It was absolute pandemonium. Videos were cropping up one after another of violence taking place in the streets, and when Anthony looked through the tinted windows, he saw a city on fire. Smoke rose into the sky in thick plumes that blotted out the blue. This limousine was sound-proofed, but when he closed his eyes, Anthony could almost swore he heard the screams of the dying.
“This is awful,” Brianna said with a hand to her mouth.
Secilia continued to scroll through the social media video. “It’s all about the riots and shootings. It’s happening all across Britannia now.”
“Do you think… Lucius Alfoy was responsible for this?” asked Marianne quietly.
“I don’t think he was responsible.” Trinity eyes were blazing as she glared at nothing in particular, as if her thoughts were a thousand leagues away. “I know he was. Custodes Daemonium is the only organization within Britannia that has both the means and the motive to do something like this.”
Anthony opened his eyes. “Secilia, patch me through to Instructor Noelle and Captain Denisson.”
“Roger dodger,” Secilia quickly tapped something in her holographic keyboard and a monitor soon appeared in the air. It crackled for several seconds before a worn face appeared.
“I’m sorry, but now is not the best time,” Noelle said. The sound of gunfire and explosions were happening from the other side of the communication.
“Where are you?” Trinity asked.
It must have been the tone in her voice because Noelle did not protest at all.
“Myself, Captain Denisson, and our group managed to infiltrate Fortress Custodes Adeptus via the underground tunnels, but… they were waiting for us. We’re currently pinned down,” she said. At that moment, a loud, hoarse scream echoed from the monitor. The device Noelle was using to communicate shook and Anthony got a brief view of one of the women in her squad squirming on the ground, blood gushing from the stump where her arm used to be.
“Sorry, but I really can’t afford to talk--shit!”
“INSTRUCTOR!” Brianna shouted in shock and horror as an explosion engulfed Noelle and the communication cut. She turned to Secilia. Her eyes were wide and red. “Can you reconnect the line?”
Secilia tapped a few more buttons, then shook her head. “The communication device was destroyed. I can’t connect to something that no longer exists.”
“No…” Brianna muttered as she slumped back. Anthony quickly wrapped an arm around the woman and pulled her into him. She burrowed her face into his shoulder as if trying to block out the world.
“How long will it take us to reach Fortress Custodes Adeptus?” he asked.
“If we go via this limo? Too long to be of much use.” Trinity shrugged. She was playing nonchalant, but he could see the way her shoulders were shaking.
Anthony thought quickly for a solution, then came up with an idea. He turned to Marianne. “Let’s create a portal.”
“Excuse me?” Marianna blinked in shock.
“A portal,” Anthony repeated. “We’ll create a portal by tearing through space.”
The power he and Marianne had gained from their bonding was the ability to manipulate space. Thus far, they had only really used it for its destructive potential. The ability to rip apart space was devastating. However, who said attacks were the only thing space could be used for?
“I don’t know if that’s possible,” Marianne confessed.
“We won’t know if we don’t try,” Anthony said.
“Hold on! Just hold the fuck on for a minute!” Secilia interrupted with a glare. “Do you even realize what you’re saying? Space isn’t something you just tear apart willy nilly. There have been studies that provide evidence to suggest otherworldly abominations might show up through any tears in space. We could make the situation way worse.”
“So we be careful,” Anthony said. “We’re out of options. We can’t quell the riots, but we can kill Lucius.”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Secilia said with a snort.
Anthony chuckled. “Don’t worry. If things go wrong and space horrors suddenly show up, you can blame me for not listening to you as much as you want.”
“Oh, I will. You bet your ass I will,” Secilia snapped.
Anthony turned back to Marianne. “I have a feeling this is going to use a lot of power, so I’ll need your help.”
“I hope you know no one has tried this,” Trinity said. “There are reasons creating portals this way aren’t widely used. However, if you’re going to do this, try imagining where you want to go. It will help if you can gain a clear image of where you want to teleport to.”
“Got it. Marianne?”
“O-okay. I’ll do my best.”
Anthony and Marianne’s first attempt at creating a portal failed. Something like black wisps appeared in front of them, but the magic fizzled out. Their magic simply wasn’t in sync.
“This won’t work if you two aren’t of one mind,” Trinity instructed. “Combining magic like this means harmonizing your mana with each other. If your mana isn’t perfectly harmonized you won’t be able to combine your magic.”
With a deep breath, Anthony dove deep into his psyche and sought the place where he felt Marianne. Her power was there, represented as a sphere of starry darkness. He touched it and felt her. She must have felt him too because Marianne perked up and stared at him with wide eyes.
“Let’s try this again,” he said.
“Okay,” Marianne nodded determinedly.
Anthony felt Marianne’s magic this time, and as his breathing slowed, he felt himself becoming more in tune with her. It was surprisingly easy. Then again, maybe that was natural. As an incubus, he could always feel his bondmates and tune himself to their emotions.
This time, when he tore through space, a black portal appeared before them. Then an image appeared within the portal.
“Everyone, step through,” Anthony said.
