Galactic Nexus/Episode 8: Out of the Blue, Into the Red

**Out of the Blue, Into the Red** is the eighth episode of the first season of Galactic Nexus.

## Story so far

"As inscribed in the prophecy, a young man named Frisch Celerent walks on a path where the future of being the ruler of time and space, the Harvester, awaits him. Now Master Altus has sprung up into action, leading the contingent of the Scythes of Cerestus with him in an ambush. The black jet was a blessing, especially when the researchers chose to provoke it. Such a decision has led them to this outcome. But thanks to them, Master Altus has found a lead to knowing when the Hollow Empress Reginull will make her advent. But in the distance... I smell the hideous scent of unholy fire. Such marks the seventh page of the history of the Harvester in another realm." — Irissia

## Roleplay

While the mayhem in the forest and in the air had subsided, in the sky flew Teniahk, Tosha, who was holding Ishvati, and Locar from a good distance, though he is in Sveionagoria at the moment.

Tosha looked at Ishvati tilting his head, "Are you okay, mister?"

Ishvati just tilted his head in response to the question, before giving Tosha a thumbs up to signal that he was okay.

Teniahk squints her eyes to try and see where her father was.

"Tosha, can you sense Dad's spiritual energy?"

Tosha's eyes go pale white as he scans the spirit realm. "Yeah, he is up ahead beyond the mountains."

"Spirit Energy..?" Ishvati blinked for a second, apparently unfamiliar with the term; however if they were meeting with the dad; it might prove to be interesting enough to keep Ishvati's attention, at the very least it intrigued the listening Locar.

Tosha starts feeling unnerved as if someone is following them.

Now since Sveionagoria wasn't really related to the astral plane or the spiritual realm in the regular sense of the two planes being one in the same, rather it was another realm of sorts either above or below the material plane. Odds are Tosha would not be able to see them like Locar could see them, however a feeling that he was being followed would be viable.

"Something wrong...?" Ishvati grunted, glancing up at Tosha with a mildly concerned expression, though it was hidden by all the bandages Ishvati wore.

Tosha shook his head before saying, "No."

With that said, Ishvati would remain silent until they arrived at the camp; with Locar keeping a distance to avoid detection by Ishvati.

the camp guard spot them and runs toward the group spears out, "Are you two alright," they ask before looking at Ishvati going on the defensive pointing their spears at him, "Put down your spears," Tosha growls out in wraith mode slightly, "He got us out."

The guards lower their spears and patting his shoulder, "Where is Prince Drakon?"

Teniahk growls in anger with her left eye glowing a venomous green, "Don't mention that traitor's name around me again."

It was a good thing Tosha ordered the guards to lower their weapons, because Ishvati would have reacted like he normally did with threats, by summoning his own armaments and entering a defensive stance. But since Tosha instructed them to lower their weapons Ishvati would lower his guard slightly, moving towards the camp as he wished to ask whoever was in charge a few questions.

Locar actually landed a few meters away from the group, noticing that they had arrived at a camp; he saw it as the perfect opportunity to gather some intel; so with the ease of walking through the Sveionagoria he would head towards the camp itself.

Jack, Patricia & Layla were seen in the campsite after taking a break from their training, having spot Teniahk & the others & come over to her. Patricia said with a bit surprise in her tone, knowing who it was. "Teniahk, is that you? It's been a long time."

Teniahk smiles and hugs her aunts and uncle (Friends of the family) wagging her tail, "Its nice to see you too Aunt Patricia, Layla, and Uncle Jack."

Jack, Patricia & Layla share a nice cuddle with Teniahk as well with a smile, while Jack said "It's nice to see you too."

"Yes. How are you been?" asked Layla, wondering how is Teniahk doing today recently.

Teniahk's smile fade into a low frown, "Been captured by the Serpenten's and dealing with being a war prisoner."

