Evaluation
Each drop shimmers in the dim moonlight, making tiny splashes and sending large ripples across the streets. The people walk across the busy streets in their raincoats and umbrellas.
Two wardens finish their task of eliminating the Elusive in a large alleyway. The dark spiritual energy transferred to their blades.
"That should be the last one," one of the men says, sheathing his blade. "Let's head back to the temple. The raindrops drip and trail down their raincoats.
Suddenly trash falls over in the alleyway. The crash echoes throughout the hallway. The wardens turn their heads quickly.
They both unsheathe their blades to deal with the new threat ahead. A shadowy humanoid Elusive slowly walks out of the darkness, its legs transparent and ethereal- shimmering in the moonlight.
The Elusive that Azrael thought was dead now stood before the two wardens. The rain falls heavily, drenching the two men. The creature's movements were similar to that of a puppet on strings.
"I was not told there was going to be a humanoid Elusive here," one of the wardens slowly mutters under his breath, her knees trembling slightly, "We can't deal with a creature this high ranking—."
"Calm down." his partner reassures, "It doesn't appear to be a high rank so it's not a B or an A-rank. I think we can handle this—-" Suddenly the Elusive contorts its head. Stretching unnaturally, a row of sharp teeth extends from its gaping jaw and pounces on the warden, shredding his neck in seconds.
His gurgled scream was muffled by the rain. Blood sprays heavily onto the wet pavement below as the warden collapses onto the ground.
The man's partner screams out in fear, his limbs freezing in place. The Elusive quickly pounces on him next. It kept biting the man until a strange liquid sprays and engulfs the man's face and body. It felt like his flesh was melting and peeling off.
Suddenly the creature started to act violently on top of the man whose entire body was burning from the mysterious liquid. They both collapse onto the ground as their bodies start to contort together, spasming uncontrollably -almost morphing into one being.
Bones break apart like tree branches and the man's muffled screams echo in the alleyway before transitioning into an inhuman gurgle.
After a moment, the creature stands up, the remnants of the warden's body slowly morphing into the Elusive, as if consumed by it. His face slowly sticks out before slowly being consumed entirely in the abyss.
It let out an animalistic cry before slowly walking deeper into the alleyway, its legs spasming uncontrollably and becoming weaker by the second. Before suddenly collapsing onto the ground.
Dead.
Hours later, the surveillance team stumbles onto the crime scene. By the early morning, the warden's and Elusive's bodies both lay dead in the dissection area in the autopsy room. The room is all gray and sterilized as the pathologists set up their examination.
One of the men pulls in a tray of medical instruments as the other prepares for the examination and he turns the recorder on.
"April 4, 2023. Subject name Oliver Rubio 35 yrs old male Caucasian and a rare humanoid Elusive," the doctor calmly explains into his recorder. He gives a thumbs up to his partner and to Zhang as he watches through a large window.
The doctor begins their examination by slicing through and analyzing the contents of the two bodies found at the crime scene. Zhang watches intently as he watches the men analyze what happened at that crime scene.
Each incision makes Zhang wince in anticipation. One of the pathologists looks on towards Zhang as he tries to break through the Elusive's body.
One of the doctors makes an observation, "Do you see that?"" pointing at the creature's internal organs and anatomical structure.
"I don't believe Elusives has a flesh-like structure like this." the pathologist wonders, grabbing a bone saw, "We need a closer look." The sounds of the buzz fill the air as the sparks fly everywhere as the man's partner continues writing down his observations.
Setting aside the saw blade, the doctors closely analyze the contents within. One of the pathologists sees the anatomical remnants of a human being that was absorbed by the Elusive. The two men look at each other cautiously, their eyes widened in confusion.
The pathologist grabs his recorder, "There appears to be a person inside the cursed spirit but the person inside is basically unrecognizable due to an unknown black substance slowly consuming the contents within," he pokes his scalpel at what appears to be a nearly digested skull in the creature's chest cavity.
After a couple hours, the autopsy came to an end.
"Mr. He," one of the pathologists calmly says, waving his hand to let Zhang come into the autopsy room. Zhang looks on at the opened corpse of the Elusive- its mangled body a mix of flesh and spiritual substance.
