GATE: The United Nations of Earth

Chapter 21: "Priority: Temple of Minerva"

--Underground chamber, Minerva Temple, Icia--

Hearing his name, Kaian pauses and looks at the direction of whoever that was. His action give Rene enough time to transfer what's left of his armor to the right arm and punch him in the face throwing him off the commander. Kaian gets up with the intention to finish off Rene but he is stopped by another SIF. The SIF pull Kaian's collar and throw him at the wall then shoot him with his PAS-5 but Kaian dodges the shots and then uses his spear to knock the rifle out of the SIF's hands.

He kicks the SIF to the ground and pierces him with the spear. With his last breath, the SIF materializes a pistol in his right hand and shoots at Kaian. Although annoyed, Kaian admires the bravery and the tenacity of these other worlders. Pulling his spear out and sharply stabs the SIF's head killing him.

Rene exhaust sitting against the wall can only watch as another one of his men is being killed "This is Robber 9-1" his sentence is interrupted as he coughs some blood out "We're 2 men down, a total loss is imminent. Requesting..." the paint makes him coughs again "Requesting assistance immediately".

As he coughs out another bit of blood, he looks up and sees Kaian charging at him. Rene tries to get up and prepare to fight the apostle but before he could attempt to do so, Kaian is already right in front of him. He grabs the spear as Kaian tries to stab him with it. What's left of the TAC suit helps him hold the spear in place, preventing it from killing him but he's too weak to do anything else. His only objective now is to buy enough for help to, hopefully, arrive in time to save his men.

Suddenly, Kaian pulls his spear back and block an attack from the side that is so strong it throws him across the room. Rene looks up and sees Rory standing over him with her halberd in hand staring at Kaian.

"You're a freshling?" Rory asks.

Without a single answer, Kaian charges at Rory and swings his spears at her, which she manages to stop it with her halberd.

"Rude" Rory says sarcastically.

Rory slides to the side and hook her halberd with Kaian's spear then pulls and slams him to the ground. She then jumps up and attempts to strike him but he rolls over and slams at Rory's rib with the end of his spear's handle.

In pain, Rory dashes back as her rib heals back "That's hurt!".

Both of them charge at each other and the clash of their weapon creates a shockwave that knocks them both back and everyone else in the room.

--Keep's tower, Icia keep--

Zoral and the governor are back in the keep, he's looking down, observing the siege progress while the governor is kneeling in the center of the tower and praying. The UNE advance is slow but it is only because they're taking extreme care to minimize the loss of innocent lives, although, civilian casualty is unavoidable. The barricades and obstacles that Zoral's men have been working hard to set up do little but be a minor annoyance to the Lancer tanks.

"These barbarians and their use of dark magic, such cowards" Zoral cursed the UNE as he is trying to think of a way to turn the tide.

He looks around and evaluates the position of his forces. Zoral knew that a small team of the enemy appeared out of nowhere at the temple of Minerva, he thinks that they used some kind of teleportation magic to get there. He expected that his troops there will deal with the enemy quickly but to his surprise, the fighting is still going on.

"Runner!" Zoral calls one of his runners to enter the room he's in "What's the situation at the temple?".

"Your Highness, the enemy is holding the entrance into the temple and apostle Kaian is fighting enemy troops in the secret chamber" the runner reports "It seems that they're trying to take the Holy Cube of Minerva, we are trying to take back the temple but a lot of our men died without any significant progress".