ULTRAMagic Interval - Chapter 30
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Two days of no major activity had passed once again, which M.A.I.G. knew was not a good sign. The looters, shadow constructs, and shadow golems were under control, but they needed to figure out what was going on regardless. Marcus set out in the early afternoon with a squad of soldiers from both M.A.I.G. and GRENADIER to Bethany’s crypt. All seemed calm and the doors were shut, making the soldiers nervous. The overcast sky and chilly breeze did not help either. After taking a breath to ready his nerves, Marcus got out his megaphone.
“Valentin Haganno Karppinen, come out with your hands up! We have the crypt surrounded!” Marcus’ men then raised their rifles towards the entrance.
After a moment of waiting, the doors slowly creaked open and Valentin stuck his head out. The amount of adrenaline that shot his veins was unbelievable as he was actually scared for once. “Ah yes, hello, officers. I uh… I have every intention of cooperating, but, um… parley?” he said as he weakly dangled his white handkerchief around.
Marcus grunted incoherently and slapped his thigh in frustration. “Argh, no. Come on Valentin, in the truck.”
“With all due respect, Colonel; maybe we should humor him,” Collins interjected.
He sighed and shook his head. “You people are so lucky I don’t want to get into another argument with Captain Briggs…” Marcus said as he went up to the entrance. “Who’s in the crypt, Valentin?”
“Just me and Bethany,” he replied as he fully opened the door.
Bethany cautiously stuck her head up from her coffin. “Hey there, Colonel…” She was incredibly nervous and this actually made Marcus feel bad.
Taking a second to inspect the crypt, Marcus was having a difficult time processing that he was walking right into enemy territory. The fact that the crypt was warm from a fire also threw him off. And the incredible architecture on top of all that? It was a very surreal experience to say the least. “Alright, Valentin, what did you want to say?”
“Well I didn’t plan to set out this early, but I wish to take Milan up on his offer. He said I could stay at M.A.I.G. if things went south… and well, I’m probably numero uno on Sebastian’s hitlist now.”
Marcus gave him a puzzled look, drawing a blank at everything that was happening. He then turned to Collins who had just walked in. “Corporal, you’ve been talking to Milan and Private Ford, correct? Do you know anything about what he just said?”
“Yes and no, Colonel. I believe him regardless though.”
“I see… Alright then, pack your stuff and come with us, Valentin. You too, Bethany.”
Valentin could see that Bethany was scared, so he put his hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, Bethany, I planned for this…”
“You did?” She was a little skeptical.
“Mostly. Could you go get my books and notes together while I take care of everything else?”
“Su-sure…” she replied as she hopped out and went over to his work space.
As Valentin packed up the cooking supplies and doused the fireplace, one of the GRENADIER soldiers walked over to him. “Hold up, buddy. Are you legal to be in this country?” he demanded to know in a stern, yet somewhat deep and soothing voice.
“Why yes, Major… Rogers,” Valentin replied as he presented a green card.
“He’s legal, Buck,” Marcus assured. “Besides, even if we could deport him, there’s no legal precedent for some of the acts he’s committed, on top of them being a matter of national security. Plus I’m pretty sure he’d find his way back in regardless, given what I’ve read.” That last comment made Valentin chuckle a little.
Buck inspected the card thoroughly and handed it back. “Permanent too? Just how did you…?”
“I’ve done some favors to get some sponsors. You know, running some errands, a little grocery shopping… And as much as I love Finland, I’d rather not be a hop, skip, and a jump away from Germany, if you catch my meaning.”
This warranted a hearty laugh from Buck as he patted Valentin on the back. “Welcome to America, my Finnish friend.”
M.A.I.G. headquarters was active with anticipation after hearing that Marcus had secured Valentin and Bethany without incident. An impromptu meeting was organized in conference room 1A with Milan, Aelia, Zoltan, Trumna, Reynard, Jack, Antares, Adrien, and Will and company. Despite the seriousness of the impending situation, the room was full of casual talking amongst each other. There was a great deal of worry and anxiety, so it was to be expected. Of course the room went silent when Marcus entered with the duo. No one was quite sure what to think at that moment.
Valentin naturally felt his heart drop as everyone stared at him. “Hello, everyone…” he blurted out, hoping to ease the tension a little bit.
