As the moon appeared above the Western Temple, evaporated air moved from the roofs of the buildings beside Wu Guan and stretched above.

Bats burst through the evaporated air as it reached the gray clouds floating above the roofs of the temple's walls.

Leaves floated in the air, spinning on the bridge above the sea, moved through the streets at the center of the cities clustering around Western Temple.

…

In the far distance away from the Western side of Westeros to the Southern side, heavy air shoved through the canopies of the trees, moving them to the base of the bridge at the front of Bion City.

Inside the walls of the city, no human walked on the empty street. Rubbers and discarded newspapers floated beside the buildings, to the windows, and to the light poles now serving as spiders' territory.

At the front of the walls of the Sword Sect barracks, the glow of silver iron shimmered as the rays of the moon shone on the square-patterned metal gate.

Nich leaned against the side of the gate, nodding while gazing at the road ahead.

"Oh, when are they returning?" he said, fatigue taking over his voice as he brushed his palms across his face after staring in the same direction for a good two straight hours.

He sighed, closed his eyes, and placed his head on the wall, letting his entire body feel the coldness moving through the wall.

Beside the monument inside the walls, Mike stood there holding a metal sponge. His face glittered with smiles as he stared at the back of Jinx, who was nearing the door of the abandoned dormitory.

'God, when can I prove her wrong?' he said low in his thought, as illusions of him and her engaging in an intimacy reeled in his mind the moment Jinx's ass waggled.

Though the words were not said out loud, his lips parted so easily for it to come out without his knowledge.

In the far distance, Jinx paused and turned sharply toward Mike as if being pulled by an invisible string that was resisting her from focusing on where she was heading, and then smiled.

Leaves spun from the tree she stopped at and floated toward Mike's direction, and when they landed at the front of his boots, the smile on Mike's face widened.

He exhaled deeply as if his long-awaited prayer had been answered.

…

"Are you coming or what?" Lena shouted in a loud voice that drew Jinx's attention from Mike's direction to hers in a minute.

Jinx turned and ran toward Lena. The two walked to the military truck parked at the other side of the road, entered, and sat calmly in the leather seats, as one of the young soldiers drove them to the second wall built inside the barracks.

When they got down from the military truck, they received greetings from the soldiers marching in the courtyard until they entered the hallway of the large white building.

"I heard you and two others were sent to some village, what's the name?" Lena turned toward Jinx, her face filled with confusion, and stared at Jinx with a soft but sharp gaze.

"Hmm. Yeah. Gilgal Village." Jinx responded to her without hesitation, then paused and turned toward her.

"Since we returned, we weren't even able to give the information we got there to those who sent us." She added in a voice that was already engulfed in sadness the moment the first letter exited her mouth, causing her to pause and play her statement.

"Why?" Lena's face tensed while she turned her head back slightly.

"Lieutenant G…" The moment Jinx mentioned the word G, tears welled up in her eyes so wild that they blocked the remaining words in her chest.

Within seconds, the tears began gushing down her cheeks and sleeves as if a broken pipe had been installed in her eyelids.

The air stilled in an instant, raising the strands of her white hair up and down, almost as if trying to crush her completely.

Lena's eyes welled as her face saddened, but no water fell from her eyes. She placed her right arm on Jinx's shoulder and pushed her closer to herself, then hugged her.

"It's okay… I can feel the same pain and trauma you go through whenever his name is mentioned. We've all missed him. He was special, loving, and the most caring person I have met, or will ever meet."

The moment Lena's words faded, memories of her and Lieutenant Gray reeled in her eyes. From the first day they met, the countless times they fought over silly things, and their calm and intimate moments all played like a serial movie in her vision.

The memories came so vividly that she felt as if he were standing right in front of her.

…

Outside the main entrance of the barracks, a loud footstep echoed, jolting Nich, who'd slept seconds ago, awake.

Seeing the car that conveyed Ryo and the lab technician from the barracks, he sighed, then opened the iron gate and stepped aside.

"Sorry we've kept you waiting for so long," Ryo said as he saw drowsy lines drawn on Nich's forehead.

When they moved past Nich and neared the center of the courtyard, a gold-like ray shot from the monument to the front mirror of the car.

The lab technician's face glittered with a smile as she spotted Gray's monument shimmering even in the night.

Mike paused mid-scrubbing, straightened himself, and waved at them, then continued when the car moved past him and turned toward the road on the left side of the dormitory.

A few minutes later, as they reached the inside of the second wall and stopped, Ryo's face shimmered with smiles the moment he turned and saw the lab technician also smiling.

"At long last," he said, nodded, then alighted from the front side of the car.

The lab technician smiled in response to the boy's statement, then led the way as they walked toward the door of the large white building.

