The holding cell directly across from The Founder's Wing had been placed there deliberately, with a space hundreds of miles wide magically imbued into the width of a single room. Beyond the threshold of the doorway were sealed some of the most dangerous entities to have ever walked the Earth; things that were too horrific to allow freedom, but too powerful to kill.
Just within walking distance of the entryway were two cells that stood distinctly dissonant from the otherwise void black cells beyond.
Both of them had been built with strange and inaccessibly materials, though they glowed differently from one another.
To the left was a brightly glowing aura of gold with the name Iris carved into the nameplate that had been affixed to the cell door.
Opposite of it stood faintly glowing silver bars, this one bearing the name Aya.
The two cells, obviously built with two specific prisoners in mind, had always been the topic of conversation among the extremely small population of people who knew of this hidden jail.
They had, after all, sat inert for as long as anyone had known, reacting to nothing even as the rest of the space grew and changed to accommodate other residents; now pulsating with barely restrained power as they sensed the presence of their inmates.
Amy found she hadn't needed to so much as lift a finger as powerful magic blasted from the cells and grabbed the two, still unconscious, young women and sealed them within.
The trip from the temple had been…odd, to say the least.
From the moment she'd laid eyes on the twins, an overwhelming hatred had filled her heart, more intense than any emotion she'd ever felt in her entire life.
She'd wanted to kill them, to rip them to shreds and scatter their bodies across the Earth, to bring them pain befitting their crimes.
One thing kept her from giving into such base desire.
She'd received a buff on her Active Effects page.
Void Jailor
You have been given the responsibility of escorting The Founder's most hated enemies to their rightful resting place to await trial and judgement. Though you feel the weight of their sins and, justly, wish to enact their punishment, you are neither Judge nor Executioner.
Temporary Stat Buff: Willpower x1000
Hidden Knowledge: Most efficient route to Inviolable Abyss imparted.
Even if she had wanted to ignore the task she'd been charged with, the incomprehensibly stat increase had made her incapable of ignoring it.
The increase to willpower had been so overpowering that it practically served as a debuff, barely allowing her to do anything but focus on the task at hand.
Even the conversation with the young man at the Teleportation Array had been such a struggle that she nearly vomited several times in the short exchange.
She practically cheered when he passed out and, while thankful for the intervention of Director of Domesticity, Amy had taken the opportunity to continue on her way as fast as possible. As the concern for the watchman slipped from her mind, energy and excitement to be done replaced it, rapidly pushing her forward until she was practically sprinting through the halls and short-space portals to the prison.
The name "Inviolable Abyss" had surprised her since the others had always called it The Hole, but names have always had power and that fact was all the more true now that magic filled the world in ways never before seen.
Regardless of anything else, the two women were out of her hands and locked away where they belonged.
As the door closed behind her, the feeling she'd been fighting disappeared almost immediately alongside the strange buff she'd received.
Looking back at the prison out of curiosity, she noticed wisps of deep purple-black embers sparking around it and shivered, though unsure why.
The embers were hardly new, she'd seen them frequently throughout her life, but they were in particular abundance within the doorway.
She'd never been able to find any kind of explanation for the phenomenon, but knew that she was the only person other than Director Marcus, her uncle, who seemed to even acknowledge their existence.
Normally, they were passive and barely registered to her senses, but now they seemed practically alive as they shot in wide arcs around the doorway. Wild energy that felt almost nostalgic pulsed violently from them, filling her with a sense of anticipation and dread in equal measure.
She felt almost like they called out to her as a pressure in the back of her head throbbed painfully, forcing…something to the front; something forgotten, or hidden by some unknown force.
Amy was proud to say that she was easily in the upper echelons of power within the Bureau, so the idea of someone stronger than her meddling with her mind and body set off alarms that quickly muted, rapidly becoming unnoticeable as they sank within the waters of apathy overcoming her.
What…what is that? She wondered to herself as the sounds of the facility shrank back to a barely audible whisper around her.
All of her senses were simultaneously dampened and amplified to near painful levels as she focused on the feeling that was trying to force past its cage, angrily pushing at her to do something.
She needed to do something, anything, to help that feeling, to set it free!
Her arm was wrapped in stygian flame, burning and hollowing out her arm at the same time, the pain immeasurable and all consuming.
She opened her mouth to scream and nothing came out as her body was engulfed with the obsidian blaze, growing past her arm to her body and resting in her eyes.
As suddenly as it happened, it stopped.
The fire went out and a panicked self assessment told her that her body was fine, its form indicating nothing had happened, however…the feeling was gone.
Whatever that part of her had so desperately desired had been satiated, leaving her unconcerned with the cracking sound she'd heard in the brief instant the flames had begun their ascent toward her eyes.
Putting a hand to them, she was further relieved that she wouldn't need to wear an eyepatch or covering like Lilac did.
The event slowly drifted from her mind, the fear and pain being glazed over with the boredom that came with knowing you had tedious work ahead of you.
One might wonder how such a thing could be forgotten, but rumors of the System making humanity less inclined toward panic and trauma had spread for years now. After all, how were they supposed to get any stronger if every death or injury stopped them from progressing.
It was a shame that the time for growth was coming to a close and almost every group responsible for nurturing it had failed to rise to the occasion.
At least, Amy thought, I had the good fortune to be with the Bureau. They've done their job admirably.
A crooked grin slowly eased into her normal neutral expression as she looked around in mild shock while the intense and unnatural red light dimmed, making way for the natural sunlight.
