Chapter 15 - Hope of Azalea

This is it. This is what I am waiting for. The fight is on. He knows we are about to strike. He took down our satellite making it harder for us to track him. But little did he know, he will never fool the greatest detective of all time across Azalea City. It makes my job slightly easier, by knowing the last coordinates. Currently the whole headquarters is alerted by the attack on the satellite. The satellite lab is busier than other parts of the building as they are trying to get the latest coordinates. As they are trying to do so, Vulcan, who is supposed to be in his room, came to look for me in the satellite lab. He had a backpack and I assumed he had all the tools that he presented to me inside. Those gadgets are important to counter Arcadia at least for the time being. I am not sure what Arcadia is up to after his recent defeat. I then instructed Vulcan and Kyro to head to the meeting room to meet up with Raz to talk further. While we were heading there, James, who is currently holding Nathan's head, decided to call my name.

"Rilles, bad news. He intercepted the head. Currently our base is infected with some sort of a virus. Tech team is trying to fix it, but nothing could be done at the moment."

If the virus originates from Nathan's head, then perhaps it might be a spying virus. If it is, nothing can be done, but to do everything manually.

"James, discard the head. Destroy it. We have to do it manually. He knows what we are up to. And we know where he is. Try and control the damage from inside, we will take it from here. Thanks James."

I thanked James for showing some appreciation for what he had done. He had done what he could, and now it is our turn to shine. My goal is to make this timeline work. All of a sudden a member of staff decided to come up to me and whisper some words in my ear.

"General would like to meet you guys in the underground meeting room. Head there fast."

The virus is that serious to the extent that whispering is the only effective measure to prevent being heard. I told Vulcan and Kyro about it and we made our way to the place. The underground meeting room is situated at the lowest point in the building which is supposedly used whenever the base is on total red alert. Raz decided to use the meeting room, fearing that Arcadia might catch up on our plan which may result in a bad ending and a waste of effort. As we enter the room, there are already a few agents inside waiting for their orders being given. The situation is tense, but all of the sudden Raz shows the coordinates on the big screen.

"I am sure you have heard of it. Under the command of Agent Rilles, he asked to find the last location of Arcadia before our satellite was destroyed. Rilles, me, Kyro and Vulcan will head over there and take matters into our own hands."

The room went silent as if they knew that this was not going to end well. I know about Raz and how he labelled himself, 'leading his teammates to death'. Despite being famous for such, his strategies are proven effective, but not really when it comes to him being in the battlefield. While Raz proudly said all of those suddenly a secure transmission swing by and it turns out to be a video recording. It is a video message directed towards the whole of Base Zero and it is no other than from a very special guest, Arcadia.

"I am sorry for the late response, I really am. But the fact that you are monitoring my base and found out about it, really makes things even worse than it already is. So I got a special surprise for the one and only Raz."

The video then proceeds to show what it looks like a gigantic metallic cylindrical shape object. Upon further inspection, it is already clear what it actually is.

"I have been working on that for quite a while to be honest. The good news is that it is finally completed after a long time. This rocket will mark the beginning of a new Azalea City. A better civilization, a city without crimes. Everyone will have a Metavoid and everyone can defend themselves. Criminals will not dare to interfere when everyone has Metavoid."

Perhaps he didn't think this through and just assumes that. It is going to be a war instead of peace. What is he thinking?

"You have until midnight to respond to this, otherwise I would just go with it and destroy you into rubble. As a matter of fact, Base Zero needs to be destroyed so that the government has no protection to place on themselves."

The recording then went silent. Looks like the war is on. But I did not expect him to threaten using a rocket. Raz ponders for a while thinking what needs to be done. He then snaps his finger after a long thought process implying that he had an idea.

"Our formation remains to take down Arcadia. But the rest of you, you have a job. I will ping the government to give out a direct order to assist us in the evacuation process. Your job is to evacuate the civilians five kilometres away from the city centre. The rocket is going to target Base Zero and the destruction scale is going to be large. Your respective captains will divide you into teams. You are dismissed."

The other agents left the meeting room after being briefed. Now it is our turn to be briefed.

"The rest of you will follow me. Vulcan, I believe you have something to present to us. Why don't you show it?"

Vulcan then opened up his backpack and presented a teleporting pod with a coordinating gadget and a pair of boosters for each of them. Vulcan began explaining what the gadgets could do to all of us. After carefully analysing it, Raz gave the agreement that the gadget could be put to use.

"We will proceed with this gadget."

"But what about training with it?"

