"What did they call us here for?" Orphinia said while looking around at the amphitheater. The number of people crowding into one room scared her but there was a significant loss of people compared to the beginning of the Program. The last time so many Opfer were called in here was at the beginning of the Program when they were all told that their life was going to change for the worst, so of course, most of them had bad memories about this place and weren't very keen on gathering here again.
There were a lot fewer of them inside because of the high number of casualties stemming from the Void Spawn invasion, but it was still cramped from the different energies some Opfer produced. In the short time span of two months, most of them had already advanced into Stage one Empowered and were able to manipulate their energy. Right now, many of them were using their Mana to warn the other Opfer to stay away.
If there weren't any Executioners nearby keeping the peace, Orphinia had very little doubt that a fight would have already broken out from the stressed-out candidates.
She was alone in the crowd with no one she recognized nearby. Marcus went along with a few Executioners and her Squadmate, Preacher... he just left her alone and ignored her calls. She had changed a lot from the shy girl at the beginning of the Program, but when faced with a strange and dangerous environment like this tension-filled amphitheater she couldn't help but regress into that same shy girl.
[Welcome everyone. I hope that you didn't have any trouble finding the Amphitheatre, especially after all the changes made to the facility for the sake of rebuilding.] A loud voice suddenly came from all corners of the room before the familiar figure of Archon Ellora appeared on the center stage.
[Now, I know you all want to keep this short and go back to your rooms to do whatever, but I have several important announcements to make, so make sure to get comfortable.]
Several Opfer grumbled to themselves but quieted down after remembering the sight of the Archon electrocuting them. Those that experienced her punishment themselves shivered before hiding themselves in the crowd so the Archon couldn't see them.
[Firstly. Many Squads have lost a lot of their members so the first thing on the agenda is to reorganize the Squads. This event was supposed to occur halfway through the Program, but thanks to some... interesting... events... we've had to push these up. Please, follow your name and locate the other members of your Squad within the room, and you'll be given adequate time to do so. And by adequate, I mean that you should hurry unless you want the Executioners to 'assist' you in your search.]
Some of the Executioners standing by the sides of the room brandished their weapons as if to give them an example of what their 'help' looked like.
Immediately after her announcement, the amphitheater erupted into chaos as all the Opfer scrambled to find their new Squad members. The action of merging Squads became much more intense after the VPF added the threat of Executioner assistance into the mix.
"Who the hell is Bob Smith? Did your parents hate you, or did they just lose a bet?"
"Natha'guel?! There's no way you're not a cultist."
"Hey, my parents put a lot of thought into my name! And they love me a lot... probably. You know what, shut up!"
The Archon smiled to herself when she saw the scene. Of course, she did regret that this event of merging the different Squads came sooner than planned but she really did have no other choice. They couldn't get more candidates once the Rift closed because the Void dimension essentially sealed them off from the Earth, so this was their best attempt at consolidating their remaining resources and getting back onto the schedule of creating combat-ready Guardians.
"Hi... I'm Orphinia." She nervously stuck her hand towards the red-haired girl standing in front of her. According to the projection from the interface, her name was Amelia, but it was always better to be polite, especially now when everybody left in the Program had killed someone. No matter how good of a person they were back on Earth, the action of taking a life changed you.
The two of them met up after searching through the crowd and took a seat near the edge of the amphitheater to catch a break from the rest of the chaos surrounding them from the other candidates rushing to find their new Squadmates.
Amelia took her hand and shook it firmly, taking deep breaths to recover her lost stamina. "Awesome. Just... give me a second..."
As a Stage one Mage, Amelia had a body stronger than ordinary people but that didn't matter much when she pushing through a crowd of other similarily-strong Stage one Empowered.
After recovering her breath she swept a wave of magical energy across her body to wash away her sweat, wincing as small bruises formed all over her body from being bumped into by so many people.
"I'm Amelia, but you know that already. Do you know where your other Squadmate is? I didn't see him anywhere in the crowd." Just to be sure, Amelia looked one last time in the large crowd for anybody matching Marcus' description in the interface before sighing in disappointment.
