The Arks: Over Heaven (by Ben)

Chapter 87: Broken Promise

Original Post Date: Jul 17, 2024

Note: Story starts in Wyvern, Aerial ABC backwards filter and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Rockwell, next chapter in Rock Drake.

~

Landon looked ahead to see the Crimson Crusader’s castle not too far ahead. He pulled the reins on his raptor, and the raptor began to run full speed toward the castle. He could still feel the searing pain on his leg, the one he gained from his fight with the orange-haired woman.

“General Wyvern must know about this… mysterious man and the obelisk,” Landon thought, looking off into the distance where the red Obelisk hung. It was quite close to the castle and seemed to be humming even brighter.

Eventually, Landon reached the gates of the castle. His raptor halted, and he stepped off. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the sketch of the mysterious man.

He walked into the castle, but didn’t see anyone in particular. No General Wyvern, and no Crimson Crusader. Landon began to walk around, looking back and forth.

“Where are they-”

Landon let out a grunt as he turned to see who he bumped into. It was the Crimson Crusader. Landon could barely recognize her in her cloth outfit. She seemed extra giddy today, but bumping into her aggravated her, as she looked at Landon with a snarl.

“Watch where you’re going punk!” the Crimson Crusader shouted. Landon respectfully bowed.

“I-I’m sorry, Crimson Crusader,” Landon apologized, “It won’t happen again. But I did want to come to you about something. That mission to the other camp brought up some interesting info-”

“Don’t care,” the Crimson Crusader waved him away, “Just go talk to General Wyvern about it or something. He’ll tell me later.”

“And where is he?”

“In the storage room. Now out of my way, I have important matters to attend to.”

Landon moved to the side and the Crimson Crusader rushed down the hallway. Landon looked on uneasily, and then headed off to the storage where General Wyvern was.

As he traveled through hallway and hallway, he eventually made it to a secluded room. He opened the door and inside were tons of storage boxes and what not that held all sorts of resources. Sitting on one of the boxes was General Wyvern, who seemed to be taking a nap. As Landon stepped into the room, General Wyvern’s hand reached for his gun and he instantly pointed it at Landon’s face. Landon let out a squeal of fear and raised his hands in surrender. General Wyvern looked up, his ghillie suit still, and lowered his gun at Landon’s sight.

“Oh hello Landon. Fancy seeing you again,” General Wyvern said. Landon cleared his throat.

“I’m sorry for startling you sir.”

General Wyvern looked at Landon and shook his head.

“No, I should be for pulling a gun on you. Need something?”

Landon nodded and walked forward, showing General Wyvern the sketch of the mysterious man.

“I found some possibly important information at the Book Club Camp. I wanted to see what you thought about all of this.”

General Wyvern snatched the sketch of the mysterious man off his hands and looked at it carefully. Then, his calculating stare turned into a glare.

“Samuel…” General Wyvern snarled. Landon raised his eyebrow, scratching his puffy curly blonde hair.

“Y-You know him?”

“I do. We used to be friends. Way back when,” General Wyvern said, “He was a cold bastard. I should’ve never helped him when his sister died.”

“So I guess it’s not that important then,” Landon said aloud, “But what about the obelisks? What’s up with it?”

General Wyvern cracked his neck.

“I’ve always thought there was something important about them,” General Wyvern claimed, “But the Crimson Crusader never cared about it. She only cared about finding Ben.”

Landon took a seat on one of the crates.

“Why does she even care so much about him anyway?”

General Wyvern glanced in Landon’s direction.

“Because she loves him a lot.”

“Oh.”

The two sat there, just waiting for nothing, when Landon finally spoke again.

“Why do you work for her anyway?” Landon asked, “You’re so much cooler and kind and… You’re a better leader than she’ll ever be. I bet you’re stronger too.”

General Wyvern glanced down at the ground. He almost seemed ashamed for his rationale.

“Because. I am in debt to her. She helped me when nobody else did. After Samuel and I cut ties, she came to me and befriended me. So that is why I must help.”

