The group was still catching their breath from the adrenaline on the square, when the stone floor beneath their feet split open without warning; making no loud crack, but rather the hissing sound of receding matter. Before Silarias, Nyx, or any of the others could draw their weapons, they lost their grip on reality, falling through a boundary in space itself. The drop lasted barely a second, until the entire group landed with a synchronized, dull thud on heavy, velvet-upholstered chairs at a massive, completely empty table of dark wood. At the head of the table sat King Solomon, bolt upright; his gaze was fixed tightly on the group, as he spoke with a heavy voice that softly echoed in the walls: “You have all gathered here because times have changed!”
Nyx narrowed her eyes into slits, leaning forward slightly to study her father’s face, wondering why he was so tense, while her fingers tapped restlessly on the armrest. Silarias noticed her tense look; he wanted to subtly give her a soft nudge against her leg under the table to get her attention, but he misjudged the distance in the strange twilight and kicked forward with full force!
KLABAM!
Ren flew backward along with his chair, landing with his paws in the air on the hard floor. “Oh shit!” Silarias blurted out, after which he looked startled at the struggling beasthuman, immediately trying to recover himself: “No, uh… poahh… did you guys feel that vibration too? The ground is really unstable here!” Nyx whipped her head around toward him, her tight gaze shifting into a mix of disbelief and suppressed amusement, after which she whispered: “What in the world is this, Sil?” Silarias looked back sheepishly, bursting into a soft laugh: “Haha… uh, honestly? No idea! We know just as much as you do right now.”
King Solomon cleared his throat loudly to restore discipline immediately: “Uh… ehm. So! Let us begin at the beginning.” He raised his right hand into the air and snapped his fingers, causing everyone to hold their breath. The silence lingered for seconds, but just as Beat was about to open his mouth for a laconic remark, a delayed, crystal-clear echo of the snap sounded from the furthest, darkest corner of the space! The sound rolled over them like a wave, and the walls of the ward immediately began to bend, liquify, and dissolve like ink in water. The familiar stone walls gave way to an infinite marble structure bathed in a cool, unearthly light, making Nyx half rise from her chair, looking up at the monumental pillars with wide eyes: “Wait a minute… this is the Divine Plain?” The room grew brighter by the second, until above the table, the shadows formed into the contours of a giant, three-headed dog whose heavy breathing made the air vibrate, with a stately woman directly beneath it, flanked by an assistant wearing the robes of a traditional monk. Nyx looked at the woman with a completely dry, speechless glare, only managing to utter: “Wait… mom?”
After King Solomon and Queen Abysia took the time to officially introduce themselves to the rest of the team, a quiet, deep introduction followed, in which Nicola bowed formally with a scanning look at the queen’s attire, while Lyn showed her respect with a firm handshake. Abysia’s stern expression melted away completely, however, when her eyes fell upon Miki and Ren; she stepped up to the two young humans, leaning forward, after which the little ones quickly shook off their tension, beginning to jump around her, insanely happy and enthusiastic! As Solomon watched on, laughing at his wife playing with the kids, Abysia casually turned halfway toward her husband, saying in passing: “Did you know, by the way, that our son-in-law was a Hydra? His mother is a Morstarning, no less.” King Solomon froze mid-motion, after which his eyes lit up with pure excitement, whipping around toward Silarias: “Wait, what?! What are the odds! Kid, you are the unluckiest and the luckiest guy allowed to walk around here! The burden is heavy, but wow!” Abysia looked at her husband dryly, adding coldly: “Not only that… my double agent is his cousin.” Solomon could no longer hold it in, bursting into a loud laugh: “What kind of havoc is that beast, haha!”
At the long table, the hand of Faustus slowly went up, sitting bolt upright in his chair: “Ehh… me, your highness! Faustus.” Solomon instantly went full-on out-geeked, losing his royal composure like snow before the sun: “Oh! The Faust! SLINGERMAN! They wrote complete stories about you in the archives! There are even toys made of you, did you know that?!” In the middle of his enthusiasm, a bright light suddenly began to pulsate in his inner pocket, accompanied by a sharp, mechanical sound as his communication crystal went off! Solomon startled, quickly turned his back to the group, trying to subtly answer the incoming projection while muttering in a soft voice, but the crystal was far too powerful; the voice of the assistant rang out clearly through the Divine Plain: “Two more Slingerman figures came in, your highness! Did you still want both for the collection?” Solomon froze, turning around with a red face toward the table: “Pff… oh, wrong one!” In his panic, however, he had not realized that the connection was still wide open, causing the assistant to flash brighter and yell: “YOUR HIGHNESS, YOU ARE FORGETTING TO END IT AGAIN!”
Nicola sat on the other side of the table with his eyes glued to the shiny, magical object, as the technology and the data streams triggered his brain:
I HAVE TO ASK HIM WHAT THAT IS!
