Stage II, Chapter XXXI: On The Way To The Ship

Note: I've written the continuing chapters with first person.

"You had them steal a whole ship!?" The red headed man shoved his face in front of me, startling Lena, who almost lost grip and dropped me on the floor.

"Yes- I did. I figured they could handle it. All's well that ends well, right, mister?" I reply.

"I still can't believe I let a baby have full authority over this group's survival." Fawkes shook his head in disbelief.

"Well, that decision is going to save your life."

"Leader. Leader. Are you there?" Sabik's voice came over the Database Link.

I usually turn the spell off, because the constant multitude of voices that I would hear everytime I used it would get annoying.

But without it, the others wouldn't be able to contact me.

I do hope Jandru has some sort of magic hidden up that drunk head of his. I'm getting sick of this.

Anyway, I give Sabik an affirmative response.

"We're here. How was the takeover, by the way?" I ask.

"It mostly went by without a hitch." Sabik's shaky reply came in quite a minute later.

"Well, why mostly?"

"Brother Lucas kept on causing cracks in the ship to appear due to his reckless way of fighting. We had to spend some time to repair the walls."

"I hope you all are alright then."

"Indeed, Leader. Anyway, please head over below the ship. We'll be preparing the teleportation beam soon."

"Right, right. See you later." I shut off the Database Link, the voices in my head finally dispersing and subsiding.

"Let's head over to the ship now. We'll be able to enter soon." I turn to the red headed man, who is chugging down a mana potion.

Hearing me, he downs the potion even faster, almost like an alcohol shot.

"How are we supposed to enter? There's no place to land, with all the broken buildings around." The red haired man asks me.

"The ship can fire a teleportation beam that should be able to send us up without problem." I explain.

"I see, I see. Hey! You all!" The red haired man turns to his subordinates, and they all tense up from his voice. "Everybody line up! We'll be heading up the ship soon." His loud voice echoes around the room, making me fear that the Karman will actually hear him.

Instantly everybody forms multiple lines, and stands at attention.

"Good. We'll be making a break for the ship. Once we get below it, we're safe. So try to get under as fast as you can." The red headed man stares at me.

I nod in response.

Preparing myself for the mental strain, I cast Database Link.

The mana inside my body begins to converge into my brain. Until the pure mana streams out from my body, and is fired out in streams.

The mana is ejected from my Control Eyes. Anyone I set my eyes upon, is instantly added to the constantly growing "voice chat" of people that is my Database Link.

After a few minutes, the voices in my head grow to an all time high as swarms of voices plague my head.

Too many. I can't distinguish what anyone is saying anymore.

I take a few minutes to calm myself down as I take in a few deep breaths.

After I calmed down, all of us headed towards the floating ship.

*************

"Wait. Stop." I say.

Instantly, the whole group, numbering in the twenties, stopped moving. My command was able to instantly circulate throughout the party due to my spell.

Everybody should've heard my voice in their heads the moment I thought of it in my mind.

"What is it, little baby?" The red headed man crawls over to me.

I ignore him and turn to Lena. "Could you shine a small light over there?" I mentally send the image of what I was looking at directly into her head.

Looking at me, she nods. Gathering mana into her hand, she shines a small, yet bright light in the alleyway in front of us.

"Open fire!" I scream.

Instantly half of the members in the group unleashed a barrage of spells at the alleyway. They did not bother to ask what was in there.

They most likely trusted my judgement.

"Alright, stop."

Hearing my calm voice, everyone soon stops firing at the area. What's left is a puddle of blood on the ground.

"There." I direct Lena to shine her light onto another place.

And as she moves the light, we catch a glimpse of a small creature. Hanging on the walls, the creature shrank back as the light grew closer to it.

"Shaa!" The creature shrieks in response as it tightens itself into the corner even further, as if light would hurt it.

"Do it! Shine it directly at it!" I say to Lena.

Once she does, the shrieking from the creature gets even louder, until it jumps off the wall and leaps towards Lena, the claws in it's hands extending.

The creature was unable to get very close, as a simple Light Beam from Lena roasted the pale white skin of the creature, making it fall to the ground and collapse in pain.

"What is this thing?" The red headed man looks on in disgust.

"I don't know... you guys want this, red head man?" I ask.

"No... you kids can have it if you want. As far as I can see, it's probably a mindless vampire who went crazy. You can have it." The red headed man turns away from the dying corpse.

"Okay then." I turn towards Catalyn, who opens up her portal, wraps the body in her whip, and throws it inside.

"Alright. Let's move out."

***********

"Hey, Sabik." I call my first Karman subordinate's name.

"Yes, Leader?" He responds.

"Do you happen to know anything about a vampire-like Karman?"

"Why? Did you run into into one?"

"We did. It was terrified of light. Kept on shrinking away."

"That's odd. They shouldn't be here. Not in this planet, at least."

"This... planet?" I ask, confused. Did the Karman launch attacks on multiple planets at the same time?

"That's right. They're called Somber, by the way. A group of vampire-turned Karman. They're mostly taken from fantasy-like worlds such as Krodoa, where they are sucked off their magic and put to work as spies."

"So they're vampires? I guess that explains their clear fear of bright lights. I thought they were only afraid of sunlight though..."

"They are. It just so happens that Ms. Lena's particular light is made from mana. The Somber's completely mana-less body has developed a severe case where their mana core takes in more mana than necessary, harming their bodies."

"Is it due to the Karman sucking off every particle of mana in their body?"

"Yes, yes. Their body now has an extreme longing for mana."