Kyro is concerned that he is unable to control the boosters and the teleporting pod. But then, all sorts of training is already useless as the threat is already getting worse. As I look at my watch, it shows the number eight with two zeros at the end. Why can't I read time just like before? Is my time sensing this bad to this extent? I could still read how many hours remaining. But not other terms.

"Alright, the clock shows 8:01. I believe we don't have much time remaining. Before I ask this, Rilles, have you told your family about it?"

"I have, but they want me to return home after this mission."

Raz went silent for a while. For the rest of them, they don't have anyone to bid their farewell to as they dont have families to say so. After a while, he then proceeded to say something.

"I see. I hope everything will be okay for this mission."

We then proceed to equip ourselves with our battle uniform and proceed to our means of transportation, a helicopter. Before I managed to step into the helicopter, Kyro called out to me as if he wanted to give me something. As I turned behind, he gave me a purple sword with a black coloured blade.

"You need a sword. Use your daggers only when necessary. The sword, I hope you know about it."

I have seen this before somewhere in that realm I was in with Fate Changer. The sword is no other than Judy's sword. The sword wielded by Kyro's ex partner. The sword created by her which could rival any holy weapons like the axe wielded by the previous Arcadia.

"Are you sure about this, Kyro? This sword seems important to you. It is a waste...."

"Take it. Make good use of it. Make the best out of it. I trust you with this sword."

He trusted me with all his heart that I will take care of this sword. Honestly, I don't feel like taking it. But since he trusted me with it and insisted that I take it, I had no other choice then. We then make our way inside the helicopter which is then on its way to Arcadia's lair. To prevent any awkward silence inside the helicopter, I decided to spark up some conversation.

"Guys, before we head out to fight, mind if I say something to you guys?"

The three of them looked at me in curiosity, to which then Raz then asked about my condition

"Rilles,go ahead.You okay?"

"Hmm, yeah I am. At least I am for now. But I am not sure how to say this to you guys"

I gave a smile as a sign that I am okay, but actually, no words could describe my current situation knowing that I have met the Fate Changer, which most of them met him will never remain alive after they decided to restart.

"Before we head out, I want to say that I am sorry for everything that I have done,that may have upset you all in any way possible. This battle may be our last battle. I may or may not be able to live to tell the tale to my family. .I really want to see them again, but maybe, just maybe fate won't allow me to do so.

Kyro and Raz are unsure of what I just said, but Vulcan on the other hand seems to fully understand what I just said. He knows what is going on because he is the only one aware of my ability, but I am not sure if I have told him about Fate Changer.

"I don't know a single thing about what you just said about fate, but about the sorry part, yeah I forgive you. And I also would like to apologise to you if I have done something wrong."

I accepted Kyro's apology and soon we all began to ask for an apology from one another to clear all of our guilt so that in case that we did not make it, we will not carry any guilt, regret or any wrongdoings to the afterlife.

"General, we have visual on the cave. Preparing to drop you guys down."

The moment we are waiting for. The final showdown is about to begin. We then began to pack our things and prepare for this fight and put an end to this demon. As we all have gone down from the helicopter, the helicopter left the scene immediately fearing being shot down by Arcadia who could take down our satellite which is far from ground level. We proceed to move into the cave to meet up with Arcadia. Once we were inside, we saw the gigantic rocket in the middle of the cave with a bunch of bridges and stairs.

"I have seen this scene before. Don't tell me....."

Raz suddenly said that he had memories of this scenery. Suddenly the main character of this show makes his appearance in front of us somewhere near the rocket.

"You have been here, Raz. This is where I kill your friends and end the Swords Link legacy. I remember that part of the building is where I killed Xavier, my best friend. Are you here to take his spot, Raz?"

"You bastard. How dare you take my ability and recreate this scene just to appease yourself!!!"

So this is the scene where they fight on the Case Files 401. The scene that ends in tragedy and the blame falls on Raz. I believe this is one of Raz's abilities as he used this on me during the interview. I see. He is trying to use this scene to traumatise Raz to weaken him mentally. Knowing that Raz could end him easily, he decided to resort to this method. But his goal is not only Raz, but the best agents of Base Zero, which are currently presented in front of him.

"I understand your ability as much as you understand mine. It's easy, but you are not aware of it. So, this is the response. I mean, can't we talk this through. You guys are privileged enough to discuss things rationally."

Based on what I heard, Arcadia never is going to discuss things rationally because his goal is a better Azalea by force and not by talk. I decided it is time to put an end to this. So I went to the frontline and decided to talk through him, even though he is not going to buy it.

