Ch 2: The Villain's Arrival

Stumbling inside the suite and shutting the door behind him, a disoriented Napoleon holds his head as though attempting to physically grasp at his racing mind.

“Did you just murder my father!?” Xavier asks while taking a startled step back.

“Do I look like I did? His head just slid right off.”

Xavier’s once confident demeanor melts into itself upon being confronted by such a grotesque and unexpected spectacle. He reacts to it the only way he knows how, which is to find someone to blame.

“Tsubiri!” He turns to his female guard, and with a quivering voice demands, “Arrest General Napoleon this instant!”

His guard is just as shocked as anyone about the whole situation, but she still has the wherewithal to keep her wits about her. “I’m sorry prince Xavier, but we all very clearly saw what happened, General Napoleon didn’t do anything.”

“You dare disobey my command? I’ll have your head for this when I’m King----!” Xavier’s posture stiffens up before he finishes, “Wait a second, I am the King now… Your King demands you to arrest this traitor!”

Tsubiri bites her lip and reluctantly looks towards Napoleon. Sizing him up, she investigates the sheathed sword at his side and calculates what kind of move she’d need to make if she wants any chance at defeating him. Tsubiri is fully aware of his abilities as a soldier, so she’s conflicted about putting herself in jeopardy in a lose lose situation.

“Slow down everyone!” Trojia steps in between the two and attempts to de-escalate the situation. “Now is not the time to act brash, we need to take a step back and get to the bottom of this together.”

“There is no bottom of this!” Xavier answers, his confidence returning to him upon realizing how absolute his power now is. “My father was murdered right before our very eyes, the last one to make contact with him was Napoleon, it’s an open and shut case!”

“I’ll concede that somebody did murder King James, but it wasn’t Napoleon.” Trojia looks to Daey and asks, “Before Niomyo and I arrived, did you see the King alive?”

“I-I’m sure I did, he was moving around out there only minutes ago...”

Daey is still mortified at the spectacle that has just unfolded, she’s clasping at her elbows and shivering as though guarding herself from an arctic wind.

Xavier doesn’t look convinced, he takes a couple heavy steps towards the frightened princess and shouts, “Then who was it then!?”

“....”

Obviously, Daey has no idea and slams her eyes shut before twisting her face away.

Trojia frowns and quickly cuts off the space between Xavier and Daey like a mother bear protecting her cub. “I said calm the hell down Xavier! You're not helping at all!”

Initially taken aback by her combativeness, he realizes that she is not only shouting at him, but she's addressing him with no added honorific. This objection to his authority pushes Xavier’s anger to a point no longer controllable. His face shrinks, and he coils his arm back in preparation for a strike to Trojia's face.

Niomyo jumps at the ready with the reflexes of a cat, she doesn’t hesitate to pull a hidden dagger from her boot and rushes in to protect her princess.

Tsubiri sees the incoming threat to her prince, and reacts accordingly by yanking a pair of twin swords from the scabbards she wears on her back to block Niomyo’s attack.

The entire meeting has imploded and is on the verge of a catastrophe..

A full out fight to the death is a mere second away from commencing.

However, before anyone moves any further towards the path of no return, an unfamiliar voice snatches their attention away.

“It was me.”

“!!”

“!?”

Their heads jerk towards the source of the voice.

A young man sits on the throne in front of the now blazing fireplace, his frame illuminated by the tempest of flames. The orange light bounces off his dark brown hair and refracts the white pupils of his glistening blood red irises. The menacing man looks as comfortable in that throne as someone who had been resting there soaking in the heat of the long lit fire behind him.

With a faint smile he says to the confused group, "Now that you’re all here, I didn’t need the King alive any longer.”

Napoleon and the guards simultaneously shift the ire of their weapons towards the mysterious man.

"Who are you!? How did you get in here!?" Niomyo queries.

"I’ve been right here this entire time."

Even in their heightened state of alert, they can tell that what he said was a lie. There was no one on that throne just a moment ago, and the fireplace was certainly not alight in a blaze heating up the entire room.

“What country ordered you to this act of war!?”

“What country? Funny, even after all this time since I’ve last been here on Earth, people really don’t change. You simply can’t fathom anything outside of whatever institution you’ve made for yourselves.”

“Answer me!”

The man stands up slowly, the mere act of which forces everyone to take a cautious step away.

Smoothly proffering his arms, his gray overcoat expands and makes his presence seem larger and more threatening. "The war that has just been declared is far beyond you lot. But I still need you to play your part nonetheless.”

A pressure begins to brew within the suite, almost like an electric charge that is steadily gaining voltage. The man’s eyes widen and send shockwaves into the hearts of everyone present, they can’t help but feel the danger emanating from whoever this person is.

