Aether Nexus: Curse of Love & Hatred

As the night's shadows draped over the land in a silent takeover, a lone man, standing on the shore of an island in the middle of the Aserian Ocean, gazed up at a mysterious fortress. The secrets it hid challenged the man's own goals in obscurity.

“So, he was right. Thank you, Alaric Benom… To think there was a magical barrier sitting in the middle of the Aserian Ocean over this island, one even seasoned sorcerers could barely detect, let alone get through it… They’re hiding something…” The man said, cloaked within the shadows of the night, as he contemplated for a moment before lovingly rubbing the side of the worm coiled around his shoulders. “It was thanks to you alone, Guspane, that I was able to set foot on the island.”

The once stoic worm creature reciprocated the man's affection by licking him in response.

Traversing towards the castle, he placed his hand upon its walls. “Esoteric Art: Sensori La Darshita!” The man commanded after feeling the wall's material, sending faint waves of energy reverberating through it.

Closing his eyes, the man focused on the subtle vibrations and echoes that bounced back to him, revealing the skeletal structure of the fortress. “Fifty-two rooms… Four floors… Two floors below and one above… Fifthteen soul signatures, guards I assume, within… Five on the bottom floor and three on every other floor… With one of them I can't quite pinpoint… Not to mention another one in particular has a formidable soul, I'll need to be careful about him…”

Stepping back a bit, the man grabbed a cryptic wand from his back. Firmly grasping the handle, the ethereal purple gem on the head started glimmering with an otherworldly luminescence, as if it recognized the man’s mere touch, awaiting his orders. With a whispered incantation, the air around him shimmered with energy as the wand emitted a soft, pulsating glow. The man raised it, waiting for each arcane symbol etched into the body of the wand to glow. As the head finally started to glow, he tapped the gem on the wall, finishing the spell.

Slowly, the stone wall seemed to lose its solidity, morphing into a shifting and translucent barrier. With determined steps, the man moved forward, his form fading into a hazy silhouette. For a brief moment, he came face to face with total darkness, as if he had become blind. Yet, he did not falter, as the faint glow of his wand guided him through the darkness.

From an outside view, his figure seemed to meld with the stone, like two liquids fusing into one, delicately and indistinct, before emerging unscathed on the other side.

Taking a brief gander around, he now found himself within the many hallways inside the fortress. “I'm in… The three guards on this floor should be nearby. I just need to get one of them alone…”

“This suuuuuuuuucks!” An annoyed voice echoed throughout the neighboring corridors, alerting the fortress’ new intruder. Silently plastering himself onto the nearest corner to where he heard the voice, the enigmatic intruder snooped upon a conversation between two cloaked guards.

“Keep it down, will you? What if the higher ups had heard you? Dumbass!” The second guard exclaimed as he punched the first guard's arm.

“Pah," he waved off the possibility, "Like they care! All the higher ups are either in the basement level conducting the last of the research, or in the top level organizing all the documents and getting them ready for transport. We're here wasting our lives guarding practically nothing and lugging around all this heavy machinery, with no breaks and decreased rations as punishment. It's not our fault those bozos let that girl escape!”

Breathing out a sigh, the second guard pointed up at the ceiling. “Look, I understand, but you have to keep it down dude, what if Henzo hears us? With his ability, he could be anywhere in this godforsaken tomb. He's such a suck up, he'll snitch on anyone to get on the higher ups' good side. And god forbid Director Tehew catches wind, we may as well cash in our tickets to Hell right now.”

The first guard sulked in response. “Yeah, sorry sorry. I just needed to get that off my chest. Hopefully Captain Bacho and Munia find that witch girl soon, I don’t think I'll be able to survive these working conditions much longer…”

“Witch girl!? Escaped? So they were holding a witch hostage in here… The top level is where they're holding documents, I'll start there, then descend my way down, before destroying this place.” The eavesdropping intruder thought to himself as he kept watch over the guards.

However, at the same time, the third guard had turned the corner into the very same corridor from the opposite hall while making his rounds. Though groggy from the grueling work hours, it took him some time to make out an unknown figure at the end of the hall.

