Mystical Journey

"Urgent situation? Is this not urgent enough? Ever since the meeting, we’ve been running into nothing but trouble. What can be more urgent than this?" the man’s voice dropped an octave.

Demetrius didn’t bother with him, and continued talking,"Now there are two things from HQ. First, is the mass amount of mutations in the experiments destroying the research bases. They want us to be extra careful, they even sent a report about a specific beast that we should watch out for. Secondly, a traitor has escaped from Obscuro, they want us to find and arrest this person. He was last seen within the three of our jurisdictions. From what we know, he sustained severe burn injuries and has mostly blacked skin."

"They only seek us out when they’re in trouble," the man scoffed.

"Don’t get all grumpy Andora, your mission is the most important. The King of Ender is a rare master of Aberrations. You can’t just understand him with biology or chemistry anymore. Make sure you don’t mess up when the time comes," Demetrius sounded unhappy.

"Alright, that’s it. I hope you two will keep these two issues on your mind. Also, Jess, if you can, HQ wishes that you acquire the treasure in the Grand Duke’s mansion," Demetrius added.

"Treasure?" Garen was piqued.

"It should be called the Heart of the Dragonshadow or something. Along with my Crown of Thorns, it is a special type of treasure," Demetrius said coldly,"Alright, I have other business to tend to. We’ll talk again when we have time."

With a loud clapping sound, the voice cut off.

"I should get going too. Let’s keep in touch Jess. Honestly, among the three generals, you’re the more likable one. If the Grand Duke is too much trouble, I can come help you out," Andora said coldly and cut off too.

"Thanks."

Garen watched as the Crystal Derivator slowly turned back into its original red, and a short text indicating the signal had been cut off, then only he sighed a breath of relief.

It was only a few short minutes, but they were enough to have Garen sweat all over.

"Elemental General… If there are only three in Iron Tank City, then these three must be considered amongst the top masters in the city. Combined, they might even be able to topple the city’s order. Also, who would’ve known that those mutants in the wild were actually runaway experiment subjects of Obscura."

Garen carried the Crystal Derivator, something that he used to rely on, now felt dangerous.

"I need to find a way to eliminate the threat quickly," He planned to understand the Derivator properly.

After a moment of thought and murmuring, Garen let the Dual Headed Salamander take most of the bugs out to collect some potential points while he sulkingly walked back to the villa.

In the next few hours, Garen stayed in the villa trying to figure out the Crystal Derivator’s functions and purpose. This was top priority for him as it was related to his greatest energy source, so he put everything aside; even on Goth’s side he only left a letter saying he had to go away for a while, and warned him about Elielan.

After ten plus days.

Finally, Garen found something new in the Crystal Derivator.

Something about the command chain.

***************

In the scarlet colored study, Garen sat beside the broken window that had been broken by the Petrifying White Dragon, which was also in turn partially fixed by the Petrifying White Dragon’s solidified spit.

Garen sat with his back against the book rack facing the study table. On his left was a mattress filled with all sorts of notes and rolls of paper. Under his feet were a ton of loose paper on the carpet.

There was a horrible stench in the room as well.

Garen just kept staring at the Crystal Derivator on the table, continuously fondling it with his fingers.

Finally, the derivator glowed a soft red. In the middle, a line of Kovitan text appeared.

"Would you like to connect to the derivator network?"

"Do I have control of all subordinate derivators?" Garen suddenly understood, the derivator could issue and accept commands using voice, so he spoke back in Kovitan.

"All derivators can be controlled by superior derivators. Lord Garen, your derivator is a "General Level" derivator, your immediate superior is the marshal level, and your immediate subordinate is the colonel level."

"Serial number: 0032gcr, your derivator is the east state’s 32nd. There is a total of 10 derivators in the Kovitan region. Your rank is General, under you there is Lieutenant General, Brigadier General, Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel, Major. Please select which rank you would like to command. You may modify the selected user’s derivator usage privilege at your own will."

Upon discovering this, many inexplicable things before made sense now.

