The array's control podium was a wondrous invention.

Through the use of hand gestures and combining them together in specific patterns, Milo was—within the confounds of Kirkstead—essentially a God. With the gifted dexterity of a [Senior Tailor], his hands danced around like an illusory ghost.

Ostin found him mesmerising to watch.

Milo could reverse gravity, concentrate incoming light onto specific fields of crops, split trees in half with a slash of air, cause rocks to rumble and stop the flow of the southern river. He could blot out the sky, or even cease the flow of air, suffocating everyone to death. Basically, anything was possible.

If Milo was in control of the array, Ostin estimated that unless the Grecia Empire brought their strongest warriors and most powerful mages, no one could assail his brother's position.

"If my hands weren't so shaky and…" her mind blanked for a second as she tried to find her words. Her cheeks jiggled as she shook her head from side to side, "If my hands weren't so fucked up, I would've never taught the brat how to use the array. He would have never even known I was down here in the first place."

In a nearby aisle, Freya prepared tea with a self-heating kettle, steam pouring up into the air as she poured the aromatic drink into three separate ceramic cups.

Milo and Ostin received their tea shortly after. Blowing on the tea in between sips to cool the tongue-scalding drink, Milo used the moment to catch Ostin up on the series of events that led to him learning how to control the array.

Five years ago, after the unexpected death of Freya's nephew, the underground hall had been explored by Milo and a handful of volunteers. After they found nothing but a bunch of unintelligible books, they abandoned the underground library and sealed it back up.

Reporting the site to the Grecia Empire only passed through their minds briefly. For if they did, their village would be vacated and turned into an excavation site.

Wanting to avoid such a fate, Milo and the rest of the village unanimously decided to seal the library up. Quickly everyone forgot about the underground library. Only when the people of the village walked past the hole in which Joshua fell, would they remember the structure that lay beneath their village

It was only three months after the incident that Freya came knocking on his doorstep. She had begged him to use the podium in her place. Amused and bewildered at the same time, Milo went along with the old lady's funny charade—until it wasn't.

Using the array, she displayed shocking feats that were undeniably real. She uprooted trees from the ground and drew graffiti onto the top of people's roofs from her remote location—some of which were still undiscovered till this very day. Lastly, with a cheeky smile on her face, Freya summoned up a rectangular screen that showed a man and a woman…wrestling.

It was only after Milo was told by Freya that he could use the array to manipulate the weather, fertilise the soil, and several other valuable use cases that he was convinced.

So they struck a deal.

In return for teaching Milo how to control the array and allowing him to use it for the good of Kirkstead, he was to assist her whenever she wanted to conduct an experiment involving it.

Once he got the hang of using the podium, the experiments were conducted on a bi-weekly basis. Her so-called 'experiments' were—truly—very odd. It was always the same thing too.

Using the blue sky as his canvas, he would write in the mysterious language that the library's books were written in. By the end of each experiment, Milo's hands would feel like they had been stabbed repeatedly over and over again.

Freya never told him why he was doing this type of torturous exercise. He had asked, but she would always counter his question with a snarky remark.

"So…what powers the array?" Ostin asked Milo with a curious glimmer in his eyes.

Milo put down his cup of tea on the nearest shelf and gestured with his hand. "Follow me, I'll show you."

A moment later they were back on the podium. It was a large platform, wide and long enough to fit a couple dozen people on it. The podium had a U-shaped desk, with a small staircase leading up to it.

Placing his hand against a partition of the brass wall, he made a series of hand gestures with the other hand.

"Open."

The brass wall disconnected from the podium, falling to the floor with a loud crash that shook Milo's eardrums. He jumped away from the falling wall and took in a big breath of air.

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Ostin on the other hand, watched on unblinkingly. He had seen so much battle that he could fall asleep even if a volley of arrows were whistling through the air towards him—as long as he had a [Shield] up of course.

Milo chuckled, feeling embarrassed.

Freya shouted at him from across the library.

"Stop with the ruckus. I'm trying to read!"

Milo cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled back.

"Sorry!"

Milo then gestured to the staircase that appeared from the podium's inside.

"This staircase here," Milo explained, "leads into a chamber. Inside that very chamber, is a statue. That statue has…a practically infinite amount of energy. Even if I tried to, I wouldn't even be able to make a dent in it. Freya once told me that if she were to make it into a bomb, she could kill a God."

