Five

Downtown, Chicago

Terra, Gaea Solar system

Neutral Free Zone

January 14th 2019

 One thing Emily hated most in the world was lying. Especially to Leon. She held her breath, waiting for him to leave the room. As soon as she couldn't feel his presence, Emily bought out her Zodiak device. She switched it on and accessed the Starlight network. Emily had already sent Ginny the images of the strange symbols on the wall from the tunnel to try and see if she could decipher them, But now she needed Ginny's help for something else. Memories that she had pried from the Erlkings' minds rose up. It had not been easy searching through a corrupted mind like the Erlking. Emily had never met a mind that was as damaged by Infernal energy as the Erlking, but luckily the Erlking had regained a little bit of sanity before Leon killed it. The memories she had managed to get caught her attention because she had recognized It. It was a standard code used by the Starlight Order for Geographical coordinates. Written in Celestial runes. What the hell was a starlight code doing in the mind of an Abomination? Emily knew she should have told Leon about it. They were supposed to be in it together. But then again, there were things neither of them told each other. Ever since they had left Agartha for their exile in the Neutral free zone, Leon had become more agitated than he normally was. He tried his best to hide what was going on, but Emily knew him. Maybe better than she even knew herself. They had gone through every clue that they could find that could pertain to the Fallen Star's whereabouts. But they had come up short. Leon's obsession with tracking down members of the Fallen Star was something Emily didn't understand. This was a question she had asked herself for the past eight years since they've been searching. Emily wasn't sure about the coordinates she had gotten, but if they were clues...she had to be sure before involving Leon. Emily put the codes in the Location algorithm while praying to the gods that this could be the clue they needed. But it came up empty. What the hell? She tried it again, and it came up empty again. Something didn't feel right.

"Ziron, Contact Ginny," Emily said to the tablet.

"Affirmative." the mechanical voice boomed. A flash of light and a hologram of Ginny popped up. She was dressed in a white coat, her goggles raised up her forehead. There were burn stains across her face, and her blond hair was messy. Probably from all the work she was doing. Her youthful appearance made her look like a bratty sixteen year old, but Emily knew better than that.

"Oh gods, it's you, Emily." She said flatly. Her lack of excitement at seeing Emily was a little bit disappointing. She probably assumed Leon had been the one contacting her. Emily didn't blame the girl. Half of their class at their Academy had been in love with the boy, while the other half had probably slept with him. Ginny was no exception to falling for his charms. Emily cleared her throat, letting the girl know how serious she was.

"There's something I want you to check out. I'm sending it to you now," Emily said in a cold voice. Ginny flinched at the iciness of the tone as Emily transferred the code from her Zodiak to hers. "Do you see it?"

"Yeah, some kind of code. A geographical code." Ginny said impatiently. Emily concluded from her tone that she had disturbed whatever work Ginny was doing. "You know you can just use your precious Starlight Network to track it down right."

"Tried that, but nothing came up," Emily said. "It looks like the coordinates we normally use, but the Network doesn't recognize it."

"Hmm, that's because the coordinates are not in the Networks file." She said, "Does this have anything to do with the unapproved mission you and Leon are on or the strange symbols you sent me?" Emily stared at the girl, a small titch by her lips showed her annoyance at Ginny.

"Yes, It's really important to Leon that we know where the coordinates lead," Emily said with a cool expression as she lied. She didn't mind using Leon to manipulate the girl into doing what she wanted.

"Hmm. Okay, but you tell him I helped with his mission, alright." She said. Emily gave a slight nod. Ginny smiled as she went on to do the work. It took her mostly about fifteen to twenty minutes before she was done. "Wow, whoever made that code was fucking good."

"But you've got the coordinates," Emily said tentatively. Ginny raised her eyebrows at her in a mocking kind of way.

"Duh, Of course I did." She said, "Didn't take me long to figure out what kind of code it was. It looks similar to the one used by Starlight, but there's a slight difference to it. That's why the system couldn't break it. Whoever made that code went to a lot of trouble to hide that location. I tracked the place down to somewhere in Chicago. Not far from where you are. Some kind of facility. I suppose it might be a Starlight outpost. But the thing is, there's no record of it in the Network system. Which is weird. Federation law states that all Starlight Order bases in the Neutral free zones should be registered. Where did you say you got this from."

"Can't say right now," Emily said.

"Well, whatever it is, it sounds dangerous. I've sent you the coordinates. Tell Leon to be careful." She said.

"Sure," Emily said, taking a look at the coordinates. She was right. The coordinate led to somewhere on this planet. Emily still couldn't understand how the Erlking had gotten hold of this information or why Leon's source would lead them to it. And that was when she remembered something else.