The pathologist's coworker finishes writing down information on his clipboard and goes on to take evidence pictures of the whole situation.
"What's the situation doctor?" Zhang questions.
"The Elusive is not likely anything I've ever seen before- clearly a fusion between human and curse spirit," the pathologist points his glove hands at the opened carcass, "The DNA appears to be closely related to Mr. Monroe if I recall correctly."
"So you are saying that Elusives can now corrupt human beings?" Zhang crosses his arms, fear and confusion clear on his face.
The Elusives corpse starts spasming in a glitch-like motion causing Zhang to move back in bewilderment. The doctor raises his hands to calm Zhang down, "It's just muscle memory- the host likely died a couple minutes from the forced conversion process."
Zhang remembers the words of the surveillance team that discovered the crime scene, their shock and worries clear on their faces.
You can barely tell what the face looked like. One girl said, her hands trembling against each other.
He looked like messed up butchered meat with flesh hanging everywhere One man calmly explained.
Zhang clutches his hands wanting to know the answers to what is truly going on.
"Even so," the doctor's partner says, finishing the last of his pictures, "How do we explain this to the Arbiter or the rest of the other wardens?"
"I will make contact with the Arbiter immediately," Zhang commands, "He will make the next decision."
Zhang rushes out of the autopsy room and out onto the hallways- the Arbiter's royal guards standing still on each passageway. Meanwhile, in the courtyard, Kiara remains unaware of the crisis ahead.
Kiara notices Zhang rushing out frantically while sparring with Adam in the courtyard. What could cause him to be so worked up? Kiara wonders for a brief moment. She shakes her head trying to ignore the situation while practicing her sword swings with Adam. Whatever it was, it wasn't her problem- at least, not right now.
"Remember when using Sentinel form–" Adam swings his blade at Kiara but pivots at the last minute to strike the back of her knees.
Kiara momentarily stumbles back, "Wait what?"
"You have to hit your main striking points," he grips his blade but strikes Kiara's lower rib with the wooden sword.
"Ow." Kiara winces in pain. She momentarily stops to catch her breath, "I thought Sentinel was mainly a defensive form. What's with the attacks?"
Adam smirks at her before quickly getting back into stance. Kiara raises her wooden blade high in the air and tries to smack Adam but he quickly blocks every strike.
"You always have to watch out for your weak spots whenever your opponent is using Sentinel form. Just because it's a defense-type form doesn't mean it can't be used offensively," Adam explains calmly before pivoting in the opposite direction catching Kiara off guard.
The other kids training in the courtyard murmur amongst each other at seeing Kiara and Adam train with each other.
"Still a D-rank at her age?" One of the kids snickers under his breath.
"I feel sorry for her being related to someone like Edward the crazy." A young girl whispers to her friend.
"Shouldn't she be with the little kids," a lanky kid jokes to himself.
"Those must be the snobby C-ranks you talked about," Kiara says, paying no attention to the kid's taunts.
"Yep," Adam says, rolling his eyes dramatically, "Just ignore them." He pivots his legs to strike Kiara's blind spot but she manages to block it just in time.
"Not today," Kiara says with a wide smile on her face.
You're a quick learner," Adam acknowledges. He places his blade directly onto the ground, "Let's take a break for now. Let's meet up in 30 minutes," Adam says before quickly running off in the distance. His footsteps fading into the background.
Even when the training session was over, Kiara couldn't help but think of the situation she saw the day before. She was walking in the hallways when she faintly overheard a muffled conversation in a small crack in the wall. She slowly kneeled down to see what was going on the other end of the wall.
She saw her grandfather sitting across two individuals drinking their cups of alcohol. The room was dimly lit in a dark reddish tone. Pictures were lined up everywhere.
Edward slowly handed a document file to the two men. One of the men slowly opened the document file, eyeing the contents within with skepticism. He looks at Edward with a no-nonsense look, "We don't assist for free. What you are asking for requires a lot more than usual."
Edward pulls out a large stack of cash out of his coat pocket and swiftly throws it onto the ground. The man's eyes widened with greed. Kiara stared through the tiny hole confused about the whole situation.
"You sure it ain't the same crazy thoughts as that one time you thought Elusives were mind-controlling President Reagan," one of the men snickers, "All because he had a stutter."
