16th of September,
Abraxas isolated the residential area and deemed it to be a safe region after the threats to civilians and any support force had been neutralised. By doing this, he had gained the trust of the civilians who were following his commands now and helped him set up a camp a few kilometres away from the Technical border in each cardinal direction.
And due to this development, they were angry. After all, every weapon project that they had made seemed, to be neutralised by Abraxas, even though they were calibrated to kill beings whose strength far surpassed Abraxas''s.
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3:18 pm, 17th of September,
More of Techonia''s residence had been categorised safe and the barrier surrounding the city just two days ago had now been reduced significantly, but the forces that Elaira was leading were still far away.
"Have I arrived too early?" Abraxas asked himself but instead he received a reply from them, who were inside the barrier yet they didn''t show any signs of fear.
"Maybe.. But you are doing well for someone who is working all alone for now." They spoke in a provocative tone.
But their true feelings were different, as they had lost almost 70% of the arsenal they had built in the last century to a guy, who had used his bare minimum. Any and all attempts to get him to use more have been futile.
"But you are not.. These were a good portion of the weapons you had developed in the last century.. right?" Abraxas replied in a smug voice.
''Fucking Proxy of Justifia.. If only there had been one of the other universes I destroyed.'' They thought since a lot of what Abraxas had achieved could be attributed to his Authority as the Proxy.
"I don''t know what your authority as a Proxy allows you to do.. But it must be quite limited.. or you can''t use it completely without some specific condition." They spoke, maintaining a smile despite the chaotic thoughts in their brain, trying their hardest to figure out Abraxas''s Divine Transcendental Art and his Authority''s limits.
"Who knows.. Maybe you''ll figure it out before you die," Abraxas spoke, maintaining a smug look but he too, was worried inside.
''I need to figure out their true name.. I need to,'' He thought to himself but the last two days have been nothing but recovering parts of Techonia from their grasp. Though he had the support of the citizens who were looking at him from a distance, it still was not an easy battle. He had come to Techonia earlier than the rest of the force using his Divine Blood Art to travel through shadows, so Elaira and the forces would still be a day or two away.
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12:18 am, 18th of September
Elaira, 8th, 9th and Elfana were a few dozen kilometres away from Techonia''s borders, and they could see a skyscraping pillar of darkness. In fact they were sure that the rest of the forces, who were still a hundred kilometres behind them could see it too.
And just as they walked into a small camp in the forests from where they could see Techonia more clearly, Abraxas appeared from the shadows.
Though they were shocked at his sudden appearance, they put down their guards when he waved at them.
"Eek! Lord 5th, please don''t come out of nowhere." Elfana spoke in a hurry as Abraxas''s appearance was different from his usual attire as he was donned in his Armor of Darkness and his hair was glowing red as his blood boiled with rage.
"I am sorry for my appearance, Grand Marshal, but I was not expecting to see the four of you here so early." He remarked casually, looking at 8th, 9th and Elfana.
"I brought 8th and 9th with me for scouting the area ahead.. There were a lot of ambushes and traps along the way, so we called Elfana to scout the way ahead. If it weren''t for her expertise in disarming ambushes, we would still be half a day away." Elaira said with a smile, before she looked around and there were spots for a camp in every direction.
"Lord 5th, may I inquire about the situation in Techonia.. and the location of Lord 7th and 10th." Elfana asked quickly as the situation in Techonia was better but there were no visible signs of the two missing Numbered.
"10 is still in mind control and 7 is trapped in the Research Centre." Abraxas stated calmly, turning around to look at the place covered by the walls of Darkness.
"And They can hear us," Abraxas spoke before a nerve on his left arm burst, spilling blood all over the ground but the armor forcefully closed the wound until it started regenerating at a pace that surprised everyone present.
8th and 9th were shocked, but they bottled up their questions about Abraxas and began thinking about Techonia, though thinking wasn''t their forte. Soon their thoughts were interrupted by Abraxas who seemed to have a command for them.
