Dear RRL readers,

After completing the first draft, I went back and decided to rewrite the last hundred pages, essentially from Chapter 17 onwards.

The reason is that I'm unsatisfied with the ending to this book. I feel like some elements were advanced too quickly, such as Caprice's antagonism exploding into violence, and Klaus Shepherd's reveal.

The Enforcers decision to enact Martial Law wasn't supposed to happen yet.

Overall, it wasn't how I'd planned to end this book, but I took a wrong turn and didn't turn back until I reached the end and drove off the cliff like Thelma and Louise.

So I'm posting the alternate ending here, and hopefully when complete, readers can tell me which one they prefer.

Mind you, this ending is a little longer than the previous one...I think.

However, this ending should make it easier to slip into Book Three, "Pride X Maidens ReVamp".

Thank you for your time.

_______________

Simkin452

Chapter 17.

(Caelum)

#

School Week Five. Thursday. Late Evening.

Sparring with Kaleb was a different experience to sparring with the girls.

Even with the Kaiser’s Skin-Regalia enhancing my strength, speed, and mobility beyond that of my skinsuit, it was a struggle to keep up with the man. Foolishly, I’d expected to face him in his skinsuit. Instead, I experienced a punishing training session at the hands of Kaleb dressed in a Skin-Regalia of his own.

That surprised me because during my sister’s invasion of the Academy, Kaleb had worn a skinsuit to augment his mobility and strength. I was also quite surprised to learn he was bonded to a Dragoon Class Fragment known as a Cuirassier. Putting two-and-two together, I reasoned he was also in the process of unlocking of his Fragment. However, when I asked him about it, Kaleb told me to ask him another time, perhaps after I’d unlocked the Kämpfer form of the Kaiser’s Blessing.

So why was he using a Fragment and not an Artifact?

After all, wasn’t he a former instructor for the Sanctum?

I had the impression the reason he was down to a Fragment had something to do with my sister. It also gave me the impression he resented her for it, though he probably had more reason to resent the Sanctum.

Maybe I could ask Lidia to look into Kaleb’s background and circumstances.

That thought reminded me of my appointment with Arisa this coming Sunday.

I chose to save that thought for later.

As I was saying, training against Kaleb was a different ballgame and I found myself struggling to keep up with him. His was a faster pace than either Maya or Rina’s, so I felt like I was sprinting the whole time. And then somewhere along the way, as I reached my limit and chose to push beyond it, something shifted within the Kaiser’s Blessing.

Something broke away from inside the Fragment.

Distracted by the inward sensation, I failed to block Kaleb’s lance and left myself open to his attack. The lance speared through my Skin-Regalia’s barrier-fields, and came to a stop a mere inch from my body.

Before me, Kaleb wore an expression of surprise and shock.

When I looked down, I saw that I’d taken hold of the lance’s blade, my armored left hand wrapped in a glove composed of tiny barrier-fields that crinkled, shattered, and reformed with every breath I took.

Impossibly, I had stopped the blade of his lance before it touched my abdomen by grabbing onto it.

It was nothing more than a reflex reaction, but the Kaiser’s Blessing had given it its blessing…so to speak.

Abruptly, my mind kicked back into gear, and with a solid grip on the lance’s blade, I tossed it back.

It was no more than the simple movement of my arm, but it flung Kaleb back a good twenty feet. He landed well enough, his agile footwork keeping him upright and in a battle stance within a heartbeat of touching ground.

However, while his body had reacted as per its training, the same couldn’t be said about his mind.

For a short while longer he remained still and stunned, before breaking into a hungry grin.

“Finally taking this seriously, Desanto.”

I swallowed, not quite understanding, but dropping into a combat stance with one Gauntlet blade in an offensive guard, the other in a defensive posture.

Kaleb narrowed his eyes. “Well then…let’s see what you can do now—”

He leapt toward me, low and blindingly fast, before finishing his sentence.

Overclocked, I watched him fly toward me for a half second, before countering his attack with one of mine.

The best offense being the best defense.

With his lance, Kaleb had reach, but I had power on my side.

Deflecting the lance slightly with the back of one blade, I twisted my body to allow it to pass by me, then slashed at him with my right Gauntlet blade.

