Arcadia

Turning Point

The press inside La Penzia Cathedral went speechless. Archbishop Vega, the clergy, and the Accenture executives looked on with quiet confidence.

One reporter stood up and broke the silence with a simple question, one that is perhaps reflective of how almost everyone felt.

"What?"

The one beside him stood up as well, echoing the question.

Archbishop Vega took a sip from a cup of water and stood up, taking the mic from the reporter. 

"I, Archbishop Vega Selanoican, will do the honors of opening everyone's eyes!"

This confused the press even more, who started whispering among themselves. One of them, very impatient, got up and started packing his things.

"I might be fired for this, but I'll rather have that than be made to get coverage from some self-important man and his cronies making idiots out of themselves."

Vega and the rest of the clerics and nuns all stood up in unison. Vega took out something under the covered table. He took out a rusty goblet.

"I present to you, the results of months of hard work."

The entire clergy put raised their arms and put it on top of the goblet held by Vega. Soon, blue, vivid energy began showing on top of the goblet. The Accenture executives and media stepped back and prepared for what's about to happen.

Vivid energy from the goblet shot out and enveloped the entire La Penzia Cathedral. From the outside, people observed clearly how the whole cathedral was surrounded by a luminous blue color. 

"Somehow, I felt that this would happen..." commented Gerard. He took off his officer cap and stared at the light. Erika and Burton, putting their rifles on standby, stood beside him in staring at the light.

Suddenly, several blue arrows of light shot out from the cathedral in all directions.

Like an aurora, the bright light that shot out from the cathedral diffused into waves of light in the air. They continued moving, spreading, until they seemingly enveloped the whole city of Arcadia. The aurora-like light diffused completely and fell down, like a shower of magical particles. 

Vega coughed and fell down at the end of the spell, causing panic among the media. He held onto his chest before slumping down to his chair. The clerics and nuns didn't seem surprised, despite their hasty actions to attend to Vega. 

One reporter stood up, and as if unable to read the situation, immediately shot a quick question at Vega.

"Archbishop, how would you explain that?"

Quickly shaking off the side-effects of the spell, Vega grabbed his mic and replied, with a small smirk on his face, something quite unnatural for someone of his position.

"Look around and see..."

The press did as they were told and looked around and among each other. A female shriek caught everyone's attention. One of the female newscasters pointed at a cameraman, trembling, which was followed by collective gasps.

Nobody knew it at first, but after Vega was finished casting the spell along with his subordinates, the specific cameraman seemingly transformed.

He still held his camera up and looked at his peers with a confused expression, wondering what was going on. 

For everyone else, he looked disturbingly different. Small fangs lined his upper lip, and his eyes' pupils changed from a dark circle into a small slash. Some scales and small spikes also appeared on his arm.