"The barrier has been removed? That's impossible" Den remarked.

"Let's find out" Cathy replied, clutching her pendant.

She summoned Freelancer. The titan moved towards one of the men in black and white attire.

"Come to help, Desert Warrior!" the enemy summoned a companion.

The warrior crossed his swords to block the Freelancer's charge. Freelancer threw his shield towards the Spiral member. Then the titan grabbed Desert Warrior by the collar and impaled him with his massive conical sword.

The trio of seekers bypassed the enemies and jumped outside, joining the others who were fighting in front of Vale's mansion.

"Nice of you to drop in" Lok said.

"Not so nice that they dropped in here" Den grumbled.

"Where's Dante?" Cathy asked.

"Fighting against Arnetta on the rooftop" the leader replied, sidestepping a blow from the Spiral member.

Lambert's eyes shifted to the mentioned individuals. The two Vales were engaged in a fierce duel. Dante expected his sister wouldn't give up so easily on eliminating the last living family member (besides herself). Barely a day had passed since the last raid. It was fortunate that Vale decided to stay longer in Venice. Besides, Zhalia herself informed him that the Spiral would return quickly.

"Tear him apart, Red Vampress!" the woman summoned the titan.

"Come out and play, Caliban!" the man summoned his own support.

"Metz' titan? I wouldn't have expected him giving it to you" she remarked.

"Well, well" a corner of his lip raised a little.

Caliban began swinging his blue sword towards the blue-skinned figure. The weapon met air. The vampress smoothly evaded each attack and countered when she sensed the right opportunity.

Dante rushed towards his sister. They exchanged punches and kicks. At one point, Arnetta unaware that she was already on the edge of the roof, leaped away with Hyperstride. Dante's reflex allowed him to grab her by the thigh and with the help of Dragonfist, slammed her into the stone tiles. Vale was supposed to give his sister the final punch. For some reason, his fist landed beside the Spiral member's head. He gritted his teeth. One of the conversations he had with his mentor came to his mind.

"Can't I really do it?" the young man asked his mentor.

"Dante" Metz placed his hands on his shoulders. "It deserves condemnation for what Anetta had done. But she's still your sister. You'll do what you think is right if fate brings you together one day."

Something else also came to mind. Something related to him and his sister. Something that had always been the source of their conflict. However, the girl had never been able to harm him in any way.

Taking advantage of her brother's moment of hesitation, Arnetta struck him with Touchram. Vale groaned.

"The tables have turned, little brother" she sweetly accented the two last words.

Unexpectedly, the woman was attacked by Sophie's Kindlestrike.

"Is everything okay?" she asked.

"Could be better. Everfight" he used a basic healing spell on himself.

Cathy fought against the Spiral member. At one point, she knocked him down like a sack of potatoes. She approached him. The enemy used a Terrorsight on the girl. He punched several times to her stomach and abdomen. Lambert girl buckled, breathing heavily. Unexpectedly, her friend appeared in front of her.

"Leave her alone" Malia said before punching him in the face.

The Spiral member fell heavily to the ground.

"Wow. You've definitely been training too much with our boys" she remarked.

"You mean with Harrison. Den was always afraid he'd hit me too hard, and Lok kept saying 'no powers, no powers'." Lyssa replied amused.

She began to ease Lambert's pain.

"Isn't it a good thing we didn't intend to hurt you?" Den chimed in, who was fighting close to the girls.

"It's a pity you didn't see what Mr. Kotto did to me during the last task. You would have been stunned. It was worse than getting hit in the head with Touchram" she replied.

Cathy shuddered hearing such things.

"That's why you preferred training with the boys?" she asked.

Malia nodded. "After all, the opponents I had to and will have to defeat are unfortunately mostly men."

Harrison and Lok were heading towards finishing the fight against four individuals in black and white attire. Two were down, and they were dealing with the other two. At one point, the Spiral member with a strand of orange hair put Lok in an arm bar and whispered into his ear: "If you don't stop Arnetta, there will be nothing left of the house but ruins". 

Lambert managed to bale out of the uncomfortable situation. "Malia, Cathy!" he called out.

The girls realized Lok wanted to move towards Dante and Sophie. They attacked Zhalia, who was masked with Augerfrost, from a distance. The leader used Hyperstride, thus backing out of the fight.

Dante subdued his unruly sister, holding her arms behind her back.

"I heard that you love fire, sweetie" Arnetta smiled and looked towards Sophie.

For a moment, Sophie remembered similar words from the past. They were from Kiel, the killer of her parents and the person who died by her hands.

"You... what connection did you have with Kiel? Did you help him burn down my family home?!" she asked.

