Pueris' eyes widened in shock. He almost collapsed on the spot.
"Why the hell are you here?"
His words seethed from confusion and agony.
The Fate Weaver was supposed to be trapped in the fate realm until Reta broke the seal and eliminated her.
The Fate Weaver, whose grey hair and deep wrinkles had gotten the better of her looked to the left cynically.
"Ah. I see. So I truly have betrayed Fate's loyal hand."
Pueris was instinctively backing away from his seat.
The Fate Weaver merely sipped on her river water calmly.
Pueris reached a hand out ready to turn the Fate Weaver into a rotting corpse in seconds.
"What makes you say that?"
His words were cautious and wary.
Those in the bar were unmindful of the foreign affair spoken in a foreign dialect.
The Fate Weaver laughed dryly.
"Because what worse fate is there than finding yourself right in the middle of several extremely villainous fates who seem to know exactly who you are?"
"Fate is sending me a revenge of its own it would seem."
She hummed mildly.
Pueris' eyes were shaking openly.
"Make a move and I'll kill you."
He knew this old woman's true potential. She could kill a person's fate. Pueris didn't know if the ability had a cooldown or if she had even discovered it yet but he had to be cautious.
After all, she was the one who had killed Shrarld in his last run-through.
Pueris coughed blatantly.
He wasn't a fan of this. Even this small change to the run-through could affect his goal to cripple Justice in every way possible. Him avoiding his fate of death was probably the cause of the Fate Weaver leaving her realm.
The Fate Weaver continued sipping her dry lips on the rim of the jug.
"Oh, I can see that quite well actually. Aging my body instantly? I'm afraid I've already experienced advanced aging one too many times to be afraid of such a mediocre threat."
Pueris' mind whirred rapidly.
'Should I just kill her now?'
Pueris hissed at the Fate Weaver.
"Don't make a move."
He texted Rockfish through a phone he had been gifted.
{Come inside the bar ASAP. It's urgent. Bring Angjayre.}
{Sent.}
Pueris looked up, the Fate Weaver was ordering another jug of river water.
Pueris' eyes darted across her attire it was covered in mud.
"How did you escape?"
The Fate Weaver wisely shrugged. It seemed she acted young for her age.
"I thought I already mentioned it. But I have betrayed fate for my selfishness."
She raised her eyebrows upon inspecting Pueris.
"I'm envious of you. To be able to cling onto your youth long after your fate has matured. I am your opposite in that term."
Rockfish stormed into the bar with a concerned look on his face. He had lost his top hat and his wavy grey hair swashed over his eyebrows.
He siphoned his tie before finding Pueris swiftly, Angjayre stumbled behind him.
"What's wrong Pueris? Did they think you were a kid when you ordered?"
Pueris' cheeks went a tangy rose-red from embarrassment. He tried to change the subject in front of the fate-weaver.
"Rock-fish-."
Rockfish laughed heartily.
"No need to worry. Angjayre goes through the same troubles all the time. I'll just put it on my tab-."
"Rockfish China's Secret Legacy Weapon since the Edo-Era is literally right next to me right now. And you want to talk about this?"
Rockfish's eyes slyly slid over to the Fate Weaver.
"Are you drunk Pueris? Stop bothering such a kind old lady and-."
The Fate Weaver's wrinkles boiled. Her balding eyebrows struck down. She muttered in annoyance.
"I'm only 24."
Rockfish turned to her briefly.
"Calm down grandma. We'll stop this harassment at once."
Rockfish put a firm hand on Pueris' shoulder.
"Stop harassing people Pueris. We're meant to keep a low profile. Now let's go outside and-."
Pueris yanked Rockfish's hand off of his shoulder.
"Look, what if I told you she's the one who will kill Shrarld."
Rockfish sighed.
"Pueris, do you really have to go this far just to prosecute a kind old-."
"He's telling the truth."
Angjayre met eyes with Pueris briefly.
Rockfish looked down in suspicion.
"You... sure?"
He felt the situation was far too shameless.
Angjayre nodded rapidly.
"Very sure. I even double-checked it."
Rockfish stroked his chin.
"Well... this is certainly a challenge."
Rockfish dialed a number on his phone.
"Yes? No, I don't think you should destroy that rural village. But I do think you should come here to help me. If you come, you might get to meet the newcomer and have that meeting with him that you've been planning for a while. Sounds good eh?"
Bang.
Without a care for those watching, Shrarld's huge figure almost split through the roof of the small red dragon bar.
His hair was soaking wet and he was in nothing more than a pair of black swim trunks.
He had just been enjoying himself with a relaxing swimming session in a rural Asian village.
Pueris looked up depressingly.
"I'm the newcomer."
