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Volume 5

Chapter 09: Iron Volt

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The moment the man in long blonde hair came out of Scion's room, Hubert was there along with two other personalities.

"Kladis."

"Hubert..." The blonde guy greeted flatly. "Why are you still wearing that face? Are you in love with that face or something? Hahaha..."

He untied his ponytail and the long blonde hair fell down into a graceful manner. He shook his head to fix it on its natural form and then brushed it up with one hand before staring at Hubert mockingly.

"It's already bad that you're a part of Taichou-sama's legion, but know this..." as he spoke, he stood in front of the unmoving Hubert and his tall height paired with his Apollo Race's graceful bearing made him like a Prince from an Imperial Dynasty –imposing and very intimidating. "Do you really want to only get paid to do a task? But even so, being ordered by us doesn't give you the right to stand in front of me, even if the others held you in a high regard. Still though," At this point, Kladis raised his hand and caressed Hubert's left cheek. Seeing this made the other personalities in their vicinity look at them awkwardly.

A man flirting with a man is something... disturbing.

To them though, Hubert is special... so all of these are normal and seeing Kladis flirt with him wasn't that much disturbing at all. In fact, they even had some idea as to what was actually happening between the two of them.

What they chose, however, is just ignore it all.

Kladis continued, "If you want some reward, you can go to my room with your real face."

The tone he had now is different than when he was talking to Scion and the carefree and cheerfully playful voice is now layered with the seriousness of his uniform and rank in the Blue Card Legion.

Furthermore, there was also an air of superiority.

Like he can control anyone, including Hubert.

The way he talked to Hubert clearly stated that he did not put the man in the same level as him. "I'm really not convinced as to why you are even part of this circle. I mean, aside from your hobby of being a spy, your fighting ability is only so-so." As he spoke, he glanced sideways to the golden armored knight at his side and smirked. "Look, even the weakest of us, the prince, is a lot stronger than you."

The 'prince' beside Hubert frowned at it and he took a step and sized up Kladis eye to eye.

"I dare you to say that again." Volga hissed and put his hand on his sword's hilt on his right side, about to draw it out and make a slash.

But to this threatening pose, Kladis only chuckled.

"Woo? So the weakling had learned how to carry his own balls now, eh?" he looked at Hubert then back at the prince. "Hubert–no, should I say, Bodoni –God, I hate speaking your silly name, shouldn't you be trying to stop your master here? He might be a royalty outside but in Terroa, strength is everything."

After Kladis spoke, he shot a glare and a wide grin at Prince Volga. Volga, in return, had already slightly pulled the sword on his waist.

Hubert's calm voice spoke: "He's not my master."

Kladis gave Hubert a glance and made another expressive grin, "Then why are you still wearing that face and still following this guy's spying orders?"

"It's nanya business." Hubert replied flatly. He was the same as how he talked to anyone else that he encounters. "I'm only here to deliver the message that aside from you, we are only waiting for the last three members before the meeting officially begins."

After saying this, Hubert turned his back and let his red cape with the golden dragon Auroboros emblem flutter in the breeze he made.

Of his two companions, one was Prince Volga who stomped hard as he faced the blonde guy face to face as they were of the same height.

"I'm warning you, Kladis, stay away from her. She's is my bride!"

Kladis, the long haired blonde knight, smiled wide as he watched the two turn and leave. The other man with him has always been leaning at the wall and had his arms crossed.

This man only shot him a glance before he closed his eyes and seemed to be pondering over something.

Kladis made a light "Hmp" before he went in another direction from Hubert's hallway. The people left there were only the guards at the door and the man dressed in black ninja outfit and a large afro hair.

In his lips formed a sinister smile, "Bride, huh? In your dreams! With your temperament, I'd wager you already failed on your try. Hell, let's wait and see who's going to conquer such exquisite treasure first."

*****

In a snowy mountain...

It hasn't been that long since they left.

With the Black Ender in hand, Siva was furiously cleaving his way through a horde of countless C-Rank monsters. Individually, they can be considered as only so-so but when there are hundreds of them, this force is scarier than even an S-Rank monster.

Flashes of the «Equip Change» could be faintly seen behind him.

