A New Event

Pueris' eyes widened in shock. He almost collapsed on the spot.

A change in fate?

"Why the hell are you here?"

His words seethed from confusion and agony.

The Fate Weaver was supposed to be trapped in the fate realm until Reta broke the seal and eliminated her. The Fate Weaver, whose grey hair and deep wrinkles had gotten the better of her looked to the left cynically. "Ah. I see. So I truly have betrayed Fate's loyal hand."

Pueris was instinctively backing away from his seat. The Fate Weaver merely sipped on her river water calmly. Pueris reached a hand out ready to turn the Fate Weaver into a rotting corpse in seconds.

"What makes you say that?" His words were cautious and wary.

Those in the bar were unmindful of the foreign affair spoken in a foreign dialect. The Fate Weaver laughed dryly.

"Because what worse fate is there than finding yourself right in the middle of several extremely villainous fates who seem to know exactly who you are? Fate is sending me a revenge of its own it would seem, it must've not take my betrayal lightly."

She hummed youthfully.

Pueris' eyes were shaking openly.

"Make a move and I'll kill you. I know who your connections are."

He knew this old woman's true potential. She could kill a person's fate. Pueris didn't know if the ability had a cooldown or if she had even discovered it yet but he had to be cautious. After all, she was the one who had killed Shrarld in his last run-through, which was why Reta had decided to eliminate her himself.

Pueris coughed, venting his frustration onto the ground.

He wasn't a fan of this. Even this small change to the time-line could affect his goal to cripple Justice in every way possible. Him avoiding his fate of death was probably the cause of the Fate Weaver leaving her realm, she must've been notified of his fate changing paths so strongly.

The Fate Weaver continued sipping her dry lips on the rim of the jug.

"Oh, I see your threat. Aging my body instantly? I'm afraid I've already experienced advanced aging one too many times to be afraid of such a mediocre threat. This body is guarded by fate, you won't be able to harm it with a trick so aligned with fate's other component, time."

Pueris' mind whirred rapidly. Should he just kill her now?

Pueris hissed at the Fate Weaver. "Don't make a move."

He texted Rockfish through a phone he had been gifted a few days after his entrance.

{Come inside the bar ASAP. It's urgent. Bring Angjayre.}

{Sent.}

Pueris looked up, the Fate Weaver was ordering another jug of river water.

Pueris' eyes darted across her attire it was covered in mud.

"How did you escape?"

The Fate Weaver relaxed and shrugged and sneaked in a yawn. It seemed she acted young for her age. "I thought I already mentioned it. But I have betrayed fate for the benefit of myself, call it selfishness, it was my choice alone."

She raised her eyebrows upon inspecting Pueris.

"I'm envious of you. To be able to cling onto your youth long after your fate has matured. I am your opposite in that regard."

Rockfish stormed into the bar with a concerned look on his face. He had lost his top hat and his wavy grey hair swashed over his eyebrows.

He siphoned his tie before finding Pueris swiftly, Angjayre stumbled behind him.

"What's wrong Pueris? Did they think you were a kid when you ordered?"

Pueris' cheeks went a tangy rose-red from embarrassment. He tried to change the subject in front of the fate-weaver.

"Rock-fish-."

Rockfish laughed heartily.

"No need to worry. Angjayre goes through the same troubles all the time. I'll just put it on my tab-."

"China's Secret Weapon is standing right next to me, and she is likely immune to my powers. You are quite useless in combat and the same goes for Angjayre, therefor we should pray she hasn't mastered her powers yet."

Rockfish's eyes slyly slid over to the Fate Weaver, who reminded him of his great-grandma.

"Are you drunk Pueris? Stop bothering such a kind old lady and-."

The Fate Weaver's wrinkles boiled. Her balding eyebrows struck down. She muttered in annoyance.

"I'm only 24..."

Rockfish turned to her briefly. "Calm down grandma, we'd hate to bother you whilst your drunk. We'll stop this harassment at once."

