Dante heard the sound of many footsteps echoing through the house. He glanced towards the window. It seemed to be the middle of the night. The first thing that crossed his mind was that there might be a fire. However, he didn't smell anything in the air. Karl slept soundly beside him.

"Brother, brother" little Vale shook his older brother until he woke up.

"What's wrong, Dante? It's the middle of the night" he replied drowsily.

"Someone is walking around the house" he whispered, terrified.

"You're overstating..." at that moment, two people in suits burst into Vales' room. "... things" he finished quietly.

The young Vale stepped energetically in front of them, shielding Dante behind him.

"Still not satisfied? What brings you here this time?" he asked.

Suddenly, they heard the agonizing scream of brothers' mother, followed by their father's voice.

"It was supposed to be much easier, yet we keep encountering obstacles." one of suits said to the other one.

"Deaththorns!" Karl slammed his hands onto the floor. Purple beams of energy emerged beneath the suits and enveloped them. After a moment, black spikes revealed themselves along their entire length, piercing through Organisation seekers' clothes and skin.

Organization members realized after a moment that they were in danger. With each passing second, they felt the effects of the poison contained in those spikes more intensely. One by one, they collapsed to the ground.

"I've never expected myself to use that power. I had no choice" Karl whispered to himself, clenching his fists.

More agents arrived, along with Arnetta.

"I see you've become cruel, big brother." she taunted.

She kicked one of the agents and entered the room. 

"Maybe you'll join us?" she asked mockingly.

"Unlike you, I wouldn't be able to harm any member of our family." Karl responded, with a hint of resentment.

Dante stood beside Karl.

"Arnie, why are you doing it to us? Aren't we family anymore? Aren't we your brothers?" the young Vale asked sadly.

"Dante, step aside. I wouldn't want this lunatic to harm you." man said, glancing towards his little brother.

"Well, actually, it's not a bad idea. Double spell: Death Arrow!" the girl muttered as she cast a navy blue spell shaped like an arrow from both her hands, striking both brothers simultaneously.

Dante suddenly got up from his bed and grabbed the spot where he was shot by his sister. He ran his hands over his face to revive. Unfortunately, it was a nightmare. It had plagued him before, but with a different ending.

"I can't remember the last time I dreamed about it. Maybe it was when Metz was affected by the Behemoth's curse?" he thought and lay back down.

He put his hands behind his head and gazed out the window.

"Beautiful Summer." he sighed quietly. "It's time to visit someone." Vale got up from the bed.

When he went downstairs, he found only Cherit there.

"Hello, Dante." titan greeted cheerfully.

"Hi, Cherit." he replied indifferently.

"What's wrong?" he flew up to his friend.

"Nothing important. I'll be back soon." he put on his shoes and left the house.

A few minutes later, Cathy entered living room, followed shortly by Sophie, Harrison, and Den. Lok continued being the king of sleepers, so (as expected) he was still sleeping.

"Is Dante still sleeping?" Casterwill girl asked.

"He went out somewhere. Said he'd be back in a while." titan replied.

Dante traversed alleys of Venice to a specific location. He opened a gate, searching for specific people. It had been a long time since he was here, so he didn't remember the exact path. After wandering for a few minutes, he finally found it. Man stood before tombstones of his parents and his older brothers. He placed violets on his parents' grave. His mother always used to buy and place them on the table in the living room or on kitchen counter.

"We were on the same side for a moment. Did you know it?" he asked, not expecting an answer.

Dante felt nothing when he was speaking essentially to himself. When he first came here with Metz after the funeral ceremony, he couldn't hold back his tears and cried bitterly. He had no one to talk to about anything. He couldn't even talk to Metz about certain things. But over time, that changed. At that moment, he had Zhalia by his side. She was his greatest support, as he was for her. Looking further ahead, Metz and members of former team, whose leadership Lok had passed on to him, were also his friends. Vale couldn't mourn forever for something he couldn't prevent. The Titan of Fate, Arc made him realize that the past couldn't be changed, but a better future could be built. As long as people could think outside the box. If Dante hadn't learnt copykind, he'd have been buried in a place he was looking at.

Huntik Foundation Italian HQ, Venice, Italy

Harrison and Cathy arrived in the noon. Clease greeted them and they did the same thing. As promised earlier, girl first approached the machine on which she had failed the exam. Before that happened, she argued with the man until she finally played her bargaining chip. She claimed that it would allow her to understand how to control her power. Undeniably, it was true, so old seeker didn't want to argue anymore and just allowed Lambert girl to practice. 

