Bullet Train (XI)

The wall of the New York metropolis acted as a loop for the bullet trains heading out and coming in. It was often that the skies and oceans were too hazardous for the bullet trains to head across the ocean in sound mind.

That was a reason why the bullet train carrying two hundred and fifty future Terrarium students was stuck in the looping process. Another reason was the fact that the teachers, as well as nearby powerful challengers, were in an all-out assault against the terrorist champion of the pale moon.

The bullet train loop on top of the supermetropolis wall took twenty-five minutes, its speed was well beyond the speed of sound at full throttle. However, if they were at full speed, the track would only be eleven minutes for a loop. 

The sun was high in the sky, and the raid of the bullet train had been underway for an hour and a half. However, reaching from the back of the Terrarium cars was a group of students currently battling a towering behemoth of hundreds of blood fiends.

It was that very group that had long managed to sever the life from four of the five behemoths.

Bellona Finley, Mona Chronis, Torm and Jude Solace, Icarus, and the four Eriksons as well as a handful of other students engaged in battle. 

Around three minutes into joining the assault of the behemoth, Michael announced that the four were joining their raid on the final behemoth.

Hilia topped Bellona off on stamina once more, saying "This is the last time for the next week, okay?" Bellona wouldn't require any after this final battle, that was one of the few things that she was sure of.

As of now, however, Bellona was currently trying to chip away at the right heel of the final behemoth. Pyralis, Mona, and Icarus were drawing their attention in the sky as they were acting as annoying pests.

As it turned out, Icarus could fly with those giant white wings of his, but it didn't seem that he was too keenly aware of how to fight while in the air.

While severing limbs and bodies from the leg of the behemoth with a created claymore, Bellona wondered what kind of life some of her crew members had lived to earn their Shards. 

'The Eriksons probably just trained extremely to earn their abilities. Torm likely worked hard on his body training, while Jude... I actually can't even think of what he might have done.'

Bellona didn't even want to think about how Icarus and Mona earned their Shards. One had a pair of wings straight from an angel and the other used time and space magic.

She didn't even have an inkling of an idea of what those two could have done. Bellona had always wanted to create a world for her siblings to play in, and after spending a few years down at the ground layer, her thoughts changed.

She had wanted to burn the world down to its core, and then demolish said core, but now? She had lost much of her ambition outside of creating such a world for her siblings to live in peacefully.

For her family to live in peace, she would have to end the cycle of the Domain Crisis. It was because of that very reason that she accepted her Shard and was on her way to the Terrarium of the Heart.

Bellona screamed out at the world in her mind.

'But really? I'm not even out of New York and I've already nearly died at least ten times!'

She leaped backward as the behemoth tried its best to squash her into a fine paste. And with a glimpse of the wider view of the two battlefields, Bellona found it surprising that the teachers were able to contain the Champion to the small arena where they were.

She had once seen a video of a Champion showing off their Abilities, and those very Abilities had a minimum range of one hundred meters.

'To restrict the Champion of such a powerful Moon to less than twenty meters...'

Bellona internally wished to be so powerful.

But for now, she had to defeat the monster in front of her along with her ally's support. She had finally chipped away enough at the leg of the behemoth, and with one last swing infused with the weakening properties of the Ruinous flames, the leg was severed.

This time, instead of falling, it leaped with a single giant leg toward the battlefield of the Champion and the teachers.

Brother Bradley seemed to jump into the giant figure as well, and in half of a second, the hundreds, maybe even thousands of blood fiends were absorbed. The sound of crunching bones and squelching flesh rang out loud, and a shower of blood spread across the rooftop of the train car.

The blood then evaporated and filled the air with a thin, deep crimson fog, the smell of iron reached Bellona's nose, and she nearly gagged at the intensity of it. Alongside the crimson mist, a horizontal pillar of golden flames erupted forward, and Teacher Brutus was still fighting the dragon.

'His timer ran out?!'

Bellona found it hard to believe that they had been fighting behemoths for the past thirty straight minutes. It barely felt even half of that time to her!

The dragon had regained its tail, seeing as now it had one, and the giant one in Teacher Brutus's hands was missing. The two were in a fistfight, at least, that was what it looked like.

The sheer speed at which the two were dealing, evading, and blocking blows was nearly inconceivable from Bellona's perspective. 

'That's how strong Teacher Brutus really is?!'

She had a hunch that the man was strong but didn't expect his strength to be in a realm almost beyond her hope for reaching. 

'What Trials has he completed?'

Bellona and the rest of the crew were standing in shock, most were probably running through their thought processes. "Should we run?" "Are we going to join that fight?" "What should we do?" Those questions probably ran through the minds of a few of them.

Bellona decided to rest and watch, she activated Creation and conjured several steel folding chairs for her ragtag cohort.

Strella took the chair and unfolded it, sitting down as she said:

"Are you sure we should sit here?"

Bellona nodded towards the car behind them and invited her to sit over there.

"You can sit back there if you want. I'm going to be over here in case they need me for anything."

A voice then appeared in Bellona's mind, the voice was that of an authoritative figure.

[We won't need you. If the time comes that we do need you, then all is lost.]

Bellona frowned, then stood up.

"Actually, we should probably watch from further back."

The others looked at her with a strange expression painted on their faces. Strella shrugged and joined while Mona spoke up.

"What happened to 'I'm going to be over here?'"

Bellona replied curtly as she picked her folding chair up:

"I was just told they won't need us."

Mona sighed and shrugged.

"I mean, we just finished our first Trials. What need would they have for children? This whole thing was already a hiccup in the first place."

