Chapter 33: Jack; Shauran 45th, 344SR; 18:20

Jack's head felt hazy, he found himself on his back in a field next to a flat slab of stone sticking out of the ground. The sky was purple and the grass was a pleasant green that almost seemed to glow. 'Where... Lydia!' Jack rose upright and felt his jaw go numb as he witnessed himself and Lydia standing in front of an old dying tree, its bark a sickly pale yellow that seemed unnaturally bright. He was sitting amongst the graves in Ulkay, the last place he had seen Lydia.

'This is... Where am I?' Jack tried to speak but heard no words, only his own thoughts.

Jack reached for his face and touched his mouth, he couldn't feel his face, nor could he feel the tips of his fingers.

'Lydia! Lydia wait!' Jack tried to call out.

He grasped the gravestones, and despite being unable to feel them, he pulled himself up. His legs were numb and his head immediately felt hazy as he tried to stand. 'Woah!' Jack fell against a stone, the impact sounded like a white noise. Both his imitation and Lydia didn't notice him. His head stopped spinning, he got up as he felt normal again but it immediately continued, this time his eyelids felt like they were being dragged down. Jack was about two rows of graves away before he collided with an invisible wall. He tumbled backward and tried to grasp his nose.

"You're not... Coming too?" Lydia asked.

Jack stared at the two, expecting himself to leave, down the ladder, and back to the hideout. However, he saw himself turn away from the tree and follow Lydia. The two walked out of the graveyard into Ulkay together.

"You're right... The others don't need me..." Jack watched himself walk away with Lydia.

'Huh?'

The purple sky lit up pink as a white sun traveled straight over his head until it passed the buildings and left his line of sight, and then the sky returned to dark purple. This was repeated three more times.

'What was that... That isn't what I said...' The scene was quiet for some time. Jack looked to the street outside the graveyard to suddenly see Lydia running. Her frantic breaths and footsteps against the gravel were loud, too loud to be so far away. She held her child as she desperately sprinted through the street.

'What's happening... what's going-'

A figure grew out of the ground in front of Lydia. She stopped as it took the form of Alexander Rael.

"No... No... Don't take them!" Lydia screamed as Alexander Rael towered over her while raising his greatsword.

Jack's imitation ran across the gravel but was tackled down by angels, "Let go of me! Damn angels, get off of me!"

Jack froze the moment he saw Alexander's eyes, he was looking straight at him.

"Lydia run!" Both Jack and his imitation screamed.

Alexander pulled the sword down, its edge pierced Lydia in the blink of an eye.

***

"Stop!" Jack screamed as he woke up.

He huffed in and out frantically, and with sharp desperate breaths, tears dropped down onto his black pants. His hands were bound at the wrists by rope and he couldn't move. Jack looked up to see multiple angels from before with wide eyes and surprised faces. He focused on the lady with black hair and dark eyes, she kept her distance.

'I... I was knocked out by her... She used that red feather on her arm... How long have I been out...'

"Oh, he's up? That was fast..." Hana turned to Jack. "We have some questions for you," Hana spoke triumphantly.

Eos walked past Hana and looked down at Jack whose hands were tied behind his back. Eos wore a white jacket with red stripes. His blue eyes were wide open and he scratched his white hair with an awkward expression on his face. The boy looked left and right as he tried to think of something to say.

"Uh, hey Jack, long time- no... See? I think..." said Eos.

"Hey... What do you think you're doing..." Hana squinted at Eos, however, he continued to ignore her, making her even angrier.

'What do I do... I can't get out of here on my own...' The other lieutenants of House Pendragon stood around, but there was a fifth angel. 'No way... What is he doing here?!' Lector stood leaning against the wall, he wore a guard's uniform and he had a bruise on his face. Jack was more focused on his upset glare. 'He looks like the guard I punched...'

"Hey... Jack-" Eos asked.

"Well?" Hana shot a glare at Eos. "Go on and get on with it! You kept insisting that you'd just talk to him!" she spat with an annoyed expression.

"He's my friend!" Eos snapped. "Hey Jack, you're just here by mistake right?"

"Don't give me attitude, I'm the superior here..." Hana hissed, but Eos kept ignoring her.

Jack looked at the double doors which lead to the office with the secret passage. His eyes slowly wandered to the stairs carved into the wall. Jack tried to move but his hands and torso had been bound to the armrests of a chair.

"Yeah, give him a chance to at least explain himself before slitting his throat you dumb brute..." the tall man with black hair advised.

The black-haired man was lanky, much taller than the others but he didn't seem muscular. He had a rigid face and messy black hair tied back in a short ponytail. His arm had a white device attached to it like a gauntlet, it glowed with a green light from inside. He had been sitting on the table across from Jack with his legs crossed.

"Dumb brute? I'll be slitting your throat next Liam," Hana said with a calm expression and a fake smile.

"And you still expect me to patch you up after a fight when you say things like that... Just know, I don't want to," Liam replied with an even faker smile.

"It's okay, Jack's not a bad person," Eos reasoned.

Jack felt his head throb as he heard that. 'Shut up...' He focused his spirit to his core.