Shrarld put a hand on Pueris' shoulder.
He grumbled with tinges of excitement in his voice.
"Fight."
Pueris laughed lightly.
"I'll... pass..."
His time ability didn't work on people with strange constitutions. So far he only knew that it didn't work on Shrarld, any Justice number, and Herculainz.
Shrarld glared at Pueris, but Pueris merely acted as though the raging storm of killing intent gnawing at him was passing wind.
Rockfish breathed out heavily.
"Shrarld. Take that kind esteemed guest to the Shadow Realm and make sure she stays there. We'll pick her up later. Just drop her off somewhere where she won't be forgotten."
Shrarld looked at where Rockfish was pointing and nodded.
"I'm going back."
Rockfish raised an eyebrow.
"Consider it payment for you going out of your way just now."
Shrarld's body shook slightly.
He let out a low grumble and before the calm fate weaver could react, he placed a heavy hand on her head.
Her eyes widened.
"Why..."
"Why can I not see your fate when you touch me?"
"Are you also of the noble clan-."
Shrarld looked down in ignorance.
"I'm hungry."
Shadows engulfed the two like a twisting storm.
A small fizzling sound was left in the air.
Shrarld returned swiftly, the Fate Weaver had been abandoned and trapped in a maze of shadows somewhere in the vast shadow realm.
Rockfish puffed out his cheeks.
"Alright. I'll go pick up the others."
His eyes began lighting up significantly bright, to the level of a deity-like blue.
"Go put some clothes on Shrarld."
Beep.
A neon-blue pillar consumed him.
The people in the bar were too drunk to even recognize the events that had just occurred.
Shrarld pulled a fully loaded beer off the counter and chugged it down without hesitation.
"Clothes."
He grumbled before shadows wrapped around him smoothly.
In a matter of moments, he was fully clothed in silken black robes that fit nicely.
He still acted like an ogre but he at least looked well-mannered now.
Beep.
Rockfish returned alongside Reta, Veleno, and Delno. Pueris scratched his head.
'I guess they didn't want to bring Jonas on this mission.'
The three looked at Pueris with looks like ai scanners. Veleno looked rather sour upon seeing Pueris. It was because of Pueris that they had missed out on a big deal after all.
His acid-green hair looked like it had recently been dried off.
He moodily stuck himself at the back of the group.
Reta wasn't wearing his mask, revealing a charming unscarred face. his stylish red hair had currently gone far too long without a haircut and had reached halfway down his back.
He was wearing an unusually expensive suit for the occasion.
Delno, the beautiful blue-haired woman wore a fine blue dress that complimented her. Not that she needed compliments in the first place.
Delno held a hand over her mouth.
"Well aren't you the cutest little thing?"
She giggled as she ruffled Pueris' silken white hair.
Pueris looked up with dead eyes. He had gone through this enough in his last run-through.
Reta tapped her on the shoulder lightly to which she attentively calmed herself.
"I'm Delno. I hope that the others have been... no less than caring towards a little thing like you."
Reta tapped Veleno who stubbornly came out from the shadows.
"Veleno."
Reta let out a wry smile.
"Well, I'm sure that you know everyone else. I'm Reta, the leader of this whole escapade."
Pueris nodded and acted as he had in the first run-through.
"Wow. You are so much younger than I expected."
Pueris spoke like a machine, merely replaying words he had said before.
Reta chuckled.
"I wish I could say the same for you."
"Ahem. Rockfish did anything odd happen whilst we were reaching the checkpoint?"
Rockfish sighed.
"Yeah, the fate weaver or something. Some kind of Chinese super-weapon was in this bar. It's all verified by Angjayre."
Rockfish glared at Angjayre momentarily.
"Anyways. We kidnapped a defenseless old woman who couldn't even run away before Shrarld trapped her in the shadow realm."
Rockfish expected Reta to scold Angjayre but instead, Reta applauded the group.
"The Fate Weaver? The lass from that noble clan? Well..."
"That's just splendid."
Reta's voice went flat.
"But."
"That does mean that the Suparen Clan has most likely been alerted of their fallen member's last location."
Pueris' hands squirmed over each other.
'Even with two fates, I don't know what a noble clan is. I'll have to ask Reta later.'
The room went silent.
Before one of the drunken drinkers got up and fell over backward. The other drunk men cackled with blind laughter.
Through the eyes of one of the drunken men, a tiny green dot spun and got bigger before revolving down into nothing.
An old man, with no wrinkles yet hair, so grey that it should've fallen out centuries ago muttered to himself darkly within the confines of a majestic palace upon a beautiful mountain flooded with tall grass and heavenly creatures.
"Send in Fire Dragon."
"Code: Black."
"The Fate Weaver has been kidnapped."