The loud, heavy rain fell on the closed windows of Kobayashi's house as the gruff-looking man with an eye-patch sat in front of his computer. Typing away on the holographic keyboard and sipping a hot cup of coffee while looking at his flat monitor, a dim lamp beside him shone some light on a few files in front of him. Inside his simple - but large - room, the man was dressed in his sleepwear and the black circle underneath his remaining eye was the only evidence of sleep deprivation.

For days he had been spending hours with the Warlock Hunters looking for Clyde, but no matter how hard they tried, they would only find tracks that had gone cold or decoys that would lead them further astray in their search and mess up their detection systems. What worried him the most was the possibility of the other Warlocks being alive, and if the reported sightings of a 3rd Generation Artificial Incubator were to be believed, then the soldier had much more to worry about besides that.

Kobayashi stopped typing, stretched his thick arms and picked up his empty mug for another refill. Getting out of his room, the man walked down the small, dark corridor of his household that was brandished with pictures of him, his daughter, Mirai and previous Warlock Hunters that have long been dead or retired. The man flicked a switch on the wall to open the lights to the kitchen and closed his tired eye when the blinding light suddenly assaulted them. Opening them again, he saw Mirai sitting at the kitchen table with a full cup of cold coffee sitting next to her hand, her head leaned on her other arm as she was sleeping in her school uniform.

Gently, he shook her by the shoulder and the young girl woke up from her nap, "Mirai, what are you doing sleeping over here? And why are you still in your uniform?"

Rubbing her eyes, she groaned and apologized, "My bad, I was just taking a nap. I... didn't think I'd fall asleep here."

Her eyes were of a sore red color, her cheeks had dry tear marks and the tone of her voice was weak. Kobayashi remembered what happened this afternoon, about hearing Mirai's friends getting into various accidents when he and Narita were at the hospital. Setting down his mug next to his coffee brewer, the man turned to her and wiped the dry tears off her cheek with a thumb, "You were crying."

"I wasn't crying," she denied, her hands gripping her shirt, "I was just... thinking about them..."

Kobyashi patted her on the head, running a large hand through her short, black hair. He, too, was worried about the condition of her friends, having met them a few times before. In his opinion, they were a strange bunch and for Mirai to be friends with them, it surprised him. As for the one named "Homura", he had a lot of questions to ask her once she would get better. When he saw that she wore an ornate ring with a purple mark engraved onto the nail of the same finger, he had a feeling there was more to her than Narita realized.

"It's okay to cry, Mirai," he assured her, "Crying because you care is a completely different matter; I've always told you that."

Mirai sniffed and rubbed her eyes with her hand until the man handed her a tissue to use, "T-Thanks," she took it and blew her nose. Standing up from her seat and disposing the tissue in a bin, she bowed, excusing herself, "I'll be heading to bed now. Good night."

"Take a shower and try to get some rest," he advised in a fatherly tone.

Turning around and hearing a door down the hallway close after Mirai left, thunder rumbled outside the window as he emptied Mirai's cup into the sink before cleaning it thoroughly. Kobayashi took the coffee brewer, refilled his mug and the scent of fresh coffee woke him up from his arising exhaustion. He then turned off the lights and returned to his room to see an incoming call on his computer. Setting down the mug and clicking a button on his keyboard to answer it, it was from one of his subordinates, Kai.

"What is it?" he sipped his mug.

"C-Commander, I've detected a powerful Obscurum energy signature at the Public Hospital, it's Clyde!"

Kobayashi hesitated before he slammed down his cup on the table and shouted into the microphone, "Tell Kou and Akihiko to meet up with me at the hospital with our equipment; I'll be regrouping with them as soon as I can. We can't lose track of him this time!"

"Yes, Sir!"

