An Incomplete History

Chapter 7 - Preparation.

Aquila and Tomasi enter the bunker, Tomasi immediately walks to Gale. "We saw that weird disfigured man again, he knows about you!" Tomasi's voice is panicked. "Credell?" Ryuma asks. "Yeah, I think that's what Julio called him." Gale turns to Ryuma with a look of confusion. "If that's the case that means the arch-demon of deception knows of you too." Ryuma stares at the ground. "Is that the same arch-demon that's already in the area?" Aquila's voice is slightly shaky. "Nope, The arch-demon of deception is the second strongest of the arch-demons, our combined strength wouldn't even be enough to cut him. The aura I felt from the arch-demon who was already in the area was a lot weaker." Makya chimes in. "I don't believe deception is here just yet, Credell is usually from place to place quickly but this does affirm the fact we are limited for time." Ryuma turns around. "That means we have to use every bit of time we have wisely, Aquila, Tomasi I'll run you through what we did with Gale. Makya, Take P and Gale to the training hall, I think they would be able to strengthen each other by fighting." Ryuma waves to signal Tomasi and Aquila to follow him. "Alright you two, Let's go" Mayka gives a smile before starting to walk away. 

Makya, Gale and P get to the same room they sparred in before. "Alright how this is gonna work is you two will fight and I'll tell you both things to work on and you guys continue from there." Makya sits on the bench. "Alright, sounds good..?" Gale starts walking to the middle of the field and P stands in-front of him. "Should I use my sword?" Gale asks. "Yeah go ahead, P you can use a weapon too if you'd like" Makya leans back. Gale draws his sword and P just fashions on some metal wrist guards.  "Alright start!" Makya yells and Gale runs towards P swinging his sword but P blocks and gets pushed back a bit. P then runs at him hitting his sword with her metal wrist guards and knocking it to the side to land a punch right on his jaw. "Alright pause, Gale you need to be more defensive" Makya stands up and walks towards Gale whose holding his jaw. "Alright look, When your opponent runs towards you, Hold your sword firm so the enemy can't bat it away." Makya moves gales hands so he's holding his sword straight, she lets go and backs off slightly. Gale looks right at the point of his sword and stares down at P. "Alright , let's do one more round and hopefully Ryuma will get back soon." Makya sits back down and leans back, P fastens her guards then at a moments notice goes dashing at Gale, Gale immediately swings back trying to block but P rolls to the side and tries to sweep Gale's leg but he barely evades. P still going for the offensive dashes at him again punching him right in the stomach. P leaps back and Gale repositions himself, Gale brings his sword back in front of him and takes a deep breath. Ryuma, Tomasi and Aquila walk into the room but Gale and P don't notice.  P takes stance ready to attack again, right as she goes to attack Gale, the veins in his eye wound glow a bright purple and he dashes towards P at a speed almost comparable to Ryuma, driving P into the ground in one swift move.  As Gale stands above P his wound still glowing but after a brief second Gale falls to his knees yelling and grabbing his eye, shock and pain spreading through his entire body like wildfire. Without hesitation Tomasi sprints towards Gale leaving Ryuma and Aquila near the bench. P stands up and observes Gale, Tomasi gets to him. "Gale! Gale what's happening!". Gale looks up at Tomasi, his vision blurring as he sees Aquila, Ryuma and Makya show up behind him. "Y-yeah I'm fine" Gale stands up but immediately collapses but Tomasi catches him. 

