" Give me a reason why I shouldn't feed you all to the wyverns." Brane asked the hundreds of soldiers below his office balcony. They each had their heads down not daring to meet his cold hard stare. Chrome, a little bold, tried to plead on their behalf.
" Um sir .."
" Shut the fuck up Chrome." Brane ordered.
"Sorry sir."
" Don't give me that crap. Asmodeus himself entered our sealed archives and none of you detected it's presence!"he fumed.
" I knew it was a fucking plot."
" Get out of here you morons!"he dismissed.
The soldiers immediately left the grounds, happy that Brane didn't take any action against them. If he had, they would have regretted their incompetence for ages.
" Not you Chrome. You're with me. Follow me." he ordered.
" Um sir, you're above me on a balcony." Chrome tried to protest.
" Shut up Chrome." Brane narrowed his eyes.
"Sure let's go then" Chrome stammered.
He climbed up to the balcony with just a jump. Both men made their way to the ground level of the building, where Chronox had been detained. Many downworlders were detained each with a cell to itself. The cells were filthy and smelt horrible, making Chrome frown.
" Don't frown son. You've put most of them here alongside Izalea." Brane said to him.
" They deserve it for breaking the Code." Chrome murmured.
Brane just smiled softly.
Chronox was asleep in his his cell when they reached it. There was a pail of water in front of the cell so Brane picked it up and poured it's content all over the sleeping demon. Chronox woke up immediately, startled.
" Wake up demon." Brane said coldly.
" What is it that you want?" Chronox sat up slowly from the cold brick floor.
" What does Asmodeus intend to do with the Dark Hold?"
" Why would I ever tell you?" Chronox gave a long hard laugh.
" Because I have him." Brane said and pointed to Chrome.
" And what is that twink going to do?" Chronox laughed even harder.
" Hey you bastard! I'm not a twink!"Chrome said annoyed.
"You are!" Brane and Chronox said at the same time.
" Whatever." Chrome murmured.
He walked over and entered the cell, closing it behind him. Brane gave a boyish grin and turned to leave.
" Just don't kill him Chrome."
With that he left the cells.
***************************
"To be a Delta Paladin is a great responsibility, Dante" William said to the half naked Dante who knelt before him.
" Is that why I'm dressed like a Greek hunk?" Dante asked cheekily, making William and Izalea smile. Maru shook his head slightly.
" This is orientation, idiot. Take it seriously", Thalia reprimanded.
"Sure" Dante nodded.
" The basic requirement to become a Guard or Paladin of the Soliel Order is to have the Sight." William explained.
" What's the Sight?" Dante asked, confused.
" It's literally Arcaneum enhanced vision. All members of the Arcana Guard and Downworlders are born with it. You see, the Arcana Guard can't afford to be seen by the real world or the mundane realm as we call it. To avoid that, ancient Celtic druids created a set of inscriptions, runes to be precise, that helped normal humans become on par with the super abled downworlders. One of such runes erases the presence of it's user from the mundane realm. Without the Sight, they are practically invisible to the naked eye. Does that answer your question?"
" Yes it does. Please continue " Dante nodded..
" Good. Another requirement is to be born from one of twenty five designated clans. Each of these clans pledged their allegiance to the Soliel Order two thousand years ago and their descendants have been born with spiritual power, qualifying them as soldiers of the Arcana Guard. However there are three that stands above all of them. The Dorus clan and the Solus clan are the most well known. The last clan however is the most mysterious. No one even knows their name except for a few of the higher-ups."
" Then why are they that powerful?"
I don't know. None of us do. Okay, so as a Delta Paladin, you will take very dangerous missions from the Order. It's mostly killing demons and detaining powerful downworlders but with our power it's on the easy side. And I know you're thinking ' I can't control my power ' but the most powerful user of the Arcaneum has accepted you as his student so good for you. We're done here." William finally gave a sigh of relief.
" Last but not least you get to choose a weapon from our weaponry. Let's go, Danny", Pearl beckoned at him to follow her.
" Did she just call me Danny?" he whispered to Maru.
" Don't know, don't care", Maru responded and walked past him.
Pearl led him to a large room full of different weapons. Most of them were medieval weapons like swords and spears but that was fine with Dante since Rena had trained him to use a sword.
" Choose one and meet me here in five minutes, or else you will go to your first mission without a weapon. Hurry up", Pearl shooed him into the room. He maneuvered through the high shelves of weapons until he saw one that caught his eye. It's blade had a string of weird writings he couldn't comprehend. It exuded a powerful aura which somehow drew him closer to it. It was isolated in the center of the weaponry, floating on it's own without any help, just a few inches above the ground. He walked over to it and as he was about to grab the hilt, he heard Pearl scream ' Don't do it!' but it was too late. His hand was already around it. He expected something bad to happen but the sword just glowed slightly and stopped.
" What was that for?" he asked a shocked Pearl" How are you doing that?!" She stuttered.
" Doing what?"
" No one has ever held that sword and survived." she responded in a quiet tone.
" Why? What's so special about it?"
" That's Rahil. Angel Raziel's sword."