Garage Port 5

It’s been a couple of days after the fight against Shai Zou Len and Aleyah is still resting. While Yuto and Aleyos wait patiently for her to wake up, things are just starting to get going back at the stronghold.

Lenos Sawano, Sentinel’s lead soul excavator, walked in garage port five and stopped near the entrance he came from. He looked around and did not spot the person he was looking for. All he saw were four horses in their pin and two 4-wheeled vehicles beings worked by a few mechanics.

He pulled out a golden pocket watch from his lab coat and checked the time. Inside was a burnt picture of a woman, but it was hard to tell. Only Lenos knew who that person was, but his gaze was not focused on that. Instead, he utilized what the pocket watch was for and noticed that the person he was waiting for was running a few minutes late.

Suddenly, down the long tunnel that led outside from the garage, the engines of a couple of vehicles could be heard. As they entered the garage, Lenos saw three soldiers in the front jeep and four more behind them in the other. One person in the front jeep had a small crate in his hand. His uniform was also different from the rest of the soldiers, you could tell he was a man of higher rank.

They parked the vehicles in the remaining two spots open and got out. Lenos began to walk to the person who had the crate in his hands. The person wore a gray navy uniform with golden colored shoulder pads and buttons. The Sentinel crest was also at its usual spot. His blue hair covered his head and went straight to his neck. It barely moved as he walked towards Lenos.

When they met with each other, he passed Lenos the crate and then fixed his glasses. “I assume that was what you were looking for?” The person asked. His blue eyes were intimidating when he stared directly at Lenos, but he was used to this person’s expressions.

“Only one way to find out my dear friend,” Lenos replied. He turned around and took his leave. The person followed him to the excavation lab.

Excavation Lab

They entered Lenos’ lab. It was spacey with around four to six people inside of it. Ancient relics were displayed all over the counters that were against the walls. Two scientists in the room were going through a couple of pages in an old book. Two others were working separately on trying to transcribe the text on a stone tablet some villagers had found and donated to the stronghold. The rest were looking at a monitor with a schematic on the screen. Lenos and his friend walked over to a scanner.

As they passed the schematic station, one of the scientists turned around and rushed over to them. She had her purple hair tied up in a bun and had goggles just like Lenos around her neck. Her lab coat was white as well but had a green “T” on the top pocket.

“Lenos!” She said abruptly. It caught everyone in the room off guard but annoyed Lenos the most.

“Do you have to be so loud Dr. Arcfield?” He asked.

“I apologize, but you were meant to tell me when you were on your way back with the relic.”

“For what reason do I have to inform you of my return?” Lenos looked at her and although everyone’s attention was off her, it felt like dozens of people were staring at her when he did.

She started to blush and noticed the other man beside him, “Oh, Eiano, I didn’t know you would be he as well.” Her blush disappeared, and her voice calmed.

He pushed his glasses back up, “I want to make sure that my men didn’t waste their time on an empty trinket.” Eiano walked away and as he did, Dr. Arcfield watched while fighting the urge to mock him childishly.

Lenos placed the crate on a counter and took a crowbar to open it. “Well, we used the same algorithm that we used for the last two soul relics. Three other ‘empty trinkets’ were spotted in the same vicinity.” He cracked it open and took out a giant rock. “You can’t blame that one on us, now can you my friend?” He said while observing the stone in his hands.

They walked over to the scanner and he placed it on top of a screen. Projections of yellow light scanned the stone from left to right and then vice versa once. Suddenly, the monitor next to the scanner showed a picture of a crystal within the rock.

“This is it,” Lenos whispered.

He left the scanner and grabbed his excavating tools. It involved a laser drill, a small pickaxe and hammer, and a brush. While he did that, Dr. Arcfield took the rock and placed it gently on his bench where Lenos mines out relics and extract whatever is inside. They both placed their goggles on and began the excavation.

