"Get out of my way…kid," Nero grunts as he begins to hobble in Jonathans direction. "Please move, you don't have to die for nothing," he says, the matte black pistol aimed towards Jonathan.
STEP, STEP, STEP.
"What…what did you do," Jonathan mumbles, his two hands cupping his mouth as his eyes begin to glisten with a tinge of tears.
With blistering pace, Truth dashes toward Jonathan. "Wait, is that one of the hunters?" he thinks to himself.
"I will tell you right now, I don't know…what the fuck just happened in that room. No one is stopping me from getting out of this fucked up nation. I will kill you if I have…," midway through his sentence, Nero goes silent. He, Jonathan and Truth could feel the floor rumbling. Vibrations begin to build relentlessly and as Nero looks behind, the inky black halo shifts from Blake's forehead, to soldier NO.2 and 3 before finally coming to a stop on soldier NO.1.
His body convulsing, he begins to rise off the floor onto his feet, holes in his chest still bubbling, red stains all over his armor, his eyes get shot with the inky black substance, tears engulfed with the ink begins to trickle down his cheek before gliding and dissolving in the left corner of his lip. Soldier NO.1's neck cracks, his bones pop.
"WHERE IS THE PURPLE HAIRED BOY," the Sven's voice questions, this time his voice meshing seamlessly with soldier NO.1's voice. The echoing of Sven's voice cuts through the open air of the hallway causing Jonathan and Truth to tremble down onto their knees.
As Nero hobbles and begins to grin his teeth, he shouts out "what the fuck are you, what the fuck is this nation?!" whilst he keeps running, two individuals can be seen in front of the direction he was running. The tongues of these individuals were split into two, its motion, slithering like that of a snake. On both of their left arms, a gold band hugs tightly onto their uniform.
"Kira, one of the hunters is trying to get away from father," the individual on the right states.
"Yes Shinra, we won't let that happen, sssslets do this for father, "Kira says as he steps forward, his fingernails growing longer and getting as dark as charcoal.
Soldier NO.1 steps out of the inky black doored room, "My creations are here, I can feel them" he murmurs as he walks past Jonathan who is on his knees. Soldier NO.1 reaches out and touches Jonathans forehead. "Where is the purple haired boy?" Soldier NO.1 whispers.
Jonathan's eyes begin to roll back and ooze out with black ink. As he loses consciousness and hits the oak floor facing flat, soldier NO.1 wipes his hand onto his uniform.
"Useless," he mumbles as he begins to walk and make his way towards Truth who is in a catatonic state on his knees and white foam begins to dribble from his mouth towards his chin.
"What about you, where is the purple haired boy?" Soldier NO.1 questions, his hand hovering over Truth's forehead.
His eye suddenly shuts, it begins to move frantically, "I SEE IT, IN A MOMENT OF WEAKNESS, THAT WRETCHED GANG APPREHENDED HIM. I SEE IT, THE MASSACRE, THE DESTRUCTION IN THAT FOREST, BOTH FROM KHANS CURSED CREATION AND… AND THE BOY," soldier NO.1 shouts as if he was in agony, traces of Sven's voice still leaking through.
Immediately as he takes his hand of Truth's forehead, Soldier No.1 passes out onto the floor, the halo that was floating above his head splatters onto his face.
"Father!" Shinra shouts out. "Kira! I can't feel fathers' presence anymore," he states.
At once, after hearing this Kira's charcoal fingernail shrink back to ordinary nails, his expression begins to turn sour.
Shinra and Kira begin to sprint towards Nero. "Fuck, I got to get in one of these rooms" Nero thinks to himself as he kicks open one of the rusted metal capped doors.
BANG. He fires a shot towards the two gold graded snakes.
As they both move their neck to evade the bullet, Nero makes his way into the room and shuts the door with force.
"Father, where did you go!" Kira yells out as if something belonging to him was ripped away from him. As he gets down on his knees and holds soldier NO.1 in his arms, tears begin to flow down the creases of his narrow nose.
"He will come back," Shinra whispers whilst standing above Kira.
As Kira gets onto his feet, Shinra notices his bloodshot eyes. In just a few seconds, something has taken him over. "I will kill him, I will kill him!" he murmurs, every word getting louder as he hovers over Truth's body, the tip of his nails turning charcoal black once again.
"Kira! Stop it, the boy has nothing to do with it. Father just ran out of capacity. Do you remember what he taught us? We can always call onto him and he will be there. Get up and let's do that." Shinra states, his hand holding onto Kira's curled up fist.
As Kira and Shinra reach out to hold each other's hand, they begin to chant, "Father, oh father, your first sons call upon you, grant us your visitation and lead us from damnation.".
In a split second, soldier NO.1 begins to convulse sporadically, black ink spraying out his mouth, the sizzling wound in his chest begins to close up as if an invisible force was stitching him up. From his nose, black ink gravitates flowing upwards and immediately punctures a hole into the middle bridge of his eyebrows. Whilst this is all happening, Shinra and Kira continue to chant with every sentence getting louder. As the ink begins to seep out of the punctured hole, it solidifies into a gem-like shape, meshing in with the skin. With a sudden inhale, soldier NO.1's eyes open wide, "I know what needs to be done," he shouts as he begins to stand onto his feet. "My creations, thank you for summoning me, which means I can stay in this vessel longer. It seems I need to take matters into my own hands, and you two will be with me every step of the way,".
