When Fen finally woke up the Void Spawn invasion was over. Most of the Void Spawn were successfully eliminated and the swarm outside the facility was dealt with by the many Stage five and four Empowered nearby, though it took them some time and multiple injuries to do so. However, among their ranks, there were little to no casualties thanks to the Healers who got off their asses for once and started doing their Foundation-assigned work.
The damage done to the facility was horrendous. Entire sections of the imposing black fortress had been reduced to nothing more than rubble from the rampaging energy of some of the Empowered's attacks, but even that had been the result of them holding back some of their power to reduce the damage. The Archons gave orders to preserve as many of the candidates and as much of the facility as possible, but the main priority was eliminating the rest of the Void Spawn to prevent their pool of candidates from dwindling any further.
Fen's eyesight was blurry from the pain racking his body, but his head didn't hurt as much as it did before when his entire body squeezed every ounce of energy to fight. Now, his pain had died down to a dull and ever-present ache.
"Auoh..." Fen groaned as he rubbed his eyes and spread his senses to his surroundings. Maybe it was because of how tired he was, but the room he was in didn't seem familiar. His brain wasn't fully cooperating as he struggled to piece together the events from before he passed out but he still managed to remember fighting those monsters all the way up until his body gave out. After that... there was a flash of golden light and then-
"Amelia!?" He shot awake and leaped off the bed while his body screamed in protest at his quick movements. But Fen didn't care, he raised his hands in front of him in a fighting stance while sending his Vitality surging around his body to prepare for a fight; his eyes started emitting ghastly green light, enhancing their usual ruthless look.
Before he passed out, the two weapons he had on him while he was fighting weren't nearby, so he manifested two Vital constructs resembling a simple short sword and a dagger in his hands to act as their replacements.
'I don't see any Void Spawn nearby but that doesn't mean they're not there,' Fen thought, gripping his manifested weapons close to him. 'Raisen must have taken us to a safe spot after I passed out, but I don't know if we're safe yet. And... Amelia must be close- there's no way they made a Stage one Mage fight against those monsters.'
His brain was assaulted by the torrent of thoughts as his mind struggled to relax after being in the thick of fighting just before he fell unconscious. But his brain froze after Amelia popped her head in the room, her green eyes widening after seeing him awake and... apparently holding two weapons.
"Oh, you're awake... with weapons. Well, it's not the weirdest thing I've seen you do, so okay, I guess. Look, Fen-"
"Oh thank Heaven you're alright! But, but how? I saw your dead body..." Fen rushed forward in relief, his Vital constructs dissolving back into his body while his joy blotted out the pain his body still felt.
Before she could finish speaking Fen already had her tight within his embrace, his hands gripping her like they were making sure that she was real. He was so exhausted from his fight with the Void Spawn that he could barely discern what was real and what was just a dream, and right now, his mind still felt a little sluggish.
Even his control over his energy felt slower than usual as if fighting for so long and so hard after barely surviving the Task had taken a toll on him. But even if he wasn't in his peak condition, he was still confident that his injuries were nothing that a little time wouldn't heal.
But before he could even finish being happy that his friend was alive and not dead, Amelia pushed away from his embrace and looked at him with tired eyes.
She smiled weakly at how happy he was to see her but then her expression took on a bitter feeling as she said in a weary voice, "Fen... We need to talk. A lot happened while you were recovering. The monsters, the Void Spawn or whatever the fuck the Foundation calls them... they're all dead but so many people..."
Fen stiffened at her words before his legs wobbled and gave out from under him, making him land back on the bed. He was confused for a moment before he leaned to the side and started looking behind her, the obvious question in his head crushing the happiness in his heart as reality looked him in the eyes.
"Where's...? Oh. Oh no." He looked at her face, her eyes, searching for a different answer than what he suspected was the truth. "Please. I tried so hard. I just- how could you be okay if they- it's not possible."
His voice broke and suddenly his eyes blurred again from tears that threatened to swell up from within him. But despite his begging, Amelia remained silent. After a moment of silence, she sat down on the bed next to him and placed her hand on top of his head.
With a wave of her hand, a wave of magical energy swept away his tears before she said, "I know you tried. The Foundation lady, Yuki, she told me how hard you fought to get to me, and there was nothing that you could have done differently. Even if you chose to find Gray and Qin first, the monsters already swarmed that area long before any Executioner patrol could reach it."
It was like a cloud of cotton suddenly wrapped itself around his head. Even though his ears could hear her words his mind refused to recognize them as the truth.
