Martha sticked with me for a while after I received the Fire Witch. I still didn’t know what it was at that point, but it did feel different. As if something inside of me changed with that transfer. A part of the Crimson King’s power. It felt… good. It probably was wrong that I felt that, but I promised not to lie while I recorded this.

After I stabilized a bit, I slowly sat back up. Martha tried to keep me down, but I refused.

“So, what do you think that was all about?” Martha asked this after I was sitting up correctly, a look of confusion in her eyes.

“Believe me, after seeing them disappear, I have no idea of what’s going on” I answered this while rubbing my eyes, trying to stay awake “Why the hell did they disappear like that?”

To say the least, I wasn’t feeling well. Once again, my brother disappeared from my grasp, a lot of questions surfaced in both my and Martha’s mind. Was Martel hiding something from us? What was our objective? What did James hear? And why were they taken now of all times they could’ve been recalled back?

There’s also that last thing Dee said... Torture… the thought of James being tortured to the point where he would forget what had happened was simply something I couldn’t bear in my mind. I was scared, almost to the point of breaking down. Martha was there to calm me down as soon as a few tears started to form.

“Hey, I know it seems dark... specially with Dee ending his sentence like that. But I promise, I will help you find your brother” Martha said this with a calm tone, almost as if she had already promised this to someone beforehand.

“What makes you so sure? You saw what they could do… at this point, it wouldn’t matter recovering him… we would have to completely abolish all of their team… mainly their leader… and there’s no way we can get to her easily” I said this with a melancholic tone, almost about to cry, but trying to stay unbroken.

“I'll help you uncover all this. I promise.” Martha said this as she went in for a hug… a motherly type hug, petting my head slowly and keeping me close to her chest. I broke down right there, bawling my eyes out as she embraced me… I hadn’t felt a hug like that in months. The last one I felt was when I left the house.

“Hey, I think we should hit the bed for the night” Martha said this in a calm tone, slowly letting go of the embrace.

“Y-yeah… it is getting rather late” I said this slowly as Martha fully let go, standing up fully

“Either way, if you need anything, my room is the one right next to yours. It doesn’t matter if it’s the middle of the night, I will help you out” She smiled as she said this last part, starting to walk towards the door to my room… the second door had already disappeared.

“Hey…” As these words came out of my mouth, she stopped in her tracks, turning her head back

“Yeah?”

“Thanks… for helping me out with what just transpired… I don’t think I would’ve handled it as well if you weren’t here” I said this with a smile on my face, turning my head towards her.

“Hey, no problem” She smiled at this last part, then continued her walk towards the door “If you need anymore help, you know where to find me” The door opened, allowing her to exit. Just before it closed back up, she said goodbye, not allowing me to answer.

As she left, I layed back down, covering myself with blankets and almost immediately falling asleep. Although I had recovered some energy, I was still fucked up and tired, I needed to sleep.

That’s when a thought crossed my mind, now thinking much more clearly… the teleportation James and Dee went through, even though it was of a different color, it was exactly the same as the one he went through… the mystery just kept going deeper and deeper. Were Martel and Tabatha connected?

I wasn’t able to think of it longer, because the mission alarm woke me up. I quickly got up from my bed and began running towards the mission briefing room, where I I caught up to Ness and Mark. Now it was a general mission.

“So, how did that talk go? Did you get hurt?” Mark said this with a calm tone as he continued to run towards the briefing room

“I did, but it was just due to some confusion…” I debated with myself on whether or not I should tell them about what I heard. I ultimately decided not to “Outside of that, the interrogation was successful… but they got away somehow. They were teleported back to their base”

“Oh, so you didn’t get any valuable information from them?” Ness said this with a calm tone just as we arrived to the door, having it open automatically. In there, we saw Martha already jumping into the portal. We quickly followed after her

“Let’s not care about info, for now, let’s just do this battle” I said this as I jumped back first into the portal, rolling on the ground as I appeared on the other side. We were on a large prairie, with almost no trees in the viewable distances. Right in front of us were our enemies… James… and someone that we’d never seen before. She was a girl of around 1.70 meters tall. She wore a white hoodie over a red shirt, with blue denim short shorts and a pair of sneakers. Her hair was pink with some white streaks, and she had red eyes. She seemed to be smoking, but threw it away as soon as the rest of the team crossed the portal.

