Chapter 2:

A New Mission

The Hunters Duality


*Author note* I have made a TikTok (called Yuto_104) for my story where I’ll post chapter sneak peaks, character intros and profiles along with some other things so please follow it if you enjoy my story. Now I hope you enjoy the chapter.

When Honō exited the large Sterling family manor he was greeted by the sight of the large rose garden that accompanied both sides of the path from the door of the manor to the gates that met gear street.

The rose garden had dozens of differently coloured roses arranging from bright scarlet reds to deep ocean blues. There were multiple white archways over the path towards the gates each covered in the gardens most vibrant and colourful array of roses.

As Honō walked down the path to large metallic gates that entered gear street, he looked up at the sky to see the large sweltering sun warming it without a cloud in sight.

Honō sighed as he walked through the large silver gates as it had been two weeks since his last day off. While walking down gear street he began to take note of how busy the street was with the pleasant weather.

The busiest building of the day on gear street of all was unsurprisingly the spider themed ice cream parlour known as Rom’s vacuous scoops. It gained its spider theming from the fact that the owner Rom himself had an aether that allowed him to grow extra arms.

Honō was quite found of the parlour as it was his favourite hang out spot to go to when with Witz and Midas as it was the only place able to satiate Witz’s sweet tooth while being cheap enough for Midas to afford. For Honō himself he was more found of warm treats like apple tart and heated custard.

Remembering the fun times that him and his friends had in parlour made him decide that he would invite his colleagues to hang out whenever they next all get a day off.

After walking for a few more minutes, he finally reached the crossroads connecting gear street, cog wheel road which was to the left, washer street in front and iron bolt road to the right. Honō turned right onto iron bolt road to continue his walk to the Guild headquarters.

Iron bolt road was a much quieter road compared to the popular gear street which homed iconic stores such as Beats Eternal the largest music shop franchise in the continent which sold instruments, records and mix tapes while iron bolt roads only notable building was the famous Meka guild headquarters.

Not long after turning onto iron bolt road did Honō find himself in front of the large guild headquarters and it’s attaching buildings which consisted of many different accomities. The accomities consisted of a large library open to the public filled with knowledge on the nation of Echilia’s history and music, other nations and general knowledge. Multiple large training arenas for guild members to train their aether abilities and overall combat prowess. Then most notably the guilds two state of the art laboratories, one of which was on each side of the headquarters, each with different purposes.

The laboratory of the left side was used for research of aether, biology and medicine while the laboratory of the right side was used for development of technological advancement, equipment for guild personnel and chemical engineering.

Honō grabbed the long gold bar that acted as the handle for the dark oak double doors leading into the reception room of the guild and began to pull them open, causing the aged hinges of the doors to cry.

… Creeeaaaaakkkkkkkkk

After opening the double doors and entering the reception room he was greeted by the sight of the two lovely receptionists Sue Pennyworth and the mostly likely soon-to-be Kaitlyn Sterling sitting behind the desk with only a black phone, a fancy black pen with gold accents, a azure vase with withering flowers and piles of paperwork along with the day's newspaper sitting on it.

Both the receptionists wore their usual work attire of similar looking dresses with white frills of the wrists and above the chest going around the top of the shoulders topped off with a bow at the neck that matched the dresses colour. The only real difference between the two dresses was the colour, Kaitlyn wore a brown that matched the colour of her hair while Sue wore a blue a few shades darker than her eyes

When Honō entered the room Kaitlyn flashed a warm smile which was accompanied by a small wave while Sue was occupied giving a death stare towards her brother Midas who was sulking in the corner of the room behind the doors.

The reception room wasn’t a very large room as it served as only an entrance to the guild thus having only the receptionist's desk and four doors leading to all the different facilities, one door on the left wall leading to the library and the research laboratory, one door on the right wall leading to the training arenas and the laboratory of technology, and finally the two doors on each side of the wall behind the receptionist desk leading to the rest of the guild headquarters which contained mostly rooms for mission briefings, break rooms and offices for the leader of the guild along with the deputy head of the guild.

