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[Elizabeth POV]

Step!...step!...step!...

Step!...step!...step!...

Walking through the hallway with Cyan we both were silent...

None of us were speaking...

Only the echoes of our shoes were heard along the way...

That is until we come upon a hallway with a long window on the side...

I stop there and looked through the window looking at the view from our side...

The sandstorm before already went by and now what I see was a sky full of stars and a single moon in the sky...

Cyan also stop walking and looked at the scenery outside the window as well...

I stare at the moon while Cyan looked at the sky full of stars...

I then slowly opened my mouth...

"Do you regret coming with us?" (Elizabeth)

"Eh? N-no..." (Cyan)

I'll be honest...

Cyan was still a child...

Just like Lia...

The difference is that Lia was a reincarnator and has some dedication at least...

A  child no more than around the age of 10 to 15 going to a battle that might even kill you...

Well...

Not like Cyan hasn't experienced that battle before...

Even Lia at five years old got a headstart at experiencing battle to the death...

But the memory from her past life made her a little more mature at least in battle...

And with the training I made her do...

It strengthens her mentality a lot...

Still...

How did she not flinch or get scared when she kills still baffles me when I first meet her...

She did say that she doesn't get scared because she likes playing M-rated video games about violence but...

Or maybe because she was fighting droids and robots?...

It felt like she already experiences this moment before in her life...

Anyway...

"..." (Elizabeth)

I kept looking at the moon while Cyan stayed silent...

"I know you have been through a lot in your life Cyan" (Elizabeth)

I looked at Cyan's mechanical leg as I said that and slowly looked at the sky again...

"Even with that... We can't back down now!" (Elizabeth)

I raised one of my hands into the air towards the moon in the sky...

"Or else..." (Elizabeth)

I slowly clenched my raised hand...

"You might lose everything..." (Elizabeth)

Cyan looked at me with a shocked face but slowly but surely nodded with a determent face...

"Right!" (Cyan)

"So... What do you want to do Cyan? It's not too late to back out" (Elizabeth)

Cyan then slap her cheeks with both of her hands and shake her head left and right...

Then she looked at me...

"I want to stay with big sis Lia and Eli because I wanted to do it! I can't just stay like this... Even after I had experienced this pain... I still want to help everyone with all I had!" (Cyan)

I looked at Cyan with a smile as she said that...

"I don't want to lose anyone ever again!" (Cyan)

I heard Cyan's answer and then I turned to look at the sky again but...

My smile slowly disappears without me knowing...

"Won't lose anyone ever again huh..." (Elizabeth)

We both then stayed silent after that...

Then we started looking for Lia while talking about what we will do for the upcoming battle...

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[Liana POV]

Wuussshhh.....

"..." (Liana)

The wind outside felt soothing...

I was looking at my status screen while feeling the wind outside...

What I was looking for was the skill I got...

"I thought it might be an Overpower skill but... Never thought it would be a simple skill that improves my vision..." (Liana)

I closed the status screen and looked up into the sky...

I let you all think of what I got later...

It's better that way right?...

Maybe it might help in the upcoming battle...

With that said...

I raised my right hand and slowly looked at it...

"I'm going to have to kill people again, don't I?" (Liana)

I slowly clenched my hand and closed my eyes I distant memory rang in my head...

{D-don't come a-any closer!} (???)

{hehehe! And what will you do??? Shoot me?} (???)

{STOP!!!} (???)

{You are still alive?} (???)

{SMACK!SMACK!SMACK!SMACK!!!!}

{Hehehe... HAHAHAHAHA!!!!} (???)

{Clachik!*}

{P-pls d-don't come here!} (???)

{Or what? You Shoot me with that tiny gun? Hahaha!!!} (???)

{Lia... Run...} (???)

{SMACK!!!!!!} (???)

{No... No... NOOOOOO!!!!!} (???)

{BANG!BANG!BANG!} 

I quickly opened my eyes again...

And sighed heavily...

