"How-how are you that strong?" The guest asked.

"Training," Nyz answered. "Plus good genetics. We've managed to do every mission without failure so far, thanks to his plans and adaptability and my combat abilities. Adding on a terrorist, even a former one, isn't necessary."

"That said," Kal told Nyz. "I could use a guinea pig who doesn't have your strength. There's only so much testing I can do. I can send him to base, restrict his movements around it, and use him to test some stuff. If he's okay with it."

"I'd do anything," the man said. "If it meant being safe from Gairal. Base? You mean you're just a pair of agents or something?"

"No," Kal told him. "We're the entire force. The two of us alone make up the entire organization we're a part of, and that's all we've ever really needed. Though I could use a helper for testing things."

"Like missile-proof underwear," Nyz said.

"Uh, no," Kal said. "I hit those with missiles without anyone wearing them. Anyway, let's all just go back to bed, we can discuss this more in the morning."

Nyz took the box from their guest and returned it to the storage for the combat suits, and when he returned, the guest had pulled on a pair of shorts and was pulling on a shirt. Nyz lay back down, pulled his blanket back over himself, and quickly fell back asleep.

Nyz was the first to wake, noticing that their guest had indeed fallen back asleep after waking up from his healing. He fixed himself a bowl of cereal and ate it, then walked into the cockpit and switched the mech back into travel mode, continuing on their journey. Kal woke up next, ate breakfast, then joined Nyz in the cockpit, taking over navigation.

"Are we really taking him in?" Nyz asked.

"Yes," Kal answered. "He and I talked some more after you went back to bed. He's decided that what happened was a delusion, though he'll probably figure out the truth once he gets to know us."

"I don't trust him."

"The only person you trust is me," Kal pointed out. "If I trusted him, I wouldn't be planning on monitoring him at all times and locking him down into just certain areas. I'll set him up with a home on the island, though. We were already planning on letting other people live there once we finished it. He'll just be a preliminary case."

"Sure," Nyz muttered. "We still need to locate the item first, though."

"Yeah," Kal said. "Without it, we aren't able to finish, and making them ain't easy. There's a reason there are only four."

They went silent as they continued their journey, their guest waking up sometime later and joining them in the cockpit.

"My name's Taylor," he introduced himself to Nyz.

"Taylor?" Nyz asked. "Is your father an official at the Gate we left through to get on this path?"

"In Valeros?" Taylor asked. "Yeah, he is. I take it he mentioned me?"

"He hates what you've become," Nyz stated. "Find something for breakfast. From the packs labeled as breakfast foods. Leave the cereal alone."

"Okay," Taylor returned to the general room as Nyz began shooting a group of pale wolves that charged at the mech.

"At least he's realized the evil of the group," Kal told Nyz.

"I still don't trust him. Now shush, I'm trying to see how many one-shots I can do."

Kal snorted, then left Nyz to his fun as he continued piloting the mech. The rest of the day passed in silence, with Taylor remaining in the general room other than when he had to use the bathroom or when he joined them in the cockpit for a few minutes at a time to look outside.

"We're resting here for the night?" Taylor asked when Kal stopped the mech and Nyz walked into the general purpose room.

"No," Nyz answered as he walked to the rungs. "There's a hidden facility not far from here. Normally, it's accessed by helicopter, both for employees and supplies. It's our current job."

"A secret facility?" Taylor asked in shock. "In the Fog Zone? Who the hell would build one of those?"

"Asterox Corporation," Nyz ascended the rungs. "Our target and enemy."

He entered the exit chamber and closed the lower hatch, then entered the room where his gear was stored. He stripped off his clothes and pulled on one of the skintight bodysuits, then pulled on his combat suit before equipping his guns.

Once he was ready, Nyz left the mech, jumping off of it.

"Follow the directions on the glasses," Kal told him through the built-in comms. "They'll lead you there."

"Copy that," Nyz responded.

"Whoa, the image is so clear," Taylor's voice came over the comms. "How far until clarity is lost in the fog?"

"Unlimited distance," Kal answered as Nyz began moving, rolling with the wheels in his boots rather than walking. "The Anomalous Magic Force disturbs most magical transmissions, which is part of why normal soldiers have to fight from pretty close if they're in the fog. However, I've figured out the magical patterns and have adjusted my tech to not be affected by them. Normally, I'm monitoring Nyz from base, but because of how remote this location is, a mech was needed."

"Nice?" Taylor asked. "His name is 'Nice'?"

"Nyz," Nyz corrected. "With a 'z', not a 'c'. Last letter of the alphabet, not the third."

