Colin's posts

Illias bit his lip a little, and sighed as he hung his head low.

"Of course, Illias." he said to himself quietly. "Of course you're late. Of course you're disappointing her." he scolded himself.

"Miserable little fuck-up is what you are." he then spat at himself, before slapping his cheek... though it seemed to be more to get himself back in the right head-space for what was coming up.

"Coming!" he called to Kiah, before he raced after her.

"I'm sorry I'm late, I just-" he started to say, before stopping himself abruptly.

"Nevermind." he told her.

'She doesn't need to hear your lame-ass excuses.' he told himself mentally.

"I'll get to observing and recording the readings." he said to her.

"Damn it!" the man cursed, as he ran through the forest, shoving vegetation and branches aside. "How could I have been found out!? I kept this mission as secret as I could!" he said further, tightly clutching at something in one of his hands.

He had been sent to retrieve something by his mistress, but just when he'd found it, a pair of people (one male and one female) appeared to stop him from returning.

Meanwhile, the two that were chasing him were starting to catch up, and the male looked at the female.

"Keep chasing him." he told his partner. "I don't know what he's up to, but it seems like that tip-off from Jake's buddy was right on the money." he went on.

"I'm going to get ahead of him, and we'll cut him off at the clearing that's ahead." he said further. "Just keep him distracted. Make him think that we're both still chasing him." he finished, before veering off slightly, and disappearing into the forest... though she could hear him moving ahead.

"Leave me alone!" she then heard their suspect yell. "I haven't done anything to you!" he exclaimed.

She did not respond, and merely continued to chase him.

Sure enough, when they reached the clearing, her male partner ran out from another area of the forest, slamming their suspect into a tree, causing him to fall to his ass, dazed.

"Halt! You are under arrest for trespassing and tampering in a restricted zone, by law of the Council and Triad!" the male declared, flashing his Unit badge.

The suspect just growled.

"You'll never take me! ABSOLUTE LOYALTY!" he declared, before he slammed his hand onto the tree behind him. This caused a swirling hole of mana to form behind him, and he fell back into it, the mana dissipated just as quickly as it appeared.

"Damn. He got away." the female said. "We need to report this to Sharp." they told the male, who bent down and picked up a fountain pen.

"Guess he dropped this." he mumbled, pocketing it. "Shame to let a good pen go to waste out here." he reasoned, before looking at his partner and nodding.

"Let's go." he agreed.

A few hours later, the two of them had left Sharp's office, and were making their way down one of the hallways. They ended up parting ways, and the male ended up bumping into Azazel when he turned a corner, causing the pen he'd found to come falling out of his pocket, though he didn't notice it.

"Watch where you're going, demon." he grumbled to Azazel, before just continuing to walk onwards.

"...he really needs to do something about his attitude towards demons." Azazel sighed, before shaking his head and continuing on where he was going... leaving the pen laying on the floor, unnoticed.

But it wasn't for very long, as a lone person noticed it out of the corner of their eye, and made their way towards it.

"Hello? What's this?" Illias asked, bending down and picking it up. He inspected the writing implement for a minute or so, before looking around. Seeing nobody there, he shrugged.

"I'm sure if it's important, it will be reported, and I'll return it." he reasoned, pocketing the pen.

'For now, seems a shame to leave it, in case someone more unscrupulous finds it.' he then thought, before looking at his watch and panicking slightly.

"Ah! Kiah'll have my head if I'm late for the compound testing!" he exclaimed, as he started to bolt toward the R&D department.

Leo nodded in response.

"Please." he replied.

"I need to really start making plans for incorporating tech into The Order." he told them.

"Bye for now." he finished, disappearing in a swirl of sand, himself.

"And YOU owe Mom an explanation." Ash said to Lindsay, who nodded in response, and started to send a text to the woman in question.

"Seems that worked out as well as it possibly could." Vincent commented, looking at his sister.

"I do, as well." Leo said, stepping up closer to Syraene.

"We need to rebuild the Order from the ground up." he commented.

"Good luck." Vincent said.

"It shan't be an easy task." he told her.

"Chronos has placed their faith and trust in us." Leo replied.

"We do not intend to disappoint them." he finished confidently.

Lindsay looked at the flame, and scratched his chin.

"I... don't remember doing that." he said.

"Chronos said he removed the corruption. Maybe that's a side-effect or consequence of it, or whatever?" Leo suggested.

"Perhaps." Vincent commented.

"It's a nice touch, though." Ash then said.

"Bet this would make one HELL of a nice outside light in the dark." he added.

