~I’m honestly not enjoying this.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOJo6rzfBxf
226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIqxnmmRuOr
Major McCurdy led her small nuclear specialist platoon up the pass. Rather, she followed behind them, directing them where to walk. Even though it was summer, the weather couldn’t be trusted to remain warm. They each had a large bag which had their hazmat gear, the suit with its oxygen tanks and tubes. As they were going into a potentially dangerously radiation infested environment, and every precaution had to be made. McCurdy knew it wasn’t natural radiation up here, but even mana was poisonous to the normie.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ8D00r9Djc
McCurdy looked down the mountain pass, glancing at the dirt and gravel, crumbs of the mountain rolling down the hill until inevitably coming to a halt when the kinetic energy lost all movement. Just like the radioactive readings this team picked up in the facility. She let out a deep sigh as her ears trained on the four of those with her, listening in on them while they took a break, discussing the fabled incidents of the Dyatlov’s pass, infamously called, “Devil’s Pass”. Such a fitting name for such a dismal place.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMCarWKQIUg
She wished she could have come here by herself: it would save her from the guilt, save her from the grief of killing these men, or getting them killed. But an officer just simply going off base while on duty was suspect, and she needed a believable ruse, and these men fit the bill perfectly. Just how many more people, close to her, would she have to kill before she became utterly numb to the grief and guilt? How soon until her heart became one large callous?226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2wlxDCq9h6
McCurdy walked over to them as they finished their conversation. Looking down at them from a ledge, she said, “Lee, get the MicroR Meter and start measuring. Breaks over.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDb25Y4r4vT
“Yes, Ma’am,” he got into his pack and pulled out a brown box with knobs and a little white screen with readings and a moving needle, he measured the radioactive activity with the device on the terrain.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC1KNNfZ2of
“Not too far to go now,” she said to them. “We’re to the final destination.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ27CEsyTbx2
“Is there some kind of bunker up here?” Gongora asked.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE4aurlzS4d
“No,” McCurdy turned her gaze to him. Idiot.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk8i7QJMjkP
“Major, the readings are picking up again,” Lee said. “It’s very minimal, 0.83 svs.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSEkL792Rvv
“Not terrible,” Nguyen said. “However, we still need to be cautious. Let’s hope it stays that low.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡERIQXiIO6h
“Put on your Hazmat,” McCurdy ordered.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmwn3Zke53f
They slipped in through the yellow material, some were clumsy, but McCurdy put these on thousands of times, and so did Lee, by the looks of it. He was already helping Gongora put on the clumsy black gloves. The face shield fogged up their vision with the breath inside, and nowhere to exhale from, except through the air filter. They put these suits on in the matter of ten minutes, including the oxygen tank. McCurdy noticed immediately that Adams was fumbling his oxygen tank, and getting the tank attached to the hose. She shook her head as she breathed heavily, walking over to him. Her face’s visor fogged up with each breath as she slowly made her way over to him, and grasped the hose, attaching it to the oxygen tank for him.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvjDV3F08XK
“I never liked these things anyway. They’re stupid, and unnecessarily complex,” she commented. Of course, I would think that, unlike you, I don’t need it. Her vision was fogged by her breath. “Everyone ready?”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmjPXRqOHzW
“Yes, Ma’am,” Lee commented, pulling up his now empty pack to the side of his pocket, his breath began to fog up the inside of his visor. His rifle was at his side. “The svs read higher up.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ91rtnWqIm9
“Lead on.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBvgVysfl2s
Lee led them onward, climbing and following the radiation levels as the svs grew higher on the meter. They climbed up, taking steady breaths along the way. Lee climbed up another ledge which looked like it could be the top of Dyatlov’s pass, but the pass sunk back down into a basin.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHLPauiFFBb
Around the edges of the basin was a rock labyrinth, leading to a wheel-locked door. It was steel and embedded into the mountain, like a trap door. Lee looked down at his meter, and the radiation stopped reading. He hit the meter a few times. The meter still didn’t read any radiation.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvfVnDG0ixT
McCurdy observed the specialist, Lee, taking his meter to the side. She couldn’t make out his facial expression with his fogged visor, but she knew his file, no one knew these old meters better than he did, not in any of her other units, certainly, he knew what he was doing. Lee flipped the microR meter upside down, and unscrewed the back, and took out the battery, and replaced it with a new one, screwing it back together for an updated reading. This is when she knew something was wrong with the machine, those meters can only handle so much.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJjk6Jivams
