Whilst Murray was occupied with One; Erikson, Byron and Larsson were making their way towards the vault, where all the potentially dangerous and unknown items were held.

With Larsson as their group coordinator with his specialty of telepathy, he received a question from Nicole.

‘’Are you sure that they were targeting the vault? They can’t be that insane, right?'' Nicole furrowed her brow and threw a questioning look towards Larsson.

''Yes, I am sure I felt something around there, we should move quickly.'' Larsson motioned with his hands and nodded towards the hallway leading to the vault.

Maintaining a tactical formation with Erikson as a vanguard, Byron in the middle and Larsson securing the back, they moved fast, in order and most importantly quiet.

While passing the relatively intact corridors, the team witnessed some of the employees with their necks broken and left to rot.

Nicole sent a message that oozed out hostility to the rest.

‘’Who could be so fucking braindead to think invading SDU? Even the graveyard shift rats don’t deserve this, so the best we can do is to repay their ‘kindness’ in turn.’’

Re-empathizing the word ‘Kindness’ heavily, she grit her pearly teeth and squeezed her battleaxe until her knuckles were white.

Erikson rolled his eyes at Nicole. ‘’Duh? What do you think we are going to do?’’

With the trio confirming their secondary objective, they arrived near the vault. Erikson signaled to the team and prepared for combat.

‘’4 Hostiles, I am at the front, Nicole jump into the backline and Larsson supports from behind. Going in 3…2…1…GOGOGO!’’

Taking his machete from the sheath, Erikson moved forward like a ghost.

With erratic and quiet steps, he slid through the rooms unseen behind the nearest invader.

Slitting the throat in one sweep, while holding the mouth on the other, he immediately neutralized one of them.

‘’CAALEB! YOU FUCKING BASTARD!’’ The man holding an ancient looking tome in the middle lost his marbles after seeing his long time comrade fall without a struggle.

‘’Byron! NOW!’’ Erikson shouted while making sure that the invader stays down by twisting his neck 180 degrees.

With Eriksons cue, Nicole swept forward like a F5 class tornado. With multiple swirling swings, she cleaved her way unimpeded towards the backline.

‘’How dare you kill the graveyard rats!! Do you realize how much paperwork they take off my hands, huh?’’ Furious at the prospect of another series of long nights buried in paperwork left Nicole steaming.

The man holding the tome quickly took out a handgun with his free hand and shot a barrage towards Nicole, but managed to inflict only light fleshwounds.

‘’STOP HER!’’

With every invader fully occupied on Erikson and Byron, Larssons eyes glimmered.

With a sly and smug look on his face, he took his dagger out and sneaked behind the man carrying the tome. Waiting for the opportunity when the enemy left his back fully open, he finally found the chance as Erikson slashed his way through to help Nicole.

‘’IGNITE YOUR MANA UME, SEAL THEIR MOVEMENTS REI! I will look after the fellas when we are done with the mission!’’ With an anxious look on his face, the leader made the call to sacrifice his colleague. With a tact understanding that this would be their last mission, the invading force steeled their resolve.

The surrounding atmosphere seemed to gather ambient mana towards the robed man with grievous wounds

Seeing that things were about to go south, Erikson frowned and silently calculated.

‘’As soon as my opponent is about to blow, gather around me for a barrier. We won’t come unscathed, but we can’t let them succeed.’’ Exchanging a look with Larsson, Erikson saw that the leader was about to get his ass handed to him.

With a manic expression with nothing more to lose the invader about to blow up took off his hood. ‘’I’ll sell y’all in hell if there is one. Tell the devil that Manu sent you there.’’

‘’LARSSON, NOW!’’ Erikson saw the defined and a fierce scar stretching across the man’s face. Truly, even cornered mice will retaliate when desperate enough.

Feeling that time was getting tight, he could not help but be anxious.

Larsson seized the moment and pierced the leader's heart from behind in a textbook ambush, seized the tome from his shaky hand and ran towards Erikson.

Erikson confirmed that Nicole had already retreated, and Larsson was about to reach him, he began to churn out every last bit of power he could to protect his team.

A bright, concentrated blueish dome was formed as soon as Larsson reached his team with a smooth slide across the hall, and at that very instant Manu’s face distorted and he only laughed with desperation and resignation. Bursting into flames, vaporizing his clothes and the surroundings he lit up the entire vault room.

