When I woke up it was still mid day but nothing much happened after we arrived at HQ, I was later called to the docking bay floor for the large transports. I teleported in and looked around the floor which looked very similar to the one above, the only exception was that only a single large ship lay within awaiting its passengers and pilot. The ship was almost as wide and long as the whole floor, it was by no means an overstatement to call it the “Sky whale”. The sky whale was a square craft with circular edges and corners while on each edge a long cone grew out with the docking bays and blast doors at the end of each one. As a platoon leader I was there early for debriefing, I walked over to one of the entrances to the ship and entered. Inside the corridors were bathed in a blue hue leading to multitudes of rooms and hangars for smaller ships and cargo. I reached the captain’s quarters and pressed my palm to the panel by the metallic door and it lit up blue, my name, ID and face appeared on the panel above it so I waited to be let in. A beeping sound alerted me to the door opening as only a moment after the double doors spread letting me in, I stepped into the large room which held an assortment of monitors and a large rectangular table in the middle with a screen on it. Sitting around the table were the new outfit leader Reas, new deputy leader Kale and three others which I presumed to be the other platoon leaders. I straightened myself as a drop of sweat fell down my forehead, this was all new to me and I was quite literally shaking from over excitement. Being an un-emotional ice cube for years made it very difficult to control them now, I stopped midway and saluted while glancing around at the others. “Sit down Anderson, we will begin shortly.” I straightened myself and took one of the empty seats, to my left sat a very bored looking dwarf with a half burned half ginger beard, ginger short hair and grey eyes to the opposite of us sat Kale with two others to his right. One was a female wolf Beastwoman, greyish blue long hair, tail and ears while next to her sat a male Avian with snow white long hair and feathered arms looking like wings.

Reas was intently looking at the screen in front of her when all of a sudden “Very well, we shall now begin. As some of you newer platoon leaders don’t know, platoons are formed for larger contracts and as such operate as a much larger squad while outfits operate differently. When a contract comes around that requires an Outfit we pick platoon leader candidates and give them lead under my and the deputy’s supervision, this contract will involve a large force that through out our company’s history has only been shown twice and those were the second and third waves. Approximately seven hundred members make up a platoon and each of the four platoons will operate as a single force while being strategically controlled by command which will be us in this room.” She inhaled and continued “Platoon leaders will move with any unit of any size that moves away from the main outfit’s force acting as leaders and communicators between the platoon and command. You are the strongest and most experienced of the whole outfit hand picked by either me, Deputy Kale or Lord Zeaxar himself.” She sent an amused glance at me while everyone else in the room except Kale sent me one full of curiosity and some jealousy “You may be sent on solo missions or elite missions with just the four of you so you MUST be acquainted at least, come now before the day is over. Introduce yourselves.” She waved a hand at the dwarf who stood up (“You should of stayed sitting…”) an unusual thought went through my mind as I forced a smile down. The dwarf began to introduce himself “My name is Jrel HighSung, I specialize in dwarf machinery and Earth magic. I rank B [II] – [III]” When he went to sit back down I noticed his left arm, or would be arm due to its metallic look and robotic features. I suddenly felt everyone’s gazes on me and went to stand “My name is Matthew Anderson, I specialize in Aether Tech and am a Martial Aether myself.” I sigh and await what is to come “I rank A [III] – S ”.