“What happened?” McCurdy asked, wondering why he stopped. Her eyes scanned the basin, looking for runes scraped on the sides, or mana circles from previous casters, or mana residues, anything to clue her in on the possibility of an enemy here, but so far, found nothing.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl3umhzwCZW
“Radiation killed the battery,” he replied. He turned the meter back on. “Much better. Only 0.043 svs. Its less than before. Gongora, I think I found your bunker.” He turned to McCurdy. “Is this place showing up anywhere on the map? Or even in something classified?”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYL3wcT1p8F
“No,” McCurdy answered. “There is nothing to indicate there was something like this here. Be careful, that radiation can spike back up any minute.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiebfWaXry4
“Do we know why this is happening?” Adams asked.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIwhSbA2XoF
“That is precisely why we are here,” Nguyen said.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwMk6BN9Uks
“We need to climb down. Keep your eyes peeled. Odds are, I don’t think we’re alone,” McCurdy stated. “Check your fire. I needn’t remind you Ukraine Officials could be up here.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSJ4jfurFEU
“Then why don’t we call for backup then? We’re not infantry!” Adams exclaimed.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvLqKmvKOcQ
“Don’t you get it,” Gongora said. “We aren’t even supposed to be here. This was a last-minute mission, likely didn’t get approved by the higher ups. We’re here now, and that’s that.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsltjq8nECR
“What do you mean higher ups? She’s right here! We’re not going to find out bickering,” Lee started climbing down and the rest of them followed.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe8cDhA3pkg
She shook her head in her suit. You got too comfortable for insubordination. She kept her thoughts to herself, not wanting to clue them in on the real reason they were there. She didn’t need them to know she was sending them to their graves, but she was most of all disappointed. This Army wasn’t the Army she once knew, filled with discipline and respect. The unit underneath her was undisciplined, unchecked, and disrespectful. Such men do not belong in the military. Perhaps this is for the best.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHe8MkqhYbu
McCurdy looked to the rocks to her left, and she squinted her eyes as she noticed a glowing circle embedded in the rocks, numerous shapes and designs lay within it. She recognized the ancient language, the ancient runes; runes only a caster would know. To these soldiers, should they see it, would only serve their superstitions. Another Caster is here. Who are you?226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXVuuazeWKo
They continued to climb down, carefully to get into the basin of the pass, a rip or tear in their hazmat suit meant inevitable death, and they all knew it. McCurdy was the least disturbed by that fact. They observed the basin, carefully monitoring for extra radioactive activity, around the basin. McCurdy observed with her hands crossed behind her back, subtly pulling mana out from the rock into her mana veins, hiding inside her hazmat suit.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz2C6PsFWmG
“Your orders, Major?” Adams said. “Radioactive activity has depleted.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAz62VxHpgI
“Affirmative,” Lee replied. He turned to the door to the unmarked bunker. “Do we need to go in there?”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVqgBa4g5cd
“Yes. Lee, I want you up front. Gongora, and Nguyen behind him. Adams, you’re with me,” she said, “Lee, get that door open.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkVu8VYVE6G
“Yes ma’am,” he stated, walking over to the iron cast door and placed his meter softly on the ground. With his hazmat covered hands, he turned the wheel, unlocking the rusty mechanisms behind the door. He slowly pulled the creaking door on its hinges. Dust came out and clouded his face shield. He wiped the dust from his suit.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUz3wPGeey5
He picked his meter up as everyone turned on their flashlights.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡirrz8oHZyM
The entrance into the bunker was dark and musty, and felt desolate as if it had been abandoned for decades. They entered in, observing the radiation levels, which appeared to have settled down, the clicks of the meters only activated every few seconds, flipping the needle back and forth. They looked to either side of them to see various tables and other rooms with doors that were forced open, dented and twisted beyond repair.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIwQWWaz7hh
“What happened here?” Gongora asked, shaking his head as he looked at the carnage. The rooms were completely in disarray. There was coagulated blood on the ground, the gel shimmering crimson on the walls with their flashlights. Some of the blood was smeared like the entrails of a man with his torso ripped open and dragged off further into the dark.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm1Fc61YoNu
