7 False Confidence

Their fight had begun. Ria's siblings watched as their sister's head was smashed into the ground. Ayar was the first to run over to his sister's aid, but Lunis quickly stepped in.

"Move!" he yelled.

Lunis didn't move, instead, she swung at Ayar. He ducked down and, in retaliation, kicked her abdomen. She blocked his attack but was pushed away slightly. Ayar immediately got back up and tried a flying kick. As he flew toward Lunis, she hopped out of the way of his kick and axe kicked him. Spit flew out of his mouth as his body crashed into the ground.

Lunis followed up by trying to punch at where Ayar's head was. She narrowly missed as he was able to dodge at the last second. Tytan came to his brother's aid by shoulder bashing Lunis's side, which sent her flying across the ground. Tytan's attack gave Ayar the chance to get up and run towards Ria.

As he ran, he shouted at Tytan, "Keep her occupied!"

Ayar looked again at his sister and witnessed Fera run Ria's face through the ground. Ria kicked at Fera's stomach which caused her to stumble. As she did, Ayar came in and gut-punched Fera and then kicked her away. He immediately went over to help his sister up.

"Are you hurt Ria?" he asked.

She ignored her brother and shouted, "That skank! She dares touch my face?!"

"Calm down sister, we can take her on if we work together."

This time, Ria heard Ayar and took a few deep breaths. When she collected herself, she looked back at him and said, "You're right, let's get serious then."

Ayar stood up first and began hopping on the balls of his feet while Ria kept breathing in and out.

Fera shook off the bits of dust that were on her then looked back at Ria and Ayar. She bolted towards them and tried to punch Ria. In a moment of surprise, Fera had the foot of Ayar in her face as Ayar kicked her away again.

"That was weird," she said as got up again from the ground.

"You should give up now, lady. The way we are now, you couldn't possibly beat us," threatened Ayar.

"Let's try this one more time," Fera told herself.

She approached Ayar, who was still hopping on the balls of his feet, and tried to jab him. He easily dodged it and kicked her in response. She dodged his attack as well and the two went back and forth. Neither could land a blow on each other because of how they dodged each other's attacks.

Fera switched up her attack pattern and stopped punching. Instead, she raised her foot and brought it down onto the ground. It caused the ground to crack and threw Ayar off balance. Fera took the opportunity and grabbed his collar to pull him close. She gut-punched him, returning the favor, and as he left her hand, she grabbed his wrist and pulled him back. She gave him a solid right hook to his face and sent him flying the other way.

He rag-dolled across the ground and then came to a complete stop. When he took his face out of the ground, he could feel that his cheek was swollen.

"Damn, that was a nasty punch," he said as he massaged his cheek.

As he stood up, he looked back and saw that Fera was running at him. She clotheslined him which made him flip and then kicked him back towards Ria.

He got up once more and said, "This chick is getting annoying, time to crank it up a notch."

Fera went for Ayar again and swung but missed. She tried again and again but still didn't hit him.

"Something's off, he feels faster somehow?" she questioned.

She kept trying but still couldn't hit him. As she kept punching, she started to notice that he seemed to be getting faster. Before, she could easily track him with normal eyes but was now having a hard time finding just his silhouette.

She knew her aggressive efforts were wasted so she jumped away and tried to think of a plan. As she retreated, Ayar pursued and started his own assault. Fera was put on the defensive as Ayar sent a flurry of kicks at her, not giving her any time to formulate a plan. After continuously trying to avoid his kicks, she tried to counter him by sweeping his legs. This didn't work as Ayar jumped up and helicopter kicked Fera in the face.

After she landed flat on her back, she tried getting up but Ayar put his foot down on her chest and kept her pinned. She elbowed his free leg, which caused him to stumble, and she landed an uppercut as he fell. His body flew back from the force of her punch and she was able to get up.

On the ground, Fera could hear that he was laughing, "I like you, lady, you're making this interesting," a big grin ran across his face.

"Let's see if you can keep it up," he said ominously.

"Bring it shrimp," Fera insulted.

The moment after, he had vanished from her sight.

"W-what? Where'd he go?" she said in confusion.

Before she knew it, Fera found herself back on the ground. She got up in confusion and wondered what had happened. She spun around and tried to track him but was unable to. Fera caught his scent but it was all over the place. She let her nose lead her as her head spun around tracking Ayar.

"No use lady," he said before landing a hook kick to her back.

She shot forward from his attack and was kicked again in the stomach. Ayar kept tossing her around and did not allow any opening for her. At that point all Fera could do was protect her head.

"I bet you've never felt as helpless as you do now!" he taunted.

As she was tossed around, Fera tried to figure out what the source of Ayar's speed was. She wouldn't know until soon after that his speed was simply due to kinetic energy. As he moved around, kinetic energy built up in his legs and allowed him to speed up. This power gave him the potential to infinitely increase said speed.

If his movement is stopped, his kinetic energy is slowly released from his legs. If this happens, he cannot regain the lost kinetic energy easily since storing the energy puts a strain on his muscle fibers, and need time to recuperate between 'charges'.

