Covered in blood and emanating a pungent burning smell, the Rustler retraced his steps, making his way back to the place he arrived from—the Shopkeeper’s Shop. The journey back was one filled with silence, though not entirely.

You’re silent. The Rustler remarked, glancing at the shadow beside him.

"It is because I have nothing to say, or perhaps you have something for me to say?" she simply responded. With golden horns adorning her head and her gaze penetrating the deepest depths of his soul, Alexei genuinely responded, "I don't, or at least I don't think I do. What could I want you to say?"

“I don't know, perhaps you might want me to praise you?”

To praise me… The Rustler muttered. Perhaps I do, but would you praise me?

“That depends, do you think I would praise you?”

Upon being asked that question, the Rustler halted his steps, turned around to face the one he was sharing thoughts with, and replied, No, I don't think you would—not for that.

“Then I will do no such thing.”

To those words, he nodded, having nothing to say to contest her decision.

After turning around and continuing his walk back to the Shop, he noticed a familiar figure standing in the middle of the road. Rae, breathless and with wide eyes, was focused on the distant glow of a burning slum. As her gaze shifted downward, she instantly stumbled the gaze with him.

“Look who’s coming,” she murmured into Alexei’s ears.

“That fire. What have you done!?”

Unmoved by her outburst, the Rustler maintained his calm demeanor, meeting her gaze with unwavering resolve. "I delivered your message," he repeated, his voice steady and composed.

"Which part of my message involved burning down an entire corner of the slums!?"

Unfazed by her accusation, he remained silent.

“Oh, she’s very angry, isn't she?”

I can see that.

"Is this blood his?"

“Yep.”

"Some of it is, but not all," the Rustler calmly explained. "Rest assured, he received your message loud and clear." With those words, he turned as if to leave.

However, his departure was abruptly halted as Kae reached out, grasping his arm firmly. Both she and the Rustler frowned, their attention drawn to the arm she held upon.

In one swift motion, he freed his arm from Kae's grasp, his gaze fixed upon her defiantly. "Don't pretend you didn't know," he replied with a touch of sternness. "You were well aware of the possible consequences when you sent me up to this task."

Her silence pretty much confirmed the Rustler’s harsh words.

Kae's facial was washed over by an expression that looked like a mixture of remorse and unease.

"Just tell me, is he at least still alive?" She ultimately asked.

"Do I look like someone who would kill just anyone?"

As he asked that question, the figure whomst presence the girl, Kae, seemed to be oblivious of, walked around, a smiling but doubtful expression on her face.

"I don't know. I don't know anymore," she admitted, her voice filled with uncertainty. "I don’t know you. I’ve seen you doing things —things that I can’t fathom how far you can take. So no, I don’t know. I don’t even know your name, who you are, and quite possibly what you are.”

His gaze lingered on Kae, or to be exact the Odoe girl of shorter frame standing beside her.

"My name? You want to know who I am?"

“So? How are you going to answer that question?” She asked, playing with one hand her golden horn. “Will you tell her nothing? Or will you tell her who and what you are just, like you once did with “me” in the past before I even spawned before you in this form?”

A moment of silence hung in the air, and he eventually answered.

“No, I won’t.”

“Why?”

“Because, I am no longer the one I introduced myself to you to. Just as I said it to him, I am no longer what I was—who I was. Alexei is gone. Just like you to her, I’m just a remnant of what he was. To this girl in front of me, I would be…”

"You and your sister call me 'the Rustler.' As far as you're concerned, that's all 'I' shall be to you and the rest of you. If you have any issue with that, then that would be a whole other matter."

With these words, not wanting to linger a single second in this discussion, Alexei turned around and headed toward the shopkeeper's residence.

“Poor Kae, you must have scared her to death with that threat.”

That was not a threat.

“Yet that did sound like one.”

She’s free to interpret it that way. I wouldn’t care.

“Is that so?”

It is.

“If you say so. So what are you going to do from now on?”

I’m going to head back to the Shopkeeper, entrust the tools back to him, he explained with a glance at the bloodied hammer in his hands before declaring. After that, I will go back to rest.

“Going back to rest already?”

These words made him halt his steps. Should I?

“How would I know, shouldn’t you be the one telling me? Should we rest or shall we go inquire her whereabouts to the Shopkeeper and go after her right here and now?”

Placed in a situation where there wasn't much to do but make a choice, the Rustler felt himself caught between a rock and a hard place.

In truth, even in his current situation, he was inclined to believe that the latter was the right thing to do. After all, she was the last one among those who had betrayed and wronged the two of them. Out of all of them, she alone remained. The Rustler, having found them one after another, understood that the earlier retribution came to them, the better it would be. However, the thought and prospect of what might happen after left the Rustler hesitant, and there wasn't much that could claim to have achieved that feat.

