From afar, the soft pale smoke of a campfire could be seen.

Two men were talking to each other about the event that had happened almost a year ago in the Arena. But one of the two men seemed confused, as if he didn't believe him, even though from the other man's words, he was present at the time.

The man to the left, Clive, let out a small sigh before grabbing the sword that Sylvia used to use and putting it on his shoulder, while the man next to him, Markus, simply stood up and made sure his metal arm wouldn't fall off as they started to walk toward a forest, knowing damn well that at that time of day, a lot of murderous infected would be out to hunt two men working for the hunter association.

As they walked, Markus could clearly tell he was tormented by something.

Clive's shut his eyes, clearly thinking back to the events that happened in the last years. He opened his eyes as he felt someone's breath on his face, and there stood Sylvia... No, she was dead... he's just seeing things... He was being tormented by his past. Simple trauma—nothing much to it.

Toward the end of the forest, Markus quickly yelled out for Clive to watch out as an infected came out from the tree, his hands aimed directly for Clive's neck. But in a flash of speed that was totally inhuman, Clive's sword came out of its sheath and ripped through the middle of the infected's face, ripping it in two clean halves. Markus stared at the body out of pure shock at the speed Clive had exerted.

The infected quickly grabbed both sides of his head and held them close together before screaming a chant.

DARGELIONNA

However, before the infected could finish chanting out his attack and trapping them in the prison barrier, Clive quickly ripped his jaw off using his bare hand before shoving the ripped jaw right into the infected's stomach. The infected let out a guttural scream as his insides were being ripped out using his own jaw.

The infected tried to bite using his upper teeth to tear through Clive's neck, but Markus shoved his metal fist into his wounded mouth and grabbed a string and pulled it, which turned the front of his metal arm into a cannon (yes, this is a Berserk reference); pulling the string again made the cannon shoot out, blowing the infected's head clean off, finishing it.

Both of the men were now covered in guts and blood. Markus sighed and glanced at his superior and asked.

So who exactly are we hunting for out here?

Clive glanced back at him and let out a fake chuckle.

One of the seven generals of Catherina Kushin. To be exact, we are hunting the third. Astaroth.

Markus's eyes widened; not only was one of his first missions to kill ASTAROTH of all people, but there were two people who were stronger than him? Markus made his arm go back to its normal shape before asking Clive if he knew the names for each of the rankings. Clive nodded and gently said.

Number one: Kairos General of Time

Number Two: Syndrielle General of Matter

Number Three: Astaroth General of Gravity

Number Four: Kallius. Ex Severer of Time, he is dead now.

Number Five: Unknown General of Flames

Number Six: Unknown Ruler of Illusions

Number Seven: Which we just killed.

Markus gasped at the last one. Wait. The guy he had just blown the head off was one of Catherina's generals? Damn.

Suddenly a voice rang out through the air as a man, simply worried for strangers, alerted the two men that they should head toward the nearby city as fast as they could, as a heavy acid rain was heading toward them soon.

Clive nodded and glanced at Markus, ordering him to follow him to the nearby human city.

The city was just five minutes away from their current location; the city was huge. Clive's eyes widened at the sheer sizes of the buildings; it was unlike anything he had seen before. But Markus seemed to be focused on something else; Clive took a quick glance toward where Markus was looking and spotted some kind of feminine silhouette staring at them from behind a rock. Clive sighed and just told Markus that the lady was probably just scared by their looks. Hunters were scary after all.

After having bought a room at the nearby hotel to have shelter against the acid rain, Clive waits for Markus to fall asleep before stepping outside onto the suspended part of their room, right into the rain, which melted right through Clive's skin, but his healing abilities were simply way too fast for the rain to do anything to him but add scars to his flesh.

Clive let out a soft sigh before contemplating why he was even trying if he only kept failing and losing. Sure, he had taken down two of his sisters' gene...Could he even call her a sister anymore? After everything that had happened? And was he even fighting on the right side? Was he infected or not? What was his goal in all this? What was his role?

