“What... do you mean?” Phoenix’s teeth gritted against each other; his mind now grew frantic with emotions of worry with each second that Nizoro kept silent to him.

Over the phone, Nizoro took a moment to breathe before he gulped down the saliva that settled on his mouth. A deep inhale went into his lungs right before he said, “You and I, son... we’re facing quite the plight. Your grandfather’s heritage is at stake here...”

“What is it? Is it some corrupt friend of his? Is it some weird, cliché bad guy who has empty threats? Or is it—“

“I’m afraid none of those that you have stated are correct, my dear son,” he took another moment to pause. This time, he whispered over to someone in the background. Along with the words he mumbled to the person was another masculine, yet young voice similar to Nizoro’s.

“Uh... dad, who are you talking to—“

“Anyhow, listen to me very close, dear son. The Royal Office has sent me a dozen accounts of two suspicious individuals roaming about within the capital, where you four currently rest.”

“What do they look like? I need some descriptions of the two so we can narrow down some possible suspects.”

“The young lad is somewhat around the same age as young Emerald there, albeit this teen might be older by a single year. A color similar to the skin of grapes dye his hair and pupils, or for a simpleton like you, dark-purple.”

“No need to insult me today, dad...”

Nizoro let out a chuckle, “Take it with a pinch of salt, son. Anyhow, as I was saying... oh yes! He clothes himself in a white coat similar to the one you oh adore so much. Wrapped around his neck is an identical scarf to the one you love so much as well.”

“What about the other person you mentioned?”

“I... apologize. The Royal Office had not yet gathered much information as to what the person attire itself in. What we do know, however, is that she is one young lass and is the same age as the young lad. We have little to no information about anything else aside from her gender.”

While Nizoro continued to blabber, thoughts rained on Phoenix’s mind. A white coat similar to mine, and the same scarf I wear too? Damn, whoever this guy is, he’s got some good fashion taste if I say so myself, he chuckled. His shoulders dropped as a sigh escaped. “Eh, no need to worry dad, it’s probably a Polarian, some tourist, or a cosplayer. Who knows? The Mag-con is coming up soon, so I’m taking a guess and say it’s the third option.”

“I do agree that the elves of Polaris do dress in a similar fashion to you, but, this man is no such elf, neither is he a cosplayer preparing for Mag-con nor is he a Crowlian Devil. He is nothing more than a mere Raycanian Human, just like any other being in the Raycania Region. Another detail I would wish to mention to you is that the entirety of his right sleeve is gone. Something had most likely torn it away, thus revealing his arm. This... how do I say this...” he paused for a few more seconds and then mumbled to the man who was far from him, “infection has covered it. It is of a black hue and some cracks on his skin are oozing out this weird... purple... sticky liquid. Fret not, however, as the liquid does not deal any sort of damage, it is merely Class-D damage.”

Every teeny bit of information that Nizoro dumped into the eardrums of Phoenix was then processed through his mind, passing through the many neurons and brain cells he had. He started from the description of how the man had attired down to the minor details of the infected arm the man had.

His glance drifted all across the three, with his eyelids that now narrowed into tiny slits. As he leaned his lips closer to the phone’s microphone, he gulped and then covered a side of his mouth away from the sight of the three. He then asked, “Anything... else of note? He seems like... an interesting... person.”

“This may be of a shock to you, and I know this is going to be hard to accept, but... he wears the Glove of Vortex.”

Phoenix’s head drooped closer to his shoulder, lines formed in between his brows as he scratched the back of his head. A moment of silence later, a peal of laughter burst through his lips. He placed his hand over his stomach as his fit of laughter persisted. “I’m so, so, so sorry, the glove of what now?” he wheezed yet again while his body bent forward.

“What are you laughing for, son?! Take this situation seriously! The glove this god-damned perpetrator stole is the glove your VERY OWN grandfather seldom wore, so don’t you dare make a joke out of this!” he raised his voice, “Day after he had vanished from the face of this earth, so did the glove. As far as I and the council know, your grandfather had not brought it along with him during his escapade in the Trema Region. We concealed and secured it deep inside the walls of the Amber Vault.”

“Okay, okay, okay,” Phoenix wheezed once more, “what do you me to do?”

“All that I request from you is to catch both of these goons, interrogate them, and by whatever means, take that glove off their clutches! Do you understand?!”

Phoenix nodded his head, soon the cheeks on his face turned a pinkish-red as he struggled to hold in his laughter inside his mouth, “Don’t worry, dad. We can do this.”

“I trust you with this duty, son. Do not disappoint me.”

“Yeah, I promise I won’t. You can always rely on me!”

