Azaroth stared at him. Work for him? Evernight must be joking! But the way he stared at him made Azaroth believe Evernight truly meant it.

"No," Azaroth said flatly.

"Why?" Evernight whined.

"Because I don’t know you and I don’t want to take orders from you," Azaroth said.

"I can’t be a bad boss," Evernight mumbled and straightened. "It’ll be morning soon. You should return."

"Well.....you are the one that will return me? Also, get this mask off me." Azaroth said.

Evernight gestured with a glowing finger and the mask peeled from Azaroth’s face in a cluster of pink leaves. Azaroth checked his hair to confirm that they were back to white.

"I will see you when the time comes close to pass you the monster." Evernight gestured again and a huge swarm of leaves rose.

"Wait.... pass the monster? Won’t be monster be too big to hide?" Azaroth hadn’t thought about how he was going to release the monster.

"Well, the monster will be bound and put inside a little bead. You don’t have to worry about a thing." Evernight clapped and the leaves surrounded Azaroth.

He was rolled inside the leaves and tumbled about, his grip on his sword unwavering and when he was released he found himself on his bed.

The bed creaked as Azaroth shifted, noticing that the leaves had disappeared and little remained of the candle in his room. He pulled the covers over himself and slept immediately.

☆☆☆

Azaroth was late to training that morning. The others had already had breakfast and had begun their sword practice when he climbed down the stairs.

Azaroth wore his uniform and his sword was on his waist.

"I warned you not to sleep late yesterday before I went up," Stallus said as she wiped the sweat from her face, scowling at Azaroth.

Azaroth nodded, his wet hair clinging to his scalp and sending droplets of water down his chest. Stallus was referring to the extra training Azaroth and her did the night before, she thought Azaroth slept late because of that.

"You are lucky Kael isn’t here! You would have received punishment I’m sure." Alex swung his sword, doing a series of heavy slashes that moved his sword in wide arcs.

That made Azaroth look around, Kael Hound was truly not here which was strange since he never knew him to be absent for their training. The other person in the room was Catena who was practicing his weapon in the corner.

"Yes. He would probably take his anger out on you then." Stallus said.

Azaroth raised his brows. "Anger?"

"Yes. Don’t you hear the rumor? The security of the Hounds was breached last night and several Hounds were killed by an explosion!" Alex used his hands to demonstrate the explosion.

Stallus rolled her eyes. "What made him angry was that no noise was heard last night. It was really strange, they said it was a massive explosion."

Azaroth’s heart missed a beat. So they had found out about last night but it seems they had exaggerated it. Azaroth wondered if it was done on purpose to keep away from the fact that it was a mask that exploded.

Alex jumped. "It must be that the Hound are fighting among themselves or someone smuggled an explosive inside that exploded without warning."

Stallus sighed. "Have you seen this place’s security? It would be harder to sneak in a needle not to talk of explosives. Also how many people were creating explosives on the continent? Not now that Awakened powers are reigning."

Azaroth listened as they went back and forth.

Alex snorted. "You think Awakened powers would keep people from creating explosives? Have you forgotten that not everyone is an Awakener and of the Awakeners not all of them are powerful."

Stallus shrugged. "Be as it may be. What’s an explosive going to achieve in a Hound’s territory? It’s not like the Awakeners here are that weak."

Alex narrowed his eyes. "So what are you implying? That it wasn’t explosive? Kael would have said otherwise."

Stallus opened her mouth but it was Catena who spoke in that deep voice of his. "What makes you think you deserve the truth from Kael? From this place?"

Silence then except for the swinging of Catena’s metal chain. Even Azaroth stared at Catena, it was the most he had ever heard the tall boy speak and it was not a single word like he always did.

He made sense, Azaroth thought.

Alex narrowed his eyes but said nothing, his hand had tightened on his sword but he didn’t seem to notice as he stared at Catena.

Catena seems to have forgotten that he said anything as he concentrated on his chain practice.

"Well," Stallus said after some time. "That was the truth. If you think about it, using explosives to fight here is useless where almost everyone is an Awakener and could get away before it exploded."

Alex nodded slowly. "Or simply shield themselves."

Azaroth walked away from them and chose a training spot for himself where he unsheathed his sword from his waist and put essence into his right hand.

Azaroth settled himself into the rhythmic movement of the sword sequence, moving smoothly from one form to the other. The essence in his hand made his sword fall heavier than usual.

He knew Stallus was sharp but Azaroth hadn’t expected her to pierce through and discard the lies provided by the Hounds, maybe Evernight should recruit her. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

They would fit each other as she also seems to know how to deal with the dramatic Alex.

Azaroth was about to start another form when the door blasted in, the metal door was simply crushed in like paper. The sound of grating metal made them all flinch and point their weapons toward the door.

Kael Hound stood at the doorway. Red energy covered him, he walked in and heat followed him like a shadow.

He turned his masked face on all of them and grinned without humor. "Today, you will all advance."