Tears began to hit the pages of a book that had not been opened in many years. The tears streamed down the old battered face of Lord V. He had pulled a book on the history of the Church of the Golden Sparrow. In the book it described the beginning of how three young men embarked on a quest to save a relic that cured disease. A golden sparrow, it was a relic from a planet long lost to time after the never ending space war. It was a planet that was medically and spiritually advanced. Once the three monks recovered the healing artifact they brought it back to the planet of Masart where they built a small church where the weary could come and heal, they began to create an Oasis for those who wanted to learn and grow. A true outfit of adventurers who wanted to help amass as much information so they could help prevent the past recycling itself. But Viaduct wasn’t sure how to feel knowing that Emus was powerful enough to just drop in and destroy the library at a whim. The church had always been well fortified and all the monks were fierce warriors…they were all universally known as book worms, but they were more than that, they could hold their own and really lay it down when the occasion arose. They didn’t get to be the size they are by being weak.

  “Arias…come here” Lord V said in his defeated tone.

  “Yes Lord.” Arias said indifferently, not wanting to be in his presence.

  “I have made a mistake keeping you a level 3 explorer for all these years my boy…you’re a real asset to the church. You challenge me not because you’re defiant, but because you have a vision that is stepping forward and into the future…I am growing old.” Lord V paused for a moment to look out at the glassless window that was in his main study. Arias tried to not burst out laughing when Lord V, who was older than some of the books in the library. Admitted of his age.

  “Yes…please go on.” Arias wanted to finish this as soon as possible.

  “You…you’re in charge now Arias. Starting now you’re going to be the appointed Monk Priest of Knowledge and Exploration. All excursions, curation of the library, and recruitment should be overseen by you now…” Lord V waiting for Arias to burst out into Joy.

  “My Lord…I am flabbergasted and honored to hear your high praises and aspirations of me..” Arias said not ready to admit what he was about.

  “I am unfit for such a promotion, I am not a good monk. I have a romantic relationship and I do not wish to take on that much responsibility” Arias whispered to Lord Viaduct. Viaduct spring up and close curtains to the window, which was odd since there was no glass window there to block out the sound of their conversation. Then viaduct closed the door and came behind Arias and touched his shoulders, leaned in and began to whisper.

  “No one. Not one Monk, by choice…has followed that rule. We don’t admit it, and we don’t remove it from the qualifications, but it’s not that enforced anymore. Just don’t talk about it.” Viaduct patted Arias’ shoulders and went back to sit on the other side of the desk.

  “So what do you say? Are you going to help me run this place so I can retire?” Lord V said, stretching his arms in an upward motion.

  “Damn it, I guess so…can you assign the recruiting part to someone else? I literally cannot handle all three of those things.”

  “Solomon!” Lord V said, projecting his voice while snapping his fingers. Solomon cracked the door and popped his head in.

  “Yes..?”

  “You’re the new recruiter for the Church, Contractors and Monks.”

  “What…what?” Solomon said, stepping into the study.

  “You are also as of today, a Monk, the first Sugen Monk. So don’t fuck it up.” Lord V said his eyes widening.

  “I’m honored.” Solomon smiled and shook his hand.

  Lord V handed him a brown cloak that had a golden bird on the front and back which was what all Monks wore. Except Arias, who wore a dyed green cloak because Arias thought uniforms were stupid.

  “Alright boys, get on it! Get out of here!” Lord Viaduct began to shoo out the two men into the chamber.

  “Did he just put us in Charge?” Solomon asked, walking briskly behind Arias as he strides toward the cruiser.

  “No, he didn’t put us in Charge, he put the liability of an organization beyond his capabilities onto someone he hopes can handle it.” Arias said, pulling his hood over his head and punching stone pillars on the way to the launch pad to inspect his cruiser.

  “But he said you're in charge of Curating the library, and Excursion so that means you’re really important. You jumped up like 5 levels right? Level 3 to Monk Priest is an honor.”

  “These things only mean something if they’re given at the time where it was deserved. I deserved several level promotions over the last 10 years. This is his desperation to keep me here to not go rogue and find Howard.”

  “Howard….howard! Where is howard?” Solomon said realizing that Howard went missing

  “I don’t know man, ever since Emus came, Howard teleported, slipped out or floated away. Everyone was too busy with the literal army of Wraiths and Zombie Space Feind to babysit the brother of the Zombie Space Feind.” Arias practically yelled as he went the stairs leading to the launch pad and they walked toward the Cruiser.

  “No…no you didn’t” Arias whispered.

  “What?”

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  “WHY DID YOU LAND THE CRUISER WITHOUT THE LANDING GEAR, IT’S SITTING PAINT TO CONCRETE” Arias said in the grossest yelling voice he had ever uttered. Arias fell to his knees and started to cry his eyes out.

  “It’s just a cruiser,” Solomon said, placing his hand on Arias’ shoulder. Arias threw Solomon's hand off of him and continued to cry into his hands, upset over the cosmetic damage that wasn’t as bad as Arias believed it to be.

  Solomon began to walk away before Arias turned toward him and said in a voice that sounded like cold water being drank on a hot day.

  “Thank you…thank you for saving me..I can fix the paint…at least I’m alive to repaint her” Arias sprung up and hugged Solomon around the Chest. Since Arias was a foot shorter than Solomon he couldn’t reach to hug him above arms. Solomon patted Arias on the shoulder just happy that he didn’t have to deal with Arias being a wreck for an unknown amount of time.

  *ding ding ding* a familiar ding came from Arias tablet. One that only usually came at night and was distinct to Amelia.

