Sob, Sob. On the shadowy misty ground, Alana continues to cry out river of tears, the tears dripped from her eyes and instead of wetting the floor into a puddle, it was disappearing as if there were no tears been shed. Sinking into the ground the man begins to flow closer to Alana, and as he steps out with his upper body unclothed and his lower body covered in misty shadows, he begins to talk. "Please, do continue to lament. But honestly, you ought to be thanking me, because that little lovers quarrel you had just then was an act, wasn't it mademoiselle? This poor young man here never had your love, you were using him, so I put him out of his misery. I mean you all are descendants of Cleopatra after all".
Alana begins to move back in terror. "Oh, don't worry mademoiselle, I had the intention of snapping your neck like a twig next, but I am lonely in here now that that I think about it. And your face – your face reminds me of someone. Let me introduce myself, how rude of me. My name is Ippy.".
"Chris, w…what should I do, what should I do" Vince says whilst still hoisted down by the misty shadowy ropes. "G…Get him down" Chris says whilst gasping for air. "W…why him Chris, why. I am u…useless anyways, I can't even move. Why did we leave Chris? At least b…back there we weren't in pain". Vince says to himself whilst drops of tears flow down the side of his face. After saying this, Vince closes his eyes, and suddenly, he could hear nothing, all the voices that were constantly whispering in the realm were gone. '♩…♩…♫'. "Huh, what is this music? Is It playing in here or…or am I loosing it?" Vince thinks to himself. 'NO. YOU ARE NOT DEAD'. Vince quickly opens his eyes, glances left, glances right, looks to the center, and no one was speaking. Chirs and Dean were continuously gasping for air but somehow, they were holding onto life.
"Huh, w…what was that" Vince thinks to himself. '♩…♩…♫ A VALSA DO IMPERADOR, THAT'S WHAT YOU ARE HEARING. YOU SHALL UNDERSTAND THE MEANING SOON ENOUGH. NOW, STREGNTHEN THYSELF MY EMPEROR, AND FREE ALL IN THIS WRETECHED REALM!". After hearing this, black streaks begin to sprout out from Vince's hair, embers illuminate and emanate off his hair. "This feeling again" Vince thinks to himself. "I am not blacking out this time though". The ropes holding onto Vince's arms and legs start to solidify from its misty form and begin to slowly shatter. STEP, STEP, STEP. Slowly Vince inches closer and closer to Chris and Dean, He then stops and looks up at them. Chris, still conscious looks down and begins to restlessly shake his lower body as if he was panicking. "Don't worry Chris" Vince whispers chillingly whilst pulling Chris and Dean down lower with their feet.
Outside the shadows mind, the core soldiers are disoriented and stricken with fear after seeing Jacob suddenly disappear into the Umbra's body. "What the hell is Jacob doing, now we are all going to get in trouble" Truth whispers whilst glancing over at Jonathan. "Ven Javos sir, do you want us to initiate the circles of incantation again?" a gold grade soldier asks. "Use your brain, this isn't the time to be a toddler. Initiate the DAMN CIRCLE!" Ven Javos shouts out in rage. "Yes sir, I just wanted to know if…" in the middle of his sentence coils of pressurized smoke begin to seep through the muddy ground, but slowly all grades also begin to take formation and hesitantly step towards the Umbra once again. No sound could be heard but muddy footsteps.
STEP, STEP, STEP.
"Wait, what is that on his leg" Jonathan thinks to himself.
STEP, STEP, STEP.
"GET BACK!" Ven Javos shouts. A silver grade soldier slips and falls. "What the…" Truth thinks to himself. The coils of pressurized smoke begin to attach itself onto multiple soldiers. The smoke begins to seep out the Umbra's body as well, sprouting many ropes, it grabs onto a bronze grade soldiers' neck.
SNAP!
"FALL BACK DAMMIT!" Ven Javos screams on the top of his lungs. "Dammit, its too late, we are dropping like flies" he thinks to himself. Agonizing screams begin to fill up the shroud, echoing at every angle. A gurgle to the left, a crack and snap to the right.
Thunder roars, the rainstorm strengthens. Truth in shock drops his gun, stumbles and bumps into an iron grade soldier. "W…why is everything so blurry" he thinks to himself.
