(Saturday, 9th of Dawnstar Moon, 2021)
After some hours of traveling, our group of idiots arrived at the capital of the Heliosian Empire, Oneiro, and got off the train. Othelia had to leave the others to unload her mech, and the rest of the gang began looking around. The scenery was entirely different from the town they just left, they were in a massive city, surrounded by fantastical skyscrapers, streets that were filled with cars, and sidewalks filled with people. Zane had to run by the nearest electronics store to buy some laptop parts since his old one was damaged. Nico and Rico also left to get some supplies they'll need, like pencils, folders, and ammunition for firearms. Alice and Jack were pretty much left alone while Geppetto went ahead to Sanctuary already, since he had some business there he had to take care of.
"So what do you want to do, Jack?" Alice questioned, and Jack didn't know what he wanted to do. "It's 3:00 right now, and we don't have to be at Sanctuary until 5:30, so we can wander around town until then."
"Have I ever been to Oneiro?" Jack questioned, thanks to his amnesia, Jack wasn't exactly certain as to whether or not he has come to Oneiro before.
"You haven't, but I came here before with my grandfather on some business involving Sanctuary." Alice informed her companion as they began making their way away from the trains, still carrying the luggage. "I also know where some weapon shops are, so we can run by them to buy you a new weapon."
"I'm okay, I have a lamp." Jack proudly showed off the lamp in question, and honestly, Alice didn't look too thrilled.
"Jack, you need a weapon, you forgot all your spells and can't even summon a familiar." Alice informed the man, and Jack didn't know what a familiar was, so Alice had to explain. "Magic classes like you and I can summon familiars to act as an extra set of eyes, help in combat, or just act like a helpful pet. Like mine is a flock of ravens."
"So what magic class are you?" Jack asked, he wanted to know what class she was.
"I'm a warlock, and my deal is that I make pacts with demons. I also have dark magic." Alice explained how magic works here, because again, amnesia. "Have you rewatched F*re F*rce yet?"
"Um...no?" Jack didn't rewatch any anime, making Alice sigh to herself, knowing this is gonna take a while.
"Okay, almost everyone in that showuses fire, yet no one uses it in the same way." Alice and Jack were entering the crowded street, luckily, the crowd wasn't dense, meaning it wasn't that hard to move around. "Like the MC shoots fire out of his feet, best girl controls fire from a distance, and the 7th dude is basically god."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Jack questioned, and Jack never knew Alice was such a fan of anime.
"It's an example of how everything works here." Alice's anime comparison actually held a reason? "We are often born with different elements from our blood, like if your dad is a fire user and your mom is a water user, there's a chance you can get either Fire magic, water magic, both magic, or a combination magic like steam. You can also inherit magic from anyone in your family, including ancestors that died thousands of years ago, though you are more likely to get the magic of someone closer."
"What does that have to do with anime?" Jack was now starting to get confused about this.
"Okay, so let's go back to our steam baby I'm naming Steve." Alice has officially named the make up child. "Let's say he has a friend who also has steam magic. Steve shoots steam out of his arms, while his friend shoots steam out of his legs to hover."
"So what you're saying is that everyone has their own unique magic that's special to them and them alone?" Jack asked, and Alice nodded. "So what's my magic?"
"I think you use Temporal Necromancy Magic, but I think you use two?" Alice shrugged. "I'm not sure, all I know is that our magic allows us to do stuff, like I'm able to form contacts with demons and shit that allows me to use their magic just by giving them some fingernails and hair. If they try going after my soul, they will be breaking the contract, and my magic will kick in by killing them on the spot."
"You're scary..." Jack sweatdropped, and in response to this, Alice giggled with a smile.
"Relax, my magic is very situational, and that's just about all it can do without the support of a devil or other very powerful entity." Alice reassured Jack. "To make up for it, I use my skills in mathematics and art to make magic circles to fight. I also have the most powerful spell of all at my side."
"What spell is that?"
"Glock 17."
Jack decided not to question it further and followed Alice, who suddenly took a turn into what looked to be a subway station entrance that led underneath a brick apartment building. The two adults walked down the steps, noticing how the walls were made of red bricks, however, there was a lot of graffiti covering most of the bricks, Jack was not sure what kind of place Alice was leading him to, but whatever. There were white bars of light on the ceiling, giving the area light, but these ones were mostly broken, and were flickering like a scene out of a horror movie. As they kept on descending the stairs, Jack noticed the sound of clashing metal began filling his ears, like something was being forged. Jack followed Alice onto the last flight of stairs and looked around the place. The place where they entered looked like an old subway station that was turned into a small marketplace, and all of the stalls were selling a variety of tools. Some had high quality weapons, another had potions, the third had nets and explosives, the fourth had armor, the fifth had magic crystals, and so on.
