Suta POV

"Er... I'm from somewhere far... I guess." He awkwardly scratched the edges of his nose in deep thought.

Suta drifted into his own world, back to Earth, and how much had changed since then.

"Somewhere far, that's interesting," The girl hidden between the shadows said, her voice laced with a strange airiness. Something about her gave Suta the feeling she had lost her memories.

"I think I've also come from afar." She added after a short pause.

Suta studied her words for a little while,

"Do you remember anything? For example, how did you get here?" he asked with a curious glint sparkled in his eyes.

She paused before responding.

"I'm sorry, but I do not. I found myself inside this space, surrounded by darkness and... these chains." She moved her frail arms slightly, rattling the chains again to show her current plight. Suta grimaced in response to that, his empathetic heart became at odds with his sensible mind.

'Forget it, Suta. There's no way we're freeing those chains. With my luck, the moment I do so, she'll turn into a monster and probably try to kill me' He thought to himself,

'And what's the deal with that shadowy thing? A strange girl trapped in chains, in the dark, with amnesia? I'd be an idiot to trust her at this point.'

Thankfully, Suta found more cons than pros. There was still an inward voice suggesting she might be a prisoner, and perhaps it was his valiant duty to set her free. Shaking away his internal conflict, Suta took a closer look at the girl's visage, partially cloaked in darkness. His eyes first took in the golden chains wrapped around her ankles. Her slender legs were bony and childish; he was surprised she looked so young from this distance. She wore a white and azure silk gown that stopped just below her knees. Judging by the space between her soles and the ground, he also gathered she was shorter than him.

As she had mentioned, her hair was a dark raven tint cascading down her lithe body, glimmering a royal navy blue against her porcelain skin. Her head remained slightly lowered at an angle, preventing him from getting a clearer view of her face, but he sensed she was young despite the slight matureness of her voice.

Undoubtedly the most unsettling thing was the large shadow looming above her, which Suta purposely tried to ignore for now. If he desired a clearer look, he would have to move closer, something he was not prepared to do at first, but very slowly he was warming towards it. He cleared his throat and took a few cautious steps forward.

"Okay, sh-show me your eyes, then." He asked with obvious nerves showing

"Oh, sure." Her response was expected

Very slowly, Suta watched as she gracefully lifted her head upright. Her round face sat prettily, with long eyelashes flowing away from her eyes like crows taking flight, her small veal-colored lips, and unblemished, snow-white skin almost sparkled in the night. While admiring her beauty from afar, Suta also noticed a string of golden symbols crawling up her right arm, and settling just beneath her right eye.

"Tattoos? How odd," he remarked under his breath. Smoothing his chin in thought whilst he waited for her almond-shaped eyelids to softly open.

A strange eeriness gathered around him, as though he was forgetting a particular missing piece to all of this.

The moment finally arrived and her gracefully poised eyelids fluttered open, unfolding apart like the blossoming bloom of angelic wings. But what Suta found unearthed beneath those nearly perfect lids, was a site far more harrowing than what he might've expected. And a very clear thought surfaced through his mind at this point, here lies the sinister glare of a demon rather than an angel.

Instinctively, he tried taking a step back, but it was already too late.

Two scarlet irises coldly beheld him through the shroud of darkness. The glowing orbs seemed to contain a strange power behind them. From the very second they locked onto him, Suta lost all feeling against his body.

At that moment, the very air itself coldly distorted and freeze, along with all the blood flowing through his veins. A cruel smile creased against her face. Seconds later, he found his conscious swallowed by a fog of darkness.

***

"Not again...Where am I now?"

Surrounded by a dense fog of darkness, Suta felt a strange detachment away from his body. As though he was neither here nor there. A fragment of what he was. He felt weightless, he was floating. In a space of darkness. Where nothing exists.

Suta wasn't sure how to react to something like this. He tried waving his hand in front of his face, but saw nothing, even though he could feel his body responding, but this strange darkness consumed all manners of light. As he floated in the darkness, he caught the faint sound of a fire crackling into existence. Just a little away from where he was, he noticed a green flame being roused to life. The first fire turned into two, then four, and so on. This scene continued until he found himself surrounded by a sea of green flames.

"Wh-what in the world..." he muttered in disbelief

Seconds passed and a soothing voice roused across the dark expanse like a megaphone.

"Dear mother, why is it you saw fit, to allow the usurpers a chance to achieve such benevolent grace beneath such a flawed dawn?"

The bone chilling voice sent Suta's heart racing, before he could make sense out of the enigmatic words echoing around him. The green flames danced and flickered, as though they could sense the troubling voice and turned scared. He squinted, trying to discern any shapes or figures within the fiery sea, but the darkness seemed to swallow everything beyond the emerald light.

