#umae

by Jules Darriulat

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“Ah jeez…” Will moaned as he leaned on his knees once they were all on solid ground. Thankfully Hangar 1X had a special force field to prevent the wind from whipping through. “Sam, you need to practice with Faustus a little…”

“Sorry, Boyo, I just got taken off guard.”

“Hanging in there, Will?” Haze inquired, catching his breath.

Will laughed as he stood up straight with a stretch. “Yeah. I’ve been through worse…”

“That’s a little debatable based on your memories…”

“HEY, what did I say about earlier?”

Morrigan and Faustus laughed, with the latter partially manifesting out of Morrigan’s left arm. “As I was saying…” Morrigan said. “That’s Sebastian's ship?” She pointed to the black zeppelin, assisted by two, massive rotor engines at its sides in the distance.

“Yeah, Gotterdammerung…” Will said with a nod.

Barry tapped his shoulder. “You mean ‘Götterdämmerung?’” Will gave him an incredulous look. “You forgot the umlauts.”

Will sighed. “Götterdämmerung, arguably the only ship strong enough to take on the sky fortresses.”

Morrigan glanced out towards the battle once again. “So now what do we do?” she wondered.

“Take a breather, that’s what,” Will answered.

“Private Ford!” a man’s voice called out.

Amazed everyone was still able to recognize him, Will turned to see who had called him. “Supervisor Jones! Sorry for the unannounced appearance…”

“Don’t worry about protocol, Ford, we’re just happy you’re alright…” he then turned one of his coworkers in the distance. “Let Kyu and Bran know where they are!” Clark Jones was the supervisor for Hangar 1X and often took orders from Wing X. He was pushing towards late middle age with fuzzy side burns and receding, dull brown hair. “Ford, who’s all this?”

Will smiled as he brought Morrigan over, her flames not burning him because of Faustus. “This is Sam, my fiancee and our squad’s newest recruit. Sam, This is Clark Jones.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Sam,” said Clark. “Supervisor Clark Jones, I make sure that the secret aircraft are deployed when necessary and stay a secret. I’d shake your hand, but the… um…”

“Don’t worry, Clark, you can shake her hand,” Faustus assured him.

Clark hesitated at first, but gave a light laugh as he did. “Faustus–What is even going on?”

“We had to improvise given Haze over here.”

Clark nodded as Haze stuck Will’s hand up, smiled, and bounced around a little. “Interesting, because I’m well aware of Ryota’s track record.”

Will then turned to Barry. “And this is Barry Boyle. He’s from both The ULTRAMagic Guild and The Dark Divers Guild, so we can trust him.”

“Nice to meet you, Supervisor,” Barry replied with an eager handshake.

“Likewise, Mr. Boyle.” Clark felt a little bit of static and had to smooth out his hair. “Word’s been coming in of a squad flying around without a craft, and I guess we know who that is now. I understand you want to get out there and help, Will, but stay here for now while we get a hold of Antares, alright?”

Will glanced at Barry and Morrigan, who both nodded. “Sure, Supervisor.”

“Very good, especially given that I doubt you understand what Haze can do yet…”

“He’s learning,” Haze said with satisfaction in his voice.

“Right. I’ll go contact the Lt. Colonel,” he said as he walked away to the control room.

Morrigan glanced around at the various jets and aircrafts, all futuristic and shiny. It gave her the impression she was not supposed to be seeing them with her curiosity getting the best of her. “So, what do these planes do?”

Will laughed to himself. “Sam… I can’t say what these are at the moment, but just know that they’re all basically stealth stuff we don’t want other countries catching wind of. That white one, however…” Will turned to one of the workers. “Is that one going to be declassified soon? It is? Alright.” He turned back to Sam. “Some planes get seen enough to the point where we have to declassify them and that one is the Night Swan. It’s used for cloud-based stealth, day or night.”

Barry nodded as he visually inspected the slightly rounded hull and sleek wings. “Fascinating… Looks like it’s not meant to go fast, but to be agile and quiet.”

“Bingo,” Will replied as he patted his friend’s back. He then glanced at a very familiar, black jet and pointed at it. “And that, haha, that’s the SR-73 Warbird right there!”

The three were in awe of the slender–yet bulky hull, the streamlined wings that looked incredibly strong, and the advanced jet engines. It looked out of this world and a marvel of modern engineering at the same time. “Incredible…” Morrigan remarked. “So that’s what buzzed past us on the way here…”

“Yeah,” Will confirmed with a laugh. “Couldn’t call it the SR-72 because the military is already working on that one… But yeah, we use this one for special missions, usually involving situations we can’t send normal Liger squads in for…”

Barry already had a good idea what Will was getting to just by looking at how the jet was built. “Long range missions I assume? It looks like you could get some pretty lengthy trips out of this bad boy…”

“Yup, absolutely… Jeez, Barry, since when were you a military engineering expert?”

Barry gave a dorky, yet lovable laugh. “I’m not, I just happen to be a massive nerd.”

“And as an aside, we do have our own SR-71 Blackbird. From what Aalders, Lundberg, and Senator Ripper have said, it was a pain in the neck to get it approved, funded, and built.”

As the group walked towards the cockpit section, they heard music of the calypso variety playing, sounding familiar to Will and Morrigan. It then stopped as a strange robot-like entity stuck his head of crimson hair up to get a look. “Who’s there? Oh hey, Will!”

Will looked up and had the tinge of adrenaline he always felt when running into the individual in question. “Hey, Virus X… Sam, this is the person who flew by us.”

“Wait a second–VIRUS X?” Barry exclaimed, startling the two. “No, there’s no…” He then looked up and was stunned. “Son of a bitch, it actually is him…”

Virus X grinned as he looked at Barry. “HEY, is that The Lighting God?! HAHA, as I live and breathe–oh wait, I suppose it’s The Lost Lighting God now?”

“Yes, yes it is…” Barry groaned, then turned to Will. “I don’t know what The Liger Brigade has told you so far, but Virus X is from the Lost Era, like me…”

Will nodded, glancing back and forth between the two. “Sam?”

She shrugged. “Seems reasonable to me…”

“Well, I know Virus X is supposed to be top secret, and that no one has told me why yet…”

Barry nodded. “Make sense, given how much of a troublemaker he was.”

“Troublemaker is such a strong word, your eminence…” Virus X said as he rappelled down the side of the jet with his… bizarre right arm. It was made of a strange, red organic substance that resembled muscle fiber, with a clawed, metal hand at the end of it. Virus X was incredibly bizarre in general, as his frame and chassis was like that of a stylized robot from an animated series (as a best descriptor of it), giving him a youthful appearance. His eyes were black, LED screens with orange icons for pupils. In his torso was a strange light that nearly resembled the famous photograph of the M87 black hole. And between that, his red legs that must have belonged to another robot originally, and sharp teeth, Virus X was truly an otherworldly sight to behold. “I’d prefer ‘thrillseeker,’ or ‘entrepreneur of action…’”

“No, he was a troublemaker,” Barry cut in. “Time and time again he refused to join The Lost Upside Down God and us in the fight against The Lost Darkness God, Surtr, and their cronies.”

“Hey, I didn’t join The Lost Darkness God, did I?” Virus X pointed out as he pointed at Barry’s face with his left (normal) hand.

“No, but Prometheus, Aava, and The Highway Knight all warned you time and time again to stay away from them!”

Will, Haze, Morrigan, and Faustus were all lost at this point. “Wait, what?” Will interrupted. “Prometheus? Like, the Prometheus of Greek legend?”

Barry and Virus X both looked at Will, giving him a chill. “He doesn’t know, does he?” Virus X asked Barry.

“No, and he’s not fully aware of who Animus actually is either… or at least I don’t think he is.” Barry then figured it was best to move the conversation along. “Alright, look, don’t worry about it for now. I’ll explain it to you when Sebastian is not knocking on our doorstep.”

Will exhaled slowly to calm himself a little. “Right… So Sam, be careful around Virus X. He’s a little unstable…”

“UNSTABLE?” Virus X cried as his voice and eyes appeared to glitch out, accompanied by his body spasming a little. “YOU’RE UNSTABLE!”

“See what I mean?” This made Morrigan laugh.

Virus X paused and shook his head, knowing he had been played. “Will, get on Antares’ case about letting me go to The Commercialverse–I need to see my waifu again!”

Will looked at him with a hint of slight cringe in his expression. “Really, X? I appreciate the meme as much as the next guy, but do you have to call Synthia that?”

