Infinitum Crystals - Conquest of Virtue [4]

Chapter 5.22 - White - Back in Present

"Wait..." I realized something after hearing Yumiko's story, "You mean you just killed half of your own soldiers just like that? Why?"

"I was panicking, White...I couldn't help it. I couldn't believe that the enemy would be far more advanced than I am."

"Just who is this leader that has surpassed Violet's technology?" I wondered.

She then said, "Her name is Izzy Nova Crystalia. Looks like I misjudged her."

"Izzy..." Then I remembered, "She's from my high school. She's my own classmate back then. What the hell? How did I not know of this?"

"How did you not know of this?" she questioned me.

"I don't know. But that name is definitely her name. It can't be anyone else with that kind of name. I knew something was suspicious once I heard the name Nova Crystalist...it came from her own family name..."

"So who is she?" asked Yumiko.

I told her, "I guess she's probably the one who could be way ahead of you. She's almost the same as I am. We're both resourceful and knows how to min-max the right thing. Given the situation now though, I'm only your adviser while she is a Lord of her own. She has full control over what needs to be focused on."

Another thing to note about Izzy was that she was also an avid gamer like I am. We both play the same kind of game and we both know how to play them very well. We used to play a lot of strategy games back then and both of us would either win or lose in some kind of way. Our wins and losses was about the same which means non of us were better than the other.

"She's that tough, huh?" Yumiko was annoyed, "Here I thought she would be just another nuisance in my class."

With all have been said and done, I changed the subject and asked her,

"Where is Blanc? You said I saved her."

"She's recovering. Come on. We need to regroup."

"No." I quickly told her off.

"What's wrong, Lord White?"

I addressed the matter to her, "I'll be honest here, Yumiko. Considering what I've learn today...I think it's time for me to head straight into battle."

Yumiko was confused, "What are you talking about?"

"I'm going to get Memento."

"You'll get yourself killed before you even reach the forest. We need to find a way to stop the mortar!"

Then I told her, "Listen, your excellency. You did mentioned that there's nothing to lose if we even lose this battle here. But right now, The Chaos Champion is nearby and this could be my only chance of dealing with him."

Yumiko shakes her head in disbelief.

I continued. "There won't even be a true victor if he gets away, you know. We're still going to live here forever and you might not get to see Violet anymore."

"...Violet." she murmur to herself. "Fine. I'll fine a way to handle those mortars. Don't get yourself killed, Cyclone White."

"Much obliged, your excellency." I nodded and left her.

I quickly got onto a horse and once again made my way through the hill in order to reach the forest. I looked up in the sky and saw my eagle, Zee following me not far from where I was.. Remembering back what happened during my 1st attempt to reach the forest, I think I noticed the enemy mortars at their camp and that is why I decided to save Blanc before it was too late. She would be long gone had I not saved her.

Now that there was no distraction for me. I was able to reach the forest. I decided to get off the horse I took and leave it not far from outside of the forest. After tying up the horse to a tree. Zee landed on my arm and notified me that my target is nearby.

"Let's do this, Zee."

Zee flies off to the sky as I walked deep into the forest until I stumble upon an average sized shed. There was no presence outside of the shed. So, I slowly sneaked to the shed and tried to look into the window. After a couple of searches from the outside, I've come to summarize that nobody was home.

"Did my eagle got it wrong?" I was doubting myself.

After a few logical thinking, I unlocked the door of the shed and got into it. I looked around the shed and realized that it was pretty cozy to say the least. But what prevented me from going further was a painting I saw. It was a painting of...

"Is that...Zenith? Why is she in this painting?" I was perplexed over what was going on.

It doesn't stop there as I quickly turned around and saw a different painting.

"Lala...? She's in a painting as well?" I turned my head again, "Even Hosuke? What is the meaning of this?"

Paintings of the people was apparently displayed in that shed. I was dumbfounded until suddenly the painting moved.

"What the hell...?"

Words couldn't describe how confused I was but in the most simplest explanation I could give was that the people inside the painting had materialized itself into the shed. They were surrounding me. I could not comprehend what was going on.

Then suddenly, "White...what took you so long?" 'Zenith' spoke to me.

'Lala' then said, "You forgotten about us, don't you?"

"Especially us...you've forgotten about Team Stardust..." 'Hosuke' also spoke.

They were grieving of the things that I've done to them. I knew very well that accepting to join this experimental competition would take a long time. And it has been about 3 months since I saw Zenith and Lala. But to them, it's probably 3 hours but I still think it was a whole 3 months. But even that was not long enough. Except of course...for Team Stardust...

I guess I made a huge mistake. I told my team that we will never be apart but now look where I am...all alone, trapped in this virtual world. There's no other way but submission...

However...I made sure to tightly hold onto the necklace that was given to me by Zenith as the three of them surrounded me...

TO BE CONTINUED