Inside the house.
The house had its lower floor parted two ways, main hall and dinning hall namely, the main hall had a couch, a table, carpeted floor, multipurpose tables, a few decors, and a touch of warmth added to the cosy and homely atmosphere dyed love nest.
The major part of the partition was the dinning hall, that had a kitchen that contained an adequate amount of utensils and necessaries, and on a dinning table that was platted for five, two people were seated, as the black haired man with blood red irises spoke to the golden haired woman with golden irises, trying to make her laugh, but by the looks of it, it was to no avail.
The woman hadn't even smiled, much less flash a laugh.
"Haaa.... Nobody should experience the same difficulties that I'm experiencing." The black-haired man muttered under his breath with a sharp exhale, but unbeknownst to the man, there was a subtle change in the golden-haired woman's mood, a subtle, slightest, pout to be precise, which except for the white haired woman, none were able to notice.
And in response to the man's words, the white haired man, who walked in with the white haired woman, smiled. It was a smile that irked not only the grumbling man, but also the white haired woman, who was walking ahead of him.
"Cancelled!" The white haired woman muttered as she walked towards the dining table where her child sat, giggling as she gazed at the depressed face of her father, who was the only one that was able to understand the meaning behind his wife's word.
"No.... What did I do? I'm innocent!" Her father exclaimed as he took a seat as he gazed at his wife, no, his judge, to change her judgement of him to not guilty.
"You are annoying." She answered in a huff and sat next to him before she started serving the plates of the others, starting with her daughter and ending with her husband, who asked her to plate food for two, in one.
The man rested his right leg on the right armrest, sitting, as he turned to face his wife, pushed his plate towards and opened his mouth, his eyes twinkling in expectancy.
"Hmph!" His wife snorted at him, yet picked up the plate and began to feed him as she ate from the same plate, looking at this scene, her daughter also jumped off of her seat, rushed and sat on his thigh as she pushed her plate towards her mother, who sighed and began to feed both of them, as they chuckled softly.
While the other couple gazed at them in envy and it wasn't long before the black-haired man took the golden-haired woman's plate and shifted her food to his own plate, and gestured her that he would feed her as she wouldn't do so, even if he asked her.
"Aaah...." The man hummed, indicating his woman to open her mouth, but instead, the woman turned way with a scarlet blush adorning her face.
With a sigh, the man looked down and felt his hand get lighter, at which he gazed up and noticed that the food he held out had been eaten, so with a bright, wide smile the man also ate and fed his woman.
Noticing how they were copying the family of three, they laughed slightly and continued on with the meal.
Unbeknownst to those present, the white-haired man's hand dangled behind the chair, he joined his fingers and flicked then open in a subtle gesture, and with a flicker, a system's notification window popped up, displaying a scene where the Gifted and the Black Rain Order were seen rushing towards a certain direction, and an ominous, subtle grin crept up on his face which disappeared before the others noticed.
*
Amid the towering trees.
A group of wounded people were seen rushing towards a certain direction.
They were none other than the Gifted and the Black Rain Order's members. Seo Hana, Seol So-Young, Jiwoo, Charlie, Katline, Katharine, Violet, Samuel, Garrick, Bert, Bobby, and Richard were rushing towards the same direction they entered, to exit the forest.
They had ran into a group of prototypes after a long search into the forest, but now, when they were rushing out of the forest, they were running into more and more of them.
At least 6 more had ran into them, dying by their hands. Their prototype kill count was now at 13 and they knew for sure that; there aren't only this many of them.
'What was their motive?' Was the first question that popped up in the minds of the leaders, no matter how much significance they currently held.
The answer to that question unexpectedly came from the one that held the least significance, Samuel, who answered with a single yet overbearing word. "Conquer!" He said after pondering deeply, at first it was a mere guess, suspicion, and a speculation, but now, he was sure that the motive of these groups, Honour-bound Federation and the Abominations, were to conquer, and to create an empire where they reigned over the players.
'If that truly is so, what are they doing in the middle of the forest?' Was the second question that made the groups' members quiet flustered as their hearts began to beat violently.
The next thought was, 'What if they, just like us, knew of our plans, and lured us here?' Jiwoo was the one who voiced this question, response to which came with palpitating, anxious hearts.
'Where would they need to be if they need to fulfil their true motives?' Was a question Bobby posed, increasing their palpitations.
'Amidst survivors!' Was the answer Katline muttered under her breath, and they rushed back, to the exit of the forest and noticing the prototypes they ran into on their way, they understood that they were going on the right direction and continued on.
"isn't it strange? How these prototypes are getting stronger and using more abilities the more we're fighting against them?" Was a question Seol So-Young voiced right then as they rushed outside.
Her questions struck the thoughts they were trying to suppress, with a hint of fear of the unknown creeping up into the hearts of those present, their pace increased by a notch.
'I cannot order them not to use their abilities, due to a mere speculation, while the prototypes we are currently facing are clearly stronger than the previous ones....' Hana pondered on their plight, and with a deep, exhausted sigh Hana's slightly hazy eyes glimmered in conviction as she decided unanimously that she had to take responsibility for them, and
"I'll smite them! Focus on moving forward, if our speculation about their motive turned out to be true, then you guys will have to deal with the situation by yourselves!" Hana commanded, if the numbers of prototypes were more then they expected then she was sure to be exhausted before they exited the forest, she was tired even now, due to uncontrollable use of her phoenix flames. Since she knew her own body the most, she knew that if they stopped now, her pent up exhaustion would wash over her and she would be unable to move, most likely even collapse.
Her mind was cloudy as her eyes, that had cleared up only now, none really noticed her state because she was behind them with the excuse of standing back and looking at how they would take care of things.
'An hour or two at max.' Hana concluded inwardly. Though there was an hour gap between the time she concluded, she didn't have enough leisure to completely analyse her state, so
'An hour and a half....' She settled with that much time in daze.
She sensed a prototype rushing at them with her dispersing senses, and
"Phoenix Helix." She muttered.
The approaching prototype felt something hot in its solar plexus, and by the next instance, it felt hot gusts of wind swirling around it, and with a loud WHOOOOMMM! A miniature vortex birthed from its solar plexus and engulfed it whole, incinerated and disappeared in the form of a miniature vortex. Its ashes rose from the ground due to the wind and dispersed, leaving no trace of its existence.
And the same repeated itself as they moved forward. Hana's eyes clouding more and more as she moved forward, male and female, beast-men, elves, dwarfs, and humans, she came across all kinds of prototypes and she incinerated then all, without a shred of mercy.
Well, why would she feel anything when she wasn't even able to see them clearly?
Her phoenix trait had been overexerted, which burdened her more than she had expected. Since there wasn't a time when she needed to use her powers for such a long time, she didn't know what the consequences and backlashes would be, until date.
More and more prototypes continued to rush towards them, even a hint of unknown moments, aside from those caused by her teammates, Hana felt with her dispersing senses were incinerated, so she didn't know how many she had actually killed, maybe due to the goddess of luck taking pity on her, they neared the exit, the news was announced loudly, but she wasn't able comprehend their mumble, nor could she see anymore, her vision blurred extremely and mind felt light,
RUSTLE-!
THUD-!
With a rustling thud, Seo Hana collapsed on to her knees as she drifted forward,
And lost consciousness, falling face first on the ground.
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