Nation/Faction RP Thread

[Alissa Ming]

The Alliance Meeting, Headed there

Anna and Qweto finally made it to the hotel and picked up the negotiation team. She was hoping the meeting would go through today. Or tomorrow. But she and Qweto would need to be there. She wasn’t sure she could do this. Still, they went to the meeting place.

Mark Troy came running up to the group, “Hey, Anna, nice to see you again.”

“The heck are you doing here, Mark?” Anna asked, surprised to see him.

“I’m you’re partner. No way am I gonna miss this.” Mark told her. He made eye contact with Cardwin Frenri, then quickly looked away.

“Anna, go on ahead,” Sergeant Frenri said. “Mark and I will catch up in a moment.”

“Uh...OK, then. Just, don’t take too long.” Anna said, hesitatingly. Then she and Qweto went off to the meeting point with everyone, except Mark and Frenri.

“Well, kid? You gonna tell me what’s going on? And why you look familiar. You could also tell me why you’re deliberately avoiding me too, while you’re at it.” Frenri said, sternly.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Mark said, as calmly as possible, even though he knew he was going to get caught.”

“Don’t try that with me, boy.” Frenri lectured. “Anna may be the trusting sort who you can lie to, but I know the truth from lies. Now, talk.”

“It’s not a good idea. I don’t know how it will affect the timeline.” Mark said. It was a lie. It would have been the truth yesterday.

“Really? Cause you seem to know just about everything going on right now. Or at least know how this conversation will turn out.”

Mark finally admitted, “I’m not actually sure. I know we need to have this conversation. But I know it should have happened yesterday. So I don’t know exactly what might change.” This time, Frenri simply nodded his understanding and acknowledgement that Mark was telling the truth.

Mark started talking. He talked about the Angel Program, starting a school, and how it morphed into time traveling bodyguards. Frenri listened as Mark described the structure of who got protected by whom. The limits they faced. Not everyone wanted to be an Angel or a Demon. Of those that did, not all could except the bio tech that allowed them to do their jobs so well. So, they faced a personnel crisis almost constantly. E’artins were still figuring out how to bring tech that did more than extend life to E’trians without the E’artin gene that allowed using the tech. Finally, he had run out of words, after telling Frenri that he was Frenri’s descendent. Frenri stared at him. Mark knew how the Silvernium Frequency worked. He had it himself. So Frenri had to believe Mark told the truth. Or believed he was telling the truth. Finally, Frenri nodded. “I understand. Anna will worry if we take too long. I won’t bother you anymore, but I expect you to do your job.”

Mark smiled, “Yes sir!” And they went off to rejoin Anna.

Malcolm also managed to make it just as the meetings were about to start, but as he got ready to enter, his wife Sophia was with him, and they were dressed formally, though nobody could have known what he, or she were wearing under his shirt. It wouldn’t have made sense anyway, but he was prepared. Military grade preparation if that makes sense for a sorcerer.
As they entered they waved at Anna and Qweto, smiling gently, and as he turned his sight to one of the seats, there was another familiar face looking intently on Anna, and scanning the surroundings every so often.

“Malcolm, come here, i’ve been saving you a spot!” The Doctor, bluntly and joyfully remarked while also thinking about the situation.

“Doctor?! Seriously? Here? Now? Why? You know what… nevermind… this night could have never gone more stressful” He sighed with weariness, as he sat next to the Doctor

“Sophia! Really, Malcolm? Why did you bring your wife here?” The doctor seemingly ignored Malcom’s previous comment, partly because he was ignorant of both of them and what they truly were other than they too had a part to play in the timestream.

“It’s good to see you too Doctor... “ Sophia remarked sarcastically.

“Well this can only confirm my suspicions then, the timeline is being threatened then if YOU of all people are here…” Malcolm replied abruptly. He didn’t like time travel all that much, as a sorcerer and guardian of the natural order of things, so he was always weary of the Doctor and any other being who was manipulating the very lifeblood of the multiverse.
“And by the way… YOU are not the only anomaly in this timezone, time traveler” Malcolm remarked sharply

“Ooh… that was mean…” The Doctor responded teasingly, then added “I’m well aware of Mark… though he is not very aware of me… but how did you know that? Have you met him?” The doctor became tense with curiosity and suspicion as he could not make up for many loopholes and logical mysteries Malcolm seemed to have been pulling in their past encounter.

Mark and Frenri entered the room, as Anna, Qweto and the rest of the delegation sat themselves down in chairs. Mark hung back, to watch. He wasn’t actually part of the delegation. And besides, he could see more from back there. Like the other group of people. People he didn’t know personally. He thought he saw Malcolm, a historically old friend of Anna’s. What was he doing here? Anna’s file had mentioned him, in case they ever crossed paths. But he didn’t know the other man, or the woman. Weird. Not for the first time, he wished his Silvernium Frequency didn’t preclude Empathy, cause he might actually be able to feel out what these people were doing here. His eyes scanned the crowd carefully. His Limited Precognition wasn’t the best, but he knew to be wary. Anything could happen. His left hand fell to the pulser hidden in his outfit, to assure himself it was there.

While Mark watched from the back, Cardwin Frenri went over to Anna, “Make sure you’re using your receptive Empathy. My Silvernium Frequency may help as well, but you’ll be able to give us a better idea of what is likely to happen. You’ll do fine. Just...keep that Projective Empathy under control, eh?”

“Of course. I’ve been taught pretty well.” Anna said, as she opened her Receptive Empathy up, and watched the diplomats filing in.

The Doctor gave a cold eye at everyone there, especially at all the weapons, he was ever so displeased with any forms of firearms, and then he looked at Malcolm with a friendly and pleased smile. “At least you don’t like weapons either… i like you Malcolm… even if you don’t like me… heh the irony!” As the doctor said that, he made an eye towards Mark, especially, almost as if he was calling for him to join them.

“Don’t worry, people won’t be able to know what you are truly thinking here this time, even though these folks are experts in this psionic abilities.” Malcolm reassured the doctor.

“Yes I've noticed that around you my mental blocks are not all that needed... “ He trailed off as he was thinking about both the situation and Malcolm’s frustrating mysteries.

Mark glanced over again at the group. The strange man was looking at him. It was almost as if he wanted him to come over. He double checked his pistol was in its holster on his right hip. He’d just checked his pulser, hidden on his left. Like many Angels and Archangels, he was ambidextrous. Though for him, it wasn’t natural, but trained. Curious anyway, he wandered over to Malcolm and the two strangers. But he couldn’t let it be known he actually recognized Malcolm. Not really. If Malcolm introduced himself, then he could act surprised and excited, because Anna had actually mentioned him. Still...he was a horrible liar. Came with the Silvernium Frequency. So he just had to answer truthfully, and leave out the more important details.

“You must be Mark, from what my little sis told me… she does find you ever so annoying mind you… and i don’t like her unhappy got it?” Malcolm declared sharply and with a bit of a friendly smile.

“Evening chap! My name is John Smith… An old ‘business’ partner of Malcolm over here… you won’t need to be this tensed around us” The Doctor introduced himself.

“Oh, so you must be Malcolm then.” Mark said cheerfully to Malcolm. As he spoke, he stood easy. “Anna speaks highly of you. When she talks to me about anything outside of work at all. You’re right, she doesn’t like me.” He shrugged, “Not like there’s much I can do about it. And I think I get it. She’s not always the most trusting person. Again, can’t blame her. Nice to meet you, John Smith.” He deliberately made the scanning look more like someone who wasn’t regularly in such an area, and was curious. Not scanning for danger. Faith was better at that kind of thing than he was. Again, Silvernium Frequency came with the idea that no one can lie to you, so why bother lying yourself. As a result, he was a crap liar, and had a harder time putting on the correct airs. So he could only hope he was doing alright this time. Still, being relaxed would help his reflexes as well, so there was that too. “And who is the charming lady?” Mark asked. “My name’s Mark Troy,” He introduced himself to the group at large, despite Malcolm knowing his name.

“The ‘lady’ is married” Sophia sharply rejected the interpreted flirting attempt “My name is Sophia… and your body language doesn’t align with some of those lies you are telling… but i’m not going to bother” She chuckled at Mark’s anxiety as she really wanted to just point out that he is a time traveler and pull the cat out of the bag sort of speaking, but at seeing her need to uncover facades, Malcolm squeezed her hand gently reminding her not to mess with the timeline.

“Well, I'm here to make sure Anna is safe, because I'm well aware of the amount of tension between our peoples… I can only hope… You soldier types are here for the same reason” Malcolm irritated at the weapon and military as a whole, remarked.

“Ahah…” The Doctor chuckled, pleased at the fact that Malcolm also hated weapons.

“Anna’s a good person,” Mark was honest, as much as he could be. “And my apologies if you saw my question as anything other than courteous,” he said to Sophia. “But yes, that’s why I’m here. To keep Anna safe. She’s my partner after all. And I failed to keep her safe from being taken off world.” He knew that was a stretch of the truth. He hadn’t failed to keep her safe. She’d always been meant to find Talmak and be taken. But he knew others had believed he had failed. So again, it was close enough to the truth that he could feel confident giving it. “I won’t fail her again. She can dislike and distrust me all she likes, but I’ll still keep her safe.” He just stopped himself from continuing with something stupid like ‘history depends on it.’ I really have to watch my words around people. And thank goodness the translator and pulsar are hidden. I can’t give away that I’m going to understand everything spoken either, no matter the language. He thought to himself. Again, making sure to relax, and do everything possible to look like a casual observer, or at least, not ready to fire at the smallest sign of trouble.

A bit annoyed at all the lying and the tensions between four essential abnormal creatures, Malcolm couldn’t hold it in him any longer, he knew full well Mark was a time traveler, and he also knew what is transpiring tonight after the delegations, so he presumed that mark would be better off around people who knew him for who he was and accepted the matter so he just let it out. “You know what… Mark?... Let’s face it. By now my priorities in protecting Anna and the timeline are far more important than these formalities and lies we tell each other. In case you didn’t get my psychic message last night in your sleep, then you’d better get up to speed. We are facing a far greater threat than we have time to hide who we are, so sit down here, and we’ll reveal everything you need to know for your mission…” Malcolm bursted with frustration and tension as he decided to spend all his energy focused on strategising the best defence for Anna. At this the Doctor lifted a finger and opened his mouth to speak; “But… Seriously?” he was a bit surprised by Malcolm’s sudden outburst.

Mark blinked in consternation. Malcolm should not know what he was. At all. No one but his boss, those in the Angel Corps and Demon Corps, and Cardwin Frenri. “I...I’m sorry?” He said, cautiously. He wanted to add ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ But he didn’t. And he could not tell lies as well as Faith or Anna or anyone else without his ability. Because he knew, sort of, what they were talking about. He just didn’t know how Malcolm knew.

“Sit down, if you don’t want to attract attention… time traveller !” Malcolm said with emphasis and frustration at those two last words. “You are a time traveler, and I know an awful lot about you and the time stream, and thankfully you are the one person that I can reveal myself to, because in your time, my talents become known to the military… At least that’s what ‘John Smith’ here actually known as the Doctor helped me understand… not that i couldn’t get this information all by myself… “ Malcolm trailed off as he sensed something eerie in the atmosphere, nobody could feel it, obviously, but he sensed an ill intent addressed at Qweto and Anna, though he couldn’t point it exactly where.
Before he could continue the Doctor intervened “REALLY?! Why? Since when are you surprising me?” The doctor almost squeaked in trying to keep his surprised tone lowered.

Mark thought for a brief moment, then finally said, “You’d have to be a time traveler yourself to know any of that, much less what I am. But you’re mostly right. I will not sit down. Trust me, it’ll be faster if I’m standing. Besides, it’s not uncommon for the military to stand. Anna’s sitting because she’s part of the delegation. So, the Doctor, is it? I’m gonna have to ask later. Just...I’m here to help. My job is to protect Anna. And her timeline. I’m here doing my job. So if you’re gonna help, then let’s get to it and worry about details later.”

“I don’t like weapons… “ The Doctor, frustrated and baffled, blurbed almost just to find himself in the centre of the attention before he could start speaking about the plans.
Then Malcolm intervened, “Something is going to happen… and something bad… i think there might be a bomb somewhere in the building or something… i just can’t point it out exactly.” As he said that he waved his hand gently, and next to the Doctor what looked like a figure of mist appeared, and began flying off around the building. At this the doctor opened his eyes wide and asked, “WHAT? Is that not going to be seen by everyone else here?” He reacted with confusion. “No… Malcolm is quite good at what he’s doing, that… which you won’t exactly understand what he is, is only visible to us four. Nobody else can see him.” Sophia calmly explained.

“Well, that’s something.” Mark said, “And I think I sense what you’re sensing. Danger, coming soon, but not too soon, or else Anna would be on the move. As for your dislike of guns, Doctor, tough luck. I use firearms. They’re my specialty. Maybe next time you should hang with Faith. She likes swords most. And while I don’t like to kill anyone I don’t have to, I won’t just stand idly by if my charge is in danger. Sorry about that.”

“Funny how every soldier ever finds the need to explain themselves to me…” the Doctor amused, and surveying the surroundings, responded while he got a metallic tool from his jacket and lowered it under his chair and it began beeping and wheezing lowly as a green light was coming from the top of it.
“I don’t like weapons either” Malcolm remarked sharply.

“Then my comment can go to you too, Malcolm. And by the way, I’m not actually military. I joined the Air Force because it was the easiest way to get paired with Anna and actually do my job. Which I haven’t had to kill anyone yet. We’ll see if that changes. Hoping not.”

“Okay, the delegations seem to be going on pretty well by now, and everyone is paying attention to the logistics, so let’s explore this building to check what’s wrong… can you tell your friend over there to be on guard?” The Doctor quickly resumed his planning and directing self as he pointed at Frenri and was getting ready to crouch and exit the hall. “Right behind you doc!” Malcolm chuckled.

“Friend?” Mark was genuinely perplexed, then he saw where the Doctor was pointing, “OH!!! You mean Sergeant Frenri. Yeah, he’s not my friend. He’s my ancestor. But I guess I can do that real quick. He knows who I am anyway.” And Mark headed over to Frenri, to catch him up on what was going on.

“Sophia, you’d better get something more comfortable than that dress!” The Doctor stared at her as if pointing, she might just stumble if she needs to run. “Don’t worry Doctor, i can change pretty fast in whatever i need to should the need arise. “ She smiled ironically and teasingly.

“Right… Malcolm… I need you to go check the perimeter of the building, see what’s going on outside, and take your wife with you. I got the soldier boy here with me.” The doctor commanded confidently as he got his sonic screwdriver ready.

As Mark caught Frenri up, who agreed immediately to be on guard, he thought, The Doctor. I may have to see if the Queen Consort knows anything about him when I get back to my place. Hm...I doubt it, but if anyone can tell me, it would be her. He doesn’t seem familiar though. Whatever, no time. He rushed to join Malcom and the Doctor to find out the rest of the plan. Anna would be on the move as soon as the danger reached about a minute away. And that may or may not be enough time, depending on the situation. Plus, not even she could be positive which direction danger truly came from. Not until it would be almost too late. Still, she’d be fine for a while on her own. He turned up his translator. Just in case. But he didn’t turn it to translate his own words, not yet. He didn’t want everyone else to potentially be able to overhear him.

Outside the congress building a couple of E’Trian looking snipers dressed in black and with red neon glowing lights all over, seemed to be readying themselves on the top of a small building… something was off… Were they E’Trian? Malcolm thought to himself, as Sophia got ready in a black leather suit, almost out of nowhere, and on it all manner of mystical yellow glowing symbols were covering her, and immediately Malcolm adopted a similar suit, though the Doctor and Mark could not necessarily see how they changed almost instantly. At this a blast of energy came flying from those snipers and hit Sophia pushing her into a column of the building, making Malcolm cover them in an invisibility shield which made those black figures run away.
Indoors the Doctor was surveying the halls of the building, and scanning with the Sonic every room, occasionally making remarks about how much he didn’t like that the doors had to be made of wood.

As Mark caught up to the others, he temporarily turned off his hologuise. He’d have to turn it back on before going back to the delegation, but goodness, it felt great to have it off. He caught up with the Doctor, watching him mutter as he scanned the doors with his strange device. Mark had never seen the like before. “Need help, Doc?” He asked, with a small smile. “I mean, I’m great with wooden doors.” It wasn’t truly mocking, but a gentle teasing, though he wasn’t positive the Doctor would realize that.

The doctor was hitting at the screwdriver muttering frustrated, then turned at Mark “Well… let’s see what you’ve got… for now I'm out of options and this room smells off… doesn’t smell E’Trian at all!” He glared ominously at the room behind that massive wooden door.

“I’ll have to take your word on that, the smell I mean,” Mark leaned in to examine the door by eye. He was worried. Wooden doors weren’t common any longer during this time period. But they usually meant. He cursed quietly. A lock and key, rather than a tech lock that could be picked with the right equipment. He debated very briefly, then said, “It would be faster if I kicked the door in. But...I might have a lockpicking kit with me, just in case of old fashioned doors. That’ll be quieter.” Mark was mostly talking to himself, but the Doctor would be able to hear him, he knew.

“hmph... I guess one has got to do all the work, can’t trust the soldier… what did i tell you Amy?” And he looked behind only to shed a small tear at the memory of losing one too many friends, he was tired, but knew he had to find quick solutions so he wiped his face, and added. “Well search your pockets then!”

“You took the fact that I have lockpicking tools on me better than many would,” Mark said, as he pulled his kit out. He’d been taught to use it, not for this time, but for his first mission, as the average person he’d been assigned to protect for the first mission had lived in a time where this kind of thing was far more common. But he still carried the kit with him. And he set to work on the lock, rolling his eyes mentally at the Doctor’s comment about not trusting the soldier. And not just because he wasn’t a soldier at all. He was, at best, playing the part of the soldier at the moment. “Amy, Doctor? You talking to someone I can’t see?”

Behind the door, they could hear pulsing and beating and ticking, almost like a huge heart, but also mechanized somehow, as a bit of green mist seemed to be coming out from under the door. “No… there was… no one… “ The doctor stuttered gently as he turned his gaze at the bottom of the door and opened his eyes wide immediately scanning it with the sonic. “ WATCH OUT!” And immediately began coughing

Outside Malcolm managed to wake up Sophia, but the snipers were all gone, He came inside the building to check for Mark and the Doctor to smell a foul toxin that began filling the atmosphere.

“Crap” Mark said, before he too started to cough. Bio enhancements or not, he was still flesh and blood. This was bad. He could probably last longer than the average person, but would it be long enough to finish or figure out how to stop the toxin itself? “Hey, Doc, if we can figure out what the toxin is, we might be able to put a stop to it.” For once, I wish there was a Demon nearby. There was one that specialized in poison that Faith was close with, but nooooooo. They have to be acting up again.

Malcolm and Sophia came running towards the direction of Mark and the Doctor, they were dressed in a tight black leather suit, almost looking like a space suit, but it was filled with all kinds of sigils and mystic symbols emanating a burning yellow light, almost piercing at the sight and giving an intense aggressive feeling to anyone looking at them. They were not bad, but more like imposing and definitely something not even the Doctor could understand.
“Get out of the way!” Malcolm called for them as he was covering his mouth, and as they did that, he moved both of his hands forwards as if he was pushing a large object only for those yellow symbols to ignite an almost transparent fire-like flux which was flowing down his arm and pushed the smoke back inside the room, and even took it outside the lungs of both Mark and the Doctor leaving them baffled. Sophia quickly jumped at the door and started to draw circles on the door which for a moment were glowing red but vanished quickly.
“We need to get Anna and the delegation out of here, this is bigger than we can deal with on our own, this feels more like an alien insurrection!” Malcolm frantically spoke as he was trying to get both Mark and the Doctor from the floor.

“We really do. But depending on how bad it is, Anna’s already on it.” Mark said.

Anna turned to Qweto, she had a bad feeling. It was sending chills down her spine. A feeling she knew all too well. Danger. “We need to get everyone out of here. Now.” Qweto, who’d seen this, happen before, nodded, and as Anna pulled her pulser from where it sat on her right hip, he started herding the others outside. Anna scanned the area. Where was the danger, exactly. She had a general, vague notion, but that was as far as she could get at the moment. But she was ready for it now. She looked around and realized Mark isn’t here. Where is he?

