Chapter 32: Escaping The Fame

  “Let’s start with Erik’s recent fame. The clip from the news has generally been seen by everyone on the entire planet ten times over by now. It’s everywhere, and there’s news channels and websites dedicated to showing this video on repeat with various supposed experts commenting over it ad infinitum.

  “So far, the clip has been proved real and every second that goes by means another tech company starts trying to enhance the clip, or images from the clip, digitally. This is wartime, and historically, that’s when science leaps ahead the most. Even if they can’t possibly enhance it enough now, they might do it tomorrow.

  “That slight, unexplainable thing popping up in the clip, killing the Hellbeast in an instant, could be recognised as magic. I can’t tell myself what it is in the images, but judging by the remains of the beast, it tore it in half along its body.”

  “Circular saw blade,” Erik explained.

  “A buzz saw appearing from out of nowhere with enough spin to slice an until now invulnerable hide to pieces. Thankfully, Erik wore a mask, and that black dot seems to keep the interest away from him, at least for now. Still, he was quite wounded, and the press has been circling every hospital, vet and hostel in the country, hoping to find clues.”

  “Luckily they won’t find him there,” Sophie said.

  “That’s also thanks to our friends in the military covertly covering for us. They’ve sent every ambulance and medical vehicle with a small convoy to confuse those searching. As such, everyone’s convinced the military is helping at the bare minimum, much to the displeasure of the military that isn’t knowingly helping. For this reason, Brigadier Bumley and MacLeod will be under the microscope for the time being and won’t be able to provide any more help for a while.”

  “We should all be thankful for their efforts, I think. Like us, they do this all the while putting their careers on the line. Unlike me and Angela, they are still part of the military, which means they can be considered deserters at best,” Emma said.

  “What about Mathisen?” Erik asked.

  “Likely unable to help with anything soon. She must still defend the front, even though the beasts can swim. They still pool towards Bridgefort more than anywhere else, at least for now, meaning it’s still important to hold the line. Bridgefort has also grown to be some sort of symbol of hope. For that reason, it’s more important than anything else to keep those walls standing firm. Now, allow me to continue,” Angela responded, then gestured the rest to listen. “Another Hellbeast has been found dead outside Leicester. I’m guessing that is the one Erik jumped out of the helicopter to kill when first arriving here.”

  Erik nodded in response to this. He knew it would just be a matter of time.

  “Secondly, just when the world is in an uproar about the first confirmed kills of Hellbeasts, something else happened quite close by. A tower of white, blinding light in the Leicester skies,” Angela continued, looking at Jessie.

  Jessie grimaced in response, looking both guilty and worried.

  “I didn’t know that would happen. Who knows what would’ve happened had I done it inside,” she argued.

  “We don’t blame you. Grace might do more good than any of us normies will in this war, so putting off the summoning wouldn’t do anyone any good either way. What I’m saying is that the region surrounding both Leicester and Cambridge is one massively very warm hot pocket right now. That brings me to my conversation with MacLeod.

  “They’ve been doing what they can up until now, but they need to call back all vehicles sent as decoys and find an excuse for why they all were sent in the first place. They can’t help much anymore, and Leicester and all surrounding towns are likely to have a massive influx of people to search for the modern-day Bigfoot.”

  “We should leave, then?” Erik asked.

  “We should leave. We’ve been granted Amir’s services, he’s already accepted, and both medics from yesterday want to come with us. They were briefed in a hurry, but they got the gist of it and want to help.”

  “Is there room for everyone on the helicopter?” Sophie asked, having only glimpsed it when Jessie summoned Grace.

  “It’ll be tight, but it can at least handle the weight. There’s room for one in front along with the pilot, and theoretically eight of us in the back. With the medics, we should be six in the back and two up front in total. So long as we don’t pick up any stragglers on the way, it should be a comfortable fit.”

  “Where should we go, exactly?” Jessie asked, and everyone seemed to have been about to ask that same question.

  “We must discuss that amongst ourselves. MacLeod’s recommendation was somewhere without a lot of people, but still close enough to civilisation for the Hellbeasts to wander there. Better yet, go through the area. That way we can stop them from spreading and get some training for our future heroes.

  “We’ve been recommended Dynasty territory or the North African Coast. There will be more Hellbeasts in Dynasty lands, as the reports from St Petersburg say there are more and more attacks every day, but they are managing to hold the line for now.

