A Possible Solution to the Voices

(Thursday, 6th of Marching Legion Moon, 2021

After a full night of travel, Bahamut reached Sanctuary and found his way into the stables where Jack all saw Sleipnir playing around with another horse. Bahamut, despite its incredible size, decided to inhabit an old barn house that was no longer in use. Jack's group got off the dragon and began making their way up the stairs that led towards the courtyard to report back from the mission. In Vedmak's hands was Korot and Anton, who were asleep and out of their divine weapon form. During the walk, Vedmak gave Jack Aslan, on account of the armor not really suiting someone like him.

"So, kid, you wanna tell me about your Warlock friend?" Vedmak asked Jack as the group walked towards the main office of Sanctuary.

"Oh, her name is Alice." Jack informed Vedmak. "She's a warlock, kind of like you are, but she's started hearing voices in her head."

"Voices?" Vedmak stepped back, and for the briefest of moments, Jack saw fear in his eyes. "Who are her parents?"

"I don't know." Jack answered the warlock, who suddenly looked incredibly serious. "I have amnesia, and Zane told me mentioning her parents around her is generally a bad idea since they died during 12/12/12."

"Damnit, I've never experienced the voices before, but I know someone who did and went to school with her." Vedmak scowled whilst scratching his beard. "Needless to say, it didn't fucking end well."

"What does that have to do with Alice?" Jack asked Vedmak, who thought for a little bit.

"Vedmak, it's been a while." Geppetto greeted Velmak while Geppetto stood on top of the stairs. "I was honestly considering calling you about my granddaughter, but Herakles was against it."

"Makes sense, since Herakles hates my guts for not taking care of a problem I had no idea how to deal with." Vedmak scratched the back of his neck.

"No he hates you because you used a global peace treaty as toilet paper." Geppetto corrected, and Vedmak only shrugged in response. "So why did you come here?"

"Well my tree house is destroyed because one of your students absorbed some spirit from the tree" Vedmak stated the obvious, and Geppetto knew instantly who did it.

"Jack, apologize for absorbing the tree spirit."

"No."

"Anyway, I'm also coming here for these two." Vedmak gestured to the unconscious bodies of Korot and Anton. "They're a divine weapon, so there's a high chance they'll be targeted by someone like Yaba...what happened to her anyway?"

"Oh I killed her and left her body in the snow." Simo answered flatly while adjusting his rifle.

"What were you in your past life, sir?" Geppetto asked Simo with a somewhat concerned expression on his face.

"I was a soldier, second lieutenant to be exact." Simo answered once again, and Geppetto focused on the domovoy brothers.

"Vedmak!" Herakles came walking towards your group with Eddy and Maria. "I thought I told you never to come here again!"

"I know, I just came here to drop off Korot and Anton, then I'll be on my merry way." Vedmak scowled upon the sight of Herakles walking towards him.

"Wait, Herakles, we need his expertise to help with my granddaughter, Alice's situation." Geppetto glared at Herakles, and Vedmak's scowl was swiftly replaced with a jaw-dropped fear.

"So it's like I feared, this 'warlock friend' I've heard of is the granddaughter between you and 'her'." Vedmak stared at Geppetto, who nodded. "Damn, that explains why you all are so concerned about these 'voices'."

"Saorise, Caroline, TJ, Angelo, Othelia, well done for all of you." Herakles congratulated the five students. "Jack, Vedmak, Simo, you three come with us. We need to host a meeting about this. Simo, get your girlfriend."

"Hold up, since when the hell do you have a girlfriend?" Jack asked his sniper, and Jack saw that his face went somewhat red underneath his mask.

"She's not my girlfriend." Simo corrected Jack. "She's just some random fairy who walked up to me and said 'you're my soulmate and I am yours. So let's get married' and now she won't stop bugging me whenever I'm in Sanctuary."

"DARLING!"

"We'll speak of the devil and she will arrive."

Everyone turned their attention to a ball of golden light that was heading towards Simo with no signs of stopping. The light landed right in front of Simo and it began to take the form of a tall, blonde woman with fairy wings. There were also smaller fairy-looking things hovering around her, sprinkling flower petals around her.

