“What a cheeky girl, ignoring me then going on a trip.”
Duchess Talerria smirked as she put down her Aerial, her messages to her daughter left unanswered.
Her husband shrugged from his side of the dinner table.
“Maybe she’s getting chummy with the boy.”
“Oh no, she knows exactly what she’s doing. There are a dozen different people who want to know where she got those spells from, but I thought she’d at least be open with her mother.”
“You didn’t think to ask her before she ran off to Polaris?”
“I was being courteous since she was tired and in pain. And then she was overshadowed by John, so I had forgotten for a moment. Nevertheless, once this trip of hers is over, we’ll have time to sit down and talk.”
“...Seems to me like you already know where those spells came from.”
Ikhor glanced up at his wife, causing her to click her tongue.
“Forgive me if I find it difficult to believe that John has knowledge about the deepest secrets of the elements and is capable of imparting them to Umara.”
“Could his mentor have given him knowledge?”
“Maxwell only cares about his protege. He has no use for passing on elemental comprehensions to either of them. Besides, those spells she used weren’t conventional. They were pieced together, unrefined. That’s why they took so much energy out of her.”
“Dear, I have a feeling you’re ignoring the obvious. It’s not like summoners have never worked with warlocks for spell development before. They do it all the time with enchanting especially. I see no reason why John couldn’t be smart enough to do the same. So what’s really going on?”
“It’s their relationship, Ikhor.”
The Duchess rubbed her temple.
“Part of me doesn’t want her to know this definitively since she may leverage it, but I will fight for my daughter. Before that though, I need to make absolutely sure that John is the one. Him having a deep understanding of magic makes him valuable even beyond marriage. He would become an asset to the family, but that comes with risks since he’s earned the ire of so many. I cannot give my blessing prematurely because the moment I do, I place this family against the other noble households. After the tournament, the pressure on us has risen tenfold. Not only did John kiss her in front of the entire Kingdom, but he managed to survive what should have killed him. Now, the longer I stall, the worse our position gets. You know that.”
“...”
Ikhor was silent, his fork no longer stuffing his mouth with food.
Umara’s performance during the tournament showed more than just her access to high-level spells, but also her enlightenment. It would be impossible to pull off what she did otherwise. Those interested in her were spurred into acting even more brazenly. She was showing talent even above her mother’s at the same age and would become extremely valuable to any family that managed to claim her for themselves.
The Duchess could always make excuses. She could argue that because she was showing such great talent, she wanted to hold onto her for as long as she could, especially as she started to enter the military.
But even that was difficult since John was there and had made his claim in front of the Capitol’s people. The situation was clear; Talexia didn’t have much wiggle room to maneuver around something as obvious as that.
Now, she was even receiving pressure from the Ancestors, telling her to cut John out of Umara’s life. No matter how talented he was, he was still only a summoner with no noble title to back him.
The noose was tightening. She would need to take any excuse she could get to stall. If Umara would at least speak to her, then she would be able to confirm her suspicions, even if it didn’t change much.
But now she was being ignored. She would be lying if she said that it wasn’t bothering her.
After some more silence, Talexia sighed.
“Maybe she doesn’t trust me.”
“Nonsense. It’s just the position you’re in. Look, how about I head over to Purple Sky and talk to her? Some things are better handled in person.”
“...Fine. Not now though. Give it a few days so she can settle.”
“Sure, but I’ll still go now. I’ve got some friends there that I can talk to while I watch her.”
“Hm, are you sure this isn’t just a vacation?”
“Who said I can’t do two things at once?”
Ikhor chuckled while jumping up from his chair. Talexia rolled her eyes as he rushed to pack his things.
……
…
Several more days passed at the base. We’d been here a week and it was filled with nothing but menial labor.
I was expecting a little bit more than that. I knew how dangerous it was out there, but the Puppet Master was good at knowing what missions we could handle. The fact that he hadn’t come to us once meant that there was simply nothing we could do.
In fact, there wasn’t much of anything at all going on recently; because we were on dusting duty, I could keep track of the traffic.
At first it was constant, but then, only one vehicle out of an entire convoy returned from a mission, its back half-missing and sides covered in deep gouges. After that, no more convoys or sallies were sent out, leaving us out of a job. The only messes we had to clean up then were created overnight when they launched black ops.
Something was happening, something out of the ordinary. For a base as large as this, that meant big trouble.
