Marcia curled herself on the mattress, feeling her head tap against the concrete wall. The room she was in was completely dark, and it felt like time did not exist anymore. She spent most of the time in a delirious sleep, never knowing when it was night or day. Meal times were the only indication that she was still alive, and had not long died and become a disembodied ghost.
Footsteps clicked outside her room as her fingers closed around the cold porcelain bowl. It did not feel too long ago when she just had her last meal, though. Was it time for her next one already? Marcia closed her eyes in confusion. Time was really becoming a more and more abstract concept by the second. The familiar sound of magic dispelling drifted to her ears again as she prepared herself to receive her next meal.
Blinding sunlight flooded the room as the whole door opened instead of just its hatch this time. She raised a palm to shield the agonising light that she had craved to see so much. A figure blocked the sun rays and entered the cell, pulling Marcia up to her feet. She followed the person out of the room, still partially blinded by the sudden change in brightness.
The young girl walked into a cold metallic room. It resembled a laboratory, though it was devoid of any technomagick equipment. Instead, a single book lay open atop an altar, surrounded by candles lit with silver flames. Its pages were stained a reddish brown, distinctly reminiscent of dried blood. Marcia shuddered. This was clearly a place for some kind of ancient magic ritual. A ritual that called on the purified nature of arcani. A ritual that could only have originated from a time before technomagick existed, when scientific technology had not yet completely merged with magic.
“Come here, little girl. No need to be afraid.”
Marcia stood rooted to her position, refusing to obey the coaxing voice of the man who lied to her about giving her a rest. Cold metal wrapped around her wrists from behind without warning and a wave of weakness hit her. She fell to her knees as a beeping sound emitted from behind her. The woman behind her tutted her lips and removed the device, showing it to the man in front of them. The little girl got back up shakily.
“Move.” The woman stared down at Marcia with stone cold eyes. Jagged black quartz grew out from her skin threateningly, coating her arm in a dangerous looking spiked armour. The girl squeaked in fear and walked towards the man.
“Looks like we have to resort to plan B,” Titus said to his sister. “This little girl does not have enough arcani to stabilise the spellcraft.”
“What choice do we have?” Lucia replied with irritation in her voice. “You should’ve personally faced that psychic instead of relying on our weaker comrades. I already warned you he was powerful, didn’t I?”
“Alright, my bad.” Titus chuckled nonchalantly. “But don’t worry, I have a plan. Felix Pagonis should be worried sick now, looking for his little sister. Any movement we make from now on will definitely attract his attention, and I intend to exploit that.”
Lucia tilted her head at her brother.
“I’ve already instructed our comrades to make a ruckus during the wand trafficking trade taking place at Madison Town Square. Felix will definitely show up, and all they need to do is drop the false portal.” A sinister grin showed up on Titus’ face. “I’ll take care of the rest.”
“What do we do with this girl?”
“Psychic types are rare; make sure she doesn’t leave this place. Besides, we might still need her for Plan B.” Titus bent down and patted the shivering girl’s head. “We’ll take good care of you, alright?”
“Leave my brother alone!” she yelled at him, surprising herself with how much energy she still managed to muster. “What did we ever do to you?”
“I’m afraid I can’t, little one.” Titus smiled. “Sacrifices must be made to reclaim the glory of our kind. You won’t understand it.”
Marcia’s heart sank as she was ushered back out of the room, knowing she would have to endure the crushing darkness of that cell again.
A whispered prayer left her lips.
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Two figures sat on the roof with their legs dangling over the ledge, accompanied by a glowing orange cat and a red arcane eagle. It had been three days since they began watching over this town square, but there had not been a single sign of trouble.
Felix was getting impatient. Gaius was right. Vulcan still had not contacted him regarding any developments about Marcia’s kidnapping. And despite his ‘busy’ schedule, the man had not even brought up anything about the ‘meta problem’ that he was supposedly trying hard to solve. Orpheus, on the other hand, seemed content to watch the peak hour crowd form and disperse themselves every day. Tonight seemed like any other night.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Until it did not.
Felix sat up straight, observing the drastic trickling down of traffic. His eyes narrowed in suspicion. Roads do not simply clear themselves without a blockade, especially not during this time. Something, or someone was blocking the traffic for whatever reason. His heart raced in anticipation.
“Hey, are you guys seeing this?” Felix pointed at two groups of people walking towards each other from opposite ends of the street as though they were about to do a flash mob in the now empty street. One side was composed of hooded Necromancers dressed in all red, while the other were clearly metas carrying briefcases.
