"So you're saying that you know this mask-wearing cult?" Saito said inspecting his makeshift-bladed weapon and twirling it around before placing it back into its leather sheath.
"If he did know about this Hokey Cokey religious lots, then why didn't he squeaked more about them during the briefing with Adelle when he got the chance," Jack replied stretching his bowstring, testing its efficiency.
"Because I know this cult more than Adelle could know," I said lacing on my worn combat boots. "Besides, I can't fully trust her with the information I have."
"Oh, Really? Because I have no recollection of you talking about these people Sai, or are they that important enough for you to pull a deceitful move on us to fulfill your own goal like Richtofen always does."
"No Jack, I am not pulling any strings or holding the truth behind yours or anyone's back," I snapped back to him. "You wouldn't comprehend what these people want or desire."
"Well just saying Saisho, not that I hate you for good reasons too long to list but because I can't stand your damn attitude whenever I'm around you, it hampers the nicer things of you besides making you look like an arse, just saying," Jack shrugged causing Erik and Saito to snort.
"Yeah, yeah thanks for the comment, Jack. The next time you want to run your mouth be sure to know where to say them like how you use that piece of stick you call a bow." I jabbed back.
Finishing prepping our gear and weapons, the four of us made our way outside the mansion that we now reside in along with Adelle. The mansion was built with a Victorian-era design as the entire housing was in pitch-blacked color, sticking out like a sore thumb upon the snowy white mountain on which the mansion is positioned. Saito once asked why would the mansion be built in such a cold place that would leave him shivering in the night, to which the fallen angel dressed maiden simply said exactly why no one would want to come here and find her in this desolate cold peak along with it being impractical to even be found by others.
She mentioned that there were lots of abandoned stations in this area along with research facilities and a satellite relay station residing along this mountain built during the Cold War but were destroyed by a small group of men using crossbows and was left desolated with one research facility still remaining intact. Adelle laughed and bragged at the fact that they never destroyed this mansion as well as being hidden from everyone. As much as Adelle likes to brag about her mansion, she has absolutely nothing interesting to do in her large housing, causing her to be bored most of the time alone.
Moving away from the mansion as it fades from our view, we reached over to the cliffside of the mountain where we were departing to. As the four of us arrived at the cliff, I fished through my pockets to find the device as Jack's breathing became heavy, through his facemask and goggles.
"What's the matter, Jack? Fear of heights kicking in?" Saito asked coyly as a smirk formed behind his mask.
"Keep talking like that Saito and you're going to fear me for your entire life," Jack muttered back drawing in another audible breathe of air.
"Hey Chill out Robin Hood, I was just asking, nothing more," Saito defended himself. "Though I never saw you this scared before when we were finding the Tower of Babble in Shanghai."
"Saito can you please stop antagonizing Jack for a moment please," Erik spoken between the two.
"Oh God, you're taking his side, Erik? Jesus Christ, it feels like everyone is ganging up on me sometimes."
"I'm not defending Jack, I just want both of you to be quiet and focus on this. Are you ready Saisho?" Erik asked crossing his arms.
"Just give me a second. Come on, I thought I put it in this pocket, or was it somewhere else in your bag?" I muttered to myself scrounging and looking through every compartment in my backpack until my fingers brushed against two things I was looking for.
"Ah, there you are, I've been looking for you, my little friends."
Pulling out of my backpack were two devices that I had managed to make within the time I had available towards myself. One was shaped like a detonator with a manual trigger and a purple energy capsule in front to be used for explosives, while the other mechanical device had an appearance of a prototype tactical grenade used by some militaries. These two devices were neither of what they appeared but were instead a means of teleporting transportation and have named it the Gersh A-like, a homage to its superior predecessor. As the gadget looked like nothing compared to the Gersh Device, I had hardly tried to paint over my makeshift teleporter to make it look pretty, as I feared that the wet paint would tamper with the mechanism within the entire device because I wasn't too keen on turning myself into human mash potatoes whenever I'm using a poorly painted device.
Though the Gersh A-Like was inferior to the original one. I had at least made one redeeming quality for the Gersh A-Like like a built-in scanner. Planting the orb-shaped contraption firmly into the snow-covered ground I reached for my other device. Stepping away from the first Gersh A-Like, I went back to where I was last standing with the rest of Cordus.
"Do you have the coordinates, Erik?" I asked the strongman in our group.
"Always had it in my hands when we left the mansion," He said passing me the paper. Grabbing the said piece of paper, my eyes scanned the entire sheet from top to bottom as I grasped the information that was elegantly written by Adelle. I glanced back to the first instruction given to us beforehand as it was in bolded letters to read.
