Chapter 4735Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡowXswxa6D9
Naval port and Clay Castle
"So this is the Seel Navel port... a lot more corpses than I thought there would be." Silver looking around the at the dead Soldiers.
The amount of destruction was rather staggering, most of the ships towards the sea were destroyed, it seemed that a battle took place between Klyts, and the people guarding the boats.
"What could have happened here?" Richard said looking around, a combination of shock confusion filled his voice, one must wonder why he hadn't gotten used to this.
At that very moment, a large bird like creature flew overhead, most likely a griffin, due to its wingspan most of the group members could tell that much. However, something was off about its coloring, as of it was more of a corpse.
"That's one of Tempo's useless pets," Sara spat.
"It flew from the direction of the harbor, let's go," Mai said as, the group ran towards the harbor, passing the destruction left behind by the attacks only to find the pink haired girl looking over the scene. She was riding on top of the Klyts
"Tempo, who gave you permission to do this?" Parce said as Tempo flinched.
"W-well...I-I didn't do it..."
"Oh, shut up, we all know a rat like you did it, stop causing trouble for people!" Sara snapped as Tempo glared at her.
"I am not ugly; you should act your age!" Tempo pouting ever so slightly as she glared at Sara.
"What happened here then?" Mai asked.
Tempo ears twitched slightly before she tapped her lip, "Um...I don't know," before the team could press her any further, she gave a loud whistle as she jumped off of her Klyt before hopping into the air. A giant griffin appeared as the bunny girl hopped on its back. She then pulled out what seemed to be some core.
"This is the core to the only ferry running from this port if you want to leave you are going to have to get it from me...I guess I will be at Clay Castle," The large monster then flapped its wings and flew away.
It was evident that she was just baiting them.
Everything was broken and battered, buildings smashed and ships crushed, the destruction left behind was similar to that of a hurricane, one must wonder how such a small girl and monsters were able to do such things, another question is how was she able to beat the others to the port.
A lone ship seemed to escape massive damage, but one did not need a few workers were left, most were hiding as one managed to drag themselves out of their hiding spot.
"What's this Clay Castle that Tempo mentioned," Mai asked.
The thing that was going through Silver's mind, was a place made literally of Clay, at least it would be interesting and vibrant to visit, and there were a lot of locations like that back in her world, mostly tourist sights, even in hell money made the world go round.
"It's an old research facility of Descijan; it was abandoned when the front lines drew near," Floyd answered, causing a small sigh of disappointment from the girl named Silver.
A research facility, though it seemed kind of foolish to build one so close to the border in the first place unless it was created before the war got too bad.
"Huh really?" Richard seemed genuinely shocked at the idea as Floyd cocked an eye.
"Richard, come on we went there on a trip like two years ago!" Floyd added.
"Sorry, I only remember important things," Richard shoved his hands into his pockets and scoffed.
"Regardless, it is an obvious trap. Tempo wants us to go to the castle for some reason," Verm stated as Sara crossed her arms and looked around.
"Well nothing is happened here, Parce, you stay here while we go investigate," Sara stated, "it's pretty obvious that Tempo is after you."
Parce frowned for a moment, "no I'm going too, it's not like I'm safer here than with all of you anyway, all it takes is for Tempo to swing back and I'm helpless,"
He had a point, after all, Tempo could have just been a distraction. It wouldn't have been too difficult for another member of the church to capture him while the others were away.
"We don't have time for this; we need to know if we are heading to Clay Castle!" Silver said as Sara sighed.
"Well if Parce wants to go, then I guess I'm going to!" Sara started with a kind of determination rarely found in girls her age.
"If you're going to Clay Castle, I'll go with you. There's something I want to investigate." Floyd added as Verm shut one of his eyes.
"I to have something, I want to look into," Verm said.
"You should probably go to Richard, I doubt anything interesting is going to happen here for awhile, and we need to give them time repair and bury the dead," Parce said as Richard's eyes narrowed.
"Fine then I'll go,"
"Clay Castle is southeast of here, along the coast, we should probably be careful since the footing inside the building may be unstable,"
"The beach, eh." Silver smiled to herself as she slowly realized why it was called Clay castle.
