Stella, stepping foot into their home first, immediately throws her bag on the floor and flops lazily on the couch. Melanie enters behind her, picks up the thrown bag, and scoldingly asks, “Stella, what did we say?”.

  Stella groans, “Fine.” She stands up, takes the bag, and walks to her room with a noticeable slump.

  After Ken enters the house, Bristol closes the door, asking, “So what now? We're going to wait here until they knock? Are they coming to pick us up?”

  Ken stands by the table and answers, “He told me to wait for him to contact us.”

  “And your stalkers?” Melanie asks as she puts some of the leftovers in the fridge.

  “For now, they are attending a major event, so they’ll have a lighter presence around Phanasma,” Ken taps his feet as he thinks, “But I think we need to go. I don’t like how cornered we are.”

  Bristol raises an eyebrow and asks, “Cornered?”

  “This house is easy to surround, and there aren’t many options to escape. I’m not sure how many followers Baltro still has, but I know there isn’t a shortage of them he can send to find us.”

  “Crap,” Bristol curses as he quickly walks to a window.

  Watching the situation unfold, Melanie asks, “Did you notice anyone follow us?”

  “Not that I am aware of,” Ken answers, “But if they learned anything from the encounters with Gearfried and Imino, they are going to be more discreet.”

  “When last did you get some proper sleep?” Bristol asks as he nervously surveys the street in front of their house.

  “This morning. The bathtub was a better bed than expected,” Ken says as he stretches.

  “Bathtub?” Bristol asks before remembering, ”...oh, right.”

  Melanie gives herself a light slap on the forehead as she remembers, saying, “Oh, right! The stitches. Ken, before the end of tonight, I need to check your wound.”

  Ken is surprised he has forgotten about his wound from the day before. With all the excitement, he didn’t pay much attention to it.

  Bristol, feeling anxious, avoids the topic and says, “Hey, focus, people.” He nervously looks out the window before turning back to Ken. “Do you think you can stay up to watch with me?”

  “Shouldn’t be a problem,” Ken confidently answers, “But can you?”

  Bristol grins as he says, “Smartass.”

  “But tell me again, why couldn’t we go straight to The Cloudy River? The Slayers are staying there, and we would have been safe,” Ken argues as Bristol walks to the other rooms to check the other windows.

  Stella walks out as she brushes her teeth, answering Ken’s question. But neither Melanie nor Ken could understand what she was saying. “Ughhhhh! Shtupid toothpase!” She complains as she walks back to the bathroom.

  Melanie sighs, “She probably said, ‘It’s because if we are going on an adventure, we need our essentials.’”

  “Essentials?” Ken says, confused.

  “Yep. Whenever we have these adventures, Stella ensures we have whatever we need for the journey ahead.”

  Ken pinches the bridge of his nose as he quietly says, “Why, why, why?”

  Unable to justify Stella’s rules, Melanie adds, “Look, I will help with keeping lookout. We can use all the eyes we need, right?”

  Looking up in thought, Ken says, “Right. We can’t go now, because all the streets are becoming quiet. Especially at this hour. Can’t afford to be trapped. Come morning, we can move with the crowds, allowing us to blend in. In addition, there will be too many eyes for them to do what they want out in the open.”

  “But won’t we be able to see them easily if we go out now?” Melanie asks.

  “Yes, but that applies to us as well. They outnumber us.”

  Melanie pauses to think, the situation finally sinking in, “Wait, why can’t we call the Slayers for help?”

  “I thought about that, but I’m still under probation.”

  “Probation?” Melanie says with a confused expression.

  “This is my first time gathering intel for them. I just sent their son on a possible suicide mission. And if it's a setup, I may as well die now.”

  “A suicide mission? He would allow his son to fall into a possible trap from someone on probation?” Melanie continues to ask, her questions only growing.

  “I don’t know what his reasoning is, but if he is fine with it, then I’ll let him be,” Ken replies, “Once Agami and Olya return, we should be fine.”

  Stella walks back into the living room and repeats herself, toothpaste-free, “I was saying, the number one rule for going on an adventure is to bring your essentials. Can’t have fun if you’re unprepared, right?”