Garen stared at the five different choices floating in the interface.

"Since I can modify their usage privileges anytime, that probably means that the people above me can do the same to me as well. I better be careful."

He squinted his eyes, feeling even more threatened than before.

"I need to find out how the derivator controls its users. Those experiment mutants should’ve been under control but yet they managed to shake loose the influence. How did they do that?" Garen suddenly thought of the traitor mentioned by Demetrius.

"Perhaps I can find an answer there," he suddenly had an epiphany,"Let me see what I can do with my subordinates for now."

He tapped the derivator softly.

"Lieutenant General rank selected, you have two subordinates that can be contacted,"

Two names appeared on the derivator.

"Lieutenant General Helis, Lieutenant General Kuiman."

Both of the names were grayed out, and there was a text saying "not contacted" behind their names.

Upon reading that, Garen remained expressionless and continued to scroll down to the next row of names. Suddenly five names popped up, two of which were grayed out, and three were red with a row of text saying "contacting…" behind their names.

Garen’s heart skipped a beat.

He reached out and tapped on the name of one of the brigadier generals.

"Brigadier General Harry," he said softly,"where are you now?"

The other side hesitated for a moment before replying,"General Jess? I am now based out of White Dew City. The Governor’s house here has been completely overrun. I don’t know what HQ wants out of this, how is any of this relative to our initial mission?" It was the voice of a young man,"I don’t know understand why we’re dragging innocent people into this mindless war."

"Do not question the actions of the ones above us," Garen replied in a coarse voice.

"You share my thoughts too? I am so honored!," Harry seemed surprised,"I always knew that among the Three Generals, you were the warmer one!"

"I would like to ask you a question, could you answer me honestly?" Garen asked softly.

"Please ask away," Harry’s mood seemed to have improved.

"About the White Dragonhawk plot in the Grand Duke’s place, how much do you know?" Garen quickly asked about the situation closer to him.

"White Dragonhawk plot? This is under the purview of General Jeffs, I am not privy to the details of it. However, I am particularly close to General Jeffs’ Brigadier General Ally, I can ask her."

"Thanks, that was my first question, now for my second question; could you tell me how many men do you have under you right now?" Garen’s eyes seem to reflect worry upon asking this.

"Subordinates? Under me? Immediately beneath me there are 32 Colonels, 109 Lieutenant Colonels, 188 Majors. We practically control all of White Dew City. Do you intend to move about a large amount of manpower? Sorry, I don’t mean to question your intentions sir." Harry quickly changed his words.

"You didn’t lose many men?"

"Thankfully the derivators came in time, else it would’ve been a mess." Harry replied with certainty.

"Lastly, there has been a traitor recently that escaped from HQ. He is charred from top to bottom, so his skin is black, keep an eye out for him," Garen passed on orders from above,"Alright, how about this: if I ask of you to get me ten third form totems, do you think you can do it?" He was now directly trying to test the abilities of this man.

Harry hesitated.

"Third form totems would be a bit tricky. From what I am able to do now, I can control two at most and they’re both animal forms. The rest you will have to check with the other Brigadier Generals. You usually don’t ask much, why the sudden interest? Oh, I’m sorry, I’m overthinking again."

"Mm, that’ll be all," Garen cut the line.

After this, Garen tried to contact the other generals and colonels, some were just silent, seemingly either dead or that they broke their derivators.

One Lieutenant General, three Brigadier Generals, twelve Colonels, thirty-eight Lieutenant Colonels, and over two hundred Majors, all directly under him.

By ‘directly under him’, it meant that these men would only take orders from him and nobody else.

They were practically his own private army now.

Garen contacted as many of his subordinates as he could, these would be his men now.

After he was done contacting all of them, the sky was started to turn dark.The sunset light shone into the room, illuminating it with its golden glow, emanating an aura of warmth.

He put down the derivator.

He finally understood two things.

"The first, is Jess’s old image," Garen took out a piece of paper and with expert mastery and control, he quickly sketched out the shape of a sillhouette.