As Ken went more inside, the thick fog disappeared. The buildings inside were far better than the crumbling ones outside. No one would imagine such a desolate place to have such life inside. Despite that, the lack of paint in the buildings was noticeable. The kids were really welcoming towards Ken and Akane, but unfortunately their walk came to a halt as spears were pointed at them from behind.

“Who are you to come here?!”

A grumbling old voice shouted to Ken. Ken stopped in his tracks, not moving, only tilting his head seeing a group of those yellow aliens behind him ready to take him on. Akane was also surrounded.

“Kids get back here!”

One of them shouted at the kids. Conflict felt almost unavoidable. And Ken wasn’t the type of person to calm the crowd. He wouldn’t try to fix the misunderstanding. To be more frank, he didn't care about what others thought of him most, rather; he was ready to fight if necessary. His left hand started to slowly mutate as if he was ready to brawl when suddenly the little girl's voice shouted towards them.

“Stop it everyone!”

“Lola…” The little girl’s name was Lola. She, without a second of doubt, stood in front of Ken, acting like his shield.

“Lola, get back here this instant! That being is dangerous!”

The others tried to bring her back, but seeing Lola, all the kids circled around Ken, trying to protect him from the elders.

“You got it all wrong. These people aren’t bad like those wolves. They even chased the red one away.”

“The red one…” they gasped, thinking about how vicious and strong Hugo was. They weren’t moving.

“That's not enough to trust them, you know? Who knows, it might be an act!! Don’t forget what happened to your father in the first place because of this!”

Lola stuttered, hearing that counter argument. Ken looked at everyone's worried and uncomfortable face. Especially Akane’s, who had her hand close to her waist in case she needed to pull out her weapon. Ken patted Lola once again and walked forward towards the elder.

“Stop right there, you alien!”

“Don’t come any closer”

They kept on shouting at Ken. Ken immediately sat down in front of them. They felt confused about what he was doing.

“I won’t hurt you.” Ken responded in a stoic voice.

“Damn you. You think we won’t make a move?”

One of them said as he pierced the spear right inside Ken.

“No!” Lola shouted. Akane immediately pulled out her revolver, taking aim, when Ken suddenly shouted,

“Stop Akane.” Akane stopped at the last second, hearing his words. Blood was flowing down his body and from his mouth. He replied with a grin towards the alien,

“I said I won’t hurt you. Didn't I?”

All of them were shocked hearing Ken’s words. Before the situation escalated any further, a shout of an old voice echoed from the corner.

“All right, that's enough!”

A yellow alien with white hair and beard beside the small campfire. He was lighting his cigar and cooking food in the pot.

“I think our guests have made their point. If we persist in antagonizing them, then..”

He took a small inhale of the cigar,

“We will be the ones seen as barbarians.”

“Chief Kalo”

The old man’s name was Kalo.

“Kalo…” Akane murmured to herself. Suddenly, the name felt familiar.

“Are you by chance related to that old man, Halo?” she asked.

The adults were shaken by Akane's words.

Kalo exhaled the smoke and replied,

“I see you have met my brother.”

“Wait, master Halo is alive?! '' the adults were surprised. A sense of joy could be seen in their eyes.

“Yea. He was unconscious, so we took him to our ship. “

“Thank god” one of them said. It was clear they loved Halo a lot. Kalo looked Ken directly in the eyes.

“Young man, what's your name?”

“Ken. Kawasaki Ken”

Kalo stopped smoking midway after hearing those words.

“Kawasaki…”

He looked at Ken’s stern expression and concluded that he wasn’t lying.

“A Kawasaki… and a human”

He stood up and walked towards Ken.

“That's a human…”

“I thought they all perished during the Black Night,” the adults were gossiping among themselves.

“What brings you here to our village boy?”

Kalo asked Ken, standing in front of him.

“I’m hungry.”

Ken gave a direct response. Hearing that, a grin formed on Kalo’s face.

“I see. Then I guess we should have some food, Don’t you think so everyone?! We should properly thank these people for driving out those wolves away!”

With Kalo’s words, the tense atmosphere completely disappeared as a festive atmosphere immersed. Naturally, their awareness of Ken and Akane was still there, and so was Akane’s awareness of them.

“Alright food! Let's go!!!”

Ken said while lifting Lola with happiness. Ken’s total obliviousness baffled Akane. But she had somewhat come to terms with it. On the further edge of the village, across the mountaintops, lied vast laboratories. White with blue lines across, the laboratories were something different from the buildings on the ground. The robots, the wolves, all were coming in and out of the place. On the top of this mountain steep was a bigger laboratory. It was attached to the mountain like a spiderweb, with different pipelines that stretched far across the plateau, high-speed cargo trains traveling from one place to another within those pipelines, a huge operation to say the less. The wolves Ken had beaten brought Hugo back to the place. The minions that were keeping guard shook seeing Hugo’s unconscious body.

“What happened?” one of them said, opening the gates.

“Beats me. Some sort of weird creature suddenly showed up in that damn village! Move, I must report it to Big boss right now!”

Saying the word big boss was enough for the guards to realize how dangerous the situation was.

“You know big boss will kill you if you disturb him for some minor inconveniences”

“Its not minor, you idiot. I… I saw it” the wolf was stumbling on his own words.

“Those eyes… I’ve never felt this fear… even from afar, I could feel how terrifying that thing was…. maybe… maybe even greater than Big-”

Before he could finish, a shadow loomed behind him. The other wolves froze in sight.

“My… That’s an interesting story you got there”

The wolf turned back as his eyes widened with fear.

“Master Vigle…”

A tall birdlike creature was staring down at the wolf. Its body was covered in a white cotton like feather, yellow eyes that could be seen even in the darkest of terrains, and a beak that could be mistaken for a sword.

“I didn’t hear that correctly? Were you about to say that something showed up in the village that was more terrifying than our big boss?”

“No... sir, I wasn't saying something like that. I was just…”

Vigil slowly used a feather and placed it against the wolf’s lips.

“shhh. ..it's ok. I know mistakes happen.” He looked at the guards with a look, ordering them to move Hugo’s body inside.

Putting his leg across one another, he said,

“Big boss is busy right now with a very special client.”

He slowly rubbed the wolf's fur and said,

“Now tell me about this so-called terrifying monster..”