Virus X seemed to disregard Will’s criticism as he walked over to a tool rack and began looking for something. “Things are getting pretty serious in the fight against Audoin. He’s trying to find a way into the Lost Era and the Mezsdeon arrived not too long ago…”

Barry felt the weirdest feeling, like his blood had been replaced with adrenaline. He buckled a little, needing to steady himself against the jet’s hull. “Who are the Mezsdeon?” Barry asked, albeit his voice echoed in a way that shook the room without jostling so much as a speck of dust, and what Will and the others heard was incomprehensible, but was so close to their understanding that they got the jist of what he was asking.

Virus X stopped and looked at him with a look on his face that was mundane, yet terrifying. “I have no idea, Lighting God. I only heard about them in passing when I was crossing over through The Electric Abyss. All I know is that Raziel and Prometheus did something, and it scares me just as much as when Raziel brought Prometheus to the Lost Era.”

Before Will could ask what they were talking about (and he knew Morrigan also wanted some answers), Bran and Kyu had run up to them. “WILL!” Kyu exclaimed. “Are you okay?!”

Will went and picked up Kyu to give him a hug. “I’m alright… Orion’s probably worried sick about us, but I’m alright.”

“Thank goodness…” Bran said with an exasperated, yet relieved sigh. “So, did you have fun with Haze, Will?”

Will shook his head with a smile. “I guess we’re going to be working together now.”

“Oh boy…” Kyu remarked, trying to imagine how weird things were going to get. He then looked at Morrigan and was surprised. “Wait, Faustus! You can merge with Sam now?”

“She needs some practice, but she’s getting the hang of it,” he answered.

“And you’re sure you’re okay, Will?” Kyu asked one more time as his feelers twitched.

“Yeah, I am… as fine as I can be with a symbiont class construct…”

Virus X looked at both Barry and Kyu and smiled as he put his hands together. “Hey, we got a family reunion here!”

That caught Kyu off guard, causing his feelers to shoot up and float back down. “Excuse me, but what are you talking about?” He then looked at Barry and felt the strangest sense of familiarity, like he had just found a long lost family member. “No, it can’t be…” 

Barry smiled and began to step towards him. “Brother…” This, however, was drowned out by a loud thud that shook the ship, with the red alert alarms going off again. “What was that?!”

“Another cannon blast from Sebastian?” Kyu questioned as he looked around.

Haze immediately perked up and used Will’s hand to look around. “No, that’s… something… something familiar… it’s a shadow construct!”

“No offense, Haze, but we’ve been dealing with them all dang day…” Faustus chided.

“No! It’s a new one–I’m sure of it…”

Bran looked up, then nodded. “Hold on… Jones, any word from the bridge?!” he called out with one hand cupped around his mouth.

“We’re checking now…” he answered as he raced back into the control room. A moment later he came back, looking worried. “They say there’s a big one up on the sky deck!”

Will appeared to grow antsy for a second, refusing to just sit around. “XHRA NEZ ROH” he called out as a void door appeared before them. “I’m sorry, Supervisor, but I’m a member of The ULTRAMagic Guild and I can’t just sit around for this. Sam, Barry, Bran, Kyu–come on!”

Virus X grabbed a stool and took a seat, laughing as the void door vanished behind them. “Jeez, if only we had an ULTRAMagic Guild back during the Lost Era… He’s not going to bring up my request to Antares, is he?”

Clark shook his head. “Probably not. He’s too busy to do so, obviously. And even then you’re still under observation from last time…”

He leaned over with his right arm stretching out to grab a can of soda from a cooler and cracked it open with a satisfying pop of the tab. “You guys need to give me more credit. Without Synthia and The Star Eater looking into that issue IGSE-333 had recently, we would’ve been in deep trouble…”

Next:

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“I hope Sport’s okay without us…” Faustus stated as he checked the cards on the stone block they were sitting around. He was playing blackjack with Mira, Barry, and Vapor 6… and he was losing. To be fair so was Mira and Barry, and it did not help that his focus was thrown off by Perkele hurrying down the stairs and nearly colliding with him. “HEY, WATCH IT BUDDY–WE’RE PLAYING RIGHT HERE!” That caused Perkele to pause for a second and give them an incredulous look before he hurried on out of there.

Mira’s eyes went wide as she took a breath. “Dear… you realize who that was right?”

Barry gave off a worried hum of electricity as Perkele vanished out of sight. “Should we go after him?”

Vapor 6 glanced around, glowed a faint blue for a second, then returned his attention to the game. “Well Yale isn’t out here telling us it’s an emergency, so I’d imagine things went fine and Perkele is in full retreat…” He then tried his best to mask a smile with his poker face. “Come on, we’re almost done here, hehe…” He had got to play as the dealer and had a very good feeling… He revealed the second card and won. “YES!” he cheered as the others groaned.

“And this is why we never let Vapor be the dealer,” Barry pointed out with a chuckle as he collected his playing cards off the block. “He’s got a lucky streak just as bad as Gummi’s…”

Faustus sighed as he rested his head on his fist, sitting cross-legged to think. “You know? Allon and Abelone are criminals, but I hope they didn’t get too mangled up…”

“I’d imagine they’ll be fine once they’re back home,” Mira deduced.

“Jeez, just what is wrong with that place?” he wondered as he looked back towards the temple.

Barry stood up, walked over to the stairs, and put his foot on the first step. It reminded him of The Lost Era and filled him with a sense of nostalgia. “Technically The Lost Era had time and progression, just not like modern time–despite being eternal, things still happened and there was progress. If there was no progress, none of us would be there today, and I’d argue even The Lost Era itself recognized this…” He then climbed up the steps and hurried back down. “Inside the temple is similar to The Lost Era, which may be bringing out potential at a rate we–you guys cannot understand… Magic was weird during The Lost Era.”

Vapor 6 considered what Barry had said and thought about it for a second, nodding with a brief glow of light. “That could be the case, as I’d imagine clashing conditions for magic wouldn’t go over well unless you’re actually from The Lost Era–And lord knows realms from The Lost Era have bled into the modern era, which could mean that the conditions from the era are more prevalent than we thought. The Heaven of The Lost Era showed up in the void after all…”

Barry shuddered with an unpleasant-sounding crackle of electricity. “Please don’t bring that up, Vapor…”

“Wow, that bad, aye?” Faustus asked, receiving a nod from Barry.

Mira sighed, her breath warmer than it usually was, indicating her anxiety. “I just hope the group was okay. They just went in there like it was nobody’s business…”

Barry nodded, then noticed who was exiting the temple. “Oh hey, Will!” he said, startling the other three.

“Barry, what are you doing here?” he asked as the group walked down the stairs. Will promptly received a hug from Mira and Faustus.

“I heard through the grapevine what was going on… and was a bit late it turns out…”

Vapor 6 shook his head. “He just had to edit one of his new music tracks real quickly…” This made everyone laugh.

“Great backup…” Liss-Zael lightheartedly chided. “But better late than never I guess… even though we have things taken care of.”

Mira looked around, seemingly searching for something. “Did you guys manage to…?”

Akaya held up the fragment with a smile. “Right here, mostly without a hitch.”

“Then we should head back haste-post!” Barry declared.

“Posthaste, Barry,” Vapor 6 corrected, making the others chuckle to Barry’s mild embarrassment.

Ripsaw stretched his back and began leading his friends down the path. “Welp, we’re going to bounce, if it’s all the same…”

“You guys sure you don’t want to join M.A.I.G. or The Liger Brigade?” Vlastimir put in.

Ripsaw knew that was going to come up again, and sighed with a smile on his face. “You know what? Keep the door open for us just in case.” That made Vlastimir smile, with the rest of the group sharing the sentiment. “And Will–if you ever need help and we’re in your neck of the woods–give us a call and we’ll be there.”

“Will do, Malte–thanks,” he replied.

“You guys know how to have a good time,” Esteri complimented with a snap of her fingers… barring a certain mishap within the temple.

Ripsaw then noticed Anker looking worried as he crept off. “Anker, what’s the matter? Something wrong?”

“He’s here… there… over here?” he muttered as he nervously glanced around knowing he had caught something out of the corner of his eye.

“THERE YOU ARE, YOU LITTLE SMARTASS!” A furious man’s voice yelled as someone in a black and red bodysuit yanked Anker into what looked like a classical-styled war room. “OH BOY, ARE YOU GOING TO GET IT!” he further scolded as the portal closed in a puff of smoke and sparks.

Everyone was silent for a moment, with Ripsaw breaking that silence. “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? IS HE OKAY!?”

Akaya nodded, having caught who it was that yanked Anker away. “Oh, that was–that was Animus Sicarius. You’ve crossed paths with him, haven’t you?”

Liss-Zael nodded as he stroked his chin. “So General Bellator is interested in all this? I guess that explains why Anker was here in the first place.”