The first tool he used was the laser drill. He had three laser settings that started with 2mm, then went to 4mm, and stopped at 6mm. Since this was the relic he’s been searching for, he used the 2mm laser to cut off big chunks of the stone that wouldn’t harm the crystal inside. After the chunks of stone fell off, he used the pickaxe and hammer to detach the rest of the stone from the crystal. This process was a bit harder because he needed to be more careful and precise. Sometimes, the slightest movement that throws a soul excavator off can be fatal to the relic.

Finally, Lenos was done removing the crystal out of the stone. He brushed it off and admired its beauty. It was red as a ruby but had the shape of a rhombus.

He held it in his hand, “The Shard of Axios.”

“It’s beautiful,” Dr. Arcfield said in awe.

This was the first time Sentinel has ever accomplished something like this. The first stronghold to successfully excavate a shard was Orion. That shard was discovered by a small battalion formed by Captain Ishtak, a Mythic user. At the time, strike teams were not formed because humanity was unaware of the power a trio had together.

The shard was then excavated by Lieutenant Mersa, a Nova user and then the soul within it was awakened by Commander Ignion, an Eclipse user who is now the leading official in the Orion Stronghold. After the Shard of Rem was awakened, the soul spoke the truth of unimaginable power that can only be formed by unities of three and that is when strike teams were born.

The second shard, the Shard of Urah, was found using an algorithm made by Dr. Ald Cero from the stronghold Valkyrie. He discovered that because these relics needed a tremendous amount of aura to awaken them, the best way to find them would be to search location that had an overgrown plantation in unlikely seasons or areas. Strike Team Mjolnir utilized his research and discovered the shard., but their next problem lied with awakening the soul within.

No soul witch was nearly as strong as Ignion, not even in a team of three could they match his aura in strength and endurance. They needed to do something different, but had no idea of how. That’s when Dr. Cero researched even further and found that each crystal was linked to a gate that could only be opened and accessed by soul witches. These gates linked the world of Noah to the world of spirits only to be known to humans as Sanctum.

Within the gates were the keys to awakening the souls that were held within the crystals. The Shard of Urah is the reason why humans who lack a strong connection to their aura can now fight alongside soul witches for the sake of humanity. Weapons that linked to a person’s inner aura were mass manufactured and given to soldiers. These weapons were called Trace Gear.

Sentinel now had possession of the third crystal.

“So, what’s next?” Eiano asked.

“Now we need the proper soul key,” Lenos replied.

Lenos took the crystal and placed it in a chamber. He closed the hatch and went toward the monitor attached to the equipment. As he typed, filling out the proper coding necessary to locate the right gate, another person was heading towards the lab.

“There!” He said pointing to the screen.

A red circle pulsed, covering an area at zone k.

“We need to send a strike team at this location as soon as possible.”

“Well, you know who to ask for that,” Eiano said with disgust in his voice.

The lab door opened and Theon, the overseer of all soul strike teams walked in, “I know just the team to send.”

They look back at Theon walked over to them. Lenos and Dr. Arcfield followed with their eyes as Theon went to a computer and wrote down the coordinates of the area. Eiano stood still paying Theon no attention.

“Dr. Arcfield, would you please do me the honor and give these coordinates to Team Grim. They should be a garage port 2,” He passed her the paper.

“Of course,” She took the paper and made her way to Team Grim.

“Lenos, can you send a tracer to that location?” Theon asked.

“Already on it,” He responded as he typed on a different computer.

Eiano started to walk out of the lab and without a word, Theon had let him. Once the door opened, he fixed his glasses and entered the hall heading to his bunker. He was now out of Theon’s sight and Theon’s presence.

“Will you two ever get along?” Lenos asked while controlling the tracer, a little drone that reads off aura signatures.

As Lenos finished setting up the tracer and had its view on Team Grim heading to the soul gate, he slowly glanced up at Theon without turning around. He could not see him, but he knew his general position. Theon turned back around and focused on the monitor. He did not respond to Lenos’ question which led Lenos to believe what he always concluded.

“Eiano Ligon and Theon Crest…they are pure examples of what’s wrong with humanity.”