One thing: This will not be a harem. I repeat, no harem. If it seems like it at first, don't trust your judgement. I'm sick of that genre at the moment.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

"This is where you'll be sleeping."

Looking around the room, Kyte noticed two separate beds on each side of the room. There was a small desk on the wall in-between the two beds, and at the foot of both beds were clothes dressers that held clothes.

Since Kyte got his house smashed open, especially his room, he doesn't have any other clothes except the ones he has in his storage necklace and the stuff that he's wearing currently. However, Kyte had several pieces of clothing in his storage necklace. In case something happened, he always had several extra shirts, pants, underwear, socks, shoes, stuff like that. He also has food items in his storage necklace, and strangely none of them have gone bad. It might be because the storage necklace holds the items in a separate space, but Kyte doesn't really know.

"So you're sleeping in here with me?"

Kyte turned his head to look at Akina, whom had a calm expression on her face.

"Of course. Since you've only been inside this place, and you haven't even looked around, you don't know how small this place is. Of course, Dan and Lucy have their own apartment which I'm grateful about. There really are no other rooms left, unless you want to sleep on the floor."

"Or the couch, but I really don't want to sleep on either of them. A bed is just fine."

"Hmmm? You seem pretty calm considering you're going to be sleeping in the same room as a woman."

"It's not like we're in a relationship or anything. Plus, I don't get the feeling that you would attack me in my sleep. What's there to worry about?"

"...I see. Well, whatever. If you don't mind then that makes things easier. I'll be out getting some food, so go ahead and look around for a while."

"Uh...what time is it?"

"It's five-thirty."

"In the evening."

"Correct."

"How long was I out?"

"A day. I didn't hit you that hard."

Didn't hit me that hard? What kind of freakish strength is that?...Well, considering she has seventh stage-equivalent power....

"...Alright, see you around then."

"Bye~."

Akina tapped Kyte's shoulder before turning around and leaving. Kyte could smell the fragrance from her body while she was standing there, but it didn't really effect him. Although, Kyte has been away from women for quite a while. He felt something from her, especially since she's a very mature women, both mentally and physically. However, Kyte was able to keep calm. A little bit.

Testing out his bed, Kyte looked around the bedroom for a few minutes before walking out into the hall. To his left was a doorway that led to an open room. Kyte saw a kitchen and a large dining table. Nothing else was really in there except for those two things. Of course, the normal necessities like a fridge and freezer were present as well.

The hallway had five doors total. On the right side was Kyte's bedroom and another bedroom as well. There were also two doors on the left, and the one furthest away from Kyte was the room he woke up in.

Checking the first door on the left side, Kyte found a small room. It was almost two times bigger than a closet, and a sweet fragrance wafted out when Kyte opened the door. Along with the fragrance was a different odor, and Kyte had no clue what it was. Looking around the inside, he saw many girly-looking clothes hanging around, as well as a few panties laying next to the bed on the other side.

This must be Rose's room...why is it so small? And why does she sleep by herself-...Oh.

Slowly backing out and closing the door, Kyte breathed a sigh of relief. The air outside Rose's room was naturally better since it wasn't full of different strong scents. Luckily no one was in the hallway with him, and if Rose had happened to be there, he didn't know what could've happened.

The others are still in the room that Kyte had woke up in. They were currently discussing recent reports of Guardians and other things. Jol, however, was in his room since he was too young to fully understand what the others were talking about.

The second door on the left had two beds. One of the beds was visibly larger than the other. Inside, Kyte saw Jol laying on the smaller sized bed.

"Oh hey! It's you!.....what was your name again?"

"My name is Kyte."

"That's a pretty weird name."

"I think my name is normal considering your names."

"What?! I think my name is hecka cool! I picked it myself!"

"Heh, did you not like the name your parents gave you?"

"..."

Silence filled the room after Kyte said that sentence. However, it wasn't Kyte's fault. How could he have known?

Jol sat up on his bed and put his legs over the side. Looking a little distant while staring at the other bed, Jol said:

"I don't have parents."

"-!"

Surprised by what Jol had said, Kyte didn't know what to say at first. A few seconds later, Kyte walked over and sat next to Jol.

"Well, then we're the same."

"...huh?"

"I don't have parents either. I don't know about your circumstances; you could've been without parents your whole life and I wouldn't even know. But don't worry. Just because you lost your parents doesn't mean you're alone, right? I'm pretty sure you already know that. Shadow, Light, Dan, Lucy, Rose, and Akina. You have a whole group of people.

