Elfen World (Remake)

"As long as I am conscious, I can fight. Even if I cannot physically act I can still give my words. I do not give up so easily."

He sighed, coughing deeply. "We have medical attention on this ship, I will not die so soon. But I have a favor to ask. Vast is out there fighting, insane fool, it might be good if you can head over to the Omnimbus Base and start helping him out. But that is up to you..."

“You know what I feel about Vast and his way of doing things...but I will see what I can do, there are many things going on in the battlefield and I can’t guarantee that I make it too him if he is alive or not…” Zero then waved Zen off before jumping out of the ship, using the his telekinesis to safely land on the island. Lucky for him it was empty, so that gave him time to figure out how what was the best way to get to the base.

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Alice could feel a presence, she remember who it was and a happy but evil grin went across her face.

“What’s wrong?” Suzuki asked. Confused by the sudden smile on Alice’s face.

“She’s here...she has arrived and is ready to play…what a pity HAHA!” Alice evilly laughed, giving everyone in the helicopter a scare. Alice then reached into her pocket and pulled out her device as she headed for the helicopter door. “I have to find Zero...he would want to join in on the fun HAHA!” Alice continued in a crazy fashion. Before Suzuki could even speak, Alice launched out of the helicopter and slammed her vectors against the ground, killing the Omnibus men that was around the area, as she raced off towards Zero.

“Should I go after her?” Anna asked. Suzuki simply shook her head.

“She will be with Zero, she will be fine, plus I need you to help me once we reach the ground” Suzuki calmly said.

“Understood” Anna quickly replied.

The two helicopters were still in the air, looking for somewhere to drop the two squads. After sometime they saw a big open area and headed towards it, once they could drop off the two groups, then they could begin the assault towards the base.

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After some time Zero finally knew what was the best thing to do was, but before he could go, he saw someone coming towards him.

“Zero!” Alice shouted with a big evil grin on her face. She stopped to finally catch her breath.

“What is it Alice? What’s going on?” Zero asked Alice. He was confused by her sudden appearance and by the fact that she was alone. “Where is Suzuki? Why are you not with the others?”

“She’s here…” Alice evilly replied with her big grin. Zero knew by whom she meant and his face showed an angry and cold look.

“Lead me to her…” Zero’s voice was cold and venomous, those words filled with nothing but pure hatred. Alice, upon hearing the words jumped for joy.

“With pleasure HAHA!” Alice evilly laughed before leading Zero in the direction of the presence. Alice evil intents was growing, which also made her presence much more stronger. The evil within the presence would be felt by all diclonius on the island, more importantly by the one that they are going after...the battle will soon begin.

Elena glowered with hate filled spite and brought out her gun and without warning, the room rang out with several shots. She didn't even care what happened next, she just kept shooting as her daughter looked around curiously.

Her mother did things like this so it wasn't really surprising.

Once her clip was empty she rolled her wheelchair out with her daughter skipping merrily along.
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*Chomp!*

Something ate, something died, something was chewed up and spat out. A delicious buffet of madness for the out of the gene pool monster.

"Hm?" Uleus curiously looked up and smiled as he felt an overwhelming presence engulf him.

"Alice has finally arrived and she's probably brought Zero along as well. I wonder what they will bring to the party..." He thought happily gazing up at the smoke filled sky.

"...This is the end of everything...to serve my King is the only thing worth while...let's go out with a bang..."

OOC: Not going to lie Ragnar, not really feeling the whole skeleton ghost thing. It honestly feels like too out of there. The whole Magic business was at least fitting in with the storyline and Diclonius history.

But unfortunately this feels completely out of place and I just can't get into it. If I were you I would probably change it up in your next post.

The Deacon did not seem to react too much to the shots. When Elena had finished up her clip he simply sighed, standing up and about to leave. He looked over to them and said “Hopefully your daughter will survive this war, she seems to be nice, I apologise for when the surprise comes along, and I do hope you find it soon enough, for this is the last thing I plan on doing for now” and with those words the Deacon seemed to leave the room, leaving only the handmade doll and the needle filled with something.


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The Deacon had returned to his chambers, deep beneath the ground. The Deacon was staring into a mirror, after a while he finally seemed to ask himself “Why can I be seen by all?” he stared for a long time before finally asking “How does Nietzsche know of me? Why am I always wet? Why are there so many spots missing in my memory? Why does Ragnar say that in the stories my soul was laid to rest by a priest?...Why did I recognize Nietzsche?” He seemed to look questioning in the mirror before everything went dark, all power gone from the room, and not a single other question came from the Deacon, not a single other action, it was the last time he would be active this decade, maybe century, possibly the millennia, might be the last time forever, only time will tell that, as an odd metal like puddle was left now down there, while the chambers caved in, something that looked like an accident.

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words: 267

((ooc: I am sorry about that it felt too out of there for you reric, I was worried about that, I planned on having the reveal in the later half of this post come later, but I hope it helps make it more acceptable for you))

Ariel felt the presence of Alice approaching. She knew this could mean only one thing and that thought excited her. She glanced over at Lasciel with a smile. "It is time for one of the big fish to be dealt with."

Lasciel looked hungry. "I wonder how this shall turn out. I suspect it will be quite interesting. Isn't that right, Sister?"

Ariel giggled a little. "Indeed."

She walked along the ship slicing a charging crewman in half as she continued to face the direction Alice was coming from. "Dear Alice, dear Zero. It is such a pleasure to see you again." She recited to herself in a sinister tone of voice. She kept saying this over and over again as she paced along the ship helping her diclonius army slaughter G.O. and Omnibus without a care.

The mages assaulting this ship had been slaughtered by her, but there were others on other ships fighting dicloni and humans. Some of the dicloni were hers, but many weren't. She preferred the others to join her, but that wouldn't be the case most likely. They had been weakened by G.O. law and if they didn't join her, then they would die.

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Lester watched from the ship furthest away from the action. A dozen mages guarded him. To him the sound of gunfire and magic spells being fired was a symphony. He imagined Hector was in the thick of it, fighting furiously against his foes. His previous conversation with Vane still fresh in his mind left him irritated. The master wizard was correct in the fact that this was simply a paper clone which meant he couldn't actually cast spells from here, but he still was an excellent general.

He had one of his wizards set up a scrying spell and he directed the fight where he could from there. He found it infuriating how a sudden third party came out of nowhere and started destroying some of his squads that he had trained over this last week. This changed the entire situation. Their indiscriminate slaughter was a mixed blessing in of itself. He could only hope that most of their attention was on the G.O. and they'd be wiped out after the battle.

He leaned over to a messenger. "Please tell Hector to try and get the new dicloni to funnel towards the G.O. This may mean we have to lessen our military force in that area if we have to. It seems like their slaughter is less coordinated than our war."

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No small amount of training would be enough for someone to be a master of magic, so as a result of the time constraints Lester had even trained in the basic uses of magic wasn't completely enough. Some of the squads overextended themselves as their new found power went to their heads and they were beginning to collapse mid-fight from the fatigue of casting everything at once. The more careful ones noticed how magic steadily wore them out and steady use of it allowed them to continue using it while explosive use caused them too much fatigue.

The mages that had the hardest fight were those on the side of the battle where Ariel attacked. She had made it a point to slaughter any wizards thanks to Lasciel's extraordinary hatred towards them. The mages on the other side of the battle certainly didn't have that factor yet although the surprise of Omnibus having wizards had worn off and the G.O. began to muster a defense against them.

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Lester's Training of Omnibus troops - Day One

Lester paced along the formation of troops that Hector allowed him to train. They were certainly healthy strong men, but Lester worried that they lacked the creativity that would make a wizard particularly dangerous. Unfortunately, he didn't have the chance to be picky here. "You men have been chosen. You are about to receive training in an art that has been mostly forgotten by humankind. Something that is fantasized with flicking of wands and silly one-line incantations." His voice took a far more stern and serious tone of voice from then on. "I will ask you dismiss such fantasies right now for they will only serve to weaken you.

"Magic is power. It is the reason why humanity has developed to such heights, otherwise we'd be extinct due to the dicloni of old. Like so many things, humanity discarded magic after no longer needing it to defend themselves. Only a secretive few held onto their power and decided to watch as the world developed instead of getting involved and helping out our situation.

"The training you shall receive over this next week from my instructors here is sacred. It is power. However, remember it is not something that can easily be controlled. You need to be strong of heart and mind as well as spirit to use magic effectively. When you take the serum you'll feel power flowing through you, but keep in mind that will not make you invincible. You will still be human, but you will be able to do more, but that does not make you god. That does not make you unkillable. Like any weapon, magic is an extension of your body and soul. Abuse of it will cause abuse to you. Do not fear it. Embrace it and you will find yourself capable of things you could only dream of."

With those words, Lester stepped back to allow his instructors to get to work on teaching the special unit of soon-to-be-wizards.

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Kensen slammed his hand on the council's table. Irritation beginning to turn into real anger. "Are we going to come to a blasted decision about that bastard Lester?! How long are we going to let him be free to cause harm to the balance of the world?!"

Chelsea nodded firmly. "I believe we should come to a decision as well. My network has told me that he is trying to create an army of mages for the Omnibus organization. That is a blatant breaking of the pact of neutrality between humans and wizards."

Some mumbled conversation happened between the other councilors and Varron stood up. "I can confirm this to be true and support intervention."

A short-lived uproar happened as the council firmly took a passive stance on many things. Rarely did they ever commit to pro-action. Vane waved an arm lazily to catch the attention of the council. "I see this has caused quite the fire to start. I declare a vote to happen now. Those for intervention."

Every single councilor raised their hand and Vane smiled remembering his conversation this morning with Lester. "Very well. It is unanimous. Make your preparations, it is time to put an end to Lester's operation."

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Saranrae frowned as for an entire week she hadn't been able to get a trail on Levi and Maya since she found the bus they took. The others had long given up, but she still had a feeling she was missing a detail and scoured every inch of the bus stop as carefully as she could. She felt a bit of excitement from the challenge of it all. The two of them working together had been the greatest of challenges she had ever had. Part of her didn't want it to stop.

Finally, she found that one detail. A hair. That could only be Maya's. Using magic she traced the path that they were taking and began to follow. Even if they had a week of running ahead of her, she would catch up with them. She would find them. After that... she wasn't quite sure. She had forgotten her original orders as the quest of finding them had consumed her mind.

*Six Days before the battle*


After having made the deal with Ariel and her legion of dicloni he had said to them “I will be going now, I will send some supplies to you by air packages, and I will also sent some troops when the time comes" before leaving and taking a flight to Iceland, the deacon seeming to have already left with the kids and the terrorist called Sam

The airport that he landed in was in a remote place, though despite that it was not by his winter mansion, it was a different place, his workplace on Iceland.


Almost as soon as he had arrived to their destination on Iceland he was greeted by Darwin and Nietzsche. Nietzsche was sixty years old but was incredibly fit and looked young for his age, he was also a bit tall though not by much. Darwin was slightly short with a large beard, he was sixty and you could see that by simply looking at him. Darwin said “We have good news, the project is ready, we can start the operation when you want to” Ragnar smiled and said “Okay, lets start it right away”


Ragnar then said "Also, I have gained an ally, a queen dicloni named Ariel". Darwin looked a bit concerned for a bit till he said “Uhm, can you talk with me for a bit?” Ragnar answered “Sure” before moving a bit away with Darwin.


”Why did you ally yourself with her, she is an insane and dangerous psychopathic killer, and do not act like you do not know what I am talking about, an entire town wiped out just before you deliver this group of dicloni here” said Darwin with anxiety, worry and confusion in his voice. Ragnar looked at him for a bit before saying “She is a queen of savages as well as being one herself who is fighting a king of other savages. Us non-savages fight only when it is to our benefit, but do not make a mistake, we are worse than savages when we fight, cause we are efficient at it and non-discriminatory in our killings. Savages on your side make horrible official allies but great secret allies cause they will do all of the dirty work happily and take all the blame as if it were praise, while being as efficient as us, so to put it simply, it is to our both benefits.”


Ragnar looked at Darwin again and asked simply “Will there be any problems than with you over this” Darwin sighed in defeat after a few moments of thought and said “I submit to your judgement, but please have any other allies be than not so blood thirsty as she is” Ragnar smiled and said “I will try”

Ragnar then left with Darwin to have the operation done.

Ragnar was getting informed on everything, about the robotics, the genes and etc. He however got interested in the laboratory made disease that they had made. Apparently it was an altered version of the retrovirus, but the alteration made it unique. For one thing, it was incredibly lethal, with a survival rate of zero percent for those who had never gotten the retrovirus from a dicloni or for those who are not a diclonius. But what made this also special was the fact that those  who either were dicloni or had gotten the retrovirus at some point were practically immune to it. But furthermore one of the biggest reasons this had been created from a retrovirus was one of its greatest strengths, it was incredibly infectious. While animals would be immune to its effects they would carry it, humans would also carry it, even air and water could carry it, and needed so little of it to infect someone, a human infected touching another human who was not infected would be enough, even just breathing or sneezing. Even dead bodies of those infected could still cause others to be infected, even if they had not died from the virus.

The viruses effects did not appear till weeks after it had infected someone, but regardless of at what stage the virus was at it would be incredibly infectious and bodies would still cause infections as well.


This gave Ragnar the prince an idea. Ragnar the prince got an idea that he hated but felt he had to do. He asked them to hire a certain mercenary group for a battle, and  have them all injected with the disease. He however made it also clear he wanted one certain gene alteration be spread to all of his citizens, as he was worried about what would happen if the disease would spread in or to Iceland. But why did he feel like he had to do this, even if he did not want to do this?


Ragnar had read on the works of Thomas Malthus. Thomas Malthus believed that population growth would keep people poor no matter what. His theories however failed to predict the industrial and agricultural revolution that followed very shortly after him. Ragnar however still thought these ideas to be true. He thought there to be too many humans alive today. Too many people and too little resources, space and etc. to satisfy all of their needs. But this time the environment was also suffering at the growing population, almost every species of plant and animal were suffering because of humans. Ragnar however did not think this to be a problem that humans created because they are humans, he believed the same problems would exist if every human were a dicloni. He saw this disease to be just what is needed to massively depopulate the earth, and since he could plan around the depopulation he would do that and make it so that the few that would still be alive would inherit the earth, almost infinite amount of land that has already been prepared and just perfect, letting everyone live a life of luxury while not costing the environment anything.


To him, he had to do it to end the suffering of the poor, to end the suffering of the environment, and to make the rise of the dicloni more secure. And he was gonna hate himself for believing that he had no other choice.


The first part of the operation started almost right away after that. Ragnar had given them the order to replace his left arm with a robotic one, he had not explained fully why he wanted that though most presumed it to simply because he wanted to be more powerful, which was certainly part of the reason.


Ragnar had been put to sleep while the operation went on. The arm was removed and replaced by the newest and most advanced robotic arm that they had developed. It had a hidden 45 mm multi use cannon. The material it was made out of made it able to survive many dozens tons of force and being practically bullet proof against almost everything, yet nonetheless it was incredibly light.


When the operation had finally been completed the next step came. They took out a syringe that was filled with something special that altered an individual’s genes. However, for it to properly work the individual is gonna be forced into three days of controlled comatose state, so the body could adjust to all of the changes.


After being injected and put into the controlled comatose state his body started going through changes almost immediately. He was being fed both through a tube and also being drip fed directly into the bloodstream in several places, one in the right arm, one close to the head, one in the right foot, one in the left foot and etc. He needed a lot of nutrients over this time as his body was rapidly changing.


The genes were to alter a few different things.

The first gene was an incredibly rare gene, it gave a full immunity against all viruses. It had only been once seen on a bacterial level in a laboratory, but has now become recreated to be compatible with humans and dicloni. That gene is the one to be spread to all of Ragnar’s citizens.

The second gene was to alter the muscles. It was not a new gene, just simply an alteration on an existing gene. What it did was double the limit of how strong the muscles could get as well as double the rate that they gain strength. This also applies to muscles of the organs, including the heart that over time will become stronger thanks to this as well as for the lungs.

The third gene was mainly added to make sure that the body could handle the increased strength of the other gene. It altered how the bones were making them three times tougher than usual but on the same time making them only weigh half the usual amount. This gene was also an alteration of existing genes but much more major than the other one.

The fourth gene was however a major gene which is the primary reason why he had to go full on comatose for this. It was brain alteration. The brain could increase its intelligence through mainly two ways, becoming bigger or becoming more compact. This gene was simply turning possibly thousands or maybe just centuries of evolution towards a more compact brain into a very short timeframe. This would effectively increase his brain’s capacity to do anything by fifty percent. One obvious advantage from that besides huge increase in intelligence, memory and etc. would be the improvement of more and better vectors. The scientists had accurately predicted that it would increase the range of the existing vectors by fifty percent, or in other words, from eight to twelve meters. Though when doing this none of the scientist nor Ragnar himself had predicted a side effect that would come along thanks to his co-operative but still split mind frame.


Ragnar however, was suffering in the comatose state, he was having nightmares that were getting worse and worse and never seemed to stop. Every nightmare after another, each one dealing with something different.


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*Five days before the battle*


The mercenaries arrived.

Everyone in Iceland are called in for an injection for a ‘vaccine’. It is finished by the next day. Many feel sick, tired and light headed for three days. They had been injected with the virus immunity gene, and they were all getting used to the changes, but they were not put into a comatose state. Everyone just felt a little bit sick while their bodies were changing.


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*Four days before the battle*


The mercenaries are injected with virus, they were told it was simply a vaccine to make sure no diseases would spread.


