…

n.o.body knows his real name, however it is confirmed that he has never lost any battle or failed any mission and for this reason, people called him "Victor". Even though he is young, he is one of the most dangerous and powerful a.s.sa.s.sins in the world, but only few know about his existence.

His power is also a mystery, but according to some rumours, he has the ability to harness a type of physical Gift and increase his power and speed. He is also known to have top tier skills with daggers and being a very good strategist. His first mission was at the age of twelve and since then in less than eight years his kill count has reached above five hundred.

Currently, his is on a mission for the Oldoan Nation, which is to retrieve Tempris, a powerful Gifted who is known to being last spot in the Edhorian Empire. Although Tempris" exact location was unknown, it took him only a few days to find that Tempris was in prison.

He executed his plan and freed Tempris, and now was about to reach the Oldoan Nations"s capital, Retket. Tempris was over his left shoulder, unconscious after seeing Victor slashing the knight"s head. "Seriously, "you" are one of the most powerful Gifted… you are so pathetic."

…

"You took longer than usual," the man in front of Victor remarked, he was sitting on a stool and was stooped over a microscope looking at a red pearl, he gestured Victor to keep Tempris down on the stretcher behind him.

"I was bored, so I spent some time talking to a guard," Victor replied. It was true; by the third day of a mission, Victor usually has already gotten his paycheque and is looking for a new mission. However, since this mission was not an a.s.sa.s.sination mission, there was no need for him to hurry.

Victor was in a lab at the Retket city with the head scientist Mr. Chan.

Mr. Chan was a sixty something year old man with grey hair that were shabby and uncombed. He had not "kept" a beard or moustache, but he face was unshaved and grey hairs could be seen around his mouth. He wore a long, white lab coat and a pair of brown trousers. He did not look like someone who was responsible for one of the biggest lab and a leading scientist of Oldoan Nation.

"And talking to a random guard is interesting?" He chuckled.

"Well, I had nothing else to do," Victor shrugged and asked, "So my paycheque?"

"Hahaha!" Mr. Chan turned around and laughed, "Wait, wait, I want to show you something." He gestured me to come closer and Victor did so, "Look through the microscope." He said.

Victor did not waste any moment, he was mildly interested in science and liked to listen a theory or two if it interested him.

Victor saw the red pearl"s surface, covered with dense red smoke even though the pearl was obviously solid. "What is this? Why do I see smoke hovering around the pearl?"

Mr. Chan laughed and said, "It is one my inventions, I tried to fuse two cells from different Gifted species and sterilize it to obtain the energy it contains and then I stabilized that energy and trapped it inside a Vexus gla.s.s pearl."

Victor was not really an expert in Energy science, but his curiosity and knowledge helped him understand some of what Mr. Chan said. "So, you mean this is pure energy from a fused Gifted cell?"

"Yes, in a simplified version." Mr. Chan nodded.

"But why did you make this," Victor was now interested in this topic, "I was under the impression that pure Gift energy is dangerous for living being?"

"You are right, it is theorized that energy, which makes a cell mutant, can damage the cell or worse just kill it. However if we can supply the energy in an optimum rate then the cells will keep on adapting and that is where Vexus gla.s.s comes in, it is the only substance that can contain the energy and acts as a semi-permeable membrane that will allow the energy to flow through at a steady rate." He explained.

"So that is why you sent me to retrieve Tempris?" Victor asked.

"Yes, I will put this pearl in his body and try to improve his abilities," he nodded his head and said, "I wonder of he will agree."

"I think he is too power hungry to decline," Victor continued, "Then this must be an order from the President." Victor deduced, "First a single test and the large scale implication to make an invincible army."

Mr. Chan chuckled, "You intelligence surprises me sometimes, maybe you should try something with science after all."

"No," Victor shook his head, "That is not really my style."

"If you say, but I still think that you should give it a second thou–" Mr. Chan was interrupted with a loud sound, the lights of the light flickered and the room shook violently.

"What is happening?" Mr. Chan shouted and walked over the monitors, he typed something on the keyboard and then the screen displayed all the CCTV cameras.