He then said goodbye to his father before he hung up the call. He slid the phone back into the insides of his pockets while laughter muffled behind his lips, both his shoulders sprung and dropped as he turned his body at a slow pace to face the three who continued to move the remaining crates. One side of his thin lips rose into a curve while more chuckles seeped out one after the other.

While his chuckles continued, Ruby tipped her body through the door frame and peered into the eyes of Phoenix, her eyes now similar to slit as she put a finger right over her chin, “Phoenix, is something the matter? Why are you laughing like that? Do you want to go to the comedy bar later with me and Obligous?” her face perplexed as she asked.

With his chin now lowered, Phoenix snickered all the while his eye contact with the three who were on the far end of the room maintained. His face now one filled with smug as he said, “We got a job.”

/***/

A swift thirty minutes passed ever since the four have made the castle their home. Ruby, Obligous, and Emerald settled down in their rooms for a few minutes along with their scattered belongings right before they went into the Sacred Amber Room, where they were just an hour ago. They all took seats around the long table while Phoenix stood in front of it; his fingers tapping the edge of the table which both his hands gripped.

Settled atop the table’s glossy, wooden surface was a single piece of paper along with a map of the City of Raycania, and on the paper, were writings of the details of the young boy and girl jotted down on it with huge red marks.

Looking at Phoenix, Ruby twirled her fingers across her silky, chestnut hair, “I did not expect for our first gig to be on our first day... what a surprise...”

“Honestly speaking neither did I, but the good thing is that we’ll get a glimpse of what the Mythics before us did. Please don’t tell my father, but I am clueless about what we’re even supposed to do. I expected myself to live on my farm until I die,” Phoenix chortled.

“So... Uhm... Ponix, I mean... uh... Phoenix... what did your father... tell you?” Emerald asked as his body lowered down, with only his head now visible.

Phoenix’s shifted his head towards Emerald who remained hidden beneath the table, “Well... all I got are details of how the boy dressed and a text from my father which has a very short list of which places the witnesses had found the two. The paper right before you three is where the details are, so please, be my guest and read it.”

Emerald nodded his head as he rose from the carpet floor. He reached his hand over to the paper, plucked it off the table, and meandered his eyes across Phoenix’s handwriting; starting from the top of the paper and down to the last word noted.

After his eyes had gone through the wall of text once more, he slid the paper over to Ruby who sat across the table from him. He turned his head towards Phoenix once more, his body shrunk as he then said, “Pho... Phoenix... sorry if... this is insulting to you... b-b-but... from the descriptions alone... I think... I think he may look a lot like you...”

As Ruby handed the paper over to Obligous, she shifted her head towards Phoenix as well. She unfolded her fist and laid her cheek onto her warm palm as she eyed Phoenix from the many strands of his cyan hair down to his two black leather belts. She lifted her pupils from the bottom of her eyes and moved them to the level of Phoenix’s pupils.

“I am sorry for saying this to you, but I agree with Emerald. He sounds like he’d look similar to you, in fact, identical! Almost as if you were blood-related or something...”

“Oh please Ruby, I know my father is a man of honor, he’s not some home wrecker.”

“Eh. If he does indeed look like you and has the same physique as you, we are going in for one hell of trouble.”

“Yeah, that would be one hell of a trouble especially for us four,” Phoenix’s head nod slightly as he crossed both of his arms.

Obligous let the piece of paper lay back atop the wooden table. He crossed both of his legs, leaned his body closer towards the table, and clasped both of his hands together, letting it be the level around his stomach.

He cleared his throat and plastered on a deep tone onto his voice as he then queried, “Is there anything else we should know Phoenix?”

Phoenix nodded his head whilst he reached his hand into the pocket of his trousers, pulling out his phone once more and gripped it on his palms. He put in his password, switched the app over to the messages, and clicked on his father’s name.

“Uh-huh, but not a lot of information. Witnesses spotted the two around the Escala Port on the twenty-fifth of August. The second sighting was on the Inter-Kingdom Trading Center, which happened on the ninth of September. The third and fourth sightings were on the bazaar a few kilometers away from the town center, which happened just three days ago, and the Ashen Library, just yesterday. So, I guess that’s where we are going.”

A quick burst of laughter filled with anxiousness escaped from Ruby’s red lips, “Right... I don’t think we don’t have all the time in the world today to go to every single one of those places. At best, we could finish those four places within two days, especially with their massive size.”

“Don’t worry Ruby, doooon’t worry. I’ve got the best idea in the world,” Phoenix scoffed as he waved his hand at Ruby, a half-smirk slowly curving his lips.

