Catalyst
Terra Firma, the Satellite known for its vast rock fields and seemingly endless desert. The desert dunes span in every direction, varying in size from some that appear mountainous while others stand only a few feet tall. The heat of the Sun beamed down on the sands, creating a mirage-like effect on the horizon. Through the heat’s haze, a plum of sand could be seen forming as a vehicle made its way through the desert. This was Enzo, who had driven throughout the night and was close to reaching his destination. His speedometer was a circular panel light that indicated his bike was in 6th gear, traveling at 76 miles per hour. An icon shaped like a house was also just below the gear number. As he cruised through the desert dunes, he tapped on the home icon, bringing him to a page of several features including, a map, a phone, radio, and a speed gauge. Enzo went into the map and saw a black, grid with a shortening green line stemming from a matching dot ahead. After seeing how close he’s getting, Enzo went back to his speedometer and began to decelerate until he downshifted his bike into 5th gear.
Several minutes later, Enzo slowed down to a stop and looked ahead with excitement. He flipped the starter switch, causing the hover panels to gradually decrease their output until the hovercraft was rested on the sand. From there, Enzo steps off of his bike and walks forward to the edge of a giant ravine that winds and spans to either side of the horizon. Enzo looks down the mile deep walls to see a wide, sparkling, clear river running through the canyon’s base, which serves as the area’s namesake - Crystal River Canyon. Patches of grass, some small, some tall, dot along the river’s bay as far as Enzo could see and continue to do so up the lower regions of the chasm walls. A few short acacia trees also curved out from a few spots in the grass closer to the cliff face. Even a variety of flowers popped up in some spots around the bay of the river.
“Wow, I… I can’t believe I’m really here. Everyone said it was beautiful, but seeing this is something else.” Enzo admired aloud as he looked at the lush nature of the canyon. “Plus, I can sense a decent amount of Fragments down there.” he added with a sly hint coming to his smile. While he was standing there, Enzo scanned the rock wall to see if there was any kind of path down to the river. ‘Yeah, I’m not seeing any way down there, and I’m already gonna have to stop for some more fuel, so I don’t wanna drive up and down to find one…’ Enzo trailed off, considering his options. ‘Well, I guess I only have one option.’ he settled with a shrug. Once he decided on that, Enzo made his way over to his Glider while he removed the sword on his back with his right hand. As soon as he was back to his vehicle, he opened the saddle bag on the machine’s left side. From inside, Enzo brought out a lumpy, tied pouch and pulled its knot loose. The same assured smirk returns as a rainbow of light shines on his face. Inside sit several Fragments cut like baguettes but more squared, with many of them being orange while others have various colors. The first one that Enzo took out was one of the orange ones.
Orange Fragments are commonly known as Foundation Fragments. These provide physical enhancements to the human body, like improvements to speed, durability, or strength. Enzo placed the crystal in the slot on the right side of his sword.
The next two that Enzo selected were green and gray, Elemental Fragments.
Elemental Fragments come in an array of eleven colors, and, of course, every color coordinates with a specific attribute. He paired the jade colored crystal with the orange one, inserting it into the notch on the other side of the same sword. Now that both sockets were full, Enzo set his sword in the sand so that it was leaning against his Glider.
“Why are my swords sitting in the sand like some crappy brooms?” “Well, guess what?! Now, I am doubling my maintenance fee!” Celeste’s voice replayed in Enzo’s head.
“On second thought…” Enzo reconsidered before returning his sword to his back. Next, Enzo took the sword from his left hip and put his gray Fragment in the groove on the blade’s right side.
The final Fragment Enzo picked was a lilac one.
A lilac Fragment indicates that it was manufactured synthetically. These were produced by scientists who studied Fragments and their energy output. In time, they were able to replicate something similar and used this to expand on the abilities they could access. Naturally, Enzo put it in the remaining slot before he went to the edge of the Canyon again. Despite staring down over the cliff with a smile, a bit of sweat had started to form as he looked at the drop below.
