The massive underground bunker of The Obsidian Syndicate was normally filled with the quiet, steady humming of computer servers and low whispers.
Silas was standing near the heavy equipment racks, explaining the strict security protocols to Linease, who was still wearing her brand-new dark uniform.
Suddenly, a loud, blaring siren echoed through the massive room.
The giant digital tactical map on the main wall instantly cut to black.
A second later, the screen flickered back to life, replaced by an emergency broadcast from the local news network.
The news reporter on the screen looked absolutely terrified.
The camera behind him was shaking violently.
In the background, massive explosions of fire and raw magic were tearing up the night sky.
“Breaking news for all citizens!” the reporter shouted over the deafening sound of artillery fire.
“We are coming to you live from the southern border of the Grovics continent!
We are under attack!
The armed forces of the Rint continent have launched a massive, unprovoked surprise offensive against our border checkpoints!”
The camera zoomed in on the chaos.
Hundreds of soldiers wearing the uniforms of the Rint continent were charging across the open fields.
They were firing heavy magical weapons, launching huge boulders of earth and sharp spears of ice at the Grovics defenses.
The G.M.W.U.
military soldiers were fighting back hard, but they were completely outnumbered.
Several Grovics soldiers were caught in a massive explosion and thrown violently into the air.
Chrites stood near the center of the bunker, staring up at the giant screen.
His eyes narrowed behind his demon mask.
He knew that area perfectly.
His own family home was located dangerously close to that southern border.
If the Rint army pushed just a few miles deeper into the country, his mother and father would be caught right in the middle of a brutal warzone.
“I knew it would happen eventually,” Chrites said out loud, his voice cold and flat.
“But I really did not think it would happen that fast.”
He turned away from the screen and clapped his hands together loudly.
The sound cracked like a whip across the room.
“Well, whatever,” Chrites yelled, his voice echoing with authority.
“We have to move, guys.
Let’s move, move, move!
Everyone gear up right now!”
The bunker instantly erupted into organized chaos.
The heavy steel doors lining the walls slid open.
Instead of the thirty guards who were standing there before, over a hundred elite syndicate members poured into the main room.
They were strapping on their weapons, checking their magical sidearms, and pulling their black masks over their faces.
Silas ran up to Chrites, a digital tablet in his hands.
“Sir, what are your orders?
Do we deploy to the southern border and assist the military?”
Chrites grabbed Silas by the shoulder and pulled the tall lieutenant close.
He leaned in right next to Silas’s ear.
Chrites spoke in a very quiet, completely silent whisper.
He told Silas the real plan, keeping it a total secret from everyone else in the room.
Even the advanced audio microphones recording the bunker could not pick up a single word he said.
Silas’s eyes went wide for a split second.
He nodded quickly.
“Understood, sir.
It will be done exactly as you say.”
Silas turned around to face the massive crowd of soldiers.
“Listen up, everyone!” Silas barked.
“We are dividing this entire force into seven different squads!
Team One, you are on navigation and mapping!
Team Two, focus on locating the enemy supply lines!
Team Three, prep the retreating routes!
Team Four and Five, gear up for special attacks!
Teams Six and Seven, you are on standby for heavy assault!”
Linease watched the soldiers split up into their teams with incredible speed and perfect discipline.
She had never seen anything like it, not even in the military academy.
Chrites walked over to where Linease was standing.
He pointed a finger at her, and then pointed at three of the biggest, heavily armed elite guards standing nearby.
“Linease, you are coming with me,” Chrites ordered.
“You three guards are coming with us too.
We are moving out right now.”
“Yes, sir!” the three guards answered at the exact same time.
Linease nodded quickly.
“I am ready.”
They did not use a dark teleportation spell this time.
Chrites led them toward the heavy freight elevator at the back of the bunker.
They stepped inside, and the elevator carried them all the way up to the surface.
The doors opened, and they stepped out into a completely abandoned, empty shipping yard near the edge of the city.
The night air was cold and filled with a strange tension.
Chrites walked out into the middle of the empty concrete lot.
He raised his right hand toward the sky.
He focused his mind, drawing out a massive amount of pure mana.
A blinding light flashed across the shipping yard.
