Chapter 9: Ajal; Shauran 20th, 344SR; 05:50

‘If you don’t kill them... They’ll just come back!’

Ajal thought about what Jack said, it reminded him of what Ava told him.

“Peace... Requires sacrifice...” Ajal murmured under his breath in thought.

‘That’ll never work... I know it, maybe this is the punishment I face for thinking it would at one point.’ Ajal glanced over his shoulder at Jack, who had been following with his head down. The two hadn’t exchanged words for a while. It was dark, the wind rustled the leaves of the trees above. They made their way through the lush forest, accompanied by the ambience of nature.

Jack had short hair, his light skin dry and darkened by ash, dirty beige pants, and a stained white shirt. Ajal could feel his skin crawling at the touch of the unwashed clothes he received from him. ‘They don’t have showers... Bathing must be a pain…’ Ajal pulled his collar up and sniffed it, the scent reminding him of dirty socks. ‘What kind of world is this...’

They were reaching the eastern edge of the forest, and the number of trees around them slowly dwindled. ‘Come to think of it...’ Ajal focused his spirit on his forehead, and his third eye opened. ‘Spirit Sense.’ He felt thousands of spirits in each direction, the most to the north, the only spirits of animals and insects were in that direction. In every other direction were just people and plants. ‘There isn’t a single animal or insect in this forest? Forget the forest, the only animals are in one location for two hundred and fifty miles? Seriously?’ He closed the third eye as they reached the base of a hill.

“Up there,” Ajal pointed to the top of a hill.

Ajal crouched down low, and focused his spirit on his foot. With a single step, he was already halfway up the hill. He effortlessly ran up the rest in four steps, the wind brushing past his face as he reached the top in a moment and turned to see Jack at the bottom of the hill.

“There is no way I can do that...” Jack said from the bottom.

“Wait there,” Ajal turned and looked over the hill.

He stayed behind the giant brown oak trees to avoid being seen. To the left down the hill, the trail continued out of the forest towards a large building near the cliffside surrounded by a gate at least twice Ajal’s height ‘Did they wheel it through here? There’s enough space for it to be possible...’

Several people stood by the front gate in white robes, the gate seemed to end just at the wall of the mountain. Ajal scanned the edges of the building before he saw what appeared to be pipes on top of it. ‘A factory? I don’t see any smoke...’ Ajal turned and slid down the hill, the leaves rustled as he glided down the slope, stopping himself in front of Jack.

“You were right, there is something there... It looked kind of like a factory,” Ajal pointed out.

“What’s a factory?” Jack asked curiously.

“It’s- a place where you make things... Usually a lot of that thing. The path leads there, that’s where my ship should be,” Ajal continued forward.

As they got around the bend, they found themselves at the bottom of a massive hill. ‘My Dragoon better not be damaged…’ The path was extremely dark, the only light was from two torches at the front gate.

“Alright, I’m-” Ajal stopped and immediately crouched down, pulling Jack down with him.

The tall grass brushed against Ajal’s face, it was tall enough for Jack and Ajal to hide in the darkness.

“Why are we hiding?” Jack whispered.

“We’re not alone,” Ajal said as he looked back to the top of the hill he stood upon earlier.

The silhouettes of four people stood at the top of the hill. They seemed to be observing the same building Jack and Ajal were heading to. The four of them charged down the hill and spread out, one ran directly towards the front gate.

“Who are you?! State your name!” the angel near the gate shouted, however, the mysterious people continued to charge.

The others in the group broke off into multiple directions.

“Shit! There are more of them! Ifrin call for backup!” the angel shouted in the distance.

The first member on the hill engaged the two angels at the gate. He was big, charging in bare handed. He swung his clenched fists into the guards. From that distance, Ajal just heard the distant grunts and groans of their struggle.

“Those ones wearing white are the angels I’m guessing, I thought they’d have wings? Why are they called angels again?” Ajal whispered to Jack.

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen people fight the angels... Who could they be?” Jack pondered.

