Secluded Starlight outpost
Burnham Park, Chicago
Terra, Earth Solar System
Neutral free Zones
January 15th 2019
Moments earlier
The Order outpost burnt down within ten seconds of the explosion, most of the building had fallen apart, and nothing but smoke and the smell of burnt bodies welled up to the sky. Emily could feel the presence of death all around them, the feeling was quite suffocating but she was adept at blocking it out. They had been this close to dying. Well, again for her. If Leon had not resorted to using his Rapid step skill, they would never have made it out of there in time. She was fast, but her speed was nothing compared to someone from the House of Leo. The enemy was gone and had made sure to get rid of any evidence relating to this place. The flames were no ordinary flames again for that matter. It had disintegrated everything that had been in the building, woods, debris, and concrete were all gone. The only thing tha was left was a patch of black stain on the land. Flames like this would only burn till they consumed everything and as soon as the buildings were gone, the Flame itself vanished. Leon stood in the middle of where the building used to be and whistled.
"Impressive trap magic that was," He said. "Flame of Abundance. Only High-class sorcerers can pull that."
"Or someone skilled with Magic," Emily said. Sorcerers weren't the only ones who could wield the Arcane art. From what Emily knew, there were a bunch of people on this planet who called themselves Wizards and were knowledgeable about the Arcane art.
"Now what? The whole place is gone so we can't investigate it." Leon said. Emily could sense his frustration as he kicked at the ground. Chunks of debris and grass flew up due to the strength of the kick. "We'll never know what was going on."
"Ginny still has the data that I sent her," Emily said. She understood why Leon was mad but still, whatever had gone on in there wasn't enough to make her think that the Fallen star would be involved. I mean, why would they bother coming to a Planet like this, out of the other worlds that were in the Neutral free zones? "When she cracks it, we could maybe..." Emily was interrupted by a big flash of light that fell on them. They both looked up, straining their eyes against the light to see the ship that was hovering in the sky above them. Emily recognized the ship as a vessel of the organization known as Golden Dawn. And beyond the light, waiting for them by the open door of the ship was...
"Rosa," Leon said with a smile. The human girl frowned upon Leon calling her name. She had brown skin, black hair that was tied in a bun, and a glowing black armor protecting her lithe, tall body. On the chest of the armor were the symbols of Golden Dawn, a rising sun with two sabers formed as an X. Behind her were her fellow Guardians dressed in the same Outfit. The Hidden World was a vast unknown world filled with so many unknown forces beyond just the hidden cities' within it. The Grey was not enough to protect the mundane worlds and the mundane humans from the threat. That was where the Golden Dawn came in. Just like how Starlight protected the Federation from Abominations, the Golden Dawn guarded the mundane world from all kinds of mystical threats from within and from outer space. As an Offworlder, Emily fit the category of being on watch by them, but thanks to her association with the Yesh Institute, she was cleared to be in Terra. Still though, she turned to look at the hole where a Starlight facility used to be. What would Golden Dawn do if they found out about it? Probably not much. It wasn't like the Golden Dawn could pick a fight with Starlight, an intergalactic organization with more power than they could wield. Not when they had problems of their own to deal with. Emily took her eyes off the hole as the ship descended slowly toward the ground. Rosa jumped down from the ship followed by the others. She raised an eyebrow at the hole behind us, then her attention turned to Leon.
"Master Yesh has requested your aid in a situation," Rosa said.
"Does this have anything to do with the Yesh Institution," Leon said. Emily was aware of what the Yesh institution was. It was a front for the Golden Dawn within the mundane world, some kind of company that dealt with research in medicine through biology and technological means. From what she knew about it, it was a well-renowned organization in the Mundane world.
"Yes," Rosa said. "We believe there's been a breach in one of our sites,"
****
The Breach turned out to be in a building located within the south loop of Chicago. It was a sixteen-story skyscraper that was giving off high levels of Infernal energy. The weight of the presence of death that Emily could feel made her think that the building would collapse at any minute. Leon could sense the dark energy but not the presence of death. But he was experienced enough to know that there had been a massacre in that building. The building was not cloaked within the Grey, which told Leon that the employee worked in a public capacity. Though the building belonged to the Yesh Institute, it wasn't one of its well-known research centers. The Hovercraft that had brought them here, was above the building cloaked within the veil. Leon and Emily stood by the open hangar peering down on the building.
