✧ Chapter 43 ✧

Kled charged as fast as he could at Styra, but to her this was barely a surprise. The taser knife was pointing out a few feet from where she was standing. Yawning at the sight of how slowly it approached, she took the weapon from him with ease and started balling it up into her hand like it was a piece of paper.

After zipping around a bit more, Kled ended up falling to the ground while Styra had already moved out of the way.

“Seems you failed to get your point across,” she said while throwing the balled up knife into a dumpster behind her without even looking.

This stunned the gang members who were left speechless. They ran out of the alley as fast as they possibly could when Styra started to charge up The Kra Force within her.

“What a shame. So much talk, not enough fighting. Oh well. How are those people we saved doing Eternika?”

“No injuries found.”

“That’s good to hear. You can let them go now.”

As Eternika removed the forcefield, one of the students spoke up. It was a girl with light blue eyes who had dark hair in a low loose ponytail hanging from this blue-beaded tie bracelet. She wore a Dream Academy uniform like the other two, but she was also the shortest amongst them.

“Hi! My name is Miri Ishikawa and I just wanted to ask… What are you?”

Styra didn’t want to be rude, even though technically she had to check through the rest of the city to continue training. She decided it wouldn’t hurt to strike up a small greeting. Plus, she had been securing conversations around Centreplex to find out where the missing girl that could help them was.

That was until a second student intervened.

He was taller than Miri and had brown hair that was a bit more frizzled and spiky. It almost reminded her of Flight’s hair. He had brown eyes that seemed to shine with a charismatic enthusiasm. His name was Aoki Fujii.

“Miri, she’s literally a superhero. The first I’ve ever seen to be honest. And I normally travel around the world with my parents during vacations, yet I’ve never seen someone like her before.”

“Of course you haven’t Aoki! Superheroes aren’t supposed to exist here! This is super weird.”

“I’m not sure if I’m exactly a superh—“

“Can I take off your mask? I want to see what you look like,” said Miri with an impatient smile.

Suddenly, the third student who was the tallest of the group put his hand on top of Miri. He had green eyes and brown hair that was down to the middle of his neck. His name was Hiroto Miyamoto.

“Calm down Miri. You know how rude that is. Plus it looks like she was trying to say something. Can you not be in people’s faces all the time?”

Miri quickly went all up in his face without hesitation.

“I can go up in anyone’s face whenever I want!”

“Does that mean you have to? What if she wants to decide on taking it off herself?”

“Fine… Then you have to say that you love Cherry.”

“Hey, not cool! I already told you we’re not in a relationship!”

Styra was slightly amused by this interaction but she started whispering to Eternika about the mention of this person named Cherry.

“This could be it. I know you’re thinking what I’m thinking.”

“Let’s do it.”

As the three students got into a goofy yet heated argument, Styra began to decide on forming an alliance with them l. That way, she could get closer to whoever this Cherry was and find out what she knew.

“Hope I’m not interrupting anything, but I really need your help. This is between us. My name is Styra and I’m looking for someone. Do you all want to be friends with me?”

Miri was immediately excited at the prospect of having a new friend. Not just any kind though clearly. Aoki and Hiroto were accepting of it as well.

“Wow, count me in! Who are you looking for?”

Eternika displayed an image of the event where the mystery girl in the lab was.

“You don’t happen to know who this person is, do you?”

Hiroto was quick to point out the comparison.

“That’s Cherry. Wait a second… You overheard our conversation and it made you think of whatever mission you were on.”

“Way to point it out genius!” exclaimed Miri as she patted Hiroto really hard on his right shoulder.

“Jeez, knock it off!” shouted Hiroto.

Putting the pieces together, Styra set the conversation back on track.

“This Cherry… Do you know where she lives?”

All three students stopped their antics and realized they had no clue.

“Funnily enough, no. Cherry never talks to anyone usually. Although I remember one exception last week. I think their name is Ararima? Yeah. She is the only other student that has close contact with her,” said Aoki.

Hearing this interested Styra even more. Whoever Cherry and Ararima was, they had to find both of them. If they were students at the school, she could easily track them down because they would end up being in one of the classrooms. However, this meant she was going to have to disguise herself among the other students so she could get this done a lot faster.

“What school do you go to?” she asked Aoki.

“Dream Academy High. It’s one of the most prestigious high schools in this city. We could give you a tour tomorrow if you like. By that time Cherry and Ararima will be there.”

“Sounds great. So we’ll all meet up tomorrow?”

“Yep!” yelled Miri as she sealed the deal.

“Oh yeah. Thank you for helping us out earlier. We were just heading home late at night when those crazy people started attacking us. Maybe we can repay you back someday?” asked Aoki.

“Don’t worry about it. As long as you all are safe, that’s all that matters,” said Styra before flying off with Eternika back to Twilight Terrace.

By the time they arrived, Chelbie was sound asleep sitting next to Compass on the floor. Styra giggled at this while carrying Chelbie up into her bed because it was strangely wholesome to see.

After she tucked the covers over Chelbie, Compass finally spoke on its own for the first time in a long while.

“Styra, I am sorry.”

This confused her. Compass didn’t have a Surreality Shard inside of it. How was it speaking by itself like this? What did it even mean by it being sorry?