When the light faded, a massive flying device hovered just a few feet off the ground.
It was a breathtaking machine.
It looked like a sleek, metallic flying disk, almost the size of a two-story house.
The outside was covered in heavy, dark obsidian armor plates, and bright blue magical runes glowed along the edges.
It did not have any wings or loud engines.
It simply floated silently in the air, humming with raw power.
“Get on,” Chrites said, walking up the metal ramp that dropped down from the side of the disk.
Linease and the three guards followed him onto the flat, open deck of the flying machine.
As soon as they were all standing safely on the metal floor, Chrites walked to the very front of the disk.
He placed his hands on a glowing control panel.
He pushed his incredibly powerful Light magic directly into the engine core of the machine.
A dome of solid, transparent air instantly wrapped around the entire disk, protecting them from the outside wind.
Then, the disk shot into the sky.
The speed was absolutely unbelievable.
It felt like they were traveling through time.
The flying disk broke the sound barrier in a single second.
Linease had to grab onto a metal railing just to keep her balance.
She looked down through the transparent barrier and saw the glowing lights of the Grovics continent blurring into a single, long streak of color.
They flew high above the clouds, moving so fast that the world below looked like a dizzying painting.
Linease watched Chrites standing near the front controls.
She let go of the railing and slowly walked up right next to him.
She was very curious, and she needed to know what was going on.
“Where are we going, and what do we have to do, Chrites?” she asked politely.
The moment she said his name, the entire deck went dead silent.
The three elite guards standing behind her physically froze in place.
One of the guards actually reached for the handle of his sword in pure shock.
Nobody in the entire organization ever called the terrifying leader of the syndicate by his real, normal name.
He was always called “Boss” or “Sir.” Calling him Chrites out loud was a massive break in the rules, and usually, Silas would have punished someone severely for that kind of disrespect.
But Chrites did not get angry.
He did not even turn his head.
He just kept his eyes focused on the dark sky ahead of them.
He raised a hand slightly, signaling the three guards behind her to relax and stand down.
“It is really important information,” Chrites answered her simply.
“You will see when we get there.”
Linease swallowed hard, realizing she might have made a mistake, but she stayed quiet for the rest of the ride.
The flight only took a few minutes, even though they were traveling across the entire ocean.
The flying disk began to slow down rapidly as they entered the airspace of a brand new landmass.
They had arrived in the Rint continent.
They were located in the far eastern part of the continent, hundreds and hundreds of miles away from where the Rint army was currently attacking the Grovics border.
It was a dark, rocky wasteland filled with tall mountains and deep, dangerous canyons.
There were no cities or towns anywhere in sight.
Chrites guided the massive flying disk down into a deep, hidden valley between two jagged mountains.
The machine landed perfectly on the rocky ground without making a single sound.
The transparent air shield dropped, and the ramp lowered.
“Let’s go,” Chrites said, walking down the ramp.
Linease and the three guards followed him out onto the cold, dusty ground.
As soon as their boots touched the dirt, Chrites turned around and snapped his fingers.
The massive, house-sized flying disk instantly shattered into millions of tiny, glowing white particles.
The light drifted up into the sky and vanished completely.
Anyone looking at the canyon now would never know they had used a ship to get here.
Chrites looked around the empty, dark canyon and nodded his head.
“Okay, the traveling part is done.
We should enter the base now.”
Linease looked around the desolate, rocky valley.
There was absolutely nothing out here but dirt and stone.
There were no buildings, no doors, and no lights.
“Which base?” Linease asked, looking very confused.
“There is nothing out here.”
Chrites smiled slightly underneath his demon mask.
He turned to face a massive, solid rock wall at the end of the canyon.
“We have established our bases in many of the different continents,” Chrites explained, walking toward the solid stone wall.
“This place right here is our secondary base.
And today, we have a very great meeting with someone important.”
Chrites placed his hand flat against the rough stone of the mountain.
A hidden magical lock scanned his magical energy.
A loud grinding noise echoed through the quiet valley, and a massive section of the rock wall slowly slid open, revealing a bright, heavily armed tunnel leading deep underground.
They all walked into the hidden base, ready to face whatever was waiting for them inside.