after a few minutes of walking through tall storage buildings, they finally they finally came to a wide open space in the middle of the city. there were a few residential buildings around (mostly mansions) and at the centre, a tower stood. the tower was taller than every other building in the city and it had an architectural style that made it unique from the times.
Inumaki led them to the largest and most beautiful mansion of all. and at the entrance, they were stopped.
"do not proceed any further" a voice came from inside and four young men darted out ready for battle. they all had that serious look as if it was their first time having to defend the mansion.
"these guys are definitely noobs" Mina whispered.
"it's quite apparent" Yen whispered back.
taking a deep breath, Inumaki said as calmly as he could "let us in, we have a message for the queen." but the answer was "no"
"we know that you were defeated by that man" one of the young men said pointing at Yen.
"sorry but we cannot let harm come to our queen" another one said.
"you will have to be silenced here"
In a calm rage, Inumaki said "for men that want to silence someone, you guys talk too much"
"I'm going to make this simple" he said
"you can either let us in, or I can remind you why you still have to call me teacher"
"it doesn't matter" one of the young men said
"this is our duty" another added
"then I just have to relieve you of it" Inumaki responded as he got into battle mode. the atmosphere around was already beginning to change when a beautiful voice came from inside the mansion saying "stop"
from within the mansion came a young woman with beauty that matched her voice. her gaze could weaken any man and invoke envy in all women. her long black hair sparkled like the night sky and no man could revert his gaze from her body.
"unfortunately, she's not as pretty as me" Mina said as she posed in from of Yen, showing off that which he deemed truly beautiful. she had a short black hair with grey eyes and a well shaped body, but what Yen really loved was the expressions she made at every situation. he found them to be cute. he replied with "agreed" before his attention was caught by the queen.
"so what is your message?" the queen asked staring down at Inumaki who slowly walked up to her and brought out his device.
he clicked it a few times and a holographic projection came out. he begins to go through slides of images and videos which he had recorded of horrors he saw. and when he was done, he said "we've been living a lie"
"so what of it?" the queen replied.
"our job is to protect this city and its treasures, nothing else. If you want to help them, do it yourself but you will get no assistance from the city"
"but my queen" Inumaki pleaded but was immediately silenced.
"I'm not done talking" the queen said in apparent anger.
"I still have to punish you for the crime of letting dangerous intruders into the city" she said
"the punishment I will grant you is death along side the intruders. since you have chosen their side, you will meet the same fate as them"
"I wouldn't advise that, my queen" Inumaki said in his mind, and just as he was about to say it out, Yen's hand fell on his shoulders and he heard the words "don't worry, I'll take care of this"
"I would like to ask you guys to come at me one by one so that I don't kill anyone by accident" Yen said as he came forward.
"we do not negotiate with intruders" the queen replied
"Rosewell!!!" she called out to one of the young men guarding her. but before she could finish giving her order, Mina yelled out "why would you send the weakest guy first?"
Rosewell was furious and the anger could be seen in his eyes. he didn't even wait for the queen's order before he jumped into action went straight for the foul mouthed lady that insulted him.
he had a fine technique and precise attacks. each strike was precisely calculated and delivered. that was his ability, the ability to calculate all. but it was no match for Mina. all she needed to was watch his hands and see where they were truly going to hit, then deflect them.
as fine and precise they were, Rosewell's attacks were very predictable. although his evasion was flawless, he still had a hard time landing a hit on Mina and when he finally did, Yen immediately picked him up and threw him at the queen's feet covered in smoke from severe electric shock.
the queen looked at Rosewell in shock, she was almost as shocked he was(metaphorically) but she hardened her heart and called out "Kojiro, Fubuki" in a desperate tone and two of the remaining three young men responded.
"take care of them" she screamed loudly and they immediately sprang into action.
Kojiro was the one that kept blocking Yen's path with barriers while trying to trap him, and Fubuki was the one shooting icicles at him. their teamwork was impeccable. it was as if they could tell what the other was thinking.
Yen was quite impressed by their fighting style. he could admit that the way they guided the fight was very effective but needed a lot of improvement against him, and there was room for it.
the one that needed the most improvement was Fubuki. all he did throughout the fight was shoot icicles at Yen, just that. his shots were accurate and precise and Yen had to evade and deflect every single one of them, but the major issue was that the technique wasn't working and he had nothing else to turn to.
Kojiro on the other hand really needed to improve on his creativity. the way he used his barriers had a repetitive pattern and the more he used it, the easier it was to deal with.
"If only he was taught well" Mina said mockingly as she stared at Inumaki.