They did not feel sick from it. They were all now doomed and none of them knew of it.


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*Three Days before the battle*


Ragnar finally awoke from his comatose state, the nightmare finally ending. Ragnar felt his body, it felt different, very different, it felt like a completely different body, which it for a big part was.


Darwin asked “How are you feeling sir?” Ragnar simply answered “Odd, but nothing too bad” Darwin nodded and said “We have an intelligence test ready when you have gotten yourself adjusted” Ragnar simply nodded and said “Alright then, I will let you know when I am ready” and with that Darwin left to let Ragnar get himself adjust. It took a while but finally he was ready and walked out of there and to where the intelligence test was.


It did not take him long to complete it. Darwin said with a smile “You finished that incredibly fast, you clearly have gone up a few levels” however Darwin heard than a dropping of a clipboard that Nietzsche was holding, his eyes were wide in shock seeing Ragnar’s score on the test. He stuttered out one simple number “T-th-three hundred and fifteen” Darwin’s eyes also went wide and said “What!? That is over fifty percent of our predictions! How did Ragnar get that high!?” Ragnar than interrupted by saying “I think I know why, there was an unknown variable, and I used it” Both of them looked at him, the faces making it clear that they were curious as to what that was. Ragnar saw their curious faces and decided to satisfy their curiosities “I had not told you but I was sort of suffering from multi personality disorder, well, some kind of variation of that, and no, I am not talking about the voice that tells dicloni to kill humans, that voice was foreign and not in any control, these ones are all different and separate but on the same time none of them are foreign, they are all truly part of me. This has helped give me an unusual control over my brain now, through their co-operation I am able to turn certain parts of my brain towards other use, like in this test I disabled my vectors to use that part of my brain for intelligence. However, this also tells me one other thing, that my suspicions that this multi personality disorder is not natural, since it should have been fixed with these changes to the brain or made much worse, but neither happened, so there is some foreign force that I have yet to identify that is causing this, now let me get to my office room, I have to write some things”


Ragnar then left them to his office room, leaving both of them astounded by what they had heard. He started almost immediately designing something and writing bunch of things down in peace and quiet, he was writing down his plans and designing a certain thing that will make the aftermath of his plans much more rewarding. He made certain vital foreign contacts while in his isolation of solitude, his contacts involving what he was writing down and designing.


He did not go to sleep, he did not want to have yet another nightmare.


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*Two days before the battle*


Ragnar called up on a group of people who were in very high positions under him. Ragnar looked at them, his face showing little. “I am going with the mercenaries.” That was all he said and yet faces of confusion, protest and sadness landed on all others .


“Why the hell are you going with the mercenaries!?” Yelled Nietzsche angrily. Ragnar responded with a slightly angry tone, but the anger was not directed at anyone else, only himself “I am sending ten thousand to certain death. Even if they will survive the battle they are gonna still die. It is not fair. It simply is not fair. It is absolutely not fair that their deaths are already written in stone. It is just not fair. It cannot be fair that I will survive without any doubt while they die due to my commands.”


Nietzsche did not let those words linger for long before saying “And what about all your other plans? Your obligations to Ariel’s alliance? Just gonna let their deaths go to waste, give up on greatness, risk everything over something as stupid as fairness!?”


No time nor peace lasted as Ragnar said “I got all my plans written down already, follow them to the letter if I die. When I die strip most of the powers title’s heirs down to veto, land claim, political and state protection and support, and the ability to defend the rights of both dicloni and humans. If I die before a rightful heir is born then I will have two separate heirs share my powers together, they are to be Nyrumi and John”


An odd silence fell over the room.


“Nyrumi and fucking John? How much have you been fucking drinking to have thought up of something like that?” Asked Nietzsche finally with the most passive aggressive tone possible. “Two vodka bottles this morning, but what seems to be the problem? The position will be stripped off most of its powers anyway, I am selecting people who I trust” said Ragnar calmly back.


Nietzsche said back “So you picked John, I know he is morally good, nice and smart but he is a self persecuting unstable boy, and even if you feel you know him well enough and believe in him the other person is Nyrumi, you barely know the slut” “I know” “She is a killer” “I get it” “Heck, the kindness she showed you was nothing more than a formality, the slut only was kind to you because of your money, she will never love you as a lover, as a friend, nothing other than a big pile of easy money and resources for her to use and get. Understand that all of those acts and words of kindness, appreciation and compassion from that whore were simply fake!”


Suddenly, Nietzsche was interrupted by Ragnar, who had lifted his normal high and yelled with a voice of anger so great that it shook the room itself and everyone in it, his face angry and now with tears dripping down his face “NO!” The fist of his normal arm smashed down on the wooden desk there, smashing it into two and leaving both small and big splinters a like in his fist. The room went silent, nothing, not even the void of space was as quiet as that room. The room now seemed smaller to everyone in the room when nothing could be heard and the angry look of Ragnar still remained.


“My word is final, they are the heirs. Now, all of you, leave!” said Ragnar finally, everyone leaving, letting Ragnar be alone and going to do their jobs as well as informing Nyrumi, John and the United Nations of their new positions as heirs.


Ragnar was now alone.


After a bit he started to slowly remove the splinters from his now bleeding and bruised hand. Trying to occupy himself with something, something for his mind to focus on. When every splinter had been removed and a cloth white as pure christmas snow wrapped around his hand to stop the bleeding silence still remained. Slowly tears dripped from his face and the sound of sad and weak whimpers could be heard as the words Nietzsche had said slowly came back into his mind. “No...” said Ragnar weakly “They were not fake, the warmth she gave me cannot be fake...” Tears and weak whimpers continued in the now dark room.


The lonely and dark room.


Ragnar did not move from his spot till night had fallen. Slowly he exited the room. It was late, almost everyone else had gone to sleep. He entered into his room.


The room was incredible, almost any man would wonder how someone could be sad when they owned a room like this. Ragnar sat on the bed, he sighed a bit and stared at the ground.


After a few moments he looked up and noticed something. A smile of child like happiness and joy came across his face when he saw it and stood up. He walked to it and picked it up with a smile. It was a T. Rex plushie, the size of a small kid. Ragnar hugged it with the tears now going down his cheeks being of nostalgic joy. “You are always here to make me happy Rex”


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*Twelve years before the battle on christmas eve*


It was christmas eve. A young horned boy, six years of age waited excitedly by the tree. In Iceland they celebrated on christmas eve instead of on christmas day’s morning. He had just finished dinner and was waiting for to open the christmas presents. He was always excited on christmas, to him it was the best time of the year.


Finally his father finished dinner, he smiled and said “You may now open your presents Ragnar” Ragnar cheered with a smile and started opening presents one after another. He was happy with every present he got.


When he seemed to have gotten every one of his presents he noticed a big package behind the tree. It was as big as himself. He saw it was a present from his dad to him.


A bright smile came to him as he opened it and found a big T. Rex Plushie. He hugged it and called out to his dad “This is the best christmas gift ever dad” before coming to his dad and hugging him tightly as well.


T. Rex was Ragnar’s favourite dinosaur, he had learned a lot about dinosaurs, especially the T. Rex. He hugged the plushie once more and said “I am gonna name him, Rex, yeah, that sounds like a perfect name, welcome Rex, I will love you forever”


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*One day before the battle*


Ragnar wakes up from his bed, still hugging Rex. He had noticed he did not have that nightmare this night, instead it was, well, pleasant.


Ragnar stood up from his bed and carefully put down Rex in his bed. It had already been told a million times to him that Rex was just a plushie and did not need to be tucked into the bed while Ragnar was awake and about, but he still did it anyway, feeling sort of obligation to do it for Rex.


Ragnar walked out of his room, he went and retrieved his items, his swords, and a outfit of the mercenaries they had hired that fit him. He put on a helmet that helped work as bullet proof and shrapnel proof protection for his head, but more importantly covered his horns, both making it so the other mercenaries would not be able to identify him as their employer and also protect his horns in battle, since they were so important and the obvious weak point of a diclonius.


However before he would go he had to discuss one issue that he was dreading to address. Ragnar came to the meeting, still ready to go with the mercenaries but he knew what he had to do. “How are we supposed to host all the new dicloni that will be coming, many nations are sure to deport them all to here ever since your declaration of them all being icelandic citizens if they are not already citizens of another country. Heck, the housing plans you got surely will not be finished in time for the mass exodus to here.” said one man. He was a high ranking man in the company, he was the man to plan out the housing for all the dicloni. “Even if you will have them house every empty house, apartment or whatever it will not be enough, even having all the summer homes be bought and used as full year around homes you still will not be able to house everyone, and you know very well that homeless dicloni could cause dangerous havoc”


Ragnar simply nodded and sighed “I hoped that this would never have to be done.” Ragnar looked over to him and simply said “Gather every pensioner in the country up to this place” he handed the man a document and then said “He will know what to do and will handle all the rest”


The man Ragnar had talked to cocked an eyebrow but did not question much more, having heard before how Ragnar had gotten everything planned, at least according to him.


The man bowed and thanked Ragnar before leaving.


Ragnar despised that.


Ragnar knew he could not blame him too much but he wished he did not have to do this. Part of him was crying over the decision he had made. His moral side cried.


Ragnar had just ordered the deaths of sixty thousand pensioners, as each and every one was being lead to his connection to the black market world. He was not very proud to have connections with the black market but for a long time he had simply viewed it as providing them protection that was cheap to him while giving some light regulations and profiting from it.


Now he had actually truly participated in it. He knew that just counting the organs besides the brain, a human could be sold in parts of worth six hundred thousand dollars. He had always thought of that as his way to make sure every single one of his employees would get some free life insurance without costing himself anything. He did not consider that as him truly participating in the black market, there he thought of himself simply as a middleman.


Now he had sold sixty thousand pensioners to this fate.


In his mind he had to do it cause he had to make room for the exodus of dicloni on their way, he had to to get the money for the massive amount of automation he was planning to make it so that the population drop from the virus if that plan succeeds will not affect him, he had to do it so that the property, non retirement savings and other money and items would be inherited to the new generation, making them richer and live better lives, he had to do it to make sure that the banks would not crash from the huge amount of retirement savings being extracted from them while all of the loans they had given had already been paid, he had to do it to make so that there would be nothing dragging down  everyone else, he had to do it to get rid of old and stubborn minds, he had to do it to make so businesses would flourish from the lack of the need to pay their former workers, he had to do it to make the country fully self sustainable, he had to do it to make the government not have to worry as much about keeping a balanced budget as a huge amount of benefits would no longer have to be paid for, he had to do it cause they were close to their deaths anyway.


That is what Ragnar kept on telling himself. He kept on telling himself he had to. That he had no choice in this, that he simply had to in the same way a predator just had to kill something to survive.


Ragnar always knew he was a good liar to himself.


Ragnar was moved into the mercenary group. He tried not to be too noticed. He was moved to one of the squads, they did not seem to ask anything about him though that day, as Ragnar avoided meeting them not till he needed to, which would not be till the battle tomorrow.


For now they were simply being moved onto some planes before landing in a coastal city that held the boats and ships that the mercenaries were to use. They had heard of the upcoming battle at the omnibus base and Ragnar knew very well that Ariel was certainly gonna be there, just simply because it was an opportunity that he doubted that she would pass out on. Ragnar had an uncomfortable ride on the plane as he could not get a special seat to compensate for his massive size. When they got to the village Ragnar knew that the disease was now sure to spread, especially thanks to all the delivery men that seem to be coming from every part of this country before heading back and continuing the cycle. Bunch of these delivery men were coming to supply the mercenaries with food and drinks that were being ordered for them since everyone wanted to enjoy themselves right before the battle.


This was the perfect breeding ground for disease to spread, and as Ragnar correctly assumed from the sound of the village’s brothel, it was also seemed to be the breeding grounds in general. He was happy that this was far from Iceland, he cannot imagine how much damage the disease would do before his plan to spread the virus immunity gene among Icelanders, and he cannot neither think how much this could hurt his international reputation. Ragnar mostly kept himself to partying with others for a long part of the day.


When it got late he noticed that a lot of soldiers were going to a different part of the city. Ragnar went there, and discovered where they were going. There was a church on a tall hill, the church was big and could hold many. Ragnar went inside the church, he could hear the many prayers from all of the mercenaries there. He hated himself for what  he had done to them all.


Ragnar was certainly skeptical of the existence of god but even then he felt like he had to pray, just in case if he existed. He prayed for the poor, he prayed for the weak, he prayed for all those he knew he had wronged, he begged in his prayers to take all their sins for he believed himself to have wronged them too much to ask for forgiveness.


Ragnar had no idea how long that lasted, he neither remembered the exact words he said in his prayers, he only knew the general gist of them.


When he left the church the town seem to have fallen asleep, only a few leaving the village and the snores of soldiers could be heard while he walked to bed to sleep.


He however was stopped by a noise that neither was an automobile leaving this doomed village nor snores of tired men. It sounded like a small struggle, a scream muffled down to the point of being nothing louder than a whisper, yet he heard it.


Ragnar moved to where he heard the noise and saw three men, one being an officer from the mercenary company, one being a private from the same mercenary company, and most likely the same squad he assumed, and the third one just seemed to be someone from the area, probably some low life scum of the night and a respectable man of the day assumed Ragnar from the man’s behaviour and suit. Then there was one woman, trying to struggle out of the grasp of the private, her mouth covered with his hand. Ragnar knew right away what was going on here.


“You know, it is against the company’s regulations to rape, and the same goes the laws here in general” said Ragnar, bringing attention to himself. The three men looked over and grinned, the officer saying “Stand down private, or you will be taken out of this company before you know it”


Ragnar did not back down, after all he was not going to lose anything from that anyway. “Abuse of position is also against regulations, sir pig” said Ragnar with a knowing grin. The officer got angry by this and pulled out his revolver and walked over to Ragnar “You say one word and your brain will be splattered all over this village”


The only warning the officer got was a devilish smile followed with a quiet whisper “Not having the safety on out of battle, strike three”  and with that the officer had become an involuntary volunteer to test Ragnar’s new strength. With that Ragnar’s fist flew, hitting the officer in the chest, making him drop his revolver and launching him far, many bones broken.


The other two were in shock as Ragnar stood there with the officer laying down in pain. Ragnar looked over there and shouted at them commands “Private! Let go of the female civilian and get your officer who had fallen down some stairs here to the infirmary! Male civilian! Go and jump in the lake and do not get out of the lake till you have evolved gills! Both of you are dismissed!”


Despite Ragnar not outranking them his command was still enough for both to follow his orders, the private did his job and the other man was found drowned in the river a week later.


Ragnar knew the woman was gonna die anyway from the virus, but he at least wanted her last days not be filled with the trauma of rape, he was willing to kill but not to be any more cruel than he needed to be.


Ragnar finally whent to go to sleep. He once again had a nightmare but it was not a nightmare he had ever had before, no, this felt unusual. There were bodies everywhere, faces of men he had noticed from the mercenaries plastered over some, some having no face or no head left to show, some faces he did not recognise, dead bodies everywhere. The details he could not describe it without his stomach becoming sick. However, right before he woke up from this nightmare it seemed to slowly start moving, men running through the bodies and the ground wet from blood, bullets flying, shrapnel being launched out everywhere, fire, artillery shells, explosions, it was like hell itself. However the last thing he saw before waking up at the sound of everyone being mobilized for battle was what looked almost like a fiery demon, and with a loud roar that seem to sound similar to a T. Rex in a documentary that it seemed like everyone was able to hear, he finally woke, not seeing the rest but having feeling that something special was about this dream.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


*The day of the battle*


Ragnar was moved onto the boat of the squad he was supposed to be in. Ragnar was a bit uncomfortable there as his size usually does for him unless he gets special adjustments in the mode of transportation he is in.


It was quiet for most part of the way. One of them finally asked “So, where are ya from?” Ragnar looked over to the man and said “I am from Iceland” Another one said “Oh? Was not expecting someone from that peaceful place to be here, what is your name?” Ragnar simply answered “My name is Ragnar Rex” he liked the sound of that, he liked the idea of being known as Ragnar Rex, he liked the idea of having Rex as his new family name, it felt appropriate to him, it felt like a powerful family name.


“You got the same first name as our employer, what a coincidence, and is your family name Rex like the dinosaur?” asked yet another. Ragnar simply nodded and was thankful that no one here apparently knew that family name’s are not common in Iceland.


Ragnar’s squad were in the half that were to work as a distraction. The half that was almost guaranteed to die. Ragnar’s squad was not in the first wave of them, he however was not sure which number of waves he was in.


Ragnar was deep in thought, he was replaying as much of his life as he could do, analyzing it before he would risk it all. Memories of joy, sadness, frustration, almost every emotion played in his mind, but he started to remember more and more the closer it got to the point he was now. The closer his memories were to the present the slower, more detailed they seemed to be. The warmth he felt from Nyrumi’s hug kept on playing in his head, and so did his anger and sadness when he heard all those things said about Nyrumi. He did not love her the same way as her boyfriend, Avery, did. No, he also probably did not love her for the same reasons. He loved her not the same way lovers might, nor as a man of lust would, but as something else. He was not sure whether he could call her a friend judging by his feelings for her, but it was the closest thing that came to his mind, a friend, a good friend, someone who gave him something he had forgotten that he desired for over a decade. Warmth.


Ragnar did not know how he could repay her for something like that, he had barely been able to say goodbye to her, well, at least he considered it to be barely, at least now he thought that. Ragnar wished that she would at least be safe, she would at least be alright.