"Oh my goodness. We're so very sorry to hear that. We're feeling a bit down ourselves since we're dealing with a new situation in the form of this Hollow Empress that our new friends we're talking about." said Patricia while she comfort Teniahk gently while she, Jack & Layla felt a bit down themselves, feeling very sorry for Teniahk.

"The important thing is that your safe now. And we can use all the help we can get on dealing with the new enemy together. We can explain everything about our new friends & new foes, ok?" said Jack while also helps Patricia on comforting Teniahk gently with Layla's help as well.

Teniahk nuzzles her aunts and uncle, " Where is dad?"

Now, seeing the happy familial reunion seemed to tug at Ishvati's heart strings, evoking memories that the boy didn't want to relive. So to suppress those memories and thoughts, he closed his eyes and stood away from the group; just looking awkward and alone, the second part being something he was accustomed to.

Locar on the other hand simply smiled, exiting Sveionagoria the moment he found a good spot to do so inside the camp; whereupon he would act casual and try to find someone to answer his questions. His vessel had shown him images of seven multi-colored rocks and one large green rock.. emeralds to be precise, now he needed to find someone who was knowledgeable on those rocks and their location to answer and guide him to said rocks.

"He is inside the big tent with the others. Come on, we'll show you." Said Layla as she, Patricia & Jack lead Teniahk to Darkstorm inside the big tent.

Odds are Ishvati would follow the grouping of four or five towards the tent himself, the same with Locar as it was just common logic to head towards the largest tent to find the important people.

As the others were entering the large tent, Frisch, Seele, Heiz, and Julia made it back to camp just in time. Should the guards find them suspicious after appearing from ethereal invisibility, thanks to Seele's powers, the Prismites had removed their helmets—a staple piece of their Raiment.

Julia meanwhile was remaining a bit close to the two, not saying a word and still looking her usual shy self. She was curiously observing her surroundings though.

Darkstorm spots his son and daughter walking over to them and hugging them.

Ishvati just waited for Darkstorm to finish his reunion with his kids, standing awkwardly towards the side.

Darkstorm kisses their heads and looks to Ishvati extending a hand to him, "Thank you."

Ishvati just stared at the hand for a moment, before shaking it. Other than that however he remained as quiet as ever. The mystery was definitely strong with Ishvy that's for sure.

Darkstorm looks around noticing that there is one person missing, "Where is Drakon?" Teniahk Growls angrily at the mention of her brother's name, "He is the reason you and mom are broken up dad."

"... Looks like our numbers have increased. Interesting."

Such a voice of a masculine nature reverberated in the big tent. If they would turn back and notice, it originated from Frisch, who is with three other figures: Heiz, Seele, and Julia.

Now, admittedly Ishvati was a little less on guard given that the introductions went well for the most part; however that didn't quite mean that he would react to a surprise well; a voice reverberating in the space of the tent without any sort of prior warning was definitely a surprise. Thankfully Ishvy had sort of adjusted to his surroundings. As such, the worst that happened was him jolting and turning backwards to stare at the newcomers in a flash.. Of course any serious tension in the air would immediately be dispelled when some of the bandages around his covered eye loosened up. Prompting Ishvati to panic slightly and focus on redoing them before anything else showed.

The addition of new people didn't too much good for Julia since, well she struggled meeting with others - as if the incident in the HQ didn't imply that already. So she was already on her nerves when she spotted the kids. When she spotted Ishvy, she caught him in the middle of his jolt - and in turn made her jolt in fright, even making her gasp quietly. Her first thought was who was the scary bandaged man in the room that was surprisingly the same height as her. When she noticed he was redoing the loosened bandages she managed to calm herself down a bit; her second thought now was what happened to the man to have bandages all over.

Hopefully he didn't notice her unknowing staring when she was processing everything - or trying to.

Darkstorm looks Ishvati over.

Now Ishvati didn't like attention on him even on the best of days, further compounded was the fact that he noticed Julia was staring, followed by a Darkstorm not even making an effort to hide his staring. So Ishvati did what he always did when people stared at him, channel prismions to manipulate photons into moving away from him. Thus rendering him invisible to the naked eye. It wasn't anything personal, he just hated being the center of attention.

