Sealed Freedom

As to be expected, the well-planned Ourias had contingencies in place for such an outcome. He was never truly defenseless. A cement wall formed from the air to block the beam. Scorch marks and smoke appeared as the only results. “You know I have defenses setup. Such attacks are pointless.”

Smiling, she didn’t let it deter her. “Of course, I need to run through all of your defenses. You can do nothing while I burn through all of your back-up plans.” The light from the orb, in front of her palm, grew brighter preparing for another shot. Hexagonal discs appeared in front of varying thickness and opacity. When the energy fired, it passed through the discs becoming brighter and thinner. It focused the energy.

The beam pierced the wall without being stopped for a moment. Multiple more defenses appeared in different forms to stop Sumiko’s attack. However, when it seemed to stop, another hex slid, focusing the beam further. Nothing stood in its way. Everything was torn asunder.

“The white beam lost its light, becoming nothing but harmless unfocused rays.” He spoke, but his defenses still fell. ‘She really has somehow neutralized my power. What did she do?’ Everything seemed right, but reality didn’t lie. His power no longer worked. ‘I still have everything I set up prior to the fight, but anything new can’t be created.’

“I told you before. You can do nothing. I’ve sealed your speech.”

Ourias felt the cornering presence from Sumiko. She somehow figured out a way through his power. “How’d you do it? No one’s been able to do that.”

“That’s only because you fight your own kind. This is only something that someone like me would be able to achieve.” She saw the confusion in his eyes. “You can’t hear it? I guess it is different hearing your voice as opposed to hearing someone else’s voice.”

“What?” He had the clues handed to him, but it still didn’t make a lot of sense to him. Ourias sorted through her hints. ‘I should be able to hear it? My voice? There’s nothing wrong with my voice…it’s the same as…always…’ Something came to him. He stared across the Field at Sumiko. The realization of what she might be meaning hit him. The weight of the truth felt like it would crush him. “Impossible…you…”

“You figured it out. I knew you could do it.” Sumiko lifted her hand. A disc appeared floating at her fingertips. “It was the first attempt I made. It actually surprised me that you made it that simple. Your power works from registering your voice. Naturally, you can’t have others controlling it, so it’s tuned specifically to you. Because it is tuned to you, a slight change in your voice is enough to throw it off and not accept what you say.”

“But when and how?”

“I’ve been testing your defenses the whole time. Back with golem. I learned your defenses don’t react to non-hostile invasion. A flaw in your defense is assuming I’d only use attacks.” The disc bounced in her palm bringing attention to it. “A couple of tweaks and this can easily become a filter rather than a shield.” She pointed over to him as a faint shine coming from one of the discs embedded in his neck.

A new beam began charging in front of Sumiko ready for the final strike. “As I said before, this is where things end.”

Chapter 245 – Sealed Freedom

The white line flew across the Field straight for Ourias. However, a barrier erected around him. It held against Sumiko’s attack. She continued to focus the beam, but never made any progress. Shutting down her attack, she regrouped. “You made it indestructible, didn’t you?”

“A final defense. It’s my duty to protect the Capital. No matter the means.”

Suddenly, discs started to fly away from Sumiko over towards Ourias. They pieced together a barrier around him. “It’s not as direct, but this will have to do.”

Ourias looked around not sure what she planned. ‘She can’t penetrate my defense, what’s with the barrier?’ Nothing offensive happened. His defense remained silent. He looked around trying to understand it. It still didn’t make a lot of sense. He knew she did something to him.

Then he felt a little strange. His breathing came shallow, almost strained. Looking over at Sumiko, he finally knew. ‘You’ve sealed me inside your barrier preventing oxygen from entering. You’re planning on winning by suffocating me!’ Ourias walked towards the barrier. It was solid with no hopes of him breaking it.

All around tiny lights appeared. They surrounded him just waiting for him to make an action. ‘You plan to take me immediately if I drop my Field to try to rewrite it. I’m out of options…’

“What are you doing?” asked a young voice. He wasn’t familiar with it, but it was clearly a woman. Ourias lowered the pad of paper, one he stared at for the last several hours. Lying down, he saw the face of the most beautiful woman he had ever seen painted with a perfect sky as her background. She stared down at him very curious to the reason he laid in the middle of the park.

He lifted himself up quickly, feeling compelled. The pad fell down to his side. “Just reviewing some notes.”

“Notes?” She drew back her golden hair to keep it out of her eyes. “Are you a student?” The woman knelt down next to him. Her curiosity still seemed strong. It wasn’t the first time she saw him in the park.

Waving his hand, he corrected her. “Nothing like that. I don’t have the money to attend the University.” It was probably more than he needed to say. However, it didn't seem to sway her. She wanted to know. ‘Is she interested in me?’ Ourias looked surprised. A bit of red bleed into his face. “It’s a story I’m working on.”

It seemed to intrigue her even more. His embarrassment did nothing. “You’re a novelist?”

“Well amateur novelist is probably more accurate. I haven’t published anything.”

“But you’re going to?”

“That’s my dream!”

She sat down completely drawn in by him. “Can I read what you have?”

Nervousness immediately popped up through all of Ourias’ body. Sweat started to pour out. He never had anyone read what he wrote. He couldn’t imagine it. “W-well it’s not really very coherent right now. It’s just a bunch of random scribbles.” Ourias tried his best to dissuade her.

“Oh? That’s too bad…” The woman stood, suddenly looking to have lost her interest. She started to walk away leaving Ourias stunned at the reversal. Then she paused and tilted her head back to him. “What’s your name?”

“Huh?”

“So that I know who to look for when you publish your book.”

