Fun Fact: Despite living in the modern age, the magis of Surone value their traditional clothes highly. Robes are a common form of fashion, and come in many variations. Battle robes, Company robes, School robes, Class robes, just to name a few.

Casual attire such as the shirt and pants are usually reserved for homewear. It is considered rude and classless to dress in anything other than robes for almost any type of event. On the other hand, metas are not expected to wear robes. Those who choose it as their fashion statement are viewed as disrespectful and socially inept.

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Gaius felt eyes on him, although there was nothing but snow and rubble as far as the eye could see. Not like he cared, though. True Vision would give him sufficient warning if whoever those eyes belonged to were hostile. Orange lit his irises as he scanned the bunker in front of him.

“I make about twenty people hiding in their nest,” he said, before glancing at a smoke vent. “And one other way in.”

“Do you see Felix?” Kleopatra asked worriedly, hugging her coat closer to herself.

“I can’t tell yet.” Energy charged in his feet and propelled the boy to the vent in a single bound. Kleopatra landed a moment later, accompanied by the sound of a retracting grappling hook.

The duo got out of the short vent quickly enough. Gaius wasted no time, slamming a fully powered energy ball into the face of a solitary woman right after he landed. She collapsed to the ground immediately, blood leaking from her nose.

“Is… is she dead?” Kleopatra asked with a trembling voice, bending down to inspect the body sprawled on the floor.

“Don’t know, don’t care.” Gaius looked around. A few pans hung sloppily from the walls, and the counter was smeared with brownish stains of unwiped cooking oil. He sighed in frustration. Of course that smoke vent was connected to a kitchen, not an armoury.

The door opened without warning.

A ball of ice flew towards the man entering the kitchen. Scalding oil followed it closely. Muffled groans punctuated the air as he tried to scream in pain, but the ice had already sealed his mouth shut. A fist swung his way, cracking his left cheekbone. Another hit slammed into his chin, knocking him back.

And another. And another. And another-

“Gaius, stop! He’s already down!” Kleopatra pulled her friend back. The man slumped to the floor, blood smearing all over his badly swollen face.

“What’s going on with you?” she exclaimed. “You’re being uncharacteristically violent lately. That’s not the Gaius I know-”

“Do you?” Gaius shook her hand off roughly. “Do you really know me? I try so hard to be a good guy, but what has that gotten me? Nothing but more death. My life is gone! My future is gone! And now I’m stuck here because more dimwits want to play God. So let a guy blow off a little steam, alright?”

“I get it; you’re frustrated,” Kleopatra said softly. “But you are a good guy. You’ve always sought to help people, even at the expense of yourself.”

The boy scoffed. “Yeah, so what? I couldn’t help them in the end, could I? They still get hurt; they still die. I’m sick of this. This world doesn’t deserve heroes; it doesn’t even deserve forgiveness.”

His voice dropped to a guttural growl. “It should’ve been destroyed.”

“Maybe the world doesn’t deserve forgiveness, but you do!” Kleopatra rushed forward, pulling him into a hug. “Don’t be so hard on yourself, please.”

“Why do you care…” Gaius tried to push her away, but she held on tight. “Let me go, Kleo… You’re better off without me-”

“Because I fell for you, dammit!”

They froze.

“I like you, Gaius. I’ve fancied you for a while,” Kleopatra mumbled.

“I just… T-there, I said it. Happy?” She let him go abruptly. “It really hurts me to see you like this. If only that True Vision of yours could show you how I see you…”

“Kleo, I…”

“This is not the time nor place for this.” Kleopatra was avoiding his gaze now. “Come on, we still have a job to do.”

Gaius followed her out of the kitchen, his emotions a swirling mess within him.

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The next few minutes of silence were awkward, to say the least. Kleopatra seemed insistent on keeping her mouth shut, and Gaius could not muster enough social skills to utter another word. So he kept content with scurrying around in the dark behind her.

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Fortunately, this group of metas were by themselves most of the time, which gave him plenty of space to observe them. Not like there was much to observe, though. Most of them were either lounging around or carrying canisters of arcani to a storeroom. The only one who seemed to be doing any actual work was a white-haired lady who looked like she was in her early forties. Gaius and Kleopatra had unanimously decided to follow that woman, who fortunately led them straight to their target.

“Doors are locked.” Kleopatra finally opened her mouth.

“No shit.” Gaius looked around to make sure no one would be coming for the next few minutes, and grasped the lock firmly. It sizzled for a few seconds, before Gaius finally let go. He flicked his wrist, shaking the molten metal off his red-hot palm. He pushed the door open.

