An armada of Omi-Sodaldo slowly cruised along the black sea of space. Filled with pure white ships, looking as if they were made of pristine tiles. The largest, known as the General Flagship, currently had its own situation going on. Within a dingy cell, in the lower deck, Juniper and Nebula stood before a bald man, Fender, wrists chained together, on his knees.
Nebula's emerald eyes looked to Juniper, "master…he still hasn't answered yet? Should we just call it a night?"
Juniper shook her head, giving a long sigh, "alright, Fender. Just fess up already. You know we're wasting each other's time with this." Juniper crouched before him, her violet eyes like knives, "how did you acquire the pills?"
Fender laughed, "…like I'll say anything. Kick rocks, wench."
Juniper grew silent, glaring at Fender as he grinned. The temperature cooled, fast, a single breath from all three were visible. Fender could feel a freezing essence slowly creeping along his arm. His head shot down, eyes wide, gazing at crystal ice climbing his limb, and his skin was burning.
Fender screeched, shivering, flinching back.
Juniper's hand was a blur, her fingers clenching his face, tight, "don't piss me off any further. Say something uninteresting again, then it's your leg, and next is your family jewels."
Fender's entire persona changed in a split second.
Nebula remained quiet, watching, inspecting her teacher, 'Juniper seems pretty angry…a lot more than usual when interrogating people.'
Fender's scream had rocked Nebula out of her own thoughts, watching more ice crawl up his leg. Nebula winced; she knew that Juniper's chaotic art wasn't anything to scoff at. If Fender was lucky, his limbs wouldn't shatter upon a single touch of a finger.
"OKAY—OKAY!" Fender yelled, sharp breathes of oxygen puffing out into the cell.
"Who gave you the pills?"
"I…I can't tell you…"
"What for?"
"If—If I say anything, I'll die…I'm not even supposed to discuss about these damn things' existence!! You don't understand, those people…THAT MAN! Are insan—"
Fender paused.
Juniper tilted her head, and Nebula's brows deeply furrowed.
Fender looked like some action figure, just sitting there in silence, not moving a single muscle. That was until Juniper noticed a huge spike in his aura. It was growing, fast, extremely so.
Juniper hastily moved back, creating a shell of ice to cover Fender's entire body.
BOOM!
The ice shattered faster than the blink of an eye, and Fender was gone. Not a single thing left. Completely obliterated. Luckily, Juniper reacted in time, otherwise the part of the ship would've been destroyed.
Juniper watched as Fender's excess aura drifted off, but she noticed small black wisps as well.
This isn't good.
"What happened?? How'd he just explode like that? I didn't sense anything on him," Nebula asked, taking a step forward.
Juniper rubbed her own chin, "it was a seal. They used his natural chaos to block it off so we wouldn't notice. But that's not an easy feat. Especially if I of all people couldn't sense it."
Juniper contemplated deeper to herself, 'and the black aura…that's not average chaos. It's negative chaos…!' Juniper gritted her teeth, 'we're dealing with someone dangerous…extremely dangerous.'
Juniper turned to face Nebula, "we're going to the Nephilim Province." Juniper didn't waste a single second, walking back to the singular armored door.
"Wait…why? What exactly is the problem here??"
Juniper opened the door, "whoever we're dealing with isn't the average person. They can use negative chaos." Juniper replied, stern, walking down the dark corridor of cells.
"Negative chaos…" Nebula repeated, like she couldn't believe what she heard, "forbidden arts?? But who would you even know back home for that??"
"Two people specifically, technically three if you include my uncle. But there's my great aunt, and your father, Asmodeus. They've dealt with someone like this before. We don't have any leads but asking them could get us somewhere."
Nebula quickly followed Juniper on her side, "who…exactly did they deal with that knows forbidden arts?"
"My grandmother. Meris Lucius."
***
Lucy soared high and fast over the beautiful broad lands of Planet Vallorey, also known as The World That Trades in Worth. Vast mountain ranges dominate the planets' wondrous horizons. Their slopes terraced naturally, forming immense stone steps where settlements cling like deliberate carvings. Snow-covered crowns at the peaks, but the lower elevations are rich with mineral veins, rare stones and chaos-reactive metals.
Endless plains stretch between mountain chains, rolling golds and greens, broken by roads, caravans, humongous spires of trees standing well over two-hundred feet.
Vallorey's lakes are colossal. Mirror-flat expanses of deep blue that swallow horizons. Some are freshwater, others infused with chaos, altering them into shimmering distortions.
