?When Alba and the Crimson Crane had split up, they had gone in different directions. This was to give them time. For one, they were hoping Amir would be hesitant in who he would pick to chase, and then finally when he had made a decision, it would be too late.
The thing was, from what Alba could see, Amir didn't decide to give chase at all; he just stood where he was while he went out of sight of them all.
'It's just like Tilon said back then, he didn't give chase to the other two as well. What is he thinking, or is it because he knows we have to come back?' Alba thought.
Without saying much, she knew the others would come back to the place where they had left. The place where Raze currently was.
When she arrived in the small village-like structure, it didn't take long until she had seen the rest arrive as well, one after the other.
"Did he chase you?" Lilly asked.
"No, I didn't see him go after me," Tilon replied.
"I don't think he chased anyone," Alba suggested as the group were in the middle of discussing it.
"He might have not chased anyone, but I lost my weapon," Elvlin looked at her empty palms. The glaive that she would use had completely disappeared, lost in the sand somewhere and too close to where they were fighting to try and get it back.
A few of her teammates patted her on the back, and when Tilon finally arrived, he let out a big sigh.
"Look, I really didn't want to do this, but if it will cheer you up. The Dark Magus was meant to make me a shield next, but you can have my slot since you lost your weapon."
"Wait, who said the Dark Magus was going to make you a shield, wasn't that just your delusional big head of yours?" Lilly replied back.
The lighthearted atmosphere where they would joke with one another, Alba was happy it was still there after what they had been through, a clear loss on their end.
Heading inside the room, Alba was hoping that maybe Raze would be awake. In doing so, she could get some answers to just what was going on, or a direction, but she could just see Reno still sitting by his side on the floor.
"Judging from the faces of you all, it looks like the enemy was quite difficult," Reno asked.
"Yes," Alba answered.
"Was it because we didn't have me and Cronker?"
"No, even if we had everyone, I doubt we could have bested him. He was a high middle stage warrior, I don't think he was high 9 stage or anything like that, but he was a hybrid."
Reno's eyes widened, and that's when Elvlin clicked her fingers.
"Right, that's the same reaction we had, but imagine you actually seeing the man transform in person, and then having to face him, that wasn't good at all," Kizer commented.
"Yeah, my arrows wouldn't even pierce his skin," Froma said.
"And he stopped Alba's attack with one hand, and I lost my glaive," Elvlin joined in.
Reno could only imagine the strength of the person they had faced when hearing their stories. It did make him wonder, as a question had popped into his mind.
"Wait, if he was able to overpower you all like you said he did, then how are you all still alive?" Reno asked.
A shudder went through some of the members' bodies. They thought back to the fight when they had gotten closer, when they had made eye contact.
At times, it felt like the hybrid could have done more; he could have followed up with attacks, but it was almost like he was trying to show them the difference in strength.
"This wasn't like the hybrids we know of," Alba explained. "He was completely sane, aware of his actions. Usually, a hybrid would go into a frenzy attacking everything."
"Part of what makes them so difficult to fight is their relentlessness as they just push and push forward, trying to kill everything and anything they see, but he wasn't like that at all."
"Like you said, he let us live for some reason, and I don't know why."
Alba was looking at Raze, just laying there. He was certainly someone who attracted the attention of weird people.
"Maybe, I'm thinking that if Raze was handled by him, he would be in good hands, he would be safe from the Academy, but I don't know and that's the issue," Alba explained.
The others knew how they were feeling. Why would someone let them go just like that? Even for Pagna warriors, not even hybrids, usually they would be chased down and forced to spit out the location of another.
"Have you ever heard of a group known as the Bonum Society, in the years you have been a warrior? It was something he had mentioned."
The group looked at each other, but nearly all of them just shrugged their shoulders.
"It's strange, right? I mean, the whole thing, and a group we've never heard of, even the fact that Raze can do these things. It makes me wonder if so many strange things have been happening in our world this whole time.
"We thought we were at the top, knew everything, but it's starting to feel like we know less and less about our world, that the top is further away than we thought."
The top, reaching the pinnacle, had always been Alba's goal. Very few of the group knew the reasons why, but because she had helped them in their time of need, they were happy to help her progress with her goal.
"What I'm wondering is if the portal closes, will we be made into hybrids as well?" Lilly asked.
"Can that even happen? Hybrids are meant to be a form of beast and warrior," Reno explained. "With the dimension boss dead, new beasts don't seem to appear.
"Although we have no data, so we can't be sure that can happen."
In the middle of their talking, Kizer had been noticing something, an odd cracking noise. He had looked up a few times, trying to see what it was, but was unable to tell, but the noise continued and continued.
Then when he looked up again at the noise, he could see that part of the top bricks had been lifted up and appeared to be floating slightly.
"Hey!" Kizer punched Tilon who was next to him and pointed up. "You're seeing this too, right?"
Tilon looked up, and could confirm that Kizer wasn't imagining things, and soon everyone was looking above.
Immediately, Alba and a few others rushed outside. Froma wasn't standing guard like she usually was since everyone was talking.
They thought this might be some type of power, but it was nothing like it at all. When looking up, they could see that the sky had changed.
It was still blue, but now it looked slightly warped, as if the clouds in the air were going towards a single point, and the buildings next to them, all of them, everything including the sand was being dragged upward.
It was happening at an incredibly slow rate though, one would have to pay close attention to even see that it was moving.
"What is happening?" Froma asked.
There was only one thing that Alba could think of.
"I think, the portal… it must have closed."
