One by one, the Returnees began to crowd around the siblings and sat around in a semi-circle. They watched in silence as the iron curtains of whatever building they were in lifted up. Silvery white sheets greeted everyone's sights. Ice and snow that dimly reflected the light of the moon among the Stars.

  "This is the Antarctic, Paul. The only place we found that could keep us truly hidden away from sight. You liked literature Paul, you told me about what you read sometimes. And you know, this base was inspired by Barjavel's The Ice People. One of your favorite books I recall ?"

  Paul's previously hoarse voice had finally settled and a much smoother one answered back, but still with the same husky tone he seemed to dislike.

  You... know me well, Pierre. It was indeed, one of my favorite books.

  But look at the sky. Isn't it beautiful ? Years ago, when we were still ignorant, I would have said that all these stars and constellations were a breathtaking sight. Now, I only see... things I was fated to destroy.

  ... Sorry. I was rambling again. Tell me, everyone. How much has Earth changed ? How did nations and people adapt ? I remember seeing structures that held mana in them.

  "So much. You've got so much to catch up to. Dear brother. Geopolitics shifted. The global economy has greatly improved. Portals are now an everyday norm. People in armor carrying guns and swords and everything too."

  Guns ? As far as I remember, Pierre's was barely effective against orcs when we tried to settle with everyone.

  "Yes. But the Portals brought new materials, metals and means to create even stronger firearms. Conventional weaponry is still powerful. Many countries have reverted to the big armies of before. We had no choice but to develop weaponry other than weapons of mass-destruction again. Many of us actually carry rifles as secondary weapons."

  I see. How strange... But why did they abandon nuclear powers ?

  "They didn't at first. But it... became obsolete when governments realized that a greater threat than other countries existed. There was no point to menace each other of mutual annihilation when otherworldly creatures could pop in a city in any instant.

  Besides, their use to deal with some Portals proved to be a waste of resources. They few that have been launched as tests proved to be too effective and resulted in instant-Portal collapses. We couldn't collect any resource so the losses were heavy. Especially since the world was still requiring answers. The world of science was very upset about so many new materials being lost."

  So more of an economic reason than anything else. Weirdly coherent.

  "Also ! You should see how the world reacted to the arrival of the System and everything else !"

  "Right. All if this was pure chaos. When the first among us returned back to Earth, they tried to prepare in advance foundations for us to build our footholds. The world was distrustful, rightfully so...

  But even when more and more people started coming back after years-long disappearances, they didn't believe us until the 24th of September of 2027 happened.

  The first Portal that appeared on Earth. An A-rank one. They were thousands of deaths. And the planet realized this horrifying truth. A few of us who had even been put in asylums were freed. Everyone wanted a scoop or an interview with a Returnee. For buzz or for information ? We will never know."

  "Buzz..." answered many, flat-out.

  ... The Portals, what have the stars told you about them ? What did they reveal ? Do you know about their nature ?

  The people in the headquarters felt weirded out by the ominous-sounding interrogation. But Buster spoke up nonetheless.

  "They told us... they were gates to other worlds where civilizations were myths or old ruins. Lawless worlds that bathed in violence."

  The man in a woman's body frowned deeply and tried to mutter to himself. His voice was too strong sadly. Something about lies or ignorance.

  When Paul realized he had been heard, he stopped for a few moments before sighing again.

  Lawless worlds that bathed in violence is an appropriate term. These Portals, we The Horde, call them Rifts... The spaces we devour to access faraway worlds. be reassured, the Rifts that appear here are just byproducts of the power a dragon leaves behind.

  But that leads to another problem. The creatures you fight in Portals are not present by their own will. They belong to... slave worlds of The Horde. The territory of Eternal Darkness. The Twilight as you call it. Our hunting grounds.

  The goblins, orcs, vampires, phoenixes, spirits, elves... All of them, all of these races thought to be fantasy are worlds that fell to The Horde's corruption.

  I do not know if the stars you follow are keeping you... in the dark, or if they truly have no idea of the origins of Portals too. But know that The horde does a lot more than to extinguish Life.

  Murmurs began to arise and shock filled the room.

  "So you mean we've been killing... beings forced to fight ? That they do not wish to invade our world ?"

  Most likely. They attack because pack leaders order them to do so. It's a simple- Wait... I should probably explain what a pack leader is first.

  A pack leader is a dragon or a wyvern, who has been given authority and a handful of Reptilzs on a planet The Horde is conquering. The red wyvern you saw in my Rift, Ashen Fire, was one designated as such.

