(Somewhere else in Ozer continent)
Xanali was standing alone in an empty room where there was nothing but a large table in the center. She had a deep frown on her face. The reason for her frown was the stuff on the table. A weak-hearted one would be freaked out to see the broken skeletons of Nagas. Under the waist, the skeleton had the bone structure of a snake, above the waist looked similar to humans except their heads resembled a skeleton of a cobra's head.
The bones were muddy, partially decomposed. She didn't need anyone to tell her how they die, she could see a deep cut in their hyoid bones.
"These are your men" a tall figure walked out from the dark corner. He looked human but he was not, his upper body resembled a tiger, including his face. Standing almost seven-foot-tall with a muscular build and a tiger face, he would terrify people who haven't been familiar with beast-men. Even among the beast men, people with predator genes such as golden lion, white tiger, black panther, brown bear were extremely rare.
"sceech!"
A loud scream of an eagle could be heard in the room. Xanali looked up at the black eagle staring back at her from his shoulder.
"Your men were killed by a cold killer," the tiger beast man said,
"Jakobe, what do you mean a cold killer?" Xanali asked. She wondered how Jakobe could tell if the killer was cold or not by looking at the partially decomposed skeletons.
"The cuts, there was no hesitation. Clean, deep cuts. The killer is either a trained killer or a murderous psychopath who killed more than fifty people or both"
"Any signs of Gaya?" Xanali asked. After hearing KAkobe describe the killer, a tinge of worry emerged in her heart. It was true that Xanali ordered her men to cripple Gaya's cultivation but she wasn't as heartless as Gaya thought. Xanali had to cripple her cultivation because Gaya murdered hundreds of prisons as well as bribed almost half of the king's court.
Xanali really wanted her step-sister to reflect on the bad things she had done in her life. Xanali hoped crippling her cultivation and throwing her in prison would rehabilitate Gaya, make her a better person.
"Her tracks disappear at the River town's border. It seems like someone from the river town helped your stepsister" Jakobe spoke with a thick accent Michael would have recognized as African.
"Can you track her down?"
"Humph, can I? I will track her down. I just want something that has the scent of her and an answer" Jakobe snickered. He gently rubbed the eagle's neck. His animalistic grin made him look even more terrifying.
"Answer to what?"
Jakobe finally stepped out of the darkness, completely revealing his golden fur-filled upper body that looked exactly like a Bengal tiger except for the hat on his head.
"Do you want your stepsister dead or alive?"
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After giving Jakobe what he needed to find Gaya, Xanali came back to Peyton's manor. Xanali saw her friend resting her head on the hand which she only did when she was either pissed off or worried or both.
"Peyton, what happened?" She sat beside Peyton.
"Nothing," Peyton waved her off.
But behind her glasses, Xanali could see a sliver of anger.
"Don't give me that missy, something happened with the Alpha guardian?"
Before she went to meet with Jakobe, Xanali left Peyton at one of the guardian guild safe houses where the alpha guardian was waiting for Peyton. Apparently, Peyton had some questions regarding how the alpha guardian handled the Lucifer situation.
Although the alpha guardian put Peyton in charge of the operation, Xanali knew who led the guardian to victory, Noah. Ever since Peyton chose Noah after Ghost rejected the offer, Noah had been climbing the ladderway faster than anyone ever did. In a short amount of time, he was promoted from being a trainee guardian to a guardian who had the privilege to train with the Alpha Guardian of Hunters, Isarrel.
Many guardians would die to even meet an Alpha guardian yet Noah received the privilege of training with one.
"It went fine," Peyton said. She was trying to calm her anger in silence.
"Come on Peyton, you owe me an explanation"
"Explanation? You want an explanation?!"
Finally, Xanali's pestering broke the dam that kept Peyton's anger in control.
"You want an explanation why the guardians failed to apprehend Lucifer? You want an explanation why the Alpha guardian is not sending her entire fleet searching for Lucifer? You want an explanation why they were thinking about promoting Noah to Guardian captain instead of me?!" she punched the table so hard that it obliterated into bits and pieces.
