5

Meanwhile, within the industrial plaza a large group of cultists were surrounding a compound.

A red robed human man stood behind the cultists surrounding the compound, looking impassively as the cultists set out in squads of ten and shoot and then die from the returning fire of the compound’s guards.

A woman stands next to the man, she too is a human. She is wearing a cowboy hat which throws a shadow over her face, hiding her features.

As the guards fire off another volley, the cultists retreat. Seeing this the red robed man couldn’t help but grimace.

“Quite pathetic, don’t you think?” The shadowed woman asks.

He spits to the side, “It’s the best we could do with what we had. I wasn’t expecting much to begin with.” The man looks to the nervously sweating Elzorian standing beside him. “See to it that all of your forces advance. I’m going to assist you. Whether our lord welcomes or scorns you depends on your performance this day.”

The Elzora stopped sweating then bowed. “At once lord magus!”

The man, who was also a mage, nodded, sending off the Elzorian.

The Elzorian called out a few names, humans and beast-kin rushed to his side. He spoke a few words, they bowed then ran off. Soon the cultists gathered into distict groups.

Though they were organized they were still very much a mob and were unable to form even the most rudimentary formation. That’s what happened if you took ignorant civilians and placed a gun in their hands. Their aiming was terrible. Although they had numbers, that was about their only advantage. The guards within the compound were much more experienced, and way better shots than the cultists.

“For utopia!” The Elzorian shouted. The people he’d ordered earlier who were standing in the center of the mobs started shouting and the rest of the cultists soon followed.

The sound was deafening. The rumble of hundreds of feet running to the compound entrance was overwhelming.

One of the guards ran out of the compound and set down a small shield infront of the compound’s gate. Then started shooting at the approaching cultists. Whenever they shot at him he was well protected. When he shot out the shield rippled but remained.

The mage frowned, he started casting a spell. He stretched and flames burst from his arm before gathering on his palm into the shape of a ball made out of flame.

He swung his arm and threw the fireball. It struck the shield and with the sound of glass shattering the shield crumbled and the fragments littered the ground.

Before the guard could even react he was immediately riddeled with bullet wounds. He stumbled then fell.

“Forward!” A cultist ordered his squad. The squad shouted in a frenzy as they drew close to the gate.

The mage followed the last cultist into the compound, the woman right on his heels.

He spent a while looking around with a frown until finally there in the center of the compound he saw it. A large square structure which was almost as tall as the walls. Around him the cultists spread out and started attacking the buildings. The sound of gunfire and the screams of death started and stopped in intervals.

The mage, walked over to the Elzorian and a large group of armed cultists who were waiting for him in front of the entrance to the central structure.

Seeing him approach the Elzoria spoke to a man beside him and the man ran to the gates. He pulled out a small pack and pressed it against the door then entered a code before running away.

As soon as the man rejoined his group the package flicked with light then exploded.

The dirt of the ground had been crystalized by the blast. The building’s entrance, and the surrounding walls however were spotless.

“Hmmm” the mage mumbled. Not looking away he said, “Shandra.”

The shadowy woman standing beside him, the one called Shandra, lifted her arm and clicked her fingers. From behind, a woman slunk over to the mage and Shandra.

The shadowed woman looked over at the woman, she seemed haggard, her eyes were sunken and her face was wrinkled. When she looked into the woman’s eyes. Without thinking the woman looked into the female’s shadowed face, and from there she saw her eyes.

“Don’t worry.” Shandra former voice was gone now. Now she sounded soothing, as if she was a concerned friend only wanting to be of assistance.

“I’m here to help.” THe haggard woman’s eyes gradually softened. From fear her gaze changed into one of trust, then it changed into a look of longing.

“Really?” The woman seemed hesitant. As if she’d heard something wonderful but could not bring herself to believe it.

Shandra reached up and cupped the woman’s face in her hands. “Truly, you deserve nothing more. For you faithfulness our God has chosen to bless you. Go, don’t keep him waiting.”

