"The Burning East...
The Fallen West...
and the Waning King.
The cycle closes.
The Blessed shall arrive...
and the Son shall descend."
On a jagged cliff overlooking the capital, the air was cold enough to freeze breath, but the crimson cloak worn by the man standing there didn't just flutter in the wind; it seemed to bleed into the darkness.
His face remained an enigma, swallowed by thick shadows, but his posture was unmistakable, his gaze fixed like a predator's on the distant Royal Palace of Questia.
He stood motionless, his silhouette etched against the darkening sky. A low, gravelly whisper escaped his lips, carrying a weight that seemed to rattle the very air.
"So... the Blessed is here," he murmured, a cold trail of breath escaping into the night.
"Welcome, O Gifted One." With those words, he fades back to the darkness he came out of.
And away from the freezing heights to the suffocating, candle-lit warmth of a private office within the Parliament. Hellsifer stood before his companions, six men of influence seated around a table. The air was thick with the scent of old parchment and anxiety.
Hellsifer leaned forward, his hands pressing firmly against the wood. "The situation is spiraling out of control so fast," he stated, his voice tight with urgency. "I was aware that it is nearly impossible to keep everything in line but this was beyond calculations..we have to find a way to persuade the rest of the Parliament members, and we must do it now."
A heavy silence followed, broken only by the flickering of the hearth. Then, one of his companions slowly looked up, long hair skinny looking man,his expression unreadable in the dim light. "I will take care of them," the man said simply, "I will see another emergency vote, you command our troops in the Horn of Yuria.."
With that, Hellsifer ends the meeting by standing up and leaving,he loosens his neck tie and as he is walking in the corridor he says " hear me Merina , I call for your Grace!"
Miles away, the Telekinesis girl gasped, her eyes widening as she felt a sharp, mental tug, her Grace works within a close range however , she can pinpoint one certain person she can contract anytime anywhere, and that was Hellsifer.
The look of surprise on her face washed away as she hears his command. "Direct orders," Helsefer's voice rang out with absolute authority within her consciousness. "Reinhard must return to Galassia immediately."
And thus, the intelligence hub acted, everyone rushed to prepare for an operation to stop Reinhard from committing the worst thing a warrior can ever make, fratricide.
Reinhard was so on edge as his eyes are about to absolutely crush Ophilia with that gaze holding an absurd amount of killing intent and bloodlust, she ,on the other hand, stood ever too calmly, and that was more frustrating to Reinhard.
With his gauntlet-less left hand he clenched his fist, all but the index and middle fingers, which remained extended, primed for something Ophilia has anticipated."
"Serious?" She says after humphing with arrogance.
A red aura shaped to a four-headed star appeared hovering over the back of his hand and his two sticking out fingers , the star shape had a longer head fixedly oriented to the direction of those fingers.
"Enough talking,Ophilia .. let's put words into action"
He dashes and swings his star to hit her however she moved way too quickly to be cut by his attacks , she backflips once to have some distance advantage but he hits the ground mid-stride to close the gap , he cuts horizontally but she tucks down fluidly , yet Reinhard expected that.
With his free right hand he drew his sword so fast all she had to do was look at it come her way, but that too.. wasn't enough to put her down, as she swipes the air with her palm, the air itself she just swiped gets blurry and distorted, it was warped, shimmering like a heat haze . The space became unsettled gelatinous blurriness.
Reinhard's sword warped around the distorted space and recoiled back to him and rattled to straighten itself again, in the instant Reinhard kicked Ophilia in the gut avoiding a close combat for the moment as he stepped back too.
Ophilia doubled over, clutching her stomach after the blow. Cursing Reinhard with her eyes.
Reinhard stood tall and smiled, his star still shining and his sword fully ready for blood
"Here it is.." he says "the terrorizing Grace of Ophilia, The Veil of Arachne .. spacedistortion.. such a pain in the ass.."
He points out his sword "you think it's enough?"
He charges with a daring smile..
"How full of yourself you must be to come my way without you Grace at its fullest !" She cuts space with her sword multiple times and disappears from his sight as he charged.
His speed goes down before he touches anything she distorted. Every inch of air she cut is blurry with the image behind it is like a warped mirror.
