A city engulfed in flames and abomination, dreadful flames of black swallowing the city at its roots, merciless ashes falling from above, and lifeless bodies scattered on every corner of the streets. Forces of darkness are everywhere and causing destruction the life itself is on the brink of death. Amidst the doom and chaos, unconscious under a building buried in heavy wreckage impaled by an obsidian-black spear by his chest. Drenched in blood, he can’t barely move nor speak from the immense pain. No one from his Legion was near to aid him.

With pride only rushing through his veins: I'm a god, the shadow itself, and I will not be delivered to the gates of death. Forgive me ****** for this is not the day you’ll weigh my heart.

With every last drop of his power, he screams as he drains all that’s left, such a scream of desperation breaks his voice. In sheer effort, he grips tight on the spear, he screams once again as he endures the agonizing pain of removing a blade from his heart, as he continues to wail, he vomits a pool of blood that makes him fall on his knees. In unbearable suffering, he starts to walk as he soaks the ground with red, as death ensues around the city, the only he can do is sit and watch as everything unfolds in front of his eyes. Out of nowhere, a Samurai in black went crashing down to his feet.

"Sensei! Stand behind me!" the Samurai said. Immense mana surges upon him as he forms his stance.

Ahead of them, a behemoth Orc built like a tank stands before them, gripping an axe dripping with blood, and he thirsts for the Samurai's life. The Orc leaps with total strength and his axe finds its way to the Samurai, he parries with his blade’s sheath and lashes out a kick. With the Orc's absolute weight and size; he tramples on his feet, roars with great presence, and swings his axe with utter force.

Facing a colossal strike raging towards him, the Samurai forms a stance. With sheer focus, he remains patient as the Orc surges for a strike, he remains calm as the rain of ashes touches his silk long-tied hair. Then with perfect timing the axe inches away from his head, in a flash, with his slender arms, revealing a katana forged in crimson blood swiftly slashes the Orc in his hand and slices through his shoulder with a flawless form of attack. In his brown calm eyes, he watches the Orc in agony as he suffers from the blazing flames from the crimson katana.

The Orc undoubtedly heals and returns the favor by delivering a lethal blow to the Samurai that could send him crashing into countless infrastructures. With the Samurai's flawless senses, he avoided. The two raise their blades, immaculate iniquitous warriors whip their blades to the fullest. The city as their playground, ear-stinging rattles from their blades spread across the dead streets, and shockwaves demolishing everything in its path. The Samurai takes the next attack to become an opportunity, he slides his katana to the axe altering the direction of the weapon, then he kicks it to the ground burying it deep, and gives him one solid hell of a punch shattering his whole jaw apart. He sheats his katana and forms a stance again with his hand resting on the hilt, he channels an unmeasurable amount of mana and an abyssal aura envelops the weapon, in a soothing voice; "Thousand Shadows: Yami No Sora,"

He dashes to the Orc with the katana carves across the Orc’s body dicing deep on his flesh with scorching flames of purple, as he severs the limb of the Orc black mist follows the flow. He takes one firm grip on the Orc's head and raises his blade to end it all.

But with all that effort, and a swift and flawless attack from the Samurai, the Orc just immediately regenerates his missing limbs and snatches the katana. He sways the Samurai all over the play, forcing him to drop his blade. The Orc swings a shocking kick to the Samurai making him let go, now unarmed, with sheer raw strength the Orc plummets him down on the ground.

Cloud’s last bastion of defense now laid upon his eyes; defeated.

Cloud...

The victorious Orc turns his eyes on Cloud who is gasping for air. "Surrender and you will be spared…" In his tongue, he said to him.

In his final moments, constantly loses blood from his countless wounds, and his legs won't even work at will. At last ditch effort, he crawls to get the katana.

The Orc knew he couldn't fight at this point, it is meaningless to fight a dying man, "Last warning, surrender or die!" he said.

But the Orc overlooks one fact.

On the ground, he catches a long breath with his eyes shut. His heartbeat that is on life support, pumping blood into his deteriorating health, with his shadows only his final barricade away from death. Flames of black and purple engulf the blade, ominous mana revs in his veins, and shadows embrace him as abyssal force drowns him in his finest moment. With his eyes glowing in purple.

The city choked on silence. he struck like lightning, and the fabric of reality itself was torn apart. "Thousand Void: Ephemeral Plane...." in his dying voice he said and fell to his knees.

The Orc failed to notice that he was no man, but the embodiment of darkness itself.

The head of the behemoth thuds to the ground. Eyes gouging in shock "How?!?" the caught off guard Orc said as he crumbled to dust.