He shut off the comm and opened his wardrobe, swiftly changing into a set of clean military fatigues, black trench boots, a thick piece of worn-out kevlar and a pair of thick leather gloves. Taking his car keys and heading out into the hallway, Kobayashi slowly closed the door to his room as to not awake Mirai, who was in the room opposite of his. Wishing he would be able to say "Goodbye" one last time before leaving, the man marched into his garage, threw a few crates in his car's backseat and drove out into the street at high speeds, the car's headlights lighting his path.

Kobayashi put on his earpiece and spoke into it, "Kou, Akihiko, what's your position?"

"On the way to target destination," Akihiko answered, "I got Kou with me and we're on our way in 20 minutes."

"Make it 15, I'm not that far from the location," he ordered and stepped on the pedal, speeding out of the neighborhood in the rain.

Rainwater showered on the light armored-plating Hideki wore, dripping down to the muddy ground and grass that reflected the aura surrounding his body. The energy field around him dissipating, Hideki wielded the humongous blade in his wet hands and shot an angry glare at the Warlock in front of him through his glass visor. With his headgear, he could see a distinct aura around the injured Warlock that was almost palpable. The bullets that the Warlock shot at him lost their ebony shine to them as they were embedded around their surroundings.

Hideki felt like a completely new person in this form. The giant blade in his hands was almost his size and the weight exerted a bit of strain in his arms. Gripping the hilt tightly, Hideki stepped towards the Warlock, dragging the blade behind him, "I can do this," he confidently thought, "With these, I can protect everyone!"

"Final locks released," a female, robotic voice announced in his head, the Soul Gem on his armor shimmering with each word spoken as Hideki wondered where it was coming from, "Proceeding to scan enemy Warlock. Recognized: Warlock 006, Clyde. Threat level: Medium. Detecting lack of training in recruit's body. Proceeding with safety measures; Assuming direct control."

Hideki stopped as he suddenly felt his arms shaking. He froze in place as he ordered his legs and arms to move, only to feel his mind go blank. Hideki's Soul Gem then illuminated a shining, blue light that blinded the still Warlock in front of him. The glass visor clamping onto his head tightening its grip, he felt like he was being restrained from within, "What's going on?!" he thought as his pupils suddenly dilated and his mind went completely blank. His head dropping slightly, Hideki no longer felt like anything was in his command.

"Control taken; beginning attack," Hideki monotonously muttered as his jet verniers shot him toward the Warlock, his sword dragging behind him. Recollecting himself, the Warlock tried to summon another rifle, but Hideki raised his blade in the air and brought it down on the Warlock. The Warlock jump backwards to avoid the cataclysmic blow that created a jutting, muddy crater on the ground, "Enemy persisting, continuing assault."

Thrusters popped open on the back of his single-sided blade and Hideki continued to swing the weapon with enough power to cleave a building in half. As each slow swing was propelled with the thrusters, the weapon left more large craters with each missed attack. But the more the injured Warlock desperately attempted to dodge despite its wounds, the further Hideki - or rather - the voice in its head, took its measures.

Hideki paused his attack and dropped the cumbersome blade on the muddy ground. The Warlock took this chance and used a newly-summoned rifle to shoot at the numerous unarmored areas on Hideki's body. The shots connected in his thigh and shoulder, breaking through a translucent barrier and leaving bleeding holes where they hit. Hideki winced and staggered, "Damage received; attempting to isolate Obscurum poison," he then ignored the wounds and crossed his arm. Twin, double-sided blades sprung from his vambraces, shimmering with energy while rainwater fell on them, "Activating Recicio stinger blades."

The Puerum Magi launched his attack again, rushing through the falling rainwater to slash and stab at his enemy with blinding speed like a bolt of lightning. Supported by quick ignites from his thrusters, Hideki spun in the air and slid on the mud, kicking, slashing and kneeing the Warlock at every chance he saw while leaving no room for counterattacks by dashing away to recover. The damages sent by Hideki left numerous small, glowing cuts on the Warlock's body. But the Warlock, ever so desperate, turned his rifle around and slammed the butt of it in Hideki's visor when he went to attack again, cracking it slightly.