"Hey, Do me and Leon a favor," Emily said. Ginny raised an eyebrow at Emily, her impatience with her was beginning to show more clearly. "Contact the Golden Dawn and see if they can send a clean-up crew."

"For what," She said. 

"We killed an Erlking that was infected with Infernal energy. There's a chance that it might have left residual of it's energy. It needs to be cleaned up" Emily said. SHe had been so desperate to get out of the sewer that she forgot to do a purification ritual to cleanse the place. She was still shocked that an Abomination had ended up in Terra, but if the infernal energy was to spread, there was a chance a human might get infected and turned. 

"Fine. I'll send a clean up team" Ginny said.

"That would be kind of great," Emily said.

"Sure, anything for Leon," She said. And she was gone. Emily sighed as she looked up the coordinates again. The location was in a place called the Promontory Point in Burnham Park. Whatever this was, Emily had to check it out for herself. Before she brings Leon into it. Emily went back to the upstairs room to change her outfit. She had made sure to bring two combat gears with her. She wore the one that was not filthy from the sewer. Emily also brought out the Weapon's box that she had bought along on the mission. She pressed the opening rune on it, and the box opened. There were different sizes of daggers arranged inside it. Each of them was forged from Adamant metal, making them conductive towards Od. Emily made sure to take as much as she could fit within her weapons belt. She also hid some within her combat boots. And then, she took out one standard Seriphium blade. The blade was a shortsword with a double edge, an onyx guard, and hilt. The silver blade had runes etched on it, the runes acting as pathways for the Odic energy contained within it. When Emily felt that she was packing as many weapons as she could possibly take with her, she activated her Exodus, which sent her right to the location.

 ****

There was a masonry field house atop a meadow in Promontory Point. Emily could smell the Lake from where she stood, cloaked within the Grey. She was still getting used to the feeling of hiding within the mystical field of this particular planet. It wasn't something she was used to. Terra was the only planet within the Neutral Free zone that possessed this weird attribute, and it was one of the reasons why Emily didn't like the planet. Inside the Grey, separated and hidden from the mundane world, was the outpost. Emily instantly knew something didn't feel right. Not because of the presence of death and sulfur that was coming out of the building. But the fact that there wasn't any barrier around it. Most Starlight bases had barriers for security purposes. And this was supposedly some kind of top-secret facility. She carefully walked through the front doors, careful not to step on any of the gores that were on the floor. Though the place was dark, her sight adjusted well to it. The smell of sulfur meant that an Abomination had been here. She pulled out some of her Adamant daggers and extended her senses around the building. No sign of life but death. Emily could feel the echoes of the pain and fear that had been imprinted within the building. Most of the power of the building was gone, but there had to be a backup power being supplied to the building because some of the lights further down the hallway were glowing. As Emily passed all the bodies, she could have sworn that she saw shadows etched on the walls. The shadows represented the imprint of the dead's soul within the Physical realms, and through the shadows, Emily could experience the death echoes that were reverberating throughout the building. She was suddenly aware of the necklace that was tied around her neck. She was half tempted to take it out and pray, but Emily didn't. Praying was something she had long given up on. She searched her surroundings, taking in the structure of the building's interior. This must be some kind of Science division facility. Most of the bodies wore white lab coats. And there was the House of Aquarius symbol etched in the front hallway. The House of Aquarius were the ones in charge of the science and tech division within Starlight. And most of the tech Industries within the Federation belonged to the House. So the symbol confirmed her suspicions about this facility belonging to Starlight Order. But why would the Order have a facility like this here on this Planet? As Ginny said, in the Federation constitution 10.2, Starlight Order could only establish bases within the Neutral free zones to monitor any danger or threat in any of the undeveloped worlds. But the base had to be outside the planet, not within, like this one. Just this building being here could be seen as Starlight breaking the law of the Federation. She entered a room filled with what looked like containment pods. They were broken and damaged from whatever attack had happened. More bodies were in here. One of the bodies wore a tactical uniform that she didn't recognize as that of the Order. There had to be a network hub around here. She found a Zodiak monitor and bought her tablet. If she could hack into the facility's network, maybe she could get some clues as to what this place was. And whatever the hell had happened here. She activated the Zodiak and commenced to connect to it through her own device.

"Connect me to the main network, Ziron," Emily said. A flash of sigils and symbols blew out of her tablet, the images appearing and disappearing at a fast pace.

"Password authentication Required," Ziron said. She couldn't take a chance on a guess. Wrong one, and this whole place could go up. She had no choice but to contact Ginny again.

