The Journey
The morning sun cast on the environment, brightly reflecting its surface. Lanz, his eyes closed, performing moves that resembles Kung Fu. As if he tries to channel energy towards Sena, "Hnnnnaaaaaaagh!", his eyes opened, sharply focused on her. Sena was no different, random move out of sync with Lanz. "Yeaaaaaaaah!" "Huaaaaaaaaah!" "Wuaaaaaaaaah!"
Lanz new attire, sleeveless T-shirt, equipped with his "power" gloves and leggings, all black. Sena wore a sexy attire that covered only her breast, and shorts, silver gauntlets, leggings, and boots. Inside was very long black socks nearly reaching her hips, and very long gloves that's nearly reaching her shoulder.
Taion, standing where a referree would have stand, watched, softly but sternly spoke, "Guys... What do you think you're doing?"
His new attire, the pants as described before, silvery-white boots, silvery-white clothes, with a line of black running down beside the zip. The collars and the cuff dyed orange. He seemed to wore an inner shirt with long sleeves. An orange scarf wrapped around his neck, it's long side dangling to reach his foot.
Sena actually hadn't noticed him all along, called out: "Oh, Taion. Morning!"
Lanz greeted, in an upbeat tone despite the day before, "Hey! Did we wake you?" Didn't hear any embarrassment in his tone. They continued their moves as they greeted him.
"Honestly, I'm surprised you haven't gone and woken up the whole forsaken continent. So?"
He stopped the moves, Sena followed, to explain his motives, "Oh, this? We reckoned we might be able to do the same as what Noah and Mio did."
"You reckoned? You mean the Ouroboros thing?"
Sena was excited, "Yeah! How badass was that?! We thought if we pulled it off, it'd raise our chances of survival a whole bunch!"
Taion: "And you think it's that easy?"
"Huh? I mean..."
He, with a stern look, walked in between and past them, and faced the rocky walls in the distance. He stopped at the end of the grass patch, just before the shiny smooth-looking rocks that paved the floor. "I don't mean to burst your bubble here, but don't you think... maybe that power's meant only for them?"
Sena rebutted, "Yeah, but that Moebius guy... He did refer to 'us'... I just thought..."
Taion turned to look at her, "You thought maybe you could transform as well?" Sena nodded, though her look was less certain.
"What makes you think it would be you two, anyway? Say it is possible. It could be me and Lanz."
Sena voice got softer, "It's just... kind of a feeling."
Lanz looked at her, brought his hands up, to cut her uncertainty off by reverberating her feelings, "Yeah, just a hunch. Right?" Then, he turned and questioned, "Something wrong?"
"Not at all. Then... I-I guess... that leaves me with her." Eunie, in the distance, was stretching, perhaps she just woke up. Noah and Mio were chatting in the distance, Riku tries to wake Manana up. Belongings lay down on the ground, with Taion's kettle1 on one table, a white bottle, presumably holding tea, on another. With a sigh, he shook his head, "I envy you, I really do."
Lanz prompted: "Aw, what're you moaning about now?"
He returned a snide remark, pushing his glasses up (again!!!) "Let's drop it. I don't want us bickering this early. Especially... not now we seem to be sharing a common destiny. We happy few." As if to not look at their reaction, he turned his back towards them.
Sena replied in a lighter tone, but serious, "If I didn't know better... I'd say you were trying to get us all worked up!"
He closed his eyes, "Think whatever you want."
"I think you might be on the mark, though." Mio's sounded from the distance. He turned and saw Mio and Noah walking towards them. Riku, Eunie, and Manana closely followed behind.
"Oh?"
Noah supported, "We were all there, every one of us. In the same situation."
"Now hold on..."
Noah continued anyways, looking down halfway to recall what had happened, what he felt before, "The only difference was... I was set... on protecting Mio. Protecting all of you guys. And then, I suddenly transformed."
"That's it? That's all it took?"
"Yeah."
"So you can take that form via a strong desire, or emotion?"
"Possibly."
Eunie said jokingly, "Probably too much to ask of Professor Grump here."
"What, me?"
Eunie walked up to him, "Well, who'd you think?"
"And you any different?"
"What, me?" She stopped at an arm length from him, then burst out, as if she had heard the funniest thing in the world, "Ahah! As if I'm gonna join with you."
Noah: "Eunie..."
She turned back and faced them, "Come on, though..."
Mio: "You're not going to manage this overnight. Not the way you all are right now. Even so... It can't hurt to have a little hope, can it?"
Taion processed her sentence for a while, before pushing his glasses up, "Hrm. I suppose there's logic in that." Eunie folded her arms, looked at him.
Gathered around, Noah asked, "OK. Everyone ready?"
