novelraw Chapter 28 : Understanding
Chapter 28 : Understanding
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Most Powerful and Dramatic Classical Music - The Untold
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Chapter 28: Understanding
Late Afternoon - Early Summer : Year 0 | Month 1 : Arlington, Virginia | East Coast United States
World: Earth | Rank: 6 | Population: ~1,893,120,000
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"~Haah...~" Passing a heavy breath, Michael looked into the sky as if to echo a prayer through the universe before grabbing his hands behind his back and straightening himself with force. "~Right...~" Darkness overtook his tone instantly, "~'He' would never let us face a wall with no means of climbing over it...~" Closing his eyes in a moment of pause, a surge of guilt dug into his expression before his head fell, and his lips moved in silence.
He was speaking, but not to me, or to the universe.
Rather.. it was aimed at something else...
Eventually releasing himself, his posture eased, and eyes opened with a sudden emptiness blanketed with calculation. "~I will choose to trust your word for now, Lady Lestir. From this point forward, we as administrators will join hands with God's children as you have said and do what we can to help you, help us.~"
The stiffness in the air eased more with every passing moment, but his skepticism never left.
Locking eyes with me, his tone sharpened with formality, "~If at any point you reveal intentions that go against the will of God or the prosperity of his children, you will find yourself the target of Heaven.~" Lowering his gaze to my stomach, the glow in his halo intensified with a blinding flicker. It wasn't a threat, it was a vow akin to a prayer.
A prayer that he wasn't taking the hand of a devil.
But before such an impassable wall, he had no choice. Lowering his head with a shallow bow, he continued. "~I apologize for presenting myself with such unsightly fluster, but...~" A hint of darkness almost akin to regret crept onto his face before he clenched his teeth to purge it and close his eyes with more ease. "~I will ensure it never happens again.~"
Seeing him forcefully straighten himself up again, I looked over his cloudy figure with a subtle squint, recognizing a turbulence unbefitting the endlessly sure beings I knew gods to be.
But, while curious, I didn't care to probe.
I had greater focuses. "As before, I need a mage that can teach me about mana, maybe also someone who can teach me about the different administrative tabs." Opening my system and tapping through the locked tabs to find them still locked, I waved the panel away, "Most urgently though, I need you to find me someone the enforcers warped away."
His eyes instantly snapped to mine with a probing squint. "~The mage has already been called, and I can send an angel to help with the other matters whenever you like, but...~" His wings gently fluttered and flared like the hair on a dogs neck standing. "~Who is it you need to find? Why is finding them so urgent?~" Opening his system on the side, he tapped through panels without turning his head.
He was likely worried I was upset at a human.
Though that was obviously not the case. "Her name is Bella. She looks like a black panther, and is partially cybernetic."
The sharpness in his gaze eased as he finally turned to look at the panels he was navigating. "~I wasn't aware you had any companion robotics...~"
I held my tongue. "She can't control herself if she isn't with me, so when she landed after falling from the airship, she succumbed to her panic and killed someone."
His finger froze instantly.
"If I can't get to her quickly, she might end up killing another."
"~You think she was warped with the other mercenaries?~"
The image of her 'unregistered' system panel on Leviathan immediately came to mind. "The System likely sees her as a system mercenary. She was granted a system panel on the world we just returned from." -I actually wonder if I can find her myself...-
But by the time I opened my map and saw my own enormous white mass blanketing a section of the city with an ocean of smaller white dots beyond it, Michael pulled my attention back with a glare laden with bloodlust. "~You seem to be rather familiar with the workings of enforcers...~"
But my expression only fell with annoyance. "You didn't think anything of me deliberately not tearing them apart? I've had my fair share of run-ins."
His body tensed as the turbulence within him compounded without ease. "~I have never seen a human so capable of making me question my judgement...~"
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"~Don't.~" Returning to his system with some hesitance, he continued to look through it before eventually pausing. "~In any case, it seems your 'companion' is indeed still unregistered, but got transported with the others regardless... What a pain...~" He mumbled with a breath of spite before pressing another button, and having a small black sphere appear in front of my face.
My eyes instantly shot open.
Vwoo-CRACK Bolting backward, the ground splintered before being engulfed in a small gate. —oop
My eyes snapped to Michael instantly. "You can just point me in the right direction."
He was trying to warp me, likely to Bella.. but I didn't such faith in him.
"~Tch...~" Clicking his tongue he swung out his hand to form a line of light through the air. "~Then follow this vector with haste. She is three kilometers that way.~" He paused with a motion into the city. "~I doubt you will let yourself be bound by human laws, but I hope you can be cooperative with them until the mage I've called arrives. It should only be a couple days.~"
"Alright." He was essentially just telling me to stay put instead of cleaning the mess myself. -It couldn't hurt to take the chance to learn what Earth's new customs are like anyway...-
Though I had no idea how annoying they would turn out to be...
Quickly wrapping up our talk, Michael hastily restated that the waves could come at any moment before scurrying away in a rush, and leaving me to bolt over buildings myself.
It was only a few kilometers, but keeping my speed low as to not damage anything else, it took a few seconds.
Seconds I didn't think were as precious as they were.
CLANG-CRUMBLE
Hearing a metal plate ring like a gong, a plume of concrete dust bellowed ahead of me before I screeched to a halt on a rooftop overlooking a smaller road.It was incredibly crowded, with hundreds of people scattering into buildings in a mass of chaos as a wide, open space expanded around the furry figure I was looking for.
