"*sip*" Matthew took a sip of ice-cold Caesar.
His condition... could've seen better days. A bandage is somewhat visibly wrapped around his forehead followed by a few more bandages wrapping around his forearms. There were some bandages wrapped around his legs but his grey pants were covering it.
"You feeling better?" Kara asked nonchalantly, sitting next to his bed. Matthew looked at her.
"D-Director." She added in, realizing her mistake.
"No, that's fine. It's fine, No need to pile up more of your anxiety anymore than what you had to endure back at the temple. But to answer your question; Yes. I'm... Feeling fine." He replied, pausing a bit as his disorientation kicked back in a bit. The amount of mental strain he put himself through was an amount which he never anticipated back then.
"Director... How long will you keep putting that up?" Kara asked, her eyes facing down trying to avoid seeming confrontational, all the while her tone was more solemn than usual.
"What may you be referring to?" Matthew simply replied
"That S**t you did!" Kara raised her voice, while still maintaining her gaze fixed away from him. "You constantly risk yourself and you're only opening up more opportunities of revealing your own weakpoints, You and I both know what happened in that damn temple, and results that followed, If this keeps up-"
"Yes." He cut her off.
"You ar-... Huh?" Kara attempted to continue, before she was a bit stunned.
"You really think the same way as I do at the moment." Matthew commented, noting her visibly being caught off guard by that short and direct reply, Easily noting that she was recollecting the same things he was thinking regarding his overall mindset.
"I said Yes. I was stupid. To even attempt that honestly. That little fragment of naivety was still there, I was either naive or stubborn to assume that I have something like plot armour preventing me from succumbing to that amount of mental and physical pain." Matthew said, solemnly before continuing. "My subconscious was driving me into clinging on to my last semblance of my past self's hope, a wish to be on the heroic side, and under the guise of more mature motivations. And I was a stupid to cling to it." He said, noting him being in the direct middle of the conflict whilst simultaneously being responsible for the maintenance of a whole nation. Remembering about his naivety was slowly becoming a bit funny in his mind.
"..."
"Kara." Matthew soon continued, facing Kara.
"Yes, Director." She responded
"I- May you raise your head for a moment." He said, instantaneously cutting himself off at the beginning as he preferred speaking face-to-face as of the moment.
Kara reluctantly did so and anticipated his next words.
"Maybe you are right. I should stop. I guess I should... well sever everything, erase it, perhaps it's for the best at this point." Matthew said. Recalling Kara's past comments to stop the unnecessary involvement in the battlefield without knowing about his surroundings first, as it has clearly begun to prove it has done nothing but also cause negative effects to himself and potentially his allies, but further implying it may be necessary to not just essentially erase connection to his past life. His pupils are visibly dull as he considers it.
Kara internally froze upon hearing that, immediately knowing what he meant behind those simple words.
"Not everything." Kara cut in.
"Hm?"
"Director. Everything that made you reach this point was because of your past. Even then, simply erasing it all will do nothing good. You are basically deciding to lose yourself."
"Well, Isn't that better for everyone? After all, my only purpose was to just... Fix this world. And I have told you numerous times, In this grand scale, I'm nothing too notable other than a driving force, losing myself will do no harm in the long run."
"To the world Yes. But what about what you want...? Being a good leader or a saviour doesn't necessarily mean one should be selfless, in-fact I'm pretty sure there are some cases back on earth that it actually did more harm than good. And without you... Who's to stop this world from spiralling back into chaos?"
"Aurora has her plans."
"Aurora chose you because you are the most unique person she has ever found out about. You have things others may not have, things that made her specifically choose you for this. And I'm pretty sure, every other one she had brought was a mistake, but you... She spent such a long time with you, because she knows you're the right one for this job, not just a powerful being that can be replaced without a second thought. I mean why would she even bother talking to you, spent so much time on you, and guide you the way that she did in the first place, if you were just a pawn that can be replaced easily?" She said Matthew still a bit stunned by her sudden change in demeanour, and only further amplified.