The woman used Auraforce and laughed grotesquely. With the spell she cast, she gained more space and moved freely onto the roof. Lok looked suspiciously at the Spiral member.

"Burn it all, Ignatius!" she summoned the titan.

It was a figure covered in magma, with fire emanating from its body. The titan spewed a stream of fire onto the roof. Lok, without hesitation, pulled out an amulet with a titan he had never used before. "Finally, an opportunity to use this titan. Control the fire, Furoji!"

Next to Lambert appeared a red figure dressed in a white kimono with a black belt around the waist. His characteristic feature was his crossed legs, and he hovered a few inches above the ground. Furoji, as requested by his owner, tried to draw the fire towards himself.

"Join us, Enfluxion!" Sophie summoned a watery figure, which immediately struck Ignatius with a stream of water.

Lok jumped onto the roof of the house with Hyperstride. After a moment, Sophie joined him.

"Do you harbour a grudge against your family so much so that you wanted to kill Dante and burn down your family home? Have you gone amential because of Organization, and now Spiral?" Lambert asked.

"My family is the Death Spiral. I am no longer Arnetta Vale. I am a servant of the Betrayer" she replied.

Suddenly, she fell to her knees, drenched in sweat. Before her eyes appeared a scene from years ago.

A boy grabbed a stuffed animal from his older sister's bed. He played with it so chaotically that after a moment, white fluff spilled out from inside the toy.

"Sister, the bunny is bleeding!" he shouted in his childish voice.

"We need to fix it!" she exclaimed, trying to immerse herself in the role of saving the toy.

Arnetta ran into her parents' room.

"Where's some thread and a needle? Dante tore my bunny again" she complained with blown cheeks.

Her mother reached for the shelf and handed her what she wanted.

"Just be careful, Arnie. If you can't handle it, call me or your father. Or the boys, if needed" the woman said with a smile.

The auburn-haired girl returned to her room. She began threading the needle.

Her trance was interrupted by footsteps on the tiled roof.

"For a hundred thousand dead Casterwills. What were those random memories?" she wondered silently.

She looked up and saw her brother's face. Tears welled up in her eyes. She couldn't believe that the person before her could be the sweet child from her memories. When she examined the man closely, she saw her younger brother in him, not an enemy of the Death Spiral.

"Did you also remember the hundredth time I tore your bunny?" he chuckled.

After a moment, Ignatius returned to the amulet.

"Dante, I..." she began sadly.

She sealed up her mouth to prevent saying something she would regret. She briskly got up, avoiding eye contact.

"Retreat!" she ordered, then fled with her group.

The seekers gathered in front of the house.

"The roof is damaged. We'll need to repair it" the owner of the property observed.

"For now, let's move to my residence" Sophie suggested.

"Good idea" Vale replied.

"But you'll give Arnetta a free hand to burn down this house. Are you crazy?" Lok interjected.

"I think she won't be coming back here. I feel it" a small smile appeared on his face. "Right. Our medical seeker is here. How did your exam go?" Vale changed the subject.

"Uh. Well, actually, I passed" she said shyly.

"I knew it!" Den exclaimed.

The girl looked at the Fears brothers. Her eyes stopped on Harrison.

"Thanks to you, I managed to stand a blow from the examiner. The guy hit me so hard that it was stronger than your Touchram in my head."

"And on this occasion, you let your hair down?" Cathy asked.

Indeed, it was the first time since officially becoming a member of Lok's team. She always wore her hair in a braid.

"No, no" she shook her head. "It's for a different reason. I wanted to feel like my mom is close to me. I told you I couldn't talk to her for so long."

"So she's back then" Lambert remarked.

"Now it's all in the hands of you and your colleagues from the Huntik council" the medic said to Dante.

He stroked his chin. "Medical seekers are needed. I'll consider it" he announced after a moment.

***

Midnight had arrived. Two boys stood on the terrace of Sophie's house. The sky was clear. The alone crescent moon was accompanied by numerous stars. Occasionally, one could see the flickering light coming from a satellite.

"So you're saying you like her?" Den asked.

"The worst thing is, I don't know how to approach her. I thought you'd help me with that" the younger brother replied.

Older Fears, recalling how he did it, ran his hands through his hair.

"Den... I really didn't expect it" she managed to say.

"Whatever you say now, I want to hear it" he replied.

"Don't get me wrong. You're really a wonderful guy. But I think we haven't known each other for long enough, and this is happening too fast. You probably didn't expect that kind of answer, did you? I'm sorry, but I want to be honest with you.

"I was expecting an honest answer too" he replied.

