Alter-Grey: Mysteries Beyond The Outer

From a distance, his eyes widened as he watched the runaway vehicle. s it showed no sign of slowing or hesitation from the driver, it was then, he knew the earth wall was likely to fail.

Hurriedly, he analysed the creature for weak spots that could help him end the fight as swiftly as possible.

He observed that its form tapered slightly toward its tail but remained impressively thick and muscular throughout.

The worm's wide, gaping maw was filled with rows of jagged, needle-like teeth, each slightly yellowed and stained, likely from years of devouring prey, and wet with saliva.

Its teeth were arranged in concentric layers, designed to tear meat and grind bone. The creature was essentially a living death machine with no observable weaknesses.

With this in mind he concluded that hand-to-hand combat would be rather taxing.

Due to its myriad of spikes that adorned its back, it would prove to be a perilous endeavour so the most likely position of attack would be its front.

Even so, the front presented little room for mistakes. No matter where he chose, death was a possibility.

He figured the most effective solution would be either ranged bombardment with spells or close-quarters combat using a weapon, and for a moment he contemplated using his arcane gifts but decided against it.

Figuring he would need as much Ether as possible if he wanted to capture the criminals, so with a limited number of options he bawled his fists and shifted into a battle stance.

With his mind made up, the icy depths of his eyes seemed to momentarily glow with a pale radiance.

He waved his hand and fierce torrents of cold and winter quickly enveloped the worm, near-instantaneously freezing it, along with anything within its vicinity.

From first interaction alone, the large worm seemed to already be at a disadvantage; as whatever ice magics the elven man had used proved rather potent or at least enough to render the creature immobile for a time.

Without wasting even a second, he quickly glanced in the direction of the automobile and his eyes widened. The construct was effortlessly scaling the wall.

Almost to the top of the wall and racing to breach to the other side, it looked like a rocket about to leave base.

But unexpectedly the young elf smiled. Then with a wave of his hand, cracks began to snake along the wall's surface, breaking it apart.

And in a loud rumble, the wall crumbled into several chunks of debris that made multiple deafening impacts.

It seemed the wall, after all, was not meant to stop the automobile, seeing as many of these wonderful inventions had been predisposed to have means of adapting to various environments and situations.

Thus, stopping it was out of the question without sufficient information about the Arcane Vehicle's inner workings. Instead, he opted to buy himself more time to deal with the Crownfissure Worm.

And it seemed everything went accordingly, now was his chance; the fruits of his labour were ripe and ready for harvest.

It was then that from the corner of his eye suddenly flashed a purple streak through the air but before he even knew what he was doing, instinctively he ducked underneath it as a thick muscular tail collided into a building next to him, leaving an imprint where it had struck and deep cracks along the structure.

Wordlessly he glanced at the streets once more as small business owners and other such middle-class citizens ran away in fright of the harrowing creature.

And far off in the distance the automobile began to stir once more, as Ether began to circulate through the vehicle.

Swiftly he breached much of the little distance left between him and the creature, delivering four consecutive punches to its underside, cracking the creature's smooth carapace, revealing the tender flesh beneath.

However, the worm didn't seem ready to surrender yet, steeling itself to endure as much punishment as necessary to ensure the escape of its masters.

Bruised and nearly broken, there was no winning here for it. The best it could do was survive.

Understanding this it was now largely flailing its giant mass around thoughtlessly; its only strategy seemingly being unrestrained destruction as its tail smashed into the building behind it.

Lunging at the pale elf, the worm feigned an attack with its maw, and the young elf readied to dodge. What he wasn't expecting were three serpentine tongues shooting out from the worm's mouth to try and wrap around him.

Shrprised he took a step back, nearly tripping as he shouted out into the universe:

"Oh for Spire's sake, where are all the Enforcement Arcanum when you need them?"

Catching himself he unleashed another torrent of attacks on the creature, batting away all its tongues with ease.

Then fluidly he uppercutted its jaw closed then delivered a punch to what he assumed was its cheek, sending the creature spiralling and impacting against the building behind it, falling slumped on the floor.

Ready to end this, his fist ignited with a yellow flame that glistened like gold as it wrapped around his hand.