"I take it the Breach is inside," Leon said. Rosa was behind him talking to some of her men. She turned and gave a nod to Leon.
"One of our Analysts was stationed here to keep an eye on a potential target," Rosa said. "We lost contact with her, and one of the branch offices detected a breach coming from here," A potential target meant that they had found someone who met the requirements to be Od-sensitive. Meaning Golden Dawn could recruit them to become one of their precious Guardians.
"What could have set off a Breach," Emily said. "Shouldn't a facility like this be protected from such things,"
"There are security enchantments within the building," Rosa said. "At least there should be but someone seems to have gotten rid of it. Whoever they are, they are responsible for the breach. And not only that, from the readings, they gave off vast amounts of Infernal energy"
"Then we should go in and have a look," Leon said. He leaped off from the hangar. Emily sighed and followed him. She activated her Enhancement skill, Skywalk, which allowed her to easily glide through the air at a controlled rate. By the time Emily reached the roof, Leon was done using a summoned light blade to cut a hole in the roof.
"You do know there's an entrance right there," Rosa's voice came as she easily landed beside Emily. She had also used the Skywalk technique along with the agents she had bought with her.
"This is much more fun," Leon said with a grin. Rosa sighed as she took out a metal stick from her waist belt. The rod glowed with red runes imbued on it, and then extended into a long spear with a silver blade. Emily stared at the weapon in awe, though she did her best not to show it on her face. She wondered how Rosa had come upon a legendary grade artifact. Leon turned to Emily, his grin fading. "Since you're the scout, the ideal move would be to make you go in first....but I'm going in. You can follow behind me," The way he said it seemed to be that he wouldn't budge on it no matter what Emily said, so she said nothing even though she felt mad at him for underestimating her. Yes, she just survived a near-death experience, but she was good. She had healed, and her Odic force had channeled more Od enough for more fights to come. But she also could feel the guilt that he was feeling for putting her in the position in the first place which was why she kept quiet. Emily followed after Leon, landing in what was the corridor of the inside of the building. Though Emily was more skilled when it came to the perception skill, Leon's use of the skill was still kind of efficient. They followed Leon who tracked the direction of where the dark energy was coming from. After they got out of the corridor, they proceeded to take the elevator. Leon and Emily did, while Rosa and her agents decided to take the stairs. The plan was to meet up on the fourth floor where the dark energy was emitting from. As the elevator door opened, Leon summoned a golden sword while Emily pulled her gloves from her right arm. She had lost all her weapons after the fight so she had no choice but to rely on her abilities. They slowly treaded out of the elevator into the hallway and began to walk diligently to the office on the fourth floor. The door was opened, the rotten smell of egg and sulfur, a sign that Abominations had been here. They always brought with them that specific smell. The smell of the Infernal world. Emily hesitated...she could feel the presence of someone else... someone who had just been recently here. And there was also the blood-stained footprint that led to the elevator. The presence wasn't that strong for her to get a reading on, so she ignored it as Leon and her entered the office. The office was such a mess like some kind of battle had happened in it. And from what Emily could glimpse of the Odic traces, there had been one. She could feel the clash of foreign Ods left over within the Odyllic. One was mixed with Infernal essence and the other one was strange...She couldn't put a thought to what it was. She stepped on the broken wood that was dislodged all over the floor with torn books and glasses. The furnitures were torn to shreds and by the desk was a female body. Dried blood stains were all over the floor, though it wasn't that dried yet. The smell of defecation didn't bother them as it was something they were used to. Leon went over to the body and checked her over. Her eyes had been burnt out but that was not what killed her. It didn't look like she had been killed by an Abomination either. And the other strange Od that Emily had sensed didn't belong to her either. The door opened and Rosa entered. She calmly observed the room before she settled on the corpse. When it did, her eyes widened, and a look of shock ripped through it. She ran to the body.
