Act 1 - Chapter 4

Chapter 9: Ajal; Shauran 20th, 344SR; 05:50

'If you don't kill them... They'll just come back!'

Ajal thought about what Jack said, it reminded him of what Ava told him. "Peace... Requires sacrifice..." Ajal murmured under his breath in thought.

'That'll never work... I know it, maybe this is the punishment I face for thinking it would at one point.' Ajal glanced over his shoulder at Jack, who had been following with his head down. The two hadn't exchanged words for a while. It was dark, the wind rustled the leaves of the trees above as Jack and Ajal made their way through the lush forest.

Jack had short hair, his light skin dry and darkened by ash, dirty beige pants, and a stained white shirt. Ajal could feel his skin crawling at the touch of the unwashed clothes he received from the kid. 'They don't have showers... How do they bathe?' Ajal pulled his collar up and sniffed it, the scent reminding him of dirty socks, it made him cringe. 'What kind of world is this...'

They were reaching the eastern edge of the forest, and the number of trees around them slowly dwindled. 'Come to think of it...' Ajal focused his spirit on his forehead, and his third eye opened. 'Spirit Sense.' His spirit pulsed from where he stood, it was a technique used to detect other spirits. Besides Jack and the people in the town, the only spirits we're north, that of the plant life all around, and several spirits somewhere in the forest that belonged to people. 'There isn't a single animal or insect in this forest? Forget the forest, the only animals are in one location for two hundred and fifty miles? Seriously? ' He closed the third eye as they reached the base of a hill, the question lingered on his mind.

"Up there," Ajal pointed to the top of a hill.

Ajal crouched down low, and focused his spirit on his foot, with a single kick-off, he was already halfway up the hill. He effortlessly ran up the rest in four steps, the wind brushing past his face as he reached the top in a moment and turned to see Jack at the bottom of the hill.

"There is no way I can do that..." Jack said from the bottom.

"Wait there," Ajal ordered before he turned and looked over the hill.

He stayed behind the giant brown oak trees to avoid being seen. To the left down the hill, the trail continued out of the forest towards a large building near the cliffside surrounded by a gate at least twice Ajal's height 'Did they wheel it through here? There's enough space for it surprisingly... Why are these trees so big?'

Several people stood by the front gate in white robes, the gate seemed to end just at the wall of the mountain, Ajal scanned the edges of the building before he saw what appeared to be pipes on top of it. 'A factory? I don't see any smoke.' Ajal turned and slid down the hill, the leaves rustled as he glided down the slope, stopping himself in front of Jack.

"You were right, there is something there... It looked kind of like a factory," Ajal pointed out.

"What's a factory?" Jack asked curiously.

"It's- a place where you make things... usually a lot of that thing. The path leads there, that's where my ship should be," Ajal continued on the original trail.

Jack and Ajal looked forward up the path that led to the dark building at the top of the hill.

"Let's go," Ajal ordered, Jack let out an audible gulp and followed.

Ajal walked up the path, the area was extremely dark, the only light was from two torches at the front gate.

"Alright, I'm-" Ajal stopped and immediately crouched down, pulling Jack down with him.

The tall grass brushed against Ajal's face, it was tall enough for Jack and Ajal to hide in the darkness.

"Why are we hiding?" Jack whispered.

"We're not alone," Ajal said as he looked back to the top of the hill he stood upon earlier.

Jack saw it too, the silhouettes of four people, they stalked the building in the distance. The four of them charged down the hill and spread out, one ran directly towards the front gate.

"Who are you?! State your name!" the angel near the gate shouted, however, the mysterious people continued to charge.

Soon the other figures broke off into multiple directions while they stormed the building.

"Shit! There are more of them! Ifrin call for backup!" the angel shouted in the distance.

The first member on the hill who engaged the two angels in a fight charged forward with his fist raised high and ready to strike. From that distance, the two just appeared to collide with each other and engage in a fight.

"Those ones wearing white are the angels I'm guessing, I thought they'd have wings? Why are they called angels again?" Ajal whispered to Jack.

"This is the first time I've ever seen people fight the angels... Who could they be?" Jack pondered.

Ajal pushed Jack's head down again as one of the shadows grew closer. It was a young girl, she ran towards the left of the hill while the others from the hill continued to spread out as they approached the building. The two angels drew metal staffs, as another charged them. The one charging had bright red hair, he connected his fist with the angel's stomach, then his face, and continued to relentlessly beat the angel.

"Surprisingly... That guy is using spirit arts, really badly, but he is..." Ajal critiqued.

