Chapter 16 Are you someone who treats the Earth as something wondrous and blessed? Or are you someone who treat it as something you could stand on? One is more grateful, the other more pragmatic. Your perspective decides the outcome, but the Earth requires both type of people.

Kelvin had some catchup time with Amelia, Hazel and Taku. It seemed that the scouts spotted the group as soon as Hypocrite began shooting over at an unnatural speed. Their location was tracked and communicated in the base camp controlled by the JanZe, and the one who rescued them was on standby since before they even arrived at the hill top.

Despite the powers of the healers at this JanZe camp, it took Kelvin over a day to regain consciousness, though he felt more alive than at any other point in his life. Meanwhile, the others had the opportunity to mingle around the camp, but they were confined to a certain area.

“All the JanZe we’ve met so far are a bit weird.”

“How so?”

“Like, not to be rude or anything, but they’re all so… quirky. What do you think, Hazel?”

“We tried speaking to a few of them. Sometimes, they’re very friendly but they talk about things we don’t understand. Other times, they say one or two words and go about on their own business. There’s a lot of them we don’t even dare approach because they look so scary.”

“You just need time.” (Taku)

“Easy for a stupid vampire to say!” (Amelia)

“Maybe they’re just very busy. I wonder what’s going on in the camp? Everyone seems so troubled.” (Hazel)

“Miss Healer, the one who was with us just now, seemed to really dislike us.”

“She was so rude! We didn’t do anything wrong, but she looked like she was annoyed with us being injured and all!”

“Well, I was out for a whole day, so that must’ve been a lot of work for her.”

“But that’s her job! If she doesn’t like it, she should stop being a healer!”

“Maybe I should, and become an assassin instead. Want to be my first training partner?”

“S-sorry…!”

“Did you think these curtains are soundproof? You. Are. In. A. Clinic. Just wait 10 god damn minutes and I’ll take you to where you need to be. God damn kids and their god damn nuisance, and their god…”

“But you’re louder than we were…”

“You punks want me to un-heal ya? Because I’m about to put that into the dictionary!”

“No ma’am. Sorry ma’am.”

Soon, the healer made true to her promise and brought them to see a different JanZe, who lead them to yet a different location to see another JanZe. This one, unlike the others, had put on the mask fully. Taku began to explain as they were escorted further into the camp, past the area they couldn’t access before.

“When a JanZe tied the ribbon around his or her head fully, it meant that they had a mission to complete. The term used to mask yourself is ‘edict’. The same is used to call anyone currently masked. My advice is to stay out of their way and comply.”

“What’s that emblem on her forehead?”

“The RoA Healer, which stood for Rod of Asclepius.”

“Oo I know! The staff of the medicine god!”

“That’s a surprise, but yeah, that’s the one. The stories originated from our world, but the symbolisms are very handy across cultures.”

“Wait, your world? Isn’t Asclepius the one who performed the resurrection miracle at the Stargaze Cliff?”

“Where did you learn this?”

“At school and church!”

“And where do the stories come from?”

“The bible?”

“Then who wrote the bible?”

“Uhh, God?”

“Who?”

“I don’t understand…”

“You said it yourself – there are different gods. Asclepius, Zeus, Thor… what or whom gave one the authority to dictate the bible over another? They’re all different individual ‘gods. So, what makes one a god?”

“They were born divine.”

“Bullshit. I’ll tell you – all gods are immortal. Do you agree?”

“Well, yeah.”

“All gods are powerful. Do you agree?”

“They’re omnipotent.”

“No they’re not. If they are, why can’t Asclepius do the same thing Zeus can? They’ll lose all differentiation.”

“But that’s what the bible said!”

“Which made it about as credible as the clouds in the sky being an omen. Omnipotence alone doesn’t make sense. It’s the whole shield and spear paradox all over again[1]. We can agree to disagree on this one.

All gods have authority. Do you agree?”

“Umm… yes.”

“Authority really meant two things. Reputation, which the bible would call ‘worship’. To be a god, you must be known to everyone. The second thing would be mystery. To be someone slightly outside their reach, and let their imaginations propel the idea of you into something divine. It’s a fine line to walk across, balancing between being known and being unknown.

