Shizukesa no kokoro: hearts of serenity

Chapter 48: Fort Valkyrie

Lawrence sat in the deepest part of fort valkyrie, he thought of the outcome after the short fight against the inheritors, "this doesn't make sense, were the marks of regnas not strong enough to hold down Guinevere? What freed her from control." After some thinking Lawrence exited his silver archfiend sentinel, he was an elderly man with a pale face and a black, robotic body, "of course, the marks stripped the physical movements, their speech and body movements alike. But I never thought of their mind nor inner conscious. I'll need to make a few tests, and a certain elite may help me..." Lawrence walked over to his archfiend sentinels and began to observe every one.
The inheritors walked stealthily into the fortress, everyone was wary for an attack by the sentinels. "I'm afraid that's all I know of gorgon's pass. The rest we're going to go blindly. Stay sharp everyone." Hideki said. Yuki walked in front of Hideki and led everyone, "i'll take over from here Hideki. You've done enough for now." Kotoha looked around and started to shiver, "this place feels cold and scary, what if something happens?" Coco held her close, "it's okay Kotoha, we'll be fine. I know it." Kotoha nodded and stayed behind Coco. The inside of Fort Valkyrie was mechanical, it was supposably beyond all of serenia's machinery, long tubes holding a light blue substance stretched all across the fortress to Fort Valkyrie. "What the hell is up there?" Rusty asked. Lance observed the pipes as they continued walking, "liquid pheramore." "Liquid what now?" Rusty said. "Pheramore. It's supposably a toxic substance. However it's rarely seen." Lance explained. Rusty shivered for a bit and looked around, "toxic huh? What does Arcania want with it?" "I'm afraid I don't know, nor do I want to." Lance said disdainfully. "I heard that pheramore could also be explosive if compressed but I don't know how. Theres no telling what Arcania could do with it." Yuki implied. "So I should destroy it?" Rusty asked. "You better not, the pheramore is highly acidic to skin and a fatal toxic if ingested." Lance said blatantly. Kotoha heard lance and shivered behind Coco, Coco comforted her at the spot. Lance realized what he has done and looked at her, "sorry Kotoha." All of a sudden two airborne sentinels spotted them and sounded an alarm. "We've been spotted!" Yuki said as she reached for Amaterasu. Hideki stopped her, "Yuki wait! Their calling multiple reinforcements, they might alert even more archfiend sentinels too. We need to find Joshua and exit the place at once. Yuki let go of Amaterasu and sheathed it, causing everyone to run away from the sentinels. They ran away from the sentinel's until they found a shaft to a lower level of the fortress. "End of the line guys. What's our next plan?" Rusty said worryingly. Yuki looked down the shaft and back to the amass of sentinels running towards them, "Hideki use arctic snare and Lance prepare to land us down. Just wait." Hideki created a puddle near the shaft entrance having them back away, as the sentinels ran closer they all fell down into the shaft to a lower level. "Hideki! Now!" Hideki brought umigami up and made massive icicle block the sentinels from gaining up on them, "arctic snare was a success!" Lance pointed his sword down, "thats my cue! Cyclone edge!" Lance created a gust of wind from Kazegami to lighten their fall. Kotoha shook her head and look around, "Yuki, did we lose them?" Yuki looked around and nodded, "yeah they're gone. Lets get going." Lance stopped them, "hold one, we're not out of the woods yet." Lance's precognition was correct as the archfiend sentinel with blue markings appeared. Galahad appeared in front of them, it stood silent. "Joshua! I'm here to take you back!" Yuki shouted. Galahad stood silent to her words. "Please Joshua listen to me!" Yuki said. Galahad finally took out its mechanical turrets and fired rapidly. Yuki was protected from a wall of ivy from Coco. "Joshua what has gotten into you?!" Coco shouted. Galahad continued to fight with its mechanical turrets. Yuki never had the guts to fight or kill her best friend, all she could do is run. Everyone run away from Galahad as it kept firing at them. Finally Galahad stopped them in their tracks, as they went over a mechanical bridge, Galahad fired a charged shot and sent them down to the deepest level of the fortress. There, that same massive silver archfiend sentinel looked down on them, it was Lawrence. Yuki struggled to get up, "Lawrence!" Lawrence looked up and observed Galahad as he hovered down. "Tell me Shizuku...are you aware of the marks of Regnas?"  Yuki looked up as she held Amaterasu, "marks of Regnas?" Lawrence looked up and showed the black markings of the archfiend sentinel, "he who can ascend to the highest form of divinity, one who is destined for glory shall be made for these marks. These archfiends are archangels in our world, the title each sentinel bares are worth the marks on their bodies. Sentinels are sacred beasts yet you destroy them?" Yuki held a death glare towards Lawrence, "sacred beasts?! They tried to kill us! It doesn't matter how sacred they are! I'm going to free Joshua and shut you down!" Lawrence fhought for a moment before bringing out a gargantuan sword, "you would risk everything to save a life? If that's your case, I will slaughter you here."