“Silence,” McCurdy sternly called. This is just an illusion. I can tell, damn caster, whoever you are. This was recent. “Shut up and keep moving. Someone is still here.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ00XEzGzUUr
They followed the entrails, even though, Gongora silently protested. It was heard among comrades, sharing the same hellish living conditions. Nguyen was laser focused, his almond-shaped eyes narrowed as he peered into the darkness as they walked forth, scanning the room with every step they took.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOrgKoxe5pA
This reminded McCurdy of a horror movie, entrails dragging themselves down the hall, the iron doors rusting, and each step she took creaked. She felt unnerved as her fingers in her suit began to tremble, feeling this unnatural place, void of all life, but she knew something more, sieverts did not just start and dissipate naturally. There was a caster here, or perhaps a threcket. She hissed silently at the thought, not keen on fighting one of those down here in close quarters, whatever form the threcket chose to take. She knew this was a false sense of security.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1HzEcE2efH
The meters didn’t pick up anything new and stopped making their gurgling sounds altogether. The darkness became cold and oppressive, the deeper they adventured into these godforsaken halls, until they came to an end of it all.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1hk0qKeZO7
They came to a room, no, an altar. Blood smeared all over the place, and many shapes and circles were carved with human blood over the walls. There was no reactor, no working generator, nor was there any viable source of uranium or plutonium anywhere: no radioactive materials.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrJGGfNIMoy
Lee grimaced as he looked on the altar. He put his meter on the cold metal floor. He turned to McCurdy, and he wasn’t smiling. “Major, you have some explaining to do. Do you know something we don’t?”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcWeQmT7YPF
“No,” she lied; her heart started to race. I can’t kill a threcket in the middle of a mutiny. Damn it, Lee! “And don’t question me.” She stared him down with cold eyes from behind her visor. Her heart started to race, the stakes rising.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgoxNyC1nhi
“No, I think this is a valid reason for questioning. We’ve all been here. The radioactive activity died as soon as we came here, and there is no evidence that there was any radioactive activity here minus the readings. Do you know something, we don’t?” He pointed a finger directly at her.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfUSqM93wuu
“Watch your mindless speculations, Warrant Officer, I don’t have time for this,” McCurdy snapped at him. “And no, I don’t.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkhSk1A5rur
McCurdy could tell Lee was scowling behind that fogged mask, rising with a sense of distrust for her, and the distrust will soon spread to the rest of them. You are right to distrust me. I would.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Jiz1otqIf
“Major, we are soldiers, not exorcists,” Adams interjected. “We need a priest for this, or back up. We don’t know what is down here. Something is unnatural about this place, and we don’t know what we’re getting ourselves into. These readings are sporadic enough as it is without us being here!”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz17dex9fiK
“That is precisely why we are here, Specialist,” she said, “We don’t know, and we need to know.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz7CGGLVNlC
“You all came to the worst place,” said a voice in the corner.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPfUdHt3xx6
All five of them swiftly turned around to see a man, holding a pile of red shlop in his hand: pumping like a heart, but this was no heart, at least, not any heart that McCurdy had seen. He bore a sinister smile upon his face, a man filled with bloodlust that would never be satisfied. The man held himself in high esteem, as if looking down on all of them, McCurdy could feel the condescension. His pants were ripped in parts, and he had many cuts over them, as if he himself just fought off a threcket. The man was bare chested, with rippling muscles, and blood dripped down several cuts on his face and chest.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRhkPXT3Vro
“Onhlidan!” he chanted. “Onhlidan! Onhlidan! Onhlidan!”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡImGlb6ZEGx
A red light emitted from the shlop. The soldiers panicked, drawing their side arms and pointed it at the man. They all aimed down their sights, ready to fire. The light lit up the room, and they found themselves in a room filled with nothing but bones beneath their feet. They glanced below. Bones, human bones, flesh and blood covered their feet.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGvHhEDECOy
“What the hell is this shit!” Lee cried out. He stamped his feet on the ground, crushing bones beneath him.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrVaZHfb45c
“Who are you?” McCurdy asked. “What are you doing here?”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgfSZYU4KXA
“I think that not be the question you should be asking, Major.” The man said, throwing the beating shlop of mass directly at her. She moved to the side swiftly, letting the mass strike the wall behind her.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ79IOExixwg
“And what question might that be?” She asked.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5f5kX50goP
