Chapter XVI
"First off I want to thank each leader here today for taking time away from their personal nations to discuss a method of unity in this new beginning in Elysium," I started.
"I would also like to congratulate the newly crowned King Zeke von Genbu and wish him a long and prosperous reign," I continued. He gave me a wink and the other leaders applauded him, it was definitely sweet.
"Now, I would like to ask, starting with Queen Raqura and working clockwise, what the biggest issues are in regards to a coalition between nations actually coming to pass. Queen Raqura?"
"The biggest issue in my opinion was dwindling land that grew to be a bigger threat than we initially realized. With Tantal I had an issue with them being so secretive, but I've always respected Emperor Niall. Any man willing to risk his life for the sake of someone he's been threatening war with for a greater cause has my greatest respect."
"King Zeke?"
"I have no objections whatsoever in attempting to form this alliance. The rulers before me made a mistake when they cut off the rest of the world, I intend to do the opposite."
"Emperor Niall?"
"I have only had issues with Tantal's secrecy as well. I believe that Queen Raqura is respectable and only wishes to look after her kingdom, just as I would mine."
"Ok good!" I started, "then the writing of this treaty can begin. Nia, will you bring out Adenine?"
"Yeah, sure," she responded, and soon Adenine was in front of us.
"Salutations, how may I be of assistance?" she asked Nia.
"Help out Waylon over there, would ya?" Nia asked.
"Ah yes, the new Aegis driver!" she said turning to me. She curtsied and held out her hand. "I am Adenine, pleasure to meet you!"
"Likewise," I said, doing a courteous bow and shaking her hand in response.
She laughed. "Definitely more of a gentleman than these simpletons," she said, referring to Zeke, Rex, and Tora.
I laughed back. "Hey Adenine, I know you enjoy reading, but do you mind writing something for me?"
Adenine looked both excited and shocked by the question. "Oh! A real challenge for my brain? What do you have in mind to put my cognitive abilities to the test?"
"I knew I could count on you," I smiled. "I need you to help write a treaty between all of the nations of Alrest. In doing so, every word, if agreed upon by everyone, will set a new course in history for the land of Elysium."
Her eyes lit up like the Fourth of July! ...Not that anyone on Alrest would actually understand that simile. "Why I would be absolutely honored!" she said ecstatically.
"Thank you kindly!" I replied before turning back to the leaders. "The first order of business is to completely abolish the Ardanian, Urayan, and Tantalese armies."
"Have you gone mad?" the queen stated. "What if a cruel emperor were to rise to power, how would we protect ourselves?!"
"I quite agree with Queen Raqura," Emperor Niall added.
"None of you will be a threat to each other anymore. You will not be a collection of allied nations working in coalition. You will be the provinces of Mor Ardain, Uraya, Tantal, Gormott, and Leftheria in the nation of Alrest on the land of Elysium," I explained.
"All three of you, in the brink of an apocalypse stood in front of your people. All three of you, including King Eulogimenos, used your own private ships to get people to safety. If you could care about all people in the way you cared for your own, there would never be any need of war. The three of you, together with two more, will continuously decide what is best for the benefit of all of Alrest, not just your own nations."
"Two others?" Emperor Niall asked.
"Yes, a representative of Leftheria. And, Emperor, as part of the treaty I would like you to release control of Gormott and allow them to become their own nation," I said.
"And why would I do that?" he asked.
"What's the reason you took Gormott in the first place?"
"For land, of course. For when Mor Ardain's titan lost its life," he responded.
"With this treaty, all nations will receive equal amounts of land from Elysium and will each have more than enough land. People will be able to enter any province at any time, regardless of birthplace. So if someone doesn't like Mor Ardain's climate, they can move to Uraya, Gormott, or Leftheria with ease. Thus the land will be equally spread. Any abundant resources from one province will be shared with all provinces. All wealth, resources, and land will be shared equally with everyone."
"And how about decision making?" Zeke asked.
"Majority rules. Each province's leader will receive one vote. The province's leaders will take a vote from each of the province's citizens. It is then up to the leaders to heed the voice of the people. If the votes of the people are evenly distributed, then the leader will cast the deciding vote."
"And what if one of the leaders were to be evil?" Raqura asked.
"Then it will be the job of the other leaders to take notice. If majority votes that one leader is uninterested in the betterment of Alrest, then that leader shall be voted out, receive punishment for crimes, and then a new one shall be elected by the province's citizens."
"And what punishment shall occur?" Niall inquired.
"Any leader who is dethroned may have more influence outside of leadership than he did while in leadership. This punishment, to avoid any civil war, shall be a quick, painless, and immediate death."
