1.

  “What?” Exasperated by the unfolding events before my eyes, I muttered. The world felt like it was cascading, an entire civilisation of knowledge fallen onto the friends, instantly, immediately. My pupils must’ve shrunk as I opened my mouth in shock.

  Zeno… Truly, “Haah, really, what on this damn planet is Zeno?” She laughed maniacally, her blue eyes peering through the red light shone onto the ground. Her smile creepily staring into the night.

  A building, standing so large and imposing, rose from the soil below, hewn from time itself. Towering over every building ever, looming over even the city of skies. It eclipsed it all, clouding everything in sight, its shadow stretching across an entire city. That was the ‘Zenoframe’. A monolith of humanity, the apex of our species. The perfect synergy between machine, man and essence.

  It was the institution, the commandment. Even though it hasn’t seen use since it was abandoned ten years ago. You can still feel its ever-watching gaze; you know that it knows you’re here.

  Welcome to Zeno.

  2.

  Thunder and lightning struck the earth with the force of a Greek god, a dark blue sky enveloped by clouds. Rain poured down, flooding a daunting road. This road was winding across a large mountain, with the ground unable to be seen. To the left was a sharp, steep cliff without a barrier; one wrong turn and you’ll meet your demise. They’ve already shaved past death, but they don’t want this accident written on their tombstones.

  Flashes of blue mixed with the dark clouds, creating a gloomy scene, as if they were in a dramatic movie. Wind smashed against the car, making loud thuds as they hurtled down the long roads.

  “Are we sure this is the right path?!” Asher exclaimed, “Surely, there’s a safer route, right?!!!” She screeched, clutching onto the seat of the car with all her might. She clung onto a small hope that they happened to take a wrong turn.

  After getting a letter from the royals of Chthonia, just after their police fiasco, they accepted the invitation and then caused a complete collapse in Chthonia after destroying the palace from the inside. Then, after meeting Yuze, one of the Rotbringers, and then an unfortunate encounter with Julius. They said their goodbyes to Augustus and decided to head towards Zeno when they realised they were almost being divinely guided.

  “Most people go through Edessa because of how goddamn awful the Virgo peaks are. You tell me why a road was even built here in the first place; I swear we are the first to have ever driven on them!” Elijah ranted, his eyes narrowing.

  “Uhm, can we just go to another Sectaris branch… Zeno isn’t sounding pleasing if we haven’t even seen the worst of it.” Asher pleaded.

  “C’mon, it’s only just a bit of weather; we’ve been through worse, ya know.“ Itzozu interjected. Taking some pride in being the only one not caring about the weather.

  “Oh, really? I’m not sure your barrier can save us from falling off an entire cliff!” Elijah objected.

  “It might; I haven’t found out yet.” Itzozu laughed.

  His laugh reintroduced a warmer atmosphere that brought everyone but Elijah less focus on the horrible conditions outside. Miyuki looks up at him, and a smile spreads across her cheek from one to the other.

  “How about… I throw you out of the window and we find out!” Miyuki laughed.

  Inside the car was Miyuki, who took the liberty to take up as much space in her seat as possible, with one of her faces resting on one of her knees. Itzozu was on the opposite side with the window, ever so slightly down, letting in a calming, cool breeze. Then, in the front seats was Elijah behind the wheel, eating snacks fed to him by Asher. Finally, there was Asher, who was in charge of passing snacks around.

  However, that brief moment of laughter was abruptly interrupted by Elijah’s phone ringing. “Who’s ringing me at… Two in the morning…”

  Asher grabbed the phone and held it up to Elijah’s shoulder; he squished the phone in between his head. His voice was muffled as his tone was sharp

  "Wassup? Do you not know the time?” Elijah grumbled, the sounds of the melancholy rain adding more bass to his voice.

  Elijah drummed impatiently against the steering wheel as the phone garbled noises. He tried to keep his voice cool, but a hint of irritation had taken control of his voice. He let out a long sigh, letting the person on the phone know he was annoyed, and rolled his eyes. “Oh right, it’s you. Alright, yeah, I got it. I’ll let her know. Sure, I was just wondering though, why is he joining? Risk of the contract… Right…” He paused, taking a small break from speaking to collect his thoughts.

