Chapter XXXV: Fork in the Road

            “Sierra doesn’t have an Elemental Matrix?”, Mea asks, surprised.

 

            “She used to”, Charlotte explains. “That crazy b*tch stole it from her.”

 

            “And ‘crazy b*tch’ would be?”

 

            “Echidna.”

 

            “I guess that’s why I couldn’t detect her”, Lux speaks from Mea’s shoulder. “Wait... Doesn’t that mean we won’t be able to merge into the key?”

 

            “That’s why we were asking for your help. Even with the two sisters’ strengths combined, we can’t take on a Demon like that, not when one of them can’t even use her powers.”

 

            “I see.”

 

            Mea looks over her shoulder and sees Sierra along with Solis pacing from behind her. They were headed to the cave where Sierra lives, but Charlotte was the one to lead the way because, well, she’s a little busy arguing with Solis about how effective melee attacks are against ranged attacks.

 

            “These two are quite fond of each other, aren’t they?”

 

            “I could say the same”, Anna agrees with her. “Sierra’s like... what was it called again...”

 

            “Tsundere?”

 

            “Yeah, that love-hate type that’s popular in Draconian novels.”

 

            “I sure hope their love flourishes”, Mea mischievously peers at them.

 

           

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            Elias has lost it. He’s making slow progress, but the wings are pretty much fixed now. The song currently playing from his playlist was none other than ‘Nothing’ by The Script. He’s worked very hard on this ship, but due to emotional instability and the fact that he never felt the warmth of his parents may be the cause of why he’s convinced himself to become a fully-trained Macro-mage (Macro-mage " a mage that possesses biological mana circuits) and build it. As the song says, he has nothing... except maybe a monologue he plays out in his head.

 

            What has become of me?

 

            He thinks as he magnetizes a couple of screws loose in to repair the hull.

 

            I keep on asking myself that. Maybe it’s because when I was a kid I had a foot fetish for my sister, or maybe because I never had anyone I loved to tell me what to do. No one was there to stop me. No one was there to tell me anything. Both of us were raised at the back of a lumber mill, living off from some guy who would incessantly beat the crap out of me when I was mesmerized by my sister’s toes instead of working. That part sort of convinced me to stop. It’s been a living hell, and it still was, even after the guy died and the Alkalde decided to take us in. We were his servants, and he made it clear to us that we live to follow his instructions. During those teenage years filled with growth spurts and imbalanced hormones, no other girl was on my head except my sister, and not for the messed-up reason you’re thinking. I didn’t have time to chase skirts or hunt fun-bags back then. I knew I had to protect her, so I started learning. In my free time I borrowed books: Early Transcendentals, Astrophysics, Engineering, Economics... anything that I thought that would make me smarter. Due to the sudden urges in my innocent, youthful mind, however, I found myself stacking up books serialized from Draconia. There were categories that you could browse easily: Bondage, Lactation, Incest, and even things that piqued my fetishes quite effectively. I was disgusted with myself. There was a filthy and unpleasant feeling building up within me. Every time I held those books... those pictures that enticed me for no particular reason save for the fact that it indeed awakens my lust... It was horrible. I’d find a place to hide sometimes. I sit there. I cry. All the frustration. From being treated like dirt in front of the only person I love. From the constant failure I had regarding my studies for a non-existent future. From that guilty pleasure I feel that cannot be sated by simple means... It’s the worst feeling ever. That’s why I’m thankful that God found me. I could have been-

 

            Dude! Concentrate! You screwed the frame to the hinges too tightly.  

 

            “Hey, are you alright in there?”, Maise calls out from outside the ship, sitting on a stump.

 

            “Does the earth rotate on its own axis? Of course I’m fine. I’m a f*ckin’ Macromage.”

 

            “Why don’t you take a break?”, she worriedly suggests.

 

            “No thanks.”

 

            “Oh, sorry. I said it wrong.” She stands up and grabs the pipewrench. “Take a goddamn break or I’ll go [1]Adrian Shepard on your a*s”, she demands after changing her tone.

