The year, 1198—Gander's Warehouse (Sector 7)

Thuck Thuck Thuck...

Footsteps echoed through the hallways as a few guardsmen roamed within it. The hallway was quiet and only the sounds of boots hitting on the cold stone floor or whispers among the guardsmen could be heard.

Unbeknownst to them, from above, two people were hiding within the shadows. One was a red spikey-haired male and the other was a white scruffy-haired male.

"Tch, why are loitering around for? Shouldn't be diving headfirst into battle right about now?" The red spikey-haired male scoffed over to the white scruffy-haired male beside him.

"Ack... Eric... Would you be patient for once?" The other man whispered in reply, trying to hush down the guy who was restlessly moving about on the ceiling's platform.

"Yeah yeah, whatever." Still continuing to scoff at the man, Eric moved his hand over to his ear as he touched a radio earpiece. "So? When are you planning on giving us orders huh?" He said, transmitting his voice through the radio earpiece.

After a few seconds, a female's voice replied in anger, "Ugh, stop messing around and listen then!" The voice continued to ramble, "Zeke will seriously kill us, especially you, if he finds out that you're messing around during a mission!"

Hearing the reply and the emphasize of 'you' through his radio earpiece, Eric sarcastically replied, not giving a single damn. "What? Me? Messing around? Since when!"

"Since we got here..." The man beside Eric sighed helplessly.

"Ugh. He's just an illegal dealer isn't he?" Eric shrugged as if it was nothing as he asserted confidently. "What's the big fuss then? He's got an average power level so we've got this in the bag!"

The man glared over to the over-confident Eric as he sighed again, "That's still no excuse to be messing around you know..." 

"Yeah! Ryan's right!" The voice rang through their ears. It was loud. Especially for Eric.

"Bleh... No need to start lecturing me now." Eric stuck his tongue out in disgust as he directed his attention away from his complaining teammates. Quickly, he focused his attention at the bottom of the platform, seeing the two guardsmen roaming around.

As Eric directed his attention elsewhere, the man beside—Ryan, continued to speak. "Anyways, let's get onto the main topic. Has the target arrived at the warehouse yet?"

"Mhm. He just arrived and should be headed for the office right about now, so now's the time to strike!" The voice replied in a serious tone.

Finally hearing something that wasn't a complain, Eric happily smirked. "Heh, about time!" He tightly gripped the hilt of the sheath by his waist, quickly getting ready to get off the platform.

"There are two guards below you guys and another two at the right-wing, so be EXTRA careful not to evoke a code red alert!" She continued speaking as she emphasized on the word 'extra' over to Eric's ear, "I'll send you two the coordinates to the office, so let's end this swiftly!"

The voice talking over to the two men was Sarah. Despite not using any sort of communicative devices like the radio earpiece that the two use, she was still able to communicate with them, through her power of Telepathy.

Upon finishing her explanation, Ryan scrutinized the hallway below them, "Right... So, Eric. How do we go about this-" After finishing his analysis on the situation, Ryan glanced over to Eric. The moment he turned over towards him, he saw Eric jumping down the platform, diving headfirst into the two guardsmen below them.

"...!!" Seeing the situation in front of him, Ryan's mouth opened wide in shock. Quickly he hurriedly extended his right arm forward in order to stop the descending Eric, however, he was too late. "Hey, wait!"

From below the platform, the guardsmen roaming around quickly looked up upon hearing a loud commotion above them. Their eyes widened in shock to see a person diving headfirst into them.

Belatedly composing themselves, one of the two men quickly shouted, "Intruders above us-"

While in mid-air, Eric unsheathed his Tachi, Rengoku. "Burn right through them!" He shouted, igniting his blade with burning amber flames as he slashed through the two late-to-respond guardsmen.

The guardsmen screamed as in a blink of an eye, they fell to the ground.

"Heh, piece of cake," Eric grinned.

