Aurin and Zenoman were walking along the twelfth floor of Harmony Tower, having had a very successful run so far. Granted, Aurin hadn’t found any Minakai eggs, but he had a nice stack of silver, a Solar Shard and a couple of healing herbs that he could use when he was in a pinch.

“Feeling lucky today, Zenoman?” the tamer asked his golden alien.

Zenoman let out an echoing squeal of agreement and threw his four fists out in rapid succession as though shadowboxing the air.

“To floor fifteen unsullied, yeah?”

Aurin suddenly spied a shadow pass by in the corridor up ahead.

“What was that, Zeno?” he asked and the golden alien held all four hands out in an almost-shrug. “It’s not like a wild Minakai to not attack. Let’s go investigate.”

The two walked tepidly up the corridor, Zenoman leading with two of his floating fists. Should an enemy rear its head, it would be getting a nasty punch to the jaw. Even if it didn’t have a jaw, it would still be getting punched all the same.

Poking their heads around the corner, Aurin and Zenoman could see a room at the end of the corridor where a shadowy figure stood in wait beside a bulky bipedal goat. With a sigh, Aurin stepped out and led the way with Zenoman levitating along behind him.

“I knew it would only be a matter of time before I found you here,” said Damien coldly. He was wearing the customary white trousers and jacket along with his Zodiac mask.

“I was led to believe the Zodiac Squad had disbanded,” said Aurin.

“It has, thanks to you,” said Damien, his voice full of scorn. “You ruined my life!”

“You ruined your own life, Damien. Speaking of, why aren’t you in jail?”

With a flick of the wrist, Damien rolled a summoning stone between his fingers and up his sleeve effortlessly. “All I needed was one of these and I could break out. I just needed to make sure I could hide it long enough for the heat to die down.”

“You lot really are a slipper bunch of scumbags, aren’t you?”

“Hoofreeti!” barked Damien.

His demonic fire elemental spat a fireball directly at Aurin, but Zenoman batted the flames away with a swift movement from one of his hands before it got anywhere close to his tamer.

“Going for the kill today, are we?” asked Aurin, not as perturbed as he once might have been.

Damien let out a low laugh and shook his head. “Upon your death, Zodiac can be reborn from the ashes. We will be a new organisation with the same founding principles as the original. Neo-Zodiac will achieve the goals that we previously failed to achieve thanks to your interference.”

“You don’t care one bit for all of the people that were hurt because of your actions, do you?” asked Aurin, feeling nothing but loathing for Damien.

“People are weak and we were going to make them strong. A culling was needed to ensure that the strong survived and then humanity would be able to prosper alongside Minakai.”

“A single tower was opened and Hazelton was almost destroyed by a single Minakai!” roared Aurin. “You are insane if you think that you would even get that far without Taurus leading the charge. Even Frederick would be better at it than you, but I’m sure he's signed up already.”

Damien looked away. “I’m working alone, Aurin. No other elites agreed to return so it’s down to me. I’m Zodiac’s last hope.”

“Taurus has vanished, your fellow elites want nothing to do with Zodiac and you don’t even have any of your goons by your side. What do you think is going to come of this?”

“I have nothing left!” yelled Damien. “You took everything from me and you need to suffer for it. You’ll be the first to feel my wrath!”

With that, his Hoofreeti ran towards Aurin and Zenoman intercepted him with his hands.

“Stall him,” said Aurin to Zenoman, having a plan in mind.

Zenoman did as he was asked and shoved Hoofreeti away, sending him crashing into the wall behind his tamer. Damien, however, was smiling deviously. He held up his hand and summoned his Scarelit and Fyrvern into the tower, leaving Zenoman outnumbered three to one.

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“Nothing changes,” said Aurin, confident that Zenoman could defend him against Damien’s entire team.

Three large fireballs were thrown towards him and Zenoman palmed all three away and used his remaining hand to slap Fyrvern across the face, angering the red wyvern. It flew towards Aurin, only to be dragged back by the wings and thrown aside. Hoofreeti and Scarelit tried to seize the opening to strike Aurin, but were also shoved aside.

“Stop toying with me!” screamed Damien, his fury reaching boiling point.

“You need to realise that you can’t defeat me,” stated Aurin firmly. “And it’s not just that you can’t defeat me. You can’t even lay a hand on me.”

“You think you’re the King? Fight properly!”

“Very well,” said Aurin, holding up his tamer glove where an orange summoning stone rested. “Zenoman, stand back.”

Aurin cast out a light from the stone and a hulking figure appeared before him, eclipsing him from Damien’s sight. Before the sole Neo-Zodiac member stood the scourge that destroyed the hopes of his entire organisation. Zeera.

“I don’t believe it…” muttered Damien, seeing the sneering expression of the grey dinosaur.

“Zeera, have at it,” said Aurin.

