"A group of cyllius is approaching! All guards standby on your positions!" Zefrick said out loud so that everyone could hear him. Around two hundred men are under his command for this patrol. "Ellyia!" He shouted. Since it's never clear whether Ellyia is nearby enough to hear you or not, Zefrick made sure to wait for her response. "Yes, Hyu Zefrick?" Ellyia responded. "Anything new?" He asked. "Negative. It's only the cyllius." "Got it, thanks," Zefrick said. As Ellyia disappeared, Zefrick glared at the approaching cyllius. Was it bigger this time? He wasn't sure but decided to deny that possibility so he wouldn't be disheartened. "It's quite surprising how fast this attack is compared to the previous one, isn't it?" A person next to him asked the question. Aisha was her name. In just a month she already managed the position among the Varyion Order Elites, a very impressive accomplishment. Today she was participating in this patrol just to witness it since she's completely new to it. I've to make sure to show the right example and not to disappoint her. "Yes," he said. "The last one was two weeks ago. That's a new record yet again... It isn't looking good if this keeps up." He didn't want to respond in a negative tone so he quickly tried to say something more hopeful. "More reason to do our best, right?" "Yes, you're right about that. I'll try my best not to disappoint you guys." "We'll be counting on you all. Leave the guarding to us. Don't rush it though. You need to establish a good balance with your squad first. Do you like your members so far?" Zefrick asked. She smiled a little now. "I couldn't ask for a better team. We've been through a lot already. I trust them with my life." Zefrick was impressed by her resolve. Still young and she already developed such a mature attitude. "That's reassuring to hear. We expect great things then, maybe this will be our last guarding duty if your squad is that good." Aisha let out a small chuckle before she responded. "We'll see what we can do." The dark mist quickly enveloped the city, blocking the light from coming in. The light system of the city activated the moment it went darker, illuminating the city again so that it wouldn't be completely dark. "What is that?! Are we o-okay?" Ayuki's voice was trembling. It felt like the world was going to end. "No worries, don't underestimate our walls," Dedroy said. "What you see right now, is called a cyllius. It's basically a moving mist that's attracted to people. Nasty creepy things honestly. They shouldn't do much damage so it should be perfectly safe." Glad to be inside this barrier or walls as they call it, that's for sure. The thought of this cyllius coming inside was something she wouldn't want to imagine. Ayuki took some breathing before she started replying. "Okay. Does...does this happen a lot?" "Are you kidding? It happens all the time. As long as I can remember. Although it does seem like the amount of them seems to be increasing..." Increasing? That would mean the problem they're facing wasn't getting better, rather worse. "That doesn't sound good." "Well, that's our current situation. The world is in danger because of the Dark nature and we have to survive through it. That's why the Order exists." "R-right. I didn't know things were this bad." Things weren't looking good at all. "So...the cyllius is part of the Dark nature?" Ayuki asked. "That's right." "And there are more things like it?" "Way more. I don't think we've even encountered half of them...but let's not talk about that. It's quite depressing." Ayuki wanted to ask more questions but refrained from doing so. Dedroy seemed like he wanted to avoid the topic related to the Dark nature. The training Ayuki had with Dedroy was obviously canceled and she was sent home during the attack for safety reasons. He gave her a device for further communication and would contact her soon in the future. It was a shocking experience for Ayuki. Was this the cruel reality they were in? Cowering in fear until the walls breakdown or something? The noise the cyllius produced was terrifying. It sounded like hundreds of human cries ringing simultaneously through your head. Hearing it really send chills down Ayuki's spine. The cyllius moved in a circular motion around the walls. Sometimes the sun would break through the little gaps of it, creating a flickering of light and darkness. It kept doing this for hours. All the civilians stayed inside their homes, remaining absolutely quiet. The only thing you could hear was the sound of terror. After a while, the cyllius just stopped and disappeared into thin air leaving no trace behind as if nothing really had happened at all. Having witnessed the first Dark nature attack, Ayuki understood now why the people treated her the way they did. It only took one person to trespass their walls that protected them for centuries or so from monsters like these. What am I really? What am I supposed to do now? The idea of not being normal frightened her a little. Would she really be a dangerous person after all? Would people hate or attack her from now on? She had many thoughts at the moment and none of them were positive. It was night now and the atmosphere outside was dreadful. You would hear some orders being shouted and lots of people moving around before it became completely quiet. Ayuki tried to sleep but her own fear and thoughts kept her mostly awake through the night. As the sun started to shine through the windows, Ayuki realized she didn't have any dream this time which means also no new memories for her. It was a depressive night, but because of it, she felt the urge of wanting to understand the situation even more now. The idea of waiting until Dedroy contacted her wasn't pleasing enough so she decided to go outside. Because of Ellyia's E-link the other day, Ayuki had an idea of