After Chronos entered the mental cage he found himself in before, he felt different this time as if it was more real than before. It wasn’t a cage anymore; Chronos was in a field this time, a calm extension of grass peacefully being caressed by streams of wind, a breath-taking scenario that made Chronos feel very comfortable but oddly heavy as if he was exhausted and sleep was the only thing he wanted. “So it looks like this is for you, nothingness… just a peaceful paradise.” –Pandora muttered while suddenly standing behind Chronos.

Naturally, Chronos turned around to check the mirage of Pandora once again. “Why are you here again? –Chronos asked while addressing the pale female, who this time seemed to be in better conditions compared to the first time Chronos met her in the first mental cage.

“Well, you should already know I need someone to carry out my will, someone who is able to achieve what you see as peace.” –Pandora said while looking to the surroundings as she was looking for an end to that sea of grass. “I will explain this quickly, if you submit yourself to the desires of your body, you won’t be able to escape this place, mostly since this is the manifestation of your mind to make you give up. It is different for everyone, just like their own magic, but many of these dreams could have a similar meaning, but different scenarios. If my consciousness recalls correctly, I also seek for peace, but I saw a more chaotic scenario, the excitement I got from it almost beats me.” –She continued.

That would explain why I feel so tired… maybe I just need to escape as soon as possible but where is the exit? Where is the place I have to break through? –Chronos thought within his consciousness and tried to gaze upon the horizon of this imaginary construction. Shortly after, he materialized the same spears he used while destroying the sweeper. One after the other, the spears were impulse forwards with great speed, intending to find an end to this space. However, Chronos couldn’t focus enough to know if there was a limit and so the spears faded away before getting far enough.

“You need to remember this is a place where you can’t really rule over your thoughts, this is the reality you want to live, and your head is just reproducing it, but if you submit to your desire of resting, you will not make it past this stage to master the gift I gave you” –Pandora mentioned while disappearing from the space.

Chronos tried to cut the grass of the field in order to see clearly in front of him and trying to keep himself busy so he would not fall asleep. Moving forward, he tried to make his way to the end of this vast extension of the field. It wouldn’t matter how much he would’ve moved forward, it never seemed to stop.

4 days after Chronos entered this comatose state, Archival kept guard on the surroundings of the forest while noticing a lot of movement. It seems like they are preparing themselves to take me down along with the forest.-Archival sighed while preparing natural traps as the forest slowly modified itself to suit.

Once the traps were set around the forest, Archival went back to where Chronos kept himself in a deep slumber. Without saying a word, Archival simply sat to drink tea and gaze outside of his hut, the forest was very calm; none of the other elves stayed in the forest after the AMHAR strike since fear dominated them. Naturally, Archival as the protector of the forest had the duty to persevere for the sake of Pandora and his livelihood. It almost feels like this is the end of my adventure, Pandora did you feel like this before you said goodbye? –Archival thought with a gloomy look on his face as he blew the steam off his tea before taking a sip from it.

On the other side, the teams were preparing plans and resources to make this a one-time expedition, considering all the details they got from the last battle and the possible situations that a direct and indirect attack could bring upon the teams' integrity. In the end, the leaders of every team came to the conclusion that there will be necessary casualties for the sake of the operation, but that would not be known to the rest of their teams. Elvira on the other hand was trying to train with her gloves, realizing diverse tasks around the make-shift facilities the government provided them. Across these camps, it was not rare to see people ridiculing Elvira just because of her utility out of combat. However, Elvira was trying to conceal her fighting capabilities until the right moment came. “Hey, Elvira, right? We need you to pick a lock, there is a very nice-looking car we saw parked around, we might as well take it as a spoil of war” –One of the Heroes of another team along with his companions asked, clearly ridiculing her before then being told to go away by the Scythe holder.

“It seems like they are not really thinking about the danger we are about to face, I really apologize this is happening to someone as valuable as you, I offer you to come to me anytime you are being bothered by these pesky dumbasses again.” –The Scythe holder bowed down to her in a polite manner and smirked unconsciously before getting back up. “My name is Lawrence Kaiser, by the way, we met before in the selection room, and since we were surrounded by rifles ready to kill us, I couldn’t quite talk to you” –He continued while stepping closer to her while holding his Scythe.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Elvira, and I’m sorry but I have to get going, I was tasked to help a group of researchers in the zone with meteorological equipment.” –She lied while walking away from Lawrence. Elvira knew Lawrence from before, she heard from him in the weapon developing program since Gree mentioned it to her, warning her to not stay too much time nearby him because one of his abilities was to charm others and then kill when vulnerable by switching personalities. If I recall correctly, several researchers were killed by him when testing the weapon he is holding right now, I’m not sure if this operation will be successful with that individual among us. –She thought while walking towards her tent where one of the married ladies was waiting for her.