“Of course. I’m on my way,” Gaius’ voice emitted from the orange cat.
“I’m nearby. Some vehicles emerged out of nowhere to redirect the traffic from Madison Town Square,” Kleopatra spoke through the eagle. “Whatever’s going down here, it’s most probably illegal and backed by someone powerful.”
“Hold on, I know these people.” Orpheus pointed at the group of Necromancers. “They’re a group of extreme cultists who draw power from Hell directly. They’ve tried to recruit me on multiple occasions, but I’ve always managed to stay away.”
“The Ruby Skulls, right? They’re so notorious that even metas have heard of them. I heard that their leader is the son of a business tycoon,” Felix replied. “So their magic comes from Hell? That’s a violation of natural law. No wonder the government outlawed their practices.”
One of the metas was now opening a briefcase for a hooded figure to inspect. Felix squinted his eyes. The distance did not allow him to confirm what they were exchanging, but the experienced Guardian could already hazard a good guess as to what it was.
Wands. Illegal offensive wands that were most likely manufactured using forcibly extracted meta essence, and imbued with the sole purpose of causing bodily harm.
Anger coursed through Felix. It was people like them who gave his kind a bad name. People like them who made his neighbourhood more dangerous than it should be.
People like them who took his sister.
Felix stood up without warning and leapt off the building with a growl, ignoring his allies calling out to him. He landed in the middle of the criminals, directing a force field at the ground to cushion his landing. They screamed in shock as the resulting shockwave created a small crater and scattered their ranks.
“Who the hell are you?” a meta roared, swinging a metallic fist towards him. Felix did not deign to respond.
The meta cried out in pain as his arm snapped perpendicularly just before his elbow. The psychic flicked his wrist, tossing his screaming foe straight up in the air. He turned his attention to the Necromancers brandishing their brand new wands.
A deafening blast sent all of them sprawling from behind before he could respond. Felix’s eyes glanced at the girl in her flowy, dark blue battle robes. Kleopatra raised her staff again and struck the ground, conjuring multiple disembodied hands that wrestled with the metas. A Necromancer seized the opportunity to send a swarm of undead wasps after her, but a fireball quickly disintegrated the insects.
Footsteps rushed towards the chaotic mob as Gaius leapt over a carriage, floating towards them as if he was almost weightless. He landed gracefully in their midst, immediately engaging them in hand to hand combat. The cultists fired off their wands desperately at him, but the Sorcerer was too close and moved too quickly.
“It’s a setup! This is a gods-damned setup!” a Necromancer screamed right before a fireball struck him squarely in the chest.
“Double-crossers! You called the Guardian Council on us?” another Necromancer yelled at the metas. “You’ll pay for this-”
He choked and contorted in pain as necrotic wounds began to appear all over him. Felix seized the chance to toss his body aside, denting a nearby carriage. The screams of agony were silenced as the last standing Necromancer crumpled to the ground. Orpheus exhaled loudly from behind as the green light flowed from his staff back to the ground, ending his curse.
A wall of fire burst suddenly in front of him, blocked by a psychic wall only milliseconds before his hair was singed. Felix yanked Orpheus away from the flames, taking his place instead. It surrounded him in a bluish tornado of fire as the hostile meta cackled uncontrollably, swirling his hands in the air.
“Pathetic.”
The fire based meta watched in disbelief as the flames ebbed, seemingly sucked into a pink bubble. The psionic sphere shrank, choking out the fire easily. There was a brief silence as everyone stared in both awe and terror at the very angry psychic.
Felix tilted his head.
The man’s eyes bulged as he clawed at the invisible hand crushing his windpipe. His neck compressed inwards and snapped to the side violently as a dying ember escaped his mouth. Felix cast his glowing eyes to the rest of the criminals, dropping the lifeless body to the ground.
Chaos erupted.
“Run, run! It’s that guy!” a meta screamed, frantically pulling out a wand and casting a teleportation charm. “Let’s get the hell out of here!”
The remaining metas scrambled for the portal, pushing each other to get in before they incurred the wrath of the Tier Five meta. Most did not make it, their bodies blasting away from the portal and crashing into the nearby buildings. Felix growled and darted straight for the portal.
“Felix, wait!” Orpheus yelled, dashing in right after his friend.
The portal closed, leaving Gaius and Kleopatra behind in the trashed up town square.