"Ah, he went with some Executioners before they called us here. I don't know where he is now, but he should be back later."
Orphinia thought there'd be some curiosity on her new Squadmate's face, but was surprised to see she simply accepted her words with a nod.
"Did the same thing happen to your Squadmate?" After thinking about it, she realized why Amelia wasn't surprised; they probably shared the same circumstances. After all, she couldn't see this 'Fen' guy anywhere near them either.
"Yeah, but he went with his instructor or something and not the Executioners."
But that wasn't the only strange thing about their Squad; the number of members within a single Squad significantly increased with the merging, with almost every Squad having ten members. Theirs only had four, however; her, Amelia, Marcus, and Fen.
Before they could talk more the Archon's voice blared across the room again.
[Alright! Now that you've all found your Squads either with assistance or by yourself, it's time to move onto the next thing on the agenda... So, as I'm sure you're all dying to know, I'm going to explain how the Tasks are going to work from now on. The loss of so many Opfer candidates left this facility incapable of performing the Tasks the usual way like everyone else, so we created something new to reduce the loss of life.]
Suddenly four blue portals opened up next to the Archon, and Chosen armored in glistening golden heavy plate armor stepped forward and revealed themselves.
The silence created by the Archon speaking shattered as all the Opfer struggled and pushed one another to get as far away from the stage as possible; nobody was willing to be closer to the Chosen than they absolutely had to be. They were the direct enemy of the Opfer, and many of them had lost their Squadmates to them in the Tasks.
Ellora snickered, and the sound reverberated throughout the room thanks to her voice being magical enhanced. [Don't panic too much. I just told you that we were going to minimize the loss of life as much as possible, or did you already forget that? This is just to show you their strength. Think of this as us trying to motivate you. All of you, except for one, have yet to experience their strength, so, Fen, come on out and give them a good demonstration.]
In front of all the Opfer, a tall youth stepped out from the back of the stage and walked forward towards the Chosen. His eyes were the only part of his face that showed any emotion, his eyes narrowing with a ruthless look as he swept his gaze across the four Chosen before settling on a single one.
"Oh." Orphinia turned her head to see Amelia standing strangely still. "That's Fen."
She followed her new Squadmate's pointed finger to see that she was pointing towards the boy standing on stage. For a moment, she didn't understand what Amelia was trying to say.
Orphinia's eyes opened wide and she asked, "That guy? That's Fen? They don't just share the same name?"
The reason she was so surprised was that she knew this guy; he was the one who helped Marcus find her after the first Task; she memorized his face so that if she ever saw him again she could show him her gratitude for helping him find her.
But before Amelia could respond to her questions, a surge of green energy wrapped itself around Fen's body like a second skin, and the youth manifested a green short sword and dagger in his hands with Vitality, holding them in front of him while he lowered his center of gravity.
Pointing his sword at the Chosen he picked out earlier, he muttered loudly enough for everyone to hear him. "Come."
The Chosen in question looked at his comrades around him before laughing loudly like he saw Fen's provocation as nothing more than a joke. The other Chosen around him snickered and chuckled too before they all realized that he wasn't joking, making him frown like somebody who had eaten something sour.
With a bang, another burst of green light exploded out from his armored body and lit up the runes patterned across the white metal forming a clean green aura around him.
Pong!
The Chosen thrust his foot into the ground and rocketed towards Fen, whipping a metal spear out from his side. Based on the amount of strength he used in his attack, it looked like he fully intended on crushing Fen with a single strike so he could preserve his pride as a Chosen.
But even if he did succeed in defeating Fen right away, the damage was done. The very idea of being thought weak enough to be provoked by a mere Opfer candidate was disrespectful.
The watching audience looked on with shock after seeing the amount of energy a single Chosen produced, but they were even more shocked to see that Fen was able to react in time to block the spear piercing through the air towards him. He didn't even have a single piece of armor and his energy output seemed smaller than the Chosen, but that didn't stop him from stepping to the side and tensing his muscles to follow through with a counter.
