Artemia: Journey To The Thirtieth Floor

43. Leon's Arrival

"This is not...the end..." the robot muttered as its system has started shutting down.

Yuki formed a scornful expression on his face. "Ivory, this thing before the two of us...I despise it. Whatever this creature is, the mere sight of it is something I find repulsive. How foolish of Leon. After placing a collar around her neck, he even had the audacity to replicate a powerful warrior of Artemia. Unforgivable..."

I nodded in agreement when I saw the expression that she wore. "Yes, I understand your sentiments. I promise to investigate the matter immediately. At least after the battle, that is. You should stop the naval army for the time being."

The two of us went our own ways in order to render assistance to the troupes in need. I, on the other hand, went to Enkai's location in order to get the crystal. His gaze was fixed on a corpse that was in front of him. With his brows knit together and an unpleasant look on his face as he clicked his tongue, he swung his katana to clean it from the blood. Ah, seriously! There are no differences between their responses upon seeing the robots! Even though I'm not quite sure why they seem to be opposing the idea of robots, I decided not to pry about it...

I approached him, which made him flinch a little. He heaved a sigh of relief after placing his blades down and lowering his guard. "Ah, it's just you..."

"Mm-hmm..." I pulled the crystal from his opponent's skull with a sly smirk on my face. The only reason I didn't look directly into Kai's eyes was that I was very sure he looks hella furious right now. He's most likely acquainted with this person, which explains the way he's acting after seeing what happened to her. Or maybe him, or they.

"Do you have any clue what this is?" he asked as he gritted his teeth in frustration.

I sighed as I examined the crystal. "Yes. I'll go into detail about this later on. But right now, we are still in the middle of the battlefield."

He sighed as well, then turned his back on me to go and fight the enemies out there. This is probably the first time they are seeing anything like this, which must be causing them some anxiety. I'm afraid the whole rebellion will have to listen to my explanation after this. Today is going to be one of the most exhausting days of my life since I don't think they will let me go without explaining whatever the hell these are.

When I was about to join them on their battlefield, I caught sight of something sparkling in the sky that drew my attention. My eyes widened when I realized what it was. I quickly placed my palm on the ground, trying to create a water-filled barrier around the island. I'm lucky enough that we were close to the shore, which is obviously abundant with water. It allowed me to protect the whole island with Fuyumi's original power.

I cursed under my breath as I struggled to maintain the barrier for as long as I possibly could. Slowly but gradually, the gigantic spear falling from the sky pierced the barrier that I made. I tried to shout out for help as I was gradually losing strength. Surprisingly, the twins came to my aid along with the troupes that finished fighting. Yuki flew past us, most likely to locate where the spears came from in the first place.

"What in the world are these...?" I managed to ask as we steadily raised the strength of the barrier.

"Leon's spears," Kasai replied as he tried to push the barrier forward in an attempt to destroy the spear.

"How the fuck..."

I saw the spears were losing their effectiveness, so we tried to repel it back to where it came from with as much power as we could conjure in this moment. I fell to the ground because of the impact it made, and my arms kept trembling. For some reason, I was able to see Yuki's point of view from inside my own mind, which caused an adrenaline rush within me. She was up against someone who seemed to be too familiar to ignore, and I didn't want to leave her in that circumstance.

Even though my whole body was in pain after creating that barrier, I managed to quickly get to my feet to ride Enkai's dragon. Although she was hesitant about flying in Yuki's direction, I pushed her to do so since I couldn't bear the idea of leaving Yuki alone. The others were still on the island, begging for me to come back because it was dangerous. When I looked behind me, I saw that the twins were right behind me as well. They were still trying to stop me, but I had to ignore them so I could check up on Yuki.

"Yuki!" I shouted her name as soon as I saw her standing mid-air.

"I see you no longer have any regard for others, nor do you have any shame. We came to an agreement that Fuyu Island would be left out of this dispute! Yet here you are, attempting to demolish the area where you were born and reared!" Yuki yelled as she stared at her father with an unbelievable amount of disdain in her eyes.

"What a naïve kid," Leon said With a sardonic look on his face as he watched Yuki fume. "We are in the middle of a war, my beloved daughter. You were under the impression that our agreements would be honored as if you don't know who I am."

Yuki shook her head as she laughed, but it sounded scary because it was an empty one. "Beloved daughter, you say..."

Ah, f**k. I feel like it's better for me to remain on the sidelines and watch what is going on instead of interfering. Because of her encounter with the person who was ultimately responsible for messing everything up, Yuki is unstoppable. She will go nuts if we don't let her loose, even if it's just a short period of time. It's either that...or she would be consumed by the clouds too fast. Both options are risky, but it is best to leave them be for the time being. Besides, it is still possible for Yuki to win in this state...even if it is just a slim chance. There is no harm in hoping, right?

"Ivory!" Kasai yelled out to me as he approached me. "Why aren't you stopping Yuki?"

"Let's go! We have no choice except to withdraw!" Enkai said, outraged that I had chosen to remain still.

"Have you eliminated the naval army down there?" I asked with an impassive expression, even though I was sure that they would get mad at me.

Sai's brows furrowed because of my lifeless attitude. "Yes. All of the soldiers were ordered to return to camp and wait for us to arrive. But that's not where the point-"

"Good. For the time being, I would appreciate it if you could help me in holding the invading forces at bay while Yuki goes on a rampage."

"What...are you talking about?"

