As the others were reeling from Ruka's implications, Chianthias was watching as the prince exited the Adventurer's Guild and began to head towards the Mage's Guild. She made sure to watch through one of her subordinates, who remained in the shadows in the distance, but within crowds, to avoid detection and retaliation. She was sure that he and most of the spies had been marked anyways, but they couldn't retaliate with him not doing anything while disguised in a crowd.

  "The prince, why did he come here? I heard he might be quite capable, and he linked up with Riza immediately. This is very problematic".

  She wasn't a big fan. The royalty had some heavy hitters on their payroll, and even a single one of them could risk throwing her plans off if something went wrong.

  "The prince himself...might be more capable then I know as well".

  It was a minor thing, only for a moment, but the prince looked her subordinate right in the eye. It had been while he was turning his head towards someone else, but in the moment their eyes locked, she shuddered. She felt as if not only her subordinate had been seen through, but her as well. As if he could gaze right into their souls.

  She watched from the lair, and then looked at the relic she had been given. The cube with runes on the side. She had used it to gather the forces she needs, but it seemed to hold far more secrets then that.

  "What are you planning...what even is this thing?"

  "A creation that will help stop our enemies" a figure said behind her. Chianthias nearly jumped out of her seat and attacked, but saw it was a figure she was vaguely familiar with. A figure wearing a black cloak and a mask, with black miasma leaking out everywhere covering him entirely, preventing her from determining the advisor's build or gender.

  "You, what are you doing here?"

  "As a warning" he said, pointing to a boy behind the prince. Chianthias was shocked, as that boy had not been there a moment ago. He seemed to somehow slip in not just through the crowds, but through perception itself. He was walking behind the prince. "That. That is the member of The Hidden I fought in the past".

  "That boy...his name should be...Aruu LeCross. Supposedly a part of the LeCross noble family, their heir I believe".

  "That is not his true name. He was alive a hundred years ago. He is someone you must not underestimate no matter what".

  "Over a hundred years old...Riza is over 60 years old. We have yet to confirm he is the Hidden, or to be honest if they truly exist..."

  "They exist" the advisor maintained.

  "...but if we are right, appearing young but actually being ancient. Could it be a common trait of The Hidden?"

  "It is possible. We still don't know how Riza gained his unaging body. But if they are both members of The Hidden, then that means The Hidden have a connection to the royal family".

  "You say he knows you, could he be doing this to throw us off?"

  "No, he should think I am long dead. I have gotten much stronger now, but...my lord has forbidden me from taking part in battles yet. He and the generals are worried about possible counterattacks from the gods, as well as the movement of the military powers closest to our lands".

  "Then we will move as planned".

  "Be wary. It's never raw power that is the most dangerous..."

  "...but wit and intelligence. Something I know all too well".

  "Good. I must return now. I hope to hear success, as does the Demon King".

  With that note, he vanished, leaving Chianthias concerned.

  "We need to start chipping away at their power. Let's begin phase one of the plan".

  A demon who was nearby bowed his head. "Understood".

  At the same time, Ayazi was flying leisurely in the sky. He was looking out over his balcony, when he took out his smartphone looking device which was ringing. He quickly opened it up, and saw Ozlo's face appear in the crystal screen.

  "Ozlo, how did the meeting go?"

  "He isn't dead, but I am filled with worry".

  "Really? I hear he is quite capable of defending himself".

  "No, I am worried he might visit every day and buy drinks for everyone each time. We don't need a bunch of drunk adventurers right now. I need to make sure he tones it down".

  Ayazi let out a laugh, stretching a bit as he raised himself up on his tippy toes as he leaned against the balcony. A magic strap was used to make sure he couldn't accidentally drop his device.

  "I hear you finally finished the prototype".

  "Yeah. No way we can mass produce these though, but it should allow for a bit of secure communication provided there is no interference. I am on my way right now by the way. However..."

  Ayazi looked out at a dark cloud approaching them.

  "It appears I may be delayed".

  "Trouble?"

  "This is the third attack on me. I think they are trying to wear me down and deplete my resources. So far I am holding and keeping on the path, but...without a doubt, this level of activity means they are planning something soon. They have targeted my power source and engines repeatedly".

  "Seriously? How?"

  "The first attack was from demons and a lot of aggrivated flying monsters, and the second was when someone threw a bunch of wyverns in my way. This third one though...well, you will have to see for yourself".

