The moonlight shone brightly on the residual moisture left by the rain. Cold wind passed by, surely making anyone on its path shiver in a chill. And yet, what was expected to be a quiet night, was mercilessly destroyed by three different people.

Two males and one female.

Bald, brown, and blonde. While their respective feature wasn't that catching in and of itself, it was a fact that anyone that might recognize them would cower in fear. Although the first one's identity was quite doubtful, we were after all in the presence of the underworld's dog.

And do not be mistaken, no normal person could escape such an encounter alive. That was what the pressure emitted among the three people seemed to suggest. Naturally, no opposition was voiced out, prompting anyone that saw even a little of the fight to flee as far away as they could.

“...It seems that I can't beat you two at the same time.” The bald man said, after a quick review of his state.

To put it in a few words: he could barely stand anymore. He had his pride, of course, but thinking he could still fight in his current condition would be outright idiocy. He had failed his mission.

‘In the first place, that woman should have been taken care of by Igris.’ The bald man thought. ‘Does that mean that she failed, too?’

“Wroooonnng!” Ursa commented, overly stretching her word. “You can't beat me!”

Pain suddenly assaulted the enemy's stomach, making his head bend onward. However, with zero lag between the two movements, a female hand grabbed his neck with astounding grip strength. Instantly, he suffocated.

“Let's end this boring fight already,”

Ursa was shorter than the man so she obviously couldn't lift him up. Instead, she exaggeratedly put the man below her on his knees, arrogantly showing who was the one above.

“And tell me who you guys are.” The blonde ordered with immense pressure. Still, the bald didn't surrender— or not. In reality, Ursa was just choking him so strongly he couldn't answer.

“Look, Ursa, I don't know why you're in such a bad mood but if you find this as boring as that, why don't you just go help Flame and Stone over there?” Aiden strongly requested, pointing his thumb behind him.

“Oh, please, boss! Don't be so stingy!” Ursa responded, shifting his head to the other man. “You know I don't like fighting monsters!”

“Like I care! I had this guy first!” Aiden shouted, him too, in an annoyed fashion.

An opportunity was created in front of him and the bald man didn't private himself. Reaching for the singularity inside him, he distorted his space. It was quite difficult this time, due to the blonde's hand being in contact with him. Fortunately, though, the two other's unnaturally long bickering bought him enough time.

Though, surprisingly, even after he teleported away, the dispute didn't stop.

“This isn't a question about first and the likes anymore, you know!?” Ursa shouted, her entire focus on Aiden. “What if you let that guy escape?!”

“Oh, I see. Because now, you don't trust me anymore!?” The man answered, not backing down.

“You live in a damn garbage-like house! How could I ever trust you?!”

“Wha-what does that have to do with this!?”

Looking at them, the bald man was speechless for a little while. Nevertheless, even if they seemed like that, he knew that they didn't forget about him. Most likely, if he were to try to escape, he would be caught in seconds.

That's why he turned to his last and only trump card.

“...Orc, I'm here.” He said, communicating through an earpiece. “Go berserk.”

Accompanied by those orders, a large strident scream filled the entire area. It was a horrendous voice, filled with malice and insanity. And with it, a wave of thick, killing intent spread everywhere.

“?” A question mark popped inside Ursa's mind with slight curiosity. “The heck?”

Still, some people in this world had already forgotten the very concept of fear. Take Aiden for example, while he did understand that there were certain people he should never mess with, in no way was he afraid of them. In fact, he quite liked strong people. And right now wasn't any different. For the man to be afraid, something more than just strength would be needed.

By the way, in Ursa's case, she would probably never feel fear toward anyone or anything. Honestly speaking, the closest she would ever get to that feeling might be when she pretends to be scared. Purely for the sake of fun.

“Oh, something's coming,” Aiden spoke, him too, having diverted from the previous dispute.

Instantly, the two people looked above themselves. As the man had said, something was, quite literally, jumping toward them. No, maybe, falling toward them would be more accurate. In any case, the thing was approaching, and with great speed.

Then again—

“Ugh, what an ugly thing.” Ursa said, having made out the appearance of the thing.

—That wasn't enough to make anyone panic. And the giant punch aimed toward them wasn't enough either.