- 37.9715° N, 23.7257° E.
Upon reading this message, I heeded no time in scanning the coordinate numbers, as we were working in a small window of time and any second wasted was each a step forward for "impending doom" as quoted by Adelle. As I was scanning the coordinates, Erik started to cough into his hand which is a sign when he wanted to ask me a question if I was busy.
"I'm all ears, Erik what do you want?" I said willing to hear him speak.
"Where do you think we're teleporting to? The U.S or South America?"
"None of those two that I know, my best guess is that we're warping to a country in either Europe or perhaps in Northern Africa," I honestly said.
"So what do you think of our new boss now? A little feisty maid with a sense of perfectionism or a sociopathic Monty 2.0?" Erik asked for my opinion.
"I think her mindset leans more into Richtofen's line of tone," I said to the surprise and shock of Cordus.
"Whoa, whoa, okay now, I know that you respect her and all but why placed her on the same pedestal as Richtofen?" Jack explained.
"Yeah Sai, like it's been a day or two already and now you're telling us that she's a walking goddess," Saito commented.
"Don't tell me you have affection for her Sai, do you?" Erik cooed causing the three Cordus members to laugh in unison.
"Sometimes, I really wish I have the power to crush all of you with my mind," I muttered to myself before pushing in the final coordinate numbers and pressing the 'enter' button. Doing so, the orbed Gersh A-like popped open its body as it opened a bright purple singularity portal for us to now travel to our destination.
"Okay, the teleporter is up and working, everyone ready to go?"
"Just get me off this goddamn cliff Saisho," Jack said in a hushed tone.
"Well you can go first if you like to be off this ledge Jack," I replied to which he simply ran towards the portal and disappearing into the singularity matter.
"Pussy, always was afraid of heights yet still can't admit his fears to me. Alright, I'm going next," Saito volunteered as he was the second to enter the portal.
"Well after you Saisho," Erik gestured his hand towards the portal. "The inventor needs to experience the creation he has made."
"Always trying to be polite aren't you Erik. Or are you trying to get on my good side so you can try out the food while on the job?"
"Um...Well yeah, you can say that," Erik admitted.
"You know that's against our work, Erik. Matter of fact, if we're able to successfully complete the task given to us, then the meals are on me," I said before walking towards the transporting singularity.
"Sounds like a good deal to me," I heard Erik agreed to the condition as I entered through the portal.
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Walking through the portal, I was met with stepping on nothing before immediately falling into the other side of the portal and landing with a hard 'thud' onto the concrete ground in an alley the vortex appeared in front of. Attempting to understand what had happened, I tried to get up from my fall only to be helped up by both Saito and Jack who were both able to stand.
"Oi, you alright boss?" Jack quipped as he helped me get on my feet."I have a water canteen here with me if you need it."
"I-I'm fine," I coughed adjusting to the new location we teleported through.
"You don't look fine after that fall Sai, I think I heard something break when you fell in the alley," Saito chimed in.
"So do you mind telling me how the hell the two of you are still able to walk?" I asked in pained annoyance.
"The garbage bags," The two chimed together as we stepped out of the alley and into the streets.
"So any clues what country we just teleported in?" Saito asked scanning the unfamiliar surroundings.
"Dunno, your guess is just the same as mine but as Saisho said earlier, we're somewhere in the southern part of Europe so I'm making a guess that we're now in Italy or Spain," Jack suggested.
"Hey, you know what guys, why don't we just ask the readers where we are so that the three of us won't waste time wondering what place we just transported to. Come on readers! Use those coconuts of yours to brainstorm and solve our situation!"
"Saito, please tell me you did not just shout out to your imaginary friends for help. Because this is not a good time to be doing that," I deadpanned.
"What, you don't trust me? I guarantee you that they will help us in the long run, alright? Like you gotta believe me, guys!"
"Well we do trust you as a friend Saito but we don't truly believe because you rather act like a six-year-old muppet than a grown proper teenager like us."
"What do you mean proper, Jack? Don't tell me you forget that we all met each other when we were still learning how to spell our names. Hell, I still can't believe we managed to grow up perfectly without suffering from any deadly injuries or dying from total nightmarish hell monsters," Saito retorted.
"Well, you're certainly acting like a little-"
"Alright, that's enough fighting from the two of you for today," I said breaking up the fight, grunting as I stood up on my legs again, feeling like they were made of jelly.
"Well, what's better to do than just standing here waiting for Erik to show up through the portal. Matter of fact, what's taking that big aloof so long? Did his fatass got stuck getting in the teleporter?" Saito asked looking back at the purple-hue portal expecting to see Erik just walk through like nothing happened.