Kaleb used the length of the lance’s staff to block my attack, though his defensive barrier-fields shattered nearly instantly in the process. However, he chose not to retreat. Instead, he pressed the attack.

From then on, it was a matter of striking, slashing, and thrusting at each other with weapons sheathed in piercer-fields and protected by barrier-fields.

As time went on, I grew more accustomed to his technique, and was better able to counter his thrusting lance. In time, I was able to deflect and sidestep his attacks with less wasted movement and energy on my part, allowing me to move from defensive to offensive guards and attacks with greater fluidity.

Oddly, I felt as though my speed had gone up.

I saw my body move without the lag that gave me the impression of moving underwater.

In other words, despite my Overclocked state, my limbs moved almost normally as though in real-time, implying my movements had trebled in speed.

I was so surprised by this realization, I almost missed the obvious that Kaleb had been repeating his attacks for my benefit.

He was training me to learn to counter a ranged weapon such as his lance, by engaging in the same attack until I grew accustomed to defending and countering it. When he was satisfied with my response, he would switch to a different attack, and allow me to develop a counter against it. I sensed he was guiding me, urging me to move a certain way that work best against his lance.

This is where I was surprised the most because very attack Kaleb threw at me I intrinsically knew how to defend against.

What is this feeling? What is happening to me?

It was as though the knowledge was within me the whole time. However, since that was impossible, I believed that combat knowledge was coming from the Kaiser’s Blessing. Again, I was reminded of my battle with Celica in the Vault Chamber, and how the Kaiser had improved my ability to fight. However, back then it had turned me into a monster, a raging beast, that was all power and very little control. This time, the ghost in the Kaiser’s Blessing was keeping the beast leashed. But little by little, the longer I fought Kaleb, the more I sensed losing myself to the ghost. Soon, I found myself struggling against Kaleb and the ghost, and I started to falter on both fronts.

Yet through it all, I felt more and more pieces of the seal around the Kaiser’s Core begin to break and fall away.

All I needed was a little push.

All I needed was something to drive me further, to push my emotions higher, to overcome the ghost, and I was certain I could break the seal.

The Kämpfer form was so close I could feel it on the other side of the seal.

I could sense it waiting for me, and my desire to break through the seal grew with each strike, each deflection, and each parry I executed against Kaleb and his lance.

I pushed my body harder, and then pushed my will into the seal.

I wanted it broken.

I wanted to break it now.

At that moment, just as I struck Kaleb’s bladed lance with enough force to send him spinning away, something changed within the Core Awareness, and my consciousness was yanked inwards into the Kaiser’s Blessing.

In my mind, the image I saw of the seal was like a massive white wall with an ornate, elaborate circular gate made of brilliant ivory like stone. In a heartbeat, that ivory gate became translucent, and I saw the silhouette of a girl standing on the other side. She was slender, and she looked to be wearing a resplendent white dress like a princess from a fairytale.

She turned to me from behind the seal, and though I couldn’t discern her features very well, I caught her smile through the translucent gate.

It can’t be? Why is she here?

For a fleeting moment, I felt I recognized her and the shock made my heart skip several beats.

She turned away, moving away from the wall and thus the Seal – moving away from me.

I felt something slide over, into me, and seep into my consciousness.

I felt the presence of the ghost in my body and mind.

As her silhouette grew dim, fading into the brightness that lay beyond the seal, I slammed my will into the ivory wall.

Break.

It held, and I slammed at it again.

Break!

Again, I struck it, putting more and more of my will behind each blow, fracturing and cratering the wall and gate. Each strike grew more painful, but my need to break the seal, to reach out for her before she faded completely from view, continued to mount, building up into a frantic despair.

Try as I might, no matter how much of the seal I shattered with each blow, I couldn’t break through.

I felt my will break, and my blows grew weaker until I had nothing to throw at the seal but my hoarse cries.

Looking up, I caught a last glimpse of her lithe, willowy form, and then she was gone.

No.

The hurt in my heart grew unbearable.

Don’t go.

I gathered my will.

Don’t leave me.

Clenched into a fist, I raised it high.

Don’t leave me again.

On my feet, I stood before the seal, and wound my body as I drew back my will.