I started to worry more, but as the Puppet Master had told us, we were only a small drop in a very large bucket. If something was going to happen, it would happen. Us small fry could only rely on our superiors to keep us safe.
I let out a sigh.
“One more week.”
“Yeah… Are you feeling anxious?”
“Mm.”
“...So am I.”
Umara muttered. Her Aura had gotten far sharper after the tournament, rising to a level not far below my own. I wasn’t surprised that she was feeling what I was.
Something was coming.
But I couldn’t get a read on it. Normally, I could tell when there was a concrete threat to my life, but whatever was coming was either weak enough to be easily handled by this base, or strong enough to completely thwart my Aura.
And I wasn’t the only one. It was clear that tensions within the base were rising. Those who could feel what was coming were anxious like us, while those who couldn’t were feeding off the anxiety of those who could.
And the Puppet Master wasn’t answering me. He had been AWOL since we arrived. He was clearly busy, but that only made me worry more.
That was until the 7th day when we received an order to head to one of the briefing rooms.
And by we, I meant the entire Magisterium class.
I arrived with my squad, piling into the room where the Puppet Master was waiting with some instructors.
The room was completely silent, even though there were nearly a hundred people crammed in. The Puppet Master broke the silence after a few minutes, when the last few stragglers stumbled through the door coughing dust.
“Listen up, everyone. We’ve received news that there is a siege on the horizon. We don’t know how big, but it’s big enough to warrant contingencies. I need you to listen very closely to what I’m about to say.
“You are all the future of the Kingdom’s military power. You are all talented, which is why you all are in the fourth year class in the first place. And our priority is to preserve that talent so you can grow to higher heights in the future. That can’t happen if you die early, and this trip was never one to test your mettle. It was merely to expose you to life on the frontlines. To help you realize that there are tens of thousands more who are talented just like you. Going into the military, you will not receive special treatment. You will be required to earn the respect that those above you receive. Now a new threat has come knocking on the door. Put plainly, you are worthless to the Kingdom until you grow into your talent, and that is the only reason why I’m telling you this now.
“If things turn dire, if the wall falls and you find yourself staring death in the face, then run. Even if you are the only ones doing so, you need to run away. Refusing to do so only tells me that you’re too stupid to weigh the risks and rewards. Hopefully, your parents didn’t raise idiots that can’t understand that.”
“...”
Nobody let out a sound. Anxious eyes flitted between classmates and friends.
It was quite the ominous message. My only question was how we would manage to run away if the walls fell.
Then, the Puppet Master evened his tone.
“Of course, all this is only necessary if a base that has stood for over a century manages to fall. I don’t see that happening by any stretch, but even if it doesn’t fall, that doesn’t mean you won’t be at risk. You all simply need to retreat should it prove necessary to do so. Just focus on preserving your lives. That’s all we care about. Understood?”
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Yes sir!”
The firm response seemed to break the overwhelming pressure of the room, but I was still stuck in my own thoughts at the back of the room.
If I was being honest, I was already prepared to run in the event something like that happened. This just made that decision a lot easier.
But the issue wasn’t running. It was where we would run to.
I wouldn’t trust the Rails, and running wouldn’t do us too much good. We were too far from civilization to travel anywhere on foot.
That left the vehicles. Perhaps we’d have to steal one and secure an exit through a back gate.
But as he said, the chances we’d actually have to abandon the base were slim to none. There was an Authority 12 here that could handle whatever threat came, so I’d only have to make sure that we would survive the duration of whatever siege was coming.
We were dismissed after all was said, going back to our normal schedule.
Unfortunately, it seemed like the discussion was perfectly timed. It wasn’t even three hours later when I felt a tremor through my feet.
As Umara, Feiden, Tana and I walked through the base, I suddenly came to a halt. The tremor I felt was barely perceptible, almost entirely dampened by my boots and socks. But the air also vibrated, however slightly. I could feel it in my skin.
“John?”
“...Hang on.”
I continued to stand there as another tremor, a bit stronger, rumbled through the ground.
A minute later, it was strong enough to hear normally as it rose in tempo. It went from a tremor to a low vibration.
Like the purrs of a cat…
I felt my hairs stand on end as I looked off to the walls. This wasn’t the first time I experienced this.
So I started running as the sounds continued to vibrate the ground, constantly rising in intensity.
I streaked past the guard at the gate, climbing up the wall with footsteps trailing behind me, and looking out over the frontline.
On the horizon I could make out a small figure, rapidly approaching considering its overwhelming size.