Ajal pushed Jack’s head down again as one of the shadows grew closer. It was a woman, she ran towards the left of the hill while the others from the hill continued to spread out around the building. The two angels drew metal staffs, one of them swinging his staff and striking the assailant in the head. A red mist lingered around his head, Ajal watched the man use his spirit to mitigate some damage. ‘Huh- He…’ The man’s hood fell, revealing his bright red hair, he ran forward with a battle cry and tackle the angel to the ground. His fist struck the angel’s stomach, then his face. He continued to relentlessly clobber the angel while grunting ferociously.

“Hey that guy can use spirit arts? Why can’t you?” Ajal tilted his head at Jack.

“What are you talking about? Spirit arts? That’s what you did to the boulder, isn’t it? He can do that? I can do that?” Jack whispered in shock and surprise.

“You should be able to... Anyways, let’s follow that girl,” Ajal pointed up the hill.

The woman made her way up towards the wall before she seemed to disappear over the hill. Ajal darted forward in the darkness and tall grass, laying low and quickly climbing the steep hill. Jack struggled to match his speed, instead, he ran out of breath a quarter of the way up the hill as he tried to keep pace. Ajal reached the top of the hill but to his surprise, the girl was gone. He looked at the wall and noticed a rope going over. Ajal turned to see Jack struggle up the hill, he breathed heavily as he reached Ajal.

“Let’s go,” Ajal grabbed the back of Jack’s collar.

“Huh?” Jack looked confused, but Ajal suddenly jumped over the wall, turning his confusion into terror.

Ajal landed on the other side of the gate, he held Jack with one hand above the ground. A door into the building was open and a yellow light spilled out from within the building. Ajal let go of Jack, and he immediately fell to his knees and grabbed his mouth.

“Sorry the rope was just gonna take too long,” Ajal apologized as Jack vomited.

Ajal simply turned away with a blank expression ‘I probably could have warned him...’.

“Ask me before you do something like that!” Jack shouted with tears in the corner of his eyes.

Ajal scanned the area. The stone building was about two stories high. The front gate down the path to the right was wide open. There were training dummies made from sticks and straw arranged along the wall. Wagons full of dirt or stone. Baskets full of weaponry and tools.

“Eos wasn’t kidding... What is this place?” Jack pondered.

“Seems like where they train soldiers,” Ajal pointed out. “Let’s go,” Ajal walked toward an open door next to the barrel of weaponry.

They both peeked inside and noticed an angel unconscious on the ground. Ajal walked right past the body, Jack poked him with his foot just in case. Another door in front of them was left open, they walked into the large room and found themselves on a stone catwalk that stretched along the side of it. At the other end of the catwalk was an open door to another section of the building, the girl from earlier was running down toward it.

Below a large metal door was being guarded by angels who fought against the intruders. There were mixed grunts and wails from the commotion down below. Jack and Ajal looked over the edge to see the one who charged the front gate, he was fighting three angels at once.

“Holy crap that guy is intense!” said Jack.

‘That’s intense?’ Ajal continued down the catwalk as Jack watched the fight. The man let out a roar as he dodged an incoming staff, stepped forward, and planted his fist into the angel’s stomach. The other two each swung their staff, but he didn’t budge from the hit. He tried to kick him away but the angel blocked the foot with his staff. The third angel used his staff to put the man into a headlock, but the red-haired man ripped his arms free. Two more people in black clothing ran into the room to assist the red-haired man.

“Come on!” one of them roared as Ajal entered the other room down the catwalk.

‘What the...’ Ajal saw the girl from earlier, she was tinkering with the lock on a door at the other end of the catwalk.

She was just shorter than Jack, her hair was tucked under a black cap. Ajal looked at her leg and noticed a secured knife, she wore black camo pants with a black turtleneck and gloves. Her hair slipped out the back of her hat and she had multiple extra pockets for utility. The lock on the door clicked and she opened it, only to be met with a wall of stone in front of her.

