"You are late."

Before Augen could say anything, one of the Union students walked towards him and stuffed a bucket in his hand before turning and pointing to the bit of mess on the ground behind them.

Wu looked over the man's shoulder, and he saw a scattering of fabrics and blood over the floor. A man was knocked down and tossed to the side as he moaned in pain, blood streaming down the side of his mouths. His eyes appeared unfocused as his mind faded in and out of consciousness.

"What is this?" Augen asked, stepping forward, though his tone sounded more confused than angry.

"None of your business, just clean it up." A towering man said, ripping off a ribbon that symbolizes a membership of being in the Union. His back dwarfs even the shelves full of books, "Hurry, we have a meeting to do."

So this was what Augen's job had been. The cleaner, for whatever's going on in the libraries. No wonder he looked so happy when he get to play the role of the chef.

Wu and Ver walked towards the man and picked him up by the feet and shoulders as Augen swiftly headed towards the corner of the room and took out a set of cleaning tools from within.

"You said you didn't know what's going on here." Wu said, his voice low as Augen turned briefly towards him and nodded lightly. Then, he cleaned away the mess with surprising efficiency before the crowd of people moved and headed deeper into the library, "Just how many things have you been hiding?"

"Not much more." Augen said, looking down at the man who's struggling to breathe before he reached down, preparing to alleviate his misery. Wu reached forward, grabbing for his wrist instead.

"Fine." Augen conceited, "I was a cleaner, okay? But I...didn't expect there to be a meeting today...there never used to be a meeting in the evenings..."

"So where is the thing?" Ver asked, moving the man to his side so he won't choke on his tongue, but he soon passed out on the ground.

"It is located in the central chamber." Augen said, gesturing towards the far side of the library, a place beyond the dozens of shelves standing in between, "And right now, it's being used as a meeting place."

"Right." Wu forced a smile and nodded, "Perhaps now is not the best time then."

The trio turned around and made a run for it. Augen took the man and dropped him off on a sofa in one of the nap rooms with a blanket covering his battered body after wiping his face clean. Then, they buckled down and started waiting.

From the look of it, there are at least a handful of notable members of the Boarded there. However, the Union is also accessible to many other Wave users that are not strong enough to be selected as the Boarded, and those were generally the ones that are doing most of the more mundane of works.

They trio waited with Lera and Fatera with the former setting up a tiny Scouting Eye that monitored the single passageway into the library.

Three hours later, the doors were swung open, and dozens of students started trickling away. Most of them watched on as if they have seen a ghost, while others muttered nervously among themselves.

"This is crazy..." Lera murmured, counting the number of people leaving the door. Then, as the last and the twenty third student left, the tiro decided to wait another half an hour before heading in again. This time, all of them had much better expectations of what is happening, and just as they expected, the library was completely empty. All of the books were neatly lined up on the shelves as if nobody had been here in days.

Wu, Ver, and Augen spreaded out, approaching the central chamber while making sure that they were undetected. Then, as they regrouped outside the stone arch, they heard a conversation between John King and the towering man that was responsible for pummeling the man earlier.

"Is it done?" John asked, "The Grand Commander will arrive here at any moment...we cannot delay it any further."

"Don't worry." The towering man said, "The Twenty Nineth didn't want to take the fall for Winter Wars, but he will. Or at least, he cannot refuse the responsibility in his current state."

"Good." John said, sounding disgruntled, "There is a resistance against PORA slowly developing, and what occurred at the Union mansion did not appear to have been an isolated incidence. We need to be caref-"

"No." The man said, interrupting John, "We need to aggressively root them out. We need to take care of the insects, before they became pests for our grand mission."

"Easier said than done." John said, his eyes suddenly twitching, "You got company, it appeared. Looks like the insects have made their way in"

The towering man slowly rose up, and he turned around to see Wu and Ver standing at the arch.

"Hey, John." Wu said, waving a hand, "Remember me?"

"Yes, the man and the resistance." John nodded, "Take care of them, Ghost, and perhaps the rest of insects will scatter in fear."

John's image disappeared from the projection, and the man called Ghost marched towards Ver and Wu when suddenly, Augen slashed right across the room and grabbed hold of the manuscript that was stored up behind a secured case.

