Melmarc squinted, peering at the door. There was a part of him that knew [World of Insight] didn’t work that way. Still, it was simply a human response.

Why can’t I see past it?

It was a little disconcerting to him. His eyes told him that there was a door right in front of him. It was dark, very dark, and made of wood with a gold knob stained green with verdigris. But every other part of him told him that he was just imagining it. To be more precise, every other part of him simply told him that nothing was there.

The part about imagining it was just his brain’s interpretation of it.

Jude currently had his finger inside the trigger guard of his gun. Jed still had a hand held over the gun’s barrel. He kept its aim fixed securely to the ground.

Nelson walked up beside them. He shot Jude a look that Jude didn’t seem to care about before turning his attention on Naymond.

“Can you tell what the person is doing?” he asked.

Naymond nodded. “He’s just staring at the door.”

“Can you tell if he’s aware of us?”

Naymond did a perfect imitation of Melmarc and peered at the door. After a while, he shook his head. “Nope.”

"Do you know who it is?"

Naymond paused, squinted. "Wow. You know what? I actually can't. That's interesting."

Nelson frowned.

Beside Melmarc, he noticed Claire move a step behind him subtly. It was a single step, silent and intentional. He wondered if it was something she’d learned how to do so easily from her years of playing a support role in a Delving team.

“I say we take him,” Jude said.

Is he always this untrusting?

Melmarc didn’t see why they had to take whoever was on the other side of the door. Naymond had already confirmed that it was another person. From all ramifications, wouldn’t it be more natural to assume that it was another Delver?

After all, they hadn’t come across any other human being since entering the portal.

“Should we?” Naymond mused to himself. “He doesn’t seem worried in anyway. He is moving like he’s annoyed, though.”

They were all talking in low voices, whispering to each other.

Melmarc looked between them.

“I say we find another way,” Claire opined.

This was getting a little crazy to Melmarc. Why was the thought of another person something hostile?

Maybe you’re looking at it from a wrong point of view, he thought.

He had to be missing something. With Jude going for hostility, that was normal. But every other person agreeing with him meant that there was something he was not aware of—information he was lacking.

Looking between everyone, they still seemed in sync. Certain that whoever it was would be an enemy.

“I say we open the door and flag them down,” Jude insisted in a harsh whisper. “We can’t take the risk. Trust me. I have experience on this.”

Everyone looked at him.

Naymond raised a brow. “You have experience. Isn’t that interesting.”

“What?” Jude looked at him, confused. Then he looked at the others. They continued to stare at him. “No. I don’t mean it like that. Not like, hands on experience.”

Hands on experience?

“What am I missing?” Melmarc asked, tired of trying to figure it out by himself.

“I say we find another way,” Nelson insisted, seeming to not have heard him.

Jude turned to him, sighing in exasperation.

“Which way, big guy?” He gestured around them dramatically. “In case you haven’t noticed, it’s a one way road. In front is a door. On both sides are walls. Behind is a road.”

Nelson frowned. “Then we go back.”

Jed rubbed his chin in thought. “Take the other road.”

Naymond shook his head. “Personally, I’d rather take my chances with what’s behind door number one, if that’s okay with everyone.”

Melmarc remembered how Naymond had been glancing at the second path when they’d met the fork in the road. What had he sensed there that he would rather not return to.

Also…

“What am I missing?” he asked, his voice a little louder.

He was beginning to learn that he really did not like being ignored. It was a far cry from the boy he had been who would’ve been alright with blending into the background.

Everyone paused to look at him.

“Why?” he asked slowly, “are we trying to put down what might be another Delver here to help?”

“He’s not here to help,” Jed said simply. There was too much certainty in his voice.

“Well,” Naymond raised a hesitant finger. “That’s potentially not entirely out of the question.”

Melmarc cocked a brow at that but let it be for now.

“Why isn’t he here to help?”

“Because we’re the only Delvers that are supposed to be in this portal,” Nelson answered, eyes fixed firmly on the door.

It took Melmarc a moment, but he finally pieced it together.

“Raiders,” he muttered.

Personally, he was surprised that it had taken him this long to figure it out. Raiders weren’t popular in any way. But Melmarc was friends with Delano. And Delano was friends with the Dark Web. And Raiders were popular on the Dark Web.

They were, in summary, unregistered Gifted—some of them registered—who snuck into portals without permission of any kind.

