Artificial 3: The Valla Chronicles

Chapter 21: Sword Reforged

Day three of the sword being reforged,
I had breakfast with everyone,
my sleep schedule is byond out of whack along with everyone else,
Sora and Chace have been sparring Niel, Terra has been chatting with the Ice Tribe Chief and his two daughters who have been gems to talk to.
I stike up a conversation with Reina and learned a lot more about her the Tribe, etcetera,
I learned that they have a Greek Spartan mindset and that each generation of Flame Tribe Children are raised like ancient Spartans,
children with deformities or they deem can't be of use to the Tribe are left in their desert,
it's cruel,
but I have no say in the matter.
Had I not been friends with Reina, and before the reveal of Brandon's true colors,
I might would of been her enemy,
but at the same time,
though,
Spartans are badasses.

Out of respect for her,
I chose to bend my morale compass just this once.
I tell Reina my story of being a human and the shitty life I've had.
She couldn't relate,
but she could see where my twisted sense of justice came from after I told her my tale.
I asked her to spar me to pass the time, we had loads of fun punching and beating the snot out of each other that you'd think we were real siblings,
every time I power up,
she did as well, I entered Demon Lord form,
she powers up again,
I use a Limit Overdrive,
and she uses her demonic strength.

It was a nice little back and fourth,
but she ended up winning in the end. Reina's Legendary Weapon glows purple and shines brightly for whatever reason, then dies back down,
we went back in and didn't think about it.
The rest of my day,
I spent it reading my Akame Ga Kill volumes 1 through 5.
It was a great read and time killer.
After dinner,
I had a talk with the Ice Tribe Chief.
He was less than thrilled to talk to me, but I attempted peace talk anyway,
I apologized for everything I did to his tribe and apologized that his children followed me,
I wasn't asking for his forgiveness,
but I asked him to indulge me in simple conversation.

"Alright boy, what do you want to know?"
He asks as least grumpy sounding as possible.
"Anything really, history, how the Tribe came to be, how you became Chief, stuff like that." He puts down his book, and I summon Pure Leaf Tea and slide a bottle for him.

"Well, to begin our little tale, we originated from Japan.
Our Tribe started off as pure bread,
but eventually,
humans bread with us.
We kept the title of Artificial Demon despite mostly being pure demons, but the mating season of humans is what earned us the title.
The Pure Bloods of Yomi,
or Japan's Underworld in the human tongue,
chased us out of Japan upon learning this information.
Many died,
and to this day,
we are still hunted down by Pure Blooded hunters or stragglers,
as some would say.

As for how I came to be Chief,
my family has been Chiefs for many centuries,
passing on the job to the first born of each generation,
and if the first born died or........ ahem..... lack of a better word....
was spoiled to entitlement degrees and incapable of running the Tribe,
then the job then fell on the cousin's or second born,
which has been very rare.
Then you have me,
nothing too interesting about me,
I enjoy my tea,
love my children and family, man, but spend an equal amount of time in the office.
Now, if that answers all your questions, I'd like to be left alone, boy."

I sigh,
man.
This old man is grouchy.
"Here, I know this won't make it up to you, but I hope you'll accept it as a none agression agreement, I give you the Legendary Weapon Brynhilde, we agree to get along, or at the very least, tolerate each other."
I pull out the tome and place it on the wooden table.
"Another Legendary Weapon........... in exchange, I tolerate your existence?" I nod.
"Alright, kid, let's be friends."
His Legendary Weapon Staff glows bright blue,
and the Brynhilde glows bright black, we shield our eyes as the glow brightens up the room.
"What in the artic hell was that?"
The old man asks.
"I wish I knew old man."

He corrects once it all dies down.
"Call me Frost, Seth Thompson."
I nod.
"Sure thing."
The next day,
the Temple owner brought the blacksmith and presented the new Anakonos,
or really the new Barack Anakonos.
It maintained some of Barack's original features,
but the cross guard now curves up instead of laying flat.
It still had the snake like engravings in the cross guard.

The handel was replaced with a burgandy color handel,
had a four horned skull demon for a pummel and a blood groove running up the blade.
I examine the sword,
then sheath it by making a new shadow sheath and making extra straps out of shadows to keep it on my back.
"Arigato gozaimasu!"
I bow out of respect to both the blacksmith and the Temple owner,
I feel like since I'm a foreigner and the fact that we spent multiple nights at this place and even trained........ for some reason,
I feel like I wronged their culture,
maybe even their gods?
"There's that voice again! Where are you?!"
I look over my shoulder to see Chace swatting at the air.
I laugh but then get serious.

"Everyone, listen up! We're heading back to South Carolina to Falls Park, Greenville! If any of you have final preparations to make, now is the time! Stock up on food and water, and bring weapons if you have any! We'll be waiting in exactly three days' time once we land. You have our scent, so you'll be able to track us if you miss the deadline, I hope to see you all there!"
Reina, Crystal,
and Flecia salute while Niel and Frost give me a nod.
"Same day, same year, different dance. I wonder if Valla will pull the same stunt as the last time loop? There are so many differences in this one."
Sora now kicks at the air.
"I can't see you, but I can hear you, you invisible bastard!"
I tap my foot against the wooden floor and focus my aura everywhere.
A purple humanish aura becomes visible to my eyes as it floats by my brother and sister.
"Oh, you can see me?~"
The aura floats over to me,
followed by Chace and Sora.
The aura caresses my face,
and I think a purpleish hand formed, I felt like it was trying to say something, but I opted to ignore it,
and we all went home.

July 1st, 2016: The day arrived that we would settle things with Brandon and his pet parasite dragon thing named Valla.
Keiko assembled Frost,
and a small number of willing Yukionas, Reina,
brought the Twin Oni's,
and Niel showed up by himself.
The party was here,
and we gathered at Falls Park in Greenville,
Brandon is a cocky bastard so he left this portal open for us in the spot he died, knowing this the moment we walk through,
we'll be dealing with probably small armies of who knows what,
unfamiliar territory and more.
We cross through the portal one at a time, and what is on the other side took us all by surprise.

"This........ this that place we traveled to on the Ghost Ship......... in between the Afterlife and the Living Realm."
We stood on a floating island surrounded by fields of greenery that go up at angles that's not scientificly possible.
There were woods everywhere you looked,
some old broken fortresses here and there,
a lake even,
the whole thing was just bizzare and unexplainable,
which is funny because anyone would think blasting fireballs and stuff was unexplainable in and of itself.
We begin walking towards the great unknown and towards our future, Brandon Yeets, Valla, I'm coming for your ass!