“That fire almost looks like my regeneration energy!” The doctor commented baffled at what Malcolm pulled. “Behind this door, there's some organic sounding device that will not be held up by that shield you just activated” Looking at Sophia he commented.
“I know doc. It’s not meant to, this has… a deep form of entropy at its core that only my kind of people are familiar with. It is done by.. We’ll talk about this later.
“Time wraiths…!” The doctor chillingly commented, knowing of these sorts of creatures.
“So you know of them too?” Malcolm teasingly commented.
“We need to get out of here… and Mark, don’t start sputtering anything about our true natures to Anna, you can’t tell anything about any Doctor to either Anna or Qweto, they aren’t supposed to know of him at this time…” Sophia glared at Mark as they started to move.

“Don’t glare at me,” Mark said, “I know how to keep a secret. From Anna at least. I won’t tell her, promise. Heck, if I did, I’d have to explain how I understand even half of what I’m telling her. Which I really don’t want to do.”

“Time wraiths are only here because something that isn’t supposed to happen to time, is happening, and the fabric of the universe is being altered because of it.” The Doctor sharply explained with an ominous tone. Then continued “This is way bigger, than just an assasination attempt!” He said as he began rushing towards Anna and the delegation to help evacuate the building safely.
“You know your stuff Doctor… it seems we surprise each other at equal levels…” Malcolm teasingly remarked

Mark followed, closely, drawing his pistol, to be at the ready. He could draw his pulsar later. And he couldn’t let Anna see him with the Pulsar in anything other than an emergency situation. That was a conversation he didn’t want to have. He could see Anna had her own pulsar out, as she covered the retreat of the delegation, and Crown Prince Qweto. He rushed over to her. “You go too, Anna, I got you covered.”

“Uh...yeah, ok, Mark.” Anna agreed, though she did not put her weapon away as she kept up with the group.

Outside, everyone finally managed to get at a safe distance from the building, as it seemed to explode with a green gas, and tendrils of flesh seemed to engulf the whole congress building whole, with some of the people who didn't manage to get a safe enough distance were consumed by them. An immediate swarm of gargoyle-like creatures, filled with those same red neon lines of light all over their bodies came swarming off the top of this, now tumor-like ball of gas and flesh and mechanisms of all kinds.

In the night sky, the hundreds of thousands of planets of the Sovil system could be seen glowing almost like the 5 desert moons of E’Tria, as they were in their positions orbiting the sun.
But something else was happening… Bright orange light began to spill out of a stranger rift in space as a massive ship-like structure seemed to fall out of it. The sounds of clanging, cracking, and bending metal roared across the landscape as the strange, entirely alien-looking structure began to sunder towards the surface of the world. Thrusters roared and blared to life as the ship attempted to orientate and stabilize itself, but to no avail, as it had entered within the lower-atmosphere of the planet, of which it wasn’t designed to operate in.

As the ship was descending to the natural lower atmosphere of this planet, it could visibly take a few hours, as the atmosphere expanded quite far into space, but everyone could see.
“Well… I guess we finally found the issue… and what triggered this potential time storm” The Doctor remarked as he stared at the falling titan of metal.

“So… Then… That thing is not from this reality I presume?” Sophia calmly and bluntly remarked. “How did you?...” The Doctor paused for a second then continued “You took the words out of my mouth. This… Whatever this is… Is not local to our universe, and that’s why it caused the time wraiths to appear right here, next to a fixed point in time…” He declared with authority and frustration.

“What the heck?” Anna was utterly confused as she saw the huge ship. Was it bigger than Talmak? “Talmak, talk to me!” Qweto was just as confused. Frenri was standing in front of the two protectively. “Commander, I do not know,” Talmak could be heard by those closest to Anna and Qweto. “It is a ship of some kind, but not a make that I have ever seen. It is possible it comes from another, as yet undiscovered, species, possibly. I will continue to analyze and update.”

The alien ship continued its descent, falling faster and faster as flames began to form around it, making it seem more akin to a metallic fireball than a Ship. The distant sounds of blaring external sirens began to sound, and small drone-like objects began to fly out of small openings in it, attempting to wield parts of the ship's exterior back together. Suddenly, a mass interception signal was sent out, interrupting and intercepting all forms of electronic devices, playing back an emergency audio distress feed of unknown language several times before returning back to normal. Only a few hours later, the ship’s head smashed into the surface of the planet in the Sorberian Desert. A shockwave of force and sound blasted forth, and the scorched, smoking metal frame of the ship now lay still and dormant within the gigantic crater.

End Of Crossover Part 1

 

[Nate1008]

The United Warforged Mechanist Colonies - Fringeworld Bresshan, Fort Veuhen'grull - 13'299

"Sir! Sir! SIR! ORDERS SIR! WE NEED ORDERS!" A soldier shouted through his gas mask as the chemical gas began to fill the bunker. "Stand your ground... Ho... Hold... Cough... HOLD THE LINE! FIRE AT ANYTHING THAT MOVES! WE HOLD DOWN THIS FORT! SHOOT DOWN EVERY COF YOU SEE!" The commander shouted at his men as he stood back up again. UWMC soldiers held the bunker, shooting down tens... Hundreds... no... Thousands of Colonial Opposition Federation infantry. The mounted MG's were doing wonders for them in there, and the gas masks the few who managed to grab in time were helping to fend off the gas assaulting their lungs. "THATS RIGHT BOYS! KEEP COMING! YOU ALL GOT HELL TO GIVE!!!" Commander Jauk Rouies shouted as he fired his pistol at the enemies clambering into the bunker. Eventually, the enemy soldiers began running away from the line. "HAHAHA! THATS RIGHT! RUN! RUN BACK TO YOUR DAMN TRENCHES! GO NOW! Go..." Jauk shouted, slowing to a halt as he heard what they were running from. 'BOOM!... BOOM!.... BROOM!'... "33L18! 33L18! GET DOWN! GET DOWN NOW!!!" He shouted as the roof of the bunker was blown open, rubble and debris crashing to the ground. Through the smoke and ash, the 33L18 MK 11 Scratchhammer stood 400 feet tall, its nozzle staring back down at them. "FOR KING AND GLORY!" The 10 remaining men shouted at it, firing pistol, rifle, and LMG at the thing, shortly before being blasted into oblivion.

The United Warforged Mechanist Colonies - Fringeworld Bresshan, Command Post Becker'rell - 13'299

Battlefield Senior-General Reu Mervetez sat at the table covered in battlefield pieces, papers, and letters. He played with the pieces a bit, read the letters, or simply would stare up at the dimly-lit concrete sky of this facility. "Sir! Word just came in 30 minuets ago! Fort Veuhen'grull has fallen!" A soldier called urgently as he rushed into the room, nearly tripping over papers as he slipped through the door. "WHAT?! HOW?! One of our most defended positions? How did the Fort fall? It wasn't supposed to! It can't fall!" Reu shouted. "It... It was a group of 33L18's; sir... The COF provided a bunch to their frontline... They gave the COF their decisive victory... We should have reinforced the Fort with Anti-Walker, or at least proper Anti-Tank weapons, like I and many others suggested..." The soldier answered. "How many dead?" Reu asked. "Not a huge number we need to worry about... Ju-" the soldier was cut off. "HOW, MANY?!" Reu demanded. A long pause. "Roughly 1'300'000 men... Including the 344th, 297th, and 1019th corps... Only 239 survivors, more than half wounded... 30 won't make it through the night... Most of them managed to pull all the way back here, while others retreated to help defend the positions behind Fort Veuhen'grull... 800 are still MIA..." The soldier replied softly. "Damnit... Damn all of it... Pull some Anti-Walker assets over to the adjacent lines; and prepare Lueven Hill for a siege..." Reu ordered softly. "Yes sir..." The soldier said as he stepped out of the room.

The United Warforged Mechanist Colonies - Fringeworld Bresshan, Lueven Hill - 13'300

"Reinforcements when?!" someone shouted at Reu Mervetez. "Hmm? Oh... Sorry... I sent reinforcements to this position 2 months ago... They should be arriving any minuet now..." Reu finally responded. "Bless the King... Should we move out sir?" The soldier asked Reu. "Negative soldier... You are to hold this position. If Lueven Hill falls, the COF will gain control of our primary munitions supply line, and will cut it off from the rest of our front... Losing this position will mean losing total control of the planet... We cannot afford that to happen!" Reu explained. "Right sir! The 88th, 997th, 235th, 662nd, and 219th Corps are ready and waiting!" the soldier said. "Excellent! Now le-" Reu was shortly interrupted. "COF WAVE INCOMING! READY WEAPONS! READY WEAPONS!" A watchman shouted from atop of his tower. "READY UP MEN! READY UP! TODAY, WE FINISH OFF THIS ENEMY! STAND READY!" Reu shouted at his soldiers. "AYE SIR! READY!" His men shouted in a nearly unified response. The first bullet already hit one of his men standing up on the concrete wall, his dead corpse falling to behind it. More shots whizzed past, hit the wall, or found their marks as UWMC forces started sending retaliating fire. The walls, mud, and dirt were stained with blood, and the muddy battlefield at the base of the hill was being littered with bodies. COF soldiers were flooding from the forest near the edge of the battlefield, running out into the open field at the base of the hill, the mud-ridden field littered with water-filled craters, barbwire, and the bodies of other long-dead soldiers. At the top of the hill lay the Fort, a large concrete fortification. A familiar stomping sound echoed across the land, almost immediately demoralizing the troops. "Damnit... Damnit Damnit Damnit... DAMNIT! Where are they?!" Reu said fearfully. "They were supposed to be here already! WHERE ARE THEY?!" He shouted at the sky. The first 33L18 stepped out of the forest, looked at the Fort, and fired its 993mm cannon at it, blowing open a large hole in the side of the wall. "Field guns! FIRE! FIRE NOW!" Reu ordered. The first field gun took aim, and fired at the 33L18, the blast throwing it off balance. The second caught it off guard and hit it in the side of its body, knocking it sideways some more, nearly throwing it to the ground. The next 3 missed, but the final hit it in the core, its drive overheating and exploding in a massive fireball. "YES! READY UP!" Reu shouted. But to his dread, 2 more 33L18's, and a 59K39 advanced forward. "Shit... SHIT SHIT SHIT! RELOAD! RELOAD!" Reu shouted, panicked. The field guns were still reloading, which gave the first 33L18 time to blast down one of the field guns. The second brought down another, and the 59K39 blew down the tower the others were located on, disabling all of them too. Reu grabbed the edge of the wall and leaned down from it. "No... Nonono... No... Damnit... It's all because of my foolishness... These men... All of us are going to die here... Damnit!" He said woefully, staring down at the crumpled field guns. Like a light from the heavens, from behind the Fort, a rain of artillery shells barraged the COF forces and machines, and UWMC Ellsachen VMW18's rushed forward with Automatic Cannons blazing, and Torchers blaring, burning and blasting the enemy forces. Within moments, the remaining COF forces began a full retreat, back into the woods they came from. "Bless the King... Bless the King..." Reu whimpered softly as he slowly fell to his knees. One of the VMW18's stood in front of Reu, and its cockpit door opened to reveal a scruffy man, possibly in his late 30's. "Hello Reu! Been a long time, ain't it? I hope you don't mind if our boys sit tight here for a bit, dontcha?" Krell Jauquees joked as he stepped out of his mech. "Krell! How long has it been? 9, 10 years? You haven't aged one bit my friend! Of course your boys can stay! Stay as long as you like, we got plenty of crumb cakes and thillbread for everyone!" Reu said welcomingly as he hugged his old friend. "Thanks bud! You haven't changed a bit either... Look atcha! Ya still gotchr fathers eyes!" Krell laughed. "Come on in friend; we have a lot to talk about!" Reu laughed wholesomely as he guided his friend into the Fort...

 

[Nate1008]

The Gior - Tiraxius Prime - The Eclipsian Regions - The Eclipsimundi Empire - 6492 E

A heavy evening light was filling the ever-burning atmosphere of Tiraxius, the empire was changed ever so slightly. Though it was a powerful and wary empire, Eclipsimundi, had been blessed by a mysterious force, which seemed to have altered the geology of the planet. And the way it did that was around and in Eclipsimundi territory. By raising vast chunks of a mysterious crystal from deep underground, maybe a lower level crust of this world. The Eclipsimundi Empire, reunited as a result of the aftermath of the war against the Shiv Empire, has begun prospering heavily. However, new swaths of deserts creep towards the Eclipsian tropics and jungles, and for the past 3 months so far, a great drought has hit much of the lands. Somewhat struggling with their food supply, the Eclipsimundi Empire attempted to trade with the Shiv Empire, but still both somewhat angered, and with a form of bitterness, the Shiv Empire had refused to do so, and have been for a while since the end of the war, despite the kindness the Eclipsians had given them. Shortly after the final negotiation attempts failed, Eclipsis decided to attempt trade pacts with the Etarian Empire and the Etaraxian Empire, as the Eclipsians have traditionally done each time the Drakahn had casted their grand annual “Festivals of Scorching”, which in turn, had caused great, nearly continent-wide droughts. The Shiv Empire was, and had always never been heavily affected… It is, and always was the Eclipsians of whom took the brunt of it each year.

The Etarian Empire refused, which was odd, considering they would often accept such deals out of compliance, but the Eclipsians still respected their decision. The Etaraxian Empire seemed to have overflowing stockpiles from last year's harvest however, and were more than happy to make commercial pacts with the Eclipsians. Regardless, it still wouldn’t be enough to fill the needs of the Eclipsians' vast population. After a long debate, and with much dread coming from Eclipsis herself, she went to negotiate with the Drakahn again. Although they refused to stop the Festival of Scorching this year, they, although reluctantly and with much aggression and tension, accepted to give the Eclipsians a portion of their plunder of food every now and then for a minor tribute of valuables. Eclipsis did her best to hide the Crystals and their power, as the Drakahn would not hesitate to attempt to steal them, or begin plundering her land and people for them. Although still somewhat low on food, the Eclipsians were, and still will manage, like they have every year. However, these new Crystals seem to really be pulling much of the decisive weight, as the food and water consumption of the Eclipsimundi Empire and its populace had been cut nearly into quarters with the help of the Crystals magical properties. Great monuments were erected in the name of Shivan, and for the blessing of the Crystals that had been bestowed upon the Eclipsians. Although the Eclipsians were still struggling through the droughts, as more and more of the Crystals' powers are discovered and used, the more relaxed the Eclipsians seem to become. By the end of the 1st month of the drought, the Eclipsians were doing a little better than even the Shiv Empire.


The Gior - Tiraxius Prime - Tahek, Agricultural Village of the Eclipsimundi Empire - 6493 E

“DANAGHAAAARM!” Garum’Hisk shot up from the carer’s bed, breathing heavily and frantically, scanning the surroundings to see all the healers and herbalists around. His room had changed slightly… The whole place was filled with these crystals which had popped up everywhere. To him… time wasn’t the same as everyone else, the year had passed since that dreaded night, when everything that he called home was threatened by some ferocious beasts he was not familiar with. He even lost several friends in that fight, and even battle comrades which he held deep respect for.

Looking next to his bed, there was a bandaged and weeping Zorex, though no longer, as his mouth and eyes are wide open at his sudden waking from this mysterious and ominous coma.
Behind Zorex was someone familiar, yet strange… Of course, this was the son of Garum, Grua, but his muscular size, physical stature, and increased demeanour made him, and even Zorex a bit pale, as he was now almost three times Zorex’s endurance and volume of musculature; and mind you Zorex wasn’t small, he was an Eclipsian Templar Knight after all. The shape of Grua’s body and the delirium of Garum was enough that he couldn;t recognize him, at least not in this moment.

“Huh? What is happening? What have you all sad lizards done to my friggin hut?!” Garum, demanded, surveying his house and seeing it filled with chunks of these crystals almost eliminating every shadow due to the sheer quantity of light, one could even ask, just how in Shivan’s name could anyone sleep there? Way too bright! And warm!!! He looked at Zorex “Zorex? What are you doing down there? And… Is that another recruit behind you?” He looked straight at Grua not being able to recognise him. “Father! You're awake! We got a lot to catch up on… And also, HA! Well, looks like you're not alone on that one there, eh Zorex?” Grua said, nudging him. “There is a lot to unpack... Everyone in the whole village has been worried about you for a while...” Grua said excitedly. Grua sensed something off in the room, though he couldn’t pinpoint what or where it was, as he was too happy to see his dad back up, looking around to check the crystals, he didn’t observe anything strange about them, even though his intuition after having spent 9 months studying them was warning him.

At hearing Garum’s shouting, Grovar’Nusk rushed towards the hut, from where he was standing previously, training villagers, and even Rahar. He slammed through the door and rushed to pick Garum up and hug him in the most awkward of ways “OLD FRIEND! YOU ARE BACK! Hahahahaha!” he shouted, pushing aside everyone in the way as he rushed towards Garum.
“Huh? What? Oh… Not like this... “ Garum cringed at seeing the behemoth of Grovar rushing and became squeezed by his massive arms. He turned to look at Grua. “SON… help….!” He wheezed as he finally recognized him, because he could not forget the face that both brought him sorrow and joy all his life. Zorex was still baffled, the first question popped in his mind was, does he not remember the battle? Then another as he could not stop himself from opening his mouth, even if he was thrown on the floor by Grovar, Danagharm? What in shivan’s name is that? He was there thinking as he, himself was trying to understand what he has just gone through.
Rahar finally stepped into the room to figure out what was going on. “Hello? Why is…” She stopped as she saw Garum. “Garum is back! Garum is back!” She said cheerfully as she moved in to join the hug. Muh, again, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, as he usually does. He now wore the insignia of the Eclipsian Assassins Guild on his armor, and he was equipped with fitting equipment for such a role. Although not entirely visible, his muscularity had improved, though his size still remained the same. “Alright you two, give him some space. Garum has been through a lot lately… He probably doesn’t even know what the date is yet…” Muh said as he attempted to pull the two off Garum. “Yeah guys, we still got to get him back up to speed with what's going on…” Grua said. Meanwhile, as Muh is trying to pull Rahar and Grovar off Garum, he noticed some of the crystals were acting a bit odd. The Crystals and their light was faltering slightly, specifically the ones near and around Garum. The closest ones seemed to be giving off strange sparks of red energy, like how they did when they came near Feral Magic awhile back. Muh squinted at them, starting to think and process the information, but decided to ignore it for now, setting it as a lower priority for the time being.

Zorex Got up, and also helped to pull everyone away from Garum “C’mon guys, he almost gave his life for… Me... Just STOP!” As he said that, with the help of Grua and Muh, they finally managed to pull everyone away from Garum. At this, Grovar looked sternly at Zorex “The audacity!... However… You are right; but boy, do not touch me like that again!” Grovar flamed with holy fury at him, yet again making him squeal ever so ridiculously as he remembered that he REALLY shouldn’t get on this shaman’s bad temper. Garum was gasping for air, but he was glad to receive this much affection. Though he could still not recollect that night. “Wait… what do you mean, I almost gave my life for you Zorex? When? And… What exactly… I can’t remember…” He scratched his chin in confusion while looking a bit lost. “Ah great, both of you gave him a stroke…” Grua joked as he chuckled, seeing Zorex battered down again by Grovar.

As all of this was going on, a village builder seemed to enter to announce to Grovar about a completed project. “Molten Wrath! The stone wall fortification is finally finished. The town is secure, your holiness!” Looking upon Garum, he smiled and bowed in respect as he resumed work. “Ah… Good…” Grovar said as he turned to Grua “My pupil, Grua! spend some time with your father, he needs some catching up… And… Muh! You squealed at something in this room; spit it out, but come with me! I know how you leave us out on potentially important information!” Grovar grabbed Muh as they got out leaving behind Zorex, Rahar and Grua with a confused Garum. “A stone… What?” Garum’s curiosity only increased “Oh Shivan have mercy on my mind!” He prayed. Zorex Got out to check the recently fortified town, and center himself in the present situation of things. “Right… Since that battle 9 months ago, the town has been fortifying itself… A message still has yet to be received by the rest of the Eclipsimundi Empire though, so for now, the town as a whole has started training up militia and rudimentary defense forces… Recently, the wall around the town was just finished, and with folks from other nearby towns apparently getting attacked by these things too and fleeing to ours, it may become its own city soon if immigrants and refugees keep coming here…” Grua informed Garum.