The girl made a fist, Ajal noticed an aura surrounding her hand. ‘So they are using spirit arts... just...’ She swung her fist forward and made a small dent in the stone wall ‘... Not properly...’

“Ah… Damn!” she yelled.

She tried to punch the wall again and made a small dent, the impact echoing through the room. She turned around to walk back across the balcony but then saw Ajal.

“A miner... What are you doing here?” she asked.

“Miner?” Ajal raised an eyebrow.

Ajal looked down at his clothes. ‘Oh...’ As he looked down, he noticed a purple light to his right. Ajal turned and looked over the balcony and was shaken by what he saw. There were non-unified infants barely even a month old. Their skin colors varied, but they all seemed to be of similar age. ‘Huh...’ They were all resting in strange stone cradles with glass tops connected to a strange metal device that had a large chunk of purple crystals embedded in it. Pipes and wires were connected to the cradles, channelling power from them into the central machine.

“What is this?” Ajal uttered in shock.

Ajal’s fists clenched, he felt a familiar rage course through him. Jack ran through the door to the larger room and saw what Ajal was staring at.

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

“Who are you? You two shouldn’t be here!” the girl tried to warn Jack and Ajal.

“Those kids are... They were taken yesterday by members of House Rael... But... They shouldn’t have been brought here?” said Jack.

“I’m serious!” the woman shouted.

“Ajal... That girl’s got a knife,” Jack mentioned.

“Those assholes...” Ajal uttered under his breath as he jumped over the rail, fell towards the lower level, and landed on two feet.

“Ajal? What are you doing?!” Jack shouted.

“Why would he jump from this height, is he insane?!” the girl yelled.

Ajal landed on one knee, the impact felt like nothing to him. The floor was grey cement, and Ajal could see his breath in the air. He looked around the room and saw the wires travel from the pods to the statue.

“They’re really using my blood to turn these kids into weapons,” Ajal muttered angrily.

Ajal stretched his hand up into the sky, the girl and Jack were surprised to see a black shadow form in his hand and extend into a pole. He spun it and took a stance, a black blade formed at the end. The shadow took the form of a sickle.

“Is that a scythe? Does he have a gift? Then... Who are you two?!” The girl turned to Jack and put her fists up. “You can’t be non-unified, you’re angels aren’t you!”

“Wait! I’m non-unified, he’s not from here, calm down!” Jack cowered.

“What do you me-” she was cut off by the sound of air swishing around rapidly below.

Ajal spun his scythe around him, dust and pebbles got picked up in the draft he created. ‘Spirit…’ He gripped both hands on the scythe and swung his scythe in the air. ‘Ignition!’ The scythe didn’t reach, but the smoke in front of him split in two horizontally. The pillar at the center of all the children split in two as well, separating the purple crystal from the pods. It fell slowly towards Ajal as a purple light radiated off his head.

“What in the...” Jack whispered.

He tossed the scythe to the side, but as it hit the floor it dissipated into a shadow. At the same time, he raised both hands and caught the crystal. Ajal gritted his teeth and his third eye opened and began to pulse with purple light. He threw the crystal at the ceiling on the opposite side. Jack and the girl watched with their jaws held open as Ajal fired a condensed purple beam from his forehead at the crystal. The beam engulfed the statue, and broke straight through the wall of the building. A buzzing sound filled the room, the crystal disintegrating as the building shook from the force of Ajal’s blast. The beam disappeared as Ajal’s third eye closed. Purple flames remained along the edge of the hole Ajal opened in the roof.

“What... In the...” the girl uttered in disbelief.

“Now- I didn’t know he could do that...” Jack admitted.

She held the rail with her jaw dropped and eyes wide before she backed up and looked at Jack in fear.

“We’re not with the angels. Uhm... My name’s Jack, that’s Ajal,” he tried to explain to her, but when she heard his name her eyes seemed to become wider.

“You’re- You’re Jack... Jack Eldritch? No way...” She froze for a moment, and then ran past Jack and into the previous room in a hurry.

