Nocturnio (20.10.9978 AS)
“As you all know, all the ‘gates’ that lead from the other continents to Umbra are located in Nocturnio. This means if the Seraphs were to attack, Nocturnio would be the first city to become a battlefield.” Caitlyn looked towards Sabrina before continuing her explanation.
“Although, the ‘gates’ are all guarded heavily by our military’s best men and women, it is still very likely that our defenses will break. You probably already imagine: the military would try to suppress them as fast as possible. This means the first waves of a war would be fought here in Nocturnio.” Caitlyn was uneasy talking about this topic. So she looked towards Sabrina seeking help to continue, but Sabrina ignored her completely.
Caitlyn sighed. “If this were to happen, we must ensure the safety of the civil population, by evacuating them. The problem lies in the measures against an invasion. One of those measures is to shut down all Portal Stations in the city. This means it’s our duty to walk the civilians from Nocturnio to Nox.”
“How are we supposed to do that?” Tristan butted in. The two cities were separated by over 3500km (2175 miles). It was impossible to walk with over twenty million people such a route undetected. “Even if it was possible to hide the people, it would take months if not years to escort so many people from Nocturnio to Nox by foot.” Tristan continued while the others nodded agreeing to his objection.
“The answer is simple, we don’t walk them to Nox.” Sabrina said, evoking confused looks by her proétés. “You see, the last war showed us, just hiding them in bunkers is a stupid idea. People get anxious and do stupid things if they have to stay so long hiding during a war. Also, if the enemy finds the bunkers, the civilians inside are trapped there with no option of survival.” The new recruits looked even more confused now.
“Therefore ‘the Maze’ was created. It is an evacuation route that leaves from Nocturnio and Ater to Nox. But it mainly serves as a gigantic bunker. If a war were to break out, we would lead the civilians into ‘the Maze’ and help them survive there. We would let them believe to walk them to Nox, but in reality, it’s just a bunker.”
“I don’t get it, why is this any better than a bunker.” Laura asked. “Because we give the civilians hope. They think they can survive if they keep helping each other reach Nox. They have a goal and won’t do despicable things like they did during the ‘Great War’. So our goal is to keep them as long as possible walking through the maze even if it means staying decades down there.”
“Why are you telling us this?” Ernesti asked fearing the worst. “Simple, the goal of our first patrol is to visit the maze and to hunt down ‘Clanless’. You see, since ‘the Maze’ isn’t in use right now, they use it as a hideout. So it’s our job to dispel them from there.” Sabrina said while distributing them maps of ‘the Maze’.
‘Clanless’ were Demons that didn’t belong to or were dispelled from the three clans. In the demonic society, all demons were somehow related to one of the three clans. They either belonged to the main families or to their side families. If a Demon broke the rules of his clan, he could be dispelled from its clan.
All ‘clanless’ were considered as criminals by the society and the justice. Therefore, the military and the police were free to hunt them down if they found them.
“Don’t lose the maps. They are your only way to come out of ‘the Maze’ once you are inside.” Sabrina warned them. The maps were an item that worked like a GPS and would help them navigate inside the Maze.
“The marked spot is our goal. ‘The Maze’s’ magic barrier found traces of intruders there. Thus, we will go there and dispose of them.” Sabrina smiled cheerfully.
“H… Ho… How m-many ‘clanless’?” Leo whispered. “Dunno, maybe just a few with the MR below Dragon, but if we are lucky we might find some Demon Lords or even a Conqueror! Wouldn’t that be awesome? I always wanted to fight one of those strong guys.” Sabrina said with a bright smile.
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“She is too much” Laura whispered into Tristan’s ears, while rolling her eyes. “Can’t she just for once be serious?” Tristan just smiled and pretended to not have heard anything.
Caitlyn once again stepped in front of the group. She pointed towards the backpack on the back of the room. “These backpacks are your number one survival tool for the next week. They are filled with food and important items. So, let’s go through the most important items you’ll need!”
