The Place Before the Core (Reprise)

Chapter 7: The Weapon

The King looked baffled for a second but quickly regained himself "Yay, in faith thou is a fine warrior."

Cecil looked between her father and me in awe. I giggled as the King gave me an acknowledged smile and then gave his attention to the crowd. While he dismissed them I realized he understood me when I said my request.

Reading my thought, Galactus, heading towards to us along with Jepidity, answered "People will automatically understand you even if you use modern English instead of Elizabethan language."

Cecil chimed in "And I could make it go vise versa if you want, when they speak Elizabethan it will come out modern English."

I perked up " Yes! And Galactus you said I didn't have a chance of beating her!"

Cecil tittered as Galactus spoke "Well, I knew you were going to beat her. I just wanted you to try when you got in, instead of getting to cocky and loosing. What I didn't know was the request you're going to make."

"And it was a good one at that. Another skilled warrior in this guild." Jepidity interjected.

"Cecil, how do you know my name? I mean my actual name." I asked changing the subject.

"Oh, because Galactus over there had a chat with me earlier." Cecil answered as two men came from the entrance of the arena carrying a case.

"Now what is that?" I peered at the case being brought in my direction.

"It's the weapon that you won. I've never actually seen it before, my father though I would steal it."

I laughed "Well is he right?"

"Nope, I don't prefer to use anything related to a gun."

The carriers soon arrived with the package and they placed it in front of me. They left the coliseum and it was vacant once again. My eyes skimmed the large box, looking for a way to open it. I saw a latched on the box, undid it and inspected the content. It was an odd looking weapon in shape of a saxophone, but way slender. It gave off a silver color but it was made of tin. I lifted weapon out the case and examined it more closely. The neck of this weapon, the neck of saxophone, was the handle and it had two levers on it. The levers were overlapping each other, the top one bigger than the small one.

I held up the weapon, facing it forward. I press the top lever and heard some quick gears and the weapon's bell part shot straight. So now the weapon was straight, besides the neck. Everyone watched in astonishment as weapon worked. I toggled with the big lever, making the weapon extend and then fold. After a while of doing some fancying tricks with the large button, I moved on to try the small one. I pointed the weapon to place space and pressed it.

A loud, thunderous sound emitted from the weapon after I press it. Also emitting from the weapon was a bullet that soared fast across the arena. I press on the large lever so the weapon went into its saxophone shape.

"Isn't that weapon supposed to have a blade function?" Cecil questioned.

I nodded and searched the weapon to see on the opposite side the levers, a small button. I extended my new armament and pressed the button. A long, one edged blade voided out from the bullet hole. I though for a second and decided to try something. I pressed the small lever hoping for something good to happen. Well it did.

The blade rumbled and darted out from the weapon. It ripped through the air and kept its consistency until it came into contact with a wall. That was pretty far way, this weapon has range. We all walked over to the area as I removed my ammo from the wall. Before leaving, I rechecked the box for anything else. I came to see another letter.

I read aloud the note

'Hullo owner of this rather fine piece of equipment. Congrats on your achievements on winning the tournament. We who have made this weapon would say it in honor of the forever great and mighty, Esmerelda, who has shown us nothing more than peace and joined us together long ago. It holds magical properties for the user though it works with gears and such. Whoever owns this exquisite weaponry, drop by our shop sometime.

~Lock, Mackor, and Jeace

P.S. This weapon reloads by magic. Use a magic user to reload or you can by ammo from the stores.

P.P.S. We highly suggest you use magic, it free!

"Well, isn't that something." I said smiling at the note.

"Hey, Jessica. That note was written in Elizabethan form and you read it in modern with no problem." Jepidity stated.

"So, I understand people perfectly when they speak in Elizabethan." I said heading out of the arena.

"Then why do you want me to change it to modern English?" Cecil asked confused.

I shrugged "I just prefer modern to old. Where are we going?"

"We are going to go somewhere to get horse so we can start this journey." Galactus answered.

I completely forgot about the ballad and the journey but I asked an off topic question "By the way who owns that inn we were at before?"

"Oh my parents. They don't like violence so they went for an easy life." Jepidity answered.

Okay then. We walked across the kingdom that stretched for countless miles. I saw different shops and taverns that were filled with people of young ages of thirteen, fourteen, fifteen and so on. Some donned in armor and others in some not to shabby rags. All in all, this was a very medieval world. People carried themselves different in this world; they all look like they know they have meaning in life.

"Hey, Galactus, what has Alys done that is so bad. People all around look reasonably happy." I said as we walked on to somewhere.

"I thought you'd never ask. This kingdom hasn't been struck yet, but Alys has been sending many lands into turmoil. As in Alys has a legion of humans and demons that rule through pain and torture. When Alys came to Aquanis and your mom, she had bewitched Aquanis as your mom disappeared. Now Aquanis is her boy toy and Alys can practically do anything she wants to. And what she wanted to do is rage war with a royal army of demons. These people are aware of this but they won't let it change them. It's just the Americans above, when they go to war, they never loose who they are."

I consented as we arrived upon a horse breeder housing countless number of horses. Jepidity and Galactus went and talked with the breeder leaving me with Cecil.

"Do you want me to do the spell now or wait till later?" Cecil wondered.

"Right now would be fine." I said.

Cecil placed her warm hands on top of my head and bellow my chin. She tilted my head backwards and began to chant a spell. Her voice was at an alto tone and gave off a clairvoyant yet relaxing sense. Then the familiar frolic returned with a new rhythm in mind. The characters moved around in the sky above me, bouncing to a low music, eerily close to Greensleeves. After a while words began to form: Perchance, anon, speakth, thou, thee, thy. All at once, perchance changed to perhaps, anon changed to later, on speakth the -th burst after getting crossed out, thou, thee, thy, all changed to their respected form of you.

Accordingly, the words disappeared one by one until it looked like nothing had happened. Cecil released my head and smile at me. I looked around as people talked, played and had fun. Their voices rang with modern English, as if they were born talking like that. I smiled blithely towards Cecil as Galactus and Jepidity walked back with four horses.

"Hey' Galactus what is this kingdom called, the one we are in now and the empire?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Well, this kingdom is called Celvia and the empire... no one knows what it is called. It has been long forgotten after the incident. Now, we shall depart in a moment, but first we've have important news to tell. Rumors around town, since the tournament, have said that 'Slathacus will try to assassinate a girl named Justalyne once she has left this kingdom.'" Galactus gravely said.

"Well this should be fun, a fight against a notorious assassin. You just don't have that everyday."

We saddled up our horses and we went own our way, out of Celvia, in to the world that's name had been long forgotten.