Time never stops moving, and so I couldn't either. Another five months had passed since Dmitriy and Artem first came to Sanctum, and I had seen them once a week since then. Things had remained cordial between the pair and me, and most of the time things played out the exact same way, though Artem used the same stump every time, or they would have noticed the forest slowly disappearing.
I had not forgotten the demonstration of Artem's power, and had tried to replicate it multiple times, but I was nowhere close to understanding it. I had thought that he used unattributed mana, but the more I tried to imitate it, the more I realized that that was not quite right. Unattributed mana was best at enhancing something, unless you structured it like how Katye did with her spells. What Artem did had some kind of Intent behind it, guiding the mana, similar to how I used my elemental spells. I could infuse the elements into my attacks with a sword, but it was still lacking something, and by a lot.
It was the middle of a normal afternoon in Eden for me. Katye was gone, but due back in an hour or so. Raven was down in the city working on something while Echo was also down in the valley, though I was not sure what she did on a regular basis as it always seemed to change.
I stood in the sparring ring in the front yard though there was no opponent across from me. My two claymores were in my hands, charged with my mana, and I would attack a mage-steel pillar occasionally as I tried different things. There was just a disconnect whenever I tried to replicate the attack and I could not figure out what the problem was, but someone else did.
"Those swords don't suit you. You're too rigid," Indra remarked.
"What do you mean?" I asked, releasing the mana in my weapons, then stabbed them into the ground.
"You switched to these giants because of your increase in strength, correct?"
"Yes, I thought that claymores would bring out the most of it since I can reinforce the sharpness to an incredible level," I replied.
"While you're not wrong, the style doesn't suit you. You enjoy surprising your opponent with some unexpected move. Using such long swords, you're forced to use a certain move set and range."
"Wouldn't I have that problem with any weapon? I mean, a sword, a staff, even a bow, all have their own range and move set, no?"
"When has the normal method restrained you?" Indra retorted with a smirk.
I chuckled, understanding her meaning. I could create metal in any shape or structure with ease, so why not use that to my advantage when making a weapon for myself. My thoughts drifted from Ivy Valentine's whip-sword from Soul Caliber to Kratos's Blades of Chaos from God of War.
Unfortunately, before I could really consider things, I felt a burst of mana from the Anomaly Stone. My head snapped towards it since it was too early for Katye to return, but before I could retreat to the Shadow Realm to move closer, an alarm started ringing from Indra. She was shocked as well and reached into her bag, pulling out her radio, but there was a special light on which only meant one thing.
"Luna!" I hissed.
"Emergency Code One! Target has been restrained. Council Members assemble in the bunker. Repeat. Emergency Code One! Target..." Indra shut her radio off with a troubled expression.
She did not have to say a word for me to understand the request in her look. I transformed into my Dusa form and picked her up before I jumped into the air. Channeling my Lightning mana through my body and manipulating the Wind around us, I reached impressive speeds, and we reached the Council Chambers in less than five minutes.
The area was already in the process of being locked down by members of the Guard, though no one stopped us, of course. There was a sinking feeling in my stomach as I landed and set her down because I could sense one of my Naru Darc marks below ground. There were only two people that carried my mark, and the second person was in the general direction and distance of the engineering workshop.
I did not wait for Indra and headed straight for the person I could sense. There were twenty armed guards, carrying rifles and swords, standing at the entrance to the bunker literally shoulder to shoulder, several rows thick, in the low opening. It was a crude method to ensure that a Disciple could not slip by cloaked, but it would do little to stop Dmitriy, or the Yin or Space user of their group. I pushed my way through their ranks, but this was also part of the agreed upon precautions.
The tunnel led to a wide stairwell that went down over a hundred feet below the surface. Indra was only a few steps behind me, which was the only thing that had kept me from racing down. I needed to know, I needed to see that it was him with my own eyes, and I needed to hear him tell me why.
When we reached the bunker, there were guardsmen at the entrance, but they allowed us to enter without question. The compound could house the entire population for several months in the event of a large-scale siege, but it was one of Eden's best kept secrets since it was normally run by a small, heavily vetted team. Now, the Guard had moved in, so the secret would be out by the evening.
