Chapter 13: Morningstar

Hana and the Scholar made their way down to where Alice is. She didn't need to explain what had happened, as it was pretty obvious. Whoever it is that broke in ran around until they could- somehow- get down to the third level and free this guy. However, it also turns out that when this "Morningstar" escaped, it caused the cells in sublevels 1, 2, and level 5 to malfunction, allowing the prisoners to escape. " Right now, our priority should be the sublevel 1 and 2 prisoners; the Adventurers of Ko'an can deal with the level 5 prisoners. Morningstar is someone who's beyond our strength," Hana said, which meant a lot. Hana was the strongest person Alice knew; now it was this guy. Hana grabbed Alice and jumped, using the hole Morningstar made to make it up quickly. The first jump wasn't enough to cover the entire distance, but Hana's foot landed on the air as she used it to push off, further launching them until they made it to the surface. The sublevels had been located outside the city, so nothing was damaged. Floating high in the sky was a figure with white wings, and that was pretty much all Alice could see from this distance. The sound of chaos resounded throughout the kingdom; the sublevel and normal prisoners had already begun causing problems. As much as Alice wanted to follow Hana's order and deal with them, she wanted a shot at Morningstar, or at least talk to him. A powerful being like him might have some idea as to who the Valued one is, or what the "blessed" stat she has is. The only real problem is that she had no way of reaching him...or did she? "Let's split up, this way we can efficiently catch them faster, ok, good plan!" Alice suggested and waited for no response as she bolted toward the downtown area, where all the skyscrapers were. The plan was to climb to the top of the tallest building and get Morningstar's attention, which shouldn't be too hard. It took Alice a while to reach downtown, but when she did, she just stood there. It reminded her too much of home; the sudden sight of all this was...shocking, but she had to keep going. People were screaming and running away from what looked like a square center. When she reached there, she saw one of the sublevel prisoners and a few of the level 5 prisoners. The sublevel prisoner was wearing a dark orange jumpsuit, chains still attached to their body, flailing around as they moved. Alice pulled her blade and immediately attacked the normal prisoners. She managed to cut one down before they could kill another civilian. Her next attack was directed at the sublevel prisoner, who dodged just barely as her blade nicked them. The sub-prisoner was a dude who looked both young and old. His expression changed from annoyed to amused when he saw Alice, " Man, the Warden has gotten soft, sending a damn kid to bring me in? Priceless!" The man breaks into a laugh. Alice wasn't furious, but her next attack was aimed with the intent to kill. A trail of ice spikes formed on the ground, rushing at the prisoner, just barely missing him. Alice would need to hurry and subdue him before the others got here, else she'd miss her chance to speak to Morningstar. The problem was that Alice had no ultimate move or special techniques; all she had was a cheap imitation of Hana's technique and her ice. They would have to do. The prisoner's uniform indicated which level he was on, and it read two. His priority shifted from Alice to the people who still lingered. He lunged toward them, forcing Alice to shift her foot, sending a wall of ice to separate them. " GO!" she yelled. She took the stance of the Heaven Series technique before drawing, sending another spike wall fast at the prisoner, which he dodges again. Alice's version of the cleave was weak and slow; if only she knew how to use the magic Hana used, then it'd be just a little bit stronger. For now, Alice would use Hunters Surge and charge in when something slams into her side, throwing her across the area. " I see you've met my friend," the prisoner says, his hand resting on something next to him. Suddenly, a large serpent comes into view beside him; it is a long one. Alice got up when she felt it this time. She pushed off the ground to the side, but not in time. Another serpent, this one smaller but still decently large, sank its fangs into her left shoulder; it let go before she could strike it. Pain flared through her shoulder; she was fortunate that it didn't rip it off. She would use cleave again, with one hand. This one was weaker than the last. The Serpent shifted invisibly before it made its way towards Alice. Spikes of ice sprouted from the ground at random, trying to keep the snake away. It didn't work, like last time, it slammed into her, only this time she held on. Alice had formed