Who are you?
Rosario stood there, his eye still glowing purple-crimson. Ryvr was standing there with Xue in tow, with two wooden swords at his hip and another two in his left hand. He threw them to Rosario, and he caught them flawlessly. “Even two days of training have made you sharper, baby brother. I brought Xue here today to test a theory, and Carmilla is watching too to gather information for research.” Rosario held both of the wooden swords in a ready stance. “I'm fighting you again, Ryvr?” Ryvr smiled and said, “Not quite. Xue has a similar power to you and your companion, but similarly to how Carmilla acquired her gift, she took it from an external source, an archdemon, to be exact. “Youve killed an Archdemon Ryvr?” Rosario asked. “Killed is strong wording; they're notoriously tough nuts to crack. I outpaced its healing factor, and once its contract with Xue was broken, they both died. It froze her heart solid, but I used my mana to act as a bridge between the heart of a demon, transferring its power to her, therefore saving her. Everything else is history.” “How do I kill a demon then?” Ryvr cracked his neck. “You don't have to, you guys just need to kill its contract holder, odds are the demon has no underlying loyalty and will just scatter to the wind when they die, and killing a lich doesn't require you beat the ever-loving hell out of an archdemon for hours on end.” Ryvr stepped back “anyways lets get this show on the road then”
Xue stepped forwards forming an armor of ice around her body and conjuring a spear of ice. Ryvr said, “Oh, and please try to push him as hard as you can.” She lunged forward, bringing the spear down on Rosario, who deflected it by the skin of his teeth. Ryvr walked off to the edge of the ring by a bench, where Carmilla was sitting with a notebook and pencil. He sat down. “Any theories?” Carmilla tapped the pencil on her notebook. “Nothing makes any fucking sense, I can’t figure this out. His eye and the black stones make it seem like a contract-based mage gift, but he doesn't have one, so either he's so special that there hasn't been another case in recorded history, or there's something else going on here. It's just totally Idiopathic the archives have nothing on a power like this, just the usual light, dark or elemental” she took a sip from a blood bag with AB- written on it “I even looked into Grigori’s memories and everything the half crown king yielded no results other than children's stories” Ryvr scratched his chin in thought watching his brother struggle to keep up with Xue “that wife of yours she have combat training?” asked Carmilla “No she just has all of the demon’s hearts memories so she's just mimicking stuff she's seen in them” Rvyr pulled one of the swords from his hip and tapped it on the floor out of boredom. He turned to Carmilla, “maybe mom might know something ill reach out to her” Carmilla said ”thanks cousin”
On the outskirts of town stood a large warehouse, nondescript in nature. Vera walked in front and walked to a small door in the corner of the large warehouse. Vera pulled her patch from her pocket and placed it on the door. A lock unclicked audibly from inside the building. She pushed open the door and held it open for Senarre to walk in. Inside were cubed units, with doors on the far end of the warehouse, a large indoor shooting range, and a small cabin near it. They walked past a very large man lifting weights. Vera waved and said, “Hey serg” he looked up, resting the weights on the rack, “Good morning Vera.” They walked past a messy room covered with assorted electronics, parts of control panels, wires, and a small model of the skeleton key on a shelf. A man with dark skin and welding goggles with an afro was working on a two-wheeled vehicle. Vera walked past him with Senarre in tow. “What are you building, doc?” he looked up and raised his googles, revealing his eyes. “I'm trying to add a shield generator to the red horse. Who's the new girl?” Senarre waved and said, “I'm here on a tour, I think.” He flicked his goggles back over his head and turned back to look at his project. They walked past a woman with a with a book open, pouring powder into test tubes. She looked up and said, “Hey vera” She waved in reciprocation.