  Pack leaders are tasked to grow their forces until the slave world in question has exhausted all of its energy. When the planet is on the brink of mana collapse, the local leader opens up a Rift to another world, bringing the pack and the creatures it enslaved. The world itself, gets consumed by the more powerful members of The Horde.

  "But how come we almost never see wyverns of dragons as end bosses ? We've had less than a dozen Wyverns in almost four years of Portals. And only one dragon." Thousand Iai interrupted, all while fixing up his broken blades. "A shame since they make such fine equi-"

  Paul's raised hand stopped the man mid-sentence, with a glare half disdainful, half annoyed at being cut-off.

  Wyverns are precious. Dragons even more so. Those are part of The True Horde. The group of entities who share the most blood... or rather the most Darkness with Hyperion... are the most important ones of The Horde.

  Only a handful are given the order to personally step in a world still untouched by The Horde because Hyperion is... strangely attached to His spawns. The ones that are given orders to attack a world are either disobedient or of lesser importance.

  With that said, Ashen Fire was one of... my own spawns. I could safely kill his body when I forced my way out of the Rift. I can always reform him.

  "We're being given a lot of information. And not the trivial kind. Thank you Paul."

  The last Returnee only nodded before mimicking a cat stretching after a nap..

  "Do you believe we could rally the creatures that are being used in Portals ? To rebel ? To help us clear Portals more easily ?"

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  ... No.

  When it comes to beings of low intelligence, The Horde's mere presence instinctively triggers their most basic instincts of following the strongest. Pack leaders cultivate terror in their bodies and mind. They will not join your side. They cannot be reasoned with.

  Moreover, before you suggest I could act as a pack leader... I will give a flat out no. I have enough of... everything related to The Horde and the stars for now. I've virtually been with Them for a century or more. I need some time for myself.

  Besides, even if you tried to clear the Portals, they would close off, leaving the monsters to become prey again. The Horde detests treason, even if Themselves incarnate pure Darkness of mind and existence.

  "That's... a little disappointing, but we can understand your point of view. We will respect that."

  Thank you. I need to experience life again. And to find ways to turn back. I will not endanger the sanity I barely recovered, and yourselves, this world, by going back into a Portal so soon. Speaking of which... Will I need a new identity ? Will my identity as Paul Pourfendeur be still valid ? Or will I need a new one that suits this... body ?

  "No worries old pal. We can pull some strings there and there. You'll keep your identity as it was."

  "You're forgetting something Pierre. Nidhogg will still need to pass the ability and awakening assessments... all that useless junk. I doubt that those will be very useful, I mean we've all seen what you were able to do already... But without this, nobody will leave you in peace."

  "Tsk... Can someone remind me why we allowed governments to meddle in Awakeners' affairs ?"

  "Money and space. We were short on funds and we couldn't find terrain to settle our Houses when things started. Governments wanted partial control of us in exchange for mass-funding. I guess their apparent distress about wanting to understand things... was only a facade to put some pawns in our institutions. Pretty funny, considering we do the same thing."

  "Paul. You said... 'I could safely kill his body' and 'reform him' when you spoke about the wyvern of earlier. What does that mean exactly ?" one person wondered.

  Jeanne sensed her brother tensing at the question and caught his distant gaze, looking at the sky. He opened and closed his mouth a few times and looked at the monstrous hands attached to his arm-wings.

  ...

  ...

  ...

  Ashen Fire was... is... one of the many creations of mine during the time when Darkness' Instincts piloted my body. We roamed the hunting grounds for decades, we destroyed worlds by the dozens, he was my herald. He harvested Life's Light for me to quench it in a few instants.

  With him, I drenched these claws in enough blood to drown a thousand times even the cruelest dictators of Earth. As his creator, I can call upon him, recreate his body as I see fit, or even erase him from existence all together.

  This time, I merely ripped away his mind from his body, but killed the rest. They were insignificant.

  "So you mean that you can summon... Reptilzs."

  Yes. Many.

  The Darkness Hyperion forced me to take has strengthened to the point collapsing a few planets with my spawns is not something I consider impossible.

  A few audibly gulped down at the statement. Hearing such a thing from a former comrade was not very reassuring. It was even worse as many still remembered Nidhogg as the strongest among them, five years ago.

  Buster popped his hand joints and turned to face his friend in a rare serious tone. "Paul. To be completely honest with you, apart from asking us to... test you, the Stars have kept silent ever since the Portal you brought opened. Do you have any idea why ? Many Hunters we are in charge of are scared. Some of us in this very room too."

