Ascension of the elder

Chapter 104: Return Trip

"You should know that in all the history of man "War never changes"."

They all paused and thought about this philosophical statement. It was true that while the means of war may change its reasons and nature is immutable and unchanging regardless of which era wars were fought man would find new and inventive ways to destroy its self.

"I may be wrong but I'm sure I've heard that somewhere before." Faye said while she was trying to remember where she had heard that quote before.

"Don't ruin it; anyway I'll let you settle in. Nettie if you need me just get one of 'steel lotus' to come and get me. Faye are you going to stay or do you want to return with me?"

Kyle asked as he thought Faye may want to see this mission through for a little longer but he wanted to get back and grab a bit of sleep before he returned to his training.

"I'll stay here for a little bit before I go over and see my sister if that's okay.

"No problem I'll see you in the morning goodnight."

Saying his farewell Kyle left, seeing him leaving a few of the women were conflicted as he was their saviour but he was also a man and they knew they should hate him but couldn't find that anger within them. Nettie looked at them and decided it would be best if they could have a good night's sleep and talk in the morning.

"Okay ladies I'm sure you're feeling tired so let's get you to your rooms and get a good night's sleep."

At Nettie's words their fatigue both mental and physical caught up with them and they agreed it would be best to get some sleep and look at things in the morning with fresh eyes. All the women were situated on the first floor on the south side. When everyone had been assigned their rooms Nettie and Faye spoke together for a bit while the members of 'steel lotus' started their patrols as this bastion was now completely their responsibility.

Back to Kyle, he was moving through the quiet city while maintaining awareness around himself. He was moving through the shadows but he was a firm believer in being cautious even if some of his actions belied this intent.

While he was in the shadows he saw many things from a loving couple walking home to a mugging currently happening in a dark alley. Kyle couldn't interfere everywhere so if he saw crime he would help but he knew that change happened at the top first so he would need to improve the nobles before he did anything. In regards to the mugging Kyle merely picked up a stone and threw it at the muggers arm causing him to drop his blade.

The mugger looked for his attacker but looking at the end of the alley he saw a living shadow moving and undulating scaring the mugger out of him so he took to his heels and ran for the hills. His victim didn't notice anything so before he could Kyle had returned to a less obvious form and continued home.

Moving through the Powell territory Kyle began to pay more attention as he was looking for anything strange or unnatural as he was expecting the enemy to begin trying to weaken them and the best way to do this would be to cause problems in their territory as they had done before when they had flooded it with various gangs.

Everywhere Kyle thought there may be trouble he either saw guards being directed by Tobias or one of the A'holes and if it wasn't them it was members of 'shadow hand'. It looked as though Tobias and One had locked down this area and weren't going to allow any disruption, this made Kyle smile as he felt he had made a good decision first in training One and secondly in bringing Tobias into the fold.

Reaching the estate Kyle saw a heightened guard presence with more people on the outer walls and roving patrols within. It looked like his father was also expecting trouble and was preparing for it. Kyle slipped past all of the guards and defences and finally arrived home.

Even though he could stay awake for days now and he hadn't really had to exert himself he was mentally tired, even if he had decided the members of the Miles family needed to be removed and he didn't regret his actions it still took a toll on him.

He had found that any time he felt stressed or was struggling with something a nice sleep and a warm morning shower always seemed to help so he made it a point to have a regular sleep schedule and insisted the others in the household did as well.

Reaching his room Kyle only turned on a single lighting array while he was communicating with his mansion spirit. The spirit was childish and innocent but it would be wrong to call it stupid, so Kyle was updating it on the new arrivals at one of the bastions and that they needed to be protected in case of an attack.

As Kyle was in communication he was gradually disarming dropping his armour and weapons followed by his clothing ending up only wearing boxer shorts before he headed to his bed and climbed in ready to get some sleep.

"Hum the bed's really warm."

Kyle said before he sighed and pulled back the covers, there was Elena sleeping with drool coming out of her mouth with a happy and silly look on her face. Like this Elena looked so funny Kyle could barely contain his laughter before he widened his eyes at who else was there.

Next to Elena was Miranda, she was wearing a full nightdress and had a small smile on her face. While Elena was sprawled out and looked anything but ladylike Miranda however looked every part the lady with her white dress and having an almost demur look while she slept.

Not to forget the final member, Clara was also there sleeping with an arm around Miranda's waist. Unlike Miranda who looked like an angel Clara was every bit a temptress. She was wearing a red nightdress which somehow made her extremely seductive plus she had a grin on her face which made you think she was planning something in her sleep.

Regardless of their sleeping postures all three were very pretty and with the advantage of the daily training they had received over the last few years their bodies were more developed than others their age.

Kyle swallowed and began to chant in his mind 'loli no touch, loli no touch'. So now the question was should he wake them up and kick them out, train all night or just accept the situation for what it was and just go to sleep. If it was just Elena it wouldn't be a problem as he knew she didn't really mean anything by it but Miranda and Clara had intentionally climbed in his bed to wait for his return.

He would need to decide what he was going to do and soon but for now he was tired and wanted to sleep. Luckily this sultry and beautiful illusion was completely and utterly destroyed not by the angel and not by the demon but instead by the car wreck known as Elena. With a little grunt what followed was a loud *FAAAAAAAARRRRRTTTTT*. Elena had a satisfied look on her face after that and rolled over slightly in her sleep.

Kyle could only pick up his shattered dreams and poetic heart after this interruption, this had dispelled the illusion however and he just climbed into bed and fell asleep within just a few moments.

Kyle's dreams were strange that night as he felt like he was being trapped and constricted by something, first he felt he was at the bottom of the ocean and an octopus had him before it switched to a padded cell and he was in a straight jacket before it shifted again to him being tied to a chair while there were dancing peanuts doing a chorus line in front of him.

What is wrong with my brain Kyle was thinking as he was in a state of lucid dreaming and the feeling of constriction or restraint was something people felt in dreams fairly often but what was with the peanuts?

Gradually morning returned to the world and Kyle began to become aware of what was around him. The reason for the feeling of constriction in his dream was easily explained as he could feel Elena had latched onto him in the night and it didn't feel like she was planning on letting him go anytime soon.

He also began to hear quiet voices nearby. He quickly identified them as Clara and Miranda but their conversation was confusing to him in his still sleep addled brain.

"What should we do?" Miranda asked.

"Um well mum said that these things happen."

"Really mum never told me about things like this."

"I don't know should we try to push it down?"

"I don't know if we should maybe we should ask Kyle when he wakes up."

Kyle didn't know why but he was gradually getting a bad feeling so he slowly opened his eyes and looked around before looking to the foot of the bed.

"Well hello."