If his jaw could hit the grass, it would have. Ourias froze up. The longer she stared at him, smiling, warming the more he thawed. “Ourias!” He finally managed.

“Ourias…I’ll remember that.” She resumed walking away.

He scrambled to his feet trying to chase after her. “What’s your name?!” he shouted through the whole park, immediately regretting the attention. “If I may ask.” His voice softened up.

“Dione.”

“…Dione…”

A fire suddenly consumed everything around her. It all faded away. It was the house, their house. It was on fire. Ourias leapt out of their bed. The baby cried next to him with Dione slowly waking up. ‘What’s going on?’ He rushed over to Dione, helping her with the baby. “We’ve got to get out of here!”

She looked around their house. Flames covered everything. There didn’t seem to be any way out. “What’s happening? Where’d this fire come from?”

“I don’t know, but we have to hurry!”

Suddenly, something hit their door. It made them jump back. The door crumbled with a body falling with it. In the distance, a voice screamed, one that wasn’t familiar. Yet the scene before him felt like something he saw before. Ourias looked over at Dione. “I-I…”

“This is a scene…from your story.” She knew just as quickly as him. It should be easily remembered as it was in the first chapter of his story.

Then as though never existing, it all vanished from sight. Everything returned to normal. They both knew immediately what it meant. Their first reaction was to look at their child, but it was impossible. The only remaining answer came to them. It only took a few more incidents for them to be certain.

A heavy knock came to their door. No one answered. It all happened too fast for them.

Their house disappeared. It was the military. In the corner, Ourias huddled with his wife and child. Nowhere remained to run.

Ourias stretched her arm out as they dragged him away. “Dione! Dione!”

She tried to run after him, but they stopped her. “Ourias!”

“I’ll return to you! I promise!”

He walked into the classroom with a gloomy shadow over his whole body. Most of the room had kids in it. The only adult made him stand out and it wasn’t for his actions. The nosy kid next to him perked up. “Back from solitary?”

“Yeah,” he replied with no further details.

“You know that’s going to happen if you keep trying to escape.” Ourias remained silent, uninterested in something from a fourteen year-old know-it-all. “This is your new home, better get used to it. No one escapes.”

‘It’s not going to stop me.’

He marched down the hall to the Academy Commander’s office. He slammed his hands down on the secretary’s desk. Ourias glared at the young Lieutenant, he was just a normal human. “I want to talk to the Commander, right now!”

The young man was a little shaken by Ourias’ presence. “What is it that you want?”

“I want to know why you aren’t delivering my letters! You won’t let me leave, but I should at least be able to send a letter!”

“I’m sorry, but Academy policy is—“

“Your policy be damned!” The door to the Commander’s office slowly opened. The man behind it appeared, drawn by the noise. He glared across the room at Ourias, not intimidated.

Another failure.

“The only way to change things is at the top.”

“I know.”

“You can’t do anything from the bottom.”

“I know.”

“It’s pointless, just accept reality.”

“You seem interesting,” a woman’s voice said from the darkness.

Ourias looked up to see Commander Rheia staring at him. Her presence and notoriety were enough to make him take a step back. ‘What does she want? Does she want to fight me? I only just recently joined Omega.’

Rheia stretched out her hand to him. “Want to be a Titan?”

“Huh?” He stared at her in disbelief. It wasn’t something that was so easily passed around. Even if she was the Commander of the Titans.

Ourias laid on the grass, the last of his air leaving his body. He could see the blue sky above staring back. ‘Dione…I promise…’ His eyes slowly closed, no longer able to keep conscious.

Everything ended quickly at that moment. Sumiko landed on the ground. The barrier faded away. The red in her hair began to fade away as well as the green in her eyes. “This is as far as I take you. Anymore, you have to do it on your own.”

Yumi’s consciousness slammed back into her body. She darted her head around, understanding quickly things weren’t right. The man she challenged laid at her feet. “It happened again…” It didn’t take long for her to realize the sword was missing and everything about her body felt different once more. She had a thousand questions to ask, but no one to answer them.

Before she could think much more about her situation, she heard Yori’s voice inside her head. “Please hear me, everyone! You must listen!”

“Yori?! How are you in my head?”

“Everyone please stop with the questions…I barely have any strength, just listen… I know the truth finally. I know what Ayumi’s goal is.” The sudden reveal made Yumi freeze in her steps. She would finally have the answer to the biggest question they all had. The mystery behind Ayumi. Her motive. Yumi wanted to know immediately, but Yori seemed to be straining himself. “He’s in danger. If Ayumi succeeds in her plan. Yuki Hayashi will die!”

‘Ayumi’s going to kill Yuki?’ The revelation stunned her. She couldn’t react. The world disappeared. Nearby, she could see Yuki walking away with Ayumi pulling him. She stretched out her hand trying to stop him. She tried to shout at him, but her voice was gone. She was helpless.

Yori’s voice snapped her back to reality. ‘Why? How? What did you learn?’

“The truth is…”

Yumi listened to everything Yori said. Her hands lifted up to her mouth as each moment left her more shocked than the last. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “How can that be?! All this time…” Yumi turned her head towards the Capital, where Ayumi and Yuki had to be. “…Ayumi…you planned all of this knowing that? Ayumi…” Yumi hung her head down, most of her face disappearing beneath the shadows.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed her ankle. It snapped her out of her own world to stare below her. Ourias stared up at her with fierce determination. “I won’t lose… I made a promise…”

A wind suddenly blew out from Yumi. The area around her eyes turned dark as night. Severe lines carved into her face. An intensity not seen before shined from behind her eyes. “You cannot stop me,” she uttered in a grave tone. “Ayumi… Not even hell itself will stand in my way! AYUMI!”