Later that night, Saul was in his room rubbing aloe vera on his stomach as he was doing pushups with hot coal underneath him all day. While he was applying it with his left hand, he is also reading the small tome book he got from training with Andrea and Miyoko with his right hand. However, the majority of the spells in the tome are written in Latin. Though Saul understands Spanish and a bit of Italian, Latin was a whole different ballpark for him to read. Let alone try to speak it since Latin is considered a dead language in his world. And the translation app on his phone is barely helping translate them as it would give him multiple answers of how it translated as.

“Uugghh! Damn that stings!” Saul grunts as he rubs aloe vera on his chest. “Wish it didn’t sting this much.”

Just as he said that the tome book began to flip its pages on its own and stops at a page where it shows a drawing depicting a demon-like figure holding its hands up in the air surrounding his hands an aura of light. Then in the next page shows the demons putting its hands on another demon as if it’s healing their comrade’s wounds. The tome then highlighted the spell above the drawing as Saul attempted to say the spell.

“Cre-cremant in-infir-mos. Cremant Infirmos?” Saul guessed the pronunciation.

Just as he said the spell’s name, his left hand began to glow faintly with a green aura and the aloe vera from his hand began to vanish. Only the glowing aura of his hand remained, waiting to be used. He looks back at the tome and copies the motions that are drawn in the tome and rubs it against his chest and stomach. As he starts to rubs his hand against his chest, he feels the pain itself fading away as he placed his hand. Slowly, he moves his hand down towards his stomach as the pain, and even the burns faded away. As soon as he was done the aura magic from his hand began to fade as well, fulfilling its purpose.

“I didn’t know I could use magic here.” He said to himself.

He flexes and twisted his hand around as he could feel the muscle and bones in his hand were loosen up. So loose that he couldn’t stop twirling hand around a lot. Regardless, he continues to read the tome and try to memorize each of the spells but he didn’t try to pronounce it as he believes that saying any of them would set the spells off in his room even if his magic is weak. He read through the tome until he reaches the halfway point of the tome and places a bookmarker on where he is at and heads to sleep. The next morning, he wakes up to see Frey waiting for him in his chair.

“Frey? What are you doing here?” he asks as he rubs his eyes. Frey didn’t spoke a word at first but then he closes the door and sits back on the chair.

“Kid, we got another job today.” Frey said.

Saul’s heartbeat just dropped when Frey said that. Another job? Like the last one? Flashbacks of the last job he went on began to blur quickly through his eyes as he remembered his first kill against the mercenary who tried to take his life.

“Kiddo!” Frey exclaimed as Saul was brought back into reality.

“Sorry. I was lost in my own thoughts.” He said.

“Thinking about what happened last time?” Frey asked.

Saul shouldn’t exactly be surprised that Frey knew what he was thinking about yet he was. He clutches his hands tightly as his heart begins to race a bit. But he knew he couldn’t just stand oddly by like a coward forever.

“Listen kid, if you can’t stomach this like last time then you don’t have to come. I’ll just tell the others that you’re still not up for it-“

“I’m going!”

Frey quickly raised his head and was a bit shocked that Saul would want to go. And even though his expression shows that he’s determined. Deep within Saul’s eyes, fear still lives within him.

“How can I prove myself as a member if I’m standing by my own fear? Let me come with you guys!” he said.

Frey gave him a stern look on Saul. He didn’t say anything but gave him the look of “Are you sure?” while he got up from the chair. He then slowly reaches his hand out to Saul and places his hand on the top of his head.

“Alright, then kiddo. Then let’s get going.” Frey said.

Frey leaves and waits for Saul in the bathroom as he changes out of his pjs and changes into a more comfortable. He heads to the bathroom where Frey begins to open the portal to the demonic realm. Both of them traveled through the portal and returned to the demonic realm. They exited out of the other bathroom and made their way to the dining hallway where the others were waiting. However, as they were making their way over, Saul was still feeling tensed up that he now had to go on another job with the group. How it will turn out or fair compared to the last where he killed a merc out of fear and self-defense? He clutches his chest as he felt the fear inside of him creep in.