Mio nodded in agreement: "Yeah."
Mio wore a silver coat, its sleeve reaching her elbow, with tighter black cuff, possibly fabric that greatly prevents air from blowing right through. A clover-shape orange tie with two short tails stuck to her belly. She wore a sleeveless T-shirt, white with two black stripes running down her chest. A long black socks covering her whole feet protected from the white leggings that reached just below her ankle, tied by an orange strip like how a Karate belt looks.
There wasn't much to describe Noah and Eunie. Noah wore a red jacket, black pants. Eunie, a green plus black jacket, black pants, and white running shoes.
Manana: "Tasty treats... Check!"
Lanz: "I just took a quick look-see, and this equipment seems surprisingly quality." Then, turning to Sena, "Dontcha think?"
Sena scratched her head, in half agreement, "Uh, yeah! Looks that way!"
Noah scanned his team2. He then turned and looked at the great sword, far beyond the distance, so tall even the hills that surrounded the valley couldn't block their view. The others followed.
Mio: "The 'City' we're headed for... Looks like it'll be a long journey."
Taion activated his Iris: "I've found us a route heading south. Will that work for you?"
All tapped on their temple, Mio appreciated, "Thanks, Taion."
Eunie was surprised, "Hey! You've got some real handy data there."
Mio: "I guess we should head through the caves, and toward Millick Meadows first, then."
Noah: "Chin up, guys. Let's get going." All nod in agreement.
Rain poured hard, deafening. Eunie took her step towards Guernica remains. Where his shirt lies, zip half pulled down, dried blood stained where he'd been pierced. A triangular dog tag hang besides the zip.
"Are these his dog tags?"
Noah, Lanz, and Riku walked up from behind her. Noah knelt by her side while Lanz stood beside him. From the other side, Mio and her team looked down, her hands gripped together in front. Sena put her hand to her heart.
Noah read out the writings on the dog tag, "Guernica... Vandham... I guess that's his name." Thunders roared in the background.
Eunie, looking sad, "That's great..."
Noah wasn't sure what he meant, turned and looked at her, "Huh?"
In a low tone, "I kinda hated the idea of not even knowing who he was."
Noah's vision was on her for a moment, trying to read her feelings, before nodding and acknowledging, "Right, yeah. Let's remember him... as the man who gave us a goal, and the ability to choose."
Eunie finished in a sighing intonation, "Yeah..." They embraced the moment.
Translator's note on environment: A tall plateau stretched out, like the jaws of a crocodile wide open, stalactites hung like teeth from its bottom, held from collapsing by several pillars. We could see similar plateau in the distance. Very very far away, behind clouds, a tall mountain the shape of an animal, like a reindeer resting, the direction of its "head" facing the great sword. Second scene, we could also see steps of plateau, with a waterfall in the distance. A red vine for climbing from the lower to the upper plateau lurked around its center. The remains like the building emerged from the ground, birds resting on it. Third scene, some rusty remains of a building, demolished, lay together on the ground. Yellow-green grass paved the meadow. Lofty rocky platforms surrounded the location. A waterfall about 3 meters fell from a river to the remain's left, and a brog (purple frog) made the opposite river bank its habitat. Fourth scene, the crocodile jaw platform is at the top right, still a distance away. River flowed beyond the scene. Some blue mantis shrimp roamed the river banks. This, is Millick Meadows, of Aetia Region.
The group was walking down hill. Lanz and Sena were chatting, leading the way with Eunie. Riku and Manana behind them, followed by Taion, Mio, and Noah far behind. As Noah stopped, he called for their attention, "Hey guys... Could I have a moment?"
"Meh." "Hm" "Yeah? Wassup?" Everyone turned and faced him.
"There's something that I forgot to tell you."
Manana reacted instantaneously, "I-It's about who in charge of din-din duties?"
"No... From now on, I want us to avoid combat as much as possible. So... Keves... Agnus... If either of them decide to put up a fight, don't kill them. OK?"
Eunie questioned, "Not saying I'm against the idea... But why?"
Lanz proposed, "Guess it'd suck having to draw on our allies."
Sena: "Do we just knock them out cold or something?"
Noah agreed and added, "Or get them to surrender."
Taion: "How kind of you."
"Huh?"
"I'm sure our past victims will appreciate that." His hands tucked on his waist, closed his eyes, head slightly facing away from him.
Lanz spit words out from between his teeth, gritted, "You little-"
Noah, sternly and seriously, "We don't need to take any more lives. There's... no point."
To which he sighed.
Noah continued, "There's a reason we met. There has to be."
Mio: "You think?"
"Back then, if we hadn't met each other, we wouldn't be here like this now."
"Even though we're being chased... by both nations at once?" Mio questioned.