"Contact Ginny again," Emily said to the tablet. Ginny popped up, her goggles were back to covering her eyes, and she had a hacksaw in her hands.

"You again." She said, "You know this is the most you've ever called on me."

"That's not.." Ok. Maybe it was true. Leon had always been the one to rely on Ginny when they needed technical help on their missions. "Can you just help me hack into this mainframe? It's for Leon. I sent a link to your Zodiak." She sighed and nodded. She picked up her tablet and began to work on it.

"Whoa!." She said. The look of surprise made her look younger than she was. "What the fuck is this."

"What is it," Emily asked.

"I've logged into the Mainframe. That part wasn't that hard. But the entire network is encrypted with some kind of code language I've never seen before," She said. "This is some high-end fucking encryption. Backed up by some kind of security enchantments I've never seen before. It's gonna take me some time to get through the system."

"How long will it take," Emily asks.

"I'm not sure. A day...maybe a week. I don't know, two weeks tops." She said, "From what I can tell, any mistake and the whole system comes crashing down."

"Fine. I'll transfer the data to your end. That should give you all the time you need." Emily said.

"Beat you to it. Already done." Ginny said. " This should be fun." And she was gone. Emily placed her tab back into her pocket after disconnecting from the Facility's Zodiak. As she turned away from the pods, something caught her eye. She went over to one of the pods and bent to pick up what looked like a rock. It burnt her hand upon contact. She swore, letting go of it. A little bit of aura was emitting out, and like that, the energy that had once been there was gone from the rock. She picked it up again, and the coolness she felt was staggering. Cold, like it was frozen. It must be some kind of mineral ore. Emily thought. She placed it in her pouch on her weapons belt. After that, Emily moved on to the other rooms, observing them. The rest of the rooms were also labs with more container pods. But they were empty, still no clue as to what they were studying. Emily began to get bored, so she took a look at the last room all the way on the lower floor of the base. This room was different from the rest as she couldn't sense the presence of death within it. When she opened the door, all she could see was darkness spread out throughout the inside. Even her eyes couldn't see through the darkness, but that didn't stop her from stepping foot inside. Her right leg stepped on what felt like stairs, so she continued going down. Emily took out her sword, activating the Odic power within it. The blade glowed with a brilliance of pale light, showing long stairs that led in a spiral fashion down the building. By the time the stairs came to an end, the echoes of death that Emily felt vanished. It was like she was in a different space, the atmosphere entirely different. As her leg touched the floor, candles of light began igniting around the room, showcasing a pattern of runes engraved around Emily. The room was shaped like a circle, the walls were made out of granites that had the runes glowing in an emerald light. In the middle of the room was a monolith, a huge palish shard of rock that was three meters tall. And on the monolith were the same symbols from the wall in the sewers that the Erlking had been guarding. Emily stared at it, still unable to recognize the symbols. They looked like the runic language used by the Federation, but there were slight distinctions between them that if one wasn't versed in the Annunaki language of the Federation, they would have mistaken it as it. But Emily had been a diligent and hardworking student, so she knew the Runic language quite well, and this wasn't it. She couldn't understand it, but what she got from the symbols was that it was telling a story, the same as the symbols on the wall in that sewer. If only she could read it. Emily was confused, unable to understand what the monolith was doing under a Starlight base and how it was connected to the same symbols that were engraved in a sewer on a planet like Terra. This planet was not a planet where one should be encountering secret runes, secret bases, or even signs of Starlight interest. As Emily's hand stretched towards the monolith, she picked up on the presence of something. Someone was watching her. She turned to the stairs of the room. She pulled out a dagger and assumed a battle stance as she slowly moved forward to the stairs. Though the candles filled the room with light, there were still corners that were packed with darkness. As she approached the stairs, Emily quickly turned around and performed a vertical slash. Her blade tore through flesh easily, black blood gushing out of the neck of the monster that had jumped out of the darkness behind her. There was a hissing noise coming from the darkness, and within a second, a horde of humanoid beings came upon her. At first Emily's first thought was that a horde of Abominations were upon her, but on further examination with her Internal sight, Sam noticed something different. She quickly took a dual battle style with two Adamant daggers circulating Od throughout her body and reinforcing her physical abilities. She quickly cut through the first one, using her other blade to slash the neck of the next one. Black blood gushed out, the smell disgusting, but Emily's expression didn't betray any discomfort. Her movement was swift and precise as she hacked and slashed her way through the horde of monsters. One of the monster's tails swung at her, but she easily cut the tail off, sending a downward kick right at the head. Her leg crushed its skull, and she continued to quickly dance through the horde, her daggers flashing within the poorly lit room. It didn't take long for Emily to finish cutting them all down. In the end, she was in the middle of a pile of corpses. Most of her Adamant daggers had been sullied by the blood. Emily's breathing was still normal, but her Internal senses were locked into the spot in the darkness where the monsters had rushed out. Were these creatures responsible for the bodies above? Emily doubted it. With her Internal sight, she had examined both the outer and inner parts of the creatures, and though their appearance reminded Emily of an Abomination, the lack of Infernal energy made her doubt her instinct. Other than the grotesque reptilian scales, Emily could tell that this creatures had once been human... 