Ripsaw glanced back and forth, and went over to where the portal was to look for it… even though he knew it was no longer there. “Hold up–Anker was the one insistent on us coming here in the first place! Did he–did he…?”

Esteri bubbled her lips in confusion and frustration. “Well I could go for a drink right about now…”

“You and me both…”

Just then a spectral saw cut a portal out of the air and in it was Allon and Abelone, standing in what looked like a calm, classy bar. “You kids need a lift?” Allon asked, holding a pint.

“Just get me out of here…” Ripsaw groaned as he and Esteri entered the portal. “Oh, Will–Clara says hi.” And with that the portal closed with the sound of a zipper closing.

Will sighed. “Well that’s cool–glad to know she’s doing well. Sam, I’d dare say we should get home before Orion has a conniption, ha.”

“Yeah–I hope he isn’t worrying too much…” she remarked as she reverted back to Sam.

“Vlastimir, Eka–are you heading our way or are you heading back to Romania?”

“Romania, as mom and dad probably want to know what happened,” Vlastimir answered.

Ekaterina nodded as she patted him on the shoulder. “I’d dare say that was enough fun for a couple of days…”

“A walk in the park compared to The Dark Grand Desert!”

“Oh you!” she said as she shook him by the shoulder, making them all laugh.

It was a quick trip back to Milan’s mansion for Will and company to gather any belongings and head off to Ertheval Grand Central Station. Milan and Aelia hated to see them leave, but they all had to head back home eventually–lest Orion lose his marbles over what he had most likely sensed. Akaya and Liss-Zael bid the eight farewells and hung back at the mansion as there were definitely things to discuss in regards to what had happened. In particular it was the implications and some things Liss-Zael had to get off his chest. As Famine walked into the library after having said goodbye to the group, she stopped in her tracks seeing Akaya and Liss-Zael, figuring they would have headed home too.

“Oh geez–Liss, Akaya–I’m so sorry!” she started to say.

Liss-Zael shook his head and held up his hand. “Don’t worry about it, Famine–it is what it is…” Akaya nodded along to this sentiment.

“Oh, um, okay then…” she sighed, not happy over the stress she was causing them. “Mom, Dad? I got those groceries you asked for,” Famine said as she set the brown paper bag she had been carrying on the table.

“Thank you, dear,” Aelia said as she helped get out some stones and alchemical materials wrapped in plastic.

Yale went down to the table to get a look at what had been purchased. “So I guess Will and Haze are toting around Lost Era magic…”

Milan nodded as he took one of the items he had asked for. “That’s what I had been figuring for some time, given the research Lia performed for The Homunculus Project.”

Victor rubbed his face and exhaled. “I would have preferred we tested that ability out before Will put Haze on, but too late for that now…”

“If it’s any consolation, The Mad Flame offered to tutor them,” Yale said with a chuckle.

Akaya then set the fragment down on the table, with it humming for the briefest of seconds upon touching the table. “The Mad Flame definitely had a lot of interesting things to say, but it’s Perkele’s reasons for being there that have me more concerned. Are we in agreement that he’s definitely working with Mephistopheles?”

“No two ways about it at this point,” Victor concluded. “This will either be a good thing or a bad thing for us.”

Liss-Zael groaned. “I know his type… which frustrates me because I can’t say yay or nay to this…”

Milan put his hands together and twiddled his thumbs. “Well we don’t have a reason to not trust him, but at the same time he is the kind of man always looking for an opportunity…”

“Either way we’ll just have to deal with it,” Victor dryly noted.

There was a round of nodding, whose silence was broken when Famine remembered something she had to get off of her chest. “Found out where that bogus information I got right after The Red River City Incident came from…” She waited for everyone to become curious. “That bitch Hecate…”

Everyone was a little startled by her language, with Aelia patting her on the shoulder. “Easy on the language, dear–don’t let the foul warlock get you too worked up…”

“And you want to know who told me that info was fake? Gudrun of all people. I get why Fausta hates Hecate so much now…”

Milan then got out his notebook and jotted something down. “Given how far back their conflict goes, I’m not surprised. Also don’t worry, Famine–we found the correct information too.”

Famine groaned. “It still frustrates me to no end…”

Liss-Zael chuckled as he took a seat. “Aw don’t worry about it–we all get hoodwinked at some point or another. Mto knows how you feel. So what are we going to do with this fragment?” The fragment had been glowing with a faint, red light that had grown more intense as if someone was approaching.

“I’ll take care of it for you, guys!” Nosmirc happily declared as he strolled up to the table, followed by the man in the black and red bodysuit (with a similarly colored long coat).

“Hey, everyone,” the man said. “Don’t worry about Anker–I just had to get on his case for his behaviour earlier.”

“Animus, good to see you again!” Milan welcomed. “What brings you here?”

He sighed as he took a seat, scratching his black and red hair. “I swung by Carcosa earlier–Kthulku had to deal with another moron trying to claim The King’s crown, but he was able to handle it. No signs of Surtr or The Sons of Muspel, thankfully… Of course I had to deal with those Derek and Avery goobers again… AGAIN–Good lord, they just don’t get it…”

“Goodness,” Nosmirc said with sympathy in his voice as he took the fragment and teleported it away. “Did I miss Will?”

“Just missed him,” Yale answered.

“Shoot, I wanted to say hi to him too,” Animus added.

Milan stroked his chin, a suspicion towards Nosmirc all but confirmed. “You know, Nosmirc–that fragment used to belong to The Crimson God…”

“Oh?” Nosmirc struggled to hold back his startled reaction as a tinge of adrenaline hit him. “Well, all the more reason for me to keep an eye on it given that I am the foremost expert on ol’Crimson…”

Famine nodded with a skeptical look. “Dad, how did that fragment get there in the first place?”

Milan sighed with a chuckle. “Okay, I lied by omission,” he said as he threw his hands up.

Liss-Zael was not surprised and shook his head as he summoned a peanut butter sandwich for himself. It was out of nowhere, but he needed the creamy goodness to soothe his nerves. “Speaking of all that and Will–are we really going to let him join The League? He’s got the stuff, but hum…”

“Wait, really?” Famine questioned. “Doesn’t he have a lot on his plate at the moment? Between his promotion and Orion…” She then poured Liss-Zael a glass of red wine from a bottle she conjured out of thin air as she figured he would need the drink given how thick the filling appeared, receiving a quick ‘thanks.’

“Yes, I have to agree with Famine on this one,” Aelia concurred. “And Red River was quite messy after all…”

“I wouldn’t worry,” Yale reassured. “Will’s a quick learner… despite the mishap with Eloise.”

“Don’t worry, he’s on a trial period,” Victor said with a chuckle. “He’s still a little green, but he is Professor Marcel’s reincarnation after all–and both Abraham and Kit have been insistent on getting him back. Besides, Will needs his old deck and that Azure Spider hex would fit nicely in it.”

Akaya shared the worry Famine and Aelia had, but nodded contrary to them. “Given the potential he showed back during the academy days, I could definitely see him going on the more special missions we embark on… What do you think, Yale?”

The fairy sat down, crossing his legs. “He did pretty good in the past, disregarding when Blood yelled at him. I think he could handle it if we eased him in.”

“And given some of the nonsense about to smack us head on…” Animus noted. “We should definitely have an eye on him regardless. Be weary about this year–Synthia and The Star Eater have been keen to get ahold of him through his dreams, and I have no idea when they’re going to act…”

“But you said ‘this year,’” Famine noted. “Any ETA on this strange plan of theirs?”

“No idea, as The Star Eater is being vague again…”

Nosmirc felt his worry grow and leaned on the table next to Animus. “What do you think is going to happen specifically, Animus?”

Animus sighed as he rubbed his face. “I think they’re going to hijack his void magic for some reason…”

Victor nodded, sensing a way he could help. “Would you like me and The Acid God to do some poking around–find out what the bigger issue is?”

Animus smiled with a hint of relief from that offer. “If it’s no problem for you, Victor–sure. Also we should consider getting a hold of Goolubber–I know Mads wants to handle Will’s void magic until he’s ready for Goo, but this is The Star Eater we’re talking about… He was a pain back in the fellowship days and he’s a–damn outsider…”

“He gets us results though,” Victor pointed out. “I’ll also talk to Ssindis while I’m at it and see if Goo’s available at the moment.”

Nosmirc facepalmed and shook his head. “Things just keep getting more complicated as time goes on, doesn’t it?”

“Indeed,” Milan agreed. “On the birghtside–we’re more prepared than we were for the Red River City Incident, so I think we’ll be able to handle whatever comes our way. Although I probably shouldn’t say we got this in the bag because that usually means we don’t have it in the bag…” That made everyone chuckle and set their minds at ease despite the uncertainty.