Falling back a bit and shaking off the blow, Hideki couldn't hear the curse that came from the Warlock, which then took out distinctive grenade and threw it to the floor. Thick, white smoke poured from it and quickly covered the area, but Hideki could still see the Warlock's visible aura through the smoke. It had broke into a quick run for the gate and Hideki wasted no time reigniting his thrusters to give the Warlock a chase, following that aura as a guiding beacon in the mist.

Hearing the sound of rocket boosters approaching him, the Warlock turned around to fire his rifle, only for Hideki to come out of the smoke and cleave off its barrel with his stinger blades before give a solid, rocket-propelled knee launch up its chin. The Warlock grunting in pain as he was launched into the air, Hideki's stinger blades retracted as his hands began to glow with smoking energy, burning bright like an intense, golden fire.

"Strength Amplification powers activated. Diverting all energy into arms. Time limit is 5 minutes."

Grabbing the Warlock by the throat with his left hand, the strength in Hideki's arms crushed its windpipe as his right hand slowly curled into a fist with a mechanical click coming from his glowing gauntlets. Pumping his right arm back, Hideki let out a loud battle-cry as his armored fist crashed into the Warlock's mask with the sound of a thunderbolt roaring from the impact. Energy surged through his arms, sparking around them like electricity as the megaton punch's energy and impact cracked the Warlock's mask. Releasing the Warlock's neck, the force of the punch sent the Warlock flying out of the hospital front yard, gates and into the skies with a howl of pain following it.

Landing on the ground, the one-sided fight was promptly ended.

"Danger no longer present. Restoring control."

The rain that fell on his hands sizzled from their heat as the armor around Hideki slowly disappeared into particles, withering away until he was back in his school uniform. The boy fell to his side and collapsed on the wet grass, panting for air as he felt like a chain had been released from his body. With his pupils back to normal, his eyes closed by themselves. As exhaution seeped into every part of his body, he could hear his friends call out his name and the rain falling on the side of his head before falling unconscious.

Soaring through the air as he screamed, Clyde flew into a dark, cramped alley in the city and crash onto the hood of a truck, leaving an enormous dent upon impact. Gripping the sides of the smoking hood with his unharmed arm, Clyde immediately pulled himself up and let out another howl of pain through his cracked mask that was deafened by the rain above. Clyde clenched his mask, feeling like he was slowly being disintegrated from the inside as his torn fedora was sitting on the ground below, midly burned and smoking.

It was bad enough that the enemy got the drop on him when his guard was down, but that energy - that energy that could harm him - Clyde had not expected that Sanbey would manage to get someone to contract with him. Releasing his grip on his face, Clyde took out one of the vials from his inner pockets and eyed it greedily before placing it back inside.

"N-No... I should save this for Lord Phantom's plans; I shouldn't be w-wasteful," he dropped to the ground and landed on his aching knees. Picking up his fedora from the floor and placing it back on his head, he gripped his face again and squeled in pain, his mask billowing smoke that swirled into the air, "W-What should I do?! At this rate, I c-could've triggered one of those Warlock Hunters's traps," he grunted in pain, biting his lower lip beneath his mask, "What the Hell do I do next...?!"

"You still have much more to do, Clyde," an smooth, ominous and disembodied voice suddenly rang in his head, making the Warlock stand back on two feet with beaming excitement.

"Lord Phantom?!" Clyde gasped upon hearing this voice, the voice that would remove all doubt upon hearing and bring calmness to his black heart, "I-It has been so long since you have called for me. Lord Phantom, what are your n-next orders?" Clyde's tone was submissive and respectful. Ignoring the pain that burned his face, he listened closely to the voice in his head.

"Return at once, Clyde. It's time," Phantom ordered, "Upon arrival, I want you to awaken Ares, as I expect danger to be following you here. Once Ares eliminates the Warlock Hunters, then we shall begin."

"Y-Yes, my lord. Anything you wish!"

