Composing II

"He told me that all we need to do is concentrate while doing it" Azure said as she closed her eyes.

"….alright this shouldn't be all that hard then" Jean said as he also closed his eyes.

As Azure and Jean closed their eyes they both focused on their m.e core while they wrapped their hand in mana. Both Jean and Azure had to pull their core into the muscles of their arms so their mana won't leak out. As the core reached to the tips of their fingers, they locked it in place and started to allow mana flow directly into their muscles.

It was as if the hole was breaking through the atmosphere. Like a large piece of glass with a small hole in it. They knew they wouldn't be able to break in with just their strength so they used their mana as added strength and gripped the edges of hole on each side and started pulling it. As their was absolutely no progress, they added more mana to their muscles and fixed their posture, they began pulling it but with the amount resistance the amount of focus they had on their cores were slipping and it started getting out of control. Fortunately they noticed and regained their control of the cores while also tearing the hole.

"This should be big enough for us to fit through but it's still too small" Azure said as she moved to the top of the hole.

When Jean move to the top with her, he and Azure stretched their core to their wings. They both began pulling and flying upwards with as much strength as they can use to tear the hole again. After minutes of pulling the hole, they've finally succeeded in making it bigger.

"It looks like glass but the edges doesn't hurt us at all" Jean said as he flew into the hole.

"I know… it's so weird" Azure said as she followed behind him.

As soon as they entered through the hole, they lost all feeling linked to their mana. They couldn't sense it no more or even if they tried, they couldn't use it but they weren't worried about that as they used it to determine they were successful in finding getting through the hole. And all that was left for them to do was prepare for Ryoa's assault but they couldn't even try to prepare as over a dozen black hands grabbed their limbs and torso and started pulling them down.

Jean and Azure tried to break out of the black hands grasp but they weren't able to move as they saw a room that stuck in their memories for years over. As they were being pulled down their wings, their extra eyes, their horns and halo, and their clothes were gone. Jean and Azure were in their Darkangel and Archangel uniform, the hands slammed them onto the floor and put them in the position they were in before. The same room with the atmosphere frozen in time. Everything is in place and just as it was before they were dragged out of it. They were able to check look around and grasp their situation.

As soon as the black hands let go of them, they had understand where they went wrong the first time they were here. The room was frozen in time as the walls were in the middle of being lowered with the

Once the walls finished lowering they opened fire on Jean and Azure but as the bullets were less than a couple meters away, Jean and Azure immediately jumped out of the way while only getting hit by a few. Although it barely affected them as they regenerated right after.

Jean ran to the wall on the left as Azure charged to the right. As Jean was rushing the soldiers on the left they began to focus their aim on him but as they pulled the trigger Jean pushed himself further left and began running against the wall where they couldn't hit him. The soldiers tried peeking to get better aim but as one of them stepped out of the area, Jean pulled his gun which pulled the soldier as well and when the soldier was close enough, Jean took the pistol off of the soldiers hip and used it to shoot the soldier in the head.

"What are you waiting for? Take the shot" Ryoa said in annoyance.

"I don't have a clear shot on either of them" Lieutenant Jackey said as she moved her aim to Azure.

"It's way over a dozen armed soldiers against two unarmed people aren't your soldiers trained for something worse than this" Ryoa said in frustration.

"They're trained to go up against regular soldiers and ANM terrorists not highly constructed lab subjects who can heal their fucking wounds on command" Lieutenant Jackey said in exasperation.

As Azure pulled a soldier1's gun down, another one came rushing to the side of her about to pull the trigger with the barrel aimed for her head but she immediately reached for whatever weapon that was on soldier1's hip which was a large combat knife. She took it as the soldier opened fire on her. Although the bullet went through her head, she was able to quickly regain consciousness. Azure slit soldier1's wrists then throat before stabbing the other soldier in his temple, she quickly tried to grabbed one of the guns they had on the floor. The soldiers started opening fire on her as she seemed distracted by the guns but as she picked up a gun, she also picked up soldier1's body and used it as a meat shield. Azure started rushing with the corpse acting as if it was a riot shield, she began shooting most of the soldiers in that space as the rest of them tried rushing from the side but bullets started hitting them from the other side of the room.

