chapter 4

The moment Leonard channeled his corrupted power onto the corpse of the overgrown canine monstrosity, the corrupted power burrowed into it body like worms and it veins began to glow with unholy power.

"What is he doing?" one of the masked people asked Ryuji.

"From the look of it, I guess he wanted a pet dog." the trap replied in a half-hearted manner.

The reply only confused the people their further- strangely enough, they are seen to forget about the group of Cerberus that Leonard has raised as his minion previously, they were too focused onto him and completely oblivious of their surrounding.

It was only until one person pointed out that a pack of vicious mutated dog was staring them silently on one side that they're finally freaked out.

"Umm, boss...are we going to be chow once these things get hungry?" one of them asked the stubborn leader out of fear.

"How should I know? You should ask them if they're hungry or not!" the leader grindy voice felt like he or she was grinding their teeth as they spat out those words.

The answer promptly shut that person up and brought their attention back to the scene of the giant glowing canine that was in front of Leonard.

"It's ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE!!!-muahahaha!!!" Leonard was laughing like an evil villain/doctor Frankenstein witnessing his creation come into life.

The monster that was previously terrorized them slowly stood up listlessly on it four limbs, it "mouth" was dropped and hanging down like vines, no longer whipping around crazily as it did just roughly an hour ago.

"Retract that mouth," Leonard ordered the creature to close that mess which it calls a mouth.

Upon hearing the command, the giant Cerberus pulled in the tentacles mess and returned to it normal dog-like snout.

"Good boy, now sit there and wait for me," he ordered before turning back to the group of masked people who stood root in their spot, watching in horror.

"Take me to your "survivor" enclave, I'm curious." he glanced at them for a moment, before turning to the big puppy that was sitting and waiting patiently for his command behind him.

"We could do this the easy way- or the hard way, your choice- yes I am threatening you, suck it up...but please, feel free to pick the hard way." he grinned.

For a moment there, Ryuji who was on the sideline watching the show quietly could swear that he heard the group of people gulping down a mouthful of saliva as they look at Leonard.

Needless to say, they decide to go for the smart option of not suffering.

*****

The masked people lead Leonard and Ryuji further south and out of the wooded area, the walk was roughly about an hour from the location where they had their first contact.

Finally, they came into a small clearing of what seems like a small little town ahead with wall separated the wilderness and the "civilization" within

"So, this is the survivor's enclave that you guys are talking about? Look shabby enough." Leonard commented on the wall before his eyes.

Crudely built from rusted metal sheets and other scraps, bind with nails, woods and stones bricks, some section is riled with bullets holes and splattered with dried black blood.

"Well sorry if it doesn't meet your standard, we have to make do with what we had," the leader told Leonard in an annoyed tone of voice.

"Also, if you don't mind, please leave your...pets outside, in order to not scare the civilians within, things could get out of hand quickly if they took you people as a threat...I know you're likely going to be just fine- but I don't want the innocent to die." the leader added.

"Also, let me do the talking, the gatekeepers know who I am, so it won't be a problem getting you two in- I can trust that you won't do anything crazy right?" the leader asked Leonard- specifically for Leonard.

"...do I look like the type to go gun blazing on every little incident?" he asked.

The leader didn't answer and directly went to the large rusted gate and bang on it repeatedly with a fist while calling for the people within to open up.

"Who is it?" a muffled voice called out from an opening on the side of the rusted gate.

"It's me, open up- oh right forgot that I'm wearing a filtering mask, give me a second." the leader unstrapped the gas mask leather strapping and slowly taking it off.

The face beneath the gas mask shocked Leonard.

The face of the leader was revealed to be a beautiful woman, who look to be in her late twenty, short dark black hair and pale skin- probably from over using the protective gear to cover herself up.

"Jeanne's here, I'm back from patrol, also encountered two survivors out in the outskirt of the radioactive wasteland ruined, requesting for entry." the leader- who name was Jeanne called to the person who was acting as the gatekeeper from behind the rusted metal doorway.

"Give me a moment, stand back- I'm opening it now." the muffled voice called from behind the rusted door, telling her to steer clear of it as he was pulling up the gate.

The rusted gate creaked open with a deafening sound of metal scraping against one another.

"Come on, follow me closely." Jeanne turned around and called for Leonard and Ryuji, also the rest of her group as well.

She then notices that Leonard was gawking at her with eyes and mouth wide open.

"What's with that face?" she asked seeing that Leonard was acting like a fool.

"You're a woman?" he asked her dumbly.

"Just because I lead a group of militant into the wilderness you thought that I was some ragged hardball vicious and overly macho mercenary?" her brow twitched.

"I did not say any of those words." Leonard feigned ignorance.

"But those words previously implied that." she glared at him before turned around and strode quickly into the settlement.

"From the look of it, she seems to hate your guts, brother." Ryuji went forward and patted him on the shoulder.

"Who the hell is your brother? The last person I want to be comfort from was an ancient trap ancestor of mine, calling himself my brother." Leonard could only be described as he seems to had swallowed a fly.

******

Somewhere in the unprotected void universe, on a dark planet shrouded by a dense layer of dark stormy cloud that crackled with purple lightnings.

The landscape itself could only be describe with one word- Hellish.

The world itself was dead, toxic atmosphere that could kill a man before he could count to three.

However, within this world- there was no human to begin with.

This world was inhabited by savage beasts that had adapted and thrived within this environment.

In a large fortress made of steel.

"So… have you discover the one who had the competitor imprint?" a large being who stood roughly three meters with black mane-like hair, burning red eyes and a ferocious face donned in heavy armor roared out toward the dark hallway that was in front of him while he was petting a lizard like savage beast.

A lean and short humanoid revealed himself through disabling a cloaking device.

"Yes, your majesty- I've indeed discovered him, I also had dragged him into a lone planet in the dark universe, by my estimation- we had roughly thirty days take the imprint from him." the mysterious man reported to the monster before his eyes.

"Hahahaha!!! Today is indeed a good day! Go, your jobs is done- I shall take over this operation personally." the giant figure grinned, revealing sharp white teeth.

"That god imprint, shall be mine."