There was nothing but empty darkness lingering on the scene.
The Knight was back in this place again. It had been sent here every time it stopped using the void armament. It felt like just a second had passed, the Knight's unconscious state was a strange place.
Just nothingness as far as one could see. No thoughts, no activity, no floating soul narrating a monologue to itself. It was nothing at all. This was akin to what many would confuse with inner peace – enlightenment, and the clearing of mind, soul, and body of anything and everything – a calm emptiness itself.
The Knight never did anything in this place – almost as if there was nothing to do. It did not have access to anything. Not a single thing about what lay inside. There was also no way to remember that something existed beyond any of all this – that is until it was hurdled out. But something was strange about this time around. Even if the Knight was in here for something akin to a second, no thoughts, memories or mind, it could somehow tell that something was wrong with this particular time.
This place was empty, but this time it also felt full?
Then the Knight woke up – something similar to it anyway.
"How long has it been?" – was its first question.
It ignored the barren view of the lands, it did not even bother to assess the situation, nothing was more important than finding out how much time had passed.
"Three years." – the answer came from Cathina, she was just starring at the palm sized snowflake she had made, she too was not bothered by anything. She had somewhat picked the Knights habit of staying objective and avoiding wasting time on things that did not inform her next actions.
"Where are we?"
"We are by the barren lands northwest of Arulli."
The Knight got up and looked around.
'I should be a few teleportation leaps away from HQ. It seems they thought ahead – must have been a directive from Guilos or Mugaw. Should be just two years left before the Event starts.'
The Knight then thought back to Quu-Quu. Somehow, she had assumed the Knight gone – nothing is capable of surviving that strike. The Knight then felt it – as it remembered how it ended up like this. It looked at its body and armour through one of the vermin's eyes. The Knight then pulled out a bunch of souls, and put them on its body, of which the vermin greedily drank up.
'I guess you held me recover – Kitrino must have ordered you to? I doubt anything like that could kill me – even the One of the Void found my soul repulsive – those of the void thought it impossible to possess a dreaded soul – so she must have calibrated her strike assuming me mostly the same as the others. But you vermin somehow still managed to fix my body faster – by my judgement, I should still be out. With two years to spare at that.'
It realised that the [Survivor] skill had also been handy in keeping it's soul from dissociating too much. It was able to keep the Knight immortal on the edge of non-existence. It had kept the Knight existent on many an occasion, but the Knight felt that this time, the skill had done a massive amount of lift – especially considering that the vermin were helping it recover quickly.
The knight could feel it – it had taken enough damage to be out for at least five years. It had only set aside two decades to fight the dark knights. 'All the factors that helped me, wanted to make sure I came to before the event starts – two years left at that.'
It approached Quu-Quu with just two years left before it should head back to Arulli and prepare for the event. That was supposed to spare it three years of preparation, but the fight would have left it with none, only managing to scrounge up two years through the vermin's collective use of [Survivor]. And if it had been out for that long, then at this moment it was just a year above the original schedule. Leaving two years till the event.
The Knight was still sure it could beat Quu-Quu. Sure, it had not gained a level since the fight, or anything new to change the tides of battle, but it saw no way in which it could lose. The main point for the excursion, was to acquire the invitation, of which it already had. This is why they had decide to bring it back to Arulli – the dark hunter was retiring.
Even then, the Knight still wanted to hunt all of them down, most especially Quu-Quu. The only thing stopping it was the fact that it had a lot to do in these remaining two years, which was supposed to be three, or none if the Vermin had not worked harder.
"whisper – set a new personal quest. Hunt all dark knight…"
Reminder set. Personal quests updated.
The Knight felt something different about its mock soul. Something that felt foreign and natural! It was a faint thing so it could not even identify its general qualities. So, it just ignored it for the time being.
"where is Red?"
The Knight could feel its presence – meaning the dragon was alive, but it could not recognise the location it was on the preliminary map it had made of Ouran.
"He went to Igtox – he is looking for something you sent him to go find." Answered Forg.
"Couldn't he have just sent a few?"
"By the way he put it, it seems he'll have some trouble fetching it."
The Knight then looked around but could not see Kitrino. Forg promptly answered, anticipating the question.
"Kitrino is out hunting – she get's bored easily. She had also taken quite the beating against that dark knight you fought, and was out for almost two years, she only arose a year ago."
"So, You and Cath carried us from the centre of Nhoils all the way to the city of Arulli, deep in the continent Home."
She didn't answer, she realised that was an observation and not a question. They had to be quick – it was a good thing Cathina was strong enough to temporarily cool down that spot where the Knight was, enough for her to get it out – at this moment, it was still a roaring radioactive inferno of energy. But she did have something else to say.
"We wanted to enter Arulli, but Guilos said that we should wait for further instructions. Her reasoning relied on the fact that if we dragged you into the city in pieces, we'll have to wait for longer due to the questions regarding what put you in that state. This way, once you entered, the only objective would be to go straight to the House of Mother."
'So, it was Guilos who advised them. What's your excuse for not being the one to advise them Mugaw?'