“Good lord, I hate The Void Era sometimes…” Animus groaned with a facepalm. “You guys know how me and Will like to play video games and there’s ones that do giveaways?” He waited for everyone to nod. “Well I entered this one giveaway over in Universe-X82–it’s an out of the way universe similar to this one, but has a version of that one co-op space shooter we like that tickles my fancy in particular. I wanted to try my hand at winning a deluxe skin for one of my characters… only for the damn platform–not affiliated with the game mind you–to keep DELETING MY COMMENT BECAUSE IT FELT I WAS SPAMMING FOR SOME REASON!” This caused everyone to wince in sympathy for him. “Ultimately I said screw it and gave up–it wasn’t worth the frustration. Oh sure, I can reach freaking Lost Carcosa OF ALL PLACES, but I can’t win a damn skin in a video game!”

Nosmirc felt that particularly hard, as Will had gone through similar annoyances. “Animus, are you sure you don’t want me to pull some strings for you?”

Animus waved his hand in refusal. “No, don’t bother–it’s in the past, and we’ve got bigger things to worry about…”

Next: Retaliation

ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)

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“Alright… I think we’re good…” Will said with a shaky voice as he looked around the seemingly empty and roomy chamber. Pulsing lines of light in the walls and ceiling illuminated the room with a soft white glow–and across the walls were more of the story of the battles against the mad flame cultists. These ones presented the quandaries presented by the encroaching Void Era that spurned the cultists into their fervor. The concerns were valid, but the solutions the cultists presented through silvered words were not. “Geez, looks like some things never change…” Will remarked as he studied the carvings. “Did we see who else ended up with us?”

Morrigan took a second to think, her mind finally settling down. “I think I saw the others get stuck with Ripsaw and Esteri–definitely.” she then adjusted her armor, as one of her pauldrons had loosened.

“Liss and Akaya too?” Yale questioned.

“Um… Akaya, I think…?”

Yale nodded and called out “Liss? You there?” After a moment’s wait, he shook his head. “He would’ve sounded off by now.”

Morrigan nodded and shuddered a little, feeling like they were being watched. “So what do we do now, Specialist?” she nervously asked. Morrigan had been brought to Lost Era temples back when she was working with Karnage, but that did not mean she ever got used to it.

Will looked around once more and sighed. “We keep moving forward–look for the fragment chamber and go retrieve it.” It was easier said than done, but there was a way through that seemed to go deeper into the temple. Just as he was about to exit, he paused as his blood chilled with a realization. “Wait, did you see Anker with the others?”

Morrigan returned to the thought and racked her mind to see if she had caught any trace of him. “N-no…”

“Shit…” Will said as he began searching for him… and then he felt his throat grow irritated and dry. And then came the hoarse, hacking coughing, causing him to stumble around as he struggled to breathe properly. “SAM!” he wheezed out.

“WILL!” she tried to call back under similar conditions. “Where’d you go!?” The room had become flooded with a thick, red mist that disoriented the two.

“ARGH!” he cried as someone hit him in the chest, sending him reeling back. Haze was also having trouble figuring out what was going on.

“Ah ah ah, Will–no getting away from me this time,” Anker taunted as he hit him again, obscured by the mist. “You’re going to tell me where The Crimson God is since we have a little one-on-one time…”

Will coughed again, trying to steady himself on the wall. “I TOLD YOU I DON’T KNOW WHERE HE IS!” This led to him getting kicked and falling forward.

“I KNOW YOU DO!” Anker rebuked. “The Blood God knows his brother has been active as of late–And Crimson is tied to you whether you realize it or not! Tell me where he is!”

“DAMN IT ALL,” Will growled as he got pushed over and rolled across the floor. He could have sworn he saw Anker’s silhouette and swung at him… but only managed to graze him. 

Morrigan knew she saw Will take a swing and tried to move towards him, despite her eyes stinging. “WILL… use… YOUR VOID… MAGIC!” she tried to say through coughs.

“I DON’T THINK HE CAN FOCUS LONG ENOUGH, SAM!” Yale called out from the ceiling. He wanted to fly in and help, but his magic could only do so much against Anker’s void magic, and he feared that he would just get in the way even if he could properly ward it off.

After another hit, Haze had had enough. “Damn it… hold on, Will–I have an idea…” he quietly said to himself. In a flash he fully engulfed Will and morphed into a special suit with a gasmask-like hood that fit nicely onto Will’s body. He then flushed out the mist through the gaskets, giving Will a chance to recover. “MAKE IT COUNT, WILL!”

Will quickly noticed Anker’s figure in the mist with the irritants gone from his eyes and punched him square in the side of the head, causing Anker to lose track of him. “HAHA!” Will celebrated, only for Anker to come running at him. He swiftly dodged and felt Haze drag him over to a wall.

“STAY QUIET!” he whisper-yelled, which was thankfully kept inside the suit.

“Right, right…” Will whispered back.

Anker was still on the hunt, and he was faintly discernible. “Come out–come out wherever you are, Will… We’re not leaving until you tell me where The Crimson God is. I can smell him on you! Animus and I need to know where he is!”

“Animus?” Will questioned to himself. “What does he have to do with this?”

“Anker’s always been this crazy?” Haze wondered with a scoff.

“Yes and no…”

“I see… Hold on, Will–I have another idea…”

Haze did something that amazed Will to no end. First he turned shiny like rubber film, followed by Will going completely invisible save for a distortion effect in place of his body. He was still technically visible to a degree, but it was more than enough to deal with Anker given the conditions that had been created. Keeping quiet and watching his steps, Will looked for Anker. The man was vigilant, keeping his ears open for any noises. Morrigan was frantically calling out for Will, and her growing panic made a perfect cover for the small noises his footsteps made. Will soon found Anker and figured the best way to go was to restrain him. The wait for the right moment dragged on forever–but once Anker had his back turned to Will he went for it! He grabbed Anker’s arms, attempting to get them behind his back so he could hold him, but Anker wrestled him off. Will then rammed into Anker with his weight and knocked him on his chest–pressing his knee down on his scapula.

“YALE, SAM–ANYONE, DO SOMETHING!” Will called out even though the gasmask that somewhat muffled his voice.

“ON IT, WILL!” Yale called out. The mist was beginning to fail, so that allowed him to use a spell that summoned rain within the chamber. It was a magic rain that would not wet the stone, but would easily dissipate the mist.

Morrigan felt her coughs easing and focus come back, but saw Anker shake Will off of him. “I GOT YOU, BOYO!” she exclaimed as she put out her hand, levitated Anker with an invisible force, and pinned him up against the wall. He was completely helpless as he struggled in vain to break free from Morrigan’s magic.

“GOOD JOB, SAM!” Will complimented as he walked over, fading back into sight. “Oops, I mean ‘Good job, Devilfay,’ ha! Anyways…” Will then sucker punched Anker in the gut… even though he was completely helpless.

“Oww…” he moaned. “Touché, I guess…”

“What’s the big idea, Anker!?” Will demanded to know, sticking his finger in his face. “You realize we have bigger issues to deal with right now, right?!”

Anker gritted his teeth as he kept struggling, only for Morrigan’s magic to strengthen, creating a vice-like grip around him that might as well have turned him into a statue (which prompted him to settle down, to his chagrin). “We need to know where The Crimson God is, and I know you know…”

“NO. I. DON’T,” Will growled. “I only know where Mads is! And what heck does this have to do with Animus? We’ve been looking for him ever since the beginning of the year…’

“We have our reasons…” Anker answered. “Ever since The Blood God got out of The Commercialverse and started working with Vlad IV he’s been looking into what his brother has been doing given that he disappeared from The Eternal Order, notably after The Tyrant War…”

Morrigan did the unprecedented and eased up on her magic, letting Anker go. “Yeah, I’ve been wondering about that too… It was pretty obvious who he was, even with Karnage and Anne assuming their ‘Gore’ and ‘Fran’ identities…” She then realized what she had done and pushed Anker back up against the wall (albeit with lighter star magic).

Yale then flew right into Anker’s face. “Look, stop asking Will about this stuff–we’ve got a bigger issue at the moment. If you want to talk about it, contact The League and we’ll have a chat.”

Anker sighed in frustration, but eased his clenched fists. “Fine–I suppose we can take care of Perkele first. After all, we are still trying to figure out why he’s been speaking to Mephistopheles as of late…”

“Wait, what?” Morrigan and Yale questioned in unison. The mystery flew over Will and Haze’s heads.

“Again, it’s something we’re looking into,” Anker reminded them as he was let down. “We couldn’t care less about the fragment–especially after some of the things Animus has told me.”