Trojia is terrified of him, but she manages to snatch onto her last remaining bit of courage to speak up. “What do you mean by play our part?”

“You’re about to find out.”

GAAAAASH!!!

The loud sound of glass breaking rips into their ears in a blast, twisting everyone’s attention towards the ear shattering noise. In what feels like slow motion, the large painted glass window leading to the balcony is exploding in a brilliant display of colors.

Within the sea of gleaming shards, a man lands delicately inside the suite as though he floated onto the carpet.

The man with silver hair and light brown skin doesn’t hesitate to step forward, the black coat he’s wearing dancing behind him in a gale of his own making.

“Damien…” he says, his sharpened chartreuse eyes glaring at the man by the throne.

Cowering behind a desk with his hands over his head, Xavier shouts in disbelief, "What the hell! Did he just come through the window!?"

He spoke out loud the thoughts of all present that were able to shake off the residual shock and understand just how high up this room is on top of the palace. To get here from the outside, whoever this person is just jumped up from hundreds of feet below.

"For a while I thought you wouldn't come, Ubica.”

After hearing Damien's voice, it seems like the young man named Ubica either hasn’t noticed the presence of the others, or is choosing to completely disregard them. He has yet to even blink, he simply stares at his target as though that alone could kill.

“Where have you taken her?"

Damien seems amused by the question and answers, “It’s been quite a long while since we’ve been face to face.” Placing his once outstretched arms to his side and throwing his hands into his coat pockets, he ponders aloud, “I wonder, while you were trapped in the Eternal Lake, did you have any concept of time?

Ubica scowls and the two exchange knowing glares.

This triggers Ubica to fling out his hand, and the action produces a black, water-like substance that forms into the shape of a sword before solidifying into an actual weapon.

Damien remains amused despite the threat of violence, he takes a slow step back and says, “No need to rush. There’s still one more coming to join us.”

No sooner than he finishes saying that, the sunlight coming in from the massive hole in the window is blocked by churning dark gray smoke. What comes billowing into the room snatches the air from everyone’s breath for a moment.

Damien doesn’t seem to mind when he says, "Now we can get this war started…”

Emerging from the darkness is a hooded man clad in a gray overcoat, the smoke enveloping him swirls around him and reveals a white mask hiding his entire face that even covers his eyes. The tall figure floats within the churning gray smoke, and exits his cloud by swinging a scythe in front of him, cutting through the haze as though creating a pathway.

Ubica, not looking surprised at all, clicks his tongue and spits out the name of the man,

"Azrael..."

Speechless, Trojia and the rest are frozen by the overwhelming aura of death spewing from the toxic smoke eminating from the man.

"You've grown careless, Ubica, did you honestly think that your weakened state would be enough to keep me from noticing your return?"

Damien interjects with a confident grin, "You aren’t any different, Azrael." He lifts his hands out of his pockets and holds out a link of chains. On one side are three links of gold, on the other are three links of black iron. The two contrasting metals are linked together in the middle. “Just like I thought you would, you’d rush after Ubica and fail to notice my arrival here on Earth.”

"Damien!?"

“Don’t be so startled, Azrael. You’re the dog that finally caught the car. You should be celebrating.”

The tension between the three is akin to gods saying their final words to each other before squaring off in an epic battle. Such pressure saps the curiosity of those present to witness this and replaces it with fear.

"You deserve a gift for your efforts.” Damien’s red eyes shine above his smile. “How about this chain? It took two thousand years to make this, the only problem is that it can only be used once."

Azrael takes one look at the chain he’s holding and immediately charges at Damien, scythe in a readied position for a strike.

"Hah, I guess you’d rather have me use it for you."

Damien’s red eyes flicker, and he pulls on each side of the chain and snaps it at the middle. The iron and gold break apart with a very distinct pinging noise, and in an instant Damien vanishes. The fire burning in the furnace is immediately extinguished along with any remnant of his presence except the broken chain landing on the ground in a clank.

The chain then cracks and separates into hundreds of little pieces before rising into the air and swirling around the room, picking up momentum to the point that it creates a strong tornado-like wind.

With the entire room shaking violently within the gale, all of the expensive furniture begins sliding and flying about at dangerous speeds. Wooden chairs slam into the walls and shatter into splinters, the broken glass once on the floor is slicing through the air like razor sharp comets.

All anyone can do is hit the deck and throw their hands over their neck and head for protection, which is exactly what everyone other than Ubica and Azrael are doing. On the contrary, the two of them are simply standing in the midst of the chaos glaring at one another like there wasn't even a hint of danger.

Trojia looks up and sees the two men standing calmly in the center of the mass of glass, furniture, and other projectiles when in the corner of her eyes she sees a large oak cabinet hurling towards her.

