Let Loose (Full Story):  Written by Exodus, Original Story by Exodus  

In the Evalon Empire, success was guaranteed for the many soldiers and warriors, 
as they worked at swarming through the five remaining landmarks in the kingdom 
of Grandulen, people were plucked out of the many settlements to join the 
empire, while many others were killed, the landmarks were either destroyed, or 
used to set up outposts for the empire.  
The kingdom of Grandulen had fallen, and Scion, although unknowing of it, was 
easy prey for conquest.  
Surely nothing would stop the empire now, the warriors had much more work ahead 
of them but they were confident that the circle of six kingdoms would soon be 
theirs, and after that, the world.  
There was only one who wasn’t satisfied, and that was Morn, he played little 
part in the conquest, only his devices were used, and he wasn’t exactly 
credited.  
He had to push at the experiment Iyaxxl requested of him or risk being made 
unnecessary to the Empire.  

Morn was hard at work in his lab, Helena had reported the energy cannon was 
successful, her face had been burnt, but Morn didn’t care about that, the cannon 
would surely be used in the next project.  
He was busy with his Gaian research, he had made some impressive discoveries.  
In an ancient text, it translated that in order to gain a Gaian’s power, you had 
to be in love with a Gaian, and that when a Gaian and non Gaian have a child, 
not only is the child gifted with magic, but the non Gaian too when the child’s 
spark of life comes into existence.  
Morn was intrigued, but dared not try such a stunt with the princess, Iyaxxl 
might have him killed if he did, besides, the point of the experiment was to 
gift others with her magic, it would take nine months if trying the obvious 
method before it could be repeated, and quite frankly, Morn hated children, and 
would not have his lab turned into a nursery for the sake of an easy way out, 
even though the child would have magical powers, it would take too long to 
raise.  
Morn had tried to augment a soldier with a sample of Edwina’s power, but 
ordinary Calians couldn’t take in the power this way, and his test subjects 
literally exploded because of it.  
It seemed that the parent of a half Gaian child would receive the power, and 
then it would grow over time, but there was no way to produce that effect 
without going about the said ways.  

Morn was tired, this project was taking longer than expected, and Iyaxxl deemed 
the experiment a failure, not only that, he wanted to take Edwina away from him, 
to serve by his side, though originally a vague promise to the former queen, 
Iyaxxl genuinely wanted Edwina to serve beside him, he felt the Gaian tests were 
now wasting time, and the next best thing was to have a half Gaian as his 
stepchild.  
Iyaxxl’s only true child had been stolen from him, and he thought it to be 
ironic if the one helping him to impose the new rule on Edward’s kingdom, was 
his own daughter, but Edwina wouldn’t comply, she rarely spoke, and who could 
blame her, having lost everything.  

Meanwhile, at the Resistance Base, Gear and Ross were locked in a discussion.  
“No way Gear! Do you think I don’t feel like a freak as it is?!”  
“Of course I do, you’re not, you’re just a victim of terrible circumstances.”  
“And now you offer to turn me into a walking junk pile?!”  
“Not a junk pile, just a few enhancements to your legs so that you can support 
my new arm designs.”  
“I am not a science project!” yelled Ross, ripping off the arm and throwing it 
to the floor, Gear had designed the arm to be removable, in case some of the 
evil they went up against tried to use Ross’ prosthetic arm as a weakness.  
“Well, just think about it, its your choice...” muttered Gear, as Ross left the 
room.  

“I’m letting you go Edwina, I’m letting you go out into the world, to explore 
it, just like you always wanted.” said Morn to Edwina, as if she were an animal.  
Though Iyaxxl had asked for Morn to change the princess’ feelings and deliver 
her to him, Morn couldn’t give up the opportunity to play with someone so full 
of unexplored power.  
Though he was offering what she had always wanted, freedom to explore the world, 
she was too depressed to respond, she hadn’t spoken a word since the takeover, 
she felt no reason to, nothing she said could change what had happened, nor stop 
what the empire was doing to her kingdom.  
“But only if you transform into your guardian spirit like you father did.”  
Her lips opened a little, but no words came out, she had never been able to do 
it, and her mother banned had her from calling on Energen unless hell was 
breaking loose.  
“Speak Edwina or I’ll starve you again.”  
“Uh...  Uh...” she muttered, it had been a while since she had a adequate amount 
to drink, and her mouth was dry.  
“Speak up.”  
“Go to hell...”  
“Grrrr!!! Iyaxxl made a promise to your mother that you’d rule by his side, 
safe, independent, and all wishes would be granted.  Don’t you want that?!”  
“I would rather die...”  
“I’d watch what you wish for princess, you might regret it.”  
“I was banned from summoning Energen, I will surely not summon her for you.”  
“You’re wrong, now that I have her name, things will be easier.”  
Edwina gasped, not having realised that that was what Morn needed to hear, Morn 
left and came back with a small device with metal and wires.  
“This device will increase your innermost feelings, let it all out, except I’ve 
modified it so that you’ll obey my orders, and now that I have a specific name, 
you’ll have no choice but to obey...”  