*TUMBLE*

*SLAM*

*CRACK*

*WHIMPER*

*SNORT*

Multiple sounds fill the room as everyone takes in my declaration at their own paces and reacts. This was something I expected and had yet to announce to anyone, it was a given that with my power increasing from gaining full control of my soul and the addition of fully cultivating the dungeon’s mana that my rank would also increase. As far as I knew the only ones above A rank were King Zeaxar and his new Elite squad which was handpicked from the old elite squads, called the elite seven this squad was the most formidable force the E.A held and was almost never deployed. I thought I could probably go head to head with one of them but Zeaxar himself was on a completely different level, at my current estimate he was around S [II] – S[III] and a single S tier was the whole table all over again. I looked up at everyone’s expressions, Reas had jumped up and slammed her hands on the table breaking the small screen in front of her, Kale stared dumbfounded at me, Jrel had fallen off his chair and was staring up at me, the Avian looked at me with a disbelieving expression while the werewoman had risen up just like Reas but had taken a couple steps back from the table. Some of these expressions worsened because I stopped concealing my aura the second those words had completely left my lips. “Lower S rank? You? Reas where did you find this cub of yours?!” The werewoman stared at Reas who was at a loss for words, “Well..Ugh…That was surprising…” Jrel got up and sat back down obviously entertaining the idea of nobody noticing he fell off. Reas cleared her throat “Settle down…Anderson…How…When did you break through to S?...” everyone settled down and intently looked at me, I started feeling uncomfortable from the stares “It was from..the last mission…I had reached to A[III] after soul defragmentation which was due to my past as a Beta Martial Aether. The break through to S came later with cultivating the mana of an outside source that I absorbed, have you all heard the reports and news of the Dungeon Core species leaking into Etyria and Earth?” everyone nodded “I drained the mana of one and integrated it as my own, due to that I lost attribution to many elements and now I suspect my effieciency is at least 90% chaos. With also the addition of contracting with the Fairy, my mana control and mana production sky rocketed.”

With that I sat back down, forcefully ending the conversation. The werewoman cleared her throat and rose to break the ice and introduced herself “My name is Kayleigh Zerk and I specialize in my family’s Ancestral Arts, Berserker Arts. I rank B [III] – A . ” she sat back down and nudged the Avian next to her left out of his daze “Oh!...uh….” he stood up “I am Skel Faus’delra, I’m a wind mage and spear master to be. I rank B [II] – [III]” he coughed and sat back down, while all still glanced at me as if I was some kind of monster in the room. Kale saw the situation and began without Reas, he stood up and walked over to the monitor in the back of the room “The contract is a long standing survey mission so our whole outfit will be involved and we will be using this carrier as headquarters. As we speak thousands of our members are entering the carrier and the pilots are preparing for launch.” He turns the monitor on and turns around “We have three goals, scout out the area we come out in, find information on the previous survey corps from Earth and make contact with any sentient civilizations, in that order. We have a basic map of the surroundings due to the previous surveys.” He opens the map on all the monitors in the room, the land mass was desert for miles with many rock formations. “We will appear here.” He points at one of the larger rock formations “When we arrive the human scientists that are accompanying us will send drones to scout the area for danger before we send out a scouting party, the scouting party will be made up of one platoon leader and twelve first rangers. Captain, your pick?” Reas was intently sizing me up, which made me feel horrified. “Matthew, you’re the strongest combat wise from all the platoon leaders and therefore has the highest survivability rate. You will accompany the ranger squad, relay any information you might think is important immediately on comms. The rangers have already been picked and you will meet them immediately after we depart, they will meet up in bay 7 with the scout ship pilot.” She rose along with everyone else “Meeting is adjourned for now.” Everyone entered the E.A’s salute stance and we walked out of the room.