Coating only her left hand in Aura, the blonde caught the red, inhuman-like fist nonchalantly. Then, as opposed to the calm attitude, a large shockwave, cracking and destroying even the road itself, ensued savagely.

Yet at the end of it all, Aiden and Ursa remained completely unscratched.

“Great.” The woman whined, holding the orc's hand midair with her own. “Now you called the monster here.”

“Excuse me!?” The man refuted, fed up with the other's behavior. “How is that my fault!”

Not bothering to respond, the blonde simply clenched her right hand before swinging it upward. Soon, the big red hand was pushed high into the sky, followed closely by the orc's forced backward step.

“Anyway, you deal with this thing,” Ursa stated, not the least bit interested in the monster. “I'm going to take care of the fleeing coward.”

She said, after which she turned her head in another direction all the while ignoring Aiden's obvious discontentment. A selfish and shameless act, she knew, but she liked doing it so all's fine.

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More importantly, she needed to act fast. After all, playing a game of tag against someone who could teleport certainly wasn't something she'd like to do. Just thinking about how much she would need to run already made her exhausted. Of course, that is not to say she couldn't do it.

Still, she'd prefer not to waste too much time chasing some bald man out there when she had a promise to keep. Igris is waiting for me. She thought with renewed determination.

Extending her five senses beyond even their natural limit, Ursa's range of vision extended at an immense scale. There she picked up the presence she had searched for, and as she had expected, the bald man was already quite far away.

Fortunately, with how much speed she could display, it wasn't a place she couldn't reach.

“—!Ooooh!” However, it had seemed she didn't need to intervene anymore. “Nice timing there, Rin!”

With the pleasant appearance of the black-haired girl, Ursa beamed happily. “Guess leaving this to you would be more interesting.” She said, activating her singularity.

It was at times like these that her illusion showed another one of its practical aspects. With nothing more than a single thought from her, she transferred the bald man's position inside Rin's mind in the form of a map.

◇

At the same time, the space distorted inside a certain back alley. The position was carefully calculated, so no one was effectively around. Or at least they couldn't be seen from this place. And inversely.

Soon an out-of-breath man came out of the warp and immediately leaned against the nearest wall. Blood from his previous fight didn't take long before flowing out again, producing an eerie liquid sound. Fortunately, though, he was still far from being unconscious.

*sigh*

Slowly regaining his breathing, he once again reached for his singularity. His heart rate accelerated, his vein bulging and his space wavered. However, as opposed to the previous time he didn't teleport instantly. Instead, he vehemently stayed rooted in his place.

“...”

Motionless and silent.

He was concentrating, in order to make a much bigger leap. Why? To escape, obviously. He may have the capacity to move through space but he couldn't do so indefinitely. And right now, when he needed to get away as far as possible, this was his best solution.

To warp toward an unreachable space. Or, to put it simply, to warp as far away as possible.

Plus, with the mission's failure, he had double the reason to run away. One, to escape unchained's radar, and two, to escape the organization's clutch. Either way, if he failed to flee, then he was dead.

“...Alright.” He exclaimed, the distortion around him having reached its peak.

With the image of a place in his mind, he slowly succumbed to his own singularity. Long-distance teleportation took much more time to prepare, obviously, but, surely, to travel, nothing was more effective than it. And for how much speed an Elite of Ursa's caliber could muster, there was no way she could catch up with it.

“—!”

Sadly, though, as long as he hasn't warped entirely, it wasn't so difficult to overtake him. And to his greatest mistake, someone did just that.

One second, that was all he needed left. And yet, in that short time frame, one single girl appeared out of nowhere and entered his space.

A hand aimed at him, the bald man's concentration was disrupted. However, fortunately, or unfortunately, his singularity continued its work. And soon enough, the equivalent of two people was warped outside of Myriad City.

◇

Cold, ruthless wind passed through Rin's skin just a moment after she blinked an eye. Perhaps it is better to say that Rin passed through the wind, and at extreme velocity at that.

She was, quite literally, falling down from the dark sky.

“...huh?” Incapable of understanding the situation, she quickly turned around to scan her surrounding.

And, yes, she was, without a doubt, in the sky, dangerously away from the ground. At first glance, she could faintly make out the sight of a deserted road below her. Obviously, though, with each passing seconds, said road was getting bigger and bigger from her point of view.