“Alright, here goes something.” Enzo hoped. After that, he backed up a few steps before he stopped to take a deep breath. Then, he tightened the sword on his back into his right hand and went charging toward the edge only to throw himself over the cliff.
From the perspective across the ravine, Enzo looks small in comparison to the rock wall behind him. At the canyon base, Enzo’s fall seems slow, but for him, the wind feels like its rushing up past him. Growing closer and closer to the ground, Enzo finally clutched his sword with both hands. He pulled back over his right shoulder and the gray crystal began to shine. In the following seconds, the wind blowing past him seemed to concentrate until it formed into a small jet stream. Enzo let out a loud shout as he slashed at the ground, creating a powerful updraft that caught him and lifted him back up a bit. To Enzo’s surprise, the rising wind made him start front flipping. Another shaky, panicked scream came from Enzo while he turned over and over before landing flat on his back with a solid thud. For a moment, Enzo just lied in place as he uttered a long, strained groan.
“So glad I chose a Reinforce Fragment…” Enzo murmured. Then, he slowly sat himself up until he leaned back with his hands to the ground to support him. “Not my brightest idea, but, hey, it worked.” he admitted. Seeing the canyon base up close brought Enzo’s smile back in full force, to the point where he let out an excited squeal prior to practically springing to his feet. He took a deep breath before closing his eyes. Through the darkness of his eyelids, Enzo’s mind could visualize a white outline of the landscape as well as the glow and depth of each Fragment ahead of him, with a red one in front of him while the rest were across the river. Upon opening his eyes, the glow remained in sight, so Enzo walked forward to start excavating. Enzo flipped his right sword so that his grip on its handle was reversed. Then, he stabbed the sword into the ground and a red crystal popped out of the ground, making it up to Enzo’s excited face before splitting in two. “Amazing…” Enzo sarcastically remarked as he stared down at the halves at his feet. After a disappointed sigh, Enzo dropped to his right knee and picked the split Fragment up. “Well, it won’t be worth as much, but something’s better than nothing.” he coped. He put the broken crystal in his pouch and then took a moment to swap the Foundation Fragment in his right sword with one of the same color. As soon as that was done, Enzo stepped back until he was close to the rock wall. He got a running start before he leapt clear over the river, jumping more than 250 feet across while reaching almost as high. On landing, Enzo slid a few feet and had to catch himself with a light jog in order to stop.
Now that he was on the other side of the water, Enzo walked off to his right until he was in front of the cliff face. He held his right sword down at an angle and the green crystal began to shine. The sand started to part, giving way to a small, orange light. Enzo scooped the gem out from the grains and examined it in his palm.
“I’ll have to test what this does, but it’s in one piece and it’s big for a raw Fragment. Should get me something good from the Exchange.” Enzo commented before slipping the rock into his pouch. After that, Enzo made his way forward, popping around anywhere from the river bay to the rock wall as he collected a variety of Fragments. As he did, Enzo decided to play around with his search a bit. He launched a green Fragment out of the ground and spun around to catch it behind his back using his free, left hand. Another time, he shot a beige gem into the air at an angle so he had to run and catch it. The last one was another Foundation Fragment that Enzo sent high into the sky. “Wait, where did that go?” Enzo wondered as he stared above. “Did I send that straight into the air or did I curve it? I’m pretty sure it went straight up though. I really don’t see-” Enzo recalled only to be interrupted as the crystal came down and hit him on his forehead. “Ow! Shit! Ah, that was a terrible idea…” Enzo cursed with his left hand over his forehead. When Enzo pulled his hand away, it revealed a little, reddish mark where the Fragment hit him. Still, Enzo picked up the mineral and took it into his pouch. “Alright, I’m gonna get a few more and get outta here. What else is around?” Enzo declared. He closed his eyes again only to see a yellow shine in the river’s edge several feet ahead of him, causing his eyes to burst open with excitement. “Let’s go! A Lightning Fragment!” he exclaimed before running toward it. Enzo’s feet splashed in the shallow water until he got where he needed to be. “If I found my favorite, I guess my luck’s finally paying off!” he spoke, with anticipation filling his voice. Eagerly, Enzo stuck his sword in the river bed, sending the Fragment up at an angle ever so slightly to his right. Enzo stepped out to catch it, but narrowly missed the crystal before it plopped into the stream. “No!” Enzo shouted prior to chasing after its golden glow. As Enzo ran parallel to the Fragment, his senses flared to the point where he was stopped in his tracks. To verify, Enzo closed his eyes and saw a pink glow, one much larger than any of the other Fragments he visualized, and it was just around the canyon bend tens of yards ahead of him. Seeing this for himself, Enzo became visibly frustrated and continued forward after the Fragment while it slipped further away.
