The Last Dainv

Once again, Gale was forced to board the tainted aircraft of doom. He was forced to sit in the metal tube of terror for another 7 hours. It hadn't even been more than 24 hours since he had entered the previous one. Life had strange ebbs and flows that he did not like at all.

But this time, it was all planned. If he was going through the tube of terror anyway, he had to act more hysterical.

Rachel sat beside him in the centre seat, her hand intertwined with his whenever turbulence hit. She fed him snacks constantly throughout the flight. From chips to cookies to peanuts and even slices of pizza. Whatever the stewardess brought, she would hand it to him, and he would eat it while trying very hard to look scared.

The key word being "trying." It was all a ruse!

A carefully calculated deception designed to maximize snack acquisition. Every time he squeezed Rachel's arm, she would pat his head and offer him another treat. Every time he flinched at turbulence, the stewardess would come by with extra peanuts. Every time he looked out the window with wide eyes, someone would hand him a drink.

By the end of the eight-hour flight, he had consumed two extra meal servings, four bags of peanuts, three cookies, a whole can of Pringles, half a pizza, and a bueno bar.

His plan worked perfectly. As long as he ignored the spiking adrenaline, it was his complete victory. Stupid tainted airplane of doom.

Now on his feet at the arrivals section, he was completely stuffed that he even felt slightly sleepy.

"You know what," Clyde said. "At this point, I should be the one sitting beside Gale and Rachel in the centre seats."

"Why?" Kyle asked.

"Because I want snacks too! Did you see how much food he got? Where did those pizza slices even come from!?"

"It's not like he was doing it on purpose," Kyle said.

That's right, Clyde. Gale was most definitely certainly not doing it on purpose!

"Leave him alone," Rachel said. "He was scared. It's not his fault."

Gale nodded vigorously. Very scared, like the plane could crash at any moment and it would hurt more than getting chewed on by a flesh warrior.

Erin continued to fake walk as the group moved forward. "The child has all the right to be afraid of the physics he does not understand. His fear is logical given his lack of comprehension regarding aerodynamic principles."

"The physics is from like grade 6," Lily shook her head, then turned to Rachel. "Did you guys even learn that in grade 6?"

"We did," Rachel said. "But I'm pretty sure Gale was preoccupied with reading books even in class."

"How does that even work when there's teachers? Wouldn't they tell him to pay attention?"

"Gale was very quiet," Rachel said with a shrug. "So they just left him alone."

"No wonder he became feral," Kyle said.

"Imagine becoming feral in the city," Clyde added. "Like, how does that even happen?"

"Feral is good," Gale nodded.

"Gale, no! Stop with the 'feral is good' thing!" Rachel said.

"But it is..."

"Ugh..."

"Enough of this meaningless chatter," Erin said. "We must make haste towards our lodging. The rift will not wait for us to finish our inane discussions about the child's educational deficiencies."

Kyle looked around and saw the exit to the taxis. Heat waves spread out from the bricked roads, making him narrow his eyes. Turning to Lily, he asked, "Hey, can you do that temperature sigil thingy on us? It's gonna be hot as balls out there."

"Sure," Lily said. "But you and Clyde have to not make any kind of references for the next 24 hours."

"What? Why?"

"Because how do you have a reference for everything? That's moronic."

Kyle looked at Clyde. Clyde looked at Kyle.

"Pass," Kyle said. "Erin, can you do it instead?"

Erin opened her mouth to respond.

"I'll do it," Lily said quickly, cutting her off. "But you owe me later."

"Wait, what happened to the no references thing?"

"Changed my mind. You still owe me though."

Kyle grinned and fist-bumped Clyde. "Nice."

"Idiots..." Lily muttered.

Reaching the exit doors, they pushed through as it slid open automatically. The wall of heat hit Gale's face first. Humid, hot, and filled with the taste of leaf, wood, and scent of the jungle that he missed.

But suddenly, it vanished. A faint slightly visible glow of a sigil appeared at the back of his neck. The moment it appeared, it coated his whole body in a serene temperature of 20C while also completely eliminating the nice smells from his physical nose.

No matter, the tendrils took in the scents that were stolen from him.