"RRRRR!" Her growl was deep and strained—her claws drawing blue blood from the back of her scalp as she pressed her head into the ground.
But despite leaving an obvious opening, the surrounding mercenaries all slowly backed away.
"AAAGH-!" Hearing a separate, deeper growl, I looked up toward the cloud of dust bellowing from a hole in the side of a building before a tall demihuman with a huge shield forced himself up with crimson blood dripping from his head.
His shield was akin to a hulking mass of iron—only faintly dented with the print of a paw—but as he let go of it, his left arm hung limp, shattered, and broken before being washed with the black bruising of internal bleeding.
Bella was.. a lot stronger than I expected. -Is it because what little flesh she has is basically the flesh of a monster on Leviathan..?- Jumping down before another person could approach, or she could snap, I quickly pulled her head up, watching her pupils widen again before I shoved another chunk of flesh from my inventory into her mouth. Squish
"I apologize for causing you all so much trouble."
Looking up to make sure they could hear me this time, a shudder rippled through the crowd.
But I was quick to show my palms in hopes it'd bring them some ease. "This little creature is my companion. After falling from the airship that crashed over there, she lost herself in a frenzy and made a mess. I'll take responsibility however I must."
I spoke fast, trying to clear it up before anyone could argue.
But it was unavoidable. "S-She k-killed my friend!" Gripping a sword with a quiver, a younger man with tears flowing like waterfalls stared daggers into me. "D-Don't think you'll get away from this easily!"
I didn't budge. "I don't plan to."
But my ease only seemed to raise the tension.
Looking over the crowd, the gazes were mixed, some still fearful, while others were bewildered and confused.
Though enforcers were a rather common occurrence for me, that wasn't such the case in worlds as low rank as Earth.
At least.. they shouldn't have been.
While likely almost no one could hear their words over the noise of panic, my ears caught a few mumbles within different parts of the crowd...
"Everyone got warped at once." One echoed realization.
"Could even the strongest mercenary cause quakes like that with their strikes..?" One echoed fear.
"That woman.. came from the direction of the fighting..." And one echoed understanding. "She.. wasn't warped by the enforcers..."
But before I could find the source of any of the voices, my attention was forcefully dragged away.
"You're rather armored for a monster tamer." Sitting atop a nearby rooftop, I found a man donning an advanced, desert-colored suit of armor lit with an orange glow. "But regardless of your truthfulness, you can't escape the law if your companion killed someone."
Thankfully, he didn't seem to notice what the few I heard somehow had. "I understand that." I responded simply, looking over his long glowing staff carrying a large artifact at its tip with a gauging stare. -A human mage, huh...- I was sizing him up.
But the man didn’t miss it, nor did it make him flinch.
Tilting his head just slightly, he twirled the staff once, slowly and deliberately, before shifting to a firmer stance. “Good. Then hopefully you can make it easy on us.”
-'Us'?- A ripple of unease passed through the mercenaries as a number of electric pulses rippled beneath us, and the crowd parted to let a huge, heavily armored vehicle approach.
It wasn't alone either. Feeling movement in the image of the space around me projected in my mind, numerous similar masses of metal appeared on the roads around where the enforcers appeared.
Though the only to stop early was the one approaching me.
Watching its side open with a large wing-like doors, a number of black-armored, almost mechanical looking soldiers jumped out with heavy metallics thuds before the air rippled with static, their human-sized railguns lit blue, and their barrels were raised to the crowd, leaving two on me as if to paint a laser on my forehead.
In a blink, the street had become a cage, not just for me, but for everyone.
With every following moment, the soldiers spread through the crowd, dispersed into buildings, and cleared every alleyway, leaving only a few to keep their guns trained on me and Bella.
It was clearly a security protocol.. but looking another kilometer past the vehicle they jumped from—finding another machine akin to a piece of artillery aiming a much larger set of glowing rails down the road—my suspicions sharpened.
It was a good reaction... Almost.. too good...
The mage's voice quickly softened with a wave of his hand toward the inner city. "Look. No one here wants to escalate this any further. If you are going to comply, please ease yourself."
He looked casual—his tone reinforcing it—but his stance was anything but. He stood like a coiled blade with his feet angled, weight perfectly centered, and staff gripped with a deliberate form.
He was clearly ready for a fight.
"I am as 'at ease' as I could be." Passing a breath akin to a sigh, I motioned toward him. "I plan to cooperate as best as I can, but I am unfamiliar with Earth's customs. It's been a long time since I've been here."
"Are you perhaps a returning mercenary?" The glow in his helmet's visor instantly flickered.
"I am, yes."
No one believed it for a second.
But the suited man decided to buy into it for a moment. "In that case, allow me to escort you to the ISO. We can verify your identity there."
Turning my gaze to the soldiers with their guns still set on my head, I paused before firmly stepping forward.
Almost instantly, every scattered soldier turned and snapped their rifles to me.
But the mage quickly rose his hand, and drained the warmth from his voice. "I apologize, but you will not be walking."
Motioning down the street, the heavily armored transport vehicle that carried the soldiers began approaching again, and the mage stood with an intensifying orange glow in his staff.
"I hope you can be understanding."
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