Embrace The Ether

He held influence with Direfell"s military police, the guards and soldiers who oversaw most of the day-to-day. The fact that he held power over many soldiers, such as Mercer was proof enough of this. Without that power, Elias was next to useless to both the Orion clan and it"s master and would"ve been tossed to the side long ago.

He didn"t possess any overwhelming abilities, he wasn"t even particularly clever. Rol"an used Elias for a simple, linear goal. To access information regarding Direfell"s hive-mind.

He only held his rank as the Orion clan"s number two in name, but no one outside the inner circle of the clan knew this. He couldn"t afford to have anyone find this out, as it would spell disaster for him. Someone who held power in name alone wasn"t worth the effort and would be abandoned the moment they stopped being useful.

Elias knew this, and so he had volunteered for many missions in order to raise his value to both the clan and Rol"an. He had to continuously wear this mask of power, a mere illusion, even if it was truly too shallow to comfortably rely on.

In truth, many of Rol"an"s closest confidants eyed for Elias" position. They"d do whatever they could to topple him, allowing themselves to take his place as Orion"s co-conspirator. Rol"an himself held doubts in Elias and was obviously very quick to toss aside everything that was useless to him.

"I was told this was just another basic heist job… so why…" His voice skipped a beat as panic overtook him. A surge of worry struck at his heart as he glanced back toward his group in secret, distrust and hate apparent on his face. "Have I been betrayed from the inside? Was it Atra who has been watching me… or perhaps Nirox… no, it might even be one of the new blood."

A grunt escaped as he continued to grumble to himself, "I was on edge all this while… thinking I had gotten the better of everyone. I had even changed up the plan for this exact reason… but it didn"t matter."

It was a good thing he had gone to the side before all of this, otherwise, everyone would have noticed the concern and anger on his face as he tried his best to determine who had been sent to observe him. He knew how careful he had been, but nothing was set in stone. "Who even had the opportunity to act against me? h.e.l.l, not even that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Thaddeus, who may as well be dead already, had the chance to find out about my plan. So who…"

He paused for a moment as his sight fell on a single person.

"Deus!" His voice escaped suddenly, even he was surprised at the volume.

Deus glance over at Elias from a distance as he ran over, unsure as to why he was called over. "Elias, what do you want? Were you able to get a message out?"

"Heh…" Elias sputtered out, his voice dried and withheld. "I got the message out… we"re good as usual, my personal reinforcements will come to support us." He emphasized himself on "personal" as to try and catch Deus off-guard.

Deus simply shrugged and nodded, fully accepting of this outcome. "Good to hear. So, we"ll be holding the enemy back while we wait for them? I"m not too sure we can handle for more than a few minutes… it"ll all depend on how much charge is left on those energy shields… it can"t be too much."

"Oh, don"t you worry about that… they"ll hold," Elias answered as he kept his eyes trained on Deus"s expression.

"Fine, just don"t get us killed trying to show off," Deus replied, completely catching Elias by surprise as he walked off.

"That b.a.s.t.a.r.d…" Elias grunted to himself as he watched Deus"s back. "I know your game… you b.a.s.t.a.r.d... you can hide it, but I know you"re sweating, worried your little trick of going behind my back hasn"t paid off."

--

"Droh, keep an eye on Elias… something seems off," Deus instructed to the little Faun as he approached him.

"Why? What did he have to talk about?"

"He seemed fl.u.s.tered, I think he"s trying to find a traitor amongst us, even if one doesn"t exist," Deus explained, "I know for a fact that he withheld something from me… speaking about that, I should warn you beforehand… but you have to stay quiet and calm, or everyone will notice."

"Calm? I"m always calm. No one shows calmness better than me…" Droh replied, half-joking, half-serious.

"Hah," Deus simply shrugged and rolled his eyes, "Sure, mister calm over here. Well, you better not disappoint me, mister calm."

"Alright, alright. So what did you want to warn me about? Did you get your message out to the military captain?" As he asked, Droh"s voice dropped into a whisper.

"Eh, not quite… but you"re not too far off," Deus paused, "After everything had happened, and with Elias killing that centipede, I figured the worst thing I could do is bring a monster like Roch here… I"d be delivery myself and everyone else up on a silver platter…"

"True, killing that worm really caught me off-guard, even we couldn"t have expected that."