“Right… The town is fortified… Why in Shivan’s name again? And how did you grow this big anyway son?!” Garum remarked joyfully as he was sitting on the edge of his bed. “The Crystals did… I think… I'm pretty sure at least... Nothing changed until after I started wearing them more... The town is getting fortified, because it's obvious the Feral aren’t finished yet… If anything, they're just getting started… Why they are acting up like this now, however, is still a mystery to everyone…” Grua explained. “Why can’t I remember… Feral? What is that son?... And I actually spent 9 months in bed? By Shivan, my shame seems to only grow…” Garum stuttered a bit as he thought at the idea of him just wasting time like that. “Bless Shivan that you even woke up again to begin with… And the Feral are those things that attacked... Grovar explained it all a little while after the battle…” Grua said. At hearing the praise Grua gave, Grovar opened his eyes wide, and grabbed Grua by the shoulders and began to shake him “What have you done to my son!? My son would vomit before praising our Father in the heavenly fires!!!” Garum shouted, shocked and pleased, yet heavily perplexed. He got up from his bed as he shook his son a bit. Grua finally noticed that Garum seemed to be far younger than he was before, almost as young as he was when Grua was a child in fact. “Father... Those Crystals seemed to have done a great blessing for you too… Look!” He remarked, gesturing at him. As Grua mentioned that, Garum straightened himself a bit, confused; still eyeing his son with perplexion and a pleased smile to hear a genuine praise come from his mouth. Garum flexed a bit, walked over to a bowl of water they had to wash him when he was feverish, even for a Gior, and looked at his reflected face. If he could, his mouth would have dropped all the way down to the floor. “By… Shivan…!” He silently exclaimed as he began stroking his own face, the scales were smooth, the scars were all but gone, the natural yellow glimmer in his eyes was fully saturated… He could not believe what had happened. But still he could not remember the night of the fight, looking around the hut, he had to take his son’s words for now. “By Shivan’s greed and glory...” He silently praised as he turned to Grua. “So you are now a believer? Or; what happened… And … Wait… Was that Grovar… Grovar’Nusk! Uh… I’m… I hate this amnesia… So I must have protected you if he didn’t kill you… And you are… A believer… Did he kill you and bring you back to life?” Garum was so full of questions one might think him to be a child now. But all these were serious to him, as the night all this started had become a blank slate in his mind to the frustration of most. “Well... Yeah, I guess I do believe in Shivan’s power now… I changed my mind after the True Mulgathian showed itself, and through quite a bit of praising and convincing attitude from Grovar…” Grua answered.

At grua’s mentioning the Mulgathan, that word started echoing through Garum’s mind, Mulgathian… Mulgathian… Mulgathian… Dah...NAH...GAAARRRRMMMRRR... His eyes quickly became pale for a second as he stuttered and seemed to lose his balance. “Uh...uh...uh… I...” He stuttered as he walked backwards, almost losing his balance. A flash of a massive demonic hand wiping him of a pale, gloomy, white-gray fire flashed before his eyes… “I was touched by a Holy Mulgathian…!” Garum slowly exclaimed after grabbing the edge of his bed. “Careful!” Grua warned as he helped Garum back down. “Yeah... Almost everyone in the village saw it… A True Mulgathian helped you... Grovar said so at least; and I, a witness myself, may not really know what a Mulgathian looks like, I think it's safe and honest to assume it was one of them…” Grua said. Garum lifted his finger gesturing with it “It… It was a True Mulgathian, I saw his blazing face and his red glowing aura of glory! I… I remember fragments… People may have only seen a hand, but I saw HIM! Behind our saviour was the throne of Glory of our father in his concentric suns of wrath and greed!!” At this he bent down in his knees and began worshiping Shivan with true gratitude. Outside, the town didn’t look so weak anymore, most huts were now stone buildings, and some workers were finishing up some cobble roads, as the whole settlement looked more like a castle than a village, with crenellated walls, too big for even a Gior to climb over, and the crystals were used even as inner torches, Some decorative plants here and there, as the Greed energy inspires one of the greatest forms of artistry and shine to it, this place began to look more like an average noble or wealthy settlement. Especially with these crystals used as decorations and forged into lines which streaked across the inner walls, and around the base of some buildings. One might assume that Gior thought it either to protect them, not knowing they don’t act as shields, but indeed it did act as a vast regeneration aura so that the injured could be healed just by resting behind the walled region of the settlement.

As Garum got outside, he was left with his mouth agape at the sights… Was this still Tahek village? “So what now…?” He asked as his son was following him. “We have been making plans… It seems the Eclipsians are going to war with the Feral, and most of the empire doesn’t even know it yet…” Grua answered, gesturing at the barracks and training grounds as villagers were training for combat, then pointing at the new mineshaft, and the forges, which were busy gathering metals and refining them into wargear. Even new Eclipsian Military Banners were hanging across the walls of the settlement, and atop of the Town Hall and central square. Tahek could very well earn a new name. “I really did miss a lot, now didn’t I Son?” Garum pleased, turned to his son and grabbed his shoulder affectionately. “And look at you! Praise Shivan, my son is a warrior and a true artificer!” He turned towards Grovar to see him with one arm across his chest and another holding his chin thoughtfully as he was discussing some issues with Muh, then nudged at Grua again “War you say eh?... Have my prayers been answered after all these years?!” He was ever so gleeful about the prospect of him fighting again and smashing skulls for the Glory of Shivan. Surveying the surroundings he took a deep breath in, enjoying and even feeling a deeper connection to Tiraxius than ever. He felt the aroma of the flora around with greater detail than usual, and even smelled the warmth of the desert and dust. It was great to be young again and have those lungs and olfactory glands functioning well again. “Uh... Mechanist Elite, actually…” Grua corrected as he moved his robe aside to show his father the medallion of the Eclipsian Machinist Guild, and the Mechanist Elite insignia engraved on it. “But yes, it is nice to see how things have changed, and this new war with the Feral will spark unison all over the Eclipsimundi Empire once more! Just like it always has!” Grua exclaimed. “So what are your thoughts on this war? Show me how my son really changed, because last I remembered, you were a pretty big coward…” Garum grinned with passion and pride. “Well, I was afraid of war at first... Still sort of am... But glory needs to come from somewhere, and the unity, passion, and pride it gives much of us is a great helm to behold.” Grua answered. “Praise Shivan… I woke in paradise… My son, redeemed and I, with regained strength, and a war to look forward to…” And as Garum said that, a couple of villagers approached Grua and Garum from behind, not fully realizing that the village elder was now awake, and young, for that matter. “Master Grua! Sir! We… Uh… Can you help us understand better how to use the Boltcannon, as I still fail at reloading it well, and my brother here, well he just broke his string…” Juksa’Vask and his brother approached and queried what now seems to be a teacher out of Grua. “Huh?... Master?... Wha…” Garum was baffled and pleased yet again. “Ah, yes of course… It's quite alright… I too have trouble reloading it; and a broken string is easy to fix…” Grua assured as he turned to the two. He grabbed the Boltcannon, started tweaking with it, and opened up the loading mechanism. He pulled the broken string from it, and tied in a new one, then closed the mechanism again. “So... Place it’s head down on the ground, open the side…”

Meanwhile, Rahar had started wandering off again into the woods to find something big to kill. Garum looking at Rahar gleefully exiting the now city gates, he chuckles a bit in anticipation… “Hehehe… Is Rahar at it again son?... Is this what she has been doing for the last 9 months?” He sighed in amusement. “Yep… Now that she knows about the Crystals and what they can do, she seems to have lost all signs of self-preservation…” Grua sighed. “Oh boy… That doesn’t sound good… Curious question… How many times did you have to send rescue parties to recover her body?” Garum already had calculated Rahar’s behaviour before the fall, he kind of already had a picture of what it would look like if Rahar stopped caring for her safety during battle. “I sort of lost count at some point… Or… I might have stopped counting… But, about 50 or so times... Most of which she was just knocked unconscious… But 29 of the 50 she nearly died... She still goes skipping off into those woods without a care in the world though…” he answered. “Any good game that she brought back though?” Garum, being a bit hungry, as he hadn’t eaten seriously for the last 9 months, looked at his belly for just the tiniest second as he salivated at the thought of roasted, slightly scorched meats or a good stew. “Oh lots and lots… at this point, the village has hit several overstocks of meats… Given the circumstances of the drought, we have made great deals of wealth selling the excessive meat she keeps bringing back… We still have more food than what we know what to do with... Not many villages can, or are willing to hunt the megafauna in the jungles, but Rahar just doesn’t care…” He said, gesturing to the overstocked food storages and meathouses. A slight ‘gruluurrrlupp’ was heard by Grua as Garum’s stomach made a hungry noise at this, Garum turned embarrassed to Grua “That wasn’t me… he… he… haaa…..” He trailed off. “Go ahead... The Tavern is always open and bustling nowadays… They had to hire 3 more bartenders to cycle day and night shifts, and the Tavern made 20 expansions in the past 2 months already, and still are jam packed from all the travelers, refugees, and other citizens that keep popping in…” Grua said, pointing at the 5 story tall Tavern near the middle of the town square. “Don’t mind if I do Son…” At this Garum just zipped towards the tavern with his pointed tongue out in the wind. Grua was left behind, possibly even amused, and comforted that his dad was well and healthy, a bonus was his recovered youth, that way he didn’t have to worry about losing him anytime soon. Thoughts crossed his mind, ‘then… am I going to live forever as well?’ as Grua thought that, he turned towards a thoughtful Grovar who was speaking to Muh, as Grovar eyed a hungry Garum with worry in his eyes. Grua noticed how Grovar was looking with the corner of his eyes at his dad.

“So what was it that we were going to talk about?” Muh asked Grovar curiously, still somewhat dull… At least that much hadn’t changed about him. “Back in the Hut… I couldn’t help but feel a sense of emptiness in Garum’s soul… and as I was hugging Garum, you were squinting at something just as my scales were electrified with that feeling… So knowing how you like to ignore information, you need to tell me what got you squeaking… So what was it?” Grovar asked Muh, as Grua was slowly and curiously approaching them. “Oh… Right… The Crystals were acting strange… Especially the ones around Garum… Not sure why though, but it was kinda like how they acted around the Feral… But… Smaller… Way weaker…” Muh answered somewhat reluctantly. “Does that mean Garum has been corrupted by the Feral then? Or at least touched by it?” Grua asked worriedly as he approached. “I can’t know for sure just yet, my pupil. The feeling could be, and HOPEFULLY, just the Feral..” Grovar shivered a bit at the thought, then continued “But i’d rather not think at the other possibility…” He gently pointed at the book of the “forbidden tales'', which Grua had strapped in one of his tomb pouches. Grua stood, a bit shaken, as for the past few months now, after hearing his father constantly whispering that name, he had been searching for every trace of anything he could find on the realm of which could not be spoken, even committing a few treacherous acts by… ‘borrowing’... a few books, scrolls, and tombs from the High Lords and Nobles forbidden and ancient libraries, using his status and political power to get inside in the first place, and grabbing more and more restricted books as he climbed the ranks. He wanted every bit of information he could muster, and after hearing the possibility, he just stood frozen in place. “What? What is it? You asked me to spill the info out, so you should spill it too! What other possibility?” Muh questioned Grovar. Grovar turned clenching his razor sharp teeth and instantly dropped his fist on Muh’s head, but not enough to actually harm him “I should SPILL the information TOO?! Is that right…?” Grovar’s holy wrath ignited again, possibly amusing Grua too. “Well? I mean you asked first… It's only right and fair… Doesn’t that fall under the code of honor? Honor of information, page 119, chapter 52, section 15... Quote: ‘A Gior who asks for information must honor the other side with information they request in return…’ end quote… What? You think just because i'm not that bright also means I can’t read? I have been seeing the Eclipsian Assassins Guild library in my free time… To bolster my knowledge a bit…” Muh said, surprising quite the lot of listeners.
Grovar hearing this, he lifted Muh from the sand, and glared him straight in the eye.. “Look me straight in the eye you… Pathetic excuse of a Gior! Is SPILL the information the right way to ask a Mulgathian blessed holy one? People here don’t even dare speak my true name except for those whom the grace of SHIVAN blesses with such authority such as Grua, here! And I SHOULD SPILL THE INFORMATION?! I know my honour better than you ever would! I was practically BORN with those codes!” At this he turned around to calm his anger, lest he turned into his Mulgathian form and actually started a needless battle here. Then he turned towards Grua, because Muh had angered him with such disrespect and the sight of a successful pupil was relaxing even him. “I was going to answer anyway... Smart ass;” He turned his eyes at Muh who was standing at his side, then looked back at Grua sorrowfully “The Shivikathian Crystals of Solid light have been found to react violently to alien magic… usually instantly… and explode causing pure entropy to flood the atmosphere… they do not just humm and dim lightly under the presence of any form of corrup-” Grovar was suddenly interrupted by Grua. “Yes… I know... I have been doing studies myself... And… I… I took these…” Grua stammered slowly, reaching into his bag and pulling out several books and tombs, showing them to Grovar. ‘The Book of Forbidden Magics’, ‘the Tomb of Cosmic Horrors and Entities’, and ‘the Forbidden Danagharm Legends’, were among the several other dozens of books that were supposed to be in the Mechanist Guild’s ancient libraries and scripture centers, of which were never supposed to be removed from.

At this, if Grovar had his eyes made of glass, they would crack under the steam of both disappointment and previous rage caused by Muh. He turned his gaze to the sand beneath his feet. He gently kicked the sand, he took a breath in, looked at Grua with red glowing eyes, shouting “YOU DID WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTT?!?!?!” The echo of his increasingly demonic voice shattered even a few Crystal ornaments on some nearby buildings. He was about to explode. He turned around, marched forward and backward, he even knelt down to pray at the Mulgathian and Shivan and the Honorbound for revelation. Surprisingly, and to the shock even of Grua, he didn’t pursue the law of damnation, but rather… He just slammed him on his jaw with the following words: “If it weren’t for the mysteries of the will of the Mulgathian… I dare not think what I would have been commanded to do to you! Chosen one!” Grovar emphasised on those two last words, reminding him of the position and the completely incomprehensible honor and grace this particular Gior had been shown by the divinity. “I only did it to learn more about what my father kept rambling on about in his sleep... I'm still going to return them and the other 72 I have back in my…” Grua grabbed his mouth before he finished, but already knew that he had said a little too much… “Right… I guess… Then… You will spend the next few weeks in the

arenas then, burning a bit under the rage of Shivan’s realm…” He pointed starkly at the red glowing grid of metal under which there was an enormous fire. One of the most ruthless forms of punishment, and a fitting dungeon for many delinquents. The red glowing grid was hot with infernal fire coming from underneath… That wasn’t an actual dungeon, but a gateway to Shivan’s Unholy Arenas. Built to save the judge and executor the time needed to prepare and cast such a transport spell. The dungeon-like entrance already enacted this spell and as soon as someone was thrown in there, they would burn up completely upon which they would be teleported to the arena. These portals were build all around the inner and outer edges of the walls so that no army could approach the walls with ladders or any beast that was large enough to damage the wall’s integrity, but rather if they were to approach, they would be consumed by it’s fires and be immediately transported into shivan’s arenas.


Shivan’s Arena of Torments

The arena; a grand spectacle for Shivan and his Demon followers, and a grand terror for those who have fallen victim to it. Shivan uses it as a form of punishment for sinners, traitors, and the like. Both mortals and demons alike fight in the arena to appease Shivan, in hopes of providing redemption. Contestants can never die here, and instead are revived. Those sent to the arena often remain there for years, or even milenia, attempting to please Shivan and his overseers and spectators. Of course, there are easier ways out. By defeating the current champion of the arena, by claiming enough victories in a row, or by spending enough time within the arena, are several ways the accused can exit earlier than expected. But usually, those must only need to appease the spectators, and Shivan himself, to leave.

“You still need to learn the consequences of your actions my pupil!” Grovar ominously added. “Still… We are facing never-before seen or heard of changes in our world and empire… Perhaps this knowledge will serve you well in the path of ascension!” Grovar announced. “No no no no… There’s no need for that! It was just a hunger for knowledge, that's all! Isn’t that part of Shivan’s greed? Right? It has to be… It's somewhere there…” Grua desperately pleaded. “Cheer up! When you will return you will be that much more of a ruthless warrior! And Knowledge gathered without honor is still damnable, what you did was dishonorable no matter the intent and resolve. Besides; there’s such a war coming here, that by spending time pleasing your Creator can only be for the greater good!” Grovar grinned a bit sadistically as he, himself, remembered hundreds of years spent in those flames, killing and being killed, though not really, but mincing other opponents as well as he was being minced. He rather enjoyed the memories, almost wished he could go with Grua there, even if it was just to fight him… but he knew only a severe sin could send him there. “Still though! I got all the information I need! I can go send them back right now then! Can’t we make a compromise? I don’t wanna go there!” He pleaded frantically. “Have I taught you nothing about HOLY Gior honor over these last 9 months Grua?!” Grovar glared starkly into the terrified eyes of Grua “One must always assume the consequences of their actions to the Glory of Shivan… Holy scriptures… which you HAVE been reading over and over again…? Don’t make this worse than this has to be…. And maybe Muh can accompany you, since he doesn’t know how to show respect yet…” He grinned yet again as he turned his bloodthirsty eyes towards Muh. “Your knowledge will be put to use. And yes, send those books back before the punishments begin… I did tell you that should you ever cross me, you won’t be spared the righteous punishment of Shivan!” He finished with furious passion. “Even still, it was only a few books!” Grua protested. “Few DOZEN!” Muh corrected. “Sh… Shut up!” Grua shot back. “Wh… Wait… What?” Muh stammered as he turned back to Grovar. “You know what, actually I think it would be best if we did something else?” Muh said, suddenly changing ideas. “Well... technically Muh, didn’t sin… So I just wanted to see his reaction. And sadly… No… There’s no way out of this for you Grua. You have one week to prepare. Do prayers, flog yourself, prepare your soul, as the pains you will experience there… Are DELICIOUS at best…” Grovar chuckled. “HEY! That's not funny to joke around about stuff like that! But I should have known better… Still though…” Muh said as he was about to recite another book, but decided to shut himself up before he angered Grovar any more. Grua sulked back to the Tavern to meet up with his father, and to prepare himself... He looked around the cluttered tables of cups, mugs, plates, and piles of food, and found his father sitting at a table with several of his Noble friends. Garum was celebrating. He was drinking and talking and eating. He was drunk to say the least. He dizzily looked at Grua as he seemed to have a hopeless face on and pointed to him holding a mug of the finest of drinks. “There’s my champ! ‘Hick’… H.... He… He’s an elite now… What’d I tell you… Hick! Shivan is GLORIOUS!” He celebrated with his equally drunk Noble friends. “Father… Are you drunk again? Adravikth ale… And… Well… Any ale is good, but NOW?!” Grua questioned as he slid his hand down his face. “But Of-course my champ! How can I no… ‘Hick’... Wait a second… ‘HICK’!!!...” Shortly after he burped as his friends were laughing and clinging the mugs together “I spent… 9 months out… HICK!!... I will be drunk to the GLORY OF SHIVAN! HICK!” he shouted praise as his drake-like face grimaced in the most absurd of ways possible, then slammed the metal mug on the table and threw his face in it, almost snorting the ale.