"...Well you heard him, shall we be going?" Verm said as Shan brushed her long brown hair
"Yeah, standing here doing nothing is boring." Shan gave a small pout as Richard's eye twitched
"I really couldn't care less about the power core, but I need to stop by the "Shan smiled.
"You two are weird..."Richard gave a small sigh.
Both of them laughed as Silver finally noticed something odd about their group...Katto was missing.
"Well Richard, this place looks like crap..." Silver said to the redhead, as she looked up at the broken battered castle.
It was missing large chunks of stone, almost all of the windows were blown out, and there were multiple holes in the ceiling, without years of work the building would probably never be usable again. The whole facility gave off a kind of eeriness that could not be described by human words. It felt more like a haunted palace or castle than a work area.
"And?" Richard replied, eyes narrowed.
"And nothing, this place looks like crap." Silver pointed out once again.
They were obviously, in the main room, seats were prepared for guest as stairs lined the sides of the area, it seemed like this chamber was connected to all the others,.paintings of people popping up as Verm took note of a particular painting.
It was a woman, with snow white hair and red eyes as Silver tilted her head slightly walking up to the commander. "Huh, do you know her?" she was just slightly curious as Verm simply shrugged.
"Oh no one important, I just thought I recognized her for a moment," Verm replied as Silver continued to look around.
"What in the hell is up with this place I don't feel...anything..."Silver winced at that fact.
It was odd, something should be here, whether it was apparitions or monsters, something should be alive or dead in the abandoned facility, having nothing at all just seemed strange.
The air was sickening, horrifyingly disgusting as if blood was spilled across the halls and someone drunk it up.
"Well, no need to stop here let's go!" Shan yelled running through the house.
"...This is rather odd, something that has been abandoned for so long should have monsters in it!" Floyd said.
"Meh, the monsters probably got bored and left." Richard replied, "now let's hurry up and get this over with,"
The group then continued through the castle with dumb locked doors, and stupid puzzle, or at least they would have if not for the fact they were done before they got there, one must be grateful that they didn't have to go around chasing ghost that stole random keys.
The group continued through the Castle, finally finding a staircase that leads up towards the second floor, it was quite convenient, that none of the stairs were broken
"...Hehe I must say I'm impressed, to hide your presence from even Silver is amazing but...now I know you're here." Shan whispered to herself, her eyes filled with glee and plotting.
"Is something wrong Shan?" Mai asked, being none to weary of Shan's intentions
"Oh nothing, you know these stairs are pretty old," Shan smiled, here eyes twitching in anticipation
"...Yes, I suppose," Mai replied.
"Being in the back of the group is scary...I mean you never know what might happen on stairs in the back row," Shan then laughed. "I mean look how far up we are! If we fall from here, we might go even lower then the first floor...maybe even a basement!"
"What are you getting at..." Mai said growing suspicious.
"Well, what I'm saying is...you really shouldn't walk behind me," and with a tap of her foot Shan destroyed the Stairs that Mai was on.
"Ah...!" Mai couldn't even scream as she fell out of stairs.
The rest of the group quickly turned around hearing the destruction, all they saw were half broken steps and Shan standing Idle.
"What happened?" Verm yelled.
"Well from my understanding the stairs collapsed, I manage to avoid it but, I don't think Mai was that lucky," Shan smiled.
"How do we know they collapsed, and you didn't break them?" Floyd replied.
"Me! Now, why would I do something like that? I mean what reason do I have for trying to kill Mai...I just met her not too long ago," Shan replied.
"At any rate...what now I mean should we go look for her or keep going?" Silver asked.
"Forget her; we can just go down and find her after we are done with Tempo," Richard replied.
"I don't think we have much choice but to keep going...the stairs are out after all, most likely we'll have to find another way down." Parce said.
"Okay! Let's go!" Shan said pointing forward as the rest of the group just looked at her.
"...What's wrong?"
"I don't think it's the best idea to have you hanging behind us..." Sara replied.
"Oh come on! Let me guess you want me to be in front." Shan replied.
"Looks like there aren't any objections so please...ladies first," Verm smiled.
"Okay but you guy's are going to feel like real jerks when this is all over," Shan sighed taking the lead.
"If what I assume is correct then whatever is following us is going to go after Mai since she has been separated from the group... with Mai distracting the unknown party this whole thing will be over quickly...too bad I doubt she will survive" Shan then chuckled to herself.