 

            He wordlessly gives up and puts down the frame. Scratching his head, he walks out the ship and finds her sitting on the stump, and along with her was a girl wearing a lab-coat.

 

            “’Sup”, says the girl, striking a pose with a peace sign while sitting next to his sister. He knows exactly what type of girl this is. She’s the type that plays with guys like him. The ones that are really good at teasing. The way she posed like that annoyed him, but at the same time... enticed him, leading him to reply crudely.

 

            “Cute... Who are you?”

 

            “Therese”, she stands up. “You must be Elias. I’ve heard ever so much about you.”

 

            “Really?”

 

            The song ends.

 

            “Yes, you were talking to yourself out loud while you were trying to fix this fine contraption you have here”, she says as she taps the metal frame.

 

            A new song starts up. Is that... Is that ‘Time in a Bottle’ by Jim Croce?

 

            “Was I really?”, he asks Maise with a serious look on his face.

 

            “I don’t know, but my feet are getting really sensitive right now. Would you mind taking my shoes off and massaging them for me?”, she teases him.

 

            “I refuse”, he sternly disagrees.

 

            Maise quickly throws the pipewrench at him like a tomahawk, but he was able to react just as quick and magnetize it with his power to stop it.

 

            “So, what do you want from us?”, he turns to Therese after recovering his rusty wrench.

 

            “I happened to find your friend after your flying machine crash-landed last night. He tells me there are Elementals with you?”

 

            “They went ahead.”

 

            “What about the maid?”

 

            “Went with them.”

 

            “And you stood behind to fix the ship?”

 

            “No way. Why in God’s name would I stay behind to fix the ship?”, he says, sarcastically.

 

            “A smart-a*s, huh?”, she adjusts the bracer on her wrist.

 

            The ground below Elias started to shake and he lost his footing.

 

            “Sorry”, he apologizes quietly after falling on his back.

 

            “No problem”, she helps him up. Turning toward Maise, she puts her arms akimbo and pronounces her objective. “Right now, your friends are probably lost in the forest, and we’re gonna go get them so...” She turns toward Elias.

 

            “What?”

 

            “I can’t take you seriously with this music.”

 

            Elias turns it off with a remote control from his back pocket, silencing Jim Croce mid-chorus, queuing her to continue.

 

            “Now then...” She turns to Maise once again. “That ship is our ticket out of here. Since that time that I snuck out of Origami Canyon to spread the word about us, Echidna’s been a real pain in the an*s-hole. She’s been-“

 

            “You don’t mean that literally do you?”, he interrupts while packing up his speakers, but she ignores his attack and continues speaking.

 

            “She’s been sending her... ‘children’ around the forest when she found out about my plans. You guys are actually lucky that you weren’t detected so easily-“

 

            A scream of what sounded [2]like a moose giving birth to an elephant suddenly echoed around them.

 

            “Wasn’t me.” Elias looks around to find the source.

 

            “Anak ng baka...”, Therese worriedly curses.

 

            Something emerged from their left. The creature looked like a black raptor with bone claws and a tail that seemed to release some sort of pollen to call for allies. Its eyes were dead as if they were black marbles staring back at the Earth Elemental.

 

            “Can you fix the ship?” She turns to Elias.

 

            He takes out his pipewrench for some reason. “Give me ten minutes.”

 

            “I’ll give you twenty.”

 

            While Elias went back to work on the ship, Therese cracked her fists and taunts the creature. It gave a roar then strode toward her with a blood thirsty glare. The bracer on her right wrist started to fall apart like sand and reformed itself into a sword in her hand. She rushes toward the raptor with one hand on the cutlass and slices its head clean off.

 

            “One down...” She looks behind her and sees more of them coming toward her. “...A million to go.”

 

            “Cool”, Maise says awe-struck by the Elemental power that she’s never seen first-hand before.

 

            “Maise, help me out here”, Elias calls her.

 

            “Coming, Eli.”

