"Hey...your name is Rel, right?"

Rel's eyes glared at the kid who approached them. His little brother cowered behind him. "Who... are you?"

The glare rel had made the kid feel uneasy. He was about 2 years older than the duo, but it was clear they were not pushovers.

"I've never seen your faces around here... so you guys are new? How is that possible? They generally don't allow plague children inside."

This city was harsh. They had strict regulations of who to let in. Without a status or some sort of authorized travel pass, you'd be taken into custody and reviewed harshly by the guards in the city. It was as if they tried very sternly to keep things under wraps.

The smoke that constantly rose from its factories closed off the skies and created constant dark clouds above. Due to this, the city was known as the city of smog. It was not uncommon for acid rain to drop from the heavens. It was as if no one could leave this city, and no one could enter.

But nonetheless, they found themselves within the city gates. Due to its isolationist nature, the influence of the Plague Subjugation force did not spread here. However, the guards still did not favor plague children. In fact, most people within this city did not favor plague children.

They were the lowest of the lowest demographic. Very few of them had family, and the ones that did were abandoned by them. They constantly feared that the plague may rise again.

Within this withering city, the only thing they could cling to was a life of crime to survive.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Rel's fists clenched tightly in the face of this child. The child was normal. His skin had hue to them, unlike the grayness. He wasn't a plague child.

"Well, I was just curious is all." He smiled and reassured them. "You know, if you guys are that skilled, you can always join us."

"We can manage on our own, thanks."

"Hmm..." He put a finger to his chin. "Perhaps you can, but can you say the same about your brother behind you?" They looked entirely identical so it was easy to tell that they were brothers.

Rel put his hands up as if to fight. "I have more than enough strength to protect him." He swung forward at the kid with the direct intent of colliding with his jaw. To his surprise, he found himself missing entirely. No. Rather, the kid had dodged with such a swift and fluid motion.

Following the dodge, he immediately locked both of his hands around Rel's arm, swept his leg and brought them both down to the ground. Rel remained incapacitated as the man held onto Rel's arm tightly.

"It seems that in and of itself is a lie." From this angle, he could easily place all his weight on his arm and dislocate Rel's shoulder. But instead, the kid let go and dusted himself off. "Grotto's the name. Seek me out when you guys need help." He waved as he walked away.

To think he'd get them to change so much in such little time.

Rel found himself staring yet again at the man they call Grotto. This was the family he grew up with. Grotto grinned heartily. His long shaggy and unkempt hair covered half of his face.

Rel couldn't help but find himself smiling as well and they both ran up to each other and hugged. Long time friends who had not seen each other in 8 years. Aren and the rest of them were taken aback.

"Hahaha! REL! I KNEW IT WAS YOU! LOOK AT YOU NOW!"

"Haha, same for yourself pal! You grew at least an extra 2 feet."

They finally let go. "Oh man...you should come with me. Brynn and Elira will be happy to see you."

Rel's eyes widened. "B..bryn...Elira.."

"A-are Caspen, Roserik and Meir still alive too??"

He nodded. "heh, you'd be surprised what happened after you left. Aye, they're all still alive."

"Larix?!"

"...."

"No. Larix, Selvia, Irimi, Kors, Ilreth, Ojen, Ixix.." The list kept on going, and the air got progressively gloomier with each name that was listed.

"I'm sorry... I didn't mean to-" Grotto placed a hand on his shoulder. "It wasn't your fault. You gotta be able to let things go at this point, Rel."

"Ahem.." Oreilia coughed. "Its good you guys are catching up and all that, but need I remind you we came here on a mission?"

"Woah! Rel you lucky bastard. Leave for just a couple years and you come back riding with two babes." He peered over his shoulder.

Oreilia was taken aback by his response and slightly revolted. Ineiru just looked away. "Tch. Careful, the taller one's a monster." Rel said smirking.

Oreilia and him glared at each other.

"What's this mission you guys are on?"

Zephise cut in to explain. "Well, we're here for 2 different reasons. One, under request of Lord Ora, we're planning on gathering all the plague children within the neighboring villages and bringing them back to Essen-Sei'O."

Grotto looked on confused. "Who's this Lord Ora?"

Aren looked entirely confused. "So do you mean to tell me that this city has no knowledge of the attack that occured? The one that Ora averted?"

"Attack..." Grotto scratched his head "Now that you mention it... there has been a lot of strange activity going on recently."

"The officials and higher ups have been buzzing like crazy, and many people have been let inside from random villages."

"eh?? is that how it is?" Zephise quickly began writing it down within his notebook. This time he made a web of several different pieces of information that he had gained throughout the travel.

At the middle of this web, was the name Chrom. They've encountered a couple villages so far that had infected people within it. They have also encountered various villages that were entirely empty.

