Early morning of September 1st, 2027

Abel was in Alice's flowerbed, watering the plants and picking out weed. It has been his everyday routine since he became Alice's apprentice and a job he does without questioning.

Eluya and Iliana were sitting near the patch of grass with Alice and Rei. While Eluya seemed fine, already used to seeing Abel do such tasks, but for Iliana it was new. She has never seen Abel get his hands dirtier than they need to be. It was different from the Abel who handles chores and cooking.

"Seeing a new side of him, child?" Alice asked calmly while petting Ellen, who was in her lap.

"Yes. I have never seen him like this." Iliana said with a calm look. She wasn't stuttering as much as yesterday but there was still a hint of awe in her eyes.

"Well, Abel only handles matters like cooking for us. Usually, all of us split chores and do what we do best. I can understand why Iliana finds this to be... new." Eluya added.

"That's because I don't want either of you to become dependent on me. I know Eluya would because of how used she is to servants and stuff." Abel said with a smile as he walked out of the flower, putting the rooted weed in a basket before he presented flowers to Alice and Rei.

Once they accepted the flowers, he walked to Eluya and Iliana, putting a flower in their hair.

"Magnificent." Alice murmured, sniffing the flower that Abel gave her.

Usually, four to seven flowers fall down every day and Alice uses those flowers for rituals and occasional flower tea. It was a habit that Abel knew about her centuries ago and to her surprise, he remembers it to this day.

Not only that, he picked out two of them for his soon-to-be wives. A Flamesal Paraguila for Eluya, matching her flamboyant personality and a Roguiro Irelias for Iliana, matching her reserved intellect.

"Thank you!" Iliana said with a smile before Abel walked away to wash his hands.

Soon, everyone had breakfast and then it was time to start the preparations. With Abel and Eluya, now in their respective roles of Abraxas and Elaira.

Alice was looking out the window of the living room, with concern etched on her face. She was looking in the general direction of Techonia yet there was not a single premonition in her mind.

But the silence was broken by Abraxas and Elaira, who were dressed in Light Armor.

"Master, we will be heading to the preparation grounds." Abraxas said with a firm expression.

"You have my permission." Alice looked over her shoulders before replying in a calm manner.

And just as she blinked, Abraxas and Elaira disappeared from her vision, heading to the Preparation Ground of the Iron Wolves Covenant, where other Numbered and the entirety of Iron Wolves were preparing for the war.

Iliana and Ellen were still in the house, as they had been brought here to be under the protection of Alice.

They knew full well that it was a war that could end up taking their lives and thus decided to bring Iliana. This way, they made sure that she was safe from any forces tracking down their identity as detectives and holding Iliana hostage and in the worse case scenario, Iliana will get to see them one last time.

__________

Preparation Ground,

"What kind of mission is it?" The vampire, Gnaeus, asked while doing pushups with his partner, Tsaravi, sitting on his back.

"I have no idea. The command will tell us when we need to," Tsaravi replied, cracking his neck.

Both of them were on duty to guard the entrance of the Preparation Grounds and were too bored to look at any empty gate, thus warming up before the next shift arrived.

But then suddenly, the second vampire stood up and looked at the main gate.

"Hey, get up. There are people outside.." Tsaravi said to Gnaeus, who was still doing push ups.

Upon hearing his partner, Gnaeus stood up from the ground and both of them approached the gate.

"What is your busi-" Gnaeus tried to speak but his mouth stopped as he recognised Elaira and Abraxas, quickly opening the gate for them.

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"It is a privilege to stand by Your Highnesses." Gnaeus saluted them with Tsaravi following after him.

"At ease." Elaira spoke with a nod before Abraxas and her walked away to where the 13th should be at that time.

Once they were gone, Tsaravi asked Gnaeus. "Hey.. Who was that man in front of Madam Elaira? I didn't recognise him."

"You didn't... recognise.. him?" Gnaeus looked at his partner in disbelief.

"No... I mean, Madam Elaira was walking behind him so he must be pretty important, right?" Tsaravi said until he suddenly realised.

"Wait.. Was that Lord 4th?" Tsaravi asked, and panic spread throughout his body when Gnaeus nodded.

"Tell me... Am I cooked?" He asked Gnaeus with a pleading look, using the new generation slang he heard on the internet.

"First of all, don't use those weird internet slangs ever again. And secondly, No." Gnaeus said with a look of disbelief on his face. Both at the fact that Tsaravi didn't recognise Abraxas but also the slang.

__________

In the Central Meeting Tent,

13 and 14 were looking at the map of Techonia laid out on the table. 13 was thinking about the location of the supply station they needed to set up near Techonia while 14 was making plans about the actions the selected soldiers needed to make when they were in Techonia.

