Democratic Republic of Pelkesk, Underground Facility: 936, May 14th, Monday, 11:00 AM.

“Where are they coming from!” Claire cursed, fighting off horde after horde of mutated soldiers.

Thanks to Eutychia’s strength and abilities as a hybrid however, their pursue against Euthemia progressed with little issue as they fought their way through the hallways—dispatching their opponents swiftly and efficiently.

The mutants dissolved into the strange black substance they’ve been injected with, dissipating into steam with a hissing noise. As the pair continued with their chase, a tall figure rapidly sprinted towards them from the end of the long narrow hallway—blocking their path forward. The man carried a sword in hand—its straight blade reflecting the white lights of the ceiling, his stoic eyes glowed with a strong azure light as he sprinted across the hall.

“The hell is that?” the lieutenant aimed her guns at the knight—looking straight into his emotionless eyes.

“It’s one of father’s knights…” Eutychia said—stepping next to Claire with a clenched jaw.

“It does look like it…”

Gritting her teeth in frustration, the black knight gripped her sword tightly—sheathed in her lower back. “You go, I’ll stop this guy.”

Claire glanced at the armor-clad princess. “Are you sure? You were bent on finding out about your sister.” she said.

“One way or another I will,” the princess replied. “If what your boss said it’s true then… what does it matter, you better not fail!”

Eutychia sprinted towards the knight unsheathing her azure glowing sword, intercepting the approaching knight with a powerful horizontal swing. Although her opponent offered heavy resistance—absorbing the impact of her attack with the blade of his own sword, the princes pushed the knight with all her strength before pulling him to the side—smacking his back against the wall, and opening a path for Claire.

“Go!” Eutychia yelled—to which the lieutenant responded immediately, leaving her behind to continue her chase against Euthemia.

With free passage through the metallic halls of the facility, Claire continued to follow the radar on the small device in her hand—tracking the princess’ exact location. Suddenly and without warning—as she sprinted rapidly through the hallway, and arm emerged from one of the doors in the hall and forced Claire inside one of the rooms.

“Oomph!” she landed on her chest.

Recovering quickly from the impact, she found herself in the middle of a strange room illuminated by the white lights of the ceiling. The heavy vault door behind her sealed itself shut in an instant—trapping her inside. The lieutenant planted her hands on the floor into a push-up position, taking a quick glance at the room.

“This is…” she said—looking at the bizarre glass chamber at the end, connected to the walls and roof with large reinforced cables—a strange red liquid bubbling inside.

“It’s for you,” Euthemia suddenly appeared behind her—resting her back on the sealed door. “This… will teach you to behave in front of me.”

“Great…” the lieutenant sighed as she stood back on her feet, turning her body to face the princess. “At least you brought me exactly where I needed to be,” Claire’s lips curved into a grin.

Euthemia snorted with a snarl, but her face quickly shifted into a smirk however—stretching her arm towards Claire—presenting her palm. “I don’t care, look carefully.” her hand suddenly glowed with a bright azure light—flowing from within the veins in her palm into her shoulder. “I am a hybrid like my sister, remember?” she suddenly inhaled with a smile, closing her eyes as if she walked through an open field of flowers. “My face will be the last thing you’ll ever see, and that makes me happy enough.”

“Bring it then.” Claire prepared herself for a fight, raising her pistols.

Euthemia was the first to initiate her assault, sprinting towards the lieutenant with an absurd level of speed. Claire’s pre-battle plan was quickly put into action however, calling upon the spectral bike to ambush her opponent with a surprise attack.

Proceeding as planned, the thundering roars of the bike took the inexperienced princess by surprise, causing her to recoil backwards as the motorcycle landed in front of her. With Euthemia stunned in place—instead of tackling her with a frontal assault, the bike spun rapidly into a powerful strike that flung the princess away into a wall—slamming her chin with the back wheel. Giving her opponent no room to breathe, Claire swiftly moved towards Euthemia while pressing the triggers in her pistols—materializing a pair of crimson daggers from the barrel of her guns.