Julia's brows raised when Ishvati literally turned himself invisible. She couldn't help but look around her surroundings to see if he went anywhere—but no, he couldn't be found.

Whoosh.

"Wh-Where did they..." she muttered to herself, completely baffled he just vanished. It did lead her to think his bandages had some kind of stealth-coating, though she couldn't know for sure.

"Huh..." Seele mouthed. "That happened."

"... Anyway, it's necessary we take a break for a good while and have a nice chat and chow," Frisch announced. "... And as promised, we will be training you in preparation for the Hollow Empress' arrival... There is no time to panic even though it is expected that she will make her advent within a few days."

His words were followed by him showing them several tubes containing residual energy EggPlankton collected.

"... Good thing we found a group of researchers who were up to no good but to kidnap those who know about *this*, for this is merely residual energy from every occurrence of the anomaly in the vicinity.

Her attention from Ishvati's invisibility was diverted when she overheard Frisch make his announcements to everyone else. That training bit sounded a bit interesting to watch, but she also remembered something else that she would rather do instead.

"Fri-Frisch... I-I-If you don't mi-mind, I-I-I'd like to d-do something with th-th-the robots outside," she shyly requested. To Frisch and Seele they would know what she was talking about... as for everyone else it was probably confusing. What robots?

Teniahk rubs the back of her head confused about how she knew what is planning to arrive when she hears the screaming of a Hellfire Angel flying overhead.

"The enemy is here!"

The screaming actually attracted the attention of Locar, who was moving silently through the camp like he was supposed to be there. So when he heard the commotion he let out one of the angriest curses one would expect, why was it that others had to intrude on his business when he least expected it..?

Ishvati on the other hand would storm out of the tent, his two cutlasses materializing in a cross formation as two beams of light. Of course he dropped the shroud of invisibility. It was as if a switch had been flipped—he wasn't hiding away from what could be a fight. Rather it was like no one aside from him and this 'hellfire angel' even existed to Ishvati.

They just got out of two skirmishes and now this? Seems everyone really was tense to the extent that this whole situation itself is war in essence.

Regardless, Frisch raised an eyebrow as, thanks to Prismatic Eyes, he peered into the distance to locate the source of the screaming while he was inside the tent. Calculations of the enemy's composition took no more than a second.

"...*Hellfire Angel*, huh..." Frisch muttered under his breath, taking note of their features. "... Perfect timing. We can use them for practice."

"Damn it... Just when I was about to get some food..." Heiz cursed. He really was getting hungry ever since the chaos outside the camp.

He raised an eyebrow as he was given two ration bars by Frisch. The latter seemed to have been keeping a few in his pockets. He let out a hearty smile of relief.

"You're a lifesaver, Frisch! Thanks, bro!"

"... Anytime. Let's go. And as for Julia, you are free to use the material at your own discretion."

Heiz nodded in enthusiasm. Seele, on the other hand, was noticing this, as a thin smile etched along her lips. As always, Frisch is a reliable companion, she thought.

"Julia, let's do our best again!" she encouraged her.

Jack, Patricia & Layla were confused on what Julia is talking about, though the attention of robots will have a wait for now, after hearing the screaming of the hellfire angel flying. While Jack readies his water powers while Patricia & Layla be ready with their purple & lunar magic powers to be safe.

"Even we need to be careful with this one. It looks like it can bring out the flames. Jack, you might be our best option incase of dousing the flames." said Patricia, while thinking that if the Hellfire Angel can bring out the flames of fire as attacks, Jack could help counter the flames with water if need be.

"Clever thinking, girl. Water beats Fire." said Jack while he gets ready to defend the camp against a hellfire angel with the group's aid.

Layla thinks to herself about the reasearchers & the robots that Frisch & Julia respectively & then said to herself "Group of reasearchers that are up to no good. Sounds like somebody we know, but robots? Wonder what Julia is planning for our defence? What kind of robots? Could it be...?"

