“Zenith, is that really you?” she said, tears f in her eyes.

  My headache is being more intense as this starts. “I’m sorry, do I know you?” I ask her.

  “Do you really not know me? Its Lucy.” she tells me.

  “I really don’t. you let go of me” I ask her.

  “Not until I get answers. Please just try”

  “I don’t know what you want from me. Just let go” I say, trying to pull away from her, but I ’t. Based orength, she is a hunter. It’s on knowledge that even a level 2 hunter is strohan any normal person who hasn’t unlocked the status yet.

  But before the woman could say anything else, the girl started saying something. “Ms. Lucy, we o focus oask”

  “That’s not important anymore, Ava. If Elijah was wrong then things might be different then what we thought. This could expin things” Lucy told this girl, Ava. When I had heard Ava talk, it sounded familiar but als in some way. And the things that the women brought up in that st ent made my head hurt even more, and she was holding even tighter onto my arm, not letti away.

  Trying to find a path out of this situation, I thought of yelling for help from my family.

  But then, suddenly, the woman's arm was grabbed. Looking over at who it was, I saw Aria, and she looked super pissed.

  “What the hell are you doing with my brother!” she said to the women.

  “Your brother? Who the hell do you think you are?” the woman said to Aria, finally letting go of my arm.

  “Ms. Lucy, this is one of the targets, Aria Bck, holder of the absolute darkness skill” the girl, Ava said.

  “You know who I am? What the hell is going on?” Aria asked them.

  “Shit, this is her? Why is she with Zenith?”

  “The boy is of no importance. He is not the other target”

  “Fine, tact Elijah and tell him that we made tact with her. I’ll try to subdue her until he gets here” the woman said, pulling out a sword out of thin air. I have heard that's what it looks like when someone pulls something out of their iory.

  ?

  It took Aria and Anthem a few seds before they noticed that Zenith was no longer behind them.

  ‘You go bad find him, I'll wait for you here” Aold Aria. And with that, she went back to look for him.

  While waiting though, someone came up to talk to Anthem.

  “Excuse me” she said to him. Wheuro see who it was, he found one of the girls who he had given the orientation too.

  ‘Your… Abby right?” he asked her.

  “Um, yes I am. I saw you and wao e over and say hi” Abby said, very sheepishly.

  “Oh, well, hi. I am actually waiting for someone” he told her.

  ‘Well, if that's the case, I’ll be quick. we exge numbers?” she asked him.

  This retty normal for Anthem. He was often asked for his number by girls. It was the main way he kept up his pyboy lifestyle. He agreed and started to give her his number.

  “There you go. Text me anytime.” He said, knowing why she was doing this.

  But before the two of them could say anything else, two men cam up to the two of them.

  “Yeah, I think that's him.” one of them said ing up to the two of them.

  “Yeah, let's see?” the other said. “Hey, you Anthem Bck?” he asked.

  “Um, yeah. Who are you?” Anthem responded.

  “That's not important, but we're going to need you to e with us” one of them says. The two of them then pull out magis, a type of oed sihe dungeon's appearahey then open fire on Anthem.

  ?

  Lucy quickly started to attack Aria. Lucy seemed to be at least petent to Aria who quickly moved out of the way of her attacks. She was in no way ready for a fight right now, and o protect Zenith from this person.

  She still had no idea why the hell she what she was trying to do with Zenith, but he was her main priority right now.

  Aria’s main ability was her absolute darkness skill, which gave her the ability to trol darkness itself. She could form shadows into anything she needed. Currently she was creating a shield to block the attacks from Lucy.

  Unbonst to Aira, Lucy was not a very powerful hunter, so she was way outcssed in the fight. She was only still standing because Aria refused to ter attack wheh was still there. Aria was very self scious about using her skills in front of Zenith.

  So their fight tinues like that, Lucy trying to force Aria into a er, and Aria tinuing to dodge and block.

  Then, Aria started to see something. Instead of just one person attag her, it seemed that there were a dozen people attag her.