"What are you talking about? Spirit arts? That's what you did to the boulder, isn't it? He can do that? Can I do that?" Jack whispered in shock and surprise.

"You should be able to... Anyways, let's follow that girl," Ajal pointed up the hill.

The woman made her way up towards the wall before she seemed to disappear over the hill. Ajal darted forward in the darkness and tall grass, laying low and quickly climbing the steep hill. Jack struggled to match his speed, instead, he ran out of breath a quarter of the way up the hill as he tried to keep pace. Ajal reached the top of the hill but to his surprise, the girl was gone. He looked at the wall and noticed a rope going over. Ajal turned to see Jack struggle up the hill, he breathed heavily as he reached Ajal.

"Let's go," Ajal grabbed the back of Jack's collar.

"Huh?" Jack looked confused, but Ajal suddenly jumped over the wall, turning his confusion into terror.

Ajal landed on the other side of the gate, he held Jack up with one hand and stopped him from hitting the ground. A door into the building was open and a yellow light escaped from within. Ajal let go of Jack, and he immediately crawled against the floor on all fours towards the wall.

"Sorry the rope was just gonna take too long," Ajal apologized as Jack leaned against the wall and vomited.

Ajal simply turned away with a blank expression 'I probably could have warned him...'.

"Warn me next time!" Jack shouted with tears in the corner of his eyes.

Ajal scanned the area, he looked around where he was, the stone building was about two stories high. The front gate down the path to the right was wide open. There were training dummies made from sticks and straw arranged along the wall, wagons full of dirt or stone, and baskets full of weaponry.

"Eos wasn't kidding... What is this place?" Jack pondered.

"Seems like where they train soldiers," Ajal pointed out. "Let's go," Ajal walked toward an open door next to the barrel of weaponry.

They both peeked inside and noticed an angel unconscious on the ground, Ajal walked right past the body, and Jack poked him with his foot. Another door in front of them was left open, they walked into the large room and found themselves on a stone catwalk that stretched along the side of it. At the other end of the catwalk was an open door to another section of the building, the girl from earlier was running down toward it.

Below a large metal door was being guarded by angels who fought against the intruders. There were mixed grunts and wails from the commotion down below, Jack and Ajal looked over the edge to see the one who charged the front gate fight three angels at once.

"Holy crap that guy is intense!" said Jack.

'That's intense?' Ajal continued down the catwalk as Jack continued to watch the fight. The man let out a roar as he dodged an incoming staff, stepped forward, and planted his fist into the angel's stomach. The other two each swung their staff, but he didn't budge from the hit and tried to kick him away but the angel blocked the foot with his staff. The third angel used his staff to put the man in a headlock, but the red-haired man ripped his arms free, two more people who wore black clothing ran into the room to assist the red-haired man and engaged the other two angels.

"Come on!" one of them roared as Ajal entered the other room down the catwalk.

'What the...' Ajal saw the girl from earlier, she was tinkering with the lock on a door.

She was just shorter than Jack, her hair was tucked under a black cap, and she had a round face. Ajal looked at her leg and noticed a secured knife, she wore black camo pants with a black turtleneck and gloves. Her hair slipped out the back of her hat and she had multiple extra pockets for utility. The lock on the door clicked and she opened it, only to be met with a wall of stone in front of her.

The girl made a fist, Ajal noticed an aura surrounding her hand, 'So they are using spirit arts... just...' She swung her fist forward and made a small dent in the stone wall '... Not properly...'

"Damnit!" she yelled.

She tried to punch the wall again and made a small dent, the impact echoing through the room. She turned around to walk back across the balcony but then saw Ajal.

"A slave... What are you doing here?" she asked.

Ajal looked down at his clothes 'Oh...' However he noticed a purple light to his right. He turned and looked over the balcony and was shaken by what he saw. There were non-unified infants barely even a month old. Their skin colors varied, but they all seemed to be of similar age. 'Huh...' They were all resting in strange stone cradles with glass tops connected to a runic statue that had a large chunk of purple crystal embedded in it.

"What is this?" Ajal uttered in shock.

His fingers clenched in anger, Jack ran through the door to the larger room and saw what Ajal was staring at.

"Who are you? You two shouldn't be here!" the girl tried to warn Jack and Ajal.

"Those kids are... They were taken yesterday by members of House Rael... But... They shouldn't have been brought here?" Jack questioned.

"I'm serious!" the woman shouted.

"Ajal... She's got a knife," Jack mentioned.

"Those assholes..." Ajal uttered under his breath as he jumped over the rail, fell towards the lower level, and landed on two feet.

"Ajal? What are you doing?!" Jack shouted.

