So kill them all

Kill them all

That is all they want me to

I hear thousands little voices but the worst I hear is you

So kill them all

Kill them all

That is all I hear them say

I got all them rounded up but with my conscience in the way

So he waited in the dark, alone, his mind slowly falling into madness as the world around him seemed to take on a deep red hue. His vision grew more acute and his muscles felt like they were made of solid steel.

Finally, the metal door opened and in stepped a guard holding a tray with food and water in one hand and a baton in the other. The guard kept enough distance from Tala that he couldn't reach him. Keeping his head low, Tala put up a facade of being weak, and the guard moved closer to taunt him. Pressing the baton beneath Tala's chin, he lifted his head.

But instead of seeing submissive eyes, all the guard saw was pure madness within Tala's gaze.

The guard gasped in shock, but before he could move away, Tala threw the chain connecting between his wrists around the man's neck and pulled him closer.

The guard desperately struggled against Tala's grip, trying to create some distance between himself and the chain around his throat—but no matter how hard he fought, he was running out of air fast.

As other guards rushed to the scene, Tala smiled-this was exactly what he had wanted. The man's eyes bulged and turned red as his lips went blue in desperation.

And just when the group of guards were rushing towards a kid capable of subduing an adult man. He wrapped his hands around the guards neck and snapped them in one clean move dropping the guard dead.

With a heavy heart, he pressed his forehead against the cold, unforgiving metal door of the locker. After a moment, he pulled it open and reached inside, his fingers finding purchase on the smooth, matte black surface of his tactical gear. Each strap and buckle was tightened with practiced hands until he felt secure in its embrace. His boots were laced tight, each knot expertly tied to ensure maximum mobility.

But there was still work to be done. He inspected a 1988 black matte Browning High Power with a wooden grip. The weapon gleamed dully in the dim light garage, each contour and groove etched into his memory. He quickly restocked several spare magazines with new bullets, turning them over in his hands.

Turning around he checked the room one last time before turning off the lights and grabbing his bag. He hopped into a truck that was parked at the corner.

He had been notified about a task via a cryptic message. The Federal Bureau of Sacred Beast Control was extra guarded when it came to their secret operations, providing the lowest details possible.

It was out of the ordinary that they called him in unless it was a situation too hazardous for their own agents. So, when he saw several dark vans parked near the coordinates, he already knew he was going to be in for a long night.

The sun was beginning to set and tension filled the air; his body reacted to being near a rift, as if something deep inside began to uncurl, it was begging to be released. Despite this, he remained composed.

In the woods stood an old warehouse, constructed during World War II - its concrete walls crumbling at the exterior, but strong enough on the interior. Buildings of this size could contain plenty of rooms and cults would use that to their advantage. As such, the FBSC had to bring as many personnel as possible to guard all possible exits.

At the main entrance, Tala saw Matteo Reinhardt, who captained one of the teams and was usually in charge of bigger projects. Back in the day, Matteo had been a soldier in the Austrian army before the FBSC recruited him. Amongst all others, he was probably the most honorable one, which made Tala wonder why such a person would get involved with the FBSC. But it wasn't his place to ask questions; he knew that in this job, it was best to know only the bare minimum.

Matteo waved at Tala as soon as he saw him approach. The guy always seemed too relaxed for this line of work; then again, maybe that was his way of coping. Tala respected Matteo for being very good at what he did and keeping up with him.

After they shook hands, Matteo gave Tala a quick briefing on their situation. "You've probably sensed it already, but we have some solid evidence of a rift."

Tala nodded in reply. "Yeah, I'm sure about that."

"Crap. I feared as much," Matteo replied with a sigh.

Looking around briefly, Tala spotted many rookies among them. Either the FBSC lowered their recruitment standards or they were growing desperate. "Are they the only agents?" He pointed towards a small group of seemingly young agents.

Matteo sighed heavily. "I'm afraid so. They are trained, but..." He hesitated. "I'll have them look for civilians instead of...you know."

