Usually, I'd tell the story, but this part was always blank for me, as I have no existing memory to store, nor do I remember or recall much. I was only told and informed of the destruction and chaos that had been laid upon me upon awakening. Those whom I've tried to remember were all lost, and I didn't recognize anyone. I remember awakening to the sound of gunfire and lead being dumped to try to hit someone in front of me. She danced gracefully as she avoided the gunfire and bullets that rained upon her. There upon which she had been shot as I awakened and detached the wires that held me in place, and I shielded her.
For other reasons that I could not comprehend, I somehow shielded her from the impact and threat of the weapons that were fired upon. The perpetrators were baffled as they stared at me as the smoke gushed out of my collar around my shoulders. They continued to fire until they needed to reload, allowing the large military drone to lay down suppressive fire with its miniguns mounted on both arms. For every round spent, it revolved around me, unable to hurt me as it gathered around me and orbited as it became my weapon to wield.
All the soldiers were scared at this point. They ran for their lives as the drone began to evacuate as well. Before I knew it, the place around me had exploded on impact, and a bright light exploded, vaporizing everything around me and the female on the floor.
On the surface, regiments and soldiers began fleeing in horror as their command and morale were broken. One of the commanders attempted to prevent his lower-ranking enlisted personnel from leaving the front but to no avail. Something had scared the soldiers, and that commander wasn't going to find out what. Soon, a general retreat was issued, and they fled from the area, leaving behind broken-down drones and vehicles of all sizes.
Through the field of the rumbles, I emerged unharmed and unscathed. I had protected the female who was on the floor when the building had collapsed. I picked her up and set her back up on a fallen stone ledge.
"Thank you." She spoke.
All I could do was nod.
"Do you remember me?" She asked.
I shook in response. Did this woman know me?
"I'm Elizabeth, remember?" She explained.
"Elizabeth..." I stuttered at the name.
Elizabeth scoffed and giggled afterward. "So, it is you, idiot..."
"Me? Idiot?" I said in confusion, my head tilting to one side like a puppy.
"Yes, you." Elizabeth sighed. "Looks like I'll have to teach you from the ground up. Geez, you're such a handful."
________
Julie, Shinta, and Sventia proceeded through the forest area as they followed Jenma's dagger that glowed. Wherever this chaotic enchantment core was, for sure, the creator was there and could explain to them and perhaps win this war. As the trio proceeded, they stumbled upon what seemed to be a destroyed facility in the clearing in the woods.
"What happened here?" Julie asked as the trio slowly made their way into the area.
Sventia and Shinta were quiet, and they weren't sure if they knew the answer to Julie's simple question. If anything, all the rumbles and destroyed drones indicated something had happened here. Upon the trio entering the remains of what seemed to be a large chamber, left intact by the outer cement structure that held it in place, one can still make out the remains that this was once a laboratory.
The trio continued further into the chamber's remains, studying their surroundings. Sventia, who then lowered her gun, slowly started losing her sanity as she broke down. Followed by Shinta, who then fell onto her knees and began crying. Julie, who didn't understand the drones' reactions, could only reassure them and comfort them as Julie then suddenly took a better look around the three of them.
One can only wonder about the dismay that had happened here. All around them laid thousands and thousands of corpses of drones. One can still make out the barely rusted frame with the 'T' in front of the model number of all the fallen drones. There, in the distance, a rugged and beat-up banner still waving in the wind. A Ravenian banner with Thunder's sigil.
"My brothers...and sisters..." Shinta cried. "Oh, here you all were..."
"Well, get up!" Sventia shouted at a dead drone. "Get up, and let's go home..."
"(Stop...No matter how much you tell them to get back up. They won't be able to, nor can they hear you two anymore...)" Julie thought to herself as she swallowed back her tears.
Sventia tried to pry one of the dead drones away from the rusted structures, but it was stuck to the rumble and rust, providing no feedback. The drone had been frozen in place, its contact with the concrete facilitated by the same ice that had frozen Thunder. Sventia pried and pried until she eventually broke down, crying at the futility of it all. Shinta, on the other hand, could only slowly grab the remaining pieces of a hand that looked familiar to her and hold it tight as if she were a kid who had found her long-lost teddy bear.
Shinta dug herself into the severed drone hand, wishing it would move, but to no avail. Julie stared up at the emptied morning sky and wondered why the dagger had led them to a drone graveyard. Why lead them to a forgotten war zone that had such devasting memories?
