SLAP.

  Erik did not have time to react, both he and Alice had near identical reaction times, and she was first to move. He was unprepared for the hit, and was thrown back a few meters back and onto the ground as she had hit him as hard as she physically could. It was quite fortunate he had left his wards up after they finished the fight with the demonic beast, lest she would've probably removed his head. It wasn't necessary to function, but would've led to some interactions he didn't want to be bothered with.

  "Alice, calm down," Erik said as she almost instantly closed the space between them.

  "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU," she screamed, slamming her fist into the sand where he was, having rolled out of the way just fractions of a second earlier.

  "Alice there is a very,verygood reason why we're here," he pleaded, trying to get her to calm down.

  His words fell on deaf ears and a fist came whizzing past his head, barely missing him. Alice had every intent to kill him, she always had anger issues, though he didn't know what exactly sent her into such a blind rage. A second blow came for his chest, jumping back and swiftly dodging it. Alice was not a good fighter, she was fast, and incredibly strong but had no actual skills in a fist fight; had she taken up one of the archon's offers to train her this quarrel probably would've gone much worse for him.

  "Markus, get inside," Erik yelled, dodging another blow from Alice, "I'll calm her down," he gave him a thumbs up.

  Markus was snapped to his senses, having been distracted watching these two inhuman beings instantly get into a fight. He ran to the paladins who somehow maintained their disposition, barely acknowledging the scene before them.

  "Are you sure you still want to let them in," one of them said to him.

  "Against my better judgment, I think we should," he said.

  Alice's movements were sloppy, and each move had several openings Erik could take to disable her; the issue was, tearing off her arm or destroying a leg would prove problematic. He lacked the resources to fix a broken part, additionally, and what few organic bits remained in her were fragile and important, excessive physical trauma could do irreparable damage to what remained of her.

  He had only one option, activating his wings Erik launched into the air. Alice quickly followed suit, her fury overcoming her fear of the sky. She was not good at flying, and Erik knew this. Being much more agile in the air he planned to quickly get behind and restrain her. He spent a few minutes dodging blows and fortunately either due to exhaustion or being overwhelmed Alice's movements grew sloppy, and he seized the opportunity. Putting her into a chokehold, he accelerated into the ground, temporarily stunning her. Erik quickly pinned her arms behind her back, and she began flailing her legs about cursing and screaming at him.

  Quickly realizing she wasn't breaking free she began to cry, her rage subsided and a great sadness took its place, "You've damned me, you've damned my soul and don't even care," she cried.

  Alice was religious, this took Erik by surprise, and he finally understood why she flew into such a blind fury. He knew she used to pray frequently as a child, and though the goddess she worshiped was stripped of most if not all of her power shortly after humans invaded her plane, Alice seemed to still be a devout believer.

  "Alice," Erik said softly, "I can understand this is all quite sudden, but I need understand the importance of what we're doing,"

  "Why would you do this," the tears continued.

  Alice was beyond distraught, Erik did not predict such an adverse reaction to the disclosure of their location. He was still reeling from the discovery of Alice's devotion, bringing a religious individual to such a location was not an ideal choice. He knew she would react poorly to the disclosure of their location, which was why he opted to talk about it once they got to the settlement, but didn't expect such a violent response.

  Honesty was probably his best move, and so he told the truth, "We can talk more inside, it would be best to avoid being attacked again, but I think in the very least... I should tell you why we're here," Erik released Alice, she stayed on the ground. Erik crouched down beside her, "The end of the world is nigh, a great evil wishes to escape its prison here... Alice, you are the only one I can ask to help me."

  "But why...," she pleaded, looking for a reason.

  "I don't trust anyone else, you're the only one I can rely on to do this," he said, "We'll talk inside, please, trust me on this," he said reassuringly to her.

  Alice's mind was lost, she was fearful of where they were and what could become of her. She laid frozen in place, painfully aware of, yet also disconnected from reality. Perhaps this was a sick joke Erik was pulling on her, but she knew better. The desert seemed more menacing now, hungry dunes rolled across the landscape, unknown horrors lay buried underneath; the devoid sky felt alive, ready to consume her if she dared to fly high enough. Shakily she rose to her feet; she was shaking, something she hadn't done in years. The nigh immortality granted to her by her now metal body faded, and she felt small, fragile and weak.

  Erik looked upon her panicked state sympathetically, his face for once displayed an emotion, his glass eyes almost seemed alive as they looked at her. She often wondered if he was a person pretending to be a machine, a machine pretending to be a person, or something lost in between. He put his hand on her shoulder and gently led her to the entrance of Resistance. On unsteady feet she meekly walked with him, her normally narrow slit eyes widened and alert. Making their way to the entrance gate, the guards gave them an uneasy look but allowed them to pass.

