Akira sat crouched on the floor clutching his hand annoyed, mere moments ago he punched the screen and now his hand hurts. The only upside to all this was that the Union wouldn’t be able to get in either, he highly doubted they had the right authority access to get in. Ever since they discovered their clearance wasn’t high enough, which was like a few minutes ago, Lily has been pacing back and forth frantically, muttering to herself, he would’ve spoken up but he was afraid and he wasn’t sure what to say. “ Oho, I see what happened,” Cleo says laughing, as if any of this was funny. “ The fragment bumped my authority level below what I need to open the gate, so I HAD access but the fragment took it away,” she says rather cheerfully. Lily looked like she was gonna strangle her, good thing Cleos a holo. There was no way for them to gain higher authority since that kinda thing can only be found within an Ethernamhall terminal and unfortunately, all of those are gone. Guess they have to return empty-handed, “ So why exactly were you looking for the heart? There must be some reason you chose now of all times to come looking for it,” Lily asks, it seemed she had calmed down, he had completely forgotten he never told them why he was looking for it, “ Frandhenven is running out of power,” He said casually, Lily took some time to process what he said, this kinda thing shouldn’t bother her since her people have been living perfectly fine without the help from the outside, and they don't rely on the same power as Frandhenven does, “ How much time do we have?” She asked, “Till the end of this month,” Lily looked annoyed again, not sure why cause they had plenty of time until then, “ This month ends next week, Frandhenven is doomed, Helmic village is doomed,” Lily plopped down onto the floor next to him, “ Wait you know about the energy overflow thing?” He asked, Akira assumed only Taro knew, but this made it better, keeping something like this a secret was killing him. “ I’ve known for a while now, my father trusted me with knowing so he told me, and I failed and now my village will collapse into the ground and entire world is gonna get plunged into darkness next week,” this was new, he had never seen her sulk like this, did she say next week?“ Oho Wait no my rent is due at the end of the month, the power runs out the first month of next year,” Lily regained her composure and struck him right in the arm, which hurt a lot. Since they had no way of getting in they decided to not stick around just in case the Seraph unit showed up, Akira would also rather not encounter Alice after having ditched her, even though he had no idea it was gonna happen. “Go Right,” Cleo says reappearing on top of Lily's head, “ I found an active terminal with an access code high enough for us to get in,” she says, this lifted their spirits, “ However,” she cut in, immediately ruining the moment, “ Its located in Old Frandhenven, we might cross paths with the godless faction” that was bad, but what were the odds that they’d run into Lan or someone. The duo set off to find the terminal, hopefully, they don’t run into Jeremy again, Akira preferred not to fall down under again. By the time the storm barrier came into view, the sun was setting, again. They had going for at least a day now, but they finally reached the end, in that time Akiras apple stash had dwindled down to just two, his water ran out a good few hours ago. Old Frandhenven was similar to New Frandhenven, except it was a ruined city, well not much of a city but just buildings here and there. According to Cleo, the terminal wasn’t far, they should be able to reach it by around midnight. The road was still somewhat intact, just cracked and overgrown with plant life, they walked along it. They came across the building, it was exactly like the one he found Cleo in, only this one was more beat up, most of its windows were shattered, the top half was leaning on another building, threatening to collapse at any moment. Carefully they enter the building, “ The terminal is below, I should be able to make this authority mine,” Cleo explains, they find the stairs down as the elevator was most likely down. Lily turns on a flashlight, which covers a large amount of area which is good, now they won't trip on anything. Akira proceeded to trip despite the perfect lighting, whatever he tripped on rattled around on the floor, he braced himself as he could already guess what it was, and when he looked down he saw exactly what he thought, a human skeleton. He quickly turns his attention away, focusing on anything but that. The building they were in seemed to be a research lab, there were lots of rooms that seemed to have been used for studying something, the damage was too great to tell what. They eventually reach the terminal, turns out it's just an active monitor, Cleo appears on top of the table and jams her hands into the screen, that must’ve been how she interfaces with systems. The screen turns green, the green light draining into the center where Cleo had her hand connected, the green light transferred into Cleos holographic being, most likely indicating that she got the authority, “ Now we should be able to access the Sanctuary,” Cleo announces, the duo head back the way they came, when they reach the lobby Akira spots someone he hoped not to see, Lan stands in front of the exit alongside some girl he had never seen before, Lans gun was holstered on his side, which was good. He still looked as menacing as ever, “ Surrender and come with us,” Lan shouts, that seemed like the smart thing to do but Akira wasn’t smart, and Lily seemed like she would rather fight, her hand slowly shifting down to the hilt of her sword. Akira kept his hand gripped around his dagger, he wasn’t sure how to go about this. If he made a move Lan would most likely just shoot him, and he was too far to use a dash, “ I didn’t have the time before but I did now on the way here, but I since Im interfaced with your entire being I enhanced your boots, you should be able to use it twice consecutively,” Cleo thinks in his mind, he would have to thank her later, as upon learning of his gears upgrade he immediately put it to use by closing the distance between them, Akira targeted the girl first, he had no idea what she would do so she was somewhat more dangerous, he applied as much force as he could into his strike, she managed to block it with her own dagger, but the force alone knocked her back giving Akira room to 1v1 the boss. Lan was composed during the whole thing, Akira kept swinging at him, but none hit. He was too quick for him, he was toying with him, for a short while. It seemed Lan was getting Akira to position himself in the spot he wanted, cause Lan threw what seemed to be a semi-full-strength punch, slamming into Akira’s face, launching him through the glass doors and out into the streets, he skidded along the pavement landing a car. It hurt. His entire face was burning, well his entire body since he was just flung through a door and slid across the street. Akira managed to get up, he staggered to his feet to see Lan walking over the wrecked glass, avoiding stepping on it. Akira knew damn well he wouldn’t win, but he was determined to get one good hit in before he got taken, this was one of the few times he put this much concentration onto something. Akira would once again close the distance using a dash, this time he would rely on his own punches, which didn’t seem to work either. Lan was weaving past everything he threw, Akira would have to think of something. Akira held off from attacking, the two had a little stand off, this was part of the plan Akira had just come up with, which was to blindly throw a punch, in which Lan would step to the side, in that same instance Akira would dash around him catching him off guard. Akira would put every ounce of strength he could muster into this punch, slamming right into the side of Lans's chest, knocking him back a fair bit, he remained on his feet. He was more amused than annoyed, “ That was fun, I guess. Lilials gonna yell at me again so I think it's time we headed back,” Lan said, rubbing the back of his head, Akira blinked and he was still standing there, the girl from before was right on top of him though, the last thing he’d see was her fist.
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