Knock, knock!
Veil looked up from the journal he was reading and set down his cup of tea. With very delicate movements, he tightened the bandages back so they could completely cover his face and hide any exposed skin.
He sighed and leaned back in his armchair, "...Come in."
A man with a striking lack of pilosity entered, his bald head gleaming under the magical light illuminating the office. He had no eyebrows or eyelashes, and his eyes were stuck in a crazed, wide-opened position. He was wearing light white armor, with the recognizable Cleaner's red crosses covering the pauldrons and the breastplate.
"Sir Veil," He saluted without blinking, straight as an arrow.
Veil nodded slowly, "Mister Delora. To what do I owe this visit?"
Delora walked up to Veil's desk and activated his Recorder's map, pointing at a specific spot. It was an oasis occupied by the enemy forces, a cornerstone of the logistical routes of the Celestial Gods. Initially, it wasn't that important, but one of the INK-DEF teams managed to destroy a side encampment that weakened the routes, making the central camp much more important.
"The Central Oasis camp has been taken down," He declared without a hint of emotion. Veil looked at the map silently.
"...I see? So?" He replied with a hint of confusion. His time was precious, it was strange that Delora would bother himself to come and announce that information directly to him. And even though it would tilt the balance slightly in Munirp's favor, there were hundreds of such camps across the Ink Dunes. These were positive news, but not game-changing.
Delora's hands shook slightly and he croaked, "It appeared, as you had predicted."
Veil paused. He stood up and gave the map a closer look.
"...It did?" He muttered with a tinge of disbelief. Delora nodded slowly.
Veil chortled, and shook his head. "How are you so sure?"
Delora handed him a file wordlessly. Veil glanced at him, and for the second time today, paused.
"...The Devil's Hand team is the one who was gobbled up? Alongside the Golden Decurion? Huh," He scoffed as he gave back the file to Delora. The bandages over his face came loose slightly, revealing the barest bit of his skin. Delora's head came crashing down on the ground, his back drenched in sweat. Veil slowly tightened the bandages back in place, unbothered.
"....Good. It's time to increase the pressure. We need to use that opportunity to make a heavy contribution," Veil muttered as he adjusted his tie, "...That blind fool might not be that much of a blind, nor a fool, it seemed. Send word to Truant and let him know about his protegees. I'm sure he'll be glad to hear the news."
Veil clenched his fist around an invisible hilt, a reaping scythe appearing in his hands out of nowhere, the hilt as black as the night and the blade pale as bone.
"Time to unveil Veil, I suppose..." Veil chuckled as he left his office, leaving Delora still trembling on the floor.
Once again, they shall show themselves to the world, and clean up the mess. For it was the Cleaner's Workshop's job...
----------------------------------------
'You really do have a habit of falling into weird places,' Diamanes said casually as Glenn plummeted into the bottomless pit.
Nelg coughed awkwardly and added, "Isn't it weird this is not surprising me? I almost expected something to go wrong at some point."
Glenn ignored both of the voices and clenched his teeth, casting Sun's Touch on his left hand to chase away the darkness. Huge quantities of black sand were accompanying him in his fall, alongside ripped tents, date trees, water, and anything there was in the darn oasis. He flinched and pushed himself out of the way with Gravity Manipulation, dodging a Snakion falling with a panicked shriek. Maybe it was Sleeky? Who knows. Sleeky was probably dead anyway. He'd have to give his condolences to Milena later on, she seemed to really appreciate the beast.
"Now that I think about it, it is indeed abnormal for me to grow this numb to things going off the script," Glenn spoke aloud, the wind whistling past him as he fell. Despite Sun's Touch, he couldn't find the walls of the hole he was falling into, nor the bottom of it.
"Did I grow numb to that?" He pondered, before shrugging and wincing in pain. His left arm was still completely mashed, thanks to that orc from earlier. Why did he go punch to punch with that guy?
'Because you're a fool?' Diamanes proposed an answer.
Nelg scoffed, "Because it was an honorable duel! I don't see what was so important about honoring it, but there was some kind of dumb logic there!'