"Come on, the stuff they sell here are for Guardians and Sanctuary students only." Alice guided her friend through the marketplace, and Jack noticed how one stand was selling different birds like hawks and falcons. They were walking until they came across one particular stand where a woman with dark hair and a samurai-like appearance was waiting for the stand owner to finish her weapon, which looked to be a long katana. "Well that's surprising, someone is actually here before us, usually there's almost no one here. Oh well, time to introduce ourselves."
"But that involves social interaction, and I am not for that." Jack didn't want to talk to someone, much less a total stranger.
"Hey, she's either a fully fledged guardian or a student of Sanctuary, both situations are good because she can either give us tips if she's a pro or can be our friend when we go to Sanctuary." Alice was optimistic, unlike the goth stereotype.
Ignoring her friend's obvious hate for social interaction, Alice pulled Jack's Hand towards the booth, where the girl got her sword. Upon closer inspection, Jack say how her raven hair was tied back with a pink ribbon that matched her eye color. She gave the blade a testing thrust along with a couple test slashes. She appeared to be satisfied and reached into her pocket to pull out a wallet, and from her wallet she pulled out a credit card. She handed her credit card to the blacksmith, who began entering it into the computer/register. While the woman was waiting, Alice tapped on her shoulder, causing the woman to turn around.
"Hello, how might I help you?" The girl spoke in a traditional and formal accent, giving Jack the impression that she was responsible and poised. "Oh, you two look like you're soon to be students of Sanctuary."
"Yep, I'm Alice, and this is Jack." Alice introduced herself and then me, causing the samurai woman to eye me.
"My name is Mifu, and I'm a swordsman, or swordswoman if you wish to be technical." The newly dubbed Mifu sheathed her sword on her back, and something tells Jack it could only be sheathed on her back because it was quite long. "What about you two? What classes are you?"
"I'm a warlock, so I can cast powerful spells just by sacrificing some nails and hair." Alice appeared very proud of that, but it gets weird when Jack remembers she has a hair full of finger/toenails and a bag full of her hair somewhere in her bag.
"I'm an archeologist class, so apparently I can raise dead dinosaurs and learn lost magic?" I had only Alice's words to go by, so I wasn't exactly sure what my powers were to be honest. "...I think."
"You think?" Mifu didn't know what to make of Jack's little comment, so he guessed he no choice but to explain to her what his condition was.
"Jack has amnesia, and given how mage classes like his archeologist class relies on memory the most out of all the classes, he's kind of screwed." Alice pointed out, and Mifu looked to be in disbelief.
"Heh, I guess the saying that you need to be insane to become a Guardian holds truth." Mifu dropped her disbelief stained face and put on an amused smile. "As a reward for surprising me, I'll buy any weapon you want."
"Are you sure, I don't want you to lose too much money!" Jack waved his hands in front of himself, wanting to reject the offer, but Mifu insisted.
"I have never been surprised in my life due to my abilities, so this is the first time." Mifu pulled out her credit card from her wallet. "Besides, I'm from a noble family in the Hinode, a trading kingdom far to the east. So money is no problem for me."
"Well if you insist, what do you suggest I get?" Jack questioned the samurai woman, who thought for a bit as she looked at the various weapons. There were flails, great swords, and more. Much to Jack's surprise, Mifu pointed an orange shortsword.
"That one." Mifu suggested the weapon with the small blade, well, the blade wasn't that small, it was roughly the length of Jack's forearm. He's just calling it short because Mifu's blade is way longer than it. "It's a multifunction weapon that can turn into a whip and releases gas when the right magic Crystal is inserted into it. If you use it correctly, you can also ignite the gas to explode."
"You had me at 'explode'." Jack was now all for getting that shortsword, making Mifu giggle a bit in the process.
Mifu paid for the shortsword before giving the weapon to Jack, along with some gas element magic crystals to allow him to use the weapon's explosion function. Jack examined the blade of his new weapon before pressing the trigger of it, causing the blade to extend like a whip, but without any momentum, it fell to Jack's feet. Jack pulled the trigger again, causing the blade to come back together so fast that the collision between parts caused some sparks.
"That sword is named Fire Maiden. Some guy came by the other day and ordered me to give it to you for a discount." The blacksmith explained while cleaning his hammer with a towel. "It's a good weapon, not the best, but it'll serve you well in a pinch."
