Interlude ─ Ixion Report (III)

Night fell on the last day before Rudel and the others set sail for home.

Ixion and Bell met on Aurora's deck to talk.

"Were you able to find out anything?"

"I'm afraid not. As we thought, Zero's systems were so badly burned out that I can't recover anything."

"I see. That's unfortunate."

Not long ago, Zero died. In doing so, he took some information with him to the grave.

Bell asked.

"Is it really that important to know about this Rugel guy?"

Ixion felt more interest in the name "Rugel" than any other information.

Who was Rugel?

Why did Zero know him?

What did Aster have to do with any of this?

These are questions that will never be answered, since the only one who could answer them is no longer in this world.

Ixion answered Bell.

"The royal ship that was lost in the war. It contained a strange device. From the information you gave me, it was created by that Rugel guy."

"That means Rugel used technology from ancient humankind to create it."

"Would Zero have helped him?"

"I don't know."

"What we do know, is that it was lost forever at the bottom of the sea and Zero died."

"We need to ask ourselves more important questions than that."

Bell commented and Ixion nodded.

"Starting with the giant Airi thing, were you able to get any information?"

Bell moved her eye side to side in denial.

"I wasn't able to get anything useful. Just more questions."

"And you?"

Ixion did the same as her.

"Nothing at all."

"That thing. The demon Lucy said."

"It's something I can't believe."

"A creature from another dimension, which acted according to the plot of the game."

Zorn was responsible for everything that happened according to the events of the game.

Lucy and Diana's parents being killed by Randolf.

Derrick's behavior towards others.

Jude's jealousy.

Lugh's frustration.

And Zack's rebellious thoughts as Romeo.

All of it was caused by a creature not of this world, he was the cause of all that tragedy.

"It's really irritable."

"Worst of all, even using all my weaponry I couldn't do any real damage to it."

"He was that powerful?"

"Even by finishing my ammo twice I couldn't damage the tree."

Bell also wondered the same thing.

"Just like last time. It was only thanks to Airi-chan's powers that we were able to defeat those things."

Ixion probed further into the matter.

"This time we had Lucy and her powers too that helped."

"I asked Erselica if she knew anything about that and she said it was never mentioned in the game something like this."

"That means these powers are exclusive to Airi. But, it's strange."

"Just like last year she doesn't remember."

"What is the exact catalyst for those powers to awaken?"

"I wouldn't know. There's no explanation for it either."

"But..."

Ixion remembered something very important about the events concerning Airi.

"It has happened just when these two conditions are activated."

"When the Master was under attack by a mysterious enemy."

"And Airi being present."

"I can't get information from Lucy or Sara due to the fact that they don't remember much of what happened in there."

"Do you think it was just a dream of theirs?"

At Bell's question, Ixion answered him not believing his own words.

"I don't think it was a dream."

"After all, Lucy mentioned that that thing that attacked us last year hated the Master and they weren't the same type."

"That means we're just like the beginning."

Bell sighed and pouted.

"Bell-chan doesn't like troublesome things without explanation!"

"I like everything to be straight! Even for Bell-chan's big brain, this is an impossible puzzle to figure out."

"Leaving that aside Bell, are you serious about what you heard that day?"

Bell, who was dancing in mid-air, stopped and returned to her original position.

"It was."

"It seems that bracelet is possibly part of the saint's items."

"I asked Erselica-chan about that and she said."

"Items? Was there something like that?"

"Oh, I remember already."

"Yes, there were some items, but in the game they were useless because they only increased your stats by being a saint."

"But the increase wasn't a big deal."

"Moreover, the reason I went for the staff was due to the fact that I knew its location, the other two didn't matter to me since they were in locations too dangerous for me."

Mimicking Erselica's voice, Bell spoke as she did.

"I understand."

"Based on that information, it would make sense of the story Rafiel told you that day."

Rafiel, the young king of the commonwealth. When Erselica and the others met him, he revealed that his family was betrayed by the Kingdom.

They fled abroad and formed their own country.

But to found a country you need money.

The best way to get it is by stealing.

That would explain why the commonwealth had it.

But how did Airi's bracelet end up inside a monster?

That was what the artificial intelligences wondered.