Year 2033, June
12:35 P. M
Khovd, Mongolia
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"ACHOO!"
I rubbed my nose and cleared my dry throat. "Ugh, I need water."
My feet dragged across the dusty cement as I had my eyes forward. The oversized blue jacket I wore somehow irritated me. "Ugh . . ."
Out of frustration, I ran my hand across my tied dark hair a few times, faster and faster until a few strands obscured my vision.
I wanted to get to where the others were as quickly as I could.
I turned a corner into a dark room inside that abandoned three-story building. The room literally had no light source whatsoever, so I strained my eyes as I walked.
"Have they left?" I mumbled.
It could be they'd gone somewhere to search for food and drinks. Which, I myself was in desperate need of.
My head bumped into a solid object and I scowled. Feeling it with my hand, I realized that was a wall in front of me.
"This is . . . Getting me mad."
Truthfully, my mood for those past days was not good.
When we got to Mongolia a few weeks ago, it had been quite hard to search for necessities. Mongolia, as it was then, almost resembled a desolate place voided of humans. There were a bunch of them we encountered, though, that was all it. Security was very lax, almost non-existent. We sneaked in successfully because of it.
The way that the cities of Mongolia we had explored appeared to be, battles and skirmishes were dominant. The city we were at right then almost resembled Rigris, the town at Mansel Island. Most of the buildings had been destroyed or suffered from bullets and explosives of some sort.
When I didn't think about it much, I could feel myself in my mind whisked back to Mansel Island.
"It has to be somewhere here."
My hand absently reached out to my surrounding until it brushed over a layered piece of object. It felt like a smooth grill.
"Oh!"
Immediately, my hand pulled a chain of beads hung loose and a burst of light attacked my eyes.
I squinted and pulled back for a moment before I adjusted to the new brightness.
The dark room was brightly lit due to sunlight, revealing heaps of supplies piled up at one side. Other than that, a few blue sleeping bags scattered around the room were all that caught my attention aside from the faded gray walls.
"Hmm?"
My ears picked up traces of words in the air and I steeled myself for the incoming bunch of people.
"Oh! YOUNG MISS AVA! You're back. We were worried. And you brought . . . Her? Your new friend, is it?" said Caesar.
Lily and Helena popped out from the doorless entrance and had a surprised expression on their faces.
Lily was a bit more toned down in a sense. Since her emotions rarely portrayed itself unless it was Caesar-related. And while she wore a loose white blouse, Helena had a collared black T-shirt.
Lily cracked her neck while Helena patted her own braided dark hair looming over her back.
"Miss Ava? Is she still alive?" asked Caesar behind his yellow soldier mask.
"Oh."
I flicked my wrist forward as a relatively small green crystal fell out of my jacket.
The woman that was beside me all along since I entered the building shook her head. "What . . . Happened?"
"So, she's still alive," concluded Caesar. He put two cardboard boxes stacked on one another that he'd been carrying right on the floor. "Master Gheele sent this. We have enough for about a week here. Saves us a lot of time."
I looked at the woman and her eyes widened after being out of my control. She started to open her mouth before I activated Bart's Aegis again. Her eyes turned emerald in color instantly as she felt into my control once more. Regardless, I ordered her to not move and speak unless I said so.
"Where did you found her?" asked Lily casually.
"Near that lake around here. I figured she might be useful."
"Hmm, you're pretty straightforward, Ava," said Lily.
"I suppose I am, really."
I glanced at that woman I'd literally kidnapped.
She wore some sort of traditional garment in red, with her dark hair tied into curls at her sides.
Helena came to me and offered a bottle of mineral water. "Here, lady Ava. You must be thirsty."
"Lady? Helena, you don't need to call me that," I retorted.
"I'm sorry if you don't like it, lady Ava. But, it is within my customs in Neo Africa, when I work at Master's palace to address any female guests with 'lady'."
I raised my eyebrows. "Oh, okay. It's just that I'm used to--"
"Used to be called Miss Ava, right?" said Caesar. "I know, I know. I forgot that you're a fine lady now. So, with that being said, I will cease to call you Miss, and will start to put Lady in your name."
"What? No!" I said.
"No need to be shy, Lady Ava. Helena and I understand how precious you are. We'll do our best to protect you," said Caesar as he bowed.
Helena giggled and did the same.
I narrowed my eyes at both of them and sighed. Clearly, they were really into that kind of stuff, so it was no use for me to tell them otherwise.
My right hand grabbed the mineral water and Helena nodded in response.
"Still, Lady Ava, you need to be more elegant. You're a bright star in this dark, forsaken world of ours. You're a lady after all," suggested Caesar.
"That doesn't suit me."
Caesar sighed. "I see that it will take some time."
"What do you mean?"
"No, no. Never mind. Anyway, Lady Ava, about that woman. You may want to ask her right now," said Caesar.
I nodded and quickly commanded the woman to face me.
"Where is the rebels' hideout?" I asked.
The woman shook her head. "There are two rebel hideouts. I only know of one."
Her emerald eyes flickered violently, resisting Bart's Aegis.
One thing I noticed was that using his specialty was harder than I thought it would be. The first time was alright, but the more I used it, my mind couldn't seem to wrap itself around how it worked all over again.