Cloud...

Bloodshot eyes as he collapses on paralyzed knees, coughing a pool of blood from the consequences of draining his mana to its limits.

The Samurai miraculously gains consciousness and heals his heavy injuries with haste. He rushes to Cloud; "Sensei! Are you okay?!" he shouts as he sprints to his master.

Resting on the Samurai’s arms, Cloud taps his head, "T-that... is how... you... use your... blade." He scolds him after he witnessed the Samurai’s flawed Yami No Sora.

As the place succumbs to its demise from Cloud’s absolute force of power, the Samurai quickly carries Cloud and dashes at incredible speed, "Sensei, hold on! I will be getting you out of this!" The Samurai runs away, carrying Cloud with him to escape from the collapsing city crawling full of Schattens.

As they both escape, every Schatten on the perimeter right away sets their prowling eyes on the presence of Cloud and everyone swarms at them preventing them from escaping. Without a hint of a second thought, "I'll make you proud this time, Sensei." The Samurai said. In a fraction of a second, shadow swirls to every Schatten as the Samurai dances his katana on their heads with flawless form. Everyone eager to stop them right away crumbles to dust. Dashing in incredible speed, he evades something, a gust of wind perhaps, then he immediately stops as he observes their surroundings, something is there yet what is it? He parries a force of speed, yet the Samurai didn’t catch a glimpse even at its slightest.

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"Show yourself, coward!" The Samurai said. With his blade stretched out, “Afraid to show yourself in front of a dying man?” he provoked.

Leaving such a taunt, a man appeared before them with a smirk of bold arrogance in the blink of an eye without even breaking a sound. Covered in cheetah-like feats wrapped around his neck like a scarf, flawless razor-edged pearl-white claws, and slender hind legs capable of executing unremarkable maneuvers, him standing alone in the distance they knew he was not a force to be reckoned with.

The enemy responds, "The confidence you hold, you said it like you can take a beating from me, mongrel. Let’s see where’s your footing five seconds later," he said as he chucked.

Cloud...

The Samurai lays the weakened Cloud delicately. "Well then..." with his blade aimed towards the Schatten, tight grasp to its hilt prepared to deliver a swift swing that will end the Schatten’s arrogance into peace as soon as he opens the first strike. Then surprisingly, Cloud held the Samurai’s wrist, “Sensei, what are you doing? Stand back, let me finish this with haste,” he said as he kept his eyes on the Schatten.

Glaring with ominous purple eyes, "He's mine..." he said as he nearly broke the Samurai’s wrist leaving him to withdraw with no question. He lets go and stands up with heavy staggering steps, bitting deep down on his lips with unquenchable hatred, his bloodshot purple eyes gaze deep beneath the Schatten’s soul, and he declares; “I’m gonna fucking shred you to pieces!” as mana surges throughout his body once more.

Then a whipping palm hits Cloud on the cheek. Yunika exclaims “GET UP, CLOUD!” waking him in deep sleep.

Startled he jumps out confused; "W-what? What? What? What happened?” He looks at Yunika and frowns at him for obvious reasons "What do you want? Why did you wake me up? he said.

She crosses her arms and raises a brow, "Do you even know what time it is?" she says.

"Don't know, I don't care what time it is, all I want is a long good sleep." Cloud demands.

She sighs. "It is already past eleven..." Yunika gives him a warm mug of coffee to soothe his rough morning. "Are you that tired that you wish to lay down and sleep all day?" she sits beside Cloud and asks; "Since this is our first time visiting this country, why not try some of the native foods here? I’ll cook. Actually, I just found out their national dish is called the adobo it is a chicken or a pork stew." Yunika grabs Cloud's mug to take a sip of his coffee, “So, what do you say?”

Cloud takes back his mug "Yeah, sure why not, I mean—I know you can cook, so yeah," he said.

Yunika gets a piece of paper and a pen and writes a list of things "Okay, so here, I'm giving you a list to buy at a nearby public market. You go buy the ingredients and I'll do the cooking,"

Cloud scans the paper, and raises a brow reading the majority of things he’s not familiar with, "Why me?" he said as he continued to read the list.

"Go out, you need some sunlight, bro. Hayan will be with you, he’s familiar with the place," she said.

Hayan coming out fresh from the bathroom. Brushing his teeth as he prepared, "You better take a shower before we go out," he said to Cloud.

As the two leave the condo and head to an elevator. Cloud stands there in silence with his hands in his pocket, zoning out and looking at nothing with his tired eyes that beg for a long rest. Blank mind, pondering nothing, just there standing.

