Stefan quietly moved through the front doorway of the doctors’ office. Isabel and Leon were the only ones at home, and he didn’t wish to wake them up. He did his best to tiptoe up the stairs, but with a 100-pound body on his back, that was easier said than done. Carrying Anwen was not a hard task, as he was used to carrying heavy weights for the elders in Derban. His training with Utrium had only made that more apparent. The true test was being quiet and quick enough that the Bernards’ and Anwen wouldn’t be awoken. Five minutes after entering the house, he and Anwen finally entered the bedroom that Leon’s elder sister formerly occupied. He set her on the mattress gently and took off the cloak she always wore when she was outside, before folding it and draping it over the headboard so that she could easily find it the next morning. Next, he put a pillow under her head and took off her shoes so that he could move her body into a comfortable position, on her side so that she wouldn’t choke on her vomit due to the alcohol. Just as Stefan expected, Anwen had one artificial leg and natural leg.

“Why has she never told me about this?” Stefan wondered in a whisper. “I guess girls really are more conscious about their bodies than guys.”

“Shteff…” Anwen murmured suddenly. Stefan almost jumped and yelled at her, before realizing that she was just talking in her sleep. Although she wasn’t Gareth’s biological daughter, she took a lot after him. “I showwy. I sho mean…”

“Yeah, I’m definitely not sleeping next to you if I have to hear that all night.” Stefan scoffed.

It was a bad time to be having all sorts of new questions, so much so that it would be hard to sleep. How long did Anwen have the fake leg for? Was she only born with one leg? Did she take her leg off when she went to bed?

‘No, save them for later. Ask her when she’s up.’ Stefan reminded himself, pulling the sole blanket over the girl’s shoulder. He took one of the bed’s two pillows and tossed it onto the carpeted floor, then threw his own cloak over his body to use as a blanket.

An unexpected sense of unease seized the boy. It was unexplainable, yet it felt that it forewarned something so real, so genuine. He just didn’t know what, except that it was harmful, dangerous.

His hand was drawn to one of the pockets of his pants, containing a shard of Utrium. It wasn’t enough to fight with, but that was not his plan at all. He figured that since Pool could grant an Initiated a temporary boost in energy, his body could convert it into hormones in his brain that would ease his mind and help him sleep more easily. After all, Pool and Reserve were simply forms of energy, not fighting techniques. There shouldn’t have been any restrictions when it came to what the body could do using said energy. Gareth had taught him that it only took a single intention, just one wish for the Utrium to grant its power to an Initiated. So, hoping for some sleep, Stefan touched the Utrium and soon descended into a slumber.

-

The townsfolk were all either regaling one another in their homes or at the tavern or were resting their minds and bodies in the comfort of their beds. They were so entirely occupied with one another that not even one of them had bothered to notice that 10 long beams of golden light sliced through the dark night, ending in the woods to the north of the town. 10 mighty, metallic transport craft appeared below them nearly instantly. They were not outfitted with anything that resembled wheels, nothing that looked like it could move their sleek, bulky frames. They hadn’t even grazed against a single tree. It was unfathomable as to how they could transpose. The only explanation was that they shifted through the pillars of light from which they manifested, but even this had no explanation. It was, as many of their occupants’ would-be victims would say, evil magic. A kind of art that went against millennia of scientific knowledge gathered by humanity. A kind of art that only a single, young maiden had discovered how to counter less than two decades earlier. The hatches of the vehicles exposed their occupants to the air, 20 ethereal figures clad in armorless, grey military overcoats.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Attention!” a soldier wearing the insignia of a major barked, donning a grey beret over his medium-length, platinum blonde locks. All his subordinates turned to him and saluted him.

“At ease,” the major ordered. “It has taken us months to reach this point. Our mission is not to cause unnecessary bloodshed. As such, use of primary firearms will not be permitted. Our job is to first and foremost scout this area and ascertain the location of the asset. After which, we will reconvene and capture it, by force if we must. We will not kill any of the inhabitants of this settlement unless provoked. Split up into groups of two. I will be accompanied by the lieutenant. Do you understand?”

“Aye, Major!” the nineteen soldiers hollered, before divvying up into their assigned formations. They set off, seeking vantage points across the edge of the town.

-

Stefan sprung up, breathing heavily. He clutched his chest as if to prevent his heart from bursting out his ribcage.

“What the hell was that?” he asked himself, pleading with himself internally to calm himself down. “Was that a dream? No… I remember every detail. It was so vivid. It was like I was just there at that forest. It was… it was a vision…”

How could he have seen something despite not being there? Was this a newly discovered consequence of Utrium? Regardless of what it was, Stefan couldn’t go back to sleep. He had to find out why this was happening.

“I have to go see Gareth.” Stefan told himself, throwing his cloak on and slipping his feet into his boots. Gareth had to have returned from the tavern by then, seeing as it had been four hours since he and Anwen returned to the Bernard house. He didn’t care if he had to wake him up. Gareth was not one to get mad, and the most he’d be was minorly disappointed at the boy for visiting him in the middle of the night. As he was about to bolt out the room, he noticed a sniffling sound coming from the bed he’d just leapt past. He saw Anwen’s body trembling ever so slightly, her face marked with both wet and drying tears.

“She’s probably having a nightmare. Damn it, I’m not her babysitter. I’ll leave her alone.”

Running out into the cool, spring-like night, he beelined for the inn that Gareth was staying at. Before he could make it past the lobby of the small two-storey building, a strong pair of arms prevented him from going up the stairs to Gareth’s lodgings.

“Did you see them? Did you see them in your sleep?” Gareth asked in an unusually energetic tone, dressed head to toe in red armor, his visor unfastened to reveal his chiseled face.

“You had that dream too?” Stefan asked.

“That wasn’t a dream, Stefan. What the Utrium showed you was real. I’ll help you put on your armor, then we move.”

Putting on his all-black battle clothing as quickly as he could, he ran through the now empty, desolate paths of Marius toward the eerie forests that bounded its northern edges. It was terrifying. Just hours ago, the main street of Marius was bustling with crowds full of travelers, traders, businessmen and consumers. Now, it was void of vibrance as its populace slept. And unless Gareth and Stefan did something about it quickly, it would remain that way forever. Their first foes encountered them at the far eastern treeline.

“Disgusting Terran monkey,” one of them, a male soldier, spat. “Not only do you have the audacity to approach us in a horrible attempt to appear heroic, but you don our beautifully crafted armor as well.”

“I thought you Titanians didn’t need to wear armor. Why are you so proud of it?” Gareth mocked the soldier, who was evidently young and had very little experience in combat. His observant female comrade was the same.

“We don’t need armor to protect ourselves from the apes that you are.”

“Ah, so that means your armor is meant to protect yourselves from each other. Is that what I’m getting from this?” Gareth asked.

His tone was cocky and proud. Stefan had never heard it before. He guessed that it was due to Gareth still being drunk or that this part of his personality only came out when he faced an Angel.

“I didn’t ask you to comment on our internal affairs, pal,” the male soldier mocked. “Now are you waiting for us to put you in the dirt first or are you going to continue yapping? It won’t take long to rip through that armor.”

Gareth cracked his knuckles, and even though his face was now covered by his helmet’s visor, Stefan knew he was smirking underneath it.

“It was you and eighteen of your friends who encroached on this town first. I just thought that I’d give you a nice, warm welcome.”