“Compass… What is going on with you?”

“I am not who you think I am.”

Eternika began to realize what was going on. It was a lot more understandable given what had happened.

“Styra, I think the machine holds reserved power from the Surreality Shard. Eternal Lights usually reserve their power with entities to whom which their bond is strong with. They can however also take all of that power out of you if they don’t agree with your motives. Since the bot is neutral, it can freely speak through Compass. That means an Eternal Light is still with us on this journey.“

“That’s incredible. I never figured that. There’s just one problem though. We will still be at odds with Prism because of this,” she replied.

“They are tricking you,” said Compass while standing up.

There was a pause of silence. Styra stared at the robot in disbelief.

“What do you mean?”

“Prism is lying to The Guardians Of The Omniverse. I tried to tell Spessarion, but he wouldn’t listen. Instead everything got worse. I have seen more than any other Eternal Light because of it. The payoff wasn’t worth anything… Unless you can help.”

“What are you trying to say? That I should side with the anomaly?”

“Not necessarily. You must try to get him to understand though because I alone cannot deter the will of the other nine Eternal Lights. I stand with your side for one reason. When you shielded me from the other guardians during the attacks on Wisteliah, I saw someone who truly cared. Amethion guided you down the right path and it shows because of his will to sacrifice himself for you to help others that want to be helped. That said, there is an evil that manipulates the entirety of The Omniverse. It is of two sides whose nature relies on the ultimate suffering of its creation.”

“How do we stop it?”

“It will be an arduous task. The hardest thing you will ever have to do. We must be careful not to tread on steep decisions. If both of you are willing to fight against The New Guardian’s lore, we must first convince the anomaly to join us. He is connected to the lore.”

“Okay. What is his name?”

Compass walked towards the balcony as Styra and Eternika followed behind before it looked up towards the starry night sky.

“Voltaze.”

Trying to process the name without getting angry, Styra proceeded to ask more questions.

“Why is he trying to destroy The Omniverse?” she asked.

“He is not exactly trying to destroy the Omniverse. Let me explain it like this. I know you saw that sheet of paper tying to an evil organization called UVOCA. They are responsible for their own death after ultimately tampering with space-time. Voltaze was one of their experiments. Because he was locked in a chamber, he came to the conclusion that everything is a prison. He wants to break the foundations of existence so that The Lucid Light‘s delusional goals come to pass.”

This worried Styra. It sounded as if Voltaze was being tricked. She already knew what The Lucid Light did to her and Eternika. Avoiding their “supposed” fate was important because the New Guardian’s lore was clearly a divisive prophecy designed to cause bad things to happen.

“Say Eternika, you never told me about what the prophecy said about The New Guardian. Can you tell me all of it? Maybe we can dissect the real goals of The Lucid Light.”

When Eternika was about to speak, Compass held up its index finger to indicate that it had something significant to address.

“Eternika does not know the entire lore unfortunately. The inscription that was once on his blades were only part of it because Prism rejected the original intention. However, I know it in full because it deals with us.”

Compass turned its attention out across the city below while reciting the words with clarity.

This is The New Guardian’s lore.

Only one can wield the blades of four.

A being pure and humble at the core.

They will have its power for evermore.

To face a plight in order to restore.

The protector’s confidence to explore.

And save realities from a threat never seen before.

Infinity awaits The End, heretofore.

The fact that this was what the lore said made Styra feel a sense of anonymity from it. Why did it seem as if it was saying this with the intention of helping solve that exact problem? The Lucid Light sounded conflicting when it first came to her. Why use Voltaze as the catalyst? Was she being replaced? It didn’t make sense due to how abstract this message came off.

Was she pure and humble at the core? Styra had doubts about that because she knew how careless she had been when trying to collect The Eternal Lights back then. She didn’t feel as divine as the prophecy stated. She was trying her best to change, but she was only human. The nosebleed made that apparent. This meant Voltaze was likely set to be on his way to retrieve Eternika and fulfill the lore’s promise.

“I think the lore is not what it seems. I just feel like this is exactly what The Lucid Light wants us to hear. Something that anyone would easily agree with. Think about it. If the lore wasn’t a lie, Voltaze wouldn’t be coming here and trying to take Eternika.”

Eternika started to agree with her viewpoints as it made sense knowing how The Lucid Light’s words only lined up halfway.

“Good point. Voltaze is exploiting the other Eternal Lights for their power even though they can think for themselves. There is no way I want to partake in something as superficial and disconnected as that.”

“I know right? Like who would? There's clearly something wrong going on here. The prophecy by itself is also too good to be true. I know myself a bit too well by now. When I was told to be a New Guardian, I figured that it probably wasn’t true. Now I know it’s not,” said Styra.

Piecing the puzzling parts of this situation together like this suggested that Prism and The Lucid Light were at war. The bigger questions lied with UVOCA’s involvement. Spessarion had met a strange looking figure in the Liquatics Laboratory base. In order to find out more, Styra would need to create a plan with Eternika and Compass the rest of the night in order to properly prepare for tomorrow’s tour.

Still she was worried about one thing.

“Compass, you are pretty much The Eternal Light Of Surreality. I just want to know one other thing before we start on this… How are Flight and Hisa doing?”