The bullets were coming from one of the soldiers as Jean grabbed soldier2's arms and redirected his aim while making pull the trigger. Then he broke the soldier's arms, took his gun and fired multiple bullets into his head. Although his arm were still grip hanging onto the gun Jean pointed it to the rest of the soldiers in the space and started shooting. As soon as he killed the last soldier in that space, a bullet grazed his head.

"Fucking hell" Lieutenant Jackey said as she started rushing him with a pistol and knife.

"You missed? Are you nervous" Jean said as he aimed at her.

Just as Jean pulled the trigger Lieutenant Jackey bounced to the left to dodge the bullets before pushing up more. As she got close enough, Jean changed his grip on the gun and swung it as if it was a bat. Lieutenant Jackey ducked and continued to rush towards him while pushing her knife forward to his chest. As Lieutenant Jackey's blade was just a couple inches away from Jean, she glanced up at his face and all she could see through one eye was down the barrel of a gun while the other one was staring at the gun which towered over her like a skyscraper as it was so close to her.

"I had high expectations for her" Ryoa said as he jumped back.

"…" Azure ignored him as she charged forward.

As Azure charged forward, she immediately caught up to him and tried to go for an attack, although Ryoa was able to deflect it and tried to land a kick on her chin. As Ryoa was in the middle of his attack, it seemed like Azure had blacked out from the amount of anger she had for him, Ryoa noticed it and realized she wasn't gonna treat their fight as a friendly and immediately tried to speed up his attack as he couldn't stop the momentum anymore but she blocked it. *Bang* A gunshot from Jean's gun echoed in Ryoa's ear and a second later it felt like his chest sunken and he lost breath.

"Th-there's nothing to fear…. I can't die, she can't die, he can't die…. We're gonna go at it until we make it to the AANM's HQ…. I'm still gonna win… and go back home with my reward…. And my k-ids…." Ryoa thought as he moved back.

Ryoa started jumping back repeatedly until the back of his foot hit something, as he looked down he saw Evelyn's body laying there lifeless and as he looked back at Azure. She was standing in front of him. Azure grabbed his hand and yanked him away from Evelyn's corpse and as he was yanked away he started spinning in circles but he was able to quickly balance himself. Although his vision was a little shaky, he was still able to barely make out anything in his vision.

Although he saw Azure standing still, he heard footsteps getting louder and as he looked to where the footsteps were coming from. Jean was in front of him while in the middle of his attack but Ryoa was able to block the attack, however the force of the punch pushed him back. As Ryoa was able to catch his footing, he felt a blunt pain in his side before being sent crashing into the ground.

[Drausa Castle- the Queen's room, just minutes before Jean and Azure entered the portal]

"They're not even in the same tree, so neither of them are clones. Is it a new skill that they've created?" Sefra asked.

"No that's impossible for a human to create another human out of magic unless it's clones" King Drausa said.

"But clones means they need to have the same magic type and these two don't even share a direct branch" Sefra said.

"Jean and Azure could be some type of relatives to these two generals. They probably used a human preservative to keep them from aging" Celes said.

"Probably but that still wouldn't make sense as the machine itself is a forbidden tool and Truw's recognition magic failed" Queen Drausa said.

"Well hopefully we'll be able to find out when we meet them" King Drausa said as stood up from the bed.

"Your leaving now? You didn't even tell the army or the citizens about this" Queen Drausa said.

"I'll post an announcement before I leave but as usual I'll be leaving you in charge of the kingdom while I'm gone. Come on Sefra, Celes" King Drausa said as he walked to the door.

"…. Huh?" Sefra questioned as he stood up.

"Your taking them? Why? What happens if they come back?" Queen Drausa said.

"They won't. If they're at Aemoura than Fredrick won't let them leave alive neither will those generals. If they're at Retotyo they were most likely forced into laying low" King Drausa said as he grabbed the doorknob.

