Chapter 24: The Restricted Zone

Narrator's Pov

"Fuck"

Serval drove her hands to her head and quickly looked at the group whispering loud enough for them to hear.

"I forgot my brother said he'd be around, quick! Hide!"

"Quick, everyone stay close to me" Ryan spoke.

The boy quickly went to a corner of the workshop and waited for the group to get around him, once everyone except Serval was close to him, he closed his eyes and a magic circle appeared under him, in front and around of them a barrier seemed to form, Ryan let out a short sigh.

"No one should be able to see us now..."

"Is it an invisibility barrier? That's so cool~" March smiled looking at the slightly translucent barrier.

"I'll go let my brother in" she spoke to the now empty spot in the corner and walked to the door opening it. "Gepard! I didn't think you'd have time to visit me with the situation so tense in the front lines"

"Things have been manageable, the last wave of monster has slowed down..." He let out a short sigh walking into the workshop. "I came to deal with some things but I'll be leaving shortly, I remember telling you?" He raised an eyebrow looking at her sister.

"Oh yes...I had forgotten hehehe" she laughed nervously.

"...sis, you look a little pale, did something happen?" He asked crossing his arms over his chest.

"Uh? No no, why would you think that?"

"You never use my full name..."

"Well, You said you didn't like me calling you 'bro' in public, so maybe training myself to call you by your name might be good, don't you think so, Broseph?" She quickly looked away, trying to look offended.

"You can..." He let out a sigh before talking again. "Call me whatever you want, I came here in official business, Serval, there's something wrong with the Barrier Generator Device, and the people from our unit don't know how to fix it."

"What? Ugh, of course they wouldn't...they will never wrap their heads around my design, I thought It was something important, leave it here and I'll take a look." She let out a short sigh looking up at her brother.

He took out a slightly big device offering it to her. "Sorry to trouble you."

"Why are you being so polite? And I saw the streets very empty, is there something wrong?" She asked grabbing the device.

"I...I've been instructed to keep quiet."

"Oh lil' Geppie...so grown up now~ looking down on his civilian sister" she smirked a bit making the other blonde sigh.

"Forget it, if I don't tell you, Pela will..." He shook his head a bit before speaking. "Very early today, Lady Bronya arrived and entered Qlipoth Fort without saying anything to anyone...lady Cocolia is afraid that the outsiders followed her outside of the Backwater Alley and into the administrative district, so she ordered a curfew and we were ordered to capture any suspicious individual..."

"So that's why I hadn't heard from Bronya...is she okay?" She asked a bit worried.

"I don't know, she hasn't come out of Qlipoth Fort yet...the Supreme Guardian just said she returned, nothing more."

Hearing those words, Seele gave a step forward, clearly worried and wanting to know more, but Ryan quickly grabbed her shoulder to stop her, Gepard looked lightly towards the corner.

"Uh... didn't you have a pot of flowers there last time I came here?" He asked making the woman smiled nervously.

"W-well! You haven't come to visit your dear sister in days! Of course I'd switch the place of some decorations, and how can you be sure that it was exactly there?" She drove her hands to her hips looking at him with a small smirk. "Do you know the entire layout of my workshop or something?"

"Okay I understand...sorry, I'm overthinking everything, it's just that between those outsiders there's...someone dangerous, I'm not sure I could defeat him alone, and if something were to happen to you..." He frowned a bit making the blonde woman smile a bit.

"You know me Gepard, there's no need to worry about me" she gave him a few pats on his shoulders. "Go and do your almighty duties bro"

"Yes...I'll take my leave Serval" he nodded his head before starting to walk to the exit.

"Wait!" She raised her voice grabbing his attention. "Those outsiders...what crime did the commit?"

"They are plotting to overthrow the Architects and bring harm to the city."

"Uh...reminds me of those accusations against me" she frowned lightly making her brother sigh. "Cocolia's methods haven't changed"

"Serval, don't say that...I know you still hold grievances against the Supreme Guardian, but this isn't a joking matter."

