Omega Wars Chronicles

Chapter 64: Whatever It Takes

In one of the Shard court halls, Uto's back was slammed against the wall by Zera as she held him by the collar while glaring at him with her glowing irises.
    "Alright, bug, start talking or i am going to destroy every bone in your body and leave you boneless!" Zera said.
     "That's quite extreme, don't you think?" Uto asked.
    "Do i look like someone who cares?" Zera asked.
    "Of course, you don't." Uto said, "Such fiery spirit. You would make a fine wife for a warrior or a beautiful slave for entertainment."
    The scowl on Zera's face increased and Zera discharged a green aura that quickly took the form of a bear with numerous spikes on its back. Zera took hold of Uto's right palm and effortlessly shatters the bones there with her grip, leading Uto to yell in pain.
     "Why is Zotek acting like he doesn't know anything?" Zera asked, "You said 'the plan worked' so tell me, what is the plan?"
     "I... I..."
    Zera moved her hand to Uto's wrist and instantly shatters it with her grip, leading Uto to yell again in pain.
    "Don't waste my time when i am asking you a question." Zera said.
   "I... I... "
    As this was going on, Schroeder was checking on the hivelings while the sound of Uto's bone breaking and his screams echoed.
    "My arm! My arm!!" Uto's voice sounded.
    "Answer my damn question!" Zera's voice sounded.
   Observing the dead hivelings, Schroeder takes notice of a five eyed white bull tattoo on the chest of a male hiveling which left him confused.
    "Huh?" Schroeder said inwardly.
    Schroeder's eyes moved towards another male hiveling corpse and takes notice of the same five eyed white bull tattoo on the wrist of the hiveling.
    "What?!" Schroeder asked within himself in shock and confusion, "No...! Could it be...?"
    Meanwhile as Uto was still screaming at the time Zera was holding his other arm, Uto's body was quickly covered with dark sand, leaving just his head and the arm Zera was holding.
    "Zera!" Schroeder's voice sounded.
    Zera glanced back and spots Schroeder staring down at a male hiveling.
    "Come and see this." Schroeder said.
    Zera walks towards Schroeder and squats beside him.
    "Look." Schroeder said as he shows Zera the bull marking at the back of a male hiveling's hand.
     "What is that?" Zera asked.
     "Zera, use your eyes of the beast technique to see if all the hivelings we took down have the same markings.
     Zera nods her head and faces forward with her glowing irises.
     "They all have the five eyed bull markings." Zera said, "Could they be from the same kind of tribe or something?"
      "No, this isn't a matter of being of the same tribe." Schroeder answered while facing the deceased hiveling, "It's just as i feared!"
   The dark sand that covered Uto's body increased, leaving just his head and Uto found himself pulled to the back of Schroeder and Zera.
     "How did you do it?" Schroeder asked as he stood on his feet and turned to look at Uto while discharging a disturbing aura along with his irises glowing, "How were you able to do something like this to Zotek when there was nothing to set it off?"
     "What are you talking about?" Zera asked Schroeder.
     "Zotek has been affected by the 'aniza curse'." Schroeder replied, "That's why he can't seem to remember anything."
     "Aniza curse?" Zera asked with a raised brow, "You mean a forbidden linking technique created by the minotaur race that can be activated through death? I thought it was a myth or something!"
      "Well, it isn't." Schroeder replied while glaring at Uto, "I have had an encounter with this technique when i was a boy. When this technique is used, the victim will lose his or her memories and the more cursers  linked to this technique, the more memories the victim will lose but all that is needed is to activate it is the death of a  curser with the five eyed black bull tattoo."
     "Black bull tattoo..." Zera said while trying to grasp the situation, "But Schroeder, all the hivelings we killed had a white tattoo. Not one of them had a  black tattoo."
     "Exactly. And this hiveling couldn't be the trigger because we haven't killed him... Yet." Schroeder said.
    Looking at Uto again, Zera growls and hastily clamps her hand round his face (while he still in the dark sand).