  This was the work of Lucy’s panion, Ava. Ava was a skilled user of illusions, which she was currently using to mess with Aria. She was making it seem like there were many more people attag her then there actually were.

  This lead Lucy to actually get the advantage. While she was blog an attack from one of the illusions, Aria would the by an attack from the real Lucy.

  This causes Aria to back off from them. Knowing that she has to actually try to overe the annoying illusion magic.

  But she still o protect Zenith. When she looks back over at him, she notices that he does not seem to be doing very good. When she saw him talking to the two of them, she already thought something was wrong with him, but it seems to only be getting worse.

  Deg to end the fight quickly, she fully activates her skill.

  In a sed, an orb of darkness forms around the three fighters, Lucy, Ava and Aria. Then after only a sed of the orb being up, it falls and the two attackers are on the ground. The two of them are still alive, but both were knocked out by Aria.

  The orb works by making a room of plete darkness, which then be used to do whatever to the people inside. Since she has plete trol inside of the orb, she just hit them in the head so they got knocked out.

  Aria then makes her way back to Zenith to check up on him.

  “Zenith, it's going to be ok. I dealt with the two of them” she said to him.

  “Yes, you most certainly did deal with them” Someone said from behind Aria.

  Wheuro see who it was, she saw a man’s face who every hunter in the try knows. Elijah.

  “Hello, Aria Bck. You have something I need.” He says to her.

  “What the hell is that” She says.

  “Your skill, Absolute Darkness”

  “My skill is unique and intrinsic. You ’t have it”

  “Oh, that won’t stop me. It seems all I have to do is make you break a promise to your brother. I don’t really know what that means though. So, what could you have promised Anthem”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “What is the promise you made to Anthem?”

  “I don’t know? I don’t think I have ever made a promise with Anthem”

  “Well, that makes things plicated. But I’ll figure it out”

  Elijah then pulls out a sword from his iory as ready to fight Aria.

  But before their fight begih says something.

  “Who… are you?” Zenith said, looking at Elijah. And when Elijah looks back at him, his eyes go wide.

  “Shit, what are you doing here?” He says to Zenith.

  But all this seems to do is piss off Aria. Quickly rushing Elijah while he is distracted, Aria creates a dagger from darkness and hits Elijah with it.

  “Talk to my brain, and I’ll just kill you”

  “Your brother, huh. Not just one of them. That was my mistake.” Elijah said, getting up. He pulled a potion from his iory and drank it, healing his wound. He was also getting angry with that attack.

  But before any more attacks could be made by either side, a group of swords of light fell betweewo of them. And Anthem joihe fight.

  “Aria, you o take Zenith a out of here. tact the association a backup as well.” He said, not taking his eyes off of Elijah.

  “I ’t just leave you.” Aria said.

  “ARIA! Zenith is my top priority right now, you o make sure he is safe. I’ll deal with this guy” he says, snapping her out of her rage towards Elijah.

  And with that, Aria takes Zenith, who had only gotten worse, and bring him to safety, leaving Ao deal with Elijah.

  ?

  As the two men pulled out their magis, Anthem moved to protect Abby who was still standing with him.

  Magi guns worked by charging a magazih MP which then shot a number of shots. This meant that they did not have unlimited ammo and would eventually o reload. Anthem had created several shields of light proteg both Abby and the crowd behind him.

  Unlike Aria who used mh structs, Aook care to create his shields, having them appear as a traditional western knight's shield with a visible intricate design. There were around a dozen of them betweewo attackers and him.

  Eventually the volley stops and Anthem is given a ake a move.

  “Abby, you o run a everyoill in the area to leave as well. When you get away, tact the authorities ahem a hunter is attag the area.” He said quickly to the girl still with him. When the shots first went out a lot of people started to run away.

  Abby listened and ran at the first shot she got. This left Anthem aloo take care of his two attackers.

  “I don’t know who the two of you are, but I am not going to take this lightly” Anthem said to them, glowing armor of light f around him. His absolute light skill allowed him to create structs out of light, something he used to create armor and ons. He could also create pure energy bsts with it, but those would create exes damage to the area.