She turned to look at Senarre, “That's the alchemist.” “Is that her real name?” Vera got close to Senarre. “No, her real name is allie but she doesn't like being called that, docs name is Daniel.” They walked to the end of the room a slim woman in a maid's dress sat at a table. “Is that one of the manor maids?” “Nah, that's Sarah, she likes to dress up.” They arrived at the back of the warehouse at the shooting range, and a man with a bandanna covering his head was tinkering with the scope on his weapon. Senarre walked over and said, “.338 nice i have one of those too. She shoots like a dream. I used her to shoot down a parasite from the back of a moving airship.” The man looked up to her and tapped his ears before tapping his lips and moving his hands in front of his mouth, making an X with his hands. “Thats julian, he’s deaf, but he's been here longer than the rest of us. He served alongside Ryvr during the Northern wars but lost his hearing, and they kicked him out of the military. Ryvr scooped him up when he found him homeless on the street, gave him a new place to belong, a new leader to follow. “Pretty much the same goes for the rest of Fsoc, Ryvr’s personal pack of Orphaned wolves, but don't get me wrong, everyone is here because we owe him our lives.” Vera walked over to a chair, pulled it out, and sat on it, crossing her legs one over the other
Senarre still standing. “What about you?” Vera blushed, scratching her neck. “He went to my house because I was depressed after Little Lorea went away. I'm pretty sure Coco put him up to it because she was probably concerned that I didn't leave my room for a couple of weeks.” Senarre sat in the chair across from her. “Why do you like Lorea so much?” Vera thought for a moment, “Hmm, I think it's because he's my only friend. I consider everyone else here in Fsoc my friends, but he's the only one I've known for as long as I've been alive.” Vera took the opportunity to twist the conversation, “What's your opinion on Little Lorea?” Senarre thought for a moment “Hes a good companion, i trust him fully, he's the one who even got us the airship in the first place, some archdemons trickery had us in a perceived race against the clock and he gave us an advantage, granted that's thanks to Vina” she stopped and prepared to speak when a voice called out “INCOMING” a man on the back of a bike rode into the room and crashed into a wall a brilliant shower of blue sparks flew off in a bubble against the wall as it crashed into it causing the bike to fall over and the man to stumble to the ground. Doc pulled off a pilot's helmet and stumbled to his feet, and raised his hands above his head. “It works, it works, it works.” Vera ran over, “What the hell are you doing?” He stepped back, flicking up his welding goggles. “I was testing the mounting of a shield generator to one of the horsemen.”
Vera raised her hand to her face “Yeah thats a good idea but the idea behind the horsemen is that they are compatible with commercially available off the shelf parts” doc walked over and picked up the bike beginning to wheel it back to his cubicle in the warehouse “It still is its only the shield generator thats not, besides you know Ryvr’s Doctrine is to make it seem like Fsoc is unkillable. Being unable to shoot them off of vehicles is most definitely gonna contribute to that image.” Vera walked off in anger and sat back down in her chair. “You know Vina?” Senarre shook her head and said, “Yes, is she an Fsoc member?” Vera said, “No, but she’s one of Ryvr’s spies and an ace pilot. I take it you have her little brother with you because of his habit for adventuring.” Senarre leaned back in her chair. “Yeah, pretty much he was following us. He hitched a ride on the outside of the airship, and we couldn't turn back because we were getting chased by Parasites. It ended up working out, though, because now he's our pilot and we don't have to rely on Lorea’s subpar piloting.”
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Rosario exhaled deeply, dragging his wooden sword on the ground to slow down after being thrown back by a strike to the chest from the broad end of the spear. The woman clad in her armor of ice brought the spear down again. He realized he couldn't dodge and attempted to raise his arm to block the strike, an automatic response generated a plate of armor on the contact point between the spear of ice and the black stones on his skin. Ryvr stood up. “This is what we wanted, Baby brother, try to imagine any other shape than a sword.” he turned to Xue and shouted, “Try to make a scythe.” She held her hand out, shifting the spear into a scythe. Ryvr shouted, “Like that copy her.” Rosario held out his hand behind him and attempted to create a Scythe with the black stones, but stopped, “I cant” Ryvr watched closely. “Just try anything other than a one-handed sword,” Rosario grunted, straining. He dropped the wooden swords in his hands and, from his right, generated a blade of black stone and a pseudo scabbard from his left. “Ok lets try this then,” he slammed the black stone blade into the scabbard and grunted, the mana being released from his body gave off a sharpness in the air. The blade and scabbard fused and shifted into the form of a black, jagged longsword. The guard above the long handle bore the shape of a circular, twisting, jagged flower. He turned to Ryvr and shouted, “Like this?”
Ryvr stood up and walked over, circling his brother carefully, analyzing the new double-length blade. “Hmm, its handle is a little too long for a sword, and it's still a sword, but I'd file it as a success for today.” He walked over and patted his brother's head. “Good job, brother, let's call it a day for today.”
