David and Yassine had been working on the Calcarea device for nearly a full day and they’d made significant progress.

They now had twelve duplicates and the robots had been lined up and prepared for testing.

Yassine dragged his sleepy feet across the lab floor and worked away on programming the bots.

David on the other hand, fine tuned the Calcarea devises to emit and absorb certain amounts of energy depending on the situation.

Yassine rubbed his swollen eyes before rolling his office chair over to the table where David was.

“How far?” Yassine asked.

“Mmm? We’ve reached what Kiochi described as minimum efficiency. He can’t help but show off any chance he gets, can he?” David he’s with a grunt.

“Hehe, he’s really awesome isn’t he.” Yassine said with the tiniest hint of envy.

“Yeah well, let’s get back to work.” David said, reigniting the flames of determination that burnt within Yassine.

David stopped up and inserted a Calcarea device into each robot.

“Why the hell did the council have to destroy all of the other devises?” David asked rhetorically as Yassine typed in several commands into his laptop.

A low hum could be heard within the lab as the robots came to life.

David and Yassine exchanged glances as the robots started slowly marching forward simultaneously.

“We have a lot of testing to do.” David said in a almost gasp like manner.

“Yeah.” Yassine said tiredly.

“Also, what should we call them?” Yassine asked.

“How about REVEE bots?” David suggested.

“That stands for?”

“Restored evil vessels of ethereal energy?” David said with an unsure tone.

“How about restored ethereal vessels?” Yassine suggested.

“Tomato tomahto.”

.

..

Yassine was shaken back into reality by a loud beep. He pried his eyes away from his laptop to find the clock showed half past two in the afternoon.

The two had spent the better part their day going over various tests, but then Yassine remembered that he had something to do.

“Oh, David. Can I use three of these?” Yassine asked

“Why?”

“Well, Rin is a few men short and I think he could use some help.” Yassine said.

“Ok, I see no problem in that. We could gather some data. See how they function in real combat.”

“Thanks!” Yassine said as he grabbed his tablet. He typed in a few commands on his laptop and had three robots follow him out of the hanger.

Nearby mercenaries who witnessed this were instantly taken aback. To Yassine, the robots were marvels of engineering, but to the troops, they were the manifestation of terror. Their sleek black frames and inorganic tissues made them seem cold, almost evil.

Yassine arrived at the barracks that was allocated to Rin and his men.

Yassine saw many of the men lazing about and approached one of them.

“Good morning.”

“Good morning, sir.” The soldier stood up and gave a sharp salute, the others did the same.

“At ease. Where is Rin?” Yassine said.

“Er- um… sir, I think I’d be best if he wasn’t disturbed right now.” The soldier said.

“What makes you say that?” Yassine asked.

“Take a look, sir.” The soldier pointed at one of the windows of the large tent that was Rin’s base. He peeped into the see through section of the tent and saw Rin doing pushups.

“How long has he been going?” Yassine asked.

“Sir… he hasn’t slept in two days.” The soldier said.

Yassine walked toward the entrance.

“Hey, Rin. I’ve got something for you. Remember that problem you had? I think I found a-“ Yassine stopped as soon as the shirtless Rin stood up.

His body had almost doubled in size and his muscles were so clearly defined, Yassine could almost see the individual strands.

Rin’s once silky black hair was now a bed of black spikes and his eyes were just as black.

“You were saying?” Rin asked in a pitch that was impossibly low.

“Uh- Yeah, I’ve got something for you.” Yassine said as he led Rin outside.

By then, all of Rin’s soldiers had all formed a straight line.

Rin’s body slowly returned to it’s normal form and he keenly inspected Yassine’s robots.

“They're called REV bots. They will prove useful to you in the coming mission.” Yassine said.

The REV bots stood a bit further from the tent.

“Oh? How strong are they?”

“If I were to guess, I’d say A ranked Kynigoi level.” Yassine said. He deduced that since it took A ranked Kynigoi to destroy them, they were either high level B or low level A.

Rin looked at the REV bots.

Then at his men.

“Ok, here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to face these bots and if you win, good. But if you don’t win, that robot will take your place on the team. According to Yassine here, they’re A ranked. So this will be a good opportunity to see what skill level you’re really at.” Rin said and after a moment of organizing, the first soldier walked up.