“But you don’t need to, do you?” Landon said, “Why don’t you just split off from her? I’ll be there to help. I can be YOUR general! And who knows, I bet a lot of other people here want to work for you too!”

General Wyvern looked at Landon solemnly, and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Thanks for looking out for me. But I’m not going to betray June just because of my feelings. This is the honorable thing to do.”

Landon looked down at the ground gloomily.

“Whatever you say, General…”

~

Ben slowly awoke from his daze. He could see a blinding white light flash across his eyes, and he felt as if he were sitting atop a cloud. He let out a groan and stretched his body, cracking his knuckles and rolling his head back onto the soft pillow.

But then he realized that their little hut in the woods didn’t have pillows… or lights for that matter.

His eyes immediately jolted open, and he sat up, looking around at his surroundings. He was sitting on a lush, soft and fluffy mattress that was holstered up with a metal bed frame, and the two pillows were covered with a fine fabric. To the two sides of the bed were two side drawers with lit candles atop them in glass containers. While they did smell nice, Ben was already starting to get a bad feeling about this place.

“Where are the others?” Ben thought. Then, a haunting thought crossed his mind. He got up from the bed and looked around, and then saw a metal door just a few steps away.

“Hopefully that wretch of a woman wasn’t the one who brought me,” Ben sneered, stepping over to the metal door. He reached his hand out to open the metal door, but the door swung wide open before he could reach it. Standing on the other side of the door was a woman with long, orange-brown hair and a sweet soft smile on her face. She was wearing a bundle of cloth clothes that were painted over with red. If Ben had never met her before, he would have assumed she was a kind lady who looked like she wanted to be friends with him. But he did know her, and she definitely wasn’t the nice type.

“Hi!” June said, her hands behind her back. She tilted her head as she spoke to Ben. Ben blinked his eyes and stepped backwards. June waltzed into the room and shut the door behind her.

“It’s good to see you again after so long,” June admitted to him. Ben didn’t speak a word. June eyed Ben up and down, but as her eyes approached his neck she let out a dramatic gasp. She rushed forward and ran her finger down the stitch on his neck.

“OMG Ben! What is this?! Did that Lizzy do this to you?! I knew it was a good idea to kill her!” June cooed. Ben squinted his eyes at her.

“I should have just rejected this… thing when I had the chance,” Ben thought, “Let me see if we can handle this in a respectful manner.”

Ben grabbed June’s wrist and pulled it away from his neck. She looked into Ben’s eyes, and Ben stared back with a squint.

“So uh, where exactly are we?” Ben asked. June let out a giggle, twirling her hair with one of her fingers.

“My castle, sweetie!”

“Cooool,” Ben muttered, looking past June and at the metal door, “Now what did you do to my friends?”

“Oh? Them? Well they were trying to stop you from coming with me,” June explained softly to him, “So I had to kill one of them.”

Ben blinked his eyes, a hint of disbelief in them. He stared into June’s eyes, reading them carefully to feel her emotions.

“What…”

“Look I know that sounds bad,” June told him, “But-”

June began to ramble on about some excuse as to why she had to kill Paul, and Ben just stared into her eyes, an unreadable expression on his face and his pupils wavering. Ben clenched his fists.

“Should I just kill her now?” Ben thought to himself, “Maybe I should.”

Before Ben could decide, June pressed her hand onto Ben’s chest.

“I hope you understand why I had to do that, love,” June said. As she felt his chest she let out a gasp. Her fingers rubbed across the stem of a flower. She reached her hands into Ben’s breast pocket and pulled out a hibiscus that had a light blue bulb. The flower remained dull under her touch, and Ben’s eyes widened. Ben quickly reached to stop her from touching it, but it was too late. June pulled the flower out of his pocket and away from Ben, staring at the bulb in wonder.

“You got a flower for me honey? That’s so sweet of you!” June gasped. June looked at it in dismay, and with sudden impulsiveness, crushed the flower within her palm. She squeezed on the bulb tight, and it glowed under her palm as the petals flew out of her hand and down to the ground, fluttering slowly and slowly like feathers in the wind. In a matter of seconds, thousands of memories flew past Ben’s vision. All with Her face in it. Her voice, her smile, and her laugh all echoed in his ears and eyes. For a moment, Ben could remember what she looked like. All of her.