  “A geographical funnel is leading beasts coming from the ruins of the Scandi Empire between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga towards St Petersburg, so we can expect a lot of people and Hellbeasts both. More massacres happen by the day as the beasts inch closer.”

  “It’ll be safer on the North African Coast, though the beasts are there as well. It’ll be better for training our magic squad in the early days. Personally, I say we should go to the latter,” Angela said, then seemed to wait for additional input from the rest.

  “Russia,” Erik said without much of a pause.

  “Reason?” Angela asked. “This should be a debate, not just a simple vote.”

  “More beasts, more training. Also, things seem worse there. If we can kill the beasts to give the Dynasty some well-deserved rest, I don’t see much of a choice here,” he explained.

  “Africa,” said a loud voice, and everyone turned to Sophie. She flushed red for just a moment, but explained herself shortly afterwards. “Erik is wounded and shouldn’t be fighting anything right now. Also, neither he nor my sister have got all their powers yet, and they shouldn’t throw themselves at the nearest army of beasts for practice. Slow and steady wins the race,” she explained.

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  “We don’t know how much experience we’ll be able to get on the African coast. We know the beasts’ behaviour; they attack, and if they can’t penetrate the defences, they retreat to try again later. Even if there are two or three attacks a day in an area, we don’t know if it’s just the same two or three beasts every time or if there are more.

  “If we go there, kill three, and the area’s empty for the next week or so, we won’t get any experience. Meanwhile, thousands may die in St Petersburg while we idle away in Africa,” Erik argued.

  He was adamant about this, and Sophie shied away a little in response. Erik knew that if there was anyone he couldn’t convince, it would be her. There were a few moments of silence after this, and Angela had to remind the rest to speak up.

  “Anyone else?” she asked.

  “Africa,” said Emma, though didn’t seem keen on giving any reason for that.

  “Same,” said Jessie, which Erik didn’t expect at all. “Erik has valid points, but it doesn’t matter if we die right away. The world’s been managing without us for months, it has to keep doing that for a little while more. We have to be egotistical. Also, you’re doing something. You’ve been training somehow. Like right now, that feeling you’re giving off, it’s like that time in your room. It’s slight, but constant. I couldn’t sleep this morning as I felt it even in my room.”

  Erik realised she was talking about his aura. He promised Sovereign to stop keeping it bottled up, and so he wasn’t doing that anymore. He did have it managed, but only until he lost control of his emotions. It took a lot of focus to keep it under wraps.

  “I’ve trained a bit with the spirits during downtime, yes. I’m practising keeping my aura in check. They say I shouldn’t suppress it,” Erik explained, and the rest gave him weird looks.

  “What ability of yours made you able to talk to spirits?” Emma asked. “And are they ghosts or more folklore-type spirits?”

  “The spirits from the crystals. The names on the crystals that you can sense, that’s the spirits’ names.” Erik said, looking at Jessie with a confused look.

  “I can’t speak to any spirits,” Jessie said. Erik hadn’t even considered that to be the case. His face showed the slight shock he experienced.

  “Really? They don’t talk to you?”

  “There are no they as far as I’m concerned. My mindscape-thing changed a bit for each absorption, sure, but nothing living is in there.

  “Let’s talk about this later, shall we? We’ve got a long chopper-ride ahead of us, after all,” Angela interrupted.

  “I think we all agree on Africa, excluding Erik. Unless he wants to add to his arguments, I think we’re decided?” Jessie said. The others nodded in agreement, though more nervously.

  “Fine, let’s go to Africa,” Erik said, rising from the chair. “We should get going, though. Someone’s gonna realise the chopper on the roof might be the same one in the area of the dead beasts yesterday. We should scramble, pronto. ASAP.”

  “Roger, Roger,” Angela confirmed with a smile, meeting the eyes of everyone else. “Let’s meet on the roof in half an hour. I’ll inform the medics and Amir right away.”

  Not having much to begin with, Erik scrounged his things together in moments. He spent most of his efforts gathering the large piles of minerals in his room. Remembering the boring work of separating them into piles, Erik placed the different piles in separate bags.

  The bags with the crystals having strongest links to either him or Jessie he planned to bring along within reach, so they could absorb them during their flight. The rest would go in the cargo. He placed every bag and carrier bag out in the hallway and made sure he’d got everything from his room before closing the door.

