Budderon was standing in the cockpit of their frigate, Mercian was sitting in the captain's seat, and the monitoring screens were showing a tunnel and a bunch of lights. They were in a jump, it had been over a month since Vathar died.
Indeed, they were notified of his death. Budderon was being thankful to whatever higher power was out there that he was not martial-ed or kicked out of the squad. The captain, was untrue to her name, in a sense that she was not Merciful. Some had been kicked out way less offense than his carelessness. This had cost the life of a team, making things incredibly hard for the captain at the branch.
*Fucking Celestials and their fucking clan.* Budderon was furious, that little Roc was ruthless. He could have let them off after they were defeated but he made it a point to kill them all. This rarely happens, to have an entire team of Void Heaven Operatives massacred, people would give the VHT some face after punishing the stupid operatives.
This was the first time it would happen for their branch, to have an entire team massacred by a sentient, knowing being. And Thanen and the Captain were caught in the middle of the mess. Thanen's original body and many other bodies had been killed but one survived. This one was preserved by the Roc there was evidence of the whole mess lying in the Manor the Roc left behind.
"Fucking bastard..." Budderon muttered, vexed by the Roc, the bastard stole a battleship of their team. The bastard seems dead set on making the Captain carry his black smelly pot.
"Do Not Die!" Mercian growled in response to Budderon's mutter, "Bastard! Your carelessness cost us a team and you dare blame someone ELSE?!!!"
"I fucking can't wait to see that bitch's face..." She muttered, very annoyed.
"We are at our stop." The pilot called out a few moments later as the ship stopped the jump outside the system, as ship cruised to the planet which already have three similar ships waiting outside. Two of the ships had the image of a tower on them, indicating that they are from the Void Heaven Tower, the last one looks a bit smaller than the VHT ships and depicts the image of a Roc over clouds on it. This was the ship of the Roc family's representative.
Mercian and the other immortals of her squad stepped out into space as the saints of the group relied on teleportation to make it to the planet. The other ships also witnessed the emergence of other individuals.
At the lead of the VHT group is an elderly man who looks to be in his sixties, not inhuman signs about him except for his grey skin but Mercian knew he wasn't human - not completely though. He's a Void-man named Gari, his last name is unknown to her but he's an elder in her branch, he was not supposed to be here.
Of all the races in the six paths, humanity is one of the most adaptive of the infinite amount of species. During their billions of years of existence, there have been millions of mutations to their species. Some mutations include additional organs, relocation of organs or a complete restructuring of an organ.
For the Void-men it is gaining additional brain compartments and their skin composition adapting to the volatile space in their planets and system.
According to Mercian's knowledge, Original humans are almost extinct.
He's an Azure Immortal, the fourth class or realm in the nine realms of immortality. His peers are usually in seclusion in the branch, this level of mission should not attract him. Reality proves otherwise, seeing as he appeared.
"Salutations, Elder Gari!!" Mercian, Budderon and the rest bowed to the elder, who accepts it with gratitude in his eyes.
"Hmmm... Heroes abound among the younger generation." Gari said with a light chuckle, he then looked at the Roc representative moving towards them, "Heroes indeed... Ja Skye?"
"Greetings Elder... Officers." Ja Skye gestured respectfully, armed with a devilish beautiful face that seem somewhat reminiscent of a face seen too often recently but somewhat lacking. His silver hair gleams metallic but had a texture that looks like silk strands.
"How is he related to you?" Gari asked Ja after seeing the likeness.
"He's my cousin... Elder Cousin." There was a strange look on Ja's face when he said that, he too was just learning about this strange cousin of his. His aunt's husband thought he was a failure until his projection in the VHR was walloped. Is this a case of a child exacting vengeance on his neglectful father?
"Why are you here, Elder?" Ja shot back a curiosity of his own, "I don't think the case is big enough to draw your attention."
"Certainly not, The case doesn't draw my attention. The individual does." Gari said while looking at the planet below him, for immortals like them, their immortal sense is enough to inspect the case from the position. Inspecting from high up would oftentimes bring finding usually because a broader view gives broader details.
"I don't mean to pry into your family's business but when did the spatial manipulation technique of the Roc family become that outstanding." Gari continued.
"It's not, while spatial manipulation might be one of our best attributes, it was never that outstanding," Ja replied, keeping his eyes on the work down on the planet.
Mercian was already getting irritated as both of them conversed, Budderon, knowing his captain's mood broke the chat going on.
"Elder, We need access to the details of this case." He brokered.
"Sir Ja, we also need an explanation for the death of countless agents of ours." Mercian jumped in setting the conversation straight to the important part.
"We? as in your team or the VHT?" Ja glanced sideways nonchalantly, this girl was getting way ahead of herself, he thought.
Mercian froze for a second, and took a deep breath before asking this time turning to the elder, "Sir?"
The elder didn't look at her as he just kept his gaze on the planet, Ja was the one who replied, "an agent went rogue, took matters into her own hands and she died."
"Though not completely." He turned to level his gaze at her, "As far as your team's involvement in this treachery goes, we do not know but our person of interest is aboard your team's ship which went missing. How do you explain that missy?"