He turned his back on the three, lifted his forearm to the level of his shoulders, and unfolded the fist he had kept. As his fingers rose, he aimed his dewed palm towards the concrete wall of the room, and only moments later, he began to wriggle his fingers as if they were a claw.

His eyes began to emit a magenta tint that was of a lighter shade than his pupils as beneath his becoming-warm breath, he chanted to himself, “Telportia, Raycania Square.”

Stolen story; please report.

A meter away from him, sparks of ember erupted out of the thin air inside the room, and soon, the embers formed into a long trail of fire that formed a ring right before him. The tint of red shone on his face as the wall made of flowing lava within the flaming ring’s boundary faded away and revealed the center of the city behind it, with the huge fountain stood erect a few meters away from the opened portal.

He looked over to the three by his shoulder, this time with a warm smile on his lips as he shook his head toward the portal, “Come on, let’s go guys. Time’s ticking.”

While Phoenix stepped through the portal and placed the sole of his shoes onto the pavement of the city square, the other three rose from their seats and trailed Phoenix from behind as they entered into the portal. After Obligous stepped into the town center, the portal that levitated behind them closed in on itself and flared into a burst of cinder mixed in with pinches of embers.

Obligous’s body flinched along with a squeal as the tiny explosion from the ring echoed inside his ears. He then set his attention towards Phoenix as he brushed off what ash remained atop his clothing. “Why are we here in the city square, Phoenix? I thought we’re going to the Escala Port...” he asked as he angled his head closer to his shoulder.

“We’re going to split up! This will save us a lot of hours, plus, we can explore the city for ourselves,” Phoenix replied. “Ruby, you’ll be heading to Escala Port, Emerald, go ahead to the trading center, Obligous, you go ahead to the bazaar and I am going to the library. You got that?”

The three nod their heads to Phoenix, who in return nodded his head. The four went their separate ways soon after a few seconds, following the signs that lead towards where Phoenix assigned them toward.

Obligous followed the stone path to the eastern side of the town, his eyes drifted across the many signs that aimed towards the direction of the Raycanian Monthly Bazaar. All of a sudden, his skin crawled, the follicles on his arms shuddered as he halted to where he stood. He felt an ominous gaze ogling his body.

Is there somebody... watching me? he asked himself.

His body rotated around at a slow pace, he gulped down the saliva in his throat as the beats of his heart hastened. However, instead of a person greeting him, only the cold wind which brushed against the cheeks of his face came to him. His pupils moved around, yet all that stood around him were shops not yet opened. His shoulders rose as he lifted his arms. He turned around and continued his saunter to the bazaar.

”I must be imagining things,” he whispered to himself.

/***/

Minutes passed by, and after walking with no end at sight, he stood right before the archway that led into the bazaar. A variety of noises bombarded his ears, from the yells of the merchants as they try to coax adventuring groups and townspeople into purchasing goods, to the grating made by steel blades as it’s pushed against the surface of a grindstone.

A soft gasp came from his lips as his eyes wandered about. No wonder why the streets were so empty... they’re all here!

He followed the path down the stone street; his eyes glimmered like stars whilst the many goods rested atop silk carpets mesmerized him, to the many potions hand-brewed by Crowlian Devil Mages, down to the few spices sold by Polarian Elves, his attention moved from one thing to the other. Soft, child-like giggles leaked out from his lips as the smile on his face widened ear-to-ear.

“What are all these things? I’ve never seen them before!” he said to himself. The excitement that filled his mind comes to a sudden halt, the brows on his face furrowed and slanted down towards each other and the smile on his lips drooped. A piercing glare then appeared on his eyes as he puffed his chest. “I didn’t come here to look at goods, I came here on a hunt!” he told himself as he placed his hands on his waist.

His stroll down the narrow paths of the bazaar turned into a strut, he swung his arms back and forth whilst he maintained the serious look on his face. As he turned to a corner that went to the eastern side of the bazaar, a man bumped him by his shoulder. The serious look on his face left and an apologetic one replaced it as he turned.

“Sorry! I didn’t mean to hit—“

The words that were about to escape froze as his mouth gaped open, his mind dumbfounded as the serious look returned on his face once more, along this time came his glare that was void of any glee as he scowled at the man who stood a few steps from him. A dark purple tinge dyed the man’s hair and he wore a white coat akin to the one Phoenix wore.

The man turned around to face Obligous, carrying a lopsided grin on his lips as he hid his hands behind the back of his coat. Wrapped around his neck was a fine, grey scarf comparable to that of the one Phoenix had. However, Obligous’s attention did not heed what the man wore; it was stuck onto the man’s right arm. Spanning from the end of his shoulder pointing outward down to the tips of his fingers was a tint of the dark void, with a purple liquid that oozed out of a few cracks on his arm.