“Huh?” Jack uttered in confusion.

Ajal jumped up and grabbed the rail, then pulled himself up.

“We’re getting those kids out of here by the way,” Ajal mentioned.

“I-I’ve got no problem with that,” said Jack. “So uh... You really don’t have a gift?”

Ajal approached the open door with a wall of stone behind it.

“Who would put a wall behind a-” Jack was cut off as Ajal kicked the wall down, it crumbled as thick pieces of rock hit the metal catwalk.

“Someone trying to hide something,” Ajal walked through nonchalantly.

This room was a bit smaller, the catwalk extended around all sides of the room in another large space. On the ground level, pieces of technology from Imperion were scattered around the lower level of the room.

“Dammit,” Ajal kissed his teeth.

His ship had been torn piece by piece and scattered around the room along with some other mechanical junk the two of them didn’t recognize. Around the walls of the room were individual pieces of glossy white armor, and strange weaponry Ajal didn’t recognize. ‘So they have some decent technology of their own...’

“I can’t put this back together... I don’t even know if all the pieces are here,” Ajal groaned.

Ajal could see the inside of the exposed hanger, a skeleton of the ship’s hull was all that remained. The engine missing, and only one of the thrusters remained. Scraps of torn steel and blue plates were littered around the room. ‘I don’t have the tool... Even if I did… I’m no engineer…’ Ajal looked down in disappointment, while Jack looked down at all the pieces.

“Looks cool... And complicated... Maybe we can use the scraps?” Jack suggested.

“No... Whoever scrapped this knows what they’re doing. All the important stuff is gone, those kids take priority for now I guess,” Ajal walked back into the previous room and continued down the catwalk.

“Are you okay?” Jack asked as he followed Ajal.

“These angels, they’ve managed to annoy the hell out of me today on more than one occasion, that’s impressive,” he chuckled with an angered expression.

“Yeah... They’re good at that,” Jack muttered.

Ajal and Jack made their way back to the first room where the man fought those angels, they returned to see a very different scene. The girl on the catwalk from earlier was on the ground unconscious. Two other people who wore similar attire to her were trapped in stone and appeared to be knocked out, and the man from earlier was in combat with someone different.

He had a large stomach but his muscles were well-defined despite his size. His hands were clad with stone gauntlets he swung viciously at the red-haired man from before. His white dress shirt was opaque because of sweat, and Ajal’s eyes locked onto a green insignia of a fist on his chest. He wore armor made from stone which covered his body, ‘That’s not normal armor... That’s a gift… An elemental one too?’ The red-haired man channeled spirit into his fist and punched the stone armor, the crack of his bone was audible and he pulled his hand back, wailing in pain.

“That’s Bruno! He’s Alexander Rael’s first lieutenant, why is he here?” Jack stressed, he looked extremely worried.

Ajal continued to observe the fight calmly.

“That Bruno guy has a gift which uses stone... However, that red-haired guy he’s fighting knows a thing or two about spirit arts... This should be interesting,” Ajal observed.

“You keep saying that, what the heck is spirit arts?” Jack asked.

Just as he asked the red-haired man dodged Bruno’s fist. He aimed low and slammed his fist into the angel’s knee. Bruno stumbled as he lost balance, the man roared as he tackled Bruno’s leg and pushed him onto his back.

“I won’t let you take my team!” he spat, his red beard seemed darker around his mouth.

‘Is that blood? How long have they been fighting?’.

“Just you try it, I won’t let you take this place... The demons need to be stopped! You’re a fool if you can’t recognize the threat they pose!” Bruno shouted.

Ajal noticed a woman fly into the garage quietly and spread her wings out. She wore similar clothes to Bruno but was much slimmer. Two of the feathers on her wings bent towards the red-haired man and shot forward. ‘Huh- That’s also a gift?!’

“Again with the bullshit! It gets old you know... The demons haven’t attacked any-”

“Look out!” Ajal shouted as the two black feathers hit the red-haired man’s ankle.