With every step it made, the drone around us got more and more unbearable. From shaking vibrations, to the unceasing roars of a lion, to the pounding shockwaves of a jackhammer that threatened to split the ground — and my head — open.
All that was left was a screeching symphony that could tear the sky asunder.
All that was on my mind was the mere concept of what was before me. It was no mere creature, not even something that could be described as a living being.
For it was not living, and it was not being. It was a curse upon this world, the very icon of humanity’s doom.
Perched atop four legs, of a lion, of a lizard, and two of an eagle.
An amalgam of twisted flesh and muscle.
Six arms protruding from random points, each curled around a bundle of broken weapons.
Two heads, one human with no eyes and a mouth sewn shut surrounded by scars, with slits for a nose.
The second head a mound of flesh, a trinity of eye pairs, and twice as many mouths and tongues.
It was as terrifying as it was incomprehensible. I cursed my eyes, cursed Maxwell, cursed myself for even being able to see it at this distance.
No, I couldn’t actually see it clearly. Its image was projected in my mind, its chaotic assortment of organs and appendages poking and piercing my brain with almost-physical pain. At odds with its comical, if disgusting, appearance was the very concept of dread the entity seemed to walk with… all the way up to our doorstep.
The last time I saw this entity, this thing, I hadn’t identified it; couldn’t identify it. But now, being much stronger and having directly felt its Aura, I could identify it clearly.
“The King of Anarchy…”
I muttered, feeling tears fall from my eyes. At least, I thought they were tears until I smeared them and looked down, finding blood on my hand. The corners of my vision turned red.
I turned to Umara, finding her eyes wide open, staring out into the distance.
After a couple seconds, I figured that I shouldn’t even bother doing anything about this. The King of Anarchy, one of the four Kings, the most dreaded beings in the world, was here to destroy this base with all of us on it. What the hell could I do? It didn’t matter how fast or far I ran. Even if I were to abandon everyone, there was no hope.
If anything, I should be trying to kill her so that she wouldn’t have to deal with the horror of dying by its hands. At least she would be able to die as a human. Then, I could try and kill everyone else, granting them the same mercy before going out on my own.
Hopefully she’d just listen to me and let me do it, otherwise I’d have to force the issue.
A 1911 appeared in my hand. I raised it and pointed it at her temple.
I was just about to pull the trigger when I saw her barrier appear, her eyes drifting over toward me, the same streaks of blood going down her face.
“No John, you’ll allow me. Of all the people who deserve to die peacefully, it’s you.”
“You know you can’t beat me, so why bother?”
“Because you can only beat me with the right conditions. Thankfully, you’ve taught me well. Perhaps if you were a knight, nobody would be able to stop you. Maybe in another life, we’ll be able to reunite under better circumstances.”
She smiled before a massive spell formation appeared around her. I could actually recognize it since they were hers, spells we had worked on together. She was going all out.
My mask appeared over my face, and that saved me when the vacuum domain appeared. But it was only a temporary measure as I started firing into her barrier, fully empowered shots slamming against it and creating cracks.
My Psyka flowed so smoothly that it felt like I was a dozen times more powerful. I could fill my gun with so much power that it glowed. It felt good, so good. Perhaps this was what it was like to go out in one last blaze of glory.
But then, just as our battle started, I saw a flash of light.
All at once, my reddened vision cleared. I finally noticed that I was looking through a film of blood over my eyes.
When I looked down, the blood vessels across my body were bulging, some of them having burst.
I looked back up toward Umara, and my bleeding eyes widened.
There, behind her, was the most beautiful being I had ever seen.
An angel.
I felt a familiar pair of arms hug me from behind, an embrace that washed my mind and made me fall to my knees in vulnerability, an embrace that felt just like her.
Guardian Angel.
With my mind being cleansed of the power of Anarchy, I finally realized what I had been doing and looked around.
The entire base around us was descending into, well, anarchy. Everyone was attacking and trying to kill each other, what was initially supposed to be an act of benevolence turning into savagery
Some had already died. On the windows of the administration building there were veils of red obscuring the view within, the sight inside no less of a horror scene than the one happening around us.
I looked back to Umara, smiling wryly.
“Fortitude, huh? I actually tried to kill her. Seems I’m still a ways off. You’ve any advice for me, Miss?”
I looked over my shoulder, finding a luminescent arm and feathers, but no face to look into.
The voice bypassed my ears and pierced straight into my soul.
“Don’t give up.”
“... Well, that’s certainly specific.”