He diverted his attention away from Matteo to listen. In the distance, he could hear faint scratching and scurrying noises. "Keep it to a minimum and then call your men to retreat; they're not far off."

A sign of anxiety crossed Matteo's face; there weren't many agents who made it close enough to witness what Tala did. If the redhead hadn't saved him a few years back, his image would have been hung at FBSC's 'In Memoriam Hall'.

"Leave them with me," he said reassuringly.

Tala had no intention of sending the FBSC agents to their doom. But the unknown was misleading and relentless, and the rookies were naïve.

Before going inside Matteo gathered his men and gave instructions on their plan. He was rather vague as to what would come afterwards when they took out the civilians, or if they even were guilty of anything. He attempted to make it more palatable by saying that 'they were probably convinced' or 'maybe they were just desperate'.

Once they heard his strict order of "Move out!", the agents scattered to their assigned positions. A handful joined Matteo and Tala to enter the warehouse.

The inside of the warehouse was dimly lit, with only a few flickering lights illuminating the space. Tala's sharp eyes quickly scanned the area, taking in every detail. There was a stench of burned flesh and sulfur hanging in the air.

Matteo motioned for the agents to spread out and search for any sign of the supposed civilians. Tala took on the lead, it wasn't his job to find civilians.

As they moved further into the warehouse, they heard the sound of muffled voices coming from a room at the back. Matteo signaled to his agents, they nodded in agreement. A little ahead Tala lowered himself to the ground covering them in case it was needed.

Matteo took point, carefully making his way towards the room. As he reached the door, he heard a woman's voice pleading with someone. "Please, just let us go. We didn't do anything wrong."

Once they got the 'go' signal from Matteo, the agents rushed into the room and threw a smoke bomb to create chaos. A small group of people desperately scrambled for the doorway. Since all exits had already been sealed off, it was up to the agents outside to haul them in.

Tala could hear the chaos unfolding from outside the room. some of them screaming and thrashing about. It was clear that they were terrified and confused. These people were innocent, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. But this was a fate far less worse.

On the first floor of the warehouse they discovered three chambers identical to the initial one. A minister was usually delivering a sermon at an altar with strange sigils and various statues drenched in goat blood while small congregations gathered around them.

As his team escorted the civilians outside, Tala and Matteo headed for the altar. The stench of blood and decaying meat filled their nostrils, as they noticed a figure in a robe skewered to the wall above them. Behind the corpse was a circle drawn in red. Matteo had seen plenty of horror before now, but he still felt his stomach turn. He knew if he let it consume him, he'd be no help here. So, he forced himself to push it away

"What do you think?" Matteo asked

"Another zealot less?" Tala said flatly while lighting a cigarette.

"Hm, I'll go and call this one then." Matteo said as he stepped out of the room briefly but also because he wanted to be away from that image.

Despite the gruesome scene, Tala had already noticed a notebook and a piece of folded paper on the altar. Carefully he picked up the notebook and opened it to the first page. The lines of text were in early cyrillic. He turned to the second page and saw that each page was filled with paragraphs of text written in the same strange eyes narrowing as he came to a page with various drawn circles. He wasn't an expert on the occult by any means, but he recognized some of the symbols.

When Matteo was distracted for a moment he slipped with practiced ease both the paper and notebook into his pocket. Normally, the FBI's evidence-handling procedures would take care of it, but they had been making too many mistakes lately. Perhaps it was wise to be more hands-on in this case.

An unsettling feeling in the air caused a loud ringing sound to fill Tala's ears. His headache grew worse with each passing second, forcing him to lean on the altar for support. He snapped out of it and urgently shouted at Matteo: "Take your team and leave, now!"

Not second guessing Tala's instinct Matteo quickly summoned his men together and formed a unit. The team started down the hallway when an ear-splitting scream was heard from their general direction. Arms up, they rapidly rushed forward.

