An alarm blared throughout the entire facility. With flashing, red lights, a massive boom could be heard throughout the entire complex. Athanasios noticed that all of the security features of his containment room stopped functioning. The shackles that held him in the middle of the room fell off immediately. The emergency platforms activated as the security door in his room opened. He knew he could not waste this chance at freedom and immediately began running through the complex to find an escape. Eventually, he stumbled into a hallway with a massive charred hole in it. The sun entered Athanasios' eyes for the first time in years. Outside was an expansive forest. It was full of the sound of birds chirping. Stepping thew the grass tickled his legs. Though Athanasios was relieved to escape, another feeling took over. Anger and resentment for the mages who experiment on him. As the forest began to surround him, he kept on walking. Over time, he sensed something like a strong oppressive force. One thing was certain: it was not normal. It had to be the doing of a mage, as he began to come closer to it, there was something else. He started to hear a faint chime. It was a new but familiar sound like a tintinnabulum. It was confusing because everything in Athanasios told him that this was a positive sound. It was the sound of the very things used to ward off evil and bring fortune. Something got weirder as he got closer to both the sound and the oppressive feeling because it felt like they were coming from distinctly different locations. What was weird is that as he got closer to both whenever he heard the chiming, a sense of relief and calm would wash over him for a short period of time before turning to the feeling of oppression. Shockingly, the chiming began to come closer. He approached it with caution, going from tree to tree for cover. Then he saw a figure dressed in bright purple. He could not make out what they were wearing or fully understand how their clothes worked. The second thing he saw was a large ribbon at the back of their clothes that ended in bells with tassels on the end. He knew this must be the mage responsible and readied to attack. Before he could even, a fearful voice asked if anyone was there. He immediately knew his cover was blown and lunged at the target only to be blocked by a sheet of crystal. It stunned him so badly that he fell backwards. The figure immediately started running away from him. The last thing he was able to track was the large rainbow ribbon at the back of the person flowing through the wind before disappearing behind the branches and trees as they ran away. Athanasios gathers his strength to pick himself up. After that, he immediately started running after the mage. The deeper into the forest he went, the harsher the feeling of weight got. As he got closer to the chiming, he started hearing voices. They seem to be arguing. He crept close, hiding behind a tree. Leaning out, he saw three figures in a small clearing. One of the figures seems to be lying on a cloud, not interacting with the others. He was slowly able to make out more details. The other figure was a woman with wild blonde hair. She had a horn coming out of the center of her head and horse-like ears. There was something very wrong about her appearance. Something not quite human. Her eyes were an ominous violet as if piercing the very souls of those who looked into them. Then he made out the figure of the mage he was chasing earlier. Holding a large crystal sphere aimed directly at the lady. Their posture was defensive. This puzzled Athanasios, who did not understand why two mages would be fighting. Then he was able to make out what they were saying. The mage that he encountered earlier was yelling at the lady, asking how she found them. They also asked what she wanted. The horrific sound of the lady's laughter froze the entire forest in place. The birds stopped chirping and scattered. Athanasios was now interested in the conflict, as before, he believed all mages were on a similar front. This thought shattered that concept.

The lady began to speak, "I need your power, or at least the knowledge you have in scattering magic. It will be quite useful in acquiring the Ark shards. Veil, do you seriously not want to help your family? Do you seriously think you can escape what you have done? There's no avoiding
this because you are just the fruits of a poisonous tree. You are just as much responsible for what I have done and what your great father has done."

Then Veil began to say, "Eden, I am not even your descendant, I am Amon's. I know what you say is true. I cannot take back what I have done for you and Amon, but I will never let you use me again! I will not let you hurt any more people do to your selfish, vindictive craving for power!" Veil pulled their free arm in above their heart. A clear gesture of conviction.

Eden simply responded by saying," You've chosen the hard way."

Veil's face was filled with fear. "You cannot kill me. Amon will not allow this! You think he will look at you the same? You might be his twin sister, but I am his only living descendant that he's ever interacted with."

Eden seemed to turn and gesture to the sleeping figure on the cloud. "Blood-moon, I want to hear from you what you want to do with your descendant? I wonder if some more brutal means are necessary? Haahaa!" As she said this, she started to come into Athanasios's vision way more clearly. He then saw that her bracelets had large golden en scythe-like protrusions. She seemed to show them off to threaten Veil. Athanasios started to get a better look at Amon, who was lying down on the cloud. Amon had silver hair that glimmered like the Moon. A singular curved horn on his head that almost glowed like moonlight. Amon began to sit up, but did not open his eyes.

Amon spoke, "Oh Lord Veil, is it not the job of a house leader to work in the house's best interest. It would your best interest to satisfy the orders of the commanding house. I may have helped you rise to power, but there is no use in my preventing you from falling. After everything we have done for you. You deny us. Solaris, I am too apathetic to take care of what transpires as long as Lord Veil is captured alive. I mean, we need you after all for your power, and I can't exactly use that if you're dead." Athanasios put together that the reason Eden called Amon Blood-moon is that it was likely a name or title he preferred to use. This is because he heard Amon refer to Eden as Solaris, which was likely her chosen title. Though he did not fully understand it.

Before Veil could even react, Eden lunged at them. With a fiery spear. Veil quickly dodged the attack before launching a counter assault. Veil produced a beam of light from their hands that launched at Eden. Her reaction was interesting. It was filled with shock and confusion.

"So, this is the power to scatter mana. I can not believe you were holding out on me. When did you learn to do this? Was it when you rebelled against us joining? Naomi? It does not matter now, even without mana, my physical attacks could crash you. Hahahaha!" Eden cackled.

Veil immediately started fighting back by launching crystal spikes straight at Eden. Eden dodged, but she was losing ground in this fight. That was clear to Athanasios.

"Why do I have to do everything?" Amon moaned.

Without even opening his eyes, he lunged at Veil. Amon's long hair began to morph and shift. It turned into long, sharp strands that floated in the air that glimmering like silver metal. Amon launched their hair spear straight at Basil. Basil seems to get hit in their left shoulder, tearing their sleeve. This revealed something that Athanasios had seen before in himself. It was a purple number on Veil's shoulder, 014. Athanasios remembered that after the experiments he underwent an orange 265 appeared on the right side of his chest. This brought up more questions than it did answers. Athanasios wondered if it meant that Veil went through the same experimentation that he did. Athanasios became conflicted because he wanted answers, but he did not know if he should help Veil. He knew, though, he would quickly need to choose as Veil could not keep up with Amon and Eden.

Before Athanasios could make a choice. A figure appeared on a cliff face above the battle. A lady with a fox mask stood at the edge of the cliff. On her right shoulder was the number 300 in cyan.

Then she began to say, "My name is Kina! Two on one doesn't seem very fair to me. Which is why I couldn't help but get involved. Heeeheee!" Fox-like chirping filled the forest.

The Kina seemed to throw down something in a massive explosion, dividing Eden and Amon, launching them straight into the air. Eden gracefully spun herself in an aerial cartwheel, her entire body landing straight on her heels perfectly. Amon, on the other hand, created a cloud to cushion his fall. This would not be the end of the fight but only its beginning.