The one-car Centipede was parked in the very middle of the horde and inside was Thorn, using one of Siva's twin guns to shoot whoever would be fast and lucky enough to pass through Siva's defense line.

"Go!" Siva leaned back and yelled at Thorn on the driver seat of the Centipede.

After a loud roar and a furious slash, Siva's face and slashing motion could be seen from the V-shaped body that had become of the monster.

Thorn stomped hard on the pedal and the legs of the Centipede began to move and ignore the same-sized C-Ranked monsters called Herons.

"In the central, these Herons aren't these many. But here, I can't believe they're in flocks!" Volt was in the same situation as Siva and both of them were panting as they jumped to the back of the Centipede.

Siva gathered the floating particles of Dragunov on his limbs and spoke, "It's because of the proximity and exposure of their habitats. In the other continents, walled cities are only almost every six to twelve hours of aerial travel so they are hunted almost each day. But here, not only aerial travel is dangerous and impossible to begin with, the distance between the cities are weeks or months apart. The entire Continent of Tiara –despite its grand size that's almost as big as Espada, only had thirteen cities... and furthermore, the people of these cities aren't the same as the ones in the other continents. They usually don't hunt monsters but people."

Hearing Siva's explanation, Volt clicked his tongue and then glanced at the horde of monsters they have left behind.

"The criminals of Terroa." He whispered but since the three of them were connected via the more technologically advanced communication device, The Auricle –one of the free gifts he got from the raided capsule shop in Dragona, on one of their ears, Siva still heard this whisper.

What's good about this device from the conventional one is that aside from the basic long distance video-call communication it was capable of, it also has an added function of eye-scan.

It scans anything that its wearer wants to scan (–from name, affiliations, CT scan (for body structure), Health Status, Energy Levels, Race Type, to Species Classifications (for creatures), Materials (for items and objects), Element(s) (for resources and minerals), and many other kinds of information–) and then compare it to the online database. Or if it can't connect online, it will record the scanned info and display it for the wearer to see and check.

For a small item, it was worth the expensive price.

And not only that, Siva had tens of them for free!

Its most useful aspect, of course, is even if there are no signals –just like the snowy region where they are right now, as long as the Auricles are in range from each other, they can still communicate by themselves using radio waves.

"The criminals of Terroa." Siva and Thorn spoke at the same time in whispers.

Even though the speed of the Centipede was only so-so and couldn't be compared to when using even just the Mechanical Flight Wings, it was still faster and is in a steady speed when compared to running.

Siva was still in his white cloak. Seeing this, Volt had to ask, "Don't you have any other things too wear?"

"What do you mean?"

Thorn looked at the side mirror (it has one, believe it or not) and chimed in. "I was actually about to ask you the same thing. The guys chasing after you right now knew how you look like –both of your... forms, especially the one you're wearing right now. So if you want to avoid meaningless struggles, we suggest that you change your costume at least."

Volt added, "We know that you have to cover every inch of your skin to avoid detection but haven't you done it before in Loire?"

Siva thought for a moment and looked down on his glove-covered left hand and then his sleeve and then paused for a few moments.

He checked his inventory and frowned inwardly as he scratched his head.

"I don't seem to have another set of clothes that can be used to cover myself with."

"..."

"..."

Volt shot a helpless look back at Thorn on the driver seat of the Centipede. Both of them sighed but it was heard by Siva who also made a sigh. He knew that it was going to be a problem... especially when he gets to Alexandria where, despite the distances between the walled cities, is always packed with more players than NPCs.

Now that he had been briefed by Thorn and Volt about the situation and POV of the other players, just a small clue of his location and whereabouts will be the fall of his rescue plans.

He went towards the back of the head of the river's cockpit of the Centipede, as it was still a truck with legs instead of wheels, and then leaned on it. He hid his head on his knees and closed his eyes to think.

Volt was checking his inventory and could only wear his purple colored Flight Armor that made him look like a metal-clad hero of the Country of Heroes of the real world.

Thorn from the driver seat unknowingly glanced at the rear-view mirror (it has, believe it or not) and the Centipede suddenly jerked off slightly and almost fell to the edge of cliff where they were maneuvering to.