What about Den? He decided that he really shouldn't spend whole days at headquarter. That day something changed and he stayed at home. Lok began to suspect that something had to be in the water between his sister and his best friend. After talking to his sister, it turned out that none of those things were happening. However, Lok still didn't know what was on Fears' mind.

"Hey, why you didn't go with them today?" Lambert asked Den.

"Harrison is with her, so why do they need me there too? Besides, you could also accompany Cathy from time to time. I think she was a bit sad without you nearby" Den replied, flipping through an article in the newspaper.

"You exactly know why I couldn't do it. Since Dante made me the leader, I have to deal with paperwork most of the time and rarely have any free time" Lok stated.

"I can see you digging into holotome and organizing files for the fourth day in a row." Sophie said, crossing her arms on the top of the chair where Lambert was sitting.

"Unfortunately, holotome doesn't have unlimited memory. I have to delete some files or move them to the cloud" Lok sighed.

"Just make sure you do it regularly and you'll find some free time" Cherit spoke up.

"Cherit is right. You only do it when the holotome starts yelling at you" Casterwill girl agreed with titan.

"Okay, okay. I understand. I don't have much left to organize anyway. If I manage to do it today, I'll go with Cathy tomorrow" Lok announced.

"If Cathy doesn't return by then, you go to her. Maybe you'll bring her luck on the exam" Fears said.

"When is she supposed to have it?" Lambert asked more animatedly.

He didn't know about any exam. Cathy told him nothing about it

"From what she said, it's at four" Den replied.

"It's two twenty-four. Maybe I can make it" the blond pondered to himself.

"Take action instead of pondering. Let girl feel she has support from you" Cherit advised.

"Thanks for the advice" Lok replied without taking his eyes off the holotome.

Den was playing chess with Cherit. He couldn't let up on him. He kept losing to that small titan! Sophie, with tea in hand, was reading through papers that had been sent by Teien. Lambert, after tensing up to finish the last bit of tidying, it was already quarter past three.

"I'll make it" Lambert thought, glancing at his watch on his wrist. "I'm going to Cathy" he announced.

"I've noticed lately that you get along well with Cathy" Sophie began when her boyfriend left home.

"When I first saw her at Lok's house, I thought she was weird. Now my opinion about her is completely different" Den replied.

"She's very friendly, doesn't she? When she told me she wanted to study history, for a moment I thought she and Lok couldn't be siblings." she said, amused.

"Yeah, she told me about her plans too" he sighed.

"Is something wrong?" she asked concerned.

"It's okay. What do you mean?" he replied.

"Sorry, but I have to ask. Did she reject you?" she asked bluntly.

Boy straightened up and looked at his friend. He was shocked what Sophie just said. Fears couldn't believe to hear that kind of question.

"No, she didn't reject me or anything like that. We're just friends. I'm just not feeling great today. A bit tired" he replied, embarrassed.

"Don't worry, Den, I won't say a word." she laughed.

"Ah, the youth... grows up so fast" small gargoyle thought and made a checkmate with a bishop.

"You were careless, my friend" he said to Den.

Cathy putting her through the hoops, struggled to maintain the correct color of the balls on the square board. She didn't even notice when Lok entered the room and stood behind her. Blonde turned around and was startled by her brother.

"Lok? What are you doing here?" she asked, surprised.

"I heard you're about to take the exam, so I came to support you." he replied.

"Den probably told you. Thanks. You didn't have to come."

Deep down, she was very happy that her dear brother decided to stop by. On the other hand, she felt more pressure on herself because she couldn't disappoint him. Suddenly, Clease entered the room.

"Ready?" he asked when he stood next to the girl.

"Yes" she replied.

"Lok, could you please step back? I don't want you to distract Cathy. And one more thing: Raypulse" the man struck the dummy with an orange beam.

Power finished Harrison's duel with the training machine, which was taking place in the first part of the room.

"Hey! Why did you do that?" Fears asked, outraged.

"You'll train again shortly" the man replied.

Lambert stood next to Clease, and they watched girl carefully. Harrison decided not to disturb and went to the library section.

"Just like yesterday, you have the same task to complete" said the librarian.

