Uriel spent most of his time away from the rest of the group, even from the good willed Luna. His last encounter with her left him with a heavy heart and he was too tired to even care about socializing.

The soldiers made a campfire and everyone and secured the area giving the students a few moments to eat properly. They took out their lunchboxes from their backpacks and started eating as they chatted merrily.

Uriel, though, didn't have enough money for a proper meal. All he had for breakfast, lunch and dinner was instant noodles. Vegetables and meat were a luxury most second class citizens couldn't afford, but he was content with his meal as it had most of the nutrients a person should need.

After heating up some water he started slurping his noodles, making a sound that seemingly bothered the pretty girl in front of him. Luna sat besides him despite his bad manners and she quickly attempted to start a conversation with him. Her droopy eyes and sleepy face gave the impression that she would prefer to keep to herself, but instead she was really talkative, something Uriel didn't appreciate much.

It wasn't that he preferred to eat alone, but he was too used to eating by himself and didn't know any better.

Still, the young girl relentlessly talked to him receiving only monosyllables in reply until she finally mentioned something that piqued his interest.

"Do you know why are those creatures called cryptids and not monsters, aliens or beasts?" She said insistently.

"No, why?" He replied.

"No one really knows where did they came from, that's why they can't call them alien. For all we know they could have been always dwelling somewhere underground, in fact, there was extensive lore about them even before they appeared. Take the horned rabbits by example, there had been many sightings of them." She said excitedly.

"Uh, I've heard about that too but I thought it was just rabbits that failed to file their ever growing teeth until eventually they pierced their skulls." Uriel replied.

"Well... that is... that's actually true, but that's precisely what's odd about it. You see, even though they found many of those cases, the existence of true horned rabbits could never be disproven."

"That's not how science work. You don't go disproving stuff that doesn't exist to begin with, you seek for an explanation and proof of existence, not the other way around." Uriel replied.

"That would be true in most cases, but on my line of work..."

"What's your line of work?" He interrupted her asking in honest curiosity.

"Well... I want to be a cryptozoologist."

"A what now?" his eyes widened at the same time the sun started to set.

"It's the study of the animals that remain undiscovered, like Nessie or the Kraken." Her face remained sleepy as it was and only her tone of voice betrayed her excitement when mentioning those creatures.

"I remember now, isn't cryptozoology a pseudo science?" Uriel muttered placing his hand over his chin in deep thought.

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"Pseudo science!?" For a brief second Uriel thought he caught a glimpse of anger in Luna's face under the dim light of the campfire. "How can you call the science that studies cryptids a pseudo science, when cryptids are now scourging the earth? Do you even understand why this operations are called incursions? It's because we're not on human territory anymore, this is their home now and we are the ones intruding." Her voice raised up to a volume and the rest of the group was able to hear her clearly.

The coward student came near and sat besides Uriel and the cute girl Uriel saw before followed suit and sat besides Luna.

"I heard that too, that those creatures took over the southern hemisphere. Some even say they came from the south pole and that's the only reason why we are still standing. I'm Sam by the way." He was friendly and he seemed truly interested in the subject, but Uriel still felt awkward near so many people.

"I said this before but no one really knows where did they come from, about the south hemisphere I don't know anything about that. I do, however, know a lot about cryptids, both my parents were cryptozoologist back when the cryptids were only a myth, a legend." Luna said, much to Uriel's surprise, she was calm as before and it made him believe that maybe he was just imagining things.

They were deeply curious about what she had to say, but she remained silent. Sam and the cute girl spoke to each other from their respective spots while Uriel and Luna remained silent, and both felt very annoyed but couldn't move without being impolite.

When the alarm sounded again the soldier shot his flaregun and flares lit up the night sky drawing a much smaller circle than before signalling that they were much closer to the center than when they started. The students fell silent and watched them with awe, they looked a lot more impressive during night time when they were able to display the full extent of their brightness.

"There's something wrong..." Sam said watching the same spectacle as the rest of them. Instead of awe, his face was stiff and his hands trembled. "There's a flare missing." He said after gulping down a clump of saliva.

Although his words seemed grim, the group remained the same. They didn't believe that someone would be able to count the flares in the sky in so little time, and even if he was right, it could mean a lot of different things.

"Maybe their flaregun is missing or broken." Uriel tried to comfort Sam and they quickly dismissed the matter.

"Hey Luna, can you tell us what cryptids from the old times have been found?" Uriel asked, half in honest curiosity and half trying to change the subject.

"Yes! There's quite a few actually. There's gnomes, fairies, horned rabbits as you saw them, giant spiders, I think someone reported a two headed dog. But the most common cryptids are actually unknown, that's precisely why I came here. If I manage to get a strong trait I might be able to explore the world and prove for once that cryptozoology has always been a proper field of study." Now that Uriel was paying close attention to her words he realized that she spoke unusually slow.

It had gone over his head because most of the time she spoke shortly, but now that she talked for a bit longer it became evident and, also, very annoying.

He wished for her to finish speaking, but he couldn't interrupt her without being impolite.

"Why do you think the government doesn't share that information with the citizens?" The cute girl asked Luna, but it was Sam who answered.

"I know... It's because they don't want panic to spread. My dad works in the government, a low position, but he still knows a great deal more than the others do."

"But still, there should be some information on the internet or something! It's just not possible for a whole hemisphere to disappear without the rest of the world knowing." The cute girl didn't believe a word of what Sam had to say.

"Has it ever happened to you that you that an internet site that you really loved disappeared on you? simply vanished! well, those sites are hosted on physical servers. What do you think happens when a physical server gets destroyed? the site simply vanishes." Sam's words were scary, not just because they had experienced it often enough at an increasing rate over the years, but also because now it made more sense why he was so scared.

They all understood that Sam knew something they didn't and that was enough for them to shiver in fear.

"I disagree," Said Luna. "I mean, I don't know about any vanishing sites, but there's a lot of information and lore about cryptids on the internet."

"Like what?" The cute girl nudged on Luna's side in a friendly manner, prompting her to speak again.

"Back then, there were a few sightings of a slender creature, tall and shadowy that crept around these places. Its height was fearsome and it looked like a man, but its proportions were all wrong. With long fingers and a fashionable suit, the creature was called... the Slenderman."

The shadow of the night seemed even darker and Luna's sleepy face now seemed creepy and distorted under the campfire light.