No Second Chances: The Beginning Of The End

Eloise was anticipated by a group of soldiers from the nation. The one who seemed to be the highest rank of them offered a sort of folder with documents inside. These documents consisted of a series of images showing step by step a sort of ritual, the same ritual Eloise happened to take part in before acquiring her Absolute command.

While remaining calm, Eloise handed back the pictures and followed the escorts to the main building where the next ruler was awaiting Eloise. “I can’t really say it is always a pleasure to meet you Aster, this place always gives me goosebumps.” –Eloise casually mentioned after entering a room where the next ruler patiently waited while smiling.​​

“I just raise the cities that god almighty have allowed me to, it is his will for our structures to be designed the way they are, and so we will be blessed by him once he again comes down to our sinful world to right the wrongs.” –Aster replied to Eloise in a very calm tone, preaching his vision.

“I want to ask you a couple of things before you start trying to sell me your god.” –Eloise stated while sitting in front of Aster across a long table. “Do you know what is going on through Yan’s head? He burned down the forest that grew after she died. There are several things that don’t seem right, Intel informed me about the high possibility of him starting a war. So I want to know this now… What are you going to do if a war starts?” –Eloise asked while Aster frowned, not expecting her to be so direct about the matter.

“As you may already know, I am the one gifted directly by God to prepare the world for his next coming. I hope you don’t mix me with warlike rulers such as Yan or Christina. However, burning down the forest that once held captive the soul of the devil is a heinous act that should be punished by God.” –Aster articulated his point of view while using his hands to support his expression. “Metan is sacred land that will not tolerate such acts. And so this way I may answer your questions.” –He continued while reaching for a glass of water next to him.

So he wouldn’t hesitate to war against Yan… It is true that Metan possesses the largest amount of military mages in this continent or even in the world, but Yan is a cheater, he will do whatever is possible to achieve what he wants… It is possible he is plotting something bigger than I expect. However, those images the escort gave me, they point something is going to happen soon, but did Aster send those images for me to see? Or that escort warned me about something? This is a rather delicate situation, so it is best to not point it out. –Eloise silently thought while Aster was patiently waiting for her to speak. “Would you sign an agreement of no aggression towards Falladis?” –She finally asked.

“I have no intentions of interfering with you or your nation, so if God wills it, I shall grant you my written approval of alliance. However, we need to receive compensation of some sort; after all, the land of god needs to be taken care of so it could be ideal for his arrival.” –Aster answered while opening his arms in a welcoming way.

“You keep mentioning the second coming of God as if he had scheduled it to be soon. Would you mind telling me what are you planning?” –Eloise narrowed her eyes while Aster suddenly got excited after hearing the question.

“Well, as a humble servant of God, I was granted the ability to see his glory through my dreams, and so I was assigned with the divine task to create a vessel for the almighty.” –Aster answered quite delighted remembering his lucid dream. Eloise went silent for several minutes after hearing him, quickly trying to find a reason what kind of vessel and if there was a connection between said vessel and the images she was shown earlier. Aster kept looking at her with confidence, knowing very well how confused Eloise was after she mentioned openly the vessel.

“So given you agree on the cease-fire treaty, what do you want in return? I’m pretty sure the land of god would have enough resources for the vessel, no?” –Eloise asked while being wary of Aster’s true intentions.

While the two rulers continued with their meeting, back in Falladis, the doctor called by Francois to check on Chronos was sweating cold while a strange presence stared down at him from behind Chronos. Chronos was aware of Pandora’s presence; however, he had gotten used to it and didn’t expect others to be able to see it as he did. Sebastian was quite anxious and scared of that feeling he didn’t quite understand. Despite that, he continued the session, trying to convince himself there was nothing there and focusing on some other things purposely. “So…Chronos, could you explain to me what do you see here?” –Sebastian asks while handing him the same pictures Gree saw earlier.

“I just see animals here, some of them dead and waiting to be eaten. There is blood splattered around as if they fell from somewhere.” –Chronos explained while carefully looking at the abstract pictures.

Pandora’s presence could not have affected Chronos, but Sebastian could see her, a lady with her face covered by her own hair and a blood-stained white dress. Through her hair, Sebastian could feel her fully black eyes piercing right through his soul as fear paralyzed him, making him unable to think properly. Chronos quickly noticed and tried to shake Sebastian out of his trance, successfully bringing him back from the psychological torture Pandora forced upon him. “I need you to leave, please call Francois for me.” –Sebastian mentioned while his hands were shaking as he tried to bring them up to his head calm himself down. Chronos was a bit confused but nodded before opening the door to leave the room, but once he did, Sinns, Gree, and Francois got instantly disturbed by a brief illusion that turned Chronos into a faceless being, with a grey mantle covering his body and pointy shards of ashes floating on top and in front of his head resembling the shape of a crown.

