Episode 67: Career Criminal

Cyrus and his brother Damien had quite the fortnight since Damien had lost to Troy. Cyrus’s brother increased his own training tenfold, and doubled what he expected from everyone within his gym. Cyrus helped and had come to enjoy the changes to his life, but felt Damien’s latest experiment at increasing the overall power of all the members of his gym was… a mistake. Cyrus was on a transport vehicle filled with Graveyard officers for a ride-along. The time with the officers was a rare chance for multiple reasons. One was that Graveyard rarely accepted new members due to the impossibility of the qualifications exam. With the second reason being that where they were being taken was considered one of the realm's most luxurious resorts. “Doesn’t the sky look weird, bro,” asked Cyrus to Damien. His elder brother nodded dismissively at Cyrus barely paying attention to him as he spoke with the head officer within the transport ship. “So how often are you all sent on these types of missions,” asked Damien. “Not often honestly, Raid Corp and many other organizations as large as them rarely ask for assistance. Apparently their best and brightest are currently handling an enemy raid that is ongoing at their primary facilities,” explained the Graveyard sergeant. “Seriously, bro, don’t those clouds look off to you? I don’t know... just seems a little worrisome, never seen purple lightning before, have you?” Once again Cyrus was semi-ignored by Damien, but others within the ship started to take notice of the dangerous tint to the sky all around them. “Sergeant major, we got an incoming storm that appeared out of thin air, it’s recommended by air control that we evade the turbulent areas completely and take an extended route around the storm.” Finally after the ship shook violently, Damien actually took in the severity of the winds and rains all around them. Cyrus and Damien were from slums that often dealt with unnatural disasters; so unlike many others there, they knew why to be afraid. Cultivators all over the realms caused many storms through experiments either on purpose or accidental. Oftentimes, some cultivators' mere power alone was enough to unsettle the environment around themselves. Volatile mana types brought into the same proximity had caused volcanic eruptions, glacial melting that led to floods, and even lightning storms with enough power held in their bolts to incinerate cities or leave vast landscapes simultaneously burned and flooded. Even Damien and Cyrus had once been forced to flee from their homes due to a forrest fire. The slums of maelstrom had been bought, sold, rebuilt and destroyed a countless number of times. Many of which changed the perspectives of those who lost their homes sometimes multiple times within a single season cycle. “You think it's another scion going cata?” asked Cyrus. His nervousness was more and more apparent each time he clenched and unclenched his fist. “No little brother, this seems bigger than that,” said Damien, forced to wipe condensation from the ship’s window to be able to see out. The ships owned by Raid Corp were advanced enough that factors such as turbulence and wind resistance should not be considerations their pilots should ever face. So when the ship shuddered and was struck by lightning, the airmen’s faces went pale. “Report, what’s the status, Captain Hinder?” said the Graveyard sergeant. The man looked back over his shoulder with a glance, but didn’t respond to the man at all. The need for his full concentration taken by the now frozen engine. “Umm…, yeah, we’re down an engine and are most likely going to be forced to land within the forrest sir!” Captain Hinder rapidly maneuvered through the ships flight systems, extremely worried that they may not be able to land safely, and could still be in danger of being struck again. Cyrus and Damien started to share looks with those they’d brought; the ship’s shaking not something they’d ever known to be possible in an aircraft. “Looking like it’s a good thing that we bought those fall packs,” said Cyrus with an accompanied gulp to clear his throat. “Yeah,” said Damien while he nodded slowly. “Can’t trust anything outside these days,” finished Damien. The ship begun to bob in a struggle to stay airborne. The pilot didn’t even manage to give a final warning before a bolt the size of a train hit the ship, transforming the top into a frozen remnant of its former self. The top of the ship burst open under the pressure of the bolt and the rapid temperature change. A massive hole made in a blink, forced the entire vessel into a nose dive. The ship's innards exposed to the atmosphere like a popped balloon. “Seriously!” Alarms blared and the brothers struggled to stay upright, while the ship spun and speared toward the ground below. A dense vista of trees made menacing by the inevitable crash landing that was about to occur. “We’re going down!” … Armor Archon’s body lifted into the air not of her own free will, but due to the amount of power that ran through her core. She roared in the air; the storm her power created reinforced the waves of thunder that spread her