The ghosts swept and wove their way through the hallways and rooms of the Assassin Corps HQ, searching for some sort of living being. "They've masked their presence.." One of them said.

"No.." another answered. "Something in the air here has prevented us from being able to track anything."

"Grr.." a third jumped in. "Mother was right.. these ones must be dealt with.."

One of the ghost figures from far closer to the front of the building began to panic. "Telepathy... is not working. But.. Sortah has awakened.. I must inform the others."

"Not happening." Standing just outside of a doorway, a man uttered these very words. He opened a book, one that looked nearly identical to Lock's, and instantly absorbed the ghost. "Number three of thirteen.. which leaves exactly ten of these things remaining. Not counting the one out front but, I trust that Belfume can take care of that one."

Across the vast hallway, a section of the wall fell into atomic sized pieces. A women wielding a blade stepped through. "Shult.." she altered her gaze toward him. "What are these things? Why haven't we heard of them before?"

Shult clapped his book shut. "I hadn't a clue. They may have masked any sign of their existence so incredibly well up to this point, that discovering them, even for you.. Rez, would have been near impossible. Either way, that's a question for Vess. I think you know where he is."

"Hm.. right." she said. "I wanted to hear your thoughts on the matter first, that's all." After saying this, Rez noticed a ghost rocketing down the hallway. With a slight flick of the wrist, she moved her blade so unfathomably quickly, that it cut through the molecular arrangement of the air. The ghost fell to pieces. "I'll be heading over to Vess now. Not that I think you will but, don't get yourself killed." Rez sprinted away.

"Very well then, I won't." Shult stared down the hallway where Rez had left. "Only nine remain now."

Elsewhere, Vess rapidly tapped a variety of keys on his computer's keyboard. "The enemies have entered base, and have engaged in combat with Shult, Slate, Kor, and Rez. Their battle capabilities are still being assessed. Hold on... one is quickly approaching our current locatio-.." One of the nine remaining ghost enemies phased through the wall, and sent Vess and his computer, among other items into the air.

Having landed on his feet, Vess slowly lifted his left arm. There was some sort of bionic covering over it. "By linking my laptop to my mind, I was able to transform it into a tool that can be manipulated into any object I may need at any given time. Seeing as you're a ghost type figure, a molecular bypassing plasma blast should swiftly eliminate you."

"That won't be necessary.." From behind, a sonic boom erupted. It sped forward, slipping past the top of Vess's hair, and into the transparent ghost, disintegrating it into nothingness. "What idiots." The source of the sonic boom, Sonic complained. "Did they think being untouchable would save em from us? Tch, the fact that our defenses couldn't stop people as dumb as that quite frankly disgusts me." He closed the hand which he had released his attack from.

"Ah, thank you Sonic." With a blank look, Vess returned his computer to normal, and resumed his investigation while standing. "Let's see now.. while it's impressive that these things have managed to enter HQ, they don't seem to be too much of a threat to us. Also.. I'm not sure how or why they destroyed any of our defense systems considering they could have just phased through them."

Cracking open another Soda, Sonic took a few gulps. Once finished, he let out a sigh of gratification. "Maybe they're a religious group returning from the dead, that has a fetish for breaking into heavily defended facilities just to get their asses kicked."

"While that's a crazy theory, it's very much possible. Though now that I've run through a few audio recordings, I've noticed that they keep referring to an entity they call - 'mother'. I'm assuming that's who's behind this attack."

"And if it is, she'll be sad to see that all her kids are dead."

Kensin loudly screeched from nearby in the room.

"Ah, damn! Can you keep it down over there freak?" Sonic turned around, picking at his ears, to look at Kensin in disappointment. Much to his shock however, this time Kensin's odd noise was justified.

The glass in front of every single Sapient that they had captured, was shattered.

Back in front of the Corps HQ, Belfume was battling against the ghost, Sortah, who had undergone some sort of awakening. He ran in a zig zag formation, avoiding any attempts the awakened ghost had at attacking. Sortah blasted a beam across the landscape, and used his massive, sweeping claws to try and do some damage to Belfume.

