A cacophony of different noises spat through the air. The shrill siren pierced my ears, and the ground itself trembled as large eruptions rocked the building. Without missing a beat, I got up out of my meditation, and took a look over to my side; Brad had gotten up as well.

“Brad! Are you okay!” I had to shout so that my voice could be heard.

He nodded and shouted in response. “I’m fine!”

Good. Hopefully we could make it out of this uninjured. “I think we’re being attacked!” I didn’t believe that the analysts were responsible for the commotion.

“What should we do?” He flinched as the walls shook again.

“We need to figure out what’s happening!” Moving towards the door, I motioned for him to move out of view, before I opened it just a crack and took a look outside.

What awaited me was devastation. Large fires were burning, everywhere. Concrete from the ground was torn up like sand. Several craters were dotted around, and the coal night sky could be seen through holes in the roof, the edges of which were dripping with heated metal, casting a rain of hot slag across the surroundings.

In the center, three hooded figures in dark green robes floated in the air. They zipped around as they built up blood red and black orbs, in one of their hands. Then, in one swift motion, they pulled their arm back and threw the balls at breakneck speed. I followed their trajectory, and saw the analysts at the end.

“No!” I shouted instinctually.

The spheres detonated upon contact, shooting thousands of pieces of red hot liquid in all directions, and forming a cloud of dark smoke. They had to be dead, I thought. But soon the team emerged from the smog. Covered in soot sure, but alive nonetheless.

Three more globes of pure destruction started to form in the hooded men’s hands, but the analysts were on the move. Faster than the flying men could prepare, attacks were flung at them with reckless abandon.

Arrows of sparkling white light, eagles which glowed yellow, chains thicker than humans and more; aimed to destroy the attackers. All their beauty was for nothing though, as they bounced harmlessly off a spherical field around the men.

Shit. They couldn’t even cause a scratch. I shut the door and turned to Brad.

“We need to escape! There’s nothing we can do to help!” I shouted, the alarm still raging.

His face contorted. “Escape? How can we leave our friends to die!”

“They’re not our friends! We haven’t even known them for a week! Right now we need to save ourselves!”

“I don’t care! I’m going to help!” He pulled the door wide open and stepped out. I looked through and saw the closest person to us suddenly turn his head at an impossible speed. It was the lead analyst. He gazed at us for just a moment, before waving his hand. At the same time, Brad was knocked back into the room by an invisible force, and the door slammed shut.

In my mind I heard a voice.

You two. Escape and inform the society at the university. The attackers won’t notice some mortal-ranks leaving. But, if you come through here, you won’t survive for more than a second, you’ll die without even knowing what killed you, so you need to fashion an exit through the wall.

It was the head researcher. I didn’t need to be told twice, my plan had already been to run.

No! We can’t just leave you behind!

Somehow, Brad had figured out how to send a message through the mind link. A tinge of irritation began to brew inside me. How could he be so ignorant to want to throw his life away when we hadn’t gotten our revenge yet?

You must! That is the only way we can survive, you can only get in our way as you are now! I command you to escape in the name of the Archive Society’s authority!

I felt the oath tighten around my chest and grabbed ahold of Brad’s wrist, before he could think about rebelling against and going out anyway. I pulled him towards the other side of the room. A scan for any tools that could be used to make a hole didn’t yield any results.

We were going to have to use energy.

“Brad! Help me make a hole!” It would have to be mostly up to him. He was further along in advancement, as well as having a more suitable technique. I hadn’t yet reached the stage where my destructive capabilities would increase, but he had steadily become stronger the moment he began improving his soul.

He turned around to go to the door before gritting his teeth and moving back to the wall, probably at the feeling of the chain resting around his soul. Then he pulled his arm back and clenched his fist. I noticed that a thin film of white energy was gathering around his hand. Taking a step forward, he swung his arm in a wide arc towards the metal wall. If the sounds of battle didn’t rage on, then I would’ve heard the metal crunching underneath the force.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

A hole slightly larger than his fist had been formed. Wasting no time, he grabbed an edge and started to pull it. I took his lead, grabbing the edge opposite his, and pulled with all my might. But, it didn’t work. I wasn’t strong enough. Anger surged in me.

How long was I going to rely on others?

I stepped back and let Brad get a better vantage point as I could do nothing to help him. Fortunately, he wasn’t as useless as I, and managed to pull open a small hole that was large enough to fit us through if we went from head to toe.

“How good is your diving?” He shouted. Was he really saying we should jump through?

“Bad!” I replied. I thought I heard him laugh, but it was impossible to tell with all the tumult in my ears. “You’re going to have to try, I’m out of energy! Just think of it like when we were younger playing parkour! Roll through your shoulder when you land.”

Without any hesitance, he took a running start and leaped through, arms in front of him. Like a piece of thread through a needle, he gracefully made it through. On the other side, I saw him curl into a ball as he landed and roll to a stop.

