South City

Widowing leaves scattered the floors. The group of three dashed past these trails, leaving a gust of foliage behind them. They'd descended into the valley they looked over, which now led them into the thick woods they scurried through.

"Be wary of all your surroundings guys." Suto led the group forwards. "It's easy to get ambushed in a place like this…"

Slightly behind, Zika turned her head at every threatening instance. Her eyes darted in each direction, assuring that her reflexes could react to any sudden danger that approached at any second. It was at a single moment that something quickly caught her eye.

"9 o'clock!" She yelled.

The other two immediately turned left in pursuit of Zika's callout.

"What is it?"

"Huh?"

The three laid their eyes upon what caught Zika's attention. Past a couple thick trees, laying somewhat fresh in the olive green grass, a female corpse could be seen. They all approached attentively, still wary of their surroundings in the case of an ambush.

"What happened here…?" Jarrett observed the scene. The woman lay on her back, but her face was what stood out the most. It read absolute terror.

"Holy…" Dried blood stains spread across her face and body. The dark hoodie she wore was submerged in the leaking puddle of blood beneath her. It was here that the Virtues realized where the blood had originated from.

"Arm…" Zika said.

They all came to see that the woman's arm had been completely slashed off, almost too perfectly.

"What a clean cut…" Jarrett said. "It's almost familiar…"

"Seems like she died a while ago. The blood is nearly dried out."

Jarrett furrowed his eyebrows. "Let's continue to be wary of our surroundings. We wouldn't want to end up like this."

The three left the scene.

As the Virtues continued to dash past the woods, Jarrett couldn't help but recognize the odd feeling that tugged at him. He made the observation that the woman's arm had been severed by either an axe or a hatchet. What intrigued him the most was that the weapon of choice must've been crafted very carefully, seeing that the severance was very clean and not serrated or messy.

"Couldn't have been one of those street weapons that the civilians are making nowadays… Those are all dysfunctional and rusty…"

Jarrett denied the resemblance he'd made in his memory—that of the Clad and Crux he'd made with his own hands. "Did Axel…?" He immediately shook his head. "No."

The three were now upon the forest's exit. Coming out, they came to an open green field of tall grass. Two larger landmarks made themselves apparent in the distance. One was a large temple with curved roofing and red accents, while the other was a noticeably tall bridge that led into a city.

"Jenzaya District…" Zika gripped her holster tightly. Guilt at the thousand deaths bit into her heart.

"There it is," Suto pointed towards the South City. "Let's go."

They all followed behind one another, with Suto taking the lead. A few minutes in, it was obvious that the tall heavy grass was inhibiting their speed.

"I'll take care of this," Suto raised his lance and pressed a button on its handle. "Second Setting: Trident Setting!" The lance's blade extended into a series of three. "Third Setting: Javelin Setting!" Suto now whipped his lance forwards, letting it slice straight through the entire length of the field. In the line of fire he'd thrown, all the tall grass had been shed in a mere instant. It revealed a clear path towards the underpass of the bridge.

"Nice work Suto!"

The three now dashed through the field without struggle. Finally coming to the bridge, they realized they'd have to climb up to get to the city. Knowing this, Jarrett engaged the grappling hook in his right cybernetic arm. "See you guys up there!!" He was pulled high towards the bridge's ledge.

"Unfair…"

Suto laughed. "It's alright Zika, we've trained for this." The two began climbing swiftly up the rocky walls of the bridge. Their months of endurance training was no match for this. In a quick manner of minutes, all three found themselves readied on the bridge to Jenzaya's ruined district.

"We're here." Suto put an arm in front of the two. "But be on the lookout. The announcer said there'd be defenders, right?"

"Non-contender defenders…"

It confused Suto. "What did they mean by that?"

"Probably means they're people that aren't competing in the tournament but rather working for the tournament. The announcer also didn't specify that we had to kill them. It just said that the bomb was being defended. We don't need to get blood on our hands."

"Virtue…" Zika said.

"Right," Suto was reminded. As a Virtue and an apparent protector of society, it wasn't part of their responsibilities to kill anyone, not unless it was a Sin. The morality in that sense didn't exactly click with Suto, but knowing the atrocities that the Sins have committed, he justified his own reasoning to bring their blood to his hands.

"So you want to do this stealthily?" Suto asked.

"Not really my forte, and my weapon isn't exactly built for that. But Zika on the other hand…" They looked at her. She nodded her head in understanding.

"Defuse."

"She's got the idea." Suto turned towards Jarrett. "How about this: you and I distract the defenders and fend them off while Zika searches for the bomb and defuses it in secrecy?"

"Probably the only reasonable plan we could make right now. Sure."

Zika spoke up. "Contenders…"

"I know, it won't just be the defenders we'll have to worry about. There might be other contenders participating in this Specialized Phase too. With that being said, be careful on your way Zika. Withdraw that Queen Cobra of yours if it calls for it. While you do that, we'll search for Axel. If he isn't with us, you might even come across him. Got it?"