As she withdrew her hands the woman started to cry. These weren’t tears of sadness but rather tears of joy. A time passed while the woman sobbed. Unexpectedly her tears seemed to have turned from crystal clear water into shining beacons of light.

The woman smiled and opened her eyes to look at the woman. Her eyes were shining. “Thank you.” She whispered, sincearly bowing to the shadowed woman before running off to the central building’s entrance.

As the woman approached she smiled. As if she was seeing something wonderful, then, as soon as she was in front of the gate her eyes turned from joy to the bitterest depths of sorrow. She clutched her chest, her fingers ripping in and drawing blood. She grit her teeth then open her mouth to scream.

The sound traveled over the whole of the compound. It was the scream of a woman with a broken heart.

The next moment the air started rustling, the ground trembled. With the first shining tear falling from the woman’s shining eyes she exploded.

The ground cracked and the dust burst into the surroundings.

As soon as the dust settled the sight of the gate shredded wide open greeted the cultists.

There was silence for a moment before the cultists started cheering in earnest.

The mage smiled, a surprisingly gentle smile. He stepped forward.

He spoke a word, it was an evil sounding word. Fire gathered in front of him. The moment before he raised his hand the fire was still wild and untamed, but when he raised his hands the fire calmed then rushed to gather in front of him.

It gathered until it formed a large ball of fire which was even larger than he was tall.

He laughed manically before pushing out with his palms. The ball of fire shot through the gap ripped into the entrance of the building. A moment later an explosion lit up from inside.

“Forward!” The Elzorian leader shouted to the other cultists.

The cultists charged into the building. Unsurprisingly, despite the mage’s efforts many of the guards inside had survived. The cultists leaped through the gap only to die the next moment from gunfire coming from inside.

The mage frowned at this. As the cultists died he turned to the side and looked up at the yellow moon hanging large above them.

Finally, he sighed. “You can begin,” he said before hanging his shoulders in resignation.

The people standing behind the mage and the shadowed woman were expressionless as the pulled out a large syringe and stabbed it into their neck.

They stood there for a moment with nothing happening. Then, one by one the expressionless people suddenly had their faces twist up in pain as they fell to the ground.

They moaned and groaned for a few seconds before a change came over them.

Their bodies grew taller and their muscles grew larger and they seemed to grow sturdier by the moment. One by one they gasped before their eyes turned completely red, neither their pupil, nor their cornea were to be seen. The first to fall rose and twisted his neck up to stare at the massive moon hanging over them. He snarled the let out a roar at it as his clothes tore to pieces and his mouth started to froth.

He charged into the building, screams soon accompanying his arrival.

The mage frowned then looked at the woman who shrugged in turn. “Like you said, we can only do so much with what we’ve been given.”

He sighed again then followed as the rest of the creatures charged into the central building.

The first beast was still alive he was slamming his claws into a guard holding a large police shield in one hand and a large stun baton in the other. Around him lay the dead bodies of the guards and cultists who had been unlucky enough to get in his way.

He roared once more then tried circling around the shield bearing guard but the guard was ready and turned to defend another of his strikes.

From the distance a bolt of plasma came slamming through the creature. He stumbled and the guard used this moment to retreat to a safer location and stand beside another shield bearing guard.

Besides the two was a large turret with a smoking barrel. The turret spun to face the mage before shooting out another bolt of plasma towards him.

Startled, the mage quickly summoned lightning which traveled through his legs and into the ground. The lightning encompassed a ten meter radius around him. Each time a bolt approached the lightning would reach up and somehow drag the bolt from the air into the ground, dispersing its power until it was nothing more than a ghostly light.

The woman snorted and reached towards the guards who’d entrenched themselves around the turret. She grasped at them but as she did she stumbled then fell down.

“The building is protecting them.”

The mage’s frown deepened. Who would ever have thought these islanders would have such sophisticated systems.