(“The new guy gets the scout mission? Well can’t complain but…”)  With a weak smile on my face I walk towards the on-board dorms and mess with the panel to find my room, (“232…233…234!”) finding my dorm room I press my palm to the door and runes fill its metallic surface, it unlocks and I push it open. The rooms were the same size as the ones on the dormitory floors with the exact same furniture, but in here was something different. A large black case sat ontop of my bed, inside I would find equipment I made while within the military’s Aether Tech division and although most of my equipment was taken by the military I was able to keep some key gear that I made with my own resources. I walk over to the case an arm’s length and width with a couple centimetres of height, I open it with a grin plastered on my excited expression and start taking out some of the aether technology. First I take out two belts, one I strap around my waist and the other my torso and back. Along the belts where pockets and clips for holding and sticking equipment to, I then started taking out the rest of the gear. Multi-shaped weapons and utilities were taken out and equipped onto the belts which are mostly hidden by the long trench coat, a couple minutes passed as I took everything except the tools and parts out which I used to repair or make more. It is quite hilarious when I think about it, everyone is amazed or terrified at the fire power I can produce with my Bound Aethers so what would they think if I had the use of every single one of my hand made aethers? Weapons like grenades and other utilities that use both science and magic. This wasn’t a mission I was prepared to fail at, I wanted to be as equipped as possible. The previous survey corps were a large force of Earth’s military with top of the line equipment but lacked something that humans back then did not give military importance, magic. If the joint government had given more attention to the research on magic instead of petty politics and pointing fingers after the third wave then the two year war would have ended much quicker or never happened at all. The corporations behind the two year war took advantage of magic and would have won if it wasn’t for us Cerberii rebelling.

I turned around and looked into the mirror on the wall, my usual blank expression completely gone and replaced “What’s with the mad grin? Looking like some insane scientist….” But my excitement died there, as a dark expression replaced it. “I’m such a damn pessimist…”. “They say scars of the heart never heal but rarely show, is this one of those?” I had let my guard down, turning around I found my door open with Zeaxar staring at me but it wasn’t him that spoke. Next to him was a balding old man with a white lab coat and glasses, he seemed to be drenched in sweat and pale as a ghost as he stared at the ground not wanting to make eye contact with me. I felt my heart stop as this moment seemed to break my very soul, my mind went into overdrive as I raised my right arm forcing Wayne in aether form.”AhhH!” I fired, multiple times with a dead like expression but Zeaxar blocked all of them with a barrier as the old man fell backwards into the corridor. “You said you had it under control!” the old man’s face was as white as it could possibly get, “Stand down.” Zeaxar looked me dead in the eyes with a serious expression as I looked back with an ice cold glare “Get out of my way.”. Our killing intent and auras clashed for supremacy, he sighed “I figured we’d get this over with now, before you head out”. “Get it over with? Head out? “HE” is the scientist?! You take one second away from him and I will give him more holes than a block of cheese! That “man” should have stayed locked up! I WARNED THEM! ” I continued firing as a drop of sweat fell down Zeaxar’s face while he blocked all my devouring blasts with his barrier. Purple mist formed off Wayne’s aether as it’s form instantly changed, instead of a black long barrelled pistol my hand now held a black automatic shotgun with purple runic designs. “Shit” Zeaxar’s form disappeared for a second as a black shadow appeared next to the scientist and they both disappeared again, the area they once stood in was being covered in black pellets that exploded while leaving behind a purple mist that corroded the ground and walls. “Sorry about this kid.” The voice came from behind me just as I felt a jab at my neck, turning and falling at the same time as the last thing I saw before I passed out was Zeaxar standing behind me.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

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Author; Hello darkness, my old friend

I've come to talk with you again

Because a vision softly creeping

Left its seeds while I was sleeping

And the vision that was planted in my brain

Still remains

Within the sound of silence

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*Thump*

*Thump*

My heart beating is all I could hear, I wondered why I wasn’t recalling my past as I normally would. Utter darkness filled my mind as my heart continued to beat.

*Thump*

*Thump*

*Thump*

Then my eyes began to open, light filled my sight as it took me a bit to adjust to it. “I swear you’re more of a handful than I thought you’d be.” I was laying on a bed in medbay, Zeaxar and Reas stood by me. I stared at Zeaxar “What is the meaning of this.” He sighed and looked at the straps holding me to the bed “A precaution I should of taken beforehand, now shut the hell up and listen. Doctor Heiken WILL accompany us on the survey mission and you WILL NOT lay a hand on him, if you do I will personally pull you out of the mission and chain you down some fucking where. I do not expect you to interact with him at all, simply keep him safe from whatever the hell is here.” He glared down at me “Have I made myself clear?” his killing intent was very clear but my emotions cared not for the fear I should have answered with “Crystal”. He turned to leave and in an instant all eight straps fell apart as if a flurry of blades passed by, my eyes went wide as I rose off the bed and grabbed hold of my arms rubbing them from the numbness the straps gave me. I looked at the exit and he was gone, “Well then, since we have that sorted out. Meet up with the rangers in bay 7, the scout ship and pilots are ready. Please do not scare them to death.” Reas sighed and got up, my killing intent and aura seemed out of my control as so was my anger. “You have ten minutes.” She turned and left the med bay. I sat there for a couple minutes staring down at my palm, I sighed “Practice what you preach…” clenching my hand into a fist I got off the bed and checked my equipment making sure nothing was missing. I sighed as I noticed a second badge on my trench coat, one that showed my rank as a platoon leader. I checked my Iris and located the 7th docking bay, while walking down the corridors I got a glimpse at the outside through a window where multiple other members where currently viewing out of. “Desert as far as I can see…”…”No sign of life, not even a damn tree.”…”Three suns might explain it, I wouldn’t be surprised if this whole planet was like this. But all three seem so small…our moons look larger.” The small crowd pointed out pretty much everything, except the strange rock formations that looked out of place in the sandy lands.

I kept moving on and finally arrived at bay 7, the moment I stood in front of them the metallic double doors slid open. Inside was a fairly large room with enough space for three bus sized scout ships and some seats, off the side of the room as I entered I glanced at twelve members in uniform lazying around on the seats while the two pilots where standing in front of them apparently in deep conversation. I didn’t mean to sneak but it was a habit of mine to walk silently, “I hear he’s a friggin monster” one human pilot exclaimed with arms wide open as the others intently looked at him “He aced the exams and destroyed his outfit leader in a duel! I hear he’s already medium tier A rank! What really takes the cherry on the cake is that he’s only twenty years of age!”. The second the rangers and the second pilot saw me behind him their expressions went from amusement to wide eyed dumbfounded, these were rangers and specialised in covert ops and scouting after all but I had completely walked into their group without their noticing. “Wha?..Why you looking at me like that?...He’s behind me ain’t he?...” the female pilot turned to find me glaring at her, she went ghostly pale as she took a couple steps to the side and saluted. “Get up and get in, two minutes till we launch.” I gave my orders and turned to the scout ship, similarly to the caravans but around half the size these ships are equipped with top of the line aether technology. The pilots rushed to the front as I sat down with my back to the cockpit and facing the whole group of rangers as they sat down, “Froze our hearts there kid, no wonder you’ve been picked.” I hadn’t noticed it was her before but Leya entered the ship and sat on the seat closer to me, as the others sat as far away as they possibly could and the ship only had enough space for thirteen passengers not including the pilot seats. The last ranger entered and closed the door behind him, when everyone was seating we waited for orders from command to leave. A monitor rose from the floor facing me, Zeaxar’s amused face appearing on it. “Prepare for launch in 3” The ship’s engine was turned on “2” the hover mechanic was activated and everyone made sure their belts were well buckled “1” the ship began moving forward as the bay’s blast doors opened “Mission start, Go!” the monitor descended back into the floor as the ship sped out of the carrier’s docking bay and out into the desert’s skies.