Ayar kept assaulting Fera and as he did, he started to notice that she started getting smaller. Soon, she was back at her original size with her partial transformation having worn off.

"This is my chance to finish her," Ayar told himself.

He came at her with a flying knee but was stopped when Fera's fist met his face.

"H-how?" he said in disbelief.

He stood up and backed away from Fera.

"Come at me again, shrimp. You won't best me a second time," Fera said confidently.

"Grrrggh," Ayar exhaled and ran at her.

Ayar witnessed as Fera disappeared from his sight.

"W-what the--" he said as he ran around.

Fera appeared behind and back kicked him. He flew across the field and into Ria, knocking her over.

"What are you doing, Ayar!?" she screamed furiously

"S-something's changed about her, sister. I don't know what happened but she can keep up with me now."

"You're incompetent sometimes. It doesn't matter you gave me enough time to prepare."

"Really?! Then help me out already," Ayar said happily.

Ria and Ayar looked back and saw Fera charging at them. She leaped into the air and then plummeted down towards them, smashing the ground. The attack separated the siblings, which made Ayar retaliate. He thrust his fist at Fera, who was still kneeling. He was stopped when Lunis flew in and dropkicked him in the side. Ayar came out beneath the mountain of dirt he was kicked into.

"W-what?! She's here, what happened to Tytan?!" he asked furiously.

He scanned the area and saw that his brother was down on the ground, with his clothes tattered and wounds riddled across his body, and appeared to be unconscious.

"How dare you?!" and he charged at Lunis.

Lunis met him head-on as their fists clashed. Shockwaves filled the air as they continued trading blows with each other. Ayar got faster but Lunis kept up easily.

Ria felt that her brother was going to start having trouble and decided to help. She bent down and picked up a giant chunk of dirt and proceeded to toss it at Lunis.

"?!" Lunis saw the huge pile of dirt come at her.

Ayar saw the pile of dirt as well and tried to jump away but Lunis caught his arm. She pulled him towards her and then tossed his body at the projectile, breaking it into pieces.

His body flew at Ria until she was able to catch it. She held her brother in her arms and said, "Get up, Ayar! We have a fight to finish!"

"S-sorry Ria, this chick is definitely way stronger than the one before," Ria noticed her brother starting to breathe heavily.

"I don't know how long I can hold out."

"Keep fighting! We have to defeat them if we want the Great Ones to help us!"

Ayar struggled to get up from his sister's arms, and when he did, he took up a fighting stance next to her.

"GO!" Ria yelled.

They both dashed toward Fera. Ria initiated the attack first as she brought a fist down onto Fera, which caused her to jump away. Ayar was behind Fera to sweep her legs as she landed. Fera fell and saw both of their fists come at her. She raised her hands to block their attack and was sent into a mound nearby.

Ayar and Ria looked back at Lunis and started attacking her as well. Ria ran towards Lunis but took a sharp right. With Lunis's attention on Ria, Ayar took the opportunity to kick at Lunis's head but Lunis dodged the attack without looking.

"Oh no--"

Lunis landed a punch square into Ayar's chest that knocked him out and sent him into a group of shrubs nearby. Lunis quickly went into a back handspring and kicked Ria's chest.

Ria didn't budge which confused Lunis. Instead, Ria held Lunis by the leg as a weird beam shot out of her mouth.

"Woah," Lunis said as she looked at her newly singed clothes, "Whatever that beam was, it was pretty hot."

"We'll try again, but a little more carefully this time," Lunis told herself.

Lunis got up from the pile of dirt she was launched into and went back over to Ria. This time was different as she didn't immediately attack her. Lunis kept a distance of five feet between them as she circled around the girl trying to analyze what had happened. She knew that Ria wasn't the type to be passive so she expected an attack from her soon.

Lunis's prediction was right as Ria charged at her and swung. Lunis dodged it but found out the attack was a feint. She saw Ria's kick come at her. Lunis was able to, narrowly, catch her leg. She tried to toss Ria away but after a few inches, she stopped moving, even though Lunis was putting in the effort to toss her away. Lunis described it as if she could freeze herself in place.

Ria didn't give Lunis more time to think about what happened as she shot a beam from her closed fist at Lunis. Lunis saw the beam at the last second as she tried to move out of the way of its path but winced in pain as the heat of the beam singed her shoulder. She backed away from Ria so that she didn't have to come into contact with another superheated beam.

"How is she able to produce these beams?" Ria thought to herself.

Lunis looked back at her opponent and noticed that she had another hand held up.

"Fire," and Ria shot out a massive heat beam in Lunis's direction.

Lunis grew wide-eyed at the beam coming straight for and felt the immense heat, even though it wasn't even remotely close to her. She leaped off to the side out of the way of the beam but saw as it devastated the terrain behind her. It left a path of scorched earth in its wake. After traveling a bit farther, the beam dissipated into the air.

"This girl is dangerous. I need to get more serious if I want to stop her," Lunis said aloud.

Lunis stood up and began to change. She too had resorted to using partial transformation.

Over the course of their battle, Lunis had taken in as much combat information on Ria to understand her strange ability. At that point in time, Lunis had a guess as to what Ria's ability was but wasn't sure. She made sure to use her next attack as a means of testing it.