As if irony had struck us, the portal began spiraling out of control as the Gersh-portal distorted from a circular-shaped singularity into a ball of pure energy as it emitted an unprecedented amount of power that could sustain an entire nation. as the energy orb continued to discharge more energy, it suddenly began to hover away from where we were standing. Snapping out of our stupor, we hurriedly chased after the orb as it began to move further away from us than we liked.
"Great, first we landed in the middle of nowhere and now we're chasing after an orb that probably has Erik trapped inside it. Not exactly my favorite thing to start a day with, if we're going to be running for nothing. Physical Activities that involve using endurance are nothing I like doing," Saito muttered keeping up with the floating orb.
"Shut yer gob will ya Saito," Jack commented as he sprinted after the orb in pursuit.
While we continued to pursue after the orb down the street as the orb was causing all sorts of haywire in its path.
"This purple ball is not slowing down Saisho!" Jack shouted as the energy orb suddenly curved onto the old stone path and began moving in its new direction.
"Son of a bitch! Now it wants to go up the pathway," Saito commented as he now ran faster after the orb as it ascends upwards on the stone path as the energy sphere was still not slowing down.
Continuing our effort chasing after the glowing orb, we followed up along the pathway as the ball of pure energy was beginning to run us ragged from the shear-constant running we were doing in order to get Erik.
"Starting to think those Divinium Serums is starting to wear off from my system now," Jack wheezed starting to lose speed after the energy orb.
It wasn't long before we and the orb reached near a fountain in the center of the streets which leads us to a town somewhere in Europe that we have now traveled through. Just when I thought the orb will continue to keep moving, it suddenly stopped in its track though continue to still float above our heads.
before a bright flash erupted from the orb, blinding the three of us within the vicinity. Covering our eyes from the sudden flash of light, it instantly faded away momentarily for a second, as I squinted back to where the source of light originated from the orb was previously. To my relief, it was Erik who was sprawled, face down on the stone-placed ground seemingly unharmed but exhausted from his involuntary portal ride courtesy from the Gersh A-Like I created.
"Oh man," Saito gasped tiredly as he placed both his hands on his knees. "Did Erik cross into the light already?"
"Finally showing concerns for your friends? What's making you feel some sympathy for Erik?"
"On please, my only sympathy for Erik is to beat him to a pulp until he's unconscious to show how much I love him for having us chase after him," Saito commented before taking a deep breath of air from exhaustion.
"I heard that," Erik groaned as he dizzily tried to lift himself off the ground.
"Hey easy now Erik, you just took a portal joyride across the street," I explained.
"Street? What do you mean street? Is that where we are? A place called street? And is that the Acropolis on the hill? " Erik asked irritatingly pointing his finger, as the three of us began to look at our new surroundings.
"Holy crap yo Saisho dude, are we in Greece or what?" Saito gaped as he looked at the large ruined ancient marble buildings that stood on top of the hill.
"Appears so, There's no other place that has great architecture in the past than Greece," I commented at the marble Parthenon.
"Does that mean we've arrived at the location that Adelle ordered us to go to?" Jack questioned. "It's obvious that we're already far from the mansion but she didn't mention what's our next objective then did she?"
"It's just like Saisho said, the instructions are written on the paper that he has in his backpack. So what's numero Deux for our next step?" Saito exclaimed before sounds of footsteps were approaching close, catching all of us by surprise.
"Well to hell with what's next, it seems like our monkey business attracted somebody else's attention," Erik commentated.
"(Hands up! Stop what you are doing and get on the ground!)" A commanding voice barked in Greek as all four of us were frozen like a deer in the headlights.
"Aww shit! Guess that we didn't foresee this coming did we guys?" Saito stated as he used one of his hands to blocked the bright police lights that were shining directly at us more so, blinding our vision. "So what's our alternative plan now?"
"Well does anyone know how to speak Greek?
"(Didn't you hear what I said?! Hands up and get on the ground!)" The police officer shouted again in Greek pointing his finger at the cobblestone street.
"Just do what they want," I said putting my hands behind my head and kneeled on the ground.
"So what? We're just going to surrender to them?" Saito asked oblivious to what I was doing.
"They want to detain us for questioning Saito, we're not here to start a fight with the law," I retorted back as Erik and Jack began to placed their hands behind their head as well.
"
*Sigh* "No use in arguing with you anyways," Saito said before doing the same action like me. "Just hoping that this won't go south."
