miracleweaponhunt

[miracleweaponhunt]

Miracle Weapon Hunt Chapter 83: The New World

Three months had passed since the Legion's defeat, and life had returned to some level of normal. Or at least as normal as it could be. The first major shakeup after Chelic's death was Luminita stepping down. As soon as the castle was made somewhat presentable, Luminita announced the royal line would end with her, and within a few weeks an election was called. The winner was a lady called Ruxandra Popa, an education consultant who worked with Marcel on a few issues, beating the Zeus cult hastily chosen new leader in a landslide. Luminita herself moved out of the castle, living in an apartment close to the local college, where she could continue her studies without much hassle. Willow made regular visits, but they became more and more regular to the point she just moved in. Freyja didn't mind.

The next event was Cassandra and Roxanne leaking that the old world still existed. After this was known, both the Lux Congregation and the souls that once resided in the weapons tried establishing some kind of contact. Mia herself made an effort to learn how to land her own grand, and making contact with the town below was a great success. Roxanne's parents met up with her again, as did Cassandra and Aspacia, the latter revealing that she was in fact a god. Roxanne eventually met up with the boy they discussed when she first landed, and surprise surprise, she felt nothing. It took a while for Roxanne's parents to accept this, but they got used to it eventually. A lot of people moved to the surface, and vice versa. And once full integration was made, a few people had the idea of setting out further to see if anything lay further beyond the forest.

But even if Roxanne was interested in love, she probably wouldn't be able to fit it into her schedule with all the Legion kids she had to reform. If Chelic's defeat led to anything, it was a bunch of terrified kids who needed both parental figures and an education. A woman named Priyanka in Gurut worked on the former, with an orphanage being started to help the Legion kids. And while Roxanne wasn't officially staff at first, she was called in to help with paperwork and getting the kids back with their biological parents. The Gurut royal family did eventually start paying her on commission for her, so that was something. But her, Cassandra and Samuel's main job was trying to help them fit into society under the New Miracle Scouting Group, which expanded merely from hero work to a board for any job. It was pretty successful, to the point it expanded from just for Ex-Legion members to an entire website for anyone in the skyspace to use. As well as the town below at some point, but they didn't have internet yet.

The heroes kept doing what they did. While there were way less Chelic sympathisers than anticipated, they still popped up from time to time. So the heroes all worked to beat them, and pretty much every time was a success. Julian was able to heal them all up back in the Miracle Ship. He wore gloves at pretty much any point after the hole in his hand, only removing them to scare some Chelic fan into behaving. It was honestly a miracle his hand could still function. But Luminita eventually offered him a free course in the same university she was attending, because relying on dead bugs served him well so far, but it probably wouldn't hurt to learn actual medicine, just in case.

And once everything was over, Fightston continued the games, bringing back everyone who wanted to attend. A few people from the surface entered, and were formidable in their own rights. Despite that, the finale still ended up being Cassandra versus Willow. And after a hard fight, Cassandra barely etched the win out.

And despite how hard the work felt, seeing an ex-Legion member either be reunited with their parents or finding a new family felt great, doubly so if they were able to find a place in society after all they went through. And that extended to the top ten. Levin himself was too far gone, not regretting anything he did, and was locked in a cell. Mia still made time to visit him, but any discussions were short lived. Manuel made his way to Miracle about a month after with the idea to expand the Miracle Scouting group further. He locked himself in a room and came out two days later with a website. After that he just stuck around until he found a cybersecurity job and moved out with only a small goodbye note afterwards, alongside what seemed like a poem in Xander's memory, but the handwriting was bad so they couldn't make out anything about the poem other than it seemed dedicated to Xander. And the other members had decent jobs after disappearing for a little while. Dakarai actually shown Samuel a picture of Ziwadi, enjoying a new life working in construction.

And during late nights, Roxanne, Cassandra, and Julian would just spend time on the roof of the airship. Watching over the serene landscape of the skyscape. And when they had less to work with, whenever that was, they'd just explore the world below.

Because for the first time in Roxanne's life, it truly felt like the sky was the limit.

[miracleweaponhunt]

Miracle Weapon Hunt Chapter 82: The New World

Cassandra left the ship as Mia and several soldiers entered from the bottom, wiping the blood from her face and trying to get it off her clothes. After a few minutes some Legion members were escorted out. Some enraged, some terrified. Most merely compliant. She sat by with Roxanne, neither saying a word. Merely letting the morning sun warm them.

"You think Mia's gonna be fair to the Legion kids?" Cassandra asked, breaking the silence after a few minutes.

"Hope so." Roxanne sighed. "Think we should help with that? I interview them and try to get them back to their families, you make sure they're stable and step in when they aren't, and Julian can work on healing them if they're sick."

"Honestly doesn't sound too bad. Something to do, at least" Cassandra sighed as she fell back, almost hitting a man's shoes. She sprang upwards in a panic, grabbing her weapon and pointing it at the mysterious figure. Who turned out to be Marcus.

He was there in the castle. Not moving, not reacting to anything. And that continued on the rooftop. Remaining nonchalant with his hands to his back, even with a spear pointed in his face.

"What do you want?" She asked, taking a step to ensure Roxanne wasn't in his line of sight. For whatever he could do.

"Well, I just wanted to congratulate you on your victory." Marcus said calmly, laying a finger at the spear and slowly moving it away from him. "After all, it's not every day I can witness Aspacia's daughter fight for what she believes in."

Cassandra's eyes widened at the revelation. She turned back to Roxanne, who looked just as stunned.

"You know my mom?" She asked.

"We came with the same purpose." He said calmly. "But if you want me to elaborate, I'm afraid we'll have to be alone."

Without saying anything, Roxanne went back into the castle through the window. Marcus sat down, and Cassandra sat opposite, laying her spear between the two of them.

"So." Marcus began. "What do you know about Aspacia?"

"I know she's my mom."

"And that's it?" He asked.

"We didn't get a lot of time to catch up." Cassandra replied. "But anyway, how do you know her?"

"Like I said, we had the same purpose. We were sent from a higher plane to guide this world when humanity emerged."

"So are we aliens?"

"We're more like gods."

Cassandra stared blankly at him. His demeanour didn't shift.

"I should clarify Aspacia and I are gods. It's a process you have to undergo, so a child of a god is mortal in all but status."

"Okay, so if you had to guide us, why did you team up with Chelic?"

"Well, guidance can be anything. Some just choose to align with interesting people. I thought his idea of taking the world back from those who doomed it was interesting, and possibly noble. But he went mad from power, tale as old as time. It's a bad trend amongst mortals who ally with us. And Aspacia tried sending you to save the world. And it seems she succeeded."

"Okay, succeeded?" Cassandra asked. "So what, you just pit mortals against each other for fun? To give something to report to your god bosses?"

"This world you inhabit is just one of millions. Possibly billions. Possibly more than that. And when humanity is established, gods from different alignments have to come and guide the world. These gods clash until one is left. Some fight themselves, and some get mortals to fight on their behalf."

"So when does it end?" Cassandra asked.

"When a god either dies or gives up." Marcus shrugged. "And I gave up. So congratulations on the new world."

He stood up, and for the first time a smile crept onto his face.

"I'm in for it now."

He stood at the castle roof, waving to Cassandra one last time before jumping off. And when Cassandra looked down, he was already gone.

Luminita was allowed back in her castle after a few hours. She would obviously be helped later on, but everyone else had their own issues to address. She looked around her destroyed castle. She walked past the crude graffiti and walked around the smashed chandeliers. She walked upstairs to her fathers room, which had it's doorway covered in tape. But nobody was around to stop her walking in, so she did that.

In front of her was two bloodied corpses. One was apparently Chelic himself, but his faced was bloodied and maimed to the point she couldn't tell. And on top of him was Xander. The man who caused her so much pain, dead in front of her. Looked painful too, with the snapped neck and bloodstained head. And yet, she couldn't help but shed a few tears for him.

She left the castle and took one more look at it.

She didn't want the castle.

She didn't want the title.

She didn't want any of this.

This was something she was forced into over the course of a few days. She wanted to persue medicine, for god's sake! She was nineteen years old, had almost no life experience, and suddenly she was being put in charge of one of the grands alongside people at least twice her age?! Nothing about it made sense!

She grabbed her phone from her pocket, breathing heavily as she brought up Mia's number. She looked at it for a couple seconds. Anger was building up. Anger that Mia didn't deserve. She stopped for a second, and finally called the number.

"Luminita?" Mia asked. She sounded concerned from the get go, which was probably the most reasonable tone to have.

"Look, Mia…I'm done."

"Excuse me?"

"Ruling Sangaria. I…I won't be able to do it. Once the crisis is over, I'm turning the place into something more democratic, like Inariu or Fightston."

"Right now?! You don't want to guide the people to-"

"No, actually!" Luminita yelled. She regained her composure.

"I want to go back to medicine." She said calmly. "It's what I've wanted since my mother died, and once I have a successor is chosen, I'm going back."

"I see." Mia whispered. "But have you-"

"I'm not changing my mind. Goodbye, Mia."

Luminita took one more look at the castle. What she'd even do with it, she had no idea. She went back for what could be the final time, calling Willow to see if she was still around to talk.

[miracleweaponhunt]

Miracle Weapon Hunt Chapter 82: I'm Nothing

Chelic was looking out of the window at the crashed airships littering the castle's entrance. He was holed up in what used to be Marcel's old room, because it was the highest point for a rescue ship to come in and take him out of this nightmare. His top eight he brought with him were all taken out. The lack of commotion made that pretty clear. The only sounds were a few footsteps that echoed in his mind with every step getting closer. So with nothing left, he opened his phone and called Cheng, who immediately picked up.

"Cheng…It's Chelic. I'm not gonna lie, things don't look too good right now. Look, if I don't call back in twenty minutes, then assume I'm dead. You take charge of the Legion, and you're free to do whatever it takes to destroy everything."

He hung up before Cheng could shout something and blow his cover. The only thing to do now was wait for his foes to leave the castle and hopefully sneak out. But then footsteps approached his door. He stood in terror as it opened, revealing Xander and…some other lady. Him and Xander locked eyes. Xander felt energy well up in his hand, and a dagger appeared in his hand. He threw it forward, and the first thing Chelic did was dodge the attack, but in a panicked way so it caught his ear and was beginning to draw blood. The second thing he did was beg.

"Xander, Xander. Come on, now. Look, I did everything I did with a purpose, okay? You saw these royals, right? How corrupt the system is? Look, I should mention the king, who you killed, died, and then his daughter takes over by virtue of being related and messes it all up! All I'm saying is-"

Xander punched him in the head before he could continue.

"Shut it." He said coldly as he grabbed him up by the neck. "Explain Tsuki to me."

"Accident!" Chelic replied quickly. "An accident on you. You try to screw up my hard work and then I accidentally kill someone. As a leader, it happens!"

Xander dropped him. His mind was clear. He kicked him to the ground, watching the terror multiply in his eyes as he began stomping his head, dropping himself to his level to pummel him to the ground. Chelic shot a chain from his hand, getting Xander straight in the skull. He started dropping, but his slurred speech was enough for Cecelia .

"B-boost me. As much as you can."

Cecilia did as he asked, getting the tendrils to pump him full of hot blood. In one swift motion, the chain was broken from his head in a snapping noise that echoed through the room. Chelic knew this was it, as Xander began laughing hysterically. His friend didn't think it was funny, but he kept punching him with his one arm. He stomped on his arms until both were broken. He summoned another dagger and stabbed his left eye with with it. And some of the only things he could see through his now hazy vision was Xander punching him, and even that slowly began to go dark.

Xander looked back at Cecilia when he finally stopped moving. He wasn't playing dead, he was done. At least in this world, and he was probably gonna be forced to check. He felt the blood pouring from his head, and his neck was broken. The impact was only kicking in now that the blood from Cecilia was merging with his system.

"Hey, Cecilia. Thanks for the help."

He gave a smile and raised his remaining fist in victory. And then he dropped dead.

Back in the cluster, Cheng waited, looking at the clock above Chelic's bed. It was twenty minutes since he called. His girls were trying to console him, but he knew it was fake platitudes. He honestly didn't know what to do now. He could have a few moments of denial but he knew that wouldn't help the situation. Chelic was dead, and he knew what he had to do. He got his phone and began calling Manuel.

"Manuel, where are the ships controls?" He asked. He was trying his best to sound calm, but the most crucial part of his plan working was that nobody in here could know what it was.

He followed Manuel's instructions to the ship on the top. One of the first airships assimilated into the cluster, which was connected to more ships. He wasn't sure if it was even capable of starting, but he went through the procedures any other airship would go through to start.

And it did.

It was fairly obvious the ship hadn't been used in a while as it jerked forward. It was a few metres, and probably disturbed the others on the cluster. But that didn't matter. Once the heroes were destroyed once and for all, he'd be able to claim it, and continue Chelic's legacy.

Roxanne helped the others get out of the castle with Mia. Julian was awake, and so was Samuel. She let Capri and Zee mourn Gam, and luckily nobody else got injured too badly. A wave of relief washed over her. Everything was over. The Legion members that survived were being taken in by some soldiers Fightston sent over. All it would take was Luminita getting some help to clean the castle and then she could take back the throne. She and Cassandra shared one long hug, and she wasn't afraid to let the tears end. But at the back of her mind was her parents. They were below in a world that for sure existed. So obviously she needed to tell everyone they were alive, and to perhaps establish some kind of contact with them. But that could wait until tomorrow. She could remind Willow, and she'd be on the warpath until Freyja relented and she was back with them.

"I'm sorry, what?!" Mia yelled out, her eyes opened in panicked as she got the news. She quickly looked around the rooms.

"Everyone!" She yelled. "There's one more push to destroy the castle. The Legion's airship cluster is about to crash, so we all need to get out!"

Everyone did as she instructed, carrying the wounded and prisoners. But not Roxanne. She grabbed Cassandra's arm as she was about to leave.

"What are you doing!" She asked as her neck snapped back to her.

"Cassandra, listen to me." Roxanne whispered. She made her voice as neutral as possible, she had to make sure there was no fear in it. "We need to get to the castle's roof. If that happens, I can stop it."