Adravikth Ale is a strong, potent, and heavily alcoholic drink many Gior enjoy. As a common favorite beverage among even the lowliest Villagers and Farmers, all the way up to grand Nobles and even Primes, Adravikth Ale comes in thousands of different brands, flavors, types, and the like, almost making up over 4% of the entire Eclipsian and Drakahn economy from exporting trade, as many other nations cannot grow Adravikth fruit, let alone ferment it in the standard conditions they reside in. Adravikth plants only grow in hot, dry climates, preferably Savanna or Desert. It is nearly impossible to grow anywhere else. Due to these facts, Adravikth Ale is both a rarity, and luxury to other Gior empires and nations, and they buy exports by the boatload from the Eclipsian and sometimes Drakahn Empires. The Adravikth Bane are these reddish looking tree-sized plants which can be found all around the desert and the jungles. It is usually carnivorous but in the desert it mostly feeds from the water in the atmosphere as it sleeps for most of the time. It constantly spills a raw form of the Ale that is brewed from its body, which is far more toxic than any sort of ale, but the juice attracts all manner of bugs which are then stuck to its surface. It;s body moves the bugs upwards all the way to the mouth which is covered by the top slab part of its body. The majority of its body is used in the brewing of vast quantities of Adravikth Ale and it’s Greed brand, but for the spikes on its head. Those webby and interconnected sharp yet soft branches, are incredibly poisonous and act as protection so that bigger fauna can’t eat it lest it stabs itself in the mouth and gets intoxicated. The intoxication acts almost like drunkenness, due to having a natural form of poisonous alcohol, which forces any creature infected with the poison to fall unconscious, and if it isn’t alleviated it starts shutting down it’s primary organs which induces almost immediate death.

Desert Adravikth on the other hand is generally brown, bearing green fruit. The plant itself is useless in fermentation or consumption, but the actual fruit is not only easy to ferment, but also highly nutritious. The fruit is used as a strategy to disperse its seeds, and to attract pollinators. These fruits grow in massive colonies of up to a few hundred in each field, making their reproduction and survivability far higher, making them easier to cultivate, but harder to maintain, as larger colonies will form with an abundance of water, which can quickly make it difficult to manage fields of Desert Adravikth plants. Due to this, vast fields of Desert Adravikth are usually cultivated in Desert farms. Although much safer to harvest and cultivate than their distant Jungle cousins, a far larger number of the Desert variant is required to produce an equal amount of Adravikth Ale, or nutrition from each harvest.




Grua, seeing his father completely out of it, he took a step back “Actually… I… I’ll tell you later…” Grua sighed . “So, i'm going to grab a rescue party for Rahar… She’s going off to the Thilraxian Jungles again…” Grua announced to his father. As Grua said that, Garum, even in his drunken state, could sense the emotions of another. He wobbled as he got up and tried gently to come outside with Grua. “Wh… Hick… What is it son?...” he managed to gather his words as he focused on Grua, now standing outside in the dusk. “You're still drunk… I think it would be best if we talked about it later…” Grua answered. “Fair point… Then I’mma go to sleep and tomorrow we talk… HICK!” as he said that, he burped loudly and immediately fell face flat onto the dirty sand and started snoring too. Grua sighed, grabbed his bag, and headed back out to grab a party of folks to go grab Rahar. Grua grabbed a few soldiers, then went to go find Muh, of whom was sitting in a public park. “Hey, Muh! We're going to grab Rahar… You coming?” Grua called out to him. “Oh… Uh… Sure… Have you seen Zorex anywhere?” Muh asked. “No, not lately…” Grua replied. “So… One has got to wake up from a near-death experience, to find that people are preparing weapons and armor to go somewhere... I’ve been spending some time praying at the local temple… What’s up?” Zorex appeared from behind the group as he overheard the shout of Grovar, earlier in the evening. “I heard The Holy One shout a while ago… Did I miss a fight? Orrr….” Zorex asked as he surveyed the group, and looked at a slightly sullen Grua, who previously in the day was all too cheerful to have his dad back. “Oh… I might have committed a few sins now and may be going to Shivan’s arenas in a while… Just a typical day with Grovar… Right?” Grua sighed. “... I mean… I should have expected something different from you now that you are an elite, but it kinda was expected of you Grua… You did spend all of your early life developing such defiant behaviours…” Zorex seemed rather changed. He no longer found interest in bullying, it could be now that Grua could easily punch him bloody if he so wished, but he realised… Finally… There are far greater battles to fight which are glooming over the horizon than satisfying his greed with such a small and potentially dishonoring course of action. Grua was expecting an insult, or at least a laugh from Zorex, but he was surprised to hear none of that from him, which was a first. “Well… That's kind of new... Well, we are going to get Rahar… She wandered off into the Thilraxian Jungles again…” Grua replied, a bit surprised. “Let me get my armour, and we can talk once we are outside the city. There might be a way out for you yet… Ask Muh… As he seems far fairer than I used to know him…” Zorex looked at Muh with slight appreciation, he knew the Assassins guild quite well, and if he was wearing their insignia, it only means he must have accessed the books of the law. He did not hear, though , how Muh actually challenged Grovar’s authority. But none of that matters. At first, Muh didn’t notice, and was busy watching the birds around the central statue of the park, but after a long period of silence, he finally turned to the others. “Huh? What? Me? Oh… Uh… Ahem…” He cleared his throat. “The Challenge of Accusation… Tomb of law, page 599, chapter 92, section 31, quote: “One accused of sin, crime, or otherwise may challenge the accuser in a duel. Weapons, spells, and the like are forbidden, and cheating of any kind will result in immediate disqualification. The winning side will have actions taken in their favor of their side. If the accuser wins, the punishment or otherwise may be resumed, or even be put into place immediately if so desired, and at the accuser's acquisition, can even be intensified or extended. If the accused wins, they may be cleared of their sentence… Depending on the severity, if possible, it may be reduced, or actions can be taken to redeem themselves to avoid punishment. End quote.” Muh said in an authoritarian manner.

Zorex nodded with approval as he smiled with hope at Grua… What had happened to Zorex? He was caring for Grua all of the sudden?... Since when? Has his near death experience shown him a revelation which frightened him in repentance? “Wow… I forgot that law even existed… Thanks Muh; thank you Zorex... It's still going to be tough to beat Grovar, but I think this can work…” Grua said to both of them gratefully. Zorex turned the other way to go get his equipment. A bag of minor regeneration potions, some arrows for a short bow, which he also collected. His classic steel armor; though something was changed, his armor had tiny spheres of the white glowing crystal and a strange sigil, a void shielding sigil. He took it curiously and walked back to grua “Dude… did you experimented with enchantments on my chestplate?” Grua looked excited as he inquired of Grua. “Huh… Oh… I did that with everyones actually… Messing around with stuff and seeing what works and what doesn’t… The feral get warded and disorientated by the armor the soldiers wear… I even started implementing this into the swords, shields, and even the bolts of the Boltcannons, and my latest Boltcaster too.” Grua explained. “Huh… Does look imposing, mind you… Is this a void shielding rune? Wow…” Zorex said as he put his armor on. The large gates of Tahek’s massive stone walls churned and creaked as they were being pulled up. And the group of soldiers with the trio of Muh, Grua and Zorex started heading out. Looking to their sides, they saw the ever frightening sights of the arena doorways, everburning and almost melting the grid that was covering them. “So… Arena fires as traps… Who came up with this idea?” Zorex tried to find out more as he immediately spotted the huge stomp marks of Rahar. “Well… I suggested it actually… But it was Grovar who made them…” Grua explained. “In fact, the wall design is also mine... Although those I didn’t actually build myself…” He said. As they were now a few feet away from the walls Zorex immediately pointed at the trail “Look… there’s where she has gone to!... Uh… Oh… No… if i’m not mistaken there’s a Morgath nest in that direction… What has she been doing all this time?!?!” Zorex shivered at the thought of the future foes. “Uh... Not just any Morgath…” Muh said slowly, pointing at the massive chunks missing from the trunks of the megaflora trees, and giant claw marks slashed into them. “It's a Morgathian Treebreaker…” He finished, a bit shaken. Morgathian Treebreakers, or any Morgathian for that matter, are hardly dealt with, as many refuse to do so, and this Morgathain nest was dangerously close to the Tahek border.

Morgathain Treebreakers are one of the largest of the Morgathian Species, able to bite the trunks of megaflora trees in half. They bite into and scratch the trunks of many kinds of trees around their territory to mark it, and to ensure that other animals around the area get the idea of how large it is, and how deadly it can be. They are heavily territorial however, and will not often seek out conflict; only ever leaving to go hunting, or to chase down or ward off intruders. Morgathian Treebreakers are widely known, and feared, as giant behemoths of destruction. This one in particular, had been nicknamed by the locals: “Breskkahn”, which translates to “Forest Terror”.

“Question… Ehem… Is th… That... Breskkahn? From our childhood nightmares? And forgive me for bringing up this memory… But you actually saw it when I hung you from that tree back then, Grua… And… I wish I hadn't been honest… The classmates… Nevermind…” Zorex trailed off as he realized he brought up a particularly unpleasant memory of Grua. “I wish you didn’t bring that back up… But it's alright… I was a coward, but that time, I had a right to be afraid at the time... But if i die here, at least I won't have to fight Grovar for my freedom…” Grua nervously chuckled. “Yeah… It’s… That's Breskkahn… The Forest Terror... She has gotten bigger, the hunters have said... Three times bigger, actually… From last they saw her…” Muh stuttered slowly. “Ok… So where to, guys?” A soldier asked from behind Zorex. “Don’t you think we are a TIIIINY bit under prepared?” Zorex asked as they marched forward, shaken. “And… What have you discovered of these Crystals… If they brought me back to life…” He trailed off at the thought of them having a similar impact on creatures. “Well… Um… The scouts found the skeletal remains of a Drakahn Harbinger Dragon from there recently... She ate it… It is likely that the Crystals gave her the strength to do something like that…” Muh explained. “What now?!” Zorex dropped his jaw and opened his eyes in the most comic of ways possible for a reptilian creature, as he responded shocked at the earlier statement. “Oh boy… We are probably going to die…” Grua sighed. “At least we die protecting the village from this terror! And… Also for Rahar’s stupidity…” Grua exclaimed. “Just what in the Mulgathian’s name was Rahar THINKING!?... Oh wait… She… She doesn’t usually think… Nevermind… “ Zorex chuckled, distraught and desperate at the same time.

 

[Nate1008]

The Gior - Tiraxius Prime - The Thilraxian Jungles - 6493 E

The rag tag band of rescuers, were gently making their ways through the broken colossal trees and huge vines torn to shreds. Left and right, craters… Wait… Footsteps… The team was shaken. Immediately Zorex smelled something. It was Gior blood. Recent. Smelled like the hormones of a strong female from the blood. A lot of blood. “Guys… have we thought of the possibility that Rahar might have been eaten this time?” Zorex stuttered as he made yet another terrifying comment. “Shivan… Please let her be safe...” Grua pleaded softly. “This isn’t good... Hurry up! Find her!” Muh shouted, breaking into a sprint. Grua and the others followed suit. Suddenly, as they ran deeper into the jungle, there was an odd mist covering everything, as this was a still surviving marsh area. And the liquid was boiling due to the scorching temperatures as the desert was expanding. It was really hard to see now… “Guys… Muh?... Grua?...” Zorex groped around trying to reach his companions as no one could easily see due to the mist. “I'm right here Zorex! Where are you?” Grua called out, he too realized that they had become separated. “Yeah… I'm still he-... Guys? Do you hear that?” Muh asked. The faint sounds of clattering metal and shouts of fighting rage began to sound nearby. BROOOMMM… BROOOMMM… The ground was shaking, as seemingly colossal taloned feet were stomping nearby. Suddenly, “GRRRRRAAAARRRRRRGGGHHH!!!” An almost unbearable screech was heard echoing from all directions. “... M… M… Mommy... “ Zorex stood, absolutely shaken and terrified as he turned around to see a huge shadow covering the already blotted out light Shivan’s Eye emanating through this thick mist. “AAAAAHHAHAHAAHAAAAA!” He was heard running as he slammed himself against Grua and Muh, who were about to collide with each other back to back. “HAHA! YOU MAKE GOOD FIGHT!... Huff… Huff... COME BACK! RAHAR IS NOT DONE YET!” Rahar shouted from the mist, with slight bits of gurgles and heavy panting breaking through her voice.

“I guess we found her… She’s… Alive… Yaaay….” Zorex dizzily lifted his head from between Grua and Muh as he just slammed into them. The soldiers accompanying them were nowhere to be seen; this was not good. Rahar charged forward, running up Breskkahn’s tail and back, and began furiously hitting it with her fists. The beating, although looked powerful, didn’t seem to do much to the beast. Breskkahn turned towards Rahar, as best as the quadrupedal creature could at least, then started snapping its mouth at her, trying to grab her and pull Rahar off. Breskkahn finally grabbed hold of Rahar with her massive jaw, locking Rahar’s chest and lower-body in, while her arms, one of her legs, her tail, and her head were still sticking out. “Not… Fair…” Rahar grunted. “You STUPID GIOR!” Zorex shouted desperately before attacking and as he got his swords ready, he added. “THE CRYSTALS CAN’T HEAL WHAT IS DIGESTED!!!” He finished shouting. Due to his poor state of mind, having only a few hours ago woken from his coma, and the fact that he was fighting a childhood nightmare, he wasn’t well focused. He charged with his swords crossed with the blades outwards, but stumbled over another smaller crystal and simply slid down the scales of the beast, merely scratching them with his blades causing sparks to fly in all directions as if a flint would hit a piece of steel. The squad of soldiers made a charge, moving in with spears and swords, but the mere appearance of the beast frightened them, the whole squad of 10 retreating back with Muh and Grua. Grua kneeled down as the soldiers were fleeing, taking the direction they were running from into account, and prepping his weapon. He held his Boltcannon up, steadied, and flicked a small knob on the side of it, then fired. The bolt was fired at blazing speed, smashing into the beast's neck before shortly exploding in a blast of flame and ash. The beast roared loudly, staggered, it stumbled back and let Rahar out of its maw. “Hah… Hit it…” Grua whispered to himself confidently.

Zorex, resting in the mud next to a bloodied Rahar, got into his pouch and grabbed a necklace of these crystals which he collected from the healing houses. Basic emergency healing supplies recently crafted by the healers. He approached Rahar and helped her to put it around her neck. “Why do you not take precautions at least when you go into battle?” Zorex sighed as he clicked the necklace into place then ducked immediately. “Rahar… Fights… With honor!” She shouted, holding onto her torn open chest as she slowly started to stand back up again. Muh started a charge, running for the beast with both his axes drawn, but the beast seemed to notice him, which is ironic for a member of the Assassins guild, and he was quickly swatted away like a fly by the beast's massive tail. Rahar stood up fully, looked up to the sky, and made a thunderous shout. A mixture of rage and power flowed into her as she casted a rage spell. She leaped up towards Breskkahn, climbing up her scaled body and back onto her back, and made a thunderous strike down on Breskkahns back, bones audibly cracked and broke as her mighty swing was brought down upon the beast. Breskkahn staggered, nearly falling to the ground, but regained her footing again. As a result of the immense pain she felt from Rahar’s beating, Breskkahn got up from the swamp and looked down on the terrified group of soldiers that were still trying to reach Grua and Muh. OOORRGGGGHHHHH… GRRAAAAAAAARAAA!!!!” She first gurgled loudly as she breathed in a massive amount of air then shouted so loud the very ground shook and some slightly damaged trees fell as a result. The fear of the soldiers and the shaking of the ground made seven of them fall in the muddy sand while the others wobbled but still, filled with adrenaline zapped towards Grua even faster. Breskkahn stomped one step forward then lifted half up on the two back legs and slammed all of her weight on those seven soldiers that were face down in the mud. “GRUAAAAAA MASTE….” A soldier shouted desperately shortly after, yellow blood splashed all around with intestines and shards of bone in all directions, filling both Zorex, Grua and Muh and the remaining soldiers with minced Gior entrails. Zorex, sunk his eyes with dread at the sight and looked at Grua to see his reaction at the shouts the soldiers did to him. Grua stood blank, his expression both held fear and hatred towards Breskkahn. He furiously finished loading up his weapon, and prepared to fire again. Zorex seeing Grua preparing his attack, he shook himself quickly, nodded with adrenaline infused motivation, grabbed his two blades, jumped up almost running towards Breskkahn’s head and slashed, shouting frantically as his blades just sunk in the flesh between the scales of Breskkahn’s neck. He let his full weight drag him down as he cut through a portion of the massive neck making the thing bleed a greenish ichor like goo. “TO THE GLORY OF SHIVAN!” He shouted as he descended from the beast, ducking almost immediately on the side. The remaining three soldiers looked at Muh, scared to see his face covered in yellow Gior blood and entrails just like they had their whole body covered too. Upon realizing that he is still as a statue, they clenched the weapons in their hands and tried to run towards the beast that had just minced their friends. One of them threw his spear, but it hit one of the steel solid scales. The other stumbled on a root and fell face down in the dirt, filling his face with another chunk of meat from the soldiers. The last one simply ran the other direction losing himself entirely due to panic.

Muh stood speechless, clenching both battleaxes in his hands, looking at the situation, and the dire circumstances. He dropped both his weapons, staring off into the mist. Both his fear, and his worry painted his expression. He turned to look at the 7 fallen soldiers corpses, and gently wiped his face, then started staring down at his blood-stained hands. “Muh! Take a step back into reality here!” Grua shouted at him. Grua focused, clutching his weapon carefully, took a deep breath, and fired the Boltcannon. The bolt whisked through the air at high speed, taking great precision, and finding its mark deep in Breskkahns lower underbelly, taking yet another blast to her titanic body. Muh suddenly snapped back into focus and disappeared into the fog. Moments later, he suddenly reappeared on Breskkahns lower neck somehow, and slashed across the beast’s neck, leaving a massive open wound, a massive amount of viscous green blood pouring out of the wound. Rahar made another thunderous shout, clawed down onto the beast, and bit down onto its scaled hide, and savagely tore off a chunk of its flesh. As Breskkahn was being pummeled from all directions, wobbling her head from one side to another, for a second she dropped in the mud, acting dead. Such a strange action… But she was far from it. Immediately she yanked herself up again and a massive roar shook the very bones of the remaining Gior around. Adrenaline was so high, time seemed to slow down for a bit. The silence was terrifying as everyone could only hear their own breaths and heartbeats. Bum-dum… Bum-dum...Bum-dum… the heart beats were loud in Muh’s ears as he was breathing with his mouth. Maybe his mind failed him, or everyone’s ears could not hear, because the next instant a spilling sound was echoing everywhere as a piece of Muh’s torso flew towards Grua, a hand towards Zorex, his face slammed into Rahar’s! Yellow blood everywhere… entrails… pieces of bone. Muh was no more… wait what? Muh? How can this be? “NOOOOOOOOooo …. No… N… Muh…” Zorex frantically screamed, his voice was hollow, almost as if his soul was harrowed due to the shock; they were friends in childhood despite Zorex’s bullying tendencies and the thought of him being but chunks of meat, still didn’t quite click in anyone’s mind. Too much adrenaline, even though the reaction was appropriate, the realization didn’t follow it deep enough. Rahar, seeing her friend bitten into pieces, broke down into a fit of murderous rage. Hatred, a feeling of loss, and the burning desire of revenge flooded into her. She filtered all the energy of hate, rage, and sadness into a pristine spectacle of a roar, one would say was near equivalent to that of a dragon. Letting out her anger, she bit down once more, digging her maw deep into the creature's hide, letting out punches and thrusts with her fists into the wound she had made, and began clawing and tearing at the wound. Zorex, hearing Rahar shouting her being out in a roar seeming like a true dragon, felt inspired. His thoughts were all over the place, and finally… ‘He’s dead… He… He’s all over the place!... That buffoon!...’ Zorex thought to himself as the full realization of what had just happened finally hit him where it mattered most. If a soldier was to look close enough, it seemed as though steam came out of Zorex’s nostrils. Suddenly… swish!... a silent sound almost as that cutting the air was heard, as a slab of Breskkahn’s flesh slumped on the ground revealing raw muscle and green viscous blood spilling and squirting in all directions. Who would have thought that his old blades could cut through such thick scaly skin, especially considering that the scales were almost like metal in toughness. Breskkahn had just lost a leg, or not entirely, but she definitely could not step on that exposed bloody hunk of flesh. A screech made all flying creatures nearby take off from amid the jungle. If there was any mercy, from any being, one could think a mindless beast was pleading for it, because let’s face it, it WAS just an animal, everything she did was instinct based and no real malice. But in the end, the law of the jungle still had to apply and there was no such feeling anywhere. Breskkahn turned around gently and wobbly as she yanked the top of her head through the head of Zorex splitting him in 5 different slices of his body. Yet another, Gior, brutally murdered by Tiraxius’s relentless fauna. No one could claim this was a special sight, as if this did not happen here, it most certainly happened plenty of times elsewhere. And every single Gior soldier who died had a story to share. Similar to Muh and Zorex. But such is the law in this realm that death is a brutal norm which visits even the most unexpected of Gior. The soldiers were nowhere to be seen, yet again… Have they even been trained at all? Surely they must have been worth something, but this was too much for them. They seem to have run off leaving Grua and Rahar alone. With a furiously injured Morgathain Treebreaker female who had been enhanced in size and strength by these crystals which, only just before this incident, were showing to be a blessing for Gior… It turns out that they are also a curse, because their power is unbiased, and is enhancing anything that is alive, be it plant or animal or insect.

