Chapter 17: Tortuous Vendetta, Part 3

Storm walked over to a window, hearing Celeste yell out. He could hear the soldiers yelling, riled up.

"WE WILL DISPOSE OF THIS THREAT!" she yelled, the soldiers yelling back. "WE WILL SHOW NO MERCY!" she yelled, the soldiers yelling back again.

"Protect the castle with your lives, my people. This is our nation; therefore, I refuse anyone to come in as they please to take it!" she yelled. Storm saw this and backed up from the window.

"What-what even-?" he uttered.

"Just what did this guy do? I've never seen Celeste like this." Storm thought.

"Storm?" A voice said, and Storm turned to see Nanao standing in the hallway.

"Nanao! Thank God. Listen, this whole thing is crazy, you've gotta call this thing off, alright? Celeste thinks I'm some crazy guy, but I'm not! You gotta believe me." Storm explained and took a step forward.

Nanao cautiously took one step back, seeing the boy's clothes burnt and damaged.

Storm suddenly began to feel fear and sadness, seeing the distrust in her eyes. He feared that he would not able to prove himself.

"-Not again-" she muttered.

Storm began to speak and tried taking another step forward. He had to think of some way to convince her. She looked up at him, an angered and dreadful look on her face.

"Nanao-?" he asked.

She looked up at him, her hands emitting a black energy.

"GET AWAY!" she yelled, lunging towards him.

Storm dodged her attacks, and she suddenly jumped with a forward flip and kicked the ground, the floor breaking. Storm fell through the floor, where multiple Celestial soldiers stood within the castle room he fell through. The soldiers looked to him, and he looked at them in caution. Nanao fell through the floor quickly, alerting the soldiers.

"GET HIM!" she yelled.

Storm looked to see all the soldiers pointing their guns at him, and he began to attack with swift, critical, non-lethal blows to the soldiers.

He moved quickly as to avoid being in a position in which they would shoot him.

Storm then threw a wingblade towards Nanao as a distraction. The soldiers moved out the way, as well as Nanao as she dodged the weapon. The blade was thrown in a direction where it wouldn't harm anyone and by the time they looked back to Storm, he had already left the room. He jumped from the top of the stairs, quickly going downstairs, the soldiers following closely behind.

Storm went through a door that led to the emergency stairway and went down quickly. He eventually looked to see that he was on the first floor after reading a sign and didn't waste any time he left and headed for the front doors. The boy quickly ran through the grand hall, jumping from the second floor, seeing the front doors already open. A woman with red hair and a black tattoo on her left cheek stood by, a black lance in her hand, her other hand on her hip. Beside her was none other than Duvont Reyes.

"Oh, ho ho ho, glorious! Simply glorious! The castle looks even more appealing than I thought it would! It looks ripe for the taking! Plus, the boy is outmatched, the castle is in shambles-simply marvelous." Duvont said as he and the woman stepped inside the castle.

Novalian soldiers walking inside as well, all having guns and assorted arsenal. Duvont had called more than that 'army' he had brought earlier that day. They were ready to conquer, and something told Storm that hand shaking wouldn't solve this problem.

"Crap-" Storm muttered.

"Time to pay for this, boy." Duvont pointed to his chin.

Storm remembered very well what he'd done earlier that day. He quickly began to run towards one of the windows. Duvont snapped his fingers, motioning for the woman and soldiers to give chase. The woman quickly jumped towards Storm from the other side of the wall as he jumped through the window. Storm summoned another wingblade, parrying the woman's lance.

"Oh, you're fun-" she commented, flipping the weapon around.

Storm summoned another wingblade, blocking the attack. He quickly punched the woman in the stomach, knocking her into the soldiers.

"Don't have time, later!" Storm spoke, quickly sprinting down the elevated steps of the castle, past the fountain in the courtyard.

"Hope you like what we've done with the place!" Duvont yelled out.

Storm heard this but still moved quickly. He jumped over the gate, looking around the city. Large armored soldiers began to walk around with large greatswords, lances and other colossal sized weapons. The weapons emanated some sort of black energy that dissipated quickly.

"What-?" Storm muttered.

One of the soldiers began running towards him and Storm dodged the blade, sliding underneath the soldier, sprinting away.

Storm headed inside a building, but the soldier destroyed it with one quick swipe of its sword. The boy quickly escaped the toppling building, still in surprise of the state of the city. Buildings were smoking, the sky was cloudy and giant soldiers with a dark energy walked around destroying everything.

"What the hell is going on?" Storm thought to himself as he ran.

As he did so, he bumped into someone. The person had on a hood, which fell to the ground. The person looked up, Storm instantly recognizing her.

"Angel-?" Storm spoke aloud, the girl putting a finger to her lip.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I'm coming with you guys," she said. Storm was confused.

"What? How do you even know where I'm going?" Storm asked.

Angel looked around to see if any enemies were around as she spoke. She pulled him aside to an alley, the two talking quietly.

"I heard about what was happening through Rena. She called me to see if anything was wrong and asked if I was all right. Apparently, this is all over the news too," she said, Storm sighing.

"There was a threat that came to the castle years ago, but I don't think we've spoken of it," She said, Storm shrugging.

"Nobody tells me these things," Storm said, and Angel shrugged back.

"Look, I'll keep it short. Like I said, a threat came forward to the castle a few years ago, while you had your injury when you trained, remember that?" she asked, and Storm nodded.

"Something like that? So, what?" he replied, and she nodded.

"When you were unconscious, somebody came into the castle. He made himself look like Celeste's ally, but this was a trap, and this got thousands of people killed. There's no way to prove that you're you-and I'm not sure what to do." she spoke, her head down.

"Chances are she'd probably kill me before I can prove my innocence. She'd probably be suspicious too if you tried to defend me. Duvont is back at the castle and he's apparently responsible for all this stuff that's happening in the city. Those guys are huge-" Storm commented, seeing a soldier from a distance.

"Anyway, it doesn't matter who this guy is. All I know is that Rena's getting away, and I'm taking up her offer," He said, walking past Angel. "You don't need to come, you've got no obligation to."

"Yes, I do!" she said, Storm turning to her.

"We're link partners-we've always got to stick together. I'm coming with you, no matter what you say to me," She said to him.

Storm clenched his fists. He'd hate it if anything would ever happen to her, but he needed to trust her, as a friend and as a partner. He sighed and nodded, motioning for her to come.

"Come on, then-we've wasted enough time as is," he said to her, the two running over to the café that Rena mentioned.

After reaching it, the two looked over to see a grey car in the alley. Rena was standing beside it, and she looked up from her phone to see Storm and Angel.

"Awesome. Let's go," she said. The two nodded and getting in the car.

Storm sat in the back seat while Angel and Rena sat in the front.

"Storm. Keep your hood up and stay out of sight, got it?" Rena said. Storm nodded and did so.

"I've ordered tickets for a sky ship, so let's get out of here," she spoke to the two, starting the car and driving off. Storm closed his eyes in relief, falling asleep in the car.