September 2nd.
Just a day after arriving in Evolutionary City's infamous hotel, Ace and Katie had already signed off on another adventure together. Yet, the former of which; more determined to move forward with it.
Opening at noon, Griffith took some time to tidy up the place before the hour, fluffing up pillows, throwing more logs into the fire, ensuring the light bulbs were properly lit, the works. Feathers bunching together after his feet touched the ground, his finger pulled at the collar surrounding his throat,
"Morning, sir, how'd you sleep?" Asked the secretary behind the desk just a few inches to the right at the front of the door, additional spider legs opening drawers to place her belongings around her quarters,
"Ah, pretty well. I had a good dream... uh, I dun 'member what it was about, but I'm sure it 'twas good. Please, join us for breakfast this morning, Lady Silk," Hanniel replied after his answer to her question with an offer, to which she smiled carefully, differentiating from the usual huge grin to the frail snigger you'd offer when calmly declining with a casual,
"Thank you for the suggestion, Sir Griffith, but... I hope you don't mind if I decline," Lady Silk replied with a polite smile, her black eyes shining in the new day's blinding sun shining in from the rectangular window just above the entrance to her front.
"As you wish," Griffith inched closer, taking her human hand in his own, pressing his lips against her palm's back, both shared a respectful look in the other's eyes before they went about their own business.
Hanniel had always expected her to decline the offer, she just always was the loner type, especially with those arachnid limbs, she'd likely feel like a nuisance what with those moving around just to find suitable food for her among the many platters. There was also the possibility that their aimless teenage chatter was too much for her, considering the yells of a certain white-haired girl were heard from the lounge as she reached over the table for the sausages. A tendril pulled her back by her hair, bunching it all together in the hand the tentacle created at the end, June was pulled back to sit in her chair, restrained by fear of being manhandled once more, while also holding a puzzled expression over her face,
"Wha... was that God?" Jokingly asked the younger Wilder sibling, green eyes of Convergence rapidly darting,
"Yes, because God has hentai-like tentacles that prevent you from... getting sausages," Kima retorted with a sarcastic tone in her vocals chewing around fragments of breakfast foods,
"That was me, stupid," Ace unraveled the blackened tendril of the Reaper back into his wrist standing at the widened entrance frame to the kitchen, then shoving his hands into his hoodie's pockets,
"Since when could you use that?" June queried her older brother tilting her head to the right, eyes following as he went to sit across from her,
"Just last night. I learned something, you and I, June, our souls are interlocked, we're considered one. When I advance, as do you. Vice versa," Ace deduced with the swift steal of a fork around his fingers, soon after, he threw those cakes right into his mouth letting his teeth sink into the fluffiness,
"Does that mean I can...?" June's question was greeted with a simple quirk of a brow from her brother, extending her palm, a certain golden light alit blaze at the core... before it came leaking out in the form of sunny strands.
As the seconds morphed into a minute, a form of control had seemed to envelop these tendrils of gold, for their erratic movements had halted. Replaced by calm shapes like a circle stabbed into the air by embers flying off the line of plasma, June couldn't help but giggle like a child while her brother clapped for her, silently cheering her on while still chewing. As she decided to get out of her seat and fly around making more shapes subconsciously twirling around like an elegant ballerina twirling in the shape of a tornado, Ace turned to his beloved across from him, a few inches east of him.
"Hey, I need you to do me a favor, babe…" Ace's words immediately gained her attention, knuckles in a fist sinking into the squishiness of her cheek, a brow upturned as she curiously hummed,
"You're the most skilled at using artifacts, so you should be able to fully train June to the maximum. So, while I track the Deck with Kate, I'm gonna need you to stay here, do me a favor and train her for me."
His calm proposal immediately sent a vein to pop out Kim's forehead, nostrils flaring with anger visible in her squinted eyes,
"First off, why would I ever go along with a plan as lackluster as that? Second off, do you intend to use your little sister as a way to unlock your true power, beating her down to the bone while you risk your life daily? What happens when I'm in the middle of training her, Katie comes back beaten with missing limbs, and she's the one that has to tell June and I about… about you-" Kim looked down in distress at this hypothetical, with tears forming in her eyes' corner just at the mental image, but his smug chuckles intruded her justified paranoia,
"Ahahaha! Oh, please, babe! I doubt someone like me… could ever lose to a band of pathetic whelps as weak as them. After all, I'm the son of the strongest Requiem in both Worlds; Old and New. I'm sure I can handle it without dying."
