The moon glimmered through the rapidly moving clouds, reflecting off puddles on the muddy ground.
Under that faint light, two men stood against each other.
One tried to contain his excitement, but he couldn't hold back his chuckles, the grin, and the overwhelming power that leaked out of him.
The other barely said a word, his face was as unreadable as ever, and he blended in with the darkness of the night with his black cloak and dark clothes.
The only things the light reflected off him were his two daggers, which he held in his hands with a tight grip.
Without a word or a warning, their bodies vanished into a blur. The blades of the daggers and the flesh and bones clashed.
The puddles rippled from the impact, and it was as if nature had reacted as well; birds flew out of the forest with loud chirps.
The man was about to drop his daggers as the other squeezed his forearms.
"I thought you were defeated, Gislen Urdale."
Gislen's grip tightened.
"I don't know this Gislen Urdale guy you're talking about... I have been reborn as Gisurd."
The man broke free from Gisurd's grasp and jumped backward. His shoes slid across the mud as he tried to balance himself.
'He's gone insane.'
Gisurd stood tall, dropping his arms next to him as if he lowered his guard.
"I'm different now. I will kill all of you... A god has given me powers. And I'll use this to do something I couldn't do years ago as a Graceless[1]!"
The man didn't react physically to what Gisurd was saying, but he knew well what this would have meant.
Gisurd was after Kazuhiko.
"After all this time, why now?"
Gisurd smirked at that answer. At that moment, he was just as unreadable as the man facing him.
"I have no reason to tell you such information."
The man had expected an answer like that.
The ground started shaking under Gisurd and suddenly burst open. Out of the ground grew shining golden pillars, created by the man.
The pillars attacked without needing direct commands, but Gisurd dodged them by jumping into the air.
"Tell him his time's up."
That's all he said before disappearing into the darkness of the night.
The same night, inside The Hideout's capital.
Kendra Monroe, head of The Hideout, sat in her office, staring blankly at the paperwork before her.
Her desk, along with her entire office, was a mess.
There was a big window behind her, covered by curtains.
The floor was covered in a black soft carpet, which would have typically been clean, but was covered in wrappers and scattered paper.
"Well? Why have you released the Darkness wielder?"
In the same office stood Yure Hoshigara, the head of intelligence, with the number 6 written on the back of his clothes.
Despite standing before his boss, he still kept his black bucket hat on.
Kendra's eyes moved up from her desk, both of them staring at each other.
"After discussing it with Caelum, who came to me with a plea of letting Yamikuro and Kaminari free, I decided to let them off with a warning."
Yure's expression turned sour.
"Caelum, huh."
"So you're letting a figure like the Darkness wielder walk free next to the other kids?"
Kendra raised an eyebrow at that answer.
"You didn't seem too keen on following the law either."
Yure's eyes turned away, as if he couldn't bring himself to look at Kendra.
He saw similarities between himself and Yamikuro, but refused to acknowledge them and suppressed his thoughts.
"I couldn't see a child get murdered, but letting him go completely free goes against everything I... this system stands for."
Yure turned his back on Kendra, facing the door.
He wanted to say something, but decided to remain quiet as he walked.
"Don't do anything you'll regret, Yure," Kendra warned him, having suspicions that Yure would try something reckless, especially with Caelum.
Yure stopped near the doorframe, holding the doorknob.
"Yeah."
Yure stepped out of the room, leaving the door behind him open. He felt insulted by Kendra's words.
Yure was the head of intelligence, making him the smartest elite in The Hideout, so for Kendra to think he'd do something dumb was unheard of.
"Greetings." A familiar voice said to Yure.
Yure nodded and continued walking.
With a cough, the man tapped on the open door lightly.
"Am I interrupting something?"
Kendra's eyes once again rose from the paperwork; she hadn't expected another visitor at this time.
"Oh, it's you, Kazuhiko Ryoti."
After some awkward silence, Kendra sighed.
"What is it?"
"It's about Yamikuro Asaki." Kazuhiko decided not to stall.
Kendra straightened her back immediately.
"I'm listening."
"What he did was terrible, but I have a suspicion that someone kidnapped him and set up a fight between him and Lucian."
Kendra's curiosity spiked hearing Kazuhiko, a man whom she considers to be a numberless elite.
"What are you trying to say?"
"Yamikuro abides by the law, considering his past in the other world, he has no criminal records, no attempts to assassinate Lucian, though there were reports of him assaulting Hunters, but those cases were dropped rather quickly."
"Anyway, if he really wanted to fight Lucian, wouldn't he have done that earlier?"
Kendra didn't know how to respond to a statement like that.
At that moment, Kendra became lightheaded. Had she become too obsessed with abiding by the law?
Everything Kazuhiko had said to her made sense.
"Kendra?" Kazuhiko checked up on her, seeing her become silent.
"I'm fine." She said not to stray away from the topic.
Kendra stood up from her chair and opened the curtains to a view over the capital.
The more she thought about Yamikuro, the more questions arose.
"What if Yamikuro only recently awakened to his powers? That would explain why he killed the rumored Resonant."
Kazuhiko had expected Kendra to think of it; initially, he believed the same.
"When I first met him in the hospital, he briefly mentioned something about a god. I brushed it off, thinking the injuries had made him hallucinate."
Kendra looked over her shoulder.
"...You're saying he killed a god?"
"That wouldn't be impossible. When I was still a part of the elites, I looked into clans and The Hideout's past, and multiple sources mentioned gods."
Kendra turned back to the view of The Hideout, her eyes following the people walking on the streets.
"What does all of this mean...?"
"I had decided to pardon Yamikuro after discussing it with Caelum, but you too, huh?" She said out loud, thinking about Caelum, who came to her with a plea, in a similar way to Kazuhiko.
But Caelum didn't seem to know anything about gods or who Yamikuro was.
Was it all really for the Darkness?
Kazuhiko scratched the back of his head while slightly chuckling.
"Well, I heard about the execution, and I panicked. I knew you weren't going to go through with it, but still, it's very unlike you."
Kazuhiko turned serious.
"Considering you know his past."
Kendra wasn't someone to forget people that easily.
"His past is tied to many people, but I know who you mean."
She then turned away from the window, looking at Kazuhiko.
"More than anything, I'd like to keep watch over Yamikuro, letting him go for now."
Kazuhiko nodded quietly, but deep down, he felt relief so huge he would've hugged Kendra.
After collecting himself, Kazuhiko wanted to clear Yamikuro's name completely.
"Look into Lucian and his accomplices for me, there had to have been someone who works for him and can bend the law."
Kendra's eyes widened.
"Could it be Gislen?"
Kazuhiko was reminded of the past by that name.
"That would be unlikely. He stopped working with Lucian years ago."
After sitting down, she nodded.
"I see. I'll see what I can do about it."
Meanwhile, behind the other side of the wall...
Yure squinted his eyes, surrounded by dark eye bags. He did that while concentrating in his mind.
"Someone broke into The Hideout's capital, huh..."
He reached for his bucket hat to adjust it, but he couldn't hold back his anger by holding it with a tight grip.
"If my thesis is correct, our paths will cross once again... Caelum Nocturne."
After learning about a vital detail, Yure had now decided to act against Kendra's words.
And with new threats looming in the distance, what could this mean for everyone's futures?
With Yamikuro and Kaminari being freed from punishment, how will the citizens see them?
Gisard has taken action after being dormant for years, supposedly going after Kazuhiko Ryoti.
[1] An individual without powers