Tucked onto his hand was a dark-tinted glove made with gold, engraved from its cuffs down to the fingertips that looked like claws were long lines shallow enough to let the purple liquid flow through it.

The two met each other’s gaze, whilst they stood in place, the chatter of the citizens continued to hit their eardrums. People gave them looks filled with confusion as they passed by the both of them, gossips soon sprouted from the crowd.

“What are those two doing?” an elf said to a fellow adventurer of hers.

“I am not too sure myself, they’re probably filming for Huling Henerales...” the adventurer whispered back into the ears of her elven friend.

Obligous took a step forward as his resting hand clenched into a fist, he took a breath and said, “Hey... aren’t you—“

In the blink of an eye, the man turned his back to let it face towards Obligous and rushed out of the narrow path, pushing himself through the crowd. People yelled at him as he nudged those who blocked his path out of the bazaar.

“Hey, watch where you’re going, dumbass!” a woman yelled.

Obligous chased the man through the crowd, his sight set onto the man and nothing else. Whilst he moved people out of the way as he tried to advance closer to the man, the adrenaline his body pumped began to flow through the man veins of his body; his breathing now hectic while his brows remained snapped together.

“Stop him!” he yelled from the top of his lungs as he got closer by a single meter.

Right as the two were about to strafe to a corner to the northern bazaar, the man leaped onto a barrel. He kicked it with the sole of his feet as he jumped and climbed up the ledge of a building made with bricks, pushing himself up with the assistance of the metal poles that the banners of the shop adorned. A few meters left behind, Obligous leaped onto another barrel, swung his entire weight at a quick pace towards one of the wooden supports, and then thrust his body up into the rooftop where the man had landed a second earlier.

Whilst he stood up on both of his feet, the man had already rushed onto the next building across from them. Without even taking a moment to breathe, Obligous trailed behind the man, jumping from a building to the other all the while he and the man dodged every obstacle that attempted to ruin their path. Jumps after jumps, leaps after leaps, soon on the rooftop of the seventh building, Obligous now struggled to catch up with all of the breath he had lost. His legs trembled, his breathing even hectic than before, and the pumping of his heart accelerated with each movement he did.

He persisted in running, not heeding his weakening body. A few minutes later, his momentum began to slow down; his body drooped as a storm of sweat rained off his face. He bent his body over to take in as much air as he could. He lifted his body and let out a small chuckle as he saw the man who was a building away follow him. Sweat from the man’s now-ashen face stained his white coat. He dragged the fabric of his scarf all across his face which sweat had now dewed the whole of it. Puffs of cold air escaped from both of their mouths as they struggle to breathe.

“Look, look, listen to me, man... how about we go ahead and take a break?” the man gasped for air,” I’m tired... you’re tired, so why don’t we... you know... chill? Like, Jonathan fucking Amber man, I can’t even breathe properly!” the man placed his palms on his knees as he fell to the floor.

“Yeah... that’s a good idea actually,” Obligous responded.

Moments later, however, the lips of the man began to suppress in his soft laughter. He rose from the pavement of the roof and reached into his pocket, pulling out a glass vial filled with liquid that emitted a purple glow, and holding the liquid in was a cork dipped in black ink. The man popped its cork off the glass neck and guzzled the purple liquid down his throat.

Obligous’s heart dropped to the bottom regions of his body, his eyes twitched, his mouth widened and the pupils in his eyes shrunk to the size of the tip of a needle as the man drank the liquid right before his tired eyes. Seconds later, the man wiped what tiny droplets remained on his cheek off it and let out a sigh filled with pure relief.

The man let out the laugh he suppressed as his arms rose to the side; he lifted his chin as he leered into Obligous with scornful eyes. “Well then, how about let’s continue our little game of tag?” he chortled, “I’m sure your stamina is so incredible, riiight~?”

Obligous’s fists tensed yet again along with his brows that twitched with every second he gave back the scornful look the man gave him. He aimed the knuckles of his fist towards the man as a vein bulged on his head, “Shut the hell up, will ya kid?! I’m gonna give you a ‘riiight~’ hook to your face!”

“Fine then,” the man snickered, “try me.”

The man opened his arms as if waiting for a hug, his lips curved into a smirk as he stood still, tapping his feet on the pavement as he waited for Obligous. Seconds passed by, yet Obligous remained on one knee as he continued to cope up with his air.

“Pathetic, even a kid can do better than you—“

In a mere second, Obligous stood from the ground and took the medallion bandolier off his body. He gripped its chains and swung it around, thrusting it off his palm and sending its trajectory towards the man’s stomach.

