His cold voice echoed through the halls, cold enough to make these young yet powerful Awakeners to feel a chill run down their spine.
"Rise"
They stood at once, as straight and unmoving as statues. Noah paid their peculiarities no heed as traced his gaze upon their uniforms.
Eclipse, whose members bear the emblem of a white sun covered partially by a black crescent moon.
Night Weavers, possessing a black hand with the palm down, with strings connected to each finger like those of a puppeteer.
Nightfall, with their signature four point star that laid over a crescent moon.
Nightmare, a horned skull with the Φ symbol inside the eye sockets, taking up the space where the eyes should be.
Revenant, with a skeletal hand cupping what seems to be a wisp of flame, or the soul of a deceased.
Void Reapers, the fewest in number, standing proud with their insignias. The head of a grim reaper of folklore with its skeletal jaws open to reveal a pair of scythe-like fangs.
Void Subjugation Corp, a collection of squads containing talented Corruptors and Purifiers trained personally by the strongest Awakeners, including the Harbinger, Noah Blackwell. Their sole purpose is to grow stronger and eradicate the existences that crawl out of the void, also known as Void Creatures.
Their numbers have grown since its inception, growing to six squads, each with over fifty members with the exception of the Void Reapers, consisting of only ten members, all within the Restoration-Extinction level and possessing 32 points in their star cores.
Others were all within the Sunken-Ascendant level with only 16 points in their star cores, yet they were talented for their age nonetheless.
Noah glanced at Nightmare, noting that their numbers have dropped from fifty to thirty nine. They had lost roughly a fifth of their squad to the Violet Titan.
He frowned, sending chills down their spines for fear of displeasing him, yet he was simply thinking to himself.
They should have all died there...
Shaking these thoughts from his head, he turned to Revenant, where they only had forty nine members.
"Where is your last member"
The members of Revenant shifted uncomfortably as they glanced at each other, before their leader, a young man with pale features and an exhausted look on his face, stepped forth to speak.
"He went berserk, we had to put him down"
"That's the fifth case this month," a voice said from behind Noah.
He glanced back to see Emerald walking towards him. She stopped right beside him, still in her formal clothing as she clacked away at her tablet, her fingers a blur. After a brief moment, she flipped the tablet around for Noah to see.
A chart appeared before his eyes, comparing two lines of data. One of the lines gradually increased over the years while the other reached new lows.
"Negativity has grown to become almost ten times stronger than Positivity over the last thousand years, meaning the chances of Corruptors awakening has drastically increased, as would their chances of losing control"
This was the major difference between Purifiers and Corruptors. While Purifiers are able to maintain a completely rational state of mind, Corruptors risk going insane due to the star core being located inside their heads. The power seeps into their brain, often leading to hallucinations, emotional outbursts, and overall more violent tendencies.
Weaker willed individuals would lose themselves to this constant torture, eventually falling into a constant crazed state called berserk.
Those who go berserk lose all sense of self, becoming mindless beasts with only destruction on their minds. They become much stronger, often gaining monstrous features as well.
These Corruptors also cannot regain their sanity, and as such, everyone is ordered to kill them on sight.
Without warning, a loud and booming laugh echoed across the white walls of the hall, cutting through the silence like a hot knife through butter.
And yet, none of the members of the Void Subjugation Corp turned their heads to look, and Noah and Emerald merely had annoyed looks on their faces.
From a side entrance on the elevated platform, a congregation of people dressed in white followed closely behind a young looking man wearing black robes, resembling a priest of sorts. He had an arrogant air about him, with his hair tied back and his arms clasped behind his back.
He smiled, "Corruptors are so obviously dangerous, so why must we entertain them? Harbinger?"
He dragged out the word Harbinger deliberately, obviously mocking Noah's title.
The air chilled several degrees, as at least half of the Void Subjugation Corp were Corruptors, and whether they were Purifiers or Corruptors, all of them owe their current lives to the Harbinger.
Noah glanced at the priest, who had stopped merely several feet away from him.
"Bishop, I didn't think the Sanctuary had time to spare for me," his eyes glinted with a dangerous light, "Don't you have to find the successive Harbinger of Positivity?"
Not falling for the taunt, Bishop merely smiled, "How kind of you to worry for us! Although"
His eyes dipped slightly, though his smile never faded, "As the Harbinger of Negativity, shouldn't you be worried?"
Noah smiled in response, "Worried? I'm still here, Bishop, remember that," he stepped forward silently, leaning into Bishop's ears, "Your little child soldier is of no match for me, if they ever appear that is"
One had to know that whenever a Harbinger of Positivity is born, the world rejoices and fills the sky with brilliant lights, seemingly congratulating the birth of a saint. A thousand years of monitoring, and not once has Noah seen this phenomenon again.
Now was the prime time for it to occur and for the world to birth another Harbinger of Positivity, yet nothing has been detected so far.
Bishop's eye twitched slightly, though he said nothing. Spinning around on one heel, he started to walk away with his congregation where they had come from, only glancing back once to shoot Noah a bone chilling glare.
Once the last of the Sanctuary's people had left, Emerald turned to Noah.
"With the amount of Positivity left in the world, it shouldn't be possible for another Harbinger of Positivity to be born"
Noah nodded in agreement, before turning to his Void Subjugation Corp.
Every member of the Void Subjugation Corp stood at attention, their backs straightening like rookie soldiers waiting for their drill sergeant to finish his inspections.
"I think we should expand each squad to a hundred members, and the Void Reapers to twenty five members within the year," he said to Emerald.
She shot him a worried look, her brow furrowed with concern, "Where would we even get that sort of talent? And in such a short amount of time?"
Noah's cold expression was unreadable for a moment, before a small smile crept up his pale face.
"The Saint-Supremes... They've been gathering their forces for the past thousand years, haven't they?"
His words sent a clamor of shock through the hall, and even Emerald, his personal assistant and aide, was shocked speechless. Noah scanned the crowd below him, his cold black eyes calculating.
"Is this really necessary?"
He turned towards Emerald, who could only express worry for the situation. Noah thought silently for a brief moment, his mind churning with thoughts before his expression became resolute.
"Yes, yes it is..."