“Orders! Orders!” Nguyen cried out, his pistol trembling in his hand. “Major! What are your damn orders?!”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYHz7zc9SIz
“Orders, Major, what are they, Major.” The man mimicked Nguyen. He sighed as he moved his bloody hand’s palm to the side. “I guess it matters not. Secrets. That is all they are: secrets.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoJiUx9QTiR
“What are you talking about?” she ignored Nguyen’s cries for an order. Orders were order, but right now was not the time for her to wear her military hat, but as a caster of the administration. “Why are you here?”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8iaWErZOZH
“I was looking for the Grail. It appears, it is not here. And I don’t think it holy. After all, wasn’t it the key to pandora’s box?”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyqzXZPKeMP
“I didn’t think anyone would tell anyone where the Grail is,” she inquired. “And don’t speak of the Grail. That is on a need-to-know basis, and no one here, yourself included, needs to know.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9qJ2V5a0lH
“Major! What is he talking about?” Gongora interjected.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAp8np2WhpH
“That is need to know. You don’t need to know,” she snapped.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6wCC2ra9qJ
“You, casters of the administration aren’t very smart, are you?” The man asked. “It doesn’t matter. You are out of time.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9InHtMBmle
McCurdy heard a frightened gasp from Lee. She glanced over to see his fogged mask; she imagined his eyes were stretched as wide open as his skull would allow, assuming, with such a worrisome response from a Warrant Officer only meant one thing: the radiation maxed out the microR meter.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjf1AkRvIeZ
“Five-thousand!” Adams exclaimed. “That is—”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLFWiteSVHp
“Not an accurate reading!” Lee shouted. “Our meters only go up that high. It’s much higher than that. We need to get the hell out of here or we’ll be fried to a crisp or on our deathbeds with cancer next week!”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ593WRlYg8k
“No,” said McCurdy. “It’s fine.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1BUtD9LU8Y
“Have you lost your damn mind!” Gongora exclaimed. “This is not what we signed up for. We are not getting fried because of whatever the real reason is why we’re here! We aren’t infantry! We aren’t trained to handle something like this!”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpxXWuSPZwr
“Look,” she pointed.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGLIRrhMFyF
A gate of fire and ice opened behind the man. He passed through it, and both the gate and he was gone. McCurdy could feel, even with her suit, the temperature dropping in the air, and the hairs stood on ends on her back, as she was certain everyone with her felt the same. Only she knew their hearts were much closer to beating out of their chests. She was certain they were left unaware of these ancient arcane elements kept hidden to them for the last fifteen-hundred years. Just here, they were made aware of everything, magic, casters, portals, illusions, and least of all the Grail, whatever this person was truly after. These were all things that, according to the Caster’s Code, must not enter the minds of normies, lest the threads of creation come undone. That is what she was told, anyway.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvlJvxU5bsl
The microR meters measured back down to zero immediately.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH2Gepxbx5a
None of them needed to be here for this. I hate this code. She let out a sigh.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB4305xgIfn
McCurdy’s eyes narrowed behind her mask, the mana still being pulled through the oxygen in the air and through her suit. She backed away from the group of her specialists, who still trembled as they pointed their guns at the precise location from where the portal vanished. She could hear their sporadic breathing over the coms. They were terrified, and why shouldn’t they be? No matter how disciplined they were, which they weren’t, everything they thought they understood about the world came undone, just like their sanity, as it became unraveled.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkyUPecDLLR
They could hear the rapid bubbling from behind them. McCurdy’s eyes angled, it’s one of those threckets. She now knew what the beating shlop was, just a little vessel for the threcket to form from this world. Whose heart did you take? “Shit,” she swore under her breath. They all turned around to see a large bubbling red mass forming from the wall. It slowly began to take shape. McCurdy had a better idea of what she was looking at, but even to her, the bull’s head protruding from the clicking segments of a centipedal body made her ill. The disgusting creature stood tall on strong horse legs; many arms baring stingers were already flailing towards them.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE9w2n5T1X8
She let out a sigh of relief. Well, I don’t have to kill them now.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbugeSFADi5
“What the actual hell is that!” Lee raised his rifle, aiming down the sights to the threcket, pulling the trigger. “To hell with your orders. Damn it!”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡziJMzIoEsy
Gongora and Nguyen marched to the side, their rifles firing. The bullets sparked as they struck the threcket. No surprise there, those hides were damn near impenetrable, and needed specific things to pierce it. Weapons of the modern era were completely useless.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Eyj4NWyAu
The beast roared and smashed into Lee, digging its stingers into him. He cried out in agony as the stingers began to inject him with poison, blood and poison immediately saturated his body. Gongora and Nguyen immediately opened fire. The bullets penetrated the threcket, and the holes in the creature produced purple puss that filled the air. McCurdy walked backwards, leaning against the back wall, waiting patiently for the creature to kill them. After all, she felt that if she personally killed them, it would shatter her spirit. I’m sorry.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn17jqz107E
The creature immediately flung itself into the direction of the gunfire. Nguyen dove to the ground shooting at it from below. Juices oozed out of the threcket’s wounds, raining on him from above, eating through his suit like acid. The beast impaled Gongora with its venomous stingers and ripped him in several pieces, his limbs twirling in the air spraying his blood in all directions, splattering on McCurdy’s visor. She imagined the kind of pain Nguyen should be feeling right now, but he didn’t show it, never made it known even in a yelp. He started running out of the hallway only to be impaled from behind the deadly stingers, and likewise ripped apart. He didn’t even have time to let out a final cry for help.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm6nUMyhIrK
“Well, now that that’s over with,” McCurdy said. “It is time to send you back.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzy1dgRdwWX
She pulled the mana from the air into her Mana Veins. She pulled out her knife. Her blue mana veins crawled from her glove and onto the knife. The beast sprinted at her. Immediately, she swiftly cut into the air, shapes of circular runes into a circle, leaving her mana’s residue there, cutting into the Threads of Creation like flesh.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZgCDKC3JxV
“Deoful Spreot!” She chanted. “Deoful Spreot!”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOmltU0f9Uo
She pulled the mana from the air. Wind picked up the dirt in the room, striking her suit. She felt the air cooling around her and heard the miscellaneous debris of office supplies strike her visor. The mana swirled around her, crafting a red flame, and red spears, fashioned from the mana in the air. The creature finally barreled into her, but she did not move as her blue veins turned grey, forcing her in place like an irremovable statue. The red spear penetrated the beast, pouring its blood on the floor. It screeched in agony as it crumpled on the ground. The mana she pulled in the air protected her feet from being burned from the acidic blood.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi0zfWomRaq
“Deorfald,” she chanted again as she drew another shape in the air, this shape was more square and less elegant than the shape before. Black chains grew up from the ground. They encapsulated the beast, pinning it to the stony floor. The beast writhed against the chains. In a puff of ash, it disappeared. All that appeared left were the chains that collapsed noiselessly to the ground. She breathed in the mana from the dead that rested here: Nguyen, Lee, Gongora, their husks bubbling and burning away, until nothing was left except the iron ground. There was no evidence that they were here. They just simply vanished.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuEkbLviIqt
She shook her head, swearing underneath her breath as she hastily took off the Hazmat Suit. Her veins turned blue again as she bolted out of the room with her flashlight, and the mana spear in her hands. She sprinted through the corridors and exited the bunker. Adams was sat on a rock outside, his helmet rested next to him. Clearly, he was no longer disturbed by the radiation—or to call it what it was: concentrated mana. Something invisible, that caused a slow, albeit painful, death must have paled in comparison to what he’d seen in the cave. To what McCurdy wished killed him.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEyToqxxZ6n
Adams looked up to her and jolted up, backing away from her. “Major, what the hell was that?”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUMjm0JxAfF
“You have no right to question me when you left us to die like that,” she said, holding the spear in her hand.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4xNXC9HE9M
His eyes were fixed upon the spear, something he didn’t see McCurdy come up with, “Nothing about today made any sense. A bunker with high radioactivity, with no source to cause said activity, a portal or some shit, and a—a I don’t know what to call that, some bubbling goo, and not to mention this illusion or what—”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx0Y2GW4K08
Adams breathed heavily, his eyes glancing past McCurdy, presumably towards the hatch into the mountain. He lost sight of the spear until he found it in his chest, the blade cut through his chest easily. She ripped it right back of him, spraying blood over the basin of the pass. He coughed blood and placed his hand on his chest while he stepped backwards, tripping over the rock behind him, “Major! What are you doing?”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmfjmRdV188
