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Everyone was herded into the entrance hall with their masks on. There were roughly 500 people cramped side by side with still more people flooding in. On the stage were 10 Elders; no Overseers were present.
There was a group of guards and the captain of them standing in front. Boseman walked up to the front of the stage and clapped his hands. The sound wave silenced everyone instantly. He backed away and stood in line with the others.
“Good evening Unwanted, my name is Gerald Keep and the Captain of the guards in New London,” The man spoke with authority, his voice was deep and his accent sounded rough.
“The upcoming Adventure Games will be taking place in four days. I’m sure you are all aware of the Chaos Masters.”
The Unwanted in the room nodded in sync.
“The chance of them showing is definite and the King himself wants all of you there. This year's Adventure Games will be the biggest yet, the expected attendance will be 5 million and over 100 million will be watching via media.”
“We are not entirely sure of their plan but we have seen their activity spike tenfold in the previous month.” Gerald Keep said.
Mercy stood forward and Gerald moved just behind him.
“As Gerald said, this is the biggest event since the Great Merge and the King has entrusted us to try and prevent what the Chaos Masters are planning,” Mercy said then a giant TV in the back lit up with a layout of the stadium.
The stadium itself put any others from Earth to shame. There were three outcroppings of seats that stretched hundreds of metres into the sky. In the center was an oval shape of roughly 4km^2 that contained a mixture of different terrain and environments.
“There will be three days of events. First will be the monster slayinging, second will be the team games and the final day will be duels. During this time all active missions will be halted except for expeditions and guarding. You all will be working each day and you will be undercover. I understand many of you have families who will be attending and you will be stationed with them. Those stationed with their families will remain in the audience and protect and control certain areas in the seating. Many of you will be acting as guards, workers and watchers.”
“Over the next day or two we will be working with Gerald in creating defensive measures and designating your roles. Those who have missions before carry on your duties, your pay will be doubled due to the closeness of these events. You will all be paid 17 silver per day of work during the games. Questions?”
“Xabarth, The Torturer,” one in the crowd said, “Will he be there?”
“Most definitely, if you encounter him just run and retreat and let the Elders deal with him. He is a level 90 with five strong affinities- a complete force to be reckoned with. We do not know the exact extent of the fodder that will be under his control but we expect it to be double ours and they will have strong magical weaponry.”
“Who are the high targets that will be attending?” Tower asked.
“35 kings and queens and countless nobles from around the world. They will be housed in the central section of the stadium in the royalty b0x and will have shield mages guarding them. Our direct job is not to protect but rather prevent. The general audience is not our first priority. We are hired to find and destroy the Chaos Masters.”
“This mission is mandatory, backing out will cause your immediate removal and your memory wiped. You all saw Elora Evergrand state our existence on the TV. We are currently in talks to set up bases in over 16 countries as we speak, this is the most important mission in our history and we will not screw it up.”
“Will any Overseers be there?” another asked.
Mercy paused for a minute, “That information is not available.”
The Unwanted seemed unnerved by the comment, Overseers were a myth amongst them. They were the strongest and most powerful. They commanded the Unwanted, they held the strings of the puppet. If more than one Overseer was there then it made every more at ease.
Mercy tightened his posture and the entire hall stood in attention apart from the guards.
“Cast out from society, sworn to protect,” the hall echoed.
“You are all dismissed, those that have no current mission will not be asked to go on anymore until the event. Take the time to train and rest.”
The Unwanted in the hall began to funnel out.
“The auction for that heart is in two days, I’m hoping you’ll all attend,” Tower said.
Even Mute’s body language seemed like she was going.
“It’s in the blackmarket, the one on Raven Road.” Tower said.
“Isn’t that the fanciest one?” Sol questioned.
Tower grinned, “We got upgraded, anything there will be sold for minimum a gold. Apparently there’s already a bunch of eyes on it.”
“Gonna be a good bonus then,” Spike said, “I’ve been thinking of setting up a music store.”
Everyone turned to the hungover Spike, there was some realism in his tone.
“I’m being serious,” he pleaded, “I think last night was a kind of breaking point for me. I wanna go back to something that isn’t a woman or a pile of drugs.”
The group burst out laughing, “Yeah right Spike,” Sol joked.
“Fuck you guys,” Spike said, storming off.
“Oh, he was telling the truth,” Sharp mused.
“Let him be,” Tower said, “Spike’s been going through some shit lately.”
Sol nodded, “Training session tomorrow? All guns out.”
Tower flexed his biceps, “Even these?”
Sol laughed, “12 tomorrow?”
The group minus Spike agreed and they dispersed to various teleportation pads.
Sol took out his money from the bank at base and headed home, he had roughly 9 gold and 12 silver which was $92,000 in old Earth currency. He was hoping to find himself some new weapons, he had been using the same ones since he started doing missions. He was also on the look out for a present for June, it was her birthday in less than a month and he wanted to spend the same amount as he did for Summer.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
He exited the old electronics store and took the train back home. It was a nice evening, the sun was just setting and it was a fairly hot evening. As he entered his modern Victorian house, Summer was lounging on the sofa flicking through social media. She glanced up at him and then quickly did something on her phone.
“Hey, how was your day?” Sol asked.
Summer got up from the sofa and went into the kitchen.
