Reality

"How are you doing?" WR-09 asked. his tone was menacing and the question was rhetorical.

Ice said nothing in return. He just smirked - "Aperire Infurnum". Blades if steel grew from his arms through his flesh and blood gushed out along with it.

" Ooh.. that looks like it'll leave a mark..."

"No.. It won't..." Ice said as he began his dash towards Robert. As the blood gushed our of his hand it turned to ice freezing everything behind him. He swung his right arm, angling it towards Robert's face. The blade was two inches away from the face of Wilde before he stepped back and uttered the same words - "Aperire Infurnum". The ground beneath Ice began to move away from Robert and Ice fell down have lost his concentration. He wasn't really surprised by the opening of another gate to Bell but he sure as hell seemed pissed.

He got up and retracted the blades from his fists and the wound healed almost instantly. He walked slowly to Robert and whispered something in his ear after which he jumped back. Robert answered with a serious tone to him, but the voice was too low to be recognized. Levia however stood a feet away from them and could make out only a few words from their conversation - 'Is...She alive?'. The answer on the other hand wasn't audible even to Levia.

" Who's The girl" Wilde asked as his playful expression returned. Again he expected no answer.

ice stretched his right arm towards Robert. His arm tore apart, blood scattered onto the ground and his nails flew away from what was supposedly his hand. Our of the carcass came a larger hand, The size of a tree, made of nothing but fire.

"You can't affect me Christopher... I alter reality itself..."

.....

_A few minutes ago_

At the Tabulus, Silas and Walker walked through the well designed walls of the building. Around them were people who's faces would appear in the wanted section of the newspaper almost everyday. With a large enough force all of them could've been arrested. Silas could only wonder as to why the government refused to make a move against them.

At the center of the hall was the reception. The receptionist was a well dressed man in his twenties - white shirt, red tie and a black sleeveless suit. He looked like a bartender at first. Walker and Silas walked over.

"Hey there Al..." Walker began. Silas stood behind him and didn't really pay attention to what Walker was saying. Instead he scanned the area and made a rough assimilation as to how much money he would get by capturing everyone in the room.

"Walker.." The receptionist replied nonchalantly. He was writing notes, bills and bounties on a sheet of paper.

"I need to know about a bounty hunter - A steel control mage..."

Bartender stopped writing. "There exists no mage that has a steel control ability and taken a job from Tabulus. And even if he did wouldn't tell you... The terms privacy in Tabulus is very strict after all..." He said as he rested his chin on his wrists, leaning towards Walker and Silas. "But I don't control what other people in this building say..."

Walker smirked. "You sly a**hole" He muttered to himself.

"So... what did he say." Silas asked

"We've pretty much hit a dead end. the only thing we can try now is to ask the Hunters in this room to see if they know anything...." Walker replied.

"What do you mean by dead end?"

"The Tabulus authorities can't tell us anything.... The only thing I heard is that a steel control mage has never taken a bounty from the Tabulus."

"So all we can do is ask around until we get lucky?" Silas asked disappointed.

"Yep" Walker replied. There wasn't much disappointment on his face. "And a word of caution - Don't mention the government, at any point of time, for any reason..."

Silas nodded.

They looked around for a few seconds until they found their prey - An assassin. He stood by the wide board that attached over the entire wall, looking for jobs he could get. Unknowingly Walker and Silas had hit the right nail at their very first run. The assassin was none other than Burges.

"Hello..." Walker said having walked over. "I'm Walker.." He said pointing at himself "And this here is Silas...."

Burges said nothing in reply.

"So... We were looking for a steel control mage, a bounty hunter perhaps?" Walker continued.

"No idea"

"What about Warmenier Equus?"

Burges flinched for a second. "You mean the noble who died recently?"

Silas noticed the flinching. He said nothing but his suspicion grew. They both nodded.

"What about him?"

"We need to find the bounty hunter who killed him." Silas answered. "We'll offer a proper sum of money in return for information of course."

"Don't know about him" Burges replied.

Walker's eyebrows furrowed. "Look we aren't going to do anything to him... He only has something that we need.. or to be precise, something we had.."

Burges remembered the girl. 'Could she be the one they were talking about?'

Burges took Ice in around five years ago. Ice was beaten up and crying. bis face was covered with blood but also with grief and loss. Burges himself was a well known assassin at that time, better known as the two-blade murderer. He was Ice's mentor and a foster parent at that. If Ice had brought the girl home, he'd brought her for a reason. Although he didn't know of his history, Be believed in Ice.

"Well how about it?" Walker questioned. "The hunter is all we need..". He showed a bag of coins.

" You guys... you're from the government!" Burges shouted at the top of his voice. The faces in the hall all turned toward Silas and Walker. They prepared for battle.

Whoever they were, even if they weren't from the government, the crowd of people attacking the two would give him enough time to escape. If the name of the government was muttered even once in the vicinity of Nigra Forum you'd find yourself gaining some unwanted attention and cold gazes.

"That right Burges?" One of them asked.

"Ya' lowly scum, the hell ya' doin' 'ere?!" Another yelled.

Walker and Silas had no choices right now. However they knew that this man was either related to or was in fact the hunter. "Burges.. huh?" Walker muttered.

"Looks like we'll have to fight." Silas added.

The group swarmed around The two but the battle was cut short due to a loud noise that reverberated through the building. They all hurried out forgetting their previous conflict, oy to find two massive hands of fire and ice a few miles away.

Burges bad already run away from the Tabulus but was close enough to witness the arms. *What the hell are you doing... Ice!*