"Akira!!" Kazoru shouted, searching for Akira.
"What's up" Akira responded to his calling after Kazoru found him.
"What's the matter? You looked spooked." Akira saw Kazoru's expression that he wasn't well.
"Enough about me, what've you been doing?"
"I was trying to do the mission. And ended up getting stuck. One by one, I cross those paths, and there is just a blocked path with concrete blocks. Can't help it, I really suck with no maps or familiarity with the city." He answered that he was stuck on a dead-end path, repeated times. He ended up finding a blocked path whilst trying to investigate.
"Alright, listen, where's Celine?"
"She said she wanted to buy groceries."
"This ain't no time for shopping!" Kazoru was in huge disbelief.
"I don't know, she said it was to reduce stress."
Meanwhile, at the grocery store. Celine made a shopping spree from store to store, forgetting about her mission...
"One this and ooh! This three" Celine carried many items and foods in her shopping cart.
Kazoru went to the grocery store and saw her buying many foods and items, Kazoru then reminded her about the mission and wanted to engage now. But, she wanted to shop because of the discount, she sighed and then resumed her mission.
They entered the laboratory once more and the lab was deserted, with no sign of life. As they were surveying the area, they discovered a portal projector ray, which could be the cause of orcs and goblins invading the city as well made them appear. Akira then stored it in his inventory, because he was the only one who had systems...
Akira trying to think why would they need a portal projector. They could have used a spatial mage considering they had lots of members since they were an organization.
They looked everywhere until they found the Morians' stages of evolution, written on the whiteboard.
1. Metamorians
2. Alphamorians
3. Megamorians
4. Omegamorians
5. Divinemorians
These Morians were called perfect humans, and they had to kidnap humans alive or dead to make these Morians. These Morians had devastating abilities, the same as warriors. If the humans turned into Morians, their abilities would have multiplied by three.
According to Celine, reports of missing children and adults had been suspected to be 72 one week ago, for a total of 192 in 2 weeks.
These Morians stood around 12 feet tall and had the capacity to evolve, growing to a height of roughly 32 feet. Their massive frames demonstrated their imposing strength. They noted on the whiteboard that they possessed special magic resistance and quick recovery. Since their organs were three times larger than those of humans, their entire anatomy was identical. They had black skin and human-like skulls, but they were more grotesque. They appeared to have transformed into zombies. A whole watermelon might fit in their mouth. It was claimed that they were capable of producing a powerful energy burst in their stomach and releasing it via their mouths.
After looking around, Akira noticed something was missing.
"Hey, where's the creature we saw earlier?" Kazoru surveyed the area, but the creature was missing...
"Well, well, well, what do we have here? Some rats crawling all over my stuff." A man whom Kazoru met earlier, smirked and surprised them with his appearance. The man had already known of Kazoru's identity, so he deserted his lair and he had also placed a self-destruct sequence that would trigger with a single snap of his fingers.
"Goodbye, warriors..." He snapped his finger and bombed the place. The debris then started falling everywhere. He left the place, leaving them trapped.
Coughing uncontrollably by the dust as the debris fell at them and trapped them.
Celine's face showed fear, apprehensive about the whole dark room. Kazoru relied on Akira because if he used his fire magic they would run out of oxygen. Akira lifted the debris all over him and helped the others too. Without a complete delay, he trust his keen instincts to locate them while he was being blinded by the darkness.
"We have no time! Let's leave this place!" Kazoru instructed the group to leave without a plan to get there without an exit.
With that, Kazoru had no choice but to light the place with his flames.
Celine felt hopeless that the exit was destroyed after the self-destruct occurred. However, Akira didn't give up as he held the portal projector ray. The man didn't clean the whole place since it was so sudden and he had to rush. All it was left was the portal projector, even if it was unbeknownst to them.
He fired while aiming in front of him. Then it made a way out. They then proceeded directly to the door before emerging into freedom. Because of the debris that struck them, Celine was able to heal Kazoru, Akira, and herself.
[PLANT MAGIC: POLLEN FLOWERS]
She created a yellow flower and healed all of their wounds. "We got all the stuff that we find but we need to find him! He knows our plan and he will seek all the evidence that they have!" Kazoru commanded as his wounds were about to heal completely.
"No need!" Celine replied and made them both confused.
"Our objective now is to escape and go to the castle. Sazoru is unavailable for now, and we can't stop him. Know our limits. He can't be far that's for sure, but what if he's strong?" Celine clarified that they stand no chance against him without the help of Sazoru. Even she would not dare to face him without information about the man.
Looking back, it was during their time spent in the office that Celine and Sazoru made plans. And the plan was for Sazoru to take the remaining secret hideouts. If the enemy found out, they both knew how it would turn out. He was unavailable due to this as well.
"Alright!" They agreed.
They went back to the castle with every evidence and info they have.
12 minutes later, they gave every detail about it.
"Great work! What more did you find?" The assistant inquired.
Kazoru and the others unfold the truth of what they saw. The assistant inspected the portal projector and then spoke.
"A creature that's a killing machine? Well, I've never heard of Morians before, but they are plotting something. Surely you've heard them before, a group by the name of "The Mikadzuki". A notorious group of criminals that worshiped gods to desire freedom. Mikadzuki also called the crescent moon, they are said to have a Red Moon, Blue Moon, Yellow moon, or even more. As if they were a religion. You can call it we did an act of blasphemy in rotting their actions."
"And this portal projector... It has access to another realm. This could be why they could spawn numerous monsters. One of the reasons they could pass through the gates and walls of Celesta."