  Eventually, after a brief respite. He raised his hand and waved. Miyuki was the first to break out of her trance, shifting her gaze from the rain-splattered windows to him. The rest of the friends followed.

  After he had everyone’s attention, he began explaining what was happening. “We have a contract involving Sectaris, awfully convenient. However, this one isn’t in Zeno or even in the Sanctuary. It’s in the Eastern Union; Phi doesn’t mind you both joining either.” Elijah briefs the friends.

  Elijah heard a classic sound, Miyuki making noises that can only be defined as ‘goblin noises’. She groaned in frustration and slammed her head back into the headrest; the thud of the impact didn’t hurt at all due to the soft fabrics; it was more of a reminder of her frustration. She let out a sigh and closed her eyes.

  “Great!… More work. We should just get to Zeno! Forget all this stupid damn stuff!” Miyuki sighed, crossing her arms.

  Elijah let out a small chuckle, knowing he has the ultimate trump card that will sway Miyuki immediately. “Seven star coins is the payment.” He states the contract reward.

  Miyuki quickly uncrossed her arms and gave Eliah her full undivided attention. “I’m in. Let’s get there now.” She approved.

  “WOAAAA!! Thank Vesta we don’t have to go through this death road! I really thought we were going to fall to our deaths…” sang Asher, as she hummed a particularly annoying tune. “We’ll live another day.”

  “We’ll still have to go to Zeno at some point; just delaying the inevitable at this point.” Itzozu chimed in, breaking Asher’s happy streak in one fell swoop. She was in shock, practically turning her into a stone statue.

  “Damn….” She mutters.

  “What do they want us to do for an entire seven-star coin? Do they want us to assassinate an agent, or maybe they want us as security! I have no doubts that this will be fun!” Miyuki laughed.

  “Not quite; I’ll fill you in on the rest. Some corporate backstabbing has happened; Cathodic has shut off energy supply to Sectaris, who in turn closed all sites in the Eastern Union. Somehow, the Dau Circle got involved.”

  The Dau (pronounced Die) Circle is believed to be one of the largest assassination companies still around. Though, in practice, they are a broker agency, being one of the only middle companies between parties. They oversee matters like company conflicts and internal struggle. The Dau Circle is an extremely secretive organisation with not much known about them. It’s believed that the Circle has ties to VISC as well.

  “Foundation has been awarded this contract by The Dau Circle, who passed it through several companies before reaching ours. We are serving the interests of Cathodic. They’ve contracted us to infiltrate the Union branch and breach the documentation floor; they’ll send a list of specific documents. We’ll also need to get three access cards held by Sectaris officials. Due to the severity of the contract, we’ll be accompanied by a named agent.” Elijah briefed the friends.

  “A named agent? They’re all named? Elijah?” Asher questioned.

  “Named agents are the apex of this work, the notoriety you have that your name is known across the world. They’re the strongest, much more experienced than we are, and also innately insane. To become an agent bestowed with a name of infamy, you have to love this type of work, and this work isn’t pretty for normal people.“ Elijah stated.

  “Over the course of the well…last decade? There have been plenty of incredibly famous agents: The Silent Assailant, The Western Serpent, The Red Nebulae and The Dragon. All had a rise and fall, though; an agent like this is only as good as they are at their peak, and, well… there is always an agent ready to take their place.” Elijah added, seemingly reminiscing on all the tales and stories of the great agents.

  Itzozu took a moment to think, bringing one of his hands up to his head, lightly scratching his red hair. His silky glove slowly brushing against his hair and the soft fabrics of his jacket rubbing on his skin. “Passed it through several companies…Huh.” He started scratching harder, applying more pressure with each rough movement. “The larger companies declined this.” He thought to himself before parting his lips, his orange eyes shining with each strike of thunder.

  “And why would the larger companies decline this?” Itzozu questioned, looking straight towards Elijah.

