Careful Not To Break Reality

Standing near the entrance was a slim woman dressed in a red tight-fitting dress and a giant man in full tactical suit behind her. Judging by the not so quiet sounds of footsteps from all around them, Rydel knew that actual soldiers are being deployed all around them and are slowly closing in their location from all corners of the arena and surround them.

Rydel recognized Lady Lily, but he did not know that the man standing behind him is Sir Deva. However, his instincts screamed out at him to get out of here before it is too late. Both of them are incredibly dangerous, and as he scanned around to look at the soldiers equipped with what seemed like perfected versions of pseudo-artifacts, there is no real way for him to fight his way out of here.

His only hope would be Zel, and that they have successfully pulled off their escape and are on their way here. Rydel rubbed his tummy and felt the lump underneath his skin, and his mind drifted back to when he was still preparing for the fight, when Valerie walked in on him in the workshop trying to tape together the battery packs.

'Move your arms up a bit.' As Valerie closes in on Rydel, who did not divert his attention away from the desk as she approaches. He did so as instructed, thinking maybe she is gonna give him a hug or something. But instead, she pointed the head of some sort of device against his abdomen after lifting his shirt up, and hit the trigger. A short sharp pain shot through his body and Rydel almost dropped the battery on her head. He glared at her, demanding an explanation.

'This is the tracking beacon, hidden within an insulating capsule, should work well regardless how much electricity might pass through it.'

'Can't I just pack it in my...you know, pocket?'

'Maybe, but this is the most secure way.' Valerie said, 'plus, your skin is an extra layer of insulation. Can't really go wrong with that. It will pulse once every three seconds if it's still working.'

'So, like a parasite? Eating away my insides?'

'Oh grow up.'

She was right, somehow, and Rydel hated to admit it. He made sure to secure the personal interface through as much insulation as he could provide, and yet the storm of electricity still ate through it no problem. He reaches a finger for the location of injection, and it pulses slightly. Damn, she was right.

Well, at least he knows that Valerie should be able to locate him, and he just have to hold out until then. From the looks of that, it seemed Lady Lily wanted to talk for a bit before doing anything direct like getting her soldiers to open fire and get the artifact away from him. It's always a good sign when the villain boss does that for one reason or another.

'Rydel Daera.' Lady Lily said mockingly as she walked towards him who's still sitting on the ground, 'so that's your name.'

'Lily.' Rydel replied with an equal mocking tone, and both of the villain bosses looked like they are about to throw hands, 'may I ask why you are here?'

'Well, for some reason, master ordered us not to harm you, or any of your owners for that matter. He saw value in you that I do not.' Lady Lily said, trying to keep her calm but struggling to hide her distain towards Rydel, 'you self-righteous weaklings are not going to be enough for us to win this upcoming war!'

'He told me about it.' Rydel replied, 'but this!' he continued as he pointed at the black liquid that flowed out of Dolon's face after she shocked herself to break out of the control, 'this is not how you make your point! What did you get out of this apart from pointless deaths?'

'Pointless? No.' Lady Lily chuckled and shook her head, 'Master ordered me not to harm you artifact users, but he didn't say anything about not allowing you to harm each other.'

Rydel froze, and he looked down at Dolon's motionless body, his hands shaking.

'Pointless? Dolon was the definitive test of power to filter out the weak within our ranks, and when you showed up, you became the perfect person to take her down. I do not violet Master's orders, and I will end up getting two artifacts in one fell swoop. Yours and hers.'

'But he said you can't...'

'Who said I needed to harm you to capture you?' Lady Lily walked even closer and stopped when she is forty meters away, 'Dolon's artifact was nothing special, a rare elementary kind and that one at that. Your artifact, however, is incredibly interesting. Worthy of duplication.'

There isn't much else for Rydel to say. Those within the ranks of Absolute Being seemed to follow a singular goal, and that also coincided with the goals of the bearers, albeit the way they wanted to achieve such goals of winning this so-called upcoming war, or preventing the upcoming threat is drastically different. This is where they depart, and this is why they have to fight. Rydel clenched his fist, and got ready for a fight as Lady Lily got too close for comfort. He has no idea how her artifacts work, and the man standing behind her seemed just as threatening.