Ostin tilted his head, crouched down and peered into the hole. He adjusted his glasses and sat back.

"Are you sure? Can we go down there and check it out, perhaps?"

Milo shook his head, looking like he had just asked him if he wanted to jump off a cliff.

"No. The statue is very dangerous. If we go down there, we'll die."

Befuddled, Ostin asked, "Why? What's so dangerous about it?"

Milo answered, "That's because if you look at it, the gems that act as its eyes, will pulverise your soul. Freya said that even if someone over Level 100 looked at it, they'd still die. It's that powerful."

Later, as their conversation about the statue ended, Milo attached the brass wall back onto the podium and dusted off his hands.

Milo smiled.

"Alright, I'll show you the second floor now. After that, we'll head home."

***

In a dazzling flash of light, several dozen figures appeared in front of the mountain pass to Kirkstead. The light quickly faded and revealed an ensemble of red-robed people.

There were only two people who weren't wearing red robes. A tall old man with blue piercing eyes and a goatee, and another that wore robes of purple instead of red.

The former was naturally Heath, Level 100 [Exalted Empyrean] and personal advisor of Emperor Nimbus. The purple-robed person on the other hand was someone that even Heath had some respect towards.

The [Head Inquisitor].

An existence that was shrouded in complete mystery—until today.

The only people who knew of their identity and were capable of communicating with the [Head Inquisitor] were Heath, Emperor Nimbus, and a few trusted [Royal Inquisitors] responsible for relaying orders to the rest of the organisation.

In the eyes of the [Inquisitors], the head was on the same level as Emperor Nimbus himself.

So it was to the shock of those gathered here now, that they discovered the [Head Inquisitor] was in fact…

A female drow.

This female drow was in fact the same one that massacred Kirkstead alongside Heath all those years ago. Looking as youthful as she was at twenty-one, two curved swords were strapped onto her back.

Not wasting a single second or saying a single word, everyone ran up the mountainside. Everyone was a blur as they moved, high body stats and enhancement magic allowing them to move faster than the eye could see.

Eight minutes to go.

***

Within the underground library, at this very moment…

It was as Milo and Ostin were coming down from the second floor that they heard the alarm.

The 'alarm' was the ringing of a bell. The sound of it resounded throughout the entire library.

Milo heard the bell and froze. A second later, when the next ring of the bell came, he swore to himself and sprinted into action.

Ostin came to the bottom of the stairs and yelled.

"What's happening?"

Milo's shoulder bumped into a bookshelf as he cut a corner.

He exclaimed, "The village is under attack!"

Ostin's eyes widened in shock.

Eyes fluttering, he tapped a bracelet on his wrist. A blue outline covered his body. When he ran forwards, Ostin moved at twice the speed he normally could. His legs kicking through the air and hair fluttering behind him, Ostin, rushed towards the library's entrance.

***

Milo felt like he was reliving that day all over again.

It was different in many ways, but the same types of emotions that he felt at that time reemerged.

Dread. Hopelessness. Fear.

But, for some reason, he felt another emotion.

Relief.

As soon as this emotion emerged, Milo crushed it. His head felt like it was going to explode.

He ground his teeth together as he screamed internally.

What the fuck is wrong with me!? I shouldn't feel relieved. My own family is going to die if I don't save them! Goddamnit!

Milo couldn't explain why he had felt that way. It scared and confused him at the same time.

Was he a psychopath or something? This entire time, did he secretly crave the death of all of those close to him?

He shook his head, deciding to leave these philosophical questions.

He loved Hailey and his family. He knew that more than a random feeling that had popped up in the heat of the moment. It couldn't be true.

It had to be…

A minute later, puffing for air and adrenaline throbbing through his veins, he exited into the central square where the library separated from the podium.

Upon the podium, Freya held on the best she could. Her frail hands, combined with what Milo suspected to be arthritis, made moving her hands around excruciatingly painful.

As soon as she spotted Milo, she scowled at him, "Milo, get up here quick!"

Ignoring that she just called him by name for the very first time, Milo arrived by her side and took the metaphorical reins of the podium.

Milo assessed the situation outside and immediately checked his family's house.

When he saw Ostin sitting on the porch, a bubble-shaped [Shield] wrapped around it, he felt a sense of relief.

He flicked through to the next screen and froze, a series of howling screams and cries drilling into his ears.

He witnessed a family being slaughtered.

Milo's heart turned cold as his hands moved on their own.