Lucy slowed approaching a nearby town; Nexus, filled with small, square and rectangular shaped buildings. A few towers spread along this peaceful settlement, where guards watch the skies for any airborne predators or threats in general.
Lucy steadily settled atop one of the many landing pads sat right on the outer perimeters of Nexus. The hatch opened, then Skysin and Crim exited, taking in the serene area.
Skysin whistled, sitting his hands on his waist, "not bad at all. Kinda reminds me of home. Minus there NOT being a large body of water. Thank Malerenz."
Crim scoffed, setting his hands in his pockets as the two calmly walked deeper into town. Following signs, leading them to the guild; Mates. Crim rolled his head slightly, "you could literally run on water, y'know? How the hell are you afraid of it?"
Skysin shivered, his thoughts going back to that god-forsaken day.
Shadows! Ice monsters! A literal whirlpool had swallowed him up! And it was all because of her…
Skysin's face had cringed deeply, lips forming a tight line, wrinkled. His violet eyes squinted, "my sister…damn that demoness! I'll never trust H20 again!"
Crim merely sighed, "guess we all got our demons. Even if they're not exactly sitting on our shoulders…big ass baby."
"You don't understand!" Skysin quickly retorted, his hands raised slightly like he was mortified.
Which he was.
Crim sighed like some older brother tired of the younger one's antics. He waved his arm to the side, slapping Skysin's forehead with his fingers, "yeah—yeah. And I'm afraid of the Moose Man."
"The hell's a Moose Man??"
"He's real, dude. There're literally stories of the Moose Man. Living legend of the Vinteel Galaxy."
"Yeah right. I'd believe in the story of Saint Klaws before a half-naked moose dude."
As the two continued to argue about this interesting being, they finally made it to the guild. A simple yet intricate building. Large, far bigger than the others, four stories high. A wide, singular brick road leading to a set of stairs with tall, wooden double doors. Trimmed in red on all the sharp edges. The sign 'Mates' sat pleasantly written and inked in gold, just above the entrance.
The two soon entered, the floor made of clean, glossed wood. Tables are set on either side. Surprisingly, the entire business was empty, damn near abandoned. The enormous numbers of shelves all naked, merely piling up dust. If it wasn't for the woman, a front desk clerk staring out into space, the boys would've dipped out by now.
Crim and Skysin eyed the quiet area, approaching the front desk. "Excuse me?" Crim spoke up.
"OH!" The woman straightened, her chest growing a bit itchy. As if she was going to cough up dust like some robot that hasn't been activated in years. "How can I help you two gentlemen??" She quickly asked, fixing her hair just slightly.
"Was looking to see if you had any parts for a lucanaship? A ZX7, needed to get a battery and O3 sensor," Crim replied, still eyeing the bleak space.
The woman sweated, lowering her head, "I'm sorry, but there's nothing we can do much. Unless you need gems or an artifact, we're pretty much out of all our other products."
Crim and Skysin both raised a brow, "out of products?" They both asked.
Planet Vallorey earned its name "The World That Trades in Worth," because IT IS a merchant planet. If anyone wanted to become a businessman, this was the place to go to and build their brand. Of course, not everyone in the Vinteel Galaxy knew of this, but being on the west side, most people heard of it.
"Crap…" Crim clicked his tongue, "can I ask why?"
"Bandits," the woman replied, "their getting in the way and obscuring our trade routes. And with us being a smaller guild, we can't keep up, or fight against them like the larger ones. And no one hasn't been able to figure out where these bandits are even coming from."
"Jeez," Skysin slumped forward a bit, "that must be a pain in the ass. Sorry that's happening to ya."
The woman shook her head, "hopefully it'll change, soon. But I can recommend you other places for the parts you're looking for." She quickly lowered herself behind the desk, pulling out a huge map. Pointing to their location, "we're in the Treser Wilds, nothing but plains, mountains and lakes. However, there's two guilds on opposing sides of the north and south. Greyven Guild is north. The Vale Guild is south. I'd recommend you go to Vale, though. They're much nicer."
"Cool, we'll head there then. Thanks. Hope things get better here," Crim gave a curt nod.
"Thank you, sir!" The woman smiled.
Back in the ship, Crim and Skysin took off, heading south where the renowned guild, Vale, was located.
"That was strange," Skysin spoke up crossing his arms, "didn't think bandits would cause that much of a problem."
"Yeah," Crim replied, "whatever's going on, we need to just get the stuff and get off this planet. Before we get dragged into something else."
Skysin remained quiet, then his eyes took notice of something flying behind them on the rear-view mirror. It looks like some kind of flying motorcycle. And it was approaching them, fast. "Hey, uh, what's that?" Skysin asked.
