Bipartisan Support

The queen drew in a breath, composing herself completely so she could address the parliament with all her focus. “As you all can see today, we have quite the special guest in our midst.” Her voice rang through the chamber.

The parliament shared a collective chuckle at the queen's humor.

“She’s even gotten the privilege of sitting above me… The queen. How about that?”

More laughter ensued. She really knew how to entertain, even if a bit dryly.

“Unfortunately, I fear this will be all the laughter we share today.” The mood suddenly shifted at her words. A serious wave of anticipation spread over everyone. “I bear news of a controversial sort to all the world.”

Some murmurs began to echo through the chamber. Everyone knew very well what the queen was about to address, but there were a lot of different opinions on how they felt about it. The words “End Times” got thrown around a lot.

While the many chats went on, Hanol kept giving me very subtle, very nervous side eyes, occasionally tugging his collar open like he was overheating. I wouldn’t doubt he was remembering some of the shameful words he spoke about me before I returned his ID card. Maybe he was scared I’d expose him for being a big jerk.

I also haven’t forgotten what he said about the queen’s mother. She was a strong girl for working this close with him.

“For generations, the church and her spiritual leaders have kept the dark forces of Hell at bay,” she said. “But as stated in scripture, a terrible and dark conquest would overwhelm our mortal protectors, and we would be overtaken by eternal night.”

The murmurs increased, prompting the queen to take up her scepter and slam it down on the smooth tiles below her.

*BOOM!*

“Silence!” she announced. “There is hope, however. The scriptures also state that a hero angel will come down from Deus and save us from the Devil’s victory.”

“You’re majesty!” An old man stood up on the left side of the room. “Are we truly to believe this little girl sitting above you is the angel?” His question got a few people wondering the same thing.

The queen gave the floor to the pope to answer him.

“I have confirmed with the Star Lantern that this child is truly the Eighth Star Angel we have been awaiting.”

“A lantern!?” the old man seemed even more bothered. “Nonsense!”

Someone on the right side of the room quickly countered him. “Those lanterns are said to have been blessed by Deus Himself. You’d question that authority?”

“Of course I would! Mine and everyone else's lives are at stake. And you wish for me to put my faith in a child?”

He was going to be one of those people, wasn’t he? Just a big jerk who tried to get everyone worried because he didn’t want to be the only one.

“This ‘child’ you are referring to is responsible for freeing both Urnan and Verrenville from their demonic threats,” the queen retorted. “Several eyewitness reports, as well as an Imperial Security Force agent, who was present at both incidents, confirm that it was her.”

Wait, what? There was an I.S.F. agent at both those places? I didn’t remember seeing one at all, so he must have been super sneaky. But why the heck didn’t he help us?

“If I don’t see it, I won’t believe it!” said the old man. At least he was honest about being unreasonable.

“You cannot see with your mouth, Mr. Cooper.” The queen sent him some sass. Impressive. “There was a period of time where we needed to confirm that she was the Eighth Star. Now that we are sure, we are willing to release evidence to you all.”

A bunch of crystal like shards rained down from the ceiling and gathered over a flat part of the wall across from us. It formed a screen, of which immediately began displaying my adventures through Urnan, then Verrenville. I couldn’t believe it, but there was someone actually recording me that whole time. No wonder the mafia knew a great deal of my abilities. They must have access to these videos. Maybe even more.

“As you can see, this is plenty proof of her identity. And even if we were to claim she isn’t the Eighth Star, this angel has proven herself an ally to humanity.”

“I feel like I’m watching a superhero movie,” Indena commented.

“Yeah,” Yamin agreed. “You guys went through a lot in Verrenville, didn’t you?”

Yamin was captured by Belphegor at the time, so she didn’t see the heck he put us through. That being said, who was recording these videos? I doubt Uncle would have done it without me knowing. Yamin wasn’t there either. And Marek was out for most of it. That only left two people, both of which actually appeared in the videos here and weren't directly recording.

