Over a year in the writing, and God only knows how many forms this chapter has taken. I must have re-written it at least thirty times, and honestly I'm still not 100% satisfied with the result, however it does encompass any unanswered questions, and resolves many issues, whilst leaving others open ended. I'm honestly not sure where I'm going to go from here, but I am glad to say that I have finally finished the first ever fic I got serious about writing.
I really hope you enjoy this chapter, and I apologise profusely for the fact it took me over a year to finish up!
Enjoy!
-Josh
Chapter 015: Set the world on fire.
“We’re going to be killed if we don’t get out of here Captain Reich, look around you.”
“Kobrakai… I know what the hell I’m doing, now shut the… shut the fuck up.” The insectoid figure of Reich had become the flustered counterpart of what it once was due to the events of the past several hours. The Solar military force was a lot larger than any of the High Charity generals had predicted, and both sides had become locked in a stalemate. “Pilot, get us as close to the ground as possible and then open up the hatches, and set off a blast wave of fifty meters every thirty seconds at those hatches.”
“What on earth?” Kobrakai responded, “You do realise that a blast wave will kill all friendly units as well as enemy units?”
“It’s a risk we have to take if we want to get our boys back here alive and well.” Reich answered, “Get every soldier on this ship that isn’t doing something more important to repel all enemy forces and help get our boys on board.” Reich picked up a large gun from beside where he stood and loaded it. “Kobrakai is in charge of the bridge until I get back, that doesn’t mean you let her do anything stupid though.”
“Oh thanks.”
“No problem.” Reich gave the best smile his bug-like face could muster, and left the bridge. As he ran through the halls of the ship he lost his footing due to a tremendous amount of turbulence that had appeared from nowhere. He picked himself up from the floor and went to continue, before he heard the voice of Madame Kobrakai crackle through the ships speaker systems. Her voice was broken and the message was barely audible, he managed to make out something about the bridge before the communication went completely dead, and turned back, heading once more for the control centre.
The turbulence had gotten more intense as Reich burst back onto the bridge. He looked around and saw that absolutely nothing had changed since he had left. He threw a look of distaste at Madame Kobrakai who quickly jumped to defend herself.
“We can’t get close enough for our men to be able to board, and look outside Reich, look what’s happening…” Kobrakai pointed to the front of the bridge, and walked over with Reich quickly following. The source of the sudden extreme turbulence was quickly revealed as Reich looked upon the outside world. The ground had begun to crack and fall away into nothingness. Soldiers of the High Charity and Solar military were being dragged downwards into the abyss. Reich fell back as a large black shape flew directly in front of the bridge window. As he stood up he realised what the shape was. Andromeda hovered in front of the ship atop the dragon Apocali. She smiled at Reich and pointed upwards, before she flew downwards and out of sight.
“I think that was her telling us we need to fly upwards, captain.” One of the pilots said, looking over at Reich. “Give the order and we can go.”
“No.” Reich replied. “We’re sticking with my plan of saving who we can. Move it.”
“Reich I don’t know if you’ve realised, but we have the dragon-woman flying around out there alongside the fact it is nigh on impossible to fulfil your request.” Kobrakai placed her hand on the captain’s shoulder. “There’s nothing we can do for the men we have down there. Save everyone on the ship.”
“Those men down there are there because I sent them down there Kobrakai.” Reich looked down at Kobrakai, and then smiled. “We can do both.”
“What?” Kobrakai asked, a confused look betraying her usually straight face.
“Okay listen up everyone,” Reich shouted, calling everyone present to look upon him. “We’re going to save the boys below us and then get off this rock. As you’ve probably noticed Charity isn’t exactly a safe place for us to be anymore. Get our engine tech’s to supply the engines with enough power to take us out of the atmosphere. Tell the weapons team to drop Omega Triton’s true form onto the field. I’ll take up the pilot seat of that number and save our boys. Madame Kobrakai is now the captain of this ship, listen to her, and get out of here safely.”
“Are you nuts!?” Kobrakai yelled, “Omega Triton is the result of over twenty five years research and funding, and you just plan on dropping the weaponry and using it as a ship?”
“I’ll take the lives of my men over stupid figures.” Reich smiled his repulsive insect smile once more, bent down onto his six legs, and sprinted away incredibly fast. As he ran he felt the burst of every engine on the ship come to life, and by the time he reached the Omega Triton and released the entirety of it from the Capital ship, they had already climbed extremely high.
