[OLD] Book 1: Densetsu.EXEcution

Chapter 23 - Warground

Alvira City was a bright province north west of Malway. The buildings had been recently forged in a project beginning in the year 2077. The project concluded in March of 2081, only a month earlier. Spread across the grassy perimeter of the city was an abundance of mushrooms. The buildings were made of fiberglass, the same indestructible material that was used on certain types of garbage bins in the past.

Over the last four years however, the city had already seen so much wear-and-tear that many of the cities less advanced structures were rendered unusable. The only functionable building in Alvira City at the moment was a tower built in the stem of an extremely large mushroom. Architects had constructed the building in 2079 in order to maintain a link between the human world and the cyber world. However, the project was at a halt due to a civil war between two factions that had stretched for the past two years.

With her long, elegent black hair blowing behind her with her blue cape in the wind, the N-AI’s destruction commander, Miradelle Olette, walked up to the Riot Brigade’s colonel, Sake, who wore his usual getup. She looked him straight in the eyes. “You and I both know that this conflict has gone on long enough,” Miradelle spoke in her womanly toned voice. “Therefore it is in my lord Dominic’s most sophisticated manner, per his humblest request, that we propose a truce between our two factions.”

Sake growled at Miradelle’s offer. “You’se ain’t foolin’ me lady,” he replied hostilly, “Arakawa’s been in a state’a disarray since ‘is last run-in wid’ ‘da boss. He ain’t goin’ nowheres, and he definitely ain’t givin’ nobody no orders.”

Miradelle sighed at Sake’s street-oriented grammar. “Perhaps before you try and contradict my evident request, you could consider modernizing your tone a bit.” She was clearly annoyed by Sake’s response to her sincere offer.

“Yea, whateva’,” Sake replied, rolling his eyes at Miradelle. “You’se betta’ get back to ya’ base, ‘relse dere’s gonna be trouble.” Miradelle folded her arms over her blue dress.

“Can’t say I didn’t try,” she said. “These clothes are far too nice to dirty up on your filth, anyway. I’ll be seeing myself off now.” She turned away from Sake and began walking away from the tower northward.

---

Shima frowned at the sound of gunfire and explosions in the distance as he and Kiri looked down on the city of Alvira below the forest. “They weren’t kidding,” he told her, “That old couple we ran to a while back, that is. This place is a battleground. Last I heard it was a beautiful province. Guess it’ll be a while before that can be said again.”

Kiri’s eyes were focused on the blue and green embers that burned on the surface. She knew the flames too well. “D-Dominic is behind this…”

“Don’t jump to conclusions,” Shima replied, “The group that belongs to the man we met in the forest is here too. It could be an equal conflict. All it needs is a little compassion.”

“I-I’m worried…” Kiri said, looking down at her feet. “W-What if we get killed?”

“Relax,” Shima said, holding her hand with his own, “You said you have a friend here, right? Everything will be okay.”

“Okay,” Kiri replied quietly, following Shima down the path to the surface.

The N-AI’s men were clad in various outfits, from one-piece black coats to full sets of black armor. Each man’s attire was marked in some way, shape or form with the shape of a two-layer pyramid in various colors. Many of the symbols were patched on the sleeves or collars of the soldiers’ armor. They all had their faces covered by hoods or helmets, and very few of them showed any skin. The ones that did had very pale skin; some even had gray skin like Dante.