Beyond The Veils, a Crimson Tranquility.
Chapter 1: Echoes in The Alley, Part 3.
On the inside, Cassius turned back and prayed for his comrade's wellbeing. Luca came running to the hatch to find Cassius who handed him Gabriel's radio, "How could u let him go just like that?!! The coalition emphasizes strongly on assessing the threat for a reason, damn it!" Luca shouted at Cassius with a sense of duty and worry for his friend.
"I could feel it, Officer. I am not like Gabriel but I could feel it, after all those years of working with people like him. Gabriel will come out unscathed from this affair, if he wishes to let go, that is." Cassius said, "Not like we can do anything except watch. The hatch is already locked from the outside." Luca said with worry and haste, as they rushed.
They both went to a part of the ship where the parts of the walls are made in such a way that they could look at surface and the underwater too, this equipment being available to higher ranking officials.
There they saw Gabriel, while the target was only about 3 km away. Gabriel was shaking a bit and he only just stared into the empty sky and did not do anything. He did not want to use his "boon".
Navigation reported the surrounding region is experiencing a seismic anomaly and they were going to experience some turbulence and entire crew was warned to buckle up as the turbulence would only be getting worse.
The target was now 1 and a half kilometer away, and Cassius called out to Luca and patted his shoulder for him to look at Gabriel once. They could barely zoom onto Gabriel but they could tell Gabriel's tremors stopped and he stared at his palms.
His eyes slowly started to glow red, his body being consumed by a dark thick foggy aura, beginning from his heart and spreading out in a fibery manner, stretching to all his body parts, forming a layer beneath it.
He put his leg up onto nothingness, taking a step on air, using air as a staircase, as preparing for meeting the entity. He materializing in his every step was a dark aura as he stepped on air, leaping high into the sky, beginning to fly ,using that dark aura as a propulsion energy. That was the only reasonable explanation Luca could come up with, whenever he saw Gabriel do that.
It was noon and the sun was growing increasingly torrid, exponentially so as the entity drew closer to the ship. He was RIGHT THERE, about 100 meters away from the ship. It was now too deep for Luca and Cassius to look at Gabriel and the other individual from the room, but they could make out that the individual was a humanoid whose body was emitting light.
Luca scoffed saying "you are dead, intruder." , at this point neither Luca nor Cassius could make out what was happening on the surface. All they could see was that, in such a bright day ,they saw a dark figure emerging in their unclear field of view. "YES! He did it, I knew he could do it!" Cassius exclaimed with happiness.
On the surface, Gabriel and the target came face to face, "So you are my opposite, when it comes to our essence manifestation?" Gabriel said. The glowing figure replied with "You killed my comrades back in the bunker, now the Organization wants me to take care of your friends and everyone involved, totally did not expect there'd be a force user here." with a cocky smirk.
"I AM surprised by these turn of events, not that it's much of a problem for me, i am one of the finest ones back there you know? And even more of my level are coming to ensure a sure victory. " the figure continued.
"But, Where are my manners? Allow me to introduce myself, I am Aaron, and you, my soon-to-be-dead friend, are?", the man said.
"I am Gabriel, and you talk too much.", "Ouch. That's a lot of confidence for someone about to die in a few minutes, and just so you know, Once i am done with you i am going to light up that little ship and drown everyone in there, and you won't be able to do anything about it." Aaron said.
Gabriel went into a state of trance for a small amount of time, gazing off into abyss, his mind being flooded with thoughts.
Aaron charged a blinding wave of light energy and released it towards Gabriel, a burst of energy so bright it created a screen of vapor around the entire area, engulfing both of them in a thick, unusual smog.
Navigation informed Luca that there is another wave of these weird flying things inbound, about 1000 km away from the current position. A sense of dread and doubt washed over Luca and Cassius' face as they were doubtful of Gabriel utilizing the complete extent of his abelites.
Through the smog and the unusually thick screen of vapor, Aaron could make out a dark silhouette, his eyes now glowing a complete, scarlet-crimson glow, his body forming peculiar outgrowths.
The overly bright day started to turn dark, the entire scene was covered in an unusual night. Aaron could make out from the silhouette he saw that this unusual phenomenon was Gabriel's doing.
"Try to touch them, I dare you, filthy torch." A voice reverberated resolutely in the unnatural darkness. The figure of a man Aaron was able to see disappeared with the conjuring of the night.