***
Edge did his best to keep his footing across the now crumbled ground. He had the body of Gala across his shoulder, and was faced with constant assaults from Creed. Looking upwards to see the High Charity ship blast away into the skies didn’t help his confidence, and he slipped before feeling Creed’s scimitar skim his right arm. Behind him the ground had crumbled away into nothingness, in front of him the soldiers of the two sides still continued their fighting. He stopped upon feeling the trickle of blood from the cut on his arm, and lay Gala down on the slowly crumbling rock. Creed had stopped too, and now faced him from across the rock face.
“Finally decided to stop running then.” Creed smiled, looking at Edge. Edge didn’t say a word and simply placed a cigarette in his mouth before lighting it. He took his gun from its holster and loaded it with his last four bullets.
“Oh please.” Creed laughed, “You really think you’re going to kill me with FOUR bullets?” Again, Edge remained silent. Unknown to both him and Creed, Andromeda circled above, looking down at the body of Gala. Edge cocked his gun and held it against his shoulder. Creed began laughing again, however it was immediately cut short by the sound of a gun shot and the burn of a bullet cutting across the side of his face. The look of amusement turned to anger as he drew out his Scimitar once more.
“That hurt.”
“I missed.” Edge replied.
A moment later Creed rushed forward and his scimitar came crashing down on Edge. Edge jumped out of the way in the nick of time, as the sword came crashing down on where he once stood. Creed regained his posture and charged again, however he was cut short by a second cut across his cheek, again by another bullet.
“I missed again.”
“How do you manage to shoot and hit me so quickly…?” A confused look stuck across Creeds face as he massaged where the bullet had scorched his skin. Edge had grazed both sides of his face, leaving two symmetrical scorch marks.
“Y’know Creed, you’re lucky he hasn’t killed you yet to be honest. Especially with how slow you are.” Creed and Edge both looked above, the voice belonged to Andromeda. She jumped down from the Apocali and landed gracefully between the two men.
“What are you doing here Andromeda, this place is no place for you.” Creed looked at the youngest of the four Divinity leaders.
“Creed Creed Creed. I’m kinda pissed.” Andromeda nodded her head quickly, “You don’t know what’s going on, do you?”
“These dogs destroyed Solar, all that we wanted was wiped out by them.”
“Err, wrong! Solar was destroyed by High Charity, yeah, but the rest of Zodiac, and the rest of the planet, certainly isn’t being destroyed by them! You’re as blind as you are stupid. And what the hell are you doing killing Gala? What was that about?”
Edge stood looking upon both Andromeda and Creed with a very confused look across his face. Up until now he had believed Andromeda to be with Creed, not arguing with him for killing one of her own enemies. What confused Edge more was the news of the planet being destroyed. Before now he had figured the ground collapsing was due to the force of the High Charity attack on Solar.
“An enemy of Solar is that which needs to be disposed of, every death here today was caused by enemies of Solar.” Creed replaced his Scimitar. “Now answer my question, why are you here?”
“Caroll’s dead, you know.” Andromeda paused; the look of horror across Creed’s face was something she had not seen up until now. “High Charity isn’t there anymore either. What you’re stood upon is the only stable piece of ground left on this doomed planet. Oh yeah.”
“What…?” Creed was at a loss for words.
“Yeah Creed, come on. Ground doesn’t just disappear like this; storms are never this intense here. The planet is dead man, and it’s all thanks to one guy. Your buddy - Carbine. Daddy’s with him too.”
“Hydrus? He’s still alive?” Creed’s usual confidence was all but a memory, what stood before Edge and Andromeda was a broken shell of what Creed once was.
“Nope, he’s dead as he’s ever been. Of course he didn’t want his only child to be swept away into nothingness, so he told me everything that’s about to happen. We’re all screwed Creed, and it’s all because of this stupid religion we had. Angels, hah, yeah nice one. How many centuries have we gone with just using fakes. This is what happens when a real angel appears. Everything becomes a waster and nothing is left. Good game to us, good game to Charity.” Andromeda sighed and jumped back up to the Apocali, landing pleasantly on its back. “And you Creed, have nothing left. Edge and Gala however, do.”
