It wasn't long before I caught up to the girl I was chasing.
Although I constantly tried to warn her about the situation, May refused to listen, ignoring me while pushing forward.
Her pace was rapid and unceasing.
Knowing I couldn't convince her to stop, I decided to stay by her side until we finally reached the Ferrum Armory.
"May!" I exclaimed, urging her to wait a moment before she entered.
Once again, she ignored me and rashly scoured into the building before I could say anything more.
"FATHER!" I heard May call out just after following her inside the dark Armory.
I made sure we remained by the entrance, as the absence of light made things far too dangerous to proceed.
There was no response to May's call, and most notably, no sign of Quinn.
"May, I'm sorry, but I think we should get out of here now."
"N-no… this can't be right." She shook her head in disbelief, her body quivering against the fear of an unfortunate outcome. "Father! Please answer me!"
"May, your father isn't here," I said to her calmly while softly placing a hand against her shoulder. "I think the Viper might've planted that message because he knew you'd come here. It's a trap, May, and we have to get out right now—"
There was an abrupt shiver in my bones, catching me off guard. My instincts seemed to be on high alert.
Maybe it was because the air felt much cooler than the last time I was in here. Or perhaps it was the incongruent fragrance, scarcely residing within this damp atmosphere.
My nostrils constantly flared to the smell. It was a thick scent–sweet and flowery–that felt so familiar to me, and yet, so obscure.
Suddenly, I heard the sounds of metallic clattering and hard footsteps slowly approaching from behind the door to the Forge.
Someone's coming. I turned to May, realizing she was too stunned to make a break for it even if I cried out, so instead, I moved in front of her while tightly gripping the handle of my unsheathed dagger.
The door swung open, and from it, a cloaked silhouette emerged.
"Are you the Voiceless Viper?" I asked, but the silhouette did not reply.
It only stood opposite me, while hiding behind a dark curtain of eeriness and enigma.
A suspenseful pause groped the air around us until I saw a few cards appear around the silhouette's body, dauntingly floating around it.
This is bad, I thought.
As if we weren't already in enough danger, five tall beams of light began to accompany the cards in their orbit.
Is that a card ability?
Just as I questioned this, the silhouette waved its hand to the left.
"Gale Push."
"What–!"
Just then, a sudden gust of wind blew my body in the same direction the hand moved, knocking me into the side wall before I could even react.
"Wolf!" May cried.
My body collapsed on the floor, but my consciousness remained.
I tilted my head up to face my attacker.
That person's voice… I've heard it somewhere before.
The voice was unusually deep and quiet like it was purposely trying to disguise itself from acquainted ears.
I barely managed to turn my head, focusing on the petrified May, who appeared to be the silhouette's main target.
"May, get out of here, now!" I cried to her after trying desperately to regather my winded breath.
However, she remained still, her dysfunctional mind unable to grasp the sheer amount of danger she was in.
"Y-you... you killed my parents—" Before she could even finish confronting the mysterious silhouette, I watched as a spear of light–a size larger than the ones I saw previously–tore through the air at a tremendous speed.
"MAY!!" I cried, thinking that the light spear had managed to impale her before bursting into a radiant flash.
But to both of our surprise, May appeared to be unharmed.
"Projectile threat absorbed," I heard a mechanical voice say. It was at that moment I noticed a cubic device that was bobbing in the air around May. "I am honored to have finally been summoned again, Miss Maybelle."
"A-are you... Rota?" That was the name of her birth card, the device summon.
It seems May unconsciously summoned him when she was under a life threatening situation.
"Correct. I am your device summon, Rota… Initiating return sequence..." The cube began to shake frantically while airborne, until it emitted a large beam of light that was shot directly toward the enemy.
Surprisingly, the silhouette remained silent and still, and I watched as the attack made a direct hit.
"Eh?"
An explosion then followed, blowing dust and chunks of debris everywhere around us.
"Return sequence complete."
I witnessed the destruction caused by the large spear of light the summon returned.
Once the dust was clear, a person emerged from the silhouette–one whose torn robes no longer hid away their true appearance.
"It can't be…"
Enduring the pain in my back side, I rose to my feet, realizing the person standing before me was someone I knew, but could no longer recognize.