"Dr. Dingle," She called out checking the body, her voice filled with shock, rage, and fear. Emily frowned upon seeing her behavior.
"You know her," Emily said. Rosa turned to them nodding her head. Her eyes closed as she fought back her emotions. She got up and went over to a cabinet and began to look through it.
"What are you looking for," Leon said.
"It's gone," Rosa said. "The files...Mccoy's files are gone,"
"Ok, can you start explaining things to us," Leon said. "As much as I appreciate Phoebe, I don't like taking my time off for some random mission," Rosa sighed as she kept looking throughout the office.
"I guess since you're interim instructors, it's only fair to tell you," Rosa said. Yes, Rosa was right. Leon and Emily were both Interim instructors for Yesh Academy- the facility owned by Golden Dawn that trained Od-sensitive humans on the secret art of the Mystical ways. After their exile from the federation, Leon and Emily were taken in by the Yesh family, a powerful family that had influence within the Federation and the Neutral free zone and had been given a place and a job to pass the time. The partner of their beneficiary also happened to be the High Guardian of the planet of Terra. So it made sense for the Golden Dawn to bring Leon and Emily along for something as sensitive as this.
"Dr. Dingle is one of our Analysts," Rosa said.
"Yes, we know that," Emily said.
"Her job was to monitor a 1-0-9," Rosa said. A 1-0-9 was an object or an entity clad in mystery and was unknown. "She was to determine if the 1-0-9 was fit for service..."
"So she was stationed here as a therapist," Leon said. He was examining everything in the room while Emily decided to use her special eyes to scan the entire room.
"Dr.Dingle was a Therapist. She also happened to be one of us," Rosa said.
"There are slash marks on her wrists," Leon said. He was examining one of her arms, checking out the wrist. "This was done by a blade, not a claw."
"If an Abomination didn't kill her, then what did? Can you sense anything else? Anything off-"
"Ssshh." Emily placed her index fingers on her lips, concentrating on extending her Internal senses through the whole building. There was not a single living thing left in the building, nothing but them and the Golden Dawn's agents... Emily froze just as the screams began.
"My men," Rosa said. Out of the three of them, Leon was the first to respond, moving quickly out of the office as the other two girls followed him.
They left the office and took the elevator down to the basement. Emily's body and senses were on high alert, this strange thing that she had picked up did not make her feel good. Not long ago, Leon and her had a tussle with an Erlking in the sewers and she nearly bled to death and burnt alive. Fuck... she felt like she needed some rest. And a hot bath. When the elevator opened, Leon took the front position, heading towards the position of... sounds of Odic blasters going off bounced throughout the basement corridor. Flashes of light flew everywhere followed by the scream of pain. They were in what looked to be the boiler room, there were machines connected to pipes, the light was blinking in and out, and the atmosphere was practically tense. The agents were blasting their cannons against what looked to be a pack of reptilian creatures. Their skin was greyish-pale with scales, their lizard-like faces were filled with rows of sharp fangs. Rosa didn't waste time before jumping into the fray, her spear glowed red as it thrust through the air, skewering a whole bunch of them in one shot. She moved the spear horizontally, decapitating their heads, before spinning the spear and cutting through another row of them. Leon followed, his golden sword dancing through the air like a wheel slashing and severing the bodies of the Abominations. Emily had no weapon to use so she decided to go straight for what worked best. Her eyes glowed, and her Odic flow grew stronger. Darkness began to emanate around her as she used her hands to weave signs.
[Darkness creation: Nebula arrows] Emily finished her incantation as a bunch of arrows made up of darkness materialized in front of her. She aimed her attack and fired on the Abominations that the Agents were blasting at. The arrow flew right at them, hitting them in the head where Emily had aimed at.
"Where the hell did they come from," Leon said as he decapitated a Lizard abomination. The sword style that Leon was employing allowed him to use direct blows with great efficacy due to Leon's skill. He was employing a wide-sweeping motion that allowed him to strike and slash as much of the abominations as he wanted.
