"The Le Fleur is growing as the days pass by!" Karen kicked and threw her tantrum.
"I agree with her for once." Pierrot stated. "This are getting too dangerous. Le Fleur is getting closer and closer to his true power."
"And what do you propose we do?" Sirius asked. "The Chimeras haven't even recovered and we've lost yet another brother to them."
"We attack! Strike back with what we have. I have something he couldn't possibly be expecting!" Karin grinned.
----
"It's great to be back!" Liam said as he stretched his limbs.
"Yeah." Alistar agreed. "I feel like we didn't go on a relaxing trip at all."
"It's exactly the opposite isn't it? It was anything but relaxing." Ethan stated. "I still feel sore from the Lupus attack."
"I feel you." Andrew answered.
As I rolled around on the sofa, I couldn't help but yawn. I'm exhuasted from all the things we had to do during the fighting.
"All I'm hoping for is some peace and quiet." I told them.
"It'll be a while till you get it." Pres. Mayumi said as she entered our dorm room. "According to the scouts, Chimeras have been spotted in the nearby city and towns."
"Anything to prove that claim?" Theo asked.
"A video." Hattori answered.
He placed a connector inside the table and played the recording that was saved in it. In the video, we see a black figure appearing in the sky then disappearing.
"That's all it's done so far. Just gaze down at the people, it gives most who see it the creeps." Touya stated. "Till yesterday."
"What happened yesterday?" Reinhardt asked.
"It attacked a couple walking the streets." Hiro answered. "The couple were killed on the spot."
"Because of this, the people are stating that it's a Chimera. Arata, your verdict?" Diana asked.
"I doubt it." I answered. "It doesn't resemble any Chimera I've ever seen. Where was it first spotted?"
"It was spotted on the northern end of Clemantis City, in the Market District." Lina stated. "It appeared at exactly 15:00 at an altitude lf roughly 25 meters above ground level."
"Any paterns?" I asked.
"So far, it has appeared 35 times in different sections of the city. It's areas of appearance are dispersed showing no patterns." Yuuki said as he read the report. "But, it's window of appearance only lasts about thirty minutes and the time ranges from 12:00 to 18:00."
"That's a large span and short appearance time." Mitan said. "What is it I wonder?"
"Van." I nodded to him.
Van summons a book to his side and the pages dance and stop on a single page.
"A tool of destruction, the Doll of Despair is a homunculus weapon created from despair." He read aloud. "In other words, they are the failures of the Project ABS."
"Project ABS?" Pres. Mayumi asked
"Project Artificial Brave Series. A project developed before Braves were large in number and only Fleur could fight the Chimeras." I stated. "The creation of artificial Braves with the goal of fighting Chimeras. In the early stages of the experiments I read that they created failures."
"What failures?" Xander asked.
"False Braves. Fallen Braves." Licht answered. "Either the vessel rejected the power or the power rejected the vessel."
"What does that have to do with this incident?" Hattori asked.
"Homunculi Cores were found on the Western Continent. Milo and the others brought one to me once." I stated and pulled it out of my storage. "This core, is what powers the Artificial Braves Series. And it is also what makes them extremely dangerous."
"How come?" May asked.
"Because they are made by wrapping Vi around an artificial Contractor. If you ask me, I know how they made that thing." I stated. "With Red Contractors they recreated the Artificial Brave Series. But what tjey did was dangerous for all."
"Why?" Zhen asked.
"The artificial Brave series rely on their contractor to be their guide in decision making. If their core is evil then the vessel will also be evil." Licht answered. "We need to find this thing and destroy it. Before the number of victims rises."
----
While Arata and his comrades tracked down the Artificial Brave, elsewhere Saint was hard at training.
"Saint, shouldn't you take a quick rest?" Allen asked but he shook his head.
"I can still keep going." He answered.
"Don't overdo it." Ellen told him and he smiled.
"Stronger. Stronger! I must get stronger. It's not long now." Saint repeated to himself. "I'm sure that it's getting close. The end of this story of countless eons."
As he spoke these words, he continued his Vi training. Saint was dedicated to protecting the precious things he had found and to fulfilling his job as Arata's guide no matter what. For that reason, he was training beyond his usual limit.
"I'll definitely be able to help Arata and everyone when the time comes." He said as he gazed at the Celestial Globe and the ship.
----
Elsewhere, Milo and his the other children in the West began their research into the Homunculus Core. They were hoping they could do something to help Arata. Little did they know that at the time, Arata was already busy tracking down the Homunculus.
"Come on. We have to find out as much as we can." Hilde exclaimed as she ran through the documents in her hand.
"What was the name of the company where we found those crysals?" Albert asked.
"Nine Worlds Voyager Inc." Milo stated.
"Keep searching!" Rose stated.
Whilst they were researching, Pierrot was keeping his eyes on them. Though he could not care about whether Karin succeeds or fails and whether or not the four find anythinh, he still kept his eye on them. The reason he didn't kill them was because he wanted to see how far they could progress and whether they can find the answer to his question.
'Can the Artificial Brave Series stand up against the Le Fleur." He smiled. "I'm hoping they'll be useful in nurturing him to grow. After all, the more nutrients a plant gains, the more satisfying it will be to eat."
As he grinned he was tingling with excitement. He couldn't wait for the moment when he could eat Arata and steal his powers. But it wasn't time yet, he needed to fatten Arata up, make him stronger. So that when it was time he could gain all the powers of Le Fleur without problem. Karin and the Chimeras were simply his tools for achieving his true goal.