I navigated the corridors by the guiding light of my own mana, mocking me with every step closer. Why did I let him come back? How could anyone have allowed him to get so close to Luna? What made me believe that he really had slipped into his old life despite the years that had passed? The questions assaulted my brain as I walked.
Diyoza and Roan were arguing quietly in the middle of the corridor that ended in the room that held the bearer of my mark. The pair heard me approach, since my anger had me all but stomping down the hallways. They turned their heads and saw me, while the look in their eyes told me nearly everything I needed to know.
"How did he get close to Luna?" I asked.
"Loir, who was assigned to watch him today, had an accident and broke his leg. Somehow, he slipped away from the group taking him to the hospital and made his way to the Council Chambers. Luna was heading home early, and he got her while she was walking out of the building," Diyoza said, holding out a silver device.
"Give it to Raven and Sinclair; I'll just break it right now," I huffed with anger then moved past the pair.
"Rebecca, we need you to get Katye and go after Luna," Roan said.
"I will, but not until I know why!" I growled.
"He has refused to talk."
"He will to me," I said then opened the door.
Kane and Bellamy were the only people in the small room, and both looked at me when I walked in. Bellamy's arms were cuffed behind his back and there was a bleeding gash over one of his eyes. Clearly, whoever captured him had been more than a little rough, but I could not blame them; I would have done worse.
"Rebecca, you need..." Kane started.
"I know, Kane, but I need to hear it from him. Why, Bellamy?" I cut off Kane directly and asked.
"Bardhyl sent me a message with the tagging device that you would betray us and destroy the Eden Anomaly Stone which will cause all of us to be killed by the Transcendents. Amser foresaw it."
"It was a lie, you idiot!" I yelled. "Why would I risk everything that I have and do something that would obviously end badly?!?"
"Because... you would not be ready to go. No matter how much time you have, it will never be enough for you. You would do anything to stay with Raven and Echo," Bellamy replied, staring at me with no doubt in his eyes.
I clenched my jaw in anger because I could not honestly deny the claim. At my current rate of improvement, ten years would be enough time for me to gain the strength to handle the Disciples alone, so with Katye training on Skyring every day, there was no question that we would be able to stop them. Bardhyl and Amser were the two oldest Disciples that we met and Bardhyl had been the Space user, so it was possible that he really did send Bellamy the message since I had not seen the tagger device when he returned with us from Bardo.
"After everything, Bell, you still don't trust me," I sighed with pain and disappointment.
"I trust your original vision, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't be clouded later. The Shepard will prepare the way and we all will ascend," he said with conviction.
"'Prepare the way'? Sanctum, they're going to wipe out Sanctum!" I exclaimed with grim realization.
"This is a test that we cannot afford to fail," Bellamy replied.
"On whatever friendship and trust you have with me, Kane, promise me that you won't let Raven and Echo anywhere near the Anomaly Stone!"
"I promise," he agreed.
"Thank you. Katye and I will fix this, one way or another," I promised then retreated into the Shadow Realm.
Six months. Cadogan had only given us six months. I could almost ask why he had bothered waiting at all, but I knew the answer. We were not strong enough then, but now, we were nearly even in raw power, though the numbers would still be hard to overcome. Tori seemed to have grown tired of letting us go at our own pace, so when I saw him again, I would have more than a few choice words for him.
I raced out of the bunker but took a secret exit that led out into the valley since it would get me closer to the house. Time was of the essence and my anger only made me move faster through the void. Everything that I had built in this world was crumbling down around me, and it was all my own doing. I had known from the beginning that I would never be able to remain here, yet I had made such a deep connection with not one, but two beautiful women. I had been begging for this heartache.
I stepped out of the Shadow Realm and transformed into my Dusa form straightaway. The Emergency Code One should have reached the fortress, so the Anomaly Stone would be locked down and guns would be aimed this way. There was a chance that I could get shot in the back and, in my current state of mind, I would probably lash out at them instead of where I needed to. I tapped in the code to travel to Skyring, having long committed all of the codes to memory, then walked through it.
It was nighttime on Skyring when I stepped out onto the world. I could sense Katye in the distance, but there was something else that I sensed, or perhaps a number of small things; it was hard to tell at such a distance. Katye was already on her way here, so I flapped my wings and leapt out of the cofferdam. By the time that I reached the shore, she did as well.
"What's wrong?" Katye asked with concern, sensing the instability of my aura.