"Uh- Listen you aren't handling this right either Eos... Freiya, help me out here," Liam complained.

"Eos... This guy- Your friend... He's Jack Eldritch..." Freiya said with a concerned face.

"Huh? Him?!" Liam shook his head in disbelief.

"You're joking, right? This weakling?" Hana mocked with a skeptical tone.

"Oh, so you guys also know him?" Eos said nonchalantly.

"The nobles have put a target on his head. He may have been responsible for the closing of the mines... And... He's here, of all places..." Freiya explained.

Eos's expression sank.

"Huh- Wait... What are you saying?" Liam asked.

"I think we should-" Freiya glanced at Eos, "I think he's dangerous..."

A black and white wave passed over all of them, and Hana's blade disappeared. 'What the... Was that... Ajal?!' Jack looked around the hallway, everything was black and white now, however, it wasn't disappearing. 'The battle hasn't ended...?'

"Hey! What the hell is this?! My blade is gone!" Hana shouted.

Jack looked at all of them. 'Her gift is that thin blade...'The feathers on Freiya's arm disappeared as well 'The feathers...' The white device attached to Liam's arm didn't disappear. 'That's not a gift...'

"Huh! Woah..." Eos mentioned.

"Whatever, Eos keep an eye on the slave, Liam go figure out what happened!" Hana ordered.

The black and white wave receded out of the building, back to where it came from.

"Huh? I'm not taking orders from you... You don't even think straight, dumb psycho... Oh, it's gone," Liam replied.

"Listen you second-rate, I've had it up to here with you!" Hana flicked her pink twin tail over her shoulder.

"Jack, hey Jack come on say something? What's wrong?!" Eos shook Jack's shoulder.

Jack glared at him with wide eyes and Eos froze.

"Eos?" Freiya called.

"I'll kill you," Jack uttered with the utmost contempt spilling from his voice.

"Huh-" Eos was taken aback by that.

"I'm going to kill every last one of you, even if it's the last thing I ever fucking do!" Jack suddenly cursed at all of them with a wave of anger similar to before.

"Oh? You think you can kill me?" Hana scoffed.

"I'll slaughter you! Rip you to shreds! Break every bone in your body!" Jack threatened with unflinching resolve. "Until your bowing and begging on your knees for mercy, and even then I won't stop!"

Hana, Liam, Freiya, and Lector all looked at Jack with confused expressions. Lector sighed and walked forward, pushing his hair back with his hands as he took a deep breath.

"Hey..." Lector greeted with squinted eyes, "I have a question I think you may be able to answer..."

"I want to kill you the most..." Jack replied.

"Yeah yeah... Calm down... Before you punched me earlier... I saw Blaize Eluk, the resistance commander from Argol..."

"Huh?"

"Assuming you've been here for the past few weeks... Do you know what happened to the members of House Rael?"

Jack glared at him eye to eye. "Why don't you tell me..."

Lector squinted harder. 'Wait... He might know about Lydia!'

"I have a question for you, you fucking punk!" Jack cursed as he tried to lunge forward, hatred still overflowing off his tongue.

"Punk?" Lector tilted his head.

"Those non-unified kids you took from Logos... Where are they?!" Jack shouted.

The lieutenants of House Pendragon looked at Lector with confused eyes for a moment. Even Lector looked a little taken back at the sudden question.

"Tell me!" Jack demanded.

"This slave knows how to forget his place..." Hana raised an eyebrow as she looked down at him.

"Jack please, they think you're here to do something bad, tell them you aren't-"

"Yeah! I am not going to rest until every last one of you is dead! And I'm going to start by destroying this entire place!" Jack declared.

Eos's hands fell limp to his side, hopelessness was written all over his face. The door opened, and a pair of footsteps approached.

"Sir!" All of the angels except Eos and Lector addressed the person who entered.

"What is the situation? Did anyone get through?" a familiar voice asked.

The man who walked in was Arthur Pendragon, he wore black pants and a shining red shirt darkened by mild amounts of sweat. Arthur wiped the blood from his halberd as it disappeared. He glanced around at his lieutenants before his red eyes finally made it toward Jack, Arthur's expression clearly showed he wasn't ready for this situation.

"You damn angels, how much do you intend to make people suffer before you're satisfied..." Jack seethed.

"You..." Arthur uttered.

Jack shook his head, 'Arthur... Wait... Whose side is he- I don't care!'

"You!" Jack grunted. "Where did they take the kids who were left in Ulkay!"

Freiya and Arthur both looked at each other with puzzled expressions.

"After we escaped from that hell hole Logos! We couldn't take those kids with us! We left them in Ulkay, with a woman named Lydia!" Jack shouted.

"Lydia...?" Lector tilted his head.

"Speak with that disgusting and filthy tone anymore and I'll gladly shut you up," Hana threatened with a dismissive tone.

"Yeah! Lydia, you remember, don't you? I mean? You're the sick son of a bitch who ripped her child from her arms!" Jack grinned despite wanting to inflict pain on all of them.

Lector's hand shook slightly, he stepped back.