"Better?" Lily asked.

Gale nodded.

"Whew, that feels good. Not gonna end up as Mr. Black in the jungle," Kyle said.

"How did rambo even survive through that kind of heat?" Clyde said.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"I hate you two so much right now," Lily sighed.

Moving towards the group of shuttles by the airport, Lily spoke to one of the drivers. For a couple of minutes, she had a conversation with one of the men, nodding continuously mid conversation.

Once she was done, she waved at them over and pointed to the van of the man she had just talked to.

The vehicle was a white van with tinted windows and air conditioning that actually worked, not that they needed it. None of them needed to put in any luggage, confusing the driver. All of them were already in Gale's space storage.

As the shuttle moved through the city, Gale noticed that for a city in the middle of a forested region, it was quite loud. The people, not the animals that would occupy the forest. The roads and buildings were also colourful, painted in yellows, oranges, and blues. Walls were spray painted with graffiti of faces and letters that he couldn't understand the meaning of.

Going down a hill, the shuttle slowed down to a gentle stop. Up ahead, a blockade stretched across the road as vehicles lined up to get checked by the checkpoint. Figures in tactical gear wearing camo and bulletproof vests checked each car that came through.

Once it was their turn, two figures approached their vehicle. One had a pistol already in his hand, and another had a FAMAS that Gale recognized from a game called 'Counter Strike Down' that he played in Kyle and Clyde's steam box.

Their faces were pale, both looked more european than either middle or southern american. One had black hair, and the other was blonde. They were clearly not from this country. But who was Gale to judge?

One of them stepped into the shuttle, scanning the occupants with sharp eyes. His gaze moved from Kyle to Clyde to Lily to Erin to Gale.

Then to Rachel.

Rachel didn't look up as she was texting someone with intense fury. Gale saw who it was. Isla and something about a new book she was reading. She was asking about something called 'kabedon' or 'push down.'

The first one was a mystery. But what was there to push down? Maybe Isla needed help pushing down items around her house. Into the floor though? That must've been quite a unique item.

"Clear," the man said. "Let them through."

The doors closed. The shuttle started moving again.

"What was that about?" Gale asked. "They had Attuned signatures. One of them was Resonant."

Kyle leaned back in his seat, arms crossed. "United Knights. You thinkin' what I'm thinkin', bro?"

"Another faction war?" Clyde asked.

"Fuck yeah, it might be."

"Doesn't seem like it," Lily said, turning her head around to see the passing checkpoint. "They're probably just looking for people. Specific people."

"Who?"

"No idea."

Rachel pocketed her phone. "Wait until we're at the hotel. We'll talk there."

The shuttle continued through the city, eventually leaving the urban sprawl behind. The roads narrowed, curving through forested areas in tight zigzags that felt like a gentle roller coaster. It was actually quite fun.

Twenty minutes later, they arrived.

The hotel was a six-story building painted bright yellow, standing out against the green of the surrounding forest. It looked more like an apartment complex than a hotel, with balconies jutting out from each floor and laundry hanging from some of the railings.

"Neat," Gale said.

Moving towards the building, as they had no luggage, Gale led the way to the lobby. Lily checked them in, having to snap her fingers twice to get the sleeping man's attention at the desk.

After getting their key cards, she led the way to the 6th floor towards units 603, 604, and 605.

"Room assignments," Lily said. "Same as before. Rachel and me. Kyle and Clyde. Erin and Gale."

Rachel grumbled something under her breath.

"What was that?" Kyle asked.

"I said it's fine."

"Didn't sound like fine."

"It's fine."

"You sure it's fine, fire butt?" Clyde asked.

Rachel ended up kicking him in the butt, making him rub his behind.

Reaching into his space storage, he started pulling out the luggage for each of their rooms. Rachel's red suitcase was first, followed by Lily's blue one, setting them by their door. The twins' duffel bags dropped to the front of their rooms while keeping the emergency twinkie duffelbag in his space storage.

A slight nod to Clyde and both of them agreed silently on something. Gale didn't actually know what it meant, though.

After that, each of the duos entered their rooms. Gale and Erin didn't have luggage. Everything they needed was already in his space storage while Erin was... Erin.