As of this moment, the soldiers outside were training themselves to the hardest. There was no information on what kind of foe they will face so they needed to train for every possible scenario and for now, 14 was in charge of planning.

Then all of a sudden, Abraxas and Elaira stepped in the tent. The atmosphere was tense when they entered but 13 and 14 managed to speak.

"Welcome, 5th and 6th." 13 and 14 said in unity.

"It's good to see you again, 14. And it has been a while, 13.. I hope you are doing well." Elaira replied while Abraxas remained silent.

"Everything was going well.. Until 7th disappeared. I suppose both of you want to know what led to this war.. The letters I wrote only had the gist of it." 13 said calmly as her gaze returned to the map.

"Actually, 7th found traces of 10th in Techonia and sent me a report. Unfortunately, he was captured soon after and I can't seem to reach him even with Telepathy." 13 said before she walked to a metal box, from which she took out a sheet of paper and handed it to Elaira.

"This is the decoded message that I received from 7th." 13 said.

"I have found traces of 10th in Techonia. I'm certain that he didn't leave the city since the traces line up with his disappearance. I need to enter the Research Institute to investigate more."

Elaira read out the message out loud for Abraxas. And once she was finished speaking, Abraxas spoke up.

"What was the encoding that 7th used?"

"It was Num-V, the standard script that we, the Numbered, use on an open channel. I'm sure this message cannot be decrypted by anyone that isn't one of us." 13 clarified.

But both Elaira and Abraxas had a bitter look on their faces.

"Why are you making that face?" 14 asked.

"There is a bit of information you two might not know about," Elaira stated before continuing. "10th is being controlled by someone. It's likely that they received his message on an open channel and captured him."

6's revelation surprised 13 and 14. The fact that 10 was being used and the information they have was intercepted.

"So who is the enemy?" 14 asked.

"We can't tell you.. But all we can say is, This is not a combat mission for you." Abraxas spoke, breaking his silence.

"The soldiers will be divided into groups, each led by a Numbered. Your task is to save as many of Techonia's residents as possible.. Leave 10 and the enemy to me." He spoke with an uncanny fear etched across his face, a look that seemed entirely out of place.

"I will be providing support from a distance to everyone. We will provide the guidelines to make sure everyone returns home safely." Elaira added.

"We will trust your judgement, 5th. I'll provide you the lists of the soldiers by the evening." 13 said before walking out of the tent leaving 14 to speak with 5 and 6.

"I thought there were only members of the Iron Wolves. So what is Elfana doing here?" Elaira asked 14 about Elfana. Though she had only seen Elfana once, she remembered her face very well and noticed Elfana when they entered the grounds.

"She is acting as my second-in-command.. She was the leader of the Elite Scouts that went missing in Techonia. I assume, you know her feelings." 14 clarified, since he has kept Elfana here.

"I assume you know that this isn't just a normal search and rescue mission either.. Anyone who isn't able to pull their own weight will not be in the final list." Abraxas said crudely, since Elfana was just a scout.

"Yes... But it brings her comfort in staying here.. Please let her stay here and work in the support line." 14 requested, lowering his head as he spoke.

Hearing 14's request, Abraxas and Elaira fell silent. In hindsight, 14 wasn't wrong as Elfana could help in logistics considering her expertise and they could use help there as not all of the Numbered would be present during the battle in Techonia.

"She'll help Elaira in the logistics and backline. Inform her to stay with Elaira." Abraxas said calmly before he walked away.

Seeing him walk away, 14 got confused and asked Abraxas. "Hey! Where are you heading off to?"

"Training." Abraxas replied before he walked out of the tent.

__________

Techonia Research Centre,

"Hmm.. The preparations are going well enough." They muttered, looking at the women in the room.

All of the women had a surgical scar on their navel region and seemed to have been drugged. Almost all of them were unconscious and those who were awake seemed like they cared a lot about the things in their womb.

The room they were in was reeking of blood. And the armed guards in the room were preparing plates of food for these women as these women were hungry for nutrition to feed what was inside them.

"Just a few months and that will be ready, I suppose." They spoke before breaking out into laughter. The feeling of their plan succeeding overcame them but the smile quickly vanished when they heard the laugh from 7.

"And why are you laughing?" They asked, looking at 7, who was missing his parts of his abdominal cavity, but was laughing as loudly as they were.

"Oh, it's because you don't have months." 7 said, breaking into a louder laugh as the missing organs in his abdominal cavity began regenerating rapidly.

"Whatever.. I have plans for it." They spoke before walking out of the room, choosing to not talk about his contingency plans since 7 was able to use Long distance Telepathy, even in his miserable current state.

They were not planning on losing.