“Ah!” the rugged man cried out in pain.

‘He’s going to lose… No… Not today…’ The red-haired man cried in pain, he lost focus for a moment. Bruno kicked him in the chest and knock him back. But a rock jutted from the ground underneath his feet, pushing him back in for a finisher.

“Fool!” said Bruno.

Stones floated towards Bruno’s fist and encased it. Ajal grasped the rail and jumped over, he leaned off the edge and kicked off towards the two. Bruno swung his fist of rock, but before it could connect, he felt a foot press into his stomach.

“Ah!” Bruno gasped.

Ajal’s foot crashed through the stone armor. An audible crack in Bruno’s ribs could be heard. Ajal pushed his foot forward, launching the large man out of the front entrance of the building. Bruno flew backward and bounced off the ground, his body tumbled and slid against the dirt until he collided with the wall of the outer gate with a massive crash. Bruno gritted his teeth in the sudden shock of pain as he grasped his side and writhed on the ground. ‘Ah crap, did I hit him too hard? I thought his stone would be stronger… But he didn’t use any spirit to defend…’

The slim woman with black wings flew to his side, she also had the green insignia of a fist above her chest. ‘Their gifts are very different… Does hers even have an element? Or are those just plain wings? Their clothes... Are they a similar rank?’.

“Agh!” Bruno coughed up blood.

“Bruno! Are you alright!” she knelt down next to him.

“That’s Vivian! She’s also a member of House Rael!” Jack shouted from the catwalk.

Vivian turned back to the warehouse as she heard her name, she lifted Bruno’s arm over her shoulder. The red-haired man pulled the feathers out of his legs.

“Thank you... Who are you? How’d you do that?” he asked curiously.

Ajal ignored him and walked toward the two lieutenants.

“Are you the ones in charge of this place,” Ajal asked, his eyes giving off an intense pressure.

“You’re... a demon? No... But those clothes? State your name heathen!” Vivian shouted.

Vivian stood up and one wings extended outwards. ‘That again...’ The wing was at least twice the length of her arms. Ajal noticed two feathers on her wings bend. ‘It’s coming…’ Ajal moved his body as she shot the feathers at a high speed. He weaved between the two of them effortlessly.

“What!” she said in shock as she saw him dodge the high-speed projectiles.

“The name is Ajal,” he said calmly as he walked toward her.

“How did he dodge that...” Vivian whispered to herself with wide eyes.

“Vivian... don’t fight hi-” Bruno coughed up blood which spilled out of his mouth into the palm of his hand. “He’s way too strong!”

Bruno took a deep breath and clenched his teeth, then put his palm on the ground. The ring on his hand glowed an orange light and a pillar of stone beneath the two erupted. The two angels were carried into the sky on the platform. When they were high enough, Vivian jumped off the pillar of rock with Bruno’s arm over her shoulder. Her wings spread and flapped rapidly as she tried to escape. Ajal ran toward the pillar and his third eye flashed purple. His body was engulfed in a black-an-white flame, he ran into the shadow cast by the pillar and ran into it.

“What is he doing now?” Jack asked himself as he ran for the closest exit.

A dark mark on the shadow moved up the stone pillar, Ajal slipped out of the mark and pulled himself onto the top. Then crouched and focused his spirit into his foot, igniting it and jumping high into the sky. Higher than Vivian and Bruno, the top of the pillar broke from his step. He descended toward Vivian as she glided away. ‘It’s a good thing that guy is heavy!’ Ajal grinned as he descended from above, his scythe formed in his hand. A white and black aura shrouded the tip as he prepared to strike. Vivian turned to see Ajal right above her, but it was too late. The air wished, as he cleaved one of her wings off and descended to the ground.

“Aaah!” Vivian screamed.

The angel lost control of her flight, and the black and white flame burned on the severed wing. Vivian flailed in the air. Her wing stretched outwards, attempting to flap, but unable to generate the force or balance to stay in the air. ‘Dark Passage!’ Ajal descended back down and his body was engulfed in the black and white aura once more.

