Chapter 39: Obsidian Festival

Keeping the news of the threat of seaborne a secret. Ash called everyone back to enjoy the festival and told them it was just a mistake.

Though his brooding was immediately noticed by those close to him. "Hey, is he okay? Did nothing really happen? He looks worried." Degenbrecher whispered to Nian.

"Ahhh, it's fine. You know that guy, he worries a lot you know?" Nian awkwardly deflected the question and Degenbrecher squinted her eyes.

Margaret was listening to their conversation and she was convinced that something did happen. But if he is refusing to tell them, then it most likely did not concern them, yet.

"Ash, are you enjoying the festival?" Ceylon appeared and she was carrying a parasol, looking like a proper lady.

"It's pretty merry here, so it's pretty enjoyable." Ash smiled and he put his thoughts deep in his head for now.

"Thank you for the compliment, please. Do enjoy the festival to its fullest. It is almost time for the obsidian festival to start. Famous bands and musicians will play music." Ceylon bowed at them and Schwarz mimicked her master.

"The obsidian festival huh? How about I play something? Everyone should enjoy my music and arts." He suggested to his group and the ones who knew his music nodded immediately.

They prepared to enter the music portion of the festival and Alive until Sunset helped them register. The Feranmuts were fans of his after all.

"Ceylon-sama, there is something weird about the volcano." Schwarz's ears twitched and with her keen senses, she could feel miniature vibrations on the ground when she focused.

"As I thought... I've found evidence of illegal mining operations here in Siesta. The mining of obsidian here should've been banned 13 years ago." Ceylon frowned.

"Weren't you going to ask Ash-sama to help you with the investigations? This seems big at a glance. We cannot continue this on our own." Schwarz advised her.

"Hah, I was about to. But I just couldn't. He's the emperor of Leithanien Schwarz. And did you see the people around him? Most of them are more important than even my father." Ceylon sighed.

"That may be so, but Ash-sama is known to be generous. All of his companions are strong, I can feel it. My instincts were telling me to run away from them." Schwarz shivered a bit when she imagined trying to attack them.

"Enough of this for now Schwarz. We should dig deeper." Ceylon ordered and the feline sighed.

"As you say Ceylon-sama." Schwarz nodded at her and would just do her best to protect her.

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Later, Ash was together with Emperor, Sora, and Alive until Sunset at the back rooms. "Hoh, you gonna perform too? I thought you're a little snob that plays for nobles only." Emperor chuckled at Ash.

"You already know that my albums and music are sold everywhere. The noble farts tried gatekeeping it, but of course they couldn't do anything in the end." Ash smirked.

"Really? The nobles tried to prevent your music from being distributed to the masses? But it's so nice. Especially when I'm trying to relax." Sora was surprised.

"Well, you can ask your boss here all about that." Ash chuckled and Emperor tried to shush him.

Sora looked at the penguin with interest and Emperor glared at him. "You bastard, that was centuries ago." He massaged his head with his flippers.

"Centuries ago!? Boss, you're that old?" Sora got invested now and Ash left him to his own devices so he can tell his old stories like the old man he is.

"Interesting, that penguin is older than us?" Alty looked at Emperor and Ash shrugged. "I don't even know how old that guy is."

"Alty, asking someone's age is rude." Aya chided her and they heard announcements that AUS will be playing next.

"Ohh, that's our queue guys. Have fun later, listen well to our performance yeah?" Dan smiled at them and they went to the stage.

"Yeah, sure good luck." Ash gave them a thumbs up and the quartet went to the stage.

He listened to their music and he was pleasantly surprised. They were from underwater. And their instruments aren't exactly playable underwater.

Ash thought that Aegir must have some freaky instruments there. According to AUS, they were some advanced civilization that can fuse metals and shit underwater.

"They're good. Are Feranmuts just automatically good at their hobbies? No, Nian is crap at making movies." He rubbed his chin at the mysteries of their race.

But he had another question, if they were so advanced to do crap like that and even make supersoldiers. Then how in the world can't they keep the seaborne at bay?

"Most likely politics and irrationality. Just like humans. They never change, I could already see it. They just don't care if it doesn't concern them most likely." He squinted his eyes and remembered governments.

"Hah, things I do for love. Privatization and capitalism is supreme." He nodded sagely. He would just do everything then.

"Ash, stop mumbling on your own there and go to the stage. It's your turn you know?" Kjera chuckled as she smacked him on the back a bit.

"Ohh, yeah. Wish me luck." He laughed and Nian rolled her eyes. "Yeah, good luck to the others." She pouted at him. She couldn't tease him with his talent.

He prepared a violin that he got from some random store somewhere and modified it to his tastes.

Then he played with his arts and remembered a piece that was sombre yet hopeful. Kaine/Salvation.