Back in the forest, Archival was making his way underground after securing Chronos in the hut by camouflaging it; he wanted to meet with the earth dragon that was rather injured by the last fight. “Oh poor you, I really wish there was a better way to treat you but you have to rest in order to heal. Maybe Chronos would be able to take you with him after he wakes up when all this finally ends…” –Archival said while sighing and patting the dragon gently.

Chronos on the other hand was still trying his best to not lose consciousness within the mental construction that resembled a large extension of the field; the desire of resting was getting too strong for him to bear, and his thoughts were clouded, the only thing he could do was to cut what was in front of him. Stumbling across the immensity of this place, Chronos couldn’t help but drop on the field, however, on verge of losing consciousness, Chronos was reawakened by a sudden fear that ran through his mind, a sensation he forgot after DD took him since he was a simple baby. Death, the fear of not being able to wake up again, the same fear of not being able to move forward anymore made him slowly push himself up to continue through this challenge. While attempting to continue, Chronos manifested several spears and pierced the ground, creating more spears the pierced upwards from the field and slowly destroying the field. 6 days passed before Chronos was able to complete the challenge, his body was weak since there was no nourishment, but still, he slowly stood up and walked towards the entrance of the hut where he woke up, noticing the forest looked quite different and the tree was heavily covered by more vegetation.

“Ah! You are more of a genius than I thought, you did it in 1 day less than I expected.” –Archival laughed while walking towards the hut which was connected to another tree by a large branch. “I was starting to get worried you wouldn’t wake up in time.” –He mentioned while stopping right in front of Chronos to address him better, in case there were any visible changes. Naturally, Chronos felt uncomfortable and stepped back while frowning. “Oh, don’t worry, sometimes while the candidate is in the second stage of this sort of initiation, the body undergoes a mutation since the next stage requires certain features for the user’s magic to be manifest.” –Archival explained as he went back the tree branch.

“I see, but what happened to the forest? Why is it different?” –Chronos asked as he is unaware of what happened while he was in the comatose state.

“Well, the forest will turn into a warzone, so I was preparing it to be able to succeed, but I think I might be at a disadvantage since they would know how to deal with me now. They will probably burn the forest.” –Archival replied with grief on his face.

Burn down the whole forest? This is simply overwhelming, but maybe I could be able to assist Archival now that I am fully awake. –Chronos thought while getting out of the hut in order to head to where his belongings were. It was a while since Chronos last saw the pair of daggers Nat made for him, it felt quite nostalgic but he knew there was no use for them anymore. A cloud of ashes began to manifest, gathering and compressing themselves into the shape of a long spear, Chronos then proceeded to grab it, noticing a very similar feeling to the grips of the daggers but with a big difference in size and weight. After swinging the spear a couple of times, Chronos realized it wouldn’t be a bad idea to keep the daggers after all since they would be convenient in case there was a close combat fight.

Some kilometers away from the forest, all teams were preparing themselves to start the operation; several vehicles took the teams around the perimeter of the forest to start raiding it from different flanks, forcing the Earth dragon to come out and overwhelming the entity known as the elf guarding the forest. “The mission will start at 0:00, any delay will not be accepted, all flanks have to be covered simultaneously and the special equipment has to be activated in order to burn down the forest, this way forcing the Dragon to come out will be easier.” –The Commander reiterated from the control room in the capital.

A half-hour before the raid began; a couple of destroyers from the capital brought a container that had a next custom weapon, a very characteristic battle-ax with a hollow pole, loaded with heavy ammunition. Elvira noticed the weapon and managed to remember where she saw it before, only for a shiver to crawl over her back while seeing the user descending from one of the destroyers, Victoria’s Model No.1: Sinns, Her aura seemed way different from before. Sinns instantly noticed Elvira and smirked as her skin suddenly showed a sort of reaction resembling the growth of small scales before turning back to normal. Elvira felt uneasy but tried to focus, not realizing there were many gazes upon her and the gloves she was welding, her teammates already planned a way to get rid of her while she was busy around the camps helping others, they supposed her gloves didn’t really mean anything special but very worthy for they own purposes.

The raid was about to begin, all the teams were situated in their respective spots, Sinns was named the Officer in charge to capture or kill the dragon, and the flame-throwing weapons were activated right after the clock marked 00:00. The operation began but no one expected the Anomaly that was born recently in that fateful forest.