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I felt incredibly stupid thinking, he never did say her last name.
“I’m going to get ready. I’ll take six platoons with me.”
“That’s it? Kiata is big, let’s make it twelve platoons. Our platoons are only six soldiers, after all.”
I nodded and dashed out to my room to pull on a new bullet-proof vest, thick tall gloves and boots. The gloves were really annoying because they limited my movement, but since they had the fingers cut off I could still type. I outfitted my gun belt and was sliding my two katanas into their places in my belt as I jogged down the stairs to join up with the soldiers.
Cloud was with them and asked idly when I entered the room,
“Mind if I tag along?”
I didn’t look at him saying,
“Don’t cause me any trouble.”
I was inwardly glad he was coming, so I could at least put him in charge when I went to stop Lena after things were under control.
When we reached the large statue of a Ragnarokain priestess in the town square, hoped up on the stone base of the statue, and grabbed the hand of the priestess and twisted it to the left, it moved and there was a small slit in the stone where I could slid my Exodus card in. I did so, hoped of the statue and it slowly slid off the hatch. It was a heavy metal hatch, must have been at least thirty pounds, and I slid my card into the slot and it popped up enough to grab onto the bottom and pull up. Cloud jogged over to help and I scowled at him saying,
“I could of done that myself.”
“I figure it couldn’t hurt to help.”
I looked around the surprised citizens that had gathered in the town square. Armed Exodus soldiers were hustling more citizens out of their homes, and I motioned for them to enter the underground explain the staircase would be dark at first, but they’d enter a large room that had pathways that’d lead bathrooms and cots.
“Why should we obey a little brat like you, anyway?” An elderly man asked pressing to the front of the crowd.
“I’m Akhyia Ragnarok, daughter of Arrem Ragnarok and Elaine Tryai Ragnarok. I’m here to liberate Ragnarok from Twi-LIGHT’s control. If you have any other questions, please ask the Exodus soldiers.”
“What’s your proof you’re the real Akhyia Ragnarok?”
I heard a motorcycle in the distance, and I snapped to attention cursing,
“Damn.”
I looked around and said in a louder voice,
“I’m sorry, but I need to go. Please obey the Exodus soldiers.”
“Where are you-” Cloud asked but I cut him off saying,
“You’ll end up going somewhere if I don’t stop her in time.” I said jogging over to one of the Exodus soldiers who have me her motorcycle without objections. I sped through the city at top speeds, only guessing Lena’s location by the sound of her motorcycle. With was a helluva lot easier said than done, because the motorcycles of this era were a lot quieter than those of the last. After a while, I was speeding through open fields, Lena in my sites. I sped up to one 140MPH, pulling on a pair of goggles.
I was gaining on her when somebody going far faster than me, coming from the direction I was driving, sped past me only four feet away. I cursed as he did, feeling my arm cut above the protective glove and I looked down the see a three inch sword-cut on my arm. It wasn’t very deep, but was bleeding nicely.
I looked back, seeing the attacked turning around and coming back at me for another attack. I tried swerving, but didn’t move fast enough and this time got an even deeper cut on my other arm. I cursed waiting for him to turn around ahead of me this time, and in that split second I fired one shot at the attack, but he was incomplete body armor and it didn’t even faze him. I cursed, realizing Niketa had sped up and was getting away. I decided to focus of Niketa/Lena again and attempted to ignore the assassin that continued to nick me.
She was hardly ten feet away from me, and I sped up a little more getting equal with her. She glared at me and cursed, as I pointed my pistol at her left handed saying,
“You’ll stop if you know what’s good for you. You won’t get your own body if Niketa dies.”
Suddenly, Lena looked away and she shuddered and when she reopened her eyes, it was Niketa.
“You can control Lena?” I asked, genuinely shocked.
“Sort of. Wait, how did you know that?”
She stopped her motorcycle as I slowed down, watching the assassin looping around again.
“Can you keep her in a while?”
“Y-yes.” She stammered. I nodded for her to get on behind me saying,
“Hold on.”
I hate these damn f-ing motorcycle fights! I though to myself dodged my attacker this time. Besides, they only happen in moves when the person who writes the script gets writer’s block and runs out of ideas…
After a few seconds of dodging and approximately five attacks, I drew my katana and blocked started blocking him when he attacked.
Suddenly, he stopped hardly ten car lengths ahead of me and I hammered so hard on the break Niketa and me jerked forward.
As he fired three shots with a pistol hardly a second after I stopped only two feet away from him, I pushed Niketa off and flopped off the motorcycle myself avoiding his bullets.
I listen a numerous amount of colorful names for him as I held up my katana to block his attack with a double-edged sword when I was still on my knees. He kept pressing down, and my eyes met his as I grunted pushing him off and jumping to my feet,
“Zeev, you bastard! I wish your mother had you aborted.”