“It’s fine, the beasts should be enough to handle the rest.”

She grunted and rubbed her temple, “Good thing we brought them along then.”

“The freak isn’t going to be happy that we’ve broken his toys though.”

She shrugged, “Let him, nothing we can do about it now.”

The creatures roared again and stormed to the guards guarding the next doorway. The guards with rifles tried to shoot but it was ineffective, each shot that landed only left a small puncture in their bodies but didn’t seem to cause any damage beside that, not even some bleeding.

The beasts ran and hopped to the side whenever the turret would aim at them. The first struck and the next and soon those guards who’d been too slow to figure out the inevitable joined the masses of the dead littering the floor.

The beast roared in triumph as it picked up a guard and pulled, tearing the screaming man in too and spilling blood and gut over itself.

The beasts charged at the turret and slammed against it, soon came the sound of broken bones but the beasts kept on regardless until the turret finally couldn’t withstand it and crashed into the ground.

One of the creatures roared then picked up the fallen turret then headed to the next entrance. The turret flashed with a familiar light before exploding and blasting the surrounding monsters apart.

“Tch, idiots.” The mage muttered. The woman chuckled.

The mage pulled out a vial and drank it, before calling out another ball of fire and stepping to the door. The woman, still chuckling at the situation followed.

THe squad of elites had arrived at the scene quite early. Unfortunately, with the chaotic situation at the gate they’d been unable to infiltrate the compound.

But after the cultist made it inside and soon dispersed into the rest of the compound like the chaotic mob they were the small group of elite soon came to the central building.

Peeking around the side of the busted open gate and seeing no one living there to greet them the soldier waved to his commander. Even with the grey clothes it was easy to see that the commander was an elf, which was something of an anomaly since it was very rare to see an elves within the Meritocracy, although there were a few. And here one was in the employ of the Harcourt military.

The man flicked his fingers signaling that no one was inside. The commander nodded then held up a fist and swung it forward. The rest of the squad ran into the building with the commander and the scout there to take up the rear.

Silently they made their way through the hallways which was littered with bullets and bloodied bodies and past the ripped open blockades.

They followed the carnage until they came to a set of stairs leading down.

A voice came from the distance, “We’ve been looking for you for a long time doctor Khostra. Years of searching until we found the first trace. Now, after months of sitting in this hole we finally meet.” The voice was a man, he did not seem pleased.

The commander’s ears twitched, being an elf his hearing was much more sensitive, although this factor had been dulled by the constant gunfire he could still hear something the rest of his squad couldn’t. The sound of running machinery, then the drilling sound of an Impetus drive charging up.

He signaled the squad and the silently moved down the stairs.

“Now, after wasting so much of my time I finally meet you and what do I find? A broken man, someone tinkering away at a toy.”

They were close enough now for the commander to hear the heavy breathing coming from the doctor.

“This just doesn’t make sense, what have you been hiding, answer me!” Something fell over and something slammed against the doctor.

They were near to a door that hung slightly ajar. From this distance he could hear the sounds of three heart beats, One from the speaker, one from the doctor, and another unknown one. From the measured and calm way it was beating it was likely that it was someone friendly. He raised a fist, signaling for the group to stop and listen to his command. He signaled the situation inside to the others. Then made sure to use the newest addition to their handsigns. [Mage killer]

Four of the group shuffled then pulled out boxes from their packs. The placed the pack over their chest then waited for the Impetus drive to start.

He pulled out the two crystal canisters from his pack. These were prototypes and also were something that they could not allow to fall into the hands of the enemy. If the situation was to turn for the worst he had orders to destroy all traces and if it was required he was to kill himself instead of allow himself to be captured.

He raised another fist then spun it in a circle. The group was well trained and immediately understood. They surrounded the building, first were their best shots loaded with antimagic bullets. Following behind them were two burly elites, their two best brawlers.

