Unknown Location, Soulight Valley

  At a secret spot hidden in by the valley itself, a group of it’s down designs meets, The Sinners Sextant. Ayev sits on the floor, looking at various field reports. Mercenaries are going in and out of the makeshift base. Ayev knows that their deal with Rahihi is massive and he knows the real deal is here now.

  Ayev’s pondering about options is quickly interrupted by their new second in command, Kiko.

  Kiko: If I may commander, some of our ranks are going to be defending Rahihi’s Coliseum in preparation for the War Festival, his orders.

  Ayev looked at Kiko, with a look in their eyes, they could see Kiko’s hesitation in her eyes, they knew she was weary about the operation, but this contract with Rahihi was worth five hundred million dollars, based on the fortune of the valley buried here over centuries.

  Ayev: You may do so, I’m going to be taking forces to my true goal

  Kiko: You want me to tell Rahihi you won’t be at his festival?

  Ayev: Tell him whatever you want, my quarry is the Century Corps

  Kiko: I hope you succeed in our objective

  Ayev: It will be done

  Ayev was in the middle of a precarious period, the Sinners Sextant had been a rough position following the Adamite Key debacle and the falling apart of the Li Cadenzo contract, but this new deal should secure Ayev the funds they need for their ultimate goal.

  Kiko left without speaking another word, as Ayev began mulling over a map, isolated from the rest of their mercenary force in their study

  Throughout the rest of the base, whispers began to stir, uncertainty being a blinding fog. Two people in particular are talking about their futures within the group.

  Farat: Ayev continues to isolate themselves away

  Shane: Well the guy hasn’t exactly had it easy, it hasn’t been easy since Ghice went down in that battle against The Century Corps

  Farat: Wasn’t just too long I was in a conversation with one of them

  Shane: What’s that girl’s name again?

  Farat: It’s Yoni I’m pretty sure

  Shane: She’s different from the rest of them

  Farat: Well I kinda hope we see more of her, and not in the revenge way

  Shane: Oooh someone’s got a crush

  Farat: It’s nothing like that, it’s just she’s treating me like I’m my own person, I mean you don’t even do that most of the time Shane

  Shane: I barely know your name Farenheit

  Farat: It’s Farat

  Shane: Whatever Fartman

  Farat: Now you’re doing this on purpose!!

  Shane: So what if I am?

  Farat: Well, well, well played

  Shane: Thank you

  Farat: Well, what’s our future here?

  Shane: We’ve got to wait for our own paths to open up?

  They are joined by a few more people, forming around them.

  Shane: We’ve attracted quite the crowd

  Farat: Well let’s head back to work, we don’t have anymore time to waste if we want to decide to continue here

  Farat and Shane run off to join the contingent of Sinners Sextant heading off to join Rahihi’s Coliseum

  Century Corps Base Camp

  At the base camp, Oseci, Mygin, Nest and Hadane are working with a map, one which Oseci has of the valley

  Oseci: The Sacred Garden isn’t on this map, it was hidden by a special spell made by one of our wardens

  Mygin: If it was hidden then how was it found by Rahihi’s forces?

  Oseci: We were betrayed and that person was also killed by Rahihi because “Don’t want any loose ends”, I escaped by faking my own death

  Hadane: So we need aether for the Buzzard Inhibiting Device?

  Nest: Aether merely turned him back into his original form, or was that the token and fountain combo?

  Mygin: Original form?

  Nest: As a giant evil bird

  Mygin: This Buzzard is a shapeshifter?

  Nest: No, but I believe that he must have changed back into his human form by escaping somewhere less aether was. Although Falconer and I blasted our aether into his form, supposedly destroying it

  Oseci: Boone claims that aether is a significant weakness for The Buzzard

  Nest: That could be the case

  Hadane: Well any lead is better than none

  Oseci: So there isn’t exactly a “massive pile of aether” lying there but some aether does reside in that area, we just need to conjure it to us

  Hadane: We should probably get someone who has an expertise in that stuff over here

  Mygin: Have an idea

  Mygin leaves for a minute to go grab someone

  Nest: Who is he getting?

  Oseci: I think I know

  Mygin returns with someone who has three metal rods protruding out of his helmet, the ever resourceful Noll

  Noll: I hear you are in need of my services?