Then the elevator rings, reaching the ground floor.

As they walk outside the building, Hayan looks at him and says "You look... gloomy, did Yunika really ruin your sleep?" he asks.

"Yeah, but this will go away. She often does this when we were kids,”

After a few minutes of walking, until they reach the market, Cloud looks at how busy the market is, too loud, and too crowded that he can't even hear himself talking. "This is not what I imagined..." he said as he stared at the market flooding with people.

The bustling public market is choked by the constant transactions left and right, bargaining, and arguing with the vendors. The combined smell of fresh meat, fish, spices, and even people's odor can be smelled, which makes Cloud uncomfortable. "Why the hell people here are so loud?" He said.

On the thick crowd Hayan responds "I believe it's market day, goods, meat, and vegetables just recently arrived. So perhaps that is why countless people have come to get the newly harvested vegetables and fresh meats as possible." he said unbothered by the atmosphere, unlike Cloud.Since Cloud was his first time in the country, he took the liberty to buy the goods on his own. But there’s an unspoken rule; if you’re not a local, you’re buying it at a double price. Yet Hayan spent some time in the Philippines in the past, and thanks to his silver tongue and charm as well, they effortlessly saved half a price on everything they bought.

"We got everything right?" Cloud asked as he peered at the paper bag.

Hayan which holding the list "Vinegar?"

"Yeah, It's in here."

"Soy sauce, garlic, black pepper, onion, potatoes… and the most important of them all chicken," Hayan asked.

Counting every single thing Hayan said “Yep, we have everything plus the random things we bought,” Cloud says. “Shall we go now? I can’t stay here any longer…”

As they leave a woman shouting caught the attention of the two. Seeing her struggling against a man trying to get what's in his hand, "HELP!! HE TOOK MY BAG!!" she shouts.

The thief manages to snatch completely the bag and sprints away. Heading towards the two, Cloud steps in to block his way "Hey! Stop!" he shouted.

The man remains at a constant speed. Nearing Cloud, he is about to tackle the sprinting thief to take the situation into his own hands. But Hayan hastily pulls Cloud out of the way allowing the pickpocket to escape right away vanishing on the crowd.

Cloud glares at Hayan and shoves him back "What was that for?! I had him!"

"Be careful you’re not familiar with this place," Hayan responded.

…

Last night, Raphael, who has been soaked in blood, arrives at the Embassy. Carelessly walking down to the white marble halls of the Embassy leaving stains of red from his every step, not giving any hint of concern about it. Heavy thuds from his footsteps echoed sending some Radiants puzzled seeing a supposedly holy warrior in white yet painted in red.

An embassy is an infrastructure established by the Archons in their jurisdiction as a separate branch from Eden. Each continent or division contains one Embassy to oversee and protect such a massive area. The infrastructure is completely blended into the civilization and cannot be found nor entered easily.

As Raphael continues not to give a damn attention to staining the place with the blood of his enemies. Iron wheels clattering down from the glamorous stairs pulling tons of rusted machinery, fellow Radiant waves at him "Archangel Raphael!" a familiar company said.

Raphael right away stares in distress, "Gabrael, Archangel Gabrael, what are you doing here?" he sighs.

Gabrael, Archangel of North America. With unparalleled rational prowess, he is the one responsible for Eden's technological advancements in the Central City, and also the brains of the Seven Archangels. Often dressed properly in all-white attire like his other Archangels, yet under his pocket is full of unimaginable technology of mass destruction. His fluttering robes are enough to irritate Raphael, only second to his excessive yapping.

“What’s with the stuff? They’re too loud to be carried in the halls…” Raphael said.

"Oh, this? Collected samples for my invention and experiments. I see that you've come from a bloodbath, purifying I guess?” Gabrael replied.

"This is none of your concern. I should be going."

Raphael walks past the enormous door, entering the chambers of the Archon. As soon as he enters his body that is covered in blood is immediately cleansed without notice, removing all the impurities from the Schattens. And the odor is effortlessly overwhelmed by the flowers surrounding the room full of lively plants and aromatic flowers.

"So, how's my forest? Did you properly dispose of the parasites residing in my forest?"

"The pests are exterminated but in exchange for ten lives, they will keep coming we know how invasive they are, we have to do something about it before other Schattens will make their move."

"The Seraph is already aware of this, he said that the Cherub already sends a reinforcement and it is on the way. I refused, but the Seraph insisted on deploying this 'reinforcement' "

"What is our move?"

"Keep those guns hot."