“It was good, the show’s tough but the director loves me, he wants me to try out for the next one,” Summer responded.
“That’s great!” Sol remarked, “He’s not creepy is he?”
“Uh, kinda, I mean he’s one of the wealthiest people in New London so I guess he’s sorta weird.”
“Just be careful, you’re a woman now and I know what men are like,” Sol said as he started cutting up some vegetables.
“I can take care of myself.” Summer replied with her arms folded as she leant on the counter top.
“I fully know that Summer. Anyway, where's your sister?”
She froze when Sol said that.
“What,” Sol said.
“Oh, nothing.”
“Where is June?” Sol questioned again, raising his voice slightly.
“I think she’s in the study, you know what she’s like.” Summer said, clearing lying.
“Summer, where is she?” Sol said.
“She’s ok, she’s just uh..”
“June!” Sol shouted as he stamped through the house.
Summer ran up behind him, “Can you calm down Sol, you’re scaring me.”
“Well you’re not telling me where she is.”
Summer sighed, “She’s in the… The training room.”
Sol marched to the opposite side of the house and opened the training room door where June sat cross legged on the floor. She was covered in scratches and burns, a pile of books sat beside her along with a mana measuring device.
It only took a second for Sol to realise what she was doing.
“Sol, it’s not what it looks like,” June protested.
“I said no magic, it’s dangerous,” Sol said in a panic.
“But you’re an adventurer, you could die at any time,” June argued back.
“I do it so I can support you two, what if something happened when I wasn’t here?!” Sol exclaimed.
“You need to calm down,” Summer said.
“I am calm,” Sol said with a low tone, “We agreed on this.”
“Well Summer started doing it too!” June exclaimed, snitching on her sister.
Sol looked down to Summer who was glaring needles into her little sister.
“You promised!” Summer shouted.
“You didn’t even bother to text me when Sol came home!” June said.
“I did you goblin, you never look at your phone. Check right now.”
June did and a few messages pop up on her home screen.
“You should have called!” June shouted, her voice getting higher and higher.
“Alright enough!” Sol shouted, “Both of you- lounge now.”
“No,” Summer declared, crossing her arms again, “I’m 17 years old now and you still treat me like a kid. I’ve had it with how controlling you are.”
Sol took a deep breath in, “Fine, then you can get out of my house. You don’t pay rent and never clean up.”
June looked shocked, “Sol, you can’t do that.”
“Why not, you might as well leave too if you’re gonna ignore everything I say,” Sol argued, a part of him was hurting inside, “I only learned to fight because I had to look after you two, neither of you will be going down the same path.”
“I’m not going to be fighting, I’m studying magic!” June shouted.
“Same, I’m learning it to help me perform better, you don’t even know how cutthroat it is at the top.”
Sol sighed and looked down.
“You never told us how good we are at magic,” June said quietly, “We can help people like you do.”
Sol stormed out and slammed the door, he didn’t want to deal with this. He was in a cheerful mood up until this point. He sat down at the dinner table and interlocked his fingers.
Sol clicked the button on his finger and he was whisked away to Yggdrasil, he needed time to think.
As his soul landed on a tree branch, he saw Thanatos by his side. He sat down and let his feet hang over the edge.
“You sent many my way on that mission,” Thanatos said.
“They deserved it,” Sol added,
“They did,” Thanatos responded. She shrunk down to human size and sat down next to Sol.
“You’re troubled,” she noticed.
Sol tutted, “What’s the point in me telling you.”
“Have you come to me for advice?” She questioned while looking at him.
He leaned back, “They’re learning magic, both of them.”
Thanatos paused before replying, “So?”
“So?” Sol repeated, “They don’t understand how dangerous it is.”
“Do you? You tried summoning an immortal demon from a place even I am not familiar with. There was a 0.02% chance of creating a black hole during that time, not to mention you blew your hand off.”
“But I’m immortal, wait, you don’t know where I went?”
She shook her head, “I hold no influence.”
“Really? Anyway, they’re just-”
“Grown women, capable of making their own choices in life.” Thanatos said.
Sol breathed in deep and didn’t respond.
“You need to let go, Solomon. You cannot mother a grown woman. I judge a soul not by it’s actions but feelings too. Some people may believe they’re doing good when in fact it is the opposite.”
“Like the Chaos Masters,” Sol said.
“Precisely, it may seem just and righteous but in reality it's unjust and immoral.”
Sol didn’t respond again.
“For a man with a growing list of murders you are awfully emotional.” She said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Thanatos realigned her seat, “Nothing, a soul can only be judged by their own experiences. It may seem natural to protect your sisters which to you is good but you are hurting the two. Therefore causing twice the grief for the goodness of oneself.
“Riddles, riddles, riddles.” Sol muttered.
“I know you understand what I mean, ignorance is bliss, same for every human.”
“Always so knowledgeable, you sure you’re not the goddess of knowledge?” Sol asked.
“I am not a goddess,” she said.
“Really?”
“More so of a spirit, I cannot go into too much detail. Breaches my contract,” she said.
Sol chuckled lightly, “I can’t imagine you in an office writing your signature.”
“Oh, it was a lot like that actually. Anyway, enjoy the auction house, it will be interesting.”
“What- wai-”
Sol was forcefully ejected from Yggdrasil.
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