Chapter 06 – Give or Take
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*beeeeeeeeep*

"Recording log..."

"Week 1"
"Tuesday"
"0835 hrs."
"Fruchiel's Cathedral"
"Gargan Forest"

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After knowing the unknown armed people approaching the Cathedral, Harvey orders the HOTEL Operators to silently observe them in the treelines to avoid element compromise, while the Able Units are to stay held inside the Cathedral. The pilots of the Chinook park and taxi the helicopter behind the building for cover. The peasants sitting on their sheets in the living room meanwhile take their breakfast that Fruchiel handed to them earlier. As they are eating, they are having conversations about what happened to their village, and to Fruchiel.  Mixed Expressions of gratitude, sadness, and regret on their faces as they continue eating their breakfast.

IsabellaGlenn, and Herman are together eating their meals. Isabella makes a sad face while chewing on her meal, thinking about what she had done. Looking at her, Glenn and Herman also began to make gloomy expressions. 

"Hey, it's alright," Glenn said to her with a pat on her shoulder. 

"Ah I-I'm sorry. Things just really happened so fast." Isabella replied as she looked at Glenn and starts eating back.

"Look. Just forget about it, okay? I'm sure things will be okay right now." Herman added. Then suddenly,  the Able Units inside the living room began closing curtains and windows as they cover behind windows and pillars. Other Able Units are also can be seen outside the room running in the hallways. All of the peasants wondered what was happening now. 

"Uhm. What is going on?" Herman asked a unit taking cover on the side of a window.

"Shh. Keep your voices down and stay low." the Able Unit replied as he grips his M16A1 slung on his chest. He then makes hand gestures to the other Able Units inside the room, ordering them to hold up positions and to make sure that the peasants are secured. They obliged and some units ordered some of the peasants to stay down and don't go outside. The peasants worryingly oblige as they continue to wonder what is going on. Then in the hallway, Harvey can be heard talking to his radio, while some of the Able Units follow Harvey into their positions.

"Have twelve sniper positions up here while fifteen on the rear. Ten in front." Harvey spoke through his radio as he adjusts his suppressed CAR-15. He spawns additional mags to replace the empty ones inside his vest. After that, he radios back again.

"HOTEL 01. Hear me?" Harvey whispered to his radio.

"Yes, sir." HOTEL 01 also whispered. HOTEL 01 can now be seen in front of the Cathedral, running inside to meet with Harvey. Now inside, Harvey spawned loaded 5.56 magazines again and put it all inside the two bags carried by HOTEL 01 to distribute to the other HOTEL Operators lying in wait inside the bushes and treelines outside. 

"Thank you, sir." HOTEL 01 runs back with the bags with loaded mags to distribute them to the operators. Looking at him as he runs, Harvey contacts Able 1-1 on his radio again.

"Able One-Actual?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Consolidate on me with two of your units."

"Roger that, sir."

Seconds later, Able 1-1, together with Able 1-3 and Able 1-5 are now crouched behind Harvey as Harvey looks to the forest with the other Able Units while holding tattered gray curtains. He looks back and passes the tattered curtains to them to the three units.

"Mimic and distract." Harvey smiled at them. The three quickly understood his meaning and quickly wear the tattered curtains on their body.

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Moments later, outside of the Cathedral...

A group consisting of twenty armored and armed knights reaches the Cathedral. Their leader riding a horse in front of them is a good-looking red-haired man in his 30s, who shouts at his knights to stop as he climbs down on his horse. He inspects the Cathedral and smiles wickedly.

"Hehehehe. Now I can finally get the thing that is really for me!" he chuckled with an intense smile. He then orders his knights to spread out to form a linear formation around him as he continues to approach the Cathedral. When suddenly, three mysterious men in gray cloaks covering their entire bodies and faces, appear at the entrance of the Cathedral. The knight leader and his knights were surprised about them. They didn't think that there will be some people in the abandoned building.