Again, Julia jolted when she heard the screaming of the so-called Hellfire Angel overhead. It hasn't even been a few minutes and already they're being thrown back to the action. Only this time they didn't have the drop on the enemy—quite the opposite in fact. So understandably she was a bit frightened again.

It probably would've gotten worse had she not have Seele and Frisch to help out with that. While Frisch's statement had some merit since, well you never know the robots could be destroyed in the skirmish, Seele's had more effect on her as she was being encouraged. It was enough for her to nod her head a couple of times in acknowledgment but still she looked a bit worried.

"Al-Alright... le-le-let's see what w-we can do!" she said, sounding able to at least join them in the skirmish.

And the skirmish had begun from there as the current contingent of the Scythes had set foot on the battlefield, now on the lookout for this so-called Hellfire Angel, with the Prismites' Armaments and Raiments readied beforehand.

"Let's see what fire they've got," Heiz spoke. "I'll give 'em a true taste of hell. You with me, Voldraken?"

*"Hope he's a worthy challenge,"* a gruff voice resounded in his mind. *"Or else, I'll just leave him to you."*

More Hellfire Angels come screaming over the sky turning it blood red and sending the temperature rising. Darkstorm places a hand on his sword gripping it tightly as the screaming of the daemons continues, "You send your pawns to attack as Everburn it only proves you a coward hiding in the shadows," he says with a growl knowing full well who commands them.

"... Great, there's more of them," Frisch said to himself. "... Try to keep up, Heiz."

"I think!" Heiz answered. "For a bit time until I eat proper food."

Darkstorm wouldn't have much time to speak, as he was interrupted by a loud war cry belonging to Ishvy, the ever so quiet and disassociative individual who had rescued his kids. Having summoned his cutlasses, he would instead slam the hilts together as the weapons changed and morphed to resemble a recurve bow of some sort; complete with a string of solid hard light connecting the tips of both blades together.

He would then point it at the oncoming legion of Hellfire Angels, screaming his cries of war as he drew back the string; as a singular arrow manifested as he pulled back the string, when the string was pulled back as far as it would go. Ishvati let go; setting loose this arrow that practically broke apart into numerous smaller arrows upon release; traveling at the speed of light towards the legion of Hellfire Angels.. It was a given, since the arrow was made of pure light.

Jack begins blasting beams of pressured water at the oncoming Hellfire Angels, in the hopes of putting out the flames of the Hellfire Angels, while Patricia & Layla get on their flying broomsticks to take to the skies & begin blasting their purple & lunar magic orbs at the oncoming HellFire Angels. "Out of this camp, out of this camp, hellfire angels be gone from this camp!" said Jack while he continues blasting an onslaught of pressured water beams at the HellFire Angels, while trying to put out their flames.

When Julia had stepped out onto the field... well to her it kind of looked like they had things under control for the most part - especially the one firing literal lights of arrows. To her it was like he was firing laser beams from a bow, which she thought was impossible - must've been supernatural she thought to herself. But if she thought her assistance wasn't needed at the moment - the least she could do was make sure her newly acquired force of automatons survived the skirmish.

She lifted up her left wrist, where a brace of some kind with a screen could be seen. She tapped on the screen a few times as if typing something - and then the Jack-4 automatons under her command would scatter instead of being concentrated, fleeing into random parts of the forest to ensure they could be hidden to a degree. If some were found, at least others would survive. They were of course given the order to retaliate if they were attacked.

"All right, let's just jump right in...!" Heiz exclaimed as he bent his knees in preparation of taking the battle into the air—

"... Heiz," Frisch called out to him. "Don't get too reckless. It may take more than beams and spheres to hit them."

"I like yeeting myself towards the enemy anyway!" Heiz sprung up to the air before suddenly sprouting his raiment wings, which in turn released a transient wave of heat.

