CHAPTER 32
THE CONCORDIA NODE
“Ugh… this shitty feeling.” Hans exited the SpaceDoor and finally found himself breathing. “They really sent us nowhere.” He took in the view of place where they appeared. A place which can neither be a forest nor plains. They were scheduled for Concordia Node, so he was flustered like the other volunteers.
Hans was eager to see one of the eight outposts called Nodes, encircling Deadlands. The last line of defense against the invading Red-Demons. He couldn’t see his surrounding with much clearly since his mind was focused on the augmented window flashing before eyes. The familiar box with unfamiliar text was in it.
OFFLINE
When he inquired further, he got a prompt — ‘Outside the effective zone of Osiris terminal’. He didn’t quite grasp the exact meaning, but he got the main idea that he couldn’t use commands like INGRESS and SCAN.
“That’s some way of telling me I’m in hot waters. INGRESS is my go-to escape, and you are telling me I can’t use it! This is messed up. What if—”
“Stop chitchatting.” Karl interrupted his mumblings and added, “We are not far from the Node. The use of SpaceDoor is forbidden inside the perimeter, so we have to walk a little bit.”
After a brief trek of the hill, the huge sky reaching wall greeted their eyes. “Well, colour me impressed.” Hans chuckled, this was the by far a wonder of architecture he had seen. A circular fortress wall which seemed impregnable with a huge gate that looked it can’t be sieged.
But what more impressed Hans was the colorful barrier rising from those walls, “So, this is Concordia’s personal barrier.” He looked at his companions who had the same thing written all over their faces.
“Don’t loiter around.” Karl pushed a brown-haired boy forward. “We are running from this point. Your volunteering starts now. Reach the gates.” He ordered, looking at the distance. “Hmm…it’s only a few kilometres. It’s your first order. Do not interfere with each other in any way. Neither help nor trouble is permitted. You just need to reach the gates in an hour. Good luck.”
It wasn’t just a few but several kilometres away. Hans and others looked at each other till the sickly-looking boy started his run with an unprecedented speed.
“Woah, I thought he’d cough out of his life…you can’t judge others easily.” Hans started levitating. “He said though any means, right? Let’s fly. Zwwoosh!” Hans flew past the sickly-looking boy in a jiffy and was the first to reach the gates where Karl was waiting for them.
Hans never got the chance to understand how Karl was able to appear at the gates, but he knew Karl was not obligated to share that, so he buried his curiosity. One after another, all of the eight appeared. They might be the bottom of the barrel, but all of them passed the second year and were part of the Concordia. That automatically made them superior to many ordinary knights and mages.
The one who came at last asked Karl, “Sir, why not use a SpaceDoor inside the node? Why that far—”
“You moron, haven’t you studied a bit about the Deadlands—tsk! That’s why I hate the volunteer program. They all think it’s a picnic.” Karl vented his suppressed frustration and answered the naive girl’s question. “Listen, you ignorant bunch. Red demons are the only living beings in Genas who can use space mana. They don’t need space stones like us, so establishing a SpaceDoor inside a stronghold seems idiotic, doesn’t it?”
None questioned further, and after Karl flashed something at the massive doors. An ethereal light washed over the fortress gates and stretched all over the walls. The invisible runes and barriers that protected the place began to appear. “Is this the Deadlands’ barrier?” Hans involuntarily asked.
“Hmph… these fools.” Karl chuckled. “No, it’s not the grand barrier, but the personal barrier of a node. Each node has a circular perimeter, and a personal barrier rises at its extremes. It’s the second measure of protection. If the grand barrier fails, we don’t want our people inside the node massacred, do we?” He pointed towards the gate and said with proudly, “These nodes connect to form the Grand barrier, holding the deadlands within.”
Hans was not offended even a little. It was true that the he didn’t know anything about the Deadlands since everything about it was not in the books he possessed. So, he nodded without arguing and the doors began to creak, slowly but steadily they could see the inside through the slit gap. It took speed and the wide entrance welcomed them as the door finally swung opened.
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A bustling city which he had only heard before was actually there. Hans didn’t thought a city full of life to be present near Deadlands but the reality was something else. “Welcome to Concordia Node, third years”
All eight students were agape, including Hans as they saw the massive castle ahead, way bigger then their own back in midlands.
