In the first actual hour of being on mission, of Nero's first ever actual mission, he had already faced off against a swarm of invisible, vapour curses and was now being attacked by, as far as he could tell, a curse that existed as a grating sound and targeted by endless darkness that was somehow alive - probably also as a curse.
The army life was nothing if not exciting. Instead of panicking at the rapidly deteriorating situation, Nero found himself feeling a little excited. He was standing on a razor's edge, and a single wrong move could cause not only his own death, but the death of his teammates.
Ordinarily, something like that would scare or intimidate a person, but this was exactly what Nero had been training for all his life. Thousands of hours of studying, training, working hard and forcing himself to be diligent instead of relaxing had all been so that when such a moment came, he could excel.
Now the moment had come for him to prove himself. Thoughts flowed rapidly through his mind as he analysed the situation. Lighting the whole reception room on fire had somehow hurt the curse causing the grating noise, but he had not identified where it was, nor had he actually stopped the grating.
He also could not keep the flames going for long because even though he made sure not to light his team on fire, the cold would soon start to affect them. Jackal also could not continue to light his flames as oxygen supply was a concern and the last thing he wanted to do was fill the room with smoke. That would affect only them, not the curses.
Nero used Aether Pulse once more, just to see if he could find the source of the grating noise, but the card failed to reveal anything new.
"Anyone who has cards that produce light, stop the darkness from slithering out the corridors. Harold, use shockwaves in the room. Remi, see if the machine has any failsafes or defensive mechanisms against corruption! Also, anyone who can cover your ears with a spell or card, do it!"
No one in the team hesitated, mostly because the mind piercing metallic wail made it hard for anyone to concentrate or think. Being given clear instructions made it much easier to act.
Gabriel was the first person to cover his ears with his red sand, which should have been the obvious choice right from the beginning but the voice had been too distracting. Although it did not eliminate the grating sound, it provided immense relief, allowing him to finally think.
Nero already had his ears covered in flames, not that it helped much, while the rest also used cards to immediately gain some semblance of relief.
Nero reduced his flames so that Wendy, Gabriel and Jackal could rush towards the corridors. They brought out cards that either caused flash bangs or summoned glowing orbs of light, creating a wall of light to block the darkness.
Harold did not rush with them, and instead held out his hand in the air and activated a card he was carrying, which caused a loud shockwave to pass through the room. The floors, the walls, the ceiling and everything else suffered the effects of the shockwave but didn't receive any damage.
More importantly, the loud, disruptive bang drowned out the grating noise momentarily. But as soon as the grating returned, it became even louder.
The sound was so dominating it nearly caused Nero to shut his eyes as his mind was overwhelmed by stimuli.
"Keep using shockwaves," Nero yelled. "Try to make them louder. I think loud noises hurt it somehow."
Nero had noticed as much when the loud announcement told Jackal to stay where he was to be arrested. For the brief duration of that message, the grating noise had stopped.
Harold nodded, and began to produce a shockwave every few seconds. It seemed to be working, as the grating noise kept wailing in pain, but it was not working fast enough. Nero tried strengthening his flames to see if he could expedite the death of that noise.
"The third room," Remi's voice cut through all the noise, even though she was speaking normally, if a bit fast, "is dedicated to studying something called the Mists of Shahbaal."
Nero's face snapped towards Remi and his eyes constricted. He had focused on everything, except for the most significant anomaly. The fact that someone as fearful as Remi could continue to casually read about the archive while the room was in chaos around her was something he should have immediately picked up. No wait, she did react right at the very beginning, before approaching the reception desk!
He immediately thought of two possibilities. Without waiting, Nero manipulated his internal aether, testing to see if he was under the influence of any illusions. He was unable to detect anything, but that was not conclusive evidence of anything as he had almost no experience in disrupting illusions.
Without any less subtle means left to him, Nero lit the edge of his spear aflame and slammed it down as hard as he possibly could at the reception desk. There was an explosion, throwing Nero back across the hall and into the wall. Harold looked confused, but with the mind piercing sound growing ever louder, he wasn't able to think clearly.
He did not even notice as his eyes, nose and ears began to bleed. Nero, too, started to bleed from all over, but instead of being concerned, he was grinning.
In the brief moment before the explosion knocked him back, Nero felt his flames sizzle. That was exactly what happens when his flames touch a cursed object actively emitting cursed energy!
Two snowflakes appeared in his hand and he immediately lit them on fire before hurling them at the reception desk. Fueled by the snowflakes the flames should have spread, but instead they started to flicker heavily as if something was fighting against the flames.
From across the hall Jackal let out a scream as his body fell backwards. Resisting the darkness was turning out to be a lot harder than expected.
"Harold, go help the others!" Nero yelled, but over the noise Harold could not hear Nero's instructions.
The blue haired teenager could feel that the situation was getting out of hand. If he didn't do something, he could end up suffering his first casualty soon!
He had wanted to avoid doing this, since it was a blatant waste of aether, but he had no choice left.
Nero poured his aether into his ability, drastically increasing the flames in the room. At the same time, he channelled most of his flames towards the reception. It was a desperate attempt to quickly turn the situation around.
The grating, by now, was so loud that Nero could no longer even hear his own thoughts. In the distance, the darkness had managed to slither out of the corridors, and it was beginning to surround Wendy and Gabriel. Harold was still producing shockwaves, nescient that his bleeding had gotten worse, dripping down his throat and turning his armour red.
Remi, meanwhile, continued to read.
"The fourth room is about Dimensional Rifts…"
The sound of crack suddenly broke through all the noise. The metallic grating that was desperate to be heard, the shockwaves produced in the small room, the sound of someone screaming, the sound of Remi speaking, all were interrupted by that one, distinctly clear sound.
It was as if something frozen had splintered. It was immediately followed by the sound of something shattering, and then sweet, sweet silence.
Something about the room immediately changed, and everyone woke up to the realisation that they had been fighting nothing. In front of the corridors, Wendy and Gabriel stood back to back, with Jackal on the floor, and the vicious darkness that was creeping in seemed to have vanished. The metallic sound had disappeared.
Harold suddenly found himself clear headed and stopped the shockwaves. Everything came to a halt as they all looked around confused, but the most confused of all was Remi. One moment she had been listing out the rooms to Nero and the rest, and the next the entire reception desk had shattered, and the entire team had spread out at some point.
She looked at Harold and screamed in fright as she jumped back, but the teenager just looked back in confusion.
"You… you… your face is…"
"Everyone purify yourselves," Nero interrupted, after finally recovering. Although Harold looked the worst, not counting the fact that Jackal was unconscious, they had all bled a bit. Bleeding was dangerous, and leaving blood out was even more so because it could be used to curse whoever the blood belonged to.
"Also, check for injuries and help each other heal. We were trapped in an illusion. I think the reception desk had become a cursed object."
Nero felt that it was a waste that he hadn't used the Radix card, but the circumstances did not allow it. Nero opened his backpack and pulled out a small aether crystal and began to absorb the aether within. That was the quickest way to replenish his aether reserves, as the crystals contained very docile and easily absorbed energy.