“Begin!” Rin barked.

Yassine stepped back and narrowed his sleepy eyes.

The bot stood opposite to the soldier.

The soldier then dashed towards the bot and unleashed a flurry of attacks. The bot flawless blocked and parried the soldiers attacks until the soldier was exhausted.

This continued until all of Rin’s men were tired.

One bot had done all this and was yet to malfunction.

Rin walked up to his men.

“Pathetic! All of you! Loosing to a literal piece of metal! Ugh! I’ll show you how it’s done.” Rin before standing in front of the robot.

Yassine panicked for a moment and everyone stood completely still as Rin readied himself for battle.

Then in a flash, Rin disappeared.

BANG!

A loud sound came from where the bot was standing sending a large plume of dust flying through the air.

The dust cleared revealing that Rin had tried to punch the bot in the face but the bot caught his fist.

Yes! Yassine celebrated, but then something far worse happened after.

“Yassine! Are these robots made from that ethereal stuff?” Rin asked.

“Uh- no, but they do run on it.” Yassine said.

“I see. Then there’s no reason for me to hold back.” The ground beneath Rin cracked.

Yassine winced in pain.

The bots stance changed while Rin’s appearance changed into it’s new dark hulking form.

This attracted the attention of nearby mercenaries who encircled Rin and Bot.

Rin’s body flickered for a moment.

BANG!

Another loud explosion came from the robot and when people checked to see if the robot was still standing, it was exactly where it was before.

Yassine thanked Jonathan Ross for created such resilient pieces of technology.

Meanwhile, Rin’s face had become a twisted frown.

“Grr!” Rin growled. His body flickered again, but this time more rapidly.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

The area surrounding them started rumbling and some of the soldier spectating fell onto their knees due to the sheer force of Rin’s attacks.

“Woo!”

“Oh yeah!”

“Now this is interesting." Some of the soldiers cheered.

“Five bucks says that lieutenant crushes the tin can.”

“Count me in!”

“I’ll take some of that action.”

Yassine didn’t like how everyone was betting against the bot. But then the bot instantly disappeared.

Without a sound.

Rin looked around, puzzled.

The only thing he could see was the shattered ground in front of him and nothing else.

Then in flash, the bot reappeared.

It was right in Rin’s face and it sent a fist right into the right side of Rin’s face sending the lieutenant flying backwards.

Rin rolled and tumbled briefly as everyone’s jaws dropped.

Yassine smiled internally, but his smile vanished as soon as Rin got up.

Rin glared at Yassine with an extreme amount of animosity, before shifting his attention back to the robot. He realized that he wouldn’t win if he kept his current pace.

Rin unleashed a wave of killing intent.

Yassine felt it and his knees trembled under the sheer pressure Rin was emitting.

Rin dashed towards the bot, kicking up a gigantic plume of dust in the process.

BANG!

The ground shook, but to everyone’s surprise, there was a complete lack of robot or human guts on the floor.

Instead, Johan had Rin’s arm twisted behind his body.

“Ok, that’s enough. Save your energy for the Vestibule.” Johan said.

“Besides, if you’re so stressed, why not duel me or Mai.”

“Yeah right, you’ll rip my arms apart and touching Mai is out of the question.” Rin said as he jerked himself free of Johan’s grip.

“Alright, back to work, shows over.” Johan said and the crowd dispersed.

Johan walked up to the robot where Yassine was running his hands along it’s body.

“That there is the toughest bucket of bolts I’ve ever seen. Aethon tech?” Johan asked as he leaned closer to observe the bots internal components.

“Close. Some scientist back in the day researched ethereal energy but the council had him killed after he went out on his own.” Yassine explained.

“Is that so?” Johan said.

“Well, I’ve got to go. My men aren’t going to discipline themselves.”

Johan said as he walked back to his barracks.

Yassine went back to the garage, leaving Rin with the robots. He also sent him the software that let him communicate with the REV bots.

Yassine was pleased with them but he felt like he had much more to do if he was to prove himself useful.

.

..

Tony, Camila and the other’s had arrived at Vestibule Beta and were awaiting orders from Herald Barker himself, the second seat of the council.

Tony had never seen him, let alone receive orders directly from him. This was big and Tony knew that it would be long before trouble came along.