Luckily, Cassandra went with her to the top of the castle with no panic or questioning. An energy was building up within Roxanne. She was confident. Perhaps that was it, pure confidence running through her veins. As she made her way through the hallways and staircases, her stamina didn't dissipate even a little. Until finally, the two were on the roof, staring directly at the mass of old airships in front of them. Cassandra wasn't wavering, her trust was fully in whatever Roxanne was planning. As it got closer, Roxanne felt the energy in her body move to her hands. They felt the need to explode, and let this energy out. And as the cluster was within distance, she thrust her hands forward. One word rushed to her head.

Nothing.

The cluster stopped. Roxanne stepped back, and Cassandra grabbed a weapon and went to the top. She smashed the window open, where Cheng was waiting. He stared at her with his one good eye, shaking violently. He grabbed a gun and put it to his head with a sadistic grin on his face.

"Will this work?" he asked himself. Cassandra ran to stop him, but he pulled the trigger. When the click was made, she braced herself.

And then he dropped dead.

The pain didn't transfer. Cheng was just…dead in front of her. His blood was on her face, and that was the impact of the fight. So with nothing left to do, she called Willow and told her it was safe to finish the job, for real this time.

[miracleweaponhunt]

Miracle Weapon Hunt Chapter 79: Halfway Point

Levin was a master in his craft. He would quickly dart around each of the three fighters, either shooting a beam towards one of them or wrapping his hands in the light energy and trying to stab or slash them with it. Cassandra was pretty capable of deflecting the attacks without much effort, but the lack of force meant he clearly wasn't acting at full capacity. But Julian and Samuel weren't as good. Julian was already beginning to struggle, putting all of his energy purely into not taking a fatal blow. And Samuel's leg injury was catching up with him quickly. He was wincing every time he had to put weight on it, despite his efforts not to show it. But every time he landed, Levin gazed. Even if for a second before he could avoid Cassandra's attempt at an attack. But his relaxed composure stopped for a brief second as Aubrey's roar was heard throughout the building, and footsteps were quickly getting closer.

Levin heard a quick "did they?" before jumping back from a stab of a spear he didn't see coming from Cassandra. The wound was deep, and he stopped for a brief second, but in that moment Julian was able to clump his fists and land a two fisted attack that made him snap his head back in pain, right before a kick from Samuel to the head sent him falling back. He stood again, just as the other heroes approached him, scrambling to get back on his feet as tthe Kerobons leapt towards him, quickly allowing his hand to cover in light and slash forward, cutting a deep wound on Zee's leg, causing him to scream in pain. Samuel lunged forward, only to be grabbed by the neck by Levin. The casual tone was gone, and in it's place was murderous rage. Samuel tried kicking, but the leg was gone with a slash, and the rest of him was discarded to Marcus side. Marcus stepped in front of him, keeping his hands to his back as he observed the two sides meet each other.

On one side was the Kerobons, the Stone Queens, the Battlestorms, alongside Julian and Cassandra. Einer, Jade, and Hikaru were standing in front. On the other side was Levin. Alongside Adya, Ziwadi, and Daciana, was one more girl. She was small, wearing a dark blue flat cap, torn denim shorts, and a white button up shirt that looked a size too big.

Capri didn't say anything. She merely pointed towards Levin, and Zee and Gam both jumped on him without a word. The small girl quickly touched Zee with her left hand and quickly punched the air behind her, forcing Zee to do the same. Gam's left hand swung behind him, and both turned around and swung their hands, only Zee ended up swatting an unprepared Capri across the room. Gam was swapped in midair with Adya, right next to Daciana. She quickly took her blade out, impaling him in the chest. She dematerialized the blade as quickly as she could, it made avoiding the oncoming attack from Capri easier. She summoned the blade again, and Capri ducked underneath it in a blink, kicking her chin on her way up. Jade lunged in after her, splitting into four copies. Each one managed to weave between the strikes, until Daciana increased her speed, slashing through each clone in an instant until only the real Jade remained. She quickly took all the damage as the clones and their hits were absorbed into her, so she used the last of her strength to grab onto her, landing a quick knee to her stomach and putting her in a headlock.

"Hikaru, shock us!"

Without another word, Hikaru drew a circle in the air, as Gisella stepped in between them and Adya before she could weigh them down. Hikaru shot the electricity forward, and Jade tried standing still as the electricity rippled through both of them. Her and Daciana both started dropping, and Jade quickly felt her grip loosen as she fell to the ground. Daciana slowly got up, summoning her blade and holding it against Jade's neck. Fiorella swept in to block the strike, while Capri dove in to pick her body up, leaving it next to Samuel. He was bleeding really bad, but still alive. Marcus didn't seem to be making any moves, just observing the chaos. Their eyes met briefly, but the man looked away a second after.

Julian had no clue where to go. The remaining fighters against him were way out of his league and would demolish him with one attack. The only option was to go up against the unknown girl. Her power was known, but whether or not it worked on only one person at a time was another question entirely. So he lunged towards the girl, who dodged the move. There was an expression of terror on her face, but she quickly started running, and Zee was running behind her. She crossed both her hands and sped up, uncrossing right as Zee was behind to strike Julian in the back, leaving him on the ground. He suddenly felt himself change places, and was in front of Daciana, blade in hand. Cassandra screamed and lunged towards them, and Daciana's blade was plunged directly into her chest. Cassandra ignored the pain. This she could recover from with a little time. Instead she grabbed her spear and stabbed her straight in the arm.

Daciana let out a scream of both pain and terror as her blade faded into the air, watching the fire inside Cassandra slowly erupt. She grabbed Daciana with her free hand and slammed her to the ground. Luca quickly grabbed her and threw her away from the chaos.

"Get out." He commanded softly.

"You think you can demand things from me?" Daciana yelled out, her defiant spirit keeping up while the four Legion members left were still fighting.

"You're in no position to fight." He sighed, going back to fighting Ziwadi, who swapped him with Capri.

Levin took one look at both Capri and Daciana. He mouthed a quick 'sorry' to Daciana without changing his facial expression, and charged a blast of light that hit the end of the room.

Daciana looked as Capri was in front of her, even her back looking charred. Luca was shielded by Gavin.

"Leave." Luca repeated.

Daciana did as he asked this time. Luca looked ahead for the final push. Half of the top fighters were out. Four more to go.

This was it.

[miracleweaponhunt]

Miracle Weapon Hunt Chapter 78: Wave 2

Capri walked through the waves of bodies on her way to the castle. Nothing seemed to be moving, but everyone seemed to be okay, including the henchmen. No signs of the heroes, anyway. Zee and Gam were at her sides, and the Stone Queens and Battlestorms were behind them. At the furthest edges were Hikaru and Jade, both looking out for anything of note. Luckily, the first group was pretty thorough, and the few people remaining didn't seem keen to start a fight.

"So, how you think they're doing in there?" Jade asked.

"I haven't heard anything from Julian, anyway." Fiorella replied, her phone in one hand and her axe in the other. "He told me he'd call to speed things up at the first sign of getting overwhelmed. So he's either fine or dead, and my intuition tells me it's the former."

Jade looked behind her, feeling something was odd. There was a shocking lack of people around. There was no way that this was the entire fighting force the supposed terrors could provide. And sure enough, the sound of airships rang through the castle grounds, with three approaching from behind. The ten ran to the castle as fast as they could, but the airships were catching up quickly. So Capri stopped and turned around, taking her mallet out and letting it grow as big as it could. It slowly grew, and when the airship approached them, she let out a primal scream and swung the mallet with every ounce of force she had inside of her. The mallet clashed with the first airship for a few seconds, and after a few seconds, the mallet was slowly growing bigger, until the airship was thrown away to the outside walls, where it crashed. Unfortunately, the mallet's top half went with it. Hikaru drew a circle in the air, and sent it forward with one thrust of his palm. The circle quickly surged with electricity that rippled through the ship, and it crashed to the ground. Gisella threw jade upwards, and in mid-air she split into four versions of herself. Each landed perfectly onto the ship before storming in and slamming the Legion members inside onto the ground, and throwing the man steering the ship aside, breaking the steering with a series of unfocused punches. She let the clones vanish before diving out of the ship, being caught by Gisella as the ship crashed into a wall.

"Okay, mind if we check the ships?" Luca asked Capri.

"Go ahead, we'll take it from here. But if I call, come over. Don't even answer it."

Luca nodded, and ran towards the ship. A small fire had started and the door wasn't opening, despite the banging heard from inside. The door was opened with a single slash of a sword, and the guys came pouring out, running away screaming without so much as a confrontation. Luca considered arresting them, but they didn't look like they had anything resembling a weapon. Or much of a plan, fighting spirit, or anything that would make them threatening besides a now crashed airship.

"We fighting them?" Caoimhe asked.

"No point." Luca replied quickly as he made his way to the castle doors. "An annoyed shopkeeper could take them out." Gavin quickly followed behind them, taking out his spear just in case.

Fiorella examined the ship that crashed in front of Gisella, and the people came pouring out. Terrified teenagers who ran away, before all exchanging looks to each other and running back to the wreckage.

"Is Hank still in there?" One of them asked, trying to find a way back inside the wreckage. When she took a step forward, an explosion was heard, causing her to seize up in fear. Fiorella looked at her and sighed.

"I won't be heartless." She muttered to herself. She took out her axe much to the panic of the girl, but Gisella stepped in front of her before she could intervene. And with one mighty swing, the top was open. Fiorella looked inside, and there was a screaming boy. Didn't look old enough to drink, but his leg was stuck in some part of the wreckage, but removing him looked easy enough. She pulled him out, and his leg was just…gone. Probably just cut off in the wreckage. The boy was too stunned to say anything besides hyperventilating. So Fiorella just picked him up and dragged him out, returning him to his horrified friends. She quickly took a sheet of paper from her bust and scribbled directions to a hospital on it.

"I'm assuming you know what a hospital is?" She asked.

"Yeah." Hanks's friend nodded.

"Excellent. Tell them Fiorella will cover anything that needs paying for. Run along now, I don't think you should keep Hank waiting."

The kids all ran off, leaving the trio to get to the castle.

"You have an in with the hospital?" Jade asked.

"Well, a lady does need to stay on top of things. Even when it seems difficult. Trust me, they're under good hands."

The Kerobons got to the castle, which looked wrecked already. The Battlestorms weren't too far behind them. Footsteps quickly made their way through the hallway. Zee stepped in front of Capri and Gam, quickly putting a hand on the chandelier flying towards them before it could hit anyone. A roar was heard from the lady it was attached to, and Zee was sent flying into the wall. Gavin stepped out next, quickly breathing a circle of solidified air and pushing it forward. It stopped the beast for a second, but one punch later it was shattered. But Caoimhe was right behind Gavin, landing a punch to her face, with Jade splitting up and pinning her non-chandelier arm down with two of her duplicates. Finbarr tried to intervene, but was met by Luca, who slashed the air in front of him and refused to let him pass. Gam threw a ball between his hands, aiming it square at Aubrey's head. It caused a jolt of pain that rattled around her head and quickly grew in size causing her to roar and leap towards him, and Zee had to dive in at the last second to stop it. And finally, Capri grabbed onto the chandelier and watched as it grew in size, eventually lodging it's way into the walls. And as much as Aubrey tried, she couldn't dislodge it. Hikaru charged up one final shockwave, and sent it ripping through her. She was tired, trying to let out a roar before she suddenly fell asleep.

Finbarr looked horrified, trying to run away, but Hikaru let out another wave, which effortlessly knocked him out.

Three of the Legion's top fighters were down, and it was unknown how many remained. All that was known was that they needed to check themselves and be ready for anything, a concept that only grew larger as they approached the sound of manic fights and struggles to survive.

[miracleweaponhunt]

Miracle Weapon Hunt Chapter 77: Dude, Where's My Bear?

The other three approached the castle. Julian called Fiorella to let her know the second wave could land before turning back.

"So who's got this?" Einer asked, hands on his hips.

"Gimme a second." Julian said, slathering more dead bug juice onto the bear, who jerked to life and slowly approached the door, alongside Julian casually walking besides it.

"Julian?" Cassandra asked.

"Go easy in case there's someone behind the door? Already on it, babe."

The bear prepped both hands as it twisted it's fists before the mighty door. It punched one door each, with both falling to the ground in a single motion, allowing free access to the castle itself.

As the three stepped inside, there wasn't a single person in the hallway. This didn't seem good. Cassandra knew this layout meant one of two things. Either Chelic was genuinely underprepared, or the few people he does have lying around here were on an entirely different level and the guys outside were meant to scare the commoners out. And in this case, it was the latter. Some kind of shuffling could be heard from the inside on all sides, so she held her axe and kept her sword and spear on her back.

"Daciana, you're up!" the voice from near the hallways bellowed out. Julian looked around for any place they could hide, but the entire royal legacy seemed to be hollowed out. The footsteps to their left got louder, and one set got louder before becoming dead silent. Julian leapt for the bear and barely touched it, and the bear was able to match the strike the muscular girl tried to crush him with. he jumped back, standing upright to let her height tower over them and match Julian's bear. Her two friends came to meet her, with Serafina grinning at the trio when she caught up.

"No. Way." She laughed to herself. "If it isn't Cassandra!" She yelled out. "Oh, you two missed out with her! Trying to take her down was some of the most fun I've had since I joined you guys!"

"You mean when you failed to take the greave from her?" Finbarr asked. Julian glanced at him. This guy was fighting along Serafina, who was in the top ten fighters the Legion had, while this girl that clashed against his bear was almost certainly on her level. But this guy? He hadn't done anything, and he was just wearing a white polo shirt and worn out jeans. His glasses looked a little small, and his curly hair was styled pretty well.

"So is the guy next to you a high ranking member?" Julian asked, pointing at the guy.

"Oh, Finbarr?" Serafina asked. "Yeah, number five. All things considered, he's more of a support guy, but he's probably one of the best we have for that, considering that he can…"

Serafina threw something past her at thigh level, but looked like she just shutdown mid sentence, tripping before turning to dust when she hit the floor. Cassandra instinctively turned around with her sword in hand and clashed against Serafina's emergence after she caught her knife in midair and went for the neck. The knife was flung across the room, and Serafina disintegrated to go and get it back. Aubrey bounded against the wall and landed a perfect kick to Cassandra in the brief window she was distracted. She flew across the room where Serafina reappeared with the knife in her hand, embedding it into Cassandra's midsection. Cassandra swallowed the scream building up inside her, and got back up to see her smug face silently mocking her.

