✧ Chapter 31 ✧

Weary footsteps trudged as fast as they could away from what was occurring in Madara’s most prized town, Fidaliath. It was enough to convey that he had witnessed something he should not have seen. His breath tired itself short of thought as the beating sun struck his musty green hair. Sweat trickled across his face, flowing towards his wrinkled brown frock coat. Feet pushing against the pain. Running miles across every block that passed by. The news repeatedly played in his mind. Words that sounded like they were trying to pace its syllables with a fast-paced metronome. Upon reaching the gatehouse, all of the guardsmen there were filled with anxiousness upon recognizing him. He shoved his way past them without adhering to their commands of concern, busting through the kingdom’s finest doors and entered in a panicky uproar that echoed throughout the entire Great Hall Of Fidaliath.

“Your Highness, a great evil attacks the surrounding villages! Nothing of which I have experienced the likes of before! Our armies out there are no match for this omen that hath fallen in dreary times such as now! What message must I send to the reinforcement troops we have left?!” shouted the mysterious royal messenger.

There, on the big throne facing him while sipping from her small tea cup that had this strawberry cocktail drink in it, was a twelve-year-old magical girl. She had bright lavender hair in the style of a low ponytail with this small red scarf coiling around it. Her mahogany-colored dress, gloves, and boots had outlines of white hearts to add flair to its design. Lastly, a beige tiara with five peridot gemstones sat atop her head to signify how many capitals she ruled over. A strange frown detailed the deep anxiety present within her mind concerning the question being asked.

“Boshiro-kun, what is the first course of action for a messenger who witnesses unusual atrocities far from this castle’s boundaries?” inquired Princess Fidaliath. Kamitase Boshiro stared at the floor in silence while kneeling on his moist legs that burned from the intense workout earlier. The room surrounding them started to heat up as an unnerving sense of dread began to beat through his eyes. He could tell she wasn’t pleased at all. Standing back up from his previous announcement, he had been aware of how much persuasion would be necessary in order to get Princess Fidaliath to understand the weight of their situation.

“To report them to the guardsmen at the gatehouse so that they can alert the reinforcements. I have already completed this task. Although to be frank with you, the emergency is something that I also thought you would want me to tell—“

“Oh for Maradeitus’s sake! No, no, no! How can you be this stupid? You are to aid the guardsmen and their knights to handle any communication borders they may have. An attack associated against my kingdom is a different matter. What you are saying now deems the announcement irrelevant to me and this counsel because it has nothing to do with that.”

“Yes your Highness. My swiftest apologies for wasting your time. I will lend the men my assistance as soon as possible.”

Just as Kamitase was ready to leave, a bright light thwarted those orders. It broke through the doors, blinding anyone that dared to look straight at it. This made the counsel sitting in their smaller thrones beside her frustrated by how unexpected it was. While Princess Fidaliath’s magic powers had the ability to age anyone she touched using her fingers, they didn’t seem to prove useful for what was about to happen. When the shining spectacle dissipated, a hulking robot appeared, blocking the entrance before them. It was Compass, who held out its arms loaded with taser guns that shot two of the princess’s subjects down. The counsel of magical girls serving the kingdom, (which consisted of four loyal subjects) now had two more come up from their seats in preparation to defend the princess at all costs. Madness was about to ensue as they ran towards the bot, until a figure with four glowing blades floating around it leaped from behind the machine. Striking a pose towards the ground, the counsel were captured with a strange force that instantaneously froze them in time with ease.

Styra began to stand from her pose as she clenched her two fists against each other as a form of intimidation. Flight also came from behind Compass with his hood no longer draping over him. Princess Fidaliath’s attention turned to face the frightened royal messenger who was staring with speechlessness at the entire situation. As she was about to command him to signal the guards immediately, Kra Time Shields barricaded every single exit in the kingdom. Anyone caught in the middle of one would be stuck until they were removed by the one who created it. An intense guilt flowed through the princess’s heart while watching her messenger fall victim to this trap like a butterfly glued to a spider’s web.

“Your invasion of Madara will do nothing! This lowly commoner besides you messes with the order I have established and as a result has a reward of one-thousand fidaleces in currency on him for his capture. Accomplices receive a greater deal of imprisonment in a similar fashion to my slaves. I am the ruling force here you foolish peasants! Kneel or I will reveal my true power with no hesitation to end your cause.”

Styra chuckled at the fact that she waited until now to take everything too seriously. She could see right through her.

“Oh! Let me guess… Your power is to blabber on for hours about your own boring superiority complex fantasies. Those were some terribly constructed self-obsessive lectures. Speaking of introductions, you are looking pretty bad at them. The fact that handling mature conversations is that hard for you is telling me plenty. Like lying about your age just to try and drone an entire civilization into being entertained by mediocrity? Get real already.”

