I was having a bad week.

It had been five days since I was told about my sister being kidnapped, and five days since I started panicking and getting angry.

Angry because while it was a kidnapping, the kidnapper made sure to kill the people I left Angelica with in a very disturbing manner, and left a note… written in blood.

The note simply said that my sister wouldn’t be harmed and that I could find her in the Fifth Demon Lord’s room…

Which sounded impossible, the Chosen were the furthest along in the Dungeon, and the idea that this kidnapper would actually go kill the Fifth Demon Lord before us and then wait there…

But at the same time, it did make a bit of sense.

I was never the one to call myself the strongest Adventurer, I could see why people called me that, but I never actually called myself that.

I never admitted to it because I was well aware that there would always be someone to compete against, and while I thought it was just the Chosen, this person apparently was another of roughly equal level to my own, much like Agent Shaun or Hokage George.

Those two in particular were scary, Shaun for obvious reasons, and George because Shaun was weary around him.

Sighing, I ran a hand through my hair as I looked at the large screen which was running a video conference between myself and the five other Chosen, for good reason.

I wasn’t the only Chosen to have had someone stolen from them, no specifics were said unwillingly, so all I knew was that Ichiro’s second-in-command was missing, and Jade’s mother.

Sheikh, Loyiso and Albert didn’t feel like saying who was kidnapped, but they wouldn’t be talking with us if they weren’t involved in some manner.

“So we all got the same warning, to come to the fifth Demon Lord room as soon as possible?” Albert asked warningly, with everyone angry and worried, the tension was thick, I hated it.

That hate probably only contributed to the overall degradation of the situation, so I knew I had to calm down… knowing and doing are two different things though.

“Yes, and as insane as it sounds, I think it’s a warning best heeded.” I admitted, despite the sceptical looks Sheikh and Albert were giving me, I knew that this kidnapper was strong.

Angelica was still low level as an Adventurer, the only reason she wasn’t level one was because I took her into the Dungeon on occasion, not far, but I did something.

Her Anima was powerful for her level, and if she couldn’t fight of this guy, he was an Adventurer. The next hint was the fact that he was confident enough to kidnap my sister, and the family members of all Chosen.

The Chosen are all government sponsored, heck, sponsored by the whole of humanity when one considered the U.N meeting, targeting our families?

That was currently the equivalent of attacking a President of a first world country such as Clayton.

No, really, Clayton warned that some people were trying to get him to give me his bodyguards and just have him around Agent Shaun all the time.

Someone had to have something to back up such actions, unless the kidnapper was suicidal or insane or some mixture of the two, I don’t see how they could do something like this.

Not to mention that the kidnapper must have accomplices, six people in six different countries across the world were researched and kidnapped simultaneously and moved without anyone noticing until an hour or so later.

This was a large operation then, not something simple…

“…This is hard to just accept, we are barely through the forty second floor on average amongst we six, and yet this person has somehow gathered a team strong enough to get to the fiftieth and kill a Demon Lord before we get there?” I’ll admit, when Sheikh laid it all out like that, it sounds messed up.

“Sheikh, the odd thing about reality and fiction is that only one has to make sense for people to accept it, and it isn’t the former.” It was something I actually heard while researching for that book I was writing…

Odd how that took a backseat to my life in the oddities involved… my fantasy novel wasn’t as fantastical as my actual life.

That’s fiction for you.

“I see… We can all agree for now that fighting between us is not necessary though, we need to put aside our competition to save everyone.” Loyiso warned, and everyone agreed, their competition was, in the first place, secondary to the fact that they had to kill Chronos.

Me? I never really considered the competition between us Adventurers to be important. I took it seriously because it was expected of me in all honesty…

That used to annoy quite a few people, including classmates from high school… people kept trying to compete with me in different things and I just couldn’t bring myself to care.

If someone is smarter than me, great for them, it doesn’t affect me… some didn’t quite get that, and kept competing even after I told them it meant nothing.

Some even thought I was just saying things to hide the hurt of losing, it was weird.

If one of the other Chosen killed Chronos, I’d be happy, I’d be a bit disappointed that I didn’t do it, but I’d be happy.

If they were stronger, I wouldn’t care. That’s just how I was, apathetic…

It worries me that the word sounds too much like ‘pathetic’ but that’s just a minor worry.

“Alright, we’ll be sharing mapping info freely from now on until we find the stairs to the Fifth Demon Lord chambers.” Jade, shy as she was, could move past it in a serious moment, and despite being the most quiet of the Chosen, none of us looked down on her.

She had to be strong to be a Chosen after all.