"And now-" Jack's chest felt heavy, and his throat felt hoarse. "Lydia is- in this place, at the bottom of the stairs in that office over there!" Jack glanced at the door. "Dead! They tortured her to death for..." Jack's voice cracked. "For entertainment!" he screamed with tears running down his face.

Lector looked down, his pupils shook as he stepped back once more. Eos's jaw dropped. Freiya and Liam both cringed at what they had heard. The room was silent except for the sound of Jack's sobbing.

"Why Lydia... Why... You took her child away from her... You monsters need to die! You need to be eradicated, every single one of you!" Jack tried to lunge out of the seat, but it was useless.

"That woman... From back then..." Eos uttered.

Arthur's eyes were fixed on Jack, he grimaced with a mournful expression. Lector turned toward the door Jack glanced at. He walked towards it with wide eyes and haste in his step. Lector slammed his hands into the door and hurried through.

"Lector, hey Lector wait!" Freiya called as she followed after him.

Eos stood up and ran for the door as well. Hana didn't seem to flinch. Arthur's thoughts were clearly racing from his expression. Liam stood by glancing at everyone in the room.

"Sir, your orders," Hana asked Arthur, her voice still composed and calm. "The bald man with the mustache is still on the run, I found this slave instead, Freiya claims he's Jack Eldritch, the one Sir Alexander warned of. We heard him, he wants to activate the logorite here... It must be how he destroyed the mines before..."

"Yeah... I know who he is," said Arthur with a calm voice as he took a deep breath.

"Shall we execute him here?" Hana asked.

Jack struggled to break free of the rope binding his arms, he even tried bending forward and biting it but he couldn't. He struggled uselessly as he tried to resist waiting for death. Jack looked up at Arthur whose eyes were fixed on his own. Liam glanced between Arthur and Jack. Arthur's spear disappeared from his hand as he walked forward.

"Well... Come on, do it!" Jack screamed.

"You seem eager to die," said Arthur.

"What's the point?! What is the point of any of our lives?! I was born to serve you bastards, in order to help you fight these so-called demons! Who hasn't even attacked us for years?! And the logorite we apparently so desperately need to fight them? It's here! Making the lives of everyone in this insufferable fucking city great so they don't have to struggle, while we do! And what do they do? What do they do Noble of House Pendragon? Tell me that right now!" Jack demanded.

Arthur looked at him with wide, and unreadable eyes, all Jack noticed was the slight wavering within them. 'I know you know!'

"Say it!" Jack screamed.

Arthur closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"They have no fucking idea! They think we live spoiled lives! Hahahaha!" Jack laughed maniacally. "So it's only fitting I die by your hand, right?! You who gave me everything I know should be the one to take it all away!" Jack shouted with manic rage filtering his every word.

"Are those your last words?" Arthur asked calmly.

"Go fuck yourself," Jack spat, he raised his middle finger, but couldn't even lift his hand high enough to be upright.

Lector ran through the door he had gone through earlier, and immediately started to throw up. The brownish-yellow gunk spread out on the clean floor as Lector breathed in and out. He was visibly horrified by the scene he witnessed down there.

"I'm sorry," said Arthur.

Jack shut his eyes and clenched his teeth. The sudden sound of flesh being pierced made Jack exhale sharply. But he felt no pain. He opened his eyes slowly and blinked as he noticed he hadn't been stabbed. Arthur's halberd had impaled Hana's stomach.

"Huh..." Liam uttered.

"Rgh-" Hana grunted, and the halberd disappeared.

Hana breathed in and out heavily as blood poured out of the open hole in her stomach. She fell backward with a shocked expression, her red eyes teared up and became glossy. Blood spilled through her fingers trying to hold the wound closed.

"Hana... Hana!" Liam screamed.

"Sir... Why?" Hana weakly asked the superior she trusted.

"I'm sorry Hana, Liam... The angels need to be destroyed. All of them," Arthur replied.

"Sir- But I-" Hana's voice cracked with a weak expression.

"Hana!" Lector shouted.

"Hana don't speak!" Liam shouted. "Sir! Why would you do that!"

Arthur spun his staff around and cut the rope. Jack shut his eyes out of fear, but he only felt the breeze of the blade, followed by the tight rope loosely slipping off of his skin. Jack stood up and flexed his arms. Arthur was about to speak before a sudden noise grew behind him, it sounded like a wheel turning quickly followed by a searing sound. Liam held the white arm cannon up, pointing it directly at Arthur.

"You traitor!" Liam cried as he fired a green blast from the cannon.

Arthur turned and cut the blast in two, the split projectiles flew past Jack and hit the wall. Green explosions lit the room and shook the floor. Eos and Freiya ran out of the door and witnessed the new scene.

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"Sir... What happened-" Eos stopped talking as he saw the blood dripping off Arthur's halberd.

"Jack's... Free?" Freiya uttered with a worried tone.

As soon as Freiya also noticed the blood, she reached for the red feathers growing on her arm. But she hesitated. Arthur dashed forward and stabbed his halberd at Liam, smashing the arm cannon. Arthur then spun the staff around and smacked Liam in the head before he could even react. Liam fell to the floor, groaning in pain as he grasped his head. Eos stood with wide eyes, unable to process what was happening. In Freiya's moment of hesitation, Arthur raised his black halberd towards her and Eos.

