Hale’s phone rang a few minutes later, stopping things before they could go any further. Cayden called and told him he needed to be at the scout unit right away. Apparently, something big had happened and they needed to figure out the specifics. Hale was definitely unwilling but still got up to leave.

“I’ll see you later then?” Hale said with a slightly shaky voice. He was feeling a little awkward since he barely knew this girl he was making out with just a few moments ago. And she was definitely one of the hottest people he’d ever met.

“Mhm. Hurry back.” Aila said with a wispy voice. She gave a last look at Hale as she laid on the ground looking back up at the stars.

Hale looked back again but still went into the elevator and went to the Scout’s room. As he got onto the 6th floor he saw people running all around with gear on and others were still putting on vests and there were even a few heavy gunners that were throwing bandoliers on.

He swung around the corner and entered through the door that led to his scout team. He was met with his team getting ready. He was ushered to make haste as well. Throwing on the team’s attire and a small pack with a few things in it Hale followed the others out and down to the garages where they got in their van from last time and drove off at a dangerous speed.

“What is all this about?” Hale questioned, speaking to anyone that would answer.

“A huge anomaly just appeared on the edge of our territory and the Rhea family. We have a feud with them so take this” Cayden said as he handed him a bowie knife in a sheath and taser in a holster, “just in case.”

Hale was immediately uncomfortable with the situation. He wasn’t squirmish around weapons, but this obviously meant that there might be fighting and this put hale on edge. He looked around and saw everyone had similar knives strapped to their waists. He instinctively reached for the protective piece over his heart and was more at ease.

“Why not a gun if it's going to be dangerous?” Hale questioned. Why wouldn’t they use guns?

Cayden rubbed his temples as he thought about this complex situation, “The Shea family is known to have an heir with the concept of gunpowder. It’s best to not carry any guns at all when they’re involved.”

This gave Hale another look at the possibility that other people’s concepts would give them and the threats involved. He questioned for a moment why their team would be going up against an heir until realizing that Ava was also an heir. He could only hope that they were just as afraid of her as his team was of them.

The car ride was tense and no one wanted to speak. Even Cayden was uncharacteristically quiet. The drive took a little over a half hour and though there were no windows, just from the feeling of driving he knew they had left Boston, it had to be known that the Crest family owned an eastern part of the city.

The vehicle finally stopped and Cayden swung the doors open, taking the lead as the rest followed. They found themselves at the edge of the Quincy Quarries Reservation. It was located at the edge of Quincy, a city that bordered Boston. Hale realized he had underestimated how much land the Crest family was in control of. Besides for the parking lot that they were in and a road that cut through the middle of this small forest, the rest was all trees. Farther in was the quarries which were known for huge jutting rocks with all sorts of graffiti on them making it a colorful place to be. Thankfully it was night so no one was around.

Next to Hale’s group was another scout team from the Crest family which seemed even stronger than his own. The leader stepped to the front to greet Cayden, she also spoke a few kind words to Ava. This leader was a young woman who was about 5’ 9” with long blonde hair pulled into a dirty bun. Her combat gear was lightweight and showed her curves. Hale only glanced at her silvery, almost white eyes but he felt like his soul was almost crushed into smithereens. This was his first time meeting someone at a higher realm than the entangled realm also known as the awakened stage. Hale wasn’t told much but he knew that first was the entangled realm and beyond that was the resonance realm but until now he didn’t realize the difference.

Conceptual radiation wasn’t just something that could irradiate objects but also acted as a sort of aura that would surround a person even without them doing anything. The leader, Rose Harsch, radiated a potent radiation field with every casual movement, it gave someone the feeling of looking into an abyss. It made Hale feel infinitely small, like she was a celestial body looking down at him. Hale seemed to realize something as his violet eyes flashed a faint glow. Her concept was the moon.

After only a few moments of talking the leader was decided, it was obviously Rose. It was only then that two military hummers pulled up and nine people jumped out. All their gear was markedly more militaristic and were camo. The one leading was a man around Hale’s age, he was 6’ 2”, had a sharp jawline and had platinum blonde hair in a tight quiff haircut. Even Hale had to admit that he was very handsome, which only made him sigh, but before he could think any further a pressure that was the same strength as before landed on the group, but this time instead of having a celestial majesty to it this pressure made Hale feel like the air itself could explode at any moment. He could guess that this was the Shea heir.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

The radiation fields from the two resonance realm leaders seemed to contact each other in the air between them. The aura wanted to become physical and crush the space between them but in the end the explosive aura could only pressure them.

After a moment the Shea heir laughed as he ran his fingers through his blonde hair and said, “Rose we meet again. Looks like none of you brought guns… too bad. It was a lot of fun last time.” He exaggeratedly sighed like he was disappointed.