 

            Meanwhile, Therese gets surrounded by one... two... twelve of them. She puts up a stance, grinning while she does it, and the bracer on her wrist reforms itself once more. This time it’s a chainsaw.

 

            Wasn’t expecting that.

 

            The device she’s using is called Capernaum. Therese snuck out of Death Valley once when she read about a certain material labelled [3]Suhalla from the book of [4]Escherion’s Fortune. The people in the old world used to call it [5]Transformium due to its ability to recompose itself into solid substances, but they had trouble in controlling it. What they lacked was the Elemental Matrix of an Earth Elemental, but Therese knew better than to just experiment on it. She instead turned it into a weapon that suits her tastes.

 

            She pulls the trigger and the machine starts rumbling. Excited by the vibration of the device, she rushes out to one of them.

 

            “Word to you mother!”

 

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            Meanwhile, the other party has come across a dead end. There’s a massive rock that curved with its concavity against them. There are a lot of vines that crawled around the cracks of the large stone, but they seem to be pointing at one point on the surface of the rock.

 

            “Here we are”, Charlotte says.

 

            Solis and Sierra were still arguing about something, but because there was no scenario submitted to me, I’ll leave what they’re fighting about to your imagination, dear reader. The rest of them were practically exhausted of walking such a long distance.

 

            “They’re still going on about it...”, Mea remarks.

 

            As their trailing came to halt, Charlotte skipped toward where the vines were pointing. It was close to the ground so she was easily able to come close to it and knock on it three times.

 

            “[6]Password?”, a small voice echoes from inside the stone.

 

            “[6]Pancake”, Charlotte answers.

 

            The stone started to break open from the point, and a hatch was visible from the hole, enough to fit it a single Human.

 

            They all followed toward the opening and the hatch opens up, revealing a grey-haired cat with a blue dot on its forehead.

 

            “Cisqua!”

 

            “Charlotte!”

 

            The pink Anima leaps over to her sister and they both crash through the space inside the hatch. At the corner of her eye, Sierra saw this scene, and she lost her attention on Solis.

 

            It reminded her of her sister when she climbed up a tree and couldn’t get down. Good thing Therese was there to catch her before the branch was fractured from her weight. That memory used to make her happy, but now, things are different.

 

            “Hey! Are you listening!”, Solis angrily states.

 

            “Yeah. I guess I was wrong”, she says, but it seems she was answering a different question.

 

            “What are you-“

 

            “This way guys”, she moves forward and leads them inside the cave.

 

            Solis’ puppy ears twitched. “What’s up with her?”

 

            “Mister Solis”, Lanette calls out to him from behind, somewhat frazzled about something.

 

            “Yes?”, he looks back at her.

 

            “Um... Would it be okay if I were to stay out here? I am not very suited with... tight spaces.”

 

            Solis looks at the way though the cave and realizes Lanette probably has claustrophobia.

 

            “Do you still have my shock trap?”

 

            “Yes.”

 

            “Then stay here and make sure nothing picked up our trail”, he says while going inside.

 

            When Solis was out of sight, she took out Credo’s white scarf that she was hiding and held it on her breast. Silently, she prayed that he’d be safe.

 

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            They make it inside, and a cramped living room walled with steel and furnished with a small sofa greeted them. Sierra lets them sit while she was taking some stuff from the box at the corner of the room, except for Solis who stood in the corner.

 

            “Are you guys the other Elementals?”, Cisqua asks Anna who was sitting on the couch.

 

            “Yeah.”

 

            “Oh, then you must know the guy named Credo!”

 

            “We were separated from him last night, actually”, she explains with a small amount of sadness in her voice. “You wouldn’t happen to know where he is, would you?”

 

            “This way”, Cisqua scurries toward a small stone next to the bottom of the couch and touches it, opening up another area in the cave that seemed to lead upstairs.

 

            Anna immediately follows her upstairs, and once she reaches the room she calls out to the rest of them.

 

            “Eve! Credo’s over here!”

 

            They leave their seats and go upstairs as well, and they find Credo sound asleep without a scratch on him.