"Remember that one time, you thought the Elusive's weakness was actually music," another drunkenly laughs to himself.
Edward rubs his eyes clearly embarrassed by his past actions, "Yes. Those were actual beliefs I had but I tell you this is different."
He pulls a singular picture out of the document file but Kiara is unable to make out what it is, 'See. Right here" pointing directly at the photo, "This is the only photo evidence I have but I know you two can get way more."
One of the men picks up the photo, his brow raising in suspicion, "It's so blurry that I can barely make out its contents."
"Is that a face or a mask? I promise you, I can not tell," the man's partner drunkenly says, pointing at the blurry picture.
"Come on please," Edward begs, "This is important and I know only you can help with this."
The men look at each other with skeptical eyes and one of the men with the square glasses rolls his eyes and pours himself a drink, "We'll do what we can with how little you gave us."
Kiara noticed a couple of guards slowly walking in her direction and she quickly ran away from the scene. Edward slowly walks over to leave the darkroom before one of the men asks him something important.
"You sure this ain't one of your crazy ideas," the square glasses man questions.
"Something can't be crazy if you've seen it personally for yourself," Edward reassures.
"Why do you still care about this? We have moved on, you haven't. " The man moves his glasses closer, "There dead and you can't bring them back."
"I can't," Edward somberly utters, "But that doesn't mean they can't be given the justice that they deserve."
Kiara shakes her head trying to forget what she saw the day earlier but the feeling still tugs in the back of her mind. In order to distract herself, she sees Anby sitting all by herself. The light cast a glare on her large-rimmed glasses that cover her eyes. She is busy focusing on sketching in her sketchbook.
"How are you doing Anby?" Kiara utters, walking closely to her new friend. Anby flinches as she sees Kiara suddenly standing so close, almost looming over her.
"Oh hi Kiara," Anby nervously says, tapping her pencil on her sketchbook, "Uh. Is there anything you need right now?"
"Oh nothing," Kiara says sitting next to the little girl, "You look like you are deep in thought."
"Uh.,I was just drawing everyone training," Anby nervously says, pushing her glasses closer, "It helps me study movement and techniques in a more fun way."
Kiara leans close to Anby looking intently at her sketches. Anby tenses up, caught off guard by Kiara's sudden advance.
"You are a really good artist," Kiara compliments admiring Anby's artistic skills. Anby smiles to herself, and her posture becomes more noticeable and straighter.
Kiara looks over at the C-rank recruits still standing over in the distance murmuring and laughing between each other. She caught a snippet of their conversation. They weren't whispering about her but something else entirely different.
"I heard in some temples, some of the higher ranks get like mansions and penthouses," one of the recruits says with jealousy, "Imagine if we had that life."
"Right. I heard about this warden in Germany who's like stupid rich," a girl says with her eyes widened, "Hundreds of millions of dollars and he's only 27."
"Doesn't matter," a young boy gloats with pride, "Here in America, we know how to train. We produce the strongest wardens, no question."
"Yeah let's see Germany's little prince deal with us," a boy crosses his arms, "Bet he will be crying in his private jet back home after being humiliated.
Kiara frowns slightly. Was that really what being a higher rank meant? Power, money, and status? She slightly turns her head towards Anby.
"Hey, Anby." Kiara asks, keeping her voice quiet while looking intently at the recruits in the distance, "Do ranks actually matter that much here? I know that it is important for the hierarchy and all that jazz but do people here really care about that?"
Anby glances towards the sky, her fingers tapping on her sketchbook, "Um…They kind of do," she says thoughtfully, her voice a bit hesitant, "Not until you are like…. B- rank. That's when you know you're now a more experienced warden."
"What about D-rank," Kiara questions, her curiosity peak.
"D-rank?" Anby blinks, her tone filled with puzzlement, "Oh that's what…you know everyone starts out. Like basic training."
"I know but I wonder how people around here think about it," Kiara says, her gaze wandering across the recruits glancing at her from the side.
"It's nothing special. You can compare it to something like you being in middle school," Anby says nonchalantly.
"Middle school?" Kiara's eyes widen at Anby's comment. Anby shoulders raise up immediately realizing she said something bad.