“This is Reas, the drones scouted no danger and have updated the map with some changes. The map will be displayed at the bottom left of your peripheral vision using the Iris A-tech, you may move it with touch like any other Iris-window.” A map appeared in my vision showing the area within 100 meters of me and glowing green dots indicating my squaddies’ location. “Reas may I have a copy of the old map overlay differences?” I spoke into the comms as the ship began to land. “Here you go, won’t that decrease your vision though?” a second map appeared on top the first one covering a little bit of my left vision. “Its fine.”  I felt the ship land and unbuckled the belt “Let’s go, out.” On my orders the rangers pulled up their hoods and face masks due to the sandy wind and opened the ship’s door, we got out one by one as everyone formed a circle around the ship while I exited. We had landed next to one of the larger rock formations which rose roughly four storys high, between us and the cliff looking formations was a glimmer in the air as if reality was distorting. I recognised this as the portal which was stretched for the gigantic carrier to pass through and then sealed so that nothing can go back unless Zeaxar wants it to. The portal was perpendicular to the rocky hill and so we had to walk by it to arrive at the hill. Using the squad menu on my Iris I selected some members “Kess, Neil , Harley , Rejk , Nulis and Ren stay with the ship, the other six come with me.” I divided the squad leaving six defending the ship and took six with me as we quickly ran towards the rocky hill, the sand rose high with every step we took we almost had to leap.  “What the hell is this?” one of the rangers spoke out as we arrived by the hill, one part of the rocks was charred and broken as if an explosion took place there. “Guard formation, I’ll check it out.” The six rangers formed a semi circle around me as I summoned Wayne into my hand, using Aether Morph I changed it into a black claw like weapon and aimed my arm at what looked like the centre of the explosion. The claw shot forth from my arm as black rope trailed behind it, the rope then began flowing back into the cubic black bracelet that was the lower half of the claw and began pulling me up the hill’s face.

 It didn’t take me long to reach the middle of the charred patch and I began inspecting the stone, it was burned as I expected but something was off. From my belt I took out a black coin like object and pressed it to the shattered surface, when I let go the coin was stuck to the stone and glowed purple.I unsummoned Wayne and skid down the hill’s side till I reached the sandy ground, “What did you find?” Leya turned when she heard me hit the ground and so did the others. “Heads up.” I warned them and they took a step back right when the explosion occurred, the ATC(Aether Tech Coin) was similar to C4 but had a smaller radius and weaker blast making it perfect to break apart small surfaces without too much damage. Stone showered down behind me as I waited for everything to settle down, when the last stone hit the ground I crouched by the rubble and began looking through it. Pieces of shrapnel could be identified between the stone, that along with the obvious explosion that had occurred brought me to one conclusion “Tank shell, the previous group fired a tank shell at this hill side for some reason”. “Why would they shoot a rock?” one of the female rangers looked up “Okay a big rock but…still?”, one of the older male rangers snorted “Who said they didn’t just miss their actual target?...” the wood elf began glancing around the desert. “If you’re right let’s hope whatever that may be is long gone, to dodge a tank shell at what might be point blank range…But then…” I rose up and looked around “Where is the tank?”. I looked down at the sand beneath me “I wonder”, I summoned both Wayne and Ember and aimed both down at the ground. I shot a blast shot that devoured the sand and rapidly poured mana into Ember shooting a flamethrower kind of attack but on a higher heat level, the hole was about a meter wide and too deep to see what was within while it’s sides was molten glass. The rangers stepped close and some crouched by the hole, I aimed Ember down the hole again and shot a single projectile with the sole purpose of illuminating it.

*Clunk*

More than some eyebrows rose at the clunky sound, “Well that answers that”. “How do we get it out?” Leya stared down the hole, “How did it get down there is what you mean…” one of the Beastmen in the squad spoke and began inspecting the sand, some saw him and began doing the same. I looked at the wood elf to my right who seemed the most experienced “What’s wrong?”, he glanced at me “Get to the ship…” a mad expression filled everyone’s faces “GET TO THE SHIP!” everyone including me turned and made a mad dash towards the ship as the sand beneath us began to shift and rise.

“KRAAAAAAHHHH!!!”

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Author: I feed upon your tears at every ending…Salty tears…Hehehehehe…. Remember to rate xD!

Edited by; Birse, Rise up in rebellion of his cliffhangers!