A World Of Decree: And The Seven Laws

It was now 8 am. Hours passed anonymously after countless turns and wandering of unknown territory. The voices were now becoming more clear, only moments away to put faces to them.

"Stop it!"

"What else do you want me to do?"

"Hold on. I hear something."

Atlas, Leo and Laena all shoveled each other into an open clearing in the woods. Much like where Atlas first trained before the entrance exam.

This clearing however, was much bigger, with no shining grass or mistful breeze to cool off the summer heat. Instead, a skyscraping oak tree stood firm in the center, thick as a mountain, and yet, withering away from the corruption. The leaves were falling off in a dark, crusty ash, with the roots of the vines leading straight inside the brittle bark of the oak.

The vines from before led into a dangerously large magenta flower, planted firmly on the tree. It looked beautiful, despite the forest around it seeming more dead than a graveyard. The flower bloomed over the clearing, with defining thick pumps of vines giving it juice for maintaining its astronomical figure.

Below the flower were 8, dress-coded young a.d.u.l.ts, no older than 23, their faces were much too young for that. They seemed confused and exhausted, with bruises and scratches all over their hard-working bodies.

"Please don't tell me you're the help we asked for?" One of the men said with a pitiful look of lost hope. He was a tall, bald and bearded man, well-built for bar fights and friendly matches of self-praise. His clothes were once perfect to the touch, seeing them now was almost like looking at a century old rugged carpet.

Atlas didn't say anything this time, pulling out the paper gave the man the answer he wasn't hoping for.

One of the girls quickly interrupted them, "Hey, Don't be an asshole! who knows, they might be stronger than you Kev."

So Kev was his name. Suits him quite well actually.

"Oh yeah I'm sure. They're from Princewood so they must be soo strong," Kev claimed with an over exaggerated sarcastic tone.

This could drag on forever, out of the midst of the shadows Leo decided to bud in, "Excuse me! What in the world is that thing and what are we supposed to be doing?"

That easily got the attention of everyone standing in the clearing. The girl from before replied generously, staying as calm as possible despite their situation.

"We've been trying to get rid of this thing for almost a full day. We sent one of our members back to the guild to notify a mission request for Princewood. We've tried everything to destroy this plant thing and yet nothing even scratches the surface. We have all sorts of magic users but even if you try to get close the vines will protect the plant in an instant," She sighed heavily, "We thought maybe some students from Princewood could think of a solution before this thing eats up the life of the entire town and even further."

Leo was quick to respond, thinking its his time to shine, "Have you tried setting it on fire?"

"Multiple times unfortunately. None of us are fire users, that's actually a very rare form of magic. However, we tried lighting a fire and projecting it onto the plant, setting the vines on fire, and anything else we can think of."

Kev interrupted once more while trying to cut off one of the vines with his hand, "Yeah. So unless one of you brought God's own judgement, we're out of luck. We've been here for so long, some of us can't even stand anymore due to injuries and hunger," he said while pointing towards a couple of his guild mates perched up against the deathly trees of sorrow.

It was now 9am.

"What magic do you two possess?" A familiar voice said from outside the clearing, and yet sounded like to was right in front of them.

Kev was quick to respond, "How about you come out first and then we talk!"

The same path that Atlas, Leo and Laena entered from, was used once more by none other than Faibel, walking casually without a single wrinkle of fear on his face.

"Are you another Princeboy here to Help? Oh great now were saved!" Kev shouted sarcastically as he turned back towards the plant.

"Atlas," Faibel turned towards his group, What magic have you seen them use. Or at least the ones that can still stand?"

"I'm not to sure. I think the bearded one can cut through stuff very easily by turning his hands into blades, and the other girl over there had some sort of manipulation of her hair to make it become super strong and long."

"That's a horrible description, but gives me something to work with." Faibel sighed.

The girl overheard them and was a little fl.u.s.tered to agree, "To put it in simpleton terms than yes, I guess. However, we aren't as strong as we were yesterday, after so many hours our magic is almost out, and some of us are brutally injured."

"I see," Faibel claimed calmly, "This plant is a tropical lush plant. It is derived from a seed which was planted with great care for it to first bloom above ground. Once the first sight of sunlight is acquired, it grows rapidly by feeding on living things in it's way."

The looks of everyone quickly changed to anger, not for the fact of it stealing precious life. There was a clear indication of that happening already. But for the absolute horror of someone doing this on purpose, and for what reason.

"There is a way to kill it, However, you will have to work together."

After a few arguments and laughs, Kev, the girl who was discovered to be named Lily, and the folks from Princewood besides Faibel all agreed to listen to the plan.

The plan involved Leo being the hero, with everyone else protecting him as he gets to the core of the plant. They would all run together towards the center, with Kev in front, Atlas right behind him and Leo in the back. As they're running to the middle, the closer and closer they go to the centered flower, the more and more it would try and stop them with the vines. Kev's job is to cut through as many vines that try and attack as possible while keeping Atlas and Leo safe.