She took out an item that looked like a wireless headphone. “This is a special mini Commu. It was specially developed for the military. Unlike normal Commu, that just allow you to communicate with one other person, these ones allow you to communicate with a whole group. And they are really small, so you can put them in your ears and you have your hands free to do whatever you want.”
Caitlyn did put the mini Commu into her ear to demonstrate it. “By the way they are used like normal Commu, I think you all know how Commu work.
Caitlyn’s hands sunk once again into the backpack and took out a black crystal. "This is an ‘Immu’. It’s basically a Commu, but with images. With this item you can take images of your environment.” Everybody but Tristan and Abigail looked amazed. “You can see the images or even sent them to other people. It’s pretty useful for reconnaissance of new environments.”
After explaining to them how the Immu worked, Caitlyn put it by side and took out another item from the backpack. It was a green rod. “This item is called ‘pocket dimension’. If you activate it, the people you want to, will be sent into a really strong barrier. You can use it to seal an enemy in there or to save yourselves and your allies from AOE attacks.”
Next she took three different colored flasks out of the backpack. “These are healing elixirs, mana regeneration elixirs and power booster elixirs. Mana regeneration and power booster elixir are to drink, healing elixirs are more effective if you apply them on the wound. Every backpack should contain three of each. So don’t waste them!”
Caitlyn put the flasks back into the backpack and took out a few gemstones out. “The backpacks also contain catalysts for fitting your passive. So make sure you grab the right backpacks, when you take them, I don’t want to see people walking with the wrong catalysts around.”
“The backpack also contains necessity items, like a tent and things to cook.” Sabrina, who was getting bored by Caitlyn’s long introduction of the items, continued. “Now, please take yourselves backpacks that fit you. Before I forget it, the backpack itself is also an item specially made for the military by Siegfried Corp. You can put the bags you brought with you from home inside. The backpack won’t get heavier and it also has plenty of space inside for you to use.”
“How is the backpack called? BaPa?” Ernesti said jokingly after hearing it was an item made by Siegfried Corp. “Big bro quit staring on the group leader’s breast!” The mad Abigail said out loud, since she was the one, who had come up with that uncreative name for the backpack. All eyes wandered to Ernesti, who stopped laughing and started blushing.
“Sorry, you aren’t my type.” Sabrina said, amused, oblivious to the embarrassment of the young man. “I wish I was an only child!” Ernesti mumbled to himself, trying to hide behind Tristan from the group’s stares.
***
“Before I forget it, we’ll need to split you guys in two teams.” Sabrina said after everybody had taken and checked their personal BaPa. “Tristan, Laura, Abigail and Annie, you’ll go with Cait.” Caitlyn’s longing black eyes wandered to Sabrina’s tanned face.
After a few seconds she came back to reality. “You heard the group leader, nice to have you on my team.” Caitlyn bowed towards her new underlings.
“Very well, then Seria, Ernesti, Leo, Orianna and Richard will be my underlings.” Sabrina clapped her hands. “Now let’s get moving, we can’t have the cute ‘clanless’ wait longer.” Laura sighed at Sabrina’s voice. “Cute? Last time I checked criminals weren’t cute.” Abigail giggled as she unwrapped another lollipop under Tristan’s disapproving eyes.
The group followed Sabrina and Caitlyn to the catacombs of the academy. “This is one of ‘the Maze’s’ entrances.” Caitlyn said, standing in front of a gigantic metal door. Sabrina pressed her hands on a stone plate next to the door. The plate started shining brightly and the gigantic door opened slowly.
“Take your maps out!” Caitlyn warned them, as they descended some stairs leading to the start of the maze.
Tristan looked at his map. He saw how suddenly a blue point appeared on the map. Soon that blue point was connected to a red point by a silver colored line. ‘So, we will have to walk a lot to reach those clanless.’ He sighed as he saw how long the silver line was. ‘It’s probably right in the middle of the stretch between Ater and Nocturnio.’
“We will be walking till we reach about half of our stretch, then we will build our camp and sleep for the day. So we will reach our destination tomorrow to defeat some of the ‘clanless’.” Caitlyn said.