The dark empty space was illuminated by orange flames. They seemed like ornaments, but those were authentic human skulls used to house the candlelights. They were arranged in a circle filled with red tribal markings. A cloaked man knelt down in the middle of the circle.

“Sage, Ja’far is on the way back to Lev’tafh.”

“Do not disturb,” the hooded monk hissed. He continued his chant.

“Sage…”

The messenger waited for a reply.

“My sage… We lost the East Coast of Oclia.”

The candles burned stronger and brighter, revealing the hooded figure’s face concealed by the shadows. Black tribal tattoos filled his face. The fire was reacting to his emotions, his anger and impatience.

“My sage…?”

He muttered only a single word from his native tongue, “Kao’sh”, which meant “chaos”.

The flames on the candles extinguished in a snap, and the next second, the sound of a body dropping to the ground was heard.

“Pitiful. I gave you one task, and you come back in defeat.”

He opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue in the dark. The room became brighter again, as the symbol on his tongue glowed. It was the weirdest of sensations. It was as if the symbol on his tongue was swallowing up all the darkness in the room, creating the contrast of colours. Eight equidistant arrows radiating from a central point. It was the symbol of “Kao’sh”, of “chaos”.

“I will make you stronger, Ja’far, but can you survive hell and come back?”

The Necromancer stayed where he was, kneeling at the centre of the circle. The symbol of Kao’sh branded on his tongue was absorbing the life-force from the other living being in the dark room.

“Move those crates there! Quickly!”

WAR soldiers were done securing the perimeters and were now unloading their supplies into the main base of operations.

Ezra was at the coastline, observing the sun set into the horizon. It had been a peaceful afternoon. The coast was filled with the squarking of seagulls. He closed his eyes to bask in the sunset.

“So this is why it is called Deadend Coast. This is literally the end of the East Coast. What a beautiful sight…”

“The mountains at the end literally makes it a dead-end. I’ve been an Oclia citizen since I was born, but this is my first time seeing it in person,” Ezra replied, with his eyes closed.

He was not startled one bit, as if he was desensitised to sudden shocks. A teenage girl greeted him as he opened his eyes.

“Hi.”

“Hi… How did you know…?”

“That you were coming? I could hear your footsteps.”

“It could be anyone.”

“But your’s is lighter than usual, yet with so much hesitation and reservations,” Ezra explained.

The wave splashed inwards onto the shore as they spoke.

“I never really got the chance to thank you…”

“What for?”

The princess’ eyes averted his gaze.

“Oh… That incident. Don’t mention it. I was under orders as well…”

She was referring to the Opolla Harbour incident, when the prince was almost killed in combat by Overlord Ja’far Jee’angzsh.

“Nonetheless, you saved my brother’s life… I’ll treat you dinner one day, when we get some time-off in the city.”

“We’ll see how it goes…”

Again… She felt that frustrating sensation yet again. As if she was someone he dreaded talking to. But she could not make it too obvious.

“You’re a man of few words, aren’t you?” Wang Xin joked.

“Sorry… Was I rude? Pardon me, I just…”

Ezra paused for a while.

“After going through hell and coming back, I just don’t feel the need to talk,” he wanted to say. As he prepared to speak, his voice cracked.

Was it the trauma, or was it because he didn’t wish to burden the teen with anymore darkness?

“We heard about you…” she whispered.

“What about me?” came the uninterested reply.

“Husker extracting you from the…” She tried to find a suitable word to describe the slaughter house, “facility…”

Ezra closed his eyes once more. The gruesome scenes of hell came back. He felt the searing pain from his scars on his body. The wounds had healed but not his trauma.

“Let’s not talk about it, Xin. If you would excuse me.”

Ezra turned his back and walked away from the coast. When he was certain she could not see him, he leaned forward against a brick wall, his left hand supporting his weight. He pressed his right palm against his chest and clutched it. His heart was aching ever since he saw gold in the sea of darkness.

Images of grime-stained golden teeth grin flashed back.

“That guy…” he muttered bitterly.

Wang Xin reprimanded herself for reminding the beaten soldier of his time as a prisoner. It must have surfaced lots of awful and painful memories…

Out of all the topics she could talk about, why did spew such nonsense, she questioned herself.

It was clear he didn’t wish to talk about it…

“Stupid! Stupid! Xin, you stupid, ignorant girl!” she cursed herself quietly.

But deep down, she felt the strangest feeling of contentment. He heard her request that night, even if it was merely a whisper.

It had a sweet ring to it, she thought.

“Xin.” Only her family called her that.

The prince of the Kingdom was having a heated debate over the online connection with Oclia’s Central Monetary Authority Team in charge of deciphering the account books stolen from Opolla Harbour. Colonel Urbs and Major Speigal, from Military Finance, sat in to listen to the conversation as well.

“I’m telling you that there is a major discrepancy! How in the world did Opolla’s exports suddenly hike and tell me who funded them!”

“Prince Wang, the books are encrypted with many complicated security protocols. It would take days to decrypt it,” the accountant heading the finance team explained over the connection.

It was the half truth. Oclia did not want other countries snooping their noses in her account books. It was an investigation to be handled by Oclia herself.

“Fortunately, I took the liberty to run decryption codes on the data myself. I just require the master key supplied by Oclia,” the prince replied, as if he predicted such an outcome.