"The Disciples are moving on Sanctum. Bellamy betrayed us and somehow tagged Luna. She's gone," I explained.
"How is that possible?"
"The Space user is involved. Bellamy said that he sent him a message that we were going to betray them and get everyone killed by destroying the Anomaly Stone, but we know the true cause. Tori is done letting us enjoy ourselves," I growled.
Katye sighed, "Figures... this is my fault. I just finished putting together the last jigsaw puzzle Tori gave us. Follow me."
"Jigsaw puzzle?" I asked, shifting back to my human form.
"The six spells that we found on every planet, even Bardo, though I got those from one of the suits' memory banks. There were a total of eighteen enchantments that he gave us, and I finally found the proper method to combine them all. I finished it yesterday, but that would have just been minutes ago over there," Katye explained as she led me into the forest.
"Just how long are you here during your training hours?" I asked, finally grasping just how long she might have been here.
"No point in hiding it any longer," Katye sighed. "My calculations put a day here on Skyring to roughly fourteen point six minutes on Earth. I spend about twenty days here every time that I come to train."
"You spend twenty days here, alone, for every day that you spend on Earth?!?"
"Honestly, it's not as bad as it sounds. I get so wrapped up in my experiments with the spells that I won't notice days passing. The alarm function on my tablet has finally been paying off," Katye replied with a shrug.
"Katye..." I sighed.
"You're not the only one who has been influenced by their past life," Katye retorted. "It's not that I'm anti-social or anything, but it's practically a compulsion once I start on these spells. There is something about the language in my head... I've only used an eighth of the 'letters' that I know, yet I also know that I have only scratched the surface of this type of magic."
I could not say much with my reaction to the temporal anomaly on Alpha. Echo would come and wake me up from my meditation most days, unless Dmitriy and Artem appeared. If it had been on Skyring, I might have also lost myself, meditating in its glow.
Katye led me towards the cabin, but instead of heading inside, we walked past it. Since I was not using my Domain, I did not see the stairs until she started going down them, but what I did know was that she was leading me to the other energy signatures. Now that I was closer, I could tell that they were not from a person, rather that they were similar to the Labyrinth, but on a much weaker scale.
To my surprise, Katye brought me into a large workshop that dwarfed Raven's and mine combined, though a good portion seemed to be a firing range. Pushed into a corner of the large chamber, there was row after row of armor pieces and mana crystals of various sizes. The other corner, on the same end, had a few workbenches and several armor stands which were the sources of most of the mana-generating items, though there was a single piece that was stronger than the rest. On one of the workstations, there was a silver ring with a unique violet crystal design that was similar to her Naru Darc mark. There were three thin lines which sprouted from a center gem that twisted around it and made a slight pyramid shape.
"That set of armor is yours and has a number of enchantments which will weaken most magical-based attacks. This, however, is my masterpiece that has taken me about two years to create," Katye said, picking up the ring and sliding it on. "I guess this will be its first true proof of concept."
Before I could inquire about what the ring did, she twisted the jeweled detail and vanished. This was not the first time that she had disappeared from my sight, but it was the first time that I could not sense her presence at all. There was no trace of her mana and, even after activating all of my Domains, there was still nothing around me. Thankfully, she took pity on me and reappeared a few moments later, before I could get even more worked up, then smiled.
"Well, if it can hide me from you, it should work on the Disciples. It can have up to three charges, and each can last up to five minutes," Katye explained. "It works by wrapping fifteen different elements around my body, allowing outside mana to bend around me while keeping my own within the barrier that the ring creates."
"I can see the benefits of an invisibility ring, but why are you so sure that this is the reason that they made their move now? Five minutes really isn't that much time unless you are trying to escape, but that doesn't really sound like you," I said.
Katye smirked, "You've never seen what I can really do with this new magic. Give me five minutes of uninterrupted prep time and I could easily kick your butt in a straight fight."
"Well, I'll get to see just how strong those attacks can be. We need to get to Sanctum. They're assholes, but I'm not going to let them be slaughtered because of a madman like Cadogan."
"Then grab your armor. This is going to be one hell of a fight, even with the boost in our strength," Katye said with a weak smile.
A/N: I would like to ask for those of you who are enjoying the story to leave a review on the story if you haven't already since we are getting near the end goal of 100 chapters!
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