Essentia Animus

26-Natural Stealth

Next morning arrived with the usual sense of commotion, and the girls' unusual sense of disregard. Today was going to be their second day off, and after how the previous had gone, they wanted nothing more than the opportunity to spend it doing absolutely nothing.

Riyxia's spectre wandered back through the door, resolving that everything was going as normal, and that she should go back to relaxing. Even as a spectre, she just wanted to take it easy and lounge around in the room, much like she had simply done over the course of the entire night. Vwyx's eyes opened slightly as Riyxia returned, a signal that she should just resume sleeping. Sryine didn't even stir, just sleeping right through everything.

Jwyexzn however was up and about, hardly getting any rest during the past night, and not entirely encouraged to make any further attempts at success. So it was some secret organization that had the ability to make artificial people for some kind of wild nefarious scheme. Somehow, that actually sounded a lot like something his sister's friends would be into. Even if that made sense, it didn't change anything, he was fairly certain his sister wouldn't even spare his life if he ended up ruining any of their great plans. The scope of the situation was insane, way bigger than his pay grade, his life could be snuffed out in this current at any time, for even the slightest mistake. The only thankful part of this ugly situation was that it might be impossible for things to get any worse.

"Oh, good sir, I remember your face from yesterday. The city center mall, on the train? I'm doing a.. school project, but it seems my.. instrument got damaged when I bumped into someone yesterday. The girls that you were following, it was one of them. Do you know where I can find them, maybe so that I can at least ask them a few questions?" "Oh hells, I remember you, you're that student that showed up sometime after the academy. Take it from me, you don't want to stick your nose into stuff like this, it's way above you and there is only a slim chance you would make it out alive. You have absolutely no idea what you're dealing with here." The student from before had actually managed to slip into the Hunters by simply passing off the visit as a school project, just the same story he had given Jwyexzn. Riyxia might have given him the slip yesterday, but the fact that all three girls were wearing uniforms that could be identified as Hunter in design made it all too obvious for him to know where he should be searching next. He had gotten up bright and early to take up the task of his next survey.

"Oh, you know as well, that makes things much easier. I was afraid I was the only one who knew that the destructive force of the astral flame was walking around our city in an attempt to ultimately engineer the destruction of the entire world." "I.. is.. What? Where did you get such a wild idea from?" "From my instruments, it's detected all three traces of the astral flame, a force designed to cause absolute destruction. Certainly you're aware of the number of times you've felt like you were being watched, but no one was actually there?" The student's question caused Jwyexzn to freeze. The times he was spotted in the shadows, even his detection from his perfect disguise along the transit route. He could even recall the girls jumping the two thieves in the underground tunnel, as if they knew they were there. The time they were waiting for the train, he recalled the guy staring at the same instrument with concern, and then soon after his disguise was identified. Maybe it wasn't such a wild idea after all.

But if that was true, then the group backing up the girls were some serious world-class villains, people who would do whatever it takes to bring the world to its ultimate destruction. With power like that, getting caught wouldn't even be a painless death. Riyxia herself was probably something more than a monster, but a full-fledged demon. There was in fact nothing to prove that all three of the girls were demons as well, only pretending to be kind and innocent so that they would be free to fulfill their catastrophic desires. The color drained from Jwyexzn's face as his paranoia soared to new heights. And yet, here was someone who had instruments that were designed for this sort of thing, like some kind of hero of legend. That was how these things started, weren't they? This put him in a tight spot, he wanted to make sure he could help the guy, without being caught helping the guy, something he could bluff his way out of later.