Leaping into action he brought his fist down on the entity, but met no resistance as the golden flame melted the through the pale stone and a small shockwave of fire billowed out.

Confused, he glanced back at the runaway automobile far off in the distance and frowned as he watched burnt sienna-coloured sparks stream towards it.

The stream travelled straight to a hand peeking out the window of the vehicle, holding an identical amulet to the one that had summoned the worm both glowing orange in tandem, slowly undulating.

Taking a running start, he swiped the trinket off the road and sprung into the air using the flames to launch himself far up at incredible speeds.

But due to fearing what other tricks the thieves might have up their sleeves, he opted to trail them stealthily from a distance, in an attempt to keep innocent civilians out of any possible crossfire, using the buildings as cover, he kept track of them, making sure to keep out of their sights.

After a few minutes, they eventually came to a stop at a big abandoned warehouse of sorts near the overgrown section of the docks.

He landed atop its roof, and lifted his right sleeve to reveal a small, sleek industrial grade silver bracelet of a utilitarian design.

It had a sagmented construction with clean edges, on both sides had a slit that glowed blue, and a rectangular interface with markings resembling buttons. Putting it close to his mouth he quietly said:

"Contact Cassie, communication format: Voice."

Silence rang over the harbour only briefly chased away by distant voices and the cawing of passerby seagulls. The blue strips on the bracelet were undulating then a few seconds later turned green. Calmly he spoke:

"Uhh... Hello?"

"H-Huh... Uhh Solace?"

The voice spoke softly into his ear. He responded:

"Yeah, it's me."

"Why are you calling so early in the morning?

Some of us need our beauty sleep, you know."

The young man smiled.

"Morning? Oh, uh, you were asleep? Sorry then..."

The feminine melodic voice emerged once more:

"No, no, it's fine, just tell me what you need."

Solace paused considering his next words.

"Well, I thought you'd be at the station right now, so I was gonna ask if you could dispatch a unit of automatons or androids to my current location?"

"Automatons...? Oh, you didn't know?"

Confused the half-elf asked quietly:

"Didn't know what?"

The voice paused for a moment as her mutters filled the silence, returning the voice responded indifferently:

"Last night, the government detected two large electromagnetic distortions one of which emerged from deep under the city and the other appeared on a bridge close to the Spire, so they sent out a distress signal to any available Astrals to come try to neutralize it.

Thus, most of the Astrals went to take advantage of the disturbance and get themselves some Mirror Fracts... The fools.

Good news is they said one seemed to have resolved itself but the other still needed containment, they're still unsure what happened with it."

The young elf sighed.

"So they're using the Automatons and Androids as backup... Well, thanks anyway; I guess I could handle this on my own."

The voice sighed then spoke once more.

"Don't worry, I'll go see what I can do. There might be one or two Automatons who are available to help or maybe even some Astrals; if nothing else, I'll come join you myself."

A quiet chuckle escaped the half-elf's lips.

"Thanks, Cassie, I appreciate it."

Soon after the sound of rustling bed sheets emerged from the other side of the connection as slippers tapped against hardwood. The voice yawned and tiredly responded:

"No need; I received a last-minute call from the organisation a few hours before this anyway. I just get to kill two birds with one stone this way."

"Sorry for making you skip out on your beauty sleep then. You don't need it anyway, you always look wonderful."

He said teasingly as a mischievous smile clearly visible on his otherwise chiselled features widened. Cassie seemed to audibly sigh at the remark and commented:

"Tell that to the dark circles under my eyes why don't you?"

Solace laughed and the connection severed as the sound of running water started streaming from the other side. With a warm smile plastered across his face, Solace's eyes softened as he warmly gazed at the bracelet before putting it away.

Finished, he jumped down and gliding on the wind, noticed a collapsed window along what he assumed to be the second floor of the complex.

Flying in quietly with the grace of an owl. He landed behind some crates on the gratings of the second floor.

Peering over the crates, he looked down at a gold-plated automobile parked in the middle of the compound, as it hovered slightly in the air with one of the masked figures lounging comfortably in the back seat of the convertable while the other surveyed the perimeter.

They seemed to be waiting for someone or something so Solace decided to postpone taking action until he received a response from Cassie on backup.