            “Credo... Thank God...” Anna leans with her arms on the bed.

 

            “How long has he been here?”, Mea questions.

 

            “I don’t know”, Cisqua answers. “Therese was the one who took him.”

 

            “Your partner?”

 

            “Yup. She actually went out to look for you and Sierra earlier.”

 

            “Where is she now?”

 

            “Probably at the crash site.”

 

            “Then that’s where we’re going.”

 

            “I know the way”, Sierra catches up from downstairs while holding onto an autotracker, but this one probably has a map on it.

 

            “Wait, what about Credo?”, Anna resents.

 

            “He’s fine”, Cisqua says. “Therese already cured him with-“

 

            “Hydrasaur Urine, right?”, Solis interrupts.

 

            Cisqua nods at him.

 

            “Told you”, he scoffs at Tenenbaum.

 

            “That settles it. Let’s get going”, Mea commands. “Please wake up Credo”, she says while going down stairs with Solis and Sierra following.

 

            Cisqua hops toward the basket lined with cloth where Lina was sleeping and kisses the red Anima to wake her up. Lina’s eyes bursts open.

 

            “Who the hell are you!”

 

            Cisqua runs down stairs without answering her so Lina follows, not noticing that Anna and Rylai were still in the room.

 

            “Hey, wait up!”, Rylai chases after them, leaving only Anna in the room.

 

            The Fire Elemental looks around to see if anyone was around. What’s she planning?

 

            “I thought I lost you”, she says under her breath.

 

            Unlike Mea, Sierra, and even Solis, Anna has never been in battle until recently. She was trained as a fast firing marksman, but she never knew what it felt like to lose someone. Solis lost his friends when they were hunting old Herod; Mea lost her fellow assassins when she was twelve and their village was invaded; Sierra lost her foster mother to... let’s just say an accident she may have caused. For Anna, she still hasn’t felt the pain of witnessing a comrade fall in battle. She didn’t want that to happen, especially not to Credo, but she knows she had to be ready, because no matter how much she denies it, death in the battlefield is very likely.

 

            Anna felt like crying. But how could she? It would only add insult to injury if she were to cry, even if no one was there to watch. He may be close to her, but this time she’s reminded that Credo is also an inch away from Death. The only reason they’re together right now is because it’s their duty. Credo might not have even thought of her when he was out in the world. There are at least two girls that hold him dear other than her, even though she was there first.

 

            All I ever wanted is to be with you... after all these years, but I guess that’s too much to ask when I’m this weak.

 

            She intently stares at his sleeping face. It came to her mind that this might actually be what he’ll look like when he’s about to be hoist away in his coffin, but she didn’t want to think that. As her heart started racing, she lowers her face toward the bed until it was close to his. Shutting her eyes, she pressed her lips on his until she was satisfied. Unnaturally, it didn’t seem to wake him up.

 

            This time, I swear I’ll be stronger. I’ll be the one to protect you instead-

 

            Suddenly, the radio on her pocket started chattering. Damn, I forgot that was there.

 

            “Anna. Are you there? It’s Maise. Do you copy?”

 

            The loud noise of the static surprised her and she began to nervously search her pockets almost instantly. This time, Credo wakes up.

 

            “Anna?”, he says, rubbing his eyes.

 

            “G-G-G-Good morning! Credo!”, she stutters while searching for the radio.

 

            “How’d you get here?” He sits up from the bed.

 

            “Just a second”, she holds his question, blushing while she was at it, once she finds the radio. She holds up the mouth piece and says, “Maise? We found Credo. We’re headed back there right now, so sit tight.”

 

            “You guys better hurry, though. We’re here with another Elemental- Some sort of rocky type- and she’s been fighting these weird... black-eyed dinosaurs.”

 

            “An Earth Elemental? That’s great! We’re here with her sister. She has a map to get there. All of us are getting ready to leave.”

 

            “Good. You guys better-“ The signal started to fade but it immediately bounced back. “Signal’s getting weak. Just get over here A.S.A.P. Me and Elias are fixing the ship, but our friend here says there are swarms headed this way, so you better get here before-“

 

            “Maise? Hello, Maise!”

