9 Disgust

(??? POV)

The Rent was Above Average

She had been Diving for nearly 3 years now and this one was definitely abnormally large, while Rents appeared randomly over the course of time, they had a rough estimate for the size of special distortion they could cause normally. Small Rents could be anywhere from the size of a marble to the door while the average Rent would be the size of a building

This one however was large enough that it was able to not only consume the orphanage that had once occupied the space it sat but also the courtyard and area around it, leaving a large crater in the ground like a small explosion had occurred

"Any Casualties or Taken?" she said turning towards her subordinate Roderic, a large man in full military gear which contrasted her black outfit consisting of jeans, boots and a hoodie with a sword strapped across her back.

Taken was the term used for those who had been abducted by either the Rent itself or any creatures that had come out of it. Statistically Drivers where only able to save roughly half of taken citizens due to them often being scattered around the alien dimension and falling prey to its inhabitants

"Thankfully there were zero casualties due to the areas newly appointed emergency system telling the citizens of the threat existing at the orphanage other wise they would have gathered here, and we would be dealing with a large-scale issue." He said giving her a grin that didn't reach his eyes as they appeared to be filled with fear "however there are reports of 4 teenagers running towards the area before the new system was activated and as such, we can assume they were taken during the Rent's opening"

When she heard those words, she couldn't help but feel a sense of urgency but she made sure their was no indication of it in her voice as she spoke "how long until we can stabilize the rent?" she asked as she returned her gaze towards the swirling mass

"Give or take an hour maybe" he responded looking towards the worker crew in the prosses of building a structure that appeared to be an arch they were building over the Rent.

The dimensional stabilizer when fully functional would-be semicircle in shape and arch over the Rent like a gate, it was designed to be able to emit a frequency unknown to any except its creator that would force the rift to stay In one shape and keep it open

This would be the eight time a gate has been captured in the history of Eshax since its founding. Rents where hard to capture because they could open and close before divers or builders could even react, as well as factors such as size being key in determining whether they could even construct a usable stabilizer to fit its size.

As time passed the rent got smaller and smaller as it became more and more unstable to the point where it would be a close call of whether they would be able to construct the stabilizer in time. But then the Rent seemed to shift and light up indicating something was coming through!

Drawing her sword and stepping closer to the rent as she prepared to kill whatever came through the rent as soon as exited if it was hostile…

However, this was not the case as three boys one after the other stumbled out of the Rent in front of her. They looked tired and afraid, and covered in scratches showing clear signs that they had likely pursued at some point or another during their stay in the other dimension

A soldier came over and began to speak to the three and taking one of them by the arm he began to escort them to a medical tent that had been set up in the case of such an event

"Wait three… Didn't Roderic say there was four?" she couldn't help but mutter to herself "Wait!" she called out to them her voice full of authority clearly displaying she was the one in charge here, the soldier and boys stopped, the boys looked like they had been caught in the headlights of a vehicle and this caused an alarming thought to enter her mind

"Where is the fourth boy? I was informed there was three of you?" she demanded and looked into their eyes, two of them diverted their eyes and looked towards the one the soldier had taken by the arm, he had Blonde hair and green eyes. He seemed to tremble and spoke

"h-he d-didn't make it"

The look in his eye was easy to identify, she had seen it before in the eyes of people she had rescued before, the ones who had used their friends and family as bait for monster or had abandoned them

She had always hated these types of people and her face twisted with disgust as she looked at the tree and they knew she had seen through them as if they were made of glass

"Roderic!" she called out to her subordinate who was at the moment supervising the stabilizers near completion, he turned towards her looking at her with a near question mar over his head "I'm going ahead!"

At first he didn't understand what she was talking about but as her words registered he turned pale and tried to call out to her but she had already jumped through the Rent

*******

Fun fact: object and people are only displaced randomly if they are caught in the opening of the Rent but if they enter at a later date, it is instead like simply walking through a door.

As she exited through the other side, she was surprised by what she saw enough that she froze, and she never froze

It was a boy leaned against a rock, tied up and bleeding. His chest and stomach where heavily bleeding and he were even missing a leg, it had been cleanly cut of likely by one of those boys as there was no way the monster in front of her could make such a clean cut

Even by her standards the beast was creepy looking, like a scaled panther exempt with hundreds of needle like teeth and bones that seemed to jut against its skin and what was this boy doing as this nightmarish creature was clearly torturing him?

He was laughing

Not laughter like his mind had snapped and he had gone insane but instead like he had been told a joke at the dinner table and the agitated monster was like a funny relative which clearly angered the monster enough that it pounced at him

Moving in the blink of an eye she reached the boy and plunged her sword into the of the demon and made sure the beast hadn't been able to harm the boy who now that she look at him seemed only a few years younger than her but somehow rather small

She gave him a smile couldn't help but let out "Thank God I made it" and he surprised her once again when he replied with a small weak smile of his own and whispered to her

"No… thank you …. but there is no God" before passing out from what he assumed was blood loss

What an odd boy

"Maybe I should take him as my servant?"