Mella, our resident witch, and Emily, my private contractor hired by dad. They were both at Urnan and Verrenville when I was there. Was it one of them? I mean, it could have been another person entirely, maybe even Samael.

“Sammy, were you recording me?” I asked my snake.

“Ss…”

“I figured it wasn’t you.”

Not that I didn’t want to think about this more, but the queen continued talking.

“Nevertheless, whether you believe she is real or not, a grave calamity is on the horizon, which is why we have all been assembled here today. An organization known as the Family of Sai have been the perpetrators of these demonic attacks. Stopping them is priority one.”

Finally, we get to bring them up. Although, the demon at Urnan had nothing to do with them, at least not directly… I think. Mella did mention someone was there in the valley with us though. I had to assume it was a Family of Sai member playing with things they shouldn’t have.

“Hallowed angel,” the queen said as she turned up to me. “Please tell us what you can of them.”

That was really sudden for her to ask, but I knew enough to give an idea.

“I've seen them a few times,” I told her, pretending like it was just her who I was speaking with to ease the anxiety. “The goal of their organization is to blot out the sun so that the true hearts of men can be revealed.”

“And what does that mean?” Hanol asked, finally breaking his stupor.

If scripture and my experience had anything to say about it, then it was obvious. “They're trying to make the world into a new Heck.”

A unanimous gasp left the people's mouths.

“Why do such a thing?” the pope asked. “How does that reveal… oh…”

In scripture, it states that the Devil made mankind. However, God gave humanity the choice to be good or evil. But no matter how bright the light around them was, darkness would always be their origin. If the world were to be flooded with eternal darkness, mankind would lose their light.

This eternal darkness wasn't just a physical alteration to the world, as if the sun was being turned off. It would be a spiritual one as well.

“When a human loses all their mana in a demon's domain, they literally turn into one of them,” I said. “Humanity won't just have to deal with demons, you'll all become one.”

There were panicked shouts across the chamber. The queen once again struck her scepter down to calm the crowd.

“Silence!” she shouted. “Her blunt words should be an indication of how serious a threat this Family of Sai is.”

A man in a gray military uniform stood up. He had a lot of pins and medals, which meant he was a high rank.

“You're Majesty, if I may speak?” His voice was aged and grizzled, but polite as well.”

“General Zachary Travis, please.” The queen gave him the floor.

“I would like to suggest to the members of parliament the idea of officially branding the Family of Sai as a terrorist organization.”

A lot of people favoured that. The queen went ahead and made the motion, gaining unanimous support from both sides.

“Henceforth, all those affiliated with the Family of Sai are branded as terrorists to this country.”

Indena sank in her seat down there, looking up at me with a very mean look. What was that for?

“You're Majesty…” Miss Lauri spoke up. “As I understand it, members of the Family of Sai have come forth and helped the Eighth Star of Heaven to fight against their corrupted brethren. Would you not offer amnesty for their aid?”

The queen closed her eyes and took a moment to think, then turned to Viro and the pope.

“Their is a Family of Sai member in the Eighth Star's retinue, yes? A Kanai fire mage was she?”

“That is correct, Your Majesty,” Viro said. “She was instrumental in helping the Eighth Star retake Verrenville.”

I figured this was a good time to bring up dad too, since he trusted Indena enough to send me.

“She was sent by my fath…” It probably wasn’t the best idea to televise that he was my dad, so I needed to pick my words more carefully. “...by Dr. Ivan Asamo, to retrieve me.”

I opened an interesting dialogue when I brought up daddy. Nobody expected his name to come up here, save for Viro and the pope.

“Why is Asamo so important?” the queen asked me.

The pope coughed and turned away.

“He needs me to get to him,” I replied. “Apparently he has a solution to stop this eternal darkness.”

The queen was more than curious about what his solution was, but I had to admit to her that I wasn't sure, just that it was imperative that I reach him soon.

She didn't like my answer, but my authority convinced her to trust my goal. “Then any Family of Sai that come forth will be pardoned and given asylum. However, only the mage accompanying the Eighth Star is allowed to move around freely. Anyone else will be housed in secure locations until this crisis is averted. At which time, we will reassess the situation.”