Mai opened her eye's; she was in an area that the group had not been to, or anything human at all had been.
"Okay." Mai then took a deep breath and tried to recount what had happened to her, no matter how redundant it was
"We were on stairs and... Shan!" Mai yelled standing up, at that moment multiple thoughts ran through her head, was she a spy, or was it because of the classified information she and Silver kept discussing.
Mai then scanned the area; it was like a lab of some sorts with tight area's and hallways, test tubes and beakers they contained an unknown liquid as, as the black-haired woman continued to blink.
"Well, standing here won-" Mai was cut off by a noise as if footsteps were closing the distance between her and the sound.
It was the footsteps of a human; no monster would make such a sound.
"Who's there?"
The shadow got large as it turned the corner, revealing a girl
"So, you're finally awake," the girl replied, staring at Mai
"..."
She did not reply, doing something like that would be meaningless in the long run, she knew for a fact that the person in front of her was an enemy.
"The silent type, I can respect that," A girl who looked about seventeen appeared from the corner of the hallway, She had black hair and red eyes she had a thick trench like coat. It was bulky like she was carrying something under her coat.
"But, you won't remain silent for long, tell me your name," the red-eyed girl said, despite the demand it seemed she honestly didn't care. As if she was thinking about taking Mai apart on a whim
Mai only glared, trying to figure out the next course of action, fighting someone in this situation isn't the smartest idea, and would be best avoided.
The glass of the beakers reflected their image as Mai gave a small sigh
"I don't think I'm at liberty to tell you something like that," Mai stated bluntly as the red-eyed girl cracked her neck.
"I should have expected as much; I guess you won't be telling me who you work for and the group of people you were with," the red-eyed girl dug under her coat
That was a question, even if she didn't ask it as such, it was still an issue which she wanted to be answered, though a bit, even if it served no point, she wanted to know who was in the castle at the time.
"..."
The red-eyed girl then sighed "You know I have ways of getting information..." The girl then took a large pistol. Lines were etched into it as something red was running through it as if it had veins. The red eyed girl pointed the weapon right at Mai her finger on the trigger.
It was odd, the way the light reflected off the weapons, the red light that traveled through it looked like blood.
"I do not wish to fight, but then again, I have questions of my own, and I doubt that you will answer them without force," Mai replied taking out her throwing knives,
"Do not worry, I will not kill you fast," the black haired girl stated as she quickly shifted her gun downward. Mai flinched as she quickly moved out of the way, a burst of steam erupted out of the weapon as a sound similar to two hammers hitting one another echoed through the area.
Mai looked back at where she was; there was a small impact creator the size of a tennis ball. If the shot had hit her leg, it would easily have blown it off.
Mai through her knives as the woman quickly moved her pistol, knocking them out of the air, the sound of beakers breaking and metal clashing echoed through the area.
Mai bit her lip, she knew just by looking at her opponent that she was superior when it came to close range combat.
Mai jumped back trying to increase the distance between the two, however, due to the confining space she really couldn't do much, it was like a narrow street.
"...!" In an instant that lasted less than a second, the red eyed woman closed the distance between her and, like an assassin
The red eyed girl then grabbed Mai's, as she scanned the girl's body. She pulled out her pistol aiming for Mai's other arm. She held the trigger; the gunmen was trying to aim for a non-vital spot.
At the last possible moment Mai skewed the girl's hand with one of her knives using her free hand, the knife went completely through her hand however the gunmen didn't show a hint of pain.
The girl the jumped back and removed the knife from her hand; she twitched each of her fingers, most likely to recognized that they still functioned. The red-eyed woman clutched her pistol as in slowly broke down like building blocks. It somehow managed to split into two separate pistols as she pointed them both towards Mai.
Without saying a word the two threw their projectiles, the bullets easily overlooking knives, Mai barely managed to dodge the bullet and opted to run down the adjacent hall instead of continuing the battle, bringing knives to a gunfight may not have been the best idea.
"If I lose sight of her, it might be a problem, but chasing her may be dangerous, even if I know I can't be killed showing such an ability may cause problems later, the red eyed girl grumbled.
Mai sat in a room by herself; she had no idea who her enemy was, and why she was attacking her, all she knew is that she was after information.