Suddenly, something caught the trio's eyes; there was movement in the area. All three of them took cover to hide from being spotted. As they drew closer to observing the movement, it became clear to them that people were salvaging the drones for parts and loading them into wheelbarrows for an unknown purpose.
"What are they doing?" Shinta questioned, her voice still filled with sadness and bitterness. "Why are they taking my brothers' and sisters' arms and legs?"
"I don't know," Sventia replied with anger in her voice. "Perhaps we'll find the answer if we follow them."
"How are we supposed to follow them without blowing our cover?" Julie asked.
Both Sventia and Shinta looked at Julie in sync.
"Sigh me again?" Julie replied.
It took a short while, but Julie was suddenly wheeling Shinta and Sventia along with the rugged and beat-up banner, which would serve as a turban to conceal her face should any enemy recognize her. As she followed the rest of the scavengers and workers to what seemed to be a big mine entrance, she was stopped by the guards just like everyone else.
"STOP!" the guard halted Julie with his gun pointing at her.
Julie tried not to make eye contact. Judging from the uniform, the Stars in the Sky soldier was the guard. The guard proceeded to check the drones on her wheelbarrow as he studied them and poked around with his baton.
"You got a pretty good one here, a T-09 duplicate in good shape, too." The guard stated.
"Yes, I've been working hard to pry it out of the frozen concrete day by day," Julie replied.
"HA! You're crazy if you're working up where those blown-up facilities are with those dead and frozen drones!" The guard remarked. "I guess today's just your lucky day, missy; alright, Carry on, NEXT!"
Julie sighed in relief as she wheeled Sventia and Shinta into a different room, as they made their way deep into the underground.
"Ugh, get off me! Why and how are you so heavy!?" Sventia asked Shinta as they both got off the wheelbarrow.
"Sorry, I'm just naturally heavy..." Shinta replied in defense as she dusted herself off.
"Shh! Quiet, you two!" Julie silenced the two as she listened to the noise. "Why is there so much noise? And just where is it coming from?"
The trio quietly and quickly studied their surroundings as they explored. The room was covered in stone, and the previous room, from which they had exited to unload the wheelbarrow, was filled with market stands full of drone parts, but that wasn't where the noise was coming from. That room with the market stands was full of merchants and dealers trading amongst one another. One can make out all the diverse equipment and weapons of various T-modeled drones.
"Over here!" Shinta whispered to Julie as she pointed in the direction of the noise.
It seemed past the wheelbarrow. There were dungeons with cages laser-like to match that of prisons to contain drones and people alike. After that, the trio made their way past a corridor into a whole crowd of people sitting in stands.
The place was huge. People of all kinds were cheering and yelling at the events unfolding in the center of the entire arena. The fighting arena was similar to the Coliseum. Julie, Shinta, and Sventia stared in disbelief at what it had become. The people were watching drones fight, making bets, and watching them decimate one another. As the fighting continued in the middle of the arena, a drone that looked familiar to the trio appeared.
The fight was between red drones and blue drones, which had been painted with a brush on their frames to differentiate the two. Blue had five drones left, while the red team had two remaining drones. To the trio's surprise, fighting on the red team was none other than William. William was severely damaged, still missing an arm, and no cannons mounted. The blue drones were heavily modified, fifth-generation, military-grade drones.
As the crowd cheered relentlessly, one can make out the steady "Kill, Kill, Kill" chants in the stands. Julie and Shinta both shook their heads in disbelief while Sventia turned away to look at the wall. Sventia couldn't bear to look.
"Well, William, it seems it's just us left..." the drone said to William.
"We have to do something..." William said while holding his missing arm as if it were still attached to him.
The blue drones closed in, and one almost smacked William flat. He dodged and grabbed his drone friend out of the way before another blue drone attempted to flatten both of them. Now, both cornered by the wall, the situation looked bleak. Shinta gets upset, grabs Sventia's gun, and attempts to fire at the blue drone to save William. Only for Sventia to hold the barrel and shake her head. There was nothing that could be done here without gathering any attention. Shinta could only watch as she returned Sventia's gun to her.
"You alright, Mikoto!?" William asked.
"William, y-you saved me!" Mikoto responded.
"Well, we're not out of the woods yet!" William said as he tried to predict the blue drone's next attack.
Meanwhile, in the most secure spectator's seat, Lady Qiang and her bodyguards sat. She watched as the drones fought amongst themselves. She smiled as she stared at the decimation and destruction.
