Chapter 3- Preparations for war

In a silent garden of dead leaves and wilted flowers, Horus and 2 women stand idle, waiting for something to happen. Their eyes are empty and silent while the girl sitting in the gazebo caresses a crow with closed eyes and glowing skin with white hair. She shifts her head towards Horus, opening her eyes to the sight of a silent garden painted in the soft glow of the afternoon sun revealing the black flames that burn still as they eat away the green grass of the once beautiful garden, being blown away and put out by a sudden gust of wind. The woman in white looks forward to see Anton who stands in front of Horus with his briefcase in his right hand while his left hand is filled with a file that disappears into thin air as soon as the sky is covered with golden strings. Reality distorts for just a moment, rippling through the garden turning the path of its wave back into its original beauty, white and lavender heathers coated in a beautiful gold whilst the green grass and foliage dance to the winds that travail the garden's boundaries. The woman sitting in the gazebo stands up, placing the crow where she sat and walking towards Horus and Anton.

"The mission was successful. Only a magic source coated with the Boros faction's scent is left in the north." The woman states. Her eyes are steady as stone and her thoughts are filled with nothing but the details of her report, and her admiration towards Horus.

"Thank you, Emily. You can go back now." Emily shows a warm smile with comforted eyes before she bows her head, stepping back and turning into a white crow, flying out of the garden in a veil of white feathers and petals from the flowers around her path.

"I'll accompany you to the dock. Do you plan on going to that island by yourself?" Anton asks after watching Emily depart. His breath is steady and his coat is clean, as if all the dust and grime he built up from his mission disappeared along with the Boros faction.

"It would be foolish to send a scout for something omnipresent so why not just start off with the negotiations?" Horus asks lightheartedly as he walks past Anton and into the hall calling out the head butler.

"Oscar, I'll be heading north of the port today. Please inform Cessil to take care of the hydra that has been laying waste in the fishing bay near our construction site"

"And when shall you be coming back?"

"It depends. But rest at ease, I will come back before the clock strikes twelve midnight." Horus says as he puts on a black coat and a matching fedora. His eyes are painted with a velvet red as his hair bounces off the little light in the halls making it glow while he looks at Oscar with an expression that eases any of Oscar's worries. Anton waits outside the doors waiting for Horus to join him, calling out a carriage in the mean-time as he waits and as the carriage reaches the entrance of the mansion, so does Horus.

"Are you ready?" Horus asks Anton as soon as he exits the mansion.

"Yes, sir." Anton replies after feeling through his pockets one last time before they walk towards the carriage pulled by three elegant, white stallions.

"Where are you two headed?" The coachman asks the two as he opens the door for them.

"The port" Anton replies pulling out a white card with 3 different crests on it.

The coachman is surprised by the sight of the familiar crests, looking up at Anton who shows an unchanging expression and meekly responds "Understood.".

The coachman heads to the front of the carriage soon after the two went in. He did not ask for a fair, but rather, in simple silence the coachman stepped up to the front and started to move the carriage.

The clacking of hooves is accompanied by the sound of bells, yelling, and crashing waves while the seagulls scatter around the boardwalk as the radiant glow of the sun would either bring comfort or despair to the people. Faces riddled in sweat and grime from manual labor around the ships of merchants and adventurers travelling to the growing city of Aramus with one in particular carrying crates filled with bedrock and white chalk along with boxes filled with refined gold and silver guarded by at least twenty adventurers and mercenaries.

Horus and Anton exit the carriage, tipping their hats to the driver before they walk towards their ship which looks cleaner than when they first acquired it. Not a spot of dust or grime on the ships walls and if you were to look up close not a single barnacle under the ship. The anchor looks to have been polished as well. Entering it, Horus and Anton find a clean deck with a light layer of dust and shavings of emerald stones. In the middle of the ship is Lucas lying down in a bed made of sand as yellow strings surround him, slowly flowing throughout the deck and out into the open sea and sky, fading away just after it passes the edge of the boat. The tower that surrounded the crow's nest is now gone but some ribbons of sand still spiral around it, creating runes and symbols that stick to the pole and base. Horus walks up to the three, congratulating them on succeeding in their mission surpassing the quality of perfection as they did it. Each and every one of their actions followed every instruction to the T while also being dynamic enough to change things in places where the structure could strengthen, significantly changing its results.

