Stumbling from the slumber of a long time, William slowly rose from his sleep. Feeling warmth with a hard and rough texture, he became alert.

The smell of smoke and fire. He thought he survived a fiery accident, Pushing himself with his two palms, he looks at himself then his surroundings.

An ashy fiery living room, the front of him a huge hole as its exterior had burning flames everywhere. Thinking it was still an accident that happened, he turned around only to notice simple and normal furnishing, still intact.

"What the hell?" He asks himself in a rather melodramatic tone. "Where am I?"

Hearing a shuffle from a nearby room, he hides onto the side of its wall and peeked it through. A kitchen it was, the fridge is broken, cabinets scattered and an oven flaming both inside and outside. This is abnormal, William thought.

Looking around, he realises everything around him was either covered in smoke and ashen soot or covered in flames.

"This isn't Germany." He said in an excited tone. "This is Asheville!"

As sarcastic as he tried to be to calm himself, he was rather much telling the truth. A place where oxygen is barely tasteable, the only thing that surrounded the place was only embers of old flames.

Hearing a few footsteps heading his way, he walks towards a staircase that was nearby him and sneaks his way to the second floor.

Inspecting the rooms one by one, he makes sure that the person did not hide any dangerous items that can be used as weapons.

Finding nothing, he decided to play it cool and decided to walk out normally, heading to the bathroom beside he turns on the faucet of a broken sink which let out a yellow liquid of sorts, sniffing it, it was just water mixed with sulfur.

No choice, he wets his hand as he felt slight burns sensating on his pores. Holding it, he then immediately turns off the faucet and wipes it dry on his shirt. "Goddamn...how am I to breath properly in this odd place."

Leaving the bathroom, he then walks slowly down the flight of stairs, only to be greeted by the owner of the so-called home.

The same lady in the blackish and dishevelled gown, took a gaze to him as she smiles and lays some strange black liquid and old preserved food from yonder time in packaging boxes.

"Come, I made coffee and some food." She says in a very sweet voice.

Feeling odd out, he realises that this could be some sort of trap. This person is not normal. Even if she was a guardian or not, her friendly demeanour in this odd forsaken town is just, unbelievable.

But now is not the time to play games, William had only two choices, cooperate with the unknown being or who knows what.

"Oh, thank you." He sounds to the being as she heads to her. "How are you?"

Being as calm and kind as possible, near the being, he hands her his hand to give her a shake.

"I am fine, thank you..." As she dragged her ending sentence, the tone of voice gave a very raspy and ghost-like echo. Perhaps an after effect from the constant smoke breathing. "Come, have a seat."

Doing so on the only couch that existed in the room, he sat on its partially melted plastic fibre and sat down facing to the front.

Looking closely at the food, it seemed to be a packet of his MRE prepared lovingly into a full-on dish and a coffee made from his pocket. Strange, he didn't take it along but how did it manage to appear.

Making a decision, he takes a bite of the food as he reaches it with a fork that was still intact and prepared for him. The food tasted very similar to its original creation, watery and slightly mild.

But, there was a change in smell and flavour by a small bit, "An improvised dish, it's good." Complimenting the dish, he turns towards the being.

Noticing finally her true form, he takes a look at her skin, multiple layered with flesh wounds and a charred skin of sorts that hardened and became similar to what seems to scale.

Smiling towards the being, he asked her kindly. "Remind me - What is your name, lady?"

The lady with a sudden change of face of curiosity smiles back and opens her mouth slowly. "My name is Beo, Mr William. I am yours, the blade of corruption."

Understanding the situation, he realises what is the reason behind this strange place and this only living individual.

"Ahh, Miss Beo, nice to meet you. I was thinking about why this place acted so unusual." Pausing his sentence he then looks beside her towards the outside realm.

"This is your pocket dimension?" He asks her as he wills for an answer from this corrupted being.

Nodding slowly, she takes her mug of coffee and sips on it. "Yes, it is my home. It's rather comfortable and warm, yes? Perfect for times when I can dispose of squabbling lowlifes and useless people."

With a sudden change of voice, she sounded more lunatic and excited in her way of speech tones.

William creeped out, he realises that this corrupted being maybe a little obsessed with him and killing in general.

This isn't a corrupt guardian he ever encountered before for purification. It was mostly a fight or two or some struggle of being chased like in a game of cat and mouse.

This time, it felt more of an urge to do something, downright strange. With seductive behaviour and a sweet smile, it was noticeable. This person was curious about him, too curious.

If her curiosity gets any stronger, it could be the worse for him. He had to make a choice once more. Purificate her immediately or play her game.

"Miss Beo, mind if I ask you a question?" As he knows that corrupted guardians tend to miss out on their old memories, he can ask easy questions of her current forms instead.