“Morning everyone” loudly spoke Honō as he returned the wave to Kaitlyn.

“Morning Honō, how are you?” Returned Kaitlyn currently being the most sociable of the two guild receptionists.

“I’m good, how are you” asked Honō as he closed the dark oak double doors behind him.

“That’s good, I’m ok myself how’s Klein?” Questioned Kaitlyn getting to what she really wanted to ask.

“Im only in the door and you already are asking about him, am I only a way for you to stalk your boyfriend” joked Honō as he noticed Midas hiding in the corner after following the direction of Sue’s death stare.

“Gasp… no I’d never,” laughed Kaitlyn raising a hand to her face to fake a gasp.

Sue distracted from her death stare by the laughing finally realised that Honō had entered the guild.

“Oh, hi Honō never noticed you coming in” greeted Sue now smiling as she turned away from the direction Midas was in.

“Hello Sue, I’m sorry did I distract you from staring the soul out of Midas again?” Asked Honō sarcastically.

“Yeah, he’s lucky I only lectured him” scoffed Sue as she gave a sour side eye towards Midas.

“Lucky my ass you demon-” started Midas jumping up from his corner before getting hit back into it by a Sue who was using her aether ability “invisible hand” to grab the newspaper sitting on the desk and throw it at him discreetly with force.

“As I said lucky” smiled Sue as her eyes narrowed and temple bulged as she turned her gaze to her brother while slowly tilting her head.

“Ya … lucky” chucked Honō as he looked over at Midas in his cheap black coat with expensive looking gold accents and mismatched black and white gloves.

After looking back over at the two receptionists Honō focused his attention on Kaitlyn before pulling out the red vibrant rose with its singular green leaf that Klein had gave him and speaking as he handed it over to Kaitlyn. “Before I forget here’s a present from Klein”

“Oh, thanks for delivering it to me Honō” thanked Kaitlyn as she placed it into the azure vase before taking out the previous wilted flowers that sat in it.

“No problem” replied Honō as he saw a smile spread over Kaitlyn’s face.

Seconds after Honō finished talking the door leading to the laboratory of technology on the right of the reception slowly pulled open as a white haired girl in her early twenties walked through it into the room with a loud yawn.

“Oh, morning Honō” yawned the white haired girl slightly surprised.

“Morning Witz seeing as you’re out of the lab I’m guessing you’ve either ran out of music and about to head over to Beats Eternal oorrrrr you have a mission and I’m gonna need another coffee” greeted Honō sarcastically as he looked over at Witz.

Witz was the daughter of Armatura Meka the leader of both the Meka guild and the nation of Echilia. She wore old black trousers oil and grease stains noticeable in spots, a dirty green turtleneck top with long sleeves and a worn black coat. A small set of headphones sat around her neck with a wire running down to an old cassette player that was given to her by her mother when she was young.

“You better get brewing another coffee because I have a mission” replied Witz slightly peeved by his joke.

“M-me to” spoke Midas’s trembling voice in the corner of the room.

“Oh, so the three of us then are on this mission probably” assumed Honō shocked as he had guessed Midas was only here to break the news of his losses to his sister.

“Well, we better head up and get the briefing over with then” sighed Witz who had been hoping for a solo mission.

“Ya” spoke Honō as him and Witz walked toward the left door behind the two receptionists before looking back towards Midas “you coming Midas?”

“Depends, is the demon still staring me down?” Asked Midas sheepishly referring to his sister.

“Why? Would there be an issue if I was. Brother” spoke Sue more than angered.

“Nope!” Squirmed Midas as hopped out of the corner and over to Honō and Witz.

“Well then, we’ll be back in a few minutes when the brief is over” laughed Honō as he, Midas and Witz walked through the door and into the main hall.