"Then there are those 10 mages...."

He pointed his pen at Grotto. "The last part of the web is this place... Irin-Sei'O."

"It's safe to say that the villagers from those empty villages were the ones that have recently been entering the city. I'm sure you've noticed quite the high amount of new faces."

Grotto nodded. "Irin-Sei'O, though the Bearim guards are no longer there, still maintain a very isolationist culture. So it is kind of odd that we'd start getting flooded by people."

"So then, there has to be someone or some people that are aware of the attacks going on in the outside world. There shouldn't be any Baerim presence anymore within Sei'O entirely. But if you guys were visited by mages, you'd be unaware of it. You don't even know that Baerim has fallen."

Rel patted Grotto's shoulder. "So has there been any new faces that stick out to you at all?"

Grotto seemed entirely shocked to hear that Baerim had fallen. They did find it odd that Baerim presence had been entirely devoid the past couple of months.

"You guys...have a lot to fill me in on."

"However, if Baerim has fallen, then the person of interest you guys may be talking about is Ozen."

"Come with me. We can talk back at the shrine."

Zephise raised his hand as if he was in a classroom. "Um. Who is this Ozen if I may ask?"

"He's a mage from Baerim that has arrived here recently. When he came, he was leading a flock of people."

"Heh, that sounds like our guy."

They followed Grotto through various rounding paths. The city seemed a lot more vibrant in recent times. This was probably due to the diminished Baerim influence. This would probably have to be the first time that such a huge group of people had migrated to the city.

Nonetheless, the greed from the corporations that worked here still kept everyone wrapped tightly under their fingers. Day to day life was still a harsh struggle. One could see it clearly on the faces of everyone.

It felt like the smiles of everyone as they greeted each other was entirely insincere. This was the city of smog. It was definitely the same city of smog he remembered.

"we turn up ahead, this way."

As they trailed down long winding alleyways and small corridors, they finally got to a clear location. It was an empty alleyway. Walls surrounded them on all sides except back behind them. Dead End.

Oreilia stopped before the wall and turned around to face Grotto, but before she could say anything Rel put up a hand to stop her. This was not an ambush.

"You know the drill, Rel."

"yeah yeah.." he put a hand up and walked straight into the wall. Just like that, Rel disappeared.

"W...what the--"

Grotto smirked and held his chin, awaiting the praise that would come of his fine work.

"It's a basic illusionary spell." Ineiru said, calming her down. "There's something else on the other side of this wall."

They crossed without so much as looking back at him. Instead of praise he was met with disappointment. On the other side of that wall however, things were entirely different.

Rel found himself faced with multiple eyes. Eyes of those he had never seen before. Their sharp glares seemed sharper than the blades and spears they brandished at his neck.

"Eyes like daggers, and claws to boot...where did you find these ones?"

Ineiru and the other group walked in just in time to witness this stand off. One single move and they would have attacked.

Rel exhaled with both of his hands up.

"Calm down, we're with G-"

"Shut the fuck up, stoneman."

"St-" That was the first time he had heard that one before. And it was said by another plague child nonetheless! The nerve!

"You're dressed quite finely aren't ya. I don't know how you got over here bu-...."

"R...Rel?" this lady stepped out from behind the group.

It took him a moment to realize who it was but once she got close enough, he finally realized. "Elira.."

There was no mistaking it. Her curly long hair brown hair, her thinned out eyebrows. The grayness in her skin gave off the appearance of soft smooth stones.

And then there was her eyes, sharp and cold, devoid of all positive emotion. One could aliken her to Alel, except hers was a gaze that was much much colder.

They borrowed through Rel's eyes. And eventually tears began to drip from them. This would have been the very first time she had seen her show emotion. "You..."

"You fool!" She clenched her fists tightly, but then released her hold and slapped Rel as hard as she could. It was almost enough to knock him off balance. The seering hotness of her hands remained on his face.

If it was anyone else, he would have blown up on them. But Elira... He almost began to cry himself. Elira pulled him in and hugged him tightly as if to make sure he wasn't an illusion.

"Tch. So the old leader's here huh?" Roserik peaked from behind one of the small houses.

"The old...leader?" one of the children asked in confusion. They put down their weapons reluctantly.

Grotto entered in finally, much later than everyone else. Had anything gone south, he'd have been late to save the show.

"Haha, I see everyone's met." He clapped his hands together. They all bowed their heads and stomped at the same.

"Ehh???" Rel's eyes scanned the display before him. "Whats with all these rituals now?" They were moving more formal as if they were a disciplined military unit.

"Well, a lot has happened since you left Rel. But why don't we begin with you filling us in on the current affairs. Exchange of information."

He yawned. "Alright. We'll talk."