While the entire kingdom of Veland was in turmoil, Draven entered an abandoned steel factory. The steel factory was spacious enough to hold hundreds of people. For several years the factory was one of the busiest places in Veland. But now, the only occupants of the warehouse were cobwebs, cockroaches, and a hoard of rats running freely around the place.
Draven pushed open the rusty metal door and was welcomed by a blast of dust to his face. Additionally, he noticed hundreds of blinking eyes staring at him and dust-covered machines that had stopped working long ago. The bats hanging on the chains in the ceiling suddenly bolted out through the large hole in the corroded roof.
"This should do, temporarily," Margoth appeared above Draven's shoulder. His head rotated in a full circle, scanning the entire factory.
"What do you mean temporarily? I thought we're gonna settle down here," Sarah asked while walking towards the empty space in the middle, followed by Draven. The strong scent of rust, fecal matter of rats, bats, and other kinds mixed with the smell of mud entered their nostrils.
Sarah's nose twitched as he navigated through the machines and rat feces to reach the open space at the center. Then, Draven opened up the wooden crates he was dragging one by one.
"We need something untraceable, unreachable, and always on the move," Draven said while taking out the big mirrors one by one from the wooden crate.
"You mean like an airship?" asked Sarah. Her tiny hazel eyes couldn't hold the shock within.
"Not an airship. A warship" Margoth's eyes sparkled as he licked his lips after he heard Draven,
"I have on good authority that there is a warship stationed at the Port City,"
"I don't want to know what happened to this good authority," Sarah just shook her head and joined in helping Draven take out the devices.
Under the sound of raindrops beating the old metal roof, they worked together to set up a workspace for Sarah. Almost an hour later, Sarah took out a glass cube containing a bright blue light.
"Now it's time to power it up," Sarah grabbed the two golden wires running around the five monitors set up in a curved style for a better view and plugged the wires into the cube in her hand.
Zzzzzzhhhhhhhhhhhh!
As soon as she plugged the two wires, the five monitors flickered and the four glass boxes containing complicated wirings, tiny nuts and bolts, and several components lit up, producing a whistling sound.
The flickering continued until all five monitors lit up, showing blue screens. Looking at the empty blue screens, Sarah tapped the keys on the wooden board on the table before her.
"Welcome back, Lone Ranger,"
Draven and Margoth heard a generic emotionless voice of a woman coming from the monitors. When they looked up, they saw the screens showing a black fox's head above the two words 'Lone Ranger'
"We are online. But we are not closer to a UFH substation. So I cannot give you any support from here. Unless we plug this into a server crystal in a substation," Sarah picked up a button size copper coin from the table,
"Once we plug this into a server crystal, I can hijack the very main server crystal of UFH,"
"Once we do this, can you locate whoever we want?" Margoth asked,
"If UFH has their whereabouts, I can. Not only that, we will have access to all their information, including identities of the masked vigilantes, heroes, villains, their strengths, their weaknesses, everything,"
For a few moments, Draven just stared at the blue screen without uttering a word,
"But it's not going to be easy. A substation will be heavily guarded by the elites," Draven said as Sarah nodded,
"Also, there are several defense mechanisms and arrays designed by Sorcerer King and Roland Masters,"
Hearing the build-up in her voice, Margoth rolled his eyes,
"Who the fuck are they?"
"Sorcerer King Benedict is, as his name suggests, a sorcerer. Rolan Masters is one of the greatest minds in the world. So when these two came together to form defense arrays, it's near impossible to hack or break into"
She paused for a moment until her lips slightly curved upwards,
"But all these arrays and defense mechanisms need power. If we manage to interrupt the power flow, the defense mechanism will go down,"
All the devices, defense mechanisms, and stations in Etheria were powered by Etherian Energy. However, unlike electricity on earth, only a few organizations and people had access to Etherian Energy.
Through a complex process, the noble families mined etherian crystals and extracted the energy stored within. These crystals were the only source of Etherian energy and those families controlling the crystal mines practically controlled the world from the shadows.
"The power source is located within King Richard's castle,"
"Isn't that convenient?" Margoth exclaimed,
"I can get into the castle, interrupt the power. Then, you can go into the substation and plug the coin into the server crystal. Do you think you can do that?"
"I have a choice?"
"No," Margoth snarled at Sarah as she sighed,
"Get some shut-eye. We will go out in the morning" Draven grabbed the hay inside the wooden crates and put it on the ground in the shape of a bed so Sarah could rest.
After completing the hay bed, Draven touched his rib cage, pressing the hidden buttons to remove the armor.
"Argh" Draven growled as dark lines appeared on his face. He closed his eyes for a second, gritting his teeth. Sarah could see how much pain he was in by looking at his face.
When he removed the armor covering his upper body, Sarah couldn't help frowning. On his body, she saw several bruises and dark blood clots. Along with the numerous burn wounds and scars on his body, these bruises reminded Sarah of what he was going through to get revenge.
Draven took several steps toward the old steel processing machine and sat on the ground, leaning on the machine. He put the armor on the ground,
"How long do you plan to do this?" Sarah sat on the hay, and on her face, one could see her concern for Draven.
"Until I draw my last breath,"
"Don't die, idiot. You think suitable hosts grow on trees?" Margoth sneered,
Instead of responding to Margoth, Draven closed his eyes and tried to heal his body. Unfortunately, he could feel pain in every single fiber of his body.
"Your family wouldn't want this for you," Sarah said,
"Don't pull that card, Sarah. Nothing you will say or do would stop me. They will die, every last one of them" the bone-chilling cold voice of his sent shivers through her spine. Yet again, she was getting used to his murderous face. Only, it was tough for her to see the hero she used to look up to fall into such depth of murderous spree, and thinking that she was also the reason for his state drilled her soul from within.
"Now sleep. We have a big day tomorrow,"
After hearing his words, Sarah knew there was no point in talking to him. It was too late and she knew it. The only thing she could do to redeem herself was to help him.
Margoth waited for an hour silently until Sarah fell asleep. On the hay bed, she curled into a ball and slept peacefully despite her nightmarish day.
Only then did Margoth turn his cold gaze towards Draven,
"Open your eyes. I know you aren't sleeping" Margoth growled as Draven slowly opened his eyes to look at him,
"What was what?"
"The sounds I've been hearing sounds. Legend increased, the host has received points. Has that thing inside you evolved?"
Draven saw Margoth frowning and sensed a slight tremble in his voice,
"Yes, and I know you heard everything. You know just as much as I do"
Margoth sighed,
"The potion it gave you, Draven. I sensed powerful energy coming from the potion. The energy was more powerful than any of the ancient gods I've met,"
Draven had no response to Margoth's words,
"And we have something that could get powerful things just like that. With this, we have a chance"
Margoth pondered in silence for a few minutes before opening his mouth,
"If we pull out cards right, we may even have a chance to revive me and get me a physical form. So pull your shit together. No more suicidal battles from now on"
Draven tilted his head and creased his brows,
"You are advising me against suicidal battles? Every battle we went through was suicidal. We barely survived the void and you always urged me to jump into battle,"
"Yes, I did. But now we have an ultimate power Draven. You, me, and the system, we can take back this universe from the ancient gods. Even better, we can get your family back,"
Draven's mind went blank, and his heart skipped a beat. To get his family back, he would do anything. But Draven's mind kept reminding him that he couldn't revive the dead. Still, the words system told him perplexed his mind,
"Anything is possible,"