"Balakin, charge," Arthur ordered.

A red light flashed right next to him, and the black armored dragon materialized, flying forward with its serpent-like body. Eos quickly grabbed Freiya, a blue light came off of his body as he suddenly sped up and jumped out of the way. Lector had darted in the other direction much earlier. Balakin smashed into the wall and blocked off the path. Jack's body felt a bit stiff, but he was much better than earlier.

"Why did you help me?" Jack asked.

"You want to destroy this facility, right?" Arthur asked frantically. "Do you know how..."

"N-Not exactly, but I have a good idea of what to do..."

"The Lightbringers are getting desperate... They are the only ones who didn't attend today... I don't know why but with everything that's happened recently, I have a bad feeling... Do you know what happened to Alexander Rael by any chance? There are resistance commanders in this city... He was supposed to have defeated them a few days ago."

Lector's head shot up as he heard the noble's name.

"Alexander... I was told Alexander Rael is dead... His squad was defeated by the resistance..." Jack said quietly.

"I see... Then it's all the more possible the alliance won't hold. The Lightbringers have something planned, and I don't know-"

"Alexander is..." Lector uttered as he approached Arthur and Jack. "My whole squad... Is dead?"

Arthur stepped forward and was about to start spinning his halberd, but stopped as Lector fell to his knees.

"Huh..." Jack whispered as he looked at the devastated face of the angel he greatly despised.

A heavy step behind Arthur and Jack alerted both of them. They turned to see the pink-haired lieutenant who had been stabbed earlier, in a crouched position with her right leg flexed. Hana leaned forward as she prepared to engage. Her wound was healed.

"Dammit! Liam's gift!" Arthur grunted.

"Blade of Flowers..." Hana chanted over Arthur and ran in. "Thorn Bite!"

She dashed forward and started rapidly stabbing her thin silver blade forward. Each stab released a sharp gust of air, and at the same time, a pink petal would fire forward. Arthur spun his halberd and blocked multiple stabs. Hana stepped forward.

"Ha!" she made one final lunge and launched Arthur backward.

"Holy shit!" Jack turned as Hana ran past him and charged at Arthur.

Jack heard someone approach from behind. Liam jumped forward and kicked downwards. Jack blocked the kick. Then grasped Liam's leg and pulled him over his shoulder, slamming the black-haired man down into the chair. Liam cried out as he smashed into the armrests and the chair fell over, Liam rolled onto the floor. 'What the hell... This guy isn't that tough... Ignore him!' Jack turned and ran for the stairs, however, he tripped and fell as a hand grasped his ankle.

"Agh!" Jack gritted his teeth in frustration as he turned around to see Liam grasping his ankle.

"You can't!" Liam shouted. "You can't destroy this facility, the hybrids in this city will suffer!"

"I don't care!" Jack shouted. "You all deserve to!"

Jack ripped his foot free and quickly stood up. Liam tried to stand quickly but he was slow, Jack stepped forward and kicked him in the chest and he fell backward.

"The angels of all people don't get to say something like that," Jack raised his foot to kick Liam again.

Before he could, Jack felt someone tackle him from the side, 'Agh!' Jack slid across the floor on his right shoulder. He looked up to see Eos with his hands raised as if trying to make sure he didn't hit Jack too hard.

"You!" Jack grunted as he pushed himself up on all fours.

"Jack, stop! What are you doing!" Eos cried, pain written in his eyes.

Eos's body was engulfed with a bright blue energy that lit the area up, the light slowly faded back in. 'What the... Wasn't his gift that rabbit? What's that blue flame coming off of his body... It's like spirit...' Liam got up and charged back in.

"Let's go Eos! We have to stop him from destroying this facility!" Liam charged in.

"Liam stop!" Eos begged.

"Huh!?"

Jack quickly got to his feet as Liam approached. Liam jumped up and swung his foot down, Jack jumped backward. He continued his assault of physical attacks, mainly aiming high, or jumping and then aiming low.. 'What the... He's using the same tactic as before?! What's up with his weird attacks... They are easy to dodge, but they have no openings-' Liam jumped up again and kicked down once more, Jack stepped forward to dodge it and caught the lieutenant's leg.

"Rah!" Jack roared as he pulled Liam down.

Jack slammed the lieutenant into the ground again, he grunted as the back of his head struck the floor. Liam stopped moving, the impact left him unconscious.

"Stop!" Eos charged forward and tackled Jack once more. "Please just stop!"

Jack fell onto the ground and grunted as Eos put one knee on his chest and grabbed Jack by the collar. Jack focused his spirit on his legs back as he lifted himself, grasping Eos's neck and rolling over, pinning him down instead.

"Staah-" Eos choked on words.