Hearing the commotion caused by Eric. Footsteps were heard rushing about from further into the hallway over towards him. The two guardsmen by the right-wing arrived at the scene.

Seeing that Eric was standing there with his Tachi still out, the guardsman by the front shouted out to get the attention of the one who belatedly followed behind, "Intruders have invaded the warehouse!"

The guardsman who shouted hurriedly took out his sword by his waist as he rushed forward over to Eric. "Quickly! Warn the others and protect the boss!"

Upon hearing the man's orders, the other guardsman nodded his head as he began running. Holding onto his walky-talky in his right hand, he placed it nearer to his mouth as he shouted out, "Intruders are here, I repeat intruders are here!" Shouting through the walky-talky as he ran, the man abruptly stops in place as he looked up to see Ryan in front of him.

"Where do you think you're going?" Ryan glared at the guardsman as he prepared to unsheathe two twin-blades from behind him.

Without a second to lose, upon seeing Ryan in front of him, the guardsman pulled out his electric baton. In the next moment, he stepped forward as he began to strike him. "Out of the way, intruder!"

"...!" Jumping to the side of the walls in order to evade the strike, Ryan hurriedly unsheathed his two twin-blades, named Twin Gemini. The blades glinted in a blue array as he leapt forward in retaliation using the walls as a platform.

Using his powers on his weapon, ice began manifesting on his blade as he closed in on the distance between the guardsman and himself. Quickly, he slashed through him in a cross shape.

Cross Blades - Zero

"ARGH!!" The guardsman shouted as he fell.

Beep-

"Tsk. Damn it... I was too late."

RIIINNNNNGGGG—

"CODE RED! CODE RED!"

"Intruders alert!"

Thuck Thuck Thuck

The guardsman from earlier rushed forward over to Eric, quickly clashing blades with him.

"Heh, so you're going to take me on?!" Eric laughed arrogantly as he forcibly pushed the guardsman back. While doing so, his radio earpiece began to let loose a barrage of angry shouts. 

"God damn it! What did I just say, Eric?!"

The guardsman stepped back from the force as Eric stepped forward, quickly grabbing onto the guardsman's shoulder. 

"Because of you, now the entire warehouse knows that we're here!"

In the next moment, Eric unleashed a quick burn onto the guardsman.

Flare Burst.

"GAH!!"

"Heh, ya think you got what it takes to take me on?!" Eric kicked the guardsman over towards the side of the wall.

"Hey- Eric?! Are you even listening?!"

"What?" Eric began making his way forward, "You were talking about that right? Well, who cares~! So long as I have my fun!" He spoke carelessly as he dug his left ear that wasn't equipped with the radio earpiece.

"Huh!? FUN?! This isn't a party!" This time Ryan shouted through the radio earpiece.

"Oh chill out, Ryan." Eric shrugged as he continued to dig his left ear, "It doesn't hurt to have fun once in a while right~"

"..."

"I'm speechless," Ryan wordlessly spoke.

"Oh my god. You're hopeless!" Sarah sighed, as a sound of facepalming could be heard from her side.

In the midst of all the talking, more guardsmen arrived at the scene.

"There! There's the intruder!"

"Get him!"

"Well whatever your opinions on this are, it doesn't change the fact that this will be a fun night." Finally stopping his action that he was doing earlier, Eric smirked at the sight of two new prey in front of him. Gripping tightly onto his Tachi, he swiftly ran up to them, quickly bringing the two down to the ground.

"Haha, too easy." After finishing off the two guardsmen, he spoked through the radio earpiece communicating with Ryan. "Oh! Right, how's it going on your end, Ryan?"

...

"Haha! You can't escape!"

"Ack!" Ryan quickly dodged the attack. "Well unlike you...!"

"Take this!" The guardsman used his power and quickly controlled the rubble around him.

"I'm not having it easy here!" Ryan jumped back, dodging the incoming rubble as he swiftly leapt forward, making his way to his attacker.

SLASSSHH—

"ARGHH!" The guardsman fell to his knees as he flopped down to the ground.