I put my right hand on my head and cover my eyes with it as I remember that moment...

After a couple of seconds, I slowly lower my right hand and opened both of my eyes...

I silently looked up at the moon in the sky...

"..." (Liana)

I have a lot of secrets in my life that I don't want anyone to know...

But I guess Eli already knows that but she never mentions it at least...

She also has her secrets like me anyway and knows not to mention someone's privacy...

And I will also respect her privacy...

I then looked at the timer I have on the screen...

"Three hours left till the battle huh..." (Liana)

We are going to get attacked from both sides...

The mercenaries that the noble hired and his main fleet...

A noble that never cared about his crew...

Mercenaries that are hungry for money...

People that can only follow orders to live...

"Sigh*... This world really..." (Liana)

I don't know much about this world but with the amount of Cr*p that I always see, it felt like this world is leading to ruins in some ways...

Or...

Maybe it was already on the brink of ruin...

Many places I have visited are already destroyed and only some we're still standing...

I've been exploring the whole continent while being a Mercenary...

Well...

Not all of it I guess?...

I can't explore the Empire that controls over 3/4 of the whole region and other dangerous regions in the area around it and many of its places are abandoned or even destroyed...

Only 1/4 Percent of the whole region was explorable...

The rest...

I opened my inventory and took out a small sketch map...

I looked at the map silently...

This is only 1/4 of the whole region...

It only shows the name of towns and places...

I looked at the map for a while now...

Yup...

That is the map in some ways...

The cross indicates that the place is unlivable or abandoned or even destroyed till kingdom comes...

There are a lot of places with colored names and it represents the country of the place...

Purple is where the Demon Country resides, Light Blue was where many races are stationed in one Country, Yellow is the Desert Country, Brow is the Neutral Country where anyone can come and go, and red is the Empires Country, for green is pretty much the forest there, and dark blue is the sea...

I've been looking around many places for information about more that I haven't been to, but every piece of information I got kinda scars and I can only find information about common places...

I don't know why...

But I got a tinkling feeling that something is not right here...

Nobody knows about any information on the places that I haven't marked...

Mainly the region of the Empire that has 3/4 of the whole region...

From the looks of it, the empire was said to build a giant tall wall! Surrounding the whole entirety of the empire even crossing the sea...

And everyone that goes near it was never to be seen again...

Or get blown to bits by the giant turrets around the wall...

Step!step!step!...

My ears flicker...

I heard footsteps behind me...

I turned my head to see...

Eli walking towards me from the base...

She was waving her right hand at me...

I smiled and wave my right hand at her as well as she walked towards me and stop right beside me...

I didn't see Cyan with her though...

"Where Cyan?" (Liana)

"Oh, Cyan-chan is resting inside the base, right now she was kinda tired for the moment" (Elizabeth)

"I see..." (Liana)

We both then stayed silent for a moment before Eli opened her mouth...

"So... Anything you want to know before the battle Lia?" (Elizabeth)

My ears flickers again as Eli said that...

I looked at Eli with my eyes laser-focused on hers...

Oh, you have no idea, Eli...

I have a million questions that were left unanswered inside my head since we come here!...

I can see Eli was sweating a little...

Why I wonder...

Well, even with that Eli can only answer some questions I bet...

She likes to be secretive anyway...

"Sigh*~~..." (Elizabeth)

"You do know I saw that right?" (Liana)

"Hehehe~ Sorry, sorry! You still grumpy for what I did to your Favorite plane?" (Elizabeth)

Ugh...

I quickly turned my head from Eli with a huff...

And here I was just having a moment of calmness you need to remind me of that huh!?...

"Really? There's never a calming moment for you, you know?" (Elizabeth)

Stop reading my mind!!!...

Eli giggle as I think of that...

And I can only pout at her...

"hehe~ at least it improves your mood a little right?" (Elizabeth)

I don't think telling someone about what happened about their favorite things count as improving the mood Eli!....

"Hahaha... Anyway" (Liana)

I started thinking...

"I've been wondering" (Liana)

Eli tilted her head as I said that...

"Eli, what are your thoughts about what we got ourselves into?" (Liana)

"Um..." (Elizabeth)

Eli points one of her hands on her cheek as she thinks...

"Well, for me it's quite exciting ~" (Elizabeth)

I had questions popping up above me as Eli said that...

"Exciting?" (Liana)

"Yeah, I get to meet my friend Clap again and go on a thrilling adventure, fighting unknown monsters, and a large army of flying ships!... Usually, we always do descent quests of missions involving subjugation and transportation so... It's fun doing new stuff!" (Elizabeth)

"... I see..." (Liana)

I guess she is not entirely wrong...

This year or so the Empire is starting to show up in a lot of places...

Army of mechanical droids, robots, and other things started appearing all around the allied continent...

And they started attacking and destroying villages and abducting people...

I haven't quite mentioned it yet...

But...

The Frontier sends out all the high-rankers to investigate the problem...

That is including me as well...

And that's why we are here...

Eli was the one tasked with gathering information though, and I was just having fun exploring everywhere...

Then...

Another question popped up in my head...

It's about that orb...

Eli, like reading my mind knows this and opened her mouth...

"What you saw was... Kinda like the Memory fragment but... That Orb has another meaning..." (Elizabeth)

Eli looked at the moon and narrowed her eyes...

Why does she keep looking toward the moon...

Does it have anything related to the moon like the Mana Destroyer that Clap had?...

Eli shakes her head trying to forget about what she was thinking and looked at me with a serious look...

"That Orb is called the Orb of Desires... It's an Orb that makes you see the things you want to see... But..." (Elizabeth)

"..." (Liana)

But what?...

"It also binds you in darkness... Like what you saw with Murataus... That Orb... Works like an Addiction Pill... If you digest it, it is the same as you getting drugs, and the more you consumed it... The more you go crazy and makes you into a different person, just imagine it like getting brainwashed" (Elizabeth)

I narrowed my eyes as Eli said that...

A Pill that brainwashed people into giving them their desire in their head...

Where have I heard this somewhere before?...

"There are two different types of that kind of Orbs... One is the safe one or the pill kind of one that looks like a small marble, its side-effect makes someone so strong that I turned them into a monster, their emotion locks up, and they can only think about the desired things that they want without them even noticing that their body was being controlled by the one giving them the Pill... Do you remember that guy that turned into a monster at Deren city? That's one example... Ugh... It's hard to explain but... Long story short is that if you swallowed the pill you will go into a blank stage where you see what you like but you will turn into a monster and go into a state of loss and will be easily controlled by the one that gave you the pill" (Elizabeth)

"I see..." (Liana)

Okay, I get it...

"What's the second one?" (Liana)

Eli did say there are two methods...

"The second one is force digestion or injection... The same as the first one but it was the most dangerous method that will turn you into a living shell or... A doll for short that was shrouded in darkness... Like Murataus" (Liana)

I shiver as Eli said that...

Getting forced into becoming a doll hits differently than getting brainwashed...

"With the second option, they are free to do whatever they can do to your body... That means experimentation" (Elizabeth)

I remembered Murataus's mechanical body...

Oh...

This thing needs to be eradicated...

"And you know what's the worse part is Lia?" (Elizabeth)

"What?" (Liana)

I looked at Eli as she said that...

"It was developed 20 years ago by the Empire and they have been using this in secrecy to make super soldiers... Or a mutant army..." (Elizabeth)

"..." (Liana)

We'll Sh*t...

So not only do I have to fight against monsters, Machines, Soldiers, and the whole Empire but I'm going to have to fight against Super Mutants now?...

Well not like super mutants are different than strong intelligent monsters but still!...

How many things do I need to write on my list of Enemies?...

They kept growing and growing!...

WOOOOOONNNNGGGGGGGG!!!...

And as that happened sirens started coming from the base...

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