  As Stella finishes, Ken looks back at Melanie, and she gives an expression that says, “Told you.” Not wanting to frustrate himself by making sense of the nonsense, Ken just accepts her reason.

  Melanie turns to Stella and asks, “Are you going to assist with the surveillance?”

  Stella gives a cheeky grin when she hears the word ‘surveillance’. She asks, “Ooooh, are we watching out for the crazy cultists?”

  “Yes. We can’t tell who’s watching or when they will attack,” Ken answers, “We need to wait until morning before we hear from the Slayers.”

  “Fun! Count me in!” Stella shouts in excitement.

  “Fun?” Ken repeats in surprise.

  “Doesn’t it get your heart pumping when you know your life is on the line and the adrenaline sets your nerves and body into overdrive?” Stella answers.

  Something about that answer irked him. Is she doing this all for thrills? Not wanting to dig further into it, Ken walks over to the window that views the front yard and carefully peeks through the curtains. Right now, he needs to keep his focus on the surroundings. But after hearing Stella, he also needs to be careful of her. Making sure she doesn't do anything dangerous.

  As the night continued, the number of people on the street slowly decreased until none were around. Ken moves from window to window, carefully moving around and watching through different windows.

  He only rested when Melanie wanted to check his stitches.

  Sitting in the bathroom with Melanie, Ken removes his coat and jacket, revealing the bandages around his abdomen.

  “Okay, let’s see how we’re holding up.” Melanie begins to carefully remove the bandages. Near the end, she finds a blood patch on it. While she slowly removes the last wrap, she continues, “As expected, the wound opened a little, but it isn’t as bad as I expected. Are you feeling any pain, discomfort, or anything unusual?”

  Ken pauses for a moment and recounts his day. Besides his confrontation with the Ascenders, he didn’t feel anything unusual. Answering her question, he says, “No. I actually feel fine.”

  “That’s unusual,” She replies. She removes the last of the bandage and just finds the stitched wound covered in some blood. “Dried? Interesting. Let me clean this up. Just a bit of a warning, this may sting a bit.”

  Melanie takes out a damp cloth and carefully washes the wound with saline, making sure not to disturb the wound and stitches as she does so. While cleaning, Ken didn’t feel pain or discomfort. Only the cool wet cloth moving across his skin. After a few moments, Melanie finishes and looks closely at his abdomen.

  “Fascinating,” She says.

  “Is something wrong?” Ken asks.

  “It’s just that the wound closed itself overnight. The stitches are still there, so they still need to be removed, but the wound has closed itself. Looking at the skin, it seems there aren’t any signs of infection or internal hemorrhaging.”

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  “It healed,” Ken says in surprise at the news.

  “Did you come into contact with anything strange or do something to cause it to heal so quickly?” Melanie says, her eyes focused on the stitches.

  Ken thinks but is unable to give a concrete answer, answering, “Can’t say.”

  “Well, if you discover the reason, please contact me,” Melanie requests. She turns to her bag and takes out surgical scissors and disinfectant. “I know it's a bit soon to remove the stitches, but given the wound is gone, I think this shouldn't be a problem. Fair warning, this part is going to suck.”

  Ken looks at the scissors and swallows his saliva. Preparing himself for the removal, he says, “Let’s get this over with.”

  Fortunately, the stitches and cleaning were quick but not painless. After cleaning his abdomen of the remaining blood and bandaging it, Melanie gave Ken a lollipop and returned to look out. Confused by the treat, Ken takes a moment to get used to the pain before returning to look out.

  During the next hour, Bristol moved around the house, making sure everyone was okay and doing his own checks, such as ensuring windows were closed and doors were locked. Melanie watched the windows on the sides of the house while keeping the coffee supply flowing. Meanwhile, Stella kept an eye on the backyard, excitedly waiting for something to happen. Bristol checked on her more often to make sure she didn’t ‘miss’ anything.

  Unsure if his eyes were playing tricks on him, Ken would often see shadows move, but after focusing on the area, he presumed it was the street lights flickering. What if they come? How will we protect ourselves? Could we hide? I could escape, but they could capture and use them for leverage, or worse, convert them like they did Byron. Ken thinks back to what he heard in the recording. The sound of Senzo’s screams still haunts him. Still fresh in his mind. Centering his focus again, he watches the streets and plans ways to exit.