The crowd were entranced as the melody felt like it was entering their souls. But it was a variation of Sonus' supreme sound arts that used sound as a medium for arts.

It was basically mild mind control. Experts in arts would instantly notice it. But it wasn't harmful at all and would just make people relax and experience a euphoric feeling.

After his performance, he just bowed slightly and exited the stage. With the audience just contemplating their life decisions.

"Is this place even real? I want to feel that again, that wonderful feeling." Someone got depressed and was having withdrawals already.

"That guy's arts is scary as hell. What the fuck was that?" Emperor frowned as he looked at the audience who were having complicated feelings.

"Yeah boss, they're sad, happy, elated, depressed, melancholic, I don't know how many more I can see." Sora observed the surrounding people.

Ash returned to the back stage rooms and sighed. He forgot that these people aren't from Leithanien who are really familiar with arts.

"Hic, that was absolutely beautiful." Aya held his hand and she was crying. He got weirded out and just smiled awkwardly.

The other members of AUS were also wiping their eyes and he looked at Kjera and Nian. They just shrugged. "A beautiful performance Ash." Kjera nodded at him.

"Tche, why are you so good with music? Ohh, I know. You can record the music for our movie!" Nian nodded smugly at her great idea.

Ash clicked his tongue, his music makes millions of LMD every song or piece. And Nian was taking advantage of it. Not that he cared that much, it just annoyed him.

"Fine, fine, I'll compose the music for the movie." He rolled his eyes and Nian was delighted.

"This is gonna be the best movie ever! With the best director around and good music, we'll be raking in LMD like there's no tomorrow!" Nian rubbed her hands.

"Where is this legendary director?" Kjera looked around and Nian's fiery determination got doused immediately.

Everybody laughed and they were enjoying their downtime when someone suddenly crashed through their door.

And with all of them being deities, they were about to blast the person with their powers. But Ash immediately noticed who she was with his great vision.

"Stop! Schwarz? What happened to you?" Ash helped her up and she was injured. She even has a fractured shin.

"Ash... Ceylon-sama. She's in danger!" Schwarz clutched her side and felt her breath hitch. It was painful to breathe.

"You've got broken ribs too. Calm down, explain in a bit." Ash set her broken bones and made them fuse again to fix her fractures and Schwarz could breathe easier.

"That traitor... The town's catastrophe messenger is still mining obsidian here in Siesta. Even when it was outlawed more than a decade ago." Schwarz glared and she was enraged.

"Oh, a corrupt official? Pretty cliche eh? So Ceylon's in their hands?" Ash shrugged and could already tell the rest.

"They have a base at the volcano, we were investigating. But we got spotted and Ceylon-sama got captured..." Schwarz furrowed her brows and thought she was a failure as a bodyguard.

"Stupid girl, is your boss suicidal or something? What's she gonna do when something went wrong? Hit them with her parasol or something?" He sighed and thought it was going to be good exercise.

Schwarz winced, it was her fault too for being overconfident and letting the lady roam around. She never imagined that they'll get surrounded.

She then explained that Ceylon noticed that the volcano was releasing gases intermittently. Making the animals and originium slugs go to a safer place.

They tried to tell the signs of an eruption to their catastrophe messenger. But he refused to do anything about it and told them that his surveillance system isn't noticing signs of something awry.

"Ceylon-sama investigated it on her own because she was suspicious and there we saw their obsidian mining operations." Schwarz furrowed her brows.

"Okay, let me check on something first." He called everyone to them and he described the signs to Adele.

She was the foremost researcher on volcanoes because Emma and Hans died due to an eruption. And she confirmed that it was a sign of a pending catastrophe.

Everybody gathered and Ceobe was quite excited. "Bad guys? Let me at em! I can take more than a hundred now with my new weapons!" She was buzzing with energy.

"Calm down Kay, you definitely can. But they have a hostage you know?" Ash patted her head and Ceobe remembered the circumstances.

"So? Do we really need to try and sneak in? Can't we just kill them all? It's troublesome to heft my gun to a vantage point." Platinum looked unamused.

"It's our vacation right now Platinum, but we still need to cut off the corruption here in Siesta. It's a whole city that is at stake here." Margaret chided her.

"Hmph, fine. Give me a picture or description, his head will be fed to the originium slugs once it goes splat." Platinum was pissed.

"Yeah, what's his name? I'll remember it well, he won't have a nice end." Degenbrecher squinted her eyes. She was enjoying the festival and someone had to ruin it.

"Cronin, it's Cronin. He works for the mayor directly. So we got blindsided, I thought he was to be trusted." Schwarz frowned and felt herself getting soft.

"Okay, then let's go to the volcano. I think Adele would like to check it out too I guess? Just treat it as a tour." Ash shrugged and he clapped.

Everybody stood up and they equipped themselves with their weapons.

