Kailou, Sil, and the other three guards safely escorted Ryn and Teiryn to the main castle's gate, as Noir had ordered, with surprisingly no encounters with the masked men along the way. Walking in the formation Kailou had devised, they kept an eye on every inch of their surroundings, watching every shadow and listening for every sound. The group cautiously approached the large gateway blocking the path between them and the castle, watching as the five Zibiru guards stationed outside the gate checked identification cards and searched the belongings of the civilians seeking refuge within the first division of the settlement.
"Seems like 'The Holy Body' wasn't able to make it this far," Sil commented as the group approached the large black gates that led to the main castle.
The main castle of the Zibiru settlement was situated in an area located at the center of the settlement, labeled Division One. Large stone walls and strong metal gates split the Zibiru settlement into six divisions, making it difficult for enemies to learn the layout and how to move through it. This was especially true for the first and second divisions, which, unlike the others, had only two entry points instead of four. Also, more guards stood at these gates, allowing only civilians with certain documents to pass through.
Seeing the long line of panicking civilians waiting to get through the gate, Raiden and his squad grew agitated.
"Please tell me that we're not actually going to be waiting in this damn line!" Raiden stated in a loud, exhausted tone, while crossing his arms.
Ryn stared at Raiden in disapproval as Kailou began to speak. "Thank the gods that is unlikely due to our mission. These documents from Lord Noir should grant us priority passage through the gates."
The group sighed in relief as they stood at the end of the line. Though Raiden was the only one to speak up, none of them wanted to stand in the line of scared and screaming civilians, not even Teiryn, who stirred in his sleep as the voices grew louder.
Kailou began to lead the group around the line of civilians. Since they weren't planning to stand in line, and because of their uniforms, Kailou thought the civilians would use their heads and understand they were part of an escort team. But of course, he didn't anticipate the civilians' fear overriding their logic, causing them to get angry and complain as they watched Ryn and the others walk straight past the line.
"Isn't this a load of crap! How the hell are they able to cut the line?!" one man yelled as he held a three-year-old girl with teal hair, asleep on his back.
Agreeing with him, a woman standing with her husband and three kids also spoke up. "Yeah! What makes you and your family so special?! Does it grant you joy to see us fear for our family's lives?!"
The complaints went on for a short while, allowing several other people the time to vent their frustrations. That was until a group of three men, unable to contain their anger any longer, tried to charge through the checkpoint. Two of the gate guards quickly jumped into action, subduing the three men and restraining them with a unique set of handcuffs that dampened their spirit energy. The crowd's anger towards the guards had gotten worse at this point, causing the other three guards who were performing crowd control to be attacked both verbally and physically by the civilians.
Feeling uncomfortable with the sight in front of her, Ryn released a short wave of energy to get everyone's attention. The energy that Ryn had unleashed wasn't your usual pulse of spirit energy, nor was it her unleashing her aura. The wave of energy was actually caused by her 'God Trait', granting her the ability of [Spatial Dominance], allowing her to manipulate the space within a certain area. She used this ability to send out a wave of compressed space that targeted only the people causing the most commotion, hitting them with enough force to knock them over without harming them.
"You think that I don't understand how you feel, but in actuality I do!" Ryn shouted, a tear sliding down her cheek. "I… I'm scared too. You're right, I'm not special, and my son probably won't be either–."
Ryn paused for a moment to look down at Teiryn, her voice trembling as more tears fell from her eyes. "But at this moment, both my husband and my other son are out with the patrol squad, going up against an unknown enemy, and I'm not sure if I will ever see them again. So, it doesn't matter if any of you think that my son is special or not, because I think that he's special, and that's enough for me to want to secure his future by any means necessary!"
The crowd of twenty or so civilians instantly fell silent after hearing Ryn's words, all except for a few civilians murmuring to either each other or themselves.
"That power! Oh shit, isn't that the great wife of the Zibiru domain?" One man whispered to another in the crowd, frantically patting his shoulder.
"I should have just kept my big mouth shut! What have I done!" The man who was carrying the small girl mumbled as he overheard the previous man's words.
"We're not going to get in trouble for this, right, Mommy?" Another small girl asked as her mother knelt beside her and began to panic.
Most of the civilians, especially the ones who chose to speak out of rage, wouldn't even dare to move as they stared at the ground. Afraid to face the wrath of the head family, the civilians wanted to make themselves as unrecognizable as possible. They prayed for this moment to end, or that some divine miracle would happen to direct Ryn's focus elsewhere.
Seeing that Teiryn was awake in her arms, Ryn placed him down, holding one of his hands with one of hers while wiping tears from her eyes with the other. Teiryn had woken up due to all of the yelling and shouting that was happening. He stood at his mother's side, clenching her hand tightly as he looked around his surroundings. While everyone else was focused on the ongoing conflict, Teiryn turned his head to look behind the group, just in time to notice a man in a dark-grey and navy-blue combat suit walking through the gate. As if the gods themselves had answered the civilians' prayers, taking advantage of Ryn's lack of concentration, Teiryn quickly slipped his hand from hers and walked toward the man.