"..."
"It may be appropriate to remove all the things that can only hinder your progression, your progression of what needs to be done, but you can never erase who you are, because if so, you really are just a pawn, everything that made Aurora choose you is now meaningless. Matthew... Please... We don't want that, I don't want that, Nobody deserves that." Kara said, still clenching onto Matthew's arm.
"...You're sweeter than you typically act, Kara. Thank you." Matthew replied, whilst laying a hand on her head. "You are starting to remind me of an old friend, honestly, That's quite cute." He finished. While Kara just smiled, before her face suddenly flushed a bit red.
"Oop." He blurted out and immediately reacted, catching a fist that was hurtling towards his face, as-well as another fist. "You're such a Tsundere at-times, Kara." He replied, Kara attempted to shake his grasp off, only for Matthew to pull her, eventually pinning her down on the bed, preventing her from moving more, her face only flushed even more red.
"Kara." Matthew Spoke.
"W-W-" She was unable to form words.
"...Uhh..." Matthew uttered as his eyes slowly widen vieiwng the whole situation at the moment. "This is awkward."
"...Screw it. Just do it." Kara uttered her blush visibly intensified.
—~~—Desmur Asylum—~~—
"*gasp* *heavy breathing*" Coen woke up, staring at a grey ceiling with a single light-bulb being the only form of illumination. He attempted to move his limbs only to look down to see his wrists and legs restrained by clutches, he was lying on some sort of metallic surface.
"Kh. Come on... F***ing budge-" Coen struggled as he attempted to loosen the grips.
"Heh..." A faint voice uttered.
"Wha? Who's there!? Show yourself!" Coen yelled.
"Now there's no need to be so aggressive." The voice uttered.
"I'll show you aggressive, you bastard!" Coen cursed as he more ferociously attempted to escape. And simultaneously attempted to summon his shadow tentacles, however a numbing feeling in his neck caught him off-Guard.
An Anti-magic Collar.
'F**k!'
"Now that isn't a very nice thing to say, Ico~" The voice cooed, Coen immediately froze, Ico was his nickname, a nickname only known to his long ago dead parents, and last known person in his life.
"Especially to me~" The voice said, as the figure possessing it stepped out of the shadowed corner of the room. A black robed Individual smiling with glee.
"...Dom...?" Coen faintly uttered in shock.
"Ico... Long time no see, huh?" Dominic said, as he leaned forward a bit, slowly walking towards the side of the table.
"Wha..." Coen looked on with horror. "What happened to you...? Why are you wearing that?" He asked disbelief in his tone, noticing his new somewhat unnerving look, he has gotten a bit ale, his pupils looked like they were spiralling, his lightly muscular but average build he remembered was now reduced to a slender androgynous build, and he was wearing a Nun's outfit.
"This? Oh, Just a little change is all, nothing much." Dominic nonchalantly replied.
"...W-... Hold on, Dom, quick, get me out of this thing!" Coen asked.
"Not yet... We still have a lot to catch up on."
"Catch up on...? What are you talking abou- . . . Don't tell me you've committed treason... Are you with them!?" Coen raised his voice, his suspicion arising with his anger.
"With them?" Another voice soon spoke up, and Coen looks to the other side of the room.
"No, we're unworthy of such a stance... We're following them~" the voice said, as the figure possessing it revealed herself.
"Who the hell are you...?"
"My name is Elora Matlock, Dear." She responded.
"El- Wait... You're..." Coen uttered, cutting his first word off as he recalled something stated back when he was in Urestan.
"Mhm~"
"You... died." Coen said, noting her supposed enslavement and subsequent death at the hands of Aurelia.
"The old me, Yes. The old... Unfaithful... Me. Is dead. And soon... Your dark and unfaithful past will be gone too~"
"W-What...?" Coen said.
"She means you'll see the truth, Ico. You'll... Be able to see Aurelia not as what Reichia has deemed it; an abomination, But for what it really is; A Gift."