Besides, eventually in life you'll lose someone you care about. Whether or not you're ready for it, well that's up to you. To be honest, I don't think anyone can be ready for it. It just...kinda happens."

They sat in silence for several seconds before Jol poked Kyte on the cheek.

"I didn't know you could talk so deep for a guy that looks like a loser."

"...The fuck did you just say?"

"Ooooooh!! KYTE SAID A CUSS WORD!!"

Quickly putting his hand over Jol's mouth, Kyte pushed him down on the bed with his hand and said in a hushed voice:

"Shh! Why do you have to be so loud?!"

-BANG-

"WHO'S SAYING WHAT?!!"

Hearing heavy feet quickly moving toward the door, Kyte felt that this is going to troublesome.

Looking back at Jol, Kyte said:

"You're dead meat."

-BANG-

The bedroom door swung open and Dan walked in with his arms crossed across his chest. Seeing that, Kyte had a tired expression on his face. He used Windwalker to speed out of the room, but right when he was at the door he felt a hand grab his shirt at his chest area.

-SLAM-

Kyte was slammed against the floor by Dan's hand. Although the floor didn't get cracked, Kyte still felt the wind move out of his lungs.

"Who told you that you can leave?"

Dan grabbed Kyte and dragged him into the big room with the couch. He threw Kyte onto the couch and sat down in one of the chairs next to it. Rose also sat down on the opposite side of Dan.

"I'll let you off this time since you just got here, but we have simple rules in this place. Now, I have to take Lucy and head back to our apartment in a couple of minutes so I'll keep things simple:

Number one, don't say or write any bad words. I don't like hearing them and I don't want these younger ones to hear them. Number two, you can't eat anything you want out of the fridge or freezer. There are several people living here so you can't just take however much you want. Number three, don't be stupid and bring random people in here. Last thing we need is someone not involved in this war to suddenly be involved in it....I feel like I'm missing something but I can't remember right now. Anyway, I have to go. Rose and I are the co-leaders here, so whenever Akina or I are gone, Rose is in charge."

"Seems simple enough. And, I don't really think this whole thing is a war..."

"That just what it seems like on the surface. Once you actually get out there into missions, you'll understand exactly what I mean. It's not pretty. Sometimes, innocent people are involved and the only way to stop them from telling anyone is killing them. I'd hate to leave that to you younger ones."

"Hahaha, don't worry about that. I've already killed many people. My power kinda requires me to do so."

"....Well if that's the way it is, then I won't go any further. Akina should be coming back in about half an hour, so she'll tell you the rest. For now, I'll see ya guys tomorrow."

"Mm."

"Bye~."

With that, Dan got up and went to find Lucy. After he left, Rose turned to look at Kyte.

".........what are you looking at me for?"

"If you don't want to kill yourself, then you better control whatever it is eroding your brain."

"What does that mean?"

"Don't play dumb with me. When I use my energy with my eyes, I'm able to see things others can't. And I can see clear as day that thing inside your brain."

"...I see. Well I don't know what you're talking about but I'll try to control whatever it is."

"Hm. I might not be seeing it clearly, but that's never happened before. Where did you say you came from?"

"I was born here."

"Hmmm? Did you just get your power recently?"

"No, it's just that I didn't realize I had a power till a little while ago."

"...................Ok~! I'll believe you~."

Rose stood up and walked over to Kyte. Bending over so her face was above his, she caressed his cheek while saying:

"But if you're lying to me I'll have to punish you~."

Letting out a soft breath of air onto his face, she licked her lips and walked out of the room.

I couldn't even move!

Kyte breathed out a sigh of relief after she left.

There's just something about her that gives me chills. I dunno if it's good or bad...

Kyte left the room and went into the kitchen. After looking around a little bit, he put a note down on the table stating that he was going out for a little bit. Then, Kyte left.

____________________________________________________________________

---Twenty minutes Later---

Far away from the residence of Akina's group, Kyte continued to use Windwalker to move further.

The residence where everyone was located in is a large building. It has many different apartments in it, but mainly it's for the more well-off people. Outside of the main building, Kyte saw pretty expensive cars parked. Just from that, he could tell that there are many wealthy people there. He began to think, where did Akina get her money?

Anyway, Kyte left because he went out searching for criminals. It wasn't for a 'hero' or a 'justice' cause, it was purely for his own benefit. Plus, he didn't feel too good about killing random people. Even if he has nothing to do with them, they're still people with their own lives. Of course, criminals are like that as well, but Kyte felt a lot better killing them than killing random citizens.

