In a certain natural garden, where only flowers swayed in an eerie unison as the gentle breeze whispered through the air, a hooded figure stood motionless amidst the sea of blossoms.
Its gaze was fixated on the flowers below, unmoving!
“Hmm… You won’t be lonely for much longer.” A soft yet dangerous voice broke the silence, tinged with longing. Slowly, the figure reached up and pulled back its hood, revealing a pale, bald head marked with a large, deep ‘X’ carved across its pale white face.
The Master of the Arcane Hunter Organization!
His pupil-less eyes lifted toward the sky, staring into the vast expanse of deep blue as soft, lazy clouds drifted by. There was something hypnotic about the way they moved as if they carried a spell that lulled one into surrender—urging them to let go of everything, to rest forever.
“Luna…” The Master whispered the name with a trembling voice, his emotions raw, his stare unblinking. It was as if he could see her face forming among the clouds, an illusion born of his longing.
Then, as if something inside him snapped, his face twisted with rage. His once solemn gaze burned with fury.
“They will pay… Each and every one of them will suffer for their sins!!” His voice echoed, “Those bastards who abandoned you….” His lips curled into a dark grin. “I’ve almost wiped them out… just a few remain. Soon, they too will fall… And when that happens, Luna… you’ll be returned to me. Every last one of Last Era’s so-called chosen ones will be erased!!” His fist clenched.
“Their blood will be your welcoming gift!”
As if responding to his emotions, the wind howled louder, and the flowers around him trembled wildly, their fragile petals scattering into the air. But before the storm of his fury could build further—
“Master!”
The voice cut through the heavy atmosphere.
“Hmm?” The Master turned his head, his expression dark as his gaze fell upon a towering figure that loomed beside him. The figure was built like a behemoth, its massive body concealed beneath a heavy hooded cloak. It dropped to one knee, its deep voice carrying a nervous edge.
“Aqualina and Celestia… they’re missing, Master.”
For a moment, silence stretched. Then—
“Huh?” The Master’s face twisted in a frown, his lips twitching in irritation.
“What do you mean, they’re missing?” His voice remained steady, but there was a dangerous edge to it,
“They were sealed inside an artifact—one that only opens from the outside. So tell me…” His pale eyes darkened. “How the fuck are they missing? Am I to believe they just vanished into thin air? Or are you telling me they somehow managed to break it?” His voice dropped into an abyss of void-like stillness.
The sheer weight of his presence pressed down on the kneeling man, making him tremble as if a mountain had fallen upon his back.
“P-Please forgive me, Master!” The massive figure struggled to keep his voice steady. “B-But the artifact… it wasn’t broken at all…”
A flicker of something unreadable passed through the Master’s face before his gaze narrowed further. The suffocating pressure eased, but his next words came laced with suspicion.
“Only a handful of people know the code to unlock that artifact…” His voice was slow, and measured, “Are you telling me someone opened it for them?”
The kneeling figure swallowed hard and gave a shaky nod.
A terrible silence settled between them. Then—
“Someone betrayed me?” The Master’s voice carried no emotion, but the deadly aura that followed made the flowers around them wither and blacken in an instant.
But then frowned, ‘They had been working with me for almost 100s of years… I checked them every time…. that’s not possible! Hmm… it must be something else’ The Master believed no one betrayed him that easily.
Then he asked,
“They also escaped from the Maze Prison?”
“We’re still searching the Maze Prison, Master,” the figure responded, its forehead damp with sweat.
The Master’s expression hardened. ‘So they’re not in the Maze Prison either… The only way out of that place is through the stairwell, and only in the correct sequence… Only a select few know that sequence…’ His gaze darkened. ‘Don’t tell me there’s a mole among the table…’
After a long pause, he finally spoke.
“Even if they’ve escaped, no one can leave that realm without my permission… except through that door in the tower.” His eyes gleamed coldly, “Guard it well. They’ll have no choice but to come through it. Now go and captu—”
Before he could finish, another figure rushed forward. Unlike the previous man, this one was small, barely reaching the Master’s waist. The tiny, hooded silhouette trembled slightly as it came to a sudden halt.
