Chapter 412: Those Who Once Poached

Chapter 412: Those Who Once Poached

Narrator: Continuing with Miranda.

*Miranda is hopping from rooftop to rooftop and Rayna sees her*

Rayna: Hmm. Who is that woman? Someone worth keeping an eye on?

***

Narrator: Meanwhile with Zeth and Sahsa.

*Meanwhile, Zeth and Sasha swim through the high water but the waves and the strong force of the water make that difficult*

Zeth: Damn it, Joe! You need to end this!

Sasha: Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it’s about to get any better.

*A massive wave is heading right for them*

Zeth: That’s not good!

*Zeth releases a Star Shine Blast at the wave but it just pushes through the wave without disrupting it and explodes when it hits a building*

Sasha: There’s nothing we can do to stop it!

Zeth: Oh shiiiiiiiittt!!!!

*The wave crashes on top of Zeth and Sasha and pushes them under the water. Zeth encounters a zombie underwater and kicks it in the face a bunch of times to keep it away*

*Zeth finally emerges from the water elsewhere and takes a gasping breath before looking around*

Zeth: Sasha!? Sasha, where are you!?

*Not getting a response, Zeth gets frustrated and screams*

Zeth: Joe! Stop this now!!!!

*Finally, Sasha emerges from the water nearby and gasps for air. Zeth looks relieved*

Zeth: There you are…

*Zeth swims towards Sasha*

Zeth: We need to get out of this water soon. Divine or not, we are not well equipped for water.

Sasha: But how? There is no beast that I have the capability to summon that could handle these waters. Not even my Hell Shark.

???: Looks like you could use some help.

*Zeth and Sasha are alerted to that voice and look over to a building rooftop to see two figures*

Zeth: No way…

*The two people are Raider and Easia (Author’s Note: They were the only two poachers to survive the Poacher Arc.). They now look middle-aged. Raider is still skinny with long legs and long gray hair. Easia still has her pink hair though it is slightly longer than its previous shoulder length. She is still missing her left arm after it was cut off in her battle with Kurt*

Zeth: The poachers!?

Raider: Obviously not poachers anymore.

*Raider uses his magic to grow moth wings and flies down towards Zeth and Sasha. He grabs them and then flies them back to the rooftop*

Raider: It’s been years… many years since we fought, hasn’t it, Zeth? Though, of course, I did say that I had a feeling we would meet again.

Zeth: I’m surprised you even recognize me at this point.

Easia: It would be hard not to recognize you. Many people in this city learned you were the son of the Light Goddess.

Zeth: What do you mean? Have you been here all this time?

Raider: That is correct.

Sasha: But why?

Easia: We were given 15-year prison sentences.

Raider: Which was probably a low number of years for the crimes we committed but that is still a lot of years. When you spend that amount of time locked up, you start to reflect on your life. Easia seemed reformed almost immediately but it took a lot of time for me. Over time, I changed. I didn’t want to be the piece of shit that I was before anymore.

Easia: Even after being released, we still had to do 3 years of community service. During those 3 years, we grew to love this city.

Raider: We ended up deciding to live in this city.

*Easia looks out into the distance*

Easia: And now we want to protect this city.

Raider: The only problem is we are not sure what exactly is happening. All we know is that those that are not magically strong are becoming purple zombies.

Zeth: We know what’s going on. Let us fill you in.

***

Narrator: Meanwhile with Emily, Joe, and Keith.

*Joe is becoming exhausted from the large amount of magic he has been using and can’t stay up in his own water. Emily realizes this and jumps out the window and into the water to save him. Because of Joe’s exhaustion, the storm starts to end*

Emily: I got you!

*Emily grabs Joe and swims up to a window on a lower floor. She breaks the window with her elbow and lifts Joe into the room before climbing into it herself*

Emily: What were you thinking, you reckless fool!?

Joe: *huff huff* (Smiling) At least there are probably far fewer zombies.

Emily: Every zombie we kill is another person we can’t restore to normal. What you did is bittersweet unfortunately.

*Emily and Joe then start hearing banging on the door to the room*

Emily: Oh no! You better get down here fast, Keith!

***

Narrator: Back with Zeth, Sasha, Raider, and Easia.

*Zeth, Sasha, Raider, and Easia continue to stand on the rooftop of a building while discussing the situation*

Raider: I see. Sounds like a bad situation.

Easia: That’s putting it lightly.

Sasha: What’s worse is we don’t even know what our objective is other than maybe finding Rayna.

Zeth: (Thinking) And at this point, I doubt my step-dad has made it through this. He must be either dead or zombified. I hate everything about this.

Raider: Well, there is no use just standing here. Let’s get moving.

Easia: By the way, Zeth, is Kurt around? I still want to thank him again for helping me.

Zeth: Unfortunately, he was killed by one of the Dark Goddess’s strongest warriors. He has since been reincarnated as an angel but he can’t be down here among the living whenever he wants.

*Easia looks sad*

Easia: That’s a shame.

*The storm ends where they are at and the water level starts to slowly lower*

Sasha: With the water lowering, we can finally start getting around better.

Zeth: It’s about time. Come on.

Narrator: Raider and Easia have come to help the heroes! Can they find the key to stopping the dark matter or is there nothing that can be done?

Chapter 412 END

To be Continued in Chapter 413: An Unexpected Request