Bab 54: A little chat…
"Hmmmm~! Hmmm~! Hmhmmmmm~!"
Humming like a cute little girl, the black hooded cloaked woman was typing away on a massive computer with different files, tabs and images filling her screen. She multitasked each section of her work with a merry little humming and foot tapping.
She had just finished sending her "Partner" the handcuffs she requested. It wasn't a really easy task to get them to work like she wanted, but the same could be said about retrieving them while avoiding any confrontation with the remnants of the denizens who still protect the sacred grounds of their ruined Celtic Village of Dragon. They may have lost numbers since that "accident" but they're still just as powerful and threatening with their advancements in dragon-weaponry.
The setting she was in didn't quite seem to be the place you would find a normal person humming. She was in a very bloody lab filled the limbs of her experiments who didn't quite make the cut to be alive as a success. The room was filled with the scent of death and despair. Chemicals were laid out right next to her in chipped beacons and multicolored chemicals in them. Before the room was given to her by Natsuru it was clean but still damp and in a poor state until the necessary work she had backed up needed to be taken care of.
"Hmmmmmmm~! Well I certainly hope they didn't have a problem with my beautiful work!" The hooded women giggled, "It would be terrible if something were to happen to them."
The hooded woman started compiling the data and wavelength of energy she placed inside the handcuffs before saving it on her computer and a flash drive.
"Right, terrible. You talking like you actually care is just a big joke, huh?"
"…" The hooded woman looked over her shoulder to see a small ripple in the air beside her rip open and show a black void and stepping out of that black void is a 6-foot-tall man wearing the same black hooded coat as the woman. His body was quite muscular and toned as he held in his hand a long black spear with cursed markings around the shaft and a black blade at the end where small barbs jut around the sharp tip.
After an uncomfortable moment of silence, the two mysterious people looked at each other.
"Hiya." The newcomer waved and leaned the shaft of his spear on his shoulder.
"…What are you doing here?" The mysterious woman's voice wasn't at all cute like before, now it was serious.
"Ouch! Is that any way to talk to a fellow ally? I've been watching you very closely ever since you proposed an idea to the Boss." The lance holding man leaned against the computer board and chuckled.
The hooded woman simply pushed the man away from the and continued with her work.
"Eavesdropping is intrusive especially when you cost not only me but master as well from gaining this precious information." The woman threatened.
"Whoa! Whoa! No need to include the boss in this I was just curious was all." The man chuckled like he was having fun messing with his fellow ally.
"Why are you even here in the first place? Your too troublesome to have around while I'm working. Shouldn't you and Wallace be looking after the condition of my-?"
"Your puppet is in top shape, don't you worry about a thing. The Boss wanted me and Wallace to look for more recruits so we left it with [Wrath], he seems to be very attached to that thing, almost like a sense of grief and longing fills him. You want to explain why though?"
The man wrapped an arm around the woman's shoulder, she replied with a jab to his ribcage, but that was missed as well when he pulled back in time.
"Sheesh! You're getting so worked up over nothing. It was just an honest question." The man raised his hands in defense.
"Just tell me what you want and leave, you toying around will just prolong your desire. After all your [Greed] and this little stalling game will only increase your hunger for something you don't have."
"Shame. That's what made this so much enjoyable. Like the longer you wait the more satisfying it will be to receive what you want the most." The man said, "But if you're going to be so pushy about it then fine I'll talk. Lately I've been wanting to know why you're doing all of this. The scheming with this little insignificant girl, the gathering of that Governor-General's sacred gear data and the recorded wavelength of the Red Dragon kid. What's your angle here?"
The man tapped his spear on his shoulder and whistled.
"A careful plan makes great progress and working with someone willing to risk not only their being but themselves for another person make the perfect scapegoat. You must be wondering why I just didn't attack head-on like you would?" The woman said.
"Heh, yeah…why don't you?" The man snickered.
"Because that will leave more suspicion towards our actions. If I were to be that ruthless I would leave a bit of evidence for them to track me. And that could risk everything for us in our current state." The woman explained.
"I see…I see…"
"The sacred gear data is to help me advance my own prototype that a lucky candidate had already tested. If possible I could even strengthen your own Sacred Gear."
The sounds of a tongue licking a pair of lips were heard from the man, "An upgrade for my weapon how wonderful~!"
"Good, now that you've heard that. Leave." The woman was about to turn back to her work.
"But you still haven't talked about that Red Dragon Emperor kid's wavelength. I could understand why you need it now but saving for later? What's your agenda?"
The woman glared at the man.
"Nothing and why does it matter to you?"
"You can say that I'm starting to get a craving for power like that if someone were to make it available." The man had a dirty laugh that sickened the woman.
"This is being saved for another reason."
"Another?"
The woman walked away from the computer and folded her arms behind her back.
"Have you ever counted the sins of man?"
That one question confused the hooded man.
"That would be impossible."
"Indeed it would be…for us though."
"Hm?"
"Murder, Jealousy, Hatred, War. These sins and more are what make mankind so imperfect. It felt like it wasn't long ago that there existed beings filled with limitless malice was about to curse and bring about doomsday to everything in existence until the intervention of God. These beings have been placed as a myth because their very existences were ridiculous. But you'd be surprised if a being with the power of an…let's use an Ultimate-Class Devil as a basis, was nothing more than a grunt when compared to the upper hierarchy."