"Sure, Mr Will. What is it?" She leaned towards him as if inviting him for something, with a smile and lowered eyelids, she tried to reach her heads for a hug towards him. "I will answer you anything, everything as much as possible."

("She's obsessed with me. I knew it, need to play about now.") Asking his question, he hopes she will answer him without any incidents to occur. "How long have you lived here? In Earth time."

Blinking twice, she breathes into his ear a small puff of air as she licks her lips. Whispering to his ear, "Five years to be exact, Mr Will."

Striking his lottery, William knew that this was indeed a Corrupted Guardian. Normal guardians live for aeons as far as he remembers so it doesn't make sense why would they live only for a couple of years.

Finally getting his answer, he turns to her and gives her an immediate kiss to her lips as he slowly lowers her gently to the top side of the couch.

With a surprised mumble, she replies with her kisses back. Hugging onto him, she then pulls away from the kiss and makes an excited smile. "I am yours, Mr William. Only yours."

As attractive as she is even in her corrupted form, he couldn't fall for her tricks. Doing it his way, to proceed, he mixed in a little foreplay through physical and mental teasing then slowly but properly initiates the purification process.

"Whose yours?" He asks her once more in a very dominative tone.

"Me..." As she replies, she breathes in an orderly fashion as she looks back eye to eye.

The other crystals contained with his ornaments glowing, they did their best to start the purification.

Communicating through his brain, Sae-Yong gave her opinion of the current situation. "What is this, a pornography scene. Why is it taking so slow, hurry up?"

In an echoing voice from the sky above, was William's thoughts replying. "Fuck off, this isn't what it is supposed to be." Replying as he sniffles.

Across the room, Shin-ae helped out as she watches from the same screen, Sae-Yong was using. Blushing at the point of view that William's eyes looked upon, she slowly started to get more embarrassed over time. "I hope mother won't catch us watching this, ooh."

Playing a fool on William and trying to annoy him, William grunts and gives out a sigh. "Initiate Purification Process, IPP."

Getting back to serious mode, the two nods and unleashes a wave of energy into the spirit ball that is William's soul.

As the spirit ball slowly turns physical in William's realm, it drifted around him before eventually being inhaled by him, causing it to envelop his skin and organs, absorbing it.

As the purification initiated, his eyes glowed a light fiery sky blue as he slowly reaches for Beo's blade by her hip. Pulling it off its holster, he slowly reaches it towards her chest as he kissed her.

Distracting her off somehow, she then stabs her deeply with a thrust as he releases his kiss. Pressing it on with his right arm, he raises his left and looks towards the ceiling as he makes an agitated face and opens his mouth wide.

"Purify!" As he shouted as he raised his left hand, the surrounding environment and the house started turning to white light.

The specks of black that was ashes slowly glowed a whitish tinge before dispersing off together with the white.

Staying motionless, in both shock and awe of the kiss, Beo stayed in a rather paralysed form as her hair, clothing and everything else about. her slowly shifted to her original form.

Her hair turned a lovely shade of black with some slight glowing highlights of purple and dark blue similar to the hue of the nightly sky as it gave some specks of white stars that glowed and twinkled with a shuffle of her hair.

Her clothes turned to a proper white and clean gown with not a single dust or dirt speckled upon it, laundered to it's fullest and gives off an aroma of a musky yet flowery perfume that excludes the dress and from the pores of the guardian's skin naturally.

Her face and skin squeaky clean, with a pair of green eyes that gleamed like radioactive waste befitting her name as white and black smoke slightly dispersed around her very very slightly.

The blade William stabbed onto her pops out of her as if a toaster with a spring mechanism and cleans off any excess "blood" that it latched onto.

Its cracks disappeared and its blade polished to a silvery coating. The blade wrapped with a neon yellow cloth which glows in the dark as it has a shadowy black shade stripped around its rim.

Gaining her strength, she pushes herself up as she overpowers William and pushes him to the other side of the couch.

With a surprised and dumbfounded face, she looks at him. "You? Who are you?" She asked as she raised her voice.

"How did you get here?!" Her accent between a European and an Asian mixed together, her tone was rather loud as if a hallway speaker.

As she picks up her custom-made combat knife of a blade, she points it professionally towards William as she defended herself.

"I am Private Endicrite, of Continuum. Callsign "Rampage"." William raises both of his arms as he spoke fluently to her as normal as possible to not raise any tickets. "I was de-corrupting you from you, well, rather corrupted state."

In William's mind, Shin-ae and Sae-Yong responded to him with some short laughter as they soon gave directions on how to calm the situation.