"Hmph, As expected from one of my most loyal servants, obedient to the end."

As the voice went away, Clyde gripped the dripping wet, brick walls for support as he limped out of the alley, leaving a trail of dark, sticky fluid oozing from his burning wounds, "No matter how b-bad my wounds are, my Lord, I s-shall return," he said between breaths, walking out into the open road. Standing still under the streetlights, Clyde waited until he saw car down the road slow down and stop front in of him, "Perfect."

The driver got out of her vehicle and cupped her mouth when she saw Clyde bleeding profusively, unaware of what he was, "My god, are you all right?! You're bleeding!" the driver ran to his aid, but stopped in her tracks when a gun formed in Clyde's hand, "W-What are you doing?!"

Clyde raised his gun and looked at it quizzically, "Oh, this?" he pointed it at the woman who froze with fear as Clyde put his finger on the trigger, "Let's just say that I wanna 'borrow' your car," Clyde said with a smirk on his mask before squeezing the trigger, pelting the woman with a magazine's worth of ammo. Her corpse fell to the floor, and before Clyde took the vehicle, he crouched near her corpse and dug his fingers into her neck.

"A body a day keeps ddeath away," he happily chimed and as he began sucking her life essence. As his wounds slowly healed, the woman's skin wrinkled and her body started to dry up. Once he was through with her, Clyde had turned her into something that could only be called a husk. A contented sigh came from the Warlock as he then tossed her body into a nearby garbage dumpster and rolled his shoulders, feeling the pain ease up a little, "Now then, time to scram."

Entering the vehicle, he closed the doors and drove with broken arm still regenerating, heading to a nearby location that he called 'home'.

When the Warlock Hunters arrived at the hospital, Kobayashi slammed an angry fist into the hospital's wet metal gates as once more, they were late to the scene and Clyde had already disappeared. What was left were jagged craters of mud, scattered dirt and other signs of a battle that had possibly took place just recently. Furious, the commander's face contorted slightly, kicking a empty bullet casing at his feet.

His respected senior and squad engineer, Akihiko, dropped his cigar to the ground and extinguished it with his oil-stained boots, "What do you think happened here?" the old man spoke in a calm tone, rubbing his nose with a finger, "Clyde shouldn't have any trouble when fighting people normal weaponry, even if the weasel loves to toy around with us. Doesn't look like a simple gunfight took place here."

Kou, the squad's scout and tracker, wore a black balaclava as he remained quiet as ever. Crouching on the mud, he carefully examined a cleaved-off gun-barrel that he had picked up from among the craters, brushing a gloved finger on of the barrel's tip which had a burning glow before showing it to Kobayashi.

"What is this?" the gruff man inquired, the gun barrel slowly crumbling into ashes in his hands. The end of the barrel where it had been cut glowed with a sort of yellow energy as it conducted through the metal barrel.

Wiping some rain off his forehead, Akihiko took a look at it too, adding, "Doesn't look like any energy I've seen before. Kou, keep it so we can scan it back at the warehouse."

The silent soldier nodded to the engineer and kept the gun-barrel inside a zip-lock bag before pocketing it in his fatigues. Heading back to the parked van to start the engine up, he noticed the radio at the back of the van ringing and waved at his superiors to call them over. Kobayashi came first and answered the radio in a disappointed tone, "What is it this time, Kai?"

"Commander, I've got another lock on Clyde's position."

His eye widened and the man's tone rose, "Where?!"

"I'm sending the coordinates to your detectors in 3... 2... 1..." a slight pause, "Check 'em now."

The three each look at the small, disc-shaped devices placed on their wrists. On the sonar-like device, there was a large blip with small trail behind it as it was only a few kilometers from their positions and rising. This sight immediately made the commander turn off the radio and hop into the back of the van, shouting, "Kou, Akihiko, let's move! We got no time to waste!"

"What about your car?"