  “Hm..Amelia would never message me this early in the day..” Arias pulled out his tablet and opened up a message to a picture of Amelia and…Howard. Howard was floating in the background doing a little peace sign with hands..which no one had ever seen Howard move a muscle and Amelia smiling. The message at the bottom said “Hey, your friend came to visit me, he said you might want to catch up.”

  “What the hell Howard went and found Amelia?” Arias said, turning his tablet off and looking over to Solomon.

  “Well…I guess I know where we’re going” Solomon said with a grin knowing Arias loves seeing Amelia.

  “Well we can't go with a cruiser in this condition…” Arias pulled out a course stone and started knocking the roughed up paint off the cruiser. He then pulled a paint rag and ran it over the body and the paint began to repair itself. Then Arias clicked on the landing gear and the cruiser lifted 3 feet off the ground and he laid on his back and did the same process for the bottom.

  “Alright, I think we're ready to go” Arias said to no one as he came out from under the cruiser to notice that Solomon wasn't around anymore.

  “Solomon!...Soooolomon” Arias said in an almost playful way

  “Come this way!” Solomon could be heard from one of the pathways on the landing roof that lead down into the Church. Arias walked towards the sound of Solomon's voice. Then arias heard another Familiar voice

  “Oh Arias, come here..” it was Amelia..how did Amelia get there so fast. Amelia and Solomon walked out onto the roof.

  “Where’s Howard?” Amelia said in a very weird tone that Arias had never heard her speak before.

  “With…with you?” Arias said, cocking his head to the side and narrowing his eyes.

  “Oh, do you remember where I was last?” Amelia said in a monotone.

  “There’s no way you don’t remember where you were last. What are you talking about?” Arias pressed the conversation further wondering why Amelia was acting so weird. Arias walked closer to Amelia to touch her shoulder and the moment Arias’ hand touched Amelia's shoulder it went straight through what was a Mirage and she disappeared.

  “What the hell..”

  Solomon also walked out of the same doorway

  “Hey Arias, do you remember where Howard is?” in a voice that didn’t sound like Solomon.

  Arias pulled out a blade he kept in his pocket and he threw it at Solomon and he disappeared immediately like he was a hallucination. Arias knew what was going on, but he was trying to play stupid so that way the entity that was creating these Mirage Homunculus would reveal themselves.

  “Oh no, I was just about to tell Solomon that Howard was on the planet with all the thorned foliage on the third strand of the big nothing” Arias said and he felt a rush and a wind go by him.

  Arias then walked in the direction the wind blew and he saw a pair of feet poking out behind a giant crate of goods that would come in from Sugen. Arias began to run in that direction as fast as he could, he knew those boots were everywhere. As he rounded around the crate he saw what was really Solomon passed out with a black bruise that was on the side of his neck.

  “Damn it…” Arias picked up Solomon to look at his face and Arias was scanning the area around them to make sure that no one was watching them…

  “Fuck, okay..we got to get out of here.” Arias began to drag Solomon toward the cruiser giving him a back hug and slowly back walking toward the cruiser. Then a portal cut out of the thin air and Emus stepped out of it.

  “I see you aren’t fooled easily Arias. But you don’t understand, I need to know where Howard is.”

  “Never. I don’t even know where he’s at.” Arias said, continuing to back away with Solomon toward the cruiser.

  “No!” Emus waved him down and slammed Arias to the ground and Solomon also fell with a thud. Arias sat up and kicked back up against another shipping container and looked ahead at Emus, he seemed even scarier than he had before. Emus was very tall, taller than Solomon, and he was very muscular, or at least it seemed so with his entirely black attire. He stomped forward. For some reason he stopped in front of Solomon and lightly tapped his head with foot.

  “It’s a shame..how you monks devote yourselves to books and information..but watch entire planets die…too busy worrying about remembering the past when everything is becoming the past around you” Emus said in a deep pondering voice. But then a green substance was thrown onto Emus shoulder and it immediately started burning him with smoke streaming off of him.

  Emus looked around in panic and opened a portal and ran into it.

  “You need to hurry, Arias.” echoed from above. Lord Viaduct jumped down from a container and landed next to Arias.

  “You need to be careful. Emus is stronger than what most of us know..”

  Arias was shocked, even more shocked than when he saw Emus pop out of nowhere. Lord V? Did something useful or…anything?

  “My…Lord?”

  “My dear boy, you’re practically in charge now, you have to act like it!” Lord Viaduct said, holding out his hand to help Arias to his feet.

  “What did you..what did you use?”

  “Well, it’s called Flow, it’s a holy gel of sorts. It burns and hurts any evil entities and wraiths. It's extraordinarily hard to make it. But I have some for you” Lord V handed a bag of vials with green glowing substance.

  “We go find Howard tonight, we take my ship. She’s as beautiful as the day we built when we made the Church halls” Lord V pushed a button on a control stand and a Giant Metal Bird the size of a passenger ship came from an underground garage.

  “No…seriously? We’ll all be dead by the time it gets us there..” Arias said looking at the Dusty Ship that was modeled after the bird the Church is named after. It was bronze and had light patches of oxidation on parts of it. It had two windows that gave the illusion that this nearly 60 feet tall ship had eyes. And its beak opened up to have three different cannons in it that would all do some sort of explosion or lazer charge blast.

  “There’s not enough room for the three of us on your hooligan of a ship you pilot as if it were stolen” Lord V said walking away and walking up the ramp into the Sparrow.

  “Alright, let's get going”

  Arias dragged Solomon onto the ship before running across the runway to grab the supplies and tools they’d need to make sure they didn’t die on the way to Howard and Amelia.