"What now?" Reiza asks, her voice barely above a whisper, filled with uncertainty.
"It doesn't really make much difference. We still have to fight, and it's not all bad. With them being this close, it'll be easier for us to disrupt their ritual as well," Scarlett says with a faint grin, trying to maintain confidence despite the shocking turn of events.
"Now then, I'll be going now. Take care of DreadHaven," she says, disappearing into thin air in a flash of light.
She teleports directly to Aoto's room in Darwitz, and surprisingly, Ingrassia, Richard, and Chiyoko were present there as well.
Although both Chiyoko and Richard were vomiting in the restroom continuously for some reason, their faces pale and expressions miserable.
After Scarlett arrived, with some light greetings, she asked about Chiyoko and Richard's situation.
"They're saying that they're feeling motion sickness for some reason," Aoto replies with a worried sigh.
"Stupid, isn't it? How can one feel motion sickness while being on the ground?" Ingrassia sneered slightly, thinking they were mostly exaggerating or pretending.
Scarlett just chuckled awkwardly before scratching the back of her head. "Well, you won't believe it, but something bizarre just happened," she said, her expression growing serious.
"Bizarre?" Ingrassia repeated, looking up at Scarlett as she sat on the bed, her curiosity piqued.
Scarlett didn't tell them right away. She first let Chiyoko and Richard come back and have some time to catch their breath before explaining about the situation.
But when she did, the response was just as loud as she expected.
"WHATTTTTT...?"
All of them shouted in pure shock, even Aoto wasn't an exception, his eyes widening in disbelief.
"Yes, I saw it myself. Maybe you didn't feel much since Darwitz is at the center, but it'll be a matter of hours before all other kingdoms realize that their surroundings have changed all of a sudden," Scarlett added, her voice steady despite the chaos her words caused.
"But how? Even fifth circle magic isn't capable of something like this. It's like they're gods," Ingrassia sighs, her motivation plummeting drastically at the overwhelming display of power.
"Well, they're no less than gods, but still, if they were almighty gods, they wouldn't have to go to this length. This just shows how much of a threat we are to them," Scarlett says proudly, trying to give them some motivation.
"Wait a minute, did I just think positively? Guess Feyre's effects are going down for sure," she thought to herself immediately and then snapped herself back to reality.
"Well, forget about all this. Aoto, it's time, let's go," Scarlett said, looking at him.
He stood up but then Ingrassia sat up as well. "Before that, I want you to teleport us to DreadHaven too. We want to fight together by your side," she said, her eyes gleaming with determination that surprised Scarlett.
Richard and Chiyoko stood up as well, just as motivated despite their earlier sickness.
But their determined expressions only made Scarlett sigh. "You all are still at it, huh?" she said, shaking her head slightly.
"You just saw what they're capable of, did you? And you all still want to fight? You don't have to feel indebted for the favors I've done to you," she said in a high authoritative tone, making them back up a little.
But their determination didn't waver in the slightest.
"It's not about favor or debt repayment. You just said they're not gods. Besides, if they were gods, we would still have chosen to be with you. It's not like we're fighting the main Holy Knights head on. Let us contribute however much we can," Richard replied, his voice steady despite Scarlett's intimidating presence.
"Richard is right. We want to fight as friends because that's what friends do. It was never about repaying favors or debt," Chiyoko added, clenching his fist tightly, although his cheeks flushed slightly red with emotion.
Scarlett was silent for a few seconds, contemplating their words, and then chuckled. "Whatever you all say, Mr. and Ms. Mature," she said with a playful roll of her eyes behind her blindfold.
With no choice left, she first teleported all four of them to DreadHaven and then finally took Aoto to teleport to the Armament Kingdom.
But she never went directly to the Armament Kingdom. She did see its outer border though—the tall buildings and high metal walls that blocked any human or monster from coming inside.
Thus, she directly teleported on top of those metal walls and then looked at the roof of one of the tall buildings nearby clearly. And then she teleported to the roof of that building, entering the Armament without alerting anyone to her presence.