Back at the Resistance Base, Ross walked into Gear’s room, he was equipped with 
the arm.  
“Gear, I’m sorry.”  
“Whatever for?...” he asked with a little sarcasm.  
“I should be grateful that I’ve got an arm, even if it is different.”  
“Ross, we’re best friends, I watched you for years, training with your father, 
aspiring to become a great knight, well the time for your skills has arrived and 
you could never pull it off with only one arm, I know its strange, but that’s as 
far as my skills can do for you.  Ross, I know you’ll be starting a strange 
trend, but you can still be a knight, just a slightly different one, your job is 
to fight for your kingdom and protect the innocent, now the way I see it, if you 
just accept the arm and listen to me, you could go beyond the level and duties 
of a regular knight.”  
“You really think so?”  
“Sure.  You could be the first ‘cyber knight’ in history, I’ve got lots of ideas 
for you, seeing as you can detach your arm, I can give you a range range of 
weapons that’ll be easy to use.”  
“A knight with more weapons than just a sword and shield...” pondered Ross.  
“I admit that enhancing the rest of your body was a selfish idea, and it should 
be you who comes to me if such a change were to be organised.”  
“You’re such a good friend.”  
“I know you’ll return the favour.”  
The two shook hands and then an alarm went off.  

Ross and Gear went to the newly built Control Room, a room specifically made for 
meetings, and of course, monitoring the world while picking up calls.  
They had a great security system so that no one could trace the call back to the 
secret mountain, in which the Resistance Base resided, and many defenses to 
prevent calls from being monitored by outside forces.  
Carol and Jim were the temporary workers here, their work usually resided in the 
science labs, but a lab for them had yet to be built, and Gear was confined to 
his room for all his recent projects.  
“What is it, Jim?” asked Gear.  
“Its going down in Balass, in the south kingdom Moragis, a fearsome monster is 
causing major damage.” he answered, he had a bowl-shaped ginger hairstyle and 
wore a lab coat and tie.  
“Is that Brutor guy with it?” asked Ross a little anxiously.  
“We’re not sure.” answered Carol, a brunette with long hair and glasses, and 
also wearing a lab coat, “But do remember that Freedom Force dealt with demon 
and human evils, I don’t see why the Resistance should only deal with the people 
who conquered Grandulen.”  
“You’re right, this group was formed to help the innocent, no matter who’s 
harming them, we have to stop it.”  

In Balass City, the trouble was bigger than Ross and Gear had expected, a green 
flaming woman wildly destroying buildings.  
They had brought ten Resistance soldiers to help them as a proper group hadn’t 
really been formed, Gear and Ross were the only ones prepared to take on the 
more dangerous tasks, and Ruwin had already set out to bug the invaders’ 
hideout.  
Hopefully ten novice soldiers would be enough.  
They all wore pale blue armour with silver parts, similar to the uniforms that 
Scion soldiers wore, there was a lot of confusion when Scion Castle was first 
attacked, and a woman called Bailey Taylor had salvaged the clothing and joined 
the Resistance to work as a tailor.  
“Ross! Take five of the soldiers and distract her, I’ll follow round and 
surround her from behind.” advised Gear.  
“Okay.” said Ross, he’d finally have a chance to test out his metal arm.  
“Stay away!” roared the figure, swinging her arm, a wave of heat was flung by 
the motion and the five soldiers fell back, while Ross managed to block it by 
using the robot hand.  
“This thing’s coming in handy already, a makeshift shield.”  
Ross drew his sword and charged forward, but the creature batted him back with 
extreme force, straight towards a building.  
“I hope this works or I’m a pancake.”  
With that, he stretched his metal arm outwards and kept the claws open as he 
spun through the air, they caught the ground and dug into it, slowing Ross’ 
speed a little, but continued to follow an imminent crash course with the 
building, Ross deactivated the arm so that he simply fell to the floor, while 
the arm smashed into the building with a hard clang.  
“Detachable arm, best idea, Gear.” Ross commented, before retrieving his arm.  
“And fire!” Gear ordered to his five, and arrows started to fly true into the 
creature.  
She flung her arm forward, but the arrows pierced through and stayed there.  
“Ddddeeerrraaaaarrrggghhh!!!” she screamed, before slowly removing the arrows 
and staring at the team.  
“Gear!” shouted Ross, reattaching his arm and charging forward.  
The creature glared at him, holding her wounded arm, and Ross tackled her, they 
went flying through a large warehouse and the wall caved in, sealing them 
inside.  
“Ross!!! What’re you doing?!” shouted Gear.  
There was no answer, and it would take a while to get through.  

