'The air around those two has become tainted with mystery.'
'Ever since the day they helped cure Marshall, Gilgamesh and Miss Inanna's minds have seemed distant. Something is weighing heavily on them, and I think it's something they themselves don't know how to deal with.'
'I tried to ask Gilgamesh about it, but he brushed it off and instead lamented never taking the chance to ask Azazel about the Game Masters.'
'I told him that both Marshall and I had tried to ask, seeing as he was occupied, but Azazel told us that as a Fallen One, she could not speak on the matter of Game Masters.'
'When he heard that, he seemed uncaring. I don't know where Gilgamesh's mind is at, but it's somewhere very far away.'
'At least Marshall is now himself again. We departed the same day he fully recovered, and have been travelling ever since then.'
'Not even after two weeks have things changed with those two.'
'Marshall and I are worried.'
|Sylvia Hautaine's Thoughts As She Travels With The Group|
"I remember this," Ishtar pointed to the rocky terrain beyond the plateau they stood upon, "being in the centermost position of the continent."
Sylvia nodded, "I think I remember flying over this during our fight, Marshall."
Marshall squinted as he took in the sights, "Huh? You think so? I don't know, man..."
Sylvia palmed her face and shook her head, "Never mind."
"Do you remember seeing that," Gilgamesh grunted while motioning with his head.
When the three of them followed his direction, they saw a brown flag bearing a scaled banner of dark green, standing on its own outside a large, pitched tent.
On the hill behind it, the four could just barely make out almost a dozen shapes. They were moving about, going in and out of the tent.
"What do you make of this, Inanna?"
"I can just barely perceive their spirits; I think they might be scouts. I can sense their... objective?"
Sylvia's eyes narrowed as she listened from the corner, and Marshall folded his arms and whistled silently. They both knew that Ishtar had been doing some crazy things with her spirit recently, but sensing people's objectives? That was by far the craziest.
Spirits couldn't be used to read minds!
Even so, they wouldn't pry. All that mattered was that Ishtar got results. However that happened, they didn't know.
"What do you think, Gil? Should we approach?"
Gilgamesh smirked and gave Ishtar a wink, then he leapt from the ledge they were standing on. Ishtar giggled and followed behind him, then Sylvia leapt down after them. Marshall sighed and was about to jump down as well, but his ear twitched and looked back, eyes searching for something that wasn't there.
'I know I felt something this time...'
His left hand unconsciously grasped his right shoulder, where he had been wounded, and he shook his head. 'I must be going crazy.'
When Marshall caught up with the others, he heard them discussing how they would handle the situation. Sylvia and Ishtar more or less suggested the same thing: Trying to engage in a peaceful conversation so they could learn more about current affairs on the continent.
Gilgamesh was of a mind to act hostile from the get-go, but that was mainly because he was itching for a good fight.
"I think we should avoid them," Marshall finally added.
All eyes were on him in that moment.
"If your spirit told you they were scouts, it's possible that they won't be all to comfortable with us approaching them. They may even become suspicious-- after all, this continent is supposed to be uninhabited."
His words resonated with Gilgamesh, and he folded his arms.
"Marshall is right. It's also likely that the banner they're flying isn't even their actual banner. They could be operating under the guise of another army, just in case scouts from another nation's forces notice them. There's just no way we can trust the situation we're about to walk into."
Ishtar frowned, but ultimately agreed that they were right. "You're both right, I can feel it. There are ten people in that camp, and they're all aiming to gather as much information as they can about something. I just can't tell what."
"Well, we're about to find out," Gilgamesh brought their attention to one of the people at the camp.
They were discovered.
Instantly, that person withdrew a bow from their inventory, and three flashes of azure light were loosed into the air.
"Shit!" Marshall dove into his sister in an attempt to get her out of the way.
"Arrows!" Gilgamesh drew his sword, eyes narrowing slightly. His reflexes once again showed their superiority, and he expertly used his spirit to bolster his body's movements.
Only, this time, there were tiny sparks on his body instead of just in his eyes. As he moved, he left some of those sparks lingering in the air, making him a bit more eye-catching.
Of the three azure arrows of light, only one of them was making to hit its target: Gilgamesh.
With Samael in hand, Gilgamesh waved the sword and slammed it into the arrow's ethereal tip, instantly dispersing it. Brandishing the sword, Gilgamesh adjusted his position and glared at the archer. A number of his fellow soldiers were rushing to his location, preparing to continue the attack.
Above him in the clouds, the three crows descended toward Gilgamesh, then flew circles just above his head before cawing and returning to the skies.
Gilgamesh's silver eyes, tinged with purple sparks, blinked once.
Then he rushed off, with Marshall and Sylvia close behind. They were armed and ready to fight- especially Marshall, who was wearing a sinister smile.
"Attack!"
The soldiers charged, leaving the tent behind. A number of them wielded swords, but two of them held long staves in hand. Those two stayed behind with the archer, and were slowly being encased in more blinding azure light.
"They're preparing to attack with some kind of skill," Marshall shouted over to Gilgamesh, who took note of it.