Milan stood up and walked up to him. “Valentin?”
“Yes, Milan, I’m taking you up on your offer.”
He then gave Valentin a big hug. “You won’t regret it, I promise… we still have things to discuss though, obviously.”
“I figured as much,” Valentin agreed as he and Bethany sat between Milan and Marcus. The Colonel then handed the two each a peppermint candy from a nearby bowl.
“Alright, let’s get down to brass tacks,” Trumna started. “Normally I’d say you two have a lot to answer for, but your pardons just came in.” He then slid two, important-looking folders towards them.
They were both stunned. “What’s all this?” Valentin asked as he flipped through his documents.
“Given how dicey things are getting, we need all the help we can get,” Reynard answered. “Plus you two have kept your hands mostly clean, so I say you deserve second chances.”
“I’M BEING PARDONED FOR MY WITCH TRIAL!?” Bethany exclaimed, catching the others' attention. “SAY WHAT? Jeez, someone resurrect my parents so we can tell them the good news!” There was a bit of laughter in response to that.
As happy as things were, Jackson grumbled as he popped a stick of gum in his mouth. “That’s all well and good, but are we just going to ignore the fact that Valentin here turned a kid into a temporary shadow construct?”
“Actually there’s a bit more to that than you think…” Valentin pointed out. “The whole thing’s a bit complicated.”
“Pardon?”
“Erm, yes, I’d also like to hear more about that,” Trumna added.
Valentin took a breath. “Oh boy… That little event was an attempt by me to see if I could reverse engineer the shadow constructs to understand Sebastian’s shadow orb better. No one was actually in any serious danger…”
“So he’s really using Karnage’s orb then?” Morrigan questioned.
“Unfortunately, Miss Devilfay,” Valentin answered.
Will noticed that Morrigan was visibly upset, so he put his hand on hers. “What’s the matter, Sam?”
She sighed in defeat. “I helped make it. It’s nowhere near as bad as Dunja’s, but still…”
“It’s going to be alright, Sam…”
Valentin felt a bit awkward, but continued. “So that boy, Camden Bloodthresher… he’s a bit of an anomaly who can apparently manipulate shadow constructs. I firmly believe he’s from the microcosmos within the Requiem video game series, but I cannot be certain at the moment. You can understand why I was interested in him regardless.”
“Hold up, The Requiem Series?” Reynard questioned. “Apocalypse Conquest Requiem? That series?”
“Indeed. I’ve been trying to get a hold of the games for some time now, but it’s tricky to get them to Earth.”
The realization then hit Reynard like a bag of bricks. He had a pretty good idea of what was going on and he did not like it. “Trumna, get Camden here on the double,” he instructed as he got up.
“Oh, okay? Is it that serious?”
“Yes. Now if you'll pardon me for a moment, ladies and gentlemen, I need to go talk to Sirius right now.”
Trumna also got up and followed Reynard out. “Shoot, Marcus? Can you finish this meeting for me?”
“Yes sir, Director,” Marcus replied as he stood up, with Trumna thanking him as he left the room. “This is an interesting situation we have found ourselves in, everyone,” he said as he began to walk around the table. “Our true enemy has been revealed and old foes have become friends. Furthermore, God has seen it fit to grant our guests forgiveness, but that is only the first step. Private Ford, would you care to speak on this matter?”
Will took a breath to steady his nerves, as he was sitting diagonally across from Valentin. Looking him in the eye was surreal and difficult, but he puffed up his chest and went for it. “Valentin, I have a lot of thoughts on this, especially given what I’ve learned about you. I’ve been thinking about everything that has been happening for a while now. Did you actually want to kill me?”
Valentin could see the anxiety in Will’s face and did his best to hide his own. “No. It’s complicated, but no. I did want your ULTRAMagic, but it was in service of taking down Sebastian. Anything I said towards you in regards to that was bravado and nothing more. Truthfully I wanted you to best me every time, deep down. I wanted you to survive, as it gave me hope that someone could stand up to Sebastian and his machinations. If I could only pick one person to go into battle with me against that awful man, you’d be high up on that list. William, I am truly sorry for all of the strife I have put you through. Can you find it in your heart to forgive me?”