Some of them went in with the goal of clearing the portal which was morally good but legally unacceptable, while some went in simply looking for some resources or the other to steal and sell on the black market.

Melmarc didn’t see how it was supposed to apply in their current predicament. C-rank portals were among the least important portals there were.

“How does the kid know about Raiders?” Jude asked.

Naymond leaned closer to the door. “He’s moving away.”

“Maybe if we wait he’ll just go away and we can proceed,” Claire said.

Jude looked at them as if they had their priorities misplaced. “Am I the only one that’s beginning to think that The Blight didn’t tell us everything we needed to know?”

Claire sighed. “I take it you don’t know a lot of teenagers, Jude.”

“He’s a Contractor,” Jed said. “I doubt he spends his time around any normal person.”

Jude still looked confused.

“Teenagers tend to know more than you give them credit,” Claire explained. “I’ve got a cousin who has a friend who knows a guy that’s into illegal exportation. Trust me, you’d be surprised at what teenagers know that they’re not supposed to.”

“He’s gone,” Naymond said, perking up. “We can go now.”

He reached for the door knob and turned it. The door opened outward, leaving the orange hue to stand over the entrance as if it was some kind of portal. If Naymond saw it, he didn’t show any indication of it.

Can no one else see it?

Naymond wasn’t the first to walk through the door. Jude had that honor. Nelson tossed the glow stick inside, illuminating whatever was on the other side as Jude stepped in, gun raised and aimed. He swept the gun barrel from side to side, taking aim as he approached.

When he passed through the orange barrier, nothing happened. That was when Melmarc realized that he should’ve probably said something about the barrier. It could’ve easily been something only he could sense for some reason.

“Clear!" Jude announced.

Jed went in behind him. Naymond followed, then Nelson with Clinton in his arms, then Claire before Melmarc.

The moment he went through the barrier, Melmarc’s interface popped up.

[Welcome August Intruder]

Melmarc wasn’t sure he liked the look of that.

[Dear August Intruder, you have trespassed upon the territory of a sanctioned ruler. Sanctioned ruler, Caldath, has been notified of your presence.]

Melmarc definitely didn’t like that.

What did it mean that the Demi god was now aware of his presence? Would it now come for him? Would it stay wherever it was and prepare for him?

Are you seriously considering fighting a Demi-god?

In all the myths and stories he knew, a Demi-god was not an opponent he would ever want to fight. They accomplished feats he couldn’t even begin to fathom. Most of them fell into the category of what could be considered S-rank Gifted with strength specializations.

And that was him being generous to the Gifted.

“Good. You’re all here.”

The first thing Melmarc noticed was that he didn’t recognize the voice. The second thing he noticed was that it had an African accent he couldn’t quite place. Its brogue was so heavy that it almost sounded intentional.

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Raiders, he thought as Jude fired off four quick shots. Sadly, Jude was the first of them to go down.

Melmarc was already moving into action as [World of Insight] swallowed the entire room. He sensed nothing beyond the barrier from where they’d come, but the room they were in was completely within his awareness.

A grunt filled the room a moment after Jude went down and Melmarc activated [Knowledge is Power].

The static mana burst out of him and he threw himself into the fray. Their assailant wore casual clothes as he slammed an open palm into Jed’s chest, then spun out of the Delver’s reach so that he could deliver a vicious kick to a downed Jude’s face.

Jed was already turning despite the blow to the chest and was drawing his knife. He cut through the air and the assailant ducked beneath the slash. A bright blue arc shattered against the wall on the other end of the room.

Melmarc placed himself between Jed and the assailant just as the man came up with a well placed fist to Jed’s face.

Melmarc ended up taking the blow to the shoulder. It hurt but only as much as a punch from a regular adult to the shoulder would. He shrugged it off easily and moved to tackle the man. His burst of mana was already coming back. If he could pin the man before his immunity to damage could wear off, they would be succe—

The man slipped beneath Melmarc, taking advantage of Melmarc’s large frame. In a flurry of actions, Melmarc found himself tumbling through the air and hitting the ground. His burst of mana returned to him as the man darted after other opponents and his world lit up even brighter and he selected a buff quickly.

[You have chosen World of Insight]

When Melmarc scrambled back to his feet in the hopes of avoiding or intercepting another attack, he stopped at the sight he was met with. A green indicator hovered over their assailant’s head.