  Elijah was noticeably taken aback; he clearly did not even consider the point that Itzozu brought up. His eyes darted around slightly, just barely paying attention to the road.

  “Huh…” he muttered, gripping the wheel ever so slightly tighter. “I’m… I’m not sure why; maybe companies had other things to deal with?” Elijah responded, giving a shallow, unbaked response.

  “Anyway, we’ve been passed information for the first key, held by Dr Grayson, an influential man in Eluthorn. He’s currently in Heliocentric. The information for the other two is sparse, but in time we should be able to track them down.” Elijah added.

  “What’s even needed from this damn place? Maybe they’re trying to go to Zeno as well; I knew it, these thieves of our glory!!” Miyuki shouted.

  “It’s a possibility… Informants have also told us Silver Bullet has taken an interest too.” Elijah confirmed.

  “Oooh~ Look outside!” Asher shouted, her face pushed up against the window.

  The friends all paid attention to outside, a beautiful sunrise, a mix of warm, entrancing colours of yellow, purple and red all just barely seen over the towering mountains. The rays of the inviting sun casting down onto the snowy fields, slowly melting away the cold.

  “You’ve been quiet.” Miyuki asks Itzozu, nudging her elbow into his hip. The sudden jab had jolted him out of his trance; he turned towards Miyuki, his orange gaze settling upon the woman. “I’m just wondering. Hah, will we reach it?” Itzozu asked.

  “Silver Bullet doesn’t have the contract, so they won't know what we’re after.“ Elijah replied. “And judging by what you suggested, we’re the only ones who took this contract.” He added, checking his phone.

  With a single beep of a notification, the friends had a GPS marker that gave an estimated location; the area was quite large, stretching from Heliocentric to Chthonia. While it was a large area, fortunately for the friends, most of this large area was flat grasslands with a few small cities dotted around. (Except from Heliocentric) The notifications of the GPS drowned out the noise of the car as they hurled down the highway, leaving the life-threatening roads and Asher’s paranoia behind.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Elijah gave a slight smirk as his hand gripped around the wheel, increasing the pressure ever so slightly. With a slam of the gas pedal, the speed of the car increased twofold. “Heh, let’s get to Grayson.” He smiled.

  It was an easy goal set in sight. Step one: Find Grayson somewhere in the estimated location. Step two: Kill him and take his keycard. Step three, repeat step one with other people. Gain the three cards. Step four: breach Sectaris and take what’s rightfully theirs. Now of course, this was the simple plan for the friends, but they couldn’t help but wonder what might go wrong.

  Nothing scenic was of any note during the journey, just an endless rolling field of grass. Occasionally, there were white furry creatures with gold, glowing eyes, galloping across the green ground, their stomping drumming in their ears.

  Apart from that, there was nothing of note.

  “What?! Itzozu, you can’t eat an entire jar of pickles with mayonnaise; that's disgusting!!” Asher shouted. So the friends' random conversation came to an end as they slowly arrived at the capital of the Eastern Union, Supernova.

  Supernova was at a much larger scale than Edessa’s capital, Edsa. With recent investments into infrastructure and a massive cash flow being flooded into the country's finances, Supernova had disproven its name of being “the rat capital”.

  Even with a large influx of country people moving into the city and with a population nearing that of Edsa, it was an impressive feat to have the streets have a lot of leeway. The streets were busy — however, not cramped like Edsa’s. While there was a sea of people both behind and in front, there was still room to stretch.

  Miyuki took two steps forward, her legs shaky and her knees weak. Suddenly, she falls over, just barely catching herself on a railing. “Urrrrgh….I’m so hungry…” She grumbled.

  Since the disaster at Chthonia, the friends haven’t eaten a nutritious, full meal, and the only things getting them by were a few snacks at a gas station on the outskirts of Chthonia. The others could also feel their hunger rising upon Miyuki’s complaints.

  “Could go for some food too.” Itzozu agreed, breaking the silence.