projected storm across the continent. She’d reached this state once before, but had been afraid to lose herself to the storm. Now though, she felt no greater threat to her family, and leaned into the sensation. Her cells vibrated, and pressure built internally. Her limbs were separated to their maximums; the cells and limits of her own power exceeding what her body was capable of. For the first time in her long life, Armor became one with the will of her own manifested storm. She did not explode as she believed she would, but simply appeared to disintegrate while her mind spread through the limits of the largest tempest she’d ever made. Like the clouds she used to see those she was connected to, she now could see anything below the skies her mind was stretched across. She knew not how she would ever be able to return to her own body’s natural form, so rather than panic as she once assumed she would, she changed her focus. Learning the limits of her current state was her maximum priority. She knew exactly where her target was; unlike her children, she could see the lines of fate that connected the siblings to one another, and had known immediately who Carter Gestalt actually had been from the start. She intended to send concentrated masses of her storm at Arson as soon as her storm-front reached the skies above Coliseum. Unfortunately for Armor, her storm could not travel in any one direction. It was only capable of growing from its central most point, or the heart of the storm. She managed to make it close, but her storm had still been out of range of her target. She understood then that she would have to push passed her current peak, and grow. It wasn’t until she gave herself fully to her desire that she finally was able to reach Raid Corps resort. Where she had chosen to start was picked due to its abundance of tempest mana. She rented as every Keeper did from Elizabeth Carter, Keeper of Keepers, and would now use the power gained from what she considered to be the spawn of demons, to end the woman’s very own offspring. A small vessel flew within range of her clouds and proved to be the perfect target for a test of her power. The ship fell apart after an infinitesimal amount of power was used. She felt no loss, but knew not what she used to power her storm in this state, bits of her own memory and ability tossed away with every frigid bolt of lightning. This was what had gotten her the title of Armor. A System-given title that declared her a true defender of her own realm. The true defender of her own realm. She’d once used the less powerful version to defend raiders from sub-realms, and would now use it to achieve further greatness by purging the world of another Omni. In the moment her storm took in the sight of Arson, she’d already been lost to madness. She had seen her storm cover a third of the continent known as the CityNation of Maelstrom, but not how her lack of concentration had allowed for energy to leak out as bolts. The once Defender turned destroyer by a singular focus that stole her ability to reason. The effects of the FrostLightning storm filled the realm with fear. The queen's wrath felt by all, high and low, poor and rich alike, the damage caused without discrimination or purpose. Buildings fell. Transport vehicles were shot from the skies. Cultivators were electrocuted, only to be turned into permanent ice statues, all for the sake of one person's grudge against another. So by the time she’d finally found the target of her wrath; lost were the memories that made her children mean anything to her. Lost was her purpose and reasoning for becoming a guardian of her own realm. Lost was the queen of Maelstrom, Armor Archon, former heir of Omen. Across a third of the continent a collective relief was felt when the storm retreated. Not to where the queen had been, but where she had wanted to go. The intent of her entire storm refocused into a single point above Raid Corp’s own island. The vacuum made enough to rip the sky and sunder reality temporarily while a bolt of lightning was made. The purple bolt was surrounded by a torrent of power that was enough to erase Raid Corp’s resort from the face of the continent. The bolt at its center enough to kill a Titan with ease. A bolt now centered on not only Arson Omni, but his friends and even many of Armor Archon’s own children. Yet… … Arson emerged from the front of Coliseum, and felt his luck at an all time low. He was under a time clock to escape from the runic formations that stopped all teleportation out of the resort before Graveyard arrived, but felt an unrivaled danger grow all around himself. He closed his eyes and the Closed Eye Dominion flickered, not fully capable of being used in his restricted state. He cursed mentally, but he was able to see it, high above them all in the sky. An attack he’d normally feel was dangerous, but not impossible to overcome was directed at him; its gleaming point moving as he did. He spoke for the first time since the group had left the resort, oddly enough still being trailed by his siblings. “Stop, I don’t know if I can protect us from this!” Arson pulled free the pocket