"Or was it High school? I don't know," Anby says to herself sheepishly, "Why do you ask?"
"I don't know how to feel like being compared to a middle schooler," Kiara says calmly to herself, a hint of embarrassment in her tone, "No wonder those snobby C-ranks act like they own the place"
The smacks of their wooden blades echo across the courtyard. The recruits' conversations and the smacks of the blades carry all the way to Zhang's barracks as Edward and the Arbiter sit across from each other as Zhang frantically lays out his findings from earlier today.
"Okay…I think this is everything," Zhang mutters softly to himself, "Wait where's the file?"
Edward stares on with concern as Zhang quietly talks himself trying to sort everything out. "Is everything alright? You were very anxious and needed our presence asap."
"Oh no, something bad is likely going to happen sooner or later," Zhang anxious says, pulling the file out of stacks of papers, "It is best if you two jot down notes."
Zhang shows them the autopsy results and images. Edward jots down everything of interest while the Arbiter looks on, his eyes gentle yet calculating.
"One of the pathologists indicates that the Elusive brought in today morphed together with Mr. Messano," Zhang calmly explains, pointing at the before and after images. The image of Mr. Messano is a sharp contrast to the digested remains of him in the Elusive's body. "This is a clear showing of a fusion and mutation of the human body," Zhang says, his voice filled with concern.
A heavy silence lingers between them.
Zhang changes to the next slide, "Take a look at the spiritual energy readings." The chart shows a red and green bar on a graph, "The red symbolizes the spiritual energy of this special Elusive comparing it to an Elusive of similar D-rank. As you can see… the red bar is off the chart almost two ranks higher than it should be."
"What should be the next course of action?" Edward inquires. Zhang looks cautiously at the Arbiter who stands there motionless in his seat tapping on his armchair in a rhythmic pattern.
"We should have frequent surveillance teams for the next couple of months," Zhang cautiously says, "It's hard to know if another one of these special Elusives will show up again."
Edward exhales slowly, his pen frozen over the page.
"We might need to postpone everything in order to handle this new threat," Edward calmly utters, slowly placing his journal on the table, "We need to be on high alert. This needs to be handled before it's too late."
"If we go on high alert it would put everyone here and in our sister temples in a state of disarray," The Arbiter says, calmly cutting into Edward's conversation.
His fingers stop tapping.
The Arbiter leans forward, his expression calm yet deliberate, "Priorities must be rearranged to deal with this new threat emerging. We can't diverge our focus carelessly."
"That's why we must postpone everything to make everyone and the city safe," Edward rubs his temple, exhaling through his nose, "We might risk worse consequences later."
"We need to keep the momentum of the recruits though," Zhang says cautiously, "If we delay their training or their future assessments, they will be left vulnerable to the threats ahead."
"Zhang is correct," the Arbiter says calmly, "We must ensure everything remains under control." Edward's eyes look uncomfortably as he looks at the autopsy photos in the report.
"I think it's best that I proctor the evaluation," The Arbiter suggests, causing Zhang to raise an eyebrow. Edward slowly puts the report down on the Arbiter's table.
"You want to be a proctor?" Edward says, his tone filled with skepticism, "What's the occasion?"
"Zhang must be preoccupied with the incoming threat," the Arbiter calmly explains, "It will cause him to be distracted while proctoring the tests for Kiara's evaluation."
"Maybe we should delay the evaluation to another date," Edward says with a weary tone, "This special type of Elusive could sprout in many different parts of the city and we should be on duty for a while to make sure no more of these things can appear."
"There's only been one so far," the Arbiter retorts, "It's likely one of its kind. Very rare of another showing up in a long time."
Zhang looks on with a weary look in his eyes, "Here are the tests that I prepared for tomorrow. Hope you use a couple of these."
"Thank you, Zhang," the Arbiter smiles at his successor, "I hope you prepared some wonderful tests."
"Of course," Zhang reassures.
"We need to focus on more practical tests- more focused on combat. They need to be prepared for unpredictable challenges," the Arbiter calmly says, his smile never faltering, "Teamwork is obviously valuable but the state we are in right now, requires a different skill."
"But if we focus more on combat instead of teamwork then we risk how these kids could work as a team," Edward warns, his tone covered in worry.
