The group was gathered around a campfire which was set up in the middle of the moody plains, the smoke from it reached up into the night sky and formed into shapes almost like some of the dead trees in the area. Hugo sat on a log next to Altara, who was staring at the fire.

"You okay? Zoning out there?" Hugo asked him as he leaned forward to rub his hands in front of the fire to warm himself up. "...or are you just tired?"

"Hm?" Altara stopped staring at the fire, blinking twice and looking at Hugo. "No, just...well I don't know. I think I'm worrying. Do we even know what we're doing here? Stopping a whole nation from attacking the other?" Altara looked back at the fire. "Isn't that what we're doing? And if that's the case how do we do that? We are a four-man team here."

Hugo thought for a second before looking at the fire as well. "We are going to try and investigate their plan first. Kry told me that after looking at some satellite imagery of their capital, Skarka City, he found that the city is rather remote. The far west side of the city is actually covered by an overhanging cliff, almost like they're hiding something from onlookers. We need to find what it is they're hiding if we want to get any leads, maybe it's a secret military base or something that only the citizens of the city can see."

"I guess. But why didn't we take more people with us? I know that getting the Homstalan Military involved would've been a bad idea but why not take like...I don't know, ten more mages?" Altara asked, sighing after talking. He stopped staring at the fire and instead looked down at the grassy ground.

Hugo chuckled. "Because that would've been a hassle. One of them might have a weak mind and if they were captured would have been tortured until they revealed our location, or they would have been killed. More people means more deaths."

Altara gulped and went slightly pale. "Yeah."

Hugo noticed Altara's attitude. "Hey don't worry about you getting tortured. We have each other's back, yeah? Smaller means sneakier." He playfully punched Altara's shoulder, who nodded. "Yeah, sorry for being so nervous."

Hugo shook his head. "Don't worry. You're a young kid that has seen a lot these past weeks. You're strong though, Alt."

"Altara! Come here!"

Kry shouted from the other side of the campfire, he was looking through a telescope which was pointed at the sky.

Hugo nodded at Altara. "Go see your stargazer friend." He chuckled and grinned. Altara nodded and started to walk over to Kry.

"Altara." Kry moved out of the way of the telescope. "Look through the telescope." He folded his arms and nodded at the telescope.

Altara slowly walked up to the telescope, looking up at Kry before bending over to look through it.

"W-You've pointed it at the moon?" He looked up at Kry, who looked up at the rocky moon in the sky. "Look through it again, closer."

Altara frowned slightly before looking through it again, squinting as he saw the silhouettes of tall buildings float past the view of the moon which were all attached to a massive flat rock. "I-Is that Sithan City? Must be Mirallia I'm looking at."

Kry smiled and nodded. "That's right. The city itself was built after an attempted invasion of Adepta by some aliens known as the Scythes. But I'm sure you know about that." He looked around the sky. "Move the scope to the right around eighty degrees."

Altara did what was asked until his eyes landed on a green moon with yellow and blue patches here and there. "Woah, N-Nuricha?"

Kry looked up at Nuricha. "That's right, the most toxic celestial object in the Adeptan System. Poisonous and acidic clouds which melt through steel gives us a pretty hard time getting on the moon."

Altara stood away from the telescope. "We've only landed once on the moon around thirty-four years ago with a drone that was made out of Extremesteel. It was a joint project between Altus and Homstala, the Alter-Elves were the ones that found the Extremesteel on a remote island off the coast of Altus. That rock costs billions on the Adeptan Market so it is good that it wasn't some bandits that got their hands on it. It is said to be almost indestructible." Altara stopped talking for a second and looked up at Kry. "Heh, sorr-"

"No, I'm impressed." Kry interrupted him and smiled. "Say, whilst we're here in Wrathak I might teach you some things, how about it?"

Altara slowly smiled, but before he could say anything Konstantine walked past him and Kry, sitting next to the fire and placing four dead rabbits beside it. "Found these. Best to not eat the food we packed when we have plenty of meat running around in the dark." She was wearing a brown leather trenchcoat.

Hugo looked up at her, still sitting on the log next to the fire. "Hm?" He looked down at the rabbits. "Heh, good job. You know how to hunt?"

"When you're surrounded by lazy starving bandits and you're the fastest there you kinda have no choice but to be the one that runs after these little bastards." She took out a knife from her trenchcoat pocket and started to skin one. "Either that or they would put a bullet in you, then maybe eat you."

Hugo cleared his throat and nodded. "Right.." He looked back at the fire and leaned forward slightly.

Kry walked back to the camp with Altara and crouched down to a large bag not far from the fire, taking out four wrapped up tents and starting to set them up. "Hugo, help me with the other two will you?" Hugo stood up and started to walk over to Kry. "On my way bud."