Clive took a single step onto the railing before glancing down. Was he hallucinating again, or was that Astaroth down there staring at him? But, before Clive could wrap his mind around what he had seen, he was roughly pulled right back into the room by Markus, who was worried sick, thinking Clive was trying to kill himself by the acid rain.

Clive sighed and got off Markus, thanking him and telling him that they should both go to sleep now.

Long during their slumber the door to their room gently opened, and the same lady from before stepped in... She had those marks Sylvia had mentioned...was she the one who had attacked her back then?

A loud scream almost immediately made Clive jump out of his bed to see the agonizing look painted on Markus's face as someone's hand was lodged into his back, holding firmly onto his spinal cord. Clive glanced at the figure, and there she was...the woman who hid behind the rock...dammit, why didn't he investigate what Markus said? He went to raise his finger toward the woman before him to save Markus with the use of his power, but...his arms were tied to the bed frame, and RIPPPPP, the disgusting sound of Markus's spine being ripped out of his back engulfed the room. Clive could only stare in shock as the woman picked up the paralyzed, agonizing body of his new friend by the head and pulled it up directly in infront of him before chanting...

Dark Matter: Disperse

Disperse. Its ability is to make the nuclear force that holds the nuclei and protons together completely vanish. Which means that Markus's entire body, cells, and organs would all cease to hold together.

Clive could only stare in horror as Markus's body was poured directly into a bottle as if he were nothing. Clive, out of anger, went to chant his Dargelionna, but his jaw was held shut by a man beside him, Astaroth, who had a huge smile on his face. It seems like he took joy out of Clive's pain. As soon as Clive tried to struggle, Astaroth immediately jabbed at the back of his neck to knock him out.

A single thought washed into his mind before everything went black... She chanted the word Dark Matter... Was this the Second General herself...?

A while later, Clive woke up chained, standing just like Guts on that chapter cover from Berserk. His eyes scanned the room he was currently in...a cave? It looked like he was in a cave, and to his left—dammit... that damn woman was there...

Clive immediately went to unleash his Dargelionna...however, as soon as the prison barrier reached her, she lifted her hand and gently touched it before chanting:

Nullify

Clive's barrier immediately collapsed, and the effect the Dargelionna would have had on her reverted directly onto Clive. He let out a loud grunt as his nose and mouth started to bleed. Damn, his Dargelionna was strong even on himself.

Without giving him the time to blink, the woman who definitely was Syndrielle roughly grabbed onto Clive's and ripped the skin off his jaw, which immediately healed but didn't scar. Interesting. But not for her; she was just hurting him for fun.

She pulled back for a moment before letting out a volley of punches directed at his chest in order to inflict as much pain as possible. 13 consecutive in total in a short amount of time.

Of course, Clive simply healed his wounds as if nothing had happened. He tilted his head to the side, spitting blood on the ground before glaring at Syndrielle and asking her if she was done. She didn't reply with an answer but with a chant.

Dargelionna: Emergence of Darkness

Black blood slowly ran down her eyes as her tattoos started to glow a pinkish glow. Her strength had clearly quadrupled or even more. Was this the only effect that her Dargelionna would have?

Clive clearly did not wish to know. He immediatly chanted his own Dargelionna again which surprised Syndrielle. No one that she had fought before were able to chant two Dargelionna in such small time. Just who was he?

Both of their barriers clashed together in an intense fight for control but Syndrielle dropped her barrier and immediatly nullified the incomming barrier of Clive's and without a single drop of sweat lunged at him and punched him right in the face which knocked his senses for a moment. As he went back to look at Syndrielle. It wasn't just her before him anymore.

There she was. Catherina in the flesh standing in her human form the reg gem placed on a necklace without saying a single word. Her face distorted and cracked open as a dragon-like entity came out of her cheek. It was massive. Taller than the tallest building in the nearby city.

Clive did not have the time to do anything as the dragon quickly grabbed him into his jaw and kept him there for a purpose he would soon know.