"Finally," Clarissa sighed, stretching her arms as she and the others walked out of Dimitri's dark blue door, only to hold her breath at the moment she found herself stepping into a cushion-like ground made by sewn human skin.
Dimitri chuckled with Mabel and Arnel walking by his side, gazing at their surroundings like a couple of tourists taking their time. They found themselves moving inside a dome with a painted ceiling of clouds, stars, and suns that faintly glowed in the dark with a lot of thick and gigantic white pillars encircling their entire space like walls in the distance.
"It seems that a lot had changed ever since we decided to step away from the capital, isn't that right, Arnel," Mabel muttered with a chuckle, covering her face as she stared at the empty street, dotted with tall and metallic buildings that piled up and faded into obscurity as she tried to look beyond them. She couldn't help but smile as she felt the bottom of her feet bouncing from the floor, which turned for the better as soon as she noticed some of the skin's hair sticking out of its surface like grass like she's a girl on a field trip.
"So this is all where all the metal you've asked of me went…" Arnel whispered, eyeing the smooth surface of the building's walls and sometimes smiling at the moment he found his own reflection mirroring his actions. "I'm surprised that you've managed to build something out of this," he muttered with a nod. "while we were back in the farm breaking our backs just to give our weapons some edge, you've made metal houses too, I have no words…"
"We-well," Dimitri turned his head towards Arnel and smiled. "This area has been refurbished already. We do have an artist at home and she designed it according to our boss's tastes as a gift for his birthday." Dimitri stomped the ground with a wide grin and looked back at him. "I do believe that she's been doing just fine. She took care of the resources that we could no longer use instead of letting them rot; she harvested their skins and flesh to make this cushion while the other parts… we've just used them as fuel. We've remodeled the cages too with the metal that you've produced and as you could see," he pointed at the metallic building right across them, "everything is turning out for the better. The Dollmaker's-I mean, Miss Lucille's ability to sew and manipulate things made it all possible."
"Great, I see that you're taking this very seriously. I can already see you being promoted to a tour guide from a mere lift," Clarissa commented with a mocking tone before scowling at three huge teddy bears, who also appeared to be made up of human skin, stuck out from their surroundings with their gigantic heads and arms that were as wide as the buildings around it. "So, I take that those things were not built with air, Dimitri, care to explain how you made those things?"
"Ah," Dimitri jerked back and pulled out a broken smile. He tightened his jaws as he continued to walk and after a moment of silence, he laughed and added, "One of the captains under Mr. Walter had the ability to multiply any organic material into two… so we had a lot of bone dust to spare... along with the skins and all..."
"And what about the other humans?" Clarissa continued with her voice assuming a more dominating tone.
Dimitri shivered and stopped in his tracks. Arnel and Mabel looked at him too, as though they were waiting on his answer as well. His jaws began to tremble in silence and then, after a few odd seconds, he straightened his back and smiled. "I don't know. They never told me about it…"
"The humans… who are still alive, Dimitri," Clarissa replied by stressing her words.
"Ah… some of them are locked in these cages… we've been switching them out with some being taken to the barracks every now and then. Mr. Masaoka decided that it would be better to separate them to prevent them from killing themselves or escape… it's not like they could escape but��"
"I see, it's good to know that the capital could handle themselves…" Clarissa gave him a thoughtful nod. "It's a sad truth, but we do need humans to keep ourselves together and make us feel alive."
Dimitri gave her a relieved sigh. "Weird, coming from a nun, but thanks, I—"
"Because if not," Clarissa interrupted Dimitri without even turning her head to look. "I would personally come here and demolish this thing that you guys call a piece of art."
Dimitri looked down. "I…"
"Nevermind the petty squabbles, I believe we are here, no, Dimitri?" Mabel interrupted them both, raising the tone of her voice as she forced them to halt their steps so they could look at the looming building in front of them in full view.
