Chains Of Pride

"I-I can't believe it, i-it's them!" When Machyal saw the silhouette of one of the girls on the screen, he was beyond overjoyed.

Boom!!

Almost every time he spoke, there would be a colossal explosion taking place somewhere, courtesy of the younger sister and friends.

"Wait, by them do you mean the sisters?! Oh my God, these aren't girls, they're monsters!"

When Huntik thought about how he wanted to find and capture them first, his back started pouring out cold sweat! It was further reinforced when he saw the dark-skinned beauty bringing ruin to his base along with the other Taliusm at her side.

"Where are the Taliums I told you to mobilise?!" The harsh voice of Machyal shocked him out of his stupor.

"They're o-on their way!" Huntik hastily replied. He took out the same device he spoke through earlier and instructed the heads, and high guard level personnel under his command to utilise the Taliums and bring down the intruders.

Boom!! Bam!!

"Damn it! Are they trying to bring the place down?! Hold on, why am I only seeing the younger sister, where's the other one?! There should be another sister!" Machyal only now realised that only the younger sister was running rampant through the various buildings.

"That's weird, some of the cameras are going offline all of a sudden." One of the guards stationed within the room noticed the anomaly after which it grabbed Machyals's attention.

Huntik's expression changed when the realisation hit him, "Oh no! Bring half the Taliums already deployed to the surveillance room now!" Huntik hurriedly shouted his command into the device he had on hand once more.

Machyal saw Huntik's frantic mannerism and felt something was off. "Huntik! What's going on here, what are you hiding from me?!"

"N-Nothing at a-all! I just wanted to make sure we're prot-"

"Don't lie to me damn it! If these girls get their way, everyone here, barring the Taliums are all dead! Do you hear me?! DEAD!!"

Machyal had already strode over to the lanky pale-faced middle-aged man and grabbed him by his shirt collar, nearly lifting him off the ground as he did do. He stared straight into the man's eye, forcing the truth out of him.

"You will tell me what you know right now, if you don't...then don't worry, you won't have to be scared of those Taliums killing you, I'll do it myself!" He almost spat out the last words in a vicious whisper.

Fear overtook Huntik as so he explained to Machyal all that he knew. About the Talium they had been tracking that was able to utilise hacking skills leagues beyond anyone they had at their disposal. Not even the personnel at HQ could compare to her.

He also confessed how said Talium, might have found the sisters themselves and through her skills, provided them with information and the layout of the bases which would have been, under normal circ.u.mstances, inaccessible to anyone.

It was because of this why he guessed the girls knew exactly where they were going. With that in mind, he was convinced that the older sister was probably heading to where they were now.

Boom!!

At this point, the explosions, based on their volume and incessant shaking of the ground were undeniably getting closer.

However, Machyal didn't pay much attention to that. He was still stunned that such an idiot managed to become base head. He slowly released Huntik's dr.a.p.ed up collar and proceeded to fix it. He even went as far as to brush off the man's shoulders, probably ridding it of some nonexistent lint.

Huntik's tensed up shoulders slowly slumped down, finally relaxing after seeing that the regional director was no longer mad at him. Suddenly his eyes opened wide as a fist came flying at him faster than he could dodge.

It connected to his jaw with so much force that it sent him tumbling to the ground. The guards saw what happened but said and did nothing, knowing precisely how ranks work.

"You idiotic, anorexic leprechaun!! You kept the fact that there was such a dangerous Talium a secret from HQ, and worse! You allowed this Talium to make contact with the highest priority capture level Taliums the HQ has been looking for?! Oh, but not before you managed to lose her!! Are you f**king kidding me right now?!"

Machyal was absolutely livid, his face contorted with rage!

Huntik sat on the ground with a downcast expression, he didn't dare raise his head to meet Machyal's gaze. The only movement he made was his hand that was rubbing his jaw, it was even beginning to swell, though he didn't dare to complain.

"If they have a complete layout of this base then that means the older sister stayed in the blind spots and is probably making her way to the…" At this point, the alarm clock in Machyal's head went off.

"E-Everyone get in position!! Anyone who comes through that door, light th-"

Boom!!

Before he could finish talking, the door and a large area around it suddenly exploded into smithereens! So much for reinforced steel. The guards and all the men in the room held their breath, not daring to make a single sound.