Grua took another deep breath, still both stunned, shocked, and terrified, yet somehow managed to land yet another shot, the next bolt just barely managing to skim into Breskkahn’s exposed muscle from the injured leg making the beast scream yet again. Rahar, with her rage somewhat cooled, leaped off the beast, grabbed whatever was left of Zorex. “Grua! Get Muh! Rahar and Grua need to go!” Rahar shouted at Grua. “Rih… Right... Yeah we should go... Find the other soldiers!” Grua answered as he grabbed what he could of Muh.

As Grua said that, Breskkahn began charging towards them desperately and furiously, seemingly about to claim her prize… But suddenly… ZAP! ZWIKK! ZABAW!. Three blasts of some sort of energy propelled projectile entered the beast’s head making it explode as if it was a piece of popcorn. It was even burned up, as yellow electric waves were flowing down from where this was happening. Behind the beast there was this towering bug-like creature covered in chitin. It could easily be 3 times the size of Grovar himself who was twice the volume of Rahar. “Harkk-Xarikkhark!” It shouted in an insect-like sounding voice. As it did that it flung towards Grua what looked like a yellow glowing potion. It was waving and gesturing it’s hands pointing to Grua to open the bottle and pour some of the fluid onto the corpse chunks of Zorex, Muh and 3 of the relatively more whole bodies of the 7 dead soldiers.
As Grua grabbed the bottle, it was massive, if he wouldn’t have used both of his hands it would have slammed into him. Almost a 5th of his total volume. Clearly made for much larger hands. The feeling emanated from this bottle was that of pure greed. What was this fluid? And even more what was that bipedal insectoid with so much greed energy emanating from his four eyes and whatever the trinket that it was holding was? As Grua moved to pick up the strange bottle, he couldn’t stop staring at it. It felt natural; almost instinctual... He suddenly started caring for the bottle more than his friends, almost entirely forgetting about them. The only thing that mattered to him at this moment was his possession of this bottle... Sound began to drown out around him, he could only hear the faint buzzing of the jungle insects, the light sloshing of the liquid within the bottle, and the clinking sounds of tapping glass as his claws lightly skimmed across the bottle. It somehow reminded him of his favorite stew his father made when he was young, and the times he would tap on his desk while he would write his papers. But as he refocused on the corpses of his friends and fallen brethren, he shook off the strange feeling. Without thinking, he smashed the bottle onto the remains of Zorex and Muh. As the top of the bottle was smashed, making some massive drops of this gooey yellow glowing liquid to drop onto the gathered pieces of Zorex and Muh and a couple of soldiers, the liquid immediately began evaporating. As it did that, it created what looked like a black smoke. A feeling of death came forth from the smoke, almost as if the essence of the liquid was ‘stealing’ life back from death. The liquid, which apparently seemed to be made out of the greed from the aura node, was just… How could one put it?... ‘too greedy to let death take its course’. The very sense and power of this primal force of greed was not allowing nature to work it’s laws, and death was robbed of this opportunity, as the bodies began to sew themselves together with strings of yellow glowing liquid dragging the body pieces together. Immediately, after the bodies were put together and seemingly regenerated to their full, the mouths of Zorex and Muh opened as a yellow glowing mist seemed to force itself down their throats and revived them seemingly instantly. Their very souls were forced back into their bodies, by the sheer greed for life that this potion seems to produce.

Muh looked around, confused, as he had just moments before been at the Honorbound Gates, but was now back in the realm of the living. “Wh... But… Huh? Why?...” Muh wondered, pacing around. “MUH!” Grua shouted, running over to hug him. Zorex was confused, and like Muh, was paying his respects to a white and yellow shining honorbound, as the dread fury and greed were filling Zorex’s soul with fulfillment, he was in that mud again… “By Shivan… I was saved from my damnation… I was about to enter our Father’s Graces!... WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING HERE?!” He shouted with frustration… he seemingly wanted to be more in the presence of the Honorbound and Shivan than alive on Tiraxius. “Oh… ok… so Muh died too I presume… so… Am i going to get a hug…? Hehe…” He laughed gently as he slapped his hands onto the mud. Not that he figured out what had just taken place. He looked a bit at the massive bottle which had it’s top smashed and an attractive yellow fluid seems to wave back and forth in there but thankfully he only looked at it for just a second, as he turned back at Grua and the two soldiers that were also resurrected. “Huh… where… Master Grua?” The soldiers asked “Oh… master grua gets the attention… i guess i really was a jerk then... “ Zorex commented with confusion. “So… how much time have I spent away this time? Was it a full year now?” He said as he wasn’t quite realizing yet he’s still in the swamp where Breskkahn had just been slain.

“It hasn’t even been 10 minuets… Also that-” Grua stopped as he turned back to face the mysterious bug-person… Or… Where the bug-person had just been. “Uh…” Grua looked around frantically. “He was just…” Grua looked back at Breskahn’s corpse. “There was a bug man… Thing... It killed Breskahn and gave me a bottle… The stuff fixed both of you…” Grua tried to explain. But explaining this was like trying to prove aliens were real without much hard evidence. “Rahar saw it too... Bug man fixed you…” Rahar said as she ate a chunk of Breskahn’s flesh, stepping away from the beast's corpse. She had chunks and bits of its obliterated head all over her. “Huh… so… “ Zorex quickly trailed off… He was a bit overwhelmed. Just earlier in the day, he returned from a 9 month long coma, after a dire battle with the feral, and on that same day, the very crystals that saved him simply popped into existence. “... I give up… This is too much for me… I feel like we are in one of those table-top games we used to play when we were little, where we get multiple lives and shit… This is a joke… Life is a joke…” Zorex seemed to freak out a bit as he could barely fathom what had just happened. He began to go towards Breskahnn’s corpse and tried to tie it up together with whatever string he managed to gather from his supplies as he was grunting to himself seemingly out of control and even laughing desperately… “Well… Uh… At least you aren’t dead yet?” Grua tried. “Rahar agrees... Muh and Zorex are close to Rahar…” Rahar added. “I understand how you feel though, Zorex… I was moments from joining the Mulgathian... However… You, Rahar, Grua, Grovar, and Garum are all very close to me… They are more than friends; family, almost… As much as it is an honor to join Shivan and his glorious conquest, I cannot leave my friends and family behind… I will and would take every and any chance I get to stay with them.” Muh explained. “Sir… Master Grua… What are we going to do with that thing? It is really hard to look at it without wanting to drink the rest of it…” A soldier approached Grua. Zorex was still trying to pack the corpse of Breskahnn alone as he slowed down to look at Muh with a gentle smile “You are right Muh… Look at me… What am I doing? I sound like a heretic now. This ought to be everything I would have ever wanted and aspired to see in my journey with Father Shivan… Proof of his reality defying power. I need to calm down… So… can anyone help me prepare the body of this bane of our people?” Zorex responded as he leaned from a knotted string.

“Ah yes… Oh… And what's left of the bottle? Uh... Gather it up… We should bring it to Eclipsis... She might be able to find a place for it somewhere... Or a use for it perhaps…” Grua said as he came to join Zorex, starting to cut parts of meat to package with his hunting knife.
“Uh… oh… wait… Grua… you still have to fight Grovar, we almost forgot this. By Shivan’s Glory!” Zorex stopped a bit as he remembered the impending issue Grua has gotten himself into. “Right… Yeah… I remember…” Grua groaned. “Lets not think about that yet…” Muh said. “Oh… Also… The challenger needs to publicly announce the challenge in a forewarned notice… Allow both parties time to prepare and, of course, know of the challenge... So when we get back, you need to announce the challenge to Grovar…” Muh explained. “Great... Well, honor is kind of difficult to loop around… And it sounds fair…” Grua said. “Ok… fellas… let’s get back to Tahek then… Guys… We need to come back with a greater party of people to collect the corpse of Breskahnn. I’m going to throw some preservation essence so that it doesn't begin to rot. Grua did you learn any magic to ward off predators for when someone comes to collect the food?” Zorex asked as they began to walk towards the fortified village. “Well… Not magic per say… But tech... Of a sort… Special chemical components and a spraying system of sorts that keeps most creatures away from the area… But it doesn’t work against all of them, but it still works… But I didn’t bring my prototype. I will need to give it to the harvesting party that comes over here…” Grua replied. “Sure… Uh… Just how full is this part of the jungle with scavengers?” Zorex signaled as he was a bit frustrated that they were running the risk of letting this trophy be consumed by mere critters…

“Scavengers? HA! There are more than those around here buddy… Tiraxian Rampagers... Herds of Kroxodon Stampeders... Packs of Loxodon Ravagers… There are a lot of huge things here… Why do you think it's called a Megafauna Jungle? This Jungle in particular has been nicknamed ‘The hunters demise’ for a reason!” Grua laughed. “My point exactly… pfft…. Nevermind. I guess we’ll have to do with the mead we managed to gather…” Zorex chuckled at the missed opportunity as he was joyful to the prospects of a glorious adventure he never even dreamed of. “Actually… Uh…” A soldier raised his finger behind them. “My father was a sorcerer in the army… and he taught me a few tricks…” Gulvan’Jock pointed, attracting the attention of everyone. “Well, go ahead then…” Grua waved. “Yes… Uh.. Right away sir…” He stuttered as he turned around, bowed down in a prayerful position seemingly beginning to shine a strange red aura. He got up and reached into his pouch, grabbed a piece of the poisonous spike of the Adravikth Bane plant, a dried piece which sometimes can be used by various mages and sorcerers or even shamans for various harmful magics. He started to draw a few spiral sigils in mid air as they began to glow with that same reddish glow, and the spike of the Adravikh bane disintegrated covering the corpse in what looked like a massive and incandescent flame from the very realm of Shivan, but this fire did not seem to consume to corpse but rather keep it safe from anything else that was alive around. Even the plants and grass on which the body was resting, seemed to be burning off and those around were being poisoned and began to wither away almost as if the toxins of this spike were infecting even the plants. What were some minor insects and creatures simply died off almost as if they were intoxicated by the very poison of the Adravikth Bane trunk when they would be naturally stuck to its surface. This was one of the more common spells based on this ale-producing plant. “There we go… This is a poisonous repellant fire… It should last for a few hours before going off... It should probably be enough time for the harvester team to come collect the corpse… Just remember to tell them to make a prayer to Shivan as a password… It is the common prayer we make every morning… Or else… Well… Poison and all…” Gulvan’Jock added after turning towards the party and continuing the walk. “Fine work... I still don’t find much passion in magic, but it's safe to say I am impressed… I myself might want to pick up a book or two on magics now... Anyhow… Let's head back before it gets dark... There are worse things than even Breskahn at night here…” Grua said.
“Well… Pfft… I could have done that…” Zorex shrugged with both jealousy and awe. Well actually I have to begin reading about some magic myself come to think about it Zorex thought to himself seeing this display of power.


The Gior - Tiraxius Prime - Tahek, Agricultural Village of the Eclipsimundi Empire - 6493 E

Almost half an hour passes and the group, carrying chunks of meat from the slain beast, are now at the gates of the city. “Uh… Your dad is still drunk in the sand at the front of the tavern since last I saw him…” Zorex announced before asking for the gate to be opened. “Wait… Sorry… I thought I heard all the ruckus earlier… Is the teacher back among us?” Gulvan’Jock joyfully and seemingly absent-minded asked. “Ah... Yes, my father is probably still drunk… He had a few Greed Brands… Probably has to sleep it off…” Grua answered. “I will go check up on any news we missed while we were gone... You guys try to find Garum and Grovar in the meantime… Catch them up on what they missed.” Muh said.
“So… Gulvan… What’s with this master thing at Grua? Can you bring me up to date?” Zorex curiously grabbed Gulvan who used to be a soldier under his command. “Right… Yes… Uh… So he has grown in rank quite a lot since you were away, you know that by now… As for why I call him master; because I began learning from him. Like most of the village… His inventions turn out to be serving us quite well in our warfare endeavors…” Gulvan passionately and innocently explained. “Right… Heh… At ease soldier. I’m… i’m going to drink my sorrows away now….” Zorex dropped a bit as he walked seemingly depressed towards the tavern. “Ah, don’t be like that Zorex… Your men are still here and well! There are still some folks around here who still see you as a hero and whatnot… You still got fame and glory…” Grua tried to cheer him up. “Thanks dude… I’ll try to focus on that… Though I did die twice already, and… I don’t know if this is easy to digest. I was an arduous believer, or so I thought… Now I actually saw the Honorbound and experienced the true power of our Almighty Father and I feel like dirt… may have been relying too much on my own understanding of the world or something… I need that greed brand your dad got…” He chuckled as he continued towards the tavern. “So… Zorex is a sage now? Am I hearing things?” Gulvan scratched his head with confusion as he heard his original captain speak completely unlike what he used to. “I… Uh… Yeah… I guess so now…” Grua said. Out of nowhere, a soldier came rushing over to the group. “Grua! Muh! Rahar! Oh… Zorex… You're awake… Excellent… We have a problem…” The soldier said. “Well… What is it?” Grua asked. “Right… Right… Well... Krethkan, a nearby major settlement… It's gone mad…” The soldier explained. “Gone mad? In what way?” Grua replied. “Mad mad… Not angry mad I mean… It… The people won’t stop fighting and killing each other… It's not open rebellion, we know that... But it’s madness down there…” The soldier shivered. Upon hearing this, Zorex stopped himself on the way to the Tavern and sighed while shaking his head in disapproval “Oof… Can a Gior never have one moment’s rest?” He asked, irritated. Back at the tavern, Garum… Well… Snoring the sand up his nostrils and coughing it back out, if he was needed, surely nobody was bothering to help him out of his drunkenness. The local shrine of Shivan, was seeing an arduously faithful Grovar’Nusk, whipping himself and worshipping, his passion was so strong, he was literally burning with infernal flames from Shivan’s realms. His was a show that would inspire many Gior to join him in worship, and the shrine was surrounded by prostrated Gior. “Ugh.. Oh.. Right… I mean… I need to get into position… ORDERS SIR!?” Gulvan saluted as he straightened up back into his soldier stance as he inquired Grua for orders… To Zorex’s dismay… “Hm? Oh… We should move out soon and see what we can do about Krethakan... We should find out what is going on first before we do anything though… If anything, it could be the Feral…” Grua paused for a while. “Is something wrong?” Muh asked. “It's just… I'm not sure why, but I don’t feel like it's the Feral…” Grua replied finally. “We should focus on gathering everyone before we worry about what it is though… Come on now, let's get Garum…” Muh suggested. “Rahar thinks so too…” Rahar added. At the shrine, Grovar lifted his hand up to pause the worship as he began sniffing the atmosphere. Something like this doesn’t usually happen, as worshiping Shivan takes precedence above any other activity, so for whatever reason he could have had, it must have been a serious situation. He heard the chatter but mostly he sensed that Krethakan, a city he used to know a particularly attractive female a few decades ago, was experiencing a sense of heightened greed. Normally he would praise Shivan for any form of the only power any Gior knew to be the foundation of their reality, but he knew this was unusual and needed balancing. “Get up fellow Gior… There is imbalance spreading in Krethakan…” He said as the flames with which he was burning were put out, and he began stomping towards the group where Grua was ordering and planning the future action.

Back to Garum… Snorrrrr…. Snorrrrr… I mean… there’s so much a Gior can experience when drunk but this was such an unfortunate time for the old geezer to be in this blissful state… “Father… Father! Get up! UP!” Grua shouted. “Gurgle… Slurp… Wha?... Is it time to go to school mom?...” Garum wobbled his head as he opened one eye to look at his son, while collecting his drool filled with sand. He was clearly dreaming of early childhood for some weird reason. “Father… It's me... Get up! We gotta go... There is something wrong with Krethakan… Your old friend Jaruk is still there!” Grua said. Garum’s foggy sight could barely see anything, he wasn’t sure the voice he heard was that of his mom or Grua, he didn’t even know how many people were standing next to him. “Slurp… hick… !!!... Wha? Why do I have to go on a trip to Krethakan, mom!? I don’t like school trips… Hick… gurgle… burp!” As he said that he slapped Grua on his face almost like a child trying to wave his hands in refusal as he slammed back down in the mud. “Why are you like this?” Grua moaned as he headed back to the group. “Welp… Garum isn’t coming…” Grua said. “Let Rahar try…” Rahar offered, nudging Grua out of the way. “Garum? Rahar, Zorex, Grua, and Muh need you… Get up!” Rahar said to Garum. Garum lay still, gurgling in the mud. “GARUM! GET UP! RAHAR IS GETTING MAD!” She shouted in his ear. “AAAAAH!” Garum jumped out of the mud in shock “The Malvarian Shockbread is soft and crunchy!!!!” Garum almost gurgled those words as he shouted in shock and woke up fully, though still drunk. He was now fully aware of the group of people just staring down at him almost amused. “Owch! Who threw a stone at my head…? it feels like my skull has cracked...!” Garum said as he was rubbing his intense migraine from the alcohol. “You're hammered… Dad... Come on… Get up… Krethakan needs our help…” Grua said as he helped his father up. “Lemme help with that…” Muh said as he pulled out a small vial from his bag, then offered it to Garum. He looked at Muh, still not quite fully believing it was Muh he was seeing, after all, only just early in the day he woke up after 9 months of absence and the last Muh he knew was a totally different person. “Huh?... Ah… Wait… Muh? What in Shivan’s name has blessed you? You look… Good…!” He admired as he took the vial while still rubbing his head.
At first, nothing noticeable happened. Then, Muh stepped back as he looked at the Vial clearly. “OH… Right… Heh… Whoops… Wrong one… Uh… Get ready for a lot of ouch… Heh…” Muh said worriedly. “Wait what?” Grua asked. “I forgot that this one was Baluvian Pacifier… Heh… Sorry…” Muh said slowly.

