I

According to the records, these demon-like entities first appeared around 300 years ago. After 'The Nth great impact' 500 years ago, these eerie, dark energies were spread all over the continent, across all five nations.

Due to the increase in toxicity of air due to these energies. The human body in the coming years showed mutation and went through changes to survive in this environment. This gave rise to the birth of humans with an enhanced sense of energies.

The entities appeared around two centuries after 'the Nth great impact'. There were many theories made over the whole topic, but no one knows how exactly they originated. Then, stronger entities were mentioned to appear and nobody stood a chance against them. Eva was formed, who protected Lydia for over centuries now. But they were never able to bring down these ranks; as they called themselves.

That was until some days ago. . . when Sallos was taken down.

But what did this victory cost? William lost one leg from the shin. He had no strength left, and, for some reason, tears didn't stop from his eyes.

Pushing his body against the ground, William glanced up to notice Charlotte, slowly walking towards him. She, too, struggled to walk but refused to stop.

Charlotte was worried, seeing William like this. William's life force is depleting quickly. . . I need to hurry, She thought.

An intense spark was felt, all of a sudden, in my head. A strange, unknown feeling. Before they could realize, a structure appeared around them.

Is it not over yet? William looked around, with a shocked face.

"So. . . it's true, I see," came a dense voice, inside the dome. "The fourth son has awakened."

Out of thin air, inside the structure, appeared a pattern on the walls behind William, and two dark tentacle-like creations came through it, cutting the air, straight towards him. William's exhausted body, with his bleeding leg, frozen and refused to move.

He exhaled while his eyes saw the flexible creations rushing toward him.

Before those creations reached him, Charlotte reached and jumped between. She grabbed both strong and flexible tentacle creations with her hands and tried to stop them. Out of the blue, as her grip tightened around the tentacles, Charlotte lost her strength and got the hit. Those flexible creations went, piercing through her body, spattering her blood on William.

"Char. . ." William's eyes widened. "Noo!"

"No-no, please no. This can't be happening," he mumbled to himself. "The voice inside me. I need your strength back. Please, help me save her."

The voice inside said to him, with its tone being cold this time, "Your body and your energy control is weak. You can't change a thing. . . or bring yourself to handle me."

"So. . . that thing won't help?" William went cold like a rock.

Charlotte's body was lifted in the air with those structures in front of his eyes. Charlotte had no strength left to resist them. William's body didn't move; he had no choice but to stay and watch. A figure appeared from the air and stood on the surface, with his dark and way denser life force. His apathetic, cold face facing the young person, he noticed on the ground.

". . .I missed the boy?" The figure said to himself. "Doesn't matter."

One more tenticle-like creation appeared from the same pattern on the wall, headed toward Sallos's and lifted his lifeless body.

"Who are you?" William shouted.

"They. . . call me Naberius," he paused. "One of the rank, chosen by him. We should have anticipated this 'awakening' possibility. But, you humans shall face the consequences of disturbing this ceremony."

A sound of strike echoed in the area, followed by a strong lightning strike right on the top of the dark cubic creation. The creation started to break apart, disintegrated until finally disappeared, and I was able to catch a glance of William and Charlotte.

Two dark tentacles, stabbed through Charlotte's belly and her, losing her consciousness, was the scene I saw. In anxiety, I wanted to scream, but my voice failed me. Controlling myself, I looked in the direction of the voice.

There was a person, dressed in white, and a big cloak. He was floating high above the area. His face was calm, but his life force was strong.

"You did well, William," the person in the air said.

"Steve. . .?" Naberius said, looking at the men.

Naberius looked around towards all the possessed people standing nearby. "These possessed humans don't serve a purpose anymore... Unfortunate." He said with a dense face.

More tentacles-like creations appeared from the pattern in the air, behind him, to kill every innocent possessed human on the site. Those flexible creations, went throughout the square and nearby area, slaughtering every possessed. My grip tightened around my blade, ready to evade those, but the creations missed me.

The person floating in the sky rushed towards Naberius, but he was not quick enough. Naberius-with those creations, holding Charlotte and lifeless Sallos-disappeared from the place. William could only catch the sight of Charlotte's eyes looking at him, before they were gone.

II

Rita's eyes felt dizzy as if a weird spell was cast. After struggling to open her eyes, she found herself in front of an old, strange mansion. The mansion, created out of the finest wood and architecture, but was deserted now.

A vision flashed, making Rita recognise the place she stood outside of. She remembered reading about this place in records. The mansion was the previous main office of Eva. This mansion was used when Eva was a vigilante group-not legal, and was hiding itself from the royal militia.

"Why. . . am I here?"

Rita moved a step closer to the main door of the mansion. Her hands touched the doors and many, different sounds, whispers and voices reached out to her ears from inside the place.

"These possessed don't serve purpose anymore," she heard. "Unfortunate."

What was that? She asked herself.

Sliding the main door open, Rita entered the old mansion. The hanging lamps lit up the hallways with their light-yellow light, which also shined on the polished wooden floor in the place. But, the place was dead-quiet.