She took a huge chunk of the earth and tossed it at Ria. She noticed the object come toward her and blew it away with another beam. When she did that though, Lunis observed the pieces of the broken chunk fall onto Ria. She saw the chunks freeze completely above her and then drop shortly after.

"So it appears she has a thin 'field' of where it robs kinetic energy and I'm assuming that energy is what she uses to fire off these beams," Lunis finally figured it out.

"Now a way to fight around this."

Lunis quickly ran toward Ria. Ria noticed Lunis coming at her and immediately jumped away.

"Ah, so she likes to fight from a range," Lunis made a note in her head to remember.

Lunis broke the ground beneath her, which made a chunk of rock fly up. She kicked the rock at Ria, which she broke easily. The rock was meant to be a distraction as Lunis appeared behind Ria. She spin kicked Ria in the behind and sent her flying forward. Ria only flew a few feet before completely stopping.

"My kick definitely landed. It seems that her field is most likely something she brings up consciously. If I can catch her off guard then I'm sure I can beat her."

Lunis saw Ria turn around and scowl at her.

"You witch! You ripped my shirt!"

Ria put both of her hands up and shot a wide beam at her. Lunis rolled to the side but saw the beam continue and follow her. She quickly got up and started running away. As she ran, she saw that the environment around them being scorched by her beam. Lunis got angry with how much was being destroyed, so she changed directions and headed towards Ria.

Ria noticed her change of direction and briefly stopped firing before shooting at Lunis again. Lunis somersaulted over the beam and landed on top of Ria, pinning her to the ground. She raised her fist and brought it down onto Ria and landed a direct hit.

Ria was confused because she was sure she managed to put up her anti-kinetic barrier, but she didn't know how Lunis was able to punch her. Her confusion grew as Lunis kept pummeling her, and forced her to put up her hands to defend herself.

Every blow that Lunis landed hurt Ria in a way she had never experienced. With her ability, she had not once experienced pain from anything in her life. Through her arms, she saw that Lunis's knuckles didn't have normal skin on them. Lunis kept swinging her fists so Ria couldn't make out exactly lined Lunis's knuckles, but whatever they were, they managed to negate her anti-kinetic barrier.

In desperation, Ria opened her mouth and prepared to shoot a beam at Lunis. She saw her attempt at a counterattack and covered Ria's mouth.

"Do it, demigod, you'll regret what happens next."

Lunis's warning sent a shiver down her spine and her instinct told her to not fire. Lunis went back to pummeling Ria when, suddenly, her punches stopped landing and Ria started to feel energy fill her body.

"My barrier is working now?" she thought.

Next, she heard Lunis say, "Damn! I lost concentration."

Whatever happened, Ria knew that was her chance to fight back. She pushed Lunis off her and jumped away. She let her fingers run across her face as she felt multiple cuts and bruises. She turned her forearms around and saw that her once glistening skin was now bruised, cut, and bloodied.

From the deepest parts of her being, anger rose and built up in Ria, "GRRRGGHH!! I'LL HAVE YOUR HEAD FOR THIS!!"

"Tsk tsk, such weightless words demigod"

"GRRGGH!"

Ria produced a steady beam of heat from her palm, that looked like a spike.

In disbelief, Lunis said, "Oh, that's new."

Ria ran at Lunis and slashed at her. Her left hand came down diagonally onto Lunis. She stopped Ria's hand from coming down but didn't realize that Ria had materialized another heat blade with her right hand. The blade cut the side of Lunis's stomach. She winced in pain as she backed away from Ria.

"Can't believe she landed a hit on me," Lunis said as she felt the cut on her stomach.

Lunis looked back up and saw that Ria was coming toward her. Ria tossed the beams of heat at Lunis as if they were daggers. She dodged them easily and ran at Ria. Ria saw two yellow, shimmering objects, that she couldn't see clearly, fly at her and impale her in her right thigh. Unable to see the objects clearly, Ria did not put up her anti-kinetic barrier. The objects that had been thrown at her were Lunis's Essence daggers. Ria knelt on the floor as she tried to get the daggers out of her.

She screamed in pain as she struggled to pull them out of her thigh. Ria noticed that Lunis was still running toward her.

"They're so heavy! I can't get them out!" Ria thought as she struggled.

As soon as Lunis came into three feet of Ria, she cocked her hand back, ready to deal a final blow. At that moment, Ria felt everything in slow motion. She saw Lunis bring her hand back and knew that it was going to be the end of her, but she wouldn't let it happen.

In a final attempt at survival, Ria let out all the kinetic energy she had stored and expelled all of it. A huge heat dome originated from Ria and expanded outwards as it burned everything around her in a hundred feet radius. Lunis was caught in the blast and was blown backward, along with Ayar's unconscious corpse, Tytan, and Fera. Off in the distance, her brother, Pudge, witnessed as she activated her failsafe technique.

"So...Ria was forced to use Flare. It seems these people are a lot stronger than we thought."

"Well, I've stood around long enough," Pudge said as he started walking towards the aftermath of Flare.

When he got there, he saw his sister on the ground, unconscious.

