Earthpne? - Northern Arms Academy Sector, NE Border Zone"Command this is Captain Matthews, we have lost contact with the Wildcard. Requesting immediate back up."

  "Negative Captain, Wildcard signal is still active. Continue as instructed."

  "Copy."

  Captain Matthews let out an exasperated sigh.

  "It's been hours since Hun-The Wildcard entered the affected area. You'd think they'd at least want to send someone to monitor the situation."

  "Sir, isn't that-"

  "Yes, its our job but does all this feel like something we can handle?"

  "If not us then wh"

  "I KNOW DAMN IT. I'm just venting my frustration. Keep an eye out, anything happens we'll be ready."

  Damn it Hunter, hurry the hell up! This pce is all sorts of wrong...

  Captain Matthews looked on, shaking off his concern in favor of vigince.

  ===

  "...I'm never ever going to hear the end of it."

  Hunter grimaced, he had lost her. He could find no trace of the mysterious girl. He had that sharp jab of pain to thank for the blunder, he would have to report that as well. His first possible clue as to who he was.

  Those are all thoughts for another occasion. Focus on the task at hand.

  He looked around, the child had mentioned a book but when she left there was no sign of it on her. perhaps she had left that here somewhere. If so perhaps that is why the area was being affected so strangely.

  Still... books.. Grimoire that are able to influence the world like this. Not many of them that can and those that are able to are all heirlooms to nobility.

  Hunter furrowed his brows, not a single one of the implications that came with that nugget of knowledge were good. The most likely answer to this conundrum was that there was a noble house out there that was actively seeking to harm NAA at worst or callously disregarding the lives of others at best. Either way, not good.

  He wandered about, going from building to building, being as thorough as possible but he came up empty handed. His gaze wandered upwards once more, he wanted to leave this pce. Yet he felt as if he somehow belonged, he had read on his studies that pces like this lulled their inhabitants into staying through various means, this was one of them; a vague sense of belonging.

  A slight smile formed on Hunter's face, one of his favorite things to do was learn, he was doing that right now and reminding himself of that fact brought a smile and shortly thereafter a sense of relief which lifted his previous frustration away.

  ===

  Wolf was now in charge of what was slowly turning into a search op. It had been a couple of days since Hunter had entered the vilge and he had yet to come up. His men had reported on what had transpired, Wolf had intended to enter the vilge, but he did not go into the altered space Hunter had.

  Wolf suspected that Hunter was somehow being targeted at first, but the more thought he put into it the less convinced he was. He had conducted a thorough search of the Vilge but nothing had come of it. He had to exit to recover his Sein reserves but he managed to scope out the entire vilge in six visits, Hunter was nowhere to be seen.

  "where the hell are you Hunter? Can't you a-"

  Hunter's body shot out from the vilge entrance and collided with a nearby tree bringing it down. Hunter letting out a pained groan as his body hit the snowy floor. He rose to his feet and wiped his mouth with his sleeve, a sort of bck ichor on them.

  "There you a-"

  Hunter cut him off.

  "I'll expin ter get everyone out of here."

  No sooner had he spoken that a figure came out of entrance, as if materializing from nothing.

  "Well done, I no longer have the domain advantage. Keep your promise, Hunter. Earn this empty tome."

  Wolf turned to see who had spoken, the figure before them was cloaked in bck, armored like a knight of old, he did not need to even inspect the Sein about the figure to understand what he was staring at. This was a Death Knight, a powerful magic beast that few could summon and fewer still could bind to their will.

  "He's mine."

  Hunter spoke quietly, Wolf sighed and ordered the men to retreat. There seemed to be some form agreement between these two, he wasn't about to intrude unless he absolutely had to. The men withdrew but they kept their eyes trained on the figure, and the strange phenomena that began to emerge from whatever space the knight and hunter had came out from. It almost seemed as if bck tendrils were breaking through reality like gss and emerging and grasping firm the threads of this realm.

  "No need for him to leave, I can see he is competent and will likely jump in at a crucial moment. Let him join you in this test, my brother too will join us."

  Before Hunter or Wolf could ask what the knight was on about, the tendrils converged into a singur spot besides the knight, a dark wind pushed back from the expanding orb that the tendrils had morphed it. It began to crack like an egg and from it emerged a two headed undead creature which had axes for arms and spikes for legs.

  "An ascendant ghoul? Hunter what the hell is go-you know what it doesn't matter now. Its a 2v2 now right?"

  The four of them locked stares for the briefest of moments. Then as if by unspoken agreement they rushed towards each other. Hunter bearing down on the knight while Wolf drew his twin pistols on the ghoul, unleashing a barrage of shots. The ghoul used his arms to block the shots, the impact of these sent ripples throughout the axe bdes, as if they were somehow liquid. Meanwhile Hunter and the knight were going at it up close and personally. Though Wolf noted that Hunter did not have his bde on him, he was fighting using his fists and legs while the knight had his bde to rely on.

  Really? Mano a Mano?

  Mentally shaking his head, Wolf resolved to finish his encounter quickly so he could give Hunter a hand. He resumed his shooting, trying to eliminate his opponent with his Sein infused bullets, or at the very least learn about his opponent as it blocked those bullets with appeared effortlessness.

  Those damn axe arms are a pain to deal with, do they just absorb sein? Not it has to be more than that, there is kinetic force behind those bullets after all. Maybe..

  His thoughts were cut short as his suspicion was proven correct. The axes of his opponent rippled and out come the previous bullets he had fired, he pulled the trigger on his pistols matching the returned bullets with more of his own. A feat nearly impossible to most, but not him. He smirked, maybe he would have some fun after all.

  ===

  Earthpne - Northern Sector Area, Independent Zone 7G"Sister~! I'm back! I did exactly as you asked."

  The child who had evaded Hunter was now happily hugging her big sister. Shekinah's figure was taller than the child's but but not by much, her pale silver hair and piercing red eyes were quite unsettling to most others she came across. She hugged back the child, a pleased smile upon her face which sported delicate seeming features.

  "Good job Letandra, what did you see?"

  Letandra looked up at her big sister a wide happy smile on her.

  "Ohh Ohh! That's right, I met mister in the void?"

  Shekinah raised a brow.

  "Mister?"

  Letandra nodded.

  "Mister was from NAA and was leading a group, but he was able to enter. He didn't have Sein sister, he smelled nice."

  Shekinah's eyes narrowed.

  "No Sein? Letrandra you know that's not.."

  Letandra Shook her head and burrowed her face on Shekinah's chest.

  "I'm not lying! He didn't smell of Sein. He also spoke the beast nguage. I saw him speaking with the knight."

  At this Shekinah's eyes widened.

  "You're sure about this? What did he look like?"

  "hmmm he had really bck hair and his eyes were..."

  "... A glowing yellow color."

  "... A glowing yellow color."

  Both of the spoke at the same time.

  Shekinah smiled, the schedule would have to be adjusted.