“Stand still!” the lieutenant roared, plunging the blades of her weapons straight into the princess’ hands—piercing all the way through into the wall behind her.

A shrilling scream escaped Euthemia’s lips as the blades perforated her flesh, but the blood boiling inside of her was stronger than the drops that leaked from her hands—stimulating the princess to lift one of her legs, and kick Claire in the upper region of her abdomen—catapulting her away.

“Agh!” the lieutenant hit her back in the opposite wall, sliding down into the floor. She groaned softly while holding her stomach with one hand, gritting her teeth as the kick knocked the air out of her lungs.

Clouded by fury, Euthemia ignored the pain in her hands and lifted the stunned Claire in the air—slamming the back of her head against the wall, and applying further pressure in an attempt to crush her skull.

“I didn’t give you permission to touch me!” the princess yelled. “You horrible, horrible pet!” the blood dripping from her palms began to roll down the lieutenant’s—drawing a sadistic smile on the princess’ face.

While the grip of the hybrid princess was too strong for Claire to wrestle her way out of, she forcefully sunk the daggers in her pistols to pierce the princess’ arms from below—piercing their way through with ease, and emerging from the other side.

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Euthemia let out an ear-piercing cry once more, backing down from the lieutenant as she stumbled away. Using the opportunity, Claire pointed the barrel of one of her pistols against the princess’ face—which she slapped with the back of her hand.

“No!” Euthemia screamed.

Claire’s pistol fired its crimson bullet with an earsplitting bang, igniting on impact with the glass and shattering the chamber into pieces—causing its fragments to propel violently across the small room. The powerful explosion of the projectile and flying shards of glass damaged most of the equipment in the area, generating sparks of electricity from the torn cables.

“You gotta be…!” Claire’s eyes widen up in shock—sharp fragments of glass laid near and under her, with some of them incrusted in her arms and legs—which she used to protect other vital areas of her body. “I messed up…” she lamented in her own mind.

The massive cables inside the room began to swing around violently, a small portion of the room was rapidly engulfed in fire as the sparks of electricity flew all over the room. Euthemia turned her head towards Claire with scrunched eyebrows, gritting her teeth furiously.

“That was for you!” she yelled. “My work, my blood, I made that for you!”

Claire pushed herself back on her feet, huffing through her nose with an angry snarl. “Thanks, but I prefer chicken pot pie.”

Sweat rolled down the lieutenant and Euthemia’s forehead as the temperature kept increasing rapidly. The vault door remained shut tight, and the room quickly filled with heavy black smoke—prompting Claire to cover the lower half of her face with her arm.

“Oh no…” Euthemia’s eyes dropped with concern, placing one hand over her mouth. “You can’t breathe, can you?” her brows suddenly shot into a downwards curve, and her mouth into a grin of satisfaction. “Well then, enjoying asphyxiating here all by yourself in a slow and agonizing death. Don’t worry, I might come back for your corpse later, my dear.”

The princess’ hand began to glow once more, spreading across her body while slowly vanishing into tiny azure particles—eventually disappearing into thin air like a ghost.

“I have to… leave this place…” Claire said in between coughs—keeping her mouth and nose covered with her arm. “The machine…”

Rushing towards the damaged computers, Claire tried to take a sample of the red liquid inside the chamber, just to realize it had all dissipated already—leaving nothing but dry stains behind. Having failed to recover any samples, the lieutenant probed the place up and down in search for anything that could aid her escape. She tried to make contact with Sovereign through her earpiece, but the channel remained dead silent even after multiple attempts at making contact.

Quickly running out of time, Claire’s implementation of the spectral gear to escape the rapidly heating room proved insufficient as well—as their power slowly faded alongside her consciousness. The glow in her pistols slowly died out, having lost most of their energy already.

“There… must be something here…” she kept coughing—losing complete vision of the room as the black smoke clouded the area. “Alright, focus…”

With the fading energy of her pistols, Claire scanned the area thanks to the glow in her spectral gear—spinning slowly in search for clues. Although faint at times, both Juno and Jupiter shined with a faint light while pointing towards the damaged chamber—urging Claire inside the broken glass.