    "Zera!" Schroeder called.
    "Listen, bug and listen very carefully!" Zera said to Uto, "I'm sure this little time you've spent with me, you understood that i am one of those people you don't want to piss off and right now, my patience is really running out.
    Now i don't truly understand what your game is here and to be honest, i don't care."
   "But you see him there...!" Zera said as she points at Zotek (who happened to be staring at the ground), "That man is a part of my family and if you don't start confessing your entire plan, i'm going to make you wish you were never born. After all..."
   "There are a million ways to break a rat without killing it." Zera said with a dark smile as her irises glowed, "But in this case, I'd say a 'bug'."
    "I'd start talking if i were you." Schroeder said.
    For a moment, Uto stared at Schroeder and chuckled.
    "You know, human, this woman is more entertaining than you." Uto said with a smile, "Anyway, there is no point of hiding it anymore. It's about to happen."
     "What is about to happen?" Schroeder asked.
     "You want to understand what is going? What our plan is?" Uto asked, "It is quite simple to see. You even solved the mystery of our mission.
    Our mission was simply to sacrifice our lives in order to ensure the grand opening. When we moved in to attack the grim predator, it was obvious we were going to be killed but in doing so, we would remove the forbidden knowledge the grim predator has taken from our human ally."
     "Human ally?" Zera asked with a quizzical look.
     "Arxion." Schroeder said.
     "Arxion?" Zera asked in confusion as she peeked at Schroeder.
    "Zotek confirmed him as a traitor and got rid of ... Him..." Schroeder said as he stared down at the ground with widened eyes, "Oh no...!"
     "What?" Zera asked.
     "The trigger... There were no hivelings with the black bull tattoo but what if it wasn't a hiveling but Arxion himself?"
     "Huh?" Zera asked with a raised brow.
     "Well done, human." Uto said with a smile, "It would seem you possess a lot of intelligence."
     "Why did you people place the tattoo on Arxion?" Schroeder asked.
      "Oh, you got it all wrong." Uto replied, " 'We' didn't do anything to him."
     A flashback takes place in a forest as Balog was sitting on a rock while discussing with Uto.
    "There is a special task Rora has assigned to you ." Balog said, "Tell me, what is your knowledge on the aniza curse?"
     "Aniza curse? The memory erasing technique of the minotaurs?" Uto asked, "There is no such thing."
     "Well there is and you have been assigned to take part in it." Balog replied.
     "Excuse me?" Uto said.
     "The full infiltration of Keigra will soon begin and your master Rora wants to hurt the humans in ways unimaginable for what they did before your race became known as the hivelings, but i have a feeling there will be a major set back." Balog said, "Arxion... My student. He is strong in his own right but he can sometimes act out of place and with the way the last mission went in the academy, there is this gut feeling that he might cause the entire plan to crumble before your kind gets to initiate the final stage.
    So... i placed the aniza curse on him without his knowledge."
     "Your own student?" Uto asked, "You did such a thing to your own student? Is your race that heartless?"
     "I am willing to do what it takes to fulfill a mission even if it includes sacrificing my own family." Balog said, "And Rora herself is willing to do anything for this mission to succeed and she requires your lives to do so. But in all this, the question that lies is...
    "'Are you willing to do what it takes?'" Balog asked with his eyes glowing as he slightly bent his head.
    Done with explaining what happened, Zera stared at him with a raised brow.
     "This ally of yours... Balog... What race is he from?" Zera asked.
      "He holds no relevance right now but your friend does." Uto replied.
     "Schroeder, is it?" Uto asked as his eyes moves towards Schroeder, "You said the more cursers there are, the more memories the victim will lose. How much memories do you think the grim predator will lose? Do you realize how many of us you have killed?"
     At the time Uto was talking, Zotek falls flat on his face, catching the attention of Zera and Schroeder.
    "Zotek!!" Zera said as she quickly moved to check up on him.
   "What the...?" Schroeder said.