"That seems reasonable," Zeke stated, to the other leaders' dismay. Zeke quickly explained himself. "Any leader who fails to serve his or her people in every way that he or she can is not fit to be ruler. So by threatening death for failure to carry out laws and hold honor should be a great motivator in not choosing to fail us all as a people."
"Agreed," I continued. "This will ensure that people like Praetor Amalthus aren't kept in power as they have been."
"But Amalthus was in power much longer than any of us were alive! We had no way of knowing all of the horrid things he had done. How do we keep that from happening?" Queen Raqura added.
"Simple," I replied. "Mythra, KOS-MOS, and Adenine all have knowledge of events that had happened long ago. While there see many others like myself who have learned through unnatural methods the events which took place 500 years ago, they were actually there. Together, they will compile a book containing all of the events that can be found from as far back as can be remembered. After that is done, any blade that exists from this point on will be required to write down all the events that take place in journals, to be sent back to the established capital immediately after death and be added to history. No blade will have to lose their memories because all data will be kept and be available for viewing at any time. The journal must contain the following: Blade Name, Detailed Description of Blade Appearance, and Recordings of History according to the blade itself. These journals will be distributed by the government itself and will be tracked via the GPS's found in both Ardanian and Urayan ships. If a blade dies and the journal is in the middle of a forest where little human activity is present, we'll know exactly where it is."
Adenine had been furiously writing all of the information down.
The leaders seemed to be content.
"I believe I speak for all of us when I say I want to see this work," Emperor Niall started. "So if I may, I would like to sit with Miss Adenine and the leaders of Uraya and Tantal to pan out this in detail over the next few days."
"Absolutely, how about in Leftheria? There's been no dramatic war tension there and it may be a great place to lay low and even find a way to get a Leftherian representative," I recommended.
Both Zeke and Raqura agreed.
"And what of Indol and the Firewood Forest?" Queen Raqura asked.
"The Firewold Forest is off limits to everyone. It's too dangerous to go in there now. As for Indol, I have an idea on how to take it on, but afterwards I believe we will denote that entire land as cursed and will be forbidden from ever being explored by anyone. I believe Mythra should also destroy all laboratories and rooms using Siren as to make sure this awful blade eater technology never gets used again."
"Why call it cursed though?" Niall asked.
"Countless people were forced into horrific experiments with equally horrific effects. They would be driven to insanity, forget who they were, and most importantly, were given a forced lust to cause the most awful, long-lasting, and brutal deaths imaginable."
"I... I back this decision. Even if we choose not to sign this treaty, I believe that would be best in general." Queen Raqura admitted.
The other two agreed.
"Adenine, can you make a small, second agreement to erase Indol as a nation in case the main treaty isn't signed?" I asked.
"Of course, Waylon," she confirmed.
"So how do we tackle the monsters in the forest now?" Zeke asked.
"Our troops are thinly spread as is. There's no way we could send qualified troops to deal with this threat," Niall added.
"And the strongest of our troops are busy preparing to defend land against that wretched blade Cereza," Raqura finished.
"Well lucky for us, we have the leader of the Garfont Mercenary Guild sitting with us right now!" I responded.
Rex stood up. "Yeah, we should definitely be able to help out." He stopped to think. "But we can only send three squads at once."
"And why is that?" I inquired.
"Because that's all we can keep track of at any given time."
"What if we didn't have to?"
"Well then there'd be no problem I guess...," he replied.
"King Zeke, may I borrow KOS-MOS?" I requested.
"Knock yourself out!" And with that, KOS-MOS appeared.
"How may I be of assistance?" she asked me.
"Simple, we are going to be sending out a large amount of mercenary groups. Some to keep people out of the forest, some to do reconnaissance on Indol, and some to begin blade eater extermination in the forest. I need you to keep a detailed account of what blade gets sent where. Is that in your range of functions?"
"Affirmative. Commencement of said task will be of no issue to me," she responded.
"Adenine," I said, turning to her. "After you finish this treaty, we'll start sending these teams out, I would like you to keep a written record of all information kept by KOS-MOS."
"Absolutely!" Adenine said excitedly.
"Does anyone object to this?" I asked.
Zeke, Nia, and Rex agreed with it.
"Then it's settled, once this treaty business has concluded, meet up in Uraya with the Mercenary Guild and start sending people out!"
"Affirmative!" KOS-MOS and Adenine said in unison.
"Alright! Azurda," I called.
"Yes, how may I be of service?" Azurda asked.
"I know this may be asking a lot, especially at your age, but can you provide protection for the leaders while they remain in Leftheria. And then help the mercenary blades get to and from places until we can ready ships?"