"Oh, no. Our Ria, you're so beaten up," then he picked up her body in his arms.

He looked around, in search of his other siblings. It didn't take him long to find Ayar and Tytan. He took both of their bodies as well and picked them up. He had his siblings laid up against a boulder away from the area that Ria had burned moments before. He caressed each of their faces and inspected each of their injuries.

"Oh, look at you. All of you have been through a lot in this fight," he said with a caring tone.

But suddenly, it turned dark, "...But only because you weren't strong enough to win."

"What am I to do, with such useless siblings? Because of your mistakes, I'll have to clean up after you guys."

He stood back up and left behind his injured siblings in search of Lunis. He found her on the floor, unconscious, moments later. He lifted up his foot, which started to glow a radiant yellow and emitted steam, with the intent to finish off Lunis.

From beneath a pile of burnt dirt, Fera emerged and flew at Pudge, and She shoulder bashed him away from Lunis.

"My, my," he said after he picked himself off the ground, "I seem to have forgotten you were here. I guess that's what happens when I'm careless."

Fera ran at him and threw a heavy left hook. She missed as he stepped out of the way but she quickly followed by stabbing her elbow into his side. Next, she kicked the area behind his left knee, which caused him to collapse. When he was on the floor, she brought down both of her hands onto him. Her attack didn't land as Pudge caught it and tossed her away from him. Fera landed on her feet as she looked up at Pudge.

He exhaled a heavy sigh and said, "I hope you're ready for what happens next because this is all your fault for not falling to my siblings earlier."

"Ugh, your voice irritates me," she said while wiping off dirt from her shoulder.

Pudge's forearms and hands changed and began to glow a radiant yellow, like what his foot did earlier. Next, his calves and feet changed as well and were now glowing just like his forearms and hands. The ground beneath him turned black from the heat that came off of his legs.

"Your ability has something to do with heat? Let's see how hot you really are then," insulted Fera.

Pudge thrust out his left hand and launched a long, stream of fire at Fera. Fera ran at the stream of fire without any regard. Before she collided with the stream of fire, she held up both of her forearms and coated them in a material that was similar to what Lunis had done before.

Whatever the material was allowed her to push through the stream of fire, unscathed, and reach Pudge at the other end. She knocked his hand away, subsequently stopping the stream of fire, and held him up by the neck with her left hand. With her other hand, she pummeled his face, but Pudge tried to retaliate as she did. One of Fera's attacks didn't land as Pudge, successfully, blocked it. She retracted her hand and went for his wrist, and brought his hand back down to his side.

With her hand on his neck, she smashed him into the ground. All around them, the ground broke and sank as Fera's attack destroyed the environment.

"Was a little bit of fire all you could do? I'm starting to think your siblings put up more of a fight than you, which wasn't much, to begin with anyway."

Having thought to have knocked out Pudge, Fera let her guard down. Pudge raised his hand and shot a blast of superheated, pressurized air. This blast launched Fera out of the hole she made and onto the ground.

She, shakily, got up and looked down at her abdomen. She was surprised that he was able to actually burn her. She lifted her head and saw Pudge coming out from the hole. As soon as his feet touched the ground, she charged at him. Pudge launched another blast of air at Fera, but Fera spun around the blast. She sped up as she got ever closer to Pudge. With her left hand, she gut-punched Pudge. Quickly, after her gut-punch, she followed up with a powerful right hook to his face.

His body flew across the expanse of the hole Fera made and into a mound. The impact completely shattered the mound and sent pieces of dirt flying everywhere, all varying in size. Fera ran a few feet and then jumped over to the destroyed mound. She couldn't see Pudge's body but started pummeling the pile of dirt anyway. From beneath the pile of dirt, she heard a loud scream.

"RRRAAGGHHH!"

The moment after, Fera saw a bright light come from the pile of dirt before being blown away by an explosion. Pudge emerged after the blast and exhaled a heavy sigh.

"It's all coming to me now, I can feel it!" he shouted in joy.

Fera turned back and saw Pudge hold his arms and hand out. She didn't know what he was doing but wasn't patient enough to find out. She picked herself up and saw Pudge run at her. He lifted up his left arm and shot another stream of fire at Fera. She lifted both of her forearms and coated them in the material before to stop the stream of fire from hurting her. Once the attack was over, she looked around for Pudge. He appeared beneath her with his right hand cocked back.

At the moment that Pudge's fist collided with her side, she thought, "That's hotter than before."

She was blown away by the blow and crashed into the ground. She quickly pushed the rubble out of her face as she saw Pudge approach the hole he had made. Fera's blood quickly began to boil as she thought about how big of a nuisance Pudge was being.

"Is that all little girl? I assumed you could do much more than that!" Pudge screamed in the direction of Fera.

He got closer to the hole and expected to see Fera's body in the middle, instead, he saw a giant silhouette appear from the hole. It smashed into his body and made him fly through multiple hills. He stopped when he crashed into the seventh hill. Pudge sat up slowly and analyzed himself. He saw that his right arm was completely broken and he could not feel anything. His right knee was also dislocated and bent in awkward ways. He knew his ribs must have been broken as well since he had trouble breathing in and out.