Some of them even forgot that the reason for the fight was to show them a Chosen's power and instead focused on Fen. They couldn't understand how somebody who'd only been exposed to the Foundation for two months could reach a level of power that enabled them to contend with the Chosen, who'd practically trained their entire lives.
After sidestepping, Fen swept the spear to the side and lunged forward with his short-sword to pierce a hole through the Chosen's armor while a small amount of Vitality condensed on the edge of his weapon.
Smirking, The Chosen allowed the weapon to hit him because he didn't believe that a mere Opfer like Fen would be able to damage the equipment, but the next thing he knew, a sharp pain blazed in his side as the sword broke through the armor's defenses and stabbed through his side and out his back.
The Chosen looked at Fen with rage but his hesitation to react allowed Fen to use the time given to him to exert more strength into his weapon and tear a hole straight through the Chosen's side. Blood sprayed on the stage and the Chosen clutched his side, looking at him like he was some kind of beast for using such a violent method of attack.
Meanwhile, Fen thought with some boredom, 'Kara was better. At least she had some sense of self-preservation.' But he didn't allow his boredom to fill his head with arrogance. If the Chosen had cautiously approached him at the beginning of the fight then the fight would've been much more dangerous, but for some reason, he wasn't aware that Fen had already killed three of his comrades in the earlier Tasks.
That, or he just didn't care.
When Fen observed the Chosen earlier, he was searching for the easiest opponent to defeat. Without his supporting equipment, he didn't have high hopes of winning against a Stage three opponent, but a Stage two Knight like this guy was nothing. Even if he had been an Empowered for much longer than Fen, their initial strengths were at completely different levels in the first place; he was a human while Fen was a Vitul.
His strength originated from perfect genetics using Vital energy technology and genetic modifications, which were enhanced even further from the strong Vital energy circulating through his body.
Even without proper equipment, it was still possible to severely wound a Stage two Empowered, if not kill them outright, in the first few seconds of the fight.
The expressions on the other three Chosen twisted when they realized that the Opfer that challenged one of them had the strength to back it up. They were all at Stage three, a whole Stage of power higher than their Knight comrade, but even they weren't confident at defeating him so cleanly without taking a single hit.
[Well. That was a terrible demonstration, don't you think?] Ellora's cold laugh echoed through the amphitheater.
[But no matter how disappointedly weak that Chosen was, how many of you believe that you can perform similarly in the same situation? How many of you can even penetrate through that armor? That's the difference between Opfer like you and someone like Fen Altairus.] Using the candidates' shock to his advantage, Fen quietly deconstructed his weapons and absorbed the energy inside them back into his body.
[While you were half-assedly growing your own power thinking you didn't have to work that hard to keep your life, he fought every day in dangerous Scenarios, and sacrificed days of sleep just to understand the principles of Vitality so he could use his energy more efficiently in combat.]
When she finished speaking, nine other Opfer walked out the back of the stage. One of them had to step around the pool of blood the wounded Chosen made, but otherwise, it was a great entrance. All of them had a ruthless look on their eyes similar to Fen's, with varying degrees of disdain written across their faces as they stared at the Chosen in front of them.
Unlike Fen, they had never fought a Chosen before, but that didn't mean they never encountered one.
"Marcus?" Orphinia surprise at seeing the appearance of the youth who helped her after the first Task multiplied manifold after she recognized the pale face of her Squadmate mixed into the ten Opfer on the stage.
The ten candidates understood how lazy most of the Chosen were from their experiences. Most of them were comparable to spoiled brats, thinking along the lines of, 'Why should we train more when we've already grown this strong? Who the hell can beat us now?'
The Archon smiled as she waved to the ten Opfer alongside her.
[These are your Principalities. Just like for Heaven, they will assist and guide you to eradicate any traces of your laziness, forcing you to become stronger like the Guardians you will become.]