"Whatever...take care bro."

"You too, Sis"

With those last words, Gepard walked out of the workshop closing the door, the woman let out a short sigh and Ryan put down the barrier, approaching Serval.

"Bronya could be in danger, we need to go for her" Seele was the first to talk but Serval quickly shook her head.

"No, storming into Qlipoth Fort all by ourselves would be suicide and would give Cocolia yet another weapon to use against you"

"She's right, out priority is the Stellaron" Dan Heng crossed his arms.

"Cocolia might have changed...but she wouldn't hurt Bronya, I'm sure of that" Serval closed her eyes lightly before looking at the group a bit more serious. "All of you already saw Gepard... we'll need irrefutable proof to convince him...I'll try to think of something on the way there, let's just hope he stays here for enough time for us to go through the restricted zone."

"Are we really leaving Bronya here?" Seele asked a bit worried.

"I gave a glyph to Bronya so she could defend herself with something that Cocolia doesn't expect" Ryan crossed his arms. "Trust in her, Seele"

"Hmph...fine, let's go, the sooner we take care of that Stellaron thing the better, right?"

"That's right, let's go! I know my way around the zone, we'll get through in no time~"

...

Ryan looked around as they approached the Silvermane Guards Restricted Zone, they were all disguised again thanks to his magic, with the exception of Serval, who simply walked calmly in front of them, approaching the entrance, a Guard stood in front of them.

"Stop, this is a military base, trespassers aren't allowed in" the guard spoke and Serval simply smiled. "Wait, oh Serval! Long time no see"

"Hey Franz, I see you're still watching the entrance?" She smirked a bit.

"Well you see...bah! You haven't changed, always nailing us to the wall, hahaha" the guard laughed a bit nervous. "What brings you here? And who are these people?"

"My brother said that the energy lines were malfunctioning, he doesn't trust in those maintenance workers so he got me for free" she turned around with a smile looking at the disguised group. "These are my assistants, we need to check all the installations"

"Uh...I didn't hear anything about the energy lines malfunctioning..."

"Do you really think that they would tell you? You have Main character syndrome or something?" Stelle crossed her arms looking at Franz who recoiled a bit at her words.

"W-well hum...uh...well, seeing as you're the Captain's sister, then I suppose it's okay..." He checked on his pockets and grabbed a few papers offering them to the group. "here are some temporary passes"

"Thanks Franz, I'll be sure to put a good word about you to my brother." The woman smiled and grabbed the passes.

"No no, Captain Gepard hates that under the table stuff... I'd have a better chance if you don't mention me at all..." The guard sounded a bit nervous.

"Okay okay~ I'll be seeing you then, let's go guys."

Serval smiled and walked besides Franz, the woman was quickly followed by the group, as soon as they entered, Ryan had to take his head with one hand feeling a strong headache, he had yet again started to hear multiple voices inside of his head, the guilt of dozens of guards that couldn't save their comrades, of those that blame themselves for other's wounds, or even those who unintentionally caused their comrades deaths by saving themselves...

"It's very...annoying..." He grunted a bit.

"You're starting to hear the voices again?" Dan Heng asked and he nodded his head.

"Voices?" Serval asked looking towards Ryan.

"It's complicated...the voices are not the problem, I've...already suffered this kind of stuff before, the problem is the headache...it's annoying" he grunted lightly sounding a bit irritated. "I can take it, let's continue"

"Fine, if you say so, let's go, there's a bridge that we should be able to cross to get to the Fragmentum, with the temporary passes we shouldn't have that many problems..." Serval spoke as she started to walk again.

The group walked across the area until they reached an open area, a huge gear bridge was in front of them with one side of the bridge on their side, while the other pointed to a platform on the right.

"Okay so...this bridge should take us to the front lines, we just need to make it turn around." Serval looked down on a terminal and approached to use it. "Uh...it's turned off..."

"Is that something bad?" Stelle asked and the blonde woman nodded.