"Thank you Mr..." Jack looked at the man's name tag, and it read 'Smith', making this man Smith the Blacksmith. "...Smith."
"Go ahead and make your jokes now, I've heard them all." Smith handed Mifu back her credit card, allowing Mifu to put it back in her wallet.
"No thanks, we should probably get going to Sanctuary Academy right now, we don't want to miss the enrollment ceremony now do we?" Alice nudged Jack's shoulder. "Come on Mifu, you're our friend now, and there's nothing you can do to change that."
"Forceful one aren't you?" Mifu commented on Alice's behavior, and Alice giggled in response to this.
"Hey, that's just who I am, and there's not a whole lot we can do to change that."
(Elsewhere)
Damn, Herakles never understood science in the slightest.
Herakles was currently inside an underground lab, where a handful of scientists were working on some computers. All of the computers were connected to wires and some kind of server box, which in turn was connected to some kind of capsule. Within the capsule was a human sized person with blonde hair just like Arthur's, yet his body was not human. He wielded the combined might of the Warriors who fought that day, such as Tiamat, Solomon, and the Lovers. Don't know who those people are? That's okay, let Herakles break it down into bite sized pieces using his notes.
-Tiamat is a dragon so powerful that there's only one object in the universe capable of hurting her.
-Solomon was the previous headmaster of Sanctuary and the original founder, his class unknown, but he is incredibly dangerous, being the strongest individual person in the world.
-The Lovers is a pair of people which Herakles knows but doesn't really talk to all that often.
Got all that? Good. Cause they're part of whatever is inside of that capsule. The thing inside that capsule is the combination of all of the warriors who fought that day. It's a magic capsule that allows Herakles and his scientists to add traits to a blank canvas to create a singular person. To list this thing's abilities, it has Herakles' raw strength/endurance, Eddy and Maria's power over the world, Geppetto's wisdom, Cheng's speed, Arthur's healing abilities, Vedmak's curiosity, a body like that of Tiamat's, a magic storage like Solomon, the potential of the Lovers, and the soul of Joan. Why was Herakles making something like this? Well if Geppetto was correct, then this could be more dangerous than Herakles ever would have expected, so he needed to mobilize every single thing.
"Heracles, are you seriously using that illegal tech you confiscated?" Geppetto appeared behind Herakles, and he's assuming this is the real one, but with his skill with puppets and magic, it's impossible to tell. "Scared one aren't you?"
"Shut up you wuss, at least I can face my enemy head on." Herakles placed a hand on Geppetto's shoulder, noticing how it felt like flesh, this is the original Geppetto. "Wait, is this really you?"
"Yes, in the flesh, I came here with my granddaughter and her friends to support them." Geppetto suddenly pulled out his wallet and opened it, causing a series of laminated photographs to come rolling out. "As you can see here, this is what I'm protecting." Geppetto was holding up baby photos of his granddaughter, Alice. "You jealous?"
"Of having to change diapers?" Herakles rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "Absolutely not."
"Absolutely not, my granddaughter is the embodiment of badassery and can still kick ass!" Geppetto proudly shouted, causing some of Herakles' scientists to look at him in disbelief. Geppetto rubbed the back of his neck in an embarrassed manner. "Besides, she inherited her grandmother's magic..."
"She inherited Lucy's magic?!" Herakles shouted, Lucy was the exact reason everyone was in this mess in the first place, now Geppetto was about to have another one running around. "Does she know about Lucy?"
"No, Alice thinks her grandmother is a civilian with no magic power who died years before she was born, she doesn't know about Lucy, none of the kids do." Geppetto went back to being serious. "You know, maybe I shouldn't give you too much crap for using illegal technology, it's my fault we're in this mess anyways. I defended Lucy when she was doing her rituals, and I willingly blinded myself until it was too late."
"Hey, we all make mistakes, how do you think we got here?" Herakles wrapped an arm around Geppetto to help reassure him. Even though he had some blame in this, he's Herakles' best friend, and he hated seeing his friend sad like this. "Don't worry about your mistake in the past, focus on that granddaughter you care about so much. She's all you got left ain't she?"
"Yeah, you're right, I should focus on giving her the best school year possible!" Geppetto triumphantly raises his fist into the air. "Wait a minute, what time do you have to give that speech?"
"Around 6:00, why do you ask?" Herakles didn't carry a watch on his person, since he could just check his phone.
"It's 5:53 right now..." Geppetto showed Herakles his pocket watch, and true to his word, it really was 5:53!
"Then I'll see you later Geppetto, and don't touch anything while I'm away!"