"Where is that?" I prompted.
"At the edge of the city."
Caesar walked to me and tilted his head. "I think you need to ask her to lead us there, Miss Ava. Er, I mean, LADY Ava."
I ignored his correction of words. "You're right, Caesar."
"Let's go," said Lily as she stepped out of the room in a few seconds.
Caesar followed behind and left me with Helena and that woman.
"Lily's quite impatient, isn't she Lady Ava?" said Helena.
"I think she's always like that. Though I only knew her for a few months now."
"That lady . . . Shouldn't Lily waited for her to show the way first?" asked Helena.
"Supposed to be that way."
I ordered that woman I'd controlled, and she moved out of the building too, with me and Helena beside her.
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All of us were led to what seemed to be an apartment of some sort. There were a few more buildings that connected to its sides, making it appeared larger than what it really was. In fact, we were surrounded by it except the path we came from. Sweeping my gaze in a quick motion, the buildings as a whole took a U shape. It was secluded from the rest of the city which made it a perfect place for a rebel hideout.
As expected, that area was empty.
Rubble and crumbled buildings populated that area as we stopped a hundred meters in front of the said apartment.
Despite the streaking sun over our head, it was not that hot. Mongolia, during that season, was mildly cold.
I drank the mineral water in one go and Helena took it from my hands.
"We mustn't litter, lady Ava," she said. She'd been carrying a backpack since we left our hideout about thirty minutes ago, where her hands tossed my empty mineral water inside it.
"This doesn't seem like a hideout," voiced Lily.
"Looks can be deceiving. It's best to stay alert," commented Caesar. His seriousness came out of nowhere since I was used to his maniacal way of saying stuff.
That woman I'd controlled proceeded to walk towards the entrance of that apartment-like building.
"Since she's going in, I suppose she's a rebel too?" I said.
"Apparently so, lady Ava," said Helena in agreement.
"Hmm? What's that?" Caesar stepped back a few meters when a few bullets hit him in the chest., causing him to fall down.
"Caesar!" Lily activated her Full Aegis Form as dozens of bullets from every direction sprayed onto us.
"Eek!"
Helena trembled at her spot and I quickly formed white crystals at my arms. Hot, white flames burst from it towards space in front of the both of us.
The bullets melted almost instantly as a few of them managed to gash my cheek and neck.
Looking behind me, Lily already took out a few rebels on the left side of the buildings. She held a woman armed with a rifle and glared at her.
Since she was on the second floor of that building, the remaining rebels on that side popped out and aimed at her exclusively.
Caesar stood up in one leap and immediately grabbed the woman I'd controlled in his hands.
"She's one of yours, eh?!" shouted Caesar as he backed off into the open.
Seeing that, the rebels revealed themselves. Most of them were on the upper floors of the U-shaped apartment. Where a lot of them were girls the age of Beatrice's.
"Girls?" I mumbled.
Back at Mansel Island, the rebel group there only consisted mostly of men with only Jessica and Beatrice as exceptions. And while in Mongolia it was different, I couldn't help but felt those rebels I had taken in within my sight were far inferior in terms of strength.
A few moments later, a woman in her twenties walked out of the apartment's double glass doors with her hands over her head. The first thing that my eyes laid on was her garment. From the looks of it, she wore thick, layered pieces of strong black fibers as her shirt, making it seem like she was a soldier in a fully armed suit ready for combat. Her baggy trousers forced that image of her as a soldier into my mind. That fierce, cunning eyes of hers proved it more.
Her hair, however, was dark and appeared to be shoulder-length. She was short by comparison to Lily and Helena. I would assume Segma was about 160 cm, which was a few centimeters short to Helena.
"I'm unarmed. Please, let her go," she said, narrowing her brown eyes at Caesar.
Caesar pulled the hostage in his hands behind him. "No can do. How about you tell us your name first."
"Tsetsegmaa."
"I see. Segma it is then," concluded Caesar.
"Huh?" she gaped.
Lily dropped from the second floor on my left side while dragging a girl in her right hand.
"Let me go! You . . . MONSTER!" shouted the girl.
Lily ignored her of course as she halted about fifteen meters from Segma. Clearing her throat, she put up a smile at Caesar and was clearly back in her demure state.
'I suppose she's only back to her old self when she's fighting,' I thought.
Caesar nodded at Lily before turning his attention to Segma. "Is this woman that important that you, who I assume is the leader of these rebels, dared to come out to the open?"
Segma clicked her tongue and held her head high. "Let go of her."
"My, my. You're not used to negotiating, aren't you? You're supposed to be calm and put up a nice smile at times like this, Segma," said Caesar.
"And you haven't told me your name," she said.
"Ah, that's right. But--"
Caesar formed a yellow Aegis blade at his right palm and pointed it at the hostage's neck. "When you think about it, you're not in that position to demand anything from me."
Segma rubbed her hair and glared at Caesar. "What do you want? Are you from that group? It seems like you are since you have that powers."
"Oh? You've seen people like us? I see, we definitely need to get some info out of you, right Lady Ava?"
"Er, yes," I simply replied.