At first he thought it was another guard, but as his brow furrowed trying to identify which guard, the differences started to come into view. The figure was wearing a dusty gray mantle and hood, with several cryptic looking wands on his back, alongside black baggy pants, gray harnesses on his entire body and brown boots. A far cry from the simple black cloak and outfit guard uniforms. The most stand out feature though was the giant worm-like creature on the man's shoulders.

The guard started to speak, “What the… H-He—Mmph!!?” only to fall prey to a mouth-covering headlock.

(“Too late.”)

Unfortunately for the guard, the man he saw at the end of the hallway was also behind him at the very same time. As the guard struggled to get away from the stranger's tight head lock, desperately clawing at the man's arm covering his mouth, he saw the same figure at the end of the hall slowly dissipate into nothingness, as if he was just some hollowed out illusion.

(“Sorry about this, but I can’t let you live now…”) The man hauntingly whispered as he shifted his arms in preparation.

Back with the two guards as they continued their conversation, it would be cut short when both heard incoming footsteps. Frantically, both tried to make it look like they weren't slacking off and bad mouthing their superiors, only to find the last guard on duty with them turning the corner.

“Oh! Ahaha… Justin! I'm so glad it was just you!”

“Better be. I heard what you guys were just talking about. Don't let them hear you, or else we all suffer.”

“Heh, that's what I told him.”

“Oh shut up bro.”

As “Justin” walked past the two relieved guards, he would soon stop in his tracks. “By the way, could you two help fill my memory back in about the layout of this place? See, I haven’tI've haven't been sleeping well, and wouldn't want to get on the higher ups' bad side for doing a poor job. I am doing you a favor by keeping your little talk a secret.”

“Yeah, I'd bet your insomnia isn't quite a good match for the crappy work they've been putting us through. [At least the pay is worth it.] I don't blame your memory failing honestly.”

“Oh come on, don't be like that Justin, I would have helped without the threat you know. Anyways, as you SHOULD have remembered, this fortress is one of many research facilities under the Soul Divination Council. The top floor houses all of our important documents. The floor we're in, the second floor, is where most of our machinery and weapons are stored. The third floor right below us is where we all eat and rest in our own separate bunkers. Lastly is the basement, the last floor, where the Directors and Captains conduct their research.”

Raising his finger in the air to interject, the other guard added onto the review. “It was also the place where we kept that witch girl locked away, she was the main subject of research. Something about ‘Sin Incarnations’ or something like that.”

“Sin Incarnations? I've heard Director Tehew say something of the sort, but I thought we captured her because she was a direct descendant of Giona Tamaki, it’s why she was code named 'Giona' after all.”

“Either way, thanks to some lackluster guards, she was able to get away one night. Director Tehew then murdered almost every guard on duty that night, and sent Captain Bacho and Munia to go look for her. It's why we were moved from Facility 3, at Jufuris Kingdom, to here, remember? Our job right now is to help transport all the documents, machinery, and research data to the main facility. Apparently, Director Tehew had a big breakthrough right before the girl escaped.”

An awkward pause fell into place as the two guards awaited "Justin's" answer, who only drooped his head in response, his hand grasping his chin. Finally, he expressed his gratitude. “I see… Thank you, I feel my memory coming back. I'll be on my way then.”

From the two guards’ perspectives, they witnessed “Justin” walk further into the seemingly endless corridors with confidence he had never shown before.

“Hey dude, don't you think Justin was kind of… off? Just now?” The first guard said, elbowing the other guard's arm.

“Yeah, for a guy deathly scared of measly roaches and rats, he had a look in his eye I've never seen in him before… Reminds me of Director Tehew's with how cold it was… Eh," the second guard shrugged, "Who wouldn't be down in the dumps with what we've been going through, I don’t blame him.”

The first guard scoffed as he leaned on a wall. “You're right. Why do they even need guards? The only thing that was worth guarding has already escaped, and besides, sneaking into here is a guaranteed death wish. Who in their right mind would come here of their own accord?”

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Next: (Chapter 12) Deeper into the Council's Fortress