Location — Sector 24

Time — 19:17 PM

Chewing gum that had already lost its taste, Lesser Earth walked out of the airport, stretched his body, and took a deep breath before shouting with all his heart,  "I'm finally here!"

The others coming and going from the airport laughed at the bizarre young man's antics. To his right, he saw two guards looking at him with raised brows shaking their heads.

"Don't disturb the public, sir." Airport security warned.

"Hehe, sorry about that." Lesser Earth shyly apologized realizing how he was acting.

Lesser Earth looked around the airport and could not believe how fast it got fixed. Sector 24's airport was one of the places that got damaged the most.

It had only been a month and a half since the Flood happened. But there was barely any more signs of destruction that remained.

'They already rebuilt it from scratch. What about the Walls? Did they rebuild it yet? Given they managed to receive a lot of help, this is still impressive for such a low-rank city. They are also getting more tourists. Sector 24 might get bumped in the rankings soon.'

Sector 24 was a Tier-5 City. But with its changes and the number of strong hunters increasing, Lesser Earth could see the Sector getting a bump a tier, "Well, that's enough of that. Should I go to the Skull Attraction?"

Lesser Earth decided to sight see.

"You will do no such thing." A woman with blue hair remarked with apparent contempt behind her voice, "You're the Lesser Earth; please act with befitting your rank."

"...if I don't look at her, she does not exist."

"I am by your side, I can hear you just fine. It appears Lesser Heaven was correct about you." the woman coldly added.

"Ahh~ so nice to meet you in person too, Lesser Hell. Sorry, I didn't see you there. How are you, my lady?" Lesser Earth greeted with a laugh, ignoring her words, "Please don't tell Lesser Heaven. She's going to be mad and nag at me again. Though in my defense, your beauty attracted more attention than I ever could."

"...you really think so?" Lesser Hell's face flushed at the mention and immediately hid her face with a handkerchief.

"Of course, that could be the only reason. After all, a beauty such as you appears to brighten their day —though it's already night — why wouldn't they be looking at you?"

"Sto-Stop that, I know already, sheesh!" Lesser Hell "gently tapped" Lesser Earth's right shoulder.

"Augh!" Lesser Earth bit his lips as he felt his shoulder almost dislodged from its sockets, "Strong… as ever… I see."

He commented as he tried to stretch his shoulder.

'She just never gets used to it, does she?' He thought to himself.

Lesser Hell was a woman who looked to be in her mid-twenties. Like what Lesser Earth said, she was someone whose beauty garnered attention wherever she went.

How she carried herself paired with her piercing eyes and her perfect figure were not something anyone, man or woman, could ignore.

But her facade crumbles with one sweet word. However, she's really weak to compliments. Blushing every time she gets one.

Lesser Hell tried her best to stifle the smile, to act cold and passive, but she couldn't stop her lips from curving up. She sat on the throne that required the slightest emotion yet, amongst the three Lesser Thrones, she's the most expressive of them all.

She does try to bury all of it, though her efforts remain unrewarded.

"A-ahem, anyway, I'm already attracting too much attention, so don't be too loud, okay?"

"Yes, Ma'am." Lesser Earth saluted.

"Stop that, Axis. You're embarrassing me." Lesser Hell reprimanded and walked away, "Come, let's go. to the Hotel. We're wasting time and Stella doesn't like to wait."

"Axis? Stella? So, we're going to use our names? I thought we weren't allowed to call each other that?" asked Axis while following Lesser Hell, "Ah! Wait a minute!"

As they exited the airport, there was already a black car waiting for them outside.

"Your luggage, Sir." A man wearing a butler's suit offered to take Axis' duffle bag but was rejected to even touch it.

"No one touches my baby; you got that? Also, on the way to the hotel, can we get some food? Just get me three dozen burgers or something."

"...Of course, sir." The Butler opened the doors as he answered.

The car soon took off with the two Lesser Thrones inside.

"Continuing what we were talking about, will Stella be all right with this? She can be quite annoying when the rules aren't followed. She'll yell at us, you know? It's already hard to listen to her from the other side of the world." he graciously warned.

" She won't say anything, it's protocol. This is your first time joining another one of the same position as you so it's not weird that you don't know. But when on a mission together, we use our names. it's far less conspicuous if we use our names. When we move in public, we leave behind the Thrones, and we return to this realm of mortality where our judgment could be clouded, and our lives are lost."

"Wait… what about our weapons then!? I created that masterpiece using materials I got from the Vault!" Axis' heart started beating faster, "It took me so long to create that weapon! I am not going to fight without my masterpiece! My gauntlets cannot be replaced!"

