Neptunia: Merc's Involvement

Chapter 44: Final Act - Past Memories

[Four Days Later]

Histoire and the CPU Candidates waited in the halls of the Basilicom for IF and Compa's return, hoping they would bring Alex with them.

"We're back." Said IF as she entered the hall along with Compa.

As they saw the two girls entering, their hopes soon crashed after seeing the young boy wasn't with them.

"No luck again?" Asked the Oracle.

The guild member shook her head for a bit before looking at Histoire again.

"He's either moving constantly, or is hiding incredibly well."

For the last four days, IF and Compa restlessly searched for the young man around Planeptune, but no one managed to find even the slightest trace of him. Not even the other nations were capable of finding him.

"Hey, we're running out of time already! Just let us go instead!" Said Uni with impatience.

"Yeah, yeah! We've been training a lot, so we can do it!" Added Ram.

The Oracle then turned around and looked at them.

In order to rescue their elder sisters, the CPU Candidates had dedicated the last four days to training as hard as they could. Their increase in skill was easy to notice indeed, but just by themselves they were still no match for the remaining felons, nor the Deity of Sin.

Histoire understood this and didn't want to risk their lives against such overwhelming odds, but there was no more time for new plans nor options.

"I see. It seems there's no other choice." Said the Oracle with her eyes closed.

Histoire was about to give the order to send them off to the Graveyard, until the sound of the door being unlocked was heard coming from the hallway.

Everyone turned their heads and saw Alex walking into the hall after a moment as he was full of bruises and cuts.

"Alex!" Said Compa with widened eyes.

"You! Where the hell were you at!?" Asked IF with a mixture of surprise and irritation in her tone.

She was partly happy of seeing him, but also shocked and confused as to how he appeared out of the blue like that.

"I was training."

"No, I was asking WHERE!"

"IF, we can leave the explanations for later! Right now we need to hurry!" Said the Oracle quickly while floating towards the young man "Alex, the Deity of Sin will be rising from within the graveyard any moment! We need you and the CPU Candidates to go there right now!"

"Before that, how's Neptune doing?"

"Neptune is okay, but she's still sleeping"

"I see..." Said the young boy with his head slightly lowered before raising it to look at the oracle again. "Do you mind if I go see her for a bit?"

"Eh?"

Histoire wasn't surprised by the first question, as it was expected for Alex to be at least slightly worried about Neptune after what happened. It was the second question what she didn't expect.

"Hey, didn't you hear her!? We don't have time to waste!" Said IF.

"That's right! We need to go save our sisters!" Added Ram, who had already grown tired of waiting.

"Alex, I don't know what is it that you expect to achieve by seeing Neptune, but right now there's no time for-" Said the Oracle before being cut off by Alex.