He wished that while he burned in the hell for the horrid actions he had done that at the very least she would live a life of luxury. Every luxury imaginable, everything she would desire, just as she had given him that moment of warmth.


To her he mumbled quietly “Goodbye”


With farewell said far from Nyrumi’s ears Ragnar tried to struggle to remember when last he felt warmth before what he was given from her. It was long ago, a decade ago. He could not remember to whom, but he believed that moment of warmth was mutual. It was some time after his father’s death, but he could not remember exactly when, with whom, or why. Pictures slowly built in his head, trying to remember the scene, to remember what had happened, trying to remember the details of it all.


He was not interrupted till they had finally gotten close to the landing area, as soon as the door opened they all ran out right away. Ragnar abandoned his attempts for now to reclaim that memory, it would have to wait till after he died, he thought to himself. Ragnar immediately noticed all the piles of dead bodies that were there already, some were floating in the water now while others were piled up together or spread around there. Ragnar tried to run as quickly as possible but almost immediately got stuck in the wet ground. The ground had gotten significantly wet from the blood that was now everywhere, to the point that Ragnar’s foot sunk down into it. Ragnar tried to pull himself out and soon enough had gotten to a pile of bodies, he took cover using the bodies as his form of cover. It was not the best form of cover but the only one he could find.


He was breathing heavily, worried for his own life. His vectors and those bodies were his only protection from all that was going around him, artillery shells, bombs, fire, bullets, so many different things. Screams of death and pain could be heard from almost everywhere. Ragnar felt something inside him.


He was scared to die.


Suddenly, a single artillery shot hit right where he was taking cover. He was lucky enough to survive the initial explosion but he was thrown many meters away. landing face down in the ground, covered in body parts of the dead.


His heartbeat was going slowly, his breathing was weak and he had his eyes closed. He felt almost accepting of the fact he was about to die, he was to die like everyone that he had had a party with the day before. This was the end of him, and he was ready to accept it.


Slowly he started getting visions with his closed eyes, it was the nightmare he had on the plane. It was at its final point, the part where Hector was about to bring down his axe down onto Nyrumi. The last time he dreamed this part he felt weak, he felt powerless, he felt sad, he felt hopeless, he felt scared, he felt like he could not do anything about it. But this time, this time he did not feel that, he felt anger, he felt rage, and he felt like he will not let this happen, his heart started to beat faster and faster till it had gotten to insane levels, he took big, deep and fast breaths, louder and louder, his body got hotter and hotter, till finally he opened his eyes.


A few men close by whent suddenly deaf and blind for a short time as sudden burning fire burnt through the corpses, making a loud sound followed by a primal roar from there as a two meter and thirty centimeter dicloni on fire looking like a demon raised up from there, holding a three meter long sword of fire in one hand and holding up the other hand robotic hand towards the men of omnibus.


And with that a shot was fired from his forty five millimeter hidden multi purpose cannon, the bullet going so fast that the man it was aimed at would have no time to react, the man would be dead before ever hearing the sound of it being fired.


Ragnar had gone berserk, and every dicloni in the battle could now sense him and feel his primal rage and anger.


Ragnar suddenly went at incredible speeds towards omnibus, his body fiery and quick, he suddenly used his vectors and his sword to launch himself right at them like the hellspawn he seemed to have become.


As he got close and would have been an obvious target to be shot he seemed to lose form, his body disappearing for a few seconds, becoming nothing more then fire, ash and smoke heading straight towards one of the men there. Before the man could realize it he reformed back into Ragnar and his sword and robotic arm, and before the man could even beg the sword had hit him, the blunt side of the sword is what hit him,  splattering his entire body into mush. With a grin belonging to the devil himself he looked to the other omnibus men, his vectors, sword and fire not waiting a second for them to realize what just happened before they all went to attack, the only warning they got being an even louder primal roar, loud enough to silence the sound of the artillery.


Ragnar bit his cheeks, blood of his filling his mouth and covering his teeth. With speed and ferocity he bit some men’s necks, enough to put them in shock and making them unable to fight anymore but never enough to kill them. There was a reason why he did that. Ragnar Rex realized he was powering himself on his blood, but he somehow also realized he could force others to pay for him if their bloods mix together. He may be filled with berserker like rage but he was no less intelligent than before, he was just much more willing to kill.


The other men of the mercenary company stood awed by the sight of this monstrosity, slowly at first their morale and determination grew, but soon enough it had grown to the same extent as that of Ragnar Rex, all fierce and ready to die, all ready to kill.


Ragnar, while slaughtering men of omnibus through combinations of his vectors, the cannon of his arm, fire, blood extraction, his sword and even just a blunt strike from one or more of his limbs started to do something unusual.


He started to sing.


“What is this feeling

Of power and drive

I've never known?

I feel alive!


Where does this feeling

Of power derive,

Making me know

Why I'm alive?


Like the night, it's a secret,

Sinister dark and unknown.

I do not know what I seek,

Yet I'll seek it alone!


I have a thirst

That I cannot deprive.

Never have I felt so alive!


There is no battle

I couldn't survive -

Feeling like this -

Feeling alive!


Like the moon, an enigma,

Lost and alone in the night

Damned by some heavenly stigma,

But blazing with light!


It's the feeling of being alive!

Filled with evil, but truly alive!

It's the truth that cannot be denied!

It's the feeling of being

Ragnar Rex!”


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


*Click*


“Never thought it would be that easy to get rid of them both, guess things are going my way now” said Nietzsche, right after he had clicked the button get the Deacon’s place caved in, a smile of success spread over his face


“The fool goes to battle, so very little amount of bribes money needed to get him put on a suicide squad, and now I have ascended to the level of king, well, maybe not yet, two more to eliminate and it will be all over” said Nietzsche to himself


His gloating and moment of pride however was short lived as he suddenly felt something. He grabbed onto his heart in pain and fell down to his knees, he started breathing faster as his blood seemed to be rapidly disappearing, he could not believe it nor could he understand it.


“DAMN IT, WHAT IS HAPPENING!?” Nietzsche quickly searched in his shirt and clicked a button that was to call a medical grew to help him. Instead he heard a click in his room. It was not the same click as his door lock to his room, who he had locked to avoid someone walking in on him. Then he heard music, and some lyrics.


“Attention, attention everyone!

I got a couple of things

I would like to get off of my chest

Haha

Friends

Who the fuck needs them?

You know who you are!

Eh hmm.”


Nietzsche recognised the song, the music, it was one of the songs that Ragnar listened to once when he thought he was not paying attention. His eyes widened at the realization of what was going on, he cursed Ragnar’s name as the song finally started.


“Caught like a fly

In a web of your lies

It's truth be told now

Or it's meet your demise


So how did it feel?

When you held the knife

That you stuck right in my back

A thousand times


Your grandfather would probably roll in his grave

If he knew of that person that you had became

I will not just lay down and take this

Not again, not again


Oh, you have left my heart, black and blue

Just like your father did to you


How does it feel, knowing you're barely alive

See through bloodshot eyes, you're left empty inside

Where I was, strung out and drug through the mud

I must agree, you're just like me


And when you die

I won't be at your wake

No eulogy from me

Just a smile on my face

And while God might be busy

With judging your soul

I will have slept with the girl

That you loved most


You have left my heart, black and blue

Just like your father did to you


How does it feel, knowing you're barely alive

See through bloodshot eyes, you're left empty inside

Where I was, strung out and drug through the mud

I must agree, you're just like me


Now how does it feel, knowing you're barely alive

See through bloodshot eyes, you're left empty inside

Where I was, strung out and drug through the mud

I must agree, you're just like me


I'm no fucking saint

But at least I'll fucking sing about it

Oh, the audacity!”




He died knowing who had killed him, but not how he was killed. A curse for him.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


“Animals trapped behind bars at the zoo

Need to run rampant and free!

Predators live on the prey they pursue!

This time the predator's me!


Lust, like a raging desire,

Fills my whole soul with it's curse!

Burning with primitive fire,

Berserk and perverse!


Tonight I'll plunder heaven blind,

Steal from all the gods!

Tonight I'll take from all mankind,

Conquer all the odds!


And I feel I'll live on forever,

With Satan himself by my side!

And I'll show the world

That tonight and forever,

The name to remember's

The name Ragnar Rex!


What a feeling to be so alive!

I have never seen me so alive!

Such a feeling of evil inside -

That's the feeling

Of being

Ragnar Rex!!!”


Ragnar finished his song. He had sung it like he was on the middle of an opera stage, his bites were quick so that there would be no pause too long for the song. He had sung for many reasons. To bring fear to his enemies, as a simple warning for them, to lure out their big guys just to see what was going on, to inspire his own troops, to confuse his enemies, but most importantly of all, just because he felt like it.


Despite his actions seeming to be chaotic, irrational, stupid, and whatever else one would say about a situation where something like that happened, there was a method to his actions. While almost no man realized it, Ragnar Rex had been more strategic in his actions then he looked to be.


He had drawn attention away from the mercenaries, allowing them to make an effective assault. He had cleared out an area for the mercenaries to go up to and get on even grounds. He had taken out communication, officers, captains and any form of command there, leaving the troops in chaos, unsure of what they should do, most likely scared, most likely undisciplined, not knowing what is happening around them, and therefore, unable to organize and respond properly. The dead of the omnibus side were unaccounted for, as no one knew exactly how many men had been lost in the chaos, making it hard to know what exactly the status was there. They had lost almost all their local intel, they did not know how many troops, what kind of troops, they knew as little about themselves as they did about the enemy. With lack of communication and command structure now there it meant there only hope, reinforcements, would inevitably only come to either try find out what is happening there, either sending too small of a force there to properly respond as to scout, or a too big of a force to respond to this emergency, taking away vital resources and troops from other places of the battle, meaning it will be easier for other attackers to break into omnibus.


And all of it was disguised in the ruse of a madman.


Of a Berserker.


The speed of his soldiers proved to be valuable now, as they rushed in before any force could properly respond to the new rising situation.


Ragnar Rex soon realized he was getting close to running out of bullets for the cannon in his arm, only a few rounds left, and they were the most lethal ones. He was saving them in case of an emergency but he felt as now was not good enough time to call it that.


Ragnar Rex quickly picked up a gun that was laying on the ground, stolen from the dead. He did this everytime he now ran out of bullets for those guns, but kept himself quick enough to not let that pattern sink in for anyone.


Suddenly there was someone, far away from the others, he looked younger, more inexperienced, doomed. Quickly the young soldier’s hands were cut off, but almost as quickly the stumps were burned, stopping the bleeding. The young enemy soldier fell, the shock having gotten him. Suddenly Ragnar Rex knelt right in front of the young man, it was quick, sudden, barely noticeable, most others that would have seen that would have presumed Ragnar Rex was just quickly checking if the soldier was dead. The soldier was not dead.


While it had only been for a second the soldier got to witness a close up of him at this state.


Ragnar Rex’s eyes that were sharp enough to pierce the soul of God himself did not look like they belonged to him anymore, they were the eyes of a different man, no, that of a Lizard. A smile so sinister that it could only belong to the devil himself yet still charming enough to convince almost any woman to join his bed was plastered on his face.  A quiet whisper was told to him, a voice so calming, reassuring, trustworthy, charming, soothing, convincing and suave that it could calm down a raging bull or convince anyone to kill those they loved depending after what he wished for, nothing like the voice that had sung so bombastically before and neither anything like the primal roar he had given even earlier than that “Calm down”. Yet despite all of that the man could only truly focus on one thing. For a single second, the flames were gone while this short visit happened, revealing a face so horrid from scars, burns and whatever else could have made it as it was that it would kill the elderly from shock if they saw it and put almost any child into trauma, and which no creature could love.


The soldier had seen for only a second and a second too long the prize that Ragnar Rex was paying for pushing himself so hard, he saw what it had cost for Ozymandias to make a deal with Beelzebub.


The soldier fainted.


Ragnar roared “Take him off this battlefield and back to Iceland as a prisoner of war under my care, I will triple your pay personally if you do so” at a nearby mercenary. The Mercenary right away did so, carrying the fainted soldier and running with him out of there.


Ragnar Rex just hoped that he had caused enough chaos to lure out someone worth dragging the body of over the now blood wet sand, and he had to hope it would be soon, he had already hurt himself a lot just pushing himself so far, his energy would sooner then he liked start to fade and leave him unable to fight, yet no man or dicloni knew that, only the Predator who calls himself Ragnar Rex knows of it.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Few quiet steps would have been heard if it were not for the fact that they were surrounded by sounds of panic from the sudden death of a sixty year old.


The door to the master’s empty room was opened and before anyone could noticed it had been closed once more, all as quietly as the steps before.

In bed there was dinosaur plushie, tucked in under the sheets. A quiet and delicate whisper came off from the intruder “He still has it, after all this time” with a delicate smile on their face, before hiding in the room, knife ready and undetected, waiting for when the master would return.

-------------------------------------------------
words: 9084

Itachi watched Inagi dodge the shockwave and turn it against him. He watched as Inagi magically pulled out an orb of water and fired it towards him. The orb hit Itachi and he then felt the electrical power of his shockwave hit him back, as Inagi had used it as a weapon. But although the power hurt him, he simply laughed. “Haha! That tickles!” Itachi said with a grin. He then fired little balls around Inagi, which then activated the nets within, surrounding Inagi from each possible angle. To make sure, Itachi hit another shockwave, but doing it twice for good measure. It was time for Inagi to give up and accept his fate, as he would not be able to escape.

---------------

Alice happily grinned as she saw Ariel from the distance, she and Zero then leaped towards Ariel and landed in front of her.

“There you are...so called Queen of Diclonius…” Alice said with a big evil grin. Zero just stood there, not saying a word, as he had nothing to say. He began to charge up his blood shot in his hand, which was visible for Ariel to see, but his attention was then drawn to an explosion in the distance, it was loud, and this made Zero realise, there is someone bigger that needs to be stop, that and his plan could not go through unless he notified Squad B of his position so they could get the plan to go. Zero didn’t know what to do until he heard a voice.

“Go…” Alice said to Zero. “I can handle her, you need to stop the more important person in this war...you need to stop Hector...because if we don’t...then all the diclonius would be killed and this would be all for nothing” Alice noticed after she had spoke that Zero removed his masked. He then nodded to her and turned his attention to Ariel. Before she could react, Zero appeared in front of her. Ariel could see in Zero’s face the anger and pure hatred he showed towards her, but in his eyes, he was still showing the love and care he had for her. In the end, no matter how much he hated how she is and wanted to kill her, he can’t help but care for her. It could have been his weakness if he battled her, but now was not the time for that. Zero simply looked Ariel in the eyes and placed his hand on her head and patted it. “Goodbye…” Was all Zero could say before he vanished.

“You see? No matter what you did, no matter how much he hated what you did...he still cared about you...and if you didn’t have such a thick head you would have seen that and realise that we would help you!” Alice angrily said. “But no, you threw that all away...because you listened to that bitch!” Alice said, pointing towards Lasciel. “But you see...you are not the only one with a being like Lasciel…” As Alice says this, a girl appeared next to Alice.

“Hello Lasciel...it has been a while…”


------------

Zero was speeding towards Hector’s kingdom. He had no time to lose, he pulled out his phone and made a call. “Squad B I need you with me to go through with this plan”

“Understood Sir, where is your current position?” Maj. Volkova asked.

“I am heading towards the side entrance of the kingdom, once you reach me you will know what to do”

“Understood”

Maj. Volkova turned to her squad. “Soldiers! Zero requires our support at the side entrance. Lt. Olsen fly us there”

“Yes ma’am!” Lt. Olsen said.

“Lady Rose, we will be heading towards the side part of the castle to help out Zero, will you be fine here?” Maj. Volkova asked Suzuki.

“Yes, I have Squad A and Anna to provide support” Suzuki calmly replied.

“Understood, then we will take our leave. Olsen GO!” The helicopter rose and then headed off towards the castle.

“Anna, it is time for you to get to work…” Suzuki coldly said.

“Understood” Anna pulled out the swords from her back and then using her vectors, propelled herself towards the Omnibus men at full speed, slicing them in half with ease. Anna used her vectors for movement, instead of as her main weapon, which made it easier for her if she fought someone with anti-diclonius gear. Her speed almost matched Zero’s as she easily breezed past the multiple Omnibus soldiers that were coming through. Suzuki was also fighting off the soldiers beside the members of Squad A, using her specially designed pistols against her foes. She did not plan to use her sword, as she has her own power, which she uses her sword with, but at the moment, none of these soldiers are deemed worthy to witness such power, as well as she is happily letting Squad A and their respective countries men fight the Omnibus men.

-------------

“How long till we reach the island Eve?” Adam asked.

“Not long, we are almost there...ah wait, we are here” Eve said as Adam was able to now see the island. It wasn’t long till they were close to the ground. Adam jumped out and he was then surrounded by Omnibus men. “Eve, who are these people?”

“Omnibus, a group run by former Captain Hector Schlenzaner” Eve replied.

“Ok, so quickly answer this...are they friend or foe to Jamie?” Adam asked, pulling out his energy sword.

“Foe…” Eve replied.

“That is all I need to know…” Adam then attacked the soldiers. They all began to fire at him, but Adam’s auto-defense system activated, blocking the incoming bullets.

“Too easy…” Adam said before swinging towards one of the men, slicing him in half. The other tried to run in fear. “No way you are getting out of this!” Adam pulled out his pistols and shot the remaining men. He then placed the guns back on his side. “Anyone who is an enemy of my friend...is an enemy of me...and each one will fall down or bow before him…” Adam coldly said. “Alright, Eve keep me noted of the surrounding area...it’s time we search for Jamie”

“Way ahead of you” Eve quickly replied. Adam placed his sword back and began to walk. It was time to find Jamie in this big island.

