Under the guise of cloudy night, a container truck went by on the interstate road towards Eschemali region. The road breached through the thick green canopy of the forest and passed a bridge over a large river. The rushing water flowed from a waterfall in the north, and the crags formation on its each sides resembled spreading wings of an angel.Tirana always smiled whenever she passed the Winged Waterfall. Though it was dark, she could always make out the wings from the shadows. She found it a highlight of her day whenever she had to go stock up her supplies in Eschemali."I heard the Earth Sculptor made that," Saracenia said."Really? Mell did it?" Tirana looked back on the waterfall. "I wouldn't guess he'd think of creating something that artistic."Saracenia chuckled for a bit. Her fingers lightly tapped on the steering wheel in the same rhythm with the mellow song from the radio. "The Scions shaped a lot of places in Mirepa, especially the earlier ones. The Earth Sculptor
The elevator reached the B89 floor, where it led Tirana and Claros - Vayu to an almost entirely different world altogether. They arrived on a blindingly bright hangar that was full of white or silver futuristic alien machines, manufacturing even more futuristic alien equipment left and right. Messy sounds of clanking, whirring and drilling were all over the place.Claros - Vayu twisted his nose at the strange, sterile smell. "The hell is all this?""It must be where they - oh my God."Tirana discreetly pointed to something big at the end of the massive hangar. It was an enormous, circular silver steel gate that was labeled VORTEX - 02. There were mountains of glimmering silver ores around it that Tirana absolutely certain was the same alien material that made the concealing brooches and containers. Upon closer look, Tirana also realized the entire wall and almost everything here was of the same origin."So that's why we can't sense what these slick bastards up to," Claros - Vay
With their consecutive victories on a single night over the Silver Sovereigns, the Scions and Tirana gathered again at Calendula Residence conference room. There were smiles and celebratory cheers, but not from Lars. He was still grappling at the idea that anything goes in their effort to achieve victory, including causing disasters and taking an innocent boy hostage."Let's get to it, shall we? Anybody wants to start what they found so far?" Rachelia said."Me first!" Mell shouted. "I have destroyed those fucking Sovereigns' factory. They're gone, down and dusted. Fuck yeah!""Yes, Mell. I am aware of that. Your earthquake made it to Channel 6's news this morning. Hopefully that's a suitable price to pay to slow down the Sovereigns. The Alchemist Guild's been riling me up about destroying their property.""They didn't know about Claros being a two - faced bastard?" Vayu asked."Not until I told them just earlier." Rachelia let out a tired sigh. "Anything else?"Tirana rais
After the discussion at the conference room, Lars was told by Rachelia to meet Octavia in the west wing of the mansion. He was not in a good mood all night and grumbled a little bit along the way. He still hated Rachelia's decision but at the same time, also acknowledged they learned something valuable out of it, so his moral dilemma remained.However, as soon Lars started to sense more of people in the west wing, he began to run. Lars ran so fast eventually he glided instead. Fresh tears on his eyes swept by the pushing wind as he picked up his speed."Mom!"Lars barged in to the room. There she was, his mother on the bed, smiling. They immediately locked in a tearful embrace and Lars wailed on his mother's shoulder. Relief washed over Lars as he found his mother alive and well. He quickly thought of giving proper thanks to whoever responsible bringing her back."Mom, I'm sorry! I... I'm - ""It's okay, Lars. I'm sorry too. I'm sorry for everything."Lars and his mother hu
"Walk faster, maggot!"Len's vision was hazy from all the beatings and blood that trickled to his left eye. Duncan was especially rough with him that day. Len had beaten up so badly he couldn't even stand anymore. He had to be dragged across the hallway, leaving a trail of blood as he did.While barely hanging on to his consciousness, Len wondered what was it that made Duncan this angry. He had realized for a while that despite how rough and dreadful his torments were, they had never made him lose a limb or severely damage his vital organs. And yet, that day Duncan really pushed the edge.Len had repeatedly fainted by the time he was brought to his destination. Duncan shoved him inside of a dark room and left him in the silence. Len wanted to move but his body was close to giving up. He felt the coldness of the floor on his cheek and found it strangely pleasant.However, Len knew he wasn't meant to just lie there forever. He was thrown somewhere he didn't know, and he knew he g
Within the vast property of Calendula Residence, there was a large hill with wide open clearing of nature's green carpet. At the moment, the place was filled with the sound of rumbling earth and stones breaking, courtesy of a Scion practicing his power over light.Lars cleaved through the stone statues with his Celestial Calibur. The stones shattered and reconstructed by Mell's command and foot tapping. Lars did his very best to destroy every last standing statue but Mell was just as relentless on recreating them."Keep it up, man. You're doing great!"Lars barely heard that from all the sound of statues breaking. He let his swordplay instinct took over and he made his moves as realistically as possible. He wanted to hone his swordfight techniques, stance and movement on land instead of keep resorting to flying.A statue appeared and about to land a blow to Lars. Lars swiftly dodged to the side and swung his sword upwards, decapitating the statue's hand and head. Despite how of
The Calendula Residence in Spica, aside from being a historical landmark, was a subject of rampant conspiracy theories. Even among the eyes of the mundane, it had always been suspected to hold sketchy activities. The secretive nature of Calendula Familia that took residence in it certainly didn't help to assuage the rumors.Lars had only heard these rumors in a passing, but whenever he went down to the Calendula Residence's mansion basement, he always reminded of one that really stuck with him. The mansion was rumored to be the lair of a vampire queen who had a torture chamber in its basement, where her victims brutally harvested for their bloods.As scary as Rachelia could be sometimes, Lars was pleased to learn she wasn't a vampire. Although, she really did have jail cells and torture chambers in the mansion's basement. Lars always shuddered whenever he passed by the empty cells where the prisoners in the past once begged for their lives, only to found their pleas not granted and
Unlike the past few days of his training period, Lars woke up early on that particularly gloomy day. The night before had been raining hard, and the morning that followed was only left with a light drizzle. Lars heed the water no mind and stayed where he was, listening to the sound of water hitting the tombstones.Lars had been working on the grave since sunrise came up. The rain had considerably gone quieter that time and out of his own perseverance, Lars wanted to make something for Arvin. He made a promise to thank Rachelia again later for letting him do this in her family property's private cemetery.Arvin's grave was consisted of a small tombstone taken from reserves in the mansion's storage. The ground before it wasn't even disturbed as Arvin's body was not to be buried and at the time was being researched on. Still, Lars thought it was the least he could do to give the boy a proper funeral.Lars made a point to place Arvin's tombstone next to his father grave, which aside