had
sent it twirling into the air. Qyro closed his eyes for the last
jet of blue which took him squarely by the chest…
For the meanest second, through the pain
blasting out across in his chest, Qyro sensed himself lifted off
the ground … He could feel his body soar over behind, as everything
around went fuzzy, dream like … The world had dissolved into
darkness before his body hit the ground.
6
Somewhere far, far away, a man in a black
cloak stood icily still, his mind attuned to a laser like focus. A
man whose eyeless, dark sockets would have made even the toughest
man’s skin crawl with horror as they gazed into them.
Zardin was now standing in a completely new
environment, one that was very different from any other place he
had been to. This new place he was now in he was now in was
scarcely illuminated by the faintest trickle of light. To any
ordinary person’s eyes, it would have been too dark to see much at
all. But to Zardin’s inner vision, which was his weapon of sensing
his surroundings despite having no eyes, the picture of the place
he was in was crafted to the finest clarity.
He had journeyed here, alone, for the one
last task they needed to get accomplished.
And this was a relatively easy task … all he
needed to do now, was to patiently wait. And everything would fall
in place by itself.
7
After fighting force one and Vonayz, Ion had
gotten to his hover bike and had zoomed off to the very opposite
side of the planet, aiming to place as much distance as possible
between them. The rest of the moon was almost as uninhabited as a
planet in the outer spectrum, but Ion had managed to scout out a
small city amidst the rough terrain. This city, though not entirely
like the earlier one he had been to, had portions of it left
stranded. Buildings left almost completely deserted. It was easy
for him to find a small, unused apartment waiting for him in one of
the abandoned buildings. The flat was a mere room, with nothing
more than a broken bed and a table beside it.
Lying on the broken bed, Ion gazed through
the glass door of the balcony opposite to him. Located on a higher
floor than usual, he could see the wide expanse of black that
filled the night skies out the balcony. The sky boded a tint of
green, a lingering effect of the atmosphere of this planet.
His sword lay by the table on his right,
sheathed. Ion was trying to wrench his mind from it. The heated
meeting that had fallen between him and another unexpected nemesis
of his, just minutes earlier on. Absently gazing out the balcony’s
glass door the whole time, he felt his thoughts wheel back over the
duel they had, and his deadly close escape. The old anger was still
pulsing within him, driving fresh waves of enmity through him. But
there was a different emotion, mingled with his anger and hatred
this time.
He was surprised by what he had just
learned…
Force one. Mystic hunters.
The fact that Vonayz, his deadly enemy, was
now commanding an entire army of mystics was rather intriguing.
As Ion lay on the bed, fatigue gathered over
hours pressed upon him. Hours of panicking, fighting and fleeing
took a toll on his mind, so that it drooped with a slow
drowsiness.
He relinquished everything, all worries, all
tensions, as he rolled over on the broken cot, and fell into an
unbroken, mesmeric sleep…
__________
For what could have been hours, nobody spoke.
Every voice in the room was stumped by what they had just
heard.
About fifteen suited men sat around the board
table. Some of them had their arms folded, while others kept them
over the table, their fingers flexing consciously in a display of
anxiety. All of them wore grave, intense looks. They stared emptily
for a long time before a voice cracked the stiff silence with a
question:
“They blew up an entire cruiser ?”
asked a man in a black suit,
sent it twirling into the air. Qyro closed his eyes for the last
jet of blue which took him squarely by the chest…
For the meanest second, through the pain
blasting out across in his chest, Qyro sensed himself lifted off
the ground … He could feel his body soar over behind, as everything
around went fuzzy, dream like … The world had dissolved into
darkness before his body hit the ground.
6
Somewhere far, far away, a man in a black
cloak stood icily still, his mind attuned to a laser like focus. A
man whose eyeless, dark sockets would have made even the toughest
man’s skin crawl with horror as they gazed into them.
Zardin was now standing in a completely new
environment, one that was very different from any other place he
had been to. This new place he was now in he was now in was
scarcely illuminated by the faintest trickle of light. To any
ordinary person’s eyes, it would have been too dark to see much at
all. But to Zardin’s inner vision, which was his weapon of sensing
his surroundings despite having no eyes, the picture of the place
he was in was crafted to the finest clarity.
He had journeyed here, alone, for the one
last task they needed to get accomplished.
And this was a relatively easy task … all he
needed to do now, was to patiently wait. And everything would fall
in place by itself.
7
After fighting force one and Vonayz, Ion had
gotten to his hover bike and had zoomed off to the very opposite
side of the planet, aiming to place as much distance as possible
between them. The rest of the moon was almost as uninhabited as a
planet in the outer spectrum, but Ion had managed to scout out a
small city amidst the rough terrain. This city, though not entirely
like the earlier one he had been to, had portions of it left
stranded. Buildings left almost completely deserted. It was easy
for him to find a small, unused apartment waiting for him in one of
the abandoned buildings. The flat was a mere room, with nothing
more than a broken bed and a table beside it.
Lying on the broken bed, Ion gazed through
the glass door of the balcony opposite to him. Located on a higher
floor than usual, he could see the wide expanse of black that
filled the night skies out the balcony. The sky boded a tint of
green, a lingering effect of the atmosphere of this planet.
His sword lay by the table on his right,
sheathed. Ion was trying to wrench his mind from it. The heated
meeting that had fallen between him and another unexpected nemesis
of his, just minutes earlier on. Absently gazing out the balcony’s
glass door the whole time, he felt his thoughts wheel back over the
duel they had, and his deadly close escape. The old anger was still
pulsing within him, driving fresh waves of enmity through him. But
there was a different emotion, mingled with his anger and hatred
this time.
He was surprised by what he had just
learned…
Force one. Mystic hunters.
The fact that Vonayz, his deadly enemy, was
now commanding an entire army of mystics was rather intriguing.
As Ion lay on the bed, fatigue gathered over
hours pressed upon him. Hours of panicking, fighting and fleeing
took a toll on his mind, so that it drooped with a slow
drowsiness.
He relinquished everything, all worries, all
tensions, as he rolled over on the broken cot, and fell into an
unbroken, mesmeric sleep…
__________
For what could have been hours, nobody spoke.
Every voice in the room was stumped by what they had just
heard.
About fifteen suited men sat around the board
table. Some of them had their arms folded, while others kept them
over the table, their fingers flexing consciously in a display of
anxiety. All of them wore grave, intense looks. They stared emptily
for a long time before a voice cracked the stiff silence with a
question:
“They blew up an entire cruiser ?”
asked a man in a black suit,
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