Dion's pocket watch ticked. "Thirty-two, thirty-one, thirty… Where the hell are they?"
Zephyr whispered along side him. "They'll be here soon."
Dion bit his nails. It was a bad habit he had when anxious.
Suddenly, the doors to the entrance of the outpost flew open. The surrounding guards all jumped into a salute to great their guild master. Kaelthar stepped into the hall.
Dion's eyes grew wide. "Shit… he should've left by now!"
"Sir! No one has come in or out of the holding block!"
Kaelthar moved by the reporting solider. "They're opening the cells now. Be prepared to hold them back."
"Y-yes sir!"
Dion hissed. "Of course he'd know… he could sense their aura moving from an absurd distance…"
Kaelthar approached the door to the holding block. "I'll wrangle them. Take care of any stragglers."
They saluted once more. "Yes sir!"
Kaelthar swung the door open. A God with a golden visage met him on the other side.
Velocis was leaned against the wooden doorframe. "Fancy seeing you here."
Kaelthar ignored him, and tried to squeeze by him down the stairwell. Velocis quickly responded by blocking his path.
"Ah, you wound me! Are you not at least interested in-"
Suddenly, a blinding speck of light emerged on Velocis shoulder, and then imploded. Kaelthar jumped back and covered his eyes while Velocis screamed in pain, falling back into the stairwell.
"Divine Judgement… That must have been considered interfering with the game."
Velocis reeled as he tried to pick himself back up, but a little spark of lightning reflecting in his eye kept him frozen in place.
Lyra bounded from the wall and up the stairwell. Entering the main hall, all eyes turned to her. Despite moving at an incredible pace, despite how time stopped moving, Kaelthar's eyes were tracking her.
There was no time to think. The sheer pressure Kaelthar emitted was enough kill her.
One moment she was there, the next the entrance to the main hall had been blown open.
"Get Special Unit 13! Don't lose sight of them!" Kaelthar sprinted out of the entrance.
Dion rubbed his face. "Fuck!" He moved along the beams to the windows. Peering down, he noticed the ground became scorched. Following the trail with his eyes, he saw the Eternal Flame now airborne with a boost of flames behind him.
He looked down into the hall watching the guild members scramble while rampant prisoners poured in from the door. Zephyr began to panic. "Hey, what do we do!? He's gonna kill them both if we don't do anything!"
Dion scanned the floor. "They're not what I'm worried about. If she's smart she'll just keep running until he loses her. Ray should be faster than any kind of flying he can do. What I'm worried about is Special Unit 13."
"W-what's Special Unit 13? I never heard about them before."
Finally, Dion spotted a man with a tattoo down his arm: "Hermes"
"Because they've only been rumored to exist. They haven't been in action in so long people began to forget them. But they're real, and effective. Kaelthar considers them overkill, and a sign of weakness if he can't handle it himself. The fact that he's calling for them means we're fucked. But him, down there," Dion pointed to the man. "He's the Hermes. If we kill him, we can at least delay 13's hunt."
"A-and that's it? What about Lyra and Ray?"
"I told them to meet us at Eyrndria, They'll meet us there."
"They might not make it to-"
"Then that's on them! I told them to wait, if they die, then they die! If they want to even stand a chance in this world I can't babysit them!"
Before Zephyr could respond, Dion dropped down into the chaos below, swiftly blending in with the mix of the crowd. He moved his way through the panicked soldiers and trailed the man.
"Hermes". A messenger. A speed-focused Champion that can quickly spread a message at the will of the Eternal Flame. Now, the Hermes was getting ready to grab the location and the message for Special Unit 13.
The Hermes passed through room after room, entering the self labeled Hermes' room. Inside, he grabbed a form listing what he needed. Who was the target and where were they last seen. Special Unit 13's form was unusually short compared to the other units, mostly because they had their own form of reconnaissance that would make the paper redundant.
However, the paper was now covered in the Hermes' blood. Dion rummaged through their clothes looking for something. Eventually he pulled out a small ball decorated with the decal of wings on each side. On the front was something like a speaker. He quickly pocketed it and began cleaning up the bloodied office.
On the other side of the Zone, Lyra barreled through brushes and leaves, narrowly avoiding the trees. Ray was wrapped around completely, desperately trying to hold on. Small cuts and pricks appeared on both of them in bulk.
She couldn't tell if they were going any faster, or if Ray had hit his limit, but every time she looked behind her she could see that glowing orange hue in the sky.
Unknowingly and unwillingly, Lyra had crossed the barrier and left the Eternal Flame's Zone. Bursting through the barrier sent an awful feeling through her. Her vision was blurry. The humid air and the dilapidated soil began to throw her off balance. She didn't have time to waver, the Eternal Flame grew closer.
Darting across the open land, she saw a barren dessert. She either had to stay in this disgusting dead zone, or brave the dessert. She wasn't sure if she'd be able to handle another Zone Shift, but she didn't have time to think, she just would.
Bursting through the barrier once more, her shoes touched the burning sand. The heat was more than she had anticipated, but she could do this. She had to.
Suddenly, her back got much lighter, and her feet much slower. Ray collapsed on his back over the sand.
"Ray! no, no no no!"
She quickly ran to pick him up, but he was completely unresponsive. His cheeks were flushed green with sweat pouring down his face. Without his speed, they had no chance of escaping the Eternal Flame.
Landing with a cloud of sand blowing in the air, Kaelthar drew his axe.
"I expected Dion to betray me, but I didn't expect he would before I sent that pest away."
Lyra clutched Ray as she hopelessly backed up, drawing her dagger and shakily pointing it at Kaelthar.
Each step forward shook Lyra's vision.
"Ah, you are the Champion of the God of Wind, aren't you?"
Lyra kept pushing away while Kaelthar moved one step at a time.
"Yes, you look just like him. Zephyr was always the sentimental type. Maybe he'll bring me your mother next? or maybe your siblings?"
Lyra could barely push against the sand. "You... You don't know Zephyr!"
Kaelthar took his axe and smacked Lyra's dagger out of her hand.
"I know all I need to. He is a fool for a God. He brought a weak and pathetic man into this Game, and then he brought his equally pathetic daughter. You can't even run away without the help of a child."
Lyra couldn't see through her tears. "Please... Ray..."
Kaelthar raised his axe.
"The God of Wind will join you soon."
He activated the Soulfire Axe's skill and swung down.