At the end of the passage they saw an agent run for his life screaming in utter terror. When Matteo's team and Tala approached him he didn't even seem to register their presence at first.

"Get your shit together!" Matteo commanded the agent. But as the team gathered in the hallway even his own men became distressed upon seeing the gruesome scene before them

Mutilated bodies, unrecognizable chunks of flesh scattered across the ground, and a man trying to crawl away with his legs ripped off — all greeted them at the end of the hallway.

Even if they could have saved him physically, the corruption would soon take him. With one last mercy shot, Tala put the poor soul out of misery by shooting him through the head.

"Rookie team?" Tala questioned.

Matteo nodded disheartenedly. "Rookie team."

The chime in Tala's head rang out like a thousand hammers pounding against his skull. He attempted to silence it by gritting his teeth, but its relentless clamor only increased as the agents of the background kept up their irritating chatter.

Tension rising, Tala shouted for them to be quiet. "Would you fucking shut up!"

Frozen in their place the agents didn't dare to make as much as a sound.

"Easy," Matteo said softly to Tala.

The unbearable throbbing in his head told him just how close they were to the rift - or more accurately, how close the rift was to them.

"Retreat with your team." Tala groaned. "Go back the way we came."

But Matteo was adamant, telling his men, "You two return to the exit and link up with the rest. Take care of that agent we found."

His subordinates exchanged glances before one of them asked, "Aren't you coming with us, sir?"

"I'll be right behind you," said Matteo with a smile.

Tala frowned in frustration, then brushed it off and leaned against the bloody wall to regain some of his strength. He pulled out a blueprint of the building and studied it quickly. The rooms they had cleared thus far were just offices at the entrance. If he followed this hallway, he'd reach the main storage area.

Another thing which bothered him was how swiftly the other team had come under attack. Rifts often formed below the surface. So usually it was safe to send teams in after entry had been secured.

Tala felt Matteo's eyes burning into him. "You don't need to supervise me," he murmured.

Matteo mirrored him by crossing his arms and leaning against the wall. "There were days when you didn't have to rely on a wall for support..."

Tala couldn't really argue against him.

It was about three years ago that they had been deployed to scout an abandoned town in Romania. It was a ghost town, with rickety wooden huts on the brink of ruin and a glum atmosphere. After many disappearances, the locals had hastily packed up their belongings and fled, until the place was nothing more than a decrepit area.

Normally the agents would go in as per usual, when they had reason to believe there was a rift or when things got nasty Tala went in to clean the place up.

Matteo was a rookie, but in his past he was an experienced soldier. Unawarely he ventured too close to a rift, that's the first time he laid eyes on the real monsters of the world. A massive creature stood before him, it resembled both human and beast. Frozen in place he couldn't move as much as a finger. It was then that Tala came to his aid and made quick work of it.

The agents had limited protection against the rift's corruption, but Tala was particularly resilient and had ways to fight off whatever the corruption brought. It was very probable that Matteo was the only living agent who had a glimpse of his abilities.

However, despite Tala's ability to stand his ground for so long. Even he was reaching his limit.

Folding the piece of paper he put it back in his pocket Tala sighed heavily and fished out something from another pocket. "You're not going to give up, are you?" she said dejectedly.

Matteo responded with his usual enthusiasm. "Nope, you're just going to have to deal with it."

Taking out a painkiller from the box Tala popped it into his mouth. He then took a quick look at the watch on his wrist. "You have ten minutes then you get out," Tala commanded him.

"Ten minutes," Matteo confirmed with a nod.

A sly smirk crept onto his face. "Make sure you keep up."

They restocked their weapons with new bullets, though Tala set aside one particular cartridge filled with dragonfire bullets. Normally handguns didn't accept cartridges that were made for rifles, but he'd been able to modify the gun so they would fit.

