“Do you think they’ve all made it together by now?” a masculine voice asked as he approached his long-time friend.

The other who was sitting down watching TV in his living room on his couch was watching the news that kept pouring in from everywhere, “Coming in: More news! Scientists have called these mysterious dark marks or tattoos as a ‘Fault!’ If you see anybody you think may have one of these marks, turn them in!” He turned around, “Soon.”

The other still standing sighed before going over and sitting down beside him on his couch, “Skye, I don’t know how long we have…”

Skye turned down the volume and looked to his childhood friend, “Everything will be fine. There’s still a lot of time left before anything happens.” He saw the sad look his friend was still giving, “You helped them all you could for now. They’re going to complete their focus with the help of the other people we’ve led them to.”

The other nodded as he stood back up, “I’ll be going now. Sorry for the quick visit. I have to make sure everything is still going smoothly at headquarters.”

“Are they still trying to look for the three women?” Skye questioned as he watched his friend head to the front door.

“Yeah… they are.”

Skye frowned as the door closed behind his friend then looked back to the TV to continue watching the news.

-- Down on planet Tempus --

“Sooyun~, it’s already been a month! Don’t you at least tolerate us a bit?” Kai whined as he tried getting closer to the girl.

Sooyun growled, “No. The only guy I can tolerate right now is Lay. Get away from me.” She was itching to grab one of her daggers and threaten the men she was traveling with if it wasn’t for Sabina and Lay trying to keep the two parties calm.

“Kai, please lay off of Sooyun. We just got Soomin to be okay around us. We don’t need to push Sooyun any further into hating us,” Lay tried to scold while Kris sighed at his friends. Soomin blushed before moving closer to Sabina and Haerin.

Kai pouted, “Well… Hyourin doesn’t hate me, right?” He moved closer to her to ask her his question as they were walking through a big forest to get to the next city.

“U-um…” Hyourin started, not liking the attention of the other male suddenly on her, “I-I don’t h-hate you…”

Kai beamed a smile in her direction, definitely liking the response. Lay sighed, “Okay, Mr. Romeo. Stop bothering them, and let’s just get to the next city safely.”

“!” Yoon Ni suddenly cursed out, watching as six mutated-looking dogs jumped out from several bushes and stood in front of them growling. She instantly ran to be in the front of the whole group and unsheathed her sword. Kai instantly ran to stand next to her as Lay did the same taking out his gun first with his left hand, leaving his sword in its sheath on his back. “Sabina! Can you sense them?!” Yoon Ni yelled out as she ran forward to start defeating one dog as Lay shot another one numerous times.

“Yeah!” Yoon Ni heard Sabina’s soft voice as she tried to stab one of the dogs. She grunted loud when she missed and the dog bit down on her arm instead. She instantly heard one of the other dogs howling in pain as fire started to consume its body.

Yoon Ni grabbed the hidden dagger in the hilt of her sword and stabbed the dog’s mouth to let go of her arm. She groaned in relief when the dog let go and jumped back. Suddenly, she saw her arm glowing white and started to heal itself slowly. She turned to look at Lay who smiled at her then suddenly turned back to the dog he was still fighting and unsheathed his sword.

Kris ran to stand in front of the rest of the girls as he waved his hand in front of him towards his three friends who were fighting, putting a spell on each of them to protect them from the harsher attacks again. Soomin turned to each of her friends with her to face both of her hands to two different people at once, doing the same spell Kris did.

“Thanks, Soomin,” Sooyun said graciously before unsheathing both her daggers, spinning them in the air before stopping them. She ran forward as she concentrated her power into making poison and acid drip off of the edges of the blades before she sliced one of the dogs multiple times, smiling when the dog yelped in immediate pain. She watched as one started making a run for her and immediately put her daggers side-by-side with the curved part of the knives facing each other. Her daggers immediately transformed to create a shield as she fell to the ground when the dog jumped on her.

“Sooyun!” Kai called out, pointing his hand in the direction of the dog and summoning a huge lightning strike to hit it, causing it to yelp in pain and jump off. “Finish him!” he yelled again as he focused on the dog he was currently defending himself with.

