Chapter 33: Gates and More Gates
*sorry I was so late with this one. Had some uni stuff to handle (and I still do this whole week)
I'll keep updating, but maybe a bit later in the day. Anyway, I genuinely ask that you tell me how this chapter felt, because I have some mixed feelings about it, and I do need some criticism. I'll keep an eye out for your comments. As for the rest, same as usual: enjoy. Peace out and Deus vult.
One more shameless promo for the discord server :) :https://discord.com/invite/8RcQy2aQ36
Paste it into google and watch the magic happen*
His walk, just like in the original game, was obstructed in a lot of places, blocked by closed gates, and whatnot. Still, he chose to do what he knew best: jump over the fence and keep going his own way. No wall or fence seemed to be too tall for him when energy from the Stellarons flowed through his body.
To his surprise, the gates were closed off for a good reason. Mara-struck soldiers were roaming around, mindlessly walking with the glaives tied to their arms by vines that grew out of their fingers. His mind took a moment to process everything, but nothing much came to him other than the same old solution. With energy cursing through his veins, he darted forward, slamming away with his trustworthy pipe, decimating the enemies. Scarce as they were, the zombie-like things stood no chance against him.
"Now, on to the Commission."
The path that led there was blocked off by some Cloud Knights, who seemed to stay guard just in case the mara-struck would attack. Rather than focusing their forces on useless combat, they chose to seal off the monsters and keep the damage to a minimum.
"You're not allowed entrance."
Just as he was about to annoyingly spit out that the General allowed it, Fu Xuan appeared from somewhere, surprised to see him. Most probably, him being there earlier escaped her calculations.
"Allow him entrance. He's with the Astral Express."
She had stopped using her fancy words, it seemed. Probably March got to her in more ways than one. With a sigh, he walked in, ready to try and figure out a few details that Kafka wasn't intent on revealing, but she did hint to them through subtle words and mentions.
"Thank you. So, I take it that Kafka is in good hands, just waiting for the others to arrive to witness her questioning."
She nodded, looking up to the Matrix of Prescience. Naturally, he followed suit, taking in the sight of the large device that could go as far as figuring out possibilities in the future. For some reason, it didn't impress him with pure sight alone, and even the utility struck a nerve he didn't like. The future, yes, that was something, but nothing good came out of it. A drip of blood fell from his nose, which he wiped with the most nonchalant look.
"Why did you come alone?"
Straight to the point, no corners cut. She asked with clear suspicion, unbothered by what Mark would think of it. One thing was clear for her, and that was protecting the Xianzhou Luofu. The Stellaron Hunters were already a huge issue on their heads as it was, but the suspicious member of the Astral Express was no lesser threat.
"Can't a man wish to ask a few questions of his own free will?"
Her glare didn't subside at all—in fact, it only seemed to deepen thanks to his odd sense of nonchalance. Something about him just got on her nerves in all the right spots.
"I told you that I would have someone sent to fetch you when the time is right. We're currently facing some issues, and the Cloud Knights are occupied with protecting civilians, and I have no forces available to restore the Matrix of Prescience."
He gave a light nod, taking in her words. True, work of her tier came with a lot of struggle, which he understood decently despite never having had a position of power himself. Sometimes, empathy and a good sense for one's feelings were more than enough to understand struggle even from words alone.
"I understand. Need a hand, I take it?"
She scoffed, crossing her arms. He simply looked down at her, waiting, completely serious.
"I'm no expert in your weird machine and stuff, but I sure can swing this pipe of mine around, or even use some other tricks if needed. So, shall we handle the issue?"
The degree of reluctance she felt was unlike anything before, but she agreed in the end, relenting to the issues at hand that were pressing more than just her.
"Fine, let's proceed. I hope that you can handle those creatures while I work to fix the terminals."
He gave a light nod, thinking it to be easy. Walking by her side, his eyes scanned around, noticing the weird things that made the player fly from platform to platform in the game. His stomach churned a bit at the thought of such a ride, but he had no choice. As Fu Xuan was about to explain them to him, he simply went ahead and touched it, his body flying across in the shrunken round form. Once on the other side, he felt surprisingly normal, as if nothing had happened.
"Hm, this was better than I expected."
She appears behind him, hands behind her back. Looking him up and down, she hoped to at least make it known that he was carefully analyzed for any possible scenario.