"Why would he jump from this height, is he insane?!" the girl yelled.

Ajal landed on one knee, the impact felt like nothing to him. The floor was grey cement, and Ajal could see his breath in the air, he looked around the room and saw the wires travel from the pods to the statue.

"They're really using my blood to turn these kids into weapons," Ajal muttered angrily.

Ajal stretched his hand up into the sky, the girl and Jack were surprised to see a black shadow form in his hand and extend into a pole. He spun it and took a stance, a black blade formed at the end.

"Is that a scythe? Does he have a gift? Then... Who are you two?!" The girl turned to Jack and put her fists up. "You can't be non-unified, you're angels aren't you!" she snapped.

"Wait wait! I'm non-unified, he's not from here, calm down!" Jack cowered.

"What do you me-" she was cut off by the sound of air swishing around rapidly below.

Ajal spun his scythe around him, dust and pebbles got picked up in the draft he created. 'Spirit Ignition.' He gripped both hands on the scythe and swung his scythe in the air. The scythe didn't reach, but the smoke in front of him split in two horizontally. The pillar at the center of all of the children split in two as well, separating the purple crystal from the pods and it fell towards Ajal as a purple light radiated off his head.

"Holy..." Jack whispered as the statue fell towards Ajal.

He tossed the scythe to the side but before it hit the floor it dissipated into a shadow. At the same time, he raised both hands and caught the crystal. Ajal gritted his teeth and his third eye opened and began to glow, he threw the crystal at the ceiling on the opposite side. Jack and the girl watched with their jaws held open as Ajal fired a condensed purple beam from his forehead at the crystal. The beam engulfed the statue and blasted out of the building. A buzzing sound filled the room before it was flooded by the rumbling of the crystal disintegrating, and then the rumbling of the laser colliding with the mountain. The beam disappeared as Ajal's third eye closed, purple flames remained along the edge of the hole blown open in the ceiling, and the crystal had been completely vaporized.

"What... In the..." the girl uttered in disbelief.

"Now- I didn't know he could do that..." said Jack.

She held the rail with her jaw dropped and eyes wide before she backed up and looked at Jack in fear.

"We're not with the angels, Uhm... my name's Jack, that's Ajal," he tried to explain to her, but when she heard his name her eyes seemed to become wider.

"You're- You're Jack... Jack Eldritch? No way..." She ran past him and into the previous room in a hurry.

"Huh?" Jack uttered in confusion.

Ajal jumped up and grabbed the rail, then pulled himself up.

"We're getting those kids out of here, by the way," Ajal mentioned.

"I-I've got no problem with that," said Jack. "So uh... You really don't have a gift?"

Ajal approached the open door with a wall of stone behind it.

"Who would put a wall behind a" Jack was cut off as Ajal kicked the wall down, it crumbled as thick pieces of rock hit the metal catwalk.

"Someone trying to hide something," said Ajal.

This room was a bit smaller, the catwalk extended around all sides of the room in another large space. On the ground level, pieces of Ajal's ship were scattered around the lower level of the room.

"Dammit," Ajal cursed.

His ship had been torn piece by piece and scattered around the room along with some other mechanical junk the two of them didn't recognize. Around the walls of the room were individual pieces of glossy white armor, and strange weaponry Ajal didn't recognize 'So they have some decent technology...'

"I can't put this back together... I don't even know if all the pieces are here," Ajal groaned.

Ajal could see the inside of the exposed hanger, a skeleton of the ship's hull was all that remained. The engine missing, and only one of the thrusters remained. Scraps of torn steel and blue plates were littered around the room. 'I don't have the tools to put everything back together...' Ajal looked down in disappointment, while Jack looked down at all the pieces.

"Looks cool... And complicated... Maybe we can use the scraps?" Jack suggested.

"No... Whoever scrapped this knows what they're doing. All the important stuff is gone, those kids take priority for now I guess," Ajal walked back into the previous room and continued down the catwalk.

"Are you okay?" Jack asked as he followed Ajal.

"These angels, they've managed to annoy the hell out of me today on more than one occasion, that's impressive." he chuckled with an angered expression.

"Yeah... They're good at that," Jack muttered.

Ajal and Jack made their way back to the first room where the man fought those angels, they returned to see a very different scene. The girl on the catwalk from earlier was on the ground unconscious. Two other people who wore similar attire to her were trapped in stone and appeared to be knocked out, and the man from earlier was in combat with someone different.