"And what if they do?" Queen Drausa asked.

"Then they are to immediately come to you and explain their actions. They've cut off their location tracking which means they've either been captured or they've ran away. Celes, Sefra come on just in case your able to reconnect locations, you're going to teleport to them and bring them back to the castle" King Drausa said before he walked out of the room with them leaving Queen Drausa in there by herself.

After King Drausa, Sefra, and Celes left the room, Queen Drausa started going over Jean (Black) and Scarlett's file.

"They look exactly the same, the only difference is being the hair and magic type…. Please come back" Queen Drausa said as she laid back.

When King Drausa walked out of the room he took a green stone from his pocket and crushed it. Then a small wooden room rose from the floor which surrounded King Drausa, Celes, and Sefra. As the room was meters above their head, it closed. The guards bowed as they witnessed the room appear from the ground and they remain bowing as the room started lowering into the floor. Inside the room seemed normal even as the outside of it flattened and vanished. The room rose from a white platform, inside what seemed like a large facility. As the room had finally risen, the roof retracted into the walls as they began to lower into the platform quickly after.

Once Sefra and Celes were able to see the large facility, they realized that the Drausa army was there, looking up to them. The soldiers were separated into 50 groups, each group was split into two lines which had approximately 60,000 thousand soldiers sharing it and two superior soldiers standing in front of each line. The first line had a soldier with a tag that had the letter "G" (General), the second line had a soldier with the letters "LG" (Lieutenant General). The soldiers with the "G" tag had a number next to their letter.

"Welcome back to the 1st base King Drausa, as you can see we've prepared all necessities for the possibility of us joining the war. We're waiting on your orders" General1 said as he bowed his head.

"That's perfect 1st General Iquall, thank you" King Drausa said.

"It was no trouble at all, I'll now be joining the others below" 1st General Iquall said before he teleported.

1st General Iquall teleported to the end of the right side of the army where he stood with his team.

"Good evening to all of you. Before I begin I'd like to apologize for calling you all here so suddenly. I know it was very abrupt and you was probably in the middle of something serious, for that I apologize but I would also like to thank you all as well" King Drausa said as he lowered his head.

The soldiers simultaneously saluted their King, accepting both his apology and gratitude and waited for him to continue.

"I'll only be taking 5 teams with me the rest of you will stay here and protect the country and/or capital from anyone and everyone. And as for those who wish to enter to the country are to be throughly inspected. That includes their mana as well. The teams that will be coming with me were picked before hand but you can opt out if you want, Teams 5, 7, 14, 23, and 28. The rest of you are to head to the entrances and exits, patrol the kingdom's perimeter, the Pulchra Forest, and of course the kingdom itself. If there's anyone resisting the inspection they are to turn back and if they don't intend to cooperate even if it's someone from the Retotyo or the Elkove empirical force them to turn away, do everything as best as you are able to. Any questions before I continue?" King Drausa said before General Mils stepped forward.

"If we're helping them then why would we attack? Do you suspect them to betray you?" General Mils asked.

[Aemoura continent just before King Drausa entered the base]

"Alright that's all, go complete your tasks. Generals 1-9 you stay behind, I still need to talk to all of you" Fredrick said before they could stand up.

As soon as all of the other Generals left and the doors closed Fredrick looked directly into Jean's eyes.

"What?" Jean asked as he stared back at him.

"I have a question for you that I've been meaning to ask you for decades now and depending on your answer, it may or may not affect our main goal. I wanted them here to also act as judges, to have a fair vote" Fredrick said.

"….What is it?" Jean (Black) asked in a doubtful tone.

"Regal is a old friend of mine turned traitor and is also your father and enemy. Do you actually see him as a enemy or is it something else that's driving you to kill him?" Fredrick asked.

"You already know the answer to tha-" Jean said before he was interrupted "Exactly, we already know your answer, that's why we're asking you this question, answer it truthfully" Wyatt said.

"…." Jean stood quiet as he started looking at all of them.

"You won't leave the room until you've answered the question" Ivan said.