A month had passed since Yamikuro Asaki and his friends split ways, each training with their given mentors.
Tonight was going to be the night when they'd all ambush Lucian Daichi and his gang, consisting of Jacinto Benne, Rude Kuroda, Thorne Veyra, Arden Valec, and Silas Corven.
Assuming everyone had already gathered in the capital, Yamikuro made his way back.
"Thanks, Urashin," Yamikuro said, placing his hand on his other arm.
Before Urashin left, he handed Yamikuro a device.
"What's this?" Yamikuro asked, grabbing a weird-looking gadget.
"This'll allow you to get to the other world. It's a special device developed by scientists that transports a physical body in one world into another spiritually. Upon arriving, it'll rebuild the body back together."
Yamikuro tilted his head. He hadn't understood a word Urashin said, but all he needed to know was that it allowed him to get to the world of Graceless, where Lucian was.
He had strapped the device to his left arm.
Urashin didn't want to come along with them and instead stayed behind in his cabin. He gave Yamikuro small words of encouragement before Yamikuro took off.
Yamikuro had no choice but to return through the town of Aisrus, but the people didn't recognize him. Rightfully so, considering how much Yamikuro changed.
The little muscle mass he gained aside, Yamikuro's hair was longer, reaching past his eyes, slightly pushed to the side, while being grown out on the sides and the back. Yamikuro's outfit took strong inspiration from Urashin's outfit choice.
He wore a long dark coat, reaching his feet. His shirt beneath it was also black, along with his comfortable pants.
On top of all that, underneath Yamikuro's tired eyes grew purple lines. This time, they were big enough to be noticed.
The people within the town gave Yamikuro a few comments, but he didn't care to hear them.
Unlike last time, Seth didn't seem to be in the town anymore. He would've surely come to meet Yamikuro again.
But that's exactly why he passed through here without speaking a word or sharing a glance with anyone.
Meanwhile, as Yamikuro was making his way back to the capital, the situation in the capital complicated.
"Our full attention should've been concentrated on Asaki Yamikuro..." Yure Hoshigara, the Head of Intelligence, with his black bucket hat and his dark eye bags, said. His voice had more emotion in it than usual.
Next to Yure stood Lynne, his assistant in the Intelligence department. Her brown eyes fell to Yure, while having short, shaggy hair.
"Huh? Why?" She asked.
"...That's not him."
Before them was a console, full of buttons of various shapes and sizes, but also monitors for cameras scattered all over the capital.
Despite the two of them being tied to the Intelligence department, they had gained access to the Head of Defence's office. Since Darnell, the previous Head, was in the hospital, deep in a coma, Liv took over.
Liv was Darnell's granddaughter, and she was friends with Lynne because they were both assistants. That's why they got access to the cameras.
In one of those cameras walked around Wrath, in Yamikuro's body. Yamikuro had imprinted his soul within the Veiled body, and that's when Wrath arose.
"Asaki Yamikuro is an awkward kid, yet whoever this is acts as the complete opposite."
"I see where you're coming from, but..."
"My gut never lies." Yure's voice had clear confidence in it.
"So what'll we do?"
Yure stood up from the chair, with the support of the console.
"Call every Elite together. We must not allow Asaki Yamikuro and his friend group to challenge Lucian Daichi."
Lynne followed Yure's orders, not because he was her boss, but because of the bond they had. Even if at times she felt like it was one-sided.
"Calling every Elite!" Lynne spoke into a device developed by Yure.
Kendra, Raien Thona, Seiji, Ivy, Liv, Eidryn, and the twins: Mawu and Lisa, all of them received a call from Lynne.
Caelum, on the other hand, was excluded from this list due to his mission of fixing the school after the attack from Gisurd and his Hunters.
"I call forth everyone to stop Asaki and his group from reaching the world of the Graceless to challenge Lucian Daichi!"
Kendra froze in her office. She was the Head of The Hideout, as they called her, despite just ruling over the capital.
'Asaki? What do you think you're doing?' She thought to herself.
She had too much work to do from the unexpected attack, leaving Yure to launch the mission to stop Yamikuro.
"Yure... Everyone, please stop him." Kendra whispered.
The Elites moved, each of them powerful with their own specialities. None of them was willing to let Yamikuro's group advance.
"Kaminari, is it just me, or is there this weird chill in the air?" Isabella noted, walking beside Kaminari to the dorm, where they thought others would be.
"Huh? You need a jacket or something?" Kaminari looked at her, raising an eyebrow slightly.
Isabella sighed disappointingly.
"Never mind..."
But Isabella couldn't shake off the odd feeling, as if something ominous was approaching. It could've been the anxiety from the fights against Lucian's gang, but something in her hinted that there was something else going on.
Isabella and Kaminari walked quietly, with Kaminari looking excited, and Isabella eyeing every corner they passed.
And as they were about to reach the gates to the dorm, a chain shot out through the brick fence, hitting a nearby building across the street.
"Was that Deia's chain?" Isabella asked in shock.
Kaminari clenched his fists, prepared to throw fists.
"Think so."
As Kaminari tried to run to see if it really was Deia and who she could've been fighting, he suddenly froze.
Isabella let out a slight scream.
Behind them stood Yure, his eyes colored with a hint of frustration, elevated by his dark eye bags and the shadow cast by his bucket hat.
"Ascension: Senkompata Svingo Morto." Yure whispered, without giving either of them a chance to react.
Without trying to even use his Kensei, Yure went as far as to use an Ascension, usually a trump card in a fight, to stop the kids from going after Lucian.
"What...?" Isabella took a step back.
"Damn it... This could be bad." Kaminari let out a gulp.
Isabella grabbed her sword from thin air, already engulfed in flames. She gripped tightly, aiming it towards Yure.
"By the way... Who's he?" Kaminari asked before doing anything.
"He's the Head of Intelligence, Yure Hoshigara, known for his intelligence and tactical fighting; he's no joke. Keep your guard up."
"Huh..."
Yure stood coldly before them, holding onto his bucket hat.
"You either retreat, or I will kill you two."
The word echoed in their minds for just a second, when Kaminari stepped forward.
"You can be the smart guy or whatever, but we are not losing to you." Kaminari threw his clenched fist up to his face.
Isabella would've normally backed out of a fight such as this one, but a lot was at stake here, and the two of them had to handle Yure.
But they had no clue what Yure's Ascension did.
And that was why they were about to lose, when...
Yure's eyes shot open from the sudden shift in the presence, as if the air itself bent for someone else.
That shift was enough to disrupt Yure's, and also Isabella's, and Kaminari's Kishin. The thing that an Ascension heavily relies on had been affected, meaning the Ascension shattered.
"Who is that?" Yure asked, his voice wanting to quaver.
Just as Yure said that, someone jumped before them, the presence even stronger than before.
Isabella and Kaminari spotted the person first, and their worries disappeared at that moment. As if it were a god that came to save them.
"I see how it is..." Yure said, as the dust faded. "...Asaki Yamikuro."
Yamikuro stood coldly, his hands resting next to him. His eyes locked onto Yure's, without greeting Isabella or Kaminari.
"So you've arrived," Yure said, resting his hand on his bucket hat, protecting it from flying away.
"The rest of you handle the other elites," Yamikuro said.
At first, neither of them recognized the voice, but it was Yamikuro's. He had changed, either for the better or the worse. The aura around him felt cold.
"Let's go," Yamikuro said, declaring a battle against Yure.