Inside, Ross was trapped with the creature, who was breathing heavily and 
holding her arm.  
“You’ve calmed down...” breathed Ross, “Tell me who sent you, those soldier 
guys?”  
She stared at him, cross-eyed but not moving.  
“I might be able to spare you, if you’ll give up willingly, if not...”  
Ross drew his sword and approached the creature.  
She outstretched her hands peacefully, but then something went through her head 
and she clutched it in agony.  
“What’s going on, what just-  Whoa!”  
Ross ran as she sent a whooshing ball of flames towards him, it crashed into a 
console and sent it exploding into some wooden shelves.  
A small fire was starting, but it wouldn’t stay that way for long.  
“Do you want to get us both killed?! Calm down and help me find a way out of 
here.”  
“Can’t...  Too much...  AGH!!!...  PAIN!!!”  
“Where?...” said Ross a little softer.  
“My... HEAD!!!”  
“Stay still!” urged Ross.  
She fell to the floor and held herself up with her hands.  
“Your head...  Aha.”  
Ross reached towards the elven-like ear, but pulled away from the heat.  
“Turn away from me.”  
She faced the floor and Ross drew out his metal hand, unless it conducted 
certain things, Ross didn’t feel pain if any damage came to it, but this 
creature was hot, so he had to work quickly before the heat reached his 
shoulder.  
He used his metal hand carefully, it responded to his mind in the way a normal 
arm would, except Ross had trouble in controlling its strength at the moment.  
He blocked out everything and concentrated, the hand carefully edged towards the 
device in the creatures ear, and Ross thought hard to gently remove a device 
stuck in the creature’s ear without tearing it off.  
It was embedded deep inside and even when taking it out, wires followed.  
“This’ll hurt for a second.”  
He used his claws to crush the device, a small explosion destroyed what wires 
were left.  
The creature held her head in pain, and the explosion of the device and the 
motion of the creature sent Ross flying back, and his metal arm further, getting 
lost in the burning pile of equipment.  
Ross landed on his back hard and groaned, he picked himself up to face the 
creature.  
She breathed heavily, and then spoke rationally.  
“I apologise, my power should never have been enslaved.  There is no need... for 
me to be...”  
The green fiery essence rose into the air and vanished, leaving a blonde girl in 
a torn up red dress.  
“Hey! Are you alright?” called Ross, running towards the girl.  
He sat next to her and lifted her up a little with the only hand he currently 
had.  
She woke up and hugged him while trembling.  
“Where am I?...”  
“You’re in Balass, you’re safe now, you wanna tell me what-”  
“Please promise me, promise me you’ll protect me from them...  I do not want to 
go back...” she trembled.  
“Well I’m a knight so its right up my alley, but who do you want me to protect 
you from, and where don’t you want to go back to?”  
“Promise me...”  
“Alright, alright, I promise to protect you from danger.”  
“Thank you...”  
She put on a brave smile and observed Ross.  
“You only have one arm...”  
Ross sighed and looked down, would he always be judged because of Brutor’s cruel 
act?  
“So do you want to tell me why you were hurling flames around just a moment 
ago?”  
“That wasn’t me, that was-”  
A flaming beam collapsed not too far away from the two.  
“We have to get out of here, this place is falling apart.”  
“Um, there’s a door located over there...” said the girl nervously, pointing to 
a door furthest from the fire.  
“Okay, let’s go.” said Ross, he held the weakened girl with his only arm and the 
two ran/ limped towards it.  
“Damn its blocked!” shouted Ross.  
It was steel as well so Ross’ sword wouldn’t help.  
“I can handle this.” said the young lady, and stepped forward, she found it hard 
to balance both arms to be outstretched, as she had some signs of the arrow 
wounds from earlier.  
Suddenly a green beam burst out and flung her back while firing, Ross caught her 
and held her from behind as the beam heated up the door and blew it open, 
ripping off the hinges and sending the door crashing forward and pushing away 
what had blocked it.  
The rest of the warehouse was easy to navigate, but the fire crept into the next 
room where some of the knocked over materials, like the oils, were flammable.  