Horus teleports the three back to the mansion and leaves the ship to Anton as he takes one of the smaller boats hidden below deck, carrying it down to the boardwalk and throwing it on the water where he prepares to depart. Horus waves at Anton as he starts to row away from the port going at a quick pace for a small fishing boat, rowing and rowing till the port was out from view.

Then, he hopped out of the small boat and started to walk on the water, turning his small boat into a bolt of light that heads in the direction of the port. Horus watches as the bolt of light returns to the port waiting for it to leave his sight before looking north. His eyes change into a deep crimson red as he leans forward, his hair begins to float in the air a little as a black liquid flows out the surface of the water wrapping around Horus' entire body, and without a single witness, Horus disappears in the blink of the eye leaving only a giant wave of water where he stood. His steps were as silent as the wind that stood still in front of him with only the shockwaves from his feet making contact with the water being enough to turn peaceful waves into raginf tides of water. Soon Horus reaches a part of the ocean filled with a thick fog which he easily dissipates without an incantation or a sign. Soon he reaches an island with an unusual shoreline and harsh tides that enwrap the entire island. Horus' eyes turn from a dark crimson red to an empty black as an intense tremor shakes the ground beneath him. Behind the mountains and trees, water gushes upwards revealing a giant snake with scales painted with the colors of the night sky. Something about this snake peeves Horus if only just by a little.

"Lowly human, what is your excuse for stepping into my domain?" The giant snake asks with eyes that look down on the small figure standing on the beach in the opposite end of the island.

"You are the one responsible for the Boros faction, are you not?" Putting aside his emotions, Horus asks the giant snake that wraps itself on the volcano next to it.

"They promised me the world and I gave them power. And you are the one who prevented me from getting my reward. Tell me, you despicable lowlife, what did you expect coming here? Your answer will decide whether your head shall be the next dish on my plate." The snake replies, lowering his nose and tensing his brow.

"I came here to negotiate for peace. I do not wan-"

"You must be a fool to try and negotiate with the person who created one of the most powerful Factions in this world. I am far stronger than any mortal, and in fact, your transgressions has given me a reason to kill you right now." The snake cuts Horus off midsentence making the whole island shake and the waves go into a raging fit.

"I do not want to fight with you-"

"Then I shall destroy your army the same way you destroyed mine."

"I only intend on-"

"I do not care about your intentions. Either you give me a war, or I shall torture and destroy your faction while you are to watch helplessly."

At that moment, something in Horus snapped. He finally pieced together why this snake was like this and why he was irritated by how he looked, and thus, Horus' eyes turned into a burning red as he looks at the snake who emits an intimidating aura.

The waves crash violently on the rocks and the tides try to engulf Horus in its violent torrents. But before the water could even get close to Horus, they become still in the air and burst back into the sea as if an invisible wall was built around the island, making the water recede far enough to reveal a portion of the snake's body.

"I am Horus, the leader of the Quillion array."

"I am Osial, the god of the tides."

"We shall fight here in one week's time."

Both return each other's statements with intense glares before Horus engulfs himself in the surging tides that waited behind the invisible walls he built, disappearing when the floods crash on the shore, overflowing the island's edge from all sides before returning to normal. Osial sits atop his volcano with an intense and aggravated expression as storms brew above him.