Enzo tried to catch up with the yellow Fragment, but the river was carrying it too fast. Enzo glanced at the bend coming up and believed he had to go for the Fragment now or he’d risk ending up in a worse situation. In a last ditch effort, Enzo jumped into the air with the extra strength of his Power Fragment. As he soared through the air, Enzo’s surprise took over as a giant scorpion leapt from around the curve, lodging its legs into the canyon’s wall before it hopped into the river. The Cryptid let the Fragment flow into its maw and gulped it down, causing the large, lavender gem in the center of its head to glow along with another pink one above it. Then, Enzo’s surprise upgraded to shock as he watched the lilac crystal electrify, with yellow lightning bolts crawling over and around the gem. ‘What?’ Enzo asked. However, he had no time to consider what he just saw because the Scorpion Cryptid caught sight of him, hissing as soon as it did. In response, Enzo pulled his right sword back as his orange Fragment started to shine. Enzo swung his right sword down and clashed with the gems in the Cryptid’s head with enough force to crack the ground beneath the Scorpion, but it still lifted its head and tossed Enzo back through the air.
As he backflipped, Enzo used his Wind Fragment to catch himself just before he would’ve landed on his back. ‘What kind of Fragment is that? I’ve never seen a Synthetic one do that before…’ Enzo examined as he saw the bolts finally stop sparking around the gem. While Enzo hovered above the ground, the Cryptid came charging in, so he used a wind current to burst himself into the air again right as the insect lunged at him. After flipping himself over, Enzo pulled his left sword back and slashed at the Cryptid, sending a pressurized blade of air toward it. The monster scurried ahead of itself, narrowly dodging the slash as it leaves a cleave in the ground. Enzo landed in the river and watched as the Scorpion jumped in water several feet up stream. Enzo was a bit caught off guard once he saw the tip of the Scorpion’s stinger spark with lightning, but he was able to dive to his left before the Cryptid sent an electric current downstream. ‘Synthetic, but now it has the properties of an Elemental one… Is it mimicking the Lightning Fragment?’ Enzo questioned, unable to consider anything further once Scorpion pounced at him. To retaliate, Enzo swiped his right sword downward, clashing with the Cryptid’s right claw and shattering the ground beneath them. Despite stopping its attack, Enzo struggled to hold the creature back, ultimately jumping back as its left claw tried to pincer him. Naturally, the Scorpion pursued, clamping at Enzo while also stabbing at him with its stinger until his back hit against the rock wall. With the monster’s prey trapped, the Scorpion surged inward with another stinger strike that Enzo narrowly avoided by tilting his neck to his right. Still pinned to the wall, Enzo slashed his left sword down toward his right hip, releasing a lilac energy blade point blank into the Scorpion's face and finally landing a clean strike that sent the Cryptid sliding back through the dirt. The smoke around the beast’s face slowly cleared away, revealing a cut that leaked green blood as the beast hisses. Then, the lilac Fragment in its head began to glow again. Not knowing what to expect, Enzo turned his left side toward the Scorpion and lowered into his battle stance, holding his left sword in reverse and out toward the beast while his right sword was held regularly in front of his chest. To Enzo’s shock, the Scorpion screeched into the air, calling down a lightning bolt that struck it directly. Enzo was forced to shield his eyes, but as he lowered his left blade, he was left in awe. In the aftermath of the lightning strike, the Cryptid’s entire body became electrified as its every crevice shined with a yellow glow, even its eyes.