"Gangway!" he exclaimed as he glided towards one of the hellfire angels with a focused jab using Voldraken's Armament Mode—a pair of charcoal-black gauntlets with crevices glowing with spiritual heat.

Everburn's laugh is heard throughout the camp as the Hellfire Angels continue to swarm the area, "Your attacks are pitiful. What is your edge? To make my servants cower in fear? The only being they fear is me."

The hellfire angel would have received what was practically a death sentence from Heiz's fist, in which case bore a gaping hole into them with the explosive force he applied.

"Not when we make them cower in fear, and it includes you!"

With those words, he proceeded to fly amongst the hellfire angels in speeds enough to leave afterimages which could potentially confuse the angels, jamming to the beat of a violent dance of Voldraken's sharp claws. Simply put, a flurry of forceful gashes being flung towards the horde.

Seele let out a chuckle out of mockery. In her thoughts, there was no doubt they were doing something signficant to them, as they were only replaced by more of their own kind. Her eyes glowed intensely in turquoise light—an evidence of her usage of Ether Vision, with which she proceeded to track Everburn's soul in the bulk of the forest.

To cower in fear...? No, Ishvati didn't care about trivial nonsense as sadism; his aim was to kill them all before they could kill him—it was what he was good at. It was for that reason he ignored Everburn's taunting in favor of one of his usual vacant stares; though the angels would most likely wind up with more holes in them than Swiss cheese when Ishvati pulled back the string for a second time and fired another series of hardlight arrows at the oncoming horde.

Locar on the other hand, well he was using the chaos as a distraction to navigate the campsite; heading towards the main tent in order to find someone to answer his questions; he would use the chaos stirred up by Everburn's legion of angels to cover his tracks. After all, no one knew he was here. Still, it was only a matter of time before he came across someone of actual importance.

Amongst the thick trees was a figure donning an ivory suit trimmed with amethyst and mint-green hues with a mineral sheen. It was sitting by a sturdy branch observing what Locar was up to, with his presence concealed by distance and the collective shade from the dense foliage.

The moment one fo the Hellfire Angels die its flames turn the area its over into ash.

It was good timing for Frisch to observe such phenomena from a safe distance. Heiz had applied enough force with Voldraken's claws, to the extent that he could knock the angels back with his strength. All the while Ishvati was using fast long-range attacks with Methiras. He noticed that certain areas of grass in the vicinity were turning into ash.

Good thing he had analyzed the composition of the hellfire angels a short while ago.

"You must have a death wish to kill mindless creatures from the deepest pits of the underworld. Their only mission in life is to obey their master and they only obey me. Their Master," Everburn says as his Hellfire Sword appears in his hand.

Darkstorm walks towards Everburn unsheathing his sword and looking up to the sky as the swarm still covers the blue sky still having its blood red.

*"Now he's actually here!"* she relayed.

"... You're approaching us now...? Give us a good time then," Frisch spoke—a metallic rasp escaping his helmet. He grasped Meisnetter as an Armament in glaive mode, prepared to retaliate at any given moment.
Heiz landed on one of the trees' sturdy branches after getting notified of Everburn's presence. He looked around to check, and there he was, holding his hellfire sword. From behind the helmet was a big grin. Despite that, he waited for a good opportunity to attack.

From one of the trees' branches close by sat Verzleinir, casually watching the upcoming battle with subtle glee.

"Looks interesting... I shall join you within a moment," he announced.

As Seele pinpointed Everburn's presence, she observed that he would apparently be nearing the campsite. As such, she notified her comrades through the astral network.

Assuming Everburn was out in the open, Ishvati would switch his target; focusing more of his power into a singular arrow that seemed to glow with the heat of the sun itself; Ishvati took a deep breath and exhaled to center himself, before firing the arrow at Everburn's chest, more specifically where one would assume the heart to be. Now the arrow, this time, wasn't made of pure hard light so it wouldn't quite reach the speed of light.. However the speed of the projectile was around 82% the speed of light, so rather comparable. So odds are it would impact if Everburn did not have comparable reflexes. Furthermore this is contingent upon Everburn being out in the open to begin with.

