The scrape of metal on stone echoed through the halls.
"What in the Aether is he doing in there?"
Hailey, Rias, and I had journeyed through the northern hall. After having gotten ourselves turned around in a large storage room, which was the northernmost room in this wing, we tracked back to a blind turn in the hallway which hopefully led to the armory Luke mentioned.
Somebody—though I already knew it was Julius—was making a loud racket just ahead of us.
We passed through the arched doorway, its set of steel doors left ajar, into the armory proper. Sitting on the ground, digging through a crate of assorted armor pieces, was Julius.
A metal gauntlet soared through the air, flung from the man himself. It landed with a clang and bounced my direction.
"Hey! Watch it."
He turned his head, barely far enough to make eye contact out of his periphery, "Hey, Rias. Sorry about that."
"…"
I stomped forward in a tantrum, stopping in front of him, looming over his crate of projectile armor. I pointed my finger at my face, glaring at him.
"What? Did I hit your face or something? Look I said sorry, I wasn't expecting anyone to come in here."
I sighed in defeat.
"Airis is awake." I sneered at him.
"Oh! Well why didn't you say so? Let's go see her."
He jumped to his feet, turning towards the exit.
"Hey, Hailey. And—Aaah…"
Hailey and Rias waved at him. Both of them wore concern heavy on their faces.
Julius hung his head in shame, slowly turning back around to face me.
"Now listen, Airis. You know that this isn't fair. Look! You're even dressed in her clothes."
Graaaah!
Filled with a burning rage I flew out of the armory. Screaming through the halls, "It's not like we're twins, Julius!"
-✵-
Rather conveniently, I ran into Mei on my way back through the soon-to-be named 'storage wing'. It would be more correct to say I ran into everyone who had been in the great hall… It might have been due to my recent outburst—not that I was shouting that loudly.
I asked her to inform all of the Divisional leaders to gather all available members in the Citadel's main hall.
At this moment I was waiting for three more minor divisions, as well as my trusty elven ranger, to arrive.
"Ah, there you are."
Violet hair bounced into view as Mei climbed the last few steps of the main staircase. She rounded the top and joined me, leaning back against the balustrade.
Her hair was all over the place, beads of sweat glistened in the flicker of torch light. A sigh of relief escaped her lips and she swept her hair back away from her face. Her long hair fell down past her back, leaving the ride side, which was styled in an undercut, exposed.
"Alright. Spill it, Commander. Why did you have me bring everyone here?"
"You'll see once everyone gets settled."
"Oh come on! You've got hundreds of people piling in. It's gotta be important. Give me something."
"Did Hailey brief you on everything that happened after we defeated the Terror Demon?"
"Most of it I imagine. Meeting with your Goddess in the afterlife."
"Not our Goddess?"
"Well, Humanity's Goddess anyway."
My interest had now been piqued and the tables turned, "You spill first, what do you mean by that?"
Nonchalantly she turned around to face the massing crowd. "That Celestial Faith Sect in Axio has it wrong. The Celestials didn't create all life together. Well, at least that's what I was taught a long time ago."
"Hmm. Come to think of it, Virgo had said something about how she had created humans. I didn't really think much of it at the time, but that lines up with that you're saying. So if the Celestials didn't do it collectively, then who made each race?"
"Sagittarius is the progenitor of the Elves."
"How about the Dwarves and the Noblebourne?"
Mei spat at the mention of the latter race.
"Not a fan of them, I take it?"
"No."
I craned my neck over the balcony to get a look at her expression.
Palpable hatred emanated from her.
I retreated very slowly.
"We'll just skip that conversation then." I chirped.
Julius rounded the staircase, saving me from the wrath of Mei.
"All divisions accounted for and ready, Airis."
"Great. Thanks, Julius. Can you call everyone to attention for me? I'll get started in a moment."
"Sure thing."
Julius walked halfway down the stairs to the middle landing and snapped his heels together.
"Third Division. Atten-tion!"
The hushed muttering of side conversations fell to absolute silence. The only sounds now were boots scraping softly against the stone floors as everyone in attendance snapped into place.
Julius spun-about deftly in a quick maneuver to face me at the top of the stairs. He rendered me a crisp salute, which I returned.
I descended the stairs and he fell in to my left.
"At ease."
The murmur of feet shuffling echoed down the hall.
I looked out over the crowd, spotting Hailey close to the center who had a big smile spilling across her face.
Here goes nothing.
"Good evening everyone. I know this call-to-order was unexpected so I'll keep it brief. With everything that has happened in the last few days I know there are plenty of questions—and certainly there are just as many rumors."
"So we'll start with the events here in the Citadel two days ago. The raiding party that engaged the Terror Demon was successful. That much is obvious, otherwise we wouldn't be in here having this briefing. What isn't obvious, is the total number of real casualties. Of the one-hundred and seventy-two members who entered the Garrison district, eighteen lost their lives in the fight to locate the monster's leader. On record, another six were killed in action against it. However, in truth…"
I took a deep breath to keep my nerves calm.