To Edge’s disbelief, Andromeda flew directly towards him and Gala, and motioned for him to carry Gala and climb aboard the magnificent beast. As they flew upwards and away from where Creed stood, an empty figure of the man he once was, Edge saw in the distance a white ship descend from the skies above. He looked upwards to see the High Charity capital ship, and realised that was where Andromeda was headed. The Apocali flew at tremendous speed, and it wasn’t very long before everything below was but a blur, and the clouds swirled around them. The air began to get thinner as they rose. They eventually caught up to the Capital ship, however it was rising at an incredibly fast speed.
“Hmm, if we don’t get on board that thing soon we’re going to run out of atmosphere.” Andromeda pushed onwards, closing in on the ship as fast as the Apocali could fly, the beast roared under the pressure placed upon it. The end of the sky drew nearer as they flew, and it seemed as though they weren’t going to make it. However as the air became within an inch of possibility to breathe, the capital ship stopped its ascent, by luck or otherwise. The Apocali pushed forwards, its ability to fly greatly reduced by the thin air. Andromeda quickly realised that the Apocali was not only being held back by the atmosphere, but also by how far it was from the centre of the planet. The magic of the Apocali binded the beasts to the planet of Charity, and the further from the planet you were, the weaker that magic was.
The dragon began to fade in and out of existence as they drew closer to the ship, however all was not lost as the incredible ship began to move towards the Apocali, closing the gap. With one final push the Apocali faded out of existence and Andromeda, Edge and Gala’s dead body fell into a freefall. Edge held Gala’s body as tightly as he could as they fell. The Capital ship still continued its move towards them, however at the rate at which they fell it wouldn’t be quick enough to enable them to land upon the topside. Edge felt Andromeda grab his arm, and he looked up to see her smiling at him. As all hope seemed to wane, the Charity ship seemed to pick up a burst of speed, and the three bodies landed upon the topside with only several meters to spare. The Capital ship was tremendous. From the ground it didn’t look that big, but stood on top of it, it was clear to see that the entirety of the thing spanned a good half mile.
“Well, that was fun!” Andromeda said, smiling once more at Edge. He simply remained silent and checked to see if Gala’s body was safe from the fall. Both he and Andromeda began looking around themselves for a way into the ship; an answer quickly arrived. A small hatch opened up in the ship and the face of Madame Kobrakai greeted them. She looked at Andromeda with disdain, however smiled when she realised who Edge was.
“You’re lucky, you know” Kobrakai said, as she helped bring Gala’s body down into the safety of the ship. “If it wasn’t for one of our keen eyed pilots, we’d never have seen you. What happened to Gala?”
“Bullet and sword wounds, pretty severe.” Edge replied, looking at the body of Gala.
“Is he… dead?” Kobrakai asked,
Edge began to answer but was cut off by Andromeda, who to his amazement replied with “No.”
“He’s not?” Edge asked, looking at Andromeda with a slight suspicion.
“No. He’ll live if we get him to the infirmary now, trust me.”
“That’s pretty new.” Kobrakai replied, twisting her face at the previous member of Divinity. “Still, I suppose you saved Edge’s life, so we shall see. Come, the quicker my pilots can leave the atmosphere, the safer we shall be.”
***
Beatrix scrambled across the floor of the platform, making an attempt to find the hilt of her sword within the palm of her hand. Hydrus was making the situation all the more unbearable with his relentless assault upon her. His face was one of calm, his expression never changed, and the power he was throwing from each connecting punch was terrifying. Beatrix picked herself up and was knocked down once again. As she fell she made a final dive for her sword, brushing against it with her hand, only to push it further from her position. Hydrus stopped his attacks for a moment and walked over to the silver-lined blade, before kicking it into the abyss that was bellowing outwards into a large spiralling vortex. He watched the sword sail downwards and out of sight, before returning his attention to Beatrix. However much to his surprise she had taken the break from his attacks to her own advantage, and had managed to pick herself up, clutching what appeared to be another, slightly smaller, blade.
“You made me lose my sword.” Beatrix said, looking at Hydrus square in the eye.
“Just quickening the inevitable on a very small scale then, really. Don’t you think so?” Hydrus smiled and motioned towards the black abyss in the centre of the gigantic cavern. In the time they had been present, the barriers around the void had begun to disrupt, and the control panel was crumbling to pieces. Hydrus clicked his fingers as a large portion of the barrier surrounding the black hole completely shattered. Along with the sudden roars erupting from what seemed like every inch of the cavern, a strong wind picked up, almost knocking Beatrix off her feet.
