A Theory

Mau stood before an apartment with his clothes drenched in blood. His mask was broken, and he had a cut on his forehead. He limped towards the building as blood leaked from his lips. "Shango was right. I thought I could easily defeat him since we were of the same rank, but I was wrong. He is just as strong as I am. Things would have been much worse if he chose to continue fighting." 

"Good thing he is not as crazy as I am. At least I got what I needed." Mau pulled out a black bead from his pocket. It was a scopenet that belonged to Osayo. He picked pocketed it in his fight with him. "So, according to the information on the scopenet, this is where the captain is." He lifted his head and walked into the apartment block. 

Above a lighthouse-like turret, at the edge of an area shrouded in darkness, a golden-haired woman in white and gold armour stood staring at the foot of the turret. Though there were bright lights all around the area, it was not enough to dispel the darkness. The only thing keeping the darkness in check was a light barrier surrounding the land. 

The woman took out a scopenet and issued a command. "Fu, tell the parties to prepare. We depart in an hour."

"Right away. …Rose…" 

"What is it?" she inquired. The man hesitated a bit before asking, "I have been meaning to ask; your father… Adan Clairmont… why is he interested in this place suddenly?"

She sighed and sat where she stood, "Come up", she said and laid on her back. After a few minutes, space distorted, and a man appeared beside her. He had a medium complexion with freckles on his cheeks, and his thick swept-back undercut hair made his blue eyes even more attractive. He sat by her and stared into the distance. 

"You good?" he asked, looking back at her. She sat up with a sigh, "Yeah, I think so." 

"Must be hard coordinating this number of people, especially since it's your first time." He gazed at the sky as he spoke. 

"Yes. It's quite tedious. I don't know the details, but something is going on between the family heads. Apparently, it's not only my dad that is making a move. The other families are also secretly dispatching their forces to various locations." 

"The territories have been quiet for a long time now. Why the sudden change? I hope another war won't break out between the families. That would be devastating." Fu said 

"Do you remember the story the family used to tell us about a certain family?" she asked, standing. He joined her after a while and replied, "You mean the one about those who caused the downfall of the territories several years ago?" 

"Yes, that one. My dad used to tell me a bedtime story when I was a kid. Now that I think about it, I think they are making an appearance after so many years." 

"And what was this story that he spoke of?" Fu curiously asked as he stared down at the parties camping below them. 

"Long ago, a family that excelled in science and technology existed in the territories. They were so good at it that they solved many of the world's problems with their inventions and medicines. One day, they set forth to make the perfect human species. A species high in intelligence with a strong physique and invulnerable to various illnesses." 

"To achieve that goal, they performed inhumane experiments on people and clones they created themselves, messing around with DNA was child's play for them. They did succeed, but the clone was just a baby and got stolen along with all details concerning the project." 

"In their quest to recreate their previous success, they encountered an accident which resulted in the destruction of entire territories, causing changes in the DNA and cells of millions of people and beasts." 

"Once they were found out, the family was branded as criminals and everyone was after their heads. Some were in for profit, while others took the opportunity to exact revenge on the family to settle their grudge. Everyone had their own reasons for joining in to destroy the family. However, as they fought among themselves, the mutated beings from the accident invaded the territories and laid them in ruins. As beings filled with rage and despise, they plundered and killed everyone and everything they encountered."

"The family responsible for all this got wiped out by the mutated beings, forcing the other families to come together to repel them." 

Fu stood silent after Rose spoke before saying, "Whoa! That's one story to tell a kid. A bedtime story, no less. But how does this point to the fact that that family is making an appearance?" 

She leaned against him and answered, "Though the family was wiped out, few of them survived. When they reappear, the world will find them and make sure they stay dead. That's what my dad said. With the way the families are making their movements…" 

"You can only assume that they have reappeared since all evidence points towards that…" Fu took the words right out of her mouth. 

"Yeah. Anyway, it's time we best get moving."

"Ah, this is going to be a long night."

With a huge sum to gain, many parties gathered before the abandoned castle of endless shadows to try their luck. As the party system was not prevalent in Terasphere, most of the parties present were in groups of four or five, all containing friends or family. 

The only party that stood out was the one belonging to the Clairmont, as each member was a part of their military, hence creating a balanced party was not a difficult task. Few other parties were quite balanced, but most of those present were moving alone. 

After addressing the crowd, Fu opened up a small space in the barrier to allow people to enter. They were set to enter the castle in groups of five for those without parties as it made it easier to keep count of those present that way. Once someone enters, they disappear in the darkness. The darkness behind the veil of light was so strong you couldn't see your hands even if they were close to your eyes. In the darkness, shadow beasts and figures crawled around eagerly waiting for prey to hunt. 

Somewhere in the darkness, a being with blood-red eyes stood looking into the distance. He had red skin with black patterns all over it. A sudden smirk appeared on its face, and it cackled loudly like a madman. "Finally, after being trapped here for so many years, an opportunity to leave here has popped up. Hahahahahahahaaaaa!" It continued to cackle. 

The ranking bout continued as usual. After Lin's victory against Adric, who was considered one of the strongest Quints, and his toughest opponent in the bout so far, the others didn't give him much trouble. He easily defeated them and quickly climbed the tournament ladder. Just like Lin, Shadow Knight also had no trouble climbing to the semis. The semis drew in a much larger crowd than ever recorded in the history of the bout. The quint section had the most attention as people thought new rising stars had appeared. 

Among the crowd was a burly man in a hoodie with a club tattoo on the back of his hand. He looked at the screen with a huge smile on his face, "That man was right. There are lots of people who can fight above their ranks. I too will become strong. Strong enough to make higher rankers cower before me. I Redrick will become stronger", he vowed and walked away. 

Having been overwhelmed by Shadow Knight when he was the champion of Hades, he now realized the need to improve himself instead of remaining cooped up in his own illusions.