The group from the Order gathered in the room filled with the stone priests. The leader sat beside one of the dark posts of the void gate with his legs crossed. He sat there in silence while painfully concentrating. He couldn't lose his focus. He couldn't let the pain from his wound cloud his mind as he concentrated on balancing the dark energy inside of him.
According to the old texts deciphered by his navigator, he would need to be in complete control of his power. It was necessary if he wanted to have any chance of interacting with the void gate. He didn't know whether he had the strength to successfully do what was only theoretically possible.
'Concentrate… Feel the energy flowing through my body… Through the gate…'
The runes carved into the dark posts of the gate flickered faintly. A dark shadowy mist swirled around the sitting man and thickened in the nearby air. It formed into a funnel shape above him. The flickering gate trembled slightly as the dark funnel was siphoned towards the center of the gate.
It collected into a thick pitch black blob between the posts suspended in the air. Sweat trickled down the man's face as he provided the gate with more of his energy. He felt as if he was being drained to his bones, but he couldn't panic.
If he lost any of his focus then he was unsure what exactly could happen, but it wouldn't be anything good. Even if he was completely drained of his power, he could always recuperate back at the Order. But for that to happen, he needed to get this gate at least somewhat operational.
Their Order had a secret building located up in the mountains near the edge of the continent up North. It was known as the Observatory, a facility that had been developed over the ages to detect anomalies. Anomalies that only the void gates could produce. In the Order's research and experiments they discovered that almost all the gates were connected. They were like a trans-dimensional network that relayed specific information between each other. When one was activated, a hidden essence was created in the others. It was essentially an unworldly code that only the frequency of the void could produce.
He may not be able to fully activate the gate, but if he was able to slightly tamper with its activation then it may be possible to send an encrypted message. He could only hope that those crazy researchers at the Observatory would be able to identify its signal.
The flickering runes on the posts of the gate began to emit white pulsing flashes. His dark energy in the gate began to morph into a black liquid substance that moved to the inner portions of the posts.
The gate was not fully activated even with the vast amount of energy he had provided it with, but it was enough. He successfully gained somewhat of a control over the gate and began to activate and deactivate its glowing posts.
He had sent his message. The question now was whether his comrades would be able to respond in time. It hadn't been long since half of his group had departed to buy them more time against the incoming Romans. He guessed that they were all probably dead by now and he would be as well if this SOS was not properly received.
However, his hopes were answered as the posts of the gate fully activated and remained lit without his intervention.
"It was a success!" Said the navigator as he finally let out his voice after seeing the leader no longer needed to focus.
The leader stood up from the ground and moved away from the activating gate. He was completely exhausted with absolutely no energy left in hsi system. The hungry gate had sucked him nearly completely dry in only the short moment he had spent tinkering with it.
But his sacrifice was worth it as the dark liquid fully manifested between the posts of the illuminated gate. In a mere matter of seconds, the body of a human began to materialize inside of the murky liquid.
The figure fully materialized and stepped forth from the void with more people soon following after. The first person to arrive was a tall thin man with bright red hair and a scar that trailed to the middle of his right cheek from the bottom of his eye.
He wore a red thin robe and had a scarlet bow with metal crimson feathers that poked out between each of its tips and recurve. His sleeveless robe revealed the bright tattoo etched on his left shoulder.
The navigator dropped his jaw in shock after seeing the infamous identifying tattoo. It was a bleeding red sun with the Roman numeral seven in its center impaled by a single blazing arrow. There was only one man in their Order that had this tattoo.
"Descendent of Apollo…" Murmured the navigator in amazement.
The man in question looked around the small room, and instead of greeting the other members, walked over to one of the curious stone priests. He comically stared into its face and poked the stone priest's long nose with his finger.
"Damn this fucker is ugly!" He said as he burst out into laughter.
He pressed his hand against the priest's face and pushed it over, which caused the others behind it to fall in a domino effect. The room instantly became engulfed in a cloud of dust from the disturbance.
"Glad you could make it Apollo." Weakly murmured the assassin leader.
"Oh, Venus! I barely recognized you there, bud!" Said Apollo while fanning the dust away with his hands.
"I guess your ranking after this mission is gonna plummet." Sneered the red-headed archer.
Venus merely sighed in response to his overly energetic associate. This was one of the many reasons why he preferred working alone or with his own people. The Order's main arsenal consisted of the "Descendants", which were basically their generals. He was one of these Descendants, known as the Descendant of Venus, but did not like to associate much with the others since they all had pretty unique personalities.
The Descendant of Apollo, who had come to his aid, was precisely a prime example of these strange people. Due to his more reserved personality, the elders favored him more than the others which did not make things any better for him, but it was out of his control.
The Descendants had adopted this system known as "ranking", which ranked them in terms of their capabilities and position over the others. Each one of them had unique powers that they had directly inherited from their predecessors and often caused friction amongst them.
Your spot in the ranking could be determined in many ways. Mission completion rates, sparring, or even recognition from the higher-ups in the Order influenced their rankings. Venus was ranked lower in the middle range of the ranks at number ten, while Apollo was above him at rank seven.
The ranks did not mean a lot or concern Venus much, though it was annoying when he had to interact with some of the others, who lived and breathed that lifestyle. Apollo being one of them.
"Woah!" Said Apollo before whistling.
"Who gave you that shiner?" He said while pointing towards Venus's missing arm.
Venus grunted in reply and avoided the topic by asking, "What did they say? I still have the artifact in my possession."
Apollo sighed before replying, "The geezers sent me to collect the rest of you guys. But if there was any resistance or disturbance when we got here, I'd be authorized to engage at my personal discretion."
Venus nodded and walked over to the still active void gate.
"Though, they are curious about your little operation you had going on here with the gate." Commented Apollo which caused Venus to stop in his tracks.
Apollo was often seen as the trickster amongst their ranks and he surely lived up to that title. Venus felt a headache beginning to form in his mind as he waved off the troubling words.
"Whatever… Go have your fun. Those Roman bastards should be arriving here soon." Said Venus before leaping into the void.
"Tch… No fun, as always…" Complained Apollo after the departing assassin.
The navigator gulped before walking over to the void gate as well.
"What about you? You gonna stick around for the fun?" Asked the red-headed archer as he gestured towards the navigator.
The navigator shook his head while gripping the old documents closer to his chest.
"Guess it's just us then boys!" Exclaimed Apollo with a blood thirsty grin as the navigator scurried off quickly into the void.
The red robed members snickered amongst themselves and began to prepare their bows and small blades hidden along the sashes at their waists.
"Remember my ranking is on the line here, alright! I don't need any fuck ups ruining the hunt!" Ordered Apollo while he caringly caressed the scarlet bow peaking over his shoulder.
It wasn't every day that he was given the opportunity to hunt the dogs of the empire since the Order assigned him to the more exotic and foreign fronts of their operations. But now, he could play with these Roman fools to his heart's content.
Venus screwing up was also not a frequent occurrence, if even ever at all. He would have to take advantage of this situation as much as he possibly could.
"Everyone ready? Alright, then let's begin the hunt!" He said as he flicked the taught string of his bow with a twang.