“Eighth Star,” Hanol spoke up. “Where exactly is Dr. Asamo? Why haven't you met with him yet?”

“I was supposed to by now, but…” Did they know what the Nalnara network was? It would be odd if I referenced the portal system and they didn't have a clue what it was. “Do you guys know what a Nalnara portal is?”

I couldn’t tell if people were looking at me funny because they didn’t know, or from how I was talking so casually.

Surprisingly, some of them had a bare bones understanding based on archeological finds, but none of them had ever used or seen the network for themselves.

“I was the one to discover it officially exists.” Miss Lauri quietly patted herself on the back.

“You are terrible, you know that?” Indena commented.

“Terrible can mean powerful, you know?”

“Uhg… Just as annoying as I remember.”

Hanol turned up to me with a fake smile of disbelief. “I'm sorry…” he said with a chuckle. “Are you saying that a mana network runs through the entire planet to make these portals happen?”

This was my chance to put some falsehoods to rest.

“The mana network begins at the Heart of the World, where spirit energy is infinitely generated and sent to the surface. tapping into that allows you to teleport wherever it goes.”

Hanol nervously laughed for the camera, then shook his head.

“Perhaps you'd like to show us proof of that?”

“Sure.” I said. “Once I’ve stopped the Family of Sai, I can take you to Elysium myself.”

The people on the right side erupted into supportive cheers at my apparently controversial offer. The other side was grumbling and groaning. Hanol cringed a bit, but smiled and nodded. I hope I didn't just make a bunch of enemies, but I'd rather be right and them hate me then wrong and let them live ignorant.

“Silence!” The queen slammed her scepter down for a third time. “Hallowed angel, what would you ask of us on your quest to reach Asamo?”

I explained we already knew the name of the place he was at, but we didn’t know where it was. I also mentioned to her that I would have teleported there, but the network was down due to interference. I had a theory that the Family of Sai was involved in that too. The queen knew enough to understand why we were inconvenienced.

“The Eighth Star of Heaven is on a journey to find Dr. Ivan Asamo,” the queen announced to the audience. “According to her, he has information on preventing the global catastrophe.”

She asked where we needed to go to meet him, and we told her the city Indena came from known as Okitoshi.

“I’ve never heard of that city,” The Queen said, looking at Viro for answers.

“If memory serves me, which it always does, It was an old Kanai holdout after the Great War about fifty years ago. But we have reason to believe that it was abandoned when our campaign of Esma was successful.”

“Nope.” Indena stood up. “It’s a big city full of people. It’s not Kanai territory anymore, but there’s a lot of people there. Not just the Family of Sai either.”

“That must be the fire mage,” the queen commented. “If Okitoshi is Asamo’s last known location, we’ll send the Eighth Star there right away,” the queen ordered.

“Forgive me, You’re Majisty…” Viro spoke up, “but that’s not possible right now.”

The Queen wasn’t pleased, giving him a livid side eye.

“Explain yourself.”

“There is a weather anomaly currently walling off that part of the polar continent. It would not be safe to travel just yet.”

General Travis spoke up next. “What is causing that weather?”

This was Miss Lauri’s domain. So she stood up and began to speak on behalf of all the scientists.

“The Anomaly didn't seem natural to us when we were there recently. We believe that Nazalian ruins play a key role in its presence, almost as if someone has summoned it there to block off the rest of the world.”

“Are there any Nazalian weapons or devices capable of creating such a storm?” the queen asked, rolling her hand to get to the point.

“It’s extremely likely, You’re Majesty,” Miss Lauri said.

Until we were able to figure out a way around that storm, there wasn’t any way to get through it.

The queen made another motion for bipartisan support to discover a way through that storm. Everyone agreed, meaning we had the full support of the country on our side. But it looked like it might take a little bit longer to figure that out then we hoped.

The meeting wasn’t over yet though. There was still something else we had to bring up, and that was why the Family of Sai were after Yamin.