"Not as bad as it sounds, but mostly weird, let's go, there should be more terminals like these on the other side." She spoke starting to walk across the bridge.

...

"Weird...this one is also turned off...why?" Serval rubbed her chin a bit. "There should be another one around here...let's go"

...

"This one too?! Ugh...maybe something IS wrong with the Energy Lines..." Serval frowned a bit.

"Maybe they are...doing it on purpose? Do you think they found us out?" March asked making the woman shake her head.

"I don't think so...we would already have soldiers around is if that was the case..."

"It's a countermeasure" Svarog spoke making the others look at him. "Based on records of Fragmentum Monster, a great majority of them will be unable to get to Belobog if this bridge stays inactive"

"Wait...are you saying that they do it in case...they lose a fight?" Seele asked with disbelief.

"Svarog is right, it's already weird that the bridge was rotated...they must have done it to stop the Fragmentum Monsters to continue if the frontlines collapse." Serval spoke biting her lower lip.

"Bronya was right..." Seele frowned lightly. "The Silvermane Guards are really risking their lives for Belobog..."

"We need to continue, if the energy supply was cut off we could reconnect it from the Energy Hub" the woman spoke as she started to walk.

"Ryan, can't you make a...bridge with those circles to make?" Seele asked making Ryan frown lightly.

"It'll be hard, specially if I want to keep our cover, I never really trained with my magic, I can't make more than one thing at the same time" he let out a small sigh.

"If we have the chance to keep our cover and avoid detection, that'd be fine, but if things go south, then making an improvised bridge could be great" Dan Heng spoke making Ryan nod his head.

"Understood" the boy nodded his head lightly.

"Making backups already~? Don't worry, I got this" Serval smiled as she walked.

"I assume this is what Clara meant with 'Jinx it' " Svarog was the first one to talk making the others nod.

"Agree" Stelle spoke.

"Shush all of you, have faith in the brainwaves" Serval looked a bit offended

"These brainwaves are going to get us all killed" Stelle spoke again.

As the group walked towards the Energy Hub, Ryan tried to distract himself from the annoying and irritating headache, trying to ignore the multiple voices inside of his head, while they walked across the rotated bridge, he looked towards the place they were meant to reach, even more voices joined the ones already echoing inside of his mind...

"Ugh...it could be worse I assume...I could be in THAT place again..." He frowned lightly.

"Don't be disrespectful towards my realm"

"The headache got unbelievable worse..." He muttered as soon as he heard the woman's voice inside of his head.

"You want to rest? You can stay here in the bridge until we fix the energy supply" Serval crossed her arms but Ryan simply shook his head.

"If you wander too far away I might not be able to hold the disguises, I'll probably get better after we leave the frontlines, let's continue." He sighed softly before starting to walk alongside the others.

"The Energy Hub should be close, I think it was around...here!"

Serval smiled as the group quickly approached a gate, from the other side, a machine that had the shape of a metal sphere was glowing lightly.

"Do you use a single device for everything?" Seele asked rising an eyebrow. "That's dumb, we learnt that the hard way..."

"I have information on 28 different cases where the main problem was a single energy hub that covered all needs." The disguised robot spoke.

"Well, in this case, it helps us a lot...let's go"

Serval approached the gate, seeing the guard that stood in front of it, she cleared her throat and let out a small smile talking to the guard.

"Hello, good evening soldier." She greeted the soldier who simply looked at them.

"Uh? Oh, you're the maintenance guys, right? did you find the problem?" He asked and Serval shook her head.

"Not yet, everything seems normal so far, we think that the problem lies within the Energy Hub" she spoke and then looked to the gate. "If you let us in we can check it out, I've already worked with these kinds of installations so we shouldn't keep you waiting."

"Hahaha, No." The guard replied with a sarcastic laugh. "No one gets close to the hub without the security Captain's encryption key"

"Not even the Supreme Guardian?" Stelle asked rising and eyebrow.

