9 AM.

Zone Eight, Skarka City. Wrathak.

Hugo walked out of a trailer, coughing as he did. 

Paf! Altara ran up to Hugo and hugged him. Hugo was shocked by this but hugged back none the less.

"Thank the gods you are okay, Hugo."

Altara mumbled before looking up at him, stepping away.

"So what happened? They dead?" He asked Konstantine and Altara.

"I took care of the one that stabbed you and as for the other..well Konstantine took her into custody."

"Heh, good job you two. You really have grown into amazing magikans."

Hugo glanced around, noticing they were outside the hall. "Where are the others anyway?"

Konstantine folded her arms and itched her cheek with her left hand. "Kry is on the phone to someone, Radius is sleeping and Verse is hacking into security cameras all over the city to gain intel on imperial locations."

"Hm, okay..."

...

It was now 11 AM, the majority of the Zones the rebels had originally occupied still under control, five Zones had been lost and reclaimed by the government. One, of course, being Zone Six thanks to Kruger.

Kry stood inside the hall that Hugo and Altara were injured in, next to him was...Krow.

"So you are betraying the Empire?" Kry asked, looking at Krow who was leaning against a pillar, looking at Kry through his bird mask.

"You could say that. I failed in my task to take back Zone Seventeen. And I failed to capture you and your group of friends...I would rather fail in something that I somewhat agree with; destroying the Empire. They will kill me if I returned now."

Kry chuckled and walked to Krow, his hands in his pockets.

"We don't really seek to destroy the Empire. We seek to shatter them to the point where they cease their plans on invading Homstala."

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"You do realize the Emperor won't stop at anything to invade Homstala? He is an imperialist at heart, of course he is. In fact, I bet if you looked Imperialist up on the internet the first result would be him." Krow said to Kry, sighing after finishing.

"But..."

Krow looked up at Kry.

"There is something I must tell you that is more important than any of this.."

Kry looked at Kry, his eyes widening. "Go on..."

Krow stopped leaning on the wall and started to walk around slowly, his hands in his pockets.

"The Emperor is a madman, an old madman. He is in his 130's and seeks to become immortal and spread his immortality amongst the Wolven people. Did..you find out why they had captured Konstantine?" 

Kry adjusted his glasses. "We first presumed they wanted to use her to get information on us and our location, but Altara said he found her in the prison hooked up to a machine that was extracting her blood."

"Her blood, yes...have you ever questioned her naturally red eyes?" Krow looked at Kry.

Kry looked back at him. "Wait..are you sayi-"

"She is half Dire-Being." Krow suddenly interrupted Kry.

Kry looked at the floor, running his right hand through his hair. "The immortal race of Diratopia, the least populated race on Adepta. One of her parents must have been a Dire-Being...explains it. She probably knows it herself and isn't telling anyone out of fear she will be sold out again."

"He was using her for that then...shit!" Kry mumbled.

"And now that he has that he seeks to start the invasion early."

Krow mumbled, looking at Kry who looked back slowly.

"What..?"

"He has terror weapons left over by his family from the Supreme War, huge bombs at the ready. Now that he has his immortality he feels invincible, invincible enough to invade Homstala."

Kry walked up to Krow and placed both of his hands on his shoulders. "How do we stop this? Is there a launch code?? Where is the missile site?"

"The only person who knows the code is the Emperor himself, there is no actual code on any database anywhere. Only he can launch the bombs. As for the location I have no idea." Krow looked at Kry through his eye holes, Kry saw his black eyes through the holes, focusing on them for a few seconds before stepping away. 

"Braveye...just what is a Braveye?" Kry suddenly asked, his back facing Krow.

Krow looked up at Kry slowly, before looking at the floor.

"It is an ability gifted by the Emperor that feeds on wants and needs, making it stronger. It doesn't require attunement to make it work, he simply gifts it to someone who has a lot of need and want in their heart. It is a magik that gets stronger with that. Apparently his bloodline created it during the Supreme War and now he is using it for his own needs, he gives them to people that have these things they want, using their emotions to strengthen the Braveye and achieving the Emperor's goals easier..he uses what they want for his own gain."

Kry itched his chin.

"I see..so it isn't your own magik, but rather his he has given to you."

"Precisely..."

...

Meanwhile, in a room inside of an apartment in Zone Eight. Verse was on a laptop looking through various camera feeds, she flicked to a camera situated on the southern exit of the city walls, spotting a large convoy driving out. She squinted at it and rewinded, zooming into the back of a truck. Spotting a glimpse of the old Emperor Nero in the back who winded his blacked-out window up.

Verse's eyes widened, and she rushed to her phone.