Zendrius stared at the massive structure of stone and metal looming in the mist. “Ok, this may turn out to be a bit harder than I originally thought.”
“I count twenty SAINTs patrolling the area, my lord.”
“Wonderful, any idea what we can expect if we manage to get inside?”
“No my lord, very few beings in Los-Reinar know what lies within the structures built by Juria and most of them only possess that knowledge due to abilities such as astral projection.”
“Damn it, I’d rather not go in blind,” said the young Dannar as he peered at the building.
Zendrius’ vision slowly blackened then shifted, thousands of small red blotches appeared against the universally grey façade of the structure. The blotches were spaciously divided vertically within the structure and as he saw blotches move from one level to another, Zendrius understood. These “farms” were more than just food production plants, they were also home to large populations of humans.
“My lord? Is something wrong?” asked Nessha worried after several minutes of silence.
“It seems I still have a lot to discover of what exactly I unlocked when the first door of my seal was opened.”
“My lord?”
“I can see heat, or at least that’s what I think I see.”
Nessha was silent for a moment then asked, “What do you see when you look at me, my lord?”
Zendrius turned but instead of a dull red blotch he saw a collage of green, blue and cyan. “Well this is different.”
“What do you see?”
Nessha listen quietly as her lord tried to describe what he saw and after he finished she said amazed, “You can see energy.”
“What?”
“My lord, do you remember what I said when we first met?”
“A lot of shit was said that day Nessha, you can’t honestly expect me to remember all of it perfectly,” said Zendrius dryly.
The fallen angel suppressed a smile as she continued, “I told you that if I had not possessed the ability to sense your energy I would have thought you only a peculiar human. Every being emits energy, the ability to sense this energy is quite common in Los-Reinar, the ability to see it, is unheard-of.”
“Yes, yes I’m very special, I get it. More importantly, based on the amount of energy signatures I can see and the space between the stories of the building, I think it is safe to conclude that there aren’t any SAINTs hiding within, well excluding what seems to be the basement.”
“The structure extends underground?”
Zendrius looked down at the hundreds of perfectly arrayed enormous glaucous energies. “Yes, and from what I can tell I think that’s where they keep the durandals.”
“Then we now have our destination, my lord.”
“We do, but it is going to be a bit tricky. You see the basement is way down underground and I’ll bet you a backrub that you can only get there by elevator.”
“Perhaps we should come back another time when we are more prepared?”
“No, I don’t want to waste any time unlocking my seal. Besides, I’m worried about what happened earlier, you youself said that Juria’s patrols normally consists only out of three SAINTs. Why the sudden beefed up security? I don’t like.”
“But my lord, we don’t even have a method of entering that structure without triggering every alarm they have.”
“No matter how powerful those SAINTs are, they are still being controlled by humans and humans need to rest often. Sooner or later the pilots of those SAINTs will have to be replaced by others and from what you’ve told me, it seems that although powerful, these new SAINTs are expensive to produce, otherwise there’d be hundreds of them patrolling every inch of Liquiem. This makes the probability low that they have another twenty SAINTs in there to replace those already out in the field. So when they need to change shifts, they’ll most likely replace the pilots one or two at a time. That will give me the perfect opportunity to sneak in.”
“Don’t you mean that will give us the perfect opportunity to sneak in, my lord?”
“This is going to have to be done with stealth and you are . . . well you sort of stick out. I can still pass for a normal human but you . . .”
“My lord, humans are generally not covered in red flames,” stated Nessha half defiantly.
“Oh that, well I’ve also been doing some training on my own,” said Zendrius before the sanguine flames withdrew into his body.
“What about your silver eyes?” said the fallen angel unfazed.
“I’ll just see if I can’t find some sunglasses or something else to cover them with while I’m in there.”
“My lord I-”
“Nessha, you will at best be able to keep us invisible until we reach the hangar but then what? I’m not leaving you here because I want to, hell I’d much rather have you by my side, but we don’t have the luxury of being picky right now.”
The fallen angel just nodded in submission.
“Here we go,” said Zendrius before he began sprinting towards the structure.
Nessha desperately concentrated to keep her lord hidden as the native mist of Liquiem started to obscure his form.
Although he knew he was invisible, Zendrius kept a safe distance between himself and the patrolling SAINTs as he pursued the one returning to the hangar. The hangar bay door opened just large enough to allow the returning SAINT passage through and began closing the instant it was inside, barely allowing the young Dannar enough time to slip in. Zendrius ducked behind some nearby crates the instant he was inside for he knew that Nessha’s spell would soon be wearing off if it hadn’t already.
The chest of the stationary SAINT unfolded and the suited pilot climbed down. Zendrius found himself wondering what kind of metal allowed itself to be manipulated so freely but left his musing for another time as he inched himself closer.
The man punched in a code on a nearby keypad and a strange eye-like sensor appeared in the wall before an electronic voice announced, “Stand by for biological scan.” After a few second the voice continued, “Human status confirmed, enter.”
Zendrius watched as the wall opened, allowing the man to step through before immediately closing behind him. “Balls.”
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