“Excuse me?! The audacity of you to talk back to me! I am one thousand and three years of age! I know more about exquisite language in comparison to you, you shallow imbecile! It matters not to me what you are, talk back one more time and this day will be your reck—“

A loud yawn interrupted her words. She twitched her head after seeing Flight having an uninterested expression regarding what she was saying. This angered the princess further to the point of standing from the throne she sat on with steadfast aggression. In a final attempt to destroy them after being teased, she teleported behind Flight. That was until the Crimson Chargeon appeared in his hand thanks to the Shard Of Surreality. Seeing it appear out of nowhere caught Princess Fidaliath off-guard. This shard’s power gave him the advantage of being invincible to the death touch. As a result, the princess’s attack did not work. Seconds in, he used the gun to shoot her into an orange diamond cell that could deflect any attacks or spells that she might pull.

Flight knocked on the orange cell, taunting her toxic temper tantrum inside. “Might want to take a rest Princess. Whatever you’ve been having today isn’t looking too good on you right now.”

Styra was pretty amazed at seeing Flight’s abilities. As for her new powers, they were definitely a lot stronger than she was expecting since the last battle. It gave her a heightened sense of awareness for this new universe she hadn’t been in before. Even without having been there, she felt a little more free to do whatever was possible. Both Flight and Omnikra were impressed in her growth as well, but they did have some thoughts in consideration of the consequences at bay.

“Thanks for helping me get my gun back Styra. You weren’t kidding. That new power demonstration of yours was insane. Even with that in mind, I’m starting to wonder something. Are you sure keeping Compass around with us is still a good idea?” he asked.

Styra didn’t seem worried at all about the impending possibilities of this machine going rogue.

“I see Compass as a good addition to our side. Plus with the abilities I have now, I’ll already know if there are any sudden problems that may come out of it y’know?”

Omnikra already knew why she really wanted to keep Compass, although it wasn’t necessarily settled on having the bot around either. Apparently, she kind of believed in reformations and second chances. Right now, they had to leave this place since she already got what Flight needed.

That was before suddenly, a certain sound amplified its presence to her. She sensed indistinguishable words being said from underground. Was her subconscious trying to tell her something based on these inconspicuous thoughts? Ugh. That was going to take some getting used to. Until she could find a way to understand them, it seemed best to ignore whatever that was for right now. To her anyway, they did not strike importance over returning to Hisa and Chelbie. However, Omnikra started to interrupt and caution her out of this idea.

“Styra, I know this may seem random for the both of us but I am starting to see the reason for why you heard that. The Eternal Light Of Sound is expressing its behaviors through The Kra Force, meaning it is clearly trying to enact some form of freedom to think for itself. You said you wanted them to be that way back in Frostice if I remembered correctly. Now is your time to give them that chance.”

“True. I don’t really know though Omnikra. My thoughts and The Eternal Lights are different from each other. If we are going to go ahead and do this, we need a really good place for Flight, Hisa, and Chelbie to stay. The current universe we are in, from what I can sense, isn’t very safe.”

“Hmm, alright. Well since the ship is currently outside of Blattaga in the Rosenhan galaxy, the next closest and safest world to it in orbit is Wisteliah.”

Styra nodded in agreement with Omnikra and turned to Flight who was reluctant on the fact that Compass would eventually be coming with them in the new world, but nonetheless he accepted the idea and waved her goodbye as she sent him and the repaired ship out in space to their new home without having to move from where she was. During this, the weapon also began to feel annoyed knowing that the robot would be tagging alongside them.

“Styra, there is one problem. I know you wanted Compass as backup, but in hindsight we can easily handle a lot of this together without that lifeless body of dead parts. All it will do is drag us down.”

“Listen, I get it Omnikra. Yes, this may seem a bit overwhelming to have an extra someone with us that doesn’t really have any real feelings, but maybe try looking from a different perspective. If the shard gives Compass life, then it could tell us a lot about what we are dealing with.”

The blades were sure that Styra’s deeper intentions behind what she wanted out of the machine was because of what happened beforehand. Giving the Eternal Lights back to Strage and promising to no longer want to have anything to deal with Prism was a difficult bargain. She probably had this ambition to find out more about her own powers without having to steal things that didn’t belong to her. This was understandable, but it would have to remind her to give The Surreality Shard back so they wouldn’t have to worry about that. Regardless, Styra was starting to grow out of a reliance on some fabled myth that hurt more than helped those she cared about. Omnikra would have to accept it. No, it wasn’t too easy to digest that after being told to be something it didn’t choose for all of these years. If that was what would make her happy, then it would try to sacrifice its old dreams for new ones.

The question was, what did it want to be now?