SLISH. Pressurized smoke that has been hardened rapidly launches and grazes his helmet, the hardened rope retreats and launches with astonishing pace towards him once again. Somehow, Truth finds himself tackled onto the muddy ground. "What the hell are you doing Truth, are you trying to die!" Jonathan yells out whilst on top of Truth. "Get yourself together" he says whilst placing a gun a Truths chest. "Ven Javos, we need to leave this shroud, we can come back and finish this, but only if we are alive" Ven Percy yells out into Ven Javos's ear. "Dammit, why, Dammit! I have led these boys to their end. There is nothing else I can do but… no, no, I can't do that, I won't do that" Ven Javos thinks to himself loudly whilst gazing upon the massacre of every grade. As he begins to rise to his feet, a soldier's body flung past his head so fast his eyes couldn't register it, the remanence of its wind is what he felt. Everything seemed to be in slow motion for Ven Javos, to his left, soldiers are being tossed around on the muddy ground with the shadowy coils of ropes attached to their entire uniform, armor and body. To his right, there Dean lies with convulsions and no conscious. Above him, sounds of gurgling prevail, as feet dangle from the trees. And below him, heads with no bodies, dislocated arms and legs lie still with no life in them. Blake begins to crawl on the ground, mud all over his helmet, visor and uniform, he begins to think to himself "I will tell dad about my glasses, all this shaking around cracked it. I shouldn't even be here anyways, I am the top Ven's son, you all need to protect me with your life!" As he thinks this to himself whilst crawling, shadowy ropes begin to seep out of the muddy ground. "G…get away from me" he shouts out frantically. "Do you know who I am". Whilst screaming this and crawling on his back, he bumps into a gold grade soldier and tries him. "You should die, not me!" he screams with tears swelling up in his eyes with a hint of sadistic laughter. The rope grabs onto the gold grade soldiers' neck and drags him on the muddy ground whilst choking him dead.
"I have no choice" Ven Javos whispers to himself. Over the clapping thunder he yells "CIRCLES OF INCANTATION!" he steps closer towards the Umbra. "BRONZE, SILVER, FILL THE GAPS NOW!" over the snapping necks he screams. "Get yourselves together, die today, or die later, your choice!" he says whilst continuing to inch closer to the Umbra.
"Huh did he say bronze fill the gaps?" Jonathan says whilst assisting Truth onto his feet. "Ven Javos sir, we care not qualified to do that" a bronze grade soldier shouts back. "Shut up! Get in there now! Ven Percy, come with me into the center, I am not dying here today!" Quickly all bronze and silver grade soldiers speed up and fill the gaps. "Activate your spineall's and hold your ground" Ven Javos commands. All grade soldiers begin to grab and insert a translucent tube from a rectangular pack residing on their back into a hole in their gun. "Damn, how do I work this damn thing?" Truth whispers angrily. "Just copy me" Jonathan whispers back. "Hurry up! You absolute amateurs, how did you even make it into the bronze grade!" Ven Percy shouts out. Ven Javos then walks closer to Ven Percy and says "Its fine, they will figure it out. Since you don't have your spineall or gun with you, I ask one thing of you. This blast will be…" he says at the end of his sentence into Ven Percy's ear. "Please hold me down, don't let me fly off" he says to Ven Percy.
After a few minutes, silence falls, raindrops are all that is heard. Ven Javos raises his arm with his hand curled up into a fist. As he slowly releases his first, sounds of mechanical hissing begin to sound. It continues to get incrementally louder as every second goes by. It echoes throughout the shroud. The spineall's begin to take shape, conforming itself into the shape of the soldier's backs, it then locks onto their spine and a faint light with a color of purple begins to creep up from the bottom of the spineall's, getting brighter and brighter as it crawls up to the larger surfaces of the spineall."Aaagh, this hurts, this really hurts!" Truth yells out, but the mechanical hiss is so loud that he can't even hear himself.
In rapid succession, soldiers begin to fall, the purple light retreats. "Don't look at the fallen, focus on the Umbra we have to eliminate!" Ven Javos shouts out. "What is this circle, there is no organized grades anymore, it's just a mix of grades. Will this even work? Should I make a run for it, because this is desperate, really desperate" Ven Percy thinks to himself whilst holding back Ven Javos wit his shoulder. With the mechanical hiss growing louder, the purple light surges through the tube and begins to fill up the guns, creating a high-pitched whine that drowns out the thunder. "My back!" Truth shouts out in agonizing pain as he begins to slowly pass out. "Truth! Dammit!" Jonathan thinks to himself whilst pushing his feet into the ground with force.
"Oh, he's back again" Ippy says to himself whilst smiling at Alana. "We are going to cut this conversation short mademoiselle, come with me, we have a show to attend" Ippy says whilst picking up Alana into his arms. As Ippy begins to float with Alana in his arms, Alana looks back as Jacob's body begins to slowly sink into the misty ground of shadows. All tears from her eyes had dried up, all she was doing at this moment was stirring intently at the sinking body of Jacob.
