Chapter 27: Ch67. Same fight - 4
"But you still haven’t told us how is it that mankind didn’t love three hundred years with the threat of the Nests." Octavius spoke, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"Because the Kha’Ur isn’t dead, it only split itself into various smaller parts. It’s still very much alive, and it can change the memories of everything it touches, leading it to believe whatever the Kha’Ur wants them to believe."
The atmosphere was dark and heavy around the room.
"So it means that..."
"The... Kha’Ur has been toying with our minds, to make us think we’re powerful enough to fight against the Beasts, when in truth we’re just..."
Rhegal listened to them speaking, but when Octavius stopped, he understood that mankind was too arrogant to accept its own weakness and powerlessness.
"Yes." Rhegal completed. "We’re nothing but powerless individuals trying to win a losing war against a god-like entity in the shape of a planet. But if what I’ve seen is right, even though the gears of Fate has brought you to me earlier than expected, there might be a way for us to actually fight back."
<Beep>
A device in Rhegal’s wrist beeped.
It appeared to be very similar to the humans’ holowatches, but different in many aspects but the visual.
"Commander Rhegal speaking." Rhegal said.
What appeared when he answered the call was an entire holographic image of a being just like him, only with black scales and dark, red eyes.
The image was so clear that it felt like the other person was actually in the room with them.
<Commander... The host has woken up, and it’s... I can’t tell you exactly what it is, but the host feels and looks different than the others.>
"Did you kill it?"
"Wait! Have you killed other hosts before?" Xander interrupted, but Octavius brought his finger to his lips, making the young man shut up.
And after a few seconds of silence, the Ishir in the holographic image answered.
<No...>
Rhegal hit the glass table with his strong fist, leaving a small crack in it.
"Are you telling me that you couldn’t take down a host that just had woken up?"
<It had sharp senses, Commander. And its sense of combat was quite high for someone who had just woken up as a host. It took me some time to fix my Chronoreader so I could contact you. And...>
"There’s more...?"
Octavius heard Rhegal’s words, recalling his exact same reaction earlier in that night, when Erick had told him about the distortion.
’Commanders are commanders no matter where you are in the universe, I guess...’ He chuckled internally.
<He almost ripped my hand off.>
"THIS IS JUST A KID WE’RE TALKING ABOUT! AND IT’S JUST WOKEN UP FROM A COMA, ONLY NOW BEING AWAKENED AS KHA’UR’S HOST! HOW CAN A CHILD BE SO STRONG?!?"
Octavius’ eyes widened.
"A kid... Who woke up from a coma...?"
The whole conversation took him away from the thoughts of his son and his wife, but when Rhegal spoke those words, the world came crashing down on him.
"Wait..." He said.
"Stay put and stay hidden, Zaval. I’ll get back to you with new orders as soon as possible!"
<Commander.> Zaval saluted Rhegal and ended the call.
"What is it, Octavius?" He addressed the Guardian’s Commander.
"You said it was only a child, and that he woke up from a coma... Then..." Octavius started overflowing with a dark, golden energy. "Are you after my son...?"
Rhegal looked at Octavius with a hairless brow raised.
"The Kha’Ur keeps us from knowing the identity of the host, so if it’s your son we’re talking about, all I can ask you is... What have you done...?"
Octavius’ rage suddenly subsided and his hands began to shake.
"Commander...?" Xander looked at him, eyes shaking.
"I thought it was a lucky charm... That it would give us hope and that with it, Kurt would wake up sooner..." His hands shook and his shoulders fell. "I JUST WANTED MY SON WITH ME!"
Rhegal was silent, looking at him with a stoic expression.
Octavius glared at the Ishir as if he was measuring the human from head to toe.
"If you’re a father, than you should know how it feels to feel like you’ve lost a son and want him back more than anything in the world... You’re even-"
"You’re even capable of selling your soul to the devil if you believe in him." Rhegal’s words took Octavius by surprise. "Yes, I know the feeling. But you should know better than-"
"SHOULD I?" Octavius yelled, punching the table with his gauntlet, and the dark golden energy that irradiated from it made the table crack more and more, until it shattered completely. "YOU SAID IT YOURSELF! THAT DAMN THING HAS BEEN PLAYING WITH OUR MINDS THIS ENTIRE TIME, SO HOW THE HELL WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW BETTER THAN TO GOVE A PIECE OF IT TO MY SON...? ALL I WANTED WAS HOPE!"
Xander was quiet, trying to fight back the tears that were forcing a way out of his eyes.
He thought that his life could’ve been a bit different. A bit better, if he had a father like Octavius. And he knew that his Commander didn’t only lose one son.
He heard of the story of how Quintus became too arrogant that he decided to enter an A+ Nest by himself and lost his life there.
The attack squad and the scouting division couldn’t even retrieve his body, and the Nest closed forever after Octavius killed the mother Beast with his own hands.
Nobody in the guild had ever seen their commander like that.
And all Xander could think of it while seeing his Commander’s blank rage first hand was how good it’d be to have a father that cared so much about him like that.
But then, Octavius unsheathed his sword, looking at Rhegal with golden light oozing out his eyes.
"I won’t let you lay a single finger on my son, even if I have to die for it..."
Rhegal blinked several times, looking from Octavius to Xander and to the former again.
"I don’t think you understand the predicament here, Octavius..."
"No. I think ’you’ don’t understand the situation." The Commander of Guardian guild spoke through greeted teeth. "I refuse to believe that my son became some kind of monstrosity with the power to destroy our universe. I refuse to believe that MY SON became evil in some manner." And after a brief pause, Octavius lowered his sword to an attack position. "And if you decide to go on with your campaign against Kha’Ur or whatever its name is, and decide to make my son your enemy..." His sword began emitting an even stronger glow. "Than you’ll make an enemy out of me."
***
Outside the hospital, Chief Leblanc waited, apprehensively, for Octavius’ attack group to return from that Nest.
"How much longer do you think they’ll take?" He asked one of the analysis group members.
"Sir... Maybe you need a coffee, or something to calm your nerves. You know we have no way of knowing how long it takes a wielder to finish an unknown Nest. Especially one with readings as strange as these..."
"Right... You’re right." Leblanc sighed heavily. "I’m going to check on things inside the hospital. If anything out of the ordinary happens so far, notify me immediately, okay?"
The scientist nodded.
As he took a step towards the hospital, however, Leblanc saw, through his peripheral vision, something moving, leaving the hospital.
But when he looked directly in the direction of movement, there was nothing.
"Heavens... I think I really need a coffee..."