"Simo, accept my feelings!" The fairy woman pointed at Simo overdramatically. "Marry me!"

"No." Simo flatly refused the woman's advances and began to follow Herakles to the office.

"Ah, good, Titania, come on, we have a meeting." Herakles greeted the fairy woman, who pouted upon her rejection from the sniper.

(Later)

Jack was at Herakles' office with the rest of the 'secret stuff squad'. This squad consisted of Mansa, Catherine, the Librarian, Juana, Eddy, Maria, Sobek, Nikola, Elizabeth, Cheng, Maui, Lorelei, Hero, Geppetto, Titania, and Herakles. Now, the squad had three more members, Korot, Anton, and Vedmak. Korot and Anton were in the medical bay, so only Vedmak was in the office with them all. Jack was sitting on a chair with Catherine and Juana, while Simo, Mansa, and Titania stood behind them.

"So, everyone, this is Vedmak." Cheng introduced Vedmak. "Like Maria and Eddy, he's a classmate of ours who helped us fight against 'them'. But he's one of the few who actually survived."

"Plus he's a warlock, so he's a good source to investigate what 'her' deal is." Geppetto suggested while Mansa handed Jack a bag, inside the bag Jack saw a wicker Cornucopia, a red colored buckler shield, a flag on a silver flag pole, and a blanket that was gold on one side and navy blue on the other side. Four artifacts by names of, Master Maid, Red Coat Counter, Arrival, and Incredible Thing respectively.

"So, jumping straight to business." Vedmak gathered the attention of everyone in the room. "These voices...despite us warlocks making pacts with numerous entities, hearing voices is an abnormality that only happened once before with 'her'. Now I'm hearing about a new one, and what's more is that it's her granddaughter, so I'm assuming it's a kind of mutation."

"I don't think it's a genetic problem." Elizabeth raised her hand. "I can't hear the voices even with my psychic abilities."

"That's because the mutation itself isn't what's causing the voices, it's like a receiver for these voices." Vedmak theorized. "This is all pure speculation, but since I've left this shithole, I've done nonstop research to figure out the cause of all of this shit."

"So we can just cut out the mutation and be done with it?" Maui asked with a hefty yawn, and the couch he sat on looked like it was designed for a child compared to his size.

"Can someone explain to me why a man who relies solely on muscle power became a teacher here?" Vedmak pointed at Maui, who didn't even look offended.

"He's got his perks." Herakles looked at Vedmak. "So Vedmak, is there any way to remove this mutation like Maui suggested?"

"Absolutely not you dumb fucking barbarian." Vedmak answered, and Herakles's coffee cup shattered under his grip. "However, we can suppress the voices somehow."

"Any idea as to how we can do that?" Mansa asked while he had the Tempest slung over his shoulder. "Even amongst artifacts, only Buttercup can nullify certain spells like forced telepathy, but it only works for a couple minutes."

"Well we aren't using a fucking artifact now are we?" Vedmak pointed at Geppetto. "In order to prevent her from being lost in the darkness, we're gonna give her strings."

"Strings?" Geppetto then noted that Vedmak was pointing at him. "Why are you pointing at me?"

"Oh my gods I'm suggesting we give her a second class." Vedmak sighed before face palming himself. "It's not perfect, but maybe having her rely on a secondary class won't give her the opportunity to rely on the darkness."

"Is this your only suggestion?" Nikola was typing something on his computer. "It is unwise to only have one plan."

"Well excuse me Mr. Genius from another world, but I don't see you giving out any ideas!" Vedmak shouted at Nikola. "This is our best and safest bet. Our only other option is to ask her to ignore the voices."

"I don't think my granddaughter would be willing to do anything puppet related." Geppetto thought about Vedmak's idea. "When she first tried it when she was 8, it resulted in the destruction of three puppets."

"Was she that bad at it?" Juana asked the old man, who shook his head. "Then what was it?"

"She accidentally overloaded the puppets with magic." Geppetto recalled the memory.

"Plus I'm assuming her magic, Pact Maker, would be pretty hard to use with puppets." After Jack said that, he noticed how everyone was looking at him. "Okay, I forgot how things work around here!"