The festival continued nonetheless. But their team went to the volcano and went for a rescue operation.

Ash made them invisible and just went in like they were taking a stroll. It was obviously heavily guarded because they were expecting an attack.

"Just ignore them, let's get the girl out first." Ash sighed and was quite disappointed with Ceylon's risky decision.

"I thought your master's smart? She has a degree in originium research at Victoria national uni right? Well, now I really know the difference between knowledgeable and wise." He rolled his eyes at Schwarz.

"Forgive me, it was my fault. I shouldn't have let her investigate. Especially with just the two of us." Schwarz bowed down deeply and he waved his hand.

"It doesn't matter, let's just get her and get this crap over with." They roamed around for a while and saw Ceylon that was inside of a prison.

"Ceylon-sama!" Schwarz cried out in worry immediately. But Sonus used her arts and was expecting her to do something stupid like that.

"Why aren't you responding!?" Schwarz shouted again and Ash pinched her cheeks.

"Shut up, you... Are you really a seasoned merc?" Ash was exasperated and he pinched her hard.

"Sowwy!" Schwarz noticed that she was trying to give their position away. Not that it really mattered. They already found the target, it was over.

He just wanted Ceobe and Narcissa to have fun being invisible. With the two waving their hands in front of guards' faces.

Ash raised his hand and the steel bars of the cell turned white hot then froze instantly. Shattering them to pieces.

Ceylon perked up and craned her neck towards their direction. "Yo, cavalry's here." He greeted her with a raised hand.

"Ash?" Ceylon was confused and Schwarz took her out of there immediately. "Ceylon-sama are you alright?"

"Un... I'm just fine, sorry Schwarz. It seems I was a bit hasty with my decision to investigate this matter." Ceylon held her hand and Schwarz teared up.

"No, it was my fault for letting you do it. Please forgive me for letting you get captured." Ceylon then smiled at her and Lappland gagged.

"Fuck, save that sappy crap for later when we aren't around. It's disgusting really." Lappland lolled her tongue out and looked uncomfortable.

"Oh, right. Sorry." Ceylon smiled wryly and the sounds they made were of course noticed.

"They got her out of the cell! Enemy attack!" A guard cried out and Ceobe threw a fiery hot knife right through his forehead with extreme accuracy and precision.

"Bad guy's down!" Kay smiled and had a praise me look on her face as she tilted her head left and right in front of Ash.

"Un, good job. Anyone who tries to attack, throw your really hot knives at them okay?" Ash patted her head and gave her some candy.

"No fair, I'll cause a collapse here if I use my arts. So I can't get any treats." Narcissa complained and she puffed her cheeks.

"Don't worry, I think we'll have another problem later that can use your expertise Narcissa." Ash assured her and she was satisfied with that.

He looked at the ground and could feel small vibrations and magma pooling. It was almost there, the volcano will be a problem in a while.

"Let's go." Margaret gestured and they started walking. Thankful that it was a pretty easy mission, all things considered.

Adele then began to check the condition of the volcano. "Hmmm, it wasn't active when we arrived. That much is true, but the magma core of the volcano is weird." She furrowed her brows.

"What's wrong with the volcano Adele?" Ash thought that Narcissa's time to shine is going to be much sooner.

"It's active yeah, but there seems to be pockets where magma is supposed to be seeping through. Though I don't know why that is." Adele was stumped and she raised her hands in the air.

"Hmmm, I think we should investigate this further. This can possibly endanger Siesta." Margaret's sense of justice was kicking in.

"Margaret is right, volcanoes are volatile. And there's something weird here that Adele noticed." Ash nodded at them.

"Uhhh, I don't think you need to." Narcissa's ears perked up and twitched.

"You found something?" He used a pulse of energy to try and locate what she noticed.

"Oh, that's the thing... So it eats originium and magma?" Ash saw a pretty large black boulder covered in obsidian and originium. (pic)

"It's going to explode." Narcissa pointed at it and the thing erupted. Spewing lava and fire everywhere.

Ash swiped his hand and moved its attack to the side. "Hmm, it's pretty interesting. Want to keep it as a pet Adele? You like volcanoes right? It's like a mini volcano that rolls around!" Ash smiled.

"A-are you crazy? You want to keep that as a pet!?" Ceylon couldn't believe him.

"Is it okay? Can I really keep it?" Adele beamed and it was like she found her spirit animal. They both use fire, and they both erupt with arts like a volcano.

"Yeah, it's pretty easy to just rewire it a bit." He shrugged.

He started preparing to cool it down a bit and mess with its brain. Something that he got taught by Shining.

"Hahaha! Yes! Die here and no one will suspect me!" A guy suddenly appeared and Schwarz gritted her teeth.

"Cronin, you piece of trash." She growled and was using her arts to enhance her crossbow.