“What the- What’re you two doing here?” an incredulous voice exclaimed.

“What does it look like we’re doing?” Kleopatra said. “We’re here to save you, obviously.”

“Just you two?” Felix said, glancing at the boy staring at the wall. “What’s up with him? You two fought or something?”

It was Kleopatra’s turn to be awkward. She rubbed her hands shyly as her face flushed like a rapidly ripening tomato. Aglaia let out a small gasp and stifled a giggle.

“She likes him, and she just told him!” the little girl said excitedly.

“Hey, you can’t just say stuff like that out loud-” Felix interrupted himself, his eyes going wide. “Hold on, you finally told him?”

“Does this mean you two are a thing now?” The boy was getting more excited by the minute. “Does this mean I’m going to be a third wheel from now onwards?”

“No!” Gaius blurted out.

Everyone stared at him.

“Wha- What do you mean, no?” Kleopatra gasped, looking ready to burst into tears any moment. “You… You don’t like me?”

“I… I don’t know, alright?” Gaius shook his head wildly. “This is all so sudden. I don’t know what I’m feeling.”

“Damn it. This is terrible timing,” he said. “Come on, let’s get you out of here. We’ll worry about that later.”

Kleopatra’s face fell.

“Guys, listen. I am not here against my will,” Felix said. “I just want to try and get these people to work with us.”

“Are you serious?!” Gaius almost yelled. “These people just want to use your power for themselves. I can’t believe you actually think they’re worthy of redemption. You’d know that if you used that big brain of yours to think instead of throwing stuff around! Gods-damned stupid meta.”

Kleopatra covered her mouth in shock, but Felix merely frowned.

“Is there something wrong, Gaius? That doesn’t sound like you at all.” he asked, reaching his hand out. “Let me see what happened-”

“Don’t touch me!” Gaius flared, and cracks appeared all over his skin for a brief moment. Felix retracted his hand, though he furrowed his eyebrows in concern.

“The arcani inside you… It’s not attuned to your body anymore.” Felix tilted his head. “I’m sensing two separate entities. There’s an overgrown mass of corrupted magic within you. Gaius, when did this happen?”

“What would you know? You’re just an uneducated meta,” Gaius growled. “You just want to deny us our destiny, don’t you? I won’t let you.”

“Us? Our?” Kleopatra’s voice had dropped to a whisper. “Gaius, something’s obviously wrong with you. Let us help you-”

“I don’t need your help! I’m stronger like this!” Light poured from the sorcerer’s eyes. “No one is taking this from me!”

“Abaddon…? What is an Abaddon?” Aglaia blurted out of the blue.

There was a brief pause as everyone gave her confused looks.

“Gaius, your magic was born of Abaddon!” Felix gasped in realisation. “That lump of corrupted arcani; Abaddon’s power is still in it. It’s influencing you to fulfil his destiny! It’s still seeking to destroy the world, Gaius. You need to purge it from your body!”

“No! Never!” Gaius’ voice was distorted. Energy burst from his mouth, blasting a hole in the ceiling. He seized Felix and Aglaia roughly. “We’re getting out of here now!”

Orange light flowed to his soles as he prepared to burst off the ground, but he sank into it instead.

“My, my… What have we here?” a female voice spoke. “A rescue attempt?”

Gaius twisted his body. A white-haired woman was standing just outside the room, two points of red glowing fiercely from her eyes. He hissed in frustration. Why didn’t True Vision warn me of her arrival?

The ground hardened again, trapping them in the floor.

“And a rather noisy one too- Hmm?” Isis tilted Kleopatra’s chin up. “Do my eyes deceive me? You’re the President’s daughter, aren’t you?”

Kleopatra growled in response, trying to pull her weapon from the ground. Another meta put a sharpened metal finger to her head, daring her to make another move. The girl chose to yield.

Isis snapped her fingers with a slightly victoriously smirk on her face. “Change of plans. Load the arcani onto our airships now and prepare them for flight. The time for action is upon us.”

“B-but leader, how about our heaters?” a wide eyed meta asked. “And our rations?”

“We will have no more need for them anymore. Our golden goose has delivered herself unto us.”

The woman’s eyes flashed once more, and her hostages rose out of the floor, encased up to their necks in hardened concrete. The metas moved to carry Felix, but Isis snapped her fingers.

“Leave these two here,” she said. “I don’t want to keep all my eggs in the same basket.”

“Where are we going?” one of them asked.

Isis glanced at Kleopatra and smirked slightly.

“The White House.”