  Mygin: Mind if you use your elemental resonance device to send aether energy into a receptacle of some kind?

  Noll: My device doesn’t exactly work like that, I need to send the energy to a person.

  Hadane: Well that should be easy enough

  Noll: Not really, my device is normally used for shutting off elemental energy resonance paths in enemies, I would have to use it to open energy paths inside someone for the energy to flow into which will require some tinkering on my part

  Mygin: But theoretically it can be done?

  Noll: Theoretically, yes, although I need someone who can absorb all the energy

  Nest: I can, I have before

  Noll: Alright, than we should leave soon, because I’ll need to charge my remote soon and that takes a while

  Oseci: I’ll get everyone ready, you can follow me to my old home, I still know the way

  Oseci rallies everyone to move as a new mission for the team begins

  Begin mission: Ancient Harvest

  Select your party and unit reserve, Nest and Oseci have been preselected to your party, Noll has been preselected to your active reserve

  When the party is 10% through to the Sacred Garden

  Centus: Oseci, what was your home like before the attack?

  Oseci: It was beautiful, a place of illustrious beauty we defended with upmost agency, it was burned down to the ground by Rahihi and he scattered the ashes to the wind. It is abandoned now

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Centus: Sounds like a tragedy what he did to that place, although I have done similar, due to my many years

  Oseci: How long is forever?

  Centus: It feels like I have been so long that nothing truly surprises me anymore

  Oseci: Have you ever committed an act of wrong in your years of immortality?

  Centus: Many, I have been on the wrong side of battles quite a few times in my lifetime

  Continue to the Sacred Garden

  When the party is 20% through to the Sacred Garden

  Yoni: Seems like The Buzzard stuck a few Hollows where there shouldn’t be any?

  Boone: The Buzzard…

  Yoni: Oh great…

  Oseci: These hollows are just in our path blocking it so we cannot complete our objective

  Yoni: Warm bodies for us, or cold bodies, depending on if you believe souls have warmth or not

  Hadane: They do not as my flame burned bright without one, and the temperature has not increased since I got one

  Yoni: I asked if they were warm not if they were flammable

  Continue to the Sacred Garden

  When the party is 40% through to the Sacred Garden

  Oiyrr: Aether exists all around us from my understanding

  Oseci: That is the case, well kinda

  Noll: All elemental energy is around us, we just need the right resonance to connect with it

  Oiyrr: What do you mean by “right resonance”

  Noll: Well think about it like this, everyone has their own energy about them, like an individualized signature that can be detected

  Oiyrr: Ok, keep going

  Noll: Well latent elemental energies exist around us, baked into the fabric of the universe, and it responds to your unique signal

  Oiyrr: Is that how your machine works

  Noll: In a sense yes, I turn off the resonance that responds to certain elements, or in this case, I’ll increase it

  Continue to Sacred Garden

  When the party is 50% through to the Sacred Garden, the Sinners Sextant appear

  Sinners Sextant Captain: Oh look who showed up

  Centus: Looks like we might’ve kicked the proverbial hornet’s nest

  Oseci: You really think the mercenaries set their base up on the ashes of my home?

  Mygin: It sounds like that is what happened

  Oiyrr: Yeah they probably saw a secluded area they could just set up in no problem?

  Oseci: Well that’s kind of a problem’

  Nest: It’s never easy…

  Centus: We didn’t sign up for easy jobs

  Fight against the Sinners Sextant in your way

  When you are victorious

  Kutok: It sounds like the guys from the Sextant didn’t know what they built their base on

  Oseci: I doubt they care in all honestly, it’s a place that was desecrated long ago and is unfindable on any map, it’s the perfect place to host a secret base, or it’s what they thought anyway

  Kutok: We’re really good at finding stuff

  Oseci: We?

  Kutok: Yes, your navigational skills are very good, might put me out of a job…

  Oseci: Make no mistake wayward Kutok, I’m just retracing the trail home, unlike forging new paths like yourself

  Kutok: Thank you

  Continue to the Sacred Garden

  When the party is 60% of the way to the Sacred Garden

  Lilac: It sounds pretty unfortunate that I get wrapped up in the revenge Sinners Sextant supposedly wants on the Century Corps

  Boone: Doesn’t matter if you personally weren’t there, you join the object of revenge, you’re subject to the wrath that will come to you

  Olivia: Speaking from experience or from desire?

