Funny tale and souvenirs

Color disappeared from John's face as sweat beads rolled on his forehead:

"What do you mean, strings of Fate? What even is this?"

"Oh, sorry, maybe you didn't know it was called like this?" Cain joked. "Or maybe you don't want to talk to strangers? If that's it, my name is Cain. I don't drink, I'm an awesome guy, I like being friend with everybody and I'm the best magician the world has ever known. Oh, and one time I tried to replace my eyedrop with lemon juice, which I now know isn't a good idea"

Cain got up and shrugged with a smile visible on his face:

"There, now you know me. Now, why don't you tell me a bit about you?" he said. "Or better, why don't you let me guess? Hmm, let's see... you don't seem to be someone with heaven-defying abilities, so I only see one reason for you to be able to move the strings, and not much more reasons to do it either"

As if in a nightmare, John was paralysed by awe as Cain approached his mouth from the massive man's ear and whispered some words in it. John didn't thought it possible, but he paled even more.

"Hehe, seeing you're reaction, I guessed right, didn't I? Hehe, I'm such a good magician I can even unravel people's lives and objectives... ehm, logical guesses are also a form of magic... isn't it?" Cain asked before coughing a bit, walking to his mask.

The mask now revealed some small cracks from the monstruous punch John threw earlier, unlike Cain's face which was still unscattered. The latter put it back on anyway:

"But anyway, what I'm trying to say is that I want to be your friend" Cain said. "After all, if my guesses really were right, then we share the same goal. I simply want to work with you to reach it"

He extended his hand in front of John:

"Come on, John, let's be friends and work together" he said. "I know that the Paradise Council isn't what you wish to stop the most. Take my hand, and I'll grant this wish for you"

John looked at his hand for a moment. Was that a betrayal? Was he currently betraying Tyler and Erica? Just this thought was enough for a pang of guilt to pierce his heart.

And yet, after some hesitation, he still chose to take the magician's hand. 

Ordinarily, John would only choose the best solution over his moral and personal feelings. To help Harry get his revenge at Penny's demand, just this once, he decided to make an exception and run after director Arsin.

But that was all it was: an exception. And this time, John actually chose the best solution over his own feelings.

A quote he said to Tyler came to his mind: 'Really, it's funny that humans try so hard to save others, only to better lose themselves'.

'How ironic, not even able to follow my own advice' John thought with a bitter smile.

"So, what's your plan exactly?" he asked Cain. "Even the Paradise Council probably can't do anything about 'this', so how are we gonna do exactly"

"Well, it's a bit long to explain, and we don't really have the time to talk about it in this situation, but if I had to tell you something..." Cain said, letting the suspence build up. "... did you already hear this funny tale about people called the Great Sins?"

.

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Meanwhile, in the hidden hangar where the spatial ship was, Erica was panting, covered in scratches, slight bruises and burnt marks.

"Phew... it was a lot... harder than I thought..." she thought out loud. "Most likely, I would've actually needed the ship if it was one of the strong ones. Don't you agree?"

Say that, she turned to the disfugured corpse of Denin, the last Guardian alive... well, not anymore. He didn't have much injuris over his body, except his head being half-blown up by multiple point-blank shots. His expression wasn't visible anymore because of it, however, by looking attentively, one could see that all of his muscles were tensed up to their maximum: a reaction due to pure fear.

"Oh right, dead people can't talk. Well, I should get going now" she said to the body. "I'd say I won't forget you but it'd be false, sorry sorry, and goodbye"

Without rushing, she entered the spatial ship, familiarizing a minute with the commands. Then, at low speed, she drived it to the edge of the hangar, and made it cross the wall with Fefnir tech: another good thing with the Party Hall was that, even individually, each place inside was tremendously big so, at least in a good part of the rooms, it was possible to travel between them even for such a massive spatial ship. It was probably something planned by director Arsin... which was now working against him. Sometimes, karma actually did its job.

Soon, after going through numerous place, some ravaged by what seemed to have been intense fights and some still intact and as extravagant as before. And when she arrived in what seemed to be a zone filled with multiple pools, that seemed to have been the theater of an intense battle. On the white tiled floor, she saw the body of what must've once been a cyborg, but was now not even looking as it had once been human.

However, Erica paid it almost no attention. Her gaze was focused on the bloodied body that was right beside the cyborg's corpse: even though the person was hard to identify at first sight due to how much blood covered them, she still recognized them eventually: it was none other than Tyler, whom chest was barely moving up and down. Right now, his life was hanging by a thread, it made no doubt.

