Three weeks after my fight with the Masked Man, I finally woke up from the deep sleep. I slowly opened my eyes as I sat up slowly on the bed, scratching my head. It took some time before my eyes adjusted to the brightness of the hospital room in the base. I slowly turned my head from side to side, looking around. The room had an absurd amount of white in it, the beds, the curtains, and even the walls were all painted in white, being the shadows the only thing that made me distinguish everything. I slowly tried to stand up, trying to boost myself with my hands before stopping. My hands still hurt heavily from the battle, even if it wasn't as much as before. I continued to stand up without boosting myself, trying to keep my balance. It was hard getting up, I even thought that not a lot of time had passed due to the lingering pain. I tried getting out of the room, but as I was starting to reach the door, I started to hear a voice from the other side, that of Martel. I stayed completely still as I listened to her

"Hey, don't worry, everything is fine, it was just a minor setback. I promise, the team will be ready. It's not like I'm giving up on the dream of finally beating you"

What was she talking about? Was I still dreaming? That sounded as if she was talking about a sports team, which we clearly weren't. The voice faded away as it walked away from the front of the hospital room. I walked out of the room after her voice completely faded away. The hallway was of the same color as the rest of the hallways, but to my right I easily saw the main room entrance. I started walking towards it, not seeing anyone on my way there. I finally entered the room. It had the same brightness as the two times I entered the room before. I quickly jumped onto the couches, finally getting to lay down on something more comfortable than a hospital bed. My hands still hurt like hell, but they were starting to calm down. It was relaxing being in this room, looking at all the walls with the different world views. I was slowly falling back asleep right there, with a smile on my face, before the one of the doors to the main room opened quickly, with the rest if the team walking in.

"God, yesterday was tiring" This was said by Mark, the first one entering the room, with his armor still completely on

"Well, you were the one who defeated our enemy, unlike us, that didn't manage to even scratch him" This was said by Ness with a bummed-out tone, entering the room right after Mark

"Not even the Flames of Hatred worked, I'm surprised you even stopped him" This was said by Martha, who walked in last, closing the door behind her.

"Come on guys, it wasn't that much, no need to talk about it" He said this with a slight laugh as he got close to the couch

"But you were pretty awesome back there" Martha said this as she jumped on to the couch, landing on top of my stomach, causing me to let out a high-pitched shriek

"C-Could you p-please get off me?" I asked this with a slight stutter, to then see all of them jumping away a bit, with a surprised look on all their faces, except for Ness

"Well, look who finally decided to wake up" This was said by Ness in a smug tone, laughing a bit

"Hey Colin, glad to see you awake" Mark said this in a happy tone "Are you feeling alright"

"Well, besides a bit of pain in my stomach and some lingering in my hands, everything seems to be in order" I said this while laughing a bit, turning my head towards Martha

"I'm sorry about that, if I had known you were there I wouldn't have jumped on it. But at least your finally awake, we were starting to get worried about you" Martha said this while scratching the back of her head slowly with a smile on her face, closing her eyes as she said it

"Oh, come on, I couldn't have been asleep for that long"

"Actually, *Sleeping Beauty*, you were asleep for a week" Ness continued with his smug tone as he said this

"Oh, come on, that can't be true, I mean, my hands still hurt like all hell, so I couldn't have slept for that long"

"Colin, you did sleep that long. Your hands were probably really messed up after the battle and that's why they hurt, but outside of that, we don't know why you slept that long" Martha said this with a tone of worry as she looked over at me.

I stayed there in silence for a while, trying to process the information I had just received. I tried to keep calm after hearing that, simply answering "Well, uh, how much happened while I was asleep?"

"Well, you better strap on to your seat, because it's kind of long..." Ness said this in a calm tone as he began to sit down, but after some of his silence, the alarm started to sound in a high volume out of nowhere, with the portal opening right in front of us

"Well people, look sharp, a new challenge has appeared today, so let's try to deal with it quickly" Martel's voice resonated within the room through the speakers, as the portal lit up in front of us

"It's mission time. We'll tell you about it later" Mark said this as he jumped right in to the portal, disappearing within seconds, being followed by Ness.