The epic Minakai didn’t need to be told twice. It strode across the tiles and swiped its two ferocious claws at Damien’s stunned Scarelit. The first strike finished it, but the second dealt the extra punishment Aurin knew Damien needed.

After Scarelit vanished in a flash of red, Hoofreeti and Fyrvern opened their mouths and unleashed torrents of fire at Zeera, but he coated his arms in stone and held them in front of himself, blocking him from the worst of the flames as he marched on towards his next target; Fyrvern.

Zeera swung one of his claws, discarding the stone armour and knocking Hoofreeti flat on its back while he reshaped the stone on his other arm into a spike, stabbing Fyrvern through the stomach and then ramming it with his sharp nose horn. Before it had the chance to fall down, Fyrvern was ejected from the tower too.

“T-this is the r-reincarnation, isn’t it?” asked Damien. “You can c-control it?”

“I don’t need to control him,” said Aurin. “I just need him to recognise an enemy and he takes care of the rest.” Aurin then turned to Zeera and pointed at Hoofreeti. “One left.”

Before Hoofreeti could react, Zeera had conjured boulder in one hand and flung it. Between the sound of the thud of Damien’s Minakai against the wall and the distinct snapping of a few ribs, Aurin knew Hoofreeti was done for. And true enough, he followed his comrades out of the tower in a red flash of his own.

“I hate you…” spat Damien, looking utterly miserable. A second later, he disappeared from the tower too.

“Good job,” Aurin told Zeera and Zenoman, but Zeera was already marching through the room in search of another opponent who might actually present a challenge. “Halt!”

Zeera did as ordered and looked over his shoulder at Aurin and his teammate. The look on his tamer’s face told him that they were done for the day and he turned around, waiting patiently for what would come next.

Aurin brought out his Orb of Return and the three vanished from Harmony Tower as Damien and his Minakai had done before them. They landed outside on the grass, but something black on the grass in front of him caught Aurin’s eye. He walked a few paces towards it and leaned over to pick it up.

He looked at the wooden goat-patterned Capricorn mask and let out a small laugh before showing it to Zenoman and Zeera. The dinosaur had no reaction whatsoever, but the golden alien looked at it curiously and cocked his head to the side.

“Maybe he took the lesson to heart,” Aurin said to Zenoman. “I wonder if we’ll ever see Damien or his Neo-Zodiac again…”

Zenoman let out an echoing tone while shaking his head.

“No, I don’t think we will either, Zeno. If he was smart, he would make himself scarce. If he was even smarter, he would turn himself in again and see out the sentence he deserves.”

Aurin shoved the Capricorn mask in his bag and banished Zeera to rejoin Shamtile at the Earth Shrine while he and Zenoman walked along the dirt path. Rather than take the fork that would lead to Kyle’s ranch, the two walked into Hazelton as the sun hung low in the sky, shining its late evening light upon the peaceful town.

The two strolled along and were greeted a couple of times by the citizens he happened upon. This was common now. Aurin was unable to simply walk through the town unnoticed, everyone was still grateful for everything he had done between the Zeera Crisis and subsequent fixing of the town. He hated being treated like a celebrity, the same way he had hated being addressed as the Saviour of Hazelton. To him, he was as he had always been.

Walking through the doors of the police station, Aurin asked the receptionist to give Knot a call. Not one to keep Aurin waiting, knowing that he would only show up in person if there was a good reason to, Knot was there in thirty seconds flat.

“What’s happened now?” he asked before he had even crossed the waiting room. “Is there a need for some privacy?”

“No, I don’t think so,” said Aurin, reaching into his bag and taking out Damien’s mask. “I thought you would want this.”

Aurin tossed the mask to Knot who caught it effortlessly. “Showed his face, did he? Surely, he wasn’t stupid enough to attack you at the ranch?”

“No, we ran into each other in Harmony Tower. He was trying to get Neo-Zodiac off the ground, but he had no take up.”

Knot let out a dry laugh. “I know. We had a couple of his former comrades tells us that he tried to recruit him. I didn’t think he would come back to Hazelton, but I suppose this town is all that he knows.”

“If he doesn’t turn himself in, this may be the last we see of him. I gave him one last beatdown and I think that’s why he threw the mask away.”

“Unless he shows up in town again, he’s the Minakai Guardian’s problem,” scoffed Knot. “As much as I’d like to see him thrown behind bars again personally, I doubt I can swing ordering a nationwide manhunt for him.”

“Tied up in bureaucracy again?”

“Always, Aurin,” sighed Knot before shaking the mask in his direction. “Thank you for this. If we don’t see each other again before the national championships, good luck.”

“Thanks, Chief,” said Aurin as Knot walked away. “Come on, Zeno. Let’s get home and rest. We’ve got a tournament to prepare for.”