what she could do in the mean time. It was a good moment to visit Varyion's library, a place where the history should be recorded. While ignoring a couple of uncomfortable stares from a couple of people, she managed to enter the library without much trouble. A pretty weird feeling it was for her to know the place without ever having visited it before. Looking around was a nice distraction. The library was very large, supported by many pillars and impressive glass decorations, and as expected, contained a wide variety of books. Looking for the history section she stumbled in front of another person that came from the side. "I'm s-sorry—" She stopped talking since she recognized the man in front of her. "Well, if it isn't our mysterious Yona Ayuki." He said. He was one of the Observers at that time during the judgment day. At least she assumed he was part of the Observers since his uniform is the same as what Flynner was wearing. His full gray beard and his slicked back hair made him easy to remember. "Hye Yano." She said to him since she didn't know his name. "Ah, it seems you know the proper way to speak now. If it's not too difficult you can remember me as Hye Benston." Was that meant as an offense? "Hye Benston, nice to meet you." She said, not completely sure what to say to him. "So, what brings you here?" he asked. "Uhm...I have been troubled by the current situation so I've been interested to understand the situation a little better." Is it okay to tell him this? He looked at Ayuki without changing his neutral expression. "I see. Things have indeed been in a little uproar lately. What would you be looking for? I'm after all very familiar with this place." "Oh. If it isn't too much trouble, I would like to see the history section." "Ah, yes. A very important thing to know about. It might not be wise for me to allow you to know more about this city, but first and foremost, the library is open to anyone who seeks its knowledge. You will find the history section on the second floor on the right side." "Got it. Thank you very much for your assistance, Hye Benston." "It wasn't a problem. I hope you'll find what you're looking for." He only glanced a bit at her before continuing his own way. An interesting man, Ayuki thought. He acted unexpectedly calm, compared to a certain another person. Having arrived at the second floor, she stayed for hours and hours, glancing through different books and reading a couple of them that were interesting. The things she learned were actually pretty astounding. Apparently, Varyion was part of a kingdom called Farenhall and it consisted of three other cities. However an event they called "The Dark Days" occurred some long time ago and wiped out the rest of it, leaving Varyion the only city remaining of the Farenhall kingdom. It had survived thanks to the invention of the Varyion Wall, the magical barrier that is still standing here today. This was only possible because of the Fes ability of Theon Grendan (an ancestor of Ravendell Grendan) and the assistance of Yeon Althain. The things written about Ravendell was also very interesting. To Ayuki's surprise, he was even the king of Varyion at the age of thirty-one in the past. His reign as king only lasted for a week before he completely changed the system, making the Hyonims as a group of three people (Ravendell included) in charge of this city now. That's a pretty bold decision Ravendell. As a descendant from the Grendan family, Ravendell plays a crucial role in upholding the Fortification, a monthly event with the city in order to maintain and strengthen the Varyion Wall. Now the information about the Dark nature was actually still very unclear. Some people call it "the curse of nature" since it's acting against the natural rules, destroying life on earth. It didn't exist before The Dark Days when the Fes was still in use, and nobody is completely sure how it actually started. The Dark nature makes it almost impossible to go outside the city, causing countless of casualties and mysterious phenomenon that are still not explainable. This made the research and exploration to study it dangerous and almost impossible. It seems that only the discoveries that Yeon Althain did, which were mostly focused on curing countless of diseases caused by the Dark nature, were groundbreaking and fully approved and applied in this city. Then there's the Varyion Order. Ayuki already knew a bit about it, but she never heard of the Varyion Order Elites before. The Varyion Order is mainly operating to keep the city safe and protected, consisting of many people that work in it, but the Varyion Order Elites have a rather different task. They are considered the most professionally trained people that operate in squads to go outside the city. It's still a very new implementation so the number of people in it is still very little, but they are now considered the people who carry the hope of Varyion's survival. This was a lot of information for one day so Ayuki decided to stop reading for now. The things she read actually gave her a pretty good idea that could help her in the process of gaining the trust of the Observers and the citizens too. She took a bit of time to make sure she was determined with this idea and finally used the device Dedroy gave her to contact him. The device was called a TAG. It was a wooden piece infused with Fes and allowed wireless communication from almost any distance with other people. This one only allowed her to contact Dedroy. "Ayuki? Is there something you want to say?" Dedroy answered. "Yes. Can you pass on some information to Hyo Ravendell for me? I have a proposal for him." "Uh...yeah I can pass some information to him for sure. Wait, what kind of proposal do you have?" Dedroy asked curiously. Ayuki took a deep breath and replied. "I want to join the Varyion Order Elites."