"Well I don't know, why don't you go ask your boyfriend?!"
Xanali was completely taken aback by surprise and shock. She had never seen Peyton lose her patience like this.
"Peyton"
Peyton realized what she had done when she looked at the horrified expression on her friend's face. Plus, the mahogany table that was reduced to nothing but a pile of splinters helped her realize what she did.
"Im sorry Xanali"
Xanali understood that Peyton wanted to be alone for some time. However, Peyton never left her side when she needed a friend to talk to. Most of the guardians didn't like Nagas. To Xanali's luck, a bunch of racist humans were the ones who hired Xanali's batch of guardians. At first, they rejected Xanali just because she was not a human. It was Peyton who fought them and cashed in all her favors to recruit Xanali, just because Peyton valued Xanali's talents more than anything.
In Peyton's rage, she let out the matter of promotion. Xanali knew Peyton was working hard to get that promotion. It was the reason she took the risk of starting operation new dawn which was to catch Lucifer and she did. Although Noah also deserved to be promoted, Xanali knew it wasn't fair if Peyton got passed on that promotion because of Noah. Xanali was stuck in a dilemma, one side was her best friend, on the other side, the man who stole her heart. It was impossible for her to pick either of them over another.
"It wasn't my fault they couldn't catch Lucifer. Let me tell you something Xanali, something happened, I don't know what but something happened. You were there, did you remember anything before the blackout?"
"No"
After Michael teleported, the Silent Reaper sunk into the bottom of the sea. They remembered waking up on the Alpha guardian's warship. Before Peyton lost her consciousness, she could swear she felt immense pressure coming from Noah. Plus, she saw something change in Noah, she couldn't put her fingers in what but something changed.
She told the Alpha guardian about this yet she just brushed it off instead of investigating. Peyton tried to convince the Alpha guardian to continue the search for Lucifer. However, the Alpha guardian didn't seem like she's going to let anyone look for the Dark Lord.
"Why aren't we hitting the kingdoms searching for the Dark Lord? Are they waiting for him to become stronger?" Peyton asked,
"At Least they should have retrieved that evil ship from the sea to find any clues. You know they have to do a closed casket funeral for Gina, she was" Peyton couldn't finish off her sentence. She blamed herself for Gina's death. If it wasn't for Peyton to pluck her out of the trainees to put up with the SilverMoon girls, she wouldn't have ended up in the Dark Lord's ship.
Because of her, Gina was murdered by Lucifer brutally yet the Alpha guardian refused to continue the search for Lucifer.
"It's like the Alpha guardian want to nurture Noah more than catching Lucifer who murdered one of our own"
"Are you questioning the Alpha guardian Peyton?"
Peyton walked towards the window. For a few moments, she just started at the pond outside in silence,
"I dont know"
Xanali's heart skipped a beat. In all those years she knew Peyton, she had never seen her question the decision made by the Alpha guardian. Peyton basically worshiped the Alpha guardian as she even had a picture of the Alpha guardian in her room.
"What if we take some time off, Peyton? Go see the championship tournaments. It'll take your mind off from all these works" Just like Peyton, Xanali too needed a break, especially after knowing her sister might be with a killer.
Since no guardians were allowed to participate in the tournament, she wasn't going to the tournament but now it seemed like a good thing as it might relax both of their minds.
"Whatever" Peyton just shrugged. She wasn't interested in tournaments like many people. If they asked her, she would let the youngsters get survival training for three months instead of the tournament. Besides, her mind was not in the mood for tournaments. However, she knew Xanali was right, she needed to take her mind off from the Guardian business for at least a couple of days.
"So that's a yes. Wonderful, I'll go take care of free things before we leave" Xanali clapped her hands together in joy.
After Xanali left the room, Peyton was staring at the distant sky. She could feel her belief in the Guardian Guild had been shaken.
"How could they think Noah is better than me? I recruited him, not the other way around" she talked to herself. Without even she herself knew, the fire of anger towards Noah had been lit in her heart at this exact moment.
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