Aaron felt a spine tingling sensation of foreboding wash over him. He, a very strong force user, able to annihilate entire cities in a blink, is now feeling scared and timid, against a lowly Navy Officer. For Aaron, this was very unusual, the feeling of true existential dread wash over him, as he slowly realizes the gravity of the situation he's in.
Gabriel, who disappeared into the peculiar night appeared right behind Aaron, who was still in a trance but managed to catch him. Only to know it was but a mere mirage of his opponent. "So much talk for someone this weak."
Aaron was pulled out of his trance and started to take the offensive as he moved at high speeds and tried to locate Gabriel in the darkness. He found him and managed to land one hit after they exchanged some blows while flying at speeds exceeding Mach 2.
Gabriel was unfazed by this attack and Aaron would see him do some sort of....stretching while he was fighting Aaron and simultaneously fly.
Aaron tried to dispel his enemy's conjuring and hopefully hold back, while the second wave of his comrades arrive. But while doing so, Aaron was forced to lower his defenses, consequently making him take a punch from Gabriel.
Gabriel was a bit worried to his enemy smile after he took a punch to the face, "What's so funny? Did that hit so hard it displaced your brain or what?"
But Gabriel soon realized the reason behind his opponent's unnatural reaction in such a situation. He was sensing 9-11 force users approaching his location. "Bought your friends to play, sniveling, spineless coward?" Gabriel said, his voice an echoing resolute command through the dark night skies.
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Gabriel took a punch straight to the face and turned towards Aaron, "You're done for, you arrogant wimp".
Gabriel came face to face with the squad, "You'll pay for what you've done to our Aaron, and our buddies back in the bunker!"
"Will I, though?" Gabriel said as he opened his arms freely and ascended even higher in the night sky, only thing echoing through the absolute calm skies being Gabriel's unflinching voice saying "Shadow Technique: Apophis nightfall". As the skies conjured by Gabriel's might grew even thicker, darker.
His dark body grew a sort of armor decorated with thorns and his head covered in a medieval sort of armor headpiece, all of which was made by darkness covering his body.
The squad finally understood why the area near this region was so dark, why the radius of the effected space spanning to about 70 km. They were terror stricken, all of them. But they quickly came back to consciousness and planned to attack him in squads with light users illuminating the area and dark users trying to hunt him down.
The last thing they were able to see, before Gabriel disappeared, was him manifesting in his hands a great sword. His body looked like it turned into that weird, dark aura which surrounded him, disappearing into the atmosphere.
The entirety of navigation gave up on their lives as they saw 8-10 targets lighting the whole room's screens up, moving at speeds reaching twice of nearly the speed of sound. As they said their final players, they were confused, seeing their higher ups laughing like madmen , exchanging glances and as they congratulated themselves.
"He did it! That crazy son of a gun really did it! You feel his overwhelming presence, don't you?" Said Luca to Cassius, as they both started to cry as they laughed from pure ecstasy.
Above on the surface, the force users were cowering in fear, uncertain of where Gabriel would strike them from, the light wielders used all their collective might to light up the sky, and thanks to their collective strength they were successful in doing so. The dark users spread out to find Gabriel and strike him.
Down in the submarine Luca was thinking about how it all started, reminiscing of what he was told when he was young, all the while, feeling shockwaves from the battle unfolding up above.
"Humans ,always defiant, fought their pathetic conditions. Finding agriculture in greed of having more accessible and reliable source of food. Used fire to be more efficient and slowly grew, discovering one thing and inventing another. During the earliest times of the dawn of mankind, we found out another source of energy. The body and soul itself.... Body strength coming from burning calories to exert physical force was one thing, but we found something quite......different." Luca's grandfather's echoed through his mind, experiencing the whole ordeal.
He pondered how far humans have come, grew from simpletons and stupid cavemen to being able to level entire cities in a flick of the finger.
On the surface, the light users were successful in illuminating the area and finding Gabriel. The dark users did their part and tried to pursue Gabriel and put this rabid dog down, once and for all. Little did they know, they were just giving themselves to him.
Gabriel suddenly turned back and stared at the force users with his soul piercing scarlet-crimson eyes. They all charged onto him, carrying a sword and maces made from their essence, just like Gabriel.
Only to their horror, their weapons went right through the silhouette. A whispery voice echoed through the night skies saying "You bunch really did not think you could take me down so easily like that."
As he took out the light users who tried to form an offensive position in response and consequently stopped illuminating the area. The light team suffered 3 deaths. Following which, dark users closed in on Gabriel and landed some fatal hits. He shrugged them off like they did not hurt much and moved so fast it felt like he was disappearing.
