Gambit was furious. In a straight line, a group of security men and women stood with their heads down before him.“Who’s in charge of watch duty?”A security man came forward, slightly curled in on himself. “Head Instructor, I’m the head of this assigned unit, and I swear to the supreme watcher that none of us had left our post at all. I don’t know how the unstable warrior left the cell.”“Don’t call the god of scripture’s name in vain.”The security man stood at ease. “My apologies, Head Instructor, but once again, I assure you the cell occupant had not passed through that door. We were shocked as well when I returned from my lunch break to find him completely missing on the monitors.”“Have you inspected the surveillance footage?”The man shook his head. “I was in the middle of doing this when you ordered for my presence.”“Show it to me right now.” Gambit watched the man lead the way. “The rest of you return to your post.” He then followed him to the surveillance room.A few minut
Eshya was nervous as she entered the large room to find the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and eleventh pillars in their respective seats. The meeting room is a large round hall with thirteen seats – twelve primary seats in a semi-circle arrangement to a grander seat – at the center while the audience seats are spread through the rest of the hall behind these thirteen seats. Apart from the six pillars inside the hall, Eshya found the keepers of the temple were present. It's customary, after all, to have the future pillars obtain first-hand experience on occasions like this. “Welcome, Priestess Eshya.” The second pillar spoke first. “I apologize on behalf of my fellow pillars for calling you here on such short notice.” Eshya nodded. "Sun-blessed noon to the six pillars present." She walked over to settle in the grander seat, as it is reserved for the holy star symbol during a meeting. She noticed Gambit, who had followed her into the hall, had also taken a seat in the audience
Northeast from the walls of Stell City, a canyon lies along one of the paths of the city’s great river fork – Stell- Fifth Claw Canyon. A man screamed in pain, thrashing on the ground as his body oozed thick drops of yellow liquid that had been pooling around him for a while. The most distinct oddities at the moment are his enlarged limbs and bulged torso covered in what appeared to be scales.“How long does the transformation take to complete?”“We were told it’s not fixed. It depends on how well the infected can adapt.”Here, a large number of humans converge in a large cave. These are the men and women who had publicly saved the low-district criminal the other day – The Scriptures Rejecters. Now, the arsonist himself is sitting on a large rock with the old woman who had released the first few shots. They watched as the screaming man's skin slowly gave way and he mutated into a seven-foot crocodile. The audience watching scurried away from the creature now in place of the man.“Can
"So let me get this straight." Eshya's pointed finger shifted between Bava and Garu. "You two became close during the Finalists Selection Rounds, so…. two years of friendship?" She watched the two men nod at her before she turned her gaze to the other two. "And you guys have known yourselves for how long?"“Five years, Priestess.” Cassandra also nodded at Eshya.It has been an odd morning for the holy star symbol. She had been quite embarrassed when she realized she had fallen asleep in the holy warriors' quarters; she hadn't realized the heaviness weighing on her body after she woke up a few days ago without proper recuperation. Though she kept quiet about it, she had very little experience in dealing with the great toll making a portal had on her body. She had been ignoring her exhaustion since Etanai's desperate call back then had somehow forced her to create one, which was soon followed by a blessing of light to relieve Etanai of those white clouds. The horrible meeting with the T
“A chain of compulsion?! What was it attached to?”“It’s more like who it was attached to.” Elder Tobias watched the realization settle in the second pillar’s eyes. “It was attached to a human. Unfortunately, that’s all I know as their identity was shrouded in bright light.” He turned his gaze to the extensive field of clouds beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows. “I looked into the Seer Catalogues, and I think Elder Rowan might have a Light Keeper under her control.”“Watch those words before you throw them out, Elder Tobias. Illegal possession of a chain of compulsion? Hiding a Light Keeper from the Light Speakers? Those are two big accusations you’re making right there.”“You don’t believe me?”“This is more than that. Our visions are never at a hundred percent when it comes to clarity; you know this.” Elder Niola quickly appealed to the disappointed look on the third pillar’s face. “If this was any other culprit, I’d have commanded the intelligence unit on an investigation, but you
"Have you all gone insane?!" Gambit paced back and forth before the four holy warriors who were now detained in a different cell. He pointed at Cassandra. "You attacked the security head I assigned to keep that boy's power in check." He then waved his finger between the other three. "And you idiots didn't even bear enough sense to stop her and instead joined her. Now you've also rendered her team temporarily unfit for duty." Bava couldn’t help the angry expression on his pretty face. “How could you do something so humiliating to him?” Gambit halted his pacing to glare daggers at the usually tamed young man. “Are you questioning your superior’s actions right now?” He was slightly surprised Bava, along with the other three, didn’t show a bit of guilt at that, and he allowed himself some sympathetic reasoning. “Do you even know what that sprinkler does to him?” “It looked like it hurt like hell.” Garu grounded out in fury. “The dude was left thrashing on the ground, and that woman look
The scene had ended in a bloody mess in less than an hour. The large footprints in the area remained proof of the large beast that had laid waste to the numerous soldiers here. While the scripture rejecters had only lost a few lives, the same couldn't be said for the troops in charge of the mysterious cargo; they only had a few terribly injured soldiers left on the ground.“Should we kill them, Boss?” Though the old woman asked with a gentle smile, her eyes revealed a chill in them as she already had a weapon retrieved from the military trucks – a rifle –pointed at one of the remaining soldiers.Timber grabbed the muzzle of the rifle. “This is an Aster-Firearm, Mama Lenah. Don’t waste it on an injured man.”The old woman's smile faded and she put down the weapon. "But we have several truck-loads of these and more."Timber glanced at her, noticing the arsonist had joined them. "Trust me when I say we will be needing every single one of them for our mission if we're to ensure there's a
“What were you and Ricky to each other?”Chad’s arms came up to cover his eyes as tears began streaming out.Cassandra’s eyes widened with sudden realization. She hated she was just figuring out now what should have easily guessed. “Lovers. You and Ricky were lovers, weren’t you?”Garu and Bava's mood chilled out as the truth became clear with the tall man's stiff head nod; things were starting to make sense. The messy surroundings became somewhat still before Chad spoke.“That bastard! That fucking arrogant bastard! He should have known better than to interfere with Etanai and those Zeal-leachers fight. For all we knew, that could have been a test of its own making. But no! He had to get himself killed.” He slowly rose into a sitting position and he steadily calmed down from his sobbing. “I couldn’t allow his corpse to be forever tainted with the disgrace.”“So you lied and framed an already unfortunate man?” Bava’s usually gentle face held fury. “That man was an ordinary civilian. P