Altara sat down opposite Konstantine who was still next to the fire skinning the squirrels. "Hi." He looked down at two of the already skinned squirrels, before looking over at the one being skinned.

"Hey." Konstantine simply responded and finished the third squirrel, moving onto the next. "You aren't vegetarian are you?"

"N-No. I'm fine with eating meat. Except for beef..tastes of nothing to me." Altara coughed a bit after speaking, looking over at Kry and Hugo setting up the tents. "Hey...what do you think of Kry?"

"Kry? Don't really have an opinion on him but from what I've seen he seems nice. Why do you ask?" She finished the last squirrel and started to stick them all on some sticks.

"Just wondering, don't worry." Altara looked at her sticking the sticks into them, cringing slightly at the sight.

"I'm not worried." Konstantine gave one of the squirrels to Altara on a stick. "Hover it over the fire until it's cooked. Ever had a kebab?"

"Uh, I think so." Altara shuffled over so he was facing the fire and started to do as instructed. "Like this?"

"A bit lower, don't be scared of the fire touching your hand a bit. You've been hurt worse than that, yeah?" Konstantine said, moving her squirrel-on-a-stick over the fire. "Like this."

Altara copied her and nodded, listening to Konstantine once more. "You spin it slowly, let the warmth go around the body and not just on one spot." She started to do so. "Not too fast or too slow."

Altara started to spin in the same direction as Konstantine did. "Like this?"

"Yeah, that's right." Konstantine looked over at Kry and Hugo who had finished setting up the tents and were walking over to them. "Just in time for dinner." She said, looking back at the fire.

...

MEANWHILE...

The figure that was spying on them from near the beach was moving slowly throughout the plains, heading for the light which illuminated the group's camp.

They suddenly came to a stop once they were close enough, crouching on a dead tree whilst overlooking their camp from afar. Their brown eyes were wide open as they stared like a bird that had just eyed a mouse, not moving a muscle, not even whilst breathing.

Altara was seen standing up, dropping his stick into the fire. "Alright, I'm gonna head to sleep. Which tent is mine, Hugo?"

Hugo then responded with a mouth half-filled with meat, the squirrel-on-a-stick in his other hand. "Uhh, the blue one with the pointy top." He then took another bite as Altara went into the said tent.

Kry was stood up next to the fire whilst slowly and carefully eating his. "These are quite good Konstantine. It's almost like you added salt, the flavor is pleasing."

Konstantine had already finished hers, standing up herself from the fire. "Thank you. Now then, which tent is mine?"

"The black one next to Altara's." Kry said as he finished his, adjusting his glasses. Konstantine went to her tent without a word, zipping it up.

"Hmm." Hugo noticed that he finished his with the last mouthful and frowned. "Crap." He sighed and sat there for a moment, tossing the stick over his shoulder and standing. "Anyways, I'll sleep. Seeya tomorrow, Starguy." He walked into a brown tent next to Konstantine's.

Kry finished his squirrel and threw the stick into the fire, looking up at the stars for a few seconds before looking at his telescope which was just behind the tents still. He adjusted his glasses and silently walked into his tent.

...

The lurking figure finally made a move. Taking out a black canister-type grenade from the inside of their trenchcoat, pulling the pin on it and throwing it over at the camp. The grenade quietly detonated, pouring out some white gas. The figure then jumped down from the dead tree and started to calmly walk through the grass towards the camp.

The figure crouched down outside of the camp facing towards the tents. He noticed the gas had gone inside of them and swiftly but silently moved into the middle of the camp, walking past the still lit campfire and going to Kry's tent, slowly and silently unzipping it.

Ziiiiiiiiiiiiiiipppp!

The figure noticed Kry who was facing right towards him.

"H-HUH?" The figure's body language suggested shock but before they could do anything Kry thrusted his arm towards the figure, sending out invisible energy which sent the figure flying out of the tent, bouncing off the fire and rolling backward onto their back. The cloak they were wearing was caught on fire but they soon noticed this, taking it off.

Kry then walked out of the tent, watching the figure quickly get to their knees. They were wearing a plague doctors mask with a brown trenchcoat that had a hood on, which covered the top of his head. They were also wearing some brown trousers which had patches of black here and there. They wore black boots that were stained with dirt. The body of the figure clearly suggested he was a male, standing around 5'11.

Kry frowned as he looked at the figure staring at him through their beaked mask. "Who the hell are you!? And what is with all this white gas everywhere?!" Kry stood straight with his arms by his side, wearing a white long-sleeved top that was under his lab coat.

The figure remained silent before running away into the bushes.

"Oh no you don't!" Kry extended his arm out towards a tree the man ran passed. "ORBITO!"

The man was suddenly swept off his feet, being pulled towards the tree and spinning around it. Kry then lowered his hand and used the gravitational pull he produced on the tree to catapult the masked man back towards him. Kry then slammed his hand into the ground, causing the man to slam into the ground.

