you had just done made things much easier on me."
Once again there is a man who stands at the base of the throne, this man is not Beelzebub nor Damien, he has dark blue hair and bright blue eyes.
This is the second ranking demon of the Hierarchy, Leviathan.
Leviathan is glaring at the chessboard and asks, "I imagine things are going well for you."
The man on the throne simply replies, "That's right, I am only a few steps away from victory."
"How so?"
"Take a look at the chessboard, look at the position of the chess pieces."
Leviathan looks at it and finds that the two white pieces, along with a bishop and a knight are surrounded by numerous black pieces.
"Is it relevant?"
"These are the only remaining obstacles in the way of my success... the white pieces are Noah of La'Juune, Lelaine of Troy, and King Gile and Queen Diana of Eiyalazo."
"I see."
"I have made my moves perfectly and everything is starting to fall into place."
"What do you need to have done in order to win this game?"
The man leans his head on his hand and says, "All it takes is one of the white piece’s defeat. The Prince of La'Juune was foolish enough to kidnap my queen, with my help, Rain Von Ronheim will kill him as soon as the opportunity presents itself. General Sturgess lusts for Queen Lelaine but I will have him kill her during the coup, thus fulfilling the terms on our contract. Prince Dice is already on his way to kill his parents believing that it was they who were the ones that betrayed Rain.”
Leviathan gently smiles in amusement, "Humans truly are easily manipulated."
"Especially when you offer them their wildest dreams on a gold platter, all one has to do is give them a little taste and they drool for more."
"With temptations like that, no man can deny you, the master conniver."
"Once the leaders of the three largest countries are dead, the ones left in line for power are the ones whose souls are bound to me under contract. Once their contract is fulfilled, I will damn those three and make their bodies my own. My powers will finally returned to Earth, I will be able to topple the leadership Troy, La'Juune, and Eiyalazo and firmly plant myself as ruler of the world.”
The man laughs and unexpectedly stands to his feet, he walks down the three steps and past his chessboard; the dim light begins to shine on him and his blood red and black overcoat can be seen.
Once the light hits his almost pale face, his features shine the room with a red aura.
He has black hair that falls far below the nape of his neck, and has shining red eyes with white pupils. This is Damien's father Satan, the top ranked Demon of the Hierarchy.
He spreads his arms and states, "Soon enough, no man on either Earth nor Heaven will deny me as God. I am only one human death away from checkmate... only one human death away from returning to Earth.”
Night of the Ball: (END)
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