  Ayazi pointed his device at the cloud and got it to share an image of what it was pointing at. At first glance, it appeared to be a dark cloud...but in fact, it was a cloud of pure darkness. It was entirely black with some sort of Shaded aura, and it was like several swarms flying around it".

  "...Ayazi, that isn't part of Chianthias' forces. That thing is after the Starfallen you have".

  "Seriously?"

  "Yeah. We fought something similar in the ruins recently, it was able to affect Starfallen inherently, and it was clearly fixated on them. And also...it's a lot faster than you think. Get to battle positions now. They will be on you within minutes, possibly even seconds".

  "...great, my shoes are all the way on the other side of the facility".

  "Oh shut up about that!"

  "It's weird and dangerous to fight barefoot!"

  "Don't die Ayazi! We can't risk losing you!"

  "Fine fine..." he said, as he picked up a box with a rod sticking through it. After hitting a switch, it suddenly deployed and extended in a surprising way, becoming a full on scythe that was black with various green highlights, as well as a sharp steel blade. Ayazi watched as the dark cloud approached, and he went to a tube on the wall. "This is Ayazi. We have another incoming attack. Something new this time. Be careful".

  His voice echoed through the tubes and seemed to go to a number of places. In an instant, there was a bell ringing everywhere, and various clanking could be heard. Ayazi started to head through the door, when suddenly something came in through the balcony door. A rush of black miasma rushed right past him and then slammed into the ground, right inbetween him and the door. It soon took a humanoid shape.

  "The Starfallen! Thieves! Stolen!" it shouted in a rage, as its hand had shadowed claws come out of it and it rushed Ayazi. Ayazi quickly cut right through it, his scythe shimmering with magic as it cut him in two. The shade dispersed, only to reform behind Ayazi. Ayazi however pivoted around, and cut right through it again as his blade glowed a bit more. "Give back! Suffer! Pay!"

  "Ayazi!" Ozlo said over the still connected line.

  "Sorry, gotta hang...err, gotta go. If they are moving against me, they might move against you as well! Prepare yourself!"

  Ayazi hung up on Ozlo, and put away the device as he glared at the shadow that reformed itself. Several others came through next. Right outside, the black cloud had already closed in on them, and was approaching them at frightening speed. Or rather then a cloud, it was a swarm of these things.

  "Tsk. No point in using that on them, they are too fast anyways" Ayazi muttered. "Still, to reform even after being cut by a blade of pure Starsilver. That is quite the nasty constitution you have there".

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  "Thieves! Starfallen! Hand them over!"

  "I don't know what you think the Starfallen stole from you, but you should go through the proper channels for this".

  The three of them all rushed at Ayazi, but he slammed his foot down and twisted his body, swinging his scythe in such a way that parried all of their attacks at once. He then did a pivot reverse hop as he flipped his scythe around, cutting through all three of them at once as magic flowed into his scythe.

  This time, they took a bit longer to reform. They looked at him, and hissed in what seemed a quite angry hiss.

  "What did. You do?"

  "Ohhh, how interesting. The results of my investigation is...unfathomable alien essence?"

  The Shaded seemed unsettled when he said that.

  "I suppose you could say this is a combination of Amyris' sensory information gathering magic, and my magical engineering magic. Let's see how many times I have to cut you up before I can get your secrets".

  All of them hissed, as several more landed behind him.

  "You. What are. You?"

  "Oh, have you taken notice of me".

  "That device. Impossible. Who".

  Ayazi let out a smile. It appeared they noticed his new invention he was holding earlier.

  "I see, you don't know either. Interesting. But from what it sounds like, maybe you figured it out".

  "You are. Otherworlder. But. You..."

  Ayazi cut him down before he finished his sentence of broken words. This time, it did not reform.

  "Fine then, I suppose the cat is out of the bad. I am the Otherworlder, Ayazi. And we shall be your opponent this time".

  The group reacted at the word "we", but it was too late. Several of them were pierced by blood spikes, as a girl walked in.

  "I see we have intruders. Welcome, scumtrash, to Avalon, the Flying Workshop. I am afraid your stay here has just become indefinite".

  Her fangs fully out, she took a step forward and pierced through several more. The shaded aura began to creep up her blood tendrils, but she quickly cut them all off ahead of time.

  "How icky. It felt like it was trying to infect my blood. Don't let them make physical contact".

  "I figured. It looks like if you disperse them enough, use light, or use the right attacks, you can destroy them".

  "Yes. I activated The Lighthouse, so they should be being purged systematically as we speak".