  Markus was waiting on the other side of the gatehouse with two writs in hand, "is she o..." he went to speak but Erik silenced him, and took the writs. "Go to the Lazy Imp, tell them I sent you and that you're new arrivals, they'll give you a room till we can sort out a housing situation. I have to go speak with the council, and establish your permanent residency. We will speak later," Markus said, running off to wherever the council building was.

  Alice and Erik walked for a while down an unpaved dirt path, making their way through large fields of wheat. Erik tried to keep a conversation with her as they went but Alice was unable to do so, leading to him becoming increasingly concerned. Suddenly Alice fell to her knees, Erik tried to catch her but her weight suppression system failed and she slipped through his hands. She wretched and coughed, trying to vomit yet nothing came up, she began to hear ringing in her ears and her vision went blurry. Erik said something and everything faded to black as she fell into unconsciousness.

  The council building was a large sprawling chimeric structure, equal parts, mud hut, log construction, and masonry. It was one of the first buildings established in Resistance, leading to its unique design, additions being built differently as more skilled craftsmen arrived. Markus opened a heavy metal door and checked in with the secretary being told to wait for a meeting. Due to the size of Resistance, the council consisted of 51 members who all worked at different hours to keep the place functional and ready at all times of the day.

  Unfortunately for him, all the members were in a meeting to discuss happenings and to strategize and plan offensive actions for the week. This also meant that most of them would be present for his meeting. Typically, only one or two council members would handle the documentation and admission of new people to Resistance. Markus felt a sense of dread as he prepared to meet with the council, yet didn't know why.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  He walked to the waiting room and found it barren, the several rows of chairs were typically packed. It seemed that he was the only one who wasn't told of today's meeting. Markus found a seat across from a large ornate grandfather clock. He watched the minutes tick by turning to hours, outside he heard the bell tower outside begin to ring, it went off every day at 0600, 1200, and 1800, it was 1800 now.

  Eventually the secretary came to get him, "The council can see you now," she said impatiently, "and I canfinallygo home" she added, giving Markus a dirty look.

  He didn't feel bad about her being forced to stay late, it was his job to find people wandering the wastes and bring them in before anything bad happens to them. Erik and Alice would've probably died had he left them out there. She led him to a massive domed chamber; it was a fairly new addition to the council building, having been added last year. A single hole in the roof was the only source of light, the sun never set so there was no need to put up any other lighting.

  Markus had only been in the room a few times, mostly for briefings and what races were to be denied entry to resistance. The list was fairly basic, anything with ties to the divine or demonic, as they were probably evil, or were easily corrupted by strong demonic influence. Markus was practicing what he was going to say to the council as he approached the podium, several members had already left, he could tell by the empty seats in the elevated gallery where they sat.

  "What's the purpose of your appointment," a voice boomed as he stood at the podium.

  The room was intentionally designed so that it would be hard to identify who exactly was speaking, combined with the black cloaks and low lighting, it was nigh impossible to identify any of the council members. Though the public was allowed to sit in on meetings, the council felt it was important to keep their individual identities anonymous; especially due to the importance of their jobs.

  "I found two individuals by the names of Alice and Erik making their way towards Resistance. I confirmed that both of them were neither of divine origins, nor had any contact or association with the demonic. I can also vouch for the combat prowess of the two as they easily defeated a monstrosity that had attacked them outside of the city gates earlier today,"

  There were murmurs amongst the council members, it was rare to receive anyone with formal combat training, which the two of them clearly had. Most who arrived at Resistance were adventurers looking for fame and glory, while they were useful they could also be quite problematic.

  "Do they have any skills or abilities we should be aware of," a different voice asked

  "Yes, both are not only skilled combatants, but are also highly skilled mages as both can easily manifest arcane armor. Additionally both members are capable of flight, though the duration of and skill level seems to vary between the two,"

  More murmurs, from the council, Markus hoped it was a good sign.

  "Were you able to glean any issues with their personalities while talking with them," a woman's voice asked, almost sounding like it came from behind him.

  "Unfortunately yes, they are both very anti-social, and the woman, Alice, seems to have severe anger issues. The two of them got into an intense physical altercation outside the gates, though the other one, Erik, was able to subdue her,"

  "We had multiple reports of a large, winged being flying over the city today, as well as two winged beings getting into an altercation outside the city. Would it be correct to assume that these two individuals you let in are the ones responsible for these reports," a different, stern voice asked.

  "Yes that would be correct,"

  More whispers went around the room.

  "While the duo seem to be rather... eccentric... characters, their skills should prove useful to Resistance, we will have two permanent entry writs prepared for you to deliver to them. We just have one final question, what is the race of these two individuals?"