"8th, 9th.. Go to the city and find out more about the missing people from the civilians.. There have been 47 women missing as of now, I want to know the exact number of men, women, and children missing," Abraxas said calmly, before he turned his attention to Elfana and Elaira.
"And you two, follow me." Abraxas said before he began hastily walking towards a rock and sat down on it. The darkness covering his body vanished as the wounds underneath were now visible to both.
"This is the last time I''m visiting the camp.. No matter what happens, don''t let any of the humans, except Ole and her disciple, see my face. It is your duty to protect my identity.. and my life will be in danger till the rest of this mission, so under no circumstance will any of you come to help me. And you need to make sure this rule is followed by everyone." Abraxas spoke with a stern look in his eyes. His identity as a proxy needed to be hidden while the mission needed to be a success for everyone to be safe.
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"We understand," Elaira and Elfana spoke in unison.
"Then go ahead and help 8th and 9th in the investigation.." Abraxas said as the blood rage returned to normal and his hair returned to their normal black color as he passed out on the rock.
Elfana was stunned to see him pass out but before she could get closer to help him, Elaira stopped her. "Don''t.. Let''s just follow his orders."
Elfana couldn''t understand why Elaira would leave Abraxas alone like this, but after thinking for a while, she agreed and the two of them joined 8th and 9th in the city to ask around about the missing people.
The four of them returned after six hours of investigation and Elaira had the angriest look on her face. Was it because of the fact that a total of 167 people were missing or because almost 150 of them were women who were forcibly taken from their families for ''therapy''? No one knew except her.
When they came back to the place where Abraxas should''ve been, they saw him already awake and he had an eerie smile on his face. It looked misplaced, and for a moment 8th and 9th raised their weapons at him as their instincts were screaming at them to do so but that feeling quickly vanished when Abraxas noticed them and his expression returned back to normal.
It was clear as day that he was hiding information and so was Elaira but even she was confused at Abraxas''s expressions. But that too passed soon.
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The basement of the Techonia Research Centre buzzed with electricity before it was filled with laughter, followed by screams of pain and then laughter.
"HOW CAN ANYONE LAUGH IN YOUR SITUATION?! SHOULDN''T YOU FEEL FEAR FOR WHAT IS HAPPENING TO YOU?!" They shouted at 7th, who seemed happy despite the fact he was missing a lot of his organs.
"Oh, how happy I am to see you worried.. Let me guess, none of your plans are working and your so-called ''masterpiece'' won''t be ready anytime soon, right?" 7th mocked them before he broke out into laughter again.
They gritted their teeth before breaking 7''s left femur in one kick, making him scream in pain once again but not even a minute passed before he started laughing again.
"How frustrated does one must have to be violent on a prisoner who is missing half his body.. Pitiful!" 7th laughed before they broke his right femur.
"Silence!" They shouted but there was little they could do. Any coming day, the Proxy of Justifia will march inside and then the plans would all crumble like a castle of sand.
"Wait.. I think I have an idea.." They smiled as a sinister idea sprouted up in their head. Since the situation was dire, they needed to take a chance and sacrifice some efficiency for urgency.
''Yes, that''s it..'' They thought as they ran towards the other corner of the basement where the women were kept along with the nearly dead vampire scouts.
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9 am, 19th September, 2027
The remaining forces along with the supply truck arrived at the camp set up outside the Techonia borders. The civilians who had helped set up the camp smiled with joy when they saw the rest of the forces coming along with supplies.
"Thank the god of Justice.. We will not suffer from injustice any longer." One of the civilians spoke before he got on his knees, praying to the God of Justice and the Proxy who was still in town.
Though most of the forces were tired and were ordered by Elfana to rest, some of them volunteered to provide healthcare facilities to the civilians present who needed it urgently.
Most of the human forces were asleep as they were up all night and guarded the supply truck. But Morel of the Delta Force was one of the few ones still awake.
He couldn''t believe his eyes when he looked at the City of Techonia. In front of him was a Monolith of darkness as high as the sky, covering what was supposed to be the famous Techonia Research Centre.