Horus returns to a familiar door in a small alleyway in the middle of a big capital. He casts a simple spell that suddenly makes black feathers burst out from his body, covering the entire alley with floating black feathers that burn quickly after touching the ground before he enters. The crow's office, a large branch of the Quillion array created by Horus to sort through and organize the Quillion array's plans and missions every day of the week. Comprised by members with more Intelligence centered abilities, the crows act as the independent brains of the Quillion array which Horus appointed as part of their training, and at the head of the crows is Emily who was given the title "The white crow" for her amazing ability and peculiar yet beautiful appearance. Anton also works under the crows but only as an affiliate detective firm that was founded to avoid the operating members to get arrested due to conspiring with a large pirate faction like the Quillion array as well as making the files they submit more credible to the government. Income that comes from commissions in the organization is given to Horus directly which is then passed on to the Quillion array's head treasurer. As an added benefit, the organization the crows created has gained popularity from the public worldwide, making them a trusted organization while their ties with the Quillion array is being kept secret.

"Emily, I'll be handling the planning for the battle one week from now." Horus says as he holds onto Emily's hand while she was writing.

"Very well, I shall send those five the requests after the office closes." Emily says after being surprised by Horus' sudden appearance. Her eyes fill with an array of black and white for only a second, making a wave of black blow through her hair starting from her roots to the frayed ends of her long, white, hair for but a short moment.

"Thank you again." Horus says showing Emily a smile exclusive only to her in the Quillion array. Emily tries her hardest to try and hide her blushing as she lifts her hand from Horus' and returns back to writing.

"You are the most welcome, Master Horus." Emily says after a quick breath, returning back to her paperwork with a straight expression.

Emily's power now is similar to omnipresence. With a lot of training, Emily mastered her original power to be able to tell the future or recall the past by touching something, with the only result when she uses her power on herself was seeing nothing but a terrifying darkness that she could not handle, thus, she stopped in fear of the abyss she had come across. Soon, after a while Horus gave her a few gifts to conquer her power. The first was the gift of courage, the second was the gift of capacity to hold on to the memory of infinite universes; this removes the physical danger of her condition to remember everything from the day she was born to the day she will eventually die. And the third gift was a piece of advice,

"Time itself is a rope of strings and threads that connect and mingle with each other. While time is occupied by empty space that is to be filled up by more and more threads that intertwine and fray from the bundle of strings that make up time itself." It took Emily some time to realize the meaning to Horus' words until at the date of her 9th birthday, when she realized what he meant and went back to the darkness she saw before, the darkness was still as suffocating as before but she was stronger now and tried to look around where she saw a line of golden strings flowing through a sea of darkness that spanned farther than the sea of threads that flowed in front of her which she tried to touch. The universe itself unraveled before her; the secrets hidden in the past to the terrors that lay in the future not only of her timeline but the fate of every single timeline that exists. She almost grew insane; she almost grew inhuman. But Horus was the only exception to this incredible power, it gave her comfort with the fact that such a capable person was an exception from the strings that bound even her. Recruited at the age of 5, Today she is 20 years of age.

Horus goes back to Aramus by crossing his fingers and teleporting back to his quarters inside the mansion where he sees one of the female members of the wait staff in his bed seemingly passed out. Noticing this Horus checks on the woman who was wearing a maid dress that complemented her dark brown hair and pretty face that had black circles around them. Horus whispers the maids name under his breath. "Maria."

Still not waking up Horus decides to teleport her back to the maid's bedchambers where she could get some proper rest, giving her a slip that allowed her to sleep undisturbed for however long she liked for the day, and at the same time casted a spell on a pen that wrote out the plans of the final battle with the Boros faction as he changes his sheets and sleeps after taking a shower. At around 5:30pm, with the sun setting and painting the skies in a calming pink gradient, Horus watches the clouds move around while the sky changes the colors of its palette from a plain yet comforting oranges and reds to an explosive burst of colors filled out by an empty black sky that emphasizes the beauty of everything. And when the sky had turned its most brilliant, Horus had fallen asleep after catching but a glimpse of it.

Existence gives birth to those who create futile versions of its original work, which continually tries on and on 'till these creations create a futile version of existence itself.