Rydel willed himself to stand, reached out his left hand as the patterns on his glove pulsed blood red. With a clawing motion, he reached up and pulled down a giant piece of the arena ceiling from above and threw it towards Lady Lily. Rydel didn't know what she did, but the ceiling material was split in half cleanly, and she didn't slow down her process at all.

Rydel stood his ground, and threw all of the attacks at her. He used up the last of his grenades, and she dismissed them with a simple wave of the hand and those grenades simply crumbled before it exploded. He then threw large chunks of materials from underneath the ground and launched it at her. It was split open once again before making contact, and they kept on making progress towards Rydel. From the split seconds of opening, Rydel saw her smile excitedly.

She longed for a challenge, and she wanted it!

Whatever Lady Lily wants, she will get.

All of the soldiers surrounding the arena got the idea and simply stood guard and watches without making a move. The man behind her was also shadowing her, but never intervening unless the chunks of material is about to hit him and a simple evasion is required.

So it is a one on one battle she wanted. Rydel thought, if that's the case, he will give it to her. He has already used his artifact extensively, and he could feel the fatigue slowly spreading from his finger tips that are going numb and stiff from the artifact usage. However, he cannot give up now, not after all that has happened.

With the little amount of energy he has, he needed to make this quick, catch Lady Lily off guard with his unpredictable attacks, and pin her down. He has to make this one attack count.

And he will have to do it for Dolon.

Now that he has made his mind, he reached out towards Lady Lily, and closed his fist, intending to trap her within the space his glove can create. Lady Lily scanned around her and felt the pressure coming around her. Knowing something is about to happen, she dashed to the side and avoided getting caught right away. Rydel immediately released his grasp and aimed towards Lady Lily once again, but she didn't give him a sinle moment to relax. Moving unnaturally fast for someone that looks and dresses like her, she came into within arms reach in almost an instant, and within her hand was a painting brush like item.

'Now, hand over everything!' She had the smile of a maniac, and her eyes caught onto Rydel's glove and Dolon's Lightning Rod.

Rydel assumed that's Lady Lily's artifact, and he knew he had little time to react before getting caught by what she did, and he already prepared for this. Gently tapping the last flash grenade tied on his belt, it exploded and sends out a brilliant flash of light that caused everyone in the arena to look away instinctively. Lady Lily caught the worst of it, as her speed still won't compete with the speed of light she was temporarily blinded and disoriented.

'Lady Lily!' The man who stood thirty meters way waiting for her called out right as Rydel delivered a kick to her stomach and sent her flying back away. Then, Rydel jumped towards Dolon's body, and reached for the artifact.

'No!' The man shouted and dropped immediately into a split stance, bring both arms in front of him and having the thumbs and index finger forming a triangle that pointed to the space above Rydel and Dolon. Sir Deva also activated his artifact, creating a gravity field of his own and lifting Rydel and the many rubbles up into the sky.

Rydel's fingers scr.a.p.ed against Dolon's lower arm that was attached to the gently pulsing artifact before his entire body was lifted up into the sky. He threw his arms and legs around and tried to break free, but the gravity field created by Sir Deva's mass projector is simply too strong!

'Take it...Take it...'

Those were the last words Dolon said to him, and she meant for Rydel to Lightning Rod away and find another worthy bearer.

Or did she meant that it's for him?

Rydel is floating away from the surface, and the gravity field created by Sir Deva's mass projector is not going to let up for a single moment.

He does not know what would happen if a single individual wields two artifacts, would that kill him? Would the power be too much for a single being to hold?

There is no answer to this, and it seemed like there is only one way to find out. Lady Lily might have used Rydel to get rid of Dolon, but he won't let her succeed in the end and got away with the artifact too. He took a quick breath to calm his mind amidst the disorientation of floating in the air, and reached out with his left hand.

'No! He was going for the...' Before Lady Lily could finish, Rydel has already warped away the part of Dolon's arms that were attached to the Lightning Rod and brought it into his right hand. The part of her arm is cold, but the Lightning Rod is warm. Reaching out with his right hand, he grabbed it.

A burst of lightning exploded outwards like a storm with Rydel at the center, and the jolts of electricity twisting and bursting around hit Sir Deva and Lady Lily when they got too close, causing them to fall back and Lady Lily quickly rearranged the materials from ground underneath them to form a shield.

