The man with the hat was standing in front of Mister Gerty and his wife but this time, they did not even move an inch. Inside the cabin, only a sound of water drops hitting the puddle of water could be heard except it was not water and water puddle but the blood of Mister Gerty and his wife. On the corner of the room, two severed heads were still rolling and Mister Gerty's head still had its eyes opened, overwhelmed with shock and fear.
"Captain Quinn" the cabin door creaked open to reveal another wolf-headed man but he was not as tall or dangerous-looking as the two-body guards behind the man who just killed Mister Gerty and his wife.
"What is it?" Quinn still had a calm smile on his face regardless of the fact he just beheaded a rich couple of the Royal Land. One could see no fear in Quinn's eyes but rather he seemed excited to kill these nobles.
"Captain of the reconnaissance team has returned and he's waiting for you in your hut," the wolf-headed guard said, lowering his head as a sign of respect and fear towards Quinn.
"Then let's not keep him waiting" Quinn sheathed his dagger, taking a few steps toward the door.
"Leave the bodies in the usual place," Quinn said to the newly arrived wolf-headed guard before leaving the cabin.
*********************************
((Just before the events of Mister Gerty and his wife's killings))
Somewhere else in the Elon continent, a majestic manor made of grey stones stood between rocky mountains and a sea of trees. There were no movements or living beings around the manor, one would expect workers to work around and in the manor but there was no one except a few figures descending from the sky into the manor through the open roof.
After a while these figures entered the manor, they walked into a spacious hall where a large round table was located. Six fancy chairs made of fine wood and soft cushion situated around the table at an equal distance from each other.
Soon, one by one four of the figures who just entered the room sat on the chairs. Just after all the four figures took their seats, two more figures entered the hall.
"Senior Guardian Peyton"
"Senior Guardian Xanali"
The four of them immediately recognized the two girls entering the room. When they were about to stand up to show their respects, Peyton just waved her hands wordlessly telling them not to bother.
"Each one of you is here because you were cherry-picked by me and my junior sister Xanali to be a part of an important mission. This mission will be the first step of something greater" While Peyton was talking, Xanali flicked her wrist as a whiteboard with numerous portraits of people appeared beside Peyton.
"Now before we go over to this' ' Peyton pointed her finger at the whiteboard and continued "let's be clear of something, this mission is totally off the grid, only me, my junior sister, and the guardian captain Gerard know of this mission we are about to start. However, if any of you decides to open your mouths about what you're going to hear in this room, you'll be treated as a traitor of the Guardians and you and anyone you are close to will be either killed or exiled from Elon continent. If you want to leave, this is your chance" Peyton glanced over to the four humans sitting around the table, three of them were male, and the last was a female. They all wore identical white cloaks to cover their faces as they were instructed by Peyton.
Peyton nodded as she was expecting that they won't leave the hall. She then turned her gaze towards the whiteboard and snapped her fingers as the whiteboard became brighter revealing all the portraits of the people and a portrait with a big question mark drawn on it.
"People, welcome to operation New Dawn" on the whiteboard, the portraits became clearer and if Michael was here he would have definitely recognized three of the portraits among them as three of the portraits had the faces of Gaya, her real face, Victor who is a rogue cultivator and himself.
"New Dawn is a mission to take care of the potential threats to the Guardians even before they could become a potential threat. Currently, there are seventeen threats on the boards, each of you will take four. As the first step of your mission, you will keep your targets under your surveillance twenty-four seven, you will get the spells, runes, and everything you need to accomplish this task"
"If your targets didn't do anything suspicious or commit a crime, let them be and continue the surveillance. But if they did something, anything like breaking a law set by the king of the place they were at or fraternize with people marked as criminals by the guardians or even kill a bunch of useless commoners, you have the permission to make them disappear, forever" a slight murderous aura emerged in her beautiful eyes.
"With the exception of one" Xanali spoke in a gentle manner, pointing her finger at Gaya's portrait.
"Her name is Gaya, the most wanted criminal of Nagaland. She had killed two hundred and sixty prisoners, bribed king's men, attempted to murder her own family, and committed many other sins over these past years. She was crippled by the authorities of Nagaland but unfortunately, she has escaped Nagaland and is now considered to be the most wanted criminal. Although she is crippled, she's extremely resourceful and dangerous, she is my target but if any of you see her or hear something about her, you need to contact me ASAP, her file will be given to you after this meeting"
After Gaya, Peyton described every individual on their list including Victor, and finally came to the portrait of Ghost, she wrote the name 'Ghost' in elegant handwriting.
"Ghost? The 5-star Alchemist?" the white-cloaked girl asked Peyton and after her question, the remaining three could quickly recognize him as they too heard about him but this was the first time they were seeing his face, at least a drawing of his face.
"Senior Guardian, pardon my ignorance but why is he here? he's just a Body Strengthening cultivator in a declined sect" following the girl, another white-cloaked figure raised a question.
"Yes, he's just at the Body Strengthening stage but you should know, he was at the Body refining stage a month before" the girl and the man who asked the questions stared at Ghost's portrait with their mouths slightly opened. Until now they only thought of him as a 5-star Alchemist and did not know about his heaven-defying cultivation speed. Now they realized why he is on the potential threat list because they knew if he continued to grow stronger at his rate, he would be half immortal or even immortal in a couple of decades.
At that time, it would be near impossible to neutralize him unless the guardians use the power of the entire guild.
"Whoever gets him as the target must treat this very seriously. He is extremely resourceful, cold, cunning, and dangerous. Among all of them, he's the second most mysterious, we basically knew nothing about him except his name. By rejecting our offer of joining the Guardian guild, he already showed us that he did not like to play by the rules and people like him who don't like to play by our rules, must be neutralized" Xanali said with a hint of killing intent in her voice
"Then why don't we just kill him?" the girl in white cloak asked Peyton and Xanali.
"We can but we need a reason to kill him, that's why we are here. Although we have permission from the Guardian captain to neutralize any potential threats, we cannot go killing people without a valid reason. Besides, we are dealing with a person who we know nothing about, don't mess with a mysterious person until you gather all the crucial information about them. This is what the operation New Dawn all about, stalk and neutralize"
The white-cloaked girl licked her lips looking at Ghost's picture, she wanted him to be her target. It was not only the girl but the remaining three also looked excited. Peyton and Xanali looked at their excited expressions, feeling proud of their decision to choose these four over numerous candidates.
These four were the most power-hungry goal-focused with an unquenchable thirst to prove themselves. Furthermore, these four proved themselves that they will get the results no matter what and they would go to any lengths to finish their missions. These were the qualities Peyton and Xanali wanted from their underlings in this operation. Just as Peyton said before, this operation was off the grid and that meant, the higher echelon of the guild won't support or provide any kind of assistance for them and also, Peyton and her whole group will be punished for conducting this unsanctioned operation. The operation New Dawn was Peyton's idea, it was meant to be a feather in her cap that would catapult her career and status within the guild if it proved to be successful.
"What about that one, Senior Guardian Peyton?" they all asked, pointing at the big question mark on the whiteboard as Peyton and Xanali's face turned serious.
"The seventeenth target is the most dangerous and mysterious one among them all" Peyton turned back to the whiteboard and slowly wrote a name under the question mark.
"Lucifer"