Don’t ever leave me again!

I struck the seal one last time, shattering my balled up will.

Galatea!

Depleted of strength, my consciousness – my awareness – collapsed to its knees.

I had failed.

Again, I had failed to keep from leaving me.

As despair welled up inside me, a creaking noise reached my awareness, and I looked up at the seal.

The circular ivory gate cracked…and exploded into me.

A roaring wind swept me away, and my vision turned cloudy. Unable to see, I had the impression I was flying uncontrollably through the air, until I crashed into something immovable that felt as hard as solid ground.

I rolled onto my hands and knees, and stared in disbelief at my limbs.

My body? It’s here?

The Kaiser’s Blessing surrounded me, enveloping me in the Skin-Regalia and armor. The Gauntlet-Blades had folded back to keep out of the way.

Unable to shelve my confusion, I looked up around me.

What’s going on? Where am I? Is this the domain of the Core Awareness?

A blizzard raged around me, sweeping away my senses, yet somehow I perceived the direction of the shattered gate.

Galatea….

She was there, somewhere beyond the wall.

Picking myself up, I pushed through the storm with a strength born of desperation.

Galatea…I won’t let you leave me…not again….

#

(Caprice)

#

“Emergency in Cavern One! We need support!”

I looked up at the rock ceiling as the urgent request boomed into the interior of Cavern Three.

Cavern One was where Caelum and Deneve were training, so my heart immediately jumped at the frantic female voice, probably coming from one of the girls in the observation room.

The girl’s next announcement sounded more desperate.

“Instructor Deneve is under threat! I repeat—Instructor Deneve is under threat! He needs backup. Someone get in there!”

For a heartbeat, all but one thought fled my mind: Something’s happened to Caelum.

My sparring partner, Nicola Weinberg, muttered a curse while standing a few meters away, clad in her white Skin-Regalia and Siren Maiden. The katana gripped by her right hand glowed a warm orange, but I could see it darken toward crimson as she turned her body away from me, and leapt for a cavern wall a heartbeat later.

“Open the connecting tunnel,” she yelled. “Do it--hurry!”

I turned and followed her, leaping in her wake. Ahead of her, I saw a portion of the training cavern wall split and part aside like a curtain of rock. It revealed an opening and tunnel several meters wide. At sight of it, I tried picking up my pace, but Weinberg outdistanced me with ease.

Noticing that I was following her, Weinberg yelled at me over her left shoulder. “Steiner, stay here. That’s an order!”

I quickly landed on my armored, tapered feet, and came to a fast halt, tortured by my desire to follow her as I watched her fly low into the tunnel and vanish from sight.

While it sounded like Kaleb was in trouble, he wasn’t my concern.

I was worried for Caelum, and no one else.

It was clear to me that something had happened to him, perhaps it related to the breaking of the Kämpfer’s seal. However, it was only a suspicion, and not a certainty. Nonetheless, it was enough for me to teeter on the brink of disobeying Weinberg’s order.

Then I heard a new voice, that of Principal Mason, resound through the cavern air.

“Caelum Desanto—stand down! I say again, stand down! Desanto, stop! That’s an order!”

The connecting tunnel between training caverns was still open.

I hesitated for less than a heartbeat before jumping low and fast after Weinberg, orders be damned.

Something had happened to Caelum, and I wasn’t going to stand here in the middle of the cavern and do nothing to help him.

#

(Caelum)

#

As fast as I could manage, I crossed through the remains of the smashed gate and past the wall into a desolate, snow lashed landscape painted in white and shaded in pale greys.

In the distance, a bleak light pulsated regularly, strong enough to be visible through the storm, sweeping across the snow dunes like the beam from a lighthouse.

Ahead of me, there was something in the blizzard – something large and white that darted about in my field of vision as it came closer.

I ran onwards, bracing against the storm as I raced over the snow covered landscape.

The large bulk veiled by the blizzard charged at me, and I saw something glint in the air before me..

A blade? No, a lance!

Raising my arms defensively, I felt the bladed lance collide with my Gauntlet-Blades that had swung forward.

What the Hell are you?

It darted back, moving with surprising speed for something so large, its silhouette fading in and out, curtained by the blizzard.

Damn it. Not now. Don’t get in my way!