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It wasn't long before the police have both detained us and send us towards the police station where the four of us were placed in a cell. Our first new mission has rapidly devolved quickly into shambles, from landing in a back alley dumpster, chasing Erik in a portal-orb gone wrong, and being apprehended by the police. Yeah, it was not looking great for us.
"Well, this is just Grandy," Jack exclaimed peering out the grated window of the jail cell, "You know, after coming back from the Aether, never thought I would still wind up in a jail cell other than Alcatraz."
"Least there's not any fire or blood all over the place," Erik commented rubbing his head from the orb rodeo.
"Well to be honest with you guys, Alcatraz was not my first time being in a jail cell," Jack revealed.
"Yeah no surprise to that. You've always been the one who deserves more than just a spanking," Saito blurted out more interested in scrapping out what was underneath his fingernails.
"Oh is that so Saito?" Jack asked irritated at what the close-quarter-combative said. "From where I'm standing you've been the arse of this group since day one."
"Was that the best you could say about me?" Saito questioned not offended in the slightest as Jack turned away and mumbled something under his breath.
While the feud was happening, I was thinking of how our fate has been treating us lately. Recently, it has been a double-edged sword or rather a random weapon from the ole' mystery-box in my opinion, we're all still breathing and made it this far, and longest than anyone in the Aether Dimension, not to mention, we've also managed to escape from an inch of its grasp when it started to collapse. On the other hand, things have not been in our favor as well. The four of us are now dealing with a doomsday scenario as that Scepter could bring the end of the world in the wrong hands.
Unfortunately, those wrong hands belong to an old religious cult called The Order. For all I know, their entire existence dated further back in history, older than the ancient pantheon that still stands to this day. For what they desire is to obtain both the knowledge and powers of a long-forgotten substance from history called Prima Materia or 'First Matter' as translated from Latin, a potent element that can create a whole civilization with just a small amount of Materia. Though people and leaders used Materia for noble purposes over time, greed would later consume their original intention and continued to procure more of this great material, resulting in the scarcity of Prima Materia, and what was left of it, was secured away from anyone. I can't imagine what the Order would do if they were able to obtain Elemental 115.
And I certainly can't stand being in this cell any longer, we've already lost more time than I liked, and expected. I need to find a way to get out of this old cell before the inevitable happens.
"What's with the glum look Saisho?" Saito perked at me, noticing my expression had gone serious. "Sad that you're in prison for the second time or well, 'normal' first time being in prison if you count Alcatraz as a prison experience."
"Saito please once again, now's not the best time to be throwing jokes," I said with a slight irritation in my voice letting Saito know I'd had enough of his coy behavior.
*Pfft* " 'Kay, fine, I'll try not to be bored out of my mind while we wait 'momentarily' for the police chief-in-charge inside this stuffy cell, ugh, couldn't they at least paid another dollar for the air conditioner, I'm cooking in here waiting for a donut munching police officer."
"Well you don't have to wait any longer," Erik replied as he stepped back from the prison bars as a large man in a police uniform carrying a bunch of files under his arm came into view.
"Καλό απόγευμα-Kalispera (Good Evening) boys," The police chief greeted us in a professional tone fitted for a police chief.
"Good evening as well sir," All of us replied back in return to the police chief.
"Okay now, I hope that all of you boys are willing to cooperate with me and the entire police department," The Police Chief began explaining. "This is very crucial for both me and you if you all want to be free."
"Yes sir," We all said in unison again as the Police Chief nodded in approval.
"Very good, I need one of you to come with me for questioning if any one of you is willing to volunteer."
"I will sir," I said willing to volunteer for the group.
"Very well then, come with me please," The police chief said unlocking the jail cell door with one of his keys and ushering me to walk out of the cell.
"The three of you better behave while I'm gone and don't think that you're all free yet. After I'm done with your friend here, I will come back for one of you at a time," The police chief affirmed with a serious tone before closing the cell door and locking it again. "Let's go," The older man said leading the way.
Walking across the department was a blur as I passed several police officers who gave a polite greeting or a salute to the Police Chief while they were off on their duty and a desk officer who had run up to the Police Chief who had a phone call for him from an unknown caller. The walk through the police station was something more of your typical office work environment to a nameless company than a law enforcement service that you expect. As I continue to follow the police chief, we then stopped in front of an office door that looked more pristine than the other offices in the station. Pulling out the keys again, the police chief inserted one of his keys into the lock before twisting it, allowing the door to be opened.
"Come in," He said placing his keys back in his pocket.
"You're using your own office as an interrogation room?" I asked wondering why.
