In a very dark room, at the core of the Obscure Guild.

There was a round table with five seats spread one metre apart.

A shadow engulfed the Five Cursed as they looked at each other silently, waiting patiently.

The circular screen at the centre of the table emitted a low-pitch noise before lighting up.

Two faces appeared on it: the guild leader of the Topaz Guild, Jacob Topaz and the Tremblay Guild’s leader, Rico Amon.

Jacob Topaz’s slight grin kept them wondering what the meeting would be about. “Good evening. Rico and I have something important to discuss.”

“What is it?”

Rico raised his hand. “We believe my brother is heading for the Obscure Guild. Now would be the best time to kill him and his company. Right, vampire lord?”

“I’m already on it. I was just waiting for the meeting before giving the order. They’ll pay for messing with my daughter. Speaking of which, why isn’t she with them?”

*Hiss* Another of the Five Cursed flicked his tongue. His piercing green eyes cast light as he added to the conversation while emphasizing the ‘s’ consonant.

“My spies told me she’s headed towards us in another plane with two DA mages. The two in question are Seth Rayn and Ejiro Sani.”

The vampire nodded. “Killing them will be troublesome.”

“Theodoric Rivampe, if you fail your task, I will gladly use the new present that the faction gave me, and I won’t stop at just killing my brother. I will also report your failure to the Dark-”

The screen turned black.

“There, he’s gone,” said a woman made of bones while holding a remote.

Rico left his seat. He was in Aspen City.

The boy talked to himself. “Hah! I see. You’re all slaves to the Dark Faction. You Cursed animals can not accept the truth!

“Jacob and I are ruling our guilds by ourselves. You better clean up properly so I don’t have more work to get done!

“...I’ll call Jacob.”

…

Isaac looked at his watch. “We’ll arrive at Oilos soon.”

He and Aaron were still on the plane.

Suddenly, a passenger brushed by them. He was heading to the cockpit, but they didn’t pay it any mind.

The man grinned.

A few minutes later, during turbulence. Another man with a backpack approached the exit.

He didn’t try to conceive the ploy and started opening the door.

“Hey, wait!” One of the passengers shouted.

Aaron turned his eyes toward the noise, and adrenaline rushed to his feet.

Aaron hit Isaac’s shoulder.

“What’s happening?” asked the latter.

The airplane’s door opened. It gave Aaron flashbacks of the time he almost died on the bus.

He quickly grabbed onto his armrests. However, it was useless since he realized he was still wearing his seatbelt.

Aaron and Isaac looked at the door and noticed a bomb glued to the floor.

Both men jumped out of the plane with parachutes equipped on their backs.

The bomb would explode soon, but none of the passengers stepped forth. Knowing everyone would die if nothing happened, Aaron and Isaac got up.

The two crept slowly toward the bomb while being careful not to be sucked out of the plane.

Once there, sweat ran down Aaron’s forehead while he tried pulling on the bomb. It was stuck.

“Do you have any other idea?!”

Isaac aimed his palm at the small gap between the bomb and the floor.

The solution was to use Isaac’s beam to separate it from the floor.

Voom.

His red beam landed successfully, and for a short time, the bomb glided through the air.

However, mechanical legs suddenly pierced out of its outer shell and themselves to the wall.

It suddenly ran out to the back like a giant spider. The passengers screamed.

Aaron and Isaac were speechless.

They had done all they could. The two young mages stood next to the door.

The bomb exploded.

The plane caught fire, and the remaining passengers wailed in flames while running from the inevitable.

However, though they were in free fall, Aaron and Isaac survived the explosion.

They grabbed onto one another instinctively to prevent spinning around and losing consciousness.

Aaron knew what he had to do.

His mind went blank. “But I’ve never done it from such a height!”

He focused on his mana and gathered it evenly throughout his body.

He could tell the landing would be rough.

Thankfully, Aaron had practised many times and broke many bones to get this trick right.

He blinked his glowing eyes and looked at Isaac.

Seeing how high they were, it would be meaningless to try slowing their fall now, so Aaron waited.

After some time, they reached their maximum velocity.

He waited a little more.

And more.

The ground was within view. At the mages’ current speed, they would hit it in less than a minute.

Aaron released his wind magic. They decelerated.

Aaron held on for ten minutes.

Finally, they crashed into the ground at 30 km/h.

…

Farther south.

Ejiro opened an air vent lid.

He crawled out, followed by Gabriella and Seth (who was strangely flexible). They were in a small office room.

Ejiro walked to a window. Giant overground pipelines flowed around the tall buildings and sailed down to connect to the smaller houses. Cars and people walked on the numerous streets.

The giant walls on each side of the city supported a concrete roof that expanded all around the Obscure Guild.

The Obscure Guild took its name from the fact that not even sunlight could penetrate through it. However, thanks to Gabriella, they arrived inside without being noticed.

Gabriella walked up to Ejiro. She frowned, “We’re here. This is the Obscure Guild’s outer layer.”