Paulida tapped on the bar, the woman behind the counter poured off another glass of amber liquid into his glass, and he drank it in one gulp, exhaling heavily. The woman behind the counter leaned over on her elbows and said, “You runnin from something oldtimer?” Paulida looked up, “No, just wanted some refreshments.” The woman pulled up a stool and sat across from him. “No one comes to a shithole bar at 11:30 in the morning unless they are running from somethin, got one foot in the grave, or done somethin real bad. So which is it?” Paulida tapped on the bar again, not responding, the woman poured off a small amount of liquor again. He drank it back again, exhaling as he set down the glass. “So, which is it, no more liquor till you answer?” Paulida rolled the glass in his hand in thought.
“All and none,” the woman pouted at the response, "c'mon, that ain't no answer.” He rolled the glass again and placed it on the counter. Exhaling deeply, “Fine, I've got a difficult choice to make.” The woman behind the counter refilled the glass. “There we go, what's this about now?” Paulida drank the glass dry once again. “I'm a sinner, a father, and a murderer, thoughts at the back of my mind tearing me apart.” The woman behind the counter said, “What's this about then, wife take the kids or something?” he rubbed his forehead. “Ive lived a very, very long life, longer than most others. I've been a father, a weapon, a vessel, a killer, and a father.” “You said father twice.” “I know, but I'm not sure if the memories of the first time are mine or the other guy's.” The woman scratched her nose. “The other guy?” “Not sure, I just know I've lived multiple lives and they just kind of blur together at some point, I even see stuff that's not mine, an army of demons, a world encased in ice.” The woman poured off a glass for herself. “That's some heavy stuff.” He drank again and said, “Say, how old are you, Miss?” She thought for a second and said, “I'm 28.” Paulida pouted, twisting one of his hanging dreadlocks. “Would you be mad at your father if he made a decision with your best interest in mind, to secure you a better life in which you can be anyone you want to be?”
The woman thought quietly for a second, “My dad died during the northern wars, so it was just my mom and I, but if he made a decision with my best interest in mind, I would think it just served to prove that he cared for me more than himself.” Paulida rubbed his forehead. “Thanks,” He drank again, emptying the glass and throwing a pile of bills on the bar. The woman scooped them up and said, “This is too much, you left 100,000 marks here.” Paulida walked for the door, pulling on his jacket, walking out into the street, before opening the door. He turned back and said, “Consider it a gift on behalf of one father from another.”
He walked all the way back to the Lorea family manor, stumbling slightly in the snow. Arriving at the gate, he placed the path that Ryvr had given him on the tall metal barrier it opened with a grinding sound. He walked in and up the winding path to the manor's front entrance, through the Foyer and to the main staircase up the stairs and to Ryvr’s study. He opened the door, Ryvr was sitting, petting a small Loong behind the desk, a book on the table that read “Asymmetric warfare and demoralizing tactics by L.Lorea.” he looked up to Paulida while stroking the small lizard-like creature. “Just catching up on some family history.” He walked into the room and sat down on the chair in front of the desk. “I want to renegotiate your deal, but first I need to kill Marw.” Ryvr leaned back in his chair, still petting the dragon. “Sounds good, I don't plan on forcing you to accept my deal if you don't want to, I'm not that pushy. If push comes to shove and the higher-ups want a war with clan Lorea ill just go to their headquarters for an afternoon, mount their heads on spikes at night, and be back in time for dinner. Maybe stop for some ice cream somewhere in there, or not. I think Xue would get mad at me if I bought ice cream instead of letting her make it.”
Rosario walked up the stairs, tired after the greatsword manifested, his eye stopped glowing, and his power was no longer reacting on its own. He walked past a maid who said, “Should I prepare the bath for you, young master?” He kept walking and said, “Not right now, maybe later.” He walked to his room, pulled the door open, and lay down in his bed sideways, his legs hanging off the bed. He closed his eyes for a moment. When he next opened them, he was lying in a field of flowers, their aroma drifting on the wind in a gentle breeze. He sat up, feeling as if he was in a familiar place, his fingers digging into the soft, moist dirt beneath him. He heard a voice crying out frantically, drifting on the wind, calling out, “Yeli, Yeli, Where are you? Please come out, please, I can't find you, please, where are you?” The man's voice was trembling like one would after crying for an extended period of time. The voice grew closer and louder. He got to his feet and called out to a non-visible person, “Hello, who's there?” his voice echoed across the grassy fields and flowering floor. The voice called out, “Who are you?” Rosario felt a pit in his stomach like falling and jumped out of bed. Finding himself back in the bed of the Lorea Manor in his hand was a twisted, jagged flower of black stones.”