"Most kinds of magic and certain kinds of arcane weapons can be learned and summoned by anyone." Catherine informed Jack. "Most of the students here use familial magic or heirloom weapons, but the students who rely on their talents show that just working hard is more than enough."

"Thank you, so you mean it's possible for Alice to not only learn puppeteering magic, but also use a puppet arcane weapon?" Jack's suggestion earned a smile from Vedmak.

"Family, someone with brain cells here!" Vedmak gestured towards Jack with a smile on his face. "Genius from another world, get to work on a puppet tailored for Alice!"

"So can you just tell when people are from another world or something?" Nikola asked, and Simo carefully grabbed his SMG on his side.

"It's obvious, you guys have a more imbalanced magic signature compared to everyone else." Vedmak answered before looking at Herakles. "So big guy, anything else?"

"Well, the beginning of 'Tartarus' begins in two weeks, so it's time for the professors to start picking people to train." Herakles informed the professors in the room.

"Tartarus?" Jack asked, and then looked at Hero, he was still smiling as usual.

"It's a training session called Tartarus that spans over a couple months." Herakles answered, and there was a scary gleam in his eye. "Due to its intensity, it's earned the name 'Tartarus', the sole thing worse than hell itself."

"Yikes." Jack was not looking forward to Tartarus one bit. "Why the sudden intensity?"

"Because after Tartarus is the tournament to show the world the result of your hard work." Geppetto placed a hand on Jack's shoulder. "Besides, it's a good advertisement for the future, when you all make your own Guardian Company."

"Oh right, the tournament." Jack looked at the librarian. "Hey Librarian, is there any chance the potion will be done before the tournament begins?"

"Of course, it will be done by next week." The librarian replied in sign language aimed towards Jack. "Would you like to train with it or take the potion after Tartarus?"

"Let's take it before so I can get used to my strength." Jack decided, since he wanted to know what his limits were back in his prime.

"You know, since Tartarus is so intense, maybe I should let you all get another break." Herakles thought a bit to himself out loud. "The beaches of Dhahabu are quite nice this time of year."

"Gods, is this like one of those animated series that always have a beach episode or some shit?" Vedmak rolled his eyes, and Herakles looked ready to punch the warlock. "You still doing that school dance shit too?"

"Okay everyone, the meeting is dismissed for the sake of everyone's safety." Geppetto ordered everyone out of the office while Vedmak and Herakles had menacing auras of purple and red respectively.

After leaving the office, Jack decided to head to his dorm room. Maui, Nikola, and Sobek needed to prepare for Tartarus because they pushed everything off to the last minute. Elizabeth ran back to the infirmary to check the condition of the domovoy brothers still in the hospital. Catherine and Juana went back to their dorms, while Simo was dragged to Titania's apartment by the fairy pulling on his hood. The Librarian went back to the library, and Mansa went back to finding more artifacts, but before he did, he gave Jack a piece of advice.

"Counting yours, mine, and Hokusai's, we have 13 more slayer weapons to find!" Mansa yelled as he ran down the hall in a hurry. "One of which is missing with the High King, and the other one is Happily Ever After, which no one knows where it is!"

He also gave Jack a note consisting of the abilities of the four artifacts he gave Jack. Arrival is the flag, and it can not only clone itself, but also allows the user to teleport to each of these flags. Incredible Thing had two sides, a gold side and a navy blue side. The gold side acts as a portal to a dream-like pocket space, while the navy blue side reflects magic. Master Maid is more simple, it makes fruit and eating this fruit heals whoever eats it. Even one bite can restore limbs. The last artifact is Red Coat Counter the buckler shield, while it's smaller, it is impossible to break. Once struck, puppets dawning red coat-like military garbs will pop out of nowhere holding muskets and shoot the person who struck the shield before disappearing.

"Oh hey, I'm at my dorm now." Jack said out loud before he opened the door, and he saw the forms of Uriel, Ariel, Cronos, Forger, and his newest addition, Kernunnosl, standing at his coffee table. "Wow, this is ominous."

