A few hours earlier.
Due to the appearance of mysterious clouds in the sky, all adepts of the western colonial cities were alerted.
As part of Dexia, all members of the Azure Garden that were combat type adepts had all joined together in the Azure Guardian's battleship looking at the reports of the Association.
Alice sent a pile of documents to all as she spoke in a stern voice."Everyone, we just received some news. The purple-orange clouds in the sky have been identified as a mysterious phenomenon originating in the perimeter of the monster city, more specifically the training grounds used for the Adept Selection."
William: "...." Clarisse: "...." Katherine: "...."
The three of them immediately frowned upon reaching the origin of the clouds. They already knew something was going on in the A-city's sky rift, if these clouds meant something was coming there was no way they could ignore something like this.
The deputy-head of Dexia's association branch,Sebastian Krahl who was more on the administrative side had a specially dark look on his face. As a high ranking member of the association he had more access to information than the rest of his team.
He got news from Lakebell's association that the organization behind the incident in the selection seemed to be working on a large-scale production of the drug used on the mutant beast. According to the specialists, it is a genetic drug imbued with several unknown components, that together can forcefully evolve a beast into a stronger form of itself, also increasing its growth speed over fifty times.
Of course something this effective had its risks, once digested, the beast would enter a frenzied state and lose all sense of self, becoming a mass-killing machine that grows stronger with each live it took.
That day with the Azure-horned beast, it was lucky that Thomas was there in time to beat the mutant the moment he did or the beast would have gone through even further mutations, eventually reaching a point no one in the city could stop it.
On the way to the Valar Gate to meet with other adept teams, Sebastian approached Alice who was alone in back of the ship.
"Alice, how is that little boy Thomas doing. I wasn't able to go there because of work."
Alice who kept a low head, raised her eyes to look at him, then nodded. "He's going to be fine. Something seemed to have gone wrong in his advancement to Elite Adept, yet nothing that could endanger his life. As for his career as an adept, I'm afraid it is over. The doctor said all his energy dissipated and even if it recovered, the damage done to his body would ensure he never gets stronger than 3-star adept."
"I see... Then what do you plan on doing?" Sebastian felt pained upon knowing such a talent like Thomas suffering a misfortune like that.
"I don't know. I plan on asking him later if he wants to retire so he can live well off for the rest of his life. With his aptitude and intelligence, he can build his own business and live a fairly good life instead of risking his life fighting monsters."
"Then it's fine. He seemed a really fine kid, having a normal life is a good choice for him." Sebestial nodded repeatedly as he told himself to be happy while scratching his chin. For many adepts, living as a civilian again was like hell, but he really though it was a better ending to Thomas. At least that way he will live way longer than them.
Clarisse was all by herself upper deck, eyes locked on the mystical clouds. The second she saw the clouds of the colors purple and orange she made the connection to the strange powers Thomas had showed.
The battleship swiftly crossed Dexia City as it speeded towards the Vallar Gate. Hundreds of ships were stationed around the base as all the adepts set out to surround the ruins.
After inspecting the forest grounds and sending drones to detect any changes in the inner city, the clouds which scared all of them thinned out before slowly dispersing in the wind.
All the teams that arrived in a hurry didn't know if this was good or bad, but seeing on changes in the either of the places, the adepts realized it was just a false alarm.
"Good. It seems to be just a natural phenomenon, nothing to worry about." Alice nodded to herself, their forces weren't prepared for a large-scale invasion yet.
Among their team, the only one that was looking rather strange was Clarisse and Claire who were having an internal conversation.
Turning to the rest of the team, Alice suggested. "We are going to have a last look at the outer perimeter of the city, remember don't attack any of the beasts."
Heading further in the forest, the team noticed the monsters staring at them through the brushes. They weren't showing any particular hostility, but didn't seem to be happy as well.
"Oh no!" Claire blurted out as her eyes fell upon a blue spot lighting up the ground. Blue particles gathered and flowed in circles, not too slow or fast but in perfect harmony.
Her face behind the mask turned dark as she pulled Katherine by the arm. "look!"
Following Claire's vision, she noticed the same thing. Because of the reports given by Thomas and Clarisse, she could make a faint guess about what it was. The stranger part, however, was that they recognized this area, from all the fallen trees to the burn marks on the ground they knew this is where Thomas had fought the mutant beast during the selection.
"This is similar to the gate that brought Dexia Institute to the underground. We should send a message to the other teams as well the association about it." Katherine took out her weapon and she moved farther.
Alice protected as William approached the blue gate so he could gather some samples when they were interrupted a azure ray of light that pierced through William's arm, leaving a bullet-sized hole. Soon, two, three azure rays shot out towards them.
Claire stepped sidewards, her eyes glittering in flames.
"Ahh. "Where?!"
"William!" Alice shot a dark red arrow at the source of the light while forming an protective energy field around the other members of the team.
Two big shadows stood in front of them bearing two giant azure horns respectively. Suddenly, her body flickered as she dashed towards the closest beast. The later slashed at her in pure instinct only to hit empty air.
"Anima Technique: Twice Critical Strike!" Alice eyes glowed red as she kicked the back of the Azure-horned beast. The second the attack hit the enemy, the elite level beast howled violently and swigged his tail, shrugging her off. Being launched several meters away, Alice maneuvered across the air, shooting her energy off her feet, flying towards the second beast.
"Anima Technique: Thunderstorm Stance!" Like a lightning bolt she reached the other Azure horned beast and not giving it any time to react, her hand reached towards its head.
"Break!" With a resounding Thunder, Alice's throw a energy infused punch right in the forehead. "Ouch." Feeling her old bones cracking, the old lady put all her straight into it.
Bang!
The second beast's head blew off into a bloody mess as the shockwave of the impact left few cracks on the ground.
Landing a few steps away, Alice gaze stopped on the first Azure Horned beast. By now, it already stopped attacking as it body slowed down, blood dyed its eyes as it felt the interior of its body being mushed down into paste. It shot a confused glare at the female human a few steps away, not understanding what just happened, then fell down on the cold ground without a hint of life.
Pa! Pa! Pa!
A handsomely man in a golden formal suit appeared next to the blue vortex, clapping his hands. "Nicely done. As expected from my teacher."
The moment this person appeared, none of the team showed any reaction than William and Alice. The former was fairly shocked and afraid, while Alice's face was deathly pale. The last person she expected to meet in this place was right there.