Well, it couldn't be that hard, could it? I moved myself to the other wall, and psyched myself up in preparation. I would run in 5, 4, 3- As an enormous crash occurred just on the other side of the wall, I skipped my countdown and ran. When I was close enough, I jumped off my left foot, and through the gap I went into the outside world.

Just as I was pulling my body in to roll, I was caught by Brad. After putting me on my feet, I saw something that made me tremble. He wasn’t injury free. A couple rips ran down his chest and stomach, blood already pooling.

“Shit! We need to get you to a hospital!” I cried. The battle still sounded as loud as ever. Why hadn’t the authorities come yet, surely they had a soul department?

“I’m fine! They’re just surface cuts, they’ll heal up on their own!” He replied, but I could tell he was holding himself back from wincing. “We need to get Aslow! I’m not leaving our allies to die!”

I thought about whether I should take him to the hospital, or the university; before I settled on the latter. Unsure of exactly what would be deemed as betraying the head researcher’s order, we needed to play it safe. Neither of us could survive if the punishment from the oath was severe enough, getting medical help wouldn’t matter if our souls died. I would just have to hope that there was a doctor over there. With spells being this capable of destruction, there had to be some for healing.

I put one of Brad’s arms over my shoulder and took on some of his weight, as we shuffled along as fast as we could. After a minute, we made it to the front of the warehouse, where the cars were parked. Several all black vans were in the front, but thankfully no people. These had to be the attackers' vehicles. If our packs hadn’t been left in our sleeping quarters, then I would’ve slashed the tires, so that they couldn’t get away. Although I wondered why they even needed them when they could fly.

I brought Brad over to the passenger side and practically lifted him onto his seat. I heard a groan when I placed him down. His entire shirt had become drenched in blood, and he was deathly pale. I needed to hurry. His injuries were worse than I thought.

I shut the door and ran over to the driver’s side, getting in. Keys still in my hand, I tried to insert them into the ignition, but missed my target several times. Finally, I got it in, and turned it to start the car.

Not caring for my seatbelt, I quickly drove out of the lot. As I did so, a wave of energy passed over my soul, and suddenly the battle was nowhere to be heard. Taking a look through my rearview mirror, I noticed that the warehouse looked completely unharmed as well. Despite my confusion, I started driving towards the location of the real Tonford University, or rather the Society’s outpost there.

—

Throughout the drive, I was fraught with tension. Despite going over the speed limit, I still felt like I wasn’t going fast enough. Each time I spared a glance to my side, I only saw Brad’s worsening condition. His gray shirt had been completely dyed crimson, and his head was slumped forwards, bobbing with the bumps of the road. His eyes were open just the slightest. Each weak whimper made me press the accelerator faster.

I ignored the honking of other cars as I overtook them, some swerving out of the way slightly. The possibility that they could’ve crashed was in the back of my mind; but I didn’t care. I had already lost one friend, I wasn’t going to lose another.

Finally, I made it off the main road. I was close now, just another minute and I would be there. Despite wanting to check Brad’s condition again, I forced myself to stay focused. As I followed the directions that had been drilled into my mind, the density of houses started to decrease at an incredible rate. Until there was only an outcropping of tents on fields, and the university campus in the distance.. In normal circumstances, I would’ve been amazed at the magic that was able to hide such a large piece of land from the world; but as it was, I didn’t care.

With my objective in sight, I pushed my old car to its limits, hurtling down the straight of grass. At the last possible moment, I braked, coming to a stop just in front of some tents. I smashed the door open and stepped out. When I looked up at the base, there were several men and women holding their arms out, and a blue bubble had manifested around us.

“Don’t move!” A man screeched, with the acidity of a viper, “Give us a reason for your trespass on the territory of the Archive Society, or we will attack!”

“I’m on your side, the warehouse has been attacked! You need to send help! And my friend is injured, he needs medical attention right now!” I blurted it all out without taking a breath.

The man who had spoken originally suddenly had a grave look on his face, and he turned his head to whisper in a woman’s ear. After nodding, she disappeared in an instant.

“What are your names?” He asked, with a tone of authority, but this time without the glare that one gave an enemy.

“David Thompson, and Brad Cladus.” I said instinctually, before continuing. “Please, you have to save him. He’s dying.” I said pointing at his body in the car.

The man’s eyes widened. “Cladus? Did I hear you right?”

I exhaled angrily, Brad didn’t have time for all this talking. “Yes! He’s a descendant of the Cladus family, and he’s going to die if you don’t help him right now.”

The man appeared to think for a moment, before sighing. “Julia, go in and heal him, we’ll watch your back..” A smudge of relief was released inside of me, but I couldn’t fully relax until I knew he was safe.

It didn’t even matter that they didn’t trust us.

As long as they could save Brad.