"Hey, can we take a break? We've been at this for four hours now." I asked my sister who was helping me train today. Now that I think about it, the last couple of days have just been Zenobia wanting to fight us, more specifically T-elos.
"Fine, I guess I have been overworking you two." Zenobia floats over to the benches and takes a seat. "But best believe I am gonna have my duel with you two."
"Hmph, don't you mean our duel, Zenobia?" Raye says as she enters our training area.
"Oh of course" Zenobia replied with her eyes still full of determination. I should know, I see them almost all the time.
"How was training today Nick? Any improvements?" Raye asked me. I sat on the ground gasping for air and finally had enough oxygen to reply.
"Training was painful today as always, I feel the power T-elos has is immense. I can't keep up with her just sparring let alone if she ever actually used her abilities as well."
"I'd have to agree as well, at this point he is more of a liability." T-elos injected. Although it was the truth, it still hurt to hear her say that.
"Nick may have a long way to go, but in the span of a few days, he has probably shown some of the most growth among all the drivers I have trained in a while, although I feel as though one way to get better is through demonstration and experience," Cadman explains from the sidelines.
"That's a nice way of looking at it, Cadman." Says Brighid who was not far behind Raye upon arrival. "I look forward to your improved strength Nick."
"Does this mean that we're done for the day?" I said excitedly.
"Heh sure little bro, since I did torture you for the past few days, you deserve a break," Zenobia replied.
"Great, T-elos, would you like to hang out with me?" I remembered that spending time with your blades helps deepen the bond and improves both parties. I also noticed that Cadman gave me a nod of approval as if he knew what my plan was.
"I suppose, I have nothing better to do." Well, at least it wasn't no. We begin to walk out of the palace and into the City of Alba Cavanich.
"So do you have anything you're interested in T-elos?" I asked in curiosity since we haven't really done anything but train for the past few days. I noticed she took a second to process what I asked and then she began to speak.
"Music, I don't know why, but I like music."
"Hmm, it must be what you enjoyed in a previous life."
"Perhaps." I noticed that there was a street band playing music that attracted quite the crowd and told T-elos that we should check it out. As we walk over to the crowd the music got louder and louder, the tone was very upbeat and joyful.
"This music is pretty nice isn't it?" I was grooving to myself while trying to connect with T-elos. Although...
"The music is good, but I prefer slower music with a violin." Well everyone has their preferences I suppose. I start to look around for something else to do and noticed some food stalls.
"Hey, let's get something to eat. I've heard from Raye that the food here is pretty good."
"Sure, although I'm not very hungry," T-elos replied. We walked over to a nearby table.
"No problem, I'll just get us some snacks then! We'll probably eat at the palace anyway. You just sit here, I'll be right back." I walk away to one of the food stalls to see what they have to offer. I finally found one that had Sweet Lentil Buns. Raye apparently loved these things so I think we'll try it out.
"Hello miss, can I get 2 Sweet Lentil Buns?" I ask the lady at the stall.
"Sure but they're in the oven right now and won't be ready for a bit, however when they are ready, I'll reserve two just for you."
"Thank you." I pay the lady and start to walk back to the table where T-elos sat down when I get overwhelmed with the feeling of agitation. It must be T-elos. I run over to the table and find her being harassed by two guys who look...let's just say they were definitely tipsy.
"Hehe come on pretty lady, we just wanna have some fun." One of the guys put their hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, you might want to remove your hand," I interject. The man then takes his attention off T-elos and faced me.
"What are you gonna do boy, make me?"
"No, although she will." T-elos then grabs his hand and nearly breaks it while pushing him away.
"Argh, my hand, you'll both regret this!" The two men seemingly walk away and soon disappear into the crowd. I take a deep sigh and walk over to T-elos.
"Hey, are you okay?"
"I am now, it took everything in me not to squash those maggots right then and there." Maggots? I guess that's just T-elos being T-elos. "I appreciate your concern, however, it wasn't needed."
"I know, but I'm your driver, it's kinda my job to be concerned for you sometimes." I then felt the agitation go away and finally felt something warm from her emotionally. "Anyway the Sweet Lentil Buns must be ready by now, let's go together so guys like that won't come to harass you again." We then moved from the table to the lady who saved the two buns I bought earlier.
