Rising Shards

I wouldn’t have blamed the others if they just took off without me there due to the wide amount of monsters after us. The Exa Cani that dove for me crackled with energy as they flew. I felt something wrap around my waist and suddenly I was in the air. It took me a second to realize Oka had picked me up with one of her vine whips, and she expertly set me down right behind her on her horse.

“Thanks,” I said, hugging her.

"Anytime, boo," Oka said.

Diast made sure we all had a means of getting out before revving up the cart and taking off with Marmalade in the back seat. The doorways were all wide in the bunker, giving us room to ride beside each other as we followed a gradually inclining path. Diast drove in the center, with Lillia to her left, guiding her horse to a graceful run, as though they’d known each other for years. I’d never ridden on a horse before, but Oka’s confident riding didn’t give me any reason to worry. I knew I should fend off some of the monsters pursuing us, but I had to take a moment to nuzzle against Oka as she pulled on the reins of the horse.

“You’re a really good rider!” I said.

“There was probably enough room for all of you on this cart!” Diast said.

“Yeah but…come on!” Oka said, holding up the reins. “We couldn’t pass this opportunity up!”

The big Sharai sprites from before were getting close. I tried to swing my bloodsaber, but didn’t account for us being close to a wall and just made sparks with it and yelped out apologies. Marmalade made up for my whiffing it by swinging her own bloodsaber, sparkling energy from it hitting the ground seconds before a small earthquake hit, activating floor traps that dropped the Sharai down as they howled.

We didn’t have time to decide if we were headed in the right direction. Some turns had Sharai waiting trying to pounce at us, while others had giant bursts of water, which was apparently a traversal system across the whole base.

I heard metal screeching against metal, and turned back. I immediately wished I hadn’t.

“What the heck is that thing?” I squealed as a bulky mech speeder with a bunch of sawblades on its front rocketed toward us, its jets only able to keep it in the air for a few seconds at a time before it skidded on the ground. The Exa Cani Sharai piloting it, looking at least five times too big for the tiny seat it inhabited would be almost comical if the shrieking murder machine wasn’t barreling down on us.

“Oh, god.” Diast said. “Try to slow that down, please!”

I fired a bolt of lightning, but it seemed to have no effect on the speeder.

“Try to hit that guy instead!” Oka suggested.

Marmalade and I tried concentrating our attacks on the snarling, slobbering Exa Cani soldier. As he got closer, I could see had a tiny flying cap, goggles, and a scarf on which would have been kinda cute if again, no giant murder machine and also a retention sprite of a member of an apparently atrocity loving evil army. Nothing we could do seemed to slow the jet fueled monstrosity down, as the sound of sawblades grew distressingly closer.

Lillia turned her horse around, sprinting toward the speeder. She dodged its blades, reaching the pilot on the side car and blasted him with a giant fireball from her bloodsaber. As the pilot squealed in rage, Lillia had her horse stand on its front two legs and kick backward, directly hitting the side of the speeder, sending it spinning backwards. As Lillia regrouped, the speeder exploded, an even bigger fireball getting enveloped by a burst of water.

“Great work, Lillia!” Diast said.

“I could only kind of see that because yeah, eyes forward and all,” Oka held the reins up. “But that was so freaking cool! Never do that again because that was also so freaking terrifying!”

Lillia simply pushed her glasses up in response.

We didn’t have to ride much further than that, finding a door that led outside to a path with high rocks on the sides of us and a curving path ahead. The ground was covered in chalky gray rocks that left residue when they were touched. It didn’t feel the same as the prior desert, it felt like another big change in atmosphere even if we couldn’t see it yet.

As soon as we caught our bearings, Diast used her powers to make a very thick metal door to block anything else from coming out of there. I got down from the horse, but Oka didn’t seem ready to let go of her new friend yet.

“Hey, Dr. Diast,” Oka said.

“I really gotta make some calls to check in with everyone,” Diast said.

“This is kind of important.” Oka said.

