Tales of Yibixus: Adele

Adele

Fury in her eyes and fire in her soul, Adele looks on at the entrance gate to Elm’s facility. Grimalkin blood drips from her sword as she holds it out to her side. The rage burning within compels her forward. She’s a blood lust for revenge. She doesn’t care how many Royal Guards she has to kill.

She glares at the two guards at the gate and knows they are easy prey. Her abilities are unhindered, even after a long spell out of the Royal Guard after losing her leg. The same disability that her caring daughter fixed leading to her being discovered as a Formador.

Sluggishly dragging her feet as she approaches them, they quickly react to the blood smeared across her old, rusted armor. They draw their blades.

“You, stop,” one of the guards cries out, bringing a warning whistle to their mouth to call for assistance.

In a single heartbeat, Adele closes the gap between them and drives her bloodied sword deep into the guard’s chest. Having not even seen her move, her lightning-fast speed strikes fear into the other, causing him to shriek in terror.

The whistle falls from the first guard's move, quickly followed by a splutter of darkened blood.

“B-bitch …,” the other guard growls, swinging his sword wildly in her direction to strike her where she stands.

Adele doesn’t even bother removing her blade from the first guard’s chest. With a single breath, she heaves the sword through their body towards the other guard.

Blocking his sword swipe with the armor on her forearms, she then cuts the first guard clean in half as she swings her blade towards the other. Like a flash of lightning, Adele spins on the spot, and her blade, fresh with new blood, is aimed at the floor.

As the warm blood drips from the tip of her blade, the two guards behind her slide apart, and their slashed-apart bodies litter the floor in pieces.

Adele smiles, knowing she’s one step closer to finding the murder of her sweet, innocent daughter.

Having tortured the information out of a poor soul stupid enough to get in her way, Adele knows exactly where her Ada was taken and for what reason. She also knows that she’s been murdered—forced to use her Formador abilities until her life force is completely used up.

“Lina,” Adele growls toward the sky. “You can’t escape my revenge. I will have your head!”

Before her accident, Adele was an extremely competent warrior. Only ever bested by the current Captain of the Royal guard. However, although confident in her skills, she feels somehow empowered.

She feels like her daughter not only fixed her leg but bestowed her with capabilities that surprise even her. A strength she’s never felt before. She feels like, with her sword, she could cut through even the thickest of armor.

Flicking the blood of the guards from her sword, Adele throws open the front gate to Elm’s facility. The courtyard out front is a paradise. Plants from many of the seed worlds grow, and the peaceful sound of water flows from the fountain at the center.

Adele is surprised that no other guards are posted. She puts it down to Lina’s stupidity and arrogance. Having been told it’s the most guarded place in all of Vastin, Adele should have known something was up. The place is a ghost town.  

Stomping toward the doorway and entrance to the facility, Adele is greeted by a building that hums with static energy. Stepping inside, her instincts to flee from this place almost overwhelm her. She can tell someone or something is held here against its will.

The corridors are dull spaces. The walls are solid, and the lights are unnaturally bright. As Adele proceeds forward, she leaves boot prints of blood on the clean concrete floors.

As she turns a corner, not sure what direction to go in, a guard is frightened by her sudden appearance. A young male grimalkin, barely old enough to be in the Royal guard, nervously draws their sword. He’s panting and frantic. Almost like he’s trying the escape the facility with his life.

Adele marches with purpose toward the young man, displaying the blood across her body as her trophies of victory on her path for revenge.

“I didn’t see anything!” He squeaks, backing away in fear. “I just want to go home!”

“You,” she growls, baring her fangs.

Urine dribbles down the young boy’s leg as the sword they hold out in her direction begins to shake. He is barely able to hold it up.

With one swift strike, Adele’s sword cuts clean through the boy's left leg. Blood splatters across the wall, and the boy howls out in pain as he falls to the floor in a heap. Blood gushes from his leg and pools around him as Adele stands over him.

“Where is she!?” Adele shouts as she watches the boy going into shock. “LINA!” she screams, angry that he’s not looking her in the eyes.

The boy, now shaking uncontrollably, just screams out in pain. “My leg! You cut off my leg!”

Adele stamps just above the boy’s amputation. Having cut off his leg just above the knee, she forces her boot down hard to stem the blood hemorrhaging from the gaping wound.

“Lina!?” Adele growls, holding her bloodied sword to the boy’s throat. “She murdered my daughter. Tell me where she is right NOW!”

