City of Ravens (23)

The rain stopped and froze, creating a cage around the two of us the size of a room.

"What are you doing?! This is not the time for this!"

"Surrender now."

"You will be arrested for using your power like this in public! The MCA will intervene and when they do you will rot in prison for life!"

"Don't worry yourself with me getting arrested. I won't. And don't think that someone will help you. Ice Prison is a spell I used three Rank 7 Instaurare Cores to cast, no one in the Algonquin town can break it. When the MCA realizes it and sends for someone from the Capital, it will be too late."

"… You don't understand. There is AN ARMY of monsters under the Hunting Grounds! I need to inform them, they need to prepare!"

"You should've thought of something more believable."

"I will fight you if I have to!"

"You can try, but I won't go easy on you this time."

Ice gathered around his body, and in his hand, a spear formed. Armour and a spear of ice. With my Soul Essence at an extremely low level… I can't risk it. I summoned black feathers with all my remaining Soul Essence!

The Ice Cage shook with hundreds of black feathers like a tornado moving inside of it. Exhausted and with no more strength I felt my consciousness slipping away.

---

The rain was purring down from the sky since morning, it was cold and windy, the atmosphere of gods lamenting. A sad day. But while I sat inside working on the symbols, it couldn't affect me. After getting the photo from Dominque, the translation was like going downhill.

Soon I had the general idea of what they meant. I wanted to tell him about the progress, but he was still in the Hunting Grounds. He spent all his free time there, even killing a Leshy... that itself is an amazing feat.

I didn't know when he will be coming back, but I didn't expect a phone call. Especially to that old flip phone. But I picked up. "Hello?" I answered.

"Emily, it's me. Did you translate it?" the quality of the sound was terrible, but I still could recognize Dominque's voice.

"Mostly. Some minor details are still missing, but I got the important parts done."

"That's good. Bring the translation and the phone to the MCA I will tell someone to bring you to me."

"Are you sure? Did something happen?" he sounded, distressed. His breathing was quick and deep, and voice exhausted.

"Not yet, I will explain everything when I see you. I just arrived at the MCA building, come here as fast as you can."

Before I could say anything more, he ended the call. One thing I could say for sure, he was deadly serious. I put on some clothes, took the laptop and the flip phone and packed them. With a backpack on, I went into the rain.

The town slowed down a lot during rain. At least on the surface. People that would've been in the hunting grounds were spending their time in pubs, restaurants, clubs.

I wasn't expecting many people to be outside but right outside of the MCA building there was dozens of people gathered. In front of the MCA, a giant cube made of ice around the MCA's Sentinels set a cordon around it.

It was the first time I saw Sentinels in real life. They only acted under the direct order of the MCA, if they are here… then there must be Artists fighting inside the city! These people only act on two occasions, monster attack, and artist fights.

Form people's conversations I heard that people were fighting inside the Ice. I tried calling Dominique, but he wasn't picking up. I was about to ask one of the Sentinels if he can bring me inside the building when the ground started shaking and the Ice crack.

Everyone shut up and was watched as the ice slowly cracked. The Sentinels gathered and got ready to engage in a fight.

The ice fell apart, and thousands of feathers emerged forming a tornado, in the middle of it… Dominque was floating with black wings on his back and the symbols on his arm burning with a black flame. Like a deity looking down on humans, he only glanced over the crowd before his wings flapped and carried him away with a speed that was hard to follow.

In less than a few seconds, he was out of sight. Everyone was shocked. It took everyone a while to notice the body lying on the ground bleeding from every inch of his body. Medical team quickly moved to surround him.

My mind blanked out for a while before I fully realized what happened. I took the flip phone out and called the only number that was saved on it. After two signals the call went through, and someone picked up.

"What's going on kid?"

"Hello?"

"… Who is this?"

"Dominique told me to call you if there is any trouble. My name is Emily."

"Dominque did? Whatever. So what trouble are you in?"

"It's not me. Its Dominque something is wrong with him, I just saw him fly off after fighting some guy in the middle of the street."

"Fly off?"

"Yes. He was surrounded by hundreds of black fathers, and there were two wings on his back. But there was something wrong with him… his eyes looked… dead. Before that he called me, he told me to find him, to bring the translation of these symbols and the flip phone. I don't know what to do now."

Whatever was happening it was weird, and not normal. The symbols I translated only made the situation more concerning.

"Do you know where he is right now?"

"No… He blasted off into the sky a minute before I called."

"Ok. I'm on my way right now. Wait for me… the checkpoint before the hunting grounds. I will get there in 20 minutes."

He ended the call.

I run through the crowd and found a way towards the checkpoint, it took me about 15 minutes to get here, so I looked around. The people at the checkpoint were moving around busily, and soldiers in full gear were checking their weapons. It looked like chaos, but all of their movements were practiced and precise to the point.

Five minutes passed, but there was no trace of anyone, no cars or people walking. Far off in the horizon, a small spot of light appeared, it grew bigger and bigger until it smashed into the ground!

Where the light hit now stood a man wearing tattered clothes, with long hair and a beard that was out of control he looked like a homeless person.

He looked at me and with a smile walked up. "You must be Emily. Nice to meet you, I'm Dominque's Master, Devin."

"… N-Nice to meet you."

"Shall we go? We need to find Dominque before something happens to him."

"Yes."

He smiled, under his feet light appeared and a transparent platform formed. He floated up lightly and put his hand forward inviting me to get on it. When I put my feet on the platform, it raised and enclosed both of us.

Flying high in the sky I watched as the ground moved under my feet. This would be a magical scene if not for the situation we were in.

"So, how do you know Dominique?"

"Huh? Shouldn't we focus on finding him?"

"Oh don't worry, I already know where he is. More or less. So how do you know him?"

"… he asked me to translate some symbols for him."

"Really? So how did you do?"

"I translated most of it, only some minor details are missing. It was hard, but I know the most basic meaning of the symbols now. The problem is putting everything together to get a more understandable answer."

"So what can you tell me about them? Does it tell you what they do?"

"The symbols all are talking about three things. Body, mind, and soul. The whole thing is also divided into three parts, the first one is focused mostly on the body. There are symbols that mean strength, growth, change, adaptation, and vessel…"

"Vessel? For what?"

"That's what I don't know. Like I said, I have the pieces, but I still need to put them together. I needed a few more days to get a more precise meaning. While the first part talking about the body is possible to make some assumptions, the second and third one doesn't make any sense…"