"Everything and everyone is connected."

The towering clock of the city indicated 23:00 at night, yet outside was just evening. Director Visderfis thought at first that the clock might be broken, but after a few minutes, when she looked again, it showed the correct hour, 20:12. An ominous feeling passed down her spine, but it didn't last long.

"Have you finally decided to come back?" she asked in the empty space. When no one responded, she threw a pen in a corner of the room. And sure enough, it stopped before reaching the wall.

"Sharp as always," a masculine voice echoed in the room as the stealth technique hiding the intruder slowly faded away, revealing his body.

"Is this all you have to say after abandoning your duties for a whole year?" Visderfis asked with a tone filled with anger.

'Abandoning my duties? My job here was the least of my worries, and you know it,' Azar said in his mind.

Director Visderfis was a women in her forties, one of the beauties of her generation. A shame that she chose such difficult carrier where she had to be careful at every step. She was the director of the Law Enforcing Tower, the institution in charge of the law and order in Lefeer kingdom.

She did all she could, but the corruption and hateful means of some nobles had deep roots even in her tower. The Underground Activities Division was the only department that she fully trusted. And while it was made only from loyal and strong people, it was still to weak to contend with the threat faced by the kingdom.

"Have you became a mute? Why aren't you answering me?" Visderfis insisted while getting up from her seat.

"I forgot the candies," Azar hit his forehead acting like he came to a sudden realization. His behavior making the director throw away her act and even laugh a little.

"You rascal," said the director opening her arms. She wasn't angry at the young man, but happy that he returned alive.

After hugging each other and exchanging pleasantries, the director started the discussion by interrogating Azar about his time spent away. She wasn't aware about the destination of his year long vacation, or why he needed to leave back then.

Unfortunately for her, most of Azar's answers were his usual line, "It is a part from your surprise." And even though his words exasperated the her, she knew that she couldn't make the young man talk.

"How are things going with the other agents?" Azar asked about his division colleagues. His question however, made Visderfis' smile to fade away.

"Erico, Fionna, Aurin, and Karp died on duty," she answered, heart heavy.

There were a total of twelve agents that made field missions in the Underground Division. All personally picked and trained by Visderfis.

Before she came to be the director of the whole tower, she formed her own division with trustworthy people that could protect her back. Azar wasn't part of the initial twelve agents, but joined later when one of them died.

He and Visderfis had similar values that treasured honesty and loyalty more then anything. When Azar was recruited back then, he despised the kingdom, yet without knowing his true name or origin, even without bothering to find out, Visderfis helped him cover his tracks and avoid the persecution of the army. Slowly, she became one of his mentors and managed to show him the good people and beautiful part of the kingdom.

Because Azar gathered valuable information with the help of Midnight and his [Mind Reading] technique, he was able to contribute to Visderfis' plans even before becoming an official agent.

And later, when a spot was opened, his strength won him a place among the twelve. Not that he really participated in many missions, but his abilities were of much need.

Before Azar left, he already became an important pillar for the director. Not because of his successful missions, but because of his utility and efficiency.

Now, because of his absence, he should've lost his place if another person proved loyalty and capabilities. But Azar didn't expect that the number of his colleagues would instead decrease to such level.

"How did they died actually? They were all at least [rank A] combat cultivators and their missions should've been only in the kingdom's territory," Azar said, touched by the shocking situation.

The missions of the agents were attributed according to the experience and combat rank, so there shouldn't be that many mistakes. What the agents usually did were espionage missions, target protection missions, and information gathering, the high risk missions were given only to those with [S rank] combat power. And that's no one with a higher combat power in the kingdom.

"Ambushed," the director replied. "The whole division is targeted and now we must be extremely careful of who we sent and where. I'm not sure if your identity as an agent is known, but you need to be careful as well."

"Who is strong enough to target an entire division of the tower? The agents aren't lone wolves, we have resources and assistance from the whole kingdom," Azar said. He was totally at a loss of words.

The division used the resources and connection of the whole Law Enforcing Tower.What kind of organisation could threaten even the core of the kingdom without being exterminated? Visderfis didn't respond with words, but gave Azar a meaningful look.

"Kaden? His organization really managed to grow so big? What's the king doing?" Azar asked infuriated.

Kaden was the little brother of the Emperor. He was sent to Lefeer Kingdom for "strengthen the friendly relationship" between the kingdom and the empire, but all he did since he came was to corrupt the other nobles and plant his roots everywhere.

His goal seemed to be the fall of the kingdom, and both Visderfis and the king were aware of that. For years, the director fought to gather evidence for the king so that Kaden could be expelled from the kingdom. The King couldn't act without evidence because he risked the full attack of the empire, so he was put in a difficult situation.