"Well, guess it's time to go back in" I said this as I slowly began to stand up, but as I was doing that, Martha stopped me, setting her left hand on my head and pushing me back down

"You said you were still hurt Colin. Maybe you should sit this one out" Martha said this with a tone of worry on her voice as she slowly let go

"Hey, who the hell do you think I am? This is nothing for me, I'll be able to manage" I said this with a confident tone as I began to sit up again, Martha stopping me once again

"Colin, please try to understand that if you end up stopping dead due to pain, none of us will be able to help you. The past few enemies have been hard to manage, almost the same as the one who got you knocked out. This is not something you should go about with a happy go lucky tone. Please just sit this one out"

"Look, I'm not staying here for another week. I don't care about the pain, and from what you just told me, you're gonna need as much help as possible. Martha, just trust me, I'll be fine, don't worry about it"

"Ughhhhhh... Colin, listen, we do not know what this new one is capable of. He could be the deadliest of the ones we've faced so far, we could all get hurt heavily. So please just listen and stay"

"When I say no, it's no. If it is the deadliest one, then you are going to need the whole team. You're not going to stop me Martha"

Martha stayed silent for a bit, sighing in annoyance "Fine... but if you do end up getting hurt, don't expect me to help you" After saying this, she jumped into the portal, as I began to stand up once more to go in.

"Let's do this" I said this in a triumphant tone as I jumped right into the portal

The landscape I landed in seemed almost intact, with no signs of any type of chaos nearby. We seemed to be in a bit of a forest area, with city far off to the distance, with a skyscraper so high we could see it from our position, with a river in between us and the city.

“We’re near New York City…” I said this in a calm tone as I looked towards the city “Isn’t that a bit weird? –

“Why is that weird exactly? – Ness said this as a few holograms appeared in front of his helmet, as if he was analyzing something.

“Well, if the enemy that you say is stronger, wouldn’t the city already be in chaos? This is a booming city after all…”

“This is weird… but maybe we just got here ahead of time, before any destruction has started” Mark said this as he began setting up his Impenetrable Defense.

“Then why did the alarm sound? In the mission where I fainted, the destruction was already done”

“So? It was also like that in our last mission, when we fought the Crimson King or some shit” Martha said this as one Flame of Hatred began circling around her. Each person in the team seemed to be concentrated in any direction, with me being the only one that did not know what to do.

“So, I guess the team got to bond a lot without me here…”

“Nah, not really, each fight ended up just being and individual effort from all of us, while Ness was always being knocked out or immobilized” Martha said this chuckling a bit as she took out her bow slowly, looking around her surroundings

“Yeah, he pretty much was useless” Mark said this with a laugh coming out as he stood completely still, with his arms crossed in front of him.

Ness was getting a bit angry with what was being said about him, as he then spoke up to the rest “It wasn’t like you two were any better. In the first mission Mark was knocked out, and in the second one, Martha went down easily even with that stupid flame of hers”

“Oh yeah, also, what’s up with that flame? Did I miss anything? Because you didn’t have that on the mission I got knocked out.”

“I can’t really explain it… it just came to me after a mission in which I blacked out” Martha said this while shrugging a bit, with Ness speaking right after her

“I still don’t fucking understand how you cannot remember something as badass as that. You burned half the face off the fucking enemy with a single fiery punch” He said this with a surprise tone in his voice.