"don't judge me" Inumaki replied in defence
"no one taught me either"
not long after, kojiro and Fubuki met the same fate as Rosewell and were also laid at the queen's feet in their their sorry state. and then she called to the last guard she had. "Yamato" she yelled, but the young man replied calmly "I'm sorry mom, I'm forfeiting this battle"
"why are you defying your queen?" she yelled in desperate anger. "it is your duty to protect me, why are you refusing to do that?" "I'm not abandoning my duty" Yamato replied. "I'm just choosing to not senselessly attack a man that can end me when he just wants to talk" "so mother, if we don't to listen to him right now, we will be doing so in a charred state." "my refusal is for your own safety" meanwhile Mina was wondering "he's her son right?" and Inumaki answered her "they're all her sons, all four of them" "isn't she supposed to protect them?,not the other way round?" Mina asked, and it became clear to her that no one there understood how family works because Inumaki didn't have an answer to her question. "what of the father?" she asked, and Inumaki answered "he is no longer with us" and Mina sighed and said out loud in frustration "these guys are bred like ants" and everyone heard it. the one who took offence to the comment was none other than the
as they all stood in a daze watching the missiles fly through the air, Yen thought to himself "before my descent, I heard a name called out loudly. I believe it to be the name of my father, the one who made me and has been directing my path. I believe to be a name that is called in the time of need. and I believe it is the name I should call now" and with all the power in his breath, he yelled "AMADIOHA!!!" and from the clear afternoon sky, lightning fell into his right hand which he had raised up and it was overflowing with energy. he swung the hand forward and a huge amount of lightning came out and formed a blanket above all of the villages, causing all the missiles to explode midair. it was a sight to behold. everyone that saw it stood in awe, not just at the power but also at the beauty. it was truly magnificent. after being amazed, Mina and the others made their way to the nearest village to try and warn them about the coming dangers and to also convince them to make t
the speech was a success. Mina took advantage of the fact that most of villagers were young people that didn't have a solidified belief in the words of the order. by Mina's intuition, it was speculated that the reason why there weren't any actual elders in the villages was because of the wisdom and influence that came with age. If an elder questioned the order of things, a lot of young people would join him in it. so it was very possible that the elders were replaced with well programmed androids because if the elders didn't question, the young ones wouldn't be motivated to do so. and according to Mina's experience in her travels, the process of replacing elders would have continued until elders didn't need to be replaced and everyone followed the words of the order as if it was ingrained in them by nature. Uzo's village was an example of a huge success. every of the order's will was done naturally by the people. only the order knew how long it took them achieve that but one thi
"the sensation filled my lips and my tongue then went straight into my head. then I felt it pass through every nerve in my body and settle at my heart. the electrifying feeling was something out this world. It was the feeling of love and its power." The two lovebirds were still kissing even after the battle had begun. Kojiro stood back to protect them within his barrier while the others proceeded to mow down the enemy. All of Mina's assertions were on point. the robot army that charged at them was powerful. their punches were fast, precise, and it felt as if one would instantly die if he got hit by them. the way they moved was awfully machine-like and one could understand why they didn't use handheld weapons after seeing the amount of blades they could eject from different parts of their bodies. but despite the the intimidating features these things had, the only problem that Inumaki and his boys had was the problem of numbers. their metal bodies were no problem for
"Don't you ever call me that again" Mina said angrily "I am no longer under your authority, and I was never your daughter" "I have transversed the oceans of the earth. I have survived the cruelty of nature. I have done things that even you deemed impossible. So when you talk to me, don't treat me like I'm the little girl you once knew" "PUT SOME RESPECT ON MY NAME!!!" "That was a nice speech" Albus said as he stroked his grey beard "But do you have the strength to prove it?" he said as pure white flames began to form behind him. He raised his hand and pointed to Mina and all the flames shot in her direction. The flames exploded on impact with high intensity and the shockwaves reached very far. The brightness of the explosion was blinding and the heat was of one that could burn steel. But after the explosion calmed down and the smoke cleared, Mina and Yen stood within the resulting crater unharmed. They stood within a dense lightning barrier and watched A
"RAIKEN!!!" Mina yelled as she punched Albus in the face with a fist covered in lightning and sent him flying. She did not wait for him to land before launching her next attack with a bolt lightning and immediately after that, she rushed towards him and began a barrage of attacks moving faster than the speed a normal eye could follow. Each attack was faster and stronger than the former. Mina didn't leave any opening for Albus so he created one for himself. Mina was about launch her next attack when she found herself evading another concentrated flame. It didn't come from Albus' direction but from behind and she look back, she saw a whole lot of light balls. Mina already knew the next action to take... run. With all her might Mina fled the area before the barrage flames rained on her and Yen was waiting where she stopped. "Need my help now?" Yen asked "Nahh, I just need a weapon" she replied "Well our swords didn't survive the rampage, you have a crossbow th
Mina woke up in Yen's arms on the back of a moving open-roofed pick up truck. "Where are we headed?" She asked, looking up at Yen "We are going back to the fortress" Yen replied. "Don't worry just rest" "We'll be there in no time" "In the mean time, you need to recover your energy" Although Mina didn't fully understand the situation, she trusted Yen and closed her eyes to sleep. She was too tired to ask about the truck, or who the two people in the front were and how they found them. She had a lot of questions she wanted to ask but she needed to sleep more than anything so despite the bumpy ride, she slept soundly throughout the journey. The first thing Mina saw as she opened her eyes for the second time was the walls of the fortress. Once again, she woke up in Yen's arms but there was no truck, just the two people in front. "Who are they?" She asked with the tone of an exhausted person and one of them turned back to answer. "I am Lee Shuan Gou" h
"I come from a time long before the order. In my time there was no magic but we had reached a point where our technology was almost magical. Men could fly and there was no illness or disability that couldn't be treated. We solved all the global issues such as hunger, war and global warming. In other words, we created Paradise on earth. It was all good. There was peace, there was harmony and everyone lived a good life. The only things we couldn't find answers to were social problems, the problem of eternal life on earth and a few other question that remained unanswered throughout history. This time was worthy of being called 'the age of Paradise' No one at the time expected their Paradise to be turned into hell but it did. It did not happened slowly but overnight and it was not a sight one could bear to look at. The source of our hell was that which we had televised and ridiculed throughout the ages. It was a machine uprising. In a world where almost everything was