The conference room had an eerie silence as all the attention was on Commander Shelong.

“What we are about to discuss is top secret, so if anyone here divulges any information to the public, the consequences will be nothing short of brutal,” the commander's voice resonated with authority, instilling a sense of dread in the room.

He then proceeded to press a button on the display in front of him, and a holo-display rose from the center of the table like a shimmering mirage.

“As everyone here already knows from our history, we have been fighting a scourge that we call The Beasts for a very long time now.”

“We know little about them even though we have been fighting them for centuries. The best we can do right now is keep them isolated to the battle zones,” he said as he pointed at three battle zones on the holo-display.

“It's here that lies the problem,” he said uneasily.

“Within these battle zones, we are seeing an alarming increase in beast activity. They are multiplying at an unprecedented rate when they attack,” the commander's voice grew more intense, reflecting the situation's urgency.

“At first, it was not very noticeable, but then we started seeing an increase in casualties on our side, so we investigated and found that the number of beasts was increasing with each battle.”

“But this is not the worst part of it; with each battle we had, we started to see an increase in the level of the beasts.”

“As before we were only seeing low and mid-level beasts, now we are seeing mid-level and elite-tier beasts appear almost on each skirmish, and on occasion, we can even see a transcended beast lead the attack,” he said.

“This is causing our casualties to be sore to unprecedented numbers. Numbers that haven’t been seen for a very long time.”

“The biggest increase within the beast ranks has been in Battlezone 3, which is in the Asian peninsula near Rayong.”

“As this is part of the Gravitaz area, Commander Remis can give us a more detailed account of what’s happening there,” finished Commander Shelong.

Commander Remis was still a young man at 43 but had a very long service record. He joined the military after graduating high school and has been fighting the beast for the last 20 years. His TGene count was in the upper 40%, so he was considered an excellent fighter.

“Good day, everyone. Like Commander Shelong was saying, we have seen a significant increase in beasts within our battlezone,” said Commander Remis.

“Our casualties have increased 20% from last year to this year,” he said, shaking his head.

“We also expect that number to rise as we don’t expect any fallback from the beast at this time; we think that they are getting ready for a bigger assault within the coming months,” he said worriedly.

“That is why we are here. The problem is not that the beast numbers have increased as much of the level of the beast attacking has increased. We cannot deal with this currently. We don’t have enough soldiers with high enough attack skills to turn the tide,” he finished saying.

Everyone looked at each other as if they didn’t understand what Commander Remis was trying to say.

“So, you are saying your soldiers are too weak,” said Selin cautiously.

All three commanders frowned at the mention of this, as she had hit a sore spot, but they knew it was true.

“I wouldn’t put it that way, Miss Selin,” said Commander Dythaxio.

“Then how would you put it? As that is what we heard from Commander Remis,” said Nikolas.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

All three commanders nodded in agreement before Commander Shelong took the initiative again.

“What we are trying to say is. We don’t have the right soldiers on the battlefield,” said the commander.

“We need to utilize our best fighters to stem the flow of the beasts until we can better equip and train our soldiers. That is why we wanted to meet with this Prime individual,” he said, looking at Nikolas.

“We have already asked some of the other more elite Alphas to help us with this issue, and we wanted to extend the invitation to Prime,” he said.

“We are willing to compensate him for his efforts as well.”

Back at Mt. Ethos.

I had walked down to the second floor to look at some jewelry as I still needed to finish the charms for Eva and Damian.

As I walked through the stores, I knew I couldn’t buy anything too modern, as it had to look like it was from the past. Anything too new would look like the charm had just been created, and that would cause me a whole series of issues.

I walked for a while but couldn't find what I wanted. I had already made up my mind to leave, when I saw it as I was walking to the stairs leading to the exit.

I saw a beautiful tribal bracelet in an antique store's display window. It was a Multi-Stone Blue stabilized Turquoise Adjustable Cuff Bracelet.