"Nabi," Teiryn screamed, causing Ryn to look back towards the gate.
Teiryn stumbled while running as fast as he could towards the man, tripping over a misplaced brick in the road. The man quickly caught Teiryn just before he fell and lifted him so that their faces met.
"It's Noir, Teiryn. Not Nabi." The man said with a slight chuckle, while tossing Teiryn into the air.
Noir was a white man with medium-length blonde hair, that he kept in a messy style. He was tall, around five feet and eleven inches, and had a vertical scar over his left eye, from a wound that also left him blind in that eye. Noir's uniform consisted of the dark-grey and navy-blue combat suit, a sword that resembled a katana that was still in its sheath, and a thin, dark-grey cloth mask that covered the lower half of his face.
Teiryn continued to chant the name Nabi, as Noir repeatedly tossed him into the air and caught him again. The sight would cause onlookers to fully forget about the ongoing attack if it wasn't for Ryn walking up and taking Teiryn from Noir's arms.
"Shane! What the hell is going on?!" She shouted in a loud, demanding tone.
Noir flinched, not out of fear but out of pure instinct. He could sense the anger coming from Ryn and knew that she was prone to making unpredictable decisions, so he couldn't be sure that she wouldn't hit him out of nowhere. Seeing that her actions had stopped after grabbing Teiryn from him, Noir regained his composure and dropped his guard.
"Not here," Noir responded to Ryn as he gestured towards the group of civilians. "If we were to talk here, the information would cause an uproar amongst the civilians. We'll discuss things in the war room."
Ryn paused for a moment and stared back at the group of civilians with malicious intent.
"Right, you and Tayaire's precious little civilians!" Ryn spat as she gestured for Noir to lead the way.
Noir nodded his head, then turned around and began to walk back through the gate towards the castle, followed by Ryn and the others. The group was quickly stopped, less than a minute after they left, by two of the Zibiru guards who guarded the gate. The guards ran as fast as they could to meet the group halfway under the gateway, yelling for them to stop.
"Lord Noir… Great wife Ryn… Please… Wait!" One of the guards said, panting as he tried to catch his breath.
He was a short, stubby man with curly brown hair and a pair of prescription round-rimmed glasses that slid down his face as he sweated. The guard had a huge gut that practically bulged from his uniform. He was clearly out of shape, being the complete opposite of the other Zibiru guard who had accompanied him, who was a tall, slim woman with long black hair. The woman patted the overweight guard on his shoulder as she began to speak.
"We know that this possibly couldn't be the best time to ask, but as you can see, we're sort of slammed back at the east gate, and with Lord Rhya still out on her mission to the Lunarus domain, the only people we could think to ask were one of you." The woman said as she reached into her bag and pulled out a bottle of water, handing it to the other guard.
"All we ask… if possible… is for a couple of extra hands to help us sort through the civilians." The overweight guard stated in an exhausted tone, between large gulps of water. "Things are beginning to get a bit crazy, and if we don't get it under control, I don't think the others will be able to hold out."
"More like he wouldn't hold out." One of the guards on Raiden's squad whispered to the other, causing both of them to burst into laughter.
Noir shot a deadly gaze at the two men, making them flinch and instantly go silent. He nodded his head as he listened to the gate guards' request. Then he looked around at each member of the group, eventually stopping on Teiryn as he lay in his mother's arms.
"Don't even think about it!" Ryn shouted, pulling Teiryn closer to her chest.
Ryn's remark had caused Noir to let out a slight chuckle. He had no plans of ever leaving a child to guard the gates, especially one as young as Teiryn. The only reason that he had glanced towards Teiryn was that he thought that he had seen the boy's eyes glow purple for a split second, insinuating that he was using some ability.
"Oh, I would never!" Noir said back in a sarcastic tone as he took another glance at Teiryn to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.
After seeing that the boy's eyes were their normal shade of dark brown, Noir took another good look at everyone and their title cards. Noir had made note of each person's rank, then pointed at the two guards that were a part of Raiden's squad.
"You two will go with them to help out. Seeing that you're the lowest ranks amongst us, you could use the experience." Noir ordered with a smile.
Hearing the orders given by Noir, both men hesitated and looked at Raiden for confirmation. In the Zibiru settlement, it wasn't unusual for a squad to check with their leader before accepting another task, so this didn't come off as unusual to Ryn and the others. But Raiden, on the other hand, stared back at the two guards with a trace of disdain before waving his hand, gesturing for the men to accept the orders.
The two men nodded their heads towards Raiden, then accepted the task given by Noir, causing the woman guard to let out a loud sigh of relief. She quickly grabbed and shook Noir's hand, expressing her appreciation by bowing her head and letting out several "Thank Yous!" The gate guards then turned to leave with their new additions, explaining their roles as they walked back to the front of the gate.