“Eat this, medallion volley!” Obligous yelled as he pointed towards the man.

“Fool,” the man smirked, “I’ve seen kids do better things.”

The engraved lines on the man’s glove began to emit a purple glow, moments later; the purple liquid that oozed out of the cracks on his skin swam up into the engraved lines, flowing up to the tips of his claw-like mechanical fingers. From the engraved circle on the palm of his glove, a vortex shaped like an orb began to form; it expanded in size as it sucked up all the liquid in the lines, all the while the bandolier continued its trajectory towards him.

The man swung his entire arm towards Obligous as he let out a loud growl. The vortex released itself off the man’s clutches the moment it aimed towards Obligous and flew towards him at a rate faster than the golden bandolier. Seconds later, the vortex impacted onto a side of Obligous’s waist, a portion of his jacket now torn off into dust that flew into the air, and his skin now covered in a bundle of scrapes from the edges of the vortex orb. Blood bled out from his scrapes and some spewed out from his mouth. The buttons on his waistcoat loosened as his body recoiled as he flew a few meters back to the ground.

Meanwhile, the man took one step to the side and the medallion of the bandolier only missed by a few inches from the man’s chest, passing under his arm. He then snickered once more as he turned his back against Obligous. The glove tucked tight on his hand deactivated as the liquid that swam through the lines on it flowed back into the cracks while step-by-step he approached the ledge.

“I’ve seen enough, I’m satisfied,” he looked over his shoulder, sneering at the laying and bleeding Obligous.

The man tried to leap towards the next building, but the tip of his black leather shoes trip over the brick ledges that lined the building’s edge where he currently stood at. The man tried to clutch onto the metal ladders of the building across, but it was far from his reach. Gravity had already begun to pull his whole body back down to the earth and threw him into a dark alleyway. A yelp broke free from his mouth as he landed on his back.

Obligous quickly wrapped a small roll of bandages around his waist, “This is nothing but a scratch!” he exclaimed out loud to himself, “I’ll just let Ruby heal this for me later...”

Obligous jumped over to the building where the man had stood and dove down into the alleyway where he had fallen. As he landed on the soles of his shoes, he tucked the bandolier back to his shoulder down to his waist. In front of him, the man glared into his eyes as he pushed his entire body towards the brick wall that led to a dead-end, his legs limped as he crawled further towards the wall.

Obligous put wrapped his hand around the chains of his bandolier and held it with a tight grip, his fingers tensed as he then said, “With my authority as one of the fifth-generation Raycanian Mythics, I order that you surrender or I will use brute force.”

The man halted where his body lay limp. All of a sudden, he burst into a fit of laughter as he reached his twitched hands into the chest pocket sewn on his coat. His laughter was then interrupted by whimpers as he pulled out another vial, this time, inside of it was a white liquid that blared a flash every few seconds. With what remained of his energy, he raised his free hand into the air and waved to Obligous.

“You fell for my very own trick, fool!”

“Wha—“

In the blink of an eye, the man got up from the ground and then threw the vial towards Obligous’s black eyes. Obligous raised his forearms and blocked his face with it, but the vial shattered into many dull shards as they impacted onto his coat. The liquid inside the once-intact glass vial seeped through the gaps in between his arms, splashing onto his eyes, and seconds later, a painful white light blinded his sight. He fell to his knees and soon fell on his side, groaning and wincing then followed as his body cringed on the floor. He curled into a ball and wrapped his arms around his stomach; screams filled with his raging agony echoed in the alleyway as he began to kick his feet in the air.

“Jonathan fucking Amber, what is this kid?!” he cried to himself.

Whilst his eyes were still blinded by the white light, a set of footsteps staggered out of the dark alleyway, accompanied by the man’s laughter. Seconds later, the light faded away from his vision. He rose from the ground and looked around him, his eyes darting around the surroundings, from the brick walls down to the wooden fences. The man was no longer within his sight nor reach.

He then turned around and rushed outward into the street, his fists still tightened while his legs throbbed with pain, his eyes now burned with rage as he gritted both his teeth. Where’s that goddamn rascal?! All I was gonna ask for was an interrogation, I didn’t mean to volley him with my medallion!

Seconds passed by, his fists unfolded, the throbbing of his legs came to a halt, and the pumps of his heart slowed down. He sighed as he rested his palms against the back of his head.

“Oh well, whatever. I’ll have the chance to get my revenge on that kid someday... Maybe I’ll let Ruby teach him about some ethics?” his skin crawled and shuddered as he walked down the path, “She’s scary when she’s strict... I don’t want to be hit with a belt again...”