“I’m sorry kid,” she stuttered as a tear dripped from her eye. Shit. I missed the heart. “You see, normies like you. No, accidents like you aren’t supposed to see caster nonsense! It would destroy the very fabric of your beliefs. Trust me, ultimately it is for the best. I didn’t plan on you being a little chickenshit and running away. Now, I have to kill you, something I was trying to avoid!”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTxzcWFjizv
Adams’ eyes stretched open as he reached for his side arm. McCurdy swiftly swung the spear. The force of the elongated red blade slicing through his wrist threw the disembodied hand with his side arm through the air. He cried as he turned around and sprinted; his heart racing, beating through his chest like a heavy metal drum solo. He made it to the path where they came from, and tried to climb it, but his stub of a hand was beyond useless.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoFPM0yhqB1
She walked around to him and pushed him away from the path. As he tripped on the ground, and crawled away from her, McCurdy stared at him with teary eyes, “Honestly, I’m not enjoying this either, for the record. Honestly, this is the part about my existence I hate the most,” She felt her heart sinking, and the spear trembled in her hand. You are all family to me, brothers and sisters in arms. She firmly grasped the spear in her hand, returning her resolve to do what must be done, despite the singular accepted fact, she didn’t want to kill him, but she had no choice. She thrust the spear into his chest, not missing his heart this time. She twisted the spear, tearing his flesh and heart apart.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJRqaa6DmZU
She looked into his eyes as the life left them, sighing, she took a step back; dropped the spear to the ground. When it hit the ground, it dematerialized in the air, creating little red lights as it faded into nothingness, floating in the air like reverse snowfall.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwHJy6bvAdu
She leaned against the wall leading upwards. Her mana veins thickened on her skin, pulling the refreshing mana from the air, the clunky mana from the stone, and the thick mana from the blood. Adam’s corpse boiled, fading away all parts of him as McCurdy converted his body to mana entirely, drinking it through her veins. His body faded into nothing.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXAtiBHkRDc
She cried into the sky as the guilt constricted her heart as if a sadistic snake slithered its way through her ribs, and wrapped around her heart and lungs, suffocating the air and blood out of it. She didn’t want to kill him, or get them all killed, but that was the nature of this cursed administration.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8Gxpm1vPcO
There has to be a better way, but everything’s already been tried. The administration is so cruel. Why does it have to be this way? Why can’t these normies know? We would have to kill so much less, she thought.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPQ7r5jEf9n
She remembered something, something important. Her job here was not done, even though the site was now confirmed secure. She had to radio in the Administrator. She pulled out her phone, and planted her veins into the phone, preventing any unwanted listeners.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfoqpaTxJKS
“Admin Colton,” the voice said on the other line.226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZt4kk22cSW
“Major McCurdy.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoAXjCQKoA2
“Status report.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMtuARF8JS5
“There was another caster involved. It wasn’t anything nuclear on the pass. Someone was using it for experimentation and summoned a threcket here. The caster was looking for the Holy Grail,” she replied. “The man seemed to know much. He is skilled enough to open a portal from Pandora, and enough about necromancy and demonic magic to bring threckets into this world.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzuitx369AB
“Appearance?”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyv27WW6kvb
“White. Accent was southern United States. Maybe Georgia. Dark hair. Five-eleven. One-hundred-eighty pounds. Muscular. Estimated. No name was given. But he spoke as if he was not a caster himself, and held disdain for the administration, and he seemed to know I was a caster before I did anything.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJINS5tbPdn
“Go dark. You are being transferred to London immediately,” he said, “Don’t worry, you’ll have more information on your email in a few hours. Get on the next plane to London. Don’t worry about your replacement.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGRMnCNqDOC
“What’s my mission?”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3C7n6kau7Y
“We can’t trust the head administration anymore. Odds are, whoever that is, was a rogue, and a mole sent to spy on us. That is the only logical conclusion, and he may have had a goal in mind that wasn’t the Grail, and that was just an excuse to throw you off. You are going to retrieve the Grail from them, diplomatically, covert, choice is yours. We can’t leave it in their hands anymore, not when they’re so corrupt as it is.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbnQvu2yWjY
“I understand. If it is the will of U.S.A branch of the Administration, I will see it done.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6c4IYm9xMi
“See that you don’t disappoint. Colton out.”226Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSwyACXAI08
Penana
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