Galatea was somewhere ahead of me. I was certain she had run toward the slow pulsating light in the distance. In this blizzard she couldn’t have gone far.

I would find her. I would catch her. And I would bring her home. I would not fail—not again.

But first I had to deal with his snow white opponent – a barely distinct collection of arms and legs – an abominable snowman wielding a massive lance in large hands fit for a goliath.

I parried the flashing lance with my Gauntlet-Blades, deflecting them, and sidestepped the next attack, though my movements were dulled by the snowstorm blasting all around me, chilling me to the bone. My opponent charged at me, and I succeeded in knocking it aside with some deft blade work of my own, and raw strength that surprised me.

Through the storm, something else moved.

A slender, almost fragile shape cutting a path over a steep rise.

Galatea!

The slender shadow disappeared from view but I had its bearing.

Taking the opportunity, I rushed after her, travelling many meters before the snowman attacked me from behind. The blow it delivered sent me rolling over a snow dune.

When my tumble came to a stop, I peered through the blizzard, catching sight of the snowman as it roared toward me. Sensing it was intent on pinning me down, I scampered out of the way, and once on my feet, I slashed at it with my Gauntlet-Blades.

#

(Maya)

#

I ran through the tunnel and skidded to a halt a several meters into the immense Training Cavern One.

Rina stopped behind me few heartbeats behind me.

We had a but moments to get a grasp on the situation, and when we did, it didn’t look good.

Shocking as Hell was a more apt description.

In an Overclocked state, I observed Kaleb Deneve battling Pervert Desanto, except this wasn’t the Pervert I remembered.

The Pervert’s Kaiser’s Blessing possessed a Vector Core with a somewhat serpentine body that floated behind him a foot or more away from his back. Two Vector Wing – sharp triangular wings – floated beside the core. The distance between Desanto and the Vector Core varied depending on his movements at any given time. In his fully armored Skin-Regalia, Desanto stood over seven feet tall, with strong powerful limbs that rippled as though heavily muscled though it was all the Skin-Regalia.

I took a guess, and figured the Pervert had broken one of the seals on his Fragment, and unleashed a new form of the Kaiser’s Blessing.

So that's the Kämpfer form.

From looks alone, it was clearly a tough proposition to fight.

The problem was, I couldn’t understand why he was fighting this way at all.

Has he somehow lost himself?

At first, it appeared Deneve was doing quite well. He was holding Pervert Desanto back, containing him. But Desanto upped the pace of his attack, and countered with a brutal strength that knocked Deneve back. Following up with powerful kicks to the body, Desanto sent Deneve flying through the air until he crashed to the ground, and rolled a number of times before coming to a stop.

It might have been fine if Pervert Desanto had held back, but he strode up to Deneve who was stunned and helpless on the ground.

At that moment, I made the choice to intervene.

With my two okatanas gripped in the armored gloves of my gauntlets, I used my Skinsuit’s power to cut in front of Desanto before he could stab at Deneve with his blades. The force of the impact as my blades parried Desanto’s weapons ran through my arms and into my body, making me tremble with the effort to remain upright and standing. It took all the power of my body and the skinsuit to hold back Desanto’s blades. I had nothing left to push him back, so I did the only thing I could.

I yelled out his name.

#

(Caelum)

#

I failed to notice the second snowman until it stood between its fallen companion and I.

Instead of a lance, this one wielded two long, thin, curved swords.

And unlike its companion, the new snow monster talked…or at least made noises.

“Purrrvt Deees annn tooo.”

I had no idea what it was trying to say, and the roaring blizzard made it hard to recognize the words coming from it.

“Purrrvvt Desssss Antooo.”

It’s speech may not have been clear, but it was apparent this abominable monster was smaller and weaker than its fallen companion.

Was it annoyed I’d bested its comrade-in-arms?

Then the snowman shouldn’t have gotten in my way.

I pushed against it, my blades and against its blades, crushing the snowy monster under my strength that was enormous in comparison.

Was I ever this strong or are these things just weak?

Shifting my stance just a little, I stopped pushing down, and delivered a kick to its body, much as I’d kicked its companion.

It was somewhat satisfying to see it fly backwards into the snow, and land beside its comrade-in-arms.