Glenn grunted and turned his body mid-air, searching for his allies, "Both of you, shut the hell up and help me. I'd rather not find my team flattened on the ground because I was too busy discussing with the voices in my head instead of saving them."
Diamanes groaned exaggeratedly, 'Come on, why do you bother yourself with them? They're grown, powerful people, I'm sure they'll survive just fine without you!'
Glenn squinted and increased the Mana he was sending into Sun's Touch, brightening his surroundings with even more power.
"...Better be sure than sorry," He muttered as he caught the sight of a figure diving down sharply. He heaved and pushed himself in the air with Gravity Manipulation, not hesitating and catching him by the hand. He frowned and looked closer, almost screaming when he saw the green skin. The orc flinched awake and gargled some nonsense, to then go and try to punch Glenn's head off. Glenn hurriedly kicked the orc back, flinging him away from him.
Blood splurged out of the orc's wounds and he bent over in pain, grounding his fangs angrily. Glenn bit down on his lips, his eyes bloodshot as he struggled not to scream at the pain in his left arm.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
"FUCK!" He blurted out while pointing at the orc mid-fall, "YOU FUCKING CRUSHED MY ARM, AND YOU STILL WANT TO GO?!?" He roared as Mana twirled around him angrily, "LET'S GO AT IT AGAIN THEN!" He flung a Blackhole in the orc's direction, who countered by slamming his hands together and creating a blade of golden Aura. The Blackhole collided with the golden blade, grinding the Aura little by little until both dissipated. Glenn heaved and prepared another spell, while the orc slammed his hands once again, creating another Aura blade. The orc kicked in the air, somehow pushing himself in Glenn's direction. The latter used Gravity Manipulation to mess up the orc's trajectory and throw him into the darkness.
The orc roared what probably was a curse and somehow struggled against Gravity Manipulation, even though he lacked a foothold to push back from. Glenn suddenly let go of the Gravity Manipulation and instead created an Infernal Blackhole, a trickle of blood flowing down his nose. The orc's eyes widened and he crossed his arms in front of him, golden Aura blade first to block the spell. Glenn gritted his teeth and pushed with as much Mana as he could, finally succeeding in breaking through the orc's defenses. The Infernal Blackhole swallowed the orc and incinerated him to dust with such power that nothing was left of him when the spell disappeared.
Glenn didn't relax, though, and kept a Nitrogen Lance at the ready, his eyes searching through the darkness for a hint of the orc's presence. Surely this hadn't been enough to deal with him? He was as strong as him, after all! Maybe he had a secret card or something—
"GROUND!" Diamanes and Nelg shouted at the same time, succeeding in capturing Glenn's attention. His eyes snapped to below him and without another thought, he used Gravity Manipulation to cancel his fall and land graciously. Well, almost graciously. His legs gave up once he touched the floor and he collapsed into the wet, black sand face first.
"Fuck...I'm drained..." He muttered as he lay down this way for a few minutes. A nearby sound startled and motivated him to push himself up. He conjured Nelg out of thin air in his longsword form, using him as a cane. A dead, crushed flattened Snakion trembled as a thick, bloody green hand pierced through the monster's chitin and dug its way out. Glenn groaned and stumbled to a defensive position, his legs trembling under him. Fighting against a Grand Chevalier was way more straining than sparring with Knights or True Initiates.
"There's that much of a jump between rank three and four, then?" He realized with a dejected chuckle as the orc made his way out of the Snakion's body, the hole in his waist bleeding profusely. The orc spat out a lump of flesh/blood and slammed his hands together weakly, a trembling blade of weak, golden Aura appearing in his hand. If before it was as long as Glenn's longsword, now it was as short as a kitchen knife. Glenn scoffed and spat out some blood as well, struggling to hold his sword straight.
"Cough...Come on, then, Orc! Let's get this over with!" He hissed as he stumbled forward. The orc gritted his fangs and took a step as well, before crashing to his knees, his Golden aura blade dispersing helplessly. Glenn grinned victoriously when he also felt his legs give up under him.