"For an outsider, you seem to hold more than enough knowledge on the inner workings of the Luofu."
He shook his head, playing it off by acting like he didn't hear her, focusing instead of the crowd of mara-struck soldiers that came after them.
"You should focus on the terminal. I'll try to handle these guys."
With the energy flowing through his body, seeping into his muscles, he bolted ahead, swinging his metal pipe in from below, striking one of the knights in the chin, sending its head back, only for the burst of light to nearly blind him as it rebounded and swung the glaive from the side. He blocked, moving to the side as another weapon fell in from his left, striking the ground where he had been. His pipe spun around through the air, hitting the mara-struck right in the chest with a loud crack.
"There's a few of them, but ganging up on me won't work, mainly because they're bothering one another, decreasing their own space of maneuvering."
Behind him, Fu Xuan was working on some weird thing that Mark didn't even bother to identify. Instead, he focused on the foes, noting that the number of enemies was a bit more than he could handle. Instead of giving them a chance, he fought in the only way he knew to—pure brawl.
His pipe struck one more soldier in the chest, cracking the ribs again, sending it toppling back. Using the momentum, he stepped closer, pushing it into the others, bringing the pipe in from above, hitting the one whose head he had snapped once more, managing to finish it. Before the body could fall, his arm reached out for it, grabbing it by the vines, yanking it over them again. One by one, he kept repeating the trick, striking away enough to either keep them away or go for the kill, making them stumble back. The pipe kept moving without issue, dancing in the air with the few primal moves anyone could do. Against mindless creatures, they were efficient.
Before he knew it, it was just him standing, staring at the pile of soldiers in front of him. He muttered a quick prayer, choosing to finally vocalize his thoughts a little. Knowing that they were living beings akin to humans didn't sit right with him, but no choice meant no choice.
"I finished here. We should focus on the other two terminals now."
He nodded, following along.
"Ahm, quick question: can you like, see the future?"
She looked at him as if he were stupid—which wasn't far off from the truth. He had his moments.
"To put it in a way that even you would understand, yes, I can."
He nodded, his gaze suddenly growing heavy as the topic struck a personal chord.
"You were aware of the Express coming, but were you aware of me in particular being with them?"
The question hit the nail on the head. Suddenly, it wasn't only about him and the Luofu, or him and her. No, it was about something far larger.
"A mysterious man who has enough knowledge about him being unseen in some cases. Truly, I have a hard time understanding what you are."
He chuckled, once again ready to feed his most overused line.
"I'm just a guy."
She shook her head, simply going back through the same device, followed by Mark. To his surprise, he had gotten off easily with asking that question.
"Wait, you're not going to try to detain me or something? To try and, I don't know... have me handed over to some higher authority and then throw me in the pits of some big ass jail where I won't even crawl out from."
For a moment, she nearly stifled a laugh before letting it out freely.
"While I personally would like to see you locked up simply on grounds of you being a dangerous individual feigning innocence, that detail does not make for solid imprisonment reasons. The universe is a vast thing, so unknowns are bound to happen at some point in time."
He took that answer from her in stride, unbothered by the smug tone with which she talked. For a moment, he did think himself in trouble, but he managed to escape unscathed—at least until something else would happen, which he did feel in his blood.
"Got it. So that's how it is. Well, either way, you have my word that I don't plan on harming anyone except the enemy. So... yeah... my words mean a lot to me, and I'm sure you understand the value they have."
In complete silence, they kept walking. His heartfelt declaration didn't go unnoticed, and in fact it did match her own philosophy, but she didn't plan on admitting that.
For the next terminal, they had to pass by a large gate-like creature, which Mark instantly prepared for battle with.
"Calm down, it's an aurumaton. It guards the terminal here."
Little did Mark care about it, since he knew what was bound to happen. The moment she tried walking closer, it stood up, pointing its weapon her way. Without thinking twice, Mark leapt into action, pulling her back by the collar in the nick of time. His pipe clashed against the robot, but it barely did any damage.
"Damn it!"
Fu Xuan was confused, slightly shaken by him suddenly grabbing her like that, but she didn't say more once the aurumaton kept striking again, aiming for them without a shred of hesitation.
"Fu Xuan, you better step back a little because I think I'm a bit too deep in shit here."
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