A Bleeding Heart, A Vengeful Soul (part 2)

"Let's get to buisness," Ivan announced.

"It's about time," Rohan commented and Ivan glanced at him.

"It's been brought to my attention that motivation to go through with this mission is low," Ivan continued, "I can understand where this feeling is coming from but as I said to our dear Aria, this came from the person above. Meaning there is something more to it."

"Or maybe there isn't and you are just seeing what is not," Seraphina added.

"Are you calling him delusional?" Calder turned to her with a serious expression.

"I never said that," Seraphina said without sparing him a glance.

"But you insinuated that."

Seraphina turned to him, "Maybe if you stop dickriding the captain so much your ears would work the way they were intended."

Calder's expression turned to one of pure rage but before he could act, a dull boom was heard in the room and everyone turned to origin of the sound; Ivan.

He had exploded a bit of the mana in the surrounding by making it react with his innate mana.

"Now that the attention is back on me," he turned to Calder, "As much as I appreciate your loyalty, creating an argument while I'm speaking is blatant disrespect and I assure you, Calder, i will not tolerate that." Ivan moved his gaze to Seraphina and then returned it to Calder.

Seraphina was a… special character.

A common trait with mages with the element of darkness was their inability to experience emotions like normal people did. No one knew the exact reason why this was so, but Ivan took this into consideration when dealing with her.

And not to mention that compared to the others, she held a very high position in her noble house so even though it wasn't apparent, she received special treatment.

Looking at his team, Ivan couldn't help but ask sometimes why so many influential figures were placed under his command.

"Sorry, Captain," Calder said calmly.

"Let's make this brief as possible," Ivan turned to Lysandra, "What have we got?"

"Multiple reports have been coming in from Verdant Grove about magic beasts roaming around, no casualties yet but I suggest we attend to it as soon as possible," Lysandra briefed the room on what information they had so far. "Thirty minutes ago, there was an appearance in Cerulean Harbor. There has been a few injuries but we already have agents on ground battling a water-type. They have it under control but that deserves our immediate attention."

"You should've started with the last one, " Ivan sighed. "Me, Calder and Aria will head to Cerulean Harbor to handle the magic beast and the rest of you are on recon duty in Verdant Grove. As always Lysandra, I leave the rest to you."

"I'll handle it," Lysandra nodded.

"I know you will," Ivan smiled slightly before getting up and leaving the room with Calder and Aria following behind him.

___________________

Ivan landed softly in front of a warehouse. The rundown warehouse stood in stark contrast to the serene surroundings, its weathered exterior hinting at the years of which what is left of it has been standing.

Ivan could sense that inside there were multiple men holding large guns that had a kind of futuristic look. They were standing behind a man who wore a black tuxedo and had a vibe about him that made it easy to identify him as the leader.

Opposite them stood another man who was dressed in a dark hooded cloak and had a similar colored featureless mask covering his face.

"The legion thanks you for doing business with us," the masked man said as he handed him the briefcase in his grasp.

The man in the tux handed the briefcase to one of the men behind him who opened it to reveal the bars of solid gold in them.

"All good boss," he said as he closed it and held it by his side.

The man in the tux smiled upon confirmation of his payment.

Gerald H. Uriel, the most wanted arms dealer in all of Eclipsis and beyond.

He would never put himself out in the open for just any buisness deal, but this was more than that. Buisness with the legion, AetherGuard's biggest adversary, was more than enough of a reason.

It was safe to say that The Legion was the exact opposite of AetherGuard.

Their goal consisted of one thing and one thing only; the destruction of Eclipsis. They believed the country had been tainted and only its destruction would allow the country to be reborn anew.

"I'm surprised The Legion would want to do business with a lowly man like me," Gerald said with a chuckle.

"Don't try to act humble, Gerald, it doesn't suit you," the man replied.

"Maybe," Gerald walked closer to him. "But for the legion to send the messenger to handle a simple arms deal then they must hold us in high regard."

"I said not to act humble, but you instead chose delusional," the messenger said and Gerald's smile widened. "I take care of the legion's dirty work and this just happens to be one of them."

There was silence as Gerald just stared at the messenger, hoping to figure something about this enigma through his body language. He had heard about how formidable he was. After all, he was a rank 8 mage in the primary stage.

This information was not something you could easily acquire but of course someone rooted so deep in the underworld like Gerald was, had these things at their fingertips.

Unlike other rank 8 mages Gerald had met, the messenger appeared more reserved. If it were others, he would most likely be dead just for talking to them like this.