“Yes, about that, share said info with the Head Agents, and we’ll share it between each other before handing it over.” Agent Shaun’s admission was accepted, and I agreed, it was easier than having all of us meet in person again after all, we’d be able to focus on going through the Dungeon while the Agents handled the other logistics.

“We have nothing further to discuss then, let’s move on.” Albert said, and I nodded in agreement with the others as the call ended, looking over to Agent Shaun.

“I won’t keep you, I know you want to go. And if you were to spend longer periods of time in the Dungeon, I’m sure I can persuade the Guild to look the other way.” Shaun’s words were in jest, I knew that, and for once I couldn’t find myself to dislike him.

For once, instead of instinctively disliking this man, I reached out for a handshake.

“Thank you.” I admired straight forward people, mostly because I liked going around issues, but sometimes you just got to be sincere about everything.

After he got over the surprise of me thanking him, Shaun took my hand with his own and we shook, understanding.

Within the next fifteen minutes I was on floor forty one with my team, and our inventories filled with supplies to stay even longer in the Dungeon than we normally did.

Typically we stayed in the Dungeon for about ten to thirteen hours a day, longer or shorter depending on travel times, but we’ve never stayed overnight before…

I heard about some people who did that, though they’d eventually be too stressed to keep going, and I knew that we couldn’t stay in the Dungeon until we got to the fiftieth floor, but the more time we had to look for a route, the faster we’d find one.

“Alright team, let’s go.” I didn’t need to say more, my team knew how angry I was, how much of a rush I was in…

They also knew I still possessed enough of a state of mind to know that rushing to my death was bad, but they would look out for me.

Feeling my mana thrash at my beckoning, and sparks jumping off my skin, I barely noticed Sidhe in my hood thrumming with magic of her own, sensing my emotions…

With my power flowing through me, I stalked forward, my comrades at my tail.

I would find whoever took Angelica, and I’d kill them… after doing a few unspeakable things.

My own parents, before their deaths, joked that I had the mind-set of a serial killer of some kind, that I had that capability and that the only reason I hadn’t killed someone was because I couldn’t get away with it.

Those statements were said in a joking manner, but every once in a while I’d pick up a hint of seriousness when they said it. I just shrugged the implications off like everything else I didn’t like…

Maybe now, maybe now I’d need to prove them right.

“Are you sure that they’ll be alright going into the Dungeon for extended periods of time?” I looked over to Dante and his sister for a moment before looking back to the Dungeon entrance…

It was pointless to worry about that group, especially with that being at their head… no, Arthur Clive would survive this situation, and I didn’t think there was any other outcome.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

The only changes would be the circumstances around said outcome.

“They’ll be fine; we have our own missions to do. Let them do their part.” I said as I turned back to the siblings, wishing I could pull out a cigarette or drink.

I quit smoking for Sera, and I can’t drink before driving, legally anyway… best not chance it though.

“What should we do sir?” Ellie asked as I thought about everything I knew, some things that even Clive didn’t know about…

“For one, we need someone in my team to be in a different country, for now we all agreed to France where Agent George is, it’s a good central point.” I gave a pointed look to Ellie as she sighed, nodding as she walked off to get a replacement counter worker.

It was funny to me how some people looked over Ellie, not even realizing that the appraiser was one of the stronger Adventurers/Agents, and actually a member of my own Kingdom.

She’d be able to share mapping information with me regardless of distance, but people who weren’t in the same team had to be in front of each other to do so, so she’d be going to France and get the data before sending it to me.

Turning to Dante I motioned for him to follow me, walking over to my Ford.

“This situation is a bit more complicated than it appears Dante, and I can’t share all the information… but suffice to say that this isn’t as simple as a kidnapper.” Dante gave me a sceptical look, and I didn’t blame him, nothing about this case was really simple, but there was more that he didn’t know.

“Alright sir, but what are we doing?” Dante asked, and I discreetly noticed him reaching for the ‘oh-shit’ handle… I know I drove fast, but really?

“We are looking for the one person on the planet on our side with more answers… Jason.” I normally called him by his surname, but Dante immediately knew I was talking about Grey.

“But isn’t he missing, and why would he… wait, you think the kidnapper is the same one who is holding Grey captive?” I nodded, Dante’s question was spot on… we knew Grey was alive, but not where he was, he was still in my team after all.

“He’s been missing for almost a month now, but you think it’s the same person?” Dante was questioning me, but from his tone I knew he wasn’t asking out of disagreement.

He wanted to hear what I had to think about the situation and my answer to the question would determine how much he’d support my idea, I got the gist.

“Very much so, for good reason. I was having him investigate an abandoned government facility… well, I say abandoned, but it wasn’t as abandoned as we thought up until Red Sky Day.” I admitted, thinking to Pennhurst…

It was an estimation based on the location, but the only known facility in that area was that old, horrible psychiatric ward, which was supposedly shut down years ago.