'What is this place? And who is that speaking?' Suta's mind raced with questions, his body frozen in place as he floated amidst the cloud of darkness.

The voice filled with both melodic and haunting sense and yet strangely familiar.

"The betrayal of the prince, the sin born from the union between kin, and the folly of the righteous, all have led to this moment, where the scales of fate hang in delicate balance.

Little trespasser. Shall we go back and see, where the bloom of chaos first erupted."

'L-little trespasser?'

Before Suta was given the chance to thoroughly decline. He felt his world spinning again, and amid the distortion, he heard a loud chime. Then suddenly, everything faded.

***

South of Yellow Stone Ridge, Windmill Range, Second Floor of Xero's Guild Hall.

A deep yawn escaped through his gaping mouth. Using his gloved hands, he tenderly wiped away the trickle of tears falling down the corners of his eyes. The man, dressed in boiled leathers, smoothed the tiny strands of silver hair over his scalp. Restlessness had finally found him within the confines of a box-sized room. He could finally place the quill he delicately pinched between his gloved fingers. His table was messily piled with skill books and unfurled scrolls carrying the voices of Guild masters from the four cornered reaches of the realms.

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The fellow scratched his patchy salt-and-pepper beard, staring purposefully into the flickering embers dancing on the splints of the half-melted candle. A series of delicate knocks sounded against the redwood door, rousing his attention. He swallowed the spit down his throat before speaking.

"Who is it?" His hoarse voice beckoned the visitor.

The door creaked open, and a familiar, beautiful young girl appeared, her slight smile infectious like the dawn of spring. A wave of silky black and navy blue hair cascaded down her delicate frame. She wore her usual attire, dressed in dark leathers with a subtle golden outline. The most peculiar thing about this breathtaking beauty, however, was her sparkling scarlet irises, filled with so much royal mystique that he couldn't stare too long into her gaze, afraid of his old mind being lost in them.

"Guild master, the quest was a success," she sang joyously.

"We've cleared the underground tunnels and rooted out all the horn-tailed lizards with six eyes. I've tasked the butchers with removing the scales." She added, taking further steps into the small room, scanning it with expressionless wonder.

He tried to prevent his gaze from lingering on her for too long. Her beauty was profound, and her ferocity unmatched.

"Good. Did you manage to rendezvous with the Right Horn unit?"

"Yep. They were on the brink of disaster until we showed up. But the Fairwind Antlers Guild shouldn't be able to mount a counter-attack after this."

He nodded in agreement. Now that the tunnels were theirs and most of the attacks had been repelled, it would take the enemy at least half a year more to come back. By then, their guild would have already accomplished a great deal and amassed enough resources to reclaim the fifth spot.

"It's all thanks to you. Without you, our guild would have no chance. You've... you've truly singlehandedly dragged us to the top five Guilds in the realm."

He couldn't refrain from letting his broad smile crease into the open.

In response, her fair cheeks turned beet red before she shifted her gaze elsewhere. "I-it's not... all my doing. Ahem! It was a team effort," she announced with her dainty fists clenched.

There was another matter he had to address, but something inside him was tussling with whether or not it was the right move.

"B-b-by the way..." his voice trailed off, his eyes lowered to one of the unfurled scrolls on the table. "Sigh, have you thought about giving them an answer?"

His voice snapped her calm demeanor into focus. He noticed an air of coldness swiftly surrounding her countenance.

"Oh? Have they... sent word for me again?" her tone was flat

He tried to remain calm in response. This was a topic he had tried his best to withhold for as long as he could, but the courier pigeons were growing more frequent. With the increased notoriety of their guild, it was difficult to ignore the official voices of esteemed lords.

"Y-yes, they wish to know what our stance will be... wh-whether or not we'll comply or..." his voice faltered.

"Or choose to make an enemy out of the capital? Right?"

He gritted his teeth, trying his best to uphold a fair stance, but even he knew he was powerless right now. If only they could stall until next year, he was confident they would have been strong enough to repel the things set to come their way, be it the combined forces of the four strongest guilds or even the full brunt of the capital itself. If only... if only.

"Guild master...It's alright." Her words cut his staggering thoughts short.

"We will... we... we cannot hope to... but we will stand beside you if we have no other..."

"I'm grateful, and I can't possibly expect the guild to exhaust everything we've helped build for the sake of keeping me hidden. I... heh-heh, my plan is still unchanged. I do plan on moving on during the winter. I'll honor my oath to you, Guild master, before then." She said this with a solemn bow.