She never removed the knife which was still embedded in her, but she was concerned this part of some kind of plan, where she'd pull some move or trap if she tried removing the knife. So with nothing else to do, she took her sword out and began slashing. She kept aiming for the stomach, but Serafina would quickly turn to dust and reform a few meters away, just as she was about to hit. Serafina didn't even seem to be trying to hit her back, just disappearing and reforming again in a new stupid pose each time. So when she came back again, Cassandra threw her sword towards her, quickly taking her spear out and thrusting it forward. Serafina looked shocked for a second, jumping like a startled cat backwards before turning into a cloud of unfocused dust. before appearing next to Aubrey, who was trading blows with Julian's bear and trying to avoid Einer's ice.

Einer was trying to freeze the others. But using his powers in a place like this wasn't a good idea. If he used up too much ice he could make it harder for anyone else getting in. Too much ice in one place and that could easily kill someone, friend or foe. But his current attempt at pathetic spikes to weaken people with the occasional wall to separate Aubrey and Finbarr wasn't working. When he shot forward a particularly large blast of ice that pierced Aubrey's arm, she punched the bear away, pulled it out, and let a primal scream out.

"Serafina!" She screamed. "Stop playing around and get a chandelier down!"

Serafina did as she was told after flipping off Cassandra with both hands, running away afterwards and scrambling to climb up the staircase to reach a chandelier. When she got up, she took a second knife out of her pocket and cut the string connecting the light to the ceiling in one swift motion, causing both it and her to crash to the ground. She jumped off at the last second, leaving her slightly disoriented. And as Serafina felt her senses come back, she was overcome with a chilling sensation, as she wasn't able to do or move anything. Her head was the only exposed thing, so she turned around to see Einer behind her, a cold mist covering his hand as he casually turned back to Aubrey.

Aubrey ignored everyone surrounding her and plunged her fist into the chandelier. Julian stood back to observe just what he was seeing, and Aubrey stood up, the chandelier perfectly merged with her fist. Julian quickly crushed a dozen bugs between his hands and slathered them on the bear. The bear leapt towards Aubrey in one burst of speed, and Aubrey charged up one final punch, landing it straight into the bears stomach.

The bear didn't have time to roar before it was split in half. Julian watched as the corpse fell for the final time, looking up in horror at the titan of a girl looking towards him.

"Guys, we gotta run!" Julian screamed. He led the escape, running to the door on his left while Einer threw up an ice wall, followed by another a few metres from the first.

"I'll regroup with the rest and get back!" He yelled to Cassandra before running out of the castle.

Cassandra felt the earth shake around her as the first wall was shattered. And with nothing else she could do, she followed Julian out.

She ran through the hallways, some of them having crude drawing painted shoddily on the walls. She heard commotion, and followed the sound. There was a scream heard, and Cassandra finally found herself in the throne room. Chelic was there, but the cold leader was gone, replaced by a whimpering man with a bruised eye and surrounded by shards of glass. Julian was on the other end of the room, getting up from what had to be something painful.

"Levin?" Chelic asked, combing his hands through his hair to get all the bugs out. "I don't care what you do here, but if these three are gone by today, you're number one!"

And with that final panicked message, he ran upstairs. Julian tried following him, but Levin quickly stepped in with a blade made of light, that was only stopped by Samuel sweeping his legs and tripping him up.

"Well, I guess it's time we finished this." Levin sighed. "But now that I have free reign, I wonder if any of your friends will recognize you by the end."

[miracleweaponhunt]

Miracle Weapon Hunt Chapter 76: Light

The foes went down fairly easily. Nobody seemed to have much in the way of powers outside of a few, and even that was basic astral swords and weak electric abilities. Cassandra and Einer were easily weaving through everyone on the ground floor, but even Julian was easily avoiding contact, just letting his bear corpse loose would result in either one swipe taking them out or for their foes to start freaking out and run away without a fight. When one victim flew away and hit their back against the wall surrounding the castle a little too hard, Julian looked around and decided to check on them.

All seemed okay, anyway. Nothing to indicate any permanent damage. But he'd have to check them into a hospital afterwards. Yeah, that seemed like a decent reason to survive. The person groaned and his gaze met his, so they were at the very least conscious.

"Who are you?"

"I'm fighting the Legion. But I'm just checking you're still alive."

"I am?" The Legion soldier muttered.

"Hey, that's good. You just rest here, and I'll check up on you when this is over. Sound good?"

"Sure?" The solider muttered, clearly confused. He was certainly younger than Julian, anyway. By several years, probably a recent recruit. Probably, he still didn't know how this worked.

"Alright. Stay alive till then."

Julian gave a reassuring thumbs up and joined the other three in getting to the castle, leaving the guy to fend for himself between the other either knocked out or terrified Legion members.

Daciana observed the windows from inside the castle at the top. There wasn't an official lookout declared, so she decided to nominate herself. As she passed through the windows, she looked towards the three approaching. She made a call to Serafina to alert her.

"Can you see what's outside, Serafina? From the front of the castle."

"Uhh, lemme check." Serafina mumbled. Some shuffling was heard before she continued. "I see them, yeah."

"Well, you should probably tell Chelic about it."

"Working on it." She said casually.

Serafina ran towards Chelic, reading a book he found while exploring the castle.

"Lord Chelic, we have four people approaching the castle. What's our next course of action?"

"Dang, they've started already?" Chelic asked while glancing at his watch. "Well, I suppose it's time we get the main event rolling! Serafina, get Daciana, Aubrey, and Finbarr in front of the door, then beat their asses!"

"Daciana, you've been called down!" Serafina yelled.

"Be there in one minute!" She said back, before ending the call.

"Sorry, am I interrupting something?" Samuel asked from a broken window. Daciana recognized him from the tournament footage. He looked pretty joyful as he was facing off against his friends, but that was gone. Instead was a look she knew all too well. The look of someone deeply wronged, and was out for blood. She knew exactly who he wanted to fight, but the question remained on whether he'd stop at Levin.

"Where did you come from?" Daciana asked, squinting her eyes and quickly creating an outline of her weapon, which quickly formed into the translucent double bladed sword.

"Took an alternate route." Samuel said as he crawled through the window, being stopped by a blade stopping just short of his neck. He glanced at the woman holding it, unimpressed, holding his hands up by his face, but kicking the blade out of her hand in one swift motion. It dissipated in midair, and Samuel ran towards the door leading to the staircase. Daciana followed him, leaping to the front of the door while summoning another blade. Just as Samuel had his hand on the doorknob, he had to throw his hand back as the blade was embedded in the door.

"I'm not letting you leave." Was the only thing Daciana said as she removed the blade, standing in front of the door. Samuel responded by kicking her in the stomach. She clutched the doorknob for leverage, and quickly began to step forward, swinging the double blade in a circular motion, vertically as to not get it stuck in a wall. Samuel looked annoyed by this, trying his best to figure a way forward. Daciana quickly let the blade exchange between her hands to stop him from overwhelming her on one side. Samuel kept trying to keep his eyes on the weapon, and then looking towards her. Eventually he shook his head, running towards the door, sliding underneath and knocking Daciana to the ground. The weapon got stuck in his leg, and he had to quickly pull it out before it faded into the air.

 He ran outside, quickly running down the stairs and into the bathroom to wrap his bleeding leg in toilet paper. It wasn't the best, but it did seem to stop the bleeding. But the bleeding was heavy, incredibly heavy. And the wound was pretty deep. But that didn't matter. He knew the bastard who killed Adebayo was in the building and he needed to reach and beat him. He flung the door open, and Daciana was waiting, summoning a sword which Samuel barely ducked under. He slid underneath, quickly picking himself up and looking around while she swung her blade downward. He was in a hallway that didn't have much of interest besides the lady attacking him, and she wasn't important. Someone in the second wave can deal with her. It may be immoral, but he knew what he came for. He turned and ran, hearing Daciana make some kind of disgruntled noise when he did.

He ran down another flight of stairs, jumping and bouncing off the wall and landing on his feet at the bottom of the spiral. Not just as a time saver, because doing that on spiral staircases doesn't actually save much time, but he needed to test how how badly his leg was struck. It seemed fine as he was able to land without too much hassle, but there was definitely a flash of pain as he hit the ground. But he wasn't going to think about that. What mattered was how close he was to the throne room. He could hear commotion from several voices, and he could make out Julian's in there somewhere. But as he burst into the throne room, he came face to face with the man he was looking for.

Levin. This was the man. The light powers he had matched Adebayo's killer perfectly.

"Oh hey, another one." Chelic said casually. "Your friends are fighting over there, buddy."

"Shut it!" Samuel yelled. "I'm here for Levin!"

Levin exchanged a glance with Chelic and Marcus, and quickly raised his hand to fire a beam of light. Samuel ducked underneath it and delivered a quick uppercut to Levin's face.

"Damn, you got me." He said calmly, illuminating his hand and emitting a light so blinding Samuel was forced to step back.

"You killed Adebayo!" Samuel yelled, delivering a swift kick with his good leg.

"Oh, you figured that out." Levin said, his grin not leaving his face. "And I'm guessing you want revenge?"

Samuel went for another kick, only for Levin to shoot a beam forward, which Samuel was forced to dodge at the last second, landing on his bad leg. He tried not to show any pain on his face, but Levin's grin widened ever so slightly.

"Oh, something up?" Levin asked, scanning his body for anything irregular, noticing the left leg of his jeans was redder than the other, and by a fair margin.

"Oh, I see." He said calmly with a chuckle. "Well, I doubt this will take long. Hey, Aubrey! First to beat our opponents gets control of this place for the first week! Sound good?"

[miracleweaponhunt]

Miracle Weapon Hunt Chapter 75: Off The Wall

"So Cheng buddy, what's the sitch back at the Cluster? I know my room's a little…grassier than it should be, but you're an adaptable guy, you'll work it out."

"The room is suitable for my needs. Although granted, I'm not one for sleeping when there's things to do. And as for the cluster itself, it's running perfectly fine. Nobodies stepped out of line and everything is still to standard, thanks to Manuel."

"See, that's why I left you two in charge! Anyway, I'll call you back later, we've probably got a big day today!"

"I see. Well, tell Daciana I said hello, and I'll report if anything comes up. Permission to hang up?"

"Granted! And buddy, feel free to call the girls over. Picked em myself, they'll satisfy any problem ya got."

Chelic hung up the phone and laid back in his new throne. He ran his finger across the dagger embedded inside it, living in the moment as he did his best not to get cut. He succeeded, only to shake his hand and barely miss it when the chandelier in the throne room fell, alongside Serafina on top in a daze.

"I ask why you did that, Serafina?" Marcus asked, as relaxed as usual.

"Oh, me and Ziwadi had a competition to see who could get to the top first. He won, but felt things fall, and…long story short, don't compete in a climbing contest against guys who can swap places with people. Shouldn't have to say that, but I guess I do."

Chelic burst into a fit of laughter, almost hitting his elbow against the dagger.

"Oh, Serafina." He said while shaking his head. "You get me every time. Just be more careful next time, alright?"

"Sir, I know you let the top ten do what they want, but I feel now of all times would be a good time to show at least a little pushback to their more unruly actions." Marcus said, trying to hold in a sigh of exasperation.

"Relax, big guy." Chelic said, shaking his head while straightening himself out in his throne. "It's a little roughhousing before the main event. Besides, a chandelier like that? Perfect weight to say, crush an unsuspecting enemy to death, don't ya think?"

Marcus looked blankly.

"I-I'm the enemy in this scenario. To them?"

"I got it."

"Great, just checking."

"So how's the perimeter of the castle?" Marcus asked.

"Great question!" Chelic exclaimed, taking his phone out and calling Chizoba.

"Heyyy, Chizoba!"

"Hello." Chizoba answered flatly.

"So, how's my favorite cyborg doing? Anything up? Anything suspicious going on?"

"Nothing at the moment?" She replied, glancing up to a clear sky.

"But for how long?" He asked.

"I'll let you know when something comes up." Chizoba said calmly. "Any feeds from other airships?"

"Uhh…I'll check them real quick and get back."

Chelic hung up the phone.

"I may have forgot to get the scouts to send me info on when the heroes approached me." He said, giving an awkward smile to a scowling Marcus.

"Hey, we'll deal with the sitch when they show up. Doubt we'll have any issues anyway."

Chizoba kept watch on the wall of the castle, surrounded by her hooded companions from the church. It was a pretty calm morning, all things considered. Nobody really dared mess with them, so it was just a few people trying to go about their days while occasionally glancing at what the castle had become. At most, parents pulled their children away from the walls when they got too close, probably afraid of what she or the others of the Legion would do to them. Which was nothing, as far as she was concerned. In fact, she'd be more than happy to explain their goals and educate their children on the aims of the Legion. In fact, it seemed preparing a speech of some kind would be a decent idea, seeing as Chelic didn't seem to have much of a plan about what to do. She took out a sheet of paper and borrowed a pen from one of her subordinates, trying her best to scribble down some words that calmly explain her motives, throwing in her own backstory of being neglected by the people around her. Sure, it could come across as slightly manipulative writing, but was hardly the worst thing the Legion had recently done.

"Hey, what you writing there?"

Chizoba didn't recognize the voice that spoke to her, so she looked up and saw Samuel staring down at her. She shot upwards with an uppercut from her metallic hand, which Samuel quickly stepped away from. She commanded her friends to attack him, switching her hand into a three pronged claw.

About twenty people circled around Samuel. He casually put his hands into his pockets, leaping upwards. When he came down, three of the idiots were already down from jumping towards him and crashing headfirst into each other. The rest all threw limbs towards him, which he countered pretty easily by simply grabbing the longer ones and slamming both them and their owners to the ground. He jumped over the next excuse for an attacker, standing on his hands and rotating his legs, feeling the impacts of several Legion soldiers against his shoes as they fell around him. He flipped upwards to admire his handiwork, with Chizoba being the only person left standing on the wall. They made eye contact for a brief second, with Samuel shaking his hands. He remembered what the deal with this lady was. Chizoba, that was her name. Trying to fight her with his hands in his pockets could actually end pretty badly, so this was one to take seriously.