Ariel smiled as Alice and Zero appeared. She extended her arm toward them as if she were pleased to see them. "Dear Alice, dear Zero. It is such a pleasure to see you again." Just as she had recited over and over.

“There you are...so called Queen of Diclonius…” That was the response she received. Zero didn't even say anything. She put her hand behind her back and listened.

“Go…” Alice said to Zero. “I can handle her, you need to stop the more important person in this war...you need to stop Hector...because if we don’t...then all the diclonius would be killed and this would be all for nothing”

Ariel frowned. She had been anticipating a fight between the two of them. Her feeling of disappointment ran through her veins. She was genuinely surprised when he appeared next to her to put his hand on her head and say goodbye. When he left her attention turned completely to Alice. "Just the three of us. Shame."

Lasciel looked along as if she had been following Zero's movements the entire time. "Fascinating for a human to go beyond his limits like so. I doubt he's even truly human anymore." She stifled a snicker.

“You see? No matter what you did, no matter how much he hated what you did...he still cared about you...and if you didn’t have such a thick head you would have seen that and realise that we would help you!” Alice angrily said. “But no, you threw that all away...because you listened to that bitch!” Alice said, pointing towards Lasciel. “But you see...you are not the only one with a being like Lasciel…” As Alice says this, a girl appeared next to Alice.

“Hello Lasciel...it has been a while…”

Lasciel clapped her hands her red eyes gleaming with blood-thirst. "Oh goody, another descendant. This is such a great pleasure!"

Ariel felt far more wary. She did not appreciate being berated like she was a child. Not after all these years. "I... will not be insulted so lightly." She gathered her anger and hate and let it flow through her.

Lasciel grinned toothily at Ariel. "This will be perfect for you. One final test for your worth. Let us see what you can do with my gifts." With that Lasciel took Ariel's hand and kissed it. Energy seeped into Ariel it was a trickle at first, but then it was a flood. She gasped and felt something change within her and again all the dicloni in Japan could sense her power before it settled into an equilibrium. In this surge, Ariel's lost arm had grown back and she felt something along the lines of hunger pangs.

Lasciel then stepped back. "Now I have an abomination to cleanse from this world. You should be able to do just fine here. If not then you are pathetic and deserve to be eliminated from this world. See you."

Lasciel launched herself into the sky and then clapped her newly formed vectors together the cause herself to fly towards the abomination Uleus. She landed on the boat he was on and faced him. "You vile abomination. It is time for your flawed existence to come to an end." She felt the sick aura emanating from him, but was otherwise completely unaffected by it. "With my synchronization nigh you shall fall to me."

Ariel watched as Lasciel left and then turned to face Alice. She shrugged as if it didn't really matter. "Fine by me. I can defeat you with or without your companion. Of course since you've chosen to ignore her, I doubt you have nearly enough to make the cut." With that she launched herself directly at Alice striking forward with all four of her vectors.

--------------------------------------------

Inagi grimaced as he noticed his efforts to harm Itachi were in vain. It was clear that he had taken some damage, but at this point it would become a war of attrition that Inagi had the disadvantage in. Various orbs were launched around him as two more shockwaves were shot at him. Dodging to the side or up wouldn't be an option, but he had one thing left. One action just to spite Excalibur and Itachi. They might have him, but they'd have to dig to get him.

He mustered all of his energy and called out. "EARTH EMBRACE ME!" As he began to black out from the shortened incantation and the usage of power, he felt himself being pulled into the earth quickly. Before he knew it, he was thirty feet underground with a stasis aura around him to keep him safe. Before consciousness completely faded, he made note of the fact that he felt metal under the soles of his feet and realized that if it weren't for that he would have gone underground another twenty feet.

You vile abomination. It is time for your flawed existence to come to an end." She felt the sick aura emanating from him, but was otherwise completely unaffected by it. "With my synchronization nigh you shall fall to me."

Uleus who was facing the front of the ship with his back to the girl, smiled without turning around and began to clap. To anyone else it would’ve looked like mockery but Uleus was giving his bonafide respect to the girl behind him. It was a soft clap that lasted for a total of seven seconds before he stopped. He was looking out over the sea, the only ship around as all the others were either destroyed or fighting elsewhere around the island. There were only two people around, him and her.

“Purpose…” Uleus answered. “I was alone, lost and worthless until he came. But my King does not care for me at all. I am nothing more than a tool to him. However even if he hates me forever, crushes me and tosses me aside into the gutters. My respect for him will never diminish. I was given a purpose in my life. I have nothing more but gratitude for him because of that.”

The Diclonius male finally turned around and faced the pristine girl of almighty Queens. He kept a small smile on his face, the kind that was strangely benevolent and lacking in his usual chaotic nature. “You cannot kill me unless you take out my brain, that you already know. My stamina is infinite, my regeneration beyond control. So this will be it. Show me that so called determination that you feel so confident about…”

There was a vector emerging from Uleus back but it did not strike her. Instead, for whatever reason the hand splashed into his chest, opening a massive hole in it before he began to pull out his own heart in some sickening display. But could it be called his heart? Could that pulsating, veiny black object with metal and iron really be called his heart?

“This is the Heart of Azathoth…” Uleus replied, pieces of flesh and sire still connected to her chest. “It is that which connects me to this world of consciousness. This is our last fight we will have…now come almighty goddess of the Diclonius race.

…I will judge you.”

*SPLURSH!*

And with a squeeze, the beating, pulsating object was crushed within the corporeal hand of the monster. Nothing appeared to have changed at all. There was no increase in power around Uleus. There was nothing to indicate that any sort of power up had been made of all. But there was something different. Something different in the eyes. Something different in the facial expression. Something different in the body movement.

Uleus was tottering around, mouth half opened and a line of spit running down his mouth. Those unfocused eyes staring in opposite directions, indicated one thing. To dissociate himself from anything that could be called sanity. Uleus had finally broken off the last piece of morality that held him to this world.

“Etsares…kilililkokoko…tiakyerrakakleipo…” Mumbling nonsense in a language that could not be understood in any tongue, Uleus’s mouth merely seemed to open and close randomly without spouting out words that no conscious creature could ever hope to mutter.

Because to abandon everything, he tore it all away. There was no longer a moral creature there. There was no longer something that could be called Diclonius or human or even sanity itself. It was said that the creature known as Azathoth was an almighty god and an almighty idiot as well. So that’s what he became.

An Almighty Idiot.

His powers did not change and he was now completely insane. But the creature would reflexively defend himself against attacks anyways. So what did this mean? It meant that his enemy was facing a creature that could not be understood. Reading movements was now almost impossible. He had turned the tides of a battle that could’ve been heavily in Lasciel’s favor…into a state of perfect randomization.

The Perfect Mad God…

Azathoth Uleus

Suddenly, on the loud battlefield, a part of it got a little bit more quiet.


A two meters and thirty centimeters tall diclonius giant had suddenly stopped, he was standing in front of a dying omnibus soldier. It was clear by simply looking at him that Ragnar Rex was getting annoyed. The anger that had made him go berserk was quickly dissipating, and instead slowly frustration was growing. The initial kick of adrenaline that he had gotten was running out and his mind was getting a bit clearer in what his goal was.


The fire dissipated as no other soldiers were close by at the moment besides the dying one right there and he felt he needed to conserve his energy at least for a little bit, even if that meant showing his self inflicted wounds.


He crouched down and said with a frustrated and cold tone to the dying omnibus soldier “Prey, listen here, I am getting tired of killing you and your comrades, they were fun a while like potato chips, but now I am getting sick with all of it, tell me fucking now where Hector or someone else here in command is!” his voice was as gentle as an enraged bull.

This however turned out to be useless, the soldier died before being able to say anything.


Ragnar Rex stood up annoyed and pissed, ready to go and try find a way off this battlefield before his luck finally runs out, or rather his energy. But then heard someone running over, a minute ago he might have loved the idea to satisfy his anger and temporary bloodthirst, but he was getting tired of that now, but he soon had an idea. When the omnibus soldiers finally got to him he raised his hands and said to them with an oddly gentle tone “Do not shoot, I will submit if you meet two conditions. Bring me to Hector, the king of law, so he can have a trial over me for my crimes, right away, assuming he is not occupied at the moment. Understand if you do not meet my reasonable request, well, ask yourself, do you want me to continue what I am doing? And then ask yourself, how long, or maybe rather how many dead, do you think it will take for you guys to stop me?” Ragnar was ready to respond quickly if they decide not to meet his conditions, it would not truly get his blood pumping, and that is what Rex feared, soon enough Rex’s influence would wain and Ragnar Tyrson would return.


Ragnar Rex already had a plan ready. He was not planning on necessarily killing Hector, he doubted that he would be able to kill him alone, and even if he could, he question whether that would truly satisfy what he wanted. No, he wanted something else, something that he might be able to get without another dead body.

“Oh, and the other condition, please bring me something to drink, my throat feels a bit dry”

-------------------------------------------------
words: 506

((I won't make the decision of how the omnibus soldiers respond to that, whoever who is in charge of how they act will get to choose))

“Ha!” Itachi laughed as Inagi tried to escape underground. “You fell right into our trap...Sir! He has buried himself underground right into our trap”

“Thank you for letting me know...ACTIVATE THE DOME!” A button was pushed and Inagi was then surrounded by a circular dome. It was done, Excalibur finally had the magic annoyance caught. “Men, bring him down to the labs for the testing, he may think that he is safe under that magic he is hiding in, but all he had done was make it easier for us...place him in the anti-magic room, we will conduct the experiments in an hour…” Excalibur walked off back into his room as his men and scientists went to get prepared. The men moved the dome into the anti-magic room, here it will be hard for Inagi to use his magic as he pleased. Any attempt will give him an electric shock, the shock depends on how strong the magic was when attempted. This room will be the perfect place to conduct the tests that Excalibur wants, as well as give him every piece of info on the magic strengths, weaknesses and how to cut it off completely. This brought a smile to his face, as he finally had the last piece of the puzzle to his device. This room was only the beginning, these tests will help in screwing Lester’s plans and that could only make Excalibur smile grew wider.

For the next six days, Excalibur forced Inagi into many tests and experiments, some were for information, but most were just to see how much pain he could inflict. Excalibur enjoyed the fact that he could hurt one of Lester’s students, and he wasn’t going to waste any minute on it.

“Sir! The tests are now complete! We have what is necessary for the device to be a success” The scientist reported to Excalibur.

“Good...what is the radius of the device?” Excalibur asked.

“It can work perfectly at a radius that equals one island, as well as one country at it’s max radius”

“Excellent! That is just perfect! Notify Itachi of the device and have it prepared for him, he will be the one who will carry out the mission” Excalibur ordered.

“Yes Sir! But what about the magician?” The scientist asked.

“Leave him in there to rot! He is no longer needed”

“understood” The scientist left the room, leaving Excalibur to sit comfortably and evilly in his chair.

“Once this is all over...I can prepare for the final battle...now I better head back to my castle and get ready...there is a lot of work to do…”

------------

*Day of battle*

“Sir I have reached the island, I will commence with planting the devices in the specific locations” Itachi reported to Excalibur.

“Understood, notify me when the last one is in place”

“Yes sir!” Itachi replied. “Alright men lets go!” Itachi led the men as they headed towards the first location. Once they reached it, the men got to work planting the device and getting it ready. Once done, they moved on to the next location. They finished the second and third location quickly and had arrived at the last location.

“Come on! This is the last one! Hurry up!” Itachi ordered. The men pulled out the last device and hurried with planting it in. After a minute or two, the last one was placed and ready to go. “Sir! All devices are planted and ready on your call”

“Good…” Excalibur smiled, it was time to get to work. Excalibur pushed the button and activated the device. The four devices glowed and then shot a beam into the air. The four beams then expanded and covered the entire island.

“Sir! The device was a success! The entire island is under the beams dome”

“Excellent! With the dome in place, any magic used inside the dome is rendered useless...I can only imagine Lester’s ugly face when he sees it! HAHA” Excalibur evilly laughed. The device was now in place, and now it was time to watch it in action.

------------

“What the?” Adam looked on as he saw four beams shoot into the air and then become a dome surrounding the area. “Anti Shield Technology...there is only one man I know who makes these type of devices…” Adam’s suspicions were answered when he saw Itachi appear with his soldiers.

“Itachi…” Adam coldly said with hatred

“E-Ethan! You’re alive!” Itachi said, completely surprised. He thought that he was dead after the attack, but it seemed that he some how survived.

“Painfully and annoyingly…so are you…” Ethan pulled out his energy sword.

“M-MEN! KILL HIM!!” Itachi quickly ordered. The men pulled out their swords and charged at Adam. Adam swung his blade, which connected with the mens swords. The energy sword cut through the mens sword, which then also cut through them as well, slicing them in half. After Adam was done, he pointed his sword at Itachi. “You’re next”

Itachi drew out his sword, prepared for the fight of his life.

“It is time for you to pay for your crimes…It is time you pay for the death of my sister!”

------------------

Zero arrived at the side of the castle. He noticed the dome like beam above, but now wasn’t the time. After a few minutes the helicopter containing Squad B had arrived. The squad made their way out and lined up.

“Maj.Volkova and the members of Squad B at your service sir!” Maj. Volkova said to Zero.

“Good timing, do you have what is needed?” Zero asked.

“Yes Sir, we have the bombs as you ask, ready to be planted and set off on your call” Maj. Volkova replied. “Are you sure about this sir?”

“Yes, whether I win or lose, this place needs to fall to the ground, we can’t let Hector win...no matter what”

“Understood Sir!” Maj. Volkova then instructed her squad to get to work.

“Sir I want to go with you” Cpt. Schlenzaner said to Zero.

“No, you will stay with the group, if you go with me, your anger for revenge will get us both killed...plus you are needed here with your group...you can’t let them down” Zero replied. This annoyed the dutchman, but he understood and nodded. “When you have planted the bomb, then you and the rest of the group may find me” With that Zero then waved them off and walked into the massive building. Zero eased pass all the soldiers that was still in the building, killing them off one by one until he reached a room, a certain room that would only accommodate one person, one man that had to be brought down. Zero opened the door and walk in.

Zero could see the throne with it’s owner sitting on it, as if he was waiting for someone to finally get up here. “The throne room...a room that is a sign of power...but what power do you hold? Suzuki and I, we are the King and Queen of Europe, we hold the power of many nations, we hold the laws that take part in it, and punish those who go against it...but what about you? Grand King of Law? What power do you hold? You betrayed your group, the G.O, declared war against the diclonius and hide yourself on an island on top of your throne...but who do you rule over? Humanity? Earth? Law itself? The real question of all this is...Do you have any power at all?”

---------------

Alice watched as she saw Lasciel fly off to leave Ariel all by herself. Lasciel gave her some sort of power to Ariel before going, but the presence wasn't much to make Alice think twice. Even though she was now by herself, Ariel was full of confidence, as if she didn't need Lasciel at all. All Alice could do was laugh at that. She then watched Ariel charge towards her.

Alice smirked and then slammed her ten vectors to the ground, causing all the ground behind her to fall as she flew towards Ariel. She pulled out her circular blade and used her vectors to spin, turning her into like a human drill as she sped towards Ariel. Alice was going to show her what real diclonius power is.

Lasciel's eyes glowed as Uleus spoke to her and then removed his own heart. During his jabbering she spoke calmly and respectfully. "Your loyalty is admirable, for that I shall fight you with all my strength just like you. Abomination or not you may have just proven yourself a true diclonius."

She closed her eyes and then reopened them and pulse of energy expanded from her resonating with every diclonius in the area. Even those that could not see her or sense her in any way felt the hair on the back of their necks stand up. "You will fall."

She waved a hand sending a blast of energy at him that could only be explained as a cannonball of vectors. Upon impact they would expand wildly striking and shredding everything within three meters of the impact area. She wasn't done though, with great power and speed she dashed around the Mad God and launched several attacks aimed towards his head using her eight vectors each of eighteen meters in length. Every attack was focused but vicious. Killing intent radiated from her. A red aura softly glowing around her.

---------------------------------------------

Ariel was impressed by the power that Alice could put out, but then again it was only a few years ago that even she and her sister understood the power difference between the pair. A lot had changed in those years. Alana was no longer here and Ariel had grown far beyond that of any ordinary diclonius. The corkscrew attack was an extraordinary display of power, but control over such a move could only be described as nearly impossible.

Ariel dove down and tore up a piece of the boat they were on and flipped it out from under Alice. The goal was to crush her with the chunk of metal, but Ariel knew it wouldn't be that easy and extended two of her vectors out to twenty meters in order to strike from above while Ariel launched herself to the side to avoid the attack.

"You always were a straightforward woman." Ariel glowered at Alice. "But you lack vision."

----------------------------------------------

Lester had been directing parts of the battle when suddenly his connection with the paper clone was put to an end by some unknown interference. He sat up back in his base within Mt. Fuji and let out an angry yell. The image that Inagi sent a week ago still fresh in his mind, Lester had expected Inagi to fail to survive his mission, but he never expected Excalibur to figure a way to stop magic on such a large scale.

He picked up his phone and called the head instructor at the ship. "This is you master, you are to evacuate now. In whatever manner you can. Do not get caught. Avoid death. Return to base. Make sure you aren't followed. Those are your orders." He angrily hung up his phone.

He then marched his way to the assembly room calling all of his wizards and students to the room. There would be retribution.