And yet, instead of worrying, Erica simply smiled as her deep jet black eyes looked at him.

'So he actually managed to beat the head of this planet's Guardians on his own? Such an interesting guy' she thought, smirking as she calmly proceeded to exit the spatial ship, taking an emergency med kit with her. 

'I definitely don't regret John's choice... nor mine'

She started to provide her half-dead companion first aid, not to heal him right away but to put him into a state where he wouldn't die right away if she tried to carry him to the medical installations of the spatial ship.

She barely had the time to finish that she heard heavy steps behind her. Would she have to go through another confrontation? Would she be able to swiftly eliminate her opposant while protecting Tyler? 

But when her gaze turned in the direction where the steps came from, she calmed down:

"Oh, thinking about the devil. It's cool to see you, John, you have just the right timing" she said.

The massive man seemed a bit tired, but he had no visible injury, and seemed to be in a perfectly fine state.

"Uh? What do you mea-" John started to say before seeing the butchered, bloody Tyler. "Tyler! Dammit... how did he end up in this state!?"

Erica didn't answer, rather designating Melia's corpse with her index. John's face filled with pure shock and surprise: did his new friend, an apparently normal person that had no fighting training nor any weapon that could potentially kill a s cyborg, actually managed to kill not only one of the planet's Guardians, but the strongest and most dangerous one at that?

But he seemed to get it, so Erica didn't extend on the topic:

"Anyway, could you help me take him to the ship for a better treatment?" she asked him. "I don't want to put any pressure on you, but I'd say we have approximatively three minutes left before he's beyond saving"

"Yeah... not frightening at all" John grumbled.

He gently carried Tyler in his arms, cautiously walking toward the ship's entry. Erica looked at her watch, that worked the same way as a phone. Happily, it survived the numerous fight she went through this week. Until now and still at the moment, as they were constantly in ennemy territory, the communication frequences were either monitored or scrambled, or both, she found no use for it.

But now she did: she took several pictures of the scene without John noticing it, decided to keep them as souvenirs of their 'eventful' trip on Glactia-62.

Ah, when we'll look back at these, we'll have a good laughter about how we escaped today. Well, it'll probably be funnier for me... heh, even better' she thought.

Then, she stopped messing around and helped John installing Tyler as gently as possible in a modern medical device, letting it work on its own.

"Phew, at least this time I'm happy this bastard Enry Arsin anticipated so much stuff in case something went wrong" John sighed.

"Yep, but personally I'm even happier about the fact he didn't anticipate the current situation" Erica retorted. "Or maybe, who knows, our dear director actually planned all this but was kind enough to give us his spatial ship? 'The great mastermind hidden among the Paradise Council's lackeys', that'd make a good plot twist, wouldn't it? Maybe even a movie..."

"Nah, that's too long for a title"

"What? Oh, come on, we can shorten it and-"

"Ooooor we can get out of the Party Hall, cross the Outergate, escape Glactia-62, lose our potential pursuers, make sure Tyler survive and then talk about this? Please focus Erica, even if the situation got better we won't be able to escape without your full effort"

Erica sighed falsely and then took her place in front of the ship's command:

"Fine, then let's do it" she said.

"That's the Erica I like" John approved as he himself took place in front of the command board of the ship's weaponary.

.

Meanwhile, outside of the Party Hall, the soldiers guarding the terminal were finally starting to see the end of it: multiple breaches, cracks and small holes had appeared across the gigantic surface of the building: the previously rich-looking and luxurious walls of the Hall were now dilapidated. Furthermore, the spot where Eliot had concentrated the major part of his attacks- despite doing his best to not make too much damages- was clearly about to break. It would only be a matter of minutes before they could create a breach, large enough to make whatever they wanted enter it. 

At that time, they would be able to completely bomb it from the inside: the director had already escaped with the special agent a minute ago and gave them the green light to blow it up, they didn't have any reason left to not just destroy everything and swiftly get rid Cifer's terrorists in the process!

But just as they could already feel the sweet taste of victory, enhanced by the bitterness of the ones that fell during the battle, the large breach suddenly got even larger, at an even faster pace than before. The soldiers couldn't help but smile: finally, the great battle of the terminal was about to conclude!

But at this moment, all of their smiles disappeared.

Because, from the breach, a spatial ship had just came out, and started firing back at them with nightmarish precision!

Cifer's terrorists actually managed to successfully get their hand on a spatial ship, and they were now about to cross the Outergate and escape!