Rachel began to lead Noah as they navigated through a maze of houses while sneaking through yards, climbing over people's fences and along rooftops. Occasionally she would pause and hold up a hand, signalling him to remain silent before changing their direction.

"What are you doing?" Noah finally couldn't resist asking.

He couldn't remain silent as he watched Rachel take a peek over the fence of a particular house they had just looped around multiple times. Noah joined her as he tried to find what she was searching for. They had circled the entire outside fence line in a complicated route as Rachel looked for a safe path. On one side, the house roof had collapsed, which was facing them, revealing its shadowy interior.

"Shh! Be quiet!" Rachel quickly waved at him to get back as she jumped down from the fence before hurriedly pulling him down.

"What is it? Is something there?" Noah asked, confused by Rachel's strange behaviour.

"There's a mutated house cat in there. It's about the size of a panther which I saw there when I passed by earlier. It waved its paw towards a couple of Soulless chasing it, one had a deep slash across its chest, and the other was fat and stumbling along behind the first one. It was actually kind of funny," Rachel let out an involuntary giggle, which she immediately muffled.

Noah had a strange sense of deja vu.

"After the cat swung its claw, a ripple came out to cut the two Soulless in half before it destroyed half the house with them. I have a feeling that it's still nearby somewhere," Rachel continued.

"If we can sneak in, I might be able to get the crystals from the two Soulless before the cat notices" Rachel turned to look into Noah's eyes.

"That's where you come in to pay off the favour you owe me."

Rachel had a mischievous glint in her eyes when she turned to look at him as an evil grin formed. Noah started to back away while holding his hands up.

"Crystals, what crystals?" Noah was getting nervous as Rachel stared at him like a cat watching its prey.

"The Soulless have black hexagonal crystals at the base of their skulls, called origin crystals. That's what I want," Rachel informed him.

"It's time for you to fulfil your side of the bargain, Mister Hero. Then I'll escort you to the beam of light. There's something I didn't tell you earlier though."

"What's that?" Noah had a bad premonition.

"I've already been to one of the beams of light. That's where I got this knife, pretty, isn't it?"

Rachel pulled the knife from its sheath before holding the knifepoint under Noah's nose, causing him to take a step backward.

"They're constantly moving. But if you enter it, you'll be taken into a place where the aliens will trade with you for crystals along with another currency called Merit."

"What's Merit?" Noah asked.

"Merit is something obtained in a lot of different ways, with the main one being killing the Soulless. If we can get both of the crystals, I'll even let you keep one" Rachel made it sound as if she was the one doing him a favour.

Rachel put the knife away back in its sheath as she tried to bargain with him after realizing that intimidation was getting her nowhere.

"How exactly do you expect me to get those crystals out of the cat's clutches, if even you can't manage with your teleport ability?" Noah asked.

"You just have to keep the cat busy and make sure that it doesn't interrupt me while I get the crystals. Easy for you, Mister Hero," Rachel answered as she waved a hand dismissively.

"If that's the cat, I think it is. I saw it almost cut a Soulless in half, and now you tell me that it caused this. What makes you think that it won't do the same to us?" Noah gestured in the direction of the ruined house, obscured by the fence.

"Let's just call it a hunch. You give me a feeling of danger only a little bit less than that cat does, or I'd never have tried to recruit you," Rachel said as she began to reclimb the fence.

"Something tells me that you would have," Noah muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" Rachel paused with her hands on the top of the fence. Her foot braced against the base as she turned to pout at him.

"Alright, I'll help you. But if things start to get out of hand, you're on your own," Noah sighed in defeat as he reluctantly agreed to her persuading.

It sounds like it's the house cat I saw earlier, which dealt with the Soulless chasing me, but it sounds a lot more powerful now. Its lifeforce must have been unstable to attract the Soulless. This means it probably awakened another ability while getting annoyed with the Soulless and dealing with them... I'm going to need to be very careful.

"Great! Then let's get to work. Shall we, Mister Hero?" Rachel greedily rubbed her hands together before she resumed climbing over the fence.

"Wait, aren't we going to make a plan first?" Noah hurriedly called out after her.

"We already have a plan, you keep that fat cat busy, and I claim the booty," Rachel replied with a low chuckle filled with avarice.

Rachel briefly paused with one leg over the fence as she glanced over her shoulder towards him with a suspiciously innocent smile. Noah couldn't help but peek at her 'booty' that was on full display. Rachel quickly threw her other leg over the fence as she carefully lowered herself down on the other side of the wall.

"That doesn't sound like much of a plan," Noah muttered as he grudgingly followed to climb over the fence after her.

"I heard that!"

"That's because you were supposed to," Noah muttered.

"Where are the bodies?" Noah asked.

"Over there buried beneath the rubble, that's probably why the fat cat didn't bother grabbing his loot," Rachel pointed at where a foot was conspicuously poking out from underneath a pile of rubble.

"X marks the spot. You keep a lookout while I dig out the bodies, then we can get out of here. Hopefully, the cat leaves us alone," Noah crept towards the pile of broken bricks.

"I'm the one who's supposed to be making the decision… Woah!"

Rachel cut off before she could finish her complaint as she watched Noah approach the pile of rubble while activating his [Six Spirit Arms] ability. Noah felt the now-familiar surge of energy flow down his spine as six purple glowing ethereal arms materialized behind his back. He used his extra six pairs of hands to begin to dig away the rubble while he simultaneously attempted to pull on the legs of the nearest corpse.

He quickly uncovered the first Soulless corpse. It belonged to the fat man he witnessed being mauled to death earlier. As Noah was finishing unearthing the second Soulless, Rachel successfully removed the first origin crystal from the fat Soulless.

"Look out! Above you!" Rachel let out a cry of warning before she disappeared into thin air in a wave of pink light.

Noah instinctively shielded his head with his arms, including his ethereal arms crossed over the top of his head as an additional layer of defence. A violent ripple of air crashed against his materialized arms, causing them to flicker brighter for a second as the force drove him down to one knee.

He let out a grunt of pain as he absorbed the impact. Noah finally had a clear view of what had ambushed him between the gap in his raised arms. It was the house cat he had seen attack the Soulless earlier, yet it was at least twice the size of when he had last seen it.

The cat had grown, but it was still smaller than how Rachel described it. Rachel appeared beside Noah before slashing down with her large hunting knife onto the partially excavated Soulless's neck beside his feet. Rachel crouched down to pick up the now decapitated head as she glanced apologetically at Noah before quickly disappearing from where she had been standing with a rush of air and pink light.

"Run, sorry to take your share of the booty Mister Hero!" Rachel cried out from where she appeared on the neighbouring rooftop.

Rachel once again blinked out of existence to an unknown destination. Noah cursed Rachel as he pushed himself to his feet, hurriedly retreating towards the street. He felt a sharp jolt of pain along his back as the cat struck him with another wind blade. The ethereal arms were unable to negate the impact completely this time.