"What was that?!" Siva and Volt yelled but Thorn only laughed.

"Sorry, I just didn't expect to see that. Hahahaha!"

Volt remained silent but Siva was frantic. "Don't scare me like that. We can't fly in this region and this cliff is really high."

"Sorry. Sorry. But take a look at this."

"Don't!"

"Too late brah..."

"Huh?" From Siva's Auricle display window, a picture was sent from the Quick Scan from Thorn's own auricle and Siva exploded into laughter.

In the picture, Volt was mimicking a famous posture of puffing out his chest like a macho man and then making a 'tough man' pose to no one. The angle of his posture was facing the head of the Centipede as he seemingly wants to intimidate the wall of rock and ice on their right side.

As the Centipede can be interchanged from left or right hand drives anytime and it may be that Thorn is a player who came from a country with a left-hand drive for cars, he was able to perfectly capture that one single moment.

"Hahahahaha! This is epic!"

"Geezer's mice! I can't believe you!" Volt yelled.

"Don't worry, I won't send it to anyone else." Thorn joked on the comm link but Siva was already making a private email when Volt slashed the space between Siva's hands.

"Send it or I will personally slice your hands."

Even though the panel didn't get damaged at all, the slash was still just a centimeter away from his finger.

Siva raised his hands in a 'giving up' gesture and Volt stored away his sword. When he turned to go back to the driver cockpit of the Centipede, Siva sneezed and Volt turned his head in a snap to witness Siva removed his mask and scratch his nose.

He approached him and took out handcuffs. "You are not sending that email to anyone." His eyes were black and the killing intent was clear even for Siva.

But the two only laughed and Siva was cuffed when he went back inside the cockpit.

Thorn kept on talking about how to make it look good –like adding a cape or lightning effects on the background for added drama on the picture.

Siva only made a confident chuckle that made Volt cross his arms with a frown of worry while Thorn had a look of apprehension, gathering clues..

For the next thirty or so minutes, they talked about their plans after passing the snowy mountain.

After about five minutes, an email was sent to Volt's personal email address that was logged in as of the moment. The moment he opened his email, he stopped and a petrified into stone animation is made by his avatar.

Thorn asked Siva beside him, "What did you do?"

Even though he already has an idea, he still asked and hoped that it was better.

Siva tried his best to stop laughing and brought out the email he sent to someone. It was already edited when he sent it. Volt's face was blurred and the background was a war-stricken plain for effects. It looked like a cover for a movie, no doubt about that.

There was a caption: [Guess Who]

Thorn and Siva tried to stop laughing but their effort to do so only brought Volt back to this dimension.

But instead of anger, Volt only butts his head to the leather dashboard and spoke dejectedly, "I'm ruined for sure."

Siva and Thorn exchanged glances and Siva asked with concern. "What was the email you received?"

Though he had an idea what Rio (Samara) would do after she receives his secret email –and knowing how she loved teasing Matthew (Volt), Siva still thought that she wouldn't be too extreme with it that she'd make Volt feel dejected like this and utter the words 'I'm ruined for sure' as if it was already happening.

But instead of answering, Volt swiped the air and a page was brought to Siva's panel. Thorn leaned on and peaked. When the two saw what was on the email, they burst out into laughter.

Volt was already crying.

In the snapshot was a thread –a forum thread. In the title of the thread was [New Rising Hero] and it was posted in the Hall of Famers wall on the RPG: Terroa official website.

Not only that, there were many kinds of memes created for it.

There are ones who did put on a red cape in him and a small hammer on his hand, titled [Terroa's Thor].

And then there were the ones who put on Barbie's head and changed the BG into a flower field with a full atmosphere made up of anything pink in color, titled: [Barbie and the Flight Armor].

Some of them even created a complete short story for the character, putting a sword on his back and adding friends and some side characters.

And then, there were also titles like, [Iron Princess] with the head becoming Rapunzel or even Jasmine.

Then...

A [Iron Batman vs Superman] cover...

Some expert video editor even made an edited video with the whole Flight Armor being used by a band's vocalist while in a concert... [Flight Armor Concert].

There were just too many people with too much free time. It was hilarious.

For Siva, this was a good distraction.

