Porter, Hayes, Ezra, and Lapine each stood in absolute shock at what they had witnessed. Both Phoebe and Artemis had vanished.
“I think it’s undeniable now.” Hayes said. “This location is being inhabited by them again. As for what that means for us, it’s unclear.”
Porter muttered to himself with a downcast gaze toward his hand. His body was trembling, and his face was pale. It hadn’t been the pain, nor the fear that captivated him -- the guilt, and embarrassment felt like too much to carry.
‘--Is that my blood…?’
‘It has to be, right.’
His hands, covered in deep red, felt weak and helpless. The sight of it all left him at a loss for words. Porter could feel a sharp chill in his forehead.
“Need a rag?” Ezra spoke up.
Porter didn’t bother looking over at him. He had his eyes locked. The world felt muffled to him; he could hardly even register what Ezra asked.
--He wanted time to stop, not wanting to face what was ahead of him.
‘Why am I even here?’
‘What did I do wrong?’
‘Holding a fucking sword?’
‘They all could’ve died.’
‘Would Arlo have let this happen…?’
Ezra took a few steps toward Porter, knocking on his shoulder with his hand.
“Hey--!” He called out
“--Eh?”
“You heard me, yeah? I got a rag for that blood.”
“Oh, right.”
“Just take it.”
Porter took the clean white rag, rubbing it on his blood stains. He did so as slow as he could with a lack of energy or purpose. Ezra gave him a look of revulsion, casting his eyes down at Porter’s head.
“The guardians Artemis and Phoebe both oversee the Bliss Domain. Seeing as Arlo was recently there, what do we make of this?” Ezra asked Hayes sternly.
Hayes cast his gaze down towards Porter. He frowned. He looked like he’d been filled with unease.
“I’ll be honest -- hell if I know.”
“We can’t just keep sitting here! Let’s get out and head for the Capitol.” Ezra stammered”
“We’ve got nothing to go on, though.” Lapine replied.
She looked toward Ezra with confusion, then averted her eyes toward Hayes.
Porter put his rag into his pocket, slowly retracting his sword afterward.
“What the hell is Aether even bothering with this place for? Do we know?” Porter asked Hayes.
Hayes took a look into the deep forest ahead of them.
“There’s three levels of this area, each deeper and deeper into the unit. Right now, this place was meant for using AI. But the next level was created for bioweapons.” Hayes grew a look of concern as he continued. “But, the third level, that’s what concerns me.”
“Yeah?” Porter asked.
Hayes had clearly been hesitant to speak, as if he didn’t like talking about the subject.
“If Aether’s major plans were met, this place would be torn to shreds. The third level contains a shrine for the Array gods, only able to be activated with stimulus from a god-like material directly from Array.”
“My sword…? Is it one?”
“It’s half of one.” Hayes spoke. “Listen, we really need to leave this place. If another Guardian is here, we’re in no position to fight. Artemis and Phoebe’s locations are unknown.”
“--Right.”
“I want silence from all of you. Try not to leave trails in your steps.”
----
----
----
----
The outskirts of the Capitol were small and quaint. Village-like homes spread out across the stone paving. For a moment, it felt as though they’d traveled back in time -- the technology wasn’t even around.
Upon stepping into what looked like a Hotel, this idea was stomped on.
The hotel looked beautiful. Shiny white paving was tiled all on the floor, while the entrance had a huge water fountain on display.
“For now, we’ll be staying here to keep an eye on the location. It’s best to keep our business to ourselves, so don’t be too talkative.” Hayes said.
“We have a room?” Lapine asked.
“Two, in fact. One is for Ezra and I, and one is for you and Porter.”
“Thank the gods I’m not with Ezra.”
Ezra looked over, giving an obnoxious irked look.
“Yeah, n’ I didn’t wanna be with your bum-ass anyway.”
“Eheh. Sure. As if you’re not staring at me when we’re home.”
“To hell with you.”
---
---
Hours had passed since that moment. Porter felt the unending fear of what he had seen.
"Porter, aye." Hayes called out. "I want you to meet me outside."
"Why?" Asked Porter.
Hayes looked Porter straight in the eye.
"We just need to talk in private. Let's go."
--
After following Hayes directly, Porter found himself in the back of the inn. Hayes had a serious look on his face. His eyes looked fearsome, and his demeanor felt different than usual.
"You all right, Hayes?"
"More or less."
Porter's eyes glanced at Hayes' unsteady hands. His palms were sweating as if it had been a summer day.
"Phoebe and Artemis ... Both guardians of the Bliss Domain. That's kind of weird," Hayes said quietly.
"What's a guardian, anyway?"
Hayes gave a shocked look. His eyes widened and his body movements paused. It was as if the whole world stood still for a moment.
"Oh, that's right. Arlo's not with you right now."
'Right now?' Porter pondered.
"Uh ... Right."
Hayes smiled for a moment. It was a relief to Porter, though not so much to Hayes.
"Well, they're the main threats to Aether. Each of them is very skilled with magic, and they are the strongest Aether has." said Hayes.
Porter quickly threw his hands up to his face and covered his eyes and mouth.
"--Arlo what?"
"Eh?" Porter replied
"Porter -sorry." replied Hayes. "But what's wrong?"
"I'm such a fucking idiot to challenge something like that to a fight."
Hayes put a hand on Porter's shoulder and gave him some comfort.
"Don't worry about it so much. It's not like you knew."
"It doesn't matter."
Hayes paused for a moment. Clearly he was still worried about something, but Porter couldn't figure out what exactly.