"I should keep my distance and try to cast a-" Mai was cut off by a voice walking by the room
"Hey! Listen, whoever you are I just want to talk! If you come out now, I promise I won't attack you, however, if you continue your assault I can't guarantee either of our safety!" The red-eyed woman yelled into the room. Knowing full well that her enemy would most likely be near such a place
...Mai stayed silent if she was going to use a spell now would be the time. However would being the aggressor be wise from all viewpoint she had been the one intruding on this location and if the girl lived or worked here, she was technically trespassing, either take the risk and go out and talk to her or try to knock her out.
The woman then sighed "after all I tried to do; I wouldn't trust me either." She had closed one of her eyes before Mai sighed.
"You said you wanted to talk..." Mai said exiting the room, her eyes glued to the girl.
"Wow, you believed me! I thought for sure would have tried a sneak attack or something." The girl smiled.
"You wanted to say something, correct," Mai stated bluntly, she didn't know how to talk to people.
"Okay, my name is Zōki Niku no musaboru hito, but please call me Zoki, anyway my mother has been keeping an eye on this castle for a while now, and she wants us to clear it out, but people keep showing up...I sensed nine people in the castle and two monsters when you fell here I took the opportunity to try to ask you what you are doing here, but you refused to answer my questions," Zoki stated, trying to avoid all blame that would be on her.
"If you must know, we are here on request from another person; we have no intention of trying to take this castle," Mai replied.
"Well, I guess I can accept that answer...for now, anyway, how did you even get here? This basement floor is almost impossible to find." Zoki pointed out.
In truth, not even Zoki knew what the basement floor was used for; she wasn't the one that set up the lab or the experiments.
"I fell here when one of my group members betrayed me," Mai said.
"Oh really? If that's the case, I can lead you back to the first floor." Zoki smiled.
Silver and the others had continued through the ruined or factory before they came across an odd looking machine. It had a giant dome over it as dust and rust filled every crack of it, whatever it used to be it was no longer functioning as Silver tapped the glass.
"Why don't you all go ahead, Silver and I will stay here for a bit,"Shan smiled, though it was possible closer to a grin. The group just got done investigating a strange machine, and they were headed to the roof, no doubt Tempo would be there waiting for them.
"Why do you want to stay behind?" Verm asked.
Shan paused for a moment as she put her finger on her mouth, trying to come up with an answer, she closed one of her blue eyes and let out a sigh
"...That's classified, hush hush, you know all about that, right?" Shan grinned as Verm glared at her.
"Then I'm sorry, I can't leave you behind with this machine," Verm stated bluntly, as Silver started to wonder what was so important about this device.
"Oh come on, how do you know I'm even going to touch the machine plus Silver will be here to keep an eye on me!" Shan pointed us as Silver eyes narrowed.
"Um, do I get a say in this?" Silver snapped, of course, Shan was completely ignoring her sister's negative attitude.
"Who the hell cares about this crap anyway! Let's just get the core back," Richard stated in his usually bratty way.
"...Very well," Verm said walking away with the others, it was quite obvious he didn't want to leave the two sisters alone as he stared at Parce she was tapping his lip at the moment.
"So, why are we staying again?" Silver slumped her shoulders as Shan twirled her finger.
"Ah, little sister you are so naïve..." Shan smiled taking out a small device.
It was a metal box, with a large beeping red mark on it, it was something someone would see off of a science fiction movie, so it probably came from section eleven.
"What's that?" Silver merely blinked, wondering what she was going to do with something as small as that.
"Just watch..." Shan then put the little device on the giant machine, after some noises as if it was scanning and printing something before it fell off and Shan picked it back up. There were some odd red and green lines on the tiny screen before the beeping stopped.
"Well, I got what I came for..." Shan paused for a moment, wondering what to do next, as she could tell something wasn't right in the room.
"Hey, Silver do you feel like someone is watching us?" Shan smiled.
"You feel it too, It's not a demon, though, and I only felt it when I entered this room."Silver replied.
The unknown person probably wasn't a threat; they probably had some alternative reason for hiding, rather than a sneak attack.
"Hey! Whoever you are showing yourself, there is no use in hiding, or maybe you would prefer me just shooting up this room until I hit you?." Shan yelled into the empty room a large gap of silence followed; it was quite obvious whoever was hiding didn't want to be found, like a rat one might add.