The chilling snowy wind brushed through Scarlett's hair, making it flow back slightly.
The cold winds meant nothing to her, but Aoto definitely shuddered, with small clouds of vapor coming out of his mouth as he was about to say something and take another step at the same time.
But the moment he did, he finally realized that they were standing on the edge of a tall building.
Actually, he had been directly teleported by Scarlett, so he had no idea where they had arrived—except for Scarlett herself, of course.
He immediately took a step back, almost grabbing Scarlett's hand out of shock.
"Phew, it reminds me of the first day when we entered this world. It's already been more than a year," he said with a sigh, feeling slightly nostalgic as memories of their arrival flooded his mind.
Thud!
Scarlett pressed her palm on his back, pushing him slightly off the building's edge. Before he could fall, he immediately stumbled back, grabbing Scarlett out of instinct.
"Don't scare me like that," he argued, his expression resembling that of a hissing wet cat.
Scarlett couldn't help but chuckle. "You're still afraid of heights."
"I'm not, I just got a bit surprised, that's all," he coughed, quickly composing himself and trying to regain his dignity.
"Besides, I can even fly now," he said, chanting wind magic and letting himself float in the air to demonstrate his ability.
"Good, then let's look around from above," Scarlett replied, taking out her six magnificent wings to fly into the air.
Aoto nodded, although he could fly, he was nowhere close to matching Scarlett's speed in the air.
Still, it wasn't as if Scarlett had a specific destination to go to. She just wanted to look around and somehow discover the purpose of why she should be here, just as Avion had suggested.
Both of them flew around at a modest speed, looking at the great sights below.
Just like on the outer side, it looked just as much like a post-apocalyptic era of human civilization from the inside.
Futuristic buildings, high-level but mostly abandoned transport systems, robots roaming around everywhere with no clear purpose, some abandoned buildings and narrow alleys, bunch of metal scraps—combined with a snowy atmosphere, it all gave off a cyberpunk city vibe.
But one thing was quite weird—there seemed to be no humans or any other species around at all.
After a while, they landed on the ground, walking around completely unharmed with no need to hide themselves.
Scarlett was thinking about how to enter without alerting anyone, but there were no people here to alert at all. No security either.
"Wait a minute, half of the kingdom flipped? Does that mean the one at the front is actually the backside of the Armament Kingdom?" she said. Somehow this logic made sense.
Maybe it would have been a side effect of the changing position of the six kingdoms. She didn't realize it sooner because she had never been to Armament before, and as for Darwitz, she had just teleported there directly.
"Whatever the case, it was one of my fantasies to be in a cyber city, although it feels more like an abandoned city to me," Aoto said, looking energetic and depressed at the same time.
"HELLO!... Anyone there?" he shouted out loud, his voice echoing in the distance, yet nothing happened.
BAM!
Scarlett immediately gave him a tight smack on the head. "Don't just do anything stupid! What if someone actually comes out? With how advanced this abandoned city looks, there would definitely be a concept of ID. I'm sure anyone who sees us will demand ID from us first."
"Oops, sor—" Aoto was about to apologize but then his eyes widened at something he had just spotted.
He immediately raised his hand to point.
"There, it's a CCTV," he said, pointing at the CCTV on the nearby ground floor of a building. The small red dot of light showed that it was working.
The moment Scarlett heard this, her first instinct was to hide immediately, but the next moment she realized that it was too late. They'd been here for a few minutes already, so it was already too late to hide.
"Urgh, fuck it, let them see. So what? I came here expecting a fight anyway," she said, though feeling slightly anxious despite her brave words.
For the next half an hour, they waited there for any enemies to come, but nothing happened.
Scarlett kicked a nearby rock on the ground and sighed. "Let's just go. No point in waiting at one place for too long."
After walking for few more minutes, A realisation hit aoto as he turned to look at Scarlett.
"By the way, why are we even here?", He asked.
The question made Scarlett come to a halt, She chuckled awkwardly for a second and then said.
"We'll figure it out", And then with a pause, She lightly whispered to herself.
"I hope so",