Will was visibly welling up with emotions as an awkward smile stretched across his face. It was almost like he was about to cry tears of joy, and blue and pink smoke vented from his neck. “I forgive you, Valentin.” This warranted a round of light applause from the others.
“One condition though!” Morrigan cut in. “Don’t ever refer to Will as The Tyrant God. EVER.”
“Oh no, of course not, Miss Devilfay,” Valentin hurriedly replied, nervously waving his hands back and forth. “That was all for the ‘Perkele’ character and whatnot. I had to really play the part to keep Sebastian off my back, you know what I mean?”
Morrigan slowly nodded in acceptance. “Alright, fair enough. I forgive you too.”
“Very good,” Marcus concluded. “Now, Bethany, you’ve got quite the record of mischief on your hands. Are those days behind you?”
“Can I have Halloween?”
Marcus smiled, barely holding back a chuckle. “Promise not to hurt anyone?” She nodded. “Then so be it. Do you have something to say to Private Ford?”
“Hey, Will… sorry about nearly scaring you to death… and turning you into a glass statue… and trying to take your soul…”
“It’s alright, Bethany, I forgive you too… You weren’t actually going to kill Orion, were you?”
“No. Rough him up? Maybe, but Valentin told me to get rid of him…” Valentin was gesturing for her not to mention the other stuff he said that night. “Er, yeah, that was a good bop you gave me…”
“I didn’t hurt you too bad, did I?”
“Sport, you kind of have to play hard ball when it comes to parenting…” Faustus playfully chided.
Bethany nodded. “Yeah. Anyone tries to kidnap your kids, you give them a piledriver into the nearest sidewalk!” Everyone else laughed at the absurdity of that assertion, but accepted it regardless.
“So Bethany,” Zoltan cut in. “What’s this I hear about you working with The Death Knell Coven?”
“Them…” she scoffed. “I hate them to no end. All of them are a bunch of whiny crybabies who are just the worst. Valentin’s been sabotaging them to no end, which makes me happy.”
Zoltan looked over to Valentin, who was nodding with a proud smile. “Well then, I trust you fully denounce them?”
She nodded with enthusiasm. “Definitely. In fact, Valentin has a notebook full of their dirty little secrets, hehe…”
Valentin handed the notebook off to Milan and Aelia. “Here you go. Hopefully all of this is still accurate. I’ve been doing a lot of framing and manipulating, so things might have changed since I wrote this stuff down.”
“Thank you, both of you,” Aelia replied. “Bethany, I can’t help but notice your interest in magic, given the circumstances of your presence here. Would you be interested in joining my coven, The Devil’s Brew Coven? My fellow alchemists and witches would love to have you with us and away from that god-awful Death Knell coven.”
“After all we’ve been through?”
“Aquam sub ponte, my dear. Of course I assume M.A.I.G. and The Liger Brigade will need to work with you for a bit…” As Bethany nodded, Aelia realized the elephant in the room. “Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry, Antares!” she cried in embarrassment. “How rude of me, just where are my manners?”
Antares chuckled with a smile. “It’s alright, Miss Albus. Bethany, this is incredibly surreal, but it’s a pleasure to meet you. Olivia?”
“Same here, Bethany.”
Bethany smiled and bounced around in her seat, feeling incredibly warm for once. “It’s nice to meet you two too! Olivia, how did you get your hair that pretty?”
“Thank you,” she said with a slight blush. “I found a new shampoo and conditioner here in Red River and it has been doing wonders for my split ends. I’d be happy to let you try it out once this mission is over… actually, Antares? What is the status of the mission, given where we’re at now?”
Antares thought about it for a second. “Well barring the loose ends… Valentin, Bethany, I trust that there will be no more funny business?”
“You have my word, Captain Briggs,” Valentin replied, looking him in the eye.
“Same here!” Bethany said, following suit.
Antares then stood right up, looking proud and triumphant. “Will, Olivia, Adrien? Mission complete!”
“YES!” Will exclaimed, with the others clapping.
“GANAMOS!” Adrien declared as he shot up with a fist pump. “Valentin, amigo, sorry for calling you a pendejo.”
“It’s alright, Adrien. To be fair, I deserved it back then.”
