Blood Queen Reborn

The cave entrance collapsing in front of them had brought on a bit of a surreal feeling, like as if they entered a magical world that they couldn’t return back to. Even the mysterious city inside felt unreal.

The sights of the blue crystals growing on the walls, the furnitureless buildings, and lastly, Arthur.

Even though it was possible for Quinn or Vorden to use their abilities to try to come back, there was an unspoken sense that the cave entrance closing was a sign to keep it secret. Arthur himself likely destroyed them to ensure that the remnants of the Punisher settlement would stay hidden.

"NOOOO!"

Immediately, everyone turned around to find a group of travelers all staring at the now closed off cave entrance.

"We leave for a few minutes, and come back to the entrance blocked?" A bald headed man said.

"I’m sure there’s another entrance around," the younger man said of the group.

A woman with a bow on her back came up to the group, and asked, "Were you kids also trapped inside?"

The group all looked at each other, and shook their head.

"No, weren’t inside."

"Dang, we’re going to need to find another entrance then," One of the members said, "Can you kids find your way back?"

"My ability will help us find our way back," Logan stated as he held up his watch.

The fact that stated a level 8, the traveler group understood him as an Original, and trusted their capabilities. They left the kids alone, and headed around the mountain, searching for other entrances. Meanwhile, Erin’s group returned to the settlement.

—

Within the underground town, Arthur wanted to investigate its state, and investigated to see for himself if the Punishers were truly gone.

’I’ve recovered more of my energy, and I still cannot sense any other shadow users,’ Arthur thought, ’Have they all been hunted down, and when? It has been long enough for that girl to not know what the Punishers are.’

It was a perplexing thought, one that Arthur couldn’t figure out.

’And she told me about a book on another planet. Although it was expected for most families to keep an ability book hidden away from others, we did no such thing. The girl did not seem like the kind of person to lie, perhaps brutally honest at times, so it leads to the question of how it got there.’

However, despite his best efforts, he couldn’t find any clues about what happened to his people. It was as if it was paused in time.

’If I intend to keep this place hidden, I should do well to restrain my aura,’ Arthur thought, ’Those kids were nearly suffocating just by my mere presence.’

Still, if he couldn’t find anything in the city, then he needed to take his investigation elsewhere.

—

At the same time, the military staff were doing a headcount of the classes who had returned to the shelter. Due to certain events surrounding a pair of missing students, the expedition was put on hold for the time being, and all of the teachers were told to return.

From the very edge of his ability’s range, Leo sensed a powerful presence, but just as quickly as it came, it disappeared. If he didn’t know any better, he would’ve thought it just his imagination.

"Hmm..."

Leo let it be for the time being, but he was still going to keep watch of the local area.

"Alright, I believe that’s everyone," Faye said as she came up to a few military officials, "Are you sure we should keep going with this expedition? We’ve had more deaths here than most orange portal expeditions, and if the reports are correct, this planet may contain beasts too dangerous for the kids to go through."

"Orders are orders," A man in uniform responded, "This is an orange portal expedition, deaths are to be expected."

Faye bit her tongue. The deaths of students was something she never enjoyed seeing, but it wasn’t like she could tell the current Head General what her opinions on all of this were. She could only hope that after further discussion that they would change their mind.

’But with the threat of the dalki so close, I doubt it.’

Returning to the center of the shelter, Faye got up onto a podium, and looked at the swath of students who were all waiting for a response.

Clearing her throat, Faye shouted, "Alright everyone, we will be resting here for the night. I am sure some of you have heard the news, but the expedition is put on hold for the day due to a report from a few students. Further information about the state of the expedition will be told tomorrow after some discussion amongst us adults."

"For the time being, please refer to the tree houses south of here marked by the school’s insignia. There will be military staff guiding you as to where to go. You are dismissed."

Immediately, murmurings amongst the students began.

"A report? What happened?" A boy said.

"Didn’t you hear? A bunch of students died in Del’s class."

"No, that can’t be it, right?" Another student said, "I heard that there were a pair of students who apparently saw something powerful on this planet. They apparently looked like they’d seen a ghost."

"There’s dangerous things all the time on other planets, what could they have seen?"

Back when Cia and Peter returned to the shelter, they were interrogated about what had happened. They told them the general gist about what they went through, how they got separated from their class, and more, but when it came to details about the underground city, they didn’t reveal everything, only that they had encountered a powerful looking beast in a cave, and nearly escaped with their lives.

Peter had kept the secret about the city because he feared it might’ve been related to his friends’ own secrets, but Cia kept quiet for her own reasons. Although Peter didn’t know why, he was grateful she stayed silent.

It was due to this interrogation that the military staff believed they came across something that was either king tier, or higher. They couldn’t tell the exact tier for sure as Peter and Cia’s descriptions weren’t detailed, but then there was the other report done by the travelers who had stated the same mountain the missing students came from was now blocked.

After that, Cia and Peter were let go. They were told to head to the tree houses to stay the night with the other students. As they were crossing the bridges, Quinn saw Peter, and walked up to him, happy to see he was alive.

"It’s good to see you again," Quinn said with a soft smile, then slightly tilted his head, "What happened to your glasses?"

"My glasses?" Peter questioned, "I’m just wondering how you survived the fall!"

Quinn quickly glanced at Cia next to Peter, and simply said, "I used my rock armor to take the blow."

Peter exhaled, "That makes sense, but... dang, Me and Cia had a pretty long day. I’m sure you’re wondering why we came across your class, but basically, we fell into a river, but broke our legs, so we decided to try to get help and—"

At that point, Cia got between the two boys, and pushed them aside, "That’s enough, I’m sure we’re all really tired," Then Cia took a sniff of the air, and waved her nose, "and YOU could use a shower."

"Ah right," Peter said, scratching the back of his head, "Talk to you later?"

Quinn yawned, "Yeah. It’s been a long day for me as well."

They left for their assigned tree houses, and Quinn found himself assigned to a single room built entirely out of wood. There were a pair of beds as well as a table to put their belongings.

Despite the military base dorms being gender separated, Quinn was actually paired up with Erin. They didn’t talk much as a lot had happened, and all they wanted was a nice pillow to rest their heads on.

—

That morning, Erin woke up early. Perhaps too early, as the bright sun shone through the cracks of the wood onto her eyes. It was a little annoying, but she took it as a sign to get to training with her new sword before everyone else got up.

However, she had to put a pin in that as she heard a woman crying nearby. Exiting the tree house, Erin found a woman with dark brown skin wearing a bandana over her red braided hair. Her back was turned to her, so Erin couldn’t see her face, but what she did know was that the woman was talking to Del.

"Why should we send someone to help?" Del sneered, "You know we can’t just send our precious resources for frivolous tasks, and it’s too goddamn early in the morning."

Despite this, the woman persisted, "Please, you have to send someone, my daughter is missing!"

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