Horizon City was drowning in mist. The kind of thick, unnatural fog that swallowed buildings whole and turned the world into a pale, suffocating void. The naked eye could only see so far before the distance vanished into the white mask of dawn.The constant hissing of Jaxen's electric kettle voiced over the apartment, its high-pitched scream cutting through the silence like a blade. The tune was now getting on Elara's nerves—Jaxen's sister, who had been awake for all of five minutes and was already regretting it."Are you gonna turn that thing off?" she called out, rubbing her eyes. "Your water's been boiling for minutes now. Don't these things have a thermometer to shut them off!?"No response.Elara frowned. The kettle kept screaming. The apartment felt empty.Is he not in his room?She walked down the hallway, each step causing the old floorboards to squeak beneath her feet. "Jaxen? You in there?"She placed

Old Ties and New TensionsThe next three days passed in a blur of preparation. Jaxen trained until his body gave out. He studied dungeon reports until his eyes burned. He barely slept.Their next raid was going to be an S-rank dungeon, and according to Bill, this one seemed even more deadly than the previous one they encountered. So much so that two S-ranks and several A-ranks would be needed for this one.Jaxen remembered his fight with Valdamond Black—one not far-fetched to say he only won out of sheer luck. He could also remember Dante, a foe who proved unbelievably powerful, even when he was heavily nerfed by Benson's sacrifice.Jaxen couldn't count on luck to bail him out this time. He needed to fight his way out like every other person. Hindsight Bias never made him untouchable—this fact had been getting clearer and clearer now that Jaxen was encountering stronger foes.Jaxen wasn't really comfortable with working with the Iron Vanguard, and for good reasons. Bad memories.Back

The convoy arrived at the dungeon location ten minutes earlier than the Iron Vanguard delegation. The dungeon was located just outside Horizon City—about a ten-minute drive from Liberty Guild headquarters and half an hour from Iron Vanguard's territory.Upon arrival, Bill began preparations, making sure everything was in order. On paper, this was to be Liberty Guild's biggest achievement yet. Everything had to be perfect.Jaxen wore his grey armor with his golden daggers—now painted black—hanging over his shoulders. He had the AEONAXIS sword, but he felt the need for the daggers seeing that he wasn't fully integrated with his new blade yet.A few minutes later, the rest of the Iron Vanguard representatives arrived. The area around the portal was closed off by various officers as they tried to hold back reporters and spectators from entering the area.Aldric Voss was named captain of the operation, and Anthony the vice captain. The two guilds were separated into two factions.Aldric le

Aldric Voss, Jaxen, Peter, and Robert now found themselves facing the Serpent King, Sirax—an S-rank threat and the leader of the Serpent Tribe. Meanwhile, Anthony, Sophia, Lana, and their crew found themselves facing the Serpent Weaver—an artificially created boss, formed by mixing the mana cores of a Serpent tribesman and a Weaver creature specially created by Salin.Outside the threshold, Salin was monitoring everything.Her surroundings were filled with multiple glass tubes containing various creatures. Some kind of experimental lab. The tubes glowed with faint bioluminescent light, casting eerie shadows across the cold stone floor."Looks like they're about to engage," Salin said, her voice smooth and detached. She sat on her chair next to a tube containing a shadowed figure yet to be revealed. "This will make great groundwork for my research.""Research?" one of her assistants asked, his brow furrowed. "I thought the mission was to kill AEONAXIS."Salin's smile was cold. "You foo

Jaxen and the serpent weaver stood there motionless, each waiting for the other to make the first move. The air between them crackled with tension, heavy with unspoken threats and the promise of violence.The serpent weaver was both fast, agile and strong, and left little room for weakness. Jaxen knew that for him to win this fight, he would have to overpower it. His fingers twitched at his sides, ready to summon his mana threads at a moment's notice. The creature before him coiled slightly, its serpentine lower half shifting across the stone floor with a dry, scraping sound that set Jaxen's teeth on edge.---A couple minutes ago, before Jaxen came to Anthony's aid:The serpent king had just split into two. What conditions it needed to activate this power, Aldric Voss was determined to find out for him to properly dispatch of this enemy. His mind raced through possibilities as he observed every minute detail of the creature's movements, cataloging each twitch and shift in its stance.