Plopping on the bed, he felt the comfy blankets on his face. The bed was soft, plush, warm, cozy, comforting which was everything that would make him have a hard time sleeping.

Gale decided. He'd sleep on the comfy floor after getting a large comfy boulder that could fit his whole body.

Knock knock.

Getting up from the bed, he opened the door to allow everyone else to enter.

Rachel closed the door behind them and locked it.

"Alright," she said, turning to Gale. "What do you feel in the area? The signatures."

Gale took a deep breath.

Closing his eyes, he extended Presence Between's tendrils to their maximum distance. They stretched through the walls and to a wide range of at least a 15 km radius.

Thousands of signatures lit up in his mind. After filtering out everything below Early-Attuned, the noise reduced significantly. What remained were two distinct types of signatures.

The first one was murky and hazy looking, yet carried a distinct feeling of the Jiuling. However, that was too much to assume as their signatures were still truly blurry at this current distance.

The second type was a more rigid like signature. Every signature felt almost identical to the other, as if they all came from one place. The only kind of signature he felt that were from the united knights. There were still slight minute differences between each individual, but if their training were all the same, they would all eventually reach the same answer, which was the signature they had right now.

As for the range of signatures, it went from Attuned all the way up to Harmonic.

"The highest signatures are three Mid-Harmonic signatures," Gale said, opening his eyes. "Two distinct patterns of signatures, one is murky, but it feels like a Jiuling style signature. Can't tell for sure though... it's murky. The other one is definitely United Knights. There is one Harmonic that doesn't feel like either one. Could be a vagrant."

Kyle groaned loudly. "No way this shit is happening again."

"Stop jinxing it," Lily said.

"What's happening again?" Gale asked.

Rachel sighed. She sat down on the edge of one of the beds.

"There was a faction war here," she said. "A few years ago. A large rift opened up in the middle of a forest. Class 6."

"Class 6?" Gale asked. That would've been the maximum class rifts that Aur was familiar with.

"Big. Really big. The kind that requires multiple teams from multiple factions to close." Rachel shrugged. "It ended up being an all-out faction war. Inside the rift and outside of it. The rift itself was a snow rift of meadow and forests where giant monsters roamed."

"Don't ask how many 'disappeared'," Lily said.

Gale nodded.

Clyde stepped forward. "Point is, if they're all here for the same rift we're going to, we're going to have to fight them. Which would be a bitch. Three-way faction war over rift resources?" He shook his head. "Not fun."

"Now, Gale. Can you lay down our equipment?" Rachel asked.

Reaching into his space storage, Gale materialized all the equipment they got from Ollie's lab.

7 shovels, one extra.

25 flashbangs.

25 frag grenades, enhanced with fire attribute artificing.

9,200 homing bullets in a case.

4,000 fire bullets in a case.

4,000 ice bullets in a case.

10,000 high pen rounds, artificed with tracking and punch through.

4,000 explosive rounds, artificed with shockwave blast on impact.

6 sets of standard tactical Desert Camo gear, artificed with light bending (for more camouflage).

6 sets of helmets, fashioned with two antennas that amplify Wi-Fi 16 signal and retractable sun visors with 6 levels of shades.

3 sets of tents.

90 days' worth of MREs for each person (water purifier not included).

"And for our weapons, we still have Erin's weapons from the tomb," Gale said.

Kyle whistled. "How much you think this is all worth?"

"Easily 2 million Canadian," Clyde said.

"Ollie's not messing around, though. This mission accomplishes 3 objectives," Lily said. "Issue is, does Gale still have enough for a large amount of Yinidi-something ores and gems?"

"Got plenty. Don't worry," Gale said. Each of those items only took one slot each anyways. One item counted as one entity with unlimited stacking. Two more entities, one slot each, won't add anything.

"When do we start going to the rift?" Rachel asked Gale.

"We must make haste. There is no reason to stall," Erin said.

"No. I think the best time would be at night," Gale said.

"For what reason must you delay?" Erin asked.

"The signatures I talked about?" Gale said, making a circular motion with his hands. "There's a whole blockade around this city."