Ryn, Kailou, Raiden, and Sil continued to follow Noir through the gate to the castle. As they made it through the gateway, the group was met by a large, beautiful courtyard filled with flower patches, water fountains, benches, training areas, and more. Ryn observed as several groups of Zibiru guards met around the courtyard. Each group had a total of five members and two familiars, suggesting that at least one member of each group had to be a tamer.
"It's good to see that the ward is untouched, but is all of this truly necessary?" Ryn asked Noir as they walked behind a previous group of civilians that the gate guards had let through the first division's gate.
Noir looked at Ryn, then down at a device around his wrist that was emitting a faint ringing sound. "Based on the information that we've recently received from one of the patrol squads, I'm not even sure that this would be enough for what's coming. Without both Tayaire and Rhya–."
Noir's train of thought was interrupted as a family frantically rushed past the group, bumping into both him and Ryn. The panicking family of four, led by the father and mother, hurriedly rushed past other families that were walking on the large stone path, making their way towards the castle. Ryn recognized the woman leading the family as one of the civilians who had yelled at her, causing her to stare at the woman as she passed. Ryn fought the urge to say something to the woman, feeling that something was off about the family by the way they charged past the others. She chose instead to turn her attention back towards Noir, who for some reason continued to stare at them.
Noir's gaze had drifted from the woman to her two kids, then finally to the father of the family. He watched as the father shoved a red, spherical pill into his mouth while closely watching for onlookers. Thinking that this was just due to the man being paranoid, Noir paid it no mind, then looked back towards Ryn, who was closely observing him. This had caused Noir to jump in shock, as he cleared his throat and began to speak.
"Anyways, I ordered most of our guards to focus on rescuing the scattered civilians and defending the third division's gate, but from this new alert that just went out, it doesn't look like that's going too well either," Noir stated as he looked down at the watch-like device, swiping on its display with an agitated expression on his face.
The group continued to walk with the other civilians until they reached the line leading to the castle's large, steel-like doors, again choosing to walk around and skip the line. The difference this time around, though, was that there was no one screaming or shouting at them. Unlike Ryn, who mainly focused on her motherly duties and spent most of her time in the Lunarus domain, several miles away from the Zibiru settlement, amongst many of the Zibiru civilians, Noir was seen as a figurehead.
As the group walked toward the castle doors, they eventually passed the family from earlier. Noir stared at the father closely as they walked by, watching as he began to cough and sweat profusely. The man's wife stood at his side, patting him on his back as tears fell from her eyes. She whispered in his ear, gesturing for her kids to stop crying and asking questions, which made Ryn pay closer attention to the family.
"Wait. Before, at the gates, didn't you have three children?" Ryn questioned as she began to walk towards the family.
Noir stepped in front of Ryn with his arms crossed, not allowing her to take another step.
"We honestly don't have time for this!" Noir stated in a slightly agitated tone. "Their family is the least of our concerns right now!"
Remembering what Noir had said in their previous conversation, Ryn understood what he meant. She turned around and walked back toward the group with Noir and Teiryn, hearing a loud explosion as Ryn again set Teiryn down to walk. The explosion was large and instantly made everyone in the courtyard set their guard. Well, everyone except for Ryn, who, after seeing that the explosion had originated at the gate they came through, turned her attention towards the family.
Following Ryn's gaze, Noir was confused as both he and Ryn watched the man's skin become covered with bright red markings that grew brighter and brighter with each passing second.
"Noir, I know that you can't sense it, but where have we seen this before?" Ryn asked as she sensed the man's spirit energy began to spike.
Noir stood confused for a moment as he tried to remember the markings or at least something similar, but his memory drew nothing but blanks. Noir stood watching the man closely as he embraced his family in some weird group hug. The markings had fully covered the man's body at this point and began to transfer to the man's family, causing Noir to look at Ryn, who stared at the family with wide, shocked eyes.
"I-It can't be!" Ryn mumbled in a low tone that was barely audible to Noir.
Noir could tell Ryn had fully recognized the markings and what they were for. The only thing he didn't know was whether or not it was a good sign for them. By Ryn's facial expression, Noir instantly assumed that the red markings meant something bad and began to take safety precautions. He quickly placed one hand on both Ryn and Teiryn, leaving behind a small black mark of his own, as he watched the markings begin to swallow the family completely.
"Ge-Get down!" was the only thing that Ryn could shout, as she stretched out both of her arms and began to cover the group in a blue, spherical energy barrier.
In the exact moment that Ryn's barrier went up, both the man and his family erupted into a massive explosion made of pure spiritual energy. Ryn tried her hardest to push back against the explosion, using a large amount of her spirit energy to reinforce the barrier, but at last, her barrier couldn't stop the blast. The massive explosion had slammed against Ryn's barrier with extreme force, shattering it and sending everyone flying back.