The main hall was large and mostly bronze coloured with stairs leading four floors high with a glass dome atop it all. Columns spread throughout the hall supporting the floors above.

The bottom floor was filled with doors leading to briefing rooms and a large archway leading into the cafeteria. The second and third floors contained only more briefing rooms, the accountant's office and medical bay. The fourth floor contained six large meeting rooms along with the guild leaders, Armatura’s office and the deputy guild leader, Polly’s office.

The main hall would usually have been busy with a few dozen guild members working but with the increase of beast activity it was practically empty.

After entering the main hall, they began walking up the stairs in relative silence towards an unoccupied briefing room on the third floor. When Honō, Witz and Midas entered the room, they were welcomed by Armatura and Polly talking about the need of more staff around the guild to combat the current increase in work.

“Oh, looks like you all finally arrived” spoke Polly with a judgemental, indifferent expression on her fair skinned face only slightly covered by dark green bangs and parts of her short hair curling towards her cheeks.

Honō looked at the clock at the back of the room, “we’re on time you know Polly” he spoke before taking a seat along with Midas and Witz.

“Well anyway I’ll be taking my leave now” responded Polly not caring for Honō reply.

As Polly walked to leave the room Armatura who had sat quietly called out “don’t forget to let that newbie, Lilith, know she reached grade nine.”

“I know” replied Polly unfazed as she left the room.

Grades ranging from 10 to 1 with special people being declared 0 was how guilds ranked their members. The lower your number the more achievements you’ve achieved within your guild. Honō himself was only grade 5 after 4 years working in the guild while Witz and Midas were grade 6 after roughly 3 and a half years each in the guild.

“So, it’s you dad giving us the brief?” Inquired Witz somewhat surprised but not entirely shocked by it.

“Yes, as you know we are fairly short staffed these days due to the increase of activity lately, so I’m left as the only one actually available to do this briefing” explained Armatura as he pulled out the documents containing the information on the mission and took the pare of small reading glasses from his left most pocket of his black waist coat.

“So, what treat level is this mission” Midas asked before Armatura could even get his glasses on.

“If you wait, I’ll get there in a second, Pennyworth” replied Armatura as he fixed his glass and began to read.

“A pack of around 30 wolves, estimated to be unable to use aether leading us to assume their grade C, were spotted near Zallo village at the boarder of the forest. We haven’t spotted the pack leader yet, but if we are to assume it’s like most other cases as of late it is most likely a grade A hence why we are sending at least two grade 6 and a grade 5 member to deal with it. It’s also a treat level of 2 outta 5.”

Beasts like guild members were also awarded a grade. A beast's grade ranged from D to A with then S to those with enough power to level a city. Grade D and C were given to those without the abilities to use aether as even though all life that contained souls possessed aether not all life had the ability to tap into their aether.

Grade B was any beast capable of using aether and Grade A was a beast capable of using aether to a high degree. Grade A and B were mostly seen as leaders or most packs or groups of aether beast.

The threat level also corresponded to the beast grades anything in low numbers and low grade were a 0 out of 5 on the threat level while a grade B by itself was a 1 and a grade A was a 2 on the scale. In the astronomic chances of a grade S appearing outside the great forest it would be a 4 or 5 on the scale.

“I see so not much different then the last few we’ve had” pointed out Honō with a hand gesture.

“Ya, but hey shouldn’t be that hard plus I get to test out some tech” stated Witz somewhat bored.

“I dibs the grade C wolves, one of you two can fight the grade A” exclaimed Midas in confident cowardice.

Armatura sighed before speaking “try get this mission done as fast as you can preferably before the end of the week”

“Sounds pretty doable right guys” asked Honō looking over at Witz and Midas.

“Ya should be” answered Witz wanting to get it over with already.

“Yep” joined Midas with a sceptical smile.

“Right then we’ll go in two hours” announced Honō standing up.

“Sure” agreed both Witz and Midas, each standing up to leave.

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V.3

The Hunters Duality


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