Blasted things. What are they?

Movement caught my eye.

The pale grey silhouette of someone wrapped in a long cloak; a shadow atop a not so distant snow dune.

Galatea. She came back. Is she waiting for me?

I turned toward her, and readied myself to leap all the way there.

With this much power, even this snowstorm can’t stop.

Then something bright cut through the blizzard, burning it away, and turning the snow into steam.

A beam of light as hot as a sun.

I had but a heartbeat to brace myself before it struck me.

As the heat washing over me became unbearable, I screamed in agony and dropped to one knee. I felt I would be burned to a crisp, immolated to an unknown god seated in high heaven.

But the Kaiser’s Blessing had other ideas.

I felt something form before me, a barrier-field that scattered the burning beam.

The snow around me evaporated, and my vision was obscured by the steaming hot cloud that billowed around me.

But the beam had stopped.

Gritting my teeth, I glared through the cloud and eased up on my clenched jaw before it could cramp up.

The barrier-field had held under fire, but now it shattered away, breaking into countless snowflakes that vanished into the snowstorm that raged unabated and carried the cloud away.

I narrowed my eyes and focused on a not so distant point.

Crouching for a moment, I leapt with all the speed and power I could muster, and arrived at that point in the blink of an eye.

Another monster; another abominable snowman.

This was one was smaller than the other two, yet carried an enormous branchless tree that it pointed my way.

I saw the crown of the tree begin to glow, and slashed at it with one blade, then the other in rapid succession.

The tree splintered, then burst apart, scattering pieces of itself into the air in all directions.

I flew through the storm of bark and wood, and landing on the snow, skidding to a stop before the snow monster.

For the first time I noticed they had eyes – big, wide, dark eyes that looked at me in terror.

This is what you get for trying to burn me!

I reared my left arm back, then plunged the Gauntlet-Blade into the monster’s chest.

#

(Maya)

#

Her Brahmastra exploded into a hundred fragments, and I screamed.

I was on my feet, moving toward her, knowing full well I could not reach her in time.

To scream now was a waste of energy.

There was simply no point to it.

Yet I succumbed to the primeval urge.

I screamed her name, as Desanto landed before her, and then plunged his left blade into her chest.

“RIIIINNNNAAAA!”

But the blade never touched her.

At the last instant it flicked back into its stored position, and Desanto’s arm froze in place, his fist mere millimeters from Rina’s chest.

Overclocked, I stared at them, my mouth agape. What happened? Did he hear me? Did I reach him?

From out of frame, something white and winged, crashed into Desanto, carrying him away from Rina who stood petrified but unharmed.

I was still running, and in heartbeats collected her in my arms, drawing her away from the battle by a dozen meters before I risked stopping.

“Rina! Rina! Look at me! Look at me!”

Behind me, somewhere to my left, I heard a battle rage, the sharp zing zang of Fragment weapons meeting each other while wrapped in barrier and piercer-fields.

However, my attention was on Rina who was slowly coming out of her torpor.

Her eyes focused on me, and she shook violently all over.

“…I’m…alive…?”

“Yes—you’re alive.” I shook her again. “Rina, snap out of it. Come on girl. Stay with me!”

She reached up and touched her chest. “How…?”

“I don’t know. At the last moment I saw his blade flick back into its stored position.”

“…he didn’t…?”

“No! He didn’t. Now snap out of it.”

Without turning to look, I could sense the fighting behind me grow fiercer. Then I heard Desanto roar, “What are you? Why are you getting in my way?”

Somehow, hearing that didn’t surprise me.

When I’d locked blades with him, I’d looked into his eyes and realized something was wrong with him.

He looked at me, yet there was no recognition in his eyes.

He was lucid and not in any trance, but he certainly wasn’t aware of us.

“He’s lost in the Core Awareness.” Rina’s voice was low, but I heard it clearly.

“What was that?”

“I could feel it. He’s in there, but he’s lost inside his Fragment. Lost inside the Kaiser’s Blessing.”

My mouth fell open. “What?”

Rina looked at me and met my gaze with such sadness in her eyes I believed tears would well up at any moment.

“Maya, I’ve never told you about what happened to my brother…have I?”

###