"Who is that red drone with the one arm?" Lady Qiang inquired.
"My lady, the drone has no name and was the one that Koujou had tried to persuade to surrender to us back on the Ravenian Airship. I believe his frame is stamped with the T-33," a bodyguard confirmed with Lady Qiang.
"Hmm, hm, keep a close watch on that one." Lady Qiang commanded. "I want to see what he'll do next."
As the crowd cheered and yelled. The fighting ensued again; this time, one of the blue drones used one of its cannons and fired at William but missed. The second blue drone would fire and hit William.
"ARGH!" William grunted in pain as the shot fried his lower torso.
"Here, William!" Mikoto yelled as he detached his left arm and reattached it to William.
While they were busy, the last blue drone fired its cannon at William, as the other, last remaining blue ones readily prepared a salvo towards him. Mikoto would stand up to block the shot aimed at William.
"MIKOTO!!!" William shouted.
As his body fell apart from being decimated by the shot, Mikoto uttered, "Freedom, for you, William...not for me..."
William crawled towards Mikoto's body as he bowed his head, "Goodbye, my old friend..."
William clenched the dried-up, soaked, blooded handkerchief that he was still holding all this time. While he grieved, the other blue drones continued their salvo. The barrier shield generated had blocked the impact from involving the audience and spectators. The arena was now covered in smoke. Shinta studied the arena; she scanned and saw William's figure as he reached for something and attached it to his back.
"An addition?" Shinta asked herself.
"Where is he?" Julie asked. "Is he okay!?"
The dagger on Julie's waist shook as it glowed. The three of them looked on in suspense. They needed to get William out somehow. Before the 3 of them could say anything, someone nabbed them back into the corridor.
As time went on, the smoke cleared up, and William was nowhere to be seen. Only the five blue drones were left. The crowd was in shock; perhaps the firepower had decimated the last two red drones, they thought. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a laser blade from one of the drones pierced through its center, and it was decimated in half. The crowd went wild as they saw the last red drone fighting for its life.
The blue drones opened fire on William as his halo then reappeared. The blades dropped down from the halo, but this time, something else reappeared with his blades. Along his waist were two-edged lasers shaped to resemble two dual katanas. As the shots were locked on William, he jumped onto his first platform provided by his laser blades as he took to the skies. Whilst he jumped from blade to blade, his halo deflected the bullets as they flew in all sorts of directions, and it did not affect William.
The crowd cheered in amazement as they witnessed the spectacle. In their amazement, they got to witness William's attack as he gracefully glided across from sword to sword.
"Sister Sabers!" William declared.
Upon declaration command, the two swords vibrated, and one attached to William's left arm, which was once Mikoto's arm and the other sword flew up into the air gracefully. As it swung back down, William hit the sword with its sister sword in his arm. From a distance, it was as if William was playing baseball with the swords while gliding upon the arena.
As he hit the first sword, it rotated swiftly; the blades from his halo joined in the attack as it added more velocity to the attack. The blue drone on the ground was too late to react and was decimated instantly. The remaining three popped out their rockets and fired endlessly at William, but to no avail; each rocket they fired was sliced clean by the sister sword, which kept returning to William and back towards the blue drones.
In his next attack, he caught the sister sword and attached it, and this time, threw both the sister swords together like a boomerang toward the three remaining blue drones. All the rockets that were fired toward William were cut down as the sister swords fused and continued to rotate at a dangerous speed toward the drones. The drones, however, had no way to counter the attack and were all decimated by it, as it sliced all three blue drones horizontally in half and returned to William, who had landed in the middle of the arena. The crowd roared with applause.
"Astonishing, Bravo, BRAVO!" Lady Qiang yelled as she stood up from her seat, overcome with excitement.
"Lady Qiang, please." One of the bodyguards settled her down.
"Did you see? DID YOU SEE WHAT HE DID?" Lady Qiang questioned. "Such marvelous display."
William was standing in the middle of the arena, still clenching his blood-soaked, dried-up handkerchief in one hand, the sister sabers in his other hand. William stared at Mikoto's arm with the sabers. "Mikoto..."
William stared up at the crowds and located Lady Qiang. As if by instinct, he didn't hesitate and instead threw his blade up for him to hover while he commenced his attack. He hit one of the sister sabers as he hit it in the direction of Lady Qiang. His attack, however, would be stopped by someone catching his saber.