And yet, we find fresh corpses before Grey was taken out? Things weren’t matching up.

“So Grey was investigating, and got caught, I got that bit, so you think we’ll find clues after a month?” I shook my head… that definitely wasn’t going to work out…

“No, we’ve already sent more people there, and they were fine, I even went there myself.” What I saw was disturbing, especially when I managed to see some of the records…

The only issue was that one record was definitely missing, and I think that it might be the record of our kidnapper… maybe. I doubt he was the person I thought he was.

Patient zero one had a missing file, but I did notice another file that might have shed some light on the situation, patient twenty three.

His file was not missing, but it was most certainly damaged to some extent, but some our analysts managed to make out some lines.

Some of the information included patient twenty three as the most dangerous of the available patients, with excellent skill in close quarters, highly advanced stealth abilities and above average skill with a gun, patient twenty three was, however, constantly drugged for fear of him running rampant.

Knowing this, if Red Sky Day somehow gave patient twenty three the ability to shrug off the sedation they had him under, then he might have become a force to be reckoned with, if he wasn’t one of the corpses amongst the group.

Another paragraph in patient twenty three’s file stuck out to the analysts who were quick to inform me, as the line referred to the patient’s relationship with patient zero one.

It was a toxic one to say the least, starting with patient zero one almost killing patient twenty three, patient twenty three coming to admire patient zero one who kept corrupting the less vicious patient twenty three, until patient zero one was ‘removed from viewing’.

From there, patient twenty three went even more off the edge until the sedatives came in, and even under sedatives he provided high skills…

It’s scary knowledge to read, though I was shaken out of my thoughts by Dante as I realized that I had pulled up next to a sidewalk.

“Shaun, what’s wrong?” Dante asked me as I looked to him for a moment as I took a deep breath.

Child soldiers were something that sickened me, it was a disgusting and terrifying concept, and I hated the concept for how easily a child could be considered ‘expendable’.

Not only that, but I’m a soon to be father, my child was due in less than a month… and I’ve seen child soldiers.

It hurt me every time I had to place a bullet in their chest, or watch them explode when they got near me or my fellow soldiers…

And here was a program, Project Fool, which was designed to toss dangerous and mentally unstable people at the enemy… and said dangerous people could include children.

Patient zero one, all the way until patient twenty six, were all children when admitted.

I have no doubt that determining their mental instability at that age would be nigh impossible… it was just an excuse to raise child soldiers, torturing them into wanting to hurt others.

“Dante, I’m going to just stop by a shop for a drink, you want anything?” I asked my friend as he looked to me…

I saw the concern in his eyes, and decided to do nothing about it. Dante was among my oldest friends along with Clayton, but sometimes I didn’t want my friends to know what I was feeling.

A few minutes later I was out of the shop and driving down to Pennsylvania to investigate a bit more than what was previously allowed.

“With a trail this cold, isn’t it impossible for us to track him down?” Dante asked me about four hours later as we walked into the woods where the hidden Pennhurst facility was located.

They had a cover a few miles away, so this one was left alone for a long time.

“Normally it would be, but you forget my Anima… Dragon Eyes has been getting better, and it’s now to the point where I can follow tracks if I know the target.” That got wide eyes as I smirked.

Indeed, it seemed almost like my Anima gave me exactly what I needed for the situation, tracking wasn’t worth much in the Dungeon when monsters never ran away when they were encountered…

I was actually getting annoyed with how monotonous the Dungeon was becoming, what with the cave-like structure and monsters that didn’t wander around…

If the Dungeon actually changed how it appeared I’d be happy.

Ignoring that bit of thought, we entered the Asylum, looking around.

It was much cleaner than before, given that we had the bodies moved and the bloodstains on the floor removed. The ones on the wall were left as is, we didn’t want to be here, no one really did…

I activated Dragon Eyes immediately, knowing that there was only one entrance that was viable while taking another human being.

My Eyes always turned green when I used them, and everything around me would suddenly snap into focus, and I’d start to understand the things I looked at, even if I didn’t know what it was I was looking at.

“Okay, the tracks, ignoring our own, seem to head out…” Dante followed behind me as I stared at the floor, the footprints practically glowing in my enhanced vision, month-old and still clear as day before my Eyes.

My Anima felt like a cheat at times to me, it was pretty powerful even when I was level one, though I couldn’t use it very long back then.

Then again, there were many who felt that their Animae were powerful, at least until they compared it to the Anima of another which was stronger.