“Right…” Will skeptically agreed. “The suit’s staying on by the way–don’t think I’ve forgotten Operation Blood Drive…”

“Oh come now, Will–it was all in good fun,” Anker tried to handwave, only to get a growl in response. He then shrugged and followed the three out of the chamber.

“Boyo?” Morrigan inquired as they stepped out onto a giant set of stairs that loomed in mid air over a colossal, seemingly bottomless chamber with a pulsing red light so far below them that it would have given anyone vertigo. 

They passed by rooms of the temple that were suspended in mid air as red lines pulsed down the herculean walls, creating a truly surreal sight to behold. Will shook his head and replied “Check my mission record with Gemini…”

Morrigan figured she would heed his instructions as they pressed on. She then got a good look at Haze’s new form and whistled as Will walked. “Damn, Boyo–that’s a neato-looking suit…”

He paused with an awkward smile face as Anker nudged him with a chuckle. “Hey, you’re still on thin ice, Anker… Also–Sam…” he said with an embarrassed chuckle.

“And there’s more where that came from, babe,” Haze snuck in, with Will promptly slapping his hand. This made the others laugh.

Ripsaw and Esteri were not having a good time, but it was not because they were making any progress. Their magic was going haywire as they flew all over the place, unable to control their bodies. Ripsaw was nothing but plates of deformed metal, his torso and arms wrapped in saw chains, and his lower legs were forced inwards as they flailed about. He jolted back and forth screaming as his saw chains kept trying to move in opposite directions. Esteri was nothing but gunbarrels, being encased in a giant one and wobbling around trying to free herself, failing to realize the metal had her encased and trapped inside. Akaya, Vlastimir, and Ekaterina were stuck watching the spectacle unfold, unsure how to help the two delinquents as they kept cursing their current predicament. The three quickly understood why Faustus and Mira were so hesitant to follow them in.

Vlastimir winced as Ripsaw’s chains anchored him to the ground, causing him to struggle more violently. “Jeez, makes me wish he had a rubber devil as a partner…”

Ekaterina was confused by that, then had the reference hit her. “Vlastimir–is now really the time to be thinking like that?” she chided.

Akaya chuckled, albeit in a disappointed way. He then noticed the giant barrel encasing Esteri shrink and compress her, making her look like a featureless, restrained metal statue with a mouth that shot out magic slugs like a normal shotgun in place of her screaming. Suffice it to say it was time to intervene. “Hold on, I have a spell from the old days that might help…” Akaya took his two fingers and rubbed them against his tongue and flung two wads of a rusty, glittery substance onto the two struggling necromancers, causing glowing red chains of electricity to separate them from their devils. Allon and Abelone looked incredibly malformed, but were no worse for wear.

“WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING, MALTE!?!” Allon roared at his partner as he shambled away, a mess of saws and dragging chains. “I’M HEADING BACK TO HELL–LET ME KNOW WHEN YOU GET OUT OF THIS GODFORSAKEN PLACE!” He then vanished into a spurting cloud of sparks and foul-smelling smoke.

“Sorry, Esteri, but you’re on your own with this one…” Abelone tried to say as he groaned in pain, his body mostly jagged metal. He then disappeared with what sounded like a gunshot.

“Shit…” Esteri complained as she laid there trying to catch her breath.

Ripsaw let everything sink in, then slammed his hand on the stone floor. “DAMN IT ALL–now what are we going to do!?”

Vlastimir walked over shaking his head and offered Ripsaw a hand. “Well firstly I’d imagine getting up would be a good idea…”

He was hesitant at first, but relented and accepted the help. Ripsaw was a little wobbly, but steadied himself. “So now what?”

Ekaterina went over to help Esteri. “Here…”

“Thanks,” she replied. “Welp, looks like we're up shit creek without a paddle, Malte…”

“Yeah, I noticed, Esteri…” he snapped back, then groaned. “That’s just lovely… And what the hell, Vlastimir? You’re just going to help us after all the times I picked on you and Will?”

Vlastimir shrugged. “Malte, I’ve been through a lot worse than what you’ve put me through–I’ve seen infinitely worse! And Blood would be disappointed with us if we left you guys behind…”

“No two ways about it,” Ekaterina added.

Akaya stepped forward and gave Ripsaw a pat on the shoulder. “Malte, my boy–it looks like you’re going to have to come with us. No sense staying here.”

He gave a light exhale and smiled a little. “That separation spell was so annoying back in the day.”

Akaya laughed. “True, but it came in handy just now, didn’t it? Stick with us for the time being. Do you two have any other magic you can cast?” They shook their heads.

“You don’t remember, Akaya?” Vlastimir asked with a giggle, causing Akaya to give a lighthearted facepalm.

“Well I’ve tried to use soul magic before…” Esteri said as she conjured up a pink ball of light in her hands that spun around, bounced, and exploded into a small storm of tiny confetti. “That’s all I got though…”

Vlastimir nodded, whose subtle nuance was like that of a proud teacher. “You two need to work on your other magic! Master Vilho Rinne of the four great sword masters of The Iron City told us that we shouldn’t be predictable–that we should have a backup just in case something happens to your magic or weapons!”

Ekaterina gave him an incredulous look and crossed her arms. “So where’s that backup sword Master Vilho told you to get, Mister Dracul?” Vlastimir responded with a cheeky grin and a chuckle, making everyone else laugh.

“So what, should I just start practicing alchemy then?” Ripsaw interjected. “I was never really good at it…”

“I think you gave up way too soon, Malte,” Akaya pointed out. “Everyone has the potential to be great inside of them, and you can’t let your fears get in the way. If you mess up–so what? I thought it was a good idea to spread my influence through psychosis as a way to take control of the world, but look where I am now!”

Ripsaw shook his head. “Alright, alright–I’ll give it a shot when I get some free time…”

“Hey, you two could join M.A.I.G.!” Ekaterina pointed out. “You two still have a bit of a record, but I’d imagine they’d take care of you.”

Ripsaw and Esteri legitimately considered that idea for a second, but it did not feel right for some reason. “Let’s focus on the clown for now, ‘kay?” Ripsaw said as he and Esteri started to leave the chamber.

Vlastimir went right over to Ripsaw and held out his hand. “Malte? It’s going to be alright.”

He paused, then smiled and shook hands. “Thanks, Vlastimir.”

“Yeah, you two are cool,” Esteri said as she also shook his hand.

“So, Vlastimir, what about your magic?” Ripsaw asked as they started walking down the stairs.

Vlastimir paused and tried to manifest a spell, except it completely coated him in his blood, leaving him featureless and his hands useless before he pulled it back in. “I feel in control, but I’ll have to be careful…”

As they continued on, Esteri thought of something. “Hey, Ekaterina?”

“Just call me ‘Eka,’” she replied with a smile.

“Cool–those ribbons are sick as hell. Where’d you get them again?”

She sighed as extended one and wobbled it. “The Lich of Old–and it seems what I’ve been told about him sourcing them from a Lost Era entity is true, because I feel way more stronger here.” Notably her ribbons looked stronger to boot.

“Damn–would’ve hated to have fought you here…” Esteri noted as she shook Ekaterina’s shoulder.

Akaya stroked his chin, wondering if his colleagues would be interested in potential research. “Intriguing… I’ll have to speak to my co-workers, Eka–as I have some that would be interested in this topic…”

Next: Part 8

Relevant Posts: Schwarzes Biest, The ar'ton, Tereza, The Star Eater, Exhehal, Audoin Dethbrand, Surtr, The Eternal Order

Master Post - Patreon

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Some time ago when the ar'ton Tereza was allied with The Eternal Order, before the modern era of the Cosmos, she attempted to create an artificial ar'ton. This was considered forbidden by Ar'tonius Prime and was added to her list of crimes against the ar'ton. By taking an ancient, void-faring energy being from the early days of the Cosmos and encasing it in an ar'ton body. Things did not go according to plan, because the being she created was a -0D entity who immediately called himself "The Void Eater." This newborn fled into the Cosmos, never to be seen again until modernity.

Once the second era came into full swing, The Void Eater reemerged as an agent of chaos. He was a dynamic, a real rockstar of a... Void Eater who opposed entropy and stagnancy. His modus operandi was to go around the Cosmos and breathe new life into places ravaged by decay. This is facilitated through his bizarre powers which allow him to manipulate the potential for something to not happen, pushing it so far that it circles around to actually happening, and vice-versa if he needs to something to not happen. The power seems to be similar to the superposition collapse powers of The Reverse Serpent, making him nigh untouchable and even a threat to higher dimensional entities.