"Not going to work buddy, so I suggest you quit trying!" Belfume quickly turned toward Sortah, skidding across the floor to halt his momentum, and slammed one of his massive hammers against the ground's surface. The vibrations traveled through the dirt, creating significant cracks everywhere it went, and exited right under the ghostly figure.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"M-Mother..!" Sortah screamed for what seemed to be the millionth time. "Will not.. be failed!!" The monstrous ghost shot forward, just barley avoiding death. Belfume's vibration attack flew aimlessly into the air.

"Really now, won't she? Well I beg to differ!" Belfume hollered. Sortah rapidly approached him, claws prepared for a slicing. "Looks like breaking in here was all you had to show, all bark and no bite, because when it comes to actual combat.. you're pathetic. Iron Charge! Lets take this amateur out!"

"Combat mode deployed. Enemy engagement ready." A man made entirely of some sort of iron or steel appeared from the sky. Thrusters burst from his back, rocketing him through the air.

Belfume launched his hammers at Iron Charge full force. After catching them, Iron Charge sailed back a bit before fully regaining his flight capabilities due to their weight. He then stopped in mid air, and with a hammer in each hand, extended his arms outward. "Target elimination probability... one hundred percent." He slammed them both together, using a separate set of thrusters on his arms to increase the power. Just like Belfume, this created strong vibrations in the air which travelled toward Sortah.

At the same time, Belfume used his tremendous fists to rapidly pummel the ground, sending loads of smaller vibrations into the air. "You're finished, translucent dirtbag!"

Sortah's attempts to get away were thwarted this time. The smaller size of Belfume's fist created vibrations allowed them to travel much faster than the one his hammers created. They zoomed into Sortah, blasting pieces of his body away. Then came the massive one from Iron Charge, finishing the job.

While fizzling out, Sortah managed to utter one final sentence. "Heh.. perfect."

The mood calmed down following the absence of any sort of threat other than those who resided inside. Iron Charge landed next to Belfume, de engaging his thrusters. "Target elimination complete. I believe the Corps will be able to take care of the rest. Our work together was efficient as always, Belfume."

"Heh, yeah it damn well was." Belfume agreed. "Now if you'd be so kind to give me my hammers back, we could head on inside and grab ourselves a couple of celebratory beverages. Hell, I'll pour you a glass of some top quality aged wine myself. A decade old exactly."

"No thank you. Consuming anything doesn't benefit me in the slightest, so I deem it unnecessary and a waste of resources."

Taking his hammers back from Iron Charge, Belfume let out a chuckle. "Maybe you should program some taste receptors into that tin body of yours, then you could get some enjoyment out of life every once in a while! Ha ha!"

"I'll consider it next time I make significant alterations to my functioning."

"Alright alright, a consideration's better than nothing I suppose."

From behind them, a distant rumbling began to increase in notability. "Huh? Now just what in the hell is that? Jeez, don't tell me this crap still isn't over." Belfume took a step back to turn himself around toward the source of the noise, the Assassin Corps HQ.

"Analysis initiated..." Iron Charge's metallic body began to glow in certain areas. "Based on the area's shift in molecular arrangement, weight of the footsteps, and the speed of approach, the source of the noise is in fact our two-hundred sixty seven once contained Sapients."

"The Sapients?? Bah, those damn ghostly sacks of crap must've let them lose."

"I drew an identical conclusion."

"Well, no use in whining about it. Let's just take the suckers out already, I've had enough simple battling for one day."

"Affirmative. I will immediately assist you with the Sapient elimination."

"Bahah! Vess is going to be seriously pissed when he finds out all his research subjects are done for!"

"Knowing Vess, the probability that he already knows is exactly one hundred percent."

Inside of the Assassin Corps HQ, Tigal dropped to his knees. "From the moment we stepped into this place, I had a feeling our chances of escape were slim to none."

Noises from the battles taking place could be heard from where the kidnapped Proel members resided.