Bellona sighed and wanted to speak a rebuttal but found that Mona's statements were solid as stone.

'Yeah. Let's just head back to the cafeteria, no need to stress about anything I can't affect.'

Bellona and company grabbed their folding chairs, some of which hadn't had a chance to be opened, and headed back to their respective cars. Just as they jumped above the coupler, they all heard a voice.

It was a grating, deep voice that transmitted itself past the concept of wind and air, finding its way into Bellona's ears with crystal clarity.

{Greetings, Champion of Lillith. I am Drain, Champion of Sald}

Bellona twisted her head to find that the dragon and Brother Bradley were both flying far above the train car, just out of reach of the teachers. Both she and her crew were unable to break their gaze from the azure dragon and his golden flames or the champion of the pale moon, bloop dripping from his robes.

[Hello, Champion of Sald, I am Brother Bradley, Champion of the Pale Lady. What brings you to New York?]

The dragon crossed his arms.

{I was summoned to this world just as the sun was about to reach above the horizon. A white gate appeared before me and brought me here, since then, I have been wishing for combat.}

Brother Bradley laughed, more blood splattering off of his robe, some droplets finding their way onto Bellona's face. The putrid smell of blood filled her nose, and she nearly dry-heaved from the offensive stench.

[I see! I see. You were brought here from the people's failure to control the monsters in their own shadows. A Domain was completed, thus bringing you, and likely more to this place.]

The Dragon seemed indifferent, his gaze focusing on the various buildings extending into the sky.

{This world is full of weak men and women. Why?}

Brother Bradley seemed stumped for just a moment, then quickly answered.

[Their devotion is weak and their resolve thin. They do not have purpose, like a soldier with no lord.]

A drop of golden blood flew into the air past Bellona, and a few more followed. As quickly as Bellona noticed the droplets, the dragon's figure was covered by a robe.

Despite the robe covering the two like a blanket, their exchange continued.

{My blood? You would like some?}

[Yes, just a cup.]

{For the Eclipse.}

[For the Eclipse.]

After a moment of silence only broken by the whooshing winds, Bellona noticed that the teachers were speaking to one another as they looked up. After yet another moment of silence, the cloak folded back onto Bradley's back.

[For the rest of you all. I admit a stalemate, the day will come, however, when you will all fall to my hands.]

{And you, Brutus Caesar, keep your head on your shoulders and your heart in your chest. I will come to claim those in the future.}

The two then looked further back at the crew.

{You have potential, I request a duel when you have the strength.}

[Yes, your blood would be most delicious in ten years. I await the date!]

With that, a dark horizontal line appeared in the sky and an ivory claw ripped through the space behind the two figures. A pale hand then grasped the two and retreated, leaving Bellona to peer into the tear to see a starry night on a planet of white dunes.

'Is that the moon?'

After they disappeared, the group stood still in shock. Bellona hadn't noticed until now, but she was cold, extremely so. Her blood ran cold and goosebumps covered her skin.

Bellona looked around and found that all but Mona were in a similar state. Mona locked eyes with Bellona, cocked her head, and gave a wide smile that reached her closed eyes.

'Huh...'

After that, the teachers ran to the children and did a quick examination. One of the teachers, a man in a long, dark brown trench coat examined the cut that Bellona had received on her shin.

"Who patched this up? They did pretty good for a non-student."

Hilia smiled and raised her hand.

The teacher smiled, his face was slightly chiseled, he had dark eye bags, a stubble of short black hairs, and a head of short, slightly wavy hair. Bellona could have sworn that she had seen the face of the man once before, likely on television.

He stepped forward and took Hilia's hand, shaking it as he introduced himself.

"I'm Teacher Williams, take one of my classes when you get to the Terrarium. I'd love to teach you more, you have the potential to be a great field surgeon."

A few other teachers scouted out the other students as Brutus walked up to Bellona.

"Take one of my training courses, you won't regret it."

After the short scouting was over, the students were brought back to their train cars. Bellona hopped down the hole and found that the hole extended down one more floor.

'How convenient.'

She then jumped through that hole as well and headed to the cafeteria. After the events that had transpired, all she was looking forward to was a meal.

After a short minute of walking through the hallway, she reached the cafeteria to find it nearly in shambles. Luckily, the damage only happened with the tables and chairs.

'I can eat on the floor.'

Each of the glass windows was shattered, several deep gashes wounded the floorboards and numerous blood splatters painted the injured floorboards. A quick sniff told Bellona that all of the blood came from the blood fiends.

But just above the smell of blood was the scent of beautifully prepared food.

Mona's voice startled Bellona. 

"Trying to eat a meal without me?"

Bellona looked towards Mona and started to feel the fatigue, this time, it was the type that only sleep and proper rest would recover.

"Nope, I knew you'd catch up."

Bellona had a gut feeling that Mona would follow, but Bellona couldn't pin anything on the mysterious girl. Bellona's first conversation with the mage had resulted in extreme vertigo and confusion.

The girl possessed strange abilities that seemed to be out of the reach of most Shards, even in the later Fragments. She was powerful, powerful enough to likely fight a horde of blood fiends alone, but Bellona didn't mind.

After all, Mona had helped the students when they needed her, and that alone was enough for Bellona to trust the girl enough to share a meal with her.

The two walked forward and grabbed one of the plates that weren't shattered. The cooks seemed entirely disinterested in the state of affairs outside of their small domain.

'Yeah... I understand.'

Bellona then walked to one of the tables that had miraculously managed to stay far enough from the blood and battle. 

She sat down, quickly followed by Mona, and the two started eating in silence.