The older man clicked a button on the device's panel. Color of the balls divided into two mixed groups: red and blue. Cathy had to focus hard. The first red ball changed its color to blue. She moved her hand to the adjacent red ball. She had to release enough power so that the neighboring ones didn't change color. Another success. She handled the remaining ones similarly. Now a minute was passing. It felt like it had been five already. If Lambert stopped using her power, all balls would automatically turn their color to red. Cathy had to balance on minimal energy emission. That was not the easiest thing to do. She felt a drop running down her forehead.

"Okay, that's enough" the man said after jotting something down in his notebook.

"How did I do?" she asked.

"Before we get to the results, you have another task to complete."

Den warned her that coloring balls wouldn't be the end of it, so she tried to pretend to be surprised to avoid arousing his suspicions.

"Really? That was exhausting enough" muttered short-haired girl.

Clease adjusted the machine settings. Instead of the square of twenty-five balls, a moving platform appeared with a red ball in the center.

"Now I need you to maintain this ball" he announced.

"Compared to coloring, this task seems much simpler" she thought.

At first, she released little power to see how the ball would behave. Platform slowly tilted downward, and spherical object moved closer to the girl. Cathy had to immediately raise the platform to prevent the ball from falling off from square area.

"Maybe it's not as easy as I thought" she thought.

The sense of balance to keep ball from falling or bouncing wildly across the board was more demanding than she expected. At times, she had to increase the power, and at other times, dramatically reduce it. After a while, Cathy completed the second task and Clease wrote something down again.

"Will I find out how I did?" she asked.

"Everything in due time. It's time for the third task. Follow me." he answered.

They returned to the place where just a few minutes ago Harrison was fighting with the mannequin. The man used a spell to animate the mannequin, which had been lying on the floor until then.

"Defeat him. You can use your powers on him. You have five minutes. After that, the spell will deactivate by itself" man informed her, positioning himself against the wall.

"What does 'defeating him' mean when it's a machine?" she asked.

"If your opponent acknowledges defeat, you'll see his eyes change color to blue" the examiner explained.

"That would make sense" she muttered. "I haven't even warmed up today. It might be a bit risky" she thought.

The iron mannequin with red eyes stood opposite Cathy.

"Boltflare!" a burst of energy quickly struck its chest.

After a moment, the spell was directed towards the girl, who ducked to avoid it. Lambert energetically jumped behind her opponent and delivered a left fist blow to the back of mechanical head, then followed up with an Augerfrost from her right hand to the middle of its back. She felt the consequences of not warming up. Despite using hyperstride, she felt a strain in her left thigh. She had to deal with the pain for a moment.

"What's wrong with you today?" she joked at the artificial man, giving herself a moment to catch her breath.

Unexpectedly, her enemy used Augerfrost. Cathy narrowly avoided getting hit. From behind her, there was a loud thud against the wall.

"I shudder to think what would have happened if I hadn't avoided that hit" she thought.

She clenched her right hand into a fist, then used Dragonfist on mannequin's face and quickly swept its legs, followed by a binding spell. She noticed that the color of its eyes changed to blue. She walked over to Clease.

"Was it special examination model?" she asked.

"Yes. We received it for testing. It was the same one Harrison was tested on yesterday." Clease replied.

"His counterattacks are quite impressive when it comes to spells" Lok remarked.

"Congratulations on passing the exam" man said after jotting something down in his notebook, then closing it.

"I knew you could do it! After all, we're a family of seekers" Lambert hugged his sister. "Do you want to try summoning our mom's titans?" her brother suggested.

"You could at least ask if I feel up to it first" she rolled her eyes.

"Do you feel up to it?" he asked then smiled.

"Maybe I'll muster up a little more energy for that" she replied before tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.

Two hours later, Lambert siblings returned home. The rest of the team was already waiting for them.

"I heard you passed. Congratulations!" Sophie spoke up.

"Thanks. It wasn't easy" the short-haired girl said.

Cathy noticed Harrison nudging Den with his elbow, then whispering something to him.

"We have a new mission" Dante announced, descending the stairs and passing by Cathy, who was heading to her room.

"I'll join you in a moment" she said.

Ever since Vale returned from an unknown place, he had been holed up in his room. Den came to see Lambert girl.

"Oh, it's just you. Is something wrong?" she asked, turning away from the drawer where she was searching for something.

"Nothing special. I wanted to tell you something" he replied.

^*^*^*^*^

Hello dear readers! I hope you're fine those days. And I am too. Why? I finished writing fanfic so translated chapters will be faster than one chapter per month. 

Wish you wonderful day and see you very soon in next chapters!