"Would this entail emergency evacuations if a mercenary group was ever in a spot of danger?" Azurda asked.
I nodded in response.
"A tall order for sure.... However, seeing as you are all putting in so much work into this land and seeing as I've mostly sat in a salvager helmet for most of this journey, I will be happy to oblige," he agreed.
"Thank you Azurda, it means a lot."
Suddenly, Roc chose to show himself to us. His brightly-colored feathers and loud voice startled us.
"I would very much like to assist in this matter. Especially since we have had no luck in locating Vale...," he pointed out.
Mythra gasped.
"Oh no...," I uttered.
"What is it?" Rex asked.
"It's been so many days, I forgot to tell you. I-," I was cut off.
"Cereza captured Vale and destroyed her core crystal. It appears Cereza has the ability to absorb ether weapons from blades by taking the information out of their core crystal," Mythra finished.
Rex looked down in sadness. "This- This isn't your fault Waylon. It's mine. I hadn't even noticed she was gone!"
"You couldn't have," I replied. Mythra's the only one who could have seen her at the time, maybe Zeke. She moved too fast for you. But now that you and I have become Master Drivers, it won't happen again."
"You so sure about that?" a new voice giggled out.
Rex and I both pulled the True Aegis Swords immediately.
"She's gone!" I said.
"Everyone sound off!" Mòrag yelled.
They began sounding off, but Pyra and I both went sick to our stomachs as we both realized who she'd taken.
She had taken Mythra.
"REX, SCYTHES, NOW!" I yelled.
He immediately threw me Roc's dual scythes, I put them on my belt and leapt off of Azurda, who was hundreds of peds in the air. Roc flew after me.
Roc caught me before I hit the ground and we landed with a roll.
"Some warning would be nice next time!" he said, breathing heavily.
"Nah, you have good instincts, let's go!" I replied.
"Do you even know where she is?" she questioned, following close behind me.
"Knowing Cereza, she's right...,"
A Siren blast, not too far away, interrupted me.
"Right there!" I exclaimed as we moved.
When we got there, Cereza had already beaten her and chained her to a wall, before I could react she moved behind me, incapacitated Roc, and chained him up next to her as well.
"She put up quite a fight!" Cereza giggled. "But apparently even the True Aegis is no match for me!"
"So what now?" I asked, skipping the dialogue.
She laughed. "Right to the point I see. Good." She pulled out her sword. "Before you are two blades, the Aegis, and the bird. You will have thirty seconds to decide which one lives. Failure to decide in this time will resort to me killing them both. Time is starting now."
My muscles tensed up and I felt my stomach churn. "Wh-What do you mean?!"
"Twenty-five seconds, who dies?"
I pulled the True Aegis Sword. Mythra stopped me.
"Trust me, that's not going to work," she said.
I had to think of something else.
"Twenty seconds."
"Mythra..., what do I do?" I asked in panic, she teared up, knowing what may happen.
I was at a loss for words.
"Fifteen seconds."
"Waylon...," Roc addressed me. "I haven't known you long...,"
"Roc! No! Don't you say it like that!" I cried out.
"Ten. Seconds."
"Listen to me!" Roc shouted. "In all of my days, I've lived by one rule. Get the job done. If this bitch gets Mythra's sword you're all done for. I'm confident in knowing that my lives have all been meaningful and that I've helped many people with issues that they have had. I know in my heart, that I have always been who I am now. And I'll gladly take this as a mercenary's death. I will die as I lived! I will die Roc! I always have been Roc, and now, I'll die knowing I always will be. So please, focus on this moment, rescue Mythra, bury me here, and then kick her ass!"
"Three."
I still didn't want to.
"Two, boy."
But I accepted his decision, tears flew down my cheeks.
"One."
"Roc will die," I said, wanting to punch myself in the gut.
Cereza stopped. "Very good."
She immediately appeared in front of him and shoved her sword through his crystal, prying it out and taking it in her hand.
"Heh, burn in Hell," Roc said, spitting in her face before she broke his crystal, allowing a black, crystalline version of the dual scythes to appear in her hands.
"I'd kill him again too," she said, obviously pissed off. She then disappeared and Mythra was released.
Roc turned into ether dust and I rushed to and hugged Mythra.
"It wasn't your fault, it wasn't your fault!" she told me.
Rex and the others showed up immediately afterwards.
"What happened? Where's Roc?!" he demanded.
"H-He's gone."
Readability Level: 11th-12th Grade (Lol, Adenine's in it and the Readability level jumps 1-2 grades)
Time Taken: 4 Hours
Please do not use without permission. All artwork is not mine and credit goes to the artist.