  The difference that sets the Eastern Union apart from other countries is that it is a literal union between two countries that share cultural values, religion and even their heritage; thus, they declared a formal union between the two countries. They are made up of Vedere in the north and La Vista in the south.

  Elijah turned around to face the rest of the friends, the corner of the left side of his mouth tilting upwards into a playful smirk. This type of smirk meant that the friends knew Elijah had something in store. “Well…” He trailed, making sure to linger on the word just to accentuate every letter. “I suppose I could show you a delicacy from Vedere!” He broke the good news.

  Everyone’s eyes lit up upon the good news, their sour moods immediately being lifted, as if a great worry had been thrown off their shoulders. “I get to live another day…” Miyuki sighed, patting Elijah on the shoulder.

  Quickly, Elijah moved his hand towards him, signalling the friends to follow him. It was obvious that Elijah had been to this place before due to his incredibly robotic, calculated path. They went through clean alleyways and across packed roads before ending up at the front of a restaurant.

  “This looks like shit!!” Miyuki shouted, not being a fan of the restaurant.

  The front was nothing to be impressed about; it was an old wooden front that had clearly seen better days, large chunks of wood had rot growing through, and several planks were ripped out. Even further, there were rusty metal shutters partly closing the large windows. There was a sign that was barely hanging on with a single metal wire keeping it up. The sign read: “Pizzeria”.

  “Don’t judge a restaurant by its front. It’s surprisingly nice there, good decor too.” Elijah calmly responded, hoping Miyuki would give him the benefit of the doubt.

  “Alright, alright, blah, blah, get in already before I starve to death!!” Miyuki shouted, pushing Elijah towards the door. Miyuki, in a blind fit of hunger, forgot how strong she was and sent Elijah flying into the door. The loud crash smashed into everyone’s eardrums and was combined with the violent ringing of a bell.

  As Elijah slowly got up, clutching his head with one hand. Someone ran up to him with panic in her eyes. “Is that you, Elijah? Oh! Welcome back; we’re so glad to have you here. Come, come. We have a table for you and your….” She stopped herself, looking the three of them up and down to discern what they were to Elijah.

  “Friends, not agents.” Elijah was notified. The lady looked for a moment before a light shone in her eyes. “My, our Elijah! Now has friends!!! I’m so proud of you!” She pinched Elijah’s cheek.

  “Oh friends, you have no idea how many times he came here alone. I really thought he was socially inept…” She cheered.

  “Pardon my rudeness… I’m Liora; I’ve been managing this restaurant ever since I was… seven! I’ve known Elijah for so long now, ever since he started his agent career. Well, enough about me. “ She trailed off after a small discussion about herself.

  The friends introduced themselves with not nearly enough enthusiasm that she had, apart from Asher, who tried to match her level of energy.

  Eventually, they walked over to an empty booth; the seats were indeed a nice colour, being a burgundy red and a dark oak booth. However, this could simply be deception; the real test would be conducted by everyone’s favourite blue-haired girl.

  She slammed her weight down onto the cushion. She made several “hm”s” and other random noises, but eventually, she looked at the friends and, with her eyes closed, gave a thumbs up. “Acceptable.” She smirked.

  Elijah got the menu off the table and spun it around for the rest of the three to see; their eyes darted around the menu before they eventually landed where Elijah was pointing.

  “I suggest this.” Elijah says while pointing to something on the menu.

  “What’s pizza?” Miyuki questioned, giving a confused expression.

  “Pizza. It’s one of the best things ever. Man, I was so glad when this place had it too.” Elijah gave a slight chuckle, sliding down the booth slightly.

  Asher read this ‘pizza’ on the menu word by word, her finger following the text as she scanned the entire wall of words. “OH!!! IS THIS THE BREAD WITH TOMATO SAUCE?!” she shouted, her words echoing throughout the restaurant.

  “Thank god it's not busy here,” Elijah thought to himself.

  “Yeah… Pretty much that.” He ‘agreed’ with a twitch on his face.