Though he wasn’t sure what it would be upon coming out yet, the Rustler was about to voice an answer to that question when suddenly a voice calling out to him interrupted him abruptly.

“Rustler!”

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“Here comes another sister.”

Just like her sister had, up ahead was Rae. However, unlike her sister, she immediately approached him and said, "Kae was looking for you.”

“I know. I just saw her,” he explained looking back.

“You did?” She asked, out of breath. “I see.”

In terms of appearance, the girl was a perfect younger version of her older sister. The Rustler still remembered the first day he met them. Back then, Rae was much younger; her older sister looked exactly as she does today. Back then she looked the same age as he did. However, now she no longer does, while he still looked exactly the same.

Feeling that was about all she had to say, the Rustler walked past her like he did the previous sister. And once again he was called out.

“Where are you going?”

Turning around he explained “I’m going to—” before interrupting himself.

“Something’s lurking in the shadow.”

I know I felt it too.

The Rustler's eyes narrowed as he scanned the dimly lit slum, trying to discern the source of his unease. The narrow alleyway was lined with dilapidated habitation, casting long shadows that concealed any lurking figures. He couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching him, hiding in the darkness.

Rae, noticing his sudden change in demeanor, followed his gaze and tensed up. She glanced nervously behind her to see what he was looking at, her earlier question momentarily forgotten.

“What’s happening?” she asked, her voice full of concern.

Walking to position himself in front of her, the Rustler ordered, “Stay behind me.” .

Is it an enemy or just a creepy stalker that followed me from the Rat’s hideout?

“I wouldn’t be able to appraise that for you? You’ll have to–”

“Lure him out. I got this.”

Without wasting a single breath in words of warning, the Rustler summoned his elementalis.

Noticing this, the Rustler walked to stand between Rae and the person lurking in the shadow, feeling the need to find out who it was. Without a word of warning, he prepared to unleash his electro-elementalis at their stalker. However, just as he did, he felt a projectile being hurled at him, forcing him to use his electro-elementalis to block it. The contact generated a loud crackling and popping noise, similar to the sound of electrical arcing. During this brief moment, his electro-elementalis met with what was hurled at him, and the Rustler caught a glimpse of his assailant. However, in the next instant, from the corner of his eye, he caught a very fast and sudden movement of someone who could also be his assailant. This left him with the possibility that either there were multiple assailants or his assailant was simply that fast.

The Rustler was still in the middle of his thoughts when suddenly, from behind him, he felt something slithering its way towards him. Swiftly, he utilized his aero-elementalis, summoning a gust of wind that forcefully moved Rae out of greater harm's way, blowing her half a dozen of meters away from him.. In that split second, the Rustler sensed his body being enveloped by something coiling around him, akin to a snake's grip. However, before it could tighten its hold, the Rustler unleashed a surge of his electro-elementalis, obliterating whatever it was that had entwined him.

Upon being freed of the shackled, a quick glance to his bind on the ground, the Rustler made a quick assessment of the situation.

Was that a geo-elementalis att—No this isn’t.

“Hey, look this is—” She wasn’t even given the time to finish that from the shadow, the one from whom the vine-like bind surged from the shadow.

Given ample reason to hold nothing back, the Rustler summoned his elementalis and unleashed a salvo of lightning bolts. However, the figure, wielding a staff-like object, displayed a level of deftness he had never witnessed before. With swift and skillful movements, they swung the staff around, effectively blocking and deflecting every one of his attacks.

Wielding the staff became an extension of their will as it swirled through the air in a deadly dance of defense. Sparks flew, illuminating the face-off between the Rustler and their mysterious adversary.

In the light provided by these sparks, their eyes locked momentarily under the hood they wore before they closed the distance between them, swinging their staff down at him.

In spite of being forced into a close combat situation, the Rustler maintained a calm demeanor as he raised his left arm as a shield, defending against the staff swinging down at him.

The staff swung at him, meeting the Rustler's arm perpendicularly with a dull, deep thud. Though Alexei successfully withstood the blow that drove several inches into the ground, he experienced from the blow a newfound pressure coursing through his entire body, something he had not felt in a very long time, if ever.

"Huh?" The Rustler's assailant mirrored his surprise, momentarily freezing in response to the unexpected turn of events.

“What?” Alexei reacted in surprise upon hearing the voice in which she reacted.

Not allowing his momentary daze to overpower him, the Rustler swiftly deflected his assailant's staff and followed up with a burst of aero-elemental energy from his other hand. However, by the time he executed his attack, they had already withdrawn, evading his strike.