"Military, Corrupted? I was corrupted! How come?" Her head then strikes pain as she holds onto it with one of her palms, gaining back flashbacks of memory.

"Damn it. Goddamit!" She shouted in pain as she slowly let greenish-black glowing liquid out of her eye, similar to tears.

"You will be fine soon, I promise." He ensures her as he soon lowers his arms and reaches to her to calm her down. "I just did what my own accord could do for the sake of it."

"Thanks, private." She replied as she struck a confusing jackpot. "Wait, the happening. Professor Ferdunov, what happened to her, and you. How are you alive, a male?"

"Was I corrupted for so many years that I skipped time that men exist again?" She asks, curious and also stricken in pain.

"No, no. That's a mystery that even I do not know. The Male species are still an extinction, well more endangered. I am here." He replies, smoothly.

Clearing his throat, he then nods towards her as she faces him, eye-to-eye. "The professor however or well, the Axis General has passed due to over-corruption and vanquish."

"Axis, vanquished?" Holding onto William's hand, she reads his mind as she rewatched the memories of everything that happened and how he and his team killed her last master. "No...Miss Ferdunov, I...I.."

Lowering her head, she sighs and sobs herself softly as she makes her blade disappear from thin air. "I am sorry..."

"No, no. It's not your fault. It was the act of the Bio-mother which manipulated her into doing everything that happened till today." William replies as he wipes her tears with his thumb finger.

"Bio-mother, did she get corrupted and did this?" She asks as she stops herself from weeping any more green rain droplets.

"Yeah, she manipulated your professor with negative energy and corrupted both the Masters and Guardians to do her bidding, hence why Continuum is now taking care of it." He replies.

"I see." Beo whispers. "Thank you then, for getting back to normal. I shall have to return a favour then, one day."

"Actually, I do have a favour to ask." William smiles and calls out.

Shaking her head and smiling back, she looks at him, "What is it? I will do anything."

"Could you perhaps, make a contract with me so you can get me back to a certain place I have to be?" William asks as Beo giggles softly, accepting his request.

"Well, a contract you want, a contract it is." She answers as she stops reading his memories. "Anything, for my sister's daughters partner."

...

"I am telling you, He was taken by some unknown being and disappeared in a flash, General!" A lass shouted towards a huge monitor that stuck itself upon a wall. Its images of a video projected by a camera of light.

"Yes, yes. I heard you loud and clear Miss Leutenegger." General Ferdunov answered as she raises her palm to tell her to calm down as she looks at the German's Headquarters of Generals and Captains.

"I suppose, we have to pull up some of your captains and soldiers tomorrow for a search party with their assigned guardians. Perhaps a clue could work to be found at the spot of disaster." She explains.

The German General of the army nodding, she speaks with a roughened tone towards General Ferdunov. "I suppose so, indeed General. A few wouldn't be mind to be dispatched. But, we wouldn't know exactly how long it will take as we do not know if the entity so to speak is a Guardian, An Axis Member or even a Corrupted."

"It could also be another being of reality itself too, as my Guardian theorised." A Captain called out, maximising the probabilities.

The others nodding their heads as they listened, they then took to their heads what would happen.

The assigned guards of the meeting room's door were exhausted and we're visibly yawning and slowly looking at passing out anytime soon.

As the room became quiet, a circle f black, purple and greenish light, twirled in a spiral as it gave out a small yet audibly loud explosion that broke the soundwave's limit for a nanosecond. Crack! it went.

Frightening everybody, The security gained their last seconds of energy and aimed their rifles towards the light as a being, dropped in casual clothing came out of it with a rather exaggerated entrance. "Hey!" The being shouted.

"Who the fuck are you?" The general turned towards the person in a serious look as she guides her two guards to arrest him.

"What the hell?" He shouts in a confusing tone as his hands were suddenly clasped with a pair of handcuffs and very heavy and strong grips.

General Ferdunov palming her gloved face in embarrassment, Demonica sitting at a corner of the room laughed softly as Captain Shanina squints with a bland face.

"That is our guy..." General Ferdunov replies as she clears her throat to gain their attention.

"Was?" The German General replied as she looks to and fro. "First, you say he was taken by something and now he pops out of nowhere, you guys are crazy."

"Explain yourself." One of the Captains sitting near towards William asked him.

"Well, it's quite simple actually." He sighs as he regains back his soldier-like personality.

"I reversed the corruption of the being who corrupted me and asked her to send me back here." He answers.

"But, you were kidnapped at the highway miles away from here, hours ago." The captain asked him as she removes her dark-blue military cap. "How did you know the exact coordinates to come here, after all, it's your first time."

"Well, you should ask the guardian, yourself." He replies as another loud crack audibly rung the ears of the surrounding as Beo exits her portal of sorts.

