The thunderous applause and cheering calms down and King Errol returns to his throne with a smile.
" Now! Let us begin the briefing! "
Sir Gerard shouts as a transparent magical projection of Voldoor materializes over your head in front of the throne. Tom nudges you with his elbow and nods his head for you to follow him to one side of the room where some guards are standing. Once the area under the projection is clear, it descends down onto the floor and enlarges to a massive size, almost taking up the entire floor of the throne room. You look up at this futuristic city in amazement at how different it is from Moriarch.
" Let's go over the plan one more time with Sir Abbadon so he knows what to expect going forward. The floor is yours, Sir Tom! "
Sir Gerard shouts in a polite manner before Tom steps forward and begins speaking to the room.
" Voldoor is a pretty fucked up place. The people there don't have any sense of common morality or dignity, so it's best that we mentally prepare ourselves for the degenerate atmosphere of the city and its inhabitants. Since there are no laws there, the place is run by violent cartels and morally bankrupt companies. People only behave themselves out of the fear of getting on the bad side of these cartels and companies. The people who cross these cartels and companies, even if it's by accident, are commonly known to get murdered, tortured, raped or worse on Voldoor's streets in broad daylight; and the citizens there are so blatantly immoral that they usually gather around just to watch it and laugh. I want to make it incredibly clear that no matter what we see when we visit, we are not to interfere. We're there to investigate, gather intel, and speak to the Czar; nothing more. If we blow our cover there and our enemies know of our presence, we could very well be inviting a very powerful fight, which could jeopardize the entirety of Aria. "
Tom then turns and holds his hands out to navigate the projection. He zooms in on a building that's towering in the middle of the city above all of the others, and the infrastructure becomes transparent to show a room at the very top floor of it. Tom continues to talk as you see what looks like silhouettes of people sitting down and making deals.
" All of the biggest cartels and companies in Voldoor are funded by the Czar, who sits on the wealth accumulated by Vol and his descendants from building the city. The Czar funds these cartels and companies through a cult dedicated to the worship of Vol and the Dark Gods called The High Temple. The High Temple has their fingers in everything, and if you don't praise Vol, you don't get the privileges that your competitors will if they do. Since Vol founded Voldoor before the Gods existed, the people there have put him at the head of their pantheon and worship him as a God revealed in the flesh. Make sure not to bring up religion or the Gods unless you absolutely have to. People with unpopular opinions have a habit of disappearing, and the last thing we want is a bunch of humans thinking they can kill us. The city is under constant surveillance, and I don't want us to get caught effortlessly slaughtering the people who try to do us harm.
Our main destination is the Czar's penthouse suite on the 689th floor of the High Temple Tower. Thanks to Voldoor's advanced technology, that tower is the most secure place on Aria; so in order for us to keep a low profile, we have a contact from the city who's going to get us in to speak with the Czar. I'll introduce you after the briefing is over. "
You look over to the two young men standing in front of the throne and the shorter one who's bald with a dark beard smiles at you, nodding his head at you politely before you go back to listening to Tom talk about the plan.
Tom zooms out from the tower and zooms in on a familiar club that you once saw before when you were in Somniohm.
" I made some last minute changes to the plan after you woke up and I saw your memories from when you were in Somniohm with Sowzo. I've marked The Devil's Den as a secondary destination for us to investigate while we're there. If Sowzo thought that the interference in his realm was coming from this place, then it's definitely worth looking at. There's going to be four of us going into the city together, so maybe we can split up and knock out both destinations at once. "
As you look at the front doors to the club on the projection, you can't help but feel a deep fear begin to take hold of you.
Whatever's in there, it feels like the Valghuli didn't want us to find it…
Tom then turns back and looks at you, snapping you back into the moment with an inquiry.
" Are you still following, Donny? Got any questions? "
You look back at Tom and consider telling him about when you saw Ariel in Voldoor, but you decide to hold off and wait for another time to tell him.
" Nope. No questions as of right now. "
Tom nods before carrying on.
