Anastasia (1)

"We've got no time. Get ready."

The other two were still struggling to understand his words. How did they take Andre? Andre was the absolute best at spying and hiding himself, which was how he managed to gather so much information anyways.

Jean saw their questioning stares but he himself didn't know how they did it, and so ge said just three words.

"Wanderers. Aktobe, Kazakhstan."

Despite not explaining a single thing, Jean stopped talking, not only that, he stopped moving too, becoming almost like a statue. This made the two quite uneasy.

"B-but sir, how do we go against Anastasia?"

A awkward silence filled the air as Jean stood still like a statue, looking northeast. A few minutes went by just like this and Jean finally spoke.

"We don't."

"What do you mean 'we don't'?"

Aceso couldn't stay silent anymore. She had to know, how they were going to take back Andre. And Jean being silent did not solve this.

Suddenly, Jean began walking northeast.

"Sir!"

"What about the preparations!?"

Jean continued walking, as if not hearing the two people behind him. He did not evade any obstacles in his way, and tripped quite a lot. Concerned for him, Xander ran forward and caught Jean. Looking at his face, he noticed his unfocused eyes and his grinding teeth. He tried shaking him, but nothing happened. However, he tried again and again.

"SIR!"

Jean's whole body suddenly twitched. And his eyes seemed to regain their focus again. Xander was very glad when he saw this but to see Jean in this state, must mean that what awaited them was more fearsome than any Zirtue.

Maybe even more so than Erika.

Jean let out a light groan. Feeling his mind working normally again, he apologised to the other two.

"Ah, sorry about that. Still, we can't just leave Andre behind, we don't know what are their intentions with him after all. What we seriously lacked was information, which was what Andre was supposed to give us."

Despite saying that, he couldn't come up with a plan to take back Andre, as the only and biggest obstacle in the way was Anastasia. And he didn't think that she was really open for reason anymore.

Time was not on their side though, so they had to think quick.

"Ahh, why the Wanderers of all things? The grade V should've been easier to deal with."

Seeing that Jean wouldn't be able to come up with a solution quickly, she sat down and wrote in her notes everything about the bow given to her for testing. Xander also sat down, it was the most he could do right now.

Jean began slamming the ground, each strike shook the whole mountain. One minute passed by, and Jean was still stuck pondering. Then two minutes, three, ten and finally after 35 minutes, he had an answer.

"Let's...just walk straight in."

Xander took a second to process what he had just heard. He was surprised, very surprised. As for Aceso, she had already shut off her brain a few minutes ago.

"Sir, we'll be facing against Anastasia. THE Anastasia!"

Jean predicted this reaction, Anastasia was very famous after all. But that didn't shy him away from making this decision.

"That's precisely the reason."

"Huh?"

"There are no need for explanations, wake that girl up and let's go, this time we care not about the return journey. And trust me on this one, let's just go, no preparations."

"..."

Xander then woke Aceso, and immediately, they left the mountain ranges. This time, they were really going full speed, be it by flying , smashing through mountains or just running, they put their all into moving as fast as they could.

Occasionally, a Zirtue would pop into view and get obliterated by Jean. Moving through the air was quite risky, though it was the fastest.

They didn't use the air for much, as now they were running. Halfway through Georgia, they noticed something following them. The sight was quite surreal, the thing used its swimming legs that was burrowed into the ground to repel itself forward. A Crab-II was on their tail.

"Stop."

All members halted in their steps, turned back around and saw the absolute beast ravaging towards them.

Xander took out his shield and positioned himself to block the crab. The other two was already disappeared. This didn't surprise Xander though.

A split second later, the Crab-II arrived, bashing against the massive shield, creating a massive soundwave, blowing all things light away.

The size of the crab was impressive, easily dwarfing the shield in front of it. However, that small shield did not budge.

Suddenly, a bow fell on top of the crab, making the crab fall onto the ground, destroying the landscape around it. Bestowed with this opportunity, Xander flipped the crab over with a quick motion of his shield.

The crab, now lying flat on its carapace had its abdomen exposed and Jean capitalised on this. Without even letting it squirm or move a muscle, Jean ripped off its abdomen, revealing the soft tissues under it, and then began punching through. Getting inside, he navigated towards its brain, then crushed it, effectively killing it.

They had questions about why a grade II was here but they couldn't care about that right now. And so, began running again, not before Jean got out of the crab.

The journey from then was uninterrupted, much to their surprise.

It took them 8 hours, but they finally reached Aktobe. According to the coordinates on the paper, the place where they should be meeting, was on the east of the Aktobe region. So, they were currently making their way there.

The dirt here was even poorer than what you would find in the mountains of Turkey. Soon, they saw a structure, it looked to be a church, rebuilt for human living.

And welcoming them was five people, five Wanderers. The five of them stood in front of the church, blocking entryway.

Seeing them approach, the middle one moved out of their way.

"Welcome, the lady is waiting, please hurry."

Jean smirked at his words as the walked inside the building.