"..." Coen's mouth was open a bit in shock at what his friend said. "*grunt* Dom, What has gotten into you! These bastards have done nothing but tainted our rightful image, our history, our sovereignty! Snap out of it!" Coen desperately Spoke.
"...Ico..." Dominic uttered, Coen calmed down a bit hopelessly anticipating a realization, but his distressed behaviour was sustained. "You're not being grateful..." Dominic finished.
"Kh! What... have... you... DONE!" Coen yelled at Elora, who only smiled warmly.
"You Cultist B***h! You corrupted him! Aurelia will burn! And it's burning carcass will be your fault! And Once it does, Hohoho...! I'll take personal pleasure in ramming that F******g smile off your face, and have you ganged up on before you'd be sent to the gallows!" Coen angrily yelled.
"...Fufufu..." Elora faintly laughed. "Oh... But I don't think you'll be capable of such acts anymore." She said, before ominously smiling madly.
Several figures soon emerged from the shadows within the room, other members of the Desmur asylum following.
"Huh?! Hey! Get your filthy peasantry palms off me, you C**ts!" Coen cursed. After his leg restraints were unlocked he rapidly kicked back only for both to be held down by the sisters.
"H-Hey! Stop That! Dom, Listen to me-!" Coen yelled as he soon felt his pants being fondled with.
"Yes, I'm listening, And it feels exciting~" Dominic cut him off. "To finally have my oldest friend right here, and converted like me, is a dream come true!" Dominic said, all the while
"Converted...? What do you mean converted!?"
"Hehe..."
"Ack! Hey! What ar-!" He was silenced as one of the nuns covered his mouth, and his pants were thrown away.
"Ow!" The nun covering Coen's mouth faintly shrieked as he managed to bite her palm. "*cough* You savages, let go of me! Your tainting of my chastity will never go unpunished!"
"Chastity? Oh~ We're not here for that~" Elora cooed, and the nuns managed to look his legs in place in a metallic restraining bar, the bar in question resembling a pillory, just with an archway formed in place of the area where the head should've been locked in.
"What is-" Coen asked, and a metallic rattle caught his ears, Coen's gaze was now focused ahead of him, and a sawblade soon protruded from the end of the table, just visible through the restraining bar's archway.
His pupils constricted, before his anger boiled.
"You B******s, You won't get away this barbarism, I'll have you just like this as your blood drips into a cauldron!" He yelled.
"Your threats are not really helping you, are they? Just calm down, it will be nice and slow, and in the end your conversion is the step for your cleansing~" Elora said, just as the sawblade was soon activated.
"Kh! Dom!" Coen attempted to call his friend, only to see him slowly walk towards the end of the table and grasping two handles located at the sides of the restraining bar, connected to the bar with rattling chains.
"Oh, Coen. You have No idea how happy I'am to finally see you become like me~"
"Dom! Please Stop! This isn't you! I beg you, don't!" He pleaded.
"And for me to be the one to convert you, I promise I'll be careful, for the sake of our dear lord and saviour." Dominic said, the last in an almost praying manner. As he slowly began to pull.
"Dom!" Coen yelled. Struggling to escape, coen is using his remaining strength to get loose, the other nuns nearby reacted swiftly and kept him pinned down.
"Kh!" Coen gritted his teeth as tears began to form, and his anti-magic began to vibrate.
"""Huh?""" The nuns looked puzzled upon looking at his collar, which soon. Cracked.
"GrrrAAAGH!" Coen yelled, as several black tendrils sprouted from the floor wrapping around some of the nuns, a couple were pierced by their abdomens and thrown across the room.
"Wha-?! Ico! How- Hey, Stop!" Dominic said, as Coen's tentacles attack from multiple directions, targeting the nuns, including Elora, who managed to dodge one and summoned her staff, focusing mana into a sharpened blade at the staff's tip and slicing off a number of tentacles.