"Oh it's you again, here you go saved two just for the both of you" She handed each of us a bun.
"Thanks a bunch!" I and T-elos then start to walk towards the palace while eating the buns. "Wow, this bun is actually really good. No wonder Raye likes these so much."
"It is pretty good, but perhaps we should have bought one for Raye if that was the case." That's actually a pretty good idea. I tell T-elos that we should go back and buy an extra one for her, but then I feel a force pulling me to the ground. I land on my back which knocked the air out of me.
"Hehe, I told you that you would pay for interfering earlier" Huh? That voice sounds rather familiar. I try to regain the strength to stand up and see that it's the guy from earlier that put his hand on T-elos. Although, the other guy wasn't with him this time, but there was a Blade.
"Hey we don't want any trouble, how about we just forget this ever happened and go our separate wa-" He dashed at me with his Blade in tow, I'm not fast enough to react in time. I flinch and close my eyes but I then hear a crashing sound. I open my eyes to see T-elos in front of me with a shield. Purple blades appear around her body and. I guess I gotta train my reflexes a bit more.
"Hmm, so it seems the maggot returned, a grave mistake on your part. Nick let's do this." She summons her weapon and passes it to me. The man tries to attack again, but this time I block using the handle of the great axe. T-elos then pulled out what seemed like a small pistol from her hip and fired at the blade behind the man
"What she has two weapons? No matter, the runt is still too weak to beat me," The man then pushed his shield hammer farther down on me. That's when I jumped back super far, thanks to the jumping ability T-elos granted me when we resonated. Although I haven't gotten used to it yet, so I trip a bit but regain my balance.
"T-elos!" She jumps back next to me and I notice a blue line form between us albeit a little feint. I pass her the great axe and she performs one of the moves she was practicing at the training ground.
"ECHIDNA!" She then slashed at the blade which incapacitated him for the time being, she then used that momentum to kick the man to the ground. The fight was over and T-elos's weapon disappeared into thin air. Well, at least the fight ended pretty fast. Now then I guess he learned his lesson then. I look to my left and noticed that T-elos was gone. She was walking up to the man and put a foot on top of him. This can't be good.
"T-elos, what are you doing?" I ask in concern. When I walk up to her I noticed that she was smirking.
"Oh nothing just making sure this maggot learns his lesson thoroughly," She replies while pushing her foot deeper into the man's chest. I have to stop this before she actually kills him. I walk up to T-elos and try to convince her to remove her foot. She resisted at first but then complied. "Fine, I guess this maggot can consider himself lucky that my driver is a nice person". She began to walk away and I looked down at the man who was clearly in pain.
"Hey, we won't report you to the Imperial Guard, but you have to stop harassing women or just anybody in general. Just go home, okay?" The man nodded in fear and ran away with his blade in tow. I take a deep sigh and turn to T-elos. "You know we can't just kill people right?"
"I wasn't going to kill him, I just wanted to make sure he never does anything like that to other people." Wow, she's actually pretty caring. Although, she has a very chaotic way of doing things.
"Good job T-elos, let's get back to the palace." We start to walk back to the palace where Raye and Zenobia were still outside sparring Cadman and Herald. "Hey, guys, what's the score?"
"It's currently tied 12-12" Raye answers. "However, Herald has to hold back so who knows how our battles could have turned out."
"My abilities are too dangerous to just be let loose, therefore I have to restrain myself, Cadman also keeps me under control." I suppose that's fair enough. Herald does seem pretty powerful.
"Well maybe we can all agree that you're all strong so we can go eat with Empress Orla," I say that as my stomach rumbles softly. All that fighting earlier really made me hungry.
"Sure thing kid, I'm getting rather hungry myself." Cadman agrees as we all head into the palace to eat when we run into the Empress with another blade behind her. This one must be Aegeon.
"Ah, just the group of people I'm looking for. I found the gear, although I don't know what it goes to. It's definitely shaped uniquely, maybe the librarian in Tantal might know. It's rumored that she knows a lot about history."
"Ok thanks," Raye puts the gear in her bag and closed it. "It looks like we're going to Tantal tomorrow so after we eat, make sure to rest up!"