"We don't have to. This is our rational talk. I suggest you follow us back to Base Zero so that we could put you behind bars and we will take your job to make Azalea City a better place."

"The only job you have is to protect the government. But I guess you are too much of a newbie to understand that. Besides, Rilles, you have the guts to spit those words into my face. I could read you guys like a book. Every single page, and every single word. And the worst part is, you can't escape it."

"The only thing you have to escape from is your fate. We can't take you down. But miracles could."

"The only miracle you can think of is you defeat me. But could you? I could defeat you. I could tear your flesh apart. Weaken every single muscle you had, but you couldn't even touch me. And you all talk but no action, what is the point, Rilles."

"You took everything from them, but you are lucky you did not take anything from me. But your father gave me something, to which I never thought of using it against you. My Metavoid. And that is your primary weakness. Assume your father despises you, and take a look at what your father has given."

Arcadia grunts. He couldn't compare himself to his father because their motives clashed. Upon hearing those words he grabs the metal railing and bends it with all his strength.

"You will regret what you said, Rilles."

Since talking won't do any good, I draw out the sword from its scabbard which is on my back and point its sharp tip towards him.

"And as I say, rational talk is not going to go anywhere. And this Darkblade will prove it to you."

"You will regret it"

"No. You will, Arcadia! LIGHT, TRANSFORM!!!!!"

I use the light transformer to get into my battle suit. Immediately I jumped towards the top to reach Arcadia while aiming the tip of my sword at him. Arcadia made a sidestep and evaded the attack at once. I then engaged into a sword fight with him using the Darkblade. Arcadia responded to that by ejecting his Elita sword and stroked my Darkblade attempting to disarm me.

"Where is your dagger, Rilles? I thought you would use that."

"I learned from my mistakes. Fighting against you is one."

"It won't be a long fight. That I can assure you. Once this rocket goes off, it is game over for all of you."

***

Rilles and Arcadia began clashing swords as their own respective swords came in contact with one another. As the Darkblade constantly hits the Elita, it emits a white light on the edge of the black blade and a pinkish light in the centre of the black blade. As Arcadia and Rilles are busy on the other side, Vulcan, Raz and Kyro decide to join in the fight as a trio standing behind Arcadia. Arcadia, realising the situation he is in, immediately pushes Rilles's sword away to stop.

"So, one versus four. Easy. The rule is simple. Don't die."

Arcadia immediately charges at them. While he is charging, he receives a premonition on what will happen once he engages. Vulcan will summon five swords in the direction, Raz will fire his enhanced automated pistol and Kyro will jump towards him while holding two daggers in each of his hands. In response, Arcadia stopped halfway and sliced the bridge apart to stop their approach. As Arcadia is watching them in desperation, he receives a premonition that Rilles will strike him from behind. In response, he immediately turned behind and got into a defensive pose. He then pushes away Rilles's sword and approaches him with the Elita sword. While approaching the already weakened Rilles, he goes his way to strike him. Rilles who did not have much time immediately uses his time stop ability to stop the time for six seconds. After time resumes, Rilles is already at least 3 metres away from him and the strike from Arcadia's Elita misses.

"So that is what my father gave you, Time Bending ability. No wonder I can't understand your movements."

Rilles realises he made a mistake, but that is actually an effort to save himself from death.

"I will make sure, you won't use that ability ever again."

"Try then, I have backups in case."

Arcadia, being all angry, manages to power his Elita to its maximum potential, which results in the blade being highly unstable. As he charges towards me, Vulcan summons the same dagger as mine onto his hands and uses the booster to attack him from behind. Arcadia, realises it but he is slightly late responding towards Vulcan resulting in a graze on his left cheek.

"You never learn, do you, Arcadia. You are so fixated on me that you ignore all incoming possibilities."

The injured Arcadia then shifts his attention towards Vulcan and swings his sword. Vulcan goes into a defensive position. Vulcan found an opening and decided to stab Arcadia in the stomach which resulted in Arcadia launching his shockwave attack that pushes Vulcan slightly behind, because Vulcan counters it using thrusters. With such a gap in between them, Arcadia swings his sword towards Vulcan, but is suddenly blocked by Kyro who appears from behind. Kyro got into his position and began striking Arcadia in all directions, but Arcadia could read everything and every blow landed was simply blocked by Arcadia using his Elita. Raz, who is on a level below us, summons his Metavoid and shoots Arcadia. Arcadia realises it and simply dashes down to the floor Raz is on. They both got into their fight.

"If only you listened to me back then, Raz. This wouldn't have happened. You and the entire organisation made this decision to not work together."