Without even taking a half-second to open his eyes, his lips parted to spout those words, a smile an impossibility while he held that dead expression of apathy.
June's childish chatter became distant as she ran up the stairs, passing by a tired Katie scratching her nape. The duo of girls shared a greeting, but for the time being, while Moon made her way to the kitchen, it was almost as if finding a needle in a haystack. The silence of this environment was like a seeping virus wriggling its way into bones and veins, weakening bodies… nevertheless, despite the awkward atmosphere; Ace just stared ahead while Kim returned the favor.
Between the two of them, that was all that was needed before the latter of the two let her arms fall from the crossed position and a dejected sigh whistled out between her lips,
"Welp, I know my place. I may have two artifacts, but I don't think any of them compare to your power… plus, you're way too stubborn to listen to me. Well, about this sorta thing anyway," Kim added teasingly with a wink coming from her eye,
"Heh. I can't deny that... baby," Ace replied with closed eyes and an amused smirk.
Then turning his head so he could search for June, the older brother of that younger girl shook his head in declination at his former statement, sighing soon afterward,
"I'm not gonna use her for my progression, in retrospect. I can't use others for my life, after all, we're all the protagonists of our own lives," Decided the older Wilder, scratching at his chin with one finger, he pushed himself back so the chairs' legs would return backward,
"I need to know more about the City before I try to locate them. Hopefully, since they're a group of criminals, they'll be planning something so obvious I won't be able to miss it," Ace stated, Kim, leaning on her seat's arm just a bit back, staring at him as he stood tall in the doorframe, spouting words without even turning his body to face her,
"Luckily for you, fire crotch, I got just the thing you need," Katie's voice stabbed into their environment, Ace pointing his eyes just a bit down to stare at her face, bags under her eyes while she held a new phone,
"What's this?" Ace asked, tilting his head curiously,
"A new phone Sir Griffith gave me. Turns out, there's some information on here that we both didn't know about, but he's busy dealing with customers so we should watch it in here," Katie suggested to her new reluctant partner, who groaned and shrugged as a way to silently comply with her, after all, new information is information.
And so, they decided to play the phone, projecting it onto the wall with the duo, including Kima, watching the video from the east side of the table. Ace's arms wrapped around Kim from behind as she held his limbs, Katie's arms stood crossed over her bust all the while new audio started entering their ears. Not in the form of anything dramatic like a secret VHS tape the Griffith found hidden upstairs, but just a news broadcasting with a blonde hybrid anchor with elfin ears holding a mic right up to her lips,
"Good morning, Evolutionary City! It's my pleasure today to bring you LIVE to the sight of the wonderful sights of our beautiful hometown! Scraping buildings that pierce the skies to reach the heavens, mystical creatures flying among the stars with angels by their sides, and not to mention a new city-wide event to celebrate the eleventh anniversary of our favorite sprawling megapolis! That's right, folks, in honor of eleven years of Evolutionary City, we'll be opening a new museum in the core of our great home. It will be documenting the series of events that led us to the construction of this location, with artifacts found scattered about to serve as monuments to our symbol. The Monumental will open on Thanksgiving Day, this year! That's it for announcements today, next up, the weather,"
And just like that, Ace didn't need to track anyone down, instead, he cracked his knuckles and smirked. Griffith described the group as a band of criminals yet nothing more than that, in their possession, they hold the demonic power of the Key to Hell. And while that power most likely made them beyond any mortal intervention, those who have that sort of power would never give up the chance to find more in their lives. All of them knew that better than anyone, for the ultimate self-righteous evil, locked away behind the Island's barriers was more than a prime example. Yet the question remained: what power did this city hold? The coin, Ketsueki, Divergence, Convergence, the Blackened Blade. Altogether, excluding the Requiem Artifact Callum stole, that made about five artifacts.
Accounting for four Agents, Ace couldn't help but scratch his chin, pondering what remaining artifacts remained of the Old World. This inaudible question asked to himself in the reaches of his inner mind would soon be answered, no doubt, however, it would be two months before so. That night started a grueling experience, a road built on bloody corpses toward a selfish goal, where a soul would crack on all possible corners but would persist onward. The capability to persist forward no matter the odds and persevere after death, that is the quality all humans have, specially designed for their souls however twisted by 11 years of madness.