Matteo watched Tala closely and saw his entire demeanor change. His normally light eyes deepened to a midnight black, while the blue of his irises radiated with intensity. They were filled with a murderous glint he had seen before, which still sent shivers of fear down Matteo's spine.

From the shadows behind them, five hounds emerged, scaly bodies covered in a dark fog. Their tall, sharp ears lay back on their necks and their eyes glowed blue around their wide pupils. They had a long tail that was thin and almost like a snake's. The creatures growled lowly in unison. Their teeth were bared and their glowing eyes held a murderous intent.

Tala slowly stepped forward, his body rigid and movements sharp. His hands were steady as he held the gun with a firm grip. His eyes locked with the beasts and he spoke in a low voice almost whispering.

The hounds obediently lined up at the front, their long red forked tongues lolling out as they set to work. They were ready for a hunt, focused on the task at hand.

"Let's go," Tala said.

Matteo cast a look at the hounds and gulped. He wasn't sure if it was the number or their look, but his fear for the creatures was the same as ever and he was darn thankful that they were on their side.

Stealthily they continued down the narrow, shadowy hallway, with Tala and the hounds at the front. The walls and floor were splattered with blood and a strong stench wafted out from the opened rooms on either side.

Whimpering and skittering noises began to surround him. He could feel the sound rippling through his body. It penetrated the walls, ceiling and floor around him. A tear was forming in the walls like it was chasing after them.

The hounds turned back to look at him, with a nod he silently signaling that they were ready. Tala took off after them, with Matteo following close behind him.

A tear opened up in the wall ahead of them like the fabric of reality was shredding apart. A dark shape darted out of it and began to weave its way toward them between their legs. It phased between the shadows, drawing ever closer. Before it could reach them two hounds dashed up against the walls and plummeted down intercepting it in midair, tearing into it viciously with their ivory fangs.

Tala pulled the trigger and a flash of light illuminated the hallway, revealing what seemed to be an endless legion of creatures. He remained composed and took out several targets with pinpoint accuracy as the hounds attacked from all sides.

Matteo emptied his revolver as he fired a round at a creature, which was charging at him, before pulling out his knife to take it down.

Tala had an impressive sense of hearing and could hear the creatures that came from every direction. He turned to aim at the creatures charging from behind and fired steadily.

They were the servants of the rift, small, animalistic creatures that were plentiful in numbers. They would emerge from the shadows and rush toward them with only death in mind, they'd dig their teeth in the flesh and wouldn't let go. Their slender bodies were a dark greenish color, their eyes pale and gleamed in the darkness.

With another whistle he ordered the hounds. They turned toward the oncoming horde and took them down, one after another.

"Damn it," he cursed and fired off three rounds.

Matteo was beginning to feel overwhelmed and could feel his body weakening. Behind him he heard the distinctive sound of the creatures' nails

Although they had taken a beating, Tala still had some tricks up his sleeve-his only obstacle was Matteo.

"Time's up!" he commanded.

Matteo hesitated, apprehensive at the thought of going alone. He knew damn well he wouldn't be much help in this situation. No matter which way he went, it seemed like he'd end up one of them: no help to anyone at all.

Grumbling in frustration, Matteo retreated along the same path they had come from. "You better get out of this one," he warned.

Tala chortled arrogantly. "Heh, as if you could get rid of me so easily."

His flippant attitude gave Matteo comfort. As long as Tala was still full of himself, he'd have no trouble making it through.

He stowed away his gun and focused on the gathering of creatures in front of him. His instincts took control as he quieted his mind and released any extraneous thoughts. The temperature around decreased drastically, engulfing the entire hallway in a sheet of frost and fog. The monsters began to move more slowly as they were weakened by the cold.

Moving on the hounds followed him at an easy pace as he continued down the hallway. The ice reflected on his equal colored eyes, giving him a more serious yet determined look. His lips were pressed together in a thin line. The hounds kept close behind him, their noses twitching with every movement they made. Every so often they would snarl in warning against any monster that came too close to their master.