‘I’ve never seen or heard of any Cryptid like this…! I hate to think about it… but I really might be in over my head…!’ Enzo worried. The doubt creeping into his head made Enzo start to sweat on top of bringing frustration to his expression.
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“Promise me you’ll be safe, okay?”
Remembering those words, Enzo closed his eyes so tight they seemed to tremble. ‘I’m sorry, Celeste…’ Enzo lamented. With a deep sigh, he opened them again, but seemed no more relaxed than before.
“I’ll come back, and when I do, I’ll take you on that desert ride. Wherever you wanna go, however far away it is, I’ll take you there. I promise you, Celeste.”
From there, Enzo lowered himself a bit more, prompting the Scorpion Cryptid to do the same in anticipation of Enzo’s next attack. Then, Enzo sprinted off to his right, running straight at the rock wall. ‘I’m sorry, Celeste,’ he repeated before bounding toward the cliff face. He jutted his right blade into the stone and created a slab of strata that he sent straight at the Scorpion by motioning toward it with his sword. 'I should've just gotten outta here, but I got greedy.' With a swipe of its left claw, the Scorpion shattered the slate into pieces and a debris cloud. Using what little time he made, Enzo stuck the tip of his sword in the ground below, this time generating a continuously growing pillar under his feet. 'I'll come back and keep my promise to you no matter what!' Enzo proclaimed as he raised through the air.
Seeing its prey attempting to escape, the Scorpion immediately gave chase. Enzo looked over his right shoulder and watched as the creature climbed up the wall after him. ‘It’s moving faster than before! It’ll catch me at this rate!’ he realized. The insect Cryptid scaled closer and closer while Enzo glanced from it to the edge of the cliff above. With just seconds left before he’d be caught, Enzo made use of his enhanced strength to jump over the canyon’s edge, narrowly avoiding the Scorpion as it pounced past where he just was and crashed through the top of the rock pillar.
Enzo landed into a somersault and quickly got onto his feet. Again, he entered his battle stance and slowly backed away from the edge as he scanned for the Scorpion, knowing it’d spring up at any moment. Similar to what he figured, the Cryptid burst over the edge off to Enzo’s right, so he turned to face it. ‘I’ve gotta figure something out, and fast! Until then, I have to keep my distance and keep it away from my Glider. If I can’t… I’ll die.’ Enzo concluded.
Keeping that in mind, Enzo started ending blades of lilac energy at the creature, but the Scorpion swiftly weaves through every slash as it rushes toward him. It lunged and stabbed at him with his stinger, but Enzo dived to his right and came back up prepared to defend again when he noticed the Cryptid had stopped pursuing him. As he watched from just a few feet away, Enzo realized its eating and looked for the pouch of Fragments tied to his left hip. Not only did he see it was still there, he noticed a tear close to the bottom.
“Come on! Seriously?! This can’t be happening right-” Enzo exasperated until another realization struck him. “Hey! Hey!!” Enzo called out, drawing the beast’s annoyed attention. “You want these, don’t you, you ugly, son of a bitch?! Come get’em!!” he challenged. Letting out another shriek, the Scorpion jolted toward Enzo, who turns and runs while using his Foundation Fragment to take strides that give him greater distance. Still, Enzo peeked over his right shoulder to see that the Scorpion was still closing the distance between them. Even though he saw that, a slight smirk came across Enzo’s face. As it kept gaining on him, Enzo dropped the pouch to the sand and continued ahead. On the other end, the Cryptid’s focus shifted from Enzo to the bag sitting in the sand.