Determination, no matter how twisted, applies itself to all varieties of humanity. Even to those who may call themselves all-powerful; fully demonic on the inside and outside, there was without a doubt that the craving of certain omnipotence was surely a human trait. For even those demons lurking in the shadows, bathing in a certain moonlight couldn't help but smile at it. A book was shut as a finger pressured the pages to click together, effectively shutting it tight, a boot revealed itself out of the shadows with the sweetened sounds of a violin entering the air.
The butt of the instrument held to her neck, elegant movements as her white fingers held the end of the bow to slide back and forth across the string. With the graceful sounds of Mozart's Lacrimosa filling this area, he scratched at his nape, only momentarily letting demonic claws crack out from his normal nails.
Yawning to the night sky, the female peeked one eye out her lids, letting the instrument descend and clicking open the case. Settling it down into the engraved crevice so it could carefully rest, it snapped shut seconds after. Fixing her tie attached to her collar, pushing out the ends of her coat so it could fly out. Spiky short hair unlike that of a woman's usual lengthiness, she carried the case right by her side as she followed her superior right out the door of this abandoned facility.
Boots stepping over bloody corpses, some with disfigured faces, other missing eyes and noses, and some even wrung out like towels, their irregular-shaped exteriors still oozing new droplets of blood. Finally having reached the outside world, his foot had reached onto a patch of grass, eyes darting from side to side, his hands stood in the pockets of his pants. The forest's bright green at the end of summer was desaturated by the endless darkness of the blackened sky, and as the sounds of the nearby streaming water moving downhill began anew to them, the door closed behind them, leaving nothing in its wake. Scratching at his chin uncaringly, he stopped in his tracks, footprints of soles implanting in natural blades continuing onward then halting temporarily.
Her eyes held an emotionless depth to them, turning herself to face her superior, he looked to the skies and pointed one finger. Usually, in nearby cities, thanks to the light pollution, you could never tell the stars were part of the spatial void spread out infinitely above. However, disregarding this rule on its own, a brief luminescence could be noticed soaring overhead, curving through the sky, while her superior smiled. A humored chuckle escaped his lips, altering his angled eyes so he could gaze into those of his subordinate, the duo making eye contact,
"What a beautiful night it is. Don't you think so, too, Miriam?" Softly inquired he of his younger helper, to which she hid the blackened shape of her pupils, and grinned,
"I must agree, Sir. I can't wait for the morning's sun to shine on all of us again. When... do you think that will be?" Miriam calmly replied with the following question soon after his own, to which he shrugged his shoulders back, accompanied by a light giggle,
"Who knows? Maybe it will be tonight. Or... maybe it won't be. To be frank, all I can hope is that when that day surely comes, we will be together again, as we always have. Maybe that's just pipe dreaming, but we must move forward regardless of what comes next. That is why I was born, to ensure a better future, not for the world, but for those deserving of it. That is- the type of person I am,"
Jester's Deck Leader: Icarus Chrollo, the Wildcard. Donning a Sigil of Baphomet over the back of his exposed palms, miniaturized to fit the smaller space encasing them both. Black hair mimicking that of Alex's strand-like hair falling over his face, devoid of facial hair surrounding his pink lips, the trench coat surrounding his chest parted open to reveal his outer muscular build. Casual black pants covering his legs, lines surrounding the belt area, something like bandages encircling his waist yet greyer. The coat's exterior design held something like a demonic vibe to it, with lines of red close to the coloration of blood surrounding the front to converge on the back, thus creating the symbol of Baphomet. Along the lines of the trench coat closest to the chest, there were the lines Solve on the left and Coagula on the right. However, Coagula's u letter was shaped like a V... these words, excluding the titular et in the middle meant: 'dissolve, disperse, dilute.'
Solve et Coagula, in layman's terms, was the perpetual continuation of the spirit's progression and not to mention humanity's evolution. In other words, with one of those goals having been achieved by that Sea God eleven years ago, there remained but one more... a final goal to be accomplished in the name of righteousness. That was the goal of the Jester Deck's Leader.
To Be Continued.