“Hey, keep it cool kid.” Frey spoke out and placed his hand on Saul’s shoulder. “We haven’t gone to the meeting you’re already tense. Just listen carefully to what goes on and follow our lead. Got it?” he asked.

Saul took in a deep breath and breathed a sigh of relief. He then nodded and agreed with Frey as they made their way to the meeting. Misty and BB were standing by the dining hall’s main and opened the doors for them as the others were already waiting at the table waiting for Frey. However, what surprised them the most was that Saul was with him. The table in the dining hall was replaced with a roundtable with a crystal ball right in the middle. Frey and Saul took their seats in the roundtable with everyone setting up their gear in the mists. However, as Saul took his seat, he noticed that there was one seat next to him was empty. Which he wondered if he really met everyone in the group. Like he met Sara, Frey, Andrea, Miyoko, Kam, Jax, and then Xin. Who else was there to meet? But the others didn’t seem to mind as they were occupied in looking through their gear.

Sara was looking through her arrows and changed some of the tips of the arrows which were dulled and sharpened. Andrea was rapidly reading through a big book of spells as it illuminated with every page she turns. Miyoko was cracking her whip and placing it back in between her chests. Kam and Jax were grinding small stones against the edge of their weapons. Jax had a long sword staff with a lightning bolt etched into the blade itself while Kam had a huge two-handed battle Axe with a …. Gun barrel at the tip of it? Xin was going through her smaller weapons such as small needles, a chain whip with a spear tip at the end of it, and her fans which were serrated at the fan’s tips and Frey was looking at his Odachi blade to see if there was any chips or dullness on his blade. Everyone is looking through their own gear except for me. Suddenly, Saul felt a small tug from my left shoulder. He turns to my left to see BB holding a sword and a heater shield in her hands.

“It just came this morning. After the meeting, please come accompany me and Misty.” BB whispers to my ear.

She places the sword and shield next to me and quietly rushes out of the door. He slowly grabbed the scabbard of the sword and slowly felt the weight of the sword itself. He doesn’t remember the sword being that heavy when he wielded it the first time. He unsheathes the blade itself and sees the blade itself has changed itself as changed. The inner sanctum of the blade has been darkened black with a bright silver outline at the blade ends of the sword. It was like a work of art but it was still functional. He grips the handle of the sword but then hears a deep resonance coming from the blade itself. Like Tengumaru, he could hear a chime coming from the blade itself however it was a deeper tone compared to Tengumaru’s high-pitched chime. He glimpsed at the heater shield as it was color patterned with a dark blue hue and black outline and even a raven bird engraved onto the center of the shield itself.

“Alright. Everyone all set?” Sara asked.

Everyone at the table immediately put their gear away and drew their attention to Sara. Saul quickly puts his scabbard away and puts it to his side. Andrea motions her hand over to the crystal ball at the center of the table as it begins to illuminate and projects a map of the southern city’s map and its borders. The map itself highlights the city, the manor, the border, and the group’s location.

“For the past few days, there has been a large report of civilians gone missing. And there have been a few daylight kidnappings thrown into the mix as well. Few of the local law enforcement has apprehended some of the kidnappers and they belonged to a number of mercenary bands looming around the area. Most notably, the mercs from the last job, Desperado.” Sara said aloud.

As she was saying everything the map was marking highlights on the map of key interests and showed pictures of the mercs that were arrested and they were indeed the same mercs that highjacked Kimberly’s shipment deliveries. Saul’s hands firmly gripped themselves as he recognized the mercenary brand on their armor. Robbing shipments was one thing but kidnapping was another.

“If anything, those people they have kidnapped are mostly going to sell off to the slave traders.” Frey spoke up.

“Where were they heading?” Kam asked.

“From what our law enforcement told us through some of their interrogations, their last known base is up north near the central border and they’re planning on going through and migrating to the north.” Miyoko said.