"Agh!" Until one tentacle managed to grab her by the leg causing her to trip before flinging her upwards, slamming up against the roof, she fell down and was smacked aside mid-fall, slamming against a concrete wall.
"Ico!" Dom yelled as he promptly turned off the sawblade, while Coen quickly sat up, his eyes inverted, boasting a black sclera and white pupils. As his tentacles soon retracted and were now aiming towards Dom.
"Ico..." Dom said, and one of the tentacles promptly launched him back slamming against the metallic door of the room. "Ghk!"
Coen's tentacles aided him off the table and faced directly towards the downed Dominic. "Ghh...!" Coen uttered as his tentacles were soon sent towards Dominic.
"Please!" Dominic pleaded, as he raised his hands in-front of his face to protect himself. The tentacles abruptly stopped.
"I-Ico... *cough*. Please D-Don't..." He said lowering his arms, revealing tears forming in his eyes, a bruise on his cheek just faintly visible, one received upon impacting the wall.
"Ico..." Dominic said, while Coen's eyes slowly reverted back a bit, and his breathing slowed down. His expression gradually shifted from anger to worry.
"Dominic... I-"
Elora soon manifested in-front of Coen, implanting her staff into his chest, instantaneously applying a temporary mana storage nullification spell, simultaneously with a forceful shockwave, launching coen back onto the table almost knocking him out, and the mana-disconnection forced the tentacles to secede.
"Eneh..." Dominic chuckled. "Ico, Please Don't get carried away~" He said, managing to stand-up, before the other nuns soon arose, some were utilizing healing spells upon those gravely injured.
"*cough* Kh! Huh..." Coen uttered he raised his arm only to find out he is virtually unable to summon anything.
"W-Wha...?"
"Settle down now, Dear." Elora said, setting her staff back.
"Wh-! No! Let go of me!" Coen desperately tried to break free, but the nuns held him down. Dominic soon started up the sawblade, and locked his legs in the restraining bar once more.
"Please, Ico... We're only trying to help, this is what's best for you, I'd never forgive myself if you were to die a slave to this sinful hate against our God." He said, before pulling the bar again.
"No, Dominic! No! No! NO!"
"The beauty of it all..." Dominic lightly uttered.
"No-No-No-No-No!"
"The beauty of serving the lord til Death!" To Dominic said with an insane smile before he pulled the bar all the way. The sawblade shredding Coen's crotch area.
"AAAGGH-!" Coen screamed loudly tears streaming from his eyes before the same nun from before covered his mouth. His struggle gradually began to weaken as he slowly began to lose consciousness from the amount of blood being profusely spilled.
"Hush, now... It's all fine..." Elora said, as she raised her arms and began to heal and restructure Coen's castrated region. Dominic rushed towards Coen's side, the nuns backed away in response.
"Ico?"
"Kh... uuu..." Coen could only blurt out, his eyes appearing hazy, almost fluidic.
"Don't worry, Everything will be fine..." Dominic whispered trying to comfort him, and paused for a moment, before finishing his sentence.
"Sister."
—Royal Palace, Principality of Urestan—
"-And Lastly, the retrieval Force we have sent was unable to break through the enemy fortifications. And roughly a quarter of the number returned. The estimated casualties for the event were 60:1" The Young Urestanese messenger finished, setting the specified document of the recent ascertained events right by Adele's desk who bore a dark expression on her face. The same goes for the few elites that were present in the room when he entered.
The only ones excluded of this are a couple of Imperial Remnant officers & nobles, Who were attempting to negotiate with Adele with regards to military & policing endeavours, and a few Urestanese military individuals.
The messenger suffered a cold sweat at the silence and the stares he received from those present in the room. Some of similar anxiety, primarily the Reichians, but the elites evoked danger, and he almost felt like he was going to faint.
He grabbed onto his collar and pulled it a bit, attempting to pacify himself, to reduce the clenching feeling upon his neck for breathing.