"Huh?" Crim questioned, eyeing it, "that's a lucanamotor, basically a flying motorcycle."
That's when Skysin's violet eyes took notice of the man pulling something out. Skysin sat up, "what the fu—"
Lucy shook, alarms went off, Lucy was quickly covered in a clear coat of chaos. A shield: defensive mechanism whenever it was under attack.
"Mother…these bastards just hit my ride?!" Crim yelled, glancing back at the man, a bandit, coming to see more slowly flock in.
Another rumble occurred, Skysin nearly lost his footing.
Crim cursed, controlling the wheel. "Shit…can't keep tanking these attacks, Lucy isn't a battleship!"
While Crim could speed up, all that power could potentially put Lucy in limp mode, or blow something... If that happens, well, he'd have more to do than just a battery and O3 sensor change.
"I'll handle 'em!" Skysin volunteered, walking to the back as he tried to hold his balance, "you try to land the ship!"
"What? You crazy?! Don't be stupid Sin!"
"We don't have much of a choice right now dude! Look, just open the hatch, I'll take care of these guys, and we'll meet up at Vale!"
Crim gritted his teeth, "fine!"—Crim quickly opened a small compartment in his dashboard. Two black rings— "Catch!" Crim threw it back to Skysin.
Skysin caught it one-handed, inspecting it, "what is it?"
"It's a lighter. When we're near each other's location, it'll glow."
Skysin slipped it on, "alright! See ya later!"
"Don't die dumbass!" Crim flipped a switch, and the latch slowly opened.
Skysin walked forward as the winds traveled through his wild, golden hair, eyeing the group of bandits gaining to them.
One of the men pulled a knife from a holster on his leg, "give us the ship and we let you bastards live!"
Skysin made a very deep frown, his lips far lower than normal, squinting his eyes to the men, as if they trying to scam him.
Skysin's response? He raised his middle finger.
"Did that little shit just flip me off??!"
Skysin folded his arms over his chest like a mummy and hopped out. Crim steered the ship, heading to the location.
"Is this kid crazy??" Another man asked.
"The hell's he doin'?"
Skysin quickly spun and flipped multiple times, traveling to the one leading this mission. Skysin's feet crashed right onto the man's face, sending the fellow straight off the vehicle.
Skysin landed atop the lucanamotor, swift and perfect, like some gymnast.
The bandits were baffled.
"Holy shit!! Get 'em!!"
One sped forward, unsheathing his knife, sweeping it to Skysin's legs.
Skysin flipped over the man, and slammed a kick on the bandit's head, sending both him and the vehicle straight down into the plain.
Skysin was airborne, and another bandit came speeding forward, about to crash right into him.
*CURGH*
The rough noise of someone being hit was loud, and the bandit cackled, "got his little ass that time!!"
Something caught the bandits' attention, however. His nose caught a whiff of fumes and could see smoke drifting back as he flew forward. 'The hell?' He thought, looking down from where the source came from, he found a set of sharpened, jagged claws made of ice, embedded within the lucanamotor. And there Skysin was, latched onto the vehicle, smiling.
"Not quite, man," Skysin laughed.
The man looked as if he seen a pig flying, "what the fu—HOW?"
"See ya," Skysin spoke, flipping himself up, and spun a kick to the man's head, knocking him off.
But just as the bandit flew, he quickly grabbed a hold of Skysin's leg, trying to pull him down, "I'm not dying alone, ya little shit!" He laughed, " If I'm falling, I'm taking ya down with me!"
Skysin raised a brow, looking down at the man, about to punch his face. But something else caught his attention from the corner of his eye. They weren't above the plains anymore, the ground slowly altering into trees and rough rock hills. That's when it hit Skysin. The young man looked forward. The realization hit him like a truck, and Skysin's lips folded inwards, making a flat line.
Skysin's violet eyes flicked down to the bandit, pointing forward, "hope you're ready for a rough landing dude." Skysin plainly informed.
"Wha—" The bandit fixed his eyes, staring at the giant peak of a mountain, quickly approaching it at high speeds! The man's words got caught in his chest like fish swimming into a net, "Wai—Stop the motor!! Stop! WE'RE GONNA DIE!!"
"Are ya sure?"
"YES!!"
Skysin made a slanted smile, shrugging it off like it wasn't a big deal.
The man held Skysin's legs tighter, screaming like a mountain lion at the dead of night, "NOOOO—"
They crashed right into mountain side, and the lucanamotor exploded, bits and pieces of metal flying off into the air. Smoke swimming through the falling snow, like someone slowly exhaling after hitting the cigar.