Now… who does this remind you of?”

The camp was larger than it appeared when they were at the clifftop, partly because of the height, but mostly because they were too exhausted to judge. Rows after rows of green tents that could house a kopa of people, all identical in their outer appearances, gave an impression that this was a systematic camp, function over leisure.

The eerie silence soon persuaded the group to go along with the flow. Only the sounds of their footsteps and breathing could be heard. In addition to that, the JanZe around them walked and ran with the lightest steps possible. Brief snippets of conversation could be heard being whispered here and there, but in general, the whole place was unnaturally quiet.

Almost every JanZe they passed by was an Edict. Those that weren’t had facial expressions that made Kelvin’s crisis earlier seemed like an afternoon nap.

Around 10 minutes later, they arrived to the front lines. The tents here were much larger, and the JanZe ordered them to wait inside a tent, at the side of a command hut. They were shielded against the night wind, in a space filled with mana lanterns and crates of items. Once the group was alone, they felt more comfortable to begin chatting again.

“So why does that JanZe have a symbol, but not Master or us?” (Hazel)

“Those without symbols are combatants. The white cloud emblem is the CoI, cloud of Iris.”

“Messengers!”

“Correct. That’s all there is. Oh, we don’t have one because we’re not a JanZe yet.”

“I feel like there’s too little categories, I mean, won’t you want to separate the fire users to the ice users and so on?”

“It’s a lot more complicated than that, you should probably ask the First.”

The Edict healer returned not long after, and brought us to meet yet another JanZe. The pattern began to feel needlessly repetitive to the group, so they were thankful that this JanZe was unmasked, and also their final destination.

“You’ll be working with me today. The First gave me the order to debrief you on our current situation, and the punishment he mentioned before your journey.

The town of Thrawlon, alongside its neighbouring villages and towns, namely Parselice, Leimond, Stonehurst, Burdeford, Wquay Castle, Combewick, Furoughbree, Monshut, Mimsbreyway, Philst and finally, though I hesitate to call it a town rather than a gathering of thieves and knaves, Ghull, have all fallen.

Currently, the enemy forces are compiled mostly of self-trained fighters and miscellaneous personnel. At their top are 17 Corpses, who will be our priority targets. In particular, Serophe Gunder, leader of the Gunder Rebels. Do you have any questions?”

“What do you mean by Corpses?” (Hazel)

“Corpses are former members of JanZe. They are titled as such because that is what they will soon become.”

“Will we be fighting her?” (Kelvin)

“None of you have the qualifications to even be on the same battlefield.”

“What about me?” (Taku)

“I do believe I enunciated the word ‘none’ correctly.”

“Then what will we do?”

“Help with evacuation and stabilising any hostages or innocents. Most of the apprentices gathered here are doing just that. Any other questions?”

"Nope.”

“Then let us clear the important information out of the way. The identity and known Powers of the Corpses are as follows: Julia Se…

… Neurotoxin, specifically a form of inhibitor. Well then, that’s that. Other than an unfathomable situation, there should be no occasions where you would meet any of them, but the rules are to inform all personnel. Use your common sense if and when you face an individual befitting of these descriptions – prioritise passing on the information, and survive.

Onwards to your duties. First of all, you’ll be heading to the temporary refugee camp and meet the others there. To my knowledge, you are the newest apprentices, so I’d recommend you to keep your head up and listen to everyone else. You’ll be assigned a mentor there, and the person in charge of Group 13 is James Jackson. They should be expecting you already. As for your punishment, I believe there will be further instructions once the hostage situation has been resolved.

Inside those crates around this tent are a bunch of necessities. You should take a look through them and put what you can into your pouch. As a standard, you’ll need an emergency medical kit, inside that box, some simple tool set, which you can find there, and dry rations and pills, which you’ll find in that one. There are also other things like writing equipment, disguise makeup sets and what not. Once you’re done, leave this tent, walk left until you reach the defence perimeter and talk to somebody there to pass through. You have… around 15 minutes. Good luck.”

