Along a dark stone corridor, a man walked forward quietly. Trepidation weighed his steps heavily as those chains shackled his limbs.
There was no light revealing his path ahead, but he miraculously found a faint orange glow from afar. His heart beat intensely at the discovery. His fear of the dark pushed him forward ever more hurriedly. As he ventured forth, he thought to himself.
'I am Carl Langdon, Evonia's S-ranker! But here I am, trembling in fear, trying to escape from this damned dungeon! I shouldn't have come! I shouldn't have come!'
Soon, he arrived at a rather small circular room. The walls were lined with a few braziers burning with orange fire. And at the centre of the room was a large cage that seemed to occupy half of the room itself.
Within the cage was a lone bed with a young lady lying on it. Her long black hair was immaculate, in direct contrast to her tear-stained face.
Her skin was incredibly pale yet extremely seductive while covered by a thin black dress. that barely teased her alluring curves. Her feet, shackled and chained to the cage, dangled at the edge of the bed, touching the wet floor.
The weeping girl looked at him in surprise. She sat up and immediately spoke to him in a hurried but hushed voice.
"Leave this place! Hurry! Before he comes!"
The man was entranced by her beauty and was unable to react to her words right away. When he regained his senses, he was immediately overcome with fear. He wanted to run away but realised that he could not move. A low voice echoed in laughter from the corridor behind him.
"Ah, our dear Princess has ensnared yet another pitiful man. Whatever shall I do? Your beauty invites love, yet I find myself furious at how easily others' loves find you."
The voice carried an overwhelming pressure that seemed to suffocate everyone. Suddenly, the S-ranker Carl Langdon was pulled back into the dark corridor with extreme force.
Only his screams could be heard for a short while, and then there was silence.
The girl stared in horror as a figure emerged from the darkness. It was a man covered in a black coat. His skin was as pale as the girl's and his eyes were an even darker red than hers, but his hair was short and black. He smiled as he threw something into the cage.
"Food sustains beauty, my Princess."
The man walked back into the darkness, melding into it as though he never existed. The girl wept again. And the floor was once more wet with flowing blood. A human arm lay a few feet away from the bed.
In a far more distant place, a conference was being held in a large hall. Several lights of different colours formed images in the air. From the golden light on one side of the hall, an image of golden cubes of light forming an indeterminate shape let out a pained roar.
[Damn that human! My core has never been damaged like this before! I swear I will tear him to a million pieces!]
[Quiet, Simaris. It was your own fault for sending your consciousness through the gate. You knew the risks so stop complaining.]
On the opposite side of the hall, a green light revealed a triangular figure made from countless triangular pyramids of light. Its deep voice reverberated within the hall, drowning out Simaris' roar. But still, Simaris was indignant.
[Hyperion, you dare command me?! In the first place, you said that as a newly emerged world, Earth would be weak! Yet what did I find there?! A bastard powerful enough to rival a True Avatar and an accursed alf, both of which could threaten all our plans! What in Akasha's name is a bitch from Sanctuary even doing on Earth?!]
Simaris' rage made his form distort even more. If not for the fact that his core was injured, he would have attacked Hyperion right then and there. Fortunately for him, he could not escalate the situation with his condition.
A wave of concentrated mana erupted from another side of the hall. It was like an EMP that suppressed both Simaris and Hyperion.
The white light from that side of the hall revealed countless spheres of silver light constantly flowing with no particular form. It was like water. The spheres moved up and down like a constant flowing wave as a female voice echoed out.
[Calm yourselves. Hyperion is right. Simaris, you were tasked to scout the new world and to determine its danger level and risk factor. You were not supposed to blindly charge in just because it has only recently emerged.]
[Then do you expect me to cower, Atari? We have locked ourselves in for centuries! Now that we have an opportunity to attack again, how can I not take it seriously?!]
[Silence, Simaris. Do not test my patience. I expected you to have moved and thought with wisdom befitting a Cephalon, yet you disappoint. It is because we must take this opportunity seriously that you should not have done something so careless. However, do not fret. You will have the opportunity to rectify your mistake and claim your vengeance yet. But for now, there is a matter we need to look further into.]