"We get chased, we run. Easy."
There was a silent for a moment as he scanned their faces. As he established eye contact with Mio, she replied, "A smart new decision." She nodded in agreement, he nodded back. As he turned his glaze towards the great sword behind him, "We'll keep on running... to that sword." Others focused their sight on the target.
The wood melts in the bonfire. Sena and Lanz were sitting around it, about perpendicular to the bonfire. She was enjoying her moment looking at the bonfire, as Lanz broke the silence, "Ugh. Talk about bad blood."
Sena replied in a relaxed tone, "Just give it time. It's early days!"
"Maybe so..."
As she observed his muscles, having some lines carved like leaf veins onto it, she wondered: "Funny pattern you got there."
"You can talk. You've got those shiny chest doo-dads." He look at her chest, a cyan circle core attached. Inside the core, it's as if there were some oily liquid flowing. Inverted L lines glowing cyan stretched both sides on the bottom of it. She also had such lines on her arms.
As if looking at her chest core, she explained, "We've... always had these."
Lanz continued, "You know. I've never even thought of myself as strange before."
Mio sounded from another side, "So many things... taken for granted... We're pretty different, huh? Worlds apart." Mio and Taion walked towards them from a distance, stopped by the table to the left of Sena, with Taion's teapot and some cups on top, standing.
Taion rebutted, turning to Mio "No one's worlds apart. If anything, we should be questioning all that we've thought to be true."
She turned to her back and looked at the distance. Riku and Manana were playing with dirt. Noah was further in the background, lost in his thoughts, his back facing them. Taion continued, "Differences... are all a matter of perspective."
"Hehe... Our skeptics."
From their right, Eunie joined in, threw a question to Taion, "Hey! Are you always like this?"
"Of course. It's my nature." He immediately replied, hands on his waist.
"Hmm..." Eunie closed her eyes partially, then turned to face away, "Personally, I think it's easier to take things at face value, you know?"
Taion spoke as his head looked downward, "Now wouldn't that be nice."4
Eunie was provoked, raising her voice as she stomped towards him, stopped by an arms length away, "Eh? You makin' fun of me?"
"All I said was, it would be nice." Taion patiently replied, eyes meeting hers. Mio stood beside them, Sena and Lanz still sat at their original location, watching their drama.
"Oh-ho-ho, no, you don't!" Eunie didn't seemed to believe his genuineness. "You just called me an airhead, you jerk!"
"This is just... How long are you going to drag this out?" Lanz and Sena looked at each other, unsure about why this couple was quarrelling.
"Far as long as I sparking need to! Until you come clean, four-eyes." Meanwhile, Riku and Manana had just finished meddling with their soil and walked out of sight. Their fights in the distance cut Noah's from his thought. He turned and faced their direction as he heard Taion from the distance, "I can't believe this. Someone shoot me."
After they regrouped.
Suddenly, something caught Sena's eyes. "What's that? Hey, Mimi, you can see the Ferronis6, over by the side of the big outcrop there, right?"
They turned to her direction, "Oh yeah!" Hearing of Ferronis, the group got defensive. Taion first checked his iris, "Odd. I don't have any data about a colony established in this locale."
Eunie: "Odd for sure... Noah, take a good look. Isn't it kinda... old?"
As they looked into the distance, it was the rusty junk that laid demolished along the low coast beside the river we saw earlier. They were on high ground, land rolled out below them. "It does look like it's seen quite a bit of service."
Lanz: "Yeah. I don't think they make 'em like that any more."
Mio: "Erm... Do you think it's safe to be around?"
Eunie crossed her arms: "You're freaking me out a bit here, Mio."
Sena: "Sorry!" Perhaps she felt sorry for alerting them on an inexistent threat.
Taion: "I don't think an apology is necessary."
Mio asked him, "Do you think there could be some useful resources and stuff in there still?"
"A possibility, certainly." Then, he turned and face Noah, "It's in the general direction of our objective. Why not investigate it?"
He agreed, "All right. Let's check it out!"
As they arrived in the evening, Mio: "Crustips", the blue mantis shrimp, roamed the Ferronis Hulk. After they eradicated all the crustips, they rested there for the night.
Footnotes:
1: This looked like the modern electric kettle they offered usually at hotels in some countries that translator went before, like Malaysia.
2: From here on, when we mean team, we mean the expanded team, including Mio and the other.
3: This is Variant B of the cutscene. Variant A is similar, which we'll put it in the appendix, including what's the difference between them.
4: Translator didn't catch what he's thinking at that moment, nor do one understand whether he means it or not.
5: From this point onward till the end of this section, views will be taken from the 3rd video.
6: Ferronis means "flame clock levnis". From now onwards, we'll call it a ferronis.