"It's my fault, he doesn't know how to control the power he got from the stones just yet, the toll it will take on his body is immense." Ryuma leans against the wall in a small bedroom. In the room Gale just wakes up to see Tomasi on the chair right beside his bed talking to Ryuma. "Gale! are you feeling okay?" Tomasi looks nervous, Ryuma walks closer to the bed. "I don't know what happened exactly but my entire body went into shock after whatever the hell I did" Gale turns his head to Ryuma looking for an answer. "From what it looked like you were able to use some of the power you got from the stones to enhance your speed, there wasn't a lot of strength to that attack as P was perfectly fine after just a bit stunned. Though it weighed a lot on you it proved it was a better choice than I thought that you winded up here" Ryuma gives a smile to add what light he can to the situation. "Do you know how I can stop feeling this way?" Gale asks.  "Well I think the only solution would be better control over the stones power in you, though I have no idea how to do that." Ryuma avoids eye contact. "I'm sure we can figure this out" Tomasi smiles. "Yeah, It'll be fine" Gale looks at his legs, doubting his own words. "If you're feeling hungry there's some easy food to make in the kitchen, this place got stuffed with supplies so use them as you please." Ryuma stands up. "Alright, I'm gonna go see what Makya is up to, see you guys later" Ryuma walks out of the room. Tomasi and Gale watch Ryuma leave, the second the door shuts Tomasi turns back towards Gale "Listen Gale, I'm not feeling great about us being in this mess, I'm sure we can still turn back now." Tomasi looks afraid. "You heard as well as I did, It's either I die from one of the archdemons servants killing me, or I kill them first." Gale looks at Tomasi reciprocating the same look of nervous anticipation. "Well you need to promise me that you won't let any of us die, including yourself." Tomasi's face mirrors that same seriousness that he displayed when Ryuma first showed up in Gale's house. "I'll try my best..." Gale stops holding eye contact. "Not good enough, I need you to promise." Tomasi's tone is firm, Gale still refuses to make eye contact. "Listen Gale, I understand if you're as scared as us. This is new to everybody, but me and Aquila are putting our lives on the line for you, when this entire thing is over I want to be able to stand beside both of you. So... Promise me." Tomasi looks at Gale, searching for any sign of emotion or response of any kind. "I'm gonna go unpack, I'll talk to you later Gale" Tomasi gets up and is half out the exit before Gale responds in a shaky voice. "I.. Promise." Tomasi grins as he leaves the room without saying a word.

2 hours pass and Tomasi leaves his room to find the bathroom, on his way there he runs into Makya who seems to be deep in thought. "Everything alright?" Tomasi asks. "You know you can't turn back now right?" Makya's words take Tomasi back. "Yeah I know what I'm getting myself into." Tomasi retaliates. "You're gonna need to keep the positive attitude you have now. You'll need it." Makya stares at the counter, not moving slightly. "What happened, why are you suddenly so different?" Tomasi questions her. "When I saw Gale, I pitied him at first, I knew he really didn't have a choice in the matter anymore. But when I saw you two, so young yet walking as dangerous of a path as this is, it saddens me a lot. You see, there's no use being sad all the time, me and Ryuma learnt that when you're doing this job, smiling while you still have the ability to is the only way to go about things, don't mistake our smiles for a lack of grief." Makya looks at Tomasi who is speechless. "Listen kid. I'll do what I can to protect you and show you the ropes, but you gotta promise me one thing." Makya looks at him waiting for a response, Tomasi goes silent thinking she's gonna continue but clues in quickly. "O-oh yeah.." Tomasi and Makya make eye contact. "Ryuma already trusts you guys, faster than I've seen him trust anybody before. Please promise me you'll work hard, he hasn't had this much hope in a while, it's nice to see..." Makya stares at him waiting for another response. "... Yeah... I promise." Makya smiles at him, a genuine smile which causes Tomasi to immediately smile back. "Thank you kid. Now head to bed, we have a lot of stuff to do in the morning." Makya pats Tomasi on the back and walks away to her room and Tomasi continues to look for the bathroom.

At midnight Gale is staring at his roof. Finally shutting his eyes and being able to sleep. He suddenly jolts awake, he isn't in his room anymore. Infront of him stands a figure, taller than most buildings downtown, 8 legs that pierced the foggy granite floor. An ominous mist fills the room as 8 bright yellow eyes pierce into his soul. One leg moves forward causing the entire plateau of rock to shake. A deep, commanding and sickening voice emerges. "Gale... Why are you so willing to die..."

[Chapter end]