So far he's found four criminals. He was hoping to find more than that but he was disappointed. This was the only time that he wished people were out stealing or other things. While he was moving from rooftop to rooftop, he silently laughed at the irony.

Before long, Kyte stumbled upon large warehouses that looked to be abandoned. There were four lined up in a row and a fence with barbed wire on top of it surrounded the perimeter.

".........Well, why not."

After stealthily landing in the courtyard in-front of the warehouses, Kyte jumped up and softly landed on the one farthest to the left. There were many holes on each of the roofs to the warehouses from old age and Kyte used that to look into them.

The first warehouse was pitch black inside. However, Kyte was still able to see fairly well inside of it. Even if he couldn't see, he would just spread out his Spirit energy to see what was inside.

Continuing on, he found nothing in the second or third warehouses. However, when he looked down at the fourth warehouse...

Inside was a large delivery truck that had its back door open. There were about twenty people situated around it, moving boxes from the inside to the black vans parked next the truck. There was one man that stood out from the rest.

He wore a short-sleeve polo shirt and grey pants. His hair was short and he had sunglasses covering his eyes. It seemed like he was overseeing the whole operation. He stood there with a seemingly arrogant stance, as if he was looking at slaves.

Kyte had used a Concealing Mask a while ago, and right now he was wearing what he wore when he had killed Asshole and his family, as well as his two friends. All black, with a hoodie and gloves. The hood cast a shadow over the top half of his face, and since it was created from the Concealing Mask, it made the top half of Kyte's face completely dark.

Silently landing on the warehouse floor several meters away from the group, Kyte just watched them for about two minutes. Walking forward, Kyte deliberately let the sound of his footsteps resound throughout the warehouse.

Suddenly, everyone turned around and brought out guns aimed directly at Kyte.

"Hey! Who are you and what are you doing?!"

The man in the polo walked in-front of the group of men and loudly demanded Kyte to answer.

Kyte walked forward a few more steps before coming to a stop.

What bullshit should I say here? Eh, screw it I'm too lazy.

While Kyte was silently thinking, the group of men became slightly uneasy. The man in-front stood there and said:

"I asked you a fuckin' question and you better answer it!"

He quickly walked forward and when he was in-front of Kyte he reached out his hand to try to grab his hoodie from the chest area. When his hand touched Kyte's hoodie, he was delighted that he would be able to torture another person, however...

His hand slipped right through Kyte's image.

"Huh?"

Before he could even react, Kyte had appeared behind him. By then, the man's throat was already sliced open and blood was currently spilling out onto his clothes. Turning around, the man wanted to strangle him. However, the next thing he realized was that he was hovering above Kyte.

Tendrils of blood had pierced through his body, and the man took his final breath seeing his own blood dripping to the ground while being engrossed in large amounts of pain. After Kyte had absorbed the blood and the man's soul, he ripped his body apart and threw the pieces to the ground. However, no blood gushed out from the man's body, as all of it was already gone.

Seeing that scene, the group of men open fired on Kyte. His body became riddled with holes and huge chunks of flesh were ripped off of his body by the force of the bullets. However, none of his bones were broken since by this time, his bones were stronger than steel.

All the blood that came from Kyte's wounds smoothly lifted from the ground and entered back into his body. New flesh quickly grew back, and in less than ten seconds Kyte stood there like nothing had ever happened.

"It's....a fucking demon!"

One of the men snapped out of his shock and started to run to the back exit. However, before any one of them could move more than five steps, they were all pushed to the ground by an invisible pressure.

Hm? Are they related to AHAD?

Kyte indifferently walked forward. His footsteps rang in the ears of the men and fear gripped their hearts as they heard Kyte's footsteps getting closer.

Suddenly, Kyte stopped. He crushed the head of one man, then he sliced another down the middle. He simultaneously slaughtered the men by slicing them open, decapitating them, or crushing them with the pressure of his Internal energy.

Kyte absorbed all of the blood and the men's souls. He felt a huge surge of energy within his body and he felt like he was going to breakthrough into the Sentinel stage. However, the surge stopped just at the end of the Spirit stage.

Kyte felt his soul consume the men's souls like mad. Their Spirit energy entered the golden ball, making it almost double in size once again. At this time, Kyte felt a sudden blast of electricity in his mind. He had re-entered the seventh stage for his soul.