an ice shard in her hand when the snake struck, allowing her to sink the ice shiv into its scaly flesh. The snake pulled away fast, breaking Alice's grip on the shard as it melted away, the wound closing on its own. With the small time she had, Alice applied a layer of frost over the wound, effectively sealing it and allowing for small movements. She tried the cleave again, though this time small traces of energy trailed behind, albeit it was a really small amount, barely visible to anyone if they weren't looking closely. Alice dodged the attacks as best as she could, mostly the bite attacks; she would intercept those with her sword. While doing this, she had pulled up her stats, and surprisingly, her blessed stat was now at 10. Which meant that blessed is what allowed her to use magic. The only problem was that she couldn't invest her stat points into it, which meant she'd have to increase it by levelling. The Prisoner was unfazed. This time, the bigger snake would go on the offensive, Alice focused. She jabbed her blade into the ground and dragged it up, causing another wall of ice spikes to protrude and block the people who hadn't gotten away from the sub-prisoner. The snake slammed her in the side; the smaller one had bitten into her forearm, causing more pain. " Do you really have the time to be thinking about others?" The prisoner called out laughing. Alice knelt; she was able to counter the two snakes by impaling them with larger spikes, keeping them stuck in place. This allowed Alice to retake a stance; this time, she was dead focused. " Repeating the same move over and over isn't gonna help, kid." The prisoner yelled out, but Alice could feel the difference now. Though nobody could see or feel it. Somewhere far beyond the sky, something trembled, and then a layer of energy formed over Alice's blade, a wavering layer of energy. She swung. The prisoner was overconfident, and he had no idea that the range and destructive power of this swing was greater than the ones before it. Alice didn't know it yet, but the technique had a name. Star blessed, first form: RuptureRupture left a deep cut in the prisoner, but it didn't kill him; there wasn't enough power backing it. He stared at his wound wide-eyed as he coughed up blood, his anger turned to the person who had done this, and Alice couldn't fight back. That attack had used up all her magic and put a heavy strain on her body. The prisoner was just a few steps away; she needed to do something fast. Or not. Morningstar had descended from the sky, landing in front of Alice. The man was tall and well-built, his dark, stained wings folded closed, kinda like the way a bird's wings would when perched. He glanced back, his face looked rough yet soft. His blue eyes were overwhelming, like they would warp space at any moment. Despite having been imprisoned for so long, his blond hair was short and combed back messily. He was shirtless, showing all kinds of scars all along his body, the most notable one being the one that went across his entire back diagonally, which seemed to start from his left shoulder. And fortunately, his prison pants remained unscathed. The prisoner walked up to Morningstar, " Get out of my way, prettyboy." The skin on his arm morphed into scales and turned into a reptile arm, though it was all for nothing. Morningstar held his hand levelled at the prisoner's face and unleashed a powerful blast, eviscerating his head and carving through the pavement. He once again glanced over at Alice before unfurling his wings, and in a panic, she grabbed on, with no real plan in mind. Morningstar looked down at her in dismay before flying over to the tall building and flinging her off She tumbled onto the roof but managed to regain her footing. He stared her down. Now that she could see his front, she saw that the large scar wrapped around his entire body, starting from his right shoulder, going down to his left waist, and wrapping around to his back. Meaning whatever hit him had carved him in two. AND he lived. Morningstar landed on the edge of the roof; he nearly fell over, but he managed to regain his composure by stepping down. Years in confinement must've made moving around weird. " Who are you?" Alice asked the first question(even though she knew), " M... Morningstar," " Who is the Valued one?" This question caught him by surprise, but he didn't answer. " What...is it you... want?" He asked, seemingly getting used to talking as well. " If you help me with something, I'll help you with something." " Help me?... With what?" " I'll help you, uh...do whatever it is you need?" She did not think this far. What would an all-powerful being like him need from her? Whatever it is, she'll find it. Alice extends her hand outward to Morningstar, " Bargain with me"