[Every day, they'll 'educate' you on your own weakness. If you lose, half of your points will be given to the Principalities that performed your educating. The Tasks will not continue every month, but will instead occur every two months, and you will only be facing Chosen alongside your new Squads. Your points are essentially your lifeline to buy equipment and items to assist you during the Task, so getting stronger to eventually defeat the Principalities and keep your points should be your goal.]
[Similarly, to preserve the lives of as many Opfer as possible, the Task will be completed only after the Chosen or a single member of your Squad is killed by the opposing force. The Foundation will be monitoring the Tasks from now on so don't try to sacrifice your Squadmates, otherwise we will intervene immediately and execute every one of the perpetrators no matter how high the cost of living is.]
The Opfer looked at one another, finally realizing that the beginning of the Program was just the start of the change in their lives, and their lives would continue to get worse if they didn't put in more effort to grow their strength.
[Of course, we realize the impossibility of you ever being able to defeat one of the Principalities and that's why we put them in Squads with normal Opfer instead of grouping them together.] Fen's expression tightened as the gears inside his mind started to piece together Ellora's intentions.
A green light suddenly burned inside his pupils as he directed his Vitality to enhance his sight to find where Amelia was, searching through the crowd with his enhanced perception. After a moment, he found her near the back of the room standing next to a familiar-looking small girl; his eyes widened slightly after he remembered where she was from.
'The girl from Marcus' Squad? If they're together then that means that Marcus and I are also in the same Squad, but what's the point if-' His thoughts were cut off when Ellora's voice echoed through the crowd again.
[If you manage to kill a single member of the Principalities' Squadmates- just a single one- then they'll be stripped of their authority and you won't have to worry about them taking your points. And you won't have to worry about them getting revenge later either; they won't be allowed to do anything. Even with their Principality authority the worst thing they can do to you is make you feel pain beyond your worst nightmares.]
All ten of the Principalities exploded with energy when they saw the Opfer's eyes drift upwards to search for the names of the people connected to their Squads, but one of the Principalities took it a step further and jumped down into the crowd.
Fen's energy sharpened into ten Vital Spears, pointing their wickedly sharp edge against any Opfer who dared approach him. The searching stares of those looking for their Squadmates stopped when they saw him glance in their direction as if he was omniscient, knowing about their intention to strip them of their authority by killing their Squadmates.
The lone Principality started walking in a direction away from the stage, and when Marcus noticed what direction he was heading he jumped down and quickly joined him.
Soon enough the two Principalities stood in front of Orphinia and Amelia like two guardians, turning around and glaring at any Opfer who stared at them for a second longer than necessary.
Amelia whispered, "Fen, what the hell is going on?"
"I'll explain everything later, but right now, just follow me and Marcus." The two Principalities shared a look before they started walking back onto the stage with Orphinia and Amelia close behind them. They used their energy to dissuade the Opfer from thinking about attacking them, and the candidates turned their gaze to the floor as the two Principalities glared at them with barely hidden rage.
Similar scenes were taking place across the Amphitheater as all the Principalities escorted their Squadmates back onto the Stage.
Another thing the Principalities all had in common was their shared bonds with their Squads. It was a source of motivation for them to grow stronger to protect their Squadmates just as much as it was a way for the Foundation to manipulate them.
Some of the less intelligent Opfer tried pushing through the crowds to get at the Principality's Squadmates but were immediately dealt with; Fen was the most brutal of them all by choosing to drill his Vital Spears into their bodies and forcing everyone else to listen to their screams of pain. If they didn't listen to his threats then he had to give them an example of what would happen to them if they dared go against him.
Fen sighed and mumbled under his breath, "Haa... I'm starting to think like a tyrant. Using fear and brutality to keep others in line."
A glance behind him showed the horrified expressions on both Orphinia and Amelia's faces, but he had no other choice. It was either this or letting the rest of the Opfer take advantage of his weakness to kill them.
Given the option of letting the rest of the Opfer live easier lives and keeping Amelia alive, he didn't regret his choice that might seem selfish to others.