 

            Static noises answered her back.

 

            “Sounds pretty bad”, Credo remarks as he gets up from bed. “Should we get going?”

 

            “Whoa! What the...” Anna stands back when he sees his top stripped off.

 

            “What?”

 

            “I thought it was just your neck that got bit.”

 

            “Yeah, why?”

 

            “Then why’d she take your shirt off? What did she do to you!”

 

            “Um...” He recalls what happened during that time Therese was wiping him. “I think I was passed out this entire time.”

 

            “But what if she-“

 

            “I brought your stuff.” Sierra comes in from the door carrying Credo’s armor.

 

            “I brought your sword.” Solis comes up after her. “It’s a lot lighter than I thought”, he says as he examines the blade.

 

            “Thanks”, he says, grabbing all his things from them and immediately heading down stairs.

 

            “Hey, wait!”, Anna yells at him.

 

            “She didn’t do anything bad”, he says while walking down the stairs. “Unlike you.”

 

            “What did you say?”, she asks, following him down stairs.

 

            Once Credo and Anna left, Sierra asks Solis a question.

 

            “Miss Anna is head-over-heels for him, isn’t she?”

 

            “Pretty much”, Solis replies, walking down the stairs.

 

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            Later, they all make it outside the cave. Lanette greeted them all when they came out, but her smile was immediately changed into a peaceful yet teary expression when she found her master along with them.

 

            “Good to see you, Lanette.”

 

            She immediately started crying tears of joy and ran into his arms.

 

            “Master!”, she rubs her face on his chest. “I’m so relieved that you’re safe!”

 

            He let her hug him for a while, thinking that Anna would stop her, but surprisingly all Anna did was look away from him. Not that she doesn’t want to talk to him, but after what she did, she just couldn’t face him.

 

            “Alright, that’s enough”, Credo says while gently breaking off, but then he notices something Lanette was holding on to. “Is that my scarf?”

 

            “Ah... Yes, thank you for letting me use it”, she thanks him while handing it over.

 

            Credo wears it around his neck and says, “Should we get going?”

 

            “Miss Sierra’s not here yet”, Lux tells him.

 

            “I think she’s still inside”, Rylai says.

 

            “Solis, go find her”, Mea orders him after hearing the conversation.

 

            “Let’s go, Tenen”, he walks into the cave with Tenenbaum following along.

 

            “Good call”, Anna faces Mea who replies with a mischievous laugh.

 

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            Sierra was seated next to a grave inside the inner part of the cave. A garden of various flowering plants flourished around the area where the sunlight came through a white-stained glass roof. The fresh scent of budding sampaguitas livened the atmosphere around the grave at its very center. Chiselled on the tombstone were the letters “S.R.”, the initials of Sierra’s foster mother. As Charlotte was resting on her head, she began talking to the grave.

 

            “Mom, I’m going to join the others to save the world now. I’m not gonna be able to speak to you like this for a while, so until then, I’ll be fighting to the fullest. Also...” She unties her ponytail and takes off the black ribbon to show it, letting her hair slip off her shoulder. “He gave this to me a long time ago. I’m telling you this because... because I think he’s the kind of person you were talking about. You once said that I... both of us should find someone that we could rely on; someone who understands us more than we understand ourselves. For now, I’ll be staying by his side. He may not be aware of it because he’s a dense prick after all, but... I don’t want to be alone anymore.” She smiles softly and clasps her hands between the ribbon. “So please tell God to take care of me and Therese, and the people helping us. Even if... even if she ends up hating me forever for what I did to you, she’s still my sister, and I don’t want her to die no matter how much she hurts me.”

 

            She starts crying, causing Charlotte to wake up. The cat immediately stands up and tries to calm her down. Charlotte was about to ask her what was going on, but Sierra grabbed her and hugged her so tight she could almost choke, but she was too worried about her partner to complain. Hugging her back, Charlotte speaks her mind.

