Two men were sitting on the roof of the building staring into the black waters, filled with sounds of crashing waves, and the feel of chilling winds. In the far distance a strange purple light briefly lit up the sky, before everything turned black again, this series of flashes went on uninterrupted for several hours, before it all died down again.

“Elithas, now that were alone, you can tell me the rest.”

A small smile formed on Elithas' face.

“You never change huh.”

“I'm probably just showing my age.”

“Look at me, what you just said almost sounded condescending.”

Saia stared at Elithas' old wrinkled face, and sighed.

“.... I only had a few left you know, to think I shared the reminder left with you, and you use it for something else.”

“Well Dr. Genova would be rolling in her grave, if I were to use her rival's lab results on my body.”

Saia stared up at the black sky, and just shook his head.

“The eight of them always hated each other, but we're getting off topic, right?”

Elithas nodded quietly as he brushed off the nostalgic memories threatening to overflow in him.

“You probably guessed it, but normally Estelle had no reason to keep all this silent, especially given her prominent reputation, and accumulated wealth. So why do you think it was expressed in a painting done by her husband?”

Saia pondered lightly, considering her age, reputation, known history, her culture, religion, family, and various other factors.

“I could think of a few things, but if I could sum it up in a few words, it would be stability of her family situation, and inevitability of the result.

She lived in a highly strict, and religious country, with volatile political relations. An old woman with a weakening body, and a family to worry about, plus the inability to see a different future. Scared of telling the truth, scared of the future, and scared of her inability. Apparently the husband most likely was close enough to her to confide in, and did this painting, as a silent outcry for her. Well this is only conjecture though. But how does Dr. Byon fit into all of this?”

Elithas cleared his throat and, said in a slightly excited tone.

“I don't know how Dr. Byon found out about Estelle's secret, but he found something much more interesting during his life time.”

“Interesting?”

“He found the eighth lab.”

............................

A horde of shadows stomping through the mud leaving thick imprint on the soil, the stench of sweat and blood could be smelt in the air. The loud primal growls echoed across a destroyed city, as hordes of orcs poured past the broken streets, and burning buildings. Human corpses lay broken across the street, and red pools formed from mounds of dead bodies.

One of the orcs tore open the neck of a dead woman with his yellow teeth as blood leaked from his jaws, and chewed loudly. Cries and screams of children were drowned out by the overwhelming procession of the orcs.

A single man around his thirties stared at the scene from a building, his blue eyes formed a steely gaze, and on his back was a giant mechanical sword over two meters long. His clothes were a simple mixture white, and black cloth, seamless woven into many mechanical parts. His handsome face was covered in scars, and his legs poured out steam. A young woman in a purple dress stood beside him, her long red hair was tied into a single braid, and her attractive face grew darker as she watched the orcs devoured the dead.

Her rich bosom was covered by straps filled with strange discs, and in her hands was a heavy suitcase. The young woman leaned over and gently kissed the man on the cheek, a strange phenomenon occurred that caused the air around the man to suddenly distort.

“Good luck, my hero.”

Without a response the man immediately jumped off the building, the moment he landed on the cement, dust flew into the air, a giant crater was formed, and the orcs standing around him were blown away as they smashed into buildings, and walls.

A single swing from his sword turned several orcs charging at him into nothing but chunks of bloodied meat, as a strange powerful force blew out from the space he swung: steel turned to dust, and the air itself started to form a vacuum.

The man did not stop, and charged onward, his eyes were staring at something distant, and far off, even the orcs rushing behind him, and to his flanks did not catch his eyes. A single motion from his left hand, dragged the surrounding orcs into a single spot, before he clutched his hand into a fist.

The orcs gathered to his left, started to bleed from their eyes, white bone broke through their coarse green skin, as death cries rang into his ears A flurry of arrows flew through the air, and came down on him like a heavy rain, the man merely ran forward.

Even amidst the storm of arrows, not a single scratch could touch his flesh, he continued to only stare at something far away as he charged forward, into a sea of green flesh, and muscle. Every swing of his sword caused the air to vibrate, and red liquid to scatter.

He was running through a packed street filled with orcs, dead bodies, and overturned cars, a single swing of his blade, caused the nearby glass to shatter piercing the orcs like bullets. When he noticed strange magic circles forming around him, large balls of flame appeared shooting into his side. Instead of dodging he merely swung his free hand, causing the fireballs to explode before reaching his body.

H was an unstoppable beast of violence, and fury. The farther he moved, the deeper into the swarm of orcs he was in. Every step he took blood flew, and every motion he made, bones were crushed, and another corpse littered the ground. This went of for two hours.

Eventually a small smile formed on the man's lips as he saw an orc in red robes being seated next to a strange statue, growling out commands to the orcs.

An hour later only a sea of dead bodies remained, and the rift was now gone. The decapitated skull of the robed orc lay on the ground, and a smashed statue next to him. The attractive woman with the red braid walked up to the man dyed in red, and stinking of blood, and gently hugged him.

While whispering softy into his ears.

“Are you okay?”