The Void Eater seems to be very interested in the planets Earth, Venus, Mars, and Eris. The last one of Earth-23 seems to be his preferred hang out. The Void Eater also likes to work with entities such as the dark angel Exhehal and Aristates–The Forlorn God of Laughter. And a surprising person he's helped is Schwarzes Biest, or ULTRAMagic Ultimatum. What Schwarzes usually doesn't mention is that The Void Eater helped him regain his form and cognizance when he was forced into The Scream by the corrupted ACF of Universe-X090X. The Void Eater considers Schwarzes one of his best friends, and has been bugging him to get back into void magic for some time now...

Not a day goes by where I don't wonder what would happen if I hadn't been created by my crackpot mother HAHAHAHA–just kidding, I love her dearly. Sure is quiet in the Cosmos nowadays, isn't it? HAHA, I'M KIDDING, BABE! No, actually it's nothing but a screaming match between good and evil–shit is flying left-right-up-down and center–nobody knows what's going on–and on and on people are screeching nonsense like "demonic, criminal, fascist, commie, subversive, savage, lapdog!" and they all keep plunging headfirst into mutual DESTRUCTION! And that's where I come in–I may have rustled the jimmies of The Star Eater, but he'll calm down eventually. I'm not going to let this beautiful Cosmos fall into the hands of indolent, power-hungry bastards like Audoin and Surtr–YOU BASTARDS HEAR ME!? THIS IS MY COSMOS AND YOU'RE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME!!!

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The sky deck was the flight deck of Camelot, akin to a maritime carrier-class ship. Unlike those ships, however, the sky deck was more similar to an airport runway. Due to the nature of Camelot being at high altitudes on a regular basis, the sky deck was used less for take offs and rather for landings. And one of the current entities to land was the very unwelcome hydra-class shadow construct. It was a black and red serpent at forty feet tall, completely metallic, and had three heads that roared and fired lasers from their mouths. And it was durable too, standing up to fire from the tiltrotors and a fly by from Shaye and Ahhotep. No soldiers were present on the sky deck as only a mad man would be ballsy enough to try fighting up there while Camelot was high up in the sky. Thankfully Will and the group were just the people for the job, but they also had to figure out how to get that job done.

Morrigan could see that Will, Bran, and Kyu were at a loss for what to do, so she did her best to figure out how the hydra-class worked based on its behavior. “I hate to admit it, but Sebastian did a fairly good job on this one!” she called out over the wind.

Barry laughed at the serpent as it failed to bite a tiltrotor. “No worse than what we fought in The Tyrant War, aye, Morrigan?”

She groaned a little at the bad memories, but quickly relented when the monster roared. “True, true… A shadow titan this isn’t…”

Will was fidgeting and looking around, trying to think of something. “That might be a little big for me to punch! Do we have any weapons?”

“OH, Will!” Haze had gone through his memories and found what he thought would be perfect. “What about that Mega Cannon spell?”

“I… I don’t know… I didn’t get to test it outside of The Nexus…”

This caught Bran’s attention, but he had to cover his ears to block out another roar. “Mega Cannon? Just what kind of magic is that?”

“It’s a void spell I worked on with Mads, but I don’t want to try using it here…”

Kyu’s feelers were being blown around, but they sensed Will’s apprehension and he agreed. “We better not then–we don’t want to harm Camelot or any of the pilots. Jeez, do we have an RPG or something?”

“HA, perfect timing then!” Antares said as he ran over to the group from one of the stairwells. Notably he was carrying such a weapon and had his helmet on. “We’ve been monitoring that damn thing and we think it’s capable of regenerating…”

Will then had an idea, thinking of the tiltrotors. “Wait, do any of them have explosive rounds then?”

Antares gave him an incredulous look as he readied his launcher. “Will–jeez, you know it’s not that simple! We can’t just load ‘explosive rounds’ into a turret like it’s a video game…”

Barry then patted the disappointed Will on the back. “Next time, buddy…”

“You’re head’s in the right place though, because I think this sucker needs a little bang in its life…” Antares got ready, pressing a button on his helmet to make sure his ears were protected, and took aim at the base of the center neck. “BACK BLAST AREA CLEAR!” he ordered, causing the group to quickly get to cover behind one of the stairwells. The grenade rocketed towards its target and went off with a loud explosion, causing the serpent to roar out in pain, its center head going weak. “HAHA, YES!” Antares celebrated, pressing another button on his helmet. “Aalders, explosives work, but what I think we need to do is focus on one spot–OH SHIT!” Antares had to ditch the launcher and leap out of the way to avoid a laser beam from the right head. “So, Will, can Haze do anything cool that would help us?” Will shrugged, which Antares figured was the case.

Barry laughed as he stroked his chin, his brain cooking up a good idea as he watched the center head slowly start to regenerate as the tiltrotors began to focus their fire. “Morrigan, let’s combine our magic–Come on!” he said as rushed out to get into position.

“Hold up, what do you even have in mind?” she demanded to know as she caught up with him, figuring he wanted her to use Faustus’ magic.

“I don’t know, just combine whatever you got with my magic!” he answered as he began forming a sphere of lighting beside him.

Faustus partially appeared out of Morrigan’s arm, looking baffled. “Wait, shouldn’t I just go back to Will and use the Volcano Beam? I’ve been practicing it…”

“No no, let’s try this–I’m sure it will work!” Barry reassured as the sphere began humming like a Tesla coil.

Faustus shrugged and went back into Morrigan. She then took a breath and began using her star magic to help focus a ball of fire and merge it into the lighting. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Barry…”

“Um… well… Oh, Morrigan? I’m going to need you to throw it…”

Morrigan gave him a look asking him if he was mad as the violent sphere shook and rumbled with furious energy. Taking a breath, she readied herself to throw. Faustus could sense she was just as nervous as Will would be in such a situation, and did his best to give her words of support and encouragement. The serpent was starting to falter as the focused fire from the tiltrotors wore it down, but it needed that one last push. Morrigan went for it, spinning around to get a good throw and letting the sphere fly with a massive grunt. It screamed through the air and hit the serpent head on, causing a big explosion. It took a second for the dust to settle and the group thought they had it, only for the serpent to begin slowly regenerating. Thankfully all of its heads hung limply from its torso, so there was that at least.

“Resilient bastard, isn’t it…” Antares pointed out as the group ran over to Morrigan. “Barry, do you have another one in you?”

“Sorry, Lt. Colonel, but that left me pretty hungry…”

“Haha, hungry?!”

Will nodded. “Yeah, ULTRAMagic does that to you.”

“So, any ideas?” Bran inquired, a bit worried. “Any at all?”

“Don’t worry, kids, I got this one!” a familiar voice called out as he hurried over. It was a mage in black and red robes with crimson eyes and silver hair with a blonde tint to it.

“Milan!” Will exclaimed. “You got a good spell? Because it can regenerate…”

He nodded as he cracked his knuckles, sizing it up with a smile on his face. “This would be the perfect time to use a spell I learned from Schwarzes!” he said with a snap of his fingers. “I’ll need some room, everyone…”

Eager to see what the archmage had in mind, he took a breath as they gave him some space. Sprites of glittering light began to dance around him and coalesced into a bow and arrow in his hand, but this was no ordinary bow. With an ethereal thud, the bow grew in size to that of a great bow roughly eight feet tall. Milan summoned a giant arrow and began to draw the large string back, straining as he did. It was not that he was not strong enough (although that would have been a factor if the bow was not made of magic), but that it was requiring a lot of focus and energy to prepare. Once ready and feeling like his arm was going to give out, Milan let the arrow go. It shot like a bullet into the chest of the serpent, splitting in twain in a great explosion of starlight, leaving mere pieces of it on the sky deck that quickly began dissolving into steam that was blown away by the winds. Milan nearly slumped over, but it held it together when everyone went to congratulate him.

“Alright, alright haha, let’s celebrate where it’s a little warmer!” Milan suggested as he led the group to the nearest stairwell.

Antares checked his comms and laughed. “Good news everyone; Sebastian’s cursing us and falling back!” he said as Götterdämmerung began to change its course and move away from Camelot. Shaye and Ahhotep did one last pass by in the B-17 with the group cheering before a portal opened up to take them back to The Unlight.

Aalders and Dryden had Milan and Antares bring everyone to Briefing Room A1 so they could finally figure out what was going on with Will and Haze, and also to congratulate the group on a job well done. Bethany had also shown up given that she was the target of Sebastian. The room was a modest space with desk tables lined up in a U-shape, soft white lights, and a projector screen on the wall opposite the door. It was a relief compared to getting blasted by wind and the cold up on the sky deck. Curiously there was a semi-elderly man sitting in a chair against the wall, waiting patiently as everyone sat down, with Milan taking a seat next to him. He looked like a general from a time that never existed, with gray eyes, lavender hair, and skin that was white like marble. Everyone could feel he was a truly important individual, and the fact that he had not spoken yet was causing a bit of a tension in the room.