  Boone: Why ask that? Why do you care?

  Acantha: I’m pretty sure “Olivia” over there is just this light goddess who brainwashed me in a funny disguise

  Olivia: Hey, I’m not Optica, I’m my own person, who makes my own decisions

  Acantha: Heh, what they all say

  LIlac: Alright can you leave the poor girl alone

  Acantha: Fine…

  Boone: I believe you see what I mean

  Lilac: Well what do you want me to do about it?

  Boone: Accept that you probably can’t get the ones who want revenge on you to not want it. Revenge is a one way road to the target.

  Lilac: Probably why they took a job to attack “The Century Corps” in the first place

  Continue to the Sacred Garden

  When the party is 80% of the way to the Sacred Garden

  Noll: Beginning to detect the faintest aether

  Oseci: We’re nearly there

  Nest: Ok, so you have to defend Noll and I while they begin directing aether energy into me from what it sounds like?

  Oseci: Sounds like what the plan is

  Nest: Alright, cool

  Noll: Yeah no problems here

  Continue to the Sacred Garden

  When you arrive at the garden, a large contingent of Sinners Sextant is active, seeing the small group of Century Corps soldiers entering the perimetere

  Sinners Sextant Captain: PERIMETER BREACH, THE CENTURY CORPS HAVE ARRIVED

  Lilac: We have to be quick about this

  Noll: Nest, stand where you are, I’ll get started right away

  Aiden: Support will be ours to give

  Nest: Alright, I’m going to summon some aerial assistance

  Hoard: We can cover the skies together

  Various magical birds and dragons begin appearing in the sky, including Nest’s Soul Falcon who’s emerged to help the fight

  Noll: Nest, just stand still while I help you

  Tranjoh: Noll, I’m taking over for you

  Noll: Thank you

  Hoard: I’ll help defend you Nest

  Nest leaves your party, Noll leaves your unit reserve, Hoard joins your party (if Hoard is already in your party, a random unit is added to it), Tranjoh joins your unit reserve (if Tranjoh is already in your unit reserve, a random unit is added to it)

  Ba-Bayost: A lot of fodder for my awesome arrows, come targeting one, we have quick work to make

  Aiden: Join us as well gun friendo

  Boone: Fine

  Yoni: Well look at that, I’ll help too

  Lilac: Total team effort, for the win

  Acantha: These are the kinds of operations I led during my time as grand master

  Defend Nest and Noll while the aether extraction is taking place

  When the aether extraction is 10% complete, a large surge of aether emerges from the ground, coating Nest in it’s soft glow

  Nest: This feeling is familiar…

  The Soul Falcon dives down to land on Nest’s arm, absorbing the latent energy on her arm

  Hadane: Looks like your friend is drawn to your essence, glowing etherally

  Nest: He is a curious bird

  Hadane: Clearly

  Mygin: I wonder what the true origin of that bird really is…

  Noll: Maybe we could speculate later, clearly I have some work to do

  Mygin: Of course, resume

  Continue defending the aether extraction

  When the aether extraction is 25% complete

  Ba-Bayost: I love finally having a large swathe of opponents

  Boone: You think that beating the crap out of all these mercenaries isn’t going to make them more vengeful in future encounters?

  Larkin: That is usually what happens, we always rise to the occasion and beat them back every time.

  Acantha: It’s really what you do in situations like this

  Centus: People are persistent, you can’t always get them to surrender at the first go around

  Boone: Maybe I don’t have what it takes…

  Continue defending the aether extraction

  When the aether extraction is 50% complete

  Nest: I’m feeling a little light

  Noll: Yeah that should be normal

  Larkin: Had a brother that absorbed a bunch of aether to grow big, can’t say that ended well

  Iehn: We defeated him…

  Nest: Yeah we were there for that

  Hadane: At the tail end but yeah

  Larkin: Right…right

  Continue defending the aether extraction

  When the aether extraction is 75% complete, a familiar face flies out of the base

  Ayev: Look who showed up on my front door

  Centus: Decided to show yourself Ayev

  Ayev: Well your guild is the object of my revenge, traitor

  Boone: It’s like looking in a mirror…

  Ayev: You, we have nothing in common, for as long as you stand with the Century Corps, you stand in opposition of me and my path

  Yoni: You make it sound like you didn’t have a choice to turn your life around

  Ayev: Ah look who it is, decided to show your true colors didn’t you?