“Thanks to you, I'm fine. This place is dangerous, I only killed the group here, their are many more around.”

The woman smiled gently.

“So what if it's a little dangerous? What's more important is that you are here right now, in my arms.”

A small smile formed on the man's lips.

“Thank you for always being with me.”

“I'll follow you to hell, if I have to.”

“Ahem.”

A well dressed man wearing glasses stepped over a dead corpse and walked towards the couple.

“Evane.”

The woman let go of the man, and the man asked the one in glasses, in a casual tone.

“How's the situation John?”

“The others have arrived, they're cleaning up the orcs, and they're also annoyed you didn't wait for them.”

Evane only gave a carefree shrug of his shoulders, as the woman lit a cigarette for him.

“Is that all you wanted to say John?”

John shook his head, and pulled out a holographic tablet.

“We have a some information sent to us by a man named Elithas, I think you would be interested in it.”

A small silence followed, as Evane remained silent in thought before the words slowly leaked from his lips.

“Is a man named Saia involved?”

John laughed lightly, “no, he isn't involved, you won't get your chance.”

The instant that name was mentioned the woman formed a murderous glare, John ignored the woman and continued.

“This only involves Elithas it seems.”

Evane stared at the burning city behind him, and the ongoing fighting within the city.

“We'll talk after this is finished.”

“Sure.”

............................

Four days had passed since the meeting with Elithas, Saia was now inside a megacity where thousands of skyscrapers were clustered together forming something like a hedgehog. Large pillars of smoke was constantly being churned out, causing a thick smog to hover over the city. This was one of the few cities that was actually teeming with life, and technologically advanced.

It was not only home to a thriving community, but also where information gathers. A city where everything was for sale, as long as the price was right. The closer to the centre of the city, the more orderly, and secure, and wealthy it was. Districts were separated by massive walls, and due to the enormity of the city, many parts of it were lawless, or poorly managed.

Saia was walking in a narrow alley filled with neon signs, on some of the street corners, women of various ages were wearing revealing outfits trying to lure in customers. Men with tattoos, thick muscles, and some with poor mechanical modifications were hanging around smoking something, and chatting up the women on the street.

Ciel wearing her mechanical suit was walking casually behind him, due to her obvious military grade equipment, most of the tough looking men didn't approach her. However Saia who only wore a long black coat, and had a non-threatening face was the easier person to harass out of the two.

While walking down the street they reached a run down looking bar with a couple of armed men guarding the entrance. The armed men became more alert as they saw Ciel, and wore threatening expressions as she drew closer.

“Ciel, looks like you'll have to wait here.”

“Get me a soda.”

Without bothering to wait for a response he walked past the men, and into the bar.

The bar was as stereotypical as it could get, with rough looking guys, and some some woman scattered around the room, and the machine playing soft casual music. Saia sat down at the counter, and stared the woman with shoulder length black hair covering her left eye.

“Water please.”

“.....”

“With ice.”

The woman nodded, and whispered to a brown haired man with a mechanical arm sitting on the counter, the man stood up and walked away.

Nest to Saia, another group of people were talking.

“Did you hear, boss Daine's mansion was raided?”

“Raided! Which idiots were crazy enough to do that? Isn't that place similar to a military compound.”

The man eventually came back, and led Saia to a small room at the back.

Meanwhile the group was still talking.

“Don't know, but I was told by my friends some poor sucker was caught and dragged their, and next thing they knew, the place was attacked a few hours later.”

“Wow, which organization?”

“Here's the crazy part, I heard a single person did it!”

............................

The man eventually brought Saia to a small room at the back. When he entered a man in expensive suit, who was wearing a black face mask was sitting on the couch, to his sides were two mechanical humanoids in classy suits. As soon as he saw Saia, the motioned for him to sit.

“So what business does a wanted man want with me?”

“Just curious about news regarding the Byratine Empire.”

“That depends on the price.”

“Charge it to Maya, she'll cover the price for me.”

The man nodded, and didn't even bother to negotiate.

“Ugh, I hate dealing with her.”

After half a hour, a few documents were placed on the table.

“There's a recent spike in the flow of arms in the black market in that empire, the cash flowing in have been increasing, famous faces, and well known mercenaries are pouring in. As you know that empire is the holder of one of the seven black labs. Anyone who owns one of those labs are subject to the knowledge, and power discovered within. So to see a superpower like that need foreign mercenary power is strange.”

Saia silently organized his thoughts before asking.

“When did the trend start?”

“Roughly ten years ago.”

That was around the time Dr. Byon was found dead.

The man handed over the documents to Saia, and asked in a casual tone.

“Are you getting involved?”

“No, I'm just curious.”

“Then you got lucky.”

A curious expression formed on Saia's face.

“The paladins are involved, and you know who leads them right?”

With a lazy grin, Saia just sighed once again.

“The sole inheritor of the 3rd lab huh, that guy is as energetic as always. How's he doing?”

“You'll have to pay for that info, and I'm pretty sure Maya will kill you for useless expenses, and hassle me as well.”

