It's nine o'clock in the evening and I am sitting on the edge of my bed in the bedroom. Behind me, Natasha is sleeping off the exhaustion she received today. As for me, I look at her and swipe her hair off her beautiful face. Her face shows signs of dissatisfaction and so, I give her her teddy bear which she, while sleeping, grabs and immediately starts hugging it tightly. Then I see how her face changes for better and I smile, before I get up from the bed and quietly leave the room.

I turn left in the corridor and walk over to a locked door. I then proceed to unlock the door by placing my hand on it and pouring in my energy, unlocking the magic lock on the door. Pushing down the handle, I push the door open and enter the room. The moment when the door is completely open, I see a small room with a chest in the middle of the room. The chest is made out of wood and decorated by runes written in gold.

Slowly and quietly closing the door behind me and then walk over to the chest. I stand in front of it and hesitate for a few seconds, before I put my hands on the top edges and open it.

"I thought I could leave, but I guess once you become a mage, you will be one until death."

After looking at the contents of the chest, I close it by slamming it shut. Then, I turn around and use a shortened chant to save my Arcane Energy.

"[Gate]"I chant and in front of my eyes, a black circle appears, into which I step in. The moment I do that, the circle disappears in the room and the next moment, I appear in a different room. The room seems to be a conference room and currently there are dozen or so people in there.

"Freeze asshole!"is said by a female voice next to me and the next moment, a gun is pressed against my temple.

"Eeh..what is going on?"one of them asks and then, all of them turn to look at us. They all look at me with faces full of surprise and fear.

"Oh shit."one of the mutters and the other immune orders"Elane. Lower your gun!"

"Why should I. He just appeared here through the Gate."she says and presses the barrel Even harder against my skull.

"Elane. Lower that fucking gun now If you Ever want to use that arm again. Because your pointing you gun at Azarath."the man tells her and immediately, I feel the gun being moved away from my head. Now that I don't have a gun aimed at me, I turn to look at her and see a sixteen or so year old girl with a pretty face. Her eyes are silver and so is her shoulder length hair. She is about 1,8m tall and has a trained figure.

Now that I had admired her beauty, I turned to the people and went straight to the point"Where the fuck is Mark?"

"Fourth floor. At the Gym."one of them says.

"Thanks."I reply and leave the room through the door this time.

"You're just gonna let him walk away?!"I hear one they call Elane yell behind the wall.

"Even if wanted to stop him, we can't. He is...was a bloody X rank. Go try to stop him without ending in the ICU."

I couldn't hear what they said next, as I moved away because I didn't care enough to wait and hear what they were going to say about me next. I had other things to do. Like finding Mark. And to do that, I take the steps to the fourth floor and walk through the hallway towards the gym.

In the gym, I see him bench pressing hundred kilograms. Not caring about his training, I walk over to him and once there, I stand in front of his head, while looking down on him.

"Me coming to you means the situation is bad."Mark says and puts the weight back. He then lifts himself up and continues"You coming to me, means that the situation is very bad."

"It is."I tell him.

"Bad enough for you to return?"

"Yes."

"I see."he mutters and then tells me"Lets talk about what made you come back. But not here, in the sauna."

"I seriously don't have time for that."I tell him.

"Well then make some time, because i guess you haven't looked yourself in the mirror. You look like shit and you really need to relax."he says and leaves. I sigh and follow him.

Fifteen minutes later, both of us sit in the sauna, naked and sweating.

"So this is what happened."he mutters.

"So now you see why I came back. Did you know about it?"I ask him.

"Yes."he says.

"Then why the fuck didn't you tell me about it?"

"Because you threw me out first."he snaps back.

"Well maybe I wouldn't had If you had started with Shadows changing their habits and now, Shadows, who shouldn't be able to even make a sound, can suddenly speak."I snap back.

"If you put it this way, you do make a point."he says, after understanding his error.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Shadow habits where the only thing that gave us an advantage, but now, those advantages seem to be useles. A Hunter attacking during the day, while the moon is young and even targeting a woman. All three of these things, Hunter has never broken. But now it has and it could speak now too. This raises a question: Why?"

"I wish I'd knew Az-...Kane. But I have no idea why? And so, we must find out why this is happening."

"Well there is no other way to do that now."I comment.

"It seems so."

Time passes and both of us are still sweating here.

"Have you contacted my sisters Phantom?"Mark asks me suddenly after a long silence.

"No and I don't plan to."I reply to her.

"Afraid to open the old wounds?"

"Yes."I answer with a serious tone.

"You know I'm not mad at you for what you did. You did wh-"he stops, when he hears a sound of wood breaking inside of the hot room. I see him staring at my hand and sees, how my fingers are digging into the wood.

"Lets change topics."he says, understanding the hint. "Now that you have decided to return, you need to arm yourself."

"I guess so. My sword lost it's power after the blade was broken and my gun became useless after it was bent."

"Okay. So after we are done here, we can go to the Writer."Mark says.

The door to the sauna is suddenly opened and a man in his mid twenties enters. He sits down next to me and looks at me with a face, like he recognized me, but isn't that sure. He then puts his hand on my forehead and pushes my hair up.

"Azarath. It really is you."he says and tries to come in for a hug, but I stop him by putting my hand on his face.