“M-Master!”
The Master’s gaze flicked toward the newcomer. “Hmm?”
The small figure gulped audibly before blurting out in a shaky voice,
“Our group… the one we sent to retrieve the Phoenix… they’ve been trapped!”
Hearing that, the Master’s eyes widened in pure shock. “Trapped? What do you mean?” he asked, his tone sharp and laced with irritation as his frown deepened.
The tiny figure quickly nodded before stepping forward and extending a small, glowing orb toward him…
“Master, we are trapped here!”
A flickering image materialized within the orb—a hooded figure, their breath uneven and ragged, moving in a hurried, almost frantic manner as if something was relentlessly chasing them. The surroundings behind them blurred with speed, further confirming the urgency of the situation.
“Trapped?” The Master’s gaze turned razor-sharp, his fingers twitching slightly. “Did they somehow learn of our plan?” His voice, though calm, carried an unmistakable sense of menace as his eyes narrowed. His attention was fixated on the hooded figure in the video, studying every detail, every movement.
“No, I don’t think so…” the hooded figure from the orb replied quickly, shaking its head. “It’s just that the substitute Victor bastard put in charge… he wasn’t some nobody, Master. That man turned out to be a fucking General! And not just any General—he’s General Drakhairs! That lunatic does whatever the hell he pleases… He attacked us just because we woke him up in the middle of the damn night!!”
The Master blinked, momentarily taken aback before his lips pressed into a tight line. The name Drakhair was not one he had expected to hear. Indeed, he knew the man well. That erratic, unpredictable fool who followed his own twisted sense of justice, striking on whims rather than orders, when was his prime time, that man’s name echoed everywhere and even he was beaten by that man!!
Master’s eyes burned with fury as he exhaled sharply. “So, in the end… you failed to secure the target?” His jaw clenched tightly.
But before the hooded figure could respond, the video projection within the orb flickered once more, shifting the view. The image changed to another hooded figure who running… Unlike the first, this one holding something—or rather, someone—in their grasp.
The Master’s gaze sharpened further as he focused on the motionless body in the hooded figure’s arms.
“We got the Phoenix”
For a brief moment, the Master exhaled, his tense shoulders relaxing ever so slightly. Then, a slow grin stretched across his face.
“Good,” he murmured, “Then just teleport back here.”
The view inside the orb shifted again, returning to the first hooded figure, who now looked even more troubled than before.
“That’s the problem, Master! They put a barrier around the entire Empire… We can’t teleport out!”
The Master’s expression darkened in an instant, his previous amusement vanishing like a candle snuffed out by the wind.
“I see…” he muttered, his fingers tapping against his arm as he processed the information. “Then use the Dragon Emperor’s horn.”
A long pause followed before the hooded figure’s voice returned,
“No, Master… It’s not working!”
“Not working? What do you mean not working?” His tone dropped, dangerously low, a warning laced beneath his words.
“I don’t know!” the first hooded figure responded, the rising panic evident in their voice. “It worked for a few seconds… but then they seemed to snap out of it, like nothing happened!”
The Master’s frown deepened, ‘A few seconds? That doesn’t make sense… The Dragon Emperor’s Horn should have complete control over them. It has never failed before’
Something was wrong.
His teeth clenched, irritation boiling beneath his skin. “Then kill them and get out of there. I need that Phoenix.”
Yet—
“It’s not that easy…” The first hooded figure’s voice wavered.
The Master’s glare hardened. “Not easy? What do you mean it’s not easy—”
Before he could finish, the orb’s perspective suddenly shifted upward, as if the hooded figure holding it had looked to the sky.
At first, it seemed insignificant.
But then—
The Master’s breath hitched as he took in the scene before him.
It wasn’t just a handful of dragons.
It wasn’t even a squadron of trained beast riders.
No…
It was the entire Empire’s dragon force—hundreds, maybe thousands, of dragons, their enormous wings blotting out the sky in a terrifying, synchronized hunt. The sheer mass of them moved like a storm, their powerful forms carving through the clouds as they pursued.
The Master’s face turned grim.