As the Cryptid rushed toward the bag, Enzo aimed the point of his sword where the Cryptid would be headed and generated a pitfall just before the beast could get to his Fragments. While the Scorpion tried to recover, Enzo made use of his Wind and Power Fragments to launch himself hundreds of feet into the air. As he came down, Enzo used his Earth Fragment to make the pitfall pop back up, hurling the electrified creature toward him. Enzo put his twin blades together at their backs, which caused the other gems in his blades to become luminous as Enzo channeled everything he possibly could into his next strike. As it slowly flipped forward through the sky, the Scorpion screeched and its whole body became enveloped in sparks that cracked and crawled as they flowed from the Synthetic Fragment to the creature’s stinger. ‘It’s still gonna try to sting me?! It’s a risk I’ll have to take!’ Enzo decided before he accessed the wind to bring him down faster. The distance between them became shorter and shorter until, finally, they collided. Enzo swung his combined blades down and the Scorpion’s stinger stabbed towards him, clipping his right side, but that didn’t stop him from following through and connecting with the beast’s exoskeleton. On contact, a shockwave ripped through the air and swept over the sand as a light blue glow radiated from the area of impact. The light radiated out until it overtook both Enzo, who was forced to close his eyes, and the Cryptid as it shrieked. As the light engulfed him, something even stranger happened to Enzo, or rather he heard something out of place.
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“You’ve done well taking your first steps. I look forward to what comes next. As should you… Enzo.”
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Some time after things had settled, Enzo was lying on his back in the sand several feet from the cliff. The shine of the Sun eventually got through to him, causing him to shield his eyes as he opened them. Slowly, he pushed himself off his back until he was sitting up.
“What… happened…?” Enzo wondered while scanning the sands around for any sign of the Scorpion. Although he wasn’t sure what occurred, Enzo spotted small stacks of smoke that trailed from its smoldered remains. Not only that, but he looked to his right side to see that some of his blood soaked into the sand, but as strange as anything before, Enzo’s wound had healed. Enzo looked at the slash in his shirt, where the wound should’ve been, and was left puzzled. “But I didn’t have a Regeneration Fragment…” he stated. Since all signs suggested the Cryptid was dead and he had no explanation for his healed injury, Enzo got on his feet. As he looked around in confusion, he focused more on the remains of the Scorpion Cryptid, which brought a small smile to his face. “I really managed to kill it all on my own… I did it…” he spoked, awestruck with his victory. “I did it! I did it all on my own!” Enzo cried out from pure joy that led to some celebratory laughter. In the midst of that though, his happiness gave way to surprise as he sensed something else. ‘No way…’ Enzo started as his wide eyes looked slightly to his right. ‘No way at all. I’ve gotta be imagining things.’ Enzo doubted despite following his Seeker sense forward. In a matter of moments, Enzo stood before a large plume, staring down frozen in disbelief.
“Is this real…?” Enzo asked aloud as his eyes fixated on a light blue glow at the center of the smoke. He reached down with his right hand and pulled it back. Once he opened his hand, a light blue Fragment sparked with electricity in his palm. As he stared at it, Enzo’s face slowly filled with excitement until he couldn't contain himself. “YES!!! YEEEES!!! LET’S GOOOOO!!! OHHH, SHIT!!! YES!!!” Enzo popped off, jumping up and down and back and forth. Enzo stopped yelling and bouncing around to look at the cyan crystal again. “It’s an Extremity… An Extremity…! I can’t believe it…!” he huffed.
Extremities are Fragments that, as the name implies, have an extremely high level of output, being as rare as they are powerful. Extremities can form from all types of natural occurring Fragments, meaning they can be Foundation Fragments or Elemental ones.