Chizoba lunged towards him. He stretched a leg out to catch it, and let the metal arm clash against his leg for a second. But in a flash, the hand opened to a claw which caught his leg, slamming him to the ground. Samuel pushed his hands behind him and pushed the ground as soon as he hit it, using the momentum to lift off the ground just a little bit and fling both him and Chizoba into the air. He stomped downwards and regained his centre of gravity before Chizoba could react, and he grabbed her in midair, throwing her off the wall before she could pull anything else. The sound of something hitting the wall was heard, and Einer was soon right behind him, observing the damage.

"You made quick work of them." He said calmly. They were all unconscious, but they were breathing. None had injuries a quick visit to the doctors couldn't fix.

"Thanks." Samuel nodded without looking back.

"Now, I was able to freeze the girl you threw off before anything bad could happen. Just letting you know."

"Thanks." Samuel repeated, eyeing up the castle so he could estimate what the safest route in would be.

"I just hope you remember what we're here for. Reclamation, and not some petty idea of vengeance."

"Got it."

Samuel leapt away, leaving Einer to look around and determine that he was probably fine.

Time for the real fighters.

[miracleweaponhunt]

Miracle Weapon Hunt Chapter 74: My Evil Plan to Save the World

Xander woke up next to Cecilia. he started at the ceiling for a little bit, thinking about his next move. He looked outside, and the sun was just coming up. He opened the curtains and stared out of the window, looking over the city below. People were just starting to open up their shops, and the streetlamps were coming off to give way to the natural sun. And just looking from above filled Xander with a sense of both dread and guilt. He shouldn't be here, and he knew that. Just a few days ago he was an enemy, trying his best to dismantle places exactly like it. And it wasn't even like he agreed with how this place operated. If he learned one thing about this life, it was that giving a handful of people absolute power was one misplacement away from total disaster. But he supposed that some kind of redemption was his sole reason to keep going. That and Tsuki. For the first time in his life, he thought about what happens after death. There was always some kind of murmurs about it in the Legion, but he never paid attention from it. It didn't seem to have any sort of logic towards it, but it was a comforting thought. But then the idea of the bad afterlife hit him. He was pretty sure he and Tsuki qualified, seeing as they killed a guy who didn't deserve it. So the confort quickly changed to despair climbing and choking him as his breath got heavier.

It wasn't the time to think about that. If he killed the source of a lot of the world's evil, that probably worked in getting him to a good afterlife, and perhaps let him negotiate with whoever runs it to get Tsuki out. But if it didn't he could at least face the bad afterlife with dignity, and face whatever punishments awaited him.

The next thought was what to eat for breakfast. He figured that everyone else would be getting up soon, so eating early and clearing himself sounded like a good move to him.

He opened the door and stepped into the hallway, where one girl was passing through.

Luminita.

He couldn't avoid it. She passed a glance his way, a glance that quickly widened into a terrified stare. Neither moved for a few agonizing seconds. Until she finally let out a horrified scream. Or attempted to, because Xander put his hand on her mouth before the sound could be heard, making sure to remove it as soon as the sound stopped. He tried shushing her in an attempt to calm her down, which seemed to work a little as she clutched the wooden railing around the castle's second floor.

"Why are you here!?" She asked, looking around for either an escape or another person to escape to.

"I'm fighting against Chelic, same as you!" Xander yelled in a hushed tone, looking around to make sure there was nobody to assume the worst from this scenario.

"Now?" She asked. "Not before you killed my father?!"

"Look, I'm sorry that happened!" Xander yelled as he looked into her eyes. Luminita looked back with a look of pure disgust, thrusting her head forwards.

"You're sorry?!" She screamed.

"Look, I swear it was an accident!" Xander yelled again, putting his hand above his face in preparation for any strikes she's be willing to throw out. "We just wanted to take the shield because we'd be killed otherwise, but your dad fought back and then I ended up blinding him before Priyanka broke his neck, and it just really was not supposed to end that way!"

"But you tried taking the shield!" She whispered.

"After being forced into it."

Luminita turned around to see a woman with a bob cut, a white button up shirt and blood red jeans, standing with a slight lean to the left at Luminita with a slight look of disapproval on her face.

"I'm sorry, who are you?"

"I'm the woman in your old shield." Cecilia affirmed with a relaxed hand to her chest. "And I assure you, everything this man said is one hundred percent true."

"You remember that?"

"I don't." Cecilia confirmed. "But I have been talking, and I'll admit, I've taken quite a liking to this man. Now I know it may be painful, but I would like to ask you what he's missing compared to the last time you saw each other?"

Luminita glanced up and down while Xander stood perfectly still, minus a few glances at Cecilia.

"He's missing an arm now." She said as she looked back.

"Well, yes." Cecilia nodded. "But notice anything else? Something that…helped you through your own recent pain?"

Luminita just looked in confusion.

"Friends. Talking about friends."

Luminita took a step back as the image of his two companions filled into her mind.

"Did something happen to them?" She asked. Her tone dropped somewhat. The thought of Xander also losing someone made her slightly less confrontational.

"Tsuki. The girl who glued you to a wall. She was killed by Chelic."

"Wait, Chelic?" She asked. "What happened there?"

"We tried stealing the weapons for ourselves, but then he found out and killed Tsuki. He almost got me, but thanks to your shield I was able to cut off my arm and escape."

"I…see. So what's your plan now?"

"He and I have come to the conclusion that if nobody else wants to, we'll be killing Chelic ourselves."

"Excuse me?"

"Look, your plan of redeeming the broken children is all well and good, they're off limits to us. But Chelic reminds me all too well of the evil from my time. The kind that settled into them for one reason or another, that won't stop until their ideas have rooted into every aspect of the world. And for these reasons, he needs to die a death as agonizing as possible. Any issues?"

Luminita looked at the woman, who stood casually. She was one hundred percent serious. And to be honest, the idea of Chelic just dying sounded okay to her.

"Look, Luminita." Xander sighed. "Is there anything I can do to make up for what I did?"

Luminita glanced to the side for a few seconds before facing them again.

"If you're successful in defeating Chelic and nobody has a reason to suspect you, then I'll pardon you and grant you full citizenship. But only if you're successful."

"Understood!" Xander said with a salute. Why he saluted, he didn't know.

Once everyone was ready, Rodrick and Julian stood in the hallway, in front of all the other heroes.

"Okay, Julian and I have been discussing what exactly to do, and we think we have a plan made." Rodrick announced.

"Basically, the Legion are way weaker then they look, so it shouldn't be that hard to take them down. Current plan? Attack in waves. Now, they want Cassandra, so we have her, me, and Samuel up first to draw away attention and take down the small guys, with Einer in case anything we can't handle shows up. Second wave is gonna be the big names. So the Kerobons, Stone Queens, and Battlestorms. Your job is to fight off the numbered units and help us make the big push towards Chelic. Jade and Hikaru are helping you out, just in case. And finally, everyone else. So the Lumps, Cecilia and Xander, and then Mia and Willow. You deal with stragglers and whatever backup plans Chelic has. Now, anyone need me to run that by again?"

"I think we got it." Luca nodded.

"Well, without further ado, we'll make our way to the airships and to victory!"

[miracleweaponhunt]

Miracle Weapon Hunt Chapter 73: World's Dumbest Takeover Attempt (That Actually Worked)

"Mia, turn on the TV! Channel three!"

Mia's assistants were filling her phone with panicked messages as her husband scrambled to turn the TV on. Several of the other leaders were asking what the next course of action was, but none of them were telling her what actually happened. Just something about an upcoming announcement in Sangaria? Luminita didn't say anything about it beforehand, so was she on board? Was she even alive? No, she had to be alive. All of those thoughts were just…lingering feelings of uncertainty swirling about in her mind after what happened to Zach. Her husband had turned the channel everyone was talking about on.

"We on? Okay, thanks. Hello, people of the skyspace!"

Mia lurched forward in her bed as she heard the voice. the damn voice of Chelic, his mocking tone drowning out the notifications of both her phone and her husband.

"So, you might have noticed that my background changed. Big reason for that! And it's because I took over Sangaria!"

Luminita paused, looking for any signs this was some kind of joke. She opened her phone to call Luminita again. There wasn't any reply.

"Yeah, yeah. Big change, I know." Chelic nodded to the camera. "Didn't do it alone. One man on my team, would you believe it? The man himself, right over there!"

Chelic turned the camera to Levin leaning against a wall, who casually waved.

"There's no…that can't be."

Her husbands whispering was the only thing that broke through the trance set by Chelic's announcement.

"Dear, could you get me some water?" Mia asked weakly. Her throat was drying up, and she found herself making cry coughs.

"Not now, honey."

"O-of course." She nodded.

"Levin, the madman, goes here alone, right after taking the dagger of Roperia. Oh yeah, that was him by the way. And less than a day later, he kills the prince of Roperia and takes the entire country of Sangaria for himself. This guy is an absolute menace!"

Chelic cackled while giving an intentional mad stare to the camera and bent down. He then pulled up Javier's corpse to the camera. It was shoddily cleaned with splotches of blood on his forehead.

"Hello, I'm Javier. My mom died and I cried a bunch, and then I fought back against someone for the first time in my life and got a beam through my skull." He said in a mocking voice as he paraded Javier's limp limbs in front of the camera. "Is that how it went? That what happened?" He asked.

"More or less." Levin's voice said from off screen.

"Alright, excellent." Chelic said, smiling to him as he threw Javier's corpse to the background. "So, time for my grand announcement! Now that I have something to use as leverage, you're all under my control now. The others can try to fight back. Key word being try. But I'll just kill them now that I have access to pretty much anywhere I want. So here's the deal. You're all gonna give me the remaining weapons alongside the people that were in the broken ones, and accept me as your new ruler. Old ones can still keep their old jobs delegating and stuff, but you report back to a Legion elite who then reports back to me. All good? Good. Now then, you have one week to give me the weapons. And any I don't have, I'll just track down. Any means necessary, you know the drill. Anyway, laters!"

The broadcast ended, and straight away Mia got dizzy and threw up. The legion made it's way into a permanent part of the Skyspace, and her own son was somehow alive and involved in it. Her husband was trying to stop her panicking, escorting the other members of her staff out of her room. A cold shill was washing over her as she tried to cling to something, anything, to ground her back to reality from this bad dream she was having. She clutched her husbands chest, sobbing softly into his shirt. A part of her was screaming at the events. Someone of her position, driven to tears instead of doing something proactive to stop the Legion's actions. But suddenly, a call was heard. From Freyja.

"I'm sorry, that was unbecoming of me." Mia said to her husband, snapping back to her usual emotionless state before she answered Freyja's call. She clearly had a harder time masking emotions.

"Mia, is that you?" She asked through a wavering voice.

"It's me, yes. Are you doing okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Willow and Luminita are too. They're in Vannana castle, and…I lied about you having called an urgent meeting over to discuss our next move. Come as soon as you can."

"Understood."

Mia snapped her phone shut and left the door. When her husband followed she pushed him away.

"If something happens to me, you're in charge."

She walked out before he could protest, but he didn't bother. She took the sword from her room and got onto her airship, and left with a small crew for Vananna.

Inside the ship, she was being bombarded with texts from all sides and leaders. She expected it to be panicked asks about what was going to happen next, but most of it was messages of concern.

'You holding on okay?'-Fen Hou

'Old lad was your son, was it? Just want to know if you're holding on alright'-Rory

'I take it you have a plan brewing?'-Kazumi

The leaders at least had faith in her, which gave her a slight sense of confidence as her ship went into Vannana castle. She went inside and was directed to the dining room of the castle. When she walked in she realized she had never seen it so…ordinary looking. Besides the congregation it was only a few servants double checking if everything was up to standard, no banners, no extravagant plates of food. All the leaders were sat around a series of small wooden tables pushed together into one long one. Mia sat at it's head. All the seats were full. Zach was replaced by his son, Arden, as a temporary measure while Fightston got another election going. Willow stood behind Luminita, trying to hide the look of dejection on her face.

"Willow, dear. Would you be able to work with the heroes now that most of them are here?"

"Sure thing, mom." Willow said with a slight nod before heading out.

"Well, Mia?" Sylvestro asked. "What's the plan?"

"To be honest…I don't have much of a plan." Mia sighed.

"So you called a meeting to discuss the plan you don't have?" Fen Hou asked.

"The meeting was Freyja's idea." Mia replied. Fen Hou looked at Freyja, who looked slightly betrayed.

"Here, we've all seen the broadcasts." Rory announced from his seat looking slightly more annoyed than usual. "Her own feckin son is working for the enemy, that would disturb any of us."

"Well, I think the only solution is to fight." Ola suggested. "If we don't stop Chelic now, we could easily be hunted down as soon as he wants."

"I mean, he only has one grand with a population that probably doesn't want him there." Kazumi answered. "We outnumber him pretty easily."

"He's probably got something up his sleeves if he's so confident." Ola said. "Look, I think we should get the others to carry some soldiers and weapons over. I'm calling them once it's over."

In the living room was where the heroes were gathered. The Miracle Scouts, the Battlestorms, the Kerabons, the Stone Queens, the Lumps, and Samuel. The woken up weapons were also there.

"So, darlings." Fiorella asked. "Any clue as to what the plan is?"

"I'm assuming you want to take them down." Rodrick asked back.

"If firsthand experience is anything to go by, we'll be more than enough to take them down." Fiorella replied with a handwave.

"We almost died." Capri said with a strained expression.

"Two of us almost died." Fiorella said with a more dismissive hand wave. "Ten of us would go well. Our current numbers are frankly overkill."

"I don't think the question should be whether or not we'd win." Luca said calmly. "I think the real question is what to do with the Legion members there."

"Afterwards?" Fiorella asked.

"I mean, I think this is the most important question here." Luca continued. "The easy answer would be to brand everyone there as a threat to the skyspace and either imprison or execute them. But-"

"We aren't doing that."

Julian cut across from the other side of the room.

"Look, I know we're pissed at the Legion. And most of your reasons to hate them are valid. Heck, you kill someone during our fight with them and I doubt I'll give much of a shit. But besides Chelic himself, I'm pretty certain any of the kids there would be able to come back to reality and become full citizens again."

"You think?" Samuel asked, glaring at him. ""Does that include the man who killed Adebayo?"

"Hey, hey. Like I said, kill him if you want. I just think it'll be a waste of time. But while I have your attention, I'd like to introduce my next idea. We should bring the ships back to the surface."

"We should what?" Caoimhe asked, squinting at him.