Human Hunter returned from unsuccessfully searching the final room. "A little noise doesn't mean we're dead. Actually, that could be Proel trying to rescue us. Either that, or the Corps is under attack by an unknown source."

"The chances that a force was able to infiltrate any establishment of the Assassin Corps are astronomically low. Additionally, unless Setianal is assisting, I guarantee the intruders would not be Proel." Flowe seemed to have somewhat regained his composure. "They simply aren't strong enough, Human Hunter. Not yet, and with the situation we're currently in, they may never be."

"I see.. in that case, I might as well kill you now before you switch sides. Isn't that right?"

"Tchh.. I may have taken it into consideration but, if you recall, my initial betrayal is the reason why we're here. At least I'm assuming it is. There's also a chance that they coincidentally decided to launch an attack on you at that very moment. Either way, at this point there's no way I could ever hope to rejoin the Corps, even if that were my wish."

After a moment of thought, Flowe prepared to speak further, but was cut off. Tigal punched him in the face as hard as he could.

Human Hunter glanced down at Flowe who was now on the floor.

"T-That's how long it lasted, huh!?" Tigal spat out. He was weeping.

Flowe didn't say a word, instead deciding to just stare at Tigal with slightly wide eyes, placing a hand where he had been hit.

"I.. can't keep it up anymore, I can't keep up this act!" The distraught Tigal continued. "The truth is.. that everyone.. everyone I've ever trusted... has one day or another caused everything in my life to go to shit! Listen, I don't make these stupid damn theories for no reason.. you got that? I make them because of past experience! And you Flowe, are a perfect example of why I don't ever trust a single soul! Everyone always tells me.. Tigal that's so stupid.. Tigal why would that ever happen.. Tigal you make no damn sense, it'll be fine! So for once, despite acting like I was still my same suspicious self, I decided to trust you Flowe!"

His voice echoed throughout the vast room.

"This situation probably wasn't the best to choose out of them all." Human Hunter claimed. "Even I was cautious, Flowe's an enemy who switched sides in an instant to help us. Not exactly the kind of guy to-.."

"Shut the hell up!!!" Tigal screamed. "You think you're not apart of this too Human Hunter!? Kind of suspicious that the two newest members are the ones I'm suddenly stuck with in the inner headquarters of the most dangerous organization on planet earth!"

Human Hunter kept quiet.

"You're both damn traitors! At least I know Flowe is.. without him Silva would still be alive, and everyone would be back at home strategically planning some sort of engagement instead of being crippled like this!"

This time, it was Human Hunter who punched Tigal in the face full force, sending the brute gliding across the smooth tile. He opened and closed his hand, examining it before clenching his fist tightly. "Fine then, I'm done. If you don't want to listen to my alleviating, then I'll give you a true piece of reality."

The gaze of Human Hunter locked onto Tigal.

"Tigal.. complaining about the past is pointless. It's something you can't change, so the one who needs to shut up is you. All this talk about constant betrayal, and never have you considered that it's just a part of life. To get through it there'll be times where you make the wrong call. Times where those you thought you could count on stab you in the back, those who you admire with the highest regards instantly swap sides, and the ones you care about get killed because of someone you thought you could call an ally. But guess what.. if those are the only moments you remember, if you walk around every day fearing everyone and everything you come by just because of that, then what's the point of living. How the hell do you expect to move forward? I'll tell you how.. you do it by..!

Blood sprayed across Human Hunter's face. He froze. Flowe's jaw dropped to the floor. The chandelier above slowly swayed back and forth, making small creaks in the suddenly dead silent room.

"Hm? What was that you were saying about betrayal, Human Hunter?" Tigal's head had been splattered into pure liquid, and the man responsible stood next to his corpse.

Blood soaked into the bottom of the man's cane, which he held in one hand. The other rested behind his back. "Heh heh heh, I'd truly like to hear it. Now don't just stand there, spit it out you bafoon."

The man.. was in fact.. Aurora.