It made little sense. But Melmarc trusted his skill. Whoever the man was, he was a friend. And if Alfa had sent Clinton and his team for him and Naymond, then it was safe to say that there was a chance that the man in front of them—Saxi, according to his indicator—was hired by his parents.

The first feeling he got was relief. If he was right, then it meant that at least one of them had returned safely from their deployment. Then he felt worry, at least he thought it was worry. If the man in front of them was here for him and was fighting off the others, there was a chance he could kill them.

Beside his name was the simple rank ‘S.’ A single letter that implied so much more.

Jed slammed into the wall from an attack and Saxi ran a knee into his head, practically throwing himself into the strike. Jed’s head cracked against the wall, bouncing terribly off it, and Saxi was already moving. Going after Naymond.

Melmarc rushed for Naymond who was backing away with a very worried expression, hands held up in surrender. Claire moved to Jude, the farthest person from Saxi, and Nelson moved to intercept Saxi even with Clinton in his hands.

Melmarc got to Saxi first. He watched the man’s eyes move in their socket. It switched from its focus on Naymond, took note of his approach. Melmarc noticed it too late. Saxi drew up short, dropped himself lower so that Melmarc barreled into him as if running into a very low fence. He would’ve toppled over gracelessly but his body seemed to right itself so that he wouldn’t topple so uselessly.

Melmarc’s gladness at his body’s automatic response was short-lived. Saxi was already moving. With another quick move that Melmarc could not place, Saxi sent him toppling over him. Surprisingly, when he hit the ground, it wasn’t as painful as he expected.

“Saxi! Stand down!” Naymond barked just as the man danced out of Nelson’s reach.

Saxi paused, then backed away from him. A frown creased his brow. “Identify yourself!”

The room settled into a stalemate, or maybe it was more accurate to call it a momentary truce.

“How do you have my name?” Saxi pressed.

Then he squinted at Melmarc. His brows furrowed in confusion.

“You’re a kid,” he said, matter of fact. Then his jaw dropped in worry. “Shit.”

Naymond’s lips twitched in a smug smile. “Shit is right.”

“I swear, I didn’t notice.” Saxi took a step towards Melmarc.

Melmarc lowered his stance, hands out on both sides. From what he could tell, despite being an S-rank, Saxi wasn’t very strong physically. He’d put a little too much force into his kick when he’d attacked Jude, and he’d practically thrown himself into the knee to the head he’d given Jed.

That only happened if you assumed you were the weaker person in the fight. There was also the blow Melmarc had taken from the Delver to the shoulder. It had been normal. Regardless, the man had thrown him twice, which meant that whatever he lacked in power, he made up for in experience and technique.

Saxi stopped mid step, noticed Melmarc’s reaction and raised his hands up in placation.

“Boss is going to kill me,” he muttered to himself. “I swear, Mel—you’re Mel, right?—I didn’t mean you any harm.”

The indicator above his head continued to remain a steady green. The fact that he was calling him Mel was all Melmarc needed to know that someone from their family had sent him.

A small groan slipped from someone’s mouth in the corner. Claire had her hand to Jude’s mouth and was making sure it wasn’t touching the man’s mouth. That made sense. Melmarc could imagine just how unhygienic it would be if she kept putting her hand on all her teammates’ mouths.

Naymond held his hand out to the side. He motioned a still approaching Nelson down.

Saxi gave the tank a brief glance. Melmarc noticed a small touch of worry in it. Worry or alertness.

He sees him as a threat, he realized.

Melmarc was doubly sure that Saxi was significantly lacking in the strength department for an S-rank. The most common classes that had that problem were support classes. Even agility classes had sufficient strength at S-rank.

After all, you couldn’t expect someone to go around swinging blasts of mana as heavy as thirty kilograms or more over significant distances with average human strength stats. Which meant that Saxi was a support role.

Which means he has to have come with a team, right?

Saxi still watched everyone in a quiet way. Eyes watched each individual as if assessing their individual threat levels. Claire caring for Jude. Jed holding onto the side of his head as he leaned against the wall. Saxi looked displeased at that. He kept most of his attention alternating between Naymond and Nelson, though.

Nelson was most likely a physical threat while Naymond was a threat based on the fact that he knew what he wasn’t supposed to.