The other scowled before her daggers separated again and summoned more of her power into them to create the spell ‘instant death.’ She watched as her daggers glowed black before slashing at the hurt dog, killing it immediately. She sighed heavily, knowing that doing that spell is a last resort and easily drained her of most of her energy.

Hyourin watched with wide eyes as she stayed in the middle of the rest of the group as Kris and Sooyun defended their small group. She watched as Lay easily killed the last dog and sighed as he fell to the ground.

“I haven’t fought in such a long time…” he commented as he tried to catch his breath. He looked down to the gun in his left hand, “I need more bullets too.”

Kris laughed as he walked up to him, “Of course. Kai’s the only one who remembers how to fight completely.”

Kai smiled brightly as he walked over then plopped down on the ground next to Lay. He looked to all the now dead dogs, “Some fight.” He looked back to Sooyun who was checking up on the other girls.

Yoon Ni walked over to the three men and sat on the ground as well, “Can we just rest for a while before getting to the next town?” She smiled happily when Kai and Lay nodded. “Sabina?” she called out to the side, “That was great aim!”

Sabina smiled at the comment before trying to find her way to her friend. Hyourin noticed her movements and walked up next to her to help lead her to Yoon Ni. Sabina instantly recognized the other’s touch and smiled, “Thanks, Hyourin.”

The other girl smiled softly, “It’s no problem…”

Hyourin led Sabina safely before the latter was just standing next to Kris. “May I?” she asked politely to Kris.

The tallest looked down at her and nodded, “Oh, uh… Yeah, sure.”

“You always forget, Kris,” Yoon Ni commented as Sabina laughed softly before putting her hand on Kris’ chest with his help.

Kris smiled and shrugged, waiting for Sabina to feel calm enough again. In two minutes, she dropped her hand and mentioned, “I can only see a dark ball of energy though when I’m holding my staff and there’s immediate trouble nearby.”

Yoon Ni shrugged as she tried to heal her still bleeding arm, “That’s enough though, right?”

Sabina smiled softly as she sat on the ground next to Yoon Ni with her help, “Of course, it’s enough.”

Haerin smiled at the sight of the three men and two women talking to each other comfortably as she started to hum some random tune. Soomin sat down on the ground and looked up at her friend, “Thinking again?”

The former smiled as she looked down, “Yup.” She looked over to Sooyun, “Are you okay?”

Sooyun looked to her and frowned, feeling weak but not wanting to show it, “Yeah. I’m fine.” She slowly sat down then relaxed some more.

“Okay, no more fighting for you,” Lay suddenly yelled out slightly across the area.

Sooyun quickly turned her head to the side and glared at Lay, “And why the hell not? I can fight as well as you can.”

The other side, “I know you can. But that last move you did really took a toll on your body.”

“You have to rest. A medic can’t really heal your power back…” Haerin mumbled, sitting down next to Sooyun.

Sooyun’s deep frown turned into a pout hearing her new friend’s words. She sighed, “I know…”

Haerin smiled, “I’ll take over for you in the next fight. You just stay near the rest and protect them the best you can, okay? Until you get better.”

“Plus, you’re the only one right now who actually learned a move like that,” Kris commented as he sat leaning against a tree.

Sooyun smiled proudly at that comment, “Damn right.”

“My God…” the tallest muttered, “I just made her ego grow.”

Kai laughed as he leaned back on the ground, “Maybe she’ll like us more now since you said that.”

Sooyun scoffed, “Yeah, right.”

Soomin looked to Hyourin who was just standing off to the side, “Hey, Hyo. Are you okay?”

The latter focused her attention on her soft-spoken friend and smiled, “Of course, I am.” She moved to stand next to her then sat on the ground, “Come on and sit. We don’t know when we’ll be able to relax a bit again.”

Soomin nodded as she sat down. She turned to look at the side of Haerin’s face and thought.

“Do you really have to look at my face every time you think?” the latter mentioned, feeling the other girl’s stare on her.

Soomin nodded sheepishly, “You’re the only one so far that doesn’t get bothered by it… And you know I have to stare at someone to think.” And then something lit up in her head, “Wait! If we relax… we’ll be arriving to the next city later than I planned!”

Kai, Kris, Yoon Ni, and Sooyun groaned. “Really?” Kris muttered out.

“You’re still a perfectionist after meeting us?” Kai continued.