"Like I said boy, I only want you to answer a few questions for me. interrogating you would make no benefits to me," he stated before pulling out a plastic chair for me to sit in front of his desk.
"Thank you," I said sitting down on the given chair while the police chief sat in his comfier seat behind his office desk.
"Before we start, do you need anything?" The police chief asked me.
"No sir," I replied back to him.
"Good, now let's begin with your name, you haven't preferred me to call you anything else other than boy," The police chief began his probing. Even though he treated me with reasonable respect, I still can't compromise my identity to people or the whole world who thought I was still dead. Thinking of another way to respond, I decided to test the waters first.
"Um, if don't mind me asking, Why would you need my name for?" I asked politely as the police chief raised an eyebrow at my comment.
"Our session between me and you are going to be recorded on this device," The older man said pulling out an old audiotape recorder. "Your name is needed for validation purposes and identity recognition if our database cannot find your name," he added.
"Well can we perhaps move on to a different subject," I purposed to the police chief "Because I believe I can't provide an answer to that question."
"By what do you mean, you can't answer a simple question about your name?" The police chief confronted me. "You're already a grown teen who should have his driver's license or his own mobile phone already, is there something wrong with that or you?"
"No there's not-...-well there is a problem with that. You see, I... uh, grew up in the eastern countryside of a small town with few people living there," I began. "There was a school in the town but the education was poor and taught by a retired teacher."
"And what does that have to do with you sitting here in my office right now?" The chief of police questioned me.
"There was a family tragedy in the town, I was sent to live with other relatives of mine here in Athens," I lied again. "I'm still relatively new here in the city, nobody I've ever met needed my full name until now."
"Then why were you causing a disturbance out on the streets with your three friends?" The older man pointed out my falsehood as I silently cursed myself for not providing a viable lie.
Thinking of another way to respond with a new answer, it was cut off when the office door barged open as the desk officer from before, walked in with a serious expression on his face.
"Officer Atlant! What is the problem with barging in my office!" The older police officer shouted at the desk officer who straightened up at the chief's voice.
"Sorry sir but there's a problem at the front, the unknown caller from earlier wants to talk with you right now."
"Have I told you to tell them that I'm currently busy with my guest here?" The police chief said pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Yes I have told them that but they still want to see right this instant," The desk officer said meekly.
"So be it, I want you to watch over this young man and he better be sitting in my office when I get back, you understand that Constable Atlant?" The police chief stated before handing the younger subordinate his keys.
"Yes sir," The desk officer replied carefully taking the keys from the police chief as the latter departed from the office to attend to personal businesses.
"He seems tense," I said turning to the desk officer who was clutching the keys within his hands.
"Who? Chief Nomikos? Well, he can be hard on me and others sometimes but he wishes for others to do better," The desk officer replied rubbing his right shoulder in an anxious way.
"You seem nervous Mr. Atlant, is something wrong?" I asked the desk officer who was on edge.
"Wha-? Oh, no kid, I'm just a little stressed on the job that's all," The younger police officer said.
"Well I can teach you a stress-relief exercise, I've learned from my grandparents. I think it could help with the stress." I offered, turning my chair towards the officer.
"I appreciate the offer but I'm not really into learning that kind of stuff," Officer Atlant declined.
"Are you sure? It really helps with sleeping, I always do this exercise whenever I'm going to bed," I further explained upping my ante.
"Well, that does sound nice.....Ya'know what? Sure, I can give it a try," The desk officer replied before taking another plastic chair and placing it in front of me.
"Good, that's good," I smiled as the police officer sat on the chair in front of me.
"So what do I have to do?" Mr. Atlant asked as he took an attended posture.
"Well just lie back on the chair and close your eyes, here you can use my chair to prop your legs up to be more comfortable," I said getting off my chair as the desk officer's legs were placed on the chair.
"Okay I think I'm starting to enjoy this," Officer Atlant said with a smile of excitement. "Now what?"
"Now," I said standing over the desk officer. "You just go to sleep," Before punching him in the temple, knocking him out cold.
Taking care of the desk officer was now taken care of. Taking the police chief's keys from the unconscious officer, I now needed to get back and free my crew and grab our gear that was somewhere in this police station. Just before I could process what I need to do next. The office room abruptly became dark as everything became black, caught off guard of what was happening. I turned around to see a red light outlining the door as muffles of deep guttural moans and screaming was coming from the outside of the office.
"Oh shit," I mumbled as the familiar sounds of the dead was getting closer. With no way to find a weapon in the dark or no light to find a way to escape the office room, with a deep breath and putting on a stone-face I kicked open the office and into the chaos.
End of Chapter 4...