Chapitre 14: Voodoo
Group five was a group of men and they arrived shortly after Olive and the rest left. In that group, Admiral Adams emerged. Like the rest, he appeared in a school uniform and was first left incredibly baffled.
One moment he had been in his command room atop a vessel the size of which rivaled islands and the next he appeared in some sort of ancient classroom. Moments after being transported, the sliding doors swept open and Church stepped through along with a group of three or so girls.
"Do not be alarmed!" Church yelled above the panicked chatter of the newbies, but before he could continue his introduction, who other than Admiral Sutton Adams stepped forward with an explosively accusatory attitude.
"Where have you taken us?" His voice was uncomfortably calm and stern, a threatening nature baring its fangs within its undertones.
"I have not taken you anywhere, if you had let me fin –"
"WHERE THE FUCK AM I!" A roar slammed into the eardrums of everyone present.
At the back of the group of men, a bear-sized man bulldozed through the crowd straight towards Church.
Prepared for such a situation, Church calmly pulled two rocks from his pants pockets and slammed them together. As the two rocks collided, a spark ignited between them and a wisp of smoke blew into the air.
The smoke expanded and as it did so noticeable features began to take hold of it. The smoke darkened and solidified, turning a dark gray while subtle, lighter notes continued to wrap around the smokey figure like scales. Two eyes lit up within the smoke, each of them flickering like candle light.
The snake made of smoke slithered in the air and stretched open its maw, but as the smoke somehow continued to proliferate, so too did the summoned creature's maw. It grew wider and more ravenous. What was once only large enough to swallow a bowling ball could now swallow a boar.
And yet, in the face of a bottomless abyss, a pitch black stomach found within the conjured smoke, the berserker ignored it and plowed straight into it. The creature made of smoke plummeted down, crashing onto the crazed man like that of a tidal wave.
The smoke repelled off the man's skin much like real smoke, but after two steps he began to slow. Then, after four he dropped to his knees and a line of blood pooled underneath his eye and ran down his cheek, eventually dripping onto the floor.
On his knees, he swayed back and forth drunkenly. His mouth hung open and his eyes continued to peel back, pushing further out of his head until the blood vessels popped. Blood began to pour from his nose and ears and his skin clearly moistened – a thick layer of sweat now covering the man and freezing him as he began to shiver uncontrollably.
Church stepped forward now, to the man on his knees mere steps away, and pushed his index finger onto his forehead. Exerting barely any strength, the behemoth sized man tumbled backwards and crashed onto the decrepit wood that lined the dojo. As he seized in his own pool of blood, Church cast his gaze to the rest of the men present.
"As I was saying. . . ."
After witnessing such a scene, the rest of the men froze and many of them felt their hearts palpitate uncomfortably within their chest. All of the men present, including Admiral Adams, felt a wave of fear firmly gnaw at them unlike anything they've ever experienced.
But what was perhaps even scarier than the smoke abomination itself was the man standing behind it. Throughout the confrontation, the look in his eyes hadn't changed even slightly. Behind Church's irises existed nothing but pure and unfiltered indifference. There didn't exist a sliver of fear or doubt when faced with such a large group of men, many of whom physically overpowered Church's stature, and some even felt that this revelation further enhanced his indomitable visage.
Church recounted the events of the past. The arrival of the first group and their leader who brought them this far. The existence of the Status screen and the fact that some of them may now possess powers extraordinary. Hours passed like this and the group of men experienced emotional highs and lows like never before.
Some were excited. Some were devastated. Some were taken from their kids while others didn't have anyone to miss at all. Expressing an interest in arriving at camp before nightfall, the newbies left the dojo and began their march into the untamed wilderness.
At the forefront of the operation, Church held a piece of wood in his arms with a dried leather nailed into it. Using dyes from crushed berries, he dipped his quill into a poorly fashioned box and continued taking notes on the new arrivals.
Meanwhile, behind him in tow with the others, Admiral Adams' predatory gaze remained fixed before him. He studied every inch of the Status screen, tried to manipulate it, change it or affect it someway. He studied the environment: paid close attention to their path and dialed in on every sub-conversation that happened around him.
But most of all, he recounted Church's murder of one of the other men. How did he do it? Obviously it was some Ability, but what actually happened? Was the smoke corrosive? Poisonous? Adams is a military man; unlike most men, he knew of various biological weapons and possessed a truly staggering amount of knowledge detailing means of killing and to his knowledge – no gaseous agent acted that fast.
That man died in mere seconds, mere literal steps. And from what? Just a little smoke from two inconspicuous rocks haphazardly stored in a man's trousers?
Adams refused to believe it.
At the same time, however, he coveted it.
The current affairs of Earth are relatively peaceful, with only a few third world countries remaining, the world is currently at a record high in safety. As technology further advanced and spread across borders hunger quickly became a thing of the past. As so many people finally became well fed they no longer had to spend hours slaving away on collecting resources and instead replaced their time with improvement and education.
But with the existence of the Status screen, the existence of unreasonable power the likes of which no single person had been able to obtain before, the tides of war now seemed almost inevitable.
Adams' was sure. If and when they return, even if he isn't amongst the returners, the world will change.
***
"You killed someone?!" Olive shouted.
"Hahaha no! The crazy guy was just an illusion." Church said.
"An illusion?"
"I'm sure some of them have noticed by now, especially that Admiral, but it's just a tactic to force compliance." He shook his head.