A flash of blue light and the dagger Emily used to parry the attack was thrown off her hand. Emily responded swiftly, taking up a spot behind the monolith as a shield as she took out her Seriphium shortsword. Emily couldn't sense anything, but her gut was telling her someone was beyond the darkness. Another flash of blue light, and it curved around the monolith, heading straight for her. Emily moved aside in time, away from the blast. What the hell? The enemy fired two more shots, and she focused on the flow of the attack and the direction it came from. Emily threw her body backward, moving through the air as she cut an arc through it, dispelling the attack. A shadow figure appeared and fired arrows of blue light that had enough force to break through her defense. The presence wasn't demonic, but it didn't feel friendly. So Emily moved swiftly, springing off the floor, and shot out three more daggers at it. The shadow's shape was humanoid, which meant that it was cloaked in some kind of concealment magic. An enchantment that allowed whoever it was to blend with the shadows. Emily's assailant was wearing a shadow cloak. Emily knew about them from her past encounter with them. Too bad for whoever was wearing the cloak that nothing could escape her sensory skill. The shadow nicely dodged her attacks. Emily breathed in and out, maintaining the rhythm of her breathing. Her opponent manifested two blades that were constructed from pure Od and settled on a unique stance. Her enemy's battle stance showed no weak spot, only its intention to kill her. They circled each other before they began their attack. Emily could easily predict its movement of attack as it thrust its blade at her, even without reading the flow of Od around it. She dodged and deflected, keeping a distance while searching for an opening. Its attacks were incredibly fast and packed a lot of power behind the thrusts. She pushed back against it, sending her own blade at it. She executed a feint attack on its right side but proceeded to go for a frontal assault. The assailant moved quicker than she had anticipated, none of her attacks touching it. What the hell? Emily had never met anyone as fast as Leon before. But its speed was impressive. It was only due to her sensory abilities that she had avoided any strike on her. Their dalliance continued throughout the room, one moment, the shadow was pushing against Emily, and then the next, Emily would gain the upper hand, her fighting style switching quickly from defense to offense. Emily's use of the shortsword actually gave her a disadvantage against her opponent, who was using a double edge blade, made up of Odic energy. But it was only thanks to Emily's combat skill and her mastery of her battle style that she was able to survive for as long as she was. And then things changed. The shadow moved, vanishing from her sight. Emily looked around, up, her left, her right...behind her... maybe another frontal attack... no, it could be a feint attack too... the kick caught her on her left cheek. The force of the kick sent her flying to the ceiling of the room. Her back hit the ceiling, the pain and shock like a volt through her spine as she broke through the ceiling and appeared on the upper floors. Emily could taste the blood and debris from the crash in her mouth. She pulled out another dagger. She mentally blocked the pain from her head. Her attacker had returned back to the shadows, its presence cut off from her. Her back felt stiff and raw, but her defense had held up. Her broken jaw from the kick had already mended. Emily realized she was at a disadvantage in the fight. Her opponent was clearly faster and stronger than her when it came to power and speed. Even with her Reinforcement aiding her body, it was going to be a tough fight. Her attacker, a female by the way she moved, stepped out of the shadows. Though the cloak gave her the ability to travel through the shadows, Emily could tell that her speed had nothing to do with it. She spread the cloak apart to reveal the black combat gear she wore, similar to the combat suit that Emily had on. The only difference was that Emily's had the starlight symbol, while hers was just a plain one. Emily noticed the lean and muscular shape of her body. She couldn't feel her Odic force within the Odyllic, but just staring at her was enough to make Emily know how strong her opponent was. Something about her felt oddly familiar. She moved first, sending a bunch of Od constructed blades at Emily. She responded by chanting a level two incantation.