"Don't worry, it is just a metaphor. We don't lose our positions.  The throne is still ours. Your weapon was sent ahead of time." she explained.

Axis breathed a sigh of relief, "That's good, that's good. I don't work well with weapons I don't create myself. And I don't think we have enough time to create another one."

"You would have been able to carry it with you if you took Private Transport instead of flying commercial… why would you want to torture yourself?"

Lesser Hell let out an exasperated sigh. She could not understand why Axis would prefer traveling using commercial airships when he could use the ones they were provided.

Axis just shrugged his shoulders, "Don't know, I just like going at my own pace. Besides, there are still like two weeks before it awakens. We can take our time."

"Your burgers, sir." The Butler handed Axis two paper bags from the front seat.

"Thank you~" Axis took three paper bags containing three dozen burgers and began chowing down, "You want some, Lesser Hell?"

"No thanks… and again, call me by name."

"But I don't know your name. I only know Stella's because she and I came from the same Facility—though she doesn't know that, hahaha."

Lesser Hell just shook her head in response, "It's Krystal."

"Cute name."

Krystal blushed but kept a straight face.

"Want to watch a video about this place to gather information? There are videos of the Saintess."

"I know everything about Sector 24 from its underworld to the little daemon."

"Suit yourself."

Without anything to talk about, Axis and Krystal enjoyed a ride of silence. Axis just watched videos on his phone while Krystal answered messages from her HNP. The two of them were in the same position, but they had no obligations to talk.

The two arrived at the hotel after fifteen minutes, just in time as Axis had finished his burgers already.

[Yul's Hotel]

They left for the top room where Lesser Heaven, or rather, Stella, was waiting for their arrival.

Ding!

The first thing Axis and Krystal saw when the elevator's doors opened was a girl wearing a traditional robe while reading through dozens of opened panels around her.

She had straight long black hair that almost touched the ground. Her eyes were gentle but they expertly hid the intent of someone who could see through anyone. Her skin was like jade, but she was by no means fragile.

Her dress was reminiscent of an Era long forgotten in the East. A way of living taught to her Master, someone who keeps the tradition alive.

This lady was none other than the owner of the Lesser Throne of Heaven and her name was Stella.

She looked away from her work for a moment as she looked.

They caught her attention and instantly shot Axis a glare, "You've finally arrived? You're late."

"Can you please keep it to yourself? I already got the talk from Krystal; there's no need for any more torture, right?" Axis walked right past Stella and dove headfirst into the sofa while his eyes never left his phone for a second.

"Are you really going to play with your phone? Are you not going to

"I hurt my wrists. Can't carve runes… sorry."

"Didn't you hurt your leg yesterday?"

"Oh, that too, ugh… it hurts… I'm going to die. I might be rendered unable to help in clearing the Cataclysm if this continues. Someone… help meeee~"

Stella wanted to kill Axis right then and there, to make him disappear from her sight; alas, she couldn't as they would need all the help they could, especially when this mission was a secret.

A Cataclysm was a secret even to the highest positions of the World Government and the Hunter Association. Even in Penta, only the select few like the [Numbered] knew of their existence.

It was so dangerous that its knowledge alone would throw the world's balance in a disarray.

Even members of the Lesser Thrones would have to take this matter seriously. If it becomes public knowledge, mass hysteria and panic might arise.

"Krystal, your bow arrived just now."

"Really!?" Krystal showed genuine joy, "Where is it!?"

"It is in your room. You can inspect and augment it for later. First, we need to talk with the Chief of the Hunter Association in these parts. With the seat of the presidency empty, we can't rely on them to keep this under wraps. We need to take care of this on our own—"

"Heh—hehehehe."

As Stella explained, Axis' laughter filled the entire room. Gradually becoming louder with every second.

Stella would've ignored him, if not for it being so infuriating, "Can you please keep quiet? If you only plan on lounging rather than crafting the tools we need, I'd suggest you go to your room and not get in the way. Rest for the night, and hopefully your wrists can heal so you can get to work tomorrow; how about that?"

"Oh, sorry, but… okay, I just want to confirm something. This Cataclysm incident is under wraps, correct? We had it secured, correct? Like, the [EYE] took control of the matter, right?"

"Yes, do you wish to be given a medal for such astute observation?" Stella quipped.

"Oh, that's not what I meant. It's just that, I think being covert is impossible now."

Axis threw his HNP over at Stella and told her to read the headlines. Stella half-expected it to be a joke, but her face twisted as she went through a very particular article.

The article read — Priestess Lilith of the Goddess Letza, holding a conference about a new Cataclysm-Tier Daemon? —