From Cracked Open Skies - A World in Fluctuation

Chapter 4 - Roless on the Boundary Line

“I will give you one chance to explain why you're sleeping in Shiori's room.”

A cold voice shattered the pleasantly dreamless sleep that Roless was having. As he slowly rolled over, muttering incomprehensibly, his hand fell over something soft. A pillow or a warm blanket, he couldn't tell which. Still recovering, his memories of the previous night blurry, he stretched out all of his limbs with a loud yawn. He could sense that something dangerous was nearby, but at the same time, he didn't want to open his eyes to the light of daytime. It wasn't like Roless was sleepy, for he felt refreshed, full of energy, and ready to tackle another day. It was just that he didn't feel like proving it to anyone else.

“While I'm at it, I'll give you one second to remove your hand from her face before I tear it off.”

That cold voice was sounding rather familiar to him now. A voice that felt like a sharp blade, one that was full of restrained, disciplined killing intent. A voice that he would assume a very hungry, very angry predator would have, if animals could speak the language of humans. A voice that sounded eerily similar to that of Mirelle Keep, that superhuman knight with an open palm of steel. Wait no, what was he even thinking? He only knew the voices of four people! That WAS her! His eyes snapped open just in time to see the totally chivalrous and merciful knight lady draw back her left hand, this time clenched into a fist.

Bringing up his own hands in defense, Roless shouted out, powered by fear, “WAIIIITTTTTT!! I can explain!”

He scrambled upwards as the brunette slowly brought her weapon of facial destruction back down, giving him a few more seconds to come up with a reason for her not to crater his face. Then, Roless blinked and realized that there was something was odd about all this. Why would she be angry at him simply for sleeping in a child's room? What was even wrong with it the first place? Surely, she didn't think that he was sharing a bed with that little girl for reasons of reproduction. That notion was utterly absurd, not to mention how prone to failure such method of procreation was. Slowly, his fear faded, and he was simply left with some puzzling thoughts.

“Oi.” Her foot stomped onto the wooden planks, and an audible crack could be heard. “Stop thinking and starting talking. Do you not understand the position you're in?”

He straightened up, slightly startled, before shrugging. “No, I don't,” Roless replied, pointing to his empty head once more. “What was wrong with what I did? All I recall was...”

Opening the door and entering it before Mirelle could drag him back to answer a question that he didn't have an answer to, Roless was immediately greeted by a blast of sound, followed by a seizure-inducing explosion of lights. The visual assault almost felt like a physical force, blasting him against the wall. White sparks floated in his vision as he squeezed his eyes shut, staggering back up from the blinding light in the dark room.

Yet, just as he recovered from the attack, the assailant switched methods and began an aural bombing instead. A high-pitched, female battle cry ripped through his eardrums, overcoming his physical defenses with sheer volume. Clenching his hands over his ears so hard that he might actually rip them out, Roless fell to the ground, his knees hitting the cold, hard floor.

Slowly, ever so slowly, his senses began to mercifully dull, adjusting to the excessive light and sound.

A few minutes more must have passed, before Roless felt that it was safe to open his eyes and unplug his ears once more.

What he was greeted with was not some sort of sensory disruption weapon, but with a screen. A massive screen that should have been reserved for theatres only, displaying the cartoon depiction of a girl with reddish brown hair and some sort of powered suit. Flying across the screen with three separate holographic displays surrounding her, she barrel rolled, barely evading a pillar of plasma energy that scorched the air beside her. Hands racing across the screens, she manipulated numbers on those light-based interfaces, twirling around and flying straight up. At the apex of her flight, triangular wings of light grew out of her back, falling apart into countless right-angle triangle energy shards.