“So, you are the guys that my contract is covering?” She said this as she stepped on the cigarette butt, putting it out before it caused a fire.

“Contract?” Ness said this as soon as she stopped talking, starting to manifest lightning on both of his hands.

“Yeah, I’m a bounty hunter. Can’t you notice from the fact that I don’t look anything like this idiot right here?” The new enemy said this while pointing at James, who scoffed and pushed her hand down

“Man, what's her deal?" Ness shouted this as the HUD for his helmet appeared, showing a lot of errors when trying to analyze the new enemy “What the hell?...”

“What, does your helmet not show anything? Same thing happened to them, so don’t feel bad about it” The new enemy said this, as if she knew the reason why this was happening “Just know that you won’t be able to find anything about me”

“If that’s true, then we’re gonna have a real problem guys” Ness said this while panicking a bit, returning the HUD into his helmet, the lightning in his hands intensifying.

“Well, if you have nothing else to do, let’s get this party started!” James said this as he quickly launched himself towards Colin, being stopped in the middle by Martha with her bow and Flames of Hatred, now summoning two of those.

“Do not come closer!” Martha said this, clearly struggling to keep his attack in check

“Why must you stop me from killing my prey!?” James shouted this, now starting to continuously strike down onto the flames, trying to break through,

“You’re going to end up hurt!” Ness said this as he began to get close to try and stop James

“Colin, go fight the new enemy. We’ll keep 022 in check so that you don’t hurt each other” Martha said this with a calm tone, some struggle still coming out of it, as she kept her vision locked on James

“I’ll protect the two of them. Just go” Mark said this with a soft tone as he launched himself in between James and Martha, with a barrier surrounding him. 7th Power, Perfect Barrier. I’m pretty sure the names resumes what it does.

As the rest of the team surrounded him, I stood there in shock. Martha was trying to protect me, and everyone else just went with it… did they know?

“Hey! Don’t forget me just yet!” The new enemy said this in a cheerful voice said this with a high volume, before crashing into me with a sword and shield on hand. I was launched to the side by this, landing with a rolling motion to avoid some damage, before quickly getting up, sword in hand

“Man, is that just a common weapon of choice? You guys really are idiots” She said this while laughing loudly.

“What do you mean?!"

“Oh, don't worry. I'll teach you before you die!” She quickly launched herself once again, but I blocked in time, only to then have her kick hard on one of the edges of the sword, sending me tumbling down to the ground from the spin it caused

“With a weapon that heavy, you're always vulnerable” She said this while still chuckling

“Oh just shut up already!” From the ground I quickly launched my sword at her, with her dodging it quickly, before getting up and punching her square in the face.

“So you do have a bit of spunk in you. Not like it’ll do you any good now!” She said this while my fist was still on her left cheek, quickly grabbing me by my wrist and making me spin in the air, before punching me in the gut and throwing me back on the ground. I held my stomach from the pain as she began to kick me around, launching me in the air with each kick.

In between the kicks, I was trying to activate either Power Overdrive or to charge a Nova, but almost as soon as I began to concentrate, the next kick started. I was being juggled. She was just kicking me all around, with no issue

“Is this seriously all you can do!? Just lay down and accept defeat?!” She shouted this at me before kicking me one last time with all of her strength, launching me against a rock, making a crater on it. My vision was starting to fade… who was she? How was she this strong?

I had the time. Even if I was struggling, I slowly began to stand up, activating Power Overdrive as I did. I tried to summon the double buster again, but to no avail. I didn't have to time to summon it, so I just lifted my fists once again.

“Oh, so the little boy still has some fight left in him. Well then, let's dance!” She said this with a playful tone as she dashed towards me, throwing away her sword and shield, quickly swapping it for a pair of daggers, slashing at me. Due to Overdrive’s pain cancellation, I could move as fast as normal, but I could feel my body breaking down. I needed to restrict my movements. She was really starting to get on my nerves. Was this her plan? To catch me off guard while I was annoyed.

