I haven’t been myself lately,

I know I’m still me but since getting this new appearance I haven’t felt comfortably me,

Maybe it’s because I’d gotten used to the scales, used to the painful aches everytime I moved anything,

Used to just being seen as a beast…

…..

“I don’t understand anything,

Requiems and dragons and vampires, I don’t think my brain can process all of this.” Comments MF who manuevers the jukebox through the colored skies

It hasn’t been long since they flew out of the bends after a somewhat interesting encounter with the new breed

…..

“Be like me,

Don’t try to understand it too much just enjoy the mystery of it all,” Pinoki replies to MF 

“As a scientist that’s impossible, my field requires me to have a strong sense of curiosity and a hunger for information,”

“Just enjoy the adventure, you’ll find yourself having more fun,”

“I have fun engineering not risking my life,”

“Suit yourself–Shiryu come on stop daydreaming and tell us more of what you and Dracula spoke.”

“Hmm?

Sorry I’ve been trying to piece things together,

Sir Savić was a human who came from the Tellus just like you Mf, he obtained the power of knowledge from Kage’s body, normally when a human takes a piece of Kage they either die or go insane,

But Savić managed to stay alive for centuries by coming to this ring and selling Kage’s power for body parts which he used on himself to extend his life, all the while accumulating more and more knowledge,

He was a sort of pseudo prisoner of the beasts meaning they let him stay and act freely but he couldn’t leave.”

“Why even go to the beasts then?” asks Pinoki

“Anywhere else on the mainland and my people from Terra would have come to take Kage back.”

“Does Kage belong to your ring then?” now asks Mf

“….

I can’t speak on that, the supreme leader decides all.”

“Huh?

For someone who says they haven’t been on their homeland since early childhood, you seem pretty loyal to it.” Whistles Pinoki

“I am loyal to the supreme leader.”

“Why?”

“Because I was taught so.”

“What if he tell you to kill your loved ones?”

“The supreme one is my most treasured person, I’d kill you two if he told me to.”

…

…

The atmosphere gets awkwardly quiet as Mf and Pinoki exchange alarmed looks

(Did I say something wrong?)

“You don’t think that maybe you were brainwashed Shiryu?” Mf glides the craft down in between a sea of trees on which it transforms into a ground vehicle accordingly

“If I were brainwashed then I wouldn’t be able to make independent choices and decisions,” Shiryu says indignantly as the roof fold back opening up the vehicle to warm breeze and sunshine

“My world doesn’t revolve around the supreme leader you know,

I just have an understanding that he is the peak of all mankind and will never go against him,”

“Can we go back to talking about requiems and other things?” moans Pinoki greatly disliking the direction the conversation was heading

“Dracula wants the Medusa requiem back he doesn’t need it for anything but the blackmagic dealer, Sir Savić told him finding it will be the catalyst for what happens next.” Shiryu switches back the subject 

Fwwaaasshhhh♪

The jukebox drives alongside an overflowing river amidst the wet woodlands

“Where do you think the requiem is?” Pinoki presses

“It was either in Furlheim with the dragon or where we are heading next, the Wu Tang dynasty.”

Fwwaashhh!♪

“To get there we just have to go through Bakufu…”

(I wonder if Aki…

Nah never mind…)

FWWAASHHH!♪

The flowing water gets much louder as the vehicle cuts out of the trees, it’s treads sinking down onto the water the craft partially transforms to be amphibious

“It wasn’t this wet the last time I passed here,” Shiryu comments

The ahead the tall sheet of water barring the entrance to Bakufu pushes out water with violent force

(Something is off here.)

“Mf, take us back up to the skies.” 

“Right.” Nods the engineer and the jukebox starts undergoing an aerial transformation, 

A roof peels over the groups head and from it helicopter blades extending spinning the craft up off the water and over the great wall of water

“Yo what the hell,” Mf is the first one to react to the sight below,

The entire landscape which Bakufu covered now submerged in a heavy flowing water that comes all the way down from the sliver mountains north 

(The entire nation…)

“Where is all water coming from?” Pinoki squints up at the mountains

“It wasn’t like this when I flew by before,” Mf replies

“I think…

I think I know what’s going on” mumbles Shiryu speaking to himself more than he is to the others 

“This water is sea water,

This sky is the same as on Terra,”

“What are you getting at?” Mf asks beginning to come to same conclusion as the young man

“All the rings, Terra, Tellus and Gaia, I think they’ve combined.”