One or two minutes at most. That was the approximate time before she impacted against the ground. And that would be bad, even with her current upgraded body. What's more, with the kind of injury she had on, she might die from this fall. The blood falling, no, flying out of her was a clear indication of that.

However, Rin's mind didn't seem to register that. At all.

“...” Having recovered from the initial stupor, the girl's eyes continued to dart around.

Until, finally, she spotted the one she's been searching for. There, a mere meter away from her, was the bald man, similarly like her, falling down at high speed. Unlike Rin, though, he was already on his way to warp himself away, again.

“You need to move. You need to... fight.”

Acting, now solely based on instinct, the black-haired girl strengthened her grip on her sword, and, in the next instant, threw it toward her opponent, with high precision. Furthermore, she didn't bother to wait for the attack to land before changing her falling direction. Headfirst, she plonged at the bald man.

“—Ngh!” The katana, piercing through his left shoulder, the man was forced to stop his singularity.

No sooner had he turned his attention to the injury that Rin's emotionless face had appeared next to him. At first, startled, he tried to move back, but, as you'd expect, that was kinda difficult while in the sky. Surprisingly, though, he succeeded.

No, more like the girl made him succeed. With a slender, powerful kick in the stomach, the man further approached the ground.

Still, despite the danger increasing, Rin's mind seemed adamant to not acknowledge it. It was to the point where, instead of slowing down, she decided to increase her falling speed. All that was in her sight was the enemy before her.

Around thirty seconds were left before impact as the black-haired girl tightened her fist. Naturally, she didn't have any flexibility in the air, and most likely, all her attacks would be less potent than when on the ground. But... well, that, too, didn't register in her mind.

“You need to Fight.”

Arriving at the same height as her opponent, she quickly threw a punch, and then another, followed by a kick, which was further followed by her elbow, and so on. Unfortunately, many, if not all of her attacks didn't land. Nevertheless, it did prevent the man from using his singularity.

“You need to Fight!”

With devoid eyes, Rin continued her attack, much to the other's discontentment.

And finally, the impact came.

In a ruthless, not so unexpected manner, the girl slammed, smashed against the ground. Instantly, her vision went black without even feeling the pain.

Then, in the next second, she opened her eyes. No sign of impact, and although with a little pain all over her body, she was left unscratched. Or at least, she didn't sustain anything from the fall.

“Fight!”

As unnatural as it was, however, Rin didn't register it. She didn't stop to give so much a single line of thinking to it. Again, all of her focus was concentrated on her enemy. And with unsteady step, she walked toward him.

Sure enough, unlike her, the man had indeed received the fall's damage, which, obviously rendered him unconscious. And covered in blood. His breathing was becoming thinner, signaling his life slowly going away.

“Fight!”

Then again, none of it registered inside Rin. She just moved, devoid of anything that made her herself.

“Ah......” Tears ran down her cheek as her voice began to come out. “Ahhhhhh!” And, despite herself, she screamed out again.

Her voice, carrying her deep sorrow, anger, and frustration.

“Fight!”

Yet, she continued to advance. Step by step, each representing a part of herself.

“Fight!”

Part of herself that was slowly fading away.

“Fight!”

Part of herself that may never return.

And yet, she didn't stop advancing.

Voice crying out under the moon, eyes bleeding with tears, begging for someone to stop, to help her.

But unfortunately, no one appeared even now that she had arrived near the bald man.

With a broken body, her hand stretched out.

“Fight!”

With a broken mind, she took ahold of the sword stuck on the man's shoulder.

“Fight!”

With a broken heart, she held it upward.

“Fight!”

... And with a broken will, she swung it down to take a life.

Blood spluttered around, and Rin's cry finally ceased. Silence returned to the place, and the girl remained motionless.

Her hands loosened their grip before falling to her side. However, the sword stayed stuck in place, reflecting the moonlight's beautiful ray. Red vivid color further accompanied its surface, showing a strangely attractive view.

Rin's eyes blurred slowly returning to the dark. Her body trembled, not supporting her weight. Blood oozed out from practically everywhere on her and as logic willed for it, it didn't take long before she fell toward the ground.

... In that instant, the bloodied hand that had stopped the shining katana moved. Quickly yet with elegance, two delicate hands caught Rin's frail body. Then, with a radiant smile, an unknown female voice finally spoke up.

“It's okay. I'll take it from here.”