Jack focused his spirit on his hands and tightened his grip. Eos's expression was filled with confusion and sudden fear. Eos curled his legs in, pressed them against Jack's stomach, and then kicked forward. 'Huh-' Jack was launched straight up off the ground and into the ceiling. His back slammed into it and he remained airborne for a whole second before he started to descend. 'Huh... Did he just... Use his spirit...' Eos quickly got to his feet and crouched down, the blue energy around him started to fluctuate violently as he suddenly vanished. 'He's gone-' Was all Jack had the time to think. A spinning blue light ricocheted off of the wall and smashed into him.

"Agh!" Jack grunted as he flew through the glass railing of the second floor and hit the wall.

'What- What the fuck! That wasn't a normal hit, he's really strong!' Jack coughed weakly, he fell while leaning into the wall. A pair of footsteps landing on the balcony was followed by Jack's vision being blinded by a diminishing blue light. The short angel stood over him, huffing in and out. Eos grasped Jack's collar and pulled him off of the wall.

"You're better than this!" Eos shouted.

"Better than this... Better than this!" Jack grunted and grasped Eos's arm tightly. "Don't you dare talk about what I am! You fucking angels tried to mold me into some kind of tool! You don't fucking own me! I know why they told you to protect this building!"

Eos's eyes widened.

"You saw what was in the basement of this fucking place!" Jack spat.

"I didn't know-"

"Oh, you didn't know! Well, now you do Eos! You were better than this! Now you're no different from the rest of the monsters!" Jack screamed.

Eos had a sorrow-filled expression, he was unaware of how to reply or what to say.

"I don't want to fight you! I can't let you do this! Please just stop!" Eos begged.

"Not all of us got a choice!" Jack pushed Eos forward as he tried to stand.

Jack focused his spirit on his hands as he pushed forward, and Eos grunted as he pushed back. Even while Jack used his spirit, Eos could match his strength. 'He can win if he wants to!' Eos let go and jumped up swinging his leg at Jack, 'Dodge!' Jack ducked just in time and transferred all the spirit he collected rapidly to his right hand. Eos seemed to notice the flow of his spirit and he tucked his arms in to block.

"Spirit Ignition!" Jack roared as he planted his fist into Eos's guard.

Eos flew off the balcony and fell to the floor below. Jack dashed for the hallway that led to the room the logorite was in. The balcony around the path had been damaged by Arthur's dragon. Suddenly the blue flame on Eos's body started to flow out directly underneath his feet, and the end of the flame crackled with blue sparks. 'He- can... Fly-' Eos soared directly at Jack, he raised his arms and focused his spirit. However, Jack noticed Balakin soaring forward from the left.

"Agh!" Eos grunted as the dragon rammed its head into him, charging him through several walls.

Arthur walked down the balcony while holding the spear towards Eos. He had several cuts on his face and his shirt was riddled with holes.

"Hurry up..." Arthur huffed.

"Wait... I tried earlier but it didn't work... I couldn't move the-"

"I know how to do it..." a voice suddenly spoke up from behind Arthur.

Arthur whipped right around and pointed his spear at the stairs. Lector had stood with his hands up.

"You..." Arthur stepped forward and raised his halberd.

"Wait wait wait! I don't want to die!" Lector suddenly stepped down the stairs.

"Why would he help... We can't trust him?!" Jack mentioned.

"I... I have reasons... And I- Wait wait!" Arthur was about to stab Lector. "I know what the Lightbringers are planning!" Lector blurted out.

"Then say it..." Arthur demanded coldly.

Jack gulped as he listened to Arthur. 'I usually see him reserved and composed... But he's kind of scary when he's serious...'

"I... I- I- know, House Pendragon is in charge of medical supplies and supporting the military on the front lines. You should know where they've focused resources recently."

"Welis... It was sent there because of a plague ravaging part of Bomo's Jungle?"

'Bomo's jungle? That place the shopkeeper told me about...' Jack was confused, he was having trouble following along with what Lector and Arthur spoke about.

"They've known about that plague for years... And it's not really a plague... "

"They knew? Wait... What do you mean it isn't a plague? Then what is it..." Arthur questioned.

"It's the same thing that is causing such an abundance of powerful ethore to come from Baltin, it's a mass of dark ether unlike anything else!"

"Dark ether? That makes no sense... Are you saying there's some kind of gift which produces so much ether it's affecting the land itself?!"

"I don't- I don't really know what it is exactly... But the medical supplies are not for it, those are really being smuggled to a rogue neutral faction situated in Kirn. Descendants of Tilill and Croal have been working directly with the Lightbringers in secret!" Lector concluded.

There was a silence amongst the three of them. Rubble fell from the ceiling and crashed against the floor, cracking both itself and the floor. 'What are they talking about?'

"What... What the hell did he even just say?" Jack scratched his head.

"The Lightbringers can't maintain the alliance without Alexander... Kirn... Is the Island close to... Pandora? Descendants of Tilill and Croal..." Arthur whispered to himself in thought.

"That's all I know... The Lightbringers, are preparing to run... Please lower the blade, sir..." Lector simplified.

"Don't call me sir... I've always hated you..." Arthur scoffed.

"Wait, what did I do?!" Lector suddenly asked. "Screw you! I hate anyone who stabs a beautiful woman!" Lector suddenly snapped.

'What?' Jack cringed for a moment.

