Chapter 56 Moving Forward

"Sigh...."

I was currently standing on a balcony over looking the whole city and to say it was lively would be an understatement. There were torches and celebratory camp fires through out the streets lighting up the night, the smell of cook food and the sound of laughter filled the air. Down below me there was even a seemingly never-ending party that continued to rage on with no signs of stopping any time soon. It had been like this for three days now, after all, the war was over, well, it was mostly over anyway. There were still some small hold outs of cultist that were hiding across the island here and there but they were being dealt with by Kaen and some others. We had taken the fortress rather easily thanks to the Abyssal dragons, sadly they had caused a lot of damage to do it but it didn't matter. They had to burn half the fortress to the ground in their attempt to kill off all of the infected that swarmed through out the place and even then we were not sure we got them all. As for the puppets and the souls that possessed them, well, a lot of them wanted to stick around while other simply wished to pass on, no one could really blame them for that after what they had been through.

"You know...if your going to just stand there hidden in the Shadows like a weirdo you can just leave" I muttered to seemingly no one in particular.

"I'm surprised that you can sense me with how you been recently" Mika said while she deactivated her invisibility and walked out of the darkness from behind me.

"There's a lot on my mind at the moment" I had a feeling were this conversation with going and I was already irritated by it.

"Yeah, anyone with just one barely working I could see that" she said in amusement as she lent on the railing next to me.

"So what do you want anyway?" I asked with a Sigh, I already knew the answer to that question.

"I was coming here to thank you for all you've done...but then I realised that was stupid and decided just to come and kick some sense into you for moping around like an idiot for the past few days" I could only roll my eyes at that.

"I'm terrified, truly, I am"

"Sarcasm doesn't look good on you" she teased getting a soft jab in the side in return

"Everything looks good on me" I stuck my tongue out at her causing her to laugh a little.

"So mind telling me why you've been avoiding everyone like the plague since the battle at the fortress?"

"Aren't you supposed to be helping Kaen?" I sent back while glaring at her.

"He doesn't need my help, he has Fuyuko and Yama with him"

"I don't think Yama counts" I said making her shrug while smiling.

"Now...are you going to answer me or are we just going to stand here and glare at each other all night long?"

"Like I just said, I have a lot of things on my mind, things that I would rather not talk about right now" I sighed as all the information Joy had revealed to me flashed through my mind once again as if it was playing on loop.

(I'm still waiting for those memories to come back...)

"Fine, however, don't push everyone away...and know that we're always here to talk if you need it" there was a long moment of silence after that before either of us spoke again.

"How has the search been going by the way?" I said trying to change the topic.

"We already checked most of the island but we are still looking through the fortress or what remains of it anyway. So far we have found nothing at all that could lead us to them. It seems the cult was rather thorough about hiding or destroying any information they had here about themselves" Mika hummed as she crossed her arms in front of her.

"Great, just great..."

"So...so how do you like the flag they made?" She said a little awkwardly.

That made my mood lighten just a little as I let out a cold breath, I looked off into the distance towards the inner wall of the city. There mounted on several places along the wall were flags, flags that my creations as well as the people we saved had made for me as a kind of present to celebrate our victory. Although I saw no need for it they were very insistent that it was necessary, in the end I had just given up on trying to persuade them otherwise.

The flags themselves were all white except for the icon that was in the centre of them. The icon was that of a black bird with three long tails, it's body was bent in the shape of a crescent moon giving it an interesting look. Behind the bird was an X that was a much lighter shade of black compared to the bird. By the way it should be obvious at this point that the bird is supposed to represent me. Anyway, both the X and the icon of my Phoenix form were surrounded by a ring that was the same colour as the X.

"If I'm being honest, it's kind of embarrassing that they when frew so much effort to make them. I don't even know where they got the stuff to make them all" I spoke in a fond manner while a small smile appeared on my face.

"Wow" Mika suddenly look at me with a very dramatic and shocked expression.

"What?"

"I never thought I'd see you get embarrassed, well, expect for when literally anyone even mentions that girl, Milim was it" I hated the fact that a slight hint of red crept onto my face when she said that.

"Hehehehe" she giggled evilly when she saw my frustrated yet somewhat flustered face.

"Shut up" I huffed looking away from her.

"By the way..."

"Hmm?" I was a little confused at her sudden change in tone.

"What do you think that thing was anyway?"

