The manipulator is active once more.
After the defeat of Knowledge at the hands of HoloMyth in Victorian England, all five members of the cryptic yet almighty Tenth Council were finally put to rest. A once nameless Grim Reaper names herself "Irys"...
Note: This will be the first chapter of the main story of the AlterMyth sequel - Eleven: The Journey of Irys and the Eleventh Council! It also has a new book cover. Book cover commissioned from the great @Akasuki_iane04 on Twitter. Enjoy!
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Prologue
Under the light of the pale, silver moon, Irys watched the ashen jungle brush shift ever so slightly in the evening breeze. Her one good, purple eye shimmered in the moonlight and she regarded the scene in the dead of night under the incomplete shadow of her tattered reaper's hood.
Her other eye, however, remained permanently closed.
She laid a hand over her shut eyelid and wondered.
It hasn't healed yet? What gives?
Suddenly, the leaves started to rustle and branches snapped underfoot around her. She caught glimpses of olive drab military fatigues brushing against the leaves, branches and vines while combat boots left their marks on the muddy earth. Ten sets of footsteps crossed through the jungle. Irys, meanwhile, followed them a few paces behind.
Every so often, Irys saw helmets covered in camouflage cloth poke out from the brush along with the steely, vigilant gazes of the soldiers who wore them. All of them scanned through the moonlit brush, searching for even the slightest bit of movement. To that end, every single one of them held onto strange, futuristic rifles that Irys had never before seen in her life.
One of the soldiers, a Lieutenant Mumei Nanashi, wore her fair brown hair in a ponytail under her helmet and kept an eye on Irys.
Irys could feel Mumei's gaze on her, almost as if the Lieutenant was an owl eyeing her prey. However, Mumei gestured to her and urged her to not stray from their formation - and to keep her head down.
This girl looks cute, but she's definitely in charge here. At the very least, the soldiers follow her every order. She doesn't even have to speak.
Irys nodded back and complied. She joined the cautious crawl of Mumei and her soldiers through the brush.
The newcomer wasn't a stranger to marches. She had marched many times on campaign under the tutelage of her talented senior Calliope Mori in her Potomac Platoon, but their missions never brought them through the jungle like this. The humidity made her reaper's cloak stick to her body and made her sweat like a faucet. Her cloak got snagged in the branches and her city boots sank uncomfortably in the muddy earth. It made it difficult for her to keep up with the soldiers, even at their snail's pace.
Despite these setbacks, Irys soldiered on and eventually caught up to Mumei and the others.
When Irys drew close, she heard Mumei whispering to her adjutant - a Sergeant Gibson Paul - who wore a strange device on his back like a knapsack. Every so often, she heard Mumei and Sgt. Paul refer to the thing as a 'radio' device.