“Then the walls came crashing down.” Whispered Hydrus, looking now towards the outskirts of the cavern. The field of water had begun to swell uncontrollably, and a few seconds after his utterance, they broke entirely, flooding the cavern with the dead waters. The unstable gravity of the chamber made the water behave extremely strangely. It poured into the chamber, however swelled into large vortexes and spiralled around the room. The moaning and the roars had become much more than mere echoes of the earth, and were now filling the cavern with their sounds of agony.
“One last kiss for you then, my dear.” Hydrus said quietly, before launching a second assault upon Beatrix. Beatrix prepared herself for the coming onslaught, however no such happening came. Instead, Mikoto and Carbine had jumped to the platform Beatrix and Hydrus were atop, and the force of their fighting had knocked him sailing downwards. His body was caught up in one of the large vortexes that now occupied much of the space not already taken by the swelling void. Beatrix managed a split second glimpse of Carbine and Mikoto before they were gone once more. She looked around frantically for signs of Sage, and found him only by the ever familiar roar of the Angel Tears’ engines starting up.
She made a dash for the ship, hoping that the platforms gravity would hold her for the way she had to run. The cascading water had made the entire area extremely wet, and as a result, slipping became a regular occurrence as Beatrix sprinted. Another large portion of the barrier surrounding the black hole shattered and the winds within the cavern became a lot more severe. Beatrix stopped at the ramp of the Angel Tears and looked around for Mikoto. The teenager had heard the Angel Tears herself; however it was apparent she had no interest in boarding the ship. As Beatrix took note of this revelation her sword, Eve, whipped around in a nearby water vortex and was thrown in front of her, either by luck or unnatural coincidence. She picked up the blade and sprinted faster still towards the ship.
Mikoto still maintained a very feral fighting poise as she assaulted Carbine with all that she had. Carbine did nothing but give her the same in return, and both were showing no sign of slowing. Their fight had taken place across the entirety of the chamber, and the speed at which they moved meant several things they had attempted to perch upon merely crumbled under the addition to the already unstable conditions. As Mikoto had taken a second to look over towards the Angel Tears, Carbine had taken the same second to land a hurtful blow across her left arm. Blood began to seep out of the large wound and was becoming more and more violently bloody as their fight progressed further. However Mikoto had not let Carbine get away with such a large advantage over her, as she took his second of glory following the strike to slash him several times across the face, leaving his once pristine features nothing short of a bloody mess – nothing helpful for his vision.
A final roar from the centre of the cavern signified that all the barriers surrounding the black hole had now been wiped from existence, and that the void was now free to do as nature intended to the cavern, and indeed the entire planet of Charity. Carbine stopped his assault on Mikoto to witness the moment of the black hole coming to life. Mikoto too, stopped all that she was doing to bear witness to the sight before her. The black void slowly began to spin, increasing in speed as minutes went by. Behind where she was stood, Mikoto could hear the familiar roar of the Angel Tears’ engines ascending to take off volume, and as she turned away from the black hole, she witnessed the ship escape into the dead waters and beyond.
Aboard the Angel Tears, Sage was amazed that Beatrix had left Mikoto behind in such conditions. Beatrix however was more concerned on evading the onslaught of debris and cascading water that she had been faced with. Her eyes swelled with tears as the ship continued up towards what was left of the planet’s surface. As the minutes went by the rate at which debris rained upon the ship increased, Beatrix determined that the Black Hole was almost reaching its full capacity. As the thought came to her, she recalled a conversation between herself and Sage, in which he explained what the Black Hole was capable of doing, and how it worked. With the conversation in her mind, Beatrix pressed even harder on the ships acceleration, not wanting her fate to be sealed in a gravitational crush.
Mikoto turned from the Black Hole to face Carbine once more.
“We’re going to die like this, you know.”
“No we’re not Mikoto,” Carbine replied, “We’re imbued with the power that helped create this void, we’re going to somewhere far, far more to your concern than death.”
“What do you mean by that, exactly?” Mikoto asked, feeling the gravity of the chamber pick itself up slightly as the black hole continued its rebirth.
