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After slaying the dinosaur, Elena and her friends ventured deeper into the dungeon. Their mission required them to defeat a certain number of monsters, and with the roaming boss already taken care of, they were halfway done.

There was another important reason they had come here. Elena needed the cores from these creatures to give to her mother. With them, Elayne could restore more of her divine powers and recreate the Halo she once possessed. Using that Halo and the angelic authority within it, they hoped to heal Harumi’s brother from the wound an angel had inflicted on him.

Although she was curious, Elena didn’t bother asking Harumi why her brother had been hurt by an angel in the first place. It felt like a personal matter, and she wanted no part of that drama for the time being. After all, the only angel she had ever met was Gabriel, so she had no idea what kind of other angels were out there, and that perhaps not every single one was as nice as that boy.

"Huh, this place is pretty damn vast..." Matsuo said, admiring the surroundings. "Just how many monsters are in here? And how exactly do you clear a dungeon like this?"

"Usually with Gates, you have to kill every monster before the place falls apart," Frank replied. "Maybe it works the same way here?"

"It feels more like a Corrupted Domain to me," Erika noted. She looked around, sniffed the ground, and studied the weird, creepy paintings lining the twisting corridors.

"Ah, you mean it has a Corrupted Core that we need to shatter or take so the Domain collapses or gets refined?" Matsuo asked. "Yeah, that makes sense. I hadn’t thought of that until now."

"What’s a Corrupted Domain?" Anna wondered, tilting her head. "I’ve never heard that term before. I know about normal Domains, but what makes these ones corrupted?"

"Corrupted Domains form naturally, unlike most Domains we create after reaching a certain level of magic power," Harumi explained. "They appear in places where large quantities of dark and negative energy accumulate, like the kind humans naturally release through daily life. You know how those energies give birth to Hollows, right? Well, the same principle applies to Yokai. Also, those creatures do not simply appear randomly. They tend to gather in certain dangerous areas."

"It is different from Gates, where monsters from the Other World invade ours and sometimes spread and reproduce rapidly, taking over parts of the city or wilderness," Erika added. "It is also different from the Gates and Dungeons where undead monsters appear, those that serve the Demon King of Death or whatever. This is something else entirely."

"Have we ever seen any in Canada or England before?" Elisa wondered, rubbing her chin. "I cannot recall a single time."

"Yeah," Monica agreed. "They do not seem that common..."

"It is probably because this phenomenon happens far more often in Japan," Matsuo said. "For some unknown reason, cursed energy gathers the most in this country. Some speculate it might be due to an ancient curse placed by a monstrous being from the past, or perhaps an Evil God... or maybe because Lord Chaos lives here, creating an immense shift in negative and dark energies everywhere."

"Lord Chaos?" Elena asked, tilting her head.

"Well, he’s... Hm, maybe its probably better if we explain what Corrupted Domains are first," Matsuo said. "I guess we have not covered that in class yet. As you heard, they are areas where so much negative energy has accumulated that it distorts space itself and creates a Domain. These Corrupted Domains serve as breeding grounds for Hollows and Yokai, and they usually possess some kind of core. Sometimes the core is a crystallized crystal hidden somewhere, other times a giant tree, and sometimes even a powerful monster."

"So far we have only heard about them in this country, so I guess they are not very common outside Japan," Anna said, nodding.

"It seems that way, but I do not think they are completely exclusive to Japan," Frank replied. "Haven’t you heard? In the past, this world used to be much more chaotic than it is now. During the so-called Age of the Gods, Corrupted Domains spread everywhere. Gods themselves created their own Realms, which merged openly with the mortal world and formed a giant blanket of supernatural energy that made the world seem much larger than it does today."

"Thank god we are not living in that era," Elisa sighed, wiping sweat from her forehead.

"In a way, that era is returning stronger than ever because of everything the First Contact has triggered," Matsuo said with a sigh. "Which is really not good... but we are doing our best, right?"

"Dude, do not say such scary things. Let us keep our hope up," Frank said. "It will never get as bad as it was back then. The Era of the Gods is over... though many beings from that time still remain as living relics, dwelling inside their own dimensions connected to the planet."

"Myeah," Elena nodded. "Uhhh... and who is that Lord Chaos you mentioned earlier? I am honestly completely clueless about him, but you all talk about him like he is a big deal."

"He is..." Harumi replied. "He is the boss of Chaos Gate, the largest underworld supernatural criminal organization in Japan, and perhaps even the world. You might never have heard of them because their headquarters are right here in Tokyo."

"Oh..." Elena muttered. "That is not good, huh?"

"It certainly is not," Frank said. "Chaos Gate rose to prominence in the 90s, and since then it has become incredibly influential both in this country and abroad. They secretly control a large part of Japan. It is speculated that half the politicians have sworn loyalty to the boss, and they own around forty percent of the country’s businesses and several major companies."

"And how does the police not stop them if they are criminals?" Elisa asked. "Does Japan not have some kind of secret organization to combat them? Like SWORD back in Canada?"

"Hah, you really do not know anything, do you, my sweet summer child?" Erika sighed, shaking her head. "Chaos Gate operates on a completely different level. They are not some random mob group. They are a multi-billion-dollar evil organization. When they control half the country, do you think the police can do anything? Not even the government can do much. Other countries do not really care and prefer to avoid trouble."

"America, which is supposed to always support Japan, has barely helped us since Chaos Gate began spreading," Harumi added. "Now there are branches across several countries. I think Canada might be one of the few without one yet. But that could just be luck on your part. In England, the Magus Tower keeps them in check, so you have probably never heard of them there either. But outside of England or a few key points in Europe, nobody really cares."

Elena and her friends felt an intense wave of dread and fear the more they learned about the terrifying organization called Chaos Gate.

Japan, which had seemed like such a nice tourist destination, had turned out to be far more dangerous than they could have ever imagined.

"So why have they not taken over the country completely if they are so terrifying?" Elisa asked.

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