“OH, Bethany!” Vlastimir jumped in. “You should come to Romania sometime and meet the rest of the family. Grandpa Vlad is really cool and you don’t have to worry about his title, as his impaling days are in the-ow! Hey hey, haha!”
Ekaterina was pinching his cheek on account of Bethany looking concerned. “Don’t scare her, you dingus! Ahem, Bethany? Vlad III is actually quite the gentleman, and Fausta and Morana are some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. And it goes without saying that Romania is an incredibly beautiful country, no two ways about it.”
“We’d love to have you as a guest at Castle Dracul, Bethany,” Zoltan assured her.
“I’d love to come along when I’m done here then,” Bethany said with a thumbs up. She was still a little nervous around Zoltan, but she also did not want to be rude.
Valentin felt great seeing Bethany that happy, as he had been secretly worrying about her since day one. Unfortunately he remembered something that Anne had said, so he turned his attention to Buster. “Buster, erm, how do I put this…? I don’t mean to soil the mood, but Anne did consider rehashing a certain ritual…”
“Oh, well that’s not good…”
“I don’t think they’ll actually do it again, and I’m pretty sure they can’t…”
Morrigan nodded. “Blood was pretty thorough with that.”
“Indeed. If Anne dares regardless, I’ll be here within a heartbeat and end her life on the spot. It was truly abhorrent what those despicable people did to Odo.”
Buster smiled, feeling safe over Valentin’s assurance. “Thanks, that means a lot. Say, Valentin? I trust you’ve heard of The Unlight?”
“Yes, I have. In fact I know quite a good amount about it…” Valentin was cut off by the level 5 code red alarms before he could say anything else.
“Shoot, everyone to the war room, quickly!” Marcus ordered.
“Wait, no! To the city!” Valentin instructed.
“Excuse me!?”
Mayhem stepped over to him. “What’s the matter, Valentin? Is it the shadow orb?”
He groaned in frustration as he had an unpleasant, lurking suspicion. “I can’t say for certain, Mayhem, Colonel… but if Sebastian just did what I think he just did, We’ll need all the might we can muster. Let’s go, no dawdling!” Valentin looked truly frightened, like it was the end of the world or something similar.
Next: Chapter 31
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
Master Post - Patreon
Two days of no major activity had passed once again, which M.A.I.G. knew was not a good sign. The looters, shadow constructs, and shadow golems were under control, but they needed to figure out what was going on regardless. Marcus set out in the early afternoon with a squad of soldiers from both M.A.I.G. and GRENADIER to Bethany’s crypt. All seemed calm and the doors were shut, making the soldiers nervous. The overcast sky and chilly breeze did not help either. After taking a breath to ready his nerves, Marcus got out his megaphone.
“Valentin Haganno Karppinen, come out with your hands up! We have the crypt surrounded!” Marcus’ men then raised their rifles towards the entrance.
After a moment of waiting, the doors slowly creaked open and Valentin stuck his head out. The amount of adrenaline that shot his veins was unbelievable as he was actually scared for once. “Ah yes, hello, officers. I uh… I have every intention of cooperating, but, um… parley?” he said as he weakly dangled his white handkerchief around.
Marcus grunted incoherently and slapped his thigh in frustration. “Argh, no. Come on Valentin, in the truck.”
“With all due respect, Colonel; maybe we should humor him,” Collins interjected.
He sighed and shook his head. “You people are so lucky I don’t want to get into another argument with Captain Briggs…” Marcus said as he went up to the entrance. “Who’s in the crypt, Valentin?”
“Just me and Bethany,” he replied as he fully opened the door.
Bethany cautiously stuck her head up from her coffin. “Hey there, Colonel…” She was incredibly nervous and this actually made Marcus feel bad.
Taking a second to inspect the crypt, Marcus was having a difficult time processing that he was walking right into enemy territory. The fact that the crypt was warm from a fire also threw him off. And the incredible architecture on top of all that? It was a very surreal experience to say the least. “Alright, Valentin, what did you want to say?”
“Well I didn’t plan to set out this early, but I wish to take Milan up on his offer. He said I could stay at M.A.I.G. if things went south… and well, I’m probably numero uno on Sebastian’s hitlist now.”
Marcus gave him a puzzled look, drawing a blank at everything that was happening. He then turned to Collins who had just walked in. “Corporal, you’ve been talking to Milan and Private Ford, correct? Do you know anything about what he just said?”