He sneered, striking low with all the brute strength he’d used last time. I blocked him, but my feet slid back nearly two inches in the dirt from the force of his attack. I stepped back, blocking his third attack from above and side-stepping him to avoid another bout of him trying to break my guard.
I moved slightly quicker, and was able to duck behind him and run him through. My sword went through the center of his stomach, and I imagined my blade didn’t look very pretty sticking out through his stomach. I heard Niketa scream, and I retracted my blade and Zeev fell to his knees. Niketa’s eyes were wide with horror as he started to laugh. He started to cough up blood, but when removed his hand from over the wound in his stomach and licked the blood off his fingers, even I grimaced.
He stood up suddenly, and jerked around trying to return the favor of being run through. I jumped back, just avoiding his attack, but I didn’t avoid his second attack, and he jerked his sword up cutting a deep wound in my left leg. I cursed and lost my footing, as he hovered over me about to bring his sword down; he was shot through the heart. Niketa’s had was shaking, her pistol dropping to the ground as Zeev fell.
I wait a moment before I left his pulse to see if he was alive, and to my dismay he was.
“He’s unconscious.” I said aloud. I smiled at Niketa saying, “Thanks. I thought I was done for a second there.”
She nodded, and stood up shakily as she leaned against my motorcycle for support. I reached into the side compartment in the motorcycle and picked up the rope I’d spotted in there. I inwardly remembered to thank the Exodus soldier that had placed it there. I cut it with my katana, and bound his wrists and ankles. Although I was tempted to simply behead him to finish him off, that would surely have to kill him, I leaned back on my motorcycle saying,
“There’s still a few questions I want to ask him. He’s a better prisoner than a corpse.”
I pulled out my cell phone, about to call Maaya to send one of her moving vans and a few soldiers to cart Zeev off, but as soon as I flipped the phone open, Niketa jumped up, eyes flashing blue and grabbed her pistol.
“Shit!” I said hitting the dirt. I jerked my leg out, tripping her, and she fell to the ground beside me. I grabbed her pistol and tucked it in an empty holster. I also bound her, now that she was Lena, and also went to the point of tying her arms behind her back. I sat back down on my motorcycle and was about to speed dial Maaya, but I heard a roar in the distance. I squinted, and sure enough the Twi-LIGHT army was approaching, sun rising sun behind them. I cursed and speed dialed Maaya and the second she picked up I said,
“Twi-LIGHT is coming. Get their approximate location from where I am. I’m heading back to Kiata now with Lena.”
“Alright. See you soon.”
“Dewa, nochihodo.”
“And you,” I said looking down at Lena, “better behave.”
I reached Exodus in hardly fifteen minutes, had my wounds doctored and Lena in the underground prison in an hour. All civilians were in the underground and heavily guarded, and ninety thousand Exodus soldiers were stationed on the outskirts of the city for combat. The fifty thousand Ragnarokain soldiers with Exodus equipment but military uniform were in the city. Ten thousand Exodus soldiers were still standing guard on-base.
Valkyrie also contacted us saying Twi-LIGHT and Ragnarok had withdrawn from Mazar so there would probably be reinforcements with the double the numbers of these first string of attacks. Exodus had sent out bombers shortly after I got back, and were able to take out roughly two thousand Special Agents along with all the supply cars and half the tanks.
Ryuu also informed us that Valkyrie wouldn’t be able to send over any help for a while yet, mainly because the fragments of the Mazarain military were just killing mirthlessly anybody who opposed them, with a mere general in command. The country was in worse shape than Ragnarok, mainly because their only organized agency that could provide proper care for civilians was Valkyrie, which only had an army of a hundred thousand. They’d only been around four years, so it wasn’t bad for how little time they had but not really enough to take out the last two hundred thousand of the Mazarain military and help Ragnarok with our problems.
The south was secured; the Vilnora about the “monsters under the bed” as Katsu had called them. Although in my opinion they were more like “monsters in the basement”, I hadn’t spoken to Ryuu only got information on what happened from Maaya and Katsu.
Rikku and Rei were on the front lines, Celes and Phyress were guarding the Exodus base, but I hadn’t received order because I was supposedly qualified as a “VIP.” Cloud didn’t have any order either, but that was because he wasn’t an official member of Exodus.
“And what about me? I asked from across the meeting table Katsu, Maaya, and a few other Exodus-big shots and myself sat. This included the double-agent who was talking about my use to Trenxi and Kaianoreri’s, the one that had “overdid it” when capturing me, according to Maaya. That had been the first time I heard the name “Kaianoreri”, but I’d kept that part to myself. I’d told Maaya about what I’d heard of the conversation, but Tsura Liv was very valuable to Exodus and had no criminal record or any reason to believe she was with Twi-LIGHT. Since I was hardly conscious and paranoid, although Maaya didn’t say the P word she meant out, it wasn’t enough to press any charges. This chick had her hair dyed crimson, so I’d nicknamed her the Crimson Cringe because she yelled so loudly with her Zerrkala accent she made people cringe. She was apparently from Zerrka, the bottom most island-continent in the Spherical Line.