Fen whispered in disbelief, "But I just saw them. I didn't- I didn't even say goodbye."
A day hadn't even passed since the last time he saw them. He remembered the scared looks on their faces from the fear of dying, but they shouldn't have died in the Tasks- not after Fen constantly sparred with them. They had the strength to beat other Opfer.
His hands tightened into fists. "But if they died from the Void Spawn, then they succeeded in the Task... Why?! They deserved to live! They fought for it! They earned it! The Foundation couldn't even protect the people who won in the Tasks?!"
"There was nothing to be done," she said, her voice hoarse. "Nobody could have predicted this."
Amelia wrapped her hand around his, her warm touch reminding him that he wasn't alone. But her calm charade crumbled and warm tears started running down her face too as the two of them shared in grieving for their two friends that they'd gotten to know so well during the Program. Gray, who was the kindest and most warmhearted person he'd ever met. Qin, who always put up a stony facade but was really just as scared as the rest of them.
They sat like that for a while, neither of them having the energy to say anything. Fen had bared his heart to the two of them hours before the Task, letting them in through the thick veil he wrapped around himself for self-protection. They were his friends. They weren't close, but they could have been closer if they were given more time. But none of that mattered anymore.
After a while Fen's voice broke the silence, saying, "Their families."
"Yeah?"
"We have to survive. We have to tell them how hard they tried."
She turned her head and looked at him, shocked at the cold look in his eyes. Just a moment ago, his face was filled with sadness and he could barely even look at her, but now his gaze was full of ferocity, staring with hate at something that she couldn't see. He opened his mouth to speak again but another person came through the door.
"Oh? Am I interrupting something?" Raisen joked before wiping the smile off his face after sensing the gloomy atmosphere inside the room. "What happened?"
Fen's gaze relaxed at the sight of his instructor but his voice was still tense as he said, "Qin and Gray are dead, Raisen. I'm not in the mood right now."
"Well tough shit. Get off your ass. Ellora needs to see you, now." His serious tone was enough to tell Fen that he wasn't joking.
Frowning, he got off the bed after mumbling something under his breath about how he couldn't even catch a break- even after something as significant as the Void Spawn invasion. "Can she come with us? I don't want to leave her alone right now." He pointed with his chin at Amelia.
Amelia perked up after Fen mentioned her while Raisen frowned. The old Knight looked at the two of them appearing to think about something- another surprising event- before he pulled Fen to the side to explain the situation.
"I think it's best that she stays here. The damage done to the facility and the candidates during the Void Spawn invasion was... extensive." Raisen winced just thinking about the losses. "This facility lost so many candidates that the previous way of doing the Tasks won't work anymore, so Ellora's calling you over to discuss some changes that could be made to the Program here because you're the best Opfer that she can trust to make the hard decisions. Having her there would just make the whole thing last longer because she won't understand the necessity for these changes like you.
"None of the Opfer who met with Void Spawn survived except for a small handful, and you're the only one who managed to put up a fight and even kill some of them so you understand their strength. Just imagine the massacre that will happen on Earth when hordes of those monsters descend on the world ready to devour everything that moves. Do you really think that the Opfer are capable of protecting the world as they are now?"
Fen grimaced after hearing the question. He thought back to Amelia's expression when she exited the Task. She wasn't afraid of the dead monsters surrounding her, and she certainly didn't prepare for a fight even when she knew that there were monsters nearby.
"... They just need more time. By the time the Program ends they'll be ready," he answered, but his voice lacked the confidence that his words had.
Raisen snorted at his pitiful response, pressing, "Well you may believe that but the rest of us don't. That's why Ellora needs to speak to you and you alone."
"...Fine."
Fen turned back to Amelia and said with an irritated expression, "I'll be back after a while. Just get some rest, okay? You probably haven't slept much."
Although Fen didn't notice before, there were dark bags under her eyes like she hadn't slept- and she probably hadn't, not after the stress of the Task and finding out that two of her Squad mates were killed in the Void Spawn invasion. The strong and tough Amelia from the beginning of the Program was gone, and in her place was a delicate girl who needed some rest after everything she had experienced.
She protested, "But what about you? You need to rest-"
"I slept plenty." He cut her off. "It won't be long."
He managed to convince her with a thin smile. She did a small nod and stepped away, finding an empty bed in one of the rooms.
With some final parting words, Fen left and entered the facility's dark corridors walking alongside Raisen on the way to the Archon of the Opfer.