“So, what’s the plan?” Saul asked.

“Simple, we’re going to find their base and eliminate them. Once and for all. But we must also free the kidnapped people and if possible, the slaves they have imprisoned.” Sara responded.

“Jax, Kam, and Xin, you guys will scout ahead to see and if you can, track their route. We need to know when they’ll be moving out.”

“On it” Xin said. She then whips out her fans and waves it at the window as they viciously open as She, Jax, and Kam leap out of the window and jump from tree to tree.

“Andrea, we’re gonna need the Med-bay to be at the ready. There’s no telling how many of the civilians or freed slaves with injured during the bust.”

“Already ahead of you on that. I told them to be at standby at the north gate. Miyoko, you’re coming with me.” Andrea said.

“Fine.”

“And try not to have your “fun” with the nurses.”

“yeah yeah yeah.”

“Frey. Saul. You’re with me on the bust team.” She said.

Saul’s heart skipped a beat as he’s with Frey and Sara again. But at the same time, he was fine with it that he’s with the people he’s more familiar with.

“Master Saul. Would you please come with us before you depart?” Misty spoke out from the door.

Saul does what he was instructed and he follows Misty to one of the Bedrooms. Misty opens the door to the same bedroom he’s always been sleeping in but now there’s something on the bed itself. Saul slowly walks to the bed as there’s a brigandine armor with metal arms and leg braces and even shoulder pauldrons. Under the armor was a padded black gambeson for extra protection. And on the back of the armor of their sigil.

“Is this?” Saul asks.

“Mistress Sara would want you to have this when you have finished your training. But since you’re going on another mission with them. She figured it’s best for you to be protected as much as possible. Luckily this came in this morning. Now if you please be kind and undress yourself.” Misty said.

“Wait you’re not gonna be embarrassed of seeing my body are you?” Saul asked.

“Master Saul, I do appreciate your concern for I am a woman and you are a man. But I have higher standards for my ideal type of men and you are unfortunately are not one of them.” Misty said with a grin.

Saul’s face fell flat he felt he has been shot down to the lowest point of depression. He didn’t want to go on the mission anymore. He just wanted to crawl in the corner and die.

“Don’t worry Master Saul, I am sure you’ll find someone that you live up to their standards.” Misty said as rubs Saul’s shoulder while he’s on the ground balling his eyes out.

After a few minutes of Saul wallowing in misery and depression, he finally gets back up and changes from his normal human clothing to the set of armor. First, he puts on the gambeson, then the brigandine and then he puts on the arm braces and pauldrons. Finally, he puts on black leather with iron caps on the knuckles of the gloves and finally black leather boots. He twists and turns his hands and swivels his body around to feel the armor on his body. BB came through the door carrying a long black cloth and then she drapes it around his neck which turns out to be a cloak with a hood. And on the back of the cloak was the logo of the group. Even though he’s wearing the gear temporarily, Saul felt like an official member of the group. But it also made his chest weigh heavy on him knowing how much pressure is put on him now more than ever.

“Looks good on you Master Saul.” Misty said.

“I don’t know about that yet. But I’ll grow into if I wear it more often.” Saul said.

“Maybe a bit more if he wasn’t so short.” Misty whispers to BB. They both giggled but Saul heard what they said.

Saul picked up his sword and his shield and made his way out of the room and headed towards the manor’s frontages. There, Sara and Frey were waiting for him on their horses along with the rest of the maid staff lined up to see them off. They all bowed their heads as Saul makes his way towards Sara and Frey. Frey offers Saul a hand as he helps him climb up on his horse.

“We wish for your safe return.” The maids said as they bow their heads.

“Ready kiddo?” Frey asks.

Saul took in a deep breath and exhaled out. He grips his hands around Frey as he was all set.

“Ready!” He said.

“Alright then. HIYA!” Frey exclaimed.

They both made their way up north towards the border at a rapid pace. This was it; this was the chance Saul had been waiting for. A chance to prove himself, to not run away like a coward. To be a member of The Dark Children of The Night.