"How do we know we can trust you... You could just be lying to stop us when our guards are down... Or your gift could already be active!" Arthur doubted him.

"I... Can't tell you how I know all of this..." Lector admitted with a hopeless tone. "But my gift would make runes appear on my hand..." Lector explained as he flipped his hands back and forth.

"You should understand full well how unwise it is to trust a spy..." Arthur warned. "Also... Why are you wearing the clothes of a hybrid? Why are you even here if all of House Rael was sent to Lemen..."

"That's... That's a very good question but I seriously can't tell you..."

Arthur raised the halberd.

"I'm a Lightbringer!" Lector shouted with his eyes shut closed.

Arthur paused. 'Huh?'

"What..." Arthur uttered as he stepped back.

"I don't get it... He's not part of House Rael?" Jack asked.

"Members of House Lightbringer are specifically all blood-related. All of them except Arid..." Arthur thought to himself. "That's- That's not possible, you're lying, House Lightbringer takes shame on spies-" Arthur stopped suddenly, he realized something. "So... All of this time... You were..."

"A spy for House Lightbringer disguised as a spy for House Rael... My main task was keeping an eye on Alexander..."

"Why...?" Arthur simply asked.

"Because the Lightbringers are afraid of Alexander, they've always been afraid, I don't know why..." Lector answered.

"No, I mean... Why would you turn on the Lightbringers? You have everything..."

"Not if you're a bastard child... And that bastard of a king he... He..." Lector's voice cracked and he shook his head. "Listen can I stop talking about this? This is very pers-"

"Aah!" Eos roared.

Eos lifted a giant piece of rubble above his head. The teenage angel shifted from side to side as he tried to steady himself.

"What the shit!" Lector shouted in terror as he hid behind the railing.

The little boy crouched down before he pushed upwards with a spring in his step and threw the chunk of debris toward them. Arthur jumped forward through the broken railing of the balcony and plunged his halberd into the center of the boulder, splitting it into hundreds of smaller pieces.

"Go! We've wasted enough time already!" Arthur ordered.

Jack turned to the hallway painted green, with the danger sign claiming that a radiation suit would be required. However before he could run towards it, Lector grabbed his hand.

"Wait-"

Jack ripped his hand away from Lector, causing him to suddenly cower back.

"Calm the hell down! I'm trying to help you!" Lector shouted.

"Why would you even want to? What's your goal?!" Jack demanded.

"House Rael is all I had okay! It's all that really mattered to me, they treated me like a real family!" Lector shouted. "I just need to find them, and I swear you will never ever see me again!"

'Can I trust this guy... Everything he said made sense to Arthur...' Jack pondered to himself.

"You punched me in the head earlier by the way... Thanks..." Lector said sarcastically.

"Why are you dressed like a guard?" Jack asked.

"Why are you running around slugging guards?!" Lector snapped back.

"They deserve it..." Jack replied with a blank expression.

Lector looked down at him with one eyebrow raised.

"Nevermind... I thought you'd get it but you're pretty dense I guess... The king wanted all of the Lightbringers to remain in Helios, but I'm here undercover looking for the rest of my squad... Except..." Lector looked down as his eyes quivered.

"Okay... Fine..." Jack glared at Lector with fixed pupils, he was still a little skeptical.

"Well... We can't activate the flow pumps without these..." Lector held out his hand, there were two golden rings in his palm, and both had a yellow gem embedded in them.

"What the... I've seen these before..." Jack mentioned.

"Really? That's weird... I don't know how you got in here without one, but it's a Septirion ring... They act as a key for certain doors and switches in this city. Only members of the royal families connected to the elders might have one," Lector explained as he handed one to Jack.

"Where'd you get two?"

"Those corpses on the first floor are nobles of Andurill, they both had one."

Lector jogged past Jack and entered one of the rooms on the side of the hall. After several seconds in the room, he ran back out with a strangely loose jacket covering his entire upper body. The jacket was made of thin material, but it looked rather tough. The whole outfit was yellow, but the area surrounding the plastic goggles was black. Lector gave Jack a thumbs up with the oddly large coat.

"What is that?" Jack asked.

"Safety coat? I need one... Being around a tenth of that much logorite gives me rashes..." Lector replied.

"Rashes?" Jack pondered.

The two walked through the door into the circular room.

"You go to one side, I got the other!" Lector instructed as he went to the left.

Jack ran down the narrow hallway and quickly grasped the red wheel on the panel of buttons and levers. He couldn't turn it, he lifted a glass box on the panel and noticed a mark with a feather etched into it. Jack fit the ring onto his finger and pressed it into the panel. The ring didn't click immediately, but as he oriented it into the right position it seemed to smoothly slip into the panel.

"Woah..."

Up above in the central room, a clear liquid started to pour out of the upper pipes and into a large funnel connected to the primary tank containing the logorite. 'Did it work?' Jack looked through the window as the liquid seeped into the logorite and slipped between the gaps in the piled-up ore. The sound of Lector's steps echoed through the hall as he ran over.

"You have to turn the ring to the right, then you can turn the wheel..." Lector pointed out.