“You really think that I would be able to become a regulator if I died? Hardly, no, I’m going to see my… our, father. There I’ll settle the ultimate score and begin this all again. Yes, the perfect world will be mine to create, and I’ll be revered across my fellow regulators as being the one, true God. You really should reconsider joining with me, think of all that we could have, Mikoto!”
“All I ever wanted was taken away by your far fetched dreams, and though I’m sure I don’t know whom our father might be, apparently he missed out on one of the key aspects of raising his only son.”
“And what might that be, little sister?” Carbine turned to look at Mikoto, a wicked smile spread across his bleeding face.
“Beatings for misbehaving.” Mikoto replied, before erupting upon Carbine once more in a flurry of powerful attacks. Carbine was caught off guard by the fresh assault and was sent flying downwards into the spiralling abyss. Mikoto flicked the fresh blood from her blade, and jumped downwards, towards Carbine. The two engaged in another melee in their freefall towards the ever growing void. Mikoto’s left arm became subject to several wounds from Carbine’s only wretched blade, and Mikoto soon came to realise that she was barely able to even use it anymore. However the pain coursing through her didn’t stop her relentless assault on the angel, and soon Carbine was in almost as bad a state as she was.
As the two continued to fall, the black hole suddenly sprung to life, and began its powerful notion of destroying and consuming everything. The chamber slowly began to collapse in on itself, as Mikoto and Carbine too were caught up in the powerful gravitational pull, and were brought forwards into darkness. Mikoto watched Carbine first, fall into the horizon of the abyss, and cried out in horror as the gravity of the hole tore his body apart into mere atoms. She closed her eyes and awaited her fate. Her last sight before falling into a perpetual darkness was that of the planet giving in to the black hole, and collapsing down upon it.
Miles above the centre of the planet, Beatrix and Sage had cleared what was left of the atmosphere in the Angel Tears, and had begun hurtling away from Charity as fast as the ship would allow. As soon as they had cleared the atmospheric holdings of the planet, the Angel tears seemed to spring a new life, and erupted into an astronomical speed. The speedometers across the ships control panels read that they were travelling close to eight hundred thousand kilometres an hour. Prior to leaving the atmosphere the ship barely managed to reach three thousand, and the difference was immense. Ahead of where they flew, Beatrix began to make out the outline of a tremendous battalion of ships, and as the Angel tears neared the largest of the ships, it became clear that it was what remained of the High Charity fleet. Beatrix brought the Angel Tears alongside the capital ship and slowed her speed down to match that of the colossal machine. A small screen flickered across the HUD of the Angel Tears, and the familiar face of Reich, supreme general of the High Charity military, greeted Beatrix and Sage.
“I am glad to see that the two of you are safe, Beatrix!” Reich proclaimed, his face contracting into his repulsive excuse of a grin. “Where however, is the young Mikoto?”
“I’ll explain everything soon general,” came Beatrix’ reply, “may we board the ship?”
“If you’d be so kind as to look to your left, the dock has already been opened and we graciously await your arrival, your friends Gala and Edge are on board too!” Beatrix smiled at the insect-like alien, and the screen went blank. Taking the controls as steady as she could, Beatrix edged the Angel Tears into the large dock of the Capital ship, and after going through a highly complex air lock, brought down the red battleship to a comfortable rest amidst hundreds of other ships. She and Sage left their craft and were greeted with several commanders of the High Charity military. The dock was as impressive as the ones within the grand palace of High Charity had been, and was designed in much the same fashion. It seemed as though a lot more extra-terrestrial life forms were controlling this dock however, Beatrix assumed this to be due to the fact that space travel was their area of expertise, for a number of obvious reasons.
“Welcome aboard Beatrix, I’m here to escort both you and Alexander to the bridge immediately. There you will be informed of all that took place and will most likely be asked to make your own account of what you saw beneath the planet.” The commander was a tall man, as most seemed to be, and was likely in his mid-forties. His eyes looked as though they had seen many a terror within the recent battle, and his face was scratched in a number of places. His uniform was a navy blue, and his chest was adorned with several medals. The men behind him wore the standard navy blue uniform of the High Charity military.
“How do you know that I and Sage were beneath the planet?” Beatrix inquired as the group began their journey towards the bridge.
“Beatrix my dear,” Sage replied, “when I informed you of my request I must have neglected to also say that such matters had been discussed with my brother and Reich, they knew full well of why you and Mikoto would not be joining the battle, which brings me onto my next question; why on earth did you leave Mikoto to die there?” Beatrix winced at the question, and caught several glances from the soldiers and commander that were her escort.
