Chapter 3

Growls and gasps were heard in the room and Kris grumbled, “By who?”

“We don't know. We've never seen anything like them. They appear to be prototypes... prototypes of Akari-sshi's previous form.”

Kris almost punched the wall before pulling his badge off and spoke into it, announcing to the rest of the “able” troops, “We're sending back up. Formation 1.”

Kai and Kyungsoo nodded at each other and disappeared, heading towards the battle grounds above. The male soldier ran off, ready to organize the next group and Kris cursed, “God damn it all. To think they'd attack.”

Kris saw the look in Yixing's eyes and he said, “We'll be safe here still. They won't be able to reach us.”

Yixing nodded and sighed, “But how... how did they manage to find us?”

Kris shook his head. He's as clueless as everyone else. No one had expected this, not after all these years of dormancy. There has been no mention of the empire outside, none at all, except for the sad truth that Clovis had completely taken over and overthrown his own father, killing him with his own hands.

Yixing saw it, the conflict in their leader's eyes and he softly mumbled, “We'll be fine Yifan.”

Kris nodded and sighed, tilting his head backward as he stretched and mumbled, “I suppose so.”

*****

Sehun sighed out of relief as soon as Kyungsoo and Kai managed to take the boy back to safety, but a gleam of light caught his eye as he looked down and noticed a small pearl on the grass. He reached down to pick it up, but suddenly flinched as soon as he made contact with it.

What... What was that? Sehun looked at it again before carefully extending his hand out, and he felt it again, that jolt of energy. It was ridiculously strong and he pulled a piece of his shirt off before wrapping it around the pearl. With the thin barrier between his hand and the object, the amount of energy was still radiating strongly, but not enough to cause him to feel that jolt like earlier.

He frowned and tucked it into his front pocket, but just as he did, there were the sounds of footsteps behind him and he whirled around, narrowly dodging a punch in the gut. Sehun jumped back, his eyes narrowing and before he could question the unknown figure, a gun shot sounded through the air, alerting everyone in the vicinity and the unknown figure looked up in surprise before cursing.

It appeared to contemplate between the idea of running away or fighting, and it chose the latter as it rushed towards Sehun, a small dagger in their hand. Sehun dodged, and landed a sound kick in the stomach, sending the figure flying backwards, crashing into a tree. Sehun stayed ready, and he heard s calling for him. They had heard it, the gunshot, and worried for the safety of their youngest. Sehun quickly mumbled a reply in the wind, sending it off to them, and as he was about to leave the scene, more brown cloaked figures appeared, surrounding the boy.

One stepped forward, pointed to Sehun's heart, where the front pocket rested over, and tapped it twice, before motioning to hand over the pearl, and perhaps his life as well. As if. Sehun thought in his head before slowly gathering the wind around him. The cloaked figure shook their head before dropping his hand, and immediately Sehun was swarmed.

A kick from the right, a punch from the left, a grab from above and another kick from below, Sehun was barely managing to fend them off. Damn it, Sehun cursed, If I get rid of one, another one immediately takes up that spot. There's no escape.

He pushed them back with the wind that he had gathered, creating a small shield around him and the cloaked figures all turned to their commander, clearly scared now that they know Sehun had power. The leader cracked his neck before rushing forward, easily breaking through the barrier. Sehun jumped back, and threw his hands forward, sending a whirlwind towards them. They were momentarily stunned, and at that moment, he took off, his feet pounding the floor beneath him as he made his escape back towards the open grassland, where he knew he'd have back up.

As soon as he made it out, he was faced with cloaked figures everywhere, fighting against his very own members and Suho noticed him and called out, “Sehun! Formation 1!”

Sehun nodded, sprinting to the center of s where Baekhyun stood and the two nodded their heads as Baekhyun created a flash of light, blinding their opponents. At that very moment, Sehun crafted a path of wind that encompassed their enemy as Suho and Chanyeol used their respective powers, following the path of wind and attacking their enemies within it.

The cloaked figures crumpled up, and instead of falling to the floor, the cloaks burned into ashes, leaving no trace of any remains behind. The members all looked at each other and Suho mumbled, “They're not human.”

“Correct, they aren't,” the cloaked figure from before spoke. It was the same one that attacked Sehun and he pointed to Sehun once more, “Hand over the Soul and we'll let you live.”

They all looked at Sehun, confused, and Sehun looked at his front pocket. That thing is a soul? And as though the cloaked figure could read Sehun's mind he mumbled, “Clueless brat doesn't even know what he happened to find. Hand it over.”

Sehun shook his head, his right hand clenched over it, and he taunted, “Over my dead body, fatso.”

The simple insult enraged the cloaked figure and immediately he rushed forward, completely deflecting Suho's water and Chanyeol's fire, and Sehun was unprepared for that ridiculous speed, and fell to the ground. The endless amount of punches barely missed Sehun as he was able to quickly set up a shield of wind, redirecting the attacks away from him. Sehun pushed him off and looked around, noticing each member was fighting on their own against the endless army of brown cloaked figures. His eyes widened as he noticed even the reinforcements weren't enough to stop the army of unknowns.

“It's your first taste of war isn't it, Brat?” the figure spat out. The hood had fallen and revealed a charred face with a wicked and sinister smile plastered onto it. His teeth were jagged and almost seemed carnal and he snarled, “I'll let you and your pathetic group of wanna-be heroes face the consequences of going against the empire.”

He pulled out a gun, or what looked like one. The gun appeared translucent, but at the same time an opaque green. It shimmered and glimmered as the energy within it clearly pulsed through, waiting to be released and to wreck havoc among the world. The cloaked figure laughed and said, “I bet you haven't seen one of these have you? Ants like you will never understand the true meaning of power.”

Sehun surveyed the surrounding around him once more. He was practically surrounded, and no one was able to make their way through. He got into position and the man growled, “I'll let you taste it, the meaning of true power. Power that is meant to destroy.”

Sehun was about to attack when he felt himself be pulled down to the spot, and his comrades around him voiced the same cry. They were stuck in place due to a strong gravitational pull. Kyungsoo tried to break the ground around them, hoping that perhaps the change in elevation will give them some hope, but even then he couldn't move. Not a single cell in their body was able to move from their place and the man chuckled, “Say your farewells, not like you can though.”

The gravitational pull increased by tenfold, causing them to all fall to the ground, unable to move and the trigger was pulled. Sehun watched as a giant black blob formed in front of the gun, but before it could do anything, the blob was cut in half, surprising every one in the area.

There was a sudden crash into the ground and dust erupted from everywhere, covering everyone's vision. But at that moment, Sehun felt it, the gravitational pull was gone and he weakly stood up as everyone else did.

“What the hell?!” the man cursed, covering his face from the enormous amount of dust in the air. As it cleared, a teenager stood at the center of the impact and his black hair was slightly damp, but he shook it off carelessly before flashing a small smirk towards the enemy and the man snarled, “And who the hell do you think you are?”

The teenager looked around, pretending to think the question wasn't directed at him before pointing at himself and cheekily smiling. The smile faded away into a cruel smirk and he answered, “Me? I'm your worst nightmare.”