Near the reception, men in black suites were wrecking havoc, "Who are they?" Victor asked Mr. Chan.

"I do not know…" Mr. Chan"s face clearly expressed his tension, then turning around to me he said, "They must be after this pearl, Victor you must take this pearl and escape and give it to the President."

"What? I will just take these men down," Victor walked towards the exit.

"No!" Mr. Chan called out, "The safety of the pearl is more important, they look like they are well prepared and I am guessing that this is an attack from some other country, not likely Edhorian Kingdom with the dressing, but it is not just a small gang!"

"Whatever," Victor waved it off and said, "I will take all of them down."

"Wait!" Mr. Chan picked the pearl up and bringing it to Victor he said, "I will pay you to protect it, along with your pay for bringing Tempris."

Victor was not a fan of running away, but he was being paid for not fighting for once and just delivering an item. The deal seemed too good to leave, he took the pearl and said, "Fine, I will somehow deliver this to the President." It would be hard to meet the President, but Victor always had some unconventional ways of doing things.

Victor was on his way out through the window when he head, "Ah… Where am I?" It was Tempris, he had finally woken up and he was clearly confused.

Mr. Chan saw him and said to Victor, "Take him with you!"

It took him only a minute to pick Tempris up on his shoulders and jump down the window with Tempris screaming on top of his lungs.

…

Reth was eating his breakfast with Ayden, Daisuke, Natalie and more three fellow travellers.

The first was Fauni (Fou-ni) and just like his name, he was an odd man with dark brown hair that rose above his head defying gravity and dark brown eyes, but the odd thing about him was his attire. He wore a glittering green jacket that seemed to have been made out of cardboard and a pair of dark red skintight pants.

The other two were a couple, an extremely romantic couple, who wore matching red shirt with half of a white heart on each of them. Their names were Denny and Alina and they were currently feeding each other the noodles very fondly looking in each other"s eyes.

Denny had light blue hair that were tied in a pony and pale blue eyes, his smile was attractive and he had a cheerful aura around him just like Alina, who had chestnut coloured hair and wood brown eyes, with a cute smile on her face.

Reth was a bit annoyed by the couple"s action because they created a lot of fuss only second to the great Fauni himself.

Fauni was a parody of himself! He spoke up with a shrill voice, "Hey everyone why are you all so silent? Wanna hear a joke?"

n.o.body replied for about half a minute and maybe Natalie felt bad for him because showing some excitement, she said "Yes, of course."

"Okay," he nodded and with a broad stupid smile on his face he said, "I am sure I am fauni!"

"…"

"That was the joke?" Reth"s left eye twitched.

"Yes."

"…"

"It sure as h.e.l.l wasn"t fauni!" Daisuke laughed hard as he remarked.

"Then why the h.e.l.l are you laughing?" Reth thought as he sipped his noodles. There was only a big bowl of fried noodles in the fridge and Natalie reheated it with the microwave.

Hardly had Reth finished his noodles did the door sprung open and Ally appeared with her bodyguards following her. "Everybody out, we are moving."

n.o.body had anything to say, everybody had finished his or her breakfast and Reth was the last one. They all moved out of the guesthouse and saw two black jeeps waiting for them.

"Get on them," Ally said as she herself got on one of them, Reth took Ayden and headed towards the other jeep to avoid Ally. However, he was not the only one who thought of that, as the couple – Denny and Alina – and Natalie were already seated there at the back of the jeep and because of their bags there was only a little s.p.a.ce left. Reth sighed and turning around to Ayden he said, "You sit here, I will take your suitcase and sit in the other one, okay?"

Ayden nodded and boarded the jeep, just as Reth turned around he heard Natalie"s snickers.

"Oh shut up!" He said and walked away without turning around.

To make matters worse, he had to sit just right next to Ally because Daisuke and Fauni had already taken the other side and they were grinning at him with their bags making a wall like structure in the middle.

"d.a.m.n, people are avoiding her like a plague." He thought as he sat next to her keeping her luggage inside and then mentally sighed, "This is going to be a troublesome journey, I hope it ends fast!"