William was shocked. The person who had caught the attack was one of her bodyguards, a lady dressed in a suit with pale skin. She wore no collar shirt and instead wore a choker and a fishnet vest underneath her suit. Her hair was raven black, and her eyes sparkled as if she was the oceanic teal spirit. This person had caught William's rapid sister saber attack with little to no effort.
Lady Qiang clapped; she couldn't anticipate the next move.
"Lady Qiang, with your approval?" The bodyguard asked politely.
Lady Qiang scuffed as she smirked. "Make me proud."
"As you wish." The bodyguard replied obediently.
She descended off the spectator's podium into the arena and left a small crater in the arena as she landed. William stared at this woman. Her determination and personality created a bitter and cold atmosphere. There was no warning at all; she darted towards William to annihilate him. William's halo would appear in the nick of time to shield towards the first attack, which was a punch that the halo blocked.
The crowd cheered; to them, it was another battle; they didn't care who or what was fighting, so if they got to witness its spectacle. The fight continued, and William couldn't keep up with the lady's swift, strong strikes. Finally, William's blades appeared to protect him as the lady was about to land a fatal blow.
As William's blades dangled from his halo, William now saw a cloaking of something behind the lady, too. When his blades dangled from his halo, now the lady too had a halo-like his, and hers had just about the same as his. William's sister's sabers appeared on his waist; however, the lady, too, now had sister swords just like him.
William didn't understand, but now wasn't the time to think; he initiated the fight as he threw the sister's sword at the woman. The lady, too much of her knowledge, hit the sword back using the sister saber just as William had earlier. William, recognizing this attack, tried to catch and recall his sister's saber but was trapped by the swords from the halo, which followed the sister's saber back, just as his earlier attack on the blue drones had.
William deflected the attack but suffered a direct hit onto his frame from the blades of the halo. William took the impact and was sent into the wall of the arena. His system warned him of critical damage, flashing multiple damage warnings. His halo, now fully formed, shaped the blades into wings that revealed barrels as his halo became crosshairs for him to fire.
William commenced fire at the woman as the arena became very smoky and foggy from all the firepower that had been exchanged. Lady Qiang smiled confidently as she knew the results from the beginning of the match. Her other bodyguards would advise her to relocate.
"Lady Qiang, please evacuate. The arena is not a safe place due to the high firepower." A different bodyguard suggested.
Lady Qiang sipped on her tea. "Jingzi won't let me down." She smiled a reassuring smile.
After the smoke had cleared up, William dismissed his blade barrels as he ran out of his skill core and needed to cool down the core. To William's dismay, something else more horrible was waiting for him. When the smoke finally cleared, the lady now somehow had the T-33's double cannon mounted on both sides of her shoulder, and they were already rotated 180 degrees, aimed at him, and ready to fire.
"Melissa, Elizabeth...I'm sorry..." William stated as he held onto the handkerchief with his right arm.
The lady wasted no time and fire. William took the full brunt of the assault, and his frame was ruined, as his entire legs were destroyed along with both his arms, leaving only his head and his upper torso intact. Williams' head with his upper torso fell onto the ground with the remains of the other drones in the arena. Then, there was a cheer and applause as the lady withdrew all the weapons and began to bow to the audience, receiving their applause.
Without warning, Mikoto was on his feet, and an Oni demon was next to him as Mikoto had the other sister's sword, which was broader and longer compared to Williams' counterpart. He struck the longer sister's sword straight and true, injuring the lady who had been bowing and was caught off guard. She didn't expect Mikoto to be still alive. The crowd gasped in surprise; nobody expected a cheap shot from Mikoto.
The lady then mimicked Mikoto, but to her surprise, she couldn't reproduce the Oni demon. She could only reproduce the sister saber to Mikoto's skill. The lady would quickly decimate Mikoto with the T-33's cannons after using the sister swords to bait Mikoto and his Ogre blade strike.
Upon being hit with the shots, Mikoto dropped the elder sister's sword and collapsed dead not too far away from William. The lady would step on Mikoto as she smeared his lifeless body onto the ground.
"N-n-no...f-fr-fre-free..." William uttered.
"What was that drone?" the lady asked.
"N-n-n-n-no f-r-fr-free—dom for the- trai-tor..." William uttered before powering down.
This would anger the lady, as she was going to stomp on William and destroy him before Lady Qiang intervened.
"Enough." Lady Qiang commanded as she was already on the arena floor next to the lady. "My dear Jingzi, are you hurt? I didn't expect such a sudden outcome from a minor drone."
