After carrying them for hours, Chronos began to feel fatigued as he approached a mountain range, he noticed a crack between the mountains to then decide to drag Elvira and Sinns in there, there was nothing much he could do if continued moving forward without first talking to them to ask several questions. After checking the inside of the crack he noticed it extended deeper inside the mountain, exposing a rather dark cove, with the only source of light coming from the crack. Chronos decided to put Sinns on the ground next to Elvira and went for some firewood in the surroundings to light a fire in the front of the entrance. I need to hunt something to eat, but there doesn’t seem to be much fauna over here, maybe any birds I could happen to see flying around… -Chronos thought as his stomach began growl unconsciously.

Several attempts later, trying to aim one of his spears at a flock of birds, Chronos managed to hunt down 5 normal geese that were trying to migrate to a new area due to the season change and brought them to the front of the cave where he had made a small fireplace, with branches and logs he got from scattered trees around the mountain. There were mutated bears around as well and Chronos noticed he could use their fur for the night so he hunted a couple and skinned them to then use their fat as an ingredient and eat the meat with difficulty since the bear meat was pretty tough.

A couple of hours later, Elvira wakes up with a headache and notices Chronos in front of her, looking directly into her eyes. A shiver ran down her spine and felt how his eyes pierced hers, she then quickly tried to free herself from the ropes only to find out she was already able to move. “Why did you bring us here?” –She instantly asked while turning back to Chronos who was pointing at the meat in front of her.

“I have several questions to ask, but first eat, it’s been a while since we left the forest” –Chronos replied while holding up a piece of roasted goose covered in bear fat. Hesitantly, Elvira took the meal and ate it, leaving some for Sinns so she could also eat if she woke up. “My first question is… why did you have to attack Pandora’s forest?” –Chronos asked while sitting down next to the entrance of the cove.

Elvira, hesitant of giving much information, rubbed her neck briefly to remember that her collar was also broken in the battle. “We were given instructions, I followed them according to the plan” –She replied after swallowing a mouthful of the meat.

“Why didn’t you kill me when you knocked me down, knowing that I am such a threat?” –Chronos continued asking while laying his back against the wall of the cove.

“I managed to defeat you, so I prioritized the recovery of Sinns and then your capture-“ –Elvira explained before getting interrupted.

“But you were also at your limit and simply fell on the ground” –Chronos continued her sentence. “And so I suppose you are a soldier, you must’ve known about the targets, what was the purpose of that attack?” –He kept on pressing about the matter while Elvira simply kept her silence and chewed on a roasted goose thigh. Chronos kept considering his options on what to do now, remembering all the events that have been happening since his first contact with other human beings. He then turned to see Sinns who was still sleeping next to them. I guess most of my questions will be answered once this one wakes up since she knew Gree from before and helped us. –Chronos thought while noticing there were no marks of the spears that impaled her limbs. A familiar feeling was given off from her, he couldn’t really describe it but it reminded him of DD.

“Kid, why was a mage like you in the forest and attacked the military forces? Did you want to prove something? Are you not afraid to die? What is your business?” –Elvira asked after she finished eating trying to get information from Chronos.

“What will you do with that information? Let me free?” –Chronos countered. “I got separated from a group and ended up in the forest. The elf that was killed helped me to recover as I was injured on my way there, and the reason I tried to keep her alive was that we met in the past while I was with the group.” –He answered while gesturing his hand towards Sinns.

The two objectives had to be certainly neutralized if the forest managed to burn down properly, so why didn’t we get warned about this individual? He wasn’t in the footage and he clearly isn’t weaker than any of the objectives. And he met Sinns before? Did he mention a group? Was he with Gree? –Elvira analyzed the information she was given and tried to come to a conclusion while unconsciously the gloves began to slowly manifest some sort of claws as Elvira realized how actually dangerous is the person in front of her.

In a moment a small hand tapped Elvira’s right arm and made her snap out of her thoughts. Sinns woke up and held Elvira’s arm while looking towards Chronos who was also prepared for a fight as he saw the claws on Elvira’s gloves. “I need to stop you right here, or else it wouldn’t end up nicely for us.” –Sinns mentioned while letting go of Elvira’s arm. “He was not a mage at all when we met. He traveled along with Gree, Phil, and a dwarf, and during a horde, he managed to fend off against them without major injuries. However, I did not expect him to be the anomaly.” –She explained while sitting up, scanning her surroundings, and keeping calm.

“Anomaly?” –Chronos instinctively asked after hearing what Sinns said as Elvira calmed down a bit but without lowering her guard.

