POV: Darren
—--------
Darren was astounded by everything that was happening, and he felt like he could barely keep up. The only option he really had was to just accept it and keep moving. If he didn't, what would happen? He felt as though any hesitation would send him down a path he wouldn't be able to return from. For now, he just had to keep moving and accept that the world would never be the same again.
"Aiden, Ava, we've got to go take care of that breach now," he said to his younger, twin siblings. "Are you going to be alright here?"
Aiden put on a brave face and stepped forward, nodding his head. Ava, usually the louder and more rambunctious of the two, didn't look quite as sure of herself as Aiden did, but she nodded too, undoubtedly not wanting to cause any sort of trouble for her big brother when she knew he had to go into battle.
"Remember," Darren began, "You can contact us at a moment's notice, with just a word to EDS, if you need us, and if you want, he can probably tell you exactly what's going on with us if you ask. Also, I can move really fast, so it won't be any trouble getting back here if I need to." He finished speaking with a reassuring grin.
Ava smiled back as Darren turned toward Officer Hardy. As soon as he did so, the officer stood and said, "I'm going to go with you guys. I'd love the chance to test these new abilities."
Darren narrowed his eyes in thought. "I don't know if that's such a good idea," he said. "I know you're stronger now, but I can't promise that we'll be able to protect you if you're not strong enough to handle yourself inside the breach."
"Don't worry about me," Hardy said. "I'll be just fine."
Darren sighed, "Still, I think we should go alone."
A look of consternation flashed across Hardy's face as he eyed Darren. "Look, I appreciate what you're trying to do, but I have no obligation to follow your instructions, and you have no obligation to babysit me. I'm a law enforcement officer. I have a vested interest in what is happening. I'm going with you."
Darren was somewhat taken aback. He briefly thought about forcing Hardy to stay, or simply just leaving him behind, but thought better of it. He didn't want to make an enemy out of this man, and he was also fairly curious about Hardy's capabilities and wanted to see what he could do.
Darren nodded, accepting Hardy's decision, and turned to Kaycee. "Are you ready to go?"
Kaycee nodded as well and with a last reminder to the twins to stay safe and contact him if needed, he, Kaycee and Hardy exited the apartment.
With a thought, Darren brought up the information for the quest they were currently on, Terror of the Duskborne. After looking over it one more time, he focused his vision and saw a glowing blue line stretching away from himself toward what he could only assume was the quest objective location. He realized that there hadn't been any glowing line leading him toward the breach that had opened downtown when Kaycee nearly died, and asked EDS about it.
"Well, I'm not perfect," EDS said. "Besides, you already knew where you were going." The divine entity sounded a bit annoyed by Darren's question, which made him laugh heartily.
"Okay, fair enough," Darren replied after getting a handle on his laughter. "Think you can keep up?" he asked Hardy. The other man chuckled and gestured for Darren to lead the way.
"Let's do it then," he said, setting off in the direction the line led. He quickly sped up to a jog, Kaycee and Hardy keeping pace easily. In the distance, a triangular arrow, pointing downward, floated slowly up and down. It sort of overlaid the landscape between him and what it was actually pointing at, and it glowed the same soft blue as the line which led him toward it. Above the arrow a number slowly ticked down, which currently read "2.4 miles".
They'd spent a lot of time talking to each other back at the apartment, and the quest timer just ticked down to an hour. He picked up the pace, and his companions followed suit. He knew he could get there far faster than either of those with him, but he didn't want to leave them behind. Besides, he quite enjoyed running, especially now that it didn't really tire him out anymore.
Darren was curious, so he asked EDS, "Hey, can you add a speedometer or something to our HUDs, EDS?"
"Certainly," EDS said. Just like that, a translucent glowing display appeared in the upper right corner of his vision, which read "21 mph".
He glanced over at Hardy, who appeared to be having no trouble, and even looked ecstatic as if he couldn't quite believe he was running so fast with so little effort.
Darren picked up the pace again and watched the number on his HUD tick upward until it hit 30 mph, the 40, then 50. He let out a whoop of excitement as he ran fast enough to far exceed the speed limit on the road they were running along. He glanced over at Kaycee, who was grinning widely. Another look at Hardy revealed that he wasn't next to Darren any longer.
Darren and Kaycee halted and waited a few moments for Hardy to catch up. They'd quickly outstripped Hardy in terms of speed, and as they looked backward they could just see him rounding a bend over half a mile back.
"I guess…I found…my limit," he said between heavy breaths after he caught up. They let Hardy catch his breath and then took off again. This time Darren kept the speed around 20 mph, not wanting to wear Hardy out. Fortunately, it didn't take long for their destination to come into view. By the time they reached it, though, Hardy was struggling. It was clear to Darren that, while he was clearly above the level of any ordinary human, Hardy's abilities did not match up to the powers of the Knights.
This made sense to him, though, considering that the Knight's abilities were directly gifted to them by the Great King Himself. This didn't mean that Hardy couldn't grow in power, though. In fact, according to what EDS had told them earlier, getting stronger was kind of the thing for people like Hardy, or FLUX Bearers, they were called.
At the same time, though, with the leveling up abilities of the Knights, Darren wondered if their powers would forever remain above those of FLUX Bearers, or if there were some out there who were far more powerful. He had a lot of questions, but only time would be able to tell.
He refocused his thoughts as Hardy's breathing leveled out. With a nod, Hardy advised his readiness, and the three neared the breach. The breach hung in the air a few inches above the ground about twenty feet from the road, in an open field. It was unlike what he'd seen before. This one looked more like a tear in the very air itself.
"Whoa, why does this one look so different," Kaycee asked aloud as they stepped off the road.
"That is a good question," EDS replied. "I've seen every single breach that has opened on Earth so far where a Knight has been present, and it seems there are two different types, at least."
"Please explain further," Darren said.
EDS continued, "Happily. Firstly, there are breaches like the first one you faced, which I'll call Type One breaches. These are breaches which have opened due to the rampant FLUX energies flooding through reality. I explained the origins of this earlier, which is the Great Tempest.
"Type Two breaches, however, are breaches that are intentionally opened by beings who wish to invade Earth to some degree, and they function differently than the first type. Initially, you faced a Type One breach. The creatures you found inside the Rift would have attempted entry into Earth soon, but they had not at that point done so.
"The second breach you faced, where the Nightmares came through, was an anomaly. They have the strange ability to rapidly break through dimensional walls, but due to the fluctuating energy, they did not really need to try very hard.
"A Type One breach happened to open of its own accord right where the Nightmares were attempting entry anyway. What's strange about this is that the breach itself was neither Type One or Type Two, but an odd mixture of the two, granting access to both the Rift and to the Nightmare's world of departure, the name of which I do not currently know.
"If you had gone through that breach you may have ended up in the Rift, because all normally functioning breaches should lead to the Rift. However, you may have ended up directly in the world from which the Nightmare's came, because there are actually multiple ways to mold the walls of the Rift so that two breaches on opposite sides of the Rift can come together, forming what is basically a single doorway from one world to the other. These are called bridges, and make travel and return far easier, quicker, and safer.
"What you see before you is a Type Two breach. The Duskborne, a vile, fallen race, are right now attempting to create a bridge from their homeworld to Earth."
"Okay, so if we go through here we're not going to enter the Rift?" Darren asked, hoping for a bit more clarity.
"That is true," EDS replied.
"So, where will we be," Hardy asked.
"You will enter the world of the Duskborne, known to most as Twilight. One thing is common amongst all types of artifacts and abilities that allow the opening of bridges: they require a vast amount of power. As such, unless you have a being of unbelievable power, bridges can only be opened at locations where there already exists immense power reserves, such as a natural ley line point of origin, also called a Ley Spring.
"This being the case, most civilizations throughout all of spacetime have built what have come to be known as Gate Houses at the bridge initiation points. These are large structures built around the places of power that can serve any number of functions. Since the Duskborne are a violent and warfaring race, they have many great Gate Houses in their world. For our purposes, though, the Gate House we enter is undoubtedly going to be the location where we'll find the being or artifact responsible for opening the bridge. If you destroy it, the bridge will close. If you fail to destroy it, the enemies will invade.
"Also, I've begun classifying the breaches based on the best information available to me, as well as the energy signature and strength at the scene of the breach. To continue with the theme we've been using thus far, I'll be using a common ranking system with F rank being the lowest and S rank being the highest. The letter rank of the breach will coincide with Knight's levels. For instance, in order to enter a F-rank breach, you need to be at least level one, or in the case of Officer Hardy, have an equivalent level of power to a level one Knight.
"As an aside, as I gain information on your abilities and power level, I will attempt to match your power to that of the Knight's leveling system, Officer Hardy, for ease of understanding and tracking. Hopefully, that will allow you to have a better understanding of your capabilities and growth speed.
"Okay, that would be great, EDS. Thanks," Hardy replied.
"Of course," EDS continued. "Now, the highest level of breach heretofore has been the middle D rank breach you faced downtown. Well, there is one exception to that. The Swift Knight, John Armstrong, faced an anomalous breach that I would have ranked as a high B, bordering on low A.
"Type One breaches are not ranked unless there is a known danger in the Rift at the time the breach opens. The first breach you faced was a high F rank. The breach before you is a low E rank."
"Thaaaat's a lot of information," Hardy said.
"Indeed," EDS said in his usual tone.