Rockfish put a firm hand on Pueris' shoulder.

"Stop harassing people Pueris. We're meant to keep a low profile. Now let's go outside and-."

Pueris yanked Rockfish's hand off of his shoulder.

"Look, what if I told you she's the one who will kill Shrarld, without receiving a scratch at that." She was one of the largest obstacles in his past life, the mere threat of an invisible and omnipresent killer had crushed many plans.

Rockfish sighed. "Pueris, do you really have to go this far just to prosecute a kind old-."

"He's telling the truth." Angjayre met eyes with Pueris briefly.

Rockfish looked down in suspicion.

"You... sure?"

He felt the situation was far too shameless, there was simply no evidence other than the words of Angjayre and Pueris to assume this old lady was a secret weapon.

Angjayre nodded rapidly.

"Very sure. I even double-checked it. Meaning my powers will be down for a while."

Rockfish stroked his chin. "Well... this is certainly a challenge."

Rockfish dialled a number on his phone.

"Yes? No, I don't think you should destroy that rural village. But I do think you should come here to help me. If you come, you might get to meet the newcomer and have that meeting with him that you've been planning for a while. Sounds good, eh?"

Bang.

Without a care for those watching, Shrarld's huge figure almost split through the roof of the small red dragon bar.

His hair was soaking wet and he was in nothing more than a pair of black swim trunks.

He had just been enjoying himself with a relaxing swimming session in a nearby rural Asian village.

Pueris looked up depressingly.

"I guess I'm the newcomer." In this reality, he had only joined Red 0 a month before.

Shrarld put a hand on Pueris' shoulder.

He grumbled with tinges of excitement in his voice.

"Boy, if you have any honour we must fight. Your words were brave, but only if you can afford them."

Pueris laughed lightly. "I'll... pass... I'm not at my strongest right now." Although Pueris was registered as an -A- Rank villain in 2031, he was certain that with his knowledge and accumulated battle experience, he could easily be -S- Rank, power-wise. It was not like his energy had grown in the 4 years either, since he had that darned curse that stopped him from aging and therefor gaining energy.

His time ability, erosion wise, didn't work on people with strange constitutions. So far he only knew that it didn't work on Shrarld, any Justice number, and Herculainz. It had also been reversed by Heila, if that counted.

Shrarld glared at Pueris, but Pueris merely acted as though the raging storm of killing intent gnawing at him was passing wind. Shrarld locked eyes with Pueris, it was strange for a rookie to not be phased just from his intent alone.

Rockfish breathed out heavily before pointing at the Fate-Weaver warily.

"Shrarld. Take this kind esteemed grandma to the Shadow Realm and make sure she stays there. We'll pick her up... Later. Just drop her off somewhere where she won't be forgotten and be gentle."

Shrarld looked at where Rockfish was pointing and grumbled. "I'm going back."

Rockfish raised an eyebrow. "Consider it payment for you going out of your way in New York, so much for keeping our group undercover."

Shrarld's body shook slightly.

He let out a low growl and before the calm fate weaver could react, he placed a heavy hand on her head.

Her eyes widened.

"Why..."

"Why can I not see your fate when you touch me?"

"Are you also of a noble clan-."

Shrarld looked down in ignorance.

"I yearn for flesh, but I will settle for food."

Shadows engulfed the two like a twisting storm. A small fizzling sound was left in the air as the two were replaced with an empty space. Shrarld returned swiftly, the Fate Weaver had been abandoned and trapped in a maze of shadows somewhere in the vast shadow realm.

Rockfish puffed out his cheeks. "Alright. I'll go pick up the others."

His eyes began lighting up significantly bright, to the level of a deity-like blue.

"Go put some proper clothes on Shrarld."

Beep.

A short neon-blue pillar consumed him.

The people in the bar were too drunk to even recognize the events that had just occurred.

Shrarld pulled a fully loaded beer off the counter and chugged it down without hesitation.

"Clothes."