"Yeah, turns out the founders were a bunch of lying assholes and everything on the surface is fine. Slightly more disrepaired and abandoned, but it's liveable. Whole society down there too, so I think we find a way back there and make peace."

"I can confirm, perfectly nice people." Cecilia nodded.

"So anyway, our plan is to rush them and hope for the best?" Rodrick asked.

"Rush them after a goods night sleep. With that said, good night!"

Julian sauntered out of the room, and Roxanne and Cassandra followed. The rest of the group made their ways to their bedrooms, all belonging to one of Willow's siblings. Their fathers and children were all taken to their home grands as a safety precaution. Fiorella made her way through the hallway alongside Gisella, finding a one armed man pacing around the hallways.

"He doesn't look too familiar." Fiorella mumbled to Gisella, who shook her head. Fiorella took a deep breath and walked up to him.

"Excuse me, sir. Moment of your time, please."

The man shot up, meeting Fiorella at eye level. They were exactly the same height.

"How's it going?" The man asked. "Gotta say, you are…really tall for a woman. But hey, you make the dress work. I'm guessing it's custom made?"

"It is, yes. Dress shopping is difficult for a multitude of reasons, but this one I've stuck to. But enough fashion talk, hoodie and tie. What's your purpose?"

"He's with me!" Cecilia yelled, jumping between the two. "Sorry, he's ex-legion. So he's a little apprehensive about talking to you." She said, casually grabbing him by the shoulder and bringing him closer.

"Ex-legion?" Fiorella said, with both her and Gisella arching an eyebrow.

"Trust me, nobody hates the boss more than him!" She announced.

"Well, there are few better endorsements than a literal living relic." Fiorella said. "But while I have your attention, you wouldn't happen to know a girl named Priyanka, would you?"

"What do you know about her?" Xander yelled, freeing himself from Cecilia and meeting her at eye level once again.

"Well, I know she's from Gurut." Fiorella said with a slight eye roll. "Know that more than enough."

"But she's alive?" Xander asked.

"Currently in Gurut." She replied. "Looking for her birth parents with the government over there. Left the hammer back with them, so I suppose she's trustworthy enough."

"You think you could get her?"

"I'll see what I can do. Although a girl always responds better to a name, so I'll need yours."

"Xander." He said after a brief pause.

"Excellent, I'll tell her you're alive." Fiorella said with a casual wave. "See you tomorrow."

Xander looked back until they were out of sight, then looked forward. He saw Luminita, casually talking to Willow. Before she could even glance in his direction, he bolted into his room, which he was sharing with Cecilia.

"Xander, I'm pretty sure that was the girl you wanted to make up with." She said, looking at him cowering behind her bed.

"Look, you try making up with someone after killing her dad." Xander said.

"Well, she's probably on edge from everything going on." Cecilia sighed while glancing at the door. "We'll work on this tomorrow. And if you don't try to make amends, then I'll get the conversation started. Anyway, goodnight."

[miracleweaponhunt]

Miracle Weapon Hunt Chapter 72: Broken Pillar

Willow looked in dismay at the man. It looked like him. It sounded like him. But it couldn't be him. he was dead. Took his own life years ago under all the pressure.

"Sheesh, you all look frazzled." He said with his hands on his hips. "What's wrong? It's Levin! Your friend! One of the four pillars! No way you don't remember me?!"

Words and phrases quickly tumbled around in Willow's minds. Thoughts followed quickly after the fact. Anything, anything at all that would rationalize what was happening in front of her.

"Turn back."

That was the only thing she eventually managed to splutter out.

"Excuse me?" The man asked.

"I don't know what sick pleasure you get out of pretending to be Levin, but it ends now! Turn back!"

"Willow, I don't know how to break it to you, but it's the real deal over here."

"Shut up!" Willow screamed. "Turn back or I'll…I'll…break the arms of your business partner here!"

She squeezed the arms of the leader until a popping noise was heard, and a grunt was heard from the leader.

The man rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, he's not all that important to me." He suddenly had an idea and nodded to himself. He put two fingers together in the shape of a gun, and a spark of light emerged on the tips. He aimed forward, with Willow leaving the leader to stand while falling back and barely missing the beam. The man fell backwards with a hole in his chest while Willow got back up.

"See? Not a shapeshifter. Trust me, I know shapeshifters. It's light beams all the way, baby."

"What compelled you to do this?" Javier asked, stepping in front of Luminita.

"Look, I guarantee it's way more simple than you realize. When the Legion got into the Lux and raided everything, they took me with them. I was expecting to go in and either be killed or made to kill myself, or worse. But they're actually the best people I've had the pleasure of knowing."

"What are you talking about!?" Luminita yelled. Her breathing was growing more unsteady, and Javier had to hold her hand to assure she wouldn't either panic or do something regrettable. "Did you just forget us?"

"Luminita, we were only friends because our royal parents had kids at the same time. We were brought into existence solely so that we could grow up, dictate the people, then pump more kids out to continue things further. And we were made to look cute and get along so that the news would take our pictures and push the idea that the royals couldn't do anything wrong. But then I met the others on the ship. Those from sorry excuses for families who beat their kids, who sold everything they owned to cults, who were so overworked they neglected their families. And what do the supposed royals, the people allegedly born to create the best path for what remains of the human race do to prevent this or steer us on the right path? Nothing! They sit in their towers and assure us we'll all be fine. Down there, there's one man in charge and everyone who works under him. At first I was nobody. The few who did know me weren't allowed to mention it. And with nothing but my own powers and drive, I became the third best agent under Chelic."

"Look, Levin." Javier said after a deep breath. "I can see where you're coming from. But I'm not sure how letting the Legion take over would actually help with any of that. Take the abuse you were talking about. I know it's awful, but there's always going to be something that slips through-"

"Shut up!" Levin yelled. He wasn't furious, but he was getting visibly agitated. "Then explain mister Cutter, Zach's right hand. His daughter is ranked higher than me, and she was beaten in a poor excuse for training and left to fend for herself when the Legion invaded. Now tell me, tell me, how Zach could possibly not know about any of that?!"

"You expect someone to just tell Zach about that?" Willow asked, forcing herself to take a step back to avoid making any regrettable decisions.

"Well, he should have known. But she got her revenge, don't worry. Cutter got jumped and gutted without an ounce of honour, and Zach was sent hurtling through a building. I just wish I was there to witness it. Couldn't tell you who killed who though, I was too busy with Nuria."

"You what?" Javier whispered.

"Yeah. Was sent to take the dagger. That one there, see it? Got attacked and had to kill some people, but hey, it's all for the greater good."

"That was…you killed all of them. All of them! I was told there was nothing left! You had to kill everyone!?"

"Javier, look." Levin said with a smug grin reaching around his face. "Her royalty should have granted her divine protection, no? Maybe she was a sign that the royal system isn't all it's cracked up to be. Went down real easy too. One shot to the face, if you can even believe that."

Javier's breathing deepened. He took his glasses off, handing them to Luminita and letting go of her.

"Javier, what are you-" Willow asked.

Javier lunged for Levin, landing a punch directly into his head. Levin looked past the small fist. This was probably the angriest Javier had ever been. He never raised his voice to anything, or anyone. A man built on observing before he acted, only he never acted.

And now he never will.

Like his mother, a single beam was all it took. He tried matching the hole in her skull, but Javier's punch had just a little more than he expected, so he ended up slightly miscalculating and hitting the neck. Javier lay down spluttering and trying to cover up the hole somehow, looking to the girls. But one more beam to the skull put a stop to that.

"Hey, he lasted longer than most." Levin shrugged. "Anyway, that seems like as good a sign as ever to get things moving. This building is now property of the Legion."

"What the fuck are you talking about?!" Willow asked. "You think I'm just gonna let you-"

Before she could finish her sentence, a busted up ship crashed into the throne room through the window. About five teenagers crawled out, one having a busted up leg from the impact, but smiling through the pain.

One of them lunged towards Luminita, charging up a fireball and throwing it towards her. Willow barely managed to grab her and duck both of them down. The man approached, and she was able to take him down with a swift grab, kick, and slam against a wall. But the hums of airships were coming, and more and more were coming in. Willow looked at Luminita and then the approaching minions, and took the only option she could.

She ran.

She picked Luminita up and ran. She didn't know where to run to, just that she needed to be somewhere, anywhere, that could be safer. She dashed for the docks as she ran through the streets, the shadows above her head getting more and more numerous. As people left their homes to observe just what was approaching the castle, Willow tried covering Luminita's face.

"Next time we'll face them, we'll be ready."

The two found a random ship that was unlocked, and Willow drove it out as more ships went overhead. She had a faint idea where to go.

Cassandra, Julian, Roxanne. Please have some sort of plan.

[miracleweaponhunt]

Miracle Weapon Hunt Chapter 71: Invasion

Willow was the first person to wake up. Besides her lay Luminita, and on the opposite end of her massive bed was Javier. She was in what was technically Luminita's room, but it still felt like Marcel's. For starters, his stuff was in there. She and Luminita discussed moving it, but Luminita wanted to keep some stuff for his memories sake. What exactly was yet to be decided.

She got out of bed and put some clean clothes on in the bathroom. At the risk of sounding insensitive to recent events, she looked like death. Strained eye bags, dry hair, the works. Her mother would probably have a lot of words if she could witness her, but luckily they wouldn't meet for another while.

Before she left, she looked at Javier. For someone who used to be such a crybaby when they play fought as kids, he was doing pretty well. No signs of crying in his sleep either. She knew what he was thinking. 'If I cry, Luminita cries too, and nobody wants that' She didn't envy his position in the slightest. If she could say anything, it was that the spear being broken and the guy inside it just walking around somewhere else meant her family was safe for the time being.

She stepped out and descended the grand stairway to the kitchen.

"Morning, Willow." The chef asked from inside the kitchen. "Any idea what you want?"

"Don't worry about me, I'll just grab some cereal."

Willow waltzed into the kitchen, poured a bowl of chocolate cereal, and looked out the window at the walls. Couple patrolling guards, each trying to look busy as they walked. Seemed to be less than the last few days, which was good. Everything around here seemed to be getting back to some sense of normalcy.

Until the screaming started.

The guards started yelling and some grunts were heard. A moment later, the door swung open and a young man was heard yelling something. He locked eyes with Willow as she took a final bite of breakfast.

"What's his deal?" She asked through squinted eyes.

"He broke into the castle walls. We don't know what for. We're detaining him for questioning."

"Leave him in the living room, I'll deal with him."

"Are you sure that's safe?"

"Yeah." Willow nodded. "I could take him. Besides, I'm the only queen awake right now, so I get final say."

"You're a princess of a different nation."

"And I got approval, trust me. Dump him in the living room."

The man was sat in a leather armchair across from Willow's in the empty room. He kept glancing at the TV to their left, and Willow shook her head. Nothing was breaking the silence, especially not the trash that was on during a Sangaria morning. The man didn't exactly look capable of any real damage. Scrawny and short, with slicked back blonde hair. The type that screamed 'guy who'll go on to sell medicinal scams to random old people in twenty years.' Made sense considering he was wearing the same blue suit of the Zeus cultists.

"I'm gonna need a name from you." Willow asked as she grabbed a notebook and pen.

"Uhh, Sebastian Ardelean?" He said quickly.

"Got it." She nodded, jotting that down. Could be a fake name, but she had reason to believe he was telling the truth.

"So, what compelled you to try and break in?"

"Well, uh…it's…Miss Luminita. Surely even a woman like yourself can see her beauty. Her royal demeanour, her elegant style. It's surely not a crime to see a woman in that regard."

"Breaking in to admire it is, actually." Willow replied, jotting down 'creep and weirdo' into the notebook. "That is, if that's the actual reason you came in."

"It was to see Luminita as she awoke!"

"Yeah, I don't think she wakes up for another hour. Hour and a half, maybe."

"That seems late for a queen."

"She was a med student before that, so I guess she's catching up." She shrugged. "But anyway, I have just a small hunch that you're not as into her as you're making out to be."

"Why, that's…preposterous!" Sebastian yelled. "She's the most beautiful person I've ever laid my eyes upon! From the moment I saw her coronation on TV I knew I had to have have her!"

"Okay." Willow said after a long sigh. "First off, the beauty sleep upstairs isn't finished yet, so pipe down. Second off, I find it awfully convenient that a man with the Zeus cult falls in love hard enough to breach the castle walls the day after I tell them to leave us alone. And for you to do it in full uniform at the crack of dawn, no less? I mean, who wears a suit at this hour? Surely your boys aren't that strict."

"Look, it was the only clean clothing I had-"

"Here's what I think's going on." Willow interrupted. "You show up here with the intent of getting arrested, so that tall doofus can collect you, offer his formal apologies, and then have another crack at talking us into doing whatever he wants."

She walked across the room, leaning forward in front of him with arms crossed and a smug expression on her face.

"Am I correct here?"

Sebastian's mouth started moving as he tried to figure out some kind of excuse. Willow got up and grabbed him by the shoulders, slowly guiding him to an old bathroom. No windows, no air vents to escape from. She shoved him in and locked the door with a key a guard fished out. After an hour both Luminita and Javier were both awake and filled in on the situation.

"So, what do we do now?" Luminita asked.

"Your ship." Willow shrugged. "I'll let you figure it out."

"Well…it's not a good idea to put him in prison." She mumbled. "It's what the Zeus guys want. But we also can't just let him get away with this."

"Also, I can't imagine a trial would be a good use of resources." Javier added.

"And it's not like we can just call another Zeus guy in to collect him. Bastards are counting on that." Willow said with a sigh and a throw of her head to the ceiling.

"Okay, what if we check the phone books? Maybe he's a recent convert doing this as some kind of initiation, and we can get a relative to pick him up."

One flick through a phone book and some records later and his family tree was firmly rooted in the Zeus cult territory. So that was a bust.

"Okay." Luminita sighed, wiping some morning gunk from her eyes. "How about we split the difference? We call the Zeus guys, let them know what happened, and then they collect him outside the castle walls. Then we go back in before they try anything and we'll work out where to go from there. Sound good?"

"Sounds alright to me." Javier nodded.

"I think it's a great idea." Willow replied with a thumbs up.

So the plan was made. The Zeus guy sounded extremely surprised when he got the news. He was a good actor if nothing else. And within a few minutes, him and two shorter assistants were in front of the walls. Willow was behind Sabastian and Javier was in front, in case he tried anything.