…
…
"I see, well if there isn't anyone in this room, then I'm sure no one would mind me destroying this thing..." Shan smiled pointing her finger towards the machine as glyphs appeared around her, they looked similar to spell glyphs but most likely belong to something completely different
"I wouldn't do that if I were you..." At that point, a green haired boy jumped from the ceiling.
He looked about fourteen, maybe fifteen, either way, he was shorter than both Shan and Silver, he had a silver mask covering his entire. His stature was identical to Parce, but it was most likely a coincidence as the boy looked at the sisters.
"I am one of the Six Warriors of the church, Link, and recommend you step away from the machine," both Silver and Shan frowned as Shan giggled to herself before taking a step back from the machine.
"Welp, I'll leave this nothing to you, Silver," before either Silver or Link could react Shan ran off, causing Silver to groan.
"Of course...leave me with this trash," Silver grumbled as she crossed her arms, "Fine then, you're pretty lucky kid, it's not every day someone like you gets to go against someone like me,"
The masked boy scoffed as he lowered his stance as he put some gloves on. He was most likely a hand to hand combatant as Silver smiled. It was lucky that she was able to meet such an interesting person as she cracked her knuckles.
"…!"
Without warning Silver dashed towards her enemy at inhuman speed.
"Wah?" Link barely had time to raise his arm as Silver's leg foot connected; there was a small cracking sound as Link held his breath for a moment before he could even understand what was going on Silver vanished again.
"...Shit," he ducked as he felt a sharp wind pass from above him. He looked up to see a fist coming down as he jumped forward as the sound fo breaking stone echoed through the chamber.
There was a small crater where Silver was standing as she whistled before patting down her skirt. "Wow, I'm actually amazed that you are still standing, I'm sure that attack would have connected..." Silver twirled her hair ever so slightly as the masked warrior looked at her.
"You...aren't normal, are you a part of the Slouque army? Or maybe Descijan,"
"There is no point in telling you, you wouldn't believe me anyway," Silver replied as she tapped her foot against the ground. "I'll try a little bit harder and work my way up from there," Silver was just having a bit of fun. She hadn't had a single fight since she arrived and she needed something to do.
Link held his arm for a moment as Silver continued to look at him. She moved her foot ever so slightly; there were about ten paces between the two.
"...Gah!" Link flinched as he felt a heel digging into his stomach. It was in an instant, but somehow his opponent managed to close the distance between them. The masked warrior staggered backward as he felt another hard impact on the side of his body as he flew into the wall.
"Huh, what was that? I only went a bit faster, and you completely lose track of me? Humans are pretty fragile huh?"
"Damn it..." Link groaned as he staggered to his feet as Silver frowned.
"Now tell me where Tempo and the core for the ship is..."
Link had grumbled before he coughed slightly, "heh, she's on the roof if you want to know. I'll let her take care of you," he then jumped away.
Silver sighed, there was no need to give chase. After all, she knew everyone else was heading to the roof. Silver tapped her lip as she started to walk, "Okay then, I think it's tim-" Silver was cut off.
"Wait!" A familiar voice yelled.
"Could that be Mai?" Silver spoke to herself; she was right; Mai was running towards the group, and she wasn't alone Zoki was with her.
"Zoki!" Silver ran up and hugged the girl as Zoki flinched for a moment.
"Wait you know each other?" Mai asked.
"Yeah! She's the friend I was talking about in, how do you know her?" Silver asked as if she was jealous.
"Well I met her trying to get out of the basement floor...speaking of that were are the others?" Mai asked.
"They probably covered the rest of the building and went to the roof," Silver before turning to her friend with a large grin on her face.735Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDKr4FxVvn7
"So Zoki, what brings you here?" Silver asked as Zoki sighed.
"Well I'm here for my mom trying to clean out this castle," Zoki replied.
"That's... nice, I know! Why don't you come with us!" Silver laughed.
"Did you even hear what I just said." Zoki sighed.
"Oh come on! There isn't any monster left, and I promise we will leave after we get the power core Silver said.
Zoki held her breath for a moment before shrugging, "okay then I'll go with you guy's but please don't get me into to much trouble. Zoki sighed.
"If we are done with this little reunion, shall we see Tempo?" Mai asked as the other two nodded.
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