[Water creation- Waterfall descent,] Emily pointed both her index and middle fingers of both arms on the ground in front of herself, giving form and shape to the ambient Od, then the command of the incantation converted the ambient Od into Water. A surge of it rose from the ground, forming a defensive barrier that obstructed the Odic blades. There was a steam explosion from the collision, and Emily immediately took the chance that the explosion created.

[Water creation- Sea serpent strike] She commanded the steam to turn back into a liquid state, forming a large water serpent from it, which then struck her opponent. The attack sent her crashing through the pillars of the lab they were in. But that wasn't enough to defeat her, for she jumped out of the debris, somersaulting through the air as chunks of blue light came at Emily. She moved in response, using Rapid step- a Movement skill- to evade her attacks and then striking at her with her weapons. Her opponent had summoned a sword of blue light which she used to block all her attacks with such speed and technique that Emily couldn't help being astonished. But her face didn't reveal anything. They continued their dance on the pillars, standing horizontally on it as they both tried to find openings through each other attacks. The enemy was faster, and her strikes had more force behind them, but Emily's senses seemed to be sharper than hers as she could easily predict her flow of attack and then adjust her fighting style to keep up with her enemy, showcasing Emily's expert combat skill. But it still wasn't enough to avoid some cuts here and there on her cheeks, her arm, and her thighs. The enemy's light sword was able to bypass the Validus Emily had placed on herself, showing that her strength was greater than-

"What are you doing," the enemy said. Her voice wasn't cold, nor was there warmth to it. But strangely enough, there was something familiar about it. "Is this all you're capable of, Legens," A swipe from her and Emily was sent flying by the force of her slash, the dagger in her left hand cut into pieces. Emily would have been torn apart were it not for her Seriphium blade that took the brunt of her attack. Emily felt herself hit through the pillars of the lab, the momentum carried her through till gravity pulled her down to the floor, where her footing was able to balance itself instead of her falling down. She looked up in time to see a bunch of blue arrows trailing after her. Her leg picked up speed, moving around the arrows and parring some of them with her sword. The enemy appeared out of the hole in which Emily had broken through. Emily held her shortsword tightly, channeling more Od within the blade. She took a stance against the enemy and concentrated on her next attack. She had compressed the Od within the edge of the blade and released it simultaneously as she made a slashing gesture. A flash of white light in a crescent shape charged through the air at her opponent, who tore her attack with another swipe of the bluish light sword she summoned again. 

"Shit," Emily said. Even her Aura technique, Fang slash, was no match against her. Damn it. Emily rushed out of the lab, where a volley of more arrows claimed the spot she had been. She turned around as the enemy walked out of the room. She had two Odic blades ready, her movements showing off her killing intent. Think Emily. Think, damn it. She had already concluded that whoever her opponent was, she far outclassed Emily in every Reinforcement skill. None of her attacks had been able to reach her. Emily needed something that could bypass her defense. Something she wouldn't be able to see. Something like… It was a known fact that most living bodies were made of seventy percent of water. Emily reached within herself as she began to invoke the spell she had in mind. Blood werk was a type of Magic frowned upon by the Starlight organization due to Blood magic's association with Black Magic. It wasn't a skill that you would find possessed by the Holy warriors of the Annunaki religion. Irkalla, forgive me. Emily thought as she connected with the flow of blood within her enemy's veins. Just one thought, and she was able to reverse the flow of blood. Her assailant gasped out in pain, falling on her knees. Her life was suddenly in the palm of Emily's hand.

"Who are you, and how do you know my name?" Emily asked. "Do you work here? Are you a Paladin?" No. whoever she was, there was no way she was a part of the Order. No Paladin would ever attack their fellow Paladins like this. Emily pushed against her blood veins, causing her more pain. She could see the shadows begin to peel away from her cloak. The shadow that covered her face eventually vanished. The enemy's face was covered by a black mask with some red sigils, and two horns shaped like antlers were at the forehead. "What happened here? Did you kill them?" Emily tightened her hold on the veins, controlling the flow of the blood within the arteries. Emily could pop her veins in her head if she wanted to. Give her a little bit of an aneurysm. Maybe more pain will loosen her-

"I'm quite disappointed," She said. She stood back up like the pain Emily was inflicting was nothing. "Blood werk is quite an impressive skill for a mere novice Wizard, but it is still quite average. I had hoped there was more to you…" Emily's attacker slammed her fist on the floor, releasing a web of electric current that washed like a tide of the ocean over the entire room.

"Fuck." Emily swore. There was nothing she could do to evade the attack. It was a wide-range attack and too fast for her to avoid it. The force sent her flying across the room, her body getting numbed by the electric shock that was frying her nerves. Emily wasn't even aware of her consciousness fading into the darkness.