"I was about to when she spoke… In any case, something is off about them boss. You sure [Desire] won't kill them if you alter them that far?"
The Knight did not answer that, instead it thought 'Mugaw should know better than to ask questions it knows the answers to.'
So instead, the Knight moved on. It had assessed the current situation and the factors that had surrounded the eventuality. It had also found no reason for pause; the only way forward was Arulli. It had travelled a lot throughout Ouran, seeing and exploring many things.
It had moved around using teleportation, granted the constant delays of battle, it was faster. Ouran was way bigger than it had expected. It had covered a lot, and yet, only now did it realise why there were Four main Head Quarters for the Knights, and it only knew one – the one in the city of Arulli.
There was this one – the first and biggest of all, even given the sacred duty of guarding the Laurels. The Knight had not come upon the other three – it had intended on it. Each had its own army, led by their own Grand Masters, even if the strongest of them was Juval the III. But in all that travelling, it never met a single knight from another base.
The Knight then looked at four monster vessels/vermin. Less than half of the army was left after the battle with Quu-Quu, but that was enough for the Knight to send out four of them to look for the other Order of knights headquarters. And just like that they teleported on their way. The Knight had expected the vermin to make it to their destinations within a month or so. The rest of the army turned invisible and waited outside Arulli on orders from the Knight.
"Let's go."
Right before they left, a gigantic hand appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the Knight like a rag doll. It did not dodge because it sensed her approach. For a couple of moments, she just held the Knight in her hand doing nothing. The Knight could practically see her huge grin through her helmet groves. More accurately, it could feel her immense desire to hug it, but she kept her desire tame, resigning to just starring.
'I can't believe she still refuses to let go of that desire – regardless of my efforts.'
The Knight had tried to die down the desire within her that immerged from the vermin's primal programming and the other from her life before now, merging into one. But she refused any and all alterations to this new variant of old desires, so the Knight let it be, even if this made her one of the biggest wasters of its time. It just had to tell itself that one day she would be worth all the time she tended to waste.
The Knight took this time to think about its last fight. 'I wonder just how many of those it would it take to actually unwind me. I'm sure that by the way she left the battle, that was supposed be enough to take down all that have stood in her path before me. Incredible indeed, such mastery over two powers – I need to reference her poise somehow.'
The Knight thought about it even more.
'At least, I stand to gain something from our encounter. And one of them is the fact that powers are supposed to be used in conjunction with another and not as separate gears in a system of attacks. And something tells me, she had not even been driven to her full potential – I am still sure she had more to give to the fight.'
The Knight looked through Kitrino's visor, and straight into her flashing eyes. Every time after she blinked it went from pure blinding sunlit yellow, to an all but consuming black peerless void that is the result of the void. It was impossible to miss.
'I think I might have just figured how to complete you. But not yet – doing it wrong might make you a liability, and a dangerous one at that.'
The Knight then grinned. It was a reaction it had acquired after being compelled to laugh at the situation at the forest, when it bumped into a wounded foe, one possessing something the Knight was desperate to get its hands on – a book from the Wisdom Series. After then, it began to smile at things that seemed similar – things that were supposed to be as amusing.
'I can't wait to get back to the void – something tells me that things over there are gonna be fun.'
Eventually she just put the Knight on the top of her helmet, and picked up Cath, Forg, and Guilos into its arms. And they teleported to the gates of Arulli.
***
Suddenly, appeared a large knight in bright black armour, it was almost as big as the main gates which were barely ever opened. Towering at a hundred meters.
No-one panicked because they recognised the Knight, sitting on top of this behemoths head. They had also been told of its impending arrival – the Knight sent a soul note before coming here – informing of its 'home coming'.
"I see the hero is still as big on making an entrance as ever." Said the soldier on the wall.
"Sure, why not? You have to admit they're cool, almost like he's a Banneret."
"I'd say they're pretty average I guess, when compared to Bannerets."
"Wait… no way, you don't have the skill, do you? You're not a believer?"
"Nah."
"Why?"
"I don't see the big deal. All those 'cool' things he does I've seen Bannerets do them even cooler. Also, that guy gives me the creeps."
Then the small gate appeared and opened. The Knight wanted to avoid a spectacle, so Kitrino shrunk down to six meters and once inside they teleported to the gates of the Academy promptly.
Across the training halls, and training grounds it saw a bunch of knew knights.
'Oh, that's right, the last knight tournament was only three years ago.'
They did one every decade.
The Knight got assigned a room in the Academy and left it's party in there. It felt rather different from lying on the fields of grass made by Forg, the cool breeze's summoned by Cath, and the calming battle noises made in the distance by Kitrino.
"I'm sorry but both Marshals are out, but the Seneschal is still here. He just got out of a strategy meeting, I'm sure you can find him in the war council room, he usually stays in there for a little while longer to go over his thoughts."
The Knight then went there and found him pacing around the same table where the Knight made its report on fighting a Divine spirit. But now the Knight was way stronger. At this moment, both of them were making plans, considering how best to deal with the other. Both of them as sure as the other they could do it.
"I see you're back."
"Yes sir, Seneschal Deven sir!"