Through labored breathing he said, "--W-wha-- --was-- t--tha--?"

He tried to get himself out of the hole but struggled greatly. With every movement, he felt as if his pieces of broken ribs moved in his body. He crawled out with his right leg lagging behind him as he peeked over the edge of the hole. In the distance, he saw something that was massive. It got closer and closer to him and with each step it took, he felt fear start to build within him.

The being came face to face with Pudge and this caused him to hold his breath because he feared that if he did, he would die immediately. The creature raised its giant limb until Pudge couldn't see the sun anymore. In an instant, it brought it's limb down onto Pudge. It squashed him without any resistance and lifted it's limb as it saw a tiny stain of blood that represented the demigod that was once Pudge. It turned around and started walking. As it was walking, the creature was suddenly hit in its side and toppled over. It shook the earth as its body crashed into the ground.

"FERA! Why'd you do that?! Solis is going to know you did something you weren't supposed to do! Change back quickly!!"

From out of the crater of the giant being's body, Fera emerged.

"Geez, that hurt Lunis. I was already punched in the side by the other guy, I didn't need you to do it as well."

"You deserved it," Lunis said sternly.

"But--"

"Enough talk. We've delayed longer than necessary. Let's just clean up the bodies and head back over to Solis."

"Alright, fine," replied Fera in an annoyed tone.

They hurried back over to the spot where Pudge had laid his siblings and erased them. After they did that, they fixed the environment as best they could without the help of Solis. They would have loved to erase the memories of those who had seen them, but without Solis there to aid them, they couldn't do it. They just had to hope that they had fought far away enough that no one could recognize them.

"Hurry, Fera, let's catch up to Solis. We have a place we need to get to."

Fera nodded and the two bolted in the direction that Solis had told them they would be. It had only been a few minutes since Fera and Lunis had started running and they could see Solis's car. Lunis and Fera went around both sides of the car. Lunis tapped the driver's side window, which prompted Solis to roll his window down.

"All done?" he asked.

"Yeah, a little banged up here and there but it was mostly the environment that got destroyed."

"Inevitable but I know you guys cleaned it up. Alright, hop in, we need to get going."

Lunis jogged around the car to the passenger's side and hopped in. Solis, on the other hand, got out and walked around over to Fera. She was in the process of getting into the car but was pulled out quickly by Solis.

"Y-yes? Solis?"

"We need to have a chat, Fera."

"O-of course, what is it you want to talk about?" Fera asked in a nervous voice.

"I know what you did earlier, and I'm worried that might've given the Great Ones a huge hint on our whereabouts."

"Y-yeah, that makes sense...look, I'm sorry Solis, I shouldn't have but--"

Solis cut her off quickly, "No time for sorries, I just don't want you doing that again. If you jeopardize us, you know I'll have to stop you myself."

Fera looked down in shame and replied meekly, "I know, Solis, I'll make sure it doesn't happen again."

Solis rubbed her head and told her, "Alright, now get in, we need to get to Tenacity as fast as we can."

She nodded slowly and quickly got into the car. Solis went back around to the driver's side and pulled the car back onto the road.

Another five hours into their trip, the drivers were switched out. Elise was now the one commandeering the car while Solis took up her position. He dozed off as Muun sat quietly on his lap. Soon, she too closed her eyes and laid back onto Solis, and fell asleep.

Ad, who was in the middle seat, said, "Hehe, Solis looks stupid while he sleeps."

"Shut up Ad, you look dumb too when you sleep," insulted Fera.

This made all of the women in the car laugh. Ad sank back into his seat in embarrassment.

Everyone grew quiet again as they continued down the road. Those who were still awake kept a keen eye for any sign of trouble, and the only thing that kept them company was the hum of the engine and each other.

Three hours had passed and this would be their final switch between drivers. Lunis was again given the privilege of finishing their road trip as she saw the outline of Fortress City. She asked Elise to wake everyone up from their naps. She shook Fera awake first who then woke up Ad, Solis, and Muun.

From the driver's seat Lunis said, "Fortress City is up ahead, Solis, we're here."

Solis opened his eyelids slowly and saw the city before them.

Fortress City truly deserved to be called Fortress City. It's skyscrapers reached so high that they truly were meant to be called skyscrapers. Each individual skyscrapers reached so high it was as if the Earth grew fingers and tried to reach for the heavens. It was getting close to dusk but the sun's light hit the skyscrapers and made the city shine like a dazzling gem.

In the middle of the city, was an all-black skyscraper that put the other ones to shame. Unlike the other scrapers, who were built mainly of glass and very reflective, this one was all black. Sunlight didn't bounce off the building which made it stand out amongst the other buildings.

The smaller buildings beneath them weren't something to ignore either. The smaller buildings, unlike the skyscrapers, were colored in brilliant hues. Not one building had the same color, pattern, or design. Each held its own beauty; ranging from simple grocery stores to massive malls.

Thirty miles away from the city, remnants of a wall could be seen. This surrounded the entirety of Fortress City because long ago it was a city that was fought over in a bloody war. In its place, is now something beautiful and extraordinary.