   "His memories are vanishing so fast that he has lost consciousness." Uto said, "Soon, it will reach a point he'll forget how to breathe and his heart will stop beating."
   Hearing this, Schroeder glanced at Uto with an enraged visage as his irises glowed with blue streaks of light flowing out.
   "His death is inevita-"
    Schroeder interrupts Uto as he swiftly clamped his hand round Uto's face and slammed his head to the ground, creating a big fracture there and leaving Uto outcold.
   "Shut up." Schroeder said.
    Back at the arena, numerous sounds of explosions were taking place, filling the field with dust-clouds as Onak kept trying to squash Cloud repeatedly but Cloud kept hopping in different directions, evading all of Onak's attacks.
     "Wow, Cloud has lasted more than 3 minutes against Onak." Kein said.
     "As incredible as this is, i still can't understand why Onak hasn't gotten any faster or stronger?" Obaru asked.
     "Yeah, why hasn't he?" Reiv asked inwardly.
     "Hey, has anyone seen Rish?" Killer bee asked, "He hasn't gotten back since the second half."
     "Hm?" Govo said as he glanced at Killer bee with crossed arms.
     "You're right. Where is Rish?" Sting asked as he took a quick look around for Rish.
     "Something isn't right with this big lesser." Karma said inwardly, "How many minutes has passed and he hasn't gotten stronger. Did something go wrong with him or is he holding way back because of what happened with Xorian? Or could it be that this is a fake?"
    As the audience were still watching Cloud evade all of Onak's attacks, Reiv's suspicion grew even more.
    "Onak has been odd in this round." Reiv said inwardly, "First, he talked about how insignificant Cloud is and sounded so arrogant. He even talked a lot in this round and if there is any other thing that is notable about Onak is that he is not much of a talker. The only time, other than this round he talked more was during his fight with Van and that was because Leorona gave him something to quell his wrath for a couple of days in order to avoid any fight with him during the journey.
    Why does Onak feel out of place? His power level hasn't even increased a bit. Could it be he is a fake? No, that's just crazy talk. If he was a fake then which means an imposter must have beaten him and taken his form, right?
   Well, Onak is strong but he is not unbeatable. I have seen Zera and Zotek put him down on several occasions when he loses control but if this guy is an imposter, then that means he was stronger than Onak at the moment and then he was able to beat him and take his form and...."
    Reiv's eyes immediately widened in alarm and he quickly stood up from his seat and ran.
    "Reiv?" Obaru called in confusion as he watched Reiv run away.
    "This is bad! This is bad! This is bad!!" Reiv said inwardly as he ran into the hall, "If an imposter is here then there must be several of his allies here as well! I need to-!"
    Reiv halts and became shocked as he spots numerous of hivelings carrying the bodies of Izaiya, Dunen and Grei.
     "Izaiya... Dunen... G-Grei...?" Reiv asked inwardly, "What the hell...?!"
    Reiv glanced to his left and takes notice of a couple of male Keigra corpses laying on the ground.
    "The people in charge of the barrier..." Reiv said inwardly, "Then who the hell is handling the barrier in the arena?!"
    A teenage redhead hiveling female with bob-cut appears behind Reiv and knocks him out with a chop to the back of his neck.
   "Hey, Xi. How is Ranksa doing in the arena?" A teenage male hiveling with a shoulder length pigtail braid asked the female hiveling that knocked out Reiv.
    "He is doing well, Rhan, but it would seem he is becoming frustrated with his opponent and would like to let loose." Xi replied.
    "Well, he better not." The Rhan said, "Zeinora let her emotions get the best of her and she almost screwed us up. I'm even surprised Bleid didn't mess up his own task, but regardless, we need to get into formation now if we are to carry out the final stage of this plan."
    "Hey, Ona, sector 452, now." Rhan said as he glanced at a teenage hiveling female that was nigh identical with Xi (since Ona had long red hair) .
   Ona nods her head and vanishes and after Ona had gone, Rhan turned around and stretched his neck with a smirk.
    "Alright then, let's get into positions." Rhan said.