  He didn’t have both keycards to his room, so he went to get the last one from Angela, whom everyone viewed as the de facto leader of the group. Maybe more like a manager, in a way.

  The girls’ doors were wide open, and a few bags had been placed out in the hallway. Erik got his last keycard and went down to the lobby to check out. Seeing that there weren’t a bunch of people in the hotel, he put his bags near the stairs before descending the stairs to the lobby. He turned in his keycards and went up to the roof to wait for the rest, collecting his bags on the way.

  He didn’t know how much stronger he had got physically from before he’d died, but he was carrying quite a few crystals and minerals, and it felt heavy even now. Luckily, his wounds didn’t slow him down quite so much, though his back ached and burned almost constantly.

  On the rooftop was Amir and the two medics, Amir working on the chopper and the medics assisting with cargo duty. Erik didn’t have much previous experience with helicopters, and decided to talk to Amir while waiting.

  He was refuelling the helicopter, using several massive jerry-cans and a rubber tube. If those cans were filled with fuel, they’d be weighing over a hundred kilos, and Amir had to carry it up a step ladder, lifting it above his head and keep it there while it poured through the tube and into the tank. Why would the tank be located way up there instead of below?

  “You can take the last one, if you want,” Amir said, wiping a shower’s worth of sweat from his head. His shirt had absorbed most of the sweat from anywhere else, but it was also dripping down his uncovered arms. Erik followed the instructions he was given and poured the last can into the tank. It was quite heavy, but manageable, considering his stronger-than-normal magical body. Amir’s massive arms explained why he was able to do this as well.

  “It’s usually filled by pump, but off-site it has to be done manually. Luckily, we’ve now cleared a lot of extra weight from the helo, so it should travel quite far even if it’s filled with people. Still, we’ll need to stop to refuel twice before we cross the Mediterranean,” Amir said as he watched Erik do his job for him despite his wounds. He continued.

  “Given our weight we should make it across with some fuel to spare, though not a lot. We’ll stop near Paris, then Marseille before crossing, stopping somewhere north of Constantine. We won’t reach quite that far, so we might need to land somewhere and get some fuel elsewhere, but we’ll deal with that when we get there. Besides, training in the wild was the goal, right?”

  “The fewer people around to see us jumping around using magic, the better. We should stay close enough to get food and water, though,” Erik said.

  “We’ll find some accommodations when we get there,” said Angela.

  Erik and Amir turned to see her and the rest of the women behind her putting their bags on the ground. The medics were quick to help them pack their stuff into the chopper while Amir did a few more checks. Once they were ready for taking off, everyone climbed in, putting on the headsets available.

  Amir and Angela explained the logistics to everyone, though Erik had just heard it from Amir himself, so he spaced out a bit for the first few minutes as they left the airspace above Cambridge heading south.

  After that, Erik and Jessie decided to spend their time and energy absorbing the last few crystals with a strong connection to them. Erik just had one more with a powerful link, but quite a few weaker ones, and that would just have to do. His last two major slots would soon be filled.

  Jessie had several more with powerful connections, plenty more than needed to fill the three major power slots she had available. She could even fill a few of the minor slots with powerful crystals if she wanted to, though they hadn’t talked about that yet except Erik’s hesitance to get too many new powers to get used to at once.

  Both removed the clothes they wore on their torsos, Jessie finding it tedious more than anything else. At least she got to keep her bra on.

  Erik picked up his last powerful crystal, which was in a bag along with the ones he felt a weaker connection to, though it was placed in a side pocket separate from the others. This one was labelled ‘Starless Brilliance’, and was a clear crystal with markings resembling cracks on the inside of it.

  Erik wasn’t sure what kind of crystal it was, but that didn’t matter. The label was what Jessie heard its name as. Jessie found a dark red ruby labelled ‘Bolster Vessel’ and prepared herself to absorb it, meeting Erik’s eyes. They nodded at each other, then placed the crystals on a power slot.

  Jessie placed it on her owl’s wing, using the left-most slot on that part of her Crest, closest to the central one containing Grace. She had planned that based on its name, assuming it was more of a body-strengthening power. The owl’s wing was thought to be the more support-based of the wings, so she felt it would fit there quite well. Both her and Erik’s chests lit up with red as they went into their meditation.