Fall From Grace

Axtorius snapped his fingers and a three-dimensional map winked in front them out of the aether. It depicted a destroyed, ancient city that looked like it'd been through hell and back.

"This is the area where your final test will be conducted: The ruins of Sotephor City," he said. He pointed at a massive, broken tower that pierced the sky higher than any other building in the area.

"That's where the outpost you need to reach is at; right at the top of the skyscraper. As I previously stated, your only mission objective is to reach the outpost, register your name on the terminal we left for you, and then wait for extraction. Nothing else is required of you."

The projected map flickered briefly and expanded, displaying the entire city in a two-dimensional overview. Sotephor City was an enormous, sprawling city that dwarfed anything Reed had ever seen. From the look of it, the metropolis had an area that spanned several hundred kilometers at minimum.

"You will drop separately into the Sotephor City via a Single Use Extra-dimensional Insertion Vehicle (SUEIV). It's a mouthful, I know. They're informally called coffins — I'll be addressing them as such for the duration of the briefing to save my breath," he stated.

A colorful variety of tiny markers popped up across the map, dotting the landscape. Some were closer to the rendezvous point and others were farther away. The class quickly caught on and understood what the dots represented.

"We'll be dropping you off where we feel you'll be challenged the most. The greater our expectations, the further your drop zone will be. Be advised that you after exit Heaven's Gate, your tomes will have limited functionality — you'll need to get close to one another to restore basic communications with one another," he warned.

The ground beneath their feet lit up and the world around them blurred into a flood of colors. In an instant, they'd all been whisked away somewhere far away from home. Reed looked around; the place they'd been teleported to looked a foundry of some kind.

Sleek, metallic and elegant, these were the words that best described what Reed discovered. Rows upon rows of shiny, jet black 'needles' hung above him and his classmates. They were roughly twice the height of the average person and had various symbols engraved on their surfaces.

"Welcome to Daedalus Base: The North's HQ and your new home. This where our intelligence service is located; the central hub of the North's power. It's also where contenders go to receive missions. Those black needles above us are the coffins you'll be using today."

A soft, barely discernible hiss came out of the coffins as they opened up, revealing a slim compartment that held a seat. The coffins started descending slowly in orderly rows, one after another.

Axtorius gestured at the coffins with a single nod. It was time.

Reed entered a coffin and sat down on the seat; despite its outer appearance, the seat was actually rather comfortable. As soon as he strapped himself into the seat, the door abruptly closed and locked him inside. It was pitch-black but not too long after, a brilliant blue light flickered inside and the coffin booted up.

A logo flashed by depicting a hand grabbing a pair of beautiful lightning bolts; underneath the sleek, stylized logo a pair of bold words could be seen: StarForge Industries. Reed knew that name, after all, it was too large to not know.

It was one of Mulia's largest guilds and a rival competitor to the other two economic titans in this world: Umbral Dynamics and Seventh Eclipse, the same guild that created the first tomes in history.

Reed a heard a soft hum for a split second and then, a familiar voice buzzed into his ears. "Can you hear me? If you can, press the flashing green button on your lower left.

Fifty green lights winked in acknowledgment. Axtorius responded, Excellent, all systems are green." The blue screen inside their coffins flickered and a map of the city appeared one last time.

Axtorius said, "As soon as you land, seek cover, scope out the environment, and try your best to group up with your classmates, if possible. There's strength in numbers, brats. Don't get cocky, even if this is a simple mission. Stay low, think twice before you act, and use everything we've taught you to accomplish your objective."

The coffins creaked and Reed felt as if he was being shaken around. He knew that something was happening outside, and just as had that thought, the blue screen in front of him flickered in response. A view of the outside of his coffin appeared as he had wished for inadvertently.

A multitude of coffins were being pulled into an assembly line of some kind. They were transported into what seemed like an empty room that had various hatches on the ground. When every coffin had been brought into the room, the hatches opened down below, revealing a massive, churning vortex of Anima that looked like a miniature hurricane.

Reed gasped in pure terror; he'd never seen Anima concentrated to such an extreme extent. He could feel a horrifying pressure beneath his feet. The maelstrom seemed to get stronger with each passing minute.

"Oh, no."

A hollow voice buzzed in ears, "Systems green. Internal dampener activated at maximum. Tran-shifted coordinates have been calculated for XXX-7551. 99.98% accuracy rating. Engaging probability drive..."

"Wait, what?" Reed suddenly felt a tremor beneath his feet and he squirmed in fear. A loud voice boomed across the room, straight into his coffin.

"Prepare to drop in three... two... one..."

Reed clutched onto the straps of his seat and felt his lunch swirl around his stomach. He gritted his teeth as he stared at the swirling nightmare beneath him and closed his eyes.

The locks on his coffin unlocked and he and his classmates felt a sudden change in momentum; gravity took over and they fell. A small fleet of coffins hurtled down into the chaotic storm and they quickly disappeared from view. They were gone.

Blinding light and flooding colors rushed past Reed as he fell through the storm, shaking his coffin with a fury unknown to man. An awful creaking noise alerted him that the immense pressure outside was testing the structural integrity of his ride. It almost sounded like the coffin was screaming in protest as it descended into the heart of the storm...

A flash of eye-scorching light blinded Reed as he entered the eye of the storm and then, it happened. The world went dark. For a minute or two, Reed thought his external cameras had died, but soon enough, they sputtered back on with great difficulty.

He had arrived.

A raging thunderstorm. Dark, brooding clouds that churned and twisted like mad dancers upon a grand stage. Reed's coffin shot through the storm as it descended onto the ground.

Fifteen thousand meters in the air, a black needle fell from the sky as it tore through the air at a maddening speed. When his coffin broke through the storm, Reed felt his heart skip a beat.

Ten thousand meters.

The first thing he noticed on the way down was that the storm he passed through wasn't normal in the slightest. It stretched out as far as the eye could see; crackling lightning and dark, muddy clouds completely covered the sky. The sun was gone.

He choked on his spit. An enormous, radiant dome loomed over him when he looked over to the east. It was so large, he couldn't even see the top of it. The gigantic construct spilled over to the edge of the horizon and beyond... it was impossible to view the dome in its entirety even though he was over ten thousand meters in the air.

Five thousand meters.

It was dark. If not for the fact that now and then, a small crack of radiance would pierce through the veil of darkness, Reed would have thought that he'd been sent to hell, for the lack of a better word. As his coffin descended further, the city beneath him became increasingly larger.

At a certain point, his coffin switched into landing mode and it activated its internal dampeners at maximum. The black needle tore through its last stretch of sky and then, it 'landed'. It crashed into an old, decrepit home and destroyed a majority of what had previously remained of it.

Silence reigned. Thunder boomed distantly and a light shower of rain drizzled the surrounding area. Aside from the pitter-patter of the rain and the faint, howling wind nothing else could be heard...

The needle groaned for a split second and then it opened up, revealing its passenger. A young man stepped out the needle hesitantly as he looked around for anyone... or anything that might've heard his arrival.

A faint drizzle landed on his elegant, jet-black uniform that had a golden crown and a crescent moon emblazoned on it. The raindrops rolled off of his uniform but when they hit his face, he reacted and started looking for shelter from the rain...

Crumbling buildings, broken roads, washed-up remains of various vehicles of some kind. Not a very welcoming first sight, but Reed ignored the scenery. He looked around and found a home that hadn't been worn down into shambles — perfect shelter from the rain, he thought.

He also didn't want to stay out in the open for too long; who knew what lurked around these parts... he wasn't interested in finding out. Keeping a low profile was priority one for him. No heroics today.

Reed summoned his tome and accessed the map it contained. It still worked in offline mode at the cost of severely limited functionality. Thankfully, Axtorius had been kind enough to give them a detailed map of the city to use during the mission.

Two small markers were on the map: the outpost and where he had landed. That was all he could work with; he'd have to move out on his own discretion. Axtorius had put him in a really shitty situation. He was over a hundred and twenty kilometers away from the outpost if the map was accurate.

A long sigh escaped his lips; it looked like this was going to be a long trek. He contemplated flying over to the outpost to compensate for his initial location but rejected the idea. It'd be the same as giving him position away to everything in the city, friend or foe.

Eventually, he brushed away any ridiculous thoughts he still had and resigned himself to the long haul. It was simple enough, as long as he continued directly west, he'd eventually reach the outpost. The only real issue was whether he'd meet anyone on the way there.

Hopefully, nothing would happen. Violett said that it was regularly patrolled area since it was close to Heaven's gate. He had... nothing to fear.