Visderfis sacrificed a lot for the kingdom, even her family as she hid the identity of her husband and daughter and avoided any obvious connection. But her efforts were in vain as she didn't manage to gather solid evidence that connected Kaden with the crimes and atrocities from the kingdom.

He had enough cold blood to even dispose of his most trusted aids in order to keep himself clean. He was a smart person, and a troublesome trojan horse.

"The king can do nothing. I'm the only one who can do something, but I can't manage to find enough evidence. And everytime I am close to something, the lead disappears, or my people get killed," Visderfis said sadly. "I didn't want to ask for the help of external forces, but recently I feel more and more inclined to do so as I don't have another alternative."

"What external help?"

The director laid her back against the sofa and let out a sigh. "There's another organization that operates in the kingdom's territory and seems quite powerful. I'm thinking to ask for an alliance," she said with a tiredness coming from her spirit. "That, if I manage to find them."

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"Midnight?" Azar asked almost biting his tongue.

". . .yes." Visderfis confirmed his assumption.

Azar felt like slapping his forehead. For real this time. The problem was that he instructed his people to make copies of all the relevant documents and evidence about their targets, and establish a connection with the director. That was before he left. Why did Jormot chose to not listen to his order?

'What a mess!' Azar yelled inside his head.

"I can help you with that," he said trying to calm down while looking at the ceiling.

Visderfirs turned her head lazily. "Do you know how to find them?" she asked raising an eyebrow, her oval face not showing her actual age at all.

"I will sent a message to one of their members and you can meet tomorrow night to discuss things. They usually announce the hour and place of the meeting with a letter, so pay attention to what you receive." Azar instructed.

"Are you serious?" Visderfis asked. "How did you manage to find them? Or did they found you?"

". . . we found each other," Azar, replied. "By the way, I observed the same device on many people wrists, what is it actually?"

The director touched her communication device. "This? Is a newly made invention that facilitates the communication at distance. Unfortunately, has a fixed area of functioning," she explained, aware by the fact that Azar was away at the time when the device was given for use. "Let's do it this way, I'll find a proper one for you by the time we meet again, how does it sound?"

"You still haven't passed the stage of immediately paying back the debts?" Azar shook his head. The women in front of him couldn't sleep peacefully if she didn't settle the bills.

Visderfis laughed, her hand covering her mouth in a delicate manner. She could feel safe, and relax only around the few persons whom she fully trusted. Azar felt proud thinking that he was such a person.

Under the cover of the night, their chatting continued for a few good hours, until Azar received a telepathic message.

"Forgive me! We'll talk another time, I have and emergency," he said getting up from the sofa and stepping forward.

Visderfis remained alone in her office and slowly went to finish her paperwork, accustomed with Azar's way of coming and leaving. The protective arrays surrounding the tower were like nonexistent for him.

. . .

The message received by Azar was from Damon, and sounded like a distress signal, so Azar traveled as fast as he could.

Around a hundred meters below the streets of Oriol City, Damon fought desperately to assure the safety of his squad. The Midnight squad commanded by him for the night executed a mission in the underground tunnels after Markos discovered signs of unusual activities.

In short, a tunnel happened to pass right below his mansion and he felt disturbed during his meditation. Making a simple report for Midnight to find what happened under his residence, he was unaware of the magnitude of his discovery.

Midnight's intelligence gathering department discovered the blueprints of the tunnels in the kingdom's archives and being a difficult zone, Director Jormot sent an experienced squad.

While leading his team, Damon discovered the presence of humanoid creatures that worked on building something in the tunnels. He didn't want to engage at first, but the situation changed when his group was discovered with the help of an artifact.

Caught in a tough situation as the retreat path was blocked, Damon didn't hesitate to sent a mental signal to all his allies that could sense it.

His knives took flight in every direction, providing support for his squad as he faced a formidable opponent by himself.

Damon's opponent, as well as many of the enemies, wasn't human, but a reko with bluish-gray skin.

With a knife emitting a dark halo in each hand, the Midnight Lord tried to avoid his direct opponent as much as possible and reduce the numbers of his enemies. This strategy was implied in order to make it easier for his squad to resist. Every life mattered for Midnight as capable individuals weren't find on the streets.

"Six Ravens!" Damon cried as six black birds made from nightshade poison emerged from his shadow and dashed at his direct opponent, exploding on his body.

The blasts weren't that powerful, but a strange thing happened. The energy resulted from the explosions got absorbed into the reko's body. It wasn't just a coincidence as it was the true effect of the skill.

[ ACKNOWLEDGED! Nightshade Poison

A potent toxin of the dark element that can induce temporary paralysis or lethargy in the victims and absorbs their life force. ]

"Bastard!" yelled the reko fighting against the toxin draining his life force.

'Good, he'll be out for a little,' Damon said focusing on the battlefield and wielding his flying knives all over the place.

