They finished up on the island, informing all the civilians of what to do next, and what to watch out for.
Then, they headed back to the Silver Wind. Nearing the ship, they noticed the distinct scent of blood. They sped up their run, but when they overlooked the ship, they saw that the two Knights were relaxed.
In a complete role reversal, it was Marcus who was looking bored out of his mind while Elara yapped. Her faint voice was heard rambling. "Mn, that’s when I told him to lick my feet and beg. It was, you know, a way to humiliate him. I figured he would never do that, and leave angrily."
She took a deep breath. "Imagine my shock when he did it! Why!? I was trying to drive him away!"
"Elara!" Jin called out from above, interjecting in their conversation. "Please, you can’t be serious. Anyone would do that."
"What?"
"What?"
Valeria leaped down onto the ship. "What are you idiots talking about!?" She looked around. "What’s with the blood in the water?"
"Captain!" Marcus called out. "Nothing serious. The blood is from so corrupted sea creatures. More importantly, please look."
He gestured over to a tarp on the ship covering sothing. He reached over and uncovered it, revealing the bodies of four destroyed infiltrator units.
Elara explained. "They ca running at us randomly. I don’t know if they were fleeing and saw a ship they thought was empty, or if they actively wanted to kill us. Regardless, the result is as you see."
"I see..." Valeria took in the information. Lumi ca down as well. "We might as well take them to the Observatory as well."
After loading the evidence back onto the Silver Wind, they set off once more to the Glacial Observatory.
Johno was waiting for them at the dock, his expression grave as they approached.
"Johno, what’s wrong?" Lumi approached and asked the seal who looked as if he was visibly aging.
Johno took a deep breath, and sighed. "Nothing important. How did it go?"
"Infiltrators." Lumi reported crisply. "chanical constructs disguised as seals and penguins. Wings of Darkness operatives, based on the technology we found. They’ve been gathering intelligence and contaminating supplies. No actual seal or penguin was found to be a traitor."
Johno’s expression cycled through shock, horror, and finally, deep sha. "I... I suspected my own people. Mika, the seals... I was ready to believe the worst of them when all along it was outside infiltration."
"You couldn’t have known." Lumi said, stepping forward with the coded docunts. "These infiltrators were sophisticated. They had proper docuntation, knew the right procedures. Without close examination, they were nearly perfect copies."
"Still." Johno’s voice was heavy."
"What matters now is decoding these ssages." Lumi said practically. "Can your researchers handle it?"
"Let see," Johno said, moving to examine the docunts more closely. He studied them for several long monts. "I am not familiar with this, but I will see if our researchers can decode this."
Susie elaborated for him. "I had taken a look, and it looked vaguely familiar. But I don’t rember the specifics. Can I see it again?" Johno passed it over to Susie. "This encoding thod... I’ve seen sothing similar in my studies. I rember now! It’s based on Entei mathematical principles!"
"Entei?" Johno asked. "The eastern continent?"
"Yes!" Susie was already pulling out her notebook, scribbling calculations. "The Wings of Darkness originated there, it makes sense that they’d use it!" After a couple monts, she paused. "I don’t think I can decode this by myself though."
"You’ve already done amazing work!" Johno affird. "Co, let’s take this to the researchers."
"Yes!"
...
The researchers worked furiously for a while and everyone watched anxiously. After several minutes though, spectating what they didn’t know grew tireso. Johno had his people prepare food for the Aria Knights once more.
"Got it!" A female penguin exclaid suddenly. "Or at least parts of it. The key was recognizing their base-8 counting system overlaid with magical resonance patterns. Look here Susie!"
Susie looked it over, her eyes glowing. "Yes!"
She quickly relayed the results to everyone, and showed them the translations. Fragnts of sentences beca clear. "power source located... glacier mining operation... maintain cover... corrupt water supplies... reinforcent needed..."
"They were using the penguins’ mining operation." Marcus said, understanding dawning. "The glacier fragnts, they’re a power source?"
"More than that," Susie said, still translating. "They ntion sothing about ’containnt protocol’ and ’seal integrity’. I think... I think they were using the glacier’s power for sothing else. Sothing they needed to keep contained."
Lumi kept his expression neutral even as his pulse quickened. They were getting close to the truth about Rena, even if they didn’t realize it yet.
"Where’s their base?" Valeria asked. "These ssages had to be going sowhere."
"Here." Susie pointed to a set of coordinates she’d decoded. "On the main island, not far from... oh. OH!"
"What?" Johno asked urgently.
"It’s near the corrupted glacier." Susie said. "Rember Lumi ntioned it earlier? The one the penguins are mining. Their base is less than a mile from the primary excavation site!"
"Then that’s where we go next." Lumi decided. "If their main operation is there, we must destroy it!"
Johno gave them a bow. "I give you my thanks, Aria Knights." He turned to his subordinates as well, then bowed. "I apologize for being such a failure as a leader! My theories were all in the wrong direction, my work useless, our people killed under my command!"
He gestured towards the Aria Knights. "Everyone, thank the glorious Aria Knights! The benevolent angels who heard our cries, ca to us, and achieved more in a day than I did my entire ti here! Praise to the Aria Knights!"
"PRAISE TO THE ARIA KNIGHTS!" A chorus of chants roared out, seal, human, penguin.
"PRAISE TO THE ARIA KNIGHTS!"
"PRAISE TO THE ARIA KNIGHTS!"
"No, no-" Valeria tried to wave the praise off, but it was in vain as they continued their chants.
"PRAISE TO THE ARIA KNIGHTS!"
"You guys..." Jin’s eyes watered up exaggeratedly. "THANK YOU ALL!" Marcus seed too embarrassed to speak, and Zara was hiding behind Valeria.
"It’s the duty of every Knight to help the innocent in need," Elara insisted, before finding her hand clasped by a grateful penguin. "Thank you!"
"You’re... welco." Elara slowly muttered.
"Indeed what Elara said is true," Valeria repeated."This is our duty."
"One you willingly accepted! Who else would do so but the Aria Knights!" An elderly seal with glasses slid over. "I’ve seen many who talk the talk, but don’t walk the talk! Never before have I witnessed such selfless righteousness."
"..." Eventually, a smile made its way to Valeria’s face. "Thank you for the appreciation."
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