Knowing how Extremities work, Enzo took a moment to stop and eye the gem in his hand. ‘How did this get here, though? Where did it come from? I would’ve sensed this as soon as I got here.’ Enzo questioned as he glanced around again. ‘Or could it be…?’ Enzo’s thoughts trailed off while his eyes shifted back to the Extremity. ‘That Cryptid ate the Lightning Fragment… Did it convert it into an Extremity? But that shouldn’t be possible… Then, how?’ Enzo tried to figure. After a couple seconds, Enzo just sighed and shook his head. ‘I’ll think about it later. I need to start heading back.’ Enzo dismissed before he turned and went toward his bike. ‘Besides, if I bring this to the Exchange, I’d get more Plates than I would for, like, all my Fragments.’ Enzo added, stopping dead where he was as a daunting realization dawned on him. ‘My Fragments…’ he remembered as he turned with a deflated look on his face. “Where’d it go?! Aw, it’s gotta be here somewhere! I know the Cryptid didn’t get it, so where is it?!” he panicked as he appeared in one spot after another in the surrounding area. After several moments that felt like forever, Enzo finally caught sight of his Fragment pouch. “Phew! I thought I was going crazy for a sec!” Enzo admitted. Then, he made his way over to the bag and knelt down next to it. “Still, it sucks that it tore, but at least I have saddlebags.” he remedied. He carefully picked the pouch up and placed it in his left palm along with a couple Fragments that fell out.
With that, he walked over to his Glider Cycle and placed the pouch inside the bag on the bike’s right side. Just as he was about to close it, he stopped and opened it back up. He swapped the Wind Fragment out of his blade, replacing it with the Lightning Extremity and stared at the crystal proudly as it sat snugly in the slot of the sword. From there, Enzo demonstrated some skill and magnetized his blades to their corresponding sides on the Glider. “It’s been too long since I’ve been able to do that.” Enzo remarked with satisfaction in his smile. Once he was all set, Enzo kickstarted his Glider and took off into the desert.
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Things picked up some time later as Enzo cruised through the dunes at top speed. As he rode forward, Enzo kept glancing down to his left, at his sword. His left hand came off the clutch handle and slowly moved toward the weapon’s hilt. Before he reached it, Enzo paused for a moment. After an anxious gulp, he finally grabbed on, immediately generating a quick jolt of electricity all over his vehicle. In that same instant, the front end of Enzo’s Glider ramped up hard as the bike surged ahead. It took a couple seconds, but Enzo was able to bring the front of his bike down and looked on in pure exhilaration as the sand, the sky, the very Satellite of Terra Firma itself, all began to blur past him. Enzo checked his speedometer and saw that he was peaking at 150 miles per hour, over double what his Glider’s max speed was. At that point, what started as a small chuckle erupted into an all out scream of pure thrill. Slipping further and further into euphoria, Enzo just closed his eyes and smiled as he felt the wind rushing past him. Once he opened his eyes, Enzo continued to tear through the desert until he fades into the distant horizon.
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Hours later, the Sun was setting on Terra Firma. However, from the night creeping in on the other side, lights could be seen flying through the air. In time, a large, black ship trailing light blue streaks of energy came into full view. It had a large, bulky body with wings that branched out from the top and got thinner the further they stemmed away from their center. The front of the ship had a large panel of glass that curved with the face of the craft and was framed with silver. Its nose was small compared to the body and was fitted with two large headlights on either end. It came to a stop near the edge of the canyon before descending down to the sand. As it got closer to the ground, a set of four, wide mechanical legs folded out and allowed the hovercraft to rest once it landed. At the back end of the ship, a silver platform started to extend toward the ground until it formed a ramp. Then, two black doors slid open, giving way to a bright white light that three shadows of varying height appeared from. The tallest and widest came forward first, followed by a shorter, thinner one, and finally one that was average between the three. All three of them were covered in black cloaks and had their hoods on their heads. Still, the bottom halves of their faces were visible and distinguished. The tallest was a man with a light complexion, a full beard and mustache. He also had a double-ended kanabo tied to his back, with a brown Fragment and an orange visible in slots just off center of its handle. The shortest one had a slightly darker pigment with a mole under the right corner under her mouth. Under her cloak, she kept one pistol holstered on both her hips. Finally, the one in between had light skin with two rings through the left side of his lip and septum ring through his nose. He had a large scythe attached to his back via magnets. Like the man with the beard, his weapon had Fragment slots in its handle, but his were at the top and bottom. Plus, his Fragments were orange and dark purple.