apartment from his watch's inventory and dropped it open behind himself; Micro stepping in to open the portal further as the former wretches of maelstrom begun to step free. “Shield formation,” commanded Arson with a yell. The women and men pulled mana based tower shields from their own spacial inventories, and began to lock them into place around Arson’s friends and siblings instantly to the groups shock. Micro lifted both hands to touch the shield that formed within the dome that was created around them all and shadows started to twist the mana that formed the constructed dome. The vacuum of space replicated in the area around them as her Nanoids shaped shadows and mana. “Arson!” He heard Troy yell his name, but had put the teleportation coin in her hand before they’d left the office for this exact reason, just in case of true danger. He’d also told her through chat to check on Xani moments before dropping the pocket apartment on the ground. I’ll do my best not to die here. Sorry love, just couldn’t risk you dying over something I did, typed Arson privately in a message to Troy. He heard a large bang that he assumed was Troy trying to break out of the pocket apartments strongest defense, but knew the action would be futile. He raised his hand toward the bolt in the sky in the same moment it descended. Jack his original Living Hand, moved in front of his own hand palm up toward the attack and spoke. “Reversion.” The runic word spread across the palm of Jack’s body, and in the next moment the bolt made contact. Arson felt his mind, body, and even elements of his soul go numb. The bolt dropped him to a knee and he roared in defiance against its assault. Tendrils of the bolt destroying the entire forrest around him. The shield created by the pocket apartment gang was struck tens of thousands of times, even though the majority of the attack had been directed at Arson himself. Even while it had descended it had managed to shear the sky and dig a mile wide trench along its path, leaving a landscape of ice and electrical burns scorching what remained untouched by frost. Jack grew in size as Arson roared. His construct made by pieces of himself before he was sealed by his core and royal bloodlines converging fully upon his cores completion.. This alone was his saving grace. His body may be restricted, but his construct held his full absorption capabilities, as well as access to his entire mana pool. The size of the hand blotted out the sky above them that was painted purple with the force of the attack they faced. A halo grew around Jack, opening pointed back toward where the purple bolt had come from. The FrostLightning was eaten almost entirely by Jack, the only energy not consumed, the near minuscule amounts that had destroyed the environment around them. Then the rune at the constructs center triggered and a golden white bolt of FrostLightning was sent back into the sky, purified by Arson’s own mana. Arson felt his body fall forward and a hand be placed on his back. His eyes were closed but the Closed Eye Dominion didn’t trigger. The state of his body unable to draw enough mana to produce the ability's effects. His mind threatened to shut off permanently, before he felt a surge of mana flood his body from the hand on his back, his connection to Jack growing stronger as the construct evolved. It used what it had eaten to grow internally, all while trying to repair the damage that had been done to Arson’s mind, body, and even aspects of his soul. … Troy started to attack the members of the pocket apartment gang once the chaotic sounds stopped all around them. She’d had enough, and managed to injure a few cultivators before the group detached from one another slowly. They’d watched as Arson stopped the attack sent at them, but when he’d fallen, a true silence was felt rather than just heard. Troy’s roar of rage at the group of shield baring cultivators was the first thing to break the silence, and Troy was finally able to rush to Arson once the mana barrier around them came down. She made it too him in a breath, using mana to close the distance between them, even though she was still in pain from her encounters with Micro and Amorra. She hadn’t felt herself this low on mana since before she’d met Arson. A detail that was stamped to the forefront of her mind when she approached his unmoving body. She shook him at first, but he didn’t move. Then she lifted him into her arms, shocked by how much he weighed, and how she was incapable of lifting him completely off the ground. She felt herself begin to sob. Tears came unbidden, and she felt her torso shake with the effort of her crying even after she went silent and began to rock back and forward. “But we have plans…” The words were all she could manage in that moment. No one daring to move around her. None daring to speak a word. “I don’t have any intention of breaking any promises,” whispered Arson into Troy’s ear. Troy leaned back and took in his brilliant star filled eyes and felt elation at the smile she saw directed at her, then rage… Her fist balled and light filled the area as she cocked back her arm and swung. “You sparking jerk!”