I chuckled as she faded away, a glowing white feather the only thing to mark her passage before it too disintegrated into air.
And then I crawled over to Umara and wrapped her in a hug.
“Sorry about that, dear. Did I hurt you?”
“...I almost killed you.”
“Come on. You can’t kill me that easily.”
“...”
Her worried face quickly turned inquisitive.
I laughed.
“Alright, let's save this for later. It’s time to run for our lives.”
“Can we really get out of this?”
“Well… do or don’t, it won’t take long to find out.”
“Tana!”
My head whipped around when I heard a shout, finding Feiden, Vetsmon, and Tana to the side.
The Templar was also there, tapping an orb in his hand furiously.
I disregarded him and picked myself up, pulling Umara along as I ran over to them.
“Hey! You three, we need to go!”
“John, what is that?”
Feiden asked with a quivering voice and streaks of blood down his cheeks. In his arms was Tana, her face a similar mask of pain.
I grabbed his shoulder.
“That right there is anarchy incarnate. Now stop thinking about it and let’s get down this wall. Vetsmon!”
I stood, finding the big man nearby.
He was looking down at Tana, his eyes raising when I called.
I sighed.
“It’s time to work, big guy. We’re all we got and it’s a game of survival now.”
“...”
He was silent for a second as I stretched out my hand. It was only when he clasped it that I broke into a smile.
“We’re wasting time talking.”
“Hell yeah. Jump down!”
“Got you.”
Vetsmon’s arms hoisted me up before we were suddenly airborne, landing with a thump and a ring of purple dust.
Umara followed, floating down gracefully while Feiden jumped with Tana.
I pointed toward the hangars.
“Get to the cars! We’re stealing one!”
“Got it.”
We charged back into the base with that word, flying between all of the nearby fights going on.
Hundreds of people, anywhere from Authority 5 to 10, were killing each other mindlessly. They seemed to predominantly be those with weaker Auras, unable to pull themselves out from the depths of despair.
My Aura certainly wasn’t strong enough either. I was barely self aware while trying to kill Umara. Remembering my thoughts and actions during that time seemed to be the extent of what my proficiency afforded me. The King of Anarchy wasn’t something I could resist, no matter how talented I was.
So it was my Guardian Angel who descended to help me. Question was, where was everyone else’s?
I washed my mind of that inquiry as we arrived at the depot, finding hundreds of vehicles lined up in hangars.
Quickly running through our weeks of dusting the place, I recalled how the keys for the vehicles were stored and identified.
“Get inside and go to the far right admin shed.”
Vetsmon shot off as the words entered his ears, finding the admin shed and blasting through the door with his leg.
Inside there, I saw a few containers holding different stacks of keys. Each of the vehicle types had different types of keys.
What I wanted was a model that I had only seen deployed a few times. Hummers were popular, but they certainly weren’t the best the human military had to offer.
I jumped off Vetsmon’s back and went for the smallest stack of black keycards.
The containers were attached to a desk, and there were several buttons along with a key slot.
I looked down to find a corpse, bending over and snatching the keycard hanging off what remained of its neck.
My hands flew as I recalled the actions of the operator who handled all the vehicles and security, unlocking all the containers and grabbing all of the black keycards.
“Let’s go. Across the depot.”
With that Vetsmon grabbed me and shot out of the room, jumping on top of one of the vehicles and flying across them all to reach the opposite wall.
There, we found the Steeds, large tank-like trucks meant to take the worst beatings one could find on a mission.
“Feiden! Find one!”
I yelled while throwing the stack of cards into the air. Feiden’s figure flew overhead at that moment, zipping around between all the vehicles and finding which card went where.
Umara was dropped by Vetsmon and I, while Tana appeared on top of a Steed.
“What’s the plan?”
“Grab one of these things and haul ass. I can use my Aerial to find the general direction back to the military depot we stopped at.”
“Why don’t we just take the Rail?”
“Assuming the Scourge isn’t stupid, we won’t get the chance to.”
“Found it!”
Feiden announced, appearing with one card in hand for the Steed we were next to.
I grabbed it and jumped in the driver’s seat, the others piling into the back. This thing even had a couple magic turrets, so Tana crawled up into the gunner’s seat.
I slotted the card and started the engine, shifting the speed before gripping the steering wheel.
Right as I drove out though, all the sounds of the world were drowned out.
I looked up, seeing a black line drawn from the ground to the sky, a severance of space. It seemed Anarchy really could split the sky.