"Fuck—" He fell back into the black sand, his longsword slipping away from his hands. The tie holding his ponytail together broke, his long black hair flowing in front of his face messily. He heard the orc groaning as he struggled and yet succeeded in standing up once again. Almost out of determination to not lose in front of the green guy, Glenn rolled over and pushed against the black sand, coughing heavily as he stood once again. Nelg appeared in his right hand in his hand axe form, the lightest of all shapes he had unlocked.
"...Deos..." The orc coughed, "...Pro...Gloria!" He held his fists high, ignoring the blood gushing out of his wounds. Glenn drew a deep breath and raised his axe too. His right hand glowed softly with a golden light, but he couldn't care less about that.
"Cough...I have to salute your will..." He chuckled dejectedly while wiping the blood off his face. He took a heavy step forward and suddenly froze. A loud, destroying pang of pain had hit him in the back of the head. He couldn't think anymore. The ground was closing in very, very quickly, but he couldn't move whatsoever. The only thing he managed to see was the surprised look on that damned orc's face and a loud clanging noise.
***
Somewhere else.
"DON'TLETMEGODON'TLETMEGOAHHHHHHHHH!!!" Milena screamed as she held on for dear life, her arms tightly wrapped around Liara. The Black Heiress was heaving with difficulty and jumping from one invisible foothold to the other. Liara suddenly tensed up and took a big jump to finally land in a pile of black sand, dropping Milena at the same time. The fallen noble yelped as she fell on the sand, and hurriedly stood up while conjuring multiple Lux lights.
"...Where are we?" Liara asked softly as she studied their surroundings. Milena dusted her bottom off and looked up, shivering at the unending darkness.
"I don't know," She muttered, "But I think we lost the others. Glenn was busy fighting that orc, right?"
Liara nodded slowly as she clenched her sword's hilt tightly, "I hope Sahro and Javier are okay."
Milena chuckled softly, "You're not worried about Glenn at all, are you?"
Liara smiled, "I'm sure he defeated that orc and is already looking for us," She sheathed her sword and called to her spear, which flew out of the darkness to lodge itself in her outstretched hand. She called up her Recorder and frowned, tapping it multiple times.
"Why isn't that thing...?"
Milena gasped, "Uhm, Liara, you might want to come and take a look at this!" she said over in the distance. Liara turned and gasped in turn, her heart racing as a strange feeling of dread crept up her back. She stared with her jaw wide open as Milena unveiled a massive, dull crystal lying in the black sand that was hidden under some kind of black sheet of fabric.
"What is this...?" She muttered, before pausing. Milena also stopped moving, holding her head high as she listened.
In the distance, a loud, heartbeat was echoing, calling to them. Liara and Milena exchanged a tensed-up glance and nodded.
***
Also somewhere else.
A blinding streak of red light shot through the darkness and touched the ground in a loud explosion. Black sand flew in all directions as Sahro slowly stood up while shaking off the sand in his clothes. His mechanical arm gleamed with mystical blue energy, casting an eerie glow over his surroundings. The Black Heir frowned and shot out a streak of blue lightning strike in the darkness, watching silently as it dissipated without giving him any indication of where he might have ended up.
"...Of course, I had to end up alone..." Sahro grumbled while sheathing his curved sword. He crossed his arms while once again playing with his mechanical arm, enjoying the feeling of weight it gave him. He chuckled and shook his head, before jumping back with a small yelp as he almost collided with Javier, who was standing silently in the darkness without saying a thing.
"Shit, where the hell did you come from?" He blurted out, the silent hunter remaining as unresponsive as ever. Sahro was about to curse him but he paused, listening intently. In the distance, a heartbeat was echoing dully, calling to everyone in its surroundings. Sahro silently glanced at Javier, who headed for the noise without a second of hesitation. The Black Heir gritted his teeth and hurriedly ran after the Pale Son, walking next to him.
"I'll take back my complaints about being alone..." He muttered through his teeth, his feet burying in the black sand with each step.
***
Thump, thump.
The heart is hollow, its beat is vain,
A ghost of sorrow, it feels no pain.
Thump, thump.
Once it pulsed with wild delight,
Now it's trapped in endless night.
Thump, thump.
It years for nothing, craves no touch,
For it has learned to hate too much.
Thump, thump!
The hollow heart will never heal,
A mirror to a soul unreal.
("The Hollow Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe")