Sebastian stood at the centre of the stairwell with his hands clasped together. He was currently drawing on every last bit of Will his body could muster, in order to maintain the wooden sphere he had summoned to shield the entire platoon.
"We're all gonna die, my wife's gonna kill me!"
Vlad the Iron Man stuttered as he paced around the edges of the sphere.
"Shut the hell up and let the kid focus."
Bellahm said as he stood behind Sebastian. Julian still lay in a pool of his own blood, receiving an emergency aid to at least stunt his bleeding.
He was a Cardinal so dying from such a wound was highly improbable. Unless they fail to provide him with proper help soon.
Until then though Julian would remain out of commission.
The rest of the knights meanwhile, stared at the wooden sphere above them with weary eyes.
It was strange but they could now hear the bartering of hungry abominations all over the wooden roof. It was unsettling.
They had already fought through too many of those horrors, and yet they still weren't used to creatures' depravity.
There was also the wooden sphere itself, its creaks and groans spreading unrest.
They had no idea where all this was heading.
Sebastian was barely holding on. What were they to do when the sphere eventually gave out?
The only person who seemed to remain calm was the prisoner who sat at the centre of the steps, calm and collected.
She did have a bag over her head so it was hard to tell what expressions she was making. She had no armor on so the heat should've irked her the least.
Just then they all heard a loud thud, following it were horrid shrieks and wailing. Then came silence and a knock right after.
"Hey, kid?!"
"!"
Hearing his captain's raspy voice, Sebastian's eyes snapped open. With a shaky smile he said;
"Yh boss?!"
"Let me in already."
It was like a huge burden had been lifted off his shoulders so with a smile Sebas dismissed his spell.
Moments later the wooden sphere unravelled itself revealing the disaster that was now The Torn Mountains.
They hovered in the air alongside tons of rubble, pieces of the once massive manor, floating lonesomely in the air.
If the kids that lived here saw this their hearts would bleed. Their only home.
There were also abominations defiling the floating walls that had once been part of the ancient building.
They crawled in the shadows, leaping from platform to platform with madness burning in the depths of their lightless eyes. Longing hungrily to devour human flesh.
The horrors were still quite some ways away from where Sebas and his men currently stood.
So they had at least a couple of minutes to wrap their minds around what was going on.
They were currently floating on a piece of concrete, ascending towards a gaping hole in the sky.
It would've been understandable to shiver.
Yet, strangely the men he stood next to were eerily composed.
The sky was shattering bleeding glass as an abysmal chasm threatened to consume them all. Not just that they were several dozen meters above ground with all sorts of horrors running towards them.
Yet the men around him all seemed to show no fear, if they were frightened they were doing an amazing job at concealing it.
Sebastian couldn't even ask what had caused the sudden calmness, he knew the reason very well. Even he himself couldn't help but feel a bit calmer in the man's presence.
After getting forced into a position where he had to lead a reasonable amount of men– naturally, he hadn't stumbled, but it didn't mean suddenly being in charge felt natural to him. In fact, it was the exact opposite. He had been on his toes the entire time, making clear what he knew best…
'I'm no leader… but he is.'
Sebas thought with a smile.
"So what now?"
Vlad asked Faux, his eyes darting about as they followed the encroaching abominations.
"Hmmm simple we jump."
Sebas turned to Faux at those words, a bit perplexed.
As if to answer his question the carefree man pointed at Julian and then at a massive metal tunnel that hovered beside the other debris.
"You have an injured man, a prisoner and a bunch of children in danger. So we've got to split our forces."
As he said that he pointed at Belham, Vlad and some other knights and requested they leave this platform.
Some would proceed to stall the incoming abominations, whilst the others would head towards the floating tunnel to engage the children.
The rest were to sit tight and watch both Julian and the prisoner.
As soon as his orders were given the men immediately shot into action.
Vlad lingered for a while though, throwing glances at the prisoner first, then at Faux, before finally hopping off the platform. It was obvious he wasn't exactly too keen about taking orders from a government knight but what choice did he have?
Soon the steps were much more deserted than before, only Faux, Sebas, Julian, the prisoner and two other knights remained.
"And what will we do?"
Sebastian asked.
"I'll complete the mission, you watch the rest of them and serve as my mind outside my mind."
Faux said with a sheepish smile revealing his strangely lengthy canines.
Of course, Sebastian didn't seem to be satisfied by his captain's orders. A part of him wished to refute them. After all, he was also responsible for whatever had or would happen to the Calamity.
But a larger part of him was still too exhausted, he had used up so much of his Will he was one step away from losing consciousness.
So with a sigh, he bowed slightly to his Captain before taking a seat beside the young woman treating Julian.
Faux lingered behind for a while. Seems he was also quite spent.
But even after sitting to rejuvenate, once Faux stood to leave, he suddenly paused, staring down at the still stretching distance from the ground.
He had a strange look on his face, almost like he was asking himself a question.
'This damned-'
"You don't know how to find him right?"
Sebas asked as he got back up. His captain didn't reply opting for a tight pout.
With a sigh, Sebas walked up to him and scanned the debris below.
Soon he was pointing at a massive disk-like structure made out of metal.
It was currently ascending much slower than the rest of the rubble, due to its sheer size that spanned a dozen meters.
Just by looking at it and the wires that flayed about beside it, Sebas could easily identify the structure as the secret base that had been hidden underground.
What solidified his guess was the massive hole that spread out like an open maw at the centre of the base's ceiling.
He was certain their suspects had to be in there.
"There! The beam that had decimated this side of the mountain had to have come from somewhere right?"
Sebas said pointing at the hole. Faux had his hand on his chin as he considered his lieutenant's words for a bit.
Moments later he nodded firmly right before leaping into the air.
Before Sebas could even realize what was going on Faux had already disappeared behind the shadow of one of the many pieces of floating debris.
"Damned junky."