Chapter 12: The sanctuary

Akira woke feeling well-rested, it was an odd experience waking up somewhere that wasn’t his home. He flips around to face the other side, and a pair of eyes stare back. Lila. With that Akira wasted no time leaving, fortunately for him he made it out, unfortunately, he most likely killed whatever friendship remained, which would make things weird since they would be coming with him to find the heart. Akira managed to find his way to the meeting place, “ You and Cleo will grant us access to the Sanctuary, from there you just need to beat the 4th Seraph unit to the heart,” Lilal had been going over the plan when Akira had joined them, Lilial turns her gaze to Lan, “ Did you get rid of the monster?” to which Lan looks to me, he hd forgotten he was supposed to report back to her, but he did get lost so, Lilial scolds him for having sent someone who has no idea where anything is to look for her instead of going himself, with that settled they set out. They would drive to the Sanctuary, saving Akira from having to walk that distance, Lily sat in the front with Lan, leaving Akira in the back. They sat in silence waiting for Lila to join them, she joined them a few minutes later and they set off. The silence remained, Akira tried to keep his gaze locked staring out the window, but he’d find himself often gazing back at Lila to see if she was gonna do something, but so far nothing. The Sanctuary eventually came into view, they’d be there in a few minutes. The sun was high in the sky, blazing down on them, the four of them made their way to the entrance, this time they would be going in. Akira walks over to the panel, Cleo materializing over top of it, this time it flashes green and with a low hum emits from the door as it opens, the inside is like the golden age buildings he had been in, only this was more vibrant, alive. From the main chamber, it split into three directions, Cleo would need some time mapping which way leads to the heart, in the meantime, they got to look around. Plastered on the far wall was a mural of a person, it was of an older woman wearing a white coat, her black hair pulled back into a ponytail, her crimson eyes staring back at Akira, she seemed familiar but he wasn’t sure why, “ Thats head scientist Suzuki,” Lily says joining him in staring at the artwork, Lily looks at the painting then to Akira, then back to the painting, “ You kinda look like her,” she says after having finished her analysis, did he? He wasn’t sure. “ The heart must’ve put this here,” He had come to that conclusion since nobody else could’ve been here. He would’ve continued to admire the art if Lan hadn’t been slammed into the wall a few feet away from them, Lily and Akira were both startled by the sudden attack, standing in the center of the room was Alice and she was furious, fortunately, it was targeted at Lan and not him. Following behind her was the 4th unit, but what didn’t make sense was why Alice was super hostile toward Lan, did something happen with them? “ The door closest to you, it’ll take a little longer but you should be able to reach the fragment,” Cleo relays in his mind, Lan looks to Akira, who nods his head slightly in the direction of the door, fortunately, he understood and got up. Lila had managed to join them, Lan ignited his runes and lobbed a flame spear right at Alice, in the same instance that he threw the spear he broke into a sprint, once they saw this the trio ran to the door, Cleo interfaces with the Sanctuary and closes the door after Lan made it in, they set off to find the hearts chamber. Akira walked alongside Lan, “ What was up with that,” He asked, Lan glanced over to him, “ With what.” “ Back there, with the 4th Seraphim, she seemed rather mad at you,” Lans gaze lingered forward, he seemed rather…sad? He wasn’t sure, Lan let out a sigh before answering, “ I was part of the the Alchemical branch in the Union,” Akira did his best to withhold his shock, the leader of the Union's enemy, was part of the Union at one point? “ I was supposed to be part of the Horsemen project, but the head took interest in me and assigned me as one of his Seraphims, along with Alice. But I rebelled, and left her behind,” he continued. “ She was my younger sister,” Akira understood now, it must’ve been rough her Alice, her brother being the opposing force against her group. “ I don’t really remember my parents or what they look like, I'm not even sure if I'm from Frandhenven,” Akira admits. He wasn’t sure what else to say and since they were on the topic of family he thought he’d share his own, Lan was frowning, “ You really don’t remember what they look like? Not even a small detail?” Lan had shifted his head slightly so that he could look at Akira when he spoke, “ Unfortunately nothing, but its never really bothered me so I guess it's not that bad,” He says this, but that was only cause he never really gave it much thought, and now that he did it began weighing on his mind, who were his parents, where are they? Are they even alive? Oh well, no point thinking about it now, he needed to focus on finding the heart. They followed the corridor as it twisted left, leading them deeper into the Sanctuary. Eventually, they reached what Akira assumed was the heart's containment, the only problem was that it sat on the other side of a door, the door wasn’t the problem it was what stood in front of it. His archenemy whom he thought was dead was standing very much alive and well guarding the door forward, the hole Akira shot into Jerry's heart had been mended and he looked pissed. “ Jerry,” Akira called out taking a step forward, Lan looked confused, “Who?” “ The guy standing right there, I dubbed him Jerry and he is mine to deal with,” Akira rudely points at Jerry, “You're not fighting that thing alone, Lila assist him,” He called over to Lila. This teamwork wasn’t gonna work well, hopefully, it does. Akira drew only his dagger, Lila drew her spear, it seemed to have been from Ethernamhall. This time Jerry threw the first hit. To block the attack Akira quickly drew his blade, he was able to eject it from its sheath to intercept the punch that would’ve slammed into his arm, unfortunately, the blade snapped in half, fortunately, it was no longer a blade but technically a dagger which played in his favor more. He began striking back more efficiently than last time, each swing still felt heavy but it was improving. Jerry swerves his footing to just barely avoid Lilas's spear thrust, they were able to apply pressure on him, forcing him on the defense. Jerry threw his arm up to guard Lilas's spear, she was able to impale it through his arm only to immediately full-force backhand me, putting distance between us, he was changing his tactic. He purposefully let himself get stabbed so that he could push me away, with having accomplished that he freed his arm from the spear and jumped back from Lila, he held his hand aimed at her, his palm splitting open to reveal a weapon, a cannon or something. Within the cylindrical chambers, entrance energy began concentrating, Jerry closed his fist over the ball of energy and sprinted toward Lila, he planned on shooting her point blank, guaranteeing death. Akira focused all of Cleo's augmentation into his boots, forcing them past what they can normally do, hopefully they don't break doing this. Akira was able to close the distance in an instant, just as Jerry was right on top of Lila, cannon charged, Akira tackled her out of the way, the two of them went barreling across the floor, Akira held on to his friend tightly. The beam of energy blew up the wall near the entry they had come in from, without wasting another moment of time Akira threw himself back into the fight, bumping down the output on his boots to what it could normally take, using them to reengage Jerry in battle. The dagger Akira had always had with him began pulsing a light blue, in response to this his attacks seemed to be hitting harder. “ Focus, your dagger has energy in it try using it properly,” Cleo informs him, so that's what was happening, Akira tightened his grip around the dagger only for a blue projection to encase the dagger, turning it into a broadsword. With his newly powered weapon, Akira continued to fight back against Jerry, who stood no chance. The new energy blade easily cut through Jerry's arm before cutting him diagonally. The light in his eyes once again dimmed as the two halves of his body hit the floor, but before he could confirm if he was truly dead the floor beneath Jerry gave away, dropping him down and closing up immediately. The blue blade dissipates leaving behind the dagger in its normal state. Lan pats him on the back, “ You fought better than I thought you would kid,” Lan praises him. With that settled they moved forward, the door leading to the heart opened, revealing a decently sized chamber, sat in the middle was a pedestal, lines of blue energy ran from the center all around the dome, and at the center was…the literal fragment of the heart.