"Wie gehts." She calls out to them as she faced the Guardians of the Captains and Generals.

One of the guardians surprised removes her helmet from her head and nears her. "Elder Beo, you are alive."

Nodding, Beo smiles at her and bows gracefully. "Nice to meet you too, Miss Valke."

"My apologies for the sudden visit, I came here to officially apologise for the trouble everyone has to face at this terrible quiet time of night." She answers to them in a strict yet mellow tone.

"I am Elder Beo, The Fifth Elder of the Guardians and The Lady of the Elementals." With a continuation of her bow, she greets everyone as she looks towards the German General.

The German General understanding her sight orders the two guards to unlock his cuff.

"Ah, Elder Beo. Your partners would be glad of your return. Tell me, where were you all this time during the Axis Attack a few years ago." General Ferdunov asked kindly.

"If you mean what happened to me and your sister, well, we both corrupted, unfortunately. The Bio-mother manipulated me to do her biddings alongside Professor and well, caused some explicit problems along the way." Beo answers as she tries to recall her memories that she absorbed from William earlier.

"I see, well as you should know, my sister has-" Beo interrupted General Ferdunov.

"Your sister has passed away, I know. My condolences." She answers. "Thanks to your Private here, I couldn't imagine staying another day corrupted in my life."

"Private? Mr Endicrite managed to recover you, how?" General Ferdunov asked as her light in her room started to dim as part of energy savings.

"Well, a little expertise of his rather manly knowledge, I say. He somehow managed." She replies as she makes a soft chuckle.

"Well, then. General, Captain. I say our work is done, yes?" The German General called out as they didn't want to waste any more time.

"Yes, General Heinrich. That's all for now since we wasted so much time. Shall we take leave now?" General Ferdunov requested.

"Sure, since as a token of appreciation for helping us with the Global Corp case, we will take good care of your soldiers and give them a place to sleep." The General replied as she orders her Captains and other commanders to be dismissed.

As they left one by one, The German General said her please to General Ferdunov before turning off the online call.

Ordering her guards in German, Damonica, William and Shanina were guided off to a private guestroom. Usually only for people, such as a VIP or some other person to care for. Now, they had no choice but to share a single small bed with a very light frame.

Doors shut, the three made some communications and shared their experiences of what happened.

William wondrously volunteered to sleep on the cold hard floor for some unknowing reasons, they lay down as he explains to them what happened to him and the purification of Elder Beo.

"So you are telling me, Beo's corrupted form was seductively attracting you to her without realising you were manipulating her in return, to grab hold of her," Damonica asked as she stared at the white dark ceiling.

"Yes, exactly," William replies as he faced Shanina who was looking down at him.

"That's quite dangerous. You are closer to a con-man with that choice of approach," she replies once more.

"Haha, no. I only did it out of careful planning and dedication. Nothing of that sort. If I wanted to take advantage of her, I should have done it ages ago." He replies once more, with a little detailing.

"So the blade that was a glowing black aura, was Elder Beo, the entire time," Shanina asked, in a curious yet tired tone.

"Yep, that is correct." He answered. "Even I did not know about it, till the Axis Soldiers told us during the interrogation."

"Fuck sakes, this is strange shit." Shanina sighs out as she slowly closes her eyes.

"What's the matter, Geist?" Damonica asks. "Everything alright?"

"It's stressful to be a Captain and guide everyone. You are lucky you just have to take care of three other members, I have to take care of twenty plus, it's hard to put a count on every single member." Shanina replies, still with her eyes closed, slowly trying to sleep.

"I understand what you mean, my members can be a handful sometimes in Phantom, Geist. No worries all will be fine soon after everything is solved. We can then retire and settle down after that."

"My, you are very positive considering after years of what's happening. First the nuclear-like explosion, thanks to a dumb mad scientist. Then, Guardians. Then, corrupted guardians and Axis and now a random guy who has to get himself into so many idiotic situations but somehow pops back alive for some reason." Shanina sighs once more, releasing her stresses in one puff of air. "Also, he still cannot follow orders during operations, how has he not been given a sign-off?"

"Calm down, Captain. At least I am alive, there is proof of hope if I keep popping back alive, right?" He asks her in a rather soft-spoken and kind tone. "Also, why are you bringing up old stories? I do follow orders nowadays."

"Yeah, yeah. You got a point. Good night, it's late." Shanina answers before shutting up.

"Right, good night Geist, night Rampe," Damonica calls out before heading to bed. "Till, tomorrow."

She whispers.

"You too, frauleins," William answers as he removes his pair of glasses and reaches for his tape recorder, pressing on stop.

--- Tape Ends ---