“When I get out of this, I’m gonna kill you...maybe. I’m still on the fence about it, you know?” Ira spoke casually as he looked on.

At the moment, he was wrapped in vines and tied to a branch that two Elves carried. The entire group of Elves were escorting him to some unknown place, for some unknown reason. Strangely enough, the Elves didn’t sink into the snow but rather walked atop it without leaving any footprints. It was a practiced technique among the elites who patrolled outside the Elven cities.

“Athal, I don’t think he’s a human.” An Elf ignored Ira’s words and spoke to the leader.

“People like him who trespass on our lands because of their greed are worse than human,” Althal responded.

“No, I mean...His eyes are yellow...and his smell. Isn’t it strange?” The observant Elf asked with an unsure tone.

The first thing he noticed when they restrained Ira was his almost glowing yellow eyes, there were no cases of any humans having such strange traits. Then the next was the lack of a discernible scent coming from Ira’s body. As Elves, their sense of smell was stronger than most other races and they could somewhat make out the distinctive scents of the races they encountered.

“Listen you guys...and gals. I’ve come to decision, if you let me out right now I probably won’t kill you.” Ira spoke as if the things happening didn’t concern him at all.

“Shut it, human.” An Elf jabbed a sheathed sword into Ira’s side. The owner of the sword was none of than Ira himself, they confiscated his weapon when they tied him up. Of course, no one could check that his pocket of storage in the Void.

“Wait.” Athal looked at Ira closely and noticed that he looked strange when compared to all the other humans he had seen in his life.

“Are you a human?” Athal asked.

“I’m hungry is what I am.” Ira retorted. While Ira was mostly open with his abilities toward others, he wouldn’t just answer important questions for those he didn’t have favorable impressions of.

Athal shook his head and signaled for them to continue.

After a while, Ira became bored and tried to force his way out of the vines, but they refused to budge.

“The magic power inside of those vines is probably older than you, it would be best to just give up.” A female Elf smirked.

“Magic?” Ira widened his eyes.

Thinking that he finally realized his situation, the Elf’s faint grin grew even wider, but then for some reason, Ira began to smile too. All of a sudden, a thin black mist began to pour out of Ira’s hands. The Elves carrying him reflexively dropped him onto the ground.

“Ah!” The Elf jumped back, thinking it was some sort of poison.

The commotion caused the other Elves to turn around only to see a pitch black mist emerging from somewhere on Ira’s body.

Athal grabbed a nearby Elf and began to yell, thinking that Ira had set poison into the air, “I thought I told you to check him.”

“I-I did.” The Elf shrunk back defensively.

Just when Athal turned to assess the damage again, he was met with a surprise. The vines that were restraining loosened, allowing him to struggle out of them albeit barely. His ability to nullify didn't really do anything against older magic.

“Much better.” Ira stood up and dusted the snow off of his body before setting his sights on the one carrying his stuff.

“Hey, you.” He said as he walked toward the person in question.

The Elves grabbed their weapons and prepared to attack, but Ira disappeared from sight and then reappeared next to the one who had the unfortunate task of carrying his weapon.

“Thanks.” Ira snatched his sword before sending the elf into a tree with a kick.

“Stop, Human!” An Elf shouted with a fierce look as she knocked an arrow. She wasn’t the only one, all of the Elves had readied their weapons.

Of course, Ira paid no heed and fastened his sword to his hip. Seeing him act so brazen, Athal drew his sword and charged out. A flurry of focused blows rained down toward Ira, who in turn jumped back to avoid them without paying much attention.

After he finished fastening his scabbard he gazed at the aggressive Elves and spoke, “I really have to be somewhere, so I’ll be on my way.” He smiled before departing at an incredible speed.

“Human!” Athal yelled while seething with anger and embarrassment. He wasn’t even able to give the order to chase as Ira was out of sight within a few moments.

Although it only one person was injured, Ira’s “escape” held a special significance to Athal. His father was the leader of one of the most prominent Elven clans that held majority control over the largest city. His failure to stop one single intruder would definitely affect his chances to become the next leader, especially at a time where average clan members were awakening to amazing abilities randomly. Before the Red Moon and Golden Aurora, Athal was basically guaranteed the position, but now he was in competition with several other candidates. Some of which showed great promise.

“Athal…” The Elf who Ira kicked away limped over with a shameful expression. It was surprising he could still walk considering Ira’s strength, the liquid he had consumed earlier was most obviously the reason for it.

“We must report this to the Clan Leader,” Athal spoke with a serious face, showing no trace of his earlier anger.

……….

Meanwhile in the capital, Amy stood in the middle of the street with a listless expression.

“Miss, are you ok?” The voice of an old woman woke her from her stupor.

“Am I what?...I…Wasn’t I?” Amy’s eyes widened as her face filled with confusion.

“Miss?” The old woman questioned.

“I-I’m fine...thank you.” Amy bowed her head before walking away.

It had happened many times before, Amy would find herself standing somewhere with no recollection of how she had gotten there. She also would find herself having strange dreams and that was only if her sleep wasn’t interrupted throughout the night.

Amy didn’t go very far before she looked at her metal arm, there was a very faint almost imperceptible small green tinge to it.

“Was that always there?” Amy questioned in her mind. She shook away her unnecessary thoughts as she continued on her way, her destination, the Mercenaries Union.

After Ira told her that the Academy wasn’t where she should be, she almost immediately left. It hadn’t been long since she joined the Union and she hadn’t done much in the time she had been there. The reason being, Aldis wasn’t present. He wanted to join up with her, but he had to seek permission first since it was a dangerous line of work and he wasn’t at the level of his sister and cousins. Originally, the males of the family had the most freedom, but then everything had changed since the Golden Aurora. Even now, there were thousands who had awoken to abilities and talents they previously had no sign of, though that wasn’t exactly a good thing. Point being the man who was currently trailing Amy. A man with a plain face that could be picked out of a crowd followed close behind her with a hint of madness in his eyes.