This was the point that they realized what I was trying to do. Although it's a bit unsettling to witness Yuki in that state, especially since she looks so much like me...she has no choice but to face her fears. She needs to realize that the only person standing in her way of surpassing her limitations is herself. She still feels controlled by Leon, so if we can get her to think that she can totally beat her fears, she will grow past her expectations. At least that's what I think...

I smirked as I drew my katanas from their sheaths, preparing to annihilate the soldiers who were behind Leon. I mounted the dragon's back as I took my stance and started planning out my route to lure them into the sea. What the f**k? Come on! This isn't even close to being fair! They're wearing the things that look like gliders, but I need them to join me on the water as much as possible.

"f**k, it's not going to work..." I murmured as I slightly shook my head.

Given that we're high up in the sky, there's no way I'm going to be able to bring the seawater up here. Or maybe if I can persuade a certain sea monster to bring it up here, things would be a lot easier for me. I kept a close eye on the sea to find a flying sea monster. Ha, I found one! Seeing how often it was jumping in and out of the water, it was rather easy to recognize.

I took a deep breath as I sought to telepathically converse with Scylla and Charybdis. Because we were at such a high height, it was quite difficult to reach them. Ah, I don't have much choice now! I had to rely on Enkai's dragon to help me with my plan, but I'll have to rely on my own leg strength to allow me to hover across the skies. I shook my head profusely as I waited for Yuki to attack. Ah, things are going to get dangerous from now...

"Beauty and elegance cast to have the serpent inlaid with an endless curse to be a broken statue, Rigid Glaze..."

My eyes widened as I looked at Yuki. She's going with that right away? f**k, I didn't think she would unleash such a powerful spell right off the bat! She'll be able to take out the whole army by herself if she keeps going at this pace! Because the twins behind me realized it as well, we tried to return to the island as soon as possible. We decided to construct a strong barrier to protect ourselves because of the fear of not getting there in time. But before the barrier closed, I created a thread that would connect Yuki to me.

I suppose the barrier was strong enough to keep us from turning into statues, so I turned my gaze to Yuki for confirmation. Even though she was in the middle of nowhere with no water in her vicinity, it was no surprise that she was able to pull it off successfully. Her hit was also far stronger than mine, which made me realize how dangerous it would have been if we had stayed in that area for an extended period of time.

Shortly after that, snowflake-shaped ice flowers started to blossom on everyone's bodies as well, meaning she unleased Crystal Blooms along with that, which eventually turned the soldiers into ice statues. Leon and a small number of elite warriors who followed him were the only ones who were able to remain up in the air following the attack. Leon and Yuki were left alone with Leon as they made their way down to meet the three of us.

Great!

I dispelled the barrier and tackled the woman in the middle, pushing her into the water. She was taken aback, so she made an unsuccessful effort to squirm out of my grip. It seemed like she didn't notice the sea animals waiting for her at the bottom, so I just kicked her towards them with all of my leg strength. That was just me playing dirty, but I couldn't care less about how it turned out.

Once the sea monsters had finished ripping her body apart, I pulled the crystal out of her skull and brought it back to the surface. Fortunately, it was quite easy to discern that she belonged to the artificial warriors based on the tattoo on her temple. Prior to this battle, I noted that the robots' temples all had triangular marks on them. Heh, I'm quite disappointed that they didn't even try to hide it.

"Please entrust these problems to us. Go ahead and look into it more. Yuki should be fine..." Sai told me when he noticed me trying to sneak the crystal into the island.

I smiled and nodded at the twins before leaving. Those two would have no problems taking care of the elite warriors since they are merely robots. Besides, they can win as long as they can make them malfunction. As for Yuki, if the circumstance calls for it, I can just bring her back to the island and leave. I ran to the places where I had previously buried the crystals in order to figure out what they were made of.

Because it was too dangerous, I couldn't just casually touch them, which is very inconvenient. I tried to smash one with a trident, but it was my trident that snapped instead. When it comes to solving these things on my own, I'm completely at a loss. I looked around to see if there was anybody I could ask, but my attention automatically drifted to the statue of a white tigress near me.

I approached it as soon as I saw its eyes were gleaming. There is absolutely no way this is alive! As I got closer, I noticed that its eyes were the same color as the crystals that were inside the robots. Then, these things must have something to do with Shirayuki as well? Is this the reason why Leon sought to invade the island even though he already had an agreement with Yuki to leave this place alone?

No, I don't have any proof to back up my claim...

I looked up at the sky to see how Yuki was doing. She seemed well. She's probably the only one who can help me figure this out, but not in the state that she's currently in. After a while, I sighed and looked about, hoping to find a library or any other thing that could assist me here. It should be written in at least one textbook! Come on, it wouldn't make sense otherwise now, would it?

"Ha, of course..." I muttered with a sarcastic smirk on my face. "Since everything was destroyed during that sarcastic, it should come as no surprise that I will not be able to find any books that are still in decent shape."

But I'm not going to give up without a fight. If we learn how to put the crystals to use properly and with caution, they may even work to our advantage in the long run. The statue drew my attention back, so I searched for some kind of clue around it. I tried touching it and all to activate mechanisms but to no avail! f**k, this is a complete and utter waste of my time. Out of frustration, I tried moving the statue aside...so it showed me a small book. Oh, so that's all that it takes now? I shook my head slightly, annoyed.

I flashed a sinister smile as I picked it up. "You gave me a hard time."