Climbing from the ruins that was once the branch headquarters of the SDU, Erikson pulled tattered Byron and Larsson out from the rubble.

‘’You guys okay? That was one hell of a firecracker.’’ Struggling to keep himself up, he tried to lighten the mood.

Larsson and Nicole were not amused.

‘’Dude please, do you realize how serious shit this is? As far as I can see, at least 35% of the whole fucking SDU is gone.’’ Propping herself up from the rubble with Eriksson’s help and using her ax as a walking aid, she muttered with obvious exhaustion dripping from her voice.

‘’Larsson, how are you doing buddy? Surviving?’’ Erikson turned his attention to the disheveled and confused Larsson.

Standing there dumbly, with most of his clothes burnt off, he clutched a pristine, undamaged ancient looking tome in his embrace. Feeling like he had been struck at the back of his head, he raised his eyes to meet Erikson.

‘’THIS? This was what they were after? From the shabby shop downtown?’’

Hearing the words of Larsson, Nicole felt dumbfounded.

‘’Lemme see it!’’

Erikson and Nicole gathered around Larsson, who willingly handed the book to Nicole.

Yes, it seemed that the invaders had come for the book she bought from that strange man. Laying her petite hands on the book, she felt a strange, familiar sensation.

Like seeing a long lost brother or sister, Nicole felt a strange connection being formed between her and it.

Enthralled by the feeling, she sunk deeper and deeper into contemplation.

‘’Hey Nicole? What’s wrong with you?’’

Larsson took a few steps back and glanced at Erikson. ‘’Do you think she is going to coma again? Isn’t that bad?’’ Sending a brief query about her condition, Larsson felt nervous.

‘’I don’t think so, but I better go check it out.’’ Sending a message back, Erikson approached Nicole with unsteady steps.

The image of the valiant, but brave Nicole was no longer there.

Disheveled brown hair, some of her clothes were scraps but fortunately still covered her feminine parts and eyes were without luster.

The dark night sky seemed to be encroaching all around the SDU building complex with some parts burning, which gave Erikson a creepy feeling and goosebumps.

Grabbing Nicole by the shoulders, he first tried to shake her awake and separate her and the book when it had no effect. ‘’Comeon Nicole! Snap out of it!’’

Nicole seemed to hear his voice this time and was about to come to her senses, but she was focused on a voice in her head. Making sense out of only parts of it, she could understand small bits and pieces of what the strange, ancient voice was trying to tell her: ‘’D-ang-er… behind..UNLEASH DOOM.’’

Finally reacting to the voice, she woke up to the situation in hand. Seeing Erikson trying to grab the tome from her hands, confusion filled her eyes. Erikson is the danger? Why would he ever want to harm me?

Confused on what or who to trust, she chose in the panic of the moment to drop the tome and distance herself from the possible danger.

‘’Byron? What is going on with you? Why are you looking like a cat whose tail has been stepped on?’’ With confusion, Erikson asked and then took a look at the book that made Nicole like that.

‘’Sorry, I must have imagined things… It has been a long day so it’s nothing personal…’’ Looking around herself, Nicole found no threats to herself contrary to what the voice told her. Relaxing her guard, she immediately apologized to Erikson for her behavior.

‘’It’s cool. The stress and the exhaustion does that to everyone. No harm done.’’

‘’Nono, at the time I was sure that something told me of danger behind me, and I reacted.’’

Laughing lightly at Nicole, Erikson flashed his trademark victory grin and asked if she wanted to take another look at the book.

‘’Well…I bought it, sooo the captain wouldn’t blame me too much for peeking at it? So, sure why not.’’ With a victorious smile, she walked towards Erikson.

Feeling a bit odd, she felt that something was wrong here.

Just as the thought popped into her head, Nicole looked into Erikson's eyes, saw his pupils shaking in pain and eyes twitching.

Panicking, she knew that Erikson would never show such an expression to anyone voluntarily, so something had to be seriously wrong with him.

He opened and closed his mouth a few times, but the only thing that managed to come out was saliva and blood.

‘’Larsson where the fuck are you, I need your help to carry him to someplace safe for emergency aid!’’

Paying attention to his mouth, Nicole knew that Erikson could not speak so she tried to read his lips. R-u-n? Does he seriously think I leave my comrades behind?

Something sharp came out of Erikson’s chest and he fell on the ground in a thud.