" Alright. Our plan on persuading the Czar is pretty simple. If we can convince him to have The High Temple pray to Izael and Faerah, then the entire city will follow since Voldoor is controlled by the cult. If we appeal to the desire to preserve his city, I'm sure we'll be able to get him to do what's right. If he doesn't cooperate with us, he'll only be risking everything that Vol and his forefathers have built over the millennia. "
Tom then zooms out of Voldoor on the projection and you can see the surface of Aria from space. A path then makes itself apparent from Moriarch to Voldoor on the projection, and Tom continues to talk.
" Since we'll be traveling on foot, we would normally take a carriage from Moriarch. However, since we want to remain inconspicuous and we're running out of time, I've had our friend from Voldoor here arrange a cruiser for us to take. A carriage would normally take us over a year to get to Voldoor, but riding in a cruiser should only take a matter of days. The cruiser has top-of-the-line security features and a cloaking mechanism so we can stay under the radar. We also had some outfits made so we don't stand out among the people in the city. We'll put on our disguises right before we arrive. "
Tom then walks back to you as the projection fades before he puts his hand on your shoulder.
" You ready to meet our company? "
You nod your head and you both approach the two young men in the middle of the throne room before shaking their hands. Both of the men are built big, but one is a taller blonde and the other is the short one that nodded to you earlier. The tall one introduces himself first.
" It's nice to meet you, Sir Abbadon. Name's Roary. The King requested that I accompany you on your special mission to Voldoor and make sure that everything goes smoothly. Believe me when I tell you that I'm the best guy that you can possibly have watching your back. There isn't a stronger Champion in Moriarch that the King could've chosen. "
Roary says pompously with a smile.
You look at Tom and he explains Roary's background to you telepathically so you understand who he is.
" During the war between Voldoor and Moriarch, Roary was a war hero that helped push back many of Voldoor's invasions. He was never actually a part of Moriarch's military, though. He grew up in a small village and refined his own type of magic to help him protect his home. When the King saw how Roary was pushing back the advancing armies by himself, he crowned Roary as a Champion and stationed him to defend other territories that belonged to Moriarch as well. People have called the magic that he uses into question because of the dark nature of it, but since Roary was ultimately saving lives, the people of Moriarch tolerated it. Nobody knows how to use it except for him, hence why he's such a valuable asset to the King. "
You nod your head at Roary and reply to him.
" It's nice to meet you too. I appreciate you coming along with us. "
You then turn to the shorter man and he introduces himself in a more polite demeanor.
" Greetings, Otherlander. I am Gareth, the Minder. The King of Moriarch contacted my Czar about an emergency of the highest importance, hence why I have been tasked to escort you to my Czar safely. I have to admit, I find you Otherlanders intriguing… If you don't mind, I'd like to have some questions answered when we're on our way. "
" Yeah, sure. We can talk on the way if you'd like. "
You answer and look at Tom, expecting him to give you the background for this guy as well. However, Tom speaks to you telepathically in a disappointed tone instead.
" I don't know much about this guy, Donny. I'm unable to read his mind because it appears that he's swapped his brain with some sort of digital drive. After combing through the thoughts of everyone else, I could only gather a couple things about him. The first is that he's a known special agent for NaxTech, one of the two major corporations in Voldoor. The second is that his entire body is synthetic and doesn't have any organic material in it. The guards here are mostly disgusted by Gareth and they've been judging him as ungrateful for the body that he was given at birth. It's best to tread with caution around him until we get to know him better. "
Before you can converse with your new companions, you can sense someone approaching you swiftly. You turn in the direction that the footsteps are coming from to see Mimi, still in her nightgown, running at you in full sprint.
" STAR FALLER!! "
She screams as she jumps on you, giggling with joy. She hugs you tightly as you hold her with an embarrassed look on your face. Tom turns away like he's holding back a laugh and both Roary and Gareth look at each other surprised.
" YOU'RE OKAY!! When Tom came back and I saw him carrying you when you were asleep, I thought that something really bad happened to you!! Tom told me that you were just SUPER exhausted from beating that bad guy who looked like my Papa and you needed to rest. I stayed with you the whole time you were getting better! I told Mama that I was gonna watch over you and make sure you were okay no matter what, so I never left your side when you were resting! "
You think about how Mimi has such a good heart and it reminds you of her mother.
I have so much to tell her… I don't know where to start.