----------------------------------

Six Days Ago

Inagi woke up in a room. His entire body ached fro its usage of magic and he knew he'd have to recharge. Even if he didn't he was sure that use of magic in this place would be a terrible idea. Lester had told him what kind of man Excalibur was and he knew the pain he was in for.

Over the remained of the week he had very few breaks, but every moment he had he meditated to recover his energy quickly and safely. The torture slowed everything down, but he remained strong through it all. His loyalty to Lester kept him together and sane. He knew not all of the secrets he held would remain, but those that Excalibur could only find through speech would remain secret.

Remember, you are a special type of mage, but your particular school of magic causes your lifespan to drop dramatically. Fortunately, I can teach you how to control it while minimizing the risk. However, even I cannot stave off all the bleeding. You after all, are a Body Mage, and the best one I've seen since I was a part of the coucil. Inagi remembered Lester's words well. If you are ever to find yourself captured with no way out via your ordinary magic, you can exceed your normal boundaries temporarily with the greatest of Body Magic: Blood Magic. It is a kind of magic that can be used even if your other powers are sealed away, because no matter what the magic produced by your body cannot be sealed away except by the Voidwalker himself.

Now that Excalibur had gotten what was needed out of him it appeared that Inagi was nothing but garbage now. Something to be thrown out and ignored. The wounds that he had gotten from the experimentation had left him with plenty of bleeding. He mustered up all the energy he could and blood spurt from him, his vision turned red, and he could see there were two guards standing not far from the door of his cell. The shock from the electricity hit him, but the pain was nothing compared to the numbness he felt from his life being steadily drained away.

He stood up weakly and faced the door. Blood slid through the crack in the door and slid up both of the guards. They froze because as soon as his blood entered their bloodstream they had become his thralls. "Open the door." He ordered them. Although his voice was barely a whisper they moved to comply with his order and soon the door was opened. He walked through and smiled weakly. The smell of burnt flesh permeated the halls as the cell opened. He couldn't feel it at the moment, but he had several burns from the electricity up his arms and even his legs.

"Escort me out." Silently, he marched with his thralls led him out of the base. It didn't take long before an alarm was blaring through the area.

The man who had lost his mind did not move. He starred blankly at the sea as if he didn't even notice that a powerful enemy was there. It wasn't cockiness or pride, he literally did not have the mental capabilities to make such a decision anymore.

His body spread out, arms to the side yet this had nothing to do with himself. Azathoth Uleus was now a puppet to the insane power he possesed and he would have had it no other way.

*BWACK!* *BWACK!* *BWACK!*

His flesh formed a thick meaty shield around his body. In terms of strength, each blast of the cannon like vectors practically ripped through each fleshy membrane like wet paper. But the problem was that although it was significantly stronger, Uleus regeneration was constantly working.


Every time a membrane split open it was repaired and covered again. Weak but ever growing as one might say.

Lasciel's next onslaught was again countered in a different manner. Uleus body jumped, a string of sickly looking hands made entirely of flesh pushed him out of harms way while his mouth was agape and drool ran down it.

Uleus was gone, the defense system of AZATHOTH was now fighting. The creature squirmed around the ship, slipping through the attacking vectors before the body rose up and then...

"...Alana...Alana...Alana...Alana...Alanalanalanalnalnalnalanlanlanlanlanlanlnalnalnalanlanlanlnalna..." The mad God began to randomly sprout a name that stood in memory banks...and was randomly brought out while his fleshy hands raced out to attack the girl.

Perhaps what Lasciel needed to do, was to combine one powerful attack to get through his defenses.

There sits a man at the end of the room, upon a large throne befitting a large man. His eyes are closed, perhaps dreaming about the long ago past. But the past was gone and the man finally opened his eyes when the Knight entered into his domain.

"...So..." Hector breathed. "In the end, you are the one who enters. I suppose it should be like this though. After all the one who should take down the human tyrant...should be a human as well."

Hector rose up slowly from his spot and brought forth his signature weapon. It swung behind his back and up to the front where with a split of of machine in one hand the Grand King of Law held the Cresecent Sun Axe and in the other the Corporeal Moon Spear.

“The throne room...a room that is a sign of power...but what power do you hold? Suzuki and I, we are the King and Queen of Europe, we hold the power of many nations, we hold the laws that take part in it, and punish those who go against it...but what about you? Grand King of Law? What power do you hold? You betrayed your group, the G.O, declared war against the diclonius and hide yourself on an island on top of your throne...but who do you rule over? Humanity? Earth? Law itself? The real question of all this is...Do you have any power at all?”

"What do I hold? I hold the determination of my life here and now. The King of Law who stands at the top, fighting for his cause even if nobody else will. I am strong...unbelievably powerful."

The old man took a step forward and raised his two weapons and then clashed them together to form the almighty weapon. The combination of axe and spear, the Crescent Moon Destroyer.

"This is it Azure Knight." Hector grinned raising his weapon high above his head. "This is where it all comes down to! I'll show you, the true power of the King of Law."

Bright light engulfed his massive weapon, the kind of energy that could crush anything in its path. It was creating a whirlwind around the old man's giant body, casting a blue glow around his entire figure.

This was not the kind of power mere men could handle. This was not the kind of power, weak Diclonius could handle. To be blunt, without any form of mockery or pride, what stood before Zero was a man who's strength transcended normality. Yet that man was entirely human.

He did not use magic. He did not use vectors or the supernatural. His power was his and his alone, the strength created by his own determination to never give up no matter what the cause.

To be honest, there was no doubt that Hector was the strongest one there at the moment. In terms of power and strength, he was at the very top. If Zero wanted to win this fight, he would have to push himself past the breaking point.

Because at the moment, for the first and perhaps only time...Hector Schlenzanner was about to go all out. Full 100% power.

And when such power is released...there was no doubt that the island they were on may not even be able to handle it.

At this point Hector's weapon was glowing so brightly that it looked like he was holding a glowing mass of energy in his hands.

And Hector smiled, not one of mockery or conceit but the kind of smile a man who loves nothing more than to fight would give.

"Stand tall now Azure Knight! Tense your body! Raise your weapons! Keep your mind tight at all times! Do not hesitate at any time! If your determination slows even the slightest, you will be crushed instantly!"

And then Hector slammed his weapon straight into the ground.
---
---

Whatever this fool was trying to say, it would not matter. The soldiers of Omnimbus obeyed but one man and one man only. Guns were raised, magic prepared by those who could use it.

This fool could talk all he wanted. He could say whatever he wanted. The Omnimbus Soldiers fired without speaking a word.
---
---

Hector's attack had been powerful. The entire roof of the throne room was blown wide open. But yet...for something that had been built up so much, the damage didn't seem all that. The dust was covering the area, blocking out a little of the light trying to get through.

But that was it. It was clear that attack had not been an attack at all. More so, Hector was not holding anything in his hand. The Crescent Moon Destroyer, the axe, spear or any combination there of was gone. All that was left in his hand...was a syringe.

It looked so small, so pitiful compared to the man's great weapons from before. It almost looked ironic that this was supposed to be Hector's greatest weapon.

But what could be inside of it? It looked clear as if nothing but water was inside of it. "The power of AZATHOTH was a combination of biological and mechanical ingenuity crafted together to create the perfect killing machine. That killing machine would then be fused with the monster Uleus to form what he is now.

Inside this syringe, is the data chips that directly relate to the entire weaponry of Omnimbus. Stand tall now Azure Knight...this is my greatest weapon."

And he took that syringe and stabbed it into his neck. There was nothing else. He did not twitch, he did not stammer and fall over. He plucked his neck, released the syringe and then tossed it aside. So now he had nothing on him. His weapons were gone, his syringe was empty and useless.

So what he had done? Hector closed his eyes and then opened the slowly. There was a strange tint in them and he was beginning to sweat badly. Something which considering his powerful endurance seemed crazy.

"These small battles are becoming meaningless..." He replied as he walked out to the deck, overlooking the inferno in the sky, sea and land.

There was a dome appearing over the sky. He wasn't sure what this was about but then again there was something odd about it.

"Raise your heads...to the Heavens Divide."

Hector raised his hand and brought it down once. It became very obvious what had happened. The entire island literally exploded outwards and seem to gush towards the enemies around him. It was hard to say what had happened at first glance. It was like there had been a dust storm, of a swarm of locus, not dozens, not hundreds but a black blotch that rained out.

What simply had happened could only be described as destruction. Hector had connected himself to the entire weaponry system of Omnimbus. Every turret, every gun, every missile, every shield. Every single defense system, every offensive weapon. Every chemical, everything that was a weapon on the island that was currently connected to it was now under his control.

A literal one man army and the power to destroy an entire city, was cast upon his enemy with the full intent of destroying the.

And so now the God of Law turned to Zero, grinned and raised his hand.

"Let's begin..."

*Clickclickclickclickclickclickclick*

From the very walls a swarm of high powered rifles seem erupted and began to fire mercilessly at the Azure Knight.

Lasciel hissed as she launched herself high into the air to avoid being touched by the disgusting abominations tendrils and hands. Regeneration was such a hassle to deal with and in her experience it had to be dealt with swiftly and in an over the top fashion. As she began to descend she prepared for her next attack by shifting herself in a dive bomb to take Uleus out in one set of blows.

When she was ten meters away she fired another vector bomb with the same effect and followed it up immediately by driving all of her vectors like a wedge being struck by a thousand pounds of force into his skull. The force of her attack caused the ship to split in half and she was sent flying onto the island not far from the ship. She landed gracefully and with a swipe of her now fifteen meter long vectors she tore all the ground forces around her to pieces.

She faced the direction Uleus last was and maintained a guarded stance. If Uleus had any good qualities then resilient was the best one for him. If he hadn't been slain by that then he would be coming for her, or so she suspected.

Adam swung his blade at Itachi and the two clashed as Adam fought for revenge, while Itachi fought for survival. The two continued to collide with their blades until out of nowhere an explosion sound was heard and suddenly a huge gust of wind made a dust cloud around them.

“What the?” Adam said as he was blinded by the dust. The force pushed him into a tree and Adam fell to the ground. Itachi had the same treatment except that he missed all the trees and was flung into the ocean. Itachi then quickly used this occurrence to retreat, he didn’t want to fight Adam, so it was good that this happened. He looked to see if their shield was destroyed, it wasn’t so that was the only good thing about it.

“Sir! With the shield now up I am returning to base. Some weird explosion happened, but our device still stands tall”

“Understood” Excalibur replied. Excalibur sat there on his chair as he watched the island on his screen. He couldn’t figure out what caused the sudden dust storm. It couldn’t have been Lester, magic was no longer possible because of Excalibur. Was it Zero? Zero couldn’t have used such a power, not at this time, as well as it did not look anything that would be done with Zero in mind, no, it had to be someone else...but who? Excalibur thought and then he looked at where it came from, the top of giant castle on the island. “Then that means only one person could have done that...Hector...but a better question is how? Interesting...this see how this ends…”

-------------

"You always were a straightforward woman." Ariel glowered at Alice. "But you lack vision."

“Lack vision?” Alice said. Alice quickly stopped her spinning motion and split her ten vectors into two groups of five. One group sliced up the flipped piece of ship that was coming from below, so that the pieces would easily miss her, while she used the other group of five to grab the two vectors that Ariel tried to attack with above. “The only one that is straightforward and lacks vision is you...after all these years you still use your vectors to throw objects like a child throwing it’s toys out of a pram...no wonder Alana was easily killed HAHA!” Alice laughed. Alice then used her free vectors to grab the mid air broken pieces of the ship and threw them at Ariel, while still holding onto Ariel’s two vectors. Alice then pulled Ariel towards her with the vectors she was holding her with towards the broken pieces. Alice got her weapon ready so she could swing it at Ariel.

------------

“That is all the soldiers in this area…” Suzuki said to the Squad. They killed all the Omnibus Soldiers that were attacking from this area, and it seemed like no more was coming.

“Good work Squad! All the enemy soldiers have been killed, you should be very proud” Maj. Knight said to his men.

“All soldiers from the other area have been eliminated…” Anna said to Suzuki, reporting in.

“Good work...huh?” Suzuki heard an explosion and then suddenly a huge gust of wind blew right through them.

“ARGH!” They all said as the wind hit them. Anna quickly placed her swords into the ground and used her vectors to hold Suzuki and herself to the ground. Squad A reacted by trying to hold themselves down by using their gear, while successful, they still were moving across the ground. The wind kept going and the group holded on, no matter how painful it was. Eventually, the wind calmed down and the group was able to get back up again.

“What the fuck was that?” Lt. Moretti shouted.

“I don’t know...but it came from there…” Suzuki pointed towards the castle. “Please be ok Zero…”

------------

“That should be the last bomb planted…” Cpt. Schlenzaner said. After some time, the bombs were in place, and now they could inform Zero. “Huh?” He heard an explosion and suddenly Squad B flung into the air and into the trees, except for Cpt. Schlenzaner, who went through a couple of trees due to his size. “Damn trees...my families mortal enemy…” He said to himself as he got up and rubbed his back. “Members of Squad B, give me your status”

“I’m good” Lt. Andersson replied.

“I’m fine” Lt. Olsen replied.

“Couldn’t be any fucking better” Lt. Mertens Replied.

“As leader of this group I can’t show any weakness…” Maj. Volkova coldly replied.

“And you wouldn’t be a good leader if you did!” Cpt. Schlenzaner joked.

“So what now?” Lt. Mertens asked.

“Simple Lieutenant...we help Zero” Maj. Volkova replied.

“Yes...we help Zero, no matter what” Cpt. Schlenzaner replied. He was determined, but who wouldn’t be? The man that was using your family name was on top, and was ruining the name with the actions his chose to do. It was making him sick. “LETS DO THIS!!” Cpt. Schlenzaner roared as he charged the castle. The remaining members of Squad B quickly followed him. They had to help Zero...no matter what cost.

------------

"What do I hold? I hold the determination of my life here and now. The King of Law who stands at the top, fighting for his cause even if nobody else will. I am strong...unbelievably powerful."

The old man took a step forward and raised his two weapons and then clashed them together to form the almighty weapon. The combination of axe and spear, the Crescent Moon Destroyer.

"This is it Azure Knight." Hector grinned raising his weapon high above his head. "This is where it all comes down to! I'll show you, the true power of the King of Law."

Zero watched as Hector raised his weapons and a beam of light appeared around it.

"Stand tall now Azure Knight! Tense your body! Raise your weapons! Keep your mind tight at all times! Do not hesitate at any time! If your determination slows even the slightest, you will be crushed instantly!"

And then Hector slammed his weapon straight into the ground.

After all that, all that remained was Hector, holding what seemed to be a syringe. What was inside it?

"The power of AZATHOTH was a combination of biological and mechanical ingenuity crafted together to create the perfect killing machine. That killing machine would then be fused with the monster Uleus to form what he is now.

Inside this syringe, is the data chips that directly relate to the entire weaponry of Omnimbus. Stand tall now Azure Knight...this is my greatest weapon."

Hector then stabbed the syringed into his neck. He didn’t move at all as it was injected.

"These small battles are becoming meaningless..." He replied as he walked out to the deck, overlooking the inferno in the sky, sea and land.

"Raise your heads...to the Heavens Divide."

Hector raised his hand and what came next could only be described as pure destruction. Massive gusts of winds hit the island. Zero’s blood boiled when the destruction happened, as he knew that his men were down below...and more importantly Suzuki and Alice…

What Zero didn’t know was while this was happening, Hector was being connected to every turret, shield, gun, missile, whatever belonged to him.

Hector then grinned and raised his hand.

"Let's begin..."

*Clickclickclickclickclickclickclick*

Zero quickly activated his crystal shield and hid behind it, as he was being pelted by bullets. How was Hector doing this? More importantly...how was Zero going to do this? First thing he needed to do was take down the rifles. Zero powered up his blood shot and once it was ready, he covered himself in his crystal armour and fired the blood cannon, causing the shield to break and firing shards at the rifles, once it connects, the rifles will explode. Zero used the explosion from his shield to speed towards Hector. The armour will keep him safe if any more bullets came towards him, and for the attack that Hector would have planned. Zero readied his weapons and attacked Hector.

Something slipped out of the ocean, a humanoid figure that was twisted beyond recognition. The crazed eyes of Uleus locked onto some random part of the area as his body beyond his volition began to follow it. Tendrils began to sprout from his neck, poking around the ground like snakes scenting the ground and air around them.

His self-defense system was looking for the girl, needing to hunt down the last person deemed a threat to his existence. It was based entirely on an instinct.
---
---

*BOOM!*

Another ship was sunk by the onslaught of weaponry fired from the isalnd.

*BOOM!*

another ship was sunk. At this point trying to even be near the place would be dangerous. Zen made a quick order.

"Everyone, get away from the island! Whatever Schlenzanner has done, we need to go away." He looked over at the burning skies and sighed as his wounds began to throb. There was no way they could take on the kind of firepower that Hector had.

One may have gone as far as to say that Hector had reached a near god-like level of power. The firepower Hector had could obliterate an entire city off the map. As long as he was connected to that island, he was the true King of it.

But what if they were away from the island? Giving the orders for the navy and air forces to leave may not stop the attacks from the island but it was better to be far away from it for now. Besides they had managed to do a large amount of damage to Hector's forces.

But...

"They think they're going to get away...how amusing." Hector thought as his mind connected to a security camera and watched as the ships were passing away.

"Did you forget...who taught you all the military prowess?" He raised his hand and snapped his finger. And then suddenly the ocean exploded violently, sinking four more ships.

Mines! There were mines in the ocean and Hector was was detonating them on the spot.