Zika nodded. She grabbed a purple hair tie from her pocket, and snapped it onto her head into a sleek ponytail.

"That's how you know she's getting serious."

With her hair up, she zipped her black and purple-striped jacket up to her neck. Now suited and ready, she unsheathed her Queen Cobra dagger, and soon fell into the shadows of a building's debris across the street they walked. She was now cloaked into the environment and snuck around the South City, in search of a ticking time bomb.

Jarrett engaged both his cybernetic arms. "Now's just the defenders we have to worry about. What do you think they look like?"

The two turned around a corner into a new street, and Suto was immediately struck frozen. There, further down the street, a group of white-suited individuals of various sizes scouted the area. One was large and had gold accents to its attire, while the rest were smaller yet large in number.

"Those are—!"

Jarrett quickly pulled Suto back around the corner. "Shh! They'll hear us!"

"B-But Jarrett, those are the white-bodies we fought back in Pactolus!"

"The Rumble in Pactolus? What are they doing here?"

"I don't know!" Suto was catching his breath. "Why are they here…? And there's so many more of them than the last time too…"

"Do you think those are the defenders for the bomb?"

This caught Suto's attention.

"Maybe they're the ones working as part of the Metatron Tournament. They're probably involved with the Specialized Phase…"

"I still don't understand though!" Suto grabbed his head.

"What?"

"Up until now we never got to uncover their identities… those white bodies… And now they're here…None of it adds up…" He shook his head in the right direction. "Wait, was it Initiate Co. that sent these guys to Pactolus that day…?"

Jarrett sighed. "I'm sorry Suto, but I don't think we have time to worry about that right now. We have to do our part and stray the defenders' attention away from Zika."

Suto nodded. "You're right…"

"Let's go."

The two rounded back around the corner, only to find that the entire squadron of defenders had been completely wiped out.

"What?!"

Confused, Jarrett and Suto rushed over to the scene. Coming upon the sight, it was nothing but a pile of white and red—blood seeping through the mounds of white-bodies. They'd all been slashed in a flurry of slices, with each one of their limbs decapitated.

"Who the hell did this…?" Suto felt the hair behind his neck tingle. "Jarrett! Duck!"

"Huh?"

Suto dove after him, bringing him to the ground as a flurry of sharp slashes nearly trimmed the top of his head.

"W-What just happened?!"

"I sensed incoming danger from above!" Suto looked up. He looked around to see who their perpetrator was. "Over there!"

Dashing away, and hopping over piles of debris, an unknown figure in black quickly left the scene after its attempted hit-and-run.

"Another contender… They were quick!" Suto looked back at the mound of white corpses. "They must've been the one who did this…"

Jarrett raised his head. "Thank you, Suto… I couldn't even react in time."

"Don't sweat it. Get up, we're out in the open here."

Jarrett took a good look at the damage sustained by the white-body defenders. "Something like this couldn't have happened without using two weapons at once, simultaneously…"

"Like dual-wielding?"

"Yeah…"

"Does this mean we just need to find the bomb now? Is that it of the defenders?"

Their question was answered. A familiar rumbling in the ground could be felt coming from around another street corner. They rushed over and checked; further down the street, past endless piles of concrete rubble and metal debris, another squadron of white-bodies could be seen. But this time around, the defenders were already engaged in combat with a smaller group of individuals.

"Are those contenders…?"

The Virtues observed two males and two females.

"Ian, now!" One of the females yelled.

"Freeze!" Suto heard one of the males say. In this moment, all the white-bodies became momentarily paralyzed in place.

"What is happening…?" Suto watched in awe. He saw that the second male, an unusually tall one, now came running through the mass of white bodies. He carried a sharp weapon in his hand that glowed orange, almost as if it were on fire.

"What is that?"

The weapon was a hand-held blade that wrapped around the user's hand, engulfing it too in flames. The male who weld this waved the blade in and out of the defender's white bodies, cutting past their flesh like butter. Once every single one of their bodies had been sliced, their wounds glowed orange, just as the weapon did. In a sudden instant, flames bursted from within these wounds and imploded, setting each defender aflame. Eventually, their corpses melted into a disarray of ashes.

"How does it feel, Gian-Luca?"

"Feels nice. Where'd you even get this?"

"I took control of some people to complete Specialized Phase B for me, which came with a special weapon reward, the Lacerator of Judgement."

The smell of rotting corpses filled the air up until the other end of the street. There, still observing the scene alongside Suto, Jarrett's jaw dropped. His eyes widened with unbearable shock at what he saw—not the burning bodies, nor the special weapon, but the person that carried it.

"Gian-Luca…" Jarrett walked out into the open.

"Jarrett!" Suto tried to call him over. "Jarrett! What are you doing—?"

"GIAN-LUCA!" Jarrett began bolting towards the group of people.

"YOU'RE ALIVE?!"