Chapter 514: My Seniors Might Be Spies For An Evil Organization [II]

I didn’t have a good feeling about this.

If the handler really was either Vereshia or Aarav, I didn’t want it to be her. Gods knew how deep her influence ran in Apex as its Cadet Council President.

But that was exactly what made her the prime suspect.

Think about it.

Amongst everyone, she’d have the easiest time smuggling things in and out of the Academy, editing or expunging logs, and orchestrating the logistics required for a shadowy group like the Crimson Guild to operate right under the Central Monarch’s nose.

From what I had seen of her already, I could tell she was meticulous and competent. She also practically lived in the administrative wing of the Academy.

If anyone could hide a conspiracy in plain sight, it was Vereshia De Morrigan.

I stole a quiet glance at her.

She was tracing the holographic lines of Iron Height with a steady finger and noting down some things on a tablet, her face hard in concentration.

Aarav, on the other hand, was relaxing now after finishing his coffee. His chin rested on his palm as he lazily stared out the window, gazing at the passing cloud cover.

He looked so unbothered by the impending war zone.

I decided to follow his lead and kick back to get some sleep.

•••

What woke me up from my comfortable nap was a sudden drop of the aircraft that lifted me a few inches out of my leather seat, snapping my seatbelt tight against my chest.

"Whoa!" I blurted out, my vision still blurry from sleep as I grabbed the armrests before my body was slammed back into the seat.

The cabin lights turned from a warm ambient glow to flickering red for a few seconds before turning normal again.

Outside the tinted glass, the clear night sky was gone, replaced by a swirling soup of black-grey clouds illuminated by silent streaks of purple lightning.

"Relax, sleeping beauty," said Vereshia from... somewhere behind me. I craned my neck and looked around to see her standing at the end of the cabin. She was strapping in her boots. And though she tried to look nonchalant, one of her hands was gripping the nearby handrails tightly. "We just exited the Central Safe-Zone. It was probably some beast clipping the jet’s external energy shields. It happens. We’re in hostile airspace now."

Right.

I don’t know how much you remember about the world’s history, so I’ll help jog your memory.

500 years ago, with the arrival of Rifts and Essence, every landmass on Earth collided to form one giant supercontinent. Many new islands also emerged, and the shape of the world was forever changed.

The rest of the story is pretty cliché. If you’ve read literally any urban fantasy or hunter web novel, you know how the script goes.

Monsters poured out of the Portals, humanity panicked, our tech became useless, and then humans awakened magic to fight back.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Standard fantasy tropes 101.

Civilization was reestablished eventually, after a long period of restless chaos and senseless carnage called the Dark Times.

The first five Monarchs were the ones who pulled humanity out of the mud. They carved out safe havens and drew the borders we live by today.

It was established pretty early on, when the apocalypse hit Earth, that SSS-rank was the highest Soul Rank a human could reach.

But even by the standards of SSS-rankers, those first five Monarchs were gods. Their souls were so impossibly vast that the Spiritual Pressure they exerted on reality was enough to blanket entire continents.

Let that sink in.

They were able to cover entire continents with their Spiritual Pressure. Or Spirit Force. Or their Will, whatever you may call it.

For reference, even the strongest SSS-ranker aside from the Monarchs could only exert their Spiritual Pressure over a couple of cities at best. These people were already deemed natural disasters. They were the ten Dukes.

And aside from the Dukes, barely any SSS-ranker’s domain spanned more than a few dozen miles.

​So yeah. The five Monarchs weren’t just powerful. They were literally the pillars of modern civilization post-Dark Times.

Their Spiritual Pressure acted as an oasis — a physical barrier keeping the monster-infested wilderness from swallowing humanity whole.

But even as powerful as they were, they weren’t literally gods. They had limits too. Even their mountainous Spiritual Pressure couldn’t cover every single inch of the world.

Their descendants, and the descendants of their descendants — the Monarchs who ruled the world today — were the same.

Actually, I could argue that the Monarchs of today were actually stronger than their progenitors because the current Monarchs had used a substantial portion of their Spiritual Pressure to forge the chains that had imprisoned Vaeghar atop the Caldera of the Moon Eater in the Noctveil Wilds.

Even then, they could comfortably protect the five Safe-Zones.

But the problem came when you had to leave those Safe-Zones. Because beyond these oases were two types of territories.

First were Conquered Regions. Human settlements could be found here. These regions would pledge their loyalty to a neighbouring Monarch, and in return that Monarch would treat these lands as an extension of their domain.

But since those Regions weren’t actually a part of any Safe-Zone, the reigning Monarch couldn’t stretch their Spiritual Pressure over them. Instead, Knights and Hunters would be deployed there from time to time to close the Rifts and clear the beasts.

Kandara, the region that housed Ishtara, was an example of this.

The second type of territory was Unclaimed Lands. Humanity didn’t have a foothold here. Most of these uncharted, barren regions were classified as proper Death Zones, full of beasts and Portals.

Anyway, I’m digressing.

The point is that when you leave a Safe-Zone, you also leave the Monarch’s protection. It was one of those things you’d never notice until you crossed that invisible threshold.

In the absence of a Monarch’s Spiritual Pressure shrouding you and your surroundings, reality felt thinner and far less stable.

Like, any moment the fabric of space would tear open.

The difference was the warmth of a mother’s embrace versus standing out in the middle of a road during a harsh winter night.

And yet, even through all that, Aarav kept sleeping.

Even as our jet was attacked again by some wild aerial beast, making the entire aircraft lurch to the side and sending my stomach flying into my throat, Aarav... kept sleeping. The guy was even snoring and mumbling in his dreams!

What the fuck? How?!

Was his innate ability being unconscious?

"Get used to it," Vereshia said amusedly, making her way down the aisle toward her seat. She gathered her things before throwing a cushion at Aarav.

Finally, the dusky boy gasped awake, bolting upright and eyes darting around wildly as he wiped a line of drool from his chin. "What? What? Is the jet going down? Are we dead?"

Vereshia turned to continue packing. "We’ve entered Kandara’s airspace. From here, the ETA to our destination is five minutes. Start getting ready for deployment."