Jack looked at the panel with a puzzled face, he turned his hand and he felt a mechanism in the machine shifting. As he couldn't push the ring any further it clicked, Jack grasped the red wheel and turned it. The sound of a liquid swishing and flowing through the pipes above could be heard. Jack looked up as another clear liquid poured directly into the tank.

"Alright... should be a few minutes before this goes off..." Lector stepped back.

Jack breathed in and out, and he watched the catalyst drip through the bottom. A liquid that glowed a blinding green flowed into multiple coiled tubes that led elsewhere in the city. The image of Alexander Rael burning in the green flames flashed into his head. 'They don't deserve to use this...' Jack's hand started to shake. He looked at his palm with a puzzled expression.

"Huh?" said Jack.

"After what they did to that woman downstairs... She'll probably go to a better place..." Lector put his hand on Jack's shoulder.

Jack looked at the hand on his shoulder with a slightly disgusted expression, "A better place?"

"Oh... Like... Heaven... You know, that place where- Nevermind..."

The pressure in his chest grew, and it became harder to breathe. He walked away from the circular disk as he listened to the steady dripping of the catalyst in the main room.

"We better go... This whole place is going to blow... But... That much logorite exploding... Even I have no idea what'll happen..." Lector whispered as he contemplated to himself. "Let's go!"

Lector and Jack hurried down the narrow hall and tackled through the door. A red light flashed through the room.

"What's this?!" Jack asked Lector as they ran.

"It's a warning light... It turns on any time the machines are active!" Lector replied as he turned left at the balcony.

There was a large hole in the roof. Jack quickly hopped down the stairs. The lieutenants of House Pendragon were gone, including Eos. Even Liam who was unconscious was gone. Jack walked down the stairs and toward the entrance. He exited the building with a blank expression on his face as he continued to think about what he had just set in motion. He looked down at the concrete as he continued to think about what he had just done. 'What is this... My lungs feel heavy-' That was when Jack noticed tiny specks of light floating down from above. He looked up and noticed a clear sky, filled with tiny specs of light gently raining down on Cabac.

"That had to have been Ajal! Ajal stopped that massive thing!" A familiar voice in the distance shouted about something.

"Oh, shit..." Lector whispered under his breath. "Are those your-"

"Jack!" Sarah and John suddenly called.

Jack looked up the courtyard and saw Franklin, Ben, Sarah, and John.

"Where did you go?!" Franklin asked.

Ben looked at Jack's expression and immediately knew something was wrong. They all glanced at the other person next to him and they stepped back. They all stared at Lector with bewildered faces.

"Why... Why are you with him..." Ben raised his fists high.

"Wait! I can't explain everything right now... We need to-" Jack advised.

"Get away from Jack!" Franklin shouted.

"Jack, what's wrong? Are you okay?" Sarah asked.

"Wait! He's just trying to help- Forget that! We need to go! Right now!" Jack shouted.

"Help with what?! Where did you go?! You went up into that building! We thought you were dead! Why were you here?!" John asked. "We need to get to Rea! It's safest!"

"This building is going to explode!" Jack shouted.

They all stopped and looked up at the pyramid-shaped building Jack came from. They stood in the front courtyard a short distance away from it. The strong winds coming from Ajal's battle pushed the surrounding trees, rustling the leaves and branches.

"We need to run! I don't know how big the explosion is going to be..."

Everyone's eyes widened, and Sarah looked at Ben as his tone switched from impatient anger to one of denial.

"What... Explosion?!" John turned to Jack with a worried tone. "What happened in there Jack?! What's going on!"

"I can't explain it right now! We need to run!" Jack grabbed John and Sarah and hurried away.

Jack and the others backed up and ran toward the gate, and Lector followed. They reached the outer street and ran north. 'Wait... The rubble and debris... Is this a safe way to go-' Jack stopped, the thought of him being seen by the hybrids scared him. The sound of a dragon's roar in the distance made him turn, he stopped and grasped his head. 'Which way do we go- Which...' A sudden hand grasping his shoulder and pulling him broke his focus.

"Why is he following us?!" Sarah asked with an angered tone as she shook Jack.

"Yeah! We're far away enough... Explain what's going on... There's no way an explosion would affect us from here..." said John.

Jack breathed in and out.

"The woman we traveled with weeks ago when we left Logos... My neighbor Lydia... She was tortured to death in that building by the hybrids..." Jack explained.

"What..." Franklin uttered.

Ben's expression sank. "Jack... What are you talking about?" he laughed. "We... We left her in..." Ben stopped and looked down.

"You're lying..." said Franklin.

Jack nodded, "The angels captured her again... But for some reason, they sent her here... I don't know what happened to her kid, or the other children..."

"It was House Rover... House Rover was responsible for rounding up the previous slaves... But... The Lightbringers were most likely involved with her being here..." Lector explained.

Ben stepped back, his hands shook as his eyes quivered. Sarah covered her mouth and almost gagged. John and Franklin just looked at one another, they observed each other's horrified faces. Lector was taken aback by the sudden sorrow he witnessed. Franklin shook his head and walked towards the facility.