"Shut up, Alex. I am doing the right thing by protecting it. You want to destroy it, just so you could rebuild it. You are the true monster here."

Vulcan, Rilles and Kyro then join in the fight. Vulcan, who is good at close quarters, managed to disarm Arcadia and landed a blow, but it was not strong enough, which resulted in another fight. Arcadia without his weapon depends entirely on his body armour. With that being said, he first engages towards Raz and fights him with his fist. Which resulted in Arcadia managing to land a punch on Raz in the face. Arcadia then lands a spinning kick onto Kyro. He then dashes behind Rilles and Vulcan. He then kicks Vulcan on his stomach which Vulcan is slightly too late to defend himself with his summoned sword. Arcadia then attempts to punch Rilles in the face but misses. Because of that flinch he managed to steal one of Rilles's daggers and attempt to stab him in the eye, which Rilles managed to hold his attacks in that split second. As Rilles attempts to push it away, Kyro dashes towards Arcadia with four daggers circulating around his wrist and punches him with it. Rilles, freed from the situation, took one of his daggers and fought with Arcadia. They both get into the fight and are shortly joined by Vulcan and Raz. Finally they got a hold of Arcadia on both of his arms. As Vulcan wanted to stab him in the chest and Raz was about to shoot him in the head, he managed to supercharge his shockwave device and send a huge shockwave. Each of them ended up on different floors. Arcadia then takes out something that looks like a remote, which he then presses on immediately.

"You guys force me to do this. Now just you wait, twelve minutes on the clock and you will see the rocket being launched. Could have waited till midnight, but you forced me into this situation."

The remote is responsible for the timer on the rocket. It currently shows 11 minutes and 30 seconds.

***

He managed to beat us just like that. So that is how powerful Arcadia is. After all that commotion, he then proceeds to walk away and programming the rocket.

"You know Rilles, I don't want to kill anyone. I don't want to commit any murder. But it is just you people that constantly obstructing my way and my plans, it makes me want to destroy you people."

The frustrated tone does indicate that he is honest about his feelings. Judging from his tone, he is desperate about his plannings. At this point we can't do anything. If I were to rewind time, it won't do any good. Plus, I need a lot of energy just to rewind. But what caught my attention is that I could see a faint overlaying image of what appears to be Kyro. I could see him charging towards Arcadia. Is this my ability?

Soon enough, what I saw became a reality. Kyro charges towards Arcadia by teleporting towards him and engages into a battle.

"You still got the spirit to fight? But you made a grave mistake, Kyro."

"Let my existence be the eternal nightmare if yours!!"

Kyro immediately jumped behind and used his forbidden technique, which he ejects a dagger from his right palm and sways to the left, summoning multiple daggers forming a wall to create a defence. He then punches all the daggers with all his strength towards Arcadia. Arcadia responded by charging towards him, but what caught him off guard is that Kyro uses one of his daggers to block the Elita from striking him. Surprisingly that single blade managed to withstand a huge force. Then Kyro uses his forbidden technique by rotating daggers around his wrist and delivers a punch which then breaks Arcadia's helmet into half. Angered by that, Arcadia engaged into a close quarters combat with Kyro. Kyro gained the upper hand even though Arcadia could read all his movements. As Arcadia is severely damaged on his armour, Kyro then launches a few daggers towards Arcadia to stun him. Kyro then launches five swords towards Arcadia.

"I told you. I am your eternal nightmare."

"You will pay!!!"

Arcadia, who saw the sword approaching him, launches his shockwave attack, repelling the sword and Kyro away. He then dashes behind Kyro and kicks Kyro on the back. Without hesitation, Arcadia took Kyro by the neck and slammed him on the railing. To save Kyro from dying, I used time stop and launched a dagger towards Arcadia, which managed to stab him on his left shoulder.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!!! YOU ARE MINE, ARCADIA!!"

Arcadia then threw Kyro away and shifted his attention towards me.

"You won't get it, Rilles. No matter how hard you try, you won't defeat me."

"Do you know who I am? I am the greatest detective in Azalea City. And I always have a way to solve any cases. Including you."

"Try me then. Believe me you won't defeat me and stop my plans."

I could see it. I could see Arcadia's movements. So this is what a clairvoyant ability felt like. This is my evolved ability.

The moment he landed his attacks, I could immediately evade it without any predictions. All has been displayed in my eyes. As we clashed swords he read all my movements, and I read his movements, but it all ended up not being able to hit one another. The result could be infinite.

"I can't stop him. If both of us have this ability, then it might end up fighting for eternity."