"Distance doesn't matter here, this is our final battle oh mighty heroes. Either you win...or I win...there is no continuation."

*CLASH!*

Suddenly A sword slipped from the ground from a sheer tap of Hector's foot and he swung it out, deflecting the incoming attack as sparks filled the air.

"Come now! Come now! Come now Azure Knight! This cannot be the best you have! This cannot be all that you can give me! You are facing the King of Determination and yet you attack him with such pitiful power?"

Sweat poured from his face again and Hector was breathing heavily now. The point of this was simple. Hector now had an absolutely monstrous offensive power and defensive power. But doing so had forced him to utilize his mental capabilities beyond human comprehension. Hector was not only controlling every single weapon and defense system of Omnimbus.

He was cognitive of it all.

"Uleus has destroyed his mind too I see, and that girl." As he fought with Zero, a small turret popped from the dirty ground where Lasciel was located and fired on her.

Overwhelming Strength. God of Law, Hector Schlenzanner had reached a point of power where even Diclonius would be envious. But he had given up something to attain that level of power.

His endurance. He had given up that to reach a new level of strength to destroy his foes. But where it may have taken a good 20 hits to get Hector on his knees alone. A good 3 strong hits would probably put him down. But could Zero actually land those hits.

Well...the floor suddenly exploding right underneath Zero's feet might make that difficult.
---
---

"Shit..." ELena said as she watched the screen. "Things are turning bad on our side now. That firepower, we weren't prepared for that kind of destructive capabilities."

The G.O which until then had only lost about 10% its total forces, had now lost a whopping 46%...a number which was expected to erupt.

Zero...or anyone...better stop the God of Law as soon as possible because there was no doubt about it. Hector had finally taken the advantage.

He had to be stopped!

Ariel cackled as she twisted her free vectors around her to create a fluid-like armor. As soon as the pieces of the boat hit her the area around them because dusty and difficult to see. "The ignorant will remain ignorant."

As Alice pulled her closer an explosion sounded from the island and debris began to fly every where. It added even more mayhem to their battle. It also accelerated her movement towards Alice, which was fine by her. She twisted the vectors that protected her in a way that would deflect or snap any weapon strike and as she closed in on her opponent she leaped at Alice's throat using no other weapon than her teeth. She wanted blood, and while two of her vectors were unusable and the other two were protecting her she had not much more than her own body. As she chomped down she grabbed at her opponent twisting her vectors even more this time to assist in tearing of flesh at whatever points she managed to grab onto.

The destruction around them from the explosion of bullets and missiles only helped Ariel in her mind. It meant vision would likely continue to be clouded and while Alice still grappled with Ariel, she would do as much damage as she could get away with.

---------------------------

Lasciel could still sense the abomination, it was still alive, but now that they were on solid ground things would change. However shortly after stepping foot on the island it erupted in missiles and bullets had she not been standing on the edge of the beach she surely would have been hit by it all. If that had happened she would have been forced to send her spirit back to Ariel to recover.

She formed four of her vectors into an axe and a sword keeping the remainder as defenses against the abomination. She saw it rise from the ocean just before the cloud of smoke hit the beach. Vision completely obscured she had no choice but to focus on her other senses to see the loyal fool. She sneaked around him to get into a better position to attack, but she was fairly sure surprise attacks were less effective against it than she would like. She couldn't afford hesitation, so she struck out with both of the weapons she had aiming high for his head.

-----------------------

Inagi had blacked out temporarily from the use of such powerful magic and found himself out of the base standing before a boat. Only one thrall seemed to have survived escaping the base, and it was a new thrall at that. He could tell from his connection with the man though that he had used his blood binding to create a thrall out of the man.

He flopped into the boat and looked over his shoulder at the island. Blood stained the sands as he saw several bodies laid out and spread from the exit to the boat's landing. He heard the motor start up and felt the boat move, but he still couldn't feel any pain. There was a pressure in his shoulder, almost like he had been shot, but his Blood Magic completely numbed his body.

He smiled at his success in escaping, but he couldn't help but wonder how many of Excalibur's pathetic guards he had to kill on the way out.

Ragnar Rex moved the instant it was clear that they were gonna fire at him, though that did not save him entirely. His shoulder bone was shot and now cracked, his left leg knee cap shattered from a few well placed shots. One of the shots got dangerously, close to a major artery. Ragnar Rex made a sound that sounded at first like a screech of pain, that however that belief would not last long as a smile appeared on his face.”There is something instinctively enjoyable about the blood rushing to your head” he said with an unusually low and happy tone. His heart suddenly started pumping significantly faster, blood spilled out in massive amount from the wounds he received. Ragnar suddenly launched with his vectors and entire body at the soldiers. Every single part of him was being used as a weapon. Two right away killed with a vector, two more killed from a swing of his sword, one shot in the head and another one shot in the kneecap before being hit in the head knocking him out, letting him be the only one lucky enough to live. Ragnar quickly attacked the others, using the guns he picked up, the teeth in his mouth, his sword, his vectors, his entire body.


When he had finished he smiled. The pain from his wounds did not really faze him, in fact they had just given him massive jump of adrenaline. He was still grinning till he finally sighed and said simply “Guess I have to go thirsty for a little bit more” He started walking away before more omnibus soldiers started coming, his mercenaries passing him by.


It was not till then that he realized three things. He had not gone into fire while attacking, and while that may have been better for him he wondered as to why he had not turned into his more fiery form, he usually just went into it naturally. Second thing he noticed were lights shooting into the sky around this island and that some of the omnibus soldiers suddenly stopped using magic at some point. And the third thing was that was the last thing he saw.


His eyes were being filled with blood, it was not fatal but he knew this meant only one thing, he had gotten Hyphema.


It must have started happening at some point after his heart suddenly jumped, or maybe he had gotten hit in the head or around the eye and not noticed it, he was not fully sure which. “Tragic, guess I gotta find a doctor then” said Ragnar Rex pretty casually and out loud.


Ragnar Rex stumbled like a drunk on his uneasy and injured left leg back to where the boats were that had taken him to their. Couple of them were ready to take back the injured. Ragnar Rex simply found it thanks to a bit of memory and listening to his surroundings. He fell into the boat like one would expect from someone with his injuries and from fighting for so long already.


As the boat drove off he heard in the distance sound of destruction on mass scale.


It brought a smile to his face.


Ragnar Rex closed his eyes a few times as he slowly felt him slipping past, slowly and surely, he felt how tired he was and his body aching. He eventually closed his eyes.


Ragnar Tyrson opened his eyes, groaning in pain. He was not sure whether he was dead or not. He felt agonizing pain from his whole body, but especially his shoulder, knee cap and face. He could not see anything and felt blood was over him, some of it from him and some of it from others. Ragnar choked on whatever he ate before going into battle before finally letting his sick stomach dispose its contents. Ragnar Tyrson was now sure he was alive, as he heard someone complain about the spilled contents. He could not quite make out who said it or even what kind of voice it was, he just knows that it was a voice right next to him.


Ragnar Tyrson was trying to realize what had happened. The last thing he remembered was closing his eyes and having a dream that suddenly ended, then everything went black. He felt the cheeks inside his mouth being numb and hurt. He found the taste of blood of both his own and those he bit. If his stomach was not already empty  he would have made it so after discovering the taste of blood in his mouth.


Ragnar Tyrson opened his mouth and to the relief of those by him he simply asked weakly “what happened?” He had no memory of what just happened. His entire body was tired and weak, he could not have thought of what happened, till one other man answered his question.


“You killed bunch of those bastards, you must have gotten hit on the head or something if you do not remember all of that, you were like a raging berserker or something like that”


Ragnar froze, tears slowly falling from his face as he slowly realized what had just happened.


The one who answered him was confused and asked “Why are you crying? Is it because of the pain?”


Ragnar simply nodded, it was a lie. The pain suddenly hurt him a lot and he would be happier without it, but what his tears were really for was one simple thing. “I went berserk...” he said under his breath so quietly that no one else could hear it.


“I am sorry you do not remember the fun” Ragnar Tyrson was startled by that voice in his head, it sounded nothing like anyone or anything he knew sounded like “Calm down, I am not gonna hurt you, nor will I force you do anything...for now. Only we can hear us, regardless of how real it sounds I am simply in our head. Oh wait, you probably do not know who I am, how inconsiderate of me, I am Ragnar Rex” The voice seemed to almost echo in his head once this entitee said his own name. It sounded very loud, as if he were emphasizing his own name.


Ragnar Tyrson asked in his head “Who are you?” “I am you, though I understand if you do not remember who you are, last time you were you was a decade ago” Ragnar eyes would have widened if they could, he realized what that meant “You, you are what I become when I go berserk, are you not?” “Hehehehe, close, I certainly take control everytime you go berserk, but understand that I can take control anytime I want, but I like myself too much to force myself to do something I do not like...though I do occasionally push you a bit in your subconscious” Ragnar Tyrson was putting all the puzzles together in his head “So...it was you who caused those dreams?” “Both yes and no, they were already there, I just pulled them out, but before you believe I simply caused pain to you, I also pulled out that good nostalgic dream” Ragnar Tyrson was breathing a bit harder and asked one more question “How many?” “Hard to count all of them”


Ragnar’s eyes started filling with water and slowly dripped as he said quietly “I failed…”


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Ragnar was on the surgery table, he had been there for hours. Every doctor was trying to save as much as they could of him. When Ragnar finally woke up he looked in a mirror.


For whatever reason, no matter what the doctors did his Hyphema did not go away. They were however able to restore his eyesight to a certain degree. It was not as good as it once was but he could at least see something now. He was missing some teeth, a lot of the others were now uneven, had scars over a lot of his body, all the fat he used to have was completely gone. His muscles were not huge but they were strong despite looking much weaker now, even though they were not. The burned skin and the deepest of the scars on his body were for the most part treated, but his face still remained horrific. The doctors were unable to fully fix it without taking some dangerous risks including the possibility of causing accidental blindness. Instead now Ragnar had many different variety of masks, the one he was wearing now was white and hid his entire face besides his mouth and his eyes. His eyes, his eyes seemed empty. The outlines of the eyes were blood tinge red but the rest of it was a voidless black.


He stared at the man in the mirror.

He stared at the men in the mirror.

He stared at the man he was a stranger to.


Ragnar left without saying a word.


It was late, he was walking back towards his room.


Darwin came to him and said what he had expected to hear


“Ragnar, Nietzsche died! He suddenly died from a lack of blood, but we cannot find a single wound on him, nowhere he could have bled, no wounds in his body, no blood on the ground, absolutely no sign of where his blood went”


Ragnar simply answered “Give him a funeral, he deserves that at the very least”


Ragnar knew well that Nietzsche had been dangerous, he probably was gonna have him arrested or something soon, as he had strong suspicions of Nietzsche having a conspiracy against him. Many small signs, and then the history that he checked on him, it all led to the same conclusion.


But Rex had decided Nietzsche's fate first.


Ragnar knew now that the deacon was not a ghost, though he was not sure as to what the deacon was, and he expects that he may never find that out.


Darwin nodded and left seeing Ragnar was tired and clearly not ready to discuss this much further.


Ragnar entered his room. He closed the door behind him and  walked weakly towards his bed. It was there when he saw at the edge of his vision a knife, quickly and silently being launched towards him.


Ragnar was tired but  he was not gonna just let himself be stabbed. He quickly moved and grabbed the knife with his robotic arm, ribbing it out of the hand of the attacker, throwing the knife away.


Ragnar was about to hit the attacker when he suddenly froze seeing who it was. He did not recognize his attacker, but something felt ungodly familiar, and what ever that familiarity came from, it seemed to be forcing him to stop his attack.


Almost immediately he felt the punch from his attacker as then the attacker ran towards the knife to grab it a strike again. However the attacker was stopped as one of Ragnar’s vectors had grabbed one of the legs of the attacker and dragged the attacker to him.


He held his attacker upside down with their faces meeting each other.


It finally clicked in his mind as she smirked.


“I guess you were not lying about those invisible hands”


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


*Ten years ago*


It had been over two months since his father’s death. It had been a month since he first went berserk. It was late february, he was soon to leave Iceland and go back to his normal home. Ragnar had more or less isolated himself from most. He was scared of hurting someone with his powers, and he was letting himself drown in his own grief over his loss. He just did not want to feel happy after losing the only father he knew. He blamed himself again and again for the death of his father and almost everything bad that had ever happened to his father.


Ragnar had gone out in the cold winter night snow, sneaking out like had done before. He was holding onto his dinosaur plushie Rex, holding him tightly and letting himself cry and whimper in his grief.


It had been hours till he heard someone coming. Thinking it being someone looking for him he stands up and was about to run when he sees that it was someone alone in the snow. Ragnar ran to the person and saw it was a girl, about the same age as him. She was only wearing tattered and ripped clothes. It was his first exposure to poverty that he could remember.


She was trying to rub herself with her hands to keep herself warm in the cold, tears filled in her eyes. It was easy to see that she was tired. Ragnar ran to her and asked her “Are you alright? What is your name?” The girl just froze, scared at first of the boy coming over to her.


Ragnar quickly took his thick winter clothing that he had gone in and put it over her. She held it close to her and gave a weak smile to him. Ragnar said “Come, you need to get inside and warm up”


He walked towards his house, supporting her on the way to there. Once inside Ragnar looked for some clothes for her and gave her some pajamas and robes to help her get warm. She went into them while he went off and got some hot cocoa while no one was looking. When he returned with some hot cocoa, some sweets and a lot food she smiled. They both drank some of their hot cocoa and ate some sweets, she gulped down bunch of food, she had been clearly starving.


“Jane, my name is Jane”


Ragnar smiles to her and says “Pretty name, my name is Ragnar”


“That is a nice name too” said Jane with a little bit of a blush and a smirk.


Ragnar had not talked to a girl of the same age as him before and did not understand the blush, so he simply asked “Why did you blush?” which only deepened her blush


Jane responded back “No reason, you are just very nice to me...”


Ragnar smiled and said “It is alright, you should not feel embarrassed over me being nice to you”


Throughout the night Ragnar and Jane talked to each other about so many things.  Some of these were things they would not have told anyone else. Ragnar actually felt happy for once after his father’s heart attack.


When morning started coming Ragnar gave her some money, enough for her to live a good life he thought.


At that point he thought he liked her and felt a bit sad saying goodbye to her.


Looking into each others eyes they suddenly hugged each other tightly, the warmth and comfort they gave each other was great, till they finally parted their ways.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Day of the battle, in Ragnar’s room*

“Jane...” Ragnar was speechless of this, he swore it had been so long ago, and that they would meet each other like this, he had never thought of it.


Jane had certainly matured well. She was wearing a skin tight black but elegant dress with an opening over her back, how she worked in those were a mystery to him, especially for how fast she was, though he did not wonder how she was able to afford it.

She had beautiful curves he had to admit to himself, or rather to Rex, who was practically whistling at her look in his head, which he did not like as he thought at the time Rex was simply doing it over her looks.

Her skin was of a milky white and her lips had dark lipstick on it. She had long black silky hair that shone in the light.

However there was one feature that he had recognised almost right away. Her eyes were like black pearls. When the light hit them they often had a sparkle to them. The eyes were completely black with the exception the shine.


“Surprised? You certainly have changed a lot” she said with a smirk and seemed like she was about to take off his mask.


Ragnar suddenly felt shameful and dropped her, though gently, before she was able to take off his mask. He said with a tone of regret “No, you would not like to see what I have become now...I have done some horrible things, both to me and, worse yet, to others”


Ragnar twitched a bit as he felt her soft hand touch his shoulder and she said “Do not be hard on yourself again just like last time we met, sorrow has never given you anything”


Ragnar nodded, then he asked her a simple question “By the way, why were you trying to kill me?”


Jane felt awkward and it was easily seen from the look on her face “Well, you see...I...uhm...” she sighed in submission and then said “Nietzsche promised me that he would show me where my family had gone, as well as money and more. He also said if I did not accept that he would hunt me and my family down if his plan A works”


Ragnar then said “So you were his plan B, and you do know he died earlier today, right?”


Jane perked up her head to his eyes, and while it was hard to tell her eyes wide “W-what? So, that noise was over his death!? I thought it was someone else there”


Ragnar then said “You also should not trust him, he probably knew nothing about your family and he would have never held his end of the bargain”


Jane looked down and nodded before saying with a bit of sad tone “I knew but, but I hope he was telling the truth, I have wanted to find my family for as long as I can remember”


Ragnar then said “By the way, do you know what is the penalty for attempted murder”


Jane’s eyes widened and stared at him in fear.


Ragnar then gave a joking smile and said “Though you do not need to know that, after all, you are just visiting”


Jane felt a lot of relief and gave a smirk back to him “How long do you plan to have me ‘visiting’ here?”


Ragnar smiled and said “For as long as you wish”


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Day after the battle*


Ragnar woke up. He had been sleeping in one of the guestrooms. He swore to god that Ragnar Rex was never gonna shut up about letting Jane get his room, though not for the same reason as one expected. Ragnar Rex continually told him to give Jane his room, and he did not stop till he fell into submission and gave her his room. Granted as it was the first night they had met since they were kids he let her have full privacy and went into his guest room. He did not feel right trying to right away hit on her or anything like that, she deserved her space and her peace.


Ragnar went into some pretty regular person clothes and put on one of his masks, again the white one.


Ragnar went and checked what were the responses to the deal he had offered to the other countries that he had contacted when he was preparing all those plans and contacts.


He smiled at the results.


Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Dubai and Qatar had all agreed to the deal. The deal was simple. A strong international personal alliance that involved them all together under his crown, or in other words having him as their king to unify them all together. He would have as much power over them as he would over Iceland, which more or less would allow them to govern themselves unless he chose to get himself involved. He was happy that the people in those countries had supported him in the referendum.


This was vital as he needed more people to survive his and his ally’s plan.


There was just now one thing he had to do, make it official to the world.


Ragnar thought for a bit about the name till he decided to call it the P.R.O.E. Union, or Progressive Research Oriental and  Economic Union. He had to admit he cringed a bit at the name but it had to do for now.


He informed the European Union, the oil country cartel, NATO and the United Nations. He finally stood up and walked. He had just sent a notification to G.O., telling them that he would come to them to discuss about certain important details of this new union.


Before Ragnar would however go to discuss this with the G.O. he had to do two things.


First he checked on Jane. He was relieved that she had gotten into some clothes when he knocked on her door, not exactly wanting to face something awkward right now.


“How are you Jane?” asked Ragnar politely


Jane smiled and said “Great, thanks for letting me have your room”


Ragnar smiled and said “No problem, I have to tell you though that I will be busy today, I hope you understand”


Jane nodded and smiled before saying “Have a good day at whatever you are going to do today”


Ragnar smiled and said “Thank you, have a good day as well”


Jane then closed the door.


“...come on, do not act like you were not thinking the same thing”


“Shut up Rex, I do not want to make something unnecessarily complicated and confusing after everything”


“...you know, just because you are good liar to yourself, you are not that good against me”


“Not now Rex”


The mental conversation ended as Ragnar got to the second thing he had to handle before going.


It was the omnibus soldier that had been taken as a prisoner of war.


“Good morning Ken” the soldier nodded to Ragnar’s greeting, the soldier said nothing.


“So, you were a soldier for omnibus, I ask you, do you value your life? Your family? Your happiness? Your hands?” said Ragnar


The soldier simply looked down at his two arms, both missing the hands.


Ragnar then said “If you accept to testify against Omnibus you will be absolved of your crimes, you will be given enough money to live comfortably for the rest of your life, your family will get huge amount of aid money and have their debts paid off, and I will even provide you new robotic hands”


The soldier sat there in silence looking down at the ground till finally asking “Can you also give my children save funds and money for college” Ragnar smiled wide and nodded


Ken the omnibus soldier sighed in submission and said “I will accept it”


Ragnar smiled and said “Great to hear, do not worry, your anonymity will be kept a secret, unless you specifically wish to be known”


Ken simply nodded.


Ragnar left the room and said to a guard nearby “Inform the doctors and the technicians to work on making two robotic hands for Ken here”


The guard nodded and called through the phone, telling the doctors and the technicians exactly that.


Ragnar then walked away. He got several reports, almost all of them making him happy.


His plans to fully automate all of his companies were going smoothly. Most of his workers had accepted the optional deal that made them take a loan equal to how much they were paid over the year. With so many workers and almost everyone being highly paid that had partly helped his success along with many other things, here it was paying off massively as almost everyone saw the opportunity to take this deal, since while it would make them technically lose their job to the automation they would still be paid the same wage they had when they were working till they die. This however would work perfectly for Ragnar, as his profits would sky rocket but more importantly it would mean even after the virus would do its damage his wealth and therefore also the wealth of those he rules would not drop at all, becoming unaffected by the surrounding loss. This coupled with the huge amount of money gained from a deal he was shameful for having done and would not want to mention made it so that he could very rapidly automate before feeling the consequences of the virus effect on the world.


Many other plans were also working great, for example plans to bring in some refugees around the world was working pretty well, many gypsies had moved over to here, huge amount of researchers and entertainment people, including many from the internet, were also being moved within the border of his kingdom, it was perfect.


This was going to insure that after his plans started to go in full on work that losses that would hamper progress or make people unhappy were kept to the minimum.


Furthermore as much information and knowledge were being stored in huge databases to make sure as little was lost and as much was preserved as possible.

Oh, and also all those dicloni that were now being extorted out of the countries they were living in, unless they lived in europe, were arriving safely in Iceland and soon in the other countries that had signed the deal he had made with, and plans of integrations were going very smoothly.


Ragnar however noticed no report on the status of the battle yesterday and asked “Where is the report about the battle yesterday?” One of the men answered “We unfortunately do not have that report ready”


Ragnar Rex said in his head “I know what happened, a slaughter”


Ragnar Tyrson was annoyed by Ragnar Rex comment but said nothing, concentrating on his surroundings “Have ready a report about that as soon as you can”


The man simply said “Yes sir” before scrambling off to start the work on that report.


Ragnar finally got to a plane and sat down, it was not till now that he realized he had dreamt well that night, as he was not tired at all as he sat in the plane on the trip.


The plane was going to the only place that contacting the G.O. could be possible without being deemed as a trespasser right away.


When he landed he was then driven to his destination. Stepping out he walked slowly towards the E.U. parliament building.


With his white mask on and inside the building he said to those working there “I am here to contact the G.O. over some matters that they might find important, can you tell them that I am waiting here for them and am willing to talk with them”

-----------------------------------------------------------
words: 4465

((you get to decide if they accept Ragnar for those talks reric))

Adam finally stood up, still in pain from hitting the tree full blast, he was in no shape to fight, but then again who was left to fight? The blast killed a lot of men, Adam was surprised how he lived, but he was able to thanks to Eve, who manually activated the defense system at the last second. Adam was still hit, but it would have been much worse if it wasn’t for Eve.

“What’s the status Eve?” Adam asked, coughing up blood.

“Not good...from what I can scan there is not much life left on this island...you can consider us lucky that we are one of survivors…” Eve replied.

“Do you know who is alive?” Adam asked.

“Sadly no...my scanner got fried by the blast, I can’t find out anymore then what I have…” Eve replied sounding upset.

“What a pain!” Adam said with annoyance, sitting down on the ground.

“Excuse me? A little thank you would be nice! Considering I saved your ass from being ripped apart from the blast!” Eve said, angry that Adam hasn’t thanked her at all.

“Yeah? Well why don’t you help cure these wounds then? Oh? You can’t? Thanks I guess…” Adam sarcastically replied. Eve then made a stomping motion on the screen.

“Oooo...just you wait! I’ll make a life like body and be real! And when I do I will kick your ass!” Eve angrily vowed.

“Yeah yeah yeah that is what you always say…”

--------------------

As Alice dragged Ariel towards her, a massive gust of wind and dust surrounded them. “What the?” Alice quickly reacted, using her free vectors to wrap around her, protecting her from the incoming dust and debris, but this distraction had helped Ariel gain somewhat of an advantage, as what happened next was weird. Alice heard a chomp noise and next she could feel like someone was biting one of her vectors. The dust cleared a bit to reveal that the one biting was Ariel. Judging from where Ariel ended up, it looked like she was going for Alice’s neck. “Bitch!” Alice angrily said. Alice began swinging the vector that Ariel was now holding onto with her hands and teeth in an attempt to get her off her. She also used two of her vectors to attack Ariel, while using the rest as protection.

--------------------

Squad B made their way inside the building. They had no problem getting their way around, as all the soldiers were either dead or badly wounded. They were about to head up the stairs when suddenly part of the ceiling began to fall. Cpt. Schlenzaner sprung into action and protected his squad from the falling pieces.

“What is going on?” Cpt. Schlenzaner asked.

“I don’t know...but we need to contact Zero quick…”

---------------

Zero reached Hector with his blade, but with a simple movement of his foot, a blade appeared from under his foot and clashed with Zero.

"Come now! Come now! Come now Azure Knight! This cannot be the best you have! This cannot be all that you can give me! You are facing the King of Determination and yet you attack him with such pitiful power?"

“My best? Have you forgotten about before? I am just getting started…” Zero noticed the ground was beginning to disappear and used his telekinesis to float in the air. Zero noticed that Hector was sweating and breathing heavily, whatever he was doing, it was making him tired and weak. Zero continued to dodge the remaining rifles that were on the walls and created another crystal shield. This gave him time to think.

“Ok, I know that he is looking tired...so whatever is going on...he is getting weak...the only problem is that I can’t hit him if he is able to pull blades out from under him...and if he keeps this up...then I have no clue how I am going to stop him…”

“Sir! What is going on up there? The ceiling is falling down!” Maj. Volkova asked Zero.

“Major? What are you doing inside? Get out! Now! It’s not safe!” Zero ordered.

“But sir, what about you?” She asked.

“That’s not important right now...plus there is another thing I want you to do...once you get out...activate the bombs…”

“What?!!” Maj. Volkova said, shocked. “Sir you are still inside! The bombs will kill you!!”

“What did I say earlier? No matter what the cost...I have no other option at the moment, this will give me more options...besides...if you think that I would be easily killed by this then I should demote you when this is over...and I’ll make sure that there would only be one way for you to get it back haha!” Zero joked to the Major.

She just smirked. “Very well sir...but remember...I will not do whatever you please to get my position back if you so take it”

“And I don’t expect you to do either haha!”

“Very well sir...enjoy the blast” Major instructed her squad to leave the building and did so at a quick pace. After a few minutes, they had reached outside and got a good distance from the building.

“I hope you know what you are doing sir…” And with that, she pressed the button.

“Hey Hector! I don’t like the cramp space this is giving me...how about we create more space?” Zero said to Hector. As soon as Zero finished, an explosion was heard below and the room began to shake and it wasn’t long until the room the two was in exploded as well.

From the outside Suzuki, Anna and Squad A could see the building explode and crumble down to the ground. Suzuki was worried as she knows Zero would be in that area. She then noticed that Squad B had made their way back to them.

“Where is Zero?” Suzuki demanded.

“He is still in the building...well...what remains of it…” Maj. Volkova replied. Suzuki was not happy.

“AND YOU BLEW IT UP?” Suzuki angrily asked.

“It was Zero’s order ma’am! It was his only option” Maj. Volkova replied. Suzuki was still mad, but she had calmed down.

“With what is going on here...it is best if we try to get out of here…”

“I don’t know if that is possible Lady Rose...all forms of transport that tried to flee was destroyed” Maj. Knight said to Suzuki. “Until Hector is defeated...we are stuck here…”

--------------------

*Day after battle*

The people at the E.U House of Parliament were busy at work, keeping everything at check until a big man, that was wearing a white mask walked in. “I am here to contact the G.O. over some matters that they might find important, can you tell them that I am waiting here for them and am willing to talk with them”

“I am sorry but whether you are important or have anything that you consider important that it needs to be heard by the E.U or G.O, then I am sorry but they are too busy for a meeting, especially at a time like this” Two armed soldiers then stood next to the woman. “I am going to politely ask you to leave the building and the premises”

(Ragnar it is best if you don't write anything that is after the battle, as for one it will possibly cause spoilers as well as we won't know what we are going to do after the battle finishes yet)

“I am sorry but whether you are important or have anything that you consider important that it needs to be heard by the E.U or G.O, then I am sorry but they are too busy for a meeting, especially at a time like this” Two armed soldiers then stood next to the woman. “I am going to politely ask you to leave the building and the premises”

Ragnar looked at the two soldiers with a glare that looked suggested that he felt a bit insulted by being half threatened. Not because he was threatened but rather cause it were only two guys that were supposed to be intimidating enough.

The glare did not last long and ended with an annoyed sigh. “How very disappointing. Believe me, I am both important and got even more important manners to discuss with the G.O., however, I do understand that certain necessities can keep them busy”

Ragnar then pulled out from under his shirt some documents and handed the worker it. The documents were mainly information of ways to contact him and also verifications that this was really Ragnar, the diclonius king of Iceland, and soon of other countries as well. “Please do contact me as soon as they are not busy”

Ragnar then started walking out of the parliament building. When he had finally left the premises he heard in his head a question come up “What now?”



*Ding*

Many eyes stared at the customer that had just entered the café. It was not surprising though that he attracted so much attention and the customer did not blame the others for it.

A two meter and thirty centimeter giant with wide shoulders, black void eyes with blood red lines at the edge of them from hyphema and wearing a white mask that covers everything except his mouth and eyes. Several upper front teeth were missing and he was a diclonius, but also a diclonius male.

It is rare for most to see someone or something like that enter a café just like that.

Ragnar went to up to where some cakes and other sweets were being stored and then suddenly said “I wish for two apple pies, one chocolate cake, twelve of those big chocolate chip cookies, some of that marzipan treats and two liters of some soda”

It took the workers at the place a few seconds to realize what just happened before they went and got everything requested. Once it had all been gotten Ragnar smiled and paid for the food and the soda before sitting down by a table.

Ragnar noted that the chair felt a bit uncomfortable due to his size, but he did not mind too much as he devoured the sweets he had just bought and drank down his soda.

He found it to be a beautiful day there, peaceful, warm, it felt just perfect.

It had been weeks since Ragnar had done something like this, but he felt he needed this. Just some peace and quiet, enjoying some good sunny weather while relaxing and eating some sweets and drinking down some ice cold soda.

Ragnar looked up to the air. It was hard for him to see the beautiful weather and sun compared to others but he still could see the beauty of it all. Few clouds in the sky, a bright sun and some birds flying around. Ragnar smiled happily.

One bird flew closer and landed close by, it was a raven.

A completely black bird, often depicted as a bird of dark omens. Ragnar however saw it as well as the favourite birds of the vikings and highly intelligent bird.

Ragnar smiled seeing the raven. The raven suddenly flew down to Ragnar which he was not expecting. The raven landed onto his right shoulder. Ragnar smiled seeing the bird having landed on his shoulder and ordered some food to give the raven.

The raven enjoyed the food that Ragnar gave it, or at the very least it looked like it enjoyed the food.

Ragnar noted that the raven was surprisingly trusting and friendly as it did not flinch as Ragnar carefully started to gently pet it.

The sight was certainly unusual to all the others around, seeing this gentle giant pet the raven.

Ragnar was content, for now at least. He will eventually want something more, or less, or simply different, but for now he was enjoying the simple joys of life.

Life seemed so good, so enjoyable, so much worth it all just for those moments.

Ragnar was happy he had not died on the battlefield, if he would have he would not have been able to enjoy this moment.

The moment was not really big, not really ‘great’, its importance was miniscoule at the very most, he would not be remembered for this moment except by a few.

That all did not matter. He was happy.

No weights of responsibility, no choking air of sorrow, no wounds of worry, just for a moment, there was tranquility.

Ragnar knew this moment would eventually end, nothing was eternal.

Eventually everything he ever did might be forgotten, or not even known of in the first place.

He could kill half the world and eventually be consumed in time’s merciless appetite.

But the few times the sun would shine the beauty of the world, those few times, it all seemed worth it.

Ragnar started singing gently under his breath, a voice different from what he unusually had. It was gentle like it usually was, but it also had something else, something else that made him sound a bit rough yet it came out in an unusually beautiful voice. In his head he could hear the music that came with it, it was part of a song he really liked, he found this part to be always one of his favourite.

“Windmill, windmill for the land
Turn forever hand in hand
Take it all in on your stride
It is ticking falling down...
Love forever, Love is free
Lets turn forever you and me
Windmill, windmill for the land-
Is everybody in?”

--------------------------------------------------
words: 1018

((alright, I will just have him doing stuff that won't force others to interact with him but may or may not have some affects later on him))

The weapons of destruction clashed against the shield of flesh from the creature of insanity. It was blocked but perhaps the flesh was growing weaker or it was taking too much pressure to utilize by itself. Uleus was mentally dead inside which meant any actions of offense and defense came from the AZATHOTH defense system. Maybe that defense system had a limit itself?

The man turned his head and appeared to look at Lasciel with blank eyes. Something emerged from his coat, a large hand gun that once belonged to Trenek. A gun this powerful might put a little damage on Lasciel especially at this range. She had better put up her defenses quickly.

But Uleus once again did not have the mental functions to know anything. Any action he took was random, unable to be deciphered. his body swayed back and forth as he suddenly fell flat on his face and began to giggle like a little child while his fleshy arms spread out to attack again.
---
---

"Huff...Haa...Huff..." Hector pushed the debris out of his way as he breathed heavily. The strain of Heaven's Divide was growing more and more on him. Ten minutes...that was how long he expected he had before he could no longer control the system.

His mind connected to the security cameras around the island and then pointed them to the ships that were still around in the sea. He raised his hand and squeezed his fist as a swarm of missiles flew from the island and searched out to the ships where a few of the mines that were still in the water were unleashed.

In terms of damage ratio, the sides were almost even. The total damage recieved from the Great Order and its alliance was probably nearing about 63% now.

Omnimbus had suffered multiple wounds itself, even greater in fact with its damage ratio of about 70%. There was a loud rumble from underneath Hector's feet. The old man smiled softly and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"This island is beginning to break down. It can't handle the pressure of the entire weapon and defense system being used at the same time. Ah...Zero..." Hector said slowly as he saw the masked man that had survived the destruction of his throne room.

He snapped his fingers and five long turret like objects emerged from a cliff side around the island.

"Fire..." He uttered under his breath.

What would Zero do now when being fired with weapons several times faster than the speed of sound?

The almighty power of a railguns.

Lasciel had no hesitation on her attack when Uleus brought up the gun. Such things didn't inspire fear in her. Few things truly scared her. Then came her golden opportunity. Instead of firing, Uleus simply flopped onto the ground giggling madly. She grinned fiercely and brought down all of her vectors on the head of her opponent while getting hit by attacks from the flailing madman. No blood came from the injuries, although they were clearly present.

She doubted even he could survive such an onslaught without severe sacrifices. She panted excitedly. "Strong you are mad one, but your fight is a lost one. An abomination like yourself can only die spectacularly."