"No time for that, let's go!" Kobayashi ordered again, sitting on of the many crates inside the van. The two boarded the vehicle as well and the van's headlights turned on. With Kou on the wheel and his superiors in the back, he shoved his boot onto the pedal and did a sharp U-turn in the direction of the blip, using his detector to guide him as he steered.

Inside the cramped, dark space of the van, it was completely silent, save for the hum of the engine, the rainwater hitting the roof and the light tapping of Akihiko's finger on a nearby crate he put his foot on. Kobayashi was sitting calmly opposite of him, eyes staring at the inner walls of the van. Eventually, Akihiko got tired of the silence and spoke up, "So, Commander, how's Mirai doing? She should be in middle-school by now, right?"

"She isn't relevant to the mission, Akihiko," Kobayashi dismissed the topic quickly, lacing his fingers together as Akihiko persisted with a smirk.

Taking out a cigar and lighting it with a match, he continued, "Sure, sure, but you're the reason why she's still alive and living a good, happy life," Akihiko shifted in his makeshift 'seat' and flicked the match to extinguish it, "And also the reason why the Warlocks that killed her mother are dead now."

Kobayashi's expression darkened as he took out a towel from his pocket and wiped off some grime on his kevlar, keeping what he called a relic clean and tidy.

"You gonna do anything with her once we kill off the Warlocks for good?"

"Excuse me?" Kobayashi raised a confused brow.

"I mean, come on, I went to her preschool graduation in your stead; you should make some memories with her while she's still small," Akihiko blew the smoke out of his mouth, the smoke stinging their eyes slightly as he placed back his cigar, "We've spent years living with the possibility of Phantom and cronies still being alive. Don't you have anything planned for her after we grind the face of the last Warlock into the mud?"

Kobayashi looked to be in deep thought, his hand stopping its wiping movements. But before he could answer, they felt the van come to a halt with Kou in the front gesturing to them that they have arrived. Kobayashi turned to the enginner and gave a meaningful glare, "I'll think about that, just not now. Right now, We're going finish a job we never completed, and that's that'," the gruff man said, opening the doors and hopping out onto the wet pavement.

"You'll never know how much time you have left with her," Akihiko added a final comment, coming out into the rain as well. Turning back to the van, he dragged a large metallic container out of the van with Kou's help and dropped it on the floor. He wrung his hands and sighed, "Man, that shit's heavy."

Looking around, Kobayashi saw that the van was parked on the side of the street and right outside the entrance to the Mitakihara cemetery. He looked at his detection device and the blip was right behind him. Turning around, his eye fell upon the sight of the broken-down opera-house on the other side of the street; a sharp glance at it allowed him to notice that the chains that were wrapped around the doors had been cut open and tossed aside.

"He's there," Kobayashi muttered, "And he has no other place left to hide."

"That's convenient. Kou, help me open this, will ya'?"

Akihiko and Kou grabbed the handles to the metallic container that was dragged out of the van and flipped it open, as inside it was one of the old man's most prized creations, "Good to see you, too," Akihiko puffed his cigar and began assembling the weapon all by himself. It was a box-fed, double-barrel minigun, featuring a tri-pod stand, an A.I targeting system and it shared the special type of ammo all the Warlock Hunters's weapons had - a special round that could actually harm Warlocks unlike normal weaponry.

"Synthic rounds; always tore those bastards apart in a few minutes," Akihiko said to himself, marveling at his prized work and breaking it down into a portable shape so that he could carry it on his back using a strap, "What else do we need to bring?"

"Satchel charges and mines," Kobayashi answered, unpacking the other crates for the rest of their equipment such as med-kits and backpacks, "If this is his hideout, we're gonna blow it up and leave nothing behind."

Kou busted open a locked crate with his bare hands and from it, he picked up his personal weapon: A long butterfly knife that was coated in a special substance which was harmful to Warlocks and modified to be at least twice the usual weapon's size. Twirling the large weapon in his hand with ease, he sheathed it in his leg holster and dug through the crate again to toss Akihiko, Kobayashi and himself a few modified G36C rifles.

"Let's end this," Akihiko smirked and threw away his cigar onto the wet concrete, cocking the rifle and checking the straps that held the turret on his back.

The rusted double-doors to the opera house's main lobby creaked opened with a loud groan and the Warlock Hunter's came in single-file, each careful step taken with precaution. Slowly closing the doors behind them, their guns pointed in various directions, the UV lights strapped onto their backs lit their path, the laser sights on their rifles pierced through the darkness and their wrist-mounted Warlock detectors blinked simultaneously, showing that Clyde was only less then 30 meters away from them.

"All clear," Akihiko announced, eyes peering at everything he shined his lighton.

The walls of the lobby were torn open, wallpaper were strewn all over the floor, dust lied on every surface and the floorboards looked dangerous to step on, judging from the split wood, holes and cracks on the floorboard. Kou shined his light around and pointed to a track of footsteps in the dust that lead to the theater room, accompanied by a black sticky trail of liquid. The floorboards creaking with each step he took, Kou shined his UV light onto one of the black fluids,t the UV rays of the light evaporated the black ooze into steam with a hiss.

He gave a hand motion that said, "This way."

Following those tracks while remaining silent and careful, they walked through a small doorway and were greeted with the sight of a dark, narrow corridor. Kou took point without hesitation, followed by the Commander and Akihiko. The place didn't even frighten them as they had encountered similar areas during the early years; this was tame in comparison. Dusting through the cobwebs that blocked their path, the opera-house was said to have been abandoned for years with it being one of the many things that the city has yet to demolish.

The walls were in a similar condition to the ones in the lobby, but as they went further down the corridor, it started to changed as the place slowly shifted into a more refined and clean state. The walls suddenly retaining their wallpaper and the Hunters' wet boots now stepping on a clean, red carpet, the blood trail they were following had also dwindled. Then, their ears then caught a noise - faint - but they could hear it. Walking further to the end of the corridor where another clean door was, the noise was clear and they identified it as the sound of a violin being played. Were it not for the fact that they were in an abandoned opera-house, they would have felt some comfort instead of uneasiness.

"I got a bad feeling about this," Akihiko muttered as Kou's hand gripped the doorknob, only for an electric surge to come from it and shock the soldier mildly.

The silent soldier wrung his gloved hand and pulled out a suppressed M9 pistol. He aimed it at the doorknob and even if this method was never practical, breaking the knob would only make noise. Kou fired and the moment the bullet hit the door, a translucent barrier appeared around it and disintegrated the round on impact. Kou holstered his pistol and looked back at his superiors, shaking his head.

"A Warlock barrier," Kobayashi deduced.

"Which means that this place should be their main base," Akihiko added, "Phantom wouldn't waste anything useful to create decoys; the fucker knows better than that."

The three promptly clicked a specific button near their belt buckle and a similar protective field surrounded their bodies, visible only for a short while. These fields allowed Kou to grab the door without any problem and open it up quietly. But as the door opened and the Hunters filed through the doorframe, what they discovered next on the other side made their eyes widen in a combination of fear, shock and awe.

Akihiko rustled his grey hair, muttering, "Jesus Christ..."

The theater room they were in was completely enormous in comparison with others around the world. From their position, a flight of stairs in front of them lead to a deserted orchestral pit where the instrument wielders would normally be. On their flanks, hundreds of seats reserved for an audience were pointed in the direction of stage, where multiple headlights of different colors shone on a large, black coffin, decorated with runes and engravings. The ominous object was held up diagonally in the air by long, ebony chains of mysterious materials. The coffin emitted this sort of aura that made Akihiko's hand start to tremble and staring at the coffin only made one thing come to the Commander's mind.

"Phantom," Kobayashi hissed. Lowering his rifle, he gave out his next orders with precise hand gestures, "Akihiko, set up the sentry turret here to watch out for anything that pops up. Kou, I want you to take the mines and set them up around the seats in case they try to flank us; I'll be taking the satchel charges and plant them around the area. Once I set them, we evacuate the area and blow this joint. Everybody got their orders?"

His two subordinates nodded in confirmation.

"Good, let's get to work," Kobayashi climbed down the stairs and pulled out a few powerful satchel charges from his backpack. A single one of these bombs were capable of destroying 10 floors in a building and in Kobayashi's backpack, he carried at least 7 of them.

For the next 15 minutes, Akihiko stood guard with the sentry turret fully set up next to him, scanning the area in wide arc. Kou was crouching among the seats, brandishing his knife in case Clyde were to sneak up on him. Staring at the reflected image of his balaclava-covered face, Kou tossed his knife into the air and caught it by the handle, continuing to do this for 3-5 more minutes to pass the time until the commander announced his return over their earpieces.

Looking down from the seating area, he could see Kobayashi climbing back up from orchestral pit with the detonator in his hand.

Knowing that it was time to leave, the mute soldier was going to stand up, when his sharp ears suddenly caught something around the seat behind him. Kou quickly spun around and flung his blade at the seat, impaling the chair and whatever was behind it, causing blood to leak from underneath the seat. Kou grabbed the seat, looked over it and saw a dead rat skewered on the sharp blade. Strangely, it was feeding on some sort of cracked-open glass vial, but Kou ignored it, loosened the blade from the seat and cleaned the filth on his prized weapon with a pocket towel.

"Kou, come up here, we're almost done," Akihiko called to him over their earpieces and the soldier hustled over to the entrance. But his ears caught something again, and this time, it sounded bigger. There was something rumbling underneath their feet, as if there was a bulldozer going off underneath them. This caused a bit of panic in the soldier who then sheathed his blade and took out his rifle with a steady hand. Akihiko noticed this too and kept his rifle up, the two focusing on their surroundings too much that they failed to notice that another blip had appeared on their Warlock detectors.

Kobayashi flipped open the detonator's cover to reveal a trigger switch and an optional set timer.

"Kou, you hear that?" Akihiko muttered, panning his rifle around with his sentry gun beside beside him. Sweat appearing above his visible brow, Akihiko felt something approaching them, something that emitted a palpable aura of fear. The rumbling then stopped and everything went quiet. Seeing his commander still down on the orchestral pit, he then heard something echo from the backstage, "Commander, get out of there!"

Something then flew out of the backstage and straight in the commander's direction. Too fast for anyone to even see or recognize, the object impaled Kobayashi by the hand which held the detonator and the immense force the thrown object carried tore off his hand. Skewering both his severed hand and the detonator, the object flew into the wall behind Akihiko and nailed itself above the entrance to the theater room.

The commander knelt over and cringed in pain, grasping what was left of his right forearm.

"Commander!" Akihiko exclaimed. Rushing down the flight of stairs, he put away his rifle and reached for a med-kit in the commander's pack, "Hold still!"

Staring at the weapon nailed into the wall, Kou saw that it was a long, ornate spear with multiple engravings with three sharp blades that skewered the commander's hand and detonator like bread on a fork. There was the loud sound of metal cluttering and Kou turned to the direction of where the spear was thrown. In a flash, a large metallic figure suddenly leap from the backstage and landed in front of the orchestral pit, it landing cracking the floors underneath it. The thundering noise that followed made Kou's eyes widened and Akihiko's mouth gape open.

Rising from its kneeling position, a metal suit of armor that could be called neither exquisite nor crude, stood in front of the Commander and Akihiko, blue smoke billowing from its joints and the crevices of its armor. The armor perfectly melded intimidation and functionality in its design, its rustic helmet bearing a thinly carved slit that displayed a ghastly blue glow. Standing up, the suit of armor dwarfed the two Warlock Hunters in front of it as a low chuckle echoed from its helmet.