“This will be perfect for Eva,” I said.

I walked into the store and talked to the saleswoman at the counter.

“Excuse me, Miss. Can I look at the tribal bracelet you have on the window display?” I said, pointing towards the window.

She looked me up and down, and a slight frown appeared on her face.

“Hmm… do you mean the Turquoise one,” she said coldly.

“Yes, that one.”

She walked over to the window display, picked up the bracelet, and brought it to the counter.

“You know this bracelet is worth 50,000 gold credits, it's not something anyone can buy,” she said smugly.

I felt like she was looking down on me, and if this had been any other time, I would have just walked away, as I hated dealing with people like this, but I wanted the bracelet.

“So what are you saying that I don’t have the money to buy this bracelet,” I said calmly.

“No, what she is saying is that poor beggars like you don’t deserve this type of bracelet,” a voice from behind said.

Caught by surprise, I turned around only to see a girl about 5”5, maybe 16 or 17 years old, beautiful to a certain degree but arrogant as shit.

“What do you mean, beggar,” I said questioningly, raising an eyebrow.

“Do you not know the meaning of a beggar? Are you also illiterate,” she said arrogantly.

Eww, my blood was boiling now.

“Look at here, you arrogant bitch, you better cool your tone with me before you regret it,” Is what I wanted to say, but the only thing that I could say was,

“Miss, have I offended you in some way, as you seem very hostile towards me.”

The saleswoman smirked at my response, thinking,” This boy has no balls; what a shame, and here I thought I was going to make a sale.”

I knew what she was thinking by looking at her face, but I didn’t care; anonymity was my game: no flashiness or cockiness.

“Good grief, you are a wimp, just like my brother said,” said the girl.

Brother?

“Who’s your brother,” I asked confused.

“Don’t worry who my brother is,” she said.

“I don’t feel like fighting with you anymore. If you want the bracelet but can’t afford it, I’ll make you a deal.”

“If you agree to stay away from Cora, I will buy the bracelet for you. How about it?” she finished.

I looked at her with an incredulous look. These people again.

Fuck what do I need to do to get them to leave me alone?

“No need, I can afford it myself,” I said as I took out my CAD and gestured to the saleswoman to charge my account.

“You don’t have to be this stubborn, Khyrum,” said the girl.

“I’ll buy you the bracelet, and I’ll even go on a date with you; how about it,” she said again.

“Look, I already said I would pay for it, so let's leave it at that. And about going on a date, not even in your dreams; you are not my type,” I said in a cold tone.

Right then, the saleswoman came over with a grin from ear to ear.

“Sir, thank you for your purchase; your payment went through. Would you like me to gift wrap the bracelet,” she said humbly now.

“No, just wrapped it up,” I said coldly.

The girl who had been harassing me just stood there in awe. Her mouth opened like she had just seen a ghost.

“How the hell can you pay 50,000 gold credits? You have no family, no money,” she said, stupefied.

I didn’t say anything else; I didn’t think I needed to.

I started walking out the door, and when this girl got in front of me again to stop me.

“You're not going anywhere, Khyrum, until you tell me how you paid for that bracelet,” she said stubbornly.

“Also, you haven’t even asked my name. Are you not interested in discovering who I am?” she pouted.

No, I’m not interested in discovering anything about you or your brother Nox.

She smirked, “So you think I’m here because of Nox?”

It hit me right there: Did I have her identity wrong? If I did, then whose sister was she?

I didn’t have time to be dealing with this right now.

“Look, I’m not interested in finding out who you or your brother are. Excuse me, but I need to leave,” I said as I sidestepped around her.

She immediately got in front of me again.

“You’re not leaving here until I say we are done,” she said in a haughty tone.

“I’m not?” I questioned.

“No, you not,” she said, crossing her arms across her chest.

“Hmm… let's see,” I said as I disappeared from in front of her.

Her eyes just shifted left and right in disbelief.