"Where are you going..." Jack asked impatiently.

"We... We can at least bury her... She would've wanted that..." Franklin said hesitantly.

"No, you idiot! We need to get out of here! We activated the logorite in that facility, It's going to explode and the hybrids will never be able to use logorite here again... They'll burn for what they did to Lydia!" Jack advised.

John stopped the moment he heard that.

"They power the city with controlled logorite reactions here... It's controlled by maintaining the amount of catalyst poured in, so long as that amount isn't an overflow, it's stable... It's similar to the bomb I used to close the mines. I overflowed the logorite less than five minutes ago... it'll explode any minute. It needs to be destroyed, all of it," Jack declared with fury in his eyes.

"Wait... Wait... How much logorite are we talking about?" John asked.

"At least fifty quotas worth..."

John's eyes couldn't spread any wider. "How... Big of an explosion is that...?" he asked slowly.

"I don't know... but I think we're still too close..."

"What about the other hybrids... the kids... we have to warn them, they have to get away-"

"Let them all die," Jack shook his head.

Ben looked at Jack and then back at the facility. Sarah slowly lowered her hands, her mouth hung ajar with a look of shock. Franklin twitched slightly when he heard Jack say that.

"What..." John uttered.

"They deserve it... They all deserve to die," Jack said simply, he truly expected John to understand.

"What?!"

John stepped forward. Sarah and Franklin were frozen still, they didn't know what to do or say. Ben was still on his knees, staring at the building where Lydia was murdered.

"The kids? Marina? Korra and Yorin! They don't deserve this! They aren't the ones who-"

"They let it happen!" Jack blindly spat.

"No! No, they didn't! Don't be an idiot, Jack, stop the explosion!"

"I can't stop it... Even if I could I wouldn't..."

"You-" John stepped back with a disgusted look on his face. "Ajal wouldn't want us to kill people! Especially the innocent!"

"Who cares! Ajal is a killer himself! We have every right to take up arms and slaughter them! They did it to us for how many years!"

"Korra and Yorin?! Did they oppress you for years? I can't- how am I even having this conversation- Jack we have to stop this!"

"I won't let them get away, not after what happened to Car-"

An explosion broke through the roof of the facility. Jack and John both looked up as a pillar of smoke rose out of the building. Several more explosions made his heart skip a beat. A wave of air hit all of them and knocked them off their feet, a pop hit his ears and a frequency masked the sound of explosions. Jack looked up to see a chunk of the pyramid-shaped building soaring upwards through the sky, spinning as it reached the peak of its trajectory, then fell back down to the city.

"Run!" Jack shouted.

Franklin immediately ran for his life, and Sarah stumbled as she tried to stand up and make a run for it. John ran over to Ben to help him up.

"Get up! We have to go!" John begged.

"Lydia... She's in there?" Ben pointed at the facility.

An explosion blew open the front entrance and a wave of smoke showered over Jack, he shielded his face.

"We need to get as far away as we can!" Jack shouted.

John picked up Ben and tried to hurry, however, he wasn't moving very fast. Sarah and Franklin were a good distance away. As they reached the first inner street of the central district, the ground in front of the facility burst. Multiple explosions around the buildings rippled through the air. Explosions spread out in all directions around the central facility.

"John hurry-" the sound of an explosion cut Jack off.

Two explosions rippled from his left and right side, Jack quickly crouched down to cover himself. He turned back and saw something surreal. There was nothing but smoke around them, they couldn't even see the facility anymore.

"John, you have to go faster!" Jack shouted, but no one could hear him.

Slabs of concrete cracked and crumbled into an abyss of darkness beneath Andurill. The ground around John crumbled. 'He isn't gonna make it!' John hurried as fast as they could, but it wasn't fast enough. John fell to his knee as the ground cracked and tilted downwards, causing him to slip as he tried to grasp at the flat ground for something to hold onto. Jack focused his spirit into his legs and dived for John, grasping his arm with both hands before he could fall.

"Agh!" Jack grunted.

He held John's wrist with both hands. 'What's going on! This explosion is way too big!?' Jack tried to pull John up, but Ben hurried to his side and crouched down, he grabbed John's arm and pulled with all his strength. However, the two of them weren't ready for the slab of stone they were on top of to shift to the left.

"Ah!" Ben stumbled forward on his feet and fell forward toward the hole.

Jack grasped his leg before he could fall any further. The weight of John and Ben was too much for him to lift, 'I have to pull them up!' Jack focused his spirit on his shoulder, and he took a step back as he dragged John and Ben with all his strength.

"Aah!" Jack screamed.

With all his strength, he pulled Ben and John. His shoulder popped out of the socket. His arm screamed with pain, it felt like there was a crack between his shoulder and his forearm.

"Sarah we need help!" Franklin shouted.

Jack realized there were still rumbling explosions in the distance. But over that noise, was the nerve-wracking crack of concrete that sounded closer than all of the other explosions. Jack and John looked at one another with worried expressions as the concrete gave out. The slab tilted until it was almost vertical. Jack felt his knees slide forward before his legs left the platform altogether. They fell into the darkness, along with over half of the city.