“I’m so tired~,” Yoon Ni complained as Sooyun silently agreed.

Sabina, Haerin, and even Hyourin laughed at the change in atmosphere. Sooyun looked to Soomin who was blushing because of her habits and smiled, “We’ll go in a few minutes and hurry to get there around the same time, okay?”

Lay, Kai, and Kris smiled at Sooyun’s soft attitude when she was around girls. Soomin looked over and smiled gratefully, “Thank you.”

Sooyun caught the three guys staring at her before she scoffed, “Don’t get used to it.”

--

“Come on, Chen!” Yuna yelled out as she kept dodging the other male’s attacks. Chen grunted as he spun both of his daggers in his hand once before throwing one at Yuna, having her easily dodge it by spinning and running up to him to cut him. Before she could though, she saw a white shield appear in front of Chen before it disappeared and the latter took a defensive stance. Yuna looked to her side to see Sehun smirking at her.

“I’m not letting you kill him, Yuna,” the younger mentioned out loud as the rest of their team was watching their fight.

Mi Cha and Soraya were off to the other side, practicing the skills they were just taught by the former fighters. “Why are you called Star again?” the latter questioned as she tried to land a hit on the other girl.

“Just do! Call me otherwise, and you’re done for!” Mi Cha yelled back out as she missed hitting Soraya again.

“Guys~,” Kyung-mi whined out, sitting on a rock with her elbows on her knees and her palms supporting her head, “When are we going now? We’ve been here for the past hour or so!”

Eun-mi sighed as she looked to see Baekhyun and D.O. casting healing spells on all the fighters each time one of them got hit. She turned around to see Tao and Chaerin talking about something she wasn’t really quite interested in at the moment. She looked back to Yuna, “Call out your guides!”

Yuna and Chen jumped back from each other before staring at Eun-mi surprised. Xiumin and Kyung-mi looked to the other as well, all wondering the same thing. “Can we do that now?” Kyung-mi questioned, looking to Yuna then Eun-mi. “We haven’t been able to call ours out for the past month since we’ve gotten here.”

Soraya, Chaerin, Mi Cha, Baekhyun, and Tao looked at the three other girls questioningly. “You haven’t?” Chaerin asked. The new girls didn’t know how to summon their guides so they were just waiting patiently until one of the other fighters taught them how to do that.

Baekhyun and Tao looked to Sehun who didn’t look fazed at all by that statement. “You knew?” the latter questioned.

“Well…” Sehun started off, looking to Chen, “Chen told me when Eun-mi talked about it one day to him.”

“Now you two are the best of friends!” Kyung-mi yelled out unexpectedly and happily.

Eun-mi scoffed as she glared at the man who was smiling at her cheekily, “Whatever.”

“Try it out, Yuna,” Xiumin coaxed, waiting to see if they could summon theirs now.

Yuna shrugged as she looked to Chen, “Summon yours out too.”

The latter nodded as his tattoo on his left upper forearm started to glow a gold color as a crystal gold-colored feather lifted up from his forearm and floated in the air above it. He grabbed the feather with his right hand before throwing it up into the air, disappearing along the way and his guide falling to the ground behind him.

Yuna nodded in approval as she hovered her left hand on top of her right side, focusing her power into her tattoo hidden by her clothes. Eun-mi and Kyung-mi stood up in surprise as they watched a light blue flower crystal floated out of their friend’s side before she grabbed it then lifted her hand up then smashed it to the ground. Chen, Xiumin, D.O., and the rest looked on surprised as a blue and green serpentine-like creature materialized out of the ground and floated in the air behind Yuna.

Yuna looked behind her surprised before smiling brightly, “Sui!” Her guide let out a beautiful noise, happy to be by her master’s side again. Yuna looked in front of her to see Chen’s guide then frowned, “This isn’t fair! Your guide is lightning-based!”

“Yuna!” Xiumin, Kyung-mi, and Eun-mi all yelled out at once albeit happily.

Chen just laughed as he turned around, “Nice to meet you…”

“Keravnos.”

Chen smiled as he heard the name resound in his head from his guide, “Keravnos.”

Yuna smiled as she watched their little exchange, “You’re getting so much better, Chen. You even summoned your guide successfully for the first time.”

“Yeah!” Kyung-mi screamed out as well, causing their whole group to laugh.