  Worried about the weapon situation, he catches Bristol, who is about to walk past, “Quick question. You wouldn’t happen to have any weapons here?”

  “Heh,” Bristol disappears momentarily and returns, brandishing a shotgun, “As much as I hate Stella’s adventures, I’m glad I am always prepared for them.”

  Ken looks at it. A standard pump-action shotgun. It will help them for a short while, but remembering the hordes he faced earlier, it will only last so long before they are overwhelmed. Looking back at Bristol, he asks, “Is that all?”

  Expectedly, a confused expression appears on his face, “What? This isn’t good enough?” He aims the shotgun at an imaginary target and proudly says, “Heh, they’ll think twice when they see me with this!’

  Ken has a flashback to his encounter with Gearfried and the Ascenders. Even when he was cutting through hordes of the group, they neither slowed down nor ran away. They aren’t going to be deterred by a simple gun. Ken looks at him and simply says, “We need to prepare. Barricade the doors and windows. Set up some traps. Makeshift weapons. Bring everything you think that can be used as a weapon.” He looks to Melanie, busy drinking her third cup of coffee, telling her, “Cover for him in the meantime. I’ll try to barricade some of the doors and windows.”

  Ken quickly checks the windows. From their frames, it isn't easy to break through them without pushing past the grilles. Let’s hope this isn’t forever, once everyone is up and about the stree- Ken remembers how they blocked the one street to prevent foot traffic, blocking it by using concrete road blocks. No. We won’t be able to get to the main streets. Ken quickly takes out the phone Gearfried gave him to check its battery level. It’s dead. Damn it!

  He quickly turns to Melanie and holds up the phone, hurriedly saying, “I need a charger for this.”

  She takes the phone and looks at the charging port, answering, “I should have the right cable for this. I’ll quickly get it for you.” She walks out of the room in search of the charger.

  In the meantime, Ken pushes the couch in front of the door, securely blocking it. He walks to the back and finds the back door. After checking it was locked, he heads back to the lounge and takes a look at the television stand. Good enough. Ken places the television on the floor and moves it to block the door. After much trial-and-error, he squeezes it into the corridors and blocks the door.

  Returning to the lounge, Ken notices his phone is plugged into an outlet, charging. He quickly walks towards it and says, “Thank you, Melanie!”

  He picks up the phone and turns it on. While it’s booting up, Bristol returns and adds more stuff to an ever-growing pile of random items.

  “This is all I could find,” Bristol says as he places the last of his weights in the pile.

  After the start-up song plays on the phone, Ken can use it. “Finally,” Ken says to himself, “He quickly opens it and dials Gearfried's number. The phone rings for a while before the call connects.

  “Yo!” The voice says.

  Ken pauses, confused by the change in attitude, before asking, “Gearfried?”

  “Nope. It’s Sora. Gears is busy on a secret mission,” Sora says.

  “I see,” Ken says as he swallows his spit, nervous, “Listen, we wanted to ask if you could maybe come pick us up sooner? With the Ascenders, we can’t go onto the streets, and it's only a matter of time until they find us.”

  “Still worried about that? I can’t really blame you there,” Sora pauses before continuing, “I have it on good authority that you won’t have to worry for the next seven or so hours.”

  “Seven?” Ken asks.

  “Yep. It seems the ceremony they’re holding is planned to last the entire night, and according to my intel, the place is overflowing. So it’s safe to say that all the Ascenders are there. And if there are stragglers, nothing you guys won’t be able to handle,” Sora chuckles.

  For some reason, the way he makes it sound, it's as if it isn’t a big deal. But nothing is a big deal if you are one of the strongest on the planet. Afraid to push him, Ken accepts Sora’s judgment and asks, “Okay, then, when is the earliest you can pick us up?”

  “Unfortunately, I’m quite busy tending to some babysitting. Ouch!” Sora suddenly says as he is presumably hit in the background, “Okay, okay. I’m currently tied up, and I don’t have anyone to spare. Unfortunately, you will need to sit tight until the morning. Maybe sometime around eight or nine? I’ll try to swing by earlier if I can.”