Baluvian Pacifier, a powerful, and painful potion brew. Commonly used in interrogation and torture processes, the Baluvian Pacifier amplifies the nervous stimuli of those who ingest it by nearly ten times. This in turn makes them extremely vulnerable and prone to pain and harm. However, Baluvian Pacifier, for some unknown reason, also seems to counter and negate the effects of many minor poisons, minor and major toxins, and, also alcohol, and other drugs and narcotics. Generally not recommended for medical or treatment use, but can still be used as such if absolutely necessary…

“WHAT?!” Grua shouted. “Heh… My bad…” Muh tried weakly. Garum was half-way finished with the vial as he heard those words… He knew full well of this particular drugged potion. After all he, himself, used it in the past for torturing enemies and extracting information from rival empires. He spat a bit back into the bottle, but it was too late, as most of the content was already ingested. He glared at Muh as he took the vial from his mouth. “By SHIVAN’S GLOWING SCALES!!!!” He shouted as he got up… “So you changed in looks, but where it matters most: are you still MUH?!” He expressed with a belittling demeanor as he was expecting unnecessary hell. “What? I'm sorry! I didn’t read the label properly! I just took one from my ‘medicinal value’ section of my bag!” Muh protested. Gulvan, seeing this, slapped his own face in a bit of deflation from the admiration he previously was showing. “... I mean… How do you end up putting poison in the medicinal pouch anyway?...” He chuckled. The effects were starting to kick in now, as Garum’s headache began to escalate into a Migraine. “Yeah it's kicking in now… I remember the time tables…” Muh said weakly. Garum, as he usually did during pain, sat down and began to pray Shivan for the pain because it only gave him more strength. This was another quality for which he was highly praised in the town and nearby towns. He showed his endurance like a true leader. “I will.. Ugh… PRA… PRAISE YOU FATHER!!!!” He shouted as he felt what seemed like knives going through his brains. He took all that pain in and stood there ignoring everyone for the foreseeable future. “So I presume, Garum is still not coming after all…” Gulvan queried… “It… Might seem so…” Grua said. “Oh don’t worry… It will be over in… 25 more minutes…” Muh assured. At this, Garum squeezed the phial and thrusted it straight in the face of Muh before putting his hand back near his seated body and continuing to chant prayers to Shivan. Muh immediately began to yell in agony as the effects began to take full effect right away. Muh ran off and dove into a small lake nearby in hopes of washing off the stuff on his skin, still screaming under the water. “What is all this chaos, by the GLORY of the Mulgathian?!” A slightly pissed Grovar approached the meditating and chanting Garum, and everyone else as Muh was screaming from beneath the water.
“So Muh accidentally gave Garum a poison to try and fix his drunkenness… and now Garum threw the stuff at Muh and now he is having it too… And… Uh... Well this is a mess…” Grua answered. “Huh… Is that so my pupil!?” Grovar asked as he started to head towards the lake. Immediately he grabbed Muh and lifted him up from the lake, glaring straight into his eyes while pointing towards the worshipful Garum. “Do you see what the teacher is doing? And do you see what YOU are doing?!” He shouted with a deeper, almost demonic tone, as he thrusted Muh next to Garum. “Learn this skill for the Glory of the Almighty Father! If you plan on keeping your position in the assassin’s guild!” Grovar displayed, yet again, holy and righteous discipline as he was implying that Muh ought to praise Shivan for the pain instead of running from it. Without another moment, Muh joined Garum. “I… Will go find something to eat…” Grua sighed as he wandered off. “What has interrupted your worship Holy One!?” Gulvan worshipfully queried with humility and reverence. “Krethakan… It’s experiencing an abnormal surge of the essence of reality!” Grovar exclaimed as he implied that the village was experiencing vast quantities of Greed. But he would call Greed more often than not, the essence of reality, for though it isn’t fully true, their particular reality is indeed created out of this vile energy. “Wait what? We heard something was wrong there... So if you felt it too, that must mean something really bad is going on… But it has something to do with the essence of our reality?... We need to figure out what’s happening…” Grua said. “Hmm… Rahar will go kill something while Grovar and Grua think…” Rahar announced before abruptly wandering off back into the jungle.

“Wait… Seriously?! Rahar no! We just lost several soldiers trying to rescue you and we need you for the situation in the village…” Gulvan tried. “Well ok... Rahar stays… But if Garum and Muh take too long, Rahar is going…” She said as she stomped back. “Also… Master Grua, about Breskahn’s corpse… We need to send a harvest party…” Gulvan announced, as Zorex got out of the tavern with a massive pint of Adravikth Greed Ale. “Oh great… Not you too…” Grua sighed. “Well… Yeah we should send a party out… Oh… Shoot… Right… Father!” Grua remembered. “Father! Jovack is in Krethakan... Remember? He said he would be staying for a few months? We should hurry off as soon as we can…” Grua explained as he signaled a hunting party off. Zorex, looking at Grua as he was actively pouring the ale down his throat, said “.... Ah… But of course… HICK!... Dude… I love you, you know that right? … Hick… Despite my past actions against you… HICK!! I always appreciated the intelligence you were gifted with… HICK! It’s just that I never had such a bra… Slurp… HICK! Brains… heheheheheh….” He wobbled away as he was continuing to drink. “Muh… Can you give me more of that stuff?” Grua joked as he returned his focus back to his Father. “So you managed to kill your childhood, and for that matter, the village’s terror then?” Grovar chuckled, then continued. “The arenas are not all that different! Just a thousand times more of those... And many times worse monsters too!” He pridefully announced as he reminded Grua of his ominous destination in an attempt to help prepare his mind for the upcoming sentence. “Wait… Ouch… PRAISE YOU FATHER!” Garum realising what Grua just said and what Grovar said also, he felt yet another knife going through his brain as he immediately resumed the praises. He couldn’t even join the discussion despite hearing that his son, and his old friend which was almost like a brother, was in danger. “Yes… Well… We didn’t kill her… Per say… Uh… Breskahn was killed by someone else… A bug person… Kind of… I think... We wouldn’t be alive if he didn’t show up… But he disappeared before we could say anything… He also helped us revive Zorex and Muh from the dead…” Grua explained. “Ah… So… Then the arenas are indeed what you need. At least you won’t die there… Even if you will be eaten alive and dissected repeatedly, at least you will be able to kill something like Breskahnn all by yourself upon return.” Grovar insisted then continued “ For now, we need to head to Krethakan. And… give Garum time to assimilate this new level of power from Shivan and Muh too… I will be headed to the strategy halls for the purposes of assembling a council for solving this issue!” He announced as he began heading off. “You solve Zorex’s issues meanwhile. We need every available Gior on this!” Grua collected himself and focused, trying to find whatever bravery he had. “Actually… Uh… I… I have an objection…” Grua mumbled. “I proclaim a Challenge of Accusation! You and I both have a month to prepare… If I win, we call off this banishing me to the arena for a while… Thing… If you win, you can change, extend, or amplify the sentence if you so wish…” Grua announced. At this everyone turned their head towards Grua in confusion, and some even reverence for the courage and the respecting of the law, then some even turned towards Grovar with fear and worry on behalf of Grua.

“AAHAHAHAHAHA! PRAISE SHIVAN!” Grovar laughed worshipfully then he added “I PRAYED that you would challenge me! This is indeed a good move for you… but be warned, i will not make this easy on you!” Grovar, facing the strategy halls, announced with a deeply satisfied tone. He expected this to happen, as during his first outburst of rage when he first found out about Grua’s sin, the Mulgathian revealed their future plans for Grua and this included the challenge. This only enforced Grovar’s Faith even more. “By Shivan’s HOLY scales! Make sure you prepare well during this month… Have Rahar train you, because I will be twice the challenge she presents!” He added. If Garum could, he would also congratulate his son for maturing like this but at last… he was only worshipping and dealing with the ordeal just like Muh. “Alright……… Yeah… I know….Thanks…. Can’t wait…” Grua said with uncertainty. “Rahar is strong! Rahar will fight too!” Rahar shot back at Grovar. “At least she won’t really know how to stop beating you during training…” Grovar chuckled as he ignored Rahar’s blind challenge but taking under account the lack of self control she always expressed to point out the difficulty of the upcoming month for Grua. “Wwwwhhhhhyyyyy? Why do I need to train with her?” Grua groaned as he gathered his belongings and prepared for an upcoming month of hell, but not before solving the situation at Krethakan...

 

[Alissa Ming]

A Childhood Full of Mystery​

City of Evangelion - Country Armisticca - Planet E’Tria

Towering sky titans, were all but filling the horizon. A serene morning over this over-built hyper-polis. These sky titans are cities onto their own. They are the skyscrapers of the future. Gargantuan towers that build upwards into the higher atmosphere of this world, one could easily declare them columns to sustain the sky itself! Filled with neighbourhoods and all sorts, they are easily centers of incredible activity.
Evangelion was ever buzzing with activity, vehicles flying back and forth. Deep pits into the ground, sinking into what was once a massive mining operation, which left substantial cave networks, that now are literal extensions of Evangelion.
An old city, Evangelion is built in the Paliptic Rainforest region. This particular rainforest is of massive proportions, and in fact it surrounds the western border of Armisticca. One of the border countries of the E’Trian people, believe it or not. A border city, extending outwards towards the border of known E’Trian civilization. It is uncertain whether nature evolved other instances of sentient life on this world, it may very well be the case, but as far as these people know, they are currently the only known intelligent life on it.
The whole Paliptic biome is of megaflora vegetation. May look like a normal rainforest… with titanic trees and bushes. Not quite a jungle but not a simple forest either.

In one of the smaller sky titans, there is a school. Among many other things. This time of year, the school was just into the first half month since the new year of school has begun. As usual, children in the morning were noisy as the whole building was welcoming all ages that were signed in. A particular classroom was definitely the more tense among them, one could easily say something was off, as the amount of bickering, bullying and fighting was an almost constant sight, and usually one particular little girl was the target of all this primal hatred.

The children’s voices were laughing, mocking the child sitting by herself at the table. Her hair was auburn and her eyes were green. And she was concentrating more than was strictly necessary on eating her potatoes as she ignored the voices.
“Well, elf-ears, what are you going to do? Huh?” The girl ignored them, but it was hard. Her eyes were burning, and she knew if she looked over, she’d see the real emotions of those other children. She’d see hatred, and fear. Fear of her, because she was different, and frightening. She’d tried to fit in. Clearly that wasn’t possible. Only her younger brother hung out with her.
One of the children, tired of being ignored, pushed his face into the girl’s. She got goosebumps up and down her spine. She was in danger. She knew this feeling. It was one of the reasons the children feared her. She always knew when she was in danger. She threw herself back, chair clattering as it fell, before the bully took a swing. The bully met no resistance, and stumbled. His face went red in fury.
“Well, well, the elf-eared brat thinks she’s so special. She’s got good reflexes. But she can’t dodge forever.”
The girl pushed herself up, her thrust had thrown her on her back. She got to her feet and prepared for the next attack. She’d have to be careful. She didn’t want to hurt the other child. At least not badly. And she was strong for her size. But then, the bully might not give her much of a choice. She tried her best not to look too aggressive, as she took a defensive stance. She could tell from the look on the bully’s face, as well as the goosebumps up her spine that this was not going to work. But if someone walked in, she wanted to make it clear she’d tried everything except becoming a pushover to stop the fight.
The bully lunged at her, and she blocked with speed that none of the other children would have believed if they hadn’t seen it before. In fact, the bully seemed to move slower than she. She didn’t hit back, not yet. She kept hoping the adults would make it to them before she would have to. She protected herself, but she wouldn’t be able to keep it up forever. Even with her speed, even with her abilities, the bully was good at this. And she would tire eventually. Finally, she saw a teacher look over toward them, and come running.
“Hey, cut it out, you two. Both of you are in trouble.” The girl opened her mouth to protest. She hadn’t even fought. She had defended herself at best. But then she closed her mouth. The teacher had to send them both to the principal. Even if that hadn’t been the case, the teacher’s face said she was in no mood for argument. So, not even grumbling about unfairness, though the bully looked like he wanted to try as well, she turned to head to the principal's office. She didn’t look back to see if the bully would follow.

 

[Alissa Ming]

In class some years later

A new morning began, as the planet was spinning on its axis as all planets do, depending on their angle of spin…
The city of evangelion, restless as always, and the school, in its early hours empty before the first kids were about to arrive.
Only the teachers were roaming the hallways, getting the classes ready and the holo screens turned on for the purposes of each class. One classroom was facing the outer edge of the building, just at the base of this Sky Titan, barely illuminated by the natural light, as the buildings around and other such towers were casting massive shadows on the city below, some even on other towers. Anna’s classroom was still empty, before the first teacher would open the door. The desks were readied, the screens were turned on, equipment ready in the official school case hanging on every desk’s side. The light from the sun, was barely illuminating the class, a particularly cloudy day today, but the surrounding landscape and buildings were also reducing the brightness.

The children were now getting ready as they began entering the class. Some were moaning, some were laughing, and the bullied girl was being pushed and at the same time had to dodge several hit attempts, as usual.
Anna sat in front of the class by herself. She had never understood why the other children hated her so much. She was stronger, faster, and more agile than the vast majority of them, but it wasn’t like it was by that much, or like it was her fault. Her only support had been her family. She stared at where the teacher would stand whenever he came in. Her hair was carefully cultured to hide her ears, something she always did. Just as she kept hidden her birthmark that had gotten her teased for having a tattoo at such a young age, back when she was 9 or 10. And adults disparaging her parents for “tattooing a baby”. Ugh. She wasn’t going to turn to violence if she could help it, but she could almost literally feel the other children’s hatred and fear of her.

“Alright, class,” said the teacher as he came in, followed by a teen boy the same age as the class, so about thirteen or fourteen. “We have a new student.” He turned to the boy. “Why don’t you introduce yourself and then find a place to sit. I hope you all treat him kindly.” Anna had to stop herself from grimacing in distaste. Not because she hated the new boy. But because she knew he would be yet another person trying to hurt her for existing.

“Yes sir.” A young Malcolm Hughes, respectfully and calmly turned from the teacher to face the class. One might think it a bit odd, that for a 14 years old boy to be this centered and focused. The class might even be a bit freaked out, some opening their eyes wide to notice his fluid and gentle body language, which, indeed, inspired peace and also intimidated at the same time.
“Hello, new class… my 8th by now… not that this is your fault,” He daringly teased them, then continued “I’m…” He interrupted himself just slightly, noticing the hate stares being thrown at Anna. More than a third of the class was seemingly just hate-gazing Anna while others were boringly looking at him. “...huh…” He silently thought then resumed “My name is Malcolm Hughes! I’m in this city for a temporary ‘visit’ with my uncle, so I should be out of your hairs fairly soon…” He chuckled as he expressed the discomfort of his uncle’s constant business trips and expected to move to yet another school fairly soon.
The Hughes family was a relatively famous family of trillionaires, who managed several businesses, both in military, industry, farmaceutics and food production. And with that fame came the burden of people knowing, or thinking they know, everything there is to know about them.
“But you may also know me by the ‘title’ of Son of Jake and Arcanna Hughes” he finished with disdain as he mentioned the parents he did not like very much. At this, some in the class began to whisper and gasp. “Dude… this one is famous! What’s he doing in a conventional school?” a random boy in the corner spoke to another through whispers.

Anna’s eyes widened ever so slightly as Malcolm spoke. She knew that name, of course. About everyone did. But she hadn’t paid that much attention to the family beyond knowing they were famous. She wondered how many people heard the disdain in his voice, saw it on his face, as he spoke of his family. So he didn’t like being the son of famous people. She wondered if she’d have felt the same way in his shoes. Though it likely would have made her life a heck of a lot harder. She shifted ever so slightly, and as she did so, her most hated bully, Laura Palmer went to tap, more likely hit, Anna, and missed. It was the smallest movement, because not much more was needed. She wasn’t trying to seriously hurt Anna for once. Just assert dominance. Anna said, quietly, “You might want to get back to your seat before the teacher sees you out of it.” At the moment, he was distracted quieting the class, but he didn’t like people out of their seats.

“You think you’re so smart, don’t you?” Laura hissed, as she returned to her seat and glowered at Anna.

Funny how children always tend to act at a more basal animalic instinct whereas adults are more aware of the morals of society, Malcolm thought. His mind, if one could see it, was that of a god. Or… a cosmic being... in fact all of his family was like this. Not that anyone ever knew of this. He was witnessing the world from a knowing and powerful position, and judging it at the same time as different voices whispered wisdom in his ears.
From his point of view, time always seemed to move slower than the rest of the world. A preferred power he engaged in often, to help him decide responses and actions on the spot as there were needed.
Looking through the class for a few seconds, surveying everyone, to him would have been 5 minutes, easily, he turned a cheeky smile as on his side he heard, no, sensed the conflict between Anna and Laura. Something that usually would not be seen or given much importance.
But before he turned his head, he sensed something strange coming from Anna. he looked to see a sprawling flux of energies coming back and forth from her aura. She was both receiving and transmitting emotions, seemingly at a chaotic rate, possibly out of control.
He immediately sent a feeling for help to one of the voices which, upon sending the emotional message, which thankfully was not picked up by Anna, the spirit, immediately entered in his mind, visible only to him, and began creating a coating of artificial emotions and alchemise those that were genuine, so as not to collide with Anna’s powers.

With a curious and compassionate frown, he approached the empty chair, next to Anna’s… in fact several chairs were empty near her seat. Yet another reason for Malcolm to grow ever curiouser. He just loved anomalies. Though he, and his family, would never call them such, but rather the true nature of creation. If it was one thing he liked about his parents was the way they saw the universe. And even his Uncle.
He approached Anna, and daringly sat down next to her with an abnormal and serene stance to his body language… Friendly? No… this could not possibly be… what? He is smiling? Is he going to be one of the more mean bullies? Why is he sitting next to HER of all people. Even some classmates asked those same questions…

Anna could sense him, see him out of the corner of her eye as he sat next to her. She stiffened, ever so slightly, ready to pounce away should that feeling of danger return. But it didn’t. But she didn’t relax. Not fully. “You don’t want to sit here. Not if you want any other friends, anyway.” She said to him quietly. She sounded calm as ever. If not for the fluctuations of her own emotions, that she did not even know she was projecting, no one would be able to guess at her bitter resentment and terrible sadness, and her hot anger that she was fighting to keep under control.
“I’m ready, teacher! This is going to be my seat from now on!” He almost defied the warning of Anna, not only that he did not care, but saw everyone else in the class as meaningless idiots. Literally, he appreciated the truth, the life, and above else honesty and strength of character. Which most children here, showed little but hate and fear and interests in vanity and vague cultural trends. No depth to most of them, but Anna… she was something else. She was a child of the stars. He already sensed her alien gene, even if it was just a fraction. If he would want a friend out of all, would be her… and possibly the teacher… for whatever reason he might be a nice guy, he thought.

Well, he was determined, Anna had to give him that. And he seemed nice enough, but she feared he had doomed himself. She was so focused, and to be fair what was coming wasn’t that dangerous, but Laura threw a paper ball at Anna’s back. She never even noticed that it was coming and was going to be hit in the back of the head. Though Anna didn’t care, for this would be an all too often incident, just to spite her, Malcolm certainly did.
The class seemingly drew a second’s worth of silence, as seemingly instantly Malcolm’s hand was grasping that ball of paper just inches from reaching Anna’s head.
He took it at his desk, analysing it curiously, being a bit amused at the sight, seeing the same type of pattern at many other schools he has been at. Just meaningless spite between children, and the most, is that the children always think it to be cool. Anna could easily see how he was holding that ball, and to her incredible surprise, he actually protected her! Sitting by her side is one thing, but protecting a stranger is a whole next level of strange.

Anna stared at Malcolm, stunned. How had he done that? “I...um...thank you...but...how?” She knew enough people who had a form of danger sense who couldn’t have done that. She could tell from looking at it, it was meant not to harm, but to annoy. Which was why she hadn’t picked up on it the way she had Laura’s punch. She was confused as to why this person was protecting her, sitting next to her, heck, being nice to her. “Why?” She asked.

“Why not?” He asked in a whispering voice, he understood her shock, he actually liked it. He sensed order all around him and her, divine order. He was on the hunt for acts of divine behaviour and traits. Acts of fellowship and selflessness. As he gripped the paper tightly he threw it back without looking. Somehow it hit Laura straight smack in her face. The force with which it hit her made her fall from her chair. What’s worse, is that this paper was wet. It was moistened by Laura to make it disgusting. So the force of impact may have even made Anna bleed slightly from her nose. Everyone in the class gasped behind them, but for the teacher who Malcolm made sure, with his tricks, that he didn’t notice nor would he care. For this particular incident.
What was most, Laura Palmer was the head of the cheerleading team. She was a pretty ‘big deal’ in that school. If anything, her hubris was the most hurt of all, not her face or body.
Malcolm chuckled silently at hearing Laura fall from her chair after he threw the paper.

Anna snickered when she saw Laura on the floor. That ball of paper was more dangerous than she’d thought. And Malcolm had quite a good aim. “Well, thank you. But you realize you’re making yourself even less popular, now, right?” She grinned at him, but it wasn’t with the bitterness she usually felt.

“Meh… so what?... I make myself unpopular amongst the fools? If i had a penny every time that happened i would be rich… oh... Wait… i’m already rich…” He confidently returned the grin to Anna. Not only was he expecting to be in trouble, but he kinda enjoyed it. Not the trouble, but the part where he got the chance to show the aggressor the mirror. By making them feel how they truly are. Opportunity to correct or humiliate evil. Something he held dear to.