“She wouldn’t have come with us, anyway. You saw her determination to finish Carbine off. All of the fighting she had done would’ve been for nought if she had just run away. You know what she’s like, and honestly, I could almost tell that her decision would’ve been to stay. Don’t ask me how, I just knew it.” Beatrix sighed and looked down towards the metallic flooring of the corridor, wondering what indeed had become of her friend. Sage simply gave a solemn nod and walked along; admiring the handiwork of whichever group of engineers had created this mechanical marvel.
After what seemed like hours of walking in a solitary silence, Beatrix, Sage and their escort eventually arrived the bridge of the capital ship. The room was remarkable. A large window looked out towards the front of the ship, and all around the walls were technicians and the like going about their business. Beatrix quickly identified Reich, Edge, Madame Kobrakai and Andromeda, doing a double take on Andromeda, before wondering why on earth she was there.
“Welcome to the bridge, Beatrix, Alexander!” Reich smiled as he spoke, looking at the two companions before giving a salute to the Commander that had acted as their escort. The commander left the bridge as Reich motioned for Beatrix and Sage to come and sit down. There was a small flight of stairs down into a lowered section, with several seats Beatrix quickly realised belonged to the captain and such. Each person present took a seat and a moment passed before Reich began to speak once more.
“You no doubt have many questions; however that trait is shared by all of us no doubt. So I feel as though we’ll take our turn first. Your friend Gala is doing well. He took a heavy hit during the conflict and was left, well, fucked up. However as I said he is recovering at an alarming rate, and as soon as he is well, he’s been requested to come and join us here on the bridge. Secondly, it appears Reach aren’t the only ones fresh out of Solar to renounce faith in the workings of Divinity. Shortly after the reformation, Andromeda here had done so, however due to being a bit of a pawn, and a bit stupid in my personal opinion, this couldn’t actually come to light until each of the other leaders had been dealt with. How’s that for looking after your own wellbeing!” Reich shot a glance at Andromeda, who simply shifted uneasily in her seat. “Edge here can take over now, as I’m sure you’re wondering where your other friends, Pepper and Mary are, and what became of a certain arrogant angel wannabe, blergh!”
Edge smiled at the general, and turned to face Beatrix. “Gala suffered some pretty bad wounding from creed, however after Andromeda here came down and informed him that Caroll and the small girl Prude had been killed, his spirit seemed to wane. All I can say is that he’s most likely dead. As for the rest of the High Charity military, the majority of the soldiers left alive were rescued by Reich using their weapon systems, not really sure how but apparently their primary weapon, Omega Triton, also doubled up as a large warship. Thanks to him the majority of High Charity’s civilians, and the majority of the soldiers, are all onboard and safe, along with Pepper and Mary. Now, where’s Mikoto?”
“She’s gone.” Beatrix answered. Her voice was barely a whisper. She composed herself after some time and began speaking more clearly. “She made the notion of not escaping with me and Sage very clear to me during her battle with Carbine. Though no words were spoken between us, that’s the message I received from her. As of her now, all I can assume is that her fate is that of the planets. When we arrived at the centre of the world, through means somewhat involuntary I assure you, we ended up coming face to face with Carbine, and whom we thought was departed Hydrus. Mikoto and Carbine took their fight up between themselves, and I can only assume that Hydrus died… again…”
“I knew he was still alive, yet how?” Andromeda asked. There was a puzzled look across her face. “I thought that my father was completely wiped out when he was killed by Carbine. However based on what you just said, he was working with Carbine!”
“Indeed.” Sage responded, “Carbine had apparently found the soul of Hydrus within the dead waters. Whether or not that this was their ultimate intention all along I am unsure. As of now however, we need to decide what we’re going to do. We’ve got a large population with us and nowhere to call home.” Upon his last sentence the group fell into a slow silence, their problems were far from over, it seemed.