His superior had assigned him to bring the document containing a few messages from the field; One were of the next batch of 'lend-lease' equipment from Altesa, Another was of the current activity with the forces attempting to eliminate the last remaining bastions of sanceryan resistance to the east, and another was of the retrieval force sent to breakthrough enemy lines and provide aid to the expeditionary group/army.
However one of them was of deep concern and that was a message sent by a manacomm device belonging to aforementioned group; the messenger's superior bore a rather unsteady expression upon reading it, and the young messenger himself was also a bit pressured and reluctant upon reading to Adele, who's expression had gradually darkened as he spoke its contents word-for-word.
The message was sent by enemy forces wishing for their conditional surrender, to the Aurelians it was nothing but a necessary demand, but to Adele it was a mockery. By this point her rage had boiled, not one, not two, but three, of those close to her were gone in the snap of a finger.
"...So, Uhh..." one of the Reichian nobles, who didn't really care for this conflict but just wanted some relaxation and silence in the end, Spoke.
"Silence." Adele uttered, and the noble shut his mouth, whilst sweating bullets at the daunting tone.
(A/N: Well, at-least he got what he wanted. Some silence.)
"All Non-Military Personnel in this room... Please exit for now."
"But-" one of the other nobles next to the first spoke up, attempting to protest.
"NOW!" Adele aggressively yelled, and the noble backed away.
"What did I just say...?" She coldly said and the Reichian nobles and their escorts, followed by Urestanese maids exited the room. The Messenger looked back as the door closed, before turning back to Adele, the few Elites, and the military personnel remaining, and gulped.
"So... She's gone?" Adele asked, her tone as cold as ice.
"...M-Most likely, considering the fact the reports of the Aurelians way of combat followed by their military prowes-"
"Don't you f*****g say anything that can in any way compliment those fiends!"
"Yes, your highness...!" The messenger responded as he lowered his head, staring to the floor, refusing to make visual contact.
"Look at me..." Adele commanded, and the messenger slowly raised his head "I want you to send a message to Altesa's diplomat back at the embassy, Call him here, I request for another negotiation." Adele said, while not directly, implying she's dead-set on one-upping Aurelia through number.
"At once, your highness." The messenger said immediately heading out the door. And Adele gestured her hand for the military commanders to step forward and towards an area just in-front of her desk.
"Your highness..." One of the urestanese military commanders spoke, a General.
"What." She responded.
"What Aurelia has done cannot be forgiven, however I must talk about your choice of tactics-"
"Well, do you have something in mind, General?" Adele said in an almost monotone voice, a hint of annoyance behind it.
"Yes." He responded, and Adele silently Crossed her arms waiting for an explanation. "However it does not include just throwing more men and weapons at the enemy. It is a waste of money for just slightly slowing down Aurelia's advance. And it's your anger that prevents this from being realized."
Adele contorted from that last statement and was just about to lash out at the General only to be stopped by one of the Elites just near.
"Your highness..." She said, a worried tone in her voice. Adele sighed and composed herself, waving her hand to signalling for the General to continue.
"What I'm saying is; Aurelia has, as far as I'm concerned, experienced Enemies who have done nothing but just throw themselves at them, in any possible way. Enemies that arrogantly try to keep a battle code that has already been outclassed in this day and age. It may be possible to use this to our advantage, as we begin to use more unconventional tactics; less line formations, less charging, less screaming. It's preferable to fight less in open-fields, and more within our forested regions, or areas where uneven and mountainous terrain can be used."
"..." Adele closed her eyes, pondering it. Adele saw no reason to even discard this decision.
'To avenge them... Is to Win. To fail them... is to be blind.' she thought, repeating the line for a few moments.
"Your highness?"
"Fine." She said, "I'll see to it that these Aurelians will be pushed back." Adele said.
"Now, How are our overseas bases?"
"All accounted for, your highness. This includes all personnel and equipment stationed on each."
"And how about our mainland border fortresses?"
"All accounted for. However security has been significantly increased, ever since Aurelia managed to take over the city.
"Hmm... I want you to draft a bait force to pay these Aurelians a visit."