The world around him was starting to feel fractured, like time had slowed down as if he had stepped into a different dimension entirely. The fog surrounding the lighting above became thicker with each step forward he took, and darkness seemed to seep from the cracks in between them.

In the years he had seen quite a few rifts, some rather small and well hidden beneath the surface, while others were more obvious. He could smell what seemed to be ozone in the air, much like after a lightning strike. Which indicated that he was really close now.

Eerily, he felt at ease in the still hallway surrounded by death. The silence was peaceful, punctuated only by the gentle movements of the hounds echoing down the hall.

He reaches the end of the corridor, his palms pressed against the metal heavy door. The hinges whine at the movement, protesting the weight of reality. He takes a deep breath and crosses the threshold.

Suddenly, there is nothing beyond that door, nothing but an empty vastness of white that stretches out into infinity. He squints in disbelief at first and then looks down at himself to make sure he's there. His feet are planted on cold tile and he can feel it beneath his toes—it's solid ground, not a dream. His nose scrunches up as he takes a deep breath, smelling only sterile air. No wind howls in this void; no sound exists to break up the silence. It's as if he has been swallowed whole by absolute nothingness.

Tala had been through his fair share of rifts but none where like this. He takes a step forward and that single movement seems to echo throughout the empty void. His footsteps are the only sound, the only sign of movement in this vast emptiness.

He hears a faint whisper in the distance, barely audible over the silence. He strains to listen, and the whisper grows louder. It's a voice, soft and familiar yet impossible to place. It echoes through the void, filling his mind with a sense of unease.

Inhaling deeply he made an effort to steady his senses. This had to just be a mirage. He tried to reason his way back to reality. If this was a legit danger then he would have been attacked by now, since there was nowhere for him to take shelter and the area suppressed any of his abilities.

But still, the voice lingered, beckoning him forward. With cautious steps, he made his way through the white expanse, following the voice. As he followed the voice the void began to shift, parts of it started to darken and twist and in the distance he saw an endless sea of pitchblack obelisks emerging from the ground.

The symbols carved into the obelisk were familiar. They looked similar to the ones he had found in the notebooks from the altar, as well as the ones that had come when he summoned forth the hounds. If only he had paid more attention to Tatsuya's lectures, maybe it would have been useful now. But right now, his thoughts weren't doing him much good.

Further ahead his keen eye noticed a peculiar obelisk in the distance. Its carvings were more like drawings than sigils, and it was his only solid lead at the moment. As he got nearer, he began to comprehend how huge this structure really was. It seemed that, whatever this place was, it played with one's perception in any way imaginable.

At the top of the obelisk he recognized the outlines of four sacred beasts. Dragoon, Dranzer, Draciel and Driger. Going down he saw more familiar ones, like Galeon and Galex, Giffolyon, Amphilyon and so on.

Stepping up to the center of the mural, he noticed two horses, pegasi. He took off his glove and touched the illustration of Thunder Pegasus - wistfulness welling up within him, before he quickly pushed those feelings away. He had too many reasons not to... and even more why he shouldn't.

Further down there was a clear division between two distinct images. The lower half was similar to the top but inverted, while the drawings seemed to resemble more like the fiends than Sacred beasts.

Where the fiends and Sacred beasts like two sides of the same coin?

Recalling the meeting in the bar, Mr. Dickenson had hinted that the FBSC was accountable for the imbalance. And although he didn't really know the specifics of it, he wasn't about to challenge that man's knowledge.

But he couldn't exactly approach him; the old man would clearly recognize his connection with the FBSC. So who else...could compare to him in terms of intelligence?

The single individual that flashed through his mind made his face twist in revulsion. Just considering consulting Boris nauseated him. He'd rather confront a hundred rifts than begging that madman for information. "Hell no..." He announced audibly.