She repeatedly struck down on her foe with her vectors aiming for the total annihilation of her foe.

-----------------------------------------

Ariel clenched down hard on the vector as she was swung around. Her own vectors protecting her from the harm of bullets and Alice's vectors. She however couldn't stop all the damage of being slammed into the boat. She had slipped her vectors out of Alice's during the distraction of Ariel's previous attack and quickly proceeded to slide both of her freed vectors down the one's Alice was using to attack with. She wrapped her vectors around them as she did so.

Swiftly she brought them to the base part of the vector where it touches the back of Alice and made every attempt to pierce whatever protection was their to draw as much blood as she could. She coughed up blood as she finally let go of Alice's vector and spat out a couple teeth as she landed. She felt several bones within her body were broken, but that didn't matter so long as she accomplished her goal. Her mission.

She continued to shove her two piercing vectors as hard as she could and proceeded to swipe out with the others in order to trip Alice. "You misunderstand what I meant by vision, but I'll not explain what I mean to the likes of you. I doubt you're even capable of understanding its true meaning."

Ragnar suddenly felt a world shattering headache. He closed his eyes as he felt the pain blur out the entire world, just as everything seemed so good, it all disappeared behind a black veil of the void of his eyes.


He could not feel his body as the world seemed to disappear. Only then he felt the stabbing pain in his chest, the left side.


It had been days he swore when he finally saw some small light. It pierced brightly through the dark void. When his eyes opened he was laying on a cloud.


It was soft.


Ragnar slowly sat up. “What is happening? What did you do Rex?” he said in his head. It seemed to echo through the world. No answer came.


Ragnar tried to stand, the light blinded him as he got closer to it. He did not open his eyes fully till he had moved it away from the light.


He was in a world on the clouds. Big long plants seem to reach up to the clouds and surrounded the area. The flowers were the size of children.


A faint smell of what he could only describe as that of a wet forest was everywhere.


He liked it.


Distant bells could be heard ringing. For some reason he cannot explain, he thought they came from Jerusalem.


The air was warm. The air enveloped him as if it were a blanket.


Ragnar walked. The world hand no end as far as he could tell. Ragnar however came to an end, as he saw a single small opening.


Ragnar then realized as he looked up that there seemed to be a stump there.


On the stump there was a man. His hair was uncared for and relatively long. The hair was of a blue colour. It covered his face enough from the side that Ragnar could not identify his face.


The man was tall and thin, wearing a T-shirt and loose and baggy pants.


A raven was standing on the man’s finger on one of the lifted hands.


Hours of only the bells ringing lasted.


Finally Ragnar asked one simple question “Who are you?”


The man stayed there silent for days. Then he smiled, barely visible for Ragnar. A windmill could be seen down the hole.


“Ragnar”


Ragnar opened his eyes. It, it had not happened. All of it had not happened as he saw it had only been three seconds since he closed his eyes.


The Raven was still on his shoulder. The people were still staring over to him. The crumbs of the sweets he ate before on the dish. A single soda bottle still with a bit of soda still in it.


Ragnar took it and drank it down.


“What happened?” he said under his breath.


“What do you mean?” Said Rex in his head, the tone seemed genuinely clueless.


Ragnar answered back “nothing, it was nothing”


Ragnar knew almost right away Rex must be lying when he asked that, Rex must have known, he just must have. Ragnar did not know though what Rex knew.


After a while Ragnar finally asked in his head Rex “Rex, why did you like killing all those people?”


Rex answered and Ragnar swore that if Rex had a face it would be grinning “Is it not obvious? They deserved it for what they have done, they deserved it for they have not done, they deserved for what they thought, they deserved for what they wanted, they deserved dying bleeding, they deserved die crying, they deserved to be dead in a pile, the adrenaline filled me with life, and most importantly of all, it gave me relief”


Ragnar then simply asked “What do you mean exactly by relief?” Ragnar knew what he meant by everything else.


Rex answered simply “For the Hatred and Anger”


Ragnar did not ask further, simply standing up from the table, thanking for the services and walked away from the café.


Ragnar walked slowly among the normal people around him. Their eyes white staring.


They all looked at him.


They looked at him cause of his eyes.


They looked at him cause of his size.


They looked at him cause of his horns.


They looked at him cause of his Raven.


They looked at him cause of his mask.


They looked at him cause he was.


Freak.


Yet despite that he still held a smile.


Ragnar asked in his head one simple question “When will you tell me what happened there?”


“Hehehe, later”


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Day of the battle, on the battlefield*


*GASP*


The soldier was unsure how he survived what had just happened. Something huge had happened and had thrown him into the water.

The rest of his squad ranged from being at the bottom of the sea with heavy watery lungs and other half floating and showing off their lower spine.


The soldier had been blinded by everything and thanked god a hundred times for giving him a chance.


He had been able to swim to the surface despite his equipment, the unexpectancy of the event and him already having been running for long.


The soldier was a private. More specifically a private of the mercenary half that had not been sent out simply as distraction.


His skill at swimming had payed off well.


Despite his lack of knowledge he was actually close to the one his group had highest priority protecting, Ariel.


He did not know this as he just got out of the water, was still blinded by everything that had just happened for a few more seconds, could barely hear what was going around him and was wondering too much about what just happened and how he had survived it.


When he started realizing what was going on he put on a black mask that he had stolen from an officer before. He had planned on selling it to help pay for a good home for those who raised him that were being extorted to Iceland.


The black mask was a gas mask but he knew it would also work to protect against smoke and dust in the air.


The mask did not limit his view of the surrounding as he looked for a way up the boat where the combat was taking place, clutching in one hand the only gun he was fully sure would still work, his AK-47. It was his only weapon besides a 9mm pistol, that probably did not work anymore after being drenched in water, unlike the AK-47 he had. He was one of the battlefield medics, as it was clearly seen by the red cross on his back and on his front, as well as the first aid kit he was carrying on his back, which was the only thing that had been made to be sealed away from water.


He knew it would probably be useless in a fight where a diclonius is taking its time to try to beat its opponent, but he felt it might at least make good as a distraction. He knew to only shoot when needed, as long as he does not shoot it would be considered a war crime killing a battlefield medic. He was thankful that there were still some laws that could save him. His AK-47 had the safety on just to be on the safe side.


He had not been very quiet getting up and onto the boat, it was sort of impossible since he was completely wet from the cold sea, not to mention his equipment was not as quiet as usual either. Despite that he was still quiet enough since the noise from Ariel’s and Alice’s battle was much louder, as well as most everything else. He kept his balance as he saw what was going on from a relatively safe distance, about thirty meters away. He was able to recognise one of them as Ariel that was supposed to be their primary target to protect but he did not recognise the other one, but could tell she was a dicloni.


He stared at the battle, waiting for something, something to tell him what to do. While he did not know it the mask he had stolen also indicated that he was supposed to be a captain from the mercenary company, which was a double edged sword. Mainly, he was marked a lot better that he was part of the mercenary company and would therefore be much faster recognised by others of the mercenary company and also most likely Ariel if she had at this point realized or known they were some of those soldiers Ragnar had mentioned he would provide in their alliance, too bad this also meant everyone else would right away realize as well whose side he was, meaning enemies would most likely not confuse him with one of their own. He held the AK-47 tightly and one of his fingers ready to turn off the safety if ordered to shoot or if just needed. He wanted to live today.


The man had the retrovirus.


He was not going to die from the virus that had been injected into him.


He was yet to know just how truly lucky he had been.


His name was Viva La.


Spanish descent.


Raised by gypsies.


By dicloni.


Adopted.


Happy.


Alive.

----------------------------------------------------------
words: 1548

Zero pulled himself out of the rubble, his crystal armour had kept him safe from the blast, but he was still showing pain from the fall.

"This island is beginning to break down. It can't handle the pressure of the entire weapon and defense system being used at the same time. Ah...Zero..." Hector said slowly as he saw the masked man that had survived the destruction of his throne room.

“Damn, it didn’t kill him...I should have known that” Zero thought to himself. He should have remembered that it wouldn’t have been that easy to kill him, but Zero saw that it did leave a massive mark on him. Hector was breathing heavily, much more now than before the blast, so Zero knew that Hector wasn’t going to last as long as he did before, but could Zero be able to stop him before he runs out himself? Zero has been keeping his crystal armour on since the first rifle attack, and if he continued to keep enduring the big hits, his armour will break and that will leave him wide open. Zero then saw that Hector had snapped his fingers. Five turrets appeared from out the ground.

"Fire..." He uttered under his breath.

Zero didn’t even get a chance to react, the rail guns had fired and he was being hit by each passing bullet. Each hit, pushing him back until one hit him in the face, he then fell down to the ground. As he hit the ground Zero was able to quickly surround his area with his crystal shield. Zero was safe from the guns for now, but the shield wouldn’t be able to hold the fire for too long. Zero just laid there, breathing in as much as he could. Half an inch, that was how close he was, that was how close the bullet was to his head as it lies wedge in his mask. Zero could count himself lucky that his mask was made of strong material, but the mask then shattered as the bullet made it crack.

What was Zero going to do? Before he could attack Hector, he had to deal with the five turrets that was firing at a quicker pace that he could move, and that was pissing him off. Zero looked at his shield, he can easily see where the bullets were hitting, as it was creating cracks from where it hit. Zero gave it some thought and decided to try something creative. Zero formed his crystal bloodshot until it reached the size of a football, Zero then glowed blue as he used his telekinesis to control the orb. “Yes it worked!” Zero thought to himself, he was able to control his bloodshot orb as he moved it around him. “Ok now it is time to make four more…” Zero then created the four other orbs that he needed and placed them where each crack was. The amount of blood that he used made him breathe heavier as it required so much, but the payout would be worth it. Zero knew that the shield was going to shatter any second, but Zero was prepared, once it shattered, he would use his telekinesis to fire his bloodshot orbs at the turrets, which would explode on impact and give Zero an opportunity to attack. Zero then prepared another bloodshot, which he would fire towards Hector. As Zero prepared, he saw that the shield was about to shatter. The shield broke and Zero was ready to fire.

“Crystal Bloodshot Cannon!” Zero shouted as he fired all six of his bloodshots. His five orbs sped off towards the turrets, which will explode upon impact, while the one Zero fired was going straight towards Hector, Zero put a lot of power into this, so it had to work.

-------------

Suzuki and both Squads went over what they were going to do in the current situation, while Anna just stood there, minding her own business, it even to wonder if she was thinking of anything at all. Suddenly the group heard more explosions coming from out to the sea area.

“How is Hector doing this?” Lt. Moretti wondered.

“I don’t know, but whatever it is, its not good for us, as we don’t know the full ability of this, so we have to be very careful on what we do…” Suzuki suddenly noticed rubble that was still falling in the air, and some of it was coming towards them. Suzuki drew out her sword and began moving it in a circular motion. “Crystal power I call on you to build, protect us with your Crystal Shield!” Suzuki’s sword glowed red and suddenly the group was surrounded by a massive red crystal like shield.

“How did you do that?” Maj. Volkova asked, amazed by the sudden act of power.

“That is not of importance right now, what is important is that we are safe, as this shield of Crystal will protect us from the attacks...now we just wait for Zero to end Hector…”

----------------

Alice felt the sharp pain as Ariel used her vectors to try and piece into her. Lucky for her, Alice’s vector’s was protecting her from being killed, but the vectors still went through hers and were jabbing her back. Alice saw as Ariel became a bloody mess from the mouth after she bit her vectors. Alice jumped once she saw that Ariel tried to trip her.

"You misunderstand what I meant by vision, but I'll not explain what I mean to the likes of you. I doubt you're even capable of understanding its true meaning."

“How much more ignorant can you get?” Alice wondered. Ariel always was so rude, thinking that she was better than others and looking down on sipilets because she believed she was of higher importance than them. It was that reason why she wanted them dead, and she was happy that one of them was, because Alice believes that any queen diclonius that looks down on their own because they are sipilets doesn’t deserve to live on this world, and it was time she made Ariel pay. Alice used her vectors to grab the vectors that Ariel was using to attack and began twisting them in ways that they should not be bent, while also viciously pulling them so that they would be ripped out of Ariel. It’s time for Ariel to the pain that she tried to inflict on Alice.

“As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I take a look at my life and realize there is nothing left”


Ragnar heard Rex talking in his head. Ragnar did not seem to be moved by the slightest by his surroundings that had turned darker to his eyes. He knew it simply was a coincidence of a cloud shading out the place where he was that had already been a bit darkened by the non moving blood in his eyes that came off as black inside his eye.


Ragnar said back to Rex in his head “Very funny, trying to use a bible quote on me, I am not so easily fooled by something like that”


“Oh, you will be, I know, I know” said Rex back with a voice that sounded as if he was fully confident in it.


Ragnar almost rolled his eyes, but he caught himself quickly as he remembered those around him were already staring at him, and he knew it would be a bad idea to seem dismissive of all their opinions.


Ragnar found an Ice cream store and after naturally drawing huge amount of attention by his existence alone he went inside the store. He looked at the Ice cream that was available and then said “I want a large Ice cream, Ice cream types shall be minty, chocolate and strawberry, with hot caramel sauce over it all” It took a few second before they started making the Ice cream.


When it was finally finished and prepared Ragnar payed them twice as much money then they were about to ask for before taking the Ice cream and walking out of the store.


Ragnar ate down the Ice cream with a delighted smile. It felt like he had become a child again from eating it.


While eating the Ice cream he guessed he could try to engage in a conversation with Rex in his head “So, what do you think of my plans with that union of mine”


“I would say it was pretty brilliant, to the point I could have thought of it. Clearly it is simple to get all the scandinavian countries together, they already had stronger alliances and history together then they have with rest of europe, a simple task of unification was all that you had to do with them, even if that means we have to resolve several issues with the EU over the unification of all those countries. Good thing that the EU cannot stop this, just means a lot of paper work. Heck, even the G.O. has no rights to interfere against a countries will of their sovereign rights, at best they could try to to use force, but they would have to be crazy to do so, after all all of those countries are protected by NATo and therefor also protected by the USA, and also would have support from the U.N. Any attempt they would try to stop this at best occasion for them would end with a tarnished reputation and a failure, and at worst occasion for them would end them completely. I must say, smart move.”


“Indeed, though I am annoyed over the goddamn paperwork that is coming it is not too much trouble, establishing a federal government unifying all them together is a legal right of sovereign states, the EU has no regulation to stop it, the UN would defend it, all of them support this, majority of the citizens will celebrate this decision, the only trouble is the horrid paperwork involving Dubai”


“Yeah, that is gonna be one hell of a job for the poor bureaucrats that are gonna help you with that”


Ragnar waited for some time till asking Rex once more “Got any opinions about this that I do not hold?”


“Not really, just mainly some of your plans”


Ragnar almost raised an eyebrow at that and asked in his head “What do you mean by that?”


A small quiet laugh came. It was not sinister or anything but it was clear that he knew something that Ragnar did not, or at least realized it before. “Your plans remind me of few words, for example, Lebensraum-”


A harsh voice suddenly responded in his head, Ragnar almost making his conversation with Rex public as he got close to saying the words out loud “DO NOT DARE THINK OF COMPARING ME AND MY PLANS TO SOME HATE FILLED FASCISTS. I hate fascists, I hate them, I hate them with a fucking passion, they are the only true people who deserve to die, and you fucking know that”


Rex did not make a noise for a while till saying “I know” a simple and clear statement. There was no mocking in his tone, no humour in it, just a simple and clear statement.


It had caught Ragnar off guard, he knew Rex seemed to try and tease him again and again, but this did not sound like teasing at all. It sounded like the truth, or what he thinks he would be if he was a psychopathic liar.


Ragnar held in his frown, but even to an average citizen he passed by it was clear he was not happy. Ragnar grumbled a bit, having finished his Ice cream a while a back. He had not noticed it due to his frustration and anger from the conversation he just had with Rex.


After a bit of a walk suddenly Rex asked one simple question that suddenly made Ragnar’s burned and ruined skin pale. “Do you know why Jane’s eyes are naturally black?”


Ragnar had not thought about it before. She could just see fine, even before she could have had the money or the support to have improved vision. She had always had those eyes, they had always been beautiful to him, yet he had never thought about this question before.


Ragnar asked carefully back “Do you?”


Rex simply said with an oddly sad tone “Search it on your laptop”

Ragnar carefully pulled out his laptop, sitting by the closest place he could have some privacy and started searching for the answer. His curiosity could not stop his sense of dread though as he looked for the answer.

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“How much more ignorant can you get?” Ariel grinned as she could tell how frustrated with her Alice was getting. Then she felt her vectors moving as Alice grabbed onto them and began to twist them around. The sensation was odd at first, something akin to someone yanking at your shirt, then the yanking became something like someone trying their damnedest to pull of your arms and legs. She gasped in pain but quickly grit her teeth and shortened the grappled vectors to bring herself closer very quickly.

She then slammed her other two vectors at Alice's sides. She knew the slipelit had wrapped vectors around herself as armor, but blunt force made it through the best of armors. Her aim was to bruise, shatter, or crack the slipelit's ribs. "You aren't strong enough to win this... slipelit." She knew how much Alice hated her and took pleasure in taunting her.

She then began to slam repeatedly to cause as much damage as possible, very quickly. "I always hated you!" Slam. "Always following Zero like a lost puppy!" Slam. "Always acting for his best interest!" Slam. "Hardly any personality!" Slam. "Puppets like you should just die!" Slam. It felt good to spout this rage out while on the attack, and the adrenaline rush caused by it blocked out all the pain.