AWOKEN -UNKNOWN/OFF-

To return power to the zone [6]

When we got to the end of the chamber, we saw the fox we had been looking for this whole time.

Seneca.

"So it is you," Zacharie growls.

"I said that I would be back, did I not? And now, I'm stronger than ever! I could crush you with one blow, I'm sure of it! And I get all these little guys to boss around too!" Seneca said triumphantly, jumping a couple of times out of joy.

"I can't let you do that. These people need a kind ruler," Zacharie replied.

"Try me."

He then leapt at us, growing bigger in the process, a black, fin like curve coming out of his back and his tail becoming more fox-like. Seneca had gained a great deal of strength to the point where I only had one throwing knife left and I had to go all melee on him.

I ran up, knife in hand, ready to slash his fur, but when I lifted up my arm to cut him, he hit it will his front hoof, knocking the weapon out of my hand and forming a deep gash on my arm.

"Jilly! Are you okay?" I heard Zacharie yell as he ran over to me.

"I'm fine! I'm fine! Keep going!" But what I hadn't notice was that Seneca had snuck up behind and hit Zacharie in the side hard with his other hoof, I could already see the blood seeping under his shirt.

"Zacharie! You little.." I focused my gaze on the fox and grabbed a nearby throwing knife and quick as lightning, chucking it at his flank. It hit and right afterwards, Batter appeared behind Seneca and hit him across the back of the head as hard as he could.

"Hhh... Hhh... I can't believe I was beaten again by these mortal fools! I will return oncemore!"

"We'll be there," I growled.

"Hah hah hah... Don't bother trying to intimidate me. You're more fooling than I first thought. The more you fight me, the stronger I become. If you ever feel like committing suicide, come find me."

Seneca then teleported away again, leaving only a puddle of blood behind.

I looked over at Zacharie, who weakly said, "...Jilly, before we go, I'd like you to do something."

"Alright, what is it?"

"See that small slot in the corner of the wall? I need you to insert the Leo-card into that slot"

I did what he asked and the Zone flashed white for a moment but then returned to normal.

Zacharie coughed, "Slight deviation from the plan, I apologize... I just couldn't see the point in destroying the cards...."

"Okay, Batter can you pick up Zacharie and we'll bring him to Bandit? I don't think he can walk and I'm not strong enough to carry him.."

"...Okay," Batter replied

-----------------

After several minutes, we finally got Zacharie to Bandit, who graciously helped at not cost saying that it was for 'contributing to his job' He lifted up Zacharie's shirt and wrapped his bloodied side with gauze.

"It's not as deep as I thought, so he'll be able to walk shortly, but you guys should stay here for the rest of the day." Bandit says.

I nodded and Zacharie glanced at me, "Jilly, maybe you should get your arm checked up."

"Huh?" I looked down at my arm, which was badly bleeding and had warm blood dripping down to my fingers.

"Ah yes, I should wrap that up as well, ah ha!" Bandit laughed a bit. I'm not sure why. Maybe he liked playing doctor or something?

He carefully wraps my arm with some gauze and I look at Zacharie, "So why did we put the card into the slot?"

Zacharie replies, "It restores power to the Zone itself,"

"Hmm?" I question, confused.

"Okay, I'll explain. Did you know that the zones used to be completely public? It used to be that no zodiac card was required to travel between the zones. The zodiac card rule was created by the Guardians, who wanted their zones to be separate in all means possible. They essentially sapped some of the energy from the zone itself, and put it in the cards. You can't enter a zone, save for Zone 0, without the corresponding card, and you can't leave a zone without owning at least one card."

He sighed, then continued, "That's how the Guardians got their people to stay. The Guardians each kept a set for themselves, and one set as a spare. Pablo managed to get his hands on Zone 1's spare card, which is how the Batter got a hold of it. What you did was return the power from within the cards to the zone. The lack of power was what allowed the Batter to 'purify' the zone so easily in the first place," He spat out the word 'purify', "The zone is essentially public again. I guess you could say it's been turned ON. Ah ah ah, in the most titular sense possible, I'd imagine. Anyways, let's get some sleep before we set off to find Seneca again."

He lied down on the air mattress that Bandit had provided for us, he only had two and one was his so Zacharie and me were sharing the mattress. I blushed at the thought and snuggled into the covers, trying to push my thoughts aside and fall asleep. The dead don't sleep so the Batter just had to sit in the corner until we woke up.

After around a minute, exhaustion took over and I drifted into sleep.