Diast sighed. “Is it about the horse?”

“Maybe,” Oka asked. “All I want to know is if it’s theoretically possible to keep him. Because he’s my new friend and I kind of super love him already?”

“We could keep them as steed sprites, couldn’t we?” Lillia asked, gently stroking her horse’s mane.

Diast sighed. “That’s more a second-year thing, but…” She saw how disappointed Oka and Lillia looked immediately. “Let me make a call.” She called Caya to update on the situation, who took the news of us getting separated from Mahina and Ko as well as my father making an appearance well.

“My apologies for not making it back sooner,” Caya said. “I am trying to get things in line back at school, in addition to getting our invader under control and Arco to the nurses…some incidents have occurred.”

“It’s an ‘incidents occurring’ kind of day.” Marmalade mused.

“Is everything OK there?” I asked. “Is Stella OK?”

“She’s fine, yes.” Caya said. “But Penteldtam…well I’ll put it bluntly. He accidentally shut off the protective measures here, and because of that, and some other entity I’m not sure of, a few more students ended up in the void.”

“How did he manage that one?” Diast asked.

“I’ll leave it up to your imagination,” Caya said. “But it looks like there’s been another bit of tampering with the node you’re in, with…let’s say an anomaly. Almost directly ahead of you, in fact. So I will regroup with you there, and we can hopefully put a stop to all of this shortly.”

“Right, see you soon.” Diast said. She was about to stop the call when Oka did her puppy dog look again. “Oh, one more thing. The girls found some sprites of horses and were wondering.”

Caya sighed deeply. “I suppose you can show them how to turn them into steed sprites.”

Oka screeched in response.

“Alright, I’ll show them on the way.” Diast said.

As we walked down the winding path, Diast showed Oka and Lillia how to keep their horses as their own, converting them into steed sprites that were stored in their wristbands and could be summoned any time in the void. While they handled that, I thought to myself about what we’d learned. My father being there and getting involved, Jeans being the end goal for Ovie, it wasn’t a recipe for happy Zeta times. Oka could tell that I was thinking about potential not happy Zeta times looming.

"How are you feeling?" She asked. "That was a lot there..."

"Yeah..." I said. I was on the verge of a meltdown while I saw my dad on the screens, but after our wild escape, I didn't feel as internally jolted. "I think...I'm alright. As long as we don't run into him again. And get everyone back safely."

"Right," Oka said. "Well, if you're ever not alright about it, just stop and I'll hug you and make sure you're safe."

"Thank you." I said. I started thinking out loud. “So we’re getting Kalei and everyone else back, obviously, that’s priority. But if they bring those Sharai Daggers to that Sharai castle…and they let Jeans out…and Jeans gets them…we have to stop that from happening too, right?”

“Definitely,” Oka said. I was glad the others nodded in agreement as well, even if I wasn't sure how we'd stop Ovie and 09. “On the note of everyone else though, how are you holding up there, Lillia?”

“I’m alright,” Lillia said. “Seeing that Ko is unharmed through that security screen helps mitigate the worry slightly. As does my precious new friend here.”

I felt a bit of relief when we left the rocky path.

“Sinuses, deluxe messed with,” Oka said as we looked around.

At the end of the path, we were met with a stone bridge that looked ancient. All around the bridge were the ruins of a city, with destroyed buildings and hollow wind blowing through empty streets.

I could faintly hear music ahead. We continued on, seeing more Sharai sprites below, excitedly rushing somewhere. My confusion at that was quickly replaced by even greater confusion when I saw where they were headed.

“So I’m guessing this is what Caya meant by an anomaly.” Diast said.

Ahead of us, plopped seemingly randomly in the center of the destroyed city, was a giant gaudy building, covered entirely in neon lights and signs. One of the biggest was of a gremlin looking girl. If I had any doubts that it was a sign for who I thought it was, the bright text next to it that read “CHUMBLEROSA: THE GREATEST CASINO EVER? YES~!” shattered them.