'He calls it a skill, but it feels just like magic to me as well.'
Ignoring this, he increased his speed as much as he could without using up too much spirit, then prepared for his first clash with a sword-wielding soldier.
Sylvia suddenly gave a yell, and leapt into the air, four arrows nocked and ready to be fired. What she yelled was the name of a skill that affected her arrows by coating them in a fiery energy, greatly increasing the damage they would do.
"Ember Aspect!"
The sound of the four arrows being loosed coalesced into one, creating a boom that threatened to disorient even Gilgamesh. When he looked at where Sylvia had shot the arrows, he saw a fiery explosion engulf the three soldiers that had stayed nearest to the tent to prepare their attack.
Pleasantly surprised, a smile crept onto Gilgamesh's face. It appeared as though he had started underestimating Sylvia after her blunder with the mirelings.
The soldiers that had taken to the battlefield saw their companions get caught in that explosion, and were rattled, to say the least.
"Cenna!"
"Damn you, Crimson Scales! So you had an Advance Team!?"
"That wasn't any ordinary battle skill. It had to be some kind of advanced fire skill!"
"These guys aren't regular soldiers!"
With Sylvia's one attack, the soldiers lost their morale. However, Gilgamesh saw an opportunity in this.
Without wasting any time, he reaped the spirits of two soldiers with relative ease, then gave an obnoxious laugh.
"So this is the strength of the Verdant Scales? The Verdant Wyrm Lord must be desperate to enlist weaklings like you guys. Why don't you go run back to him and let him know that this is war, not a game."
"We Crimson Scales aren't here to play around with you insects."
Since he had listened to Marshall and Sylvia's explanations, he had some idea of the Seven Wyrm Lords and their armies, who were vying for control of the continent.
Marshall followed Gilgamesh's example and cut down two more soldiers with minimal effort, then guffawed while placing a foot atop one of the dying soldiers.
"So this is the Verdant Scale army? Just one baby from the Crimson Wyrm Lord's territory would be enough to deal with you all! GYAHAHAHA!"
The rest of the soldiers turned tail and fled past the tent, running over the hill and vanishing from sight. It was unknown how long they would run for, but it did not matter.
Gilgamesh's idea was taking shape and becoming a plan; he could see the outcome as if it were already playing out before his eyes.
"Mind telling me what that was about?" Sylvia asked, hands on her waist. Marshall shrugged and tilted his head toward Gilgamesh, then waited to listen to what he would surely have to say.
"I don't like what I just saw," Ishtar remarked, half-jokingly.
"Since we're bound to run into some kind of conflict sooner or later, why not choose how we do it and spark some confusion among the armies in the process?"
This time, no one followed.
"Ah, don't think about it too much. Sylvia, would you be a dear and burn that tent down-- oh, and the flag too, thanks."
Sylvia scoffed and shook her head, but complied anyway. Ishtar blinked as she thought about his words, and Marshall just grinned and followed after his sister to watch her work.
"What was that skill, by the way? 'Ember Aspect' was it? Some kind of fire magic?"
"Something like that," Sylvia said as she prepared herself to use another skill.
"My spirit does fuel it, but I don't really have to study any kind of magic in order to use the skill. It just happens because the system allows it to happen."
Gilgamesh nodded, "Then how do you acquire the skill in the first place?"
A blazing ball of flame blazed a trail through the air and consumed the entire tent and banner. Sylvia admired her handiwork for a while then turned around, saying matter-of-factly, "By doing quests."
Gilgamesh gave a 'hm,' then recalled his own quest. "I get it."
"So, what do we do now," Marshall asked, barely hiding his excitement for Gilgamesh's answer. He had come to realize that Gilgamesh's was a guy after his own heart, even if they did have some minor differences.
He could tell that Gilgamesh's plan would lead to some high-stakes action that he would enjoy more than anything else.
"We just need to wait. If this is the centermost region, the Wyrm Lords' armies should converge here at varying intervals. All we have to do is claim to be a part of whatever army isn't here at the moment, and attack everyone we see. Then, when tensions are at the utmost high, we up and leave so we can watch it all unfold from afar."
Sylvia's expression was completely blank at that point; Marshall snickered and nodded repeatedly. It was Ishtar's turn to palm her face, but she had to admit that it seemed like a fun plan.
She wanted Gilgamesh to enjoy himself more than anything. He had never gotten that chance back then. He had just been forced from one thing to another, driven by a hatred that he could not discard.
After all, what child could forgive such acts committed against their parents?
Seeing him letting loose now and having his own version of fun, Ishtar found an all new reason to be glad she had not died that day. However, when she thought back on it, and the strange circumstances that led to her life being saved, she fell into deep and silent thought.
A single question remained as she pondered, and that was:
Why would the world want to save her life?
"Inanna?" She heard Gilgamesh calling her, and snapped out of it instantly.
"What is it?"
"We'll have to rely on you to tell us when there are soldiers or scouts nearby. Do you think you can manage?"
She gave him a confident smile, "Of course I can."