He snapped before shadows wrapped around him smoothly, like servants aiding their master's needs, the shadows worked fluidly and without stop.

In a matter of moments, he was fully clothed in silken black robes that fit nicely.

He still acted like an ogre but he at least looked well-mannered now.

Beep.

Rockfish returned alongside Reta, Veleno, and Delno. Pueris scratched his head.

'I guess they didn't want to bring Jonas on this mission.'

The three looked at Pueris with looks like scanners. Veleno looked rather sour upon seeing Pueris. It was because of Pueris that they had missed out on a big deal after all and he was an avid watch-collector, now whenever he looked at his collection he only saw lost potential. The watches he could've bought, they had all gone out of his reach now. The little hope he had left was in the fact that they might be able to sell the Jewel for a similar price.

His acid-green hair looked like it had recently been dried off. He moodily stuck himself at the back of the group. From Pueris' recollection, he should've been around 25 now.

Reta wasn't wearing his mask, revealing a charming unscarred face. his stylish red hair went well with his attire. He was wearing an unusually expensive blazer for the occasion, it was grey with thin white stripes.

Delno, the beautiful blue-haired woman wore a fine blue dress that complimented her. Not that she needed compliments in the first place.

Delno held a hand over her mouth.

"Well aren't you the cutest little thing?"

She giggled as she ruffled Pueris' silken white hair.

Pueris looked up with dead eyes. He had gone through this enough in his last run-through.

Reta tapped her on the shoulder lightly to which she attentively calmed herself.

"I'm Delno. I hope that the others have been... no less than caring towards a little thing like you."

Reta tapped Veleno who stubbornly came out from the shadows.

"I am Veleno, now that we have met do not speak to me unless it is important."

Reta let out a wry smile. "Well, I'm sure that you know everyone else. I'm Reta, the leader of this whole escapade."

Pueris nodded and acted as he had in the first run-through.

"Wow. You really are a lot younger than I expected. The stories don't match the face at all, I really thought you'd look more like Shrarl."

Pueris spoke like a machine, merely replaying words he had said before in the last time-line. This time his enthusiasm was feigned but back then, Reta had been an idol to him.

Reta chuckled.

"I wish I could say the same for you. Ahem. Rockfish did anything odd happen whilst we were reaching the checkpoint?"

Rockfish sighed.

"Yeah, the fate weaver or something. Some kind of Chinese super-weapon was in this bar. It's all verified by Angjayre. I don't even know anymore..." Rockfish glared at Angjayre momentarily.

"Anyways. We kidnapped a defenseless old woman who couldn't even run away and then Shrarld trapped her in the shadow realm."

Rockfish expected Reta to scold Angjayre but instead, Reta applauded the group.

"The Fate Weaver? The lass from that noble clan? Well...That's just splendid. Last I knew of her, she was in an unaccessible realm. If we have her under our control, then perhaps we can bargain a lot for her, and if they don't want to play the game we just eliminate one of their largest assets."

As he smiled, Reta's voice went flat.

"However, this does mean that the Suparen Clan has most likely been alerted of their fallen member's last location."

Pueris' hands squirmed over each other. Her mere appearance had completely disrupted the plan.

Even with two fates, He didn't know what a noble clan is. I'll have to ask Reta later. Although he understood the concept, he never fully clarified the true meaning of noble clans, in this second time-line, Pueris would not let any vital information go past him.

The room went silent. Laughter and music returned as one of the drunken drinkers got up and fell over backward. The other drunk men cackled with blind laughter. Through the eyes of one of the drunken men, a tiny green dot spun and got bigger before revolving down into nothing.

An old man, with no wrinkles yet hair, so grey that it should've fallen out centuries ago muttered to himself darkly within the confines of a majestic palace upon a beautiful mountain flooded with tall grass and heavenly creatures.

"Send in Fire Dragon."

"Code: Black."

"The Fate Weaver has been kidnapped and several powerful villains are holding her hostage. Once they have been captured, their fates shall be decided by me."