"I just noticed you being chased by these people... I figured they were trying to hurt you, so I destroyed them."
When Solis said this with a wide bright smile, Reaper just remained quiet and narrowed her eyes. She noticed the conditions of Solis' staff and quickly came to a conclusion. She didn't even need to use her ability.
It was a lie.
She just came because her precious weapon got dirty.
"And you are...?" The man behind Reaper immediately caught her attention. She squinted her eyes, feeling a strange sense of familiarity towards the man.
Soon, Solis' eyes widened in realization. "What is—" her sentence were abruptly cut short as a big blast of magic was sent to their direction.
Fortunately, however, Solis was a powerful mage. She didn't even need to chant out a spell to instantly conjure a magical barrier that shielded the three of them from the surprise attack.
"I have no idea what's going on, but go!" She remained on her spot, the end of her staff plunged on the ground. She glanced towards their direction, her eyes meeting Saber's from his cracked mask.
'You better give me an explanation later,' she mouthed in silence.
Reaper took his hands and ran away towards the direction of the fallen chasers. They ran and ran until they eventually reached the end of their path.
"Where should we go?" (Reaper)
"....." (Saber)
Before them, two paths leading in two different directions that could possibly lead them to a group of enemies.
They had to quickly make a decision.
"We'll go left." (Saber)
"Are you sure?" (Reaper)
"Yes." (Saber)
"How's that?" (Reaper)
"A gut feeling... Perhaps?" (Saber)
Although uncertain by the choice, Reaper knew that they had no other options left but to move.
And so, they began to ran towards the left direction.
[ ̚CĄ̷U±¡ø̵̧̡Π ̟ ̟(MAX) has been activated.]
As the notification rang loudly in his ear, Saber's face inside his mask remained emotionless, his attention fixed to his current goal and that is to ran away. Far away from their position.
They ran as far as they could for about five minutes, not encountering a single enemy in their path. But, they knew that deep down that they should always remain vigilant.
Saber had activated his [Vibrational Sensing] and ran closer to her from behind in case of something unexpected. Reaper, too, thought similarly to him.
But oddly enough, she wasn't worried about their current situation.
She thought earlier that something might go wrong, however, contrary to her expectations, nothing happened to them.
"Wait..."
Saber reached out to Reaper and grabbed her wrist. They came to a brief stop, her eyes gazing at his direction in confusion.
"Miss Reaper, this should be far enough." He says to her. Reaper was about to refute, but a loud explosion was heard from the opposite direction.
"You should go help your friend." (Saber)
"But what about you?" (Reaper)
"I'm fine on my own." (Saber)
Reaper was hesitant. He let out a deep but short sigh and stroked her head.
"Don't underestimate us adults, you brat."
Saber had already prepared himself from her sudden outburst, but...
"You said the same exact thing as her..." Reaper lowered her head, her hands clenching tightly on her weapon. She didn't even bothered to slap his hands away from her head, which was very unlike the Reaper Saber knew. She just stood there in silent.
After a couple of second, Saber pulled his hand away.
"I'll meet you again for our next date next week." He said to her, unknowingly smiling under his mask. Reaper noticed this due to the fact that his mask had a crack on the right upper part, his right eye visible, softly gazing at her direction.
"...mm?"
He turned around and continued to ran, leaving the now confused Reaper behind before she could even say something.
As he ran, Reaper glanced at his back and thought deeply about his comment. Her face momentarily became red upon the realization that their "hang out" was close to dating.
Her hands rosed up and covered her lips,
"Am I that dense...?"
...
..
.
After a couple of minutes running, Saber came to a brief stop and was now alone. He stopped by next to the stacked crates and leaned his back on the wall, panting from all the running.
"System..." He let out a heavy breath, calling out to his system, then waited a couple second for a response.
[Do you want to enter the Labyrinth?]
Although Saber could have immediately teleported inside the Labyrinth earlier, he didn't want to risk making Reaper feel worried and blame herself by his sudden disappearance. He doesn't want to add another suicidal problems on his team.
"Phew~"
Without anyone watching him, he could finally go inside the labyrinth without worries of someone finding out.
"Yes."
Upon saying this, his body, along with his presence, disappeared from the world.
***
"Why can't I contact him out of all time...?"
Reaper looked desperate as she pressed on a device that Saber handed to the two back before they left the City of Tiamata. She had been trying to contact him for a while now to inform him about their situation. She remembered that he wanted to meet up with her and Solis, but until now, she never received a response.
As for the woman who identified herself as his girlfriend, she too had been missing since the past few days they've entered the Avalon Kingdom... Not that what happens to her matters to the two of them; they knew that the relationship between that woman and their Contractor had always been a lie.
"You don't know...?" Solis turned her attention to her in shock. She blinked her eyes a couple of times, waiting for an answer.
Reaper glanced at her with an annoyed expression, asking, "What do you mean I don't know? Do you know something about him?"
"...Nevermind. It's better this way."
She did mention that she often hang out with a man, Solis thought quietly as she looked at Reaper from behind. But she never thought that the man she started meeting up with was actually their Contractor.
If she finds about this, who knew what will happen to their Contractor. Worse case scenario, he might get sealed off somewhere or kidnapped.
Though she was still confused as to why their Contractor was being hunted by the organization.
Does he have any sort of connection to them in some way?
How did the demoness find out about his existence...?
"Or... Is it because he was a former Hero?"
Solis sighed exasperatedly after thinking of such possibility. Reaper on the other hand, returned her attention back to the device and continuously pressed on it.
"Stupid tool!"
Crack!
Reaper accidentally gripped on the communication device too hard, causing it to break apart.
"....." (Reaper)
"....." (Solis)
"How much did this thing cost again...?" (Reaper)
"I heard that he personally created this himself... The cost is probably ranging around 1 to 2 platinum..."
Saber had never bothered telling them that the actual cost for creating those were less than 5 gold each.
Because they didn't know this, both their eyes widened up in shock. Reaper tried to put it's part back into place, only for it to get more worse due to her herculean grip strength.
Smack!
She later received a smack on her head from Solis, her vision turning dark as she fell on the ground unconscious.