Everyone’s Anima felt like a cheat until someone stronger came along… though I’ve yet to find someone with stronger eye-based Anima than my own.

From what that damned Hokage in ‘cardinal red’ said, I might have the strongest of my kind of Anima… he called me a monster frequently…

It was ironic how he could call me that and then be friends with Clive when that kid and I were so similar.

“Wait you actually… alright, alright then, let’s-” before Dante could finish his sentence, we actually heard a noise behind us, prompting both of us to summon our equipment into our hands, I had a gun in my off hand and a sword in my right.

It was becoming my go-to equipment outside of a Dungeon, and when inside of one I’d swap the gun for either a shield or simply go one-handed on my enemies.

“Who’s there? Show yourself!” I ordered, preparing myself to hunt down whoever or whatever was the cause of the noise just in case it tried to run away.

I was extremely surprised when a door opened and out stumbled a heavily bruised and injured, but still recognizable, Agent Grey.

“Sir… sir…” Grey was heavily wounded, shirtless and showing many brand new scars, some of which were festering… he was likely only alive due to being an Adventurer and having a Vitality Stat.

I managed to move past my disgust for what had been done to him as I placed my weapons away, holding my hands out, palms shown…

I am sad to say that this was not the first time I had encountered someone fresh from torture…

I hope it was the last, but I wasn’t counting on it with my luck.

It was best to be open, do not approach to the point of touching, it would agitate them… some torture victims cite a fear of contact with other human beings for fear of being hurt…

It was a rational fear when you survive a period of time with that mind-set being the truth.

“Shit…” I heard Dante utter from behind me as I edged forward to Grey, noting that he was not running or edging away, but instead trying to shuffle closer…

He’s made of some strong stuff, being able to still move closer to another human being after clear signs of torture…

I wonder if that force of will was why I recruited him from Quantico… maybe I saw the potential for him to survive things I’ve seen, or maybe it was just a lucky guess that I got someone capable of thinking clearly even in such a situation.

“I’ve… I’ve got some information… I’m… I’m so, so glad…” Grey managed to say before he burst into tears, going to the floor in an attempt to make himself smaller…

I’ve been there… and so I approached, showing him where my hands were.

One of the saddest moments of my life had me do something very similar…

I couldn’t help but think back to the day my elder brother died.

I am one of three children, my younger brother is still in High School but occasionally went into the Dungeon with me… my father is a military veteran who had issues adjusting to home life once more, and my mother was a quiet woman who made many mistakes.

My elder brother was a problem child, catching on shit wherever possible and I’d always watch and think ‘hey, I shouldn’t do that’.

In his own way, he taught me a lot… and one day his lifestyle got him stabbed.

He survived, luckily… but died two weeks later in hospital.

Arriving at the hospital with my father and mother while my younger brother was still in school, the news was delivered while I was busy doing something inane outside the ward.

Walking back to the room… I only had time to see my mother crying with her hands holding her face, and my father trying to walk out the room.

Seeing my mother so distraught, and yet uncertain of what my father would do, I followed… the news hadn’t hit me just yet… the knowledge that I’d never see my elder brother alive again hadn’t yet cemented itself in my mind.

It only became real when I followed my father to a corridor outside the ward and he broke down. My strong, stern father who, while flawed, always seemed reliable… and he broke down in front of me, curling into a ball and just lying against a wall as he sobbed.

In that same moment, I started to cry, realizing the reality of the situation. I realized the reality the moment one of my core pillars of support in my life broke away.

In that same moment, I don’t know when I started moving, but before I realized, I was hugging my father, saying nothing, just being with him as we sat upon the cold tiled floor.

There was nothing I could say to make it better. There was nothing I could do but use my own presence to assure him that he wasn’t alone…

My brother’s death would and still makes me sad at times, not just because I miss his presence, and I’ll never see him again, but because it was the day I realized anyone could be hurt, and pain is never expected.

I signed up to the military a few months later.

Now, looking at a subordinate officer, curled up in a manner so similar to my father did that day… I moved before I realized what I was actually doing.

And just like that day, I just held the kid. Grown man he may be, but Grey was still vulnerable, much like I was, much like my father was.

It was about twenty minutes later that Grey finally lost consciousness, and I looked to Dante, not acknowledging the watering of my eyes.

“…Come on, help me get him into the car.” Dante agreed, all while making a call to a nearby Guild that we’d have a medical emergency.

After moving Grey into my Ford we left, and I looked into my rear view mirror.

Pennhurst… It was a horrible place… and while I may not have been there during Project Fool, or around during the time of its cover operation but…

I am certain that the stories of its disgusting nature were actually underselling things.

I only hope that we can stop the person leading this operation.

We have to.