"I'm fine, Lady Qiang. I appreciate your concern." Jingzi replied with kindness.
Lady Qiang quickly studied Jingzi as she noticed a part of her chest revealed due to the blade cutting the suit and revealing Jingzi's model stamp: FMC 01. Lady Qiang quickly covered up Jingzi with her cardigan.
"You must be cold. You better wear this before you catch a cold." Lady Qiang stated as she covered up Jingzi with the cardigan.
The two would bow to the crowds and their applause as they left the arena, accompanied by a group of bodyguards. As they left, the crowd followed them out to leave the arena. On a side of the arena wall, on one of the lights, was a camera.
Julie, Shinta, and Sventia had witnessed the entire match through the camera. The trio was sitting inside a market stall.
"William..." Shinta said with tears in her eyes.
"We have to go get him," Sventia stated.
"But how? There are guards everywhere. Besides, even if we did, he's going to tell us to go find the idiot." Julie said.
The three were stuck in a predicament. They were lost and had no thoughts of anyone who might have a clue.
"There is a 3rd option," Gary stated.
"Hey, next time you try to kidnap us, say something, don't just sneak up on us!" Sventia barked at Gary.
"Sorry, heh, I couldn't help it, seeing how serious you were." Gary apologized.
"What's the third option, Gary?" Shinta asked.
"Well, it's more of a rumor, but it might be of interest to you three," Gary said.
"Out with it!" Julie, Shinta, and Sventia yelled they didn't want to play a guessing game at this time.
Gary looked around him to see if anyone was listening before speaking. "Well, according to some Star in the Sky troops, they were returning from the front or something. Some of them were running back here, and even as far as to the capital talking nonsense, I tell you!"
"What's the rumor?" Shinta asked.
"Seems there's another threat on the rise, and this time, it's no drone. According to soldiers and drone operators who ran back from the frontlines and witness accounts, Star in the Sky was trying to storm the King Laboratory facility that was destroyed years ago for "something." However, things didn't end there, as it would seem; they woke something up that they shouldn't have, neither drone nor human, they said. Blasted the entire first division that was stationed around the place with a beam of light!"
"I don't buy it," Sventia said as she crossed her arms across her chest.
"What is this some sort of ghost story!?"
"Who knows? But one thing for sure is that even a commander was scared silly that they've run from the front." Gary said.
"I don't understand; no Titania models use beams of any sort...right?" Shinta questioned, doubting her knowledge.
"Beats me. I've worked on these drones for 40 years and still struggle to comprehend their capabilities and systems. They're just so complex that one doesn't seem to be able to understand their purpose and how they behave, just like us humans." Gary said as he took a screwdriver and began trying to repair Sventia's busted booster and recharging Shinta's skill core with his generator. "Although, they also reported a female in a mysterious cloak-"
"Wait. Did you say a lady in a cloak!?" Sventia asked.
"Hmm, is something wrong?" Gary said as he took off the busted booster and replaced it with a more reliable new one.
Sventia didn't bother answering. Instead, she just pouted her bottom lips. Gary couldn't read between the lines, so he just ignored it. He finished restocking Sventia's ammo for her railgun, storing it in her ammo boxes.
"There you go!" Gary said as he tapped Sventia's ammo cases around her thighs. "That should do the trick!"
"Thanks." Sventia nodded as she lowered her head in embarrassment.
Gary smirked. "Say if you three are going to the King Laboratory Facility, it's north due of here. Just be careful; Star in the Sky might plan to send another regiment up there."
"We'll be careful," Julie added.
"Gary?" Shinta asked.
"Yea, Shinta?" Gary inquired.
"Are you able to?" Shinta asked before being interrupted by Gary.
"I know what you're going to ask Shinta, and the answer is sadly no. None of us will be able to save him, no matter the firepower we possess. If only Aitian were here, then it'd be possible. Still, without someone of greater combat capability, we're not able to save William. Sorry, Shinta." Gary interrupted, his tone changing to become harsher but then softening.
"Sorry, Shinta, but it seems that saving him would be out of the question for us at the moment; please understand."
"I understand..." Shinta replied.
"Come on, let's go; perhaps we can find whoever made these cores and find out if there's a way to end this dumb war!" Julie optimistically said while Shinta and Sventia followed her.
"Will I see you again, Gary?" Sventia asked.
"Of course. Stop talking and go. It's a bad omen if you keep thinking like that." Gary reassured her.
"Okay..." Sventia replied as she continued to follow Julie and Shinta.