 

            “You haven’t cried like this since-“

 

            “I’m not crying!”, she exclaims, trying to deny her true feelings like she always does.

 

            “It’s alright”, Charlotte says in a calming tone. “I’m your sister too, right?”

 

            Sierra lets her go to wipe her tears with her wrists. “You’re a talking Lynian and I’m an Elemental, a completely different lineage. How the hell can we be sisters?”, she says, trying to calm herself down.

 

            “Not all sisters are blood related, remember? Some just spend an entire sixteen years together.”

 

            “Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

 

            Sierra then hears footsteps walking around the garden. She turns to see who it was, and the next thing that came out her mouth was a threatening question.

 

            “What do you think you’re doing here?”

 

            Solis’ puppy ears twitch as a reaction to the sound. How is that even possible?

 

            “Oh, there you are”, says Solis, examining Sierra without her hair tied up and that rock thing sitting with her.

 

            [7]“We-are-here to-pick-you up”, Tenenbaum follows up.

 

            Solis and Tenenbaum approach them while he was staring at the rock. He immediately performs the sign of the cross after realizing it was actually a tombstone.

 

            “That looks like someone important to you”, Solis remarks.

 

            “What does it matter to you?”, Sierra spites while hiding her eyes after all that sobbing.

 

            “At least you have a grave to visit; I never got to bury mine”, he cryptically pronounces. “But that doesn’t matter anymore”, he takes it back. “I still got a lot of work to do, but it looks like I have to work with you in the meantime.”

 

             Solis extends his hand. Looking away, she reluctantly takes it, stands, and walks in front of him with Charlotte while tying her hair. She nervously finishes tying up the back part that makes up her ponytail while he follows her, leaving the ribbon crookedly tied at the back.

 

            “Wait up”, he stops her by placing a hand on her shoulder from behind.

 

            Her body tenses up. “W-W-W-What do you think you’re doing, you-“

 

            It turns out he was just fixing her ribbon.

 

            “All done.”

 

            “Thanks”, she says, still paused but now blushing. “Where’d you learn how to do that properly?”

 

            “Let’s just say... I kind of had an older sister”, he replies, remembering how Mea would tie up his hair into twin tails, ponytails, brush-ups, braids, and a lot of other girly hair styles.

 

            “Yeah, so did I.”

 

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            Once they make it out, they find that their allies are in quite a pinch with a bunch of broodlings mixed up with a bunch of raptors trying to eat their faces. It seems the sudden change in the number of Elementals aggravated them. Luckily, they had the means to destroy them with Elemental weapons; and a frying pan for Lanette.

 

            “What took you two so long!”, Mea complains while strangling a raptor with her ethereal chains.

 

            “Change of plans; we’re gonna have to fight our way through”, Credo explains while cutting up an over-grown mantis of sorts.

 

            “Well, are you just gonna stand there?”, Anna questions while shooting red hot flames against a large millipede.

 

            No, he wasn’t just gonna stand there. Solis was just... in awe of the beautiful gift of Slaying that’s in front of him. He grins and slowly unsheathes Grace and Kirin. Licking his lips, he finds five targets headed toward him.

 

            “You have enough bullets?”, he asks Sierra.

 

            “Always”, she replies, loading up her bowgun.

 

            “Then I’ll have to make sure most of them are left over.”

 

            He rushes into the fray with a smile on his face.

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1. Main protagonist from 'Half Life: Opposing Force'

2 Quoted by Grim from 'The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy'

3. Town from Golden Sun

4. First Chaos Lord from Adventure Quest Worlds

5. Substance used to make 'Galvatron' from 'Transformers: Age of Extinction'

6. Quoted by two rebels from Half-Life 2

7..Quoted by Muscle Man from 'Regular Show' . .

Reviews

[❀Subaru_Nyaa!
..]

Earth Elementa; = typo. I got a little confused in the middle but I got through it (I don't it's because of the way you wrote it, it's just me confusing myself)

[Oran]

Fixed it. There are a lot of other errors aside from that so thanks for noticing.