Endless Horde: Through the Eyes of a Godking

They continued walking in silence until they arrived at a fairly lit area of the tunnels. There, Cedric saw a massive formation blocking the way. His brain immediately went into analytical mode as he dissected that formation.

It was fairly complicated but it does one major thing, and that is to block the way of any unauthorized people, preventing them from going any further.

"Stand beside me," Fiona ordered, which Cedric followed.

They then walked up to the formation and all of a sudden, Cedric heard:

"Please stand still for identity verification."

It was a mechanical female voice, most likely coming from the opposite side of the formation. It didn't sound like Acala so it shouldn't be connected to the system.

Then, a beam of red light scanned them from top to bottom. Others in Cedric's place might miss this but he didn't; when the light scanned them, it paused briefly to the badge he was wearing, the same goes with Fiona.

'Must be a ruse, then.' Cedric mentally commented. 'It's deliberately done to fool others. Well, it didn't work on me but I'm weird so it's not counted, I suppose.'

His eyes then flashed as he looked at the rock formations around them as well as the ceiling of the tunnels. In his vision, he could see the hidden traps and weapons all around this area. It would only take a single signal from the scanner and all of these would appear and mercilessly kill whoever trespasses this place.

"Scan complete. Welcome, Head Manager Fiona and guest."

After hearing that, the large runic wall parted and revealed a pair of massive walls that opened to grant them entry.

"Let's go," Fiona told him before continuing on her way.

Cedric followed her immediately, and once they passed by the gates, it closed behind them and the same formation appeared on the other side.

"Oh, Fiona! How nice of you to visit us! Hmm? Oh, who's this?"

It hadn't even been a minute since they arrived on the other side of the wall and they already met someone. It was a man who wore the same badge as they did.

He looked strange though, but Cedric kept his mouth shut about this.

"His name's Cedric, he's from the Starlight Royal Academy, and uh...he's drafted and decided to join us temporarily." Fiona replied.

"Oh...oh I see." The man then looked at Cedric, wearing a strange expression before saying: "Well, glad to have 'ya, Kid. I feel that we'll see each other very often from now on. Don't hesitate to ask me for help if you need one, 'ya hear?"

"Thank you, I'll keep that in mind, Sir." Cedric replied.

"Oh, we have a polite one." The man snickered and looked at Fiona with mirth on his face. "Ya don't see those very often. Anyways, I'm off, gots to take care of some pests 'round 'ere. Later!"

The man then literally sank to the ground like it was quicksand. It alarmed Cedric, whose senses were still primed, and he saw him swimming underground like it was water.

Fiona continued walking with Cedric trailing behind her. The man has already left his scanning range, and quite quickly too.

"His name's Alvin," Fiona suddenly said, catching his attention. "He's the keeper of these tunnels. It wouldn't be wrong to say that this is his turf and we're just renting it. He's a nice guy, just don't get in between him and his work, otherwise, he can get pretty nasty."

"His work is?"

"His one sided-war against underground demonic creatures." Fiona replied, "He's been like that ever since, extremely intent on eradicating everything that doesn't look remotely human that got close to his tunnels. Those are the 'pests' he's referring to. And he calls his work 'pest-control', or something like that."

"Is that the reason behind his physical mutations?" Cedric asked.

He asked because Alvin doesn't look like any regular human. His arms are longer and hairier, and he has long nails that almost seem like they're claws instead. His face is also longer and he has dark circles around his eyes. He's like a badger mole, and he even stands like one.

"No, it's not," Fiona replied. "I don't know the full story, frankly because I never asked, but from what I've learned so far, he's been like that even before his vendetta against the critters began."

"Don't be mistaken though. Alvin might look strange but he's human still, Acala herself confirmed that. The physical mutations he had might be the side effects of his Class, but I'm not sure. Anyway, his appearance isn't flattering to others so he lives in isolation."

"He's the one who created these tunnels, and he did it alone. The army discovered it and hired him because his skills were useful. In terms of tenure, he's senior to everyone who's part of the expedition teams. Just give him some respect and stay out of his way, he'll stay out of yours."

"Anyways, enough about Alvin. We're here." Fiona declared.

They stopped in their tracks and Cedric saw a very familiar sight. There is a field of metal platforms, arching gateways, and thick wires in front of them. Cedric felt the pulsing energy around this place, the elements of space were rich here.

Cedric saw runic symbols attached to pretty much every single corner of this place. Not even a millimeter was spared. The arrays were intricate and tight-knit.

"A Transmission Zone?"

"Yes. How else do you expect us to arrive at our marked locations and keep it discrete?" Fiona raised a brow in question.

Cedric had nothing to say to that. But he did summon his system and saw that it was still working in perfect order.

"We're still within the civilization, then. I haven't received a warning from the System."

"Yes, we are. But your connection will automatically be terminated once you leave her range." Fiona stated, "Since we're going via transmission, Acala won't have enough time to warn you."

"I see."

Cedric initially thought that Fiona will do something to terminate his connection with the System, but it turns out that they didn't have to do anything since his connection would be severed automatically anyway.

In the army camps, they had to have their systems manually disconnected since, while the army camps are stationed pretty far from the civilization, it's still within range. They didn't want accidents to happen, especially with new recruits, so they manually disconnected it.

Here, there's no need for that since he'd be sent straight out of the civilization it seems.

"See the platform with a fancy letter 'E' on it?" Fiona asked. Cedric looked briefly and nodded when he saw it. "That 'E' stands for 'Elric', Team Elric. That one's created specifically for them. We do that for each team to avoid mishaps in the transmission process since traveling like this is already a risk on its own."

"Go there, I'll activate the transmission and join you shortly," Fiona ordered.

Cedric nodded and stood at Team Elric's transmission zone. Fiona went to the machine and fiddled with it for a bit. After she was done, she jumped next to him and light started converging around them.

He was momentarily dazed since at the movement of spatial elements around them. He felt attracted to the profundity of Space Laws all of a sudden but he kept his immersion at a minimum. As much as he'd love to learn more about this, now is neither the time nor the place to do so.

After a couple of seconds, Cedric felt a strong pull around him. He felt the space twisting and turning around. He felt a momentary sensory overload; feeling as if he was everywhere and nowhere at once.

Before he knew it, they arrived at their destination. Cedric felt a pang of dizziness but only for a brief moment. Once that passed, it was replaced by a thick stench of corruption he was all too familiar with, causing him to visibly wear a displeased expression.

He grunted and stomped his feet, releasing a pulse of silvery light from his body that pushed all the corruption away. The thickness of corruption within the surroundings was high, he could even almost see it manifesting in reality. Fortunately, his Ki Pulse remains effective against it.

"Fiona, you're here! And...huh? Wait...huh!!!??"

Cedric didn't need to see who that was since that voice was already familiar to him. After grounding himself, Cedric opened his eyes and gazed at the raven-haired man who was also staring at him with an incredulous expression.

"It's...it's you! Heck! What're you doing here? Fiona, what...?"

It was Francis, the self-proclaimed clown of Team Elric. He looked between Fiona and Cedric, wearing a strange expression on his face.

"Hey, Dipshit! What are you being all loud for...huh?"

And then she came, seeing not only Fiona but also her boyfriend whom she had been missing for about a month now.

"Cedric! Oh my god! What are you doing here!?"

Erica's body moved through sheer instinct, jumping onto Cedric's embrace while still reeling at his sudden appearance.