"I didn't think ruling with fear was your thing." Olive barked at Isaac.
In response, Isaac shook his head, "It's not fear. It's a wake-up call. The quicker the newly summoned understand the seriousness of the situation the more efficient they will become. Even if they choose to leave the camp and attempt things on their own, they will be better prepared with the understanding that they can die at each and every moment."
"But enough introductions, how did that man take charge?" Isaac shifted gears.
Church shrugged his shoulders, "He has the credentials to take over. At first I just let him train the group of men he arrived with. You know we've been in desperate need of some actual training so after seeing how well he did with just group five I had him train everyone. He's a little scary, but aren't you supposed to be at that rank?"
"What happened to the stalls? The maps and data we had collected for months?" Isaac fired back.
"We moved everything to the lower floors of the pyramid. Some of the new guys suggested it. It's a much easier spot to defend if we're ever under siege and it keeps it away from the weather."
"Why does he want our Status?"
"Alright. I'll agree with you on that one. I refused to give him my Status too, but he gave this whole speech, really riled up the new girls who then coaxed all the guys – anyway, it's supposed to send a message of equality and what not, but it's true that there hasn't been any repercussions to those of us who refused. Most of the people who agreed were group five and six, the newbies."
"What about the twenty zombies standing out there?" Olive asked.
"Discipline training. It only lasts a couple hours."
Silence.
Isaac recounted the last few hours in excruciating detail. He repeated every sentence and recalled every look.
Olive did the same. Had she been wrong about him? That couldn't be right. If the Admiral was normal then she wouldn't feel threatened under his gaze. Something wasn't right. She just didn't know what.
The mist dissipated and Olive exited the tipi. By the time they had finished night had already appeared and along with it came the discomforting red aura that permeated off the gem hovering above the pyramid.
The group of twenty had also left, but while Olive scanned her surroundings she struggled to find anyone at all. She looked up towards the archer towers and thankfully she could see the silhouettes of bodies standing within them.
Church stepped up beside her and pointed towards the pyramids entrance, "We made a dining hall."
Walking together, Church led them into the pyramid and down into the abyss. Contrary to Olive's expectations, it wasn't as dark as it seemed from above. As she descended, the pitch blackness seemed to move along with her. It was as if, no matter how deep she went, the wall of black remained the same distance away from her.
Eventually though, a clearing appeared and a large hall emerged. The hall stretched directly beyond the staircase itself. Identical to the main entrance, the staircase burrowed itself into the floor, forcing those that wished to use it to walk around the awkward hole it created.
The walls were made of the same black stone, but torches lined them and in the center of the hall, a huge dark brown table split the hall in half – running from wall to wall. Olive wished she could count the number of seats it contained, but rather than seats, a bench ran parallel to the table on each side.
But if she had to guess, the table could easily seat more than a hundred people. Behind the table, lined up against the black stone wall, stood the various stalls that once littered the surface. They ranged from roots and leaves to dried hides and jerky; various fruits brightened the walls and some more unique stalls appeared as well: one contained clay pottery, one built various boxes and containers, and another showcased a slew of different dyes and inks along with tools to write with.
Things were progressing unexpectedly well. A complete flip to the horror Olive and them had to go through to make it back alive, the journey so harrowing it took the lives of two incredibly useful awakened and her invaluable summon.
They first walked past the dining table and arrived at the stalls. Olive grabbed a fruit larger than her fist, its skin smooth like an apple but baby blue like the sky. Taking a bite, she continued to look around.
Sat at the table, almost the entirety of the camp was here, beside from the people stationed in an archer tower and the Admiral himself. Olive noticed an overwhelming amount of women, many of whom seemed to be in their prime much like Olive herself. The ages of the people summoned always ate away at her brain, what were the requirements to be summoned in the first place?
Was she special in some way? Olive didn't think so.
Was there something particularly demonic about her? Some rhyme or reason that could explain the granting of her Class? Her parents were dead, sure, but there were a lot of orphans in the world – that didn't mean anything.
At first she thought the ages would remain constant, that it would mostly be young adults like her group, but after seeing a vast majority of the new men from group five Olive reconsidered. Although difficult to guess their ages due to their facial hair, Olive assumed most of the new men were somewhere between their late twenties and early thirties and all of them were in shape, relatively speaking.
Actually.
Olive scanned the dining hall and, in doing so, her eyes widened as a sliver of understanding seeped its way into her brain.
There were no morbidly obese people summoned. That isn't to say some of the people weren't overweight, some definitely were at the start, but across the board all of the people summoned were mobile. They had four limbs, two eyes, a nose and a mouth. Their heads were tight on their shoulders and they all possessed the ability to run from the start – or fight.
The people summoned all had a certain level of physicality necessary to survive the trial.
So then does age have nothing to do with it? Perhaps, but then why aren't children summoned? At least, prepubescent children. Lily was arguably still a child at sixteen, but why would Earth's views on adulthood impact the summonings anyway? It was something to keep track of as there were too many questions at present and very little adequate answers available.
[Lost Soul Detected]
The soft whisper spoke in Olive's mind, immediately startling her from the unexpected announcement. It was an announcement she had never heard before so she first conjured her Status screen.
The screen appeared and Olive couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. Then, a white phantom seeped from out of her chest and slowly floated in front of her.
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
TheLostBoy
TheLostBoy -_-
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone