Darkness.

That was all Kyros saw, even when he regained consciousness after an allotted amount of time. He felt a warm, soft sensation over his eyes, mouth, and hands. It was the fabric used as his blindfold, mouth gag, and hand restraints.

His hearing was the only thing that wasn't restricted. That was all he could do. He focused his attention on listening.

Hasty footsteps followed up with the vexing creaking of the wooden floor. It suddenly stopped.

Eventually, he sensed a presence in front of him. A hand reached out and lifted the blindfold over his eyes. There stood his captors, Runa das Meer and Sarra Zosime.

Runa carried her spear tightly in her hand, holding the blade dangerously close to Kyros' neck. He could feel it. The cold, polished steel lightly pricking the flesh of his neck. Blood trickled down the edge of the spear.

“Let me make something very clear to you. If you try anything, and I do mean ANYTHING, that I don’t like. I promise you that I’ll drive this blade through your neck.”

Kyros nearly suffocated underneath the immense pressure of killing intent that the Huntress exerted from her body. It was like over a thousand needles had pierced his body. Throughout his years in the military, he had grown accustomed to glares and feelings of killing intent. But, there was something about her gaze that sent a chill down his spine.

She made it no secret that she was the one in charge. Kyros had no control at that point. He was at their mercy.

Eventually, Runa stepped aside and allowed her partner to approach the man. “I’m going to remove your gag now. Please don’t shout or try to escape.” Sarra said as she nervously drew her shaky hands close to the mouth gag. She quickly removed it then moved away.

“Can I get some water? My throat’s a little dry after being knocked out…again…” Kyros said, feeling somewhat groggy. His head throbbed in pain from the blunt force trauma he suffered earlier.

Runa seemed discontent with the idea of giving in to his demands. Kyros immediately figured that he failed with his first tactic. But, after looking over to Sarra, he realized that it had worked after all.

Sarra seemed to be the most sympathetic out of the two.

She nervously looked around everywhere expect at Kyros. She struggled to decide on whether to accept the request. Thankfully, she gave in. She rushed over to the kitchen area, grabbed a cup of water, then returned over to the couple. She inched closer and closer to the man. The cup of water was very unsteady in her hands. Most of it spilled onto the floor.

Just when it was close to Kyros’ mouth, Runa held her arm out in front of the little girl to stop her. “Don’t give him any water, Sarra. Depending on how this turns out he might not need it.”

“Is that a threat?” Kyros looked up and stared the Huntress right in the eye.

“More like a promise if you don’t answer all my questions,” She pulled up a chair nearby and took a seat. Her sharp, cold glare never left Kyros. “First, start off by telling us who you are and what you want.”

“My name’s Kyros Aleister. Captain of the fifth recon unit that serves under General Zofia’s army. And what I want is to get out of here.”

What followed his sarcastic remark was swift, yet painful.

Runa's fist greeted Kyros’ face. His head snapped back—blood dripped out from his nose as he glared fiercely at the Huntress. Had it not been for the restraints binding his hands together, he wouldn’t have hesitated to pay her back for the cheap shot.

“That’s one strike against you. Two more of those and then you’re done. Don’t be a smart-ass.” She ordered, returning the glare.

“That was a swear word, Runa,” Sarra called out to her partner.

Runa signaled for the little girl to keep her mouth shut as she continued to speak, “Moving on, why were you eavesdropping on our conversation earlier and how much of it did you hear?”

“I didn’t intentionally try to listen. I was up there earlier speaking with the landlord of this building,” Kyros answered, “Unfortunately, I overheard everything you two were talking about.”

“So, you know what we are,” She extended her arm out and opened her palm. Kyros shut his eyes closed and turned his head away. An odd reaction for a military soldier. "Why're you closing your eyes? Open them."

"No." Kyros refused, knowing exactly what he'd see if he did.

"Open them," demanded Runa as she slammed the blade of her spear into the floor. Fear seeped into Kyros' body. He wasn't in any position to refuse the demands of his captors. Against his wishes, he slowly opened his eyes and stared at the palm of Runa's hand.