  Elijah was left to his thoughts while the orders had been made; the friends had also calmed down, so he went back to his thinking mode. He realised that in the years he’s been here, he has never seen a single tomato. Not in the wild, not in any store. These fruits do not exist here, so how do they even have pizza? ... He decided not to ponder that question any further.

  The friends table was littered with half-empty soda cans and full plates. With stacked serviettes at the edge of the table and the unmissable aroma of melted, golden cheese. The atmosphere of the table was warm and homely.

  In the middle of the table were two large pizzas sitting on top of two plates. Both looked delicious, and Miyuki was the first to capitalise on this. Miyuki pulled a slice out, watching as the cheese stretched as she pulled them apart. “Mmmm, this is so good. Om nom nom.” She chewed into Itzozu’s ear.

  Suddenly, as if the friends couldn't catch even the slightest moment of peace. The most absurd thing happened. Several cars had crashed through the restaurant, completely destroying the shoddy exterior. They all flooded out of the car, armed with various large guns. They wore black suits with a large helmet connecting a respiration to a tank on their back. Below this tank were also two rockets fashioned together with several metal wires.

  The crash caused the engine to combust into a myriad of steam and fire, catching the wooden support beams on fire.

  Without giving the friends even a moment to react, one of them held up a gun and started shooting. The friends all hid under the booth, hoping it would protect them from the onslaught of lead.

  “Agh!!! Fuck this… I’m not dealing with it!” Miyuki shouted, on the verge of ripping her own hair out.

  She jumped out of cover and unsheathed her sword. Then, she ran into the steam. The friends could hear someone scream and the drowning noise of several magazines emptied. One of the people was on the floor, calling their way out of the steam with a bloody trail behind. “H-Help…” he called out, his voice raspy and panicked. However, the friends couldn’t hear him out; he screamed for the final time as a sword was impaled into his skull.

  “It’s the damn Kyukaze. I should’ve known from their stupid flashy flight packs.” Miyuki sighs, giving a strange amount of knowledge to the friends. “How come they’re out of Sora…?” She mutters to herself, inspecting the body.

  She gave it a small kick, flipping the corpse over to reveal the front. “...Sixth division. Hah, idiots believed that we’re only sixth worthy? Give me a break.” She laughed.

  The Kyukaze logo was the Soran number nine (which resembles an arrowhead) and fire. It was a very recognisable logo, but it was strange that Miyuki knew as much as she did; well, at least that’s what Elijah thought.

  Miyuki slashed the air with her sword; the force that generated had splashed most of the blood off the blade. Leaving only small splatters across the metal and the hilt, without time to fully clean it, she sheathed it back into the scabbard on her back.

  “Hah, not even worth my second sword!” She laughed.

  The friends gathered all their items and a couple of slices of pizza and ran out of the restaurant.

  “Kyukaze… The Dau Circle…” Elijah trails off, releasing the severity of the situation. “This might be why other companies declined this,” Elijah responded to Itzozu’s earlier question. “Though from the sounds of it from Miyuki, the sixth division is pretty weak ... but Miyuki also loves underestimating enemies and overestimating herself…” Elijah thinks to himself before being snapped out of his thoughts by Asher grabbing his hand and running off.

  “There is no time to be thinking, Elijah!” Asher shouted; he looked behind to realise a wave of the Kyukaze pilots were chasing after them all. The friends desperately ran as far away as possible, but they were all unrelenting. The pilots took the skies; there was no running as long as they could see above.

  Elijah nearly rips his phone out of his pocket and fiddles with his contacts, eventually landing on the contact for Phi. The phone rang for an uncomfortably long time while Elijah ran for his life, opting to use cover and going down side streets. His gaze shifted up, hoping he would find a street hidden by buildings above. Eventually, Phi answers.

  “I’m busy, Elijah. What is it? I really doubt you’ve completed the contract this quickly.” Phi moaned. “The goddamn Kyukaze are here, after us! Don’t remember you telling us that?”!” Elijah panicked.