  “Don’t take it lightly. We need you to be weakened so when our boss gets here he doesn't o work that hard.” one of the men says, loading a red magazio his gun.

  The color of the magazine represehe magic type in the gun, and red meant fire. When he opened fire again, the bullets burned. When they made tact with the shields, they made little puffs of fire. Ahen lowered the shields and charged the two attackers.

  Anthem owerful mixed attacker, who had no qualms using all of his skill right now. He created a broadsword out of light and used it to try and break the magi the attacker was using.

  Sihere were two of them, this gave one of them a ove away and shot at Anthem directly.

  The shots hit the armor and did nothing to Anthem himself.

  But what it did do was distract him so his partner move back before his on was broken.

  That was the main weakness of maginers. If their on breaks they are out of the fight. And guns break easier than swords do. So they mostly deal with medium to le, and support. But the two of them were fighting a front lihey had to use any advahey could find, including distras.

  Anthem was getting ahe attacks from the magis, much like any magic, scales with the intelligence of the attacker, or fis, the person who loads the magazine. He could tell that the attackers did not have that much power in their shots. They are skilled in bat, but not as hunters.

  He figured out quickly that they were more used to fighting people. That was how they were dealing with him like they were. He didn’t want to go all out in case there were people around still. This is one of the moments he was jealous of Aria’s skill. She was able to lessen the destru of her skill pretty easily. He was the opposite. Pushing his skill to the limit caused a massive amount of destru around him.

  So he just o hold back a little. While still attag one of the two, He created a little ball of light behind him. He could unch this ball like an energy bst. It retty low power pared to what he could do inside a dungeon, but it would more than do the trick here. Due to the fact that he is in the middle of the two of them meant he didn’t have eyes on one of them.

  So when he attacked, and a shot came frht behind him to distract him, instead he tinued forward and shot the energy bst right behind him. Si was a bst of light, it moved just as fast. He then followed through with his atta the attacker in front of him, cut his gun apart and knocked him out.

  Turning to see the other attacker, he saw that he was holding his side, and a big chuck of that side was missing. This was nothing a strong healing potion couldn’t fix, and based on their gear, this group was definitely well funded.

  Going over to the one holding his side, he picks the man up and holds a new sword to his throat.

  “Who the hell are you?” Anthem asks him

  Through grunts, the man answers. “We are members of the kings end guild. We came here so our leader could obtain your and your sisters skills.”

  “What the hell are you talking about? Our skills are unique. How could he obtain them?”

  “Wouldn’t you like to know.” the man said. Ahen hit the man with the hilt of his sword and knocked him out.

  Knowing that his main priority should be finding Aria and regrouping, he goes to look for her, and hoping she fouh, and hoping the two of them are ok.

  Going through the festival grounds, he noticed that most people had gotten away. This meant that wherever he ended up, he could go all out. He eventually finds an area with Aria standiweeh and a man he reized.

  The man was the leader of the group he had learned was attag them, Elijah and the kings end guild. He also saomen on the ground by them. Zenith didn’t seem to be doing well. He had seeh having a panic attack before, and this is exactly what it looked like.

  Deg that now that he go all out, he would get Zenith and Aria out, and take on Elijah until someone came to help. If Aria got away she could tact the association and they could send over other S ranks. And they could have proper equipment.

  When approag there fight, he sees Aria prepare for a fight against Elijah. Quickly stoping the charge by pg a number of swords betweewo of them, he drops betweewo of them.

  “Aria, you o take Zenith a out of here. tact the association a backup as well.” Anthem said to Aria.

  “I ’t just leave you” she said, with a bit of anger in her voice.

  “ARIA! Zenith is my top priority right now, you o make sure he is safe. I’ll deal with this guy” Anthem says, making sure she knew why he was tellihis.

  Anthem khat she was unfortable using her skill in front of Zenith, so as long as he was there, there was very little she could do.

  They quickly left, leaving Ao deal with Elijah.