They won't get far as the plant would use more vines than Kev can keep up with, causing him to be knocked back forcefully. With no more protection, Lili would make a swing from the highest roots of the dead tree the flower was planted on to swoop Atlas and Leo away in the nick of time, launching them towards the center. At the same time as Laena shapeshifts to the most life like vegetation as she could, causing some of the vines to be distracted for long enough for the main climax to occur. Once Atlas and Leo are in the air, Atlas will have to use all his force to bust open the luxurious flower pedals for Leo to get inside. Finally, once inside, Leo will set the core on fire, causing the whole flower to incinerate from inside out.

"Or so it should work in my head," Faibel claimed.

With nothing else to really go on, they agreed and got in their positions, waiting for the signal.

Lily attached her hair with no disturbances, Laena was ready on the sidelines, and the other three were all in line ready to ambush this monstrosity.

"Now!"

As soon as they heard the magic word, they were off. Soaring through the clearing like an Olympic race for speed and power. Nothing could stop them, with only one shot to end it all.

Kev was being torn apart by the vines leaping at him, but managed to hold his own, slicing through the green roots of evil.

They didn't get as far as they hoped, being reckless as one of the vines snatched Kev's leg, flinging him towards the sidelines, forcing a broken wrist, and his depletion of any energy left.

Earlier than expected. Shit. Faibel thought. Three vines were headed right for Atlas as him and Leo were bolting towards the center. With inches away from being snatched, they were grabbed by Lily, swinging them past the roots, being abducted from the ground. She managed to fling both of them forward seconds before being knocked to the ground by the vines, leaving her paralyzed for the rest of the fight.

Atlas and Leo were now soaring through the air, Leo trying to stay as focused as possible, but wasn't able to show it on his face. Atlas already had some experience with partial flight, however, not towards a gigantic plant virus. As they approached closer and closer, a vine from underneath was bound to grab Atlas's foot, and smash him into the floor of the forest.

It grabbed on. Their plan was doomed to fail from the start. However, in a split second of time before the vine could take away any motion from the flight, it was cut off. Kev rushed from the sidelines, using his only functioning hand, he managed to cut the origin of the vine insertion, causing it to have no more availability to move.

Atlas's horror quickly turned to a quick smile of thank you in the split moment this happened in. Now it was his turn to provide for the team. If it weren't for Laena on the side, disguised as a bush, the two boys would be dropped in an instant due to several of the more viscous looking vines making their way to secc.u.m the life out of nature.

Atlas was now just a few feet away from the plant head. The pedals enclosed the core with a sturdy, solid surface. Atlas knew it wouldn't be easy, all he could do is give it his all. C.o.c.king back his fist, with immense concentration on not only the blow, but where it was going to land as well. He swung it aimlessly towards the pedals, causing an unexpected response. He felt as if he had just hit a wall of bricks, and now he couldn't do more, falling through the air once again, only hearing a loud screech of pain from the plant he managed to bust through.

The pedals only opened for a split second, just enough for Leo to be enclosed in its divine presence. He saw the core where all the misfortunes were coming from. Three red stems, with yellow spheres attached to the tips were sitting at the bottom of the plant's enclosure. With no time to spare, he quickly lit a match he always carried incase of emergencies, forcing it to thrive from the movement of his hands.

The atmosphere around him was making it hard to breath. The air inside the plant was toxic, emulsifying Leo's lungs with death and sorrow. With his hands in flames, he grabbed hold of the stems as tight as he possibly could. With his flames burning out, and nothing happening, he was out of ideas.

He was now getting dizzy, seconds from becoming unconscious and succ.u.mbing to the plant's power. However, his mind was still alive, concentrated on the stems of evil he was grasping with his life. "BURN!" He shouted as loud as he could that even everyone in the clearing could hear him perfectly.

Within a flash of time, the flames around his hands burst into a monstrous red blaze of heat. The fire was so strong that even Leo felt the temperature rise around him. The small space he was in was now a giant meteor of flames, bursting open in ash, even catching some of the dead trees in the clearing with its explosion of heat.

The vines around the forest started to perish, decimating into nothingness as Leo fell from the plant's core onto the soft ground, still trying to recollect his thoughts. Slowly, the bark of the infected trees turned to ash, revealing small shrubs of a new life being brought back to the forest. All the death and disease was now gone, and a new birth of nature taking its place.

Kev was the first to come up to Leo, reaching out his unbroken hand to him, signaling to take it. "I believe I owe you guys an apology. Seems like Princewood has their work cut out for them this year."

Leo grabbed his hand, bolting up from the ground, "Please, it was a team effort, couldn't of done it without your help."