  …

  Scatter…

  In a flash, one of the stronger-looking people of the Kyukaze pilots held a gigantic rifle with an essence core in the centre of it. They pointed at the friends and, with the single press of the trigger, released a blinding flash of light. It pulverised an entire block of the city, leaving nothing but disintegrated corpses and molten rock.

  “Thank Faith, it was such a pain to get the board to agree to give Arma technology to the sixth division.” One of the pilots speaks to another.

  “Hah, maybe we’ll move up to the fourth division; after all, the people we just killed were classified as ‘disaster level’.” Another one speaks up, their voice full of excitement.

  “Gah!?!?!” One of them shrieked out in pain as they felt the cold, steel blade from a sword puncture through their back and slide down, effectively cutting them apart. “HAH!” She laughed as she threw the body onto the ground.

  The friends had scattered away from the beam with minimal injuries, thanks to an intuition provided by Miyuki. It was narrow, but they avoided it, while the friends took the time after to devise a plan, but Miyuki instead disappeared. She opted to climb the building the pilots were hovering over.

  With minimal effort, she grabbed the legs of the second pilot and threw them onto the ground, holding her sword at their neck. The air was cold as a menacing silence filled the air.

  “Speak. Why are you after us?” She glared into their soul.

  “Like I’d ever talk to a traitor like you.” They said so before pressing a button. Within a few seconds, Miyuki had to run to the other side of the building as the pilot self-destructed. She didn’t have enough time to run away and was caught in the edge of the explosion.

  The result was half of the jacket she wore being wrecked and minimal burns around her.

  Miyuki’s eyes darted around, looking for the next batch of pilots, though it seemed like there was much less than what she originally thought. She spotted another flying from the building; they were flying lower to catch the friends, but Miyuki thought of an idea, with a slight sly smirk spreading across her face.

  She runs across the building and jumps off it. Asher looked up as she heard the insane women laugh. She landed on the person flying and punched them in the face, knocking them out. She grabbed their rifle and jumped off the person.

  As if she were in an action movie, the main protagonist, Miyuki, turns around mid-air while falling and shoots the rifle, decimating the rest of the Kyukaze pilots with a single shot.

  Then she realised that she was at terminal velocity while falling from a skyscraper. Thankfully, she was caught in the arms of Asher, who somehow had saved her from certain death. However, she wasn’t spared from Asher’s lectures.

  “That was dangerous; don’t do that again!!” She shouted at her, demanding an apology. Miyuki wouldn’t relent this time.

  “Blah, blah, boring lecture time; I just saved everyone! Where’s my thanks, huh?” She snarked.

  “Oh yeah, how come you went to the building?” Elijah asked.

  “Heh. Well, each division of the Kyukaze has a stronger jetpack and stronger weapons, so I figure that the sixth division would usually be relegated to the lower levels of Neosaka, and I was right! They had a long enough height!”

  “Their jetpack thing called ‘Soratobu Roku” looks impressive, but they only last for an hour and have a height limit of a five-story building.”

  Elijah was behind the friends as they kept walking; he bit his nail as his head wracked with thoughts.

  “I doubt the Kyukaze has a direct problem with us… After all, they came all the way from Sora; likely, someone paid them a lot of money too. We can rule out Silver Bullet. Phi told me, “The CEO of Silver prefers to solve problems directly,” so they wouldn’t hire a hunter company. I doubt the Dau Circle would try to kill us either if they presented us with the information… Could it be Sectaris themselves?” He thought to himself. Clawing his head as his brain ran rampant with ideas.

  “I’ve heard they have their own task force, but there’s a potential they hired Kyukaze to intercept us, but then again… There are higher-grade hunters, and Sectaris certainly has enough money to hire them. Suppose we can’t do anything but find out.” He came to the conclusion.

  Elijah’s phone buzzes.

  “GRAYSON’S LOCATION: 76TH ERIDANUS STREET, IO DISTRICT, HELIOCENTRIC. STAYING AT A HOTEL OVERNIGHT. DOCUMENTS STATE HE HAS A FLIGHT SCHEDULED FOR THE NEXT DAY, PERFECT TIME. SECURITY WILL BE HIGH.”