The Messenger could either be acting like this because of one or both of two reasons; one was that this was just the way he was personality wise. This he obviously doubted because a man of his power and status would be anything but humble, or… the legion still neeeded his services.

Either way, Gerald wouldn't want to get on his bad side.

With his hands raised, Gerald walked backwards in defeat. As he walked back to his original position, he still maintained his sly smile.

"You know, I can't help but wonder why an organization full of powerful mages would want the services of an arms dealer," Gerald said more as a question than a statement.

"I'm sure you've already figured it out." The Messenger's tone remained composed.

"You want to expand your reach to non-mages," Gerald stated and the messenger nodded slightly. There was no reason to withhold that information from him.

"I respect that… but aren't you afraid of what AetherGuard will do when they find out?" Gerald asked.

"Fear is an emotion The Legion inflicts, not feel," The Messenger said in a matter of factly manner.

The Messenger's attention suddenly moved to the wall behind Gerald and his men. He could feel mana being gathered outside and at that quantity, it would definitely leave more than a scratch.

"It seems we have company," The messenger voiced.

Outside, Ivan had his left hand raised above his head and currents of electricity rushed up from his feet up to his hand where something began to form in his grasp.

It started as a vague blue object but then it became clearer and it's density increased until all the currents turned into a solid lightning bolt!

Using his left leg, Ivan took a step back and threw the lightning bolt with unbelievable force. When it hit the wall it disintegrated and the bolt went right through it!

As it sped through the air, it's structure began to fail. The lighting bolt was made of pure elemental mana, if it's structure fell apart, it would cause an explosion of great magnitude.

Suddenly the sound of finger snapping resounded and in the next second, the lightning bolt disappeared completely.

Gerald was stunned. It had all happened so fast! All he saw was a blue blur completely destroy the wall and then it disappeared after a snapping sound was heard.

'Wait, a snapping sound?' Gerald thought as he turned to The Messenger who still had his attention at the now destroyed wall or rather, at Ivan who stood at the other side.

Ivan walked through the hole in the wall calmly as he made his way to them. Gerald's men quickly aimed their guns at him as they saw the unmistakable AetherGuard uniform.

"Shit, AetherGuard found us!" One of the men shouted.

"Wait."

They turned to The Messenger who had just stopped them from shooting.

"He is here for me, leave with your men," he added as he walked past them to meet Ivan.

Gerald's gaze went from the messenger to Ivan then back. He kissed his teeth in anger before giving his men the order to leave.

Ivan glanced at the fleeing Gerald before looking back at The Messenger.

"You aren't going to chase him down?" The messenger asked with an amused tone. "That right there is Gerald," he pointed at him, "One of Eclipsis most dangerous non-mage, and yet you are about to let him go. When would you get a chance like this again?"

"As you said, I'm not here for him," Ivan responded.

The messenger chuckled, "Ivan Stormcaster. Ranked 99 in the 500 ranked mages in AetherGuard. Why are you really here? Your attack just now was meant to kill, not capture. I had come to believe I was more useful to you alive."

"To the agency perhaps, but I just need you to have enough air in your lungs to say his name," Ivan said as lightning began to gather above his palm.

"His name?" The messenger was confused for a moment but then he burst into laughter as he realized.

Ivan's expression remained stoic. The lightning that formed above his hand then shot up and went up into the sky and scattered into mama fragments.

After a few seconds, clouds began to form and the sky darkened.

Noticing this, the messenger stopped laughing as he noticed what was happening.

"Are you sure about this?" The messenger asked and Ivan did not respond. He released a sigh, "Even if you happen to defeat me, which won't happen, what makes you think I would tell you his name?"

"I can be quite convincing," Ivan replied.

The messenger nodded, "Since you are taking this seriously, it's only right that I do the same."

With a snap of his fingers, a magnificent golden gate appeared. It was adorned with intricate details, radiating luxury, yet an eerie sense of uncertainty surrounded it. Suspended between existence and non-existence, the gate created a perplexing atmosphere. The air quivered with an uncanny energy, giving an unsettling feeling of both being there and slipping away from reality at the same time.

Suddenly, a loud thunder clap was heard and it immediately started to rain. Lightning could be seen running wild in the clouds and heavy winds began to blow.

"Magic domain!" They both bellowed.

"Storm of storms!"

"32 gates of vacuity!"

________________

The pained screams of the squid like creature could be heard far and wide as the lightning bolts from the sky struck it continuously. It went on for about a minute more before the lightning bolts stopped and the creature fell back into the water.

Everyone on the scene was on edge as they awaited the outcome and soon enough it's dead body floated back up.

Cheers resounded as everyone was finally relieved that the magic beast was at last dead after many hours of battling it.

Floating meters above in the sky were Calder, Aria and Ivan. The attack that took down the magic beast was Calder's and Aria's light magic powered it up to make it powerful enough to pass through the beast's incredibly tough hide and exoskeleton to take it down.

Calder had a dissatisfied expression and Ivan thought to address it.

"I didn't need Aria's help to take it down, captain," Calder voiced after Ivan queried.

"I know that but I'm trying to be time efficient and still give you both the chance to shine. As easily as it would be for me to kill it in a single strike, it was also that easy to have you both combine your powers and take it down," Ivan explained.

Aria remained quiet and had her head hung low but Ivan could tell exactly how she was feeling. Being the weakest in the team, she had always had low self esteem and the way the rest of the team treated her didn't make her feel any better.

"I'll go down and check on things," Calder said and with a strong gust of wind, he flew down.

Ivan turned to Aria and held her shoulder, prompting her to look at him.

"Go join him," Ivan ordered and after a nod, Aria flew down too.

Ivan tapped the agency's insignia on the chest of his uniform, a magic staff carved into a shield, and a holographic screen appeared in front of him. The screen displayed information about the magic beast outbreak in Eclipsis available only to AetherGuard agents that were given access.

"That brings us down to ten more reported magic beasts that haven't been handled yet. Where are these things even coming from?" Ivan mumbled.

While Eclipsis had magic beasts within its borders, they were quarantined and kept watch over for species preservation. And since the outbreak, the number of magic beasts in the quarantined zone were still the same so these magic beasts had to have come from outside the borders.

That shouldn't be possible for obvious reasons. The borders were under 24/7 surveillance and protection by AetherGuard's finest. If magic beasts made their way through,which again shouldn't be possible, they would know. But these ones just popped up from nowhere.

This had The Legion written all over it. But why resort to this when they had individuals who could wreck more damage than these magic beasts could have possibly done in minutes?

As Ivan pondered this question, a sudden pressure descended upon him and he turned his gaze into the distance with a look of horror.

"CAPTAIN!" Aria's voice screamed as she flew up to meet him.

Without a second thought, Ivan took off into the distance at a speed that broke the sound barrier.

There was no thought going through Ivan's head, only a directive; to get to his destination as fast as he could.

Moving at this speed over such a great distance could easily half his mama reserves despite how large it was because of his rank, but Ivan had no care. Even if he was left with only the energy to crawl, he would do that until he arrived.

Eclipsis consisted of 7 cities and in each city they were zones. Each had 24 zones except for the capital, Radiant Spire, that had 25. In less than a minute, Ivan had arrived in Verdant Grove and was heading to zone 3. From high up, he could almost see the entirety of the city and he couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the giant crater that was once his home.

"No," Ivan muttered as he came to a halt, levitating in the air, immobilized from shock.

He was confused, his mind had gone blank. He couldn't sense— wait! He suddenly felt ringing in his head and his sight maximized as he fueled his eyes with mana. The moment he saw it, he flew down with such speed that a loud boom resounded when his feet touched the ground.

Ivan breathed heavily as his rage rose the more he looked at the scene in front of him; Eve facing him with her eyes full of tears as she tried to pry away the hand of the shadowy figure behind her that was around her throat.

"Let… her… GO!" Ivan screamed and a wave of mana erupted from his body as his eyes turned bright blue and currents of electricity shot out from his body and hit everything around him.

"Yes," the altered voice of the shadowy figure sounded. "Let the rage fuel you."

"You touch her and you die!" Ivan's response came swift and filled with rage.

"But I'm already touching her." The figure's laughter echoed, sending shivers down Ivan's spine.

"Ivan help me!" Eve cried and at that moment, something snapped inside of Ivan.

With the sound of a thunder clap, he seemed to disappear but he was moving at a speed too fast for the human eye!

Just as Ivan reached the figure, it threw a kick that hit Ivan directly on his throat and threw him meters away. Ivan landed hard and began to cough out blood as he struggled to breathe.

He turned his gaze to the figure to see that it had raised its other hand. His eyes widened in horror as he realized what was about to happen.

Ignoring his pain, Ivan tried to rush towards them but it was already too late.

"All hail The Legion," the figure said as it's hand passed through Eve's chest.

"NOOOOOOO!"

A bolt of lightning rushed down from the heavens, creating a blinding light when it hit the figure but everything cleared in the next second and it stood there unharmed with Eve sprawled lifeless on the ground with a hole in her chest, drenched in a pool of her own blood.