As he hit the ground and fell into the shadow, he reappeared at the severed wing still above Vivian and Bruno. Vivian tried to flap her wings to slow her fall. Ajal flipped his scythe in hand and channeled his spirit into the back of his scythe. ‘Spirit Ignition!’ Ajal swung the back of his scythe down, slamming the two of them down to the ground with it.

“Huh!” Vivian gasped.

Vivian let go of Bruno and the two of them fell into the hill not too far from the building. Ajal landed on the grass, and he slid slightly down the slope. Vivian’s last wing dissipated before she mustered all her strength to conjure them again.

“Vivian... Run... “ Bruno stuttered, he was barely conscious. “You can’t escape with me... He’s too strong... Just... Go-” he coughed up even more blood. “Get... Alexander!” Bruno uttered at the edge of consciousness.

Vivian nodded with a look of fear in her eyes as Ajal approached. She wasted no time, spreading her wings and taking flight. She wobbled slightly in the air from the pain, but she reached a high speed quickly. ‘There’s no way I can get her if she’s moving that fast...’ Ajal thought as he walked up the hill.

“Damn,” said Ajal.

“Serves you right... Damn... Demon...” Bruno uttered.

“Demon?” Ajal turned to Bruno.

The angel was already unconscious. ‘I might have gone overboard... I think I broke his ribs... Shit, I hope he isn’t dying...’ Ajal lifted Bruno by the collar and dragged him back into the building, Jack came around the side.

“Dude...” Jack looked like he had a lot to say, but was speechless as he looked down and saw the first lieutenant of House Rael unconscious and being dragged by the collar.

“Holy shit, you killed the first lieutenant of a noble... I thought you didn’t want to kill anyone?” said Jack.

“He’s not dead... That girl got away,” Ajal mentioned.

“He looks de- Wait what... She’s gonna get Alexander Rael! And any other nobles available!” Jack shouted in terror.

“Yeah, that sucks,” Ajal replied nonchalantly and dropped Bruno on the dirt, and walked back into the building. “Tie him up or something…”

“We’re doomed…” Jack’s put his palms on his forehead in distress.

“There some by the wall we jumped over,” Ajal replied as he walked into the building.

The red-haired man who fought Bruno tried to wake the girl up from earlier who was unconscious. Ajal walked past them towards the large stone door which led to the room with the children in it. He grasped the crack of the door and jammed his fingers between them, he channeled his spirit into his fingertips, then pried it open with his bare hands.

“That was... What Arken taught us, but so refined... Who are you?” Reinhardt commented on Ajal’s use of spirit arts with an expression of shock.

Ajal walked into the room and looked around.

“My name is Ajal and that’s Jack over there, we came here looking for my ship, and I found it, it was torn apart and stripped. So now I’m here to help these kids. Who are you and why are you here?” Ajal returned the question.

“We’re part of the non-unified resistance- Jack... Did you say Jack?!” the man’s jaw dropped as he turned and looked toward him. “Him!? You!? You’re... You’re Jack Eldritch!” the man shouted in shock.

“Uh... Yeah?” Jack replied awkwardly.

He stood up quickly despite his injuries, his feet wobbled slightly. “You’re... You’re the one... Who stood up to the angels, you brought Alexander Rael to his knees…”

“Uh…”

“But... You’re just a child...” The man continued with a strange passion. “My name is Reinhardt Yojic, you... If it wasn’t for you... The resistance would never have regained hope…”

Ajal raised an eyebrow, he turned to Jack, but he had a similar expression. Jack looked over at Ajal and shrugged. As Ajal stared at Jack, he took notice of the change in the sky behind him. A blue gradient that darkened from east to west, the light descended over Jack and one of his eyes squinted slightly as he shielded himself from the sunlight. His hair was a little short and spiky, a greasy dark brown. The miners white skin was covered in asphalt and dirt. Jack scratched his head awkwardly as he looked down at Reinhardt.