“But this flame isn’t that strong, I don’t get how I’d be able to do that” Martha said this with a confused tone in her voice as she paralyzed in place seeing into the distance

“Well duh, you had three flames at that time, so clearly you were much stronger back… then…” Ness voice slowly faded away as one of his screens started to show an anomaly nearby, as he then turned his head towards Martha “Hey, uh, guys? I think I found the guy… and so did Martha”

After hearing that, both Mark and I turned our heads in Martha’s direction. Off in a short distance was a small figure in a dark armor, his helmet looking like the one Ness had, just like the mission against the masked assailant, and, as mentioned before, The Crimson King and Iris. He had a few feathers in his hat, all of them standing upright. Around his neck was a scarf of some sorts, flowing in the wind as he walked. His armor seemed to have what seemed to be yellow lines running around it in random patterns, almost spontaneously. He only walked towards us, slowly, while looking around. As he got closer and closer to us, his glare solely focused on us. He slowly began to speak as he got closer.

“Well well well, I did not expect to see you here… normally, you arrive once the chaos has already passed” His voice sounded deep, almost booming for a body of his size. He continued walking towards us, raising his left hand slowly “This is truly the most interesting of situations”

Mark quickly ran in front of us, holding his Impenetrable Defense right in front of us, looking directly towards the enemy “As long as I stand, you shall never get past to the rest! –

“Oh, really? You think I don’t know about you? – He said this with a confident tone, as he slowly began to take out a gallon of water from nowhere – Believe me, I came as prepared as I could be –

Just after he said that, he put a tiny hole into the gallon, which started to drip a few drops of water. He then sent it flying high in our direction, which made Ness run away in precaution. Once it was directly above us, it was completely shredded out of nowhere, making all the water fall right on us, except for Ness. The water didn’t do anything to us, it simply got all of us wet.

“Is this supposed to be some sort of joke? “ I said this with a chuckle in my voice as I looked over our new enemy with a smile on my face “As if a tiny bit of water would damage any of us” After I said this last part, our new enemy just laughed it off as he continued to walk towards us

“Oh, believe me, every single one of my moves is calculated, for I, Iago Guntram, shall subdue all of you under my power” Iago said this with a tone of victory, almost as if he had already won this battle

“Okay guys, try not to lose your cool, Anima Daemonium isn’t something to fuck about, so try and be careful about it” Martha said this while trying to keep calm, her flame just slowly circling around her, slowly evaporating the water off her, but the water seemed to be reappearing “What the hell even is this water?”

“Just something I created in my spare time. It’s an ever-expanding goo while in my presence, which has all the properties of salted water” Iago said this as he stopped in place, kneeling down and placing his right hand over the ground. A few seconds after that, Mark’s Impenetrable Defense faded away quickly, his hands lowering in spasms

“Mark, what are you doing?” I said this in a concerned tone of voice as I turned my head towards him, starting to grip my sword tightly… too tightly “Huh? That’s weird…” I said this with a confused tone as I moved around slightly.

“Seems like it does work. I had my doubts on this theory, but it seems like you won’t be a problem” Iago continued to lay his hand down on the ground, as Mark slowly began to kneel down on the ground with the same spasms

“Guys, I don’t know what’s going on, help…” Mark said this with a worried tone in his voice, trying to move but then resetting back into the kneeling position

Martha was completely paralyzed, her mouth trying to move but staying shut fully, as her body began to kneel slowly

“Okay, th-this is starting to get weird” I said this, stuttering a bit, while holding my double buster, turning my head towards Iago “What the fuck are you doing to us!?”

“Oh, nothing much, do not worry about it” He said this with a cocky tone as he flicked the ground, making a small crater where he flicked “Just the normal stuff I do, experiment” He said this with a creepy tone, almost mad.

“Well, this’ll certainly be interesting” I said this as a smirk started to form on my face, as I readied my sword for combat.

“Oh, someone’s getting active. Let’s see how the beast that almost defeated 022 fares against me”

“022? Is that how the masked assailant is called?” I said this in a tone of confusion, while chuckling a bit

“Well, he doesn’t remember anything from his past, so we just call him that for convenience” He said this in a bit of a calm tone, extending his arms as he slowly took out a knife that had sparks of lightning coming of it.

“Well, this shall be interesting” I said this with a confident tone as I rushed into him, my blade up high in front of me

END OF CHAPTER 11