Lunis drove the car up to a booth, which signified the city's border, so that they could pay their fine for entry.

"Good evening," greeted Lunis.

The man in the booth pulled back the window to talk to Lunis, "Good evening, ma'am, how are you?"

"I'm great," Lunis happily replied.

"Good to hear. It'll be thirty dollars for the entry and may I ask your reason for visiting?"

Lunis quickly pulled out the money and handed it to the man in the office saying, "Oh, my friends and I are here for sightseeing."

The man accepted their payment and told her, "Well I hope you enjoy Fortress. It gets incredibly pretty at night, so hopefully, you stay awake long enough to see the lights."

"We'll try, sir," and she gave the man a small laugh.

Lunis proceeded forward while she waved the man good-bye.

From the back seat, Solis spoke up, "Lunis is driving, you think you can find us a place to stay the night?"

"I'm on it," Elise took her phone out.

When she found one, she showed it to Solis for his approval. He nodded and told Lunis where they need to go. As they wound through the roads of Fortress, Ad and Muun stared in awe of the vibrant city. Muun's eyes flew all around as each of the building's colors caught her attention. This went on for a few minutes until Lunis could find a place for them to park.

The place they had chosen was one of the great skyscrapers of the city. The name they saw plastered on the skyscraper was 'The Vega.' The sign ran down the face of the building in a vertical appearance and was lit up with neon lights of a pink hue.

Solis and them exited the car, along with their luggage, and went into the lobby of the hotel. Inside was extremely swanky as the floor was so well polished it shined. A sheen of gold appeared to be the color scheme of the lobby. The walls were decorated in a way that made it obvious the designers took inspiration from Deco.

Solis approached the person at the front desk, while everyone behind him continued to admire the decor.

"Good evening! Welcome to 'The Vega' do you have a reservation with us?" thus the process of getting a room proceeded.

They exchanged words as Solis asked to reserve their luxury suite. He decided to get it because he didn't want to be separated from his companions in case of an attack, and he wasn't exactly worried about the cost. The person accepted his request and quickly got a room card for him, along with two extras. He said his thanks and turned around to his group. He called Elise and Lunis over to hand them the two spare key cards.

He also called over the younger ones as he had something to say to them, "Listen up, here's the plan, we rest here one day and leave the morning after, we leave. So, tomorrow, take the time to check your stuff and see if there's anything you need. Tell me what and we can go shop for them."

Once he said his piece, he went toward the elevator as everyone followed his lead. The elevator was unbelievably spacious and could easily fit ten people.

They arrived on the eighth out of twelve floors of the hotel. They walked down a hallway of burgundy carpet and took a left at the end of the hallway. They walked all the way to the end of their hallway as their suite occupied the most space.

Solis tapped his key card on the handle and the door automatically swung open. They were met with a rectangular room with abundant spacing. Numerous pieces of furniture were spread throughout the room's laminate floors. They had a television at the very top middle of their room, and on both sides of the television were the tall windows that overlooked the city. At both right and left sides of the room, were doors that led to their bedrooms. The left side of the room had one more door than the right which led to their bathroom.

They split up into two groups one being the three oldest and one with the three youngest. Solis, Lunis, and Elise went through the door on the right side of the room and walked into the expansive bedroom. Two queen-sized beds occupied the space with a large sofa up against the wall of the room to their right.

"You two take the beds, I want to sleep on the sofa," Solis suggested.

"Are you sure Solis? I wouldn't mind if you took one of the beds instead."

"No, Elise, I wouldn't like it. They look too soft for me to sleep properly.:

He didn't give her any time to talk back as he already set down his bags beside the sofa.

"Don't mind him, Elise, he's never been the type of guy to like comfort," Lunis said with a giggle.

"Well, that's good to know, at least it means I know a little more now about Solis," and Elise giggled back.

The two ladies set their bags down beside the beds and turned around to Solis.

"Solis we're going to change now so could you leave the room for a minute?" Elise asked politely.

Solis looked over at them and said, "Give me a second let me change first."

"W-wait! W-what a-are you d-doing?!" screamed Elise.

Before Solis could take off his shirt, he told her, "Relax, Elise, I'm not doing anything bad. If you're so embarrassed then just look away."

"O-oh, yeah, I'll do that then."

Elise turned around while Solis changed out of his clothes. She looked around the room trying to distract herself but saw that Lunis hadn't turned around.

"Give him some privacy!" She screamed at Lunis.

Lunis paid no mind to Elise and continued unpacking her things. Elise tried to forcefully turn Lunis around by twisting her shoulders, but instead, had caught a glimpse of Solis's upper body.

He wasn't anything special, in fact, he just looked like your average guy. He had some muscle definition but that's not what caught her attention. It was the unnatural smoothness of his brown skin, despite the fact that his body was covered in scars. Aside from the scar you could see from his neck, he had multiple on his body.

Three giant gashes ran diagonally across his chest. Solis turned around and revealed more scars. On his shoulder blades were scars that ran vertically down his back. Another scar could be seen that started from the area beneath his right bicep and ran down diagonally to the left of his body. There was one scar that caught Elise's attention, it was in the middle of his back, so she decided to ask him about it.