Somehow, Augen had melted right through the metallic case around the book, and he shouted towards Wu, "Got it!"

"Very well." Wu said, smiling and reaching his hands forward as Ghost charged towards him, his body moving ridiculously rapidly through the air as if the King's Palace had no effect on him.

"Void Domain." Wu said, connecting the gemstone directly to the tattoo cast over his skin before projecting an area void of the Wave in all directions as the King's Palace became dispelled. In that instant, Ver's connection with the outside world flicked back on, and Augen fell through a purple whirlpool before Ver dragged Wu and jumped through a single portal on her side as well.

As they moved through the Kraken's dark fluids across time and space, reemerging on the other side, they joined up with Lera and Fatera before Ver further activated her power, triggering the alarms within the Union but taking them straight to the forest down below instead.

"That was too easy." Wu said, glancing around as Lera reached out to summon a golden chariot hidden in the forest beforehand, "Augen! Is that the right bo..."

That was when Wu saw Augen being held in a choke-hold by Ghost, his massive hairy arms coiled around his neck and restricting Augen's movements.

"It's over." Ghost said, smiling, "Submit, or he dies. If any of you move, he dies."

"How?! Shit!" Ver cursed as the Kraken's also trapped within their shared confusion.

"I did not sense any other being when I whirlpooled you five." The Kraken said, "Perhaps he could conceal his presence much like Wu can."

"Teleport Augen out of there." Ver commanded quietly, her finger slowly twisting and finding the best angle to conjure up the Whirlpool when Augen suddenly moved, his feet kicking forward and knocking the Revolutionary Manuscript towards Wu.

"Forget about me! Destroy that!" Augen aid, as Ghost lifted his body off the ground before Wu started heading to pick up the book.

"Watch it!" Ghost warned, his eyes locking onto Wu when suddenly, a strand of vines shot up from underground, hooked around the book, and started dragging it rapidly into the woods and away from the group.

Lera! That's actually a fabulous tactic by her, distracting Ghost while keeping the book away from him. And this was all at the same time with the four of them standing deadly still.

"If you hurt him, you are dead." Ver warned as the Ghost let out a cold chuckle and twisted his hand. There was the sound of a loud top as Augen's arm were cracked in half, and his eyes rolled up as the shock of pain knocked him straight out. Ghost tossed his body back towards them casually and laughed.

"NO!" Wu shouted, launching himself forward, but Fatera moved even faster than him, her footsteps sounding like machineguns as she instantly dashed in front of ghost, her crimson Wave-powered glove at the ready.

"Oh, so that's who you are." Ghost smiled, seeing through Fatera's disguise after sensing her true power, "Winter Wars Champion."

"Then ya shall be afraid." Fatera said, her knuckles crashing into Ghost's face and...passing right through it?

"Another few years, maybe." Ghost said, jumping towards the Manuscript that was being dragged overground by Lera's vines. However, before he could get his finger on it, Ver snapped her finger and teleported it away with Whirlpool Purple.

"And now, you will fall." Wu said, projecting the Void domain and forcing Ghost's body to solidify before Fatera carried her momentum forward, taking advantage of an instant deactivation of Wu's domain as she landed a full-powered hit onto Ghost's body.

A shockwave blasted the snow away as Ghost's massive body was thrown through rows of trees as the forest rocked and the birds made for their escapes.

This is the first time that the five had fought together, and they are already showing such great signs of synergy! Fatera knew of Wu's Void Domain, and she still attacked without any hesitation, knowing that Wu will deactivate the domain in time to give her the chance to deliver a full-powered strike.

All the while, Ver and Lera are taking care of the true objective of the battle.

"Argh..." Ghost grunted, slowly sitting back up as he shook the disorientation in his head away, "Now you have done it...insects..."

Reaching down to a communication Cast, Ghost could call on his own five man team to come to his aid right away, but instead, he simply wiped away the mud on his trousers.

No...he will teach them a lesson, all by himself. He will show them what the consequence of crossing a regional leader candidate is. Unlike John King who sits near his protective Casts, operating in the shadows and manipulating things to his advantage, a man like him, the Ghost, is the only man worthy of being PORA's regional leader, and he needs no puny tricks to demonstrate his true power.