  “Got it,” Ken says, preparing for the night ahead.

  “Until then. Cheers.” Sora ends the call.

  “So what did he say?” Melanie asks.

  Reconnecting the phone to the charger, Ken answers, “He said we will only be able to come get us in the morning.”

  “And the cultists?!” Melanie says as her nerves slowly get to her. Bristol, in the meantim,e is busy looking at all the items he has gathered.

  “With their gathering going on, he thinks for now that they shouldn't be an issue…” Ken says, unsure of the answer.

  Stella leaves her room and checks through the front door's peephole. Surprised, Melanie asks, "Didn't you say you’re covering the backyard?”

  “I am, but Bristol asked me to cover for him with the spot checks.” Stella answers as she watches, “Hm?”

  “You see something?” Ken asks.

  “How long has that guy been sitting there?” Stella asks.

  Hearing that, both Melanie and Bristol look at her in worry. Surprised, Ken walks to her and repeats, “What guy?”

  Stella steps aside, and Ken looks through the peephole. He sees the deserted street and nobody sitting anywhere. Only street lights and parked cars are in front of the buildings.

  “I don't see anything,” Ken says after a few minutes.

  “Stel, this isn't the time for one of your jokes,” Melanie says in frustration.

  Stella gives a confused look and moves Ken aside, looking through the peephole again. Moments later, she says, “No, a guy is sitting right there, by the fence.”

  “Fence?!” Bristol says angrily as he stands. Ken quickly walks over to the curtain and peeks through it. He focuses on the gaps in the fence. Looking closely, he sees a figure sitting by the fence. Quietly watching.

  How long have they been watching?!

  “She wasn't lying,” Ken says.

  Bristol picks up his shotgun and moves the couch out of the way, saying, “Tch, threatening us like cowards! Wait until I-”

  But before he can reach the unbarricaded door, Ken runs up and stops him, saying, “Wait! Think for a moment!”

  “Think about what?! That bastard is out there watching us!” Bristol reaches for the handle, but Ken places his hand on it first to stop him.

  The handle jiggles, and something quietly shifts behind the door.

  Getting visibly more furious, Bristol says, “Get out of my wa-” He is interrupted by Ken raising his hand in front of him, signaling him to hush. Ken listens closely to the door.

  Watching, Melanie slowly approaches and is about to say something, but Ken waves his hand, telling them to both be still. Stella watches with an excited grin.

  Ken puts his ear up to the door, and he can hear something shifting. Quietly but clumsily. They weren't professionals, but were smart enough to be still.

  Not moving, Ken points at his bag sitting on the side, signaling for someone to pass it to him. Melanie picks up on it first and fetches it for him.

  After she passes it to him, Ken quickly digs in the bag and takes out the multi-tool. He looks at it and places his hand on the trigger.

  Here's hoping it still has fuel, he thinks, mentally preparing for what's to come.

  He signals Bristol to prepare himself while he places his left hand on the door handle. The girls step back while Bristol aims it at the door.

  Having choreographed his next actions multiple times, Ken takes a deep breath and turns the handle, opening the door slowly.

  No one is in front of it.

  The street is eerily quiet.

  Without hesitation, he points the multi-tool outside and pulls the trigger. A large flame shoots out, flooding the entrance with flames. Shouts erupt from the walls outside. As he suspected, they were waiting there. He sweeps the flame to both sides, and two figures hastily retreat, one caught on fire as they flee.

  “Knew it!” Ken says as he slams the door, “Bristol, barricade it!” Ken says as he locks the door. Without question, he pushes the couch as Ken steps aside, blocking the door from opening.

  The two then walk to the women watching what's happening outside the window. Looking outside, the fires on one of the Ascenders were extinguished.

  “Why aren't they attacking like last time?” Stella asks as she leans on the windowsill. Recounting their earlier encounter with them.

  “It's simple,” Ken answers, his eyes focused on the two people retreating, “They don't have enough to swarm but have enough to keep us trapped.”

  “So…it's a stalemate,” Bristol adds.

  “At least until the gathering is over,” Ken says, checking the clock.