He had a large stomach but his muscles were well-defined despite his size, his hands were armed with stone gauntlets he swung viciously at the red-haired man. His white dress shirt was opaque because of sweat, and Ajal's eyes locked onto a green insignia of a fist on his chest. He wore armor made from stone which covered his body in various areas, 'That's not normal armor...' The red-haired man channeled spirit into his fist and punched the stone armor, the crack of his bone was audible and he pulled his hand back, wailing in pain.

"That's Bruno! He's Alexander Rael's first lieutenant, why is he here?" Jack wondered.

Ajal continued to observe the fight.

"That Bruno guy has a gift which manipulates earth... However, that red-haired guy he's fighting knows a thing or two about spirit arts... This should be interesting," Ajal observed.

"You keep saying that, what the heck is spirit arts?" Jack asked.

Just as he asked the red-haired man dodged Bruno's fist, he aimed low and slammed his fist into the angel's knee. Bruno stumbled as he lost balance, the man roared as he tackled Bruno's leg and pushed him onto his back.

"I won't let you take my team!" he spat, his red beard seemed darker around his mouth.

'Is that blood? How long have they been fighting?'.

"Just you try it, I won't let you take this place... The demons need to be stopped! You're a fool if you can't recognize the threat they pose!" Bruno shouted.

Ajal noticed a woman fly into the garage quietly and spread her wings out. She wore similar clothes to Bruno but was much slimmer. Two of the feathers on her wings bent towards the red-haired man and shot forward.

"Again with the bullshit! It gets old you know... The demons haven't attacked any-"

"Look out!" Ajal shouted as the two black feathers hit the red-haired man's ankle.

"Ah!" the rugged man cried out in pain.

'He's gonna lose!' Ajal thought as he jumped over the rail. The red-haired man cried in pain, and Bruno kicked him in the chest to knock him off. He struggled to hold his stance and fell over, but the rock underneath his feet pushed him back in for a finisher.

"This is it!" Bruno stated.

Stones floated towards Bruno's fist and encased it in more stone. Ajal grasped the rail and jumped over, he leaned off the edge and kicked off towards the two. Bruno swung the mass of rock, but before he could connect Ajal pressed his foot into the large angel's side, and crashed through the stone armor. An audible crack in Bruno's ribs could be heard. Ajal launched him out of the front entrance of the building. Bruno flew backward and bounced off the ground, his large body tumbled and slid against the dirt until he collided with the wall of the outer gate with a massive crash. Bruno gritted his teeth in the sudden shock of pain as he grasped his side and writhed on the ground. 'Ah crap, did I hit him too hard?'

The slim woman with black wings flew to his side, she also had the green insignia of a fist above her chest. 'These angels have gifts from the Celestial... But their clothes... Are they a similar rank?'.

"Agh!" Bruno coughed up blood.

"Bruno! Are you alright!" she cried.

"That's Vivian! She's also a member of House Rael!" Jack shouted from the catwalk.

The red-haired man pulled the feathers out of his legs.

"Thank you... Who are you? How'd you do that?" he asked curiously.

Ajal ignored him and walked toward the two lieutenants.

"Are you the ones in charge of this place," Ajal asked, his eyes giving off an intense pressure.

"You're... a demon? No... But those clothes? State your name heathen!" Vivian shouted.

Vivian stood up and her wings extended outwards 'That again.' The wings were at least twice the length of her arms.

Ajal noticed two feathers on her wings bend, 'It's coming,' Ajal moved his body as she shot the feathers at a high speed. He weaved between the two of them effortlessly.

"What!" she said in shock as she saw him dodge the high-speed projectiles.

"The name is Ajal," he said calmly as he walked toward her.

"How did he dodge that..." Vivian whispered to herself with wide eyes.

"Vivian... don't fight hi-" Bruno coughed up blood which spilled out of his mouth into the palm of his hand. "He's way too strong!"

Bruno took a deep breath and clenched his teeth, then put his palm on the ground, the ring on his hand glowed a yellow light and a pillar of stone beneath the two erupted. The two angels were carried into the sky on the platform. When they were high enough, Vivian lifted Bruno under his shoulder and jumped off the platform, her wings spread and flapped rapidly as she tried to escape. Ajal ran toward the pillar and his third eye flashed purple. His body was engulfed in a black-an-white aura, he ran into the shadow cast by the pillar and ran into it.

"What is he doing now?" Jack asked himself as he ran for the closest exit.

A dark mark on the shadow moved up the stone pillar, Ajal slipped out of the mark and pulled himself onto the top. Then, immediately crouched and jumped at Vivian who glided away. 'It's a good thing that guy is heavy!' Ajal grinned as he descended from above, his scythe formed in his hand. A white and black aura shrouded the tip as he prepared to strike. Vivian turned to see Ajal right above her but it was too late as he sliced one of her wings off and descended to the ground.