"...perhaps, yes." Lindsay agreed.

"Just know that I removed the corruption from it." was the last thing Chronos said, before they were gone, again, in the blink of an eye.

"...that's just disconcerting." Ash commented.

"Well, when you can control time, itself, your entrances and exits tend to be powerful, but subtle." Vincent responded.

"At any rate, let us see what Chronos was talking about." he finished.

The entire group then left the den, and made their way to the backyard, where they found a beautiful glass statue of phoenix... with a small flame burning in the centre of the chest.

And it was VERY familiar to Lindsay.

"That's... what I did when I burned the vault's corrupted sand..." he said quietly, though the entire group heard him.

Chronos responded by tossing Leo a small bag. When Leo caught it, they could see the shock in his eyes.

"....woah..." he muttered.

"I will be back for the remainder of that." Chronos said.

"I... can totally do the realm hopping needed with this." Leo commented.

"Oh... and you lot should check the backyard here." Chronos then said with a small smirk.

"Do NOT become stuck in the old ways." Chronos responded.

"The previous Heads were foolish old idiots." they growled.

"....mm." Leo mumbled.

"Also, I think the Order needs to be more efficient." Chronos went on.

"I think it's time they embraced technology. All information and files should be stored in computers." they said further, before looking at Leo.

"...wait..." Leo said. "You want ME to be I.T.?" he asked.

Chronos just nodded.

Chronos just pointed towards Syraene.

"I leave it entirely to you." he told her.

"To Syraene?" Vincent asked.

"Syraene Encrae, you are now the official Head of the Order of The Sand." Chronos declared.

"...wow." Ash muttered.

"Talk about a promotion." he commented.

"It HAS been a while." Chronos replied.

"C-Chronos?" Leo stammered.

"Yes, it is I." Chronos confirmed.

"The Order is now critically understaffed now." they then commented. "Not counting you two, there are a dozen members remaining." they went on.

"...oh dear..." Leo said quietly.

"I guess we'll all have to pull together to get more members, and make sure the Order comes back, better than before." he said further.

"I like your attitude." Chronos told him.

Lindsay was silent for a moment, and sighed.

"Well... as she said, the problem has been solved." he said.

"But I'll go into more detail." he told them, before doing just that. He told them everything that had happened, down to the last details... from what he saw and remembered.

"....wow." Leo then muttered.

"So Miss Syraene and I were temporarily removed from existence for a brief moment, there." he commented.

"Yes, but then I decided it would be too much of a loss to not have you two around." Chronos said from the corner of the room, having suddenly and silently appeared.

"Hmmmmmm." Chronos muttered.

"Actually, no." they said.

They then snapped their fingers again, but nothing seemed to change.

"What... what was that?" Lindsay asked.

"There were a few members that weren't corrupted." Chronos responded. "I brought them back. They can start the Order anew." they added.

"So... Miss Syraene and Leo...?" Lindsay asked further, trailing off a bit.

"Oh, they're good members. I like 'em." Chronos responded, assuring them that they were all right.

"Also, here." they then said to Lindsay, before flicking his forehead... which caused the corrupted mana he'd absorbed from the vault to disappear from within him.

Chronos then leveled a gaze at Vanessa... but she could tell they hadn't done anything other than removing the corrupted mana.

"Also, you two shouldn't be here now." they told them.

"Bye." they said, before they suddenly just appeared in the den, in the blink of an eye.

"Woah!" Ash exclaimed.

"What the hell? First Miss Syraene and Leo just blinked out of existence, then came back, and now YOU'RE both back?" he asked, obviously confused.

"It is." the newcomer responded.

"L-Lord Chronos!" one of the Order members exclaimed.

Chronos just sighed.

"Yep. Many of my Order members are corrupted beyond saving." they commented.

"Only one thing to do now." they went on, before snapping their fingers.

As soon as they did, Lindsay and Vanessa found that all the members were GONE. Just... gone. Disappeared.

"Re-staff from scratch, and start again."

"Mmhmm." the figure responded, as they made their way past Vanessa and Lindsay, before looking in the vault.

"Well, then." they said.

"Interesting." they commented.

"Never seen THAT done with the sand before." they said further.

When Vanessa looked in, curiosity getting the better of her, she saw that Lindsay had actually used his flames and the sand to craft an exquisite glass statue of a phoenix.

Clearly, Casey was rubbing off on him.

"Regardless, thank you both for calling my attention to this." they commented further, before cracking their knuckles.

"Guess it's time for a hard reset."