Engraved on her palm was the number eighteen.

Kyros shook his head and sighed, dreading the sight of the mark on the woman's hand.

"You can see it, can't you?" Sarra inquired.

"If you can, then that means you're just like us. Ordinary humans can't see the Brand." Runa declared as she retracted her hand. "You're an Exousia."

She had done it. She brought up a topic that Kyros had wished to avoid at all costs.

Inevitable it was. A secret as major as his could never stay buried forever.

"If you went unnoticed on that rooftop, what were you planning to do concerning our identities? Tell your military about us?" Runa moved her spear to Kyros' chest. With it, she poked the medallion.

An intense rage swelled up inside of Kyros. Despite his restraints, he leaned forward and snapped, "Don't touch my medallion!"

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Runa pointed her weapon at the man's face while Sarra moved her hand to her dagger. Tension swirled around the room. The group anxiously waited for one another to make a move.

Time passed in complete silence. No one attempted to make any aggressive movements. None of them were looking for a fight, but it was wise always to be prepared for one.

The group eventually settled down, albeit with great difficulty.

Runa lowered her weapon and sighed. She had to admit that the military man had grit, snapping at her like that despite his current position and situation. The medallion was essential to Kyros. That much she understood. She made a mental note not to mess with it again.

A fight against a military officer was the last thing she wanted, especially with Sarra nearby. Unfortunately, as time passed, it looked like that's how things would go down. Things progressed too smoothly in her favor.

Her captive hadn't attempted to escape by activating his powers or his Praus. Besides when Kyros snapped at her; he remained calm and collected. She couldn't let her guard down around him.

Not again.

It was thanks to her blunder, her negligence, that she and Sarra were in a precarious situation in the first place. Her time in Soteria must've dulled her senses of awareness.

Now that their secret was out, the best option was just to abort the mission and leave the country as soon as possible. If Runa let Kyros go, then their lives would be in grave danger. That was a fact.

Runa couldn’t trust him. She wouldn’t trust him.

The quickest route to salvation would’ve been to kill him. Soteria was a massive country. There were plenty of places to hide a body. If not for Sarra; Runa would’ve chosen that as Plan A.

"I repeat, what'd you plan to do if you went unnoticed on that rooftop?" Runa asked.

"I would've investigated you. You're both Exousia after all. I couldn't let you both go free without knowing your intentions here." Kyros answered with a monotone voice.

"Our intentions?" Sarra asked.

"You two are here to help deal with the Varvara and nothing more, right?" Kyros answered with a question of his own.

"Yeah." Runa nodded her head.

"If that's the case, then I see no reason to out any of you to the military or the public."

The tension in the room slowly dissipated. Neither Runa or Sarra ever expected to come across someone willing to keep their identities a secret, especially another Exousia. Kyros had nothing to gain from keeping their secret. In fact, if he outed them, he'd gain the upper hand and have the entire country on their asses.

"Runa," Sarra approached her partner and tapped the blue-haired woman on the shoulder. "Do you think that he doesn't want to..." She stopped when Runa shook her head.

Unlike her partner, Runa wasn't too quick to change her mind about the man. From her perspective, the man was using a tactic. She wouldn't be fooled.

“Next question, what're your powers and what've you been doing with them for the past seven years?” Runa continued with the interrogation, not easing up for a moment. Not until she was convinced that the man didn't pose a threat to them.

“Can't this interrogation go both ways? I’ve already given you information about me. So, how about you give me some information about you?” Kyros suggested.

In response to the suggestion, Runa chalked it up as a second strike. She punched him in the face again. His head snapped back so far that he nearly fell over in the chair. Runa reached her arm out and returned him to his previous position.

“Strike two. One more and you’re done.” Runa warned him. Her tone was angrier than the last time. “You already know more information about us than anyone else in this kingdom. Don’t get cocky.”

Kyros groaned in pain then spat out some blood onto the floor. “I have the power to perceive future events before they happen. Precognition.”

“Precognition?” Runa exclaimed. She tossed her hands up into the air then shook her head, letting out a frustrated groan. She couldn’t even begin to process how irritated she was. Out of all the powers in the world for someone to have, the man before her had the power of precognition.

It wasn’t fair.

There was no telling how overpowered he was when compared to other Exousia. If that was indeed his power, then there lied the possibility that he foresaw the meeting between them long before it happened.

It certainly explained why he appeared so calm. Kyros must’ve prepped himself.

How long ago? When? Was he prepared from the beginning?

Runa didn’t know. She couldn’t know. As far as she was concerned, Kyros was too dangerous to have around. She couldn’t continue with the interrogation anymore. She wanted to end it as soon as possible.

She stood from her chair and prepared to strike him down with the spear.

“I should’ve expected as much from a single digit. Of course, you’d get blessed with a power that outclasses the rest of us; you’re the First Exousia after all.” She coldly told him.

Years of anger and frustration swelled inside of Kyros. That title—the First Exousia—it was a position that granted much strife for him over the years.

“Don’t call me that,” Kyros ordered.

It wasn’t the smartest thing to do—ordering around someone that held him captive. But, he wasn’t in the right frame of mind.

He despised his title. It reminded him of the curse placed upon him by that vile woman seven years ago.

Runa sensed his frustration and slowly lowered her weapon down to her side. “The number one is engraved in the palm of your hand, right? Or was I mistaken when I checked?”

“No. You’re right. I’ll admit. I’m an Exousia,” He began, “My Exousia Brand is number one. However, I don’t want to be associated with the Exousia. I’m nothing like them. I don’t want to have any part in this sick and twisted game orchestrated by that vile, faux Goddess.”

He had done it.

He revealed himself as one of the supernatural beings that plagued Salome for seven years. Never had he spoken such words aloud to anyone, not even to himself. He believed that if he never thought of it, never talked about it; then it would eventually become a reality.

But, as his luck would have it, nothing worked.

Everything started seven years ago, on any other regular day. The day suddenly turned to night—no—that wasn’t right. It’d be best to say that darkness befell the planet and obscured the sun.

Then, down from the sky rained spheres of light. Those that touched them suffered a terrible fate. The spheres of light absorbed through their skin and entered their bodies.

Kyros recalled the intense, burning sensation in his body at that time. He thought that he would’ve melted from the inside out. Next thing he knew, he wasn’t even in his country. Or rather, he wasn’t even on Salome anymore.

He was in space. No, there were no stars. Not a single glimmer of light existed in that place. It was a void.

In that void, there were others. Kyros called out to them, but none answered. There was also no detail on them. They were all silhouettes.

Things only continued to get stranger once a large woman appeared before his very eyes, sitting on a throne with seven other people standing by her feet. She called herself Shura, the Goddess of Creation, the overseer of the world.

She said that she wanted a successor and that those in the void were candidates for her throne. It was then at that moment that she gave everyone one specific order.

Kill.

The Goddess of Creation, the one responsible for saving the world from sure extinction thousands of years ago in myths and religion, gave the order to kill. Not just anyone, though. Each other. She wanted her candidates to kill the other people that stood in that void.

It was asinine.

Without giving anyone a chance to speak, Shura returned everyone to their world. At first, Kyros wished it all to be just a dream. But, it wasn’t.

He found the number one engraved on his left hand and the number one-hundred and fifty on the other. Then suddenly after that, visions of events that he had no recollection of flashed through his mind at random moments.

Since he didn’t want any part of it, he ignored them. He moved about his day, acting as if everything was normal.

Days would pass. Weeks. Months. Years.

Not a single day went by where people wouldn’t hear about people with supernatural abilities killing others.

Villages, towns, cities, countries. All types of civilizations were either taken over or destroyed by those beings. Eventually, those people were labeled as Exousia.

That word. Exousia. In that country or perhaps all around the world, it was a word that was synonymous with a slaughterer.