We found the bodies of four adults, three men, and a woman. 

Gunshot wounds to the back and side of their heads... there was not even a sign of a struggle.

One of the locals that came with us, Victor had identified the bodies as friends and family from Lucas.

The last time anyone saw them they were escaping the village with their younger siblings or children in hand. No traces of the children were found. 

I intend to follow the old road through the misty mountains leading to Abler, the locals there do not like visitors, but if anything has come through these mountains they will know. I just pray that my lessons in Alermuric are enough to build a dialogue.

I feel bad leaving the people of Lucas in such a shabby state but they are right, a building can be rebuilt. But a person cannot.

I'll tally up the number of people who are missing when I get back.  

Sophie - July 21st, 2764

Andrew

He staggered onto his feet to the sound of something large crashing through rubble close by, the faint scream of heavy raindrops helped ground Andrew back into the world he briefly left. The memories of how he wound up on his front were missing. His back ached along with his throbbing head. Seeing a static and cracked lens when he opened his eyes panicked him at first until she remembered that he had thermal goggles on his eyes, pulling off the device he threw the shattered remains off to one side as he regained his bearings.

Now using his naked eyes in what felt like forever he was met with the blurry sight of the dark brown slabs of concrete with shattered rubble spilling off to one side. Just up ahead the legs of Dawn came into view making him both relieved concerned that he was somehow still alive. This can be for only two reasons. One he’d passed out but only for a few seconds, and Dawn did not notice, or two, he’d been out longer but in Dawn's strange interest in him, he decided to hang back and keep him alive. Andrew’s mind was too fuzzy to really come to terms with any of them but he’d hoped that it was the former. He could faintly hear the vehicle of winds and rumbling thunder to the far back. Chancing a glance back Andrew sees the light of the base's exit at the end of the hall that he’s cut open for the kids before making his way back to Natalie.

“Begining to wonder if I'm hitting you hard enough,” Dawn said cooly.

Forcing himself up straight and staggering into some kind of stance Andrew stood there, fighting for air he willed himself to hold his ground against the Nova.

His sight was a blur as he tried to get his bearings, for one brief moment he’d forgotten why he was standing there until he gave his head a light shake. He frequently demands more strength from his body and more stability of balance, but like trying to start a stalling engine, he feels weaker from the attempt. He needed to check his wounds, Andrew's ribs felt pretty bad and it felt like his neck had been stretched up to the point of a giraffe. He wanted to back away and retreat down the hall to light and freedom but knowing the kind of weapons Dawn has to turn his back to it meant death. Despite everything, Andrew found comfort in putting up enough of a fight for the kids to perhaps run far enough to not be captured too easily. At worst they get rounded up and brought back but at least with them off and running there was still hope.

Andrew was ready and willing to die on that wish until a sound cut through his lament as if to mock them, off out there in the distance he could hear the faint but distinct sound of one of the kids that they helped escape. They were out there shouting their lungs off in a language that he did not for the life of him understand.

It’s the one who stuck close with Natalie!

Cursing under his breath he locks eyes with Dawn knowing for certain that he too heard it. He noticed the handy work he did on the cockpit, besides the leg slash he’d widened the opening that Natalie made into the cockpit giving a clean gap into the pilot chair. The man within had on a black helmet but even so it gave Andrew a needed reminder that behind this junk of destructive mass was just a human.

Perhaps seeing that calming realization show on his face Dawn stepped in and kicked Andrew with its sharp talon-like feet. Andrew blocked it to only stagger clumsily back onto the ground and slid to a halt. The sound of rain got close as well as the desperate cries of the foreign-speaking girl. All the while Andrew's desperation rose.

"You hear that?" Dawn said through his speakers. "Just a hop and a skip away from the children."

Andrew couldn't see it because of his helmet but he could tell that Dawn was smiling behind the cockpit. With his back to the outside and the rumbling sound of thunder enticing him Andrew clenched onto his blade and made a big gamble. Turning his back on Dawn he legs it for the exit, light, and freedom.

Stepping into the rain Andrew turned around to the sound of rockets propelling towards him. Spinning the sword behind his back in a reverse grip Andrew used

Lone shadow and fades out of sight and into his shadow on the floor. The rockets passed the spot he was last standing in before exploding on the ground a few feet ahead of him. He felt like he avoided a disaster until he heard the screaming of other children who were too close to the blast zone.

Andrew emerges from his shadow looking at the impact of the rocket with widened eyes, praying that nobody fell victim to his reckless decision. The heavy rain made visibility poor; no longer could he see the great mountains that surrounded the area.

He sees most of the children running and screaming from the blast site and scattering in different directions. All save for the foreign girl who had her back to both him and Nova; she kept on screaming the same thing out into the sheet of rain over and over as if calling for them to help.

"You first, then the kids," Dawn said snarkily.

He heard the Nova closing in on him. Using his sword as a supporting stick he knew that he had little strength left to withstand another blow from the giant machine. He needed a miracle and the time for that was quickly slipping away.

Out of options out of cards to play Andrew just stood there looking at Dawn's demise approaching. In that desperate state, his thoughts went back to Natalie.

You’d gone and said it, didn't you? You said that you will get them out of this hell, Andrew thought to himself, he watched as the Nova overshadowed him, It’s killing intent making it seem even taller yet. If I die here then fine, but keep ahold of your promises damn it!!

As if in answer to his inner turmoil a great bolt of lightning fell from the sky and struck Dawn upon its cockpit. The deafening sound of thunder and flashes of purple light temporarily overwhelmed Andrews's senses to such a point that for a second he was uncertain if he was still alive or not. When he came to he saw Dawn crashing down on the ground behind him. The screams and cries of the pilot writhed in the heavy rainfall. Looking back at the broken rock face entrance he sees Natalie making her way towards him with black feathered wings stretched forth and eyes a thunderhead of cold anger.