He felt his body easing slightly, despite knowing full well she was deeply saddened by it. But what else could he do?

"Thank you..." was all he could say.

In the middle of winter, atop the snow-filled mountain.

A turbulent blue flame roared terribly into the pale, frosted air. Deep clouds of thick smoke crawled towards the entrance ranges, sweeping through the windmills and all the ridges south of the flames. For the last few nights, the fires never ceased, as though the ire of a terrible demon had sent a plague of anguish set ablaze against the land.

The remnants of Xero's guild lay crumbling beneath the hungry fires consuming the guild hall. Once a place filled with the heartily songs of adventurous men, was now a mass of soot and charred, broken debris. Nobody inside could have survived the onslaught.

As for the one who caused it, she remained idly placed at the foot of the white hill. Her uniquely bewitching scarlet gaze held no sorrow, no sense of triumph or elation. She had merely acted upon what the will inside her heart had spoken to her - the voice that was always beside her, the one she trusted the most.

With a final glance at the smoldering ruins, she lifted her hood over her helm, twisted on her heels, and left the guild hall forever. The snow crunched beneath her feet as she walked away, the bitter cold of the winter night enveloping her like a shroud.

Azure Spire, South of the wailing grey rivers.

Her katana shot forward like a snake, finding its mark. The fellow froze on his feet as she twisted the pommel and pushed the blade deeper. Squelching flesh cried forth, and blood splattered against the side of her pale face. His resistance waned, the strength in his arms leaving him, and his pair of swords fell away from his fingertips. In response, she exhaled a foul breath before slowly pulling the katana free, allowing blood to pour freely from the gaping wound. She moved her blade in languorous strokes, slicing the open air to clean the wet blood from her stainless half-black steel.

The fellow collapsed to one knee, his single beige robe festered with wounds and soaked in blood. He wore no pieces of armor or leather, his bare arms and legs consisting of a purple, dark flesh, robust in stature and covered in fast-fading golden runes.

Although his head was covered in a squared white shawl, revealing only his peculiar golden eyes, she could tell his mouth was open and his breaths exhaled laboriously.

She looked pained as she watched him gasping for his final breaths. "Any last words?" she asked coldly.

"Kukukuh... You've learned so much from me-gyurgh! S-so much... But know this... th-the w-w-will of the Red One... will never truly obey... a descendant... f-from-d-d-d-da..."

He keeled over and finally died. She remained motionless in silence for a short while, taking in the enormity of the situation. Another master she had respected had been felled by her hands again. She had long chosen to feel nothing, but even still, it was hard not to reflect on her choices.

She clenched her fists so hard that blood began trickling down her knuckles. "Damn it all..."

Footsteps approached her from behind, swiftly breaking her away from her own thoughts. She shook away her lingering doubts, making sure that air of coldness returned to her mask soon enough.

"Is it... done?" A soft and rather frail voice arrived from he rear.

Turning her head slowly, she beheld the fellow only now announcing himself since the danger had passed.

A young-faced man with greyish pale skin and long black fingernails stood before her. He wore white robes with grey leathers underneath, a single ivory horn protruding from his skull.

His gaze was one of intrigue and distrust, a common thing amongst those from his race.

"You have eyes to see it for yourself. Now then... the red dragon heart? Give it to me," she demanded coldly.

The fellow could only chuckle in response to her attitude. He gestured towards the end of the marble-floored hall, which resembled a cave with uniquely fitted elegant flooring. "It's awaiting to be absorbed on the altar," he replied.

"Say, I noticed your technique was quite different compared to how you usually fight. I sense a foreign influence. What is it?"

"You demons are quite curious fellows, aren't you?" She smiled cruelly.

"It's called the Annihilation of Chaos, an accursed power bestowed upon the first men of this world by the outer Gods. A direct opposition to the system of Skills and Abilities taught to the world by the first Goddess of Dawn, Queen Lunara." There was a sullenness within her tone when she spoke, but only she could truly understand why.

"Interesting... It's no wonder the Demon King has been so enthralled with your kind. It begs one to imagine what sort of implications await a union between the Daey Clan and a forgotten child of the-"

"Tsk! You talk too much. I'll leave the body to you... Try not to disturb me whilst I absorb the heart... I won't be long."

With that said, she turned on her heel and strode towards the altar, her mind already focused on the task at hand. The demon's words lingered in her thoughts.

But for now, all that mattered was the red dragon's heart and the power it would grant her. Everything else could wait.

"With this, it brings me to acquiring 4 elder dragon hearts now. I only need one more...and then I'll be unrivaled by all."