  The Shaded growled, and tried to attack them both, but Ayazi deflected their attacks. Compared to other threats, they were weak, but tricky. Each one wouldn't die just because you cut through it, and could reform potentially unless you used the right magic or attack. A single touch could poison you, and they were able to suddenly shift rapidly between locations.

  Ayazi however did not look too worried. He glanced at his bracelet, making sure it was still there.

  As expected, the real test of a battle is information control and deception.

  Ayazi cut through another foe as they closed in, making sure to keep control of not only the battlefield, but his techniques and movements. He had so far only been swinging his scythe, but he still had his magic as well as a few other tricks as well. Ayazi blocked another attack, and several Shadeds suddenly appeared behind him.

  But Bellra wouldn't let such a thing stand, as her blood spears pierced them all. She blocked their attacks, and made sure to never let their Shaded Aura touch her as it seemed to be quite dangerous. Ayazi himself had created a thin barrier around himself made of light, but he was still being careful to not even let them touch that to be safe.

  A Scythe might seem like an odd weapon to be sure, but as Ayazi demonstrated it had its good points. For one thing, it was able to block quite well using either the shaft or the blade, and it was good for dealing with fast or multiple enemies due to the sweeping actions of its attacks. Its size and appearance could strike terror, and it was also useful as a pole arm for jabs. The fact that it was similar to the first weapon Ayazi had ever used in this world also didn't hurt, but there were schools in this world for teaching combat for weapons shaped like this. Apparently it was inspired by farmers who were conscripted in the past or such, and had to go to war with whatever weapons they had. Pitchforks and scythes mainly, since few owned actual swords. This is what lead to the propagation of spear and scythe combat styles apparently.

  Ayazi managed to cut through another, when a few of them formed into some sort of tornado twister thing, and began to approach him with high velocity winds.

  "...now that is just cheating, how am I supposed to fight a damn tornado?!"

  It was indeed a proper bullshit move to complain about.

  He jumped away and grabbed a spherical container, throwing it at the tornado. He then aimed the end of his scythe at it and fired a magical bolt at it right as it reached the tornado, causing a huge explosion. Flames wrapped around the tornado of darkness and enveloped it, becoming a flaming tornado. It cried out in pain, agony, and fury.

  "That just made things worse Ayazi!"

  "No I am sure I hit it! Lets experiment a bit more!"

  "This is not the time to experiment!"

  "We don't know when these things will attack again, this is exactly the moment to experiment so we find more weaknesses to use against them!"

  Ayazi took out a few crystals, and charged them with mana. They began to float in the sky, before arranging themselves into a formation. Beams of mana shot out of each other and between them all, before firing out into a massive beam at the tornado. It seemed to do absolutely nothing however.

  "Interesting! It would be one thing if it resisted, but it was entirely unaffected! Whatever these things are, they don't use mana!"

  "What? Is it Vampiric Blood Power like me then?"

  "I doubt it. These are not like the times I have seen someone use them".

  Ayazi animated a bunch of chains around the workshop, and they went after the tornado next. However they only got thrown around, and the few that did hit did no damage at all.

  "Not mana based, and impervious to normal physical attacks. My scythe must only work because its infused with magic and mana. In other words, normal weapons mean nothing to it. That is kind of scary".

  The tornado charged towards Ayazi, clearly annoyed by his antics. Bellra decimated the last few individual shades with her attacks though, so it was only the tornado that was left. Ayazi dodged out of the way, quickly taking out a disc and throw it like a frisbee at the tornado. The moment it hit, it emitted a tremendous amount of light. So much light that even Bellra, being a vampire with resistance to light, felt repulsed by it. To the Shades, it was as if it was death itself. So much of the tornado faded away, and it screamed in pain and agony.

  "These things are tough. Or perhaps that is only when they are combined? Even a Solar Star wasn't able to fully destroy it all. Still...this battle is clearly almost over. Its on its last legs".

  The tornado had already collapsed. Between the light from the fire and the light from the Solar Star, it was severely weakened.

  "Hmmm, I wonder" Ayazi said, as he took his right index and middle finger and drew a line in the air in front of him, facing the remaining Shaded. Mana surged into them, as well as another power. He began incanting a spell. "World Index. World Legacy. World Archive. Check and Recheck. Find the information, the link. Sever!"

  Using a rather strange incantation, and a strange power along with the mana, he swung his two fingers through the line he just made. At first the Shaded spasmed and gasped, but then they disappeared completely after a few seconds.

  "Well then, that is interesting".

  "What is it?"