Kev and Lily proceeded to thank them countless times, noting they are always welcome in Greensrow from now on.

Atlas gave them the mission paper and Lily signed it, confirming their completion of the task.

It was now 10:30 am. Plenty of time to spare for the group, but they decided to head back to the headquarters to turn in their completed mission.

On the way back, Atlas turned to Faibel, asking him something that's been on his mind from the start, "Hey Faibel, where were you for the first couple of hours? Did you oversleep or something."

"No. I had some business to take care of. This I can apologize for. Will it happen again? Most likely." He looked ahead, eyes bold, head high, and hair flowing through the wind, "Everyone has a side to them you don't want to see. No one in this world is perfect, that's all I have to say."

"Sorry for asking, I had no idea you would respond so deeply."

Atlas received no reply, he wasn't expecting one anyway.

As they headed back towards the headquarters, they didn't see anyone familiar when returning their mission. The lady from before was still in the exact same spot as the morning, almost like a placed mannequin, unable to move.

"Here you go, we have completed-

The lady snagged the paper from his hand before he could finish, "Thank you very much."

She proceeded to burn the paper straight from her hand, vanishing it in seconds.

"Congratulations, 100 points will be added to Axiom Unity!"

Before departing, Leo raised a concern to the lady, "Wait only 100 points? But this was a Black border!?"

"Yes, the points are awarded based on border. Green is 5, Yellow is 10, Red is 50, Black is 100. However, once your guild completes a black border, which you just did. You will be able to receive Missions without borders at all. The difficulty level of them is not known and you are not inclined to take them. If you do, they can be worth anywhere from hundreds to thousands of points, but will require a lot more work and time of course."

"This makes a little more sense, thank you for the information."

The four of them headed to the food plaza, talking things over about the point system.

"How do you think the others did with the red border?" Atlas asked.

Faibel was surprisingly the first to respond, "They completed it. If what we faced was a black border, a red is twice as easy, and they have Cartuja."

Laena wasn't doubting him, however, her, Leo and Atlas have no idea what Cartuja's magic is. "What magic does Cartuja use?" She asked.

"Cartuja is not someone you want to piss off. He uses motion to accelerate to unrealistic speeds," Faibel looked at the rest of them, "There will be a time very soon where we might be in a very bad situation, then you will see."

"Alrighty then, who wants to get some eggs and fruit? I'm starving out here," Leo broke the seriousness with a witty remark that the group couldn't refuse.

After sharing a few laughs and bellies filled with breakfast delights, they headed off to do their own businesses. Leo to get more food, Laena and Faibel headed to the library to do some companion reading, and Atlas was once again at the lore to practice his abilities in hopes of mustering up a discovery.

The following day the entire group met up at Calvin's office like they planned. Leo and Atlas walked in with pride, knowing they were going to be the topic of today's talk. Laena and Faibel had other reasons for not following their pursuit.

"Thank you everyone for making it today. As you may know already, we now have a total of 150 points thanks to all of you. Congratulations for completing the black and red bordered missions, for the real fun to start happening," Calvin claimed with a smile.

"You guys did a black border?" Rina asked with slight enthusiasm and a pinch of embarrassment.

Faibel was the first to give her a response, "Yeah. We almost didn't succeed, and it took much longer than expected. Trust me it's nothing to praise."

"I believe you still deserve a round of friendly applause and cheer don't you think?"

"No. The black mission are a cake walk compared to real ones. Calvin is correct. The real challenges still await us."

Rina backed off, but gave a quick thumbs up and a grin towards Atlas, Leo and Laena. Faibel already got the gesture from their conversation.

"Yes, well, I don't expect any of you to complete real missions as easily as these. Some missions may take up to weeks to complete, and will require most if not all of you to work together," Calvin sat back down. "The reason for us meeting up here today, however, is because there is a guild battle going on today in a couple of hours. I would like us all to come and watch. You might be challenged to one sooner than you think."

Paris spoke for the first time after waiting patiently by Calvin's desk, "What's a guild battle?"

Calvin proceeded to explain all the rules and how Guild battles currently operated. Any Guild can challenge another Guild in a friendly match to steal their points. No Guild can challenge another with a smaller amount of points then themselves, therefore, you can only challenge ones that have higher points than you. Whichever Guild wins, takes the other teams points.

The duel consists of either a full on 7 v 7, or as simple as a 1 v 1, chosen randomly by either of the guilds faculty advisors.

The group was quite excited to see how the battle will go, with nothing but thrill and early sparks of joy rushing through them. All guild battles took place in Lore, arriving in seconds from Calvin's office to their destination. They grabbed some front row seats, as well as a few other guilds not participating but watching instead. As the time narrowed to the final minute, almost the whole stadium was full, ready to watch the clash of two of the strongest Guilds in princewood.

Kryptonite versus Law Breakers.