“Just tell me… who the fuck are you? Before I have to end this battle” I was bluffing. I was more than obviously bluffing. I was in no condition to defeat her right now

“You really think a shitty bluff like that is going to help you out in this situation? Don’t make me laugh!” She quickly went in for a stab, which I dodged back. I had very little time left, I was stressing my body way too much.I had to end this now. I had to create a weapon

“At this point, I don’t care if it’s a bluff or not. I am not dying here. Not after he’s already in my grasp” I said this while trying to stay standing, my hand reaching for the bracelet.

“I will not let you touch that bracelet!” She quickly dashed at me, dagger in hand, stabbing it into the back of my left hand, but, it didn’t hurt. I punched her face with my back hand, full force, sending her back a bit.

Hand motions. My strength and most of my abilities were based on my hands. Even the bracelet was part of my strength… I was not going for my sword again

“I shall teach you the true power of a Striker” I said this before crashing both of my wrists with each other… I don’t know why I did it, but it felt natural in a way. As soon as I did that, the bracelet replicated itself on my other arm. As soon as it did, my new weapon came out. A pair of gauntlets. Just like my old sword, they both had they’re own elements, thunder and water.

Soul Gauntlets… an extension of my and the bracelet’s power. Their true form

“I won't die here. I've got enough resolve within me to kill you 3 times over” As I said this, a rush of power surged within me. A fraction of the Fire Witch’s ability. My fists got covered with fire, accompanying both of the elements in my gauntlets. I began to run towards the enemy, I was no longer feeling anything. I just began attacking, blocking, attacking, and blocking. It was a constant back and forth. We were on the same level now.

“What the hell?!” She shouted this as she began attacking faster, swinging her daggers from random directions in an attempt to fake me out. I just kept blocking and retaliating. The Fire Witch was slowly increasing in power. My eyes were slowly turning red as it kept going. I quickly punched her in her stomach, which, even though it didn’t hit fully, it did knock her back slightly, making her flinch.

“N-No!” She shouted this in surprise, as she tried going back in for one final strike in an attempt to finish me. I ducked under it, charging novas in both of my hands

“Game over. I win” I quickly combined both Novas by putting my hands together, to then thrust the now fist covered with flames into her

“Chaos Nova” A pillar of energy and fire came out of my fist, making her fly into the air, with no signs of her coming down. I won. And surprisingly, I didn’t feel hurt at all, even after I dispersed both the Fire Witch and Power Overdrive. It was as if I had been healed.

I had almost no time to think about it, as the thought of the rest of the team fighting against James. I quickly ran back to where they were, being lucky to see them being able to hold him off.

“Finally!” James stopped attacking Ness, quickly jumping to attack me with his own sword. I was able to hold his attack with my new Gauntlets, crushing the sword with them, to then punch him in the face, sending him flying backwards. I felt stronger for some reason. Was it because of the Fire Witch?

The portal back to the base quickly opened. Had I really defeated him that easily?

“W-What was that?!” Ness shouted this at me, quickly running to check my new Gauntlets, grabbing them from all angles to see them fully. “Did your piece evolve or something? These look awesome!”

“I don’t think it’s much of an evolution, but an extension of it’s power. But, right now is not the time. We should scram before he wakes up”

“I agree. We could barely hold him off. He got stronger” Mark said this as he grabbed Ness by the collar in his shirt, pulling him into the portal

“Don’t think you’re off the hook yet” Ness shouted this before going into the portal, clearly distressed.

“Hey, did everything go alright?” Martha said this, walking over in my direction.

“Surprisingly, yeah, it was. I honestly don’t know how I survived that” I said this with a calm tone, slowly starting to walk towards the portal “I really needed help back there”

“Sorry about that. He was very difficult to hold down. But holy shit, you took him down in one punch” She shouted this excitedly, jumping a bit

“We… are not… done yet…”

That last phrase quickly made Martha and me turn around. James was standing up once again, a red aura slowly starting to form.

Martha quickly readied her bow, preparing herself to fight. But, I couldn’t let her get hurt. I quickly pushed her into the portal, hearing her shout my name before crossing fully, the portal closing behind me

“Ready for round 2?” I said this as I prepared myself for the battle that was about to ensue. “I will get you back”

“You will not take me again… not again!” The red aura fully formed on him, as he created a new sword for himself.

END OF CHAPTER 19