Before Zeo could react, the beast had closed in on him for a kill but then shidan lands on the beast from the sky, felling and killing it. Zeo was shocked at the sight that shidan defeated a beast with one precise attack that didn't need a second trial. Shidan on the other hand was holding souvenirs in hand which seemed like he had just come from shopping
"Yo,zeo..."
"Where did you come from?..."
"I fell from the sky as you saw"
"Eh"
The other girls laugh at shidan's joke and zeo naive reasoning while they exited. Since they were done there,shidan decided to go home together with zeo and talk with him in the meantime
"Zeo, what is your supernatural state?"
"Chaos"
Shidan stopped for a second while zeo walked ahead of him.
"You're the ten thousandth chaos... That would mean that the new era is close"
"Huh...I really don't understand anything about this new era stuff"
"Let me explain... the new era is basically a phenomenon were demons gained direct access into the world, changing it's scope and ecosystem entirely. The last new era ended with all humans wiped out from existence"
"If that's the case then why are we here, and why is there another new era?...my view is that if we all died then demons won't come back and we won't be here"
"Good point... but that's were we chaos enters; the thing is that we can't die. So after the new era, demons would inhabit our bodies and turn us to one of them after the humans have reproduced"
Zeo walks in silence, trying to process what he was just told
"The thing is..."
"No one knows what the new era looks like... right?"
"Yeah"
The rest of their trip back home was spent in silence as they reasoned the environment of the new era and dangers that followed
***
The next day,they were all set and left for the training camp with Saki and Kim seeing them off. Saki decided that Kim should stay behind so that they would work on fixing his leg. They all left and headed to a train station in the guild headed for Hokkaido. Inside the train, they sat in pairs of two's with Hana beside Zeo once again but she seemed focused on her tablet and didn't disturb Zeo which he found comfortable. But after a while,he decided to ask her about the sudden Change of pace
"What happened to you... it's like you're not comfortable"
"I'm train sick,so I don't want to move too much..."
Thank goodness...I wish this could last forever
They reached their destination in less than five minutes courtesy of the bullet train they boarded
"Finally..."
Hana grabbed unto zeo the minute they were down from the train.
"What are we here to do now..."
"There"
Shidan pointed to a dormant volcano just a kilometer from where they were standing. Without wasting time,they started towards their destination with a strong resolve
From the top of the volcano,they could see that it was truly dormant but it had a stairway leading to the bottom of the pit. Zeo started climbing down into the pit without waiting for anyone. Seeing him,they all decided to make their move and descended to the point where the sky could no longer be seen from the top but flame torches light up the cave and reveals another path inside the walls at the end of the stairs and they rushed there
***
Saki and gigs walked through the defenders guild and discussed thier mission for the next set of candidates
"Where are your guild members...."
"Oh they're on a mission "
"What... sending them on a mission days to the hunt"
"My bad...I just wanted to test out the new recruits"
"If you say so... What about kamashida"
"You're still on to him?"
"What should I say... he insulted me so he's gonna pay"
"Do your thing"
***
Meanwhile on the volcano,a man wearing a lab coat and a boy carrying a backpack are seen climbing the mountain from the outside. The boy with the backpack seemed physically stronger than the man with the lab coat and got to the top first before helping his partner.
They rested on the top of the mountain for a while before realizing that they were short on time and descended into the pit