Shinra and Kira getting onto their knees, begin to look down at the oak floor. "Your hand soldier is dead, and his body is yours to use as you please, father" they both shout out.
"First, deal with the hired hunter, find him, bring him to me," Sven, with his authoritative voice demands, no trace of soldier NO.1's voice apparent.
"Yes father! Anything for you," the two twins yell out as they get off their knees and with haste barge into the room which Nero entered. "He entered the laundry room. Damn it!" Kira shouts with the breeze from the smashed window in front of him blowing straight into his face. With the narrow laundry room littered with glass shards, every step both Shinra and Kira take to move laundry baskets, drying racks and chairs out of the way, clinks and crunches. "Father, he…he is not here," Kira whispers.
"No matter, there is nothing he can do on his own to hurt us." Sven relays. "Grab that boy and let's head to the upper room, he did something to me when I got into his mind," he says.
Shinra and Kira exchange looks, "The upper room? We are not allowed in there father, only The Lonares' and other associated families have the permission to go in there,"
"Who do you think the Lonares' and the other families report to? You two are the biggest disappointments of my all my creations. Don't ever insult my judgement." Sven says in a chilling tone whilst walking past the twins.
Kira with his head looking down walks towards Truth and puts him on his back. "Let's not make father mad, we are only in this shit hole because we disappointed him before," Shinra whispers whilst looking back at Kira.
Nero, hobbling up and down in the empty streets, stops to catch his breath. "That jump fucked me up. This might honestly be the end of me, how the heck am I going to get out of here," he thinks to himself, his shoulder slowly going down whilst scraping the brick wall he is resting on.
BEEP, BEEP, BEEP
"THIS IS AN ANNOUCMENT. ALL DENIZENS OF THE MOTHERLAND, YOU ARE PERMITTED TO STEP OUTSIDE WITH CAUTION, I WILL SAY IT AGAIN, YOU ARE PERMITTED TO STEP OUTSIDE WITH CAUTION!" a man announces. Instantly all doors begin to open, the empty streets of the motherland once again populating with children, adults and seniors.
"Ah fuck, make my life harder why don't you!" Nero says whilst hitting the brick wall. "I need a good Samaritan," he mumbles whilst using the wall as support to get onto his feet.
The sound of joy from children floods the streets, and as Nero walks through a secluded bush, notices a young girl who is walking past with her stuffed animal. "Hey, girl…over here," he calls out. "Please get me somewhere safe, I will buy you more of those stuffed animal things," his voice, whispering the lowest he could manage. "You can't let anyone find me though, think of it like…we are playing hide and seek," he says. The little girl nods her head. She then leads Nero around the inside linings of the bushes, with no one noticing, the little girl begins to walk out of the bushes and crosses the cobblestone road. "Hey, hey," Nero strains his voice holding his shout in. As the little girl glances behind to look at Nero, she motions for Nero to come out of the bush. In front of her, she opens a brown wooden door and waits for Nero.
As Nero hobbles in pain, he quickly lunges his entire body into the door the little girl opened. "Hurry up, get in kid," he whispers.
The little girl closes the door shut, she quickly runs to the kitchen, grabs a pink mug and turns a tap on to fill it up, taking it straight to Nero, who is on the floor.
"You are a life saviour, you know that? What's your name little girl?" Nero questions.
"Ma…Maya," the little girl mumbles as she holds her brown stuffed animal tightly to her chest.
"Oh Maya, what a nice name that is. Where are your parents little Maya? Why have they left you wandering by yourself?" Nero asks right before chugging the water out of the pink mug.
"No mummy or daddy," Maya replies.
"Thank you for the water - but what do you mean no mummy and daddy," Nero says whilst getting up. As he walks through the passageway into the kitchen, he notices framed pictures, scattered all around the house. "No mum or dad…I see little one, you are a foster kid," Nero mumbles to himself. "Do they treat you right?" he asks, whilst pointing at one of the framed pictures in his left hand. "Did they buy you that stuffed animal? If they did, it's really dirty," Nero probes.
Tears begin to swell up in Maya's eyes. The stuffed animal she was holding was full of holes, white cotton filling draping out of it and some parts of it sewn up with white patches and black stiches. As Maya quickly runs upstairs, Nero hobbles after her.
"I didn't mean it in that way," he shouts, "I want to know how well they treat you if your little toy is looking like that,". Making his way upstairs, Nero finds Maya squeezed up in a corner, "What the fuck…sorry for my language. What happened here, who did this, you are not big enough to do this much damage?" Nero questions, his hands scraping the wall of the girl's room. Multiple holes in Maya's room were prominent and rugged, the walls were marked with colours of all kind, crayons were scattered all over the floor. As Nero swivels and looks at Maya, he shuffles and lowers his posture. "You don't have to say anything. I will deal with them," he says, his palms delicately patting Maya's head.