****
"What's with the new office?" Fen gestured to the half-destroyed room where Ellora and Yor were waiting for him in. "Getting some work done or something? Replacing some old pipes, perhaps?"
He snickered at the glare his joke earned him before smoothing over his expression.
Ellora took a deep breath before starting to speak. "As you are already aware, the Void Spawn invasion was a disaster that's causing a lot of problems even after killing all those damned beasts. More than 34% of the facility was destroyed and needs at least two months to recover even with the help of some magic engineers, and we lost a little under half of the Opfer because of how unprepared we were. But the VPF still needs Guardians to protect the planet, and the loss of even a single facility's worth of potential Guardians is not acceptable."
"And you need me to help you fix this? I didn't even go to college." Fen gave her a weird look after assuming what they needed from him.
"Heavens, no. You're worse than Raisen, if I let you help me this whole facility would just become one huge dumpster fire. At least he's somewhat experienced with managing people, but he still sucks. No offense by the way."
"None taken, I don't want to help you anyways," Raisen responded, rolling his eyes. He was a fighter, he didn't have the mind for management nor the patience.
Fen narrowed his eyes. "...So what do you need me for?"
"Fuu. Well. As the strongest Opfer in the facility and probably the entire Program, as the Archon of the Opfer, I am asking you for a favor." Ellora slumped on her chair with a depressed expression. "How far I've fallen to need help from a Stage two Empowered... Ahem, anyways."
She got back onto her train of thought after seeing the annoyance building up inside the youth in front of her.
"I need you to motivate all the Opfer to work harder. Support the ones who work hard to get stronger and deal with the ones who are still lazy after giving them so many opportunities to get stronger. Before you say anything," Ellora cut Fen off before he could interrupt her about the ridiculousness of her request saying, "most of the Executioners and instructors will be busy with reconstructing the damaged parts of the facility, and the Opfer won't listen to us because they already see us as a controlling third party. In most of their eyes, we're already the bad guys.
"What they need," She continued, "is a villain. Someone to hate. With someone like that, they'll all grow stronger just like what we need until the end of the Program. But the problem with this 'villain' is that they need to be someone with a clear reason behind their actions. They need to be powerful enough to motivate all the Opfer candidates to get off their lazy asses and get stronger by taking advantage of the energy surrounding them in this damnable dimension.
"With such a small number of candidates and the unbalanced ratio between Opfer and Chosen, we'll have to make serious changes to the Tasks so we need something- or someone, to instill the fear of death into them. Ergo, the villain."
Fen took a moment to absorb what she was trying to say, his mind digesting the new information given to him. "So... you want me to become a villain? Why the hell would I do something like that?"
Honestly, he could see the point behind her words. He understood that the Opfer would lose all motivation to gain more strength if there wasn't something like the Tasks to motivate them, but what he didn't understand was why the Foundation needed an Opfer to become that motivation. It would be much easier to simply use two or three Executioners and make them into these so-called 'villains' instead, so why didn't they?
"If we give you enough benefits, you think you can do it?" Ellora raised her eyebrows at his explicit language. "Don't you think your image of us is a little twisted? Of course, we won't ask you to do something like this and not give you some sort of compensation for your efforts, but it all depends on what you want."
Yor came to the desk after remaining silent for so long and spread a list of documents on them, all of them containing information about resources that could stimulate his energy and help his growth.
"You want power, right?"
Fen frowned, taking a moment to browse through the list of items before answering. "Of course power is good, but..."
He raised his eyes to Ellora's face, trying to discern the emotions hidden within her eyes. At the beginning of the Program he completely believed that this woman was insane, a sadist only good for her power, but it seemed his initial impression was wrong.
She was dangerous. A fanatic who fully believed in the Foundation's goal of the Succession. She didn't care about his life, her acts of giving him an Executioner escort and warning him about the factions inside the Foundation and even their small friendly interactions were all because of his potential as a powerful Guardian.
Fen remembered all the times when she spoke about her deep love for the Opfer. Thinking about it now, it all made sense. As a fanatic, of course she would care; they weren't people to her but instead small seeds that could sprout and be harvested by the Foundation into proper soldiers.
He leaned in closer, asking in a low voice, "What exactly do you need me to do? Enough bullshitting, you know that I'll do anything to get back home. If you give me enough resources, I'll do whatever you want, even become the devil."
The deaths of Qin and Gray reminded him how fragile life was, and that anything could happen. If he wanted to protect the people he cared about he needed power, and right now the Foundation was in the perfect position to help him gain that power. It would be a mutualistic beneficial relationship.