"You should have never stepped out of the shadows," She said, her tone seeped with venom.

Dawn gets up in a stagger only to be plastered down to the dirt by another intense thunderbolt from on up high. It was summoned with a single waving hand gesture of Natalie.

Andrew watched as Natalie mercilessly rains down intense bolts of streaming purple electricity to smite Nova, the thunderous roar of the onslaught was only surpassed by the hellish screams of the pilot within it.

As the smoke and steam from her barrage evaporated, rain itself let up, Natalie made it to Andrew’s side as she observed the now Fallen Nova. stropping his hands to his knees Andrew took this time to recover from his heavy fatigue. Natalie walked on past him before stopping right in front of Dawn, her back facing his.

"Got bored of sightseeing? Because I had everything under control here, you could go back in and take a picture of the damn place if you’d want it will last longer." Andrew picked up.

He tried to make light of the intense situation he found himself in. He tried to keep his anger down on the fact that she’d ran off in the first place. His shaking hands betrayed him however and he was glad that for once Natalie was not looking at him at that moment.

"I wasn’t thinking things through back there, I'm sorry," Natalie said softly.

Andrew, a little taken aback, turned around to look back at her in shock, worried that his sarcastic comments will kill the mood. He could only shake his head with a content smile plastered over his face. However, that moment was short-lived when the Nova Dawn began to stire on the ground.

This time, however, its strange humming sound began to rise and rise to greater decibels. Natalie and Andrew, equally shocked by this looked upon this almost at a loss for words as it somehow stood back up on its feet. They yet to have proof but they were more than certain that its power was somehow rising.

Andrew was at a loss until he saw the gap that was cut through the cockpit of the Nova with his handy work, their handy work. Able to make out the now cracked black helmet within the shadows of this opening his mind lit up.

"The gap, strike him through the gap!!" Andrew demanded.

Natalie's purple eyes reverted to her normal one and widened, having likely overlooked this fact due to how her other sight works Andrew thanked himself for stating something that to him seemed really obvious.

Seeing the opening Natalie concentrated a condensed ball of electricity within one palm. With Dawn spitting profanities within his now rage-induced machine, Natalie made the first move by jumping above the cockpit, people electricity sparked light off her hand like a flickering star as she crashed down upon Dawn with an explosive current of electricity.

Like an EMP wave, it pulsed along the ground. Landing within the gap it was only a matter of time before the force field gave away allowing the current to land directly into the cockpit cooking the pilot within like an egg still in its shell.

For a moment everything went silent save for the falling rain. Sounds of the foreign girl calling the same call to the vast sea of rain continued. The Nova toppled to the ground once again but Natalie did not let up. As she stood on top of it she pushed more electricity through the opening. The sounds of the Nova’s rising power stopped. All went silent, Andrew sighed at relief at the outcome, he began to make his way walk towards her until he heard Dawn still corking for air within.

Knowing that Natalie did not finish him tied a knot within his gut. It meant that she was not done, that she still had business to deal with just like when left him with Dawn to chase a lead.

"Natalie, what are you doing?" Andrew said, hurrying his strides. He knew the answer before he asked, however.

"I told you that I will beat you to an inch of your life," She said, eyes narrowed towards the cockpit.

"I-I'm... sorry!" Dawn struggled to push out between weak pants.

Andrew stopped mid-way now slightly baffled by his choice of words.

"You ready to talk?" Natalie said.

"E-e-e-Epimetheus..." he pushed.

"Is that the one you also call father?" Natalie said.

"'Father?'" This was the first time Andrew was hearing this.

"I'm sorry-" Dawn mumbled hoarsely.

"Enough with the apologies and out with it!! It’s him isn't it-you lied-he’s not dead! Tell me where can I find him?! Where did you take the children?!"

Andrew suddenly felt uneasy. Thinking back to his attempt at integration-hell even before then there was something he’d been saying that he overlooked for the problem at hand. He knew that it was at the tip of his tongue but all the knocking around he sustained has left his thoughts fuzzy.

"M-master I'm sorry." Dawn whimpered weakly.

Natalie’s baffled look turned into one of utter shock, that face she had on now was like the one she gave once within the base when she looked up. And that’s when it hit him, he overlooked it not just because of the head damage he sustained but also because he linked with Dawn’s master to him and his father because Dawn mentioned that he too can use dark knight energy just like him. He remembered the last time he heard him bring up that title sure but at the time he was such a big issue it did not dawn on him that just because he was a big problem it doesn't mean that he was the biggest problem in the room.

He's not the leader!! ninety-nine alarm bells blew up within Andrew's mind as once.

"We need to get out of here, now!!" He shouted to Natalie whilst gathering his strength to run.

Someone with the same affinity as mine.

It was just impossible. Never had he ran into another dark knight beside his father-hell even his father told him that much from his own travels. Had this been any other time-another place Andrew would be eager to meet this alleged knight and pick his brain on many things dark affinity related. God knows his father had been tight-lipped about what the deal was with their powers. Had this been another situation Andrew would be delighted… but this…

Natalie looked over to Andrew spaced out. She likely saw the conflict and fear on his face and Andrew right now did not care-let her see. So Long as it prevents her from being stubborn on getting as far away from here as possible then he’d gladly look like a spooked cat for now. Before she could comment on this, however, he heard it. They all heard it. Another voice with yet a face to identify enters from the void all around them.

"You did well, Dawn."

The world became dark, and the very skies themselves became blanketed by a darkness that seemed boundless yet elusive all at the same time.

They were too late… this master, dark knight-this Epimetheus. He was here.