After covering the commander's bleeding forearm in compression wraps, Akihiko pointed his rifle at the suit of armor, recognizing it from the golden trims on its armored surface, the long blue feather attached to the back of its helmet and the sharp rapier sheathed on its waist armor, "Ares... he's alive..."

As if it heard him, the living suit of armor then unsheathed its silver rapier from its waist, its gauntlet bearing the scars of many battles. The armored Warlock then swung its rapier through the air and pointed its weapon at the Hunters, bearing a deep, echo-like voice that had a disciplined tone, "It has been many years since I have been imprisoned in this suit. But to meet the fabled Warlock Hunters that were responsible for the deaths of many Warlocks, and easily put their leader out of commission, it seems that the humans have undergone a sad regression."

Kobayashi gripped Akihiko's collar, shouting to his allies, "Open fire!"

The sentry turret's began to whirl with an audible sound following it. The A.I targeting system locked onto the Warlock and the turret poured forth a barrage with a hundred rounds per minute. Gunfire echoed through the hall as Kou and Akihiko provided support fire with their assault rifles in hand, adding to the barrage of glowing rounds that whizzed through the air and flew towards the living suit of amor.

"Useless," Ares said and his rapier began to shimmer, leaving afterimages as it moved upwards to meet with the incoming rounds.

Bullet casings spilled from their weapons and onto the floor as the rounds poured onto Ares' position, creating a thick cloud of dust, ash and splinters. Constantly squeezing the trigger, Akihiko couldn't hear the commander's shouting through the ear-beating noises of their weapons as Kou lobbed a few grenades into the smoke, adding some more destruction into the gathering cloud and blowing a quarter of the stage away. Magazines dropped to the floor as they reloaded, the sentry gun's barrage seemingly endless as Akihiko felt his ears go deaf from the noise.

The moment the duration of barrage reached 5 full minutes, the firing stopped and smoke poured from their weapons' barrels. Their guns were still trained where the Warlock was, the sentry turret scanning the area despite finally being out of ammo. Akihko sighed in relief and Kou put away his empty rifle. But when Kobayashi looked at his Warlock detector, the blips were still there, and adding to his fear was the sudden appearance of a third one and Ares' voice suddenly echoing through the theatre room.

"I told you: it's useless. But I always did respect your persistence, Warlock Hunters."

Bullets then flew out of the smoke cloud, accurately striking all three Hunters in the shoulders, legs and arms, disabling them completely as they fell to the ground and screamed in pain. Every round that hit them had at least paralyzed one part of their body, "W-What the Hell?!" Akihiko exclaimed, gripping his bleeding knee which could no longer move.

The smoke in front of them cleared, and to the Hunters' shock, Ares still stood in front of the stage with not a single round having hit him. All the rounds that were sent in his direction had been actually skewered by his rapier and were flung back at the Hunters while the other rounds merely lied at his feet as pieces of lead. The Warlock sheathed his weapon and the spear on the wall behind Akihiko loosened itself, flying back into Ares' iron grip like an obedient eagle.

"Clyde, you may come up now," Ares called and its fellow Warlock promptly came out of the backstage, gripping what was left of his right arm as there was a large crack on his smiling mask and burnt marks all over its body.

"Well, look what we have here, visitors!" Clyde cackled before letting out a violent cough, "You came right in time, Hunters!"

Kou saw another cracked-open vial rolling from underneath the coffin and fall off the stage, shattering when it hit the floor. Subsequently, the coffin suddenly emitted a dark, ominous energy that surged through its chains, followed by a sound that could only be described as a ghostly wail that sent a chill down Akihiko's spine. The howl become louder and louder as the runes on the coffin glowed intensely. For minutes, the howling continued until a black mist poured from the seams of the ebony coffin and accumulated between Ares and Clyde to form a humanoid shape.

A pair of ghastly red eyes opened within the gathering smoke as a distinct silhouette formed. Now standing between his two Warlock servants, Phantom folded his arms and laughed as he greeted the hunters in smooth, icy voice, "Welcome to my humble abode, Kobayashi. It's been a while."