The world seemed to slow down for Ivan as he fell on his knees. He couldn't understand why. Why him? His whole life had just fallen in front of his eyes.

Ivan felt a hand grab his hair and pull, forcing his gaze to move up to see the shadowy figure standing above him.

"Let your rage fuel you, let it make you stronger, only then when you stand at the top of the world— when I deem you ready, will you finally get a chance at revenge. But even then, you would never be able to defeat me… because I am the epitome of power," the figure said calmly but with enough power in its voice to inflict fear in Ivan.

"Who are you?" Ivan managed to ask between violent coughs.

"Me?," the figure laughed, "I…" It let go of Ivan and he fell to the ground.

"I am your god."

_______________

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

SNAP!

Lightning bolts that generated explosions whenever and wherever it struck chased down The Messenger as he ran around trying to avoid them. The entire warehouse was already gone and its surroundings reduced to a pile of rubble, unable to bear the effects of the battle between these two powerhouses.

A lightning bolt was about to strike The Messenger and he snapped his finger. A gate appeared between him and it. Just as the bolt hit the gate, it disappeared along with it.

'That makes it 17,' The messenger thought, 'He is quite powerful for a rank 7 mage.'

Magic domains were the peak of a mage's strength. They employed the greatest attribute of a mage's technique and made it a thousandfold stronger at the cost of a large amount of mana so it was not an attack employed easily in battle except during the endgame.

And the endgame was exactly what Ivan intended to play.

While Ivan's magic domain was quite simple as it was just a literal storm albeit incredibly powerful since it was powered by mana, the messenger's was quite similar to his normal technique.

The Messenger was a wind mage that was able to infuse mana in his surroundings to create a vacuum where nothing could exist, even mana. That meant that most mana infused attacks could never reach him as long as the attack was not too powerful for him to counter.

To execute this technique, The Messenger needed to infuse the exact amount of mana as in the incoming attack, in the surrounding. If he was off by even a single decimal, it would cause an imbalanced vacuum that could lead to the creation of something untold.

In order to perfect his technique, the messenger had perfected his ability to sense mana.

His domain, 32 gates of vacuity, allowed him to call forth gateways to a realm of nothingness; a place where nothing could exist.

Ivan stood still as he used his gaze to command the thunder storm. Unfortunately this was one of the demerits of his domain; he couldn't move while it was active. Even though he could still defend himself, against someone who was more experienced, this could be a fatal flaw. But one thing bothered him, why hadn't the messenger attacked yet?

As much as he would like to believe he had forced him into a defensive position, this was a rank 8 mage. There was no way he would be this easy to subdue.

"Shadowcaster!" The messenger suddenly shouted so he could be heard admist the storm. "I'm drenched and I would hate to catch a cold. What do you say we end this quickly?"

"I couldn't agree more," Ivan said before clapping his hands in front of him with the tips of his finger faced at the messenger. Immediately after, multiple lightning bolts struck him with incredible ferocity.

Seeing this, the messenger snapped his finger and the remaining 15 gates of vacuity appeared and stacked themselves in front of him.

With a grunt, a great lightning bolt that split apart the earth as it headed towards the messenger shot out from Ivan's fingertips!

The bolt destroyed the first gate of vacuity the moment it made contact with it and the same fate befell on the next gate and continued on.

The messenger remained calm as the lightning bolts made quick work of the gates until it made its way to the last one.

BOOM!

There was a loud explosion that was powerful enough to clear the dark clouds in the sky, allowing the light of the sun to again reach the earth.

When everything cleared, Ivan and the messenger were in a huge crater. Ivan was on one knee breathing heavily. He had exhausted his mana to deliver that last attack.

The messenger stood at the same position unharmed and unphased.

"How are you still alive?" Ivan asked.

"This wasn't a fight Stormcaster. You are not strong enough to make me show my hand," the messenger said as he turned to walk away.

"Wait!," Ivan shouted and The Messenger turned. "Tell me who he is."

"That, Shadowcaster, is something that will reveal itself to you in time. You simply have to get stronger or you would be wasting your time," The Messenger responded.

Ivan slammed his hand on the ground as he became overwhelmed with anger.

"You are a lucky man, Shadowcaster. I am not allowed to kill you yet so you can keep living, getting stronger until we can finally have a good battle," The Messenger added.

"Why me?" Ivan asked with his head hung low.

"Because Shadowcaster, you are special," The Messenger replied.

Ivan watched as the messenger walked away and he was powerless to stop him.