"…!" The man was surprised a little but intently listened.
"To believe that beings who have the minimum strength of an Ultimate-Class devil can frighten the hearts of many. But to actually believe that there are creatures above that level of power would make you instinctively believe they don't exist. Even uttering the name of the Leader and Creator of those beings would make a God laugh in denial."
"What another God whose been sealed?" The man asked.
"No, this creator had a different title than god, it was much more fitting for him due to his terrifying reputation, yes, that being was in a class different than any old god, they were an Overlord." The woman said.
"But you say that many people believe that it is just a myth, right? Who's to say they were wrong?"
A slight chuckle escaped the woman's lips, "Because we already have living proof it. My job right now pertains to that while at the same time it doesn't."
"That's rather ambiguous."
"If anything keeps you from acting on your own then I'll gladly be as vague as I can." The woman coughed then shooed the man away once she saw an alert on her computer screen about Natsuru's arrival.
"Now leave before you break my cover."
The man took a closer look at a small image of Michael on the screen and noticed his physical appearance was quite familiar before turning around and shrugging.
"Hmph! Sure, fine I'll be out of your hair right away…" The man swung his barbed spear in the air and tore a portal into a dark void and walked into it.
"Interesting…so that's why those "two" look the same. So if that's the case then you really do fit you spot as [Envy] don't you?" The man snickered and took one last look at the cloaked woman once the portal finished closing.
Coughing to herself once she heard the approaching pattering of footsteps, the woman sighed, "Geez~! That boy is quite a nuisance, Master has a problem with picking out strange people, excluding me of course. I'm the strangest he could ever get~! It's a little shocking that he's the descendant of the Irish Hero-!"
*GACHA!*
"Just what are you babbling on about?" Natsuru walked into the room while opening the doorknob with a handkerchief.
"*GASP!* Nat-Nat you're back!" The woman leapt at Natsuru like a puma before she was suspended up in the air by 4 fox tails wrapped around her arms and legs. Natsuru was still retaining her youkai form from earlier.
"Don't ever call me that or try to hug me again…" Natsuru growled.
"No promis-kyah!" The woman was dropped on her fanny and rubbed it as Natsuru turned her back to her.
"Ouch! Nat-Nat why did you do that for?"
"…" Natsuru kept silent before muttering, "Your handcuffs were satisfactory, thank you for making my plan a success."
"*GAAAAAAAASP!* Oh my, Non-existent God! Does this mean we're friends n-!"
Natsuru used one of her tails to cover the hooded woman's mouth.
"No, don't push it. Being thankful to you makes me sick." Natsuru growled.
"Right~! The Old tsundere act, well I can along with this for now." Natsuru felt like this woman was just delusional.
"Both, Michael-kun and that new arrival are placed in their cell. Keep jamming any and all magic circles in the area, I don't want any interruptions from Gremory-san and her…I mean Gremory-san's servants. After I've taken a quick breather I'll move on with what needs to be done next." Natsuru began walking to door.
"Does telling me all of that make us frie-?" The hooded woman squealed.
"No, it doesn't I'm not telling you that because I like or trust you. I'm telling you this because I don't want you near them. Got that?" Natsuru glared at the woman with the most intimidating glare she could as the image of a large cat and fox hybrid glared down right at the hooded woman.
"You got it~!" The woman didn't mind the bloodlust she felt behind that threat and saluted.
Taking one more glance at her Natsuru shoo her head.
"Just don't do anything you'll regret." Natsuru said with some venom behind her tone.
*SLAM!*
Slowly getting up on her feet, the woman walked over to her large computer and typed in a couple of codes.
"Well if I can't go near them. I could always do the next big thing."
*CLICK!*
On the screen was a surveillance video pointed directly at Michael and Shirou's cells where both laid against the wall unconsciously and ignorant to everything around them.
"I'll just watch in case anything interesting happens." The woman giggled excitedly for finding a loophole through Natsuru's threat. While she was at it why not open every surveillance camera? She did just that and glanced at all of the viewpoints the cameras had to offer. She could see that most of her hybrid experiments have been shortened to only a small army now.
"Meh…if they couldn't survive that mission then they were just useless failures in the end!" The woman giggled rather morbidly at the wasted lives of her experiments.
Suddenly in one of the cameras something caught her eye.
"Hm, was that a…" She could have sworn she saw a pair of shadows walking through one of the hallways. A distinctive appearance caught her attention as she believed she saw something in the shape of a drill walk by the surveillance camera.
It couldn't have been seen with the hood covering her face but the woman's lips curled up as giggled escaped from between them.
"It looks like we have a couple of rats lurking around~! I guess I should exterminate them before Nat-Nat gets even more frustrated."
The woman slowly made a small magic circle on next to her ear as she communicated with her remaining experiments to keep watch while she did her best to find the intruders through the surveillance.
Whoever it was who were roaming around this place would never escape now that an inkling of their presence here have been caught. But then another thought came to mind.
"Ah, that's right I have to make sure the exits are all closed so they won't escape or that they won't lead anymore in…teeheehee! This will be the bestest day ever…for me at least!"
The woman giggled madly and focused on all of the surveillance cameras. But unknowingly she didn't catch something unfold in the Michael and Shirou's cell as both of their bodies faintly glowed as Michael's right hand emitted a green light and Shirou's left hand emitted a blue light.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
Retribrutus
Retribrutus ...
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone