When the group finally made it back to Dundorma, Joseph raced to buy an antidote, giving it to Terrence in an incredibly rushed manner.
They then got back to his house and placed him on his bed, before resting finally.
"Ya think he's gonna be good?" Joseph asked.
"Well, he's breathin', so there shouldn't be a problem." Matt replied "Just gotta let him rest."
Eventually some time passed and Lyra reappeared.
"Oh, you're still alive." Joseph pointed out aimlessly, only to be met with a drawn out silence before she finally said "Sorry for running off, I guess."
Lyra then walked off.
"That was surprising." Joseph thought aloud "I figured she'd be the type who just never reacts."
"Well, she is human, I guess. Even if she wasn't that involved, feeling guilt for not doing enough is probably affecting her."
Both of them just as quickly stopped thinking about this, as Matt got up.
"Well, I should probably be goin', ya gonna leave?"
"In a few minutes yeah, I'll probably head home after."
"It's only four in the afternoon."
"I'm really tired after that, aura tends to do that to ya, another reason I don't use it much."
"Aight then, see ya." Matt walked off.
Joseph stayed there all night, waiting for Terrence to wake up, in complete silence the entire time.
By the time Terrence woke up, it must've been somewhere near three in the morning.
"What happened?" He asked, noticing Joseph.
"Well, ya got poisoned and sorta passed out, so we had to retreat, sorry about that, guess we couldn't finish it off."
"Ah… got it then. Were you waiting here a while?"
"Nah, nothin' like that, I just happened to be checkin' up on ya when ya woke. Anyways, ya should go back to restin', we'll talk more tomorrow. See ya." Joseph then walked out, leaving Terrence to go back to sleep.
The next day, he returned, after having spent the entire night trying to sleep through feeling terrible.
He briefly looked through the door to see if Terrence was awake, only to find him missing.
"Seriously?" He asked aloud, before going to see where he could find him.
He got on Nargy's back and flew up, trying to scan around the environment, eventually noticing Terrence and Demi atop a hill, resting.
Nargy landed nearby, Joseph opening the conversation with "Shouldn't ya be more… restin'?"
"I'm good, really." Terrence replied "Getting outside's good, probably."
"Well anyways, we still gotta talk about why ya decided to fight the deviant like that, even if ya didn't have ta."
"Well, like… From what I've learned, that thing's created from surviving fights. So it's dangerous, meaning that if we let it keep fighting, it'd become even more of a threat, for someone else."
"Yeah but… that's not yer problem, right?"
"Isn't saving others from danger part of being a hunter?"
"Not really, it's just about dealing with what you're paid to."
"I see… so that's the difference in view here."
"Yeah, I guess so. Ya know the reason most become hunters, right?"
"Because they want to?"
"Not really, in most cases. Being a hunter… gives ya the chance to completely start over. At everything."
Terrence seemed confused.
"You should've noticed when you registered, right? You don't need an identity beforehand to register as one. Or any training. Since you can lie however you want, as long as it seems believable enough, then you're good. Anything you want to escape in your life, is escapable, just that one time."
Terrence now understood why most of the members of his group were here, despite not seeming to care much for the job itself.
"After all, why would a job with such a high death rate have so many. Look, I doubt there's anyone out there who's just huntin' for the sake of it, everyone has some higher goal, it's not that good of a job. If there was… I doubt they'd last long at that unless they were something terrifyin'."
"Well… I get that, but that doesn't mean you should leave deviants like that. Regardless of whether it's your job, they could be dangerous. Don't you care if someone could die because of you?"
Joseph took a deep sigh before continuing "Can't say that I do."
Terrence reacted with an uncomfortable expression.
"Well, it's not like I'm okay with it," Joseph continued "But I can't afford to care about people I can't see, over those right in front of me."
"I get that I wasn't able to fight it that well but… you pretty easily could, right? Using aura."
"Sure, aura's good at fightin', but it's not like I can use it for anything important. If I use it as a crutch all the time… it works out poorly." Joseph thought of a way to change the subject. "Do you think of hunters as heroes?"
"Mm. I guess so."
"Well, that's understandable, I guess, seeing from how long ya spent idolisin' yer dad. Not like I can deny having thought that at one point too. With all these stories about legendary ones, it makes sense that someone would figure that all hunters would be that way."
"Yeah, that's an assumption you could make without knowing anything else."
"Then ya should already have worked it out by now, right? While there sure are ones out there who ya could call heroes, there's way more that wouldn't qualify for that. If I had to pick which side I'm on of that, it's pretty clear that I ain't."
Terrence thought about this for a few seconds more, before continuing with "That is fair, yeah, even if it doesn't really change my own views of things."
"Huh?"
"I mean, you have your views on it, I've got mine, it's fine if they don't agree. We just have different views on what being a hunter is. We don't need to argue over them."
"Ok sure but like, don't put yourself at risk like that again, it's worryin', that's my main problem."
"Got it, don't worry."
Joseph then decided to turn to walk off and briefly turned to see if Terrence would follow, only to find no response, so he headed wherever he felt like without him.
As Joseph continued walking, he noticed Zach standing around.
"Wanna go hunt?" Zach asked.
Joseph thought back to how poorly this had just gone.
"Sure." He replied.
Surprisingly enough, nothing terrible or out of the ordinary happened, it was just normal for once.
As the four of them, having gone with Ed and Riko, headed back into Dundorma, life seemed to be as normal as it could get.
They quickly found the rest of the group and were about to head off to presumably something fun.
The reaper can be the most devastating when you're enjoying yourself too much to hear its footsteps slowly draw near.
"Yo…" Joshua began, surprising Joseph greatly, as he hadn't noticed him approach at all. "I've come to follow up on our talks from earlier."
There was an awkward silence, which Zach immediately interrupting it with "Hey, who's this guy?"
"Joshua, a pretty famous hunter." Callum explained, before addressing Joseph "But… when the hell'd ya get ta know him?"
"Never mind that for now" Joseph quickly snapped back, before spinning to Joshua "The hell are you doin'?"
Joshua didn't care for this question, continuing with what he wanted to say "Joseph Gilmore, Zach Gilmore, Ben Gilmore and Callum Gilmore. The four of you registered under the same surname in the same place at the same time, so I suppose you would give the image of brothers, correct? A group of four brothers. Coincidentally, we've also learnt of a couple in Loc Lac with the same surnames, and funnily enough there's a link between a certain incident and four children who disappeared at the same time. I believe that you should know what I'm referring to, yeah?"
He lightly smiled, watching the expressions of pain on the expressions of the four in front of him.
"What do ya want?" Zach finally said.
"You have until morning to leave Dundorma. Otherwise, everything will be revealed. Of course, you can't be arrested for anything, that's how hunting works, but do you really think people will still treat you as humans, knowing all that? Of course not. Well then, I'll be taking my leave." Joshua disappeared into the crowd just as fast and silently as he'd appeared out of it.
Everyone in the group of four responded in silence, never having expected this to occur at any point in their lives.
They then, in unison, began to head back, without a word.
Terrence was the only one who caught up with them.
"Wait, why are you just leaving, it can't be that important, right?"
"Sorry, unfortunately, it is."
"But where are you gonna go?"
"Dunno, he just said ta leave Dundorma after all. Ya probably shouldn't come with us, I got the feeling that something's up."
Joseph thought about this for a few seconds more, before finally remembering something.
"Besides, ya shouldn't need ta worry about me anyways. From what I've heard your dad might be somewhere around the frontier, so that's probably a good place to go. I don't think I'll be headed there, but you should check it out. See, don't even need ta stick with me."
"That's not it at all!" Terrence yelled back "I just don't want you guys to leave!"
Joseph was briefly confused by this, before Vert stepped in.
"Look, you might not understand this yourself, but some people have things they'd rather die than let others find out. Still though," She now turned to Joseph "Are you really good with just leaving like this? Not gonna try and fight back at all."
"All I know is that he's in some kinda group, but I dunno how to find him or any of the others, or anything about 'em."
"Then, continuing my questions." Vert sighed, having potentially expected something along the lines of this "This all started back at the tournament, right? I dunno if whatever that has to do with this, but if it doesn't, then why'd you hide it? Wouldn't it have been better to at least talk about that much."
"Stuff like that… is just for me to deal with."
The others of the group reacted in their own ways.
The gunner trio seemed relatively unconcerned, though Matt was fairly shocked.
This was just adding more to how poor Alexandra felt.
While Ed was attempting to make himself seem uncaring about it, he and Revel were pretty clearly affected.
Lyra and Shoot seemed to show some concern for Zach, but it was difficult to tell.
Natasha and Natalie were both pretty visibly upset by this, though in completely different ways, with Natalie just being normally sad and Natasha on the hunt for Joshua.
Riko and Anthony also reacted with vague sadness, knowing that the group wouldn't be the same if the ones who formed it were gone.
The four of them got all their stuff, and were finally ready to leave Dundorma for the last time.
"Well then," Zach started to Lyra and Shoot "Be seein' ya, I guess. Sorry this is so sudden n' all."
"It's fine, nya," Shoot replied "I'm alright without someone blackinmyailing me to be here."
"Got it, got it." Zach sort of grinned back, the best he could manage.
"Still though…" Shoot replied "Be careful, nya."
"Yeah…" Lyra weakly followed up, not really feeling like existing that much.
"So then, I'll be leaving." Ben announced to Natasha and Natalie, a lot less apologetic.
"Can't we just come with you?" Natasha asked.
"I don't think… he wants that." Natalie answered somewhat uncertainly.
"Yeah, pretty much. This is just for me to deal with, so y'know, ya can just stay here. It was fun, I guess. See ya."
"See ya, Ed." Callum told him.
"Hehehehehehehe, as if something of this level could faze me, Edward of the underworld." He boasted loudly, refusing to look Callum in the eye "I still have Revelator-Beast, so I'll be fine. There's no need for a foolish mortal such as yourself to be concerned for me, focus on yourself."
"Aight, thanks."
Zach waved over to the gunner trio, who waved back with a similar meaning silent farewell.
They also looked over to the remaining three. Alexandra remained silent, but Anthony.
"You know, the group'll be pretty different now, I guess."
"Yeah, prolly." Zach replied "But, what can ya do?"
Riko thought about this for a few seconds, seeming in deep thought. "So… if the original four are gone, and I'm the oldest one who joined after… Do I get to be the leader now?"
"Well, we never had one before… but sure?" Zach replied.
Despite his sadness, there was now a silver lining mixed in, Riko going out of his way to ignore that he could've done this at any time and barely anyone would've bothered to object.
"And, looks like it's time for me ta get goin' as well." Joseph informed Terrence and Vert.
Vert waved nonchalantly, while Terrence looked down.
Joseph then turned around and headed forwards, not wanting to turn around again.
The four of them were finally out of Dundorma, the stars seeming clearer than they had been in a while.
"Well, we're pretty much back to four years ago, huh?" Joseph began "Minus a few changes on my side of things."
"I guess, I guess." Zach answered "It's kinda bullshit though, seeing as how we only just got back and we're already going travelling somewhere again. Though at least we're together this time I guess."
"This works in its own way though." Ben added "Some of 'em are cool, but we just got too many characters around, y'know. Makes things too complicated, who knows who anyone is anymore or what we're doin'."
"I get what yer sayin'," Went Callum "I haven't had a defined personality in almost five years now, seriously."
"Ain't that just yer problem?" All three replied in unison.
"Hell no it ain't!" Callum yelled back "Anyways, this is good, y'know. Gives us new focus, maybe the plot'll move forwards now."
As he finished this sentence, they saw the lights of an airship descending from the sky.
"What timing." Joseph sighed.
"Ya cursed us or somethin'?" Ben joked.
"Hey, we kinda need to focus."
They already knew that they'd been spotted, so their best bet was to get on their monsters and attempt to escape, but it was clear from the sound of multiple people jumping down that it was too late for this.
One landed behind them, one landed in front.
Joseph got ready to draw his sword. While Nargy obviously had the option of escaping, it's not like he could just leave the others behind. The intent of those after them was clear.
Finally, the ship landed, and five sets of footsteps moved forwards.
Nargy watched intently through the darkness.
Finally, a voice spoke.
"Ben, Callum, Joseph and Zach Gilmore, all started out in Tanzia, yes?"
The group remained perfectly silent.
"From your reaction previously, you should already know what you've done, and without a doubt you have been found guilty. Are there any objections."
Joseph remained silent, before suddenly Nargy pounced at the one who was blocking their path.
The others quickly followed, looking for a way out.
As Joseph got closer, he realised he was completely unable to see the face of the one he was attacking, it was covered by a cloak.
The attack was quickly dodged around, but they continued to run, until Joseph sensed something behind them. He quickly pushed Nargy into the ground, narrowly missing an axe swing aimed for his head.
"So you are one after all then, huh?" Another cloaked figure asked "Well, not that it matters much. It's just a shame someone like you had to be chosen."
Joseph finally spoke for the first time.
"Why the hell are you guys doin' something like this?"
"Oh, I suppose I haven't introduced us yet. I am Judge. What I seek is a perfect world. Hunters like you… who run from their crimes… who accept no responsibility. You only hinder it, make the world worse. So, we take the jobs that no one else should have to. Fixing the world. Is that enough?"
As he wrapped up this speech, Joseph had already started his attack, bringing his sword down as fast as possible.
But, before Joseph could even get close, he was slammed into by a scythe, being knocked out of the air before he could react.
As Joseph tried to move, he already felt the barrel of a gun pointed towards his head. There was no space with which to dodge this.
Nargy made a quick jab for the one preventing Joseph's movement, giving him freedom to move, slashing upwards as fast as possible to get them back. While it would normally be a problem to give a user of a ranged weapon distance, he figured that in darkness there wasn't much they could do.
He stuck close to Nargy, not sure of where anyone else was, his blade still raised.
This was, without a doubt, a fight for their lives.
"So you're going to continue to struggle in vain?" Judge sighed again "It's all useless. Murderers such as yourselves simply shouldn't be alive."
TO BE CONTINUED