Just then, they all realized how much a power gap there was, they finally realized what their instincts were shouting from the beginning. To run and hide. to cower and beg, but it was far too late for that, as they heard Gabriel's voice echo through the ether "I've had enough of this. I have a child to attend to. Just for you guys have a fair fight, I'll turn off this darkness and not use mirages."
As the unnatural darkness around the place disappeared and they saw a figure in the sky, his eyes resolute and his body a menacing posture. They all didn't attack him thinking it was another trick. "Oh come on. It's not a trick. COME AT ME!" he commanded with a sense of seriousness now replacing his previous smug and taunting voice.
They mustered the courage to come at him, charging all at once. To this, Gabriel smiled, moving out of the way at speeds exceeding Mach 4 along with his great sword. They could keep up with his movements, but their bodies didn't comply to follow him, striking him was an even distant aim.
Gabriel slashed through the people and gave them a quick end. "May your souls rest in peace, young ones." He said before starting his short-lived massacre. 2 people from the squad, one wielding light and one dark, tried to run away from the raging force and put all their efforts into flying away as fast as possible.
Gabriel, after dealing with all of them, realized there was a very high intensity signal trying to run away from him, and he remembered there were 2 more essence users missing, which did not engage in battle with him, Gabriel quickly realized their plans and took off, at his highest possible speeds, creating a giant wave below him, in response to the shockwave created by his sudden acceleration from rest to Mach 7.
"You too sure are good at flying, I'll give you that. But alas, you were destined to be my opponents. It really does break my heart. It's been fun, may your souls find peace." Gabriel said after he caught up with the pair and slashed through them.
Down below, Luca was still drowned in a trance, remembering his grandfather's words, "The first essence user arose in the very moment of desperation and vengeance. A nomadic tribal man, 24,000 years ago went on a hunt alone since his tribe was injured fatally thanks to their previous hunts. He set out into the thick forest in hopes of finding food to keep his tribe alive and help his comrades heal quicker. He wished to secretly kill one of a pair of mammoths he spotted and followed for a while, but messing up his spear throw mammoth sure spoiled his plans. Confronted by the mammoths he was washed over by a feeling of hopelessness and dread. He could only pray for help and wish miracle would happen. But he knew there was no one coming to his aid, to help his comrades, his family, his tribe. Filled with new found hope and a peculiar defiance he held his spear and went back to his primal instincts, he shouted out loud, so loud he scared the mammoths and he threw that spear so hard it pierced through the mammoth's thick skin, killing it instantly. The other mammoth ran away, and he dragged the corpse-trophy of his triumph back to his camp himself. People might call me crazy for still believing in these long forgotten myths....but Luca, you must know this, our heritage, our nature.....our past shrouded by these veils. One day, I know you will become as strong as that man, and you will protect the ones you hold so dear."
"I'm sure you would be disappointed in me, Grandpa." He said to himself under his breath. Cassius shouted to wake him up from the trance so that he could hear what the ship intercom was announcing, "All threats have been neutralized. All units return to positions and assess the functionalities of the ship, please report any and all anomalies and issues in the ship's functioning to navigation department, CO or The XO. We're saved folks!!" as the ship started to re-emerge and resume normal functioning.
Cassius and Luca rushed back to the hatch, which was opened from the outside, unlike when Gabriel had locked it from the outside. The opened the hatch and saw Gabriel in a peaceful stance, hovering above the ocean surface, with his unusual armor. He was in a state of calm after the fight and meditated mid air.
Luca and Cassius were very happy since they made it through this situation since it felt so impossible, not because they doubted Gabriel's strength but doubting he'd even use his powers. The entire crew knew they had an essence user among them, but they didn't know they were so strong that he'd get them out of this entire problem by himself. They congratulated him through the ship's speakers and some came to thank him through the hatch.
Tommy woke up from his sleep and came out to ask John, who was watching over him, and Luca to ask him what was happening. "Your father saved us kiddo, from very bad people." Tommy jumped with excitement after hearing what his uncle said.
The entire crew celebrated this victory and Luca announced on the intercom saying "Special dinner night for everyone today!" as he finally showed some emotions on his face which was usually very cold and resolute. He commanded the ship's navigation to steer towards South America , to report this incident to the continental headquarters commander in chief.
Amongst all this celebration, upheaval and happiness, Gabriel was digging deep into his memories to remember about this "organization", since he knew this skirmish against them had only began. He knew there will be more coming, but he didn't know what they actually were.
To Be Continued in chapter 2.