“You are a walking disaster, just like the dragon we had to hunt, a walking time-bomb that represents a huge threat to any nation if not under control. If I had to compare you to something, you could be like the guardians.” –Sinns pointed out before grabbing a piece of roasted goose and gave it a bite.

“How do you know all that?” –Elvira questioned as her eyes were wide open after hearing Sinns’ deduction.

“I’m not some stupid kid on steroids, I was raised by Otto and Miss Myers after all, of course, I had to learn about these kinds of beings since I was born to deal with them, the custom weapon program was also for that end. Other nations are too powerful for holding these biological weapons with human shapes, and we are witnessing one” –Sinns briefly explained after she finished eating. “And we are alive for pure luck since if it was an actual guardian from another nation, we would be fertilizer already.” –She concluded to reaffirm the fact that they are not in immediate danger.

“So what you are saying is that there are other people like me?” –Chronos popped into the conversation out of curiosity.

“It is hard to say what you actually are, maybe just a really good mage, but no mage can stand longer than 10 minutes using homing magic or anything particularly effective against a custom weapon user. And there are other more advanced nations that don’t need any sort of biological weapon to deal with you, like the Federation of Orst, or Arkadia. Their exo-suits are specially made to suppress magic, like the AMHAR series.” –Sinns began to mutter and hold her chin with her thumb, placing her elbow on her other hand unconsciously as she kept talking.

“Sinns you are getting out of the subject, what do we do now?” –Elvira snapped Sinns out of her train of thought by grabbing her shoulders and shaking her.

So there are others in a similar situation as me? Maybe if I look for them I could find answers on what I should do from now on. I also have to learn more about the rulers and what they are able to do; it seems like I made the right choice by having these two as prisoners. –Chronos thought as he kept on seeing Sinns and Elvira debating about what they should do now that they are stuck with him.

A couple of hours later, after discussing the situation, Sinns decided it would be best to contact Gree, since Elvira explained to her they headed to the border with Falladis, supposing they will arrive at Casamira and stay there for the magnetic interference. Due to the given situation, Sinns didn’t plan on going back to the government for certain reasons and Elvira thought it would be best if she was considered another casualty to kept her family safe. Both of them agreed on having a deal with Chronos where there wouldn’t be any aggression depending on the situation in order to survive any contingencies until meeting Gree.

The three of them finally decided to leave the cove that same night and start to move towards Falladis. Their route of access had to be the same route as the one Gree’s group took since they would most likely find them faster that way. Sinns grabbed the fur Chronos got from the bears and gave them to Elvira since she was getting cold as the sun was setting.

Elvira kept having a bad feeling since the moment they left the cove as if something was watching them, a similar feeling Phil had when she stared down at him back at her family’s house. An hour later, the uneasiness persisted and Elvira decided to warn Sinns and Chronos about something following them from an unknown location as she can’t point out where it is. “It could be one of the hounds the military were developing, so we better move cautiously.” –Sinns pointed out while briefly looking around to check for any other hint of the stalker.

“Was the government also developing genetically modified dogs?” –Elvira asked lowering her voice in case they were being heard as well.

“Don’t be silly, they stopped the genetic manipulation when I was born, or at least the is what it seemed, so they started developing mechanical land units specialized in stealth. They are classified from the public just like my existence, so there are not many people out of the research facilities of Delcyt that would know about them.” –Sinns replied while hurrying towards a small forest of withered trees.

In the distance a four-legged robotic figure with the shape of a canine was silently crawling as a special plating deflected the light, making it able to disappear in thin air to the naked eye. The movement of this machine with the size of a school bus denoted the advanced technology applied to its A.I. and the joints of every leg, allowing it to copy the movement of different animals in order to carry out the task given to it. The name of it is Special Task Force Machine: The Hound (STFM:TH).

Sinns explained the capabilities of this machine to Chronos and Elvira while they were following her lead towards the withered pine forest. After 10 minutes, Elvira pushes Chronos abruptly to his right, making him trip and fall to his right side in order to save him from getting sliced by one of the machine’s legs which left a crack on the ground. Before Chronos could react, Elvira swiftly grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the forest as fast as she could. While being pulled, Chronos heard and felt steel hitting the ground continuously, deducing instantly there was something he couldn’t see moving fast behind them and it was getting closer.

(Note: Hello everyone I hope you are enjoying my story as I enjoy writing it, I now have a Twitter account where I will be posting some updates about the story, if I get to remember Twitter exists, you can find me as @SbrcBleh12)