  Yoni: You could have been right here by my side if you had listened to reason

  Ayev: Betraying me long ago, my sentimentality made me weak

  Lilac: I’m sorry I don’t know what we did again?

  Ayev: You’re pretenders to the guild that made the Sextant a JOKE

  Acantha: Listen don’t blame me for that

  Ayev: OH, even the person who freed the people like me has decided to stand against me, you love betraying people don’t you

  Acantha: I was manipulated by a light goddess and then shot off a building, don’t know what you want from me, what you want scraps over there to go make me evil again?

  Olivia: Ok come on that’s not exactly fair to me

  Centus: Getting our people freed from a prison was one thing, this crusade is something else

  Ayev: Ya know what. I don’t want to hear anymore “reasoning” from this gaggle of hypocrisy, I’m done listening to empty words and vacant promises

  Fight against Ayev

  When Ayev is at 75% health

  Larkin: Awkward…

  Lilac: What do you mean awkward…

  Larkin: We’ve gone like a few moments without the guy we’re fighting saying something that makes them sound incredibly arrogant

  Lilac: Is that so routine you come to expect it?

  Larkin: Yeah

  Ayev: I can still hear you!!

  Larkin: No…not arrogant enough yet

  Resume against Ayev

  When Ayev is at 50% health

  Ba-Bayost: I wonder why we don’t charge into enemy bases and ransack the hell of them more often, this is fun

  Mygin: We’re not ransacking, because that would imply we are stealing their stuff

  Ba-Bayost: I mean technically we are stealing the aether from their lawn

  Mygin: Ok, well….

  Ba-Bayost: Checkmate old man

  Mygin: You are probably older than me

  Ba-Bayost: Right I am three hundred years old

  Centus: How did you manage that as a normal human?

  Ba-Bayost: Diet of heavenly peaches I stole a long time ago

  Ayev: Don’t steal our stuff!

  Ba-Bayost: Says the guy trying to kill us

  Yoni: Ya know someone hired Ayev once to steal something from my family, it’s how I got here

  Ayev: I hate your sister

  Yoni: Me too

  Ayev: I hate you too

  Yoni: Hey

  Resume against Ayev

  When Ayev is at 25% health

  Hoard: I wonder why more people don’t just fly, these guys do it often?

  Kutok: They’ve got like special flight equipment for it

  Hoard: Like what, some kind of jet pack?

  Nest: You are so close yet so far on so many things…

  Ayev: Why are you people like this?

  Yoni: Mental illness

  Lilac: What, come on that’s a reach

  Yoni: You literally have another voice in your head

  Acantha: She’s got a point champ

  Lilac: HEY, you WANT to be here!!

  Resume against Ayev

  When Ayev is defeated

  Ayev: Being defeated by the guild I hate most at my house might be a new low

  Iehn: Listen you never got heckled to death so things could be much worse for you

  Larkin: It’s not being heckled to death if the person you heckled survived

  Ayev: Ok. I’m going to get every member of the Sextant here, you won’t survive our sheer numbers

  Suddenly, the extraction of aether is done and the mist of aether is gone

  Noll: Looks like we can leave now

  Boone: Look at that

  Ayev: HEY, NO

  Ayev tries to rush the corps again, throwing Boone into Nest so they can try to keep the guild there for longer

  Boone: Ouch

  Nest: You said it first

  Aiden: We should probably get going

  Tranjoh: Alright hop abroad

  Ayev: HEY. NO NO NO YOU ARE STAYING HERE!!

  Hoard: Dragon, hit it

  Hoard’s aerial assistance command is answered as a Dragon fires a wall of fire that obscures the escape of the Century Corps

  Ayev: They beat me up in front of my base and don’t even have the decency to let me destroy them…

  Ayev balls their fist

  Ayev: I’ll see you again soon…

  Mission End