"And I'm once again so sorry for what my underling had done. It's just…he had a difficult life. His parents left him on our doorstep when he was born, and he'd since had a tough time adjusting to social norms. And sometimes he…lashes out in ways like this. So I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive him."

Javier listened to that. Sebastian had to be in contact with his parents. Unless the cult had some weird separation ritual, he was one hundred percent lying.

"Well, it's not like he did any real damage." Luminita said reluctantly.

"Now, while I have your attention, would we be allowed to discuss-"

"Fuck off." Willow sighed.

"Understood." He nodded slowly as Sebastian returned to him. As he turned around, Willow noticed him turn his head into his coat, whispering something into it. She turned around, and a flash of light was seen out of the corners of her eyes for a brief second. When she turned around, a figure was seen on the wall surrounding the castle for a brief second, before they casually dropped down.

Willow quickly grabbed the collar of the leader and slammed him to the ground while his two cronies ran. She put his hands behind his back and walked him back into the building. Luminita was about to run back inside, but Javier quickly took hold of her shoulder to stop anything stupid happening while Willow led the march to the building.

"Okay, mister cultist." She whispered, trying her best not to let the rage and saliva building up in her mouth release. "You are going to explain just what's going on."

"Why, I was approached after your rejection and offered a collaboration. Create a distraction, and he'll have the means to take over the country, with the church as the ruling power."

"Who was he?" Willow asked, tightening the grip. "What's his name?"

"He didn't say. He was a blonde man, said he wanted to catch up with you."

Willow flicked through her memories of what blonde person would want something to do with her. Her or any of the other two. Well, there was the obvious one, but that one was stupid. It wasn't a possibility at all. He had to be the type of delusional lunatic Sebastian was making himself out to be.

They continued through the outside of the castle, trying not to trip over the dead guards. Luminita was hyperventilating while Javier was trying his best to stop a full blown panic attack, but he was sweating, trying himself not to break down.

The door opened, the footsteps echoed through Willow's head as she made her way to the throne room. She opened the door again, and there lay a man casually sitting. He was blonde, looking at the four of them with his chin resting on his hand. The dagger of Roperia was embedded into the side of the throne.

"Well guys, looks like it's been a while." The man announced as he rose from his chair. "But I'm guessing you guys remember me?"

[miracleweaponhunt]

Miracle Weapon Hunt Chapter 70: Yeah, He Should Be Killed

Xander took a second to look at the blocky houses, each styled in a different colour. His memories came flooding back of just…existing here as a child. Before everything involving Chelic happened. He suddenly felt free. In that moment, he wanted nothing more than to just lay down under the setting sun and let the remaining warmth wash over him, before it retreats and he gtt dinner and a rest in his comfy bed. He looked around to see the surrounding housing ships, wondering if he could recognize his old one from the distance. But before he could sink fully into the pool of nostalgia, Julian knocked him over by rushing past, carrying Cassandra's cold body in his arms.

The layout of the streets was eerily familiar to Julian. He had only stopped here a couple of times with the Battlestorms, but that was only odd jobs with missing person cases in either the capital city or a small housing ship, and probably not the one he grew up in. But winding through the narrow streets was all too familiar to him, from the days of him and Xander playing tag and hide and seek. Memories he never really put much stock in, but the comfort was the closest distraction from what was currently going on. He was able to get to the main city. Past the main street shops was what looked like the red cross of a hospital sign.

He ran to it and opened the door. The mood was gloomy, even by hospital standards. But that didn't matter. He ran up the reception, slamming the small bell to notify the staff.

"Yes, hello?! I got a dying girl here who needs medical attention, right now!"

The receptionist barely moved before Julian was screaming at her to hurry up. Cassandra was eventually put on a stretcher and carried to another room. The room was almost impossible to Julian to get into, due to whatever was happening one door to the left that required dozens of people to wait outside the door, some with camera equipment for some reason. Maybe some celebrity got drunk and punched above his weight level before paying the price, it didn't really matter.

Julian stood by as some nurses watched over Cassandra.

"What happened leading up to this, sir?" A nurse asked after taking him aside and trying his best to avert Julian's gaze from Cassandra.

"Well, she was pumped full of blood to help her fight off threats better, but we might have overdone it, and now I don't know what's going on with her!"

A doctor approached Julian just as he was about to burst into tears.

"Sir? Sir? Your friend is fine."

"What?" Julian asked.

"She just seems unconscious from a mild shock. I'm assuming some wielder messed with her blood levels before they stabilised. We'll let her sleep and run a test on her tomorrow morning, and we'll let her go if nothing's up."

"So we're all good?" A young looking nurse asked, smiling at Cassandra's body. "At least something good came out of today."

As the other three ran through the hallway to Cassandra's room, they scooted past some cameras, before instantly being shoved back and directed to Cassandra. Once all the stress built up in Roxanne's body left in the form of the longest sigh she had ever pulled off, her phone rang, and she retreated around the corner until the sound died down to answer it.

The call was from Willow, her voice piercing through the hallways as soon as the phone was answered.

"Roxanne? This you?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you at the Roperia medical centre?"

"Think so?"

"Is Nuria dead?"

"Is Nuria what?!" Roxanne asked. She stood waiting for Willow to clarify the statement she misheard. She surely misheard that.

"Dead!" She repeated, more aggressively. "Look, you're on the floor, just push past them until they kick you out!"

Roxanne closed her phone, running in the direction of the crowd, sneaking past the camera man and shoving past the people at the door, coming face to face with Nuria's body.

What was left of her face lay in one last agonized expression. Her previously tanned skin was replaced by the whites of her skull peering out over it. And above that was a perfect small circle for a hole, right above her head where the attack landed. Roxanne was pulled out of the room by a guard as she opened up her phone.

"How is it?" Willow asked.

"There's…there's a hole in her skull, Willow. She's dead."

A suppressed moan was heard from the other end.

"Willow, I'm not sure if you noticed, but I was off the ships yesterday. Did I miss anything?"

There was a pause.

"Wait, shit! The news was reporting you dead!" She yelled out after a brief second. "How'd you get back?"

"We used the person inside the shield. Look, I'll explain it the next time we meet up, what'd I miss?"

"Well…Zach died."

"Wait, Zach…how?"

Roxanne stood in place trying to wrap her head around all this. Nothing about it felt real to her. Two leaders were dead and she was only gone a day.

"Look, Javier's here on the phone. you're in charge until he gets back tomorrow. Let him speak to the media people."

"Roxanne, was it?" Said the voice. It sounded like Javier, only the voice was heavier, trying it's best not to waver.

"It's me." Roxanne whispered back.

"Cool. Can you show me the media people?"

Roxanne moved to the room holding Nuria.

"We're here." Roxanne whispered.

"Hello?" Javier asked. "Am I clear?"

The media people stopped crowding the door and moved on to Roxanne. A few eyes were focused on her, enough to make her uncomfortable, but most eyes were unblinkingly staring at her phone.

"Prince Javier?" A woman with a microphone asked, unflinchingly staring into the flip phone. "How do you feel about your mother's death?"

There was a brief silence.

"Take a fucking guess!" He eventually screamed over the line. "Look, I know this is a major event, but can you have an ounce of fucking respect for her?"

Microphone lady turned her nose up at Javier, going back to the door. But in front of it was Julian, Xander, and Cecilia."

"You heard the ruler." Xander said. "Get lost."

Microphone lady tried pushing past him, but Cecilia delivered one open palm strike to the gut, leaving her on the floor. She scowled at them, but left the room. All the other news stations followed.

"Did I go too far?" Cecilia asked, turning her head to Julian with an expression of second hand pain.

"Eh, I reckon you hit it just right." Julian replied with a casual hand wave.

"Now then, are the doctors still with you? Because I'd like to speak to them."

"Yeah, They're here." Roxanne nodded, handing the phone to the doctor in the room.

"Look." Javier sighed. "I know I'm asking a lot, but please let my friends stay in your hospital if you have a spare room. After what I've heard they've gone through, I'm sure they can be spared at least that."

"I'm sure we have more rooms." The doctor nodded, glancing around the room to check.

"Excellent. And also…thanks for preserving my mother. I'll be back tomorrow."

The phone hung up, and the others were directed to their rooms. Roxanne and Julian stayed with Cassandra while Xander and Cecilia got their own rooms.

Night time.

Xander lay awake in his hospital room. He somehow couldn't sleep. He wandered through the hallways staffed by nobody but a few nurses, none of which tried stopping him. He stepped outside, watching the night time streets. Nobody knew who he was. At this moment, nobody was expecting him to do anything. If he felt like it he could take advantage of the current situation and just run somewhere. Anywhere. Get a job in some cybersecurity business and go from there.

"Nice place you got here." He whispered to himself.

"It really is." Cecilia replied.

Xander jumped slightly at her voice.

"Honestly, as much as I wanna hate this place, it looks pretty." She continued, looking up at a streetlight. It was pretty. Metal with some fancy spirals covering the circular bulb. "So, what's keeping you up?"

"Just thinking too hard. You?"

"Probably the same." She nodded. "What you thinking about?"

"I guess…helping the rulers."

"Ah. Still not used to heroism, I take it?"

"Blocking a door isn't the most heroic thing ever, but sure, we'll go with that. It's also just…I was told what happened to Nuria."

"Well, you probably know who did it to her, right?"

"I can guess. Legion number three, guy named Levin. Never seen him in person. From what I know he just kind of appears and leaves whenever he feels like it. Don't know the guys exact powers, but they always leave the victims with a perfect hole on their bodies."

"So are you gonna release this information?" She asked.

"How am I meant to do that?" He asked with a pained expression overcoming him. "What would that even be like!? 'Hey, I have real important information on the highest ranking Legion members. Please don't question how I got any of it' Like what am I meant to do?"

He looks towards an unimpressed Cecilia.

"Do you not remember our conversation on the ground?"

"About my redemption?" Xander asked.

"Correct. If you have anything to say, anything at all. You need to tell them."

"Okay, but-"

Cecilia put a finger to Xander's lips with her left hand, and snapped her fingers with her right.

"No buts. Tell me, why are you doing this?"

"To kill Chelic." Xander replied.

"Is that it?"

"Look, all I wanted was to get out of there and live a good life with my girlfriend and my teammate. My girlfriends dead, my teammate is probably dying as we speak, and all I want is to kill the bastard who did it."

"So you don't care about your brother?"

"I mean, I'd prefer him alive, clearly. But he still doesn't feel like my brother in much besides names. Not like we had the time to do much brotherly stuff anyway. So if I have to let him die to kill Chelic, I'm fine with that."

"Hey, I get it. Did I mention I had a brother?"

"Nope."

"Well, I did. He was the one who killed me. Don't recall a moment of hesitation as he slashed my head off. But he's probably dead now, so I'm not really worrying about it."

"I see."

"But anyway, I appreciate the honesty. Too many people would say some drivel about the greater good or honour, but you? I can respect you. So if you don't mind me asking, I would like your permission to pursue vengeance."

"Okay? Why?"

"I imagine the heroes can do their honourable thing while we get to kill those responsible. We got a deal?"

"Sure lady. We got a deal."

[miracleweaponhunt]

Miracle Weapon Hunt Chapter 69: Get To The Top!

Roxanne and Cassandra met the other four outside the hospital. Xander was drinking a cup of hot water while Kwadwo was talking on his phone. Cecilia stepped in front of the girls, enthusiastically shaking their hands.

"So, you must be Julian's friends!" She exclaimed, rapidly wrapping her arms around both of them in for a group hug. Roxanne didn't fight it.

"It's tonight?" Kwadwo asked as she loosened her grip on the girls.

"What's tonight?" Cassandra asked.

"Look, I got it." Kwadwo whispered before closing the phone.

"Okay, so. The mountain you have to climb to get back to the skies. The ships will pass by that tonight. You only have about twelve hours to get up the mountain. Because if you don't, you'll have to wait a year before it comes back."

"I'm sorry, what?" Xander asked, grabbing Kwadwo by the shoulder. He tried grabbing him by the other, because his brain hasn't fully grasped the fact his arm was gone.

"Hey, I'm surprised about this too, okay?" Kwadwo said, worming his way out of the grip.

"Look, shouldn't we just get started?" Cecilia said, pushing them away from each other.

"Fine." Xander muttered through clenched teeth.

Aspasia handed them a bag of supplies. It contained the usual stuff. Food and a couple of metal water bottles. No sleeping supplies, because that they wouldn't need. Each person got a knife. Cassandra didn't like the quality of hers, and looking around, it seemed all the knives were of a similar build. This seems like the type of thing that would break if used more than a few times. She sighed, put it in her pocket, and prayed that she would never have to use it.

"So, do you have everything?" Aspasia asked.

"Yes, mom. I'll be fine."

"I…I know, dear."

Aspasia looked ready to cry as she stood opposite the city gates in front of the group. In front of her was the outside world. A world that she didn't dare venture into, where barely anyone roamed. A world who's existence was considered too much to handle to most of the world. A world that most likely didn't know she existed.

"So you're all ready to go, Roxanne?" Davina asked.

"Should be." Roxanne nodded.

"Just remember. We were born for this." She whispered as she grasped Roxanne's necklace. Roxanne stood still. It was her mother, yes. But having someone else just grab her necklace felt…violating. She hated it, that was the conclusion. Also, born for it? She was barely born before being dumped to the skies, she didn't feel born for any particular actions. All this just seemed to happen.

"I'll remember." She nodded. That one phrase was the only thing to slip out of her mouth while she tried to avoid eye contact. She didn't really know what else to say.

"We leaving, Roxanne?" Julian asked with a hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah, we can go."

The four left the walls to their parents waving at them from behind. Roxanne kept looking over her shoulder to see them until she couldn't see the gates anymore.

"You do know how to read maps, right?" Xander asked Cecilia. Cecilia turned around him with a grim expression.

"I have used the resources of my upbringing to learn as much as I could during my youth! I think I know a thing or two about reading maps. See, we're around here." She affirmed, pointing just south of the town on the map, tracing her finger to the contour lines.

"These circles indicate how high above sea level something is. This one has the most circles, so it means it's the highest peak. And it's just about…directly west."

Everyone else turned their heads west, and in front was a bunch of incredibly dense forest.

"Is that the best option?" Roxanne asked.