No one hesitated. It showed their trust in him when they stepped through. Marianne was too busy concentrating her mana to move, so Anthony picked her up and carried her through. The portal closed behind him as he stepped onto the grassy plane.
“Where is this?” asked Brianna.
“It’s close to the airport where we arrived,” Anthony said. “I’ve never been to Fortress Custodes Adeptus so we’re going to create portals within my line of sight until we reach it. Trinity, which way?”
“That way,” Trinity pointed south of them.
“Let’s go,” Anthony and Marianne harmonized their magic and ripped another portal through space.
***
Lucius watched numerous monitors showcasing the riots happening in the streets. He leaned back in his chair and sipped tea from a golden cup. Non-humans were rioting through the streets, while humans were opening fire into the riots, which caused the non-humans to attack the humans in retaliation. The violence was spreading.
“Everything is going to plan,” he said.
“Sir, do you think this will be enough to kill Trinity and Anthony?” asked one of his aids.
Lucius sighed. “Of course not. Did you see what Anthony did during the peace conference? If he wanted to, he could destroy everyone there. But this will do an excellent job of masking our true purpose. Are you still tracking Asthelstan de Britannia?”
“We are,” his aid said.
“Good. Then I will be heading off. I have a king to kill,” Lucius said, standing up.
“… Yes, sir.”
Lucius could tell his aide was not completely behind him, but this had to be done. THe world had grown too complacent. Humans had allowed the beasts of this world the ability to stand on par with them, and they could not afford to do that.
Humans were much weaker than every other species. Their bodies weren’t as strong, they didn’t have as much mana, and their lifespans were nowhere near those of the other races, especially vampires and succubus. Allowing these creatures a foothold into human society gave these monsters the one thing humans had that they had lacked.
A civilized front.
Humans only power against the threat of non-human monsters was their unified front. What would happen if these monsters gained the same power? Humanities one advantage would be gone.
“Sir…” an officer sitting at a station near the front suddenly said before he could leave, “Something is invading our airspace.”
“What?” Lucius frowned. “Put it on the screen.”
The massive screen before him suddenly stopped showing videos of the chaos happening in Britannia and instead showed the sky above them, where something was indeed hurtling toward them.
It was a giant meteor!
How did that appear?!
Despite his surprise, Lucius did not panic and quickly issued orders.
“Aim our cannons! All cannons fire! Destroy that meteor!!”
***
Anthony arrived at Fortress Custodes Adeptus within ten minutes. He was only a little tired. Most of that was due to the mental exhaustion of tearing through space multiple times within a short timeframe.
They stood on the same hill that Noelle and Captain Denisson had when they were first figuring out how to infiltrate the base. The numerous armaments easily visible on the fortress gave him pause.
“I understand why Noelle and Denisson tried to infiltrate via the underground,” Anthony said. “There’s no way we can make it past those. I don’t think there’s a single spell that could protect us from those cannons.”
There were several different types of armaments on the fortress walls, from laser cannons to anti-air defense turrets. The one that gave him the greatest pause was what looked like a railgun with full 360 degrees of rotation.
“Getting past those will not be easy,” Trinity admitted. “We won’t be able to sneak by. A distraction will probably work best.”
“But how are we going to get a distraction big enough to attract their attention away from us?”
She was right. There were so many guns that a normal distraction just wouldn’t do. They needed something big… and preferably something that would take the attention whoever was monitoring the fortress’s defenses away from the ground and into the sky…
“I think I have an idea,” Anthony said at last.
“Oh, no. You have an idea. Everybody, get ready to run,” Secilia joked.
“Laugh while you can, but I guarantee this will work,” Anthony said.
“What is your idea?” asked Brianna.
But instead of answering, Anthony dug deep within himself, into his vast stores of mana. He still had a lot. It welled up from inside of him, and he used it to search the stars. He was using foresight. It was one of his weakest skills because he just wasn’t that great at using the future visions to fight… but that was only in combat. Outside of combat, he was quite adept.
“Found it,” he muttered as he spotted something that would be traveling overhead in a few seconds.
“Found… what?” asked Secilia.
But again, Anthony didn’t answer. All of his attention was on the thing he’d found hurtling through space. He manipulated the space around it, tearing a hole through space, then creating an exist just above Fortress Custodes Adeptus.
“WHAT THE FUCK?!” Secilia shrieked when the meteor suddenly appeared hurtling down toward the base. She whirled on Anthony. “THIS WAS YOUR GREAT IDEA?!”
“Yup,” Anthony answered.
“ARE YOU A MORON?!”
“I am not. Those guns will take care of the meteor, and while they are distracted, we will infiltrate the base,” Anthony said.
While Secilia was flipping her shit, the sound of the meteor breaking the sound barrier rang out all around them. Loud shrieking erupted from above and the winds kicked up a fierce storm. The atmosphere’s temperature quickly rose as the meteor came closer.
“Trinity! Create a shield for us! Brianna, with me! Marianne, take up the rear! Secilia, center!”
Anthony ordered and everyone acted. Trinity activated her magic and giant trees erupted from the ground to shield them as they got into formation and raced toward the base. At the same time, the guns swiveled toward the meteor and began blasting it.