The warmth from within Rydel's arms became ever hotter, and he saw himself giving off the electricity. With his every heart beat, the power flowing within his body became ever stronger. He struggled to see through all the light, but the electricity itself didn't harm him. Through squinted eyes, he saw the unknown metals of the Lightning Rod slowly melting away from within his hands and started crawling up around his right hand.

'Oh god, is this going to be another glove?' Rydel thought to himself, and the moment the word glove came into his head, the metal immediately sets into shape and formed a identical glove to his left, as if the artifact is reading his mind.

Damn. Maybe I should have think of something cooler, like a knuckleduster?

Responding to his thought once again, the metal retracted down and away from his wrists and condensed into a silver knuckleduster around his knuckles. Certainly usable in melee combat, but the uses are rather limited.

Damn...Rydel hesitated again. When he first obtained the glove, he had no idea that he could get the customized versions of the artifact. In fact, most beings that possesses artifacts don't know either, because the entire experience is so out of the ordinary, that most are simply reactive to whatever happens. But with a second artifact in his hand and him still not being dead, Rydel now has a choice to make.

Ah.....a dagger?

No, no, no...A mace!

But that's too hefty to carry around.

How about a...an Aquarian blade, to remember Dolon by.

Yeah. That.

As the blade consolidated itself and formed within Rydel's hand, he felt the weight of it. The power of unlimited control over electricity, and the burden of wielding such an instrument.

He was then transport to the empty space that Dolon was in when she first obtained the artifact, and saw boulders of rocks charging towards him and intending to crush him from within. He looked down, with the Glove on his left and the blade on his right, he tore through the crushing rocks like blocks of tofu.

The trail of the Lightning Rod was passed, and he is now deemed worthy. The storm of lightning finally subsided, and Rydel landed back on the ground with a blade on his hand. However, judging by the lengths of the blade, it is more apt to call it a dagger. With that in his hand, he pointed towards the pair, and fired.

A thick bolt of electricity shot off from the tip and split the shields created by Lady Lily in half, forcing them to evade and jump out to the sides. Rydel tracked the movement of Lady Lily with the tip, and the lightning followed. However, right before it reaches her, a jolt of pain recoiled up his right arm.

Despite his experience with the Glove, he is still a novice with Lightning Rod, and it seemed like the capacity for him at the current stage is still really low. He has no idea how to match to power output with his own bodily systems, and how to vary the intensity and frequency of the strikes.

He is also no master of swordplay.

There are lots of things he needed to improve on, but that can come after he has survived this bout. He pulled back the blade and released it. As he finished using the blade, Lightning Rod simply retracted back into his palm and through his forearms, making a sheath with his own flesh. Well, the artifacts are certainly clingy ones...

Propping himself upwith the last of his remaining stamina, he faced down at Lady Lily, Sir Deva and the rest.

'CAPTURE HIM!!!' Lady Lily ordered everyone around, and all of the soldiers opened fire with the stun setting. At this exact moment, the arena ceiling was tore wide open and a ship charged through it before hovering right above Rydel. The blue bolts that were fired were held motionless in the air a mere meter in front of Rydel, and Valerie jumped down from the ship to land beside him.

'You got what you needed? Where is Dolon?' Valerie quickly asked as she expanded the regions of space around them that were locked down, preventing any bolts from slipping through.

'She is gone.' Rydel shook his head, but then he brought up his right hand as the blade materializes from within his grip, 'but her memories live within me now.'

From Valerie shocked expression, Rydel knew that she, like everybody else, never thought holding two artifacts at the same time is possible. But despite her many questions, there are more important factors at hand. Realizing that what they do simply cannot pierce through Valerie's locked down space, the absolute defense in the galaxy, they diverted their fire to the ship that floated above, however all of their fires went straight through as the ship slowly faded away into oblivion.

That's Zel's ability! Lady Lily gritted her teeth as she ignored for the plea from those serving under her as to what to do next.

There isn't anything she could do. With four artifacts in front of her, each complimenting and working with one another.

Slipping through the locked down space and appearing next to Valerie and Rydel, Zel asked, 'So, who's ready to go home?'

'Just one moment.' Rydel said, then he reached out and gently warped around Dolon's body. He will bring her home no matter what. With her body within his left hand, and her artifact within his right, he slowly turned and nodded towards Zel.

'Let's go home.'

(Second Book End)