Chaerin looked to the two other girls who were watching their best friend, “How about you two? Try to see if you can summon your guides too.”

“Yeah! So you can teach us too!” Mi Cha yelled out excitedly, stopping her fight with Soraya as they both plopped down to the ground next to their group in the big field.

Eun-mi and Kyung-mi both looked at each other, still standing from the surprise of Yuna being able to summon hers before walking forward so they were at a good distance away from the rest of the team. They walked away from each other until they were about thirty feet away before they turned back around and stared at each other.

“Ready?” Kyung-mi called out curiously, her right hand resting beside her side away from the pouch where her tattoo was covering it.

“As I’ll ever be!” Eun-mi responded back, lifting her right arm to wrap around the front of her body to rest softly on the back of her left shoulder. She lifted her hand up to hover above it as both her and Kyung-mi focused their energy into their tattoo. Yuna watched in anticipation as the other two kept staring at each other as each of their tattoos glowed under their outfits before a silver flower crystal floated out of Eun-mi’s shoulder and a lavender flower crystal floated out of Kyung-mi’s thigh.

They both looked surprised before they each grabbed their own crystal, lifted up their arms, and then smashed it onto the ground, watching as the crystal shattered then disappeared. They turned around to face their respective guides with a happy smile on each of their faces, watching their guides materialize and come out of the ground.

“Tier!”

“Sora!”

Soraya looked at Kyung-mi surprised, realizing that the latter’s guide had the same nickname as her. The others lightly chuckled at her surprised expression before they watched on with amazement as both of the girls laughed happily, seeing their guides for the first time in a month.

Yuna and Chen laughed as they watched their friends rejoice as they looked up to their own respective guides still out. “It’s been a long time, Sui,” Yuna commented to which her guide nodded.

“It has,” Sui mentioned in Yuna’s head.

Yuna smiled as she told her guide, “You can go back and rest now. Thank you.”

Sui made another noise happily before flying around in the air happily before finally flying down and disappearing back into the ground. Yuna turned back around to see Chen admiring how his guide looked and touching its side before he turned back to her. He smiled as he told his guide, “Go as well. Thank you for coming.” Keravnos nodded his head politely before crouching down then jumping back up into the sky.

Kyung-mi and Eun-mi did the same with their guides as they both disappeared into the ground. The latter looked to everyone else in their group, “Everybody ready to go?” She smiled as they all nodded, moving to stand back up.

“Where’s Urbis?” Kyung-mi said lightly as she ran her way back to the group and standing next to Baekhyun and D.O. She hooked her arms around both of their arms closest to her before stepping lightly from one foot to the next. The two males laughed at her upbeat attitude and moved their arms to wrap one around her, trapping her between them.

“It’s actually a couple miles away,” Sehun mentioned, pointing to the direction of a huge forest, getting up and strapping his new weapons onto his back. He left his sword at home in favor of taking his new weapons instead.

“It’s past that big forest,” Chaerin continued, grabbing her weapon before snapping her wrist to make it fold in half before placing it on her back where the strap was located. They all looked to the big forest. It didn’t seem as far away as it did earlier in the day. Maybe two or three more miles.

The others nodded in agreement as Eun-mi sighed. She turned to Xiumin and Sehun, “Want to lead us?”

The other two nodded as they walked up next to her and they walked off slightly ahead with Eun-mi between them. Chen ran up to stand next to Eun-mi and threw an arm around her shoulder, “So… I’m getting good, right? Yuna even said so.”

Eun-mi rolled her eyes before smiling, “Yeah, yeah. You’re getting better.”

Chen smiled widely in response, liking they now can actually somewhat get along. He turned back to see Kyung-mi happily talking with Baekhyun and D.O. as Soraya was talking to Chaerin and Yuna about how to summon their own guides. Tao was talking to Mi Cha about who knows what. He smiled as he saw they were enjoying themselves. Mi Cha was really laidback like a lot of other people he knew.

“When are you going to take your arm off of me?” Eun-mi muttered as she kept walking behind Sehun and Xiumin who were talking animatedly with their hands.

“Until we find an enemy and until we hit Urbis,” Chen replied happily. The other sighed as she just relaxed her shoulders letting the other do what he wants. Baekhyun sighed, noticing his friend still having quite a cut on his stretched out arm before facing his right palm out in front of him and towards Chen’s injured arm.