Contrary to the Rustler's expectations of his assailant vanishing into the shadows, they remained in place, initiating a tense standoff with him. Regardless of the standoff, fueled by the proof of the assailant's hostility, the Rustler decided it was preferable for him to strike first, feeling that it wouldn’t be of any further use to him, the Rustler discarded the hammer away.

“You’re really doing that?”

He raised his left arm towards the sky, and within a matter of seconds, lightning crackled, drawing forth an immense surge of prana infused with electro-elementalis power.

If she leaves me no choice. I’ll obliterate her.

Once again, the Rustler found himself taken aback by his assailant's response. He had hoped for a moment of consideration from her, acknowledging the imminent unleashing of power upon her. However, she stood her ground defiantly, seemingly confident that any defense she had would shield her from the impending force he was about to unleash upon her.

“She doesn’t look like she’s going to capitulate. What are you going to do?”

I’m going to make her.

It was there in the middle of that tense atmosphere of unspoken threat between the Rustler and his assailant that a distraught voice broke, “Rae!”

Kae, standing in the middle of the road, seemingly reached them at last, most likely alerted by the spar between the Rustler and his assailant. She walked past, positioning herself between the Rustler and his assailant, and hurried over to her sister's side. Sister who still sat on the ground after being blown aside by the Rustler to get her out of the way.

“You’re injured!?”

“No, Rae, I’m fine. I’m okay,” the little sister immediately reassured.

“But you’re injured, who did you this?”

Before she even got an answer Kae instinctively looked the Rustler’s way.

Wow, really?

“Seems she’s already designed a culprit.”

"No, Kae. That’s not what you think, he was just protecting me from him. He’s the one who attacked us first,” Rae clarified pointing accusingly at the hooded figure.

Rae’s gaze shifted from the Rustler to the assaillant, “Who are you?" she demanded. But then, her attention swiftly returned to the Rustler. "And who is he?"

How the hell am I supposed to know that?

“I don’t know. She just just attacked us for no reason. So ask her that question, not me.”

At that moment the assaillant’s voice cut, “let me get that right and here and now, I never meant to hurt the girl, she was hurt because he was so much on the defensive.”

Defensive, huh? So what was I supposed to do? Letting myself get attacked?

Hearing the assaillant’s voice upon speaking, the two sisters finally noticed.

“That voice… a girl?”

Perhaps to address the sisters' incredulity and curiosity, or perhaps driven by another motive altogether, the assailant relinquished her defensive stance. She reached up and pulled back her hood, revealing her face.

Underneath her hood, the assailant's dark, lustrous hair cascaded, reminiscent of the sisters' own tresses. Covering half her face was a piece of black clothing that she wore as a visor, making one wonder how she could even see without it. Her skin had a warm dusk complexion, mirroring their own. Despite her apparent youth, appearing to be in her late teens, the most striking aspect of her appearance was the crown of leaves that adorned her head. The golden-like foliage seemed to be an intrinsic part of her being rather than a mere accessory.

“An Odoe…” Rae trailed.

“No, that’s not just any Odoe, that’s obviously not just any Odoe, that girl is obviously a Dae Odoe.”

Those words were furtherly grounded by the girl’s next words, “My name is Men’Ma, I was sent over here by the Golden Matriarch to investigate an anomaly, and that anomaly is obviously you,” she explained her attention fully back to the Rustler, “ —Alexei Raj Kazimir or perhaps you’re more comfortable if I call you with the name you made yourself, Ethereal Breeze.”

Upon hearing the name and alias he had not been called by in quite some time, the Rustler's mood underwent a sudden shift. This change in demeanor manifested in his electro-elementalis, causing it to zap and crackle with increasing intensity, further exacerbating the already volatile atmosphere.

In reaction, Dae Odoe swiftly assumed a defensive, if not combative, stance with her staff. As she did, a long smooth-scaled golden tail resembling that of a salamander emerged from behind her.

"I have been told that you would be a truly terrifying sight to witness, and indeed you are, but I am not afraid. I will not depart until I receive an explanation of what you truly are. I am certain you are a mage, but the aura that envelops you—your arm, I can sense it. 'Odo.' Why would an Arbian, a mage, and a Raj at that, be bestowed with 'Odo'?"

For what felt like an eternity, a profound and deadly silence hung in the air, as an unwavering and intense gaze locked them in a battle of wills. The minutes stretched on, each passing moment amplifying the weight and tension of the stare.

In the midst of the unyielding staredown, the tense silence was shattered as Kae swiftly rushed forward, positioning herself between the Rustler and the girl named Men'mah. "Enough!" she exclaimed, her voice filled with urgency and determination. "I may not know the full extent of what's really happening here, but I implore you both to consider the possibility of resolving this through civilized conversation."