“And I don’t have any order, why?”
“You’re far too valuable to have out on the battle field hen we have Twi-LIGHT outnumbered twelve times over, princess.” Katsu said idly.
“Although I wouldn’t have used those words,” Maaya added, “He’s right. The soldiers can take care of this. You’re almost Ragnarok’s only hope. I know you don’t like it, but we need to hold tight in Ragnarok a little while before we head to Tsubasa.”
“Tsubasa is the center island-continent of the Spherical Line, right? Where the Infinity Tear is located?”
“Yes.” Maaya replied, “Although Tsubasa is an ally, they refused to let us come until Twi-LIGHT was in bad enough shape we wouldn’t go over there and bring Twi-LIGHT with us. Although they’re an ally, they’re not officially one because they’re neutral.”
“And Niveldon? They’ve got Blood of Fayt.”
“Well…” Maaya paused.
“She doesn’t really have a plan for that yet.” Katsu said tilting back on two legs of his chair. “She hasn’t said a word about Niveldon since I got here, because we’ve been focusing Ragnarok and Twi-LIGHT.”
“Has Niveldon sent attackers over here yet?”
“No.” Katsu replied, leaning further back in his chair.
“Do we know their status? What about the status of Blood of Fayt?”
“Nada on Blood of Fayt.” Katsu said idly. “We do know they haven’t done anything yet, although we doubt they’ve given up their alliance with Mazar.”
“One final question, are you aware Trenxi has weaponry that can use to power of Blood of Fayt?”
“What?” Maaya asked sharply, as Katsu snapped to attention and leaned too far back and toppled to the floor chair and all. The Crimson Cringe snickered as he god up demanding,
“What kind of weapons?”
“I don’t know many details, only that he has a kind of cannon that uses divine relics.”
“Divine relics or Skyevi relics?” Katsu pushed.
“What’s the difference?”
“Divine relics, like the Blood Crystal and Key of Seventh Heaven, have a lot more power than Skyevi relics like her sword and pendant. Only a select few can use divine relics, we all kinda guessed you’d be able to use the Key of Seventh Heaven but when we learned Kairi could also use it, it didn’t make much sense until we learned she was Akiko’s daughter. Now that you mention it, it still doesn’t make much sense because the ability of wielding divine weapons isn’t something passes on through bloodlines.”
“Do either of you know about a ‘Tear of Two Souls’?” I asked after brief silence.
“Where’d you heard about that?” Katsu asked, sounding a little wary.
I was silent a moment before saying,
“Don’t let Anan know this, but that’s what Lena is using to control Niketa. They’re basically two souls sharing the same body. Niketa can only control her a little bit.”
“Is that all you know?” Katsu asked looking worried and impatient.
“Maybe, what do you know?”
“It’s a legend in Nohin. A children’s fairy tale.” Katsu said, apparently trying to close the topic. Maaya looked at him, trying to meet his eyes unsuccessfully. She stood up and dismissed everybody but me, than said to Katsu,
“Tell her.”
“You tell her.” He said irritably standing up from the table. She grabbed his sleeve saying,
“It’s time you just admit what happened.”
He jerked his arm out of her grip saying,
“Just because you’re comfortable with sharing your secrets with others doesn’t mean that I am, little sister.”
“But, Katsu-”
“Jeez, would you drop it?” He met my eyes saying, “The Tear of Two Souls is also a legend in Mazar. We have no idea what it is, only that it isn’t a Skyevi relics and that it disappears when tow souls are done with it, if everything works properly.”
He left briskly after saying that, and Maaya sat down sadly sighing,
“I’m sorry, Akhy. But I can’t tell you anything more than he did just yet.”
“Just answer this one question; are the encryptions in the cathedral part of Skyevi’s puzzle?”
“No.” Maaya replied. “They might have something to do with the Tear of Two Souls, but we’ve been focusing on Skyevi for so long we haven’t really had time to figure out what they were too.”
“Could be any other beings like Skyevi?”
“Not that we know of. Skyevi was supposed to be the only divine legacy left.”
“You made it sound like there were others.”
“There are always stories and legends about gods and goddesses, who ones are true and which aren’t, take a lot of work. To most people, Skyevi is nothing more than a bed time story for children. That’s how we were both introduced to it at first.”
“So the only way to find about the Tear of Two Souls is to question people that have used it?”
“Not even the few people that have used it know much about it.”
I paused before asking,
“You recovered Kazuki’s body, right?”
Maaya was silent, answering my question.
“I’m heading up to my room to do a little research on this thing, okay?”
Maaya nodded wordlessly as I left.
So Katsu used the Tear of Two Souls to save Kazuki…I wonder what happened to make him so secretive with it. Perhaps it backfired somehow, but what effects could it of had? And if he used it last…how did Niketa get it?
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