Fairy Opera Chapter 19: Ultimar

 

Ultimar

“Null Friscus! Open the portal to darkness!” Muco swept his hand through the air and a gigantic black portal opened up. Purple swirls floated through the blackness. Two horns appeared through the portal’s upper half, followed by the form of a demon the size of a building.

The demon smashed through the market and knelt beside Muco. “Sir. You called me?”

Muco snapped his fingers. “Can you clean this mess up for us? My master’s souls are being stolen.”

The demon was about to say something when a blast of white energy smashed into its head. The demon staggered, and toppled to the ground. The inquisitor who had turned everyone into zombies stepped forward.

“My goodness!” He cackled. “I didn’t expect to find servants of Baphomet here!” He clapped his hands together and a number of large white angelic beasts materialized. They had hundreds of eyes, spread around their bodies, and even on their wings. The sight of them was far more terrifying than the demon with horns.

Muco’s demon roared with rage and blundered towards the angels. It smashed its fist into one of the angels, but the angel’s wings absorbed the energy of the impact. The angel fired off a beam of pure white. The demon screamed as it staggered backwards.

Muco called out to his demon. “Cover us!”

The demon blocked the angels’ line of sight. Muco, Tae, Jak, and myself started running.

“We need to get to the ship!” Jak sprinted alongside me. “And get out of here!”

A wall of zombies blocked our path, so we stopped running and faced it.

Tae took out her sword. “Looks like we’re trapped here.”

“Not yet!” A shadow fell over the road and the Grand Mahogany rose above us. Jastle stood at the ship’s bow. The ship threw down several ropes, and we grabbed on to them. As soon as we were secured the ship changed direction. With a change in the wind, the ship puled us up and away from the island. As we flew away the zombies reached up and grabbed at us, howling in frustration.

The inquisitor, for some reason, did not send his angels after us. The demon that Muco had summoned lowered itself down into a portal and disappeared. I watched the island as we pulled away.

Before long we were out on open sky. Jak and Tae sat down against a bulkhead, breathing heavily. I leaned against the wheel house.

“We really have to stop getting into messes like this.”

Ami came up to me and hugged me. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Yeah.” I wiped sweat from my brow. “So that’s what’s happening. They’re turning entire islands into zombies.”

“And stealing my master’s souls.” Muco crossed his arms. “I wish we had the firepower to stop that inquisitor.”

“Even with that giant demon, we still couldn’t.” Jak looked up. “Those angelic beasts outclassed your demon by a long shot. What were they, by the way?”

Jastle looked out at the island. “They were nilphim. Fallen angels from the realm of light.”

“So the Empire has those beasts on its side.” Jak shuddered.

Jastle shook his head. “They probably have much more than just that. If a low-level inquisitor can summon these, imagine what the higher level inquisitors will be able to summon?”

“What makes you think he was low level?” I stood up and brushed off my pants.

Jastle frowned. “I know because I saw his designation badge. I caught a glimpse of it when we were picking you up. He’s an orange inquisitor.”

“Orange?”

“Inquisitors are ranked according to the rainbow. Apparently it’s reminiscent of the God Emperor’s promise to free mankind.”

“So it goes red-orange-yellow-green-blue-purple?” I was a bit aghast.

“If you say it like that where an inquisitor is in earshot, you could be culled.” Jastle shrugged. “But you’re deep in the mud anyways so it shouldn’t matter.” He stood up. “Captain, your orders. We’re heading for Rebellion territory. Should we continue onwards without restocking at an island along the way? Or should we risk another stop?”

I thought for a moment. “Let’s skip the resupply. We have enough food to make it to Rebellion territory, even though it’s not the best quality.”

Jak and Jastle looked at each other. “Okay.” They went about issuing orders to our sailors. Soon we changed tack and were heading to the east, where the rebellion was.

It took us two weeks of sailing to leave Imperial territory. When we were beyond the borders of the Empire, we relaxed a little bit. There was little chance that an Imperial inquisitor would chase us this far.

About three days after leaving Imperial territory, another ship came within view. They hailed us, and we sailed up next to them. They were a trader ship operating from the country of Illum. They gave us information about the Rebellion, which was headquartered about two day’s sail to the north. We thanked them and then headed for the location.

The island on which the Rebellion was headquartered was about as large as Grand Castle. We hadn’t prepared beforehand or even told the Rebellion that we were coming.

Something seemed wrong. When we approached the island, there were no other ships. The docks were empty. There was no one anywhere. We pulled into the docks and moored to a pier. Jak, myself, Ruby, and Tae left the ship as an away party.

The place was eerily silent. Nothing could be heard. The whole place seemed like it had been totally abandoned. It was a familiar devastation.

“They go to the rebels.” Jak gritted his teeth. “They caught them and killed them all.”

“We’re out of options, then.” I looked around the deserted street. “The Rebellion was supposed to be our savior. We were supposed to join them and attempt to overthrow the Empire.”

“That’s what I imagined as well.” Jak grimaced. “But it looks like the Empire headed us off.” He sat down on a chair that stood in front of a shop.