He stepped away to observe the obelisk from a distance and realized how unaware he was. Fighting an unseen enemy hadn't gotten him anywhere. The cults still lingered, the fights had grown in severity, the FBSC was just enlisting anyone who could carry a weapon, and the BBA was on their heels relying on Kai's lawyers for protection.

Nothing he did, had changed a damn thing and in the vastness of the dimension that had caught him he only started to realize this more and more. He just simply escaped one hell just to be caught in the next one and for what?

He wouldn't surrender to desolation. He was a warrior, always willing to confront any challenge that came his way. A long time ago, he had sworn to himself that he would do anything to protect the few souls he cared for. And no matter how improbable it seemed at this point, he wasn't about to back down on that pledge.

The carvings on the surface began to glow, emitting a blood red hue. It was almost as if the obelisk was trying to communicate with him, to show him something he had missed before.

He moved closer, his eyes widened when he realized what he saw. The light grew stronger, almost blinding him, and then suddenly everything went dark. He felt himself falling, tumbling through an endless abyss of nothingness until he thought his mind would shatter.

Finally, with a jolt, he landed on solid ground. Pain shot through his shoulder like the blade of a knife and down his spine to his knees. The air was pushed from his lungs in an explosion and he let out a pained gasp. Brutally he had gotten back to the warehouse, in the very center of where the rift was located.

Before he could think further something swung at him again. He barely dodged it, rolling to the side. His hand hovered over the holster on his hip. With practiced ease, he reloaded the magazine into the gun and pointed it towards where the attack had come from. He clicked off the release button on the slide and fired two consecutive shots that hit their target.

A soul-rending scream echoed from whatever he had struck. Taking advantage of this opening, he tore off his left glove and tossed it to the ground, revealing his bare hand. Then he placed two fingers between his lips and blew a piercing whistle. From the shadows behind him appeared five hounds, gathering closely around him.

He watched as the figure that had attacked him staggered back, clutching its side. It was humanoid in shape, but it Its skin was pale and seemed to ripple with a sickly energy. Its eyes were a deep red, and its face was twisted in a snarl of pain and fury.

The creature charged at him again, but Tala was ready this time. He jumped to the side and fired another shot. Following his lead the hounds spread out and attacked it from various angles. Their teeth sunk into the flesh of the creature, tearing it apart piece by piece. As the creature's form began to flicker and fade, It let out a final scream before collapsing to the ground, motionless.

When the creature's energy ebbed away, the entire building turned back to normal, as if there never was any trace of the rift. Tala released a breath he hadn't realized he was holding and holstered his gun. Taking a look around at the seemingly normal area, he noticed something sparkling in the light. He knelt down to investigate and found a small black crystal, vibrating with an eerie force. It felt oddly familiar when his fingers touched its surface.

His side throbbed with pain, and yet he was comforted by the sound of barking as the hounds that had been prowling around him circled and nuzzled him. He knelt down to pet one of them on the head before the first dim rays of sunlight flooded the room, causing their shadows to fade away.

With difficulty, he stood up and staggered his way out of the building. As he made his way toward the exit, a few agents from the clean-up crew passed him without so much as a glance. Finally outside, Tala shielded his eyes from the blinding sun's glare. Had he really been stuck in here for so many hours? He was sure it had just been sunset when they'd gone in.

"Tala! Damn man, you had me worried for hours!" The voice belonged to Matteo.

A smirk appeared on his face, trying to mask the pain. "You missed your chance," he joked, "I'm here for another day."

Matteo waved for Tala to come closer, so they could speak without the other agents overhearing. "I'm serious though, you were in there for ten hours. That damned woman," he glanced around before lowering his voice, "she's been on our tails all morning, trying to put together teams to go after you."

Tala listened carefully and started to piece things together. "She knows they're not immune to corruption, so why is she sending in agents?"

"I don't know," Matteo shook his head, "but I don't like it."

Maybe Matteo was the only person at the FBSC that Tala semi-trusted. He was still an agent but something inside him told him that he was on the right side of this. His intentions were good – he just had terrible taste in employers.