They found themselves facing a carved metallic gate that was made to look like it was made up of bricks with its corners hinged upon the belly of four giant teddy bears. It was as if they were acting as its guard. Each of them had a pillar sticking out of their heads that stood strong in the air as it converged to support a mobile that looked like it was carrying the actual moon and the stars as it spins. It gave shade to the silver castle beneath it that in turn, reveled on the amount of darkness that was fed to it while boasting its five towers contained within its space that were finalized with its own set of flags that fluttered in the wind.
"I'm just going to say that if someone walks up to me and tells me, 'Yo, welcome to my crib,' I'm going to kill him," Clarissa said as they proceeded through the first walls with smiles on their faces.
They greeted the other armed souls with a slight nod and soon enough, they found themselves walking through a vast field of asters that dressed their path towards the silver castle in the distance. All of them held their breaths, still confused and tensed as they all felt their heartbeats reverberating through their heads. Clarissa kept her mischievous smile, Mabel was just looking down, scowling at Clarissa every once in a while and Arnel kept his head straight as Dimitri, finding no courage to open his mouth, just walked forth and paved their way.
The group was about to finish their trail and meet with the guards at the castle's entrance but then, a middle-aged man with white hair and beard wearing a suit came out and greeted them with a wide grin. "Hullo, you three, and Dimitri, nice turd by the way!" He laughed. "You're all looking good!"
"Hello, Mr. Walter." Dimitri forced himself to laugh before taking an awkward pause, letting the others hide him in their shadow.
Walter let out a hearty laugh as he walked forward, not minding the other three who he came to meet to just pat Dimitri's shoulder. Dimitri jerked back with a broken grin a soon as Walter gave him a wink before he turned his attention to Clarissa and Mabel.
"Hullo, Grandma Mabel, you're still as young as fresh as the last time I saw you!" Walter shouted as he gazed at her blushing cheeks with his outstretched eyes before he gave his attention to Arnel. "And you too, uncle! Looking as strong as always!"
"Don't patronize me, asshole," Arnel replied almost immediately before letting out a scoff as he walked inside the castle.
Dimitri chuckled at that scene and as though it only made him a bit happier, Walter widened his grin and walked towards Clarissa, looking like he was about to embrace her. Clarissa stepped back, finally dropping her carefree smirk as she lowered her chin and when Walter was about to reach her, the air grew heavy and the ground beneath her feet got ruptured. Dimitri and Walter fell to the ground screaming along with Mabel as everything around them was flattened in a circle. The field of aster, and the path that cut through it, broke down as though a giant hoof stomped it but to their surprise, as though time and fate had been twisted, Clarissa found herself hugged from behind.
"Man, you're just soooooo angwwyyy!" Walter pursed his lips, talking like a baby as he wrapped his arms around her and rubbed his cheek against hers. He followed it with a giggle before he just walked away and smiled as though nothing happened. There, he took another deep breath before he brought up his wide grin once more. "So, looks like our Uncle went ahead and so," he continued as he turned to Clarissa. "welcome to the crib, but you need to apologize too, little girl! Look at them, you've hurt Grandma Mabel and Dimitri is now looking poorer than ever, his turd is gone too!"
Clarissa clicked his tongue and walked towards the castle entrance without a word. With that, Walter faced Dimitri and Mabel once more with the same level of enthusiasm and said, "Again, welcome… It looks like our other guests are rather cranky but nevermind, you can rest easy, it's perfectly safe here in the Boss' castle and I made sure of it."
"Thank you, Mr. Walter," Dmitri coughed as he pulled himself up from the ground.
"Thank you for your rather warm welcome, Walter," Mabel said with a disappointed tone as she patted the dust off of her skirt. Then, with her voice carrying a demanding tone, she asked, "Are the others already there?"
"Yes, yes." Walter let out a hearty laugh. "Miss Eleanor and Mister Masaoka are already there and we could just ring the bell of the castle to call Miss Lucille's attention. Even our schedule is as secured as this castle, so you don't need to worry. You guys looked like you've been walking, so just take your time to get ready and once you're there," Walter said, leaning forward as he brought his palms together. "we'll start the Council of the Terran Morgen."