"It seems like the quickest, and that's the best we can ask for." Cecilia said, folding the map into a makeshift weapon, swinging it downwards several times, quickly aiming for Xander and hitting him over the head. An exclamation of pain let her conclude that it was a suitable tool of war. New knowledge in hand, she marched her way into the forest, and the other four reluctantly followed.

The jungle darkened as they walked through it. Parts of the morning sun briefly peeked out to hit the group with a small morsel of sunlight before the darkness. A few small noises were heard as soon as they stepped in, but all seemed clear at the moment.

"Hey, Cecilia." Roxanne asked, trying to mask the urge to scream building up inside her. "How much longer do we have to walk through the forest?"

"I wouldn't know, it's too dark to check the map." Cecilia replied calmly.

Roxanne swallowed the scream and kept walking. She felt something hard brush against her leg. Through her hazy vision, it looked like…a skeleton. Almost human, but uncanny in just how many small differences there were.

"Cecilia, where did you lead us?"

She felt a hand of some kind hit her, but it was gone when she turned around to react. Another scream was heard from Julian, who quickly elbowed whatever appeared behind him. It fell behind him and allowed him to hide behind Cassandra and Xander. The creature let out a primal scream before lunging for Cassandra. She landed a solid punch to it's stomach, but it grabbed her hair and didn't let go. She felt her scalp tear as it kept pulling. She felt more eyes circle around her as she fought. Another tried clinging onto Xander, jumping onto his face and grabbing the hood of his hoodie. He tried fighting it off, but it's stomach was even further into his face. He tried grabbing his old knife to stab it with, but the weak slashes didn't seem to do anything but make it even angrier.

"Hold this." Cecilia said, leaving her stuff with Roxanne, trying to stay silent through the whole ordeal. She felt something else on her back, but it was gone, like a momentary itch.

Cecilia leapt behind Xander and Cassandra, baring her hands behind them. A mild hissing noise was heard as small tendrils emerged from under her fingernails. Cylindrical, limply dripping from her hands. Until all ten sprang back to life after she raised a hand, and the clear tubes quickly had red shoot through them. She plunged a hand into Xander and Cassandra, stepping back afterwards to cover Julian.

Cassandra felt a tingling sensation flow through her spine. It felt nice as it rippled through her body, briefly distracting her from the pain. The sensation rushed to her arms, and she quickly got the creature off of her. It screamed and lunged once again, but Cassandra laid one punch into it's chest, and her hand burst straight through. Xander matched, throwing his creature to the ground and choking it out until it stopped moving. Another creature rushed past Cassandra to fight Xander, and then another. Julian ducked out of the way of the attack, plunging his hand into the fresh corpse Cassandra made. There was enough leftover life to make the body twitch slightly, so he brushed the creature's hand like a sock puppet against the hand of the thing clawing at Xander's face. it turned around, allowing Xander to get up and punch another creature down. Julian quickly took his hand out and threw the twitching corpse into the distance, and the other creatures followed. He ran the opposite direction, and the other four followed, Xander and Cassandra quickly taking the lead. They kept running without a second to breathe, as more and more light started to make it's appearance in front of them. Eventually, the trees were replaced with a series of mountains.

They made it.

"See? And with enough time to spare." Cecilia said. She either didn't notice Roxanne shooting daggers at her, or didn't care.

"But uh, are you two okay?" She asked, looking back at Cassandra and Xander.

"I feel…like everything in my body is ready to fight anything. I could take on anything. If something approached me I'd dodge it and rip the arms off whoever threw it at me. I could kill Chelic with my bare hands right now!"

"Oh, seems I overdid it." Cecilia mumbled, looking at a confused Julian. "If her heart doesn't give out, she'll be back to normal in an hour or two."

She merrily began skipping to the mountain in front of them, and Cassandra and Xander followed suit. Julian slowly began following her, and Roxanne followed.

The mountain took some adjustments. The flooring being so uneven compared to anything Roxanne had known to that point was throwing her off, and she would have fell face first into a jagged rock if Julian didn't grab her hand in the nick of time.

"So Roxanne, I've been thinking about something."

"What's that?"

"So you're the daughter of the people running the town, and Cassandra's the daughter of a goddess. Got that right."

"Pretty much."

"So like, can I have a cool title? Seems like the kind of thing you can ordain me, right?"

"What are you thinking?"

"Something like…fallen lord of death. The guy who helped bring you two back to your heritage, and will control the very essence of life itself. I'll workshop it a little, but what do you think?"

"Sounds good. And sure, I'll try to get you the title."

"Nice."

It took a good while before the two got up there, but they made the climb. It was actually not that bad of a trek. The only danger in terms of wildlife was a few surprise birds that they startled and what looked like a goat. Cecilia, Xander, and Cassandra were already at the top of the mountain. Outside of looking generally dishevelled, both of them seemed okay.

"So you've made it." Xander said.

"Yeah." Roxanne sighed. So this was the fresh mountain breeze she read about. She didn't see the hype herself, but she did always live higher than it, so it probably was more impressive to people who lived lower down. She was surrounded by clouds on all sides when she looked down.

"Okay, so I have an idea of how we're getting up." Cecilia said. "I'll pump one of you full of blood. Then we all climb on that person if they can handle it, and they can hopefully claw their way up to a main ship."

"Will that work?" Julian asked.

"It's pretty much our only choice." Xander sighed. "Guessing how Chelic did it, he probably used a chain to attach himself, and we don't have that."

"Although I will say this. This'll require most of the blood in my body. If I move wrong on the way up, I could die."

"That a problem?" Julian asked.

"Not for me, I've died before. But I do run the risk of overloading whoever takes this until their heart gives out."

"Doesn't matter, I'll do it." Cassandra said, getting in front of her. She opened her bag and began eating whatever was packed for her and washing it all down with water. She needed all the energy she could sneak out. She emptied the bags of everyone else, nodding to Cecilia as a ship came over the distance.

The shadows of the ships emerged in the evening sun, and Cecilia began pumping Cassandra's back with blood. The rippling was intense, and Cassandra's eyes bulged as she gasped for air. Xander picked up Cecilia as she fell back, pressing up against Cassandra and jumping on her back and wrapping his legs around her waist. Julian climbed onto Xander's back, and Roxanne held on to dear life to Julian.

The thruster of a ship appeared before the group, blue streams of flame burning underneath them. Cassandra jumped up, digging her hands into the steel. She climbed up and away from the flame, letting the cold of the unfeeling steel take over her hands. She slowly made the first marks this side of the ship had seen in two hundred years. She kept climbing even as the weight of the other four began making it's presence. But she could see the steel flatten. She kept going, even as everything around her kept screaming. Her muscles were in agony, her heart felt like it was about to burst out of her against the grey steel. She stopped for a brief second, feeling her fingers slip downwards. She clutched the steel again, climbing up to the horizon. She climbed over the edge and gave herself one final push upwards. She turned around to let the others fall off her, collapsing on her back after letting out a last primal scream of victory.

Julian checked to see if she was out cold.

"Cecilia, is this normal?" He asked. He was trying not to show it, but his eye was beginning to tear up out of just a little dash of desperation.

"Well, she looks better than I thought she would turn out, but we should still get her to a hospital."

"Okay, cool." Julian said as he picked her up. "Now, where are we?!"

"No way." Xander whispered, taking a good look at the blocks of colourful houses in front of them.

"Hey Julian, did you ever go back to Roperia?"

[miracleweaponhunt]

Miracle Weapon Hunt Chapter 68: To Feel or Not to Feel

"So, where am I?"

The woman lay naked in front of Julian, Xander, and Kwadwo. That morning, the three of them were entrusted to break the shield and let the person inside of it out. The woman was groggy, deathly pale. Her hair was in a bob cut that was still perfectly maintained even after two hundred years of solitude.

"Put these on and we'll discuss it later." Julian said, casually burying her in a pile of old clothes he borrowed from the hospital, before escorting the other two out of the room.

"Okay, Xander. You able to make tea?"

"Excuse me?"

"I think she'd drink tea. All refined like. She's a ladies lady. Got the look of one. So go make the tea."

Xander rolled his eyes and left them to it. The woman emerged from the room, wearing a worn out crimson t-shirt with white sleeves, alongside matching white shorts.

"Allow me to repeat myself. Where am I?" The woman asked. She was glancing at her bare legs, the fashion choices she was forced to make already annoying her.

"Trampstown." Kwadwo replied casually, causing the woman to squint at him.

"Where?" She asked. "Last thing I remember was leading a charge against some-

"Skyships led by the people who destroyed the world?" Julian finished with a nod and a heavy sigh. "Yeah. It's been a while, so how about we discuss this over some tea on the rooftop?"

The four took a smaller table on the edge of the roof, away from where anyone else would listen in. Xander brought a tray of tea to the table, and the woman took a cup and held it to her lips. There was a moment of hesitation before she drank it, and for the first time her refined demeanour was destroyed as her face crunched the second the tea hit her tongue.

"Just…what is that?" She asked.

Kwadwo took a sip and let it rest in his mouth for a little before swallowing.

"Tastes like normal tea to me."

"Yes, it's Queen Smith tea if I'm not mistaken. It's fine casually, but once you try other types it's…an adjustment going back. Would you happen to have any Catbite tea?"

Kwadwo looked at her in disbelief.

"You mean the stuff that's grown in like, another continent?"

"Did…something happen to that place?"

"As far as they're concerned, we all died decades ago." Kwadwo replied casually.

The woman looked at him in shock, and then looked over the roof to the tall trees and nets surrounding them.

"So while we have your attention, can we have your name?" Julian asked.

"My name is Cecilia Ciobanu." The woman replied while pushing away the tea. "So, who are you?"

Julian spent the next few minutes introducing himself and explaining where she was. She slowly nodded, taking in the information as it came.

"Well, that makes sense." She said.

"Just like that?" Xander asked with a blank expression.

"Well, I knew something was up when you didn't have Catbite tea. It was on the expensive side, but hardly a rare item. And when Julian here was explaining events, my last few memories unclouded themselves."

"What memories?" Xander asked.

"My last ones before I died. I believe I was decapitated." She said casually.

"So you don't have any memories of being the weapon?" Xander asked. "Or of me?"

"I think I was on the plane between life and death, so I doubt I had the capacity to remember much of anything. Why, did you violate the shield somehow?"

"I used you to murder the king of Sangaria." He said.

"I see." Cecilia nodded. "Did he deserve it?"

"Not really."

"And did he leave any family behind?"

"Just his daughter."

"Age?"

"Well, I'm twenty two, and I'd say she's around that."

"And she's in charge now?"

"I'd guess so."

"Well, I'll do my best to help patch things up between you."

"Yeah, lady. I don't know how things were done two hundred years ago, but I don't think I can just be forgiven for that."

"Why did you do it?"

"Excuse me?"

"The murder. What compelled you to do it?"

"I was ordered to get the shield containing you back. Then the king tried stopping me, and I ended up breaking his neck."

"And you were ordered by the man Julian said is trying to take over, correct? But then you defected."

"Yeah." Xander nodded slowly.

"Then as far as I'm concerned, you have nothing to worry about. May I ask your name?"

"Xander."

"Redemption is the word of the day, Xander. as far as I'm concerned, evil is the second worst thing a person can be. First place goes to the type who knows they did wrong, but rather than correct it they retreat into their minds convinced they cannot be forgiven. Now tell me, are you a one, a two, or will you reverse into a man of honour instead? Because you know what you are?"

"What?"

"You're me, two hundred years later. You see, I was the daughter of the man who started the skyship operation, and for years I felt I wouldn't be able to stop the abandonment of humanity. But near the end, I was able to get the other nine in to make a last stand. We naturally all died, but that's where you come in! You get the honour of finishing what I started too late!"

Xander looked at the woman. She had fire in her eyes for sure, and was just shy of grabbing and shaking him.

"But anyway, what do we need to kill this Chelic?"

"What we need is a way back to the ships." Julian answered.

"Ah, that shouldn't be much of an issue." Cecilia nodded. "If we find someone strong enough, I can pump them up using my blood, and then jump up there!"

"Would that work?" Kwadwo asked, looking at the other three.

"Well, maybe Cassandra knows something? I'll call her."

Roxanne and Cassandra sat by the table while Roxanne's parents kept discussing boys. Describing them and not so discreetly glancing at Roxanne whenever the sentence finished to see if it provoked any sort of reaction. And yet it didn't. Cassandra felt their glances cut through her as well, even though her relationship was pretty much perfect. Until Roxanne felt her phone buzz and picked up from Julian. She gave it to Cassandra as she asked, and she scooted into the next room to answer it.

"Hey Cass, just calling to ask if we have a way up to the ships again?"

"I think we do. There's a mountain nearby that Chelic climbed onto."

"Aw, sweet. Well, find out when the ships pass by so we can get back to it. Love you!"

Julian hung up, and the yapping from the parents began to fill her ears once again.

"So who was that, Cass?" Claude asked.

"It was…Roxanne's boyfriend?"

"Wait, you already have a boyfriend?" Davina asked, leaning in. Roxanne leaned back with an audible grunt and a look to Cassandra. A look of malice she has never pulled off before.

"Uh…yeah." Cassandra answered. "I lost my phone, so he called me to-"

"Cass, can we not?" Roxanne said with a sigh. She stood up and looked at her mom.

"Look mom, I know that you're excited about me getting back. And I know that you want me to follow up with you and get married with a kid…but I don't feel it."

Davina looked at her for a second with a blank expression, before continuing.

"Well, it's fine not to be looking right now, but later on you'll find the spark and-"

"Stop talking. Please."

Davina was looking at Roxanne. She was tired. The mere memories of forcing herself to like someone were exhausting her merely by thinking about them.

"I've tried, mom. I've spent the last few days hopping from ship to ship and boy to boy. There was nothing between us. Even tried getting it on with a girl once, but that was the biggest disaster of all. So I think I can conclude after all of that, I'm not interested. I can't feel love."

"Okay, but maybe after some time you'll-"

"Maybe? Probably not. I'm pretty confident in thinking that. Look, you think I want this? To spend my entire life being told the path to go down only to learn you're incapable? Do you think I was rubbing my hands with evil glee for not providing the outcome you wanted? Look, we can discuss this after I helped save the skyspace, okay?"

"But-"

Roxanne had already walked out and Cassandra quickly began to follow.

