DECK Prologue

Chapter 6 - Chrono

 Lind and Atlas bolted through the smoke and ash created by the explosion, carrying with them munitions and weapons looted from the wraiths. Atlas threw a flare at the three remaining angels outside the doorway while Lind dropped a grenade, finishing off the angels. The other two seemed to have run off as the rockets had destroyed the hounds and the last angel.

"Did you check the cameras when we went out?" asked Lind, dodging a shard of stone that missed his head.

"Yeah, the last two angels are in the second angel room, we should get to the first angel room since it should be next to two completely empty rooms," said Atlas while recalling further details from memory.

Lind gave him a supportive nod and smile before dashing and leading the way. After the two got in, they put down their stash of munitions in a pile towards the center of the room before each taking one of the exits to watch.

"Now, I'm sure you're wondering what's going on on the other side of the test, as you should be. Well, they finished their part, and now you guys are on the clock to finish yours!" announced Daedalus, spiking up the volume of his voice towards the end of his narrative.

As the blue ring hit the scale, blobs of light appeared around the place as the speakers rang again. "And now, the finale!" declared Daedalus in a grandiose tone as the sound of him pressing a button could be heard through the speakers. Stage one erupted into explosions as the floor disintegrated, revealing a slowly rising platform containing a giant altar. Next to the altar, two bronze angel statues extended their wings as they lowered their halberds and charged at Lind and Atlas.

"Collect the stars and bring them to the altar, or die trying, now perform!" cheered Daedalus with a beaming smile.

"God I hate his attitude," said Lind through gritted teeth as he readied his swords. There was one star in every room and now the office was an official pain in the ass. Atlas breathed heavily, tapping his foot nervously and gripping his spear tightly.

After spending a few seconds mustering courage, Atlas hollered a war cry before running off into the first wraith room. His whole body started burning with an indomitable flame as he popped a flare and attached it to himself.

First minute. Atlas grimaced as he grabbed the star off the ground and shoved it into his pocket next to the flare. He then ran into the hound room, charging his spear with electricity first before plunging it into the wraith that was waiting there for him. He figured that the wraith waiting in the second wraith room would have been notified of him taking the stars. He grabbed the star before blasting the wraith with a stream of fire and throwing the flare at the wraith, ending it. After catching his breath for a second, Atlas popped another flare and kept on bolting.

Atlas could feel the pressure build up on his mind as he knew that his whole life built up to this moment. From the moment he was on call to this moment right now, he knew that he was built to shine in this exact moment!

"Alea Iacta Est!" muttered Atlas as he charged into the second wraith's room. He knew that the two angels would be there as he dropped the final anti-angel flare he had on him. The angels were paralyzed for the time being but Atlas had different ideas. He gathered as much energy as he could into his spear, overloading it with electricity before plunging it through both of the statues, blowing their internal structure into bits. He then mustered all of his energy to create a huge blast of flame, lighting up the room brighter than the rockets from earlier, burning the angels to a crisp. He then grabbed the star and moved on. As he approached the star in the second angels room, he saw one of the bronze angels standing guard over the star. Atlas was out of weapons and equipment at this point so he made a hail-mary decision to throw his last flare at the statue and take the star and run. Boom!

Atlas's voice managed to make a sound that sounded like a mixture of horror and disbelief as the statue managed to impale him with its halberd right before being frozen. Atlas slowly peeled himself off the sharp bronze ax blade and spearhead. He managed to stay off the ground until he reached down to grab the star, which is when he collapsed. He was all out of fire, as he ran out of energy to heal himself, thus resorting to slowly crawling over to the altar. He threw all of the stars onto the altar before the room went dark. His eyes closed as he could feel the wind behind his back, hearing the fluttering of bronze wings.

Welp, that's over. Daedalus looked down at the camera footage of Atlas dying. He knew that two people were needed to finish the final puzzle. He released a grim smile as his eyes averted from the screen as Lind got out. A sudden explosion drew Daedalus's attention back to the screen, as now Lind was enveloped in a layer of black energy, blasting apart one of the bronze statues into bits and pieces. His jet black sword, manifesting the core of his ability, managed to absorb the statue and grow even stronger, practically flying towards the second statue like a nail to a magnet. After staring at the screen, mesmerized for a few seconds, Daedalus took out his notepad and took out something from beneath his ID badge.

"Ophiuchus, are you sure this is the one?" questioned Virgo, sitting next to him.

"I know AAA rank behavior when I see it!" said Daedalus with a sad smile as he placed the black and gold card into Lind's file.

"So, it's just him and the other two from the other two tests then, isn't it?" said Virgo, slowly shaking her head.

"It is indeed, and that makes it final.