  "Even when I severed it, my observational and information gathering spells in the room couldn't identify the source or origin of these things, or their makeup. When I severed them from their master, I had planned to try and subjugate them using the control spells in the room, but either their master was able to terminate them during or after the sever, or they die the moment they get severed from their master".

  "You just said a lot of terrifying things there".

  "Yeah. We need to pick up more Solar Stars. We should have them available..." Ayazi said. "Can I assume everywhere else is secure?"

  "Should be".

  At those words, Ayazi collapsed backwards and laid on the floor.

  "I am going to rest here for a bit. Can you make sure to make sure nothing vital is about to break and needs repairs, and if it does, fix it?"

  "Sure".

  And so, the attack on the flying workshop had been thwarted, but Ayazi wasn't that at ease.

  "Its likely they are hitting multiple other areas at the same time. I would contact Ozlo, but I suspect he already deduced that much himself".

  At the same time, Ozlo was hurrying around, looking to the skies.

  "Still nothing. Amyris is with the prince, so I can't get him, but...no way that was an isolated attack on Ayazi. I need to get Kuroki and the others home safe, and be ready to intercept any attack that might be coming".

  They had anticipated a lot, but not the Shaded making such a bold move. They had only learned of them just the other day, and just a single entity. But if enough went after Ayazi to make a pitch black cloud, then that could only mean they were making a move.

  "What I don't get is right now. If they had moved instantly, they could have had much better odds. Why did they only come after us now...could it be they couldn't come after us immediately, or that they can't normally deploy their forces so freely? That would explain a lot".

  Still, he had to hurry. He couldn't summon the guards, because from what he saw physical attacks were not all that effective against The Shaded. Instead they had to use magical or light based attacks. His Dragonfyre should work well against it, but since it was clear they went after Starfallen, Ozlo had to get the various Starfallen to safety. Thankfully his meeting with the prince was over, so he could devote his full attention to it.

  However, as he turned a corner, he encountered someone.

  "Funny to run into you again so soon, Ozlo".

  It was Zak, who was clearly ready for full combat this time.

  "Of course you know. How?"

  "Sorry, I am afraid I cannot say on this matter".

  "Literal or figurative?"

  "Both kinda".

  "...I see. Fine. So the Shaded are coming?"

  "Yeah. If I had to guess by your rushing, they attacked elsewhere, so there are probably similar attacks going on around the world. A lot of places will probably get decimated, although perhaps there will be enough powerful fighters to contest against them".

  "You know something don't you?"

  "Like I said, I can't say" Zak replied. "But I will say that we are not the only ones working hard to deny them. If we can hold here, and others can hold other places, they will likely rethink these unfocused attacks. Especially since they can't even do this normally, I think".

  "Yeah agreed. They would have done so immediately if they could".

  "But still, I wonder why now..."

  Neither of them had any answers or facts to work off of right now, so they shelved that lingering question for later.

  "Oh, looks like its arrived before we could find them" Zak muttered, as a dark cloud was seen overhead coming towards the city. "Yeah, we have to keep that out of the city don't we?"

  "Yeah. We can't fight it here. Never mind the others, everyone in this city would be at risk".

  "Then I guess its a good thing we have a trump card for things like this".

  At those words, a figure stepped out of the shadows and joined them.

  "Guildmaster..." Ozlo muttered.

  "Sup Ozlo. I hear you handled things on your end well. I can handle the main group, so just clean up the stragglers for me okay?"

  "Its impervious to physical attacks".

  "Yeah, but mana aint just for casting spells. That and..."

  He drew his giant sword from its shealth on his back. It was nearly as tall as he was, and was clearly not made of normal material.

  "Nothing is immune to the power of my blade".

  Ozlo looked over to Zak. "We should stand back and stay clear".

  "Yeah, I remember".

  The two boys (well, one boy and one adult who regained his youth) both backed off.

  The guildmaster meanwhile, eyed the full moon above them. He let out a smile.

  "Beast Beyond the Moonlight".

  With those words, Zak suddenly felt the pressure around him intensify immensely. The guildmaster, Krazel, jumped forward with incredible strength, as if he was a superhero straight out of a comic book. Zak twitched a bit when he saw that.

  "I will never get used to that".

  "Yeaaaah, its kinda absurd. But I suppose we can leave the main force to him".

  "Which makes our jobs all the easier".

  "But its still probably going to be a hellish battle to contend with".

  "Then we had best continue to make preparations then. Because somehow I doubt our other enemies will fail to notice the distraction".

  Ozlo groaned in annoyance, as the two began to brace themselves for the oncoming storm.