Ash and his entourage just watched the guy do his third rate villain monologue and the originium mutant shot him with a dose of fire and lava.

He screamed like a bitch and rolled around on the ground. "Hmm, is lava like napalm? It sticks to people really well." Ash observed what's happening.

"Ooh, he's burning nicely." Lappland clapped and was really entertained.

"H-help..." Cronin suddenly went limp and Ceylon almost puked from the sight and smell of his burning body.

"Well, I guess that's that. Honestly, how can that guy fool all of you and the mayor? He's definitely an idiot." Ash deadpanned at Ceylon and Schwarz.

"He didn't just run away, what a stupid guy." Degenbrecher chuckled. "Hmm, he did have some use as entertainment though." Lappland laughed.

"So? What do we do next?" Ceylon wasn't exactly a fighter. Schwarz then shot it with her crossbow, but its shell was super thick and it was made out of solid obsidian and originium.

"I already told you I'll handle it." Ash sighed and he decreased the temperature of the creature until it froze.

He then walked up to it and started to mess with its brain. "Hmmm, this guy's an originium slug? I guess it mutated after eating too much originium and obsidian."

Ash imprinted Adele as its owner and he asked Nian for some materials so he could make a chip in order to give commands to it.

"Here Adele, your new pet. How about you give it a name yeah?" Ash tossed her some kind of remote and it had commands on it like attack, flee, and defend.

"Oooh! It's definitely unique! Unlike the sheep that mom gave me." Adele was excited and she started fiddling with the remote.

"It's like a volcano, so how about Pompeii?" Adele tilted her head cutely. It then started spewing lava onto Cronin's corpse again. Adele testing the remote.

"Ugh, Adele. How about the volcano though?" Ceylon asked and it started to shake.

"Ohh, an earthquake. That means the plate that's sinking to the mantle is unstable. This volcano is going to erupt soon." Adele wasn't really worried because their team was there. But Schwarz and Ceylon didn't know their powers.

"Then we should get out of here yeah? It's going to spew out some toxic fumes soon." Ash raised his finger and they started flying.

Meanwhile, Nian was holding a camera and tried to get as much footage as she could. "Kukuku, saving the noble lady is a pretty good scene right? With some editing magic, this will be nice."

Right after they went outside, the volcano started smoking. "Why do you think it suddenly got active?" Ash was confused, the phenomena is too fast.

"I'm hypothesizing that this guy is stabilizing the magma core by decreasing it a lot. I think it eats originium, magma, and obsidian." Adele pointed to her new pet.

"Well, this is going to be a catastrophe." He sighed. Ceylon and Schwarz then glared at him. "You say it like it's just an everyday thing!" Ceylon was getting really anxious.

Siesta was her home, it was dedicated to her mother by Herman. She didn't want to lose it of course.

"Well, it is an everyday thing. Just not here, besides. This won't be good for my PR if I let the citizens turn into rocks." Ash went up to Narcissa and patted her head.

"If you separate that thing from the island, I'll cook anything you want for a week." He smiled and Narcissa widened her eyes.

"A week?" She started salivating and Narcissa shook her head, immediately focusing on the task at hand.

"Un, I'll do my best." She clasped her hands and began concentrating. Sonus and Lappland who were really sensitive to arts winced when they felt it.

Narcissa's hands of Atlas that she chose as a name with the twins got titanic.

Ash whistled, Nian and Kjera were of course shocked as well. They stared at Narcissa and she was definitely a human that can kill them in combat.

"Separate." Narcissa motioned with her hands and the island experienced a violent earthquake. At their vantage point, Siesta was clearly splitting.

"Holy mother of god." Ceylon couldn't believe it. The awesome might of Narcissa's arts was just on another level.

"Hmm, crispy like a graham cracker." Narcissa likened the cracking of the island to a biscuit and she was clearly thinking of some dessert.

"D-did she just say that it's like splitting a cracker?" Schwarz might have seen some shit in her decades of experience as a merc.

But a true monster that can sink islands without much effort was too much.

"Good job!" Ash patted her head and the part of the island with the volcano started drifting away from them. Lava started to erupt from the sea though.

But they cooled it down with arts so it would just turn into igneous rocks and won't really cause damage to Siesta.

"Our job here is done." He nodded in satisfaction. "So? Do we continue to party?" Degenbrecher wanted to drink again.

"Yup, let's have some barbecue! Seeing that guy get roasted made me crave some." Ash wanted to have a nice barbecue.

"Ash..." Margaret deadpanned at her and he forgot she's a bit too nice. "Sorry, I mean can you blame me? He was sizzling nicely, it would definitely remind you of barbecue."

They looked at him weirdly and he didn't understand why. 'Am I the weird one here?'

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Thanks for reading everyone, ciao.