"S-solis, what is that big scar on your back, if you don't mind telling me that is."

Solis said something but wasn't loud enough for Elise to hear.

"I-I couldn't catch that."

"It's not a scar, it's my birthmark. My name was inspired by it."

"Your name?" She questioned.

"My parents told me my birthmark resembled the sun. That's why 'Sol' is in my name."

When Solis explained his birthmark Elise looked at his birthmark again and realized it did look like the sun.

"That's really cool," Elise said aloud.

Solis put on the black shirt he set out for himself which broke the trance Elise was in.

"I'll finish changing in the bathroom. I'll leave now so you guys get the chance to change."

Lunis started changing but Elise wanted to take a shower first before she did. She asked Lunis if she was going to bathe first before going.

"Hey, do you want to use the shower before me?"

"Nah, I'm fine, you can go ahead, Elise."

Elise left and went over to the bathroom. To her surprise, there were two shower spaces that were separated by opaque glass and sliding doors. She expected only one showering space and was, instead, pleasantly surprised. She didn't go into the shower rooms because she remembered that Solis was in one of them and didn't want to catch him off-guard. So, just in case, she stayed where she was and shouted for him.

"Solis which shower room are you in?"

"In this one!" Solis's muffled shouting could be heard from the right shower room.

"I thought you were just changing!" she shouted back.

"I decided to take a shower!"

The conversation ended there and Elise hopped into the shower to the left. She stripped and started washing.

Solis wasn't one to stay long in the shower so after a minute he was back out in the living room with a new set of clothes. He decided to check in on the other room and saw their three youngest enjoying themselves.

"Hey, Fera, you guys doing alright?"

His intrusion interrupted her reading and she looked up at him and nodded.

Ad laid on the bed with his eyes glued on the television inside their room. Solis knew he didn't have to worry about him and shifted his eyes over at Muun who was sitting down on her bed, looking out their window.

"Muun you doing fine?"

"Yeah, don't worry about me, Solis," she gave him her signature smile.

Before exiting, he told them, "Alright, well, if you need me, I'll be on the sofa in the living room."

The door shut behind him as he slumped down onto the couch and stared out the window. Having no interest in television, Solis sat on the couch and watched as the lights of the city began to turn on. Everywhere, buildings lit up and made the city glow in the night. As far as the eye could see was an ocean of lights. To Solis, it was very mesmerizing and oddly calming.

His focus shifted to a giant, brass clock that hung on a wall nearby, "Ten after nine huh?" said Solis.

His focus shifted again when he heard the door to his left open. From the door, emerged Muun in her nightclothes.

"Solis?" she asked.

"Yes? Is there something you need Muun?"

"No, nothing really, can I just sit next to you?"

"Of course," Solis slapped the space beside him to signal Muun over.

She walked over to him and sat closely next to him. She buried her head in his chest as he wrapped his arm around her.

"Muun, I can tell when you lie you know?" Solis said suddenly.

"W-what do you mean?" She asked as she looked up at Solis.

"Look at you, you have tears building up in your eyes," Solis used his right hand to wipe away a tear.

"Don't hold it in, Muun, rely on me, I'm here for you."

The little girl's mouth started quivering and she quickly started sobbing.

Through her tears, she said, "I-it h-hurts, I-I h-had to s-say g-goodbye t-to my p-parents a-again, S-Solis. I-I loved t-them s-so m-much."

"I'm sorry you had to go through that, Muun, I understand how you feel," Solis began stroking Muun's head.

"I'll get Lunis, you can talk to her a little bit," he got up to leave but Muun clung tightly to his sleeve, which prevented him from leaving. He sat back down shortly after.

Solis readjusted himself and pulled Muun in closer to him as he let her tears soak his shirt.

"T-thank y-you for b-being t-the b-big b-brother I've n-never h-had. I l-love y-you S-Solis."

"Of course, Muun, I love you too," Solis leaned back and stroked Muun's head in an effort to comfort her.

Solis sat there with Muun for a while and allowed the girl to grieve. He was uncomfortable as her sniffles caused him to grow angry but he knew he couldn't do anything about it. He was angry at himself that his decision to leave caused Muun to cry but he knew if she didn't want to come she would've said so, or so he hoped.

He drowned out his surrounding as he focused on the girl who laid on his chest who was pouring her sad heart out. He looked over at the clock and saw that it was now ten in the evening. He wouldn't forgive himself if he fell asleep on Muun, so he decided he wouldn't go to sleep until she was fine.

Solis didn't know how much time had passed since then, but Muun was a bit quieter now and her sniffles had died down.

Solis used a hand and shook her shoulder asking, "Muun, you okay?"

He didn't get a response, but her sniffles continued, and decided to try again. She didn't answer but she was still sniffling. Solis concluded that the poor girl cried her self to sleep.

Solis got up slowly, careful not to wake Muun, and got up from the sofa. He slowly picked her body up and laid it up against a pillow while covering her with a blanket. A tear streaked down her face and glittered in the moonlight that caught Solis's attention. He wiped it away and began stroking her head again.