After a final signal he stepped to the door then threw in the two crystal cylinders.

“So tell me doctor Khostra…” As soon as the clink of the crystal rolling over the floor came the man stopped speaking and looked down at the cyllinders. He jumped back and tossed the Khostra to the corner readying snakes of lightning for whatever came from those crystals.

As soon as three counts finished the crystals soundlessly shattered and turned into particles of light.

The light expanded then contracted into two orbs.

The lightning swirling around the man scattered and vanished and the man grunted as he fell.

“What the fuck is this!?” The man shouted. There came a grunt from the side as the woman fell to the ground clutching her hands.

A moment latter the squad leapt into the room, the point guard fired at the two enemies standing inside. The woman almost instantly fell with a grunt as he bullets tore through her body.

The mage was faster, although his magic had been canceled and his body felt as if it was being torn apart from the inside he still managed to summon new lightning in time to defend against the bullets flying towards him.

His skin started sizzling and it tore as blood started leaking from his skin.

“Who are you? What…” Before he could even finish speaking two blurs had already slammed into his body and smashed him into the wall. For the split second the mage had struck the wall two figures could be seen pushing up against him, then in the next moment the figures were gone and the blurs returned and each time they passed over him he lost a part of his body, his arms were unceremoniously crushed and ripped off and his legs and groin torn free of his body. Something smashed into his jaw and tore off his tongue. His head was snapped to the side and blood spurted free as his eyes suddenly vanished.

The commander stepped up to the mage. Now unconscious from the massive amount of blood loss and soon to die if he didn’t receive aid.

“Good. Capture successful.” The man nodded to the two muscular soldiers.

He turned to leave and another of the soldiers, this time a female Elzorian wearing a dark red x over her jersey stepped towards the mage. She pulled out an old fashioned blow torch. Impotent scream came out of the mage’s throat as the woman started searing the mage’s wounds closed.

“What do we have here?” The commander asked.

He wasn’t standing infront of the doctor tossed into the corner. He was looking at a metallic suit of armour.

The only thing was that this suit was much too large for even the largest of sentiments to wear. It was almost reminiscent of those large guardian statues that the gods were so fond of using to protect their holiest of temples.

“A guardian eh?” The commander looked at the man slumped over in the corner. “See to it that we bring those two with us.

After your done make sure to not leave any evidence behind.

He looked at the suit of armor. “Oh, somehow, I want you to take that with us…”

“Sir,” a woman spoke from behind. He turned to regard the medic, who was regarding the floor nervously.

“What?” he asked.

She looked at him as frowned, then, as if realizing the situation straightened and spoke in a more respectful manner. “Sir I don’t think its wise to destroy this facility, we should rather see if we can gain control. I felt it as soon as I entered, this place has a core hidden inside, it should be what allowed those guards to last for so long.

“Hmmm.” He frowned, “Name.” He ordered.

She saluted, “Corporal Quwes Phantra, sir.” As if realizing something she said, “I’ve just joined today sir.”

“Good, you’re in charge for now, I’ve got a report to make.”

He turned away and tapped his comm-ring. Light shot into his eyes revealing a woman sitting at a desk, a moment later a voice came from the comm-ring, “Commander Yulerr.” Teresa said and smiled.

“Objective achieved. Due to the situation I have decided to secure the area instead of eliminating all the evidence.”

“Interesting, knowing you it shouldn’t be for a trivial reason, right?”

“No sir.”

“Interesting, I will have to hear of this latter, since things are still unstable at the moment. As long as you stay true to the clan and we won’t bring your decisions into question.”

“Ay sir.” He acknowledged.

The connection blinked off and he was left with a sensitivity in his eyes that was gone the next moment.

He breathed in and started organizing his small team to surround and finish off any of the rats still within the compound. As soon as they secured the core the rest should be easy. With its protection and their teams firepower it would be as if placing the strongest shield and the strongest weapon against a worn paper bag.

No contest to speak of.