"The Breach. Whatever came out of it must have turned the people in the building," Rosa said as she slashed and thrust as many Abominations as she could. She swept her spear in a circular arc cutting through a horde of them. Abominations were creatures of madness infected with the dark energy of the Infernal realm, a realm of pure darkness and Miasma. And it was also possible to infect one with the energy. These Lesser abominations they were killing had once been humans but the infection had transformed them into monsters. They weren't humans anymore. Emily pulled up behind one of the Abominations behind Rosa and with a refined accuracy, she blasted the beast in the face with another Nebula arrow spell attack. The blast hit the face, a large chunk of it was gone, giving Leon the time that he needed to stab his blade through its heart. There was a frightening wail and the beast turned into a pile of ashes leaving behind a Shard. The other Abominations were shocked to see most of their pack members being killed.
"Must...Leave...have no business with Paladin...." one of the creatures said. "The girl...nee.e..d to re...trieve her."
"You can speak eh," Leon said. The creature hissed, then began to shriek making the other pack members respond to its call. The abominations turned away from them, fleeing away. Emily felt Leon's decision before he even began speaking.
"Find that breach. I'm going after them," Leon yelled as he activated his Flash movement, disappearing in a blink.
"Leon!" Emily called out for him. Rosa ran up to her side. A strand of her hair was out of her bun, sticking to her blood-stained face which was also sweaty.
"Let him go, we have to find the breach," Rosa said. Emily clenched her teeth knowing she was right. Whatever had come out of that breach was dangerous. Even though it was gone, its residue would be enough to spread out and infect the weak-willed humans and turn them into Abominations. They needed to close it as soon as possible. They were in the basement, but the breach Emily had sensed came from further below. Rosa had a device that seemed to be tracking the source of the breach.
"I'm picking up on massive amounts of Infernal energy below us," Rosa said.
"That's because the breach is there," Emily said. She lowered her knees and put her right arm on the floor. Her hand glowed bluish, becoming translucent as her bones became visible. The ground began to crumble, disintegrating and revealing a hole large enough for whoever was left. Only three of Rosa's men were left, the others dead.
"Was that a spell," Rosa asked.
"No," Emily said. She said it in a way that she didn't want to speak more of it. Rosa shrugged as she decided to make the first move. She threw herself in the hole, her spear in her right hand and Luminent stone in another hand. The stone released a beam of light that revealed they were now in the Sewer drainage system of Chicago. Emily landed behind Rosa, a look of disgust on her face. She was holding one of Rosa's fallen men Od cannon.
"Another Sewer again," Emily said. "What's with you Terrans and your sewer?"
"What! They don't have a sanitary sewer system where you're from," Rosa said. Emily had lived on two planets her whole life. Her homeworld of Olympia, and Agartha where her school had been. And none of them used a sewerage system. They advanced enough that they didn't need to transport waste from their homes to whatever disposal spot the Terrans used. No, their toilets and bathrooms had technology that disposed of the waste right there. Emily shook her head, unable to even continue thinking about it. She was extremely mad right now. They had walked for a while, still looking for where the breach was. As they continued walking, the device that Rosa had began to lose the signal. At first, there was a screeching noise from it, the screen glitching. Rosa smacked it a couple of times and it would continue to work but as they got deeper, the machine began to fritz out. Emily understood why it was malfunctioning. She had sensed the energy that was in front of them. It was extremely strong. And then pairs of red eyes shined in the darkness.
"Hold it," Emily said. She pointed the blaster at the eyes as Lizard abominations came out of it. They were lesser Abominations, monsters that were consumed by the corrosiveness of infernal energy. Their mouths were dripping with saliva, their fits of hunger driving them insane. Emily didn't hesitate to start blasting them. She moved inhumanly fast, blasting them with excellent accuracy. Rosa was behind her, her spear snaking through the air with great accuracy too. Rosa's lithe body made her so nimble and fast that she moved through the air cutting through tens of them at once. The three Agents began blasting their cannons at the monsters.