  Markus waited a second before answering the question, "I'm not exactly sure," he said, one of the council members moved to speak, but he continued before they got the chance, "The woman said she is a lesser beastman. The man stated that they were both Elysians,"

  "The butchers of Bai' tal"

  "Massacre of Fal's Temple"

  "Slaughter of the Fifty Sheikhs"

  "Slayers of the Bride of Elra"

  The voices echoed around the room, echoing the same sentiment. Markus did not understand what events they spoke of but the implication was clear. One of the councilmen stood up, removing his hood and revealing himself to be Lutian, the leader of the city guard.

  "Silence," he shouted over the whispers, "We know not why these two came, but we all know too well the threat they pose. We shall mobilize the guards, Markus," he said, turning to him, "You are to take me to where you sent them both..."

  Alice was fading in and out of consciousness, Erik had lifted her up and was running, she was at least aware of that. She felt herself moving as if in a dream, nothing felt real, Erik said something under his breath, his words flowed like tar and she couldn't understand them. She tried to think but her brain refused to work, she was lost in a fog of her own mind and emotions. Her mind was on fire, overwhelmed by sensation and sound, a sensor cried out to her but she had no idea what it wished to say, its last breath was a death cry and one by one the rest of them went dark.

  Alice found herself floating in an empty black space, she found it to be comforting, the peaceful, sensationless silence calmed her mind. She closed her eyes in and let the ethereal currents drag her to wherever they were going. Eventually her feet touched something, a solid floor. She opened her eyes and found herself standing in a strange room, blue metallic bookcases extended from the floor and into the infinity above, their shelves were populated with hundreds if not thousands of books, each one appeared to have an identical cover, only their spines were different with dates followed by a time, she walked over to the nearest shelf and grabbed a book and looked at it. The time and date made no sense to her, it had said -21:33:62:31:87, deciding there was nothing else to do, she opened the book.

  Alice found herself floating in an empty black space, she found it to be comforting, the peaceful silence calmed her mind. She closed her eyes in and let the ethereal currents drag her to wherever they were going. Eventually her feet touched something, a solid floor. She opened her eyes and found herself standing in a strange room, blue metallic bookcases extended from the floor to the ceiling, their shelves were populated with hundreds if not thousands of books, each one appeared to have an identical cover, only their spines were different with dates followed by a time, she walked over to the nearest shelf and grabbed a book and looked at it.

  She opened her eyes and dropped the book on the floor, she physically relived what had just happened mere seconds ago. The time must've been when she first lost consciousness, it didn't explain why the dates were so weird. She wanted to see an earlier memory but everything on the shelf was just fractions of a second earlier than the book she had grabbed. Just as she thought that the bookcase released a great groan, the shelves began to slide downwards and the books slid to the right, millions of books slid past her generating a strong gust as they flew past. Eventually they stopped and a single heavily weathered book was directly in front of her, 1.4.17756-22:03:21:33:04, Alice grabbed the book and opened it.

  It was an old memory, foggy and distorted from time, but a good memory nonetheless. One of her and her sister, Melissa, picking flowers on ?ten. They weren't related by blood, but Melissa took the role of an older sibling in Alice's life. She enjoyed reliving the memory, and wondered how long it had been since she had left ?ten. Melissa was probably dead, alongside everyone else she knew, Erik had mentioned there was some time dilation from Elysium to ?ten, for every year in Elysium it was over nine hundred at home. She only wished she had the chance to give a proper goodbye before she was taken.

  As the memory came to an end, there was a distant and distorted voice, the enraged howl it made had awoken a slew of memories in Alice and the shelf reacted in kind, moving to display more books; it was the voice of her old master. A bitter miserable fat vile creature that somehow managed to stoop lower than most humans in his cruelty and vitriol. She tried to forget him many times, yet the memories always came back, her blood began to boil yet again. She was told he had been killed shortly after Erik had come along and managed to negotiate her sale. Even back then, as a powerless child all she wished for was to kill him herself, whatever fate he had suffered was not cruel enough.

  As if they sensed her rage the bookcase in front of her began to move again, much faster than before. The screeching to a halt, a single book was presented to her, as if it was trying to satisfy her hatred. 'Baron, Autopsy Report', it wasn't her memory, she didn't even know you could name them. She grabbed the book and looked at it, knowing that if it was opened she would relive the memory inside. There was nothing to be gleaned from the outside of the book, she had to open it to see its contents.

  It wasn't a long memory and the ending was very unexpected; a cruel smile crept across Alice's face as she set the book aside. Perhaps she had been wrong, her master's fate was befitting of him. She set the book aside, wanting to live the memory again later. After two years of tormented servitude, she deserved to watch it again. Before she could dig any deeper into her memories, she heard a distant voice calling out to her.

  "Alice," she heard it say, "Alice wake up".

  She felt herself rise, floating to the surface of her consciousness, and woke up.