“How could you tamper with our books without approval? This concerns national confidentiality.”

Technically, Wang Xia did not break any international laws, nor did he step out of line. He was merely pressuring them for answers.

“I had merely run the decryption to speed things up, saving your team and WAR nations lots of precious time, don’t you think?” the prince retorted politically, “and the sooner we find out where their funds come from, the faster we can cut off their supply and win this war, wouldn’t you agree?”

The prince had caught Oclia’s Central Monetary Authority off-caught. He was as experienced as any senior accountant in this field. The Anti-Corruption Raid he led back in the Kingdom gave him the necessary experience required to out-wit pesky adults playing politics.

“As long as there is a qualified accountant sitting in together with a surrogate superior,” the finance head gave in. It would do no good to argue with the Kingdom’s celebrated saviour.

“Excellent. Master key, then.”

It is about time we find out which creep has been funding those freaks, Wang Xia thought.

Ezra was the first to settle down in the meeting room. The sun had already set and his senses became sharper. So no need omething has been troubling him. A feeling. Something he could not describe nor pinpoint. After he attained this new power, the night sometimes whispers to him, pre-empting him of danger.

“Log the time and date, Steele. Meeting shall commence now,” Colonel Urbs declared.

To Ezra, their grim expressions had disclosed everything which was needed to be said.

“Something about the account books from Opolla?” Husker asked. He caught on fast as well.

Well, he _is _the fastest man alive, Ezra thought.

“Thanks to Wang Xia’s initiative, we have decrypted the crucial portions regarding Phantasm’s dealings in the harbour. Exports had increased six-folds, mainly in electronics and raw materials. Nothing we can conclude from there. Judging by the sea-route, we reckon that the cargo would be shipped to the Sea of the Sanguis which is further up north,” Urbs explained.

“Doesn’t make sense. If they’re here for raw materials, why send the cargo up north when Phantasm originated from Lower Gaia, the south?” Footes queried.

Footes was a man who preferred simplicity. Simple power, simple tactics, simple logic.

“And what has a WAR nation got to do with Phantasm’s shipment?” Husker questioned.

The WAR treaty was signed by the four great nations of Upper Gaia. The Great Territories of Oclia, the Kingdom the Land of Gold, The Military Front of Sanguis and The Democratic State of the Republic.

“And what is in those shipment?” General Xue Wu added, “we need to have all the pieces before we can complete the puzzle.”

“Looks like we have to make a visit to Sanguis to find out,” Urbs said.

“Will they let us?”

“They are part of WAR, they’d have to.”

Ezra was listening intently to the conversation, where formulating his own thoughts on the subject. Sanguis military has yet to join up with the frontlines, having their own set of problems to settle back at home.

 ”I wonder how well they are handling the recent coup d’etat,” General Xue Wu commented.

“But that’s not all, is it, Colonel?” Ezra said, “there’s something else.”

Urbs made eye contact with Ezra, amazed that the captain’s observation and deduction abilities were at the next level. This guy is sharp as hell, he thought. Urbs cleared his throat and said, “you’re right, Captain Nyx. Unfortunately, that is the least of our problems.”

Urbs looked towards everyone in the meeting room before saying, “we found out where Phantasm’s funding originated from…”

Wang Xia gave a discontented scoff and grunted, “double-crossing slime…”

All eyes were on Urbs.

“Look at the docket on the table handed out prior to the meeting…”

They opened the docket and flipped to the last page till they recognised one symbol – a silver unicorn.

“It’s almost a billion dollars. I’m curious to know what excuse they are gonna give. A billion dollars going out of the country like this…”

Grange yawned as he overlooked the vast horizon. He did not have a proper rest ever since they secured Odina. That was five months ago, or was it six? He lost count.

“Sir! We’ve received a transmission from Deadman Island!”

“Finally!”

“Apparently it’s a SOS signal from one stranded lone ship. We’ve decoded the coordinates…”

The corporal paused before he continued, “you are not gonna like it, sir.”

“Try me, Corporal.”

“It’s the Edge of the Great Trench…”

“Is that Oclia’s?”

“It’s not… That’s why Deadman Navy is seeking advice. They don’t know if they should send a rescue fleet over.”

Grange was handed a note with details of the transmission. “I’ll report this to the commander. Thank you, Corporal.”

“So are we setting sail to chase after the shipment? It’s all the way up north, it’s going to be chilly,” Wang Xin asked.

“If we are taking the sea route, we’re going to need ships,” General Xue Wu added.

“Let’s see if we can loan some from Deadman Navy,” Footes said.

Captain Steele bent down and whispered into Urb’s right ear. It seemed like he was reporting something urgent to him.

Everyone looked at Urbs, waiting for him to brief the commanders.

“We’re setting out for Deadman Island immediately. But not for the Sea of Sanguis… We’re going to the Edge of the Great Trench…”

Urbs explained the situation to them but Footes raised a question. “Shouldn’t we prioritise the Phantasm lead instead? We can leave the rescue mission to Deadman Navy themselves.”

“The decoded message from the SOS signal was this,” Urbs read out the note passed to him, “they identified the vessel in questioned. A silver unicorn…”

“I think that’ll suffice,” Ezra spoke up, “I already have some questions I want The Republic to answer.”

The silver unicorn represented the Democratic State of the Republic, the forth and last WAR nation.