“Michael, you know the rules. Or should I personally call the Order of the Self?” Rose spat back. Her eyes began to glow a piercing silver as the half moon overhead seemed to become brighter.

Michael Shea snickered. “Everyone knows what goes on in a warped world often never sees the light of day.”

Everyone of the Crest family was obviously enraged by this provocation. However, Hale was slightly more level headed as he felt no connection to his kidnappers, the Crest family. After feeling their radiation field Hale decisively decided that if they ever met Hale would run in an instant.

After the short clash the Shea group turned and headed into the forest. Hale looked to Cayden for direction but the latter could only sigh and say, “Hale, welcome to your first warped world.” And the group also headed into one of the rails into the forest, following behind Rose.

They walked for only a few minutes before people could feel the concepts from the gods, but they were too intense so no one in this group could discern the actual concepts themselves. Hale thought about using acquisition to find the concepts involved but he decided against it. Firstly, there were people around and he wanted to keep his ability close to his chest and he wasn’t sure that they wouldn’t notice. Secondly, these concepts were from gods. Hale had never met one and knew nothing of how to get to that realm but from the pressure of just someone at the resonance realm he was sure that he couldn’t learn it without losing all his conceptual energy or worse.

The group pressed on but soon Rose made everyone stop. “Do you see that?” Rose pointed to the trees. Hale didn’t immediately notice anything, but now that his attention was drawn to it something did seem off with the trees but he couldn’t quite tell.

“They’re swaying before the wind comes.” Cayden said. Hearing this Hale realized that what Cayden said was true. It was a subtle change but the trees would all sway and leaves would blow around then the gust of wind would come, Hale was utterly baffled.

“It seems that cause and effect have already broken down. This warped world is much stronger than we thought.” Rose made an ugly face as she said this. Everyone realized that even she wasn’t confident in this place and soon everyone was on edge.

“Should we retreat?” Ava asked.

Rose glanced to where they came from and her eyes shimmered a piercing silver and used some unknown power to analyze the situation. “Too late. The land has already shifted. We have no way of retracing our steps.”

Everyone became worried. No one questioned Rose’s judgment. She had means far beyond the rest. They walked for a while more but they soon realized that they should have gotten to the main quarry by now. They could only guess that space was also warped, this meant the strength of this warped world went up another level again.

Cayden, who was walking next to Hale leaned over, “You got pretty bad luck. This is the strongest warped world I’ve ever seen and we’re still on the outskirts.”

Hale began to sweat a little, his only solace was that he knew that he would die by a knife. But, thinking about it further he knew that maiming by other means wasn’t off the table so he still kept his guard up.

The ground began to change and they now trotted on a black viscous liquid that even covered the grass and trees. They tried to go around it but it seemed to spread everywhere in both directions so they had no choice but to pass through it to get to the other side. Everyone had a very bad feeling in their hearts as they got near halfway through this viscous black liquid that covered the ground.

A blood curdling scream echoed through the forest that made everyone's hair stand on end. Everyone looked in the direction it came from but they couldn’t see too far since it was too dark. Hale had a very bad feeling about this liquid so he took a chance while everyone was distracted and looking away to use acquisition. After putting complete focus on his concept he took a deep breath and found himself in the land of stars.

After searching through the many constellations and stand alone stars that slowly spun around him he found the ones related to the liquid. The size of the stars were more reasonable than Hale had originally assumed, but even with this he could only use acquisition two other times to find something related to this place. He guessed that since these were just remnants from a battle and not even the main radiation field of those unknown gods that he could use acquisition.

He reached out for a star that held an aura that felt about right. Hale had practiced this over the last few days and although he wasn’t perfect, he was more than 50% confident he’d get the information he was aiming for. He touched the star and it absorbed into his skin and moved through his body up into his head as it merged with his mind. Hale found himself back in the forest, no time had passed. His ability only pulled his consciousness into the land of stars so although his eyes flashed a bright violet that would confuse any onlookers no other sign that he channeled his concept would appear.

He immediately parsed through what knowledge was given to him. He saw a scene of the liquid growing tentacles and pulling in a defenseless rabbit before it was devoured and the rabbit ceased to exist, even disappearing from the minds of all others like it had never existed, but Hale could somewhat passively defend himself from that effect with his concept.

The situation was the worst possible outcome. While everyone was shining their flashlights through the forest looking for what made the scream Hale took off running as fast as he could. Nothing else mattered at this moment and he decided to try to get to the end before the tentacles made their appearance. He still had the burn scars on his hand from the mirror, he never forgot how dangerous a CIP could be.

Sadly for Hale the inky black liquid seemed to sense his comprehension and black liquid tentacles formed and took all the others off guard. More than one person would die here.