"The Supreme Guard-? Hey! I meant what I said, no one gets past without Captain's Dunn encryption key!" His voiced turned a bit rougher and Serval simply smiled. "He's resting up ahead"

"Did you say Dunn? Why didn't you mention him earlier?" She smirked "we'll be back in a bit."

Serval started to walk confidently under the stare of the slightly confused group that quickly followed the woman.

"Serval..." March spoke. "This Dunn guy...do you know him?"

"If I know him? We go way back, he's easy to talk to, watch me persuade him." She smiled as she kept walking.

"Dunn..." Ryan spoke softly and a small frown appeared on his face.

"Uh? You know him, Ryan?" Serval asked a bit confused and the boy shook his head.

"No...it's just the name, my uncle was called Dunn too" he spoke letting out a soft sigh. "But that's not important, let's go."

The group walked for a while before stopping in front of what seemed a small military camp with a few tents, a small group of soldiers walked around with a slightly bigger and much more armored guard giving them a few orders.

"Hey! Dunn!" Serval smiled waving at the heavily armored guard. "It's been a while, didn't know you made it up to Captain"

"Uh? S-serval! Yeah yeah it's been...a while." The captain stuttered a bit looking at the woman. "Ahem hum...you look good"

"These are my assistants" she waved towards the group behind her. "They help me with business at the workshop, everyone, this is captain Dunn, an old friend of mine, he used to be an ace on the keys of the band."

"Oh Serval, I haven't touched a keyboard in ages" the Captain sounded a bit embarrassed.

"Sniff...I smell trash close?" Stelle looked around sniffing the air.

"H-hum! Zackery! How long has it been since you last showered?" Dunn asked to one of the guards behind him.

"I showered before my shif-"

"What? What was that?!" He asked looked directly to the guard.

"I-I haven't showered in two days, sir!"

"Unacceptable!" He spoke while unknowingly to him, the group looked at him with a deadpan. "Specially in front of visitors! I'm sorry for the embarrassment" Dunn looked at the group that quickly smiled. "What can I hell you with, Serval? It's not safe here, you should go back to the city as soon as possible"

"Well we checked everything and all seems to be fine, we only need to check the Energy Hub, but the guard keeps telling us that we need an 'encryption key', can you help out?" She asked but the captain simply kept himself silent at her words. "Dunn? Something wrong?"

"Sorry Serval, but can you tell me what the Captain Gepard told you?" He asked and the woman quickly replied.

"Let me think...'hey sis, the energy supply lines are in the restricted zone are malfunctioning and those dumb engineers don't know what's wrong, can you help out?' something like that..." She lied quickly.

"And may I ask when did he contact you?" He asked again making Serval look a bit confused.

"This morning? Yeah, that's right, he's on urban patrol duty today, that's why he popped around and asked the favor."

"Captain Gepard just returned to the Frontline...do you mind if I reconfirm with him?" He asked making Serval look a bit nervous.

"Wait...h-he's back? But he was just in the city" to her words, Dunn let out a short sigh.

"You haven't changed Serval...you're still a bad liar." The armored man looked towards the group behind Serval. "These persons... they're not workshop assistants, are they?" To his question Serval kept herself silent. "It's not that I don't want to help you...but you should remember I'm a Silvermane Guard!"

"Look, Dunn-"

"Listen Serval....you can leave and I won't tell anyone about this incident, but they have to stay." The captain straightened his posture.

"Serval...go" Dan Heng spoke giving a step forward alongside the others.

"No, I brought you here, I'm standing with you till the end." She stepped forwards looking to the Captain. "Dunn, this concerns the fate of Belobog- no, the fate of our whole world, please don't stand in our way..."

"Serval...I'm sorry, but my rock 'n' roll soul is to uphold my dignity as a soldier!"

The Captain grabbed from behind him a spear and a great shield, slamming the shield against the ground, a group of guards stood behind him, Dunn lifted up his spear.

"Formation!"

★ ★ ★

A/N: It's 1 AM, I won't say much, I'm tired, I'm going to sleep.

Hope you enjoyed!