Nightmare Mythos

She did exceptionally well.

"You can stop now,"

Upon hearing Vin\'s soothing voice from the back, which sounds like an angel whispering into her ear, Jacqueline slowly loses control over the ravens.

Though these ravens, instead of disappearing out of thin air as it was just yet another manifested power from a facet, Jacqueline\'s crows continued appearing. The only thing that changed was her control over them as they started going haywire, flying wherever they wanted to go.

Soon, only a few ravens were left roaming around the area. Some were pecking on the solid ground, landing on some debris here and there. There are still a few hovering across the land, spotting the ground as if looking around to prey upon some animals.

At least, they weren\'t the target as those ravens seemed to know they couldn\'t be something to touch with their mere size alone.

"Signal the orange flare,"

Cesar, after watching that Jacqueline was done with her shift, called out to Joshua who responded immediately, understanding that it was one of his jobs to do so.

Loading a flare gun with an orange shell, Joshua covered one of her ears before shooting it upwardly into the air.

As the flare whistled through the air, signaling that their side was done with its first rotation, Cesar immediately put a mark on his checklist at their squad. Right after, their group remained vigilant of the incoming barrage of information that the other squads would be relaying.

The second session is about to come unless there\'s a certain finding that will cease all existing operations instantly.

\'If I have to choose who\'ll come next, it\'s definitely going to be her,\'

Cesar mused inwardly as his gaze shifted to the right where another person was standing amongst them.

"I\'ll go next, sir,"

Undoubtedly so, Cesar\'s thinking was correct as Maine, one of Vin\'s men, volunteered herself to be the next line of rotation. Vin, who appeared aloof as ever, didn\'t reject the notion as he nodded curtly.

For the second time today, Cesar and the squad will be able to witness yet another corps revealing their power right in front of their eyes.

Maine isn\'t some stranger to them. From time to time, she would meet them and they would eventually meet her since she was one of Vin\'s men. Yet, just like everybody else who had a facet on their own, they will be afraid to willingly just show it to anyone else.

A few only knew about their powers, probably someone from the higher-ups since it is sensitive information. After all, unknown enemies might use this information to counter those people.

Only this time, she had no choice but to comply even though there was a slight aggravation around her face.

\'She\'s starting…\'

Cesar mused inwardly before grabbing a green shell from Joshua\'s inventory box and loading it on his gun. Covering one ear to start the sequence, he pointed it upwards and shot it.

Phew—!

As the flickering light of the green flare pass made its way up towards the sky with the never-stopping quake from the ground, Maine breathed a short sigh before channeling the essence throughout her body.

In a split second, Cesar spotted a small flicker in her surroundings. He thought it was just a mere trick that occurred in his eyes before he realized he was wrong.

The flickering lights turned a hazy red wisp hovering into the air that slowly ignited alone before it ignited to make those tiny oddballs fiercer.

Soon, these flames attached themselves to Maine. Watching her being engulfed by the dangerous flames, Cesar and the rest of the squad would\'ve become worried as it looked like she was burning, merely melting into its heat.

Yet their worries started to subside once Maine gave a thumb to the kids who might be worried about her condition.

She took a glance at her back, her glowing orange eyes gazing upon them for a brief moment before she started levitating through the air, and moved closer to yet another site of the parking lot that hadn\'t been cleared yet.

All thanks to Jacqueline, there are only few things left for the clean-up. Maine seemed to be the perfect candidate for such actions.

As if a nearby star was within their sight, slightly hurting their eyes upon gazing at it, Cesar and his squad remained looking at the site. Only Vin seemed to have been unaffected by Maine\'s showing of power, appearing unhurt by her radiance.

Maine slowly raised both of her hands, leveling her shoulders.

"In the north, Squad Siemen is rotating formation,"

Cesar got slightly distracted, wanting to see more of what she could do but his job came first. He momentarily gazes at his checklist, marking the squad that Reyna informed.

Yet just before he saw it, he noticed that the corner of his eyes was already red.

"Oh my god,"

Hearing Reyna\'s shocked voice at the side where she just informed him about the rotation from the other side of the city, Cesar finally managed to see the graveness of the situation.

Pillars of dark orange flames shot upwards towards the sky, burning everything that managed to come in its way. Engulfing everything apart, it looked like this part of the whole city was being encroached on by a red demon, hungry to leave a trail of destruction.

"Shit..."

It isn\'t as supernatural nor mysterious as Vin\'s power but Maine\'s facet pillar of flames makes up for its destruction. Not every facet needs to be mysterious or difficult as straightforward as this one was naturally needed.

Simply scorching.

Simply explosive.

Simply cataclysmic.

That\'s what Cesar all thought as Maine displayed her power right in front of them.

"Shit…"

Because of such a display, the only thing that Cesar could utter at the destructive image of hellfire that manifested at their very front was a cursed word.

In just a few minutes, the parking lot has finally been cleared.

Maine from above slowly came down to the ground as the flames that surrounded her body slowly dissipated. By the looks of it, the fire that surrounded her protected her from the same power she was using as if it were her shield.

In the end, it wasn\'t just all designed to show off.

Wiping the ashes from her shoulder, Maine finally reported, "The parking lot has been cleared. We can begin searching,"

As if it was a go signal to yet another set of rotations of their plan, Cesar immediately went through the box of flare shells before picking up a white one and loading it with his gun.

Repeating the same process, Cesar shoots it towards the sky as he mutters silently.

"In the east, Squad Vin will commence its search,"

…

With nothing but dead ravens and burning solid ground from the parking lot, the squad spent an hour in their search before finding absolutely nothing new.

There are still penetrated realities here and there but the parking lot was something that they\'d already searched before, and realized the same count of realism remained the same.

They checked once, twice, and thrice just to make sure they didn\'t neglect even a single wreckage but there was still nothing.

It made the squad\'s emotions waver. Vin, who was supposed to be the stalwart leader who shouldn\'t be fazed with such a result also couldn\'t help but frown and show a bit of uncertainty.

They were supposed to see something.

Yet all they see is nothing to improve their situation.

Cesar was on the edge of his seat as he tried to find clues himself since he was good at doing it yet the same as others, it remained zero developments.

\'I\'m about to crazy… What the fuck is this?\'

Cursing inwardly, Cesar tried to do a consolidation thinking that something might happen. Albeit, it might be on the other sites and not them.

But it has been a while since a white flare has been shot up in the air. Each squad had already reported that they began searching on their side after three rotations but there\'s no other flare showed that signals new findings.

The first set of rotations is a green flare where each squad gives their go signal. The second rotation involved an orange flare where it will be mixing up the rotation in the obliteration party in case the previous person was tired. The third will be the white flare where the search on their site would commence.

The fourth flare they were expecting isn\'t appearing at all.

If that\'s the case, the only thing they could do was move forward.

"Hey gather around,"

Vin, from the front, turned around as he called out to everyone with his usual aloof face came back.

That sign… only signifies that they couldn\'t find something new in their sight and will have to move deeper into the city.

With a sigh, Cesar trod forward full of disappointment.

"It\'s okay rookies…"

Vin wanted to liven up the mood with consolidation words but something else occurred that brought everyone\'s fear up to the highest level.

They froze at the spot.

"It\'s…"

All because a few distance away from them, Vin suddenly started to secrete a mouthful of blood from his lips, continuously sliding down from his chin and dropping it into the ground.