"In truth, the total number of us killed in combat with that beast was one-hundred and seven."
A few gasps of surprise rippled through the crowd of soldiers.
Confusion spread out from those who weren't part of the raiding party, as they looked to those who were.
Hailey let out a sharp whistle from the front, "Keep your bearing. The Regent Lord hasn't finished speaking yet."
I continued on, my next words sure to spark more surprise.
"Of those slain, it included myself and High-Protector Julius. Though, as you can see, we are both standing here before you. We found ourselves in the realm of the Celestials. The Goddess Virgo—"
I could hear some chatter from the confused mass.
"Did she say Goddess?" "They were killed!?" "How is this possible?" "They saw the Celestials?"
The low rambling wasn't too interruptive, and I could see officers rushing to retain order, so I kept on explaining.
"I was bestowed the ability to return our recently deceased back to life. I was returned to life myself by the Goddess Virgo. So hear me, soldiers of the Republic, and listen. I task you with a mission befitting the chosen people of our Goddess."
"Our crippled and fractured empire has limped along as a shadow of its former self for too long. I say no more! No more shall we bow our heads in service of obstructive politics. No more shall we struggle amongst the other human factions. No more will we sit idle against threats against us."
"On this day we are reborn. We rise from the ashes of a ruined empire! I charge you as it's rightful scions. Today, I declare the Vanixian Empire is once more. By the greatness of the Goddess I reclaim that which belongs to us."
To my own surprise, a blinding orange nova of light erupted from the rune on my wrist. The glow washed over the great hall and enveloped the soldiers.
I quickly willed the notification interface to display. A large ornately decorated window appeared before me.
» RULER PRIVILEGES AUTHENTICATED.
» CONTROL OVER A SEAT OF POWER CONFIRMED.
» YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN THE RIGHT AND RECLAIMED A DESOLATED FACTION:
» THE EMPIRE OF THE LIGHT [VANIXIAN EMPIRE]
» YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED A NEW TITLE:
» EMPRESS {RULER} [VANIXIAN EMPIRE]
By the Aether. I'm starting to have trouble keeping up with every new event.
-✵-
After the excitement had died down I retired to the old Commander's Quarters with Hailey and Julius.
Rias convinced Mei to venture off to the baths, while I stayed to try to mull over the implications of that new ruler title and corresponding faction rights. Without any details on what it meant, I had slouched back in the soft cushions of a couch, and was drifting in and out of sleep.
Hailey and Julius were discussing something rather loudly over the command table, which was interfering with my rest.
I grumbled softly to myself and turned over to stick my head under a pillow.
A disruptive knock on the door sounded through the chamber. I heard Julius say he'd see who it was and shortly after, the door creaked open. The sound of multiple footsteps paired with hushed mumbling came closer and closer, until I could hear his voice clearly.
"—think she's still asleep, but I'll wake her up."
A gentle hand pressed against my shoulder.
"Airis, Luke and Hanna are here. They found something you're gonna want to see."
"Nnnnnhh." I groaned in irritation, but rolled over to face them.
Wiping the sleep from my eyes I sat up.
Hailey had stepped away from whatever important task she was working on, and came to sit down next to me. As Julius had said, both Luke and Hanna had arrived. Luke was holding an odd looking sphere in his hands. It was bright white and had golden runic lines running across its face. Etched in a crimson-red was a gauntleted fist.
What in the Aether was this thing? Wait—where have I seen one of those before…?
They must have noticed a change in my face as my mind started to connect the dots.
"Do you know what it is?"
"I think so. When I was little, my father would sometimes let me sit with him in his office. In the, uh… capital building, north of the central spire tower. One of these was always at his desk. It didn't have that symbol on it, though…"
Rapping my knuckles against my forehead, I strained myself to remember what that one had looked like.
It wasn't a fist. I only remember seeing it a few times… It had some geometric shape, a triangle? No, more complex than that. OH!
"It had the Axio City crest; the Triumvirate Knot."
Julius tapped at the sphere cradled in Luke's arms.
"So you think it has something to do with the city?"
"If Axio had one, it's a strong possibility."
"Maybe it's some sort of a key? Like to open a vault or hidden door?"
We turned to look at Julius. His arms shot up, palms out towards us.
"Hey, I'm just guessing here!"
"Your mind is fixated on treasure lately." I sneered at him. "I heard you've spent the last two days digging through the armory."
"Don't hate on me because I'm looking for some loot. We got jack all from both elite demons we killed to take this place. Anything that can give us an edge would be a godsend right now."
He had a fair point. But I had my doubts that this was some sort of key.
"Hey, Luke. Let me take a look at it?"
"Uhm, sure thing. Just be careful. It's heavier than it looks."