Will was leaning on the desk, drumming his fingers while they waited for Aalders to get everything together and go over some last minute things with Dryden. “Well, welcome to your first debriefing, Sam.”

She reverted back to her human form, having split from Faustus when they entered the room. “Standard procedure I take it?”

“Yup, after every mission or incident…”

Aalders went over to his podium and glanced around the room. “Alright, since we’re all here…” He was cut off by someone bursting into the room.

“Will, Faustus!” The person in question was a female devil with blue eyes, ice blue skin, long hair, and red stripes across her body with a tail shorter than Faustus’. “Are you two okay!? I sensed all the commotion after it was too late!”

“Mira, we're in the middle of something, haha!” Faustus said as he got up to put his hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t worry, we’re alright,” Will assured her.

Faustus then glanced over at Aalders and Dryden. “Um, General? Is it alright, if Mira joins us?”

Aalders chuckled. “Of course–have a seat, Mira.”

“Thank you, General,” she replied as Barry scooted over so she could sit next to Faustus. “So how’d things go?” she quickly and quietly asked.

“Sam needs practice…” Faustus said with an exhale.

Aalders cleared his throat and tapped his packet of papers on the podium. “Before we get started, Barry, would Vapor 6 like to join us, or can you relay the necessary information to the Dark Divers Guild?”

Barry laughed a little. “Nah, we’re good–but I can call him if need be.”

“Very good. Now, before anything else is said, Will, I am so sorry you had to go through all of that on your first day back from The Unlight…”

“It’s alright, Col–General,” Will stumbled, catching himself starting to use the wrong rank. “You should have seen the Future Squad Mission…” This caught a grumble from Faustus.

“The Future Squad mission?”

“Yes, General,” Barry put in. “Ol’Valerie, or ULTRAMagic Warlock, was giving us quite the run for our money back in the early days of the guild, so we had the hair-brained idea to send three mages from the future to catch her off guard. The only issue is that Will came completely unprepared…”

“Barry…” Will groaned, with Haze laughing.

“How bad was it?” Aalders inquired.

“It actually wasn’t too bad,” Barry answered. “Really the only true issue was Eloise, who clashed with her mother when she decided she wanted to join us. I mean Will was captured by Eloise when he went to do recon out of shame following a spat he had with Blood-Wraith…”

“BARRY!” Will interrupted.

“What? It led to Valerie learning how to gain ULTRAMagic…”

“PRIVATE FORD,” Antares cut in as he slammed his hands on the table. “Really!? Did you not learn anything from what happened to Adrien and Satsuki back in September?”

Will gave a light growl. “Well hey, Blood yelled at me, saying I’d kill people for intel!”

And then Blood-Wraith appeared out of nowhere to defend his honor. “Well yeah, because I actually thought you were going to go wild back then. I mean okay, I was a bit harsh and that did come out of nowhere, but I like to think that helped both of us…”

“ALRIGHT, new ground rule!” Antares interjected. “NO RECON, NO intel gathering–NO nothing unless we absolutely need the information, effective immediately!”

“Yes sir,” Will agreed with a groan.

“Hello, Blood-Wraith,” said Dryden with a chuckle towards the outbursts. “Care to join us or did you just want to get your two cents in?”

“Ha, sorry about that, General Dryden,” Blood-Wraith answered with a nervous chuckle. “I was looking for Nosmirc and Mads given all the ruckus.”

“I believe they went to Wing X to check on something.”

“Thank you, General. Oh, Will, Morrigan–Orion’s here, but I suggested he wait until debriefing is done,” he said as he exited the room.

“Yeah, that figures…” Will noted with a light chuckle, with Sam nodding in agreement.

 “Ahem–let’s get back to what we have to discuss,” Aalders declared. “Although I do want to know why Will decided to go unprepared and why he was unable to summon Faustus… I presume.”

“I’ll sum it up so we can move on,” said Barry. “Basically Will was worried about affecting the timeline and could not summon Faustus or Mira due to a phenomenon relating to necromancers that prevents them from calling on their partners if they are in a different time and come from a realm with linear time…”

Faustus cleared his throat to get Aalders’ attention. “Basically me and Mira were being called upon ten years ago when we would’ve had no idea what was going on,” he added with a confirming nod from Mira.

Aalders was slowly nodding, not quite following but getting the general idea. “But didn’t he have a squad with him?”

“Well I’d imagine so given that he was a part of the ‘future squad,’” Dryden playfully chided, warranting a frown from Aalders.

Barry gave a quick ‘ahem’ to resume what he was saying. “Yes, he had Ludwig, Rostislav, and Yale with him. He did pretty well without Faustus and Mira, despite his alchemy skills being lacking, and the issue as a whole was remedied by Blood turning Waramunt’s… I mean Valentin’s wild card into an Azure Spider hex, plus the void magic Mads taught him.”

That was quite the tale, and Aalders was amazed at Will’s progress as a mage and soldier, despite the hiccups. “And he accomplished his part of the mission regardless?” He received nods from Barry, Will, and Sam. “Impressive, Private Ford…”

Next: Part 10

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Will, Morrigan, and Faustus had to dodge out of the way as one of the enemy aircraft crashed into Hangar B9, slamming into the far wall, and creating a flaming mess that required the operatives and workers present in the hangar to scramble to deal with it. Once things were safe enough, Morrigan rushed over to the black and red, metal and glass craft as she had caught enough of a glimpse of it. “Hold on! I’m familiar with shadow constructs!” The clean up crews stepped aside as she got down. The lifeless body of the pilot had fallen out of the cockpit and she was certain of which shadow orb it had come from. She yanked the head off to inspect it, with the body fading into dust. “Oh yeah, this is one of Karnage’s…”

“You mean Sebastian, right?” Will questioned.

“Yeah, yeah…” Morrigan then crushed the head with a faint scowl on her face. The clean up crew only slightly recoiled, as the head had broken apart into dusty chunks.

“Well that’s new…” Will noted, then turned to a somewhat older man whose uniform indicated he was of an administrative or supervising role. “Supervisor, wait until we head out to roll the hangar out of the cue…”

The supervisor scoffed a little, but it was more out of disbelief. “No offense, Private, but Beckenbauer already deployed from hangar 2B. What do you have in…?”

“Don’t worry, I have an idea!” Will called out as he, Morrigan, and Faustus ran towards the windy exit.

“Hold on, cue?” Morrigan questioned. “What’s a cue?”

“Remember what Zack said when we got here? We have a lot of hangars, and they rotate in and out of the exits and whatnot…”

Faustus nodded as he could tell Will was not explaining it properly, but no one could really blame him given how hectic things were. “Yeah, I get it. He means there’s more on the inside!”

Morrigan also nodded, admiring the ingenuity of the Liger Brigade. “Alright, Boyo, what do you have in mind?” She had to raise her voice to be heard over the whipping winds.

Will looked around at the battle between the tiltrotors and shadow construct planes amongst the clouds, partially shielding his eyes as he waited for the right moment. He was a little nervous, as if he failed he would plummet to the Earth below, but at the same time his adrenaline was pumping. Seeing the plane he needed, he wound his arm back like he was about to throw a punch with his hand wide open and ready to grasp. “THIS!” Will’s arm shot forward and stretched to an unimaginable length. The plane he grabbed yanked him out of the hangar with great speed, leaving Morrigan and Faustus dumbfounded.

Faustus shook his head to dispel the disbelief he was experiencing, which was shared by the supervisor in the distance. “Oh my goodness… SPORT! WHAT ARE YOU–Oh forget it, he wouldn’t have listened anyways…”

Morrigan, naturally panicking, began levitating thanks to her star magic. “I’m going after him!”

Faustus quickly stopped Morrigan with his hand. “Hold up, you’re going to need more than that!” He then thought for a second as he glanced out at the battle and had a (most likely) similarly crazy idea to Will. “Sam, merge with me!”

“Wait, we can do that?” she wondered as she did her best to keep her hair from blowing in her face.

“I don’t see why not! You get along well with me and Mira after all!”

Morrigan touched back down on the floor, nearly losing her balance due to the wind. Hearing the supervisor call out that they needed to rotate out of the cue, Morrigan shook Faustus’ hand. “Alright, let’s do it!”

Faustus smiled and turned into a cloud of flaming, red energy that enveloped Morrigan, causing her to transform into a version of herself made out of fire. Had Will been there he would have complimented her on how amazing she looked. “Alright, Sam, just take it nice and easy…” Morrigan then jumped out into the air, fell for a second, then took off with the sound of a small jet. “EASY, SAM, EASY–AIYEE!” Faustus complained as she took off as fast as she could to find Will.