***
Mikoto awoke in an area of white nothingness. In front of where she now stood was a small wooden table with no real decoration or adornment, with what appeared to be a glass of water rested upon it. She lifted her hands in front of her eyes, and examined them and then the rest of her body carefully. She was wearing the white shirt and jeans she had left High Charity in, so long ago, however all signs of combat had been erased from their features. Mikoto shrugged lightly and felt her sword sheathed across her back. She stepped towards the table, her footsteps echoed off into the bleak nothingness that surrounded her. There was no identifiable ‘floor’ to wherever she was, the white abyss stretched on for eternity in every single direction. Upon reaching the table, she picked up the glass of water and took a drink. It tasted as pure as she imagined water was able to be, and was ice cold, to the point of perfection. Mikoto was amazed at how good the water was to drink, when all of her life she had shunned the thought of drinking anything so bland.
“That taste is what my world once was, Mikoto.” The unknown voice seemed to come from the inner depths of Mikoto’s mind. Mikoto looked around herself, finding only nothingness everywhere she looked. The voice continued, “Once my world was one of perfection, full of people with truthful ideals. I named my utopia Charity, a word I once heard to mean generosity. For thousands upon thousands of years, my utopia thrived, and there was no strife within this world. Sadly, as I am sure you are aware; such things are not meant to last.”
Mikoto once more glanced around, trying to identify the source of this voice. It penetrated her every nerve, and resonated with a celestial beauty. The voice carried no real gender, and as its sound carried through her, Mikoto almost thought she detected a hint of sadness. She leaned herself against the plain wooden table, looking upwards and closing her eyes slightly, only for her vision to be once more met with nothingness.
“Around two thousand years prior to your birth, one of my fellow regulators caught sight of my perfect world. Not all of us are a good, peaceful character. This particular regulator went by the name of Carbine, and upon discovering my world; he immediately set his sights upon it. Carbine was, and still is the bane of our order. His world is host to an indescribable amount of evil, and it is his only desire to expand such evil across the cosmos, so that one day he might cast down each of the worlds and their regulators, and ignite the universe into that which he desires… pure and utter Chaos. Carbine thrives within its limitless bounds.”
As Mikoto listened to the heavenly voice of the Regulator, the white nothingness surrounding her changed into a vision of the menace being described. A large pillar of flame erupted before Mikoto’s eyes, and though it was only an illusion, brought forth to demonstrate whom Carbine truly was, Mikoto could still feel the intensity of the hellfire before her. The pillar of flame changed into a terrifying being, composed of nothing but white hot hellfire. The strongest feature that Mikoto caught hold of was the eyes of the colossal being. The eyes looked directly at Mikoto, making her feel as though the fabric of her very soul had been pierced. Looking back into the eyes made Mikoto feel as though she had been lost to their deep majesty. Below the two pristine black diamonds, a gaping maw opened up, and a tremendous roar filled the entire area before the illusion dissipated.
“It was Carbine that brought the creatures you know as ancients to my lustrous world. He brought the destructive energies provided by dark matter. Carbine and his demons slowly forged their own society beneath the surface of my beautiful planet, carving out their own cities, and cultivating their foul dark matter across their subterranean domain. Eventually using its foul powers to call forth greater demons, ones that those foolish Planetists call Apocali. Eventually however, his plan to destroy my world from within met its end with the introduction of the first angel I sent to Charity. A being of immense ability, sent to do my work in the physical world. The black hole Carbine and his demonic minions had created subsided into a dormant state, and the demons were all but eradicated from existence. Carbine fled on that day, and peace returned to my world. However it was not meant to last, due to that blasted Hydrus…”
Once more the white abyss dissipated into another illusion, this time of the young Hydrus. The small, clearly teenage Hydrus, had climbed to the top of a large mountain range Mikoto later identified as the Pendulum range located to the east of Solar. Upon the summit of the peaks Hydrus had began crafting what appeared to be an altar. He had been unknowingly followed by a young woman who wore a striking resemblance to the late princess of the Planetists, Andromeda. Mikoto soon learned that this woman was indeed the princess’ mother, which identified her as Hydrus’ only lover. The woman watched in awe as Hydrus began lifting tremendous pieces of rock, and cultivating them with what appeared to be the power of his mind. On the largest piece that Hydrus had cultivated, Mikoto identified the Planetist logo, slowly before the illusion disappeared and her eyes met with white emptiness once more.