"Don't worry they will get the necessary experience of working together as a team but strength is necessary to deal with the sudden surge of Elusives," the Arbiter reassures.
Edward and Zhang slowly close the Arbiter's private room and they both walk together in the hallways. Zhang looks over at his reports while Edward looks weary at the events ahead.
"The Arbiter proctoring?" Edward inquires, "That is usually your job isn't it?"
"Why are you asking?" Zhang questions.
"I didn't think he would be this invested to proctor a simple evaluation like this," Edward says, scratching the scar on his face.
Later that day the sun begins to set. The vibrant warm colors dip below the horizon. Kiara swings her blade smacking directly at Adam's sword swing.
"All I need to worry about now is to get stronger and hopefully catch up to you guys soon," Kiara says enthusiastically blocking Adam's attacks.
"Yeah," Adam says calmly, pivoting around Kiara and tapping the wooden blade on her shoulder, "Everyone above us wants us to get stronger than before. All we can do is to train and keep killing and absorbing Elusives."
"Absorbing Elusives?" Kiara wonders, raising her eyebrow.
"Yeah, their dark energy powers us slowly but surely," Adam explains, swinging his blade, "Don't you ever wonder why dead Elusive's energy transfers to whoever takes them down?"
"Not really," Kiara says nonchalantly, "I thought it was all part of killing Elusives."
"The stronger the Elusive, the more energy we gain," Adam says calmly, "Thus leading us to get stronger and stronger."
"So like a power fantasy," Kiara says with her eyes widening with realization.
"Yeah." Adam utters, his face happy yet covered in confusion, "What's a power fantasy?"
"You know where a character goes through an obstacle or battle and gets stronger. Collecting XP," Kiara explains enthusiastically, "You understand?"
"It kind of is in a way," Adam ponders to himself dramatically, chuckling to himself from the premise, "What's that?"
"It's like a game Adam," Kiara laughs to herself, "Still why does their dark energy powers us?"
"I think it's this simple- dark energy gets purified and that makes us stronger," Adam says, scratching his head, "Going by this power fantasy logic- Kill, absorb, get stronger, repeat. Still, you would be shocked to see how much energy it takes to kill stronger spirits."
"That's cool," Kiara says before pivoting around Adam smacking him on his shoulder. Adam's expression is neutral as he turns around to see a smirking Kiara behind him.
"That's cheating," Adam says playfully, not missing a beat.
"Hey! Pay attention to your surroundings," Kiara smirks to herself as she gives him a playful wink.
The bells reverberate loudly signalling to everyone that it is dinner time. The loud murmurs of the recruits and seniors echo in the cafeteria. Even though Kiara is busy talking with her friend group, she can't help but notice the amount of guards and eyes gazing at her in the room.
Guards were stationed at every corner of the cafeteria and many of the seniors were whispering in hushed tones. She shakes this feeling off as she walks off back to her quarters trying to avoid the gazes of others.
Kiara falls back to sleep on her hard uncomfortable bed where she wakes up in the same forest area from yesterday. She is back in the same unsettling dream. Kiara sees the broken talisman in the distance, a dark spiritual energy rising from its broken contents.
Suddenly a swing from a blade catches Kiara off guard. She manages to pivot out of the way to see the same distorted figure from her dream.
Kiara looks down to see her holding her blade in her hands, she grasps it tightly not knowing if this is still reality or just a figment of her imagination.
"Soul….Bound?," the figure says hoarsely, "Why….child….like you?" It immediately leaps towards Kiara as she blocks its attack with her blade.
Soul Bound? Kiara thinks to herself, What is this thing talking about?
"Ascendant…am," the figure ominously utters, "Name….is….." A bright light appears in Kiara's dream and immediately wakes her up again. The world in her dream seemed to dissipate as the reality set on her shoulders. Sweat poured down her forehead, her breathing frantic and heavy. She is left with a lingering sense of dread.
She wipes the sweat off her forehead. She felt like her lungs and heart were to explode due to how fast they were beating. It all felt too real for a simple nightmare.
Kiara closes her eyes back again as the starry night gradually transitions into a bright golden sunrise on the mountainside. She wakes up with one thing on her mind:
Today is the day. Kiara is going to be evaluated and get her official rank.