“Yes and no, Colonel. I believe him regardless though.”
“I see… Alright then, pack your stuff and come with us, Valentin. You too, Bethany.”
Valentin could see that Bethany was scared, so he put his hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, Bethany, I planned for this…”
“You did?” She was a little skeptical.
“Mostly. Could you go get my books and notes together while I take care of everything else?”
“Su-sure…” she replied as she hopped out and went over to his work space.
As Valentin packed up the cooking supplies and doused the fireplace, one of the GRENADIER soldiers walked over to him. “Hold up, buddy. Are you legal to be in this country?” he demanded to know in a stern, yet somewhat deep and soothing voice.
“Why yes, Major… Rogers,” Valentin replied as he presented a green card.
“He’s legal, Buck,” Marcus assured. “Besides, even if we could deport him, there’s no legal precedent for some of the acts he’s committed, on top of them being a matter of national security. Plus I’m pretty sure he’d find his way back in regardless, given what I’ve read.” That last comment made Valentin chuckle a little.
Buck inspected the card thoroughly and handed it back. “Permanent too? Just how did you…?”
“I’ve done some favors to get some sponsors. You know, running some errands, a little grocery shopping… And as much as I love Finland, I’d rather not be a hop, skip, and a jump away from Germany, if you catch my meaning.”
This warranted a hearty laugh from Buck as he patted Valentin on the back. “Welcome to America, my Finnish friend.”
M.A.I.G. headquarters was active with anticipation after hearing that Marcus had secured Valentin and Bethany without incident. An impromptu meeting was organized in conference room 1A with Milan, Aelia, Zoltan, Trumna, Reynard, Jack, Antares, Adrien, and Will and company. Despite the seriousness of the impending situation, the room was full of casual talking amongst each other. There was a great deal of worry and anxiety, so it was to be expected. Of course the room went silent when Marcus entered with the duo. No one was quite sure what to think at that moment.
Valentin naturally felt his heart drop as everyone stared at him. “Hello, everyone…” he blurted out, hoping to ease the tension a little bit.
Milan stood up and walked up to him. “Valentin?”
“Yes, Milan, I’m taking you up on your offer.”
He then gave Valentin a big hug. “You won’t regret it, I promise… we still have things to discuss though, obviously.”
“I figured as much,” Valentin agreed as he and Bethany sat between Milan and Marcus. The Colonel then handed the two each a peppermint candy from a nearby bowl.
“Alright, let’s get down to brass tacks,” Trumna started. “Normally I’d say you two have a lot to answer for, but your pardons just came in.” He then slid two, important-looking folders towards them.
They were both stunned. “What’s all this?” Valentin asked as he flipped through his documents.
“Given how dicey things are getting, we need all the help we can get,” Reynard answered. “Plus you two have kept your hands mostly clean, so I say you deserve second chances.”
“I’M BEING PARDONED FOR MY WITCH TRIAL!?” Bethany exclaimed, catching the others' attention. “SAY WHAT? Jeez, someone resurrect my parents so we can tell them the good news!” There was a bit of laughter in response to that.
As happy as things were, Jackson grumbled as he popped a stick of gum in his mouth. “That’s all well and good, but are we just going to ignore the fact that Valentin here turned a kid into a temporary shadow construct?”
“Actually there’s a bit more to that than you think…” Valentin pointed out. “The whole thing’s a bit complicated.”
“Pardon?”
“Erm, yes, I’d also like to hear more about that,” Trumna added.
Valentin took a breath. “Oh boy… That little event was an attempt by me to see if I could reverse engineer the shadow constructs to understand Sebastian’s shadow orb better. No one was actually in any serious danger…”
“So he’s really using Karnage’s orb then?” Morrigan questioned.
“Unfortunately, Miss Devilfay,” Valentin answered.
Will noticed that Morrigan was visibly upset, so he put his hand on hers. “What’s the matter, Sam?”
She sighed in defeat. “I helped make it. It’s nowhere near as bad as Dunja’s, but still…”
“It’s going to be alright, Sam…”
Valentin felt a bit awkward, but continued. “So that boy, Camden Bloodthresher… he’s a bit of an anomaly who can apparently manipulate shadow constructs. I firmly believe he’s from the microcosmos within the Requiem video game series, but I cannot be certain at the moment. You can understand why I was interested in him regardless.”