"WHA-WHAT? WHO ARE YOU, PEOPLE?" the knight leader grabbed his sword and pointed it at the three mysterious men on the stairs. But the three men continue to walk down the stairs to confront them. 

"STOP! WHO ARE YOU, PEOPLE? ANSWER ME OR ELSE YOU WILL TASTE THE WRATH OF THE RED CRIMSON!" he shouted while still pointing his sword at the three men and his knights began to form into a defensive position around him. But still, the three men continued walking to them. 

When finally, the three mysterious men stop about just tens of meters away from the knights. One of them speaks to the knights.

"Leave....." the mysterious man in the middle spoke with a low and hostile tone. Seconds of silence later, the knights and their leader laughs.

"HAHHAAHA!"

"HAHAHA! "Leave" he said! HAHAHAHA!"

"HAHAHA! He doesn't know who is dealing with?! HAHAHA!" 

"They are now screwed!"

The red-haired man then walks forward to the three mysterious men in cloaks. He chuckles as he draws his sword, with now a bright red flame now cast on it.

"Hahaha. To think that there are people who dared to order me to leave?" he smugly stared at the three mysterious men. As he makes a standing offensive pose to strike his sword with a spell, he smiles at them.

"So for that, I order all of you to DIE! O'-FLAMES-OF-STRIKES!" 

Strands of flaming rays began to appear out of his sword and make their way toward the three men. But in the Cathedral, watching the events unfold, a young female angel smiles looking down on them.

"...pft. Pathetic.

At the same time, a mysterious shot pierced through the knight leader's sword and it shattered into pieces, rendering his flame spell to cease and vanished in an instant.

"WHA-WHA...." the knight leader looked at his shattered sword pieces on the ground, motionless. The knights behind him were also taken by surprise. 

"So that's how you want to go then? Alright." the man in the middle spoke. Quickly, the three release their cloaks to reveal and draw their rifles toward the knights.

"ENGAGE!" he shouted. Instantly, bursts of controlled fire began firing from inside the Cathedral, toward the knights on the ground. The knights were completely annihilated as they find cover in a panic. Their leader meanwhile, has his protective shield cast and it protected him from the hail of gunfire coming. But because of his shield, he cannot cast another spell and was now a sitting duck.

"ARRRGH!!!!!" the knights groaned as they lay on the ground, dead.

"FUCK! FUCK! WHAT KIND OF MAGIC ARE THESE?!" sweat and blood began pouring out of the knight leader's nose as he desperately hold on to his shield spell while taking fire. But his shield can only protect him a little. The shield starts to feel the pressure from the Null-Casted bullets and begins breaking down. Noticing this, he also begins to panic.

"ARRGH! I'M GOING TO DIE! ARRGHH!"

Finally, his shield indeed also breaks. He takes a number of shots and also lays on the ground, but still alive. He now can't feel his legs and waists, with blood slowly flowing outside of his gunshot wounds. Seconds later, seeing all of the targets are now dealt with, the man in the middle raises a hand in the air, indicating the cease-fire.

"CEASE FIRE!" he shouted. The gunfire halts and another second later ensuring the all-clear, the three start to approach the knight leader that is still alive, breathing heavily on the ground while pointing their rifles at him. 

"Careful on your side, One-Five." 

"Roger." they whispered as they approach the knight leader.

Now in front of the knight leader, another five strange men start to emerge from the bushes in the treelines and also approach the area.

"Who are you people?" one of the first three men asked the knight leader on the ground. The knight leader coughs with blood as he replies.

"Hehehe...You... *cough* *cough* pieces of...shit........." he said on his last breath. With now the knight leader also dead, the HOTEL Operators and the three men on the ground continued on their final procedure - to dead-check all of the knights. Echoes of gunshots once again resonate in the area as the units and the operators shoot the heads of the knights one by one.

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Finished with the entire operation, almost all of the Able Units take perimeter security outside and around the Cathedral, while the Harvey and HOTEL Operators check all of the bodies for intel. Inside the knight leader's pouch, there is a paper document from the Almeda Kingdom.