"Portal projectors can be used to get to faraway distances, but I've had nothing to know they could travel through realms. Portal projectors are oftentimes used as a tool for traveling packages or to transport them to the training grounds or something, but with those who have the main ability to create portals, without a question, it's more advanced. Realm traveling is truly one of its kind." The assistant stated that the reason why monsters appeared like the orcs that once invaded Celesta was because of the portal projector.
"What's their true intention?" Akira asked because all of a sudden he got here and there were a group of monsters and a group of criminals he was clueless about.
"For that, I don't know. But, they wanted to revive a god, so it's pretty dangerous if the gods are evil. It's quite scary. Their technologies have surpassed us. And it might be damn possible for them to revive their gods."
"Can't the king fight them? I mean, he's a king. Can't he help us?"
"The king may have a 100 percent chance of winning, but his power alone cannot be controlled. However, he is not useless because he still has spare powers that he can control."
"How strong is the king?" Akira wondered if the assistant knew since he worked here.
"Just strong." The assistant gave a short answer without giving any detail about how mighty was the king.
"Enough about that, I'll assign you another missio-" The assistant was interrupted by an unknown quake.
A loud sound of an explosion and the ground shaking attracted their attention.
"We're being attacked! I repeat we're being attacked! the classified danger appears to be an S-rank. The voice alarm spoke while glowing red.
"Damn it! You three are free to go, don't get involved in this! You're not ready." The assistant ordered them to evacuate.
As they left, they looked through the window and saw everywhere burning. A fire here and there, the smoke could be seen 4 miles from here.
"Akira, wait!" Kazoru and Celine shouted at Akira.
Akira jumped from the window and tried to save the citizens.
Saving people from fires and getting stuck in their cars, evacuating all the citizens in danger.
2 minutes later, he had already saved the people who got trapped in their cars and got stuck by the fire. He then used his keen instinct to track down the culprit behind this.
After he had arrived, it was none other than the person whom he met earlier at the laboratory investigations. The man used an incredible heat of his flames, his flames were black and dark as if seeing death itself.
"HEY, YOU!" Akira yelled at the man who appeared to be the one who was behind all this.
"Oh, it's you again. I thought you died with the rest of your friends." The man chuckled and was surprised that he survived. Akira saw body parts in front of him and they were left with no bodies but ashes.
"YOU!!! HOW DARE YOU!" After witnessing him slaughter numerous innocent people, warriors, and even citizens by just burning them, Akira clinched his teeth and clenched his fist with rage.
Warriors didn't stand a chance, even soldiers and knights, would all be burned to ashes fighting him. The warriors couldn't even hope to stand near, all they get was their glimpse of life. It was like the fire of hell.
"Dear me, we meet again. Hope you love my work. Or do you want to die like the rest of them, Is that why you're here? Then burn!" Akira was reduced to nothing but ashes when the man let loose with his dark flames. He found some information back at the lair, and he could not let such a brat live with it.
"Now time to continue my rampage... Hmm?!" The man was alerted and avoided away from the throw of Akira's scythe. He thought he had killed him and could not sense anything from him after he had died. He was still alive.
"I'll BEAT THE HELL OUT OF YOU!" Shouted Akira, gripping his scythe tight. In rage about the innocence, he had killed. Knowing his fires were dangerous, Akira could stand against him without anyone who was near him. Even if he had to die countless times.
"(What's going on? I could've sworn I recently burned him...) Doesn't matter. Burn!" He once more let forth his black flame, burning Akira's body but leaving both of his limbs unharmed. He experienced an unusual sense of being caught in an illusion. That was what he thought.
"Wasting my flame on a mere child? How embarrassing."
"I'M NOT DONE!" Akira revived himself and continued to strike him again. But his black flames were blocking his way, making Akira struggle to even hit him.
"Why you!!" The man utilized his flames to enclose his space because he was annoyed.
[BLACK FLAME MAGIC: BLACK RING]
"GAHHH." Akira suffered another burn and quickly turned into ashes. His flames had the same intensity as natural fire. He felt pitiful for using all of his fire on just one person. A fire blast was fired at him shortly after that.
[FIRE MAGIC: SYLVA ROAR]
Kazoru had arrived and used his flames against the man. The man blocked Kazoru's flame attack with his black flame.
"Hah, your weak flame doesn't stand a chance against my black flame. I admire your bravery, but I suppose you have a death wish fighting me." The man smirked.
"I don't know who you are, but you are a threat to this city and I won't allow you to take any more lives!" Said Kazoru, desperately fighting him even with no hope of beating him.
"My, my, facing a foe although you've never experienced fighting people like me. Outrageous and yet stupid, die here with your friend!" The man mentioned Akira and aimed his flames at Kazoru.
"Friend? Akira?" The possibility that he had brought up Akira astounded Kazoru.
In a split second, the man directed his black flame in his direction. He was helpless, with nowhere to hide, and terrified. Froze in terror.
2 seconds early, Sazoru rescued Kazoru just in time, and rapidly.
"Tch, a general." The man was upset that, despite his best efforts to kill Kazoru, Sazoru simply saved him by appearing just in time.
"You alright?" Sazoru successfully rescued Kazoru.
"I'm fine!"
"Leave him to m-?"
After Sazoru turned around, he saw a man he was familiar with.
"You..." The strong feeling of shock stunned him whole, flabbergasting about the man's appearance.
"What's wrong? You looked like you just saw a ghost," The man grinned.
Sazoru couldn't speak one word after he saw his deceased older brother who died 12 years ago...