Taking his advice to heart, the group ran around the crates to check its contents. Knives of all kinds, peculiar utensils and tools, potions of unknown properties… the list goes on.

“Don’t take too long. This camp is pretty big, so rather than walking, we should be running there to be sure. I don’t want to end up late.”

“Neither do we, not again.” (Kelvin)

“Then grab what you need and let’s go!”

It was good that they listened to Taku, as it took them just a little over 14 minutes to arrive despite rushing the journey. They expected to see yet another cold-faced, stern JanZe pestering them about their punctuality, but the one that greeted them was an apprentice like themselves, perhaps even more nervous than the group themselves.

“H-hello, how d-do you do? I’m fine, thank you very much! Please, if you c-could be so kind, write your names i-in the regist-ter there.”

“Thank you. What should we call you?” (Hazel)

“Ah! So s-sorry! It’s Marvin, Sorry!”

“Come on, it’s not like we’ll bite you.” (Amelia)

“Unless I’m allowed to?” (Taku)

“Sorry! No! My Apologies!”

His entire body shook like an alarm clock, with two his two fox ears resembling the bells. It truly made one wish to pat his head to snooze his fright.

“I was just joking…”

“You didn’t sound like you were, you meanie!”

“I mean, if he does give permission, I’d be really –“

“I’m sorry!”

“Ha~ this is getting us nowhere. Let’s hurry and sign this.”

“Yeah! Taku stop staring at his neck you weirdo!”

“Tch…”

“You’re being rude!”

“No, I’m being starved.”

“That, umm, I’ve also been told that Mister Taku, s-sir, can’t enter the medical supplies tent…”

“Discrimination, I say!”

“Sorry! But I can’t let you, sorry!”

“Taku! Stop bullying him!”

“Bullying him? As if I could even give him so much of a scratch, can’t you guys tell?”

“Huh?”

“S-sorry! I’ll try and hide it a little better! I’m really bad at it, p-please forgive me!”

“Seems like it’s fine, since these three are bloody blind.”

“T-this way, please… and, I don’t mean to be pesky, b-but… the registry…?”

The newcomers inserted a minute amount of mana into the registration device, one commonly found all over Khondour. Once the mana supply terminated, the machine that seemed too complex to exist from this era, converted the majority of it into ink and inserted the liquid into a capsule. The final step was easy – insert the capsule into a specialised pen, and sign your name.

The device didn’t have a capacity limit, as excess mana was transmuted into ink density rather than volume. Instead, it had a time limit. Therefore, it was common for fellow students to show off against one another through the registry book in QPCS, a feat that was silly but competitive enough to entertain those hero wannabes.

Needless to say, though temporary, this stronghold filled with nothing but outstanding potential throughout the whole world, governed by the strict and strong JanZe organisation… would be exactly the same.

The names of Amelia, Kelvin and Hazel were written in bold, despite the pen being a fountain type with a metal nib. The colour matched the colour of their natural mana: cyan, navy blue and scarlet. Neat, sharp and absolutely drowned by the other names on the sheet.

Occupied on their page was another 4 names, despite the registry book being A5 size. Yet, those four names alone forced the group to squeeze theirs into the bottom corners. It was difficult for an untrained person to even read the letters. One was thin as a slit in space, trapping your consciousness into the dark void. One struck your eyes with an electric blue. One shimmers as if radiating heat in bright orange letters. One seemed to constantly erode the very paper it’s written on, creating a grey and bleak outline.

Unexplainable miracles happening with mere words on a sheet. In contrast, when Taku wrote his name in blood red, it induced bystanders to glue their eyes there in a stupor.

This was the right-side page. The left one had one name at its centre. Zilkree Dara, orange like the sun, and just as painful to look at. Its presence seared itself into the eyes of the readers, daring them to doubt its power, taunting them to compete on the same page.

But even more surprisingly, at the bottom left of that page, in tiny maroon letters and shaky handwriting that emitted nothing of significance what so ever…

Marvin McNiel.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irresistible_force_paradox