"Wait I'm coming too?" I asked in shock.
"Of course! We've gotta keep an eye on you somehow, especially since you now have a blade." Raye responds in a cheery tone. Afterward, we went in to eat dinner and went our separate ways afterward. T-elos and I went to our bedroom and got ready to go to sleep. T-elos slept in her own bed and I slept in my own. As I walked in the room I told T-elos that I was going to take a shower. When I came back, T-elos was on her way to take a shower as well, by the time she came out I was already in bed. I just stared at the top of the ceiling until I started slowly drifting off.
"Good night T-elos," Although I didn't get a verbal response. I could sense that T-elos wanted to say the same thing. Soon my eyes finally closed....
*CRASH*... 'Huh? Where am I?.... Oh no please don't tell me I'm under that building again. I don't want to die. Please someone help! Help me-"
"Help... Wha?" I opened my eyes to see that I was still in my bed in the palace. It must have been a dream then, although it seems like it is more of a nightmare. I sit up in the bed and noticed that T-elos was no longer in her bed. Instead, she was sitting near the window, the moonlight shining on her similar to a spotlight. It was honestly beautiful. She looked over at me and started to talk.
"It seems that you are awake, the immense feeling of fear I was feeling earlier seems to be gone now."
"Oh, sorry. I must have woken you up. It's just this nightmare was about when I almost died when I was under all that rubble. It's as if I was reliving it. I didn't want to go through that again." After I finished explaining what happened in my dream, T-elos looked out the window.
"Now that I'm here, you're less likely to be in that type of situation again." She's right. Drivers are less likely to be injured on missions or fights because of their blades. However, that doesn't mean it still happens constantly.
"Yeah, we'll get stronger together."
"Hmph, I'm already strong. You just need to catch up." Well, I guess that's T-elos being T-elos. However, thanks to her reassurance, I feel better about going back to sleep now. I lay back down and try to go to sleep again, next thing I knew I was drifting off to sleep.
***
I open my eyes to see that it was now morning, I get out of bed and prepared my things to head off to Tantal later today, although I don't see T-elos in the room. Maybe she already went to breakfast. Anyway, I better hurry up before Raye comes and breaks down the door. I wouldn't put it past her to try a surprise attack, she's sadly done it before. My body was sore for days. I finish packing my stuff and leave the room. As soon as I walk out, I run into the Empress.
"Oh! Good morning Nick."
"Ah good morning your majesty. I guess we both like to wake up late." She let out a little chuckle before we started to walk down the hallway.
"It seems so, by the way. I must say that you have shown exponential growth as a fighter since you bonded with your blade. Although that is common with most new drivers, your growth is higher than many cadets I have seen."
"Huh I didn't know you were involved with the cadets, or the military in general actually," I say in surprise. Although, she did take the forefront of the debriefing a few days ago.
"Well, one of my inspirations was Special Inquisitor Morág, who was considered the strongest in Mor Ardain during her time. While I'm definitely not as much of a fighter as she was long ago, I still feel like I want to have more direct involvement in the protection of the empire." Wow, it's nice that the empress has such a resolve to protect her people.
"Well if you want protection, you should have enlisted my sisters into the royal guard. Zenobia will just about fight anything she sees." I say jokingly.
"Oh trust me, both Cadman and I have tried. They seem to want more freedom, which I understand wholeheartedly." Wait they really got offered to join? I wasn't expecting that. "Either way you should probably get to the dining hall for breakfast it seems like you and your sister have a long day today."
"Yeah, you're right." The empress and I parted ways while I head to the dining hall where I see Raye stuffing her face like she usually does. "You know the dining hall is gonna run out of food at this rate.
"Ahhh nonsense! This is only my third plate! Besides, all of it gets burned off during the day anyway."
"Yeah because you always try to fight big monsters," I say laughing. "Oh by the way, have you seen T-elos? I thought she would be in here."
"Nope, but can't you use your sense thing you both have?" Oh right, I completely forgot about that. That also needs to be another thing we ask the librarian when we get to Tantal. So sat down next to Raye and closed my eyes. Ok Nick, try to focus... Ah ok, I feel her now. I get up and start to leave the dining hall.