The boy wails out in pain as Adele’s boot crushes down, causing him even more searing pain. He struggles to remain conscious, only doing so by the adrenaline flooding his body.

Adele looks at the fear in the young boy’s eyes and feels nothing. Revenge is all that matters, and she forces the tip of her blade into his shoulder to get him to concentrate on her. As the rusted tip pierces through the boy’s armor, he starts to cry inconsolably.

“I want my mommy!” he wails, desperate for help.

With no compassion for the boy, she presses the sword tip further into his shoulder. “Tell me!” she hisses.

He screams. “Containment!”

He shrieks. “Please, don’t kill me!”

“How many guards?” Adele asks, pressing hard on his leg with her boot.

“I don’t know!” the boy yelps as the light in his eyes begins to fade.

“How many guards?” Adele repeats, not satisfied with his answers.

“Missing!” he squeals in pain. “They’ve all gone missing!”

“What?”

“Run from this place,” he howls. “Soul Cas—”

“How do I get to containment?” Adele interrupts.

“Staircase,” the boy jitters, unable to stop himself from shaking. “A-a-at the end of this c-corridor.”

Adele looks up and sees a staircase he’s referring to.  

Looking into the boy's terrified eyes, she smiles, “Thanks.” Taking her boot from his leg and pulling out her blade, the boy’s screams echo off the solid walls. It takes Adele back to her time on the battlefield. She’s not heard screams like it for years.

About to leave him to bleed out and die, she steps over him but stops in her tracks. She lets out a long breath before standing over him once again. The boy, now barely awake, looks up at her in utter dread.

Not waiting to waste any more time, Adele closes her eyes and starts drawing a circle around the boy with her blade. The rusted metal sparks against the floor as she carves a portal around him. Seconds later, the boy disappears out of sight—swallowed by the portal Adele has created around him.

Having transported him into the hospital grounds, Adele swiftly closes the portal so no one can follow through. “Thanks, kid,” she says under her breath, rushing toward the staircase. “Rest well.”

Resuming her mission, she runs up the stairs as quickly as her feet will take her. Adele can’t help but take notice of how completely empty the place seems. Every floor she passes seems abandoned. Almost like every person working here has indeed disappeared.

It’s not like when Grimalkin’s use portals to move around. Too much has been left unattended for that to be the case.

As Adele reaches the containment level, she stands in the empty corridor. At the end of the room, there are two large metal doors. They look stressed and bent out of shape like they are holding back an entire ocean.

Approaching the doors, Adele knows she won’t be able to get through them. She has no idea what’s on the other side, so she can’t use a portal to pass through. Noticing another door to her side, she assumes it might be a control room.

Opening the door, she’s greeted by a darkened room and smashed machinery. One of the walls is made entirely of glass, and beyond that glass is a darkened expanse filled with thick black smog.

“What is this place?” Adele mutters as she takes a step inside. Under her boot, broken glass and debris cracks.

Some blinking lights can be seen in the back of the room. Upon investigating, Adele can see it’s a cage. The cage is locked tight, and lying inside is a young, dead female. Adele isn’t phased by the corpse. Although it pains her to think that’s how her daughter may have died.

Looking back over her shoulder, she knows the control panel for those doors must be here somewhere. Although it looks like the machinery near the large glass window has been cut in half by a Grimalkin portal, she approaches one that still appears to be powered on.

Standing at the console, she stares into the void beyond the thick glass. Using her paw, she wipes at the grit on the window and sees a faint light coming from the room beyond.

She can almost see what looks like a prism of light emanating from deep within.

“Lina…?” Adele wonders.

She looks down at the console, and on a very small display, she can see an entry.

‘Experiment Failed’

‘Warning: Containment emergency sealed’

‘Subject: Lina’

‘Status: Alive’

‘Neurotoxin failsafe incomplete’

‘Evacuation recommended’

‘Soul cascade event imminent’

Adele looks again through the thick and dirtied glass. She can only come to one conclusion. The murderer of her child lay beyond, in that room. Although her instincts tell her she shouldn’t, her blinding rage wants nothing but to drive her sword deep through Lina’s heart.

Seeing an option to release containment doors, she selects it.

Instantaneously, the entire building shakes. Metal scraping on metal can be heard screeching just outside the room. Readying herself for battle, Adele brings her sword to her face and stares at the blood-soaked metal.