“Around the time of the demons departure, the beings I had born to my world began to undergo changes, although only within families of sincere ability. They began to develop powers that would later unite them under the flag of ‘elementalists.’ Hydrus was one such being, and using his powers, he slowly became a tremendously powerful sorcerer, gaining prestige amongst his fellow elementalists. He is also the one flaw in what otherwise was a perfect plan to eradicate Carbine from my world. Hydrus had seen the angel descend upon the world, and since seeing it had become almost zealous in his belief in a divine being. Of course there was such a being; however religion and all the rest of it was something I had never imbued within my planet, due to seeing other Regulators being demolished by it. Sadly, Hydrus ended a world with no belief in a higher power, and cultivated the religion of Planetism with his powers and prestige.”
The regulator of Charity paused for a moment, allowing the information to sink into Mikoto. The young girl simply nodded in recognition of the celestial voice, and said nothing.
“After one millennia of Planetism and not another angel sent by me, Hydrus realised that he was no longer holding the faith he had spent a thousand years growing accustomed to, and so he became selfish and unruly in his endeavours. His zealous nature relit, and before long he was crafting makeshift angels, in order to keep the faith alive. Thanks to Hydrus, Carbine saw his chance to retake a world he had failed to conquer. It took until nine hundred years later, however Hydrus had finally been given a being powerful enough to house the spirit of Carbine, thanks to his science division of course. Across the growth of the being, Carbine visited each of the Planetist leaders in their dreams. He infested their mind with visions of raw power. Of course, each was as zealous as Hydrus, save for the princess Andromeda, and they fell right into Carbine’s grasp. Carbine and Hydrus had planned something completely different with one another, and their plan was executed to perfection, whilst the other leaders were left to die. Carbine arrived in the body of the being created through powerful genetic engineering, and proceeded to kill Hydrus. The events afterwards, you are already aware of, young Mikoto.”
“One thing I don’t understand,” Mikoto began, “is why Carbine alluded to me and him being siblings, and the connection between us.” Mikoto smiled, confidence rising within her. “So answer me that one, voice in my head.”
“Ah of course, I have neglected to inform you of who you are, my apologies. You are my daughter, Mikoto. Although it is apparent you have carried all of the traits your wonderful mother possessed, and none of my own. As for why you and Carbine are related, he is indeed my son. However your demonic brother has a good ten thousand years on you, as far as age goes, and is also the antithesis of you. You are indeed an angel; however I sent you to Charity long before your powers had developed, to see if you could develop a sense of closeness with those that you would one day come to save. You did more than that, and found yourself a home. Carbine had hoped to find you, and instead had only succeeded in finding half of the blade you hold now on your back. When you and your brother met, it reignited the angelic powers within you, as I’m sure you no doubt have realised. Sadly, the purpose for which you were sent to Charity for has been failed outright, and now I am left with wondering what I might do with you, my only daughter.”
Mikoto sat motionless, allowing all of this newfound knowledge time to sink into her. Eventually she spoke to who had identified himself as her father, “What happened to him, Carbine I mean.”
“He thought he would end up here, within my white halls, when he transcended the physical world. However he ended up back where he belongs. Carbine is a regulator, as I mentioned, and he ended up back on his own world. There he now sits, plotting once more to see through to the person that finished his plans for his father… the plans that were ten thousand years in the making. He did succeed in ending me and my planet; however I live on through you, Mikoto. That is where you must live up to one of two roles. Will you ascend yourself to become a regulator like the rest of your true family, or shall you allow me to return you to the physical world, with your other family, to continue what is no doubt going to be a tremendous battle across the cosmos.”
“Any repercussions from either decision?” Mikoto asked, smiling slightly at the thought of finally having found out who she was.
“None, really. Either way you’ll be fulfilling your fathers dying wish, to see through that your brother doesn’t succeed in turning this wonderful universe into a realm that knows only Chaos.”
“Then I’ll take going back to the physical world, I’d rather deal with such things alongside my friends, like I’ve always done.”
“Then it will be done, farewell Mikoto. Thank you for all that you’ve done in the dying hours of me, and my planet.”
As the final words faded from her mind, Mikoto began to feel herself being engulfed once more in a tremendous darkness, before being propelled through the very fabric of space and time in a blinding flash of light. She felt herself slow down to a complete stop and the world around her take shape. She had been placed upon the bridge of the High Charity capital ship, facing the familiar faces of Beatrix, Sage, Edge, Madame Kobrakai, and Reich, who had now also been joined by Mary and Pepper. Mikoto let out a smile, and looked at each of her friends’ stunned faces.
“You’re not going to believe what happened to me.”
End Chapter 015.
