~I’m honestly not enjoying this.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2LftxJVL3R
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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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx0WhWJxp6e
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaTmJo3BLhP
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?249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwdzjMzID7R
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.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKgJMuEwnsR
“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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoZiYosJ41n
“Not too far to go now,” she said to them. “We’re to the final destination.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNnqN5rsKW8
“Is there some kind of bunker up here?” Gongora asked.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVm6cBldIp4
“No,” McCurdy turned her gaze to him. Idiot.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdzDpLN6sCc
“Major, the readings are picking up again,” Lee said. “It’s very minimal, 0.83 svs.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9W2eyq02xw
“Not terrible,” Nguyen said. “However, we still need to be cautious. Let’s hope it stays that low.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡivwJFSnpAk
“Put on your Hazmat,” McCurdy ordered.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhkEXYNFhZT
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkayps5ZftJ
“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?”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBl48WIGRRd
“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.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVp6yp40L1b
“Lead on.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmsH1jkQA0c
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0bSz4n3jbB
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvc6XAP1yWf
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqQBf3yBOdH
“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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm5h1qObCTq
“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?”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVZGRgZU84s
“No,” McCurdy answered. “There is nothing to indicate there was something like this here. Be careful, that radiation can spike back up any minute.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlFzyUPTpFv
“Do we know why this is happening?” Adams asked.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwyE2YmlvBW
“That is precisely why we are here,” Nguyen said.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡph5YylpDIm
“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.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡck6b1MGt8X
“Then why don’t we call for backup then? We’re not infantry!” Adams exclaimed.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSUTcC7Sbbt
“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.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbG5T3o4FVT
“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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLkih8Cszed
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaBD3A2oeOa
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?249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMreYjrjQO8
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡizfZuLbKkJ
“Your orders, Major?” Adams said. “Radioactive activity has depleted.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgjFbdT97pZ
“Affirmative,” Lee replied. He turned to the door to the unmarked bunker. “Do we need to go in there?”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDYq0IoqeEX
“Yes. Lee, I want you up front. Gongora, and Nguyen behind him. Adams, you’re with me,” she said, “Lee, get that door open.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbCMgwT9jdu
“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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ554JEax3Rr
He picked his meter up as everyone turned on their flashlights.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGIp7QKVZS6
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWNLERXJNDH
“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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmBhWjcx6Ok
“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.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAkzeXgh6O1
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOuSX8oPU0z
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRPqFIRZwVG
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvWxguxQSal
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF6XNzWPWka
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?”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdydxZXgXNW
“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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV5i2z1scoq
“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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpJx2ETY516
“Watch your mindless speculations, Warrant Officer, I don’t have time for this,” McCurdy snapped at him. “And no, I don’t.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPLzmf75u6i
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqu38rm7TKL
“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!”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi2GQsbHdXc
“That is precisely why we are here, Specialist,” she said, “We don’t know, and we need to know.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjCMN8gbiAQ
“You all came to the worst place,” said a voice in the corner.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHeUx22i3o5
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi71udUTZOr
“Onhlidan!” he chanted. “Onhlidan! Onhlidan! Onhlidan!”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNLq7y3410k
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnoKoq90ojt
“What the hell is this shit!” Lee cried out. He stamped his feet on the ground, crushing bones beneath him.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5ZjnG9E51C
“Who are you?” McCurdy asked. “What are you doing here?”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz6vdNT5XcE
“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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8QErM3y4RR
“And what question might that be?” She asked.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh4Wa9YsciX
“Orders! Orders!” Nguyen cried out, his pistol trembling in his hand. “Major! What are your damn orders?!”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz0OGs2iMMD
“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.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYNJxm2CDJS
“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?”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgNVMhAMGoJ
“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?”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZqOq2uaWaP
“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.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2C7g1Poy2z
“Major! What is he talking about?” Gongora interjected.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvJdfqkH4CN
“That is need to know. You don’t need to know,” she snapped.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5Sd5XniERp
“You, casters of the administration aren’t very smart, are you?” The man asked. “It doesn’t matter. You are out of time.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvnelChWqCu
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIir71b7FPu
“Five-thousand!” Adams exclaimed. “That is—”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrHTtqTx2u5
“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!”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfjm2KyzHQo
“No,” said McCurdy. “It’s fine.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRPYb03DDKq
“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!”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHPtplWZJz9
“Look,” she pointed.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcraPONIROC
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsgwSQxKQnx
The microR meters measured back down to zero immediately.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSewQ0xLG7O
None of them needed to be here for this. I hate this code. She let out a sigh.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqVeR00te24
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhHE7AGkcuX
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvMc1dfIuHv
She let out a sigh of relief. Well, I don’t have to kill them now.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS5J9AkdPeK
“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!”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcyifFOXkMP
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtfCsA3OO1x
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRdh3UjZFWq
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡONeWGYD88x
“Well, now that that’s over with,” McCurdy said. “It is time to send you back.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAXfpZZe5Sg
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgsLyYfgOi1
“Deoful Spreot!” She chanted. “Deoful Spreot!”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPxRPSSHOjG
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMHXGGMqZZL
“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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4BAnfpeYj1
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlov6yBDJTP
Adams looked up to her and jolted up, backing away from her. “Major, what the hell was that?”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYK5CP3q0oz
“You have no right to question me when you left us to die like that,” she said, holding the spear in her hand.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIUvMI6X5LR
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—”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6rrzZTdKbU
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?”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFbAv6a3PUU
“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!”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7C4sfEu0gW
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzUVZRwGgxy
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf1HM9w5GRl
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd6eMj8YLu9
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOvxCRfKFdN
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoDQZsDqhzv
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVv6DiO71KN
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.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXhrxxivy6R
“Admin Colton,” the voice said on the other line.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvHzRbH7Do1
“Major McCurdy.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS7qCicp0Ak
“Status report.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfoAgXbwEuo
“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.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4iaEzyzy4a
“Appearance?”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxI6eqaaHRJ
“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.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzA0E8SZcY2
“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.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrL2Xctw0CP
“What’s my mission?”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZdcXYfug38
“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.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQhU9j5LVBt
“I understand. If it is the will of U.S.A branch of the Administration, I will see it done.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGaRZrzW5SX
“See that you don’t disappoint. Colton out.”249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ42Ha0bvfX
Penana
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