“Great plan… now what?” she grunted in frustration—coughing loudly and repeatedly. Her mind quickly kicked into high gear, desperately looking for answers to her dilemma. “Damnit… alright… these aren’t just pistols… think… think…”

Claire closed her twitching eyes to focus her mind in escaping, but the flaming room combined with the heat and asphyxiating smoke began to take a toll on her body—sweating uncontrollably as her knees began to bend, and her body to tilt sideways.

“…!” Claire recoiled slightly, almost tripping herself backwards.

She felt a strange connection somewhere far away, and a strange vision suddenly rushed through her mind. She was flying through the blue skies like a rocket that was propelled into space, rapidly ascending further as she pierced through the misty clouds. Claire felt her throbbing heart burst out of her chest as she accelerated further, her disoriented mind prompting her to pant heavily in confusion.

Suddenly—what seemed to be a large floating rock in the sky, emerged from within the white clouds not too far above her. Like a haunting ghost with otherworldly abilities, Claire’s body continued its flight through the bottom of the rock into the other side—emerging inside a damaged and empty building.

Floating City of Paradise, Human’s District: 936, May 14th, Monday, 11:00 AM.

“…!” A quick gasp escaped the lieutenant’s lips.

It was as if she suddenly snapped from a strange and vivid dream, glancing from side to side as she regained her composure. The banging sounds of steel clashing against steel outside quickly caught Claire’s attention, spotting the alarming screeches of the specters in between clashes.

“Where… am I?” she wondered. Suddenly spotting a clacking sound underneath her, the lieutenant quickly realized she had kicked a small object at her feet—prompting her to lower her head. “What—"

Only a few inches away from a piece of cloth under her boot, her eyes settled in the lower piece of a sword—which was covered in small fissures running from the grip, to what little remained of the blade. Its metallic brown color had already been stripped away with the age, leaving only the bluish tint on its blade due to oxidation.

“This looks… familiar?” she picked up the item from the floor and wrapped it back in the piece of cloth—wondering about her next step.

Cerberus HQ, Training Grounds: 936, May 14th, Monday, 11:00 AM.

“It is him…” Theo expressed. Contrary to his usual behavior, the knight’s eyes remained wide open with a cautious glare.

The presence of the strange knight put a sudden halt between Sebastian and Theo’s fight, bringing all the attention to himself. The knight limped slowly while dragging his feet, mouth slightly open, his head titled to the right as well as the upper half of his body. Noticing the blonde knight and the half-specter staring at him, the man’s neck snapped back into position to face them both—startling the pair.

Sebastian tightly pressed his fingers on the grip of his sword, keeping his knees slightly bent and the blade firm in front of him. “This is about to get really ugly…”

Theo frowned while preparing himself, taking a deep breath while relaxing his arms to his sides. “It doesn’t matter who you are… daemon. You are a danger to humanity, and must perish by the hands of the order.” He claimed.

The knight stared at them both, keeping his shoulders dropped to his sides. From within the shadow that cloaked his eyes under his bangs, for only half a second, a bright crimson light flashed from the silent daemon’s eyes.

Republic of Kaldstein, Kaldstein City: 936, May 14th, Monday, 11:00 AM.

“He’s made it to HQ, Sovereign…” Yeon spoke on her phone. “I tried to enter communications with Sebastian, but I was unable to reach him.”

“So? He is not the only specter I can create, did you forget?”

“…” Yeon remained silent for a second before speaking. “How will you stop him…? The exile.”

“I have my methods, but I couldn’t contact the girl. Where is she?”

“I don’t know…”

“Really?”

“…”

“Is there a problem?”

“No, just… come back home soon, okay?”

“I always come back, Yeon.”

“I know… I sent a few photos to your phone if you want to check them out. Take a look at them when you have time… do it for me?”

“Sure, we’ll see.”

END OF CHAPTER.