"Oh," Taylor said. "That's an unusual name."

"So is 'Taylor'," Nyz muttered.

"Yeah, but his name is an actual name," Kal stated. "Ours aren't. Well, mine's similar to one, since 'Callum' and such are names, and 'Kal' can be a shortened form of it."

"So Nyz and Kal," Taylor said. "Where are you two from?"

"Troak," Kal answered as Nyz shot a pair of large foxes that jumped out of the fog at him, not breaking his pace as he shifted his path to take him around their bodies.

"Really?" Taylor asked. "With a name like his, I was expecting somewhere… further. Anyway, I've always wondered, but how come we humans are affected by the fog, but monsters and plants aren't? The explanation given about the fog says that it affects anything living."

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Adaptation," Kal answered. "According to what records exist, when the fog first spread over the world, most animals and plants died off. As a result, most humans who survived the fog by chance of being in light other than the sun and stars died due to starvation. Our medieval ages took a nasty turn for the worse back then.

"However," Kal continued. "Not everything suffered from the AMF corruption. Some living things were morphed by the AMF, to adapt to it. Usually, it was the more powerful things, though the really powerful ones could shrug it off, like dragons, which is why those still exist."

"Dragons are myths," Taylor said. "There are no confirmed sightings of a dragon in any records, just ancient tales of them."

"Dragons exist," Nyz said. "They're the ancestors of wyverns, which spawned from weaker dragons, ill hatchlings, which were morphed by the AMF."

He was happy to be able to provide some input into the conversation happening in his ear, as the full history of events wasn't something he was able to keep in his head. He wasn't bred for supreme intellect like Kal, but for combat prowess. The part about dragons was really the only thing he could remember clearly, because he liked dragons as a creature.

In person, they were an entirely different matter.

"The morphs happened over time," Kal continued the explanation. "So it wasn't like the ill dragon hatchlings just turned into wyverns. It was over several generations. Their children were mutated further, and their children were, so on, until they were what we know now as wyverns. And yes, Nyz is correct about that. Dragons exist, and they're simply so powerful that unless they're a sick hatchling, the AMF doesn't affect them at all."

"If they really existed," Taylor said. "How come there are no confirmations of them?"

"There are," Nyz told him. "They're just kept secret. Most dragons live above the fog."

"Doesn't the fog cover the entire surface of Ilbrathi, anywhere from five hundred to two thousand feet up? It even covers mountains, being over the surface and not just sea-level."

"Dragons are the most powerful creatures to exist," Kal told him as Nyz began clearing a path through bright pink goo two feet in thickness. "And they aren't dumb monsters. They ignore humans because honestly? Even now, the most powerful human weapon wouldn't faze one. The only known material that can harm a dragon is another dragon. Its magic, its claws, its spikes, its horns, its teeth, and so on. If you want to make tools from a dragon, you have to use its own body, or another's, to make the tools."

"What does that have to do with most of them living above the fog?" Taylor asked.

"They've used their magic," Nyz answered. "In order to raise sections of land up into the sky, above the fog. The Floating Islands are a well-kept secret, and the military forces of the world and the various major corporations want to keep it that way. That's why helicopters tend to stay within the fog, even if it's only five hundred feet tall. It prevents them from seeing the Floating Islands if they happen to be passing by. However, there's another reason for that."

"Which is?" Taylor asked.

"There are various flying monsters that are tough," Kal answered. "Which soar above the fog. Many of which would require military-grade magitch to take down. One such creature that's nearby is the thunderbird, a great, mighty beast evolved because of the AMF. They once took out a troop of twenty Asterox helicopters, all Class B. When I say 'they', I mean 'a single one only a year old'. Their bodies are resilient to damage, their screech can be sonic, they can manipulate wind and lightning, and are all-around lethal to anything less than Class A."

"Which is why even the military tends to be hesitant to send choppers over the fog," Nyz said as he rolled into a zone clear of fog, powerful lanterns lining a concrete wall fifty feet in height, keeping the fog clear up to two hundred feet away. "Because they never know if they're going to come across something a little bit tougher than they can handle. It's also why the military and major corporations do their best to keep the secret by not letting people above the fog."

"I'm confused," Taylor said as Nyz jumped over the wall. "Holy fuck."

"Confused about what?" Kal asked.

"Don't we have towers that are taller than the walls? With the farm terraces and everything? And don't we have entire cities that can see the sky now? How come they've managed to keep it a secret, then?"

"How often do you see a farmer?" Kal asked as Nyz traveled towards one of the several buildings making up the complex. "Not often, right?"

"Yeah."