“Hold up, The Requiem Series?” Reynard questioned. “Apocalypse Conquest Requiem? That series?”
“Indeed. I’ve been trying to get a hold of the games for some time now, but it’s tricky to get them to Earth.”
The realization then hit Reynard like a bag of bricks. He had a pretty good idea of what was going on and he did not like it. “Trumna, get Camden here on the double,” he instructed as he got up.
“Oh, okay? Is it that serious?”
“Yes. Now if you'll pardon me for a moment, ladies and gentlemen, I need to go talk to Sirius right now.”
Trumna also got up and followed Reynard out. “Shoot, Marcus? Can you finish this meeting for me?”
“Yes sir, Director,” Marcus replied as he stood up, with Trumna thanking him as he left the room. “This is an interesting situation we have found ourselves in, everyone,” he said as he began to walk around the table. “Our true enemy has been revealed and old foes have become friends. Furthermore, God has seen it fit to grant our guests forgiveness, but that is only the first step. Private Ford, would you care to speak on this matter?”
Will took a breath to steady his nerves, as he was sitting diagonally across from Valentin. Looking him in the eye was surreal and difficult, but he puffed up his chest and went for it. “Valentin, I have a lot of thoughts on this, especially given what I’ve learned about you. I’ve been thinking about everything that has been happening for a while now. Did you actually want to kill me?”
Valentin could see the anxiety in Will’s face and did his best to hide his own. “No. It’s complicated, but no. I did want your ULTRAMagic, but it was in service of taking down Sebastian. Anything I said towards you in regards to that was bravado and nothing more. Truthfully I wanted you to best me every time, deep down. I wanted you to survive, as it gave me hope that someone could stand up to Sebastian and his machinations. If I could only pick one person to go into battle with me against that awful man, you’d be high up on that list. William, I am truly sorry for all of the strife I have put you through. Can you find it in your heart to forgive me?”
Will was visibly welling up with emotions as an awkward smile stretched across his face. It was almost like he was about to cry tears of joy, and blue and pink smoke vented from his neck. “I forgive you, Valentin.” This warranted a round of light applause from the others.
“One condition though!” Morrigan cut in. “Don’t ever refer to Will as The Tyrant God. EVER.”
“Oh no, of course not, Miss Devilfay,” Valentin hurriedly replied, nervously waving his hands back and forth. “That was all for the ‘Perkele’ character and whatnot. I had to really play the part to keep Sebastian off my back, you know what I mean?”
Morrigan slowly nodded in acceptance. “Alright, fair enough. I forgive you too.”
“Very good,” Marcus concluded. “Now, Bethany, you’ve got quite the record of mischief on your hands. Are those days behind you?”
“Can I have Halloween?”
Marcus smiled, barely holding back a chuckle. “Promise not to hurt anyone?” She nodded. “Then so be it. Do you have something to say to Private Ford?”
“Hey, Will… sorry about nearly scaring you to death… and turning you into a glass statue… and trying to take your soul…”
“It’s alright, Bethany, I forgive you too… You weren’t actually going to kill Orion, were you?”
“No. Rough him up? Maybe, but Valentin told me to get rid of him…” Valentin was gesturing for her not to mention the other stuff he said that night. “Er, yeah, that was a good bop you gave me…”
“I didn’t hurt you too bad, did I?”
“Sport, you kind of have to play hard ball when it comes to parenting…” Faustus playfully chided.
Bethany nodded. “Yeah. Anyone tries to kidnap your kids, you give them a piledriver into the nearest sidewalk!” Everyone else laughed at the absurdity of that assertion, but accepted it regardless.
“So Bethany,” Zoltan cut in. “What’s this I hear about you working with The Death Knell Coven?”
“Them…” she scoffed. “I hate them to no end. All of them are a bunch of whiny crybabies who are just the worst. Valentin’s been sabotaging them to no end, which makes me happy.”
Zoltan looked over to Valentin, who was nodding with a proud smile. “Well then, I trust you fully denounce them?”