"Are you all right?" asked Porter.
"--Oh. I guess I haven't been looking my best lately, have I?"
"You just look tense."
"That's what Salem said, right?" Hayes retorted. "It's just, holy shit. It's all happening really fast. It may sound like I've got it all figured out, but this whole ordeal with Arlo is affecting all of us, including me."
"-I guess that's my fault."
Hayes pushed Porter's shoulders and looked him straight in the eye with a serious expression. It was something that captivated Porter.
"Did you choose to be like this?" asked Hayes.
"No. I don't get it."
"Then you're not the one at fault here. We're not sure who it is."
Porter looked up at Hayes. His eyes nearly teared up for a moment.
“Now then, regarding the guardians.” Hayes retorted. “The overall power of these creatures is entirely unknown. All we know about is who rules them. That, we know to be Andromeda. The current ruler of the Aether Domains.”
“How many are there?”
“Three. Bliss, Perspective, and Silver Tongue. Although, the Silver Tongue Domain is completely empty. There's eternal snow falling all over it, so it’s not habitable.”
“I see…”
‘What the hell is eternal snow...magic?’
“--Which is why…It’s weird how they’re going after us now of all times.”
“How is that?” Porter asked.
“Well, think about it. The population amongst the three domains was fairly even. Even if a number of the population died, the survivors had to change locations. It completely messes up food rations for each major city.”
“How can they just...ignore that? If they are.”
“They don’t have the funds to fight us. Either they’re ignoring the people, or creating systems to implant into them that causes them not to require food. Either way, it’s bad for us.”
“What if that’s what the machine testing ground is being used for…?”
“Unlikely, it’s been abandoned. Machinery has evolved since its usage back years ago.”
“Everything here is so technologically advanced…” Porter calmly said with a sigh.
Hayes gave a confused look toward him. “Your world wasn’t? If that’s even what’s right.”
“My world?”
“You were transported, right?”
“Right. Yeah. Well, it didn’t have any magic, nor did it have machines like this place.”
“--None, huh.” Hayes replied. “It’s odd to think what something like Array would want with it.”
“--What do you mean?”
“Array is our god, as you know. The objective being in the sky. It’s thought that each world is created with the idea of seeing it evolve. Array loves seeing what their choices will do to a world’s evolution process.”
“That’s odd. We had plenty of religions back home.”
“Well, that's all well and good. We’re sure other foreign places on Acren have different religions. But, everyone here knows Array is true.”
“How can we be sure?”
“We’ve all seen their effects. Their shift in interest created the legendary sword, and the legendary shield.”
‘Shield?’
“It’s getting late, though. Let’s head inside. I wouldn’t wanna just completely kill your brain with shit before bed.” Hayes said.
“--Right.”
“Get some sleep, all right?”
Porter nodded, and slowly walked away from the place.
----
----
----
----
In a large room, a loud pound on a wall could be heard.
“--Artemi-”
“SHIT.”
“It’s quite undesirable to be hearing that here.”
The room looked like a sci-fi laboratory. What looked like thousands of glowing white wires filled a bright blue metallic room.
“Lord Andromeda…”
“Yes, Artemis?”
Artemis looked toward Andromeda with sadness.
He had white pale skin, with bright violet hair that went down to his neck. He had one black and white eye, but his left eye was simply a bright purple “X” that matched his hair. Andromeda wore a white shirt with a similarly white jacket that had purple and black decals.
He was visually beautiful. He had feminine charm despite being a male, and his slender body moved gracefully around the room.
“--Deadwood is back.”
“Hmm.” Andromeda replied. “Any notable names?”
“Arlo.”
Andromeda’s eyebrows raised at the sound of his name. He let out a manic laugh with a dark caustic smirk.
“Well, that’s certainly an interesting title.”
Andromeda’s head tilted in odd ways, some of which looked physically impossible. His eye twitched, and his arms lightly shook.
“But it’s weird…”
“But? What’s weird, darling?”
“It’s nothing like Clearwick…he could barely hold a damn sword.” Artemis replied. “What are your thoughts…?”
“That’s certainly appalling considering his brilliant work on that poor town. But, there might be divine intervention with a phenomenon like that, seeing as he’s the Array sword holder.”
“Perhaps he’s braindead after all that time?” Artemis asked.
Andromeda’s head twitched. His fingers swayed in an odd rhythm. He tilted his head toward Artemis.
“It’s best to overestimate an enemy like him.”
Andromeda stood up, gazing at a weapon in the corner of the room.
“So, you fought the man? I assume with the sword.”
“I did, Phoebe could see.”
“That sword. He’d take the power of the god’s salvation… one he fought so long and killed so many for… and use it on someone such as you, weak and helpless. It’s pitiful how Deadwood acts.”
Andromeda walked over toward the corner of the room.
The weapon he pulled out was a large, purple shield that could fit on an arm. It glowed a brilliant deep purple color, but it was very clearly cracked.
Andromeda touched it, as if he was trying to activate it.
“—No effect. I can feel Array coursing through my veins, but it won’t respond to my call.” Andromeda calmly stated. “It’s a shame that such an important weapon was so horribly violated by a weapon of its same class.”
Artemis looked over at Andromeda with resolve and anger. “It’s something he’ll pay for.”
“Given time, it’s sure to happen.” Andromeda replied. “As for the testing unit, we’ll see what happens and base our strategy on that.”
“Right, lord.”
“--If what you’re saying regarding Arlo is true, then the battlefield we played on for many years is bound to change, and quite soon.”
