The Orion Project (Rewrite) (indefinite hiatus)

Chapter 42

Three days later...

Devon leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. He could feel the hum of the engines purr through the hull of their airship. The rest of his squad sat around him, looking over their weapons.

He could hear the annoyance and stress in Hydros' breathing. The air around him stunk with anxiety, worry, and fury. Devon chuckled a little at the sight.

"Alright! Here's the deal!" Hydros announced. "Larisa is in her personal tower. From what I could gather, she's been holed up in there for six months perfecting new spells and equipment. For all we know, she's figured out a way to kill someone with the snap of her fingers."

"However, that's all I have for you. She keeps her life under a very tight leash. Not much information about her tower is known to the general public. Not even my own people could gather much. So, you're going in blind for this one."

"Ha!" Lucas cackled. "Like that'll stop us!"

"While I doubt we could kill her," Rose said. "I'm sure we'll be able to, at the very least, capture her."

"Yeah! Like that'll happen!" Alyssa chuckled.

"Have some optimism, Alyssa." Hydros sighed.

"Like 'ell I will! Larisa has been around since we were wee lads and lasses! She visited our school once! She was spectacular then, and I'm sure she's even more so now."

"You admire her?!" Lucas asked incredulously.

"She was the one who inspired us to sign up for combat training before we arrived at Orion." Eune explained.

"Did she? I must've missed her then." Lucas mused.

"You don't really have a good memory, do ya Lucas?" Devon said with a wide smirk.

"I do too!"

"Cut the gossip! We're almost there! You should be thankful that she lives so far away from Carshire's capital. You won't have to deal with their military gettin' involved." Hydros said as the ship landed.

"Good luck." He opened the rear hatch and they all filed out. Devon slid his helmet over his head and raised his rifle.

The airship quickly took off and they were left alone in front of the massive tower before them.

"Wow." Alyssa whistled. "Talk about remote! This is like, the boonies of the boonies eh?"

Devon glanced around the tower. Its surroundings were barren fields with a few bushes and trees here and there. The tower itself, however, was anything but barren.

It was shaped like a rhombus with a diamond top to it. The stone that, probably, was once a shiny quartz like stone was now charred in various places. Small rooms jutted out from it in unnatural places and there appeared to be some kind of warping effect on the sides leading up to the top of tower. The top of the tower, while keeping its shape, was massive for its size.

The tower itself could easily be the same height as a twenty story skyscraper in Zenith. As they neared the front doors, its shadow and size blotted out the sun behind it, almost giving the building a serene yet menacing vibe.

"So, you think we should knock?" Lucas asked.

Devon shook his head in mild disbelief as he placed a small explosive device on the door. They backed up a bit as he detonated it. The explosion ripped open the doors with ease and he turned to Lucas.

"How's that for knocking?"

"Show off." Lucas scoffed.

"You'd think that such a renowned Warlock would have better security." Eune said.

"This place might be so remote that she believes that it isn't required." Rose said. "Which might be what gives us an advantage."

"Let's not jump the gun just yet." Devon said as the entered.

The entryway wasn't anything special to look at. A large, circular rug was placed neatly by the now destroyed doors and a smaller rug with a few pairs of boots was beside it. Large staircases circled the entire tower with about four rooms on each floor.

"Damn, we gotta climb all those stairs, don't we?" Lucas groaned.

"Let's get moving then." Devon ordered them as they split up. Devon, Eune, and Alissa on the right while Lucas and Rose took the left.

As they reached the first floor and checked each room, they noticed how neat and tidy everything was. Nothing seemed out of place nor did it seem like anyone had used them in a few months. Rose ran her finger across a desk and she could see the thick layer of dust on its surface.

"It seems like she hasn't been on this floor in a while." She said over their comms as they ascended to the next floor.

"Well no shit Sherlock." Alyssa replied.

"The rooms didn't look all too important, so it could be that Larisa doesn't visit those rooms often enough to warrant a deep clean." Eune said.

"She could, at the very least, clean them. Makes her look lazy to me." Rose replied.

They moved on to the second floor only to find that house one massive room that circled the entire floor. They were greeted to a mostly barren room with only a few tables with some of her research notes and books scattered across them.

The only other things they could find were some wooden dummies that had intricate lines and markings carved into them. They looked like some kind of language but it was too difficult to tell.

"Take a few photos for Doctor Seraph," Rose said. "He might know what she was trying to do."

"Or what she already did." Alyssa mused as she turned away from one of the dummies.

They snapped a few photos with the built in cameras in their helmets and moved on to the third floor. This floor only had two rooms and they both jutted out from the tower just enough to make the rooms seem larger than they actually were.

The rooms were cluttered with old relics and books. The walls were buried behind bookshelves and displays, even the ceiling had relics hanging from it.

"Talk about hoarding." Devon quipped. "What would one person need with all this junk."

"Some Warlocks spend their whole lives researching....whatever it is they research." Rose said. "But I don't know what even a quarter of this stuff is."

"Maybe it's Anorian?" Eune questioned.

"Even if that were true, I doubt they'd have left anything behind when they moved to Irongate." Rose replied.

"Then take some more photos sis," Devon said. "Let the Doctor take a look."

Floors four through nine were similar to the first three, each designed around being a research lab or a storage room. Floor ten is when things changed.

"What the hell?" Lucas whispered as they entered the room.

The room itself was a barren, almost concrete room with nothing substantial in. Except for a massive surgical table with a dissected Chimera on it. Its belly was cleanly sliced open and its organs were nicely organized next to it. Its tail had been removed and was hanging from the ceiling on a hook. Its head was chopped off and its brain was resting next to it.

"Why would anyone want to dissect a Chimera?" Alyssa retched.

"That is so gross!" Rose shuddered.

"Let's move on." Devon said as he slowly exited the room.