"YOU!" I heard May scream at her. "Are you the one who killed my parents all those years ago!? Tell me where you're keeping my father!"
The person she had been confronting this whole time was a young woman, who seemed far too different from the one I was familiar with.
Her hair made the night sky seem light in comparison, and her eyes were a bright crimson–cold and soulless like she was constantly staring into a black abyss.
The only feature that seemed recognizable was the cross-shaped scar that Amber gave her.
"Mel?" I tried to initiate an interaction, however, her lips remained sealed as though she had no intention of conversing with either of us.
"W-wait... That's the Princess?" May asked.
I was unable to confirm this since her behavior was completely unusual to me.
"Mel… if it's really you, will you please answer?"
After a few seconds of silence, I was almost convinced there wasn't going to be a response from her, however, her lips twitched for a moment before she directed a finger at me.
"Fire!" Another beam of light flew from Mel's side, but this time it was seeking a new target: me.
As I prepared myself to dodge, I watched May quickly move in front of me, like she had anticipated that Mel would change her focus.
"Rota!" With the ability of her summon, she was able to absorb the spear of light, shielding me from Mel's attack.
Before I even had time to thank her, another spear directed itself at us, followed by another.
However, they were both consecutively absorbed by Rota.
"Absorption overload," I heard Rota say, which started to worry me a little.
"Oh no, he's absorbed too many attacks!" May panicked.
For some reason, Rota began to shake much more rapidly than before, and a white glow started projecting from it.
"Get down!" I quickly pulled May away from Rota and we threw ourselves out of the armory, before the whole building was engulfed in a large beacon of light.
A loud BOOM immediately followed, and the entire armory had been blown up, with its roof completely collapsed, leaving nothing behind but a large cloud of gray smoke.
"No..." I heard May softly cry out in despair, before I desperately rushed into the piles of rubble.
"Wolf—"
"Mel!? Mel, are you there!?" I repeatedly called her name, unable to see anything within the smoke.
As I searched around the piles of wood and stone, I encountered several pieces of equipment lying around the floor, thinking that Mel could be trapped somewhere beneath the rubble.
After what felt like an eternity of searching, the smoke-filled air dispersed, and my visibility returned.
However, there was no longer any sign of Mel.
"All systems rebooted," I heard Rota say beside me. "Rank increased."
I was guessing that meant May's birth card had increased a rank, meaning it was now two stars.
"Hey, Wolf!" I heard May call from behind me as she ran through the rubble. "Woah!"
I watched her foot get caught on something before she tripped over and fell.
"Are you—"
"Are you alright, Miss Maybelle," Rota interrupted me as he flew toward her. Although Rota was May's personal Summon, I found his display of concern for her quite strange, especially for an object.
"I-I'm fine," she said, shaking the dust out of her hair and face as I helped her rise from the uneven ground. "Thank you."
I could see that she was trying to hide her sadness as she gazed around at what used to be a place she called home.
I couldn't imagine what she was currently going through.
I looked over to see what caused May to trip, and to my surprise, I saw a first grade dagger protruding from a wooden plank, holding a piece of paper between its surface and the blade. I took out the dagger and picked up the sheet of paper.
"What is it?" May asked me.
"It's another message." I quietly read out this new letter sent from our adversary–whoever that may be.
That night–under the moon–several questions were constantly circling around in my mind:
What happened to Mel?
Is she really the Viper?
Did she kill Larg?
What has she done with Quinn?
What kind of message is she trying to send us?
What is she planning?
All I wanted to do was find the answers to these questions... but why?
I wasn't as desperate as May and Barshall, nor was I as curious as Snapper and Jude, and I didn't feel as obligated as Amber.
So why was I going this far?
I felt the corners of my lips stretching upward.
Oh, that's right. It was to help find Mel… because she's my friend…
No, that was only part of the reason.
And besides…
What kind of person smiles at the thought of their 'friend' going missing?
Am I excited?
That was it, right? The mystery, the clues, the destruction, all of it...
It's like I was reading an enticing mystery novel, and I had just reached an exhilarating cliff-hanger at the end of the first act.
I wonder what comes next…?