Clack, clack clack.

The distinct sound of footsteps could be heard, it was getting closer with each tap. The explosion from earlier blurred everyone's vision. So the sound of something emerging from the unknown struck a chord of fear in everyone there.

Eventually, the fear got too much for some people, and one of the guards shakily took his gun and was about to pull the trigger.

"Nope."

A female's voice echoed from within the haze as the gun the guard held, started to crumple up like a piece of paper. Everyone stared wide-eyed and slack-jawed at this development.

"Now, while those bullets of yours may not be able to kill me now, I'd rather not have that whole deja-vu feeling from when I was shot."

Boom!!

"Damn, Kura's ripping you guys a new one, shouldn't you be doing something about that?" Stepping out of the smoke was Rikona, and the rest of the Taliums, their expressions was one of disdain.

All the guards took a look at the guns in their colleague's hands and then the ones in theirs and then back at each and thought the same thing. "What kind of world do we live in where guns don't even make sense anymore?"

Machyal espied her, saw how she brandished her new powers, he quickly collected himself and signalled all the men in the room to lower their weapons.

After all, the younger sister was practically bulletproof, and the older sister appeared to have achieved the same realm as the younger one did back then.

As far as Machyal was concerned, bringing a gun to a gunfi- …wait, a uh, a gun to a, ah to hell with this! This stopped making sense to him a long time ago, so he stopped thinking too hard about it.

"Cheever Machyal, congratulations on becoming a Regional Director. That happened around two months ago, right? Sorry I didn't bring a gift." Rikona said as she stepped further into the room.

Clank, ting, clang…

One of the Taliums behind her, by the liberty of their powers, moved the weapons they dropped to the ground further away from so they could avoid unnecessary complication. After all, even though they were Taliums, they were only half-awakened and not able to brush off bullets like certain people.

Machyal took a deep breath and said to her, "Well hello Rikona, It seems that your powers have grown since the last time we met-"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna have to stop you right there, you see because I've had experience doing this myself, I have got to say that you reek of being a distraction. So before anything else you're gonna answer my question, pure clean and simple." Her expression moved from one of warm happiness to one of extreme anger.

"Where the hell are the Taliums you've imprisoned? You tell me where they are and maybe, I won't not never unkill you." She looked at him, expecting an answer.

"Wait, don't answer that! In the end, you still die. I uh, I'm good with double consonants." The one who spoke was Huntik, who recovered from Machyal's fury.

"What the heck are you on about?" It was Machyal's turn to be confused, was this man not aware that power holds reign here? Of course, he knew what she was doing; obviously, she was being coy.

"Oi, the trash bins over there, let's keep the plot going, shall we?" Yang Min, who was standing by Rikona's side, decided to speak, seeing as how the latter was just rubbing her head at the conversation the two men decided to hold.

Another of the Taliums, a bit behind Yang Min this time inquired right after, "where are you keeping the Taliums?"

Suddenly Rikona's senses went off, "Goddammit all! Everyone I've found the Taliums, get into battle position!"

Rikona's voice spurred everyone into action while she released a pressure that kept the 'humans' behind her in place.

Honestly, she didn't care if they die, but they may have some information she could use, especially that Machyal. She and the rest of the Taliums looked to the direction they came from and saw another guard, this one of a higher rank evident by the more sophisticated design of his uniform, and behind him was a group of Taliums, half-awakened of course.

"Machyal if I threaten to kill you, and I do not mind doing so, will the young man over there release those Taliums?" Rikona's words were slow and measured, but it all dripped with malice.

"Forget about it! You can kill me if you'd like, but the association would never let me off if I did, so regardless of what you do, they will still attack you all the same." There was no point in lying, so he just told her the truth.

She never turned around to face him when his reply came through, she only released a breath, which for some reason, was visible, and tilted her head to the side while she flashed a smile.

The Taliums around her saw this with wide eyes and quickly created some distance between her and them. Never stand near Rikona when she smiled like that, even Yang Min knew this rule.

Clink, clang cling.

The sounds of chain links colliding together could soon be heard, not long after, they could visually be seen materialising whilst extending from Rikona's back.

"Taliums under the control of the association forgive me for what I'm about to do." She then extended her arm outwards and softly muttered as the space in front of her started to distort.

"Heed my call and come to me…Mechanism of Perenniality."