Grand Ascension-Chapter 100: Tuesday Morning

Tuesday morning, 7:00 AM.

The VEB building sat at the center of Naija City, a six-story structure of dark glass and reinforced concrete that most residents walked past without a second glance.

They couldn’t see what lay beneath the surface.

The upper floors handled paperwork, permits, and the mundane business of keeping a city running, but the lower levels existed in a different frequency altogether, spaces carved out of normal reality where practitioners could heal, train, and hide from the world above.

Room B-12 was one such space.

The air was different from other places in the building, it was full of Ashe, healing charms pumping healing Ashe into the room.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

The alarm blared from the small device on the bedside table.

Makun’s hand shot out from under the covers and slammed down on it, silencing the noise.

They had put this alarm in his room yesterday, saying how when he woke up, he should contact Amanda, she had to feed him some healing pills.

But he was tired.

He lay there for a moment doing nothing, just staring at the ceiling, his body still aching from injuries that should have killed him.

But he was used to this.

It had been one week and two days since he had been initiated, but death had already knocked at his door multiple times.

He had thought being attacked by Zack York was already an exaggeration, but when reminiscing, Sunday night felt like a fever dream, the ambush by Mark, Bol and Cheryl, MIO intervention, the ancient creature, the eyed hand and the chains’ reaction to it.

It could not possibly have been real, but the bandages wrapped around his chest and the dull throb in his skull reminded him it had all been real.

Am I really that unlucky? He lamented.

Even amongst mystics, no normal person should experience all of this in the span of a few days. That was too much.

He pushed himself up slowly, wincing as his ribs protested, then reached for the remote on the bedside table and turned on the television.

The screen flickered, SNN, national TV.

"...and in continuing coverage of the Naija City tragedy, authorities have now confirmed fifty-three casualties in what officials are calling a catastrophic gas leak. The industrial district remains cordoned off as investigators search for answers. Hope Rest Shelter, a facility that housed dozens of homeless residents, was completely destroyed in the blast—"

He turns off the TV deliberately, refusing to watch more and stared at black the screen.

Fifty-three!

The number sat in his chest like stone. So many had died, without even knowing why, or how. They had struggled in life, and had met their end just like that, all because he had decided to sleep there after his eviction.

They said it was a gas leak, but he knew the truth. What gas leak? He had not been up at that time, he had been unconscious, but he was certain their disappearance was related to the eyed hand. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

They had been erased from existence and it was all his fault. Bol and Cheryl were after him, the eyed hand had been looking at him.

The news reported by SNN was surely news manipulated by the Suppression Bureau to veil the eyes of the population.

He was sure of it.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Makun heard someone knock at his door.

"Enter!" he said, his voice coming out rusty, filled with pain.

Krrreeeak!

The door opened, revealing Orel who walked with large strides into the room.

What does he want? Makun asked himself.

Although he had been impressed by Orel, his brains, his schemes, how far ahead he could see, he did not like the guy.

All the guy knew was provoking, insulting, acting full of himself. He was not fond of that, as someone who had learned to bite back.

However, that did not change the fact that Orel had indirectly helped him uncover some truth about his situation.

"Oh! The unlucky bastard is up. Did you alert Amanda?" Orel asked knowing fully that Makun had not done that.

Makun shook his head. He was never going to play into this guy’s provocations.

Fwooop!

Orel swiped his hand, throwing a pulsing green pill in Makun’s direction.

Makun grabbed it, the pill pulsed like a beating heart in his hand, he quickly swallowed it. Feeling the effect of the pill in his body, as some of the remaining fractured body parts were healing.

After today, his treatment was over.

"What do I owe your visit to?" Makun asked, surely Orel had not come here to give him some pills.

Amanda could take care of that.

"Nothing much, I had to see how you were doing." Orel looked at Makun, analysing the guy from head to toe. "Seems you heal faster than normal. Good to know."

Makun felt a shiver run through his spine. What did he mean good to know, what did they plan to use him for?

Orel turned and walked to the door.

At the threshold of the door, he spoke one last time.

"We are departing for Houston once the others fully heal. Try not to attract any more cosmic horrors before then."

Dum! The door slammed closed.

Makun nodded, he had been amongst those who received the least damage.

Orel had received no damage at all, except for him fainting after the eyed hand’s pressure had appeared.

Yime had fully emptied her Ashe reserve, but had not sustained any heavy damage.

Jorg had been full of blood, scars everywhere, and had expended all his Ashe when performing his Divine Repulsion to stop the ancient creature from killing them all.

And Amelia was the most hurt, compared to someone like Jorg who had a well-built physique, she was thin and fragile, an assassin. The speed at which she had been thrown by the possessed Cheryl had greatly damaged her internal organs.

From the report Makun had read, he knew the VEB spiritual residue AI detector had alerted the members of the VEB of Naija City. They had rushed to Hope Rest Shelter just to see everyone laying there, dead. From Mark Kane to Yime.

They had hurriedly carried them to the HQ hospital, had sent a message to a main branch of the Suppression Bureau and had brought all of the agents to treatment.

All of them had received treatment and those of the MIO were waiting for Amelia to fully heal before departing.

But Makun knew that if his treatment was over, then hers probably was done too.

Once it was done, they would depart for Houston.