"So, where's Julian?"

[miracleweaponhunt]

Miracle Weapon Hunt Chapter 67: Guess I'm Nothing

The grand house stood before Roxanne and Cassandra like a monolith. There were short walls before it, with some metal rusted metal attached to the bricks indicating that a fence once stood. The house was huge, easily at least twice the size of every other building here.

"Well, are you ready?" Aspasia asked.

"Sure?" Roxanne asked. She felt something build up in her throat. Something was going off in her brain, pinging different sectors of it that were something off. But since she couldn't place it, she silently declared to her brain it was nothing of importance.

"Look, I have to deal with the shield. I take it you two can behave without me?"

"I got this, mom." Cassandra said with a thumbs up. Just acknowledging her as her mom still felt strange. Amazing, but strange.

Roxanne confidentially walked up to the door, leaving three loud knocks. She stood back and waited. Time slowed to a crawl, but sped to slightly less of a crawl when footsteps were heard from inside. And when the door finally creaked open slightly, time rushed to it fully opening, and Roxanne was face to face with the owner.

The older woman wore a pink sweater and casual black sweatpants. Her hair was short and frizzy. Small circular glasses were above her nose. And to top the outfit off, a necklace with a purple gem in it's centre.

She stood still for a second, mouth slightly open in a confused position. But when she shifted her gaze slightly to Cassandra, everything fell into place in her mind.

"This…it's you. You're back."

The pieces fell in Roxanne's mind too. This was her mother. Her parents were alive, in front of her.

"Mom!"

Roxanne leapt into the womans arms, and she caught her by instinct. They embraced without saying a word, while a man stepped down the stairs to see what was going on. Roxanne looked up, and the scrawny man in a suit teared up, his thick glasses fogging up from the sight of her.

"Honey, get the lounge ready!" The woman yelled.

After a few minutes of shuffling upstairs, Roxanne and Cassandra were invited to the upstairs lounge. Inside it was a small television set with some kind of movie playing. The quality was awful, so even on the small chance Roxanne had seen it, she wouldn't recognize it. Some cupcakes were left on the table, while Roxanne and Cassandra were sat around a blue velvet sofa, and her parents were each on a velvet armchair.

"So, are introductions in order?" The mother asked. "Yes, I think we should start there. My name is Davina Morrow, and my husband is Claude. And we try our best to keep this city up and running. And your name is?"

"Um, it's Roxanne." Roxanne said quietly.

"Oh, they chose such a good name!" Claude yelled. He also had a purple gemstone necklace.

"Look, if I'm connected to you through the necklace, and I ended up on the ship, what exactly happened to get me there?"

Davina meekly put her head down, but let it shoot back up.

"You see, our family has always been the rulers. That's what the purple gemstones means. But when Chelic escaped to the world above, we knew he had the potential to destroy not only the world above, but use the power there to ruin everything around here, too. If we're not careful, the world itself could be at risk."

"So the gemstone means I'm important."

"We're royalty, basically. And that means we have to do something."

"And why couldn't you do something?" Roxanne asked.

"Because people would get suspicious. And we're also needed to take charge of everything that happens. So that left the two babies of our brightest to go up after Chelic, grow up, and lead the skies against him."

"You thought to let two babies do that?" Cassandra asked flatly.

"Also, how did you even get us up there?" Roxanne asked.

"Just a few miles away from the city is mount Weyes." Claude asked. "It's a trek, but once every few months, a grand is a little accessible with the right power set. So we let a man called Tunde, with the ability to fly, carry you to a small housing ship and hope for the best."

"That was your solution?" Cassandra asked.

"I'll admit it wasn't the most ideal, or even had that high of a success rate. But it worked, did it not?"

Cassandra and Roxanne looked at each other. It sort of worked? They knew all the rulers, and Cassandra was hopefully able to impact the world with Zach's help. They were all one step closer to finishing off the Legion.

"And speaking of Tunde, he has a son about Roxanne's age, right?" Claude asked.

"Oh, yes!" Davina replied with excited hand claps. "There are pictures of him in our photobooks, right? Could you try to get them?"

Claude dashed off while Roxanne was left with Davina, anticipating what came next.

"So…what's the son like?"

"Oh, he's such a lovely boy. Very considerate and caring, and he works as a farmer to produce food!"

"Sounds like a great guy." Roxanne nodded nervously.

"Yeah, he was born with enhanced strength! So he can protect as many people here as he needs to!"

"…Amazing."

Claude came back with the teased photos, handing them to Roxanne with a smile plastered on his face. She flipped through the photos of the young man. He was certainly handsome. Good muscle definition, nicely styled hair. His smiles with the community seemed genuine. He was certainly a good guy, that much was obvious.

"He's nice." She nodded as she handed back the photos.

"How nice?" Claude replied, leaning in with a cheeky grin.

"Just…nice." Roxanne said, lowering the intensity of the nod a few notches.

"Well, she's probably got a boyfriend up on the skies at this point, let's not pressure her!" Davina said as she put her hands on Roxanne's shoulders.

"Hm? Well, not yet. But I have been on a ton of dates recently!"

"Oh, excellent!" Davina yelled. "So, how were the boys?"

"Yeah, they were all fine, but things happened between us, you know how it is."

"Well, our marriage was arranged, so…not particularly. But I'm sure it's hard."

"Yeah, I imagine that simplifies things." Roxanne said, feeling now was good time to get back to nodding.

"Wow, excessive nodding." Cassandra noticed. "I think that's a sign we should go to bed. Mind if we stay here the night?"

"There should be a spare room upstairs." Claude said. "If you need help cleaning…"

"We've slept in worse!" Cassandra yelled, pushing Roxanne upstairs.

They found the spare room, a near empty room aside from two beds. Cassandra sat down on one after closing the door, while Roxanne flopped back first onto the other.

"So, how's that one guy?" Cassandra asked.

Roxanne just let out a long and exhausted groan.

"I guessed." Cassandra sighed. "So I'm guessing your parents want you married off?"

"Probably." Roxanne sighed. Her voice was low. She was just tired. Not tired from the eventful day, but somehow more tired from the idea of dealing with any more romantic antics.

"Cass, can I be honest with you?"

"Shoot."

"I think I hate the idea of being in a relationship."

"For real?"

"I mean, it's not like it ever lasted more than a day, no matter who I latched onto. And now I'm asking myself why I tried so hard to force myself into it, and I guess it's because I had to. Everyone said I had to, that it was expected. Or else I was nothing. But honestly, I think I'm fine with that."

"So what's next?" Cassandra asked.

"What you mean?"

"Well, if your reason for tagging along with us was finding the love of your life, and you don't feel made for it, what's your next goal."

"Stopping the Legion, I guess? After that…eh, I'm too tired to plan anything, I'll tell you in the morning."

Dream world.

Been a while since she's been here. Granted, it's been a while since Roxanne thought about love, which looking back is one hundred percent what triggers this. The figure flew by her, but it didn't seem aggressive this time. It just floated in front of her, relaxed.

"You're nothing." The voice reverberated through her head. She had a mild headache, but that was fine.

"Guess I am." Roxanne shrugged.

And that was that. The light around the figure slowly flew off into pieces that faded into the distance of the endless void. And at the end was…another Roxanne.

"You're nothing." The other Roxanne repeated casually. She flew into her, a slight tingling sensation coming over her before her next sight was the ceiling of her parents house.

As opposed to every other time she had the dream, she felt fine. Cassandra was still fast asleep, clutching her pillow. The sun was peering out from the windows, and Roxanne felt ready to accomplish her goals.

Whatever they were.

[miracleweaponhunt]

Miracle Weapon Hunt Chapter 66: Secure the Dagger

"And like we said the last several times, she's not interested!"

Willow stood arms crossed at the tall creep looming over her with a fake smile plastered against his face. She was the only thing separating them from the door to Luminita's throne room.

"But we wish for a little conversation, my dear." The man replied. He was tall and skinny, decked out in a pristine sky blue suit and a small lightning bolt pin. There were two guys next to him, but they were significantly shorter. This guy was probably obsessed with his height, and needed a constant reminder of how very hard he worked for it. "After all, we just want to show our support any way we can."

"You said that two days ago, we let you in two days ago, and we kicked you out two days ago. Now get lost."

The man tried his best to maintain his smile. But both knew that he was doing his best to stop the scowl building up.

"Well, I suppose I'll take my leave." He said calmly. One of his men handed him a pamphlet, which he then handed to Willow.

"Just know, miss. Not entertaining an outside audience might not give the best impression. Be sure to let Luminita know that."

Willow balled up the pamphlet and tossed it at the cultists. Landed on the head of the leader, who made an audible noise of discomfort. They left escorted by soldiers, leaving Willow to pick the paper up and toss it into an open bin. First try. Hey, times were stressful for everyone, including the cleaning staff. She stepped back into the throne room, where Luminita and Javier were waiting.

"They gone?" Javier asked. Willow responded with a tired nod.

"Good."

He was as openly sick of the Zeus cult as she was. Luminita just breathed a sigh of relief that they were in fact gone.

"How am I meant to deal with them?" Luminita whispered.

"Well, they'll give up eventually, right?" Willow asked.

"I don't think it'll be that simple." Javier sighed. "If Luminita shows any weakness during discussion, then pretty much any loser with an agenda could come for her."

"Okay, surely we could call someone to help in the meantime and show her the ropes?" Willow asked. "Like, I get there's a lot going on right now, but surely Gurpreet or something could help us out."

"Gurpreet?" Javier asked.

"Well, his relic was stolen, so It's not like he's busy. Probably."

"You know what, I doubt calling him would hurt." Javier said reaching to call his mother. She'd probably have his number. Or maybe she could talk to Luminita about this stuff.

He rang the number and waited for her to pick up. Nothing happened.

"Nothing?" Willow asked.

"Eh, she's probably just having dinner or something." Javier shrugged.

Nuria looked out the window of the castle. There was a small crowd of young people building up outside the castle, and several of her guards were stuck blocking their entrance. Some of the brigadiers brought weapons which they were attacking with, while Nuria and her husband were stuck inside their castle. A few guards were huddled around them as they made their way through the light brown walls of the castle, watching the windows just in case something happens. A window broke next to them, and everyone stood in anticipation at what would come in. After a solid twenty seconds, nothing of note.

But just as they continued their trek out, a beam of light pierced through one of the guards behind Nuria, and a dropping noise a second later. The light was so blinding that it stung Nuria's eyes, and it was only out for a second before piercing a hole in the wall. Behind them was a flaming arrow through another window, with the astral arrow quickly fading as the fire spread.

"They're after the dagger." Nuria whispered to her guard. "This has to be something to do with the Legion."

"So what's your plan?" The guard in front of her asked.

"We're destroying it."

Everyone circling her tried their best to contain their composure.

"My Queen, please reconsider-"

"My orders are final." She said calmly.

She strode through the hallways on her way downstairs, crossing the spiralling staircase to the second of three floors downward. A beam of light immediately shot past them, with a young guard peering out and immediately getting shot in the head by a second beam. His head almost disintegrated, with only a few smears of red across the orange walls remaining. A laugh rang out throughout the hallways as Nuria was huddled towards the bottom floor. Another beam hit the wall, just past a guards head. They tried not to panic with the knowledge that without the spiral design, they'd be dead. They moved on, they had to.

At the bottom floor, the crowd was starting to get louder. The names of guards were being called out outside a little after the sound of metal falling to the ground. Right beside the staircase was a door that contained the Roperia dagger, nested in between two grand staircases you would see when you enter, just below a giant orange flag with two daggers parallel each other. Nuria quickly pulled the key from her bosom and unlocked the door. Just as she stepped inside the hall, another set of beams went off. When she looked back, the remaining guards and her husband all had holes inside them, dropped dead on the ground. Nuria held in her reaction. She could cry later. She quickly locked the door hoping it would buy a little more time, before setting her sights on the hallway. It was a grand hallway once used for indoor balls, but ever since she moved them outside and left the indoor work to Mia and Freyja she didn't have much use for it. Now it was nothing but a spacious area to store a dagger and several years worth of dust. At the end of the hall behind a series of pillars was the glass that stored the dagger. It was meant to be the strong stuff that could withstand small blasts, but any Legion members willing to go this far could probably get past that.

She looked around for the right pillar of the four, two at each side, that had a small switch at the back that blended in with the rest of it. The glass went down and revealed the dagger. She briefly looked back, and the door was still locked. The grabbed the dagger. It had an orange handle and a rose coloured blade. Perfect condition like it was never used. She wasn't even sure what it did, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was that it would never matter again. She tried stomping it down, but that didn't make so much as a dent. As she scrambled around the near empty room looking for something to bash against the weapon, the door was blasted open.

It was another light beam. Nuria didn't know what to do, so she just hid behind one of the pillars. She tried to stifle her breathing and come up with some kind of plan to escape. They both knew she was in here, so her only option was to run out while their back was turned. Another beam was fired to the back. The person looked like a young man, straight blonde hair combined with a light yellow t-shirt and jeans. He looked so…ordinary. But that didn't matter. His back was turned and it was obvious he didn't know where she was, so she was ready to make her escape.

Then the ringing started.

Her phone was on silent, but she never thought to leave it behind. She checked for a brief second to shut it off, and it was Manuel. The footsteps began approaching her, echoing heavier in her mind. When a hand revealed itself, she sprang up and sliced forward with the dagger. The man sprang back, before aiming a finger forward and charging it. One second later, and she was dead.

He checked the dagger. No signs of imperfections. In fact, did she even know the whole point was to reflect things? One look at her corpse suggested it was lost knowledge.

"Fall back, men." He said as he opened the doors. He calmly put a hand on a guard's shoulder, just before dodging an attack from another.

"Yeah, you might wanna look at what happened to your friends." He said, putting on a fake look of regret.

The guards did as he asked, and he strolled back to his ship. All it took was one blast from his fingers, and the people left him alone. As he got back in his ship, he stabbed the dagger into the table before sauntering into the cockpit.

"Hey, Jane." He said casually. "Daggers in the living quarters, be sure to get that back for Chelic. I'm gonna grab another ship and make a detour."

"Sure thing, number three." Jane replied calmly. An ordinary response from an ordinary girl. Whatever.

"Again with the number three stuff. I keep telling you, the name's Levin! Anyway, I'm off to visit some old friends, we'll work on that when I get back."