She nodded with enthusiasm. “Definitely. In fact, Valentin has a notebook full of their dirty little secrets, hehe…”
Valentin handed the notebook off to Milan and Aelia. “Here you go. Hopefully all of this is still accurate. I’ve been doing a lot of framing and manipulating, so things might have changed since I wrote this stuff down.”
“Thank you, both of you,” Aelia replied. “Bethany, I can’t help but notice your interest in magic, given the circumstances of your presence here. Would you be interested in joining my coven, The Devil’s Brew Coven? My fellow alchemists and witches would love to have you with us and away from that god-awful Death Knell coven.”
“After all we’ve been through?”
“Aquam sub ponte, my dear. Of course I assume M.A.I.G. and The Liger Brigade will need to work with you for a bit…” As Bethany nodded, Aelia realized the elephant in the room. “Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry, Antares!” she cried in embarrassment. “How rude of me, just where are my manners?”
Antares chuckled with a smile. “It’s alright, Miss Albus. Bethany, this is incredibly surreal, but it’s a pleasure to meet you. Olivia?”
“Same here, Bethany.”
Bethany smiled and bounced around in her seat, feeling incredibly warm for once. “It’s nice to meet you two too! Olivia, how did you get your hair that pretty?”
“Thank you,” she said with a slight blush. “I found a new shampoo and conditioner here in Red River and it has been doing wonders for my split ends. I’d be happy to let you try it out once this mission is over… actually, Antares? What is the status of the mission, given where we’re at now?”
Antares thought about it for a second. “Well barring the loose ends… Valentin, Bethany, I trust that there will be no more funny business?”
“You have my word, Captain Briggs,” Valentin replied, looking him in the eye.
“Same here!” Bethany said, following suit.
Antares then stood right up, looking proud and triumphant. “Will, Olivia, Adrien? Mission complete!”
“YES!” Will exclaimed, with the others clapping.
“GANAMOS!” Adrien declared as he shot up with a fist pump. “Valentin, amigo, sorry for calling you a pendejo.”
“It’s alright, Adrien. To be fair, I deserved it back then.”
“OH, Bethany!” Vlastimir jumped in. “You should come to Romania sometime and meet the rest of the family. Grandpa Vlad is really cool and you don’t have to worry about his title, as his impaling days are in the-ow! Hey hey, haha!”
Ekaterina was pinching his cheek on account of Bethany looking concerned. “Don’t scare her, you dingus! Ahem, Bethany? Vlad III is actually quite the gentleman, and Fausta and Morana are some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. And it goes without saying that Romania is an incredibly beautiful country, no two ways about it.”
“We’d love to have you as a guest at Castle Dracul, Bethany,” Zoltan assured her.
“I’d love to come along when I’m done here then,” Bethany said with a thumbs up. She was still a little nervous around Zoltan, but she also did not want to be rude.
Valentin felt great seeing Bethany that happy, as he had been secretly worrying about her since day one. Unfortunately he remembered something that Anne had said, so he turned his attention to Buster. “Buster, erm, how do I put this…? I don’t mean to soil the mood, but Anne did consider rehashing a certain ritual…”
“Oh, well that’s not good…”
“I don’t think they’ll actually do it again, and I’m pretty sure they can’t…”
Morrigan nodded. “Blood was pretty thorough with that.”
“Indeed. If Anne dares regardless, I’ll be here within a heartbeat and end her life on the spot. It was truly abhorrent what those despicable people did to Odo.”
Buster smiled, feeling safe over Valentin’s assurance. “Thanks, that means a lot. Say, Valentin? I trust you’ve heard of The Unlight?”
“Yes, I have. In fact I know quite a good amount about it…” Valentin was cut off by the level 5 code red alarms before he could say anything else.
“Shoot, everyone to the war room, quickly!” Marcus ordered.
“Wait, no! To the city!” Valentin instructed.
“Excuse me!?”
Mayhem stepped over to him. “What’s the matter, Valentin? Is it the shadow orb?”
He groaned in frustration as he had an unpleasant, lurking suspicion. “I can’t say for certain, Mayhem, Colonel… but if Sebastian just did what I think he just did, We’ll need all the might we can muster. Let’s go, no dawdling!” Valentin looked truly frightened, like it was the end of the world or something similar.
Next: Chapter 31
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
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