Three men lay dead in the alleyway she found herself in, their bodies separated into neat piles, having been cut with some sort of extremely sharp implement. Something sharp enough to make the severing attacks with so little effort there was practically no blood splatter.
Her hands stung as something retracted within her skin, writhing like wires beneath the surface and making her sick to look at.
How had she gotten here?
To that effect, where WAS here?
She struggled to remember what she had been doing as she checked her status screen and noticed the time.
Amy had lost HOURS to the blackout, and her map put her over fifty miles from the closest Bureau office. She didn't worry overly much about the corpses at her feet since there was practically nobody who could punish a Gate Walker, let alone a Bureau backed one; but the confusion and growing apprehension remained despite this.
Materializing, seemingly from nowhere, Marcus placed a hand on her shoulder and said, "Everything ok, Amy?"
Her fists clenched and released rhythmically a few times as her body tensed at his touch before she said, "Y…yeah. Everything's ok Uncle Marcus."
A gentle laugh passed through the air as he took his hand back, more cautious than one might expect, as he responded, "Good. You haven't called me Uncle in a long time hun…you sure everythings ok?"
Perhaps it was the way he was being so cautious, or maybe even just casually calling her hun, but something clicked into place in her head.
The weight of her fear came down on her, crushing and deep, as she began sobbing.
What was happening to her?
She turned around, faster than she thought possible, and grabbed him, holding him like he was the only thing that could keep her sane.
Her first thought was that it was unprofessional, that he would chastise her for acting like a child, but his response surprised her.
"Its ok honey."
Without another word, he gently smoothed out her hair, a magical effect taking the blood that had caked in its locks with it and pouring to the floor. As he continued stroking her hair to comfort her, blood drained from her clothes and her skin cleared.
The magic he'd worked, an ancient and nearly pointless utility spell that had been made obsolete with the advent of modern plumbing, was a cleansing spell.
He kissed her forehead and closed her eyes with another spell, one of rest that promoted emotional stability as the cleanup team worked just out of her eyeline.
The three men before him had been reduced to limbs with near surgical precision, carved neatly with a crystal wire.
Crystal wires were a special weapon of a group he hadn't spoken to in quite some time, one that had renounced their responsibility centuries ago, leaving the Bureau to struggle with twice the work it was intended to have.
The end result was admirable from a combat perspective, such clean work would easily result in massive profits from monsters and combatants, though the horror scene behind him would indicate some practice was needed.
Ten others lay torn to shreds, their bodies barely recognizable as human from the brutal, inefficient wounds they'd received.
While The Horde had used their crystal wires to decimate entire battlefields, it DID take time and proper training to discover how to manifest them properly.
Until then, many members instinctively used their hands to rip their way through anything, and anyone that dared oppose them as the forces that enabled the use of the tools worked within their minds.
Marcus lifted Amy up and carried her gently as he whispered, "Its ok to be unprofessional. You're my niece…and you're scared."
Looking up at the moon, an apathetic eye now full in the sky, Marcus said, "I hate that this is what's happening…and I hate that its only going to get worse going forward."
Sirens fueled by new magic sounded through the air as Walkers from the recently founded Azoth Guild began swarming the scene, their progress halted by additional members of the Bureau.
Guilds had been sprouting up for long enough now that government oversight was slowly disappearing. What could non-Walker politicians do to keep order when even the weakest Walkers were exponentially more powerful than the average person, especially when most of humanity sat at a pathetic level five.
Around the world most governments had been overthrown and replaced with Guild Associations, allowing Guilds to create and manage laws for the populace they protected and profited from. America was one of the last remaining exceptions, though even they were working on borrowed time.
The eleven Guilds that had been founded most recently would undoubtedly be the last straw, breaking the government and most likely bringing the Bureau out into the light.
Fear for the Bureau never so much as entered his mind since the organization he managed would outlast even this extended tutorial…but he wondered aloud, "I wonder what the System will do to fix the sorry state of the world."
Almost as though it was listening and responding to him personally, a System notice was delivered to the entire world at once.
System Notice:
-Universal User Update complete.
-800,000 Tutorial Towers have been generated
-2,000,000 Challenge Towers have been generated
-True Gates have been generated in place of all Artificial Gates
All citizens of Earth currently below Level 10 will be summarily transported to their nearest Tutorial Tower. Abilities and skills will be forcibly unlocked and training will commence.
True Gates will not have the shielding present in Artificial Gates, thus the events currently known as Gate Crashes will become significantly more common. Additionally, denizens from beyond the Gates will now be able to travel to Earth at will, for better or for worse.
If you have never set foot into a Gate, you will be experiencing what Gate Walkers have deliberately hidden and kept from you to keep you weak and reliant on them in the face of extermination. Remember this as you fight and struggle to survive, as you were not saved to be raised as cattle.
All ranks will be adjusted to the Universal Standard.
Adjusting.
Adjusting.
All ranks will be dropped by two grades.
What came before was well done and properly intended, but meaningless.
If you have never experienced a Gate, do not worry about how things were…all that matters is how they will be.
Individualized System Assistants will be made available to all who survive the Tutorial Towers.
Existing Walkers will receive no such aid, as they have decided to turn their backs on humanity in favor of greed.
Finally, all non-Walkers hiding within leadership found to have hindered the intended growth of humanity will be eradicated.
The time for weakness has long since passed.
Seek your strength in the Towers and Gates…and good luck.