Kry brushed off his shoulder and walked up to the man who was now stuck thanks to Kry's gravity. "You can't fly away from me, bird." Kry grabbed the man's mask and tried to pull it off, but the mask's eye holes suddenly glowed dark blue causing the man to instantly vanish into thin air. Kry's eyes widened as this happened and he tried to grab where the man once was, feeling nothing but the dirt in the ground.

"S-Shit." He silently swore to himself and stood straight, looking around the camp. "Hugo!" He shouted out, getting no response. He then ran to Hugo's tent, opening it and running in. "Hugo we're under attack!"

Hugo was still asleep, Kry grabbed his shoulders and shook him to try and get him up, before stopping as he noticed Hugo breathing in the gas. "Wait...if the gas hasn't poisoned me, then...shit." He felt the implant in the back of his neck. "Sleeping gas." He ran back outside. grabbing a handful of dirt off the floor as he did. "Come, assassin! It must be a surprise to you that your cheap gas didn't affect me! Heard of bioengineering?! or is this country that behind!?"

He heard footsteps running right at him from just left of him, he looked at the ground in said direction and noticed footsteps produce on the dirty ground coming closer and closer. He waited a few seconds before throwing the dirt he had in his hand in the direction of the footsteps. The dust cloud from the dirt produced a silhouette, Kry saw this and grinned. Grabbing a rock around two meters wide and one meter in length at the man from behind him. The man was hit by this, the invisibility turning off and sending him flying into a tree behind him. Kry pulled him off the tree and slammed him into the ground with gravity before grinding him across the ground towards him and throwing him into the fire again, this time scattering it and putting it out. Kry kept the man levitated a few meters above him, the fire which he was forced into now swiftly starting to spread up his right leg, he simply grunted.

"Who are you?! If you don't tell me I will implode you!!!" Kry shouted as the man felt his body collapsing in on itself.

"I-.." The man's deep and muffled voice echoed out. "I am simply someone trying to live a normal life."

"Normal life my ass! Why are you trying to kill us!?" Kry's frown grew more intense as the collapsing became more intense.

The beaked man looked down at Kry and grunted loudly in pain. "Okay!...Ok."

Kry stopped crushing him, waiting for him to talk.

"..I-I was ordered to come here and kill you. They knew you were coming ever since they lost contact with Kript and then Frit not long after...you oligarchists. You know about their plan and they know it." He coughed.

"They?" Kry mumbled to himself. "Dammit, the government knows we're here."

The masked man's eyes flashed dark blue again causing him to vanish, Kry panicked and felt his gravity around the man vanish. "Again?!" He yelled as he grabbed more dirt off the floor but before he could do anything else he was struck in the back with a dark blue magik knife. He coughed and stumbled forwards but quickly threw the dirt he collected over his back, falling on his side and looking at the direction the knife came from and seeing a silhouette run through the dirt.

Kry thrusted his arm forwards and after a few seconds, the man decloaked, flying backwards into a tree before sliding down it and landing on his backside, he looked up at Kry and quickly stood up, running away into the dark plains. Kry tried to use his gravity manipulation, but the man was too far. He coughed blood and felt the knife desummon from his back, causing the wound to start bleeding out.

The gas started to depart from the area. Kry noticed this and stood up slowly, hunched over he walked to his tent, going inside and finding a bandage in his bag. He took his now blood and dirt-stained shirt off, starting to wrap the bandage around his chest. "Not good. We've gotta get outta here." He finished bandaging himself and grunted as he stood up. "Should've brought some of Jolene's potions."

He looked at his semi-automatic pistol poking out the bag and sighed. "If only I had you on me."

Kry slowly walked out of the tent, noticing the now ruined campfire scattered around. "Hopefully that gas doesn't last too long." He sighed and looked in the direction the man ran away in, thinking to himself.

"We need more people."

...MEANWHILE

The beaked man had arrived in a large dark room. The floor was covered in a red fluffy carpet whilst everything else in the room couldn't be seen because of the lack of light. He was on one knee, looking up in front of him.

"They arrived on the eastern coast in a yacht. Four of them, three men and one woman. I tried to use one of my canisters to put them all asleep, however, one of them wasn't affected at all by it. He beat me in battle but I managed to wound him."

"A wound isn't enough. If you would have succeeded all our loose ends would have been tied. They killed our men in Homstala and found out about our plan. They are the only ones outside of my trusted allies that know about it. You are a disgrace and I would kill you right here. But I'm not going to do that. You have information on the man that beat you, you will use what you learned and kill him and then the others. You want to live a normal life again, yes? I am the only one who can give you that." A deep and elderly voice rang out in front of him, upon hearing it the beaked man started to sweat under his mask in fear.

"I will not let you down, my Emperor." His muffled voice rang out.