Chen looked back surprised to see his arm glowing white before looking back behind him to see Baekhyun smiling at him, “Thanks, Baek.”

Eun-mi sighed as she saw the glowing arm around her, intending to just ignore anything and everything that was Chen at the moment. They all walked forward peacefully enjoying each other’s presence waiting to hit the big city. It was a couple of minutes until they saw the trees over-towering them. Eun-mi sighed again until she suddenly shook off Chen’s arm and pointed into the sky just as they approached the forest.

Chen looked at her surprised before she yelled out, “Incoming!” He looked up and instantly took a defensive move and pulling out his daggers to cover his face as one of the huge birds swept down and tried to cut him and Eun-mi with its huge talons.

Chen looked up as he yelled to his friend, “Xiumin! Tao! Kill it!”

“We’re on it already!” Xiumin yelled back as he aimed his hands towards two of the birds and tried to focus water into covering the birds’ faces as they flew around over them. He cursed when he lost focus when another bird swooped down, aimed to grab him.

Tao instantly threw his hand out to and casted a huge fire spell to consume the bird instantly, killing it in midair. Eun-mi jumped up in the air and kicked it away from the group still standing behind them. Chaerin and Yuna aimed their left palms out to the same bird as the former used lightning and the latter used water to electrocute the bird.

The last bird came swooping down to try and take one of them as both Yuna and Xiumin jumped up, both unsheathing their swords and having water flow around the former’s sword and Xiumin’s sword turning into ice, ready for their elemental attacks. Yuna sliced the front of the bird’s chest as Xiumin jumped up and stabbed his sword into the cut, freezing the inside of the bird immediately with the added water. It crashed to the ground a few minutes after that.

Eun-mi and Chen looked back quickly to see if everybody else was all right, sighing in relief when they saw that they were. “Has anybody ever really traveled through here?” Kyung-mi asked softly, looking up at the forest where the birds suddenly came out.

“Well…” Sehun started, scratching the back of his neck, “People usually take vehicles or the train that goes through the forest to avoid the monsters that could attack them.”

Kyung-mi stared dumbfounded before looking to the other girls of the group. “We honestly didn’t know,” Soraya and Mi Cha both said at the same time, with their hands up in front of them in defense.

“It’s going to take all day to get to the city,” Yuna groaned as she started to walk ahead with Xiumin in tow.

“You’re telling me,” Eun-mi grounded out, following after her friends. She looked around her to see who was closest to her then smiled brightly, “You!”

Tao pointed at himself, “Me?”

“Walk with me!” she shouted out happily, pushing Chen away from her and grabbing Tao’s arm.

Mi Cha laughed, “I think she already got too tired of Chen.”

Soraya laughed as well walking over to Chen but tripping on a fallen branch. She yelped when the other suddenly caught her. The other laughed, “You can be quite clumsy, huh?”

Soraya laughed as she straightened herself again before throwing an arm around the male’s waist, “Sometimes! Come on~ let’s go!”

Mi Cha laughed at the other girl’s attitude as she walked next to Kyung-mi, Baekhyun, D.O., and Sehun. Chaerin caught up to try and make Yuna relax as they walked further into the forest.

“We’re almost there,” Eun-mi thought as she looked up to see the sun peeking in through the treetops. Tao smiled next to her and followed her motion and looked up at the bright light. “Almost.”

Wondering who this "Skye" fellow is?

Name: Skye

Age: Unknown

Weapon: Unknown

Magical Guide: Unknown

Abilities: Unknown

Strength: You do not want to mess with this child

Purpose in the Story: Unknown

Childhood Friends with: Unknown

Lives in: Unknown

Lol, Skye's profile is a major troll profile huh? Haha in case you're wondering, he is my OC and he will show up here and there in the story.

Excited with the first real chapter?? Haha

I want to see you guys guess who Skye's childhood friend is! If you get it right...uhh...free EXO gif spam of your favorite member!! So guess!! ^^

Also, for you guys wondering of the pic in the last chapter, yes, that is Suho. Haha...

IDK what else to say soooo, yeah, bye bye for now!!

~Awkwardninturtle