Melmarc, however, was more focused on the fact that an S-rank support class had nearly undone an entire team of C-ranks. And at close combat, no less.

“So…” Naymond began, a little awkwardly. “What now?”

“You tell me how you know my name,” Saxi said, voice curt.

Naymond shrugged. “I’m an information class?”

Saxi’s eyes darted to Melmarc. Melmarc shrugged. Saxi might come from his parents and have a green indicator, but on this topic he was going to default to following Naymond’s lead.

He didn’t know Saxi, after all.

“What the hell was that about?” Jed asked. He was finally on his two feet, without support from the wall to stand. Then he looked at Naymond. “I thought you said he’d left the room.”

“He did,” Naymond said. “But you can’t be so sure with people like him.”

“People like me?” Saxi asked. His voice said he was slightly peeved by it.

Naymond paused. “Oh, no. I didn’t mean it like that. I’m not racist. My mentee is—”

“Quit while you’re ahead,” Melmarc found himself saying, realizing what was going on.

Saxi was dark skinned with a thick African accent.

“Why are you here?” Nelson asked, cutting through the entire chaos of the conversation.

“How,” Jed put emphasis on the word, “are you here?”

Saxi looked between the both of them. He gave them no answer. Instead, he touched a finger to his ear.

“I’ve—” He frowned suddenly, as if just realizing that he was displaying a bad habit he’d been trying to quit for a long time.

When he put his hand down, he said nothing.

Jed remained alert in the corner. “We asked you a question, Raider.”

Melmarc was surprised at that.

Did he forget what he just did to us?

Maybe Jed hadn’t. Maybe he felt that now that they were alert, it would be harder for Saxi to put them down as easily. Somehow Melmarc doubted it. If anything, Nelson would be the only one standing, in the end.

Melmarc could still feel the stat boosts that came with [Bless Your Kindness]. He felt lighter and stronger.

Saxi spared Jed a simple glance.

“C-rank,” he said casually. “Is it confidence that makes you speak the way you are or are you trying to rile yourself up?”

That was… condescending.

Jed lowered his stance, knife in hand. The Delver clearly didn’t like being talked down to. As for Naymond, he simply sighed and ran a hand down his face.

“Where’s your communications specialist?” Naymond asked like a tired superior officer.

Saxi looked at him. “I’m liking you less and less…” his words trailed off with a frown. “You’re the one that got the kid in this mess, aren’t you?”

“Such accusations!” Naymond hissed, appalled. “How dare you?”

Saxi scowled while everyone wide awake—Jude not included because he wasn’t wide awake—looked at Naymond.

“What?” Naymond looked at them. “I said it was an accusation. I didn’t say it was false.”

Nelson let out an audible sigh.

Saxi laughed. “You won’t be so cocky when you have to answer for your mistakes.”

“Nobody’s answering to any body,” Jed said. “We may not like him but he’s under our protection, and he’ll have it until our mission is complete.”

“I appreciate that,” Naymond said. “I really do. But this one’s a lot above your punching power. Mr. Lockwood, please be nice enough to tell our friends his rank?”

Saxi paused, surprised. But it was only for a moment.

Melmarc thought he would be more worried about having his rank exposed to everyone. Instead, Saxi simply stood with folded arms. He waited patiently.

Was this how S-ranks were? Confident to the point of being cocky and condescending? The Delver looked like a king waiting to have his position and authority announced to peasants who hadn’t been aware of it.

Melmarc was suddenly feeling petty.

“He’s a B-rank Weaver,” he said, looking the man pointedly in the eye.

Naymond started at that. Jed’s grip tightened on his knife.

“That would explain the speed but the lack of strength,” Jed said in assessment. “I see no problem unless he’s a self weaver.”

Weavers were known to boost one thing in exchange for another. They could make a light blue pot a deeper shade of blue at the cost of its durability. Well, it wasn’t really that precise but it worked something like that. From what Melmarc knew, there were limits.

Self weavers, however, could only do it with themselves. Reducing one of their attributes to boost another was their purview.

In the aftermath of Melmarc’s words, Naymond suddenly laughed.

“Petty,” he said. “I like that. I never thought you had it in you, especially with what’s been happening recently.”

Melmarc hadn’t thought so, too. Knocking the S-rank down a peg was nice, if he was being honest. Watching the smug look on his face fall off was surprisingly nicer than he’d thought.