"Exactly. From what you"ve told me, those centipedes represent the true power of the Lords, so I doubt handing the people who just killed one over after the fact wouldn"t be the smartest move," Deus explained as his voice hit its lowest, practically a murmur.

"So I changed the message a bit… I sent it to Roland."

"Roland!" Droh shouted out as Deus jumped up and grabbed him, trying to mute him.

"I said don"t be loud," he snapped.

"Ah… sorry… but wait, did you just say Roland? Please tell me you didn"t say that monster"s name…"

Droh"s expression was truly ugly to behold, and it took all he had to simply stay quiet and not break out into a cold sweat. "I don"t think you fully understood me when I told you… don"t trust Roland... ever."

"He was the best option at the time," Deus tried to walk him through his thought process, but to no effect.

"No, you seriously don"t get it... I worked for him for over a year and it was horrible," Droh took in a heavy breath as he began to explain. "I worked as a guide for him, taking him to powerful weapons and artifacts that he could use to either trade for power or simply wield for himself."

"How were you—"

"I"ll explain later. So, he would use me to find his next big treasure, building the power and influence of his clan all the while. There was a secret, though, it was that he didn"t actually care about his clan or it"s future. It existed simply to further his own power."

"Well, I can somewhat understand that…"

"Sure, if that"s all it was, I"d say the same thing. However, it wasn"t. Roland was investigating one rumor, in particular. Not a specific weapon, either, but something more dangerous… I even think this entire job may have something to do with it, to some extent, especially if Roland trusted Elias with a weapon capable of killing a worm."

Deus listened, nodding his head occasionally as Droh spoke.

"Have you heard about Enshil?"

That name caught Deus by surprise, as he had not only heard the name before, but he also knew what had occurred. The name was still fresh in his mind, actually. He nodded.

"I see… so even you hear stuff, good. Enshil fell over an old secret that had been uncovered beneath its capital, where the Lord would usually live. Roland found this out and intended to find this secret, even if it meant his death. For he was hungry for power, regardless of what it was or where it came from, whatever he could get his hands on."

Droh"s face went stern as he began to remember those old events.

"Roland truly was maniacal… but I think I was too, truth be told. I had gotten hungry on power, even if I only got the sc.r.a.ps he tossed me. We had uncovered a secret, one that bound all of the Lords together."

"A secret that bound all Lords? So something related to the Grandmaster, even? What the h.e.l.l did Droh stumble across?" Deus thought, his mind in a panic as he listened, knowing that every word he heard could cause significant ripples to spread throughout the rest of Midnight. Something mighty enough to involve every Lords wasn"t something so trivial that it could be pa.s.sed over, after all.

"You see, the word Mir… it appeared almost everywhere we went, in one way or another."

"Mir?"

"Mhm. I didn"t know what it was or what it meant, but it involved every Lord, from what I could gather. I knew it was terrifying because it had caused that demon Roland to thirst for it deep down, like an uncontrollable l.u.s.t. Only something truly powerful could warp him to such an extent."

"So what was this… Mir? What became of it?"

Droh let out a chuckle as he answered, "That"s the funny part and the reason I"m currently being hunted by Roland. You see, I stole this secret from Roland before he could learn it, something I couldn"t even translate, and hid it. I knew how dangerous it was, and I knew how much blood had been spilled to acquire it up to that point. I regretted everything, but it was too late to do anything besides bury the truth."

"Wait, what!?" This time it was Deus who"s voice turned to a shout, barely catching himself.

"What do you mean? s.h.i.t… s.h.i.t… so I just invited h.e.l.l itself onto us, all in a feeble attempt to outsmart Elias and those Direfell soldiers. I saw enemies in front of me, and I didn"t even consider enemies elsewhere." He knocked himself mentally, cursing at his own stupidity.

"Droh, you have to run, somehow or another."

"Run?" Droh"s ears twitched, "Where would I run in this situation? I knew this day would come… it just seemed to have come sooner than I expected."

Deus froze, shocked at Droh"s acceptance of fate and seemingly lax handling of this terrible situation. "Has he truly accepted this, so easily? No, how could he… this was probably just a bluff so as to make sure that I don"t feel responsible in the end…"

Deus ached deep within his heart. "What can I do to prevent this?"