The shaking of the room disables her; unable to move, she is currently the textbook definition of being defenseless. Resigning herself to the incoming broken bones caused by the heavy object slamming into the side of her body, she squeezes her eyes shut.

CRASH!!

The disturbing sound triggers a dreadful reflex. But she opens her big emerald green eyes only to see the chest of the man named Ubica shielding her. He took the full brunt of the cabinet’s force to protect the helpless princess, and remains there unaffected as other items continue to pelt his back in a series of vicious thuds.

After a minute of intensity, the wind and earthquake-like shaking eases to an abrupt stop.

Ubica helps Trojia to her feet as the others all check themselves for any injuries, and besides some scratches and bruises, anything serious was miraculously avoided. As if the moment of kindness towards the endangered princess never happened, Ubica's facial expression turns cold as he shifts his attention to Azrael.

"I was hoping to avoid you until I take back what Damien stole from me, but it looks like you’ll finally have your fight.”

Ubica manifests his black sword and points it at the scythe bearer.

Without flinching, Azrael looks away from Ubica and towards the hole in the window.

"There’s no reason for me to fight you now."

"Why's that?"

"You’re telling me you can’t feel it? You are going to need my help, and I am going to need yours."

Ubica looks around and purses his lips as if realizing something, a wave of his hand scatters his black sword into bubbles before it disappears and he relaxes his posture. "This is enough to call a truce, huh?"

“We don’t have a choice.”

Outside of the large broken window is no longer the view of the city of grandeur, instead there is nothing but heavy rain and thick rolling fog wisping horizontally. Within the darkness of the fog are faraway orbs of green, blue, yellow and red light. Some of them flicker high into the sky and others sit stagnant and low to the ground. No one can make out the source of the orbs, though there looks to be some dark structures hidden within them.

"What do you think he's trying to accomplish by bringing us here?" Ubica asks.

"I don't think it's just about us, do you have any idea who is standing behind you?"

The group of weary and confused nobles look like lost kittens, Ubica thinks nothing of them and shrugs.

This prompts Azrael to point out, "You’ve missed a lot while you were sealed away. The absence of the people he sent with us has the potential to destabilize the entirety of Earth. And I won’t be there to collect souls when it happens."

Ubica scratches his cheek and replies, “I don’t see how that has anything to do with me.”

“It has everything to do with you.” Azrael’s sharp tone grows sharper. “There is not a single thing anywhere that doesn’t have everything to do with you.”

A couple seconds drag on, as though he finished pondering what was just said to him, Ubica lets out a sigh and says, “Then what do you suggest we do? In your eyes, aren’t I still the bad guy here? I don’t know why you seem so gung ho about wanting my help figuring you just had every intention of killing me.”

“It’s because this World is out of my jurisdiction. I only send souls here, I’m not supposed to be here. You on the other hand have the power to link this plane to the next. You’re the only one who can bring them back.”

“And you trust me enough to do that?”

Azrael shakes his head beneath his hood. “I’ll never trust you, but I can tolerate you because you’re so much weaker than before, and without ‘her’ you’ll remain that way. While you’re weak you’re at least a little human. You would not have protected that girl otherwise."

Trojia’s shoulders jump upon receiving his gesture, she and the entire group have only whispered amongst themselves to this point, choosing to stay silent in fear of getting in between the two mysterious people with apparent super powers.

“Ah-Uhm…” Trojia stammers on her words for a moment, but a deep breath calms her frayed nerves shortly thereafter. “First off, to whoever you are…” she holds her hand out to the silver haired lad and says, “Thank you for saving me. My name is Trojia Niveusvenia.”

“Oh?” His face communicates surprise, and he almost looks guilty when he shakes her hand. “No problem. My name’s Ubica, nice to meet you.”

“Okay then.” Trojia says calmly and turns her gaze towards the towering Azrael. “Secondly, to whoever you are..." she takes a deep breath before finishing, "Just what the actual fuck is going on!?"

Any semblance of calm has been blasted away. Even Ubica flinches and backs away from her.

Surprised by her willingness to shout at someone like him but not offended in the least, Azrael chooses to answer her honestly.

“We’ve all been abducted.”

“...What? But we’re still here in the suite.”

“No, look outside towards those lights. We’re not on Earth anymore.”

“...Then where are we?”

Ubica casually walks over the debris of the room and takes the first step outside into the dark fog. Just a few minutes ago they were up atop a castle hundreds of feet high, so to everyone's surprise, he walked onto solid ground. Turning towards them, he answers her most pressing question with an unexpected smile,

“We’re in Purgatory, and I’m going to get you all out of here.”