But as the final petal fell to the floor, she faded from Ben’s mind. He couldn’t remember what she looked like. All he could know was that someone like her was a part of his past. And deep in his heart, her memory remained.

“You know I don’t like hibiscus flowers!” June sighed, “You know my favorite flowers are roses! You have to be joking with me or something to get me that-”

Ben’s implant glowed and a myriad of vines suddenly grew from the ground and walls, ensnaring June. June let out a gasp as Ben raised his hand, causing the vines to carry June up into the air. Ben waved his hand to the right so violently it was as if he were swatting away a fly, and the vines slammed June into the wall.

“What the- BEN!” June cried.

“SHUT THE HELL UP!” Ben screamed, “First you capture my friends, then you kill Paul, and then you… Y-you.”

Tears began to drip from Ben’s eyes. The vines around June retracted, and June dropped to the ground. Ben collapsed to his knees, his head in his hands and his body heaving up and down as he wept and wept.

“I’m so sorry,” Ben sobbed, “I’m so so sorry…”

June didn’t know that Ben wasn’t apologizing to her, but she took it as an apology anyway. She took it as a sign of love, and genuine feelings. She eyed Ben up and down again, a thought crossing her mind.

“It’s okay Ben. I forgive you,” June told him, “...Who did this to you? What made you want to do that to me?”

June looked at the white graduation robe wrapped around Ben’s body, and a dark look crossed her face. She clenched her fists, fire bursting from her hair and hands.

“It was that damn valedictorian…” June realized, “Oh she’s so dead to me. Don’t you worry Ben. She’s going to pay for what she did to you. We can talk later.”

Before June could act, there was a loud explosion.

KABOOM!

The roar of herbivores echoed from outside the wall, and June let out a gasp. She ran over to the wall and looked outside the window. An entire herd of herbivores that included Triceratops, Parasaurs, and Stegosaurus were headed their way, trampling over everything and anything in sight. A few raptors tried to attack them but they were quickly batted away by their horns and tails. There were even a few Carnotaurus and a giant spined lizard with a sail was swiping away at the scouts that rushed outside to attack them. Riding atop the herd were Carlos and Paul. An albino capybara was riding alongside them.

“WE’RE COMING FOR YOU JUNE!” Carlos screamed aloud for her to hear, “You’ll die now for what you’ve done! For Ian! For Ben! For Chris! FOR THEM ALL!”

June cursed to herself.

“Damn it… I should’ve just killed them all when I had the chance. See you later, Ben.”

June rushed outside the metal door and slammed it shut, leaving Ben to grieve his broken promise.

~

June rushed down the hallway and into the throne room, and she could see General Wyvern and Landon walk in as well. General Wyvern rushed up to June and bowed to her.

“Your majesty, there are also attacks going on in the back of the castle,” General Wyvern alerted her, “There’s a mosasaurus with a cannon attached to it. It’s blowing the back to shreds. A man’s manning the cannon, but he looks like a brute. None of the scouts are brave enough to take it down.”

“Then what are you waiting for?!” June snapped, “Go get them!”

General Wyvern looked to Landon.

“I want you to do it.”

“What?! Me?!”

“Yes. You’re strong enough. Your Voodoo implant attribute is strong. You can do it. Now go! Everything’s at stake here.”

Landon thought about it for a moment, and then firmly nodded, saluting General Wyvern.

“I won’t disappoint you General.”

Landon rushed off to go fight the Mosasaurus. General Wyvern turned to Queen June.

“I need to go to the prison and check on the prisoners. I’ll round up some scouts along the way and send them off to fight with you as well.”

June turned away from him, fire bursting from her hands.

“You better get to it then. We’re wasting time chit chatting.”

~

Ian lay in his prison bed as the sound of explosions rang out along him, and he let out a yawn as he heard footsteps coming his way. Ian turned to see Patricia approaching his jail cell. Ian instantly sat up, walking up to Patricia and placing his hands on the bars.