In the centre of the hall, a bluish light revealed a holographic image of two people, Caelum and Erta. The image was recorded from the eyes of the very first simulacrum that they encountered on Earth. The image zoomed in and showed only Erta.
[Hyperion, what do we know of Sanctuary's current situation?]
[The Avatars of the Divine Obelisk have activated an ancient magic array creating a barrier that forcibly removed Sanctuary from the Great War. However, this is only a temporary measure as they were about to face a joint invasion from multiple enemy worlds.]
[Removing themselves from the Great War would mean that Sanctuary's temporal axis will shift back to its pre-emerged state. Time would flow much faster within, allowing them enough time to prepare. A brilliant move, but not without its flaws. Simaris...]
[...Your orders, Atari?]
[You have once invaded Sanctuary which is how you have developed such hatred for the alves. This alf you saw on Earth is one with divine ancestry, a seraph. As such, we can deduce that she is related to the True Avatar of the Divine Obelisk or even the Divine Obelisk itself.
Since she is still able to wield her power, that means that Sanctuary is not completely sealed. You are to find the weak point in the barrier. Cooperate with Hyperion. I want no mistakes this time. We will drag Sanctuary back into the Great War no matter the means.]
[I shall not disappoint you, Atari. But what of our plans for Earth? The forces are ready. Just say the word and we can deploy them all over Earth.]
[We will halt the invasion for now. There is no need to be impatient. Earth can be dealt with easily, especially with other worlds ravaging them. The most important thing right now is to catch Sanctuary unaware. If everything goes well, then the Divine Obelisk shall soon fall. Remember, everything is for the Akashic Record.]
Back on Earth, in a familiar café near Halo, three people were meeting once again.
Reynor thought that he should be used to this by now, but he could not help turning his head away from the awkwardness.
In contrast to their behaviour during the previous times they had visited the café, Caelum and Erta were now in opposite roles. Erta was seriously reading a document that Reynor sent to her phone while Caelum was feeding her ice cream.
Naturally, the other customers all around them were taking pictures and admiring the two heroes. Reynor wanted to immediately leave this embarrassing situation and spoke up.
"My lord, is that all you needed? A list of Halo's Chosen and their abilities?"
"No. I want you to talk to the three guilds in Aegon. Tell them that I'm willing to train a few of their members, but they have to decide quickly. We have no time to dally right now. You choose some from Halo as well."
"My lord, this is a great idea, but I don't understand why you would volunteer to train other people?"
"Don't be mistaken, Reynor. I'm not doing this out of generosity, but necessity. Remember the enemies that blew themselves up a few days ago? Those were just a scouting unit meant to gauge the strength of Earth. Now that they know, they'll be sending in an entire army to invade us. It will make what happened at Sylven look cute."
Reynor's face grew pale as he listened to Caelum's words. The scale of the attack on Sylven was already one of the largest since the emergence of the Imaginary Tree.
It was only because of the timely aid of Caelum and Erta that the destruction was limited to a relatively small area compared to what it could potentially have been.
The thought of something even larger and more destructive than such a battle was not only terrifying, it even felt apocalyptic.
"Calm down. I didn't tell you all this to feed your fear. I want you to understand our current predicament. Right now, our influence has limited reach. But we want to do all we can nonetheless. Starting small is better than not starting at all."
"I apologise for showing such an embarrassing sight, my lord. I will try my best to convince the guilds to cooperate."
"Good, but don't scare them. You don't have to tell them what I told you. It might have an adverse effect instead. Also, you'll be participating in the training as well, so be prepared."
"Yes, my lord! It is a great honour to receive your guidance!"
Reynor recalled Caelum's speech when he first arrived in Halo's training room. He had already caught up to them and even surpassed them in a blink of an eye.
His heart burned with passion now and the fear in his heart was changed into resolve. Caelum saw this and nodded in approval. It was then that Erta spoke.
"Mr. Reynor, please include these people for the training. Their abilities are good, but they could be better. I will refine them with the training methods I've personally created back then."