"Give me time. I need to think about it" the girl looked at him before standing up.

The teenager looked at his friend with a questioning look.

"I'll go home. You better think about it too" she said before leaping off the terrace with Hyperstride onto the pavement.

"Think about it?" he whispered to himself.

He shook his head to clear those memories from his mind. His current relationship with Cathy was satisfactory to him.

"After all, you spend a lot of time with her. So, you'll come up with something. Let's better go to sleep. Trust me, you wouldn't want to hear Sophie's scolding" Den said.

"Neither would you hear my scolding" a voice came from behind.

"Dante?" older Fears raised an eyebrow.

"Relax. I won't rat you out. Just came out here to get some fresh air" he replied.

In reality, he kept thinking about his older sister. He didn't know if there was any way to reach her. And in the process, persuade her to change sides. If that was even still an option. Over the years spent on the dark side, the chances dwindled with each passing day, with each passing minute. Or was it already completely impossible? Would Arnetta be able to erase her family from her life just like that? Had this woman become a soulless robot whose only goal was killing? These questions circled Vale's mind. It was intriguing how Arnetta had pronounced his name. It was full of warmth and longing. And then she retreated, canceling her plan to destroy their family home.

The Fears brothers left the terrace. Dante was left alone. Alone with his thoughts. He took out a family photo from the pocket of his light-colored pants. The last one taken before the family tragedy.

"How did you end up in the Spiral, Arnie? How did all this happen?" he whispered to himself, looking at girl in glasses.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed his Logosbook light up. He opened the magic notebook to see the message.

"Arnetta won't come back, but she'll interrupt Lok and others in next missions" he read quietly.

He closed the notebook and put it away. It was clear to him. If he decided on another confrontation with his sister, he had to join his friends. Time was of the essence. He felt that if he did it later, the only thing that might await his sister would be life imprisonment in the Huntik Foundation's jail. Dormant feelings about his sister had awakened after over twenty years. Although for the first few years after the family tragedy, he harbored hatred and resentment toward her, at that moment, he was ready to bring her to the right side.

"Metz is probably going to hate me for this" he said quietly, with a hint of amusement.

***

The seekers stood before the castle of the Professor, the former leader of the Organization. According to the information provided by Grier, Hoffman was still in charge of his former boss's castle. King of Sutos had decided to make the older gentleman the temporary leader. Of course, he didn't tell him that Wilder would soon regain his position.

The castle's entrance gate was open. This raised some suspicions for Dante. Hadn't Grier bothered to mention to them that Hoffman had been informed about their visit? They carefully entered the enemy's territory.

"Actually, why do we want to form an alliance with the Organization?" Den asked.

"Not 'we' but the Casterwills" Lok corrected.

"Last time Wilder made it clear enough that saving the world doesn't interest him. Let's see what the temporary leader of the Organization has to say about it" Sophie replied.

Unexpectedly, four figures, with Hoffman at the forefront, appeared before the team.

"So, you did show up after all, just as Grier said" the old man spoke, stroking his gray beard.

Sophie stepped forward.

"We didn't come here to fight. We just want to talk. The Death Spiral will attempt to activate the Spiral Mark in less than a month. We need more people, not more enemies" she explained.

"How can you be sure that the Spiral hasn't formed an alliance with us?" one of the figures spoke up.

"Grier spilled everything to us" Lok interjected.

"You have a choice: either you agree, or we'll demolish this castle. I bet the Professor wouldn't be proud to see his abode, built over ten years, turned into a pile of rubble in seconds" Sophie continued.

"You don't have that kind of power" the old man said.

"Oh, really?" she asked.

Sophie glanced towards her boyfriend's sister. Cathy pulled out a ring from her bag.

"Move the nature, Legendary Titan of Earth: Geomar!"

The titan appeared between the groups. The golem roared at them before striking the ground with its foot. Beneath the Organization agents, green vines sprouted, quickly subduing them, while cracks appeared in the castle's structure.

"Will you continue to resist?" Lok asked.

"Okay, okay" Hoffman raised his hands.

***

"It's clear that the grandpa didn't want to argue for long" Den remarked.

"You could say he's been avoiding problems. Ever since Wilder was forcibly taken to Sutos, Hoffman preferred not to stick his neck out until Wilder returns" Vale replied.

"By the way. Is Wilder spying for Grier?" he asked.

Dante nodded. "Besides that. We'll see his face during the next mission" he added.

"How did it come to pass that Grier agreed to hand over his people to the Death Spiral? Someone like him would never agree to that in a lifetime!" Lok said.

"I don't know the details but I think he had an important reason for it" his mentor replied.