Chains Of Pride (The Ascending)

Chapter 8 - Divinus Plasma

    “What the hell is this!? That damn Shepherd is cancerous you hear me?! Nobody can tell me this isn’t due to him!” Gero was enraged at the sudden development. In the few days since they left Shepherd Takeshi’s mansion, they have been trying to come to terms with everything they learnt while keeping up with their own work.

    Then all of a sudden, they received a notice on their academy transmitter in the form of a Class 1 Mandate. What was the Mandate you ask?

    Proelius team member and Digium Setamaru Lanzo, along with Digiums Siyenasta Gero and Kia are to be teamed together relating to technological interest.

    In all honesty, while Shepherds wield considerable influence within Cendo Academy, forcing Digiums to work with others is not something that they can do on a whim.

    However, this isn’t to say it’s impossible; they simply have to get the unanimous support of the mysterious upper brass of the academy.

    “This isn’t something that just anyone can do, we might have underestimated the power of that organisation he was mouthing off about. I thought it was weird how he’d tell us about things deemed secretive and just leave us to our own devices like that, we were way too naïve.”

    Kia sighed when he learned of the new arrangement. He wasn’t as agitated over the whole thing like Gero was who preferred to be alone.

    “Well, we’re here now so we might as well get used to it. What are you working on, anyway? I already have little knowledge of Kia’s area of expertise.” Lanzo took this chance to familiarise himself with the person he knew the least about.

    “Tch, you wouldn’t understand even if I tried to explain so don’t bother asking,” Gero replied obviously infuriated even now.

    He might not be able to go against a Class 1 Mandate, but it didn’t mean that he had to get all friendly with them or anything.

    Lanzo’s expression darkened as he took exception to that “Oh, then, in that case. Why don’t you jump up your own ass and die?”

    “Why don’t you come over here and say that to my face you mistake of nature!?”

    Seeing this, Kia stepped in between them, not anticipating a good ending if this continued.

    “Alright let’s stop this here. For now, we’re gonna be working together, so this doesn’t help, and let’s move from the square. It’s much too public here.”

    “We might as well head to our new novre room. Our equipment and research have already been moved, so no use arguing.” Kia was always someone who tried to maintain a calm head even in situations deemed…. undesirable.

    Lanzo and Gero glared at each other for a moment longer before ignoring the other and were just about to move when Lanzo received an alert from his Academy communicator

    He took it out, and when he saw the content, his expression immediately changed, something that both Kia and Gero picked up right away.

    “What is it?” Kia couldn’t help but ask after seeing Lanzo’s face.

    It was the first time he saw this. Lanzo… was smiling, but somehow this smile seemed as if there was a craziness hidden beneath it… no, that’s wrong. It wasn’t hidden in the least.

    “Engage,” a simple word and yet, when Lanzo said this, he acted as if this should explain everything about his current demeanour. “I’ll meet up with you guys a bit later, I’m still a member of Proelius, and I can’t shirk my responsibilities as part of the team.”

    “Well, I guess that’s it then, we’ll see you later. C’mon Gero, we should head over to our new novre room.” Kia bid goodbye to Lanzo and headed over to their new novre room with his new… teammate?

    Lanzo had already geared up a bike and made his way to Proelius HQ. When he arrived, with hurried footsteps, he headed up to their meeting room where he saw that everyone had already gathered.

    When Captain Himiya saw him, he gestured for him to take a seat after which, he started, “Since we’re all here I’ll get right to it. Our next sequence is in the next two days, and it’s against Perbia Academy.”

    He then stared hard at Lanzo and stated, “I shouldn’t have to say much, as you’re the Ace of the team we’re counting on you this time as well.”

    Lanzo’s expression changed once more when he realized what the Captain said, “wait, isn’t this the last match before the championship? How are we facing Perbia now?”

    His question was valid as Perbia was always their fiercest rival whom they always met up with in the championship sequence. This was an unprecedented situation. However, the Captain explained what had happened.

    “The officials for organizing the sequence botched it up and put them in our bracket. Then before anything could be fixed, a dark horse came out of nowhere and started to sweep through the competition. Who wins now, is who moves on to face them.” Captain Himiya explained to him it was just about winning and moving on.