Anna nodded, thoughtful. For once since starting school here, she felt...warm, accepted. Something she hadn’t truly felt outside her family. “Thanks, Malcolm. I appreciate it.

 

[Alissa Ming]

Between Classes, Laura’s Attempt At Revenge.

The glistening hallways were empty just before the bells were about to ring. Some of the school staff were walking down the corridors, to get to whatever business they had to, and others were just chatting leaning on the marble and metal walls of this unit. Units where the equivalent of individual buildings making up any one of the towerink sky titans. Outside this school unit, the Tower Jonathan 78 was ever so active with all sorts, barely even audible, as the every-day hourly bell-ringing of the school breaks was doing its job.

As the bells rang and the children got out of their classes, Anna was walking beside Malcolm during the break between classes. She was thinking where to go after school, when she felt that creeping feeling up her spine that she always felt before...crap. She didn’t even hesitate to push Malcolm out of the middle of the hall, her strength showing as she shoved him out of the way of Laura’s incoming fist, and barely missed Anna herself.

“Still as fast as ever, I see,” Laura mocked. “Your new boyfriend must think himself so clever, throwing that ball at me. But I know the truth, despite all that fame, he’s just as pathetic as you are. After all, we must always seek our own kind.”
Malcolm, calm and observant as ever, he stuck to the wall of the corridor, where he was pushed, then glared at Laura in disgust sending off a wave of imposing wrath. Not the kind that would make Laura wrathful, like Anna’s powers would, but the kind where Laura had better start running or else. His face was ever so serene though. “I can’t argue with that, little girl!” He said that not because Laura was little, but to belittle Laura’s pride and to accompany the sense of impending doom that was just being furiously injected into Laura's brain making her forehead sweat of anxiety and discomfort. Not only that but he was basically pointing at Laura’s friends as he answered, implying that they and her were the true bunch of pathetic losers, which objectively it was the case, but the only ones who could understand this was him and Anna and maybe some more mature children from other classes. This feeling which Malcolm injected in Laura, was obviously targeted so as to not allow Anna to pick it off. And even the reaction of Laura was masked a little. This was one of those spells he liked to indulge in. Not that he was wrathful, or anything. He just enjoyed pranking the pranksters and bullies by using himself of these powers which society denied.

Laura fumed. But underneath the anger was a primal fear that she wasn’t sure how to process. The cold sweat on her forehead was...new… “Well, you two enjoy each other!” She snarled at them, and she tried to storm off, and not outright run. Anna watched in confusion. Fear she’d seen from the other kids. They were scared of her. Not that scared. Then one of the teachers came up to the two.

“How many times have I told you to not fight in the halls, Anna Johnson. You need to go see the principle this instant and I’ll be sending Laura right there as well, as soon as I catch up with her!”

“But I wasn’t fighting!’ Anna couldn’t stop herself. This was so unfair.

“You were in a fight. You can explain your side to the principle, and he can decide what to do with you.” The teacher said.

Anna huffed, irritated, and muttered to Malcolm, “Well, I’ll probably see you in school in like a week or something.” Before she walked stiffly away.

Yet again… the very teacher he thought he would possibly like. Malcolm thought. He understood the poor man though, he had to discipline an endless load of foolish bullying children, probably on a daily basis. He sighed in annoyance. In his perspective time, again was passing slower, as he saw Anna finish those last words… he needed more time to think. He thought, what to do. Teachers usually over-react like that in every school he went to. It is the stress really. Or some simply don’t like the job. Whatever the reason, it was understandable from their point of view, this job is not easy at all. And stress is mounting on every teacher. How else is he going to react?
“Excuse me sir? Mr. Boris?” He raised his hand to the surprise of Anna, yet again as the teacher turned to him. “Hypothetically speaking… is it fair to punish someone that is not guilty of anything?” Malcolm asked, calmly. He cornered the poor man with this question. No need to use magic here, he was famous, and the question was a moral spear to the heart. Nevermind the excuses this teacher could bring, a sufficient bunch of older teens from the school and even another teacher has heard this. It made genuine sense.

The teacher looked at Malcolm, thinking about the best response, then, “No, it’s not. I don’t have a choice, though. School policy states anyone involved in a fight has to go see the principle. Unfortunately, the principle doesn’t like Anna very much, like a lot of people don’t. And I don’t have a way around school policy, especially with so many eyes around. But if you have a better idea…” Mr. Boris trailed off, eyeing Malcolm speculatively. Malcolm caught the depths of this poor guy. He didn’t expect it to get to this point, but after all, due to his uncle’s affairs he knew quite a lot of law and E’Trian rights acts and all manner of surprising knowledge that a kid should not even be interested in. Using this knowledge he dared to continue without as much as flinching from his position. If it meant he had to use his fame and family power to shut down a school, he would have. After all there was enough surveillance in this age, and enough technology to accurately discover the true guilty party. Malcolm, for a second, looked at some glistening tiles on the ceiling, which were enhanced with monitoring nanites, and on the floor to detect motion, for the classic security measures of this age.
He looked back at the teacher holding a holographic pad. “Yes… school policy… and the very fact that Anna, as you yourself said, is not liked by pretty much everyone… hmmm” He thought, causing ever so slight of a sweat to drop from Boris’s face. “I should call that a very act of moral and any other form of discrimination. After all is she genuinely guilty of starting a fight? Has she ever started a fight in school history? You do know that just because i’m a child that doesn’t mean i can’t take this to court, if i have to. School policy isn’t just. And sadly many school policies adopt a similarly ambiguous position. But nevermind school policy. I can just snap my fingers and this school closes… why should we carry this conversation on? After all you know who’s son I am right?” He pulled the fame and money card just like that besides bombarding the teacher with legal language.

Mr. Boris smiled at the gall of this kid. He might make a good ally for the poor girl. He’d always sympathized with her, even though she had never fully trusted him. And he couldn’t piece together why. “Well, unfortunately I can’t change policy...but I know the principle can. You could...just go along with Anna and talk to the principle about all those rules he’s breaking...I mean, if you wished to do so. I can’t stop you. But yes, I know who you are. I know who your family is.” He eyed Malcolm, speculatively. “Oof… fine… i’ll go… after all, people seriously have to enjoy their lazy positions…” He commented as he glared at the teacher and walked away to

join Anna. “Hey… wait up… I'm coming with you at the principal’s office… i need to have a word or two with that guy too by the looks of it” He smiled warmly.

Anna eyed him, “You didn’t need to do that. It’s not the first time I’ve been sent to the office. Or home. I don’t want you to get in trouble right along with me.”
“Nah… don’t worry… it’s not the first time I went to the principal’s office either…” He chuckled insinuating he had to deal with other school policies in his past.

Anna sighed, frustrated at Malcolm’s calmness. Then she took a deep breath and asked, “I didn’t hurt you, right? I mean...I’m stronger than I probably look. I try to keep it under control, but...well, I didn’t have a lot of time to think about what I was doing. I just kinda...reacted…”
“Hm?... Ah you meant the push… nah don’t worry! I can take a punch. I mean. Maybe a little. But nothing that won’t go away. So not to worry you or anything.” He responded noticing the pain in his chest from her slamming her hands in it, as they headed to the principal’s office.

“Uh...yeah...sorry again. But what you said to Mr. Boris was great. I don’t trust him. He’s one of those people that can hide facial expressions, and it makes it hard to read what’s going on, emotion-wise, so I can’t tell when he’s lying or telling the truth. He gives me the creeps. And you don’t seem to think that highly of him either.” Anna said, as they got closer, and then, “Well, we’ll have to deal with this first,” as she pushed open the door to the principal's room.

“I see you’re back here again,” said Principal Klarion, “I keep telling you to not get into fights. So I’m gonna have to suspend you again, Miss Johnson.”

Anna rolled her eyes, irritated.

“And you, Mr. Hughes, you could keep much better company than that of a troublemaker like her.” The principal continued.
“Yes mister Klarion. I have to ask though, why do you think you are some omnipotent and holy deity here though? Since when is Anna the trouble maker? Is she the one starting the fights, and bullying people here?” he shot at Klarion with unbelievable confidence. Here he actually used the same wrath power he used on Laura earlier, only what’s worst is that his patience was running thin, even the supernaturally induced one, and Maloclm was beginning to show some genuine irritation which only made the spell stronger, thus inducing the same primal fear in the principal. The principal could not hold himself, his face was sweating profusely, anxiety was running through him like mad. He only knew not to dare to try and pull any power rank on this kid. It seems that the very universe is protecting him. Also for the fact that the principal doesn’t really have any power over him. Supernaturally or naturally that is. “I need you to pull up all the recordings of the incident and even of the conversation I had with the teacher earlier! Can you do that for me sir?” Malcolm furiously glared in the currently crushing spirit of the principal.

“Of course I can,” said Klarion startled, trying, and failing to ignore the primal fear induced. His hands shook as he brought up the holo footage and action detection. It started with Laura practically charging them, and Malcolm got a first hand glimpse at just how fast Anna was, as she quickly not only got him out of the way, but herself as well. Klarion paused the video, “So she didn’t start the fight. What is your point?” This dislike in his voice was clear. “She’s still at the heart of every fight that goes on here.”
At hearing this, one of the many spirits which accompanied Malcolm, just launched at the very soul of Klarion. Of course that only the pathetic and discriminating Klarion could see and sense this but the sight was terrifying. Not a particularly nice looking spirit if one could see this screaming wraith.
Time seemed to freeze for both Malcolm and Klarion but Anna was left out of it as the spirit began to speak in the depths of Klarion’s mind with a booming and echoing voice of horror. “You pathetic scum! You know full well that DISLIKE and because you are ENTITLED is no excuse to commit atrocities and DISCRIMINATION! If you care for your soul, and don’t want that, I take it from you, you WILL change your STUPID E’TRIAN BEHAVIOUS! And add to the list of changes, the policy of the school. After that is finished, I'll make sure to send you home where you will flog yourself for the rest of the day!” As soon as the spirit finished, time resumed, to reveal a grinning and satisfied Malcolm, which Anna did not have time to notice.
“I’m also asking that you go over my talk with mr. Boris. Because I seriously don’t need to repeat myself. Court is a genuine threat here! And while you are at it, you might want to accept what the surveillance tells you and suspend the true guilty party here for once!” He shot at the obviously shaking Klarion.
The Principal was all but destroyed. In his mind, he lost his marbles. There was no logical explanation for what he had just seen and felt. What was this kid? Was it the kid? Was it his own mind failing him for whatever reason? The compelling he felt to flog himself was by far the only source of dread as angry whispers were playing on repeat in Klarion’s head. Whispers of condemnation, he was going to hell, if there was one. If anything that’s what it felt like even if this may not truly be the case.
The emotions… again… were masked and filtered from Anna. The level of fear in Klarion would better not be felt by her. It was too great. All she could see was a sweaty Principal and a strange new friend which had unbelievable gall. If she didn’t know better, she could easily think he was about to punch the principal, but that’s about everything she could sense.
As for the principal, if Anna was feared, then Malcolm would be dreaded… he was impossible to corner or stop. Both the E’Trian law and his money and fame were on his side. Plus whatever had just taken place in the mind of the principal.

To be fair, this spirit acted almost on his own, after all Malcolm was not even close to being a master at this. And many a spirit, would act on primal emotion alone rather than on command. If Malcolm had the wisdom of an elder sorcerer he probably wouldn’t have allowed this spirit to utterly tear apart the mind of a mortal. Though in some cases, this is indeed needed, for cosmic justice has a different way of dealing with mundane evils. Or so Malcolm read in one of the books of his Uncle.

“O-o-o-of c-c-course, Mr. Hughes. I’ll s-see to it right aw-way.” The principle stammered. “If you’ll both leave, I’ll deal with Miss Palmer…”

Anna was shocked. The principal's fear was palpable. She’d never seen him like this. She turned to Malcolm, “Come on. Let’s go. Seems like it’s over for the day at least.”

 

[Alissa Ming]

At the end of the school day

Vehicles were flying busily above the patio, though, since the school was about 500 feet above town, being inside the Jonathan 78 sky titan, the patio was more like a balcony than the actual space in front of a normal building. This balcony was connected to the parking space of several flying vehicles, some with parents waiting for their children, a couple of ‘buses’ from the school services to cary the children to their homes, and some were mere taxies.
As Malcolm was making his way out, it seemed as though for Malcolm, there was no-one waiting. Or not yet? Not sure. The few trees at the edge of the patio were dancing in the gentle evening breeze as He was waiting by the side-walk where the vehicles were parked.
There was no official ‘stairs down, but there were some transporters available, for those living nearby this tower, to just descend all the way down into the main city, or at the entrance of the titan.
He was just waiting there for Anna it seems. She has yet to exit the building. He was beginning to grow worried. Was she being bullied again? He knew that they barely just met, but his heart was ever so selfless, and he found ways to engage with those that were treated unfairly by society. Call it a defect if you will… as many an E’Trian seem to marginalise the even their own, the poor, the lonely, the homeless. Though thankfully he was not so. He would always engage, to the best of his abilities, with those that needed a warm company and a helping hand.
‘What’s going on?’ Malcolm thought to himself as he tried to peer into the distance. He could not see Anna anywhere and it has been more than 20 minutes.

“Sorry I’m late,” Anna called, as she came running out to join Malcolm. “Mr. Boris wanted to know how things went, and wouldn’t let me leave without some explanation.” She shuddered a little, “I never did like him or trust him that much. Though he also wanted to talk over some assignments too. Anyway, I’m here.” She screeched to a halt beside Malcolm. She knew she had moved faster than he was probably expecting. Most people didn’t really realize how fast she was. Not that she was significantly faster than those who trained.

Malcolm sighed in relief. “For a second there I thought that these jerks were giving you a hard time again… though it seems they never quite manage to hit you…” He trailed off in further curiosity. “I did think I could, possibly, like the guy, until he had to send you to the principal… and actually scolded you above everyone else. Though I do understand his position.”

Anna nodded. She could tell Malcolm had been worried about her. It was all over his face. “I guess he’s just doing his job, and he can potentially help more students if he doesn’t get on the principal’s bad side. But I dunno. He gives me the creeps. He’s one of those people who can lie without anyone ever suspecting he is, I guess. And I don’t like those kinds of people. But no. They never have been able to hit me. I can just...sense it coming...Pretty sure most people can though. Sense that kind of danger, I mean. I...I guess I’m just faster than most people are. Never could figure out why.”

“Hmm… Well I think of that as being genuinely cool!” He chuckled then turned his gaze towards the horizon, peeking through the other Sky Titans seeing the Paliptic Rainforest region assuming a thoughtful posture. “Is that the Paliptic Rainforest region? I knew, from what my uncle told me, that we were moving to the far-most city of known E’Trian territory as a whole… I never got to understand why we built such a massive city so close to this dangerous forest of all things… i mean news of weird gigantic animals and beasts seem to be a constant around the city news. Huh… how is life in this majestic city by the way? I mean the very edge of the known world resides right near your home!” He exclaimed in excitement then he continued “Uh… also dangerous…” He shuddered a bit. Though he found all life interesting, he knew better than to agree with decisions to build settlements beyond the great walled region of E’Trian civilization, before it was surveyed and all dangers eradicated.

“If I had to guess, it’s because we’re E’trians. We place people in dangerous locations all the time. Besides, what better way to study something like this than to live close by. Not that my family’s all that interested in what this planet holds.” Anna said, with a small shrug. “You got any plans?”

“Yeah, you are right. We do… wait… your parents? What do they like doing?” He returned the shrug then refocused his attention on what anna said at the end. He was an admirer of the world, but especially of the universe. He couldn’t be sure, but if it was what he thought, then he would have had his day made. “And… sure, i was thinking if we go walking about town a bit, after all.. My Uncle and I just barely got here. Sure he can give me a ride, but he’s almost always busy with family business and all sorts. He may be the only person I like from my family… that is except for my brothers and sisters... “

“I dunno about going around town…I’m not really...a people person...” Anna said, nervously. “But as for my parents? My dad’s in the military, and my mom studies stars. Dad told me once he got to help build the new spacecraft. He was so excited. I mean, it’s still in development for the Air Force. But I hope I get to fly one, one day.” She was genuinely excited as she spoke of what her parents did, and what she was hoping to do one day.

Malcolm smiled wide as he heard that someone was an astronomer and another helped build ships “Oh… Right… Your parents are awesome! They sound awesome…” He trailed off realising he sounded way too much like a nerd right now and it might be one side he tried to hid from many people. “Uh.. yeah.. Sorry about that… I like space more than this world. I guess it has to do with how people treat each other. But then again.” He straightened up awkwardly to try and force himself in a more serious posture, hilarious as that might have been. “Oh but come on… please. You don’t need to talk to me if you find it discomforting. Or if you don’t like people we don’t have to go to crowded places. C’mooooon!” He moaned trying to convey his excitement.

“It’s not ‘cause I don’t wanna hang out and talk to you… I just… Generally don’t go out into large groups if I don’t have to…” Anna thought for a long hard moment, then, “Fine. Let’s go.” Malcolm was excited… For the first time, Anna saw he was more than just peaceful. “Awesome!” he replied with excitement then turned to look towards the transporter. A fountain of energy rising up into the sky, to transport anything and anyone up or down or wherever they needed in or around the tower. “Let’s take the transporter. We can go down into the main city!” He stated then added “Uh… you are alright with transporters right? I’m only asking because I know quite a few people who have a phobia related to these things…” He shrugged.

“I don’t fear technology. Or transporters. I guess some people don’t like them, but I don’t mind.” Anna told him with a shrug. She’d never understood people with a phobia of the things, but she didn’t have to. “Come on. I can show you around a bit.”

Some of the children in the background were visibly judging them, mocking and laughing at them. Despite Malcolm’s fame, the fact that he chose to be the enemy of almost everyone in the school, they chose to envy him instead and use that plus the excuse that he is the friend of the ‘weirdo elf girl’ as they mocked her, made him an especially tempting target for future bullying.
As they turned, they saw some of the children laughing and pointing fingers, while some even signaling that they should kiss in an insulting demeanour. Malcolm didn’t even seem to care while he pressed a holographic button on the side, and just before they teleported, he flipped the finger at them. A buzz of energy made them vanish in a short electric discharge, leaving behind a weird misty fog in the shape of his flipped finger hand. Anna could not help but notice this just before they teleported.

“I bet that added yet another black spot on my reputation list, don’t you think?” He snickered as they transported to the main street. “Probably,” Anna agreed with Malcolm. “I warned you that would happen. Anyway, there’s a restaurant nearby that my family goes to somewhat regularly. They’re nice enough for the most part. Wanna start there?” “Huh. i like restaurants… i was thinking, this is the capital city of our country, and one of the few cities that has expanded on what once used to be a mantle boring operation. I see quite a few of these holes covered up in buildings and stuff… What do you know of the underground?” He asked gleefully. “If you want we can check out the restaurant, and you can show me a few more things tho… this up to you… me asking you to show me the sights was already a stretch.” Malcolm said, realising that he was becoming too excited, and knowing that she would much rather go home for now. He didn’t know much of the capital, he wasn’t born here, and surely traveled way too often to have any roots in any city, so his enthusiasm was the kind that wanted to experience as much as he could before moving yet again.

“Not much. It’s an expansion of the city. I think there was worry that there wouldn’t be enough room for the population or something. But I do know it’s got lots more crime than up here. If we go down there, we will need to be very, very careful. But hey, you have me to protect you if you really want to go down there.” Anna said, with a small smirk, that told Malcolm she was at least partly teasing. She could tell he was anxious, though about what, she wasn’t entirely sure. “Something wrong, Malcolm?” Malcolm turned toward her with a bit of a sad expression. “Nothing… it’s just... “ he sighed. “My uncle, though the only person I like from my family, and decided to stay with, keeps moving about. We never get to stay in one place for long enough. And usually when I think I'm having a good time, he calls the school to transfer me to the next town he has to work in… it’s become a bit depressing because of this…” He was obviously bothered. He enjoyed this day here already. And he liked the fact that people weren’t trying to be his friends because of his fame. That much could be sensed. Part of his want to be unpopular was because his past schools saw him adored by those who wanted to use him. And he grew tired. “Eh… but what can i do?…” He sighed again. “Is this restaurant near?” he asked to attempt to draw attention away from this uncomfortable subject.