"Sir! They seem to be from the Almeda Kingdom! This group...is called the Red Crimson Company. " an operator shouted as he read the paper document. Harvey approaches the operator and he hands the paper to him. Harvey reads it with thought while going back inside the Cathedral.

Inside, Harvey approaches Fruchiel who is now inside the living room with the peasants having a conversation. This time, their mood and atmosphere are now less tense than before. Fruchiel is saying jokes to the peasants to calm them down, while they awkwardly laugh because of it. Harvey walks inside the room and calls for her.

"Hey Fruchiel. "

"Hm? Oh. Harvey. Are you guys finished?" she said as she stood up. Harvey presents the paper to her and she reads it.

"The people out there came from the Almeda Kingdom. Their purpose in coming here is to remove and steal all of the remaining magic matter and particles in this Cathedral. The one that came here is the man called the Red Crimson."

Hearing this name, the peasants gasped. They all know that name and began wondering what happened.

"The Red Crimson?!" one of the peasants gasped.

"Really? What happened?" another asked. Harvey looks back at the peasants and starts explaining.

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After explaining what happened, they can't believe it. Surprise and shock are all over their faces as they've known the Red Crimson in their lives to be strong and capable of destroying towns and villages.

"RE-REALLY? YOU KILLED ALL OF THEM?" one by one, they look outside, only to see and confirm the story. A red-haired man resembling the Red Crimson is brought by two Able Units, inside the living room for inspection. The peasants look at the corpse with extreme surprise. Nonetheless, they now feel a bit content, that the man is now dead and won't cause any more trouble in their respective towns and villages.

"Finally! This fucker is now dead! HAHAHAH!" Herman cheerfully shouted.

"He-hey! Watch your tone." a female peasant said back to him. Isabella and Glenn approach the body and also confirm the identity of the man. They also can't believe it. The once man that also abused them in the past, is now dead. 

"Now, my friends can now rest in peace." Isabella said as tears began to flow out of her eyes while remembering her past. Glenn looks at her with a content smile and pats her back.

"Ho-How do you manage to kill them, Sir Harvey? They are really powerful, you know?" an old peasant asked Harvey. 

"Oh uhm. By using these, I guess?" Harvey presented his rifle. The peasants look at it with awe.

"I-Is that so? How come such a thing outpowered the Red Crimson I wonder?" the old man followed. Fruchiel then chuckles as she looks at the old man after reading the paper document. She passes it to Harvey and makes yet another smug face.

"Null-Cast, old man!"  she said striking a confident and smug pose. Harvey looks at her for just a second and sighs.

"Null-Cast? Oh, why is that a familiar spell? I think I've heard of that before." the old man said. Glenn joins in and stares at Fruchiel.

"It's a magic spell only an angel named Fruchiel can use it." he said with Isabella and Herman looked at the angel with thought.

"Ah yes. It's the spell that removes all of the magic matter and attributes on an object or an individual, right?"

"Hehehe. Yes! But right now, I can't cast it to a person because I'm still recovering from my prolonged captivity." she confidently said. After that, she quickly grabbed a loaded magazine inside one of Harvey's vest pouches with no warning.

"HE-HEY!" Harvey shouted at her, surprised. Fruchiel then presents it to the peasants.

"Inside these things, are little projectiles with my Null-Cast spell on them. Because of my little magic strength right now, I can only cast the spell on objects the same sizes as these." she said as she tried to unload one of the cartridges inside the magazine, but to no avail. She tried to pull and push it, but it won't come out.

"Wha-What the- arrrgh." 

Harvey sighs and helps her to unload a cartridge.

"Here. Next time, don't take my stuff without permission."

"Hehehe. Thank you. Now here! This thing!" she presented the cartridge to the peasants with confidence. The peasants now finally understood all of what happened and were now more at ease. They rest with ease while Fruchiel accompanies them, Harvey with the HOTEL Operators bury the bodies outside, and the Able Units go through their perimeter security and patrol.