    When Lanzo heard this, he simply nodded, the look from before already gone. No one knew what he was thinking. They stayed a bit longer to discuss some more details before they ended the meeting and went their separate ways.

…

    “This is your Armis? Not bad, and what the hell? Is this a plasma blade?” Kia and Gero were at the novre room where Gero saw the Armis with its mods that made the first Shepherd shower it with praises.

    “So you made the modifications on this, and those idiots took credit for it in front of the Shepherd? What’s more, is that you didn’t say anything about it? What are you, an i***t?”

    “Why should I care about the actions of those two? They’re beneath me if they think that doing something like this will allow them to become A-Class.” Gero was berating Kia about his handling of the situation, while Kia was explaining why he didn’t bother to pursue the issue as anybody else would have.

    “Don’t tell me that you’re another one of those idiots who looks down on others just because of their class. If so, I won’t work with you regardless of the Class 1 Mandate,” Gero stared hard at when he said this.

    “Wait, what!? Shouldn’t I be the one saying that?” Kia asked. “I mean, you’re the one known to disregard anyone and everyone. You don’t place a single person in your eyes, and now you wanna preach to me about looking down on others? The hypocrisy is strong in this one, apparently.”

    Kia didn’t take too kindly to being called out like that. Usually when people said something about him, he could shrug it off, but with Gero, he didn’t know why he felt the need to hit back.

    As for Gero, it was the exact same, and he didn’t like the feeling of it either,

    “What, you believe the masses in regards to their rumours? I only never allow another person to come in contact with my research and that’s it. I couldn't care less about class in this Academy. These pompous inbred terminal tumours are only good for giving life to the basest and most disgusting of human natures, discrimination. What good would the people in the A-Class rank have to offer to my research?” At this point, he sighed to show his exhaustion of the entire situation.

    “I don’t discriminate against others either, evident by my tolerance to work with my former two lab partners, (unless you call idiots a class, I guess). However, it doesn’t mean I have to stay around others to prove my sincerity, I’m not about that life, I might not care about who or what you are in any case, but it doesn’t mean I have to like you if I don’t feel comfortable being around you, period.” Kia told Gero exactly where he stood, and Gero nodded in understanding, obviously of the same mind.

    Gero had both a cold and an apathetic demeanour; it led to everyone thinking that he simply didn’t even deem them worthy of being put in his eyes. Of course, he didn’t particularly care about their thoughts either.

    In addition, the vibe he gave off was repelling as well. Of course, if he was to believe that Shepherd, then this was all due to that ethereal frequency he was going on about.

    “Oh yeah, I showed you the fruits of my research, what about yours? I heard you were working on some ground-breaking theory but that no one knows about it except the Academy itself so how about it?”

    When Gero heard what Kia had said he was shocked for a moment, but that feeling quickly passed, “Well, rumours spread pretty fast now don’t they? I mean how the hell would they even get to know something I haven’t even let the Academy know about?”

    In Cendo Academy, any progress of the research done by any digium or group of digiums has to be logged, reported and stored in the Academy’s database through OMNI using the Academy communicator.

    “What, is it a lie? C’mon what are you working on?” Kia asked.

    Gero replied shortly after saying, “Oh, it's not a lie, it’s true. I just wanted to know how they knew about it. For the most part, I didn’t tell anyone about it, well, it’s not like I have anyone to tell it to.”

    Kia wasn’t sure, but for a moment he could have sworn he saw a look of solemn loneliness in Gero’s eyes, but it passed too quickly so he wasn’t sure.

    “To be honest, that plasma blade of yours is pretty powerful, but I’m willing to bet anything that it takes a massive toll on the energy source of the suit, am I right? I mean, it can’t be easy to generate and maintain? After all, it can’t be easy dealing with Divinus Plasma.”

    When Kia stated the shortcomings of the one part of the modification he was most proud of, he felt his face becoming slightly red, but it quickly turned to shock, “How the hell did you know this is Divinus Plasma!? Nobody knows about this, not even the Academy!”