"I don't know...I really don't but whatever it is I feel like it's not the last time we will see it" I said while remembering back to the strange conversation I had with that thing, if you could call what we did a conversation.

===========Flashback=============

(What the fuck is wrong with this thing?) I thought as I looked up at the very crazy silver blob in front of me.

"Kiss my shiny metal ass!"

"I am a tree, sit beneath my branches and leaves, listen to my words little sapling, as I know all, my wisdom is vast and endless, I have seen the start of all creation, I have seen the fall of the gods, I have seen the great war where the children of light fought the uncountable hordes of the corrupted with their mechanical guardians, and one day, one day I shall see the end of all thing"

"You still haven't answered our previous questions you know, hehehe" one of the many voices said causing the blob to focus a little.

"Yeah, who are you who are you"

"MMMOOOOOOOOOO"

"I'm...I'm Suu" I really didn't know how to talk to this thing, after all, it was like trying to have a conversation with thousands of different people all at the same time.

"That's a pretty name, hehehehe"

"WHAT KIND OF STUPID FUCKING DUMB ASS NAME IS THAT! YOU AND YOUR SHITTY ASS NAME DISGUST ME TO NO END! JUST HEARING YOU FUCKING SPEAK IN THAT HORRIFIC BLOODY VOICE OF YOURS IS ENOUGH TO MAKE ME WANT TO KILL YOU RIGHT THIS VERY SECOND! AFTERWARDS I WOULD PROBABLY END UP KILLING MYSELF JUST SO THAT I WOULDN'T HAVE TO LIVE MY LIFE WITH EVEN THE SLIGHTEST FUCKING MEMORY OF YOU!" Out of all of the personalities that this thing had I disliked this one the most.

(Should I just leave or wha-)

"You feel like us, you smell like us, what are you?" the blob asked surprising me and taking me out of my thoughts.

"Huh?"

"We're gonna eat you now, hehehe" it spoke once more as the front of it's body split open to reveal a dark open maw that seemed to go on for ever.

"DON'T TELL HER THAT YOU BLOODY IDIOTS!"

"Growl"

"Look at me, look at me, I'm a chicken!"

"Piss off" I hissed not wasting any time and unleashed my aura in an instant.

To my surprise however, the moment my aura slammed into this thing it suddenly stopped whatever it was about to do. My aura was currently far weaker then it normally is considering my current predicament so seeing that it actually had some kind of effect on it actually confused me greatly, that was until I heard the damn thing speak again.

"Interesting"

"Interesting"

"Interesting"

"Shut the hell up!" I yelled as more and more voices joined in on saying this one word over and over again for no apparent reason.

""""""Interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting Interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting interesting"""""" tens of thousands of voices all came from that thing, all of them screaming that same damn word over and over again until something else happened. Just as the voices reached the point that they were almost deafening a single voice cut through all of them. The voice was male, it was calm, steady and direct yet seemed to have a slight hint of hopefulness behind it.

"How very familiar...."

===========Flashback over==========

It was after that when several of my creations along with Fuyuko came charging into the room, the damn blob vanished into thin air the moment my back was turned. I honestly don't know where it had gone and even after we searched most of the surrounding area for it nothing turned up.

"It'll be back, I'm sure of that at least"

"That something to worry about later I guess...so...what's your plan now? You know, now that the wars over" Mika hesitantly asked.

"I'm probably gonna stay for a little while before heading back to Tempest, there still a few things around here that do need sorting out after all" I answered with a shrug.

"What about all of us?"

"I'm not gonna force everyone to come with me if they don't want too, your free to if you want though. I already forced so many of my creations into a war that had nothing to do with them, so yeah, I'm not gonna force them to follow me now as well" I replied while not looking at her.

"Well...just know that I honestly think most will follow you even if you tell them not too" I just smiled at that

(I'm gonna have one hell of a story to tell when I get back) I thought with a quiet chuckle.

"I wonder if anything has changed"

"Well, I better get to work, after all, I have an island to move" I said as I turned to leave only to be stopped when Mika yelled in surprise.

"Wait! You what?!"

"Hahaha, what? Do you think I'm going to leave this place behind after all the shit I went through to liberate it" I grinned with a mischievous sparkle in my eyes.

"Ca-can...can you even do something like that?" She asked with a slack jaw

"Why not?"

"Your insane...you do know that right?"

"Ha! I figured that out ages ago"

(A/N. This is late, I forgot to post it yesterday. Also, hope your looking forward to V3)