DING.
"Upper Room," a voice in an elevator announces.
As the elevator slowly opens, Shinra and Kira step out followed by Sven into a narrow hallway. The hallway was laid out with brown marble tiles with white streaks. The floor was so clean, both the twins and Sven could see their reflections clearly. The ceiling was high and plastered with ceiling murals spreading the entire hallway into a room in front. On both the right and left side of the hallway, dark grey statues sculpted in the shape of different animals meshed into one was scattered in one straight line. "This is the upper room. I have never seen anything like this father," Kira says.
"This place brings me comfort but sadly my body is too frail to get up here, I am thankful to my hands vessel for its strength," Sven states, his feet taking multiple steps in front of the twins. "Come on, I need to see the Lonares', there is something we need to discuss,"
Coming to the end of the hallway, a big arch leads into a room with extremely oversized windows, the ceiling was even higher and splattered with more of the murals and the skirting was coated in limestone. Entering through the arch, a colossal brown wooden oval table was planted in the centre with 11 chairs surrounding it. Two of those chairs were occupied by two male individuals, as they move their postures forward out of the sunlight, their silhouette is exposed. They possessed abstract emerald-green and amber gold eyes with unusual pupils like that of a gecko. Their skin was golden tan but more on the burnt side, and a strand of where was nowhere to be found on both their heads.
"Sven, you have possessed your own hands body," the two individuals both calmly say in an ominous unison. "Your place is not here, your place is with the mother, why have you come?" they say at the same time again.
"Zannat and Brabat Lonares, speak with respect when you utter your word. My covenant with my hand has nothing to do with you. Where are the rest of the upper echelons?" Sven yells out, his voice echoing around the entire upper room.
"This is odd," Zannat replies. "You are on the upper level, you have no say here, it doesn't matter if you're the mothers second in command," he says whilst tapping the wooden table.
"You seem to forget that you are on your last straw, you Lonares' couldn't handle own family, I am not here to argue with such careless pupils!" Sven yells out. "No matter, I am here to tell you that I am now overlooking the search of the Emperors Meraki carrier. The mother is reaching her boiling point. If we don't find that boy, nothing will stop our nations fall from them…" he rambles, his tone heating up.
"Them? Why be so obscure, what is the mother scared of that even the upper echelons can't know?" Brabat questions.
"All will be revealed in due course, the time is now, letting that boy slip through our fingers could be the biggest mistake if we don't rectify it," Sven responds.
"I see, it's always the same with the mother, her branches get treated like children. Regardless, we understand the urgency. What ever you need is at your beck and call. The entire core is ready," Zannat asserts whilst standing up.
A smirk growing on Sven's face he states, "That's the spirit, I will need the bronze grades just for numbers, my two creations will be by my side wherever I go, and I will be needing gold to obsidian grade for skill, but this is my most important demand… I need 2 ascendants before our search can begin."
"It will take a little bit of time, but we will get you those ascendants," Zannat replies, his gaze pointing towards Brabat and making a nodding motion. Brabat getting off his seat, begins to head towards the elevator.
"Kira is coming with you," Sven says.
"Whatever you say," Brabat sneers.
As Kira steps into the elevator, he notices Brabat clicking on an emerald prism shaped button sticking out more than the rest.
"Where are we going?" Kira questions.
"Don't ask me questions, shut your mouth and just follow my lead," Brabat replies.
DING.
"Ascen…asce…dentry," a malfunctioning voice in the elevator announces. "Upper...up…echelon identification," the same voice announces. As all the lights in the elevator shut down, a bright green laser bio scanner frantically motions up and down. Abruptly it halts, and the elevator door begins to slowly open. "Brabat Lonares," the voice in the elevator says. As they step out, what looks to be a cave, is entirely dark, only dim lit green lights on the cave walls and green misty fumes gliding below their feet could be seen. As Brabat steps out, he looks to his left, and on the frame of the elevator, black heavy-duty respirators are stocked from top to bottom.
"Here, grab one," Brabat says, "these fumes are only meant for the ascendants to breathe".
"My brother and I were born here but we didn't stay here long, father came to save us and nurture us," Kira rambles as he picks up one of the black nose masks.
"I see, you two are the disappointments of the Sven our parents used as examples for Zannat and I. How can you disappoint someone who adopted you, I would rather jump into a lake of fire than to let someone who didn't birth me dictate how I feel," Brabat says, his voice spreading throughout the insides of the cave.
DRIP, DRIP, DRIP. Noises of liquid constantly leaking echoing all through the cave
"Anyways, you weren't here long enough to be immune from the fumes, put on the respirator and follow me, I have 2 ascendants in mind for your father, their names are Esmeralda and Silas," Brabat says, his voice muffled from the coverage of the respirator.
END OF CHAPTER
THEORIES MERAKI – WHO ARE ASCENDANTS, WHAT ARE THEY CAPABLE OF?
NEXT CHAPTER – TBD