"Grrr you!" Accompanying the guardsman, the man roared angrily. Quickly he sent out a pulse of crescent water-like waves over towards Ryan.

"...!" Barely managing to dodge the sudden attack, Ryan hurriedly created an ice bolt as he sent it over towards the guardsman.

"ARGH!"

"Take this!" Ryan leapt forward, as he slashed through the guard. Resulting in a swift kill.

"Huff... huff..."

"Oh come on! It looks like you're doing fine over there!"

"Yeah right! 'Fine'?! Which part of this is fine!"

Coughing at the two to get their attention, Sarah loudly spoke through their radio earpiece, "I'm not sensing any more guardsmen around you two, quickly, head to the office and detain the target!"

"Right!" The two nodded their heads as they made their way to the office.

...

Thuck Thuck Thuck

"Tch, what the heck is going on?!" The dealer, Gander looked at the front entrance of his office, seeing two guardsmen rushing in nervously and out of breath.

"Sir! Intruders are on their way here!"

"We need to get you out-"

Cutting the guardsman short, Gander replied angrily "Intruders? And you haven't rid of them yet?! What have you been doing?!" He clicked his tongue, "You better hurry and dispose of them or I'll-"

"Or you'll what?" A voice rang from the side of him.

Taken aback by the voice, Gander hurriedly looked over towards the direction of the voice as he saw Eric. "What..?! Guards-"

Upon meeting eye to eye with Eric, Gander hastily turned his head back to where his two guards were. His face turned red in anger as he saw that the two guardsmen had fallen down to the ground. Standing on top of them, was Ryan.

"Grr! Pathetic idiots!" Gander roared out, "Tch, fine! I'll handle this myself!"

In the next moment, the man shifted his gaze back to Eric as he threw a punch at him.

"Oh? Is that a challenge? Well then, bring it on!" Eric smirked at the sight of Gander's fearlessness. Just as he was about to grab onto the man's fist, the man swiftly took out a knife from his pocket as he extended his left arm forward to stab Eric.

"Eric! Watch out!" Seeing the scene in front of him, Ryan shouted out as he pushed his right hand forward, quickly he activated his power.

"...!" Hearing Ryan's shout, Eric belatedly took notice of the knife coming straight at him. In the next moment, the man's arm froze in place.

With a flustered smirk, Eric took the opportunity in front of him as he burned the dealer's hand with his flames.

"ARGHHH!!" Gander screamed as he dropped the knife that he was holding. He took a step back as he looked at Eric with fear in his eyes. The man cried out. "You're doing this for money right?! I can give you them! Shit tons of them! No, wait- Maybe power! Yes, power! Let me live and I'll give you-"

"Tch..." A face of mercilessness washed over Eric as he gripped his Tachi...

SLASSHHH—

"ARGH!!" Taking the hit from Eric, the dealer trembled in pain as he quickly stepped back further away from him, quickly hitting his back against the wall. The man continued to cry out with a shaky voice. "W-Why?! L-Let me live and I can give you anything!"

"..." Ryan looked over to Gander in disgust. "People like you, always thinking you can persuade others with money or power." He slowly walked over to the trembling Gander.

"Tch, for a person who has been going about and silencing people of your illegal deeds... Enslaving the low tiers and forcing others into debt..." Eric said in distaste, "You're better off dead."

"No-no! Why?! Why-"

Cutting his words short, Ryan continued to step forward as he stood in front of Gander. His cold blue eyes glared into the man's fearful eyes. "You wanna know why? Well, that's because—we're Zephyr." Ryan stepped aside for the dealer to see Eric.

Eric gripped onto his Tachi as he said his parting words. "Well then, see ya, in hell."

SLASSSHH—

The dealer dropped down to the ground, never to see light ever again.

...

This world... Filled with corruption.

No one bothered to see this as imperfection.

And so... This is why we exist.

To rid this world of its flaws and that is our belief.

Zephyr.

...