Will, on the other hand, was trying to figure out what Haze could do and was starting to panic as the pilot of the shadow construct plane opened the cockpit, snarling and gurgling as it prepared to attack. Thankfully Haze took the lead and shoved their hand into the torso of the pilot, temporarily taking control of it. The plane jerked to the right, then stabilized as it began firing on its allies. Unfortunately one of the tiltrotors shot at them, not realizing what Will was doing or that he was even there for that matter. Will quickly shot his hand to another plane and zipped over to it, repeating the process without Haze’s help. Haze was definitely impressed at how quickly Will had learned what he had shown him. It was easy to see why Will was such good friends with Ryota.

Spotting the Mean Machine in the distance, Will wanted to get close and hopefully board it to get his bearings. And it was perfect timing as a juggernaut-class shadow construct had latched onto it and was trying to destroy one of the rotors. Will used the plane he was on to swing himself over to the Mean Machine and landed on top with a thud (naturally scaring Zack). Another instance of panic occurred when Will quickly remembered that he still had barely any idea what he could do as Haze, and a juggernaut class was nothing to mess around with. The shadow construct gave an evil grin as it moved towards him with an unnatural cling to the roof. And adding insult to injury, Faustus was not responding to Will’s calls for his magic, which confused him to no end. Thinking quickly, he held out his hand and blasted the construct with a wave of cold air so frigid that it slowed it to a snail’s pace. A swift punch from an enlarged hand shattered the foe to pieces.

Inside the cockpit, Zack was still worrying given all of the commotion. He then heard a banging on one of the doors. “Jeez, better not regret this…” he whined with apprehension as hesitantly pressed the open button.

“ZACK, CLOSE IT!” Will ordered as slung himself in.

“WILL!?” Zack exclaimed as he tried to keep his focus on the battle. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? And what the hell happened to you?!”

“Long story…” he answered, catching his breath as stepped over to the cockpit. “You okay?”

“Yeah, thanks for that… WHOA!” Zack had to make an emergency maneuver to avoid a plane crashing into them. “It’s definitely Götterdämmerung by the way…”

Will’s hand shot up in front of his mouth, with Haze beginning to speak. “Nice to meet you, Beckenbauer!”

Thankfully there was nothing immediately ahead of them, so Zack glanced over to see what had addressed him. “What the fu… More Unlight stuff, isn’t it?” Will nodded. “Argh, welcome to the team, I guess?”

“The name’s Haze,” Haze replied.

“Wait–you don’t mean that’s ACF-008, do you?!” Zack said as he had to fire the guns at another plane.

“Yeah…” said Will, wanting to explain the situation, but realizing it was not the time for that.

“It’s just one thing after another today…” Zack groaned, then picked up his radio mic. “Mean Machine to base, Will and 008 are fine and with me if anyone’s looking for them–helped me shake off a bogey, over and out!” He then took a breath to steady his nerves, which seemed near impossible given everything that was going on. “Where do you want me to drop you off?”

“We need to find Sam and Faustus–I tried to call on Faustus, but he won’t respond for some reason, so I had to use Mira’s magic…”

Zack was scanning the skies as he assumed Morrigan was using whatever magic she had somehow and spotted what looked like a ball of fire destroying planes left and right. “Wait, who’s that? It can’t be Ryota…”

“No, it has to be Sam,” Haze pointed out.

“What makes you say that?” Will asked.

Haze groaned a little. “Will, what else would they do? Just sit around?”

“Good point…” A thought then occurred to Will. “Hold up, did they merge? Is that why I couldn’t call on Faustus?”

“Seems like the case to me.”

Zack nodded and steered the Mean Machine in the direction of the fire ball. “I’ll get you close enough, but be careful out there, you hear?”

“Thanks, Zack,” Will said as he went over to the door as it opened up, letting in the raging winds once again. Waiting for the right moment, Will latched onto a plane and was off.

Morrigan was starting to worry as she consistently failed to locate Will, but then sensed someone familiar. Turning around, she saw a plane coming at her and caught Will with her gravity magic (which was easier to do with Faustus’ magic in tandem). She then snapped her fingers and sent a ball of fire screaming at the shadow construct, destroying it in an explosion. “There you are, Boyo!” Notably she was using her magic to make sure he heard her.

“Sam, thank goodness!” He then looked at her as he took in what she had become. Her form of flames made her look incredibly beautiful, and it was surprising how well she was handling the merge. Then again, Morrigan’s energetic side could always be described as being on the fiery side, and she was a proper demon after all. “So that’s what happened to Faustus–not bad for a beginner!”

“Thank you, Boyo!” Morrigan slightly cooed with a giggle. She then caught something out of the corner of her eyes that sent a chill down her spine, however. In the distance they both saw a massive, pitch black zeppelin, dark as night and with gold trims and accents. Adorning its nose was a giant, metal eagle’s head, but it was certainly no bald eagle. The foreboding ship was like staring at darkness given form. Something was off, however, as two giant, metal plates on each side looked like they should have had a symbol on them. “Is–is that…?”

Will nodded with a grim cadence. “Yeah, that’s…” He was interrupted when Morrigan had to start dodging like crazy, as flying shadow constructs and a group of the planes had begun focusing on them. She was sent into full blown confusion, losing her focus in order to get out of the way of charges and gunfire from the planes. Annoyingly Will could not focus properly, or else he would have combined Mira’s magic with Morrigan’s newfound pyromancy. And they could not radio in for backup…

Thankfully someone must have smiled upon Will, Morrigan, and The Liger Brigade, as a B-17 bomber of all things broke through the clouds, its engine and rotors roaring with that unmistakable sound as it made its way to the battle. The pilot requested to join the fight, and the Liger Air Traffic Controllers were confused, as they had never heard of a ‘Shaye Sheerwood Smets.’ They were equally confused as to how a World War II era bomber was flying in their air space, but elected not to look a gift horse in the mouth. After lighting up a group of shadow construct planes with a hail of furious gunfire from the turrets, Shaye and Ahhotep turned to Barry, who looked ready to go as his cybernetic bodysuit took on the appearance of a futuristic flight suit.

“You sure about this, Barry?” Shaye questioned as Barry opened the cockpit door to leave. “Looks worse than a blitzkrieg out there…”

“I said I was going to go with Will and Sam to Earth, haha!”

“Be safe, Barry,” Ahhotep wished. “May Ra watch over you.”

Barry gave a salute with his fingers, and did some turning-based stretches before finally heading to the hangar doors. They slowly opened up as the roar of wind overwhelmed the room. After a countdown to psych himself up, Barry jumped and was met by the embrace of the sky. Anyone who saw what happened next would have witnessed a man turning into a cluster of lighting that arced from cloud to cloud, destroying any shadow construct in its path. He needed to find Will and Morrigan, as it was bad enough that he had slept in that morning to begin with. The Future Squad had finally returned and he had completely missed it. The least he could do was tag along with Will and see what he was up to. Of course the reports that Sebastian was attacking Sky Fortress Camelot had sent him into orbit, which prompted Shaye and Ahhotep to volunteer to help out. Barry had joked about sending in ULTRAMagic Dreadnaught, but Blood-Wraith and Tiberius immediately vetoed that idea.

After soaring through some more constructs that he destroyed as he did, Barry found Will and Morrigan… and they were in a complete panic. The two had been caught off guard, so he rushed over. All of the constructs were vanquished in a breathtaking storm of lighting that made Will and Morrigan’s hair stand up on end, which was quickly tamed by the wind. “Hey guys, sorry I’m late!” Barry said as he hovered over to them, half manifesting from a bundle of lighting. “That was certainly an electrifying experience for them!”

“Barry, sorry, but I’m a little dizzy at the moment,” Will said as he floated upside down. “Sam, rightside up!”

“Oh jeez, sorry, Boyo!” she replied, feeling sorry for him.

“My apologies for being late,” Barry said as he pointed at a shadow construct plane, destroying it with a bolt of lighting. “Kind of slept in late after last night’s…”

“Can we discuss this in one of the hangars!?” Haze interrupted, feeling just as disoriented as Will.

“Well, looks like you guys have been busy…” Barry remarked. Even Will was starting to grow a little impatient towards Barry’s nonchalant attitude.

Morrigan looked around, spotting an open hangar that she could sense was not in rotation. “What about that one?”

Will glanced where she was pointing and thought about it. “Hangar 1X? That’s the top secret hangar and… argh…”

“Any port in a storm?” Barry reasoned.

“Yeah, let’s go… I’ll deal with Antares and Aalders later…” Will somewhat lamented. He was only allowed to go there on special occasions, and it was clear Aalders wanted the Warbird deployed in some capacity. “Just keep any top secret stuff on the down low…”

Next: Part 8