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Meanwhile, inside the king's castle of Almeda Kingdom at its capital - the Pridel...

Meanwhile, inside the king's castle of Almeda Kingdom at its capital - the Pridel

A messenger is running with urgency toward the king's throne.

"Your Highness. I have something to report. It is urgent." the messenger kneels in front of the king. King Galian, a man in his 50s, is a king with scars on his face, hinting at his violent past. He allows the messenger to tell his report while reading on his throne seat.

"Hmm. What is it? Make it quick. I'm still reading here." he spoke to the messenger with little annoyance.

"Ye-yes your highness. Apparently, we still haven't heard any news from the Red Crimson and his team. They are supposed to be back in Yormford City earlier, but still no news. We've already sent some soldiers out there, but unfortunately, we've also lost contact with them. Also according to the reports, it came out of nowhere - there was a strange-looking vehicle, flying around up in the heavens near Arksonville."

The strange and flying vehicles pique the interest of the king. 

"Did you say "flying"?" as King Galian closed his book and stood up.

"Yes, your highness."

"What does it look like?"

"A-according to the reports, it looks like a mechanical vehicle that is made out of metal, and has some rotating things on its topside. " the messenger replied.

"Metal vehicle? Does it have humans in it?"

"The reports indicate that it's far away that the troops didn't have a clear vision to know whether it had humans riding or using it or not."

In deep thought, King Galian then orders to investigate the said flying vehicles and Arksonville.

"Go send some soldiers to investigate the area. Make sure that no civilians will know about this."

"As your wish, your highness." the messenger stood up and walked away.

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Back at the Cathedral, evening comes...

After the engagement earlier, Harvey and his elements spend the morning and afternoon burying the corpses, strengthening up their security perimeters, and stocking up ammo and gear supplies in the basement. While Fruchiel and the peasants, some were now fully recovered, had a tour and casual conversations inside the Cathedral.

Inside his room in the basement after taking a short sleep. Harvey and the ten HOTEL Operators inspect all of the intel they've collected from the Red Crimson and his knights. They piled up paper documents, coins, and other probable valuables, on a table. 

"So they want to steal the remaining magic matter in this Cathedral, huh? Greedy pigs." Harvey said as he puts down a paper after reading it.

"Listen up! Now that we have another possible target that we need to deal with, I want to finish the situation on the bandit's main camp some clicks away from here A.S.A.P.!" Harvey shouted as he puts down a drawn map of the Gargan Forest made by Fruchiel with an X-mark added to some kilometers east of their location, indicating the location of the bandit's main camp.

"HOOAH!" the operators replied with enthusiasm.

"In order to do that, I need all HOTELS to recon and lay up ambushes on the way there for safe extractions. " Harvey as he started pointing to locations and pathways across the map. He opens his main hud and sees that his Level 1 Soul Energy is increased slightly again, and the amount of Souls is updated from 33 to 53 Souls. Noticing the change, he goes to the Military Development System hud and to the vehicles tab. He watches as the locked Bell AH-1 Cobra unlocks because of the additional Souls added that increased his Soul Energy. He smiles manically as he thinks of many possible outcome scenarios once he began spawning these attack helicopters. But for now, he will have to hold on spawning the helicopters because of the limited space of their surroundings. 

"Hm. I will also order some of the Able Units to start cutting off trees and make some open spaces for future operations. I then have to reinforce them with an additional summons with the number of Souls I got now." he whispered to himself while in thought.

"Alright. Prep up! Recon will start at twenty-one-hundred hours.!" Harvey said to the HOTEL Operators

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"HOOAH!" The ten HOTEL Operators once again, emit menacing auras as they received their orders from Harvey.

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Soul Energy :

[ Level 1 ]

 

Soul Count :

[ 53 ]

+20 Knights

 

Spawn Count:

[ 50 ]

= 40 Infantry Units

= 10 Special Forces



UPCOMING NEXT CHAPTER:

Chapter 07 – Enamored by Greed

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