Hours passed in silence, as the petrichor slowly crept into the compound, becoming stronger as time danced away, pulling Solace into a nostalgic embrace as he started to relax a bit, letting out a heavy breath.

A storm was approaching, its tendrils of lightning creeping across the horizon as sparks of reds and blues battled in its depths. He sat thinking to himself.

"So this is the ponder weather Sumi always talks about. She always said don't shy away from it. Now I might finally get why, 'as beneficial to the mind and soul as sleep', indeed."

Chuckling internally to himself Solace smiled warmly.

"What did Cassie say about it again, Nature's Therapy? Its not bad, I could certainly acquire a taste for this... best be careful though; I'll have to tell the girls they were right later. Curse those pluviophile women. They're starting to get to me with all this rain dribble."

He watched as the clouds slowly consumed the light of day and made way for dark, grey skies that stretched as far as the imagination.

During all of this, he brought his wrist close to his mouth and whispered:

"Data Collection Mode: On"

"Data format: Voice"

"Recording: Start"

The slits of the communicator blinked red. While this went on, the robbers wholey unaware of his presence, patiently waiting. Seemingly relaxed yet cautious.

"So when are these guys supposed to show? We've been here for what feels like hours. Personally, I'm starting to get bored."

The first robber said as he leaned against the entrance to the warehouse staring back at Robber Two.

"Don't worry brother, they'll be here soon. Thanks to our little chase around the city by the Dragon Of Apricity, they're probably just being extra careful."

Robber One crossed his arms and sighed.

"Careful!? If they really wanted to be careful they wouldn't have given us such a specific time to break out of the bank.

I mean, really, in the morning... We could have done this operation at night and escaped before anybody could have seen us, but no, they wanted to have their cake and eat it too.

You know the phrase goes 'Like a couple of theives in the night', it doesn't go 'Like a couple of dumbasses in broad daylight'.

You know, I don't know if I'm crazy, but who in their right mind would send thieves to steal in broad daylight if they wanted to be careful?"

Robber Two shrugged his shoulders.

"Who knows maybe they have a plan in mind."

He sighed.

"And I think I might just have an idea as to what it might be. But without any evidence, it might as well just be a shot in the dark."

Robber One scoffed and went back to keeping watch of the perimeter.

"Pfft, well, so long as they pay us well, it won't matter too much to me."

Robber Two chuckled a little.

"Well, that's surprising. Knowing you I thought you'd want a piece of him for yourself."

Silence followed, then Robber One looked back at him.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Robber Two waved his hand in a dismissive gesture and calmly said:

"Well, their plans seem like they involve the Dragon Of Apricity on some level."

Hearing this from his place of hiding, Solace's eyes went wide in confusion.

"Their plans involve me...? How?"

Robber One looked at his companion and responded indifferently:

"So? I don't see how that would affect me?"

Robber two chuckled.

"Well, if you plan to fight him at some point, how will you do that if he's dead... or worse?"

Robber One turned his head away and responded calmly:

"He'll be fine. He's fought a dragon before and won, so I doubt these guys would be enough to kill him."

Robber Two smiled intrigued.

"You seem to have a lot of confidence in Mr Acustes. And here I thought you hated all nobles."

Robber One shrugged.

"Well, he's not like those asshole; he's a true warrior. A defender of the weak and the strong, a man of the people. Don't lump him in with those phonies."

Robber Two nodded, leaned deeper into the white leather seats of the vehicle and put his hand to his chin in a contemplative gesture.

"Maybe, but there are so many more people out there stronger than him, people who have sacrificed for the greater good even more than him...

For example: Erakis 'Little Red Star' or Isolde 'The Written Tempest' or Clive 'Sprite in Bloom' even Yakim 'Free from Sorrow' can likely defeat him in a brawl. So why not them?"

Robber One scratched his head and remarked warmly:

"Because they're not him. They lack a certain aspect of him, they lack his greed. He isn't a hero for show like them, I know the look of a desperate man."

Solace winced at the utterance.

"Desperate...? Greedy...? Me...?! Am I?"

As Solace pondered on the revelations from his hiding place. Robber One quickly fell silent and looked back to check the perimeter.

There, in the distance, he noticed an armoured automobile making its way to the compound.