"They know," Kal stated. "They've seen the beasts before. They're also under oath to never mention them to anyone when they do descend, and that's part of why they almost always have a military escort with them. To ensure the secret is kept. If you do see someone who you think might be a farmer and they're living on the surface, chances are, their parents managed to earn them rights to live down there at birth and they were adopted then, never living up high. Just like we have virtually no skin pigmentation by genetics, farmers have some based on which region of the world they're in due to being exposed to the sun all day, every day. That's a genetic thing, which they passed to their children. It's usually the only reason you'd see a farmer-looking person living down low."

Nyz began shooting the guards that came out to greet him, none of them wearing combat suits due to the cleared zone of the facility. It wouldn't be long, he knew, before guards wearing combat suits showed up.

"As for why we haven't seen the beasts yet from the surface?" Kal asked. "Well, that's simple. Most of them don't like the smell of our cities, so they keep a clear berth of them. When the Fog Zone stretched over the cities, the smell was contained, absorbed by the fog. As a result, it wasn't really an issue. Nyz, their panic is amazing. Apparently, they've never expected someone to find this place."

"We wouldn't have were it not for our mission in Troak," Nyz said as he finished off the last guard.

"Yeah," Kal said. "But still, you'd think a corporation running a base like this would at least prepare for the possibility of someone finding them and attacking."

"If they weren't expecting an attack from someone," Taylor said. "Why do they have guards?"

"To ensure workers comply," Kal explained. "And to defend if a monster jumps the wall. Oh, jeez, their chatter, Nyz. Their chatter is fucking ridiculous. Hey, someone's managed to recognize the suit as the special one for the guy who could teleport."

"They communicate outside of here?" Taylor asked.

"Yeah, they do?" Nyz asked.

"Nyz, we went over this," Kal snorted as Nyz reached the front doors, blasting them three times with his magic blaster, breaking them open. "While they have their own power supply and don't have underground wires connecting them to other places, they still deliver messages and such with their weekly helicopter visits."

"Oh, right," Nyz said as he shot at the guards around him, several wearing combat suits approaching. "Those are definitely military-grade."

"Yeah," Kal said. "The fact that they have them without me knowing or finding anything suspicious after my checks because of the 'extended range grenades' tells me they probably produce them here. Anyway, your suit is already granting me access to this base, it shouldn't take me too long to find out everything we need to know about it. For now, go after the primary objective. Thank fuck they had backups of some of the information elsewhere. That makes this easier."

"Yeah, yeah," Nyz said. "I'm on it."

He traveled through the building, shooting anyone who attempted to attack him, and entered the subbasements, traveling further down. When he reached the fifth underground level, Nyz came to a stop in front of a large door made of an adamant alloy a paler green than normal with a golden tint to it. The two guards in front of it aimed their guns at him, both clearly hesitant to pull the trigger.

"They're being told," Kal told Nyz. "To not shoot unless you shoot first. Someone there has brains and realized you've only attacked anyone who shot at you so far. They're wondering how you knew about the vault, though. Well, and the facility. Yeah, because it's totally implausible that some supergenius hacker found the entire blueprints for the facility on one of the servers in their owner's underground bunker."

"He has an underground bunker?" Taylor asked.

"To hide in if things go to hell," Nyz said as he looked between the two guards.

One was a man in his forties, with salt-and-pepper hair and gray-blue eyes. The visor on Nyz's helmet identified him as Reynis Valm, member of Asterox's security force for sixteen years. The other guard was an eighteen-year-old with brown hair and vibrant green eyes identified as Sen Silva, member of their security force for three months.

Though Nyz knew she was trained for combat, he could also tell she was nervous, much more so than her experienced partner.

He turned his gun and shot Reynis in the chest, killing the man, then aimed his gun at Sen's left shin.

"I won't start with your knees," he told her. "I'll start with your shin. Open the vault."

"I don't have access," she told him, and Nyz shot the ground beside her foot. "I don't!"

"Press your hand against the scanner," Nyz ordered. "The access code is your birthday followed by the date you were hired. Do it now, or the next shot is in your shin. A clean shot through the muscle, so it'll heal better, but painful nonetheless."

Though doubt filled her eyes, Sen obeyed Nyz's orders, and when she punched in the last of the sixteen numbers on the numpad beside the scanner, she stared at the green light above the scanner. When the vault door began unlocking, the sound of its tumblers clicking into place, Sen jumped back, and Nyz caught her in the arm.

"Try to fight," he told her. "And I'll put a bullet in your leg. Let's go."

He pulled out her earpiece, tossed it to the floor, and pushed her forward, into the vault.