Arcadia then took a step back and halted our fights for a while.

"Impossible. How could you evade everything I have dealt to you? As if you could read me."

"Are you doubting my skills as a detective? You won't understand how powerful your father's gift is. And I am really appreciative of your father as if I owe him something."

"Even if you could read my movements, I won't let you halt my plans."

"Then try me, Arcadia!"

Arcadia with all his rage charges towards me. I trust my premonition that a miracle might occur, and it apparently did. I moved no muscle and Vulcan appeared from behind me and engaged himself in the sword fight. Apparently he summoned what looks like the Elita and manages to clash with it. Blue lighting starts to fill the room each time the swords clash. Without hesitation, I joined in as well with my Darkblade. Fighting together as a mentor and apprentice indeed is a cool thing. Vulcan then manages to disarm Arcadia and stab him on his stomach. To put pressure even more, I decided to use time rewind multiple times to hurt him even more. Finally after multiple ways of hurting Arcadia he finally gave up fighting.

"Enough. I give up. You...are stronger....than I thought."

"You took everything from me, Arcadia. You took away my parents, my friends and my neighbours who did nothing wrong to you."

I immediately point the tip of my Darkblade towards Arcadia on his neck.

"It's only a matter if we settle this legally or we could just end your life right here and then. You are under arrest for treason, murder and threatening the security of this city."

"10 seconds and killing me will be worthless. Even if you stopped time, you won't have enough time to stop the rocket."

Arcadia powered his shockwave gadget and launched a full scale shockwave to send us back even further. Arcadia laughs maniacally and immediately the shaft to allow the rocket to escape opens. The fuel started to combust and the rocket made its way out of the place. I launched multiple daggers towards him and he deflected it all just like that. Fortunately Vulcan managed to teleport near Arcadia and punch him into the air with his fist which contained boosters and kicked him with his high powered shoe which breaks his armour entirely, sending him into a nearby sea as far as possible. By theory, he shouldn't have survived that impact. Now the problem is the rocket. I don't have much energy left. Why did I waste it all on my time stopping ability? But soon enough, I thought of an idea and it is not going to be pleasant for anyone, especially Vulcan.

"Vulcan. I have a plan, but I need to know something. How far could this teleporter teleport us?"

Vulcan hesitated for a second as he knew I would do something this risky.

"Th..three kilometres. But what the hell are you planning to do?"

I immediately rushed to the control panel and tried to change its location, but the safety feature prevents us from controlling and the second button is required to be pressed at the same time. The second button is found on the rocket.

"It is simple. I need you to direct this rocket away from its destination. I will teleport to the rocket and press the second button, we will communicate via walkies."

"NO!!! Please, no! I don't want to!"

This might fail and I might die. Maybe Arcadia damaged the button right away because he might expect us to do so. But this is the only way.

"I am sorry Vulcan. But this is the only way. After all, after what we have been through, after how we have trained, I am happy for whatever consequences that I am about to face."

"You have a family. They need you more. If you are gone, who is gonna take care of them? If you are gone, I am going to lose a father figure. You are the closest person that I have ever been after my parents."

"I have made a promise to them, I will be back. Wait for me, Vulcan."

I took out the teleporter and sync the coordinates to where the rocket is. After I found it, I immediately teleported to the rocket. Without any further ado, I located the second button and as I expected it, the button is destroyed. It is totally jammed and cannot be used. I then notified Vulcan about the situation and my hopes to return are already down into the abyss.

"Vulcan, listen to me closely. Bring Raz and Kyro out of the room. The button is jammed and cannot be pressed. I have only one way, exploding it midway."

I can't believe I actually said that. This is not going to go as planned, but I am prepared for it no matter what. I then took out my Light Transformer and transformed into a mode for the one final time.

"Light, Transform. Full Defence!!"

I transformed into a bulkier figure and I hope that it could withstand a gigantic blow from the rocket. I locate the panel which contains wire and try to pull all the wire. But then I hesitated.

_""Those who met me, will always perish for whatever their decision is. Because their hearts are not binded to make the right choice, but for their beloved Azalea.""_

Come to think again, this is true. I am currently sacrificing my life for this city. I restarted my life, but my choice doesn't matter because my choice was to not have a perfect life for myself, but for the whole Azalea City. My son, my wife, my apprentice, my friends, my parents, they all live in Azalea City. And I must not waste my choice for my selfish ideal. Without any more thinking, I smiled to myself and laughed at all the beautiful memories that I have made. And finally my choice was made and I pulled all the wires on the rocket itself. I believe I have made the right choice for myself and Azalea City.