"T-this existence, it's weird, isn't it, R-Rita?" Charlotte's, breaking voice reached out to her, whispering.

"Char-"

Before she could complete, Rita's eyes opened to find herself on her bed in the room. She woke up from her haunting dream. Her room was dark with only a small lamp, flashing outside her half-open door.

A dream. . . She said to herself.

Rita could feel Charlotte's energies all over her place. Just like a flow of waves in the calm water, except, it was around her in the room. Energy flow, though, was intense as if chaos was surrounding her. More breaking and mumbling voices reached her ears.

Sliding herself out of the blankets, Rita walked toward the source of the waves, her drawer, and removed a certain artefact, wrapped in a cloth, from it. Rita carefully unfolded the cloth, removing the jade knife out of it. An old, still shining and sharp knife with some gold plating on the edges of the handle.

As she held the knife in her plams, the waves of energies calmed until finally stopped. The mumbling voices soon stopped, leaving the room calm as if nothing had happened.

"Charlotte's old blade," Rita remembered. "Is it some kind of resonance technique? Charlotte often did that before."

"Rita, you're leaving already?"

She remembered her last conversation with Charlotte. That day was around three years ago, when Rita had decided to continue Eva work from behind the covers, and settle in the town of Zora.

Rita responded with a casual smile, "Well, I have to. I need to look after someone."

Charlotte tucked her on the shoulder, casually pushing her ahead, "Don't tell me it's William again."

"Well, you guessed it."

"Of course I did, who else would it be," Charlotte replied in a tone. Charlotte removed a small box out of her attire and extended her arm forward. "Here. Something I would like if you accept."

Rita grabbed the box as if snatching the chocolates. The box was opened to reveal a Jade knife with a royal seal, wrapped in a red cloth, resting inside it.

Rita's eyes glanced at Charlotte, "Isn't that your weapon?" and she made a face. "Aww, don't tell me you're missing me already."

Charlotte made a face, "Cut it out," she replied. "I see no reason to miss anyone. It's just so you can have something from the royal family. We'll be working far away from each other anyway. Rest assured, I'm not missing you."

"And, that's so much like you, Ms Rose," Rita replied in a tone. "It's fine. Don't worry, I might still be visiting the capital sometimes."

"Wait-really," Charlotte replied. "Um-well, I don't care anyway."

Rita couldn't help but laugh at Charlotte's reactions. She still remembered how inconsistent Charlotte's nature was, just like hers. One moment she was a serious 'work-is-everything' lady, the other moment, she was a casual one.

~~

What's happening? Rita said to herself. Charlotte's life force. . . why is it so surrounded by chaos?

While Rita was confused with many questions, constantly flooding in her mind, a telephone ring was heard from downstairs, snapping her back from her thoughts. Rita wrapped back the red cloth around the knife and kept it back inside the box, in the shelf. She walked downstairs and picked the call.

"Hello, it's Kaslana residence," she replied the call.

The call went on and the whole time, Rita replied with, "Oh, the director . . . uhm, not at all, I was awake. . . What? . . . Uh. . . ohh. . .

She said, "I'll be reporting there as soon as possible," before the call ended and the communication line was cut. Rita kept the receiver back on the dialler unit, looking down at it. Her mind was not confused anymore. Rita's fist slammed on the piece of table beside the telephone. Her eyes, failed to control the tears.

"Hey, you must be Rita Kaslana, right?"

Rita, again, remembered the day of their Elite trials. The time when she was cold like ice and awful at socialising. The first day, when she was acquainted with Charlotte. Eight people, including her and Charlotte, were chosen to ascend and attempt for Elite trials.

Rita turned to the voice, noticing a young lady, same as her, dressed in red, looking at her. "Yes. Do we know each other?"

"Ah-no," Charlotte replied with a start, "Of course not. Pardon me, actually. Except me, there was only one other female selected for the elite trials. So, I assumed."

Apathetically, Rita said, "There's no need to apologise."

Charlotte gave a questioning look, "Uh. . . okay. So, you are Rita, right?"

Rita nodded.

"Well, there are only two of us, as of now, in the Elite trials then," Charlotte said. "Let's do good and get along together."

"If I'm not wrong," Rita, replied, showing no emotions on her. "I think only one person will be selected for the further Elite stage, so. . . I don't know about getting along."

Charlotte continued to smile, "Still, we can still be friends, and maybe good comrades in future, who knows?"

"And why do you think I can be a good comrade?"

"You're strong and different from others," Charlotte replied. "I can sense your energies and can see it in your eyes. I'm sure you're much different than others. Call me Charlotte, by the way."

"Hm," Rita nodded. "Pleasure, Charlotte."

Charlotte was always a ball of energy and a little weird, in a good way. But she was kind, and her life-force was always friendly. . . Just like William.

Tears still refused to stop from her eyes. Rita got down to her knees in front of the same table of the telephone box. Her fist slammed again, this time on the floor of the hallway.

"Charlotte. . . that idiot."