"This journal's paper...it's made from a tree I grew myself." Kernunnosl's appearance looked more like a satyr with black hooves and dark brown fur. His skin was covered in mud and leaves, but you could tell his skin tone was dark grey. His head has a lengthy beard paired with long, thick hair that was the same color as his fur. His eyes were pure white, and you wondered if he was blind. On his head was a massive set of dark brown antlers, and around his right hand was a serpent.

"Journal?" Jack wondered what he was talking about until he looked at the coffee table and saw his mother's journal. "Oh shit, I completely forgot about that, my mom's journal!"

"Well to be fair, Catherine and Hassan being in tough situations probably didn't help at all. Not to mention that Assassin." Uriel remembered that whole event. "But then again Heliosians and Atitihadians are raised with a strong sense of loyalty and duty...we really need to talk to the elephant."

"I'm gonna be really concerned if Atitihad's founder was an ACTUAL elephant." Jack sweatdropped before walking to the couch with Cronos and Forger on it. "So Kernunnosl, what's so special about this notebook's paper?"

"Trees grown by me personally will be immune to all forms of death, even when chopping them down and turning them into paper, they will still continue to live." Kernunnosl informed Jack as he flipped through its pages. "Weirdly enough, its last entry is a map of Desponia with a series of X's over it. Eleven to be exact, and they're marked with the eleven slayer weapons you don't possess."

"Lindwurm, Hyperion, Death Bride, Bamboo Forest, Joker, Basilisk, Cinderella, Grateful Beast, Fastest Thing, Sparta, Grab Five By the Hand, and Flower Queen." Jack read off all the names of each weapon before reading what they were. "Armor, a motorbike, explosive pouch, katana, scythe, saber, harp, living chest, short sword and sheathe, spear and shield, phantom entity, and 6 rainbow Javelins."

"Your mother...her name wouldn't be Enheduanna would it?" Ariel asked Jack, and he wasn't sure because he's lost all your memories.

"Ariel, you do realize she prefers to be called Duanna right?" Forger informed Ariel while looking bored. "Still, we can't be sure because she sometimes used fake names alongside her husband, so this could be another one."

"Why would they use fake names?" Jack asked the dark haired man, who smiled to reveal his sharp teeth.

"Simple, they're looking for something, but that something knows someone is looking for it, so your seeker parents need to hide their trail." Forger smirked. "Still, if these two lovers are your parents and Duanna that notebook is hers, then it's a trustworthy source."

"Goin' to all those places at once is gonna be a real pain in the neck, especially with the training happening just next week." Cronos reminded Jack, and he suddenly got an idea.

"Three Little Pigs." Jack activated the cartoonish pig pen on his chest, and eleven cartoon-like pigs appeared out of thin air in front of Jack. Jack showed these eleven pigs the map in the journal. "Okay, I need you all to go to these eleven locations. Decide amongst yourself who will go where, I just need all eleven artifacts by the end of next week, got it?"

"SIR YES SIR!" All eleven pigs then ran out of the door, leaving Jack alone with his sleeping honey badger and ghosts.

"So what are you gonna do when you get all the artifacts aside from the two missing ones?" Uriel asked Jack, and he simply shrugged.

"Like Herakles said, there's a threat out there that caused 12/12/12, and I need to get stronger in order to kill it." Jack looked out the window and yawned.

"What about your classmates? They're training just as hard as you are, and they don't know about any of this." Forger asked Jack, and in the chaos of all this, he completely forgot they knew nothing about this threat. "Herakles is a good guy, but he prefers to rely on no one, and relies on the bare minimum amount of people only if he's forced to. That old stubbornness is a freaking pain to deal with."

"What are you suggesting?" Jack asked the dark haired man, and Kernunnosl answered for him.

"Tell your allies what you know and create your own faction." Kernunnosl suggested. "Catherine, Juana, Simo, Lorelei, and Hero are all in the same boat as you are. Herakles is getting older, and he relies on strength he's lost to win against those monsters. That won't be enough, so tell your friends about all of this so you may all plan."

"Alright, when should I do this?" Jack asked the ghosts, but none of them answered. "I got it, make it up as I go."

"Yup, and lucky for you, you're the expert when it comes to that."