"Aaah!" Vivian screamed.

The angel lost control of her flight, and the black and white flame burned on the severed wing. Vivian flailed in the air. Her wing stretched outwards, attempting to flap, but unable to generate the force or balance to stay in the air. 'Dark Passage!' Ajal descended back down and his body was engulfed in the black and white aura once more.

As he hit the ground and fell into the shadow, he reappeared at the severed wing still above Vivian and Bruno. Vivian tried to flap her wings to slow her fall. Ajal flipped his scythe in hand and channeled his spirit into the back of his scythe. 'Spirit Ignition!' He slammed the two of them down to the ground with it. Vivian let go of Bruno and the two of them fell into the hill not too far from the building. Ajal landed on the grass, and he slid slightly down the slope. Vivian's last wing dissipated before she mustered all her strength to conjure them again.

"Vivian... Run... " Bruno stuttered, he was barely conscious. "You can't escape with me... He's too strong... Just... Go-" he coughed up even more blood. "Get... Alexander!" Bruno uttered at the edge of consciousness.

Vivian nodded with a look of fear in her eyes as Ajal approached, she wasted no time as she spread her wings and took flight, she wobbled slightly in the air as she was injured but she reached a high speed quickly. 'There's no way I can get her if she's moving that fast...' Ajal thought as he walked up the hill.

"Damn," said Ajal.

"Serves you right... Damn... Demon..." Bruno uttered.

"Demon?" Ajal turned to Bruno.

The angel was already unconscious. 'I might have gone overboard... I think I broke his ribs... Shit, I hope he isn't dying...' Ajal lifted Bruno by the collar and dragged him back into the building, Jack came around the side.

"Dude... You've got to tell me everything you can do... Cause I am never ready for you to start doing things," Jack shouted before he looked down and saw the first lieutenant of House Rael unconscious and being dragged by the collar.

"Holy shit, you killed the first lieutenant of a noble... I thought you didn't want to kill anyone?" Jack said.

"He's not dead... That girl got away," Ajal mentioned.

"He looks de- Wait what... She's gonna get Alexander Rael! And any other nobles available!" Jack shouted in terror.

"Yeah, that sucks," Ajal replied nonchalantly and dropped Bruno on the dirt, and walked back into the building.

"Tie him up or something," Ajal asked Jack.

"We're doomed," Jack put his palm on his face, "Where am I supposed to get the rope?"

"There some by the wall we jumped over," Ajal replied as he walked into the building.

The red-haired man who fought Bruno tried to wake the girl up from earlier who was unconscious. Ajal walked past them towards the large stone door which led to the room with the children in it. He grasped the crack of the door and jammed his fingers between them, he channeled his spirit into his fingertips, then pried it open with his bare hands.

"That was... What Arken taught us, but so refined... Who are you...?" Reinhardt commented on Ajal's use of spirit arts with an expression of shock.

Ajal walked into the room and looked around.

"My name is Ajal and that's Jack over there, we came here looking for my ship, and I found it, it was torn apart and stripped. So now I'm here to help these kids. Who are you and why are you here?" Ajal returned the question.

"We're part of the non-unified resistance- Jack... Did you say Jack?!" the man's jaw dropped as he turned and looked toward him. "Him!? You!? You're... You're Jack Eldritch!" the man shouted in shock.

"Uh... Yeah?" Jack replied awkwardly.

He stood up quickly despite his injuries, his feet wobbled slightly. "You're... you're..." tears came out of his eyes and fell into his beard. "You're the one... Who stood up the angels, you brought Alexander Rael to his knees," he uttered, his tone that of doubt and shock. "But... You're just a child..." The man continued on with a passion Jack and Ajal couldn't recognize. "My name is Reinhardt Yojic, you...." the man bowed his head at Jack until it touched the cold floor.

"If it wasn't for you... The resistance would never have regained hope!" he sniffed while tears and mucus poured onto the ground.

Ajal raised his eyebrows before he looked at Jack who had a similar expression. Jack looked over at Ajal and shook his head left and right repeatedly as if he tried to tell Ajal he had no idea what was going on. As Ajal stared at Jack he took notice of the change in the sky behind him, a blue gradient that darkened from east to west, the light descended over Jack and one of his eyes squinted slightly as he shielded himself from the sunlight. His hair was a little short and spiky, a greasy dark brown, and his white skin was covered in asphalt and dirt. Jack scratched his head awkwardly and looked at Ajal like a child who didn't know what to do next.