After an hour long chat, Saia was already leaving the bar, and met with Ciel leaning lazily against the wall, while playing games. Saia walked over, and handed her a can of pop.

“Drink after we leave this district, if you take your helmet off in this district we'll meet with needless trouble.”

“Too late.”

“Huh?”

Saia casually glanced over her thin stealth suit, he could see some dust on her, and some gun powder smell on her suit. The suit radiated a bit of heat indicating it's been recently used, and is recharging.

The people on the street thinned out remarkably from before, and the atmosphere was also slightly tense.

“Muggers?”

“No, bounty hunters, it seems they caught you entering this district.”

“Well then let's move before more show up.”

Saia led Ciel through several alleyways, that led past some roads, and eventually allowed them to walk through a hole in a wall, into another district seamlessly, it was an ongoing chain of interconnecting paths that would confuse any newcomers.

The new road was in district 21, while it was still part of the low security areas, it had a more localized businesses, and less shady dealings here. Saia walked by a stall selling exotic cured vegetables, and purified rat meat. People were hanging around the side of the road, and just gambling or playing card games.

Men in business suits were allocated in various checkpoints, overseeing everything, when they saw Ciel they merely observed her but made no abrupt movements.

Saia casually introduced her to this district.

“This district is run by the local mafia, as long as we don't cause trouble, they won't bother us.”

As they were browsing the stores Saia noticed a small restaurant in the corner, the menu were food ration, vitamin supplements, some common vegetables, mystery meat, and some noodles.

Saia decided he was a bit hungry, and since Ciel used her ability, she would need to replenish some calories as well. When they went down the stairs into the store, they were greeted by a small space with six tables, two of them were filled by some grungy looking customers.

He sat on a plastic chair, and ordered noodles, and vegetables, Ciel ordered the same, she finally took off her helmet, and began to drink the pop. After staring around the restaurant in curiosity she finally focused on Saia.

“By the way Saia, what were you planning to do with the information Elithas gave you?”

“For now, nothing.”

“I already paid him back for selling me the bio-dome after all.”

Ciel nodded casually.

“The others have taken a liking to it, so their also helping with the expenses.”

“Expenses?”

“You haven't been there for a few years, but alot of things have been added to it, that's why Maya has been more active lately in collecting funds.”

Eventually an old man with a stained white shirt, and missing several teeth placed two bowls on the table. Ciel noticed a strange black mechanical collar on the man's neck, but didn't say anything.

Saia just smiled at her reaction.

“So you noticed?”

“Yea, alot of the people in this city are wearing them.”

Ciel took out a small pin and dipped it into the bowl, after a few minute she took back the beeping pin, and placed it into her suit. With only a slight nod she then began to eat.

“Are they slaves?”

“No, their low level employees.”

Ciel gave him a questioning stare, as she took out some utensils to consume the noodles.

“This is your first time in this city but their is no real active government here, this place is controlled entirely by a corporation. Everyone living here is merely an employee, the higher your rank, the better the district you live. Only the outskirts are populated by foreigners, if you go deeper, every single person has a collar.”

“No government?”

“They used to have one, but they have no semblance of independence now, the current people in the government are lower executives of CT Corp. They produce goods, delivered to many neighbouring empires, the workers here are paid in food rations and housing. So even beer is a luxury here. Which gave rise to foreigners, and mafia to come here.”

“Sounds like a bad job.”

“Yea, but if they leave those collars explode, and CT Corp, also has a powerful hunting team to capture escaped employees.”

“I'm amazed people would even want to work for them.”

Saia just smiled as he chewed on some artificial vegetables.

“Ct Corp most likely is in possession of a black lab, their army is highly advanced, and extremely well funded. If they need more employees they will just invade weak empires, or raid coastal villages. Orphans, children of prostitutes, and the children of their employees are likely candidates. In this world, human lives are a cheap commodity. Having babies here is profitable, since you can sell them. That's why employees are encouraged to get multiple partners, and also why a high amount of prostitutes are all over the place."

A few minutes later, five women quietly entered the restaurant. Saia looked at them who were obviously workers at the red light areas.

“Look at that group, what do you notice?”

She eyed them briefly, faking an interest in the menu posted behind the women.

“Some of them are wearing communication devices, and armed.”

“Hmm I'll give you three stars.”

“If you look closely their actually targeting you, and two of them seem be modified humans, with professional training, in a way they are similar to you.”

A small frown formed on her lips, as she drank her soda.

“It seems you caught the eye of one of the executives, if they sell you to one, their positions will rise as well.”

Ciel didn't look alarmed, instead she casually continued to have her meal.

“So why did we come to this district then? If you knew things like this could happen.”

A giant explosion erupted in the distance, the lights blanked out, and red sirens were blaring all around the city. Minutes later, another chain of smaller explosion came from the centre of the city where the executive lay, spreading out all the way to the outskirts.

The city itself shook wildly, as shouts and screams came from everywhere. A small smile spread on Saia's lips as he stared at Ciel ignoring the chaotic scene, and continuing her meal.

“We're here to pick someone up.”