As Amy navigated the streets, she seemed to feel something was off, but due to all the things that had been happening to her, she paid it no real attention.

Suddenly, Amy turned into a dark alley for no reason.

“W-What!?” She said in a hushed shout. For a split second, she had lost any sense of control over her body and felt the urge to walk through the small alley.

“Hey.” A meek voice called out, causing her to turn around.

Amy looked at the man silently as she evaluated him. A dingy brown coat and a dagger with a bright glint that was barely hidden in his sleeve. A young face with a nervous yet excited grin and slightly widened eyes.

The young man looked at the dagger in his hand and then back at Amy.

“I’m sorry to take up your time, but I’ve been...I’ve been following you for a while.” The young man stated in a timid tone.

“Following me--Why?” Amy took a few steps back.

“Well, it’s just...you don’t have any friends so...I was thinking...that it would be…” The man looked at his shoes while he used his free hand to clinch the hem of his coat. He took a deep breath.

“...That it would be easy to kill you.” The young man looked at Amy with a smile.

“I don't even know you. What did I do to you for you to want that?” Amy questioned as she became more alert.

“Oh no! It’s just...for some time I’ve had the urge hurt someone and then as if responding the skies lit up. It was like the Gods read my thoughts and gave me the power to act on my urges.” The young man raised the dagger.

“I just was too scared to do it all this time...I wanted someone who could fight back, but not too much. Then there was the possibility of getting caught, so that bothered me until I saw you. Alone, without any friends, without an arm, always spacing out. So please die, but also try to resist a little.” The man finished speaking and leaped forward with great agility.

“Ah!” Amy raised her metal arm to block reflexively and was met with the sound of metal clashing in her ears.

The young man flipped over her and went to swing again. It was clear he had no real training as each strike was sloppy, but he was abnormally fast. Amy could only use the metal arm to block as she continued to fend off his quick strikes. Within a few moments, cuts slowly appeared on Amy’s body as the speed was too much to contend with. As Amy struggled she thought of Ira and Avery, specifically the fact that they could easily deal with the situation she was facing. Due to her lapse in attention, Amy received a punch to the stomach which caused her to stumble and fall over.

“Y-You...” Amy held her abdomen as she looked up. The nameless young man stood over her while panting.

“Thank you...You fought back just enough...but I think I should kill you now.” The young spoke before raising his dagger high.

As she watched the dagger coming down Amy could only think of others. Aldis, Ira, Amy, and even the man about to kill her. Her thoughts were how much she envied them. She regretfully squeezed her eyes shut as she waited.

Then, nothing. Nothing seemed to have happened as Amy was still alive, or at least she thought. She opened her eyes slowly only to see her metal arm clutching the man’s arm.

“How?!” Amy mumbled, clearly in a stupor.

“Let go of me!” The man shouted with a voice full of panic. “Let go! Let go! Let go!” He yanked his arm backward but wasn’t able to get free. He used his free hand to grab the dagger and then attempted to pry the warm metal fingers away.

“H-Hot?!” He seemed to realize that there was a problem, any type of heat radiating from a metal arm was strange.

Amy noticed something was off also, not only was her arm moving on its own, a green light flickered around, each short-lived whisp produced a small amount of heat.

“Stop it!” The man screamed as the heat emanating from the hand became unbearable.

Amy didn’t respond and instead seized the chance to tackled the man to the ground. The two fought a little, but with Amy’s hand slowly began to burn his skin, he couldn’t even think about overpowering him.

“Get off! Get off! Please!” The man writhed but was thoroughly held down by Amy.

“You tried to kill me!” Amy shouted as she gained control of her arm and thrust her palm onto his face.

Before the man could even react, her hand went ablaze with a strange green fire that coated the entire palm.

“Aaaaaaah!” The screams of a young man mixed with the sound and scent of melting flesh filled the air.

Amy ignored the hissing of melting flesh and pressed harder and whenever the man shook or moved, she would press down even harder. In less than thirty seconds the strange man who attempted to kill her had died without much of a fight. She rolled over and laid beside the corpse that was still warm. Somehow the intolerable stench was overpowered by her feelings. In the period of half a year, she had lost her mother, Benjamin, and her arm. There was no need to count the number of times she had almost lost her life. All of those things piled up in her head and the only thing she could do was cry.

“Damn it.” Amy coughed out as she cried like a lost child. She quickly stopped and wiped her eyes, realizing that something was off about her arm. Looking at the metal arm, the metallic green hue had become more prominent, which served to confuse her. Ira didn’t say anything about the arm having anything special so she wondered why it moved on its own. Was it a surprise Ira wanted to leave for her? She could only wait until the next time she saw him, to ask.

“Halt!” A group of guards charged into the alley with weapons in hand only to see a dead man with his face burned off and a girl on the ground beside him.

One particular guard with a weaker stomach vomited off to the side after the smell from the corpse made its way to him.

“What’s going on here!” A guard asked as he made his way over. He assumed that Amy was the perpetrator and that the corpse was the victim. There were numerous incidents that happened recently in which people were victimized by people seeking to test their new powers. Either that or various individuals would attack each other and others with abilities.

“He attacked...he attacked me.” Amy wiped her face as she looked up at the guards.

“Who? That dead man beside you? So how is it that he was the one to end up dead?” The guard who threw up jeered in the back.

“Come with us, until we figure out what happened you’ll have to stay in a holding cell.” The one leading said as he pulled out a pair of shackles.

Amy gave a melancholic sigh as she resigned herself to whatever happened next.