"Hey Raye, I'll see you later!" She then replied, but her mouth was full so I couldn't really tell what she exactly said, but I assume it was along the lines of 'remember we leave today'. "Don't worry I haven't forgotten, but make sure you still have that gear!" I walk out of the dining hall with nothing but my literal senses guiding me throughout the palace. It soon leads me outside to the training grounds where I see Zenobia sparring against Herald. I then see T-elos sitting off to the side spectating. "Good morning everyone!" Everyone looked towards me with happy looks on their faces, except for T-elos, but I think that's just her regular mood.
"Morning little bro! We were just finishing our spar session, we'll probably be off to Tantal in an hour or so-" Zenobia got cut off while trying to dodge Herald's lightning attack. "Hey! No fair, you know my siblings are my weakness!" This situation seems oddly familiar to me.
"It's not a bad weakness to have, it shows that you care," Cadman says from the sidelines. I walked over to him, which was pretty far away from the two's sparring so we don't get caught in the crossfire
"Hey Cadman why aren't you sparring with Herald?" I asked him in curiosity.
"I'm letting Herald unleash a bit more of her power here. She insisted that it be safer for me here than in the match." Wow, I didn't know she was this powerful. "It's been recorded that Herald was so powerful that she had to be sealed away at one point. When I first resonated with her decades ago, I was warned that she was incredibly dangerous. However, I actually agree, but I'm not gonna let her go berserk on my watch, we've been fighting side by side ever since."
"Wow, it seems as if you two are extremely close," I said to Cadman while replaying his story in my head.
"Of course! After all the years we spent together, it's only natural" Cadman boasted. Although, it seems as if your sister seems to have a close relationship with Zenobia as well.
"Yea I guess you can say it was natural as well. Zenobia used to be our dad's Blade. We both grew up with her around the house all the time. Zenobia would sometimes go off on her own in the wild just to fight monsters since our dad wasn't really a fighter compared to her. She would bring back all the cool items that the monster dropped among other stuff she found. However, after our dad passed away due to illness, her core crystal went to my sister since she was older and already had a year of experience as a mercenary. That's why we both see her as a sister and not just a blade." I felt a presence and realized that T-elos is now next to me. "Hey T-elos, I'm guessing you heard all of that."
"I did, I never knew that humans and blades can consider each other siblings." T-elos said in a quizzical matter.
"Well, there have been cases of blades even being in relationships with people," Cadman interjected.
"Hmm, no matter. Nick, we should prepare to leave." Oh, that reminds me. I reach in my bag and pull out some aux cores I got during my first mission in Leftheria.
"Hey T-elos, I have some aux cores that we can go get refined before we leave."
"Hmm very well, I will go with you." We both make our way to the nearest aux shop with a furnace. The shop owner let us use their aux furnace, so we started to get to work.
*Time skip brought by T-elos spinning her weapon*
"Ok, that's all the cores refined! Let's see what we have here. We have one that boosts our power at max affinity!"
"That won't be very useful for us right now since we never reached that level before."
"Aww have some faith T-elos. I told you we would get stronger right? We'll reach that level eventually. Wait... how do I use these cores again?" I totally forgot to ask Raye how to use them once I refined them!
"Just give it to me," T-elos replied. I handed her the core and she placed it up to her core crystal. It started to glow as the core seemed to disappear from her hand.
"Woah! That was so cool. Let's see. Ah. This one increases the chances of us landing more critical blows, and this last one boosts attack, albeit not by much." She took the other two cores and used them as well. " Do you feel any different?"
"Not really, although we'll see in combat soon enough," T-elos replied. "Anyway, the train that's supposed to take us to the Tantal region should be here any minute."
"Right, let's go." We meet up with Raye and Zenobia and were surprised to see Cadman there as well. "Wait, you're coming with us too?"
"Of course, you're gonna a diplomatic escort of sorts when the time comes, not to mention that Kai can attack again at any moment." He's right. I was doing so much training that I forgot about him and his Blade. We'll be ready next time, for whatever plan he has thought up. "Well, then shall we get going?"
"Yea, of course, let's go!" Raye says with determination. With that, we board the train and it starts to depart for the region of Tantal.