Hans had heard from Rudolf that the eight nodes are the key to keeping the Deadlands barrier in check. Each node has circular high walls that are evenly spaced and meet the grand barrier at a tangent point. The Castle was bisected by the Grand barrier, half of it was in the city while half was in Deadlands. That’s where they’re headed right now - the entrance to Deadlands.
“I thought it can’t get crazier but man, look at those defence runes. They are not even trying to hide it.” Hans exclaimed, amazed at the castle's extensive protection. Having never encountered a red demon before, he couldn't grasp why such extreme measures were necessary. “And they say, Concordia Node lacks in comparison to other Nodes.” He chuckled at absurdity.
As they entered, Hans felt the overwhelming mana coming from the grand barrier. It felt like someone had collected all the mana of the world at this one single place. He tried to connect with it, and surprisingly, it happened far faster than what he was used to, since their was so much of it.
“So you felt it…Haan… why is a talented individual like you here, Hans of Parv?” Karl finally asked. He couldn’t believe Hans’s grades since he knew how strong this Parvian was in last year’s Glory wars and now this supposed-low-scorer felt the abundance of mana just by stepping inside the node. His act screamed how sensitive he was to mana. And the rule of thumb in Genas said, the more sensitive you are to mana, the more talented you are.
“I volunteered,” Hans answered nonchalantly. “But why is this place so full of mana? We are practically breathing it—”
“This is all the influence of the massive sunstone in the Node castle,” Karl explained. “I never saw it firsthand, but some say it is several feet taller.”
Hans knew that the sunstone he previously had could fetch millions of gold easily but now someone was telling him the sunstone in this place was several foot tall. Hans gulped in anticipation.
“Then.” He mumbled, “These sunstones.. I mean all eight of them in every Node. So, they are connected with each other right?”
“Yes.” Karl nodded as he glanced at the magnificent barrier, “As I’ve told before, The nodes or specifically the sunstone inside them, their connectivity is what makes the Grand barrier.”
“So, what happens if one of the sunstones breaks or got stolen—”
“That would be end of the world. Period. Thats why Node security is epitome of impenetrable.”
As Karl kept answering the third-year students' questions, their brief journey ended by the castle gates so did Karl’s duty. Without saying goodbye, he vanished into the background as a new escort appeared—a young woman in sleek black armour, her blonde hair tied up elegantly on top of her head.
“Listen up freshies, you’ll soon be assigned to your respective duties. So follow me and not idle around.”
“Ma’am, ahem!” Hans tried to converse but the woman in black stopped him. “I’m not interested in little kids.” She said with a confident expressions, leaving her listeners to baffle. Hans even forgot what he was going to ask and remained silent throughout the escort.
It was a brief walk, and even though the castle was huge, there wasn't much space for these irrelevant students. The eight of them were split by gender and given a shared common room. The six boys had to cram into a tight hall, while the two girls took the other one.
They had half an hour to get ready and with a shared bathroom between six boys, they somehow managed to do it in time. Of course they all unanimously agreed to let Hans finish first, since his feisty personality was no stranger to them, no one there wanted to be on his bad side.
The blond woman in black greeted them with an arrogant nod and began to spoke the assignments.
“Ruben - armoury”
“Albus - construction”
…
…
.
“Hans - granary”
“Granary? Are they out of their minds. Why Granary..” Hans wanted to spoke his thoughts out loud but held it in. Since questioning the superior was forbidden there.
During his first week, he tried his best to outshine everyone. His deliveries was before time, his quick thinking resolved tricky situations, in short he fed people in time. He was first to finish every task but instead of garnering him attention, he now became the threshold that his fellow classmate have to overcome.
This isolated him since each one of them started to show their contempt towards him, not that he cared, but it wasn’t a good feeling.
“So working well is not enough. Meeting Hera is one thing, I don’t even get to see her. How the heck am I supposed to have her attention? Dear Ancestor, what a predicament you’ve thrown me in.” Hans sighed, but his whole week wasn’t just a waste. He had snooped around the fellow workers and heard many things about the Red monks.
“In short, these people are nosy, sticking their noses in everyone’s mess.” Hans concluded as he recalled things about this unique squad. “They jump in to rectify any situation from abduction or hostage situations and even unfair business practices. Calling them nosy is not enough; these people are busybodies on a whole different level.”
“Time for Plan B then.”
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