The group patiently waited in the Vestibules residential area.

Tony sat on a couch situated near a corner in the spacious room he found himself in, next to him was Camila and the S ranked Kynigoi were all sitting on various places.

Tony let out an audible sigh.

“What’s wrong?” Camila asked.

“Nah, I’m just thinking… we’ve been on the run this entire time.” Tony said with another sigh.

“So? I thought you enjoyed playing it safe and laying low.” Camila said, her voice as monotone as ever.

“Hehe, I guess my pride’s cries have finally reached me.” He admitted.

“Do you wish you had joined the others?” Camila asked.

“Nope. I’m just wondering if we’ll be on the run forever.” Tony said before a loud beep interrupted his conversation with Camila.

“Ooh! The satellite feed is here. Let’s see what happened to the others.” Riley said in his usual energetic manner, but he couldn’t fool Tony who knew that Riley was still shaken by his encounter with Kiochi.

“Let’s see what the Tsar Bomba is truly capable of.” Izanagi said while crossing his arms as he and everyone else gathered around a monitor that displayed a video showing satellite footage of the school where Kiochi and his comrades hid.

The image that greeted them was nightmarish. Kiochi’s men defended their base perfectly as their leader slaughtered the team of Kynigoi Harold Barker had sent.

It started off with Demetri Lebedev, otherwise known as the Tsar Bomba, who challenged Kiochi in one on one combat as their men battled.

“Big mistake.” Riley said as he too had made the same decision in the past.

Kiochi agreed and the two fought. Demetri's specialty was explosives and he did his best to keep Kiochi at a distance by throwing various bombs at him, but Kiochi’s body suddenly freaked out, turning black and spikey.

Tony had seen something like this before, though the form Kiochi chose this time was far larger and to make things worse for Demetri, Kiochi had his sword with him, the one that no one ever saw him use.

Kiochi then dashed towards Demetri and cut his head off in an instant.

With their leader dead, the other Kynigoi scrambled, but Kiochi’s men mercilessly killed them all.

Tony saw what looked like a female Kiochi hunting down and ripping apart any Kynigoi in her way.

Tony also saw two other large Kiochi type beings on the battlefield among other soldiers.

“Monster.” Izanagi hissed.

“Could he always duplicate?” Yu-Jun asked.

“I don’t think those were copies. I think there are others out there like Kiochi.” Riley said with trembling lips.

“We cannot confirm nor deny that without further information.” Camila said flatly.

“Mmm? I don’t care. Kiochi is someone that lives outside the boundaries of normalcy. It wouldn’t be strange if there were little eggs with little Kiochi’s out there.” Riley said before one of the doors in the room opened revealing Dexter. He slowly walked towards the group who now stood at attention.

“At ease.” He said, but his men still stood quite attentively.

“You’ve seen the footage. Hell, some of you have even lived it. I know you know what we’re up against and fighting it will definitely lead to casualties, so as your captain, I’ve prepared myself to make the right decision when the time comes. So I ask that you place your trust in me.” Dexter asked with a serious expression.

None of his men spoke and Dexter nodded slightly, satisfied with their resolve.

“Umm… sorry, but where is Emily?” Tony asked.

“She’s still bedridden. That plus many other factors is why I’m asking that we take a different approach in the way we see and deal with Kiochi. Now, I must meet with Harold to discuss some things.” Harold said before leaving the room.

Camila casually returned to the couch where she previously sat.

“What do you think he meant?” Riley asked.

“I don’t know.” Yu-Jun said as Tony returned to Camila’s side.

“Do you think Kiochi’s gonna attack this place soon?” Tony asked Camila who ate an apple she found in a nearby fruit basket.

“Mmm… I think he will come here, but I don’t think his true objective is to kill us all, if you’re wondering. Not that long ago, he was on the run, now he’s the one pursuing us. It’s… ironic.” Camila said.

Tony was shocked. This was the first time she had said so much without Tony having to prod her first.

“Hehe, it kinda is. But you and I were never going to kill him. I hope he spares us as well.” Tony said.

“So in your mind, we’ve already lost?” Camila asked with her head tilted slightly.

“No! It’s just- you’ve seen him. At this rate he’ll be the cause of our extinction long before the Aethon’s arrive.” Tony said while desperately trying to hide his defeatist thoughts.