The sight reminded him of his actual sister when she was younger and a lot less bold. He smiled as he reminisced and noticed that he too started crying. He wiped away his own tear and straightened himself up. He left Muun's side and went back into his own bedroom, but not with the intention to sleep. Instead, he changed into an all-black outfit and donned the black mask he had brought.

Solis looked at his two lady roommates sound asleep in their beds and exited the room. He passed by the couch Muun was on one more time before he left to go do something. He left their suite as quietly as he could and started walking down the hall, in search of a staircase. He walked around a bit before finding one and started walking up.

Not much time passed before Solis found himself at the top of the tall hotel overlooking the city below him. He walked over to the edge and sat down while dangling his feet. Solis looked at the space beneath him and saw that there were a lot of people there.

"Can't go there can I?" He thought to himself.

Solis got up and walked around the roof until he could find a space where there wasn't a lot of people. As expected, for a city, like the one he was in, he would be hard-pressed to find a place not extremely populated. As a last resort, he walked over to a corner of the roof and climbed down. He hung on with a hand as he surveyed for a nearby rooftop to land on. Once he found his target he let go.

The air that rushed against his face made him feel alive and got him excited. He neared the rooftop of an alcoholic establishment and began to slow his descent. He landed softly onto the roof and looked around. What he was looking for was some mischievous activity. What he had to experience with Muun earlier had caused anger to build up inside him and he wanted a place to put that anger. He listened all around the city as he hopped from roof to roof in his search for illegal activity.

It wasn't until he reached the outskirts of the city, away from all the lights, that he heard something suspicious. The noise came from behind him, so that's where he decided to go. He landed atop a small eatery's roof and looked over the edge. In the secluded alley, Solis saw a chubby man pin a thinner man up against the wall with a knife to his neck.

Solis didn't hesitate, immediately jumping down behind the chubby man. He punched the man into a trash bin and angrily signaled at the other man to run away.

"HEY! Who do you think you are?!" The chubby man exclaimed while he held his reddened cheek.

He lunged at Solis with the knife and stabbed him. The man was satisfied as he felt his knife lodge itself into Solis's stomach.

The man chuckled as he twisted the knife, trying to cause more pain. He looked up and expected to see a fearful face but was sorely disappointed. What he saw instead was his own reflection in the black eyes of Solis's mask.

"Is that all?" Were the words that left Solis's mouth.

"I let you hit me, but is that all that pain you can give me?! IS THAT ALL?! Of course, it is! I don't know why I got my hopes up over a human!!"

Solis took his left hand and crushed the man's wrist. He fell onto his knees from the sudden pain he experienced and let out a painful scream.

"I wanted more from you, do you know how painful it was to see Muun cry, human?! Do you?! She's like a sibling to me, do you know how helpless I felt, knowing I couldn't help her?!?!!"

Solis applied more pressure onto the man's wrist. He forcefully tried to remove Solis's hand but failed miserably.

"L-listen... I-I don't know what you're talking about, please just let me go. I-I'm sorry I hurt you," pleaded the man.

"Of course you wouldn't..."

Solis took his other hand and broke the man's other wrist. He let out another blood-curdling scream and almost fainted. He slumped down, while Solis held him up by his wrists, and let his head hang.

"Please let me go," he begged.

Solis moved behind the man and crushed his right knee. The man let out another scream and finally fainted.

Solis bent over and picked up the body by its neck and said, "Useless trash...Go rot away in the desert."

Solis cocked his hand back and tossed the man far away. He followed the body as it went beyond the city's boundaries and landed heavily onto the ground.

Solis turned around and felt very displeased, "That wasn't enough," he told himself.

Solis hopped out of the city and just started running. He had no specific destination except for a plateau that had caught his eye. He ran full speed towards it and jumped onto the top. He slowed himself down as he walked towards the middle of the plateau.

Back in the city, the citizens were enjoying the nightlife as it was about to hit its peak. People everywhere enjoyed themselves whether it was gambling at casinos, partying, karaoke, or a myriad of other activities. Smiles were on everyone's faces as they enjoyed the company of their companions and drank the night away. No one ever thought that their fun could be stopped.

A chilling roar reverberated through the air as it stopped the city dead in its tracks and caught everyone's attention. Dealers stopped dealing, people stopped partying and drinking. Everyone was frozen in fear. The hairs on their body stood on end and each one of them felt that if they moved an inch, they would lose their lives.

Some collapsed underneath the mysterious pressure while others had wet themselves. Slowly, the citizens began moving again. They cleaned themselves up and decided that they would all go home. Every building in the city emptied out quickly, and everyone returned home. They locked the doors in fear for their lives.

Back on the plateau, Solis made a vast crater in its center after he let out a roar. Solis fell onto his back as he looked back up at the stars, and it wasn't long before the sandman took away his consciousness. Before his consciousness completely left him, a tear fell from his face as he fell asleep. He hoped that he would be granted a dream in where he could genuinely smile again.

Unbeknownst to him, Elise had actually followed him out into the desert and had hidden in the plateau's shadow. Solis's cry caught her breath as she began to breathe shallow breaths. She held her chest tightly and prayed that it was a moment she would never have to experience again in the future.