A man poked his head out from the shop. “Hello.”

Jak jumped, startled. “Ye gods, man. You scared me.” He shook his head. “Who are you? Can you tell me what happened here?”

The man was bald, and had bright blue eyes. He wore a tattered jacket and long, patched pants. “The name’s Allen. This place has been deserted for years. What are you doing here?”

“Do you know what happened to the Rebellion? They were supposed to be headquartered here.”

“They all died. They were purged by the Empire.”

“How long ago?”

“Ah, about six months ago.”

“So that was before we even started this journey.” I was overwhelmed with hopelessness. “We came here for nothing.”

“You know, I hate the Empire as much as you do.” Allen sat down across from Jak. “But I can’t help you start up a new Rebellion. Not when the Empire can crush it just like that.”

“Did you have a part in the Rebellion?”

“Me?” Allen shrugged. “I was the hero who was prophesied to take the Empire down. Somehow I was in the basement of the castle and fell asleep when the attack happened. I woke up and everyone was gone. No bodies, just signs that an epic battle had taken place. I knew it was the Empire because of their arrows.”

“So you’ve been here alone for six months.” I blinked a few times, trying to process what I was hearing. “And you’ve been alone ever since.”

“Yeah, they took all the skyworthy ships.” Allen sighed. “And I’m just about to run out of food, so I’d appreciate it if you took me aboard and brought me home.”

“You do realize that we’re on the run from the Empire?”

“Yeah? You have food though, right?”

“We do.” I sighed. “Okay. Welcome aboard, Allen. I’m the captain here and we’re on a mission to defeat the Empire.”

“A lofty goal that I support.” Allen stood up. “By the way, how did a young fellow like you become captain?”

“Our previous captain, who we lost in a battle with an Imperial cardinal, wanted it that way.” I stood up and clapped Allen on the shoulder. “In any case, we’re going to search this whole island. We need to find supplies. We have food, but it’s pretty nasty stuff at the moment. Just a lot of hard tack and some stale lime juice.”

Allen sighed. “Yeah, I can help you gather whatever food we have left. Everything that could spoil did spoil.”

For the next few hours, we searched the island, looking for food and supplies that we could collect and use. When we were done we piled back onto the Grand Mahogany. In the captain’s quarters, all our leaders were gathered.

“We have two choices.” Jak put his fist on the table. “We can return to the Empire and live as fugitives. Or we can cross the Great Cloud Sea and make it to Illum. I have only heard of two ships that ever managed to pass through the Great Cloud Sea unharmed. Since the Grand Mahogany is a relic ship, I believe we will be able to make it. However, that is not guaranteed. If we instead turn to piracy and living on the run, we could survive for an indefinite period of time. We have the resources. However, I believe that would be the cowardly way to do things.”

One of our sailors came into the captain’s quarters. “I’ve sighted something!”

“Tell us, Yarrow.” Jak turned to him.

“I’ve spotted something. Something huge! Bigger than anything I’ve ever seen before!”

We left the captain’s quarters and looked off at the western horizon. A gigantic ship, made of black metal, broke through the clouds surrounding the Great Cloud Sea. It was flying the Empire’s flag. The ship was massive. Bigger than some sky islands, it drifted towards the Great Cloud Sea. There must have been thousands of cannons on it.

Allen whistled. “Now that’s something I’d never thought I’d see.”

“Do you know what that is?”

“The Empire’s secret weapon. The Ultimar.”

“Why is it here?” I shielded my eyes from the sun, which was glaring off of the ship’s smooth sides.

“I think they intend to invade Illum. A ship like that can just tear through the Great Cloud Sea like it’s paper.” Allen sighed. “Well, that means that a dark age is going to fall over the country of Illum.”

“Is there anything we can do?”

“Against something like that?” Allen shrugged. “I mean, if you want to. But there’s nothing I can imagine that would allow us to stop that thing. There must be tens of thousands of soldiers on that thing. There’s no way.”

Jak and Jastle looked at each other, and then at me. “You’re the captain now.” Jak looked up at the gigantic ship. “You make the decision.”

“That thing. It’s going to be gone from the Empire, right?” I turned to Allen. “You were the prophesied hero. You’re pretty strong, right?”

“Well, I mean, in a normal fight, yeah, I’m pretty strong.”

“Then we’re going to create a new Rebellion. One that won’t lose to the Empire so easily. We’re going to fulfill your prophecy and mine, and then we’re going to save the world from the God Emperor.”

Allen clapped his hands together. “That’s the spirit. I would have given up hope after seeing that thing. By the way, why hasn’t it attacked us?”

“To it, we’re just a tiny merchant ship or something. We’re not worth their time.” Jak lifted his chin. “In any case, this means we’re heading back into Imperial territory. I know a few people who can help us gather the manpower we need to even consider fighting against the Empire.” He turned to the sailor at the helm. “Hard to starboard! We’re headed back!”

The ship listed, and we turned away from the gigantic Ultimar. I knew we would have to face that gigantic superweapon eventually, but for now we had to bide our time.