“Do you sense anything?” the bearded man inquired.
“Yeah, I sense a lot of things,” the man with piercings answered. He started walking toward the edge of the canyon and stopped to look down into the darkness below. “And it’s all kinda crazy. I like this.” he followed up as a devious grin spread across his face.
“This isn’t something to be excited about. They still don’t know how it got out in the first place, and they’ve been on our asses for the past two days. Just tell us what happened and where it went so we can all go home.” the woman listlessly retorted.
“Do we need to go into the canyon?” the bearded man asked.
“Nah. It started down there, but it ended up here.” the pierced man told. He turned his head to his right and saw the broken pillar Enzo was on, bringing a quick bit of laughter out of him. “They really tried to run away! How ‘bout that?!” he pointed out, literally with his left hand.
“Again, where’d it go?” the woman demanded.
“They fought for a little bit up here,” the man with piercings started while walking back toward the other two. He passed between them and stopped once he was on top of a circular slab of stone sticking out of the sand. “But this is where it happened, or, well, up there, actually.” he ended while looking and pointing up in the air.
“So, it worked?” the man with the beard questioned.
“Yeah, it worked.” the pierced man clarified with a certain undertone of expectancy. “And before ya ask, they went north, straight ahead.” he added, turning his smile from the man with the beard to the woman with the mole under her lips.
“Okay, then. Let’s go get it. If nothing else, I can send Cerberus.” she suggested, raising her right hand to reveal a black, leather glove that contained a pink Fragment on the back of her hand.
“No. We will retrieve it, but first, we are going to collect the remains and deliver them to Oasia.” the bearded man replied.
“Aw, come on, I agree with her! I wanna see whoever did this!” the man with piercings chimed in.
“No.” the man with the beard firmly denied, raising his head to show his shaded eyes. The man with piercings stared for a couple seconds before the Fragments in his scythe lit up. The woman stammered back while the man with piercings just kept his head turned toward the other man. A moment of silence passed alongside a dragging breeze that eventually rolled past. The woman with the mole slowly brought her hand back up as neither man moved an inch or made a sound. The longer that time ticked by, the brighter the woman's Fragment started to glow, getting so bright that it practically became a beacon in the night as it dyed the entire area pink. Even then, the cloaked one with the scythe lowered his head and his irises flickered to orange, prompting the other man to stand tall and wide. His eyes flashed brown only for an instant, but that was enough to draw a disdainful glare from his comrade. Eventually, the man with the scythe turned away from the other man, but kept his eyes on the other man until the amber glow of his eyes faded out.
“Tch, fine.” the man with piercings finally conceded prior to walking ahead. With that, the man with the kanabo turned to his left and went over to a remaining chunk of the Scorpion Cryptid.
“Sheesh… You two…” the woman scoffed as she dropped her hand back to her side. From there, she walked past the bearded man and found her own smoldered piece. While the other two examined their own objects, the man with the scythe followed his senses forward. After a few steps, he stopped and peered up before looking around.
“Hm, weird.” he commented while scratching the left side of his head. Then, something caught his eye some inches to his right. He took a few steps closer and stood over a dark spot in the sand. He reached under the left side of his cloak and pulled out a flashlight. When he clicked it on, it illuminated a dried patch of blood and the man with piercing got that same sinister grin.
Chapter 1 - END.