Kyte quickly sat down and started to focus on controlling his new energy. Since he had broken through into the seventh stage once before, it was much easier this time around. He had quickly settled the surging energy in his soul and calmly opened his eyes.

Everything was a lot more clearer, cleaner, and sharper. If his vision was like bat's, now it was like a hawk's. Or something like that at least. He could clearly see the far corners of the warehouse that used to be pitch black. He could also zoom in his vision a certain amount, and the quality of his vision wouldn't lessen at all.

Feeling that the wall to the Sentinel stage was already cracked, Kyte couldn't wait any longer and decided to breakthrough right there.

Staying in his current position, a large vortex suddenly appeared around Kyte. The corpses around him were picked up and thrown around the warehouse. There was no blood, since Kyte had already absorbed all of it.

Thanks to his soul achieving the seventh stage once again, the amount of energy he could absorb practically doubled.

Thirty minutes later, a large burst of energy surrounded Kyte. The ground around him cracked under the pressure, sending out small cracks to the edges of the large vortex.

The vortex quickly shrunk and spun wildly around Kyte's immediate surrounding. Then, it abruptly surged out to the warehouse walls and dissipated a few seconds later.

Kyte opened his eyes, and he felt the new power surging through the body. A much stronger energy was within his bones and flesh. The Internal energy he had from the Novice to the Spirit stage had completely transformed when he finally entered into the Sentinel stage. This new energy was at least two times more powerful than the energy Kyte had before.

Standing up, Kyte created an energy sword in his hand. The dread aura emitting from it had doubled in intensity. He could also hear a faint hum coming from the sword. Then, a flash of light went through his mind.

Sentinel stage skills!

With a higher stage came more advanced skills. This time, Kyte had unlocked three new skills. Eagerly searching through his memories, Kyte found them and went over the information.

The first skill is called Fire Touch. By learning Fire Touch, Kyte will be able to create and manipulate fire by will. Of course, the power of the fire corresponds with his own power, so the more power he has the stronger the flame. The flames also have levels. The starting is a red flame, then orange, dark blue, light blue, white, then finally black. The flame changes every other stage, so Kyte estimated that his flame would turn black after several stages.

The second skill is Iron Body. It actually isn't able to create iron. It only advances the technique of using Internal energy to cover the user's body for defense. When it's learned to mastery, it's able to cut the cost of energy down by half and raise the defense by two times. Kyte felt that this was very necessary for him, since there are Guardians out there that are far more powerful than he is right now.

The final skill is called Sonic Blade. It can be used on any weapon Kyte chooses, but it works directly with and for Energy Manipulation. This skill was actually created by Sol'keer to contemplate the Energy Manipulation skills and to increase his overall attack power by many times. If Kyte learns Sonic Blade to mastery, he will be able to create slashes of energy that travel past the sound barrier easily. It carries the Internal energy and enhances it by several times. If it's used with the aura from an energy weapon, Sonic Blade's power increases by three times.

Kyte was shocked with these new skills. They were what he needed! Two new offensive skills and an easy defensive skill! If he learns these new skills to mastery, his power would increase exponentially!

Not only did he unlock new skills, but a portion of the storage necklace was unlocked. Various new pills and medicinal items were found. A few other weapons were placed among the pills, and there was one defensive equipment in there as well.

Kyte took it out and examined it closely. It was a pair of gauntlets that fit on his hands perfectly. They were black in color with different formations drawn onto them.

The right gauntlet increases the offensive capabilities of Kyte while the left one increases his defensive capabilities. Not only that, but they make laying formations much, much easier. They take about three-quarters of the hardship away from Kyte, lessening the amount of energy he has to use. Although, since Kyte doesn't really have any knowledge on formations whatsoever, this doesn't really help.

The gauntlets, once bound to Kyte, would enter into his body. So, he could take them out and equip them whenever he wanted to. However, the benefits of the gauntlets only work if he has them equipped, not if he has them stored in his body.

Then name of gauntlets is Shadow Twins. It may not be the most awesome of names, but it didn't really matter to Kyte. Just as long as they benefited him, it was fine.

"Hahaha, this is awesome!...Ohhhh crap. I completely forgot about the others. Haaaa, gosh damn it. Well, time to go back..."

Kyte silently jumped out of the warehouse and traveled back to Akina's residence. Kyte could feel the huge difference in his speed. Before, when he was in the Spirit stage, it took him about twenty five minutes to reach the warehouses.

It took Kyte seven minutes to reach Akina's residence. His speed increased exponentially.