"As far as I'm concerned, this is a conspiracy against the VHT by the Roc family. How else would you explain the death of so many skilled operatives?" Mercian snapped, "How else would you explain why Thanen was in the employ of the Roc family before joining the Tower?"
Budderon was tapping his captain's shoulders.
"How would you explain the fact that just one of her bodies managed to survive?"
Not relenting, Budderon continued pulling her clothes.
"How would you explain the shoddy information gathering that categorized an immortal level threat as a saint level threat?"
Her anger was clearly being shown right now as she hollered at Ja causing thunderstorms on the planet below.
"The information gathering was not shoddy, it was detailed and accurate," Gari replied, still not taking his eyes off the planet.
"How much were you paid?" Mercian was furious now, this old bastard must have been on their payroll to be supporting them, she thought furiously.
"WHAT???!!! GODDAMNIT!!!" She roared at Budderon who had been disrupting her thoughts.
"Cap, this planet system had not experienced a tribulation in the last hundred years," Budderon said looking extremely wretched.
*Budderon Oh Budderon...* Budderon thought to himself, wondering about life after retirement.
"No tribulation in a hundred years?" Mercian asked, looking at Budderon, "Who overcame the last one?"
The tribulation they had been talking about is the Saint tribulation.
"So, a mortal made a mess of my team?" Mercian asked, looking at the silent Budderon. Turning towards Ja, she asked, "That does not explain why Thanen was in the employ of the Roc family."
"Thanen was in our employ, and so is Nautilus and Akron, they were his death guards. We all thought he wouldn't hatch." Ja replied giving her a sidelong glance. That short explanation was sufficient for Mercian.
*This means Thanen betrayed the Roc clan. So she tried to break her limiter with her master's blood.* Mercian thought, *Goddammit, this is a mess. Where is that bitch by the way?*
"Oh... I need to meet with someone down." Gari said as he disappeared, leaving Ja and Mercian to wonder who he was going to meet.
...
...
Asmouranthe had raced back to Void Heaven City as soon as the stream was cut off when the six-armed saint died. She'd borrowed her brother's cycle to reach the city, meeting scavengers along the way but made sure to keep clear of them. She was lucky as only Void Heaven Personnel were allowed into the city by the formation, allowing her entry immediately as she touched the formation barrier the badge given to her by the kittens lit up.
This badge gave her protection from the berserk energy of heaven and earth in the city-turned battlefield. This also brought her more followers as she was the only one who could access the battlefield hours after the battle.
She was the most followed person in the system right now, surpassing her idol, Princess Fidele of Umbron.
News had come from Umbron, their princess had been taken away by the Roc and The First prince would be taking over as the Emperor, with the other Princes doing their best to support.
Many kingdoms and powers found themselves powerless and this led to an uprising throughout the system. Going as far as the outlaws of Panles seeking to make a comeback into the mainland.
The Thanen Kingdom is no more as the prince had been killed by an angry mob, the floating city had been destroyed or taken away by the Roc, and no one had seen it since the battle footage.
Upheavals had been everywhere as everyone felt that they could be king with the king dead. Princes were being assassinated and ministers were showing ambitions.
It's been over a month and Void Heaven Personnel were already present on the field taking readings and evidence of the battlefield.
Right now, she was looking at the person talking and taking readings, also giving her fans a first-hand experience of civilizations and technology beyond the system.
"Look at the state of this place, it's worse than I thought." said, personnel that had a body made up of crystals.
"Indeed, the bastard's strong. He decimated team leader Vathar's squad." Said another looking like a walking lizard.
"I was lucky, to think I wanted to apply to join the team. I might have been left without a body to take to my family." The crystal man.
"Yeah... My condolences to their family. The celestial families are different from normal. I heard he was just an abandoned hatchling in his brood." The lizard continued, "To think a waste of the celestial clans could kill a whole team in our squad."
The crystal man was standing over the ashes of what seemed to be a dragon, taking his card as he shines a kind of light over the body, leading to a hologram of Araloth, listing his strength and abilities.
Cough Cough
Startled, both of them turned back to see Gari.
"Greetings, Elder." They saluted.
"Hmm... At ease." Gari replied taking his eyes off them before looking behind them, "Who gave you that badge?"
The two were confused, only to turn back and see Asmouranthe shimmering into existence behind them.
"Greetings, Elder." She mimicked their salutation.
"Interesting, but who gave you the badge." He repeated once more, this time his voice stern.
"T-the black kitten. The black kitten gave it to me." Asmouranthe heard herself say.
"The black kitten? The one following that boy?" Gari pressed.
Asmouranthe was feeling very vulnerable under the gaze of this elder. She was about to reply when they heard a commotion in the distance.
A pale woman with short red hair and a massive flaming wing behind her was being dragged by another woman with a tail and a body covered in black scales and white linings who was also being accompanied by and handsome man with silver hair and wings. All the other personnel were gazing at them as they move, throwing the red-haired woman dirty looks.
"Come with me." Asmouranthe was immersed in the spectacle when she was dragged away by the Elder, leaving her fans in the dark as to what might happen to their idol.