A sudden strike from her sword came out of nowhere , he defends with his sword but she cut space again so fast it made the two swords never clash, she finally laid her blade on his flesh.
A direct hit on a weak point in his armor get the better of him. Somewhere in the left side of his torso.
He broke away from the fight as the mirage cuts she just made slowly melt and visibility is normal again.
"You can do that with your sword now huh." As he grins in pain from the cut " perhaps i took you so lightly."
____
In a room where the air felt as heavy as lead, Aarons, the Head of the Authority, sat across from the Chief of Parliamentary Intelligence. The silence between them wasn't peaceful, it was a battlefield. Aarons leaned back, his eyes cutting through the dim light like cold steel as he broke the tension with a voice that brooked no argument.
"You have a great deal to explain," Aarons stated, his tone flat yet vibrating with an undeniable authority.
He didn't need to raise his voice to show he had the upper hand, the sheer weight of the Intelligence Hub's overstep hung in the air like a death sentence.
By interfering in matters without asking for permit, the Intelligence Chief had handed Aarons and the Authority the perfect reason to act.
The Chief of Intelligence didn't flinch, but the subtle tightening of his jaw betrayed his frustration. He knew he was on thin ice, yet his pride wouldn't allow a total retreat. "We act in the interest of national security," the Chief countered, his voice laced with a bitter defensive edge. He leaned forward, attempting to reclaim some of the lost ground. "But let us not pretend the Authority is innocent. You have interfered in our operations with a level of brute force that borders on insurrection. Using violence to obstruct Intelligence work is a line you shouldn't have crossed, Aarons. You call it a misunderstanding; I call it an assault on everyone's eyes and ears."
Aarons let out a short, dry breath that might have been a laugh if the situation weren't so dire. He didn't even bother to deny the use of force, instead, he embraced it as a necessary consequence of the Chief's own incompetence. The disrespect between them was obvious,a thick, poisonous cloud of mutual contempt.
Aarons remained unmoved, his posture radiating the confidence of a man who knew that in the current climate of Questia, the Authority's "intervention" carried more weight than any Parliamentary order.
"Are you referring to the shadow agent you've been missing? You can say that was reckless on our behalf but, it's nothing like stepping into people's lives without knocking.."
The Chief rubs his forehead " a shadow agent? I'm not talking about a shadow agent, listen .. we can rant all night about things we did do and things we didn't do but we're both men of duty, and as a man of duty I'll make sure I'll fulfill mine as long as I live."
"If not the shadow agent then who exactly do you mean !?" Aarons had a bit of annoyance in his tone
The Chief prepared himself to leave " as I said, no amount of words can clear this tension going on , we must try to pretend like we're allies and everything's good. If you can't do that, you're standing in a shooting range pal.."
With his words echoing in Aarons' head, the Chief exits the room. Aarons is slowly realizing that things are stickier than expected.
______
The clash between Reinhard and Ophilia was abruptly severed by a squad of Parliamentary Intelligence officers emerged like shadows taking form, their dark uniforms looked so unfit for the heat of the fight,yet they somehow looked like they blended in. The Telekinesis girl 'Merina' stepped forward, her gray eyes glowing with a terrifying, ecstatic light as she remembers the resonance of the order within her mind.
She looked at Reinhard, her voice cutting through the wind like a serrated knife. 'The play is over, Champion,' she whispered, the space around her trembling with unstable power. 'By direct order of the Parliament, Galassia calls its son, Reinhard.'"
Reinhard smiled , he opened his arms in welcome.
"Oh my if it's not the rats .."
"Reinhard disable your aura immediately!" She barked.
"And if not.." he grinned
Marina's eyes rollback,The Chief brain receives a ting and connects to hers.
"Lord Chief, it's worse .. his condition is worse .. his Grace is consuming him .."
The Chief couldn't have received worse news, and it was apparent.
"Fuck .. fine , he's not going back home" his words were strict, and clear.
"Roger that" she cuts the connection and looks towards Ophilia's direction.
"Ophilia don't hold back! Dead or Alive!"
Ophilia then feels the real weight of the fight she's in, facing a roaring loose canon. It is a dire situation one wouldn't wish to see come true, all of what Ophilia's been through, was just a lion toying around with his food.. and she definitely understood that, as she looked at the man standing there with the evil repulsive grin.