“I understand. My family tends to move a bit too. I’ve lived in this city long enough, but it’s part of being in the military. But yes, the restaurant isn’t that far away. And it’s even closer to my house.” Anna said. She could see his discomfort. Practically feel it. “Still… your family, at least they have a heart…” he complained “Mine are stiff, and dusty serious… like friggin librarians… they even scorn at me helping people in need. Except my uncle… Jacob… but you probably already know him as he’s the owner of the Jacobs kinetic weaponry industry. Especially if your father is in the army…” Looking through the tall buildings, he was thinking. He could not understand why people in power were so cold… well… not yet at least. Then turned to continue. “What’s your favourite food though?” He asked. “My favorite food? Hm… I tend to like a wide variety of foods. But if I were to pick a favorite, it would probably be chicken alfredo. You?”

“I like the bolognese pasta…. Though I'm similar in tastes... eh… i don’t know… tell you what. You order something, and order for me too, and I can pay for both if you like.” He smiled, as he couldn’t really think too much about food. The frustration with his parents was not pleasant for him. “You don’t need to pay for me. I do actually have enough money to cover myself. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have suggested eating out.” Anna said with a frown. If he really wanted to pay, she wouldn’t stop him. But she was quite capable of at least paying for her own meal. She ordered off the menu.

Malcolm saw Anna's frown, and due to his emotional state, interpreted it as an offence, and retreated a bit. It’s not like he saw her as incapable, he just liked to be helpful and friendly in whatever manner he could. “Uh.. o… k… Sorry if I offended you…” he responded “I get this a lot from people. Thinking that i bellitel them when in fact I want to simply be friendly... “ He sighed. “I… eh... “ He was left without words but was not really hurt. As he saw this type of reaction on almost everyone, and by now he was used with the judgements. Besides this was only the first day they met, he was not about to give up on doing this sort of thing, even if today he would respect her decision. “I’m not offended, Malcolm. But I know a lot of people probably only hang with people like your family for what you offer, not who you are. If you truly want to pay, you can. I won’t stop you. But I don’t want you to feel like you have to either. I want to be your friend, because I like you. I don’t care about your money or your fame.” Anna said. She was being genuine. “You didn’t belittle me. You made a generous offer. I just don’t want you to think there’s some price to this friendship, or for it to morph into something like that.”

“Sure thing… Apologies for having my mind too much in my troubles. Yeah I would like to pay because I like doing this.” he smiled again. “There are far too little people like you…” He sighed implying that the world would be a much better place if people would be genuine and true.
As they approached the restaurant, the building doors slid open before them, and a holographic waiter was displayed to welcome them and ask them where they would like to be seated.

“Hello my lady Anna, And Hello sir! Welcome to Areh’s Lounge!” The hologram paused a bit to surf the internet for available knowledge on Malcolm then resumed “Sir Malcolm Hughes?!” He exclaimed with simulated shock “Sir Malcolm Hughes has come to visit this humble restaurant this warm evening?” He asked.
“I guess one can never find respite from the title?” He asked with an awkward smile and finished with a sigh of visible discomfort. “Do you have a favourite seat you want to hide me at before them paparazzi show up?... aaaaarrgh…” He grumbled whispering.

Anna laughed at Malcolm. “Not really. But there is a back booth that we can use to hide if you really want to.” She didn’t mean to laugh at him, but it was too funny in too many ways. “I think it comes with the territory of being famous, Malcolm.” She said, more compassionately, though still with a small smile.

Malcolm quickly and awkwardly pulled a hoodie over his head and looked at the floor and chuckled realising he did sound funny. “Nevermind people, this hologram is defunct!” He said with a forced lower tone to hide his voice. At this the hologram turned to simulate an offended expression “Well, i’d never....”
“The booth is a good idea... really… you don’t want to see them taking photos of us at the restaurant… the last thing we needed for the school rep…” He cringed.

“I guess so.” Anna nodded, then turned to the AI who’d greeted them, “Is the booth near the back available at the moment?” She asked brightly. ”Let me check the data my lady Anna... “ While his eyes reflected computing data he proceeded to simulate friendship “How is your father doing…. Ah. lucky you.. There are three booths available… should you wish to i will block the network from signaling the tabloid companies” The Artificial intelligence smiled with a wink.

“Dad’s doing great, as usual.” Anna replied. “Three booths available. Means we’ll get to pick one. And that would be amazing if you’d block any signals to the tabloids. Thanks a lot!” Anna smiled back. She’d always liked this restaurant.
“Roger that munchkin! You'll find that your favourite booth has not been taken since yesterday, even though we had several… PROCESSING…. Apologies, I just finished blocking the ethernet connections… I bet the boss may not like this again but… life… what can you do eh? Yes… as i was saying… the restaurant is particularly busy this time of year, so this is just your… and Malcolm’s luck!” The Hologram by the name of Osmeus 88 enthusiastically conversed with Anna, who was taken as a close friend which they always tended to do mischief after work hours sometimes to the dismay of the boss, who also liked her, despite him struggling with her emissive powers.

Anna grinned. “It’s fine. Thanks, Osmeus, for all your help. Seriously, I know you guys are busy this time of year. Good to know the best booth in the restaurant is still free.” She’d always liked AIs. They were less likely to hate her and be mad at her than people. “I really appreciate the help.” She smiled at Osmeus 88 with true gratitude. “Come on, Malcolm. We should be alright now.”
“Pewh! Thank goodness… I did not know the AI of a restaurant can be this affectionate to people… i may need to learn some more before i talk… i also have an AI friend at home, but he’s a Simulcrum, the kind that look like us except for some strangely glowing eyes…” He turned towards the Hologram “Sory Osmeus, i did not intend to offend… just usual fame related anxiety issues, thanks for risking your job for me though..” He cringely added.
“No worries sir, i’m used with… blip… apologies i keep asking them for an update to the system… eh… yes, don’t worry i’m used to dealing with these sorts of emotional reactions” Osmeus 88 responded with a relaxed expression.

Areh’s Lounge, an average 3 star restaurant from this capital city, built since before Anna was born, is a particularly colorful and vibrant Reussean themed locale. The floor is decked with artificial black glistening marble and golden circuit strips zigzagging all across. Comfortable red and white synthetic wool carpets covered the floor between tables. The wool was mixed with nanites to help clean any food that was spilled on them. White marble pillars between each table, having suspended holographic menus and screens for entertainment and manual ordering of food.
As the title of the restaurant implied, this was built to induce relaxation, so the seats around the tables were round soft couches decked with red coloured synthetic cloth. The air was almost always recycled and filled with exoctic and aromatic perfumes, as individual force-field based fans which merely contained the smell of various foods to the particular table it was served.
The restaurant has 5 floors all of which are filled with 40 to 50 tables, so it wasn’t a small locale, but despite its size it was both relaxing and impressive. Malcolm was shocked, he could see why Anna, and anyone for that matter, would enjoy such a place.

“Are you sure this isn’t a luxury restaurant!?” Malcolm whispered in awe and confusion. How could an average restaurant look this good?

“Probably doesn’t help that not every AI is as advanced as Osmeus here.” Anna said. “He’s one of the best there is. I think it has something to do with their capability to learn and some user knowledge, but I’m not sure. Then, thoughtfully, “Technically, Areh’s isn’t luxury. It is very popular. I think it was listed as a middle ground restaurant. It’s one of those restaurants that is designed to look a bit luxurious without being overly expensive food-wise. And let me tell you, the food is excellent.”

“Nice!... I really like it here! I can’t wait to taste the stuff they have! Maybe I'll get something you recommend here just cause… Why not… i’m having a good day today!” Malcolm brightly and excited responded as he lowered his hoodie in comfort and security. The glistening floor under them was also comfortable to step on, a very well polished black artificial marble that was so straight to the feet, it was relaxing to the muscles. And the carpets as they were approaching the booth, soft as pure fluff. The scent around this booth was particularly jasmine sweet. “You know Anna, this trick they do here with perfuming the air to be just a little hint of aromatic air, is a technique I saw at one of my uncle’s favourite restaurants… though that is in Venandar city. A couple of hours away through air-ship transport.” He said as they were taking a seat on the ever so soft couches in the booth. A comfort that seemed to drain the tensions of the day simply by sitting on them. Therapeutic at best!

“Yeah, Areh, the owner, does everything possible to make this place friendly to those that come. That includes me, by the way. He’s always been kind to my family. One of the reasons we come here so much. And as for recommendations...hm…” Anna hummed thoughtfully. She was definitely feeling happier now that she was out of school. Add what had happened with Klarion and Laura, and Anna was about the happiest she’d been when not around her direct family. “Get the Youvetsi. It’s really good.” Anna finally said. “And if we get desert, you should try the Baklava.”

Malcolm nodded thoughtfully with a shy smile as he was thinking. “I wonder why i never tried Reussean dishes before... “ He thought as Anna was scrolling through the holographic menu “Wow… it sure does look delicious!” He said as the Hologram was generating artificially the scent of the food in the picture. “And they even have the scent thing in the hologram! This guy is awesome!” Malcolm was baffled.
A sudden clinking sound was heard, as at the feet of young Anna, a weird golden coin manifested. It definitely seemed like a sort of treasure piece from a museum of history, but nobody seemed to be around to actually drop it.

“Yeah, he is.” Then, she heard a clink at her feet. She looked down and saw a golden coin. She picked it up, curious. “What the? Where did this come from?” Malcolm, seemingly distracted by the food pictures continued to chat, not observing, momentarily, that Anna was holding a coin in her hand. “...So how exactly did you get to know the guy?” he asked seemingly absent minded then put the menu on the table as the hologram seemingly merged with the table and became part of it, like a screen almost. Looking at Anna, Malcolm felt a sudden cold sweat fall from his temple, though he wasn’t feeling anxious or tense. A couple of chills ran through his spine. Something was off but he couldn’t quite point to it. He definitely wasn’t associating this with whatever Anna was holding. “Wha…? Huh? Oh… a coin… huh” Malcolm was confused for the first time. He seriously didn’t want to use his powers now, he just wanted to be normal for once.
“Maybe somebody dropped it?” He asked, ignoring his supernatural senses.

“Who? There’s no one close to us. I just heard it drop...Maybe I kicked it, but that has a sound too...Here’s the thing. I don’t know a lot about currency. But this isn’t any kind of coin I’ve seen before. Our best bet would be to take it to the currency museum nearby and see if we can find anything that matches…” Anna frowned at the coin, confused.
“Well sure thing you are lucky today…” Malcolm commented “I mean it looks like a pristine gold coin, if it is a historical piece they can surely reward you with something.” He joyfully added. Then as the hairs on his back stood up, he simply brushed his neck with his hand, ignoring the supernatural element yet again. “So… Can you believe how far we’ve come? From using golden coins to virtual credits transferred by holographic chips?” He seemed to unintentionally draw attention away from the event, not that he knew much of it either.

As they were facing the coin and chatting a waitress arrived at the table, she seemed to be a new employee, and not very prepared for Anna, and what’s most, Malcolm was distracted enough that he would forget to share the emotional masking with the waitress.
“Hello, and welcome to Areh’s… eh… uh... “ She was struggling as she became confused, her emotions were shifting already despite only being here for a few seconds “Sorry… I need to… I apologise, i’m new, i must have an anxiety attack for no reason. Did you decide what you would like to order today?”

“We have.” Anna stated, doing her best to ignore the waitress’s confusion. Though she gave the waitress a reassuring smile. She gave the waitress their orders, and said to Malcolm, “Normally I’d recommend a Reussean drink here, but they make an excellent Chai Tea. I’d recommend it, if you’re a tea drinker.”
“Yes! I LOVE Chai!” He said while noticing the waitress and became thoughtful as to what had just happened again. Surely he needed to do some research and ask his uncle about these incidents. Finishing, Malcolm turned towards the waitress and waved his hand beneath the table seemingly inducing relaxation in the waitress so as not to make her panic or act unruly because of her confusion. “I will be getting the Chai then… what’s your name?...” He looked at the badge “Karren! You have an awesome day!”
Karren seemingly becoming slightly more relaxed, she responded “Thank you si.. Sir! I will try.” She was obviously young, a 18 year old maybe? But she immediately left to deliver the orders without staying too long for a chat, as waiters are usually asked to do in order to help with inducing the friendship vibe.
“I actually drink Chai almost every morning with my uncle Jacob. He’s really chill and funky like that.” He chuckled

Anna laughed. “Yeah, I like it a ton too, though I don’t drink it that often.” She shrugged. “The new waitress is nice enough, though. They’re good people here. What do you want to do after this?”
“I definitely like spending as much time outdoors, exploring and taking in as much of the place I live in as possible. I don’t know, I think it’s a habit I developed since we moved this often. How about you? What’s your relationship with your dad and mom?”

Anna cocked her head at Malcolm curiously. “It’s great. Mom and dad have always been my greatest support. Mom taught me to love the stars, and always seems to know what those around her are feeling. I mean, it’s not just the three of us, there’s also my brother, who I’m really close to as well. Dad’s always been so warm and loving too. What about you? I mean, I kinda get the impression you aren’t a big fan of your family…”

The stars are an increasingly more appealing subject to more and more E’trians as they are preparing to start colonising their solar system and even attempt to move beyond. Though this is a fact, not many are heard talking often about them, even so, the parents of Anna seem to enjoy the subject the most above all else. Jacob, though Malcolm didn’t seem to talk too much about, also has an interest in the stars… more precisely the universe as a whole. A sorcerer always does.
The million planets orbiting this star alone were enough hustle for the early astronomers to deal with and catalogue for at least 5 centuries since more advanced space technology was developed. The goldilock zone alone, has some tens of thousands of worlds, harmoniously orbiting and benefiting from the main star’s warmth, and liquid water exists on many of them… In fact a few thousand of them are full of life, almost equal to E’Tria itself, though at a much more primal state. A few probes have been already sent to them, and no evidence of native intelligence was found, though granted, the size of these worlds is a big impediment when trying to survey them better, if they haven’t even fully surveyed their home world.

The 5 desert moons around E’Tria have been the go to locations for easy space exploration, as these have been even the setting where the early astronauts set foot on. Though the wet and dry shifts in the atmosphere of these moons has not left much of a mark only a few decades later and even the first early lander began to rust and decay.

Malcolm thinking on what Anna told him, and the earlier discussion on how her parents are more interested in the stars, thought about the habitable planets of this solar system. “Have you ever wondered if there might be other civilizations sharing the goldilock zone of our star?” he inquired thoughtful

Anna didn’t miss the way he’d avoided answering her question. “It’s always possible,” she replied. “I mean, where there is the possibility for life, there is likely life. Possibly even intelligent and sentient life. But we really have no way of knowing for sure. Until we make it into space. If you want my opinion, I think there are other species out there that we just haven’t discovered yet. All we need to do is reach out, beyond our planet to find the truth.” The longing in her voice is clear as she speaks.
Malcolm didn't know what to say about his family… That they were cold? That they were secretive even from him? That they were sorcerers and that magic was a real thing? He could not but avoid answering naturally. But then again, he really liked Anna so he tried

“Sorry about drifting to the stars and not answering your question… by now, you probably know a lot after my rants… My mom and dad are cold and focused only with their work, even my brothers are frustrated at this. We didn’t receive much care as we grew up, and we managed to find whatever affection my uncle knew to share. We cared for each other aside from the essentials that my parents provided. I can’t really be too scornful though, as they did grant each one of us a five billion dollar account to do with as we liked but preferably to help us develop as future businessmen…” He trailed off realising he was ranting again, then realising the longing in Anna’s voice “So you want to be an astronaut then?” He asked curiously then added joyfully “I would like to explore our world first… i don’t know how much that’ll take me, but surely there’s a lot to see here!”

Anna nodded at Malcolm’s answer about his family. “I probably shouldn’t have asked.” Then in response to his question, “Not an astronaut exactly...I want to fly a ship among the stars and discover other worlds. I know the Air Force has a program. I mean…” Anna hesitated. “It’s silly. And a little bit crazy too. But I always felt I belong out there. Not here. Mom would tell you the same thing. I guess...it runs in the family…”

In the forest just beyond the town, the massive trees were swaying back and forth and some even falling down. What sounded like a loud bark accompanied by a hiss came from that direction. As the location of this place was fairly close to the outer edge. Something was approaching the city… Something big...
Meanwhile Anna and Malcolm were sitting down, ignorant of what was about to attack the city, below, a strange man lay kneeling at the base of a building in a back alleyway of the underground city. Through the rough metal buildings and pylons, dirty environment, this underworld was known to be a place where all forms of scoundrels were living. He might even have dealt with some form of piracy in his time. Maybe still does. Because his house is unusually nice and ordered, in contrast to the vast majority of slums in this region of the under-city. There are underground parks and gardens artificially grown, but all light here is artificial and a bit irritating, as not much care is put in this place, but many E’Trians would call such places home, where they could stay away from the common society, where they could deal in whatever they liked, despite them being illegal or frowned upon.

Argahm remained still and silent whilst on his knees, holding his hands in a worshipful stance, his cloak soaked in water as he sat. His cybernetic arm caught slight glints of light, but much of his surroundings remained concealed in darkness, his Electrokinesis keeping the lights around him off. He felt content, worshiping his deity, Faar'Nokthus. For a few minutes this continued, but suddenly, he was hit with a great sense of dread and despair, his conscious mind taken from this place and brought towards the nearby jungle. It was Faar'Nokthus warning him of imminent danger. He could see giant slithering tendrils of great size and scale, secreting a thick, gooey substance, almost like that of a giant snail… But before he could get any more details, he was ripped away again and thrown back into his body once more. He gasped heavily and stood quickly, shooting up from his stance. He began backing out of the alleyway slowly, letting the lights slip back on. “Find help... GET HELP! A GREAT CALAMITY IS COMING! FIND HELP!” He started shouting as he began to run around the streets of the undercity, yet the people around him laughed and looked at him like he had gone mad. A drunken security officer, of what looked like a brothel of sorts, looked at him and began to laugh. “Is that Argahm I see?.... AAHHAHAHA! Dude… Tis your buddy, George… Are you tripping on your stuff again? What’s gotten into you… You need to chill down on your worship thing… Haven’t you heard? Deities are a myth... “ he continued to chuckle as he poured the bottle down his throat. “George! George George George… There’s… A great calamity on its way… And it will hurt a lot of people unless we do something about it fast! You're an officer, right? Get the police, get the military… Get everything we have!” Argahm pleaded as he ran over to George. “Get off me dude! HICK! Before I call the mental health service… I might… Burp… I might respect you and all… But seriously?” George responded in disbelief and drunkenness, then continued. “You know what… I'll go and tell somebody here that this is happening, if you give me whatever you smoked that made you act like this… hahahahaha… burp…” He threw himself on his swinging hammock. “No George… I’m not smoking anything! I…” He paused and looked around for anybody sticking their nose in their conversation, then turned back. “I was shown by Faar’Nokthus… I know it sounds crazy but you have to…” He was suddenly interrupted by a sudden quake in the structure of the city. “Brooommm… Screeeeeaahhh!” An echoing screech, accompanied by a bark could be heard just outside the underground entrance. Whatever this was it was near. “It’s here… IT’S HERE! FIND SOMEWHERE TO HIDE! I'M GETTING SOMEONE TO FIX THIS!” Argahm shouted as he ran off again.

On the surface, as Malcolm was eating with Anna, he could sense something was off. He turned towards Anna opening his eyes wide “Something is not right; look!” he pointed to a glass of juice on the table, which was visibly shaking due to a low rumble.

Anna looked, and saw the rumbling. “I see it. Where is that coming from? There aren’t any earthquakes going on. Nothing that was predicted anyway, and I know for a fact this city wasn’t built in a place likely to have them. We should probably find out what’s going on. Or...we could talk a bit more, if we want. I mean, it’s just a tremor after all…”