...especially when he was internally being stabbed in between the cruelest choice he had to make so far...

First save his brother or go look for Amanda.

–which he obviously chose the first.

But as much as Siva wanted to hide this bitterness and pain of a sacrifice, as both a man and a companion, the two knew and could feel just how much Siva was trying to act things out.

He was trying to be strong and resolute. As a man and as the one who held her heart in his own heart, the men knew this well.

That's why he had to succeed... no matter what.

Volt knows it well.

Thorn could feel it too.

*****

At the same time in Dragona...

Carl using his gallant and dignified-looking knight avatar named "Olaf" was in a hover bike. As he entered the near-shattered gates, he looked around and couldn't help but gasp.

"I can't believe that only two people are capable of putting an entire city in the brink of destruction like this one..."

Putting away his helmet, he parked the bike in a five-star hotel's front lobby side where an NPC attendant offered to park it.

"No, I won't be long." Olaf said and walked passed the NPC but not even after three steps, he turned to face the NPC and asked, "How bad is the damage?"

The NPC bit his lower lips and began to sweat. It was clear that just remembering the ordeal was frightening enough for the powerless such as them.

He couldn't even say an answer so Olaf shook his head and proceeded inside.

It was the Crown Hotel in Dragona –a member of the Blue Card group of businessmen.

With his diverse information gathering abilities, he was able to get a chance to be here in this hotel to meet an NPC with a big wig on its head.

On the Penthouse at the top of the building, he met with an alluring woman who looked like to be on her mid-twenties but actually aged twice as such... at least according to Olaf's information.

An exquisite tea service was offered and Olaf spent no less courtesy and took a cup.

"So, Master Adventurer, how can I help you?"

Being called a 'Master' and an 'Adventurer' means that this NPC held his identity as a player –a Summoned Soul– in high regards. But instead of being a dick and displaying arrogance because of it, he instead displayed a rare elegant smile and spoke of his matter of visit directly.

"I won't tell you a story. I just need some answers to some important questions that might concern the very survival of your business..." Carl paused then looked eye to eye to the alluring but business-dressed woman without any hint of hesitation. "...and in a worst case scenario, of the world."

The woman, in the middle of raising her tea cup, had to stop at the last words he said. Her hands shook and she lowered it seeming to have lost her taste for the delicious and exquisite tea se offered.

"I feel the weight of your news, so please ask away."

The woman, although trying to hold her wits together is still an NPC with a personality of a dignified high class woman. She can't lose her cool no matter the situation she was in.

Olaf smiled at this. He can't help but sigh in admiration to the people who created this world with such detail in its inhabitants that it's almost real.

He said, "Firstly, I received information that there is a member of the Blue Card Legion who brought back someone with a Dark Smoke Skin in this place, is that true?"

"Yes." The woman answered straight away. Although there was a slight movement on her brow when Olaf mentioned the 'Legion', she still considered the identity of the man in front of her.

In fact, the Legion is a very secretive group that there is virtually no information about them outside of the people who are actually aware of them.

Also, the Blue Card Merchant Group –the group of NPC businessmen was a business group that was founded and managed by the Legion. For these NPC, the survival of their business depended on the power that this Legion had. Thus, its secrecy is very highly protected and if not prompted by someone with the proper authority, they wouldn't even confirm its very existence.

Thus, when Olaf asked about it directly and even knowing that a member of this Legion had actually brought back someone with the exact appearance as he had described, she didn't think twice to deny it.

Olaf, upon hearing this reply, nodded in sympathy.

After a moment, he asked again, "Another question; did your information network picked up anything about an old man leading five youths? The last news about this group is that they were last seen by your spies back in Loire. I asked them about this and they told me that they heard the old man speaks of the City of Dragona and thus, I hurried here."

When Olaf asked this question, he was also quite in a hurry and in an anxious state. Firstly though, it's because if he doesn't get any good answer, he will be hanged by President Ethan using a telephone cord –if he was lucky that President Ethan wasn't cleaning his figurine collection.

Just imagining one of those heavy figurines hitting his head was already painful, what more is a real thing when it was flying over him and blotting out his vision?

He could only quaff and wish.

"Please give me a good answer."