“That was interesting to say the least, Mel,” Saxi said, comporting himself, “but I’m not a B-rank Weaver.”

“You’re an S-rank [Guide],” Melmarc said. “I know.”

That startled Saxi once more. It prevented him from enjoying the worried expressions that went through the faces of the others.

“S-rank?” Jude said, groggy. “What the hell’s going on?”

Saxi looked down at him.

Jude held a hand to his head.

“Yea,” he muttered. “Why’s an S-rank [Guide] here?” He looked at everyone, confused. “Am I the only one that’s worried?”

“You don’t have to be.” Naymond waved him down. “If anything, I’m the one in trouble. I kind of knew this day would come, but I’ve been praying.”

“You don’t believe in God, though,” Melmarc pointed out.

Naymond shrugged, unbothered. “Never said it was to a God.”

Saxi pointed between the both of them. “What’s going on here?”

Claire shook her head. “Don’t try to figure it out. The man’s got an odd personality and the kid speaks Naymond.”

Melmarc turned at that. “I don’t speak Naymond.”

Dissonant.

Melmarc frowned at that. The skill must be broken because he definitely did not speak Naymond.

Dissonant.

“This is getting confusing,” Saxi said with a frown. “Let everyone just calm down. We’ll wait right here.”

“So the others are already on their way?” Naymond mused. “Is Deoti with you?”

Melmarc knew Deoti. She was nice.

“Who the fuck is this guy?” Saxi was growing annoyed. He turned to Melmarc. “I thought you only met him at the mentorship program?”

Melmarc would’ve asked the same question if he didn’t already know that Naymond knew his dad.

“Careful,” Naymond said. “I’m kind of under his protection right now. It won’t be very good to go pissing him off.”

“What the hell do you mean by that?” Saxi asked.

Claire sighed. “Ignore him, please.”

Saxi did not. He took a menacing step towards Naymond. Melmarc had no idea what Naymond meant when he said he was under his protection but he found himself stepping between Saxi and Naymond. Nelson joined him.

Saxi looked up at Melmarc in the light of the glow stick.

He shivered visibly. “The resemblance is uncanny.”

“I know, right.” Naymond leaned to the side to look around Melmarc. “It’s the eyes. Would you believe me if I said, he wasn’t always like this?”

Saxi frowned at him. “You are disrespectful.”

“I think the word you are looking for is annoying. But thanks for the compliment.”

Saxi stepped forward. Melmarc fought the urge to move. Oddly, it wasn’t really much of a fight.

Saxi stopped in front of him but looked around him at Naymond. “I don’t like you. You’re cocky, and arrogant, and disrespectful. And annoying.”

And all of a sudden, too, Melmarc thought. Ever since he said he was under my protection.

What had that been about.

Saxi pulled up to a stop suddenly.

“You!” he pointed a finger at Naymond.

Naymond smiled. “Me.”

Saxi groaned and stepped back in annoyance. “You’re the Prisoner of War.”

Naymond’s lips pressed into a thin line. It wasn’t quite a frown, but it was something. It was an expression Melmarc didn’t think he had seen before.

“Don’t you need official permission to change stewardship?” Saxi continued. “From the little I know, you haven’t gotten any. You can’t just—”

Saxi clamped his mouth shut so suddenly it was as if someone had shocked him.

“There’s still much you don’t know,” Naymond said through his teeth. “So I’d say that you’re lucky someone was quick to shut you up before you continued.”

Everyone looked at Naymond. This time it wasn’t because of something unreasonable he had said but something outrageous he had done.

He had practically talked down on an S-rank Gifted as if he was talking to a child that had annoyed him.

Around the room, everyone was growing wary.

“From here on out,” Naymond folded his arms in defiance, “I will speak only to your commanding officer. And you will speak only to mine.”

Saxi gritted his teeth. “And who is your commanding officer?”

“Melmarc Lockwood.”

Melmarc’s interface appeared in front of him.

[Player requests Sanctuary of the Oath.]

[Sanctuary Designation: Prisoner of War.]

[Oath right falls under the purview of War.]

[Oath of War not detected.]

…

[As an August Intruder you are currently granted partial Oath rights to your world.]

[You meet the qualifications to grant a Guest or Intruder temporary sanctuary.]

[Would you like to grant Player sanctuary?]

[Y/N?]

What the hell?