"Where am I?" Dean asks groggily. As he looks to his left, he sees Vince and Chris hugging each other tightly. "So… this is why you were popular at the EXP sector hu?" Chris says whilst giggling with tears out his eyes. "I don't know what it is, but somehow I can control myself now" Vince says back with nervous laughter. "Vince – what you said before, don't worry, I know you didn't mean it" Chris says with his giggle slowly starting to fade. "W…what did I say? I…I said something?" Vince says with his head looking down. "He doesn't remember" Chris thinks to himself "What am I talking about, sorry, I must've had a concussion or something" Chris says to Vince. "H…hey, hey, Chris, Purple hair, this is not the time for reunions, something is coming towards us!" Deam suddenly shouts out. "What the hell, where am I for real? Dean shouts out louder.
"What is this fake Meraki I they have injected into you!" Ippy yells out as he floats closer to the three boys. "You are in my house, my realm, fake Meraki won't do a thing to me in here. So, I have a gift for you… no scratch that, I have an ultimatum for you, its simple really, let me kill you three, or else…I kill the girl" Ippy sinisterly says. After hearing this, Vince steps closer, the embers emanating from his hair grow stronger, but Chris grabs his shoulder and says "Do you know what you are going to do? Vince let's think this through together. "We don't have time for thinking" Vince says in a commanding tone whilst brushing Chris's hand off his shoulder. "S…sorry I didn't mean to do that, j…just leave it to me" Vince says again but with a nervous tone this time. Vince looks back at Ippy, steps closer and calmly says "PUT THAT GIRL DOWN." Ippy then begins to slowly place Alana down and wipes all expressions off his face.
He quickly disappears into the misty shadowy ground. "I told you – this is my realm, that fake stench of Meraki I smell on you won't work in here. You are not the one who will free all nations, because that Meraki isn't genuine is it. Is it? What an irony that would be, The Motherlands puppet, freeing the oppressed nations, impossible!" Ippy says inches away from Vince's face. "How did he get near me?" Vince thinks to himself. Ippy begins to raise his arms, and pressurized shadowy smoke begins to rise out of the ground and tie itself around the neck of Vince, Chris and Dean. "Damn, not this shit again" Dean struggles to say. "This time I will make sure not a breath is left in you" Ippy says under his breath. The pressurized shadowy ropes squeeze tighter; their eyes begin to roll back. They gasp for the little air they can hold onto.
COUGH, COUGH.
Suddenly Ippy begins to cough out blood. He coughs once and stops for a few seconds, but a second wave begins to follow with intensity. The coughs are so uncontrollable, he falls onto the ground and rolls repeatedly relentlessly.
"Hold your ground!" Ven Javos yells out as purple cylinders of energy closes down onto the Umbra from all sides, vaporizing the rain and the mist instantly. "Damn I feel like my arms are about to be ripped off my body!" A silver grade soldier shouts out as the cylindrical beam of energy from this gun begins to fade.
COUGH. "What is happening to me!" Ippy says with his mouth full of blood. "Guys fight it, the ropes on your necks are loosening up." Alana says whilst trying to pull the boys down. Chris, Vince and Dean begin to pull the rope apart and fall onto the ground. "Damn that shit hurts" Dean shouts out whilst coughing. "Didn't someone close to you just die Alana? Why are you trying so hard to act tough like always?" Dean asks Alana with a condescending tone. "S…shut up D, he was weak, Jacob was weak, I need to focus on my mission" Alana shouts out in Deans face. "Now you three get up and let's find a way out of here. Everything is shaking, and those voices, what are those voices" Alana says whilst looking around. Voices begin to drown out the realm again saying, "This rope feels good – Aah hanging down from that tree will feel amazing". The voices kept ringing louder and louder
"Step, closer soldiers!" Ven Percy and Ven Javos shouted out. All beams merging at one point, was causing rain to sear around all the soldiers and Umbra, not a single drop touched them. As the soldiers continue to rain hell upon the Umbra, it begins to warp. Slowly it warps into a sphere, and purple hair with striking black streaks begin to stick out of the sphere. Dean and Chris on the muddy ground stop convulsing and begin to wake up. Vince and Alana drop out of the warping sphere and fall onto the muddy ground.
SCREECH. The Umbra screeches as it continues to warp and solidify into a small black spherical ball. "The sun, the sun is coming out" multiple soldiers yell out as their spineall's return into its rectangular form. "The shroud is disappearing" Ven Percy says to Ven Javos. "We got lucky this time" Ven Percy sneers. As the soldiers begin to jump, hug each other and check on their passed out comrades, they hear a loud shout "STAY DOWN!" the person said. It was Alana holding Vince down with her knee on his back pinning him down. "Good girl, really good, don't loose sight of our mission" Ven Percy whispers under his breath.
As Chris begins to gain his consciousness, three gold grade soldiers begin to state, "With the authority granted to us by the Sven, we command you to stay down and freeze!"
NEXT CHAPTER – TO BE UPLOADED WHEN READY (WILL TRY MY BEST TO BE QUICK!)