As the agents' attitudes suddenly shifted, the two of them looked to see why. escorted by two agents wearing serious armor flanking her, Rachel Mills carried herself as if she were a queen while, in reality, she was merely a secretary to the board. Through her demeanor, it was clear that she was enjoying her power-trip; she often loved to remind Tala of his involvement with the organization.

He wanted to avoid her, not allowing her the pleasure of getting under his skin in front of the FBSC. He briskly headed away from her, and Matteo watched him go without a sound. Something told him that they'd meet again soon anyways.

En route, he had no doubt picked up numerous speeding tickets from the cameras on the highway, but it didn't bother him in the slightest. When he arrived at the workshop, he pulled down all of the blinds to keep out any light and locked the door behind him. He carelessly chucked his gear into a corner, then removed his shirt.

He surveyed the many cuts and bruises littering his torso, focusing on the nasty gash on his abdomen. He clumsily patched it up with a dressing before lying down on the bed - not great, but better than a floor.

As he lay there, his eyes flickered shut, but he remained restless. He tried to take deep breaths to calm himself down, but the pain in his side made it impossible to find a comfortable position. He was exhausted but sleep wouldn't come easily.

He jolted awake, gasping for air and covered in a thin sheet of sweat. But the pain radiating throughout his body brought him back down as soon as he rose up. It was then that he remembered he had drifted off to sleep and morning light was slowly creeping through the blinds.

After sleeping through an entire day, it took him a few moments to regain his bearings and remember the events that had taken place two days prior. He was even still unsure of what day it was.

Stiffly, he shifted himself into a sitting position, inspecting the wound more carefully. It was healing slowly, which was one the very few positives from his time in Biovolt - usually wounds would heal within a day or two, depending on their severity. Although he could feel the usual headache, his one-day-nap had recovered him quite a bit.

He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the piece of paper and the notebook. He studied them but still couldn't make much sense from the words on the page. His math and physics knowledge was useless here as he wasn't skilled in any other language but Russian, English, and a smattering of Spanish.

He pulled a laptop out from the bottom of the stack of drawings and opened it up to search for a translator. He began painstakingly deciphering each letter and word, but he still couldn't make sense of the sentences. It frustrated him more-was it because he was terrible at this or because it was so mind-numbingly boring?

Grunting in annoyance, he decided he needed to do what was necessary. Opening up one of Tatsuya's lecture videos, he braced himself: they were hours long. When he came to a point where he couldn't take it anymore he got up from his couch and went into the workshop, which was dimly lit by soft light shining in through the thin window blinds. He made himself a coffee and lazily stared into nothingness.

He broke the silence by switching on the radio next to him. Sipping on his coffee he listened to some tunes, feeling an ache in his hands to work on something. But he couldn't really ignore the notebook either. Dropping his head down with a sigh of defeat he readied himself to sit through another video until the news came up on the radio. For a moment he stopped to listen.

An interviewer was questioning someone from the BBA on the news. "Can you confirm rumors that the BBA has something huge planned?"

He recognized the voice as belonging to Mr. Dickenson. "Indeed! The BBA has a fantastic event coming up in no time."

The interviewee gasped in excitement. "What can we expect?"

"Well, as you may have noticed, lots of teams that competed in the past are currently in Moscow!"

Was he losing his sanity or had Mr. Dickenson sold out every team to the FBSC?

"Ah yes," the interviewer admitted, "We have spotted and identified some big names like Tyson and Rei."

"That's why I'm suggesting a tournament! To pit the new teams against old in a fight for nostalgia," Mr. Dickenson replied.

Tala nearly spat out his coffee in shock—a tournament? Really? Once the interview ended, Tala stared at the radio in disbelief. The BBA was really planning a damn tournament.

AU

Lyrics: Nomy - Psychopath

Poofreader: The amazing MKayverse 3