  That would be because... they are scared. Of Hyperion. Of me. Of an existence they've been failing to contain for billions of years. They are scared of what I could do. They are ashamed of their defeat when I faced them. They were too cowardly to use their Lightforce to actually hurt me, too slow to stop me, too weak..."

  "I don't understand Nidhogg. You want to take revenge against The Holrde, but you seem to despise the Stars too."

  Light is only bright when there is Darkness to light up. The stars behave as if they could purge the Universe from The Horde, but The Horde is The End of all things that exist. The stars are hopelessly optimistic about their ability to stop The End, when even after billions of years, they can only protect so little...

  Enough of that. I am tired of speaking of such things. Only bad memories. I am trying to find my humanity again, not to despair even more. We will have more of this talk later, when everything will have settled.

  Paul stood up and dusted off the clothes he was given. Soon after, he began walking towards the giant window of the hall, gaze still lingering on the starry skies with eyes filled with wariness and doubt.

  Buster and Pierre, along with the three mages of Knowledge were watching the phoenix summon carrying Jeanne and Paul Pourfendeur getting smaller as it flew away. The other Returnees were leaving one by one, the one that already had were trying to do some damage control, something they weren't used to since the followers of the Shade were usually around to handle rumors.

  At least Paul had left about ten wyvern corpses, those would be useful to craft a lie regarding the Portal, and to craft equipment.

  "There's something more to it. I don't see why The Horde would allow Paul to escape them, especially when he's been 'given' such an important role. He's not saying everything we must know."

  "But what do we Know Pierre ? Even then... even if he's purposefully hoarding things, Paul has given us much more information about the inner workings of The Horde than any of my |Clairvoyance| could have seen, more than what the Stars gave us in five years... and that for much less of a price. .

  This discussion was basically two hours of info-dumping and Paul was very uncomfortable about telling us what he did. From what he said, he spent a century murdering and destroying worlds without even being in control of himself. I can only imagine what he must have felt during this."

  "That leads to... his trauma and how we should handle it. We can't just dump him into today's society, he said it himself that despite being so far away from The Horde, he still retains some instincts.

  And with how much of today's world uses powers from the Stars... I doubt any psychologist could help him. The Purifiers of Ophiuchus act in secrecy and they might not accept and Paul hates the Stars' guts. Our options are limited."

  "Then what do you suggest ? Before any of that comes into play, the question of Nidhogg's... Paul's identity needs to be addressed. He hates what he is, he hates the bodies he showed to us. He hates being a mate. He wants to be Paul, but the current system will force him to step in Portals as a Hunter. And with his power, he'll be pressured to join one of us, or create a House by himself."

  "But that won't work. We've kept information about the Holrde under wraps for the past five years, we can't throw everything by the window now. Many will have our guts. And besides, Paul doesn't seem to be able to share his power. And I don't think he will want to.

  We, the thousand Returnees are already able to topple nations, the world even, but he is able to do much more than that. If he were able to share his power and if it somehow fell into the wrong hands..."

  "I'm not sure any House would be able to accept him. The Stars would strongly object. So... Could he work as an independent Hunter ? He would be free from governmental control."

  The four comrades looked at Buster's shining head as he was an alien. The man's eye twitch but kept to himself.

  "Will we need to relocate him ? And his family too ? I trust you guys, you were close to him, Leo was too, but I can't say the same for the rest. I recall a lot of other Returnees were envious of his power already and I fear they might do something dumb."

  "But relocation means a change in identity too, which Paul doesn't want. And who could challenge him now ?"

  "That's the thing, Paul is a mentally unstable guy who can erase a planet by himself. It would take only one person getting on his nerves or triggering some instincts he talks about to create a catastrophe. Some might try to take advantage of this to ruin his image. Imagine the headlines, 'Hunter goes mad, turns into a dragon and destroys a city'..."

  "That would be bad press. For him, for us, for everyone."

  "Paul said that he would need a month. But is it truly wise to send him to challenge Portals at all ? We don't know what might happen. And him going without someone supervising the situation would be unwise."

  "Aaron, I can't believe you're saying this. You're supposed to be... an Apostle of Knowledge, the wise one compared to Buster and me. But do you really think any of us would be... of use with him around if he were to rampage ?"

  "Of course I know that !" the former scientist replied in exasperation, wiping his thick-glasses lenses.. "But let me explain goddammit ! What I wanted to say was that in a worst-case scenario, where Paul's identity is leaked to the world... people will want to believe we're in control. Even if it's meaningless."

  "And what if we become Stars ourselves ? We could have the power to make a difference."

  "All of us want to become Stars, Maya. All of us... But yes. We would need to ramp up training, achieve feats, become truly powerful. And... Maybe that would be the way."