Ross and the lady ran out of the warehouse, and to a safe distance into the 
forest that was located outside the back entrance.  
The two breathed heavy.  
“You’re...  You’re one of them, those Gaian people.” exclaimed Ross.  
The girl looked down sadly.  
“No, I don’t think you’re bad, or different, I feel that way sometimes about my 
abnormality.”  
“Abnormality?...” questioned the girl.  
“Your arm...” said Ross suddenly.  
The wound that he had thought to have healed through her divine magic had 
opened, and though significantly less damage was there, it was best to cover it.  
Ross removed his yellow scarf and wrapped it around her arm carefully.  
“Keep that on until I tell you to take it off, it’ll keep any germs from 
entering until it seals.”  
“I will...”  
“Good.  I think we’re finally-”  
A huge explosion ripped through the back way, and flaming equipment and debris 
came crashing through, Ross dived on Edwina and took the damage from some 
smaller debris.  
“Oh my...  Are you alright?...” asked the girl, worried about Ross, he groaned 
and tried to lift the stuff off him without crushing the girl.  
Suddenly something thin and silver wrapped around the girl’s left hand, and 
another took the right.  
The girl was slipped out from under Ross and lifted into the air.  
Two floating mechanical sphere robots with two thin silver coils had taken the 
girl.  
“Its him...  Please! Help me!” screamed the girl.  
Ross shouted in annoyance, and pulled himself up, throwing the debris off him.  
“How am I going to get her back with only one...”  
He picked up his metal arm that had miraculously been blown over here.  
“Damn Gear, just what did you make this with?” questioned Ross, reattaching it 
and chasing after the machines.  
“Stop!” shouted Ross, the two robots didn’t change their direction, but hovered 
down, each entwined a whip around a rock and flung it towards Ross, currently 
charging towards them.  
“Don’t fail me now, arm.”  
Ross clenched his claws into a fist and punched through the rocks.  
“Oh yeah! With this sort of power, I can surely win!”  
He leaped up and grabbed the back end of the right-hand robot, and punched it 
with his metal fist, it left a dent, but the rounded shape of the robot was too 
slippery to hold on to, so Ross quickly swapped hands and clung to the robot 
with his claws.  
The right hand robot that Ross was hanging on to disengaged, and a second arm 
from the left robot appeared to secure the girl.  
With Ross still on it, the robot descended fast, and Ross smiled.  
“Once we’re down, I’ll lift up this mechanical beachball and throw it into the 
other one.” he thought.  
It didn’t go as planned, Ross had overestimated his abilities, just because the 
arm and fist were powerful, it didn’t mean the rest of him was as well.  
Ross screamed as a slight cracking sound occurred.  
The robot had meant to crush him, and succeeded, the only way Ross could have 
withstood the force and come out on top was to have equally powerful legs to 
balance himself and take the strain of the power he was aiming to lift.  
He fell awkwardly and the robot pulled away and forced Ross to detach the arm, 
it fell off and spiralled away from Ross and the robot, which was circling 
around to finish the job.  
“Agh...  That was stupid Ross, but you made a promise to that girl, let’s see if 
its the arm that made me so good today, or if its myself...”  
Ross didn’t move his legs, but reached out for a large tree branch, the robot 
flew down, and Ross swung the branch and batted the robot into a tree, it turned 
to him, and its central eye was starting to sparkle.  
Ross smiled and threw his sword into the eye, and the robot fell to the floor, 
exploded a little, and remained still.  
But during the battle, the other robot had made its escape with the girl he had 
sworn to protect.  
“I’ll find you! I swear I’ll keep my promise!” yelled Ross, before trying to 
stand, and then falling over.  
“Ross!” called out Gear, “I’m so glad you’re safe, what happened to the 
monster?”  
“She wasn’t a monster, she was a normal girl who needed help... and I failed 
her.”  
Gear tried to pick up Ross, and he screamed at the pain in trying.  
“Ooooh, that’s gonna hurt in the morning, looks dislocated, might even need an 
small operation.”  
“Gear...” said Ross, giving the next thing he would say some thought, “I’m sorry 
I shouted at you, but if I had what you had offered me today, I might have been 
able to save that girl from the robot.  I know I’ll never be a normal knight 
with this metal arm... so if you won’t think any different of me afterwards, I’d 
like to go through with that operation to enhance my body strength, I have to be 
stronger.  I don’t care if her opinion of me changes, I have to fulfil my 
promise.”  
“Ross, of course I wouldn’t think less of you, and I’m sure you’ll be able to 
accomplish much more with extra strength, Friend...”  

Later on at Morn’s lab, Edwina was once again locked in the small cell.  
“That interfering boy, I was sure no one could get close to Energen, but its 
just my luck to run into a cyborg.  She might not be able to be properly 
controlled, but I’d say she did a feasible amount of damage to promote my genius 
intellect.  Rest now my dear, you did good out there, soon you shall learn to 
like using your great power for the empire...”  
Morn had used her wishes and twisted them to his own ends, his general plan was 
to force her out into the world and use her powers until Morn could identify its 
limits, and then make her forget her past life with machines so that she lived 
only to serve the empire.  
Morn had seen what had happened between Edwina and the cyborg boy, but not heard 
it.  
He believed that she would lose hope very soon, and give in to his wishes, 
making her easier to control, but after today, she thought, while she stared at 
the yellow cloth around her arm, she had something to believe in...  

Next:  “Mercenary’s Dream”:  Part 1  

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