"Paul. Don't. Just don't."I say and push his head back. After pulling my hand back, Paul looks at himself and the mutters"Oh right."before starting to talk

"So Azarath. You finally decided to come back. Ooo how I waited for this day?"

"Why would you want me to come back."

"My job will get easier again with you around."he says shamelessly.

"Yep. Makes sense."I just mutter.

First to leave is Mark, who pushes himself up and exits the Sauna. But before he exits, I see his back, covered entirely with red runes.

"When did Mark Rune himself?"I ask Paul, who thinks for a few seconds, before answering"I think it was after Elizabeth died."

"I see."I reply and get up myself too.

Putting my hand on the door handle, I am about to use it, but stop, when Paul says"Azarath.... Never mind."

Ten minutes later, me and Mark have dressed up and have reached the Writer. The Writer is the person who creates and upgrades our gear here. The Writer knows every known rune and spell there is, as he has to use them to improve our skill. In the Library, his job is the most important for the Field Mages. Especially for Combat Mages, who use weapon.

"Ooh. Who do my eyes see.... isn't it Azarath."a man in his fifties says immediately, when he spots us entering his room.

"Hi, C."I greet him back.

"So what can I help you with?"he asks us, while leaning forward with his hands on the table that separated us.

"I need a set of new equipment."I answer him.

"What happened to old one?"he asks me.

"Broken beyond repair."I answer him.

"Okay."he replies and then asks"Do what exactly do you want. The usual?"

"Yes."I answer him.

"Okay. Give me a few hours."he says and starts to work on my equipment immediately. As he work on that, me and Mark left the workshop to go to crystal room. Reason to go to there is to forcefully recharge my Arcane Energy in my body, because it would take too long for me to let it passively flow into my body. The progress would be even slower then usual, as I had blocked the way for the Energy to enter my body.

We walk through the hallway and soon reach the Crystal room, into which I entered alone. The entire room itself is completely black with the glowing crystals of different colours being the only light source. Clockwise, the crystal colours are: black, red, brown, white, blue and green.

I myself first walk over to the white crystal and put my hand on it. Immediately I start to feel how my body is being flooded with Arcane Energy. But unlike with the recharge using the sword today, this one doesn't hurt at all and this doesn't have nothing to do with the magic System.

After feeling my White System recharged, I walk over to the black crystal and repeat the process.

"All charged up?"Mark asks me immediately after I exit the room.

"Yeah...it feels weird again to have so much energy in my body."I comment.

"Well you'll get used to it."he assures.

"That I know."

Because we had time to kill, we just sat down at the cafeteria and started to catch up.

"Say Kane...do you know who exactly your new lover is?"Mark asks me while both of us are enjoying our late dinner.

"Yes. Both the teacher and the other thing. I still had access to the Database after I left."

"And you're fine with it?"he asks.

"Obviously. She ain't one and neither am I. Thats why we get along so well."

"Thats good to hear then."

"And what about you? Anything new?"this time, I asked.

"Actually there is. My wife finally gave birth to our beautiful son, who we named Jason."

"Well congratulations then. Finally a father."I say, feeling happy for him.

"Thank you."he replies to me.

A few hours later, I am back at the workshop alone, as Mark had other things to do.

*Slice*

A flash of a blade could be seen go through the steel rod. Few seconds later, the top part of it started to slide down, until it hit the floor.

"Like you can see, it can cut through ten centimeters of titanium without any trouble or damage."The Writer explains."Thanks to nano technology, I was able to create the first nano-blade. A blade that can cut through almost anything. And thanks to Magical enhancement, it won't break any time soon."

"Love it. And like always, the retractable feature is good."I say and retract the blade back entirely back to the handle.

"Now."he walks over to another table, picks something up and then walks back"For your firearm, it's the usual upgraded m1911. This one is called Mark X. You have the usual extended mag with 15 .45ACP rounds, tactical grip, night sides, laser sight and flashlight and the muzzle break. And the of course, the jet black finish."

"Great like always."I say, while observing the gun.

"Thank you very much, C."I thank him, before leaving the room.

"Until next time."he says his goodbyes too and goes back to his work.

Now that I am finished here for the today, I finally decide to go back home. So I open the Gate in front of me and step through it. I step out of the Gate next and appear in the room, from where I left before. I open the chest once again and quickly put away my equipment into there. This takes only a few minutes and after that, I close the chest.

I leave the room and put away my jacket. I then walk towards my bedroom with quiet steps, while taking off my hoodie and the shirt. I get my shirt off the same time I enter my room. Here, I take off the rest of my clothes and but them away, before sitting on the edge of the bed, naked.

I look at Natasha and then say"You don't have to pretend that you are sleeping."

Hearing me, she opens her eyes and looks at me.

"Where did you go? It was lonely here."She asks me with a sad voice.

"I had stuff to do and I didn't have time to push it later."I tell her.

"Mage stuff?"she asks me and I answer"Mage stuff."

I then lay next to her on the bed and pull her close to me.

"Natasha. You don't have to worry about me. Nothing is going to happen to me."I tell her.

"I love you too much not to worry, Kane."she follows me sentence with a romantic line.

"I love you too, Nat."I tell her my feelings too.

Then, our eyes start to naturally draw towards each other. We stare into each others eyes and then, she says"Remember the promise I made yesterday morning?"

"Yeah."I say.

"Well you got an A, so you know."she says

"I know what?"I ask her and grab her butt.

"We can fuck."