"Is that the power of a Proxy?" His eyes widened but before he could say anything else, Olecumbra, the only other one who was awake, replied to him.
"No.. That is a basic functionality of a Divine Transcendental Art. Master hasn''t used the Authority he inherited as a Proxy till date," Omega clarified, having first hand experience of Abraxas''s Divine Blood Art.
"This is.. basic functionality?" Morel was terrified at the prospect of something so titanic. "It''s a container.." Morel added.
"Only Master would know that.. and maybe Miss Elaira. She has a Divine Blood Art too," Omega stated.
"Wait, she has one too?!" Morel spoke in surprise after all Elaira never used her Divine Transcendental Art and he wasn''t even aware that she had a blessing, let alone a Transcendental one.
"Yeah, she doesn''t use it often.. It has some unintentional side effects that I would rather not specify.." Omega said calmly before she looked away with her cheeks burning red, remembering about the time she saw Elaira use her Divine Blood Art in the past, which made Omega ''tipsy'' for a few days.
"Does the Proxy''s Divine Transcendental Art have any side effects too?" Morel asked after a moment of silence.
Omega cleared her throat, not dwelling on the mistakes of her past before she replied. "Yes and No.. I am not sure what Master has.. if it could be considered a side effect or not." Omega wasn''t even sure if Abraxas''s Divine Transcendental Art had a downside, since it never felt like one.
"Now that I think about it, Miss Elaira''s side effects aren''t severe enough to be considered a downside either.. She has safety protocols for it.." Omega spoke hurriedly as she had never thought much about the side effects of Divine Transcendental Arts since they aren''t common.
"Can you explain Divine Transcendental Arts to me again? I don''t understand why there are so many protocols in place for using them.. And why do they not use it?" Morel asked, to which Omega explained.
"Well, as you know blessings are rare. Like one or two in every hundred thousand people get one.. But any person with a blessing can transcend the limits of one and use the Blessing without any activation criteria. That is what our understanding of Divine Transcendental Art is." Omega spoke as if she was explaining the alphabets to little children.
"Now, depending on the species, the Divine Transcendental Art takes a form. For Vampires, it''s Divine Blood.
For Elves, it''s Divine Nature.
For Berserkers, it''s Divine Rage.
For Humans, it is Divine Technological.
For Mermors, it is Divine Aqua.. and lastly for Demons, it is Divine Demonic."
"These Divine Arts are much stronger than the blessings and can be used anytime the user wishes to. The problem is, it has side effects because they are essentially a small kernel which became a popcorn. It is bigger than the host it resides in so even before using it, the user needs to develop contingency or protocols against the side effects, no matter how minor or severe the side effects are."
"The problem is, there aren''t enough Divine Transcendental Art users in this world. So the knowledge we have on them is limited. What I know about them are the things that my Master taught me. He told me that out of the eleven Proxies, only four have Divine Transcendental Arts and some of them don''t even have blessings." Omega said, earning a mocking laugh from Morel.
"You expect me to believe that the Proxies, the chosen representatives and Wielder of their authorities might not even have blessings?" Morel said, unable to digest this fact.
"Well, it''s coming from my master so I believe it. You can do whatever you want with this information but the fact is, the Divine Transcendental Arts haven''t been studied much because of how rare they are." Omega clarified before she turned to walk away, having lost her interest to tell Morel more after his mocking laugh.
Morel stood there in silence as Omega left, staring at the looming tower of darkness in front of him. He took a deep breath, embracing the silence that surrounds him.
Then suddenly, his body trembled in fear as he felt someone— or something, staring at him from inside the wall of darkness. But the feeling of fear vanished when another force outside the wall suppressed the overwhelming aura of hatred from inside the tower.
''What was that..'' Morel thought to himself as he gripped his chest, his heart still beating strongly as his senses were in high alert.
''Is the wall there to trap the thing inside or to save us?'' Morel questioned the purpose of the wall, but he quickly walked to the camp to help the soldiers in treating the civilians present.