EQUINOX || The Catalysts Series, #3

XXXII

Immediately, an alarm blasts through the City.

Lena realises that it's because their Annual Games arena is erected so high that she's able to hear the alarm wailing in the distance. They not only have a bird's eye view of the entire City of Leatia—the Static and the five sectors—they are similarly the first ones made aware of any developments in the City through sound just as well as sight.

In the distance, she sees it—the same rift, now hovering above several beautifully build high-rises, threatening to blow.

Grandmaster Alizeh demands, "What is the meaning of this?!"

"We had a deal," Azrael says slowly.

The two figures about to disappear through the portal halt, frozen. Belladonna doesn't look back; Erebus tilts his head slightly, pulling his mouth into an evil grin. "You may not be our enemies today... but there are others who have wronged us."

Then they disappear, whiffing into the black hole, a part of the stadium disappearing with them.

When the remaining dark smoke clears itself, Grandmaster Alizeh turns to Arcana. "You're just going to let them go?"

The headmaster of Arcane Academy seems calm even as he stares at the growing rift in the distance, somewhere to the southwest. It's a stain in the beautiful sky, an anomaly that somehow reminds Lena of that monstrous tear frozen in the sky back in Andromeda Sector. She shudders at the memory, afraid. The proximity of the rift is no longer a threat to them, but by tainting the sky somewhere else, Lena can't stop the dread building up; even if they are not the targets today, someone else is going to fall victim.

Just as it occurs to Lena that Arcana is much too calm for this turn of events, realisation dawns on Grandmaster Alizeh too. He'd known, or at least predicted this turn of events.

"You predicted something was going to happen," she accuses. "And you let it, without a fight."

"They are the Shadow Syndicate," Arcana reminds her, not an expression revealed on his demeanour. "They don't make deals. This is already more than I can hope for; my students are safe, that's what matters most here." He turns to the wider audience of stunned students, looking at them through the destruction. Somehow, his voice travels through the arena as he advises, "Please report down to the Arcane Academy fields."

They have to take the descent and reappear back in the academy at ground level, retreating back to the safety of the academy's dimensional perimeter. Most of the students are stunned still, but they eventually move, albeit groggily, in an orderly sort of system that Lena finds quite intriguing. They don't panic despite this being not a demon drill. Whether the students are still recovering from the aftershock or whether they are used to these kind of situation and do not panic as how citizens do not panic upon seeing an enraged demon set on destruction... Lena isn't clear which unsettles her more.

The professors and instructors appear, helping guide the students back to safety. They comply; an efficient routine starting from the students who were competing near the arena and those who have already won and transported somewhere safe. Then they start with the students at the audience, directly opposite from Lena's current position. No others move, patiently awaiting for further instructions even if some of them—very much like Lena, who can't stop fidgeting with her fingers—are obviously twitchy. Looks like there's still some time before she'll be able to move.

Not like they are in any danger, but a quick glance toward the sky at where the rift had just reappeared tells Lena that Delphinus Sector however, is. Even if Lena doesn't have any ties to Delphinus, she's fearful of what this implies. With each blink there's a different reality; her eyes constantly flash between the current rift and that particular scene back in Andromeda Sector.