Nicola thought, possessed, his fingers already trembling to grab his notepad. King Solomon was now scared out of his mind, grabbed the crystal tightly, and roared into the microphone: “TAKE THEM BOTH!” With a wild swing, he hurled the crystal into the air, after which his palms lit up with bright, glowing symbols, shooting the crystal into thousands of glittering pieces with a short, focused energy blast! Nicola’s face instantly fell, his tech heart breaking at the sight of that pure, unnecessary destruction of valuable equipment.
Solomon regained his royal posture, straightened his cloak, and looked at the group again with a tight gaze, after which the atmosphere instantly shifted, as he began spelling out the new, tactical goals outside the safe walls of the ward to make the alliance stronger. As he stood up and the portal behind him began to open with roaring, golden energy, he looked intently at Silarias and the rest, his voice now devoid of any humor: “You realize you do not have long before the prince’s Berserker arrives! Within a day or two, you must be at the University. And even though you are the youngest group we are sending… you are one of the first! Just slightly faster than that other newcomer, Vulkan.” He raised his hand, looking at them one last time before stepping through the portal: “Questions?”
The silence that followed lasted precisely one second, after which the table exploded into a storm of chaos, in which everyone began shouting at the same time! Miki and Ren jumped wildly up on their chairs, their voices tumbling over each other in a mad hunt for answers about the menu: “What kind of food do they have there?! Do they have candy too?! How do the desserts taste at the university?!” they screamed in sync, while Nicola waved his arms wildly at Solomon to rise above the childish ecstasy, launching his administrative questions about the up-to-date status of the magical library and the specific measuring instruments in the laboratories. His voice was immediately drowned out, however, by a loud thud on the wood, when Lyn slammed her fist on the table, boisterously demanding details about the quality of the anvils and the hammers in the forges, while right beside her, Apollo and Beat kept rattling on in an endless stream of words about restrictions, asking whether they were allowed to use their powers in the hallways.
In the middle of that rising noise, Silarias and Aurelius sat completely sealed off in their own bubble of pure adrenaline; they did not even hear the questions around them, exchanged a hard high-five, and grinned broadly: “We are faster than Vulkan! Nice!” laughed Silarias, fully hyped by the lead, unaware of the fact that Jane, Nyx, and Lila on the other side of the table were losing their minds! The remark that they would be the absolute freshmen of the university had short-circuited their brains immediately, making them stare at each other with wide, panicked eyes, as Jane began gesturing wildly with her hands to visualize her fear: “The youngest group?! That means we will soon be sitting in lecture halls with nothing but a bunch of dusty, dried-up senior citizens! We are literally going to sit among fossils!” Nyx slapped her hands over her face with a deep sigh, while Lila turned pale as a sheet, nodding violently in agreement at the thought of their future classmates, completing the chaos at the table while the golden portal behind King Solomon began to roar brighter and brighter!
King Solomon looked at the exploding chaos at the table; he could no longer hold it in and burst into a roaring laugh, his booming voice rolling over the noise of the arguing girls and the questioning little ones: “Ahhh, time will tell, people! There is nothing I can do about any of that right now at this moment!” He laughed, dismissing the storm of questions about candy, hammers, and senior citizens with a casual hand gesture, although his smile quickly faded as he fixed his gaze tightly on the center of the table.
The atmosphere shifted instantly when he transitioned to the official plan, making the marble table light up with a fluid hand movement, displaying a pulsating, strategic map showing the alliance with Abysia and the exact, vulnerable position of their ward in the grander scheme of things. “Look closely,” Solomon spoke, his voice now heavy and commanding as the lines of light flashed across the faces of the group: “Your safe haven now lies exposed, and the enemy has set his sights on these coordinates. But that is not your biggest concern.” He leaned far over the table, his shadow falling over Silarias and Nyx as he began talking about the approaching Berserker, whose mere name made the golden runes on the walls vibrate softly: “You must understand who you are dealing with! He is not just any warrior; he is the very first Aetherheart, one of the first prehistoric humans to ever wear an anting. His power stems from the primeval age of this world, and his hunger for the vessel is limitless!”
Before Silarias or Aurelius could even process the weight of those words, the Divine Plain was suddenly shaken by three bright, blinding flashes of light that struck the floor right beside the table like lightning strikes! The pressure in the room rose instantly, making the chairs tremble and the air crackle with purple residual energy, as the flashes died away with a loud bang.
When the view cleared, three figures sat with a dull thud on the marble floor, heavily chained in glowing, magical shackles that cut deep into their flesh with every movement. They were Alec’s three scouts, breathing hoarsely, their clothes smeared with the dust of the outside world, their eyes darting wildly about, full of pent-up fury and fear as they realized where they had ended up.
Queen Abysia took a step forward with terrifying, stately composure, as the three-headed dog above her bared its jaws, letting out a low, menacing growl that went straight through bone and marrow. She let her cold gaze slip disdainfully over the trio, visibly enjoying the sudden silence that had fallen over the table, breaking the tension with a voice that sounded like cutting glass: “Oh yes… and then we still have these miscreants. What are we going to do with these?”