"Now that everyone has been introduced, I think its time we dealt with more serious matters." Alice pressed a button and a holographic projection of a city appeared in the air.
Giving a closer look, The ruined buildings as the forest surrounded it, no to mention the immense hole in the sky, as time passed the hole slowly grew wider an wider. Thomas immediately recognized the ruins of A-City, yet when he saw the dimensional rift his eyes showed a hint of disbelief.
'It can't be, why has it changed colors?' Right, the breach not only seemed wider than before, it's also gained a dark red ring of light.
"...." Gazing at the others, he saw similar faces of disbelief.
Alice nodded to herself when seeing the grave look on their faces before continuing. "These images were recorded by the Association Headquarters and transmitted to every team here in Dexia City. The A-city's dimensional rift it has been inactive as long we can remember, but yesterday it began to show changes and grow for the past three months. Unlike most rifts that are smaller and unstable, and usually see that can't keep stay open for more than a few hours, this one was already stable enough to last decades suddenly become active. Something that didn't happen with the even bigger sky rift of London."
Other than Alice, no one spoke even a word. Among all sixteen cities, Dexia City was the one located the closest to the ruins meaning if anything really happen they would be first to face whatever is on the other side of the rift.
Even the deputy-head of Dexia City's association branch seemed to have no idea such thing was happening. "I knew there was something wrong with that rift, but no one told me it was so bad. Chief, how much time do we have?"
Alice seemed to expect such questions and immediately replied. "I knew you would ask that. The headquarters sent me the plans this morning. They believe the rift is not ready to open and that this invasion may happen at the end of this year or beginning of the next so it gives us some time to prepare. Right now the association will be increasing the vigilance in the Vallar Gate and the areas near it. Half of the Adepts in the Human Alliance Forces on mars will head there. As for us, there is a few matters the association Adepts must deal with like the lesser dimensional rifts that may open in city."
Thomas, Katherine and the others discussed a few other things like the several cases where a dimensional rift opened out of nowhere, the past incident during the Adept Selection.
When she reached that point, Alice transmitted a document to their wrist computers. "Now let's move onto something else. Sebastian, you must know about this more than me, so why not you tell them?"
Sebastian opened the document before starting to explain. "The police department contacted us yesterday. It seems there is several unregistered Adepts causing havoc in the city, while we don't know if any of them has some connection to the incident in the selection, the police wanted the Association Head to send five of our teams and some sole Adepts to find out more about these adepts and arrest them if needed."
Alice nodded. "He's right. However, most teams are away this weak and so we and other four teams were chosen for this request. So starting Monday, I want you to patrol the city together with the police. Anything else you may want to know about it is in the document so take some time to read it later. Today's meeting in over."
"Understood." Everybody responded in unison. In the next hour Thomas spend chatting with Sebastian, Katherine and William while the Flame Empress had long since gone.
"Oh it's starting to get late, I returning now."
Parting ways from everybody, Thomas waited some time but there was no car available on the app so he decided to walk a little more and take the bus.
When the bus arrived, Thomas boarded it without any problems. For an instant he had forgotten public transportation was free for Adepts.
Still when the heavy-armored Thomas entered the bus, the gazes of the common people were all locked on him during the entire journey back home. School girls just about his age that seemed to be just returning from school pointed at him and chatted while letting out some occasional giggles. To his sadness, his demonic sense was so good he could clearly hear their words, so much his face turned red with shame.
The silent Thomas then understood why adepts won't take the bus even when it was for free. Not only they would attract the common population's attention, some of the more brave girls might even try to hit on him.
Putting on a pair of earphones, Thomas put on some heavy metal and went to stare at the window while listening to the music.
'One year? Things are worse than I thought. I can't wait after all.' Before the meeting Thomas was thinking of taking it slow as there was little he knew about the system but the news about this crysis that would soon reach his door made him a little restless. Then he thought of the new function he unlocked when advancing onto E-rank.
[Hall of Gods]
Its description was a place when he could communicate with the gods he had affinity with, and while it seemed a bit vague it would be worth trying it out after using his memory pass.
....
Getting back Home, Thomas changed into more comfortable clothes and went to his bedroom. Laying on his bed, he closed his eyes.
"Activate memory pass."
[Alright Master, activating memory pass....]
[By activating a memory pass in the E-rank, master can now choose between one of six gods.]
[Ἀχλύς ,Litia, Nojitar, Gorius, Algorius, Akron. You have five minutes to select one among the six deities.]
'Fuck! Why there isn't a single god I know.' These past few weeks, Thomas had done a lot of study on gods, and the many Pantheons in human Myths hoping it would help him understand this crazy system. Then all of the options that appeared to him belong to gods he never heard of, and probably didn't even belong to Earth or anywhere nearby.
First, no matter who he chose, there was a need to be careful. Among all those names, the chance of choosing a bad deity with some useless power was high. So he decided to pick the one with the most pleasing name and hope fate is on his side.
"I chose Akron!"
Immediately, a notification appeared in his retina.
[The User has selected Akron, The Apex. Initiating the memory....]
His vision turned white and then back, before he knew his body was ejected out of a warm and narrow passage where at the end he could see a thin ray of light.
"Waa, Waah!"
Only when he felt big, purple hand pick up before before Thomas saw a massive purple head staring at him before handing him over to the bosson of a purple-skinned female(?) lying on a bed.
And so this was the second time Thomas had ever experienced being born for a second time.