…

Sobbing sounds welcomed them as they stepped into the halls of the building. And at the side where the large transparent window was, Ryo saw the new doctor's arms wrapped around Jinx, who had tears falling from her eyes.

"Lena," Julie said, neared the side where the two stood, and pulled out a bag of tree leaves from the blue lady's handbag that she had hung on her left hand.

"We've gotten some of the leaves you requested."

Julie's voice broke the tight coil of grief in the hallway, drawing Lena's attention to the entrance.

Spotting Julie and her assistant at her front, Lena loosened her arms wrapped around Jinx, but kept her fingers lingering at her back, as if the girl might shatter the moment the contact got separated.

Jinx inhaled sharply, then dragged the back of her sleeve across her eyes three times, and began scrubbing away the wetness until her skin reddened.

Even as her skin got reddened, the tears didn't stop immediately; they thinned, staggered, and then gave up, leaving her eyelashes clumped and her vision blurred.

She sniffed, letting saliva cling to her dress, then straightened and forced her shoulders back.

"I'm fine," she said, wanting to let them still see the bold girl she was, but her voice betrayed the humble lie.

She turned slightly away from Lena, Julie, and Ryo, and then pressed her palms briefly to her face as if sealing the rest of the tears inside.

When she reached a far distance, she looked back; in her, the tremor had gone, but a dull heaviness remained, sitting low in her chest like a blasted metal thrown.

Lena watched her for a minute, then shook her head, understanding that there were things that could not be spoken again without reopening wounds.

"Let's move," she said, turning toward the corridor that led deeper into the building, and they followed Julie and her assistant.

…

The laboratory lights flickered one after the other, bathing the room in a sterile white glow the moment Lena opened the door and entered, leaving the door open.

Steel tables lined up in the center, their surfaces scarred with old burn marks and knife scratches that seemed to be there before Lena was even born.

Lena didn't stop until she reached the reinforced counter where the sealed containers, glass cylinders, and a compact grinding unit were bolted firmly into place.

When Ryo entered, he rolled his shoulders, letting the tension of the day settle into his muscles.

The lab technician followed him with practiced ease, pulling on gloves and replacing the smiley face with a straight and focused one.

Lena placed Julie's bag on the counter and unzipped it carefully, making sure not to break or destroy the leaves with a slight mistake.

Inside it, the leaves lay wrapped in a cloth; dark green, veined, and faintly shimmering once when the light of the room struck them at the right angle.

"These are in good condition," Julie said, moved toward Lena, and pulled out the dark green ones. "They haven't lost their potency yet. They're still fresh."

Lena nodded and shifted toward the locked drawer beneath the counter, and with a soft click, it opened.

She withdrew a small metal box and placed it beside the bag the leaves were in.

Slowly, she opened the box under Julie's guidance, and inside it she saw three pieces of sliced stone that seemed not larger than a coin.

"The last of them?" Lena asked.

"Yeah, if this fails, we won't get another chance," Julie replied with a bold and straight voice that seemed to make the air itself feel cold.

When Lena raised the first stone from the metal box, hair-thin cracks glowed faintly from within as the light touched the stone's surface.

Ryo swallowed and leaned closer toward the lab technician and the new doctor.

Even without touching them, he could feel the pressure in the air, like the room itself was holding its breath.

Julie moved the box with the two stones away from the grinder, raised the leaves from the counter, and began by feeding the grinder with the leaves.

The machine hummed in a low vibration, resonating through the counter and filling the room like a car engine.

As the blades moved, a sharp scent filled the lab with a bitter and sweet air that clung to the back of their throats and nostrils.

When the grinder stopped, a fine green powder swirled like a mist before settling.

"Do it slow," Lena gestured toward Julie. "Don't rush it."

The technician adjusted the speed, letting the process stretch longer than necessary. When the last leaf got reduced, she shut the grinder off and carefully transferred the powder into a heat-resistant bowl.

Ryo closed in, raised the metal box, pulled the second slice of stone, and handed it to Lena.

When Lena's fingers holding the stone reached the bowl, she hesitated for only a moment before dropping it into the mixture.

The moment the stone touched the powder, the cracks along the stone flared brighter.

A faint crackling sound ripped through the bowl, and in that instant, the air thickened as if a fire tornado had struck the room.

One after another, they added the remaining slices. With each one they dropped, the reaction intensified.

The powder darkened, turning almost black, while threads of light crawled through it like living veins.

"Stabilizer," Julie said, holding out a vial.

Lena poured it in slowly. The mixture hissed, then calmed, settling into a dense, slow-moving paste that pulsed softly, as if it were alive.

Ryo exhaled, unaware he'd been holding his breath back for ten minutes straight.

"It's working," he said in a joyous tone.

Lena turned a sharp gaze toward him. "For now," Lena replied in a tone that shook the joy out of Ryo instantly. "We're not done yet."

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