  “Well, I always get absolute darkness aime” Elijah said, then looked right at Anthem. “Lets see what I have to do for you” he then said.

  “What the hell are you talking about? Your underling said you needed our skills. How does that work?”

  “That's not important. But I ask you a question. What the hell is this promise you and your sister made to Zenith?”

  This surprised Anthem. Knowing who Aria and him were was expected. Hunter lise for association members are public records. Their skills and status are unknown, but their names and faces aren’t. But there is no way this man should know who Zenith is.

  “How the hell do you know my brother’s name?” Anthem said, with pure rage in his voice.

  “That is quite plicated. And not important. If you aren’t going to tell me this promise, then I think we only have ohio do” He said, then attacked quickly with a bst of fire.

  Anthem blocked the attack quickly with a light shield. He then bsted back with several different beams of light.

  But an orb of light is formed around Elijah, pletely blog the light beams.

  Anthem, notig the light, is pletely surprised.

  “That’s reflect magic. You have access to that high level of a skill”. Reflect magic is a form of light magic that was obtainable only via skill orb or as an intrinsic skill. It was sidered very high level, and very powerful.

  “Why wouldn’t I have powerful skills? I am the leader of the dark guild Kings End. I will obtain any power I must for my goals”

  Trying to close the distan the fight, Anthem used one of the abilities he has from absolute light, a pseudo teleportation. He bees a group of light particles, then reappears somewhere else. And where he ends up is right behind Elijah.

  He tries to cut him down, dealing massive damage to Elijah and pushing him back.

  Whes back up, he coughs and blood es out of his mouth.

  “Wow, it seems you are a lot more powerful then I saw ing. Even to the point where my skill’s sed effect activated. I might also o try a lot harder to deal with you.”

  “What the hell are you talking about know”

  “Nothing that important. But let me ask you, why would you o promise to never hurt Zenith again?” Elijah asked.

  Anthem had no clue where he had learhis. It was true that Anthem and Aria promised Zenith they would never hurt him again, but that was something only the two of them knew about. Not eveh was awake when the promise was made.

  Getting more annoyed with Elijah's stant questions, Anthem decided to stop talking ba and just focus on the fight. This time, the aggressor was Elijah. He fired more fire at Anthem, but he blocked it again. Or at least he tried.

  This attack was far more powerful tha fire attack, and was even a different color. Fire magilike light and dark magic, didn’t have a different form, so Anthem was fused by the ge in color, since all fire magic was the same color, no matter the user.

  “Oh, it doesn't seem like you know that ohat was inferno magic, a unique skill held by a hunter out of australia. It's just like fire magic, but more powerful” Elijah said.

  This just fused Anthem. He had heard of the inferno magic user. The man was on the way to being a national rank huhe highest rank a hunter bee. His fire magic was really strong. But he had no clue how Elijah could have someone else's unique skill.

  But before anything else could happen, more hunters came rushing into the area.

  “Well, it seems my time is done for the day. I’ll be seeing you again, Anthem” Elijah said, then used his inferno magic to create a wall of fire between him and the hunters. They could see him grab the two unscious women and leave. A few people tried to follow, but there was nothing they could do.

  ?

  As we run away from the festival, my head tio pound. I have no clue what was going on, but when I saw that man who Aria fought and Anthem is fighting now, I felt an untrolble hatred towards him.

  I have no clue who he is. All I knew was that I hated him.

  We had gottey far away from the festival wheopped and Aria called the association and told them that the kings end guild attacked the festival. Since we live near a major city with several guilds, the association said they would send everyohey could.

  “Aria, you have to go bad help him” I told Aria.

  “I ’t. The only reason he do what he is doing now, is because he knows you're with me. As long as you are here, I o be with you” she told me.

  “Ok” I say back to her and sit down on the ground. My headache kept getting worse and worse. I had no clue what was going on but it felt like the world was ing down around me.

  And that tinued, until my head just gave out and I colpsed on the ground, and fall unscious.

  As this happens, I hear Aria call out to me.

  NamelessAlter