"Where is the breach?" Rosa screamed. Emily blasted five Lizard monsters. As she blasted them she checked to see how much energy was left. Damn it. She was running low. She blasted three more and smashed one in the head with it. She had no weapon but that didn't mean she was powerless. Emily was not as powerful as Leon, but she was still skilled and knowledgeable. And she was well-trained in the Arcane arts. She activated her Starcore within her mind where her Arcane energy was stored. She quickly made hand signs and weaved two offensive spells of the element nature. Spikes of ice formed from the ground, each of them running through fifteen Lizard monsters. In her left hand, she summoned a ball of orange flames, the light spreading warmth everywhere. Emily glimpsed a stray of black-tinted purple light beyond the Lizard monsters. It was like someone had painted a tear in the air. That must be the breach. These monsters were guarding it.
"I've found the breach," Emily yelled.
"Then close it," Rosa said. "I've got your back," Even though Rosa was a human, and was just a regular Mystic, unlike Leon and Emily who were Awakened Mystics, there was no doubting her skills. And she had a legendary artifact that could supply her with more Od than a human could channel. Her spear glowed red, hues of color seeped out of it, forming into blossoms of flower, and then the petals of the flowers moved, striking twenty of the monsters. Rosa's spear art was also no ordinary art as she displayed power almost equal to an Awakened Mystic. Emily nodded as she released her ball of flames. It soared through the creatures blasting them apart. As the flames swept through the sewer, burning the monster, Emily coated herself in Od, dashing through burnt corpses that were turning into ash. More Lizard monsters came out of nowhere, one swiped its claws at her, but Emily easily parried it away. She had armed herself with a pair of ice daggers, using them to begin to cut her way through the monsters that stood in her way. Emily didn't display any martial arts style but instead just simply slashed her daggers with her inhuman strength. These were lesser monsters, their only threat was their quantity and she was reducing them. Killing. That was what Emily was good at. She could feel a part of her trying to claw out, a part that...Emily tightened the wards within her head, caging that part back into the dark reaches of her mind. Her mind assumed its stoic stance, any trace of emotions was gone as she began calculating sequences of moves. After her calculations were done, Emily began to butcher her way through whatever stood in her path to the breach. Black blood dripped from the ice dagger as Emily finally got to it. The breach was partially sealed, like whoever had broken through hadn't bothered to cover it up. Which was why traces of infernal energy were coming out of it. Emily sighed. This was going to take up a lot of her energy. Emily placed her hands close to it and began to release a certain output of her arcane energy. Arcane energy was purified Odic energy that Arcane welders used to work their art. Emily couldn't just use her Odic energy as it would only increase and strengthen the breach. Luckily for her, she still remembered how to deal with Dimensional rifts which she had learned from her academy days. As she channeled her energy to the rift, a roar came from behind her, a Lizard monster was lunging for her. But then a red spear tore through its snout mouth, plunging into the wet ground. Rosa appeared, her armor littered with guts and blood. Emily couldn't sense the remaining of her fellow agents, which meant it was just the two of them.
"There's still many of them," Rosa yelled. She was out of energy, her stamina strained, and she couldn't pull that special move of her spear art again. Rosa cursed at her fragility as a human. If only she was like the Pleiadian, she would be able to have a reservoir of Od within herself, but she was only human. She lacked the essential parts that people like Emily had. But she did not give up. She still swung her spear, thrusting the blade at the monsters, cutting them, but exhaustion was killing her, her muscles were straining just holding the metallic spear, doing everything she could to make sure she didn't drop it. The Odyllic began to tremble, the surface of the water on the ground began to ripple. Emily was shining bright with an aura of blue light, her hands were forming signs, arcane signs that Rosa had no clue as to what it was.
"Get down," Emily said. Rosa got down, raising her head between her arms to cover herself, and she felt a surge of power, unlike anything she had ever felt before filling the entire sewers. She could sense the disappearance of all the Abominations, their lives snuffed out like they were candles. Rosa was like that for a while, all she could hear was her heartbeat and the saliva that she was swallowing back.
"You can get up," Emily said. Rosa raised her head to see Emily resting her back against the wall and sitting on the wet ground. Her face looked like it was exhausted, and her golden green eyes which were so alien looked dull. Even though she seemed tired, her Odic reserve was still more than halfway full. But the strange energy that she had released was absent from her.