NOVEL NEXT 761. The Peace Flocks of The 2nd Branch
The sole Knightmare waited in the shadows, quietly shifting through the rubble before suddenly charging a stray Peace Flock member. A pair of great blades cleaved the air with such a force that windows shattered.
The Peace Flock member was no more than a young Elven man that wore a peaked cap, symbolizing their rank as a Captain. He was no taller than the ordinary man. In fact, because of their Elven heritage, they were unbelievably slender.
It was because of this that they were able to twist themselves just in time to avoid the slash of the Knightmare.
“Oh… OH!” The Captain exclaimed as though they had just been snapped out of a trance.
Their Justica Shortarms – the shotgun variant of a Justica Arm – fired point blank against the Knightmare, sending him skidding backwards.
The brick path exploded beneath his hooves. He shoved his blades into the ground to prevent himself from moving backwards any further as his body was covered with bullets. They punctured his flesh but did not fully penetrate it.
This was why it had so much stopping power.
“You’re still alive!?” The Captain exclaimed, tilting their head to the side. Strands of short, blonde hair spilled from their cap. Their emerald eyes pierced into the Knightmare’s red orb.
Somehow, they seemed redder than his own as he hallucinated on his own ‘smoke’. All Memento Mori were capable of producing smoke. When injured, this smoke could be released internally. This was why Memento Mori tended to react strangely when on the brink of death.
It was all a part to maintain their illusion of grandeur till the bitter end.
“I thought they would’ve destroyed the Phylactery of this Heart! It’s not a big Heart of the City, so you must not have one of your own!”
“That little revelation of yours is meaningless, Elven man!”
The Knigthmare moved forward. He used his blades like ice picks to draw closer to the Elf. They were not a Moon or a Star, so even a Knightmare had a chance to destroy them.
Indeed, only one swing could end their life entirely.
The problem here was that the Elf was not alone.
The Elf snapped her fingers as a hail of bullets bombarded the Knightmare from another angle.
“Man? Oh, I guess you’d see it that way.” The Captain hummed.
“Ma’am! Please do not stray away from the group!” A Seci Response Moon arrived at the scene, scooping the Elven ‘man’ into his arms.
“Oh? Oh!?” The Captain squealed with delight, squirming in his arms as they tried to get better look at the Knightmare’s body. “A hundred bullets aren’t enough to completely destroy you! Amazing!”
The Knightmare was not even given another chance to speak. His body suffered an immense amount of damage in such a short amount of time. He was turned into decaying human sponge, yet he was still alive.
Somehow, the Captain and her team seemed oddly… disappointed.
“He doesn’t bleed.” A Peace Flock sighed, planting a boot onto the edge of the Knightmare’s great blade.
“No blood at all.”
“Nope.”
“Drats. Onto another. They don’t even scream.”
Her weight alone did not allow him to lift it. Another joined, and another until 12 Peace Flocks surrounded the Knightmare like curious children, save that these children poked holes into his body.
They tried to bleed him but to no avail.
“Oh!” The Captain clasped onto the face of the Moon, close enough where their noses nearly touched. “To think a Moon would try to act as a knight in shining armor. This is a battlefield, child.”
“Child?” The Moon raised a brow.
“30 years from the smell of your scent.” The Elf implied that she was far older than what her appearance suggested, if 30 years was a mere child to her.
No one would dare to speak to a Moon this way, but for her… no, for the 2nd Branch, it was this thrill that kept them going. It invigorated them with life, and she began huffing the stench of war with deep, labored breaths.
They were not ordinary breaths, as her face flushed a certain shade of red that caused her to be thrown away in disgust like a rag.
“… You’re one of those Elves.”
“’Those Elves’. Arousal doesn’t only come from seeing healthy things. A little bit of blood is all that’s needed… Hmph. Now you don’t want me. Make up your mind. Don’t be so indecisive. Not here of all places. Let your instincts take over. This is war. No one is going to bat an eye.” The Captain nodded at her members as she seductively looked back at the Moon.
“… Unbelievable.” He grumbled.
Each of the Peace Flocks carried a Pawn of their own, mangled to horrific degrees but still very much alive.
“I don’t like how they smell.” One said.
“They’re not worth looking into. Captain. The Vice Captain doesn’t like them.”
“Neither do I.” The Captain sighed.
However, they were not allowed to live as they had no value to the Elves. A single punch was all that was needed to rip them apart. This was because within their sleeves was where a Justica Shortarm was kept hidden like a heavy bracelet.
Anything they punched would be annihilated by their point-blank shotguns.
“Now then, horseman of the apocalypse.” The Captain reached up to grasp the skeletal face of the Knightmare. “Mind telling me why you’re all the way here in the 1st Branch’s territory? No? Hello? Oh. Oh~!”
“Captain?”
“The smoke. He’s fuming. Hm. I’d love a rematch. You had an exciting way of fighting back!”
“Captain.” This time, the voice came from the Moon. They held out a lance made from jewels and held it against the Captain’s back.
She purposefully leaned against it, allowing a part of the blade to cut her.
“Fine. Bring in the Black Moon.” The Captain sighed, releasing the Knightmare before she paced towards the Moon. “Now I’ll have to spend aaaaaaaallll my money at H7 again. All thanks to you. You don’t leave an Elf with bloodlust untreated. It’s nothing like ordinary lust, but lust can help it. You can help me right now. Or all of us, if you’d like.”
She pulled the collar of her coat slightly to give the Moon a peak of her small, perky hills.
The Moon silently walked away, unable to come to terms with the fact that these were his allies.
He tapped on the shoulders of his Aspiring Moons and coldly said:
“Let this be a test for you. Resist their allure if you want to graduate into a Moon. Otherwise, a Healer might not be able to heal what you’ll lose to them.”
“Y-Yes Master!”
The Elves of the 2nd Branch were indeed ‘those’ kinds of Elves. The Elves that worshipped Mythra, the Goddess of love and lust – otherwise known as the Abyssal Mother. As a result, they were in constant state of heat and sought every opportunity to explore the limits of pleasure.
However, the 2nd Branch were able to transform that arousal into pure bloodlust, making them into one of Elysia’s most feared organizations.
It was easy to see why there was so much grievance from the City of Spades Massacre.
This was but only one of 50 squads of 20 members. The Moon hoped that he wasn’t the only one just realizing how promiscuous their teammates were. It never came to their mind that this was a possibility.
After all, the 2nd Branch was an elusive group that were mostly known for their brutality in stories.
How would the world react if they found out they were just hyper horny Elves?
Either way, it didn’t change that they were the crème of the crop of their jobs, beaten by only the Blood Moons of Scarlet Logic on the virtue of them being Moons and their Replication Cycles.
ImpulseWorks’ Workers were also on the same level, albeit they weren’t an official military force. For this reason, the 2nd Branch was seen as the strongest Atelier military force.
But with Caldera Industries and Inflow Direct reverting to their old-war states, that was destined to change.
They pushed on further into Northern Grandis like an unstoppable horde. The black forest marched on. Hearts fell as Phylacteries in the form of strange mementos, such as pendants, were destroyed in supporting Justica Starfall bombardments.
Soon enough, more than 45 kilometers was taken into their possession.
And in the horizon, they saw the great walls of a complex where an unnaturally bright, green light shone. It was nothing compared to the light where Primus Ramus was in the great distance, but even so, it was a light that Jury immediately recognized.
It was a Luminescence of the Maestros of Flesh.