After turning his head to see them and walk towards them, the illusion suddenly ceased, leaving Gree sweating cold and Sinns getting in front of her as a way to protect her from what they saw. Francois had pulled out his gun as well as a means to fight back. “Sebastian is asking you to go in the room, Francois, he seemed quite afraid of something.” –Chronos said while freezing in place, trying to not let the situation deteriorate as he instantly noticed them being as scared or even more than Sebastian.

After letting out a long sigh, Francois let the gun down and put it back in the inner side of his suit while his hands were shaking. “What was that you just did? I’m not very happy to be scared this way.” –Francois asked while trying to compose himself. Sinns was also shaking behind Francois while not really understanding what she just saw; she was well prepared to die to at least let Gree escape, had it not the illusion ceased.

“Chronos, the fuck was that!? I don’t recall you telling me anything about what we just saw.” –Gree questioned Chronos while still being wary of him. Chronos wasn’t sure of what just happened that made them so scared, but he understood that it could be something related to himself.

“I don’t know what you are referring to…” –Chronos answered while feeling quite worried about the situation. I don’t know what is happening, but it feels like they can see something in me, maybe Pandora is not only in my head… –He quickly deduced while keeping his distance from the three of them, sitting in a stool across the hallway. Right after hearing his answer, Francois stood up and walked to the office to see Sebastian and talk about what he learned from Chronos. However, Sebastian was too unsettled to properly diagnose anything on Chronos. Despite not being able to run a standard session, Sebastian still explained to Francois what he saw, and eventually calmed down.

“There is a ghost or demon or whatever you call it, following Chronos. If you think he has a problem, you brought him to the wrong place; you better take him to a church or even to Metan if possible.” –Sebastian seriously requested to Francois.

Outside of the office, Sinns kept staring at Chronos as Gree, who had brought her tablet along with her, tried to research similar instances of what she just saw. Several minutes later, Gree came to the conclusion that what Francois, Sinns, and her saw, was a sort of illusion. These shady sites are not really very trusty; however, I feel this was very real until I blinked. –Gree thought while doing some more research and trying to get to a proper explanation as Francois came out of the office.

“We are going back to the facility. The best thing to do now is to put Chronos under constant custody and this time, instead of testing his capability of muscular growth, we are going to get him to develop his magic. This will most likely give a positive reaction from whatever is attached to him and would be subjected to study. If this doesn’t work, we are going to search for people specialized in ‘spirits’ or whatever Pandora is.” –Francois stated while walking towards the exit of the facility. Everyone nodded and stood up to follow him back to the car.

In the facility, Nat walked out of the workshop after reading some notes Gree left for her in case she wanted to go tinker with the devices on display, clearly explaining the devices had to be in the exact position she left them in order to continue creating or fixing them smoothly. Feeling a bit discouraged, she simply walked back to the living quarters while slowly getting tired after bidding goodbye to the 2 researchers who tagged along with her. Upon reaching the area, she didn’t see Elvira or Phil around so she simply thought they were sleeping. A second before she entered her room to rest, she began to hear some noises resembling slaps, along with grunts and moans, to which she instantly turns to see Phil room’s door and then looked at Elvira's room’s door. Quickly, she went to look for Elvira in her room but found it empty. Oh right… –She thought while instantly understanding what was happening as her face got bright red and silently went back to her room to sleep, wrapping her pillow around her head to cover her ears.

An hour later, Gree, Sinns, and Chronos arrived back at the facility along with Francois. Francois commanded several soldiers and researchers to prepare the training grounds to be able to withstand what Chronos could do, as well as secretly requesting the presence of a priest to one of his subordinates who happened to have connections with the church. Gree almost immediately went to check the workshop and sighed in relief as everything was in the same position she left them, however, she then yawned and walked with Sinns towards the living quarters to rest, while Chronos was sent to receive another general health check to then be released for training after resting. Once on the living quarters, Sinns went straight to sleep as Gree sat on a couch to keep researching about the illusion she saw back in the mental institute. Seemingly Metan is a nation full of this sketchy stuff. If I want to know more about what I saw, I should pay a visit to that kingdom. –She thought while reading an article with similar cases occurring in Metan. A couple of minutes later, A message from Ivan pops up on her tablet, mentioning her about his possible death and how she needs to be aware of the virus. Confused, Gree attempted to reach him through video calls and emails. After several unsuccessful attempts, she simply walks up to Francois’ office and explains the situation.

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