"Decaying Wind!" he clapped his hands, releasing forth a powerful wind that not only sent the incoming enemies away, but deteriorated their weapons, disintegrated their protective energy shields and attacked their bodies.

But Damon didn't have the free time to enjoy his work as he activated [Shadowmeld]. His body becoming a black mist, intangible for a short while, and avoiding the sharp claws that cut through the air where his body was just a moment ago.

Not staying on ceremonies, Damon rapidly moved inside the shadow world and the black mist disappeared from the spot. Knives came flying at the reko, but he didn't bothered with them. They recoiled after hitting his skin, not leaving even a single trace.

The reko stood in place until Damon emerged from the shadow of a Midnight member. In that second, the reko yelled, "Renaj imme!", and his axe struck the ground, unleashing a huge attack in his target's direction.

Damon was forced to use his [Shadowmeld] to escape again, but the member of Midnight perished together with the enemies he faced. The reko's attack destroyed everything in its path, including the large wall between the tunnels. He fought without any concern for the place they were currently in, or for the people in his own camp.

Losing another member of his squad made Damon change his tactic and focus solely on his opponent. Making a hand sign, four shadows appeared in four locations before he transformed into an identical one and ordered in a sober voice.

"Shadow Kill!"

The five shadows disappeared at the same time and each of them slashed at the reko from the void. Deep and black cuts started to appear on his body as he screamed from the pain and waved his blood axe trying to stop the attack.

Each wound left on the reko's body was filled with nightshade poison that drained his life force.

Damon's shadow appeared a few meters away and his body regained his shape and physicality. The reko remained on the spot, his blood red energy fighting with the toxin as he supported himself with the help of his axe.

Two knives appeared in Damon's hands as he dashed to finish his opponent. The reko's body was covered in blood, his life force definitely consumed, so he should've been an easy target. But when Damon appeared to deliver the final blow, the blood covering the bluish-gray skin soared and penetrated his body.

Damon's defensive energy layer wasn't strong enough to block all the attacks as he was pierced by more then ten blood blades. The reko smiled, his hand moving to grab the human's neck. Damon became an intangible black smoke again and escaped his predicament.

"Hahaha!" Laughed the reko standing up. "You weren't that fast a moment ago," he said when Damon appeared a considerable distance away.

"Reko?!" Azar voice sounded near his brother's ear. His sudden appearance making Damon attack from a reflex. He just didn't expect for his reinforcements to arrive in such manner.

"Easy!" said Azar blocking the knife.

Damon gave him a quick gaze before asking. "They from the same race you spoke about?"

"Exactly."

Not waiting any longer, Azar's energy erupted forward as the air around him carried a hard breathable coldness.

"Domain of Eternal Ice!" He activated his elemental domain skill.

The energy coming from his body spreading in pulsing waves, and with the exception of the Midnight members, it turned everything into solid ice.

This immediately strengthened the tunnel's structure and considerably slowed the rekos. Even though they didn't freeze as they had the protection of their inner energy, they felt the cold and the sharp pain it created.

"Can you fight?" Azar asked his wounded brother. Two squad members died before he arrived at the scene and more were wounded, including Damon. So he needed to finish things quickly.

"All day long," answered Damon before gulping down a bottle of potion and increasing the energy shield protecting his body.

"Then leave none alive," Azar voiced before stepping forward and disappearing from the spot.

A moment later, a muffled explosion echoed in the tunnel as Azar's hook connected with the reko's face sending him in the spikes erected from the wall of ice.

The reko screamed as his body was pierced by some of them. A flying knife, controlled by Damon, flew to penetrate the back of the his head and claim his life.

'Don't kill him,' Azar voice sounded inside Damon's head just in time for him to stop the knife a few centimeters away from the target. He didn't need to think when Azar said something, he always needed to be ready to execute an order instantly.

This applied to Azar and all the seven brothers. If one transmitted something, the rest only had a fraction of a second to react. And they didn't need more time as their coordination and understanding of each other was high enough to achieve that.

Between the shards of ice and chaos of techniques that ravaged the tunnel, appeared a streak of light that clashed with a reko and propelled his burning body like a cannon shell. Beyond the strong light appeared Markos' silhouette who didn't stop in place, but moved in search of another target.

[ Reko

Humanoid race coming from the outer space when a cataclysmic explosion breached the natural spacetime shield of the planet creating an interdimensional portal.

Living place: Somewhere in the Forsaken Lands

Characteristics: thick gray skin (reptilian pattern), black irises with red or black sclera, red lines on their bodies and face, soulless (unable to feel emotions), natural fighters with strong inner energy inheriting their powers from their bloodline genes, no evolution potential over their lifetimes, inclined for war, dominant race, find a liking in pranks and other creatures suffering.

Energy:

- blood red, used by those with warrior blood

- black, used by the more intellectual high bloods ]