“You got what we need for the plan?” Ian asked. Patricia nodded. She held up two items. A pair of two keys, and some earbuds. Ian squealed in delight as Patricia handed him the earbuds.

“Finally… My babies are back in the rightful owner’s hands,” Ian sighed, placing the earbuds away, “I don’t need them though with my implant attribute. Now you don’t mind getting me out?”

“Right,” Patricia said, “You don’t mind telling me the plan though? You’ve held off long enough!”

Ian scratched his head.

“Uhhh, right. That’s the thing. I’m not really a plan maker… So I couldn’t make one up.”

Patricia facepalm.

“Really?”

“Don’t worry! I’m sure we can take on whoever with relative ease. Hey, maybe with your poker face attribute you can uhh convince the others not to go to the prison so we can all escape easily?”

“I’m sure that’ll work fine. Whatever, just get out of there already.”

Patricia unlocked the jail cell door, and Ian rushed out, stretching his limbs and breathing in the air around them.

“Feels good to be a free man!” Ian cheered. He turned to Patricia and blinked his eyes. Then he let out a cheer and afterwards wrapped his arms around her.

“Thanks so much for freeing me! Ha ha!” Ian laughed. Patricia giggled, wrapping her arms around his body.

“Yeah, yeah… Now let’s free Chris.”

The two left each other’s embrace, and then Patricia went over to unlock Chris’ cell door. As the door swung open on its own, Patricia could see a translucent pair of eyeballs move across the wall. Patricia sighed.

“Right. Wonder where Chris went…” Ian joked, “Now let’s get out of here-”

Suddenly two elongated, stretched out pairs of hands stretched out from nowhere and grabbed both Ian and Patricia, slamming them against the wall. Ian let out a grunt as he slammed his hands into the attacker’s wrists, but they barely budged. A familiar man walked into the prison hallway. It was Nate!

“I had a feeling you were up to something Patricia,” Nate snarled. He still had a limp on his leg, “You’re gonna pay for getting me shot. And your little friend is gonna die too-”

Nate was interrupted by someone whacking him upside the head. Nate let out a gasp as he collapsed to the ground. Chris came back into view, giving them a thumbs up.

“Don’t worry, I got you guys covered.”

Patricia called out to Chris,

“I saw the Crimson Crusader come in carrying a man in a white graduation robe! I don’t know where he is, but you should go find him, he could probably help us!”

Chris nodded and rushed out of the prison hallway door. As soon as he did, he disappeared from sight. Ian turned to Patricia.

“I have a good feeling that the explosions are my friends’ doing. We should meet up with them. They’ll help us and we can probably destroy this castle and its queen while we’re at it.”

Ian and Patricia were about to rush out of the prison hallway when a man wearing a ghillie suit stepped into the room. He instantly took out his revolver and shot at Ian. Ian let out a cry of pain as the bullet shot through his shoulder.

“Where do you think you’re going?” General Wyvern snarled. Ian looked up and grinned. His implant began to glow and music slowly began to burst from the walls. Ian snapped his fingers, and loudspeakers crashed through the ceiling, music booming forth.

“Turn up the music!” Ian ordered, “Patricia… Stay back. I’ll handle this.”

Ian clenched his fists, and then bashed them together. Music symbols manifested in the air as he did, and purple ゴゴゴゴ signs floated off from his body. General Wyvern looked on with a snarl as Ian began to chant.

“ATTRIBUTE AMPLIFICATION!” Ian called out, “CONCERT FOR THE UNDEAD!”

Musical symbols clashed with one another, creating mini explosions in the air. A large mystical circular zone was laid out with him in the center, and a dozen skeletons suddenly appeared from nowhere, carrying a variety of musical instruments. Patricia looked on in awe as Ian pointed a finger at General Wyvern. Four boxes were placed underneath both Ian and General Wyvern’s feet, each one had arrows and they were displayed in a cross. General Wyvern looked at the boxes in wonder, and then looked up with a smirk. Lightning crackled from his body and his implant began to glow.

“You wanna dance?” General Wyvern asked. He grinned, “Then let’s dance!”