Days passed, but Renjun and his team still had no idea who the mysterious attackers were, or what their motives were.

They confirmed that there were seven of them that looked exactly like them. They've tried to corner them, but they're already gone by the time they show up at the scenes.

Despite their stress, the seven brothers didn't show it in front of their wives and children. Instead, they spent time with them, and only returned to their research afterwards.

Additionally, Renjun and his team have to worry about their yearly anniversary party. This special party is a commemoration of the day they became a twenty three member team.

That day is just in a couple days, and the brothers couldn't be more stressed. But before they could worry about that more, they received yet another alert of yet another attack.

This time, Mark volunteered to handle it on his own. This attack in particular wasn't as bad as the others by the look of it, so his brothers agreed to let him go alone.

Minkyu was worried about his father, but with Nora's help, Mark reassured him that he'd be alright and would return home as soon as possible.

-

Mark followed the culprit from the attacked village, all the way to an abandoned ruin.

He used his ice to keep up with him easily, and soon enough, they made their way into the ruins. The culprit kept running, but they soon reached a room that would be his dead end.

Mark took this opportunity to use his ice to block off all of the exits that he could use to escape.

"Finally... You and your buddies are a real pain in the ass, you know that? Now, let's settle this, here and now"

Mark lightly panted, exhausted from chasing him.

The culprit was just as exhausted as Mark. The only sound in the room was the sound of them trying to catch their breath. But, Mark's breath hitched when he finally saw the culprit's face.

"Jeno???! Wait. No... You're not Jeno... I'm sure of it. You're definitely his look-alike"

He had an unamused look on his face, rolling his eyes from Mark's analysis.

"My name is Jonah. Jonah Lyee"

Mark was taken aback a bit by his voice.

He sounded exactly like Jeno.

"Why tell me your real name? I'm obviously going to tell my team about this, and about you"

"Because the way I see it, you've already fallen deep enough into my trap. You won't be returning home as the person you are now"

He immediately pulled out the sword that was on his back, dark energy radiating off of it.

"Bring it"

Mark frowned, summoning his ice sword.

Jonah made the first move and ran to him head on. Mark was about to attack him once he got close enough, but then he suddenly disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

Mark instantly figured out that he was a shinobi like Jeno, and used his ice to create a layer of armor on his skin. He waited to feel a draft of wind to know where to attack.

After a while, he felt a draft in front of him, indicating that Jonah was now behind him. He swung his sword behind him, but didn't hit a single thing.

Jonah then reappeared and swung his sword against his back, sending him flying into the wall and shattered his ice armor.

Before Mark could reach the ground, a huge spear suddenly impaled him through his shoulder, and into the wall.

Jonah came close to him as he dangled from the wall, trying to get the spear out. It was then that Mark noticed the silver aura around Jonah, as well as the spear.

"This is your Stand, isn't it...?"

Jonah nodded at his question.

"Its name is The High Priestess. It can shapeshift and assimilate itself into any type of inorganic matter, so long as it's a material made from a mineral substance, be it rock, metal, glass, and plastic. Moreover, it can also replicate complex structures, and the transformation is convincing enough that it will fool anyone. So yes, that spear is my Stand. It may look like a regular spear, but that's not its true form"

"But..., how did it-"

"If you haven't noticed earlier, there are plenty of spears right over there in that chasm. After I vanished, I let my Stand touch one of the spears. Afterwards, it easily shifted into one after learning what mineral it was made from"

After he finished explaining, he pressed Mark's head against the wall and forcefully put an earring in one of his ears.

He immediately fell under a trance, still trying to fight back a little bit.

In a matter of seconds, he stopped resisting and fell completely under his control. His eyes changed from brown to green, letting Jonah know that Mark was now completely under his control.

His Stand then shifted back to its normal form, fixating itself in the wall.

Mark fell to the floor, but got up almost immediately after. Jonah seemed pleased when Mark didn't try to fight him, and began patching up his wound.

Right when he was about to finish, the other seven members of his team showed up from seven portals. They were each a copy of someone on Renjun's team.

"Sound off"

Their leader ordered.

None of them have seen his real face, since he wears a mask, and none of them know his real name. So, they just call him Boss.

"Jean Parc, code came Black Mamba"

"Cassidy Zhakata..., code name Barbarian..."

"Jamie Naomi, code name Oculus"

"Damian Leone, code name Black Ice"

"Robin Hyo, code name Devil"

"Marshall Lea, code name Hunter. Partners, Leon and Daegal"

"Jonah Lyee, code name Dark Knight"

They all finished.

"Excellent. The Gang Stars are now assembled. Is Minhyung responsive?"

The Boss asked Jonah, and he nodded.

"Come"

He ordered Mark.

He immediately walked over, and stopped in front of him. He got down on one knee to bow down to him.

"This is good. Use your power to hide the earring and make your eyes look normal"

He ordered, and Mark obeyed.

He looked up to The Boss, and showed him his normal looking eyes, and the disappearance of the earring.

"Good. I want you to go home now. Make it seem like Jonah disappeared like all of the other times. Act like you normally would and gather information for us. We'll be watching and listening from the camera and microphone in the earring. We'll give you further orders once we've gathered enough information"

"Understood Boss..."

"Also, take this earring with you. Use it to bring another one of your brothers to our side. The one who you turn is your choice, but only do it at the right moment when you're alone. You're dismissed"

Mark nodded and took the earring, immediately leaving to head back home.

"Great work today. Now all that we have to do is wait for the moment to strike. Soon this world and everything in it will belong to us"

"Yes Boss..."

The other seven responded, and respectfully bowed.

All that they have to do now is wait for the perfect opportunity to strike, and soon Ethora will be in their hands.