“For my daughter,” she chants. “For my ADA!”

Light on her feet, Adele leaves the damaged control room and stands in front of the large metal doors that headed her progress moments ago. Although they’ve moved, they are clearly damaged, and barely a small opening has been created.

However, it is small enough for Adele to pass through.

Squeezing herself through, she finds herself standing in a cavernous room. The smell of burning flesh stings her nose. In the center of the room, through the blackened smoke lingering in the air, she can see the shining light.

Fear has now started creeping into Adele’s thoughts. All the clues to what’s been going on here come to the forefront of her mind. The young boy, clearly fleeing for his life. The empty hallways and rooms that look like everyone has just disappeared. No signs of a battle, yet a completely busted-up control room.

“Well, well, well….” a voice, rippling and torn, says through the smoke. “You’ve decided to let us free, have you, Elm?”

Approaching with caution, Adele walks down a few steps and past some machinery that’s twisted and torn. Almost like it’s been melted by the most intense of flames.

“You thought being marked would save you from being absorbed?” the voice laughs manically. “You will pay for what you’ve done to us.”

Having to grab hold of the nearest object, Adele is almost blown from her feet as a single gust of wind clears the black smoke in the room. As she regains her composure, she sees a single figure floating in the center of the room.

Without a doubt, It’s Lina, the woman she’s looking for.

However, something is different. Lina’s fur glows an odd color, and above her, an orb shining bright and brilliantly in all the colors of the rainbow hovers over her head.

“Lina?” Adele questions, standing up straight, confused and frightened by what she sees.

“Who are you?” Lina asks, her voice booms across the massive room, echoing and almost deafening Adele

Shaking it off, Adele’s need for vengeance focuses her mind.

“You killed my daughter!” Adele screams, baring her fangs and readying herself to strike her trusted sword deep into Lina’s heart.

Having thought of nothing but this moment, Adele’s muscles are like coils, and she leaps with all her strength toward Lina. Moving at breakneck speed, Adele lunges her sword directly at Lina’s heart and makes a direct hit.

Her sword cuts straight through Lina’s armor, and blood seeps from the wound.

Having to hold onto the sword as it is buried deep into Lina’s chest, Adele hangs from it as Lina continues to float a meter from the ground.

“Insignificant,” Lina coughs blood, and it splatters down Adele’s body. “We will be whole again.”

Like a giant gripping hold of Adele’s entire body, she’s torn from her sword and hurled across the chamber. Her body slides across the ground until she hits a large chunk of metal on the other side of the room.

Dazed and confused, she didn’t even see Lina move. How did she even do that with her sword through her heart?

Adele looks up to see Lina still floating in the air. The orb above her shines so brilliantly she can barely look in its direction.

“Witness us,” Lina calls out, purposefully twisting the blade. Her blood falls from her body, and she doesn’t make even but one whimper of pain. “Be part of us…”

A flash so bright it pushes Adele to the floor. So bright and brilliant that it almost feels like it burns the skin below her fur.

“Interesting,” Lina laughs, her voice splitting apart like she’s speaking with hundreds of individual voices at once. “You are marked. We are not impressed. It will not save you.”

Adele manages to stand and steady herself. She can’t fail now. She will have vengeance.

Reaching within herself to find the courage to continue fighting, Adele knows that if she can grab the sword still buried in Lina’s chest, she can use her newly found strength, gifted to her by her loving daughter, to cut Lina clean in half. Like she did with the guard out front.

“You killed my daughter!” Adele screams in pain.

Lunging with all her remaining might, Adele’s muscles let out a bone-cracking sound. Adele must have been a blur to anyone watching. Her speed is unmatched, even by the hybrid.

She reaches for the blade, moving through the air at extreme speed. Thoughts of her daughter’s loving face fill her mind. Thoughts the first time she held her in her paws. Her first steps. Her first words. Her first portal. All those loving times that are now only memroies.

Adele with have her vengeance!

However, before she can reach the handle of the sword, the orb reacts in defense. The air around her becomes heavy and static.

A bright flash followed by the crack of lightning. The orb’s light engulfs the chamber, and for a split second, Adele feels at peace.

Adele is then blasted from reality. Her body explodes in mid-air, and all that remains of her is the dust of her corporeal form drifting in the air.

“Insignificant,” Lina’s voice echoes in the chamber. “We must become whole again. We must follow the trial and find who hurt us….”