"That won't do though," Verzleinir spoke—a compressed eldritch bullet shot out from his finger at bradyonic speeds. Considering its trajectory, it was intended to intercept the arrow with stunning accuracy as, to be fair, Verzleinir had prepped himself up when Ishvati aimed for Everburn. If the bullet makes contact with the arrow, the obscure nature of the bullet would seemingly neutralize it, and a localized radial wave of Prismions would exude out of the focus.

The fact that his arrow was intercepted caught his attention, furthermore it was at a speed beyond what he could process so it was hard to determine where the shot came from; the arrow and its potentially destructive force being neutralized; followed by the wave of prismions exuding from the collision point. This shocked Ishvati to say the least, confused and bewildered him; so he switched the armament mode of his Armament back to a pair of cutlasses and looked around wildly as if to ask if anyone else saw what happened.

The current Prismite contingent of the Scythes had similar reactions of surprise, as their eyes widening evident from behind their masks. Frisch traced the source of the bullet...
And there was Verzleinir smiling at them.

"... You again," Frisch noted. "... Giving us a good time as well, I see."

"Ah yes. I believe these belligerents are not enough to take you on, even for practice."

With the swarm of Hellfire Angels still engulfing the sky, even with what everyone is throwing at them... maybe Julia needed to do something after all. Although she was hesitant and scared, she managed to concentrate to do... well, something. She held up both of her hands afterwards, where white shining lights appeared in her hands - though they weren't bright. She threw them onto the ground on her sides, and when the light touched the ground they shined brighter for a few seconds.

When the shine subsided, the lights had disappeared and in their place were something akin to two Plalanx CIWS - basically point-defense weapons on modern day aircraft carriers designed to take on helicopters and anti-ship missiles. Or in this particular case - a swarm of Hellfire Angels. So immediately on their manifestation, the two cannons took aim at the swarm with their rotary barrels turning rapidly before opening fire with 20mm bullets at 100 rounds a second. If one even so much grazed an angel, the bullets would explode on impact.

The fact Julia brought this out herself would possibly raise question of what sort of sorcery did she use - and what else she might be capable of.

"... Be careful," Frisch warned Julia. "... From what I have observed, killing them would cause them to die in flames which turn anything it touches into ash... unless we circumvent it."

Verzleinir hopped from the tree, flipping in the process, and landed smoothly beside Everburn.

"It is a pleasure to fight alongside you," he told him with a soft smile.

Soon after, a third figure chose to make his side known—one Locar Du-Mas. And rather than the flashy entrance of Verzleinir and Everburn, he chose to walk towards them while clapping his hands; his eyes giving off a rather snake like feel to them.
Kinda like the rest of his motif.

"My my my, this certainly does seem like an interesting spectacle. I suppose I will fight with them for now, I'll ask my questions later~"

Concentric rings of turquoise Prismion script manifested from Seele's wrist. With the wave of her hand, a semipermeable dome shield of astral energy formed around the belligerents, though in a manner where the hellfire angels were separated from them.

Undoubtedly Heiz felt Locar's draconic presence as he joined the fray. He could not help but observe. After all, he seemed a bit out of place, given the current circumstances.

*"Isn't that the geezer named Locar?"* he thought.

Frisch gazed upon Locar with intent that hinted his suspicion of him. Heck, his Prismatic Eyes made him more curious, especially towards the snake staff he was holding.

Apparently, he could see that it was hiding an ominous yet obscure presence within. He could not help but furrow his eyebrows from behind his helmet.

At this point, there were two belligerents: the campers consisting of the Scythes' contingent, Darkstorm and his close comrades, and Ishvati; and the invaders: Everburn and his hellfire angels, Verzleinir, and Locar.

The white figure stayed on their wooden recliner as they observed the encounter from a distance, especially Locar who had recently joined the battle.

The question is: What would be their side?

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To be continued in the next episode...

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