Beyond the curtains of dust and stars, there was a world, void of a deity's presence.

  Acc to the legend, different kinds of celestials from different dimensions coveted this very pce, but until now, not a single one ted as its rightful ruler.

  The reason? They just failed.

  quering its vast nd was not as easy as they had thought. The beings living in this world could harness powers paralleled to them. They were sidered as gods from their respective dimensions, but in that pce, they were nothing.

  A world called Quadra Entrata. It was like a battlefield for honing warriors; a day without war was a fleeting dream. Several fas fell oer the other. Even a child that only learned how to crawl was given a knife as their first toy.

  This world was vast enough to have a huge tihat was divided into fions, and each of them held several fas. However, there were only four races that reigned supreme on this nd.

  From the north, there were the beastkin; their territory was called the Endless Labyrinth. It was a huge pce that sisted of several forests. T giant trees could be seen around the area. The entraowards it was covered with a thick fog that acted as a prote against invaders.

  Meanwhile, fiends roamed the west; they were beings born and lived their entire lives in the dark. Known as the Sunless Cradle, a nd without a speck of daylight, a twenty-four-hour se of nothing but night sky made it quite an eerie pce.

  And there was the home of the spirits, which was located in the southern part of the ti. The Mythical Sanctuary, the nd of unusual phenomenons.

  Lastly, the dire of the east, governed by humanity, the Oriental Pin. Inside of it, there were eight fas fighting for power despite having the threat of invasion from the ions.

  In this world, all the living beings had the potential to absorb, circute, and use a certain type of energy, which allowed them to harness different kinds of Firs.

  These so-called Firs were abilities that differed from one another; some had the skill to manipute elements while the other awakened something that could enhaheir physique or ge one of their characteristid perform miracles; there were even those who had the ability to peek into the future or alter a part of reality.

  In regards to this, anyone could ma several Firs depending on their capabilities and the number of strings cirg on their hearts.

  If an individual awakened a Fir, a string made of a thin white line would encircle their heart; they could store energy on these strings, and the more strings someone had, the greater the energy they could possess.

  Firs could be obtaihrough lud hard work, and sometimes they could be ied through bloodline. If somebody trained in a freezing enviro every day, the ces of him awakening ice-reted Firs would be high.

  However, not all were given the opportunity to wield Firs; there were those who died searg for otential they had, while the others failed to ma even one in their entire lifetime.

  And in the Oriental Pin, the humanity's territory, these people who could use Firs are called Equators.

  . . . . .

  The sun dipped below the horizon, casting long shadows along the abaown filled with rge debris of buildings. There were even craters several meters below ground and skeletons scattered everywhere. After a long jourhe group arrived at this pce, their target destination.

  Acc to their mission, remnants of a criminal anization of beast traffickers used this ruiown as their spot to sell dangerous beasts from the Endless Labyrinth. They o iigate if the information was relevant, and if it was, they must report it back to the guild and request further assistao take down the anization.

  "It's about to get dark; we o set up camp. Lindsay, please prepare the meals," the captain ordered as he looked at his group.

  Then his eyes searched for the appraiser, and the moment he did, he started to speak again.

  "Hey! You! e with me," he stated.

  "Me?" Efraim poi himself while looking at the others and upon seeing Lindsay, smiled at him, he reverted his gaze to the old man.

  As a respohe captain nodded before turning around. With a short sigh, Efraim went to follow him.

  "Is there any problem?" He asked as he caught up to him.

  With just the two of them, the captain faced the young man. He looked at him straight in the eyes before opening his mouth.

  "I need you to do the scouting with me tonight," he said with determination.

  "Are you sure you want an appraiser to go with you?" Efraim asked, teasing the old man.

  Upon hearing the question, the captain smiled and shook his head for a sed.

  "I would rather choose an appraiser who disposed of a group of bandits as if they were nothing than aor who couldn't even uhe their bdes," he replied, and a chuckle escaped from his lips.

  Given this fact, Efraim extended his hand in front of him and said. "Well, I'm at your disposal until this mission ends."

  The old man stared for a sed at his hand and looked at his eyes once again before accepting the handshake.

  "It's a pleasure!" he excimed; excitement could be seen written on his face.

  . . . . .

  As the stars came into view and filled the entire sky with their glittering radiahe two people ventured deeper towards the ter of the abaown. They moved with stealth, hidden in the darkness of the night.

  With the old man's lead, they ied the pces that could he amounts of beasts. Starting from the town's coliseum, they searched every nook and y to find traces that could lead them closer to the pletion of their mission.

  However, despite flipping the whole pot a single piece of a clue was found. In light of this fact, they moved on to the location. It was a ruin of a boratory several meters away from the coliseum. They were about to enter when a loud crashing sound reverberated across the premises.

  The two people took a sudden g each other, and without further ado, they pulled out their ons.

  The captain held a straight sword with a symbol of a sun in the middle of its rainguard while Efraim drew one of his bdes while holding the other one's hilt.

  "We're not alone," Efraim said, his voice barely a whisper.

  They remained in their positions, doing their best to hide both of their presence while enhang their senses for the ining danger.

  Several seds had passed, and a menag screech echoed across the horizon. Then, a flyi with pointed cws attached to its wings circled above the two people.

  "Take cover," the old man ordered, and they soon rushed ihe abandoned boratory.

  "What was that?" Efraim asked. He had entered several monsters on his missions, but not a single oched that creature's appearance.

  "If I'm not mistaken, that thing is part of the vampire's family. It feeds on blood like their masters, but the internal ans are their favorites," the captain expined, sharing his knowledge.

  "But why was a fiend native in the Sunless Cradle here?" He added, asking with fusion.

  Upon hearing this, Efraim's eyes glowed with excitement. He reached for his other bde and walked outside.

  "Hey! What are you doing? e back here!" The old man excimed as he watched the youor exit the pce.

  "I'll be back, captain. I'm just curious how strong this fiend is," Efraim stated without looking back.

  Upon stepping outside, he looked for the bird-like creature; it was still up there, cirg as if searg or waiting for something.

  Efraim's left eye pupil shrank in size, and a hexagram pattern emerged on it. Then, a number seventy-four written in blue appeared at the top of the creature's head.

  "That's doable, I guess," Efraim uttered.

  Without a single hint of hesitation, he swirled the bde in his right hand, then he lowered his waist by bending down his khe sed, he propelled himself upward, leaving a shockwave behind.

  A few seds before tact, the fiend noticed the bde aimed at its throat, causing it to ge its course. It rotated into the air to dodge. Then it unched a terattack through its cws, slig through the equator's body.

  However, what it hit was only an illusion, a mirage, and the human was o be seen. The creature looked around, searg for the enemy, but in the sed, its head all the way to its torso split open as a fsh of white jolted downwards.

  Efraim desded onto the open ground; his clothes and bdes were painted red while blood spttered on his face.

  As the carcass of the fiend fell down behind, he looked above, his left eye still gleaming with a bright color.

  "It's still the same," he uttered.

  Curiosity and disappoi could be seen pstered on his face.

  Written in a tapestry of red and bck, a value that represehe cept of nothing and the absence of quality was right there floating above the youor's head.

  The lowest of the low, a zero.

  . . . . .